Address by Honourable Premier R.M. Mtshweni-Tsipane on the Occasion of the Office of the Premier Budget Vote Address Venue: Chamber, Mpumalanga Provincial Legislature
Honourable Speaker and Deputy Speaker;
Honourable Members of the Executive Council;
Honourable Members of the Legislature;
Indlu yobukhosi iholwa inkosi Ngomane, Ndabezitha;
Senior government officials led by Acting DG Mr K.M. Mohlasedi;
Our invited guests from various areas of the province
Ladies and Gentlemen;
Good Morning, Lotshani, Dumelang, Avuxeni, Sanibonani
The Context
Madam Speaker and Honourable Members, as a point of departure, I’d like to extend the Provincial Government’s sincerest condolences to the families of the mineworkers of the who lost their lives in the horrific head on collision between a truck and a minibus taxi on the N11 road between Hendrina and Middelburg this past Friday.
I have requested the MEC for Public Works, Roads and Transport as well as the MEC for Community Safety, Security and Liaison to work with the management of Woestalleen Colliery to expedite the issue of DNA sampling in order to successfully identify the victims and render the necessary support to their families.
I ask that this august house observes a moment of silence in memory of the victims……..may their souls rest in eternal peace.
Madam Speaker, we have laid a solid foundation upon which, we shall build this government as we prepare for the execution of the mandate of the Office of The Premier for the Medium Term Strategic Framework period 2019-2024.
We shall perform our function in line with the dictates of the Constitutional, Legal and Policy Mandates that underpin the function of the Office of the Premier.
Ngesikhathi ngethula inkulumo yami yomhlahlandlela i-State of the Province Address ngomhlaka 5 kuyo lenyanga ephezulu ngakubeka kwacaca ukuthi kuzodingeka sikhuphule amasokisi, sifinqe nemikhona sisebenze mawala kuleminyaka emihlanu ezayo. Abantu bakithi sebekhathele ukuzwa izethembiso ezingafezeki. All our hands must be on deck.
Madam Speaker, we have reached the proverbial cross-road as a nation. This is evident in our propensity to advocate for short term solutions at the expense of the future sustainability. We must be able to strike a fine balance between short term deliverables and ensuring that our Province is on par with sustainable development targets for the benefit of future generations.
In the spirit of a participatory democracy, we must convene a provincial dialogue that will assist us address the immediate needs of our people without compromising their future.
We will spend the next five years working very closely with business, labour and civil society to produce the kind of Mpumalanga that our people are yearning for. We must align our goals with the expectations and the desires of our people. My Office, through my Advisors, working with business and labour will facilitate a quarterly multi-sectorial business forum where issues of critical interest can find expression and all interested parties participate without fear or favour.
Since mining is a sector with complex and diverse dichotomies and needs special attention, we will reignite the Premier’s Mining Forum with special emphasis on issues of common interest. We will be working with the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy, Municipalities and Communities where these mines are operating.
As indicated in my response to the SOPA debate last Friday, our participation in the mining forum can only be enhanced by being signatories to the social labour plans.Without being a signatory, our input is of no consequence and is easily ignored.
In order to address our long term planning needs, and the changes brought about by artificial intelligence and the imminent advent of the 4th industrial revolution,
we will soon be calling for expressions of interest from capable men and women of this Province and beyond who can assist us by participating and being members of the Mpumalanga Planning Commission.
To avoid unnecessary duplication and overlap of mandates we shall combine the planning commission with the 4th Industrial Revolution Commission which I announced during the State of the Province Address. This commission must be in place within the next 100 days of our office and report to my office.
Madam Speaker, Mpumalanga is a water scarce Province, prone to natural disasters like drought. We are gravely concerned by persisting reports of environmental degradation of our natural resources like soil, air, rivers and under-ground water in light of the radical changes predicted for our climate. This poses massive risk for present and future generations.
We will hasten the establishment of the Environmental Management Committee that will monitor and report on non-compliance by mining companies and Eskom to municipal by laws, national laws and regulations related to the quality of our air, water and the preservation of the environment in general.
This committee will work with existing national structures and the provincial department responsible for environment but will report to my office.
The Mandate
Madam Speaker, the core mandate of the Office of the Premier is to coordinate and monitor the work of the Provincial Government in order to make sure that all the Provincial Departments perform efficiently and optimally.
The processes, systems and operations of the Office of the Premier are informed by the National Development Plan (NDP), the National and the Provincial Medium Term Strategic Framework and the Mpumalanga Vision 2030 Strategic Implementation Framework.
The conditions required to ensure the attainment of the objectives of the Office of the Premier include;
i. good governance underpinned by a capable and developmental state, effective integrated planning supported by fit for purpose intergovernmental structures
ii. Participatory democracy strengthened by transparency and inclusivity
iii. Strong partnerships with the private sector, organized labour, civil society; and
iv. Strategic international relations.
Going forward, in the 2019/20 Financial Year, as the Provincial Administration through the state machinery in my Office, we will continue to strengthen our monitoring and evaluation capacity through among others the following initiatives;
Strengthening the Monitoring and Evaluation of Government Work
During the 2018/19 financial year, my Office continued to monitor various service delivery institutions to determine whether our citizens were accessing services as desired. We monitored access to basic services such as water, electricity, sanitation, vehicle testing and licensing in some Municipalities.
We also monitored the eradication of pit latrines in some schools, the roll out of the National Health Insurance and National Health Core Standards in selected hospitals and health care centres, as well as progress on site of the hospitals under construction such as Mapulaneng, Middleburg and Bethal hospitals.
To this effect, we have observed the successes and challenges in the roll out of services to our citizens. There are officials in some centres who do not adhere to office hours, who report for duty later than the stipulated times, who knock off during lunch hours or well before knock off time. These findings have been shared with Executive Management and Accounting Officers of Departments so that they could implement plans and remedy the situation.
Madam Speaker, the Planning, Research, Information Management, Monitoring and Evaluation Framework (PRIME) was developed and presented through the whole value chain of Executive Council decision-making system. However, we have elected to allow synchronization with the Regional Service Delivery Model before implementation in an effort to optimise efficiency in the delivery of services.
Honourable Speaker and Members, the practice of conducting evaluations of policies, programmes or projects implemented by government departments and public entities remains critical.
To this effect, the Provincial Evaluation Plan has been developed and discussed by the Executive Council
Committees and the Provincial Management Committee for approval. Going forward, the Provincial Cabinet shall approve and facilitate the implementation of this plan during the current financial year.
In the interim period we will continue to use the existing tools like the Management Performance Assessment Tool (MPAT) which provides an indication of management practice and compliance when assessing adherence to regulations and requirements.
Madam Speaker, the draft 2019-24 MTSF was presented at the Executive Council Lekgotla in July 2019 as a road-map that will inform the work of the Province during the sixth administration. The final 2019-24 MTSF shall be concluded by the end of September 2019.There will be consultation sessions with all key stakeholders to ensure that the plan is correctly poised to respond to the challenges on the ground and to ensure alignment with National Policy directives.
The draft plan calls for collaboration with private sector, civil society and labour towards achievement of the seven priorities as identified in the State of the Province Address. As government, we acknowledge the need to collaborate in unison with our social Partners to reach our target of growing the Mpumalanga Province.
Going forward, we will review progress on the implementation of this plan annually through our Executive Council Cluster approach and Makgotla sessions.
Partnerships
Madam Speaker, there can be no doubting that government alone shall never be in a position to meet the demands of our people in the face of massive unemployment and huge backlog of service delivery.
In light of this fact, will be meeting with individual companies together with local and district municipalities, present our five year plans as well as our annual plans. Municipalities will also present their IDPs.
These presentations will give the companies a picture of what is planned for, what resources are available and what resources are needed in order for us to address the triple challenges of unemployment, poverty and inequality. This initiative will negate the status quo where, through their Social Labour Plans, companies provide services that are not a priority to our communities or have very little impact in their lives.
Our focus will be on projects that have direct impact on communities where these business operate. South 32, a mining company in our province has agreed to be among the first to engage us on this new approach. Siriti mines, Anglo, Glencore, Exxaro and other manufacturing companies have also shown interest. We have already signed the Memorandum Of Understanding (MOU) with Sasol and we are implementing it.
As government both at provincial and national level we have identified Govan Mbeki Local Municipality as one of the distressed Municipalities within our Province due to its inability to pay its major creditors, poor cash flow systems, weak internal controls and political instability. These factors have culminated with the Municipality obtaining a disclaimer audit opinion for the 2017/2018 FY.
The leadership of the Department of Cooperative Governance (DCOG) at national level, Sasol and ourselves have agreed to collaborate and support the Govan Mbeki Local Municipality.
Resources will be availed to the Municipality by DCOG, MISA, the Mpumalanga Provincial Government and SASOL to support the Municipal administrative and technical machinery in the execution of their obligations with special focus on priority intervention areas identified.
A project business plan has been drawn up and will focus on the following areas;
i. Financial Management;
ii. Service Delivery (Soft services and Asset Management); and
iii. Governance and Administration.
The pertinent challenges facing the Municipality can be summarized as follows;
i. cash flow problems,
ii. inability to pay creditors,
iii. escalating Eskom debt which is over R1billion ,
iv. increasing debt book,
v. sewer spillages in areas such as Embalenhle and Emzinoni,
vi. delay in filling critical positions, and
vii. Capacity deficit in the finance, technical and legal units.
The Project Business Plan responds to the abovementioned challenges as packaged in the Integrated Municipal Support Plan developed by Provincial COGTA and the Financial Recovery Plan developed by Provincial Treasury.
The following towns are included in the scope for this project:
i. Bethal and Emzinoni;
ii. Leandra and Lebohang;
iii. Eendracht;
iv. Trichardt;
v. Kinross;
vi. Secunda;
vii. Embalenhle; and
viii. Charl Cilliers.
Madam Speaker, similar arrangements will be made with other private sector companies for identified distressed Municipalities such as Thaba Chweu and others.
Strengthening the role of the Mpumalanga Provincial AIDS Council
Honorable Speaker and Members, in order to realize our NDP Vision of creating an AIDS Free generation by 2030, we are committed to working very hard to fight the spread of HIV, STIs and TB in the Province. Our focus and energy will be directed towards preventing new infections among Adolescent Girls & Boys and Young people within the 15 – 24 years age group.
Our Prevention programmes will focus on all key and vulnerable populations at ward level as informed by the Focus for Impact findings. The AIDS Councils at all levels remain the vehicle to deliver coordinated multi-sectorial response services for HIV, TB and STIs in the Province.
In our quest to increase the number of people on Antiretroviral Treatment, we will be launching the Provincial Sheka Impilo Wellness Campaign. The Campaign will assist us to identify those who are living with HIV as well as those living with chronic non communicable diseases like hypertension and diabetes and are not yet on treatment.
Through the South African National Aids Council (SANAC) support, all AIDS Council secretariats will be capacitated on their roles and responsibilities for effective coordination of multi-sectorial response monitoring.
A Needs assessment of all officials within the AIDS Council Secretariat will be conducted and capacity building shall be conducted based on the identified needs. Formation and capacity building of Civil Society Sectors remains essential for the implementation of a multi-sectorial response.
Strengthening International Partnerships
Madam Speaker, during the 2018/19 financial year, my Office became a signatory to MOUs with Mozambique, China and Russia. This is as part of our strategic aim to facilitate international engagement to forge technical and economic cooperation.
In relation to the MOU with Mozambique, the following progress has been registered;
i. We have established a Joint Technical Committee comprised of Mpumalanga and Maputo;
ii. We have developed an programme of action and action plan have been developed for the implementation of the MoU; and
iii. We have established two working streams namely
o The Economy and Infrastructure Working Group – with a focus on Industry, Commerce and Investment, Agriculture, Agro-processing, Tourism and Environment;
o The Social Working Group – with a focus on Health, Education, Sports & Youth, Safety and Security.
50. During the current financial year, we will initiate the process in preparation for the finalization of Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with two identified countries which are Kenya and Cameroon.
Commissioning of research studies on Kenya and Cameroon to identify areas of cooperation for possible partnership with identified provinces is underway.
The envisaged partnerships with Kenya and Cameroon will serve as a gateway to the rest of the economic regions and trading blocs in the rapidly growing regions such as the East African Economies (EAC) in East Africa and the Central African Economic and Monetary Community (CEMAC) in Central Africa.
Madam Speaker, we have taken a decision to engage with the Kingdom of eSwatini and I will in the very near future be visiting that country with an intention of strengthening our cultural and economic ties. Both the Kingdom of eSwatini and Mozambique are the largest contributors to the number of foreign tourists that come to this province.
Improved Service Delivery
In the current year my Office will continue to monitor Phase 1 of the Broadband Rollout Project in the Gert Sibande District Municipality.
The Office of the Premier is currently in the process of finalising the following requests from the National Treasury based on the Broadband Feasibility study that has been completed:
Realigning the Provincial Broadband project with the Department of Telecommunications and Postal Services (DTPS) project in the Gert Sibande District Municipality;
i. Drafting the proposed Broadband Governance structure; and
ii. Obtaining further clarification on the proposed funding model from National Treasury.
Once the above is finalised, we will embark on Phase 2 of the project, which is to draft the RFQ/RFP Terms of Reference for Broadband Implementation.
The Satise Silalele Application was launched in August 2018 in Amsterdam, Mkhondo Local Municipality. Since the launch, there has been an increase in the use of the Application by citizens of Mpumalanga. To date, there are about four thousand cases that have been reported.
We have observed that the monitoring of the Application is a challenge, judging by the number of unresolved cases.
This has prompted me to strengthen monitoring mechanisms by setting up institutional arrangements with departments and municipalities.
I am glad to report that the process of integrating the various existing service delivery platforms is already in motion and this is inclusive of the Satise Silalele App. A proposed model has already been presented to the Technical Cluster and is currently being refined before submission to PMC and Cabinet. We have taken cognizance of the fact that without the support of the local sphere of government, the seamless coordination of service delivery issues will not be realized.
During the current financial year more focus will be on Strengthening Community Engagement and Feedback platforms such as Satise Silalele APP, Community Based Monitoring, Frontline Service Delivery Monitoring, Presidential Hotline, and the Presidential Siyahlola programme. We will continue to monitor service delivery complaints and ensure that Departments timeously resolve the complaints.
Improving Integrated Government Communications
Honourable Speaker and Members section 195 (1) (g) the constitution mandates us to, “provide the public with timely, accessible and accurate information”. To this effect, we shall continue to consult our people and update them on the strides we are making, in our quest to improve their lives.
We will strengthen and monitor a two-way communication system between government and the people that strives to empower the citizens to air their views and influence the direction and posture of the government they have elected.
We condemn in strongest terms the use of violence as a tool for airing displeasure. We continue to encourage our people to use existing platforms and structures to air their complaints and or views on issues they are not happy with. We shall not re-build structures that were destroyed by communities as part of their protests.
We respect the right of all individuals to protest peacefully as enshrined in the constitution but abhor the use of violence to damage government owned properties.
Fostering Integrity in the Administration and Improving Outcomes
Honorable Speaker and Members, in 2018/19 the fight against fraud and corruption was strengthened through anti-fraud and corruption awareness workshops, vetting of employees, compliance with Minimum Information Security Standard (MISS) to reinforce the culture of ethical behaviour and the retention of the right calibre of individuals in the Office.
We will continue to do so in the year ahead by involving the public in the fight against this corrosive scourge. In collaboration with the Department of Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation (DPME), the Province will host a consultative workshop on the National Anti-Corruption Strategy. This process will ensure the finalisation of the reviewed Provincial Anti-Corruption Strategy.
With the help of State Security Agency (SSA) we are continuing to conduct vetting as a means to ensure credible public servants in the employ of Government.
We will fearlessly continue to investigate reported fraud and corruption cases and those who loot public resources will face the full might of the law. A decision to track implementation of recommendations made in forensic investigation reports has been taken.
This decision is based on the realization that recommendations that emanate from some finalised investigations were not implemented in certain Departments and Municipalities. This has inevitably compromised consequence management.
In 2018/19, through the shared audit services function, we were able to provide internal audit services to the five cluster Departments, namely; the Department of Human Settlements (DHS), The Department of Culture, Sport and Recreation (DCSR), the Department of Community Safety, Security and Liaison (DCSSL), Office of the Premier (OTP) and the Department of Co-Operative Governance and Traditional Affairs (COGTA).
The Office of the Premier will in 2019/20 continue to provide internal audit services to the above cluster departments, and monitor implementation of audit action plans, to ensure the realization of improved audit outcomes. In this regard, we will review the efficiency and effectiveness of internal controls in order to assist in the strengthening of the control environment.
In 2018/19 through its Compliance and Strategic Projects Unit, my Office strengthened its internal controls through monitoring of the implementation of the Compliance Matrix.
The Office in partnership with the Provincial Treasury, will continue to monitor the payment of invoices within the prescribed timelines as well as providing support to Departments who did not obtain unqualified audit outcome.
It is therefore an honour, Madam Speaker, to table the budget of the Office of the Premier, and I accordingly request the House to approve the amount of R 296 299 000.00 (Two Hundred and Ninety-Six Million, Two Hundred and Ninety-Nine Thousand Rands) for the 2018/19 financial year, allocated as follows:
i. Programme 1: Administration – R 129 513 000.00 (One Hundred and Twenty-Nine Million, Five Hundred and Thirteen Thousand Rands)
ii. Programme 2: Institutional Development R 90 820 000.00 (Ninety Million, Eight Hundred and Twenty Thousand Rands);
iii. Programme 3: Policy and Governance - R 75 966 000.00 (Seventy-Five Million, Nine Hundred and Sixty-Six Thousand
I thank you.
