Louis Trichardt is to be a city by 2025.

“It is a fact that  Makhado/Louis Trichardt has been declared as a provincial growth point,” the director of planning and development, Ms Dakalo Sinthumule, said onTuesday.

The draft spatial development framework sheds some more light on the major developments envisaged in the next decade or so. The current vision of the Makhado Municipality envisages “…peace, harmony and prosperity in a healthy environment for all”.

The proposed new vision is to move towards a dynamic and progressive centre for socio-economic development by 2025.

Sinthumule just briefly touched on a few aspects of the draft SDF at a community meeting at the Makhado Show Hall on 15 March. On 20 March she supplied information about the whole plan.

The Makahdo Municip[ality area is divided into the Center Cluster Formation, the South Eastern Cluster formation and the Northern Cluster formation.

While Louis Trichardt, along with Tshikotha, is the provincial growth point (PGP), Elim, along with Waterval, south-east of Louis Trichardt, is to be the district growth point (DGP) and the area in between is earmarked as a development corridor. The population density in the Elim cluster (Elim, Waterval, Hlangani, Basani and Bungeni) in the south-east is the highest, compared to the other clusters. Functional links of transport routes between growth points should be established.

The four municipal growth points (MGP’s) are Madombidza, centrally situated  with regard to the “urban” area, Hlanganani  (along with Basani) and Vuwani (along with Vyeboom) to the south-eastern side, and Rabali (along with Dzanani) in the north.

The first principle of the SDF is that there should be a sustainable balance between urban and rural development, biodiversity conservation, agriculture, economic activity and related land uses.

The new proposed mission of the Makhado Municipality is “to ensure effective utilization of economic resources to address socio-economic imperatives through mining, tourism and agriculture”. Since the proposed vision and mission are part of a draft, Sinthumule invited the public to give their input. 

In the proposed mission statement, mining, tourism and agriculture seem to receive special emphasis. Areas of high agricultural potential, comprising commercial farmers as well as small-scale farmers, are marked on the slide shown at the meeting. An important agricultural area like Levubu, however, does not seem to be marked.

Areas with mining potential are marked north and north-west of the biodiversity protection area of the Soutpansberg Mountain.

Louis Trichardt's central business district is earmarked as the primary activity node of the Makhado Municipality. The draft SDP says that activity nodes or nodal development refers to areas where higher intensity of land uses and activities are supported and promoted at a point of intersection of routes or pathways. Shopping centres are regarded as secondary activity nodes. Some industrial areas and 15 mutli-purpose community centres, also called Thusong Centres, have also been identified.

By July, the draft spatial development framework could be accepted.

For the implementation thereof, the essential service delivery of water, electricity and sewerage has to be a priority. “I am confident that it can be done, especially  when Vhembe District and our municipality support each other,” said Sinthumule.

The mayor of the Makhado Municipality, Cllr. Mavhungu Lerule, said on Thursday last week that the service-level agreement between Vhembe District Municipality and Makhado Municipality  had been signed.

Public input on the draft spatial development framework can also be sent to [email protected]