Honourable Speaker
Members of the Executive Council
Honourable members of the House
Esteemed executive mayors and mayors of our municipalities
Senior managers of the administration
Comrades and friends
Ladies and gentlemen
Honourable Speaker, it is my singular honour to greet you and Honourable Members of this august house as we present the policy objectives of the Office of the Premier for the financial year 2010/11.
Today we address this House two days after marking Human Rights Day and 80 days before the start of the 2010 FIFA Soccer World Cup in our country.
Furthermore, as we noted in our State of the Province Address, which we delivered on 19 February 2010, this year we are celebrating the 20th anniversary of the release of Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela.
As the Office of the Premier, we are marking these events acutely aware of the responsibility entrusted upon us by the people of the Eastern Cape, to lead our advancement towards a better life for all.
This was the wish of those who died in Sharpeville and in Langa on the 21st of March, and is reflected in the ideal of a people centered society as envisioned by Madiba.
The Office of the Premier has positioned itself to ensure that we are poised to drive the integrated implementation of the eight provincial strategic priorities, as detailed in the State of the Province Address. These priorities are in line with the national strategic framework and the elections manifesto of the ruling party.
The Office of the Premier is primarily charged with the realisation of the work entailed in strategic priority seven: Building a developmental state, improving the public service and strengthening democratic institutions.
Accordingly, the Office of the Premier is fully aware of the enormity of its mission and role in leading the Government of the Eastern Cape. This role includes:
- Coordinating and integrating planning in the province
- Coordinating and integrating policy development within the province
- Coordinating and integrating monitoring, evaluation and reporting in the province
- Facilitating effective mechanisms for efficient intergovernmental and international relations and supporting transversal initiatives and priorities in the province, including the Expanded Public Works Programme, rural development, the war on poverty, improving the health profile of our people and building human capital.
We also have a responsibility to ensure that:
- There is adequate human resource capacity to support the mandate of the provincial government and activities of a developmental state
- There are well established programmes and provincial training delivery systems which are responsive to the skills needed to grow the economy
- There is a transformed, highly committed, ethical and professional public service cadre
- An environment that is conducive to service delivery is created in the Eastern Cape provincial government
- A high performance culture is institutionalised in the Eastern Cape provincial administration
- A culture of good corporate governance is institutionalised and that the communication and information needs of the provincial government and key stakeholders are met.
Furthermore, we have a responsibility for:
- strategic management and inter-program coordination
- attracting and retaining competent and quality human capital talent as well as
- institutionalising of a culture of excellence.
Honourable Speaker it is against this context that the Office of the Premier will position itself during the 2010/11 financial year to play a leading role in delivering better and more effective services to the people of the Eastern Cape.
We have been allocated a total budget of R424,838 million for the 2010/11 financial year. This budget is split according to the programmes of the Office of the Premier namely programme one (administration), programme two (institution building and transformation), as well as programme three (policy and governance).
With respect to programme one, we are focusing on the provision of coordinated support to the Executing Authority, the Provincial Executive Council and the Department of the Office of the Premier as a whole.
Through this programme we also facilitate and coordinate strategic planning in the department and act as an interface between various sub-programmes, aimed at fostering an atmosphere of continuous improvement and learning. This programme has been allocated a budget of R79,544 million for this financial year.
The office of the Deputy Director-General: Administration has been allocated R3,287 million. This will assist with strategic management and inter-programme coordination, which will ensure that there is coherence, harmonisation and improved service to the citizens of the province.
This budget will therefore be utilised to ensure there is continuous improvement in the work of the department, including the development of modern public management practices, staff capacity and ensuring overall organisational discipline.
The office of the Director-General has been allocated an amount of R5, 003 million for this financial year. The primary task of the Director-General (DG) is to coordinate the provincial administration in order to ensure that the political mandate is properly translated and embedded across government.
The office of the DG, which is also the office of the Accounting Officer for the Office of the Premier as a department, must enable the leadership of the department to effectively execute its duties and mandate as the provincial centre of coordination.
As the Secretary to Cabinet, the DG must also ensure that the Executive Council operates efficiently and effectively. Accordingly the Cabinet Secretariat unit has been allocated an amount of R4,211 million, in order to ensure timeous secretariat and strategic support to the Executive Council.
Similarly the Core Staff unit in the Office of the Premier has been allocated an amount of R13,389 million to give strategic and political support to the Premier of the Eastern Cape.
Honourable Speaker as members may be aware; government is working very hard to ensure that we achieve clean audits throughout the provincial administration.
In order to maintain our unqualified audit outcome in the department, we are taking a number of initiatives, including improving our supply chain management, improving our procurement policies, improving the overall financial management in the province, as well as improving the management of our assets.
We have also embarked on a campaign aimed at ensuring that all service providers are paid within a period of 30 days after receiving the invoices from the suppliers. We have allocated an amount of R26,271 million for this supply chain, risk and financial management-related work.
Furthermore we are focusing on improving our human resource capabilities. A budget of R 27,383 million has been allocated to internal human resource management. Our electronic document management system has been rolled out in the 2009/10 financial year and will be fully implemented during the course of the 2010/11 financial year.
We have conducted a climate survey in order to inform the implementation of the attraction and retention strategy within the Office of the Premier. In this regard, we intend to fill all critical vacancies in the Department within this financial year.
Honourable speaker programme two, which is called institution building and transformation, is responsible for achieving efficient governance through coordination and facilitation of the provincial administration’s institutional development and transformation. This programme has been allocated an amount of R214,721 million.
The office of the Deputy Director-General: Institution building and Transformation has been allocated R2,162 million. This budget will be utilised to coordinate implementation of the provincial public sector transformation strategy and coordinate effective and efficient management of the institutional building and transformation branch.
Within the budget of programme two, an amount of R68,326 million has been set aside to support transversal organisational development programmes within the various provincial departments.
This will include:
- the implementation of effective provincial human capital management systems and practices including a comprehensive culture change program
- the implementation of capacity building programmes to build the human resource capacity needed to support the mandate of the provincial government
- strengthening provincial training delivery systems to be responsive to the skills needed to grow the economy
- the implementation of a strategic skills program targeting the placement of youth in learnerships, apprenticeships and internship programmes across the province and government and
- the implementation of the provincial financial aid policy to support study opportunities for youth in the province.
Furthermore we will focus on promoting the implementation of policies and practices designed to create a healthy working environment, improved employment relations and employee-well being.
We have also set aside an amount of R18,634 million for shared legal services which will be utilised to provide internal transversal legal advisory services as well as ensuring improved provincial government compliance with constitutional and legal obligations.
One of our main aims in the coming financial year will be to ensure that we reduce incidents of litigation in government. Towards this end a provincial litigation reduction strategy will be implemented. We are also going to provide training to provincial departments with respect to constitutional and targeted legislation processes to promote understanding of legal obligations to improve compliance therewith.
Honourable Speaker, government has a responsibility to communicate with and inform its citizens on all aspects of the work of government. To this end we have allocated an amount of R39,257 million to the provincial communications unit.
This will ensure that we are able to implement the provincial communications strategy and plan and ensure the responsiveness of the provincial government to its citizens. We will also increase coordination of responses to complaints and queries via the Presidential Hotline.
As a means of broadening citizen access to government services, we will be seized with ensuring that the 13 Thusong Services Centres in the province are supported to function effectively and efficiently, whilst concurrently addressing the funding constraints around the roll-out of additional Centres as scoped in the 2010 to 2014 business plan.
Additional communications-related key initiatives we intend taking forward are to further improve the professional corporate image of the Office of the Premier; to enhance Eastern Cape brand visibility; as well as to increase positive media coverage of the work of government.
We have also set aside an amount of R81,347 million for provincial information communication technology (ICT). Our objective in this regard is to ensure that the digital divide is bridged and that people living in rural areas in particular are enabled to use technological capability to access the full spread of government services.
We will also take steps to improve the level of ICT competence of the provincial workforce, as well as enhancing information management capability of provincial government through the usage of ICTs.
It is a matter of concern for us in government that ICT system costs are prohibitive and beyond our range of affordability. We are seriously engaging with State Information Technology Agency (SITA) and the Ministry for Public Service and Administration to put in place cost containment measures.
Furthermore we are allocating an amount of R4,995 million for the work on anticorruption and provincial security. We will step up our role in co-ordinating implementation of provincial fraud and anti-corruption strategies.
We will also ensure that departments have minimum requisite anti-corruption and security capacity in line with the national norms and also taking on board the province’s own fraud risk profiles and security requirements.
Honourable Speaker, programme three, which is known as policy and governance, has been allocated an amount of R130,573 million. This programme has two broad aims. The first is to lead and facilitate the development of effective, appropriate and integrated provincial policies, strategies and plans as well as to monitor, evaluate and report on implementation and impact thereof.
This programme also has the responsibility for driving development and evaluative research to ensure the realisation of evidence-based planning. The second aim is to ensure that the Office of the Premier facilitates and leads cooperative governance in the Province and promotes a strategic interface between government institutions, as well as between government and civil society.
The office of the Deputy Director-General: Policy and governance is allocated an amount of R3,720 million for driving and coordinating the implementation of the priorities of the programme.
We have set aside an amount of R89,621 million to support planning, policy coordination, monitoring and evaluation as well as public entities in the Office of the Premier. We will therefore ensure that in the coming financial year all provincial government plans are aligned to the provincial strategic framework, the provincial Programme of Action and IDPs of municipalities.
As we announced in the State of the Province Address, we are progressing with the process of establishing a Provincial Planning Commission. To this end a series of consultations will be embarked upon.
We will also work with national government in phasing-in the outcomes approach in the province, and in this context we will also revisit the provincial cluster model to ensure the most appropriate configuration.
The Provincial Growth and Development Plan (PGDP) remains a critical anchor for government policy implementation in the province. We will therefore ensure that the PGDP is updated into a long range planning and development perspective of the province.
We will also continue to provide support to public entities, namely the Eastern Cape Appropriate Technologies Unit (ECATU) and the Eastern Cape Socio Economic Consultative Council (ECSECC). Of course, as members are aware, a process is also underway to merge some of our entities as part of the establishment of a new and consolidated Rural Development Agency.
ECSECC is a provincial platform of constructive engagement between government and its key social partners which are business, labour and the non-governmental organisation (NGO) sector. We will intensify our engagement with civil society and social partners going forward. Furthermore, as
Honourable members may recall, in December 2009 we adopted a provincial Inter-Governmental Relations (IGR) Strategy. In the coming financial year, which the President has declared to be the Year of Action, we will implement all aspects of the IGR strategy.
We will also support the Department of Local Government and Traditional Affairs in the implementation of the Local Government Turnaround Strategy. We have allocated an amount of R9,237 million for this, and it includes our work with respect to better management of international arrangements, donor coordination as well engagement with stakeholders.
Honourable Speaker, an amount R18,195 million has been set aside to support special programmes. Our work in this area will include the mainstreaming and social inclusion of issues pertinent to the rights of children, women, older persons and persons with disabilities.
We must concede, Honourable Speaker that we have struggled to meet our obligations relating to gender and disability equity targets. We are engaging with the Ministry for Women, Youth, Children and People with Disabilities to find better ways of mainstreaming these matters at the point of policy formulation.
Furthermore as we indicated in the State of the Province Address, the conceptualisation of the establishment of a youth desk in the Office of the Premier is currently underway. Members will be kept informed about developments in this regard.
We are ready to issue a proclamation regarding the dissolution of the Eastern Cape Youth Commission in line with the Promotion of Youth Affairs Repeal Act. The National Youth Development Agency has indicated its intention to integrate the work of the erstwhile Youth Commission into its portfolio.
We are engaging with the Agency to ensure a seamless transition. In line with its mandate, the Office of the Premier will continue to monitor the implementation of youth development programmes in the province, in collaboration with the agency.
We have set aside R 9,800 million for the premier’s priority programmes, in order to fund and coordinate specific short term projects linked to the broad objectives of the Office of the Premier. Specific priorities of the Premier and Provincial Executive Council are nation building, moral regeneration etc.
One specific example is the assistance we are providing to help set up a provincial inter-faith leader’s council, which stems from the President’s call for the formation and formalisation of a national and provincial inter-faith movement that would be representative of all faith based organisations in South Africa. We want to use this new provincial council to assist us with implementing our priorities and to improve service delivery.
Honourable Speaker, as I conclude, let me once more urge members to contribute and support the fundraising effort for the people of Haiti who were the victims of an unfortunate natural disaster. Contributions can be deposited into the ECPG Haiti Campaign at ABSA Bank using Account Number 407 572 3043.
I also wish to reiterate that as we are about to host the World Cup for the first time on the African continent, we must warmly welcome international guests, and we must support Bafana Bafana by wearing football jerseys every Friday.
Thank you.
Enkosi
Source: Office of the Premier, Eastern Cape Provincial Government
