'Business unusual' for SA: Mbeki
Shaun Benton
8 February 2008It's business unusual, says President Thabo Mbeki, as the government prepares to ramp up its programmes to improve the lives of South Africans "sooner rather than later" - not by changing its policies, but by implementing them in imaginative, more effective ways.
Delivering his penultimate State of the Nation address in Cape Town on Friday, Mbeki announced 24 "apex priorities" that would serve to speed up the delivery of services and improve the lives of the country's citizens on all fronts.
Energy crisis
The President also spoke of the need for unity in resolving the country's energy crisis, noting that both the government and business leaders had pledged to work together in the immediate term to reduce dependence on supply while state electricity company Eskom accelerated its build programme.
He urged those South African households who could afford to, to follow suit by installing energy-saving devices and reducing their energy consumption.
Mbeki added that he would soon announce the members of a team of "Energy Champions", comprising "prominent and knowledgeable" South Africans who would assist with the country's energy efficiency campaign while promoting transparency by keeping investors informed on the "actual [energy] situation".
It is measures such as these that inform the "Business Unusual" theme for governance this year announced by Mbeki on Friday.
Investment call centre
Business Unusual, Mbeki said, was "not referring to any changes in our established policies" but to extraordinary measures to drive "the speedy, efficient and effective implementation of these policies and programmes".
Another such measure announced by Mbeki was the establishment of a call centre through which prospective investors and the government could the track the progress of investments in the country.
This would be particularly useful to companies and individuals acquiring land, or building infrastructure, by provide greater certainty in the process of preliminary environmental impact assessments.
Other economic measures announced by the President include R2.3-billion budgeted for industrial policy initiatives, with a further R5-billion in tax incentives over three years to support the country's industrial policy.
The President also offered assurances to investors in South Africa's job-creating motor industry, saying the extraordinary support for the industry - up to now provided by the Motor Industry Development Programme, which formally expires in 2012 - would be maintained.
To speed up the process of building infrastructure, an integrated infrastructure plan is to be formalised by the government that will have a specific emphasis on energy efficiency, Mbeki said.
Internet, broadcasting
The domestic communications and technology sector, which is critical for a
successful 2010 Fifa World Cup, also received a boost. Mbeki said money was being allocated to state company Sentech to fulfill its role as a wholesaler of wireless bandwidth for the internet.
At the same time, South Africa is heading rapidly towards full digital broadcasting: Mbeki said that 50% of South Africans should be receiving digital television and radio signals by the end of this year, with the government financing the digitisation of the system.
To reap further domestic advantage from the digitisation process, there is a plan - expected to be ready by the middle of the year - for the requisite set-top boxes to be manufactured locally.
Skills, poverty
Other areas of intervention include that of skills, with the President saying that the Joint Initiative for Priority Skills Acquisition programme was to be intensified.
Mbeki said he was encouraged by the willingness of the private sector to help the country develop its skills, noting that the CEOs of 70 JSE-listed companies had told him they would work with the government to address the skills shortage.
The government will also be launching it's Kha Ri Gude (Let us Learn) mass literacy campaign this month, as part of an overall onslaught on poverty that will involve a number of other initiatives.
These include a national "war room" against poverty that will see urgent interventions being made by the government - on a coordinated, interdepartmental basis - to help targeted households.
The national youth service programme is also to be scaled up, with the SA National Defence Force's military skills development programme increasing its intake from the current 4 000 to 10 000 recruits, with R700-million available for this programme.
These moves and others, Mbeki said, would show that the government was "committed to conduct our business in an unusual and more effective fashion.
"We shall sustain the process of our reconstruction and development and take it to even higher levels," he said.
Source: BuaNews
