THE Cape Winelands District Municipality is spearheading the launch of the Cape Winelands Economic Development Council (CWEDC) on Monday evening at a high profile ceremony at Boschendal with Franklik Sonn (patron) as guest of honour.
Representing a strategic partnering between Government, Business, Labour, Youth, and Civil Society, the CWEDC seeks to facilitate ongoing consensus on socio-economic issues.
The groundbreaking initiative represents the culmination of extensive consultation which had brought about the November 2006 launch of the Cape Winelands Growth and Development Summit.
“Following a frenzy of behind-the-scenes consultation, Cape Winelands stakeholders can now truly lay claim to a venture that will inject an unprecedented level of creative impetus from a social, intellectual, environmental, and economic perspective,” notes an upbeat Clarence Johnson, in his capacity as Cape Winelands District Municipality Executive Mayor.
“It’s all about celebrating an initiative that has as its ultimate aim the transformation of the Cape Winelands into the most compelling place in the country in which to live and work,” he adds.
The Cape Winelands Growth and Development Strategy has played an integral role in the process, with the proposal that a Council be constituted, comprising representatives from Government, Business, Labour, Youth, and Civil Society, in order to facilitate ongoing consensus on social and economic issues.
“We have recognised our interdependence with each other and the environment, and that it is only through working and sharing together that our future will be secured,” says Johnson.
“I, for one, look very much forward to public/private sector strategising, as we seek synergistic solutions that seek to positively alter the destiny of communities within the Cape Winelands.”
The Council objectives are to develop a shared socio-economic analysis and gain an understanding of key strengths and weaknesses of the district.
