Date: 03/06/2004
Source: Free State Provincial Government
Title: E Molewa: Response to North West State of Province debate
RESPONSE BY NORTH WEST PREMIER, MS EDNA MOLEWA, ON THE STATE OF THE PROVINCE DEBATE, PROVINCIAL LEGISLATURE, 3 June 2004
Honourable Speaker of the Provincial Legislature;
Colleagues in the Executive Council;
Honourable Members;
Ladies and Gentlemen:
Let me begin by thanking all those Honourable Members of this August House who took part in the State of the Province Address debate on Tuesday this week.
The quality of the debates was indeed impressive. The debates not only indicated the maturity of many of us in this House but also pointed to a genuine desire to work towards creating a better Province for all.
More importantly, Honourable Speaker, it became clear except to a few among us whose undying lust for a return to the past appears to have eclipsed their memory that massive progress has been made towards the objective of bettering the lives of our people.
Many of those who took part in the debate confirmed that indeed we are on course, that our ideals are becoming reality and that there is no turning back now.
We therefore, as Members of this House, approach the future with confidence that acting together we will be able to score new and decisive victories in our ongoing effort to expand access to a better life.
Equally Honourable Speaker, during the debate, it became evident that all of us are clear as to what is it that needs to be done to respond to the many challenges that face our people.
None of us can justifiably claim that the priorities of this government are not clear. None of us can claim that they are not clear as to the immediate task at hand and what is it that needs to be done by all of us acting in unity.
It is for this reason that the pledge made by many in this House that they will support all government programmes aimed at reaching our collective goals is humbling.
I wish to take this opportunity to assure this House and the people of the North West Province that the objectives and the timeframes we outlined in the State of the Province Address are realisable. Ours was not a wish list. It was a programme of deliverables that we have both the capacity and political will to deliver on them.
Many of the projects we referred to are already being implemented and should be complete within the set period. In his input MEC Yawa outlined some of the projects his Department is already in the process of implementing.
He spoke for all of us when he said that; we are ready to rollout programmes aimed at assisting us reach the goals we have set for ourselves.
Honourable Speaker, I now take this opportunity to respond to some of the remarks and questions raised by Honourable Members of this House. I wish to clarify Honourable Matladi that; the objectives we have set for ourselves are categorised into short, medium and long-term deliverables.
We are confident that the time frames we have set for ourselves are realistic and achievable.
To address the question of what the Honourable Member refers to as "six newly formed Departments" we have ensured that all Departments are structured such that there is no loss of institutional memory. No single Head of Department has been shifted from their current positions, safe for minor adjustments to their scope of responsibility.
In addition, at a political level all Departments are headed by MECs who have the capacity and competence to lead them. I have absolute confidence in their abilities.
We welcome Honourable Matladi's advice that we should not break or breach the contract we entered into with our people. We wish to remind the Honourable Member that throughout its long and rich history of struggle, the ruling party, the African National Congress, distinguished itself as an organisation that has steadfastly stood on the side of the majority of our people. Our people were never disappointed then and there is no reason to expect that they will be disappointed now.
With regard to problems facing the people of Mazista, we are working closely with the Department of Land Affairs to secure alternative land for the people of Mazista. We are also engaging the Department of Labour with a view to resolving the problems these people have with their former employer.
The statement by Honourable Matladi that the R 4,5 million allocated to the Comprehensive Agricultural Support Programme (CASP) is insufficient, indicates that the Honourable Members has not fully read our speech or that she is deliberately ignoring what we said in order to score political points.
We wish to draw the Honourable Member's attention to the fact that the R 4,5 million she is referring to is for CASP projects that will be implemented within the next three months. We made it clear in the speech that for the current financial year a total of R 63 Million has been set aside for our Land Resettlement Programmes as well as projects covered by CASP which include the provision of agricultural starter-packs.
We also wish to inform Honourable Matladi that work to revitalise the Taung irrigation scheme is ongoing. Part of what we are doing to revive this scheme involves undoing the damage done by policies and practises so passionately pursued by the party that the Honourable Member belongs to.
With regard to the Tsholofelo irrigation scheme, the Provincial government is engaged in processes aimed at resolving the legal problems facing this scheme.
Processes are underway to establish a Water Users Association, which is fully representative of all communities in the Hartebeespoort Dam area. These processes are necessary because the previous Water Users Association excluded some communities living in the area. We also wish to point out that work is continuing to deal with pollution at the Dam.
Honourable Speaker, with regard to the issue of encouraging our people to engage in dry-crop farming, we wish to say that the Department of Agriculture is already involved in this process. We will continue to support such initiatives from our people.
We wish to advise however that because dry- crop farming involves some risk, particularly for small-scale producers such initiatives should be undertaken primarily for household consumption.
With regard to the provision of caterpillars to the people of Gopane Village, we wish to state that the Department of Agriculture and the local community will make follow-ups on this matter.
Honourable Matladi refers to a problem of so-called "unhappy councillors" and says that the Minister for Provincial and Local Government is not proactive.
We reject with the contempt it deserves, the unfounded statement by the Honourable Member that the Minister is not proactive.
The measures we are implementing to deal with problems facing some Municipalities in our Province are guided by directives from national government. To suggest therefore that national government is not proactive is to miss the point.
Equally, it does not make sense for the Honourable Member to suggest that the MEC for Developmental Local Government and Housing must refer matters affecting Municipalities to the National Minister. Many of these issues can be adequately dealt with by the Provincial Government or by the South African Local Government Association.
Honourable Speaker, the statement by Honourable Seleke that the State of the Province Address contained 101% promises which had been heard so many times in the past ten years is unfortunately contradicted by 82% of voters in this Province who voted for the ruling party.
These masses of our people voted in the knowledge that the African National Congress is the only party that is capable and that has a rich history of delivering on its promises.
We wish to remind the Honourable Member that ours is a government that does not see our people as minorities separated from the rest of society. Ours is a government that seeks to unite all people behind a common objective.
As government we continue to encourage all patriotic South Africans to remain in the country. However we cannot stop those who feel they could best use their skills elsewhere.
We are encouraged that a number of those who left the country in pursuit of greener pastures are returning to the land of their birth.
We wish to re-assure Honourable Seleke that opportunities created by the fact that we are hosting the 2010 Soccer World Cup will be spread to all, particularly the unemployed and poor regardless of their race or political persuasion. The same principle will apply with regards to jobs created as a result of our Expanded Public Works Programme.
Honourable Seleke raised what is clearly a concern to all of us: the plight of so called "street kids" who on a daily basis are seen fighting for leftover in dustbins. Related to this is the problem of poor households run by children.
We wish to reiterate our commitment to the fight against poverty. We are mindful that the poverty current gripping our people is not of our own creation. It is a legacy we inherited from our unhappy past.
The majority of our programmes are aimed at massively reducing the levels of poverty in our country. We once more wish to call on community members and other sectors of our society to join hands with government in its endeavour to push back the frontiers of poverty.
We will continue to ensure that poor households run by children are included in our indigent data.
Honourable Speaker, our observation is that there appears to be glaring inconsistencies between how Honourable Chris Hattingh and his colleague from the DA, Honourable Groenewald characterise where we are today as a nation.
In his usual cynicism, Honourable Hatting wants us to believe that nothing good has happened in this province since 1994. This view is in sharp contrast to the one held by Honourable Groenewald who said and I quote: "the DA also believes that progress has been made in the past ten years to improve the quality of life of our people."
Could it be that Honourable Hatting's judgement is blurred by his obstinate belief that this country is in the hands of people who cannot govern, people who cannot be trusted to deliver on their promises.
We welcome Honourable Groenewald's input, which represents a fundamentally different approach to the combative and less constructive approach adopted by Honourable Hatting for many years in this House.
We agree with Honourable Groenewald that there is a need for us to seize opportunities created by the 2010 Soccer World Cup. We are also determined to contribute towards ensuring that as a country we prepare our players for this historic event.
As an indication of the seriousness with which we take the 2010 Soccer World Cup we will soon be announcing names of Members of the Executive Council who will form part of the North West 2010 Soccer World Cup Committee.
This Committee will give political guidance and support to the technical committee already working on ensuring that the North West Province is not left out from the benefits of hosting the 2010 Soccer World Cup.
I wish to take this opportunity to state that Orkney and Rustenburg are included as part of possible cities where World Cup Games could be played. This, Honourable Speaker, explains why a delegation from the Rustenburg Municipality formed part of the South African team that went to Zurich to witness the outcome of the Soccer World Cup bid.
We are engaging the South African Football Association with a view to ensuring that Mafikeng becomes on of the host cities of the World Cup.
Honourable Hatting again makes the mistake of wanting us to believe that nothing good is happening at local government level. We wish to draw the Honourable Member's attention to the reality, which somehow has slipped his mind, that there are many Municipalities in our Province that are doing a lot of good work.
These are the Rustenburg Municipality, the Potchefstroom Municipality, Moretele to name a few. We have gone on record as saying that there are those Municipalities that are not functioning properly in our Province. In those Municipalities we have not hesitated to take action to normalise service delivery and we will continue to do so.
Programmes to build capacity at local government level are ongoing. These will go a long way towards addressing some of the challenges facing our Municipalities.
Honourable Speaker it is important that as patriots, we need to support all initiatives aimed at making ours a better country and a better province. It is in this spirit that we support the intervention by the Minister of Housing Lindiwe Sisulu to deal with some of the problems facing the delivery of housing.
We are also humbled that honourable Hatting supports the initiative by Minister Sisulu. However its is clear to us that Honourable Hattingh supports this initiative for all the wrong reasons. The Honourable Member says that because in the last financial year, a paltry 2,8% of the provincial housing budget was spent, the intervention by Minister Sisulu is long overdue.
We wish to advice Honourable Hatting to double-check his facts. It is not true that we spent 2,8% of the housing budget last year. The correct figure Honourable Speaker is 91%.
Honourable Speaker, we wish to correct Honourable Groenewald by saying that we have not allocated R 1, 3 million to Agriculture as he said in his input. This amount (R1, 3 million) has been set-aside for the current financial year to improve the agricultural skills training in our province.
We thank Honourable Groenewald for reminding us that there are many farmers in our Province who are ready to help and support upcoming farmers. It is developments such as these that convince us that indeed a people's contract is taking shape in our country and in our province.
We share the Honourable Member's concern that almost all fences in the road reserve have been removed and this has claimed many lives. In this regard we call on our communities to look after these fences and ensure that they are not stolen as this puts the lives of many people in danger.
Honourable Mereeotlhe raised a question regarding the location of MPCCs. These MPCCs Honourable Speaker will be in Tshedimosetso in Ventersdorp, Morokweng and Madibeng in Bophirima and Tshidilamolomo in the Central District. The date for the launches will be announced soon.
We also support sentiments by Honourable Num to the effect that we must give practical meaning to our commitment to the development of Sports, Arts and Culture in our Province by ensuring that programmes initiated by this Department are adequately funded.
We also wish to commend Honourable Mahumapelo for reiterating the point we have always made that there is a need to ensure that our skills training programmes train people in areas relevant to the specific needs of our Provincial economy. We must indeed train our people for the job market.
Honourable Kekesi raised the problem of a social grants pay point in Kagisano. Honourable Speaker, our programme to renovate social grants pay points, including the one the Honourable Member is referring to, should be complete within the next three months.
In conclusion I wish to urge all members of this House to rededicate themselves to serving our people. On our shoulders lies the noble task of leading our people into the second decade of liberation.
We must execute this task to the best of our ability.
I thank you!
Issued by: Office of the Premier, North West Provincial Government
3 June 2004
Source: Free State Provincial Government
Title: E Molewa: Response to North West State of Province debate
RESPONSE BY NORTH WEST PREMIER, MS EDNA MOLEWA, ON THE STATE OF THE PROVINCE DEBATE, PROVINCIAL LEGISLATURE, 3 June 2004
Honourable Speaker of the Provincial Legislature;
Colleagues in the Executive Council;
Honourable Members;
Ladies and Gentlemen:
Let me begin by thanking all those Honourable Members of this August House who took part in the State of the Province Address debate on Tuesday this week.
The quality of the debates was indeed impressive. The debates not only indicated the maturity of many of us in this House but also pointed to a genuine desire to work towards creating a better Province for all.
More importantly, Honourable Speaker, it became clear except to a few among us whose undying lust for a return to the past appears to have eclipsed their memory that massive progress has been made towards the objective of bettering the lives of our people.
Many of those who took part in the debate confirmed that indeed we are on course, that our ideals are becoming reality and that there is no turning back now.
We therefore, as Members of this House, approach the future with confidence that acting together we will be able to score new and decisive victories in our ongoing effort to expand access to a better life.
Equally Honourable Speaker, during the debate, it became evident that all of us are clear as to what is it that needs to be done to respond to the many challenges that face our people.
None of us can justifiably claim that the priorities of this government are not clear. None of us can claim that they are not clear as to the immediate task at hand and what is it that needs to be done by all of us acting in unity.
It is for this reason that the pledge made by many in this House that they will support all government programmes aimed at reaching our collective goals is humbling.
I wish to take this opportunity to assure this House and the people of the North West Province that the objectives and the timeframes we outlined in the State of the Province Address are realisable. Ours was not a wish list. It was a programme of deliverables that we have both the capacity and political will to deliver on them.
Many of the projects we referred to are already being implemented and should be complete within the set period. In his input MEC Yawa outlined some of the projects his Department is already in the process of implementing.
He spoke for all of us when he said that; we are ready to rollout programmes aimed at assisting us reach the goals we have set for ourselves.
Honourable Speaker, I now take this opportunity to respond to some of the remarks and questions raised by Honourable Members of this House. I wish to clarify Honourable Matladi that; the objectives we have set for ourselves are categorised into short, medium and long-term deliverables.
We are confident that the time frames we have set for ourselves are realistic and achievable.
To address the question of what the Honourable Member refers to as "six newly formed Departments" we have ensured that all Departments are structured such that there is no loss of institutional memory. No single Head of Department has been shifted from their current positions, safe for minor adjustments to their scope of responsibility.
In addition, at a political level all Departments are headed by MECs who have the capacity and competence to lead them. I have absolute confidence in their abilities.
We welcome Honourable Matladi's advice that we should not break or breach the contract we entered into with our people. We wish to remind the Honourable Member that throughout its long and rich history of struggle, the ruling party, the African National Congress, distinguished itself as an organisation that has steadfastly stood on the side of the majority of our people. Our people were never disappointed then and there is no reason to expect that they will be disappointed now.
With regard to problems facing the people of Mazista, we are working closely with the Department of Land Affairs to secure alternative land for the people of Mazista. We are also engaging the Department of Labour with a view to resolving the problems these people have with their former employer.
The statement by Honourable Matladi that the R 4,5 million allocated to the Comprehensive Agricultural Support Programme (CASP) is insufficient, indicates that the Honourable Members has not fully read our speech or that she is deliberately ignoring what we said in order to score political points.
We wish to draw the Honourable Member's attention to the fact that the R 4,5 million she is referring to is for CASP projects that will be implemented within the next three months. We made it clear in the speech that for the current financial year a total of R 63 Million has been set aside for our Land Resettlement Programmes as well as projects covered by CASP which include the provision of agricultural starter-packs.
We also wish to inform Honourable Matladi that work to revitalise the Taung irrigation scheme is ongoing. Part of what we are doing to revive this scheme involves undoing the damage done by policies and practises so passionately pursued by the party that the Honourable Member belongs to.
With regard to the Tsholofelo irrigation scheme, the Provincial government is engaged in processes aimed at resolving the legal problems facing this scheme.
Processes are underway to establish a Water Users Association, which is fully representative of all communities in the Hartebeespoort Dam area. These processes are necessary because the previous Water Users Association excluded some communities living in the area. We also wish to point out that work is continuing to deal with pollution at the Dam.
Honourable Speaker, with regard to the issue of encouraging our people to engage in dry-crop farming, we wish to say that the Department of Agriculture is already involved in this process. We will continue to support such initiatives from our people.
We wish to advise however that because dry- crop farming involves some risk, particularly for small-scale producers such initiatives should be undertaken primarily for household consumption.
With regard to the provision of caterpillars to the people of Gopane Village, we wish to state that the Department of Agriculture and the local community will make follow-ups on this matter.
Honourable Matladi refers to a problem of so-called "unhappy councillors" and says that the Minister for Provincial and Local Government is not proactive.
We reject with the contempt it deserves, the unfounded statement by the Honourable Member that the Minister is not proactive.
The measures we are implementing to deal with problems facing some Municipalities in our Province are guided by directives from national government. To suggest therefore that national government is not proactive is to miss the point.
Equally, it does not make sense for the Honourable Member to suggest that the MEC for Developmental Local Government and Housing must refer matters affecting Municipalities to the National Minister. Many of these issues can be adequately dealt with by the Provincial Government or by the South African Local Government Association.
Honourable Speaker, the statement by Honourable Seleke that the State of the Province Address contained 101% promises which had been heard so many times in the past ten years is unfortunately contradicted by 82% of voters in this Province who voted for the ruling party.
These masses of our people voted in the knowledge that the African National Congress is the only party that is capable and that has a rich history of delivering on its promises.
We wish to remind the Honourable Member that ours is a government that does not see our people as minorities separated from the rest of society. Ours is a government that seeks to unite all people behind a common objective.
As government we continue to encourage all patriotic South Africans to remain in the country. However we cannot stop those who feel they could best use their skills elsewhere.
We are encouraged that a number of those who left the country in pursuit of greener pastures are returning to the land of their birth.
We wish to re-assure Honourable Seleke that opportunities created by the fact that we are hosting the 2010 Soccer World Cup will be spread to all, particularly the unemployed and poor regardless of their race or political persuasion. The same principle will apply with regards to jobs created as a result of our Expanded Public Works Programme.
Honourable Seleke raised what is clearly a concern to all of us: the plight of so called "street kids" who on a daily basis are seen fighting for leftover in dustbins. Related to this is the problem of poor households run by children.
We wish to reiterate our commitment to the fight against poverty. We are mindful that the poverty current gripping our people is not of our own creation. It is a legacy we inherited from our unhappy past.
The majority of our programmes are aimed at massively reducing the levels of poverty in our country. We once more wish to call on community members and other sectors of our society to join hands with government in its endeavour to push back the frontiers of poverty.
We will continue to ensure that poor households run by children are included in our indigent data.
Honourable Speaker, our observation is that there appears to be glaring inconsistencies between how Honourable Chris Hattingh and his colleague from the DA, Honourable Groenewald characterise where we are today as a nation.
In his usual cynicism, Honourable Hatting wants us to believe that nothing good has happened in this province since 1994. This view is in sharp contrast to the one held by Honourable Groenewald who said and I quote: "the DA also believes that progress has been made in the past ten years to improve the quality of life of our people."
Could it be that Honourable Hatting's judgement is blurred by his obstinate belief that this country is in the hands of people who cannot govern, people who cannot be trusted to deliver on their promises.
We welcome Honourable Groenewald's input, which represents a fundamentally different approach to the combative and less constructive approach adopted by Honourable Hatting for many years in this House.
We agree with Honourable Groenewald that there is a need for us to seize opportunities created by the 2010 Soccer World Cup. We are also determined to contribute towards ensuring that as a country we prepare our players for this historic event.
As an indication of the seriousness with which we take the 2010 Soccer World Cup we will soon be announcing names of Members of the Executive Council who will form part of the North West 2010 Soccer World Cup Committee.
This Committee will give political guidance and support to the technical committee already working on ensuring that the North West Province is not left out from the benefits of hosting the 2010 Soccer World Cup.
I wish to take this opportunity to state that Orkney and Rustenburg are included as part of possible cities where World Cup Games could be played. This, Honourable Speaker, explains why a delegation from the Rustenburg Municipality formed part of the South African team that went to Zurich to witness the outcome of the Soccer World Cup bid.
We are engaging the South African Football Association with a view to ensuring that Mafikeng becomes on of the host cities of the World Cup.
Honourable Hatting again makes the mistake of wanting us to believe that nothing good is happening at local government level. We wish to draw the Honourable Member's attention to the reality, which somehow has slipped his mind, that there are many Municipalities in our Province that are doing a lot of good work.
These are the Rustenburg Municipality, the Potchefstroom Municipality, Moretele to name a few. We have gone on record as saying that there are those Municipalities that are not functioning properly in our Province. In those Municipalities we have not hesitated to take action to normalise service delivery and we will continue to do so.
Programmes to build capacity at local government level are ongoing. These will go a long way towards addressing some of the challenges facing our Municipalities.
Honourable Speaker it is important that as patriots, we need to support all initiatives aimed at making ours a better country and a better province. It is in this spirit that we support the intervention by the Minister of Housing Lindiwe Sisulu to deal with some of the problems facing the delivery of housing.
We are also humbled that honourable Hatting supports the initiative by Minister Sisulu. However its is clear to us that Honourable Hattingh supports this initiative for all the wrong reasons. The Honourable Member says that because in the last financial year, a paltry 2,8% of the provincial housing budget was spent, the intervention by Minister Sisulu is long overdue.
We wish to advice Honourable Hatting to double-check his facts. It is not true that we spent 2,8% of the housing budget last year. The correct figure Honourable Speaker is 91%.
Honourable Speaker, we wish to correct Honourable Groenewald by saying that we have not allocated R 1, 3 million to Agriculture as he said in his input. This amount (R1, 3 million) has been set-aside for the current financial year to improve the agricultural skills training in our province.
We thank Honourable Groenewald for reminding us that there are many farmers in our Province who are ready to help and support upcoming farmers. It is developments such as these that convince us that indeed a people's contract is taking shape in our country and in our province.
We share the Honourable Member's concern that almost all fences in the road reserve have been removed and this has claimed many lives. In this regard we call on our communities to look after these fences and ensure that they are not stolen as this puts the lives of many people in danger.
Honourable Mereeotlhe raised a question regarding the location of MPCCs. These MPCCs Honourable Speaker will be in Tshedimosetso in Ventersdorp, Morokweng and Madibeng in Bophirima and Tshidilamolomo in the Central District. The date for the launches will be announced soon.
We also support sentiments by Honourable Num to the effect that we must give practical meaning to our commitment to the development of Sports, Arts and Culture in our Province by ensuring that programmes initiated by this Department are adequately funded.
We also wish to commend Honourable Mahumapelo for reiterating the point we have always made that there is a need to ensure that our skills training programmes train people in areas relevant to the specific needs of our Provincial economy. We must indeed train our people for the job market.
Honourable Kekesi raised the problem of a social grants pay point in Kagisano. Honourable Speaker, our programme to renovate social grants pay points, including the one the Honourable Member is referring to, should be complete within the next three months.
In conclusion I wish to urge all members of this House to rededicate themselves to serving our people. On our shoulders lies the noble task of leading our people into the second decade of liberation.
We must execute this task to the best of our ability.
I thank you!
Issued by: Office of the Premier, North West Provincial Government
3 June 2004
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