Date: 15/10/2004
Source: Ministry of Provincial and Local Government
Title: S Mufamadi: Limpopo Provincial Growth and Development Summit


ADDRESS DELIVERED BY MINISTER FOR PROVINCIAL AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT, S MUFAMADI, ON THE OCCASION OF THE LIMPOPO PROVINCIAL GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT SUMMIT, 15 October 2004

Programme Director
The Honourable Premier of Limpopo, Mr Sello Moloto
His Lordship the Mayor of Waterberg District, Mr Godfrey Molekwa
Members of the Executive Council here present
The Leadership and Members of the Provincial Legislature
Mayors and councillors
Traditional Leaders of our people
Representatives of private sector organisations
Representatives of our institutions of higher learning
Ladies and Gentlemen

The Growth and Development Summit takes place two days after the World Economic Forum (WEF) published its report on the 2004 competitive rankings. Ours is one of the 104 national economies featuring in those Growth Competitive Index (GCI) rankings. As delegates to this summit will recall, in 1994, we inherited an economy mired in a prolonged recession. According to this report, in the short period of ten years, our economy has produced a level of performance which places it in the pole position within the region, and, at 41 in the global rankings.

This verdict constitutes a useful feedback on the effectiveness of the measures our government has undertaken since at least 1996, in order to achieve stability in the face of continued macro-economic turmoil. More importantly, it provides us with insights into areas where further progress is called for, in order to improve the environment for improved economic activity, and generate sustainable growth.

The provincial summit builds on the laudable results of the National Growth and Development Summit which took place in Midrand in June 2003. The national summit laid a good foundation for growth-promoting cooperative relations between spheres of government, the public sector and the private sector, the labour movement, and community-based organisations. Accordingly, the usefulness of your decisions will be determined by the value they add to the national effort at enhancing the ability of our economy to grow.

Programme Director,

The factors which place a brake on growth and development are well known to all of us. It is universally acknowledged that in the context of the changed world economy, an unskilled labour force has become a competitive liability. It is also true that no economy can break out of productive inefficiency if it continues to experience stagnant investment. No economy can grow and develop sustainably in the absence of serious investment in the creation and maintenance of social and economic infrastructure. It is only when we pay collective and systematic attention to these matters, that we shall be able to place our economy on a higher growth trajectory.

In the 2004-05 financial year, there has been a significant growth in the equitable share of the provincial government sphere. This increase in the provincial share of nationally raised revenue communicates a message which says that in our estimation, provinces are key component of the development state. They are expected to move decisively towards playing a developmental role rather than only dispense painkillers to those who are placed at the lower end of the market.

This province must be commended for being one of the five provinces that have completed the drafting of a Provincial Growth and Development Strategy. We are agreed that the development of provincial strategies is one of the tasks that must be given priority attention. The strategies must indicate the various developmental potentialities of the composite district areas, the province,