Thank you, Chairperson. I hope I will take less time than the 10 minutes allocated to me.
Hon Chairperson of the NCOP, Your Excellency, the Deputy President of South Africa Mr Kgalema Motlanthe, the mayor of Greater Sekhukhune Local Municipality, the hon Premier of Limpopo and fellow premiers, the hon Chairperson of the House of Traditional Leaders, as well as all members of the house present here, hon Cabinet Ministers and provincial MECs, hon members of the NCOP and provincial legislatures, mayors, councillors and Speakers, all honoured guests assembled here, ladies and gentlemen, I greet you.
Chairperson, allow me to remind Mr Harris of something. I feel that I should say this just once in response to the issue that he overlooked in his quest to score worthless political points, in the process resorting to unjustified arrogance. Hon Harris quoted something on the delivery of sanitation in the Western Cape, as if it was only about numbers. You are from the very province which is denying our people their dignity, by providing them with toilets without walls. [Applause.]
Ladies and gentlemen, our President's description of 2010 as the year of action is a clarion call to the ANC government to do things differently, and to do them with a new sense of urgency. Within this context, the ANC's decisive victory in the 2009 elections attests to the fact that our people's hopes and aspirations found resonance in the five priority areas that were succinctly outlined and eloquently detailed by the hon Deputy President here this morning.
To this end, the entire Cabinet was overhauled and reconfigured, which is further testimony that we are serious about the various commitments we have made to our electorate. A programme attesting to these commitments is now in place, namely: a 10-point plan on education; a 10-point plan on health; a 10-point plan aimed at improving the capacity of municipalities to deliver quality services; and a concrete and practical plan to fight crime and corruption is taking shape, as an issue not for policing alone, but as a societal issue.
Of all the imperatives I have just mentioned, the delivery of quality services to the majority of our people will determine the success or otherwise of our tenure as elected public representatives.
I agree with the hon Deputy President that the time for debate, discussion and development of further policies should now be minimised. Our councillors should bravely and conspicuously come to the fore. They should interact with the communities at ward level, in order to be part of problem solving and effectively addressing the prevailing challenges within our communities.
Good, honest and hardworking councillors must be recognised and supported at all costs. We should all guard against opportunism, and targeting others as part of positioning ourselves in the lead-up to the 2011 local government elections should not be tolerated. Delivery of services and responsiveness to our communities and their issues should remain a priority at all times.
Our task in the Northern Cape is to transform the foundations of the province completely, and simultaneously to deliver on the pledge to create a better life for all our people. We pledge to do our work differently, but effectively, so that we truly serve and benefit all our people.
As such, we will also reorganise and restructure the provincial government to increase its efficiency and management, to speed up effective service delivery to all our people, which is in keeping with the theme of government as a whole. This is already work in progress.
Over the next five years, in line with the call by President Jacob Zuma, we will continue to prioritise education and elevate it to a societal issue. To this effect, the Department of Education concluded its first principals' and stakeholders' conference at the beginning of this year.
The Northern Cape province has been working around the clock to improve access to health care. However, we are the first to acknowledge that much more still needs to be done in terms of quality care, making service available to all citizens of the Northern Cape and ensuring better health outcomes.
As part of the national programme, the province will embark on an effective campaign for HIV and Aids prevention and treatment, which will include a campaign for HIV and Aids testing and counselling. The province will also commence with an awareness campaign around the dangers of noncommunicable diseases. We encourage everybody in our beloved country to take personal and collective responsibility to stop the spread of new HIV infections, to provide care and support to those living with HIV and to ensure access to treatment for all people in need.
As the Northern Cape province we plan to respond to national imperatives, and we will prepare for mass HIV/Aids counselling and testing, and train more than 300 health care professionals in the syndromic management of STIs.
Local government is the sphere of government that is closest to our people. It is in this sphere where all our plans as government departments should be put into practice. This is the year to focus on local government and the year of working together to speed up effective service delivery to the people, as declared by our President. I thank you. [Time expired.] [Applause.]