The Cape Winelands District Municipality hosts a successful Growth and Development Review Summit (April 29, 2010)

Following several months of behind-the-scenes consultative meetings that involved government, business, labour and civil society representatives to review and update the Cape Winelands Growth and Development Strategy (CW-GDS), first developed four years ago, the Cape Winelands District Municipality’s (CWDM) Executive Mayor, Mr. Bhadih J Chaaban, finally got to welcome delegates at a summit aimed to serve as a platform for the signing of the update CW-GDS.

Clearly well prepared, he referred to a number of IMF (International Monetary Fund) research reports on the prospects for short to medium-term economic growth in developing countries; views from a number of economic opinion leaders; and to related news reports covering the state of the economy nationally, regionally and internationally. The robustness of the South African banking industry played a big part in allowing the country’s economy to withstand battering from faltering global financial markets.

The Executive Mayor also acknowledged that the world had changed a lot since the last Cape Winelands Growth and Development Summit in 2006. Even though the global economic meltdown of the past two years did not affect South Africa to the same extent that it did with much of the developed world, it has nevertheless left many people with lasting scars of failed businesses and lost job opportunities. Executive Mayor Chabaan insisted, however, that he remained confident that the revised Growth and Development Strategy (GDS) provided the region with a sufficiently reliable blueprint of what needs to be done in order to continue on a relatively steady developmental journey to 2014.

“Ladies and gentlemen” explained the Executive Mayor during his intervention, “we have not only developed a strategy without thinking about how it will be implemented. Unlike before, we have also agreed to appoint an implementation team that will cut across all municipalities, with as little red tape as possible, to ensure that each element of the strategy that we gather to sign this evening is implemented. This implementation team will also have representatives from all key role players and it will report to the Council of the Cape Winelands District Municipality. There will therefore be oversight and there will be implementation!”

Cape Winelands District Municipal Manager, Mr. Mike Mgajo, who was chairing the proceedings, also never missed the opportunity to remind delegates that they would not be gathered to sign the recently updated CW-GDS had it not been because of the willingness of all parties to work together again for the common good. He acknowledged key representatives present at the signing, including the different municipal mayors, and briefly explained the genesis of the Growth and Development process.

Mr. Charles Quint, the newly appointed Chairperson of the Cape Winelands Economic Development Council emphasised that “the creation of decent work will be at the centre of our economic policies and will influence our investment attraction and job-creation initiatives. In line with our undertakings, we have to forge ahead to promote a more inclusive economy."

Mr. Sabelo Ngcobo, the Chairperson of the Cape Winelands Youth Council said that he would lobby for proper organising of the CWDM civil society (forming a good and informed network) for ease of accessibility to other CW-GDS sector stakeholders throughout the implementation of the CW-GDS. He wants to ensure that the Cape Winelands civil society sector is a responsible stakeholder that plays its crucial role in ensuring good governance and also keeping the other sector stakeholders (business and government) accountable.
 
The Executive Mayor concluded: “Our shared vision remains that of “Growing, Sharing Delivering and Innovating Together in the Winelands”. We want to deliver a Cape Winelands region that all of our people can comfortably call home and be proud to participate in growing, knowing that they too have a stake in it.

For more information about the business opportunities in the CWDM, contact:

Gayle Daniels
gayle@capewinelands.gov.za


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