Inauguration speech by Premier Sihle Zikalala
We have descended to the KwaZulu-Natal Capital City to inaugurate and mark the beginning of the 6th provincial administration. It is with an esteem sense of humility to welcome all of you coming from different towns, farms, valleys, and hills of our beautiful province.
We welcome guests from every corner of our country just as we embrace members of our human family who have travelled far and wide from the four corners of the globe to be with us.
As we gather in this solemn occasion we cannot omit to thank the people of our province and our country who honoured the sacrifices of the architects of our democracy by voting on elections day to ensure that the will of the people triumphs.
We thank the people and all political parties for ensuring peaceful campaigning as well as free and fair elections. And so today, we raise our national flag to honour the victory of democracy and the promise of freedom, justice, and peace.
Today as we mark the beginning of the sixth provincial administration, we are acutely aware that all political parties that contested elections would have preferred to get more votes but the people of KwaZulu – Natal have expressed their choices unambiguously.
Izwi labantu alsilihloniphe. Abantu bakhulumile.
Through each sacred vote counted - the people on whose shoulders we stand- have affirmed the future they wish to belong to.
Without doubt, the people want and deserve a future that is truly united, non-racial, non-sexist, just, and prosperous for all.
As the provincial government, we pledge to work and cooperate with all political parties in the legislature. We take a solemn vow that we will service the people of KwaZulu-Natal without regard to their political affiliation, creed, status, or location.
We are a creation of a people’s movement, the African National Congress, which embodies and cherishes the best values of human civilisation.
We are tolerant to a multiplicity of divergent views, yet remain steadfastly principled and uncompromising on our goal to unite our nation and deliver a better life for all.
In our eternal quest to give birth to a civilisation with a more humane face, we shall never disregard views, requests, and proposals from individuals and organisations on the basis of their political affiliation or status in life.
To the Speaker of the KZN Provincial Legislature and to all opposition parties, we commit that the provincial government will always be accountable at all material times. We remain guided and propelled by the revolutionary and wise counsel of Almicar Cabral that, “Tell no lies, claim no easy victories and mask nothing from the masses”.
Compatriots, as we assume the responsibility of leading the Provincial Administration, we are acutely conscious of the immediate needs from our people who have entrusted us with a solemn mandate to change their lives for the better.
As Premier of KwaZulu-Natal, I fully concur with President Cyril Ramaphosa when, during his inauguration, said:
“South Africans want action and not just words and promise. And there will be action.
It is through our actions now that we will give form to the society for which so many have fought and sacrificed and for which all of us yearn. All South Africans yearn for a society defined by equality, by solidarity, by a shared humanity. They yearn for a society in which our worth is determined by how we value others.”
Over the next weeks flowing from the priorities of the people, the National Development Plan, and the KZN Provincial Growth and Development Plan, the incoming administration will consolidate and begin to implement a comprehensive plan to ensure growth and development of our province.
Over the next weeks flowing from the priorities of the people, the National Development Plan, and the KZN Provincial Growth and Development Strategy, the incoming administration will consolidate and begin to implement a comprehensive plan to ensure growth and development of our province.
- Priority No.1 – Basic Services
We are humbled by progress made in the provision of basic services in KZN. However, people are clear that their immediate challenge is access to clean potable water. Water is life and access to it is an important human right enshrined in our Constitution.
Our province had made progress in many areas on the provision of water. However, due to factors like climate change, environmental degradation, ageing and dilapidated infrastructure, the progress has been reversed.
The provincial government will coordinate with District Councils to assess their status on provision of water and develop a comprehensive plan to ensure we meet this demand as a key and urgent deliverable amongst the basic needs of our citizens.
- Priority No.2 – Job Creation
We know that one of the major challenges facing our country is the unacceptably high level of unemployment. This is a major challenge which is ruining lives of our people, especially our youth who are disproportionately burdened by it.
We will strengthen the coordination of all skills development programmes to better equip our people with relevant skills. We will also be moving with speed to stimulate economic industries that have the potential of creating more jobs; and these include the following:
Developing a dedicated support mechanism and infrastructure to enhance manufacturing, given that most of the manufacturing activities create more jobs. Develop a dedicated support to clothing and textile through exploring possible incentives or establishing a dedicated Special Economic Zone for Textile.Provide a comprehensive support package to KZN farmers so that they can become more productive and profitable. This will include a dedicated mechanisation plan for small scale and subsistence farmers.We will further engage National Government in conducting assessment of all farms that have been returned back to communities. We must engage in a process of reactivation all those farms within a clear framework based on supporting those who work the land. It is high-time that the land that has been redistributed to our people is utilised productively, hence this support must focus on those who are committed to work the land.
- Priority No 3 – Growing the Economy
We fully appreciate that economic growth is central to job creation. The provincial government commits to the following:
Ensure acceleration of the investment drive that the Province led towards the Presidential Investment Conference.Ensure the implementation of all catalytic investment projects by setting up a permanent coordination mechanism which will support project promoters to fast-track implementation.Ensure the implementation of District Industrial Hubs and comprehensive support for industrial parks such as KwaSithebe, Ladysmith and Newcastle. All our efforts on industrialisation will continue to feed and be linked to our two Special Economic Zones namely Dube Trade Port and Richards Bay Economic Development Zones.
- Priority No.4 - Growing SMMEs and Cooperative
We want to declare poverty as a public enemy. We say so because poverty creates a vicious cycle of hunger, indignity, and insecurity. It contributes to social instability, crime, moral decay, and compounds the impact of under-development.
It is abundantly clear that a democracy can only survive if it is founded on a thriving and shared economy. A thriving economy, in a national democratic society, requires efficient markets that address the racial and gender exclusions of the apartheid past as well as address the peri-urban squalor and grinding rural poverty.
Experience and international research tells us that small and micro enterprises play a major role in fighting poverty, in particular, through small and localised business opportunities.
Therefore, our major focus over the next five years will be on pursuing the radical economic transformation programme – Operation Vula. We are going to ensure that government source its required products from local small and micro enterprises and cooperatives.
The Department of Economic Development, Tourism and Environmental Affairs will soon launch the Operation Vula Fund to provide financial support to feasible SMMEs and Cooperatives.
We want to lift millions of people out of poverty through a clear radical economic transformation programme.
We will focus on the development of rural areas and ensure that communities in these areas enjoy the fruits of democracy. We want to rebuild these local areas as engines of national and provincial economic development.
It is through the development of rural communities that we will ensure meaningful inclusive economic growth, redistribution of wealth and the creation of an equal society. We want to deliver a genuinely new South Africa where there is equal access to opportunities.
- Priority No. 5 – Education and Skills Development
Education is central to national development. It is through education that the country’s human resource gain capacity to be absorbed by industries. The provincial government will continue with plans to provide access to education, including ensuring that children at the age of three years attend Early Childhood Development.
We want to see our department of education moving with speed in the secondary education to fully embrace the provision of technical skills and the evolving technological development which is part of Fourth Industrial Revolution to ensure that there is a just transition and that no one is left behind.
- Priority No. 6 – Human Settlement and sustainable livelihood
We will continue with the provision of houses and ensuring a sustainable livelihood to all our people. In the last financial year the department detailed mega housing projects which absorbed more people.
- the building of 25 000 houses at Cornubia in eThekwini;
- 10 000 houses in uMhlathuze;
- 10 585 social/rental housing in eThekwini Inner City;
- 27 875 Urban Hub units in KwaMashu Bridge City;
- 18 000 Urban Regeneration units in Umlazi;
- 20 000 units in the Amaoti Greater Housing Project;
- 9 511 units in Johston, Blaaubosch Cavan; and
- 4 600 units Ilembe: KwaDukuza:Hyde Park.
The projects include:
- The Hyde Park mixed, Integrated Residential Development Programme (IRDP) in KwaDukuza. 99% of planning has gone through and the programme is expected to deliver no less than 4500 units.
- The building of 25 000 houses in Cornubia in eThekwini metro. 12 500 houses have been completed. Ongoing planning to begin with the next phase of development by October 2019 for Phase 2A.
- JBC Newcastle IRDP. Planning is 100% complete, and 2011 units are being processed for phase 1 to start construction by January 2020.
- 20 000 units in the Amaoti Greater Housing Project. Planning phase is in progress and currently in the process of land consolidation and assembly.
- Bridge City IRDP. Here, 27 875 Urban Hub units in KwaMashu Bridge City will be built. The Social Housing Programme component of the programme is being assessed for implementation by January 2020.
- 10 000 Inner City units.
- 18 000 Urban Regeneration units in Umlazi.
- eMpangeni IRDP to build 10 000 units. Already in construction of services in Phase 1, and about 1600 serviced sites.
In other words, over the next few years, the Province will deliver no less than 125 000 units.
One of the major focus of this administration will be to develop and implement a clear plan to provide houses to all people who stay in temporary houses.
The department will embark on a vigorous approach through establishing war-rooms together with affected municipalities to ensure implementation, monitoring and delivery of projects targeting these communities.
- Priority No. 7 – Build a Peaceful Province
It is an indisputable fact that KwaZulu–Natal is characterised as one of the violent provinces in the country. We need to take decisive action to address violence and crime in the province.
We will ensure the implementation of all recommendations of the Moerane Commission which was tasked to investigate factors behind the killing of political leaders and activists. This work will also include support by the National Task Team which is investigating cases related to the killing of political leaders.
Crime has equally become a vicious scourge in many areas. People live in fear as criminals embark on a reign of terror in communities. The situation gets compounded by the lack of effective response from law enforcement agencies because of apparent the lack of capacity, inadequate resources, or alleged lack of commitment from the police. We will monitor the functioning of all police stations which have high levels of crime and ensure that we take necessary interventions.
We will further ensure the functioning of community policing forums to help mobilise communities to work in support of the law enforcement agencies.
Working with the people and all sectors of society, we commit to building a peaceful province where no one will live in fear.
