By Khululiwe Makhaye

At a gala dinner on May 12, the Municipal Investment Attraction award was presented to the iLembe Municipality.

This was the fourth KZN Top Business Portfolio Awards by FNB and was held at the Elangeni Hotel.

Ilembe municipal manager Mike Newton and Enterprise Ilembe chief executive officer Kanyi Gasa were there to accept the award at the prestigious event.

Newton said they were very excited about their achievement.

"We won this year’s award for best municipality in terms of investment attraction, based on the success and recognition of our new economic development agency, known as Enterprise iLembe. With the appointment of CEO Kanyi Gasa, we have been able to formulate strategies to meet development needs in the region, and to try and cut out the red tape to assist with the growth of the region," he said.

The business awards are made to companies and organizations in both the private and public sectors that make a contribution to the economy of the province.

The finalists in the same category were uThungulu and Ugu district municipalities. All finalists are chosen by the business sector.

"It is great to be recognized by this forum as leaders in investment facilitation, as we now know that we are succeeding at our task," said Newton.

Last year Ilembe as one of the partners won the special award for the 1000 skills learnerships which they secured for the Blythedale development and surrounds.

"The Blythedale project is going along nicely at the moment. This is the first year that we are winning as a district municipality, so it is a special award for us," said Newton.

Gasa said the district was looking forward to making a real difference in the lives of people in iLembe.

  " We are currently busy with projects in agriculture with green houses and outdoor farming, minerals and energy, arts and crafts. We are exploring wine making in the Ilembe region. We have economic development projects that we are looking at activating in tourism, manufacturing etc."

"We are very excited about recently signing a Memorandum of Understanding with the KZN integrated craft hub to set up a craft market in Sangweni Centre. We are working fast and furiously to capitalise on the World cup hype and excitement," said Gasa.