Regional governments that can get the job done should be encouraged and empowered to do so 

The Premier of the Western Cape, Alan Winde, will be participating in the 10th Annual Regional Leaders’ Summit which will be hosted virtually by fellow regional government leader, the Governor of Upper Austria, Thomas Stelzer, today.

The Regional Leaders’ Summit consists of a grouping of 7 member regions including 187 million people, representing the governments of Upper Austria (Austria), Bavaria (Germany), Georgia (United States), Quebec (Canada), Sao Paulo (Brazil), Shandong (China) and the Western Cape. This forum creates a platform to share ideas on common issues faced and to strengthen multi-lateral partnerships.

Premier Alan Winde said: “The Western Cape Government supports federalism as a principle that enables government and its important services to be brought closer to the people, enabling better delivery and more accountability. We strongly believe that governments that have the capacity and the capability to get the job done better should not only be encouraged to do so but, in fact, should be empowered to do so.”

The Premier added: “For example, in the Western Cape, we support the devolution of policing powers to the provincial government, with oversight being performed at a national level. This would enable us to take our detailed Policing Needs and Priorities reports which outline policing challenges and create immediate changes in the communities that need them most. We have a much better understanding of what is needed and where, so let us get it done.”

Premier Winde continued: “We have a similar view on rail. The challenges experienced by Metro Rail has meant that our poorest communities have no reliable transport, and with the increasing fuel prices, must pay even more to commute. It’s just not acceptable to continue with the status quo. We have to try something new. Let us fix it. It will be everyone’s success if we do.”

The theme of this 10th Regional Summit is ‘Smart Regions’, covering topics from mobility, governance, economy and the environment, amongst others.

Premier Alan Winde said in his address that the Western Cape Government was committed to innovation and had demonstrated this over the last 18 months.

“The disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic forced our government to think differently when confronting the other very serious challenges. If we could build a modern, world-class field hospital, the biggest on the continent in just 6 weeks, why can we not do the same for other projects? If we can launch award-winning data management platforms, that enabled swift, evidence-led approaches to slow the spread, why can’t we have the same for other priorities? It showed us that we can be agile, and we can do much, much more. I am determined that this approach to smart government will not end with the pandemic. We must take it forward; in everything we do.”

Premier Alan Winde also celebrated some of the innovations that the Western Cape Government was pioneering. Among these innovations are that:

• We have a data-led approach to our Safety Plan, which will soon allow us to deploy over 1000 officers to our crime hotspots, supported by Area Based Teams with a focus on violence prevention.
• We’re the first to have our public hospital and primary healthcare digitised, including 265 primary healthcare centres, 181 mobile posts, 51 acute and specialised hospitals, 28 intermediate care facilities, 49 EMS stations, 17 FPS laboratories and 2 oral health centres.
• We established a Rural Safety Monitoring Dashboard, as part of the Rural Safety Desk. This is the first of its kind in the South African agricultural sector.
• We are the only province that tracks alcohol-related harms at emergency centres across the province. The number of emergency centres monitored through this programme has increased from 4 sites to 21. This data provides critical insights that will enable interventions to reduce alcohol-related harms and violence in our communities.
• To be transparent in our response to the COVID-19 pandemic, we launched the COVID-19 public-facing dashboard(link is external). This site received over 3 million views from 167 countries. The dashboard also won the Africa Tech Award for Best use of Technology in the Public Sector 2020.
• We have launched the first-of-a-kind public facing Tuberculosis (TB) dashboard(link is external).
• Our housing database app, a first for South Africa, has been downloaded 9 154 times, with 423 new housing demand cases registered, 365 personal detail updates received and an average of 73.75% of cases opened per month from June-September 2021. The app can be viewed or downloaded here(link is external).
• We are the only province with a weather monitoring network set up to monitor access defined zones and linked to a smartphone app.
• We have invested over R1.6 billion in eLearning over the last 5 years. Our Western Cape E-portal offers access to thousands of e-resources to our learners. To date, there are 28 700 e-resources, 25 000 daily visitors with 54.1% being users from the Western Cape, with 45.9% being users from other provinces.
• Over 1 200 Western Cape Government sites have been installed with a public WiFi hotspot service, which includes 3GB of free data per month per device. Cape Access Centres that have free public WiFi have nearly doubled from 13 in 2019 to 24 in 2021. These centres are located primarily in our rural areas, providing much-needed connectivity to our residents.
• The Department of Agriculture has developed a climate change response strategy to become more climate-resilient. This includes the use of satellite technologies for water and farm management, developing spatial intelligence to map the agricultural footprint of the province and the usage of drones and 3D printing for agri-research and agri-processes
• We have developed the Transport Hub and Provincial Sustainable Transport Programme to create a more reliable, safe and integrated public transport system. They collectively help to transform, regulate, monitor and manage transportation in the province.
• We have established the Water Hub which is a water research, demonstration and training facility that aims is to achieve sustainable living through increased water security in the province.

Premier Winde concluded: “There is a lot more work to be done, especially as we focus on our recovery areas of jobs, safety and dignity. But I know that if we embrace innovative ways of thinking, and if we try new things, we can deliver more for our people. For me, to be a smart regional government, you must be prepared to try new things, learn from mistakes, and double down on successes. We can’t be afraid to try.”

Source: Government of South Africa