KZN’s new premier outlines her plans

MADAM speaker and honourable members,

I stand here honoured to address this august house and the people of KwaZulu-Natal on the 2023 State of the Province Address.

I am deeply humbled by the opportunity that the ANC and this legislature, representing the people of KwaZulu-Natal, have given me to rewrite history and serve my beloved province in this esteemed capacity.

Madame Speaker, President Ramaphosa has declared a state of emergency on the energy crisis.

As the province of KwaZulu-Natal, our contribution to the national effort is to take the following immediate and decisive actions:

Resolving the energy crisis

◆ We are establishing a KZN energy war room comprising government and strategic partners to oversee the province’s response to the electricity crisis.

◆ By the end of March, KwaZulu-Natal will appoint a panel of energy experts to co-ordinate the implementation of the energy master plan.

◆ We are accelerating the roll-out of rooftop solar panels to households in line with the pronouncement by the Minister of Finance. Building standards will be reviewed to ensure new houses are fitted with energy-saving equipment and that it is standard for RDP houses to be fitted with solar rooftops.

◆ We are mobilising communities towards energy efficient systems, retrofitting LED lights, using solar heaters and other energy saving devices.

◆ Seeing that all departments and municipalities finalise registers of water infrastructure, hospitals, clinics, schools and other key assets that will be exempted from load shedding. This includes an energy security plan by sector departments for facilities which cannot be exempted.

◆ Engaging mobile network operators to provide standby power to ensure critical continuous connectivity during loadshedding.

◆ Developing an approach to coal for energy and exploiting value chains to revive the economy and create jobs.

◆ Commencing with interventions in the use of alternative energy sources, including tapping into ocean energy, tidal wave, bio gas, hydrogen and renewables.

◆ Extending planned electricity connections to 25 000 households through the integrated national electrification programme grant from the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy. A budget of R784 million has been made available. This will bring the electrification connection rate to 93.89%.

◆ eThekwini metro is at an advanced stage of implementing its own energy generation capacity with the first phase covering 400MW and increasing to 2000MW by 2030.

Curbing the proliferation of guns

Madame speaker, as part of our response to crime we have asked the security cluster to carry out the following raft of measures:

◆ A review and tighter regulation of the possession of firearms and ammunition, limiting the number of rounds a person can purchase. Those contravening the law must face harsher sentences.

◆ Implementing plans to remove all illegal guns that are terrorising our communities and are also used in the killing of our policemen and women.

◆ The province will progressively invest in technology and artificial intelligence to deal with crime. This will include the wide installation of CCTV cameras and microchips to end stock theft and a strategy to deal with illegal liquor trading. We will mobilise business to sponsor cameras and other technologies as part of their contribution in this fight. The province is deploying drones in policing to increase safety and ease data collection.

◆ We will strengthen the role of the community in the fight against crime by launching street committees which will work closely with the SAPS and community policing forums.

◆ Each department will contribute at least R10 million towards the fight against crime.

◆ Consider returning retired detectives to deal with cold cases as it is clear criminals continue to do crime because they are not being caught. This will release detectives to focus their full attention on immediate cases including gender-based violence and femicide crimes.

◆ Intensify raids in search of guns and drugs in taxi ranks, residential areas, hostels, taverns and similar spots.

◆ We call on partnerships with the private sector to provide panic buttons linked to police stations.

◆ We must discuss as a nation the use of DNA for profiling, face recognition technology, biometric readings and other technologies. We propose that every man and woman between 15 and 65 submit themselves for DNA profiling which will be used and accessed by the SAPS and National Prosecuting Authority for crime investigations and prosecution.

Building a healthy society

◆ Madame Speaker, we appreciate progress towards the implementation of the National Health Insurance which will universalise access. No person should be denied access to medical assistance just because they do not have medical aid.

◆ The new e-Health system will reduce patient waiting times and address the challenge of missing and damaged patient files and lower medico-legal claims. Some 120 students have been recruited to commence the digitisation of the internally developed e-Health system in the province and they start in April.

In this address we have tabled a roadmap, measured our progress against previous year’s undertakings, while charting a detailed implementable plan to take us on the path forward.

Every policy announcement, plan and programme in this address has at the heart the well-being, growth and development of KwaZulu-Natal.