26 Oct 2015

The government has passed several bills amongst them the Special Economics Zones (SEZ) Bill and Security Companies Services Bill.

The Member of Parliament (MP) for Kgalagadi South, Mr Frans van der Westhuizen said this in a kgotla meeting in Tsabong recently. 

Mr Van der Westhuizen,  who is also Assistant Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, said the Special Economic Zones Bill was meant to find out which businesses prosper in certain regions to enable the government to help residents accordingly.

He said the SEZ came after the realisation that most businesses prosper if they focus on specific businesses, giving  the example of Kgalagadi District where livestock farming business is doing well.

On the Security Companies Bill, Mr van der Westhuizen said there would be a licensing board which would ensure that security companies do not abuse workers.

He said the board would also go around the country inspecting all security companies to ascertain that employees work under suitable conditions with proper uniform.

On other issues, the MP urged residents to take advantage of the economic stimulus programme by making sure that they form companies which would benefit from the initiative.

He pointed out that through the economic stimulus programme, the government intends to eradicate the backlog of projects and to continue with other projects which were put on hold  during the economic down turn.

He reminded residents that although civil servants were expected to help them during market days, they too should assist  by forming committees which would ensure that there was continuity. For their part, residents complained about the recent move by BMC to charge farmers four per cent tax whenever they sell their cattle.

Most farmers said the commission has been cheating them because their prices have been low. They said the tax does not favour communal farmers.

However, the assistant minister told them that it was farmers who approached the government to stop the 15 per cent which it has been charging BMC because the company struggled to pay them on time.

He revealed that it was for that reason that BMC was given P300 million to keep them in business as they were the only ones who were allowed to export beef. Ends