Deputy Chairperson, Chairperson of the NCOP, His Excellency the President of the Republic, hon premiers and hon members of the NCOP, this presidential address to the NCOP comes six months after the fourth general elections. We should, therefore, use the occasion of this debate to assess our progress since the President tabled the state of the nation address in June. The state of the nation address deliberately drew from the electoral mandate of the five key priority areas of decent jobs, sustainable livelihoods, health care, education and fighting crime and corruption.
The President, in the state of the nation address, then, announced the 10 priorities of the Medium-Term Strategic Framework to give effect to the five main priorities of the electoral mandate.
The Premier of the Free State, within the policy context set by the President, outlined the provincial government programme which comprises a number of high-impact programmes and projects. In this input I will, therefore, appraise the state of the province with reference to the programmes and projects which the premier announced way back in June.
The mid-term Budget Speech by the Minister on Tuesday, 27 October 2009, sought to reaffirm that we are on track with the implementation of government's programme of action of doing more and better for the improvement of people's lives in these trying times of severe economic recession.
In the Free State we are implementing an operation called Operation Hlasela, which is the main thrust of our programme of action for this financial year.