Policy and Budget Speech delivered by
Premier Mabuza, Mpumalanga Legislature, 24 May 2011
Honourable Speaker and Deputy Speaker
Honourable Members of the Provincial Legislature
Honourable Members of the Executive Council
House of Traditional Leaders
Distinguished Guests
Ladies and gentlemen
Honourable Speaker allow me take this opportunity to
acknowledge and congratulate my special guests, the citizens of our Province who
continue to inspire us with their outstanding contribution in their respective
fields. These, the 2011 gallant recipients of the National Order of Ikhamanga;
- Mr Masana Samuel Nzima
For his excellent contribution to photo journalism and putting the brutality of apartheid police in the international spotlight - Josiah Thugwane
For his excellent achievement during the Atlanta Games 1996 and his contribution in the field of Athletics - Ray Phiri
For his excellent achievement in the field of music and contribution for the struggle against apartheid
The Context
Honourable Speaker, it is imperative that we, as the
ANC-led government, constantly remind ourselves about the mandate that our
people have given us in 2009 to execute during our term of office.
We are expected to put together strategies, plans and
programmes aimed at:
- Creating decent work and sustainable livelihood for
our people, particularly the poor;
- Improve the quality of education and health profile
of all citizens in the Province;
- Improve the quality of life of people living in rural
areas and
- Intensify our fight against crime and corruption
On Wednesday last week, our people have demonstrated again
at the Local Government polls that it is the ANC-led government that is better
placed to address their plight and aspirations. Through their votes, they sent a
very clear message to the ruling party.
In one voice, they re-affirmed the mandate of 2009.
In one voice, they demand from the ruling party the
speeding up of service delivery on agreed priorities.
In one voice, they demand of us to work together to change
their lives for the better, particularly those of the poor since they are the
ones who bear the brunt of poverty, unemployment and inequalities on a daily
basis.
Honourable Speaker and Members, let me take this
opportunity to thank our people for entrusting us with this mammoth task of
creating a better South Africa for all who live in it. As we said before, if we
work together, we can do more.
Honourable Speaker and Members, of critical importance,
not only did our people outline the priority areas that government must focus on
during its term of office, but they also charged us with the responsibility of
utilising public funds as efficiently as possible to realise these identified
priorities.
Mandate of the office
Today, as the Office of the Premier, we have come, once
more, before this august House to humbly request that our proposed budget for
2011/12 financial year be considered favourably so that we are in a position to
execute our mandate as designated by the Constitution of this country, and other
accompanying body of policies and legislation.
Yes, it is financial support that must assist the Office
of the Premier in its endeavours of ensuring that government delivers on its
mandate as expected by the electorate.
Indeed, it is a budget that must enable the Office of the
Premier to build a state machinery that is amply capacitated to implement the
twelve performance outcomes that we, together with the people, have agreed upon
to pursue in the five-year time period of this administration.
Of course, it is a budget that must be employed to build a
Premier’s office that is efficient and effective, and also geared towards
ensuring that the set outcomes are realised as expected.
2010/11 Performance Assessment and 2011/12 priorities
Honourable Speaker, like in the previous policy and budget
speech, this budget that we are requesting for approval from this House today,
is intended to focus also on the five key areas of work as outlined in that
speech, including the re-engineering of the Premier’s office – an area of work
which we said will consume the bulk of our 2010/11 Budget.
In the same vein, the Office of the Premier will be
facilitating a process of reviewing organisational development and designs of
all provincial departments with the view of:
- Firstly, enhancing the overall efficiency and
capacity of the Administration to respond to development and service
delivery needs of communities. This includes the elimination of wastage in
non-core activities, efficient and effective utilisation of available
resources, as well as fostering a strong culture performance and
productivity.
- Secondly, ensuring proper alignment of mandates,
strategic focus with organisational structures. This work entails a
concerted effort to curb the bloating of organisational structures, and the
artificial creation of posts that are non-core service delivery.
- Thirdly, unlocking financial resources to increase
the proportion of budgets meant for service delivery. We are painfully aware
that inefficiencies and the ever-growing personnel budget continue to
hamstring government to accelerate service delivery.
Re-engineering of the Premier’s office
Let me quickly point out Honourable Speaker and Members
that the work on the re-engineering of the Premier’s office has not panned out
as planned.
The process is moving at a snail’s pace due to a new
approach that the Department of Public Service and Administration, in
collaboration with the Presidency, are working on. It is a view that seeks to
standardise the configuration of all offices of Premiers in the whole country
and also align them properly with the Presidency.
Fortunately, we, as an office, are also participating in
this process. It is work that is already at an advanced stage and will be
concluded during the course of this financial year. Once this guidance is
received, we will be in a better position to conclude our re-engineering work in
line with national expectations.
Therefore, it is worth pointing out that, in the upcoming
financial year, the big chunk of our budget will still go to personnel due to
the new focus of the Premier’s office – the five key areas of focus to be
precise.
What is also worth noting is that, while the
re-engineering process has not moved as fast as we would have expected, however,
some work was taking place in the identified key areas.
Honourable Speaker, allow me to go through these focus
areas individually, basically looking at both their performance during 2010/11
financial year and priorities for 2011/12 financial year.
Policy and Planning
If Members will remember, in the previous Policy and Budget speech, one highlighted policy and planning as one of key focus areas that the Office of the Premier will be paying attention to.
We pointed out that this area of work includes functions
that range from development and coordination of policies and strategies to
coordination of macro-planning; targeted research to inform decision-making
processes of cabinet; and co-ordination of international co-operation across all
spheres of government.
With regard to macro-planning, there are three broad
issues that the office of the Premier is expected to provide strategic direction
on for the entire administration. This includes the development and
implementation of:
- Vision 2025;
- The Provincial Economic Growth and Development Path;
and
- The Provincial Five-Year Plan – a Plan focusing on
the implementation of the Medium Term Strategic Framework
Honourable Speaker and Members, in terms of progress, work
on Vision 2025 is still at an elementary level. We are still waiting for
guidance from the National Planning Commission. However, as the Province, we
have started to look into issues that involve the Provincial Spatial Development
Framework since it is such a framework that is the building block of Vision
2025.
Relating to the Provincial Growth and Development Path,
much ground has been covered. Together with the Department of Economic
Development, Tourism and Environment, we are at the final stage of completing
this important framework for the Province.
What is also worth mentioning is that the coordination and
facilitation of the development and implementation of other crucial Provincial
Plans which underpin the Economic Growth and Development Plan are unfolding very
well.
One refers to, inter alia, the Comprehensive Rural Development Programme; Skills Development Plan; Infrastructure Development Plan; Human Settlement Plan and Sustainable Environmental Plan.
Honourable Speaker and Members, with regard to the
Provincial Five-Year Plan, great strides have been achieved. The twelve outcomes
from the Medium Term Strategic Framework have been reduced into this Plan, with
clear activities and targets for each financial year.
To this end, Delivery Agreements have been signed and
sealed with respective Members of the Executive Council except the MEC for the
Department of Economic Development, Tourism and Environment who has been given
extension pending the finalisation of the Provincial Economic Growth and
Development Path.
Honourable Speaker, it is our understanding that, for
policy and planning work to be on the cutting edge of the information highway,
research work is undoubtedly fundamental. Our planning should be based on
credible information so that development and service delivery interventions are
properly targeted.
To this end, we have entered into a Memorandum of
Understanding with Stats South Africa to assist the Province in building the
requisite capacities to coordinate and manage development planning and
performance information.
As the Office of the Premier, we are in the process of
coordinating an information nerve centre that will become a central and common
source for planning, performance monitoring and decision-making information.
Now, for 2011/12 financial year, we will continue to
build on the work already in progress, that is:
- To collaborate with other institutions and
Departments in the development of the Provincial Spatial Framework
- To facilitate the completion of the Provincial
Economic Growth and Development Path, including all the Plans that the
Growth Path is hinging on
- To facilitate the alignment of the Provincial
Five-Year Plan with Integrated Development Plans of District and Local
municipalities
- To strengthen our strategic collaboration with Stats SA to enhance the management of our planning and performance data and information analysis
Performance Monitoring and evaluation
Honourable Speaker and Members, another important area of
work relating to the Office of the Premier involves performance monitoring and
evaluation.
If one could refresh our memories, performance monitoring
and evaluation is largely about measuring, monitoring and evaluating government
performance – an area of work that government has struggled with for quite some
time.
It is in this context that, in the previous financial
year, we prioritised, among other things, the need to enhance performance
monitoring and evaluation systems and tools that enable timely access to
departmental and municipal performance information.
In 2011/12 financial year, special attention will be paid
to monitoring and evaluating progress in the implementation of Delivery
Agreements that were signed between the Premier and Members of the Executive.
Honourable Members, we are collaborating with the
Department of Performance Monitoring and Evaluation in the Presidency to ensure
that, at a provincial level, we monitor and evaluate government performance and
the realisation of agreed national outcomes.
To date, the Presidency has developed a monitoring tool to
track the implementation of Delivery Agreements wherein the contributions of all
spheres of government are monitored and reported on, on a regular basis. As the
Office of the Premier, we are strengthening our own systems of monitoring and
evaluation.
Honourable Speaker, as we speak, the Presidency, together
with all other stakeholders in government, is engaged in a process of developing
a national ‘Performance Assessment Tool’ to be applied across all spheres of
government. This process is almost complete.
This tool is intended to be a comprehensive institutional
performance assessment mechanism that evaluates each institution’s overall
performance on key areas such as management practices, financial management, and
strategic execution.
The Presidency has identified government departments and
Provinces where this tool will be piloted. I am pleased to announce that this
Performance Assessment Tool will be piloted here in Mpumalanga in 2011/12
financial year.
After the pilot, we will ensure that we coordinate and
facilitate the roll-out of the Performance Assessment Tool in all Departments
and municipalities.
Target Groups
Honourable Members, our analysis of the socio-economic
environment indicates high levels of poverty amongst the most vulnerable groups
of our society such as unemployed women, children and persons with disabilities.
Most importantly, rural women, children and persons with disabilities bear the
heavy burden of poverty and social deprivation.
Our analysis also indicates that we have a large number of
young people entering the labour market each year, adding to the growing number
of unemployed youth in the Province. Everywhere we go and interact with
communities, it becomes evident that something drastic needs to be done to
address youth unemployment.
High levels of unemployment and poverty among the youth of
our Province call for extraordinary measures to expand targeted programmes that
facilitate opportunities for young people to acquire skills and access to
employment opportunities.
Government’s response to poverty and underdevelopment
challenges facing target groups needs to focus on providing comprehensive
support to individual households to enable them to graduate out of poverty.
As part of our overall approach to the delivery of
anti-poverty programmes, the Province identifies and profiles poor households,
and designs specific support interventions responding to the poverty
circumstances of profiled households, including linking them with existing
government anti-poverty programmes.
Among other government programmes, we want to ensure that
all the Comprehensive Rural Development Programmes (CRDP) interventions account
specifically for government’s contribution to:
- Youth employment and the creation of youth and
women-owned enterprises and cooperatives
- The provision of skills development opportunities for
unemployed youth
- Equalization of opportunities for persons with
disabilities
- The protection and development of children, including
targeted support to orphaned children as a result of the HIV and Aids
pandemic
As the Office of the Premier, we will continue to play our
leadership role in sharpening the focus of key government programmes on
addressing the issues of women, youth, children and persons with disabilities.
We will continue to enhance our monitoring and evaluation
capacity to ensure that government institutions, including municipalities and
parastatals meet agreed targets with regard to addressing the development needs
of target groups.
We will continue to roll out capacity building and
advocacy programmes to ensure that the development needs of target groups are
always placed high on government’s development agenda.
Government Communication
Honourable Speaker, last year, the Office committed to
paying special attention to strengthening the function of government
communication to ensure that government messages across the Province are
coherent and integrated.
I am pleased to report that the Provincial Government
Communication Framework was adopted by the Executive Council in 2010. This
framework provides guidelines for managing government communication within
respective Departments.
In this financial year, we will institutionalise this communication framework within government institutions, and mobilise other key stakeholders to participate in the implementation of the provincial communication strategy.
This year, we will convene a Communication Summit to
discuss the implementation of various facets of government communication and
ensure that there is a common approach to dealing with issues pertaining to
government communication.
As we continue to strengthen overall government
communication, we are also cognisant that public participation provides one of
the important platforms for government to interact and communicate with
citizens.
I am satisfied that over the last few years, government
has deepened a strong culture of interaction with citizens around development
and service delivery issues. Through izimbizo and our Cabinet Outreach
programmes, we have created platforms for engagement where communities raised
issues that require government intervention.
As we continue to implement our major development
programmes such as the CRDP, we will intensify public participation in matters
that involve their own development.
The Cabinet outreach will continue to be part of the
Office of the Premier’s focus in this financial year.
We will continue to improve our system for capturing and
monitoring the processing of issues raised by the communities during community
meetings.
As the Office of the Premier, we are able to generate
reports on the implementation of issues raised by communities, including issues
raised through the Presidential Hotline.
Integrated Security Management
Honourable Speaker, As the Office of the Premier, we
remain seized with the leadership responsibility to safeguard the integrity of
the state, including, but not limited to:
- Effective coordination of security management across
government
- Maintaining high security standards and protocols
- Ensuring that government assets and classified
information are protected, and
- Fighting fraud and corruption
Last year, we committed to conclude the process of
centralising the security function to enhance, coherence, uniformity and
integration of the currently disjointed security functions. Unfortunately, we
have not been able to conclude this work as we had anticipated.
Our approach to this process has to be more detailed and
thorough so that we achieve intended outcomes.
Our ability to mobilise requisite capacity in the Office
the Premier has taken longer than we had anticipated. All outstanding work will
be finalised during this financial year.
Work on the development of an Integrated Security Plan is
currently in progress and is due to be presented to the Executive Council for
approval.
We will continue to work collaboratively with government
institutions to build requisite capacity to deal with security aspects such as
document security, information security, personnel security, computer security
and physical security.
In the new financial year, the Office of the Premier will
strengthen collaboration with the State Security Department to coordinate the
vetting of all employees in strategic offices like supply chain management, and
other sensitive areas of government work to ensure that the breach of security
standards and protocols is minimised.
Honourable speaker, we are confident that enhanced
security standards and improved risk management systems will contribute to
addressing challenges of fraud and corruption.
As government, we have, over the years, demonstrated our
commitment and willingness to deal decisively with individuals engaging in
corrupt and fraudulent activities.
A recently published report by the Public Service
Commission (PSC) entitled Report on the Profiling and Analysis of the most
Common Manifestations of Corruption and its Related Risks in the Public Service
bears testimony to this effect.
This report highlights Mpumalanga as a Province that has
committed resources to deal with fraud and corruption. The analysis of cases
dating back from the inception of the National Anti-Corruption Hotline on 01
September 2004 to 31 June 2010 indicates that Mpumalanga is the province with
the highest percentage of cases investigated and closed.
We will continue to support the work of the Integrity
Management Unit in the Premier’s Office to ensure that fraud and corruption
cases are investigated and closed speedily. Alongside this, we will support
provincial departments and municipalities to build their internal capacity to
investigate and deal with cases of fraud and corruption.
Honourable Members, I am pleased to report that the
Executive Council has approved the Provincial Anti-Corruption Strategy that will
guide government initiatives towards eradicating fraud and corruption.
This year, we will establish the Mpumalanga
Anti-corruption Council comprising various stakeholders to drive anti-corruption
interventions in the Province.
Working together with our business, labour, and civil
society partners, we will defeat corruption where it rears its ugly head.
Conclusion
As I conclude Honourable Speaker, I wish to appeal to this
august House to approve the 2011/12 budget of R141 464 million to
enable us to drive the three programmes that constitute the work of the
Premier’s Office.
Let me also take this opportunity to thank Members of
Legislature and the Executive Council for their support to our work as an
Office. To the Director-General and all Senior Management for their dedication
and commitment.
My gratitude will also go to all the stakeholders that
continue to support us in our endeavours to realise our mandate.
I thank you
Issued by Office of the Premier
