Publisher

"If we work with the environment, the environment will work for us," said the Minister of Water and Environmental Affairs, Edna Molewa. She was introducing an eco-friendly furniture factory as part of National Parks Week recently. The factory not only provides jobs to local people, but also develops skills.

Young people, mostly from the Northern Cape, have the assurance that they will get jobs after completing their training as artisans. The Artisan Training Programme is an initiative of the Department of Public Works' Extended Public Works Programme, which aims to create employment, especially for the youth.

Budget votes

MomConnect, launched by the Department of Health, is yielding positive results.

Budget votes

Small Business Development Minister Lindiwe Zulu said this year, the department will work hard to ensure that more support is given to the informal sector.

Budget votes

Social Development Minister Bathabile Dlamini has widened the social security net for child grant recipients.

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Corporative Governance and Traditional Affairs Minister Pravin Gordhan has called on citizens to pay for basic services that they receive from municipalities.

Budget votes

The Department of Trade and Industry’s (the dti) efforts to revive the clothing, textiles, leather and footwear sector are already showing good signs of recovery. 

Justice and Correctional Services Minister Michael Masutha says efforts by correctional services facilities to make a positive contribution to community development are progressing well.

Three former farmworkers from Calvinia, Northern Cape, are beneficiaries of one of the largest land redistribution deals in the Namakwa District Municipality.

As part of the deal, the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform in the Northern Cape has bought five farms measuring more than 11 000 hectares at a cost of R10.9 million. The farms were officially handed over to the beneficiaries at a celebration ceremony held on the farm recently.

Without proper roads it is difficult for people living in rural areas to access major towns to sell their goods or for children to get to school. This is why government has started putting plans into place to drive road construction across the country.