STATEMENT BY PREMIER NOMVULA MOKONYANE, DURING THE OFFICIAL RELEASE OF THE SURVEY ON THE QUALITY OF LIFE IN GAUTENG NEWTOWN, JOHANNESBURG
27 May 2010
Today we are proud to share with the Gauteng public the groundbreaking work of the Gauteng City Region Observatory - a think tank we set up a few years ago to assist us in the development of our province into a globally-competitive city-region.
We welcome the results of the GCRO's Survey on the Quality of Life in the Gauteng City-Region as they are, because we believe what we have been provided with is nothing but the naked truth about our province which will help us improve the way we deliver services to our people.
The results also confirm the appropriateness of our priorities.
This reality check will help us make a holistic assessment about where we are as a province and where necessary take further steps to improve the state of the province.
One of the main findings of the study was that in-migration remained a huge factor affecting the quality of life for the people living in Gauteng. For instance, some 20-percent of the people who responded to the survey were not living in Gauteng more than five years ago. In fact, more than 70-percent of those who were not residents of Gauteng five years ago only came to the province in the period between 2007 and 2009.
The period 2007 to date has thrown us with serious economic challenges -including the global economic recession which exacerbated the poverty levels among South Africans. Coupled with this; the province has seen its fastest population growth since the 1990s, making planning for human settlements very tricky. However, as the study confirms, not all who come to Gauteng intend to live here permanently. Some just want to stay and work temporarily. To deal with this, the provincial government has for a while been pursuing an integrated human settlement strategy that includes rental. We have also begun to work tirelessly with our peri-urban and rural municipalities so that they can create vibrant economies and sustain them.
The survey has also confirmed what we have always known: (and that is) our relative success in delivering services to most in our communities has created expectations that we can do it for everyone in the country.
The results of the survey show that while access to water is the norm in Gauteng, we are still lacking in terms of sanitation and refuse removal.
In this light, we have continued to engage our local authorities in ensuring that efficient service delivery takes place.
Despite challenges in our municipalities, we have seen a very encouraging improvement in the audit outcomes of our municipalities - and we remain a leading province in this regard with 71% of our municipalities having achieved unqualified audit opinions. At our last intergovernmental Executive Council meeting in April, attended by the Gauteng Executive Council and mayors and municipal managers, we all agreed to work together to ensure the delivery of basic services. These include uninterrupted supply of water and electricity, maintenance of infrastructure including roads and refuse collection at least once a week and twice a week in densely populated areas.
The survey also identified non-payment of services as one of the factors affecting people's quality of life in Gauteng. It noted that while nine in ten respondents had access to electricity for lighting, " ... arrears for water and electricity were hovering around one in ten, with four percent having had their water cut off due to non-payment, 5% having had the same happen to their electricity". It is widely known that Gauteng has - especially in the light of the recession - been going all out to promote its indigence programmes. This intervention, and many others, while not a panacea, has helped many of the poor households stay above water during the past tough year.
The other issues listed in the survey such as unemployment, HIV and Aids and crime are among the key priorities of our programme of action We are aware of the scourge of poverty in our province. As government we have already taken steps to mitigate the impact of poverty on the most vulnerable. The war against poverty is fought through a number of short, medium and long term initiatives. The short term interventions provide a safety net to the most vulnerable through social security grants, school nutrition and the food bank initiative. Medium to long terms interventions include helping people to start food gardens so they can grow their own food, public works programmes and entrepreneurship development.
Last year in the first few months of our term of office we were able to assist a number of cooperatives to generate income. Most of those co-operatives are providing goods to government on a regular basis.
This work is continuing and this year more co-operatives will be assisted to market their products both within government and the private sector.
Two weeks ago we adopted the Gauteng, Employment, Growth and Development Strategy (GEGDS), whose main objectives are to create decent work and build a growing, inclusive, green and innovating economy.
The GEGDS has five (5) strategic pillars, designed to ensure convergence between the economic and social strategies of government, underpinned by the environmental strategies regarding sustainable resource usage which collectively promote a developmental state. .
We have, on many platforms, already admitted that crime cheats our communities of a better quality of life. That is why we have given the Gauteng Aggravated Robbery Strategy and other anti-crime programmes our utmost support.
As we have mentioned before, Gauteng, with all the resources at its disposal needs to act in a smart way to win the war against crime. With three metro police forces to complement the SAPS and a large number of private security operators, there is no reason why we should not succeed in our fight against crime. The 2010 FIFA World Cup has helped us move closer to implementing a smarter way of dealing with crime. We will continue with approach beyond the world cup where all forces will agree on a common strategy and work together under the command of the SAPS.
Last month we launched the HIV counselling and testing campaign.
This is part of our new HIV and AIDS strategy which aims to drastically reduce new HIV infections in Gauteng to achieve a target of 50% reduction in new infections by 2011 as well as prevent death from AIDS by extending treatment, care and support to 80% of people with HIV. Knowing one's HIV status is very important in the management and treatment of HIV and AIDS. We will be stepping up this campaign in the coming weeks starting with a mass testing programme involving public servants followed by focussed programmes targeting high risk groups throughout Gauteng.
Lastly, the survey shows that almost half of those surveyed were satisfied with their lives in the province. This is hardly surprising as we have maintained that while challenges are plenty; most people in our province know that life has improved since 1994.
While we are happy with the result; we are concerned that the other half of the respondents was not satisfied. We will continue to implement measures that will create more work and ensure an equitable distribution of our province's wealth so that we address their challenges.
The survey's results are not all rosy. But we are happy about that. In fact, we would be disappointed if all the survey did was pat us on the back. What this means is that the Observatory is serving its purpose and being brutally honest with us so that meaningful interventions could be made to improve the lot of our people. We are grateful that the academics at both Wits and UJ have compiled this important document.
While its relevance may not be immediately felt; future generations are sure to look at the results of the survey and thank the GCRO for its honesty.
ABOUT THE GCRO
In 2008, the Gauteng Provincial Government (GPG) teamed up with two of its most respected and recognised tertiary institutions - the universities of the Witwatersrand and Johannesburg - to launch the multi-million rand Gauteng City Region Observatory (GCRO), to be based at the two institutions. Behind the motivation for setting up this high-level think-tank was a vision to develop South Africa's economic heartland into a region that was competitive, spatially-integrated, environmentally-sustainable and socially-inclusive. Critically, the GCRO was to help come up with ways of beating poverty and creating sustainable employment for the majority.
To achieve those goals, the government was well-aware that it would require a constant source of reliable data on which all its development planning could be based on. This was not just a decision undertaken because the Provincial Government's offices are based in Johannesburg - a mere stepping stone from the two academic institutions. Rather, it was a decision taken from the extensive work done and international visits undertaken in the few years prior to 2008 which showed that all successful globally-competitive city regions - such as Sao Paolo in Brazil - steeped their planning on relevant, up-to-date and reliable research. We realized then that a successful and effective GCR is not just the government's responsibility; the academics, the unions, the businesspeople; all had to chip in.
The GCRO is "charged with helping to build the knowledge base that government, business, labour, civil society and citizens all need to make this vision a reality." This is done by collecting data and benchmarking the city-region; providing policy analysis and support, undertaking applied research, and publishing critically reflective academic work.
Statement issued by Gauteng Provincial Government, May 27 2010
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