Become part of the ‘FT-SEZ’ campaign
An information-sharing platform, named "Seize the FT-SEZ", was launched to improve job-creating opportunities in the Sekhukhune area.
Sekhukhune District Municipality’s (SDM) mayor, Julia Lata Mathebe, and the acting CEO of Sekhukhune Development Agency (SDA), Mantwa Makanyane, agreed on dedicating March 8 as the launch date for the Fetakgomo Tubatse Special Economic Zone’s (FT-SEZ) information sharing platform, aptly named ‘Seize the FT-SEZ’.
The SDA is an agency established in terms of the Companies Act. Its mandate is to attract investors with the aim of creating job opportunities and a conducive environment in which entrepreneurship may thrive.
The SDA is wholly owned by the SDM, and its board of directors accounts to Mathebe, who then reports to council.
According to Makanyane. Seize the FT-SEZ is a mass readiness campaign that will unfold through events, publications and interactive communication mediums with the aim to highlight and facilitate ways through which entrepreneurs, cooperatives and SMMEs could benefit from different stages of the implementation of FT-SEZ.
“Special economic zones (SEZs) are geographically designated areas set aside for specifically targeted activities. The SEZs are established in terms of the Special Economic Zones Act 16 of 2014 which provides for the designation, promotion, development, operation and management of SEZs. In SDM, our designated SEZ will be in the Steelpoort area of Fetakgomo Tubatse Local Municipality,” explained Makanyane.
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The FT-SEZ has an investment value of about R45bn over a 20-year period. Makanyane further said the board of directors of the SDA chose March 8 to honour the UN-declared International Women’s Day.
“This is an opportunity to mobilise women in business and aspirant women entrepreneurs, to seize opportunities linked to the FT-SEZ.
“Seize the FT-SEZ will also be a connective pathway through which all efforts leading to SEZ will be communicated. Equally important, the aim is to spread the benefits throughout the district through information sharing, skills profiling and efforts to close the skills gaps in the district’s population,” Makanyane said.
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She hinted that the SDA would introduce measures to facilitate support through regular updates on its social media platforms, the relaunch of the SDA website, and periodic fact files on the progress of the FT-SEZ.
“SDA has a serious interest in the success of SEZ, not just the industrialisation of Sekhukhune District into the first-world economy, but to attract investment and facilitate transactions that will steer economic growth, revenue generation, creation of jobs, the attraction of foreign direct investment and international competitiveness of Sekhukhune’s economy.”
She concluded that there would be thorough, constant and open communication to make information available to communities as part of animating and activating them towards readiness as they seize opportunities linked to the FT-SEZ.
