Good morning to members of the media gathered here this morning, EXCO members, Director General, Heads of the Departments and all of you ladies and gentlemen.
We meet here today after I delivered a speech on the official opening of the North West Provincial Legislature, to highlight and put emphasis on the priorities of the 7th
Administration.
We have invited you today as part of our ongoing efforts to cement our relations with members of the media.
The media plays an important role in keeping our communities abreast of key government programmes that are primarily aimed at changing the lives of our people for the better.
We affirm and fully support the independence of the media to hold government accountable as enshrined in our Constitution.
This Media Day that we are launching today will be held annually after the Premier’s State of the Province Address (SOPA) to communicate developmental initiatives of this Administration as well as interventions on various socio-economic challenges such as unemployment, poverty and income inequalities afflicting our communities.
We will also hold quarterly media sessions with yourselves to report progress registered in attending to a number of challenges, remedial action plans and achievements.
We are not ignorant to challenges confronting our province and we are hard at work to speedily resolve them.
In the past two weeks, Members of the Executive Council have been tabling their Budget Votes and Policy Speeches that are aligned to their Annual Performance Plans to ensure that we create economic opportunities for our people whilst attending to their concerns on service delivery.
The period from now until 31st March 2025, the 7th Administration will be completing the work of the 6th Administration to ensure a seamless transition between the two Administrations.
The full account and report back of the 2024 SOPA will therefore be in February 2025 which will also include a full resourced Programme of Action of the 7th Administration.
The provincial government has subsequently developed a Programme of Action for the 2024 SOPA for implementation.
Today we have invited you to highlight what will the priority areas of the 7th Administration be.
We have appointed the Economic & Investment Advisory Council, consisting of Members of the Executive Council, Economists, Industry Experts, Organised Agriculture, Labour, Tourism Sector, Mining and Independent Experts.
Later this month, I will be convening this Council for our first meeting to craft a clear path to drive our Investment and Infrastructure Programme.
This will include giving guidance in the implementation of the Provincial Growth and Development Strategy (PGDS).
Through our Special Economic Zone (SEZ) we have so far garnered investment commitments to the tune of R164 billion that will create over five thousand job opportunities for our people.
In addition to these, we will be rolling out three mega infrastructure projects in water, sanitation, and road infrastructure. The former will be in City of Matlosana, J.B Marks and Maquassi Hills Local Municipalities, while the latter will be spread across the four Districts of our province.
These projects will cost nineteen billion rands (R19 billion) and will create over sixty thousand (60 000) work opportunities targeted at the youth and women.
We will be working hand in glove with Infrastructure South Africa (ISA) located in the Presidency to see to the full implementation of these projects.
These projects and in particular water infrastructure will give impetus to our Agricultural Master Plan that is primarily aimed at creating Mega Farms in all four Districts.
These farms will be centered on Agro-Processing and Beef Beneficiation.
Through our Growth and Developmental Strategy (GDS), we will initiate the North West Development Fund (NWDF) in partnership with the private sector.
The management of the fund will be spearheaded by government in partnership with the private sector.
The setting up of the fund will be arranged in a way that will ensure good governance principles are adhered to whilst ensuring that there are as few impediments as possible to ensure seamless delivery of programmes and projects.
This fund will help resuscitate our ailing tourism sector particularly our provincial parks as well as the refurbishment of the George Dick Montshioa and Pilanesberg Airports.
I need to emphasise that youth empowerment will be one of the apex priorities of this administration.
To this end, we will be implementing the Labour Activation Plan that will result in the creation of 27 000 work opportunities and training to unemployed people and in particular youth.
Through the National Youth Service Fund we will implement training and skills development opportunities that will benefit over one thousand two hundred (1200) young people at the Departments of Public Works and Roads, Social Development, Human Settlement as well as Arts, Culture Sports, and Recreation.
We have directed the Department of Public Works and Roads to investigate a new model for the Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP) to ensure that this programme assists young people with various skills development programme to be self-sufficient.
The Victor Thebe Sifora Provincial Bursary Scheme will be resuscitated and later this year we will announce a new intake of not less than one hundred students for the 2025 academic year.
The Accelerated Service Delivery Programme-Thuntsha Lerole has proven to be an important instrument in expediting provision of services in our municipalities.
We are ramping up the programme with the implementation of phase four (4) whose focus will be accountability to allow members of the public to give feedback and report cases of bad or lack of service delivery.
As mentioned during the address last week, the Executive Council will not hesitate to intervene in any municipality if the situation requires such intervention.
There are promising signs of improvements in several interventions already being implemented across municipalities.
I thank you!
ENDS
Issued by Office of the Premier
For enquiries, contact
Sello Tatai
Spokesperson to the Premier
North West Provincial Government
Cell: 064 756 2510/ 082 450 7842
or
Mr Brian Setswambung
Provincial Head of Communication Office of the Premier
North West Provincial Government
Cell: 076 012 4501
E-mail: BSetswambung@nwpg.gov.za
