MBOMBELA – The premier Mr David Mabuza believes he has assembled a strong and balanced cabinet that will help speed up service delivery.
He has also defended his decision to rearrange some of the departments, arguing that this will help speed up the service delivery vehicle.
He was quick to point out that it didn’t mean the other members he didn’t choose were less good but he felt he should give the new members a chance given their vast experience.
“As we have mentioned earlier there is a lot of work ahead of us and we need to respond quickly to the challenges still faced by our people. Our people are eagerly waiting for us to move with speed in addressing their needs and I believe I have assembled a strong and balanced team to take the province to greater heights. I have confidence that their skills and experience will contribute immensely in our efforts to speed up service delivery,” he said.
“As part of strengthening the process, we have decided to rearrange some of our departments,” he went on.
Mabuza, during an exclusive interview with Mpumalanga News and the Lowvelder, said the split between the departments of health and social development was solely to allow the MEC for health to focus on health issues only.
“It’s sad, but true, health is struggling and I tried everything in my power to help turn it around, but every time I tried, I noticed that the MECs concerned were struggling because they had to deal with two difficult and yet critical departments, so I decided to split them into two to allow government to focus all its resources and energy on health issues.
“Our hospitals and clinics are suffering, but I believe this move will help us concentrate more on health issues. We are doing it for health, to give it more focus,” he said, explaining his reasons for the split.
On merging the departments of finance, economic development and tourism,
Mabuza said, “Well, if we look at the way we want to deal with the economy, we believe that economic development will be well placed in the treasury because of the power they will have in terms of dealing with businesses and establish agreements with the private sector.
“We want to give our three public entities, MEGA, MGB and MTPA, more room to deal with the private sector, enter into cooperation with this sector and probably help promote tourism because they need to be free to enter into such agreements with companies to boost our tourism.
“So, we thought if we pulled those functions together, there will be better cooperation and efficiency.
“The other reason we need private partnerships, is to help our parastatals that are struggling financially such as MTPA.
“They are struggling because they are looking at more resources from government. We want to change this by helping them work with people who understand business. I believe we can learn a lot from our protected parks and major tourist attractions if they partner with people who understand business.
“MEGA is not doing enough, and I think it should partner with the private sector and help us run it professionally.”
Drawing up the map, Mabuza said his main priorities for this term were water, roads and employment.
“You know, water is the most important basic need and once there a stable flow of water, you are guaranteed of investment in those areas, like we are seeing now that new malls and shopping centres are being established in our areas.
“We are going to step in as government in a number of ways in the creation of jobs, this time around by targeting the youth.
This time you will see me going out into rural areas more to try to establish new working relationships and get investors,”
he said.
He said government would look into the possibilities of getting investors for the province’s water infrastructure.
