Piet Plessis - North West Premier Maureen Modiselle has declared the impoverished Piet Plessis community in the Kagisano Local Municipality near Vryburg as a Special Rural Development Premiers Project.
Hundreds of mainly farm workers braved the cold, wet weather to join Modiselle and other high-ranking officials to celebrate Freedom Day on Tuesday.
She said the provincial government will be rolling out a rural industry development programme as a means of ensuring that people get employed within their villages.
"I will be outlining at least two of such programmes for the North West in my budget speech," she said.
The provincial government, she said, will be starting a process of integrating into its programmes the scientific prowess of the industrial engineering faculty of the North West University.
The direct benefits of this will be sustainable and village-based job creation, Modiselle said.
She said government will also create an infrastructure to benefit beef and stock farming production in the Vryburg area.
"This will be done to ensure that rural and farming areas start to become popular for their agricultural leadership as opposed to right wing-related populism," she said.
Premier Modiselle has committed to ensure that government's comprehensive rural development programme is rolled out in its entirety in Piet Plessis.
MEC for Human Settlement Desbo Mohono also promised the community of Piet Plessis 300 housing units by the beginning of May 2010.
Earlier in the day, the premier and her entourage visited three families to donate food parcels. One of the beneficiaries, Maria Sekoaneng, 45, was overwhelmed to see the premier.
"I never thought that one day I will be shaking the premier's hand, I am very happy," she said.
Modiselle also encouraged the family to register for their Identity Documents. "I need to see you with your Identity Document, we cannot come here and talk and after we leave nothing happens," she told the ecstatic Sekoaneng.
Sekoaneng is living in a three roomed shack with fourteen children and grandchildren.
She was happy that MEC Mohono promised to build houses for them. "At least this winter we will have a decent shelter, this shack is very cold and when it rains it leaks," she said.
The community of Piet Plessis community will be entertained by a host of artists including traditional Tswana performers for the rest of the day.
Different government departments also exhibited their services at the event from their mobile units that were placed around the stadium entrances.
