‘Community must be productive’
Traditional leaders speak out
THE KwaZulu- Natal House of Traditional Leaders yesterday said it believed the battle against slow economic growth could be won on the ground by community members.
Chairperson Inkosi Phathisizwe Chiliza said the struggle to alleviate poverty and grow the economy should be community-centred.
He said traditional leaders could play an important role in food security initiatives as they were close to communities.
He said some households were able to plant enough for themselves and supply retailers to make more money.
“King Goodwill Zwelithini is trying to get communities back to those past years in an initiative where, when members of a community have 100 hectares of land but no resources, they can approach Ingonyama Trust for assist- ance. If we can get back to those days, agriculture will no longer look like a trade of white farmers only.”
Chiliza said the monarch wanted to do away with the mentality where community members did nothing for themselves and depended on the government for everything.
“The people in those areas can be encouraged to return to producing on a mass scale and trading with other areas, so that there is trade and economic growth at ground level.”
Chiliza said Zwelithini had recently led a delegation to China to urge potential investors to support rural people in farming mushrooms, beans, rice and other food items in their areas.
“We do not need to implement initiatives worth billions of rand but to take the little things in our communities and work with them.”
He said the youth should also be taught to be responsible at a young age. “They need to be given a few hens to take care of and ensure they reproduce many others and grow from there.” He also said that agriculture should be taught at primary schools so that children could consider making a career of it.
Chiliza was speaking on the sidelines of a traditional leaders’ meeting with KZN Premier Willies Mchunu to discuss ways to foster relations between the government and traditional leadership with the aim of growing the economy.