Premier speaks to business chamber13
It is no good if you get unqualified audit reports every year and you do not following up with service.
And someone who should know this, is Alan Winde, premier of the Western Cape.
He congratulated Mossel Bay Mayor Dirk Kotzé and his council and officials on coming out tops, together with Midvaal Municipality, in the annual Ratings Afrika Municipal Financial Sustainability Index.
Informal meeting
Winde was the speaker at an informal meeting organised by the Mossel Bay Business Chamber at the ATKV Koswerf restaurant at Hartenbos Seefront on Friday, 12 April.
He pointed out that good governance was the key to the better running of a town and the province.
He said that 15 years ago he realised service was the key to making things happen in the province.
When you can create a clean government that has a culture of work ethics, you are on the right track. When your staff have pride in their work and they show it, the public see and acknowledge this.
Innovation
Another factor that he as premier has introduced is innovation. You can do exactly the same thing as the next guy, but if you look different it will get you ahead of the pack.
The Western Cape Government has now succeeded in building a full brick school within 65 days – all because of working smarter and using new technology.
Safety and energy or rather the lack of it can get in the way of economic investment. If you cannot combat and control crime, investors will not touch you and rather invest their money elsewhere.
A few years ago Cape Town was known as the criminal capital of the world. However, with planning and making use of data and technology, the Western Cape has now changed that around.
Transmit information
The police officers wear body packs that transmit information back to the stations
about what is happening on the ground. “We can determine where the hotspots are and where officers are needed without anyone picking up a phone or calling for help,” he said.
The Western Cape is also the first province that has succeeded in reducing the ESKOM loadshedding by two stages. This has come about with forward planning and putting effort into green energy.
“Ïnvestors will not put their money into areas where they are not certain of sustainable energy and we want to make sure we can give them that,” he said.
Twelve years ago international airlines stopped their flights in and out of Cape Town. “Did we accept it? No, we started working and we made waves. Initially we were going to be satisfied with four flights from anywhere in the world and today we have 215 direct flights per week and during December we had 33 000 tourists per day moving through the Cape Town international airport. Don’t just talk. Act and be different and see the results,” he added.
Double digit growth
Tourism is a great contributor to the Mossel Bay economy. The Western Cape has shown double digit growth in the agriculture and the province has been responsible for 78.9% of all jobs created in the country.
“We are open for business and due to the good governance we create opportunities for the economy to grow and jobs to be created. However, we need the other eight provinces to come to the party for us to grow the economy of our country. So what we do in the Western Cape, we do for you, but we also do it for the betterment of our country,” he added.