Chairperson, as hon Sithole indicates in the question, to get the country onto a different trajectory will require a very serious intervention. From the diagnosis we looked at two particular issues: The first is that too few South Africans work; and the second is that the educational outcomes for the majority of South Africans are way too suboptimal.
So the focus of the plan is very much on both human and national capabilities. Human capabilities will only result from serious interventions in a range of areas such as education, skills, access to adequate health care, access to a decent built environment and access to a range of public services. At the same time we have to focus continually on both the capacity and the capability of the state and ensure that we will professionalise the Public Service, and that public servants are immersed in the development work required, but shielded from unnecessary and undue political interference. That is basically what the plan is built around, and I think it is an answer to the question by the hon Sithole.
Chairperson, I thank the hon Minister for a very good reply, but I just want to know what is it that you are going to do to actually help us, as South Africa, to mitigate the effects of the Eurozone problems?
Mna andazi [As for me, I don't know.] [Laughter.]
I thought the plan was about the development needs of South Africa. Fundamentally important in this context is to change the way in which interaction between people and the government happens. The idea that people sit around and wait for government to act has to change quite fundamentally. The focus is largely on active citizenship and leadership. So, when the hon Sithole asks what we will do for her, it is wrong. In fact, all of us as members of this House should be actively involved in leading a programme for active citizenship and demonstrating to people that they themselves must be involved. Government can create an environment, but people must be involved themselves, failing which there will be no development in this country. You can have handouts, but you can't have a participatory development programme as it is desired by the Constitution. Thank you.
Hon Minister, the successes and the correct implementation of the National Development Plan, NDP, are vital for economic growth. Now, to assist that, we are going to need foreign direct investment, FDI. In the United Nations report that was released yesterday, foreign direct investment tumbled by 43,6% in South Africa in the same period compared with last year. It rose by 5% in the rest of Africa. It's clear that we will face more competition with our neighbouring countries. We need to solve the challenges outlined in the NDP. Are you comfortable, hon Minister, that there will be consistency after 2014 to make sure that we retain the momentum of the NDP?
Chairperson, consistency is a multifaceted issue. I do not think that you can use a single indicator like FDI flows, because what you will see across the world is that it happens in fits and starts. In the current downturn, there are no consistent flows. You can look at the numbers from countries like India and Brazil; they would reflect trends not dissimilar to our own.
What is happening on the African continent is that new mining areas are being opened up, especially in oil and gas. That kind of exploration attracts a lot of FDI because countries can extract and merely pay for the extraction without having to make a very significant investment in people or infrastructure beyond a pittance, frequently.
It is engaging with these kinds of issues that requires of us to take a very broad approach to economic development. I think we have to be in there and contest to try maximise the attraction of FDI flows, because we have a shortfall between our development needs and our savings ratios. But that is something we have to work out consistently and I do not think that a single indicator would provide all the answers to us. Thank you.
Chairperson, a sine qua non in our ensuring that the targets set up by the National Planning Commission and economic growth become a reality, is having a capable public administration in place. Now, to use hon Koornhof's words:
Are you comfortable that we have that capable public administration in place now that could assure investors that there isn't this kind of bureaucracy, red tape and corruption that persist in our community? And what do you suggest needs to be done?
I know that you can say I am passing it on to the Minister for the Public Service and Administration seated here next to me, but I would like to know what your answer would be to this question, hon Minister.
The Minister for the Public Service and Administration offers to take up your question, hon Singh. I think the commentary in Chapter 14 of the Plan, which deals with the capable developmental state, is in fact a full commentary in support of the observation by the Planning Commission that indeed the Public Service does not meet the highest standards of professionalism for a whole range of reasons, which are articulated. What is very important is that we take the steps articulated, including making the Public Service a career of choice. Therefore, we must attract young people fresh out of university and ensure that there is a lot of competition for jobs in the Public Service.
We must also embark on continuous upgrading of skills, which is where institutions like Palama - am I pronouncing that correctly? - come in to ensure that it is not just doing induction but the skills development of public servants has to be an ongoing issue. We can then design the systems to ensure that we can construct an adequate interface between the administration and politics, because politics will always be part of government. As the plan says, we must ensure that interface operates optimally. There are proposals about strengthening the Public Service Commission, PSC, also and a proposal that needs to be tested about creating a new administrative head in the Public Service. There is a lot of focus on how we reconstruct the Public Service to ensure high levels of accountability and also - the plan does not deal with it but also requires - a jacking-up of Parliament in the way in which we all interact and hold each other accountable to ensure that democracy benefits from the fact that more of us are deeply committed to ensuring that the focus is measured in the improvement in the quality of life of all our people.
House Chairperson, this is a good plan. It was tabled by the ruling party. It is supported, as far as I know, by every single opposition party. My question is: When will it be implemented? Because there is another policy that was tabled by the ruling party and supported by every opposition party in the House. It is called the Youth Wage Subsidy. Two and a half years ago that was tabled, and it has not been implemented. Firstly, can the Minister give me three concrete examples of where an idea in this excellent plan is starting to appear in government's delivery record?
Secondly, can he commit that ideas from this plan, and in fact the plan in its entire coherence, will start to appear in next year's budget starting in February 2013? [Applause.]
Excuse me, what are you applauding, sir? [Laughter.] I think we must ask the hon Harris to relax, exhale and wait for 24 hours in this House, and then he might hear something - if he ever listens, but that is another issue. In respect of the implementation of the plan, it is ongoing. There has got to be a lot of experimentation, because - sorry, I don't know why you are shaking your head - there are no silver bullets in development. We are talking of a programme of transformation which requires very detailed changes in the way things happen and our work ... [Interjections.] Sorry, excuse me; don't disrupt me when I am speaking. [Interjections.]
Order, hon members!
You see, our discussions are at this stage with provinces and the cities, because that is where transformation will be driven from in addition to national government.
There have to be a lot of implementation changes in respect of our discussions with some of the provinces. Some of them will introduce changes to Early Childhood Development and link it up into the education chain; others will tackle the urbanisation programme. The letter I got from the Premier of the Western Cape province is about issues relating to youth employment, and issues relating to crime in townships.
It is by tackling things differently that we will drive the changes. You watch and engage yourself in the process, and do not just spectate the process, and then you might understand that development is actually exceedingly hard work and requires a lot of attention to detail. You will learn in the process, hon Harris. Thank you.
Particulars regarding desired change in culture of government
288. Ms M C Mohale (ANC) asked the Minister in the Presidency - Performance Monitoring and Evaluation as well as Administration:
(1) With reference to the Mid-Term Review Report that was released on 1 June 2012 in which it was stated that it would take time and perseverance to achieve the desired culture change, what (a) specifically is the change of culture that is being sought and (b) lessons have been learnt with regard to the first set of delivery agreements; (2) whether the need for a change in the culture of government as identified in the report is linked to the decision to revise and improve the delivery agreements; if not, why not; if so, what are the relevant details? NO3365E
Chairperson, the change of culture of the Public Service that we seek is a change to a culture of focusing on results. Historically, the dominant culture in the Public Service has been one of focusing on activities without sufficient regard for efficiency, effectiveness, outcomes and impact of those activities. Government needs to use monitoring and evaluation to find ways of working smarter to obtain better value for money and to improve service delivery. Specific lessons per outcome, which have been learned from the first year of implementing the delivery agreements, are described in the Mid-Term Review Report. The delivery agreements are currently being reviewed and revised to take into account these lessons. It has always been our intention for the delivery agreements to be revised periodically on the basis of learning from monitoring and evaluating their implementation. Some of these revisions are complete and others are still in progress. I thank you.
Hon Chairperson, I would like to submit to the hon Minister, whereas he was brutally frank in his mid-term review about what the shortcomings were in the Public Service, which is the delivery arm of government, and whereas he referred to the change of culture that we require in the country, that we as Cope would like to contend that we actually need a change of heart in the Public Service, as well. With regard to the whole principle of Batho Pele - putting people first, service delivery to everybody - not a lot has come of that. In fact, people are complaining daily. Can the Minister give us an indication of what active steps will be taken? If we need to follow the road, as hon Minister Manuel of the Planning Commission has indicated, that it must start from the municipalities, provinces and work up, then we are in for a very serious surprise, because we do not think that the capacity is there to transform the way of operating on the basis of having activities instead of having performance delivery. We don't see the performance delivery agreements actually resulting in the necessary action. Thank you.
The performance or delivery agreements that exist in the public sector are meant, among others, to implement the programmes of government, but at the same time to provide us with information which will enable us to improve whatever needs to be improved. It is not the only programme that we are engaged in. There is also the question of monitoring that we do physically on the ground: moving from one area to the other and from rural areas to most of the serviced points throughout the country, and identifying those areas that we think have problems including, amongst others, how the Public Service responds to the basic issues that people raise. We do work out plans jointly with the relevant departments or those service points for improvement in the manner in which services are being delivered to our people.
We believe that in areas where we have been able to do that, there have been significant improvements practically in the manner in which the Public Service itself interacts with society, not only in terms of the paperwork that we do, but also in the direct contact between the Public Service and the citizenry at large.
So, we believe that the programmes which we are putting in place in the various aspects of the work we are dealing with are beginning to bear fruit and will be able to address the issues that you are raising. Thank you.
Hon Chair and hon Minister, in any situation, if you are expecting those who are in the Public Service to be effective and efficient, government, at the very least, has a duty and responsibility to ensure that resources are readily available for those in the Public Service. What I want to ask the Minister is: Is he satisfied that government departments are making those resources available when we have instances like in Limpopo, where textbooks are not being delivered? So, with regard to that type of approach of government in ensuring that resources are there, is he in a position now to tell us whether those resources that are available are being used optimally, efficiently and effectively by the Public Service; and if not, what plans are there to remedy that situation so that we can actually be in a position where the culture of working is at a satisfactory level? Thank you.
Yes, Chairperson, it is obvious from the various angles that you look at that, at any given time, we would never have sufficient resources to tackle all the problems that we have, but we are confident that for the programmes that government has set itself to implement, the resources should be made available, not by us, but by Parliament and the various provincial legislatures. Even though those resources become available, the most important issue is how efficiently those resources are being expended in order to address issues which are there.
To that extent, we have repeatedly said in our work that we do jointly with the various arms of the state, the Auditor-General, the Department of Public Service and Administration, the Department of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs, as well as other transversal institutions like the Public Service Commission, that we must begin to ensure that the resources, which are made available, are used appropriately and efficiently. As it is not a once-off thing and not something that you could say could be achievable in one day, we are beginning to see improvements in a number of areas where those things are being done.
What we are happy about is that now we are able, in good time, to identify areas where there are likely to be problems and are beginning to make significant and relevant changes, which are going to improve the situation. We are confident that, with time, we will be able to improve those situations. Thank you.
Hon Chairperson, Minister, can you please give us an indication as to when you think your department is going to start with the performance management and evaluation at the local government level?
We did indicate in our Budget Speech and the various statements which we have made that, amongst other things, particularly with regard to the efficiencies and the management practices of departments, after having done the 103 out of 158 of the national and provincial departments, we will be done with the pilot phase of local government. We believe that by the beginning of this month we will begin to deal with issues at local government level in all municipalities and actually present the report at the end. Thank you.
Implementation of national plan of action to promote rights of children with disabilities
293. Mrs C Dudley (ACDP) asked the Minister of Women, Children and People with Disabilities:
In what way has her department managed to (a) co-ordinate and (b) monitor the (i) compiling and (ii) implementing of a national plan of action that protects, respects, promotes and fulfils the rights of children with disabilities? NO3494E
The MINISTER OF WOMEN, CHILDREN AND PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES: Chairperson, the protection and promotion of the rights of children with disabilities fall within the ambit of all three sectors of the Department for Women, Children and People with Disabilities. Disabled children are children first, and the department has mainstreamed the promotion and protection of the rights of children with disabilities in both our children's rights advocacy and monitoring activities.
Primary caregivers of disabled children tend to be mothers and grandmothers whose rights and opportunities are impacted on significantly in communities where disability carries a stigma. Empowered mothers are able to take informed decisions which are in the best interests of their disabled children. Disabled children require specific interventions and reasonable accommodation measures to ensure that they are able to develop and participate as equal citizens within inclusive and safe environments.
The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child and the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities contain specific clauses to affirm the rights of children with disabilities and ensuring as well as monitoring that these rights are promoted and protected and therefore constitute the core business of this department.
As such, the department has focused, among others, on the following activities: to co-ordinate and monitor the development and implementation of action that protects, respects, promotes and fulfils the rights of children with disabilities; to ensure that the country's second National Plan of Action for Children, as required by the Convention on the Rights of the Child, and which is currently being finalised, embraces specific measures required to ensure that the rights of children with disabilities are protected and promoted.
The department has ensured that parents' organisations are represented on fora established to develop and co-ordinate implementation of, for example, the Early Childhood Development Plan of Action. The department has ensured that reasonable accommodation measures have been put in place in all activities implemented to promote child participation, thereby ensuring that children with disabilities have a voice on these platforms created for children to speak out. Examples for the current financial year include Child Protection Week as well as the National Children's Parliament.
The department has completed a draft strategy to monitor children's rights and wellbeing that includes specific indicators pertaining to children with disabilities. The department has focused also on specific areas of vulnerability for children with disabilities, for example, drawing attention to the lack of safe and conducive conditions at a large number of special schools as we are concluding our survey of special schools. The department has engaged with the Departments of Social Development and Basic Education, including provincial counterparts where relevant, on the unsafe conditions of boarding schools attached to some special schools. The department has engaged the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development and the South African Police Service on the sexual abuse of young girls and boys with intellectual disabilities.
The hon member will find additional information contained in written responses submitted to the House by myself during this year to Questions 93, 94, 727, 1833, 1891 and 2321. In the interest of time, I will not repeat these. These refer to inclusive education ... [Time expired.] [Applause.]
Chairperson, I would like to thank the hon Minister for the work being done in this regard. According to the World Health Organisation, WHO, people with disabilities have poorer health outcomes, lower education achievements, less economic participation and higher rates of poverty than people without disabilities. So, on the subject of children on which you focused, South Africa is home to over 300 000 children with disabilities, with an estimated 165 000 children with disabilities who are not able to access education. Has your department managed to monitor whether children with disabilities are being integrated into the Millennium Development Goal programme targets for universal basic education for all children? What would the relevant details be there? Thank you.
The MINISTER OF WOMEN, CHILDREN AND PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES: Chairperson, I have already alluded to the audit that we are doing on special schools, working with the Department of Basic Education. As I said earlier, we are promoting an inclusive education policy which is being spearheaded by the Department of Basic Education.
We are also promoting the Universal Access Campaign, which ensures that people with disabilities, including children with disabilities, have access to all government services, including education. At the moment, we are visiting provinces and addressing premiers and MECs in the various provinces to ensure that we raise awareness about the situation of children with disabilities, about the status of special schools in various provinces and to ensure that we commit them to be part of the programme and the movement to promote, respect, protect and fulfil the rights of children with disabilities. Thank you, Chairperson.
Chairperson, the hon Minister talked about the legacy of Chris Hani, Oliver Tambo and Ruth First, but according to her department's overspending, the only legacy her department is honouring is fruitless and wasteful expenditure, unauthorised expenditure, and travel and subsistence. The recent Child Gauge report showed that South African children are extremely vulnerable. About 60% of our children are considered poor. The crime statistics showed that 25 805 sexual offences were committed against children under the age of 18 years. In the last financial year, your department spent only 7%, which is R12 million of the total budget, on the programme for children's rights and responsibilities. This is understandable, as there was not much left after you used 40% of it to fund your bloated administration.
Your department has a mandate to protect vulnerable citizens. What were the outcomes of the monitoring and implementation done by your department to improve the plight of South Africa's children? Have you justified your existence ... [Time expired.]
The MINISTER OF WOMEN, CHILDREN AND PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES: Chairperson, I think the hon member is completely lost. I think she needs an orientation programme by the DA. [Interjections.] She does not understand the work of this department, and she does not even have listening skills because this is not the question that she is dealing with. I have answered the question before, and now she is trying to put it through the window.
In terms of travel and subsistence, we have to ensure that people with disabilities come and commemorate International Disability Day. We have to ensure that they come with their escorts. If you are blind, you do not travel alone; if you are in a wheelchair, you do not travel alone. Democracy does not come cheap; it is expensive. For us to give our people, our children and people with disabilities, the opportunity to participate and have a say in the policies and the laws we are developing, they must come, and that costs money. If children must come to the Union Buildings in Pretoria, they must have an escort. Children from the ages of eight to 10 years old must be given the opportunity to participate. Therefore, the undemocratic DA does not understand the prescripts of democracy to ensure that ... [Interjections.]
... abantu bakowethu bathabatha inxaxheba. Siqala ngabantwana bethu, sibamamele iimfuno zabo. [... our people participate. We start by listening to our children's needs.]
I want to remind them that people with disabilities have a slogan in South Africa that says, "Nothing about us without us." Thank you, hon Chairperson. [Applause.]
Hon Chairperson, I just wanted to say that we really wanted to say thank you to the hon Minister for the Public Service and Administration for her presence today in the House. We understand that she is still in mourning after the very sad loss of her brother, and we really appreciate that because she is setting a very good example. It really comes from our hearts. Thank you. [Applause.]
Measures to improve critical skills and knowledge shortcomings in Limpopo
300. Mr S J F Marais (DA) asked the Minister for the Public Service and Administration:
Whether she has developed and implemented measures to improve the (a) critical skills and (b) knowledge shortcomings in Limpopo; if not, why not; if so, what are the relevant details in each case?