Ministers,
The media,
We have just concluded a meeting of the Presidential Infrastructure Coordinating Commission council (PICC).
The Council, which is chaired by the President, brings together Ministers, Premiers and Executive Mayors in one structure to coordinate infrastructure development in the country.
We met against the background of exciting news in the country.
We would like to congratulate Wits University on the major new fossil discoveries at Maropeng in the Cradle of Humankind World Heritage Site in the West Rand, Gauteng which was unveiled today.
Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa represented us at this historic event.
We congratulate the team of international and local scientists involved in this project, led by professors Lee Berger, Paul Dirks and John Hawks.
This new remarkable discovery follows intensive research by the scientists under the auspices of the Department of Science and Technology and the National Research Foundation Centre of Excellence at the University of Witwatersrand. They continue to put our country on the global map through such remarkable and outstanding work. We are very excited and very proud that this happened on South African soil. Our country is truly the cradle of human kind!
Another historic event will take place in our country this weekend.
The Roman Catholic Church will beatify former Limpopo school principal, Mr Tshimangadzo Samuel Benedict Daswa, who shall be the first ever South African to be referred to as a ‘blessed martyr’. He shall now be known as Blessed Benedict Daswa.
The Beatification ceremony will take place on Sunday, 13 September 2015 in Thohoyandou, Limpopo.
Daswa was beaten, stoned and burnt to death for his beliefs on the 2nd February 1990, the very date on which the apartheid regime announced the release of President Nelson Mandela and the unbanning of political organisations. We congratulate the Catholic Church for this historic international ceremony which is taking place in Southern Africa for the first time ever.
Ladies and gentlemen,
Returning to the matters at hand, in 2011 when we established the PICC, the economy was recovering from the contraction caused by the 2008 global financial crisis that had rapidly spread across the world.
Our National Infrastructure Plan was a means of boosting jobs and expanding the foundations for long-term growth.
Since that decision, we have made steady strides with infrastructure investment and public employment programmes.
Today, the economy is facing renewed headwinds, caused by a decline in the prices of mineral products that we export.
It is also caused by a glut of steel in global markets and weakening demand in Asia, compounded by still weak-growth in Europe.
It is for this reason at this meeting as the three spheres of government we undertook a serious discussion of our infrastructure programme to see where we should remove bottlenecks and speed up delivery.
The PICC Council took note of the Nine Point plan that was announced in the February State of the Nation Address.
In the recent Cabinet Lekgotla, we identified a number of actions to strengthen this foundation.
We identified a 120 day period to fast-track our work and enable blockages to be overcome.
These focus on jobs, education, energy, transport logistics, water and sanitation, housing, broadband, health infrastructure, industrialisation and state capacity.
We received the first of three reports on implementation.
One example of this is the progress with increasing our power supply.
Two weeks ago we launched Unit 6 of Medupi power station. In addition, the Kouga wind-farm in the Eastern Cape also has now been completed and was officially opened last week.
The R2 billion Kouga project will provide renewable energy that can power as many as 50 000 houses, adding to the large new energy capacity that solar and wind energy has brought to the grid.
We also launched the War on Leaks maintenance programme in Nelson Mandela Bay, which will employ 15 000 young people over the next three years to fix leaking pipes and taps, which cost the country R7 billion a year.
While we can celebrate some of the successes with infrastructure, I requested the PICC Council to concentrate on what we still need to do.
Some of the areas of work that we need to focus on are the following: The need to ensure the completion of the remaining Medupi power station units and the other two power stations Kusile and Ingula, on deadline. This is important because energy remains a major obstacle to economic growth.
We must find solutions to shortage of student accommodation given the frustration of many of our young people nationwide.
We should speed up the refurbishment of hospitals and schools.
We must revitalise the programme of installing solar water geysers. The departments were directed to obtain the funding necessary to move the country towards the target of 1,4 million geysers in the next four years.
These are just a few of the projects which will help us improve social and economic infrastructure while also providing jobs, skills training and opportunities for small businesses.
Cabinet has also approved a Bill that has now been submitted to Parliament. It will introduce changes to two laws: the Criminal Procedures Act and the Criminal Law Amendment Act.
The Bill seeks to amongst other provisions regulate bail in respect of essential infrastructure related offences and introduce minimum sentences.
This will help us to act against the theft of copper cables and metal from the country's infrastructure programme which seriously affects the supply of electricity which results in disruptions to train schedules and the supply of water among others.
This means that disrupting infrastructure will no longer be regarded as a minor crime or simply as theft or vandalism. It is a serious economic offence.
Importantly, the Council meeting today introduced a new tone of focus, urgency and dedicated implementation.
We agreed that we need to improve the pace in order to meet the targets we have set ourselves. If we do that, the infrastructure programme will yield the desired results.
I began by saying that today is a historic day for the country because of the major discoveries at Maropeng.
Tomorrow is a also a historic day in the history of our liberation struggle and relations between South Africa and Mozambique.
I travel to Maputo this afternoon and will tomorrow join His Excellency President Filipe Nyusi to unveil the Matola Raid Monument and Interpretative Centre, in memory of the South African freedom fighters and one Mozambican national who were brutally massacred by apartheid forces in that country in 1981.
We will be accompanied by their family members.
In their memory, we celebrate the fact that the country they fought for and for whose freedom they died, is progressing steadily to build the society they envisaged.
Difficulties arise from time to time such as the impact of the current global economic downturn and the length of time it is taking to reverse the legacy of apartheid.
However, working together as South Africans, we continue the journey to achieve our mission of building a truly united, non-sexist, non-racial and prosperous South Africa.
I thank you.
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