Boost For Limpopo World Heritage Site

Development of Limpopo's second World Heritage Site can finally start in earnest.

Mogalakwena Municipality, in which the Makapan Valley World Heritage Site is situated, has been granted R3 million by the Limpopo Local Economic Development (LED) Programme to establish tourist facilities at the site and to involve the local community in its development. Funding will also contribute to the development of a municipal Project Management Unit (PMU) to lead the process.

The Makapan Valley is one of two world heritage sites in Limpopo, the other being the Mapungubwe Cultural Landscape in Mapungubwe National Park on the province's north west border with Botswana and Zimbabwe.

With the advantage of being situated in a national park and the Limpopo Shashe Transfrontier Conservation Area, Mapungubwe is now well established as a tourist destination.

Mogalakwena Municipality has drawn up a Masterplan for development of the Makapan Valley as a major attraction which it believes could attract as many as 75,000 tourists a year. However, it has been unable to allocate funding to the project and has now turned to donor funding to make this possible.

The Limpopo LED Programme has contributed funding from its Local Government Support Fund (LGSF) which assists municipalities to facilitate local economic development.

The Makapan Valley is situated some 15 kilometres east of Mokopane and close to the N1 highway, making it easily accessible to tourists. It achieved world heritage site status together with the Cradle of Humankind in Gauteng, and can therefore be marketed as part of a more enriching experience for tourists. The Mokopane area is also part of the Waterberg Biosphere Reserve which contains numerous eco-tourism attractions, enabling tourists to combine a visit to the Makapan Valley with other experiences, and enabling Waterberg District Municipality to strengthen development of a multi-faceted regional tourism destination.

Consisting of a series of caves, the Makapan Valley site is unique because it encapsulates an almost unbroken record of proto-human and human occupation and resource exploitation extending from Australopithecine times about 3,5 million years ago to the present.

The rich cultural and geological heritage of the region makes it an ideal vantage point to showcase a diversity of archaeological and palaeontological sites as well as exhibit the impressive geological history and mineral wealth of Southern Africa in the cradle years of the planet.

The LGSF's support for the project is in line with the integrated development plans of Mogalakwena Local Municipality and Waterberg District Municipality which view development of the Makapan Valley as a priority. It is also in line with the Limpopo Provincial Growth and Development Strategy which encourages the development of tourism clusters, such as the Waterberg Biosphere.

LGSF funding is supporting the development of tourism infrastructure at Makapan Valley as envisaged in the Masterplan.

The only significant investment that has taken place until now involves upgrading of areas around the caves by the South African Heritage Resources Agency.

LGSF funding will enable Mogalakwena to:

• Mobilise local communities behind the project in order to ensure sustainable tourism development, and to identify local SMMEs as potential suppliers of goods and services.
• Establish a dedicated PMU to oversee the project and improve its capacity to implement further phases of the Masterplan.
• Establish facilities at the site and easier access for tourists. This involves conversion of an old farmhouse as a visitor and interpretive centre, and includes provision of parking, a restaurant and tea garden, and administrative offices.
• Development of a borehole to ensure supply of potable water at the site.
• Provision of roads signage leading tourists to the area, and construction of a security gatehouse at the entrance to the complex.
• Marketing of the Makapan Valley World Heritage Site.

Mogalakwena says beneficiaries of the project will include some 360 people in the local community near the site; local SMMEs; tourism- and construction-related businesses in the wider area; and the local municipality which will be able to improve its capacity to facilitate LED.

For more information, please contact:

Mekeng Magale, Mogalakwena Municipality.
Tel: +27 (0)15 491 9600/32; Fax: +27 (0)15 491 9755/92.
E-mail: magalem@mogalakwena.gov.za

Entrance to the main cave in the Makapan Valley World Heritage Site.

Bolstering A Limpopo Biosphere

Unless people in the Limpopo lowveld act decisively, their Kruger 2 Canyons Biosphere (K2C) could be de-listed. The area would then lose its international status and much of its strong marketing competitive edge.

Now, Maruleng Local Municipality, which covers part of the area, is finally taking action with support from the Limpopo Local Economic Development (LED) Programme.

The Programme has granted Maruleng R2,970,000 from its Local Government Support Fund, enabling the municipality to work towards the establishment of a "Core Nodal Centre" that will ensure the area meets its international obligations as a biosphere, that more local people participate in developing the biosphere, and that marketing of the area is more co-ordinated.

Initiatives such as these, believes Maruleng, will contribute towards sustainable development of the biosphere by conserving its biodiversity and enhancing its tourism potential.

K2C is one of two biospheres in Limpopo, the other being the Waterberg Biosphere. With Kruger National Park, surrounding private game reserves and Blyde River Canyon forming its main attractions, the K2C area draws some 80% of foreign visitors to South Africa, according to SA Tourism statistics quoted by Maruleng.

Biospheres are designated and recognised by the United Nations as protected areas of international importance in which the needs of human and economic development and environmental conservation must be balanced.

The public and private sectors and communities within biospheres are expected to work together to ensure that balanced development takes place and that poor people also benefit from economic development and environmental conservation through such measures as capacity building and transfer of skills. South Africa is committed by international accords binding countries to ensure that at least 10% of their land is protected.

Only 6% of South Africa is protected, making even more imperative sustainable development of such areas as biospheres. The K2C Biosphere was established as long ago as 2001 but Maruleng says it is falling short of meeting its obligations to the UN, making it imperative to establish a Core Nodal Centre that will co-ordinate and drive essential processes.

Unless it meets its obligations, the K2C biosphere could be de-listed, says Maruleng.
These include:

• Mitigating impacts on sensitive wetlands and riverine forests in order to maintain the area's biodiversity.
• Drawing up a clear plan to involve more communities in the development and benefits of the biosphere.
• Creating a more diverse range of tourism attractions. K2C is "very elitist" with a strong focus on exclusive Big 5 safari experiences, says Maruleng. However, space exists for development of community-, cultural- and heritage-based tourism as well as adventure tourism.

Maruleng envisages the Core Nodal Centre playing a dual role: ensuring that K2C meets its obligations to the UN; and promoting tourism through a Maruleng Tourism Association.

"Although tourism in the region is well established and is a core land-use and economic generator, it is very fragmented with little to no cohesion and unity in the marketing and promotion of the region", says Maruleng. "Through co-operation, unity and a pooling of resources, a far more effective marketing strategy can be accomplished".

For more information, please contact:

Tukiseto Nelson Kopele, Maruleng Local Municipality.
Tel: +27 (0)15 793 2409; Fax: +27 (0)15 793 2341
E-mail: tukisetsok@yahoo.com
Website: www.marulengmun.gov.za

The northern Drakensburg mountain range forms a majestic backdrop to the Kruger to Canyon Biosphere.

Linking Them To The Markets

Large agricultural estates such as these in Vhembe have the resources to get their produce to major domestic and international markets. Now Vhembe District Municipality is planning to establish a fresh produce market that will provide small-scale growers with an outlet for their fruit and veg.

Vhembe district produces no less than 4,4% of South Africa's total agricultural output, including 8,4% of its sub-tropical fruit and 6,3% of its citrus. Commercial farmers in this remote district have the resources to transport their produce over 600 kilometres to South Africa's major market in Gauteng and to international markets, but small-scale growers are confined to selling their fruit and veg mainly through hawkers in the district. With limited opportunities open to them, they remain firmly rooted in the subsistence economy.

Now Vhembe District Municipality is planning to change this with support from the Limpopo Local Economic Development (LED) Programme. The municipality has received from the Programme a grant of R3 million as a contribution towards the planning and establishment of a Fresh Produce Market (FPM). The Limpopo LED Programme is supporting a similar initiative in Mopani district.

The Vhembe market will not only establish a formal outlet for emergent farmers, but it will also sell produce to national markets, thus creating an even wider market and encouraging them to expand, raise quality standards, and create more jobs.

The municipality envisages establishing the FPM in an unutilised State-owned building in Shayandima industrial estate near Thohoyandou, Vhembe district's capital. The Limpopo government's business development agency, LIMDEV, which owns the building, has offered the facility at a highly favourable rental.

Vhembe District Municipality will own and operate the FPM during its formative stages but plans to attract a strategic partner to manage and develop it in association with local interests once the facility is up and running.

The FPM will provide a wide range of services, including sourcing and sales of local produce, grading, packaging, wrapping, semi processing, distribution, and creating linkages with the Johannesburg Fresh Produce Market and other national markets which are committed to creating opportunities for emerging farmers by sourcing more produce from them.

Vhembe believes the FPM will:

• Improve the quality of agricultural products in the district by setting standards which emergent farmers will hopefully be able to meet through more intensive agricultural extension services.
• Increase or maximise farmers' profits.
• Enable farmers in the marginalised economy to gain access to the mainstream economy.
• Boost development of the Vhembe agricultural cluster as envisaged in the Provincial Growth and Development Strategy.

Vhembe District Municipality hopes to sign agreements with the Johannesburg FPM and other markets in which they will commit themselves to buying fixed volumes of fruit and veg from Vhembe.

Trucks delivering produce to these markets could return with produce not grown in Vhembe, such as deciduous fruit. "A marketing facility will help towards better production planning, expansion, better quality products, better prices, lower risk, and better utilisation of resources", says Vhembe.It hopes the FPM will encourage value-added activity, and that it could act as a model for the establishment of markets in Limpopo's other agricultural regions.

For more information, please contact:

Mulovhedzi Shandukani, Vhembe District Municipality.
Tel: +27 (0)15 960 2067; Fax: +27 (0)15 962 5277;
E-mail: mushaphir@webmail.com

Making Hawkers Feel At Home

Hawkers should not be tolerated as a necessary evil; they should become an integral part of the local economy, says Greater Tzaneen Municipality.

Now, with the support of a R709,290 grant from the Limpopo Local Economic Development (LED) Programme, the municipality plans to transform the position and role of hawkers in the area.The grant, made from the Programme's Local Government Support Fund, will enable the municipality to conduct a study of hawkers needs and best-practice in meeting them, and to develop an implementation plan and capacity building programme.

A strong option is to develop a major hawkers' centre. The municipality hopes the strategy developed during the study will improve the business environment of the Tzaneen hawkers' industry, create a vibrant and diverse trading sector, and lead to job creation.

The municipality concedes that previous efforts to organise hawkers have generally failed amid fears that regulation would threaten their activities. However, says the municipality, hawkers continue to "operate individually in highly competitive and marginal business environments, in some instances enforced by hostile cartel-type arrangements.

"They are consequently operating in polarised and disorganised situations with no regulations and responsibilities; they frequently clash with formal business and farmers as they undercut prices due to their `unfair' advantage of minimal overheads and non-payment of taxes”. "They generally litter and discard waste without caring about their surroundings, exacerbated by lack of facilities such as toilets, electricity and water. Not only does this indifference pose a health hazard; it also has a negative impact on formal trade and tourism".

The municipality's new starting point is that "informal trade in Tzaneen provides exciting entrepreneurial opportunities for the unemployed in the area". "Hawkers provide a myriad of goods and services not offered by the formal sector. If hawkers are better organised and supported, coupled with improved facilities and skills, the sector will be able to provide innumerable opportunities for practical job creation”. "The municipality has thus committed itself to develop the informal sector into a more commercially viable sector which could ultimately result in a new mercantile class".

The municipality has therefore committed itself to:

For more information, please contact:

Faith Mashianoke, Manager: Planning & Economic Development,
Greater Tzaneen Municipality.
Tel: +27 (0)15 307 8029; Fax: +27 (015 307 8049;
E-mail: faith.mashianoke@tzaneen.gov.za
Website: www.tzaneen.gov.za

Tzaneen's hawkers should not be seen as a necessary evil, says its municipality. Now, with support from the Limpopo LED Programme, the municipality intends to integrate hawkers into the mainstream economy.

Creating Space To Live And Work

Greater Tubatse in central Limpopo has the makings to become South Africa's new "Platinum City", but will its poorly planned urban area be able to cope with the demands of mining expansion?

Between 16,000 and 20,000 direct new jobs are expected to be created in the near future as four new mines come on stream, with at least another nine platinum and chrome mines at varying stages of development.

When these mines go into production, the Tubatse area will produce 22% of South Africa's platinum and 35% of its chrome. As the mines develop, suppliers of goods and services will be keen to move into the area, creating even more jobs and greater demand for residential, commercial and industrial land.

The recently launched R1,5 billion Motaganeng residential, commercial and industrial complex will relieve some pressure, but much more space is needed.

The small town of Burgersfort is emerging as a service hub for major platinum and chrome mines in Greater Sekhukhune. Now the Limpopo LED Programme is assisting the district and local municipality to plan for rapid future expansion.

Greater Sekhukhune District Municipality, in which Tubatse is situated, fears that mining houses will look elsewhere for land to accommodate staff and that an area where as many as 70% of people are unemployed will not be able to benefit from economic growth.

Greater Sekhukhune has therefore decided to assist Tubatse to plan for the future, and it is being given strong support by the Limpopo Local Economic Development (LED) Programme.

The Programme has granted Greater Sekhukhune R3 million from its Local Government Support Fund to assist the district and local municipalities to remove obstacles to future development.

Funding will enable Greater Sekhukhune to:

• Identify suitable space for residential, commercial and industrial development.
• Reach consensus among local stakeholders on the suitability of identified space.
• Appoint a service provider to assess best options for infrastructure provision and funding to support it.
• Develop an appropriate institutional structure for spatial planning and land use management, facilitate recruitment of staff, and conduct necessary training.

The initiative is in line with the Limpopo Growth and Development Strategy which aims to encourage development of competitive clusters in the province's key economic sectors.It also supports national government's Accelerated and Shared Growth Initiative of South Africa which has facilitated construction in the area of the new R7 billion De Hoop Dam that will supply water to the mines and households in Great Sekhukhune.
"Mining expansion offers a reliable and long-term platform on which the Greater Sekhukhune economy can grow", says the municipality.

For more information, please contact:

Walter Phahla, LED Manager, Greater Sekhukhune District
Municipality.
Tel: +27 (0)13 262 4633; cell: +27 (0)82 578 0171.

Home Grown and Home Made

Greater Sekhukhune is rising to the challenge to add value to its fruit and veg rather than send unprocessed produce to distant markets at considerable cost.

With support from the Limpopo Local Economic Development (LED) Programme, Greater Sekhukhune District Municipality (GSDM) is considering the establishment of a food processing centre in the district.

Through its Local Government Support Fund, the Limpopo LED Programme has awarded a R1,5 million grant to GSDM, enabling it to undertake a pre-feasibility study to determine the local potential of processing agricultural produce. If this proves viable, GSDM will conduct a feasibility study to define the types of products and services that an agricultural processing centre could offer.

The processing centre would mainly provide an outlet for farmers in the district's south and south east regions where commercial growers cultivate on irrigated land and opportunities are opening for emergent farmers to also grow crops under irrigation.

Approximately half of this 14,2 million hectare area covering the Loskop and Olifants River valleys is privately owned, with the remainder owned by the State.

Some 93,000 hectares is cultivated by commercial farmers, with 72,000 hectares under irrigation. Opportunities are also opening for small-scale farmers through implementation of the Limpopo government's Revitalisation of Smallholder Irrigation Schemes (RESIS).

The Olifants River Irrigation Scheme, for example, has 42 state or state-assisted irrigation schemes covering 5,000 hectares consisting of plots allocated to more than 3,000 emergent farmers. RESIS aims to enable 860 small-scale farmers to cultivate 1,260 hectares under irrigation in the first two years of the scheme.

However, agriculture is becoming more marginal because of factors over which farmers have little control. They include rising input and transportation costs which make it increasingly expensive to truck fresh produce to the main markets; lower commodity prices; a strong local currency; labour costs; and external competition.

Against this background, national government and organised agriculture have developed a strategy which prioritises high value-added, export-orientated production and processing. The Limpopo Provincial Growth and Development Strategy supports this approach by promoting the development of clusters in which areas with strong competitive advantages strive to add value to their produce before selling it to national and international markets. The problem, though, is that there is no value adding processing facility in Greater Sekhukhune. GSDM hopes that by establishing a high value-added, export-orientated processing centre, the district's competitiveness will improve together with its ability to sustain employment, raise living standards and provide food security.

GSDM believes the food processing centre will:

• Facilitate private sector development, leverage the comparative advantage of the region, and contribute towards job creation;
• Create opportunities for small-scale farmers by linking them with the mainstream economy; facilitate land reform initiatives; and encourage partnerships between commercial and emergent farmers.

Other beneficiaries will be wholesalers, retailers, and household consumers who will have direct access to the food processing centre. Importantly, government departments in Sekhukhune will be able to buy locally.

For more information, please contact:

Walter Phahla, LED Manager, Greater Sekhukhune District
Municipality.
Tel: +27 (0)13 262 4633; Cell: +27 (0)82 578 0171.

Making Farmers Big And Small More Competitive

A bold plan to realise the full potential of fruit and vegetable production in the Marble Hall area is being drawn up.The Limpopo Local Economic Development (LED) Programme has awarded a grant of R1,257,198 to Greater Marble Hall Municipality, enabling it to lead a study to test the feasibility of establishing a commercially viable Agri Logistics Hub which will bring together large- and small-scale farmers, and make them more competitive.

The municipality is working closely with the Citrus Growers' Association of Southern Africa, but will also involve provincial and national public institutions and private groups. The grant has been made from the Limpopo LED Programme's Local Government Support Fund which assists municipalities to improve their ability to facilitate LED.

Planners envisage that the Agri Logistics Hub will be controlled by a Community-Public-Private Partnership (CPPP) and run by a professional project management team.

The hub will:

• Integrate emergent farmers into the local economy, facilitate co-operation between them and commercial farmers, and draw them from the marginalised economy into the mainstream economy;
• Facilitate partnerships and BBBEE compliance;
• Improve pre- and post-harvest efficiencies;
• Provide local support and information services such as market intelligence;
• Enhance the area's warehousing and cold storage capacity;
• Improve transportation links to South African and international markets, particularly through the resuscitation of the rail line connecting Marble Hall to the outside world;
• Reduce agricultural marketing and distribution costs; and
• Create more effective access to domestic and international markets.

Development of an Agri Logistics Hub is a key objective in Marble Hall's Integrated Development Plan and supports the Limpopo Provincial Growth and Development Strategy which aims to establish agricultural clusters in which farmers and service providers co-operate to make themselves more competitive.

With its favourable climate and availability of irrigation, Marble Hall has high agricultural potential, but the industry is fragmented and polarised. Lack of co-ordination among farmers and failure to fully utilise local logistics capacity have also inhibited the area's growth. The local agricultural industry is made up of:

• Close on 200 emerging farmers affiliated to the Elandskraal Balemi Irrigation scheme who have limited access to markets;
• Commercial farmers who annually produce 180 000 tons of citrus, 68% of which is exported;
• Table grape growers who produce 18 000 tons of fruit -- some 10% of national production -- mainly for the export market. Grapes ripen in the area some four weeks earlier than in any other southern hemisphere region but logistics inefficiencies have inhibited export growth.
• Some 130 commercial vegetable growers who supply national fresh produce markets.

Planners hope that if the establishment of the Agri Logistics Hub proves viable, it will attract further development funding from such institutions as the Industrial Development Corporation and the Development Bank of Southern Africa.
They hope too that the model will be replicated in other areas of Limpopo with high agricultural potential.

For more information, please contact:

Burnett Marais, IDP Manager, Greater Marble Hall Municipality.
Tel: +27 (0)13 261 1151; Fax: +27 (0)13 261 2985;
E-mail: bmarais@marblehall.gov.za.

The big fresh produce markets in Gauteng are inaccessible to emergent Limpopo farmers, so Mopani District Municipality wants to bring the market to them.

The municipality plans to facilitate the establishment of a Mopani District Fresh Produce Market near Tzaneen in the heart of South Africa's premier fruit growing region.Situated at Nkowakowa close to the main R71 route that bisects the region, the project will not only create opportunities for some 300 emergent farmers and stimulate local economic development; it will also revitalise a wasting provincial government asset.

Vacant warehouses owned by Limpopo Enterprise Development (LimDev) will be upgraded, with cold storage rooms added to create a modern market including grading, packaging and distribution facilities. Above all, says Mopani District Municipality, establishment of a fresh produce market will stimulate development of the fruit and nut cluster and of increased, added value food processing as envisaged in Limpopo's Provincial Growth and Development Strategy.

Mopani District Municipality has been awarded an R800 000 grant from the Limpopo Local Economic Development Programme to kick-start processes leading to establishment of the market.As a prolific grower of citrus and subtropical fruit, Mopani district produces about 30% of South Africa's citrus fruit, 60% of its tomatoes, and 40% of its avocados, as well as substantial quantities of mangoes and bananas.

Large-scale commercial farmers export some 60% of their produce and sell the balance at the major fresh produce markets in Johannesburg and Pretoria some 350 kilometres from Mopani district.

Faced with prohibitive transportation costs to reach Gauteng markets and with no formal fresh produce market in Mopani, emergent farmers rely mainly on informal traders to sell their produce. Mopani District Municipality says its planned fresh produce market will source produce mainly from smaller farmers in the district and in surrounding areas.It says retailers, many of whom buy fruit from the Pretoria Fresh Produce Market, have indicated strong support for a Mopani market. Other potential customers are informal fruit and vegetable traders, general dealers, grocers, caterers and restaurants.

Letaba Citrus estate illustrates Mopani district's dominance as a fruit producer. Large-scale estates sell most of their fruit and vegetables on Gauteng markets which are inaccessible to small producers who face the added problem that Mopani does not have a fresh produce market of its own. Now Mopani District Municipality is developing one with support from the Limpopo LED Programme.

Among benefits Mopani District Municipality hopes the fresh produce market will bring are:

* Increased market share for emergent farmers, with the possibility of opening exports to the Southern African Development Community;
* Diversification of crops and improved economies of scale;
* Development of retail stalls at the market targeting local buyers; and
* Development of satellite and mobile markets in rural areas.

The municipality says a number of organisations, including the CSIR, the WK Kellog Foundation and BP South Africa, have indicated willingness to assist farmers to acquire skills for agri processing. Funding for training could be provided by the Department of Labour.