Here follow excerpts from the speech delivered by FF Plus MPL, Tammy Wessels, in the Free State Legislature earlier today during the budget vote debate of the Free State Department of Economic Development, Small Business Development, Tourism and Environmental Affairs.
The main goal of the Department of Economic Development is to stimulate the economy by creating a favourable environment for entrepreneurs and small businesses so as to enable the private sector to create jobs for the Free State community and not to create jobs itself.
The state cannot be solely responsible for creating jobs. It is not sustainable and leads to inflated salaries, while the money could have been better spent on proper service delivery.
The festivals and projects organised by the Department should also be self-sustainable. The Philip Sanders resort near Bloemfontein was renovated in 2010 at a cost of R150 million, but for the last eight years, it has been in a state of disrepair due to poor management. Millions of rands are spent on die Flower Festival in Parys and despite it being a vital show-case opportunity for environmental awareness and for tourism, the festival makes no profit whatsoever. It is not sustainable and only serves to benefit a select few by means of inflated tenders for goods and services.
The Department is also supposed to obtain and retain foreign investments, but projects that are funded by international investments, like the Xhariep fish breeding project, are not utilised and only benefit a very small part of the community.
The Department has numerous goals for the upcoming year, but the most important goal should be to stimulate the Free State economy so as to ensure job creation – without it, all the other projects will not be of any value.
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