Programmes and Projects

Rural Agro-Industries Finance Initiative (RAFI) Programme

RAFI programme is a commercial initiative formed to enhance co-operative enterprises in the Eastern Cape in the attempt to assist agriculture development through industries in rural towns. This initiative is to establish a capital formation sufficient to capitalise the industries primary production, agro processing industries and support industries.

The development Agency aims to source funding and support agricultural business in generation and economic growth by developing a competitive and sustainable agribusiness sector in Joe Gqabi District and specifically focuses on the linking the market access with Cooperatives and SMME's. The agency is determined to look at the roll out of the RAFI programme to other local municipalities.

District-Wide Peach and Stone Fruit Project

The project focuses on unlocking the potential for peach and stone fruit production within the district, as there are many peach informal producers who sell their produce in informal markets. This is one of the initiatives the agency holds to heart as agriculture is the main resource of the Joe Gqabi District. Senqu Local Municipality will be the pilot for this project; once full rollout, the learning and experiences shall be used for a roll out in other local municipalities.

The Agency aims to consolidate the peach growers and link them up with strategic partners for technical skills transfer and formalising markets.

District-Wide Wool Project

The Agency further aims to enhance the wool production and quality within the Joe Gqabi district, as this area is regarded as the second-highest wool production in the province. The District-wide Wool project will focus on assessing the wool farmer's needs, analyse gaps and consolidating farmer's needs to facilitate training and coordinate markets. JoGEDA aims to form strategic partnerships for technical skills transfer to improve quality and consolidating wool farmers to link them with the market.

Elundini Potato Project

The Umnga flats area which is about 30km outside Maclear town in Elundini Local Municipality, is an area rich in potato farming. The project's focus is to consolidate the farmers with a total land availability of over 1,000 hectares available for potato production and linking them with strategic technical and finance partners to contribute to an increase in seed potato production by ensuring the land is optimally utilised.

JoGEDA aims to consolidate the potato farmers, link them up with a strategic technical and finance partners to unleash the full potential for potato production in this region.

E-Farming Support

The wool selling season resumed on the 14th of April 2021 after the two-week Easter recess, with the market ending softer by 3.4% from the previous sale, to close on R155.63 p/kg (clean). A total of 12 231 bales were on offer this week after 1 153 bales were withdrawn prior to the sale, with an overall sales clearance of 93.15% of the bales actually offered. The bulk of the offering consisted of 20 micron and finer wool, with a smaller percentage long wools on offer. The market showed some signs of improvement later during trade, with better competition for the fine micron merino fleece wools on offer, but ultimately could not lift the market into positive territory.

The major buyers on the 14th of April 2021 sale were: Standard Wool SA (3 085), Modiano SA (2 927), Lempriere SA (2 229) and Tianyu SA (1 318). Per-micron price breakdown ranged from 18.0µm at R203.88/kg down to 22.5µm at R131.43/kg. The next auction is scheduled for 21 April 2021 where approximately ± 8 224 bales will be on sale.

Source: Cape Wools SA (www.capewoolssa.co.za)

Overview of Wool Production of Joe Gqabi District Municipality — Over the past three years, wool production in Joe Gqabi District Municipality has been on a positive trend. For the past ten years, the District Municipality has produced more than 3 thousand tons of wool. The District produced the lowest volumes during 2001/02 and the highest in 2016/17. The drop from 2016/17 to 2017/18 was mainly caused by severe drought. The recent positive trend is mostly farmers rebuilding stock after the drought.

Source: Cape Wools SA

For more information: Mzamo Bobi — Agricultural Specialist — 051 023 0600 — mzamob@jogeda.co.za

Property Development

Various, multiple property development opportunities are in the process of being identified and fully investigated in various areas and towns of Local Municipalities of Joe Gqabi District.

Various opportunities are identified in the following configuration: small to medium shopping centres, apartments, townhouses to be sold on sectional title basis or rented, rental housing units, and mixed use developments.

In the property development the agency is vibrantly active in bringing small town regeneration opportunities for development. At current the agency is implementing the following projects within the district: (1) Middle income Housing development in Ugie, Elundini Local Municipality; (2) Senqu Commercial Development in Sterkspruit; (3) Joe Gqabi District-wide housing development; (4) Rhodes Property Development.

Elundini Middle Income Housing

This project includes the development of 16.5 hectares of land in Ugie. The piece of land has been made available by the Elundini Local Municipality. The land has been earmarked for the middle-income housing development. The focus for 2020/21 is developing housing for the Elundini Municipality community that will be sold to prospective home owners. The project is earmarked for 116 housing stands based on the existing township establishment.

In the 2020/21 financial year JoGEDA focused on re-strategising by appointing a service provider that will lead the project on risk and recoup on implementation stage. The appointed service provider will take over the site starting with building a show house as a marketing strategy aimed at mitigating risk for the agency and ensuring the project is viable. The agency will assume a role of assisting the appointed service provider in facilitating preliminary information and submission of design and related documentation to the respective authority for approval.

Senqu Commercial Development

Commercial property development opportunities have been identified and fully investigated in a feasibility study in various towns of the Senqu Local Municipality such as Barkly East, Lady Grey and Sterkspruit. The outcomes show various opportunities should be undertaken: small to medium shopping centre, business support centres and office property development in these towns. Furthermore, Senqu Local Municipality has developed a small town regeneration strategy for all its towns.

In the 2020/21 financial year JoGEDA will focus on finalising the eviction process and finalising the contract with the developer. The agency will then ensure the commercialisation of erf 101 in Sterkspruit is made available for the developer to commence with preliminary desktop information, and assist the developer in submission to local authority to expedite the development. This contributes to the development of an emerging town and will create new economic centres to inspire value chain growth.

Water and Sanitation Programme

In the district strategic session this was an item lifted for discussion. The programme was seen to be one the development agency can implement. Joe Gqabi District Municipality Council has expanded the Mandate of the Agency by rendering services to the District Municipality in some of its programmes as either an Implementing Agent or Project Managers or both as required from time to time.

JoGEDA will focus on enhancing service delivery in these areas. Project pipeline / scope: VIP Toilets, innovative sanitation solutions, bulk water installation, drought relief projects, and any identified project by the District Municipality under the water and sanitation programme.

Small Town Regeneration Programme

Small Town Regeneration Programme is aimed at the regeneration, restoration and fulfilling the economic potential of underperforming small towns. It looks for ways and means to strengthen small town economies; provide better quality of life; and build and leverage on the local assets of such towns.

In 2021/22 the focus within the Senqu Small Town Regeneration is to develop a feasibility study for the district-wide housing development. The study will be used to develop the TOR for the proposal which will be issued as an advert for the development of integrated human settlements products across the region where the study supports the viability of this kind of investment.

SMME Training and Enterprise Development

Enterprise Development and Skills Development Programme forms part of the anchor projects of the Agency in executing its mandate. For this programme the Agency selects SMMEs from throughout the Joe Gqabi Region to participate in a nine-month Business Development programme administered by the University of Stellenbosch Small Business Academy. The Agency also hosts a quarterly SMME Connect workshop as a platform for engagement with industry opportunities to grow their businesses.

The Agency's focus will be on completing the skills development strategy and how it can assist in bridging the skills gap within the District. Potential partners have been earmarked for the purpose of pooling resources to address the skills gap.

Investment Opportunity

Coming Soon

Senqu Plastics Manufacturing

The Agency intends to develop a plastic manufacturing project located in the small town of Lady Grey. JoGEDA seeks to attract both private and public investors to invest and participate in the development of the project so that the community attains maximum economic and investment returns.

The focus for the Agency will be on soliciting suitable funding and a prospective operator that would ensure the operationalisation of the Senqu plastics for the purpose of alleviating poverty. Senqu Plastic Manufacturing is one of the catalytic projects entrusted to JoGEDA by Senqu Local Municipality to ensure it is well positioned to become a competitive and self-sustainable manufacturing factory which creates employment in the region. The Agency has undertaken steps to initiate and investigate models for commercialising the project.