President Cyril Ramaphosa will on Friday lead a District Development Model (DDM) Presidential Imbizo in the Cape Winelands District Municipality in the Western Cape.
The President will engage with citizens, community-based organisations and businesses at the Dal Josaphat Athletics Stadium after he visits the Vlakkeland Housing Project.
He will be accompanied by various Ministers, including the Cape Winelands District Champion and Minister of Trade, Industry and Competition, Ebrahim Patel; Western Cape Premier Alan Winde and provincial and district leadership.
The Presidential Imbizo provides a platform for the President to engage with communities on their experiences of daily life and service delivery by the government.
To date, President Ramaphosa has visited five provinces, namely the North West, Free State, Mpumalanga, Gauteng and Northern Cape to interact with residents.
The Cape Winelands District Municipality is an important centre of South Africa’s agricultural sector and export economy.
It includes agricultural, industrial and tourism assets around towns such as Stellenbosch, Paarl, Worcester, Tulbagh, Robertson and Montagu. The area also features academic and innovation infrastructure, including the University of Stellenbosch.
“The President’s visit to the district will be concentrated around Paarl – the seat of the Drakenstein Local Municipality- where community members and stakeholder groups will be able to put questions to the President and leaders from the national, provincial and local spheres of government during an open-mic session at the Dal Josaphat Athletics Stadium.
“This session will follow a visit by the President to the nearby Vlakkeland catalytic human settlement project,” the Presidency said in a statement.
To date, R248 million has been spent on the project and 432 houses have been completed and construction is underway on a further 323. More than 180 local workers are employed at this site.
Tomorrow’s Imbizo will be the sixth of its kind since President Ramaphosa gave an undertaking in his February 2022 State of the Nation Address that he will interact with communities in all provinces.
The Imbizo series is themed ‘Leave No-One Behind’, in line with the government’s collaboration with all sectors of society to transform the country through a sustainable, equitable and inclusive economy.
A number of government departments and services will stage an exhibition and allow residents to enrol for any public services they may need.
