HA-MAGAU - The Local Economic Development (LED) Department of the Makhado Municipality handed over a cheque of R10 000 to the desperate Magau Thanyani Sewing project on December 9 at the Magau Catholic Church.

The project, initiated in 1995 by 24 women, forwarded their business plan to the municipality. Presently, the project is comprised of nine members who specialise in sewing traditional clothing and curtains. According to the chairperson of the sewing project, Mrs Elisa Ramatswi, the funds will be utilised to buy sewing machines, train staff members and buy other needed materials.

"The funds came at the right time because we have three sewing machines, with only two functioning. We are still faced with a challenge of getting our own site," she said. Mrs Ramatswi further elaborated that they re-forwarded their application in early April this year and got a positive response recently.

"We used to operate at the headman’s kraal, before we moved to the Catholic Church. We were selling our products to the communities, more especially at the paypoint," she added. Unlike in cases of other projects that received funds and disappeared without a trace, an LED officer, Mr MP Baloyi, will visit the project once a week, then once a fortnight and then once a month, to evaluate progress.

He said that as the municipality, they want to see progress at the project and if there is a need for guidance on how to run the project, he said they would assist. "It is advisable for the members of the project to have their own site, and records of everything they will be doing," he said. Baloyi urged project members not to work as individuals, but as a collective team. The LED officer added that in each financial year, they fund one project per ward, with the procedure of the ward councillor and ward committee members being the ones who nominate one needy project within their wards.

"They must also have a business plan and must also be recommended by the councillor and ward committee members. Ward 6 Cllr, Amie Chhaya, encouraged the workers to work very hard, as he intends to arrange a place for the project at the local Tourism Information Centre, where they will display and sell their clothes. "Once you can secure a space the Information centre, I will provide you with the transport fee. I thank the council for its great work of allocating the funds to the project."