Chairperson of the NCOP, Deputy Chairperson, hon members of the NCOP, I thank you most sincerely for affording me the opportunity to address the NCOP as we continue to seek better ways to bring about meaningful change in the lives of all South Africans.
This year we are meeting under the theme: Working together to respond to the developmental challenges facing our communities. This is without a doubt an apt theme, given that the ultimate responsibility of Members of Parliament, as public representatives of the people, to oversee the acceleration of efficient service delivery and improvement of the quality of life of all our people.
The issues of service delivery backlogs; the interface between politicians and administrators; good governance; weaknesses in communication and accountability systems; and skills shortages and weaknesses in civil society structures are indeed matters of concern. The misalignment in respect of planning, implementation, co-ordination as well as capacity challenges in some sector departments corresponds with my experiences when visiting municipalities as part of our War on Poverty programme.
Calling the executive to account for your findings, as you did on 1 March 2011, demonstrates the seriousness with which you exercise your oversight role. I also note the report from the Ad Hoc Committee on Co- ordinated Oversight of Service Delivery initiated by the National Assembly in September 2009 to investigate the reasons for service delivery protests. The report comes with an implementation programme covering the following themes: governance, corruption, service delivery, finance, skills development and capacity-building, communication and parliamentary oversight.
Once again, this demonstrates the increasingly activist role that Parliament is playing. Parliament is no longer just sitting and waiting to receive reports from the executive. The impediments to delivery are being directly investigated; solutions are proposed; and the implementation of these proposals will be monitored, with Parliament taking the lead.
As you would know, service delivery and, more pivotally, the improvement of our people's lives are expressed through the integrated development plans, IDPs. It is imperative that all critical projects for local economic development are located within integrated development plans, given the IDP's strategic purpose as government's development programme. Integrated development plans are meant to be sources of the communities' visions for social and economic development, setting out how land should be used, what infrastructure and services are needed, and how the environment should be protected. They have to be aligned to national and provincial policies and programmes.
Our findings, however, have been that there is a lack of meaningful participation by communities and local stakeholders in the IDP process. Key reasons for this are insufficient economic, institutional and human capacity; inadequate knowledge of government and budgetary processes; and that other spheres of government have not deepened the reach of their programmes sufficiently, nor supported municipalities and local communities effectively.
In addition, high turnover of key municipal personnel also constrains delivery. In areas where participation occurs, it often is merely for compliance, with most indicators already being determined by officials. And while it is understood that IDPs have to be aligned, there often is little mention of provincial and national programmes.
If resources are to be optimally utilised, if delivery is to be accelerated, and if we are ever to overcome the spatial inequities inherited from apartheid, we have to get IDPs right. Members of Parliament too are important stakeholders and have a role to play in ensuring maximum community participation in the IDP processes.
The primary platform for ensuring streamlined, qualitative stakeholder input into the IDP process is the ward committee. In many instances, however, local municipalities have failed to set up ward committees. Where they exist, some remain excluded from decision-making processes.
The effectiveness of ward committees is also impeded by limitations with regard to levels of education; skills and expertise; and a lack of access to resources, including computers and Internet connections. Municipalities, therefore, need to invest more towards developing capacity for ward committee members, including ward councillors - particularly on their intended roles and responsibilities - and provide them with the necessary enabling resources.
It is clear that there is a need for collective ownership of the development process and strengthened relations between ward committees and independent civil society formations in the promotion of meaningful engagements between local government and community members. Much attention needs to be given to establishing strengthened communication strategies that will enhance effective communication between municipalities and communities.
Parliamentarians, who have greater access to resources and information, have to provide support at municipal level to ensure that ward committees are functional. We should do this bearing in mind that overcoming poverty is - or should be - in essence an ongoing battle sustained by the working together of all stakeholders, all focused on achieving the objective of government programmes such as IDPs.
The current status of poverty in South Africa has been officially published in the Millennium Development Goals Country Report 2010, which was presented to the United Nations last year. According to this report, the proportion of people living in and experiencing absolute poverty has declined in South Africa. It is known that poverty programmes in this country can be undermined by a huge drain of resources at household and national levels. Be that as it may, the above-mentioned report is encouraging in that it shows that we have the ability, as government and, indeed, as the nation, to eradicate the scourge of poverty from our midst. It should also be noted that the unequal allocation and acquisition of resources across the population remains a major challenge towards dealing with ensuring improved livelihoods of the people of South Africa.
One of the programmes I would like to mention is the Community Work Programme which aims to provide an employment safety net by providing a minimum level of regular work opportunities to participants, with a predictable number of days of work provided per month. This supplements the existing livelihood strategies of participants and provides a basic level of income security through work.
The programme has the following characteristics: it is targeted at unemployed and/or underemployed people of working age, including those whose livelihood activities are insufficient to lift them out of poverty; and it is an area-based programme that is implemented in a defined local area called a site. A site operating at full capacity offers work opportunities to 1 000 people. The programme offers two days of work per week - or the monthly equivalent thereof - providing 100 days of work per person spread through the year.
The Community Work Programme currently employs approximately 83 000 people across 46 municipalities countrywide, with a budget allocation of about R700 million. The programme will be upgraded and could provide as many as 237 000 work opportunities by the year 2014. This would form part of the local government sector's contribution to realising the Millennium Development Goal of halving unemployment.
A further initiative builds on commitment to introduce more collective forms of enterprises. The project to create ward-based co-operatives aims at setting up economically active community groups that produce goods and services in every ward.
A proposed strategy has been developed to roll out this project. Whilst acknowledging that this project will cover the entire country, it is largely aimed at the poor rural communities. With these communities economically active and earning a living, this will also assist in the revenue generation by municipalities.
In this regard, other projects and initiatives include a programme to reduce municipal debt and enhance revenue collection. We have launched Operation Clean Audit 2014 which is aimed at ensuring that municipalities and provinces get unqualified audit reports by 2014.
Regulations have been put in place to ensure that municipalities pay suppliers, especially small businesses, within 30 days of receiving a valid invoice. Some municipalities have established local economic development agencies to stimulate economic development. Some municipalities are preparing applications for the establishment of industrial development zones within their areas.
I have outlined some key government-driven initiatives that respond to the developmental challenges facing our communities. The fundamental philosophy behind our approach, however, is one of empowerment. Our social capital is what will catapult South Africa into realising its full potential. All government initiatives will thus be driven by partnerships with communities, the private sector and the rest of civil society.
As government, we have also placed much value in the approach of decentralisation. Key to this decentralised approach to development are the following principles: local economic development should not be regarded as economic development of a lower order; the core of economic development is the development of business opportunities and enterprise development; spatial development at local level can play a significant role in economic development; local economic development provides foundations for development in communities; the identification of the economic potential of an area and the development of business opportunities should be done jointly by government and the private sector with support and incentives from municipalities and the rest of government; local economic development should be based on the competitive and comparative advantages of an area; small business development and the development of co-operatives at local level will make a significant contribution to GDP growth; and lastly, a focused collaboration between municipalities and the local captains of commerce, industry, agriculture and mining is required to unlock the significant potential of municipal areas in South Africa.
We continue to make steady progress with regard to improved planning, co- ordination and delivery. Statistics show that there has been improvement in access to water, from 75% in 2001 to 93% to date; access to electricity has improved from 32% in 1994 to 82% to date; access to basic sanitation has improved from 60% in 2001 to 70% to date; and access to basic refuse removal has improved from 59% in 2001 to 69% to date. But statistics do not reflect quality; they do not reveal challenges, and, therefore, visits to municipalities remain important.
During the next three years, the roll-out of social and economic infrastructure will remain important. More than R800 billion has been set aside for the maintenance and expansion of roads, dams, electricity plans, ports and rail systems. Within this amount, notably, the municipal infrastructure grant is set to increase from R9,7 billion in the 2010-11 financial year to R15,3 billion in the 2013-14 financial year.
Our priority, however, is jobs. As indicated in Minister Gordhan's Budget Vote address, over R70 billion will go towards the Expanded Public Works Programme. An amount of R9 billion will go towards the Jobs Fund, and tax incentives to the tune of R20 billion have been targeted for job creation. A large percentage of the budget has also gone towards skills development as increasing our levels of education and skills is central to breaking the chain of poverty and dependency.
I want to conclude my input by focusing on the role of the NCOP in responding to the developmental challenges facing our communities as it is a critical partner in facilitating synergies within the spheres of government, and between government and civil society. Section 139 of the Constitution provides for provincial intervention in municipalities that are not able to perform their executive functions, and section 100 makes similar provisions for national government intervention in provinces. The approval of such interventions resides with the NCOP. The fact-finding missions such as those already embarked upon by you, hon members, must continue, and the executives within provincial and national spheres of government should be alerted about distressed municipalities that require support.
This can be enhanced by members of the NCOP actively engaging provinces and municipalities through the provincial legislatures on matters of planning, revenue generation and fiscal discipline, and overseeing that public participation is central to these processes. Parliament has done well over the past two years, but you require even further capacity if you are to operate optimally. You need resources that will enable a critical assessment of the appropriateness of legislation, policies and programmes brought before you for ratification. There has to be good recordkeeping and follow-up on the implementation of recommendations.
Constituency offices can also be used more effectively to increase public participation in the policy-making and legislative processes. Constituency offices should link up with structures such as ward committees, community meetings and community development workers to provide information on the work of Parliament and to receive feedback. Creating an active citizenry is fundamental to building an activist Parliament. Members of Parliament should likewise lead by example and actively participate in constituency work and not rely only on constituency office administrators for public engagement.
Our greatest developmental challenges are poverty, unemployment and dependency. A spirit of collective ownership of and passion to address these challenges is what is required if they are to be speedily eradicated.
I have spoken on the role of government, the role of the community, the role of business and the role of the NCOP. I have also outlined how we envisage the integration of all the relevant stakeholders in the drive to address the developmental challenges affecting our communities.
I have full confidence that if every stakeholder plays its role and if we draw on the full abilities of every person in the country, the successes achieved will be far beyond what we can imagine. I thank you. [Applause.]
Hon Deputy Chairperson, Your Excellency Mr Deputy President and hon members, I welcome the opportunity to participate in this debate, which is occasioned by the Deputy Presidents' annual address to the National Council of Provinces. I would like to thank the Deputy President for engaging the NCOP on how we can work together to respond to the developmental challenges facing our communities.
The debate takes place at a time when we are preparing for the elections, this time focusing on the important sphere of local government. It is opportune in that it gives us an early opportunity to raise our expectations from the leadership of this sphere after the 18 May elections. Needless to say, Deputy Chair, outgoing councillors have the moral and legal responsibility to prepare the ground for continuity and change.
The role of the NCOP, in the context of our democracy, is a very strategic one, as the Deputy President has already indicated. It is informed by the fact that the House provides a formal meeting point for the three spheres of government.
Therefore, it is better placed to give meaningful expression to the notion of co-operative government that is at the centre of our system of governance. That is very important. If people did not understand that, I think this is an opportunity today to make sure that we understand what the NCOP's role is. As Former President Mandela said in 1998:
The NCOP is uniquely placed to reflect the diversity of our society and to synthesise the experience of those spheres of government which are charged with the great bulk of the task of implementing our national programme of fundamental change.
It is key and essential to what I said and what the Deputy President has said. The promotion of co-operative governance is fundamental to ensuring that local, provincial and national governments work together to bring meaningful change to our communities. Our Constitution provides for separate and concurrent functions of the different spheres.
However, these functions are complementary and are intended to achieve one outcome - improving the lives of our people. It is not a question of competing with each other but it is a question of complementing each other and helping each other to achieve the results that are intended by the Constitution and the results that are intended to be achieved by the government of this country. Therefore, we need to complement each other and not compete with each other.
The question is: What role is the NCOP playing to facilitate this co- operative government and adherence to its principles? The Deputy President, at the beginning of the Fourth Parliament, raised a number of issues that the NCOP, including the National Assembly and provincial legislatures, should pay attention to. One of these issues is the manner in which we have been co-ordinating our oversight function.
I am happy to state that in implementing the outcome of the 2009 strategic planning workshop we have among, other things, reconfigured the portfolios of our House Chairpersons. This was in order to provide space for a new portfolio on co-operative government and intergovernmental relations and to combine the previously separate portfolios of committees and oversight.
We hope that this reconfiguration will assist us to work with other institutions to facilitate co-ordinated oversight, so as to avoid what the Deputy President termed "oversight stampede". That is not what we want to see. What we want to see is real oversight that is meaningful, effective and makes us see the results being achieved.
Specifically, the new portfolio on Co-operative Government and Intergovernmental Relations will assist us, among other things, to meaningfully promote the principles of co-operative government and intergovernmental relations, to better monitor and assess the government's performance with regard to ensuring a co-ordinated and co-operative approach to service delivery, and to continue to enhance the impact of public participation initiatives and the role of the NCOP in intergovernmental fiscal matters.
This is important because the three spheres of government are obligated to observe and adhere to the principles of co-operative government and intergovernmental relations. In terms of the Constitution, they must: firstly, provide effective, transparent, accountable and coherent government; secondly, respect the constitutional status, institutions, powers and functions of government in other spheres; and lastly, co-operate with one another in mutual trust and good faith.
That is how we should work and those are the principles of co-operative government and that is exactly what we should be monitoring also as the NCOP so that the flow and work and co-operation amongst the spheres of government is kept alive, working, effective and making sure that the results are achieved.
We need a government that works as one in responding to the developmental challenges facing our communities. The NCOP continues to place emphasis on the importance of involving the public in governance. To this end, we have significantly improved the approach to the Taking Parliament to the People programme. We now spend more time on preparatory work, including engaging the public and asking them to shape the agenda for the programme. This gives us the opportunity to engage the executive on the issues raised by the people long before we embark on the public participation, and for the executive to take action actually before we even get on the ground and make sure that those issues raised by the people are being addressed so that, at the same time, when we go there we announce the results of what people said they want to be addressed on.
We are also improving our follow-up work on these issues. I am proud to say that during our recent follow-up visit to Sekhukhune District Municipality in Limpopo, we witnessed significant progress since our programme in March last year.
The task of facilitating the development of our communities necessitates that, as Members of Parliament, we need to display unquestionable leadership qualities. We need to use our committees, our public platforms and other opportunities to articulate the interests of the people. Above all, we need to be focused - and not be all over the place - on our constitutional mandate and make sure that the objectives are attained.
In the face of the dynamic challenges we face as a country, it is important that we sharpen the role of Parliament. This is important because Parliament is the only institution in the Republic that has the power to make laws. Over and above that, it has the power to oversee the executive.
It is therefore important, Deputy Chair, that society and the executive derive value from our work. It is for this reason that we are finalising our implementation plan for the oversight and accountability model. The model will assist us to improve our monitoring and evaluation capacity, as well as the capacity to inspire innovative leadership on the part of those tasked with implementation. Importantly, we need to harness capacity to audit and monitor the impact of the laws that we pass.
Since the ushering in of the democratic Parliament, we have passed no fewer than 1 108 pieces of legislation. What I am trying to say is that it is very important to go back on the ground and ask: Out of the 1 108 pieces of legislation that we have passed, how many of those pieces of legislation make the lives of our people better? How many are being implemented? If you need an amendment, come back and suggest an amendment to that Act to say it hinders the implementation or delivery of services on the ground. That is another task Members of Parliament need to do.
Importantly, we should continue to engage organised local government on how they could meaningfully utilise their space in the NCOP. Organised local government is instrumental in facilitating development at the local level.
In conclusion, the NCOP is in a better position than ever to play its role in advancing our democracy. We continue to learn from our weaknesses. I dare say that we strive to be better, stronger and more inquisitive than we have ever been. I thank you all. [Applause.]
Chairperson and hon Deputy President, there is no doubt in my mind that South Africans need to work together if we are to bring about sustainable development in our country.
During the last decades of the apartheid regime our economic development stagnated and declined, with all sorts of negative social consequences. Since then, the economy has, for much of the period, shown some positive growth, although at a modest rate. Unfortunately, this was often jobless growth, with only a very limited number of new jobs being created, and with many of these being lost during the recent recession.
Human development, according to Nobel Prize-winning economist Amartya Sen, is what development is all about. Poverty has decreased somewhat, primarily because of a dramatic increase in the number of grants being paid out by the government, but the number of people with the capability to really participate in the economy has hardly increased at all. As a result, income inequality in South Africa has increased dramatically and our Gini coefficient is amongst the worst in the world.
The failure to bring about a significant increase in the number of South Africans who can participate productively in the modern economy must be blamed primarily on a school system that, in many instances, fails to provide a quality education for our children. In 1994 we could, with full justification, blame Hendrik Verwoerd and his successors. They explicitly designed an education system which would ensure that black, coloured and Indian children could not participate in the modern economy, except as unskilled workers.
In all probability the biggest challenge of the democratic government since 1994 was to transform the schools in the townships and rural areas into institutions that provided a proper education.
In the Western Cape and a number of other provinces, we are today, with significant successes, doing everything we can to improve the schooling of those who were disadvantaged in the past.
Hon Deputy President, I do not think that anyone would dispute the fact that the school system in South Africa needs to be dramatically improved if we wish to ensure that a far larger proportion of our population can participate in a modern economy. Far too many South Africans are caught up in what former President Mbeki used to call the second economy. There is a mismatch between the very basic skills our schools provide and the skills and capabilities required by a modern economy.
One of the areas where we have developed consensus across party lines is in agreeing that early childhood education needs to get far more support if children are to have the capability of benefiting from school education. In the Western Cape we have placed great emphasis on registering all early childhood development centres and we have formed a transversal committee to ensure that all departments make an optimal contribution in ensuring that ECD centres live up to their potential.
Work by economists such as Prof Murray Leibbrandt of UCT has shown conclusively that the decrease in the percentage of people living in poverty in South Africa has been realised not because of the increase in the productivity capacity of the poor, but because of the dramatic increase in the annual recipients of grant payments - from 3 million in 1994 to more than 13 million today.
The Premier of the Western Cape, in her state of the province address, said that we in the Western Cape are fully supportive of the grant payments made to the poor in order to alleviate poverty. Indeed, when a government fails to deliver to its people the educational capabilities needed to participate in a modern economy, it is duty-bound to ensure that the people do not starve.
However, I would argue that we should reconsider the types of grants being paid. We should try and learn from the Brazilian experience, where poor families are supported if their children attend school and visit health clinics.
The Taylor Committee that reported to the national Cabinet in 2001 warned that we should not pay out grants which have perverse incentives and create poverty traps. The committee suggested a universal income grant paid to all.
Mr Deputy President, through my own involvement in the social distress relief payments during the past 6 months as MEC for social development, it is very clear that we often fail to reach the very poor and that those who are in fact much better off at times succeed in getting onto the lists of those who are entitled to grants.
In the Western Cape, we removed most of these people through a very stringent review process. However, we only had to deal with about 3 000 cases. When there are millions of claimants, as in the case of child grants, there is evidence to suggest that in some provinces as many as a quarter of those receiving grants are not entitled to them. On the other hand, as many as a quarter of those who are really poor, and who are entitled to the grants, do not get them.
Hon Deputy President, there is also no doubt that substance abuse is another of those factors that is undermining the development of our communities on a large scale. It is also in this sphere that consensus has emerged amongst all the parties that far more needs to be done to prevent all types of substance abuse. As a government we cannot and should not allow the capabilities of our people to be destroyed by the abuse of alcohol and other drugs such as heroin and tik, which can also destroy people's mental health.
Hon Chair and Deputy President, I think there is consensus amongst all that the development of the capabilities of our people is a sacred duty of government at all levels. Rhetorically we are still committed to fulfilling those obligations, but practically one all too often finds that inefficiencies and corruption mean that the resources that could be used for development in fact benefit those who are already privileged.
When one repeatedly asks for an investigation into cases of alleged corruption, one does not do this to score political points, but in order to try and ensure that, in future, many of our resources do reach those who are most in need. Corruption steals from the poor. It is for that reason that I have made it one of my life's goals to fight corruption wherever I find it. I believe that it is the task of every one of us, whether we are in opposition or in government, to commit ourselves towards building a new ethos in government, where corruption in any form will not be tolerated, so that all our resources can be directed towards our development priorities.
Development will take time, as apartheid left us with a disastrous legacy of inequality and a social fabric that had been violently torn apart. In addressing this legacy, we constantly need to show solidarity with the poor, fight against practices that divide us and work for the goal of building a more caring society. The problems of the poor are the problems of the rich. We therefore need to build a society that truly entrenches our common humanity.
Hon Deputy President, I agree with you that the integrated development plans of municipalities need to be aligned with those of the national and provincial governments in order to prevent government departments from working in silos, where local, provincial and national governments each do their own thing. If we can bring about that alignment in putting our resources together, we will certainly improve development. I thank you. [Applause.]
Chairperson, I have a different speakers' list, but it's fine, I will take the podium. Hon Deputy President and all members present, South Africa, as a collective, must respond to the developmental challenges facing our communities. The foundation of development starts at school level; there is no other way. Research has shown that rural scholars lag up to seven years behind their urban counterparts in basic skills like reading and writing. Fifty per cent of schoolchildren drop out before high school, mostly in rural areas. This paints a picture of a dysfunctional education system, and the crisis that we are facing.
The ugly scene that played itself out last week in Gauteng, where a principal appeared in court for allegedly assaulting one of his students, is unacceptable. During his court appearance, his colleagues went to court to support him and left the students on their own.
The Congress of South African Students, Cosas, the student body, issued a statement saying that students must hit back when teachers assault them. The Gauteng secretary of the SA Democratic Teachers' Union, Sadtu, then threatened by saying that educators must leave schools because they can't put their lives in danger.
Clearly, schools have become battlefields. It is unacceptable, and nobody can or must tolerate such behaviour from either side - students and educators. Corruption is spreading like wildfire in society. Corrupt officials are stealing the tomorrow of our communities.
In 2007, the Special Investigating Unit recommended 426 disciplinary cases against Correctional Services officials for excessive medical claims. In 2009, the same unit, under Willie Hofmeyr, presented a report to the Minister of Correctional Services on the extent of corruption and fraud in the awarding of tenders in the Department of Correctional Services. We need to ask what has been done about this.
If there is any person mentioned in this damning report of the Special Investigating Unit, Cope is saying that arrests must take place with immediate effect. This is taxpayers' money that was used to investigate this corruption. Secondly, millions in taxpayers' money was involved in this corruption. Cope fully supports the initiative by the Council for the Advancement of the South African Constitution, Casac, chairperson, Sipho Pityana, in establishing ...
Hon members, please.
You see, Chairperson, when one talks about corruption they get scared because they are involved. [Laughter.] That is the problem.
Hon Bloem, can you continue with the debate?
Yes, Chairperson, I will.
Point of order, Chair.
We cannot have a government-affiliated ...
Point of order.
Chair, the hon member said "When we talk about corruption, they get scared because they are involved." Is he implying that we as hon members in this House are involved in corruption?
I am saying the people who scream. I have not mentioned anybody's name. If Freddie is feeling guilty, then Mr Adams must take that punch. I'm not ...
Hon Bloem, I order you now to withdraw your remark.
I withdraw with pleasure, Ma. I withdraw it.
We cannot have a government-affiliated agency investigating government departments.
Hon member.
Chair, it's a point of order. I agree with you that he must withdraw because he was mentioned in one of the investigations. Is he implying that he himself is involved? [Laughter.]
Hon members, I'm pleading with you. Can we continue with the debate without unnecessary interruptions?
I see that I'm under attack by my comrade here, but it is fine; we'll deal with that.
We cannot have a government-affiliated agency investigating government departments. Corruption must be eradicated in any and every form that it manifests in.
Let me go to my home town. South Africa is facing a crisis with regard to service delivery. Kroonstad, my home town, once a gem in the Free State, is fast moving towards being a ghost town. Water has become contaminated, sewage is flowing through the streets and roads have become so bad that gravel roads are being created in the CBD. The town is a skeleton of its former self. This is just one example. The majority of towns are in a similar state.
In the North West province, almost all municipalities are under section 139, where an administrator is being appointed ...
Hon Bloem, unfortunately your time is up.
I'm very happy that I spoke about corruption. Thank you very much, Mama. [Laughter.] [Applause.]
Hon Deputy Chairperson, Your Excellency Mr Deputy President, Hon Chairperson of the NCOP, hon delegates, special delegates, Premier of the Northern Cape, MECs, and in particular the future mayor of Cape Town ... [Laughter.] [Interjections.] Hon Bloem was correct; I also got the new speakers' list where the real opposition has been pushed to the top, so that all of the ANC can attack us after that. [Laughter.] But, that is fine.
Let me tell you that the development challenges facing our communities obviously go hand in hand with service delivery, the eradication of poverty by promoting job creation and the creation of an environment conducive to development. I agree with the Deputy President that we, the delegates of our provinces to the NCOP, are undoubtedly best placed to consider the topic of today's debate, and in particular with regard to our constituencies that we represent and service.
The question to ask first is of course whether the topic refers to the future, from today onwards in view of the elections, or to what the response of government should be and what has been done for the past 17 years with regard to the developmental needs of our communities. That is obviously what we need to interrogate before we look at the future.
My constituency, as a DA Member of Parliament, includes the Dr J S Moroka Local Municipality and Thembisile Hani Local Municipality in Mpumalanga, where I have been involved for more than 20 years. I'm therefore suitably placed to state that the developmental needs of those communities have sadly been overlooked all these years.
What has happened to the road networks that were in existence when your party took over, hon Deputy President? The answer is nothing. There are no new roads to service the areas where pathetic RDP houses were erected, and existing roads have been allowed to deteriorate beyond repair. Most of the working population have to commute from the KwaNdebele area to Tshwane and back daily. Bus accidents by the multitude on those pathetic roads are responsible for more deaths annually than any other cause.
Please tell me, Your Excellency Deputy President, what has happened to the Moloto rail system started some 12 years ago as a solution to this problem and to help the development needs of this community? I tell you, absolutely nothing. Yet millions have been spent on research and impact studies. I personally suspect that your government neglected to plan for the acquisition of the necessary rolling stock and rails and are now in a Catch- 22 situation; they can't do it.
The people are not fools. Promises and plans ...
Excuse me, hon Watson; there is a point of order.
Chairperson, it is the second time now that I hear hon Watson referring to you this way. Firstly, he referred to your party; secondly he refers to your government. Noting that as a presiding officer, you should be above and manage the debate. I would request that hon Watson withdraws those points of references to you.
Madam Chair, yet again the hon Tau is a stranger to the truth because I was referring to the Deputy President's party, not yours. The Deputy President is also the deputy president of the ANC, and that's a fact. I will not withdraw ...
Hon Watson, can you withdraw those statements, even if it was ...
In terms of the Rules of this House Chairperson, he must be addressing you.
Madam Chairperson, I say again that I was speaking through you because I started by addressing you and I was speaking to the Deputy President. I will not withdraw.
Hon Watson, I ask you to withdraw the statement.
What must I withdraw, Madam Chairperson?
You don't speak directly to the Deputy President referring to his party. You talk through me and that is the procedure.
I withdraw the reference to the Deputy President's party being the ANC, and I welcome him in the DA. [Laughter.]
No, no, Chair. Hon Deputy Chair, I think what hon Watson is now doing is in actual fact ridiculing you.
I'm not.
In terms of the decorum of this House, and I want to re-emphasise this point, the presiding officer is the point of reference in any debate. I'm saying that he must withdraw any point referring to you during the debate as "Your party" and "your government". That is my point, Chair.
The South African government belongs to all of us.
Chair, is hon Watson implying that what they did previously by calling themselves ...
Is it a question, hon Chair?
No, it's a point of order. Is he implying that he does not belong to South Africa today and, therefore, he does not belong to this House? That's what they did previously.
Hon Watson, when there's a point of order raised, can you please take your seat. Switch off your mic. [Interjections.]
If hon Watson is trying to address the House the way he is addressing it - this is the order that I want to confirm from hon Tau - when they were calling themselves Europeans and saying that they don't belong to this country, previously, is he implying that he does not belong to this House by calling him our Deputy President and not his? That is what he is implying and therefore he does not belong to this House.
Chairperson, on a point of order: That is not a point of order. Thank you. [Interjections.]
Hon Watson, can you continue for the few minutes left.
I hope you haven't been taking my time, Madam, because that is against the Rules and I know the Rules.
I'm saying that the answer is nothing, no routes, etc. I said that most of the working population have to commute to and from Tshwane daily, and accidents on buses on those pathetic roads are responsible for many, many deaths.
But, the wheel is turning. People are not being fooled by promises just before the elections. I am very proud to announce that, yesterday, a mass rally was held in Siyabuswa, in Mpumalanga, which was attended by the leader of the DA, the premier of this province and also the Acting King of the Ndzundza people. [Interjections.] Can I also be protected, Madam Chair?
I never used the word Europeans and you must withdraw that now. [Laughter.] The Ndzundza Acting King, King Sililo Mahlangu, and hundreds of his followers and headmen, at that meeting, joined the DA. I'm very proud to say that they pledged their support to the DA and will vote for the DA because their developmental needs have not been looked after by the government of this country. [Interjections.] If that's not a pointer, then I don't know what a pointer is.
I just want to say to the Deputy President that he must heed the signs of the time, and I say, through you Madam, "Heed the signs of the time, sir. The wheel is indeed turning." To my hon members of the ANC, my friends, through you, can I just tell them to be kind to those that they pass on the way up because they never know who they might meet on the way down. Thank you. [Applause.]
Thanks Chair, Deputy Chair, hon Deputy President, leadership of the SA Local Government Association, Salga, hon members, you know at times you attempted to clarify things to those attending the sittings. I was impressed by hon De Lille, I thought the member would do the reasonable thing, but instead they are getting to the people. It is our culture that if you are a rational leader, you welcome everybody, not that you are joining a party. If an organisation comes to a village then you are all going to be welcomed.
It is an honour to be afforded such an opportunity to participate in this very important debate that is addressing real issues that are challenges to South Africans. It is significant that this debate is held the day after the celebration of Human Rights Day.
It is in order to remember words of the late President of Mozambique, Samora Machel, when he said:
I do not go to debate to give my own ideas. If that were all, I might write my fellow members a letter. But neither do I go simply to learn other people's ideas. If that were all, I might request you to write me a letter. I go to a debate in order that together we may create group ideas, an idea which will be better than all our ideas added together. For this group idea will not be produced by any process of addition, but by the interpenetration of us all.
We can, at times, try to avoid reality, but we cannot avoid the consequences of avoiding reality. We have to be realistic and objective when being afforded such an opportunity, especially a debate that is held a day after remembering how we got into the current challenges.
As we debate today we must always draw inspiration from the profound words so nobly uttered by our great icon and gallant freedom fighter, Tata Nelson Mandela. As we debate today, we must always draw inspiration from the profound words," ... no South African should rest and wallow in the joy of freedom".
The words remain relevant up to this day; therefore, instead of wallowing in the joy of freedom, we use the debate as an opportune reflection on the journey we have traversed and the challenges ahead.
My debate today is a dedication to the people of Nkomazi Local Municipality in Mpumalanga that made it possible for the child-headed Themba family to have a decent shelter. The initiative was started by the classmates of this 17-year-old girl, who was looking after her three siblings.
They decided to visit our constituency office to intervene so as to assist them with contact with the provincial department for a proper shelter. After engaging the department it was clear that their issue was prioritised for the next financial year. The conduct and the positive attitude of Thembeni as head of that family made it simple for every person involved to make a contribution so as to inspire fellow South Africans of her own age and beyond.
As we speak today, a decent house with furniture was constructed and handed over as a gift to the Themba family. All of that was finalised around November last year and she is currently in Grade 12. The role of business, as indicated by the Deputy President, in community, constituency office and school really confirm that indeed working together we can do more. In Afrikaans s hulle, "Deur saam te werk, kan ons meer bereik." [In Afrikaans they say, "By working together, we can achieve more".]
Everything was done to make practical the vision of this Parliament. The vision of Parliament is to build an effective people's Parliament that is responsive to the needs of the people and driven by the ideal of realising a better quality of life for all the people of South Africa. However, I must say that I belong to an organisation that states clearly in its preamble from the first page in its constitution that the ANC was founded in 1912 to defend and advance the rights of all African people.
The aim and objectives of the ANC have been made practical by all the relevant stakeholders when dealing practically with the Themba family. The motive behind the role of all progressive stakeholders in building a better life for all is that their tireless efforts are appreciated and valued, and to all people in their respective corners advancing the agenda of pushing back the frontiers of poverty, we all say in one voice, "Keep up the good work".
The organisation that I belong to stated clearly in its 52nd national conference declaration, I quote:
Our work is far from complete. We are only at the beginning of a long journey to a truly united, democratic and prosperous society, based on the principles contained in the Freedom Charter. Yet we are confident that the strategy and policies we have adopted will take us further towards the goal of a better life for all.
All that cannot and will never be one man's job, it is something that can be achieved by all our people. Hence, to echo the theme, working together we can do more to respond to developmental challenges facing our communities.
It is encouraging to note that the ANC has made a direct and practical response to the United Nations generated criteria on the right to development that includes the condition of living of most people, the conditions under which they work, equality of access to resources and degree of participation in development.
I felt that it would be proper to share with all members present here the five important lessons a pencil maker taught a pencil: everything you do always leaves a mark; you can always correct the mistakes you have made; what is inside you is what is most important; in life you will undergo painful sharpening which makes you a better pencil; and to be a better pencil, you must allow yourself to be held and guided by the hand that holds you.
The ANC has legitimately won the elections, so let us allow it to govern by being efficient as MPs when we do our work. Indeed, criticise constructively and also give credit where it is due. In conclusion, allow me to quote one of the late revolutionaries, Amilcar Cabral:
Always bear in mind that the people are not fighting for ideas, for the things in anyone's head. They are fighting to win material benefits, to live better and in peace, to see their lives go forward, to guarantee the future of their children.
I thank you.
Ms N DUBE (KwaZulu-Natal): Deputy Chairperson of the NCOP, Deputy President, hon Chairperson of the NCOP and hon members, it is indeed an honour for us that we stand before you on this day after the whole country has paid tribute to the heroes and heroines who laid down their lives for a prosperous and democratic South Africa. On 21 March 2010, the people of South Africa gathered across the country to acknowledge the contribution of thousands of men and women who died during the Sharpeville Massacre. The people of KwaZulu-Natal this year gathered in Nquthu Local Municipality to observe this important day on our calendar.
We heartily remembered yesterday that on International Human Rights Day on 10 December 1996, Nelson Mandela signed our new Constitution in Sharpeville, effectively ushering in the new South Africa, a society which was based on democratic values, social justice and fundamental human rights.
Hon members, the theme of the sitting pertinently calls for all the people of South Africa to work together to speed up service delivery. Working together indeed with our people in the province of KwaZulu-Natal, for us, is a historic mandate that inspired us and our people for this freedom. When we say the people are governing, we say so because our people and our government have consistently and continuously engaged with the communities in the implementation of all our programmes.
We dynamically engage with the communities in campaigns such as Know Your Neighbourhood, home-based care, war on poverty, household profiling, and our door-to-door visits, which are inspired by the integrated development plans, IDPs, in our budget. We are inculcating the culture of public participation in all our work as government in our communities. Public participation for us also means that building a responsible citizenry helps to enhance the revenue of our municipalities, and has the capability to monitor local government performance through the IDPs.
We welcome, Your Excellency Deputy President, the emphasis that indeed we need all the spheres of government to participate in the IDPs. We are indeed, as the province of KwaZulu-Natal, engaging with all our municipalities to ensure that we prepare a smooth transition to the new municipalities. Under the theme "Working together in KwaZulu-Natal, we can take South Africa forward", we have called on all our people to join hands with our government to strengthen our programmes of action in order to steer this province in the right direction. Indeed, we have ensured that we are dealing with the backlogs of delivery of water and electricity, since our province still lags behind with this service delivery.
We are working together to deal with the challenges of HIV and Aids and TB, while government has unveiled the measures aimed at expanding the availability of antiretrovirals, combining treatment of TB and ARVs in one facility, so as to increase the access to all our communities. Our government has appointed the members of Cabinet or the MECs as champions of various district municipalities, so as to ensure that our war on poverty campaign is indeed entrenched within our communities. As we undertake our work in this regard, communities are our key partners.
In preparation for the upcoming local government elections, we have up- scaled our community awareness programme as a way of mobilising for a higher voter turnout because we believe that the voice of our people will be the one that will prosper.
As part of our disaster management mitigation strategies, we are also mobilising communities as volunteers to assist in the disasters that we have seen in and around our communities in KwaZulu-Natal. We are looking to all of us to make sure that we are each other's keepers. Working together with our communities has helped us to improve the communities, and for them to be in charge of their livelihood.
We are working together with our women and our youth structures to ensure that job creation and sustainable livelihoods are at the centre of local government programmes. We will be rolling out the community works programme which will be driven by the communities themselves as a way of ensuring that communities play a pivotal role in making the living environment safe in which to work and also play. In the coming term in local government, we are going to make sure that we resource the ward communities better, ensuring that they are taken seriously by municipalities. We will be ensuring also that our local governments improve their way of working by ensuring that structures such as community police forums, school governing bodies, health and youth ambassadors, traditional communities and all other organised formations work together in the ward committees to enhance the work and the voice of our people.
Clearly, as the provincial government, we are committed to developing a new Public Service that is imbued with a strong ethical and professional orientation. Public servants need at all times to be reliable and responsive, to show courtesy and render services to our communities. Our Public Service remains the only engine and is the only tool that government can use to satisfy the needs and the aspirations of our people. Therefore, through the good behaviour of our public servants we can create a prosperous country where citizens are treated with respect. It is for this reason that our provincial office of the premier has opened an ombuds office to ensure that all communities as members of the public can go and receive or submit their complaints, which will be assessed and received by government to ensure the improvement of the work that we are doing.
As elected government officials, we have also undertaken to partner with all communities wherever they are involved in nation-building, the promotion of peace and tolerance in our province and the mutual respect in everyday tasks for all our communities. To build a compassionate country is one of our key programmes in KwaZulu-Natal. We shall continue to work for peace, political tolerance and the promotion of free political activity in the next elections.
Our democracy can only be entrenched and protected in an environment of peace. We shall also work very closely, as we are doing right now, with the Independent Electoral Commission and all the law enforcement agencies to ensure that the local government elections in 2011 are a pleasant experience for all our communities. We have also called on all the elected representatives in the councils to serve our people with dignity and honour and refrain from using the positions for self-interest. We have also removed councillors before who have failed to rise to this expected level, and we will not hesitate, hon members, to do the same anytime the situation requires.
We also want to thank hon members of the NCOP for always supporting the work done by the province, and we are looking forward to strengthening the municipalities as they start with their challenge after the local government elections. I thank you. [Applause.]
Hon Chair, hon Deputy President, hon members of the House and the chairperson of SA Local Government Association, Salga, as already alluded to, yesterday was 21 March and the country was celebrating Human Rights Day, where a number of people lost their lives while fighting for the freedom we have and enjoy today.
In the International Consensus Agreement of the 1990s, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted in 1948, and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights of 1976 all member states had acceded to this declaration which affirms that, "All human beings are born free and equal in rights and dignity".
The declaration also called for social security and conditions that allow an individual to realise economic, social and cultural rights necessary for dignity and for a standard of living adequate to one's health and wellbeing.
The state must ensure that men and women equally enjoy these rights. The covenant also recognises people's rights to be free from hunger, to be educated and to enjoy the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health.
I believe that, in working together to respond to the developmental challenges facing our communities, we need to place people at the centre of development and direct our economies to meet human needs more effectively. Our people, with their aspirations and collective determination, are our most important resource. We need to focus on our people's most immediate needs, which rely in turn on their energies to drive the process.
Development is not about delivery of goods to a passive citizenry. It is about active involvement and growing empowerment.
Poverty is the single greatest burden of South Africa's people and is a direct result of the apartheid system and the grossly skewed nature of business and industrial development that accompanied it. Poverty still affects millions of people, the majority of whom live in rural areas and are women.
It is not merely the lack of income which determines poverty. An enormous proportion of every basic need is currently not being 100% fulfilled. To attack poverty in South Africa, the road to achieving that goal seeks to eliminate hunger, provide land and housing to all our people, provide access to safe water and sanitation for all, eliminate illiteracy, and raise the quality of education and training for children and adults.
Given its resources, South Africa can afford to feed, house, educate and provide health care to all its citizens. However, apartheid and economic exploitation created gross and unnecessary inequalities among us.
In responding to the developmental challenge facing our communities we need to create opportunities for all to develop their full potential, boosting production and household income through job creation, productivity, improving efficiency and conditions of employment.
A programme of affirmative action must address the deliberate marginalisation of black people, women and rural communities from economic, political and social power. Vulnerable groups such as farm workers, women and youth require targeted intervention.
The ANC-led democratic government is playing a leading role in building the economy which offers all South Africans the opportunity to contribute productively.
In his state of the nation address our hon President said that about five million jobs are going to be created. I believe that one key programme that is going to ensure that this is realised is the Expanded Public Works Programme. Special key measures are to create jobs that link to building the economy and meeting the basic needs in redressing the apartheid-created infrastructural disparities; the provision of education and training; and the involvement of communities in the process so that they are empowered to contribute to their own governance.
Economic development, social development and environmental protection are interdependent and are also mutually reinforcing components of sustainable development. We acknowledged that the recent economic signs are positive and that the economy grew strongly in the last quarter of 2010.
Today is World Water Day. Water is a natural resource and it should be made available in a sustainable manner. Research has shown that under the government of the ANC about 90% of the South African population have access to clean water. It seems as if our country and our government are going to meet one of the Millennium Development Goals in ensuring environmental sustainability by ensuring that all communities have access to safe drinking water.
South Africa as a developing country is faced with the challenge of lack of skills. Most young people are unemployable due to this challenge. Young people need to be empowered by education and training. They need scientific and technological training from primary to tertiary level. In this way they will be able to provide the necessary skills that our country needs.
Lastly, in the next two months the country will be having the fourth local government elections. The residents of South Africa have gained the power to take part in the development of their own communities and also by electing representatives who will promote their interests and those that they trust, indeed, will promote their interests. Working together we have achieved much, but there is more to be done and together we can build better communities. I thank you. [Applause.]
Before I call the hon Nkomfe to continue with the debate, I just want to bring something to members' attention. In terms of Rule 31(a) in chapter 5 of the NCOP, no member is supposed to move between the Chair and the person addressing the Chair. What I have observed is that there has been a lot of movement in between the Chair and the member addressing the Chair. You are obstructing and distracting the person who is addressing the House. I just wanted to remind you because I know you are not used to the structure of this House.
Chair, may you be reminded that you also crossed the line while I was addressing you.
Hon Chairperson, Chairperson of the NCOP, hon Deputy President of the Republic of South Africa, hon members of the NCOP, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, as Gauteng, we embrace this opportunity to once again reflect on the challenges that are facing our communities. Let me start by saying that we live in times where development is a dominant currency in global affairs. However, development as a concept takes various shades and hues of colour, depending on one's perspective. As a result, the world is stereotypically defined and divided along the narrow lines of the developed world called the First World, and the underdeveloped world called the Third World nations of the world. In many instances, this has bred unabated greed, plunder and tensions among the nations of the world.
The tensions and uneasy relations between these two dichotomous world views find and manifest themselves on many fronts, in particular trade, economic relations, political and international relations, amongst others. Hon Chair, South Africa was never and is still not spared the vices that result from such relations. Those relations are domination and underdevelopment. Our situation is exacerbated by the historical patterns of socially engineered development, which are still visible to date. In our country, the differences in development patterns are accentuated by the glaring imbalances found in locations which are in close proximity. A case in point is the appalling contradictions between Sandton City and the townships of Alexandra, Khayelitsha and Dobsonville as well as Mangaung and Bloemfontein.
Chairperson and hon members, hope has been brought into the lives of many people in the country. In a short period of time, ie 17 years of democratic rule to be precise, South Africa has witnessed unparalleled levels of change. More people, regardless of colour or creed, are benefiting from our housing policies, social safety net, and access to clean water, electricity as well as sanitation.
We are mindful of challenges that lie ahead. We know that many of our people are still living in abject poverty. The number of the unemployed - in our view - is still very high, whichever way you define it. But we are made strong and determined by the fact that many of our people are behind our efforts to address these matters. Our view is that any development should be people-centred and people-driven at all levels. This ensures that people participate and influence the course of development in their communities. However, we are aware that our intentions have - in some instances - been hijacked to the benefit of a clique that has no interest in broader community development issues. That is where the issues of corruption tend to rear their heads. In this regard and context of corruption, resources get deviated from where they are supposed to be going to a few people. The issue of corruption is something that the ruling party is very interested in and has to deal with.
Hon Chair, the one area that we want to focus on is the impediments around challenges facing our communities. One of them is that - we want to believe - municipalities should be assisted by different levels of government; in other words, the provincial and the national levels, particularly with regard to maximising revenue collection. That is central to the development of our people. Secondly, the issue of reducing municipal debt is very important in many ways. In this instance, we talk about debt coming from households, national and provincial departments. If you address those issues, I am sure that municipalities will go a long way in addressing developmental issues.
The other broad area is the capacity of municipalities. In this instance, the level of project management is very important. The issue of contract management is a problem nationally and provincially and particularly in municipalities. These are very important to us because at the end of the day, we have to account for value for money with regard to what we do in various spheres of government.
Community participation, as the Deputy President has enunciated, is very important because development should not be development for its own sake. It should not just be economic development but should impact on community development. Lastly, we want to submit that the rising wage bill at different levels of government, particularly in municipalities, must have a direct relationship with productivity levels, so that there is value for money even at that level.
In order for development to be accelerated, we need to intensify intergovernmental relations, as indicated by the Deputy President. This requires proper co-ordination amongst the spheres of government. We think that it is through effective co-ordination that duplication and poor resource management can be avoided. The current intergovernmental structures dealing with local government fiscal matters, in other words facilitating dialogue at technical and political level, allow provinces to engage with municipalities around new reforms for local spheres to track progress on local government performance, and provide advisory support to municipalities.
Imperative in the grant management process is to ensure that transfers earmarked for municipalities are published on time. This will allow for proper fiscal planning at the municipal level. The provincial transfers to municipalities need to be properly co-ordinated to ensure that grants are transferred on time, and spent by municipalities in accordance with the conditions as per the provincial gazette. In the last debate we had with the Minister of Finance, all these issues were raised, particularly the issue of grant management. That requires a multiplicity of interventions, meaning co-ordination.
All spheres of government should ensure that their development plans are aligned and this point was raised by the Deputy President. For instance, the infrastructure plans of the provinces should address challenges of provincially owned assets located in municipal boundaries. The recurrent theme that we are coming back to is the issue of infrastructure spending. In Gauteng and other provinces in general, infrastructure development should be at the centre of development. In reality, our people are not impressed by explanations of how the spheres of government work because, in their view, there is only one government. They become impatient because what they want to hear and see is development on their doorsteps. They understand that it should be development that enhances the quality of their lives.
Hon Chair, we want to submit that we have to go back to the idea of community development and not just development for its own sake. We also want to submit that it is about time that we really begin to look at the idea of service delivery because it denotes a relationship that is ... [Interjections.]
At the end of the day, there must be community development. We are not just bringing freedoms to people but people must actually develop themselves.
In conclusion, we need to join forces and work as a team for the benefit of our people. Government alone will not be able to do that. The challenge remains attacking underdevelopment, poverty and unemployment. Thank you very much. [Time expired.] [Applause.]
Chairperson, hon MECs, the hon Premier of the Northern Cape and Your Excellency the hon Deputy President, all protocol observed. Indeed it is a privilege to take part in this debate. Let me start by saying that the theme of this debate is also a challenge for the government. As I listened to what the Deputy President just said today, it still remains a challenge now. For 17 years of our young democracy we struggled to empower the poor economically merely because of the fact that we do not implement strategic plans and we are not developing our people through education.
Teach our children to read, invest in our children today for tomorrow, in order to eradicate poverty and give them a better life. We, as the Independent Democrats, believe in bridging the gap in the inequalities amongst our communities by having a holistic approach of manufacturing our own goods and to equip the poor in order to sustain themselves to be proudly South African.
Martin Luther King Jr said, and I quote:
As long as there is poverty in the world I can never be rich, even if I have a billion dollars... No individual or nation can stand out boasting of being independent. We are interdependent.
Ons is 17 jaar in die demokrasie, maar die haglike toestande waarin die mense van die platteland woon, is onaanvaarbaar. Dan wil ons trots daarop wees dat ons die beste Grondwet in die wreld het! Die Grondwet kan nie die armes ekonomies bemagtig nie. Die Noord-Kaap se minerale en rykdom word nie aangewend om die inwoners van die provinsie te bemagtig nie; dit is net 'n klein elite groep wat voordeel trek uit die massa minerale van die Noord- Kaap. (Translation of Afrikaans paragraph follows.)
[We have been a democracy for 17 years; however, the appalling conditions under which people in the rural areas live are unacceptable. Yet we want to pride ourselves on having the best Constitution in the world! The Constitution cannot empower the poor economically. The minerals and wealth of the Northern Cape are not being utilised to empower the residents of the province; only a small elite group is benefiting from the vast mineral resources in the Northern Cape.]
Let me just say it is high time that we set the racial tags aside and bridge the gap of inequality at all levels. The people of this country are losing sight of the purpose of the struggle. Moral decay is often overlooked as a challenge in developmental phases of community upliftment projects and plans.
Yesterday, at the Human Rights Day celebration, the extent of moral decay was displayed when intolerable abuse was displayed against the Acting Premier of the Western Cape, Patricia De Lille. The failure of President Jacob Zuma to immediately intervene and tell off the crowd has further proved the rate at which the country's moral standards and respect for 21 March has declined. It is a sign that the youth and those who do this do not understand the purpose of the struggle and where it comes from. It is ill-discipline and if any leader in this House agrees with them, it shows the signs, quality and the character of the leaders that agree with rudeness.
The unmanageable crowd of the ANC supporters is a clear indication of ignorance of the country's history and it is downright rude to antagonise someone of Patricia De Lille's stature whose 34 years of involvement in the struggle is well known ... [Time expired.]
Hon member, your time is up; I have already given you extra time.
Chairperson, I am happy to join the debate the annual address by the Deputy President in this House. I wish to highlight the importance of partnerships in responding to developmental challenges that are facing our communities.
The lessons we have learnt as the National Council of Provinces through our public participation and oversight programmes indicate that our democracy is still maturing. As a result, facilitating development requires that we make certain interventions informed, among other things, by the fact that: firstly, we need a massive public education campaign on the service delivery provided by our government and how it can be accessed, especially by rural people, as well as the various methods of ensuring an active citizenry that is in constant dialogue with its government. Secondly, we still need to improve the manner in which the government operates and to ensure that government works in a co-operative and co- ordinated manner.
Lastly, we need to develop a high-performance culture, based on a quality service approach and value for money. Our people deserve quality service from the money spent by government on public goods.
To achieve this, we need to create partnerships. The Constitution provides for a special relationship between this House, provinces and organised local government. At the heart of these partnerships is the need to improve the lives of our people for the better.
However, we need to look at the other external partnerships as well. One such partnership is with civil society. This is important if we are to promote social cohesion, and build a nation that is united behind the vision of creating a nonracial, nonsexist and prosperous South Africa.
Important in this regard is the need to work with civil society to empower women and girl-children as equal citizens of our country. For too long women have borne the brunt of poverty; they have been the worst victims of war, conflict and oppression. If we are to achieve the Millennium Development Goals, MDGs, that were set as global targets for development at the beginning of this century, we need to continue to pay attention to issues of gender equality. We need to create a society that provides security, safety and opportunity for all its citizens, particularly women and girl-children.
The hon Deputy President will recall that our country's report to the UN General Assembly last September, on the progress towards achieving the MDGs, placed particular emphasis on poverty and the link to gender violence. It states as follows:
... with as many as one in three women being violently assaulted in her lifetime, the chances of severe, debilitating injury to a large number of abused women are high. Severely abused women are generally unable to work, especially if they are also responsible for performing the physical labour of harvesting food and gathering fuel and water for their families.
It further notes that "violence against women is increasingly acknowledged to be both a consequence and a cause of poverty among women and children".
At the recent 55th Session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women, this is one of the critical points that were raised by civil society. The aim is to persuade the UN to develop an indicator recognising the link between gender violence and poverty, especially as it relates to women and girl-children. There are indeed sad stories of strife and suffering of women and girls within and outside the country. We need to work together to intervene.
Nongovernmental organisations are critical as they work among communities, providing counselling to abused women and girls on a daily basis. If we are to respond effectively to the developmental challenges and needs of our communities, it goes without saying that non-state organisations are critical partners.
In fact, last week's International Consultative Seminar hosted by the legislative sector here in Parliament highlighted the importance of Parliament and legislatures working together with civil society as part of the oversight machinery. This is in recognition of the fact that civil society has a lot to offer in support of our developmental work, especially through research. Therefore, partnership with progressive non-state organisations is necessary to achieve our developmental goals.
We appreciate the role played by the nongovernmental structures during the struggle for liberation. Many NGOs have continued to play an important role in support of our democracy. However, since we attained democracy, I am not sure whether we have sufficiently collaborated with civil society in deepening our democracy. Yet we need to harness this resource to support our efforts at promoting development. Of course, this does not mean that NGOs must lose their independence; rather they must contribute to the generation of ideas and innovative solutions to developmental challenges.
They can also assist us to share experiences of our freedom and democracy with women and children beyond our borders who are still suffering. I think of the women and children of Sudan, Ethiopia and many other countries in the continent that have emerged from conflicts and that are afflicted by grinding poverty. Working together we can change the lives of our people for the better. I thank you.
Hon Chairperson, His Excellency the Deputy President of the Republic of South Africa hon Kgalema Motlanthe, members of the NCOP, guests and members of the public, this sitting is taking place a day after Human Rights Day, the theme of which was Working Together to Protect Human Dignity for All. The adopted theme for this debate is "Working together to respond to the developmental challenges facing our communities."
Part of the context in this debate includes our reality and therefore the following: In less than two months, the third local government and nonracial democratic elections, after a decade of democratic local government in South Africa, will take place on 18 May 2011. The historic April 1994 elections placed the liberation movement in a position of responsibility to lead the process of reconstruction and development aimed at eradicating the problems of poverty and inequality, created in the main by apartheid.
In turn, as elected public representatives, this places on our shoulders a responsibility to help create a just and equitable economic and social order. Given the Libyan political problem and the generalised instability in Northern Africa, one cannot help but ask if man is a rational animal endowed with a most evolved and distinctive quality: his ability to reason. Why is it that we seem to be bent on repeating history with regard to wars, genocide and unprecedented cruelties?
The accomplished writer, Mark Twain, put it thus, and I quote:
Man is the only animal that deals in that atrocity of atrocities, war. He is the only one that gathers his brethren about him and goes forth in cold blood and calm pulse to exterminate his kind.
If rationality is the trump card in evolutionary survival, why has no other animal ever come closer?
As the SA Local Government Association, Salga, we have long held the view that when government is working alone and in isolation, it cannot achieve much. We know that what is needed are partnerships that straddle all spheres of government that seek to include all organisations of civil society and collaboration with local communities. Going to the future, we will strengthen and deepen our plans of the development strategies in every municipality, the five-year integrated development plan, IDP and the annually revised and reviewed IDP.
This will not only help in the process of building a South African nation with a common patriotism and loyalty in which the cultural, linguistic and religious diversity of the people is fully recognised, but it will also be able to promote economic development for the benefit of all; advance the cause of gender equality and women's emancipation; support and promote the struggle for the rights of children, the elderly and the disabled; and support and advance the cause of national liberation development, world peace, and disarmament; and environmental sustainable development.
The municipalities across the length and breadth of our country have been grappling with the question of how we make the commitment of building a more humane and caring society an even more palpable reality.
Despite whatever limitations are imposed on us by lack of resources, human and financial, we have consistently maintained our unambiguous commitment to the poor. We have articulated our understanding that government is about the wellbeing of people and that both the elected public office bearers or representatives and the administrative executive authority at each local government and municipality have a responsibility to serve.
This should become a generalised experience from the uppermost to the lowest level of each municipal organisation. What brings all of us together are the people, their wellbeing and the advancement of their lives - the improvement of quality of life of all our people in general, and the poorest of the poor in particular.
The achievements are indeed many. There is differentiated evidence in all the 283 municipalities. The national picture is quite clear. On water, the slogan that comes to mind is Water is Life; and on sanitation, the slogan that comes to mind is Sanitation is Dignity. All of these things are becoming a reality at a local level. More people have clean drinking water than ever before. As the Deputy President has already indicated, about 59% to 69% of people have access to sanitation.
More people than ever before have access to electricity. More and more waste is now being removed from local areas than ever before. Free basic services have ranged from 10 kilolitres of water to 100 kilowatts of electricity per hour being delivered to rebates on sanitation. Even as we say this, directly speaking, we know that much more still needs to be done. We acknowledge both the extent of the challenge and the levels of commitment required in addressing these. We also accept the guidance of political leadership on the new growth path, as articulated by President Jacob Zuma, when he said, and I quote:
Our goal is clear. We want to have a country where millions more South Africans have decent employment opportunities, which has a modern infrastructure and a vibrant economy and where the quality of life is high. We all have a responsibility to work hard to make this a reality.
Let me assure all of you that the municipalities will play a critical role in ensuring that this happens. We will ensure that this does not merely become a routine slogan. Therefore, detailed plans will have to be developed from each metropolitan municipality, local municipality and district municipalities, to individual entities and municipal-owned enterprises. As we make this commitment, we also wish to state that we will endeavour to do more with less and creatively or innovatively intervene to advance our country and its entire people.
It is our view that the future of local government is indeed a bright one for organised local government and municipalities in South Africa. Some of the objective indications are as follows: firstly, the steady increase of resources being allocated to the local government sphere; and secondly, the announcement by the Minister of Human Settlements that some municipalities, including all the six metros, some districts and local municipalities, are being accredited to deliver level one and level two of the housing development.
Of course, as we move to the future, we are expecting more responsibilities to be handed over to municipalities and that they would seize the opportunity in turn to demonstrate capability and ensure a sense of being more effective and efficient. The separation of powers at local government level ... [Interjections.]
Hon member, can you please give us a summary in 30 seconds.
... and therefore requires more oversight and accountability.
We remain optimistic that together with stakeholders, we would be able to build better communities. I thank you. [Applause.]
It is a very important debate and we have members from the nearby community taking interest in this debate. Let me welcome you officially and therefore encourage you to further take a greater interest in the debates taking place in the NCOP. You are welcome. [Applause.]
Chairperson, Deputy President, comrades and members of the House, the South African colonial experience was based and is based on the intersection of class, race and gender relations of power. These distinctive social and biological features have been used in human history to exclude, repress and stifle the progress of individuals and communities. The struggle against colonialism of a special type sought to eliminate most of the manifestations of these unequal social relations. It sought to establish the best in human civilisation and a value system that promotes solidarity.
Even in the midst of bitter confrontation, the ANC developed moral values of human compassion and solidarity far beyond the narrow confines of its opposition to apartheid. It represented something good; it asserted the humanness of the human spirit and societies at peace within and among themselves. Those like the DA, who build open toilets in African communities, indeed, are opposed to this national democratic society that is being built by the ANC. [Interjections.]
The national democratic revolution seeks to build a society based on the best in human civilisation in terms of political and human freedoms, socioeconomic rights, value systems and a national identity. Apartheid colonialism visited such devastating consequences on black communities. It ordered the ownership and control of wealth in such a manner that these communities were deliberately excluded and neglected.
Fundamental to the destruction of apartheid is the eradication of apartheid production relations which are still persistent in our national democratic society that we are building. This is more than just an issue of social justice. It is about the fact that these relations have become a brake on the advancement of technology and competitiveness of the economy.
The ANC seeks to build a national democratic society founded on a thriving economy, the structure of which should reflect the natural environments of the country and creativity that a skilled population can offer. It should be an economy in which cutting-edge technology, labour-absorbing industrial development, a thriving small business and corporate sector, utilisation of information and communication technologies and efficient forms of production and management all combine to ensure national prosperity.
The ANC's vision finds expression in the establishment of the Jobs Fund of R9 billion announced by the President during his state of the nation address to finance new job creation initiatives. In addition thereto, the R10 billion which has been set aside by the Industrial Development Corporation, as announced by the President, for investment in such economic activities with a high jobs potential further strengthens the Jobs Fund initiative of the President.
Hon Chairperson, let me argue further that the thriving economy that the national democratic society should be founded on requires deracialisation of ownership and control of wealth, including land, management and the professions. The national democratic society will have a mixed economy with state co-operatives and other forms of social ownership and private capital.
The national democratic society should use the redistributive mechanisms of the fiscus to provide the safety net for the poor. Built into its social policy should be comprehensive social security which includes elements of a social wage such as social grants, basic services, free education, subsidised public transport, basic accommodation and free health care.
The developmental state that we are building has provided large-scale access to these services that I have mentioned. Nevertheless, poverty, joblessness, HIV and Aids and the exclusion of women from economic activity still persist. Furthermore, as stated by the President in his state of the nation address:
While many South Africans celebrate the delivery of houses, electricity or water, there are yet many others who are still waiting. The legacy of decades of apartheid underdevelopment and colonial oppression cannot be undone in only 17 years. But we are forging ahead, determined to achieve our mission of building a better life for all.
Hon Chairperson, I wonder if the DA is prepared to tell its constituency that the economy of South Africa is still only meant for the privileged minority and that the vast majority are still excluded from economic activities and opportunities. [Interjections.] Is the DA prepared to inform its constituency that the so-called service delivery protests are not about the ANC's failure, but, indeed, poverty and their dismal living conditions while the wealth of their country is in the hands of a few? The wealth of this country is still in the hands of a few. The redistribution mechanisms need to be dealt with. That is a reality that we need to face in order to address the fundamentals that, as the democratic society, we are seeking to establish.
Umlenzana usekhona. [Kwahlekwa.] [Discrimination still exists. [Laughter.]]
In conclusion, for the national democratic revolution to realise our vision of a developmental state, we should strengthen the organs of people's power. The following are the cornerstones: the community police forums in which the people should be active participants in ensuring that they protect themselves against all forms of crime; health forums; education forums; and ward committees so that they can participate in all developmental activities that are to take place in residential areas. The organs of people's power should be at the centre of ensuring participatory democracy, and a people-centred and a people-driven state.
The capacitation of these organs of people's power is fundamental to ensure cohesion and visionary leadership within our communities. These structures should not only be capable of expressing the needs of communities, but should be able to deliver on those needs. The cohesion that the national democratic society seeks to build will stand or fall by our ability or inability to successfully master and manage these organs of people's power for the realisation of our vision. I thank you.
Chairperson, Deputy Chairperson, Deputy President and hon members, we welcome the address by the Deputy President. It is very refreshing and forward-looking as always.
Indeed, there is a lot that we have done to build a society that will be different tomorrow. Today I would not like to focus on that. I would like to focus more on the subject at hand and also look at matters that relate to that. The approach that I want to use is an anecdotal one.
Chairperson, you will note that, in Mpumalanga, when we started the term, a few weeks ago, we were baptised by violent public protests. They were confusing in such a way that we were asking ourselves whether we should go all out in public to proclaim and indicate how good we were in the midst of what was actually happening.
I want to point out why these protests were an albatross around our necks. They also sharpened our understanding of society itself and that there are psychological, sociological, political and economical factors that drive the existence of a society. We understand that when we are faced with those particular situations, leadership becomes a very important factor. We have learnt that communication and empathy are critical when you are serving a society.
We have also learned that societal challenges can only be effectively tackled by a united and formidable force, acting in unison towards a common purpose. Through these experiences, we taught ourselves to speak in one voice. We have learnt that to speak in one voice and work collectively is actually helpful to the leadership of society.
It also taught us that, when you work in a collective manner, you can actually defeat anything that you find. We all know that the situation in Mpumalanga, as we speak, has cooled down. What are the lessons learned from these experiences that relate to the topic that we are dealing with today?
Through our experiences, we have learnt to deal with the challenges of society in a collective manner. In this way, we have managed to bring about serious improvement in our distressed municipalities.
We have pooled our efforts in distressed towns like Balfour and we have seen the finishing of houses that have been standing there for a long period. We have seen the improvement of infrastructure in and around offices. We were able to work collectively with Burnstone Mine in that area. Today, as we speak, that municipality and that mine are working on how to plan for the future of the municipality and they are looking at their capacities in order for them to work together.
We have learnt lessons in Lekwa Local Municipality, where we and the executive of municipalities were able to work collectively, and we built 2 100 houses within a very short period of time. We managed to put in infrastructure for water immediately in that place. Through that gesture, we saw the communities welcoming the leadership in that community and they responded by paying their bills.
Over the years that municipality had been very problematic with regard to collections. Today, they are able to collect 80% of those bills. Now, because of their collective vision, they were able to take that municipality from getting a disclaimer over many years, to a municipality receiving an unqualified report. [Applause.]
In Thaba Chweu Local Municipality, where we had lots of challenges to work together with the leadership around the area, what we thought was a crisis has actually brought joy because, collectively, the leadership of that municipality and big and small businesses have taken the view that they will not focus on mundane issues. They actually told the provincial government they want their municipality to be the first municipality that comes out with a town in a postapartheid South Africa. All these matters attest to the fact that, when we work together, we always achieve the best.
With Mkhondo Local Municipality, the one that we know of, we have learnt that by working collectively with the leadership in that particular area, we managed to quell the situation. We did so by providing infrastructure and initiating a project, the Comprehensive Rural Development Programme, CRDP, that had the participation of NGOs and business in that particular area.
The mines have come into the picture and they have a comprehensive plan that is being implemented over five years. Mkhondo will never be the same again. [Applause.]
These are matters that we want to raise because when we speak about Mpumalanga, we always speak about the crisis and the situation in Mpumalanga where people are at each other's throats. I want to point out that the Mpumalanga we are speaking about today is not the Mpumalanga that we know. Maybe hon Watson will be able to trust us on that.
The challenges that we face in municipalities are very serious challenges, and the issues that the Deputy President has raised are the critical matters that we really have to look at. And for our part, we think that we are going to learn from that and focus on those matters that the Deputy President has spoken about.
We have already started collaborating amongst ourselves - the premier's office, ourselves in Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Cogta, the Treasury and the Auditor-General's office. We have actually said that the audits of Mpumalanga, which are a challenge now, have to be dealt with by 2014. We have agreed to have a collective approach to this matter. We meet every three months to review and look at how best we can deal with that particular situation.
We still face a lot of challenges in Mpumalanga. This arises from a lack of capacity because our municipalities and the revenue base are very small. The billing systems and issues of water quality are still a challenge. We do reach out but we believe that water quality is a challenge.
Going forward, as we move towards the beginning of a new term for municipalities, we believe that it is actually giving us a new opportunity to have a fresh look at how we should deal with matters. And we assure you that we work very tirelessly as a provincial government. We use the experiences that we have had over this month and the previous months and the things that we have achieved. We use it in the municipalities and build the capacity through collective responsibility and working collectively.
We want to say that we have always enjoyed the support of national departments and the national government. The planning and the monitoring system that had been put in place in the Presidency can only take us to a brighter side of the future.
Some of these things assist us because, collectively as a province, we also have other challenges that are normally experienced by other provinces. We also started a term with a situation where we had an excess of commitments and collectively we managed to solve that and managed to set aside R2,9 billion.
Chairperson, thank you very much for your generosity. I just wanted to point out to hon Watson that my cellphone is still working and that planning for the future is not a once-off thing, and it is not a one-second thing. The Moloto Rail Corridor is a big project that we are actually working on. Also, on the issue of infrastructure that he actually raised, I do not know which areas he talked about because I saw ...
Ngibone tinkalishi tihamba esikuntiyeleni tidvonswa timbongolo. Ngiyabonga. [Tandla.] [I saw carts drawn by donkeys on tarred roads. Thank you. [Applause.]]
UMntwana M M M ZULU: Sihlalo wale Ndlu, Mongameli wezwe, abahlonishwa abakhona, kule nkulumompikiswano esihloko sithi 'Siyasebenza Ndawonye ukuze siBhekane neziNselelo zeNtuthuko eziBhekene noMphakathi,' kukhulunywa into ebaluleke kakhulu namhlanje kule Ndlu.
Akusiyo neze imfihlo, mhlonishwa Sihlalo nePhini likaMongameli wezwe, ukuthi kukhona lapha kuhamba kancane khona. Nokho-ke ngiyaziqonda izinselelo ezazibhekene naleli lizwe eminyakeni engamakhulu eyedlule - ukuthi kwakuyizwe elaliqondene nengwandla uqobo. Kodwa leyo ngwadla akuyona obungayiphuthuma nje eminyakeni eyishumi noma eyishumi nesihlanu uyiqede ngoba kwakuwukhalo olude oluhanjwayo.
Ngiyajabula ukuthi uSihlalo wale Ndlu ukubeke lapha kwacaca bha ukuthi uma ngabe omasipala noma imikhandlu yabohulumeni basemakhaya siyobabukela phansi, singakwazi ukubanikeza izinkece kahle. Ngeke sikwazi ukuhlangabezana nezidingo ezibhekene nabantu bakithi eNingizimu Afrika yonke.
Ngikhuluma kahle ngoba zimbalwa nje izifundazwe zethu ezingenazo izindawo zasemakhaya - njengami nje njengomfana owalusa izinkomo, ngazi kahle kamhlophe ukuthi uma ngikhuluma ngoNongoma, Melmoth, Nkandla, Mbonambi ngikhuluma ngani. Ngikhuluma ngezindawo lapho kungekho khona izikhungo zentela, phecelezi ama-revenue base abangathembela kuwo ukuze baphile. Ukuze baphile bathembele kule mali yakho, Mongameli, yesibonelelo esivela kuhulumeni njengoba kunguwe obhekene nokuncelisa ngayo izintandane.
Angeke sikuphike ukuthi thina maqembu ezombusazwe sinezinkinga esibuye sizidale uma sesiphaka abantu emisebenzini. Siyaye singabe sisabafundisa phela ukuthi mabenze njani; kuvele kuthathwe mina nje ngoba ngenza izifundo zokuXhumana, kuthiwe angiyoba yimenenja. Bese kutholakala ukuthi ngiyahluleka ukuthi kubhekanwa kanjani nesabelomali ukuze kufezwe izidingo zabantu. Yileyo-ke inselele esibhekene, Phini likaMongameli, nayo njengesizwe.
Ngiyafisa ukuthi kule Ndlu - njengoba kukhona noNgqongqoshe bezifundazwe, kanti futhi siya ekhethweni ngomhlaka 18 kuNhlaba - mabake babuyele emuva, babheke ukuthi la mahholo okuthiwa abiza isigidi esiyi-1,8 samarandi kodwa othi uma ulibheka uzihambela nje ulibone ukuthi lalakhiwe ngezinkulungwane ezingamakhulu ayi-400 zamarandi. Kodwa ngenxa yokuthi lezi zikhulu zethu eziqashiwe, ziqashwe zingalandelwa muntu ngemuva obheka ukuthi zenzani nokuthi zihambisa ngakho yini.
Yinkinga ekhona le kodwa engingeke ngakusola njengePhini likaMongameli wezwe; lena yinkinga yethu sonke njengezakhamuzi zaleli lizwe okufuneka sibhekane nezinselele zokwabiwa kwezinkece zomphakathi.
Ngicela nisikhumbule-ke nathi emakhaya nasemalokishini, kufuneka nazi ukuthi yiminyaka ngeminyaka abantu bakithi eUmlazi bengakwazi ukuyosebenza edolobheni ngenxa yokuba bengenazo izimfanelo. Into yeminyaka ngeminyaka kodwa sekufuneka thina njengabantu abaphethe sikwazi ukubhekana nalezo zinselele sibone ukuthi senza njani.
Engikunxusayo nje, Mongameli wukuba omasipala basekhaya ikakhulukazi labo abalaphaya emaqaqasini - lapho sidabuka khona thina - babonelelwe ngezimali ngokuphelele ukuze sikwazi ukubhekana nezidingo ezibhekene nabantu bakithi. Ngiyabonga. [Ihlombe.] (Translation of isiZulu speech follows.)
[Prince M M M ZULU: Chairperson of this House, the President of the country, hon members participating in this debate on "Working together to respond to the developmental challenges facing our communities", a very important issue is being debated in this House today.
It is no secret at all, hon Chairperson and Deputy President of the country, that there are some areas that are lagging behind. Nevertheless, I understand the challenges which we were facing in this country some hundreds of years ago. This is not something that you can quickly get rid of in just 10 or 15 years, because it happened over a period of time.
I'm happy because the House Chairperson made it clear that if we undermine the municipalities or local government and fail to give them the funding, they will not be able to meet the needs of the people of South Africa.
I say this, and rightly so, because only a few of our provinces do not have rural areas. Someone like me, who was once a herd boy, knows very well when I am talking about Nongoma, Melmoth, Nkandla, Mbonambi; I know exactly what I' m talking about. I'm talking about areas that do not have revenue bases on which they can count for their survival. In order to survive, they rely on your money, hon Deputy President, which is a government grant, as you are responsible for the wellbeing of the orphans.
We will not deny that as political parties we sometimes create problems when we employ people. We end up not training them on how to carry out their duties. They just employ me as a manager because I did communication studies. Later it is discovered that I'm failing to deal with the budget issues in respect of taking care of the people's needs. That is the challenge we are faced with as a country, hon Deputy President.
Since we will be voting on 18 May 2011, my wish is that even the premiers present in this House should go back and check the halls that are said to have cost about R1,8 million, because when you look at them from a distance you can see that it was built with about R400 000. The problem is that when these officials are employed, no one orientates them to the position and neither are they monitored to see if they are carrying out their duties efficiently.
This is an existing problem which I can't blame on you as the Deputy President of the country. This is a problem affecting all the citizens of this country, hence we need to tackle the challenges of the allocation of public funds.
I request that you also remember those in the rural areas and the townships. You must know that for years our people in Umlazi were not able to go and work in the cities because they did not have the relevant documentation. This happened over a number of years, but we have to face up to it as government.
What I'm requesting from the President is that local government, especially in the rural areas, be adequately funded so that we are able to take care of the needs of our people. Thank you. [Applause.]]
The PREMIER OF THE NORTHERN CAPE(Ms H Jenkins): Chairperson, His Excellency the Deputy President of South Africa, hon Kgalema Motlanthe, hon Deputy Chairperson of the NCOP, permanent members of the NCOP, delegates from provinces, representatives from Salga, the chairperson, Mr Amos Masondo, ladies and gentlemen, it is indeed a great pleasure for me to address this august House on the occasion of the Deputy President's annual address to the NCOP, which once again inspired and enriched us.
Without getting into micro details of the developmental challenges faced by my home province, and mindful of the fact that these challenges have been well-documented, the Northern Cape provincial government has a comprehensive plan in place to address our shortcomings within the context of creating happier communities.
We remain cognisant of the fact that, largely through the efforts of the governing party, the ANC, our country has become much more prosperous. Since the dawn of democracy, on 27 April 1994, South Africa has achieved much. The progress we have registered in various facets of human endeavour thus far clearly demonstrates that, under the auspices of the ANC-led government, South Africa is a country with a bright future. [Applause.]
The collective prosperity of South Africans, however, tended to replicate and intensify apartheid fault lines with notable exceptions. In this regard, the component of the population most affected by deepening and widening poverty and inequality has been black South Africans and, most notably, black rural women and young people.
It is therefore within the context as outlined that the executive council of the Northern Cape provincial government is unequivocally committed to addressing developmental challenges in our home province in the most structured and expeditious manner possible. To this end, both government and the ruling party have unconditionally acknowledged the crucial role that local government has to play, in accordance with its constitutional mandate, to advance the standard of living of our people.
Taking all the developmental factors into account and within the parameters of our official political obligations, we, as the elected public representatives constituting the executive council of the Northern Cape provincial government, are justifiably proud to have launched our unique provincial government campaign, termed Operation Pula-Nala yesterday in Upington, on Human Rights Day. In essence "Nala", a word derived from the Sotho language, means prosperity.
Operation Pula-Nala will, in the main, endeavour to expedite our township revitalisation and rural development initiatives. It will accord a thorough assessment of the objectives and functions of the municipalities within both their current and our historical contexts. Development and work associated therewith must be balanced and coherent, thus Operation Pula- Nala will examine the extent of development in our township and rural areas in an effort to tilt the scale to address major service delivery and related backlogs.
Operation Pula-Nala is about interfacing, assisting and enhancing the capabilities and capacity of local municipalities to make a positive difference and deliver the necessary services to our people.
In the South African context and in the Northern Cape in particular, positive endeavours by government provide the basis for an effective service delivery machinery thereby advancing human, economic and infrastructure development within our province.
Operation Pula-Nala will under the auspices of this particular provincial government, create the conditions necessary for the improvement of the quality of life of all the people in our beloved province.
A municipality is obliged, in accordance with its constitutional mandate, to strive within its financial and administrative capacity to achieve the objectives assigned to it and deliver quality and efficient basic services to its inhabitants. Therefore, a municipality must, by its very nature, structure and manage its administration, budgeting and planning processes to give priority to the basic needs of the community it serves and to the advancement of social and economic development within its jurisdiction. Consequently, it is incumbent on both national and provincial government programmes to find expression at the local level in order to improve the lives of our people.
The following broad eight-point plan, while not being exhaustive, will inform the objectives of Operation Pula-Nala and I will just briefly refer to it: to foster greater co-operation among all spheres of government for better service delivery; to build changing and developing communities; to set the province on a sustainable growth path; to create work, expand jobs and fight poverty; to foster community participation in the affairs of local government; to compile a basket of community projects that need to be monitored on an ongoing basis; to deliver checks and balances for sustainable community development and track the progress thereof; and to also provide social protection and fight against crime and corruption.
In providing and delivering services to the inhabitants within the municipal boundaries, the following basic values and core principles must inform the work of all municipalities in the Northern Cape province. It is therefore incumbent on the administration of any municipality to be responsive to the needs of the local community; to facilitate a culture of public service and accountability amongst its staff; to take measures to prevent and fight corruption; to establish clear relationships, facilitate co-operation and communication between the municipality and the local community; to give members of the local community full and accurate information about the level and standard of municipal services they are entitled to receive; and to inform the local community on how the municipality is managed, the costs involved and the persons in charge.
In effecting the above functions in a caring and expeditious manner, Operation Pula-Nala will create the conditions necessary for the improvement of the quality of life of all our people in the Northern Cape. Operation Pula-Nala will in addition to quality basic and secondary services in essence oversee the following: refuse removal at illegal dumping sites in townships; the creation and strategic placing of communal waste bins in township and rural communities to keep our streets clean; maintenance of township cemeteries in a clean and proper state; fixing of blocked drains especially in townships; proper maintenance of street lighting and changing street bulbs to more eco-friendly and energy-saving ones; the creation and maintenance of sporting and other recreational facilities in townships and rural communities; the fixing of potholes and paving of streets; demolition of unused structures that pose both a health as well as a crime risk; clearing of open veld spaces, and regular water and electricity meter reading.
Owing to certain challenges, we must be frank that service delivery occurred at a pedestrian pace in some municipalities. In this regard, Operation Pula-Nala has prioritised certain municipalities for intervention, to ensure that service delivery is expedited.
Without looking for excuses or dampening expectations, it is instructive to indicate the common challenges that are faced by municipalities and these could be attributed to the following factors: lack of suitable candidates for specific jobs; appointing appointees not meeting the necessary qualification criteria; lack of funding to sustain certain appointments; packages not appropriate to attract requisite skills; managers reporting directly to the municipal manager being appointed permanently; municipal managers not entering into performance agreements; and the percentage of women in senior management positions in municipalities being unacceptably low.
As the Northern Cape provincial government we will, together with government at large and other progressive forces, strive to consolidate people's power for the manifestation of a national democratic society as we fast approach the celebration of 100 years of selfless people struggle.
With the launch of Operation Pula-Nala, we certainly will make a decisive shift to meaningful socioeconomic and developmental transformation in the Northern Cape. Operation Pula-Nala will set in motion a very deliberate programme that will inevitably ensure that the benefits of our political liberation are shared amongst all the people of our province. We cannot and will not fail them in our collective goal to overcome poverty. To this end, the Northern Cape provincial government will strive to engage every role- player in our provincial economy, as it is our sincere hope that this provincial government leaves a lasting legacy for our people, thereby drastically altering the recent course of history.
I am confident, Chairperson, that with the resilience, political will, and commitment that are evident in the Northern Cape, we are bound to make progress in the interests of our people and definitely create better communities. I thank you. [Applause.]
UMBHEXESHI OYINTLOKO WEBHUNGA LESIZWE LAMAPHONDO: Sihlalo, noSekela Mongameli, ukwenzela ukuba siyiqonde kakuhle le ngxoxo yethu ndifuna ukuba siqale sijonge imvelaphi yethu kuqala, ukuze sizazi ukuba siyaphi na. Xa ungazazi ukuba uvelaphi awuzazi ukuba uyaphi na. Ndifuna ukutsho ngokuba apha eNdlwini sinabantu abaphethe imigodlwana netyuwa ikwalapha ezandleni, bahamba bejonga ukuba baza kuyifumana phi na indawo. Abanye sele betshintshe imibutho kaninzi, kwaye sele belibele nokuba babebekwe ngubani na. Uthini ngaba bantu babekuvotele? (Translation of isiXhosa paragraph follows.)
[The CHIEF WHIP OF THE NCOP: Chairperson and Deputy President, in order for us to correctly understand our debate, firstly, I would like us to look at where we come from, so that we know where we are going. If you don't know where you come from you wouldn't know where you are going. I want to say that because, in this House, we have people who are carrying small packages, with salt in their hands wondering where they can get a place. Some of them have changed parties several times, and they have already forgotten who put them in these positions. What do you say about the people who voted for you?]
Let me move away from that. Chairperson, the theme of the Deputy President's address clearly speaks to our shared responsibility to address the immense socioeconomic challenges facing our people. It is also in line with the ANC's declaration to make 2011 a year of job creation through meaningful economic transformation and inclusive growth.
Our people suffered enormously during apartheid. They bore the brunt of the repressive apartheid state and its racial preference policies that were designed to dismantle the fabric of our society and dignity of our people. They were faced with a vicious state that used all its efforts and energy to ensure that their lives remained unbearable and they were faced with some of the most atrocious circumstances. They were faced with deep inequalities, which were associated with extraordinarily high levels of joblessness and poverty.
The apartheid government redirected its energy to ostracising and suppressing the political, social and economic activities of Africans, coloureds and the Indian population in South Africa. In the early nineties, fewer than one in three adults were employed and over half of all households in the former Bantustans depended mostly on remittances or grants, compared to under a quarter in the rest of the country.
Our people were deprived of opportunities for growth by a string of racially orchestrated policies and pieces of legislation. Amongst the employed, many workers had poorly paid, insecure and dead-end jobs that rendered no security to their families, other than to exploit their labour. Despite substantial improvement in employment creation since l994, South Africa still ranked amongst the 10 countries with the lowest level of employment in the world.
It is under this premise that we waged a concerted effort to break the cycle of repression and usher in a new dawn for our people. The struggle against apartheid was anchored on the need to restore the dignity of all South Africans - especially black people and we all know who black people are - who were stripped of their humanity and dignity by the apartheid regime.
It is this majority that bears legitimate expectations that the demise of the apartheid regime will mean giving effect to their legitimate aspirations of a better life and development in their communities. It is this majority that today knows for sure that democracy has ushered in a new sense of hope and brought new opportunities to break the cycle of poverty and underdevelopment in their communities. It is this majority that knows for sure that our nation has a new government that knows their needs and challenges.
A group of African experts, led by Dr Omano Edigheji, a political economist at the Centre for Policy Studies in the Human Sciences Research Council, wrote an impeccable assessment of the ANC government's attitude towards building a better South Africa.
In a publication he published with a group of African scholars titled Rethinking South Africa's Development Paths: Reflections on the ANC's Policy Conference Discussion Documents they wrote and I quote:
It is commendable that the ANC is taking the lead in trying to establish a basis on which to chart the future trajectory on which to meet the needs of democratic South Africa. Equally commendable is that the party has taken it upon itself to evaluate its performance of the last 13 years, as it has done on regular intervals. It needs to be said that this kind of self-introspection is unparalleled in most developing countries.
This analysis speaks to our openness about the challenges facing our people. It is a reflection of our commitment to work with our people in order to deal decisively with the challenges caused by the long years of apartheid. We have built a resilient economy which has been able to survive the global economic crisis.
We are making significant improvements in key areas of domestic policy, such as health, education and visible, vigorous and effective crime prevention. We are upgrading and expanding our transport, energy, telecommunications and social infrastructure to contribute to economic development.
We implement sound macroeconomic policies and create an effective regulatory environment with sustained political and social stability to continue making South Africa a candidate for even greater and faster economic growth.
Breaking the cycle of poverty, creating decent work for our people, reducing inequality and defeating poverty can only happen through a new growth path founded on the restructuring of South Africa. We say this because we are aware that although our new government has worked tirelessly to build a new economic path vision, our economy was ravaged by long years of apartheid, isolation and exclusion.
One of our most eminent national leaders and a stalwart of our people, Chief Albert John Mvumbi Luthuli, delivered a speech to the SA Congress of Democrats in Johannesburg in l958 - I hope that I have been heard clearly - which was titled: Our vision is a democratic society. He said and I quote:
The essence of development along your own lines is that you must have the right to develop, and the right to determine how to develop.
Its essence is freedom and - beyond freedom - self-determination. This is the vision we hold for our future and our development.
In a lecture he delivered after receiving the Nobel Peace Prize, he said and I quote:
...all Africa has this single aim: our goal is a united Africa in which the standards of life and liberty are constantly expanding; in which the ancient legacy of illiteracy and disease is swept aside; in which the dignity of the people is rescued from beneath the heels of colonialism which have trampled it.
It was such a strong and heavy message. The messages of Chief Albert Luthuli and other visionary leaders of our movement find expression in our new growth path.
Our nation has adopted a new growth path that challenges all of us to work together to address inefficiencies and constraints across the economy and partner to create new decent work opportunities. This ushers in bold, imaginative and effective strategies on how to collectively achieve a more developed and democratic South Africa. It identifies the environment required to take advantage of opportunities and where it can be found. It speaks to the theme of the Deputy President's address and calls on all of us to work together.
This growth path takes the fight against unemployment to our people. It speaks to the need to accelerate employment creation, primarily through direct employment schemes, targeted subsidies and a more expansionary macroeconomic package.
This new growth path acknowledges that South Africa is faced with a domestic market that is relatively narrow due to the relatively small population and faced with low employment levels and deep inequalities. The growth path therefore proposes strategies to: firstly, deepen the domestic and regional market by growing employment; and secondly, to widen the market for South African goods and services through a stronger focus on exports to the region and other areas.
Before my time expires, I want to say to hon Watson that services are not reaching the poor because the previous racist government ensured that resources were distributed in such a way that they only reached a few. It also speaks to what hon De Lille said earlier. I fully agree with her that the poor are poorer because the open society benefits the rich and the previously advantaged only.
Hon Watson must also understand that he created homelands. He voted for that. That is something you should have voted against immediately. Then you would have been a better speaker today. The question I want to ask him is: What if he was to go to Gugulethu, Nyanga or Langa today? It was in 1965 and Langa is the oldest township here in the Western Cape. I find it strange that he is looking only at Moloto. What about the other things that had been done?
On corruption, I do want to say that the leader of the hon member can still not account for the taxpayers' money. Hon Bloem, in my language we always say "Susa umqadi okwelakho iliso kuqala" [You must first get rid of the speck in your eye].
concerning the speakers' list that hon Watson complained about ...
Are you rising on a point of order, or do you have a question?
Chairperson, it is a short question that I want to ask.
Stop. Are you willing to take a question, hon member?
If time permits.
You were always brave. I know you as a brave woman. Take this one.
I want to address hon Watson through you. One thing we must always know as we are seated here ... [Interjections.]
... amandla awalingani apha, kaloku ibanye kuphela inkunzi esibayeni, azibi ninzi. Okwangoku nakwixesha elizayo iANC iseza kugquba yodwa nina niza kulandela apha emva kwayo. [.. is that powers are not the same here; you must remember that there can only be one bull in a kraal, not many. For now and in future the ANC will still govern and you will follow behind it.]
Hon Chairperson, let me first thank the hon members for their very instructive inputs during the course of this debate. I think all the inputs contained solutions to the problems and challenges of development of our communities. Basically, all the speakers could speak on a first-hand basis about the areas they represent. Some speak on behalf of villages, others on behalf of townships, others on behalf of towns, and others on behalf of provinces.
What I think is lacking is how we draw the pertinent lessons out of all these experiences. I want to illustrate that by citing the fact that there is a labyrinth of townships called Soweto, and, arguably, it, as a single entity, represents the biggest township - if you like - in all of South Africa. Of course, we know that our history created these dormitory townships primarily as labour camps to supply labour to the white metropolis of the olden days.
I want to cite this example of Soweto because it was no exception. The communities who owned properties in old Sophiatown, Alexandra township and Kliptown were uprooted and resettled in what is today known as Soweto. The last of these communities were the community of Sophiatown and the community of Alexandra township. The latter is a special case, and I don't want to go there for now. I just want to confine my illustration to Soweto.
Soweto, like all other townships, was deprived of the barest public amenities and facilities. Schools in that sprawling labyrinth of townships merely meant bricks and mortar - no laboratories, no libraries. A community of close to 2 million people had no swimming pools or such facilities. However, today, as we speak, after the Johannesburg City Council took a decision to tar all the streets of Soweto, without exception ... [Applause.]
I'm saying this because if we draw the right lessons out of these experiences, we will be able to work together and address the disparities between communities in our country. Essentially, the challenge that faces us as a nation is to eliminate the gap which was artificially created through social engineering between what are, primarily, the white areas as opposed to the black residential areas. And it is possible. The lesson of Soweto instructs us on how to go about doing such a correction; essentially, it's a correction.
They took the decision to tar all the streets in Soweto, and went about tarring them. As we speak, all the streets in Soweto, without exception, are tarred. By this one act, the problems of dumping and those of the lack of parks have been eliminated. All the residents had to do is to add greenery and flowers from the capstone of the road to their fence. Increasingly, residents in Soweto have taken responsibility for doing so.
Today, as we speak, Soweto qualifies for the status of a city. The only thing lacking today is a city hall or town hall because they now have all the requisite amenities and facilities. There is a university in Soweto, namely Vista University, which is part of the University of Johannesburg. The university has wonderful buildings, and they even have students from outside of South Africa studying there at that campus. They have shopping malls like you would find in any other suburb.
They have a world-class soccer stadium; not one but three. This is why in 2010, when the Blue Bulls were without a home ground for their semi-final game of the Super 14, they looked around for a stadium that would accommodate all their supporters and the crowd that would attend that day. Where did they find it? They found it in Orlando. This persuaded them to go to Orlando Stadium. They didn't know what to expect. Many of their supporters had never set foot in a township before.
However, when they got to Orlando East, they found that the people of Soweto are also entrepreneurial in approach. The people of Soweto knew that the people who would be coming to support the Blue Bulls would be coming in their numbers, so some of the people there painted their fences in the colours of the Blue Bulls. [Laughter.] One very enterprising tavern owner there did that. He even mounted the horns of a bull at the front gate. The Blue Bulls supporters thought, "Well, here is our headquarters". [Laughter.]
I'm merely using this as an illustration that they found the benefits of playing at Orlando Stadium relatively or comparatively much higher than playing at Loftus Versfeld. For example, for the price of a pint of beer, they found that in Soweto you get a quart, which is 750ml. They were very happy. They could have their braais there. Most of them left Soweto almost at midnight. This, to me, is an illustration of what can happen to our national cohesion if the facilities are there and available across the length and breadth of the country.
Therefore, the issues and concerns that were raised about infrastructure are issues that, if properly communicated and we all work together, can be addressed in a manner that would not disadvantage this or that section of the South African nation, but would be seen as a natural and logical march towards a united, democratic, nonracial, nonsexist and prosperous South African nation. Unless we address these gaps, we will forever remain with two countries in one.
That is why the Minister of Finance announced the R800 billion for infrastructure development, and this infrastructure would necessarily be developed in the townships and in the rural areas, in order for us to create - or to cement the creation of - a united country.
I thought that from the inputs we could draw a lesson from this experience of how Soweto was catalysed, because just the paving of the roads served as a catalyst for economic development. Today they look after wetlands and the birds are back. There is a deep appreciation, and the issue of attracting tourists is ongoing. Almost every weekend there are tourists who go to Soweto in their numbers. This happens because the infrastructure is in place. I think this is a very important point, and the point was made by Prince Zulu.
It is very important that, essentially, we address the absence of infrastructure in areas that were desolate, were deliberately selected to dump people in. If you read the book by the late Fr Cosmas Desmond, The Discarded People, you will understand what I am talking about - Mbaza and other areas where people were dumped, communities uprooted from areas where they could eke out a living and dumped in barren, desolate areas. Therefore, the municipalities there could not by themselves be in a position in 100 years to muster sufficient resources to address these challenges of infrastructure.
We cannot speak of health unless people and communities have access to potable water and proper sanitation. Therefore, this, in my view, is a national challenge. The NCOP is better placed, because this is where the co- ordination of all three spheres can best be brought to effect. Therefore, you carry that responsibility. With regard to infrastructure, I think if we all single-mindedly seek to approach this issue, this challenge of infrastructure development, we would make tremendous advances and progress within the shortest possible time, but to leave it to these municipalities and set ourselves goals of ensuring that none of the municipalities receive qualified audits and so on is compliance.
Development is not compliance. We have to ask what the lessons of the Fifa Soccer World Cup are, because I can assure you that there are regulations upon regulations, bylaws and laws which essentially are impediments to development. You try getting something done, and you will be shocked at the thickets of legislation and regulations that you have to work through from different departments, and there is no co-ordination. When we were preparing for the Fifa Soccer World Cup, through the interministerial committees and the Local Organising Committee, we were able to cut through both bureaucratic and legislative barriers to ensure that delivery of these facilities happened within set timeframes.
I think that lesson should not be lost to us. We should be able to identify the bottlenecks and be able to ensure that through a co-ordinated approach, if need be, we get the best possible outcome. If we have a major project, do call for the establishment of a local organising committee, LOC, because where would a small municipality in a rural area find the resources to employ all the requisite skills? The municipality is in a no-win situation, because it will not have the in-house capacity, and if it goes outside, the consultants will take it to the cleaners. So, there will eventually be no money left to do anything. I am saying if we call for a LOC, it then creates the mechanism for such requisite capacity to be drawn from the national and provincial spheres, so that we get delivery without too much waste.
Last week, I had the privilege of listening to Prof Salvatore who made what I thought was a thought-provoking input. He argued against overregulation. He said that the recent financial meltdown that started in the United States of America started in the financial services sector. He says that those bankers, out of greed, repackaged debt and sold it 45 times over. They would take one debt, repackage it and sell it to people as an asset. People bought it and really bought nothing, and the bankers would sell the same repackaged debt to another 44 people. He said they would take the money and pay the rating agencies who gave them a rating of AAA. That is why, when the system just collapsed, there was no warning because these institutions, the merchant banks, were given credit ratings of AAA.
So, he says - and I think this point is pertinent to us here, because we are legislators - when you make laws and regulations so specific in an endeavour to prevent specific wrongdoing, human beings are very creative. They take that whatever is not mentioned in the specific regulations is permissible. So, his argument essentially was that we are better off with laws and regulations that are so general and vague that even the wrongdoers, when they search for loopholes, should remain in doubt as to whether they can get away with it. I am raising this because you can work through too many laws and regulations for one project, and your term - five years - is complete. You will still be ploughing through the regulations after five years, and we have to try and streamline the regulations, particularly with regard to development of communities.
The other points that I think are well made are the ones regarding the fact that education is an investment. I can't add anything to that other than an historical analysis of where the problem originates from and how it was shaped. This tells me that the solution to our problems in basic education lies in opening and establishing more teacher training colleges and recruiting the best professors who are prepared to invest in education. It doesn't matter where we find them in the world as long as they can train and produce a new calibre of teacher.
Simultaneously, as we produce a new calibre of teacher who is capable of producing the requisite skills in the modern South Africa we live in, we should also be improving on the management and supervision of the existing schools. The reason is that most of the difficulties I experienced in basic education, as I visited some schools, is that it is difficult to know who the principal or a person responsible for accepting the deliverance is; they all look the same. [Applause.]
It is like everywhere else; if a school can perform better - like a school I know of in Orange - Farm, which produces excellent results but that school doesn't have electricity, it is because the principal of the school is so passionate that he imbued the teachers as well as the learners with the same passion. What they do is to walk the extra mile and produce results. That is an exception to the rule and how do we ensure that we get that to be the rule rather than the exception?
There is a school also in Venda in Limpopo, Mbilwi School, which gets 100% pass rate every year at matric level with mathematics and yet it's a rural school. That is a challenge. I think it's got a lot to do with the supervision and management at the most senior level from the school principal right down to the teaching staff. I agree that this is a very important aspect that we need to look into and try to correct, but as I've said, I think it requires, simultaneously, that we should be aiming at producing a new calibre of teacher. Otherwise we are going to stagnate whether we like it or not. We will stagnate as a country and we will fall behind other countries in the world, unless we do something as radical as that.
With regard to perennial problems of corruption, for example, you have public servants who are just lazy, doing what they call "work-to-rule". With the "work-to-rule" approach, they know their rights for leisure time and try to extract those out of every available excuse. If you have that, that in itself is corruption because what it could result in is that people who come to the counter will have to wait for longer hours until they are tempted to grease or sweeten the machinery so that things can begin to move. Once that happens, temptation takes charge, then the whole system is corrupted.
Correctly speaking, public systems should never be at the mercy of an individual, regardless of what position that individual is in. But if it is possible in other systems that when you apply, an individual can decide whether your application is successful or not, it is wrong. The system must have the checks and balances, such that if you come to a desk of a servant who would not be willing to process that application, it should be possible for others to pick up that there is a blockage in the system.
I am using this as an example because you know the spectacle or saga of the young black male who applied for an identity document and ended up with an identity document with a photo of a white lady. A mistake like that should not be allowed to reach that poor young black male and it is wrong; it shouldn't happen. Somewhere in the system it should have been picked up that it was wrong and been corrected. But it is not picked up anywhere until poor people end up with such an identity document; it is useless in that he has to reapply from scratch. Of course, there is a manifestation of corruption from the Public Service because that's what we concern ourselves with. It always takes two to tango.
According to our systems, we have a plethora of bodies that deal with corruption, anticorruption, this anticorruption, that anticorruption, this anticorruption, that anticorruption, and so on. But do these bodies work together in such a way that they can prevent corruption?
The most important point that I made about Prof Salvatore's input was to prevent - not to chase after the corruptee or corrupted after the event - that from happening. I think the frontline soldiers of corruption are gifts. Once you are in the public space, as a rule, don't accept gifts. If they give you gifts, register and declare them because if that doesn't happen, people would come and leave tickets here for the final rugby match, tickets for cricket or soccer finals and you get used to it. They don't ask for anything or for favours; that's why they are calling them gifts. [Laughter.]
But the day will come when, from the back of the queue, where they hide at the back of the queue, they will wave at you or just greet you. [Laughter.] They don't ask for any facilitation; they just greet you so that you take note that they are at the back of the queue. [Laughter.] And they leave it to you when you are conscious of being embarrassed.
Therefore, we've got to find a way of dealing with gifts. First and foremost, those in the public space must know how to deal with gifts. Then we must raise their consciousness. Of course, as I've said, it's a combination here of the rules and so on. Nobody must be certain that if he tried to do this in this way he can get away with it. People must always be in doubt that it doesn't matter whether it's in a dark corner, you will get yourself into trouble. We must create that kind of environment in order to deal with corruption.
But, of course, we also do ourselves a great disservice because we tend to label everything as corruption to a point where the word loses its meaning and people become cynical about it. I think it is important to understand that this is a serious challenge which has the possibility of eroding all the gains we have made.
Therefore, it is a serious challenge that we must not use for scoring points and playing games. We must be serious about it because it is really aimed at eliminating corruption. [Time expired.]
All I was saying, hon Chairperson and hon members, is that out of this debate, I think we have enough experience to find solutions to these challenges for the moment. And that we should not be victims of our pride. We must be prepared to draw lessons from others. I know that in the political space, on the eve of the local government elections, the tendency is to dig ourselves into trenches of our political affiliations, but these issues of development we are talking about are bigger than any political party. We should be prepared to work together to draw lessons from each other and to tackle these challenges together. This country could be a better place, not only for us, but for our children and the next generation. Thank you, Chairperson. [Applause.]
Thank you, Deputy President. I apologise to those whose flights have already left, but I am sure that it was good that I gave this time to the Deputy President so that he could respond to your questions.
Debate concluded.