Page 26 - Research Report 2025.1

Focus group participants
1. Yeah. I think another opportunity is the issue of land unlike when you go to town , I mean, they are all congested in a township. Some of them, are congested in the tin shack. You name them? Yes. So here, we still have a piece of land and there are agricultural activities and opportunities are there for us to explore more. We have agricultural potential that needs to be unlocked.
2. And we have skills even though they are informal. But we are gifted in Winnie. There are a lot of projects that show, and we have a lot of traditional dancers here.
3. Another thing that comes it’s a tourism potential. Its beautiful here. We talk of our coast being wild. We have got a virgin coast here. Going from Port Edward up there are developments all the way this side. So that is why this coast of ours, it is called a wild Coast. Because we can still find a type of a butterfly where you can’t find it. Yeah. And moreover, we have got a political buoyance here. OR Tambo is born here. There is a home of him. Maam Winnie Madikizela was born here. They are coming from Bizana. A lot of international, tourists, they want to go and visit Bizana where these people are coming from. So, I mean, tourism is one of those.
4. Just to add, on, the tourism part. With regards to our biodiversity we are also the centre of endemism. Which means we have species that can only be found in Bizana and nowhere else. So you can imagine. And also our municipality we are in the process of applying to attain Blue Flag Status. Which is one of the things that will attract more tourists. And also our municipality we are in the process of applying to attain Blue Flag Status. Which is one of the things that will attract more tourists. It’s for beaches and marine. Blue Flag Status. Yeah. Which is mainly measured, in terms of your water quality, environmental education, your infrastructure
in coastal areas, absolution facilities, and so forth.
Accountability and Financial Oversight
Participants emphasised the importance of stronger financial oversight in rural municipalities.Participant 1 highlighted the role of the Municipal Public Accounts Committee (MPAC) in ensuring that finances allocated for development projects are properly utilised. According to Participant 1, improving the effectiveness of these oversight mechanisms could significantly enhance accountability and lead to better governance. They suggested that, if these checks and balances were rigorously enforced, they could elevate local government performance and contribute to more sustainable rural development.”
Community-Based Planning and Empowerment
Participant 4
“What I can say is community-based planning, and IDPs. That is what is the best route that local government, especially rural, even in towns for that matter. But in rural, that is the basic one.”
Participant 1
“If the oversight committees in council, called the Municipal Public Accounts Committee (MPAC), which are supposed to be checking the checks and balances, ensure that the particular finances allocated for a project really match the project that we see, if that can be done properly, accountability can be improved. I think those can assist a local government or maybe this municipality and take it to greater heights.”
Participant 4 advocated for community-based planning as a funda-
mental approach for rural development. They highlighted Integrat-
ed Development Plans (IDPs) as the most effective way for local governments to plan in a manner that aligns with the specific needs of ru- ral communities. Involving local communities in the planning process can ensure that development initiatives are relevant and impactful.
Participant 5 added that local governments should focus on empowering citizens by educating them about their rights and their potential to influence change. They suggested that empowering citizens through capacity building initiatives would enable communities to take more control over their development. Additionally, they stressed the need to raise awareness about opportunities beyond government support, helping rural citizens to become more self-reliant and engaged in driving local change.
Participant 5 comments
“For me, I would say we need to be government, local government should be empowering citizens in terms of the rights, in terms of the power they possess to influence the change. So if we can invest more on empowering our citizens, If we are involved, we can invest more also on developing. I’m looking at the skills, in terms of the vocational skills. It’s not that people cannot do a thing, but we need to do something in redirecting our focus. We should not only be focused on saying this is what government can do for you, but what can people do to advance themselves? So I think a lot needs to be done in terms of empowering, capacitating the citizen, and also trying to make them aware of many other opportunities out there other than depending on government”
Retaining Local Talent
One participant from the focus groups addressed the issue of human capital retention in rural areas, noting that many skilled individuals leave rural communities in search of better opportunities in urban areas. They suggested that one way to address this problem would be to create local employment opportunities for graduates, ensuring that there are job prospects for them within their home communities. Another participant proposed offering scholarships with the expectation that recipients would return to work in rural areas after completing their education. They stressed that rural municipalities need to provide the conditions for people to stay, otherwise the exodus of talent will continue depriving the local economy of the skills it needs to thrive.
24 | STUDY OBJECTIVE I
Focus group Participant
1. it was mentioned that people from here are educated. They are, but the thing is there are no places for them to work here. So after they are educated they go out, maybe there can be something like, we will fund you at tertiary level. And when you finish there is this kind of employment waiting for you in Bizana and not outside of Bizana. So if maybe we were to invest in the younger generations.
2. But I think the other opportunity the municipality has is that of personnel. It is our people that actually move from our rural areas to work in urban areas. So even if there were opportunities of growth, then we wouldn’t have the exodus of people moving from the rural to the urban. Our people are there. They have got their own skills and their own gifts, but because there are no opportunities that sustain their livelihoods, they have to leave.