Thanks Chair, Deputy Chair, hon Deputy President, leadership of the SA Local Government Association, Salga, hon members, you know at times you attempted to clarify things to those attending the sittings. I was impressed by hon De Lille, I thought the member would do the reasonable thing, but instead they are getting to the people. It is our culture that if you are a rational leader, you welcome everybody, not that you are joining a party. If an organisation comes to a village then you are all going to be welcomed.
It is an honour to be afforded such an opportunity to participate in this very important debate that is addressing real issues that are challenges to South Africans. It is significant that this debate is held the day after the celebration of Human Rights Day.
It is in order to remember words of the late President of Mozambique, Samora Machel, when he said:
I do not go to debate to give my own ideas. If that were all, I might write my fellow members a letter. But neither do I go simply to learn other people's ideas. If that were all, I might request you to write me a letter. I go to a debate in order that together we may create group ideas, an idea which will be better than all our ideas added together. For this group idea will not be produced by any process of addition, but by the interpenetration of us all.
We can, at times, try to avoid reality, but we cannot avoid the consequences of avoiding reality. We have to be realistic and objective when being afforded such an opportunity, especially a debate that is held a day after remembering how we got into the current challenges.
As we debate today we must always draw inspiration from the profound words so nobly uttered by our great icon and gallant freedom fighter, Tata Nelson Mandela. As we debate today, we must always draw inspiration from the profound words," ... no South African should rest and wallow in the joy of freedom".
The words remain relevant up to this day; therefore, instead of wallowing in the joy of freedom, we use the debate as an opportune reflection on the journey we have traversed and the challenges ahead.
My debate today is a dedication to the people of Nkomazi Local Municipality in Mpumalanga that made it possible for the child-headed Themba family to have a decent shelter. The initiative was started by the classmates of this 17-year-old girl, who was looking after her three siblings.
They decided to visit our constituency office to intervene so as to assist them with contact with the provincial department for a proper shelter. After engaging the department it was clear that their issue was prioritised for the next financial year. The conduct and the positive attitude of Thembeni as head of that family made it simple for every person involved to make a contribution so as to inspire fellow South Africans of her own age and beyond.
As we speak today, a decent house with furniture was constructed and handed over as a gift to the Themba family. All of that was finalised around November last year and she is currently in Grade 12. The role of business, as indicated by the Deputy President, in community, constituency office and school really confirm that indeed working together we can do more. In Afrikaans s hulle, "Deur saam te werk, kan ons meer bereik." [In Afrikaans they say, "By working together, we can achieve more".]
Everything was done to make practical the vision of this Parliament. The vision of Parliament is to build an effective people's Parliament that is responsive to the needs of the people and driven by the ideal of realising a better quality of life for all the people of South Africa. However, I must say that I belong to an organisation that states clearly in its preamble from the first page in its constitution that the ANC was founded in 1912 to defend and advance the rights of all African people.
The aim and objectives of the ANC have been made practical by all the relevant stakeholders when dealing practically with the Themba family. The motive behind the role of all progressive stakeholders in building a better life for all is that their tireless efforts are appreciated and valued, and to all people in their respective corners advancing the agenda of pushing back the frontiers of poverty, we all say in one voice, "Keep up the good work".
The organisation that I belong to stated clearly in its 52nd national conference declaration, I quote:
Our work is far from complete. We are only at the beginning of a long journey to a truly united, democratic and prosperous society, based on the principles contained in the Freedom Charter. Yet we are confident that the strategy and policies we have adopted will take us further towards the goal of a better life for all.
All that cannot and will never be one man's job, it is something that can be achieved by all our people. Hence, to echo the theme, working together we can do more to respond to developmental challenges facing our communities.
It is encouraging to note that the ANC has made a direct and practical response to the United Nations generated criteria on the right to development that includes the condition of living of most people, the conditions under which they work, equality of access to resources and degree of participation in development.
I felt that it would be proper to share with all members present here the five important lessons a pencil maker taught a pencil: everything you do always leaves a mark; you can always correct the mistakes you have made; what is inside you is what is most important; in life you will undergo painful sharpening which makes you a better pencil; and to be a better pencil, you must allow yourself to be held and guided by the hand that holds you.
The ANC has legitimately won the elections, so let us allow it to govern by being efficient as MPs when we do our work. Indeed, criticise constructively and also give credit where it is due. In conclusion, allow me to quote one of the late revolutionaries, Amilcar Cabral:
Always bear in mind that the people are not fighting for ideas, for the things in anyone's head. They are fighting to win material benefits, to live better and in peace, to see their lives go forward, to guarantee the future of their children.
I thank you.
Ms N DUBE (KwaZulu-Natal): Deputy Chairperson of the NCOP, Deputy President, hon Chairperson of the NCOP and hon members, it is indeed an honour for us that we stand before you on this day after the whole country has paid tribute to the heroes and heroines who laid down their lives for a prosperous and democratic South Africa. On 21 March 2010, the people of South Africa gathered across the country to acknowledge the contribution of thousands of men and women who died during the Sharpeville Massacre. The people of KwaZulu-Natal this year gathered in Nquthu Local Municipality to observe this important day on our calendar.
We heartily remembered yesterday that on International Human Rights Day on 10 December 1996, Nelson Mandela signed our new Constitution in Sharpeville, effectively ushering in the new South Africa, a society which was based on democratic values, social justice and fundamental human rights.
Hon members, the theme of the sitting pertinently calls for all the people of South Africa to work together to speed up service delivery. Working together indeed with our people in the province of KwaZulu-Natal, for us, is a historic mandate that inspired us and our people for this freedom. When we say the people are governing, we say so because our people and our government have consistently and continuously engaged with the communities in the implementation of all our programmes.
We dynamically engage with the communities in campaigns such as Know Your Neighbourhood, home-based care, war on poverty, household profiling, and our door-to-door visits, which are inspired by the integrated development plans, IDPs, in our budget. We are inculcating the culture of public participation in all our work as government in our communities. Public participation for us also means that building a responsible citizenry helps to enhance the revenue of our municipalities, and has the capability to monitor local government performance through the IDPs.
We welcome, Your Excellency Deputy President, the emphasis that indeed we need all the spheres of government to participate in the IDPs. We are indeed, as the province of KwaZulu-Natal, engaging with all our municipalities to ensure that we prepare a smooth transition to the new municipalities. Under the theme "Working together in KwaZulu-Natal, we can take South Africa forward", we have called on all our people to join hands with our government to strengthen our programmes of action in order to steer this province in the right direction. Indeed, we have ensured that we are dealing with the backlogs of delivery of water and electricity, since our province still lags behind with this service delivery.
We are working together to deal with the challenges of HIV and Aids and TB, while government has unveiled the measures aimed at expanding the availability of antiretrovirals, combining treatment of TB and ARVs in one facility, so as to increase the access to all our communities. Our government has appointed the members of Cabinet or the MECs as champions of various district municipalities, so as to ensure that our war on poverty campaign is indeed entrenched within our communities. As we undertake our work in this regard, communities are our key partners.
In preparation for the upcoming local government elections, we have up- scaled our community awareness programme as a way of mobilising for a higher voter turnout because we believe that the voice of our people will be the one that will prosper.
As part of our disaster management mitigation strategies, we are also mobilising communities as volunteers to assist in the disasters that we have seen in and around our communities in KwaZulu-Natal. We are looking to all of us to make sure that we are each other's keepers. Working together with our communities has helped us to improve the communities, and for them to be in charge of their livelihood.
We are working together with our women and our youth structures to ensure that job creation and sustainable livelihoods are at the centre of local government programmes. We will be rolling out the community works programme which will be driven by the communities themselves as a way of ensuring that communities play a pivotal role in making the living environment safe in which to work and also play. In the coming term in local government, we are going to make sure that we resource the ward communities better, ensuring that they are taken seriously by municipalities. We will be ensuring also that our local governments improve their way of working by ensuring that structures such as community police forums, school governing bodies, health and youth ambassadors, traditional communities and all other organised formations work together in the ward committees to enhance the work and the voice of our people.
Clearly, as the provincial government, we are committed to developing a new Public Service that is imbued with a strong ethical and professional orientation. Public servants need at all times to be reliable and responsive, to show courtesy and render services to our communities. Our Public Service remains the only engine and is the only tool that government can use to satisfy the needs and the aspirations of our people. Therefore, through the good behaviour of our public servants we can create a prosperous country where citizens are treated with respect. It is for this reason that our provincial office of the premier has opened an ombuds office to ensure that all communities as members of the public can go and receive or submit their complaints, which will be assessed and received by government to ensure the improvement of the work that we are doing.
As elected government officials, we have also undertaken to partner with all communities wherever they are involved in nation-building, the promotion of peace and tolerance in our province and the mutual respect in everyday tasks for all our communities. To build a compassionate country is one of our key programmes in KwaZulu-Natal. We shall continue to work for peace, political tolerance and the promotion of free political activity in the next elections.
Our democracy can only be entrenched and protected in an environment of peace. We shall also work very closely, as we are doing right now, with the Independent Electoral Commission and all the law enforcement agencies to ensure that the local government elections in 2011 are a pleasant experience for all our communities. We have also called on all the elected representatives in the councils to serve our people with dignity and honour and refrain from using the positions for self-interest. We have also removed councillors before who have failed to rise to this expected level, and we will not hesitate, hon members, to do the same anytime the situation requires.
We also want to thank hon members of the NCOP for always supporting the work done by the province, and we are looking forward to strengthening the municipalities as they start with their challenge after the local government elections. I thank you. [Applause.]