Hon. Premier, I acknowledge the efforts by all government departments to be cost-effective.

Hon. Premier, the harsher reality we must accept , as his Majesty so eloquently explained, is the crisis we face in terms of drought, racism, violence and crime. The latter 3, simply social symptoms, secondary to the triple challenges we continue to face.

Yet, we have to balance being a Caring Province with a drastic R1 billion budget cut.

For me, this means being revolutionary in mind-set response.

To quote Debbie Millman, who said “If you imagine less, less will be what you undoubtedly deserve.”

Hon. Premier, given KZN’s situational analysis, it is time we focussed on the immediate plans to cut our losses and use this budget wisely.

This means, reskilling our workforce on a continuous, On Job Training or OJT.

This means, doing targeted programme evaluation where performance is lagging but costs are increasing.

This means, interpreting the satisfaction survey in terms of other predicators such as politeness, respect and competence, to measure quality of services.

This means, 2015 has come and gone, hence the MF looks forward to close-out reports on all MDG’s.

This means, making life giving choices eg. Can we afford the Duzi Canoe Marathon next year in drought terms, when water from the Midmar is needed by our people, farms and animals. Is the choice Sports or Water? Hon. Premier your views would be appreciated.

We need to make effective use of SABC channels to tackle critical issues where an active citizenry needs to participate and take ownership of the challenges with government as time races towards NDP2030.

We need teamwork and think-tanks in these tough times.

Thank you.

Shameen Thakur-Rajbansi

MPL KZN Legislature