Mabuyane unveils bold growth plan
Biofuel strategy one of key focus areas for E Cape
Premier Oscar Mabuyane has boldly announced five key economic projects that a new administration will focus on in the next five years to ignite economic growth and create jobs.
Though the beginning of his state of the province address to more than 1,700 guests at the Christian Centre in Abbotsford, East London, on Thursday was disrupted by EFF MPLS, he was unfazed, telling guests he would return to office as premier for a second term after the May 29 elections. Mabuyane said the key projects — biofuels, cannabis, the ocean economy, the Bhisho Precinct and liquefied natural gas — had the capacity to create many more jobs in the province.
“In about four months, we will usher into office the seventh administration, which will take forward the work of building the Eastern Cape we want,” he said.
Through the Eastern Cape Rural Development Agency, the provincial government had partnered with Petrosa to formulate, promote and ensure the implementation of a comprehensive integrated biofuels rural development strategy.
Petrosa had been mandated by the department of minerals and energy, through the Central Energy Fund, to plan, develop and implement the biofuels strategy in a bid to accelerate the country’s push towards clean fuels by September 2027.
Mabuyane said at the start of its term in 2019, his administration had been tasked with focusing on and implementing seven priorities.
These were education, health, human settlements and social security, economic transformation and job creation, safer communities, the creation of an ethical, developmental state, and the provision of quality basic services.
“One of those tasks was to improve the performance of our education system,” the premier said.
“Our province faced a major challenge in terms of its education outcomes. Our matric pass rate was at 56.8% in 1994.
“In response to this problem, successive administrations have focused on improving our teaching and learning environment.
“We sustained investments in core education infrastructure by building schools, providing scholar transport, school nutrition, quality teacher training, deployment of technological solutions and the early delivery of learning and teaching material.
“As a testament to the success of these efforts, the matric pass rate in the Eastern Cape has been rapidly increasing since 2019. Accordingly, we have reached the 80% mark for the first time since 1994 — achieving an 81.4% pass rate in 2023.”
On health, Mabuyane said access to postnatal care had been improved from 52% in 2019 to 82.7% in 2023.
“However, maternal mortality remains a concern, particularly in the hotspot zones of OR Tambo and the metros.
“This prompted the government to establish over 500 youth zones across the province to increase access to sexual reproductive health services.”
Mabuyane said the province’s unemployment rate had declined from 45.8% in the third quarter of 2020 to 38.8% in the third quarter of 2023.
His administration had attracted a total investment of R173bn into the provincial economy through the creation of new businesses and expansion of existing operations.
“Together with our private sector partners, we created 246,000 permanent jobs for our people in the same period.
“We note the job losses [of 111,000] in the last quarter [of 2023]. This is a setback, but we remain resolute in implementing our economic recovery plan to reduce unemployment.”
In November, the SA Human Rights Commission recommended, in its inquiry report, that Mabuyane consider declaring a state of disaster due to the high prevalence of child malnutrition in the province.
The report indicated that between April 2021 and March 2022, a total of 1,087 children had presented with severe acute malnutrition. More than 100 of them had died.
Mabuyane said: “While levels of malnutrition remain high, there has been a drop in the fatality rate due to severe acute malnutrition from 11.8% in 2017 to 7% in 2022.
“We attribute this drop to intersectoral collaboration between the government and relevant stakeholders to tackle child malnutrition.
“However, we have noted concerns raised by the commission in their recent report on child malnutrition and the right to food. As an intervention to address these concerns, we are investing R60m to support 30,000 vulnerable households in anti-poverty sites.”
Together with our private sector partners, we created 246,000 permanent jobs for our people in the same period
Eastern Cape premier Oscar Mabuyane’s state of the province address drew sharp criticism from the opposition parties, with the DA pointing out that he had failed to announce “game changers”.
Mabuyane delivered his Sopa at the Abbotsford Christian Centre in East London on Thursday.
DA MPL Bobby Stevenson said the party welcomed Mabuyane’s recognition of the motor industry’s importance in the province and the investments it enhanced.
“However, if we want the motor industry and other industries to flourish in the Eastern Cape, they will need to fix the logistics around the ports and rail corridor as well as deal with the matter of load-shedding,” he said.
“I think the premier glossed over a number of his commitments that he made during previous Sopas, one of which was to half the unemployment rate by 2030.
“As we all know, sadly, unemployment in the Eastern Cape increased to 41.7% on Tuesday when the figures were announced and 111,000 people lost their jobs.”
Stevenson said when it came to health, Mabuyane had promised that an ideal clinic status would be achieved by 80% of the province’s clinics at the beginning of his term.
“It’s now 25% and when he started it was 56%.
“What he needed to announce was some game changers that can put this province on a new trajectory.”
Stevenson said over the last five years, jobs and health had gone backwards.
“At the beginning of his term, he promised 52,000 houses and now he said they have built 24,000,” he said.
ATM national spokesperson Zama Ntshona said Mabuyane’s speech failed to clarify how the government was going to respond to the issues of unemployment.
“We are truly disappointed,” he said.
“In fact we call it what it is ... it’s cruelty.”
He said Mabuyane failed to tackle issues involving dysfunctional municipalities and dilapidated infrastructure, the non-servicing of water bulk systems, state of schools and the appalling state of roads.
Meaningful rehabilitation of factories should also have been top of the agenda.
“The environment is not conducive to attract funders to come in this country,” he said.
UDM deputy secretary-general Zandile Phiri said the speech did not make any sense as it “goes from one circle to another”.
“As much as they want to prove themselves, with cadre deployment and maladministration it does not make any difference,” she said.
“They are telling us they have fixed roads but there are still potholes.”
Who is going to replace wheels damaged in those potholes, she asked.
ANC provincial secretary Lulama Ngcukayitobi said the party was happy with Sopa because the premier had given a good account of the past 30 years.
Ngcukayitobi said the address particularly dealt with the critical elements on the building of the Eastern Cape, “we want focus on education, health, social development and the social profile of the people of the province”.
“Over 50% of his speech was on the economic development, particularly on the critical element of the investment portfolio that has grown from 6% over the past five years to approximately R127bn this year,” he said.
“It’s a big work that has been done,” he said.
“The number of jobs that have been created undermining the unemployment rate in the Eastern Cape from 48% to approximately 36% and focusing principally on the young people, which is our main problem.
“Skills profile of our province is growing ... the major problem once again is the remainder of the unemployed young persons in the province.
“That’s why we have a focus that the foundation we have laid must improve in leaps and bounds to create more jobs, in particular focusing on younger persons.”