Do you see the danger if they were to be in power, especially their leader? [Interjections.] The danger that we will face! When he became the President of the ANC Youth League, the first thing is that he amassed wealth for himself. He destroyed a R16 million house to build a new one! [Applause.] He had farms. So, he was looking for himself. Imagine what will happen if they were to be in government. [Interjections.]
Hon Boshoff, this issue of rigidity of labour market is a tired debate. It has been resolved in the 90s. The International Labour Organisation, when it conducted assessment of the labour market in South Africa, it resolved that instead of the South African labour market being rigid, instead, it was flexible. That is why you even have casual workers. It is because of that flexibility.
You are complaining here about the minimum wage. The minimum wage is R20. Would you live on R20 if you were to be in the situation of these workers. Actually, domestic workers are earning R15 in terms of the minimum wage. If you were a domestic worker yourself, would you live on a R15. So, when you are here and also the issues that you are referring to with regard to wages, are issues that are discussed at a collective bargaining level. Unions and employers come together to negotiate and reach agreements on these issues.
On the issue that is raised by FF-Plus, about pensions: You never complain when the pensions of workers were used to buy equipments to shoot at our black people in the townships. Those pension monies were used. [Applause.] Now, monies are used this time to rescue Eskom. Eskom employs more than 44 000 employees. The economy of South Africa depends on Eskom. If Eskom were to collapse, the whole economy would collapse. So, that is why Cosatu is then coming up with these proposals to deal with the issue of the debt.
In entering the debate, we need to appreciate that this debate is not an abstract theoretical debate about infrastructure, but rather a debate about how we improve the lives of the people through the provision of much needed infrastructure. In order to do this, we need to debate whether we are executing the best models of the
planning, management, execution and governance of both projects and investment initiatives.
This is critical, so that the funds that are appropriated into infrastructure projects can be demonstrated as funds that were a reflection of the quality of spending from the National Revenue Fund and that we are able, through such a process, to effectively determine the impact of such expenditure and how it has changed and improved the lives of the people.
It was the late and politically assassinated Prime Minister of Congo, Patrice Lumumba, who told the All African Conference in 1960 that, "Political independence has no meaning if it is not accompanied by rapid economic and social development." We concur fully with his assessment. The new model at local government level that presents itself and should be utilised is the District Development Model. Here managing and coordinating the work of infrastructure projects in a given area are essential to extracting the maximum impact from available resources.
Significant progress has been made with the establishment of structures of local government and the delivery and extension of access to services for the millions of South Africans. Despite the
significant gains over the last two decades, local government has sadly regressed in the latter years due to a variety of factors manifesting in structural and systemic challenges, as well as poor performance in key areas of responsibility, resulting in the polarisation of communities.
The lessons to be learnt, therefore, are that infrastructure investment and development must not be disrupted by these challenges. The total Municipal Infrastructure Grant allocation to the nine provinces for 2019-20 was R14,8 billion. This is significant, and one of our tasks in the NCOP for 2020, surely, must be to assess the impact of the initial spending of the grant to ensure that its intention has been met.
A total of 219 municipalities are receiving the Municipal Infrastructure Grant for the 2019-20 financial year. Of these, 86 - which is approximately 39% - have not met the 40% threshold expenditure of allocation by 31 December 2019. So, these inform us of what we need to do in our oversight responsibilities to ensure
that what is allocated is utilised for maximum benefit of the people.
Let me just rush to what is to be done.
What is to be done. We need to: Ensure and increase access to basic sustainable service, assuring supply; complete all infrastructure projects, especially reticulation and rectification, in the areas of Water and Human Settlements; and government, through a district, should conduct a comprehensive asset and infrastructure assessment including risk classification.
With regards remedial action, the National Treasury must allow the Department of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Cogta, the Dept Human Settlements, Water and Sanitation to ring fence operations and maintenance budget. This should make grants utilisation to be flexible for operational and maintenance intervention. When replacing old infrastructure, we should use appropriate technologies that are climate smart.
We need to address water and electricity losses through water conservation and demand. We must ensure district-based infrastructure and maintenance plans with ring fenced resources. We need to build capacity in all districts for infrastructure planning, development and management, including creating jobs and training
opportunities. This must include basic professionals to be shared across the district. [Time expired.] I thank you, Chair. [Applause.]