Economic growth, job creation, road infrastructure and education and health were identified as key focus areas in the State of the Province Address on Friday by Eastern Cape Premier, Phumulo Masualle.
Masualle said the province remains committed to undertaking a number of initiatives aimed at radical socio-economic transformation through “redistributive economic development aimed at reducing income equality”.
He said the level of unemployment in the Eastern Cape has consistently remained unacceptably higher than the national average, adding that the province’s GDP growth rate was constrained and only forecast to grow by 1.7% by 2019.
“On Wednesday this week, the Minister of Finance, in his budget presented a budget which strongly suggests we must do more with even less,” Masualle said.
The Premier said however that despite the challenging economic environment, 18 553 jobs were created in construction, manufacturing and zone operations, among other sectors, through the Special Economic Zones over the last four years.
In his wide-ranging presentation, Masualle also said that the provincial government would continue “ensuring the sustainability of SMME’s” by continuing to monitor the adherence to the 30-day payment period to service providers by government departments.
The Premier said the Bhisho government is continuing to improve provincial and access roads, highlighting the N2 Wild Coast Road project and the R61 upgrade from Magusheni to Mzamba as examples.
The Premier said with the emerging world-class road network, the province anticipates that the road upgrades will not only give impetus to economic growth but it would give a much-needed boost to the tourism sector.
Masualle said the province would also pay more attention to the Early Childhood Development infrastructure programme.
“We want to increase the registration of ECD centers as part of enhancing the quality of the foundation phases,” he said.
He said ICT based digital transformation in education is a critical focus area.
Addressing health matter, Masualle said that the re-engineering of primary Health Care would remain a key driver to achieve universal health coverage. But, he said a major challenge in the health department is medico-legal litigation (running into billions of rands).
“We have made significant strides in our quest to root out the corruption we have seen in this area, and arrests are unscrupulous elements who are taking advantage of our people whilst milking the provincial fiscus dry,” he said.
Masualle said the province would also address the skills deficit in the social sector highlighting the social work profession.
He said a 100 social workers, targeting persons with disabilities, would also be employed.
(Image:SAPS Premier Masualle takes the salute ahead of his SOPA address)
