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Premier;s notes
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Speeches and Media Releases
 Premier's Office

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PREMIERS NOTES
 MEDIA BRIEFING
 01 NOVEMBER 1999
 10:00

The Eastern Cape regards itself as an integral part of the Republic of South Africa. As such we take seriously the call by the President to 
speed up the programme of assessing services for the upliftment of our people.

On the 25 June 1999  hardly four months ago, the president outlined the areas that government should focus on to make South Africa a 
winning nation. A week later our own Provincial Government organised a Strategic Planning Session to buy-in into the priorities identified 
by the President. This way we were able to come up with our own priorities for the next five years. All departments have now held their own 
strategic planning sessions to five-tune their own programmes within the Provincial and national priorities.

To facilitate an integrated approach to our work, we have established a Chief Directorate that will focus specifically on this. Dr Mazibuko 
who heads the Policy, research and Planning section has been charged with this responsibility. This is to make sure that all departments 
comply with the strategic plans. We have already signed an agreement with the legislature and the EC Local Government Association on how to 
co-operate. This way Chapter 3 of the Constitution is made a reality. But a number of National Departments are also operating in the 
Province. So we established another Inter Governmental Forum (IGA) with them and the Provincial government. This is to ensure joint 
planning and sharing of resources for we are one government.

The local government is an important sphere for service delivery. Our Department of Local Government and Housing is a coordinator of 
another IGA between the Province and Local Authorities. Our approach is that we should assist TL/RCs as much as we can. Intervention in 
terms of Section 139 will only be resorted to as the last remedy. Even here, all stakeholders will be assisted to get to apposition which 
avoids us invoking section 139. Butterworth was a sad lesson after a prolonged process.

Unfortunately we are dealing with a beaurocracy that finds it hard to change. Although an inter-Departmental Committee (National, 
Provincial and District Councils) has been set up for integrated Rural Development, some national Departments still fall into the trap of 
going it alone. There are few examples. e.g. the reported intention by Transport to close down on our N2s to port Elizabeth, and 
announcement to spend money around Ncora / Cofimvaba by the Department of Forestry and Water Affairs, etc.

Such unilateral programmes or plans are not very helpful. We have to bare the brunt of carry-through costs in the end.

The President also enjoined us to build a caring society that guarantees the dignity of every citizen. Our integrated approach to poverty 
alleviation and infrastructural development is designed to do that. So are our enthusiastic efforts to combat crime and corruption. We 
encourage all efforts by the police, scorpion and ordinary citizens to nail down criminals. A lot of break-throughs are being registered in 
this respect.

Our economic activity has improved. A number of high-profile investments have been announced. MEC Godongwana will deal with the details. 
But unfortunately job-creation in this province also depends on what happens in other provinces. When people get old or are retrenched from 
Gauteng, KZN and Western Cape, they return to the Eastern Cape. Their budget (in terms of statistics 96) are left where they come from. So 
our meagre budget gets stretched further. This also offsets our Welfare projections.

To comply with the priorities of rural upliftment, we have identified the Wild Coast region for integrated development. This does not mean 
that nothing will be done in other regions. But we want to make a lasting mark in one are at a time and move away from the sprinkling 
approach to development. Urban renewal will not be abandoned. The violence ridden are of Majola will also get special attention in respect 
of curbing crime.

We have also identified the improvement of Education and a priority. Everything must be done to motivate our teachers and students. Parents 
have to be empowered to take a serious interest in the education of their children. This is not going to be easy. Old habits die hard and 
huge backlogs need a lot of resources. But we are confident of success in this battle.

We mean to improve the already improved relations with traditional leaders. This is so because we have all realised our mistakes now. We 
also have to define the work of traditional leaders in their communities and their role in Local Government. We believe they have a role in 
the combating of crime, preservation of soil, combating stray animals and making sure the land is used productively. Together with them we 
must produce clearly defined work-plans. The departments of Justice and that of Local Government must also deal with the questions of 
justice in traditional areas. They seem to want to make an orphan of this responsibility.

Obviously we cannot succeed in doing all these things alone. The organs of civil society are being consulted. We are also exploring an 
institutional approach to working with them. This is not easy, given the diversity of their interests even within one given sector.

Our government has identified the need to step up our programmes on minorities (gender, youth and disabled persons). Our units have been 
established in the Premiers Office. They need to be strengthened and co-ordinated. HIV AIDS is getting special attention. MEC for Health 
Dr Goqwana has been tasked by the Executive Council to initiate the establishment of special co-ordinating structure to deal with HIV/AIDS 
and NGOs dealing with it.

We have a motivated team of MECs. The DG and DDG are on full steam with human resources development (HRD). Thanks to donor funding. We 
truly believe that we are on course.

Rev MA Stofile

Premier  Province of the Eastern Cape.

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