Chairperson;

Hounorable Members.

We are meeting today following positive news announced by Stats SA. 

We remain optimistic about a Better Future for KZN and the country as a whole. 

We know that COVID-19 destroyed our economy with millions of people condemned in the townships and deep rural areas after being retrenched.

The quality of life will undoubtedly improve under the ANC as the organisation is acceleration the implementation of the Economic Recovery and Transformation Plan.

As indicated by the ANC in KZN, our optimism about the future of this country is based on Stats SA announcement that KZN is the largest contributor towards the national employment. 

As KZN we recorded an employment of up to 152 000 people from the previous quarter. 

As a result of our contribution, 16, 7 million people are now employed in the whole country during the quarter under review. 

I must hasten to point out that other provinces under the ANC showed marked improvement.

For our part as KZN, we wish to pay tribute to the ANC-led provincial government for ensuring the implementation of the ANC resolutions on job creation and economic development.  

We thank President Cyril Ramphosa and his cabinet for the bold leadership

The ANC KZN-Lekgotla held in February mandated deployees of the ANC to ensure that all government departments prioritized job creation in order to halve unemployment.  

In line with the ANC statement, we believe that hard work is now paying off. 

Importantly, our approach as the governing party in KZN is based on an understanding that as the country, we took the route of becoming a developmental state. 

Flowing from this, ANC deployees in all spheres of government are using an integrated approach in terms of driving socio-economic development. 

Consequently, the ANC-led provincial government has a rare capacity to plan and implement massive socio-economic development programmes. 

This approach has led to a healthy economic growth with the public and private sector working in partnership.

In as much as we welcome an increase in employment, we are fully aware that there are people who remain unemployed especially in the townships and deep rural areas. 

It is for these reasons that we commit to ensure the development of thriving local economies.  

We have welcomed the passing of the Cannabis for Private Purposes Bill by the National Assembly.  With about R107-billion of value in the local industry we are championing radical interventions to ensure that ordinary members of society get a slice of this amount of money. 

We are aggressively positioning townships and rural areas as focal points of ANC-government interventions with the private sector also coming on board.

Our focus is to improve the quality of life of our citizens.

We are using all the resources of the state to drive socio-economic development throughout the corners of the province.

We are intervening in all sectors of the economy to ensure that both the players in the private and public sector in the same direction.

We are working together to create jobs for the youth, women and those who were retrenched and lost their jobs as a result of the outbreak of COVID-19 and devastating floods.

We are deliberately using the rollout of infrastructure to rebuild our economy as guided by the Economic Recovery and Transformation Plan.

We are already spending a billions from more than R55 billion set aside during this MTEF as part of the rollout of socio-economic infrastructure. 

We are building roads, public health institutions and houses in underdeveloped areas such as the townships and rural areas.

We are constructing recreational activities to ensure that families and children have safe places to work, live and play.

We are rehabilitating small towns and building factories in Newcastle and other areas as part of industrialization and bringing jobs closer to the people.

We have used our economic zones of Richards Bay Industrial Development Zone and Dube Trade Port as engines for job creation.

Honourable Members, an improved quality of life will remain pipe dream without access to quality education.

We announced last week the allocation of R74 million to clear students debt and a further R126 million towards the Skills Revolution Campaign. 

This is in line with our vision of ensuring that young people are skilled so that they take charge of different sectors of our economy. We want them to be creators of wealth.

We understand that they come from poor families in the townships and deep rural areas where there are high levels of poverty.  Our intervention is designed to improve the quality of life through the production of skills required by industries. 

We want them to be absorbed by different sectors of the economy and ultimately become fully fledged citizens with happy families.

Honourable Members, as I draw towards conclusion, we are reconfirming our commitment to our ward based approach through Operation Sukuma Sakhe to attend to matters related to our communities. 

We have integrated our communities into the implementation of Poverty Eradication Master Plan.

The implementation of our Poverty Eradication Programme has now established a footprint in more than 140 poorest wards of the province. 

Interventions in these wards are focussed on immediate and urgent social relief interventions. These include the issuing of birth certificates and facilitating grant application processes. We are reaching thousands of vulnerable people in our province. 

Honourable Members as we conclude, we commit to eradicate poverty, inequality and unemployment in our province, by:

·         fostering peace, stability and unity;

·         growing a shared economy to improve the lives of all our people;

·         developing our skills to become active participants in this economy;

·         rendering effective and efficient services to our communities;

·         developing our infrastructure and expand our gateway status;

·         protecting our environment;

·         developing all corners of this province according to it’s potential; and

·         rendering good, clean and accountable governance, as we lead with integrity.

I thank you