North West Premier E Molewa responds to questions - State of the Province Address

North West Premier Edna Molewa on Thursday responded to questions, inputs and comments raised by members of the Provincial Legislature following her State of the Province Address (SOPA) that she delivered on Friday, 15 February 2008.

Premier Molewa dismissed the insinuation by opposition leaders in the legislature that SOPA was a mere repetition of everything said before, year after year. "It is imperative to recognise that our 2004 electoral mandate dictates a process of continuous reflection, in order to strengthen levels of accountability and transparency about our performance in serving our people," Premier Molewa said.

"For us, this is about accounting to millions of our people, but at the same time reminding our people of the continuous character of our programmes," she added. "We do this to continuously stir societal memory and to curb the perceived lack of knowledge about the status of government programmes and services, which may breed deep levels of dissatisfaction, shunning the progressive strides made by government." Premier Molewa highlighted that some of the members of the legislature missed out on the progress made regarding the Mafikeng Industrial Development Zone (MIDZ).

"In last year's SOPA, we indicated firstly that MIDZ is a multi-year programme; that we have completed the refurbishment of phase two of the airport (runway); that the terminal building is furbished; that the minerals cluster beneficiation is at advanced planning and design stages and that the airport license processing has gone through the responsible national team," she added. Premier Molewa also added that for 2008/09, the government will be finalising bulk infrastructure installation which is now at an advanced stage.

"I hope members understand what it takes to install such bulk infrastructure; the flying school has been started a high level marketing through aviation industry and of investment promotion is taking place," Premier Molewa said confidently. She also dismissed that her pronouncements in the SOPA were 'mimicking' what the President had said.

"To suggest that we are mimicking, is also a misnomer because the North West, like other provinces, have contributed to the Government's Programme of Action and the current Business Unusual Apex priorities as articulated by the President in his State of the Nation Address," she said.

Enquiries:
Cornelius Monama
Tel: 018 387 3456
Cell: 082 578 4063

Issued by: Office of the Premier, North West Provincial Government
22 February 2008