Programme Director
Honourable Speaker of the Provincial Legislature
Honourable Members of the Provincial Legislature
Members of the Executive Council present
Leadership of Religious Organisations
Ladies and gentlemen
Molweni
It is my great honour and privilege to attend this august sitting, which gives us an opportunity to interact with the religious leaders of our province.
Phambi kokuba ndingene kusingaye, kubalulekile ukuba ndicele amalungu alePalamente yanamhlanje ukuba athi gqolo ukubeka ngokwenkolo zawo isiThwalandwe seli lizwe, uTata uNelson Mandela osalele ngandletyananye esibhedlele, ukuze aphile abuyele kusapho lwakhe.
It is because of his outstanding work in the fight for freedom and human rights that the people of the world continue to wish Madiba a speedy recovery. One of the rights that Madiba fought for and achieved is the right to freedom of religion, which is entrenched in the Bill of Rights of our Constitution.
It is a matter of fact that under apartheid colonialism, African culture and religion were suppressed, outlawed and defined as superstitions. Our icon, Nelson Mandela unbanned and repositioned African culture and religion when he called for religious tolerance between Islam and Christianity and between the two on one side and African religion on the other.
He further went on to say: “The transformation of our country requires the greatest possible cooperation between religions and political bodies, critically and wisely serving our people together. Neither political nor religious objectives can be achieved in isolation. They are held in a creative tension with common commitments. We are partners in the building of our society”.
Ladies and gentlemen it will be folly of us to act as if nothing has happened since we attained our freedom. I mention this upfront because in responding to some of the issues that were discussed here today,
I will highlight the achievements we have recorded and the challenges we must collectively address to achieve our objectives of a better life for all. For the past 19 years that we have been in government, we have worked tirelessly to reverse the imbalances of the past which are the direct cause for most of the challenges that we have today.
In that short space of time we have recorded meaningful progress in providing basic service to millions of our people and restored their dignity. The recently released census results confirm that indeed we have made good progress in improving people’s quality of life. We are therefore within our rights to celebrate the electricity connections that we have made every day, since 1994, and the thousands of people who have gained access to clean water.
We are proud of the new clinics and hospitals that we have built and continue to build which have brought health care to the door steps of our people especially in rural areas. As a caring government that prides itself on working for the interests of the people, we also proud of the work we have done and continue to do in the provision of housing to our people.
However, one of the most urgent and critical challenges facing our province is unemployment. Unemployment in the Province is at 2.5 percent from 1, 79 percent in Q3 of 2011) and this increase can be linked to an economy that has not been labour absorbing. The sad reality is that our youth bears the brunt of unemployment. Of importance though is what we are doing to address unemployment.
Since we launched our Provincial Jobs Strategy last year, we have through the ECDC supported a total of 2621 SMME’s and 1698 co-ops with training, registration or access to loan finance. Through the Jobs Stimulus Fund an estimated 5 000 jobs in sectors such as green, renewable, non-automotive and agro-processing, were created. The manufacturing sector which is pillar of our economy managed to create more than 19 000 jobs in 2012 under difficult economic conditions.
Key to our efforts of reversing the imbalances of the past and creating sustainable jobs is the development of our infrastructure. The legacy of apartheid left us seriously under-developed as a province, with enormous infrastructure backlogs.
I am puzzled sometimes when the so called opinion makers try to blame the ANC government for the backlogs that we inherited from apartheid. Just go to the former Transkei, you will see what I am talking about. That is all changing now, and there are massive projects that are aimed at unlocking the economic potential of the Eastern part of our province (Former Transkei).
There is the Umzimvubu Dam Project, aimed at unlocking the province’s potential through the construction of dams, is estimated to start construction in 2014/15 at the earliest, with first water delivery expected in 2018/19.
The refurbishment of the Mthatha Airport runway refurbishment has been completed and now the National Department of Transport has been appointed as implementing agency for the airport terminal building upgrade. That airport can now accommodate big aeroplanes and this will encourage Airlines to explore the Mthatha route.
Over 2000km of former provincial roads have been gazetted as National Roads and will be upgraded by SANRAL. SANRAL has been enrolled to expedite the implementation of the R72, N2 and N6 upgrades. As you can see when you travel to Port Elizabeth or Mthatha, work is being done to widen and improve our roads.
These are some of the major projects that we are undertaking to change the face of our province. Ten years from now, the label of the Eastern Cape as a province of underdevelopment and poverty will be condemned to history.
Our Jobs Strategy also puts emphasis on leveraging on the fact we are a rural province with a huge potential for agriculture. Agriculture is our mine in this province and we need to unleash its full potential.
Through our Provincial Rural Development pilot programme which is currently being implemented in selected sites in the six District Municipalities, we are starting to see positive spin-offs of this revitalisation programme, as evident in the dairy productions at Keiskammahoek, Shiloh and Ncorha, where approximately 15 000 litres of milk are delivered to Clover on a daily basis. We have supported 25 540 households in the stimulation of food security at household level in rural and peri-urban areas.
The provincial rural development projects created at least 1 520 jobs in the current term whilst resulting in the establishment of multiple farm infrastructure facilities such as fencing of grazing land, dipping tanks, irrigation facilities, grain storage, abattoirs and stock water systems, amongst others.
Over 8951 hectors of crops were planted as part of revitalizing agriculture in rural areas and we must applaud the communities that have answered our clarion call to plough the fields.
Honourable members,
Educational improvement is our number one priority in the province. Given the history of our country that placed the province of the Eastern Cape at significant disadvantage and margins of national development, education is a single critical equaliser.
This means for a province such as ours, to defeat social ills of poverty, unemployment and inequality, we need a strong education system, a system that empowers ordinary citizens of the province with requisite capabilities to contribute to the imperatives of modern society.
The Department of Education has appointed an Accounting Officer, Chief Financial Officer and other key officials in the management echelon, and this has enabled the Department to develop and implement a turnaround plan.The province is successfully implementing a Learner Attainment Improvement Strategy [LAIS].
The fruits of the strategy are evident in the continuous improvement of matric results to more than 61% in 2012. LAIS has further ensured timely delivery of the Learner-Teacher Support Material which has been a problematic area for the department in the past.
Having seen the looting of money meant for the School Nutrition Programme by officials and corrupt business people. We put a stop to the issuing of tenders for the School Nutrition Programme and said the parents should take charge of the programme at the school level. Ngokwenza njalo sawuvala umthombo wegcuntswana obu mpompoza ubusi, abathanda abo bebezuza.
As we speak, the number of schools benefiting from the School Nutrition Programme has increased to 5 132 schools [95% of the total number of schools in the province. More than 54 000 learners are benefitting from the Scholar Transport Programme and the process of the verification of deserving learners is underway. The Departments of Education and Transport are working on a strategy to promote the safety of the learners through the Scholar Transport Programme.
Asithandi xa sisiva ngengozi ezehlela abantwana bethu bekhwele kwizithuthi ezibahambisa esikolweni. Kuyafuneka ukuba siqinise imiqathango enika umntu umsebenzi wokuba athuthe abantwana. Ininzi into yokuba ezimoto ziqhutywe ngabantu abangenamaphepha okuqhuba, nabaqhuba ngoku ngakhathali.
The department, in collaboration with Statistics SA has implemented various interventions to audit its learners and employees. This initiative is aimed at ensuring that the 2014 educator post provisioning declaration is based on more accurate learner and educator numbers.
Sifuna ukuyiphelisa into ebixhaphakile yonkonyuswa kwamanani abafundi, neyokubhatala otishala abangasekhoyo.
But for us to realise all our aspirations, we need to have a healthy citizenry. The massive projects and job opportunities I spoke about are going to need humans to seize them. That is why we have moved with outmost urgency to conclude the Provincialisation of Primary Health Care.
The number of facilities competent to provide Anti-Retroviral Treatment (ART) increased from 85 in 2009 to 780 in 2012. The number of beneficiaries increased from 102 186 in 2009 to 188 544 in 2012. The EC life expectancy has now increased from 57 years in 2009 to 60 years in 2012.
We are very much concerned by the sudden expression of grievances by some of our communities through violent acts. Our constitution guarantees the right of people to protest and raise their concerns peacefully. It does not say people should demean and trample on other people’s rights. For instance we have seen how protests for genuine community concerns have turned into violent looting of shops, especially liquor stores and killing of foreign nationals.
We have seen how children have been used by adults to burn tyres and throw stones and insults at law enforcement officers. We cannot allow such violent conduct and criminality to reign supreme in our province as it has a potential to undermine our hard earned democracy.
The rate of crime has generally stabilized over the past three years. However, gender based violence crime remains unacceptably high. Almost on a daily basis we witness the killing, rape and domestic violence directed at women and children. In some parts of this province, the killing of elderly women accused of witchcraft is becoming a norm.
Our collective participation and activism in crime and corruption fighting initiatives has never been more urgent, as we should seek to reclaim the moral high ground and return our country and province to the values of Ubuntu that our forefathers espoused.
Ladies and gentlemen,
Fraud and corruption in the Public Service, has for far too long robbed our people of deserved services. The province is implementing a Provincial Policy prohibiting Public Servants from trading with government and from doing remunerative work without approval by the Executing Authority.
We have seen how public servants have looted the government purse by opening companies in the names of their family members and disbursing multi million rand tenders to those companies. Our investigative capacity to detect and prevent corruption and fraudulent activities has been enhanced, and since 2009 more than 500 departmental officials and more than 140 municipal officials have been subjected to criminal proceedings related to fraud and corruption.
The conviction rate has also improved from 93.9% in 2009 to 99% in 2012. Time for stealing from the poor is over and we urge our religious fraternity to be on our side in the fight against fraud and corruption.
People from all communities belong to religious groups and we need to find ways of tapping on the wisdom of religious leaders to address the challenges I have just mentioned. We believe that through the democratic interplay of different forces, lasting solutions to our common problems can be addressed successfully.
We do not expect our religious fraternity to play the watch-dog role from the fence, but to be full participants in the building of our nation. We must collectively dispel the notion that change can come from government alone, while our people and sectors of society wait passively for delivery.
We count on an organised and formidable religious fraternity to work with us to strengthen the offensive against the triple challenges of poverty, unemployment and inequalities in our society.
The participation and activism of the religious fraternity in developmental programmes of government is critical especially in the implementation the National Development Plan. We make this plea to you knowing fully well that religion has and can play a unique role to help government in building a harmonious and prosperous society. We therefore need our religious institutions to unite and become developmental and activist in character.
Enkosi
