Report by President Jacob Zuma to media and stakeholders on Operation Phakisa implementation, Sefako Makgatho Presidential Guest House, Pretoria
Ministers,
Deputy Ministers,
Stakeholders from business, academia, labour,
Senior officials,
Ladies and gentlemen of the media.
Good day and welcome to this briefing on the progress made thus far in the implementation of our National Development Plan delivery methodology, Operation Phakisa.
We launched Operation Phakisa last year, starting with the Ocean Economy and later unveiled the ideal clinic initiative. We are preparing to launch Operation Phakisa segments in mining and basic education.
I announced last year that I would provide regular updates to the public on how the programme is progressing. I will continue to do so, assisted by the line Ministers in the various implementing departments.
Operation Phakisa is derived from Malaysia’s Big Fast Results Methodology which that country used successfully to achieve rapid economic transformation. It also forms part of our Nine Point Plan to reignite growth and boost job creation, as announced in the State of the Nation Address.
The programme brings together various sectors such as business, labour, academia and government. They work together to develop delivery action plans in intensive work sessions called laboratories.
Ocean economy Phakisa
On ocean economy Phakisa, a study conducted recently by the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University had quantified the value of our oceans.
In the initial study in 2010, the oceans around South Africa were estimated to have a potential to contribute about 54 billion rand to the Gross Domestic Product and an estimated 316 thousand jobs.
Further analysis undertaken in 2013, found that nine sectors of South Africa’s ocean economy could generate an estimated GDP contribution of 129 to 177 billion rand by 2033 and double the number of jobs estimated in 2010.
The Ocean Economy Phakisa was launched in July last year, with a focus on the following areas:
- Marine Transport and Manufacturing led by the Department of Transport
- Offshore Oil and Gas, led by the Department of Mineral Resources
- Aquaculture, led by the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries; and,
- Marine Protection Services and Ocean Governance, led by the Department of Environmental Affairs.
The Oceans laboratory phase took place in Durban from 8 July to 15 August 2014.
It focused on initiatives which are able to deliver significant impact within the next five years and beyond and to lay the groundwork for sustained longer-term growth, not only in the four priority areas, but also across the ocean economy as a whole.
Selected initial short-term target initiatives were also designed to deliver results within 12 to 18 months.
Opportunities are being explored in various areas, one being the repairing of rigs and the servicing of vessels. Thirty thousand (30 000) vessels pass through South Africa’s waters every year, and thirteen thousand dock in our ports every year.
South Africa only does maintenance on five percent of the vessels. In addition, of the eighty rigs in the Western Cape, only four are serviced per year.
In addition, three hundred million tonnes of cargo on foreign owned vessels are shipped and 1.2 million tonnes of liquid fuel passes along our coast annually. In this regard, significant investment is required in new port infrastructure including rig repairs. The establishment of a Small Harbours Development Authority is thus necessary.
The rehabilitation, upgrade and redevelopment of some small harbours as well as the identification and proclamation of new harbours and their integration with national coastal projects, has begun, in order to unlock the economic potential of our coastline.
We have identified Gansbaai, Saldanha Bay, Struisbaai, Gordons Bay and Lamberts Bay for rehabilitation and development. A roadmap has also been developed for the proclamation of new harbours in the Northern Cape, Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal.
Ladies and gentlemen,
The finalisation of the Mineral Resources and Petroleum Development Amendment Bill which is currently in the Parliamentary process, is designed to also assist us to accelerate offshore oil and gas exploration.
The aspiration of the offshore oil and gas exploration focus group of the Oceans Phakisa is the drilling of 30 exploration wells in ten years. In their view, this would produce three hundred and seventy (370 000) barrels of oil and gas per day.
If this is achieved, it would mean the creation of up to one hundred and thirty thousand jobs, with an annual contribution to the GDP of 2.2 billion US dollars, while reducing the dependence on oil and gas imports during the production phase.
Work continues to explore opportunities in this sector further. Some projects have already commenced. A total of 9.2 billion rand is to be spent to develop Saldanha Bay as an oil and gas hub. The phased gas pipeline routes have also been defined.
In addition, environmental authorisation has been approved for the Burgan Fuel Storage facility in the port of Cape Town. This is an investment of approximately 660 million rand and construction will commence by the end of August 2015.
Ladies and gentlemen,
The South African aquaculture industry is still emerging and thus the production levels currently remain low. The team working on the aquaculture sector focus area believe that when interventions to grow the sector are implemented successfully, aquaculture projects will grow the sector’s size from approximately 700 million rand today, to almost 3 billion rand by 2019.
However, the industry faces constraints such as the lack of infrastructure including access roads and electricity. It also faces challenges such as the prolonged finalisation of leases and the limited tenure of the leases.
In addition, the sector faces difficulties with obtaining Environmental Impact Assessment Authorisations as well as funding for aquaculture projects and access to markets. All of these constraints are being addressed.
With regard to legislative reform, the Environmental Impact Assessment and Biodiversity Regulations have been amended. A Basic assessment is now required instead of a full environmental impact assessment. This will certainly reduce the timeframes tremendously and ensure faster implementation.
Furthermore, an Inter-Departmental Authorisations Committee has been established in order to streamline application and authorisation processes.
The Alien Invasive Species Regulations have also been reviewed to accommodate the fresh water species of trout. In addition, the norms and standards for trout and abalone have been reviewed by Departmental of Environmental Affairs.
Progress has also been made with regards to the attainment of leases.
The Department of Public Works has awarded the first five leases which are the following:
1. The Saldanha Bay Oyster Company, at Pepper Bay Harbour in Saldanha Bay.
2. West Coast Growers at Pepper Bay Harbour in Saldanha Bay.
3. Emakulema Mussels, Sappire Pearls and Southern Atlantic Sea Farms joint venture at Saldanha Bay.
4. Imbaza Mussels, Blue Ocean Mussels and African Olive joint venture at Pepper Bay Harbour in Saldanha Bay.
5. Doring Bay Development Trust, at Hondeklipbaai.
These leases provide security of tenure in the harbours that the companies will be operating in.
In the coming months, the Department of Public Works will be awarding more long term leases for projects, following approvals of applications through the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries.
With regards to marine protection and ocean governance, the fragmentation of the management of the oceans space poses a constraint to development. A host of departments and agencies are responsible for the management of certain activities within the oceans.
This is exacerbated by the lack of comprehensive legislation and coordination as well as the fact that all the role players are acting independently. As a solution, South Africa will implement an overarching, integrated ocean governance framework for the sustainable growth of the ocean economy. In this regard, a draft Oceans Management Bill has been finalised.
Furthermore, the legal drafting of the regulations and declaration notices for the 21 Offshore Marine Protected Areas has been completed and consultations with relevant stakeholders have been conducted. The Departments of Environmental Affairs and Science and Technology (through the National Research Foundation - NRF) has commenced a research programme on Marine Protected Areas and Marine Spatial Planning.
The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research Meraka Institute has been appointed to establish a National Oceans and Coastal Information System and work has already begun.
A draft water quality monitoring programme has been developed and an accredited facility for pollution monitoring will be established in the Eastern Cape.
Ladies and gentlemen,
We also want the coastal tourism sector to benefit from Operation Phakisa.
In this regard, an analysis to determine the current and potential future contribution of coastal tourism to the non-urban coastal tourism economy will be undertaken.
Operation Phakisa Mining
The mining sector is extremely strategic to the South African economy. Evidently, the mining sector is facing an acute challenge, partly as a result of the dramatic drop in commodity prices.
An alarming number of companies are loss making and investment in exploration and extraction has dropped significantly. At current prices more than 40% of the country’s platinum mining industry and 31% of the gold mining industry is loss making.
We need to work together to turn this around. The Mining Phakisa has the objective of building partnerships between government and key stakeholders in the mining sector, so as to unlock investment and optimise the sector’s positive developmental impacts on the economy and society.
As part of the Mining Phakisa process, we continue to implement a comprehensive stakeholder consultation process with government departments, the private sector and labour.
More than 30 consultations have been held with business associations, individual mining companies, trade unions, civil society organisations and various government departments in preparation for the Phakisa.
The actual Mining Phakisa Laboratory will begin in October 2015. At this stage, six key themes or work streams have emerged for the Mining Phakisa Lab and will require further consultation.
This includes:
- Up-Stream linkages and Capital Equipment sector that supports the mining sector
- Win-Win resolution on beneficiation of both bulk resources and precious metals
- Social and community development – with a particular emphasis on housing
- Increasing exploration activities, including enabling initiatives by the state such as more detailed geo-scientific information
- Enhancing the Research, Development and Innovation cluster and
- Holistic modernisation planning and implementation.
Other cross cutting areas will be integrated into the discussion of the Lab. This includes the development of emerging miners, enhancing investment and infrastructure as well as the rehabilitation interventions for mines and funding proposals.
Ladies and gentlemen,
The Operation Phakisa Ideal Clinic Realisation and Maintenance was launched on 18 November 2014. This Phakisa segment seeks to transform all our public sector clinics into Ideal Clinics which provide good quality care to all our communities.
The Ideal Clinic is a health facility that possesses the following characteristics:
It opens on time in the morning, according to its set operating hours, and does not close until the last patient has been assisted, even if this is beyond the normal closing hours.
It is staffed by health care providers who treat people with dignity, and who observe the Batho Pele principles of Access, Consultation, Courtesy, Information, Service Standards, Openness and Transparency, Redress, and Value for Money.
The ideal clinic will provide community-based health promotion and disease prevention programmes in collaboration with the community,
- It is very clean, promotes hygiene and takes all precautionary measures to prevent the spread of diseases.
- It has reasonable waiting times. Community members do not have to sacrifice their entire working day to seek health care.
- It provides a comprehensive package of good quality health services every day, and community members do not have to return on different days for different services.
- It has the basic necessities available, such as essential medicines. It refers people to higher levels of care timeously when this is required.
- It works together with the community it serves, with diverse stakeholders, in promoting health and socio-economic development.
The Ideal Clinic workstreams have been looking at eight areas namely:
1. Service Delivery
2. Waiting Times
3. Human Resources
4. Infrastructure
5. Financial Management
6. Supply Chain Management
7. Scaling up and Sustainability
8. Institutional Arrangements
Progress made thus far includes the implementation of the Central Chronic Medicine Dispensing and Distribution Programme. This is a medicine distribution programme for stable patients who do not need to see a doctor or a nurse, but are just coming to collect their monthly supply of medication.
Their supplies are delivered to them at pick-up points agreed to by both Government and patients. As a result, at total of two hundred and ten thousand eight hundred and forty (210 840) patients who are stable and are on chronic medication no longer need to queue for repeat medication.
The architectural designs for the Ideal Clinic have been finalised which will be used in the building or refurbishment of Ideal Clinics. Using the same designs, 216 new clinics are going to be built. In eight clinics, contractors are already on site, in OR Tambo District in the Eastern Cape. In another eight, contractors are ready to go on site, for example five in Vhembe District in Limpopo and three in Thabo Mofutsanyane District in Free State.
One of the biggest complications arising from running the biggest Antiretroviral Treatment (ART) Programme in the world is the logistics of supplying medicines to all the clinics and hospitals. Sometimes some clinics will report a stock-out of medicines when in fact our medicine warehouses are still full.
This problem is being solved through special cellphone technology whereby nurses are able to use a specially supplied cellphone to scan the barcodes on the medicine bottles and packaging, and learn immediately if there is stock-out or not.
This information is relayed electronically to the National, Provincial or District Office, for urgent and appropriate action. A total of 1 200 clinics in four provinces already provide this service, in KwaZulu Natal, Limpopo, Eastern Cape and Gauteng. A plan is in place to roll out to the remaining five provinces.
As part of service delivery, especially to pregnant women, a system called MomConnect is being implemented, whereby pregnant women are registered with the Department of Health via cellphones so as to receive messages appropriate to their term of pregnancy.
Four hundred and fifty five thousand one hundred and twenty six mothers have been registered. Three hundred and sixty one of them have lodged complaints while two thousand and fifteen (2 015) have sent in compliments.
Ladies and gentlemen,
In the past, the number of health professionals needed in the system is determined in terms of population figures, such as one doctor per ten thousand population. This system was found to be unhelpful.
The World Health Organisation came up with a new formula called the Workload Indicator of Staffing Need, which is a more scientific tool. This determination has been completed in all our clinics and implementation is underway.
As the above projects show, we can confidently say that the building of the Ideal Clinic for the public is on track. With regards to Operation Phakisa in basic education, the intention is to further improve the quality of basic education by introducing Information Communication Technology into the delivery and management of education.
Preliminary work has begun and the education Phakisa lab process will begin in September-October this year.
Ladies and gentlemen,
We are happy with the progress made thus far with Operation Phakisa and look forward to the launch of the new segments. The implementation of Operation Phakisa and the Big Fast Results methodology has certainly changed the way Government conducts its business and introduced a new approach of syndication to resolve issues. The respective Government departments are being forced to rid themselves from the “silo mentality” and work together towards a common goal.
It has compelled Government to engage with all stakeholders simultaneously to craft a vision and mechanism for unlocking the economic potential of South Africa’s oceans and other sectors. We thank all our stakeholders for supporting this worthwhile project which is changing the way government works for the betterment of society and to improve the quality of life of our people.
I thank you!
