Work with us to create jobs for Eastern Cape — Ramaphosa

“We have big dreams and big projects for the Eastern Cape. Work with us and not against us.”

This was the message from President Cyril Ramaphosa when he visited the Eastern Cape yesterday.

Ramaphosa urged Eastern Cape communities to stop the violent protests and destruction of state assets, and instead support government projects, saying they were designed to help create jobs, fight poverty and build the economy of the province.

“We want to create jobs so that the people of the Eastern Cape won’t have to go to other cities to look for jobs.”

Ramaphosa visited the R1.65bn Msikaba bridge project in rural Lusikisiki to check on progress in its construction.

The bridge, together with the R1.7bn Mtentu bridge, will form part of the Greenfields N2 Wild Coast toll road, the last link in the revamped N2, connecting Durban to the Buffalo City metro.

Ramaphosa was joined by transport minister Fikile Mbalula, public works and infrastructure minister Patricia de Lille, water and sanitation minister Senzo Mchunu and small business development minister Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams.

While work has completely ground to a halt in Mtentu due to unhappiness and violent protests by some communities in the area, the Msikaba project, which was affected at some stage, is progressing well.

Ramaphosa said even though the construction of Msikaba had hit a snag in the past, leading to delays, he was happy with what he had seen.

He said the project to construct the two bridges was enormous.

It would create about 8,000 permanent jobs, and 21,000 to 28,000 indirect jobs during construction.

Despite not naming the projects, he said the state had several major infrastructure projects lined up for the Eastern Cape.

“We have big dreams and big projects for the Eastern Cape.”