President Cyril Ramaphosa has hailed the KwaZulu-Natal District Development Model (DDM) Presidential Imbizo as a powerful example of the Government of National Unity (GNU) in action.
The President underscored the collaborative efforts of various political leaders to address pressing community issues.
Addressing community members at the Umnini Sportsfield in Umgababa, the President said the imbizo was a fairly productive session.
“As I end, I think we have held a fairly productive imbizo session. Today has been a clear demonstration of how our Government of National Unity is also working. I have Ministers from our various political parties that are part of the GNU.
“I would like to thank them all and I want all the parties in the GNU to see the value of izimbizo. They are important because they enable us to interact with our people and hear their views, and answer their questions and at the same time, follow up on their issues that they have raised,” the President said.
The Presidential Imbizo is a platform for communities to interact with government leaders from all three spheres of government on service delivery challenges, and for the executive to respond to the community on what they are doing to resolve those issues.
Community members gathered at the Umnini Sportsfield raised issues such as crime, unemployment, the rising cost of living and matters concerning education.
The South African Democratic Teachers Union asked President Ramaphosa to intervene on the issue of safety and security at KwaZulu-Natal schools, highlighting previous incidents where teachers were attacked, shot and killed at schools.
Before the Ministers took to the podium to respond to the above issues, President Ramaphosa apologised for the delayed start due to technical issues, stressing the need for better preparedness at such events.
Ministers in the GNU accompanying the President responded to the issues respectively and promised residents that they will follow up and provide solutions.
Turning to the City of eThekwini municipality, the President also spoke about plans to rejuvenate Durban’s tourism sector, which has historically made the city the "holiday mecca" of South Africa.
With tourism numbers currently in decline, President Ramaphosa expressed optimism for a revival through the planned reopening of key hotels like the Hilton and lease renewals for iconic establishments such as the Maharani and Elangeni.
“Durban has been the holiday mecca of our country. Many people from all over the country have always considered Durban when they needed to go on a holiday.
“Tourisms in the province has gone down but the mayor has plans to revive big hotels such as the Hilton Hotel and the renewal of leases by Southern Sun of the Maharani and Elangeni Hotel.
“The business sector has pledged to invest billions of rands to revive tourism, so I am looking forward to the revival of tourism so that Durban can go back to being the jewel of South African tourism. It must once again become the mecca of tourism in SA,” the President said.
Tourism Minister Patricia De Lille said that her department is working hard to rebuild the tourism sector in the province.
“Tourism is a very important sector for this province. It is making a significant contribution to the GDP and economic growth of the province. The tourism sector has gone down in KZN, but we are working hard with the Presidential Task Team and the private sector to rebuild it.”
The Minister said that she has already agreed with the KZN Premier that they will be meeting as a matter of urgency so they can see how they can work together with the plans of the province to do an aggressive marketing campaign to deal with all the negative perceptions around the province.
“For the summer season, the department partnered with the private sector and already we have 440 private sector tourist attractions that are offering discounted deals for the summer season and I want to encourage all South Africans to look at the Shot left site and check the discounts,” de Lille said.
The President also drew attention to ongoing infrastructure challenges, particularly highlighting the partial collapse of a bridge on the N2 highway, which has disrupted local transportation.
He expressed confidence in South African engineers, who have devised a plan to restore the bridge, calling it a testament to the country’s engineering expertise.
“In the morning, I went to the N2 bridge that partially collapsed. The bridge is causing a lot of inconvenience for the people, as it is an important road on the N2," the President said. - SAnews.gov.za
