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Introduction

Central to any sustenance of democratic rule is the periodic and continuous accountability of the government to the nation, directly through the outreach programme and through the fourth estate - the media. Therefore we are once again having these briefings because we believe that despite the apparent capacity and transformation related problems of the media, it is our duty to continue with this engagement. Now six months of the financial year have passed since we outlined our programme of the year during the policy pronouncement period in February - March, and I am confidently saying we have made strides and the government is on course.

Transformation of the civil service

At the core of government's efforts to change our society is the transformation of the civil service in order to play its central role in ensuring a better life for all. Many steps have been taken to capacitate the civil service, to promote and enhance the implementation of Batho Pele and in ensuring that sufficient resource management and control system are put in place to eliminate wasteful use of the limited available resources. Transformation remains a great challenge and no country can claim to have completed transformation.

Let me also take the opportunity to state how shocked we were to hear of the death of Ms Benny Ngqangashe who had been a pillar just after our observation of 16 days of activism against violence on women. We were even more shocked by the arrest of her son as the sole alleged murderer. If it is true we really have a serious problem.

Internally focused imbizos were held to revive the Batho Pele campaign across the province. These efforts were further enhanced by the launch and meticulous execution of the programme of the Premier's Good Governance Awards that culminated in a gala event for acknowledging excellent service delivery across the province. Although tens of cases deserved prizes, few got the merit awards and three won the key trophies for excellent work done in many instances under extremely trying conditions. The cycle has now begun for the next round and greater deserving cases would be able to get on board so that we can build deeper levels of awareness and more meticulous implementation of the Batho Pele principles.

It is also with pride to announce that of the 126 provincial managers of the administration none was found to have fraudulent qualifications or claims in an investigation conducted by the Public Service Commission. The PSC national investigation followed the identification of fraudulent of qualification by senior official in Mpumalanga in 1998. The PSC has concluded checking and verifying 99.9% of the manager's qualifications and this proves the integrity of the Eastern Cape Provincial Administration.

I can state it clearly without fear of contradiction that transformation has reached new heights and in leaps and bounds continues to be entrenched in the civil service. We are on course in the implementation of the performance management system. The awareness of the governance cycle is reaching unprecedented levels with better planning and execution of programme across all departments, while the government's responsiveness to public and stakeholder needs is continuously improving.

Greater focus is on building the capacity of the civil service and also addressing the challenge of the additional personnel in line with the skills and development legislation and the resolutions of the job summit. The overall spending in a budget of more than R100 million meant for skills development has been fairly slow, as the systems were being put in place to manage these resources. Progress is, however, noticeable in ensuring that R11 million will be utilised for intervention in ailing tertiary institutions by providing bursaries for the needy students. A human resources development strategy, that would address critical skills shortages in the province is being finalised and a comprehensive roll-out programme will earnestly be executed in the next cycle.

In ensuring the representivity of the civil service, we are proud to say one more woman head of department has been appointed for the Department of Sport, Recreation, Arts and Culture. More and more women are appointed to the Senior Management Core. Steps are being taken to address other limitations in this regard without compromising the delivery of quality services.

Good governance and integrated development

South Africa is a developmental state. Strides made in technology and revenue generation would be meaningless without the needed change in the lives of millions of people living in rural and underdeveloped areas of our province. This is what informed our integrated rural development programme, which through greater integration of various spheres of government and various stakeholders is increasingly registering the desired impact. To promote cooperative governance the Inter Governmental Forum was set up bring together national, provincial and local governments as well as their programme implementing agencies. Now the focus is on implementing integrated development plans at the local government level, while forums to enhance the implementing capacity are taking root. The discussion on transferring functions to the local spheres is underway and is accompanied by capacity building programs for local governments.

The government is also closing up on corruption as the financial management system is progressively being tightened, while the after-the-fact strategies of dealing with corruption and fraud are moving from strength to strength. The new system of managing finances has been introduced and the implementation plan is to be rolled out to all departments.

In line with the Public Finance Management Act, departments have fraud prevention strategies, while the internal audit unit to assist in building the capacity to prevent fraud has conducted risk assessment across departments. The tender board is expected to finally adjudicate on the tenders submitted for the provision of the anti-corruption hotline, which is central to our communications strategy. The hotline is expected to be launched early next year.

The detection rate of corruption and fraud is progressively improving and the increasing numbers of arrests of culprits within and outside the public service is testimony to this consistent and successful fight against corruption. A Public Service Commission evaluation on the effectiveness of the current anti-corruption structures and systems is expected to be finalised before the end of this year. It would help in preventing duplications, in closing loopholes and in ensuring overall performance of the system.
Fighting HIV/AIDS

The government's capacity to develop and implement anti-HIV/AIDS programs has improved with the establishment of the secretariat and administrative support service to the Eastern Cape HIV/Aids Council. Partnerships have been established with over 50 non-governmental organisations contracted for implementing locally based anti-HIV/AIDS campaigns integrating them with poverty alleviation programs. Prevention, caring and support strategies have been instituted in the province. Eight voluntary counselling and testing centres and two prevention of mother to child transmission centres have been established. However the challenge remains as not all sectors of our society have effectively taken a stake in these efforts of fighting this killer disease in order to save our nation.

To improve government's capacity partnerships are also built across governments and continents as the British Department For International Development (DFID), German Technical Corporation (GTZ) and the Canadian Province of British Columbia are engaged in efforts to improve the impact of the fight against the scourge.
Government clusters

The provincial government moves more than ever before in unison in addressing governance challenges facing the province. Three key cabinet committees, viz. Governance and Administration, Social Needs and Economic Growth and Development, have helped in improving the quality of the Executive Council decision-making. This has improved the coordination of government operations and in ensuring greater cooperation amongst departments.

The Social needs cluster departments have also improved in series of areas.

The take up of children in need of child support grants has improved three fold to over 150 000 over the period under review, while numerous poverty alleviation and development programs have ensured that thousands were saved from hunger.

Interdepartmental efforts are also instituted to deal with critical areas where access to the social security net is limited by non-registration of births and lack of appropriate identification documents for the parents especially in the Alfred Nzo District Municipality and in areas like Mount Frere and Ntabankulu. On this matter emergency intervention programme that includes food supply have been instituted.

Other milestones include the improved engagement of critically needed teaching personnel for education; the appointment of district managers by social needs departments for running the newly established district service delivery centres.

On the economic front, the province fares well with major automobile manufacturers 'walking their confidence talk' by investing in excess of R530 m, while the major anchor projects such as Coega and the East London IDZ have been gazetted. Even regarding the Wild Coast Spatial Development Initiative, despite the huge challenges, progress has been registered with preparations for the N2 Toll Road being done, while nodal developments are taking place at Port St Johns, Dwesa/Cwebe, Coffee Bay, uMkhambathi and in the development of Pondoland Park. We are confident that the province's economy will grow. However it is crucial to reiterate that the noble goals we set would not be achieved overnight. Many doubting Thomases and Afro-pessimists would like every one to believe that we are an incapable bunch, which should not be trusted. We shall prove them wrong. Those in charge of the economy are proving that they are confident

On the infrastructure development front, phenomenal progress has also been registered with cries regarding major routes increasingly being silenced. Additional capacity is being built, while also investments in the area are increasingly improving with over R1 billion made available for improving the province's road network from various sources also indicating the integrated development approach to addressing challenges facing our nation.

A research commissioned by the Social Needs Cluster and funded by DFID through the Integrated Provincial Support Programme found that communication deficiencies were a major challenge facing the provincial government. The research was conducted by a world-renowned research company Ciet Africa in the Amatole District Municipality and has thrown a clear light regarding the need for effective communication in the province.

Notwithstanding the remaining challenges highlighted by the findings, considerable progress was made over the period under review on the communication front. The Executive Council outreach programme boasts of over 280 imbizos with local communities during seven instances of reaching out to the communities so far this year.

Marked improvement is also being registered regarding the ability of the government to respond to concerns raised by communities during the imbizos.

We are also proud to inform you that the whole government has now adopted the culture we initiated with the central government led by the President reaching out to communities, while local governments are increasingly adopting this approach to governance too. Greater emphasis will be placed on the direct communication programme, with district communication offices being established to provide greater access to information and for people to get channels for participating in governance. A communications strategy has been developed and this briefing is part of quarterly programmes that adopt a communication mix to ensure the public is informed.

These are just highlights of what has been achieved. The solution does not lie with having these less frequent sessions for briefing you, but on greater regular cooperation in appropriately informing the public in the Eastern Cape. We need lesser sensationalism with no deliberate distortions but a balanced view of our province. Let me take the opportunity to thank you for your cooperation this year and on behalf of the provincial government wish you a happy Christmas and a prosperous New Year.

I thank you

Issued by Office of the Premier, Eastern Cape

13 December 2001