Hon Chairperson, all Ministers and Deputy Ministers present here in the House, the Department of Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation, led by Ms Mpumi Mpofu, the portfolio committee led by the Chairperson hon T H James, hon members of the National Assembly that are in the House, distinguished guests and the House at large
It is a profound honour for me to partake in this debate on behalf of the ANC; once again the people of South Africa have trusted the people liberation movement to lead them in the 6th Parliament. Indeed, the President of South Africa and of the ANC, hon Ramaphosa has a dream, a dream to fly the flag of this country high. To
eradicate poverty, inequality and unemployment as the worst enemies of freedom and to fulfil the objectives of the blueprint document of all South Africans, the freedom charter.
Hon Chairperson, this is a dream that calls for all of us to join hands, this a dream that is made to eradicate and address the imbalances of the past for a better life for all and grow South Africa. The strategy and tactics document of the ANC of 2007 articulates that in order to achieve this, we need to build a developmental and a cable state to promote our socio economic agenda through employment of professionals, investment in skills that are required by our economy including absorbing young people, women and people with disabilities into the economic activities.
The Department of Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation and its entities is at the centre of all government spheres to pursue the success of this dream. The DPME is adhered to the National Development Plan and the constitution of the country and this will assist in ensuring implementation of all the policies of the country properly to improve all on the five national priorities as per the call of President Ramaphosa in the 2019 state of the nation address
It is very unfortunate that DPME operates understaffed having been given a huge task and we hope that this budget allocation will draw a clear line in this regard for the task to be equal to the personnel, because if this is not taken care of, South Africa and the MDDA will be endangered and highly jeopardised. We urge DPME to do away with acting positions; we also note the announcement by the President in the 2019 state of the nation address that some functions are going to be migrated to the Department of Women, Youth and People with Disabilities. The DPME is working tirelessly in monitoring government's service delivery to our people but we want to stress that it is still not enough. The poor people are still subjected to long queues and the lunch time period is still problematic.
House Chairperson (Mr M L NTOMBELA): Your conversation is too loud.