Date: 02/07/2004
Source: Gauteng Provincial Government
Title: M Shilowa: Gauteng Premier's Office Prov Budget Vote 2004/2005
ADDRESS BY PREMIER MBHAZIMA SHILOWA, ON THE TABLING OF THE BUDGET OF THE OFFICE OF THE PREMIER, Gauteng Provincial Legislature, 2 July 2004
Speaker and Deputy Speaker
Members of the Executive Council
Honourable members
Senior managers in the Office of the Premier
Ladies and gentlemen
It is barely a month since, in this house, we unveiled our bold new ten-year vision, which will see Gauteng becoming an even better place in which to live.
Central to this new vision is the continued transformation of Gauteng into an integrated, region, politically, socially and economically. This will further enhance our position as a globally competitive urban region, which must become Africa's economic powerhouse and hold its own in the world. Such a region will better be able to take forward the country's developmental goals and strengthen the foundation of a developmental state.
The distinctive characteristics of this new Gauteng are: a faster growing economy and employment; high levels of skills; healthy and productive people; safe and sustainable communities; deepened democracy and nation building; and an effective and caring government.
All of our people must enjoy the wealth and benefits of living in the country and the continent's economic powerhouse. All the people must be treated equally. No one must live in squalid conditions. All must live in decent homes built on well-located land. The poor and the rich must live together in harmony. Black people must have the opportunity to participate in the economy as owners of the means of production and not merely as labourers and consumers of goods and services.
We need to strengthen nation building and ensure that all our people, black and white, young and old, the disabled and women contribute to the creation of a non-racial, non-sexist, democratic and prosperous country and province.
Our five-year programme responds to the most urgent challenges of creating work and fighting poverty and also sets clear policy frameworks to advance to our long-term goal.
Soon after we unveiled our vision and outlined the five year programme, all the MECs and their respective departments got down to serious work to draw up their detailed five year plans and programmes to realise this vision. These plans will be adopted in august and will guide spending priorities over the next five years.
Over the past few weeks the legislature through its portfolio committees has engaged with departments and MECs on the departmental programmes and budget allocations for the current financial year. Since the beginning of this week, MECs have outlined how the current programmes and budget allocations take forward our ten-year vision in the short, medium and long term.
When we release the departmental five year programmes in the next two months the honourable members and the people of our province will have the opportunity to see in more detail what we will do over the next five years to realise our goal of a an integrated Gauteng.
During our last term of government we made great progress towards integration. We did away with the silo mentality and introduced more co-operative and collaborative method of working based on joint and integrated planning by all departments. This is reflected in the fact that Departmental programmes are now informed by provincial strategic priorities.
Work is being done to ensure that all public servants in Gauteng internalise this new way of doing things. We are making strides towards empowering managers to think more about how their programmes will contribute towards the achievement of the overall strategic objectives of the Gauteng Provincial Government and not merely confine their thinking to narrow departmental programmes.
Integration and co-operation among departments and across all spheres of government will become even more important during this term of office. We can only succeed in realising our new vision if there is greater co-operation and collaboration by all spheres of government.
Through integration and co-operation we have been able to make government more people-centric, improve service delivery, use resources effectively and efficiently, increase the impact of existing resources and remove unnecessary bureaucratic blockages.
The urban renewal programme is a good example of what can be achieved through integration and co-operation among departments and across spheres of government.
The Blue IQ projects around Johannesburg, Ekurhuleni and Tshwane jointly implemented by the provincial government, are another good example of integration and co-operation to achieve better results.
Last week there were two important national meetings, which were held to explore ways of building and strengthening co-operation among all the three spheres of government.
In our province we have already started working with all our municipalities to develop common strategies and programmes. Institutional mechanisms such as the Premier's Co-ordinating Forum and the Gauteng Intergovernmental Forum provide a platform for us to plan jointly and develop common approaches to tackle the challenges facing our people. We will strengthen these mechanisms and, where necessary, formalise them in the interest of co-operative governance.
We are encouraged by the spirit of collaboration, which has been displayed by the leadership of local government in our province. This kind of co-operation among metropolitan, district and local municipalities is exactly what is needed to realise our goal of an integrated Gauteng, where we all work in synergy to achieve our common vision.
Soon after the introduction of the new municipal systems in the year 2000 many people were asking all sorts of questions relating to how we would cope with the fact that three of the country's six metropolitan municipalities are in Gauteng. Some suggested that there would be conflict and tension between the powerful metros and the provincial government. None of the fears and predictions of conflict materialised. We saw the creation of metropolitan municipalities as an opportunity to strengthen co-operation between the provincial and local spheres of government and to increase our collective capacity to deliver services to the people.
All of us, the provincial government and the municipalities, fully recognise the unique advantages that each of Gauteng's cities and towns possess. We recognise too that the concentrated urban character of the province gives us massive potential for prosperity and that the full realisation of this potential depends on the actions of all three spheres of government working in unison. We are also aware of the immense contribution that our province can make towards the overall advancement of the people of South Africa and the continent. We will work together to fully exploit our advantages and utilise the opportunities that exist to build our province as the economic powerhouse of our country and continent.
Our experience over the past ten years has confirmed the importance of the active involvement of the people in the process to bring about change. Ours has always been a people-centred government, which involves the people in all its work.
The tasks that lie ahead of us as we advance towards a new Gauteng can only be accomplished if we continue to work in partnership with all our people.
We have made a commitment to work with all our people in a "people's contract" to tackle all the challenges that face us and advance towards a better Gauteng for all.
The programme that we outlined at the opening of the legislature constitutes government's commitment to honour the "people's contract to create work and fight poverty".
There are other partners who must come to the party and sign the "people's contract". They must commit themselves to honour the contract. All of us must add value to this partnership. The greater the contribution by all partners, the greater the dividends and the benefits to all.
Business and other economic stakeholders must state what they will do to contribute to faster economic growth, job creation, skills development, poverty alleviation and building sustainable communities.
Employers must spell out what they will do to contribute to making Gauteng residents healthy, skilled and productive.
Organs of civil society, religious bodies and organisations representing women, youth, professionals and other groups must say what they will do to contribute towards deepening democracy and realising the constitutional rights of our people.
The workers in the public sector must tell the people what they will be doing to contribute to building an effective and caring government.
Every other sector and group that works in our province must tell the people of Gauteng what they will do to contribute towards building a better Gauteng for all.
The legislature too needs to come to the party and indicate how through its work it will contribute to a people's contract for work and eradication of poverty.
The Gauteng Provincial Government will soon undertake a process to engage all key stakeholders including business, workers, professional bodies, research and academic institutions, organs of civil society and organisations women, youth and people with disabilities about building living partnerships for the advancement of our common objectives.
There are encouraging signs that all the stakeholders, having expressed support for our vision and programme, will work with us to build a better Gauteng for all. We are confident that all the other stakeholders that we will be meeting will commit themselves to work with us to build the new Gauteng.
The sporting community has expressed overwhelming support for our campaign to reclaim Gauteng's status as a preferred home for competitive sport.
MEC for Sports, Recreation, Arts and Culture, Barbara Creecy mentioned some of big sporting events, which will be hosted in our province in the near future. The highlight of these is the finals of the Vodacom Challenge, which will be held at the FNB Stadium on 17 July 2004. Tomorrow the people of Gauteng will welcome our proud national football team, Bafana Bafana, back to the home of football. We urge all supporters of the beautiful game to converge at the FNB Stadium and cheer up our boys when they play against Burkina Faso in the World Cup qualifier.
Next week Tuesday we will hold the Gauteng Tourism Indaba as we promised. This important gathering which will involve the Gauteng Tourism Authority and all key tourism stakeholders in the province will discuss ways to fully exploit the many opportunities that the industry offers. It will also focus on how local communities can fully participate in this fast growing industry and position themselves to both drive and benefit from tourism.
We have already seen in the past years how tourism can contribute to the creation of jobs and opportunities for small, medium and micro enterprises. Our province has places of cultural and historic significance such as the Cradle of Humankind World Heritage Site and world-class entertainment, hospitality, shopping and conference facilities, which offer visitors a perfect environment for work and relaxation.
We expect all the participants at the tourism indaba to commit themselves to a clear programme that will make Gauteng a preferred destination for domestic and foreign tourists.
Next month is Women's month. We will be holding six regional women's dialogues throughout the province. These meetings will give women not only an opportunity to dialogue with each other but also network and develop local partnerships and programmes of action to take forward the empowerment of women.
We call on all women's organisations - from the formal to the informal, women from the public and private sector, from NGO's and CBOs to be part of these meetings.
Just this week, Gauteng had the honour of presenting to the national women's dialogue how together with women in our province we are working to improving their lives in our province.
We will continue to involve the masses of our people in our work. Public participation and direct interactive communication with the people of Gauteng through Let's Talk and imbizo programmes will remain a permanent style of governance even in this term of office.
While in the past years the focus of these programmes was listening to the views of the people on a range of issues, we will now focus on building working partnerships with the people. We will tell the people what we as government are doing to honour the people's contract and discuss with them what their role in this contract should be.
Over the next five years we will pay particular attention to ensure that all Gauteng residents, regardless of their social status, have easy access to information about government services and are able to access available resources and opportunities. We will ensure that this information is not just available in government offices but, actively and proactively bring this information to those who need it to improve their lives and develop their communities.
For more information contact: Thabo Masebe
Tel: (011) 355 6036
Cell: 082 410 8087
Issued by: Office of the Premier, Gauteng Provincial Government
2 July 2004
Source: Gauteng Provincial Government
Title: M Shilowa: Gauteng Premier's Office Prov Budget Vote 2004/2005
ADDRESS BY PREMIER MBHAZIMA SHILOWA, ON THE TABLING OF THE BUDGET OF THE OFFICE OF THE PREMIER, Gauteng Provincial Legislature, 2 July 2004
Speaker and Deputy Speaker
Members of the Executive Council
Honourable members
Senior managers in the Office of the Premier
Ladies and gentlemen
It is barely a month since, in this house, we unveiled our bold new ten-year vision, which will see Gauteng becoming an even better place in which to live.
Central to this new vision is the continued transformation of Gauteng into an integrated, region, politically, socially and economically. This will further enhance our position as a globally competitive urban region, which must become Africa's economic powerhouse and hold its own in the world. Such a region will better be able to take forward the country's developmental goals and strengthen the foundation of a developmental state.
The distinctive characteristics of this new Gauteng are: a faster growing economy and employment; high levels of skills; healthy and productive people; safe and sustainable communities; deepened democracy and nation building; and an effective and caring government.
All of our people must enjoy the wealth and benefits of living in the country and the continent's economic powerhouse. All the people must be treated equally. No one must live in squalid conditions. All must live in decent homes built on well-located land. The poor and the rich must live together in harmony. Black people must have the opportunity to participate in the economy as owners of the means of production and not merely as labourers and consumers of goods and services.
We need to strengthen nation building and ensure that all our people, black and white, young and old, the disabled and women contribute to the creation of a non-racial, non-sexist, democratic and prosperous country and province.
Our five-year programme responds to the most urgent challenges of creating work and fighting poverty and also sets clear policy frameworks to advance to our long-term goal.
Soon after we unveiled our vision and outlined the five year programme, all the MECs and their respective departments got down to serious work to draw up their detailed five year plans and programmes to realise this vision. These plans will be adopted in august and will guide spending priorities over the next five years.
Over the past few weeks the legislature through its portfolio committees has engaged with departments and MECs on the departmental programmes and budget allocations for the current financial year. Since the beginning of this week, MECs have outlined how the current programmes and budget allocations take forward our ten-year vision in the short, medium and long term.
When we release the departmental five year programmes in the next two months the honourable members and the people of our province will have the opportunity to see in more detail what we will do over the next five years to realise our goal of a an integrated Gauteng.
During our last term of government we made great progress towards integration. We did away with the silo mentality and introduced more co-operative and collaborative method of working based on joint and integrated planning by all departments. This is reflected in the fact that Departmental programmes are now informed by provincial strategic priorities.
Work is being done to ensure that all public servants in Gauteng internalise this new way of doing things. We are making strides towards empowering managers to think more about how their programmes will contribute towards the achievement of the overall strategic objectives of the Gauteng Provincial Government and not merely confine their thinking to narrow departmental programmes.
Integration and co-operation among departments and across all spheres of government will become even more important during this term of office. We can only succeed in realising our new vision if there is greater co-operation and collaboration by all spheres of government.
Through integration and co-operation we have been able to make government more people-centric, improve service delivery, use resources effectively and efficiently, increase the impact of existing resources and remove unnecessary bureaucratic blockages.
The urban renewal programme is a good example of what can be achieved through integration and co-operation among departments and across spheres of government.
The Blue IQ projects around Johannesburg, Ekurhuleni and Tshwane jointly implemented by the provincial government, are another good example of integration and co-operation to achieve better results.
Last week there were two important national meetings, which were held to explore ways of building and strengthening co-operation among all the three spheres of government.
In our province we have already started working with all our municipalities to develop common strategies and programmes. Institutional mechanisms such as the Premier's Co-ordinating Forum and the Gauteng Intergovernmental Forum provide a platform for us to plan jointly and develop common approaches to tackle the challenges facing our people. We will strengthen these mechanisms and, where necessary, formalise them in the interest of co-operative governance.
We are encouraged by the spirit of collaboration, which has been displayed by the leadership of local government in our province. This kind of co-operation among metropolitan, district and local municipalities is exactly what is needed to realise our goal of an integrated Gauteng, where we all work in synergy to achieve our common vision.
Soon after the introduction of the new municipal systems in the year 2000 many people were asking all sorts of questions relating to how we would cope with the fact that three of the country's six metropolitan municipalities are in Gauteng. Some suggested that there would be conflict and tension between the powerful metros and the provincial government. None of the fears and predictions of conflict materialised. We saw the creation of metropolitan municipalities as an opportunity to strengthen co-operation between the provincial and local spheres of government and to increase our collective capacity to deliver services to the people.
All of us, the provincial government and the municipalities, fully recognise the unique advantages that each of Gauteng's cities and towns possess. We recognise too that the concentrated urban character of the province gives us massive potential for prosperity and that the full realisation of this potential depends on the actions of all three spheres of government working in unison. We are also aware of the immense contribution that our province can make towards the overall advancement of the people of South Africa and the continent. We will work together to fully exploit our advantages and utilise the opportunities that exist to build our province as the economic powerhouse of our country and continent.
Our experience over the past ten years has confirmed the importance of the active involvement of the people in the process to bring about change. Ours has always been a people-centred government, which involves the people in all its work.
The tasks that lie ahead of us as we advance towards a new Gauteng can only be accomplished if we continue to work in partnership with all our people.
We have made a commitment to work with all our people in a "people's contract" to tackle all the challenges that face us and advance towards a better Gauteng for all.
The programme that we outlined at the opening of the legislature constitutes government's commitment to honour the "people's contract to create work and fight poverty".
There are other partners who must come to the party and sign the "people's contract". They must commit themselves to honour the contract. All of us must add value to this partnership. The greater the contribution by all partners, the greater the dividends and the benefits to all.
Business and other economic stakeholders must state what they will do to contribute to faster economic growth, job creation, skills development, poverty alleviation and building sustainable communities.
Employers must spell out what they will do to contribute to making Gauteng residents healthy, skilled and productive.
Organs of civil society, religious bodies and organisations representing women, youth, professionals and other groups must say what they will do to contribute towards deepening democracy and realising the constitutional rights of our people.
The workers in the public sector must tell the people what they will be doing to contribute to building an effective and caring government.
Every other sector and group that works in our province must tell the people of Gauteng what they will do to contribute towards building a better Gauteng for all.
The legislature too needs to come to the party and indicate how through its work it will contribute to a people's contract for work and eradication of poverty.
The Gauteng Provincial Government will soon undertake a process to engage all key stakeholders including business, workers, professional bodies, research and academic institutions, organs of civil society and organisations women, youth and people with disabilities about building living partnerships for the advancement of our common objectives.
There are encouraging signs that all the stakeholders, having expressed support for our vision and programme, will work with us to build a better Gauteng for all. We are confident that all the other stakeholders that we will be meeting will commit themselves to work with us to build the new Gauteng.
The sporting community has expressed overwhelming support for our campaign to reclaim Gauteng's status as a preferred home for competitive sport.
MEC for Sports, Recreation, Arts and Culture, Barbara Creecy mentioned some of big sporting events, which will be hosted in our province in the near future. The highlight of these is the finals of the Vodacom Challenge, which will be held at the FNB Stadium on 17 July 2004. Tomorrow the people of Gauteng will welcome our proud national football team, Bafana Bafana, back to the home of football. We urge all supporters of the beautiful game to converge at the FNB Stadium and cheer up our boys when they play against Burkina Faso in the World Cup qualifier.
Next week Tuesday we will hold the Gauteng Tourism Indaba as we promised. This important gathering which will involve the Gauteng Tourism Authority and all key tourism stakeholders in the province will discuss ways to fully exploit the many opportunities that the industry offers. It will also focus on how local communities can fully participate in this fast growing industry and position themselves to both drive and benefit from tourism.
We have already seen in the past years how tourism can contribute to the creation of jobs and opportunities for small, medium and micro enterprises. Our province has places of cultural and historic significance such as the Cradle of Humankind World Heritage Site and world-class entertainment, hospitality, shopping and conference facilities, which offer visitors a perfect environment for work and relaxation.
We expect all the participants at the tourism indaba to commit themselves to a clear programme that will make Gauteng a preferred destination for domestic and foreign tourists.
Next month is Women's month. We will be holding six regional women's dialogues throughout the province. These meetings will give women not only an opportunity to dialogue with each other but also network and develop local partnerships and programmes of action to take forward the empowerment of women.
We call on all women's organisations - from the formal to the informal, women from the public and private sector, from NGO's and CBOs to be part of these meetings.
Just this week, Gauteng had the honour of presenting to the national women's dialogue how together with women in our province we are working to improving their lives in our province.
We will continue to involve the masses of our people in our work. Public participation and direct interactive communication with the people of Gauteng through Let's Talk and imbizo programmes will remain a permanent style of governance even in this term of office.
While in the past years the focus of these programmes was listening to the views of the people on a range of issues, we will now focus on building working partnerships with the people. We will tell the people what we as government are doing to honour the people's contract and discuss with them what their role in this contract should be.
Over the next five years we will pay particular attention to ensure that all Gauteng residents, regardless of their social status, have easy access to information about government services and are able to access available resources and opportunities. We will ensure that this information is not just available in government offices but, actively and proactively bring this information to those who need it to improve their lives and develop their communities.
For more information contact: Thabo Masebe
Tel: (011) 355 6036
Cell: 082 410 8087
Issued by: Office of the Premier, Gauteng Provincial Government
2 July 2004
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