State of the Province Address by Gauteng Premier Nomvula Mokonyane
22 February 2010, Gauteng Legislature, Johannesburg
Madam Speaker
Deputy Speaker
Members of the Executive Council
Honourable Leaders of Political Parties
Mayors
Honourable Members of the Legislature
Councillors
Members of the Diplomatic Corps
Distinguished guests
The people of Gauteng
Two decades ago a step signalling a major breakthrough in our “long walk to freedom” was taken. It was a turning point that heralded a new era in the history of South Africa. That first historic step towards human emancipation, for the oppressed and the oppressor, black and white, rich and poor, turned into a brisk walk towards the transformation of the entire socio-political tapestry of our society. This is a journey that together with the people of South Africa we are determined to travel and complete. We shall continue on this road until we attain total emancipation from poverty, hunger and underdevelopment.
Over the past twenty years of our journey we have encountered numerous obstacles, challenges and difficulties that we had to negotiate and resolve. We knew that it was never going to be a smooth journey. As a result, we have learnt valuable lessons and garnered sufficient experience to continue with our strategic programme to free the masses of our people from all the vices of racial prejudice, inequality, illiteracy and other injustices.
As we celebrate the two decades of Mandela’s freedom, we are in essence celebrating the legacy of the Mandela generation given to all of us, black and white, poor or rich, gay or straight, peasant or landlord and young or old to safeguard. It is a legacy built on the values of humanity, selflessness, equality and constitutional democracy. It is a legacy that demands of us, with no options whatsoever, to defend it, uphold it and live by its doctrine. It is a legacy that has no patience for racial or cultural divisions. In the main, it is a legacy that seeks to forge national unity and social cohesion amongst the people of South Africa.
Many of the giants that walked with Mandela in a journey to build one nation in one South Africa have passed on. However, today we are blessed to have amongst us one of the stalwarts, Isithwalandwe and a great revolutionary leader who shared the space and time with those giants.
Madame Speaker and Honourable members of the House, kindly join me in acknowledging Prisoner 468/64, Ahmed Kathrada, a friend, comrade and fellow prisoner of Madiba. In his many years of incarceration on Robben Island, he found hope in some of the little things that we take for granted. In his book, “Memoirs” he captured how he and others, including Madiba, found meaning in a tiny garden. He said: “In moments of despondency it was a reminder of renewal, of new life and fresh hope.”
We take inspiration from Uncle Kathy’s generation. This generation is a mirror image of selflessness, humanity and sacrifice. These leaders have placed national interests, the interest of all, above personal interests and in some cases, even above their own survival. It is on these vaules that we want to build a Gauteng that is united, non-racial and compassionate. We commit to emulate the actions of these leaders.
This year, on Human Rights Day, we will commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the Sharpeville massacre. We will recall that fateful day when unarmed protesters against the unjust and humiliating apartheid pass laws were mowed down by the apartheid forces in Sharpeville. We must use this day and other national commemorative days - Freedom Day, Youth Day, Heritage Day and the National Day of Reconciliation to forge national unity by commemorating them together as South Africans.
At this moment, when the world is still reeling from the aftershocks of the devastating earthquake in Haiti, our hearts and thoughts are with the people of Haiti. We call on all our people to continue to lend support in the reconstruction of Haiti. May the souls of the departed rest in peace.
We also remember those of our people who were affected by the floods in Tembisa, Soweto and other areas. Our prayers go to those who lost their loved ones. We thank all South Africans who have opened their hearts to help these fellow citizens.
Honourable Members, It is only eight months since we first presented the Program of Action of the current administration to this house. During that address we stated that we were going to do things differently while being guided by the strategic priorities of the government. We made it clear that to effectively drive this program we needed to realign the organisational structure and review the operations of the government such that they begin to assist us to achieve the set goals.
We said we would work in a manner that fosters new ethics and promotes a culture of hard work and respect for the public amongst civil servants.
Since the country was in the tight grip of economic recession, we committed this government to doing everything in its power to cushion our economy and people from the effects of the recession.
Indeed we have begun to make strides. As we stated in the report we presented to this house on 27 November 2009, it is evident that even in this short period we have made impressive progress in meeting the needs of the people.
We have now passed the planning stage and we are now geared for implementation. This is the year of action. It is the year for all of us to work together to speed up delivery.
We are mindful of the fact that we would not be able to stay on course and achieve what we set out to attain if it were not for the strong partnership and unequivocal support we enjoyed from the masses of our people.
Madam Speaker,
Today, we present to the people of Gauteng through their public representatives the Programme of Action we will implementing in the course of this year in pursuit of our five year strategic goals. In line with the national government’s approach, the emphasis and focus of our activities will be on outcomes. All our energies will be channelled towards what our people need and not what we think they need.
Our programme is about what we will be doing towards fulfilling our unequivocal commitment to an improved quality of basic education; a long and healthy life for all the people; safety and security for all; economic growth that translates into decent work and improved living standards; vibrant, equitable and sustainable rural communities with food security for all; infrastructure development and sustainable human settlements; and a responsive, accountable, efficient and effective local government.
Education is our top priority. Providing high quality education to our people, especially children will lay a solid foundation to secure a better future for all.
Our vision is to ensure that every learner does well at school and leaves our institutions with knowledge, skills and qualifications that will give them the best chance of success in adult life.
We have done a thorough assessment of the education situation and we know what needs to be done to improve the quality of education. Our intervention will start at the foundation stage of education to ensure that our children are well prepared to develop and succeed in the later stages of their education.
In this regard we have initiated the Foundation for Learning Campaign which will focus on the expansion and quality of Grade R as well as the external assessment of learners in Grades 3, 6 and 9.
The development of our very young children is a critical phase in laying the foundation for successful learning and the production of good citizens. We will continue to devote resources to ECD and Grade R to ensure that we achieve our target of universal access to Grade R by 2014, increasing the number of learners in Grade R from 78,000 to 118,000 in 2014. This will assist us in ensuring that all learners, including those from disadvantaged backgrounds, are effectively supported in basic motor and cognitive skills development.
In the primary school phase we will provide all learners with workbooks containing content, exercises and tasks for each lesson of the year. Educators will receive daily lesson plans to support the workbooks. The workbooks are designed to promote quality learning and teaching under any conditions. This will ensure that learners are guaranteed curriculum completion and that no learner leaves each grade with a backlog in learning. This will further improve the child’s chance of success in higher grades.
We are implementing teacher development programme that focuses on the entire life-cycle of teaching. The programme focuses on dealing with the induction and support of new teachers, addressing the critical skills gaps of teachers and the general professionalism of the teaching force in the province.
We will intensify our secondary school intervention programme, especially to improve Grade 12 the performance and performance of learners in mathematics and science.
The poor Grade 12 results are the result of wide-ranging systemic problems within the education department, involving educators, school management, learners themselves as well as wider socio-economic factors. Historical interventions have achieved improvements but have been difficult to sustain because of fragmented project approaches and a lack of adequate resources.
The new intervention will be system-wide and flexible enough to allow for provincial and district specificities and applications. With greater and more focused attention given to the foundation and primary stages of education, the system will produce more learners who are better prepared for Grade 12. We have set ourselves a target to achieve 80% Grade 12 pass rate by 2014.
The Mathematics, Science and Technology (MST) strategy has been reviewed to provide a single coordinated, integrated and inclusive approach across all grades. The revised strategy will build a solid numeracy and literacy base in Grade R and the Foundation phase and deliver effective Mathematics Science and Technology education in the Intermediate and Senior phases as well as the FET band. This will provide a significant post-school stream of new entrants into the economy, directly and via higher education and training; and ensure that the province has a pool of highly competent and highly motivated mathematics, science and technology teachers.
Some of our young people in rural and peri-urban areas have to travel long distances, suffering harsh weather conditions and leaving them little time for homework and effective learning. We will therefore this year set up a pilot project to establish a boarding school for deserving secondary school learners in one of our rural areas in the West Rand. This will go a long way towards ensuring more equitable access to quality education in our peri-urban and rural areas.
The education of our children is something that must concern all the people and not just government alone. Parents, community leaders and everybody in communities must get involved in education. School governing bodies and school management must create the possibility for communities to play an active role in the affairs of the schools. It is communities that can guarantee the safety of learners and educators in the schools. Communities can also take decisive steps to ensure that schools are protected from unscrupulous liquor traders who operate shebeens and taverns near school premises.
In working towards a goal of achieving a long and healthy life for all we will focus on improving the effectiveness and efficiency of our healthcare system, providing primary healthcare services in poor communities, reducing mortality rates and stepping up the fight against HIV and AIDS and TB.
We have heard the concerns raised by our people on the difficulties they encounter in accessing our hospitals and other health institutions and we are taking concrete steps to address them, including eliminating the long queues that we find in some of our facilities. The concrete steps we are taking include:
- Help desks at the entrance of hospitals to direct patients to appropriate departments/sections;
- Retrieval of patient files from patient records a day before the appointment date;
- SMS system to remind patients of their appointments;
- Availability of clerical staff at patient affairs from 7H00 until 15H30;
- Decentralisation of patient registration;
- Dedicated queue marshals at all queues within an institution; and
- Automated payment systems;
In the past 6 months, the availability of medication has improved from 85% to 92%. Through improved monitoring and weekly recording of stock-outs, availability is being improved even further and we aim to achieve our target of 99% availability of essential drugs for each facility.
Two mobile therapeutic vehicles have been procured and commissioned to be used for emergency deliveries of medication to hospitals and clinics. This will assist to maintain high levels of availability of essential drugs.
We will strengthen the Community Based Health Services (CBHS) by creating health posts within each voting district. Community Health Workers (CHW) will take community based health services into the community, for example Directly Observed Treatments, health promotion, health education, delivery of chronic medication and referring people to the appropriate facility based health services. Each Community Health Worker will service between 50 and 150 households.
Three health posts will be established in Ekurhuleni during the 2010-11 financial year, and the number of fully trained Community Health Workers will be increased by training 3000 new Community Health Workers, which will bring the cumulative total to 6,500.
Service hours have been extended in a number of public institutions to extend access to healthcare to more people. Extending the hours of service is an important part of improving access because it enables people to access health care after hours and on weekends, so that workers, job-seekers and learners are not disadvantaged or excluded. There are currently 95 Primary Health Care facilities with extended service hours, including 81 clinics and 14 Community Healthcare Centres.
We will extend hours of service to more facilities over a period of three years. The plan will see more Community Healthcare Centres, Community Day Centres and mobile clinics operating after hours. In the 2010-11 financial year, the number of Community Health Centres with 24 hour service will be increased from 18 to 26 (out of a total of 34).
Improving the efficiency of our emergency medical services is also receiving urgent attention. We have decided to streamline the EMS to create a single line of command which will improve efficiencies with respect to response times, better utilisation of vehicles and monitoring of services.
During the past six months an additional 115 ambulances have been procured, including two ICU ambulances which have been introduced to deal with critical cases and 15 rapid response vehicles. More paramedic personnel have been appointed including 10 advanced life support paramedics, and 23 emergency care technicians. These interventions will help to improve response times. Ambulances will now be dispatched from clinics and hospitals.
The provincial government will also procure an additional 121 ambulances, medical equipment and accessories to meet the demands of hosting the 2010 FIFA World Cup. This will leave a legacy that will in future cater for similar events and increase the capacity of emergency medical services.
In November last year we announced that the Gauteng Strategic Plan on HIV and AIDS had been revised to give more impetus to the fight against HIV and AIDS. The plan aims to drastically reduce new HIV infections in Gauteng to achieve a target of 50% reduction in new infections by 2011 as well as prevent death from AIDS by extending treatment, care and support to 80% of people with HIV.
The number of eligible people for antiretroviral treatment has increased from 185 126 in the last financial year to 226 253, whilst the number of children on treatment has increased from 16 029 in 2008/09 to 18 869 in the first six months of 2009/10.
Three additional facilities will be accredited to provide antiretroviral treatment in December 2010. However, shortage of skilled personnel and infrastructure still pose a challenge.
Our programme for the prevention of mother to child transmission of HIV has resulted in the reduction of the number of children who are born HIV positive from 9.6% from January to September 2008, to 6.3% from January to September 2009, which indicates the efficacy of dual therapy.
This year we will intensify the mass campaign on HIV counselling and testing to extend the percentage of people who know their HIV status from 51% to 70%. We will increase the TB cure rate to 80% and all people with TB and HIV will be treated under one roof. In order to further reduce deaths of HIV positive mothers we will start treatment for HIV infected pregnant mothers with a CD4 count of 350 or with symptoms regardless of CD4 count. All pregnant women who are HIV positive will be on treatment at 14 weeks of pregnancy to protect their unborn babies. Antiretroviral treatment will also be administered on children younger than one year old if they test HIV positive irrespective of their CD4 count.