Honourable Speaker and Deputy Speaker;

Honourable Premier;

Colleagues in the Executive Council;

Honourable Members of this House;

Director General and Heads of Departments present here today;

CEOs of our public entities present here;

Leaders from various sectors of our society;

Fellow Residents of Gauteng;

INTRODUCTION

Honourable Speaker, this is the first Medium Term Budget Policy Statement of the 6th Administration, and it takes place at time when our country is facing deteriorating economic and fiscal conditions. We have not escaped scrutiny by international players in respect of the state as well as the trajectory we need to embark upon. We have noted last week Friday’s Standard & Poor’s Global Ratings revised our outlook to negative.

Honourable members, we must collectively be able to respond adequately on how to create much needed jobs, world class infrastructure, skills for modernised economy, improve conditions of living; regarding safety; the land question; social cohesion and integrated human settlement.

We must be convincing to our people, the investor community and other stakeholders about our determination as well as measures we are taking regarding building capacity of the State, the fight against crime and corruption, infrastructure development and technology.

Let us have the courage to walk away from policies, programmes and projects which deliver no value nor relevance to what we want to achieve.

The implementation of the entire Gauteng plan will be incremental, measurable, highly prioritised politically and from the resources’ point of view, to maximise impact and results. It essentially means, as President Cyril Ramaphosa said during his State of the Nation Address, that “we need to prioritise, focus on those actions that will deliver the greatest impact, catalyses faster movement forward both in the immediate term and over the next 10 years”.

The question as to why growth has been so elusive is an important one and academics, researchers and economists, have referred to structural problems of the economy, policy consistency and certainty, as well as reliability of energy and water supply.  

Honourable members

The 6th Administration has put forward an ambitious plan to get Gauteng moving towards the attainment of Vision 2030, and to address the challenges of unemployment, poverty and inequality, by an activist, caring and ethical government that works with and within communities.

In his State of the Province Address following the elections, Premier David Makhura enjoined us into a binding collective vision of “Growing Gauteng Together” which will allow us to meet the goals of the 2030 National Development Plan (NDP).

The “Growing Gauteng Together” (GGT) plan is built upon the Transformation, Modernisation and Re-industrialisation (TMR) presented during the firth Administration was characterized by social cohesion and economic inclusion.

The GGT plan is guided, anchored and underpinned by TMR, the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs, 2030), African Union Agenda 2063 and South Africa’s National Development Plan (NDP, 2030).

This is an all-encompassing vision to ensure that no one goes to bed hungry, that we build the Gauteng economy that reflects the full diversity of our population and where small and big businesses thrive and prosper.

A vision whereby everyone has access to quality of healthcare, all residents have access to basic services and quality infrastructure, and women enjoy their rights from all forms of patriarchy.

A vision where the environment is protected and cared for. All human settlements promote social cohesion and integration, there is affordable and reliable high-speed internet connectivity. There is efficient, reliable, safe and affordable public transport, science, technology and innovation support expansion of frontiers of human fulfilment and freedom.

Full speech attached.