Sedibeng District Profile
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01/52 SEDIBENG District GP Building towards a developmental Metropolitan River City of choice. 2 PROFILE: SEDIBENG DISTRICT PROFILE: SEDIBENG DISTRICT 3 CONTENT EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ........................................................................................... 5 1. INTRODUCTION: BRIEF OVERVIEW ................................................................ 6 1.1 Location ..................................................................................................................................... 6 1.2 Historical Perspective ................................................................................................................ 7 1.3 Spatial Status ............................................................................................................................. 8 2. SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT ................................................................................... 9 2.1 Key Social Demographics .......................................................................................................... 9 2.1.1 Population .............................................................................................................................. 9 2.1.2 Gender, Age and Race ............................................................................................................ 9 2.1.3 Household ............................................................................................................................. 10 2.2 Health Profile ........................................................................................................................... 11 2.3 COVID-19 ................................................................................................................................. 13 2.4 Poverty Dimensions................................................................................................................. 14 2.4.2 Inequality .............................................................................................................................. 15 2.4.3 Employment/Unemployment ............................................................................................... 15 2.4.4 Crime .................................................................................................................................... 15 2.5 Education and Skills Profile ..................................................................................................... 16 3. DRIVERS OF THE ECONOMY ......................................................................... 17 3.1 Structure of the Economy ....................................................................................................... 17 3.2 Primary Sector ......................................................................................................................... 18 3.3 Secondary Sector ..................................................................................................................... 18 3.4 Tertiary Sector ......................................................................................................................... 19 4. SERVICE DELIVERY ........................................................................................ 20 4.1 Water and Sanitation .............................................................................................................. 20 4.2 Human Settlements ................................................................................................................. 22 4.3 Waste Management ............................................................................................................... 22 4.4 Roads and Transport ............................................................................................................... 23 4.5 Electricity ................................................................................................................................. 24 5. GOVERNANCE AND MANAGEMENT ............................................................. 24 5.1 Municipality Performance ....................................................................................................... 25 5.2 Municipal Capacity .................................................................................................................. 25 6. PROJECTS TO DIVERSIFY AND GROW PEOPLE AND THE ECONOMY ..... 25 6.1 Social Development Projects ................................................................................................... 25 6.2 Spatial Development ............................................................................................................... 25 6.3 Infrastructure Projects ............................................................................................................ 27 6.4 Economic Projects ................................................................................................................... 28 6.5 Environmental Forecast .......................................................................................................... 29 7. KEY RECOMMENDATIONS ............................................................................. 31 7.1 Prioritise Integrated Development Plan .................................................................................. 31 7.2 Investor and Sponsorship opportunities ................................................................................. 32 4 PROFILE: SEDIBENG DISTRICT PROFILE: SEDIBENG DISTRICT 5 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The Sedibeng District is located in the southern parts of the Gauteng Province, and features three local municipalities. It features more than a wide variety of landmarks, such as the Vaal River (constituting one of the most important sources of water in South Africa) and Vaal Dam, the Suikerbosrand Nature Reserve, the Sasol refinery, the ArcelorMittal (previously ISCOR) factory, as well as the Emerald Casino and Safari Park. At the centre of socio-economic challenges are the highest levels of unemployment, high inequality levels and the continuous poverty circle, with continued increase in the percentage of people living in poverty. However, it has one of the highest kidnapping rates and car theft crimes in South Africa (Vereeniging ranked 23rd while Vanderbjilpark is ranked 15th). Sedibeng had 11.2 deaths per thousand people in 2012 which rose to 11.7 deaths in 2016. High unemployment is the major contributor to the high crime rate, ranging from 32.2% to 50.2%. Environmental quality has been an ongoing concern and mainly the pollution of water resulting from collapsed sewer network and this has had multiple effects on the socio- economy of the entire district (halting development, affecting tourism, aqua-marine, fishing and other water sporting events etc.) In 2018, the manufacturing sector was the largest contributor to the regional economy, accounting for R 14.7 billion or 23.8% of the total GVA in the district’s economy. The sector that contributes the second most to the GVA is the community services sector at 23.7%, followed by the finance sector with 20.5%. The sector that contributes the least is the agriculture sector with a contribution of R 668 million or 1.08% of the total GVA. The largest part of the region, which is Emfuleni, is characterised by poor infrastructure such as a high number of potholes, sewer spillages, neglect of refuse collection and ageing road infrastructure. This is a reflection of poorly managed budgets as well as staff and skills shortages and clearly negatively impacts on infrastructure condition. The municipality is currently under Section 139(1)(b) of the Constitution for two years now and has regressed even further. Sedibeng has the lowest cases of COVID-19 in Gauteng, at 139, with 44 recoveries and only recording the first death on the 9th of June. The Vaal River Intervention and the Sedibeng Sewer Scheme remains the priority catalytic project to unlock socio-economic opportunities. This coupled with the prioritization of the urban renewal in the Central Business districts, especially Vereeniging as well as the critical (hard and soft) infrastructure such as tarring of main 6 PROFILE: SEDIBENG DISTRICT roads, fixing of robots and streetlights, fixing of potholes, cleaning of the Vaal river, maintenance of parks and other related infrastructure to kick-start business investment and tourism. In the medium to long term, the Vaal river precinct provides immense opportunities for the development of a new economy with a potential to unlock additional socio-economic opportunities for the region. However, all of this depends on a functional municipality, which is Emfuleni that currently requires urgent and serious intervention from the national government. The Growing Gauteng Together (GGT) 2030 states that where the regional economy has suffered significant deindustrialisation due to the collapse of the steel industry, government’s goal will be to build a new economy in the Vaal, in both the Gauteng and Free State-side of the Vaal River. The GGT 2030 has identified the following catalytic investment projects in the Sedibeng District: • The Savannah City. • Vaal River City and the Vaal University Village precinct. • A cargo airport and logistics hub. • The Vaal Special Economic Zone. • An AB InBev investment project. • The Vaal Marina development and logistics and mining investments in Lesedi. • The Gauteng Highlands projects. 1. INTRODUCTION: BRIEF OVERVIEW 1.1 Location Sedibeng District Municipality (SDM) is a category C municipality, it derives its name from Sesotho