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Eastern Cape Premier, Lubabalo Mabuyane, says it is time to deliver the knockout blow to the coronavirus and to focus on the reconstruction and recovery of the provincial economy.
Delivering his State of the Province Address in the Provincial Legislature on Tuesday, Mabuyane paid tribute to the people of the province.
He said it was through the sacrifices that they made that “we have managed to decrease the burden of the virus and achieved a recovery rate of over 90%.”
“We are not out of the woods yet, and in fact, we may very well be hit by a third wave. The virus is still dangerous, particularly when we still have 692 active cases, which is the lowest in the
country,” he said.
The Premier said the rollout of the Johnson and Johnson Covid-19 vaccine is underway and has started with the province’s health workers.
“We are confident that we will vaccinate a minimum of 3.7 million people which is required for us to achieve population herd immunity,” he said.
In his 36-page address, Mabuyane said it was time to accelerate the pursuit of the goals set at the beginning of the sixth term.
“In this regard, our immediate task is to intensify the work of transforming the economy and creating jobs,” he said.
The Premier said the economic turnaround comes against the backdrop of low economic growth, rising unemployment, ongoing budget cuts, and increasing demands for services.
Mabuyane said Bhisho responded to the pandemic with a range of short-term business relief packages, including amending the Jobs Stimulus Fund to allow for additional support to businesses in distress.
The Premier highlighted that the provinces economic turn-around focusses on massive infrastructure build projects identified by the government, including the N2 toll road project and the Msimvubu Water project, among others.
“The Cannabis plant remains on our radar for economic growth and job creation. The Departments of Agriculture and Rural Development, Health and DTIC are developing legislation to commercialize cannabis production,” Mabuyane said.
He said efforts to rebuild the economy would be bolstered by the recovery of the tourism sector, with Bhisho implementing tourism infrastructure projects in the province.
Turning to the fight against corruption, Mabuyane said Bhisho has consolidated the anti-corruption forum and council into one body and chaired by him.
“Since the passing of the Act prohibiting government officials from doing business with the government, our province has progressed from 1 272 conflicted officials in 2018/2019 to 421 in 2020/2021.”
The Premier said the majority of the 421 are officials in the Departments of Health and Education.
“We are expecting the relevant accounting officers to take action against the remaining officials that are still doing business with the state,” Mabuyane said.
Commenting on the 2020 matric results, which saw the EC pass rate declined 8.3% from 2019, Mabuyane commended the class of 2020 for their perseverance under extremely difficult
conditions caused by Covid-19.
“Despite the national and provincial overall decline of the pass rate, the Eastern Cape class of 2020 still achieved better quality of results,” he said.
He also congratulated Pearson High’s Reynhardt Buys and Bongo Simamkele for their top achievements.
