Honourable Speaker, Mme Desbo Mohono, Honourable Deputy Speaker,
Members of the Executive Council present here today, Chief Whip of the Majority Party,
Chairperson of Portfolio Committees, Leaders of the Opposition Parties,
Chairperson of the House of Traditional and Khoi-San Leaders, Chairperson of SALGA North West
Executive Mayors and Mayors present here today, Director General,
Provincial Heads of Departments, Municipal Managers,
Executive and Senior Managers in the Public Service, Ladies and Gentlemen,
Bagaetsho Dumelang,

Honourable Speaker, the tabling of this budget speech coincides with a very important month in the calendar of the country’s post democratic dispensation.

During this month we remember our international icon, struggle veteran and the country’s first democratically elected President, Nelson Mandela who was born on 18 July 1918.

His vision for a united, non-racial, non-sexist, prosperous, and democratic country continues to serve as a source of inspiration in creating a better life for all.

His resilience, strength, and the ability to forgive has taught the world the language of peace.

We continue to borrow from his wisdom to be of service to humanity.

Hon Members, Madiba’s solution orientated leadership qualities must encourage all of us to fight the scourge of poverty and inequities bedeviling our developmental trajectory.

Poverty as Nelson Mandela once remarked is man made and “can be overcome by the actions of human beings.”

Honourable Speaker, our province suffers from high unemployment and poverty levels which have an adverse impact in many parts of our communities.

The Fourth Quarter Labour Survey of 2023/4 Financial Year paints a grim picture about unemployment in our province which currently hovers around 52.2 % as per the expanded definition.

Women and the youth continue to be at the receiving end of this conundrum.

The indignity of unemployment and poverty can arguably be blamed for the multi-layered social challenges of crime, drug, and substance abuse as well as gender-based violence and femicide among others.

Honourable Members, we are happy to inform the house that we have appointed members of the Premier’s Economic & Investment Advisory Council. The Council comprises of Members of the Executive Council, Labour, and the Private Sector.

The inaugural meeting of the Councill will be convened by the Premier in August.

The full plan of action for the Council and its economic focus areas will be outlined in the Opening Address this week.
Honourable Members, the Office of the Premier is responsible for coordination of interventions for all designated groups, youth, women, and people with disabilities.

Our focus for this financial year is to scale up and massify all interventions aimed at alleviating youth unemployment as well as advancing initiatives aimed at empowerment of women and people with disabilities.

The Office has entered into several strategic partnerships which will be implemented in the current financial year with partners in the Skills Development sector (SETA’s), private sector bodies to expand our services in bursaries, internships, learnerships, work integrated learning and other formal skills development programmes.

We are committed to the implementation of the call we made earlier this year to open the public sector for work opportunities for the youth.

In the current financial year, the Office of the Premier will introduce targeted centralized recruitment for identified entry level posts earmarked for the youth, unemployed graduates and certain critical skills and specializations.

We have a budget of thirteen million, nine hundred and fifty-four thousand and two hundred and fifty rands (R 13,954,250) for procurement of goods and services from small businesses led by women, Youth and People living with Disabilities.

We will also increase our monitoring to ensure that all provincial departments and state- owned entities do business with companies owned and led by people from designated groups.

Honorable Speaker, the province is not doing very well in terms of achieving the employment target of 2% for persons with disabilities.

By the end of financial year 2023/24, the average disability employment equity percentage was sitting at 0.5% when compared to the national target of 3%.

In this financial year the Office will increase our monitoring for strict compliance with the directives and other intervention measures aimed at reaching the 3 % target as directed by Cabinet to progressively realize the 7% target by 2030.

Bagaetsho, the province will also coordinate the Disability Rights Month Programme including commemoration of International Disability Rights Day with different social partners to measure the level of commitment in the provision of services to the sector.

Mmusa-Kgotla letlhaku le leshwa le agelelwa mo go le legologolo.

We are happy with the work done by our senior citizens in championing a number of programmes of elderly people under the guidance and leadership of the North West Older Persons Forum.

Our senior citizens participated in the National Anti-ageing Programme at Mpumalanga where they obtained position one.

We will be hosting the 2024 National Anti-ageing Activities Programme, (NAAP) and for this, preparations have already been initiated.

Re solofela gore basha ba tla ithuta go le gontsi le go tsaya karolo mo tlhabololong ya loago le maele a boeteledipele ka kakaretso.

Honourable Members, we are saddened by the deaths of three elderly people who lived at an old age home in Jericho village in Madibeng Local Municipality.

We urge the police to investigate circumstances relating to these unfortunate incidents and bring closure to families, friends and loved ones.

I also wish to urge our Non-Governmental and Non-Profit Organisations to comply with the law when operating these facilities and to always seek the guidance of the Department of Social Development under the stewardship of Hon. Dantjie.

Madam Speaker, I wish to report to this house that we are making progress in the implementation of interventions to uplift our veterans.

In the last financial year through our collaboration with the National Department of Human Settlement and Military Veterans we approved the construction of one hundred and twelve (112) houses for our veterans across the four districts of our province.

Thirteen units covering Ganyesa; Tlakgameng; Mabela aa Podi and Bapong are nearing completion and will be handed over to beneficiaries once completed.

Honorable Members, the Provincial Council on Aids is up and running and considered one of the best if not the leading PCA compared to other provinces.

We have been able to coordinate and bring together various stakeholders in our collective response to HIV, TB and STIs.

Our efforts are yielding desired results as for the past three years we have recorded a downward spiral in HIV-AIDS infections, with a decline of 1.7 percent in the last financial year.

The North West is leading in the End-term Review of the 2017/2022 giving impetus to the development of the 2023/28 Provincial Implementation Plan (PIP) on HIV and AIDS, STIs and TB. We will ensure that this plan trickles down to all four districts of the province.

Honourable Members, the Office of the Premier carries the policy and legislative mandate to lead the planning, monitoring and evaluation of the province.

There is little or nothing that can be achieved if our planning is not sound and backed up by workable strategies to achieve our goals.

The Office of the Premier will invest its energies on enhancing monitoring and evaluation processes to guarantee the effective implementation of both national and provincial priorities by various government departments and entities.

Madam Speaker, a total of one point five million rand (R1.5 million) will be assigned to enhance provincial monitoring and evaluation systems to continue to assess Annual Performance Plans of departments thus ensuring that service delivery remains an integral part of government priorities.

The Office of the Premier, is collaborating with the National Department of Planning Monitoring and Evaluation (DPME) to ensure that all sector departments’ plans and budgets are aligned to the national and provincial policy priorities of government.

In this financial year we will see to the full implementation of the revised Integrated Planning Framework, that will assist departments, State Owned Enterprises and Municipalities to align their plans and processes to meet the developmental goals of the province.

The Office of the Premier is also working with STATS-SA on an Integrated Indicator Framework (IIF) to assist the province develop its own indicators in line with the strategic objectives of the Medium-Term Development Plan (MTDP) for the 7th Administration.

Madam Speaker, we are working hard to clean the public service to ensure that the right people with required ethical conduct are employed with the right skills and qualifications.

The Office of the Premier will intensify its provincial monitoring function to ensure that good governance practices and pre-screening exercises for all staff members in our provincial departments are being implemented to check criminal and financial records as well as verification of qualifications and previous employment.

Hon Members the process to review the organizational structure for the Office of the Premier is currently underway and it is anticipated to be concluded by the end of September 2024 for full implementation in the 2025/2026 Financial year.

The reviewed structure will be fit for purpose, cost effective and give effect to the EXCO resolution to place the Office as a central coordinating point of the provincial administration to drive policy and hold departments accountable.
Hon Speaker, government communications is critical to keep our residents informed of various developmental initiatives, policy pronouncements and service delivery intervention measures.

In the current financial year, we will strengthen and expand our digital platforms as to keep up with the changing communication landscape.
We will build our relationships with mainstream and community media as important partners to close the information gap with the public.

Hon Members, progress towards an interruption free provision of Information & Communication Technology is on track.

This is primarily aimed at attending to some Information Technology Mainframe outages which often lead to delays in the payment of service providers specifically and financial management and reporting in general.
We take this opportunity to apologise to our residents in relation to these challenges.

The Task Team appointed by the Premier jointly with SITA is hard at work to find a lasting solution to this matter.
During this financial year, we will finally see the province migrating to an advanced mainframe system to ensure a seamless ICT system which is vital for service delivery.

Bagaetsho, in the next few weeks the Office of the Premier will convene an EXCO Planning Lekgotla which will map a way-forward for the 7th Administration of the North West Provincial Government.

The EXCO Planning Lekgotla will guide Departments and Municipalities on priorities of the 7th Administration and integrate our plans with policy focus areas determined by the Government of National Unity through the Medium-Term Development Plan.

Honourable Members, the Office of the Premier is delegated the performance and coordination of the International Relations mandate under the guidance of the National Minister.

The province will foster relations with other nations of the world to renew and establish relations with various countries to reposition the North West as an investment destination.

In September this year, I will lead a mission to China where I will sign a Memorandum of Understanding with the Henan Province of China.

This will be followed by a mission to South Korea and Thailand where the province will conclude the work done by the 6th Administration after the trade and investment seminar was deferred.

Bagaetsho, Botswana and Zambia are important strategic neighbours with strong political, economic, and cultural ties to our province.

We will continue to work closely with our neighbours to address the issues of Zama Zama’s in the Dr Kenneth Kaunda District and look at ways to bolster our economy and improve the livelihoods of our people while contributing towards regional and continental integration.

Honourable Speaker, the Office of the Premier is proud to present the high-level overview of its financial performance for the 2023/24 financial year. Key observations herein are that:

• Office of the Premier continued to register an unqualified audit opinion for the fourth consecutive year since 2019/20 Financial year.
• For the previous Financial Year this was achieved with reduced audit findings.
• This improved trend gives us confidence that we are on the right trajectory towards a clean audit.
• The total spending for the Office at the end of the year under review amounted to 93% of the total budget of four hundred and seventy-one million, two hundred and one thousand as it was appropriated by this house.
• The Office continues to maintain its non-incurrence of any unauthorized and irregular expenditure; this is certainly a positive sign in the cash flow management.
• The Office has approved its Preferential Procurement Policy that guides its strategic sourcing during the year under review.

This overall performance is a clear demonstration of a concerted effort by the Office to execute its mandate to the people of the North West Province.

Honourable Speaker, in pursuing to implement the Annual Performance Plan tabled in this August House, I request the appropriation to vote 1, Office of the Premier, as outlined hereunder:

Programmes:  Programme 1: Administration
R’000: R 125,322
Amount in words: One hundred and twenty- five million, three hundred and twenty-two thousand rand.

Programmes: Programme 2: Institutional Development Support
R’000: R 253,589
Amount in words: Two hundred and fifty-three million, five hundred and eighty-nine thousand rand

Programmes: Programme 3: Policy and Governance
R’000: R 101,225
Amount in words: One hundred and one million, two hundred and twenty-five thousand rand

Programmes: TOTAL
R’000: R 480,136
Amount in words: Four hundred and eighty million, one hundred and
thirty-six thousand rand

In conclusion, I would like to extend my gratitude to the Honourable Speaker and Deputy Speaker for granting me this opportunity to table this budget speech.

My appreciation also goes to the Honourable Members of the Executive Council, Honourable Members of the Opposition as well as Magosi a rona a tlotlegang a Bokone- Bophirima.

Madam Speaker let me also thank the Director General, Executive and Senior Management of the Office of the Premier and the staff compliment of the Office of the Premier, for their dedication and continued commitment to their responsibilities.

Lastly my appreciation goes to the leadership of the African National Congress and the entire ANC PEC, Alliance Partners, Members and Supporters of the Mass Democratic Movement.

As we continue to forge ahead with creating sustainable livelihoods for our people, let me leave you with the words of the founding father of our nation, Nelson Mandela;

“Overcoming poverty in not a gesture of charity. It is an act of justice. It is the protection of a fundamental human rights, the right to dignity and a decent life. The dire poverty of some is not an affliction which impacts negatively on the whole humanity, including those who live in conditions of comfort and plenty.”

I thank you!