TO ALL MEDIA

KZN LEGISLATURE INTENSIFIES VOTER EDUCATION CAMPAIGN IN THE PROVINCE

Tomorrow, 1 September 2021, the Legislature will continue with its voter education campaign to encourage citizens to participate in the upcoming local government elections next year. The campaign is planned as follows:

Ilembe District Municipality

King Cetshwayo Local Municipality

There will be briefing meetings with political leadership of the Legislature and local municipalities before the voter education campaign kicks off in the two districts. The briefings will take place in municipal council chambers. Home Affairs and IEC will be present to assist citizens as they prepare for registration, ID applications and other services as provided by these institutions.
The Legislature is the custodian of democracy and with this programme, the institution aims to strengthen participatory democracy by ensuring that all eligible voters participate in the local government elections to elect their public representatives where they live.

Media is invited to cover the event.

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For more information for, contact:
Wesley Canham
0833767299
Media Liaison and PR

22 August 2021

Embargo: For Immediate Release

RE: COMMUNITY CALLS FOR THE PORTFOLIO COMMITTEE INTERVENTION TO SAVE NTINGWE TEA ESTATE

Impoverished communities in the deep rural villages of Inkandla have made an impassioned plea to the KwaZulu-Natal Legislature’s Portfolio Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development to intervene to save Ntingwe Tea Estate from collapsing.

The tea estate, which is funded by the provincial department of Agriculture and Rural Development and managed by its entity Agri-Development Agency (ADA), is an economic lifeline to the people of Inkandla where it provides employment to hundreds of labourers and seasonal workers.

On Saturday, the Portfolio Committee, led by Chairperson Honourable Ntombikayise Sibhidla-Saphetha, visited the estate as part of its oversight work over the provincial department of Agriculture and Rural Development and its entity (ADA).

Sibhidla-Saphetha was accompanied by other members of the Portfolio Committee including Honourable Sthembiso Mshengu and Honourable Super Zuma who is also the legislature’s Chief Whip.

They met the senior management from the provincial department of agriculture and rural development, ADA, estate’s board, Inkandla Municipality Speaker and other stakeholders.

The committee resolved to call an urgent meeting with the Portfolio Committee on Economic Development to discuss challenges facing Ntingwe Tea Estate. This is because Ithala Bank, which is an entity of the provincial department Economic Development, is also a shareholder to Ntingwe Tea Estate.

According to the presentation made to the committee by ADA during Saturday’s oversight visit the challenges that have grounded operations at Ntingwe Tea Estate include the following:

• High Production Costs – due mainly to the labour intensive nature of tea production;
• Global Competition – flood of cheap imported tea and rising global food safety and environmental standards
• Low Global Market Prices – this has been exacerbated by the increase in global tea supply
• Dominance of tea packers – multinational giants dictate pricing

Operations of the estate have almost collapsed to such an extent that in the last three years it has only been harvesting a fraction of the 400-hectare estate and the resignation of the estate manager has also dealt the facility a huge blow.

The Estate consists of about 400 hectares of clonal tea and could produce high quality black and green tea.

Sibhidla-Saphetha said the joint portfolio committees will explore a number of avenues to save the facility.

“This facility is very important to the people of this area and has a potential to play a massive role in fighting poverty, unemployment and inequality. It employs a number of people and the majority of those are women and young people,” said Sibhidla Saphetha.

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For more information please contact Wonder Hlongwa at 0829083532

From today 27 to 28 July 2021, KZN Legislature MPLs including MECs are conducting mid-year oversight visits in schools throughout the province to inspect their readiness to resume teaching and learning after the winter break.

The schools functionality monitoring programme which is conducted in the beginning of the year when schools open and in the middle of the year when schools reopen after the mid-year break aims to ensure that teaching and learning take place in a conducive environment in our public schools.

The visits include various stakeholders such as SGBs, Teacher Unions, Councilors, Community Leadership and various government departments.