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Rural Development Minister, Gugile Nkwinti, says his department will soon hand over a 141 metre long bridge that leads to Nelson Mandela's birthplace at Mvezo in the former Transkei.
Tabling his budget policy speech in parliament today, Nkwinti said the Nkosi Dalibhungu Mandela Legacy bridge over the Mbashe River, is dedicated to the world's greatest bridge building, Madiba.
He says construction has been completed, together with a 10 kilometre block-paved road, linking Mvezo to the N-2.
Nkwinti says as a direct result of this project, youth in the two villages of Mvezo and Ludondolo have been trained in manufacturing bricks, and paving.
They will now pave the inter and intra-village roads, thereby improving roads and communities’ access to services such as economic hubs, clinics and schools.
ICT facilities are being rolled-out to schools; for example, the Cofimvaba e-Textbook programme which involves the rollout of the required IT backbone infrastructure to a 26 school education circuit, and the provision of a tablet device to every pupil and teacher involved. This is done in partnership with the Department of Science and Technology.
The Department has novel systems to address the challenge of water in rural areas.
One of these is the water purification plant at Empindweni Village in Mhlontlo Local Municipality in the OR Tambo District, which uses ‘Unfiltration’ technology to purify river water.
This Plant purifies 50 000L of water per day. The Department has invested R347m in acquiring 6000 hectares of land in Cradock, for sugar beet production. This is part of the bio fuels plant National Demonstration Plant soon to be built in the town.
