Honourable Speaker and Deputy Speaker
Honourable Premier
Members of the Executive Council
Leaders of political parties
Honourable Members of the Gauteng Legislature
Executive mayors and members of the mayoral committees
Other leaders in local government
Heads of departments
Gauteng Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (GDARD) stakeholders
Distinguished guests
Comrades and friends
Citizens of Gauteng
Ladies and gentlemen
Introduction
Good morning, Goeiemôre, Sanibonani, Dumelag, Ndi-Matsheloni, Avuxeni.
It's a great pleasure for me to present the budget vote speech for the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development. I'm cognisant of the fact that this is the first budget vote for this department at the beginning of the fourth democratic provincial legislature established immediately after the 22 April elections. This is a day, Madam Speaker, when the majority of the Gauteng citizens re-stated their confidence in the African National Congress to continue to govern this province for the next five years, and to work together with them to do more in improving their quality of life.
Honourable Speaker, this 2009/10 budget debate also happens during a very significant time in the history of our country. It is only two days before 9 August, a day to remember the heroic stance that women of South Africa, black and white, took in 1956 to march against the oppressive pass laws as part of the struggle for the emancipation of women and the protection of their rights.
Whilst we have forgiven the sins of that system, we will always remember that colonialism and apartheid were rooted in the dispossession of the land of the African people and women in particular, the destruction of African farming and the super-exploitation of wage labourers, including farm workers and their families. Poverty, inequality, and joblessness are consequences of centuries of underdevelopment and exploitation consciously perpetrated on the majority of the population, and women in particular.
However, on 9 August, honourable members, as we remember and salute our heroins of our struggle who led the march and paved the way for our freedom, namely : Mma Helen Joseph, Mma Rahina Moosa, Mma Lilian Ngoyi and our own member of this legislature, Auntie Sophie Williams, we will also be celebrating the 15 years of the ANC-led government’s strong foundation towards reversing this painful legacy and improving the quality of life of our people.
This budget speech we present today will, therefore, highlight some of these achievements, challenges laying ahead, 2009/14 manifesto commitments, national and provincial priorities for the next five years and how the department will spend the budget to practically respond to these challenges, manifesto commitments, and government priorities.
Synopsis of achievements
Honourable Speaker and Members, the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development is one of the departments that has contributed a great deal towards pushing back the frontiers of poverty, growing the economy, and improving the quality of life for many people of Gauteng. The following are some of the achievements realised over the past year.
On agriculture
Honourable Speaker, the agriculture sector is playing a significant role towards halving poverty by 2014 through farmer support and development. The following has been achieved thus far:
* One hundred and twenty-one (121) projects with one thousand eight hundred and seventy-six (1 876) community food garden participants were assisted in the 2008/09 financial year.
* Seventy (70) new community projects were developed even though the plan was to develop only thirty-two (32).
* The Gauteng Provincial Food Summit that was held at Gallagher Estate on 10 and 11 July 2008 resulted into the roll out of the Letsema/ilima campaign and an increased number of requests for assistance for the development of community projects, hence the observed increased number of community food-type projects. Projects were fenced, boreholes were drilled and equipped, and irrigation and electricity was also installed in most of the projects for the commencement of the vegetable and poultry production.
* The Letsema/ilima project also saw the commencement of the School Garden Nutrition Programme. One hundred and twenty-four (124) school gardens were developed during that year.
* One thousand six hundred and ninety-nine (1 699) starter packs (for food garden projects) were delivered. These starter packs comprised of implements like spades and rakes as well as inputs for the beneficiaries to produce vegetables in their backyards. This programme targeted the poorest of the poor in townships and informal settlements. This work will continue in 2009/10.
* GDARD in collaboration with eGoliBio and Ile de France hosted the Business Angels Network (BAN) in Biotechnology workshop that took place on 10 February 2009 at the Innovation Hub in Pretoria. More than 60 participants attended the workshop. The workshop agreed to facilitate future localized networking sessions on a quarterly basis.
* In order to obtain Seed funding and Venture Capital funding for biotechnology, an agreement was reached with Gauteng Enterprise Propeller (GEP) for funding. In addition, the Department supported a bid by AfricaBio Foundation for Professional Development (FPD) to bring to South Africa the Agricultural Biotechnology International Conference (ABIC) in 2011. The bid was successful and some department's delegates attended ABIC in 2008 in the City of Cork, Ireland to receive the bid.
Honourable Speaker, during the past few weeks I together with the department and relevant members of mayoral committees, visited various agricultural co-ops and agri-villages within agricultural hubs in Metsweding, Ekurhuleni, Sedibeng and Mogale City, with the intention of assessing if these projects contribute to improved quality of life. When I asked a question of a lady coordinator of the Monzai Chicken/Poultry project/cooperative on whether or not the quality of life of her and other cooperative member has improved since the establishment of the project, she, without hesitation, said to me: "Tremendously!”
She expressed her appreciation to the department for the farmer support they received over the year. It is this and many other success stories that we need to write about so that other unemployed citizens of Gauteng can derive hope from these, and also do something to take control of their own lives. The other farmers and cooperatives also cited good outcomes as well as challenges to be addressed to sustain their projects. The department needs to further engage with them on these challenges raised.
On veterinary services
Honourable Speaker and Members, the province was the first and remains the only veterinary service in the country to have a veterinary strategy to ensure alignment to provincial and national priorities. This includes a primary veterinary health strategy to promote animal health and production of emerging livestock farmers. This strategy has a pet care aspect to it to ensure the holistic principle of healthy animals, healthy people in especially the 20 priority townships and informal settlements. The campaigns are conducted using a unique model of public private partnership with animal welfare organizations. More than 400 pets have been sterilised by both service providers and over 3 000 have been vaccinated for infectious diseases and treated for external parasites. Also in line with the idea of partnerships, veterinary services now has a farmer support agreement with the University of Pretoria for targeted training on piggery production to emerging pig farmers.
During the last financial year the province introduced the first veterinary bio-security strategy and structure in South Africa. This should help to continue to reduce both the incidence and impact of major animal disease outbreaks within the province.
Veterinary Public Health has continued to insure that meat produced within the province is safe. Hon Speaker, during the past few weeks, I also had the pleasure of visiting two large abattoirs in this province, Chalmers Beef, which slaughters livestock for its red meat, and Early Bird, which slaughters poultry. These two abattoirs have shown solid improvement in hygienic standards within the industry in the province. A programme which leverages competitive advantage for good hygiene practice called the Nama Phepa Awards received a Premier Service Excellence Bronze Award and is now being rolled out nationally.
On sustainable resource management
Honourable Speaker and Members, planned targets for all Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP) projects including job creation for women and youth and conservation works implemented, were either exceeded or met in the previous financial year. The increasing effect of the erratic climate on project productivity is aptly demonstrated by 45 days of rain that stopped all work in the West Rand alone.
Land care achievements include the first land care youth camps, tree distribution, schools’ permaculture gardens and the establishment of a number of Community-Based Natural Resource Management (CBNRM) projects with functional project steering committees, dealing with wetland rehabilitation and livelihoods (such as the fuel briquettes project).
Ongoing support for previous year projects such as the nurseries remains a priority. This year in particular, the department has chosen wetland projects in the 20 priority townships so that our modest projects do link into ecological systems across the province.
A great success has been harvesting vegetables within one year of project initiation from gardens next to these wetlands that were previously dumps notwithstanding that they were previously dumping grounds.
On sustainable use of environment
Honourable Speaker and Members, the department met and, in most instances, exceeded the targets set for the previous financial year in a number of areas, including the number of applications processed on environment impact assessment and nature conservation permits, support to stakeholders as well as planned strategic projects. Some of the key strategic projects completed during the past year included the development of the municipal clean development mechanism guidelines; the Gauteng hazardous waste management plants for Gauteng, a status quo report on municipal sewage treatment plants; regulations for integrated waste management plans; and, a building and demolition waste guideline among others. Furthermore, the number of visitors to the nature reserves owned by the department, increased. It is anticipated that this trend will continue in this and the coming year.
Challenges
Honourable Speaker, in spite of these and many other achievements, our people have continued to raise many challenges to be addressed by this and other departments in partnership with our communities, various civil society organizations and the private sector. These challenges include the sharp rise in food prices and increased cost of living as part of the effects of the economic meltdown, poor conditions of farm workers and dwellers, need for technical skills training on how to farm, need for finance for the rural poor to productively till the land, emerging farmers continue to lose their farms, poor access to land by the historically disenfranchised communities in spite of underutilisation of vast tracts of land , urban poverty and migration from rural areas to cities due to limited opportunities of sustainable livelihoods in rural areas.
In spite of progress made, many of our rural areas still lack basic infrastructure such as roads, clean drinking water, and electricity supply. Our efforts to extend government services such as education and health care to all our people are slowest to reach rural areas and farm dwellers. Widespread evictions of farm-dwellers are in direct contradiction with the objectives of land reform.
Furthermore, migration to the cities continues to happen, even though the majority of these migrants remain the poorest people within the urban population with a strong connection to their rural areas.
Madam Speaker, we have seen farm workers being brutally assaulted by farmers for no apparent reason. A case in point is that of Mr Derrick Steyn who assaulted Mrs Thembi Ndlovu after she resigned from her job because of abuse by the farm owner. Magistrate Serfontein released him from jail without a formal bail hearing. We must congratulate Mr Machimana who is representing Mrs Ndlovu and pursuing this case in the interest of the poor.
In another incident of farm worker exploitation, in 2004, a farm owner sold shares of his farm to his tenants who received agriculture fund support and became majority shareholders. Recently the original farm owner claims that because the farm is not making the expected profits (but there’s no audited financial statement to this effect), he is buying the majority shareholders out and wants to pay them R100 000 but allow them to continue to work on the farm as labourers. All this is happening in spite of a clear title deed agreement between the two parties which is contrary to the farmer’s intentions. The farm is apparently worth R50 million. The department has been requested to intervene to assist the tenants.
Working together with the national and local government as well with all role-players, stakeholders and communities, the department remains committed in addressing these and other challenges.
2009/14 manifesto commitments
Honourable Speaker, Members of the House, in line with the commitment of the Freedom Charter that the land shall be shared among those who work it to banish famine and land hunger, the ruling liberation movement has identified in its Manifesto, rural development, food security and land reform as one of its five priorities for the next five years in government.
The Manifesto outlines a need for an integrated programme of rural development, land reform and agrarian change that must be based on the following pillars:
* Defending and advancing the rights and economic position of farm workers and farm dwellers including through improved organisation and better enforcement of existing laws
* Agrarian change with a view to supporting subsistence food production, expanding the role and productivity of modern small holder farming and maintaining a vibrant and competitive agricultural sector
* Fundamental changes in the patterns of land ownership through the re-distribution of 30 percent of agricultural land before 2014 by national government. This must include comprehensive support programmes with proper monitoring mechanisms to ensure sustainable improvement in livelihoods for the rural poor, farm workers, farm dwellers and small farmers especially women and the youth
* The provision of social and economic infrastructure and extension of quality government services, particularly health and education to rural areas.
The manifesto requires us to work together where appropriate, with commercial agricultural and private farming sector, to promote broad-based black economic empowerment, to create partnerships between emerging and established farmers, to create linkages between large and small farmers, including through procurement and contracting out. It also requires us to build institutions to contribute towards more equitable structures of production and ownership in rural South Africa, including through collective ownership. We are also required to promote Employment Equity, skills development and support new enterprises in the agricultural sector.
On sustainable management of environment and natural resources, we are required to promote clean and green environment, reclaim land from mines, address challenges of loss of biodiversity and reduce all forms of pollution and effects of climate change. We are also required to address the Illegal and unhygienic abattoirs and animal diseases in affected communities. Finally, we are also required to use and manage the land in an integrated manner.
Government's 2009 to 2014 priorities
It is in this context, Honourable Speaker, that the President of the Republic of South Africa identified rural development, linked to land and agrarian reform and food security as a third priority. In his 2009 State of the Nation address, he said, "Abantu basemakhaya nabo banelungelo lokuba nogesi, namanzi, izindlu zangasese ezigijima amanzi, imigwaqo,izindawo zokuqeda isizungu nezemidlalo, kanye nezindawo zokuthenga eziphucukile njengasemadolobheni. Nabo banelungelo lokusizwa kwezolimo ukuze bazitshalele imifino nokunye, bafuyenemfuyo, bakwazi ukuziphilisa.
Sizimisele ukuwuqala lomkhankaso wokwakha izingqalasizinda ezindaweni zasemakhaya. Uma sibambisene nezakhamizi, namakhosi, amakhansela, nezinduna siyokwazi ukuwusheshisa lomsebenzi. Uma sisebenza ngokubambisana sizokwenza okuningi."
Indeed, Honourable Speaker, with all these interventions, we are poised to change the face of rural areas in our country.
In response to the manifesto commitments and national priorities, the Gauteng Provincial government, led by the Honourable Premier Mme Nomvula Mokonyane, identified the following priorities for the next five years which informs the work of the department.
These are:
* Creating decent work and building a growing, inclusive economy
* Promoting quality education and skills development
* Better health care for all
* Stimulating rural development and food security
* Intensify the fight against crime and corruption
* Building cohesive and sustainable communities
* Strengthen the development state and good governance.
In her State of the Province Address with the theme "Kuyasheshwa, getting Gauteng working, revitalisation and renewal towards accelerated change" the Honourable Premier said, "Our Gauteng rural development strategy will address the need for better social and economic infrastructure, it will promote co-operatives and small enterprises and support job creating economic sectors such as agriculture, light manufacturing, crafts, tourism and services sectors."
We are pleased to indicate that a draft rural development strategy is now in place and that we are consulting with various role players and stakeholders before it is approved. It aims at improving the quality of life of people living in rural areas (i.e. all communities outside of the urban edge including informal settlements and areas delimited as agricultural hubs), increasing agricultural and food production, and redressing the imbalances between rural and urban migration.
Some of the activities that will be carried out include income generation through agriculture, support for small, medium and micro enterprises (SMMEs), sustainable use of natural resources, increasing opportunities and access to basic services including energy supply, infrastructure development, information and telecommunications technology, postal services etc.
The state of agriculture and some development indicators
Before elaborating on GDARD’s programmes and budget to realise these priorities, Honourable Speaker, allow me to outline the status and role of Agriculture and Rural Development in South Africa, focusing on Gauteng. According to Statistics South Africa, as of 2008, the Gauteng population reached approximately 10.5 million people, accounting for approximately 21.5 percent of the national population. This makes Gauteng the most populous province in South Africa followed by KwaZulu-Natal at 20.8 percent from the figure it is evident that the population growth rate in Gauteng was higher than for South Africa in general. This is mainly attributed to the relatively high level of migration from other provinces into Gauteng. This is an ongoing phenomenon and poses huge challenges for the provision of services and for maintaining or extending the existing infrastructure within the urban and rural areas of the province.
Compared to other areas, the Gauteng province receives relatively higher rainfall and has more favourable agro-ecological conditions for agriculture. By definition of potential agricultural in South Africa (Schoeman, 2004), the province is also endowed with significant land areas classified as high potential agricultural land (HPAL) which comprise 293,537ha of land area in Gauteng, i.e. 18% of the land area in the province. The Gauteng Provincial Government and Gauteng Department of Agriculture and Rural Development are committed to protecting this high potential agricultural land, whilst simultaneously ensuring sustainable agricultural development that will contribute to poverty reduction, job creation and improved economic growth in the province.
In spite of the current economic environment, the agricultural sector in this province contributes 0.5 percent to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and in the rural areas (represented by district municipalities) it contributes an average of 2.3 percent to the GDP. In this context, agriculture becomes one of the sectors in which a significant investment is required if we were to increase the rate at which jobs are created and the quality of life of Gauteng citizens are improved.
The strategy (vision, mission and strategic objectives)
Honourable Speaker, in response to the manifesto commitments, government’s priorities, and the re-configured department, we have revised the vision, mission and strategic goals to guide the work of the department. The vision is "To become leaders in the management of natural resources for thriving agriculture, sustainable rural development, clean and green environment."
The mission is "to provide an integrated provincial management system for sustainable agriculture, rural development and use of natural resources towards improved quality of life for all in Gauteng," through:
* Increased competitiveness of the Gauteng agri-food industry by increasing competences, sales and equality champions of animal health and welfare in a cost-sharing/recovery model
* Sustainable use of the environment with the challenge of restoring and enhancing profitable and sustainable ecosystems, improving biodiversity and landscape and providing opportunities for access in the countryside, and
* Co-ordination of rural development with respect to agriculture, environment, education, health, transport, infrastructure and other social services
Madam Speaker, the department aims to achieve the following strategic objectives:
* To improve performance in the marketplace for agricultural produce, in order to increase local and export demand for Gauteng produce, and increased economy sustainability of all food processing businesses
* To strengthen the social and economic infrastructure of rural areas in order to create jobs and sustainable rural businesses, and to improve the quality of life of the rural people
* To enhance animal health and welfare to eradicate diseases
* To develop a more sustainable environment by adopting environmentally sustainable farming methods, planting more trees and exploiting renewable energy opportunities.
With this brief overview on strategic priorities, Honourable Speaker, I now wish to focus on the budget allocated to the department, and to the programmes and projects that will help us achieve these goals and objectives.
Overview of budgetary allocation
The department’s plans for the 2009/10 financial year have as their basis the seven strategic priorities of the province mentioned above. The department’s areas of functional responsibility are informed by both its constitutional and legal mandate. These functional responsibilities will be carried out on a proportional basis within existing financial and human resource constraints.
The budgetary allocation for the department has increased during the financial years 2005/6 to 2007/08 from R223.2 million to R297.8 million with an annual average growth rate of 16.4 percent. At 88.6 percent the equitable share contributes the most in the 2009/10 financial year, with conditional grants making up 13.4 percent. The equitable share portion was revised upwards from R325 million to R337 million or by 3.8 percent in the 2008/09 financial year due to personnel inflationary adjustments and rollovers that the department received. On average the department has been spending 97 percent of its allocated budget during this period.
The funding through the conditional grant has been revised upwards mainly because of the disaster management grant and increased allocation for the Comprehensive Agricultural Support Programme (CASP) grant. The medium-term estimates are anticipated to grow at an annual average rate of 33.6 percent due to the abovementioned new grant.
Total receipts are set to grow from R374.9 million in 2008/09 to R481 million in the 2011/12 financial year, at an annual growth rate of 8.9 percent. The main items to be funded during that period are:
* The Comprehensive Agricultural Support Programme (CASP) and land care grants
* The provincial earmarked allocations, including the Growth and Development Strategy (GDS) allocations for agro-processing and agriculture
* Priority areas in agriculture, for which an amount of R55.9 million will be allocated. A total of R103.6 million is earmarked for the implementation of the integrated waste management (including air pollution minimization) system in the province. For this contribution to GDS, agro-processing is allocated R65.1 million. An amount of R1.5 million is allocated for the contribution of wetland rehabilitation projects. The other allocations relate to implementation of the essential oils, floriculture and biotechnology projects and agricultural hubs (R9.3 million). To encourage communities to produce food for their homes, an allocation of R7.5 million is made for homestead gardens projects
* An agency for biotechnology entrepreneurs seeking loan funding in the region of R100 000 to R5 million. The Department’s partners in Biotechnology incubation would remain eGoliBio and negotiations with IDC are underway to have them as a partner for funding biotechnology entrepreneurs who are seeking funding beyond R5 million.
Budgetary allocations for the 2009/10 financial year
Our budgetary allocation for the financial year under consideration is R436 843 million. This budget will be divided into the various service delivery programmes of the department in a manner that seeks to further advance the Gauteng Provincial Government’s seven strategic objectives. With this in mind:
Programme 1: Administration has been allocated R143 million
Programme 2: Agriculture, including veterinary services, has been allocated R165.6 million
Programme 3: Conservation is earmarked to receive R47 million
Programme 4: Environment is budgeted to receive R81 194 million.
You will notice, Honourable Speaker that no budget has been allocated for rural development yet, until the strategy is approved. However, I’m pleased to announce from its re-prioritisation process given the new priorities, the department has managed to set aside R28,4 million from the existing budget to fund some of the Rural development and other new priority projects. It is, however, also important to state that the department has been under-resourced in the past and that it will need some financial injection if it has to contribute optimally to all the strategic priorities.
Programmes and projects for 2009/10
Agriculture, rural development and food security
Honourable Speaker, with the allocation provided to the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, the agricultural branch will render agricultural extension and advisory services to all levels of households in the province in order to improve levels of food security at household level and build capacity for project participants. New extension officers will therefore be appointed to assist emerging farmers. Mobilisation of particularly rural communities around agricultural development is one of the areas on which the branch will focus on. Public awareness campaigns to inform communities about the opportunities in agriculture and the programmes that the department offers will play a significant role in this mobilisation.
The participation of women, youth and the differently able will be enhanced and the department will look at ways of incorporating programmes coming out of the Letsema/ilima projects in the conventional department programmes. Small farmers are expected to play a highly significant role in agricultural production in the agricultural hubs. The branch will further enhance its provincial extension strategy to ensure quality extension services and improve farmer productivity.
This branch will, in addition, update and implement the Gauteng integrated food security programme to ensure that no child headed households go to bed with a hungry stomach. A roll-out plan and targets on homestead and community food gardens including vacant land will be developed and implemented. More Co-operatives will be established and supported to promote food security. These cooperatives will be launched to raise awareness in rural communities.
The department will contribute to maximising the agricultural economic sector growth and jobs by revising and implementing the Gauteng agricultural development strategy. It will also target agricultural hubs to maximise benefits for emerging farmers and poor communities. The department will revise and implement a plan on Gauteng agro-processing, establish a bio-science park as part of the implementation of the Gauteng Bio-technology strategy. Gauteng use to have agricultural expos at Nasrec and these will be revived and strengthened to promote agriculture and related products.
This branch will also revive and promote the agricultural museum as well as revive and launch agricultural training academies beginning with west rand to enhance skills training and development.
Veterinary services will continue to meet its constitutional and legal mandates. The department's veterinary services is the only veterinary service in the developing world with ISO accreditation and this will be extended to other spheres of activity within the service as part of an overall quality management system. In addition, the branch will increase its disease surveillance programmes to meet the increasing challenge of emerging diseases.
Epidemiological and risk assessment capacity will be enhanced for better decision making and disease control. As part of veterinary public health work, this branch will continue to rate abattoirs and in particular, explore regulation of illegal abattoirs and provide portable refrigerated slaughtering facilities in some of the 20 prioritised townships. This work will be done in partnership with the private sector. This exploration will include vaccination of livestock in some of the affected townships.
This revised primary animal/veterinary health strategy is also aimed at improving holistic animal and human health. The Nama Phepa awards to enhance competitive advantage for good hygiene practice will be rolled out countrywide. The branch will also work on a cooperative governance implementation strategy with all spheres of government to cover the major deficiencies in the fragmented food control system, including combined enforcement actions and an increased emphasis on residue monitoring in food. The bio-security strategy will be further unrolled to include commercial and developing farmers, especially beneficiaries of land reform.
The sustainable resource management programme will implement a provincial youth land care forum; establish a Gauteng greening and arbour programme that plants trees in communities (to support Johannesburg’s tree planting legacy project, Gauteng will work with all municipalities, schools and households to plant 200 000 fruit and indigenous trees per financial year) and mixed crop gardens in 15 selected schools within the 20 prioritised townships; three income generating and skills transfer Community-Based Natural Resource Management (CBNRM) projects will be implemented in selected townships; 400 jobs will created in the environmental sector; 20 training interventions in the environmental sector will be initiated; the burning of firebreaks, removal of alien vegetation and rehabilitation of wetlands will continue; the MTK awards will be hosted in September; best practice manuals for awareness of environmental issues and risks will be developed; protected areas under conservation will be increased to 10 percent; and, intergovernmental relations that will enhance work to improve Gauteng’s water resources and capacity building in the sector generally will be undertaken by March 2010.
The green and clean and litter free neighbourhoods campaign will be launched in Ekurhuleni on spring day, and rolled out to other 20 priority townships. A feasibility study and strategy on reclaiming land from mine dumps will be undertaken and implemented. This branch will also revise and implement the Gauteng sustainable development as well as an integrated provincial land management and land use strategy for the short and long term.
The nature conservation section of the department will continue to implement environmental education and awareness programmes on the reserves and will market the updated C-plan to local authorities, landowners and other sectors to inform ecological management and decision-making relating to bio-diversity priority areas in the province. The department will play a major role in the urban component of the national grassland conservation initiative and to initiatives that involve private land stewardship and ecological servitudes through the implementation of the biodiversity stewardship programme.
This branch will have to explore development of co-operatives for young people to manage Game lodges, farm bed and breakfast especially in the rural and peri urban areas of Sedibeng and Westrand etc as part of nature conservation and agri and eco tourism industry to create green jobs and to contribute to the green economy. Wetlands will have to be used as tourist destination. This branch will need to develop a conservation programme to assist these entrepreneurs working together with the department of economic development. Public-private Partnerships would be used to revive neglected nature conserved areas in the 20 priority townships. The branch will also develop a strategy on strengthening of the green economy to generate green jobs, with lessons from China.
The Compliance and Enforcement (C&E) unit will strive for full implementation of its plans for proactive compliance, monitoring some of the larger projects as per their mandate, including the Gautrain Rapid Rail Link. The unit will finalise the development of an information management and reporting system to enable accurate reporting and facilitate the effective planning for compliance monitoring and enforcement.
The Environmental, Spatial and Development, Planning, Monitoring and Reporting (EPIA) sections will fast track the processing of EIA applications, implement the amended EIA regulations, including the finalisation of the supplementation project to streamline environmental impact assessment requirements in Gauteng. The sections will develop and finalise four Environmental Management Frameworks (EMF) encompassing parts of the City of Johannesburg as well as the City of Tshwane , Mogale City , Dinokeng EMF, and Midvaal. The will also finalise the development of guidelines for lifestyle estates and a decision support tool that maps out sustainability parameters to be included in EIA decisions to support sustainable development in the province.
In regard to the challenge of creating a cleaner and greener Gauteng, the department will develop and implement standards for domestic waste collection and other elements of the waste hierarchy (guided by the Gauteng integrated waste management policies); the waste minimisation plan for Gauteng, including the setting of waste targets; a green procurement policy for GPG; review local authority integrated waste management plans; ensure that new waste facilities are environmentally sustainable; develop manuals and guidelines to assist to review applications and audit waste facilities; monitor waste generators and transporters in terms of the waste information regulations through improved enforcement activities; continue maintenance and upgrading of the existing Department of Waste Information System; review applications and granting of authorisations, with conditions, for waste related activities that may have a detrimental impact on the environment; ensure hazardous waste minimization, responsible waste management and pollution prevention.
Climate change and provincial air quality management will be the key focus areas to be addressed in the 2009/10 financial year. The feasibility of submitting a Cleaner Development Mechanism (CDM) project to the national delegated authority will be undertaken to confirm the participation in a provincial carbon trading programme. This work will also be supported by the climate change response strategy to be developed in the period under consideration.
Conclusion
In conclusion, I wish to use this opportunity to inform the house that during the budget presentation, there were questions rose by the standing committee and were responded to. I, however, commit to follow up on all the issues raised by the committee and report on a regular basis. I would, therefore, like to thank the Standing Committee of Agriculture and Rural Development under the leadership of honourable member Nokuthula Sikhakhane for the support and input that I have been afforded during the beginning of this budget process.
Many thanks must also go to Dr Steven Cornelius and his team, including staff in my private office, for their wonderful support and work. Let me express my sincere appreciation to my predecessors, MEC Kgabisi Mosunkutu and member Nomantu Nkomo-Ralehoko for past achievements and for ideas and projects that have all been incorporated into this plan. Thank you to my partners in local government, all role-players, stakeholders in this field and the communities we serve for your support and guidance.
May I also thank the Honourable Speaker, Deputy Speaker, Members of this Legislature for your support and assistance. I would also like to commend and thank Premier Nomvula Mokonyane for the courageous leadership she is providing to this province. With her insight and under her guidance, Gauteng is moving in the right direction. The Premier has called on all of us here in this gathering and in the Public Service to rise up and meet the challenges faced by citizens of Gauteng : Ngempela Kuyasheshwa !
To my family, comrades and friends, I say thank you for your unconditional love and support.
I thank you.
Source: Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, Gauteng Provincial Government
