Date: 07/05/2009

Source: Office of the Premier, Eastern Cape Provincial Government

Title: ECape: Kiviet: Acceptance speech by the Premier of the Eastern Cape

Speaker of the Legislature and Deputy Speaker
National Ministers and Deputy Ministers present here today
Members of the Executive Council
Members of the Provincial Legislature
Executive Mayors and Mayors
Members of the Judiciary
Commissioner of Police, and heads of our security services
Ambassadors
Leaders of organs of the state, including chapter nine institutions
The esteemed traditional leadership
Leaders of political parties
Leaders of organised business and organised labour
Leaders of organised faith based organisations
Leaders of the tertiary sector institutions
Leaders of the non-government sector
Leaders of the disability movement
Heads of departments, and senior civil servants
Members of the international community and donor organisations
To all the citizens and the visitors in the Eastern Cape province
I greet you and welcome you all, here in the legislature

I stand before you, humbled by the confidence shown in me by the African National Congress (ANC). At the same time I am also acutely aware of the enormous challenges facing the Eastern Cape Province, and the onerous responsibility placed on my shoulders.

I would like to also take this opportunity to thank my predecessor, the Honourable Mbulelo Sogoni and his Executive Council, for laying a solid foundation upon which we can build and move forward. It is also fitting to thank all those who sent congratulatory messages to me. I will heed their advice and never change my character. Andizokujika we return to the Legislature to commence this fourth term of government re-invigorated by the success of our recent general elections. The elections were not just a victory for us as the ANC, but a victory for democracy itself.

We have seen more parties, more voters, and more youth participating in the elections. The level and intensity of public debate and interest is unsurpassed in our recent history. The peaceful nature of these debates is a clear reflection of our transition into a mature and vibrant democracy. This bodes well for future of our democracy.

I would like to thank all South Africans, our people for demonstrating their commitment to building the nation. I thank you for the confidence you have shown in us as the ANC and returning us with a strong majority. As the ANC we emerge out of these elections steadfast in our resolve to make a more sustained impact on the lives of our citizens and with a sharpened understanding of our shortcomings. This makes the new term both a challenging and exciting one.

Clearly the configuration of this house has changed. In this regard I would like to note the new opposition, the new party, the new faces (and even some of the old faces in new hats); signalling that indeed we live in interesting times. We hope that all of this will translate in us continuing with our project of transforming this house into a truly people's parliament whose core agenda is advancing the interests of ordinary citizens and especially the poor. As a former speaker of this house I will continue to cherish the ideal of a legislature that is incisive in its oversight over the executive.

It is not the intention here to outline in any great detail the programme that we will be pursuing as government in this new term. However, it is important to use this opportunity to highlight some of the critical challenges that confront us, and our strategic responses to them.
Most pressing are the related challenges of poverty, inequality and unemployment. The recent assessment of our provincial growth and development plan showed that we need to drastically ramp up the scale and impact of economic development in the province. We have not sufficiently addressed the structural weaknesses of our economy, and diversified out of the strengths of the automotive sector. Patterns of uneven and unequal development remain, as evident in the high levels of poverty and joblessness in the rural areas of the province, especially the former Transkei.

Many of the gains we have recently made in addressing unemployment and underdevelopment are being negatively impacted by the global economic crisis. The automotive and components sector is particularly affected and our rural areas are feeling the effects of ongoing job shedding in the mining sector.
This calls for new levels of innovation and new forms of collaboration between governments, its entities, industry, labour and civil society. It is our intention to strengthen partnerships with key role players with a view to find solutions to urgently stem the tide of job loss and create new jobs.

Here we intend entering into creative partnerships with national departments such as the Department of Trade and Industry, national entities such as the industrial Development Corporation (IDC) and Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA), as well as key industry associations and players. While we put these rapid response measures in place, we will, at the same time, be finalising our provincial industrial strategy aimed at strengthening efforts to diversify the economy and grow sectors that can quickly absorb the unemployed.

In line with the ANC Manifesto, we will also be greatly intensifying our rural development initiatives, and will be implementing state-facilitated agricultural and agro-processing programmes with the aim of creating decent work and addressing food security. Co-operatives will feature strongly in these initiatives.

Over and above the challenges of unemployment and underdevelopment, the second broad challenge that I will confront is the delivery capacity of government. While much work has been done in this area, there are still worrying trends of which this house is fully aware. These include challenges of under-spending, the lack of critical skills in key departments, entities and municipalities, segmented and weak planning and monitoring capacity, poor project management, as well as weak inter-and intra governmental co-ordination.

A turnaround process for government has commenced which targeted priority department such as health, education, housing, and local government and traditional affairs. Over the next few weeks we will be assessing its impact and lessons, and using it as a basis for consolidating our efforts to eradicate poor performance in key delivery departments. I can assure the house that my executive council will be taking a zero tolerance on poor performance.

In order to assist us to plan, implement and monitor the priorities outlined in our Manifesto, we will be establishing a planning commission. The role of this planning commission will be to:
* strengthen planning capability across government
* lend political weight and authority to planning
* strengthen the strategic centre for planning, co-ordination and monitoring of government activities
* ensure financial resources follow priorities
* create a platform through which Government can mobilise and galvanise different sectors of society behind a common developmental agenda.

The planning commission will assist us ensure that the five key areas of our Manifesto health, education, job creation, rural development and crime and justice find concrete expression in the plans and budgets of all departments.
Speaker, our overarching aim this term is to pull the province into a collective programme of action building a Province working together to create a better life for all.