Mpumalanga Executive Council Media Statement
06 August 2014
Thank you members of the media for coming to this press conference, indeed we have invited you to communicate the decisions of the Executive Council following the meeting, which took place yesterday.
Some matters were for noting the work in progress by the Executive Council, but again there were decisions that were approved for implementation in this financial year.
Future of municipalities under administration
The Executive Council noted some media reports and concerns on the future of the two municipalities namely Emalahleni and Bushbuckridge, which are under administration on whether the administrators will continue as their contracts expire at the end of the month.
Government is not pulling out yet, we are going to make our assessment which will determine if the two municipalities can now run on their own or whether there is still a need for the administrators.
The matter will serve in the next Executive Council meeting and the decision will be communicated to you accordingly.
Enhancing ICT capacity and capability of the province
The Executive Council is considering setting up an Information and Communications Technology [ICT] hub in the province in an effort to provide ICT solutions to the problems faced by the provincial government as well as growing the economy of the province.
The Executive Council also had a view that with the introduction of an ICT hub in our province, the provincial government would easily respond to the findings, which are always raised by the Auditor-General.
The system will help to locate, and address the problems, which range amongst others from supply chain matters to human resource management, and asset management. It will be piloted in the departments of health, education, agriculture rural development and land affairs.
The Executive Council was again briefed on the progress made thus far with regards to claiming the emergency relief funding by the province from the national Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, for the disaster floods, which occurred in March this year.
The rains had resulted in sudden increased river flows and dam levels, flooding and water logging of low lying areas which impacted negatively on major infrastructure such as the roads, bridges, housing, schools, agricultural and water quality. The province regrettably recorded 12 fatalities from those flood disasters.
The Executive Council further approved a Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Damage Assessment Report by the national Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs.
The national Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs explained to the Executive Council that the damage assessments were only done specifically for the destroyed infrastructure, not the movable and consumable items.
Therefore the costs for the disasters, which were approved yesterday, will be transferred to the province or to the relevant departments that were affected during the adjustment period sometime in October.
The sector departments that were affected are Department of Agriculture, Rural Development, Land and Environment Affairs, Department of Education, Department of Health, Department of PWRT, Department of Human Settlements, Ehlanzeni District Municipality and Gert Sibande District Municipality.
Provincial Women’s Month Celebration
The Executive Council was briefed of the provincial government’s integrated planned activities for the duration of the month of August meant to create awareness on women issues and to empower communities with information.
In support of the national event, which will be held in KwaZulu-Natal on Saturday 09 August 2014, our Provincial Celebration of the Women’s Day will only be held on 30 August 2014, at Masoyi near Hazyview in the Mbombela Municipality, in Ehlanzeni District.
This year’s theme is called “Celebrating 60 years of the Women’s Charter, and 20 year of democracy: Moving Women’s Agenda Forward”.
B-BBEE implementation plan for Mpumalanga province
The Executive Council approved the province’s Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment Implementation plan, which seeks to directly and indirectly empower black individuals by benefiting either from government or the business sector.
The Executive Council of the 4th Administration approved the B-BBEE Strategy and directed the Department of Finance, Economic Development and Tourism to come up with a comprehensive implementation plan.
The plan deals with five codes of practice which are; ownership, management control, enterprise and supply ownership, socio-economic development and skills development.
The ownership element deals with the participation of black South Africans in the ownership of the enterprises. The provincial government can influence this aspect only indirectly, through procurement of goods and services from black-owned enterprises.
The provincial government can also influence the management element of B-BBEE, which deals with the participation of black individuals in the decision-making, and management of enterprises.
The Enterprise and Supplier Development deals with assisting and accelerating the development of SMMEs owned or controlled by black individuals.
On skills development, government concedes that there is a great need for socio-economic development in the province which is home to historically disadvantaged, largely rural communities and which is still grappling with problems of illiteracy and deprivation in terms of basic education.
Skills Development is seen as the foundation element as, without it, the remaining four elements cannot be successfully implemented on a sustainable basis.
The element is aimed at ensuring that people have the requisite skills to enter gainful employment or successfully set up and manage their own businesses.
Mpumalanga Provincial Strategy for the recruitment and retention of critical scarce skills
The Executive Council approved the provincial strategy for the recruitment and retention of critical scarce skills. The intention of the strategy would assist in retaining scarce skills in the provincial government.
Retention goes hand-in-hand with other human resource management practices such as recruitment, placement, development and assessment. The Strategy provides uniform approaches and methods to retain and recruit critical and scarce skills in the provincial government.
Preference will be given to suitably qualified candidates who are members of the designated groups where employment equity has not been achieved.
The strategy seeks to attract new qualified individuals through financial aid schemes, qualified foreign individuals; it further seeks to retain individuals through payment of incentives and through provision of professional development, capacity building and support.
All departments in the province shall utilize processes and methods that shall ensure the recruitment of suitably qualified candidates. Departments will further award bursaries in areas of scarce and critical skills.
Approval of the Provincial Integrated School Safety Plan
The Executive Council further approved the provincial integrated school safety plan. This is an integrated approach by the departments of Education, Community Safety Security and Liaison, Social Development and Culture Sport and Recreation to deal with safety of our learners in schools.
Schools in our province have experienced serious crimes, which resulted to the loss of lives of our young people. Incidents of violence against the fellow learners, bullying, girl abuse, drug and substance abuse had been experienced in our schools.
The Executive Council has taken a decision to develop an integrated school safety plan to intervene and rescue the situation. Therefore the plan seeks to ensure that the schools safety committees are capacitated, schools are provided with drug testing devices, search and rescue of illegal substances are conducted at the schools.
It further seeks to ensure that some schools are provided with metal detectors, learners are empowered on drug prevention, schools are fenced, and that schools near taverns are closed down.
The Sixth National Golden Games to be hosted by the Mpumalanga province 26 – 31 October
The Executive Council further approved the hosting of the Sixth National Golden Games to be hosted by our province towards the end of October this year. Older Persons are faced with a huge responsibility because of the weakening of traditional systems and support networks and the impact of HIV and AIDS pandemic.
This is according to a Madrid Plan of Action, which states that governments are therefore expected to start mainstreaming, ageing issues into national development frameworks.
This is because older persons are deprived the opportunity to enjoy their golden years as they are expected to be caring for their sick, children and being sole parents of orphaned grandchildren, urbanization and industrialization aggravated the situation.
Challenges experienced by older persons jeopardize their health status and contribute to accelerated ageing, which is a violation of their rights to live a meaningful and quality life.
On 27 October 2014, the Mpumalanga Legislature will host the second national parliament for older persons, and on 28 October 2014, Mbombela Stadium will host the South African Older Persons Forum Bi-Annual General Meeting.
South Africa/Cuba Medical Programme for Mpumalanga students
The Executive Council further approved for 10 Mpumalanga students who have been selected to join the South Africa/Cuba Medicine Programme.
Since 1997 the provincial department of Health has been sending students to Cuba to study medicine, this programme has proved effective in ensuring that rural and undeserved communities acquire the services of the doctors to service their areas.
The programme was initiated by the national Department of Health through a bilateral agreement with the Ministry of Public Health in Cuba.
It was aimed at affording young and committed South Africans an opportunity to pursue medical studies in Cuba on grounds that on completion of their studies, they would provide health services to the undeserved rural communities in the country.
Appointments
Ms Keyanao Morena, appointed Director: Physical Resources and Facilities Planning: Department of Education.
Issued by Zibonele Mncwango
Spokesperson: Mpumalanga Premier
Mpumalanga Provincial Government
Office of the Premier
Tel: (013) 766 2453
Mobile: 079 491 0163
E-mail: zmncwango@mpg.gov.za OR zibonelemncwango@gmail.com