MAYOR’S NEWSLETTER FOR GEORGE HERALD OF 2 FEBRUARY 2023
In January, municipalities reflect not only on the results of the first half of the current financial year but also on the previous financial year that ended on 30 June.
We have achieved another clean audit for the 2021/22 financial year. This is an important achievement as it helps in our endeavours to procure additional grant funding to further improve our infrastructure. As our municipality grows and we successfully implement and maintain our infrastructure while ensuring good governance, we progressively seek to qualify for larger grants that are also earmarked for the larger intermediate and metropolitan cities.
Our draft annual report for 2021/22 which provides an insight into the past year’s activities and achievements is in an advanced state of preparation prior to public release.
During the July-December 2022 period, it is already evident how load-shedding has impacted negatively on revenue through lower electricity sales resulting from not having Eskom power for 6-10 hours per day. Businesses are also likely to be similarly affected. To exacerbate this further, there are additional costs associated with the diesel purchased to operate generators at the various water and wastewater treatment plants and pump stations.
Through the gloom of load-shedding, we recently received indications that an international company will shortly commence business operations in George and start hiring and training staff. I also had the privilege along with a few senior colleagues to attend a presentation by Harvard University’s Growth Lab team on how they utilise data on business activities to focus on potential economic sectors that can provide strong growth opportunities for a city. Although George falls outside of the 1022 cities worldwide with populations of over 300000 that are already incorporated into their data sets, the Growth Lab already has access to some relevant data on George. This presentation will no doubt spur our outreach to gain insight into business sectors that could grow employment in our economy.
Over the past weeks, we have continued our interactions with the Western Cape Government and key role-players internationally to explore the acceleration of implementing renewable energy projects that will benefit the George economy. It is crucial too that the business and agricultural sectors, in particular, engage with us on their challenges with load-shedding to maintain their production levels. It is becoming important for business to communicate their electricity capacity needs as we jointly search for solutions through collaboration and partnerships. The challenges include technical feasibility, the ability to connect to the grid, environmental approvals, legislative requirements, funding sources and identifying a range of power suppliers.
Stakeholders with challenges or parties who are interested in offering practical solutions are welcome to use the supportbusiness@george.gov.za email address as a point of contact to facilitate a discussion.
Ald Leon van Wyk
Executive Mayor of George