Manuel, Nelspruit
9 March 2007
The Minister of Finance, Trevor Manuel, met with members of the Executive
Council to interact on budget related issues. The Minister has already been to
the Eastern Cape. In his introductory remarks, he commended the province for
the massive improvement in its financial management. Eleven of the twelve
departments in the province have received unqualified reports, with the
exception of the Department of Education. This, according to the minister puts
the province as the highest achiever in the country in terms of managing
government budgets.
What did not miss the minister's eye also is the significant improvement in
infrastructure spending in the province compared to the previous years. He
therefore implored the province to attack the backlogs in the education
infrastructure with the same verve the Premier and the Department of Local and
Housing did with the eradication of the bucket system in the province.
The minister requested the province to share with him ideas on how
agricultural development can be enhanced, given that there seems not to be a
synergy between the grants and land reform. He was also concerned that there
seems to be a general challenge in the country with regard to spending on
conditional grants, such as the Comprehensive Agriculture Grant and Land
Care.
The province raised a matter regarding housing subsidy protocols, which
caters only for the top structure, without taking into account the other
related costs such as land and environmental specific costs. The minister
assured the province that it was a matter which he was going to look at with
the Minister of Housing.
Similarly he commended the province for the successful distribution of books
at schools. The only region with challenges is Bushbuckridge where the problem
is currently being addressed by the Department of Education. The Minister was
quite impressed by the fact that the feeding scheme for learners is functioning
very well compared to other provinces where there are serious problems
The Minister raised other matters that he felt the province must look at.
They included: the need to improve on the provincial pass rate in mathematics
for matric, which is at 21% compared to the national average pass rate of 36%;
building an inward capacity of the province to monitor quality of
infrastructure delivery in the province and the distribution of learning
materials.
The Minister then left to interact with grade 11 and grade 12 learners in
the province, as part of an attempt to develop interest in the study on public
finance and management.
Contact:
Lebona Mosia
Tel: (013) 766 2244
Cell: 082 561 6465
E-mail: lmosia@mpg.gov.za
Issued by: Office of the Premier, Mpumalanga Provincial Government
9 March 2007
