on the State of the Province Address (SOPA), at the Provincial
Legislature
20 February 2007
Madame Speaker
Premier Dipuo Peters
Colleagues and honourable members
I want to take this opportunity to congratulate our Premier for her mid term
SOPA.
Once more she has laid a firm understanding and basis for our progress to a
better life for all. Her characterisation of our challenges and the work at
hand will indeed assist us as government going forward.
We have started this year with a clarion call from both our movement and
government to deepen national debate in order to advance the national discourse
on social transformation.
This is a call for all our people to renew their commitment to the "people's
contract". It is a call for our people to immerse both their minds and hands in
the national discourse and thereby deepen democracy.
The ruling party seems to have set the cat among the pigeons with the call
to look at renaming our province and many other places with offensive names. By
so doing it has put on the table for debate a matter that expresses the birth
pains of the humane and dignified society that we want to build. It is a
society that should express the essence of our being both in form and
content.
Fortunately it has already enabled us as a province to achieve a head start
in promoting national dialogue and engagement. We have seen many even amongst
the opposition benches responding with vigour but in opposition to this
call.
By its nature national engagement is robust and sometimes scathing, but
nothing that was created as a scornful reminder of oppression should be
regarded as sacrosanct in a democracy.
Any new nation must also create its own identity and pride through branding
its heritage and history.
With the establishment of the provincial geographic names committee we trust
that proper processes will soon be put in place to promote dialogue on all
these matters that seek to define who we are.
As a democratic government in a truly open society the voices of the people
are the grounds on which stands the edifice of our new nation.
Our Premier has called on the people of the Northern Cape to join hands with
government to deal with all matters that are quiet pertinent to the
strengthening of our provincial brand and nation building.
The people of our province, particularly those of San decent and those whose
forebears fought in the wars of resistance, are particularly happy about the
dignified reburials of their traditional leaders who inspired the struggle for
freedom.
A unique intervention in redirecting us, in the Premier's address, is the
social re-engineering of an inclusive society as opposed to a society of
division and social gradation. It is the emphasis that was placed on the
rebuilding of our common humanity and common dignity.
The following critical points can also be elicited from the address of the
Premier:
* government will put special emphasis on service delivery improvement in
order to enhance the quality of life of our people
* co-operation of government across all spheres will be strengthened to
improve delivery including addressing matters of equity at the level of local
government in particular
⢠greater attention will be given towards matters of managerial competencies
within the public service
⢠that all of us make a positive contribution towards the creation of
sustainable livelihoods for all, both public and private sector
⢠all of us should work towards the promotion of healthy lifestyles and
combating Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs), HIV and AIDS
⢠all of us should work together towards the realisation of a society of
shared prosperity through job creation and the provision of skills including
jobs and opportunities for special groups such as women, youth and the
disabled
⢠lastly but not least, all of us should acknowledge our common history by
honouring the unsung heroes and chiefs such as Chief Toto who fought in the
wars of resistance.
I am certain that none of us can conclude that only these few points that I
have chosen to highlight do not indicate that for the forthcoming financial
year government has a Programme of Action that responds to the imperatives of
our society.
Indeed we say all of us should work towards these objectives because they
are provincial and national goals, many of which expresses our aspirations
enshrined in the constitution.
As the Northern Cape we have so much to celebrate as we debate Premier's
mid-term SOPA. Among others since 2004 we have achieved the following:
⢠a steady decline in the number of serious crimes, especially contact
crimes even exceeding our own expectations in the last 12 months
⢠adopted and incrementally implemented a provincial and development strategy
that enjoys the support of all our social partners
* built stronger partnerships with the private sector and as a result creating
opportunities for employment for our people
* a steady stabilisation of the prevalence of HIV and AIDS as we observed a
declining rate of infection here in the Northern Cape
⢠increased access to primary healthcare by people across our province
⢠we have strengthened the reach of our social security network through the
extensive reach of our social security network.
Many of these things go a long way in building cohesive families and
communities which is a subject that correctly pre-occupied the SOPA.
To restore the social fabric of our society we need to build families in the
true sense of the word not only through blood ties. Our faith-based
organisations (FBOs), traditional healers, youth formations and all have to
lend a hand in partnering with government to bring about family orientated
society that will enjoy a better life.
And so it is important that emphasis should be placed on our honourable
Premiers statement, "Our people need to understand that the social fabric and
our values are predominantly built through the family environment we create for
ourselves and our children."
The goal of the African National Congress (ANC) led government is to create
a South Africa in which we can all experience an improving quality of life,
enjoying equal human rights with access to opportunities that freedom has
brought and bound us together as a nation.
Honourable speaker, it is without doubt true that as we mark the mid term of
the third democratic government we cannot say we are without challenges. But we
can state that the progress we have made far outweighs the shortcomings.
The shortcomings are the challenges which we define in the Programme of
Action of government. It is our collective challenges as a province,
particularly that of drastically reducing unemployment so that our people
remain full of hope.
As a government we remain concerned about the impact of alcohol abuse in our
communities. Years of systematic oppression and neglect has created a legacy of
hopelessness.
Many of our people attempt to drown their sorrows through the abuse of
alcohol and other substances. This is not only harmful to their health but
actually reproduces poverty in our communities.
Furthermore, in most instances there is a direct correlation between the
abuse of alcohol and the violent crimes that taint our being as humans.
We need to look closely at the role of those in the business of selling
liquor in terms of their social responsibility in our communities.
It is also important that we look at the critical work that we continue to
do as government pertaining to curbing the spread of HIV and AIDS and its
management in relation to disease such as tuberculosis (TB).
If the cases of HIV prevalence escalate then TB will continue to cause havoc
in our communities.
The comprehensive management of these diseases is critical especially
considering that we have many multi-drug resistance (MDR) TB cases and already
about seven recorded cases of extreme drug resistance (XDR) TB.
Hence we launched our provincial TB Management Plan last year in June
responding among others also to the Afro Region World Health Organisations
(WHOs) call to declare TB a crisis in the sub-Sahara.
Government continues to conduct surveillance to detect any new cases.
Collectively we have a responsibility to ensure that our people take their
health serious, those on treatment follows their prescribed regiment
strictly.
It is pleasing to note as stated in the SOPA that government will continue
to strengthen its nutrition programmes in order to enable people to eat healthy
and follow their prescription regiments in the case where they are required to
do so.
The elimination of diseases and the fight against hunger and poverty is also
about restoring the dignity of many of our people who have been subjected to
poverty and therefore the vulnerability to disease such as TB.
Government is committed to create a society in which human needs will be
addressed to the best of our ability, so that all of us live a life of
dignity.
Our people should never again fall in the abyss of hopelessness, in the
words of a popular American author "when hope is taken away from a people,
moral degeneration follows swiftly after". Today we say this shall never be
made to pass again.
As the ruling party we have no intention of failing our historic mission of
building a united democratic and prosperous nation, a nation of people who
stand tall and dignified, proud of whom they are in the global family of the
human race.
I thank you!
Issued by: Department of Health, Northern Cape Provincial Government
20 February 2007
