Honourable Thobile Mhlahlo, MEC for Roads and Transport, Safety and
Liaison
26 March 2007
Honourable Executive Mayor of Alfred Nzo,
Honourable MECs and MPLs,
Honourable Mayors and Councillors from Matatiele and Umzimvubu Local
Municipalities,
Traditional Leaders,
Distinguished guests from government, business, labour, and civil
society,
Ladies and gentlemen,
Comrades,
It is an honour to address this esteemed gathering. This Growth and
Development Summit provides a strategic opportunity for the different spheres
of Government, business, labour, and other stakeholders, to come together to
chart out a development path for the Alfred Nzo district.
This will enable us to align the plans and budgets of the various spheres of
Government around agreed priority projects, and will ensure that the Alfred Nzo
District Municipality Integrated Development Plan (IDP) is more strategic,
credible and representative of the needs and interests of all stakeholders in
the district.
I have examined the Socio-Economic Profile of the district that has been
developed by Eastern Cape Socio Economic Consultative Council and the District
Municipality, and have noted the following.
Firstly, the impact of colonial and apartheid policies have resulted in
widespread poverty, underdevelopment and service backlogs in the district. The
Alfred Nzo district is one of the poorest of all the Integrated Sustainable
Rural Development Programme nodes in the country, with the Gross Geographic
Programme per capita income of the district's 400 000 population being only 20%
of the provincial average. And despite efforts to eradicate water and
sanitation backlogs over the past ten years, there are still almost one third
of households using natural water sources which represents huge health
risks.
Access to electricity is still a huge development challenge, with some 95
000 households requiring electrification. This is a severe constraint to
economic development. There are also huge backlogs in roads infrastructure,
particularly access roads, which severely constrains access to social services,
markets and economic opportunities.
Secondly, I have noted from the profile that the district economy has not
been growing at the pace required to address poverty and unemployment, having
grown at an average rate of 0,8% over the past 10 years. Government services
provide the backbone of the district economy, which is not a basis for
sustained growth and underlies the need for interventions to unlock growth in
new sectors.
A key challenge that must be confronted if we are to unlock growth in the
Alfred Nzo district is the high incidence of land claims, which if not settled
as a matter of urgency will retard development and investment in the
region.
The third theme I have noted from the profile, and on a more optimistic
note, is the huge development potential in the district. The area has
spectacular mountain scenery to unlock tourism growth, as well as potential in
forestry and timber, crop and livestock farming, agro-processing, and
construction. Most importantly, the district falls squarely in the catchment of
the Mzimvubu River Basin, which is the focus of our Accelerated and Shared
Growth Initiative for South Africa (AsgiSA) mega project in the province.
It is important that any developments in these sectors must hold out
benefits for the poorest and most marginalised communities. The intended
outcome of our collective development efforts must be to reduce poverty and
inequality in our society, and to restore dignity and a sense of self worth
among all our people.
In order to realise the development potential of historically marginalised
areas of the country and province such as Alfred Nzo, we have developed a
number of policy instruments to focus Government and other development partners
on initiatives that will have a catalytic socio-economic impact. Key among
these is the Accelerated and Shared Growth Initiative for South Africa
(AsgiSA), which sets a growth target of 4,5% until 2009, and 6% between
2010-2014.
AsgiSA is premised on the approach that the state needs to play a more
interventionist role in correcting market failures and ensuring that economic
growth more directly benefits historically disadvantaged individuals and
regions. The core thrust of ASGISA is to increase public infrastructure
spending to crowd in private investment.
Also key to AsgiSA is the packaging and implementation of mega job
massification projects (such as the Mzimvubu project), as well as to scale up
skills development and 2nd economy interventions such as micro-credit,
co-operatives development, and the expanded public works programme.
Aligned with AsgiSA is the emerging National Industrial Policy Framework,
and the Regional Industrial Development Strategy (RIDS). These initiatives
represent the renewed will of the state to play a more active role in economic
transformation. A number of customised support programmes have been packaged to
promote growth in targeted sectors such as tourism, bio fuels, chemicals,
business process outsourcing, etc. The challenge for you as a district is to
ensure that you leverage from these support packages, through aligning your LED
strategy with these national sector priorities.
Turning to the provincial level, we are now in the 3rd year of the
Provincial Growth and Development Plan (PGDP). The PGDP is aimed at
accelerating the pace of socio-economic transformation in the province, and
sets bold targets to halve unemployment and poverty by 2014.
The PGDP is aimed at building a balanced and integrated provincial economy,
and addressing the uneven development between the west and eastern regions of
our Province. New prioritisation is given to agrarian transformation and the
development of tourism and modern agro- manufacturing complexes to address
unemployment and underdevelopment in our rural economy. Strong transport and
logistics linkages between the rural hinterland and our two Industrial
Development Zones (IDZs) is critical to ensure access to markets, and to
optimise value chain linkages to industries located in the IDZs. Our Kei Rail
project is key for this urban-rural integration.
We feel we are on track and have over the past two years recorded the
highest number of jobs and the highest growth in the primary sector over the
past 20 years. This is no doubt set to increase with the recent investments in
the forestry sector and the planned investments in the bio-fuel sector. In
addition, the relocation of Eastern Cape provincial offices from Kokstad to Mt
Ayliff is set to unleash a construction and services boom. The Alfred Nzo
district will surely benefit from these new investments.
As Provincial Government, we are committed to developing the Alfred Nzo
region. My department (Roads and Transport) will spend R556 million in the
district over the Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF). Our major project
will be the Mount Frere to R56 (Phase 1-3), widely known as T15. The court case
that delayed this road has now been resolved and the construction of Phase 1 of
this road will continue as originally planned at a cost of R396,9 million.
A construction company has been appointed and has now started with site
establishment in Mt Frere, which means more people will be employed through
road construction.
The Department of Health will spend some R151 million over the MTEF
upgrading hospitals and clinics, and the Department of Education is providing
R255 million over the MTEF to eradicate mud schools and provide quality
education facilities.
Our major initiative in the area over the medium to long term will be the
Mzimvubu Development Zone Project.
This mega project is aimed at turning around the economy of the region to
establish a modern agro-industrial economy.
This project, which will require some R30 billion in investment from the
public and private sectors, will see the development of water storage and
transfer facilities, a hydro-electric plant, as well as agricultural and
forestry initiatives. We are also packaging the urban renewal of key towns in
and around the basin as part of the project.
In order for us to realise our development programme, we need to invest in
our transportation infrastructure.
Through our Sakha Isizwe Routine Road Maintenance Programme, the department
has allocated R3 million for the upscaling of 418 kilometres in the Alfred Nzo
District.
In an effort to improve the bus passenger services in the former Transkei
Region, the department has assisted local small bus operators to establish
Africa's Best 350 Ltd, which is a single legal entity established by the
operators themselves.
The Department of Roads and Transport has allocated R43 million for this
project and there are private financiers that came forward, which included the
Industrial Development Corporation (R15,5 million) and the Development Bank of
Southern Africa (R10 million).
The first 55 buses will arrive on 1 July 2007 and will be distributed to the
Alfred Nzo (27) and OR Tambo (28). This means 21 more routes will be opened,
which have not been operated in the recent past.
It will further enhance the access of the communities to job opportunities,
health and education centres and other trip generators by more than 25%
compared to what it is today.
An amount of R30 million will be spent on this phase.
The second phase will take off in April 2008 with 56 buses that will be
distributed to the Amathole and Chris Hani districts. The last phase of
distribution of another 55 buses is expected in April 2009 with more buses for
the Alfred Nzo and OR Tambo districts.
This year, the department has allocated R4 million for the development of
the Provincial Rail Plan, which will guide our "Back to Rail" strategy. This
plan will, amongst other things, look at the possibility of linking Kokstad and
Mthatha by rail, which will also benefit the Alfred Nzo District
communities.
This link will be investigated as a rapid rail link, which will ultimately
allow a link between East London and Durban within the next 10 years. The
bio-fuel industry, which is planned around the Umzimvubu river project and form
part of the Kei Development Corridor projects, will contribute in the
socio-economic improvement of this area.
In an effort to improve accessibility of local tourism points, the
Department (through its Blue Skyway Aviation Strategy) plans to revitalise
airstrips in Mount Ayliff and Matatiele. An amount of R1,2 million has been
allocated for the surfacing of the Mount Ayliff Airstrip this year.
The provincial government is currently setting up a special purpose vehicle
� AsgiSA-EC Pty (Ltd) to deliver the Mzimvubu Project. We are busy putting a
Board of Directors in place, and are about to appoint a CEO. We have also taken
a decision to utilise the funds of the Transkei Development Revenue Fund,
capitalised at R300 million, to kick-start the Mzimvubu project this year.
Honourable Mayor, your strategic focus on addressing service backlogs and
stimulating the district economy through agri-business, forestry, tourism and
access linkages seems appropriate. We need to ensure that your priority
projects find expression in our updated PGDP, and that we combine efforts to
eradicate poverty and unemployment in your district.
I would like to warn this meeting that we can only realise our development
programme if we secure a condition, where there is peace, security and comfort.
Local government has a critical role to play in the promotion of peace and
stability through collaboration with the relevant stakeholders, particularly
law enforcement agencies.
A Community Safety Forum model has been developed by the Department of
Safety and Liaison to guide municipalities on how to develop local community
safety plans. We need to tap on this opportunity to ensure that we guard
against elements that would undermine our socio-economic development
agenda.
In conclusion, I wish you all well in your deliberations at this GDS, and
look forward to seeing the outcomes captured in a strengthened IDP for the
district, that has the buy-in of all key role-players.
I thank you
Issued by: Department of Roads and Transport, Eastern Cape Provincial
Government
26 March 2007
