Millions to assist N Cape students

A TOTAL of 487 young people from the Northern Cape are being assisted through the Premier’s Trust Fund.

In presenting her budget to the Northern Cape Legislature, the Premier, Sylvia Lucas, pointed out that 159 of these were new students and 328 were continuing students from various parts of the Province, who were granted bursaries to take up further study at universities, colleges and Further Education and Training (FET) colleges for the 2013 academic year.

The funding covers costs for registration, tuition and study material.

In her address, Lucas pointed out that the total budget allocation of her office was R167.8 million, which was a decrease of R1.6 million from last year.

Lucas stated in her address that the Mme re ka Thusa Women Development Trust was re-launched during February this year to help expedite the advancement and economic development of female entrepreneurs across the Province.

“The board of trustees is in place and the office has finalised the recruitment of operating personnel.”

The Provincial Aids Council has meanwhile also been moved to the Office of the Premier to oversee government intervention efforts to combat the Aids epidemic. This newly established unit has been allocated R3.7 million for this financial year.

Also on the cards in the coming year is the implementation of an information technology framework to ensure that the information system are aligned to business goals. This unit has been allocated R10.998 million in the budget, while legal services will receive R5.2 million.

The Employee Health and Wellness unit, which is a workplace intervention and monitoring unit to ensure successful implementation of wellness programmes in the Province. It is also responsible for co-ordinating workplace programmes of the Sexually Transmit- ted Infection National Strategic Plan. This unit received an allocation of R2.8 million, while R2.79 million will go towards informing staff about various types of cancer.

A total of R3.2 million will meanwhile be spent on a communication strategy for the provincial government.

Lucas also announced a Nerve Centre, which will be a centralised data-sharing hub where all departments will upload data under their control so that it can be shared with all other government departments.

There will also be a public view where non-sensitive data can be accessed by the general public.

“The Nerve Centre will for the first time provide a common platform where government’s performance can be measured.

“It is envisaged that the Nerve Centre will have a walk-in self-service facility where Members of the Executive Committee, Heads of Department and other managers can access reports through a simple touch-screen environment,” the Premier added.

Saul said the party believed that Lucas had been able to “firmly grasp the mettle and hit the ground running in a period just exceeding a week”.

“She is one of the most capable and daring cadres serving our people in government,” he said.

Referring to the budget presented yesterday, Saul said all need to be done to ensure that no stone was left unturned in the delivery of services to the people.

He also pointed out that the Province was already benefiting from the massive Strategic Infrastructure Programme spearheaded by the Presidency, including the roll-out of the Square Kilometre Array and the MeerKat, the building of the new university, the Saldanha – Northern Cape Development Cor-