Programme Director
MECs present here
Executive Mayors and Mayors
Acting DG and Heads of Departments
Municipal Managers
CEOs of Parastatals
Our Provincial Police Commissioner
Traditional leaders
Government officials
Ladies and gentlemen
Good morning
It is with great pleasure to welcome all of you to this Exco Lekgotla, which is the first after the General Elections. As we have already mentioned in other platforms, we are pleased with the fact that yet again the Independent Electoral Commission has delivered another round of free, fair and credible election.
The African National Congress fought very hard for our people to be afforded the right to freely elect a government of their choice. And once more, our people in their overwhelming numbers have reaffirmed their trust in our glorious movement.Therefore, we have a mammoth task to ensure that we do not disappoint them. The low turnout of the electorate must serve as a strong reminder that our people expect more from us.
We have made a plea that elections must not negatively affect service delivery and our primary responsibility as government. We also made a humble appeal to all concerned to ensure a smooth transition and also adhere to the expectations of our people. It is worth indicating that generally there has been a high level of maturity in this regard and the transition period continued very well.
We are indebted to members of the senior management team and all public servants for ensuring that government continues providing services to our people during the transition period. It is important to mention that public servants must be loyal to our people and remain committed to the course of improving the living standard of our communities. We as politicians come and go, but our people remain.
We are gathered here today not only to familiarize one another about what needs to be done to make the manifesto of the ruling party a reality, but also to reflect on the pronouncements made by President Jacob Zuma in his State-of-the-National Address. We are fortunate enough to be building on the successes of the past twenty years, which provides a rigorous account of which policies have worked successfully and which ones have not.
We are coming into office guided by the Election Manifesto of the ruling party, the African National Congress. Our Programme of Action in the next five years must be the mirror image of the ruling party’s manifesto. Therefore, at the center of our priorities must be to:
- Develop our rural communities; through agrarian and land reform;
- Expand the productive capacity of the economy and creation jobs for our people;
- Expand health care infrastructure and provide primary health care services to our people,
- Ensure adequate human settlement and related basic services are provided to all our people;
- Provide quality education and training to our people, and above all;
- Continue to fight crime and corruption.
Programme director
In the past twenty years, we have succeeded in providing many households with clean running water and sanitation facilities, but more still need to be done. Every tap at every household must serve its purpose of producing clean water. Our communities will celebrate more, the recently opened De Hoop Dam, if it gives them water.
We have provided houses to many people and more are still on the waiting list. The building of houses suitable for human dwelling, equipped with sanitation facilities and electricity must also remain top on our agenda.
We should maintain our position as the food-basket of the country and the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region. Farming is part of our lives in the province and the sector must be supported to produce more and employ more people at the same time.
We must actualize our resolve to build an economy that is people based, people dominated and people led. As the ANC-led government, we must use our procurement muscles to support small and medium businesses. The small and medium businesses must play a pivotal role in creating work for our people, whilst at the same time growing our economy. We must invest more efforts in building a strong cooperative movement in the province, with more emphasis on rural areas. In this regard, our parastatals must take the center stage.
We all agree that an accountable, responsive and capacitated local government is required in our endeavor to speed up the delivery of services to our people. The crucial task bestowed on our municipalities cannot be overemphasized. We must ensure that our municipalities are supported in order to deliver on their respective mandates with struggling municipalities receiving more attention.
Forward and integrated planning is the best method that must be employed in our operations. The planning that we are speaking about can only be achieved if politicians and administrators are doing what is expected from them.
This means that as politicians and senior administrators of our government and municipalities, we must work closely together not for our sake, but for the sake of Limpopo citizens who have invested their future in our hands. We have a compelling obligation to succeed in our assignment for failure is not an option.
At all times we must appreciate that we are united by our shared obligation to ensure that our people are freed from the enslavement ofpoverty, underdevelopment and all other socio-economic difficulties. President Jacob Zuma in his State-of-the-Nation address has outlined the framework and this Lekgotla must contribute towards giving details to that framework.
The President has clearly stated that the National Development Plan is the blueprint that gives us the historical perspective of where we come from since our democratic breakthrough and most importantly, gives us guidance in our movement forward as a nation. Our Programme of Action must reveal the methods that will be used to eliminate poverty and reduce the levels of inequality in the province
We must be focused and deliver quality services to our people on time. Our administration must be action orientated and always comply with legislative regulations. Our departments must demonstrate good leadership by amongst others acquiring unqualified audit reports as part of accountability, compliance and showing seriousness on our work.
The mandate from the electorate is very clear on what needs to be achieved. I am confident that we have the required competency and skills to equal the task at hand.
Lets plan together and implement together in order to realize the promises we made to our people.
This Lekgotla is officially opened.
I Thank you!
