Issued by: Gauteng Provincial Government
28 June 1999
Mr Speaker
Distinguished guests
Hounarable members
Today marks the beginning of yet another leg in the long journey, first traversed by our heroic kings such as Shaka, Sekhukhune, Phalo and Nghunghunyane. It is this legacy of fearless and selfless struggle, which was bequeathed to the leaders of our people such as Prixley ka Seme, Chief Albert Luthuli, Yusuf Dadoo, Moses Kotane, Lillian Ngoyi, Helen Joseph, Ruth First and Bram Fisher.
The people of Gauteng, in all the glory of their rainbow colours, have through the ballot spoken clearly and eloquently of a government which must deliver on the commitment of accelerated change and the further amelioration of their living conditions. The agonies of despair that characterised the society we set ourselves to replace are truly disappearing, giving way to a sense of hope.
We have a real possibility to move forward faster to improve the quality of life for all the people, remove humiliating poverty, hunger, endemic disease, joblessness and all other harsh socio-economic realities.
As we begin this journey, which of course will have its steep hills and boulders strewn along our path, we will not and must not be deterred from our determination to move forward, faster. The steep-hills of this journey notwithstanding, the green valley of prosperity on the horizon beckons all of us. It is decorated with peace, harmony, social justice, socio-economic equity and freedom - in short, a better life for all.
Honourable members, Eric Hobsbawm, making an observation on the overwhelming challenges facing humanity as it enters the next millennium remarks, "The short twentieth century ended in problems, for which nobody had, or even claimed to have solutions. As the citizens of the fin-de-siecle tapped their way through the global fog that surrounded them, into the third millennium, all they knew for certain was that an era of history had ended. They knew very little else."
The post-modernistic metaphor for the global uncertainties, which face humankind as we enter the new millennium, is not completely removed from the reality of the complex challenges, which confront both our national and provincial government. While we recognise the need to continue engaging this imperative analysis of the new world order, there are specific challenges, nationally and provincially, that we face to which we should dedicate all our efforts and energy over the next five years.
More than any other province, socio-economic transformation is at the heart of politics in Gauteng, which is the centre of economic power.
What happens in Gauteng is not only of significance to the province, but has important implications for the entire country. The Gauteng government will promote an active engagement with all stakeholders, to ensure that everyone recognises the urgency of seriously beginning to tackle the critical social questions, in particular that of unemployment.
A number of initiatives will be put in place as part of our programme for job creation, infrastructure investment, and economic growth and development. These include the finalisation of areas identified by the national and provincial government for Spatial Development initiatives, linked to a housing programme including rental stock. In line with the vision outlined by the President, in his state of the nation address, this initiative must also address future needs such as schools, clinics, police stations and roads. This must further be linked to the development of plans for local economic development.
I have already established a task team led by the MEC for Finance and Economic Affairs, to develop a plan which the provincial government working together with the private sector and trade unions, national and local government should implement to ensure sustainable growth and job creation. This task team will submit its report by 21 July 1999. The work of this team will benefit greatly from its interaction with the working groups set by the president to deal with similar issues. It will also take on board ideas that will emerge from our budget lekgotla, which will take place in two weeks time. This will ensure that all programmes
The time has come, in this second period of our democracy, for a new spirit of commitment by everyone, to our economy, our people, and our province. We are not calling for a blind patriotism, or an unquestioning allegiance to government. All we call for is a new spirit of commitment to building our economy. A preparedness to take a long-term view. Not to constantly look for reasons why this or that can't be done.
We could have a huge impact on our people and our economy if we all moved in one direction. A commitment to reinvest profits in plant, equipment and factories, would send a powerful signal by business. A commitment by the government which I am happy to make now, to increase its current 6% set aside for capital expenditure over the next five years, becomes an important signal of our commitment to invest in the much needed infrastructure.
A commitment to minimise job loss, and maximise investment in employment would create a new spirit of co-operation between workers and employers as well as boost productivity. Indeed a commitment which I am happy to make that we will increase the resources set aside to assist small and medium enterprises through among others procurement and tender processes will go a long way to open our economy to those who for years were denied opportunities to fully develop as entrepreneurs while at the same time creating jobs.
An important breakthrough was reached at the Presidential Job Summit in October last year. The critical issue is to ensure the comprehensive and speedy implementation of the resolutions. To this end, in conjunction with the business community, workers and the broader community, we will also look at an appropriate programme for Gauteng to take forward the decisions of the job summit.
Tourism is also one of the most exciting and challenging areas for economic development and employment creation. The provincial government will focus more energy on attracting a robust tourist trade to our province with special attention to areas such as business tourism, sports tourism and Eco-tourism.
The successes of our province in attracting large numbers of international and local tourists depend in part on the ability of both the formal and informal sectors to offer service of a high standard.
Linked to this must be to ensure the safety of those who visit our townships, cities and natural sites be they the Hector Peterson memorial in Soweto or the heritage site in Magaliesberg.
We must take full advantage of the honour we have of being host to the All Africa Games. Already resources have been set aside by the provincial government, private sector and the Greater Johannesburg metropolitan council to upgrade and build facilities such as stadiums, taxi ranks, informal trading markets and building houses at the All Africa Games village in Alex.
An important element to the success of this initiative is the positive impact, which could be created by a commitment by all Gauteng citizens to fostering a welcoming and friendly climate for our tourists. This climate will be reinforced by the enhancement of facilities, which will have the power of generating resources into the coffers of our province.
New initiatives by the private sector to bolster the industry deserve great commendation. These initiatives includes, the convention centre under construction in Sandton, which will once completed, contribute immensely to economic development in Gauteng.
Tourism brings wealth, without doubt, but tourism is also an industry that can create millions of jobs for our people. We cannot afford to allow such opportunities not to develop to their full potential.
The Gauteng Government will continue to pay special attention to the development of small, medium and micro enterprises. During the next five years we will ensure that more is done to support emerging business especially those previously disadvantaged by policies of the past, by among others, continuing to prescribe that a percentage of government tenders be awarded to deserving businesses from this sector.
Honourable Speaker,
The accelerated change the people of Gauteng expect from us in partnership with them means that we have to speed up delivery of basic needs to all the people. Greater numbers of our people must get access to housing, high quality education, social security, primary health care, transport and other basic services. These changes must result in a profound improvement in the quality of life for all the people, particularly the historically disadvantaged and people living with disabilities.
One of the biggest challenges we face in this term of government is to drastically improve the conditions of life for many of our people who live in the informal settlement areas as well as radically change the squalor conditions of some of our old townships. This we commit ourselves to do in partnership with the private sector. At the same time we need to develop a cooperative and social sector so as to enhance the availability of resources for social transformation.
We will also develop housing programmes such that we build houses on well-located land, with access to amenities, and moving away from the apartheid human settlement patterns, which kept people away from centres of economic activity. We will not accept a process where developers look for sites in areas that takes our people further away from industrial areas and cities.
As part of this integrated strategy, the MEC's for Housing, for Local Government and for Land, Agriculture, Conservation and Environment will lead our efforts to develop an integrated plan to address the challenges of housing and other developmental issues. This must include concrete plans of how Gauteng can benefit from the recent agreement with the EU as regards access to European markets. They will also identify land suitable for agricultural activities for use by both established and emerging farmers. This will further add to our success in employment creation.
The provision of a free and compulsory high quality education will be taken further during the next five years in line with the positions outlined by the President. In this regard we will continue to build and improve on the capacity of public schools.
We have to reduce the heavy burden of basic education from parents, particularly poor parents who struggle to provide other needs to their families. No child will be turned away from school simply because the parents cannot afford to pay school fees.
New policies regarding school funding norms and the process of equitable redistribution of educational resources support our endeavor to build capacity for public schools to discharge their mandate of providing a high quality basic education.
We remain committed to implementing Curriculum 2005. We are strengthened in this regard by the announcement by the President of various initiatives aimed at assisting teachers to prepare themselves for the full implementation of the policy. These include training and retraining of teachers as well as ensuring effective management of schools.
In pursuit of our goal of expanding the skills base of our population, we will put a specific focus on vocational training as part of our broad Human Resource Development strategy aimed at our people, young and old, employed and unemployed, in the private and public sector.
It is unacceptable that 57% of African women and 41% of Coloured women are in unskilled jobs, while 6% of Indian and white women are. It is unacceptable that 34% of Coloured men are in unskilled jobs, while as many as 50% of white men are in managerial, professional or technical occupations Together with the private sector, technical colleges and universities, we will put in place a plan to link the skills training to the needs of our province. As part of youth development plans we will also ensure that resources are made available by government at various levels and the private sector for training as part of our strategy to deal with unemployment aimed in part at the youth.
The provision of a comprehensive accessible public health system will continue to receive urgent attention. Particular attention must be paid to increasing the availability of doctors and nurses, especially in clinics as well as improving the management of hospitals and clinics.
The attention of the Executive Council has been drawn to some of the problems in public hospitals around central Johannesburg. The MEC for Health and the Provincial Health Department have since attended to them.
I have instructed the MEC for Health to work with the management structures of all public hospitals in the province to ensure the improvement of the management systems. We will take all steps necessary to ensure that they are capacitated to deliver optimum services to the people of Gauteng.
At the same I will insist on a full account from hospital management on how the millions of rands made available to them are utilised and how reprioritisation is taking place. The time has come for management to understand that it can not be business as usual. We have limited resources. We must use them in a way that eliminates wastage and duplication. They must also curb theft of medicines and equipment in all hospitals.
I want to take this opportunity to thank all medical staff particularly nurses who as we all know are the backbone of our health systems.
While I accept that some doctors in public health are also in private practice, and have no problem with it in principle, I expect of them to ensure that the maximum time paid for by the state is not compromised in any way whatsoever.
The provincial government will take all necessary steps to decisively tackle preventable diseases such as TB through among others, immunisation programmes.
In partnership with all sectors of society, we will continue to give absolute priority to HIV/Aids programmes. We will continue to mobilise popular awareness of the seriousness of the epidemic. All of us must realise that the epidemic is not only a health issue, but also an economic one, which we ignore at our peril.
Our experience over the past five years has shown that in order for us to make rapid progress in the reconstruction and development of our communities, we need to avoid fragmentation in implementing our policies and programmes. We commit ourselves to enhance planning and usage of valuable resources for development.
Integrated planning and co-ordination will underpin our delivery programmes by all spheres of government.
Specific attention in this regard will be paid to the issue of infrastructure development. The Provincial Government will ensure those resources available for infrastructure development from the national government is properly utilised to address the developmental needs of our communities.
I have asked all departments whose areas of work impact on one another to work together and to formulate policy and develop programmes jointly in order to achieve optimum utilisation of resources available for development. This will also include joint budgeting and planning.
Local government is going to play an important role in the delivery of services and in the implementation of various development programmes. While it is true that all three spheres of government are important in delivering essential services to communities, the reality is that since local government is closest to the people in terms of proximity, it is the most crucial sphere of government in terms of delivery.
It is for this reason that the provincial government will be looking at the issue of building capacity of local government structures to ensure that they are run more efficiently and are able to deliver the services they are expected to deliver to the people.
All municipalities will be encouraged to implement and sustain credit control measures while at the same time putting in place effective billing systems. All Gauteng citizens have a responsibility to ensure that local government is sustainable. At the same time citizens are right to demand value for their money by way of improved service delivery.
Honourable members, the Gauteng government is aware that the people of Gauteng cannot lead a better life when they are still imprisoned in their homes and streets, and their townships and suburbs taken over by criminals.
Teachers and learners at school cannot lead a better life when they are not safe in their classrooms and school premises. Women cannot truly lead a better life when lascivious and shameless criminals have stripped them of their humanity through domestic violence and the disdainful violation of their womanhood.
All of us have already said thus far and no more. It is now time for us to act together to defeat the scourge of crime which is slowly becoming a threat to the hard won democratic rights of our people.
The president has already announced measures, which include among others, the firming up of the criminal justice system to deal much more effectively with the scourge of crime. The recruitment of personnel with requisite education levels, as announced by the President, will bring the much-needed skills to the police service. The provincial government will do everything within constitutional parameters to ensure that crime levels are drastically reduced, that all the people live in the safety they so deserve.
The MEC for Safety and Liaison and myself will soon meet with the Provincial Commissioner of Police to map out plans of how Gauteng Province will contribute to the implementation of the National Crime Prevention strategy. We will require of the Commissioner to outline in concrete terms, steps that he will take to implement the plans announced by the President including dealing with the issue of illegal firearms.
Possibilities of more active participation by communities in the national efforts to fight against crime have been further enhanced by the creation of Metropolitan Policing. We call on all metropolitan councils to set aside resources for policing at their level. This will also greatly reduce the strain on the police while at the same time enhancing the visibility of police on the ground. Community policing forums should also be beefed up, as this is the only way of being involved in crime prevention. I call on citizens especially shopstewards to join up as police reservists so as to contribute to bringing down the levels of crime in our province.
The Gauteng government condemns in the strongest terms the killing of policewomen/men. We call on all communities to join hands will all law enforcement agencies to ensure that the killers are brought to book. We will soon be meeting with the trade unions in this sector to develop a joint plan to arrest all those who commit crime.
The ability of our government to take forward the process of accelerated transformation and service delivery depends on good governance, a concept at the very heart of any successful nation.
Central to good governance are the principles of accountability, transparency and zero tolerance for corruption. But good governance is also about capacity and political will to detect bad and corrupt practices in our Provincial Government. Our obligation and accountability to the public are at the centre of this ethic and promise.
The provincial government will act ruthlessly and expeditiously against the criminal elements who use the positions they have been put in by the people to serve them to defraud the state.
Not only will the provincial government put in place mechanisms to detect corruption in the public service, but will also put in place mechanisms which will make it difficult for any public servants to get involved in corrupt activities.
While mechanisms should be in place, to deal with corruption, we can only succeed in rooting out corruption from government and other spheres of our society if every citizen of this province join hands in the campaign. We call on all the people of Gauteng, regardless of their positions or status to join us in the anti-corruption campaign. Let all of us be the watchdogs to protect the property and resources of the people.
A lot of negative sentiments exist about the conduct of some workers in the public sector. Lack of commitment to servicing the community by some in the public sector, corrupt practices, and resistance by elements in the old bureaucracy to implementing the programme of the democratic government, has created a bad image for the public sector.
Those responsible for betraying the peoples trust in this way are also discrediting the tens of thousands of dedicated public sector workers who selflessly provide services to our people on a daily basis. The Gauteng government recognises that there are many health workers, teachers, police, local government and others who are delivering services to the best of their ability often under difficult conditions.
We salute them for this.
At the same time we need to take action against those who are abusing taxpayers money, who are undermining trust in their fellow workers, and sabotaging implementation of programmes designed to benefit our people.
Our public sector unions have begun to develop programmes to improve the level of service, and to act against those who have betrayed our trust.
These programmes should be commended and need to be accelerated.
In our ongoing efforts of providing better service to our people, we have to take decisive steps to ensure that the public service is in reality geared towards the objective of batho pele - people first.
We are aware that there are still people - albeit in the minority - in the public administration from the old order resisting to implement programmes of the democratic government. Others just lack the necessary commitment required of public servants to serve the people.
No people should be employed within the public service who think that they occupy the positions they do simply to make a living, without devotion to their duties and without any commitment to serve the people they are employed to serve.
We will not be able to succeed in providing the kind of quality service to the people if we do not have a public administration that is both willing to and capable of serving the public. We have got to therefore weed out from among all agencies of public administration all those who do not measure up or refuse to measure up to the standards towards the objective of batho pele.
Good governance also means that we must manage our meagre resources effectively. A task team to investigate transversal areas which should be shared between departments will present a report on 21 July 1999, whereafter a decision will be taken on shared services. In this way we will also eliminate wastage and duplication as well as release resources for development.
While it is the duty of government to lead the process of a creation of a caring society, so too is the role of all citizens to act in partnership with the government. Key to this will be developing a partnership with the community. We want to encourage greater involvement of people, whether in assisting the governance of hospitals, inculcating a culture of learning in schools, helping to run public housing through tenants associations, or assisting in combating crime through community structures.
While we accept that the state must take ultimate responsibility, effective implementation of such programmes requires that communities take ownership. I will use my past involvement and relationship with the communities, trade unions and the private sector to forge a joint plan of action to ensure that the youth of our country have jobs, that women in Gauteng are fully involved in economic activities including at senior levels of management, to ensure that our communities are safe, and that we all prosper.
The enormity of the challenges that the provincial government has to face to carry out the mandate of the people requires adequate capacity.
Steps are being taken to look at enhancing and improving the capacity of the Office of the Premier to develop and co-ordinate policies, monitor implementation as well as assist MEC's as and when the need arise. We will also look at enhanced capacity to interact with the legislature, the national assembly and the NCOP.
I am happy to say to you Mr. Speaker and honourable members, that we have a team of women and men in the Executive Council, who are equal to the task of social transformation. While we will take new initiatives, we will also continue to implement all policies of the ANC as developed at national and provincial levels over the past five years.
On behalf of this team of women and men who are committed and determined to serve their people, I make a pledge to this legislature, that the Executive Council shall be accountable to it as a body collectively representing the needs and aspiration of the people of Gauteng. We will act with honour at all times since to do otherwise will be a betrayal to those whom we seek to serve.
We trust that all members of the provincial legislature, from all political parties represented here, will make the same commitment we are making to work with us in pursuit of a better life for all our people.
We have already said a week ago that as the Gauteng Provincial Government we will make it possible for all the people of Gauteng who want to play a part in the process of accelerated transformation to do so.
We reiterate that commitment to working together with the people of Gauteng towards the objective of a better life for all.
Together, let us make Gauteng a prosperous province whose
citizens shall truly lead a better life.
Thank you.
MS LINDIWE MAHLOBO
Parliamentary Officer
Office of the Premier
Tel.: 27 11 498-5970
Fax: 27 11 498-5718