Madam Speaker and Deputy Speaker of Limpopo Provincial Legislature;
Members of the Executive Council;
Chief Whip of the Ruling Party;
Chairpersons of various Portfolio Committees;
Esteemed Members of the House;
Distinguished guests;
Ladies and gentlemen.

April is a very important and historic month on the political calendar of our country. It is during this month that, as South Africans all over the world, we celebrate our hard won freedom and democracy.

We celebrate this freedom because it reaffirms a complete closure of the chapter of many centuries of serfdom, apartheid and system of separate development in our country.

We celebrate because black people in general and the African majority in particular have regained their human dignity.

White compatriots are equally celebrating, because in this freedom, they too have found freedom. They are no longer citizens of a pariah state that condemned them to live in a twilight zone at the periphery of the family of humanity.

All of us, Black and White, celebrate because we have now joined the entire family of humanity, enjoying the freedoms and liberties of fellow human beings.

We celebrate this freedom because all South Africans, irrespective of race, colour, creed or social standing, are now equal before the law. Women are treated as equal citizens in the land of their birth, and a significant number of black people are playing a meaningful role in the mainstream economy.

The lives of the majority of our people have changed for the better.

There is no doubt that South Africa has become a much better place to live than it was before April 27 democratic breakthrough.

Ke nnete gore lehono go phala maabane, ka moswane go tla phala lehono

Nevertheless, our country has, in the recent past, experienced some despicable acts of racism.

The spoilers, who are obviously nostalgic about the past, are all out to reverse the gains of our liberation struggle. We must warn them that they will not succeed.

We have spent the past 22 years of freedom building a new nation on the ashes of the apartheid ruins, and we therefore cannot allow few racist individuals to take us back.

We must unite in action and fight their behaviour to the bitter end. We must all speak out against racism in all its manifestations. We must condemn it in strongest possible terms.

Racism, Madam Speaker, must actually be declared a criminal offense. Like apartheid, it is a crime against humanity, period.

Madam Speaker,

Let me also take this opportunity to announce that on the 27th of this month, South Africans from all over the country will converge in our province to celebrate Freedom Day.

I would therefore like to take this opportunity to thank the Cabinet, the President in particular, for affording us this rare honour and the opportunity of hosting the people of our country.

We view this gesture as yet another sign and show of support and confidence in the leadership and hospitality of the people of our province.

It is in this context that I call on all the people of our province to come out in numbers to Giyani Stadium on the 27th of April. Let’s us be the good hosts.

Madam Speaker;

It is also important that as we celebrate this freedom and democracy, we remember those who sacrificed their lives and paid supreme price for us to be where we are today, particularly those of those outstanding revolutionaries who passed on during the month of April. Amongst them we count Chris Thembisile Hani, Mampogwane Peter Nchabeleng and Solomon Kalushi Mahlangu.

The befitting tribute we can pay to these freedom fighters is not to dishonour the course of freedom, but to guard against the reversal of the gains of freedom they so selflessly fought and died for.

In everything we do, we must defend and protect our nascent Constitutional Democracy.

Comrade OR Tambo, the longest serving President of ANC, taught us that: "It is our responsibility to break down barriers of division and create a country where there will be neither Whites nor Blacks, just South Africans, free and united in diversity."

Comrade Solomon Kalushi Mahlangu, a young Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK) cadre who was hanged on the 6th of April 1979 by the blood-thirsty apartheid regime, refused to abandon the ideals of freedom even in the face of death. Instead, he urged his mother not to cry, telling her that, "My blood will nourish the tree that will bear the fruits of freedom. Tell my people that I love them. They must continue the fight."

Comrade Chris Hani, a fierce opponent of the minority rule and exploitation, who was assassinated on the 10th of April in 1993, told us that, “Our biggest enemy is what we do in the field of socio-economic restructuring. The Creation of jobs; building houses, schools, medical facilities; overhauling our education; eliminating illiteracy, building a society which cares, and fighting corruption .We must build a different culture in this country, different from the Nationalist Party. And that culture should be the one of service to people”.

The Independent Electoral Commission has announced the 09th and the 10th of April as the dates to, once again, register to vote in the upcoming local government elections.

This could be the last opportunity presented to us, especially the first time voters.

We must therefore in honour and memory of these fallen heroes and heroines of our struggle, go all out to register and confirm our names on the voters roll.

They led us in the fight for the fundamental right to vote, and it is therefore up to us to use this basic right to elect a government of our choice.

Madam Speaker and honourable members

I have got no doubt, whatsoever in my mind, that over the past 22 years, we have kept the vision of Chris Hani alive. We have ensured that our budgets, across all government departments and state-owned entities speak to the dire need and the extreme urgency of improving the conditions of living of our people.

A better life for all remains our battle cry.

In this regard, our constitutional mandate as the Office of the Premier is to provide support and oversight to the entire provincial administration.

This means that our role is to ensure that the provincial administration pays attention to basic and critical services such as the provision of shelter to the homeless, electrification of households for the needy, connection of thousands to clean drinking water, and above all, ensure decent sanitation to all our people.

Obviously, we can only succeed in rolling back the frontiers of poverty, unemployment and inequality, if we use our available resources in an effective, efficient and prudent manner.

Our ability to spend the public money should be assessed in terms of the overall impact and the dent we are making in changing and improving the conditions of living of our people.

Madam Speaker;

As I said during the State of the province Address, we are also presenting this budget vote under unfavourable global and local economic conditions.

It is now well known that the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank predict that the South African economy will grow by less than 1% this year.

The Reserve Bank has also adjusted the economic growth forecast for our country to 1.6% in 2017.

I did explain during SOPA the reasons for this downgrade in the anticipated growth of the economy.

Notwithstanding these economic constrains, we are called upon to still pursue our developmental objectives.

In simple terms, we have to do what the MEC for Provincial Treasury, Honourable Rob Tooley, instructed us to do; that is, to cut wastage and to direct resources where they are mostly needed.

We must ensure proper financial management. We must live within our means.

In this regard the office of the Premier is already leading by example. For the first time, the Office of the Premier has received a Clean Audit opinion from the Auditor General. Of course this has been made possible largely by the effective and efficient oversight work of this Legislature and its committees.

We commit ourselves to sustain this Clean Audit outcome with the hope that this will inspire other government departments and municipalities to improve their performance. To that effect, we are working closely with the Auditor General to ensure good corporate governance in Limpopo.

Madam Speaker;

I need to assure this august house that the Office of the Premier will continue strengthening its coordination role through an integrated approach to monitoring and evaluation.

In this regard, the Executive Council has adopted the first ever Provincial Evaluation Plan that will enable us to demonstrate results, outcomes and impact in the implementation of government service delivery programmes.

Through the evaluation findings, the government will be in a better position to communicate service delivery successes and the impact thereof. Above all, the evaluation results will inform the policy-making and planning processes going forward.

Madam Speaker,

As part of our strategy to root out corruption from the public service, we have recently embarked on an aggressive campaign to brand government vehicles with an anti-corruption message.

The message calls on members of the public to report any incidents of corruption, which include the abuse of state vehicles. Over and above that, this branding provides members of the public with our anti-fraud and corruption hotlines.

All government departments have anti-corruption hotlines which work closely with the Premier’s anti-corruption hotline.

Our anti-corruption hotline is enjoying a 99% success rate.

Madam Speaker,

In 2013, in this House I expressed a concern regarding the tendency of misplacing public servants, in terms of their skills, qualifications and experience.

My major concern is that this tendency does much disservice to the public service. I have since requested the Public Service Commission to undertake a thorough competency assessment of all Senior Management Service employees in the provincial administration.

It is my pleasure to report to this august House that a preliminary report has been finalised, and we should be able to report in due course on these findings and appropriate course of action.

I can assure this House that we will definitely act on the findings and recommendations of the Public Service Commission.

Madam Speaker;

To operationalise its constitutional and legislative mandate, the Office of the Premier has three functional programmes, these programmes are:

•     Administration
•     Institutional Development and
•     Policy and Governance

Programme 1: Administration

Madam Speaker;

Administration as a Programme in the Office of the Premier is entrusted with the responsibility of providing administrative support to the Premier, Executive Council and the Director-General, in fulfilling their legislative function and promotion of good corporate governance.

In this regard, we will utilise our allocated budget to strengthen financial management systems, empower the office of the Director-General, Executive Council and the Premier Support Unit, to be able to discharge the mandate I have referred to.

As part of our continued drive towards clean and responsive administration, we have commissioned a number of external service providers to conduct a forensic audit on a number of key issues.

In this regard, investigations are at an advanced stage. Upon completion, the decisions will be made and these will be implemented without any fear, favour or prejudice. Our determination is to bring about a clean administration, nothing more, nothing less.

It is also worth mentioning that based on the outcomes of the competency assessment I alluded to earlier on, we will be embarking on an intensive training programme for all public servants.

The idea is to improve skills level and thereby enhance the ability of government employees to be able to serve our people better.

Programme 2: Institutional Development

Madam Speaker;

Institutional Development, as a programme, ensures that policies, processes and systems that enable the provincial Administration to deliver services are in place.

I announced during the State of the Province Address that Cabinet had taken a decision to withdraw Section 100 Administration from our province.

I also quoted the Auditor General about our administration when he said: “... there has been improvement in the area of consequence management where the provincial leadership took action against poor performance, which led to officials bearing consequences for poor performance and transgressions... the Office of the Premier plays a critical role in the drive towards clean administration...”

This budget will assist us in continuing with this important work.

Our task is to ensure that we develop a resilient provincial administration so that we do not find ourselves going back to the difficult and embarrassing days of Section 100.

Part of this is to ensure that we fill all the vacant positions of Head of Departments, including the finalisation of all pending disciplinary cases against some HODs.

However, in doing this we will be guided by the cost-containment measures as pronounced by the Minister of Finance and as such, priority will be given to critical, scarce and priority funded vacant posts.

We will also re-establish the Provincial HR Task Team to ensure that employment practices are fair, transparent and address priority needs of the provincial administration.

Madam Speaker;

We will also use this budget to strengthen our public participation initiatives, such as our EXCO Outreach Programmes.

This communication platform helps to ensure that our people interact directly with government, influence policy making and make suggestions on alternative service delivery measures.

Programme 3: Policy and governance

Madam Speaker;

The programme of Policy and Governance in the Office of the Premier enables the office to implement the mandate of planning, coordination, monitoring and evaluation.

In this area of work, the focus is on Inter-Governmental Relations, Provincial Policy Management, Special Programmes and Programme Support Policy and Governance.

Through this programme area, we will also be monitoring the implementation of the Limpopo Development Plan, in particular, the progress relating to the attainment of the 10 High level Developmental Targets.

Madam Speaker;

The National Development Plan recognises the fact that since 1994 ‘the main challenge for rural development has been the need to combat the marginalisation of the poor. This required changes in access to resources, rural infrastructure and other government services”.

It is in this context that we remain focussed and committed to our Anti-Poverty programmes, with special bias to rural areas.

To date we conducted and concluded consultative sessions in all our districts, and we are in the final stages of developing the Provincial Anti-Poverty Programme.

Madam Speaker;

We are happy that the review of the Limpopo Spatial Development Framework is at an advanced stage.

The final draft document re-affirms the Executive Council’s decision to prioritize the provincial growth points such as Polokwane, Musina-Makhado Corridor, Greater Tubatse, Mogalakwena and Lephalale as key strategic priorities for economic agglomeration and industrialisation.

Madam Speaker;

The Executive Council has also noted that the province is still having a significant infrastructure backlogs despite progress made with regard to provision of water, electricity, roads and other social services.

In this regard we are putting more measures in place to improve on infrastructure planning and project implementation.

We have assigned the Planning Branch in the Office of the Premier to coordinate a development of the Limpopo Integrated Infrastructure Master Plan.

The envisaged infrastructure Master Plan will provide a framework for infrastructure delivery and funding requirements over the next 10 years. It will clearly define the infrastructure development and delivery agenda of the province.

Madam Speaker;

It is therefore my honour and privilege to table before this esteemed House, the 2016/17 budget vote for the Office of the Premier for appropriation:

I thank you!