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Speech by Premier at the Breakfast Media Briefings
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Speeches and Media Releases
 Premier's Office

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 EASTERN CAPE PROVINCIAL GOVERNMENT
SPEECH BY PREMIER STOFILE: HALF YEAR REPORT
 AT THE BREAKFAST MEDIA BRIEFINGS
 ON 16 NOVEMBER 2000



It is common knowledge that todays major challenge is to eliminate poverty, under development and all the attendant factors, which despite 
the proclaimed development of the world into the information age, continue to destroy the potential of more millions of the people world 
over.In fact across our society and the world numerous people are engaged in efforts to over come this scourge with unfortunately limited 
success.Being at the centre of our society, the government has a duty to help turn things around and also place this challenge firmly on 
the international agenda of all the nations.With better experience of governance and an unwavering will to address these challenges we 
outlined at a bossberaad of the Executive Council and the Top Management key government priorities over the second term of democratic 
governance.These included improved coordination, fight against poverty and HIV/AIDS spread, enhance economic well being of our communities 
especially the poor through agricultural and SMME development as well as to improve the provinces skills base by investing in our people.

In fact at the beginning of the current financial year I reiterated these priorities, which we believed, would inform government programmes 
over the next five years and some targets for this financial year were set.These included improved coordination of policy development and 
implementation, transformation and improved capacity of the governments implementing machinery  civil service, rural development, poverty 
alleviation and strengthening of the social security system, HIV/AIDS prevention, ensuring a safe and secure environment for citizens and 
potential tourists and investors, bringing government services closer to the people, strengthening the roads network as the backbone of our 
economy and helping to rebuild our peoples dignity and pride through celebrating their heritage and their strengths.

It is against this understanding that the Office of the Premier has had to reassert its position as a leading and coordinating department 
of the government programmes incorporating all spheres of governance and across our society.Over the past six months indeed we have 
registered unprecedented progress in most instances and also, one needs to admit, there has been a number of setbacks.However overall we 
are on track, and we are succeeding in overcoming earlier seemingly insurmountable challenges.

Achievement

In this regard you have heard what the government has done over the previous three days during the cluster briefings and therefore I will 
only give an overview that is inclusive of transversal issues vested with the Office of the Premier.Perhaps before giving this outline it 
is crucial to reiterate that at the core of the success of any public development programme, is mass participation and support of the 
publics and the beneficiaries of such programmes.Democratic governance is therefore about that. Mobilising all the people to be co-
determiners of their own destiny with government helping to create an enabling environment by inter-alia redressing the past historical 
disparities. Although the rather less constructive opposition would like to make people believe otherwise, all real South African citizens 
of this province share a common destiny and therefore it is in their interest to see and be part of a prosperous province and country. So 
irrespective of ones predisposition towards the ruling party we need to value and sell our province and our country, and that is the 
responsibility of being a citizen.

Coordination

The operations of departmental clusters have reached unprecedented levels of integration, improving significantly government capacity to 
register greater impact in its development programmes. A draft provincial coordinating strategy is in place and already it is used to guide 
departmental strategies to ensure integration of policy and programme development and implementation inclusive of the district councils and 
local councils.

An inter-governmental forum (IGF) as a coordinating tool is in place incorporating all three spheres of governance in the province. A range 
of critical issues are ironed out at this administrative level such as the district development programme, Integrated Development Plans 
(IDPs) and plans are afoot to ensure proper functioning of the political arm of the IGF.

any partners from across the world have responded to the national call for intervention to assist in augmenting the meager resources 
against our huge needs.German, UK, Sweden, European Union and the Japanese governments are currently engaged with numerous development 
programmes that are mainly focused on building the public services capacity and to a considerable extent helping in building the 
infrastructure and dealing with poverty in the province.However these initiatives are not well coordinated and in collaboration with these 
donors the Office of the Premier and the Treasury are working to address the weakness and integrate them into the departmental budget 
plans.

Integrated and sustainable rural development

Following the provinces budget indaba the Office of the Premier in partnership with the Eastern Cape Socio-Consultative Council (ECSECC) 
and Eastern Cape Development Corporation (ECDC) organised a successful rural development summit that managed that produced clear guidelines 
for integrating development plans and initiatives that are aimed at these poor communities.The summit was designed to help improve the pace 
and the impact of rural development, which in fact had begun to register great development strides as evidenced by the unparalleled numbers 
of people with access to electricity, telephone, sanitation and water.Other programmes include the collaboration of national departments to 
assist with rural development in areas such as Wild Coast with projects expected to be launched next week.Various irrigation schemes 
initiated to provide livelihood at Lady Frere, Sterkspruit, Cofimvaba, Maluti, Mt Ayliff and Umzimkhulu as well as upgrading of others in 
Malenge, Ncora, Qamata, Keiskamahoek, Tyefu and Shilo. The strategy is expected to be finalised and unveiled before the end of the current 
financial year with some seed funding made available in the next financial year.

Poverty alleviation

The results of Statistics South Africa regarding the poverty levels in the country vindicated our long held view that the depth of the 
systematic and deliberate deprivation of the Eastern Cape as the &#145;cradle of South Africas liberation struggle was beyond ordinary 
comprehension.These inaccurate statistics had a negative impacted on the countrys resource allocation formula, which did not take into 
consideration the huge incomparable backlogs the province had had to deal with.

Various initiatives have been taken to alleviate poverty in the province, with all departments tasked to identify and implement programmes 
aimed at alleviating poverty resulting in numerous small-scale projects across the province.The department of Welfare is facilitating over 
650 projects that are financed by a R16 million national allocation. There are however delays in making funds available and this may 
compromise the departments capacity to expend the budget. Generally there is still a problem of coordinating these initiatives and 
currently with the assistance of the UK Department of International Development (DFID) some of the projects are being evaluated.

Over 230 projects have also been undertaken by the Department of Public Works and the National Road Agency creating nearly 8  thousand 
jobs 46% of which went to women.

Social welfare and health system

Given the poverty levels in many districts of the Eastern Cape, social security, welfare and health system is critical to save millions 
from perishing and with its bad history the system is one of the greatest challenges of the democratic government. Just these two 
departments account to nearly half of the provincial budget and fraught with problems of a database infected with ghost beneficiaries and 
fraud.With an increasing rate of detection, arrest and successful prosecution of culprits the government continues to install effective 
deterrents against &#145;would be frauds. Mindful of the weaknesses identified with the privatization of the payout programme, user 
specific requirements in preparation for the tender processes are being finalised.

Despite the overall good performance in these fields there has been a number of setbacks such as the &#145;class action and mismanagement 
of the health budget adversely affecting the delivery of health services to the people. These are being handled and we believe will be 
solved, of course with the cooperation of all &#145;serious role players even during this critical period.

Human resources development

Various efforts are being taken to build the provincial human resources capacity &#145;our major export to other provinces and the 
national government, beginning with schools and incorporating training of civil servants and adults basic education. At least the situation 
has been stabilized in many schools, examinations are progressing smoothly and the culture of learning and teaching has begun to take root 
and therefore an improvement from last years matric results is expected.

The Human Resources Development unit (OTP) through the Sector Education and Training Agency (SETA) plans to coordinate human resources 
development programme that cuts across the society in the province and takes on board interested organisations from tertiary institutions 
to labour organisations.

Anti HIV/AIDS campaign

To address and arrest the spread of the &#145;nation killer  HIV/AIDS, a Provincial Aids Council was established led by the Premier and 
incorporating all key stakeholders. The aim of the council is to ensure that all role-players with available resources are mobilised to put 
a stop to the HIV/AIDS scourge.Each department had allocated some budget for the campaign, which in total amounted to more than R30 
million, most of which remains unused and raising serious concerns with regard to the capacity to utilize the resource. Policy guidelines 
are also being developed for handling of personnel that may have been affected by HIV/AIDS.

Urban renewal and crime elimination

Projects aimed at helping urban communities to regain their pride and to eliminate the crime scourge are being implemented in the focal 
problem areas of Motherwell in Port Elizabeth and Mdantsane  East London. These projects, coupled with community policing forums and the 
Operation Crack Down which is receiving support from the broader community.

Anticorruption

As outlined in the Anti-Corruption Summit a forum, an audit committee and an internal audit unit have been established to deal with 
corruption in the province. User specific requirements have been finalised and companies requested to submit proposals regarding the 
provision of a toll-free line aimed at facilitating reporting of suspected corruption by civil servants. As the anti-corruption message of 
the government begins to sink and being internalized more detected cases of fraud are report, arrest effected and prosecutions done, 
thereby sending a strong signal to the potential corrupt officials that the government is &#145;zero tolerant to crime and corruption. 
Critical areas needing attention remain the criminal justice system and internal disciplinary processes, which are not improving at an 
acceptable pace.

Transformation

A Provincial Transformation Coordinating Committee coordinates transformation. All departments have developed service delivery plans and 
are continuously examining their functions and structures especially with the restructuring of local government, which may see some 
provincial functions being performed at the local sphere of government.

Bringing government closer to the people

Various steps and strategies have been implemented this year to bring government closer to the people, beginning with the regular outreach 
programmes that today have seen the Executive Council spending one week in Port Elizabeth, Umzimkhulu and Umtata. From Monday to Friday 
next week the Executive Council will visit Mnquma (Idutywa-Willowvale) and Mbashe (Butterworth) districts.

Under the leadership of GCIS a Provincial Inter- sectoral Steering Committee on Multi-Purpose Community Centre has been established and is 
working on a programme for the establishment of at least three MPCC during this financial year.

The programme to develop 21 districts and to phase out five regional offices is in progress and is based on the concept of developing one-
stop shops to ensure accessibility and use of government services to people.In collaboration with the GCIS a communications strategy 
premised on the national framework is being finalised as a guide for integrated departmental communication programmes.

Investment and economic development

Various initiatives have been taken to strengthen the small micro and medium enterprises (SMME) through intervention from essentially the 
ECDC, creating 814 jobs after subsidies to the tune of R15.4 million.

The province also is increasingly registering successes in drawing foreign direct investment to the province with great successes among the 
Asian investors including Ramatex textile that is expected to generate 13 000 jobs.The rate of foreign visits for feasibility studies and 
explorations is also increasing as Cimec is increasingly marketing the provinces potential. Some of the critical features standing out 
clearly in the country include lower costs than the main three industrial metropoles, stable labour relations, relatively low crime rate 
and the education infrastructure.These explain the recent investment commitments made which are a result of investors confidence in the 
future of the Province, ranging from the big project of Coega development in the West, Daimler Chrysler in East London and to a tourism 
projects that are expected to kick off in the Wild Coast. In fact we boast of a strong dynamic and diversified productive sector which 
produces internationally marketable production as evidenced by the orders and production lines for exports. Eight companies have actually 
finalised their investment including Daimler Chrysler, Engelhard, and several ones coming from Hong Kong that are spread through Dimbaza, 
Fort Jackson, Butterworth and Port Elizabeth/Uitenhage areas.

Conclusion

I have stated when opening the legislature hot lines with the media need to be sustained and the current briefings are part of that 
programme. However the recent stories that flout the most basic of the journalism principle cannot do any good to these relationships we 
are building, especially if media openly takes a combative approach designed to make up for what is believed to be opposition weaknesses. I 
hope you would understanding that despite being &#145;warring siblings the common good of our province and our country should take 
precedence over sectoral interests.

In brief the government in on track with its development programme and is from strength to strength developing capacity to speed up the 
transformation of our society as agents of change.

I thank you.

REV. M.A. STOFILE
 PREMIER : EASTERN CAPE

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