Honourable Speaker and Deputy Speaker
Honourable Premier, Mr DD Mabuza
Honourable Members of the Executive Council
Chief Whip of the Majority Party, Honourable Johanne Mkhatshwa
Honourable Members of the Provincial Legislature
Executive Mayors and Members of the Mayoral Committees
Chairperson of the House of Traditional Leaders, Kgoshi ML Mokoena
Director-General, Dr Nonhlanhla Mkhize
Head official in the Provincial Treasury, Ms Nombedesho Nkamba and other Heads of Departments
Chairpersons of Boards and Chief Executive Officers of the Public Entities
Business Executive of the Office of Auditor-General in Mpumalanga
Chairpersons of Audit Committees and Risk Committees
ANC Provincial Secretary, Comrade Lucky Ndinisa
Provincial Secretary of the SACP, Comrade Bonakele Majuba
Provincial Secretary of Cosatu, Comrade Fidel Mlombo
Provincial Secretary of SANCO, Comrade Mike Soko
Representatives of Labour, Business, Civil Society and the Media
Esteemed guests
The People of Mpumalanga
Ngiya nibingelela nonke
Madam Speaker
It gives me a great honour to stand here in this august house to table the Policy and Budget of Vote 3.
This budget is tabled four days after we have celebrated Africa Day.
It is therefore befitting, with your indulgence, to join millions of fellow South Africans to outrightly condemn Xenophobia in whatever shape and cover it may assume.
The ancestral spirits of founding fathers and mothers of our glorious movement must be feeling betrayed by this kind of anarchy.
These misguided attacks are politically, socially and economically compromising our country. This is not what the liberation struggle was about. We say “Never again shall it happen” in our name.
The Ruling Party continues to represent the hope of the nation by rallying all sectors of society around its 2014 election manifesto, Vision 2030 and the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa which recognises that the poor are just as equal as everybody else.
The National Development Plan enjoins all South Africans to accept and understand that there will be no easy way out to a radical second phase of transition. In the 1992 “Ready to Govern“ blue print, the ANC cautioned that, and I quote:
“It is important that we plan development on step by step basis, concentrating our resources on realisable targets at each stage”. To this end, our departmental milestones, current and future performance plans will be guided by fundamentals of addressing the structural constraints which hinder service delivery, accountability and good corporate governance.
These constraints range from shortage of skills, budget which is not linked to performance; inefficiencies and wastages; unmodernised supply chain management, poor leadership and governance.
The 2015/16 budget of the Provincial Treasury seeks to focus on the corrective measures for some of these challenges.
Full speech [PDF]
