Nelspruit - Mpumalanga Premier David Mabuza says while the province has made some progress in the fight against crime, there was still much to be done.
"Recent crime statistics show that we are making inroads in certain crime categories, particularly contact crime....for the past two years, we have seen overall crime reduction of a 6.9% in the province, however, more challenges are still lying ahead," Mabuza said, delivering his State of the Province Address on Friday.
The premier, in outlining his crime-fighting priorities for the coming year, set a target to reduce contact crime by 4-7% with a major focus on hot spots.
He said the province would expand the integrated social crime prevention initiatives on rural safety, vulnerable groups, victim-friendly facilities, school safety and contact crime and intensify road safety initiatives, which include civic education and traffic law enforcement.
He said the introduction of a computerised learner license system to streamline would go a long way in curbing corruption.
The province would also be constructing a new traffic training college in Bohlabela.
Mabuza challenged communities to team up with the police and participate in the fight against crime. Out of 102 community policing structures, 87 are functional in all police stations in the province and plans are afoot to finalise the remaining 15 cluster community policing fora.
Turning to the performance of state machinery, Mabuza noted that over the years the province had made progress in deepening a culture of accountability for performance.
"The introduction of the Outcome Approach, the signing of Delivery and the subsequent conclusion of Performance Agreements between the Premier and members of the Executive Council has enhanced accountability for delivery on agreed outputs.
"The administrative leadership of government has also signed performance agreements to ensure that senior managers at different levels are held accountable for results," he said.
On job creation, Mabuza committed the province to enhancing the Expanded Public Works Programme, paying more attention on the youth and women.
"We committed ourselves to expand our skills base, focussing mainly on critical skills that are so desperately demanded by our provincial economy, we commit ourselves to streamline government institutions so that they assume a developmental posture
"More importantly, we committed R2.7 billion over MTEF period for supporting job creation initiatives, we commit ourselves to work with different stakeholders, particularly big business and labour, to pursue the economic developmental agenda of the government," Mabuza said.
