February 10, 2004
By Thomas Thale
THE mood in the Gauteng Legislature was celebratory on Tuesday, as Premier Mbhazima Shilowa delivered his State of the Province address to open the provincial legislature for 2004.
As expected, the main thread running through the speech was the achievements made by the provincial government in the past ten years of democracy. The overriding message from Shilowa was that after a decade of democracy, Gauteng, had become a good place to live and invest in, and was poised to get even better.
Shilowa said he was releasing a ten-year report on the performance of the provincial government, which, he said, "concludes that while significant challenges remain, Gauteng is indeed now a better place in which to live than it was at the birth of our democracy in 1994."
Juxtaposing the province as it was in 1994 to the way it is today, Shilowa highlighted improvements in virtually all aspects of life.
The buoyant Shilowa recited a litany of positive changes that have taken place in the province since 1994. "The revolution to radically transform our country and province is firmly on track," declared Shilowa.
In the past ten years, said Shilowa, the people of Gauteng, especially those who were most severely devastated by apartheid, had experienced a profound improvement in their quality of life.
Shilowa foregrounded poverty and unemployment as the key challenges facing the province, but pointed to measures taken by his administration to improve the lives of the indigent.
Poverty eradication
The steps taken by the provincial government to eradicate poverty were mainly the introduction of social security grants, nutrition programmes and other social services, including:
- Budget allocation increased from R9.8-billion in 1995 to 21,5-billion in 2003, representing an increase from 13% to 18.5% of the budget
- 460 000 children now access child support grants
- 300 000 people receive old age pensions.
- An extra 12 000 people benefit from the food garden programme
- More than 317 000 learners benefit from the school-feeding scheme
According to Shilowa, the number of people receiving social grants now stands at over 950 000. Unlike in the past, "All old age pensioners now enjoy equal treatment and care," said Shilowa.
Healthcare
Shilowa expressed confidence that the province now has "an equitable, non-racial and quality health system for all". Among notable achievements of the past ten years, Shilowa noted the:
- Increase in the number of primary healthcare facilities
- Overall improvements in the areas of maternal and child health, communicable diseases, HIV and Aids and chronic diseases and trauma
- Free medical care for children under the age of six and pregnant women.
- Numerous initiatives taken to address the negative impact of HIVAids
Housing
Shilowa said that the provincial government has spent "over R5-billion in the development of over 500 000 housing units, providing shelter to more than 2-million people" in the past decade. He pointed to Alexandra and Klipspruit as centres of the Government's urban regeneration programme, which will provide even more housing units. Shilowa announced that the programme to eradicate all bucket toilets and pit latrines will be completed this year.
Admitting that many people remain homeless and live under squalid conditions, Shilowa said even these should be hopeful that "soon they will be out of their misery".
Schooling
On the schooling front, Shilowa took pride that
- Over 40 000 learners in rural areas travelling on 451 routes now enjoy free transport
- The Grade 12 pass rate has increased from 57% in 1999 to 81,4%
- 530 schools have been provided with fully equipped computer laboratories linked to the cyber community under the Gauteng Online programme. A further 600 school computer centers are to be installed
Economic growth
Shilowa said that the Gauteng economy is on a "higher growth trajectory". Some of the positive economic indicators noted by Shilowa are:
- The province recorded real economic growth of 5,3% for 2002, the highest in the country
- The province's contribution to the GDP of South Africa stood at an incredible 33.3%
- The province invested billions of rands in the inner city through its Blue IQ programme, which Shilowa described as "a catalyst for inner city regeneration"
- The province bought 10 buildings in the inner city to create a government precinct, which, said Shilowa, would provide "a cherry on top" for inner city regeneration
For Shilowa, the inner city was being transformed to become a dynamic African city, "resplendent in its diversity of population and land use types. Gauteng is becoming a globally competitive smart centre", Shilowa declared.
Good governance
Shilowa said the provincial government had made much progress in eliminating graft and in putting in place policies and systems to govern with prudence.
He expressed particular pride that all provincial departments received unqualified audit opinions from the Auditor General in 2003.
Even as he highlighted these achievements, Shilowa emphasized that the government was not about to rest on its laurels as a lot remains to be done. "We acknowledge that while a lot has been done to improve the conditions of poor people, for a significant number of our people, life remains a struggle," he said adding that challenges that remain to be tackled were unemployment, crime, illiteracy, hunger disease, homelessness, underdevelopment and lack of access to basic services such as water and sanitation and electricity.
Shilowa concluded by saying that the key focuses of the provincial government for the next ten years will be the restoration of community life, the building of an economy which accommodates and benefits all, an increasing commitment to sustainable development and the deepening of democracy and good governance.
Shilowa committed his administration to reducing unemployment and poverty by half by 2014.
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