16 February 2007
Mr Speaker, in the 8 January 2007 statement of the African National Congress
(ANC), President Thabo Mbeki said, and I quote:
"In concert with the task of growing the economy and creating new
opportunities for work, we have been hard at work to push back the frontiers of
poverty, recognising that no people can be truly free until they have cast
aside the shackles of poverty and underdevelopment."
The President, recognising that crime is a consequence of this poverty and
underdevelopment, further says, and I quote:
"Our response to crime must be based on a clear understanding of the causes
of crime and the various forms that it takes across society."
As if to prove the point, more thoughtful media reflections on crime over
the last few weeks have shown us the link between conditions of poverty and the
various manifestations and impacts crime has in the Western Cape. Ironically
such more thoughtful reflections have emerged only after ordinary victims of
crime, most of them black and poor, were heard in the media.
I take the perspective of Nandipha Sasa. We may not agree with all of her
perspectives, but she makes a very important point. She is a victim of crime in
one of the poorest areas of our province, eNkanini in Khayelitsha, and
expresses herself as follows, and I quote:
"I know a lot of people who do crime. They sell alcohol and cigarettes, they
buy stolen cellphones, they are prostitutes, they have kids so that they can
get the child support grant. They send their children in the mornings and in
the evenings to the taxi ranks and the train stations to mug and steal. I'm not
sure whether those things are wrong because how else will we eat?"
Speaking about life in Hanover Park after burying her 17-year-old son who
was killed in gang warfare, Ms Sharon Valentine said, and I quote:
"Dit is swaar om 'n jongetjie hier groot te maak. Hulle word van die skool
banke af opgesweep om deel van 'n bende te word."
For Nandipha and Sharon, the debate about whether crime or poverty is the
priority is academic. The pathology of crime is rooted in the poverty and
living conditions of eNkanini, Hanover Park and many other places in the
Western Cape. Taking our mandate from them, we echo in this State of the
Province Address the resolve to intensify the struggle against poverty, and to
fight its various symptoms.
In pursuing this mandate, we reiterate that we are on the correct strategic
path in realising our vision of making the Western Cape a home for all and in
ensuring shared growth through our Provincial Growth and Development Strategy
(PGDS) � iKapa eliHlumayo. This strategy remains the only reliable way to
overcome poverty, unemployment, inequality and social fragmentation. This time
last year we unfolded the critical elements in the battle for prosperity. They
remain correct and are being implemented in pursuit of the central Millennium
Development Goals (MDGs) for 2014:
* halving poverty
* eradicating hunger
* achieving universal primary education
* halving unemployment.
As I said, we remain on course for 2014.
This State of the Province Address, however, reflecting the halfway mark of
our term in office as the first ANC-led Government in the Western Cape,
realises that the people of the province need demonstrable proof that we are
indeed making progress. So, in anticipation of giving account of this for the
first half of our term, the Cabinet evaluated our impact on the ground. Let me
say immediately that much more needs to be done, but we have certainly laid
solid foundations in fighting poverty and creating work. The following are
concrete indicators which demonstrate emphatically that the fight against
poverty is indeed being fought on multiple fronts. I shall give a few
examples.
On free basic services:
* at the moment 90,7% of the people of the Western Cape have access to free
basic water
* 89% have their waste removed at least weekly
* our provincial target for the removal of the bucket system in formal
settlements is the lowest at 1 400, which we will reach by December 2007.
On social services:
* we have 97% coverage of pensions for those who qualify
* 141 000 people with disabilities receive the appropriate grant
* over the last two and a half years we have brought a staggering 446 000
children in the province into the child support grant system.
On welfare services:
* this Government cares for 10 342 senior citizens by subsidising old-age
homes and cares for 12 900 other senior citizens in service centres across the
Western Cape
* 3 858 people with disabilities are in protective workshops or homes for the
disabled.
On health services:
* In the middle of our term in office, our primary healthcare system is able
to cope with over 13 million contacts with patients a year
* 24 449 people living with HIV or AIDS are on antiretroviral treatment,
alongside the comprehensive approach
* we have the lowest infant mortality rate in the country, with 31 deaths per 1
000 babies
* in the public sector we are able to service poor patients with a ratio of 67
doctors for every 1 000 patients.
On school services:
* the Western Cape has already achieved the 2014 Millennium Development Goal
of universal access to primary school for learners
* 39% or 344 401 learners at 652 poor schools do not have to pay school
fees
* currently 65 000 children are in early childhood development centres
* there has been a reintroduction of school sports and an innovative dedicated
school for sport has been opened in Kuils River
* the proliferation of sports facilities at a number of schools and in a number
of communities has taken place.
On the fight against crime:
* over the first half of our term, two and a half years, the number of
police has been increased by 9 439 and they have been deployed to areas where
crime statistics are highest
* over this period there has been a cumulative decrease in the incidence of
contact crimes, including murder and rape, of 23%
* we have also acted on our promise of targeting the crime masterminds and high
flyers � the so-called untouchables � and arrested 594 senior gang members and
drug lords, plus kingpins who go by the names of Mr Big, Ougat, Sanie American,
Pot, Christopher Arendse and Kapdie
* the Arrive Alive Campaign has realised a drop in motor vehicle fatalities of
8,9% over the last three years.
On the economy:
* on our watch the economy has grown at not less than 5% per annum in Gross
Domestic Product (GDP). It is currently growing at 5,7%. The impact is that 99
900 net new jobs have been created since 2004
* the construction sector has shown an average growth of 8% per annum since
2004, resulting in full employment in the industry, and even a skills shortage
at the moment, and is poised to grow at an average of 12% per annum up to 2010
and beyond
* in 2006 the number of foreign tourists to the Western Cape was 1,6 million
and there were 3 million domestic tourists, with a collective contribution to
our GDP in the Western Cape of R16,8 billion, sustaining 200 000 formal
jobs
* through our procurement policy for the last 2 years, 70% of goods and
services providers have been historically disadvantaged, and of our total
procurement budget of R2,8 billion over the two years, R1,5 billion has accrued
directly to Black Economic Empowerment (BEE)
* in the ten years before this Government, this province transferred only 85
000 hectares of land to historically disadvantaged individuals. Over our term,
in the last year alone 126 793 hectares were transferred for land reform to 2
494 beneficiaries, of which 1 722 are farm workers.
While these and many other achievements are some of the most considerable
ever achieved against poverty in this province, this Government would
immediately submit that more can and most certainly will be done.
Decisive action will be needed to overcome the remaining intractable
challenges. It is no secret that our challenges are in overcoming the housing
backlogs in informal settlements and in backyards, in the unemployability of
our youth, in the economic inequality between the haves and the have nots, in
the fact that many in this province feel unsafe and insecure, and in the
inability of diverse communities to unite and find common ground across their
diversity of race, religion, culture, language and geography. In addition to
this there is also the looming spectre of global warming, which we cannot deny,
evidenced by the droughts, floods and fires that the Western Cape has been
susceptible to.
These are the challenges we will meet. But we must admit that these
challenges cannot be solved with the same approach we have used successfully so
far. We also realise that there is no virtue in endless policy and
strategy-making. The policies and strategies are essentially correct, and have
withstood all challenges and eclipsed all competition.
If we are to be successful in the next two and a half years, we will have to
make some critical transitions. These include the transitions from policy to
implementation, from strategy to programmes, from planning to delivery, from
compliance to innovation and from caution to leadership.
These transitions will be felt as we finalise IKapa eliHlumayo � our PGDS �
and implement it in the province, the Metropole, the five districts and every
municipality. Despite the differences in our politics, there is a sense that
the PGDS is the gravitational point of coherence for the whole of local
government and it is intelligently reflective of the national Government's
policy direction in the National Spatial Development Perspective.
Today, in this State of the Province Address, we are setting the agenda for
reaching the Millennium Development Goals in 2014, in order to ensure a
different Western Cape by 2010 when we host the Soccer World Cup, and to ensure
that in the upcoming financial year, 2007-08, we have used our resources to
intensify the struggle against poverty.
Today this Government presents to our citizens ten programmes of concrete,
on-the-ground delivery, designed to make a difference for people and phased
over what is to be achieved in 2007, by 2010 and towards the 2014 Millennium
Development Goals. This programme of action is based on our shared growth path,
unveiled in last year's State of the Province Address, and proceeds from the
point of departure that while prosperity is the best antidote to poverty, we
need simultaneously to build prosperity through the Accelerated and Shared
Growth Initiative for South Africa (AsgiSA) and protect our citizens from the
worst manifestations and symptoms of poverty.
I. Climate change
The status quo report on climate change in the Western Cape, commissioned by
this Government, reaches the following chilling conclusion, and I quote:
"The Western Cape faces the real possibility of socio-economic
impoverishment as a result of climate change over and above the negative impact
on poverty alleviation programmes.
If poverty is exacerbated by global warming, then our task in the Western
Cape is indeed becoming harder. Scientific evidence shows that the warming
impact of climate change on the Western Cape is double the global average. The
honourable Minister of Agriculture warns that because our fruit trees require
cold temperatures in winter, any further warming will potentially destroy this
part of our agricultural economy."
We have invited here today, to participate in the Opening of the
Legislature, representatives of those who are in the frontline of the battle
against the impact of global warming � those who battle the extremes of fires,
floods, drought and desertification, and risk their lives by diving into flood
waters, cleaning the high tension wires that carry our electricity or fighting
the fires on the ground or from helicopters. I welcome them all here today,
especially those who have come in from the Southern Cape. On behalf of all here
I thank them for the heroic work that they have done over the last year
especially.
We owe it to them and their families that all of us adapt our behaviours to
climate change through co-ordinated action and lifestyle changes, while bigger
decision-makers are persuaded not to continue on the path that has brought
climate change to us in the first place.
In remaining faithful to our undertaking to be practical, Government will
act in the following priority areas:
1. In a province that will experience even less rainfall, and therefore
greater water shortages, we will towards 2014 intensify our search for
alternative water sources such as aquifers, the recycling of wastewater and the
desalination of sea water. But, to be practical in the short term, because 10%
of our water is lost through leakages in pipes and taps, we will in 2007 launch
a pilot programme in the West Coast District, where young people will be doing
their National Youth Service in fixing leakages in the water system of our
province.
2. To ensure food security and the protection of our agriculture, we are
heartened that 50% of farmers have already shifted from the wasteful overhead
irrigation method to the drip system. By 2010 our Agriculture Department will
ensure that 70% of farmers have adopted water saving techniques towards a 100%
target by 2014.
3. With fires wreaking havoc and destroying both homes and vegetation, the
urgency to eradicate alien vegetation has grown, necessitating the use of the
law against private property owners who do not remove alien vegetation. For the
other areas we will retain the 900 � mostly women � workers whose job it will
be to remove alien vegetation and, towards 2010, the honourable Minister of
Environment, Planning and Economic Development will increase the number from
900, based on what her Budget allows.
4. The cost of flooding in the Eden District due to climate change was R600
million. Some of these costs are avoidable and the Spatial Development Planning
Frameworks must now enforce respect for estuaries, river catchments and
coastlines, as well as the new flood lines that are being mapped at the moment.
These will determine development and building permission, whether for luxury
developments or informal housing.
5. The Western Cape has also borne the brunt of power outages, as our
growing population and economy demand more electricity and our generation and
distribution capacity has been found wanting. We salute the Cape Town
Partnership and the Cape Chamber of Commerce for promoting retrofitting of the
Central Business District with energy-efficient technology, following the lead
of Government. Such demand side measures must be complemented, however, by new
sources of energy. In the short term our collaboration with Eskom will result
in two gas-powered stations in Mossel Bay and Atlantis coming on stream from
the middle of this year already, with a total of 1 000 megawatts of
electricity. Given our vulnerability to the energy crisis and power outages, we
as a Provincial Government have very little choice but to welcome the
announcement of a second nuclear power station in the Western Cape to stabilise
our supply. However, alongside this, we are now more determined to ensure that
renewable sources of energy are found, and therefore, as announced by the
honourable Minister of Environment, Planning and Economic Development
yesterday, 15% of our energy should be supplied from wind, solar, wave and
natural gas sources by 2014.
II. World Cup 2010
The second broad area of action revolves around World Cup 2010. This is our
primary catalyst to radically reshape the Western Cape in the image of AsgiSA.
Understandably, so far attention has been fixed on the stadium, the building
and cost thereof, and the permissions required. Having by and large crossed the
financing, Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) and Heritage Impact Assessment
(HIA) hurdles, the path has been cleared for construction to commence in March.
This is an achievement we are proud of, since the honourable Minister of
Cultural Affairs and Sport on our behalf played a pivotal role in securing the
R1,9 billion from the national Government in addition to our own contribution
of R212 million.
However, World Cup 2010 has always been about a lot more than just soccer
and the stadium. It is an opportunity to accelerate key development investments
that can be used in the fight against poverty and underdevelopment. Hence, the
R2,7 billion investment in the stadium is regarded by us merely as bait to
attract at least another R7 billion to R8 billion in linked public investments
for transport and infrastructure; and a similar amount in private sector
investments in the leisure, tourism and retail sectors of the surrounding
economy in the V&A Waterfront, the Somerset Hospital precinct and the
larger inner city bowl. In other words, Mr Speaker, we are positioning the Cape
to leverage a further R15 billion off the stadium investment. R15 billion, I
remind the House, is almost 10% of our Gross Domestic Product per Region
(GDPR)!
For ordinary citizens this investment should result in employment in the
construction, leisure, transport, tourism and service sectors. Other benefits
include:
* dedicated bus and taxi lanes from the R300 right into Cape Town along the
N2 soon � honourable members can see the construction is under way
* the expansion of the airport through a R2 billion expansion investment
* the planned dedicated rail link from the airport into town for both tourists
and Capetonians
* new retail and leisure industry opportunities associated with the possible
passenger liner terminal at the bottom-end of Adderley Street once the link to
the harbour is restored
* the Convention Centre doubling its volume, taking our conferencing
infrastructure into another league globally
* the fact that we also anticipate at least six new hotels in the Western Cape
by 2010.
III. Property development
The third broad area of action is property development. The anticipated
investments around World Cup 2010 speak to sustaining the unprecedented
construction boom. The fact that the first phases of the V&A Waterfront
development and its purchase have attracted R14 billion's worth of investment
shows the latent potential for future growth that a strategic approach to
property management can unlock. The Western Cape Government, along with the
municipalities in the province, is a significant property owner, and if we
approach our assets from a strategic perspective we can use these resources as
leverage to achieve a host of developmental objectives simultaneously.
To begin this approach, the honourable Minister of Transport and Public
Works will bring the strategically located Somerset Hospital site to market in
a unique way. We are confident that we can realise the best possible price,
advance an inclusive approach to broad-based black economic empowerment, ensure
greater social mixing in the inner city through various categories of housing,
maintain a crucial public health facility, and augment the substantial
surrounding investments around World Cup 2010. It is this multi-dimensional
outcome that we will pursue with vigour and determination across the province
in order to democratise the property sector, foster social integration, and
truly embrace integrated human settlements.
Concretely, in the next few years leading up to 2010:
1. We will develop the Philippi Stadium precinct as a practice venue and fan
park for World Cup 2010, in the context of sustainable human settlement
components in Kosovo which will pioneer sustainable building technologies and
techniques to bring dignity to people who at present live mostly in densely
populated slum areas.
2. We will also pioneer a sustainable and partnership-based development at
the Oude Molen site with alternative cutting edge ecological design and
infrastructure systems as a beacon for the future path of settlement
development � Oude Molen will be ready for implementation by March 2008.
3. We will also be in discussion with pioneering developers, Eurocape,
around how best to maximise and synergise public and private sector property
investments around the proposed parliamentary precinct off Roeland Street, and
another innovative deployment of our property resources can be expected next
year.
4. We have furthermore also resolved as a Cabinet that we will examine all
of our scattered provincial government properties and identify the most
strategically located properties in the core economic zones that lend
themselves to the delivery of social or rental housing and gap housing before
2010 � already we have identified potential sites where this government owns
property that can lend itself to such human settlement; the potential sites
being in Rosebank, Mowbray, Bellville, Observatory, Franschhoek and George,
and, following feasibility assessments this year, these projects can reach
fruition by 2010, alongside the Somerset Hospital precinct and places in the
City of Cape Town.
5. We have also expressed a strong interest in unlocking the potential of
Culemborg for appropriate mixed-income and mixed-use development through
promising meetings we have had with national Minister of Public Enterprises and
his team.
I want to assure the House today that as we aggressively pursue this new
approach to our property portfolio, we will do so in a transparent, democratic,
market-friendly and corruption-free manner; and we will not be deterred by
those who may try to influence the direction or outcome of any given
transaction. We use the word "transaction" because not all property
transactions are sales.
IV. Human settlements
Our new-found strategic approach to property management is intimately tied
to our new approach to housing and human settlements. Housing is an important
cause of conflict and disunity in our communities, the most susceptible to
cheap political point scoring and so forth. We need to deepen the housing
debate through a nuanced analysis of the problem and seek realistic
solutions.
Housing expenditure from 1994 up to 2004 averaged R300 million per annum.
This has jumped to an average of R530 million per annum since 2004, and over
the first half of our term. The honourable Minister of Local Government and
Housing is poised to receive, for the first time and in an unprecedented way in
this province, an average of R1,2 billion per annum for housing over the next
three financial years. This reflects the confidence of the national Government
in us to drive forward this important agenda and comes off the back of two
years of sustained full spending in the Housing Department. However, the
challenges remain daunting.
Our analysts tell us that we have touched the 400 000 mark in the housing
backlog in this province. Against this scale, even the R1,2 billion per annum
will not fundamentally solve this challenge in the short or medium term.
However, it is useful to disaggregate the 400 000 and come to terms with the
differentiated needs and aspirations of our people. Based on an analysis of
people who have applied for housing we now know that:
1. 79% of those needing houses earn less than R1 500 per month
2. 51% live in shacks, 31% in back yards, 12% share the inside of the dwelling
with the owner, and 6% live in Wendy houses
3. 37% have no dependants and 32% have only one dependant, which suggests that
there may be a greater need for smaller, more affordable rental stock
4. a staggering 63% of those needing houses across the province are unemployed,
which speaks to the ability to maintain and afford the package of services
associated with formal housing.
If one reflects on these trends, it is immediately obvious that we have
variable conditions across the province and our response must be equally
differentiated. Hence, over the course of the next year our human settlement
response will simultaneously provide the following:
1. Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP) housing will remain a
reality while 63% of the homeless are unemployed
2. for the 37% who are homeless but employed, social or rental housing should
be facilitated through state land, as in Rosebank and at the Somerset Hospital
site, as well as in partnerships with other developers
3. potential slums should become dignified areas through in situ upgrades where
people live
4. property owners should be rewarded for housing the homeless in their back
yards or in their own houses by sharing in some of the subsidy that Government
makes available at the lower level
5. provision for gap housing should be integral to commercial development
projects � whenever we do big property deals or big developments we should make
gap housing a consequence of that
6. fast-tracking the possibility of co-operation with farmers for the
development of agri villages as a solution for displaced farmworkers. We are
hoping in 2007 to use our R1 billion to explore those possibilities, accelerate
them towards 2010 and lay a path that is irreversible by 2014.
Practically, this means we will diversify our support for different housing
responses, ranging from fully subsidised dwellings to rental stock in strategic
locations, gap housing for first-time home buyers and unsubsidised young
people's housing in centrally located sites. We will use our state land to
drive this differentiated approach and forge strategic partnerships with
visionary businesses committed to solving the legacy of the apartheid city and
homelessness.
As I speak to you these solutions are not theoretical. They are taking shape
on the ground with business partners in Delft, Belhar Central Business District
(CBD), Ilitha Park and Highbury Park, amongst others.
V. Public transport
Our Provincial Growth and Development Strategy has highlighted integrated
transport as a trail-blazer for us because of its economic, environmental and
social effects. In the light of this, our short-term priority is to foster a
shared approach and plan between the Provincial Government, the City of Cape
Town and adjoining districts, the South African Rail Commuter Corporation,
Metro Rail and the bus operators to establish a seamless and safe public
transport system, the basis of which will exist by 2010.
As a first step in this direction, we are confident that the honourable
Minister of Transport and Public Works will soon be in a position to announce a
breakthrough agreement with the national Department of Transport and the City
of Cape Town on the imminent establishment of a functional transport authority
for the metropolitan functional region.
Furthermore, we have already identified a preferred bidder to supply an
Integrated Fare Management System which is at the heart of an integrated public
transport system. This system will allow commuters to switch between transport
modes with one single ticket, whether it be taxis, buses, rail or any other
public mode. This will be piloted, by the honourable Minister, in practice
before the end of 2008.
In line with our commitment to safe and reliable public transport we have
also come to an agreement with the South African Rail Commuter Corporation to
accelerate their upgrading and expansion of the rail system and rolling stock
before 2010 � their original timetable was for 2012. Indeed, we have already
witnessed the extension of the Khayelitsha line as part and parcel of this
programme. Rail is certainly emerging as the backbone of our emerging
integrated public transport system.
Yesterday, the honourable Ministers of Transport and Public Works and of
Community Safety and the national Minister of Transport launched the beginning
of the Taxi Recapitalisation Programme in this province. I wish to applaud them
and also the Western Cape Provincial Taxi Council for their commitment to this
programme. It is sad that many like Michael Kupisa have paid a high price for a
stable and prosperous taxi industry. Some people continue to face threats and
harassment, and this Government was shocked this morning to learn of the death
by assassination of Mr Jezile, after he had committed himself to making this
system work. I want to say, and I hope that we are all united in this, that
none of us will be bullied or deterred from our path of an integrated public
transport system, at the heart of which is a stable and prosperous taxi system.
We will not be deterred in rolling out the programme in a sustainable manner to
ensure that the public transport system is improved.
Last week, in the State of the Nation Address, President Thabo Mbeki
announced the national Government's support for the Klipfontein Corridor � the
heart of the Cape Flats AsgiSA programme � with its multi-modal, integrated,
rapid transport system. Construction on the priority sections of the corridor
will commence in the latter part of 2007.
VI. Drugs and gangs
The sixth area of action is drugs and gangs. The battle against crime will
not be won outside of dealing with its causal factors in poverty, nor through
misdirected anger and frustrations, nor through dissipating our resources,
budgets and crime fighting personnel over too wide a front.
Violent contact crime is decreasing, but 80% of all violent crimes,
particularly in this province, and I speak here of murder, assault and rape,
occur among people who know each other, are in the same family, or are people
who socialise together in the same shebeens and so forth. These are the crimes
that make the headlines and create insecurity, but they are essentially
unpatrollable by the police, given that they occur in a private space. The
police, however, have to be congratulated on an ever improving arrest and
conviction rate in dealing with these crimes.
However, our contention must be that leaders of society must become active
in restoring the soul of our people through holding up a minimum set of values
propagated from every platform � whether pulpits, schools or whatever other
public space is available. We must build in our people the moral courage to
interfere in that so-called private space behind which the perpetrator hides
his assault on his victims in the family and in the intimate, unpatrollable
spheres of the Western Cape. We need to interfere so that we do not become
complicit in wife-battery, child abuse and drunken, violent fights in
shebeens.
Society must realise that we cannot abdicate our moral responsibility to the
Government or the police. We cannot win with the police what we have lost in
the soul of our people.
I am very happy that, in addition to those who are in this house, there are
20 000 young learners from across the province who are following this speech
using the information and communication technology through Khanya available at
schools in the province. To those youth we must send out a message of our
commitment to tackling drugs and gangs in the Western Cape. Government
leadership in this does not absolve parents and other caregivers of their
responsibility in preventing membership of gangs and the use of substances,
even cigarettes, but also alcohol, amongst the youth.
We have seen the increase in property crimes in the Western Cape �
housebreaking, car-breaking and mugging � to pay for drugs. In this province
the drug of choice has become methamphetamine, commonly known as tik. We have
seen learners at 109 schools across the Western Cape becoming the targets of
drug merchants and gangsters as the drug merchants seek to make the school the
market place for drugs. We have seen our youth move from drugs to gangsterism
to prostitution to crime as tik takes over their beings and destroys their
lives.
These are the matters that keep us awake at night and we cannot allow them
to continue. I want publicly to thank the honourable Ministers of Social
Development, of Community Safety, of Education and of Health, their officials,
the Provincial Commissioner of Police and the Western Cape Youth Commission for
their tireless work in the last few weeks in putting together a plan, the
essence of which we are presenting today, against this scourge of drugs which
the President calls "ugly and repulsive." By 2010 we want our youth playing
football, not doing drugs or involved in gangsterism. However, this means that
we must embark on our concrete plan of action now already in 2007.
1. In 2007 we will shift our focus from trying to fight crime intensively
across the whole province to 15 priority areas for action against drugs and
gangs. These areas are Mitchell's Plain, Khayelitsha, Manenberg, Hanover Park,
Nyanga, Elsies River, Bishop Lavis, Delft, Kleinvlei, Guguletu, Philippi and
Muizenberg, and the rural areas of Vredenberg, Paarl, and Oudtshoorn. We will
not neglect other areas, but given patterns of crime, gangsterism, and drugs,
these 15 areas stand out as those that need intensive action over the next
three years.
2. The honourable Minister of Community Safety and Provincial Commissioner
Petros will now complete the deployment of R1 billion worth of police
personnel, vehicles, equipment and volunteers to these 15 areas, ensure the
intensification of our work against the gang and drug leadership through
especially the use of the Prevention of Organised Crime Act (POCA), the POCA
legislation, and continue to locate the drug production and distribution
points, which we have been able to do successfully so far. What we are saying
is that of the total budget for the police R1 billion will be ring-fenced for
those 15 areas.
3. In these 15 areas we have identified the 109 schools which are most at
risk of drugs and gangs, and these 109 schools will receive specialised
attention. In 2007 the following resources will move to these schools:
* a direct channel to their police stations based on rapid response times by
the police for these schools
* at least one reservist or school safety officer to be recruited per school in
the first phase
* 500 Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP) volunteers doing life skills
training at these schools, and 100 National Youth Service recruitees educating
youth at risk about drugs and gangs to be deployed to these 109 schools
* these schools will also be prioritised for access to our drug rehabilitation
networks.
4. As things stand now we have only 295 drug rehabilitation beds in the
public sector affordable to ordinary citizens. The year 2007 will see this
improve dramatically as the total number of public rehabilitation beds will
initially increase to 415 across the Western Cape. This Government will
establish a network of drug rehabilitation centres serving the 15 priority
areas and the 109 vulnerable schools:
* the Presidential Node of Khayelitsha and Mitchell's Plain will receive a
drug rehabilitation centre that will also serve a part of the Overberg
* De Novo in Kraaifontein will now be dedicated to the northern suburbs and the
Boland
* Vredenberg will service the in-patient rehabilitation needs in the West Coast
from Atlantis to Vredendal, including the Cederberg
* a drug rehabilitation centre will be located in Oudtshoorn and will service
the South Cape and the Karoo, from George to Beaufort West and beyond.
All of these four will in turn be supported by outpatient and detoxification
units in each of the 15 areas, such as the G F Jooste Hospital in Manenberg,
thanks to the honourable Minister of Health, and 1 000 Siyabulela community
drug mentors who are currently in training, thanks to the honourable Minister
of Social Development.
5. Given the success of the Proudly Manenberg Campaign in mobilising local
communities against crime, gangsterism and drugs and in support of learning and
positive values, it is our intention to support such initiatives. I want to
welcome the leadership of the Proudly Manenberg Campaign to the House, and
alert them to the fact that 15 areas are awaiting their wisdom and initiative.
It is our intention towards 2010 to ensure the formation of the equivalent of a
Proudly Manenberg Campaign in each of the 15 areas identified and supported by
the State.
6. On 26 June 2007, the Western Cape Government will host the United Nations
Organisation on Drugs in a joint summit so that international wisdom and
resources can assist in the battle against drugs.
VII. EPWP
The seventh area of action by this Government over the next few years will
be in regard to the Expanded Public Works Programme. This is a key programme in
our fight against poverty and unemployment. As a province we were initially
tasked with the target of creating 120 000 EPWP work opportunities by 2009. We
can report that we have created in excess of 60 000 at the moment. However, the
intractable challenges associated with poverty and unemployment, especially
amongst the unskilled youth, compel us across the country, and in the Western
Cape, to massify, to increase dramatically, the rollout of EPWP opportunities
in line with the President's call last week.
We are ready for this and our original target of 120 000 has been ratcheted
up to 170 000 to be attained by 2010, focusing particularly on the areas of
infrastructure development and the social sectors. Programmes identified for
massification in the infrastructure sector will see a minimum of 20 000 work
opportunities created by 2008. Mr Speaker, in line with being practical with
time frames and budgets, we want to say that the rollout of the EPWP will
include the following:
* R38 million for major road construction projects utilising
labour-intensive construction methods, including the link between the N7 and
Algeria, and White River to Knysna
* R31 million for the upgrading of access roads in the province
* R40 million for the maintenance of provincial roads, targeting poor families
identified through ward committees and Community Development Worker (CDW)
structures
* the continuation of the Gans Bay-Bredasdorp construction projects
* R375 million of our municipal infrastructure grant allocations to be used to
upscale labour-intensive construction across the Western Cape
* ensuring that the R1 billion spent on housing will include an EPWP
component.
On the other hand, the massification effort in the social sector will
include:
* the roll-out of the Community-based Home Carers Programme to 1 800
* the dramatic rollout of the Early Childhood Development (ECD) Programme to
include 7 000 EPWP ECD workers
* expanding programmes in Community Safety and other health care services. At
the request of the honourable Minister of Finance and Tourism, this will
include a special provision of tourism Bambananis to give our visitors peace of
mind as they visit Table Mountain, do township tours and enjoy the hospitality
of the Cape. It does not matter what the percentage of the crimes is; what we
need to send out is a message of safety and peace of mind, not only for our
inhabitants, but also for our visitors.
In response to the call from the Western Cape Youth Commission, 500 youth
will be recruited under the National Youth Service Programme for delivering
community service through the Provincial Building Maintenance Programme for a
minimum period of 16 months. The 500 youth will be trained in various
disciplines and given viable opportunities in the public and private
sector.
VIII. Scarce skills
The Achilles heel of our rising prosperity and growth is our skills deficit,
particularly in fast growing sectors such as construction, engineering,
surveying, and related artisan trades. Our response is at multiple levels. In
the first instance, we have initiated a focused dialogue with all five
universities in the province. This has been cemented through a Memorandum of
Understanding signed by Government and the Vice-Chancellors, and we are
committing to consistent co-operation in four priority areas:
1. environmental challenges given climate change
2. public transport, to stimulate shared growth
3. social cohesion towards a home for all
4. scarce skills so that we can anticipate more precisely what categories and
subcategories of skills our robust economy will need over the course of the
next 10, 20 or 30 years. On scarce skills, this partnership has already yielded
skill demand modelling for three of our lead Microeconomic Development Strategy
sectors, which will inform the curriculum and the skills which universities
will produce.
Through the honourable Minister of Transport and Public Works and in
partnership with the University of Cape Town we also established the Masakh'
iSizwe Centre for Excellence in June 2006 to promote skills development,
particularly in the engineering and built environment fields.
It is on the basis of this state of readiness that we have been able to
capture R100 million of Joint Initiative for Priority Skills Acquisition
(JIPSA) funds for learnerships over the next three years. Again, Mr Speaker,
consistent with being concrete, the allocation of these funds will deliver the
following learnership projects:
* Learnership 1000, to the value of R52,5 million
* Masakh' iSizwe will benefit to the value of R12,5 million
* transformation of agriculture through training will receive R6 million
* calling the Cape to boost the expansion of the call centre and business
process outsourcing sector will receive R2 million
* oil, gas and ship repair learnerships will receive R10,25 million of the R100
million.
It is on the back of these drastically expanded opportunities for our people
that we are also driving the repositioning of our Further Education and
Training (FET) colleges, the increase in the number of focus schools, and the
expansion of the Early Childhood Development band. All of these, in concert,
are designed to make the Western Cape a premier learning region in South
Africa.
IX. Home for all
The ninth area of action is concrete action in pursuit of our objective of a
home for all. Sometimes our quest for a united province is too rooted in the
debates and the politics of identity, while the biggest obstacles to a home for
all are often the material reality that our residential areas remain divided
and fragmented along race and class lines. It is for this reason that we
believe that integrated human settlements, as outlined before, must be central
to our objective of social cohesion and solidarity. But sometimes we fail to
notice the progress ordinary people are already making in the daily
interactions between people in mixed racial areas like Summer Greens, Goodwood,
Observatory, Tambo Village, Delft and Ruyterwacht, in many other informal
settlements, and so forth. Here particularly African and coloured, but
sometimes also whites � as in Summer Greens � already live side by side, and
incidents of racism, racial attack or abuse are the exception rather than the
norm. Over the next year Government will seek to invest in these and other
emerging human settlements, not only in the concrete infrastructure, but in
human interaction and solidarity as well.
Over the next year we will also engage the national Government over whether
the Extension of Security of Tenure Act (ESTA) needs radical amendment or
scrapping. We cannot have a home for all when farm workers enjoy tenure at the
pleasure of farmers who have now perfected the art of legally evicting them,
and where they are subjected in some cases to serving under conditions of
abuse.
Similarly, beyond the human settlements, we must invest in our children
communicating across the lines we in our youth were unable to cross through
physical and linguistic barriers. The provincial Education Department's
Language Transformation Plan is premised on children getting the best possible
preparation for the future by benefiting from at least 6 years of mother
tongue-based bilingual education. As the moment the honourable Minister of
Education has convened linguistic experts, who are holding workshops with
parents, school leaders and officials to prepare the ground. Publishers have
been met and will publish material in isiXhosa beyond Grade 3. Formal pilot
projects in schools have been launched across the province.
With mother tongue-based education up to Grade 6 guaranteed, we are now
determined that all our children will learn one another's languages for a
minimum of three years. Future generations of trilingual Wes-Kapenaars will be
the living embodiment of our home for all because nothing works better and more
effectively than language to foster understanding, tolerance and acceptance of
difference in unity.
Twelve years into our democracy, there is hardly a single street of
significance that reflects the heroes and architects of our freedom and
democracy. In fact, in this province we still live with the daily humiliation
of the Native Yards and the boulevards named after those who gave us slavery,
colonialism, religious bigotry and apartheid. I want to reiterate that this is
not just a black complaint. The Jewish community, too, cringe when a Nazi
sympathiser, Oswald Pirow, is made valorous. Surely enough time has passed to
embark on a wide-ranging debate and campaign to find consensus on how to honour
and memorialise the architects of freedom and democracy as well. When will we
allow our children to engage with the legacies of patriots such as Basil
February, Steve Biko, Adam Kok, Chief Albert Luthuli, Imam Haroon, Alex La
Guma, Sir Richard Luyt, Molly Blackburn, Hilda Bernstein, Gaby Shapiro,
Looksmart Ngudle, Christmas Tinto, Autshumao, Sarah Baartman, Dullah Omar, and
many others who would be the contemporaries in the Struggle? The main street in
Wesbank is named after Gerald Morkel and that begins to explain why things are
so tough in Wesbank! There are many others who would be the contemporaries in
the Struggle of people like Uncle Reg September whom we are honoured to have
here amongst us today.
Towards deepening this debate, we have lined the streets across the Western
Cape with posters of such freedom-loving patriots to bring them to public
attention, as we commend them to the people for honour. We are fortunate that
in the Democratic Alliance (DA) opposition's eagerness to embrace Taliep
Petersen by renaming Keizergracht after him, they have opened the door to a
renaming process that up until now we thought they were implacably against. Now
that we know that they are not against renamings, we will provide them with the
names of hundreds of others who deserve this, so that every community, every
culture and every group gains ownership over this province and so that we all
see our heroes and heroines reflected in all our public spaces.
In this vein, on behalf of the party I come from, the African National
Congress (ANC), I propose that Cape Town International Airport should be
renamed after a great son of the Western Cape, James la Guma, a leader of
garment workers in the Industrial and Commercial Workers Union with Clemence
Kadalie; a leader against the Stuttaford Segregation Bill in 1939; a World War
II veteran and someone who saw active battle in Ethiopia; and a leader of the
Coloured People's Congress and the SA Communist Party. We submit this proposal
in humility to kick-start a necessary public engagement that will hopefully
take us closer to the common values that bind us together as the people of the
Cape and South Africa.
The fundamental correctness of our vision of the Western Cape as a home for
all is reflected in the tens of thousands of ordinary people who voluntarily
give up their precious time to participate in our many volunteer-based
programmes. Mr Speaker, it is astounding to note that on a daily basis 20 000
people are volunteering in community-based programmes to monitor shebeens,
provide support to people coming out of rehabilitation, provide home-based care
for those with HIV and AIDS, assist social workers, be active in community
police forums, school governing bodies and health committees, and so forth.
Unfortunately, most of these volunteers are poor and unemployed because we
are not making sufficient progress in getting our better-off citizens with jobs
and skills to become more active. In this regard, we must all combine forces to
establish a web-based portal that will enable ordinary citizens with a lot of
goodwill and skills to make their contributions in a structured way. We
envisage setting up a system and the basis of the system is that we will be
asking people to adopt an ECD centre, volunteer to build houses, train
community leaders, and do various other services. We are hoping that a
web-based portal will be up and running and that people will not have an
excuse, saying that they did not know what was required of them. We hope our
radio stations and the media will assist us in this task of combining
goodwill.
Whilst it may appear to us that the vision of a home for all is elusive in
the Western Cape and Cape Town, this is differently perceived by the rest of
the world grappling with the hard challenges of migration, intolerance,
religious fundamentalism, dogmatic certitude and economic marginalisation. In
fact, many across the world look to South Africa, and particularly the Western
Cape, for clues about how to deal with these 20th century challenges associated
with intensifying globalisation.
From this province we have engaged with the Labour Government of Britain,
the Prime Minister of Turkey, the American Jewish Committee, communities in
Germany and other places in Europe, the Palestinians and others, all seeking
answers to their own challenges, but believing that our active search for a
home for all is more advanced than anything they have done in their areas. They
seek from us solutions that do not come from the barrel of a gun.
We are called upon to assist and I am happy to announce that, together with
the Presidency, the Western Cape will host a global conference entitled
"Dialogues of Reason: Pathways beyond Fundamentalisms," in Cape Town later this
year. This event will assemble eminent thought leaders from across the world on
the questions of multiculturalism, diversity, social integration, and tolerance
in a world increasingly marked by violence and intolerance rooted in
ideological certitudes. We hope to emerge with a fresh paradigm on dealing with
this.
This event will draw together prominent leaders, former and current heads of
state, key mediating institutions such as the United Nations Educational,
Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), independent international
Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) who seek and promote meaningful
intercultural dialogue and peace, leading scholars and philosophers, and
influential celebrities who are putting their ideas and influence behind a more
just and socially integrated agenda.
X. Governance
The programme of action outlined before cannot be realised without the
commitment and co-operation of local government. We will use the various
Intergovernmental Forums to drive this agenda in the fight against poverty. We
will ensure the alignment of the PGDS and IDPs through the metro and district
growth and development summits, leading up to the provincial PGDS summit in
June this year.
In the light of this focus on strategic and programmatic alignment, the
honourable Minister of Local Government and Housing will drive his oversight
role much harder to ensure that stability for delivery is guaranteed, despite
incessant political fluidity. In other words, every municipal manager and
executive must be tied down to hard performance contracts that will ensure
delivery in line with such targets to achieve our service delivery and economic
development objectives. We will therefore have no patience with officials or
politicians who want to use political instability as an excuse for financial
mismanagement, patronage-based appointments or dismissals, corruption of tender
processes and lethargy when it comes to service delivery.
Similarly, we will accelerate the use of monitoring and evaluation
instruments to make sure that all departments of the provincial government
stick to the targets in our action plan. This is in the interest of
transparency and we will post the draft monitoring indicator framework for the
PGDS on Cape Gateway, our website, before the end of April for public scrutiny
and comment. Furthermore, in line with the national Government, we will also
post the Provincial Programme of Action on our website so that all citizens and
the public at large can read the detail of this action plan to bring iKapa
eliHlumayo to life.
Finally, in keeping with the life world of my adolescent daughter, I will
also begin a blog on our world-class government portal, Cape Gateway, to
address the concerns of our citizens and to explain the actions and
achievements of this Government. I also invite all the people of the Western
Cape to come up with potential solutions in our collective fight against
poverty and underdevelopment. Maybe in this way Calvin Rix of Strandfontein,
who addressed an open letter to me in the Cape Argus, challenging me and making
some suggestions, and who today is my special guest in the House, can stay in
touch with Government and give us the benefit of both his critique and
advice.
In conclusion,
I trust that the people of the Western Cape will concur that in this State
of the Province Address we have begun to respond to the challenge in
yesterday's Cape Argus editorial that it is time to focus on, and I quote:
"improving the social conditions (of the have-nots) and bring the
marginalised into the mainstream."
In fact, since we assumed power two and half year ago, we have been hard at
work, and I quote again:
"addressing unequal access to opportunities, jobs and resources" �as called
for in the same editorial. The intensified programme of delivery presented
today leading up to 2010, en route to the Millennium Development Goals of 2014,
will leave no room or moral justification for immature political pettiness. We
are far too busy in the struggle against poverty and underdevelopment in our
determined striving to make the Western Cape a shining and inclusive home for
all. On this note of struggle, I want to conclude with the poetic elegance of
Heather Robertson, and I quote from "Beneath the skin" in A Book of Hope:
"scratch beneath the skin
of every struggle
and feel at the heart of it all
a love of life
of humanity
the roots
of the tree of progress."
Issued by: Office of the Premier, Western Cape Provincial Government
16 February 2007
