SOPA debate: Response to members by Premier DD Mabuza
03 MArch 2017
Hon Speaker Thandi Shongwe
Hon Deputy Speaker Violet Siwela
Members of the Executive Council
Hon Members of the Legislature
The Provincial Director General
Senior government officials
Good Morning
Thank you once more for the opportunity you have afforded me to come and respond to the issues raised by Honourable Members of this eminent House during the State of the Province Address( SOPA) debate on Tuesday this week.
Let me also extend my gratitude to the members of this august House for having taken the time to listen to and also debate the issues that I raised in that speech.
The State of the Province Address, together with the Budget speech, constitutes the most important policy pronouncement of our Provincial government.
It is therefore very important that we engage with SOPA in a very meaningful way, offer criticism on matters that may not have been handled in a satisfactory manner, but also propose alternative workable solutions where they present themselves.
I would therefore like to thank those members who offered us constructive criticism, made suggestions on how, as government, we can improve; especially regarding matters of service delivery for the people of this Province.
Equally, let me thank those members who recognized the progress that we have made as government - I promise them that we will not sit idle and pat ourselves on the back or engage in self-aggrandisement. To the contrary, we will work harder, smarter, more efficiently and effectively to ensure that we capitalise on these gains.
The Response:
Honourable Speaker, the debate was dominated by issues that continue to attract the attention of world leaders and members of civil society across the globe.
Issues of how we address the socio-economic rights of our citizens in a manner that meets the inclusive right to an adequate standard of living in a manner that is uncompromising, progressive and sustainable.
We acknowledge that every person irrespective of their age or social standing in the community has rights.
It is our responsibility as government to implement programmes that affirm and complement these inalienable rights as espoused by our Constitution under the Bill of Rights.
These include but are not limited to the rights to equality before the law, the rights to housing, food, health care, education and social services for the elderly, women, children, and the disabled among others.
Honourable Speaker these rights are the benefits of a democracy. They are the kind of rights that would not have existed, nor been appreciated in an environment devoid of democracy and human liberties, the rights that never existed prior to1994 in South Africa.
The Constitution of our country enjoins us all to respect, protect and defend these rights and take progressive action towards their fulfilment
This, Honourable Speaker was at the centre of my State of the Province Address, the rights of our people to decent service delivery and economic autonomy.
Therefore the question that begs an answer is; what is our collective responsibility, in a non-partisan approach, to assisting our citizens to realize their fundamental rights?
The yardstick that we shall be judged by is one and one only - have we collectively, through our endeavours here, created an adequate foundation upon which we to expand and expedite our efforts to improve the daily lives and future prospects of our people?
Honourable Sedibe of the EFF tells us that he has now decided to take these issues upon himself and provide solutions. We welcome any solution that seeks to assist us in addressing the challenges we are facing.
The sad reality though is that what the member and his colleagues have done and continue to do is to try and disrupt the proceedings of this august House, treating it like a shebeen.
The Honourable member seems not to be in a position to provide the solutions he spoke of.
What the member may care to explain is how the disdainful behaviour that he and his colleagues demonstrated in this esteemed House does in fact assist our people to overcome the triple challenges of unemployment, poverty and inequality?
We need an opposition that is not only critical but also constructive – in opposing each other, questioning, testing and debating we may be pushed towards solutions that are forged out of respect for the needs of those who remain reliant on our interventions and support.
This would herald the advent of an opposition that is worthy of their constituency.
Honourable Speaker, as a Province we do not have mud schools as indicated by Honourable Sedibe.
We are also not aware of children who are learning their lessons under the trees.
However, we do have schools built by communities many years ago, in particular in the Bushbuckridge region, using substandard building materials and practices.
We have time and again acknowledged this and through our multiyear schools infrastructure rehabilitation programme are addressing this issue systematically.
Given the institutional history of the area and the extent of the backlog that exists, it will take us time to completely eradicate these inferior structures – but it must be said that since Bushbuckridge was re-incorporated into Mpumalanga we have drastically reduced the number of poorly constructed schools.
Honourable Speaker, allow me to put things into proper perspective. The Department of Education has an annual budget of around R17 billion, the backlog on education infrastructure alone is R20 billion.
The backlog is half of our total provincial budget.
If we were to dedicate all our resources to eradicate this particular backlog, it would mean that we stop providing almost all other basic services including houses, clinics, hospitals, roads and even salaries.
We all know that this is impossible. We simply cannot do that. We have the responsibility of balancing the socio-economic needs of our people with the limited resources that are at our disposal.
We are currently spending more than a R1 billion on education infrastructure per annum.
We are renovating and building a significant number of new schools in Bushbuckridge as part of our efforts to bolster school infrastructure, meet the minimum norms and standards and eradicate poorly built schools.
We are engaging our private sector partners to assist us by adopting some of these schools and providing the much needed infrastructure.
We believe that once the Infrastructure Fund has been established we will be in a position to raise sufficient funds to tackle both our social and economic infrastructure backlog.
Honourable Speaker this brings me to the issues raised by Honourable member SJ Masango of the DA. The Honourable member will recall that I was very frank in my speech about our achievements and our shortcomings.
It is very true that we underestimated the time that it takes to package Public-Private-Partnership projects.
Just to register a PPP project with the National Treasury takes a year or more. Processes that follow registration could take up to three years.
Honourable Speaker the project financing arrangements for PPPs and the prescripts that govern their institutional arrangements is complex and onerous to say the least.
A Public-Private Partnership project to build a toll road would depend on the projected cash flows generated from the end users of the road - hence the success of the N4 toll road partnership.
However, a partnership to build a government hospital or school depends on the capacity of government to provide and then generate resources as the end users do not pay directly for the services.
In this regard, further setbacks ensued in the wake of the poor global economic environment, which forced some of our potential investors to renege on their commitments.
A case in point is an investor from Portugal who had already committed to building the High Altitude Training Centre in Belfast.
When the economies of the (PIGS,) Portugal, Ireland, Greece and Spain collapsed, Portugal had to pull out from their commitment.
Honourable Speaker despite the budgetary constraints that we are currently experiencing, we have taken an informed decision that in some of these infrastructure projects, government will again take the lead and become the seed investor in order to drive the first phases of these projects.
We are convinced that this will send a positive message about our intentions and willingness to invest and that this will further attract private sector investors and partners.
One area where we, as government, have decided to take the lead and invest is in the Bushbuckridge Agricultural Development Programme.
This multi-agency initiative will enable “fit for purpose” investor partnerships that will include local communities, local, provincial and national government and our private sector investors.
A recently completed study indicates that through strategic investment and Community-Public-Private- Partnerships we can revive agricultural production on more than 6000 hectares and generate resultant gross revenue of more than R800 million per annum for 20 years.
The programme will include both support to emerging small scale farmers and the revitalisation of large commercial estates.
There are natural synergies between the Bushbuckridge Agricultural Development Programme and our Provincial Industrial Plan especially on the positive supply side effect that it can have on key components including;
- the Nkomazi SEZ which is focused on agro-processing and export logistics,
- the International Fresh Produce Market as we would be able to secure sufficient high quality tradable volumes and the
- Marite Agri-Hub where produce for packaging, processing and transportation, as envisaged in the Agri Parks programme, will benefit
The Bushbuckridge Agricultural Development Programme augurs well for our land reform programme, which is anchored on our agenda of growing the agricultural sector for both domestic consumption and international export markets.
Honourable Speaker the other area that will certainly require a Public Private Partnership and as government we are ready to take the lead is in the creative industries’ value chain.
Cultural/creative products are an integral part of local economic development, tourism, heritage and social cohesion. The creative industries promise to be a critical “economic engine” for the Province.
It is therefore important that as government, in partnership with the private sector and other stakeholders, we harness this industry.
The industry has ample opportunities for income generation and employment along the value chain of production, exhibition, marketing, manufacturing, distribution and consumption.
As government we will continue to support the establishment of the Provincial Cultural Hub in Mbombela as an anchor project to leverage investment and support for the development of the creative industries in the Province.
We further undertake to establish a Provincial Creative Industries Body to coordinate and promote partnerships and investments along this critical, yet largely untapped industry value chain.
We have asked the Department of Economic Development and Tourism and the Department of Culture, Sports and Recreation to investigate modalities for the establishment of this unit.
Honourable Speaker, I trust that we have provided sufficient evidence of our willingness to listen and respond to constructive input, as well as our commitment to supporting progressive programmes and partnerships, across sectors, that can move this Province forward towards a collectively prosperous future.
I thank you.
