10 October 2001
President Thabo Mbeki will visit the Eastern Cape province this week as part of the Imbizo programme of interactive governance, which seeks to emphasise direct communication between government and the public around the challenges of implementing government's programme of action.
After Cabinet decided last year to engage in Imbizo, The President set aside 2-3 days on his diary to conduct Imbizo in different provinces. The first such Imbizo took place at Northern Province in April this year.
The Eastern Cape has been chosen to be the President's second provincial Imbizo because of its severe socio-economic challenges that require urgent attention by all spheres of government.
The Eastern Cape is the biggest province in the country with a population of around six million people, making it the third-largest provincial population. According to Statistics South Africa report "Measuring Poverty in South Africa," the Eastern Cape is the poorest province in terms of average monthly expenditure, followed by Free State and the Northern Province. The poverty level in the province is around 48%.
The President's visit in the province will cover four district municipalities, i.e. Amatole, OR Tambo, Alfred Nzo and Chris Hani District Municipalities as well as the Nelson Mandela Metropole.
During his visit The President will, among other things, deliver the ZK Mathews Memorial Lecture at Fort Hare University. In other parts of the province the President will visit developmental projects aimed at poverty reduction and delivery of basic services to the people and engage with the communities involved.
This will include the launch of the Multi-purpose Community Centre in Sterkspruit; celebration of the 7 millionth person to receive clean running water in Qhaka village in Port St Johns; interaction with nurses, doctors and patients of Sipethu Hospital -where there was recent television coverage of malnourished children; laying a wreath at the sight where a taxi was ambushed and lives were lost and a visit to a community flagship project in Tsilitwa, Qumbu.
Issued by The Presidency
Pretoria