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Mr Speaker
Honourable Member
Ladies and Gentlemen:

When the Provincial Budget was presented on the 7 March 2001, this House approved the current budget without reservations. You reaffirmed your commitment to the goals of creating a better life for all, which, you were mandated by the electorate to meet. It is once again a very special privilege for me to come before you to account within that framework of the provincial government budget.

At the opening of our Provincial Legislature in March this year, Government was able to lay before you a clear programme of action for the year, with very concrete and specific targets. In presenting our programme we identified certain areas in government, including problems of capacity and management in the provincial and local spheres of government, which needs to be improved.

This process has strengthened the Office of the Premier in promoting coherence in government. It has also reinforced our keen awareness of the need to improve our communications amongst government departments on the progress we are making, and the difficulties we are facing. Therefore one of the central aims of Government has been to develop policies and implement these in a co-ordinated manner through effective provincial departments.

To respond to issues of joint policy formulation and co-ordinated implementation of programmes, the Executive Council decided to establish two Cabinet Clusters and a Joint Cluster to ensure that government functions as a unified collective rather than loose entities.

The Director-General as Head of the Premier's Office continues to co-ordinate all provincial departments, to ensure amongst other things proper co-ordination of the work of government at all levels. The existence of a professional service ethos among senior mangers in the public service is very critical if we are to achieve the effective governance we have been working towards.

At national level the Northern Cape is represented in the Presidential Co-ordinating Council, which is made out of all nine Premiers, the Ministry of Provincial and Local Government and the Presidency. This body serves as a platform to address all issues pertaining to achieving better co-operative governance between all three spheres of government.

One other challenge that faces us is the role of the newly established local municipal authorities. The transformation of this sphere of government has brought to the fore critical issue such as the delivery of an efficient and effective service to our people. We as an oversight body have thus to strengthen the structures of local government to enable it to meet its obligations. Together with the MEC for Local Government and Housing, we have to ensure that there is capacity and skills, which will ensure that there is proper service delivery at local level.

Another priority of government has been the development of rural communities, as these suffered the most inequalities and remained underdeveloped and impoverished. These rural and peri-urban areas qualify as primary beneficiaries of new social polices aimed at developing sustainable rural economic development.

In response to these matters Government developed the Integrated Sustainable Rural Development Strategy, with the aim of addressing the needs of the poor in the rural areas. It is a programme that will focus on the eradication of poverty in an integrated approach to government's service delivery.

This strategy, having been derived from the Presidency, is co-ordinated by the Ministry of Provincial and Local Government in conjunction with provincial and local government spheres. The IRSDP also takes into consideration efforts to promote the renewal of urban communities under the Urban Renewal Strategy, all of which forms the National Integrated Development Plan.

As the House may very well know, Galeshewe has been identified as one of the priority areas for Urban Renewal Strategy, which will be launched later this year. To this end we have developed an integrated Anti Crime Strategy, which will form part of the urban Renewal Plan for Galeshewe. This project will be rolled out to Groblershoop and Olifantshoek as part of the existing Premier's Projects for urban renewal.

All members are aware that the Kgalagadi cross-boundary municipality between the Northern Cape and North West is a beneficiary of the ISRDP. The province has already hosted the initial meeting to discuss the rollout of the programme in the province and a second meeting involving the three spheres of government and all stakeholders will be taking place in Kuruman tomorrow. The launch of the project will be announced thereafter.

These are but some of the larger initiatives that we are engaged in and which take place in the context of bringing people into the process of governance.

Mr Speaker

Our aim of developing a very professional service will go a very long way in creating efficient and effective governance which we are striving to achieve. The matter of skills development in the administration has been placed high on the agenda as it is expected and forms part of the prerequisites of the Skills Development Act and the Labour Relations Act.

The new Senior Management Services demands that there must be development among the senior echelons of the public administration.

This therefore will improve the professional competence of members of the public service and in turn increase the capacity in the public service. 30 senior managers in the administration have since last month begun training under the Presidential Strategic Leadership Development Programme, which is being implemented in co-operation with the South African Management and Development Institute (SAMDI) and the European Union.

This programme is aimed at increasing the capacity of the higher levels of leadership like Heads of Department and other senior managers. This programme has four modules that will lead to an MBA and will run in phases for three months up to September 2001. May I also state that the junior managers are beginning their own training as of tomorrow (Friday) and which will end in June 2002. This will also be in different phases. 300 junior and middle managers will be exposed to this programme.

Clearly, the increase in skills development will lead to the opening of other avenues, not only those that relate to "administrative-bureaucratic" sphere but also of scientific and technological nature. Rising skills in these areas has become our focus in lieu of globalisation and reforming our system of governance.

Government has thus taken a decision to begin to bring information technology into the process of governance in an accelerated manner. For this purpose, government is embarking on a major project to develop an integrated Information and Communication Technology Strategy that will lead the province becoming an "Information Technology Super-Highway Province ". The architecture of this strategy has been well researched and is now in its second phase of design. The plan will be completed by July 2001.

An information technology oriented provincial government with streamlined business processes and Information Systems backed up by appropriate Information Technology can change they way services are delivered, as well as the relationship between government and its citizen. In this way we will move from bureaucratic controls to direct client and community empowerment.

The strategy will also move us away from operating in isolated administrative functions to an integrated resource and electronic service delivery.

We will also be able to move away from time consuming processing of information to rapid streamlined responses and from awkward reporting mechanisms to flexible information inquiry and from disjointed information technologies to integrated network solutions.

The Information and Communication Strategy will enable government to develop inter-departmental and intra-departmental to link up with each other, thus reducing the movement of paper from one office to the other with information available at the clique of a button. Government will have a direct link with all Municipalities and all District Councils throughout the province.

The outcome of this project will include:

1. The creation of a Central Decision Support Centre where all government data will reside and will be available to all Members of the Executive Council and senior government managers to assist with making informed and critical decisions.

2. Quick access to very important information when need.

3. Updated information will be available in the shortest time.

It is in this regard that we will ensure that government takes advantage of modern communication and information technology, including Internet, among other things to improve service delivery and to improve two-way communication between the government and the people.

The provincial government is in the process of finalising the overhaul of the Northern Cape Provincial Web-page with the view of creating a new and well-constructed web page. This by itself will create a window of opportunity for the province to market itself and enable government to access information to the public at large with a focus on drawing to the province tourists and potential investors.

Information for potential investors will be carried on this site and this tool will be fully utilised for both national and international investors and tourists. This will boast of the latest information about the Northern Cape and the official launch of the provincial website will take place during the course of the second part of this year.

Earlier on we indicated some of the critical issues to be dealt with in order to ensure that the new municipalities have the capacity to deliver an efficient and effective service delivery to our people. To assist these new structures we conducted and have just completed a major project where assessment and restructuring of all District Municipalities as well as the Kimberley and Upington Local Municipalities, in terms of the new demarcation boundaries to align the combine responsibilities and their budgets was done. This exercise will also be extended to the remaining 26 Category B Local Municipalities.

In conjunction with the Department of Home Affairs, through the One Stop Service Centre we are developing a programme that will ensure that the waiting period of Home Affairs services is dramatically shortened and the allocation of staff to the service centres is fast tracked so that the workflow is also shortened. Furthermore, two new Multi-Purpose Centres will be launched in Colesburg and Calvinia during the course of the year. This will enhance access to government information and services to the people of these areas.

The rollout of the centres will play a critical role for the rural communities in particular women who are the breadwinners through their pension grant. They will be able to access their pensions efficiently through these centres. For us therefore to achieve gender equality and the empowerment of women there must be a fundamental and comprehensive re-prioritisation and re-allocation of society's resources so that the need and interests of women and girl children are met.

Men have continued to control access to most resources as well as their allocation and distribution to the detriment of women in particular the rural women who remain the economic backbone of the rural communities.

In order to address this, the Office on the Status of Women has for the purpose of mainstreaming of gender received Cabinet approval for the appointment of Gender Focal Persons in every department. This will ensure that gender equality is incorporated in every department's programmes. For the first time Gender Focal Persons will have a say in the formulation of a gender sensitive budget- thus ensuring that women's needs are met in departmental programmes.

Furthermore the co-ordination and mainstreaming role of OSW is illustrated by the research conducted on Violence Against Women in the Lower Orange District resulting in the establishment of the Northern Cape Family Violence Fund with donor funds from SIDA. Under this partnership various projects pertaining to Violence Against Women has been funded such as the Kimberley Crisis Centre in Galeshewe which has been equipped with much needed medical and forensic equipment to easily investigate and gather evidence for any violence against women and children.

The Gender Policy Hearings, to be conducted in the Province next week on June 26 - 27, are an opportunity for both men and women for the first time in the history of South Africa to legislate their needs in the continued struggle for gender equality.

In the same breadth, the Office on the Status of People with Disabilities has also embarked on the development of policy to ensure that the disabled are no more subjected to total exclusion from mainstream activities at all levels our society. The policy framework will also make sure that all disability related development initiatives are implemented in a co-ordinated and integrated manner by all government departments. Furthermore in an integrated manner this will allow consistency, efficiency and effectiveness in planning, implementing and monitoring of the equal of opportunities for people with disabilities.

The office has also embarked on programme "VHUTSILA" a joint venture with SAPS that was launched on 18 June 2001.The main objective is to give sign-language training to 20 officials in the SAPS to effectively communicate with the Deaf community. I am sure you may have seen the project in the front page of a local newspaper where trainee police officers wrote the name "police" in sign language. The project is based on skills development for the police in the community service centres. A Capacity Building Workshop for people with disabilities to empower them to train others on issues of HIV/AIDS/STD's is in the pipeline.

Over the last weekend the whole country was celebrating one of the most important days in our history, a quarter of a century of June 16. The youth of our country played a pivotal role in the struggle for freedom of our country, and thus our vision is to create a platform that will contribute to the development of our young people.

It is our view that we need to articulate what we want to do for our young people who are faced with the bleak future of unemployment, poverty, HIV/AIDS, crime and racism. These are but some of the challenges of that are facing our youth, at all levels of our society.

The Provincial Youth Commission, which is charged with safeguarding the aspirations of young people and assisting and advising government departments on issues affecting young people will be unveiling a number of its programmes. They will be hosting a Provincial Youth Economic Participation summit in September 2001. This will seek to develop a comprehensive framework for youth participation in various economic sectors in the province deal with the high unemployment of our young people. We hope that the final strategy will provide a basis for us to ensure that our youth are absorbed into the mainstream of the economy.

The youth commission will further seek to develop strategies for skills development and capacity building for our young people. It is also currently managing a Provincial Youth Help-line, a toll free service to provide information and referral assistance to youth in need in situations of crime and crises. The Young Positive Living Ambassadors programme, a youth AIDS programme aimed at working towards behavioural change in youth and advocating for an environment which enable young people to live positive lives is being developed. The launch of this very important programme in conjunction with the Ministry of Health is expected in the later part of the year.

The last major issue that we would like to mention which is affecting our work is the issue of HIV/AIDS. I am certain that Honourable Members are aware of the mammoth task government is facing in dealing with this phenomenon. It is no secret that there has been a significant increase in the number of our patients in hospitals who are at an advance stage of the disease.

As government however, we will continue to support the broad based programmes and projects in place that are intended to curb the escalation of HIV/AIDS in our province. The Provincial Aids Council, which was launched last year and brings together different stakeholders and insights to fight against the pandemic, has continued with its excellent job under the lead Department of Health.

We expect to establish District Aids Councils in the next few weeks, which will further bring Aids programmes to most municipalities and home based care centre at local level. As I stated in the opening of the legislature early this year we will seek to work with more and more NGOs and CBOs who have the experience in tackling this problem.

Mr Speaker

In order to create effective and efficient machinery, the Office of the Premier has also undergone an intensive restructuring and realignment.

The office now comprises four major branches, which include a reduced Corporate Services, Legal Services and Labour Relations, Policy and Planning and the Cabinet Secretariat.

The amount allocated to these branches is as follows:
* Corporate Services, which includes, Information Technology, Efficiency services, Communications Services, Security Services, and HRM/HRD has been allocated 19 million rands. 5 million of these total figures has been set aside for the development of the Information Technology infrastructure improvement.

* Legal Services and Labour Relations receives an allocation of 3.5 million rands

* Cabinet Secretariat which includes, the Head of Department's Office, Internal Audit, Finance and Provisioning, Cabinet Secretariat Services has been allocated an amount of 5.7million rands

* Policy and Planning Unit, which includes Inter-Governmental Relations, Provincial Youth Commission, One-Stop-Service Centre, Office on the Status of Women, Office on the Status of Disabled Person and the RDP has been allocated 10 million rands.

* Premier's Ministry receives amount of 4.8 million rands. Two million of the total amounts have been set side to assist with economic development initiatives.

The enabling obligation of Vote 1 has been completed from a structural perspective, and most departments are fulfilling their core responsibilities as defined in section 7 of the Public Service Act.

However, Vote 1 is still responsible for some agency services to departments, but has since June 2000 gradually assumed its oversight, co-ordinating, monitoring and strategic leadership responsibilities, thus the re-arrangement of functions and alignment of its internal machinery to ensure that departments are becoming increasingly efficient and effective.

To further increase the effectiveness of the Executive Council, we will be looking at the restructured and expanded focus of the Cabinet Secretariat. The central objective being to ensure that an executive organ capable of ensuring that implementation, monitoring and evaluation of all decisions supports the Cabinet system.

The responsibility of the Policy and Planning unit is to work with the Cabinet Secretariat to provide support to the Premier and the Executive Council in relation to the co-ordination of the processes of policy formulation, programme design and implementation.

To this end we have signed a twinning agreement in May 2001 with New Brunswick Province in Canada to deepen the policy impact assessment capacity of our provincial departments.

In this regard the new Policy and Planning unit and the Cabinet Secretariat, must constitute what may be called the "Cabinet Office" as is the case in the Presidency.

In order to enhance effective governance, the Public Service Commission has elected the Office of the Premier and some departments as a pilot to develop a monitoring and evaluation system for the entire public service. This will contribute to improving the performance management system, which has already been implemented.

The role of the Inter-governmental Relations Office has been extensively expanded and is critical in the development of international relations such as China. As you may very well know, we have just come back from China on a business trip where we entered into a twinning agreement with the Hunan Province in the framework of the Sino-South Africa Bi-national Agreement.

In September 2001 an exhibition will be held in Kimberley involving a Chinese industrialists who are going to display their ware and seek potential partners to deepen our shift from a social to an economic development and growth emphasis.

It must also be noted that we have championed and paved the way for most governmental institutions to enhance participatory democracy, which has now been recognised as official government strategy adopted by National Cabinet under the name "imbizos".

At this juncture I wish to repeat what I mentioned earlier this year during my address at the opening of the legislature, that after all this is said and done there still remains a serious problem which faces humanity. This is the problem, which is still very prevalent in our society 7 years after our constitutional democracy, and that is racism and xenophobia. The question that we beg to ask is why racism has persisted in our society despite sincere efforts to eliminate it remains unanswered.

People of colour do not choose to be oppressed, institutional racism imposes this on them by predetermining their categories of social judgement that narrowly define and limit their prospects in life based on racial differences. Recognising the impact of racism upon all of us is a common starting point for building mutuality in the struggle to live in the future. The truth will make everyone of us free if we have the courage to face it. We can all choose to change our present realities and can be taught to dismantle racism.

If we are to build a future with justice for all, both personal and institutional transformation are essential for the mission of our society to rid itself of racism.

Ladies and Gentlemen, in conclusion I would like to bring to your attention the fact that there is nothing as close to the hearts of a community as the welfare of its young ones. Children are the flowers of the nation, as they represent the innocence as well as the beauty of our society. The future of any society - including our own, is primarily determined by the positive actions and programmes that nature our children into responsible citizens and members of society.

Like flowers, our children need effective measures that protect them from abuse, neglect, exploitation and hunger. Like flowers our children need effective policies and programmes that allow them equal access to education, healthcare, social welfare, nutrition and shelter. Like flowers of the nation our children needs to be nurtured properly to become proper adults.

In paying tribute to our children allow me to read a poem by a Grade 5 pupil of Griquatown who earns his pocket money at a filling station by reciting poems to visitors to our province. The Name of the poem is YSTERVARK

With those few words we wish to say that the government of the Northern Cape is committed to developing the talents of our children to their fullest potential, of empowering them to protect themselves from all forms of abuse, of meeting their basic human needs and of developing them into the future leaders of the province.

It is for these reasons that we need this House to approve the budget of 43 million rands as allocated.

I would like to thank all Members of the Executive Council, my senior managers and staff and all organs of state who have contributed to the success of our province through their dedication to Vote 1

I thank you.

Issued by Office of the Premier, Northern Cape

21 June 2001