Hon Speaker, Minister in the Presidency, Mr Jackson Mthembu, Ministers and Deputy Ministers present here, hon chairperson and members of the portfolio committee, hon members, deputy chairperson and commissioners of the National Planning Commission, NPC, Director-General of the
Department of Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation, DPME, Ms Mpumi Mpofu, Statistician-General, Mr Risenga Maluleke, Acting Director- General of the Government Communication and Information System, GCIS, Ms Phumla Williams, Acting CEO of Brand SA, Ms Thulisile Manzini, board members of the Media Development and Diversity Agency, MDDA, our distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, It is my singular honour to deliver my maiden budget speech here in this august House of our people. We are humbled by the trust South Africans have shown in us. This is made more special because it happens when as the country we honour the founding father of our democracy, President Nelson Mandela. Indeed, as Minister Mthembu, reminded us earlier, we all need to heed the call to take action; inspire change; make every day a Mandela Day. As we honour the late President Mandela, we also pay homage to our traditional leaders and the role they played in the liberation struggle. We present this speech in honour of King Sekhukhune and the Bapedi nation in Limpopo and the entire Marota dynasty. The warrior King Sekhukhune's revolutionary deed of refusing to collaborate with the regime inspired successive generations of traditional leaders within the Bapedi nation. It was for this reason that the area was excluded from the mainstream service delivery by the apartheid regime. This gallant struggle was intensified by the Sebatakgomo uprising of 1958.
Our resolve, to bring government closer to the people and enhance service delivery complain mechanisms, is dedicated to that brave warrior king of the Bapedi nation who refused to collaborate with the oppressive regime. We want the Bapedi people of Sekhukhune, and many other previously oppressed people, to easily interact with government. Going forward, we will review the operations of the Presidential Hotline and improve its effectiveness by introducing modern technology. For instance, we would like citizens to have a mobile app that they can access for free and report issues of government and get responses in real-time. We are going to add more platforms to the current telephone and email method of engagement to enable citizens to send SMS and WhatsApp their complaints and compliments of course. [Interjections.]