Policy and Budget Speech for the Office of the Premier 2009/10
delivered by Premier David Dabede Mabuza, Mpumalanga Provincial Legislature,
Nelspruit
18 August 2009
Honourable Speaker and Deputy Speaker
Honourable Members of the Provincial Legislature
Distinguished Members of the Executive Council
Colleagues, ladies and gentlemen
Honourable Speaker and members, remaining focused on our mission to
reduce poverty, unemployment and inequalities in a context of a growing economy,
is extremely imperative. It is not an impossible dream to realise as long as we
work together and do more in our day to day activities.
In my inaugural and the State of the Province addresses, one outlined
unambiguously the five priorities that the ANC-led government will be pursuing
in the next five years.
Among others, one spoke of our focus, as an ANC-led government, on
activities aimed at speeding up growth and transforming the economy to create
decent work and sustainable livelihoods. To this end, we highlighted that more
attention will be paid to the acceleration of activities relating to enterprise
development in the tourism, manufacturing, mining, agriculture and logistics
sectors. Trade and investment promotion, including massive social and economic
infrastructure investment, particularly in rural areas, is also expected to take
the centre stage in this area of work.
One also spoke of the commitment of government with regards to rural
development. Government will be putting together a comprehensive rural
development strategy that is linked to land and agrarian reform, including food
security, as a matter of urgency.
It is a strategy that rests on pillars of partnerships, integrated
planning, skills development, sustainable utilisation of resources and
comprehensive support to vulnerable individuals, young and old. It must be a
strategy that fosters the theme ‘Nothing for us without us’. The pilot project
which is conducted at Mkhondo municipality in the villages of Donkerhoek,
Emahashini and KwaNgema must be alive to these aspects.
All in all, it must be a strategy that assists poor and vulnerable
individuals to graduate out of absolute poverty and have their human dignity
restored. The ‘Anti-Poverty War Room Campaign’ will be gaining momentum during
the term of this political administration.
Honourable Speaker, one also made mention of education and health as
other areas of focus in the next five years. Government, together with our
social partners, intends to work very hard in improving the health and education
profile of our people in the province.
Last but not least, I also alluded to crime as another challenge that
will be receiving our undivided attention during our term in government.
Together with the people, government intends working very relentlessly in its
fight against crime and corruption. We all aspire to see the old, young, women
and children being able to walk the streets of our townships and suburbs freely
and without any fear for their lives. Equally so, we expect to see farmers and
farm dwellers also living in harmony and having their lives, livestock and
produce protected from ruthless criminals.
Honourable Speaker, in the State of the Province Address, one did
provide, very broadly, some indication as to how government, together with the
people, intend confronting these challenges.
In terms of the Constitution of the country, as head of government, one
is mandated to ensure that policy decisions, both national and provincial, are
implemented as expected. In this case, one is expected to ensure that leadership
and strategic direction is provided to the government of the day in respect of
the priorities spelt out in the ANC Elections Manifesto. In essence, one is
expected to ensure that the new administration delivers on the expectations of
the people as agreed to in our collective social contract.
For this to be possible, the Office of the Premier plays a central and
leading role. It will be expected to provide the necessary leadership, that is,
leadership that will continuously bring, inter alia, perspective to the
development path that this government and the people of this province have
agreed to pursue.
As part of adding meat to the skeleton of issues articulated in the
State of the Province Address, my Office will be driving a process of putting
together a strategic provincial implementation plan whose primary purpose would
be to ensure that, as government, we remain focused on the five priorities
captured in the Manifesto. As most of us are aware, these priorities have
already been translated into ten programme areas and are well reflected in the
Medium Term Strategic Framework of government.
Accordingly, the current Provincial Growth and Development Strategy of
the province and the Integrated Development Plans (IDPs) of the eighteen local
municipalities and the three district councils will also have to be realigned,
making such frameworks alive to the new policy imperatives brought along by the
new administration.
In line with national developments, the Office of the Premier will pay
particular attention to strengthening the Administration’s capacity for planning
as well as monitoring and evaluation. It will also be important that
macro-policy planning and co-ordination provide an over-arching strategic
framework to give effect to the implementation of manifesto priorities. Equally,
performance monitoring and evaluation should enable the evaluation of progress
and the impact of government programmes in changing the lives of communities for
the better.
Again, the Office of the Premier is plays a pivotal role in ensuring
that the outputs and targets of the five-year provincial plan are met as
expected. The Office will have to ensure that, through the inter-governmental
relations framework, activities of all spheres of government are properly
co-ordinated with one purpose in mind – to accelerate service delivery to our
people, particularly the poor and vulnerable individuals.
Honourable Speaker, the recessionary economic environment that we find
ourselves in imposes constraints to our ability to achieve development targets
aimed at reducing poverty and unemployment. As I pointed out in the State of the
Province Address, it is critical that government works collaboratively with
organised labour and business to support measures that will prevent job losses
and mitigate the negative impact of the economic downturn, particularly on the
poor and vulnerable people within our society.
In this regard, the Office of the Premier plays a central role in the
preparation of a provincial economic summit that will bring together all key
economic players to deliberate and agree on key initiatives that will prevent
job losses and drive the provincial economy towards a sustainable growth path.
The summit will also provide an opportunity to review current
institutional vehicles that we use to co-operate with government’s social
partners, including the Provincial Development Council. This will be done with a
view of ensuring consensus on the role of the most appropriate institutional
vehicle to enhance partnerships with labour, business and civil society.
Honourable Speaker, the 2010 World Cup provides opportunities for
economic development through government’s infrastructure delivery programmes, as
well as increasing tourism in the province. The substantial public
investment in infrastructure enhances our potential to create jobs and mitigate
the impact of the economic downturn.
The Province is working hard to ensure that it meets its obligations in
terms of the 24 FIFA guarantees. The construction of the stadium is on
course. We are happy that the Matsafeni Land dispute has been resolved and all
parties have now signed the deed of sale agreement.
We will continue to support the work of the Integrated 2010 World Cup
Office in the co-ordination of all programmes related to the hosting of the 2010
World Cup event in the Province. We believe that we are on track to deliver on
this project.
As we tackle growth and development challenges of the Province we are
alive to the challenge of skills shortages to drive provincial development and
service delivery. There is a need to focus on targeted development of skills
that are responsive to the needs of the provincial economy.
Honourable Members, our education system in the Province requires
drastic improvement so that we impact positively on the creation of a
sustainable skills pool. We need to increase outputs of students in science and
mathematics, and enhance the quality of vocational training in Further Education
and Training Colleges.
Working with the business sector, we will be making bursaries available
to students to pursue careers that will contribute to the production of skills
required in the Province. The Provincial Bursary Fund that was announced in my
State of the Province Address will be targeted to address scarce and critical
skills that the provincial economy needs.
We also need to enhance access to skills development opportunities to
enable the youth, the unemployed, women and persons with disabilities to acquire
skills that facilitate increased absorption into the labour market. We will
continue to support programmes that develop entrepreneurial skills to empower
target groups to start their own businesses and contribute to job creation.
During this Women’s Month, government has committed itself to
facilitate activities aimed at empowering women, enabling them to participate
meaningfully in the mainstream economy. We have committed ourselves to convene a
discussion forum involving women entrepreneurs and all financial institutions of
government, including business development support institutions. The objective
of this dialogue is to link women with institutions that will assist them to
access finance and business development support.
As government, we will continue to strengthen our capacity to drive the
implementation of programmes aimed at supporting women, persons with
disabilities, youth, children and the elderly to participate as equal citizens
in all facets of social existence.
With regards to youth development, the process of establishing a
National Youth Development Agency is at an advanced stage. In the Province, we
have commenced the legislative process to align with the national developments.
Honourable Members, the provincial government is committed to ensuring
that it continuously builds capacity to fast track service delivery to
communities. The flagship programmes were conceived to achieve just that.
However, our review of the implementation of the flagship projects points to the
need to enhance and streamline accountability processes properly. We have taken
a decision that it is not desirable for the Office of the Premier to do aspects
of work that are delegated to departments. Therefore, all flagship programmes
will be moved to relevant line departments.
‘Water for All’ will move to the Department of Human Settlements.
Accelerated Capacity Building will move to the Department of Education and the
Maputo and Moloto Development Corridors will be housed in the Department of
Economic Development, Tourism and the Environment. The heritage
component of the Heritage, Greening Mpumalanga and Tourism flagship will be
co-ordinated by The Department of Culture, Sport and Recreation, and the
greening and tourism components will be taken over by the Department of Economic
Development, Tourism and the Environment.
Obviously, to achieve lofty targets and commitments that we are setting
for ourselves, we require not only a fit public administration, but an
administration that is going to display fitness as we raise the performance bar
from now going forward. We will expect to see public servants with a different
attitude - public servants who are ready to change their current work ethic and
begin to behave and act within the spirit and letter of the ‘Batho Pele’
principles.
As articulated in my Inaugural Address, we expect to see government
officials who are going to ensure that wastage, roll-overs, fruitless and over
expenditure become issues of the past.
Our commitment towards dealing decisively and harshly with instances of
fraud and corruption remains unwavering. We will strengthen the capacity of the
Integrity Management Unit in the Office of the Premier to detect cases of
corruption in the Administration.
Already, we have begun serious work to deal with challenges of fraud
and corruption. We have recently appointed two commissions to deal with alleged
procurement irregularities pertaining to scholar transport and the construction
of the Provincial Archives Building as well as the Provincial Disaster
Management Centre. We will act on the recommendations of the commissions.
Part of what we need to do to enhance the integrity of government is to
improve the overall security management of the provincial government, including
the management of government information in line with legislative requirements.
Of concern has been the continuous leaking of confidential government
information to achieve negative intentions.
The Office of the Premier will be responsible for the entire security
management of the provincial government. All government employees will undergo
primary vetting as part and parcel of security measures to enhance the integrity
of the entire government administration.
We need to foster a culture of integrity, honesty and commitment to the
service of the public. Accountability to the people requires humility and a
strong culture of commitment to the empowerment of citizens.
Without doubt, one does not assume that such change will emerge
voluntarily. For the past fifteen years we kept on hoping that tomorrow will be
better than yesterday but to our amazement unacceptable work ethics continue to
strengthen. What government is preaching is not what it is practising.
Therefore, as the Office of the Premier, it is going to be incumbent upon us to
ensure that a people-centred culture is inculcated to all public servants.
The programme of leadership development that has already been set in
motion within government will have to be enhanced with the view of building
effective leaders who will be passionate about issues of service delivery. We
need to strengthen our financial management and control systems in the
administration to ensure that government resources are efficiently utilised to
advance development and service delivery. We need to enhance accountability for
performance and results.
Honourable Speaker, the spate of protests recently witnessed in a
couple of municipalities within the province, is a cause of grave concern. We
are saddened by the violent nature of these protests, particularly the murder of
innocent people and the destruction of property.
Notwithstanding these concerns, government acknowledges that issues
related to the lack of poor service delivery need to be addressed. However, when
digging deeper into many of the protest situations, we discovered that one of
the real root causes of such protests is rather the lack of meaningful public
participation and communication in matters that affect communities, instead of
service delivery per se.
What we have realised is that, as government, we continue to take
decisions on behalf of the people. We are basically doing things for them and
not with them.
And this attitude cannot be allowed to perpetuate. Government is
expected to be people-centred. We have to ensure that the people shape their own
destiny. Communities must take the lead in issues that affect them and become
their own liberators.
Again, the Office of the Premier must assist departments and
parastatals to be sensitive to issues of public participation. This will require
commitment to strengthening institutions focusing on inter-governmental
relations, municipal activities and other consultation fora. The Premier’s
Co-ordinating Forum will also assist in strengthening institutional capacities
for public participation.
We have to communicate more about the activities of all stakeholders.
Government is doing so much in different communities but such efforts are not
communicated to either the public or even within departments themselves.
To strengthen the government communication machinery, the Office of the
Premier will lead the development of a comprehensive communication strategy for
the Province. Among other things, this strategy will seek to enhance
institutional co-ordination and bring about coherence in the communication of
government work to the public. It will also outline communication priorities
and clearly define roles and responsibilities of the communication function
across the Administration.
In addition to these efforts, it is important to make government
accessible to its citizens. It should be easy for communities to communicate
issues of service delivery, register complaints and make inputs on the
implementation of government programmes. Equally, government must be able to
promptly respond to issues that communities are raising.
To improve accessibility and responsiveness to community concerns, the
Office of the Premier will, during this financial year, establish a call centre
to strengthen the Administration’s ability to capture, process and respond
speedily to issues that communities raise from time to time.
As the collective political leadership of Province, including local
government, we will continue to utilise the Executive Council Outreach Programme
to engage with communities on service delivery and development issues affecting
them in localities where they live. We also encourage councillors to be always
available to deal with community development and service delivery concerns.
Honourable Speaker, another area that requires the attention of the
Office of the Premier involves international relations. Our assessment is that
our ability to derive maximum value from our international engagements has been
constrained by our fragmented approach to issues of international partnerships.
Co-ordination among the three spheres of government has been weak and
causes confusion among our different international partners. Therefore, as
government, we will have to place our ducks in a row and co-ordinate our
international activities in a targeted fashion to impact positively on the
Province’s development and service delivery priorities.
Honourable Speaker, as we gear up the Office of the Premier to lead, it
is going to be critical to review and re-orientate the Office’s organisational
design and capacity so that it responds to national developments and performance
requirements. Among others, special attention will be given to the capacity of
the Office to lead provincial macro-planning and policy co-ordination,
monitoring and evaluation, as well as communication and public participation.
Honourable Members, to enable the Office of the Premier to discharge
its assigned responsibilities, I request this august House to approve the budget
of the Premier’s office for 2009/10 at the tune of R 196,689 million.
As I conclude, let me emphasise again that the road lying ahead is difficult and challenging but also presenting new opportunities for all of us. It is a road that will require men and women of integrity who are showing commitment towards the creation of a caring society
We are in the early days of our new term of government. As government,
business, labour and other mass democratic organisations, our coming together
marks a new beginning. If we continue to work together, there is no way we
cannot be successful. Together we can do more.
Let me thank each and everyone present here today and the rest of the
people in the province who have afforded me the opportunity to captain this ship
over the next five-years.
I thank you
Issued by: Office of the Premier