Eastern Cape Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs Policy Speech for 2015/16 tabled by the MEC Fikile Xasa - Financial Year Theme: Working together to implement the Back to Basics Campaign to serve our communities better
Honourable Speaker,
Honourable Premier,
Executive Council,
Deputy Speaker,
Honourable Members,
Directors-General and Heads of Departments,
Top Management of Cogta-EC,
Distinguished guests,
Ladies and gentlemen.
Honourable Speaker, fellow South Africans, this year we celebrate sixty years (60) since the Congress of the People in Kliptown Soweto, adopted the Freedom Charter in a mass gathering of our people. It is against this background that the ruling party declared 2015/16 the Year of the Freedom Charter and Unity in Action to Advance Economic Freedom.
For the advancement of the vision of the Freedom Charter, particular tasks are assigned to all of us to work together coherently to ensure that South Africa belongs to all those who live in it black and white.
The preamble of the Freedom Charter states: “We the people of South Africa declare for all our country and the world to know that South Africa belongs to all who live in it, black and white and that No Government can Justly claim Authority unless it is based on the Will of the People.”
His Excellency, President Jacob Zuma, in his State of the Nation Address (SONA) delivered on the 12th February 2015, reminded all of us that, “Local government is everybody’s business. We have to make it work.”
In sharing government’s plan of action to revitalise local government the President stated that: “We have launched the Back to Basics programme to promote good governance and effective administration through cutting wastage, spending public funds prudently, hiring competent staff and ensuring transparency and accountability in municipalities.”
The people shall govern
I can proudly say that we have achieved a government based on the will of the people. Since 1994 our people have been participating in free and fair elections. The Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996 is derived from the Freedom Charter whose ideals seek to realise a South Africa that belongs to all those who live in it.
In this context the National Development Plan (NDP) together with the Provincial Development Plan (PDP) envisage a Province with capable, conscientious and accountable institutions that are primarily engaged in sustainable partnerships with social actors and broader citizenry for provincial development.
