Category: Speeches & Statements

National Treasury has published on its website the operating and capital budgets of municipalities as adopted by their respective councils.

In a statement, the department said these budgets give an overview of expected revenue and expenditure trends in local government over the next three years, referred to as the 2022/23 Medium Term Revenue and Expenditure Framework (MTREF).

The revenue and expenditure numbers are aggregated from the annual budgets that municipal managers are legally required to submit to the National Treasury and the relevant provincial treasury.

“The published information is presented in a variety of ways, including aggregated municipal budget totals for the 2022/23 financial year and over the medium-term period. In addition, the information is presented per category of municipality and province,” said the Treasury.

Highlights include:

• The aggregated budgeted revenue for 2022/23 is R529.7 billion, which is expected to increase to R558.1 billion in 2023/24 and R593.9 billion in 2024/25;

• Total municipal expenditure in 2023/24 is estimated to be R557.4 billion, increasing to R582.1 billion in 2023/24 and R614.5 billion in 2024/25. Total expenditure for 2022/23 is 5.1 per cent higher than the adjusted budget for 2021/22 financial year;

• Municipalities will realise operating deficits on the operating budgets in the 2022/23 financial year as the total operating expenditure increases at a higher rate than the revenue projections. This is an indication that municipalities are living beyond their means and a first sign of financial challenges. However, the situation is projected to improve in the outer years of the 2022/23 MTREF as operating surpluses will be realised;

• A net deficit of R269.6 million is expected in the 2022/23 financial year, which improves to a surplus of R3.5 billion in 2023/24 and R7.3 billion in 2024/25;

• The main cost drivers are employee related costs and materials and bulk purchases representing 28.9 per cent and 32.7 per cent of the operating expenditure respectively.Municipalities are experiencing a two-fold impact of the high electricity and water tariff increases; lower sales levels owing to changes in consumption patterns and increased bad debt as a result of affordability pressures;

• Capital expenditure increased by 1 per cent to R69.7 billion in 2022/23 compared to the original budget for the 2021/22 financial year. Capital expenditure in aggregate represents 12.5 per cent in 2022/23, 11.7 per cent in 2023/24 and 11.4 per cent in2024/25 of the overall budget of municipalities;

Trading services (electricity, water, wastewater management and waste management) represents 49.7 per cent of the total capital expenditure of R69.7 billion in 2022/23 and slightly decreases to 49.1 per cent by 2024/25;

• The 2022/23 capital expenditure budget reflects a R43.8 billion investments in new infrastructure which is 62.8 per cent of the total aggregated capital budget. Investment in the renewal and upgrading of existing assets is much lower at R10.9 billion (15.6 per cent) and R15.1 billion (21.6 per cent) of the total capital budget respectively; and

• Reporting on operational repairs and maintenance figures has been institutionalised as part of Section 71 in-year reporting. Municipalities allocated R27.7 billion to repairs and maintenance of assets in 2022/23. This will increase to R29.2 billion in 2023/24 and to R30.9 billion in 2024/25.

National Treasury publishes local government MTREF information on an annual basis.

Regularly published budget information enables communities to hold their municipal councils to account. The information is also used by National Treasury as the basis for the In-year Management, Monitoring and Reporting System for Local Government (IYM).

The Section 71 reports published by the National Treasury give an account of actual revenue collection and spending by municipalities per quarter against their budgeted figures. All this information feeds into the Municipal Money open local government data portal and can be accessed on: www.municipalmoney.gov.za.

In addition, the Municipal Money time series data can be accessed directly from http://municipaldata.treasury.gov.za.

A new development that facilitate transparency is the GoMuni portal which can be accessed at https://lg.treasury.gov.za/ibi_apps/signin  by clicking on the public access tab.

To improve the quality of reporting, the Municipal Budget and Reporting Regulations promulgated in 2009 prescribed new budget reporting formats for municipalities. In terms of the 2009 regulations, municipalities had to submit their 2022/23 MTREF budgets in the prescribed A1 Schedules as per the regulations.

In addition, with the implementation of the Municipal Standard Chart of Accounts (mSCOA) on 1 July 2017, municipalities must now prepare their budgets at the posting level over all segments as prescribed in the mSCOA classification framework.

All financial systems must have the facility to produce the A1 Schedule directly from their financial systems from the mSCOA classification framework.

Therefore, municipalities must put controls in place to ensure alignment of the adopted A1 Schedule to the financial system and the mSCOA data strings submitted to National Treasury. This publication is therefore based solely on the new regulated framework in terms of mSCOA.

A Parliament National Assembly (NA) hybrid sitting has passed the 2021 Second Special Appropriation Bill.

It will now go to the National Council of Provinces (NCOP) for concurrence, Parliament said on Tuesday.

In a statement, Parliament said the 2021 Second Special Appropriation Bill proposes to appropriate additional urgent funding allocations in the 2021/22 financial year, to the Votes of National Treasury, Social Development, Defence, Police, and Trade, Industry and Competition.

An amendment to the Bill enables the Minister of Finance to approve urgent expenditure for contingency funding. Section 213(2) of the Constitution provides that money may be withdrawn from the National Revenue Fund only in terms of an appropriation by an Act of Parliament.

The Bill was tabled in Parliament by the Minister of Finance on 23 August 2021 and was referred to the committees for consideration and report to the National Assembly, as prescribed in section 13 of the Act.

“In processing the Bill, section 4(4)(c) of the Act also requires the committees on Appropriations in both Houses to consult with the Financial and Fiscal Commission (FFC).

“In addition to consulting with the FFC, the committees also invited the Parliamentary Budget Office (PBO) to comment on the Bill. They also consulted with stakeholders directly affected by the Bill, namely the South African Special Risks Insurance Association.”

The 2021 Second Special Appropriation Bill proposed an additional R26.7 billion to Social Development to cater for the Social Relief Grant, inclusive of R500 million (inclusive of the R250 million allocated through section 16 (1) of the Public Financial Management Act) to the South African Social Security Agency for system enhancements to improve application and payment processes, including a strengthened eligibility assessment system.

Parliament said the Bill also proposed an additional R700 million to Defence to fund the deployment of military personnel to assist police with bringing order after the July 2021 riots, mainly in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal. The Bill also proposed an additional R1.3 billion to Trade, Industry and Competition to support businesses affected by the July riots. The NCOP is scheduled to debate the 2021 Second Special Appropriation Bill in December.

Meanwhile, at the same plenary sitting, the NA agreed to the Sectional Titles Amendment Bill, which seeks to amend certain provisions of the Sectional Titles Act, 1986 (Act No. 95 of 1986) (the principal Act). The Portfolio Committee on Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development, having deliberated on the content of the Bill, realised that it was necessary to amend provisions of the principal Act, which were not included in the Bill. The Bill will be sent to the NCOP for concurrence.

The National Treasury and the South African Revenue Service (SARS) are inviting the public to comment on the 2021 Draft Tax Bills.

Treasury on Wednesday published for public comment the 2021 draft Rates and Monetary Amounts and Amendment of Revenue Laws Bill (2021 draft Rates Bill), the 2021 draft Taxation Laws Amendment Bill (2021 draft TLAB) and the 2021 draft Tax Administration Laws Amendment Bill (2021 draft TALAB).

These draft tax bills contain tax proposals made in the 2021 Budget on 24 February 2021. The 2021 tax bills will be introduced in Parliament later this year.

“For legal reasons, the draft tax amendments continue to be split into two bills, namely a money bill (section 77 of the Constitution) dealing with money bill issues and an ordinary bill (section 75 of the Constitution) dealing with issues relating to tax administration,” said Treasury in a statement.

The National Treasury and SARS solicit written comments on tax proposals contained in the 2021 draft tax bills.

“After receipt of the written comments, National Treasury and SARS normally engage with stakeholders through public workshops to discuss the written comments on the draft tax bills.

“However, due to the national lockdown regulations as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, further information will be provided on the manner and platform of public engagement for purposes of discussing the written comments.

“The Standing Committee on Finance and the Select Committee on Finance in Parliament are expected to make a similar call for public comment, and convene public hearings on these draft tax bills before their formal introduction in Parliament.”

Thereafter, a response document on the comments received will be presented at the parliamentary committee hearings, after which the bills will then be revised, taking into account public comments and recommendations made during committee hearings, before they are tabled formally in Parliament for its consideration.

“The 2021 draft Rates Bill, which was first published on Budget Day (24 February 2021), contains tax announcements made in Chapter 4 and Annexure C of the 2021 Budget Review that deal with changes to the rates and monetary thresholds and increases of the excise duties.”

The 2021 draft TLAB and the 2021 draft TALAB provide the necessary legislative amendments required to implement the more complex tax announcements made in Chapter 4 and Annexure C of the 2021 Budget Review that will require greater consultation with the public.

Key tax proposals contained in the 2021 draft Rates Bill include changes in rates and monetary thresholds to the personal income tax tables, and increases of the excise duties on alcohol and tobacco.

Key tax proposals contained in the 2021 draft TLAB include the following:

• Strengthening the rules dealing with limitation of interest deductions in respect of debt owed to persons not subject to tax
• Restricting the set-off of the balance of assessed losses in determining taxable income
• Refining the timeframes of compliance requirements of the industrial policy projects tax incentive
•  Curbing the abuse of the Employment Tax Incentive
• Applying tax on retirement fund interest when an individual ceases to be a tax resident
• Strengthening anti-avoidance rules in respect of loans between trusts
• Refinements to the corporate reorganisation rules
• Clarifying the scope and definition of carbon sequestration

Key tax proposals contained in the 2021 draft TALAB include the following:

• Administrative non-compliance penalties based on estimates for non-submission of six-monthly employees’ tax returns
• Removal of double-penalty for the same incidence of non-compliance relating to employees’ tax
• Expanding the purposes for which air cargo may be removed to degrouping depots
• Amendments related to changes in the accreditation system
• Increasing the caps for refunds and underpayments of duties

The 2021 draft tax bills and the accompanying draft explanatory memoranda containing a comprehensive description of the proposed tax amendments contained in the 2021 draft TLAB and the draft TALAB, can be found on the National Treasury (www.treasury.gov.za) and SARS (www.sars.gov.za) websites.

General information underlying the changes in rates, thresholds or any other tax amendments can be found in the 2021 Budget Review, available on the treasury website.

Comments in writing can be emailed to 2020AnnexCProp@treasury.gov.za  and SARS at acollins@sars.gov.za by close of business on 28 August 2021.

Speech by Minister Debbie Schäfer at the  Western Cape 2019 National Senior Certificate Awards

Welcome to our annual celebration of the achievements of our learners in the National Senior Certificate Examinations, kindly hosted again by our Premier, but this time it is our new Premier, who for some reason has appointed me again to this extremely challenging, but also a very rewarding, position.

This is always one of our favourite events of the year, and I congratulate not just the achievers seated here, but all the learners across the province who passed their matric exams and are excited to begin the next chapter of their lives.  And no matter what the official rankings say – we are Number 1!  More about that later.

The world all these young people are entering now is a difficult one to navigate at present. It is never easy, but at the moment our country is in some deep water, leaving our future darker than Stage 6 load-shedding, unless some drastic action is taken, and very soon.  Our newly-qualified matriculants will need to navigate the rising tide of fear and division that so many South Africans have become trapped by. They also have to face the unacceptable fact that we have the highest youth unemployment rate in the world.  And yet it is very often our young people who are the most positive and desperately want to a make a real difference in our country.

It is in times like these that we desperately need true leaders – people who will take the right decisions for the right reasons, even if it makes them unpopular.  People who set their eyes on the end goal and chart a strategy to get there, inspiring others along the way.  You know what they say about leadership – it is like a piece of string – you will not succeed by pushing it, but only by pulling from the front.  And we have far too few people in our country – and the world in fact – who are providing the leadership we need.   Matriculants, there is a huge vacuum out there that needs filling.  Please fill it.

It was wonderful to take a ‘time out’ from our country’s harsh realities to celebrate our national success at the Rugby World Cup toward the end of last year – success made possible by the wonderful example of our South African captain, Siya Kolisi, and coach Rassie Erasmus. They showed us clearly how standing together as a team, despite our differences, planning a strategy and executing it to perfection can enable us to be the best in the world.

If only we had such focus in our national government.

Unfortunately, because we don’t, we find ourselves in increasingly difficult times in our provincial government, and education in particular.  Our learner numbers are increasing year on year, while our budget has not kept up and is going to be shrinking more dramatically. This puts great pressure on our province to maintain the high standards that we set ourselves.   It also puts immense pressure on our infrastructure and our teachers.  With our economic situation as it currently is, I am not optimistic that we will see a positive difference for some time.

So, we can curl up in a ball, or we can be diamonds.  As Henry Kissinger said, “a diamond is a chunk of coal that did well under pressure”!

And we have a LOT of diamonds in the making in the WCED.

I must take this opportunity to appreciate the work of every learner, teacher, principal and WCED official in this Department.  Despite our difficulties, we continue to set the example of leadership and excellence that brings so many new learners to the province each year.

Matric highlights

Which brings me to the results of the matric class of 2019.

I’m sure we were all a bit disappointed to see that our province moved from 3rd to 4th place in the national table. No team is happy to see their ranking drop down the league table. But we must keep our eyes on the real prize: ensuring that we get better every single year as regards quality and giving our youth the best possible opportunities to make a meaningful difference in their lives and our country.

Despite some politicians not understanding the meaning of the word “regress”, our pass rate has increased from 81.5% last year to 82.3%.

Obviously I am pleased about that, but what I am not pleased about is that the key issues of retention, bachelors passes and the performance in key subjects is not included in the calculation of the league table.  It is simply the percentage pass rate.  DBE has used such a measure over the last few years unofficially, but they do not seem to have found a formula in which the Western Cape does not come out on top, which is politically rather unpalatable for them I guess.

But when we look closely at the statistics, and analyse how the results are achieved, I want to say that I am proud of what we have done in the Western Cape.

Our bachelor pass rate for the 2019 NSC is 46.3% – this is the highest ever and an increase from 42.3% last year.  This means that more of our learners will be able to access tertiary education, and is an important indicator of the quality of education learners receive.  No regression here.

Heartiest congratulations must go to Metro North Education District for achieving the highest district percentage pass rate in the province – 86.3%. Overberg was very narrowly beaten at 86% – a fantastic 3,6% increase from last year!   Well done to David Millar and Helene Van Zyl and your teams.

Our schools have also achieved great results this year.

• 69 schools (15.4%) achieved a 100% pass rate – of these, 27 have had a 100% pass rate for at least the past five years;
• Nearly 2/3 of Western Cape schools have a pass rate of over 80%;

The progress being made in our Quintile 1, 2 and 3 schools deserves special mention, where both the pass rate and the bachelor pass rate increased.

• In Quintile 1 schools, the pass rate increased by 1.5% and the bachelors pass rate by 4.4%.

• Quintile 2 schools pass rate increased by 5.8% and bachelors pass rate increased by 5.8%
• Quintile 3 schools pass rate increased by 1.9% and bachelors pass rate increased by 2.8%

This improvement shows that passion and dedication can overcome the resource difficulties many of these schools face, and that the Western Cape’s efforts to close the inequality gap are bearing fruit.  The pass rate of Quintile 1, 2 and 3 schools together has increased by 17% since 2009, when this government took over.

An individual school that I particularly want to mention is St Andrew’s Secondary school in Elsies River.  This school has faced enormous challenges, with crime and gangsterism being rife, and achieved only a 39% pass rate in 2017. I have visited the school myself, at the request of a learner, who was desperate to receive a quality education.  Whilst I addressed the assembly, gang shootings were taking place a block away.

The school principal left the school, and our own “Mr Fix It”, Mr Charles Du Preez, stepped in as curator principal in 2018. The Metro North’s multi-functional team, especially on curriculum, worked with Mr du Preez, and this team.  They, together with District Director David Millar and Circuit Manager Mr Randall Southgate, are to be commended for their sterling effort. Mr Southgate’s dedication was unwavering in supporting the school, despite fighting a life-threatening illness himself.

I am very happy to report that the school received a 71.7% pass rate this year – the highest in six years!  I wish the current acting principal, Ms Christine de Vries, all the best as the school continues to improve, and we will be keeping a very close eye on you (no pressure!).

Retention

I said earlier that we are number one, and I want to go into some more detail on that, which relates to retention.  I am pleased that more people are starting to look at this more carefully.  I was also pleased to see Prof Jonathan Jansen say that if people honestly think a province can go up by a steady 5% per year, they are not paying attention.

I am going to do a more detailed piece of work on these statistics shortly, but here are a few points to think about.

We always say that the Western Cape has the highest retention rate in South Africa from Grade 10 to 12, which we do.  And that ALSO increased since last year.

But what does this actually mean?

We have also said that the Multiple Exam Opportunity (or MEO) has resulted in many learners opting or being forced to write their exams over 2 sessions.  This means that whoever does that is not included in the final calculation of the end of year matric pass rate.  So if there are weaker learners in the system, they simply leave the system or are coerced into writing the MEO.

I am going to give you an example in numbers, not just percentages, from the 2019 NSC.

According to the School Realities Report, in 2017 there were 1 075 925 learners in Grade 10 in the national system.  At the beginning of their Grade 12 year 2 years later, 459 171 had “disappeared”.

The highest percentage of the cohort lost was in the Northern Cape, at 52.7%.  The lowest was in the Western Cape, at 31.8%.  The second highest was the Free State, at 49.9%.

Then we look at those who actually registered to write the NSC.

Then there is a second round of “losses”.  There were the 616 754 learners who enrolled to write at the beginning of their matric year.  The number of those who actually wrote was 504 303, 112 451 fewer than had registered.  Of those 112 451, 2989 were from the Western Cape, with the lowest percentage of 5.6% of our cohort.

The highest percentage of those registering and not writing was in Limpopo, with 24,6%, followed by Mpumalanga at 23.4%, KwaZulu Natal at 20.7% and Northern and Eastern Cape with 20.3%.  That is a fifth to a quarter of matrics who started their matric year who did not write the final exam.

So, when we look at the percentages overall, of those lost from the beginning of Grade 10, who actually wrote the 2019 NSC, just looking at those in the three places above us, the picture is as follows.

Free State “lost” 34 447 learners, or 57.4%.  Gauteng “lost” 99 371 learners, or 50.4%.  North West “lost” 36 855 learners, or 57.9%.  And we “lost” 27 898, or 35.6%.

No loss is something we are proud of.  But 35% against 50% and above is quite some difference.

When we take that into account, one can see why we are number 4 on a table that purely measures percentage pass rates.

Individual achievements

Now, onto more pleasant matters.

Last week I had the pleasure of visiting Paarl Gimnasium High School as the results were released. I had decided to visit that school last year already, so you can imagine my delight when I heard that the top matric candidate in the country – Madelein Dippenar – also attended that school. Madelein is a wonderful young lady who has handled the intense media attention like a real pro.

Of course, not just the top Quintile 5 learner for 2019, but all top three Quintile 5 learners in the country hail from the Western Cape.  I was beaming with pride to join the national Minister of Basic Education, Angie Motshekga, on stage last week to congratulate Madelein, Gary Allen from Rondebosch High School, and Anuoluwa Makinde from Milnerton High School.

And the national awards didn’t stop there. Timothy Murphy, from Rondebosch Boys’ High, was ranked as the top candidate nationally in Mathematics, followed closely by Ivan Badenhorst, from Outeniqua High School, in second position nationally.

Congratulations to our national achievers, you have really done us proud!

In addition to awarding our top achievers on the provincial level, in which I am very pleased to say our government schools have acquitted themselves very well, we will also again make Special Ministerial Awards which recognise learners who have achieved their matric pass under very challenging circumstances. The Special Ministerial Awards are very close to my heart, and all district directors had the opportunity to send nominations to us in order to select our very worthy recipients.  I have chosen three candidates from those submitted.

It is important for me also to acknowledge, and thank most sincerely, the SG, Brian Schreuder, and the whole exam team, including Dr Peter Beets, Mr Bertram Loriston, Ms Tina Singh and Mr Blackie Swart, for their tireless work ensuring the exams ran smoothly, despite some of them having to deal with personal tragedies themselves.  Your efforts are appreciated.

Thank you too, to our sponsors.  Your support is greatly appreciated.

Closing

So, I want to end off by acknowledging the hard work that goes into helping our young people every day, and again congratulate all our achievers.

We will keep striving to be number one on the league table, but we are number one in quality.

And I want to encourage each one of us, as we face some difficult times ahead, to envisage ourselves at the end of it all as the beautiful diamond that did amazingly well under pressure.

Address by President Cyril Ramaphosa at the 2020 Basic Education Sector Lekgotla, Emperors Palace, Ekurhuleni

Programme Director,
Minister of Basic Education, Ms Angie Motshekga,
Deputy Minister of Basic Education, Dr Reginah Mhaule,
MECs for Education,
Leaders of teacher unions and school governing bodies,
Representatives of learner organisations,
Academics and experts in the education sector,
Representatives of non-governmental organisations,
Members of the media,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Fellow South Africans,

I am indeed honoured to address this important Basic Education Lekgotla, which brings together all our finest minds and key stakeholders in the basic education sector.

Let me take this opportunity to congratulate the Minister and her entire team, the teachers and, most importantly, the matric class of 2019 for achieving a new record pass rate of 81.3%.

Together you have demonstrated that hard work pays off.

It is significant that our matric pass rate has breached the 80 percent threshold for the very first time since the advent of democracy.

I would also like to congratulate and pay tribute to all the learners, teachers, management teams and school governing bodies of those schools that performed exceptionally well.

In achieving these results, many schools had to overcome challenges imposed by resource constraints, violent protests in their communities, the prevalence of alcohol and drug abuse and other such social ills.

Among these is the Ribane Laka High School in Mamelodi which achieved an impressive 97% pass rate against all odds.

We encourage other schools to emulate the methods of Ribane Laka, especially the collaboration between teachers and parents and the practice of Saturday classes, which the Principal has credited for the school’s success.

We are meeting here to carve a new path of progress for our basic education sector in the last decade of the National Development Plan.

We want to ensure that by 2030, South Africans have access to education and training of the highest quality, leading to significantly improved learning outcomes.

The performance of South African learners in international standardised tests should be comparable to the performance of learners from countries at a similar level of development.

All our learners should be able to read for meaning by their tenth birthday.

Our Mathematics and Physical Science pass rates should be comparable with, if not better than, nations of similar size and budget.

We are building an education system that will help free the potential of each of our citizens so that they too can enjoy the dividends of our hard won freedom.

The impressive 2019 matric pass rate is in line with recent local and international studies that indicate that our system of basic education is on the rise.

Various international benchmarking tests show that our performance in maths and language is improving in several of the measured grades.

We are making progress, we are indeed moving forward.

We most certainly are capable of achieving greatness as a nation.

Let us get back to work and continuously improve the learning environment and ensure that it becomes even more conducive for our children to achieve excellence.

Through the ASIDI and SAFE programmes, let us intensify our efforts to ensure that all our schools have appropriate structures and sanitation, as well as adequate water and electricity supply.

We must ensure that the mud-schools of yesteryear are forever banished to the past, and that all our children can go to the toilet in safe and hygienic conditions.

Working together through the National School Safety Framework, let us ensure that our schools are free of violence, drugs, dangerous weapons, bullying, cyber-bullying, gangsterism, sexual abuse and harassment.

I have no doubt that through our coordinated efforts under the auspices of the District Development Model – also known as the Khawuleza Model – we will be able to deliver quality education to our children.

Our schools and the entire education sector will benefit from integrated planning, better coordination and accelerated delivery of non-core responsibilities such as sanitation, infrastructure, electrification, water and roads.

Through the District Development Model, collaboration between departments and the different spheres of government will be improved to offer multi-disciplinary solutions to community challenges that often result in the disruption of learning and teaching.

Our collective task as a nation is to move South Africa to the next frontier of economic development, in which basic education plays a key role.

Just as we know that the steam engine spurred on the first industrial revolution, electricity the second, automation the third, and data the fourth, we know too that the underlying driver of all these industrial revolutions was, and remains, education.

This means that we must continue to focus on the achievement of reading outcomes in the early grades, rolling out the subjects of the future such as Robotics and Coding, while giving our learners a choice of learning streams that best suit their capabilities.

Our immediate task as government is to improve the foundational skills of literacy and numeracy, especially reading for meaning.

It is for this reason that reading for meaning has now been declared an apex priority.

Research has shown that for us to thrive in today’s fast changing world, our learners require a new breadth of skills.

These skills are still rooted in academic competencies such as literacy, numeracy and science but also include such things as team work, critical thinking, communication, persistence, and creativity.

All these skills are interconnected.

They are part and parcel of the skills set necessary to meet the demands of a changing economy and the future of work.

I commend the Department of Basic Education for moving with speed in implementing one of our 2019 SONA commitments – to ignite a reading revolution in our country.

Since we made that commitment, a coordinating structure for the reading revolution – the National Reading Coalition – has been established and is now operational.

Together with the Department of Basic Education, the Coalition has finalised a comprehensive National Reading Plan, which is an overarching evidence-based strategy that will alter the entire reading landscape in the country.

It compliments existing reading initiatives, such as the Read to Lead Campaign.

Since the Read to Lead Campaign was launched in 2015, some 7,500 schools have benefited through the provision of libraries and appropriate books.

We are indebted to the private sector and civil society organisations for contributing to this success.

The main thrust of our plan is to ensure reading for meaning across the curriculum, in all grades, and in all schools throughout the country.

Our plan is to ensure that we teach all our learners to read well.

As society we need to socialise all our learners and young people into becoming life-long readers.

We must support them in their reading for academic purposes, for knowledge and for enjoyment.

Today, we say to all South Africans that reading is not a portion of education, it is education.

We cannot succeed on our own as government to get the nation reading.

That is because the first real teacher of any child is the parent.

We need a collaborative approach.

What is taught at home must be reinforced at school.

Similarly, what is taught at school must be reinforced at home.

On our side, we have resolved to strengthen the capacity of the sector, especially teachers, through the wall-to-wall capacity building of anyone in the reading ‘supply chain’.

All teachers are going back to school to be taught the latest how-to-teach reading methodologies.

We will train all our teachers thoroughly, and provide age and language relevant materials to all our learners.

As a citizen myself, I will soon launch a virtual book club in an effort to turbocharge reading across the country.

Known as the President’s Reading Circle, this virtual book club will allow readers to share their views on the books with me through the chat service on the club’s website.

I encourage those of you who have not already done so to sign up.

I have been told engagements and discussions at this Basic Education Lekgotla have been productive and have resulted in tangible outcomes.

They have demonstrated the importance and value of partnership in meeting the developmental needs of our country.

This Lekgotla confirms that education is a societal issue.

I wish you all the best in taking forward the endeavours of this Lekgotla and in continuing with this, the most important job of all, to prepare our youngest citizens for a rich, productive and fulfilling future.

I thank you.

Dismissal of the Department of Health HOD: Dr A.T. Lekalakala

The Premier of the North West Province Professor Job Mokgoro has considered the final verdict post the disciplinary hearing of the Department of Health HOD Dr Andrew Thabo Lekalakala. The outcome which follows the disciplinary hearing that has been ongoing since 2018 dictates that Dr Lekalakala is guilty on five charges against him. He faced allegations of gross misconduct.

In the light of the verdict presented before the Premier by the Presiding Officer, the Premier has taken a decision to dismiss Dr Lekalakala from employment.

The dismissal was effected on persal on 13 January 2020.

Inquiries:
Vuyisile Ngesi – Spokesperson Office of the Premier
Tel: 018 388 4972
Cell: 061 056 3623
Email: vngesi@nwpg.gov.za

President Cyril Ramaphosa will tomorrow, Thursday, 16 January 2020, address the Annual Basic Education Sector Lekgotla in Kempton Park, Ekurhuleni, which takes place on from 15 to 17 January 2020.

Hosted by Minister of Basic Education Ms Angie Motshekga, the three-day national event brings together provincial education departments, teacher unions, school governing body organisations, learner organisations, non-governmental organisations, academics, international guest speakers and other stakeholders.

The Lekgotla, under the theme “Equipping Learners with Knowledge and Skills for a Changing World”, will have commissions that will place emphasis on the fourth industrial revolution as a means to give learners the best possible chance at succeeding in a fast-changing global environment.

Members of the media are invited to cover the President’s address as follows:
Date:  Wednesday, 16 January 2019
Time:  09h00 (Media to arrive at 08h00)
Venue:  Emperors Palace Conference Centre, 64 Jones Road, Kempton Park

RSVP: Media should confirm their attendance with Tsakane Khambane on 082 084 5566 or Elijah Mhlanga on 083 580 8275.

Media enquiries:
Khusela Diko, Spokesperson to the President
Cell: 072 854 5707