Northern Cape 25-Year Review 1994 -2019 FOREWORD BY THE PREMIER Northern Cape 25-Year Review 1994 -2019 Northern Cape 25-Year Review 1994 -2019 PART A. Executive Summary Introduction As the province reaches its first 25-year milestone, there is a need for reflection of the achievements and failures of the last 25 years. The purpose of this 25-year review is reflecting on the legacy that the province inherited since 1994 and how best to address these into the next decade. The principle objective of this review is to allow the Northern Cape Provincial Government (NCPG) the opportunity to undertake an assessment of its performance and to take stock of its achievement with regard to the objectives it has set for itself. It is not only intended to reflect on NCPG’s performance in meeting its challenges, but to also contribute to long term planning. It has, therefore, been critical for the review to focus on identifying shortcomings, challenges, dynamics and trends that will serve to inform policy options for the next term of government. This report is intended to give an outline of progress made by the Northern Cape Provincial Government over the past twenty-five years in implementing its programmes. What The Northern Cape Inherited in 1994 The Northern Cape was established subsequent to the division of the Cape Province into 3 provinces sharing boundaries with the Free State, North West, Eastern Cape and Western Cape, and having international boundaries with Botswana and Namibia. The Northern Cape Provincial Administration inherited a province in 1994 built on the political and social ideology of an apartheid system which were both deeply entrenched in the political, social and administrative fabric of the province. The “process of transplanting the administration of Cape Town to Kimberley, the new seat of the Northern Cape Provincial Government was itself problematic” (NC, 10 Year Review, 2004). As articulated in the NC 10 Year review “…during the initial phases, we had to ‘administer’ without basic policy instruments of government, including budgets, which remained attached to Cape Town due to both indifference and Yes – even sabotage.” In order to drive the developmental agenda Page | iii Northern Cape 25-Year Review 1994 -2019 much needed to be done to remove the remnants of the apartheid transplanted administration inherited from Cape Town and recraft the state machinery for developmental purposes. The apartheid system had to be dismantled to lay a foundation for a democratic and inclusive state founded on the values of human dignity, human rights, freedom, non-racialism, non-sexism and equality. The journey was not easy: obsolete practices had to be overhauled, tiresome and confrontational transfer of the components from Cape Town to the new administration due to lack of support and co-operation, dealing with officials that still controlled old administrative systems, there was a limited pool of appropriately qualified candidates that could drive the vision of building a developmental state, as the NC competed with the bigger centres in the country. The fragmented apartheid system bequeathed on the province the mammoth task of addressing a multitude of social and economic challenges. One of the most effective ways to institutionalise apartheid was through education. There were four schooling systems, segregated according to race (White, Indians –Indian Education Act 1965, Coloureds –Coloured Person’s Act of 1963 and Black African- Bantu Education Act of 1953) depicting glaring inequalities. In 1994, the inequalities were expressed in the per capita funding, buildings, equipment, facilities, Learner Teacher Support Material (LSTM), teacher qualifications and teacher-pupil ratios and also to ‘results’ measured in terms of the proportions and levels of certificates awarded. According to Census 1996, from Statistics South Africa (StatsSA), 21,7% of school-going age people were not attending schools in the Northern Cape province – resulting om low educational levels and skill levels. NC Province like any other province in the country was faced with a significant burden of preventable and treatable diseases. Poor health status was largely concentrated among the socioeconomically disadvantaged and vulnerable sub-groups of a population. By and large, Page | iv Northern Cape 25-Year Review 1994 -2019 the apartheid health system failed to guarantee access to basic and essential health care services for all and health care needed to be transformed into a service with a primary care approach. The NC had an infant mortality rate of 41,8% in 1998 and under 5 mortality stood at 55,5% for the same period. A fragmented and undemocratic and racially divided local government was inherited, with a biased spatial planning that benefited the minority groups. When the Northern Cape Province was established, it inherited 112 local authorities that were established along racial lines. Communities from previously disadvantaged backgrounds had been subjected to discrimination, appalling inequalities and degrading living conditions. Majority of the population were confined to the periphery of major economic centres without access to basic service, housing and employment opportunities. Social assistance was limited under apartheid, particularly for black people. The social engineering programme of the apartheid government resulted in the cultural practices and use of indigenous languages being shunned by native speakers due to pejorative connotations implied by the use of these languages. Communities were split and forcibly removed from their ancestral lands which led to the gradual alienation from their culture and language and were pressured to adopt apartheid identity classifications. The newly formed Northern Cape Province inherited therefore a cultural landscape devoid of the contributions of the majority of citizens. Public spaces reflected the achievements and dominance of the White minority through statues, memorial sites and other forms of memorialisation. 25 Years Progress Driven by the numerous policy shifts since 1994, with the RDP being at the heart of governments commitment to address the gross inequality and eradicate poverty, significant progress has been made to transform the social and political landscape of the country. All in all, the mammoth task of creating a Provincial Government with a measure of Administration and Management capacity was completed in less than five years. The progress made in this regard is evident in the AG’s reports from 1994 to 1999 and beyond. Page | v Northern Cape 25-Year Review 1994 -2019 (NC 10 Year Review,2004). The Northern Cape has made remarkable progress in transforming the public service and making it more representative of the provincial demographics with the total recorded number of personnel employed in the provincial administration by 2017 /18 being 27 497 with Education and Health constituting the largest share of the total provincial work force. After the first democratic elections in 1994 provinces were established under the Interim Constitution. As such the flexibility to allocate their own budgets did not materialise until 1997/98, after the adoption of the Constitution in 1996. Prior to this, allocations were largely made through function committees for education, health and welfare, amongst others. While the Province started with a meagre annual budget of R 712,526 in 1994/95 (NC 10 Year Review, 2004) it grew to R16,655 billion by 2017/18. The revenue being made up of three components, i.e. equitable share which constitute the largest share of the provincial revenue, followed by conditional grants and provincial own revenue, which contributes the smallest portion in the provincial revenue. Over this period, major focus has been towards the social sector, i.e. increasing access and achieving greater equity. In the last 25 years the province recorded significant improvements in a number of key areas. Since 1994, the education system has expanded to such an extent that the number of persons aged 20 and older with no formal education declined from 17.5% in 2002 to 6.7% in 2017 (Statistics South Africa, 2002 & 2017). Access to Grade R improved significantly from 4 894 in 1997 to 19 999 in 2018. Furthermore, Grade R practitioners increased from 418 in 2009/10 to 755 in the 2017/18 financial year. The growth in Grade R access and practitioners is due to Grade R learner funding which grew from R74,7 to R99,2 million between 2013 and 2018. There has been progressive growth in learner enrolment in public ordinary schools, which increased from 198 268 in 2002 to 299 118 in 2018, which is a cumulative increase of 100 850 over a period of 16 years. The growth in learner enrolment is Page | vi Northern Cape 25-Year Review 1994 -2019 attributed to the pro-poor policies such as the No Fee School policy, National School Nutrition Programme and the Learner School Transportation by the African National Congress (ANC) led government. The life expectancy at birth has increased significantly for both genders between 2001 and 2018. Life expectancy at birth increased from 57,7 years to 66,3 years for females, and from 52,2 years to 60 years for males. This was an increase of 7,8 years for males and 8,6 years for females during the reporting period. Nationally, life expectancy at birth for South Africans in 2018 was 61,1 years for male and 67,3 years for females In 1998, maternal mortality was at 97 per 100 000 live births. This increased to 300 in 2007 per 100 000 live births. The facility maternal