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Statement on the Cabinet Meeting, 21 February 2007 Cabinet
held its third meeting of the year in Cape Town yesterday, 21 February 2007. In
addition to the regular business of Cabinet, the decisions of the January Cabinet
Lekgotla were formally approved. Cabinet would like congratulate the people
of Lesotho on their peaceful and successful general election which represents
another demonstration of the continent's commitment to democracy. These elections
further promote a climate for socio-economic development and integration within
the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region in pursuit of African
Union and New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) programmes. We trust
that the people of Lesotho will respect the outcome of these elections and the
rule of law. The meeting noted, with deep concern, the threat posed by
the floods in Mozambique and their impact on communities. All South Africans share
the pain and suffering of Mozambicans during this difficult period. South Africa
will continue to provide assistance to the people and government of Mozambique
as we have done in the past. Cabinet noted, with concern, the reported
tensions and violence between the Somali community and South African residents
of Motherwell in the Eastern Cape province. We wish to call on South Africans
to exercise restraint in dealing with difficult issues and to discourage people
from taking the law into their own hands. Somalis and other immigrants must be
assured of the government's rejection of violence against them and our commitment
to ensure that lasting solutions are found to the causes of the conflict and tensions.
Cabinet fully supports the initiatives of provincial and local leaders to prevent
any further violence. Our police services will and must deal with any one found
to be inciting violence and attacks. We should all be reminded that we are a peace
loving nation and our national interests will never be served by creating the
impression that our African brothers and sisters are not welcome in our country.
As part of our commitment to contribute to socio-economic and political
stability of our continent, Cabinet approved the request from the African Union
to deploy 1 100 members of the South African National Defence Force to Burundi
to be part of the African Union Special Task Force. This deployment will contribute
to peace and stability in Burundi and ensure that the progress towards peace in
that country is not reversed. Cabinet approved the National Information
Society and Development (ISAD) Plan as a framework for building an inclusive information
society in South Africa. A Ministerial ISAD Committee, chaired by the Presidency,
will be set up to co-ordinate government activities in this regard. A partnership
forum has been launched to co-ordinate activities of Government and civil society.
This partnership will be known as the Information Society and Development Intergovernmental
Relations Forum (ISADIGRF). The meeting noted progress regarding South
Africa's migration from analogue to digital broadcasting, in line with global
trends. It approved that the digital signal be switched on, on 1 November 2008
and that the analogue signal be switched off on 1 November 2011, thus, allowing
a three year period of dual illumination. Further, the meeting approved the retention
of sufficient frequency spectrum for broadcasting purposes to provide for new
television channels for specialised services that would be dedicated to education,
health, and youth, small to medium enterprises, sports; and three regional service
channels that would cater for three channels each. The Department of Trade
and Industry will interact with television manufacturers and retailers to sensitise
them to the conversion. A communication campaign will be launched to inform and
educate the public about the implications of this migration. Cabinet approved
a policy and strategy for the implementation of Free and Open Source Software
(FOSS) in government. All new software developed for or by the Government will
be based on open standards and government will itself migrate current software
to FOSS. This strategy will, among other things, lower administration costs and
enhance local Information Technology (IT) skills. The meeting noted that all the
major IT vendors in the country have both supported the initiative and made contributions
to the development of FOSS. Government departments will incorporate FOSS in their
planning henceforth. By April 2007, a project office will be set up by the Department
of Science and Technology, the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research
(CSIR) and State Information Technology Agency (SITA) to ensure smooth implementation
of FOSS throughout the country. Cabinet noted progress with regard to the
fulfilment of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) guarantees to FIFA
in preparation for the 2010 FIFA World Cup. A service provider will be appointed
to provide adequate telecommunications for the transportation of signals to and
from the stadia. Further, a second Sentech teleport will be built to provide the
satellite link as back-up to the telecommunications infrastructure required for
the 2010 FIFA World Cup. An International Broadcast Centre will be established
for the World Cup Finals which will serve as a legacy project for local content
generation and development beyond the world Cup finals. The final site for the
Broadcast centre will be determined by Cabinet in the near future. Cabinet
approved a framework to align infrastructure delivery cycles with the Medium Term
Expenditure Framework (MTEF) budget cycle in order to improve planning, implementation
and better cash-flow management that would, among other things, deal with the
fourth quarter expenditure spike. This framework accommodates the long lead time
before infrastructure projects reach the construction stage. The infrastructure
delivery cycle will be amended to include an Infrastructure Programme Management
Plan (IPMP) and an Infrastructure Programme Implementation Plan (IPIP) which will
be mandatory for all departments. Best practice approaches will be adopted to
include budget cycles that commit funds for the duration of the project without
leading to the so-called roll-overs. This framework will require the appointment
of appropriately skilled built-environment professionals across all relevant departments,
provinces and local government. The meeting noted that the SA Police Service
had introduced a new performance management system to improve organisational performance
of the service. This system is part of the overall change management strategy
to improve service delivery and strengthening our capacity to fight crime. It
includes: setting of national performance standards and targets; performance assessments;
identification of non-performing police stations; adoption of corrective measures
for the non performing stations and the introduction of performance incentives
for the police stations that meet the crime fighting targets. Other aspects include
better deployment of personnel and a performance management chart to measure and
monitor performance of police stations. Cabinet resolved that this system must
be communicated to communities which could play a key role in monitoring the performance
of police stations around the country. Cabinet noted reports of hoax emails
and SMS messages concerning the health of former President Nelson Mandela. These
irresponsible messages predict racial conflict in the event of Madiba's passing
away. Cabinet wishes to reiterate what was said by the spokesperson for
the former President, that there is no truth to the speculation about his health.
As in the case of all public figures, the public would be informed of such matters
through official channels and without delay. Attention should not be paid
to such rumours or to malicious predictions of conflict. The principles that Madiba
stands for are enshrined in our constitution and enjoy the unqualified support
of this government and the majority of all South Africans. We call upon the media
not to give these malicious messages any undue prominence or credence as this
only plays into mischievous hands. Government has every confidence that the overwhelming
majority of every sector of South African society would not allow a few individuals
to deflect them from the irreversible progress we are making in building a united
nation. Cabinet noted the successful interaction between the media and
Cabinet clusters during the media briefing week. These briefings assist the media
to give the public an understanding of government's Programme of Action following
the President's State of the Nation Address. In this context, the meeting
took exception to some highly personalised comments on the state of health of
the Minister of Health who led one of the briefings. Cabinet regards media reports
about her performance at the press briefing as inaccurate and exaggerated. While
we respect everyone's right to criticise Members of the Executive, such personalised
attacks are not constructive. We condemn the statement by one of the political
parties about her health as appalling and extremely distasteful. We trust that
the majority of South Africans will join us in wishing Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang
a speedy recovery and good health. The following appointments were approved:
* The nomination of Mr G Griffiths as an Executive Board member the South
African Airways (SAA) was approved.
* Mr M Moroka, Director General of the
Department of Public Works
* Deputy Directors-General (DDGs) in the Departments
of Environmental Affairs and Tourism, Provincial and Local Government, National
Treasury and Correctional Services (Deputy National Commissioner)
* Two DDGs
in the Department of Trade and Industry. The following Bills were approved:
Enquiries: Themba
Maseko
Government Spokesperso
Cell: 083 645 0810 Issued by: Government
Communications (GCIS)
22 February 2007
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