Sihlalo weNdlu, Ngqongqoshe, neSekela lakhe loMnyango wezaManzi nezeMvelo, amaLungu ePhalamende, izikhulu zoMnyango ngezikhundla zazo, nabamele izinhlelo zonke zoMnyango, izivakashi ezikanye nathi kule nkulumompikiswano namhlanje siyanemukela.
Njengoba unyaka wezi-2012 kuwunyaka wekhulu selokhu kwasungulwa uMbutho weSizwe, uKhongolose ngowe-1912, kumele siwugubhe ngokuziqhenya ngokuba yingxenye yale migubho. Njengoba sazi uKhongolose yiwona kuphela umbutho wesizwe omkhulu futhi omdala osuneminyaka eyikhulu emhlabeni wonke jikelele.
UKhongolose, yonke le minyaka uwe uvuka ukuze abantu bakithi bakhululeke bathole inkululeko. Le nkululeko yethu nayo esineminyaka eyi-18 izelwe. Yize le minyaka eyi-18 imincane kakhulu kuneminyaka engaphezulu kwama-350 siphethwe ngendlela yobandlululo lapho abamnyama babephethwe ngendlela yokubancisha amathuba. Siyabonga kakhulu kubaholi bethu abafana nobaba uJohn Langalibalele Dube, uTata Nelson Mandela nabanye abaningi abangasekho nabasaphila abalwa, babulawa, baboshwa bahlukunyezwa egameni lokuba sikhululeke ebugqileni bobandlululo.
Ngakho-ke, kuningi okusamele sikwenze siwuhulumeni oholwa nguKhongolose ukushintsha izimpilo zabantu njengoba noMthethosisekelo waseNingizimu Afrika ukubeka ngokusobala ukuthi abantu bakithi banelungelo lokuthola amanzi ahlanzekile, nokuphila kwimvelo ehlanzekile. Yingakho siwuKhongolose sizimisele ukuthi abantu bangagcini ngokwamukela nje kuphela, kodwa babe yingxenye yokusiza izwe labo ngokuthi bathole amathuba emisebenzi ukuze bazizwe bekhululekile; badle nezithelo zenkululeko eyalwelwa kwachitheka igazi, kwafa abantu kwasala nezintandane. (Translation of isiZulu paragraphs follows.)
[Ms P BHENGU: House Chairperson, Minister and Deputy Minister of Water and Environmental Affairs, Members of Parliament, departmental officials according to your portfolios, representatives of all the departments, visitors who are part of the debate today, you are welcome.
We must celebrate with pride the centenary year of the ANC - it was established in 1912 - as we are a part of these celebrations. We are all aware that the ANC, which is 100 years old, is the only big, long-standing party in the whole world.
The ANC has worked tirelessly all these years in order for the people to get their freedom. This freedom of ours is now 18 years old. This is a very short time compared to the more than 350 years of blacks' being discriminated against and not given any opportunities. Thank you very much to our leaders, such as Mr John Langalibalele Dube, Mr Nelson Mandela and many others who are no longer with us and who were killed, and also those who are still alive and who were arrested and ill treated in order to set us free from apartheid slavery.
Therefore, there's still a lot that we need to do as the ANC-led government to change the lives of the people, as it is clearly indicated in the Constitution of South Africa that our people have a right to have clean water and to live in a clean environment. That is why we as the ANC want people not only to receive, but to be part of helping the country by getting job opportunities so that they can feel free, and enjoy the fruits of freedom which had led to some bloodshed where people died and some were orphaned.]
The work of the Department of Water and Environmental Affairs has evolved substantially and substantively in the years since the attainment of our democracy. Pieces of legislation, new institutional structures, compliance mechanisms and budgetary aspects have been dealt with well and systematically to ensure an unqualified audit. The department, in keeping with global trends and the evolutionary nature of the knowledge economy, is currently grappling with the concepts of natural capital, natural assets and natural environmental management to work in synergy with the economics that dominate global markets.
Very few countries have thus far attained this balance of locating the way in which natural resources become a commodity and valuing them. The way in which this department is ensuring that sustainable environmental management is a key part of our nation's future security is evident in the way they conceptualise issues of natural resources management and the protection of ecosystems in their programmes. One of the fairly new programmes - that of Natural Resource Management - requires some comment in this budget debate.
The key strategic priorities of the Department of Water and Environmental Affairs include protecting, conserving and enhancing environmental assets and natural and heritage resources, ensuring a sustainable and healthy environment. This includes paying particular attention to ensuring that environmental assets and natural resources are valued, protected and continually enhanced, focusing on key national and international engagement.
The department continues to maintain South Africa's position as the third most biologically diverse country in the world. This is done by strengthening the regulatory framework for diversity and ecosystem services through targeted amendments that promote the objectives of conservation, sustainable use and equitable sharing of benefits arising from the use of biological resources and associated knowledge.
In relation to natural resource management, the department's Programme 6 reflects the value attached to the environment, as well as the way in which it contributes to job creation. Furthermore, this reflected employment generation is a key priority in the department's Medium-Term Strategic Framework. It has intensified its involvement in the Expanded Public Works Programme in relation to generating green jobs.
The transfer from the former Department of Water Affairs and Forestry of the Natural Resource Management Programme, which comprises Working for Water and Working on Fire, has significantly increased the department's capacity and responsibility to create employment. This was said clearly by the hon President in his state of the nation address:
... if we continue to grow reasonably well, we will begin to write a new story about South Africa - the story of how, working together, we drove back unemployment and reduced economic inequality and poverty.
These programmes both generate critical environmental outcomes. The management of invasive alien plants, wildfires, wetlands, forest degradation, the health of rivers, the creation of value-added industries and the conversion of invasive alien plant biomass, bush encroachment biomass and waste materials into energy continue to be realised through these programmes.
At the 52nd National Conference of the ANC in Polokwane in 2007 resolutions were adopted, one of them being that water resource management had to be integral to planning by the municipalities. That is why there is a New Growth Path - it is helping our Minister of Water and Environmental Affairs, Mrs Edna Molewa, to focus on a long-term national water resource strategy. It provides guidelines on how to align science, technology and engineering with national growth development and equality goals.
The department has also fostered the development of the green economy by establishing the Green Fund. Its main objective is to promote environmental protection through a programme consisting of technical assistance, grant assistance, loan assistance and own funding for projects that have a substantial public interest. The fund's aim is to stimulate market development and foster projects that have a highly positive environmental impact, to strengthen institutional capacity to integrate environmental issues into the economy and society, to contribute to the associated knowledge, and to attract the resources to develop the South African green economy.
The budget allocated to ensuring the protection of our natural capital, and also to using it as a vehicle to alleviate poverty and create jobs, is Programme 6: Environmental Sector Programmes and Projects. The purpose of this programme is to promote the empowerment of designated communities by creating 201 964 work opportunities and full-time equivalents over the medium-term by implementing the EPWP projects; to contribute to sustainable employment creation and economic growth over the medium-term by facilitating skills development, employment creation and the restoration of national capital by providing more than 130 000 job opportunities; and to contribute to a greener economy by providing bridging finance to encourage the development of green economy enterprises and projects.
The Environmental Sector Programmes and Projects is actually the largest programme in the Department of Water and Environmental Affairs. As a result it receives 60% of the allocation to the department in the 2012-13 financial year. The favourable allocation for the programme should be seen in the context of this an ANC-led government's drive for job creation and the potential of the different facets of Environmental Sector Programmes and Projects to continue in this regard. Environmental degradation, poverty eradication and unemployment are long-standing, pressing issues which this programme envisages tackling. Therefore, concerns for the environment and the emerging debate over the green economy make it extremely relevant to look into the employment of this programme.
In addition dealing with to national priorities in environmental protection, South Africa is also involved at the international level in the Rio+20 Sustainable Development Conference. This conference aims to secure a renewed political commitment to sustainable development, to assessing the progress and implementation gaps in meeting already agreed upon commitments, and to addressing new, emerging challenges. The themes for the conference will be "a green economy in the context of sustainable development and poverty eradication" and "the institutional framework for sustainable development". This conference will be an outcome of Agenda 21 and the 10th anniversary of the World Summit on Sustainable Development, the WSSD, referred to as the Johannesburg Summit.
In an effort to keep the WSSD legacy alive, South Africa is pursuing an outcome that will also contribute to the fulfilment of the department's strategic objectives of enhanced international governance instruments and agreements supportive of sustainable development priorities. Therefore South Africa will pursue a position that advocates enhanced UN systems to promote international co-operation for sustainable development. We will also call for the concept of a green economy to promote the participation of vulnerable communities and secure livelihoods. The focus of a green economy in the context of sustainable development and poverty eradication and an institutional framework for sustainable development at Rio+20 will afford South Africa an opportunity to pursue its position. Although substantial human resource capacity is available locally, a shortage of skills in certain areas is likely to constrain the development of a green economy. That is why a coherent strategy is needed to address the skills constraints that may prevent the expansion of pertinent sectors or the introduction of new activities. This will include worker re-skilling programmes towards greener disciplines and activities.
In conclusion, as South Africans we have to take the lead. A gradual but effective transformation of behavioural patterns, particularly with respect to resource utilisation and protection, is critical for the evolution of the green economy. It is not simply about responding to an adequate level of incentivisation or the imposition of regulations and penalties. It is about choices. South African households, businesses and government agencies will establish the momentum and progressively reinforce the greening of the economy for the benefit of all our communities. The ANC supports the Budget Vote.