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Eastern Cape premier, Oscar Mabuyane, has boldly declared that the small town of Ntabankulu, considered one of the poorest towns in the country, will never be the same again.
This after Mabuyane handed over multi-million rand projects in Ntabankulu, as part of the provincial government’s Smalltown Revitalisation Programme, on November 24.
The programme seeks to uplift small towns through critical infrastructure for economic development and investment. The projects handed over included the Ntabankulu Traffic Department offices, and the first phase of internal street surfacing, as well as yellow plant unveiling for the Ntabankulu Local Municipality.
Mabuyane said the provincial government, through the revitalisation programme, had spent over R100 million on various projects aimed at giving the small town a much-needed facelift.
“The small-town revitalisation programme is an intervention programme meant to assist municipalities with basic infrastructure upgrades on top of the municipal grants they get from national government.
“We are doing this to attract investors and we are seeing big retail supermarkets coming to invest in Ntabankulu, and the people of the town no longer have to travel to far away towns to access the retail stores,” said Mabuyane.
He further announced that an amount of R80 million has been secured from the Department of Higher Education and Training for the construction of an agricultural college near the Ntabankulu Traffic Department, handed over on the day.
A R40 million library is also currently under construction in the small town of Ntabankulu, by the Department of Public Works and Infrastructure.
Ntabankulu Local Municipality mayor, Tsileng Sobuthongo, has welcomed the intervention from the provincial government through the smalltown revitalisation programme, especially the much-needed jobs created from the projects linked to the programme.
“We are from an era where our town had no surfaced roads, but through the small town revitalisation programme that has been addressed and the outlook of the town has changed for the better.”
Mabuyane previously handed completed projects from the programme in Libode and Ngqeleni under Nyandeni Local Municipality.
The construction of the Ntabankulu Traffic Department offices cost the provincial government R15 million.
