Date: 27/05/2004
Source: Limpopo Provincial Government
Title: S Moloto: Limpopo State of the Province address
STATE OF THE PROVINCE ADDRESS BY MR SELLO MOLOTO, THE PREMIER OF LIMPOPO, TO THE FIRST SESSION OF THE THIRD LEGISLATURE OF LIMPOPO, 27 May 2004
Mr Speaker,
Honourable members of the House,
Executive Mayors and mayors of local municipalities,
Honourable members of Parliament Members of judiciary,
Leaders of the opposition parties,
Speakers of municipalities,
Chairperson and Members of the House of Traditional Leaders,
Traditional leaders and royalties present,
Former MPs and MPLs,
Leaders of various church denominations,
Leaders and members of Institutions supporting our democracy,
The leadership of the ANC and other political organizations,
Stalwarts and Veterans of our struggle,
Business representatives,
Members of the media,
Distinguished guests,
Ladies and gentlemen
History has placed upon us an immense responsibility to better and improve the quality of lives of the people, and we should commit ourselves never to occupy the wrong side of this history.
A little over a month ago, South Africans organized events to celebrate and mark the first decade of freedom and democracy in the land of their birth, a decade that valued and respected human life, a decade that restored dignity to all of us, a decade that united diverse communities, a decade that brought hope in place of despair, and most importantly, a decade that asserted a sense of self-being, pride and patriotism.
In the words of my predecessor, Dr. Ngoako Ramatlhodi, "the dark days of repression, minority rule and institutionalised racism have become part of the fading memory. The hostility amongst our selves has been replaced by the encouraging signs of reconciliation and common nationhood". The new horizon has, indeed, dawned on us.
Given these achievements, our province is equally poised to become a much more better place to live in, a place of hope for all its citizens. It must, therefore, become the responsibility of every one of us to make Limpopo a province that knows no colour, race, creed, ethnicity or any form of chauvinism, a province we must all identify with as home.
Mr. Speaker
In no uncertain terms, this marks the turning point of the great journey that began no less than ten years ago, a journey towards building a caring society led by a caring government. In this regard, those of us still alive to the challenge have a responsibility and a duty to advance and lead our people towards this chosen destiny.
The overwhelming mandate our people have given us in the recent elections --- carries with it an expectation of an accelerated action against poverty, unemployment, homelessness and all forms of human suffering. Our people would like to see victory over disease related to poverty like TB, cholera, malnutrition, malaria, HIV and AIDS. The complete eradication of the final vestiges of apartheid as it is manifested in settlement patterns, the quality of services and provision of basic services such as portable water for consumption and domestic use, electricity and road infrastructure are key amongst the challenges we are called upon to confront.
We clearly listened and heard our people as they pronounced themselves during the election campaigns.
1. We have heard them saying they embrace the notion of a social contract
2. We have heard them saying they are satisfied with the progress and achievements of the past ten years of freedom and democracy
3. We have also heard them saying that they will prefer a faster pace of service delivery in housing, education, health and all other social services
4. We have heard them saying that whilst we have succeeded in keeping the levels of crime low; a lot more still needs to be done
5. The message was also loud and clear that they are prepared to be involved in learnerships and any form of training to better their skills to meet the needs of our economy for their own benefit
6. Above all, they said that they are more than ready to be involved in the Expanded Public Works Programme in order to roll out the infrastructure of their province as they stamp out unemployment.
The summation of our people's message is that they are more than ready to build a people's contract to fight poverty and create work.
Learning from history, we do not doubt the commitment our people have expressed in realising these objectives. In the past we have seen our people in their numbers responding to the President's clarion call to volunteer in Letsema activities. This therefore means that the social contract call is not new. We should consolidate on the ideal of a people centred and people driven culture of governance as we enter the second decade of freedom and democracy.
Mr. Speaker
True to our history of being a nation of perceived miracles, we are beginning the second decade of our freedom and democracy on a high note by winning the World Soccer Cup Bid, adding on the previous decade's miracle of resolving our political conflict and thus achieving freedom and democracy through peaceful means.
This, Mr. Speaker represents a major break with tradition, as Africa will for the first time play host to this magnificent event, an achievement that is both national and continental.
The country exploded into ululations and celebrations upon hearing the news that South Africa will host the Soccer World Cup Competition in 2010. Our people's consciousness and interest in sport has been aroused more than ever before.
Whilst boosting the economy of our country and the continent as a whole, the event presents a unique opportunity for a renewed enthusiasm in sport, and therefore calls upon us to roll out infrastructure to meet these expectations.
The process of refurbishing and renovating Peter Mokaba stadium is on course. This stadium has been identified as one of the stadiums in which some of the games will be staged. We are sure that the work of upgrading this stadium will be completed in good time before the competition. Government will also put more effort to prevail over SAFA and FIFA executive to ensure that other national stadiums like Giyani and Thohoyandou are used as grounds for training sessions.
The next step we will take is to appoint a committee of MECs to run and provide strategic leadership in preparation for the World Cup Competition.
Our province is renowned to be endowed with legends in various fields of human endeavour. We pride ourselves with many community builders and stars both in sport and development. We would like to take this opportunity to call upon these role models to lend a hand in unearthing the new talent in preparation for this world cup competition.
Mr. Speaker
Tourism is another industry certain to flourish as we prepare for this historic event. Our unspoiled habitat, which remains the pride of this province, will be exposed to the people of the continent and the world, thereby adding value to the course of making Limpopo the best destination.
The recent South African National Parks' launch of Mapungubwe National Park in our province will contribute immensely to the formation of another major transfrontier conservation area, the Limpopo-Shashe Park, which will include Botswana, South Africa and Zimbabwe, alongside the Greater Limpopo Park which includes Mozambique in the east.
This development will add impetus to the tourist attractions both prior and post the world cup competition.
The challenge, however, is to increase the number of tourist attractions, and therefore there is an urgent need to speed up the declaration of Dzata in Vhembe and Tjate in Sekhukhune to the status of the World Heritage Sites.
Our rich cultural and artistic diversity is the strength, which has never been exploited to its fullest potential. As one travels to all convention centres in the country, be it in Johannesburg, Durban or Cape Town, the floors and corridors are decorated with art and craft from this province. One wonders where these crafts are taken from and who are the people producing this artwork, and most importantly whether the crafters and carvers benefit from their talent and toil.
In this regard, we are faced with a challenge of creating a better environment for this talented sons and daughters of Limpopo to thrive in a beneficial manner.
Mr. Speaker
The Department of Transport has recently gone into a strategic retreat that produced a transport strategy dubbed "Limpopo in Motion". Guided by this strategy the process of putting in place a Road Safety Management system capable of meeting such enormous challenges as the forthcoming World Cup will have to begin.
The activities of the world cup competition would indeed require in some instances the fastest and reliable mode of transport. We would therefore be required to improve our airports and landing strips. In this regard, the granting of a license for Hoedspruit Airport is more urgent than ever before.
In the same vein, there is an urgent need to increase the number of service men and women in order to realise the objectives of Limpopo in Motion strategy.
In addition to traffic management studies offered by our colleges, our Transport Committee is facilitating the process of invoking the services and professional expertise of University of the North to offer transport related degrees and courses. On the other hand, we will take through our college 500 students in the next two years, and a further 2000 in the next five years.
This, we believe, will go a long way towards enhancing the capacity of our law enforcement agencies in curbing the road carnage experienced year-in-year-out, and thereby saving millions of the lives of our people as they travel from one point to another. As opposed to what has become a traditional practice, our traffic safety campaigns will now become a year round focus rather than peak holiday period bounds.
Mr. Speaker
The legislative and policy framework is in place, and we therefore remain steadfast that there is no envisaged major policy shift. Instead, what we are required to do is to ensure that we develop coherent and workable action plans aimed at implementing the existing policies.
The economy of our province has been growing at a rate double the national average. What has, however, been worrying is the concomitant increase in the levels of unemployment. The challenge becomes how do we turn around this paradoxical situation of inverse proportion of economic growth and unemployment.
Guided by these expositions, we shall in the next three months convene sectoral summits, i.e. in mining, tourism, agriculture, construction, manufacturing and other sectors.
These summits will have to interrogate, in more detail, the supply chain of the economic activities of the province. This will amongst others include analysis of production patterns, storage & warehousing up to marketing. This analysis will give us a better sense of what needs to be done in order to improve the economic activities in the province.
Our expectation is that the preparatory work by the departments concerned would have to start immediately. This will include consultation with relevant stakeholders and intense engagement on the possible action plans, which will amongst others address itself to specific targets, time frames and implementation mechanisms.
It is also expected that the broad framework, the Provincial Growth and Development Strategy, PGDS, would then be refined and adopted not later than October this year.
Mr. Speaker
The transformation of our procurement system is on course. This process seeks to align the procurement system with Public Finance Management Act. This will entail the devolution of the procurement functions to the relevant departments. The process is also aimed at ensuring that accounting officers take responsibility for their actions.
We are looking forward to concluding this process in the next three months. Obviously we will not allow a situation where the benefits of economies of scale are compromised. It is envisaged that the tender Board Repealing Bill will contain a mechanism for maximising the economies of scale, i.e. a mechanism which is aimed at procuring the transversal services centrally. The central committee will be comprised of accounting officers (HoDs) or their delegated officers.
Mr. Speaker,
Just last week, a concerted effort towards realising the objectives of fighting poverty and creating work was unveiled by the President in launching the Expanded Public Works Programme. We think it was befitting that the programme was launched in this province because Limpopo distinguished itself through successful implementation of such programmes as Gundo Lashu and Sakhasonke i.e. Labour intensive methods of rolling out the infrastructure.
The challenge, however, is to sustain the momentum and expand the horizon on the effective and efficient ways of rolling out both the social and economic infrastructure through this method.
We should also hasten to indicate that plans are underway to ensure that these programmes are incorporated into the developmental plans of municipalities, i.e. the IDPs and LEDs.
Mr. Speaker
Much work has been done on combating the scourge of HIV and AIDS. We will continue with our programme of prevention, care and support, including appropriate treatment of people suffering from this monster that continues to rear its ugly head in our society.
Preparatory work to provide anti-retrovirals in the designated hospitals is progressing very well and linking up with the national processes.
Mr. Speaker
The support and capacity building for the farming community, particularly small scale farmers has become the centrepiece of our overall agricultural development plan. In this context, we will continue to forge ahead with our land reform programme.
It is expected that all outstanding land claims and disputes will be resolved in due course, and this, we believe will go a long way towards ensuring that more land is delivered to the needy and deserving sectors of our community.
Mr. Speaker, Ladies and Gentlemen
The success of all these challenges raised by people during the time of elections, will largely depend on how we master the art of managing cooperative governance amongst the three spheres of government, i.e. national, provincial and local levels.
There are various platforms and forums, which are in place to realise the objectives of co-operative governance. What is left for us is to perfect the operations of the Premier-Mayors Forum, and various other linkages between the provincial departments and their counterparts in municipalities. These linkages should in a big way, close the capacity gap, which is still apparent at local government level.
The provincial government should take more interest in the implementation of the new Municipal Finance Management Act, which is due to commence in July. The Provincial treasury should play an active role in assisting municipalities to implement this enabling and progressive legislation.
As we continue to score more success in this regard, the remaining challenge will be how we integrate the systems in order to develop a common database, which will guarantee qualitative and reliable information for planning purposes at all levels.
We can obviously not afford to have our local government system concluding its decade of existence next year without resolving all these challenges.
Mr. Speaker
The legacy of the apartheid system continues to haunt us, particularly on the question of morality. Our success on Moral Regeneration depends largely on the achievements we will continue to register in reversing this legacy.
Mr. Speaker, all of us are concerned about the perception of the levels of fraud, corruption and impropriety in our society.
Government has gone a long way in putting up measures and systems in place in order to deal with these evil deeds.
Our efforts on combating these acts of immorality will never bear the required fruits unless everybody gets involved, be it business, Church and civil society in general. We hold a firm view that in every corrupt activity, there are two or more parties involved. It is alleged that in many instances business always initiate the first step of bribery. In cases where the public service initiates these acts, business always comes out as a willing partner in these dubious acts.
The fight against all these acts of immorality cannot only be confined to government. It is a matter that every sector, be it business, church or civil society, should be involved in rooting out this malice.
Mr. Speaker,
The ANC government acknowledges the role of traditional leaders in the governance processes of our country. In order to entrench this role, the Traditional Leadership and Governance Framework Act have been passed. The intention of the Act is to transform traditional leadership to be in line with the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa. In this Province, we will continue, together with our traditional leaders, to seek measures to give meaning to the implementation of this Act.
We are at this stage in a position to announce that time has come for us to combine both the political and administrative functions of traditional affairs. Members will recall that the political function has been in the Premier's office whilst the administrative function remained in the department of Local Government and Housing. These functions will now be located in the Premier's office. In the past ten years, government has made significant progress in ensuring that there is uniformity in dealing with issues of traditional leadership. You will recall that prior 1994 each of the three Bantustans had its own way of dealing with this institution.
In 1994, the Province only had 450 headmen or indunas who were recognised and remunerated out of 1742 rightful claimants. To date, government has already appointed 1055 headmen bringing the total of recognised and remunerated headmen to 1505. We will ensure that in the next nine months the remaining 237 headmen are recognised and remunerated.
Mr Speaker, Ladies and Gentlemen
Many of you may be aware that when the current Executive Council was announced we indicated that there will be a process of reconfiguring government departments.
This is aimed at realigning the provincial government departments in a manner that will enable us to be in a position to meet the challenges of our day and time.
In this regard, we will be requesting the services of the Public Accounts Committee of the Legislature to convene public hearings in order to tap on the wisdom of the people of the province. Equally, the services of the Public Service Commission will be called upon to advise us on how the administrative face of our government should look like. We are hoping to conclude this process in due course.
The department of Education has been tasked to develop a Human Resource Development strategy for the province. The strategy would have to capture the skills needs of the province in line with the competitive edges of our province. It will also have to address itself to how we confront the issue of HIV and AIDS, which is posing a threat to the achievements of the past ten years of freedom and democracy.
We are looking forward to the finalisation and adoption of this strategy when we convene our Executive Council Lekgotla in the next two weeks.
It is also expected that the conceptualisation around issues of learnerships and Community Development Workers will be further clarified in this forum.
Ladies and gentlemen
You might have observed that we deliberately omitted dealing in detail with issues of line function departments, and concentrated more on strategic issues in line with the demands of our day and time. It is our firm view that our progress and achievements, including plans for this financial year were sufficiently dealt with by my predecessor during his last state of the province address three months back, i.e. on the 12th of February this year. It is further expected that line function departments will expand in more detail these plans during the departmental budget debates. Ours here is to fill-up the gaps in terms of the strategic issues, which might not have been adequately covered in the earlier presentation.
Mr. Speaker
We are humbled and overwhelmed by the enthusiasm with which the people of this province and beyond have received their new provincial leadership. Our office continues to be inundated with messages of support from ordinary people. This is serving as a source of inspiration and courage for us in our endeavour to better and improve their livings conditions. We therefore commit ourselves never to fall short on their expectations.
United in our diversity we have, in the past decade, managed to pull through. We must in the same spirit and with the same vigour, forge ahead into the future and make this decade another milestone in pursuit of the ideals of the African century, a century of hope, abundance and self-sufficiency for the sons and daughters of Africa.
Let us all leave here inspired and considering ourselves the most fortunate that we call this province home. Let us all go and work towards reaching this goal of human fulfilment, for it is possible and within reach.
Ke ka moo re rego, kodumela moepathutse because we have through time come to know that mintirho ya vulavula. Ndi fhedzi vhathu vha shumaho who will prosper to become barui, dzikhorane en die selfstandigers.
Ro livhuwa, Inkomu, Re a leboga, Nda!
Issued by: Office of the Premier, Limpopo Provincial Government
27 May 2004
Source: Limpopo Provincial Government
Title: S Moloto: Limpopo State of the Province address
STATE OF THE PROVINCE ADDRESS BY MR SELLO MOLOTO, THE PREMIER OF LIMPOPO, TO THE FIRST SESSION OF THE THIRD LEGISLATURE OF LIMPOPO, 27 May 2004
Mr Speaker,
Honourable members of the House,
Executive Mayors and mayors of local municipalities,
Honourable members of Parliament Members of judiciary,
Leaders of the opposition parties,
Speakers of municipalities,
Chairperson and Members of the House of Traditional Leaders,
Traditional leaders and royalties present,
Former MPs and MPLs,
Leaders of various church denominations,
Leaders and members of Institutions supporting our democracy,
The leadership of the ANC and other political organizations,
Stalwarts and Veterans of our struggle,
Business representatives,
Members of the media,
Distinguished guests,
Ladies and gentlemen
History has placed upon us an immense responsibility to better and improve the quality of lives of the people, and we should commit ourselves never to occupy the wrong side of this history.
A little over a month ago, South Africans organized events to celebrate and mark the first decade of freedom and democracy in the land of their birth, a decade that valued and respected human life, a decade that restored dignity to all of us, a decade that united diverse communities, a decade that brought hope in place of despair, and most importantly, a decade that asserted a sense of self-being, pride and patriotism.
In the words of my predecessor, Dr. Ngoako Ramatlhodi, "the dark days of repression, minority rule and institutionalised racism have become part of the fading memory. The hostility amongst our selves has been replaced by the encouraging signs of reconciliation and common nationhood". The new horizon has, indeed, dawned on us.
Given these achievements, our province is equally poised to become a much more better place to live in, a place of hope for all its citizens. It must, therefore, become the responsibility of every one of us to make Limpopo a province that knows no colour, race, creed, ethnicity or any form of chauvinism, a province we must all identify with as home.
Mr. Speaker
In no uncertain terms, this marks the turning point of the great journey that began no less than ten years ago, a journey towards building a caring society led by a caring government. In this regard, those of us still alive to the challenge have a responsibility and a duty to advance and lead our people towards this chosen destiny.
The overwhelming mandate our people have given us in the recent elections --- carries with it an expectation of an accelerated action against poverty, unemployment, homelessness and all forms of human suffering. Our people would like to see victory over disease related to poverty like TB, cholera, malnutrition, malaria, HIV and AIDS. The complete eradication of the final vestiges of apartheid as it is manifested in settlement patterns, the quality of services and provision of basic services such as portable water for consumption and domestic use, electricity and road infrastructure are key amongst the challenges we are called upon to confront.
We clearly listened and heard our people as they pronounced themselves during the election campaigns.
1. We have heard them saying they embrace the notion of a social contract
2. We have heard them saying they are satisfied with the progress and achievements of the past ten years of freedom and democracy
3. We have also heard them saying that they will prefer a faster pace of service delivery in housing, education, health and all other social services
4. We have heard them saying that whilst we have succeeded in keeping the levels of crime low; a lot more still needs to be done
5. The message was also loud and clear that they are prepared to be involved in learnerships and any form of training to better their skills to meet the needs of our economy for their own benefit
6. Above all, they said that they are more than ready to be involved in the Expanded Public Works Programme in order to roll out the infrastructure of their province as they stamp out unemployment.
The summation of our people's message is that they are more than ready to build a people's contract to fight poverty and create work.
Learning from history, we do not doubt the commitment our people have expressed in realising these objectives. In the past we have seen our people in their numbers responding to the President's clarion call to volunteer in Letsema activities. This therefore means that the social contract call is not new. We should consolidate on the ideal of a people centred and people driven culture of governance as we enter the second decade of freedom and democracy.
Mr. Speaker
True to our history of being a nation of perceived miracles, we are beginning the second decade of our freedom and democracy on a high note by winning the World Soccer Cup Bid, adding on the previous decade's miracle of resolving our political conflict and thus achieving freedom and democracy through peaceful means.
This, Mr. Speaker represents a major break with tradition, as Africa will for the first time play host to this magnificent event, an achievement that is both national and continental.
The country exploded into ululations and celebrations upon hearing the news that South Africa will host the Soccer World Cup Competition in 2010. Our people's consciousness and interest in sport has been aroused more than ever before.
Whilst boosting the economy of our country and the continent as a whole, the event presents a unique opportunity for a renewed enthusiasm in sport, and therefore calls upon us to roll out infrastructure to meet these expectations.
The process of refurbishing and renovating Peter Mokaba stadium is on course. This stadium has been identified as one of the stadiums in which some of the games will be staged. We are sure that the work of upgrading this stadium will be completed in good time before the competition. Government will also put more effort to prevail over SAFA and FIFA executive to ensure that other national stadiums like Giyani and Thohoyandou are used as grounds for training sessions.
The next step we will take is to appoint a committee of MECs to run and provide strategic leadership in preparation for the World Cup Competition.
Our province is renowned to be endowed with legends in various fields of human endeavour. We pride ourselves with many community builders and stars both in sport and development. We would like to take this opportunity to call upon these role models to lend a hand in unearthing the new talent in preparation for this world cup competition.
Mr. Speaker
Tourism is another industry certain to flourish as we prepare for this historic event. Our unspoiled habitat, which remains the pride of this province, will be exposed to the people of the continent and the world, thereby adding value to the course of making Limpopo the best destination.
The recent South African National Parks' launch of Mapungubwe National Park in our province will contribute immensely to the formation of another major transfrontier conservation area, the Limpopo-Shashe Park, which will include Botswana, South Africa and Zimbabwe, alongside the Greater Limpopo Park which includes Mozambique in the east.
This development will add impetus to the tourist attractions both prior and post the world cup competition.
The challenge, however, is to increase the number of tourist attractions, and therefore there is an urgent need to speed up the declaration of Dzata in Vhembe and Tjate in Sekhukhune to the status of the World Heritage Sites.
Our rich cultural and artistic diversity is the strength, which has never been exploited to its fullest potential. As one travels to all convention centres in the country, be it in Johannesburg, Durban or Cape Town, the floors and corridors are decorated with art and craft from this province. One wonders where these crafts are taken from and who are the people producing this artwork, and most importantly whether the crafters and carvers benefit from their talent and toil.
In this regard, we are faced with a challenge of creating a better environment for this talented sons and daughters of Limpopo to thrive in a beneficial manner.
Mr. Speaker
The Department of Transport has recently gone into a strategic retreat that produced a transport strategy dubbed "Limpopo in Motion". Guided by this strategy the process of putting in place a Road Safety Management system capable of meeting such enormous challenges as the forthcoming World Cup will have to begin.
The activities of the world cup competition would indeed require in some instances the fastest and reliable mode of transport. We would therefore be required to improve our airports and landing strips. In this regard, the granting of a license for Hoedspruit Airport is more urgent than ever before.
In the same vein, there is an urgent need to increase the number of service men and women in order to realise the objectives of Limpopo in Motion strategy.
In addition to traffic management studies offered by our colleges, our Transport Committee is facilitating the process of invoking the services and professional expertise of University of the North to offer transport related degrees and courses. On the other hand, we will take through our college 500 students in the next two years, and a further 2000 in the next five years.
This, we believe, will go a long way towards enhancing the capacity of our law enforcement agencies in curbing the road carnage experienced year-in-year-out, and thereby saving millions of the lives of our people as they travel from one point to another. As opposed to what has become a traditional practice, our traffic safety campaigns will now become a year round focus rather than peak holiday period bounds.
Mr. Speaker
The legislative and policy framework is in place, and we therefore remain steadfast that there is no envisaged major policy shift. Instead, what we are required to do is to ensure that we develop coherent and workable action plans aimed at implementing the existing policies.
The economy of our province has been growing at a rate double the national average. What has, however, been worrying is the concomitant increase in the levels of unemployment. The challenge becomes how do we turn around this paradoxical situation of inverse proportion of economic growth and unemployment.
Guided by these expositions, we shall in the next three months convene sectoral summits, i.e. in mining, tourism, agriculture, construction, manufacturing and other sectors.
These summits will have to interrogate, in more detail, the supply chain of the economic activities of the province. This will amongst others include analysis of production patterns, storage & warehousing up to marketing. This analysis will give us a better sense of what needs to be done in order to improve the economic activities in the province.
Our expectation is that the preparatory work by the departments concerned would have to start immediately. This will include consultation with relevant stakeholders and intense engagement on the possible action plans, which will amongst others address itself to specific targets, time frames and implementation mechanisms.
It is also expected that the broad framework, the Provincial Growth and Development Strategy, PGDS, would then be refined and adopted not later than October this year.
Mr. Speaker
The transformation of our procurement system is on course. This process seeks to align the procurement system with Public Finance Management Act. This will entail the devolution of the procurement functions to the relevant departments. The process is also aimed at ensuring that accounting officers take responsibility for their actions.
We are looking forward to concluding this process in the next three months. Obviously we will not allow a situation where the benefits of economies of scale are compromised. It is envisaged that the tender Board Repealing Bill will contain a mechanism for maximising the economies of scale, i.e. a mechanism which is aimed at procuring the transversal services centrally. The central committee will be comprised of accounting officers (HoDs) or their delegated officers.
Mr. Speaker,
Just last week, a concerted effort towards realising the objectives of fighting poverty and creating work was unveiled by the President in launching the Expanded Public Works Programme. We think it was befitting that the programme was launched in this province because Limpopo distinguished itself through successful implementation of such programmes as Gundo Lashu and Sakhasonke i.e. Labour intensive methods of rolling out the infrastructure.
The challenge, however, is to sustain the momentum and expand the horizon on the effective and efficient ways of rolling out both the social and economic infrastructure through this method.
We should also hasten to indicate that plans are underway to ensure that these programmes are incorporated into the developmental plans of municipalities, i.e. the IDPs and LEDs.
Mr. Speaker
Much work has been done on combating the scourge of HIV and AIDS. We will continue with our programme of prevention, care and support, including appropriate treatment of people suffering from this monster that continues to rear its ugly head in our society.
Preparatory work to provide anti-retrovirals in the designated hospitals is progressing very well and linking up with the national processes.
Mr. Speaker
The support and capacity building for the farming community, particularly small scale farmers has become the centrepiece of our overall agricultural development plan. In this context, we will continue to forge ahead with our land reform programme.
It is expected that all outstanding land claims and disputes will be resolved in due course, and this, we believe will go a long way towards ensuring that more land is delivered to the needy and deserving sectors of our community.
Mr. Speaker, Ladies and Gentlemen
The success of all these challenges raised by people during the time of elections, will largely depend on how we master the art of managing cooperative governance amongst the three spheres of government, i.e. national, provincial and local levels.
There are various platforms and forums, which are in place to realise the objectives of co-operative governance. What is left for us is to perfect the operations of the Premier-Mayors Forum, and various other linkages between the provincial departments and their counterparts in municipalities. These linkages should in a big way, close the capacity gap, which is still apparent at local government level.
The provincial government should take more interest in the implementation of the new Municipal Finance Management Act, which is due to commence in July. The Provincial treasury should play an active role in assisting municipalities to implement this enabling and progressive legislation.
As we continue to score more success in this regard, the remaining challenge will be how we integrate the systems in order to develop a common database, which will guarantee qualitative and reliable information for planning purposes at all levels.
We can obviously not afford to have our local government system concluding its decade of existence next year without resolving all these challenges.
Mr. Speaker
The legacy of the apartheid system continues to haunt us, particularly on the question of morality. Our success on Moral Regeneration depends largely on the achievements we will continue to register in reversing this legacy.
Mr. Speaker, all of us are concerned about the perception of the levels of fraud, corruption and impropriety in our society.
Government has gone a long way in putting up measures and systems in place in order to deal with these evil deeds.
Our efforts on combating these acts of immorality will never bear the required fruits unless everybody gets involved, be it business, Church and civil society in general. We hold a firm view that in every corrupt activity, there are two or more parties involved. It is alleged that in many instances business always initiate the first step of bribery. In cases where the public service initiates these acts, business always comes out as a willing partner in these dubious acts.
The fight against all these acts of immorality cannot only be confined to government. It is a matter that every sector, be it business, church or civil society, should be involved in rooting out this malice.
Mr. Speaker,
The ANC government acknowledges the role of traditional leaders in the governance processes of our country. In order to entrench this role, the Traditional Leadership and Governance Framework Act have been passed. The intention of the Act is to transform traditional leadership to be in line with the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa. In this Province, we will continue, together with our traditional leaders, to seek measures to give meaning to the implementation of this Act.
We are at this stage in a position to announce that time has come for us to combine both the political and administrative functions of traditional affairs. Members will recall that the political function has been in the Premier's office whilst the administrative function remained in the department of Local Government and Housing. These functions will now be located in the Premier's office. In the past ten years, government has made significant progress in ensuring that there is uniformity in dealing with issues of traditional leadership. You will recall that prior 1994 each of the three Bantustans had its own way of dealing with this institution.
In 1994, the Province only had 450 headmen or indunas who were recognised and remunerated out of 1742 rightful claimants. To date, government has already appointed 1055 headmen bringing the total of recognised and remunerated headmen to 1505. We will ensure that in the next nine months the remaining 237 headmen are recognised and remunerated.
Mr Speaker, Ladies and Gentlemen
Many of you may be aware that when the current Executive Council was announced we indicated that there will be a process of reconfiguring government departments.
This is aimed at realigning the provincial government departments in a manner that will enable us to be in a position to meet the challenges of our day and time.
In this regard, we will be requesting the services of the Public Accounts Committee of the Legislature to convene public hearings in order to tap on the wisdom of the people of the province. Equally, the services of the Public Service Commission will be called upon to advise us on how the administrative face of our government should look like. We are hoping to conclude this process in due course.
The department of Education has been tasked to develop a Human Resource Development strategy for the province. The strategy would have to capture the skills needs of the province in line with the competitive edges of our province. It will also have to address itself to how we confront the issue of HIV and AIDS, which is posing a threat to the achievements of the past ten years of freedom and democracy.
We are looking forward to the finalisation and adoption of this strategy when we convene our Executive Council Lekgotla in the next two weeks.
It is also expected that the conceptualisation around issues of learnerships and Community Development Workers will be further clarified in this forum.
Ladies and gentlemen
You might have observed that we deliberately omitted dealing in detail with issues of line function departments, and concentrated more on strategic issues in line with the demands of our day and time. It is our firm view that our progress and achievements, including plans for this financial year were sufficiently dealt with by my predecessor during his last state of the province address three months back, i.e. on the 12th of February this year. It is further expected that line function departments will expand in more detail these plans during the departmental budget debates. Ours here is to fill-up the gaps in terms of the strategic issues, which might not have been adequately covered in the earlier presentation.
Mr. Speaker
We are humbled and overwhelmed by the enthusiasm with which the people of this province and beyond have received their new provincial leadership. Our office continues to be inundated with messages of support from ordinary people. This is serving as a source of inspiration and courage for us in our endeavour to better and improve their livings conditions. We therefore commit ourselves never to fall short on their expectations.
United in our diversity we have, in the past decade, managed to pull through. We must in the same spirit and with the same vigour, forge ahead into the future and make this decade another milestone in pursuit of the ideals of the African century, a century of hope, abundance and self-sufficiency for the sons and daughters of Africa.
Let us all leave here inspired and considering ourselves the most fortunate that we call this province home. Let us all go and work towards reaching this goal of human fulfilment, for it is possible and within reach.
Ke ka moo re rego, kodumela moepathutse because we have through time come to know that mintirho ya vulavula. Ndi fhedzi vhathu vha shumaho who will prosper to become barui, dzikhorane en die selfstandigers.
Ro livhuwa, Inkomu, Re a leboga, Nda!
Issued by: Office of the Premier, Limpopo Provincial Government
27 May 2004
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