TSHILAMBA - Good news for the Limpopo province is that negotiations for the erection of a big shopping mall that will house, amongst others, a national chain store at Mutale are at an advanced stage. When the deal is finally struck, it will create approximately 500 permanent and 300 temporary jobs.

A further 1,500 jobs will be created when the Mutale Municipality implements its Infrastructural Development Programmes as indicated in their working plan.

These were the historic revelations from the Mayor of Mutale Municipality, Masindi Manyuha, during his presentation of the municipality's 2005/2006 budget at Mutale Town Hall on Friday.

Mutale is a developmental municipality which is composed of countless remote rural villages and it is one of the 136 municipalities nationally benefiting from Project Consolidate. Project Consolidate is a performance improved intervention introduced by the Ministry of Provincial and Local Government targeted at assisting the municipalities which are deemed to require necessary support for efficient service delivery. Manyuha urged community members to work hand in hand with the municipality in order to conquer poverty, unemployment and diseases.

"Today, the Council is only four and half years old since its establishment in 2000. Only six months are left for this council to complete its term of service and we are proud that we managed to achieve the ultimate goal of service delivery as per our mandate provided by the Constitution of the country."

Manyuha said the municipality is doing its best to empower poor people and he passed his gratitude to all the stakeholders who made the activities of the municipality successful.

"Although we could not fulfill all our goals, we are pleased to mention that our partnership with the Department of Minerals and Energy Affairs and Sasol has yielded the desired results. Construction of the Integrated Energy Centre is taking place at Tshandama. The business is wholly owned by Mutale Cooperative, a real community entity constituted by 101 members. Another important programme that is always receiving our attention is local economic growth. We are required to establish a Local Development Agency. The invitations will be extended to the business sector, youth formations and other affected organizations in this regard. The agency will enable us to support and train entrepreneurs in the Municipality, including identification of new opportunities for long term investments and speed up delivery. We need to partner with businesses, NGO's, Unions and the civil society to ensure an optimal success in this regard."

The budget from the Municipality' own funding stands at R15,3-million which includes, amongst others, tarring of streets, a landfill site, electrification, office equipment and vehicles. The budget funded by the Vhembe District Municipality (Municipal Infrastructure Grant) is R51,8-million which will, amongst others cover 13 water projects, road constructions, one community hall and the erection of municipal offices. Eskom's electrification programme budget stands at R574,702 - 00 and the Folovhodwe village will be electrified through an allocation of R1,6-million from Vhembe District Municipality.

The operational budget for 2005/2006 financial year amounts to R26,1-million, which has increased by R6,3-million from the last financial year's operational budget of R19,8-million.

Zoutnet