MEC TAU HAILS SIGNING OF TOWNSHIP ECONOMY DEVELOPMENT ACT INTO LAW

The signing of the Township Economy Development Act into law by Gauteng Premier David Makhura has been hailed by the province as a breakthrough in the development of its township economy. The Act is aimed at addressing the legacy apartheid left on Gauteng’s townships and is meant to open up new procurement and market opportunities for township businesses. According to Gauteng Economic Development MEC Parks Tau, other provinces have been inspired by the law and were looking at developing their own legislation to boost townships.

“It is particularly designed to ensure that we can achieve redress from the impact of apartheid policies on black people and black townships in Gauteng, and this redress is achieved through the set of interventions that the Act directs should be made,” Tau said. “The first (of these interventions) is access to funding, which directs that we should create a financing facility for township-based enterprises.