500K RDP houses in 5 years: President Cyril Ramaphosa
500K RDP houses in 5 years: President Cyril Ramaphosa. This will be part of the government’s priorities to equip school children to succeed in education, in work and in life to ensure poverty, unemployment and inequality is overcome.
President Cyril Ramaphosa has promised every school child in the country digital textbooks on a tablet in the next six years. He made the promise while delivering the State of the Nation Address at the National Assembly in Cape Town.
Ramaphosa said with over 700 000 children acceding early childhood education last year, the government will this year migrate responsibility for early child development centres from social development to basic education.
This will lead towards the two years compulsory ECD for all children before they enter grade one. “Already, 90% of textbooks in high enrolment subjects across all grades and all workbooks have been a digital user.
In line with our Framework for Skills for a Changing World, we are expanding the training of both educators and learners to respond to emerging technologies including the internet of things, robotics and artificial intelligence.
“To expand participation in the technical streams, several ordinary public schools will be transformed into technical high schools,” he said.
On housing, Ramaphosa committed the Housing Development Agency to build an additional 500 000 houses in the next five years. R30 billion will be provided to municipalities and provinces to enable them to achieve this.
“We will also be expanding the People’s Housing Programme, where households are allocated services stands to build their own houses, either individually or through community-led housing cooperatives.
Ramaphosa also highlighted the financial plight of Eskom, saying bold decisions needed to be made. Meaningful consultations and dialogue with key stakeholders will be needed.
He emphasized that the Eskom crisis poses a great risk to the country and consequences may be painful and even more devastating if decisions are delayed. He called on those using electricity to pay for the usage.
“As we address the challenges that face Eskom, we also need to safeguard our national fiscal framework, achieve a positive impact on our sovereign credit rating and pay attention to the rights and obligations of Eskom’s funders.
“Government will support Eskom‘s balance sheet and the Minister of Finance will provide further details on this in the budget speech,” he said.
On corruption, Ramaphosa said the level of corruption and state capture at Zondo Commission was deeply concerning and called for the recovery of money stolen and criminal prosecution of those involved.
He said the revelations at the commission revealed the breadth and depth of criminal wrongdoing that challenges the very foundation of the democratic state.
He said in light of this he has agreed with the National Director of Public Prosecutions an urgent need to establish an investigative directorate dealing with serious corruption and associated offences.
“I will soon be promulgating a Proclamation that will set out the specific terms of reference of the Directorate. In broad terms, the directorate will focus on the evidence that has emerged from the Zondo Commission of Inquiry into State Capture, other commissions and inquiries.
“It will identify priority cases to investigate and prosecute and will recover assets identified to be the proceeds of corruption,” he said.
Source: Daily Sun
