Hon House Chair, hon Minister, hon members, people of South Africa, today's debate takes place barely a month since we
commemorated the 30th anniversary of the release of the late President Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela from Victor Verster prison on 11 February 2020.
The release of Nelson Mandela 30 years ago was a victory for the people of South Africa, especially the marginalised masses of our people. It ushered in an era of formidable change in South Africa's political dispensation. It also ushered in an era of rigorous efforts to redress the atrocious legacy of apartheid segregation and the disregard of the black majority.
Hon House Chair, in 1994, the ANC-led government inherited a racially and regionally biased but rapidly deteriorating and fractured infrastructure network. We inherited an infrastructure network that was not only inappropriate for the needs of the majority of the people of South Africa, but also unable to cater for the economy.
Access to social and domestic infrastructure was restricted mainly to urban areas where the majority of our white counter parts were located. Our people in rural areas and townships had few services and lived in areas that were characterised by poorly built end
maintained roads, no access to tap water in their homes, no houses, no clinics and often badly resourced schools.
In 1994 only 20% of rural dwellers had access to electricity, 35% to clean water and 5% to adequate sanitation. Since 1994, about 1 000 more people have gained access to clean water every day and over 1,4 million have benefited thus far. Over 780 000 housing subsidies were approved by February 1998 and about 500 000 houses are nearing completion.
In 1997 alone 424 000 houses were electrified, and Telkom connected
360 000 telephone lines in underserviced areas. The Coupled Model Intercomparison Project, CMIP, created some 250 000 employment opportunities through construction and maintenance of municipal infrastructure projects in its first year, 1997.
Hon House Chair, as the Gauteng province we have recognised that infrastructure, in all its forms, is a catalyst for development. It also enables the established businesses to expand their production levels, while encouraging small businesses to enter the market. It also promotes trade and supports economic concentration.
The Gauteng province is committed to promoting decisive interventions to working tirelessly to advance the lives of the people of Gauteng. We have done that as the Gauteng province, we take the view that development is about our people. It is for this reason that as the Gauteng province, we have made a conscious decision to ensure vigorous investments in infrastructure to eliminate service backlogs in underserviced areas, especially the black townships and rural areas, in order to meet our people's needs.
As Gauteng, we are aware that basic infrastructure services can also reduce poverty and contribute to job creation for our people, especially the youth, women and the majority of our people whose lives were interminably disrupted by the fight for liberation and political freedom.
Through the various public works programmes, the Gauteng province has, over the last few years, ensured that the provision of infrastructure takes place in a manner that ... [Sound recording unavailable]
... enhances job opportunities for the unemployed, especially women and the youth.
As the ANC in Gauteng, we have made it our key task to continue to ensure that labour intensive methods are used in infrastructure provision so that our people get employment.
Over the years, the Gauteng province has championed decisive interventions to advance the lives of our people. We recognise that infrastructure development is one of the key drivers of inclusive growth and sustainable development in today's modern world.
The ANC-led government, through the Department of in Infrastructure Development and various other government departments, is changing the infrastructure landscape one step at a time, and we have indeed seen the work done in different provinces.
Allow me, Chairperson, to demonstrate by using the example of Gauteng. In that province, the ANC-led government has come a long way in ensuring that we change the face of infrastructure. We understood that investing in infrastructure can unlock inclusive growth. As such, we have ensured significant investment in infrastructure development and we are proud to say that we have seen positive spin-offs. The key word here is inclusive growth because we want to build a province and a country where all our people develop and have equal opportunities.
We want to achieve our goal of building a non-racial, non-sexist and prosperous democratic South Africa. We want to fulfil the ideals of the National Development Plan Vision 2030 - of a decent standard of living through the reduction of poverty and inequality using infrastructure development as a key enabler of socio-economic growth.
Between 2013 and 2016, Gauteng infrastructure investment amounted to
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... R30 billion and this impacted positively on the economy and households fighting poverty through creation of jobs, improved access to social services including primary health care, education, contributing to government revenue, generating additional economic activity growth, increasing household income and advancing economic empowerment and inclusion.
Our awareness on the role of infrastructure in transforming the economic landscape is evident through the conscious decisions and actions we continue to undertake. The Gauteng Broadband Network project is one of the projects that became a major boost for the economy.
The ANC-led provincial government also invested in industrial infrastructure as part of the efforts to re-industrialise townships, refurbishing and constructing township industrial parks, agriparks, township automotive hubs, township incubation, innovation centres as well as technology, agro processing and manufacturing hubs that are powering the next generation.
We have been able to build the state of the art school, schools of specialisation, the Gautrain, smart cities in Menlyn, Rea Vaya, you name them all.
In the sixth administration we have ensured that economy jobs and infrastructure is one of our key seven priorities, and the province has committed to improve the ease of doing business in each sector, develop the skilled workforce for each industry and build enabling infrastructure, including special economic zones and industrial parks.
While we count our achievements and tell our story of success with a great sense of pride, we also feel a great sense of pain - pain that stems from the knowledge that despite all our efforts and our achievements as this government, some of our people are still
struggling to make ends meet. They are still ravaged by the triple challenge of poverty, unemployment and inequality.
Without any doubt in our minds, as the ANC-led government, we know that while we have invested work to change the apartheid spatial planning and better the lives of our people through ensuring that they have access to infrastructure...