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17 April 2008

Honourable Speaker and Deputy Speaker
Honourable members of the house
Distinguished ladies and gentlemen

It gives me pleasure to stand once more before this honourable house and give an account of how the Department performed in discharging its mandate and responsibilities during the last financial year as well as outlining the 2008 priorities.

Honourable Speaker, when we presented our State of the Province Address on the 15th of February, we reaffirmed the 2014 vision as a strategic mobilisation programme for our country and province and confirmed it as a framework for a programme of action. Our emphasis has and will always be on uniting society in a national effort for faster development.

We rise in this esteemed house to join our President in calling upon all the people of the Free State to place all hands on deck for faster development. Our commitment to serve will be redoubled through our business unusual approach and we dare declare upfront, that ours is an unstoppable march towards a better life for all.

As we gave the account of our overall performance, we were inspired by a collective consensus that our strategic outlook, policies and programmes over the last four years and into the future reaffirm the confidence the Free State people have on this government.

This has to be the case, because in all that we did and said, we were carried on the shoulders of those who elected us into these positions of responsibilities. We have confirmed once more, that the true meaning of freedom can only be expressed when the people themselves are the architects and drivers of their own destiny, as it has been the case for the last fourteen years of our freedom and democracy.

Vision 2014, a strategic mobilisation programme!

During the period under review and beyond, we invested our energies and resources in programmes which ensured:

* economic growth and inclusion
* reduction in social welfare dependency
* strengthening capacity of the state to fight crime and for effective service delivery
* consolidating our international work to pursue the imperatives of economic growth and inclusion.

We are happy that the occasion of our State of the Province Address was an important platform to demonstrate to our people the significant strides we have registered in pursuit of a better life for all.

As we present this budget vote to this honourable house, it is important to emphasise that the evaluation of our performance must always be measured against our three strategic thrusts which define the operational framework of the Department of the Premier:

* That the Premier and the Executive Council are supported to achieve government's goals and priorities.
* That the departments in the provincial government are strategically guided and co-ordinated with regard transversal corporate support functions.
* That activities of departments and municipalities are aligned and integrated towards the achievements of the goals and priorities of government.

The Free State Growth and Development Strategy remains our roadmap! Honourable Speaker, we pursued these objectives and all of government's activities informed by the objectives of our Free State Growth and Development Strategy, which remains our developmental pathway towards the attainment of poverty and unemployment reduction.

Honourable Speaker and members of the house, it is our firm belief that the political mandate which find expression in the administrative realm is defined by particular goals tied to desired political outcomes. These describe the roles and responsibilities of the services rendered by different yet intertwined and mutually supporting components of the Department.

All these roles and responsibilities are given material dimension by the Departmental vision, mission, objectives and values that seek to provide strategic direction to the provincial government through leadership and co-ordination, based on professionalism, integrity, honesty and efficiency.

In this financial year, the Department has been allocated R120,096 million. This amount is inclusive of the R11, 5 million allocations for the Youth Commission. We are glad to report that at the end of the 2007/08 financial year, our spending pattern was on target in terms of what we projected to spend.

I have indicated in the last financial year that our budget programmes have been reduced to three, namely, Administration, Corporate Support as well as Policy and Governance. We did this to ensure effectiveness and efficiency in our co-ordination of government programmes.

Honourable Speaker, I will now go to the budget allocation of the three programmes. In this budget vote, we will also give a brief analysis of the progress we have made in the last financial year.

Building the capacity of the state to deliver

Programme 1: Administration

An amount of R30,408 million has been allocated to this programme to provide effective management and administrative support to the Premier and Executive Council in order to achieve the priorities of government.

Through our selfless pursuit of programmes aimed at renewing our contract with the people, we have experienced remarkable improvement in the interaction with other government structures, the general public and the international community. Indeed there has been effective affirmation in various forums and by as many voices as possible about the popular legitimacy and effectiveness of our democracy.

The improvement in our ways of working of this programme has enhanced the effectiveness of the provincial government's Executive Council system and has emerged as a benchmark for the rest of the country. The ways of working document is regularly updated to ensure that it responds to organisational changes and operational mechanisms.

We will continue in this financial year to consolidate and improve the service of this programme and to ensure that our clients are satisfied with the services they receive. We have, through the office of the Director-General, employed ground breaking strategies to ensure that we render an effective and efficient service to all the stakeholders.

Furthermore, the Internal Audit Unit continues to successfully conduct all internal audit reviews. These reviews have shown improvements in the internal control measures and mitigating the risks.

The successful implementation of the Standard Chart of Account Toning Project, which was initiated by the National Treasury, has been identified as a priority for the 2008/09 financial year.

The aim of the project is to improve the ability of government to extract meaningful data from the Basic Accounting System for monitoring government expenditure. This requires the implementation of an improved version of BAS which became operational with effect from 1 April 2008.

Staff members are currently trained to prepare themselves for the implementation of the Standard Chart of Account Toning Project to ensure the successful implementation of the project and the uninterrupted service delivery to the Department in the 2008/09 financial year.

The Internal Control function has been activated and will assist the Department in complying with the requirements in terms of the Public Finance Management Act, Treasury Regulations, and the Preferential Procurement Policy Framework Act.

In order to improve our procurement abilities, we are in the process of filling the Demand Practitioner and Demand and Acquisition Specialist posts which will conclude the process of establishing a Demand Management component in the Department. This component will play an important role in linking requirements in terms of the strategic plan with the budget.

In line with the President's pronouncements during the State of the Nation Address, we intend to ensure that we continue to pay creditors within thirty days. A register has been opened where all contracts are monitored on a monthly basis to ensure that invoices are followed up.

Honourable Speaker, the Anti-corruption strategy has been finalised and it will be rolled out to the districts in this financial year. The security policy will be launched later this year. The policy will ensure uniformity of approach and systems to dealing with sensitive matters of security across all the levels of government

As part of our efforts to recognise and reward excellence among all the people of the Free State, we will host this year's Premier's Excellence Awards of 2008 in July. The main emphasis of the awards remains recognising contributions of individuals and institutions in the Free State. In addition, it also recognises the unsung and uncelebrated heroes and heroines of our province who are making a difference in the lives of other people.

We will continue to insist that the values of Ubuntu must continue to infuse the work of all those who provide a public service so that the interests of the people are prioritised and that any impediments to optimal public service are identified and removed.

To this end, we will implement the Free State Batho Pele Change Management Engagement Training Programme in collaboration with the Free State Training and Development Institute (FSTDI), to train all front-line staff in the Free State Provincial Government in the Batho Pele principles.

Some of the key areas to be addressed with this training are the Batho Pele belief set, transformation of service delivery, time management and professionalism in the public service.

Honourable Speaker, we would like to announce that we are the champions of Knowledge Management in the public service and this was confirmed by the national Department of Public Service and Administration Knowledge Management conference which was hosted by the Free State earlier this year.

We will pilot a Knowledge Management Audit questionnaire through the involvement of all knowledge management representatives in all government departments, to determine the gap between the ideal state and where we are presently with regard to the management of knowledge.

Another pilot project on Customer Satisfaction Survey will be conducted at one of the Thusong Service Centres and later filtered to all the other Thusong Service Centres within the Free State.

The objective of the project is to determine the overall perception of citizens with regard to the services being rendered at the Thusong Service Centres and to use the information to improve services and to build a good practice model for Thusong Service Centres in the Free State.

This project will run concurrently with a community survey to be conducted in the same mould as the African Peer Review Mechanism as well as the Macro Social Report framework. We have tasked the Free State Youth Commission to do this survey on our behalf and its findings will be made public.

Customer care and Service Delivery Improvement Framework has been finalised. Some outputs of this framework are being implemented as seen in the Project Khaedu Training and deployment of Senior Managers to the coalface of service delivery.

The Khaedu activities will be linked with the work of the Free State Society for Public Administration and Governance to establish exchange and mentoring programmes. Amongst others, the exchange programme will be initiated between provincial government, municipalities and Institutions of Higher Learning.

Thus far a total of 197 managers have been trained as part of the core skills week and a total of 118 managers have also been deployed to coal face service to gain more insight and to assist with service delivery problems.

Honourable Speaker, as per our commitment during our last budget vote, the Free State Training and Development Institute develop skills through the facilitation and co-ordination of building transverse capacity within the provincial government. We have trained 1 553 officials covering 31 training areas at the FSTDI.

Courses attended include the Executive Management and Leadership programme, Time Management, Batho Pele, Labour Relations and Project Management. Additional training will be arranged on request by departments in line with their workplace skills plans.

The Department has recruited five interns. We are in the process of employing additional 13 interns for Special Programmes and Intergovernmental Relations.

The Senior Management Conference will be held again this year to enable senior managers of the province to discuss transverse issues concerning the acceleration of service delivery.

Honourable members, our ability as a Department and consequently as the provincial government to effectively co-ordinate, requires that we should always be at the forefront of innovation and strategic leadership. This means that the business unusual approach must be demonstrated by us first and foremost as the overall repository of service excellence within government.

Honourable Speaker, the creation of the Accelerated and Shared Growth Initiative of South Africa (Asgisa)/Joint Initiative for Priority Skills Acquisition (Jipsa) Unit gave us the necessary capacity to deal with high impact economic intervention as well as skills development interventions, in a much more co-ordinated manner.

This unit constitutes part of our responsibility to co-ordinate and support transversal strategic programmes such as the Five Year Local Government Strategic Agenda, Expanded Public Works Programme and economic diplomacy. Following the National government's decision to exclude maize in its Biofuel Strategy, we are investigating the use of other alternative crops. The role of the provincial government as previously stated is to facilitate the process with the necessary stakeholders and to eventually come up with a Free State Renewable Energy Strategy. This initiative must be viewed as a Public Private Partnership where the private sector in particular, has to take the lead in terms of investment.

The two business centres, which were established a year ago through the generous support of the Flemish International Co-operative Agreement in Matjhabeng and Tokologo, to serve as one stop centres for business advice and support, are now operational.

To date, a number of 1 523 clients have visited these centres for business support services and training. Fifty two Early Childhood Development practitioners have also received training at these centres. Two more centres will be opened in Thaba Nchu and Qwaqwa by August this year.

The National Skills Fund was launched, in conjunction with the Department of Labour on 25 February 2008 and to date, 1 062 learnerships involving tourism, artisans and construction started on 1 April 2008.

This programme is one of our high impact interventions regarding the skills deficit currently experienced by our economy. We undertake this and other similar initiatives informed by the broader framework of the Joint Initiative for Priority Skills Acquisition.

Honourable Speaker, the improvement witnessed in our financial management, shows that we are on course to deliver on our mandate. We have been doing exceptionally well over the years and this resulted in the department getting unqualified audit reports in the last three financial years.

We developed a Risk Management Framework that ensures that all emerging risks are periodically identified, assessed, treated, monitored and reported on. This Risk Management Framework is also a base for compilation of the Annual Internal Audit plan which directs the activities of Internal Auditing.

We have also established the Finance and Risk Management Committee, which oversees the process of risk management, risk mitigating, governance and implementation of Internal Controls. The Risk Management Unit will be capacitated to ensure that they continuously improve internal controls, accountability and governance within the department.

Providing strategic leadership and guidance over the entire government

Programme 2: Corporate Support

This programme is allocated R41,784 million to ensure that the Department continues to strategically guide and co-ordinate all provincial Departments with regard to corporate transversal functions.

Corporate communication contributes to the creation of an environment conducive to decision-making by profiling government work and effective functioning of the Premier and the Executive Council.

On 14 February, we launched the new provincial corporate identity with the objective of maintaining consistency across all the provincial Departments. The new corporate identity epitomises service delivery; a symbol from which we will communicate single-mindedly and concertedly.

The roll-out of the new corporate identity and branding ensures that we deliver a new, clear and consistent image and identity for the Executive Council and provincial government as a whole. A communication strategy has been developed to bridge the gap between how the provincial government wants to be perceived and how it is currently perceived by its various publics.

The strategy also outlines how the new identity will be transferred and applied consistently through various communication platforms across departments. Currently all the Departments have phased out the old material and are using the new branding.

The revamping of the website is under way. The application of the corporate identity on the website has been done and the departmental web pages have been incorporated to ensure consistency across departments.

The establishment of the Free State Provincial Government Newsletter has also added the much needed impetus in communicating government's programmes and soliciting public support and participation.

Internal communication within the Department has been strengthened through the introduction of an on-line publication that provides staff with their information needs in respect of the latest developments. It enables staff to be on the front-row seat in terms of all developments in government so that they themselves are the most advanced cadres of our public service.

We have strived to build and maintain a strong relationship with the media and we are delighted that in spite of persistent negative reporting by some within the media there is a general positive perception of the Free State Provincial Government.

Our call is for the media to draw a line between acting as a front for opposition parties and reporting objectively and accurately on developments in government. We will continue to engage with the media and we will further consolidate our relationship. The media conference which will be held in May this year will further strengthen our relationship.

In keeping with the implementation of Apex Priority no 3, of speeding up information and communication technology (ICT) interventions we have since appointed the Chief Information Officer. There has been a complete turn-around in our information technology (IT) environment through the implementation of 'best practice' technologies. The overall objective is to increase usage of broadband and other ICT in addressing infrastructure development, cost and access related issues.

We have managed to achieve higher levels of engagement amongst departments within the ICT space through the Provincial Government Information Technology Officers Council (GITOC). With GITOC, we aim to foster a unified and integrated approach towards e-government, enterprise architecture and e-governance which will accelerate service delivery.

With the ever changing technology environment we are constantly faced with, challenges varying from aging ICT infrastructure, scarce skills and financial constraints. As a result, we are strategically aligning our ICT within our executive organisational structures to ensure a greater level of interaction, understanding and synergy between government’s strategic priorities and ICT strategic objectives to create a more profound impact of our work.

Through proper planning and quality implementation, we can overcome majority of the highlighted issues through continuous investment and improvement in our systems, infrastructure and resource capabilities in order to achieve a higher degree of alignment between IT and government strategic objectives and priorities.

The ICT Helpdesk proved successful in dealing with various departmental ICT concerns and operation logs are monitored on an ongoing basis for security breaches. The Local Area Network will be upgraded in this financial year. We will conduct an audit of all the telephone lines and discontinue all the non-functioning numbers.

Furthermore we have delivered quality legal advice to both the department and user departments. The legal resource centre will be expanded and our co-ordination role will be further strengthened. The role of the existing Legal Advisers Forum will also be reinforced.

Through our organisational development unit, we continue to provide strategic advice and direction on organisational development imperatives such as business process improvement, job evaluation, performance management and change management within the provincial government. There is a marked improvement in organisational development initiatives with regard to turnaround times, effectiveness and efficiency.

We have also increased compliance to the legislative framework as well as adherence to the principles of good corporate governance. We continue to provide the line managers with the necessary support to enable them to adhere to the processes and conform to business compliance requirements such as the development of performance agreements.

Honourable Speaker and members of the house, we have a responsibility to build a core of revocrats as a new breed of our public service. In this regard we have repositioned our human resource component to provide the provincial government with an optimal workforce to achieve its objective. Human resource practices and processes have improved, targeting employee morale, health and safety and labour relations practices.

Over and above this, an interdepartmental committee to operationalise the Provincial Human Resource and Development Strategy has been established. Part of the support we provide includes assisting other departments where it necessary. Over the last year we supported and strengthened the Department of Social Development as well as the Department of Economic, Environmental and Tourism.

We place particular emphasis to the development of our public service, because it is only when you have a well motivated workforce that you can be guaranteed positive outputs. Our Provincial Human Resource Development Strategy which was finalised last year proves to be a very important intervention in this regard.

Ensuring integrated planning across all spheres

Programme 3: Policy and governance

An amount of R47,904 million is allocated to Policy and Governance Programme to implement sustainable programmes that have greater impact on the communities.

Through the policy unit, we are able to drive the implementation of the Free State Growth and Development Strategy and to ensure that the implementation of the government programme of action and municipal Integrated Development Plans (IDPs) remain on course. This responsibility requires a great deal of co-ordination, monitoring and support capacity which we have been able to build.

We are progressively building the capacity of our policy unit, particularly the research aspect because our eventual vision is to be in a position to set the Free State Research Agenda. Our view is that any research work undertaken must correspond with the socio-economic priorities of our people.

The co-ordination of our intergovernmental relations as well as economic diplomacy programmes is well on course. The entire Premier's Co-ordinating Forum meetings and international visits were centrally co-ordinated to minimise duplication and wastage of resources. We were also able to provide protocol services at all state events that required the service.

Through monitoring and implementation of departmental vote injunctions, implementation of the cluster system and the cluster Programme of Action and Monitoring and Evaluation and co-ordination of major government programmes, we were able to enhance the effectiveness of government services.

There has been an improvement in our quarterly reporting mechanism. There are plans to ensure that programme and sub-programme managers continue to report in line with the planned outputs in the Annual Performance Plan. This is to ensure that we strike a balance between the outputs identified in strategic plans with the budget for improved service delivery.

The development of the Provincial Spatial Development Framework has been finalised and it will be utilised as a guiding framework to inform our investment strategy. The process of developing District Spatial Development Framework was also given the necessary attention.

This process was guided by the National Spatial Development Perspective and once implemented in full, will ensure that the there is at all times consistency between government's priorities and the most important developmental priorities of our communities.

The Free State Growth and Development Strategy, as stated earlier, set the scene for integration and co-ordination amongst the three spheres of government. At the heart of this process is the need to contribute to the development and advancement of the community of the Free State province.

As part of this process, in August 2007 and January 2008, the extended Executive Council (EXCO) Lekgotla passed resolutions with regard to the rollout of the cluster system to the district level. We have already launched the Fezile Dabi district cluster and preparations to launch all remaining districts are on course.

Honourable members, when the Deputy President visited our province last year to assess the state of service delivery, she commended the province on the effectiveness of the provincial cluster system. We aim to build from this solid base and improve the overall co-ordination of government work at all spheres of government.

Substantial effort went into improving the quality of reporting in respect of the Cluster Programme of Action and the FSGDS. We have introduced the 'traffic light' assessment tool as an extension of the provincial monitoring and evaluation system.

This system enables us to identify areas of poor performance so that timeous interventions can be implemented. During this financial year we intend to improve on this system as the initial pilot phase has demonstrated that it can be a useful scientific method of tracking progress.

In the previous financial year there has been marked improvement in co-ordinating major government programmes through constant Provincial Steering Committee meetings which were utilised to track progress and reports were generated and forwarded to all relevant stakeholders. We will continue in this financial year to improve the co-ordination of these major government programmes.

The apex priority number 23 urges us to intensify economic diplomacy and communication. We undertake this task in line with our comprehensive strategy of attracting foreign direct investment, improving access to global markets, marketing the Free State province, attracting tourism as well as enhancing the image of our country.

As part of our economic diplomacy, we paid a visit to India in September 2007 to promote the Free State Provincial Growth and Development Strategy through the collaboration with Indian stakeholders. We focused on the areas of jewellery manufacturing and beneficiation, information and communication technology, investment in tourism and leisure, logistics and transport.

Biofuel production was also discussed as it forms part of the India, Brazil, and South Africa (IBSA) Agreement on a collective energy strategy. The immediate spin-off of this engagement was an agreement located within the Indian Technology and Economic Commission to send senior managers for training in the latest management techniques to enhance service delivery.

A Memorandum of Understanding signed in 2006 between Free State and the German Association of Engineers in Chemnitz in Saxony for the exchange of post graduates engineering students started to yield results in 2007.

Eight engineering students from Free State have completed an orientation programme in Germany towards their training. The exchange students from Germany are expected to join Eskom this year.

We also visited Belgium as guests of honour at the Accenta International Trade Fair. Our participation at this fair exposed the Free State and its entrepreneurs to valuable opportunities and some such as Khanya creations, have already made sales of up to R2 million since the trade fair.

Whilst in Belgium, we utilized that opportunity to renew our bonds of friendship with the province of Antwerp. Recently we also had a visit by Mr. Ludo Helsen, a member of the Executive Council in Antwerp which further consolidated our relations.

Through the EXCO Meets the People Campaigns and Izimbizo, we continue to narrow the communication gap between government and its constituencies. We are also ensuring that communities are now more involved in day-to-day issues of governance through ward committees, the community development workers and other platforms of participatory democracy.

The first Imbizo week took place from the 7th to the 13th of April and as always, it was a resounding success. The Imbizo week served as a platform to share with our people, government's programme of action for 2008.

It was also an opportunity to popularise the apex priorities with particular emphasis on local economic development strategies. We can only draw inspiration from the positive feedback we received and our people have as always, reaffirmed that we carry their support and approval in our quest to build a better life for all. These interactions with the communities have resulted in a significant decline in community protests and incidents of crime have also been reduced.

Through our outreach programmes such as Izimbizo, we will continually strive to consolidate our organisational capacity and further develop our ability to transform broad policies into implementable programmes and projects.

In order to improve the service rendered at Thusong Service Centres (TSCs), we have reviewed the performance of five of these service centres based on the reports sampled from the activities of the centres. This review confirms that these centres are critical interventions in bringing services closer to people and are very important in bridging the communication gap between government and communities.

A marketing and education programme to increase dissemination of government information to communities was developed. Community mobilisation was also strengthened with greater cohesion between TSCs, Community Development Workers and Ward Committees. A workshop on the rollout plan for the second generation TSCs in municipalities was held to bring all role-players on board.

We are glad that once more the Free State has been identified as a best practice model for Thusong Service Centres and the rest of the country is drawing valuable lessons from our own innovations. Integrated service delivery will continue to be strengthened at TSCs. We have ensured that municipalities include TSCs in their IDPs.

Honourable Speaker, the Community Development Worker Programme seeks to bridge the gap between government and poor communities thus improving access to cost effective services. Following the monitoring and evaluation of the work of the CDWs, we identified challenges and made recommendations to ensure effective interaction and networking with communities. The framework for the management and monitoring of the work of CDWs will be reviewed and finalised in this financial year.

Through our special programmes unit, we continue to play a very important role of coordinating the effective implementation of policies regarding the most vulnerable in society. Through the Offices of the Rights of Children, the Status of Women, HIV/AIDS and disability, we continue to be at the forefront of policy development and implementation.

In this regard, we work very closely with lead departments, implementing agencies and non-governmental organisations in making sure that there is uniformity of messages, approach and programmes.

Some of our key milestones regarding our special programmes are the Million Men March held as part of the 16 Days of Activism Against Women and Child Abuse, the women’s exhibition held on Women's Day, the national children's indaba and the re-launch of the Provincial Council on Aids which has now been located in the Office of the Premier.

As stated earlier we continue to provide support to the Free State Youth Commission through the transfer payment agreement. The Commission reports on a quarterly basis about their programmes. We ensure that their priority programmes are in line with the pressing challenges facing our youth. These are skills development, economic participation and youth information provision.

We have noted a marked improvement in their overall coordination of youth development work at both local and provincial level. This is mainly due to their alignment of the strategic plan and budget to the Free State Growth and Development Strategy.

In addition, the establishment of the Provincial Youth Fund will enhance the available pool of interventions aimed at facilitating access to the economy, and working with the Free State Development Corporation, we will monitor the performance of the fund and grow it progressively.

All hands on deck for faster development, Business unusual!

Honourable Speaker, in spite of the positive mood among Free Staters, it is only fair that as we provide strategic leadership and guidance, we must acknowledge the challenges that are still confronting us as a nation today.

We have already outlined our approach and action plan regarding the electricity supply challenges facing our country at the moment. We will take the necessary leadership in mobilising all our stakeholders to act together with us in reducing our consumption to acceptable levels, so that eventually we inculcate a sustainable use of our energy resource.

The global economic factors, which manifest themselves through rising costs of food and fuel, the escalating interest rates as well as uncertainty about the economic stability, are all conspiring to undermine our important strides of halving poverty and unemployment by 2014.

To ensure that we take everybody along as we navigate our way through these challenges, we are going to host two important summits this year. We will convene all our stakeholders to a food security as well as job creation summit, which we will convene with the sole purpose of soliciting wisdom regarding these challenges.

We have finalised the Anti-Poverty Strategy and we will launch it later this year. The strategy represents our comprehensive response to our war on poverty which is yet another of our apex priorities. We are pressing ahead with the second phase of our Harrismith logistics hub and the interest already shown by the private sector is encouraging.

We have been pioneers of innovation in areas such as provision of basic services and turn-around strategies regarding incomplete houses. We are lauded everywhere for taking initiative and putting the business unusual approach into practice.

As we enter this new financial year, we intend to redouble our efforts and strengthen our strategic partnerships with all those who share the vision of our developmental mandate.

We want to reiterate that today is better than yesterday and certainly tomorrow will be better than today .We have been supported in this view by the household survey of Statistics SA, that in the areas of meeting basic needs, 2007 was better than 2001 and indeed 2001 was better than 1996.

We are on course to building a brighter and better future where all shall live in peace, harmony, and justice. That future is no longer the dream of tomorrow, but the reality of today!

Honourable Speaker and members of the house, we stand here almost at the conclusion of our electoral mandate. We are very satisfied with the progress we have made. We remain inspired by the feedback and support we receive from our people and as a result we remain justifiably optimistic that we are on course to roll back the accumulated legacy of Apartheid.

Our future looks bright and as a leading Department, we will do all in our power to ensure that the journey towards a better life for all is unstoppable. We call on all the people of the province and all our social partners, to join us as we place all hands on deck for faster development. Let us all do our work through the business unusual approach for the betterment of our people.

I thank you

Issued by: Office of the Premier, Free State Provincial Government
17 April 2008