By Nangamso Mabindla
20 March 2007

THE City Development Strategy (CDS) has a common purpose to focus energy on the challenge to build a better future for our children, says Buffalo City Mayor Zintle Peter.

Peter was speaking to delegates at the CDS conference in East London last week. The City's partners, including private businesses and provincial government leaders, and the MEC for finance, Billy Nel, attended the conference.

The mayor said that the CDS should be a comprehensive document that could create growth not only for the city but also for the rest of the region.

"We want to pave a way for a future where human life will be of equal worth, promote social and economic development and promote sustainable growth," she said, adding that the CDS needed to be inclusive and shared as widely as possible.

It would also create an environment for economic growth and to grow the city's revenue.

"We need to make sure that our infrastructure does not degenerate and struggle to cater for economic growth. That is why we felt the need, with other metros and municipalities in the South African Cities Network, to come up with a long-term strategy that will have a direct impact on poverty eradication, local economic growth and social development."

For the city to be an agent for economic growth, it needed to have good connections with other markets. This made it important for Buffalo City to improve its port and its rail links to Gauteng and the Transkei. The R72 to Port Elizabeth and N2 corridor to the Transkei also needed to be improved.

For the CDS to be successful, it also needed to be linked to other government initiatives, like the Provincial Growth Development Plan and the National Spatial Development Programme.

"If we get this right, we will create a great platform for our children; 20 to 30 years from now we want the city to be a well functioning city with great economic growth."