Bhisho not a swear word

Bhisho has become a swear word among many of my friends - even those who owe the food on their tables to Bhisho – and perhaps I should review my habit of hanging out with surly, pessimistic and apparently ungrateful buggers.

But there’s always the threat that the name of the capital of the province may pass into the popular lexicon as a catch-all idiom for what is bad about government - slackness, incompetence, bungling, dishonesty. Which I think would be unfair.

Don’t get me wrong: Levels of slapgat-ness and crookery are regularly revealed which are mind-boggling. But, as reflected in Premier Nosimo Balindlela’s state of the province address last week, the province is not about to keel over through corruption or mismanagement, as some would have us believe.

· The vast majority of the province’s citizens are being paid, fed, taught, healed, counselled, supported, transported, protected. And this will continue.

· Provincial Growth and Development Programme targets are ambitious, but there is clear evidence of a positive trend in some indicators.

· The number of infants dying is consistently decreasing; the numbers of kids in schools are rising.
· Keeping economic growth at between five and eight percent per year is eminently possible given a low base.

· And, the drop in unemployment figures in recent years quietens the naysayers who suggest that growth is jobless. However, the figures do show that employment is seasonal, suggesting that jobs are being created in low-paying agricultural and tourism sectors.

· Private sector investment in the key automotive sector topped R4 billion last year, a clear sign of investor confidence in the province. In the forestry and agri-processing sectors, massive public and private sector investment is underway in the eastern half of the province, notably through the PG Bison investment at Ugie and the Mzimvubu initiative centred on Mthatha, both identified as among the province’s high impact priority projects because of their sustainability and effect on rural poor communities.

· Asgisa Eastern Cape (Pty) Ltd will play a facilitative and catalytic role in unlocking up to R4 billion in rural investment, including forestry development and timber processing, agriculture and agro-processing.

But delivering on some of the other targets in the PGDP before 2014 – inter alia halting and reversing the spread of HIV/Aids and tuberculosis, providing clean water for all and ensuring the province’s food self-sufficiency - may require much more than a good intent.

Much of what government is – or should be - doing is pretty run-of-the-mill stuff. However, in her address, Premier Balindlela said the fight against poverty and to grow the provincial economy require solutions which are extraordinary and innovative.

It’s those innovations – audacious acts – which raise my interest despite the temptation to join my friends and say this province is a disaster case.

· It is audacious to put in place measures to grow agricultural output in the eastern part of the province, when many decades of bantustan under-development made us believe that nothing good can grow here. Efforts to grow community farming are reaping significant benefits – albeit again coming off a low base.

Human resource development, the introduction of appropriate technologies, organising communities into collective buying and marketing structures, ensure that food is being produced for everyday consumption with surpluses sold to generate income for re-planting and expansion.

There is concerted innovation taking place within the rural development programmes at Walter Sisulu University (WSU) and the more-established Fort Hare. A debate last year at WSU’s annual rural development conference touched on the need for education curricula to promote and teach an agrarian-based lifestyle, rather than in effect encouraging youths to migrate to cities in search of work in industrial complexes.

· Government’s provincial transport initiatives are a realisation that we must maintain and re-capitalise our asset base and leverage it for commercial and social benefits. The best examples are the much maligned Bhisho airport, the Kei rail project and multi-billion rand investments in road infrastructure servicing industry, tourism, and farming.

It started off simply as a refrain but the reality is now creeping in: Our province is accessible as never before, with access roads being built to deep rural communities. With accessibility come increased developmental opportunities.

And all this in innovative partnerships: To maximise job creation opportunities through the Expanded Public Works Programme; with the private sector to facilitate raw materials entering and finished goods leaving industrial centres; with the private sector again in respect of upgrading and leasing Bhisho airport; with the Department of Education through the Shova ka Lula initiative to provide bicycles to 5000 rural learners who have to walk long distances to get to school each day; and with local communities to take ownership of their little stretch of national or provincial road through a roadside maintenance and housekeeping programme.

· A housing innovation hub at Elliotdale will, for the first time, recognise indigenous building methodologies in an effort to speed up the delivery of “safe, sustainable and dignified human settlements”.

· Innovative funding and building models also lie behind efforts to fast-track the programme to erect brick buildings for the almost 200 000 learners in the eastern half of the province who currently are accommodated in mud structures. Government is rebuilding the 40 worst schools.

· The decision to recall maths and science teachers who may have been enticed to quit during former retrenchment programmes is also innovative as is having a health care professional on 24-hour standby at primary health clinics serving local communities, especially in far-flung rural areas. Last year, 61 new clinics were opened in the province with this key service.

· There has been a dramatic reduction in the vacancy rate of strategic provincial and local government posts. Coupled to a massive programme in association with Fort Hare University to upgrade the skills of existing bureaucrats, this must lead to service delivery improvements, as will government sticking to its guns that managers who do not achieve their spending targets will not receive performance bonuses.

· Street and area committees served our communities well before democracy and it is a cleverly audacious move to invoke this measure in the fight against crime in our province.

Balancing run-of-the-mill programmes against innovative ones in the fight against poverty, better services, and against maladministration will be the challenge thrown up in the Provincial Budget.