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Welcoming adress to delegates from Massachusetts
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Speeches and Media Releases
 Health

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 EASTERN CAPE PROVINCIAL GOVERNMENT
 WELCOMING SPEECH DELIVERED BY MEC FOR HEALTH DR BM GOQWANA
TO THE DELEGATES FROM MASSACHUSETTS, BERLIN
 16 JULY 2000

On behalf of the Eastern Cape Government and the People of South Africa, particularly of the Eastern Cape, I am happy to welcome you to our 
province and the country at large.

You are in South Africa a country that occupies the southern tip of Africa. You are also a continent that strives to define its space 
within an increasingly integrated family of nations. It is also a continent that faces a developmental challenge among which the economic, 
social and governance reconstruction is critical for any meaningful integration to the global village.

These challenges, which require our collective wisdom and action, include the human threat posed by deepening underdevelopment, widespread 
poverty, diseases such as AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis, as well as the violent conflicts and wars afflicting our continent.

It is in this context that as South Africans we feel obliged to first move together with our neighbours as well as the rest of the 
continent towards the realisation of the African dream.

Consequently, South Africa a country that pride itself with peaceful democratic and diverse linguistic and cultures is not immune from the 
challenges that face the continent.

A few days ago you were in Durban where we hosted the 13th International AIDS Conference. When you walked around you saw features of First 
World Countries. The same has happened on your arrival in East London. This to some extent might lead you to conclude that South Africa is 
not different from countries in the in the north.

However, South Africa posses a unique economic and social characteristics. It is a country that has within itself a developed nation and an 
underdeveloped nation defined along colour lines.

South Africa has successfully entered its second term of democratic governance. Over the last five years we have put in place an array of 
policy initiatives, which have launched us on the road to reconstruction and development. We believe that we have in place the necessary 
policies, which will enable us to begin to deliver a better life for all our people.

It is in this context that the second democratic government has committed itself to be a 'a nation at work'. By this we mean that we are a 
government that is prepared to implement with much more determination all the policies, which were developed during the first term of 
governance. And as a government we will undertake such implementation in partnership with all the relevant stakeholders business, labour, 
and communities.

As we implement our policies we seek to build on the success we have scored over the past five years. Today millions of our people, 
especially in the deep rural areas and in the urban periphery have gained access to health care, education, clean water, housing, and 
electricity. The task of the second democratic government is to accelerate delivery of these basic services to our people.

Eastern Cape is one of the poorest provinces in South Africa with a total population of + 7million of which 63% of it is rural and 54% 
living below poverty line.

It is characterised by a high rate of chronic diseases, especially amongst those who have been to the mines, farms, and other heavy-duty 
industries. There is also significant percentage of people having contracted communicable and other curable diseases. The situation is 
exacerbated by the absence of medical officers, other health professionals and access to primary health care facilities. These and other 
factors contribute negatively of the delivery of efficient health service. Nearly 80% of our people depend on public sector health care 
compared to other provinces.

A disturbing observation is that most of the diseases are found in rural areas. The legacy of the past is evident throughout the province. 
The neglected, underdeveloped and densely populated Bantustan areas had to be integrated with the wealthier and better serviced urban areas 
of the former CPA. Per capita expenditure in the former Transkei, which has about 54% of the population of EC, was only 35% of the health 
budget in 1994. Though this trend has been progressively reversed, the state of health service in those areas was near collapse forcing the 
department to pump a lot of money in the area without any significant improvement.

Apart from these realities our department is still undergoing a painful process of structural transformation and paradigm shift. I do not 
want to bore you with our rough past as we all know it but I want to bring to your attention that though we have completed the amalgamation 
of the different administrations we still faced with a mammoth task of reorienting our personnel both Black and White to accept the new 
ethos.

For us to make a meaningful change we have to acknowledge our backgrounds and our past. We all come from different backgrounds, which are 
not only culturally and racially defined, but also different approaches to the world around us.

Ladies and gentlemen I have a pleasure of sharing with you not the experiences of health service delivery in Eastern Cape, but also our 
vision of equitable, quality and sustainable health service. Our approach to equitable sustainable is informed by the following framework-:

?The Constitution of the Republic of South Africa bestows upon us as government organ a responsibility to ensure that our people have 
access to health care services, including reproductive health care.

?It is also a commitment of this government to ensure that the rural and the poor receive quality health service. Nothing more can be said 
by this commitment as President Thabo Mbeki and our leaders have constantly reminded us of it.

These challenges I have just mentioned require of us not just standard responses, but urgent extraordinary interventions that will ensure 
that the benefits of the current scientific and technological advances are shared by everyone including those in the most remote and 
isolated villages in our province.

Ladies and Gentlemen:, having outlined the conditions under which as Eastern Cape Health Department have to deliver sustainable health 
services, I must now draw your attention to our priorities for the Year 2000/2001. These priorities are based on the following major policy 
interventions-:

1.Emphasis on equitable redistribution and redeployment of resources to disadvantaged and the rural underdeveloped.

2.The rationalization and integration of available resources in our institutions.

3.Skills development and continued professional development amongst the cadre ship of the department with emphasis on Financial and 
Personnel Management Processes.

4.Increasing partnership between the Private, Public and NGO sectors in quality service delivery through selected pilot projects.

Since our liberation from apartheid rule in 1994, we have benefited from the exchange of high level political, business and other visits 
between the two countries. These have included successful visits by both former President Nelson Mandela and President Thabo Mbeki. These 
exchanges have also resulted in the conclusion of many agreements, which are beneficial to the ordinary citizens of our country and the 
province.

We believe we must act together as partners in Health Service Delivery. The best possible ways have to be found to end poverty and disease 
and to help people to extricate themselves from indecencies of ignorance.

I have no doubt that the cooperation between these two service providers will contribute towards the realisation of a dream for a better 
life for all in this province.

I would like to take this opportunity and express my sincere appreciation of the fact that in the few years we have worked together you 
have treated us with dignity and understanding.

As for our part we will do best to ensure that our people in the province receive the best out of their taxes. We will relentlessly seek 
solutions to many challenges that face us, especially those that need urgent attention e.g. HIV/AIDS pandemic.

Thank you,

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