7 August 2024
Good afternoon and a great pleasure to welcome media representatives who have joined us here in the Union Building and on other myriad online platforms.
It is a historic week and a significant calendar month in our nation history.
President Cyril Ramaphosa and the 7th Administration urge South Africans from all backgrounds, races and cultural groups to join together in celebrating National Women’s Day on 9 August 2024.
The 2024 Women’s Month will be commemorated under the theme “Celebrating 30 Years of Freedom Towards Women’s Development”. This year Women’s Month campaign will take stock of progress made on socio-economic empowerment of women since the advent of democracy and indicate the achievements of the Women Charter. The 2024 Women’s Day Celebration will take place at the Dennis Nel stadium, Pofadder, Northern Cape Province, this Friday 9 August, 2024.
The historical march on 9 August 1956 remains one of the largest demonstrations staged in this country’s trajectory.
The march witnessed about 20 000 women of all races marching to Pretoria’s Union Buildings. They presented a petition against the carrying of passes by women.
The South African women were challenging amongst others, the idea that ‘a woman’s place is in the kitchen, declaring it instead to be ‘everywhere’. Hence, the National Women’s Day celebrations as an annual feature in our calendar were initiated in 1994. This commemoration of the National Women’s Day is a reminder of the important contributions that are made by women to our society, as well as a time to reflect on the advances in women’s rights.
President Ramaphosa has noted the positive strides South Africa continues to make in women’s representation in key decision-making in various facets of our society. However, the President has bemoaned the setbacks we continue to witness of gender-based violence with its twin evil femicide. The President has noted with concerns recent media reports of girls as young as 12-years-old falling pregnant especially in some areas in KwaZulu-Natal Province and other heinous scourges across the country perpetrated towards women and girls. The President urges, parents, families, communities to work with government and law enforcement agencies in protecting girl children and in ensuring their right to unhindered and safe development.
Thursday, 08 August Angola visit
On 08 August, 2024 President Cyril Ramaphosa will be welcomed by H.E. Mr João Manuel Gonçalves Lourenço, President of the Republic of Angola. The two heads of state will use the occasion of the working visit to reflect on the bilateral relationship between the two countries, who share very deep historical ties that are rooted in the liberation struggle against colonialism and apartheid. The leaders will also share perspectives on issues of regional mutual interest, including the situation in the DRC and on regional and continental efforts aimed at resolving the conflicts that are plaguing the continent. The President will be accompanied by the Minister of International Relations and Cooperation, the Hon. Ronald Lamola and the Minister of Defense, the Hon. Angie Motshekga
Wednesday,13 August 2024, meeting with Business on the Government Business Partnership
On 13 August 2024, President Cyril Ramaphosa will meet with members of the Cabinet, senior business leaders, and technical experts from government and business to discuss a new era of collaboration for a partnership launched over a year ago to address barriers to growth in South Africa.
Media are invited to attend a virtual briefing on Wednesday, 14 August 2024, hosted by the Presidency and B4SA. The briefing will be facilitated by Ms Phindile Baleni, Director-General in the Presidency and Secretary of Cabinet. Key updates will be provided by Mr James MacKay, CEO of the Energy Council South Africa, Mr Rudi Dicks, Head of the Project Management Office at the Presidency, and Mr Martin Kingston, B4SA Steering Committee Chair.
Representatives from the joint initiative and workstream leads will be in attendance to assist with your questions.
Thursday, 15 August 2024, Public Health Compact signing
President Cyril Ramaphosa, will host a public signing of the Health Compact. The signing to be held at the Union Buildings in Pretoria, is scheduled to start at 13h30.
With the passage of the National Health Insurance Act, it is now crucial that we embark on this journey together to implement it, ensuring everyone can access quality healthcare, in both the public and private sectors.
The stakeholders involved in the Presidential Health Compact are integral to supporting the Department of Health in improving the health system. Their role is crucial to the success of the National Health Insurance programme. The President wants to ensure that government works collaboratively with other stakeholders to overcome challenges. It is imperative that South Africa creates a publicly-funded, publicly- and privately-provided healthcare system, that truly serves the needs of every individual in our country.
Saturday, 17th August 2024 44th SADC Summit of Heads of State and Government- Harare, Zimbabwe.
President Cyril Ramaphosa will attend the 44th Ordinary Summit of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Heads of State and Government, hosted the Republic of Zimbabwe. The SADC Summit is responsible for the overall policy direction and control of functions of the Community, ultimately making it the policy-making institution of SADC. The Ordinary SADC Summit is held every year and is attended by Heads of State and Government from the 16 SADC Member States namely, Angola, Botswana, Comoros, Democratic Republic of Congo, Eswatini, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Seychelles, South Africa, United Republic of Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe. It is also attended by heads of continental and regional bodies as observers. The 44th SADC Summit will be preceded by meetings of the SADC Senior Officials and Council of Ministers who prepare the agenda for the Heads of State and Government. The SADC Council of Ministers oversees the functioning and development of SADC and ensures that policies are properly implemented. The Council consists of Ministers from each Member State, usually from the Ministries of Foreign Affairs, Economic Planning, or Finance.
District Development model oversight visit and Presidential Imbizo Friday 23 August 2024
The President will embark on the District Development model oversight visit and Presidential Imbizo to the City of Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality Friday, 23 August 2024. The DDM was established to improve coordination and alignment between the different spheres of government. This is an important initiative to improve planning, budgeting and implementation at a local level by bringing all spheres, departments and stakeholders together, towards uplifting our communities. You will recall that the planned District Development Model (DDM) oversight visit during April 2024 to the City of Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality, had to be postponed due to challenges faced by the municipality at the time. The President is therefore pleased that the oversight visit to the City of Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality will take place. President Ramaphosa will be accompanied by all Members of the National Executive who would already be on the ground leading up to the visit.
PRESIDENCY RESPONSE ON COSTS RELATED TO THE HOSTING OF THE PRESIDENT IZIMBIZO
Public participation is intrinsically part of the DNA of the democratic South Africa. To be exact, it was initiated by the Constitutional Assembly (CA) in 1994 to consult and keep South Africans abreast of the Constitution writing process.
It is against this background that the President can assert that the Presidential Izimbizo and the public participation programmes are not political gimmicks of the current and previous Administrations. Neither is it an extravagant exercise and wasteful expenditure of taxpayers’ money. But it is a caring Government which is engaging its citizens across the political divide.
It started in 1994 and it is entrenched in the South African public discourse. It has evolved from former President’s to today’s public participation programme of the Presidential Izimbizo under the banner of the District Development Model (DDM).
The Presidential Izimbizo programme through the DDM was introduced in 2019 where the President signalled his intention to visit all 44 district municipalities and 8 metros. Its aim is to institutionalise integrated planning and delivery in the district and metropolitan sites. This programme is based on the principle of the One-Plan where the challenges are identified and addressed in an integrated manner.
Ministers and Deputy Minsters are appointed as political champions in a district or metro and that member of the national executive must oversee the integrated development and ensure that unnecessary blockages are unlocked. This programme does not only focus on the challenges but on medium to long-term planning to promote inclusive development in conjunction with other stakeholders in the metro/district.
The political champions are also held accountable by the President, and they are expected to submit quarterly reports to Cabinet about the DDM activities, progress, obstructions and possible interventions. They must also indicate when the President should do a follow-up visit.
There have been notable success coming out of intervention inspired by the Presidential imbizo, for example in the Sedibeng District in Gauteng, the Presidential Imbizo contributed to a clinic becoming fully operational. The clinic, which was built before the COVID-19 lockdown, had become a white elephant and the community in Zone 17, Sebokeng had to travel distances for basic medical care.
Through the Presidential imbizo in October 2022, an inter-governmental task team comprising of national, provincial, local government and Eskom, identified the gaps for the clinic to become operational. The big issue was that it was not connected to the grid and that there was a stand-off between the different spheres of government about costs.
The Presidential Izimbizo unlocked the bottlenecks. Eskom and the various government departments procured the transformer and finances to connect the clinic to the grid. Today, the community is benefiting.
The Izimbizo is more than just a feel-good or gig for the President and the Cabinet. It is about identifying a district in conjunction with the provincial governments. Once a district has been identified, the various spheres of government come together, different workstreams are established to drive the process that is coodridnated by the political champion.
A few days before the actual Imbizo, Ministers and Deputy Ministers are deployed to the district to inspect their respective programmes. New projects are identified. On the day of the Imbizo, the President is accompanied by the Ministers, Deputy Ministers, Premiers, Members of provincial governments, Mayors and Councillors and the community engages them. It does get heated at times and emotional.
These Izimbizo events have become a priority of the 7th Administration as the President identified local government as a priority focus area of the current Government of National Unity.
Yes, critics will point out the high cost of DDMs and they will motivate how the money could have been utilised elsewhere. Indeed, one cannot quantify the impact of the Presidential Izimbizo in monetary terms, but it should be measured over the medium to long-term of what changes such events will bring to communities.
It is mischievous to reduce the Presidential Izimbizo to rands and cents. It is about a caring Government that is closer to the people, ensuring their right to access to basic services is solidified.
Government has an obligation to interact and communicate with citizens in all corners of the country. With the Government of National Unity, this has become more urgent so that all citizens can understand how the new Administration is working for them.
Unfortunately, it will be costly at times, however, all the officials involved must ensure that procurement processes are conducted within the prescripts of The Public Finance Management Act as outlined. Where there are violations of the law, those must be fully investigated and the perpetrators must be duly punished.
This 7th Administration will continue to engage citizens through the Presidential Imbizo and the second round of the Presidential Izimbizo starts later this month at the Tsakane Stadium in the Ekurhuleni Metro and many more will follow over the next five years.
Monday,26 August 2024, JET Municipal Conference
President Ramaphosa will address the JET Municipal Conference. The aim of the conference is to convene key stakeholders within the municipal space to chart the way forward for the effective implementation of the JET Municipal Portfolio set out in the JET Implementation Plan (JET IP) which was approved by Cabinet in November 2023. The Conference will outline the local government electricity distribution context, highlights the key features of the JET IP and its Municipal JET Portfolio, presents the proposed institutional architecture for the Municipal JET Portfolio and outlines the proposed objectives, participants and programme for the JET Municipal Conference.
Municipalities have a critical role to play in a successful energy transition, in improving South Africa’s energy security, and in ensuring that the country has sufficient reliable and affordable electricity to support expanded socio-economic development. Given the widely varying complexities that confront local government, the municipal energy transition needs a focussed and collaborative approach across national, provincial, and municipal spheres of government to manage the significant financial, technical, and managerial challenges and risks of the transition. This established inter-governmental relations (IGR) approach is spearheaded by the Department of Cooperative Government and Traditional Affairs (COGTA) and National Treasury (NT), along with organised local government structures, and will be key to finding sustainable electricity system solutions for municipalities of all sizes and capabilities.
The future energy generation system will require a municipal electricity system that is fundamentally different in design, capability, and operation from the current system, and significant investment is required to deliver this. A successful energy transition requires functional distribution grids (which includes new forms of demand-side metering (DSM), such as smart metering) that can accommodate an increasing penetration of Renewable Energy (RE) generation at different scales, and facilitate new generation modes, such as wheeling and feed-in by Small-Scale Embedded Generation (SSEG) systems. Grid investments and smart upgrades are required to enable grid stability, optimal grid control, safety, feed-in, and appropriate storage. This transition needs to be achieved within a financial model that supports sustainable municipal government and affordable energy access for all residents.
Wednesday,28 August 2024, BUSA Annual General Meeting (AGM)
President Ramaphosa will deliver the keynote address on the Business Unity South Africa (BUSA) Annual General Meeting (AGM) scheduled for August 28, 2024. The AGM will be attended by business leaders across South Africa. The theme of the AGM will be “Strengthening the Government and Business Partnership for inclusive economic growth and job creation”.
BUSA has enjoyed a highly successful relationship with Government, leading to a Government and Business Partnership that effectively addresses the energy, transport and logistics, as well as crime and corruption challenges. The President on behalf of Government looks forward to further strengthening this partnership between the government and business over the next five years of the 7th Administration.
Thursday, 29 August, Questions in the National Assembly
President Cyril Ramaphosa will on 29 August 2024, appear in the National Assembly’s (NA) hybrid plenary session to provide oral replies to questions from the NA Members of Parliament (MPs) at 14h00 am. Section 92(2) of the Constitution makes provisions that cabinet members are accountable collectively and individually to Parliament for the exercise of their powers and performance of their functions. Questions for Oral Reply by the President are one of the set democratic mechanisms that Parliament consistently uses to hold members of the Executive to account.
Friday, 30 August, Working Visit to Zimbabwe
Lastly, the President will honour the invite from Zimbabwe President, Emmerson Mnangagwa. President Ramaphosa will embark on a working visit to Zimbambwe to attend the official opening of the 114th edition of the Zimbabwe Agricultural Show. The two days event will take place on the 29 and 30, which is organized by the Zimbabwe Agricultural Society.
ISSUED BY THE PRESIDENCY OF THE REPUBLIC OF SOUTH AFRICA
