Premier Chupu Mathabatha: Premier’s Employment Growth Advisory Council meeting

Opening address by the Premier of Limpopo, Chupu Mathabatha to the Premier’s Employment Growth Advisory Council (PEGAC) meeting held at Forever Resorts, Waterberg

Programme Director
Esteemed Members of the Premier Employment and Growth Advisory Council
Members of the Provincial Executive Council
Director General, Mr Nape Nchabeleng
Distinguished ladies and gentlemen

Let me start first my extending my sincere appreciations to all of you for availing your time and shelving everything else to be part of this meeting.

I truly appreciate this gesture because I know that for men and women of your stature, time is a highly prized commodity.

Thank you very much for always making time for this meeting.

At the same time, I do not think that it is necessary for me to even attempt to speak about the strategic significance of this body we call the Premier’s Employment  growth  Advisory Council.

It is only safe to say that your presence brings a collection of unique knowledge and skills which complement the knowledge and skills which we have in the formal structures of government.

You are the Brain Trust of our Provincial Administration. Your work may be the less-talked about, yet, it is the most important.

One of the strategic successes of this Council was the drafting and subsequent adoption of  the  Limpopo  Development  Plan. As you know, the LDP is a brain child of this Council.

Indeed, the LDP remain our official blue print to guide and put our province on a higher trajectory of economic growth and development for employment creation.

In this regard, I wish to express my sincere appreciations to your good selves for the advices and  the  contributions  you have made towards the finalisation and adoption  of  this important Limpopo Development Plan.

You have indeed proved to be reliable and dependable pillar of quality advice in our continuing struggle to grow and develop our economy for our people to find employment.

However, your job has just begun – the real challenge is to contribute, through advices and suggestions on how to implement the contents of the LDP.

As this Council, we must find ways to breathe life to this important document called the LDP. We must make sure that the aspirations contained in the LDP materialises.

If we succeed in doing this, we would have succeeded with the mandate of this Advisory Council.

I am saying this because the successful implementation of the LDP will lead to a higher growth trajectory, economic development, job creation and the reduction of inequality. This is what our battle cry is about.

Ladies and Gentlemen; you would know that this meeting is taking place just few  days before the much-awaited National Policy Conference of the ruling party, the African National Congress.

There is no doubt that much of the time at this policy conference will be consumed by debates around matters of economic growth and job creation.

In this regard, the Policy Conference is expected to impress on matters such as:

• The reduction of  unemployment and youth Unemployment in particular
• The issue of land reform
• The issue of increasing black ownership and control in the Economy
• The need to activate and support small businesses and co- operatives
• Raising the level of  investment
• Improving the employment impact of infrastructure projects, and
• Dismantling monopoly practices and structures in the economy

The resolutions to be adopted around these issues will without doubt impact on how we respond to the local challenges we have indentified through the LDP.

It is for this reason that I think we must all have interest, and were possible make submissions to the debates which will ensue that that Policy Conference.

Ladies and gentlemen, we have a long day ahead of us – according to the programme in front of us, the day promises not only to be long but also hectic.