Madame Speaker, Deputy Speaker and Chief Whip
Members of the Executive Council
Honourable Members of the Legislature
Distinguished Guests
Residents of the Gauteng City Region

Dumelang Ma-Afrika. Sanibonani Ma-Afrka. Avuxeni Ma-Afrika ahina. Ndi matsheloni Ma-Afrika a hashu. Molweni Ma-Afrika. Good morning Africans. Jambo Ma-Afrika. Goeie more Afrikaaners.

I would like to start by wishing all of you a happy Africa Day ahead of tomorrow and hope you will join us in celebrating the festivities organized by our provincial government in partnership with the African Diaspora Forum in Yeoville tomorrow morning.
It is a great honour and privilege to be the Premier of a province that is such a cultural melting pot and a centre of gravity that attracts many African migrants who have chosen to make Gauteng their home. We are a truly cosmopolitan and perhaps the most Afropolitan province which attracts some of the most talented, ambitious and innovative migrants from different parts of our continent.

Earlier this month, I had the privilege to meet with more than hundred delegates representing African migrants from different countries in our continent to discuss the challenges they face as residents of our province. They have asked me to convey to you the message that despite the many challenges they face, Gauteng remains the most welcoming and friendliest of all provinces with regard to making their stay in South Africa more pleasant and productive.

They said I must tell you that many of them are highly skilled and documented migrants who have chosen to come to Gauteng cities to contribute to our success and enjoy a decent standard of living that world class African cities like Johannesburg, Tshwane and Ekurhuleni offer.  These fellow Africans agree that due processes of the law should be respected in coming into our country.

They are deeply worried and angered by those among them who are involved in drugs and other criminal activities that taint the good name of their nationalities.  They say all those involved in these dastardly criminal activities are not doing it in their name and they must be prosecuted.

They are terribly affected by xenophobia, discrimination and other forms of prejudice and exclusion. Many live in fear of the outbreak of xenophobic violence.  We must continue to say “No to Xenophobia, not in our name”, as millions of South Africans did during last year’s marches. Like racism, xenophobia must be condemned and acted against firmly because they undermine both our common African identity and common humanity.

It is my pleasure to announce, as we have already done, a team of social cohesion champions.  This team has already been hard at work engaging different sectors of society on the twin problem of racism and xenophobia in order to promote social cohesion in this most culturally diverse beautiful province of ours. I would like to urge all sectors of society and all our communities across Gauteng to be part of the on-going conversation aimed at taking us closer to the goal of a Gauteng free from racism, xenophobia and all forms of discrimination.

Fellow Africans, let us continue to work hard, together, in line with Pixley ka Isaka Seme‘s century-old and enduring prophetic vision that “The brighter day is rising upon Africa. Already I seem to see her chains dissolved her desert plains red with harvest, her Abyssinia and her Zululand, the seats of science and religion, reflecting the glory of the rising sun from the spires of their churches and universities. Her Congo and her Gambia whitened with commerce, her crowded cities sending forth the hum of business, and all her sons employed in advancing the victories of peace-greater and more abiding than the spoils of war. Yes, the regeneration of Africa belongs to this new and powerful period!"

The regeneration of Africa is still our dream and we are working towards its achievement.

Madame Speaker, allow me to now turn my attention to the implementation of our ten-pillar programme for radical Transformation, Modernisation and Re-industrialisation adopted two years ago at the start of the Fifth Administration of the democratic era in our province.

The Office of the Premier is the strategic apex that drives our provincial government policy and Programme of Action. The Premier works with and relies on Team Gauteng to carry out the policy priorities, plans and programmes.

Ours is a government that works with all the municipalities to deliver on the vision of a transformed, modernised and re-industrialised Gauteng, which is seamlessly integrated and connected. We serve the people of Gauteng as a whole regardless of their skin color, class, gender, age and geographic location.

We strive to deliver quality, responsive, activist, accountable and clean government to the people of Gauteng. We have high regard for high standard and governance performance is our pre-occupation, while incompetence and corruption are our enemies.

We strive to build a dynamic, growing, inclusive, innovation-driven, knowledge-based economy that is at the centre of Africa's industrialisation and development agenda.

We strive to build state-of-art infrastructure - broadband connectivity, public transport, energy, water, sanitation, houses, schools, libraries, sports facilities, hospitals and clinics - in every development corridor of the Gauteng City Region so that all our residents can enjoy a decent standard of living offered by our urban ecosystem.

We want our citizens to be active, skilled, healthy and productive so that they can live meaningful lives that the Gauteng province offers. The modernisation of our education and health systems is at the centre of our dream to make our citizens more informed, more connected and more competitive in the global workplace.

Myself, MECs and the governing party will use this Budget Votes and the debates to demonstrate the real progress we are making and challenges encountered in carrying out our TMR Programme.

Honorable Deputy Speaker, I don't intend to give the kind of details that I gave during the State of the Province. MECs will give much more detail. I have chosen to focus only on changing the way government works with citizens, improving government performance and integrity, the performance of our economy, infrastructure development and supporting local government.

As Amilar Cabral has called upon us to do, we will continue to “hide nothing from the masses of our people. Tell no lies. Expose lies whenever they are told. Mask no difficulties, mistakes, failures. Claim no easy victories..."

Through Ntirhisano Service Rapid Response system and community outreach programme, we are changing the way government with communities. We are resolving many community problems, cutting red tape and speeding up the delivery of infrastructure projects that have often caused undue and costly delays in communities.

Today, I am pleased to report that over the past year, we have visited the length and breadth of our province to interact with more communities than it has been done in one year.

We are deeply humbled by the overwhelmingly positive response we have received from communities across race, class, age and gender in Gauteng. Most public meetings are attended by between eight hundred and a thousand people per meeting.

Deputy Speaker, I am glad to say that some members of this House and municipal councillors have attended some of the Nitirhisano public meetings, to which all public representatives are invited.  I commend you for coming to see for yourselves that we use Ntirhisano not as a party political platform but as a programme to address and resolve genuine concerns of communities.

We are unapologetic that we are an ANC-led government that serves all the people of Gauteng. We will always maintain a healthy separation of the state and the party.
Since the launch of Ntirhisano, we have made a total of 149 commitments and we are pleased to report that more than 77% of these commitments have either been met or are on track towards being resolved.  We are cracking the whip on those departments and municipalities that are slow in resolving issues raised by communities.

We are encouraged that 91% of calls to our hotline have been responded to within 20 seconds, and that 99% of cases brought to the War Room have been responded to within three working days, and that our War Room case resolution stands at 78%.

The latest Municipal IQ Monitor notes that there has been an increase in the number of protests in the first quarter of this year. Obviously, this is a matter of great concern to the provincial government. The War Room has been engaging with protesters everywhere in the province and what is clear is that the election atmosphere has a lot to do with many of the current protests.

In fact, a lot of protests are being organised by people who have either lost out on being candidates or those who are positioning themselves to be candidates in the forthcoming elections.

Ntirhisano is not meant to address ambitions of local aspirant incumbents.  We can’t stop protests that are about party political or individual ambitions.

We note the resurgence of violence and wanton destruction of property and would like to once more condemn these acts of criminality in strongest terms.  The law enforcement agencies must do their work to apprehend the perpetrators of violence and malicious destruction of property.  No party or politician must justify lawlessness and anarchy.

Madame Speaker, one of the key issues that has received very positive feedback from Ntirhisano public meetings is our work on promoting integrity, transparency and accountability of public officials and public servants. Communities are very happy about the open tender system and we are now rolling it to all departments without exception.

I am glad to say that all ANC-led municipalities have agreed to implement the open tender system as part of fighting corruption and promoting the integrity of government procurement decisions. The City of Ekurhuleni is leading the way in this regard.

In the coming year, we will pay special attention to improving the delivery capabilities of every provincial government department to meet the priorities of the TMR in line with our Governance and Administration Roadmap.

Madam Speaker, the systematic surge forward on our march towards better financial management and clean audits is unstoppable. The work to ensure that all departments and agencies pay service providers within 15 days is embraced by our government.

In the current financial year, we are working with Education, Health, Human Settlements and Infrastructure Development to address institutional and structural weaknesses so that they meet the 30-day minimum payment requirement before they work for our higher order target of 15-days by 2019.

Madame Speaker, I am pleased to announce that we have appointed a Cabinet Committee led by MEC Mashatile to focus on cutting red tape across government so that we can remove all hurdles that hamper the delivery of services and investment in the economy.  Red tape must be declared the enemy of the people, together with corruption.

We have adopted key policy documents on spatial transformation, accelerated social transformation, modernisation of governance, and infrastructure development across the city region.

We are working with various reputable public and private partners to improve our capacity to implement and execute our plans. There is no turning back. Siyaqhuba!

Accelerated Social Transformation

Madam Speaker, we have adopted the Accelerated Social Transformation Strategy which we are implementing vigorously. Through this Strategy, we aim to improve the quality of life and raising the living standards for the people of Gauteng.

At the centre of our social transformation agenda is the determination to improve the quality of education and healthcare, provide social protection to the vulnerable in particular women and children and eradicate poverty and build social cohesion and social solidarity.

Madam Speaker, on the pillar of modernising human settlements and urban development, we count among our successes, the fact that in Gauteng 90.9% of households have access to sanitation, 83.8% have access to electricity, 89.1% to refuse removal. While these figures compare favorably to those in many parts of our country, we will not rest until we reach the goal of universal access to electricity, sanitation and refuse removal. We will do this as part of implementing our strategy for mega human settlements as well as building post-apartheid cities across the Gauteng City Region.

Economic Transformation

Earlier this year I gave details on how we have performed with regard to the economy. Honourable members, our economy is going through one of the toughest times – 195 000 were lost in the province in the first quarter of 2016, wiping out all the gains we made in the entire year of 2015.

I call upon all of us to stop politicking and take common action to save jobs and focus on what will help us to address unemployment, poverty and inequality.

I hereby announce that on 8-9th June, we are convening the Gauteng Economic Indaba to finalise the Gauteng City Region new Economic Development Plan outlined in my last State of the Province Address.

We have been engaging business leaders, trade union leaders and research institutions in preparation for the Economic Indaba so that we use this meeting to build consensus and a adopt a common programme of action on how we are going to unlock the potential of the various sectors of our economy so that they can deliver inclusive growth.

Unless we act urgently together in a non-partisan way to deal with the increasingly desperate economic situation, all the gains of Tshepo 500 000 and the township economy made over the last year will also be reversed.

Ordinary men and women continue to suffer when we in this House are fighting to position ourselves as the biggest political beneficiaries of more unemployment, social distress and political instability. The narrative that any part of our country is immune from job losses is just cheap propaganda.  We must act now and act together.

After the Economic Indaba, we will, through Ntirhisano, visit all the major companies and clusters of firms that are key employers and drivers of the Gauteng economy to discuss how we can work together to grow the economy in an inclusive way. There is a lot enthusiasm we have received from Business Chambers and trade unions about this programme of factory visits.

Our relations and partnerships with business has sent a very positive vibe across the economy of our province.  We are already doing good work with the private sector in infrastructure delivery, facilitating youth employment, skills training and entrepreneurship development, revitalisation of the township economy, speeding up the delivery of mega human settlements and the automotive industry development.

Let us use these partnerships as lessons for greater collaboration to build a common prosperous future for our people.  Even in these difficult times, there is a ray of light. Merrill Lynch economists are quoted as having said the following on the South African economy:

“We believe there is room for some positive surprises on the macro front…. Reflecting our expectations for a more emerging markets friendly global backdrop, our revised South Africa forecasts reflect a slightly improved outlook. 2016 looks slightly warmer than originally forecast.” They have thus revised upwards their economic growth forecast for our country to 0.7% from 0.4% in 2016 and to 1.2% in 2017.

I invite all of you to the Economic Indaba where we are going to map out the future of the Gauteng economy.

Local government

Madame Speaker, we are also very encouraged that our cities, in particular our three metros, continue to show signs of resilience as key drivers of the economy of the Gauteng City Region. The recent upgrade of both the City of Joburg and Ekurhuleni Metro augurs very well for the entire country and our provincial economy.

I take this opportunity to, once more, congratulate both the City of Ekurhuleni and the City of Johannesburg on achieving improved credit ratings from international rating agencies. This attests to the strength of our cities, their sound financial position and strong leadership as ANC-led municipalities.

The three Gauteng cities are expected to continue to play an even more important role in driving our national and provincial economic development plans that will be adopted the Indaba - Joburg contributes 15% to the national GDP, Tshwane 10% and Ekurhuleni 7%.

With regards to the City of Tshwane, last year this city, contributed 26.8% to the Gauteng’s GDP and 9% to the national GDP. It’s economy grew above the national average at 2,2%. I also want to report to this House that according to the SA Metropolitan Better Life Index, which is based on the OECD Better Life Index, Tshwane is the fastest improving metro in South Africa, with the highest growth rate in the index value over the period 2011 to 2015. How can we forget that the Gauteng City Region Observatory Quality Life Survey 2014, Tshwane is the best City to live in in Gauteng!

I would like to commend the local municipalities and their entities; for the outstanding work they are doing with regard to financial management and service delivery. The following municipalities and entities received, unqualified audits with no findings: Ekurhuleni Metropolitan; Sedibeng District, Midvaal, Mogale; entities, Brakpan Bus Company, Ekurhuleni Development Company, Germiston Phase II Housing Company, Joburg City Theatre, Johannesburg Property Company, Johannesburg Development Agency, Johannesburg Roads Agency, Johannesburg Social Housing Company, Lethabong Housing Institute NPC and Pharoe Park Housing Company.

The following municipalities received unqualified audits with findings; West Rand District Municipality, West Rand Development Agency, City of Johannesburg, City of Tshwane, Emfuleni, Merafong, Lesedi, City Power, East Rand Water, Housing Company Tshwane, Johannesburg City Parks, Metropolitan Bus Services, Johannesburg Water, Sandspruit Works Association and Tshwane Economic Development Agency in this regard.

We are proud of these outcomes as many of our municipalities show that with the limited resources they have and they are doing a lot to manage finances and deliver services to our people. We will continue to support our cities to attract investors in their local economies, as the provincial government has done in the past wherein major investors were taken to even smaller municipalities by the provincial government.

The Gauteng City region is operating at its best.  We continue to provide strong leadership to municipalities through the Premier’s Coordinating Forum, Gauteng Infrastructure Coordinating Commission, Gauteng Transport Commission, ICT Steering Committee and Aerotroplis Steering Committee.

Honorable members, we will launch a single Transport Authority, with a single ticket for all transport modes, in due course after the amendment of the National Land transport Act which is being deliberated upon at the moment.

Gauteng-wide Infrastructure Master Plan and new Spatial Development Framework have been approved by the premier’s Coordinating Forum. They will now be tabled to municipalities for approval.

Our Master Plan deals with all infrastructure requirements for our entire City Region over the next fifteen years - public transport, broadband, water, energy, sanitation and other social and economic infrastructure.

Madame Speaker, there is no better way to run this province than through the GCR governance model.

I wish all parties best of luck in the local government election campaign and call all parties to ensure a peaceful election. Let us work together to ensure that the people's verdict is respected across our province.

I would like to conclude by thanking the MECs, ANC Caucus DG, Special Advisors and the Senior Management Team in the Office of the Premier.
We shall continue to be loyal to the cause of the people to achieve our programme of transformation, modernisation and reindustrialisation.

Thank You