Keynote address by Gauteng Premier David Makhura at the Salga Gauteng 10th Members Assembly, Glenburn Lodge, Mogale City
Programme Facilitator;
Councillor Calvin Seerane,
Executive Mayor of Mogale City;
The Chairperson of SALGA Gauteng,
Joburg Executive Mayor Cllr Parks Tau;
Provincial Executive Committee of the SALGA in Gauteng;
The national leadership of SALGA represented by Cllr Pinky Moloi SALGA National Executive Committee Members;
SALGA Gauteng PEC members and Leaders from other provinces;
Executive Mayors, MMCs, Chief Whips and Speakers;
Mr Kenneth Brown, Chief Procurement Officer; PEO of the IEC;
Provincial Electoral Officer for Gauteng IEC, Masego Shiburi
Esteemed Councillors and fellow public representatives;
Distinguished delegates:
I am pleased to address the 10th SALGA Gauteng Provincial Members’ Assembly.
This Provincial Members' Assembly is the ultimate voice of our local government in the Gauteng City Region.
We indeed look up to SALGA Gauteng to help with our on-going efforts to strengthen the capacity and the capabilities of our entire system of government in the GCR.
Let us at all times be reminded that local government remains at the cutting edge of service delivery, radical socio-economic transformation and sustainable development.
It is the first point of contact with government for our people and the sphere of government closest to our people. Consequently, the most unpleasant experiences and anger directed against government failures, whatever their origin, is directed at local government and local public representatives.
In many respects, councillors and municipalities singularly bear the brunt of all problems caused by all three spheres of government.
I must therefore convey our gratitude to you as the representatives of all councillors and municipalities in the GCR, for enduring the pressures, criticism and attacks due to the failures of government as a whole, on our behalf.
My administration is totally committed to spare no effort in ensuring that the local sphere of government works and works effectively, and that it strengthens our work to build a capable developmental state.
This is particularly important as we approach the end of the current term of local government and as we prepare for the new term of local government in 2016.
This 10th Members Assembly takes place a day after we concluded our extended Gauteng Executive Council Lekgotla.
We convened this Lekgotla to assess progress in the implementation of our programme for radical Transformation, Modernization and Re-industrialization across the Gauteng City Region.
The Extended Lekgotla was attended by the Members of the Executive Council and Mayors of our Metropolitan and District Municipalities. It is important to mention that we have taken a decision that going forward we will invite SALGA in all our Lekgotla.
We have emerged with a commitment to build a well-functioning system of intergovernmental relations within the framework of institutionalising the GCR governance model.
Ladies and gentlemen, we have decided to align and harmonize all our long term plans and programmes to ensure that they speak to national priorities. The Lekgotla also helps us monitor and evaluate the progress we are making in implementing the TMR. They also help us identify and unlock bottlenecks in the delivery of our programmes.
In our last Lekgotla, that ended yesterday, we received a report on the Sustainable Development Goals recently adopted by the 70th UN General Assembly. It was noted that the SDG’s are already incorporated into the National Development Plan, Vision 2030.
The Lekgotla agreed on the need to urgently set up a GCR steering committee, Chaired by Councillor Mpho Nawa, to oversee the process of aligning the SDG’s, NDP, TMR and all municipal long term plans and annual plans.
The Lekgotla also pronounced on the need for all of us within the GCR to readjust our planning horizon towards the year 2030. In particular we must agree on the targets we must work towards by 2030. We must develop a sense of what kind of Gauteng we want to see by 2030.
The Lekgotla noted the work done thus far to engage various sectors of society and more importantly local government leadership on the need to strengthen coordination and partnerships towards the implementation of the TMR.
This is particularly significant because in 2004 we took a decision that Gauteng will best develop when managed as an integrated cluster of cities and urban economic nodes with comparative advantages in key sectors of the economy, forming part of the wider Gauteng City Region. We noted at the time that these cities and economic nodes are increasingly becoming a single but diversified economy of the Gauteng City Region.
Accordingly, we developed a vision to build Gauteng into:
- A seamlessly integrated, socially cohesive and economically inclusive City Region;
- A globally competitive and leading economy on the continent which is underpinned by smart, innovation-driven, knowledge-based, green and blue industries;
- An accountable, responsive, transparent and clean government;
- A healthy, productive and skilled population as well as an active citizenry;
- A metropolitan system of local government which develops organically driven by the increasing and seamless integration of corridors, cities and towns.
Comrades, we emerged from our Lekgotla with a very real sense that our vision of the Gauteng City Region is taking shape. We are succeeding in fostering a common vision across the GCR and are continuing to make important strides in fostering joint planning and integration of our work.
For instance we are succeeding in reconfiguring the Gauteng City Region’s space and economy along five development corridors that have distinct industries and different comparative advantages. We are doing this in order to facilitate balanced and even development across the GCR, particularly in the economically depressed areas of the West Rand and Sedibeng.
Our development corridors are as follows:
- The City of Joburg is the Central Development Corridor of the GCR. It is the hub of finance, services, ICT and pharmaceutical industries, with significant presence of the blue economy;
- Ekurhuleni Metro is the Eastern Development Corridor of the GCR. It is the manufacturing, logistics and transport hub and the anchor of the Aerotropolis of the GCR;
- City of Tshwane is the Northern Development Corridor of the GCR. It is our nation’s administrative capital, the hub of the automotive sector, research, development, innovation and the knowledge-based economy;
- West Rand District is the Western Development Corridor which was primarily a mining economy which has experienced significant decline. We are building a new, diverse economy in this corridor. It will be anchored around tourism, agriculture and agro- processing; the Lanseria Airport City development and renewable energy industries;
- Sedibeng District is the Southern Development Corridor of the GCR whose economy centered around the steel industry, which has experienced serious decline. A new economy is emerging in this Corridor. It will be anchored on the Vaal River City’s tourism potential, logistics, agro-processing and urban agriculture;
We are indeed pleased that we are making progress in giving effect to our vision of building Gauteng as a City Region. In our Lekgotla we noted that our GCR vision is beginning to converge on 8 critical areas. We agreed to work together on these areas with a view to strengthening them.
There are nine areas of Programme of Action that the GCR is taking concrete shape over the next fifteen years:
- Shaping a common spatial vision, anchored on five developmental corridors, towards a new system that is underpinned by spatial justice, sustainability, efficiency and integration as well as a differentiated diversified and inclusive economy.
- Investing in catalytic infrastructure to facilitate spatial transformation across the GCR specifically in public transport, energy, water and sanitation, broadband technology and green spaces.
- Building new economic nodes to promote balanced development in line with the comparative advantage of the development corridors.
- Revitalising and mainstreaming of the township economy and development of SMMEs and cooperatives through active industrial incentives and transformative procurement policy that promote the growth of township-based manufacturing and services.
- Accelerating social transformation by improving the quality of education, healthcare, community safety and food security in a manner that promotes economic inclusion, social cohesion and nation-building.
- Intervening through different programmes to address the explosive situation of youth unemployment and marginalisation.
- Building a capable, responsive, accountable, clean and activist state machinery through interventions such as Ntirhisano programme and Service Delivery War Room, Administration Roadmap, Integrity Management Units and the Open Tender system.
- Developing a coherent and coordinated approach to international trade, investment and cooperation in line with the comparative advantages and unique strengths of each development corridor.
- Common action to mitigate climate change, reduce the carbon footprint and build a low-carbon economy and society.
The Lekgotla also assessed and appreciated the ongoing Ntirhisano Service Delivery programme with a view of improving service delivery and implementation of projects.
The Ntirhisano Community Outreach programme has seen the Premier, MECs, Mayors and MMCs and Councillors crisscrossing the length and breadth of our province to identify and resolve community programmes. Many of you have been part of our robust engagements with communities and others will join when we visit your municipalities.
Drawing lessons from Ntirhisano we came to an agreement that there is a need to improve on the discipline of execution of our plans. Ntirhisano has also sharply brought to the fore the need to overhaul our monitoring and evaluation system and generally to introduce a new ethos on how we run government. Indeed we must govern with more urgency as our people are beginning to run out of patience. They are no longer satisfied only with our great plans and big ideas. They want execution and delivery.
Unless we start to implement our plans in order to bridge the yawning gap between the future and the present, people will lose hope.
Amilcar Cabral reminds us of a very profound understanding of the masses:
“Always bear in mind that the people are not fighting for ideas, nor for the things in anyone’s head. They are fighting to win material benefits, to live better and in peace, to see their lives go forward, to guarantee the better future for their children. National liberation, the struggle against colonialism, the construction of peace,
progress and independence are hollow words devoid of any significance unless they can be translated into a real improvement of living conditions.”
Ntirhisano has given all of us - MECs, Mayors, MMCs, Councillors and officials better insights into what is going on in our communities and what communities think about our new plans and work.
It is in community engagements wherein communities raise the failures of government, wherein senior citizens complained that they will die waiting for their houses, having been on the waiting lists since 1996.
Young people who are involved in many local social and economic initiatives, whilst they appreciate our interventions they continue to say much more work needs to be done to enable them to reach their goals.
In these community engagements we meet township businesspeople whose hopes have been raised by the clarion call for the township economy revitalization. We also hear the voices of women who are victims of gender-based violence.
Ntirhisano calls upon us to change the way we do things and to more directly focus our work and interventions on issues that really matter to our people.
We must be visible and I want urge you to be part of Ntirhisano because at the heart of it is to strengthen and create a working partnership with communities. Let me assure that going forward we will be intensifying Ntirhisano.
The Lekgotla noted the high and increasing levels of inequality within the Gauteng City Region as indicated by our Gini-coefficient.
Accordingly, we have decided to set up a task team chaired by Mayor Parks Tau, to develop a coherent Programme and allocation of resources to tackle inequality in the entire GCR.
Our Lekgotla we once again got confirmation from the McKinsey Global Institute, when they presented to be: SOUTH AFRICA’S BIG FIVE: BOLD PRIORITIES FOR INCLUSIVE
GROWTH, which are;
- Advanced manufacturing.
- Infrastructure productivity.
- Natural gas.
- Service exports.
- Raw and processed agricultural exports.
They report confirms that, despite the difficult economic times we are currently facing, the problems we are facing are not insurmountable.
We have decided to make economic interventions in each of the five development corridors based on the comparative advantage of each corridor.
The next Exco Lekgotla will focus on the question of the economy. We are unpacking the McKinsey Global Institute to unlock the potential and opportunities of each sector of the provincial economy in accordance with TMR.
The Exco Lekgotla also paid attention to the state of infrastructure development in the GCR. We reviewed spending on various aspects of infrastructure - public transport, energy, water, sanitation, broadband, human settlements.
The Lekgotla pronounced that more work still needs to be done to determine specific opportunities within municipalities and in the GCR as a whole. This work will form part of the overall work we are doing to develop a comprehensive and integrated economic blue- print for the Gauteng City Region.
We also pronounced on the need to improve the GCR wide capacity to spend and deliver on our infrastructure programmes. A need was identified to share expertise within the GCR to unlock infrastructure delivery challenges where they exist.
The Lekgotla reaffirmed the need to develop a Spatial Development Perspective that speaks to the imperatives of the TMR and supports our agenda to break the back of Apartheid spatial planning and fosters economic and social inclusion.
We pronounced strongly on the need not only to focus on developing the core of the GCR, but also to make targeted and deliberate interventions to develop the periphery, where the majority of our people are found.
A provincial Spatial Development Summit will be convened in November to finalize a common GCR Spatial Vision.
The Lekgotla agreed on a common to the rollout of broadband infrastructure in the GCR so that we reach the goal of 100% connectivity by 2020.
In order to further strengthen our ICT interventions and in order to mobilize the private sector into partnering with us on our ICT interventions, on the 2nd and 3rd of November, we will convene the Gauteng ICT Summit.
Reports on the progress in the implementation of our Blue economy initiatives, the Ekurhuleni Aerotropolis and the Gauteng Energy Security Strategy, were also tabled before the Lekgotla.
Lastly, the Lekgotla also adopted a common approach to international cooperation, trade and investment in the GCR. It is important that wherever we go and on whatever international platform we find ourselves, we must speak with one voice on matters pertaining to the GCR.
I would to also share with you the work with you the work we doing with regard to building a clean, responsive, activist and accountable government.
Ntirhisano has already earned a positive appraisal from independent observers of governance that it is making a huge impact in changing perceptions of people towards government.
We have also introduced another innovation with regard to preventing fraud and corruption. Integrity units and open tender system are already making waves in our provincial government. Corruption has to be tackled head-on. It undermines government and erodes public confidence.
Gauteng is a very difficult province for any leader, from government, business and civil society. It is the most densely populated, most urbanized and rapidly urbanising space, most cosmopolitan and culturally diverse province, with the most entrepreneurial and pioneering spirit. People in Gauteng want dynamic leadership. If you are laid back and have no sense of urgency, you won't succeed. You need energy, urgency and intellect in good supply.
Ladies and gentlemen, we had a useful engagement at our Lekgotla. We are now clear on our priorities going forward as the Gauteng City Region. Our focus must now shift to implementation and execution.
I would like to wish the Provincial Members' Assembly success and hope you will deliberate on how we work together to turn the TMR into a reality. Our people will be kind if we fail to turn our plans into reality. As Cabral says, people cannot eat plans and ideas, they want to win material benefits and a better future for their children.
God Bless Africa. God Bless the Assembly. God Bless Africa.
Thank you.
