Chairperson and hon Deputy President, there is no doubt in my mind that South Africans need to work together if we are to bring about sustainable development in our country.
During the last decades of the apartheid regime our economic development stagnated and declined, with all sorts of negative social consequences. Since then, the economy has, for much of the period, shown some positive growth, although at a modest rate. Unfortunately, this was often jobless growth, with only a very limited number of new jobs being created, and with many of these being lost during the recent recession.
Human development, according to Nobel Prize-winning economist Amartya Sen, is what development is all about. Poverty has decreased somewhat, primarily because of a dramatic increase in the number of grants being paid out by the government, but the number of people with the capability to really participate in the economy has hardly increased at all. As a result, income inequality in South Africa has increased dramatically and our Gini coefficient is amongst the worst in the world.
The failure to bring about a significant increase in the number of South Africans who can participate productively in the modern economy must be blamed primarily on a school system that, in many instances, fails to provide a quality education for our children. In 1994 we could, with full justification, blame Hendrik Verwoerd and his successors. They explicitly designed an education system which would ensure that black, coloured and Indian children could not participate in the modern economy, except as unskilled workers.
In all probability the biggest challenge of the democratic government since 1994 was to transform the schools in the townships and rural areas into institutions that provided a proper education.
In the Western Cape and a number of other provinces, we are today, with significant successes, doing everything we can to improve the schooling of those who were disadvantaged in the past.
Hon Deputy President, I do not think that anyone would dispute the fact that the school system in South Africa needs to be dramatically improved if we wish to ensure that a far larger proportion of our population can participate in a modern economy. Far too many South Africans are caught up in what former President Mbeki used to call the second economy. There is a mismatch between the very basic skills our schools provide and the skills and capabilities required by a modern economy.
One of the areas where we have developed consensus across party lines is in agreeing that early childhood education needs to get far more support if children are to have the capability of benefiting from school education. In the Western Cape we have placed great emphasis on registering all early childhood development centres and we have formed a transversal committee to ensure that all departments make an optimal contribution in ensuring that ECD centres live up to their potential.
Work by economists such as Prof Murray Leibbrandt of UCT has shown conclusively that the decrease in the percentage of people living in poverty in South Africa has been realised not because of the increase in the productivity capacity of the poor, but because of the dramatic increase in the annual recipients of grant payments - from 3 million in 1994 to more than 13 million today.
The Premier of the Western Cape, in her state of the province address, said that we in the Western Cape are fully supportive of the grant payments made to the poor in order to alleviate poverty. Indeed, when a government fails to deliver to its people the educational capabilities needed to participate in a modern economy, it is duty-bound to ensure that the people do not starve.
However, I would argue that we should reconsider the types of grants being paid. We should try and learn from the Brazilian experience, where poor families are supported if their children attend school and visit health clinics.
The Taylor Committee that reported to the national Cabinet in 2001 warned that we should not pay out grants which have perverse incentives and create poverty traps. The committee suggested a universal income grant paid to all.
Mr Deputy President, through my own involvement in the social distress relief payments during the past 6 months as MEC for social development, it is very clear that we often fail to reach the very poor and that those who are in fact much better off at times succeed in getting onto the lists of those who are entitled to grants.
In the Western Cape, we removed most of these people through a very stringent review process. However, we only had to deal with about 3 000 cases. When there are millions of claimants, as in the case of child grants, there is evidence to suggest that in some provinces as many as a quarter of those receiving grants are not entitled to them. On the other hand, as many as a quarter of those who are really poor, and who are entitled to the grants, do not get them.
Hon Deputy President, there is also no doubt that substance abuse is another of those factors that is undermining the development of our communities on a large scale. It is also in this sphere that consensus has emerged amongst all the parties that far more needs to be done to prevent all types of substance abuse. As a government we cannot and should not allow the capabilities of our people to be destroyed by the abuse of alcohol and other drugs such as heroin and tik, which can also destroy people's mental health.
Hon Chair and Deputy President, I think there is consensus amongst all that the development of the capabilities of our people is a sacred duty of government at all levels. Rhetorically we are still committed to fulfilling those obligations, but practically one all too often finds that inefficiencies and corruption mean that the resources that could be used for development in fact benefit those who are already privileged.
When one repeatedly asks for an investigation into cases of alleged corruption, one does not do this to score political points, but in order to try and ensure that, in future, many of our resources do reach those who are most in need. Corruption steals from the poor. It is for that reason that I have made it one of my life's goals to fight corruption wherever I find it. I believe that it is the task of every one of us, whether we are in opposition or in government, to commit ourselves towards building a new ethos in government, where corruption in any form will not be tolerated, so that all our resources can be directed towards our development priorities.
Development will take time, as apartheid left us with a disastrous legacy of inequality and a social fabric that had been violently torn apart. In addressing this legacy, we constantly need to show solidarity with the poor, fight against practices that divide us and work for the goal of building a more caring society. The problems of the poor are the problems of the rich. We therefore need to build a society that truly entrenches our common humanity.
Hon Deputy President, I agree with you that the integrated development plans of municipalities need to be aligned with those of the national and provincial governments in order to prevent government departments from working in silos, where local, provincial and national governments each do their own thing. If we can bring about that alignment in putting our resources together, we will certainly improve development. I thank you. [Applause.]