Address By Gauteng Premier Nomvula Mokonyane on the Occasion of the Opening of the Gauteng Legislature, Johannesburg

• Author: Dankie - Ngiyabonga

Madam Speaker

Members of the Executive Council

Executive Mayors

Chief-Whip of the Majority Party

Deputy Speaker

Members of the Diplomatic Corps

Honourable Members of the Provincial Legislature

Councillors

Honourable Leaders of Political Parties

Distinguished guests

The residents of Gauteng.

Thank you for affording me the opportunity to present the 2013 State of the Province Address that reflects the journey we have travelled together thus far and which charts the road ahead.

In just over a year, we shall celebrate two decades of democracy in South Africa. It will indeed be a significant milestone in our history.

In his 1994 Presidential inaugural address, former President Nelson Mandela, the stalwart of our struggle declared:

“Out of the experience of an extraordinary human disaster that lasted too long, must be born a society of which all humanity will be proud. Our daily deeds as ordinary South Africans must produce an actual South African reality that will reinforce humanity's belief in justice, strengthen its confidence in the nobility of the human soul and sustain all our hopes for a glorious life for all.”

As we approach the 20 year anniversary of democracy we rededicate ourselves to the noble goals of building a united, a just, a non-racial, non-sexist and prosperous South Africa.

We therefore fully support the measures to address these challenges as announced by President Jacob Zuma in his 2013 State of the Nation Address earlier this month.

The Gauteng province is home to 12.3 million people, becoming the province with the largest population that accounts for 24% of the national population in South Africa.

Only 56% of people who were counted in Gauteng were born in the province which is an indication that the province is a destination with attractive opportunities.

Gauteng accounts for approximately 35% of the national economy, still higher than both the second and third placed contributors, KwaZulu-Natal (15.7%) and Western Cape (14.2%), combined.

In the midst of Gauteng’s 12 million people lives a young woman whose name is Thandiswa. She was born on 27 April 1994 at Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital, on a day that millions voted for the first time in their lives. She is one of South Africa’s first “born frees”; a generation born in the era of democracy and freedom.

Thandiswa lives with her hardworking parents and younger school-going siblings in Soweto; one amongst the many sprawling townships in the City of Johannesburg.

Fortunately, Thandiswa’s generation does not live in shacks that have no basic services. The 2011 Census findings show that 80% of Gauteng’s residents now live in formal housing, compared to the 74% in 2001. About 98% of households in Gauteng have access to running water compared to SA national figure that stands at 91%.

Gauteng’s’ 96% of households now have a flush toilet that is connected to a water-borne sewerage system, a septic tank or an improved pit latrine. The number of Gauteng people that have access to electricity increased from 78% to 87% between 1996 and 2011.

According to the SA Institute of Race Relations 2012 report, Gauteng has the best score in drinking-water-quality-index of 98% and the highest number of government-subsidised houses built since 1994.

Despite the adverse global economic conditions, unemployment in Gauteng has decreased from 28.2% in the first quarter of 2011 to 23.7% in the fourth quarter of 2012 financial year.

The 2011 Census findings also show that 46.5% of Gauteng residents have access to internet with almost 18% accessing it via smart phones.

At 18 years of age, Thandiswa is one of the techno-savy people who access the internet on their cell phone. Thandiswa is a shining example of one that has benefited enormously from the significant improvements in education in Gauteng. In January she celebrated her matric results, and improved the 3.7% number of people that had no formal education in 1996 to 9.7% in 2011. We observed that the gap in the pass rate between fee and no-fee schools has reduced dramatically to only a 10% difference in 2012.

Today, Thandiswa can walk streets that are tarred, lined with public street lights and has access to improved public amenities such as parks, sports and recreational facilities. Travelling from home, her mother has the option of using a Rea Vaya Bus, connect to the Gautrain and hop into a taxi to reach her chosen destination in the shortest of times. This was once a far-fetched dream nineteen years ago.

Madam Speaker,

Allow me to once again take the opportunity to congratulate the Grade 12 learners of 2012 on their excellent results. As a result of the sustained efforts by learners, teachers, parents, communities the education department and the provincial government as a whole, we took the top spot in the country, by producing 83,9% overall pass rate in Matric. Of these, 36% of learners obtained a Bachelors pass and 33,9% a Diploma pass that enables them to access FET and or University Tertiary Education.

Many of the 2012 matriculants are the first generation to be born at the dawn of our democracy in 1994 and are well on the road to success.

One of these is Zanele Mahlangu, who was born in Tembisa and attended Tembisa Secondary School. She obtained eight (8) distinctions in matric, including a 100% pass in Mathematics. She is now studying Chemical Engineering at the University of Pretoria. Like many others who have emerged from our public schools, she has a bright future ahead of her. We are pleased to have Zanele’s mother Ms Esther Mahlangu with us in the legislature today. Congratulations to Zanele and her family.

Zanele’s performance illustrates the depth of the transformation in our education system. Today learners from township schools, no fee schools and poorer communities; as well as learners from schools where we have conducted intervention programmes, are increasingly counted among the best.

Gauteng’s achievements in education thus go beyond matric results. According to national government monitoring reports, Gauteng has made strides in key areas such as accountability for performance, communications and a clear literacy strategy, which is one of the best in the country. The province has strong districts, and effective planning and monitoring. Good progress has been made in forging partnerships with key stakeholders, including parents and trade unions.

To ensure that top performers are able to pursue higher education opportunities, we provide the top three Grade 12 learners in all no-fee schools with bursaries. Since 2010 we have provided over 5 000 such, with 2 300 bursaries in 2012/13 alone.

Interventions to improve educational performance must start with Early Childhood Development and be sustained across the education system. Access to ECD has improved considerably, with 42,7% of those below four years of age registered at different centres. In 2013/14 we will further expand the number of learners in Grade R to 120 000 and train close to 2 000 Grade R Practitioners.

To optimise the learning and teaching environment, we will continue to use over 4 000 homework assistants and sport assistants to work with learners in under-performing schools. Improved school safety will be sustained, through partnerships with law enforcement agencies and the use of 4 500 patrollers.

To ensure that no learner has to learn on an empty stomach, we will continue to provide free nutrition to over 1 million learners in no fee schools including secondary schools and provide free school uniforms to the poorest learners when they start school.

Madam Speaker and residents of Gauteng;

Youth unemployment remains one of our most critical and urgent challenges. One of the ways in which we are addressing this is through effective skills development coupled with workplace experience, placement in sustainable jobs and the promotion of youth entrepreneurship. We have assisted over 5 000 young people through arranging internships in the public and private sector, including in critical skills areas such as ICT and artisan programmes.

In the year ahead, working in collaboration with business and SETAs, we will ensure that a further 6 500 young people are placed in learnerships, internships and workplace to gain experiential learning.

Our skills for industry programme will result in the training of 2 255 artisans and technicians up to 2 016 in the automotive, ICT and other sectors. We will work closely with the national Department of Higher Education to ensure that our young people and industries take advantage of the massive opportunities offered through the repositioning of FETs in our province, linked to the automobile sector in Tshwane and the manufacturing sector in Ekurhuleni.

Madame Speaker;

At the beginning of our term of office in 2009, the state of our public health institutions was unsatisfactory. This was a result of a combination of factors, including the outsourcing of management functions that resulted in poor management of human and financial resources. We were also plagued by instances of maladministration, corruption and a blatant disregard for authority and rules that govern our public health institutions.

To address these, we brought high-level expertise, re-established effective leadership in the Department of Health and initiated a comprehensive turnaround strategy. We focussed on restoring effective controls and systems and improving efficiencies, capacity and management in key areas.

Particular attention was paid to the four central hospitals namely; the Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital, Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital, Dr George Mukhari Hospital and Steve Biko Academic Hospital.

We will continue turning the corner and yield tangible progress for better health care services.

Infrastructure maintenance and provisioning of electro-mechanical equipment which is integral to the effective functioning of our hospitals, has visibly improved.

On my recent visit to Chris Hani...