MECs present here,
Executive Mayors and Mayors,
Director-General and Heads of Departments,
Municipal managers,
Executives of parastatals,
Traditional leaders,
Our Police Commissioner,
Government officials,
Ladies and gentlemen.
It is with great pleasure to welcome all of you to the first Exco Lekgotla for the year 2013, which is taking place almost a year before the 2014 General Elections. This means we must push very hard and move with speed in implementing all outstanding service delivery projects. At some point we will account on every minute we spent in office and everything we did or failed to do.
In 2009, when we came into office we clearly indicated that our primary responsibility is to create decent job opportunities for our people, expand and build health care infrastructure, comprehensively develop our rural communities, fight crime and corruption and provide quality education which is easily accessible. Therefore, we must use this Lekgotla as one of the platforms to access progress in our work and craft an informed way forward.
We have long agreed that forward and integrated planning is the best method that must be employed in our operation and we have achieved that in certain instances. The planning that we are speaking about can only be achieved if politicians and administrators are doing what is expected from them.
This means as politicians and senior administrators of our government and municipalities we must work closely together not only for our sake, but mainly for the sake of Limpopo citizens who have invested their future in our hands. We have a compelling obligation to succeed in our assignment because failure is not an option.
The African National Congress has directed us to accelerate the provision of clean running water to our people. Our service delivery centres which are responsible to provide water to our communities must do so without any waste of time. We must exploit all avenues that will enable us to succeed in this regard, including partnering with the private sector.
The building of suitable for human settlements, sanitation facilities and provision of electricity must also remain top on our agenda.
At the centre of our mandate is our basic primary responsibility to work hard to better the living conditions of our people. At all times we must appreciate that we are united by this elementary obligation to ensure that our people are absolved from the traps of poverty, unemployment, illiteracy, underdevelopment and poor services.
We have an abundance of clear policies which must be immediately implemented to initiate ways and means that will grow our economy, whilst at the same time speeding up the wheels of service delivery, especially the creation of job opportunities for our youth and women, expand our infrastructure, build rural economy and empower our communities.
The Limpopo Economic Development Agency (LEDA) has a mandate to realise these burning obligations. LEDA must operate differently and lead the way in establishing and building a strong cooperative movement in the province, improve our tourism industry, ensure mining beneficiation for our communities through a state owned enterprise, grow our agricultural economy, and make Limpopo an industrious province.
LEDA must collaborate with institutions of higher learning and further education centers to ensure that there is skills development for our people; especially young people. There must be economic activity in all our five districts and our growth points must get the necessary infrastructure to enable further intensification. LEDA will be supported in order to succeed in its mandate.
This Lekgotla must be able to give us new ideas that must be employed and tested to propel forward our service delivery targets. We have the tenacity to achieve our goals and we must motivate each other at our respective work places to double the commitment to the course of improving the living standard of our people.
Every government and municipal employee must be a true patriot and activist for change, motivated by nothing except making a meaningful difference in the lives of our people.
This Lekgotla is officially opened and let’s have fruitful discussions.
I thank you!
