Major developments, which will have a profound impact on Thohoyandou, Malamulele, and Sibasa, are in the pipeline.

“The towns will become modern towns,” Thulamela Mayor Khosi Thivhulawi Makumbane said. The mayor said this when he officially launched the multimillion-rand Gateway Development Project at Thohoyandou. The development was unveiled during a gala dinner at the Thohoy-andou Town Hall on Friday evening.

Addressing the different stakeholders, Makumbane urged local businesspeople and investors to become part of the massive development.

He said the project would comprise vibrant and modern shopping complexes. The upgrading of community facilities will help to curb unemployment to create jobs for the disadvantaged.

Mayor Makumbane said the R275 million was funded by the National Department of Treasury’s Neighborhood Development Programme (NDP) that provides funds for community infrastructure and creates the platform for private-sector development and improves the quality of life of communities in the targeted areas.

“We have chosen our three major growth development points, viz. Thohoyandou, Malamulele and Sibasa, to be our development areas, where modern shopping complexes and improved road structures will be constructed. The con-struction of Thusong Services Centres will also help our people to access government services such as health, police, SASSA, education and parastatals like Telkom, Eskom and the Post Office closer to home,” said Makumbane.

He said a road network or linkages from the Thohoyandou JJ Motors intersection to Thohoyandou and Muledane to Acacia Park and the Sibasa bus and taxi ranks will be built during this financial year. The two Thusong Service Centres, one in Thohoyandou and another in Malamulele, will be built and completed in 2012.

“We are working well in conjunction with the government communication and information system (GCIS) in Limpopo to make sure the poor communities will get government services at their doorstep. The Limpopo Department of Roads and Transport has already partnered with us and they have appointed MCE Consortium for the implementation of an intermodal transportation facility project and they will build an overhead bridge linking the CBD and the developing areas,” he added.

Mr Glen Steyn, the economist of the project, said the project would need a lot of consultation with the different stakeholders. He said they had already done some studies in the three towns and had some suggestions that they were going to present to the municipality.

Representing traditional leaders in the Vhembe area, Chief Jeffrey Ramovha congratulated the local municipality on its efforts to improve the lives of the poorest of the poor in the area. “We are very excited to see development taking place in our areas as this would go a long way in easing poverty and unemployment amongst our people. We now pledge the availability of land for such developments and municipalities will always have areas to develop,” Ramovha said.