Compatriots, Honourable Members,

We have to ensure that training and skills development initiatives in the country respond to the requirements of the economy.

The Further Education and Training sector with its 50 colleges and 160 campuses nationally will be the primary site for skills development training.

We will improve the access to higher education of children from poor families and ensure a sustainable funding structure for universities.

Fellow South Africans,

We are seriously concerned about the deterioration of the quality of health care, aggravated by the steady increase in the burden of disease in the past decade and a half.

We have set ourselves the goals of further reducing inequalities in health care provision, to boost human resource capacity, revitalise hospitals and clinics and step up the fight against the scourge of HIV and AIDS, TB and other diseases.

We must work together to improve the implementation of the Comprehensive Plan for the Treatment, Management and Care of HIV and AIDS so as to reduce the rate of new HIV infections by 50% by the year 2011.

We want to reach 80% of those in need of ARV treatment also by 2011.

We will introduce a National Health Insurance scheme in a phased and incremental manner. In order to initiate the NHI, the urgent rehabilitation of public hospitals will be undertaken through Public-Private Partnerships.

We are also paying urgent attention to the issues of remuneration of health professionals to remove uncertainty in our health services.

Working together let us do more to promote quality health care, in line with the United Nations Millennium Development Goals to halve poverty by 2014.

Fellow citizens,

Together we must do more to fight crime. Our aim is to establish a transformed, integrated, modernised, properly-resourced and well-managed criminal justice system.

It is also critically important to improve the efficiency of the courts and the performance of prosecutors and to enhance detective, forensic and intelligence services. This work has started in earnest, and it will be undertaken with new energy and vigour.

Among the immediate targets is to ensure that we increase the number of prosecutors and Legal Aid Board personnel. We will do the same with police detectives.

We changed the name of the relevant Ministry from Safety and Security to Police to emphasise that we want real operational energy in police work. This will contribute to the reduction of serious and violent crimes by the set target of 7% to 10% per annum.

The most serious attention will also be given to combating organised crime, as well as crimes against women and children.

Honourable Speaker and Chairperson,

While appreciating the investment of the private sector in the security industry, we will improve the regulation of this industry.

Amongst other key initiatives, we will start the process of setting up a Border Management Agency; we shall intensify our efforts against cyber crime and identity theft, and improve systems in our jails to reduce repeat offending.

Compatriots,

I wish to underline our support for the continued transformation of the judiciary.

The transformation should address key issues such as the enhancement of judicial independence, entrenching internal systems of judicial accountability as well as ensuring full access to justice by all.

The success of the democratic system as a whole depends on good relations of mutual respect and a spirit of partnership among the Executive, the Legislature and the Judiciary. This is very important for our constitutional democracy.

Honourable Speaker and Chairperson,

We have repeatedly stated our commitment to fight corruption in the public service.

We will pay particular attention to combating corruption and fraud in procurement and tender processes, application for drivers' licences, social grants, IDs, and theft of police case dockets.

Let me emphasise that we all have a role to play in this war against crime.

We must actively participate in Community Policing Forums. We must stop buying stolen goods, which encourages crime.

We must report crime and assist the police with information to catch wrongdoers. In this way, we will move forward towards a crime-free society.

Honourable Members, since 1994 we have sought to create a united cohesive society out of our fragmented past. We are called upon to continue this mission of promoting unity in diversity and to develop a shared value system, based on the spirit of community solidarity and a caring society.

Our shared value system should encourage us to become active citizens in the renewal of our country. We must build a common national identity and patriotism.

We must develop a common attachment to our country, our Constitution and the national symbols. In this spirit, we will promote the National Anthem and our country's flag and all other national symbols.

Our children, from an early age, must be taught to pay allegiance to the Constitution and the national symbols, and know what it means to be South African citizens.

We will ensure a common national approach to the changing of geographic and place names. This must provide an opportunity to involve all South Africans in forging an inclusive national identity, to deepen our understanding of our history and heritage.

Sport is a powerful nation-building tool. Working together we must support all our national teams from Bafana Bafana to the Proteas and the Springboks; from Banyana Banyana to Paralympians.

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