- “The Freedom Charter contains the fundamental perspective of the vast majority of the people of South Africa of the kind of liberation that all of us are fighting for…. Because it came from the people, it remains still a people’s Charter, the one basic political statement of our goals to which all genuinely democratic and patriotic forces of South Africa adhere.”
The architects of our democracy, which we have just celebrated 10 years of, remained true to the ideals and vision that was conceived on a field in Kliptown 50 years ago, and were able to navigate their way through the despair of apartheid South Africa and emerge with the hope of the better life that we begin to realize, day by day, slowly but surely. And all of this because 50 years ago there was a generation of people refusing to be shaped in the image of racism, division, exclusion and inequality of their oppressors.
Instead they met this injustice and racism with the most generous of clarion calls when they said: “South Africa belongs to all who live in it, black and white.” It is this simple assertion that gives our constitution its moral clarity, and directs our efforts to build a single, yet diverse nation in this country, and makes us determined to ensure that this troubled Province of the Western Cape will indeed become a Home for All, ‘n Tuiste vir Almal, iKhaya lethu Sonke.
In our efforts to realize the demand of the Freedom Charter to “…secure to all their birthright without distinction of colour, race, sex or belief,” we must have an appreciation of the history of this Province in which we probably have the most complex demographic make-up, the most pernicious implementation of apartheid, and the most resilient persistence of privilege and the residue of race.
This necessarily means that our efforts will be severely tested, thwarted and at times even turned back, that our programmes have to be sensitive, and that all of us have to be vigilant in the face of the temptation to exploit the vulnerability of our democracy as we ensure that ‘South Africa belongs to all who live in it’ and that the Western Cape becomes a ‘Home for All’.
Sean Field, Director of the Centre for Popular Memory at UCT, explains to us why our struggle will necessarily be difficult: “People are not only social beings, they are also fundamentally emotional beings… all identities are by definition hybrid and impure, all identities are emotional and fragile. The fragility of all identities is ambiguously constructed through weakness and strength, continuity and discontinuity, difference and sameness, clarity and confusion.”
Indeed the social fabric of the Western Cape is fragile. The identities of its people are fragile. The relationship between communities is fragile. As we open this Legislature today our fragility is tangible: the residents of Joe Slovo, who a few weeks ago were the beneficiaries of the collective sympathy of our citizens as a fire destroyed everything they had, are today the catalyst – sometimes spontaneously and sometimes calculatedly – for racially mobilizing the homeless of Bokmakierie; the taxi drivers around, and the doctors within, Tygerberg Hospital; the property owners in Pinelands and the industrialists of Epping. Indeed our non-racialism is fragile, and this government cannot stand by and allow political parties and leaders to exploit this fragility.
If Sean Field is right that “…all identities are emotional and fragile…” then the language contestation at the Mikro Primêr in Kuilsriver has to teach us some important lessons about how we build this home for all. The court outcome is merely one dimension of the solution. Mikro Primêr School forces us to give greater content to the slogan of Unity in Diversity. How much unity and how much diversity is comfortable for our Home for All? Too much unity leads us down the unpalatable path of the melting pot as we inevitably lose the rich identities which come with culture, language and religion. Too much diversity simply means that the centre doesn’t hold, that nothing unites us and that we stand by narrow, sectional rights without responsibility to the whole. We must find the appropriate balance between Unity and Diversity. Mikro teaches us a simple lesson: you cannot claim for yourself what you do not grant others. Put differently, the future of Afrikaans and the space for Afrikaans in our social, academic and economic life is determined by the space given to isiXhosa and every other language in South Africa. Language, like identity is emotional and fragile, but it has to be protected from its extremely emotional defenders. The future of Afrikaans is not at stake. The accommodation of some English is. And the inclusion of isiXhosa should be!
The Western Cape has also illustrated the fragility of the male identity. What else explains the need for young Coloured males to bond in gangs, where their power is defined by the wielding of guns and the most horrific violence against women? What else explains the fact that crimes against women in all communities remain consistently high and that domestic violence, rape, sexual harassment and sexual, physical, emotional and verbal abuse are the social phenomena women and children have to contend with? The perpetrators must be punished, but for the long term, all of us have the responsibility to redefine masculinity so that our husbands, boyfriends and sons do not define their strength in relation to the domination of their wives, girlfriends and daughters.
Mr. Speaker, indeed our social fabric is fragile, but it does not mean that our desire to realize the vision of the Freedom Charter is an idle one. Herman Melville, the US novelist in the late 1800’s already understood that, in his words, “... we cannot live only for ourselves. A thousand fibres connect us with our fellow men; and among those fibres, as sympathetic threads, our actions run as causes, and they come back to us as effects.”
The actions throughout colonialism, the actions in the name of apartheid, and the actions in the Western Cape over the last 10 years have created and deepened the causes of which racism, economic exclusion and sexism are the significant effects.
The causes remain with us…
Socio-Economic Challenges and Opportunities
Racial social engineering produced and coincided over time with economic exclusion. Social friction is the mere surfacing of the vicious cycles of poverty and inequality that hold our communities in an iron grip. Poor households, whether they be in Khayelitsha or Manenberg or Rugby suffer the same lack of access to jobs, the resultant lack of access to decent housing and services, and in turn the very high incidence of the preventable diseases of tuberculosis and diarrhoea. Why should hopelessness and fatalism not flourish in this cycle and in turn breed pathologies of child abuse, rape, domestic violence, gangsterism, substance abuse and obsessions with guns?
Yet, the majority of our people – mostly poor –negotiate these trying circumstances that history has dealt them with an admirable sense of dignity. With the barest minimum of support they find in their various social and family networks, displaying a remarkable resilience and tenacity to strive for a better life. These are the people that we seek to empower, around whom we seek to design our interventions, building on their quiet heroism and dignity.
Unemployment, Poverty and Violence Crime
It is clear to us that poverty, unemployment, poor health and high levels of crime shadow each other. It is not surprising that 55% of households in Khayelitsha live below the poverty line, the unemployment rate is 47%, and 80% of the housing is informal. On the other side of Swartklip Road in Mitchell’s Plain the statistics are slightly better but equally predictable: 33% of households below the poverty line, 30% unemployed, and 31% in informal settlements. No wonder that Khayelitsha has the highest murder rate in the province, manifest the highest infant mortality rate where we lose 44 out of every 1000 children born. Similar patterns are in evidence in Mitchell’s Plain and all other poor settlements.
At the other end of the Province, in the Karoo the phenomenon of child prostitution is rife as sharply brought to our attention by SABC’s Special Assignment earlier this week. Social ills clearly travel in groups, which is why government is responding in a programmatic fashion through Project Consolidate and the other nodal interventions in both urban and rural areas.
Hope amidst the challenges
I am not succumbing to a paralysing fatalism. I draw on the inspiration of renowned playwright and statesman, Václav Havel; who said:
The kind of hope that I often think about… I understand above all as a state of mind, not a state of the world. Either we have hope within us or we don’t; it is a dimension of the soul, and it’s not essentially dependent on some particular observation of the world or estimate of the situation… [Hope] is not the conviction that something will turn out well, but the certainty that something makes sense, regardless of how it turns out.
What makes sense to me is that our province possesses unlimited potential because our people possess great ingenuity captured in the prescient photographic essay by Chris Ladochowski, titled, Cape Flats Details: Life and Culture in the Townships of Cape Town. This evocative work narrates the power that resides in the will of our people to survive and invent against the odds and do it in a manner that sustains community, dignity and self-worth, amid cruelty and violence.
And yet, our people find ways of insinuating beauty into their lives. I ask you to notice the carefully tended gardens in the so-called informal areas; I ask you to appreciate the intricate artworks inside areas of recreation; I ask you to feel the rhythm of makeshift bands that continuously reinvent our unique Cape melodies. All I ask is that we store our hope in the belief that if everyone has an opportunity to have their dignity affirmed they will flourish as contributing members to our work-in-progress, A Home for All.
It is this hope that nurtured the world class achievement of Paulene Malefane in the film, U-Carmen eKhayelitsha, short-listed out of 800 entries at the prestigious Berlin Film Festival, signifying the rise of opera in our townships; one of the most integrated and flourishing art forms in the country.
Similarly, the inventiveness of street culture in the clever word play across numerous semantic structures of groups life Brasse vannie Kaap who can subvert the theme song of pristine Sevende Laan to deliver incisive commentaries about everyday life on the Cape Flats over a goema beat. The iconoclastic work of Godessa on their debut CD also comes to mind. In the midst of all this talent and vibrancy, how can one not remain firm that the search for a Home for All makes complete sense at this moment? The inner resilience and creativity of our people must urgently be supported by government strategies which systematically create social and economic opportunities.
It is exactly why we have devised a long-term strategy for the growth and development of this province as the roadmap out of misery and poverty; a roadmap from poverty to prosperity.
On the Economy
The good news Mr Speaker is that it seems as if the economy has turned a corner; that we are on the road of increasing economic growth. Consider that:
- Real Gross Domestic Product by Region (GDPR) of the Western Cape averaged 3.1% between 1999 and 2003; and in line with national trends, the future projections look equally robust, rising to a high of 4.1% in 2005/6. But we contend with a relatively strong Rand and virtually unprotected exposure to international competition. We are not yet at the vital 6%+ threshold;
- Growth in exports over the past 6 years grew by 8-9% per annum in real terms, including in agriculture where our province contributes more than 50% to the total agricultural exports of the country.
- The Western Cape is South Africa’s boom province the construction sector, showing a 57% increase in plans for building in 2004 compared to 2003 and is manifested in the crane filled skyline of Cape Town and the return of retired artisans whose skills are sought after at construction sites.
However, the 200 000 new jobs created between 1999 to 2003 are somewhat offset by the decline in employment in various manufacturing sectors. The number of clothing firms in the province declined from more than 400 in 1995 to 324 in 2001. Similarly, the share of unskilled labour in agriculture declined from 77% in 1995 to 43% in 2002. On the other hand, the share of skilled labour in the financial and business services sector increased from 17% to 25%.
All of this speaks to structural shifts in the economy where most of the economic output is confined to sectors with low labour absorption rates because they rely on more mechanised production systems. Put differently, we are experiencing a growing mismatch between what economic sectors need in terms of skills and what is available in the labour market. The resultant skills shortage pushes up wage levels of skilled and managerial categories of workers. The net effect is growing inter- and intra-race inequality.
Winning the Fight against Crime
Just like we are on the right track with the economy, it seems that we are also on the right track in the fight against crime. Consider that a comparison of the last two festive seasons shows that: Murder and attempted murder decreased by 23.1%, rape by 13.2%, aggravated robbery by 10.4%, assault with grievous bodily harm by 4.9%. Furthermore, kidnapping and abduction decreased by 14.2% in the Province. It is only in drug related crimes that we have not made the same strides.
These successes are driven by the operationalisation of the Prevention of Organised Crime Act, and now national government is looking to apply it to the whole country.
The highly successful Bambanani project consists of 4 000 volunteers that give us visibility and responsiveness on the streets. It is pivotal to our success, which highlights the value of involving communities in our fight against crime. The deployment of 6000 additional SAPS members in the Western Cape under the leadership of Commissioner Petros has taken the fight to high flyers and street level gangsters alike.
The only sustainable solution, however, in the fight against crime is to understand the root causes of our myriad of inter-connected problems that travel together. On the basis of such an understanding, we are devising multi-dimensional interventions that can deal with the issues in a systematic and long-term fashion. We call this comprehensive plan, iKapa Elihlumayo – growing and sharing the Cape. Its implementation is the only route to a province that will one day offer houses, security and comfort for all its people.
iKapa Elihlumayo: Our Pathfinder to Prosperity
Up to this point, Mr Speaker, I have pointed to the richly textured canvass of challenges and opportunities we face in our province and some of the advances we have made on the economic and anti-crime fronts. I now want to turn to the core of our purpose as a Provincial Government which is in the terrain of the concurrent development functions. It is fundamentally economic.
We are entrusted with this role because we sit at the nexus of national policy frameworks and local implementation. We have the exciting task of weaving together a provincially relevant development strategy which forms part of a national and Continental mosaic. We have chosen a path of shared growth, neither the trickle-down of narrow neo-liberalism, nor the populist path where we spend what we have not grown.
To give effect to our developmental role as a Provincial Government we understand the need for additional revenue streams to both the equitable share as well as the conditional grants. New streams of revenue will create room for manoeuvre that an interventionist state requires. We have already gone far down the road of the fuel levy and subject to approval by National Treasury should be implemented by the end of this year, realising R300m per annum dedicated to infrastructure. We are requesting Minister Brown to launch a similar study into the feasibility of a hospitality levy to ensure the resilience of our tourism industry through greater funding for marketing and the development of, and empowerment in the industry. And thirdly, I will announce in the next month the name of a high powered team whose task it will be to investigate the modalities of implementing the development levy, dubbed the Robin Hood levy. Based on the growth in the property development sector, this could be a major boost to both social housing and our infrastructure development. Of course the realisation of additional independent sources of income advances the case for opening up the borrowing powers of provinces as already seen in the negotiations with the Development Bank of South Africa.
Shared growth is multi-dimensional and can further be qualified as growth that is simultaneously Equitable, Sustainable, and Resilient. Our pathfinder to shared growth is of course iKapa Elihlumayo. Mr Speaker, I would now like to provide the house with an update on where we are with the evolution of iKapa Elihlumayo through the lenses of equity, sustainability and resilience. All the key strategies will be finalised by June 2005.
Equitable growth
Given the hugely unequal nature of incomes, labour markets and especially financial markets, it is obvious that shared growth must give everyone a fair chance to participate in the economy on a levelled playing field. This applies to new entrants into the labour market and the 612 000 people in our province who are currently unemployed, as well as the myriad of small and micro enterprises who cannot graduate out of the second economy because they simply do not have access to affordable capital, markets and relevant information to grow their businesses.
In response our Human Resource Development Strategy will produce a detailed plan to ensure that our young people are much better prepared for the labour market and especially the service sectors of our regional economy. The plan is populated with detailed sub-strategies, clear targets and statements of expected outcomes. In other words Mr Speaker, we have arrived at the point where we can say exactly how we going to improve the opportunity for work and learning for our people.
This plan is complemented by an ambitious Expanded Public Works Programme that will produce at least 120 000 jobs during this term of office as a signal to business and civil society to join hands with us and see how we can further multiply opportunities for work for everyone in our society.
We are also putting in place a series of support measures to improve the effectiveness and survival chances of small entrepreneurs in our province, by rolling out a number of one-stop facilities for advice and support. Between 23 November 2004 and 17 February 2005, more than 850 potential and existing entrepreneurs were assisted at the Red Door in Khayelitsha. At the Red Door facility there is learning about access to finance, hard project management skills and how to gain access to markets.
These essential measures are not enough. We have to aggressively work to implement the national broad-based BEE policy framework. This will be pursued through targeted programmes and especially our procurement measures in Provincial Government. We are fully cognisant of our economic presence in the regional economy and aim to use it as a major lever to grow the business opportunities of African and Coloured businesses. In short Mr Speaker, shared growth can only be realised if all the actors in the economy have a fair chance to compete as equals.
Sustainable growth
Economic development must be dynamised and directed in a manner that will ensure the integrity of our unique bio-diversity. The tool to advance sustainable growth that is also socially integrative, is The Provincial Spatial Development Framework (PSDF). After its finalisation it will, inter alia, provide a new spatial development pattern for the Western Cape. This perspective will direct private sector investment and ensure integrated budget alignments of all spheres of government. The proposed moratorium on golf courses is but one example of our resolve to intervene in a responsible manner in the economy to ensure more sustainable and inclusive outcomes.
Mr Speaker our current combined crises of drought and flash floods underscores the urgency of treating sustainable growth not as a “nice-to-have” or “add-on” but rather as central to our shared growth path. Our holistic response to the climate change crisis underscores how this government always keeps the long-term structural solutions in mind as opposed to quick-fix populist responses. This approach is reflected globally in the historical signing of the Kyoto Protocol this week. In other words, Mr Speaker, sustainable development is already fundamental to our vision and practices as a government.
Resilient Growth
Equity and sustainability imperatives cannot be divorced from the cold facts that we are a relatively small regional economy playing on a very large global scale, where the rules are more often than not rigged in favour of the already powerful interests who dominate the global economy. Our task is to identify how we can intervene to make our diverse economic sectors more resilient in the face of harsh global exposure and continuous currency fluctuations. Clearly, if our economic sectors cannot survive in the highly competitive global market we have little prospect of solving our collective challenges on the social, ecological and cultural fronts.
This is why we have invested in a strategy development process to identify what we can do on the micro-economic front. The MEDS will be our guidebook as to how we must intervene to enhance sector growth and employment prospects over the medium-term to long-term. The purpose of the MEDS is to:
- reinforce our diversified economic base;
- strengthen sectors with growth potential, e.g. tourism, real estate, specialist manufacturing, financial services, leisure industries, call centres and cultural services;
- support sectors undergoing painful restructuring due to globalisation pressures to reposition them higher up on the value-chain, e.g. the clothing and textiles sector;
- promote nascent sectors with huge social and ecological spin-off’s, e.g. environmental industries, the care economy that will ensure social support in areas hard hit by HIV/Aids and other debilitating illnesses;
- improve the business environment by reducing red tape, through the Integrated Law Reform initiative; and
- inform the Strategic Infrastructure Plan (SIP) aimed at improving transport, logistics, and the asset management plan of the Province.
Mr Speaker, our pursuit of shared growth will occur over time. We need, however, to prepare for it and secure the most vulnerable amongst us.
In preparing for shared growth, the starting point is our people and their capacities. We are taking a careful look at the differentiated needs of the economy over the medium and long-term and we are beginning to understand the Human resource needs for the Western Cape. It is becoming clear that any Human Capital strategy must be premised on our determination to increase dramatically the number of learners who pass matric with mathematics and science on the higher grade. The question arises, how will we achieve this? Minister Naledi Pandor has already taken the first step by announcing salary incentives for Maths and Science teachers earlier this week. We must take the next decisive step if the children of this Province are to have a future in the emerging economy of the Western Cape, shaped by ICT’s, biotechnology, oil and gas exploration, the financial services sector, etc. Has the time not come to make maths and science on the higher grade compulsory for everyone in the school system? Is this not the kind of decisiveness we need if we are going to make an impact in this domain? When the new school year starts in 2006, no grade 8 learner must have a choice about whether they do maths and science in the Western Cape. They will. There will be no choice about higher or standard grade. We need only higher grade, phased in from next year right up to matric. I appeal to teachers, parents and learners to make this work. This is the key to securing our future.
A philosophy of self-reliant citizens, households and communities, achievable through our Social Capital Formation Strategy, guides us to focus on unlocking the potential of ordinary people, through the interventions of a cadre of community development workers. Such workers will be embedded in communities to make sure that our people know how to access social security provisions and other services if they are needed. Moreover, they need to ensure that ordinary people take charge of their own lives by participating in School Governing Bodies, Community Policing Forums, Health-care Committees that oversee the running of clinics, the Bambanani volunteer corps, Ward Committees, and so on.
Golden Opportunity: World Cup 2010
Mr Speaker, at our Cabinet Lekgotla last week, Cabinet was seized with a challenge: how do we transform the unadulterated joy at winning the right to host World Cup 2010 and particularly the Western Cape’s vital role in this [where we hope to host the opening ceremony, two groups and at least a semi-final] into a lasting and permanent legacy for the people of the Western Cape?
I believe that the Cabinet Lekgotla, following discussions with SAFA and the City has taken the first step towards this goal by confirming the Athlone stadium as the primary venue for World Cup 2010 in this Province.
WC 2010 represents an unprecedented economic opportunity to consolidate the Western Cape as a premium tourist destination on the global map. However, it is much more than that. WC 2010 is also an opportunity to kick-start key infrastructure investments, pivotal to our economic growth and equitable social development, including the upgrade of the N7 and the commencement of the road to Agulhas.
The implementation of the Klipfontein Corridor must reach fruition before 2009. It also gives new meaning to the N2 Gateway. The N2 Gateway Project is more than just houses and it is certainly more than just Joe Slovo. In the context of the Athlone Stadium and Klipfontein Corridor it is the renewal of the Cape Flats, central to which is the re-conceptualisation of our public Transport infrastructure.
We therefore envisage a Public Private Partnership to construct a public transport link between the airport and the central city, a long overdue requirement if we are to solve the long-term structural problems of traffic congestion. In other words Mr Speaker, in just five years the heart of Cape Town can be transformed beyond recognition.
Beyond the bricks and mortar of WC 2010, if planned and managed consciously and if we harness the spirit of the beautiful game, it could be the catalyst for alternative lifestyles amongst the youth of our province, beset by HIV – AIDS, drugs, gangs, crime and hopelessness. Every school, every classroom, every play ground in all our communities, must fall under the magical spell of soccer and sport in general. This kind of social revolution will require that we seize the inherent opportunity for social cohesion. WC 2010 must become our metaphor for the Home for All.
WC 2010 has to be the highpoint of Cape Town’s endeavour to be a destination for world-class sport. Rugby World Cup 2011 is next on our agenda. The Commonwealth Games of 2014 come to mind. The incremental building of our sport, transport and social infrastructure may yet mean that Cape Town will again throw its hat into the ring for the 2020 Olympic Games.
Developmental Capacity of the State
We have been reminded again the past week that we continue to suffer severe capacity constraints in the public sector. This is seriously undermining the realisation of sound policies and clearly defined delivery targets. The President has set a tough, no-nonsense tone in his recent speech. The capacity to implement our programmes must be the priority for the next year. We expressed our determination to build a developmental state that is smart, strategic and effective with a civil service that is not only representative of the people they serve, but possesses the appropriate skills and attitudes for the developmental objectives of government. It is because of this that we commissioned research to test the awareness, knowledge and understanding of our staff about the provincial growth and development strategy, iKapa Elihlumayo.
The findings of the perception survey were both sobering and encouraging. 45% of our staff had not heard of iKapa Elihlumayo, but more than 90% knew there was a provincial plan in the making. This is significant given that Ikapa Elihlumayo is still under construction. What is worrying though is that 54% of those who knew about iKapa did not think the strategy will affect the way they and their departments will function in the future. Mr Speaker, we clearly have our work cut out for us to achieve understanding and commitment to the new agenda we are building.
In response to these realities about the state of the state, we want to announce a range of priority interventions for this year:
- We will carry out an extensive survey of our staff to understand why the civil service has not universally shown enthusiasm for the new agenda embodied in A Home for All and iKapa Elihlumayo. We should not simply assume laziness or opposition, but also test the efficacy of our own communication with staff and our own ability to convince them that the new approach, the new skills required, the new attitude informed by Batho Pele, and a commitment to service excellence are the very qualities we require.
- We will conduct skills audits to help us understand how best we can match capacity to delivery priorities, and send a signal to every staff member that we are willing to invest in them as people and employees but driven by the priorities and needs of the state. We cannot afford long leave and paid study leave for people whose studies do not add value to the developmental state.
- We will re-tool our training institutions such as the Cape Administrative Academy. It is vital that these institutions and the network of tertiary training providers support the effective implementation of iKapa Elihlumayo.
- We believe that Staff Imbizo’s are vital instruments to allow everyone in the organisation to engage with the vision and policies of provincial government, and a number of Staff Imbizo’s will be undertaken over the next three months.
- We will implement a comprehensive and fair Performance Management System that has teeth. The days when civil servants are equated with laziness, indifference and rudeness is over. In close partnership with the Public Service Commission we will fast-track the establishment of service delivery standards for all our departments within the next year. The public will be able to use these service standards as a tool to hold us accountable.
- This is the year that we implement our Employment Equity Strategy with determination. The national Task Team deployed from Minister Fraser-Moleketi’s department is feverishly working to meet our deadline of March 2005 for a comprehensive strategy on the matter.
More than that we are also realising that certain well meaning tools of government are being perverted by mere technical compliance. One of these is the Performance Management System where we all simply go through the motions. Following this Adress, performance agreements between Ministers and their departmental heads must be ratified by the Premier. Performance outcomes, targets and indicators can no longer be general and nebulous. They must be hard, measurable, and tightly related to the strategies of iKapa Elihlumayo. More importantly, they must be constructed in a way that ensures that the Head of Department cascades them down in a managed and accountable manner.
Inter-Governmental Relations
Last week in his State of the Nation address, President Mbeki reiterated the centrality of local government in a harmonised system of inter-governmental development planning and delivery. He stressed that: “Cabinet is working to align the National Spatial Development Perspective with the Provincial Growth and Development Strategies and the municipal Integrated Development Plans.”
Giving effect to this has been the crafting of the Inter-Governmental Relations Bill which will pass through Parliament later this year. It is this Bill that institutionalizes the relationships between the spheres of Government and ensures synergy in both planning and implementation.
In anticipation of this Bill becoming law, I will convene the first Premier’s Intergovernmental Forum (PIF) by April 2005 to realize the objectives of finding the synergy between the NSDP, iKapa Elihlumayo and the various IDPs of the municipalities in the Western Cape, the outcome of which will see aligned, co-ordinated action on Project Consolidate and the two Presidential nodes as well as refining our co-operation in mounting the greatest effort to overcome the housing backlog through the Integrated Human Settlement strategy.
The Premier’s inter-Governmental forum will be the ideal forum to bring greater coherence and decisiveness to the operations and delivery of our municipalities, and allows us to address the governance and capacity challenges that still hinder some municipalities in the Province. We cannot tolerate budgets not being spent, especially in terms of housing and infrastructure, or procurement distortions when they are meant to be beyond reproach.
Social Dialogue and Partnership
It is a given in our participatory democratic system that the agenda spelt out in this address must be carried forward in partnership with civil society and the private sector. We are pleased to report that we successfully convened the second Growth and Development Summit on the 28 January 2005. The foundation was laid to deepen implementation of the agreements reached at the inaugural Growth and Development Summit just over a year ago. This achievement also reinforces the importance of the Provincial Development Council as a dialogue space where we can air our differences but also find common purpose in improving the quality of life of all our people. I am therefore delighted to confirm that I signed off on the new PDC members yesterday. A public announcement will be made early next week once we have informed all the incumbents.
Furthermore, Mr Speaker I can also announce that nominations for the Youth Commission will commence on Friday, 25 February 2005. Given the 72 days needed from nomination to installation, we are confident that come Youth Day we will have a body in place that can draw together all the interest groups around youth. We will have a Youth Commission that can shape government policy and allocations with regard to learnerships, internships, youth projects and so forth.
Given the gender-based nature of much of our social pathologies in this Province, and the continued marginalisation that women face from the mainstream of society and the economy, we cannot be satisfied simply to protect women from violence and abuse. But 2005 must the year in which we replicate national government’s dialogue programme and ensure that Western Cape Women in Dialogue becomes a forum pursuing the economic empowerment of women, and the restoration of full dignity and equality in society for women. The natural consequence must be a strong Women’s Movement with a voice of its own.
International Relations
With the expansion of our economy into the global market with new opportunities and relationships, we have the potential not only of attracting new investment, but also to open up new markets. To this end we will visit Africa, China and India to strengthen and increase ties. The Western Cape must choose its priority international partners. This year will see the active pursuit of the NEPAD agenda as the province reconnects with Africa.
We must become full and active partners as an African province in realising the African renaissance. Mr Speaker, President Mbeki has tasked our Province to play a central role in the project to preserve, restore and make known a unique collection of twelfth century manuscripts in Timbukthu, Mali. We will host a fundraiser toward the erection of a permanent museum for the manuscripts that will be built by a consortium of contractors from our Province.
In Conclusion
When we took up office in May 2004 we immediately embarked upon a 100 day delivery programme. We did this to address the most urgent priorities in the Western Cape but also to win the trust of a people made cynical by the instability of successive Western Cape governments. But we also did it because we know that true progress must be objective driven and measurable. We achieved 90% of our targets within our first 100 days. We did not rest on our laurels and immediately commenced with a new set of targets for April 2005. We call this our Easter Campaign and we intend to meet our targets.
However, whilst we work on the laying the foundation stones for intra- and inter-generational prosperity we must also ensure service delivery acceleration and efficiency in the short-term. In light of this I have tasked each Cabinet Minister to demonstrate the resolve of this government.
Minister Stali is tasked with reviving school sports, getting all our children exercising at school again, playing at least one sport and ensuring that teachers do not rush home at 2pm but stay on to organise the afternoon programmes. This is the only way to change the lifestyle of the youth.
Minister Ramatlakane continues in his efforts to reduce violent crime and deaths on our roads. We have set him the targets of doing so by 7% and 5% respectively, and getting the 400 railway policy visible and active on our trains.
Minister Essop will deliver by April the Provincial Spatial Development Framework as the foundation of our entire planning system and as the guarantee that planning legislation will no longer be perverted by corruption and manipulation.
Minister Mqulwana will fulfil our pledge to our children that they be protected and given a headstart in life through the upgrading of 120 Early Childhood Development centres which will commence before Easter.
Minister Brown will continue opening the frontiers of entrepreneurship by opening five new Red Doors in Atlantis, Hermanus, Beaufort-West, Oudtshoorn and Paarl.
Minister Dugmore’s targets for April are that he commences the building of seven new schools so that they are ready for next year and by Easter 320 out of 432 schools will have fully equipped computer laboratories.
Minister Skwatsha has the target of coordinating the delivery of 16 000 Expanded Public Works Programme jobs as this year’s contribution to our overall Growth and Development Strategy target of 120 000 over five years.
Minister Dowry will ensure the transfer by April of 5000ha of land to 500 historical disadvantaged farmers, assisted by 63 agricultural development officers.
Minister Uys will ensure the improvement of services and the reduction of waiting times at a total of 15 community health centres by April and will open the first dedicated HIV/AIDS Clinic in Gugulethu.
Minister Fransman would have delivered 15 000 serviced sites and 9 000 new built houses for the current financial year, effectively spending the full budget and the R150m rolled over from the previous financial year.
In other words, Mr Speaker, this is a government that focuses simultaneously on doing the right thing for the long-term without compromising on the importance of delivering on the immediate needs of our people. Obviously, such a strategy is not without tension and challenge but this is precisely why it should be abundantly clear that only this government, at this time, has the inherent capability to pull off this historical feat.
In 1955 when our people gathered to draw up the Freedom Charter after canvassing opinion across the length and breadth of the country, they knew that you must take the long view and remain rooted in the conviction that what they were committing to the charter can and will find fruition, even beyond their own lifetimes. Helen Josephs’s eloquent and passionate testimony to this spirit was expressed as follows:
I could feel the strength and indomitable purpose of these people as they marched in … They had come to this congress to hear, to discuss and to adopt their own charter for the future, born of their heartaches and their hopes … It was a simple beginning for a charter which has proved indestructible, which refuses to die, despite sporadic bannings of sundry editions of it … A printed piece of paper can be banned but not the ideas expressed in it.”
Today we can say in the Western Cape that the ideas expressed on a piece of paper in Kliptown fifty years ago will find resonance in our strategy of shared growth, iKapa Elihlumayo, and our vision of a Home for All.
