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#SOPA2019: Over 900 jobs created in FS industrial parks

───   OLEBOGENG MOTSE 12:09 Tue, 19 Feb 2019

#SOPA2019: Over 900 jobs created in FS industrial parks | News Article
PHOTO: BizCommunity

Over 900 jobs have been created at the Botshabelo and Phuthaditjhaba Industrial Parks.


Free State Premier Sisi Ntombela says in her State of the Province Address on Tuesday that the provincial government will continue to work closely with President Cyril Ramaphosa’s investment team on boosting the province’s economy. 

The modest towns of Botshabelo, located over 60 kms outside the Free State capital, Bloemfontein, and Phuthaditjhaba were named out of 16 industrial parks countrywide that have undergone revitalisation to stimulate economic growth by Ramaphosa in his State of the Nation Address (Sona) in Cape Town on Thursday, February 7. 

The President said the towns have become productive again after being idle for so long. These townships and rural areas join Garankuwa, Isithebe, Komani, and Seshego, among others, on the list. Ntombela told those attending SOPA in the Vista Arena on Tuesday that these areas are set to undergo the next phases of revitalisation, implying that the areas are still up for further development.

The Democratic Alliance in the province has criticised the statements that these areas have been revitalised economically. The leader of the party in the province, Patricia Kopane, said the two areas continue to be ravaged by high unemployment and crippling poverty, contrary to Ramaphosa’s and now Ntombela’s assertions. 

Kopane says the areas surrounding the identified industrial parks are now even worse off. She alleges: “there is slow infrastructure development at Tshiame Special Economic Zone, which is 30km away from Phuthaditjhaba and it has been hampered by the collapse of bulk services”. 

Kopane adds that in Thaba Nchu, located about 10 kilometres outside Botshabelo, 90% of the factories have been closed and have not been revived as promised.


OFM News/Olebogneg Motse and Sazly Hartzenberg

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