Chairperson, hon Ministers, Deputy Ministers, members, chairpersons and board members of our state- owned companies, Director-General of the Department of Public Enterprises, chief executive officer and senior managers of our SOCs, all my colleagues from the Department of Public Enterprises present, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, I would like to wish Eskom a happy birthday. [Applause.]
The sight or vision of trees says to us that we are alive. We water them daily and with passion to build their strength. Throughout our lives, we are committed to nurturing the trees and we enjoy watching them grow. The Department of Public Enterprises adopted such a vision in 2011 to drive investment, productivity and transformation in the department's portfolio of SOCs, their customers and suppliers in order to unlock growth, drive industrialisation, create jobs and develop skills. This vision gave birth to provincial engagements with the objective of aligning planning between provinces and SOCs. At the strategic level, this involves ensuring that the investment plans of SOCs and the economic development of provinces are aligned. Furthermore, it ensures that the implementation of this plan is co- ordinated so that the impact is optimised.
In 2012 four provinces, namely North West, KwaZulu-Natal, Eastern Cape and the Free State, were visited. This was in response to the commitment the Minister made in 2011. Our SOCs provided updates on issues raised by each province. Recently, we agreed that these sessions should also address issues of actual employment and business opportunities within our SOCs. We are currently finalising the establishment of an institutional support mechanism to process issues raised in the provinces. We are working on our vision of trees.
The provincial engagement also served as a vehicle for our Youth Economic Participation programme. We are alive to the fact that young people constitute the majority of our society and those who are unemployed. As such, youth engagement sessions are part of all the provincial engagements. This is being done to ensure that community stakeholders, and the youth in particular, receive the required information. This refers to information relating to skills, jobs, business opportunities and corporate social investment programmes. In collaboration with our SOCs, a plan on priorities for the 2013-14 financial year has been developed. Our Youth Economic Participation programme, together with our SOCs, has been successful in engaging young people in the above-mentioned provinces.
This programme has spread its presence to local communities, attracting more than 5 000 young people through career expos conducted by our SOCs. Grade 10 to 12 learners and the unemployed youth of Khayelitsha benefited from the expos. Learners in Mpumalanga and young people in Kwazakhele in Port Elizabeth benefited from those expos. In the month of June 2013 the Youth Economic Participation programme will be hosting, jointly with the Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality, a three-day youth career expo, focusing on aviation as a career of choice. It is expected to draw 5 000 young learners, young entrepreneurs and young people in general.
In response to a plea made during our visit to the Free State province in December 2012, the Department of Public Enterprises and the SOCs Denel, Transnet, Eskom and SA Express, working with the Free State department of economic development and the Free State department of education, will be hosting a youth camp for Grade 10 and 11 learners, including those with disabilities. [Applause.] Learners will be drawn from schools in and around the province, with a special focus on rural learners. The learners will visit all the operations of our SOCs. They will fly for the first time in their lives, thanks to SA Express. [Applause.] They will travel by train for the first time in their lives, thanks to our collaboration with the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa, Prasa. [Applause.]
Following our provincial engagement in KwaZulu-Natal, our Youth Economic Participation programme is planning an SOC supplier forum in KwaZulu-Natal. In June we will be launching a state-owed company youth forum. From 1 June we will be starting a year-long programme of distributing maths dictionaries, developed by Denel, to schools that performed dismally in maths and science. These will be donated to their libraries, as a start.
From July we plan to replicate competitive supplier development summits to all the provinces. Before the end of October, we will host a summit with our SOC foundations and our supplier companies. We want to address the question of how to use corporate social investment programmes to fund youth employment and development in general.
We will continue to support Eskom's initiative to support further education and training colleges by building electrical and mechanical workshops to the tune of R1,9 million each. [Applause.] The following provinces have benefited from the programme: Gauteng, Limpopo, KwaZulu-Natal and the Western Cape. We have established a forum, consisting of chief executive officers, heads of corporate social investment and departments of our SOC foundations, to foster collaboration and to learn best practice from one another. We will be working with the SA Maritime Safety Authority, Samsa, and Transnet to expose our young people to maritime opportunities.
Our focus for the month of August will be on young women in engineering. Our young women engineers at Denel, Broadband Infraco, Eskom and Transnet will be dispatched to schools to help popularise engineering to young women as a career of choice. [Applause.] The SOCs will submit plans on how older engineers will be mentoring young women engineers during this month and how the plan is sustained going forward.
In September we will be working with Transnet through the National Science Foundation, recruiting 1 000 learners to be trained as artisans. We are collaborating with the Department of Human Settlements to ensure that young people who are in construction are assisted to get the required Construction Industry Development Board certification. [Applause.]
We are working with the Department of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs, the Department of Energy, and Middle East-South Africa, Mesa Energy to develop a joint programme on electrical infrastructure refurbishment, using our engineers as part of their employee volunteer schemes. We are nurturing the tree and the young to watch them grow. [Applause.]
With regard to the SA Forestry Company Ltd, I want to report the progress made since the last Budget Vote and the good work done by the former Deputy Minister, Ben Martins. Since our last Budget Vote, Safcol has appointed a permanent chief executive officer. She is the first and only black female CEO in the forestry industry in the whole of South Africa. [Applause.] She is Ms Nomkhita Mona. Since her appointment, the new CEO has initiated a project that has already created employment for approximately 134 individuals in the community of Sabie. This is in addition to the 1 681 permanent employees and 2 500 contract workers employed by Safcol.
Safcol has also built an array of infrastructure using timber frame. This includes classrooms, administration blocks, kitchens, houses, and computer centres. This is in line with our government's rural development strategy. I can safely say that, in Mpumalanga, Safcol is the mother to the motherless, father to the fatherless and friend of the community. [Applause.]
Safcol has been awarded 70 hectares in Sofala province in Mozambique. Through its development, the company is destined to positively contribute to government's drive for regional development. The Department of Public Enterprises, Safcol and the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform are in the process of finalising the land claim settlement model relating to the disputed land on which Safcol is operating. The model is not just to ensure that sustainable benefits are transferred, but also to ensure continuity of forestry production with the assistance of Safcol.
I now come to the progress made in turning around the company Alexkor since the last Budget Vote. The shareholder appointed a new board of directors, led by Mr Bagus, with the mandate of appointing a CEO within three months. This has been done. Mr Percy Khoza is our new CEO. The board is finalising the appointment of a chief financial officer. A turnaround strategy for the Pooling and Sharing Joint Venture is ready to be presented to the shareholders. The board has improved relations with communities.
The new board has taken the decision to be firmer in dealing with contractors that perform poorly, while rewarding the better performers with more opportunities. As the shareholder, we are behind the board in this regard. This will be underpinned by the monitoring of sea days versus production, a stone-size distribution analysis, security upgrade, the introduction of middle water mining and the implementation of the deep-sea mining agreement with IMDSA.
Alexkor has successfully completed all the necessary upgrades for the township infrastructure that will support the handover to the Richtersveld Municipality. The company is currently attending to the rehabilitation backlog and is employing over 20 people in this regard. An amount of R200 million has been given to Alexkor for this project. The company has to enter an era where it becomes a driver of prosperity in the Richtersveld and Namaqualand regions of our country. The Master of the High Court has appointed an investigator to investigate the affairs of the trust.
As the Department of Public Enterprises we led a delegation of the Deputy Ministers of Rural Development and Land Reform and of Mineral Resources to meet the four communities of the Richtersveld. As a result of the visit, the following interventions are under way. Regarding the farm recap, Grow- Agri has been appointed as a strategic partner to revive the farms. A person has already been deployed to turn around the farms. Sixty young people have been captured in their system for the national service corps. Spatial development plans have been approved by the Department of Co- operative Governance and Traditional Affairs. One hundred and fifty-nine kilometres of road is to be improved. The Alexkor board has been given a mandate to look for mining opportunities beyond diamonds, in line with the relevant enabling legislation.
In 2010 government decided to place the pebble bed modular reactor into care and maintenance mode until 31 March 2013. This was done to protect and preserve its intellectual property and assets. The packaging of the intellectual property to be preserved has been completed. The department is in the process of facilitating a consolidated government view on which PBMR assets will be preserved, donated or disposed of for cash. This process should be completed in this coming year.
I am happy to announce that Aventura is finally going to be liquidated.
I would like to thank the Minister for his leadership, warmth, guidance and wise counsel. I would also like to thank colleagues from the Department of Public Enterprises for their assistance and support. Let me further take this opportunity to thank the Portfolio Committee on Public Enterprises and the study group of the ANC for their guidance. All the people who graced this occasion, I thank you. [Applause.]