Crowned by the runaway success of the World Cup, 2010 was a startling year. For the province, there were plenty of achievements, but some challenges too.
THE year 2010 will be remembered for some of the best and some of the worst of times; it was a year in which the province achieved historical successes, yet a crippling public service strike brought service delivery to a standstill.
Acting premier Mandla Nkomfe delivers the Annual Report
“On the one hand, many will remember the year as the time that our country, and indeed our entire continent, can look back on with pride after successfully hosting the 2010 FIFA World Cup™,” said the acting premier of Gauteng, Mandla Nkomfe.
Nkomfe was tabling the Gauteng Annual Report on Thursday, 9 December at the Gauteng Legislature in the inner city. “On the other hand,” he said, “2010 will be remembered as the year that our country experienced one of the most protracted and destabilising public sector strikes in our history.”
During the strike, service delivery was hampered, innocent lives were lost and productivity at schools was severely affected as learners stayed at home for almost a month.
However, he commended those people who volunteered their services during the month-long strike by civil servants, especially in health and education facilities.
Education
The Gauteng Department of Education organised study camps to help learners, especially matrics, prepare for their final exams. “We know that learners and communities appreciated the intervention and took full advantage of the services offered in those centres,” Nkomfe said.
There were 90 study camp sites focusing on curriculum completion, revision and exam preparation in Gauteng.
The world over, it was well-known that competitive, modern societies were built on the back of an educated and skilled workforce, Nkomfe pointed out. “All globally competitive city regions of the world have quality education as a common denominator.”
In keeping with other competitive modern societies, the Gauteng department of education launched the Cellphone and Teacher Laptop initiative earlier this year. Some 2 200 cellphones were given to principals and 160 district officials to help them communicate better with the school community.
Gauteng is making headway in improving the quality of education in schools
“The cellphones … are loaded with curriculum support material and will definitely go a long way in improving the quality of education at our schools.”
To improve the quality of education in rural Gauteng, a study for a boarding school in Magaliesberg had been completed and a school had been designed. The project was handed to the provincial department of infrastructure development and building was due to start in the new financial year.
“The province has also made some headway in the area of skills development. We have achieved our target of ensuring that 30 percent of participants in artisan training are young people. Also, a total 4 918 learners have undergone generic training, exceeding the original target of 3 000.”
Though the provincial education department had recorded great successes in the year, there were a number of challenges and shortfalls, including an inability to enrol more than 4 000 young people into training areas such as information technology, electrical work, plumbing and life skills.
“Also, our efforts of providing over 3 000 bursaries to young people in critical skills areas, such as engineering and medical science, only yielded a total of 740 learners.”
To fix whatever went wrong, the government would hold public meetings with stakeholders in the education sector to ensure that “we are committed to the same goals ahead of the new school year”.
Health
Another milestone achieved by the provincial government was making sure that all residents had access to quality health care. This year, 98 percent of primary health care facilities implemented the Integrated Management of Childhood Illness Programme, providing Vitamin A and food supplements to children under the age of five.
There was also an increasing number of maternity care facilities. “Progress has also been made towards increasing the percentage of pregnant women who book for antenatal care before 20 weeks gestation from 24,7 percent in 2009/10 to 50 percent in 2010/11.”
Nkomfe said a lot of work had been done to fight the spread of HIV and Aids, which had resulted in a drop in the rate of new infections.
Work at the Zola-Jabulani Hospital is going on in earnest
“However, there have been challenges as well. Our plans to increase antiretroviral treatment [ART] sites to all health facilities by the end of March 2011 are not going as well as we had hoped,” he explained. “By the end of September this year, we had only managed to have 186 facilities instead of 280 providing lifesaving ART.”
The government had also not met its target of initiating ART for all HIV-positive children under the age of one. Its goal was to place 20 000 children on the programme by the end of this financial year but only 652 children were currently on treatment.
Progress had been made in dealing with tuberculosis (TB) patients, however. The cure rate was 79,9 percent, about 0,1 percent shy of meeting the province’s 80 percent target.
More community health workers had been trained, with over 1 800 workers now able to give TB and HIV treatment.
“To achieve a long and healthy life for all South Africans, the health system needs to be as effective as possible There has been good progress made in many areas that relate to infrastructure. We have finalised the priority list for phase two of the rolling out of 40 more replacements of lifts and finalisation of phase two of the installation of back-up power supply.”
Work on the Bram Fischerville Clinic, Ratanda/Magagula Height Clinic, Cosmo City Clinic, Diepsloot Clinic and Finetown Clinic was on schedule, while construction of the Zola/Jabulani Hospital and Natalspruit Hospital continued.
“Long queues and waiting times have been reduced through the establishment of functional help desks in all hospital entrances to direct patients to appropriate sections. Critical to this, is the screening of patients to ensure that the appropriate level of care is provided to patients.”
Economic development
Approval was received from the provincial executive council for the Gauteng department of economic development (GDED) to split into three agencies – growth and development, business regulatory, and tourism and promotion – and the department was working on implementing this mandate.
“In this regard, the GDED has adopted a phased implementation approach prioritising the establishment of the Growth and Development Agency that will come into effect in the new financial year 2011/2012. [It] will come into effect as a result of the … reconfiguration of the Blue IQ, the Gauteng Economic Development Agency and Gauteng Enterprise Propeller.”
Families have started moving into their new homes in Lufhereng
A business case for the new Gauteng Growth and Development Agency, together with the proposed policy and the draft bill, had been completed for approval by the executive council, Nkomfe stated. “Once approval has been granted, all due processes leading to the legislative enactment of the bill will be followed.”
Safety and security
The provincial government was also working on promoting the province as one where all its residents felt safe. At present, it had a high rate of house robberies, business robberies and vehicle hijackings.
“In that light, we have taken an effective and holistic approach involving all stakeholders, driven by the newly appointed Gauteng police commissioner, Mr Mzwandile Petros,” Nkomfe said.
“Many of you will agree that there has been a marked rise in visible policing in our towns and cities as the festive season begins. We are confident that our law enforcement agencies will be able to effectively administer the rule of law.
“We have provided tools of trade by securing an additional 119 patrol cars to help increase visibility and fight crime, especially in crime hot spots.”
Land reform
Gauteng was working towards sustainable land reform, which had already advanced in many areas. This advancement included training and supporting 131 farmers through study sessions. In addition, 498 farms had been visited in the second quarter of the year in an effort to visit all land reform farms and establish the extent of unused farms.
The National Rural Youth Service Corps Programme had started and some 1 100 rural youth had been selected in Gauteng for a two-year employment and training programme.
“Plans are under way for the roll out of production inputs to the maize and poultry co-operatives. Six major co-operatives have been awarded contracts to supply [Gauteng provincial government] institutions with fresh eggs for a period of three years.”
In his report, the acting premier also spoke about housing and how the province was dealing with the issue; responsive, accountable, efficient and effective local government; an efficient, effective and development-oriented public service; and an empowered, fair and inclusive citizenship.
“Gauteng’s plans to develop sustainable human settlements and improve the quality of life for its residents gained momentum in the past few months,” he said. “In August, the province launched the Lufhereng Housing Project in Soweto, a large scale, mixed income, mixed type and mixed tenure housing development.”
Once finished, Lufhereng was expected to yield 24 000 houses, with schools, clinics, sports fields and recreational facilities. The suburb would include a significant component of urban agriculture through small-scale intensive urban agriculture open field plots, hydroponic farming units and fish breeding schemes.
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