Honourable Speaker
Honourable Premier, Mr DD Mabuza
Honourable Deputy Speaker
Fellow Honourable Members of the Executive Council
Honourable Members of the Legislature
Organised farming
Ladies and gentlemen.
We as government have entered into a second phase of transition. We note as government that the challenges that have remained in spite of our endeavours as government to better the lives of our people over the past eighteen years. It is therefore a journey that requires everyone, as people of this province to double our concerted effort in the fight against Poverty, Unemployment and Inequality.
As the Natives Land Act of 1913 turns 100 years it reminds us of our past which was characterised by racial and ethnic divisions devised to systematically exclude the majority of South Africans from full and unhindered participation in all aspects of national life and left deep and persistent, social, cultural and economic divisions and inequalities in society. It is during this year that we need to be seen to be decisive in reversing the shameful legacy of this above stated colonial and apartheid Act.
Mpumalanga has a population of 4.04 million and the province recorded the second highest strict unemployment rate of 24 per cent among the nine provinces. In 2011 Mpumalanga's poverty rate was 41.6 per cent or some 1.59 million of its citizens that lived in households with an income less than the poverty income. Agriculture in Mpumalanga contributes 3.4% to the Gross Domestic Product and this sector accounts for 630 000 formal jobs in the province.
