Chairperson, hon members, in the third democratic Parliament, which is now drawing to a close, this institution took the strategic initiative to expand its oversight role and presented a programme of action which later came to be known as Programme 2009. It established the focus of the work of the NCOP as largely oversight in order to strengthen the delivery of services. It also compels the NCOP to direct more time and resources towards the performance of oversight work as a mechanism for following up on the implementation of laws, government policies and programmes.
The NCOP, therefore, saw an expanded oversight role over the past five years, which resulted in the thorough entrenchment of the programme of Taking Parliament to the People as a key mechanism for ensuring public participation in Parliament and a strong culture of participatory democracy in South Africa. The programme has grown to be an important mechanism of creating a platform for the public representatives to engage with the people on the challenges that they face or those around service delivery.
Since the inception of the programme in 2004, the NCOP has visited all nine provinces and undertook follow-up visits to some of the provinces that were facing immense service delivery challenges. During its visits, the NCOP brings to the people the executive and senior officials from the public service that would be able to respond to service delivery concerns. This is designed to ensure that obstacles affecting the delivery of quality and efficient services are immediately attended to - I hope the opposition is listening there.
Pursuant to the fulfilment of its vision of a People's Parliament as part of its oversight function, the NCOP held its annual programme of Taking Parliament to the People in Emalahleni Local Municipality in the Eastern Cape during the first week of November last year. As with previous occasions of this nature, the NCOP was enabled to broaden opportunities for public participation for communities that would ordinarily find it difficult to assess Parliament directly.
More importantly, it would enable the NCOP to perform its oversight role and to target areas where public education about democracy in the country is needed most, as well as areas where people usually feel that government is neglecting them, thereby ensuring that the concerns of communities are heard and taken into account.
An outstanding feature of the last on-site sitting of the NCOP in the Eastern Cape was, in my view, the urgent and persistent need for rural development, land reform, agrarian reform and food security, which are inextricably linked and intertwined. It is therefore inevitable that problems and deficiencies experienced in one or more of these aspects invariably cause imbalances in others.
Colonialism and apartheid were rooted in the dispossession of the African people of their land and the destruction of African farming. Poverty, inequality and unemployment are the consequences of centuries of underdevelopment and exploitation perpetrated on the majority of the population, which have its most destructive and enduring impact on rural South Africa. During this visit we have also seen that these rural areas still lack basic infrastructures, such as roads, water and electricity supply, which entrenches the problems of chronic poverty and limits the potential of communities to sustain economic growth, rural livelihoods and social development.
It is therefore clear that efforts to extend free basic services and government services, such as education and health care to all our people, are slowest to reach rural areas. We have also seen that the municipalities in the poorest and most rural parts of the country are among the most deprived in terms of human, physical and financial resources. This lack of capacity limits the extent to which rural municipalities can act as a catalyst for growth and development.
Rural development is a central pillar of our struggle against unemployment, poverty and inequality. Despite significant progress made over the past 15 years, people living in rural areas continue to face the harshest conditions of poverty, lack of access to land and basic services. Interventions, such as the Integrated Sustainable Rural Development Programme, have made significant, but thus far insufficient progress. Although social grants are making a huge contribution to pushing back the frontiers of rural poverty, fighting hunger and improving the potential for economic growth in rural areas, it cannot substitute a broader strategy for rural development and job creation. "Abantu mabasebenze"! [People must work!]
The upscaling of social and economic infrastructure and the extension of quality government services, especially as far as health and education to rural areas are concerned, still require continued attention while land reform initiatives, including the land and agricultural reform programme, need to be strengthened and expanded to create sustainable rural livelihoods on a greater scale. However, I am happy to say that, as far as rural development is concerned, the ANC is committed to a comprehensive and clear strategy linked to land and agrarian reform and the improvement of the conditions and livelihood of the rural population. The ANC is determined to review the appropriateness of the existing land redistribution programme and to introduce measures aimed at speeding up the pace of land reform and redistribution in order to promote landownership.
It has to intensify the land reform programme and ensure that more land is in the hands of the rural poor, providing them with the technical skills and financial resources to use the land productively in the creation of sustainable livelihoods and decent work in rural areas. Furthermore it has to expand the agrarian reform programme that will focus on the systematic promotion of agricultural co-operatives throughout the value chain, including agro-processing in the agricultural areas and developing supporting measures to ensure better access to markets and more finance to small farmers. This will ensure a much stronger link between land and agrarian reform programmes and water resource allocation and that the water resources reaching all our people, especially the poor, are of a high quality. It will also strengthen the partnership between government and traditional leadership focusing on rural development and fighting poverty, developing programmes to promote the important role of agriculture and employment and meeting basic needs for community development.
The latest initiative of Taking Parliament to the People, in the Eastern Cape, has again clearly demonstrated that millions of our people who farm on small agricultural plots in rural areas can and do make a substantial contribution to poverty reduction and the creation of sustainable livelihoods in the most adverse conditions. Agriculture in these areas remains a critical opportunity to combat poverty and provide ... [Time expired.] Sicela nifake isitampu kulo mbiko mhle kakhulu. [Please endorse this good report.] Thank you. [Applause.]