Date: 06/05/2009

Source: Office of the Premier, Gauteng Provincial Government

Title: GP: Mokonyane: Inaugural address by the Premier of Gauteng, Gauteng Provincial Legislature

Honourable Speaker and Deputy Speaker
Honourable Members of the Gauteng Legislature
Chief Whip
Executive Mayors Present and Local Councillors
Provincial Chairperson of the African National Congress (ANC), Comrade Paul Mashatile
Members of the Provincial Executive of the ANC
Members of Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) and South African Communist Party (SACP)
Leaders of various political parties
My immediate and extended family members
Heads of Department (HoD) and various leaders of the public service
Representatives of business and civil society organisations
Distinguished guests, friends and comrades
Ladies and gentleman

Today I stand before you with great humility after being elected into the highest office of government in the Gauteng Province (GP).

I am particularly humbled by the faith and confidence shown by the people of Gauteng in both myself and the ANC.

I would like to thank you for waking up in the early hours of the morning and standing in long queues irrespective of the unbearable weather conditions determined to exercise your constitutional right. In doing that you clearly demonstrated your commitment in defending the gains we have made together as a people and the ANC government in the past 15 years.

We are now well charged with the responsibility to build a better life for all of our people. We are equally aware of the challenges ahead, as President-elect Jacob Zuma wrote in his letter in ANC Today "Now that the election is over, we must enter a new era of hope and progress.

"We will not be a government that is out of touch with its people. Our message to South Africans is that we will remain true to our undertaking to build a caring, inclusive listening and responsive government."

People of Gauteng, in the past fifteen years we have worked together to build a better life for our people. We now have a wealth of experience as a governing party. Learning from our past experience we are going to do things differently, because we know what works and we know what does not work.

In the heat of the election campaign you expressed your honest sentiments about problems that you encounter on a day to day basis. These relate to the delivery of basic services such as water and sanitation, electricity and indeed lack of employment.

Informed by our achievements and most importantly the challenges you have raised with us, in the next five years we will focus on the following priority areas:

* Create work: continue to grow our economy focus on key sectors that will create work.
* Education: we will strengthen early childhood development to ensure that we produce a child can participate in the economy and the development of society.
* Health: we will reduce long queues in clinics; ensure that our people receive quality health.
* In the fight against crime and corruption, we will strengthen good governance. We will leave no stone unturned in the fight against crime and corruption.
* Rural development: whilst we are not largely a rural province we will support small farmers and ensure that our people work the land.

Furthermore, we strengthen the functioning of departments and agencies to ensure that they deliver on their mandate. This will require that we strengthen co-ordination and alignment of departmental programmes. It is our intention to ensure that poor performance is never ever tolerated under the stewardship of this government at all levels.

One of the key tasks of this government is to give priority to monitoring and evaluation, in order to ensure quality service delivery by all spheres of government.

Building from the election campaign we will continue to comprehensively consult with our people and all sectors of society, to ensure that we have a government that is people centred and people driven.

In the spirit of building this province, I am looking forward to a constructive relationship with all parties within legislature and outside including various groups of civil society and business sector.

Ladies and gentleman on Friday, 8 May 2009, I will announce new Members of the Executive Council (MECs) that will work with me in the next five years. Together with them we will develop a detailed programme for the next five years to give effect to the above priorities as outlined in the ANC Manifesto.

I would like to thank my predecessor, comrade Paul Mashatile, for sterling leadership and the sacrifices he made as part of the collective in government to ensure that a strong economic foundation is laid for the province to prosper and provide job opportunities.

I want to thank my family, both Mkhize and Mokonyane for having been there with me during the trying times of struggle and now as I have availed myself to serve my country, South Africa, Giyabonga kinina ba's Embo, o Khabazela, o Gubhela ba ka Movovo. Le ho lona Bakwena ba hlalele, ke lebohela tshehetso ya lona.

Lastly, my gratitude goes to my children, Afrika, Retlabusa and Katleho as well as my dear husband, Serge, ke mona ka lerato, tiisetso le mosa wa lona. Bana baka ha mmoho le wena Mokoena ya kgabane, ke hole mo retswang, ke ya leboha. To my mom and dad in heaven, thanks for protecting me, to my good Lord, God I will forever be your servant.

People of Gauteng, let us walk this path together, I am here to serve! Working together, we will do more to build a better life for people of this province.

Thank you programme director - Ngiyabonga, baie dankie