[ Home ] [ Speeches & statements ]

Mr Speaker,
Honourable Members;

An occasion like this provides us with an invaluable opportunity to revisit and share with Members of this House our mandates and our specific functions arising from these mandates.

Our strategic and operational plans and budgeted resources that will enable our department to execute its different tasks and duties are consequential to these mandates. Furthermore, we also intend to give an account of our achievements in the outgoing financial year.

We acknowledge that the expected outcomes of the restructuring and transformation of government and the public service include among others:

* governance and a public service that is responsive to the changing needs of the citizens,
* a focus on outputs and outcomes,
* an emphasis on value for money and quality of service,
* the setting of performance standards linked to performance evaluation and reporting,
* and the implementation of output budgeting.

The mandate of government is to deliver public services in a consistent manner embracing the new public service values of democracy, equity, accessibility, probity, transparency and accountability.

Mr Speaker, my budget speech to the House will be guided by these new governance and public service imperatives. I would like to take this house along with me as I articulate the key mandates and strategic goals and objectives of my Department. Thereafter, I shall focus on programmes with their corresponding budgets. I shall conclude by reflecting on the ever-increasing challenge for this provincial government to provide more quality services using available resources.

Let me first invite members of this House to appreciate the constitutional, legal and philosophical sources of the mandates and functions of my Department. In the very first instance, my Department occupies the centre of Government in this province. Those schooled in sociology, social anthropology and political science will be quick to remind us that any occupation of political, civic and organisational space conjures up notions of identity, belonging, control, contestation, privilege, right and power.

Yes, indeed I am mindful of these notions and the extent of their validity. It is nonetheless, important to summarise the key characteristics of a Centre of Government as being overarching and macro-provincial in status, cross-functional or sectoral in scope and cross-departmental in responsibility.

To fully appreciate the role and responsibilities of the Office of the Premier, one must first and foremost contextualise government. While Government is divided into three spheres, it however serves one citizenry with common needs and within one geographic entity. Further, services are rendered through various sector departments and ministries. Consequently, there is a need to manage the tension between departmental autonomy and intergovernmental integration and co-operation, as well as minimise fragmentation and duplication and conflicts in service delivery. This is why there is a need for a central focal point to ensure co-ordination and integrated service delivery.

In the provinces, the Offices of the Premiers are mandated to ensure co-ordination of the work of provincial ministries and departments. In this regard, the key broad functions of the office of the Premier in KwaZulu-Natal are:

* Promotion of intra-departmental cooperative relations at provincial government level and minimisation of the incidences of conflict, duplication and fragmented service delivery.
* Ensuring that sector based policies are harmonised and attain collective endorsement and support by Cabinet and this Legislature.
* Coordination and facilitation of macro-provincial and transversal issues.
* Promotion of co-operative good governance with national and local government and the institution of traditional leadership.
* Provincialising public policies and legislation from the other spheres of government through implementation and adaptation to the provincial context.
* Provision of service to and capacitation of provincial government and administration in respect of public policy management, drafting of legislation, organisational arrangements and job evaluation, Labour Law and Labour Relations services and Information Technology.

Having outlined the broad functions and responsibilities of my Office and Department, it is now incumbent upon me to pronounce once more the mandated functions of my Office and Department. These mandates are based on relevant legislative and regulatory frameworks.

They include the following:

* Provision of State Law Advisory services, Human Resource Management and Development, Information Technology and Government Communication Services, Air Transport Service as a support service to the whole Provincial Government.
* Provide strategic support and direction in the formulation, coordination and implementation of policy and legislative initiatives of provincial and national government.
* Establish mechanisms to promote inter and intra governmental relations
* Provide strategic support and direction in the implementation of transversal programmes such as, HIV/AIDS, Poverty Eradication and Human Rights.

Honourable Members need to take time to familiarise themselves with how we carry out our leadership, co-ordinating, facilitating, supporting and integrating roles within the Provincial Government and Administration.

The following are some of the mechanisms and approaches we have utilised:

* At the highest level, we of course have the cabinet and its clusters supported by MExCo and the Technical Clusters. The Premier chairs cabinet and MExCo is chaired by the Director-General. These are mechanisms that integrate the policies, programmes and activities of government at the highest level.
* The Office of the Premier provides leadership and serves as a secretariat to a number of Interdepartmental Fora and Task Teams. The aim of these structures is to ensure co-ordination and enhance integrated service delivery. These structures include: the Provincial Aids Council (chaired by the Premier), Provincial Communication Forum, Provincial Growth and Development Strategy (PGDS) Task Team, Interim Poverty Reduction Task Team, Public Sector's Lawyers' Forum, Public Policy Analysts' Forum, Job Evaluation Forum, Labour Relations Forum, Gender Forum, Provincial Programme of Action for Children, Human Resources Development Forum, and so on.

Increasingly these structures are being expected to follow properly drawn up programmes and plans of action and to report back to the management of the departments they represent. I trust that the senior management of departments is creating the space in their management meetings for progress reports to be tabled on these critical issues.

* We also provide supportive services to the provincial government as a whole in areas such as, Law Advisory Service, Air Traffic Service, Policy Formulation and Revenue collection in Gaming and Betting, Policy Evaluation, Protocol Services and provincialising of public service policies and practices on Human Resources and Human Rights.
* We also represent the Province in key national fora such as the President's Co-ordinating Council (PCC), the Forum of South African Director-General's (FOSAD) and the National Bargaining Chamber (for the Public Service).
* We also establish provincial intergovernmental relations mechanisms such as the proposed PROVTRADLOG.

The Honourable Members will note that this elaborate explanation seeks to lay to rest the often repeated inaccurate allegations that the Office of the Premier is taking away line departmental responsibilities through coordination. Indeed, we seek to add value, bring about synergy and integration of policies, programmes and activities of the Provincial Government without occupying the space of provincial departments.

In addition, by sharing this detailed analysis of our role, we hope this honourable House will rise above any personal feelings and focus objectively on what is the role of an Office of the Premier as centre of government. We would also wish to submit that the need for this coordinating role is not lessened by the existence of a coalition government but rather becomes a condition precedent for integrated cooperative Good Governance and enhanced service delivery.

I will now present the budget for the Office of the Premier:

Departmental Budget

* Departmental Revenue

My Department is responsible for the collection of revenue from the Gaming and Betting industries in the Province.

During the past financial year, revenues from Casinos exceeded projections by roughly R8, 2 million to realise an estimated R 60,5 million collected for the year. Through the implementation of the new framework and systems for the regulation of gambling in the province we strive to improve on our collection of revenue. The anticipated result of these activities is reflected in our estimate of R 75,5 million for the coming year.

The Horse Racing and sports betting revenue decreased significantly by comparison during the 2002/03 financial year. This was due to a sizeable reduction in the tax rate applicable to the Totalisator operation of the Gold Circle and Gaming Group, which was effected on 1 April 2002. The total revenue from this sector is projected at R 23 million for the past year and our estimate for the coming year is reduced further to R 17 million.

Over and above the abovementioned actions, to improve our revenue collection, Mr Speaker, I also want to point out to this House that we have created an inspectorate section in the Office of the Premier whose sole function is to ensure that all revenue due to the Province in respect of the Gambling and Gaming industry is paid over promptly.

Departmental Expenditure

The total expenditure budget allocation for the office of the Premier for 2003/2004 is R 136,4 million which includes a statutory provision of R 692 000 for the salary of the Premier. In the two outer years of the MTEF period, the planned overall Departmental allocation grows to R 144,2 million for 2004/05 and R152, 9 million for 2005/06.

Mr Speaker, I have already outlined the role and functions of the Office of the Premier in this Province. In discussing the estimates of expenditure for the year 2003/2004, I will not burden the House by reading the full budget statement you have before you but only concentrate on those areas where the office of the Premier plays a high leverage role in terms of its mandate.

The office functions on the basis of four main programmes, namely:

Programme 1: Premier and Director-General support consisting of the administrative support to the Premier and the Director-General, Cabinet Office and Inter Governmental Relations functions. To this has been added the Provincial Air Transport service and Gaming and Betting.

Programme 2: Development and Human Rights consisting of the Socio-Economic Development, Human Rights and the Central Policy Unit functions and has, as its main objective, the co-ordination of Provincial programmes and policies.

Programme 3: Corporate and Support Services that has the provision of transversal services to other Provincial Departments as its main objective and consists of the Human Resource Strategies and Support, Communication and Legal Services functions.

Programme 4: Financial and Auxiliary Services provides the internal logistical support to the Department and consists of the Financial Management, Internal Control, Information Technology and Procurement and Logistics functions. The control over public entities and Grants in Aid is also vested in this programme.

I will now address those salient sub-programmes within the four main programmes in my Budget.

Programme 1: Premier and Director-General support

A total amount of R 38,6 million has been provided for Programme 1 which, inter alia, includes the following key activities:

Intergovernmental relations (Allocation - R 2,7 million)

In spite of being a relatively small unit, some significant successes have already been achieved by a committed team during the past year, to mention some:

* The exposure we gained through our participation at the Liege Trade Fair in September 2002 in Belgium resulted in a R30 million grant received from the regional government of Flanders to promote various agricultural development projects and innovations. A further amount of R200 million will be made available over the next three years in the areas of education, environment, agriculture, housing, economic development and local government. For the first year, projects to the value of R17 million have recently been approved for capacity building in these areas.
* The Australian Aid programme (AUSAID) supports capacity building in Traditional and Local Government matters.
* In terms of the Shanghai cooperation agreement, links have been established between our province and the Shanghai commercial sector and the youth. Various initiatives are being pursued. They include an invitation to participate in the Shanghai International Children's Culture and Arts festival in July.

In 2003 the key objectives of the IGR Unit will include the following activities:

* The establishment of a fully functional Provincial Inter-Governmental Forum (PROVTRADLOG) in June. Through this forum, the provincial government, municipalities and traditional leadership will meet to discuss matters of common concern and to ensure that service delivery in the province is provided in a coherent, integrated and coordinated manner.

* The development of an integrated approach to the marketing of the Province.
* We have revived our relations with our sister German Lander of Baden-Wuertemberg and we aim to finalise a twinning arrangement with a Canadian Province in the coming year.

Gaming and Betting (Allocation - R 2,4 million)

During the past year, we drafted a Provincial Racing and Betting Bill. We have also formulated a Provincial Policy in respect of Problem Gambling. We have commenced with a review of the KwaZulu-Natal Gambling Act and regulations.

We plan to finalise the Racing and Betting Bill, and table it in the Legislature this month. The Bill contains some important new principles, such as providing for the establishment of a KwaZulu-Natal Betting Board with licensing powers and other powers currently vested in both the Bookmakers Control Committee and in the Office of the Premier. Through this piece of legislation we intend to enhance transparency in the licensing process and to improve the regulation of the industry. This will in turn lead to increased tax collections from the betting industry.

Furthermore, the Bill contains provisions which will enhance the participation and ownership stakes of historically disadvantaged persons in the racing and betting industry.

We will retain a small directorate which will be responsible largely for policy formulation and monitoring of the related industries.

Air Transport Service (Allocation - R 20 million)

During the past year, the Office of the Premier went through an intensive process of evaluating the Provincial Air Transport Service. Hence a number of fundamental changes to our air transport service are in the pipeline for the coming year.

These changes include:

* A draft policy on aircraft utilization was developed and circulated to stakeholders for comment and input. This draft policy is in the process of being submitted to MExCo prior to final submission to Cabinet for approval and implementation by June 2003. The Legislature as users of the air service will also be consulted.
* The air transport service contract was put out to tender and awarded to SA Airlink. The new service level agreement, which is in the process of being finalised, is much more simplified and precise than the previous contract which was open to different interpretations.
* The previous contract with the service provider SA Airlink was subjected to audit by KPMG.
* Furthermore, Mr Speaker, emanating directly from the results of the audit, the Office of the Premier has taken the decision to transform the Air Transport Service into a cost centre with emphasis on cost minimisation and revenue generation.

Programme 2: Development and Human Rights

This programme receives an allocation of R 11 million and I wish to mention the following functions:

Socio-Economic Development (Allocation - R 4,8 million)

Growth and Development remains the core business of this Province in the pursuit of a better life for our citizens. A Project Task Team comprising of representatives from all our departments is presently engaged with the finalisation of the Provincial Growth and Development Strategy (PGDS). This process will be completed by the end of August this year. The first priority is the linking of all departmental projects and programmes to our provincial priorities.

The development of a poverty and inequality reduction strategy, within the broader framework of the PGDS, is already underway and should be completed by September this year. This major exercise is driven from the Office of the Premier in collaboration with an Interdepartmental Poverty Reduction Task Team and other stakeholders.

The outputs from this initiative include:

* A profile of poverty in KwaZulu-Natal including relevant poverty maps which will be available on a web site dedicated to this initiative
* A report on the public sector responses to poverty
* A strategy reflecting the key focus areas for poverty reduction
* Recommendations for the design and empowerment of a poverty monitoring and co-ordinating system

Furthermore a capacitation programme to improve the overall effectiveness of the management of poverty reduction programmes in the province will be drawn up in consultation with the departments and other relevant stakeholders.

On co-ordinating HIV/AIDS, a major initiative is under consideration, the outputs of which will be:

* A baseline report on the socio-economic impact of HIV/AIDS both within the internal environment of the public sector and the external environment of the communities we serve
* Deriving from the study, a response to Poverty and HIV/AIDS will be mainstreamed primarily into the Provincial Growth and Development Strategy as well as the Poverty and Inequality Reduction Strategy
* The necessary tools will be developed to facilitate the alignment of the municipal Integrated Development Plans with the mainstreamed policies
* The necessary monitoring and evaluation tools and an institutional framework will also be developed

In this way I hope that we shall move beyond viewing HIV/AIDS as an isolated disease event controllable through individual actions and begin to respond to the challenge of developing a programmatic response to mitigate the socio-economic determinants and impact of HIV/AIDS as a logical extension to the current provincial response to HIV/AIDS.
As I announced in the State of the Province Address on 03 March 2003, a major conference is being planned for the middle of the year to assess how best the response to HIV/AIDS can be strengthened by greater collaboration between the public sector, private sector and civil society.

The observation of the 4th Annual Economic and Social Rights Report 2000-2002 of the Human Rights Commission that "there are few or no specific programmes in place to cater for the needs of the rural populations, refugees, asylum seekers, girl-children, people infected or affected by HIV/AIDS and AIDS orphans" is a major cause for concern and challenges us as a provincial government to critically examine the gaps and weaknesses in our current programmes. I hope this conference will constructively serve this purpose.

This conference will also review the work done on the prevention of mother-to-child-transmission of HIV and the provision of anti-retrovirals to rape victims as well as asses methods of providing comprehensive treatment to people living with HIV/AIDS and addressing the plight of HIV/AIDS orphans and vulnerable children. Following consultations with other departments including Health, Social Welfare and Population Development and Education and Culture, my Department will soon be submitting proposals on the conference to the Cabinet.

I believe there are enough people of goodwill and high levels of commitment and concern in this province to turn the epidemic around. Hopefully the conference will help charter the way forward and enable us as a province to rise above the many challenges that we face in this regard.

Central Policy Unit (Allocation - R 2,8 million)

The Central Policy Unit is poised to offer effective capacity services to provincial departments in the areas of public policy management. Inclusive in this endeavour will be the establishment of interdepartmental public policy forum consisting of departmental policy analysts.

Working relations with the Cabinet Office and Provincial Treasury will be streamlined and strengthened. The objective here is to ensure effective and critical "analysis of analysis" in proposed policies that are being channelled to the cabinet through cabinet clusters. To this effect the Central Policy Unit is to integrate its work with that of Technical clusters and to provide policy advisory services during all deliberations of the technical clusters.

The policy unit will also be co-ordinating the production of a Mid Term Government Performance Report every October. A final performance report is of course presented in the annual State of the Province Address.

The strengthening of relations with research institutes and other public policy units in government and non-governmental institutions, which are key sources of secondary data, is to be given the importance it deserves.

Human Rights (Allocation - R 3,4 million)

This Directorate has been established to coordinate the promotion and protection of human rights with special reference to gender, disability, children and the youth. In the first year of its existence the Directorate achieved, inter alia, the following:

* Completion of a provincial audit of disabled persons and initiated an audit on the state of children in the province.
* Completion of a consultation process on the provincial Youth Development Policy,
* Development of a gender mainstreaming strategy and action plan and finalised the framework for the provincial action plan for children.

For the coming year a number of outputs have been identified for delivery by this Directorate, including:

* Provincialisation and implementation of national policies within the province as well as the development of mechanisms to monitor and evaluate impact.
* Guidelines and a framework for the mainstreaming of human rights in each department in the province will be produced by the 31July 2003.

We aim to make KwaZulu-Natal a province that is proud of its Human Rights record.

It must be said that as a new Directorate, this area has not been sufficiently funded. Members of this House have also raised this matter during the hearings. I will return to this later.

Programme 3: Corporate and support services

An amount of R 27,3 million is allocated to this programme which is aimed at rendering support to Government Departments in our Province. Key sub-programmes include the following:

Human Resource Strategies and Support (Allocation - R16, 6 million)

The aim of this unit is to provide transverse human resource services and support to all provincial departments in the areas of policies, skills development, labour relations and organisational efficiency.

In the area of human resource policies progress has been made in the formulation of transversal policy frameworks for the province in the past year. In the coming year, a number of policy frameworks will be published by this unit, to mention a few:

* Provincial skills development plan by August 2003
* Provincial Human Resource Plan by December 2003
* Human resource retention policy by July 2003

Our skills development unit initiated an internship programme in the Department as a pilot for the province placing five interns in various units. The Adult Basic Education and Training (ABET) unit improved on their target for the year processing 4 300 learners against a target of 3 000. In the new year we plan to implement 13 workplace skills plans in line with the requirements of the Sector Education and Training Authority (SETA) and Public Service and Education Training Authority (PSETA), to provide training to more than 2 600 government employees and ABET to 3 000 employees.

We also plan to establish a Provincial Training Academy by the end of July this year.

The Job Evaluation Unit will focus on the development of job competency profiling in order to enable departments to recruit employees that will be able to deliver effectively in line with the strategic and business plans of departments and assisting departments to establish job evaluation structures.

In the area of labour relations emphasis will be placed on adherence to Resolutions 7 and 8 of 2002 aimed at the transformation and restructuring of the public service and the development of a transversal labour relations policy and strike management plan by September 2003.

Communication (Allocation R 3,9 million)

Provincial transversal communication campaigns are coordinated by this unit from my office. Provincial commemorative events, some of which have been a responsibility of the Department of Education and Culture, are also coordinated by this unit.

During the past year significant successes have been achieved with the "Government Goes to the People" programme and the Anti Fraud and Corruption campaign.

In the coming year this unit will finalise a transversal communication strategy by August and ensure coordinated media liaison through the further strengthening of the provincial communication forum.

The Provincial Cabinet took a decision in January 2002 that all nationally significant days should be organised by the Office of the Premier. This area is not properly funded. Arising from the experiences of the Human Rights and Freedom Days, a report will be submitted to cabinet which will also address the issue of funding. In addition, the area of promoting government communication requires more attention. We do need to promote the image and achievements of our province. It is an area that may require more resources.

State Law Advisory Services (Allocation R 6,8 million)

The task of the legal services unit is to provide a professional transversal State Law Advisory service to provincial departments.

One of the most important high-level activities of the unit is the legal editing and certification of provincial legislation. The following Bills are expected to be completed in the near future:

* KwaZulu- Natal Heritage Amendment Bill, 2003
* KwaZulu- Natal Business Rehabilitation Trust Fund Amendment Bill, 2003
* KwaZulu- Natal Water and Sanitation Committee Bill, 2003
* KwaZulu- Natal Provincial Archives Amendment Bill, 2003

Rationalisation of Laws Project, to be implemented in October 2003, and ongoing rationalisation and review of Provincial legislation will see further draft Bills and regulations submitted for legal editing and certification.

The Legal Administration Officers' Forum will be reactivated and renamed the KwaZulu-Natal Public Sector Lawyers' Forum to serve as an important link between the Office of the Premier and the respective Provincial Departments where legal issues will be co-ordinated within the Provincial Government.

Programme 4: Financial and auxiliary services

This programme has been allocated R 58,7 million. For purposes of my address today, I shall only concentrate on the services provided as they impact transversally on the rest of the Provincial Government and its institutions.

Information Technology (Allocation - R 17,9 million)

Mr Speaker, the Honourable Members will recall that I announced a year ago that the long awaited transfer of our Information Technology functions to the State Information Technology Agency (SITA) finally took place on 01 February 2002. Members will also recall that I stated that KwaZulu-Natal was the first of all the Provinces to take this bold step.

During the past year my Department had to meet with the Department of Public Service and Administration on numerous occasions to assist in the practical design of the new Provincial Government Information Technology Office and Council structures. The model that has been developed during this interaction is now prescribed for all Provinces by DPSA.

We were also approached by most of the other Provinces to render advice, give guidance and share our lessons of experience with regard to the transfer of this function.

In the coming year the Information Technology Office, as coordinator of the Provincial Information Technology Council, will concentrate on the development and enhancement of Information Plans for all Departments, moving the Province forward on the e-Governance road, conduct an intensive investigation into the potential advantages and disadvantages of consolidating our information technology infrastructure and further strengthening and managing the agreement with SITA.

Grants-in-Aid (Allocation - R13, 6 million)

In the past the Office of the Premier supported the Emandleni-Matleng Youth Training Centre by means of an annual grant in aid payment. However, the functions of this Centre are much closer aligned with the core functions of the Department of Education and, after a thorough investigation and much deliberation, the decision was taken to move this responsibility to Education as a Further Education and Training institution with effect from 1 April 2003.

Although the Office of the Premier has provided an amount of R 6,2 million in our budget for this function in the coming year, Provincial Treasury has already been approached to transfer the responsibility and the funding to Education. This changeover will be effected now and be voted in the adjustments estimates later on in the year.

Mr Speaker, it is with pleasure that I also report that the main characteristic of Emandleni-Matleng, being the provision of life skills to the needy youth of our Province, will be retained. This is in addition to accredited technical skills training that will be offered. This will surely make significant contributions to directly addressing poverty alleviation.

The KwaZulu-Natal Gambling Board, allocated an amount of R 6,75 million, is a public entity falling under the control of the Office of the Premier. Mr Speaker, I am pleased to announce that the new Board members have now taken office after a swearing in ceremony on the 11 April 2003.

The KwaZulu-Natal Federal Council for Disability is not a public entity but receives an annual grant-in-aid from the Office of the Premier to assist them with the responsibility they carry. For the coming year this grant amounts to R 628 000.

The following measures are a sequel to the concerns raised by the Portfolio Committee on Finance. We have now instructed the Council to submit their multi-year strategic plan and short-term business plans to Cabinet through the Cabinet Cluster system. The purpose of this is to analyse their planned activities against the background of the Provincial priorities and for Cabinet to decide on the continuation or otherwise of our support to this institution.

3. Budget challenges

Mr Speaker, two years ago the Office of the Premier approached this House with a request to increase the MTEF base line allocation of the Department to a new level to cater for the new role and functions in the Department. We have managed to remain within the base line granted to us by this House up to now.

However, as our democracy unfolds the role of government also has to change to keep up with the demands of society. This process presents strong challenges to departments, which also includes budgetary challenges.

If I may mention a few of these challenges impacting on the Office of the Premier:

* Since the establishment of the Directorate: Human Rights in the Department the need of our society for government to play a much stronger role, especially in respect of children has become apparent.
* The establishment of proper monitoring units for the PGDS and poverty and HIV/AIDS will require the strengthening of these units with adequate levels of capacity.
* The Provincial Communication function needs to be strengthened in order to promote the image of the government, and its achievements.
* Provinces have been requested to establish a Science and Technology function within Provincial Government.
* This province needs a capacitated Protocol service as it engages more in international relations and as more high profile functions are being organised.
* The present instability in the Middle East could have a negative impact on oil supplies and fuel prices. This may affect our Air transport service.
* The implementation of the Basic Accounting System (BAS) calls for new functions, and functionaries, in departments. My Department is one of the departments piloting the implementation of this system.

We, as a Department, are trying to cope with these challenges from existing resources, however, we foresee the possibility that we will have to approach our Provincial Treasury during the course of the year for a review of our budget.

4. Conclusion

Mr Speaker, it is my belief that members of this House have now been adequately apprised of the programmes of my Office and Department and the corresponding budgetary allocations.

The strategic overarching roles and responsibilities of my Office and Department provide the imperatives for the programmes and related outputs that I have been presenting to this House as my budget proposal statement.

My Office and Department can only be as successful as the level of support that we can get from the legislature, the executive and public management and administration. I commit myself and my officials to be of the service to the provincial government and administration and to facilitate their ability to meet the needs of the people of the Province.

I now table the budget of my office for debate and approval by the House.

I thank you.

Issued by KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Government

6 May 2003