Premier Oscar Mabuyane's bold plan for Eastern Cape revealed at SOPA

Eastern Cape premier Oscar Mabuyane will establish an infrastructure co-ordinating council to drive infrastructure development across all sectors of the economy.

Mabuyane will also establish a provincial investment council to drive investment across the province.

These were among bold plans announced by Mabuyane as he delivered the State of the Province Address in Bhisho on Friday.

In his speech, Mabuyane focused on the oceans economy looking into ways to up skill local fishermen and getting them into commercial fishing.

Mabuyane said this would be done through a support package that would include the provision of small fishing boats and facilitating reforms in the process of acquiring fishing licenses.

Speaking at a media lock-up session earlier in the day, Mabuyane said the state of the province address was a tricky one as it sought to highlight the transition from the fifth administration to the sixth while looking at challenges that the former administration had encountered.

"We start this sixth administration with some challenges there are problems as we continue to move forward," Mabuyane said.

Mabuyane said the recent report back from the Auditor-General that the Eastern Cape was one of the provinces with high irregular expenditure was a cause for concern.

"We are still leading in some of the things that's are negative and it can't be business as usual. We have to tamper with the status quo," Mabuyane said.

"Irregular expenditure is not a good thing for government as it speaks to the issue of [a lack of] proper planning." 

He added that 16 projects had been approved as part of the stimulus package for job creation.

"We have approved 16 projects to benefit from the R336.9m that has been allocated for this financial year. These projects too will create new sustainable jobs for the people of our province."

He said master plan for the oceans economy would be launched in September.