Honourable Speaker and Deputy Speaker
Honourable Premier and Members of the Executive
Honourable Members of the Legislature
Officials present here
Distinguished guests and visitors at the gallery

Be greeted in Jesus’ name.

Let me take this opportunity to congratulate you, we wish you all of the best and happiness in your new venture, may this journey take you to the way of success.

The Eastern Cape is faced with many challenges, like poor housing development and houses that were built without proper infrastructure. The lack of proper planning of housing projects results in delays in the timeous implementation of a number of projects. The government must strive to improve planning for housing projects to prevent unnecessary time wasting which results in serious cost implications.

The United Democratic Movement (UDM) also commends the Honourable Premier for the rollout package of basic services such as electricity, water, sewage, sanitation to 700,000 indigent household in our province, but the government has allowed corruption to flourish for a long time, which is a very serious concern.

This has spread like cancer cells throughout the public service. We support the strategies that are in place to fight this fiscus gobbler that has caused so much damage and hurt to the people of this province.

The UDM is more concerned about the shortage of educators, and non-teaching staff such as administrators as well as securities. There is also a shortage of water and sanitation facilities in most rural schools.

The Honourable Premier must ensure that this is also addressed. Our children are faced with societal challenges such as crime, teenage pregnancy and substance abuse.

The educators always fear for their lives because they might not know what a child is going to do. We want the government to place more focus on these problems.

The Honourable Premier must put in place a monitoring mechanism and proper plans on how it intends to deal with the shortage of qualified mathematics and science educators in our public schools.

There is also the need for food security for our disadvantaged people because the absence of proper food is a serious main contribution to chronic diseases. Such intervention can help to alleviate hunger, poverty and disease in our society.

There is still a need for government to focus on educating nurses on how to treat their patients considering the Batho Pele principles; there are many people that still complain about the conduct of our nurses. We do not know if the complaints by the public are ever taken into consideration by government.

There are serious challenges of medico-legal claims which leads to unexpected serious and unnecessary expenditure by the government.

We appreciate the effectiveness of education and advocacy on HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis, but the growth rate of these diseases is still alarming. The bulk of the budget of the province is spent on the department of health, but there is still more to be improved.

The current socio-economic situation in the Eastern Cape requires that a greater effect is made to address job creation so that fewer and fewer people need to depend on social grants. Poverty has reached inter-generational levels.

The condition of the roads, especially in rural areas, leaves much to be desired. One hopes that the budget of relevant department will cater for this painful need.

Public Works needs to embark on a programme of regularly attending to public buildings; especially hospitals. There cannot be unhealthy people in unhealthy buildings.

The officials of the department of social development often find their buildings uninhabitable resulting in the loss of productive time.

Your address shied away from these issues, yet they cry for the attention of a caring government.

I thank you.