KZN GOGTA MEC champions rural industrialisation as Durban hosts International Planning Conference
KZN GOGTA MEC champions rural industrialisation as Durban hosts International Planning Conference



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GOGTA MEC champions rural industrialisation as Durban hosts International Planning Conference

2016-09-13

KZN MEC for Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta) Nomusa Dube-Ncube has called for a concerted effort to industrialise the province's rural areas to stem the flow of migration to KZN's cities and the use of smart technology in urban planning as Durban hosts an international ISOCARP conference on planning

"From the long-term perspective, it makes better economic sense to take jobs to our rural areas than to take rural job-seekers to our cities. Industrialisation of rural areas is beneficial for both rural residents and our cities where continued urban migration is placing undue pressures on scarce resources," said Dube-Ncube

From the 12th to the 16th of September 2016, the city of eThekwini is hosting the 52nd congress of ISOCARP which is a global non-governmental association of professional urban and regional planners that has been at the forefront of bringing together top expertise and unique insights into planning since its founding in 1965

"At the same time as we focus on rural industrialisation, we need to continue to make better use of smart technology in our urban planning. A good urban planning should effectively link employees and job-seekers to job opportunities and residents to secondary services such as hospitals and schools," said Dube-Ncube.

Despite many achievements of the successive democratic governments in the post-1994 South Africa, such as in provision of water, electricity and sanitation, Dube-Ncube has acknowledged that the backlogs in service delivery remain too large and the government's focus largely centres on meeting short-term objectives

"As a result, many of our current urban planning systems do not give adequate consideration to the end-users of the future. Decisions about planning are often about crisis management or are driven by immediate commercial requirements rather than the needs of future residents," said Dube-Ncube.

The ISOCARP conference will run all week and focus, among other topics, on smart cities, rural transformations, sustainable infrastructure, integrated planning, and internal migration trends. The conference will consist of various technical workshops, including those aimed specifically at young professional planners.





GOGTA MEC champions rural industrialisation as Durban hosts International Planning Conference

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