No matter how much hot air is generated by the ANC’s modern day Pravdas, rational beings always vote with their feet. And for some years now, South Africans have been “semi-grating” in growing numbers to the Western Cape, the only non-ANC governed province of SA’s nine. Joburg-based newspaper The Times last week listed 10 reasons “that’ll make you wish you lived in the Fairest Cape“, most of them reflecting the economic fruits flowing from its corruption-free, service-focused governance. As ANC heavyweight Mathews Phosa admitted in his powerful op-ed over the weekend, his party’s only response to such realities is to shout “racist”. As the seismic swings in August’s metro elections proves, South Africans are tiring of the Zuma Administration’s hollow retorts – and the more that people absorb the Western Cape reality, the greater the swing towards the alternative offered by its ruling party, the Democratic Alliance. Premier Helen Zille‘s State of the Province address, delivered on Friday, is republished below in full. Not just because of the contrast it provides to Zuma’s SONA, but also to explain the not-so-quiet migration to the south by those able to afford it. – Alec Hogg
By Helen Zille, Premier of the Western Cape Province of SA
Speaker, this is my 10th State of the Province address, and the launch of the Provincial Legislature’s annual calendar. It requires that I, on behalf of the provincial government, account to the residents of the Western Cape, for the progress we have made, and the challenges we face.
All of us on this side of the House are profoundly aware of the responsibility the citizens have conferred on us. We take this duty very seriously.
For any government, at any level, to create conditions for sustained progress towards prosperity for all, requires three pre-conditions: The Rule of Law; a culture of accountability, (in which all members of society take their responsibilities seriously), and a capable state that undertakes its duties efficiently, honestly, and cost-effectively.
We are half-way through our second term in office.
Today I will give a progress report of our work thus far, work that I hope will continue when I am no longer in this position. Our team is building unstoppable momentum towards a highly skilled, innovation driven, resource efficient, connected, high opportunity society for all.
Last year I dedicated this government’s second term to the young people of this Province.
And I made it clear that our overriding goal is the economic inclusion of all. Mastering skills, getting a job, earning a salary, and climbing a career ladder through hard work and life-long learning is the only recipe for sustainable economic liberation for all. Putting our young people on this path must be our number one objective in South Africa. It certainly is in this province.
Individuals have as much responsibility as families. And families, the core unit of a functional society, must fulfil their responsibilities just as much as the government. We can only achieve our goals if we work together.
Since we took office in 2009, we have put this Province firmly on the road to the future. And today we assess where we are on that journey.
Good governance starts a domino effect.
After years of effort, by many partners, the Western Cape is beginning to reap the rewards.
Let me begin by thanking my cabinet colleagues and the professionals in this administration, under the leadership of the Director General, Brent Gerber, for their contributions every day towards fulfilling the voters’ mandate.
They understand the meaning of the voters’ mandate and the role of a professional civil service. This is an opportunity for me to express our gratitude on behalf of everyone in this province.
Listening to the recording of Helen Zille's SOPA. The opposition heckling is truly pathetic. No real points to make, just muffled moaning.
— Liesl Thaw (@Liesl_Smit) February 17, 2017
Not only have we achieved a full set of financially unqualified audits, and 11 out of 12 clean departmental audits, we have also been top of the Presidency’s Monitoring and Evaluation unit’s ratings for 5 years running.
Good governance helps us create a context for the most important priority of all – job creation, which is driven primarily by private sector investment, which is attracted by good governance and public confidence in the future. As I said, it is a domino effect.
Our unemployment Rate is the lowest in SA on the broad definition, which is I believe, the measure that should be used because it includes unemployed people who have given up looking for work. Our broad unemployment rate is a full 8.2 percentage points lower than Gauteng, and a full 13.8 points lower than the national figure.
The latest Quarterly Labour Force Survey figures for the 4th Quarter 2016 show that this province has gained 490 000 new jobs since the 4th quarter of 2009, the year we took office.
The Western Cape also has the lowest rural unemployment rate in the country, at just 14%, which is the lowest recorded since this measure was instituted. This is a significant statistic for us because it shows that our focused economic growth plan, Project Khulisa, is starting to make an impact.
We made our decision on which sectors to focus on for Khulisa based on potential for:
jobs impact in rural areas,
jobs for young people, and
jobs for people with low skills levels.
We settled on Agri-processing, Tourism and the Energy economy – sectors not merely confined to urban growth, but with potential impact in rural areas, and this is contributing to the falling rural unemployment rate.
These are all encouraging achievements in the context of a national economic growth rate that has dropped to just 0.4% according to the South African Reserve Bank. We’ve managed to keep business confidence 10 points higher than the national average – and 11 and 12 points higher than Gauteng and KwaZulu Natal respectively. The massive switch in business confidence to the Western Cape represents a significant shift in sentiment since the 1990s when business confidence was traditionally higher in Gauteng.
Another important indicator of economic progress is the growth in building plan approvals. It reflects confidence and movement in the economy. While the growth in value of buildings completed at the national level declined by 6% in 2015, the value in the Western Cape has grown by 27%. And this is not just in our central business districts. The value of buildings completed in Khayelitsha/Mitchells Plain has increased substantially since 2007 from R115 million to almost R961 million. And amazingly, 56% of all bonds registered by residents of Gauteng during the past year were for properties in the Western Cape.
People, rich and poor, only migrate voluntarily to places that they believe offer them better prospects, and this starts with good governance. We regard these statistics as a vote of confidence in this province.
The market is responding to the growing demands and challenges in all sectors, and in the process creating jobs, which people so desperately need. The growing demand for homes in the province is reflected in the number of building plan approvals, with the Western Cape’s share of the number of buildings completed nationally at well above 30%. The building sector is a component of economic growth, and the downstream secondary jobs are significant. The construction sector employs more than 160,000 people in the province and directly contributes R30bn to the provincial economy.
And of course, when a person has a job, they purchase goods and services, which creates even more jobs. This is called a virtuous cycle, and after years of paving the way, cutting red tape, and encouraging entrepreneurship, we are now beginning to see the results.
I have little doubt that the new Metro administrations in various parts of the country will make similar progress, as the first crucial step to economic liberation in other provinces. It is hard, long, dotted with deep political pot-holes. We hope the progress we are making inspires you to persevere.
Since the start of this term, we have secured over R5.9 billion worth of investments for the Western Cape, through our excellent economic development and investment agency, Wesgro. This resulted in 1 865 new jobs from 2014 to 2016.
#Wesgrofilm hard at work promoting the Cape as a film destination. With Premier @helenzille & Min. @alanwinde #sopaexhibition2017 #wesgro pic.twitter.com/Gvkl3m6zJD
— Lisa Mini (@LisaMini_cpt) February 17, 2017
We have also closed a total of 25 trade deals to the value of R8.6 billion since 2014, creating 662 new jobs.
Our focus going forward will be on increasing the Rand value of our exports, generating maximum job creation potential from export orders, and supporting Western Cape companies who have the ability to expand into the rest of Africa.
The African expansion programme is forging ahead, with Wesgro committing to R501 million in deals to date.
We will apply the experience of the last two years to make further progress on our continent. Since 2014 Wesgro has helped over 1 470 Western Cape companies to export their goods to global and African markets, accompanied 9398 exporters on trade missions, and mentored 1070 companies through the Export Development Programme (EDP).
We are preparing to ramp up efforts to boost investment into our region through the launch of the Cape Investor Centre later this year. This will serve as a “one stop shop” for investors, enabling them to complete local, provincial and national regulatory processes in a single location, under the professional guidance of a single relationship manager. The investor centre follows the approach of our Red Tape Unit, now in its seventh year of operation. The unit continues to maintain an 85% resolution success rate in solving the 6 000 cases of red tape blockages it has dealt with.
We are looking to unlock R1 billion in red tape savings by 2019, with a provisional estimate of R600 million in savings or benefits to date.
Cabinet has further resolved that Regulatory Impact Assessments must be done for new legislation and significant policies, so that we do not unintentionally create new red tape barriers that stifle growth.
Red tape can be especially harmful for small enterprises. Since taking office, we have refined a support system for entrepreneurs, with 35 000 small businesses supported since 2009.
Our SMME Contract Finance Fund facilitates loans to SMME’s that require more capacity to secure larger business contracts. A total of 164 SMME’s have been assisted since 2014, with loan transactions worth almost R13 million.
The second funding vehicle is the Enterprise Development Fund, which has supported 300 SMME’s in 3 years. The fund was created in 2012 and includes grant and loan fund mechanisms for SMME’s. An amount of R62 million has been invested in small businesses to date, through a 40/60 Loan Finance partnership between our Economic Development Department and the National Empowerment Fund. The funding is available to small business in the form of a low cost loan.
During research for this speech, I was pleasantly surprised to learn that a full 75% of all venture capital deals concluded in South Africa, happen right here in the Western Cape. This is primarily through the innovation generated through Tech Start-ups.
One of the reasons cited by the PWC Emerging Company Survey indicates that there are more small business development and innovation programmes in the province compared to elsewhere in the country.
This is partly because we do whatever we can to support small business, by linking them with funders willing to back their ideas, by hosting the annual Western Cape Funding Fair, to bring funders and entrepreneurs together.
An extension of this funding fair, is the Investment Readiness Programme which takes the fair through the West Coast, Winelands, Eden, Central Karoo and Overberg regions. Major funders partner with us for this roadshow, which has managed to secure over R7 million in funding linkages to rural business in the first year of operation.
Honourable Speaker, I have already mentioned our focused economic growth plan, Project Khulisa which helps create conducive conditions for growth in key job-creating sectors of the economy: Agri-processing, Tourism, and the Energy Economy, with a particular focus on Oil and Gas.
The results are profoundly encouraging.
Employment has increased by 40% in the Agriculture and Agri-processing sectors over the past two years through the creation of over 127 400 new jobs.
@AgriWesKaap The #Cape is emerging as #Africa’s leading #Agricultural hub! #Wesgro #Indaba #CapeTown #WesternCape https://t.co/fOcCbXENKw pic.twitter.com/N4IBEEankB
— The Newspaper (@thenewspapersa) November 30, 2016
A major focus of the Khulisa agri-processing team is the development of the China and Angola markets for our region’s export wines. China represents a potential market of 38 million people who drink imported wine twice a year, and Angola is the largest destination for wine exporters in Africa.
Our remarkable successes in Agriculture and Agri-processing are a testimony to human ingenuity, as we are not blessed with particularly fertile soils or abundant water. Those natural assets lie on the Eastern seaboard of our country.
Here we have water shortages constituting a major crisis. We are working on expanding the storage capacity of the Brandvlei dam, so that an additional 4 400 hectares can be irrigated, with the potential of creating upward of 8 000 new rural jobs.
Our Tourism sector continues to show remarkable potential. International arrivals are up by almost 16% year-on-year, and we passed the 10 million passengers mark through Cape Town International airport last year.
Guided by Wesgro, we’ve generated an additional R3 billion for the economy by adding over half a million new 2-way direct seats through our Cape Air Access Initiative. This has been a remarkable success and is a strategy necessitated in part by SAA’s ill-fated decision to suspend direct international flights to Cape Town. Other airlines saw the gap, and the rest is history.
The launch of an expanded Cape Town International Convention Centre this year, will help grow the already booming conference industry, which over the past two years has had an economic impact of over R645 million, measured by the total average delegate spend per day of R3,210.
The Western Cape is now well established as a tourist destination. Our strategy is to develop the niche markets. Plans are well advanced for establishing the Cape as the Cycling capital of Africa. We are also growing Madiba Legacy Tourism, by establishing a Madiba Legacy Route and promoting the region as a Global Food and Wine destination. There are growing markets in these sectors.
In the Oil & Gas economy, we are preparing for the industrialisation of the West Coast to facilitate the growth of a sector with great potential.
The Saldanha Industrial Development Zone, is well on track, its board is established, and memorandums of understanding sealed with 34 potential investors. The bulk services, waste water treatment and a supply hub for the port are already in place, with a link bridge to the port and water reservoir under construction.
We are working in partnership with the Trade and Industry Department, Saldanha Bay Municipality, the Industrial Development Corporation and the Transnet National Ports Authority. This has really been a co-operative governance venture, just as the World Cup was, and I wish to thank our national and local government partners for the ease of doing business with them on this project.
Western Cape is also home to a growing number of green manufacturers who are driving South Africa’s status as the fastest growing green economy hub in the world, according to a report by Moody’s Ratings Agency.
Four recent investments worth R1.1 billion in alternative waste treatment projects have created 148 jobs and advanced the technical capacity of the sector. We launched the R500 million New Horizons Energy plant in Athlone last month. This is the first plant in Africa to turn municipal solid waste into biogas, reducing the need of land for land-fill sites, producing energy and fertiliser, and above all, creating jobs.
Greencape, our special purpose vehicle for the green economy, was awarded the Chairman’s Award for Exceptional Service by the Institute of Waste management of Southern Africa.
Congratulations to that great team.
As we analyse the growth projections of our priority economic sectors, we have concluded that we do not have enough of the skills required to fill the jobs that we anticipate. Our answer is the Apprenticeships Game Changer, which aims to ensure that young people have the necessary skills for jobs in the sectors where demand is growing. We have set a target of introducing 32 500 apprentices into the labour market by 2019 to meet the needs of a growing province.
Between April and September 2016, 3 009 young people completed their work-based programmes, in fields linked to the Tourism, Oil and Gas and Agri-processing sectors.
We aim to dramatically up-scale the supply of skilled artisans by working with relevant Sector Education and Training Authorities (SETA’s), employers, learners and their parents.
This year our priorities are:
Intensifying Maths support in the province’s 23 Technical High Schools and 50 other schools,
Enhancing public awareness of the Technical and vocational career path through TVET colleges,
Engaging employers about taking on learners for workplace based learning programmes such as apprenticeships, and
We are also working with SETA’s on an innovative dual system apprenticeship programme for Solar PV Installers.
This project is the initiator of what we hope to achieve: a full dual apprenticeship system, where learners have both theoretical and workplace training at the same time.
This formula has proved itself in driving economic growth and boosting youth employment worldwide, and will be a game changer if we manage to institute it in South Africa.
If we want our economy to grow, we have to ensure energy security. We have learnt over the past decade that our country is overly reliant on the state monopoly called Eskom. This brings me to our energy game-changer, on which we are working jointly with the City of Cape Town.
South Africa’s energy crisis requires a sustainable, low carbon and diverse energy-mix. Technological advances are enabling the Western Cape to pioneer the trend towards small, distributed suppliers of renewable energy, with flexibility and low costs.
Our target is to enable independent generation of 135MW through Solar Panel (PV) installations by 2020. We are well on our way. Current trends show a marked uptake of Rooftop PV, with 120% growth in approved installations in the Cape metro from May to December 2016. To date, 32MW in Rooftop PV capacity and 65 000 efficient water heaters have been installed in the province. This is significant progress on the 10MW installed capacity this time last year.
Given the consistent focus on Rooftop PV, we think it is feasible to double the current installed capacity over the next year. We’ve helped 15 municipalities to meet the requirements for legal installations of Rooftop PV, with Nersa approved tariffs. This is a marked increase from just two this time last year and we have a target of 20 municipalities in the next year.
This system enables households and businesses to feed their solar generated power into the municipal grids and get compensated for it.
That is why people who switch to Solar PV must please remain on the grid. It generates income for them, and helps secure an energy supply for the economy. Installations also need to be legally compliant for safety reasons, and hence we are appealing to Western Cape residents to do the right thing and get approval for their PV systems.
We will continue supporting Municipalities to develop long-term plans for integrating metering & financial systems in order to accommodate solar energy feed-ins to the grid. The City of Cape Town has been pioneering in this regard.
This month we are launching our Rooftop PV Campaign to encourage businesses to switch to solar, stay on the grid, and save on their electricity bill. PV installation prices are currently dropping significantly, by 21 – 45%, and the cost of coal generated power is increasing. There’s never been a better time to switch and save. This is a pay-off line that means exactly what it says.
For our part, we are installing PV in 5 WCG buildings, preparing an energy services tender for our health facilities and other buildings, and negotiating green leases with the property owners of our rented buildings
We’ve also engaged National Treasury and the Energy Department numerous times on the business case for direct power procurement. We believe that allowing municipalities to enter into contracts with independent power producers is a four-fold win: cheaper electricity prices, lower carbon emissions, more investment and more industrialisation. This ultimately means more local jobs. The City of Cape Town is pushing hard for the right to do this.
Unfortunately, we have had no meaningful response to date from the DoE, and we are concerned that they may well be trying to defend Eskom’s monopoly. Mayor De Lille has been clear about her plans to pursue the City’s legal options in this regard, and we will support her.
Honourable Speaker, the current respite from load-shedding must not make us complacent. Growing the economy at the rate required to create jobs, will test our country’s current capacity to the limits, and expose our over-reliance on a state monopoly. We have to change this.
A further economic threat to our region, one that is ever-present at this time of year, are the thousands of fires that break out all over our hot, dry province.
Ten years ago, we were astounded that we had 12 000 fires in one year. It was an almost unmanageable number. Now, more than 17 000 fires have already been recorded this fire season.
It is impossible to establish with any certainty the cause of most of these fires, but we know that a great many have to do with human agency, whether by accident or ill intent.
All allegations of criminality are referred to the relevant authorities to investigate.
We will support the relevant authorities to use the full force of the law to track down and deal with any alleged arsonists who endanger the lives and livelihoods of so many.
I believe that throwing cigarette butts out of car windows should also constitute attempted arson. With our winds, it merely takes a spark to land on a patch of dry grass, and become a raging inferno.
Members of the public can assist by phoning 10177 when they spot an early-stage fire. A quick response is the best way to contain the blaze. But hoax calls and panicky false alarms, create enormous problems. Members of the public should help, not hinder, our emergency services.
For our part, we have massively grown the province’s fire-fighting resources.
This year the Department commissioned 10 purpose-built firefighting vehicles, which will be deployed to rural municipalities across the Province. This is a huge boost to rural areas where to date the firefighting capacity was severely limited. This initiative forms part of a 3-year project to invest R37-million in the province’s firefighting capacity.
Since 2012 we’ve gone from 8 to 26 fire-fighting aircraft operating across 31 runways.
Premier @helenzille has said a special THANK YOU to the province's firefighters at #WCSOPA. (<img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/2.2.1/72x72/1f4f7.png" alt="