Deputy Speaker, hon President, hon Deputy President, esteemed Members of the 6th Parliament, fellow South Africans, in entering this debate we take great counsel from the instructive piece penned by Brent Filson titled "In Leadership, Dreams Are The Stuff That Great Results Are Made Of.
In this piece, Filson posits that:
A dream embraces our most cherished longings. It embodies our very identity. We often won't feel fulfilled as human beings
until we realize our dreams. If leaders are avoiding people's dreams, if leaders are simply setting goals, they miss the best of opportunities to help those people take ardent action to achieve great results.
Having been galvanised by the compelling vision of the President, Gauteng province, which accounts for a third of the country's Gross Domestic Product, GDP, ranks as Africa's 6th largest economy and is the 26th largest global city region, is poised to cement its unassailable position as South Africa's principal economic driver by mounting the most comprehensive response to the social conflict in this country in support of the state of the nation address.
In the context of Gauteng, the creation of new cities refers to the remaking of decaying industrial and historic towns, the in- situ development of light industrial manufacturing, office and retail activities in existing dense human settlements. The remaking of towns such as Vereeniging, Vanderbijlpark, Nigel, Krugersdorp, and Bronkhorspruit into smart integrated spaces
weaved into an urban conurbation called the Gauteng City-Region will be achieved by the 6th Administration.
The remaking will be characterised by crowding in public infrastructure and services, such as schools, clinics, police stations, libraries and accommodation of public social services buttressed by residential densification of the core supported by a modern road network that promotes mass public transport that is integrated, safe, reliable, efficient and affordable. This remaking will be further undergirded by the expansion of broadband coverage and the fostering of black industrialists in the renewable energy space.
The focus on seizing value-chain opportunities in manufacturing, through the special economic zones, SEZs, is a key intervention to increase investment that facilitates labour-intensive growth and increased exports to foster a positive trade balance. Gauteng will advance the realisation of the Tshwane-Silverton auto SEZ, conception in the next twelve months. The SEZ will encompass Mamelodi, Eesterust and Nelmapius which are classified amongst the poorest areas of the Tshwane corridor. The full
delivery of the completed infrastructure will yield a total production of R5, 2billion and is projected to create over 19 000 jobs during the construction phase and 2055 permanent jobs.
In addition, the Gauteng government will also aggressively pursue the expansion of the OR Tambo SEZ through the development of infrastructure to accommodate the pipeline of investors for phase one and phase two, focusing on agro-processing, pharmaceuticals, advanced components manufacturing and tertiary metals processing, including mineral beneficiation. During the operational phase, it will yield over 13 000 jobs across the two phases. The GDP contribution of both phases is estimated to be in the order of the magnitude of R2 billion.
Moving beyond the contours of popular expressions, Gauteng will make definitive strides into the realm of the Industry 4.0. The success of the 4th Industrial Revolution is predicated on the availability of reliable, high-speed, affordable and universal internet access. To this end, Gauteng will expand the wall-to- wall broadband coverage while taking the bold steps of ensuring
last mile connectivity becomes a reality across all historic township areas, which will facilitate internet access to thousands of poor to middle-income households in the province. We do this acknowledging that the maturity of the internet ecosystem has the potential of growing GDP by up to 1,5%.
Gauteng will accelerate the development of the innovation hub into the continent's most prolific innovation real estate, a space that has the necessary and cutting-edge innovation infrastructure and eco-systems that accommodate and encourage fast growth of future sectors and new technologies to be harnessed and commercialised.
This will be done through the development of the remainder of the 66 hectares in collaboration with the private sector. This will see us developing solutions and skills for the new economy. At a more basic level, the Gauteng Department of Education will accelerate the roll-out of schools of specialisation aimed at preparing young people for the future design of work.
Gauteng is determined to ensure the resilience and prominence of small, medium and micro enterprises, SMMEs and co-operatives as the mainstay of the South African economy. This will be achieved through the upstream value-chain capture of Gauteng's big-ticket spending areas of housing and roads. This approach, will facilitate the creation of women and youth owned manufacturing and production of the primary road construction inputs of asphalt and aggregate; housing construction primary inputs of bricks and cement. The success of these identified champions manufacturing will be premised on the guaranteed off-takes by the Gauteng government.
The location of the manufacturing plants will be deliberate to give effect to the township revitalisation programme by locating in the under-utilised industrial parks of Ga-Rankuwa, Vereeniging and Rand West. In advancing the local content accord, the province will implement the promulgated regulation of 75% local content threshold, and further designate additional sectors and products in line with the provincial procurement budget.
On the issue of agriculture, the dynamic and complex urban space
- that is Gauteng, lends itself to smart and precision primary agricultural production and the associated value chain activities. Agriculture has the highest employment absorption capacity of any sector with relatively low levels of levels of barriers of entry.
Gauteng commits to commercialize 53 black farmers across the five primary commodities of grains, horticulture, piggery, poultry, and red meat. These already identified farmers are projected to generate a combined gross annual turnover of R5, 3million and their market access will be facilitated by the completion of five township hubs and twelve Agri-parks to the tune of R720 million. The commercial farmers will be concentrated in the regions of Sedibeng and West Rand. We are confident of generating over 20 000 employment opportunities through this bold initiative.
Deputy Speaker, in the spirit of the Gauteng City Region, the provincial government is determined to build co-operation and solidarity across the three spheres of government to achieve
better alignment and synchronisation in meeting our ambitious targets. In addition, strides are made to create a competent, agile, responsive and Gauteng government. Further, Gauteng will enter into a social compact with all key stakeholders aimed at committing to these bold interventions of meeting the desire of our people to be happy.
In addressing the overall capacity of the state, the province will firstly, enhance joint planning with all spheres of government as well as state owned enterprises, SOEs, secondly, provide support to municipalities, particularly in the districts and local municipalities through synergies in rolling out sectoral and economic programmes, and strengthen collaborative measures with accrediting and standards bodies to enhance manufacturing capacity as well as market access.
We are under no illusion that the road ahead will be free of potholes but we draw inspiration from the wise counsel of Anatole France when she asserts that "to accomplish great things, we must not only act, but also dream; not only plan, but also believe. Thank you very much. [Applause]