T Xasa on behalf of N Balindlela: Launch of poverty alleviation special
project

28 February 2006

Chairperson and Deputy Chairperson of the House of Traditional Leaders
Your Majesties the kings of our province
Bhongolethu
Members of the House of Traditional Leaders
Members of the Provincial Legislature
Mayors and Councillors
Distinguished guests
Ladies and gentlemen
Comrades and friends

It gives me great pleasure to be part of this very important gathering here
today. Premier Balindlela was schedule to come and officiate this occasion but
because of government and organisational work, she is deployed in the Cacadu
District and extends her apologies and wishing us all the best in our work. She
will find time within her busy schedule to visit some of these projects and
commits her office to continue supporting this initiative. I believe that the
Premier’s apology is accepted.

Programme Director, government respects and acknowledges the role that key
stakeholders like the traditional leadership play in ensuring that service
delivery is accelerated in our province. We all agree that our people cannot be
subjected to perpetual abject poverty and unemployment.

The fact that you are working with government in conquering these challenges
that results in various social ills, it is an indication that you want to see a
province at work, free of unemployment and poverty. Today we witness some of
the results of commitments made between government and the house of traditional
leaders when the Premier was appointed in 2004 as a first female Premier of
this province. She called upon stakeholders to come and assist government to
eradicate poverty in our province and you committed yourselves as leaders of
our people to participate in their economic liberation and thereby solidifying
our social compact. Indeed Abantwana beGazi were the first ones to immediately
respond to that call to action.

The Premier through her poverty alleviation fund decided to give churches
under the umbrella of South African Council of Churches (SACC) an amount of R4
million, non governmental organisation (NGO) coalition an amount of R2 million,
Gender Mainstream an amount of R2 million and the House of Traditional Leaders
an amount of R2 million totalling up to R10 million. I am proud to announce
that the House of Traditional Leaders is spending its portion very well
assisted by Eastern Cape Socio-economic Consultative Council (ECSECC) in
ensuring accountability and mainstreaming of the programmes. All these funds
are spent in programmes within the context of Provincial Growth and Development
Plan (PGDP) - Ikamva Eliqaqambileyo.

Government is encouraged when public funds are spent objectively and
responsibly. Investors will definitely be attracted if they realise that
government and stakeholders take care of public funds. I am sure that we are
all aware of the big challenge our province was faced with in as far as under
spending is concerned. We have for the first time managed to rectify the
situation. Whilst other provinces are still struggling to spend their
allocation for 2005/06 financial year, I have great pleasure to announce that
our province has managed to spend its budget up to 72 percent on infrastructure
by end of November. This is according to National Treasury report that was
issued in the December.

This means that by end of the financial year we will have spent almost our
entire budget. The achievement did not come as a surprise to us. We planned.
Last year, we sanctioned all heads of departments and Chief Financial Officers
to a meeting. In that meeting we took an undertaking that no department will
underspend, come end of the financial year. This great achievement is as a
result of a culture that Premier Balindlela instilled to her cabinet a culture
of working as a collective. Furthermore, the Premier and all of us in
government call for effective, responsive and accountable government. We at all
times remind ourselves that government has an obligation to account to the
citizens of the province on how the resources entrusted with us are managed and
will be managed in the future.

Programme Director, let me take this opportunity and share with you some of
the successes of pro poor provincial growth and development plan in OR Tambo
District Municipality. The majority of our projects are reliant on the
principle of partnership, between the state, private sector, donor,
organisations and communities. In this region, on 15 November 2005, four hotels
in Coffee Bay area of the Wild Coast opened their doors to new community
shareholders. This was made possible by European Union (EU), national
Department of Environmental Affairs and ECDC. Essentially each involves
communities borrowing sufficient capital on favourable terms from an Eastern
Cape Development Corporation (ECDC) managed EU loan fund in order to purchase
up to 30 percent of the equity in the hotels.

The existing owners are then expected to utilise the proceeds of the sale of
their shares to upgrade the hotels’ infrastructure. In addition, the same
community represented by prudently governed community trust will receive
monthly royalties from hotels whilst also enjoying employment opportunities as
the business grow as a result of the capitalisation efforts.

The previously liquidated Magwa Tea Estate has also been revitalised as a
result of combining state, private sector and community resources. In this case
the Arms Off Set Programme (AOSP) through Department of Trade and Industry,
facilitated a forestall loan on favourable terms together with grant funding
from the provincial government via ECDC. The community and employees have also
been included as shareholders and Gokal, as Indian Tea Marketing giant, as the
technical partner. This project is ready on a sustainable footing and produced
1.5 million tons this season. Productive output is expected to double next
season. One thousand jobs have been saved and further 1000 seasonal jobs have
been created.

The province held its first job summit. All social partners demonstrated
commitment to job creation for economic and social transformation. We have also
agreed to come up with conceptualisation and development of the of big
infrastructure programmes that are envisaged for the province in terms of
Accelerated and Shared Growth Initiative for South Africa (Asgisa).

In conclusion

Premier specifically asked me to remind you to start preparing yourselves
for the research work on protocol of traditional leadership. She is very
passionate about this and has made R500 000 for this huge task is available as
she announced during the second opening of the house of traditional leaders.
She is also counting on your support on the call she made during her State of
the Province Address that all of us young and old, black and white should wear
our traditional attire and any other attire that makes anyone in the Eastern
Cape to reclaim his/her identity. Finally, all roads will be to the polling
stations tomorrow for each and every one of us to exercise his/her right to
vote. Government appeals to traditional leaders to continue to promote free and
fair elections within their areas and to encourage their communities to
vote.

Please do not forget to vote for the party that has ensured and still
ensures the better life of all our people. A party that has managed to free us,
all who were oppressed during the difficult times of the apartheid regime.

I now officially declare this project officially launched.

Thank you very much.

Issued by: Department of Social Development, Eastern Cape Provincial
Government
28 February 2006
Source: Eastern Cape Provincial Government (http://www.ecprov.gov.za)