Address by Premier Mbhazima Shilowa at the launch of the GPG Contact Centre in Wynberg

19, June 2006

MEC for Finance and Economic Affairs, Paul Mashatile
GPG MEC and Heads of Departments
Representatives of the City of Johannesburg
CEO of the GSSC, Mike Maile
Distinguished guests
Ladies and Gentlemen

Three day ago we commemorated the 30 th anniversary of the 1976 uprisings at the soccer city stadium. Together with the City of Johannesburg and the national government we honoured members of the then Soweto Student Representative Council for their continued commitment to the total emancipation of our people, especially the poor and the working class.

Important as these ceremonies are, the best way in which we can honour the class of 1976 and those who followed in their footsteps is t use their ascendancy to power and to serve our people to the best of our ability. Just as they gave selflessly without due regard the material gains that may accrue to them, we need to put the interests of our people above our personal interest.

Over the past few years we have traveled the length and breadth of our province to interact with the Gauteng residents on what we are doing to improve their lives; the challenges we face and how we are responding to them. While they have always appreciated progress made to improve their lives for the better, they have also raised very sharply the need to improve service delivery, access to government services and easy access to information about government which they can use to further improve their lives.

At the state of the province address in February this year, we committed ourselves to expand the GPG -wide call centre from 150 seats to 600 seats by July this year beginning with the Wynberg contact centre. We are gathered here today to witness the fulfillment of that commitment. We remain on course to launch a further two 150-seat centres in Sedibeng and the West Rand before the end of the year.

Since the initial contact centre was opened in 2004 we have experienced a massive expansion in the number of people who use the contact centre to get information about provincial government. Currently we receive about 300 000 calls every month from members of the public. The expansion of the contact centre's capacity will enable us to more effectively address a growing demand from the public and deal with challenges such as the driver's license booking system, which has attracted public concern over the of past few months.

I am pleased to announce today that we are, for the first time introducing a single number which the public can use to access information about Gauteng Provincial Government through the contact centre. This number is 0860 GAUTENG (0860 428 8364). This introduces an easy to remember number which Gauteng residents will be able to dial to get easy and prompt access to government including information on the following:

• Bana Pele, which provides free access to a package of services to benefit the province's poorest children, including social grants, health care, education and other social services.
• Drivers and Learners license bookings
• Public transport information
• Services and support for small, medium and micro enterprises provided by the Gauteng Enterprise Propeller (GEP)
• How to access a range of public services provided by the provincial government.

Our five-year programme, which we introduced in 2004 based on a renewed electoral mandate from the people of Gauteng , identified key challenges over the next ten years I building an effective and caring government. These included improving our service delivery to respond to the needs of citizens who are knowledgeable bout their rights and rightfully demand increasing quality of service provision and that they are treated with dignity by the public service. Another challenge we identified was the identification of new opportunities and ways of serving our people arising from ongoing information and communication technology (ICT) revolution.

Our five-year programme made a further commitment to provide all citizens with high quality, caring and integrated government services, including through the increasing use of technology and the rolling out electronic government services, Multi-Purpose Community Centres and community development workers.

The launch of the Wynberg contact centre and the introduction of a single number represents a further step in the fulfillment of these commitments in line with the Batho Pele principles. It represents a further advance in the rollout of our e-governance strategy which is using advances in ICT to better serve our people, improve access to government and to ultimately improve the quality of life of all our people.

The e.governance strategy provides for a variety of channels, through which citizens can access government at their convenience, including:

• The contact centre, which was started in 2004 and which can now be accessed through the 0860 GAUTENG number.
• The internet portal, www.gautengonline.gov.za which is operating successfully following its official launch in June 2005.
• Walk-in centres, particularly Multi-Purpose Community Centres (MPCC's) which are located in communities close to where people live, providing one stop access to a range of government and non-governmental services. A total of 21 MPCCs are currently operational, with a target of 40 MPCCs by 2009.
• A total of 50 information kiosks, which will be set up at MPCCs and other government service centres in and around Gauteng, as well as 70 digital lounges within government departments. Since the announcement during the state of the province address in February, ten of these have already been established.
• In addition to telephones, residents will also be able to send faxes and emails to obtain information about government.

As indicated earlier this year, we are committed to ensure that every CDW in Gauteng has remote access to the portal and services database. By the end of March next year we will have about 500 CDWs. This means that residents in every ward in Gauteng , especially those who don't have a private access to the internet, will be able to access information about government. We are therefore well o the road to the achievement of our goal of ensuring universal access to public information in Gauteng .

Some government opponents have attempted to portray our innovative utilization of ICT to better serve the people of the province as being inappropriate given the developmental challenges we face. For them, the benefits of access to technology should be the sole preserve of the elite. We reject this view with contempt. As a developmental stated it is our priority to see to it that the poor and most disadvantaged have access to the advantages that technology can bring in order to enable them to improve their lives; our approach is indeed to privilege the poor and the disadvantaged, especially those who do not have private access to information and private services.

Access to information about government and to public services is not a luxury; it is a constitutional rights and a necessity in a modern democracy such as ours. It is about improving the quality of life of our people. It is about making Gauteng a place where all can access the opportunities that we have created in the past 12 years of our democracy; it is about making Gauteng an even place in which to live.

To illustrate this point, access to public information and e-governance can help an unemployed mother access a child care grant, thereby making the difference between a child that starves or has something to eat everyday; it can help an HIV positive person find out how ad where to access treatment, care and support for people living with AIDS; or enable a young entrepreneur to access a government tender, a learnership or a job within the provincial government; it can inform a victim of abuse about how to access post-exposure prophylaxis and victim support services.

These are just some of the examples which illustrate the difference that, access to information and services can do to help change people's lives and enable people to exercise or protect their rights and responsibilities. In this way, this initiative also contributes to the realization another of our five-year priorities - the deepening of democracy and the realization of the constitutional rights of our people. This includes the rights of vulnerable groups such as women, children, the elderly, young people and people affected with HIV and AIDS.

These developments are a reflection of not just our commitment to public service, but are also evidence of the growing efficiency, innovation and commitment to excellence within the public service in Gauteng . This is crucial if we are to successfully address the challenges of poverty, under-development and unemployment in our province.

In addition to the direct jobs being created through the contact centre, the initiative will also provide training and capacity which will benefit the contact centre industry in our province. This sector has enormous potential for growth in Gauteng , and we will continue to provide the necessary support in this regard.

They are also in line with our initiatives to improve the capacity and organization of the state and will contribute to the overall service revolution in our province, both in the public and private sector. E-governance in particular, services both the first and the second economy.

Effective governance is integral to economic efficiency, the overall performance of the economy and its ability to create jobs and economic opportunities for all. Our e-governance strategy therefore has a direct link to our provincial growth and development strategy as well as our vision of making a globally competitive city region, which is able to address the needs of all its citizens.

Today's launch goes a long way to give further meaning to the commitment we continue to make; to ensure that we continue to improve people's lives in honor of those who laid

their lives during the struggle for freedom and liberation.

I thank you

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