INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS Provincial focus
In addition, only 4.4 percent of TB patients defaulted on
“Over the past two financial years we have delivered more
their treatment, which means that the target of less than five
than 9 000 housing units across all the human settlements
percent was achieved.
programmes,” notes Premier Magashule.
“The National Health Insurance was piloted in the Thabo Mofutsanyana District. We are proceeding well with implementation,” says the Premier.
Social development
Attention is now being paid to the transfer of title deeds to beneficiaries, he adds. Milestones include the completing of 1 051 units of the Brandwag Social Housing project and the development of 400 of the 950 social housing units at Hillside View. The development
Over 900 Early Childhood Development facilities benefitting
of community residential units is underway at a number of
48 224 children are funded by the provincial government.
hostels across the province and around 495 hectares of
Additional centres will be built in Vogelfontein, Botshabelo
land have been acquired in Sasolburg. This property has the
and Thaba Nchu in the coming year, adds Premier Magashule.
potential to yield over 7 000 housing opportunities, while
A state-owned substance abuse treatment centre will be opened on the premises of the Botshabelo Hospital in the Mangaung Metro before the end of the 2016/2017 financial year.
the Vogelfontein mixed housing development project will create over 5 000 housing opportunities.
Economic transformation
To alleviate the shortage of social workers in the province,
According to the Premier, the Free State provincial govern-
two learnership programmes for 50 social auxiliary workers
ment will continue to support programmes to stimulate the
and 50 child and youth care workers will be implemented and
creation of sustainable livelihoods.
61 social work graduates will be deployed at various centres in the province.
Home sweet home The province has also made significant progress with regard to human settlements.
One such initiative is the youth entrepreneurial programme ‘Business in a Box’ that benefited 60 young people from Matjhabeng. The programme will be rolled out to other parts of the province to produce more job creators instead of job seekers. “Our focus this year will continue to be on reducing red tape, supporting hawkers and providing decent shelters for our micro enterprises in the province, the roll-out of the Black Industrial Development Programme and a focused approach to the value chains to grow our local enterprises,” says Premier Magashule.
Attracting investment Meanwhile, following the inaugural Free State Global Investor Trade Bridge, co-operation agreements were forged with India, Russia, Angola, Turkey and China. Other initiatives to boost the local economy include R5 billion in investment in the Harrismith Special Economic Zone, which will create a potential 5 000 jobs; the province’s power generation and distribution partnership with Bulgarian company Lemi Trafo Transformers and the establishment of a factory in Harrismith for the repair of damaged transformers and the production of new ones. Premier Magashule gets hands on to help build better communities.
Phase One of the Xhariep Solar Park, conceived as part of government efforts to promote investment in renewable energy, will be rolled out within the next year.
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Public Sector Manager • July 2016