Budget Vote Speech of the Free State Department of the Premier by Hon. Premier E.S. Magashule, Fourth Raadsaal, Bloemfontein
Honourable Speaker, Hon. Mamiki Qabathe
Honourable Deputy Speaker, Hon. Sizwe Mbalo
Chief Whip of the Legislature, Hon. Neels van Rooyen
Honourable Members of the Executive Council
Honourable Members of the House
Executive Mayors, Mayors, Speakers, Chief Whips, Councillors
The Chairperson of the Free State House of Traditional Leaders and all our traditional leaders
Director-General and Heads of Department
Municipal Managers
Chairpersons of our Public Entities
Leadership of labour organisations, civil society, business and faith based-organisations
Distinguished guests
Ladies and gentlemen
Honourable Speaker, during the State of the Province Address, we joined the President in declaring 2017: The Year of Oliver Tambo: Advancing and Consolidating Unity. Mayihlome ihlasele This Budget Vote will also be dedicated to the legacy of President OR Tambo. This will be the year of unity in action. Re a Hlaslela!
Our implementation of radical socio-economic transformation will be done without any amount of hesitation, apology or indecisiveness. In line with the legacy of President OR Tambo, this year we will continue to serve our people with care, dedication and selflessness.
In the implementation of the legacy of President OR Tambo, we will continue to use our Operation Hlasela Service Delivery Model to meet the immediate needs of our people. We are now, more than ever before, convinced that through Operation Hlasela, our government will deliver more services to our people. Re a Hlasela!
Honourable Speaker, we table this Budget Vote 2 days after the commemoration of the 57th Annivessary of the Sharpville Massacre. We have forgiven but have not forgotten how our innocent, unarmed people were killed and injured by the racist Apartheid regime on the 21st of March 1960, in Sharpville.
As we celebrate this day, now called Human Rights Day, we also remember Black Consciousness activist, Steven Bantu Biko, who was killed by the Apartheid police 40 years ago. Biko encouraged Blacks not to feel inferior, and Whites not think that they were superior. Indeed, As President Zuma said, we need liberated minds in order to achieve radical socio-economic transformation
We remain resolute in our objective to build a province that is free from poverty, inequality and unemployment. As we look back at the journey we have travelled since 1994, we can only be proud of our achievements.
Kajeno re majalefa a tokololoho, mme re leboha ma-Afrika Borwa ka sena. We owe our freedom and democracy to the courage of heroes like Oliver Tambo, Nelson Mandela, Joe Slovo, Bram Fischer, Thabo Mofutsanyana, Fezile Dabi and many ordinary people of South Africa and the world. We will remain forever grateful for all their efforts, sacrifices and deeds.
Today is by far better than yesterday, and with the passage of time, tomorrow will be great. Our good story will stand the test of time. Today the majority of our people have houses, water and electricity. Access to quality education and healthcare is a reality to many of our people in the province. We now have a formidable and equitable social security system to deal with the scourge of deprivation. We know that the future generation will continue to tell this good story.
We must indeed appreciate the assurance by the President that our social grants will be paid to beneficiaries on 01st April 2017. Our elderly, orphaned and poor children, people with disabilities and other social grants beneficiaries will never suffer under the ANC government.
Whilst we acknowledge our good story, we cannot deny the challenges that continue to beset our democracy. The ills of Apartheid remain with us as demonstrated by the triple challenges of unemployment, poverty and inequality. We are not blind to the reality that, although we have achieved a lot, a lot still needs to be done to change the lives of our people for the better.
It is for this reason why the ANC has embarked on a purposeful radical economic transformation process. According to President Jacob Zuma, radical economic transformation entails a “fundamental change in the structure, systems, institutions and patterns of ownership, management and control of the economy in favour of all South Africans, especially the poor, the majority of whom are African and female.”
These words by President Jacob Zuma remind us of Thomas Sankara of Burkina Faso when he said: “You cannot carry out fundamental change without a certain amount of madness. In this case, it comes from nonconformity, the courage to turn your back on the old formulas, the courage to invent the future.”
Radical economic transformation represents this fundamental change. This is about the essence of our very own existence. Radical economic transformation is what we need, and radical economic transformation is what we will get.
We understand that the problems of our people are not about the provision of their social needs alone, but also the dignity and comfort that comes with economic emancipation. For the majority of our poor people, things will never be the same again. Like never before, we are now compelled to spread the benefits of economic transformation across all sectors of our society through deliberate and conscious state intervention.
Honourable Speaker, as the department responsible for providing strategic leadership to the entire province, the Department of the Premier will lead this quest for radical economic transformation. To fulfil this very important task, the Department of the Premier has been allocated Five Hundred and Sixty Four Million, Nine Hundred and Eighty Rhousand Rand (R564.980 million) for 2017/18 financial year.
Of this amount, Two Hundred and Sixty Million, Three Hundred and Thirty Four Thousand Rand (R260,334 million) is appropriated for compensation of employees. Goods and services will receive Fifty One Million and Two Hundred and Eighty Five Thousand Rand (R51,285 million). Transfers and subsidies, primarily meant for provincial bursaries, will receive Two Hundred and Forty Nine Million, Nine Hundred and Twenty Two Thousand Rand (R249,922 million), as its share of the total Department of the Premier’s allocated budget.
Programme 1
The purpose of Programme 1 is to ensure effective and efficient government practices and resource management. This function is about enabling mechanisms to better respond to our radical economic transformation Agenda. Both the Premier’s Support and the Executive Support components will render technical, administrative and advisory support to the Premier in executing the constitutional mandate.
Strategic planning and coordination of government programmes and projects will equally form part of this responsibility. Set tasks to be performed as part of this responsibility will include ensuring that the Premier attends to the executive and oversight responsibilities as required.
The development of the Programme of Action as an instrument of development priority setting and integrated implementation will also be undertaken.
Administratively, the Premier will be assisted by the Director-General in performing these functions that will encompass engagements with in structures such as the President’s Coordinating Council, Premier’s Coordinating Forum and the Forum of South African Directors-General.
The Premier’s Department will continue to ensure the consolidation of the war on HIV/AIDS through the effective coordination of the Provincial Council on Aids. To ensure the alignment of strategies to combat HIV/AIDS across different spheres of government, we will strengthen the District Aids Councils, as well as the Local Aids Councils.
We commit to obtain a clean audit opinion as an indication of our commitment to efficient, accountable and transparent governance. This will require that we work very closely with the Auditor-General for constant support and guidance.
We also commit to ensure that service providers offering goods and services to our departments are paid within the stipulated 30 days to realise our radical economic transformation mandate. Whatever risks that may seem to impede our path to our objectives will be mitigated. All these will form part of the obligations of the Financial Management, Risk and Internal Audit components.
As a result, an amount of Sixty Five Million and Eighty Six Thousand Rand (R65 086 million) has been allocated for Programme 1 to fulfil these very important functions.
Programme 2
Programme 2 renders corporate support functions to the Department of the Premier, and strategic direction to other provincial departments. Through our Strategic Human Resource Management section, significant efforts will be directed towards capacity building and promotion of ethical behaviour in the public sector.
In this highly competitive world, skills development is a major contributor to economic growth and development. The Free State Training and Development Institute (FSTDI) is one of the Four (4) accredited public sector training academies, and is recognised by the Public Service Seta as a provider of credible human development outputs.
We have currently trained Two Thousand Six Hundred and Eighty Five (2 685) officials this current year on numerous programs which are credit bearing and which lead to a qualification. In collaboration with the Provincial Skills Development we have also provided 14 different skills programmes to Fifty Seven (57) orphans in the Province.
In collaboration with the Local Government SETA, we will also coordinate training packages for officials in our municipalities. This initiative is intended to sharpen the capacity of government in different spheres to deliver quality services.
As part of our broad mandate to ensure participatory democracy, we will work with an NGO that dals with voter education. It is our firm belief that voter education, as well as elections in general, is a cornerstone of our constitutional democracy.
The Provincial Skills Development Coordination Unit will roll out our bursary scheme for the development and acquisition of scares skills. We will continue to offer academic and forms of support to our students in various universities throughout the country and the world.
Two Hundred and Forty Nine Million Nine Hundred and Twenty Two Thousand Rand (R249,922 million) share of the total budget has been allocated for this purpose. This is our little investment towards the future of our young people, and towards the creation of a pool of skills and competencies which will be useful for our province and our country.
Through the use of ICT in the public sector, we will bring about the effective functioning of our democratic government. ICT enhances the effectiveness, efficiency and transparency of government by allowing access to information and services. In partnership with our ICT stakeholders, we will establish an ICT Innovation. We will also work with institutions of higher learning to implement a project to train students on e-Governance.
On the 10th of April 2017, 20 Students who are currently studying ICT in Madeira, Portugal will be coming back to the province. We are confident that these graduates will use the skills they have assist us to have better systems and processes, which will ultimately assist with service delivery.
Our legal service provision will entail legal advice on litigation, contracts, legal questions, legal trends and provision of legal information. During 2016, the management of litigation was centralised in the Department of the Premier. The settlement amounts of various departmental legal claims were significantly reduced. We will continue to strengthen the management of litigation, which includes the curbing of opportunistic legal claims.
Honourable Speaker, in our endeavour to improve democracy through constant interaction with our people, our Communication component will continue communicating EXCO decisions, compilation of the Weekly Update newsletter, Hlasela News Newspaper and implementation of the Programme of Action.
As from April 2017, we will be printing Hundred Thousand (100 000) copies of Hlasela News Newspaper for distribution to households throughout the province. This is intended to strengthen our communication with the people, inform people about government services and to empower our people to be active citizens. Various platforms such as media briefings, newsletters, radio and television programmes, and social media platforms will be use to strengthen our communication efforts.
A budget of Three Hundred and Thirty Six million, Seven Hundred and Forty Seven Thousand Rand (R336,747 million) has been allocated to Programme 2 to meet its obligations.
Programme 3
Programme 3 will align, integrate and coordinate the activities of the three spheres of government in order to realise the province’s growth and development priorities. This requires integrated coordination and coherence of plans, strategies, policies and frameworks between different spheres of government. This will ensure compatible and complementary development planning and implementation.
The Planning and Policy component will continue to implement the National Development Plan in which the Free State Growth and Development Strategy is embedded. Integrated Development Plans (IDPs) will also be aligned with the national and provincial policy imperatives in line with our mandate to ensure that we use intergovernmental cooperation for coherent growth and development.
The Strategic Integrated Projects (SIPs) will play a catalytical role towards radical economic transformation and socio-economic development in the province. Some of these projects include the Harrismith Logistics Hub, Renewable Energy, N8 Corridor Development and Aero-city Concept, Underground Coal Gasification, Science and Innovation Hub, Integrated Municipal Infrastructure, Rehabilitation of Mining Towns, Xhariep Pipeline Project, Construction of the Government Precinct and MANCOFS.
Honourable Speakers and Members, we will facilitate engagements with municipalities and other stakeholders through the Premier’s Co-ordinating Forum (PCF). We will also ensure more effective participation of all spheres of government in the IDP processes. We will increase our efforts to ensure that there is coordination between provincial infrastructure projects and MIG projects for improved impact as well as better coordination.
We will also establish a Forum of Heads of Departments, Municipal Managers and Heads of Entities, as a structure to ensure smooth planning, cooperation and coherent implementation of government imperatives.
Our infrastructure planning and coordination will continue to be guided by the Presidential Infrastructure Coordinating Forum (PICC), which seeks to coordinate all our infrastructure programmes and to make South Africa a construction site. To further improve intergovernmental cooperation and coherence, we will ensure the effectiveness of District Coordinating Forums with the goal to create synergy among municipalities.
In the State of the Province Address, we announced that together with the Gauteng government, we will be implementing “River Cities”, a massive human settlements project along the Vaal-Sasolburg areas. We are happy to announce that the discussions between the two provincial governments have started.
We will continue to cement relations with provinces in other countries on issues of trade, people-to-people relations, education and health. This has seen us taking students to countries such as China, Cuba, India and Portugal to study in the important fields such as Agriculture, Engineering, Pharmacy, Medicine and Veterinary Medicine. During the coming financial year, we will be sending students to study various fields in Brazil, Portugal, Bulgaria and Northern Cyprus.
Earlier this week, we sent 60 students to BAU University in Istanbul, Turkey. A further 80 students will be sent to Brazil for vocational training. A total of 50 students will go Madeira to study Tourism and Hotel Management, and 20 to the University of Madeira to study Civil Engineering. Another 20 students will be heading to the University of Lisbon, Portugal to study Aeronautics Engineering, 10 students will study Architecture Engineering and another 10 students will study Town Planning.
We will be sending 40 students to pursue Nursing at the Fernando Pessoa University, and 10 students will do Electrical Engineering at the Minho University. Another 10 will pursue Biomedical Engineering. Included in this cohort will be additional 10 students to the University of Porto to study Pharmacy, and 20 students to the University of Trás-os-Montes and Alto Douro (UTAD) to study Enology and Agriculture.
Together with Mayors and members of the business community, we will undertake official visits to the BRICS countries and countries such as Angola, Kenya, Lesotho, Rwanda, Tanzania and Ethiopia. This is in pursuance of the African Union‘s Agenda 2063 and the African Renaissance. I will in May of this year participate in the BRICS Summit and the South Africa Week that we will jointly hosted with the Jiangsu province of China.
As we stated in our State of the Province Address, we will also be sending youth to countries like Tanzania, Angola and others, as part of our broad agenda to combat xenophobia and to orientate our youth on their history.
Through our Unit responsible for Youth, Women and People with Disabilities, we will initiate measures to support women, persons with disabilities, older persons and the youth. We will accelerate the development of the Provincial Gender Strategy and the Free State Youth Strategy. We will work with, and support, NGOs dealing with matters of youth, women and people with disabilities.
As a coordinating department, the Department of the Premier also has a responsibility to oversee the improvement in the financial management and governance principles of departments and municipalities. We have observed a lot of progress on audit outcomes for departments and municipalities over the years.
It is important to note that, since 2009 until 2015 we have reduced the number of municipalities with disclaimer opinions from 12 to 0. A number of departments have also received clean audit opinions. We also congratulate Fezile Dabi for receiving a clean audit outcome. Re a Hlasela!
Programme 3 has therefore been allocated Forty Five Million, Six Hundred and Six Thousand Rand (R45, 606 million) to fulfil its responsibilities.
Programme 4
The purpose of Programme 4 is to lead and provide monitoring and evaluation services in the provincial and local government spheres in order to ensure optimal results with regards to service delivery and implementation. The Provincial Monitoring and Evaluation (PME) Branch also drives the Operation Hlasela, the Free State Integrated Service Delivery Model.
The Presidential Hotline receives complaints and issues from South Africans in all corners, and refers such queries to relevant departments or provinces. In terms of resolution of complaints, the Free State is currently sitting at 96.82% of issues recorded in the Presidential Hotline.
As a caring government, we have noted that the majority of complaints made about the Free State relate to i) housing; ii) employment; iii) water; iv) health services and iv) sanitation refuse and sewage. We will work hard to ensure that we improve our work in these areas, and others that affect our people.
During this financial year, we will establish Premier’s Call Centre which will be based in the province to service our people more effectively, timeously and efficiently. The Intervention Walk-in Centre based at OR Tambo House will continue to provide a platform where our people raise any matter they want to government to address.
Since 2009, the Operation Hlasela community outreach programme has been the defining feature of our government. The Executive Council will continue to use Hlasela Outreach Programmes as a platform to engage with citizens and communities to understand and respond their issues.
To ensure that Operation Hlasela achieves maximum impact in addressing the triple challenges of unemployment, inequality and poverty, the Operation Hlasela implementation model has been revised to make poor communities the centre of development through the creation of Operation Hlasela Centers.
These Operation Hlasela Centers are being opened in small under serviced towns, townships and rural areas throughout the province in order to bring government services closer to the people.
As stated in the State of the Province Address, we will later this year host a Service Delivery EXPO to showcase the delivery achievements of the provincial government as well as our municipalities. The EXPO will also serve as a mechanism to ensure coordination of service delivery in the province. Re a Hlasela!
In the 2015 Management Performance Assessment Tool (MPAT) assessment results, the Free State Provincial Government was again announced as the 2nd best Province in the country in terms of management practices.
A Frontline Service Delivery Monitoring Programme was initiated in 2011. The programme, through unannounced monitoring visits at frontline offices across different sector departments such as Health, SAPS, Home Affairs, SASSA, Education, Justice etc., monitors the quality of service delivery at selected frontline service delivery facilities with the intent to speed up service delivery improvements.
Findings from these visits are captured in the form of a score card for each facility monitored and the findings are presented to the relevant sector departments. The Department of Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation together with Departments of the Premier work with the relevant government departments to ensure that corrective actions are taken where there are negative findings.
We will do another 14 Baseline visits at frontline offices across different sectors such as Health, SAPS, Home Affairs, SASSA, Education and Justice to assess and determine the quality of frontline services provided to citizens. Another 39 improvement visits will also take place across sectors during 2017/2018 to determine the improvements that took place based on findings during the baseline visits over the last 6 years. Sector meetings to discuss findings applicable to a specific sector will take place during June and September 2017 and in March 2018.
During October 2016, several police stations within the Free State Province were visited by the Public Service Commission and the findings were communicated to the Premier. The Department will ensure that negative findings made at these police stations are monitored for improvement and feedback is provided to the Public Service Commission.
The Department will finalise a Citizen-Based Monitoring (CBM) Implementation Strategy (Action Plan) for the Free State Province. We will also identify sites where Citizen-Based Monitoring shall be implemented to strengthen and broaden public participation. The National Development Plan emphasises the importance of fostering active citizens and building a capable and developmental state. Citizen-based monitoring supports this initiative through the production of, and engagement around, evidence of government performance provided by the citizens themselves.
More effort will be made in ensuring that the coordination, monitoring and reporting on the Medium Term Strategic Framework (MTSF) is intensified to ensure that the provincial government’s contribution to each Outcome Chapter of the MTSF is accounted for and reported on. The Department shall continue provide reports on the analysis of the performance of the department’s performance against targets on their Annual Performance Plans.
Programme 4 has been allocated an amount of One Hundred and Seventeen Million, Five Hundred and Forty One Thousand Rand (R117, 541 million) to fulfil its functions.
Conclusion
Honourable Speaker, I hereby table the 2017 Budget Vote of the Department of the Premier in honour of President OR Tambo, who would have turned 100 years old if he was alive. In the honour of President Tambo, we will harness our collective wisdom and energies to bring about radical economic transformation in our life time.
The unwavering commitment and dedication of every individual in the Department of the Premier will go a long way in ensuring the success of our development imperatives. Time is not on our side and we can never afford to falter. As we pull up our sleeves and prepare for another year of selfless dedication to the cause of our people, we say to all our people; We Shall Not Fail You!!!
Re a hlasela!
We have delivered!
Haak vrystaat!
Hela yalo sani!
Thank you…
