Eastern Cape Premier Oscar Mabuyane says the road to economic recovery in the province is on an upward trajectory, despite the province recording a 41. 9 % unemployment rate in the third quarter of 2023.
The provincial government says the province’s GDP has improved since pre-COVID-19 levels to R365 million in 2022. Mabuyane says economic development will also address the high levels of poverty and malnutrition.
“Honourable Speaker, whilst the levels of malnutrition remain high, there has been a drop in the fatality rate due to Severe Acute Malnutrition (SAM) from 11.8% in 2017 to 7% in 2022. However, we have noted concerns raised by the South African Human Rights Commission in their recent report on Child Malnutrition and the Right to Food. As an intervention, we are investing R60 million to support 30 000 vulnerable households in Anti-Poverty sites…These include the Child Support Grants (CSG) which benefit more than 2 million children, and the school nutrition which we have expanded to two meals a day. We have also supplied more than 100 000 families with food production inputs to build household capacity to produce food,” Mabuyane explains.
Mabuyane says the provincial Health Department has seen a decline in legal claims in recent years. He says the department used to get sued for its health practitioners’ inadequate and negligent work.
“There has been a significant reduction in the number of medico-legal claims from 600 in 2019 to 200 in 2023. We have also seen a decrease in medico litigation costs from a range of R2 billion to R450 million in 2022. We are implementing preventative measures, such as in-house cerebral palsy treatments, digitization of records, e-health services, and capacitation of health practitioners to sustain the reduction in medico-legal claims,”
Mabuyane says government is working around the clock to address the scourge of crime in the province. He says over 2 000 people were arrested for stock theft and over 3 000 illegal firearms have been recovered in the province. Mabuyane says a reinforcement in law enforcement is needed to address crime in the province.
“We have asked the national government to consider reinforcing the police to protect major construction sites. Our road freight and logistics industry task team confiscated counterfeit food and clothing items; illegal and unauthorized medicines; and prohibited cigarettes. We are intensifying these operations. Furthermore, we are responding to the troubling trend of gun violence that is threatening the safety and security of communities in the province. So far 3000 stolen, lost, or illegal firearms have been recovered in our province only in the past three years. We strengthened the capacity of the police by hiring 3 400 police officers. We urge our communities to embrace the police officers and to collaborate with them to push back against crime,”
Video: State of the Province Address – Eastern Cape
Meanwhile, the five Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) members of the Eastern Cape legislature were removed from the Abbotsford Christian Centre in East London where they attempted to disrupt the Mabuyane’s State-of-the-Province Address.
The Speaker, Helen Sauls- August, instructed the security personnel to remove the EFF members from the event. This resulted in a scuffle between the EFF members and the security personnel. The premier proceeded with his address shortly thereafter.
