Profile: Uthukela District Municipality
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
2 PROFILE: UTHUKELA DISTRICT MUNICIPALITY PROFILE: UTHUKELA DISTRICT MUNICIPALITY 3 CONTENTS 1. Executive Summary ........................................................................................... 4 2. Brief Overview .................................................................................................... 7 2.1. Historical Perspective ........................................................................................................ 7 2.2. Location ............................................................................................................................. 7 2.3. Spatial Integration ............................................................................................................. 9 2.3. Land Ownership .............................................................................................................. 11 3. Social Development Profile ............................................................................. 12 3.1. Key Social Demographics ....................................................................................................... 12 3.1.1. Population ....................................................................................................................... 12 3.1.2. Gender, Age and Race ......................................................................................................... 12 3.1.3. Households .......................................................................................................................... 13 3.2. Health ..................................................................................................................................... 13 3.3. Covid-19 ................................................................................................................................. 15 3.4. Poverty Dimensions................................................................................................................ 17 3.4.1. Distribution ...................................................................................................................... 17 3.4.2. Inequality ......................................................................................................................... 17 3.4.3. Employment/Unemployment .......................................................................................... 18 3.4.4. Crime ............................................................................................................................... 18 3.5. Education and Skills Profile .................................................................................................... 18 4. Economic Drivers ............................................................................................ 19 4.1. Structure of the Economy ............................................................................................... 19 4.2 Primary Sector .................................................................................................................... 20 4.2.1 Agriculture ....................................................................................................................... 20 4.3 Secondary Sector ..................................................................................................................... 21 4.3.1 Manufacturing ................................................................................................................ 21 4.4 Tertiary Sector ......................................................................................................................... 24 4.4.1. Transport ............................................................................................................................. 24 4.4.2. Tourism ........................................................................................................................... 24 4.5. Informal Sector ....................................................................................................................... 25 5. Service Delivery ............................................................................................... 26 5.1. Water and Sanitation ............................................................................................................. 26 5.2. Human Settlements................................................................................................................ 27 5.3. Waste Management ............................................................................................................... 27 5.4. Electricity ................................................................................................................................ 28 5.5. Roads and Transport .............................................................................................................. 28 6. Governance ...................................................................................................... 29 6.1. Municipal Performance ................................................................................................... 29 6.2. Municipal Capacity .......................................................................................................... 30 6.3. Traditional Leadership Governance ................................................................................ 30 7. Project to Diversify and Grow the Economy ................................................. 31 7.1. Economic Projects ........................................................................................................... 32 7.2. Social Development Projects........................................................................................... 32 7.3. Spatial Development ....................................................................................................... 32 7.4. Environmental Forecast .................................................................................................. 33 8. Key Recommendations ................................................................................... 34 4 PROFILE: UTHUKELA DISTRICT MUNICIPALITY 5 UTHUKELA DISTRICT MUNICIPALITY PROFILE: COVID-19 Vulnerability Index uThukela Source: CSIR/NCDM ` 6 PROFILE: UTHUKELA DISTRICT MUNICIPALITY 1. Executive Summary uThukela District is one of ten districts in the Province of KwaZulu- Natal (KZN). The district municipality derives its name from one of the major rivers in the Province, the uThukela River that rises from the Drakensberg Mountains, and supplies water to a large portion of KZN and Gauteng. The uThukela District is mostly rural and consists of three local municipalities namely, Alfred Duma, Inkosi Langalibalele, and Okhahlamba. The administrative seat of uThukela is Ladysmith. The national routes the N3 (runs from south to north and vice versa) and the N11(adjoins N3 via the R103 in the Ladysmith Urban Centre) runs through the municipal area and are a busy province corridor with major links between the national industrial hubs of Johannesburg. uThukela district has a population of 724 248 at a growth rate of 1.0% From 2017 the district has experienced a steady growth rate at about 1%. The district had a total number of 161 787 households and 85 302 (52.7%%) women headed households. uThukela has 1 673 child-headed households. 28% of the child-headed households are in traditional dwellings. As at 17 June 2020 there were 4 238 confirmed COVID-19 cases as well as 73 deaths and 2 133 recoveries in KZN. There are three quarantine facilities in uThukela district with 39 beds combined and all of the sites have been activated as at 29 May 2020. The uThukela economy is largely driven by the tertiary sector with the community services (23%), finance (13%), transport (12%) and trade (14%) sectors. In 2018, uThukela contributed 3.7 per cent (approximately R18.7 billion) to the provincial GDP. Alfred Duma local municipality is the economic hub of uThukela district municipality and dominates the spatial economy of the district. uThukela district is part of the natural resource economy regions. This includes enhancing the productive capacity, environmental and livelihood quality, cultural heritage, and natural resource-access of these regions through effective agrarian practices and enterprise development programmes that are focussed on natural resource restoration and custodianship. PROFILE: UTHUKELA DISTRICT MUNICIPALITY 7 2. Brief Overview 2.1. Historical Perspective The District derives its name from one of the major rivers in the Province, the uThukela River that rises from the Drakensberg Mountains, and supplies water to a large portion of KZN and Gauteng. Maloti-Drakensberg Park World Heritage Site is renowned for its spectacular natural landscape, importance as a haven for many threatened and endemic species, and for its wealth of 35 000 pieces of rock paintings made by the San people over a period of 4,000 years. While there are many mountains in South Africa, KwaZulu-Natal's 200km long uKhahlamba-Drakensberg escarpment is by far the most impressive. With peaks that exceed 3000m, the Berg – as locals like to call it – forms the backbone of the Maloti-Drakensberg Transfrontier Conservation and Development Area between the Kingdom of Lesotho and South Africa. The uKhahlamba (“barrier of spears” in Zulu) is a dynamic wonderland of river valleys, mountain streams, rugged cliffs, hiking trails and stunning scenery that attracts thousands of travellers every year, mainly during the hotter summer months of December to February. With such