Durban — Ulundi Local Municipality mayor Wilson Ntshangase says Ulundi has the potential to be the capital city of KwaZulu-Natal.
Ntshangase called for businesses to strategise and invest around the culturally rich heritage area when he spoke at a business breakfast in Ulundi on Tuesday. Ntshangase intends to boost the ailing economy there.
“Ulundi is the cradle of the Zulu nation as it is known that about five Zulu kings were buried around Ulundi and it is where the Zulus originate from.
“I think it will be a wise move for investors to start preparing their plans to invest here in Zululand, in particular, Ulundi, as we are anticipating inaugurating our KwaZulu-Natal Legislature here at Ulundi, immediately after we have won the upcoming elections,” he said.
Ntshangase said the late Prince Mangosuthu Buthelezi did excellent work by reviving the Ondini Palace Heritage Site and building the KwaZulu-Natal Legislature, where a number of people got social and economic opportunities.
“We do not need to overemphasise how the inhumane decision taken by the ANC has adversely affected ordinary citizens and businesspeople around northern KZN and surroundings,” Ntshangase said.
The municipality has developed a local economic development LED strategy that provides a framework for these programmes, he said.
Ntshangase identified the following sectors as key economic drivers to enable both government interventions and investment attraction.
“Agriculture is one of the sectors that has a potential in Ulundi. Just last week, we handed over 240 goats to 24 co-operatives coming from all 24 wards in Ulundi.
“We are doing this because research has shown that agriculture plays an important role in poverty alleviation in most developing countries, particularly in rural areas,” Ntshangase said.
Ntshangase hoped the local community would embrace agriculture as a vehicle for the local economy to reduce unemployment, inequality, and poverty in their areas.
Ntshangase said they entered into a Memorandum of Understanding with the Small Enterprise Development Agency (Seda) to open an access point in Ulundi so that small medium and micro enterprises (SMMEs) will have access to services.
To stimulate and support the Zululand District Economy, Ulundi Municipality management intends to convert the Ulundi Multi-Purpose Centre, along Princess Mkabayi Street (next to the long-distance taxi rank) to the Ulundi Business Centre.
This is intended to bring in more government and non-government agents such as Seda, the Small Enterprise Finance Agency (Sefa), SARS, the National Youth Development Agency (NYDA) and the Securities Industry Regulatory Authority (Sira).
“I mention these economic drivers to create a picture of how our local economy is shaped and what are the critical matters which influence and have a direct impact on our economic viability,” said Ntshangase.
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