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Gauteng: David Makhura: Address by Gauteng Premier, on the occasion of the launch of the Gauteng Business Consultative Forum, Turbine Hall, Johannesburg (02/07/2015)

David Makhura
Photo by Duane Daws
David Makhura

3rd July 2015

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Programme Director, CEO of GGDA, Mr Siphiwe Ngwenya,
The MEC for Economic Development, Environment, Agriculture and Rural Development, MEC Lebogang Maile;
CEO of Business Unity South Africa;
MMCs for Economic Development in Local Government; Senior government officials;
Leaders of Commerce and Industry;
Ladies and gentlemen.

Today marks an important milestone in our on-going endeavours to build and cement transformative partnerships between government, business and various sectors of society within the Gauteng City Region. We are living up to the commitment we made when we assumed office in May last year that we are an activist government that engages with and reaches out to society.

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As we launch this ground breaking initiative, the Gauteng Business Consultative Forum, I am reminded of the vision statement of the National Development Plan, Vision 2030:

“We love arguing, we debate fiercely, we contest ceaselessly. We solve our differences through discussion. We refrain from being cruel, demeaning or hurtful in disagreement. We feel we belong. We celebrate all the differences among us. We are not imprisoned by the roles ascribed to us.”

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Programme Director, we want to build a society that represents the best of who we are. South Africans are very outspoken people. We are people who argue and debate fiercely and ceaselessly; we solve our differences through discussion; where we are not cruel, hurtful and demeaning even as we differ; a society where we all belong, where diversity of views is celebrated and a society where we think beyond the confines of our immediate surroundings.

The fact that as South Africans we dare to dream of such a society, speaks volumes of our character and calibre as a people. As South Africans we have tended, over time, to place a high premium on dialogue and engagement with a view to finding solutions to even the most difficult problems we face. We have never shied away from engaging in conversation and dialogue in order to find each other.

Even the freedom and democracy we enjoy today is in part an outcome of a process of dialogue among us as South Africans in attempt to find one another - to establish common ground.

Up to this day, we continue to promote dialogue in responding to difficult questions facing us as a people, including how do we build our nation, build an inclusive, transformed, modernized and growing economy; how do we promote social cohesion and nation-building.

Consistent with this approach is that we have, at national level, permanent structures such as NEDLAC and the various working groups that foster a climate of dialogue and most importantly collective action on the issues facing our economy and our country.

As we have said before, in other platforms, finding solutions to problems of democracy, requires more democratic and constructive engagement and consultation, not less. In addition, we are of the view that dialogue must continue on an on-going basis because ours is a dynamic and ever-changing society.

The world we live in changes constantly, requiring of us to always reflect and review our responses to the challenges of our time.

Having said all of these, I wish sound a note of caution. We must combine dialogue with action. There must come a time for us to implement our collective decisions.

Programme Director; it is in keeping with this spirit; the spirit of encouraging dialogue as well as joint implementation of our programmes, that we have taken the important decision to launch the Gauteng Business Consultative Forum.

Equally, since taking office in May last year, as this fifth provincial administration, we have spent time engaging with various stakeholders to present to them our vision for the Gauteng City Region (GCR) over the next fifteen years.

Allow me at this point to restate our vision. Our vision is to build Gauteng as a seamlessly integrated, socially cohesive, economically inclusive City Region; a leading economy on the African Continent that is underpinned by smart, innovation-driven, knowledge-based, sustainable industries of the future; an accountable, responsive, transparent and clean government as well as an active citizenry.

In order to advance towards this vision we will in the next fifteen years implement a programme of radical Transformation, Modernization and Re-industrialization (hereinafter referred to as the TMR). This is our roadmap to realise the vision outlined in the National Development Plan.

The GCR vision and the ten pillars of the TMR have received an overwhelming endorsement from many sectors with whom we have interacted over the past twelve months.

The TMR is anchored on the following ten pillars:

1. Radical economic transformation
2. Decisive spatial transformation
3. Accelerated social transformation
4. Transformation of the state and governance
5. Modernisation of the public service
6. Modernisation of the economy
7. Modernisation of human settlements and urban development
8. Modernisation of public transport infrastructure
9. Re-industrialisation of Gauteng
10. Taking a lead in Africa’s new industrial revolution

This, Ladies and Gentlemen, is our mandate as this government. It is a pledge we made to the people of Gauteng. It is our contribution towards reaching the goals of the National Development Plan.

Among those we have engaged with on our vision for a future Gauteng, were the Chief Executive Officers of some of the major companies listed on the Johannesburg Securities Exchange.

We have engaged with banks, fund managers, investment professionals, Business Chambers and various representatives of business organisations across the different industries and sectors.

We have also presented our vision and plan to potential investors and partners from other parts of the globe.

Going forward we will engage more intensely with sister governments and potential partners on our continent. This we will do in line with the TMR imperative of taking a lead in Africa’s new industrial revolution.

Programme Director, our engagements with stakeholders are premised on the understanding that there is an urgent need for us to collaborate on our efforts as well as to combine our resources and expertise towards our shared objectives.

Indeed none of us acting alone can achieve the kind of massive impact we desire. Our engagements, in particular, with the private sector seek to give practical meaning to our view that the private sector is our partner in development. We fully appreciate the critical role the private sector plays in the growth and development for our economy.

We know for instance that in our province, the private sector accounts for 80% of Gross Capital formation. Equally the private sector is currently the largest employer. The private sector also plays a significant role in promoting innovation, research and development all of which are critical in growing and developing our economy.

Programme Director, as we were engaging with our stakeholders a common thread that emerged in all our discussions was the urgent need to create a platform where all those who have an interest in seeing the Gauteng grow could meet and take forward, in more detail, the implementation of our plans. Indeed our stakeholders were very clear with us; they want to see action.

Today through the launch of the Gauteng Business Consultative Forum, we are responding to this call by our stakeholders. And I wish to assure all of you that the GBCF will be a Forum for action and not just another talk-shop. It will be a forum through we will transform, modernize and re- industrialize the Gauteng City Region economy.

It will be a Forum where as stakeholders we come together in a regular, more formal and structured manner to unlock the potential of the economy of the Gauteng City Region.

In this Forum we will be able to thrash out the detail of what is it that we need to do to create more jobs, to grow an inclusive economy, to increase investment as well as to address poverty and inequality.

We look up to the Forum to rally all stakeholders behind the ten pillars of the TMR. We also look up to the Forum to find innovative ways of mobilising resources to fund the TMR priorities.

More specifically, the Forum must help us, in a practical way to reach our strategic goal of a radically transformed economy within the Gauteng City Region; an economy that benefits all the people.

We will equally rely on the Forum to help strengthen our drive to ensure balanced and even development across the five development corridors of the Gauteng City Region.

Programme Director, we are proposing that this Forum must have the capacity to monitor, follow-up and evaluate the implementation of the decisions of the stakeholders.

We wish to indicate that the Forum is not intended to duplicate already existing structures, especially at national government level. Rather the Forum will complement the work already done by focusing all our energy and efforts to resolving problems that are specific and unique to the Gauteng economy.

Equally, the Forum will not replace the sector specific platforms of engagement that are currently in existence. It will coordinate all of these engagements.

Programme Director, naturally, in the course of its work, the Forum will have to confront difficult problems and make difficult choices. It will be during such times that the strength, the tenacity and the mettle of the Forum will be tested. Resolving the triple problems of poverty, inequality and unemployment require serious courage and tenacity.

We expect the Forum to tackle these problems head-on, without fear or favour, sparing no effort; driven only by the desire to do what is best for our province in the long-term.

It will be during these trying times that members of the Forum will be expected to rise above the roles and the confines ascribed to them.

If we in Gauteng are to develop a social compact between the various stakeholders in our economy, the seeds of such a compact must be laid from within the Forum.

Eventually this social compact must commit us to a set of minimums that we are expected to do individually and collectively to drive transformation, modernisation and re-industrialisation.

The compact must also be underpinned by mutual agreement on the binding constraints we face, (including the limited and shrinking resources at our disposal) as well as our collective responses to these challenges. We must also agree on the short to medium term sacrifices we must make for our collective long term benefit.

While being honest on what is possible and what is not possible, the Forum must inspire us to constantly push the boundaries and reach for new heights.

As directed by the National Development Plan in its vision statement; let all of us feel we belong in the crafting of the solutions that face our provincial economy.

We must argue ceaselessly, we must debate fearlessly, but we must not lose sight of the equally important tasks of implementation and execution.

Let me conclude by extending an invitation to all of you to the Inaugural Gauteng Infrastructure Investment Conference which will be held on the 16th and 17th of July at Gallagher Estates.

At this Conference we, as the provincial government, will be presenting a number of significant infrastructure projects that we seek to implement together with the private sector - broadband, energy, public transport, water, new human settlements and post-apartheid cities.

Good infrastructure is the lifeblood of any growing economy. The Gauteng City Region requires the state-of-the-art infrastructure.

I hope to see many of you at the Inaugural Gauteng Infrastructure Investment Conference, which will now be held every year in July.

Thank you!

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