State of the Province Address delivered by the Premier of the Eastern Cape, Honourable Mrs Nosimo Balindlela

Madam Speaker of the Legislature, and Deputy Speaker
National Ministers and Deputy Ministers present here today
Members of the Executive Council
Members of the Provincial Legislature
Executive mayors and mayors
Members of the Judiciary
Commissioner of Police, and heads of our security services
Ambassadors
Leaders of organs of the State, including Chapter 9 Institutions
The esteemed traditional leadership
Leaders of political parties
Leaders of organised business and organised labour
Leaders of organised faith based organisations
Leaders of the tertiary sector institutions
Leaders of the non-government sector
Province of the Eastern Cape
Republic of South Africa
Leaders of the Disability Movement
Heads of Departments, and senior civil servants
Members of the international community and donor organisations
To all the citizens and the visitors in the Eastern Cape Province.
Kubantu basemakhaya ababukele komabonakude kwezithili zase:
• Amathole - Molwen' aph' eDutywa Town Hall
• Ukhahlamba - Molwen' aph' eKatkop (phantsi ko- Masipala
wase-Elundini)
• Alfred Nzo - Molwen' aph' eMount Ayliff-Sigidimi Location
• Chris Hani - Molwen' aph' eIndwe Hall
• Cacadu - Molwen' aph' ePaterson Community Hall
• O.R Tambo - Molwen" aph' eLibode Town Hall
• Nelson Mandela Metro - Molwen' aph' eMotherwell
N.U.13- ku Tyhinirha Street
Bhotani lusapho lwakowethu.
Nani baphula-phuli boMhlobo we Nene, ingakumbi kuwe Cira. Baw uMagwa
umphathi sitishi sosasazo umhlobo Wenene, mpilontle-mpilonde, nani be CKI
nabamamele kwizikhululo zosasazo zasemakhaya. Kwabo balele
ngandletyananye kumaziko ezeMpilo, kumaziko ezoluleko, kumakhaya
abantwana, abantu abadala nabakhubazekileyo, ezikolweni nakwizithuthi zethu
ezisezindleni, ndiyanibhotisa.

To all those who have lost their loved ones, we extend our condolences in
particular to the recent loss of:
• Mama Daisy Ncaca
• Mama Ruth Pityana
• Comrade John Gomomo - igqala lomzabalazo nowayengu President we COSATU
• Stompie Mavi - a jazz legend who inspired many young jazz musicians as he proudly sang in IsiXhosa language
• Edgar Ngoyi- a Veteran, former president of United Democratic Front
• Chieftainess Nombulelo Nowinase, brutally murdered together with her children on 24 September 2007
• Dr Pox
• Mr Lloyd
• Dr Macconachie

Let us observe a moment of silence for these fallen heroes.

Madam Speaker, I have pleasure in congratulating the following for their contributions in their respective areas of specialty, and for putting the province on the map:
• Duo of Bill Godfrey and Peter van Kets by winning the epic trans-Atlantic voyage known as the Woodvale Atlantic Rowing Race. They were at sea for 51 days.
• Mr Greg Miles, a renowned horse trainer
• Dr Edith
• The Anglican Arch Bishop Thabo Makgoba
• The Catholic Bishop, Wutternberg, Aliwal North
• Premier Soccer League (PSL) Star of the Year Ace Ngcobo of Willowvale, who has been included in the FIFA panel of 2010 referees
• The organisers of the Vodacom Challenge for getting Chiefs and Pirates, two premier clubs commanding thousands of supporters to play in our Province for two consecutive years beginning in 2007. This is an opportunity to drum up support for the FIFA 2010 soccer World Cup. We are proud to be hosting the SAA Tennis Open in East London, and encourage people to support this prestigious event.

Special greetings to Mama Dideka Mhlaba, our First Lady of the Eastern Cape and Mama Nomaka Mbeki who is turning 92 years old tomorrow.

Madam Speaker all of us are concerned about the emergency into which we have been thrown due to unexpected disruptions in the supply of electricity. Government's view is that the current power outages pose a challenge to our province but, more importantly, they provide an opportunity for us to act in unity to ensure that our province's economic growth is not retarded.

President Thabo Mbeki, in the State of the Nation address last Friday, extended our apology to all South Africans for the power outages. As a Provincial Government, we associate ourselves with the President's apology and we thank you for the manner in which you are assisting the country to resolve the crisis by following many energy-saving initiatives. Your government will continue to mobilise those resources which are required to leverage investment in our economy by the private sector. We are committed to the realisation of the Alcan investment in the smelter at Coega because this will lead to direct jobs as well as downstream business opportunities on a similar scale to the multi billion rand Steinhoff investment.

Any talk that government or our parastatals are re-considering the aluminium smelter investment is deceitful. The current crisis has alerted all South Africans to the need for our economy to become more energy efficient. Government is committed to this approach and, as a consequence, managers of all government buildings have been told to reduce their electricity consumption. As government, we are putting plans in place to reduce energy usage in our buildings. We can all join hands and use energy more efficiently by:
• turning off our geysers
• switching off lights when leaving the room
• converting to solar power and gas.

Madam Speaker
Throughout the year, government takes time to evaluate its work and to assess our achievements against the commitments that we make to our electorate. This is done through a range of tools, namely:
• the Presidential izimbizo
• the Executive Council and municipal mayoral outreaches
• legislature oversight mechanisms
• provincial parliament days for the youth, disabled people and children
• interaction with our social partners such as the National Business Initiative, organised labour, organised business and civil society.

These are all efforts made by our electorate to hold us accountable and the
State of the Province Address is located within that process of accounting to the electorate. In coming before you to report, we would have failed if we did not go back to the commitments we made in the 2004 Election Manifesto, and reflect on some service delivery gaps that have been identified by the electorate and our society at large. Since it is not possible to enumerate all these concerns in the State of the Province Address, government has published a booklet which details the service delivery achievements of the respective departments, and I invite you to interact with this material.

I am happy to note that more than 90% of the commitments made to the people last year have been realised. I wish to reassure you that those not realised will be completed during 2008. The key driver of our transformation for the Eastern Cape is the Provincial Growth and Development Plan (PGDP). It remains the compass that guides growth and service delivery path of government, in unison with the integrated development plans of the local sphere of government. The PGDP outlines a ten-year vision of sustainable growth and human development in the Province. It is a strategic framework and sets out feasible programmes and defines a fiscal framework to expedite achievement of the national goal of "a better life for all". The PGDP also includes programmes to address the short-term needs of the Province, as well as the long-term strategies to improve the overall human development index of the province. Clusters, departments, public entities, the local sphere and the relevant national government departments continuously seek to achieve alignment to the goals of the PGDP.

It is important, Madam Speaker, to emphasise that the PGDP should not only be seen as a growth plan for provincial government but a mediated consultative blueprint for growth that includes the input and active participation of all our stakeholders.

The PGDP 2004-2014 set fourteen quantifiable targets, aligned with national targets and the Millennium Development Goals, namely to:
• ensure an economic growth rate of 5-8% per annum
• halve unemployment rate by 2014
• ensure 60-80% reduction in the number of households living below the poverty line and proportion of people suffering from hunger by 2014
• ensure food self-sufficiency in the Province by 2014
• ensure universal education by 2014, with all children progressing to the first exit point in a secondary education
• improve literacy rate by 50% by 2014
• ensure clean water for all is provided by 2008
• elimination of sanitation backlogs by 2009
• eliminate gender disparity in education and employment by 2014
• reduce by two thirds the under five mortality rate and three quarters the maternal mortality rate by 2014
• to halt and reverse the spread of HIV and AIDS and tuberculosis (TB) by 2014

The key indicators show that the Province has made significant progress in respect of these targets.
• The province's growth rate is on an upward trend and, at 5,2% for 2006, we have the fourth highest growth rate in the country. The largest industries in the provincial economy, based on their contribution to GDP were:
- Finance, real estate and business services industry at 20,2 percent
- general government services sector at 18,5 percent
- the manufacturing industry at 16,6
• The official provincial unemployment figures reflect significant fluctuations in the unemployment rate released by Statistics South Africa in March and September (of each year) over the last few years:
- March 2006 - unemployment rate was 22,1%
- September 2006 - unemployment rate was 32,0%
- March 2007 - unemployment rate declined to 25,5%.

We have established a jobs and growth barometer which will be launched shortly to provide us with more conclusive data on our performance. We are confident that the newly acquired provincial jobs and growth barometer, which will be launched shortly, will be able to provide us with more timely and conclusive data on growth and employment performance. This will enable us to readily redirect our interventions and ensure that we prevent the downward spirals in both growth and job creation.

With regard to basic service delivery, the picture on the whole shows that we are experiencing a positive trend.
• Primary education is nearly universal, with only 2,6% of children not attending primary school as compared to 4,5% in 2002.
• The infant mortality rate has decreased consistently from 4,2% in 2003/04 to 3,32% in 2006/07.
• Some 84% of adults are functionally literate and 96% of youths are literate.
• 45,7% of households had access to piped water in the dwelling or on site in 2006, compared to 37,1% in 2002.

Notwithstanding this upward trend, it still concerns us that 51 000 households, or 3% of all households in the province, still suffer from hunger.

Strategies are in place to decisively address this unacceptable state of destitution.

The House will remember, Madam Speaker, that in 2007, government initiated an assessment of the PGDP, given that it has now been in implementation for three and a half years. We have invited all our social partners to participate in this assessment through various working groups. This assessment will be completed in March 2008 and will be released in April 2008. Preliminary information emerging from the assessment shows us that, notwithstanding significant gains realised by the PGDP, a lot of work still needs to be done to align the PGDP with new government strategies to accelerate growth. It has also shown that we need to rethink the institutional arrangements for implementing the PGDP for maximum impact.

Other shortcomings identified in the assessment include:
• The lack of a provincial industrial strategy.
• Other entities and institutions not using the PGDP as a platform for planning and prioritisation.
• Many people especially in the rural areas do not know about the PGDP.
• Our economic growth indicators do not distinguish between growth that creates jobs and jobless growth
• Land issues play an important role and need to receive critical attention
• More resources to be planned for translation of the PGDP into provincial languages

Government intends that this process of continuous evaluation will be carried through to 2014. In giving further impetus to the PGDP, we need to widen access to productive resources.
We need to:
• open access to resources for small businesses, emerging farmers and contractors and entrepreneurs
• ensure that our people have access to appropriate technologies
• assist in identifying opportunities in the value chains for agro processing, forestry and timber processing, tourism, business process outsourcing, chemical industries and cultural industries.
• affirm backward and forward linkages into the rural economy
• ensure beneficiation of natural resources and agricultural output by local communities.

The assessment also revealed that rural development, especially the agricultural initiatives identified under our agrarian transformation programme, will not succeed without land reform on a massive scale. It is true that we cannot build houses, let alone build a viable economy for our province, if we do not deal with the land issues. Our PGDP review also revealed that within the context of institutional transformation of the public sector we need to mobilise our civil servants so that they become activists in pursuit of a pro poor developmental agenda. Provincial government has made important strides in working in a more integrated and collective fashion. Successful clusters underpin the success of the PGDP and accelerated and sustained service delivery. We have three clusters which are operational, namely
• Governance and Administration
• Economic Growth and Infrastructure and
• Social Needs Cluster.
• A fourth cluster, on Justice, Crime Prevention and Security, will possibly be established in the coming few months.

Madam Speaker
In responding to our collective mandate of delivering business unusual, we are embracing the suite of 24 Apex priorities announced by the President.

Accordingly, we have identified that 20 of these speak directly to the accelerated service delivery focus of the Province. Intensive work has been undertaken to allocate these to the three clusters and to integrate them into the provincial High Impact Priority Projects (HIPPs). In this way, we have already made strides in implementing some of these priorities, notably in relation to accelerating the development and acquisition of strategic skills, filling vacancies, setting up a provincial war room on poverty, and sustaining the provincial economic growth trajectory. Mindful that the thrust of the 24 priorities is speeding up and improving the ability of the state to deliver services, we will continue to move forward with innovation on other priority areas including fast tracking agrarian and land reform, building partnerships to fight crime, bringing education and health care services closer to the people, and speeding up the process of building the infrastructure we need to achieve our economic and social goals.

In our efforts to further accelerate service delivery and improve the impact of our performance, the provincial government decided on HIPPs extracted from the PGDP and located within the three clusters. The specific selection criteria for the nine HIPPs are:
• largest number of beneficiaries (pro poor) and targeting vulnerable groups
• high visibility for the projects
• the active participation of the targeted vulnerable groups
• high impact especially in poor communities
• immediate, short to long term gains
• quick gains with the project achievements becoming visible within the first six to eight months of commencing with implementation
• projects must be sustainable and in line with the PGDP objectives.
• a monitoring process must be in place
• measured direct impact (social accounting matrix) as primary indicator
• use procurement figures as secondary indicator
• credible service delivery
• projects must be spatially referenced.

These principles are applied consistently in guiding the ongoing work of clusters.

Madam Speaker
With regard to the economic growth and infrastructure development performance of the province, I would like to focus on a few issues with the hope that the MECs will expand on these matters when they present their reports. I am happy to report that we are witnessing a more even spread of industrial activity in the province, directly as a result of government leadership. In the past year, our urban centres have benefited from generally vibrant and expanding economies and export-oriented investment within especially the automotive sector, and tourism.
As the President noted in his State of the Nation address this year, the
Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP) has exceeded its targets. Some 39 492 jobs have been created in our Province, of which 50% have gone to women. The programme has established a good baseline for us to expand the rate of job creation. The Eastern Cape construction contact centre has been established to provide support to emerging contractors pertaining to registration as a legal business entity, Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB) grading and access to finance institutions. Our programme to attach unemployed youth to FET Colleges and place them in government projects for experiential training and professional registration, is a precursor to the National Youth Service.

We are working with the top 20 manufacturing industries in the province to ensure that procurement strategies are developed for the export orders identified earlier, to source materials from suppliers within the province.

Our Provincial Industrial Strategy, which will be formally launched in May this year, outlines broad government efforts that are necessary to transform the structure and distribution of industrial activity in the Eastern Cape to meet particular economic, social and political objectives. These objectives include job creation (and job retention), increased and sustained growth, more even income distribution, more equal spatial distribution of economic activity, deracialising ownership of the economy and promoting social forms of ownership).

The strategy aligns with the national industrial policy framework and local economic development (LED) strategies. In this way we will ensure the sustainable development of priority projects agreed to in the recently held District Growth and Development Summits (DGDS).The European Union LED support programme (Thina Sinako) will go a long way in demonstrating best practice which will ensure that our LED initiatives are sustainable. In my State of the Province Address of 2007, I committed that we would focus our pro-poor strategies to develop the rural economy so that we can create more employment and in the process bridge the First and the Second Economy.

The Mzimvubu Project is key to turning around the economy of the region to establish a modern agro industrial economy centred around Mthatha, in the same way that the Industrial Development Zones of Coega and East London are clustering industrial development in those areas. Our strategies to inject much needed investment into the poorer eastern part of our province have begun to bear fruit. Through a special purpose vehicle in the form of ASGISA (Eastern Cape) Pty Ltd, business plans for investment by Government and State-owned enterprises have been developed and are now being packaged into bankable high impact projects. Working closely with local municipalities, communities and key stakeholders AsgiSA (EC) will play a facilitative and catalytic role in unlocking investment opportunities estimated at more than R4,2 billion through rural development zones. These programmes include forestry development and timber processing, intensive agriculture and agro-processing. They are part of the National Industrial Action Plan, have a strategic fit with the PGDP as well as municipal priorities as outlined in the District Growth and Development Summits and IDPs.

Key tasks over the next six months will be strengthening linkages, consultation and communication with all relevant stakeholders, in particular local communities and municipalities, develop implementation models that will optimise economic benefits to local communities, and finalising and aligning land use plans, environmental management plans and spatial development plans. We will also have a good understanding by then of the employment value of the bankable projects. I am proud to announce that Mr Simphiwe Somdyala has been appointed as the CEO of AsgiSA (EC). Our policy in respect of the transformation of the agricultural sector, known as the Green Revolution, integrates infrastructure clustering, human resource capacity building, introduction of appropriate technologies and agricultural research to produce better crops. Our vision is for community farmers to produce food for everyday consumption as well as for agro-processing and selling to generate income for replanting and expansion.

The leading example of this agrarian transformation within our province is the Mbashe Green Revolution pilot. This is a template of co-operation and organisation, with villages, communities, women and youth groups organising themselves into collective buying and marketing structures.

The development of alternative and local vegetable marketing and processing facilities through an agri-park concept ensures that excess household production is appropriately channelled to benefit producers. Mbashe provides local employment and a supply of processed, nutritious and preserved foodstuffs for local communities. The agri-park initiative has been developed over the past four years in cooperation with the University of Fort Hare. The first satellite agri-park is being initiated at Dutywa, to contribute to sustaining the benefits realized in the Green Revolution Pilot of Mbashe. The development of the previous Tsolo College into a new Agricultural Rural Development Institute has commenced and cooperation with Walter Sisulu University will extend the breadth and depth of training and capacity development offered. As I have stated, releasing land is key to scaling up agricultural production and for economic development. Significant progress has been made in finalising restitution claims with only 4. 5% or 818 claims outstanding out of the 17 814 that were lodged. Outstanding land tenure matters will be addressed through the convening of the Provincial Land Summit in March 2008.

Models of farmer and producer support initiatives such as that seen in the Dordrecht cheese factory; the development of small unit ostrich production at Ngqushwa; and increasing the number of improved Nguni herds in communities, are definite examples that such projects can be sustainable if we work together. These initiatives are made sustainable by the financing model which ensures that farmers benefiting from government subsidies plough back 25% of their income into the financing institution.

We are happy to report that our province is accessible as never before, as we implement the Provincial 2010 Public Transport Plan, which links air, road, rail, maritime, taxi and bus operations. In the current financial year substantial resources are being invested on our road network. This includes building new roads, rebuilding and maintaining existing roads. R1. 5 billion will be spent in the next financial year, with R943 million going to new roads and rehabilitation and R484 million for road maintenance. The extension of the N2 from Kei Mouth to Port St Johns, the Wild Coast meander is being designed to unlock the tourism potential of the scenic coastline. In addition, the 248 km road will also facilitate agricultural and economic productivity, and access to government services at schools, clinics and police stations.

The building of this road over six years at an estimated budget of R1, 3 billion will be done through labour intensive methods and alternative surfacing technologies. It will create an estimated 4 000 direct job opportunities and create opportunities for sustainable development along the Wild Coast. Work will start during the next financial year. The R72 (between East London and Port Elizabeth) is being upgraded to at least a Class I road in order to cope with the current traffic volumes. This project, costed at R142 million, reflects our vision for the province and takes into account future business, tourist and social use of the road. The Provincial Cabinet resolved in November 2007 to allocate R300 million to the Department of Roads and Transport for restoring inaccessible and impassable roads and addressing backlogs in these programmes that particularly affect rural communities.

We have also allocated R363 million for Expanded Public Works Projects in road construction, providing job opportunities for 6 000 people on five projects. The R70 million upgrade of the Bhisho Airport will be completed in April this year, when advanced pilot training will start in earnest under the Port Alfred based 43 Air School. Mthatha airport is being upgraded at a cost of R60 million. Some 5 000 households will be involved in the roadside maintenance and housekeeping programme on rural roads. Affordable and safe transport for rural commuters is going to be available with the launch of the Africa's best AB 350 bus passenger service. Phase one of this innovative and sustainable transport solution is rolling out, with the purchase of 58 new Scania buses operating from 4 depots in Mbizana, Matatiele, Mount Frere and Mthatha. All people aged 80 years and older have been granted free bus rides for the first 6 month period on the routes to be serviced by these buses. Ultimately, all three phases will entail 175 new Scania buses operating from seven depots serving 166 routes in OR Tambo, Alfred Nzo, Chris Hani, Ukhahlamba and Amathole Districts.

It is encouraging that despite challenges, the buildings of our stadia are continuing according to schedule. This event will greatly assist us in creating employment, transferring skills and ensuring sustainable business enterprises in construction, the hospitality and tourism industries and related sport businesses. The 2010 World Cup provides an ideal opportunity for development and revitalisation of specific nodes in our province. We see that not only in the North End-Sydenham area is surrounding the match stadium in Nelson Mandela Bay but also in other parts of the province such as the urban and peri urban areas surrounding King Sabata Dalinyebo Stadium.

I am pleased to announce that an initial amount of R100 million has been allocated to kick start the building of this facility. Our efforts to improve the skills of employees in the provincial administration has seen us spending R62 million in training 33 453 employees to improve our capacity to deliver in line with our service delivery demands. In the evaluation of our agreement with Fort Hare, participants have indicated a high level of satisfaction and appreciation that learning does take place in our training programmes. During 2008/09 financial year we will redefine our model of investment and put in place an integrated capacity building programme that will make our staff more competent and ready to operate within a single public service.

In order to ensure the province continues to develop high levels of skills in critical economic growth areas, we have invested more than R85 million in supporting financially needy students at our institutions of higher learning to obtain a qualification. This investment since 2002 has supported more than 9 000 students of whom 1427 graduated and more than 500 are permanently employed.
We would like to urge our parents to ensure that their Grade 12 learners apply for admission at our institutions before the closing date of applications in order that they are given provisional admission so as to be considered for financial assistance. We have set aside R500, 000 to assist those successful financially needy students with registration fees so as to be able to register at our institutions.

In linking our skills development interventions to job creation and poverty alleviation, we have now 203 unemployed youth in learnerships across the province. These learnerships provide our unemployed youth with the opportunity to learn and gain workplace experience. These learnerships are aimed at providing permanent employment and businesses are encouraged to participate in this initiative. We have seen FABCOMP placing some of these learners in permanent positions, as well as Coega. We will intensify our efforts in this regard and place a further 500 unemployed youth in learnerships during 2008/09 until we achieve our plan of placing 2 848 youth in learnership programmes both in District Municipalities, the Metro and Rural Economic Development Zone Projects (AsgiSA Projects such as Mbashe Co-operative development, Mzimvubu River Basin, Ugie Timber Industry, East London and Coega IDZs) by 2010.

In an effort to address the plight of high rate of unemployment graduates in our province, we have started implementing a comprehensive Unemployed Graduate Development Programme. As the province we have made a commitment to place at least 50 unemployed graduates in one-year internship programmes in each department. This programme allows unemployed graduates to gain meaningful practical experience on their areas of training to increase the public service skills and improve employment opportunities for the unemployed graduates.

These interns will be paid a monthly stipend of R 5 000 and will be trained to take up full time employment opportunities in government and elsewhere in the sectors of our economy. This programme has already seen the placement of 1 312 unemployed graduates in internship programmes across the provincial administration with 342 already permanently employed within departments.
With the support of our business partners, we will be providing unemployed graduates the opportunity to acquire life skills such as driver's licenses and be trained on a variety of computer literacy programmes so as to increase their employability both within the public and private sector.

We call on our business partners to join hands with us as we advance this programme further in the spirit of job creation, skills development and retention, and poverty alleviation. We are requesting all unemployed graduates to register on our provincial database to access these opportunities. The database is available on the provincial website and can be completed electronically. Private employers are also encouraged to utilise the database to recruit unemployed graduates. The state of fiscal governance in the provincial administration remains an area of concern. We do understand that inadequate financial management capacity and weak systems have a direct and negative impact on our accountability measures.

This has been seen in the unfavourable audit opinions of the Auditor-General.
In particular, the AG's report has identified challenges with the management of documents, filing systems and asset management. To respond to these challenges, we have drawn up an Audit Intervention Plan to address the financial management performance in the province. Critical to this plan is our response to the challenge of asset management in the province. All departments have now completed their user asset registers and the Department of Public Works is in the process of finalising the Provincial Asset Register. We firmly believe that these initiatives will deliver the envisaged impact towards improving the overall performance of the provincial government in this critical area of fiscal governance.

We understand that sound accountable governance is underpinned by:
• efficient and skilful policy making and planning
• a shared, unambiguous vision
• organisational structure and culture
• effective communication
• monitoring and evaluation
• sound leadership.

The weaknesses in the administrative and financial systems of province, means that they are susceptible to fraud and corruption. We are addressing these systemic challenges by way of implementing a centralised database of suppliers and service providers, as well as putting in place audit and risk plans for the various departments and parastatals. In the area of Public Sector Transformation and Skills Development our focus has been on the acceleration of recruitment aimed at reducing vacancy rates across departments whilst addressing transformational imperatives such as:

• regularising employment and ensuring the prioritisation of filling of vacancies at strategic level such as head of department (HOD), deputy director-general (DDG), chief financial officer (CFO) and municipal manager posts
• reduction in the vacancy rate of all funded posts drastically by 90%
• improved gender equity status to 34 % from 28 % in the last financial year
• placement of unemployed youth in learnership programmes in targeted potential growth areas so as to give them critical and scarce skills required to enter the labour market and grow the economy.

Government is going ahead with implementing a "no bonus" policy for managers who do not achieve their spending targets in accordance with agreed key performance indicators. I am pleased to report that 42 out of 45 municipal managers have been appointed. 38 out of 45 CFOs in municipalities have been appointed. This is a tribute to the five-year strategic agenda being implemented for the local government sphere.

Madam Speaker, I wish to congratulate our matriculants and wish them all the best as they join the various institutions of higher learning or enter the job market. In particular, let me congratulate Nikita Strydom, from Grens High School in East London, the provincial top achiever, with 2 231 aggregate, and seven Higher Grade A symbols. In the same breath, I extend the same to Athi Rwexu, from St James Senior Secondary School in Cofimvaba, she is the foremost achiever for schools from the historically disadvantaged schools. She came in with a 2 069 aggregate, with six Higher Grade A symbols. Last, but not least, we salute Mnyamezeli Mnguni, the best provincial performer from one of our Special Schools, Zamokuhle Senior Secondary School in Mbizana; his achievements are truly commendable especially when one considers the odds he has had to overcome to be where he is today.

However, we must acknowledge that our 2007 matric results dropped from 58,6% in 2006 to 56,8% in 2007. We are aware that the industrial strike affected schooling as children could not go to school for a considerable length of time. We had hoped that the Education Recovery Plan would go some way in fast tracking learning and teaching. It is also worth noting that in 2006, 37 689 Grade 11 learners failed, and because of the changing curriculum, they were given an opportunity to write Senior Certificate in 2007. This may have had an adverse effect on the percentage pass rate of 2007.

I urge all unsuccessful learners to make use of the opportunity to register in the 2007 Grade 12 Support Programme that is currently running until May with the allocated budget of R105 million. This programme is geared at offering tuition in all national subjects in the old Nated 550 curriculum in 203 dedicated centres throughout the province. It is estimated that approximately 62 000 learners stand to benefit from the programme, that has recruited 2 500 specialist tutors for all the designated learning areas. The majority of Grade 12 learners in the province received their learning materials on the first day of 2008 academic year. In the interest of continuous improvement, we look forward to the day in the not too distant future, when all our learners will receive the necessary learning material on the first day of school.
Last year I announced that we had increased the number of learners who benefited from the "no fee" programme to 1,2 million.

I am happy to say that since then we have made sure that all schools in quintiles one and two attain a "no fee" status in 2008, effectively covering 3 688 schools and benefiting over 1,250 million learners. While learners in "no fee" schools in the Eastern Cape have been funded at R554 per year, they will now be funded at the National Funding Target of R775 for Quintile one and R711 for Quintile two schools during the 2008 academic year. This will improve the cash flow for schools. Mud structure schools, found mainly in the Eastern half of the province, accommodate 189 746 learners. We are fast tracking the rebuilding of the 40 worst mud structures in the province, but we acknowledge that much more needs to be done to address this need.

For 2007/08 financial year 698 office based educators and 400 Public Service (PS) posts were budgeted for. To date 382 PS and 585 office based educator posts and 208 residual posts have been filled (967 posts). In the same breath, in order to improve efficiency in our schools 2 951 admin posts have been budgeted for in the 2008/09 financial year. For our Special Schools, the department is also increasing the much-needed number of non teaching staff by 96 additional posts and 150 educators.

Madam Speaker, the School Nutrition Programme has had its fair share of challenges.

However, since we put measures in place to improve our financial systems and procurement processes the programme has improved significantly, and is currently benefiting 1,342 million children with the current budget of R394 million. This is a significant improvement from the 948 574 learners who benefited in 2006/07, when the programme only included Grades R to 4 and all farm learners. Currently the beneficiaries comprise learners from Grade one to seven, again including all farm learners. This new programme will also consider produce from local vegetable gardens that have been pioneered by the Department of Agriculture. Local school communities, in particular the unemployed, are being encouraged to be part of this programme.

In the past many rural learners found it hard to travel long distances to school. It is in that light that as a caring government we introduced a scholar transport programme. 115 000 deserving learners, particularly in rural areas and farms will have access to this subsidised scholar transport, and this has resulted in higher enrolment, improved attendance, and as such improved results.
Provincial government has steadily been increasing the annual allocation for scholar transport. In 2006/07 the allocation was R35 million to benefit 19 103 learners, those figures have risen sharply to R250 million in 2008/09. The Shova ka Lula Programme has resulted in over 4 800 bicycles being distributed in all of our district municipalities.

It is good news that National government has made substantial resources available to train Maths and Science teachers over the next three years. Provincial government has also resolved to appoint an additional 932 maths and 697 science teachers during the next financial year. The Office of the Premier also annually offers 29 bursaries to the top maths and science learners. All these initiatives are a necessary boost in the light of current requirement of the New Curriculum Statement (NCS) that makes teaching of maths and maths literacy compulsory. The Department of Education continues to pay special attention to early childhood development (ECD). Last year, I announced that ECD practitioners would be paid R1 500 on a monthly basis. I am pleased to announce that, with effect from 1 April 2008, ECD practitioners will now be paid R3 200 per month, in line with National Funding Norms.

This initiative will benefit 4 136 ECD practitioners. I trust that this move will motivate these practitioners to intensify their efforts of laying a solid education foundation for our learners. Furthermore, the department will be making provision for the employment of 383 stand-alone ECD practitioners.
The vast majority of residents of our province rely on the public health system. As a province, we have moved decisively to improve our primary healthcare system in order to widen access to health provision for the poor of our province. In the past year 61 clinics were completed and opened and 24 of these are in the former Transkei region also known as region A.

These clinics and community healthcare centres are well equipped with full staffing complement, requisite equipment in the examination rooms and labour units, have fully equipped dispensaries, staff accommodation, consulting rooms etc. The clinics are open from Monday to Friday from eight to five in the afternoon and on weekends there is always a health care professional on call for 24 hours.

This is the standard we seek to maintain and we encourage our communities to call us to account should these not be achieved. To further improve the quality of healthcare we have put in place various strategies such as the accelerated recruitment and retention of emergency care workers, the implementation of occupation specific dispensation, extension of rural health professional allowances and making medicine available at service points.

We do realise that in the light of huge health care provision backlogs in our province a lot more still needs to be done. Like a number of many other provinces in our country, we continue to battle the scourge of HIV and AIDS.
The province, through the work of the provincial Aids council, has produced a multisectoral provincial strategic plan aligned to the national strategic plan. The operation Masinyange, through the door to door campaign has now become the key feature of the awareness campaign in the municipalities to encourage people to understand know their status and attendant risks of infection.

This initiative also provides base line information for local government IDP planning, provide strategic intervention that will seek to curb new infections.
In the past year the province began to see only a slight decline in the rate of HIV prevalence, down from 29,5 in 2005 to a current figure of 28,3. Again I would like to encourage voluntary testing. It is disturbing for us that the rate of TB infections has gone up particularly the multi drug resistant strains. In response to this challenge substantial resources have been availed. We would like to encourage people to adopt healthy lifestyles and also to comply with treatment regimes as specified.

Our province is embarking on a massive community mobilisation programme against crime. This will promote the formation of street committees as a key crime prevention strategy and will see the introduction of community safety forums inclusive of community policing forums. The programme will see more community policing targeting young people, alongside a partnership between the provincial departments of education and safety and liaison aimed at ensuring safer schools. The pilot project is being rolled out in 40 schools and includes a focus on moral regeneration through the involvement of prominent personalities who address the youth at these schools. These programmes will strengthen the community's role in the fight against crime and further improve community based oversight function of the police service.

Community Safety Forums will include key national departments such as Justice, Correctional Services, Home Affairs and the Police. Our recent highly successful 2010 Provincial Safety and Security Summit will serve as a blueprint for other provinces. Madam Speaker, we welcome the new Department of Housing. This department delineated from Local Government has a huge task to deal with one of the legacy of apartheid of building integrated and sustainable communities. Through numerous Housing Summits held in the province our people have told us build houses where they are, so that they can continue to live their lives, keep stock and cultivate their land.

Madam Speaker, government has already done much to house previously unhoused people, both in the rural housing and urban settings. Rural housing development is being accelerated and will contribute to provincial priorities such as poverty alleviation, infrastructure development and job creation. We have launched a housing innovation hub in Elliotdale, which will showcase a variety of construction methodologies and materials. The locals will also be encouraged to showcase their knowledge of housing construction, especially indigenous building methods. The use of alternative technologies will assist us in speeding up service delivery and in constructing where resources are readily available. We will facilitate the partnership between traditional leadership structures and municipalities to identify and release suitable land for rural housing delivery.

Our target is that by 2014 we would have been able to address the need for sustainable, safe and dignified human settlements. Dimbaza and Jamestown provide excellent examples of these. In the Second Creek we have cleared the dumping site where some people, because of unemployment, scavenged for food. That place has been turned into a living settlement and working with the municipality, we are creating jobs so that our people will no longer be exposed to the indignity of scavenging for food in the dump. We are improving the effectiveness of our intervention and turnaround strategy directed at housing people and eradicating poverty by giving them employment so that they will keep their houses instead of renting them out and going back to informal houses.

Over the past 6 years, government has been exploring and piloting innovative ways of reversing the concentration of poverty and economic exclusion in many geographic areas of our province, inherited from Apartheid. The Urban Renewal and Rural Development Programmes were established by the President in 2001 and piloted respectively in Mdantsane, Motherwell and Ngangelizwe, impacting on the lives of resident communities, and demonstrating that the war on poverty' can be won through the effective co-ordination of government's service delivery measures and the crowding in of additional private sector investment.

As part of the current consolidation phase, provincial government will spare no effort in ensuring that the impacts which have accrued to the resident populations of nodal areas are deepened and maximized and that the lessons learnt will be applied in the implementation of the integrated poverty strategy.
In response to the President's call in the 2007 SONA for a more targeted and co-ordinated poverty reduction programme, we have reconceptualised the approach to eradicating poverty. Working with stakeholders, we have developed an Eastern Cape model for poverty eradication, which is being piloted in the 11 poorest or least developed municipalities in the Province, namely Mzimvubu, Nyandeni, Qaukeni, Mnquma, Mbashe, Ngqushwa, Elundini, Ntabankulu, Mbizana, Intsika Yethu and Ngcobo.

Even while the model was being developed, specific interventions were made by government to begin to address the scourge of poverty. These interventions in the 11 municipalities in the 2007/08 financial year included: 16 food security projects, 15 women's co-operatives and two youth development projects that benefited, respectively, 400 households with improved nutrition, income for 225 marginalised and vulnerable women, and created work opportunities for 30 young people. Some R20, 5 million was invested in these projects. In addition, another R18 million was injected into these areas to subsidise ECDs, Home community based care for those affected and infected with HIV and AIDS, foster care programmes, children's homes, skills development and programmes for those with disabilities.

In 2007 the Eastern Cape established a Provincial Poverty Reduction Co-ordinating Committee, which co-ordinates the interventions of all government Departments in these 11 pilot municipalities. In effect, we anticipated the President's call in his 2008 State of the Nation Address for the establishment of a war room on poverty, by establishing our own coordinating structure. In 2008/09 the Poverty Reduction Co-ordinating Committee will oversee the completion of a door to door survey in the pilot areas so that a detailed database can be compiled of all those living in poverty. The specific interventions to graduate them out of poverty will then be tracked over a period of three years.

In addition, government has made available funds through district municipalities for projects that primarily target rural economic development, including ecotourism and spring water projects in Alfred Nzo, saw milling and cattle in Chris Hani, tourism and recycling projects in Ukhahlamba, hospitality, recreational, energy and woodworking projects in OR Tambo, and mohair, craft and agro processing initiatives in Cacadu. We have also focused on the development of women owned businesses in partnership with the Stenton University School of Hospitality in Port Alfred. Following the successful implementation of the Kwam eMakana Hospitality project in Grahamstown we have moved to extend this excellent initiative to Kwam eMbizana homestay owners. This model is a conscious and deliberate effort to prepare for 2010 and to graduate the rural poor to a productive economy.

Our international partnerships continue to support the economic growth and development of the province and form an integral part of our continued interaction with global players. There are a number of twinning agreements in place, to guide provincial interaction and dialogue in the international arena.
We will be initiating a review of existing twinning arrangements, as a key first step in refining the strategic intent of these partnerships. This will ensure that partnerships are centred on mutually beneficial areas of interaction and exchange, including human resource development, trade and investment relationships and technology transfer.

We have recognised that there is an urgent need to protect the human rights of refugees in the province and to counter xenophobia and discrimination.
A programme of action has been developed after interactions between different stakeholders including the Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan Municipality, Department of Home Affairs, and United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, South African Human Rights Commission and the Human Rights Coalition. This programme is aligned to the National Refugee Integration Strategy. It seeks to ensure that refugees living in the Eastern Cape are properly integrated into the local communities and that a climate is created so that refugees are enabled to contribute positively both in skills and energies to the development of the Province. It will be piloted in the Nelson Mandela Metro over the next six months and thereafter extended to other relevant areas in the province. The province has made available R1 million to support this Programme.

Madam Speaker
We agree with the President that it's not enough merely to be doing what we are supposed to do. We have a serious responsibility to move with speed and unwavering focus in removing all barriers that continue to stand between our people and better lives. What we need in our province is the audacity to deploy solutions that are extraordinary and innovative in fighting poverty, and in growing the backbone of our economy. I would like to state to this Honourable House that we are equal to that challenge. I ask you, the people of this province, to continue to steer and join us in ensuring that we stay true to the commitments of our electoral mandates.

As I conclude, Madam Speaker, I cannot fail to mention all the people who have stood behind me, praying and supporting. I begin with my family: my mother, my husband and my dear children; all my comrades in the Executive Council, in this esteemed House and all those serving in municipal Councils. I also want to thank my organisation, the ANC, the Alliance, my friends, my prayer group and the rest of the religious fraternity. To all of you, and those that I might have not mentioned by name, ndithi unwele olude. You will be justly crowned.

I thank you