South Africa remains on course to become a winning nation, said President Thabo Mbeki on Friday during his State of the Nation address in Parliament — but, he added, “I am aware of the fact that many in our society are troubled by a deep sense of unease about where our country will be tomorrow”.
Contributing to this sense of unease is the country’s energy emergency, which can be overcome in a “relatively short period” and should be used to become more energy efficient, Mbeki said. “Let us therefore use this emergency to put in place the first building blocks of the essential energy-efficient future we dare not avoid,” he said.
He apologised to South Africans for the national emergency and thanked them for their “resilience and forbearing”. Eskom, he said, is “working furiously” to ensure the introduction of co-generation projects. “We have emergency task teams dealing with … coal quality and supply with the coal-mining industry and we are working to fast-track the approval and construction of gas turbine projects.”
The era of cheap electricity is at an end, he said. Despite this, and given the country’s large base of installed generation capacity, South Africa will remain one of the few economies with affordable electricity for a long time.
Mbeki quoted Anglo American chief executive Cynthia Carroll as saying that she did not regard the situation here as a disaster, and that there were similar pressures on the company’s projects in Chile and Brazil.
Mbeki outlined the reasons for the crisis and government’s response plan, saying the task now is to lead the campaign for energy efficiency. He called for the naming and shaming of those government buildings that do not reduce their electricity consumption.
The crisis has led “some elsewhere in the world” to question whether the country would be able to host the Fifa Confederations Cup in 2009, and the Soccer World Cup in 2010. “I have absolutely no doubt that we will honour our undertaking to Fifa and the world community … to create all the necessary conditions for the hosting of the best-ever Fifa Soccer World Cup tournament,” said the president.
‘Apex priorities’
At the start of the last full financial year of the current Parliament and government, Mbeki said: “I am pleased to say that we have indeed done much to implement the commitments we made to the people in 2004. However, and not unexpectedly, it is obvious that we still have outstanding work to do in this regard.”
The government has identified 24 “apex priorities” on which it must now focus.
“The identification of the apex priorities means that all three spheres of government, the national, provincial and local, at both executive and administrative levels, are hereby making the firm undertaking that we will use the short period ahead of us further to energise our advance towards the realisation of the all-important goal of a better life for all our people,” said Mbeki.
The national budget, to be presented by Finance Minister Trevor Manuel later this month, will allocate funds to help implement these apex priorities, of which the main categories are:
- the further acceleration of economic growth and development;
- speeding up the process of building the infrastructure needed to achieve the government’s economic and social goals;
- improving the effectiveness of government interventions directed at the second economy, and poverty eradication;
- enhancing government programmes targeting education and training;
- advancing towards the goal of health for all;
- revamping the criminal justice system to intensify the government offensive against crime;
- further strengthening the machinery of government to ensure that it has the capacity to respond to development imperatives; and
- enhancing the government’s focus on key areas in terms of our system of international relations, with particular focus on some African issues and South-South relations.
War on poverty
Mbeki also said that the government intends to intensify the campaign to identify specific households and individuals in dire need and to put in place interventions that will help, in the intervening period, to alleviate their plight.
This will require a “national war room for a war against poverty”, bringing together government departments and provincial and local administrations, he said. They will work with NGOs and business to identify and implement the interventions required in specific households.
Specific priorities critical to the country’s war against poverty will be attended to this year. These include speeding up land and agrarian reform, with detailed plans for land acquisition; better implementation of agricultural support services and household food support; and improving the capital base and reach of the Mafisa agricultural financial scheme to provide micro-credit in this sector.
The focus will be on areas of large concentrations of farm dwellers and those with high eviction rates, and it is intended to increase black entrepreneurship in agricultural production by 5% a year.
The audit on land ownership will also be speeded up, Mbeki said.
Manuel’s budget will provide for an increase in the social-grant system by equalising the age of eligibility at 60, thus benefiting about 500 000 men.
Efforts already started to scale up assistance to cooperatives and small enterprises, especially those involving women, will be intensified. The emphasis will be on providing training and markets, including linking them up with established outlets.
Among other things, the national youth service programme will be improved, including a graduated increase of the intake in the military skills development programme of the South African National Defence Force (SANDF), from the current 4 000 to 10 000. R700-million has already been given to the SANDF to start this programme.
The Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP) which, by surpassing the set targets, has shown potential to absorb more entrants, will also be intensified, said Mbeki. This will include increased intake of young people into the programme, doubling the number of children enrolled in early childhood development to more than 600 000 through 1 000 new sites, and increasing the number of caregivers. About R1-billion over baseline will be allocated to programmes falling within the EPWP.
Finally, a system of products for preferential procurement by the government from small, medium and micro-enterprises will be introduced. The Small Enterprises Development Agency will set up a rigorous system to ensure that the 30-day payment period is observed, Mbeki said.
Future of Scorpions
Meanwhile, the future of the Scorpions could be known by the end of next month, Mbeki indicated. He recommitted the government to intensifying the fight against crime and organised crime in particular.
“Informed by the imperative to intensify the offensive against organised crime, as well as the recommendations of the Khampepe judicial commission on the functioning and location of the Directorate of Special Operations [Scorpions] and continuing reflections on this matter, we shall by the end of March this year interact with Parliament on legislation and other decisive measures required to further enhance our capacity to fight organised crime.
“What will continue to inform us as we take this step will be the absolute commitment of the government to fight organised crime and improve the management, efficiency and coordination of our law-enforcement agencies.
“Of great importance, our success in the fight against crime depends on cooperation among all of us as law-abiding citizens, inspired by the principles of rule of law, respect for our judiciary and pursuit of equal human rights, which our Constitution enjoins us to observe in our daily lives and pronouncements,” Mbeki said.
The Cabinet has agreed on a set of changes required to establish a new, modernised, efficient and transformed criminal justice system. Among other things, this would entail setting up a new coordinating and management structure on national and local level, bringing together the judiciary and magistracy, the police, prosecutors, correctional services and the Legal Aid Board — as well as empowering community police forums.
Some of these initiatives are already under way, and if they are all carried out in an integrated and complementary manner, the effects will certainly be that much more effective in the fight against crime.
“We shall also, during the course of this year, process Bills on the transformation of the judiciary in consultation with judges and magistrates; complete the strategy aimed at strengthening border control and security; further give life to the Victims’ Charter; pay particular attention to the issue of repeat offenders; and continue the implementation of additional measures deriving from recommendations of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission,” said the president.
Challenges
It would be “irresponsible” to ignore concerns about the prosecution of police National Commissioner Jackie Selebi and the suspension of the national director of public prosecutions, Mbeki said. These include fears about a threat to the independence of the judiciary and rule of law and the “attendant allegations” about the abuse of state power for political purposes.
“Most obviously it would be irresponsible to ignore these and other concerns or dismiss them as mere jeremiads typical of the prophets of doom.”
He said MPs and “many in our society” are worried about whether the burning of trains in Pretoria in January mean the country is threatened with anarchy. He also referred to fears about the electricity crisis, the rise in interest rates and threats of a recession in the United States, and said the “real challenge” lies in responding to these matters in a positive way.
This should send the message that “we remain firm in our resolve to continue building the kind of South Africa that has given hope not only to our people, but also to many others outside the borders”.
Mbeki called for the nation to strain “every sinew of its collective body” to deal with such challenges.
He concluded by asking: “What is the state of our nation as we enter 2008?”
“What I do know and hereby make bold to say is: whatever the challenges of the moment, we are still on course! I say this with unshakeable conviction because I am certain that South Africans are capable and geared to meet the challenge of history — to strain every sinew of our being to respond to the national challenges of the day, including those relating to our economy, the political and economic situation in Africa and elsewhere in the world, and seize the opportunities that our country’s progress over the last fourteen years has provided.”
He added: “With all hands on deck, and committed to conduct our business in an unusual and more effective fashion, we shall sustain the process of our reconstruction and development and take it to even higher levels.”