1st State of the District Address

GEORGE NEWS - The Garden Route District Municipality (GRDM) hosted its first State of the District Address during a glittering event at the George Civic Centre on Friday 12 April.

During the address, GRDM mayor Memory Booysen assured the attendees that the Garden Route district has shown great progress.

"I am proud to share that the state of the district is strong and getting stronger. Over the years, our district has undergone major changes. We have reconfigured our organisational structure to meet the changing circumstances and to address the demand," he said. "Despite certain challenges there has been remarkable improvement in the level of service delivery in our region."

According to him 96,9% of households have access to piped water inside the dwelling or yard or within 200m from the yard. 96,1% of households have access to electricity as a primary source of energy for lighting purposes and 94,3% of households have access to flush toilets connected to a sewerage system. 88,8% of households in the GRDM have access to refuse removal and 85,7% have access to formal dwellings.

Facing challenges
"Given all the achievements as indicated, in humankind it is the law of life that every achievement is accompanied by challenges. Our district is confronted by perpetual dependency ratio which has grown to 56,1%, with a proportion of poor people below poverty lines within the district standing at 40,5%."

He also said that the area is confronted by slow economic growth, increase in population and demand for services, and a rising unemployment rate.

GRDM Speaker Eleanore Bouw-Spies welcomed everyone to the event.

Investments and properties
During his speech Booysen said that positive commitments have been made to invest in the region. "Last year we signed a couple of memoranda of agreements with different companies, local and others, with massive international footprint, collectively bringing a total investment of over R2-billion in the GRDM region."

He also said that they are focusing on programmes on the key parts of the economy that are labour intensive. These include agriculture and tourism.

"The potential of agriculture in our region for job creation and economic growth remains largely underdeveloped. Our region has large areas of unproductive land or land lying fallow.

"Agricultural exports are an important source of revenue for our economy, and developing our agricultural sector is key to enhancing our food security and for attracting investment," he said.

GRDM Mayor Memory Booysen delivering his State of the District Address last Friday night. Photos: Kristy Kolberg