Kouga Municipality wants to do business with local business
Under the ANC tenure many local businesses ceased doing business with Kouga Municipality owing to the difficulty in getting payment for goods and services provided. Kouga Executive Mayor Elza van Lingen reporting on the State of the Municipality on Wednesday at Lombardie Game Lodge confirmed that many businesses had recently renewed their dealings with the municipality and she encouraged all local business to register and service providers.
“By working with business, we were able to do more for our communities this past year and we look forward to building on these successes. The municipality will, in return, accelerate its efforts to grow local business, the economy and jobs.
We have already started doing so by beefing up our Town Planning Department, which will be the municipality’s driving force behind local economic development. One of the great tragedies of the previous administration was that they failed to recognise how important a role the Town Planning Department of a municipality plays in facilitating growth and job creation.”
Whilst Kouga residents have been divided over the Thyspunt the Mayor said its cancellation was nonetheless an serious economic shock. Many SMME’s, entrepreneurs and job seekers had pinned hope on the development but. “fortunately, there has always been far more to Kouga than just Thyspunt. There is tremendous room for growth in many of our sectors – be it Tourism, Agri-processing or the Ocean Economy – and, as a Council, we will endeavour to unlock the full economic potential of our area.
We also recently established a three-year partnership with the Canadian municipality of Prince Edward County, specifically aimed at identifying and driving sustainable local economic development initiatives in our region. A delegation from the municipality will be visiting Kouga in March to take the partnership forward.”
In terms of service the Mayor said the App @LINK@ was proving hugely helpful in dealing with problems without delays as experienced in the past. Some 1200 Kouga residents have registered an since being introduced the app has dealt with some 9600 calls since its inception. Residents are encouraged to download the app for there s lile doubt it accelerates action.
More to follow on the Mayors presentation but for the gent who complained to SFT recently that the DA never tells residents what is going on here is a copy of Executive Mayor Elza van Lingens full presentation (all 4922 words on 16 pages can be downloaded here.
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