Mpumalanga premier delivers State of the Province Address
Refilwe Mtshweni-Tsipane's speech took place just two months before the country goes to the polls. She reflected on the journey the country had taken these last 30 years.
Just two months away from the national and provincial elections, the Mpumalanga premier, Refilwe Mtshweni-Tsipane, delivered her State of the Province Address on Friday March 1, when she saluted the ANC-led government for changing the lives of the people since the dawn of democracy.
@lowvelder SOPA 2024 | Mpumalanga Premier Refilwe Mtshweni-Tsipane and speaker Makhosazane Masilela arrive at the official opening of the sixth Mpumalanga Provincial Legislature. Mtshweni- Tsipane will deliver the State of the Province Address for 2024. #sopa #StateoftheProvinceAddress #mpumalanga #nelspruit
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“I want to say, we have left the valley, though we have not reached the mountaintop. I salute the African National Congress. It has fulfilled our expectations in its role as the leader of the great march towards the attainment of a national democratic society.”
“As we approach the end of the tenure of this current administration and move towards celebrating another great milestone in our history of 30 years since we ushered in the democratic dispensation, we need to reflect on the journey that we have travelled together, acknowledge the tremendous progress that we have made, identify our shortcomings and mistakes and forge ahead with a common purpose to better the lives of our people,” she said, before going down memory lane and outlining what the ANC has been able to achieve since taking power in 1994.
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“We want to reflect on the past and the present. Numbers don’t lie. Let us pause a bit and reflect on a Mpumalanga of 1994 and the Mpumalanga of today. When we were elected to office in 1994, our population was a mere 3.3 million people. Today, Mpumalanga is home to 5.1 million people. The gross domestic product, that is the value of goods and services produced in Mpumalanga, was R46b.”
“Today our economy has grown in leaps and bounds to more than R530b, 12 times bigger than what it was, becoming the fourth-largest economy on the continent. In 1996, there were about 627 000 people employed in the province. Today, our economy employs more than 1.25 million people,” she said.
