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Budget Speech 2012/13

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Address by the Acting Premier of the Northern Cape Province, Ms Grizelda Cjiekella, on the occasion of the tabling of Budget vote 1 of the Office of the Premier to the Provincial Legislature on 31 May 2012

Honourable Speaker
Members of the Executive Council
Members of the Provincial Legislature
The Director General of the Northern Cape Provincial Government
Mayors and Councillors, Distinguished Guests
The Community of the Northern Cape
Comrades and Friends
_________________________________

Kindly allow me to deviate from the essence of my address for just a short while. I am certain that both as South Africans and as citizens of the Northern Cape, you will find my reflections and comments relevant to and befitting an occasion such as this.

Honourable Speaker

I stand before you as a child and daughter of this great and wonderful Province called the Northern Cape;

I stand before you as an African woman who only 19 years ago, together with the vast majority of South African citizens, was considered an inferior citizen by the apartheid junta;

I stand before you as a mother who not only wishes the best for her children, but for all the children of the Northern Cape; and in so doing, reinforcing the noble aims and objectives of Child Protection Week;

I stand before you, with every ounce of the humility I possess, as a woman Acting Premier;

And lastly, but more importantly, Honourable Speaker, I stand before you as a product of our glorious Movement of the People in the form and stature of the African National Congress, whose policies and teachings became and are currently central to the lives of the greater part of the South African population from that seminal and epoch-making day on 8 January 1912.

Honourable Members

From a national and indeed a Provincial perspective, and in adhering to the Ruling Party’s programme to mark its centenary Celebrations, today marks the last day of the month in which we are celebrating the life and times of one of the Presidents of the African National Congress, namely, Pixley Ka Isaka Seme.

He was correctly described as an orator, lawyer, author and an intellectual of note.

In proclaiming the renewal and success of the African continent, he said:

“The brighter day is rising upon Africa. Already I seem to see her chains dissolved, her desert plains red with harvest, her Abyssinia and her Zululand the seats of science and religion, reflecting the glory of the rising sun from the spires of their churches and universities.

Her Congo and her Gambia whitened with commerce, her crowded cities sending forth the hum of business, and all her sons employed in advancing the victories of peace- greater and more abiding than the spoils of war. Yes, the regeneration of Africa belongs to this new and powerful period! It therefore must lead to the attainment of that higher and advanced standard of life”.

At this moment, it is also apt to reflect on the commemoration of Africa Day on 25 May, for it was on this day in 1963 when leaders of our Mother Continent converged to give birth to the Organisation of African Unity, which is now called the African Union.

And in hailing the prophetic words of Tata Pixley Ka Isaka Seme, when he said, and I repeat: “The brighter day is rising upon Africa. Already I seem to see her chains dissolved, her desert plains red with harvest, her Abyssinia and her Zululand the seats of science and religion, reflecting the glory of the rising sun from the spires of their churches and universities”, please join me, Honourable Members, in applauding the efforts of each and every person who contributed to Africa and indeed, our very own Northern Cape Province, as being the preferred site for the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) radio telescope.

However, in order to be inclusive, the SKA Organisation agreed to consider constructing one of the three SKA receiver components in Australia. Two will be constructed in Africa. A meeting of the members decided to split the project which is an unexpected decision given the search for a single site. We had hoped the unambiguous recommendation of the SSAC would be accepted as the most sound scientific outcome. We accept the compromise in the interest of science and as acknowledgement of the sterling work done by our scientists and the excellent SKA project team.

An important aspect of the site decision, Honourable Speaker, is the recognition of the MEERKAT telescope being designed and built in the Northern Cape by South African scientists and engineers, as a critical step towards the implementation of the SKA. The MEERKAT will supplement the sensitive SKA Phase 1 dish array, providing a majority of the collection area of what will be the most sensitive radio telescope in the world.

Honourable Speaker, given the positive developments with regard to the SKA and our provincial economy, we have an excellent opportunity to define the type of University we want, taking into account areas such as science, astrology, technology and renewable energy.

Indeed, in our collective excitement pertaining to the exact location of the University, we are pleased to note that barring the unforeseen, the announcement will be made within this quarter.

Honourable Speaker, major infrastructural projects for the country, including the Northern Cape Province, was announced by President Jacob Zuma in his State of the Nation Address.

As a Province we can expect major infrastructural projects which will be funded by National Government. The Sishen Iron Ore line is such a major project and, as a matter of course, the Province will benefit from various downstream projects.

Honourable Speaker, in my capacity as the Acting Premier of the Northern Cape Province, I hereby present for consideration of this august House the Budget Vote of the Office of the Premier.

The Office of the Premier has many functions imposed on it by the constitution of our country and a number of other pieces of legislation.

One of the functions that the Office of the Premier is charged with is the task of ensuring and facilitating policy coherence in the Province. It is this office, in whatever it does, that ensures policy coherence throughout the provincial government and whether such policies are in accordance with national imperatives. The Premier’s Office must ensure that these policies support the overall objectives, programmes and outcomes of government. We clearly need to enhance the government machinery to move swiftly in changing inconsistent policies, mitigating those policy options that breed unintended consequences, recognise that such outputs exist and at the same time to manage them accordingly. In doing and carrying out these policy functions, the Office of the Premier furthermore needs to ensure that contradicting policy outcomes that are not in tandem with government objectives are minimised and eliminated if and where possible.

Honourable Speaker

It is therefore by way of the above assertion that we endeavour to ensure that the Provincial Spatial Development Framework, in partnership with the National Department of Rural Development, is concluded by July 2012. Consequently we are working together with the same department to ensure that the landscape of old order legislation, including the current National Development Facilitation Act and the Northern Cape Planning and Development Act are in the process of being reviewed and or repealed so that we come up with a totally new Provincial Spatial Planning and Land Use Management Legislation dispensation that will ensure integration, with coherent policies that will lead us to a structured provincial vision with clear measurable targets and programmes that will facilitate the achievement of better outcomes.

It will be in this financial year that all efforts will be pursued to develop and arrive at Provincial Vision 2025. It is this imperative that will see us in this financial year moving to define what challenges are facing the Northern Cape, what kind of Province we want to build and what kind of province our people want within the context of a long term plan.

Honourable Speaker, we have agreed that by the end of this financial year we would have a fully functioning Provincial Nerve Centre which will, figuratively speaking, stand on three legs, namely planning, monitoring, evaluation and spatial referencing of data commonly referred to as GIS. This will allow us to institutionalise the planning function in the Office of the Premier within the broader context of the Provincial Administration.

Honourable Speaker, the Office of the Premier must also monitor and evaluate the government programme of action. Central to the monitoring and evaluation of the government programme of action is the co-ordination of all efforts. This function finds expression through the Provincial Executive Council being led by the Premier, Exco Clusters, both Political and Technical and special or task oriented Exco committees, HOD Forums, Premier’s Intergovernmental Relations Forum, other co-ordinating forums led by the Office of the Premier, and the provincial government budget process.

We are therefore obliged to move in the direction of developing the Provincial Government’s capabilities to monitor the overall performance of government and its agencies, evaluate the impact of programmes and raise the alarm where performance is not up to the expected levels and to get and or commission appropriate interventions.

Honourable Speaker

In the interest of enhancing our co-ordination, monitoring and evaluation functions, the Premier’s Office has procured an electronic Monitoring and Evaluation System for the Provincial Administration that will provide the necessary eagle’s view on what is happening in our Province from a government perspective.

Honourable Speaker, I now draw your attention to the imperatives of institutional development of the state in terms of organisational synergy and skills development, both for the public and private sectors to put our province onto a new economic growth path.

In this financial year institutional development will concern itself with creating an efficient, effective and development oriented public service and an empowered, fair and inclusive citizenship. With what we have been allocated, we will indeed focus on matters of ensuring quality service delivery and accessibility thereto. It is our firm view to ensure that all service delivery centres will conduct service user satisfaction surveys to get feedback from the citizens on public services. Furthermore, the Office of the Premier will in this financial year, in partnership with all relevant stakeholders, develop geographic access norms for services rendered by the Provincial Government.

Honourable Speaker

We will also step up our efforts of responsiveness aimed at improving service delivery standards of departments and at the same time improving waiting and turn around times at some departments and service delivery points. We will ensure, through the Frontline Service Delivery Programme, that such challenges are accordingly resolved. Frontline Service Delivery will constitute our main tool in monitoring and evaluating access to services, service satisfaction and improving service delivery standards. To this end, we have already developed a 2012/2013 service delivery points visitation programme.

We have for the new cycle already ensured compliance with regard to the submission of Service Delivery Improvement Plans by all sector departments signed off by the respective MEC’s. Government deserves value for money in what it seeks to do for our communities. As a critical element we will partner and work closely with Provincial Treasury to assess all services provided, programmes and projects on the principle of whether we are receiving value for money. We will, together with Provincial Treasury, compile quarterly reports on sector departments to explore the value for money principle.

Honourable Speaker

We will furthermore enhance our business process systems, rights and delegations to ensure full implementation and compliance with Promotion of Access to Information Act (PAIA). As a consequence of this, our anti-corruption initiatives and capacity will be enhanced. To this end, we have as a Provincial Government facilitated an accredited training programme for supply chain management practitioners that commenced in October 2011.

Honourable Speaker

In line with the Forum of South African Directors General Plan for improving service delivery through changing the way government works, we are in the process of completing a similar plan in the Province. The focus of the plan would be to ensure and improve administrative and managerial efficiency and effectiveness in areas which are within the powers of accounting officers.

Honourable Speaker, in the review of the Annual Performance Plan of the Office of the Premier, we have conceived and nurtured a mindset that we, in partnership with all sector departments and municipalities, are going to ensure that our government does things to change the lives of our people for the better.

This office is about ensuring and facilitating policy coherence and coordination, strategic and long term planning to give rise to a coherent provincial vision in order to enhance the capacity of the state to deliver through institutional development. For these and other functions of the Office of the Premier we have been allocated R150, 419 million for 2012/2013.

This allocation is divided as follows in three programmes that constitute Vote 1.

Programme 1- Administration’s share is R64, 179 million.

Programme 2 – Institutional Development’s share is R51, 647 million; and

Programme 3 – Policy and Governance’s share is R34, 593 million

With this budget we would pursue our vision of a safe, democratic and prosperous province with an empowered, diverse and inclusive citizenry.

Honourable Speaker

Goods and services amount to 32% of the total budget figure. Our transfer payment in terms of the percentage of the total allocation translates to 11% and capital payments stand at 1%. Allow me therefore, Mr Speaker, to look at the allocations as per the specific programmes and sub programmes. The intention of Vote 1 is to provide strategic leadership, direction and coordinated planning, monitoring and evaluation of developmental programmes to improve the quality of life for all the people of the Province.

To attain its vision and mission, the Office of the Premier is guided by the strategic goals which find expression in the three programmes that constitute Vote 1. Furthermore these three programmes are made up of twenty sub programmes.

Programme 1, which is called administration, is made up of the following sub programmes:

Premier’s Support: Its purpose is to provide efficient and effective personnel, strategic, operational, administrative and secretariat support to the Premier. The strategic objective of this sub programme is to ensure that the Premier fulfils her constitutional, statutory and political obligations and to implement the electoral mandate through providing effective and efficient support and assistance to the Premier. The total budget allocated to Premier’s Support in fulfilment of all its strategic functions is R11, 005 million.

The next sub-programme under Programme 1 called Administration is Director General’s Support. The strategic objective of this sub- programme is to improve provincial government operations through providing strategic co-ordination, oversight and logistical and committee support services to the HOD’s structures and other sub-sub structures of the Provincial Administration.

The budget allocates an amount of R15, 522 million for all these critical but strategic functions.

In all organisations that span over years of existence, security and records management constitute an important element to preserve the corporate memory and provide for a safe working environment. The Office of the Premier is no exception, thus for Security and Records Management, which is the third unit under Programme 1, a budget allocation of R7, 711 million is made.

In wrapping up the allocations as budgeted for all units under programme 1, we are now going to provide a brief indication of the units that deal with Executive Council Support and Financial Management.

The purpose of the Executive Support Unit is to provide strategic, policy and operational support to the Executive Council through secretariat services, programmes, decision management and implementation to enable the Executive Council Clusters to function optimally. As a result, the Executive Council Support Unit is allocated R4, 630 million to ensure and improve the effectiveness of the Executive Council through rendering quality secretariat and administrative services to the Executive Council, its Committees and to facilitate outreach services for engagement with the communities of the Northern Cape.

Honourable Speaker, it is our commitment that we, as an office, are committed to ensuring that our financial management must be in good health. It is also our commitment to encourage and inspire all other sector departments to look up to us in the manner in which we manage our financial resources. This unit has been allocated a budget of R25, 311 million to manage our total allocation of R150, 419 million.

Programme Two is Institutional Development. As indicated earlier this is about the capacity of the state and improving and strengthening that capacity. The functions under this programme as embedded in Outcome 12, range from:

Organisational arrangements, design and redesign;
Employment, training, human resources management and Employee health and wellness;
Salaries and conditions of service;
Labour relations and legal services;
Information management and technology; to
Transformation and change management.

For all the strategic co-ordination to enhance our strategic human resource responsibilities, an amount of R1, 455 million has been set aside.

In dealing with all the above, institutional development constitutes nine different units. Its purpose is to co-ordinate and provide strategic leadership to all provincial departments with regard to transversal corporate issues to enhance transformation of the public service. Consequently Human Resource Administration is budgeted to receive R4, 952 million to manage and co-ordinate the human resource administration function provincially and in the Office of the Premier.

The Human Resource Utilisation and Capacity Development objective is to ensure skills development, and effective employment entry into the public service, performance management and development of policy in the human resources arena. It also renders human resources development and performance management services and ensures full compliance with all relevant policy imperatives and legislation in the public service and the Office of the Premier. Furthermore, to ensure co-ordination and support is provided to all provincial departments on Human Resources Development and Performance Management strategy matters, this unit’s slice of our total budget allocation is R15, 007 million.

To ensure that we provide professional organisational development services to contribute to continuous service delivery improvement, Honourable Speaker, an amount of R4, 062 million has been allocated. With this money, we will monitor and evaluate legislative compliance with all provincial departments in relation to organisational design and job evaluations. This will be done with a view to obtaining organisational efficiency and effectiveness.

Our Labour Relations Unit has been given an amount of R2, 486 million to ensure sound labour relations and industrial stability through effective dispute management, collective bargaining and support to this Office and all Provincial Government Departments.

Our workforce needs to be kept healthy, thus our Employee Health and Wellness Unit concerns itself with these imperatives, namely the implementation of the HIV, TB and STI Management of the National Strategic Plan and Employee Health and Wellness Strategic Framework. The other is the implementation of Safety, Health, Environment, Risk and Quality Management of the Employee Health and Wellness Strategic Framework. For this work this Unit has been allocated R2, 586 million.

Information Communication Technology’s main purpose is to provide strategic IT Management and support to this Office and all other provincial departments. The technical support function to the Finance Unit’s supply chain management section for the procurement of IT goods and services, as well as the management of information technology assets, comes from this unit. This unit is also involved in the South Africa-Finland Programme to develop an inclusive provincial information society strategy and implementation plan aligned with the National Information Society and Development Plan. Moreover, this unit is also responsible for the Thusong Service Centre Programme in the Province. To pursue its purpose and functions, the budget makes an allowance of R10, 189 million.

The Legal Services Unit, which provides legal advisory services with regard to litigation, contracts, legal opinions, drafting and certification of legislation, is given a budget of R5, 377 million. This money will be utilised to ensure that comprehensive and well co-ordinated legal advisory services are rendered to this Provincial Government to ensure compliance with the law.

Communication Services has an overaching responsibility to provide an efficient and effective communication function to enable the Premier, Exco, the Director General, HOD’s and all other government Senior Management Members to attend to and communicate the strategic goals of government in the execution of their duties. Citizen engagement and public participation, as described by Outcome 12, is a responsibility further undertaken by this unit. As a result, this unit receives a total budget allocation of R3, 205 million.

At this point, I consider it relevant to state that, Mr Speaker, since the inception of the Presidential Hotline in 2009, a large volume of calls have been received by the Northern Cape Provincial Government indicating both the need for such a service and the eagerness of citizens to interact with Government. Amidst some challenges that are still being experienced with respect to the service, these need to be addressed urgently by Departments and Municipalities to improve service delivery.

The matters reported are mainly of a service delivery nature namely: Water, Housing, Roads, Health and Electricity. Given the fact that most of these services are rendered at the coalface of government; we are also highly reliant on responses from the municipalities and need their assistance in giving priority to the queries raised.

The Communications Directorate, which is responsible for the Presidential Hotline, is thus embarking on a process of training Public Liaison Officers at municipal level on how to use the IT-based system so that they can start playing a more direct role in attending to calls assigned to them.

As the Provincial Government we remain steadfastly committed to the smooth functioning and success of the Hotline as a means to improving the lives of our people.

The Programme Support function, under Institutional Development, with its purpose being to provide strategic, administrative and management support to the DDG: Institutional Development, as well as the co-ordination and management of all units under this programme, has been allocated R2, 328 million.

Honourable Speaker, programme Three is made up of the following units:

Intergovernmental Relations, International Relations, Official Development Assistance and Protocol
Monitoring and Evaluation
Provincial Policy Management; and
Programme Support

The purpose of programme three is to strategically manage policies and strategies towards the achievement of sustainable provincial growth and development, and the monitoring and evaluation of the Government Programme of Action. We have indicated earlier that Programme Three has been allocated an amount of R20, 965 million for 2012/2013.

Honourable Speaker, kindly allow me to proceed to show this esteemed House how that big figure has been divided amongst all of the sub- programmes under this programme.

Intergovernmental Relations, International Relations, Official Development Assistance and Protocol is responsible to manage and co-ordinate provincial intergovernmental relations, including the African Peer Review Mechanism initiatives, international relations, the activities of the official development assistance programme and protocol services. This unit needs to ensure that there is provincial compliance with the IGR Act of 2005. Moreover this programme must ensure that provincial compliance, including our municipalities, adhere to the country’s international relations policies and that such engagements assist us to attain the Northern Cape’s development targets. The work of this unit needs to be driven by intergovernmental relations forums, thus it will be busy this financial year to look at all such forums, align them and ensure that a provincial IGR Framework is in place. Furthermore this unit is concerned with the facilitation and improvement of protocol implementation and capacity in the Provincial Government. For this work, the unit has been allocated a budget of R1, 931 million.

Government is very serious in improving the way in which government does its business. We have seen the department of Performance Monitoring and Evaluation in the Presidency undertaking a number of initiatives to shape the way government works. Similarly the Office of the Premier has set-up a Monitoring and Evaluation Unit to monitor and evaluate governments performance against National and Provincial priorities and targets.

For this financial year, this unit will do the following:

Provide strategic, policy direction, monitoring and support for EPWP, Frontline Service Delivery and Management Performance Assessment Tool initiatives.
Formulate and align the provincial programme of action in relation to the SONA, SOPA and the respective budget speeches of all MEC’s. This will ensure that the Premier’s Office plays a critical and leading role in ensuring the implementation of commitments and plans as outlined in the State of the Nation Address, State of the Province Address and the various budget speeches of MEC’s.

The budget has therefore made allowance for a total amount of R4, 307 million for the work of monitoring and evaluation. This amount should not be seen in isolation as we have indicated that the work of M&E is being institutionalised in all sector departments and municipalities. As we proceed with this work, we will have a much better view of the total provincial investment in the work of M&E throughout the Province.

Honourable Speaker, in view of certain challenges and in an effort to facilitate our work, we will host an Monitoring and Evaluation Indaba to:

Formulate a Provincial Monitoring and Evaluation Framework
Devise a seamless electronic monitoring and evaluation system that will take into account the bare essentials with regard to systems that are currently in use at both municipal and departmental levels.

Honourable Speaker, our Provincial Policy Management Unit is constituted as follows:

Special Programmes;
Policy Co-ordination, Research and Development; and
Development Planning.

The work of Special Programmes is to co-ordinate and facilitate the creation of an enabling environment for empowerment, advancement and socio economic development for Women, Children and Persons with Disabilities in the Northern Cape. This unit also endeavours to successfully assist in the transformation of the public service in the province in line with Batho Pele principles. To do this work, this unit will also see to the protection and promotion of human dignity, equity, freedom for women, children, persons with disabilities and the restoration of the moral fibre of our society through partnerships with all sector departments and municipalities and other social partners. The allocations have been made out of a total budget of R20, 965 million as follows for all sub-sub programmes under the sub programmes called Special Programmes:

Special Programme Directorate – R3, 046 million
OSW R7, 251 million
ORC R3, 381 million
OSPD R3, 245 million
MRM R4, 042 million

Policy Co-ordination, Research and Development will continue to co-ordinate the strategic planning function in the Office, co-ordinate performance information and ensure integrated policy implementation in the Provincial Administration. This will be done through the creation of an enabling environment for effective governance and service delivery through the maintenance of a stipulated set of policies. This unit will improve the accountability through the establishment and maintenance of integrated planning and reporting mechanism. The budget’s provision for this unit amounts to R3, 756 million.

The Development Planning Unit’s share of the total budget of the Office is R1, 677 million. With this allocation, the unit will, as its primary responsibility, enhance the harmonization, integration and alignment of planning between all three spheres of government.

The Programme Support Unit of Programme 3, is responsible for providing strategic leadership, co-ordination and support by giving guidance and facilitating processes for developing programme plans, implementation, reporting on performance and assessing performance of components in achieving programme objectives. R1, 957 million has be allocated to this programme.

Honourable Speaker, the transfer payment which we indicated earlier on constitutes 11% of our total allocation which translates to R16, 621 million. These transfer payments are mainly for the Premier’s Bursary Trust Fund and the Mme re ka Thusa Women’s Development Trust Fund.

Out of this allocation, the Premier’s Bursary Trust Fund receives an allocation of R12, 861 million.

The good work of the Premier’s Bursary Trust Fund will continue to be supported. In the financial year 2011/12 the Trust awarded loans and/or bursaries to 354 beneficiaries. Out of that number 27 beneficiaries completed their studies in 2011. This year the fund awarded loans and/or bursaries to 175 new beneficiaries in the following institutions of higher learning: Universities, Universities of Technology, National Institute of Higher Learning and Further Education and Training Colleges.

The Mme Re Ka Thusa Women’s Development Trust Fund receives a transfer budget payment of R3, 760 million. The aim of the trust fund is to develop women in the Northern Cape, particularly those in the rural areas to sustain themselves. The board of trustees is in place and the Office is in the final stages of appointing staff.

Honourable Speaker, this concludes how prudently we have made our allocations to the various programmes and sub programmes of the Office of the Premier. Our total budget allocation of R150, 419 million is given to us to do all of the things we have mentioned above.

Honourable Speaker, kindly allow me this opportunity to extend my sincere thanks to the Premier, Mrs Hazel Jenkins, in her absence, for her leadership and guidance; to all the MEC’s for their unwavering support; to the Director-General, Advocate Justice Bekebeke, and his dedicated team who have perfected the art of slicing the cake in proportion to needs; and the Chief of Staff in the Private Office of the Premier, Mrs Ramona Towell and her team, for their continued support, often under very trying conditions.

As I conclude, Honourable Speaker, let me urge all of us to work together to realise a better life for all the people of the Northern Cape. In having reached our mid-term mark of the current electoral term, I can confidently say that this administration has fulfilled major aspects of its mandate. We are also mindful that much more work still has to be done. As an inclusive government, I am certain that we can count on all government sectors and the broader community of the Northern Cape to work in unison in order that shortly we will realise our full socio-economic potential as a province.

I Thank You

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Budget Speech 2013/14

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Office of the Premier Budget Speech 2013

Address by the Premier of the Northern Cape Province, Ms Sylvia Lucas, on the occasion of the tabling of Budget Vote 1, at the Northern Cape Provincial Legislature, 30 May 2013

Mr Speaker and Deputy Speaker
Members of the Executive Council
Members of the Provincial Legislature
Mayors and Councillors
Traditional Leaders
Distinguished Guests
Comrades and Friends
Ladies and Gentlemen

I am honoured to present to you the Budget Vote 1 under the auspices and custodianship of the Governing Party, the African National Congress. It is the responsibility of this Office as the pinnacle of provincial government to coordinate and strengthen all government institutions on a province wide basis.

On behalf of the leadership collective, allow me to express our sincere gratitude to the former and much-loved Premier of the Province, Ms Hazel Jenkins, for her loyal service to the people of the province. Premier Jenkins always consulted widely and served all our people in an inclusive manner. It is through her laudable efforts that we consolidated the operational machinery of the provincial government.

As the apex of provincial government, our constitutional obligation is to serve the public with humility and contribute towards the creation of a better life for all. We have travelled a long journey towards the transformation of the public service for effective service delivery. Effective service standards have been put in place, developed and adhered to.

The ANC-led government Ladies and Gentlemen, has made decisive interventions to improve the quality of life of the people of our country and indeed our home province. We have made tremendous achievements to deliver to the majority of our people, basic essential services such as water, electricity, education, health, roads and rail infrastructure while simultaneously increasing the absorptive capacity of our economy to create more jobs and employment. We have intensified our battle to liberate the people of our country from the shackles of poverty, disease and under-development.

Mr Speaker, human resource development programmes have been developed and systems for information dissemination are in place. Every attempt is made to ensure that the principles of “Batho Pele”, which means putting our people first, are adhered to.

We will continue to facilitate and promote productive investment to achieve economic growth through stimulating the development of the respective economic sectors.

We are also committed to investing in housing and infrastructure to raise living standards, improve health standards and create jobs. We will, together with our communities, provide clean water, electricity and shelter to our people.

Through our collective and relentless efforts, we will strive to make a qualitative difference in the lives of women, children, the disabled and the elderly.

In true partnerships with civil society and faith-based organisations, we will together forge a common approach to safety and to renew our society’s moral character and standing. The partnership against HIV/AIDS was given further impetus when every sector of civil society recommitted itself to help turn the tide against the HIV/AIDS scourge.

Mr Speaker, through our performance monitoring and evaluation system we will also strive for continuous improvement in service delivery. Our mission is to work with all stakeholders to improve government performance in achieving the desired outcomes and to improve service delivery through changing the way government works, both in a creative and innovative manner. We are transforming government into an effective organisation which constantly collects evidence to gauge whether its policies and programmes are working, and as a consequence, we use this evidence to inform interventions we make.

As we apply ourselves to these and other tasks, we will be guided by the National Development Plan which seeks to radically transform the economy that will benefit all South Africans. It seeks to do so while protecting existing jobs and through creating millions more.

The National Development Plan proposes that we should enhance economic growth, significantly increase our exports to generate surpluses for investment, transform our education system to enable more people to benefit, increase employment to tackle poverty and inequality, and implement a broader social wage to enable the poor to participate more fully in the economic mainstream. The plan also provides the most coherent proposals to date to improve the effectiveness of the state.

Ladies and Gentlemen, in 2012, the South African Government adopted a National Infrastructure Plan that intends to transform our economic landscape while simultaneously creating significant numbers of new jobs, and to strengthen the delivery of basic services.

The Strategic Infrastructure Projects (or SIPs) cover social and economic infrastructure across all nine provinces (with an emphasis on lagging regions). These18 SIPs include catalytic projects that can fast-track development and growth. Work is being aligned with key cross-cutting areas, namely human settlement planning and skills development.

One of the main SIPs in the Northern Cape is the SIP 5 Saldanha-Northern Cape Development Corridor and focuses on the expansion of iron ore mining production and beneficiation, as well as an integrated rail and port expansion.

Another SIP in the Northern Cape is SIP 16: SKA & Meerkat. SKA is a global mega-science project, building an advanced radio-telescope facility linked to research infrastructure and high-speed ICT capacity and provides an opportunity for Africa in general, and South Africa in particular, to contribute towards global advanced science projects.

SIP 8 deals with Green energy in support of the South African economy. Its aim is to support sustainable green energy initiatives on a national scale through a diverse range of clean energy options as envisaged in the integrated resource plan. In the New Growth Path, renewable energy and development of the associated green economy has been identified by the Presidency as one of the key means to address socio-economic imbalances in the country.

For this reason, the IDC was appointed by the Presidential Infrastructure Coordinating Committee as the provincial coordinator for SIP 8, while the Office of the Premier established a Renewable Energy Forum which ensures proper coordination and alignment of all renewable energy initiatives.

The Province is in the final phase of the development of a renewable energy strategy for the Northern Cape. The Province sees the opportunities of the Renewable Energy Industry and its significant spin-offs as an opportunity to transform the economy, while raising levels of social and material wellbeing of the Province.

SIP 14 deals with Higher education infrastructure, focusing on lecture rooms, student accommodation, libraries and laboratories, as well as ICT connectivity. It will also develop university towns with a combination of facilities from residence, retail to recreation and transport. There is also potential to ensure shared infrastructure such as libraries by universities, FETs and other educational institutions.

Mr Speaker, we are presenting this budget vote during the month of the 50th celebration of the Organisation of African Unity. The Organization of African Unity (OAU) was established with the cardinal objective of promoting the unity, solidarity and cooperation of African States to achieve a better life for the people of Africa. Since its inception, the OAU and now its successor, the African Union, has not only contributed to the total liberation of Africa from the vestiges of colonialism and apartheid but has also provided a unique framework for Africa's developmental agenda.

The budget explicitly sets out the Office of the Premier’s priorities to respond to the plight of our people, especially the poor and the marginalised sectors of our society. It also establishes priorities for the use of scarce resources and allocates them to specific programmes, activities and projects. It also strives to maintain sound and prudent financial management practices.

The total budget allocation of the Office of the Premier is R167.828 million, which is a decrease of R 1. 6 million or a 1% percentage decrease from last year. Goods and services amount to 28% of the total budget figure. Our transfer payment in terms of the percentage of the total allocation translates to 10% and capital payments stand at 1%. The Office of the Premier is divided into three Programmes and their budget allocations are as follows:

Programme 1: Administration with an allocation of R75.324 million
Programme 2: Institutional Development with an allocation of R61.184 million
Programme 3: Policy and Governance with an allocation of R31.320 million

Ladies and Gentlemen, in order to meet with its Constitutional obligation, co-ordination of government policy implementation and programme of action, the office ensured that the following governance matters took place through its institutional corporate governance structures such as the Executive Council, Heads of Department Forum, Provincial Makgotla, Premier’s Intergovernmental Relations Forum and Cabinet Clusters, to mention just a few.

The Office of the Premier played a central co-ordinating role throughout the financial year and will continue to do so on matters affecting the entire Provincial Administration on key projects and initiatives around the five policy priorities of Government; namely:

Education;
Health;
Rural Development and Agrarian Reform;
The fight against crime; and
Creating decent work.

Mr Speaker, allow me to report on some of the highlights in the previous financial year that were carried out as part of our co-operative governance arrangements. Those that are worthy of mention are the launch of the Square Kilometre Array (SKA), the Deputy President’s War on Poverty, the National Heritage Day Celebrations and the National Council of Provinces visit to the Province.

In order to stimulate province-wide economic development, the Director General facilitated project interventions that included the Northern Cape University Steering Project Committee, engagement with mines regarding the John Taolo Gaetsewe Development and solar energy projects in Upington.

As part of the Province-wide intervention the Director General also established a Joint Financial Management team that facilitated the Department of Health to in implement its Financial Recovery Plan.

I can also report that strides have been made through Operation Clean Audit in line with the 2014 Operation Clean Audit vision. To date, six municipalities were identified for priority attention to be taken out of qualified audit opinions to unqualified audit opinions. The focus areas of the intervention were in the compilation of asset registers and GRAP compliance in compiling Financial Statements.

Mr Speaker, Education is seen as the foundation of every prosperous and progressive community, society and nation. It is on this premise that the Northern Cape Provincial Government is committed to ensure that we wholeheartedly, and with the resources at our disposal, invest in the education and development of our young people both in and out of school.

The Provincial Government views as extremely critical the need to assist students who cannot further or complete their studies due to a lack of finances. This is also in line with ensuring that we build a suitably qualified and skilled youth corps in our Province.

To this end, 487 young people have received assistance through the Premiers Trust Fund; of which 159 new students and 328 continuing students from various parts of the Province were granted bursaries to take up further study at universities, colleges and Further Education and Training (FET) Colleges for the 2013 academic year. The funding covers costs for registration, tuition and study material. The Northern Cape Premiers Trust Fund will continue to fund academically deserving students that form part of the scarce skills identification programme of the Provincial Government.

Mr Speaker, the Mme re ka Thusa Women Development Trust was successfully re-launched during February this year under the theme “An era to intensify the struggle of women against poverty”.

The Trust was established to help expedite the advancement and economic development of female entrepreneurs across the Province. This is in accordance with the Millennium Development Goal of halving unemployment and eliminating poverty and capacitating women with the relevant skills, expertise and resources.

The board of Trustees is in place and the office has finalized the recruitment of operating personnel. During this year the Trust, in partnership with the regional SEDA office, embarked on an outreach programme aimed at marketing its services and products to women in all five districts of the Province.

Ladies and Gentlemen, during this financial year we will execute our responsibilities within the parameters of our budgetary constraints and maintain prudent fiscal discipline in terms of the staff component and our programme of action.

The Office will continue to make its input and contributions in various fora in order to ensure the success of the project to establish a university in the Province by 2014.

The role of the Premier’s Support sub-programme is to provide efficient and effective personnel, strategic, operational, and administrative and secretariat support to the Premier. The strategic objective of this sub programme is to ensure that the Premier fulfils her constitutional, statutory and political obligations and to implement the electoral mandate through providing effective and efficient support and assistance to the Premier. The total budget allocated to Premier’s Support in fulfilment of all its strategic functions is R15.133 million.

In order to continue its existing institutional corporate governance arrangements, the Executive Council Support through secretarial services, provides strategic policy and operational support to EXCO and EXCO Clusters in order for them to function optimally. For this work, the unit has been allocated a budget of R7.352 million. This unit is also responsible for the management of the Executive Council outreach programme; which liaises with communities to understand and report back on their needs as well as monitor responses from national and provincial Departments.

As a means of ensuring better coordination, the Provincial AIDS Council has been moved to the Office of the Premier to oversee Government intervention efforts to combat the AIDS epidemic. This newly established unit has been allocated R3.7 million for this financial year.

The Provincial Operation Clean Audit Committee, under the custodianship of the Director General, will continue with its efforts of improving audit outcomes at Provincial and Local Government level. The committee intends to consolidate all assessment efforts done per municipality and will summon each municipality to account to the Executive Council. Certainly, consequences will follow should there be no positive and tangible action after the accounting session in turning around the situation for the better.

The Office of the Director General also ensures that the Provincial Government functions efficiently by providing strategic coordination, logistical and committee support to the Heads of Department structure, as well as other substructures of the Provincial Administration. To successfully carry out this work the office has been allocated R13.154 million.

No office can exist without sound financial management and the Financial Management Unit is always up to the task. The unit is responsible to effectively and efficiently manage and administer the resources of the Office of the Premier in complying with all relevant legislation and prescripts, thus achieving fiscal discipline and a healthy and transparent state of financial affairs, as well as influencing positive audit outcomes for the office. Due to the stricter implementation of internal controls regarding procurement, the Financial Management Unit was able to decrease irregular expenditure in comparison to the previous year. The budget allocated to this unit is R27.227 million.

The Security and Records Management Unit ensures that there is accountability and enhanced transparency through the implementation of sound Records Management Systems, telecommunications and messenger services. The unit also contributes to improved productivity through provision of a safe and secure working environment. This unit has received an allocation of R8.758 million.

An institution’s soundness can also be measured by its Human Resource Management. Critical to this function in the office is to coordinate and provide strategic leadership to all Provincial Departments with regard to transversal corporate matters to enhance transformation of the public service.

The key focus of the Human Resource Administration component is to manage and co-ordinate the human resource administration functions in the Office as well as provincially. One of the highlights of this unit has been the Persal functionality which improved the accuracy, reliability and integrity of information through the Persal Clean-up initiative. This saw a reduction in the vacancy rate from 35% to 15%. The unit, as the co-ordinator of the HR Forum, also advised other departments on HR compliance issues. For this financial year HR Administration has received R3.828 million.

Mr Speaker, given the serious skills disparities that continue to exist in our Province, we must equip our people with skills that will enable them to participate effectively in the socio-economic mainstream of our country. We are still witnessing a very high youth unemployment rate and it is incumbent upon us to widen access to learning, and employment opportunities.

Of concern, Ladies and Gentlemen, is the plight of the large numbers of young people dropping out of the general schooling system, the Further Education and Training (FET) and higher education institutions, with some joining the labour market that they were never prepared for.

A province-wide Human Resource Development Strategy will be developed, approved and implemented to comply with Outcome 4. As a result, the Human Resource Development Unit has been allocated R21.862 million in order to render human resource development and performance management services to ensure compliance with all relevant policy imperatives.

Mr Speaker, the Office of the Premier is also tasked with various Provincial transversal co-ordinating roles such as ICT, Communication, provision of legal services and monitoring and evaluation.

We have successfully implemented a Finnish funded initiative, namely the Information Society Programme (INSPIRE), in our country. Through INSPIRE, we developed a Northern Cape Information Society Strategy, using the Foresight methodology and will shortly be submitted to the Provincial Executive Council for consideration.

In the coming financial year, we will implement the Corporate Governance and Governance of Information Technology Policy Framework, thereby ensuring that our Information Systems are aligned to our business goals. To carry out this work, the unit has been allocated R10.998 million.

The strategic objective of the Legal Services unit is to render a comprehensive, co-ordinated legal advisory service to the Northern Cape Provincial Government. Support in terms of litigation, contracts, legal opinions, drafting and certification of legislation are provided. The work performed by this unit, in essence, leads to good governance as per Outcome 12 and enhances service delivery. For this work, the unit has been allocated an amount of R5.242 million.

The Employee Health and Wellness unit is a workplace intervention and monitoring unit that provides informed, responsive and research based leadership that will ensure successful implementation of wellness programmes in the Province. The unit is also responsible for co-ordinating workplace programmes of the Sexually Transmitted Infection National Strategic Plan. They have received an allocation of R 2.792 million.

Ladies and Gentlemen, during the previous financial year, as part of Women’s Month the unit, in conjunction with the Cancer Association, hosted an information sharing session to enlighten staff about the various cancers that they need to be aware of. For this financial year the unit has been allocated an amount of R2.792 million.

Mr Speaker, a key aspect of the work of the Communication Services Unit during the previous year was communication linked to Output 12 of the outcomes based performance model. This included work done regarding media liaison, production of media adverts and events management services.

Key communication activities included assistance provided to the Presidency with the successful War on Poverty outreach programme that was held in the Siyancuma Municipality. The unit also played a key role in assisting the Department of Sport, Arts and Culture with the programmes for Commemorative Days. A highlight during the year under review was the successful hosting of the National Heritage day celebrations which was led by the Deputy President, Mr. Kgalema Motlanthe. The unit also played an instrumental role during the successful launch of the national 16 Days of Activism Campaign, which was attended by the Minister of Women, Disabilities and Children, Ms Lulu Xingwana.

In an effort to expedite follow-up and resolving queries received through the Presidential Hotline, the Communications Unit serves as an interface between the various Government Departments and Municipalities. The work done in relation to this has seen more queries being resolved effectively and resulted in a turnaround in the performance rate from 46% in January 2013 to 95% by January 2013, thereby placing us in third position compared to other Provinces.

During this financial year the unit will seek out unique and innovative ways to continue to manage and promote programmes through communications and marketing campaigns, production of media and provision of media production services for the Office of the Premier, as well as the Northern Cape Provincial Government. The unit will also endeavour to promote development communication through direct interactive communication with Northern Cape communities and provide the public with access to information.

Also on the agenda for the unit will be to develop and implement the Northern Cape Provincial Government communication strategy, with the assistance of various departmental communicators, through the Cluster working process of government to ensure effective communication of common messages. For this work they have received an allocation of R3.842 million.

The Programme Support unit ensures an efficient and effective developmental provincial government through provision of management support to all units in the programme. One of the highlights of this unit was the coordination of the repositioning of the Public Service in the Northern Cape as a means of professionalizing the Public Service. This unit has a budget allocation of R3.097 million.

As a means of contributing towards continuous service delivery improvement, the Efficiency Services unit provided professional organisation development support by ensuring that Provincial Departments comply with the legislative framework on organizational design. As part of their provincial oversight function to ensure consistent application of job evaluation processes across all Departments, the unit performed quality assurance on behalf of eight departments and two public entities. They have a budget allocation of R4.545 million.

The Labour Relations Unit in the Office of the Premier is responsible for ensuring sound labour relations and industrial stability through effective dispute management, collective bargaining and support to Provincial Departments. They also played an integral role by facilitating and monitoring the Pension Redress Project for Public Service officials. Their allocation for this financial year is R3.462 million.

Mr Speaker, The Programme Policy and Governance Unit is responsible for strategically managing policies and strategies towards the achievement of sustainable growth and development, as well as monitoring and evaluation of the Government Programme of Action. Added to this responsibility is the management and co-ordination of Provincial Intergovernmental Relations, including the African Peer Review Mechanism, International Relations and official development assistance and the maintenance of Protocol. Their budget is R2.176 million.

The Monitoring and Evaluation capability of the office will be greatly improved as work has begun on a province-wide nerve centre, which will be fully operational during the second quarter of this financial year. This will improve the collation of and quality of information received from local and Provincial Government departments relating to specific outcomes and outputs. An allocation to the tune of R11.945 million has thus been awarded to the Provincial Policy Management Unit.

The Nerve Centre will be a centralized data-sharing hub where all departments will upload the data under their control. The data will be shared with all other government departments. There is also a public view where non-sensitive data can be accessed by the general public.

The Nerve Centre will for the first time provide a common platform where government’s performance can be measured. It is envisaged that the Nerve Centre will have a walk-in self-service facility where Members of the Executive Committee, Heads of Department and other managers can access reports through a simple touch-screen environment.

Mr Speaker, the Special Programmes Unit is responsible for coordinating the programmes of all sectors, be it Government, civil society or Business that are aimed at the restoration of the moral fibre of society. They also act as the Secretariat for the Moral Regeneration Movement and drive the programmes of Transformation or Batho Pele in the Province. The latter is Government’s contribution towards the overall process of transformation and renewal in our country.

A highlight of the work undertaken by this sub-programme during the previous financial year was the launch of the Techno Girl programme. The Ministry of Women, Children and People with Disabilities adopted Techno Girl as a key government programme in terms of the Ministry’s mandate to drive Government’s Gender equity, equality and empowerment agenda. The programme is aimed at developing interest in the sectors of engineering and technology. Girls from especially historically disadvantaged backgrounds are encouraged to focus on subjects such as Maths and Science. Currently there are 59 companies participating in the programme, with Transnet having an intake of 1300 girls. In the Province there are 119 girls in the programme and the target for this year is 500. During the launch of the programme last year one of the learners, Boitumelo Olifant, said that she assisted Transnet with marshalling a train and how to drive it. She also highlighted the importance of taking up Maths and Science. For this year the Special Programmes Unit has been given an allocation of R14.885 million.

Mr Speaker, given the fact that our budget has been reduced by a baseline of R10.255 million over the 2013/14 MTEF period; we had to do a thorough reprioritization exercise in terms of goods and services so as not to negatively affect policy priorities and core spending activities.

The Office of the Premier is determined to ensure that the machinery of state is geared towards serving the people in keeping with the vision of Batho Pele. This transformation of the state must also be matched with a corresponding change in society, including the private sector and other important institutions in civil society.

During the inauguration of President Jacob Zuma in 1999, he stated that everything we do must contribute in a direct and meaningful way to the improvement of the lives of our people.

He called upon us to make a commitment here and now, before the eyes of the world, and I quote, that:

“For as long as there are South Africans who die from preventable disease;
For as long as there are workers who struggle to feed their families;
For as long as there are communities without clean water, decent shelter or proper sanitation;
For as long as there are rural dwellers unable to make a decent living from the land on which they live;
For as long as there are women who are subjected to discrimination, exploitation or abuse;
For as long as there are children who do not have the means nor the opportunity to receive a decent education;
For as long as there are people who are unable to find work;
We shall not rest, and we dare not falter.

Let’s get back to work to ensure that our people enjoy the fruits of freedom.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I now present to the House the Budget of the Office of the Premier for consideration and adoption.

I thank you

: 12 September 2019; Hits: 3472; Rating:

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Budget Vote 1 by the Premier of the Northern Cape, Dr. Zamani Saul

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12 September 2019
Frances Baard District Municipal Chamber in Kimberley

Honourable Speaker and Deputy Speaker of the Northern Cape
Honourable Members of the Executive Council

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Budget Vote 1 2022(Office of the Premier) Delivered by the Premier of the Northern Cape Province,Dr Zamani Saul, at a House Sitting held at the Carnarvon Primary School, on 28 June 2022

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Honourable Speaker and Deputy Speaker.

Members of the Northern Cape Provincial Legislature, Colleagues in the Executive Council

The leader of the opposition Honourable MacGluwa

Our Honourable Chief Whip Neo Maneng

The leader of the Freedom Front Plus Honourable Member Danie Coetzee

Chairperson of the South African Local Government Association – SALGA

Our Traditional Leadership

Executive Mayors, Mayors and Councillors

Leaders of different Political Parties

The Director General, Senior Government Officials and Staff

Members of the Media

Distinguished Guests

Ladies and Gentlemen

Madam Speaker we are in a beautiful town of Carnarvon, I was here few weeks back together with the MEC of Finance, Economic Development and Tourism to handover R10 000 cheques to 44 small businesses. This was in addition to the equipments that the Department of Small Business Development gave to these SMMEs. We pray that they will put that little injection to good use to sustain and grow their businesses. The Department of Economic Development and SEDA have also issued business support to these SMMEs.

There are few other projects that are coming to this area; the renovation of the Carnarvon Community Health Centre, the contractor will be on site next week. The Department of Human Settlements is currently working on a housing development project here in Carnarvon and the full details will be communicated to the municipality before the end of the year. Another big project that is directly related to the SKA is the construction of the Visitor’s Centre costing about R63 Million. The Consulting Engineers have been appointed, designs finalised and construction is expected to start in 2023. The Department of Roads and Public Works will implement routine Road Maintenance projects in Kareeberg Municipality on DR 2996 and MR 768 between Carnarvon and Vosburg.

Madam Speaker; we are delivering this budget vote in the month of June as we celebrate the 46th anniversary of the Soweto Uprisings, which was declared as Youth Month by our democratic government. The 1976 generation of young people have set this country on a revolutionary course of no return. As they fought boldly and uncompromisingly against the brutal system of Apartheid. They braved the gun to make sure that generations after them inherit and enjoy freedom.

This year we also commemorate the 30th Anniversary of the Boipathong Massacre. On that fateful night on 17 June 1992, 45 people were massacred by the Apartheid regime. These barbaric acts of brutality must never be repeated against an unarmed and vulnerable community in a democratic South Africa. On the 26th of June, this past Sunday we also commemorated the 67th anniversary of the Freedom Charter. The Freedom Charter was adopted in 1955 at Kliptown and contains ten cardinal principles of the country that we are building.

Madam Speaker and Honourable Members; recently Chief Justice Zondo handed over the final two volumes of the Judicial Commission of Enquiry into Sate Capture report to the President, Honourable Cyril Ramaphosa, this report revealed the extent to which our public sector is marred with rampant fraud, corruption and lack of ethics. The scourge of fraud and corruption impedes government’s capacity to render quality public services. Corruption steals and robs from the poor.

Madam Speaker and Honourable Members; the report clearly reflects multiple challenges that confront our government, which relate to amongst others, lack of transparency, accountability, and efficiency. Corruption and maladministration have flourished in government public procurement processes, despite extensive government training and development attempts in this area. This can be linked to a failure to adhere to sound ethical conduct in the execution of public tasks.

The Sixth Administration, faces the monumental task of overhauling the functioning of public institutions, implementing effective whistle-blowing mechanisms to combat corruption, and encouraging public managers and representatives to follow ethical guidelines. Transparency, accountability, and ethics, which are crucial factors for effective public service delivery, should form the foundation of good governance principles.

Those who have been found to be involved in the massive syphoning and looting of state resources, must face the full might of the law and be frowned upon by the people. We must deal with the corrosive effects of corruption, where the pace of service delivery is seriously hampered and the trust of our communities is diminishing by the day. The onus therefore rests on us to build a capable developmental state that is ethical, efficient, effective and is geared towards people centred development.

Notwithstanding these challenges, we have made significant progress in improving the lives of our people in the last 28 years since the advent of our democracy and we will not be deterred in our commitment to continue of this path.

Madam Speaker; the COVID-19 pandemic still remains and continues to impact on the provincial socio-economic environment. Despite the various challenges it brought, the pandemic has forced us to sharpen our oversight and strategic leadership roles and provide the necessary support to the Provincial Administration.

Madam Speaker; in supporting the Provincial Administration, the Office of the Premier is required to provide strategic leadership and ensure policy co-ordination and development, planning priorities, driving government performance through monitoring and evaluation and ensuring alignment of priorities between the various spheres of government to ensure integrated governance and eliminate fragmentation.

Madam Speaker and Honourable Members, according to the StatsSA Quarterly Labour Force Survey of the first quarter of 2022 the Northern Cape had lower unemployment rates in comparison to the national average. The total number of employed individuals increased from 264,000 in 2021 Q4 to 321,000 in 2022 Q1, representing an increase of 57,196 or 21.6 in percentage terms. The year-on-year increase was 8,131 jobs translating to 2.6 percent increase. There has also been improvements in the labour force participation rate to 52 percent year-on-year from 50.2 percent.

These figures represent a decline in the unemployment rate quarter-on-quarter to 24.9 percent from 25 percent in the previous quarter. Madam Speaker; discouraged decreased from 136,000 quarter-on-quarter to 122,000. As the Provincial Government we welcome this 5.7% decrease in expanded unemployment. This decrease in unemployment speaks directly to the GDP growth that we experienced in the past three years from R98 Billion to R122 Billion

The formal non-agricultural sector increased employment the most quarter-on quarter by almost 48 400 jobs and the agriculture sector by over 8 300. The informal sector on the other hand expanded employment by just under 6 000 jobs; the sector has been consistent in adding to jobs over the recent period and shows great potential having also contributed the greatest share year-on-year at 11 410 jobs.

Government services continue to be the largest employer with over 105,000 employees constituting roughly one-third of provincial employees. The mining sector’s strong recovery has added a substantial number of jobs quarter-on-quarter at 19,760 with still positive job creation year-on-year of over 1,200. We anticipate that the announcement of the new bid windows in terms of the renewable energy programmes and some critical high impact projects in the province will further add to the creation of quality jobs in our province.

Madam Speaker and Honourable Members; we continue to work tirelessly to position the Northern Cape as an investment destination in the country. Earlier this year we witnessed a massive investment by the Vedanta Zinc International Gamsberg Mine in Aggeneys situated in the Khai Ma! Municipality in the Namakwa District. This investment is worth R7 Billion for the development of the second phase of mining in the area. This project will create more than 2000 jobs for our people.

Honourable Speaker; in our efforts for socio-economic growth we must seriously look at addressing Youth Unemployment. We can do that by ensuring proper coordination and integration of all our efforts both in the public and private sector. We are looking at various ways to strengthen this coordination and integration as there is an urgent need to direct opportunities to youth development and empowerment.

Madam Speaker; efforts are underway to position the Northern Cape as the Green Hydrogen (groen waterstof) Hub in South Africa. We have recently returned from two successful outbound missions to solidify our investment for two Green Hydrogen projects in the Province namely the Boegoebaai Green Hydrogen and the Prieska Power Reserve Green Hydrogen Project.

We visited the plants in Germany and had fruitful engagements with companies like the ThyssenKrupp Group in Essen and Siemens Energy for an investment valued at R9,7 billion. This investment will further contribute towards job creation in the province, particularly in the Siyathemba Municipal area. Furthermore; the province took part in the Green Hydrogen Global Assembly and Exhibition in Barcelona and Berlin, where we participated on a panel of Ministers of Energy and Mining from African countries presenting the opportunities in the province that makes us one of the leaders in the Green Hydrogen space in South Africa.

Madam Speaker, youth development is at the core of our developmental agenda and our focus will remain to drive innovation and skills development in growing our economic sectors. As part of our skills development programme in collaboration with our SETA’s and business we have 10 000 youth in various skills and employment programmes. The programmes are targeting both employed and unemployed youth in the Province and we are working in partnership with strategic stakeholders including the TVET Colleges, Community Colleges and Higher Education Institutions. We are convinced that this will go a long way in capacitating and empowering our youth to participate in the main stream and informal economy.

Madam Speaker and Honourable Members; as part of our objective to ensure that all departments obtain unqualified audit opinions with no findings, the Province has established an Operation Clean Audit Committee chaired by the Director General. For the audit cycle of 2020/21, the province achieved 3 clean audits (Office of The Premier, Department of Social Development & Provincial Treasury), 6 Unqualified with findings and 3 qualifications with no adverse findings nor disclaimers. We targeted 5 additional departments for improved outcomes for the 2021/22 audit cycle.

In the same breath, Madam Speaker and Honourable Members, we wish to applaud the Audit Outcomes of 5 of our municipalities that have shown a turn-around and consistency with the MFMA Audit Outcomes for 2021.

The Northern Cape is the second best performing province after the Western Cape with five (5) Clean Audits for MFMA Audit 2020/21 Financial Year in the following municipalities: Frances Baard District Municipality, John Taolo Gaetswe District Municipality, Namakwa District Municipality, ZF Mgcawu District Municipality and the Hantam Local Municipality.

This is a clear indication that the work of the Operation Clean Audit is bearing fruit, moving forward we will intensify our efforts to further improve on our PFMA and MFMA Audits. This undoubtedly shows the improvement in the levels of ethical leadership and sound financial management that our Government subscribes to. These outcomes place us in good stead to advance priority 7 of the MTSF 2019-2024 which is building “A Capable, Ethical and Developmental State” at Provincial level.

Madam Speaker, the Office of the Premier in partnership with the Department of COGHSTA, continue to work closely with municipalities and our national Champions to ensure the implementation of the District Development Model. Progress regarding the institutionalization of the District Development Model is coordinated through the Provincial Intergovernmental Relations Forum in order to ensure that we deliver faster and smarter services in an integrated manner as mandated by our communities. We are happy with the active role played by the District Champions in coordinating the work in the different districts.

All five (5) Districts have submitted credible ‘One Plan – One Budget’ Business Plans in line with the guidelines of the District Development Model. The launch of the District Development Model in the Province will take place during this financial year.

Madam Speaker; in our efforts to enhance the developmental capacity of the state, we can report that plans to remodel the Department of Roads and Public Works, establish a Northern Cape State-owned construction company, State-owned mining company and phased-insourcing of security and cleaning services is starting to take shape and are at various stages of implementation. We remain committed and positive to see this come to fruition. The operational plan to implement the recommendations of the feasibility study for the remodelling of the Department of Roads and Public Works and the establishment of the State-owned construction company was extensively consulted upon and approved. We are convinced that the implementation of these initiatives will improve service delivery in our Province.

Madam Speaker and Honourable Members; we have successfully merged the Department of Agriculture and the Department of Environment and Nature Conservation into one department now called, the ‘Department of Agriculture, Environmental Affairs, Rural Development and Land Reform’. Similarly, we have smoothly shifted the function of Early Childhood Development from the Department of Social Development to the Department of Education without any major hurdles.

The rationalisation of public entities is at an advanced stage and will be concluded as soon as all legal processes have been followed. The registration of the state owned Construction Company will be finalised by end of July this year.

Madam Speaker, we continue to coordinate the HIV/ AIDS and tuberculosis programme through the Provincial Council on Aids. The Council also promotes intergovernmental relations and stakeholder management between the three spheres of government in the province. We successfully hosted the World TB Day 2022 programme in Barkly West on 23 & 24 March 2022, which was addressed by the Honourable Deputy President Mr. D.D. Mabuza who is also the Chairperson of SANAC.

Madam Speaker and Honourable Members; Gender-based Violence and Femicide has been identified as the second pandemic ravaging the South African society. We This has called for government, civil society and the business sector to work together in a coordinated manner to eradicate this scourge. Gender Based Violence transcends social and economic boundaries and affects women and girls of all socio-economic backgrounds. Failure to address this issue will bear a significant cost for the future, not only economically but also in the cohesion of society.

Madam Speaker; We have developed a Provincial GBVF Implementation Plan in order to address this multi-faceted phenomenon plaguing our communities. The objective of this plan is to provide a multi-sectoral, coherent strategic policy and programming framework to ensure a coordinated Provincial and local response to the crisis of Gender-based Violence and Femicide.

Madam Speaker, As part of our program to build institutional capacity we have appointed Heads of Departments with effect 1st July 2022 at the following Departments; Roads and Public Works, Sport, Arts & Culture, Transport, Safety & Liaison and Provincial Treasury. Processes are currently underway for the filling of the other vacant HOD posts.

Madam Speaker and Honourable Members; The Provincial Programme of Action is aligned to the Provincial Growth and Development Plan and the Medium Term Strategic Framework 2019-2024. This alignment ensures that there is a deliberate effort to adhere and give expression to the 7 priorities of government’s overarching policy framework which is derived from the Electoral Mandate of 2019 and the National Development Plan – vision 2030.

These plans are coordinated and driven from the Office of the Premier to ensure that we fulfil our constitutional mandate in guiding the programme of action of the Northern Cape Provincial Administration.

Madam Speaker, despite persistent budgetary challenges, especially in the past 2 years due to the devastating impact of Covid-19 on the economy and our fiscus, we managed to achieve the following :

A. Consistent financially unqualified Audit Opinions with no findings and a record surplus presenting a positive bank balance in the previous financial year.

B. Strong and Functional co-ordinating structures in the provincial administration such as the Executive Council, HOD Forums, Clusters with the necessary Technical Forums. These structures are guided by a well crafted Governance Model that seeks to coordinate and align the programmes of government in the province.

C. The performance of the Provincial Administration is further bolstered by the establishment of well functional Monitoring and Evaluation approach through its Performance Monitoring System, to ensure the departments are held accountable for service delivery commitments made to the people.

D. We were able to finalize and approve the Provincial Growth and Development Plan – vision 2040, which serves as a blueprint for spatial integration and ensuring that we realize the vision of building “A Modern, Growing & Successful Province.

E. We managed to successfully launch the Provincial Growth and Investment Council and took the Council members through an Induction workshop that clearly articulated our developmental trajectory as a province. The council will drive the facilitation of our social compacting between government, business, labour, academia and civil society to commit, prioritise and implement measures required to support our socio-economic development trajectory.

F. Similarly, we have developed and adopted the Provincial Spatial Development Framework as required by the Spatial Planning, Land-Use Management Act (SPLUMA), which is further cascaded down to municipalities to guide with their development projects.

G. The Northern Cape Province has an approved HRD strategy, which is aimed at growing our skills base in the Province, especially as it relates to youth empowerment. To effect its implementation, the department unpacked the strategy’s implementation plan to identify all key role players. Implementation is unfolding through the Provincial Skills Development Forum.

H. We have updated our Institutional Policies and Strategies by developing the following:

Integrated Governance, Coordination and Service Delivery Model (IGCSDM),

Provincial Gender-Based Violence & Femicide Implementation Plan,

Provincial Plan of Action for Children and a

Provincial Sanitary Dignity Implementation Plan.

I. The Provincial Web Based Performance Information Management System (PIMS) was successfully implemented in the 2021/22 financial year.

J. The centralization of all bursaries to the Office of the Premier in order to build capacity in the Province to respond to the vision of Government in a coordinated and integrated manner has been finalised. We have concluded the process of converting the loans to full bursaries and we have finalized the process of writing-off of all the loans worth of R150 million.

Madam Speaker: The Provincial Information Technology Shared Service Centre (ITSSC), will be productively utilized to enhance effective service delivery in our Province. The ITSSC serves as a vehicle to drive information technology, digitisation and the Fourth Industrial Revolution. These are amongst the projects that we are immensely proud to have delivered in accordance to the commitments that we made as the 6th Administration when we assumed office.

Honourable Members, the Office of the Premier (OTP) has successfully institutionalized Quarterly Performance Reviews to ensure continuous structured engagements with departments on their performance. The performance reviews have been executed within the administrative and political domains, thereby strengthening the political and administrative interface as it further supports and informs the Premier’s Bilateral Engagements with Members of the Executive Council (MEC’s).

Madam Speaker and Honourable Members; over the MTEF period, the Office of the Premier intends improving the coordination of government departments to ensure that policies are implemented in line with national (NDP) and provincial (PGDP Vision 2040) development agenda. This entails the institutionalization of planning through the Governance Model.

The Governance Model will also strengthen and enhance:

Planning Coherence

Alignment of Planning and Budget

Joint Planning and Budgeting

Integrated planning aligned to the District Development Model.

Madam Speaker; the OTP led the Evaluation on the War on Poverty Programme in conjunction with the Department of Social Development. The evaluation outcomes of this project will be finalized and be made available by August 2022.

Madam Speaker and Honourable Members; at a municipal level, the Province, through the Office of the Premier and CoGHSTA; has put in a tremendous effort to ensure that our municipalities have a sound foundation for development in terms of adopting SPLUMA compliant Spatial Development Frameworks as well as municipal Land Use Schemes. The combined implementation of these two critical instruments enable municipalities to plan their space into the future, while also managing land and developments to ensure that the developmental vision and objectives are reached.

Madam Speaker; In terms of Land Use Schemes, fourteen (14) municipal Land Use Schemes were developed over the past year through a combined effort of the National Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development and the Office of the Premier. With the adoption of these Land Use Schemes, the Province will meet the national legislative timeframe that requires municipalities to adopt Land Use Scheme by July 2022.

The completion of these projects should increase the Province’s compliance in terms of Section 24 of SPLUMA from 35% in 2021 to 100% compliance in 2022. Madam Speaker and Honourable Members; the new Land Use Schemes will have a positive impact on increasing property values, stimulating business development and ultimately improve revenue in municipalities. Furthermore, in collaboration with the National Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development as the Office of the Premier, we have managed to secure funding for the development of three (3) District Municipal Spatial Development Frameworks as well as an additional two (2) Local Municipal Spatial Development Frameworks.

Madam Speaker; the Office of the Premier has been given additional functions with no corresponding funding, this as a result of fiscal constraints and budget cuts. This has resulted in inadequate Human Resource capacity. The capacity constraints, in terms of human and financial resources, affect the overall performance of the OTP.

Madam Speaker and Honourable Members; the organisational structure review is in the process of being finalised in consultation with the DPSA, in the current financial year, 2022/2023.

Madam Speaker and Honourable Members; as I conclude, allow me to outline the Budget of Vote 1. The total 2022/23 budget allocation for the Office of the Premier is R 262.7 million. The work of the Office of the Premier is divided into three programmes namely Administration, Institutional Development and Policy and Governance:

Programme 1: Administration, is allocated R 116.1 million

Programme 2: Institutional Development, is allocated R98.8 million

Programme 3: Policy & Governance, is allocated R 47.8 million,

Madam Speaker, part of the overall budget includes the following transfer payments;

R8,049 million is transferred to the Mme Re Ka Thusa Trust Fund.
R10 million is transferred for the Information Technology Shared Services Centre (ITSSC),
R15,3 million towards the Northern Cape Premiers Education Trust Fund
R5 million for the implementation of the a Comprehensive Communication Strategy

As I conclude Madam Speaker, let me pass to the residents of the Northern Cape a message I received last night from the Provincial Deputy Chairperson of SADTU, James Mabotsa that “protection and preservation of community facilities and infrastructure is very important to sustain our developmental trajectory”. This is an important call taking into cognisance the sheer scale of destruction of public infrastructure. Deputy Speaker let me also pass a word of gratitude to all my honourable colleagues in this house, both sides of the aisle, for your contribution and support to our work. People of the Northern Cape did not elect us to be friends, but to be colleagues working together to ensure growth in our province.

It is my honour and privilege to table before this august House, the 2022/23 budget vote for the Office of the Premier for appropriation

I thank you.

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Closing Address of the Northern Cape Provincial Legislature

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Closing Address of the Northern Cape Provincial Legislature by the Honourable Premier of the Northern Cape, Mrs Hazel Jenkins, 08 December 2011, Provincial Legislature

Honourable Speaker and Deputy Speaker
Members of the Executive Council
Members of the Provincial Legislature

As we bring this final sitting of the legislature to a close for the year 2011, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to all the committed Members of the Legislature who made the Legislature run so smoothly.

I would also like to thank you for your inspiring, constructive and robust debates in this house which clearly demonstrated that we have the capacity to deliver basic services to all our people.

Honourable Members, we are encouraged by the important role that the Legislature plays in the democratisation of society as it is there to represent the voice and the interests of our people. As public representatives we have the responsibility to ensure that this institution plays a critical role in passing effective legislation, and oversight of government, as well as coming up with legislation to improve the living and working conditions of our people.

Honourable Speaker, the ANC government is at the cutting edge of ensuring that the attributes of the developmental state are realised by all spheres of government. It is our central task to ensure that we develop policies that will ensure rapid service delivery and economic growth.

The ANC-led government’s overwhelming popular mandate is to tackle poverty, under-development and to respond to service delivery challenges facing the province as whole.

Together with the people, the ANC-led government prioritised:

The creation of decent work and sustainable livelihood
Massive need to build economic and social infrastructure
The need to improve the quality of education
Focus on improving the health profile of our people
The need to enhance the standard of living of the rural poor
The need to fight crime and corruption that is so pervasive within our society.
A comprehensive rural development strategy linked to land and agrarian reform and food security.
We will expand the youth programme to involve young people in productive initiatives, provide sporting facilities across the communities of the province to ensure their active involvement in sports.

Here in the Northern Cape we stand by our commitment to meet the province's immediate priorities and expand the economy and maintain sound fiscal management.

Honourable Members, what I know and can say without any equivocation is that during this year, our province has, in real terms, and within its means, moved further forward towards tackling poverty and underdevelopment. The Northern Cape Provincial Growth and Developmental Strategy seeks to build a prosperous, sustainable growing provincial economy to eradicate poverty and improve social development for a caring society.

Progress has been made in some key areas such as the hosting of the Transport Investors’ Conference to source investment for the key transport infrastructure projects and to enter into Private Public Partnerships with the private sector, the launch of the Kimberley International Diamond & Jewellery Academy to achieve economic diversification, growth, employment, skills creation, and provide entrepreneurial opportunities and GDP contribution by unlocking investment, the hosting of the Expanded Public Works Summit (EPWP) which is one of the key direct interventions in alleviating and even contributing towards halving poverty by 2014 in line with the Millennium Development Goals and the staging of the Maloof Money Cup – the World’s greatest skateboarding Championship, to mention but a few.

In addition, we continue to strive to strengthen the democratic state so that it is able to drive the developmental agenda aimed at the creation of a non racial democratic society, the attributes of which should, amongst other things, be the attainment of national unity and social cohesion as well as the improvement in the quality of life of our people.

As we undertake these tasks, we are cognisant of the fact that the overall capacity of the state to deliver and lead development and socio-economic transformation is crucial to the agenda of creating a better life for all. At coalface of delivery, municipalities are a vital cog in the government machinery to bring about local economic participation, infrastructure development, job creation and the provision of basic services such as water, sanitation and electricity.

In conclusion, I would also like to wish you, your loved ones and your family a happy and peaceful festive season. I encourage all of you to support the 16 days of Activism of no violence against women and children which started on the 25th of November 2011. This campaign remains a pivotal one in creating awareness on the social ills and economic disparities still confronted by women.

Travel well comrades and friends and take a well end break with family and friends over the festive season. Remember "Arrive Alive"

I thank you

Page 10 of 27

Premier Speeches

Budget Speech 2012/13

Budget Speech 2013/14

Budget Vote 1 by the Premier of the Northern Cape, Dr. Zamani Saul

Budget Vote 1 2022(Office of the Premier) Delivered by the Premier of the Northern Cape Province,Dr Zamani Saul, at a House Sitting held at the Carnarvon Primary School, on 28 June 2022

Closing Address of the Northern Cape Provincial Legislature

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