Date: 13/03/2008
Source: Eastern Cape Provincial Government
Title: SA: Martin: Eastern Cape Public Works Prov Budget Vote, 2008/09

Policy and budget speech delivered by the Honourable Christian Martin, member of the Eastern Cape executive council responsible for the Department of Public Works

Honourable Madam Speaker
Honourable Premier
Colleagues in the executive council
Honourable members of the house
Distinguished guests
Ladies and gentlemen
Fellow South Africans

We consider the policy speech as a medium through which we communicate government policies and account for that which we have done regarding those policies. We have come to realise that it is also a means of engagement and a contribution to the ‘battle of ideas'. That is why, Honourable members, we have elected to preface our policy speech by citing President Thabo Mbeki in his wonderful piece of work titled ‘Historical Injustice' delivered at a seminar held in Ottawa, Canada, 19 to 22 February 1978, and I quote:
Modern political science recognises the fact that social systems are founded on definite historical origins. If the saying 'out of nothing, nothing comes' is true, then it must follow that the future is formed and derives its first impulse in the womb of the present for the imperative of our epoch has charged us with the task of transforming ourselves from the status of objects of history to that of masters of history.

We must, by liberating ourselves, make our own history. Such a process by its nature imposes on the activist the necessity to plan and therefore requires the ability to measure cause and effect; the necessity to strike in correct directions and hence the requirement to distinguish between essence and phenomenon; the necessity to move millions of people as one man to actual' victory and consequently the development of the skill of combining the necessary and the possible. Therefore to eliminate the speculative element as much as possible when talking about the policies of a new South Africa, it is necessary to examine the principal' feature of the predecessor of that future reality, namely, present day South Africa. But again, a penetrating understanding of our country today requires also that we look at its past.

Honourable speaker, even though this speech was delivered at a different politico-historical context, we believe that its essence is relevant in the current conjuncture. It is so precisely because in the wake of all these developments in our country it is easy to ‘take our eyes off the ball' and lose our ability to measure the cause and effect. In this instance, let us join the President and the Premier in reassuring the people of the province that the problem of electricity is not insurmountable, we will overcome it. It is in these times that we must be reminded that the imperative of our epoch has charged us with the task of transforming ourselves from the status of objects of history to that of masters of history.

Honourable speaker, even in this hour we must restate what President Mbeki said thirty years ago that ‘a penetrating understanding of our country today requires also that we look at its past', and if we cast our eyes far back enough we would indeed continue to make bold and say that almost every aspect of life has been touched by the changes brought by government and people working together. These things have been achieved because of people lending a hand in the national effort to build a better life for all. We are saying all these things, because as we begin the last lap in this electoral cycle, the prophets of doom will attempt to confuse our people. We must therefore rise to strike in correct directions and teach our people to be able to distinguish between essence and phenomenon; what is or has been necessary to do and what is or has been possible to do.

The latter, Honourable speaker requires us to be honest and true to our people, for ours is a government that is founded on honesty and integrity. As we rise to report to this house on our achievements, we wish to state that the 2007/2008 financial year has seen a mixture of progressive achievements and persistent challenges that have a potential to discount the otherwise applaudable progress.

During the year under review our focus has been to streamline our programmes so as to maximise our contribution towards the attainment of the socio-economic goals of the province and the country.

These efforts have been anchored by the following commitments that we undertook to do:
• Target 500 young people throughout the province who will receive short-term job opportunities and training within the built environment, in line with the National Youth Service (NYS) programme.
• Start the process of refurbishing the provincial legislature and allocated an amount of R10 million for the 2007/2008 financial year.
• We said that we will prepare ourselves for receiving the function of paying the rates and taxes which has been devolved to the province, by first verifying the properties listed in the national departments' database and facilitate allocation to the affected client departments.
• Monitor progress of the 58 bursars who are at various tertiary institutions in South Africa, whose studies are in the following fields: architecture, quantity surveying and engineering.
• Reach the target of 40 000 jobs created through Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP) in 2007/08.
• The registration of the Public Private Partnership (PPP) and the appointment of the transactional advisor have been completed. We are in a process to fast track the construction of the Bhisho Office Park and Mount Ayliff Office Complex.
• The construction of the R52 million House of Traditional Leaders has commenced and completion is expected in November 2008. A total of 60 learners through the EPWP have been placed in the project.
• The department has, in association with the Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB), opened a contract contact centre in Bhisho to assist contractors with registration and other related matters.

We stand tall, Honourable speaker, as we recount our achievements as follows:

Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP)
Under this programme we have started with the efforts to strengthen our capacity, in order to effectively execute our co-ordination and facilitation responsibilities in the implementation of EPWP. We have appointed sector support personnel and field workers in each region/district to improve the performance of the sectors as well as the co-ordination of information. Through these efforts the province has created 39 492 job opportunities and 197 permanent jobs as at mid-term, surpassing by far the target of 15 000 for the same period and an annual target of 40 000. This figure indicates that the province is poised to double its annual target.

We have provided 52 703 person days of training through EPWP. This number is complemented by 220 contractor learnerships currently in the programme. In collaboration with Coega Development Corporation and the Department of Education, the department has developed a contractor learnership model. Our learnership participating in the schools building programme won the Big News Enterprise Development (BNED) award in the best government entrepreneur development programme category. To ensure sustainability of this progress and maximise outputs a new specifications guide has been developed. The specifications enforce the infusion of EPWP, and other socio economic principles at project design and tender stages. This will ensure that all infrastructure projects have socio economic indicators and benefits.

However, there is still a possibility of under reporting as our information management system is at infant stages of development. We will focus in this area going forward, in order to ensure that reporting is done accurately, sufficiently, correctly and timeously.

Construction Industry Development Programme (CIDP)
The main focus of this programme is to grow, develop, and empower emerging contractors so that they participate in the mainstream of the economy. We do this by first and foremost ensuring that their registration status is improved. Numerous programmes have been initiated to realise the foregoing objective and these include:
(a) The establishment of the Contractor Contact Centre (CCC) alluded to above. This centre is meant to assist contractors with all construction industry related problems, to ensure that contractors are empowered. The centre was launched and opened in October 2007. This initiative is complemented by;
(b) Tender Advice Centres (TACs), which have been established in regions. The purpose of these centres is to advise contractors on all tender related matters.

As a result of the above efforts and other initiatives the registration status of contractors in the province has improved in the following manner: a total of 4 883 contractors have been registered with an improvement of 124 emerging contractors having moved to higher grades.

Further to our endeavours of developing small, medium and micro enterprises (SMMEs), contracts to the value of R741.436 million have been awarded to SMMEs. This constitutes 94% of the total value of contracts awarded by the department. Of these 64.39% translating into R595.690 million was awarded to black male owned firms, 45.49% or R25.845 million was awarded to women, while 0.44% or R258 369.00 was awarded to white male owned companies. Contracts awarded to companies with disability status amounted to 18.29% youth owned companies 82%. To consolidate this work in ensuring that contractors are assisted to develop into formidable businesses in a sustainable manner, the department has initiated an incubator programme, targeting 10 contractors in each region, with a deliberate emphasis on women and youth contractors. All the modalities of the programme have been put in place and the programme is ready to operate fully.

As a response to the problem of technical and professional skills shortage and a contribution to the national effort to rise to this challenge, the department has initiated an infrastructure skills development programme which is aimed at developing artisans and professionals. This programme has seen its first year of operation in the year under review and has since absorbed 331 artisan trainees and 8 candidate professions participating. This initiative has been aligned with the principles of the NYS programme as our contribution to NYS. Once again, in November 2007 the department, in conjunction with the Portfolio Committee on Public Works, has successfully hosted a 2nd Annual Contractor's Conference. This is a platform of engagement between government and all stakeholders in the construction industry. The purpose is to continuously appraise one another and appreciate the challenges facing everyone involved, with a view to collectively develop appropriate interventions and solutions. The resolutions of that conference form the basis of our programme for 2008/2009 financial year.

Property Management
This programme is the reason the Department of Public Works exists and arguably our ‘Achilles heel'. The department started the financial year under review without a senior manager in property management. This has created a lot of challenges regarding the provision of leadership in this area. However, this was overcome by the appointment of a senior manager in the middle of the year. As a response to the shortage of office space for government departments is that a number of initiatives have been put on course. These include the initiation of the development of a Bhisho Office Park project which is part of a bigger programme to revitalise Bhisho within the context of the King Williams Town, Bhisho development corridor. A PPP, as a funding model for this initiative, has since been registered. A transactional advisor and the Project Manager for the PPP projects have been appointed. This PPP initiative is going to be responsible for the development of Bhisho office Park, Mount Ayliff office complex and other projects of a similar nature.

The department has started with the implementation of the Government-wide Immovable Asset Management Act (GIAMA) by providing assistance and support to client departments in developing user asset management plans. The upcoming year will see the continuation of this work and the development of custodian asset management plan. The implementation of GIAMA by the department has been given impetus by the delegation of the custodian function by the Hon premier to the MEC for Public Works. This will increase the departments' confidence in dealing with the matter of properties in the province. As an effort to improve infrastructure delivery in the province, the department is continuing to implement the Infrastructure Delivery Improvement Programme (IDIP) albeit at a small scale, owing to the challenges faced by the departments of Health, Education, and ourselves. We have now signed a service level agreement with the department of education to formalise our relations hopefully, agreements with other departments will follow and IDIP will again enjoy full operation.

The refurbishment of the legislature has started in earnest. We wish to apologise to the Honourable members for having started later than was originally planned. We promise that the project will proceed and will be completed as planned. In this project, 64 people have been employed of which 10 are women, 5 disabled and 24 on labour intensive aspects of the project. The project to build the house of traditional affairs is progressing well. The contractor is on schedule and the completion is on November 2008. A total of 60 learnerships have been placed in this project and 47 local people have been employed of which 20 are youth and 15 are women.

Madam Speaker, we are pleased to announce that the department has received six Cuban professionals in the built environment. This is a direct benefit from the Joint Initiative for Priority Skills Acquisition (JIPSA) programme. The six intake has joined our team of professionals and will go a long way in improving infrastructure delivery in the province.

Honourable speaker, allow us now to focus on the prospects for the 2008/2009 financial year. Once again let us invite back the spirit of the extract we have cited at the beginning of our speech and say that the 2008/09 financial year represents continuity and change. Continuity in the sense that the department will continue to implement most of the programmes and projects initiated this financial year and by the same people. Change in the sense that the commitment, zeal, and attitude that saw us succeed in many areas this financial year, necessitates that we change and do things differently in order to sustain the momentum to succeed, but also introduce new projects. We draw inspiration from the call by the president when he says that this year must represent business unusual. Our own interpretation of business unusual resonates in the dictum ‘out of nothing, nothing comes' for we realise that for us to succeed in facilitating economic growth and development we cannot do the same thing the same way all the time and expect different results.

In giving effect to the commitment to do things differently we want to locate our future plans within a context of a ‘Public Works that turns the tide against poverty and unemployment, our greatest enemy, using the government's asset base as a catalyst to economic growth and development'.

Madam speaker, in Canada President Mbeki was addressing the issue of economic relations in the then South African situation and what we would have to do when we take over the reigns as government of the people. This is what he said we shall do, and I quote: that free South Africa must therefore redefine the black producer or rather, since we the people shall govern, since we shall have through our own struggle, placed ourselves in the position of makers of history and policy and no longer objects, we shall redefine our own position as follows:
a. we are the producers of wealth
b. we produce this wealth for our own benefit to be appropriated by us the producers
c. the aim of this production shall be the satisfaction, at an increasing level, of the material and spiritual needs of the people
d. we shall so order the rest of society and social activity, in education and culture in the legal sphere, on military questions, in our international relations, et cetera, to conform to these goals.

This has been amplified by our own conceptualisation of a South African developmental state and what this state must do to alter economic relations. Our comprehension is that a developmental state should use the resources that it commands to ensure redistribution of wealth in the interest of the poor and disadvantaged. It should put in place regulatory and other mechanisms that not only seek to obviate market failure, but also afford the state the capacity to intervene in a pro-active way to facilitate growth and redistribution. As Public Works our contribution to economic growth and development of the province is informed by the foregoing understanding. The asset base that we are entrusted to manage is a strategic resource that government commands and should use to ensure economic growth and redistribution of wealth in the interest of the poor.

Madam speaker, the policy choices that we have made and will continue to make are informed by the assertions we have made above. The priority programmes that anchor these policy choices are our ammunition to wage the war that will turn the tide against poverty and unemployment. In the 2008/2009 financial year we will increase the EPWP job creation target from 40 000 to 52 000 and training target from 35 650 to 39 000. Once again, we will strengthen our co-ordinating capacity by developing appropriate systems that will ensure greater compliance, participation, and reporting. In this regard, we welcome the allocation of R1 billion over the baseline for all programmes falling under EPWP announced by the president on 8 February 2008.

While our Advanced Professional Trade and Competency Programme (APTCoD) a skills development programme, is showing signs of success, it is however, proving to be very challenging. During the first year of implementation, we have learnt valuable lessons which we will utilise to strengthen it, especially its administrative and management operations. For this reason we will not increase the 331 artisan trainees that are participating in our programme. We will, instead improve its support systems to ensure quality output. To ensure sustainability of work given to SMMEs and ensure structured growth of small contractors, we will implement in earnest the incubator programme, targeting 10 emerging contractors in each region with special emphasis on youth and women owned contractors.

To carry through with the intentions of the Government wide Immovable Asset Management Act, we will continue with our support to client departments in terms of developing user asset management plans so that we can be able to complete the Custodian Asset Management Plan (CAMP).

This, Honourable speaker, is the basis for the development of a comprehensive Infrastructure Maintenance Strategy. Maintaining our infrastructure is very pivotal in our programmes because infrastructure investment and maintenance will not only improve infrastructure performance and underpin services sustainability, but will also contribute significantly towards economic growth and add long-term jobs. In this regard, we will double our efforts in coordinating all stakeholders in ensuring that we develop a provincial chapter of the National Infrastructure Maintenance Strategy (NIMS).

To intensify the fight against poverty and unemployment we will continue the programme to the lift the face of government buildings by rehabilitating and appropriately branding these buildings. In doing this work, we will ensure that EPWP principles are adhered to. While work of this nature will start in major towns, our focus will however be on rural towns targeting rural women and youth as main beneficiaries.

Madam speakers, let us welcome the allocation of R119, 638 million for the execution of the devolved function of property rates and taxes. We are confident that we are ready to carry out the task. As we have already indicated earlier that the PPP for the construction of Bhisho Office Park and Mount Ayliff Office Complex has been registered, a transaction advisor and project manager appointed, actual work for these projects will start in earnest this financial year. In addition to these projects we will continue with the construction of the six storey office parking complex in Botha Sigcau and the renovation of KD Matanzima building in Mthatha. These projects will be completed in June 2009. In the spirit of business unusual and as a contribution to the efforts of saving energy, we have already undertaken a study on various options and initiatives to save energy. On the basis of the results on this we will in partnership with Eskom roll-out of these initiatives to all government departments starting with the Qhasana, Dukumbana Tyamzashe and the legislature buildings.

Madam speaker, we consider our role as being key in the government's efforts to alter property relations. As a cardinal driver of second economy interventions, we take this responsibility very seriously and have taken a resolve to increase our strategic focus on the property portfolio. In this regard, we have developed a property management turnaround strategy. This strategy is meant to consolidate all our previous and current initiatives on properties to develop a comprehensive provincial property management strategy, not for its own sake, but to enable government to use this strategic resource to leverage and maximise economic spin-offs for the province for the benefit of the broader society, especially the poor. The turnaround strategy has since been approved by the Executive Council.

In partnership with the Portfolio Committee, we have initiated a provincial property summit to be held in May 2008. This will afford everyone involved to input in this all-important effort to resolve the challenges facing government and the property industry. In this context, we therefore view our turnaround strategy as an essential input in the processes towards this summit. In this way, we think that we will be closer to achieving the aspirations of the millions of the poor people of our country and the province whose hopes and lives depend on us.

Budget Allocation
Madam speaker, this department has been allocated a total overall budget of R948 million for the financial year 2008/9. Our budget for the financial year 2007/2008 was R618 million. This represents an increase of R330 million in our current budget.
• Administration: R196.406 million
• Public Works: R732.519 million
• Community Based Public Works Programme: R19.327 million

Conclusion

Honourable members, we wish to conclude by citing a statement from our congress resolutions, and I quote: The changes we seek will not emerge spontaneously from the 'invisible hand' of the market. People acting collectively in the spirit of human solidarity must shape the patterns of economic development. In this process the state must play a central and strategic role, by directly investing in underdeveloped areas and directing private sector investment. Indeed Madam Premier, we will remain true to this resolve and turn the tide against poverty, the greatest enemy in our time. We will spare neither strength nor courage until our people truly benefit from the wealthy spoils of our country.

At this stage Madam speaker, let me pass a word of appreciation to our Acting HOD, Mr Vuyani Nazo, the management and staff of the department for the commitment they shown, heart felt appreciation to the premier, my colleagues in the Executive Council and the Portfolio Committee on Public Works for their support. Indeed Madam speaker, ‘If the saying 'out of nothing, nothing comes' is true, then it must follow that the future is formed and derives its first impulse in the womb of the present.' Let us therefore work today to secure the future of our country and her children. Let us now revisit the words of our living legend, Nelson Mandela, I quote: "Tomorrow, the entire leadership and I will be back at our desks. We are rolling up our sleeves to begin tackling the problems our country faces. We ask you all to join us, go back to your jobs in the morning. Let's get South Africa working. We must, together without delay, begin to build a better life for all South Africans. This means creating jobs, building houses, providing education and bringing peace and security for all."

I thank you