President Cyril Ramaphosa says his office has been championing the drive to transform the capacity of the State.
Replying to the Presidency Budget Vote Debate on Friday, President Ramaphosa said the Presidency’s vision is to “realise a State that is fit for purpose to serve communities and brings targeted and inclusive development to where people live, study and work”.
President Ramaphosa said two years ago, the Presidency set its transformative sights on the labour market. He said at this time, private sector job creation was constrained and hampered by the pandemic, and many livelihoods were in danger or had been lost.
“Working with social partners and government departments, we designed and have been driving the implementation of the largest mass public employment programme in our country’s history.
“To date, the Presidential Employment Stimulus (PES) has successfully provided work opportunities to close to a million beneficiaries, who would have otherwise not been absorbed by the constrained job market,” he said.
The President acknowledged that he knows that the youth are the ones suffering most from unemployment and exclusion.
“That is why the majority of the close to one million beneficiaries of this ground-breaking programme have been young people. To be exact, 84% youth, and 62% female,” he said.
President Ramaphosa said the second phase is supporting the Presidential Youth Employment Intervention and the Social Employment Fund, where it’s also expected that young people will be the primary beneficiaries.
District Development Model
President Ramaphosa said the Presidential izimbizo have been a means through which the Presidency exercises oversight over the progress of the District Development Model (DDM),and he plans to visit the six remaining provinces this year.
The District Development Model is an initiative of the Presidency and was launched at a pilot site in the OR Tambo District Municipality in 2020.
“Although the onset of the pandemic set back our efforts to roll-out the DDM in more municipalities, the process has resumed in earnest,” he said.
As part of operationalising this model, the President said the Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs has been working with districts and municipalities to finalise their “One Plans”.
These “One Plans” outline the respective approaches of districts to resolving service delivery challenges, economic development, job creation and key deliverables.
Responding to an MP’s suggestion that the imbizo in the Western Cape should be held on the Cape Flats, the President said that the request will be given serious consideration.
“This will be an opportunity to listen to the life experiences and concerns of our people in the Western Cape, and no doubt such an imbizo will bring in people from number of surrounding areas where our people live,” he said.
He said district-based development is part of transforming government planning.
“It is a break from the past, where departments worked in silos, fruitless expenditure on irrelevant projects was common, and where development was not aligned to national objectives.
“Once this model is fully institutionalised, it will result in better use of resources, targeted development, and responsive planning,” the President said.
He said it will enable districts and municipalities to develop and also harness existing local economic initiatives such as Special Economic Zones, industrial parks, and agri-hubs.
President Ramaphosa said government has set the target of rolling out the DDM in all 52 of the country’s districts, and the Presidency will be conducting oversight in this regard. – SAnews.gov.za
