The Mpumalanga Premier, Mandla Ndlovu, will deliver his maiden State of the Province Address (Sopa) today, July 31, when he is set to outline his plans for this current fiscal year and the next four years.
The Mpumalanga Provincial Legislature will also mark the official opening of its seventh administration led by its speaker, Lindi Masina.
Ndlovu was elected the premier after his party, the ANC, attained 51% of the votes during the recently held national and provincial elections. He becomes the sixth premier of Mpumalanga, taking over the reigns from Refilwe Mtshweni-Tsipane, who has since been deployed to the National Council of Provinces.
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Ndlovu takes over the driver’s seat at the worst of times when the rest of the country faces a stiff economic outlook due to a number factors, including the recent outbreak of Covid-19, which has left a trail of destruction. To rub salt in the wounds, the impact of load-shedding has also had some devastating effects on the economy. All these factors combined have contributed to the highest unemployment rate the country has ever experienced.
When addressing the Mpumalanga citizenry today, Ndlovu will surely be mindful of these factors, which according to political pundits might have had a hand in his political party not doing so well during the recent elections.
Job creation
On top of his priorities should be job creation, especially for the youth. Ndlovu will certainly use his first-ever Sopa to outline the plans his administration intends to implement to create essential employment opportunities, especially for the young people in the province.
Besides job creation plans, Ndlovu is also expected to explain in detail how he intends to fund youth-owned businesses, which could likely stimulate the local economy outlook, while at the same time creating employment opportunities for other young people. Mpumalanga News has since learnt that there is well over R100m earmarked to achieve this specific goal. Ndlovu is also expected to shed some light on the status of other projects that could help bring down the unemployment rate in Mpumalanga, such as the development of Nkosi City in Pienaar, the Mpumalanga International Fresh Produce Market, the Nkomazi SEZ as well as the Agrihubs.
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Service delivery
This province has seen its fair share of service delivery protests in the past few years. High on the people’s list of grievances were the lack of clean running water and the bad state of the roads. This Sopa gives Ndlovu an opportunity to highlight his government’s plans to provide safe drinkable water and to address the state of the roads in the province.
Crime and corruption
The recent discovery of a secret military training camp outside White River and the arrest of all 95 Libyan nationals who were found training there, is definitely something to brag about, and Ndlovu will certainly be the proudest that his MEC for community safety, security and liaison, Jackie Macie, and the acting provincial police commissioner, Major General Dr Zeph Mkhwanazi, are working well together to arrest any criminal activity in the province. Since the deployment of these two crime-busting generals, police visibility has become the norm, especially in some of the province’s crime-infested areas. Ndlovu will, however, have to give a detailed plan as to how his administration, especially Macie’s department, is going to fight the scourge of gender-based violence and corruption.
Infrastructure
During his Sopa, he is expected to shed some light on which roads are going to receive attention, too. In the same gathering, he committed that his government will finally eradicate all pit toilets in all the remaining public schools that still use this system, and this will be his opportune moment to confirm whether this is part of their plans.
Tourism
This province, regarded as the land of the Big 5, home to historic mountains such as Makhonjwa and the Three Rondavels and eye-catching landscapes, is one of the major tourists destinations in the country, attracting well over a million international visitors
per year. And ever since Ndlovu ascended to the throne, he has been talking about his vision of creating a 3-in-1 province, which will offer both international and domestic tourists the waves of Durban, Cape Town’s Table Mountain and Mpumalanga’s own Big 5 wildlife experience. As such, he is expected to talk about this vision and whether his government is really set on achieving it.
