Hon Chairperson, as articulated in the Medium-Term Strategic Framework, a document translated from the electoral mandate of the governing party and approved in principle in the extended Cabinet meeting in May this year, the main aim of the rural development strategy is to transcend the rural and urban divide and improve the quality of life of rural households, enhancing the country's food security through a broader base of agricultural production and maximising the diverse economic potential of each area.
The White Paper on this important matter will be presented to the hon members early next year for discussion and enrichment. In broad terms, though, the Medium-Term Strategic Framework asserts that the building blocks for the rural development strategy should include implementing meaningful land reform linked to water rights and stimulating agricultural production through: one, strengthening institutional support and creating economies of scale as well as facilitating access to business services, agricultural inputs, markets and value chains; two, enabling access to fencing off agricultural areas, agricultural loans, high-quality agricultural extension services through marshalling public and private resources; three, revitalising rural towns because dynamic regions require vibrant centres or service nodes; four, exploring and supporting nonfarm economic activities, including tourism - domestic and international - light manufacturing and cultural initiatives; five, implementing a development programme for rural transport, the objective being to improve mobility and access; six, enhancing the role of agricultural co-operatives in the value chain, including agro-processing; and, seven, improving service delivery in education, health, housing, water, sanitation and energy, as well as enhancing skills development.
As the successful Eastern Cape rural development project and the pilot in Muyexe village in the Greater Giyani demonstrate, critical to a successful rural development strategy is a strong and dedicated co-ordinating body. The Eastern Cape rural development project succeeded in planting and harvesting maize on 6 000 hectares of land that was last cultivated 20 years ago. This was enabled by bringing together various stakeholders, including the private sector, under the auspices of Asgisa Eastern Cape.
The initiative formalises a number of business relationships of stakeholders ranging from communities to those who will be involved in off- take agreements such as large retail chains, value-addition activities or providing input, business, field and technical support.
In Greater Giyani the rural development department took the lead and mobilised communities and many government departments to intervene and bring hope to the rural people of Muyexe. For example, I am informed by the department that no less than three departments have already pledged various forms of assistance in their particular areas, the result of which will be an integrated rural development intervention.
The Department of Rural Development and Land Reform will continue to take the lead in co-ordinating, facilitating and integrating rural development interventions. However, in the medium to long term, consideration will be given to establishing an overarching rural development agency.
Working together with the department, the agency will have responsibilities that include co-ordination, thus ensuring the participation in and support for the programme by all departments, provinces, municipalities, state- owned enterprises, NGOs, donors, financial institutions, and so on. This includes, among other things, the co-ordination of development planning and social facilitation, planning and resource mobilisation, monitoring and evaluation. The difference between previous rural development strategies and this one is that in this one the role of co-ordination is highlighted and will be the focal point. Infrastructure has been placed at the centre of sustainable rural development. And rural development, together with decent job creation, is now the central mandate of all government departments.
Lastly, lessons from previous rural development strategies have been incorporated. We are confident that working together with all social partners, and our communities in particular, we will indeed transform our rural areas into thriving and successful social and economic spaces. I thank you.
If you could now allow me to also deal with the question the hon member asked about the water boards, a question I undertook to deal with when I responded to this question. We are a country that is semidesert, so water is a very scarce commodity. As a government we are alive to this challenge, that our next crisis is going to emanate from this very problem.
We are preoccupied with ways of addressing this problem. We are looking at various options as to how we can solve this problem. One option may very well be that we pipe water from neighbouring countries such as the Democratic Republic of Congo. Otherwise, we are indeed going to run into difficulties. Many of our communities that are targeted for development under this new Ministry of Rural Development and Land Reform will be faced with serious water challenges.
We are looking at water rights as well because in many of the areas where dams have been constructed we find that the surrounding villages and communities do not have access to that water. These are some of the bottlenecks that we are looking at. And, of course, the water boards in the urban areas do suffer like local municipalities do in general from poor billing systems. Most of the time, residents receive bills that are inconsistent because the billing system is very poor. So that is a problem that we are alive to, and I believe we will be able to find the solution to it. Thank you, Chairperson.