Hon Chairperson, Chairperson of the NCOP, hon Deputy President of the Republic of South Africa, hon members of the NCOP, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, as Gauteng, we embrace this opportunity to once again reflect on the challenges that are facing our communities. Let me start by saying that we live in times where development is a dominant currency in global affairs. However, development as a concept takes various shades and hues of colour, depending on one's perspective. As a result, the world is stereotypically defined and divided along the narrow lines of the developed world called the First World, and the underdeveloped world called the Third World nations of the world. In many instances, this has bred unabated greed, plunder and tensions among the nations of the world.
The tensions and uneasy relations between these two dichotomous world views find and manifest themselves on many fronts, in particular trade, economic relations, political and international relations, amongst others. Hon Chair, South Africa was never and is still not spared the vices that result from such relations. Those relations are domination and underdevelopment. Our situation is exacerbated by the historical patterns of socially engineered development, which are still visible to date. In our country, the differences in development patterns are accentuated by the glaring imbalances found in locations which are in close proximity. A case in point is the appalling contradictions between Sandton City and the townships of Alexandra, Khayelitsha and Dobsonville as well as Mangaung and Bloemfontein.
Chairperson and hon members, hope has been brought into the lives of many people in the country. In a short period of time, ie 17 years of democratic rule to be precise, South Africa has witnessed unparalleled levels of change. More people, regardless of colour or creed, are benefiting from our housing policies, social safety net, and access to clean water, electricity as well as sanitation.
We are mindful of challenges that lie ahead. We know that many of our people are still living in abject poverty. The number of the unemployed - in our view - is still very high, whichever way you define it. But we are made strong and determined by the fact that many of our people are behind our efforts to address these matters. Our view is that any development should be people-centred and people-driven at all levels. This ensures that people participate and influence the course of development in their communities. However, we are aware that our intentions have - in some instances - been hijacked to the benefit of a clique that has no interest in broader community development issues. That is where the issues of corruption tend to rear their heads. In this regard and context of corruption, resources get deviated from where they are supposed to be going to a few people. The issue of corruption is something that the ruling party is very interested in and has to deal with.
Hon Chair, the one area that we want to focus on is the impediments around challenges facing our communities. One of them is that - we want to believe - municipalities should be assisted by different levels of government; in other words, the provincial and the national levels, particularly with regard to maximising revenue collection. That is central to the development of our people. Secondly, the issue of reducing municipal debt is very important in many ways. In this instance, we talk about debt coming from households, national and provincial departments. If you address those issues, I am sure that municipalities will go a long way in addressing developmental issues.
The other broad area is the capacity of municipalities. In this instance, the level of project management is very important. The issue of contract management is a problem nationally and provincially and particularly in municipalities. These are very important to us because at the end of the day, we have to account for value for money with regard to what we do in various spheres of government.
Community participation, as the Deputy President has enunciated, is very important because development should not be development for its own sake. It should not just be economic development but should impact on community development. Lastly, we want to submit that the rising wage bill at different levels of government, particularly in municipalities, must have a direct relationship with productivity levels, so that there is value for money even at that level.
In order for development to be accelerated, we need to intensify intergovernmental relations, as indicated by the Deputy President. This requires proper co-ordination amongst the spheres of government. We think that it is through effective co-ordination that duplication and poor resource management can be avoided. The current intergovernmental structures dealing with local government fiscal matters, in other words facilitating dialogue at technical and political level, allow provinces to engage with municipalities around new reforms for local spheres to track progress on local government performance, and provide advisory support to municipalities.
Imperative in the grant management process is to ensure that transfers earmarked for municipalities are published on time. This will allow for proper fiscal planning at the municipal level. The provincial transfers to municipalities need to be properly co-ordinated to ensure that grants are transferred on time, and spent by municipalities in accordance with the conditions as per the provincial gazette. In the last debate we had with the Minister of Finance, all these issues were raised, particularly the issue of grant management. That requires a multiplicity of interventions, meaning co-ordination.
All spheres of government should ensure that their development plans are aligned and this point was raised by the Deputy President. For instance, the infrastructure plans of the provinces should address challenges of provincially owned assets located in municipal boundaries. The recurrent theme that we are coming back to is the issue of infrastructure spending. In Gauteng and other provinces in general, infrastructure development should be at the centre of development. In reality, our people are not impressed by explanations of how the spheres of government work because, in their view, there is only one government. They become impatient because what they want to hear and see is development on their doorsteps. They understand that it should be development that enhances the quality of their lives.
Hon Chair, we want to submit that we have to go back to the idea of community development and not just development for its own sake. We also want to submit that it is about time that we really begin to look at the idea of service delivery because it denotes a relationship that is ... [Interjections.]
At the end of the day, there must be community development. We are not just bringing freedoms to people but people must actually develop themselves.
In conclusion, we need to join forces and work as a team for the benefit of our people. Government alone will not be able to do that. The challenge remains attacking underdevelopment, poverty and unemployment. Thank you very much. [Time expired.] [Applause.]