Noxolo Kiviet, the Premier of the Eastern Cape, will deliver the annual State of the Province Address in the Bhisho legislature on Friday, 17 February 2012.
The Premier must decisively spell out how the Provincial Government is going to improve governance in the Eastern Cape so we can create the right climate for economic growth and job creation.
A job is the best passport out of poverty. Corruption, maladministration, irregular tender practices and general inefficiencies are a turnoff to investors and continue to condemn millions of people to a lifestyle of poverty in this province through wasted resources.
The Premier must bring stability to the big departments, namely Education and Health, which account for 75% of the provincial budget by putting an end to the speculation surrounding the future of the two Superintendent-Generals of these departments.
Continued over-expenditure in these departments has the potential to financially cripple this province as we have already had to top slice R2.7 billion off the total provincial budget.
The Premier must also spell out the practical steps that will be taken to implement the infrastructural projects announced by President Jacob Zuma in the State of the Nation Address. Existing infrastructural backlogs, such as the poor state of our roads, which in turn strangles the lifeblood out of our economy, needs to be dealt with.
The Democratic Alliance has a vision of this province being a place of rising opportunity for all its people, where employment is growing, teaching is improving, roads are functional and our hospitals are places of care and healing. This is a dream worth striving for and something that we are passionately committed to.
Bobby Stevenson, MPL
