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Eastern Cape Premier Oscar Mabuyane has outlined the broad plan for the seventh administration highlighting three interrelated priorities that he said would accelerate the realisation of the Provincial Development Plan.
Delivering the State of the Province Address in the Eastern Cape Legislature on Friday, Mabuyane said these priorities were inclusive growth and job creation, reducing poverty and tackling the high cost of living, and “a capable, ethical, agile, and developmental state”.
In a wide-ranging speech, he noted that in the past five years, the province secured investments worth R200 billion.
Mabuyane said this is the baseline to get more investors to the province in the next five years.
“Having said that, the global economy remains gloomy, and the Eastern Cape is not immune from the structural and geo-political effects.
“The provincial economic growth currently stands at 2.1%, which is still below the set target of 2.8% in 2025.
“Our initiatives to drive economic growth to the desired levels include redirecting equitable share allocations to productive economic activities, and prioritizing the frontiers of growth, namely; agriculture, manufacturing, oceans economy, digital economy, and tourism.
“Working together with our social partners, we grew the number of employed people in the Eastern Cape to 1.4 million in 2024.
“We aim to increase this number to 2.4 million by 2030,” the Premier said.
However, he cautioned that the next five years will not be smooth sailing because of geopolitical tensions, saying that South Africa remains committed to fostering solidarity, peace, friendship, and cooperation with other countries of the world.
However, like President Cyril Ramaphosa, Mabuyane said “We will not be bullied”.
“We are continuing with our existing international partnerships on trade and investments while exploiting new markets in our continent, the Middle East, and the BRICS+ countries as part of our economic diplomacy,” he said.
On infrastructure development, Mabuyane said mega projects like the Msikaba Bridge, Mtentu, and Ndabakazi Interchange were progressing well.
Working with SANRAL we are making a total investment of R50 billion for more road infrastructure projects in the next five years.
“This investment will build road infrastructure in key routes such as R61, R72, R58, R75 and R410.
“In addition to these roads, in the next financial year, we will be gazetting 600km of our roads, many of them gravel roads which we are going to upgrade with SANRAL for the benefit of our communities,” the Premier said.
