Today the Leadership of GKM joined by stakeholders and sector departments converged for Day2 of the GKM strategic planning session which was held in Chintsa at Olivewood.

A brief recap of the day was done by facilitator Mr Naku and presentations from stakeholders were delivered.

ADM delivered a presentation on Water and Sanitation which was heavily interrogated by the attendees, especially the councillors who expressed concern about the state of access to water and sanitation in the District, with a special emphasis on Great Kei wards. Most speakers requested that ADM pay special attention to the water carting problem.

The ADM Local Economic Development whilst also doing a presentation expressed her appreciation to the leadership in relation to the progress in terms of capacitating the LED unit with personnel and finances. They had previously advocated for the unit to be better funded so that it can come thorough for the needs of the people of GKM and this request was honored.

COGTA delivered a presentation on RISK Managenent and how to ensure that institutional risks don’t affect service delivery. We need to identify potential threats which may affect us delivering services to the people of Great Kei, whilst also guarding against seeing the name of the institution being tarnished through risks we did not foresee.

The Dept Of Agriculture also gave a presentation on what they have done in Great Kei. The Dept of Transport gave a detailed presentation on programmes they had in GKM in the 25/26 financial year:
– EPWP programmes
– Household contractors, scholar transport, road rangers, etc. Other employment opportunities- were done through the Roads maintenance projects where employment opportunities were done through consultations with Ward Councillors. The following employment opportunities werr facilitated by the Dept:
– Ward 7 – 5 General Assistants and 1 Security
– Ward 3 – 3 GA’s
– Ward 5 – 3 GA’s
– Ward 1 – 4 GA’s.

In terms of Roads, they have Prioritised roads for 2025/26 FY in GKM with a budget of R5 693 724.00 as follows:
– Chefani Resort (2km) in Ward 1 – Regravelling – is at 50% completion.
– Amatola Game Reseve (2Km) in Ward 7 – Regravelling – it’s complete
Old Bylettes (2 KM) in Ward 1- Regravelling – in progress , roadbed preparation.
Marshstrand (4.5KM) in Ward 5 in progress at 80% completion.

On Scholar transport
The Number of schools ferried across GKM are 13 and the number of learners is R800

The following issues were raised on the IEC report:
GKM has 42 Voting Districts with a number of 19797 registered voters.
The voter registration has been slow and the concern is that the youth are not registering enough. IEC has lined up programmes for voter education. Registration is encouraged because for the upcoming LGE you will vote where you have been registered and will not be able to change AFTER the MINISTER proclaims the date of elections.
Once proclamation is announced – voters roll is closed – as soon as that announcement is made IEC gets 24 hrs to update their voters roll.

Presentations were delivered by our business Partners, Standard Bank and Inzalo. A report that everyone looked forward to was one on the Major Project development of a Shopping centre in Qumrha, which was presented by Daku Group. This development will also have a taxi rank as well as an office park. This project is structured as a Public Private Partnership and it is one that’s highly anticipated as it will bring economic growth to the People of Great Kei