It was excitement all over when the Premier and her Executive Council arrived at the Indoor Sports Centre in Uitenhage to interact with the people of the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan Municipality. This was a moment of hope to community members that came to listen to the provincial political leadership outlining the government programme of action and acknowledging diverse challenges confronting people of the Metro.
Scores of people came from all over the Metro to listen to their new provincial leadership. Whilst waiting for the arrival of the provincial Executive Council Nokuzola Zenzile who came from Motherwell said, “I cannot wait to see the new provincial leadership and listen to what they are promising us as citizens of Metro”. Khalipha Matiwane from despatch said: “This is a great moment for me as I will be seeing the new leadership for the first time since they were appointed into the Provincial Executive Council”.
Explaining the purpose of the EXCO Outreach, MEC Sogoni categorically explicated that as the Provincial EXCO they are visiting all the districts to outline the government programme of action for the current term. He was upfront to spell out the fact that as the government they are aware of the challenges confronting the people of the Province; however through this EXCO Outreach they seek to interact with the people with a view to collectively crafting a common approach to deal with the diverse challenges. “Part of our visit is to sincerely convey our gratitude to the people of the Province for going out in their numbers to vote during the National Elections in April, thereby demonstrating their unwavering support for principles of democracy as entrenched in the South African
Constitution”, said Sogoni.
Addressing the people of NMB Metro, Premier Noxolo Kiviet outlined the government programme of action in the next five-year term. She hastily pointed out that they are aware of the challenges confronting people of Metro and among the most critical challenges is housing. The Premier said: “As the EXCO, we are very concerned with the poor workmanship demonstrated in many of the housing projects and drastic steps will be taken against service providers who without producing quality houses, take government money”. The Premier assured the people of Metro that the government, in partnership with Metro, is committed in ensuring that the process of delivering houses is accelerated. “I don’t believe in talking, I strongly believe in doing henceforth you will be seeing more actions that talking”, said Premier.
Referring to lazy public servants, she made it categorically clear that they have no place in her administration. “This attitude stalls service delivery and my government will not accommodate a public servant who fails to perform their duties with due diligence”, said the Premier. Premier was in pains in explaining that the Eastern is currently branded as a province with high levels of corruption and more often than not public servants are responsible for these practices. Said the Premier: “My government will make every effort to ensure that corruption is uprooted in all areas of government and public servants who are associated with corrupt practices, will be dealt with decisively”.
Premier also appealed to community members to help the government deal with this chronic habit among public servants by reporting suspicious corrupt actions to the relevant structures of the government.
It was a moment of inspiration when the Premier invoked community members to display sense of responsibility towards their government. She encouraged them to begin to take ownership of their government and demonstrate patriotism. “You are the government, everything about government reflects yourself, therefore it is imperative that everything that involves government is owned by all of us”, said the Premier.
To enhance community involvement during the meeting the Premier afforded community members opportunity to pose questions on challenges they confront relating to service delivery in their respective wards.
Issued by: Office of the Premier, Eastern Cape Provincial Government
21 July 2009
Source: Eastern Cape Provincial Government (http://www.ecprov.gov.za/)
