Hon Chairperson, our Deputy Chairperson of the NCOP, the Minister of Health Comrade Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, and our Deputy Minister of Education Comrade Surty, hon delegates to the NCOP and members, representatives of the SA Local Government Association, ladies and gentlemen, comrades, it is only appropriate and correct that at the beginning I must convey our people's gratitude and appreciation, in particular the community of Kgalagadi District, for the decision by the leadership of this House to take Parliament to them.
The period from 26 March to 31 March 2006 will forever be amongst the historic milestones in the minds and hearts of our people. I dare say that never before has the leadership of our country, as led by this House, descended in such numbers to be with the people of Kgalagadi. Amongst them we had our hon Deputy President, our Ministers and Deputy Ministers, and the executive councils of two provinces, including their newly elected councillors.
The visit coincided with the official disestablishment of the Kgalagadi Cross-Boundary District Municipality after the historic local government elections. Indeed, this cross-boundary arrangement posed a real challenge in service delivery.
The five-day programme with the theme "All shall have equal rights" in Kgalagadi once more brought to the fore the daunting challenge of the delivery of quality service in our rural areas. To us in the Northern Cape this reality further confirmed the correctness of the decision of government to declare this district one of the rural nodal points for development. Our visit also again brought to the fore the stark reality of poverty, underdevelopment and marginalisation, which many of our rural people face on a daily basis, the women, youth, children, the elderly and people living with disabilities. Their plight or challenges were, in the main, similar in nature and they all related to a lack of access to many basic services - things that some in our society take for granted - such as a lack of access to basic education; lack of access to basic health care; lack of access to clean water and sanitation; lack of access to electricity; being unable to access IDs and birth certificates, and a lack of access to information - the list is endless.
However, throughout this engagement, a profound, positive message of hope resonated and again confirmed our President's clarion call that we have entered an age of hope.
What was also very inspiring was the ever-positive prevailing spirit of Vukuzenzele and the Letsema campaigns that was quite visible throughout our engagements in the district. When our people raised an urgent need for an ambulance, in the same breath, they also indicated that they had already raised R25 000 towards this much-needed resource. [Applause.] When our people raised the need for a school, they indicated, at the same time, that they had already started making bricks and needed additional material towards this venture. [Applause.]
This clearly communicates a message that our people don't expect hand-outs from the government. They want to be effective partners in their own development. This is further confirmation that indeed all of us should work tirelessly towards making our people's contract of creating work and fighting poverty a resounding success.
In our endeavour to act speedily as the Northern Cape in attending to the needs raised by the people during the NCOP visit, the two provincial governments have already signed an overarching implementation protocol, and respective departments have already finalised their service-level agreements. The plan and agreements are intended to facilitate a smooth process of handing over services and functions to the Northern Cape administration, and thus service delivery is not being delayed or compromised at all.
What we need to emphasise here today is that the process of the disestablishment of the district should not be a hindrance to effective service delivery; rather it should act as a catalyst for speedy and efficient machinery of government departments in serving our people. As part of our plan of ensuring a well co-ordinated and integrated approach towards government service delivery in Kgalagadi, departments have been tasked to develop proposals with regard to the nature of institutional structures that should be established in the district for better co- ordination and management of government services.
We are, however, fully conscious that not all government departments are expected to establish district offices. However, a minimum package of support to communities will have to be worked out. An audit of the present government services in the district has already been undertaken, and this will inform our intervention with regard to strengthening service infrastructure already in place.
Whatever we intend to undertake is premised on creating a conducive environment for advancing the strategic goals of our government, especially in the context of attaining the objectives as espoused by our Integrated Rural Development Strategy. This will entail, amongst other things, progressively ensuring access to primary health care and health provision in general to all our citizens, including those in the remotest villages of the district.
The Department of Health is already in the process of aligning the 2014 health vision to also incorporate Kgalagadi in its entirety. As part of this initiative, we are seriously exploring the community's proposal that 4x4 emergency vehicle services be procured in order to reach many of the deep rural areas with rugged roads. Challenges concerning a shortage of staff, in particular health care professionals - especially doctors, nurses and emergency care practitioners - constitute part of our immediate priorities as government.
We must, however, bear in mind that this challenge is facing the rest of the country, although it finds more prominence in rural areas such as Kgalagadi, as this House, which happens to have visited the area, may bear testimony to.
The 2014 health vision also reflects in detail our plan of building more health facilities in the form of clinics and hospitals. This will, in the long term, relieve pressures currently being experienced by the Kagiso and Bendel health care centres, as reported by members of this House who visited these facilities during that period.
The right to good quality basic education, as a challenge, was also raised during the visit by this House. We did, as a matter of principle, make a commitment that we would investigate and build on the strides made in this regard in ensuring that all our people access opportunities towards education. Accordingly, the service-level agreement signed already seeks to attend to the specific needs raised by our people.
We did also indicate that in future we might have to explore, Mr Deputy Minister, the viability of small schools and whether it will not be strategic to cluster schools and thus ensure the provision of quality education and the proper utilisation of our learner transport, which is essential in order to deliver access to education for all. Of importance to mention is that 156 schools in these districts have been recommended to the Minister of Education for gazetting as no-fee schools, starting in 2007.
In partnership with all district municipalities, including Kgalagadi, the provincial government has properly conceptualised our role in ensuring the successful implementation of our five-year strategic agenda of local government. This agenda is about meeting the basic needs of our people, especially the provision of water, sanitation, electricity and housing.
Accordingly, our Departments of Housing and Local Government are closely monitoring and supporting our municipalities in ensuring that funds allocated for these specific purposes are utilised effectively in eradicating backlogs with regard to the basic needs of our people. The necessary technical and professional support is also being strengthened by the development or deployment of much-needed competent personnel to improve the efficiency of our municipalities.
The state of our roads, in particular access roads, and our public transportation system were matters of real concern for our people. Hon members of this House know what happened to some of the people who were visiting some of the rural areas in that part of the province. As the government, we are acutely aware of the importance of our road and transport infrastructure in meeting the socioeconomic needs of our people and promoting economic development within our areas.
Our people, for instance, complained about many villages being inaccessible owing to poor, unserviced access roads, and the unintended consequences of the high costs charged by private transport service providers because of the unavailability of public transportation systems. They even made the appeal that we allow bakkies to be utilised as taxis in that part of the province as the owners of minibus taxis were not able to or not prepared to enter the areas because of the conditions of the roads. We also heard of cases in which pregnant women had to give birth at home because they were still waiting for an ambulance owing to the poor road infrastructure.
As government we have developed a comprehensive infrastructure strategy, which takes into consideration the need to enhance both our social and our economic infrastructure over the next 10 years. This strategy was thoroughly interrogated by all stakeholders during our infrastructure summit in 2005.
Members of this House were also informed about the economic potential Kgalagadi has in the areas of mining, primary agriculture and tourism. It is in this context that we wish to inform members of the work we are doing with regard to the commercialisation of goats as part of the major projects of the Accelerated and Shared Growth Initiative for South Africa, and its economic potential especially in the establishment of co-operatives to drive this project.
We can report that work to support municipalities in developing their growth and development strategies is ongoing and will culminate in a district growth and development summit. Our expectation is that this summit will elaborate a clear plan for the exploitation of the economic potential of mining and agriculture for the benefit of our people.
The institution of traditional leadership is an important component in our efforts for reconstruction and development. To this end, we have been working with the North West provincial government in formulating the required legislative framework to direct the relationship between provincial government and our traditional leaders. This includes the establishment of the Northern Cape House of Traditional Leaders.
This process will, obviously, be conducted in close consultation with my counterpart, the Premier of North West, as well as our traditional leaders themselves. This is also very important with regard to the requirement of our local government legislation, which calls for the participation of all sections of our communities in the governance process.
Allow me to turn briefly to a topic very close to my heart: the challenge faced by the youth of our country, which needs a collective and innovative response from all of us, working in tandem with the youth themselves. The youth of Kgalagadi expressly raised their challenges and, again, alluded to some of the things that needed to be done to ensure that they too benefited from the fruits of freedom that previous generations of youth so gallantly fought for.
In response to the identified challenges of lack of information and counselling and referral services, we are happy to indicate that the first youth advisory centre for the district is in the process of being operationalised through a joint initiative of the district municipality and the Umsobomvu Youth Fund. Coupled with this, the district has been identified as a pilot site for the youth in local economic development programmes, drawing on the resources of various agencies and role-players. The Northern Cape Youth Commission is continuing with its work in supporting the district and local municipalities to ensure that the programmes of youth development find expression in the structure and the programmes of councils.
We have attempted, as a province, to briefly give some information on the work that our government is embarking on in the Kgalagadi District. Our efforts should be viewed in the context of broader development interventions such as the Integrated Sustainable Rural Development Programme. The NCOP visit to Kgalagadi left a permanent conscientiousness on the people of the district and, indeed, the province of the Northern Cape. It gave practical and meaningful expression to the concept of "The people shall govern", and those of us who witnessed this memorable engagement with the masses can indeed proclaim that the people's contract is intact and the people are governing.
We take this opportunity as the Northern Cape to truly thank the NCOP and Parliament for facilitating this seamless transfer of services from the North West to the Northern Cape in the process of the disestablishment of the cross-boundary. I want to say that, had it not been for the visit of the NCOP, we might have been left behind as a province because you have noted the vastness of that district and the challenges of the road conditions.
I want to take this opportunity, on behalf of the people of the Northern Cape, the executive council and the legislature, to thank the NCOP members, including those who made us a laughing stock, but it did make the visit a memorable one, because they believed that we took Parliament from these beautiful buildings to being hosted in a tent. The rain tried to disrupt the sittings, but you endured.
I want to say to those of you who experienced problems at the time - accommodation problems - we know that you are leaders of the people and that you could endure the hardships of that week as much as you understand that the people have to endure those hardships for life. Thank you very much for the visit that you paid us. Thank you. [Applause.]