the State of the Province Address, Lebowakgomo Legislative Chambers,
Lebowakgomo
16 February 2005
Honourable Speaker and Deputy Speaker,
Chairpersons of portfolio committees,
The Chief Whips of various political parties,
Honourable Members of the House,
Leaders of opposition parties,
Members of the media,
Distinguished guests,
Ladies and gentlemen,
We wish to take this opportunity to express words of sadness and condolences
on the untimely passing away of the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Lepelle
Northern Water, Mr Timothy Lehong. The Province will dearly miss his presence
as we had hoped that he will assist us in dealing with the many water related
challenges that our Province is facing, during this point in time. We send our
heartfelt condolences to his friends, comrades, and members of his family
during this time of grief.
Honourable Speaker and Members of the House
In his opening of Parliament early this year, President Thabo Mbeki spoke at
length about the increasing levels of optimism that South Africans of all races
are beginning to share about their country and its people. He went on to note
that we have now entered an Age of Hope, which all South Africans have begun
embracing as a result of increasing levels of optimism in various sectors of
our economy and society. Equally, in our State of the Province Address we
captured this mood and spirit when we observed the significant milestones
reached in reconciling the various racial groupings existent in our Province.
The example we gave about our engagements with Afrikaans speaking organisations
served to demonstrate the fact that, the Afrikaner community is steadily
beginning to position itself in the building of unity and long lasting
reconciliation, both here in the Province and indeed in South Africa as a
whole.
As we stated in our State of the Province Address, South Africans of all
racial backgrounds are beginning to share equal passion and energy in their
quest to build a united country that truly belongs to all. This noble objective
of the Freedom Charter as Honourable Nkadimeng has observed, cannot be taken
for granted and thus should be seen as representing one of the greatest
achievements of this government.
We view this exercise not as a passing event but as a continuous process
that must help us achieve the kind of society envisaged in the Freedom Charter.
For this process to succeed, all political parties in this House would have to
do their bit to contribute towards nation building and reconciliation so that
we indeed do arrive at the destiny we have chosen. Consistent with this
programme, we are delighted to announce that we shall be meeting with leaders
of the Afrikaner Bond on the 23rd of this month, which is next week, to take
forward the discussions we have held with them in our previous engagement. Once
again, we are certain that we shall emerge from this engagement more fortified
and clearer about what needs to be done to unite all the people of our
Province.
Honourable Speaker and honourable Members of the House,
We have listened attentively to all-important contributions by honourable
members in the debate on the State of the Province Address. You will agree
that, most inputs were more of suggestions, concerns and points of emphasis on
the issues raised. Perhaps this is an acknowledgement and a sign of a common
vision and universal understanding, which is shared by the majority of the
people in the Province. This in our view demonstrates a sense of urgency and
commitment on the part of political parties to tackle the pressing challenges
bedevilling our nation during this point in time in our history.
Honourable Speaker
Throughout the deliberations, we noted with concern some of the issues
raised by honourable members of the House such as, incidences of alleged
corruption of councillors and officials, rural safety, the capacitation of
traditional offices as well as traditional leaders as raised by honourable
Kgoshi Setlamorago Thobejane, honourable Michael Holford, honourable Ike Kekana
and others.
Regarding the matter of relations between the Land Claims Commissioner and
white farmers, honourable Holford would know that we have already reported that
a meeting has been held between the Land Claims Commission and representatives
of White farmers where these misunderstandings where cleared up and we are
beginning to see signs of remarkable improvement. With regard to the conduct of
officials, in particular police stations as mentioned by honourable Holford, we
must immediately respond by saying that, while we agree that the Department of
Safety, Security and Liaison is entrusted with the overall task of monitoring
and evaluating performance, it should also be the responsibility of community
members themselves through Community Policing Forums to immediately correct
some of the challenges that occur daily in our police stations. This is a
civilian oversight role that our laws entrust on members of Community Policing
Forums to exercise. Should these cases not be addressed at this level,
honourable Holford is advised to report them with the relevant police
investigative authority (ICD or Independent Complaints Directorate) as is the
normal practice.
Honourable Speaker
As raised in the State of the Province Address, access to social security
has drastically improved and we are confident that all beneficiaries who
qualify for various social security grants are now receiving them. However, as
we have said, we are worried about the integrity of our social security system
and are concerned about whether people who are benefiting from these grants do
indeed qualify. The Department of Health and Social Development is seized with
the responsibility to improve the status of the credibility of our beneficiary
data and we trust that they will succeed in this regard.
The truth of the matter is that this grant on its own is not enough to raise
a child and therefore raising the amount (as the Minister of Finance has
correctly done in his Budget speech yesterday) is not sufficient to solve the
problem. Government is making this intervention with the objective of
alleviating the problem of poverty and we believe that the long lasting
solution to this challenge is to grow the economy and develop sustainable
livelihood programmes that engage the majority of our youth, such as
co-operatives and other labour intensive methods. If indeed there are young
people who believe that they can improve their livelihoods through these
grants, they should better be advised to participate in these programmes that
we talked about (i.e. co-operatives and Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP)
labour intensive programmes). We are in full agreement with honourable Koti
Nyama, when she says that, it is our responsibility to intensify awareness
about the dangers of unplanned teenage pregnancy and the spread of the deadly
HIV virus. Such a campaign must include members of the community, religious
fraternity and the private sector.
Honourable Speaker and Members of the House
In the same vein we wish to congratulate the Khoza family for publicly
declaring that their daughter, Zodwa, succumbed to an HIV and AIDS related
disease. We send our heartfelt condolences to the Khoza family and the entire
soccer fraternity during this difficult time in their lives and hope that they
will gain more strength and courage to overcome this pain. It is important to
note that the disclosure made by the Khoza family follows similar declarations
by the former President Mandela, Chief Mangosuthu Buthelezi and Minister
Mdladlanaâs families. It is our view that this contributes to the process of
public education around this scourge and should serve as a lesson for any one
of us who is faced with a challenge of having to bury his or her loved one
owing to the disease. If we do not do so and continue to find creative and
artificial causes of AIDS related deaths in our families, including witchcraft,
we continue in a way to say to our youths and communities that HIV and AIDS
does not exist.
Honourable Speaker,
With regard to the question from honourable Kekana about the
commercialisation of GNT (Great North Transport), the honourable member must
understand that government is currently subsidising many of the buses that we
see on our roads and even when we privatise the GNT, these subsidies will
continue to be given to the new owners.
We can only reiterate that the unbundling of GNT is being done in compliance
with the National Road Transition Act and again the emphasis on this
commercialisation would be on Broad Based Black Economic Empowerment (BBBEE).
Therefore, commercialising the GNT should not and will not translate to costly
services for our communities as honourable Kekana would want us to believe.
Similarly, by commercialising our game parks, we will be ensuring that the
benefits flow to the mostly historically disadvantaged communities who reside
in the areas where these game parks are located. It will indeed add more value
to the cause of getting our people to play a more meaningful role in the
mainstream economy.
Honourable Speaker
The Province has been pursuing a BBBEE programme and as far as we are
concerned many black people continue to benefit from capital projects initiated
by government in line with Broad Based Black Economic Empowerment Act. Where
black people lack capacity to participate in these programmes, we have always
encouraged partnerships and joint ventures with existing and established White
businesses. The new policy that we are rolling out has even gone further to
address the concerns raised by the honourable member.
Honourable Speaker
With regard to the concern raised by honourable Kgwana Nkadimeng regarding
the quality of some of the houses built by our government, we must immediately
concur that indeed this is a challenge our government need to attend to.
Through âBreaking New Ground Programmeâ we intend taking practical action in
ensuring that the houses we build for our people are of the highest quality and
habitable for families, both in the rural and urban areas. As stated in the
State of the Province Address, action has already been taken against officials
and developers who colluded in doing shoddy work. We agree with honourable
Nkadimeng that, our people deserved decent and secure shelter yesterday as
envisaged in the Freedom Charter. Equally, we must thank other developers in
the Province who continue to build better quality houses within the limited
budget constrains and time.
Honourable Speaker
On the matter of performance bonuses in the Department of Roads and
Transport as raised by honourable Ike Kekana; we must indicate that, we are
satisfied with measures the Department has taken so far as the recovery process
is underway.
Honourable Speaker
It is our pleasure to once again take this opportunity to thank members of
the House for engaging fruitfully with this address. It only serves to enrich
us and to strengthen our resolve to improve the quality of services we deliver
to our people. These debates honourable Speaker, further serve to enhance the
quality of our parliamentary democracy. Let us keep them alive throughout this
session of the legislature. We assure this house that we have noted all the
inputs made, and we will do our best to ensure that immediate steps are taken
to address these matters by relevant departments and other organs of State as a
matter of urgency.
Honourable Speaker
It will be a travesty of justice if we end this address without
acknowledging and congratulating our former Premier, the honourable Dr Ngoako
Ramathlodi, on his recent appointment as chairperson of the Private Security
Industry Regulatory Authority (PSIRA). We wish him success and are certain that
he will do us proud even in this new area of responsibility.
I thank you
Issued by: Office of the Premier, Limpopo Provincial Government
16 February 2005
Source: Limpopo Provincial Government (http://www.limpopo.gov.za)
