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Date : 12/11/2002
Source: Mpumalanga Provincial Government
Title: Mahlangu: Address at the NCOP


REMARKS BY THE PREMIER OF MPUMALANGA, NJ MAHLANGU, AT THE NCOP, Cape Town, 12 November 2002

Madam Chairperson
His Excellency President Thabo Mbeki
Premiers and Councillors

Thank you for the opportunity to share a few ideas about how we are doing things in Mpumalanga.

As we gather here today as servants of the people, we can look back at the past year as a year of great achievements.

Great achievements brought about by our commitment to effective implementation of government programmes and the delivery of services that respond to the needs and expectations of our people.

Our people understand and support our programmes because they know that these programmes will ensure that they move further away from poverty and suffering towards a better quality of life.

In the Imbizos and in our Community Outreach Programmes, our people told us that our basic policies are sound.

But they also told us that the mechanisms of delivery and the visible impact on poverty on the lives of women, youth; rural communities and people living on farms must be accelerated.

They said we should do this through better integration and coordination of infrastructure delivery.

We are doing that, but the people want us to improve on it.

Soon after the 1999 elections the Mpumalanga Provincial Government determined the following as basic priorities, which must guide the delivery of service in our province, which is predominantly rural:

* Economic growth, which must result in job creation
* Effective and efficient financial management
* Effective and effective administration
* Integrated and co-ordinated service delivery

Sound and accessible infrastructure provides much needed access for people, particularly the poor and those in isolated areas or regions, to affordable and good quality services, facilities and opportunities.

It can also facilitate economic growth and diversification, and create favourable conditions for improved production and increased consumption.

In order to give effect to the economic growth, which should result in job creation, in the last, three years we facilitated the establishment of economic forums in each municipal area and in each district council area.

The membership of an economic forum in a municipality consists of local business people; labour and other interested bodies at district level the forum consist of representatives from each municipal economic forum.

We have already established economic forums in all our municipalities and we are busy financing district local economic forums.

Thereafter, we plan to establish a provincial economic forum consisting of representatives from our entire district economic forum.

The main functions of these economic forums are to look at the opportunities of economic growth in their representative areas, such as tourism industry, mining, agriculture and manufactory industry.

The province or national department will then make expertise available to the forum to assist members in unearthing the economic potential in each municipal area or district.

This process has already started bearing fruits.

As a result of the activities of these economic forums we were able to resuscitate many business complexes, industries, and enterprises, which are still viable, which were closed down during the struggle against apartheid.

These business undertakings are the one's our parastatals granted loans to before 1994.

Training needs of our entrepreneurs were determined and more than 1 300 people were trained in a variety of entrepreneurship.

We have also established a team of experts under the leadership of a Deputy Director General in the Premier's office to, on a regular basis, to ensure that all departments comply with both financial and administrative rules. These processes in our province have eliminated corruption, theft and laxity at work.

That is why as a province we can proudly boast of a clean and corruption-free administration.

We have established four cabinet clusters:

(i) Governance cluster,
(ii) Social cluster
(iii) Economic cluster and
(iv) Criminal justice cluster.

In all these clusters executive district municipalities, other executive mayors and councillors of these structures are participating.

Cluster meetings are held once a month.

These clusters of provincial departments and municipalities make sure that their daily programmes of service delivery are co-ordinated and integrated on a continuous basis.

These clusters are preceded by technical committees of each cluster consisting of the provincial heads of department and town managers of the participating municipalities.

The function of these technical committees is to prepare the scope and agenda of each cluster.

During the planning stages of the integrated development programme of our district councils the municipalities of a particular district participate and align its integrated development programme of their respective district council.

All heads of our provincial department participate in the drawing of Integrated Development Plans (IDPs) of all our district councils and they make sure that their yearly departmental programmes are properly co-ordinated and integrated in all the district IDPs.

This process also helps to capacitate both our local municipalities and district councils in drawing up their departmental plans.

We are also starting a new process in terms of which each MEC in our province will hold regular meetings with a representative councillor from each municipality in our province to allow information flow and further co-ordination with the provincial government.

We also have a structure called the Mpumalanga Inter-Governmental Relations Forum that is aimed at ensuring that there is a co-ordinated approach to development between the different spheres of government in the province. This forum is attended by mayors and chaired by the Premier.

We are looking at improving the structure to be similar to the President Co-ordinating Council so that information flow from the PCC goes down to all municipalities at once during the session of this forum.

In this way taking all the above-mentioned processes into account we believe we shall eventually have a total integrated and co-ordinated service delivery for our people.

Chairperson, as a province we are also working tirelessly towards Africa's reawakening.

We are working with our brothers and sisters in Mozambique and Swaziland to ensure that ours is a region of peace and friendship between and among all its peoples.

A region where there is democracy, respect for human rights, social progress and prosperity.

We are continuing to strengthen and expand on our relations with our sister provinces in neighbouring countries in Africa.

Our relations cover matters of agriculture, trade and investment and tourism.

The Ehlanzeni District municipality recently established ties with the city of Mbabane in Swaziland.

Through these interactions we hope to attract investment to our province, which will provide jobs to the unemployed and create revenue for the province and the country as a whole.

We also are in the process of exchanging thoughts and ideas on best practices in government administration.

This will culminate in exchange visits to promote service excellence in the public service.

There is a great task ahead of us.

As a people and as a government we are aware that the two specific challenges we face with regard to the African Renaissance are to work with the rest of our continent to ensure the success of the African Union and NEPAD, the New Partnership for Africa's Development.

We are convinced that the African Renaissance, as a vision, aims to bring an end to wars and violent conflicts in our continent.

* To promote democracy, popular participation, respect for human rights, improve state capacity, and strengthen people-driven governance;
* and to fight underdevelopment and create a better life for all, including the eradication of poverty.

Indeed, regional cooperation and integration is important.

Chairperson, we will continue to ensure that there is effective integration and coordination across departments and amongst all spheres of government. Also, through our investment promotion wing, the Mpumalanga Investment Initiative, we continuously endeavour to attract both domestic and foreign investment.

The success we have achieved together with the people bears testimony that when acting together we can, and shall continue to push back the frontiers of poverty and expand access to a better life for all.

We will continue to address the backlog in sustainable basic water supply, access to basic sanitation and free basic water.

However, Mr President, one is duty-bound to state that we are currently experiencing an unprecedented water shortage in all the former homeland areas in our province. For instance in the Nkangala District which includes the former Kwandebele area and part of the former Bophuthatswana areas, in the last four to five years people have at times stayed without water for up to three months in a year.

Black emerging farmers in these areas are worried that their white counterparts across the road have a good supply of water, while their crops wilt.

They wait for the rain, which seldom comes.

The same shortage of water is experienced in the Ehlanzeni district in area such as Nkomazi, Albert Luthuli, Ntsikazi and the surrounding areas. Moutse east and west also experience the same problem of water shortage. And so does the rural residential areas of Groblesdal. All these areas form part of our Sekhukhune cross boarder district.

In these areas there is virtually no bulk water supply both on the former homeland areas of Mpumalanga.

The little bulk water supply, which was there, is hopelessly inadequate given the fact that the population has grown more than since the bulk water supply system was installed.

We are talking to the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry either to upgrade the bulk water supply system or install new ones in the areas mentioned.

We are appealing for assistance from the National Government in this regard.

We have put money aside to upgrade water reticulation in the affected areas but we first need a bulk water supply, which we cannot afford at his stage.

Chairperson, we will spare no effort in addressing the housing backlog, through the provision of household infrastructure, access to land security of tenure and shelter provision, focusing on informal settlement development, and the provision of rural accommodation.

We still have a long way to go to ensure that we create a better life for all our people. We will continue on this noble road.

Thank you.

Issued by Office of the Premier, Mpumalanga
12 November 2002

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