FROM THE DESK OF THE PRESIDENT
Monday, 02 November 2020
In three days’ time the matric class of 2020 will sit for the National Senior Certificate examinations.
It is the culmination of twelve years of schooling and a gruelling final year of preparation. For many this is an exciting moment, but one that is also fraught with anxiety.
This year’s exam will be written under unprecedented conditions. We are in the midst of a global pandemic. The nationwide lockdown we had to impose in March to contain the spread of the coronavirus caused immense disruption to everyday life and cost valuable hours of learning and study.
To accommodate the disruptions the June Senior Certificate exams were postponed and will now be written together with the National Senior Certificate. More than a million candidates will sit for the examinations starting on Thursday.
This makes this combined examination the largest public exam ever administered in South Africa.
The provincial and national Departments of Basic Education are to be congratulated for their sterling preparation to ensure things proceed smoothly. These include the independent and public auditing of examination centres, finding extra venues to accommodate the large number of candidates, and the development of protocols to ensure compliance by candidates and officials with COVID-19 regulations.
The Class of 2020 has had to endure conditions their predecessors never had to confront. They had to adapt in real time not just to finish the curriculum but to catch up with the learning hours lost. Though some had access to online learning platforms and other resources, many had to struggle with access to learning material and teaching.
They had to endure the mental strain of social isolation, and for many months were cut off from friends and their teachers. They were not able to participate in sporting, recreational and leisure activities that are so essential to a well-rounded life and that relieve the stresses of prolonged study.
Yet, despite having the odds stacked against them, our learners are determined to present for this exam that is the pinnacle of their schooling.
It has been equally difficult for our educators. Despite the risk posed by the virus and resource challenges inside our schools, the majority of our teachers heeded the call to return to school to salvage what was left of the academic year.
They presented for work every day to support our matriculants. They put in the extra hours to get our learners over the finish line, making the most of the resources they had to ensure learning continued.
I salute our educators who have been there for their students when they were needed most. They have given so much, personally and professionally. They put our learners first and in doing so affirmed once more that our teachers are among our finest public servants.
This pandemic has brought our nation together in ways not experienced before, and this was demonstrated in the matriculation examination preparations.
Many businesses played a supportive role, assisting with the provision of technology like tablets to schools and assisting to resource school multimedia centres. Mobile network operators established e-school platforms during the lockdown carrying free learning content, including subject content for matriculants.
University graduates set up tutoring platforms online, making much needed supplementary learning support available for free.
The SABC and other TV providers have carried catch-up lessons for matric learners through the Department of Basic Education’s Woza Matrics Programme, enabling learners to prepare for the examinations.
There is the heart-warming story of Dendron Secondary School in Limpopo, where a group of dedicated teachers opened their own homes to their students. During the early days of the lockdown, they provided food and accommodation to small groups of matriculants, and supervised their studies.
There are no doubt many such stories in other parts of our country; of educators convening home-study groups with their students and of parents providing food, learning space and other resources to their children’s friends.
Without the support of parents, families and communities, our young people’s path to the matric exam would have been considerably harder. We thank them for their support.
Despite all the challenges this year has brought, I call on the Class of 2020 to summon their great reserves of courage and strength in this, the final push.
To the Class of 2020, I wish you the very best.
You have overcome difficulties that would test the resolve of even the most experienced and hardened adults.
At your tender age, there are so many demands upon you. There are the pressures of rigorous study, the pressure to excel and to achieve the results you need to study further. And yet you have come this far.
When you enter the exam room in the days ahead, you will be carrying not just your own hopes for success and those of your families. You will also carry the hopes of us, the South African people.
We are immensely proud of you and wish you the very best of luck.
FROM THE DESK OF THE PRESIDENT
Monday, 26 October 2020
According to 2015 figures, around two-thirds of households who use public transport travel by minibus taxi. A quarter travel by bus and 10 percent by train.
In a country where the vast majority do not have access to private cars, the provision of efficient, reliable, safe and affordable public transport is critical to our people’s everyday lives.
Unfortunately, public transport continues to be plagued by challenges; some are the legacy of apartheid development, but many are contemporary and persistent.
Two events last week drew into sharp focus the reality that for far too many citizens, using public transport is dangerous and can even be deadly.
Last Wednesday, 16 people were killed when a minibus taxi collided with a truck between Melmoth and Ulundi in KwaZulu-Natal.
A day later, commuters had to flee for their lives on a busy highway in Johannesburg when a passenger in a minibus taxi opened fire on the driver, killing him and causing the vehicle to lose control. Fortunately, none of the other passengers was injured.
Many of our people’s experiences with public transport are not positive. Those reliant on trains have to contend with daily delays, disruptions and prolonged closures of essential lines. Furthermore, rail infrastructure in most cities only covers older parts of cities and has not kept up with new city development.
Unroadworthy vehicles, unsafe driving, speeding, overloading and other practices are persistent problems in the taxi industry. Many people fall victim to crime on trains, taxis and buses.
With many people living far from places of work, transport is very expensive for low-income households. A report by Statistics South Africa found that more than two-thirds of households with the lowest income spend more than 20% of their monthly household income on public transport. The survey found that transportation by taxis to be the most expensive mode of public transport, followed by trains and buses.
Since taxis are the primary means of public transit for people across all provinces, we are giving urgent attention to the problems in the industry.
This week, we are convening the National Taxi Lekgotla to chart the course towards a more efficient sector. This platform brings together government, civil society and industry stakeholders and comes on the back of provincial makgotla that have taken place in most provinces.
The lekgotla will seek common ground on existing business models, safety and compliance, broader economic empowerment of operators and the issue of subsidies for taxis. It will also look at how to end the conflict and violence that continues to plague the industry because of competition on routes.
Most importantly, it must emerge with a blueprint for a formalised industry that plays a meaningful role in the mainstream economy and is effectively regulated.
The taxi industry can and must play an important role in government’s ultimate objective of improving the daily experiences of commuters through the establishment of integrated rapid transport service networks in the metros, cities, towns and rural districts.
When public transport is unsafe, unreliable and costly, it also affects economic activity. Given that about 4 in 10 workers use public transport to reach their workplaces, these challenges have knock-on effects on productivity, labour relations and business functioning.
As part of the programme to build a new economy, we are working with all stakeholders to improve the state of public transport. This is necessary if we are to expand manufacturing, increase local production, stimulate small business activity and create more job opportunities.
We are mindful that as households make decisions on where to live, where to work and where to study based on access to transport, businesses also make decisions on expansion and investment based on the mobility of the labour force.
Simply put, we cannot achieve the economic growth and recovery we aspire towards if people cannot get to work on time and safely.
A well-functioning transport system has the additional benefit of alleviating road congestion and reducing travel times, energy consumption and air pollution.
That is why we are going to invest in transport infrastructure systems that will carry people safely and in a manner that will contribute to economic growth.
The Economic Reconstruction and Recovery Plan I announced earlier this month acknowledges that improving transport infrastructure is central to economic growth and expanding industrial activity.
As part of our plan, we have embarked on projects to modernise and refurbish commuter rail networks alongside the expansion of road rehabilitation and maintenance programmes.
Upgraded transportation infrastructure coupled with improved public transport is a key driver of economic activity. Similarly, resolving the challenges facing a sector as important as the taxi industry is an important step towards transforming the public transport landscape.
A formalised, well-managed, better regulated minibus taxi system is in the best interests of not just those who use taxis daily. It is also in the interest of the development and progress of the entire society.
Best regards,
FROM THE DESK OF THE PRESIDENT
Monday, 12 October 2020
Dear Fellow South African,
Just over a week ago, Brendin Horner, a young farm manager in the Free State,
was murdered in an appalling act of cruelty.
His killing should anger and upset every one of us.
No matter who we are, no matter what community we live in, no matter our race, creed or language, we should be as deeply affected by the death of Brendin Horner as we are by the many other South Africans who die violent deaths each year.
Just as we mourn the loss of his life, we also mourn the deaths of Mogamad Cloete, Tawqeer Essop and André Bennett, three young men who were shot in a car in Delft in the Western Cape in the same week.
Our thoughts are with their families at this time of grief. It is at such moments that we are called on to reach out to each other as South Africans, to show compassion, empathy and solidarity.
These crimes are a stark reminder of the levels of violence in our country.
While crime affects everyone, the majority of victims of violent crime are black and poor; and it is young black men and women who are at a disproportionately greater risk of being murdered.
We have a huge task to bring an end to murder, assault, robbery, rape and violence against women and children wherever it happens and whoever it affects. It requires that all peace-loving South Africans stand together not only to condemn these criminal acts, but also to work together to end them.
It requires that we hold fast to the principles contained in our Constitution, that we uphold the rule of law and that we strengthen our justice system to ensure that the perpetrators are brought to book.
The violent protests that took place in Senekal following the arrest of suspects in Brendin Horn’s murder show that we have not yet escaped the divisions and mistrust of our past. While anger at the senseless killing is justifiable, vigilantism is not.
The brutal killing of a young white farmer, allegedly by black men, followed by the spectacle of white farmers storming a police station to get to a black suspect has opened up wounds that go back many generations.
If we are to succeed in tackling violent crime, particularly in rural communities, we must confront this trauma and challenge the racial attitudes that prevent a united response.
Those people who think that farm attacks affect just a small part of our population are wrong. The farming community is an integral part of our economy. The farming community produces the food that we eat. Violent crime on farms poses not just a threat to the safety of our rural communities, but to our nation’s food security.
The claim that violent crime on farms is part of an orchestrated campaign by blacks to drive white farmers off their land is simply not borne out by fact.
Numerous studies show that crime in farming communities is largely opportunistic. Rural communities are more vulnerable because of their isolated location and, as a result, the relative lack of access to security and other services.
Contrary to the irresponsible claims of some lobby groups, killings on farms are not ethnic cleansing. They are not genocidal. They are acts of criminality and must be treated as such.
The success of our Rural Safety Strategy rests on greater coordination and better communication between the South African Police Service, business, farming organisations and communities.
There needs to be more collaboration between farm watch organisations and Community Policing Forums. Farming communities, including farmworkers, must actively participate in these forums, because it is they who are the eyes and ears on the ground. Traditional leaders need to be empowered to play a greater role in safety in farming communities.
Farmers need to more readily provide access to their lands to law-enforcement officials. Private security companies operating in farming communities need to work more closely with the SAPS, and at the same time ensure that arrests of suspects are done within the confines of our Constitution. We must continue to explore additional measures, such as integrated communications technologies, to step up rural safety.
At the same time, we have to invest in rural development and tackle the severe inequality that persists in farming communities. We need a coordinated effort to improve the quality of life of all people living in rural areas if we are to eliminate poverty, which is a major contributing factor to crime.
We would be naïve to assume that race relations in farming communities have been harmonious since the advent of democracy. Unless this is addressed in an open and honest manner, unless we are prepared to engage in dialogue, this will remain a festering wound that threatens social cohesion.
What happened in Senekal shows just how easily the tinderbox of race hatred can be ignited. As a nation we must resist any attempts to use crime on farms to mobilise communities along racial lines.
One murder is a murder too many. We stand in solidarity with all victims of crime, regardless of whether they live in cities or on farms, whether they are farmers or farmworkers.
We must work together to root out criminality, whether it is in Senekal or on the streets of Delft. Crime is not somebody else’s problem; it is our collective problem.
We must remain vigilant and work with the police to keep our communities safe. We must not harbour criminals among us. In far too many instances, perpetrators are known to communities and are sheltered by them.
We must not be blinded by our own prejudices to the suffering and pain of others. It should not matter to us if the victim of violent crime is black or white.
To do so would be a betrayal not just of this country’s founding principles, but of our own humanity.
With regards,
President Cyril Ramaphosa
FROM THE DESK OF THE PRESIDENT
Monday, 19 October 2020
Dear Fellow South African,
The launch of the Presidential Employment Stimulus last week marks a fundamental shift in our approach to tackling unemployment.
We are undertaking a far-reaching and ambitious public investment in human capital, with the state as both a creator and an enabler of jobs. The Presidential Employment Stimulus is unprecedented in its scale and breadth, involving a public investment of R100 billion over the next three years.
We will protect and create directly-funded jobs and livelihood support interventions while the labour market recovers from the coronavirus pandemic. Each of these is ready for implementation, and is additional to existing commitments.
While some of the interventions build on the strengths of existing programmes, the stimulus also includes new and innovative approaches.
This includes a focus on what we have termed ‘social employment’. We are working from the premise that there is no shortage of work to be done to address the many social problems in our society. The aim is to support the considerable creativity, initiative and institutional capabilities that exist in the wider society to engage people in work that serves the common good. This work cuts across a range of themes, including food security, ending gender-based violence, informal settlement upgrading and much more.
This will supplement the efforts of the public sector, allowing for greater scale and social impact as well as new forms of partnership with diverse social actors.
The stimulus includes a new national programme to employ teaching and school assistants in schools. Schools are making these appointments right now, delivering new opportunities in every community across the length and breadth of the country.
Public employment is not just for unskilled work. There is a cross-cutting focus on graduates, with opportunities for nurses, science graduates, artisans and others.
The stimulus will also protect jobs in vulnerable sectors that have been hit hard by the pandemic. Support will be provided to Early Childhood Development practitioners, mainly self-employed women. Over 74,000 small farmers will also receive production input grants.
As a nation, we need arts and culture to lift our spirits once more – the stimulus provides new funding to help the sector back onto its feet, including support to digital content-creation and expansion of e-commerce platforms.
This will enable artists to adapt to the new market conditions that the pandemic has imposed on us all and to seize new opportunities for growth.
A critical enabler for wider job creation, made more important by the pandemic, is connectivity. To overcome the digital divide, the stimulus will provide affordable, high-speed broadband to low-income households through innovative connection subsidies and the expansion of free public WiFi.
As our country recovers from the devastation of the coronavirus pandemic, we are in no doubt as to the size of the task before us.
We have to achieve an economic recovery that is swift and inclusive. We have to get as many of our people as possible working again. We also have to regain lost ground in the provision of basic services and critical infrastructure, addressing social challenges and transforming townships and rural communities too.
Public employment is an instrument that can do all of the above: creating jobs at scale in the short term while markets recover, and creating social value in the process.
The example is often cited of the massive public works programme undertaken by the United States after the Great Depression in the 1930s. This was not just a stimulus, but also promoted social participation and inclusion.
There are several examples of innovative public employment programmes in the developing world, including in India, Ethiopia and here in South Africa. These programmes make a direct investment in local economies, reaching poorer areas first, supporting local small enterprises and trickling up into the wider economy from there.
They also promote social participation and inclusion, providing communities with the means to change their lives as they undertake new forms of work. In doing so, they contribute to transformation both at a local level and within broader society.
Direct public investment to support employment and create economic opportunities that generate social value does more than just tackle the unemployment crisis.
It is responsive, because it uses the state’s resources to respond to local community needs, be it for greener spaces, food security, more early childhood development centres, or for better and more accessible roads.
It is progressive, because it offers social protection and income security to those who face destitution because they are unable to find work.
It is an investment in the future, in that it supports the broader economic recovery agenda by urgently getting our people to work on improving our national and municipal infrastructure.
Through the interventions in the stimulus, we are creating work for those who need it, while leaving a lasting impact on entire communities.
Like public employment programmes across the world, this employment stimulus supports and complements the critical role of the private sector in creating jobs. It is counter-cyclical, in that as the recovery advances, the scale of public employment will decline.
The work experience and skills acquired by beneficiaries of the Presidential Employment Stimulus will improve their prospects of securing formal employment.
The experience gained is also a pathway to entrepreneurial activity. Participants will improve their skills and capabilities to start their own businesses, and can use the steady income provided by public employment to branch out into other income-generating activities.
I have consistently affirmed that the COVID-19 crisis is also a window of opportunity to build back better.
At this time of great upheaval, we would be doing ourselves no favours by making unrealistic promises that raise expectations, only to come short when they are not met. This is why each of the jobs and livelihood support interventions is fully funded, with a clear implementation plan.
The employment stimulus is not about vague commitments for some time in the future, but about jobs being created right here and now.
The stimulus is the result of extensive consultation with national departments, provinces and metros to rapidly design employment programmes that can be rolled out or expanded within six months.
The implementing departments and other stakeholders were rigorously assessed on their capacity to implement.
In every one of the programmes that fall under the stimulus, opportunities will be widely advertised and recruitment will be fair, open and transparent.
The goals we have set ourselves are realistic, measurable and achievable, and draw lessons from past experience and international best practice.
Our people are ready and willing to work. This vast potential must be harnessed, and our collective skills and capabilities brought to bear in rebuilding our country in the wake of the coronavirus.
The Presidential Employment Stimulus provides a respite for families who have endured a long hard winter with greatly reduced income, and for individuals who have spent many years without work.
Real, decent work is the right of every human being. It is a precondition for economic growth and social stability.
By giving effect to this fundamental right, the Presidential Employment Stimulus is making a decisive contribution to building a society that works.
With best regards,
President Cyril RAMAPHOSA
FROM THE DESK OF THE PRESIDENT
Monday, 05 October 2020
Dear Fellow South African,
Last week the Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development (DLRD) announced that members of the public will be able to apply to lease 700 000 hectares of underutilized or vacant state land in seven of the provinces.
Agricultural land is the mainstay of our natural resource base. The availability and sustainable use of farmland to grow crops and for animal husbandry is key to our very survival.
South Africa has vast tracts of land suitable for agricultural production, with 37,9% of our total land area currently being used for commercial agriculture.
Like many other countries, our arable land is under threat from land degradation, water scarcity and urban encroachment. We are also losing prime agricultural land through land-use changes.
Given our history, broadening access to agricultural land for commercial production and subsistence farming is a national priority.
Although the post-1994 land reform process has resulted in more land being restored and restituted to black South Africans, the pernicious effects of the 1913 Natives Land Act continue to be in patterns of farmland ownership.
The Act went far beyond dispossessing millions of people of their ancestral land.
By depriving our people of their right to own and work the land on which they depended for sustenance and livelihood, this great injustice effectively ‘engineered the poverty of black South Africans.’
It’s aim was to destroy our people’s prospects for self-reliance, independence and economic prosperity. At the most fundamental of levels, it destroyed our ability to feed ourselves.
With land ownership still concentrated in the hands of the few, and agriculture primary production and value chains mainly owned by white commercial farmers, the effects of our past remain with us today.
The continued monopolization of a key means of production like land is not just an obstacle to advancing a more egalitarian society; it is also a recipe for social unrest.
The hunger for land to farm is growing, especially amongst the rural poor. And for a number of reasons, the pace of land reform in this particular sector has been slow and unsatisfactory.
Transforming patterns of agricultural land ownership is vital not just to address the historical injustices of the past, but to safeguard our nation’s food security.
As noted in the 2019 report of the Presidential Advisory Panel on Land Reform and Agriculture, “whilst we export food, back home 41% of people in rural areas and 59,4% in urban areas have severely inadequate access to food.”
Agrarian reform has been a priority of successive administrations since democracy.
Between 1994 and March 2018 the state has delivered 8,4 million hectares of land to previously disadvantaged individuals under the land reform programme. But this progress amounts to less than 10% of all commercial farmland.
In my State of the Nation address earlier this year I committed that state-owned agricultural land would soon be released for farming.
This is a major milestone in the agrarian reform process, and gives effect to the promise of the Freedom Charter that the land shall be shared among those who work it.
Our redistributive vision aims to strike a balance between social justice and redress, and enhancing agricultural output by bringing more black farmers into the mainstream of the economy.
Land is a productive asset that generates profit and can be used for collateral to secure other assets.
We have to ensure that land acquired for farming purposes is productively used. To safeguard the allocated state land for farming purposes, the lease is not transferrable. Beneficiaries will sign a lease agreement with the state and pay a rental fee consistent with the land value.
We must also ensure that farmers are supported along the road to sustainability and profitability.
As part of this programme, beneficiaries will be trained in financial management and enterprise development. Experience has shown that emerging and small-scale farmers often lack the financial skills to exploit market opportunities and integrate with value chains.
We are prioritizing women, youth and persons with disabilities as beneficiaries.
There has been demonstrable success with empowering women farmers under the existing Pro Active Land Acquisition Strategy (PLAS).
In a number of provinces, women who have been allocated farms by the DLRD have been able to run them successfully and even move into commercial production. In addition to the land acquisition itself, the Department continues to invest in infrastructure, equipment and machinery to enable these entrepreneurs to run successful businesses.
Broadening access to land and opportunities for farming will support job creation and enterprise development, and improve the market for food, agricultural goods and services.
The ultimate goal of releasing these land parcels is to transform the agricultural landscape by growing a new generation of farmers.
Leasing land under such favourable conditions must spur them to think big; to not just grow their own businesses but to advance shared wealth and prosperity in the communities in which they farm.
They must heal the deep divisions of our past. They must dispel the stereotype that only white farmers are commercially successful in South Africa, and that black farmers are perpetually ‘emerging.’
In working this land; in turning it to productive use, they will indeed turn swords into ploughshares. They will become the faces of national reconciliation.
Best wishes,
President Ramaphosa