The government is accelerating efforts to clear bureaucratic red tape that continues to scupper investment prospects. This as the country seeks to attract economic development that will improve the country’s growth prospects. The commitment was on Friday made by President Cyril Ramaphosa during a District Development Model (DDM) visit to the Ugu District in KwaZulu-Natal.
During the visit, the president was accompanied by Minister in the Presidency Mondli Gungubele, Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (CoGTA) Minister Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma, KwaZulu-Natal Premier Sihle Zikalala, and Eastern Cape CoGTA MEC Xolile Nqatha.
The visit focused on the development of the Eastern Seaboard that traverses KwaZulu-Natal and Eastern Cape provinces along a 600km stretch between the eThekwini and Buffalo City Metros. The development spans four districts and 17 municipalities situated between the two provinces.
If we really want economic development, we must cut out [red tape]. We must make sure that things happen,” Ramaphosa said In government, Ramaphosa said he was aware of a “lackadaisical tendency” of requisite documents not being timeously processed in the relevant channels.
“We must make sure that things happen because it quite often discourages investors, it makes investors become discouraged, and they walk away. I don’t want anyone to stay in my way of getting investors to stay here,” he said. The president said the government would in due course be moving in a determined manner to ensure that it cut down on “unnecessary bureaucratic clutter”.
With the natural endowment located in the four districts, it presented great growth opportunities in the oceans economy, tourism, agriculture, mining, oil and gas, technology, and many others.
He said the natural environment had the potential to revitalize local economies, create jobs and sustain livelihoods. To translate the vision for the Eastern Seaboard development into reality, cooperation between the public and private sectors to mobilize investment for catalytic and the “big-ticket transformative projects” was needed.
Ramaphosa said while investors would provide the investment, the government would create a conducive environment and conditions for this investment to take place.
News365
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Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana says it is up to Cabinet to decide on whether to extend the R350 social grant for unemployment after March 2022. He said this was not the decision of the National Treasury alone.
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