ADDRESS BY MEC JL MAHLANGU AT THE NATIONAL COUNCIL OF PROVINCES. A REPORT BACK ON “TAKING PARLIAMENT TO THE PEOPLE: HELD IN KWA-MHLANGA”
09 JUNE 2005

Chairperson and Deputy Chairperson of the National Council of Provinces
Honorable Ministers and Deputy Ministers
Honorable Delegates to the NCOP

Your visit to Mpumalanga in March this year came at a time when the need to continuously interact with our people to inform them of governments programme, has become very important. Continuously we see that if we do not engage our communities aggressively and give them information, we create a void between them and us. The void that is created if not attended to can have serious implications, because if people do not have information, they tend to act on perceptions created. In nurturing our young democracy we must always remain committed to interfacing with our people.
Your visits also offered our people in the rural areas, an opportunity to interact with their leaders, and convey their views on service delivery in their areas and issues affecting them. Rural communities have been afforded an opportunity to take part in the affairs of Parliament. Communities have raised a number of issues that affect them directly. As government the challenge is on us to address the issues raised. We need to increase the number of people who have access to shelter, security, and access to social security, education and better health care services.
The department has been able to comprehensively assess all municipalities in the province. This process focused on the design of a municipal strategy, how is it operationalized and results achieved thereafter. This assessment helped in understanding whether the municipality has developed all policies that are required by provincial and national legislation. Whether plans that are put in place are consistent with their strategy and also if their results are a reflection of both their strategy and operations. We have done all this because we realize that for our people to be able to enjoy a better life, local government, which is the sphere of government closest to them, must be in a position to create a conducive environment for the provision of such services.
A total of 443 councilors have been trained on financial management. The department is also in a process of organizing further training sessions for officials in municipalities and in the province, who have not been part of these training sessions.

The department is also supporting municipalities on some projects, as part of its capacity building initiative. These projects include amongst others, Asset
Management and Local Government Development Program at Ehlanzeni District and Albert Luthuli, Water Infrastructure Assessment at Emalahleni and Albert Luthuli municipalities (with the aim of addressing the huge water loss), upgrading of roads, taxi ranks and sewerage system at different municipalities, for example Siyabuswa road at Dr. J.S. Moroka and developing a Provincial Guideline Policy Document on Roles and Responsibilities of Councillors and Officials.
Through initiatives such as Project Consolidate we have been able to deepen the thrust and impact of existing policies and programmes directed at local government, accelerate removal of service delivery backlogs and facilitate implementation.

The first wave of engagement with the municipalities has been in the form of early deliverables focusing on identified areas requiring immediate and direct support initiative.11 municipalities from the province have been identified by the National Ministry and are all involved in the early deliverables (quick wins) programmes. Those municipalities are Albert Luthuli, Dipaliseng, Dr JS Moroka, Emalahleni, Govan Mbeki, Greater Tubatse, Lekwa, Mkhondo, Msukaligwa, Nkomazi and Thembisile.
The province is continuing to build good relations between the institutions of Traditional Leaders and local government. The importance of finding synergy between these two institutions cannot be overemphasised especially in a rural province like Mpumalanga. The Mpumalanga Traditional Leadership and Good Governance Bill have been approved by the Executive Council and have also been tabled in the Provincial Legislature.
During the NCOP visit a number of issues were raised by the youth. Most of these issues were centered on the lack of access to information and opportunities by the youth. In order for us to ensure that they youth have information about opportunities brought closer to them, a majority of municipalities have appointed either a councilor or an official to be responsible for youth development within their respective municipalities. The challenge now is for these municipalities to build the capacity of these appointed individuals to be equal to the challenge of youth development at local government.

We welcome the return of Eskom back into the province. Eskom is bringing back into service three previously decommissioned power stations at Camden (Ermelo) Lomati (Middelburg) and Grootvlei (Balfour) that will result in the creation of 26 000 jobs both directly and indirectly in Mpumalanga over the next five years. This will also assist in creating permanent jobs. What is very interesting is that these power stations will be in rural areas.
One of the major challenges that continues to plague our farmers, and this was also raised during the NCOP, is the access to funds especially accessing loans whilst facing outstanding debts. The Department of Agriculture and Land Administration has availed grants for agribusiness projects for the financial years 2004/2005 and 2005/2006. The department is also considering having soft grants/soft loans to rehabilitate the viable projects that are insolvent/liquidated.

We need to change the mindset of our farmers especially black farmers. They need move away from farming for household consumption towards farming for commercial purposes. Farmers must produce according to market demand not according to their interest or cultural requirements. The Agricultural Economics and Marketing have embarked on funding value-adding projects to alleviate the marketing problems faced by small-scale farmers.
The need to create a conducive environment that will attract health workers to rural areas is a major challenge facing us. The problems faced by health workers in these areas results in them abandoning their jobs in search of better working conditions. For example not so long ago the department of Health advertised approximately 20 posts in the Tonga Hospital in Nkomazi and only about to applications were received. The introduction of Scarce Skills and Rural allowances is used as an incentive to attract scarce skilled professionals e.g. doctors and professional nurses alike.

As part of its five-year infrastructure development plan, accommodation at Health facilities has been included. This plan will however not meet all accommodation needs of health professionals in the short term. The department is currently investigating the option of refunding community services and interns for private accommodation, as provision of accommodation for this category of personnel is the responsibility of the department. If approved this arrangement will free up existing accommodation, which could be utilised by permanent staff.
In addition to the existing National list of areas and facilities classified as rural, 5 hospitals and 41 PHC facilities have been reclassified as rural areas by the Head of Department.
The plan to have a Health Sciences Training College at the former Elijah Mango College of Education has been realised. The first group of 100 students started on the 1st March 2005 and the second group comprising of 200 students started 1st of April 2005 making a total of 300 first year students. This represents a three-fold increase in the number of first year students over previous years and will ultimately result in a significant decrease in our backlog of nurses needed at health facilities.
The commitment to introduce various training programmes is on track and the department has initiated its own PHC nurse-training programme. 86 professional nurses are currently being trained at Witbank Hospital in partnership with the University of Pretoria.
The Department continuously encourage all staff to contribute optimally to the organisation and avails opportunities to staff for personal and professional development.

In partnership with our academic partners (University of Pretoria and MEDUNSA) the department have embarked on a programme to decentralise specialist training in Family Medicine and Primary Health care Training for Nurses. 12 hospitals have been identified whereby doctors would be able to undertake a four-year specialist programme in Family Medicine. The same sites will be utilised to train urgently needed Primary Health Care nurses.
This year we have offered 165 new students bursaries in addition to the 245 that we offered last year to pursue studies in fields of need.
The department has committed itself to continuously look into creative ways of recruitment and retaining of these scarce professionals. In the medium and long term, we will continue to encourage our learners in the province to do maths and science at schools so that they may take advantage of bursaries that we offer for students in the field of medicine and allied professions.
The infrastructure plan mentioned above includes the construction of new Primary Health Care facilities, upgrading of existing facilities and the purchasing of fixed equipment in addition each hospital has an equipment budget, which is used to upgrade of purchase new equipment. It is foreseen however that meeting the equipment backlogs will only be accomplished during the MTEF period.

The backlog of emergency vehicles has been addressed during the previous and current financial year. This has also made patient transport for non-emergency patients more available. The backlog however will also only be fully addressed during the MTEF period.
KwaMhlanga is also facing problems of crime. An SAPS official is now available on a 24-hour basis to manage access to the mortuary.
KwaMhlanga has received its accreditation to role out ARV. This service commenced on 1 May 2005
The Provincial Executive has made concerted efforts to pull the Education Department out of its low performance levels. These efforts are beginning to bear fruit. The Department of Education has faced various constraints including budgetary ones that impeded plans for the construction of relevant infrastructure. More resources have been made available to the department in the current financial year for expenditure on infrastructure. Through the priority list we have listed the schools that need urgent attention in terms of building classrooms, teacher’s houses and the general maintenance of these buildings. Due to the fact that there is a general problem of water shortage in Nkangala region we have supplied the schools with jojo tanks, so that learning is not disrupted due to the problem. Workshops are being conducted to school governing bodies on regular basis to strengthen good governance in schools.

We are addressing all the issues that were raised during the NCOP visit to Mpumalanga in March this year. Some of them have already been addressed as indicated and some of them will be addressed on an ongoing basis. We would once again like to applaud the people of Mpumalanga for seizing the opportunity to interact with their elected representatives and make their voices heard. With such interactions we will together nurture our democracy to be the child every parent wants to have.
I thank you.