Chairperson, hon Minister, hon Deputy Minister, hon members, friends and guests, exactly one year ago the South African people chose through the ballot system to elect this Fourth Parliament. Hon members, this means we have completed 20% of our time here in Parliament. During this, the first 20% of our term of office, there have been numerous service delivery protests. These protests have taken many forms, both violent and peaceful. There have been petitions, legal peaceful marches and legal protests turning violent. There have even been "umlungu" [white people] ratepayer boycotts. Some of these protests have been orchestrated by the very political parties that sit in this House. The ratepayer boycotts are more harmful by far to the future of service delivery than the demonstrations that take place on the streets.
It is important for this House to note that when, in a democratic country, the political parties that have won seats in Parliament promote ratepayer boycotts, they are in fact bringing themselves as members of this Fourth Parliament into disrepute. This Fourth Parliament - of which we are all members and, as such, a collective - acknowledges that there are service delivery problems. These problems are widespread and occur in all nine provinces, even here in the city of Cape Town. It is now becoming clear that it's not only provinces and towns controlled by the ruling party that are experiencing service delivery problems, but also the province and towns lead by the opposition.
Here in the city of Cape Town the backlog in service delivery is so extensive that it is going to be very difficult for the DA and its council to eliminate them. The City of Cape Town has resorted to cutting water to areas of Mitchells Plain, resulting in Muslim residents not being able to perform their ritual washings before prayers. This city has even attempted to give half-baked services in the form of toilets with no walls or roofs, hoping that the poor residents will install the walls and roofs themselves.
Recently I witnessed the destruction of churches and mosques by the City of Cape Town. I was reminded of those old black-and-white movies taken in the 1930s when the National Socialists destroyed places of worship. Seriously, what future is the DA trying to build by allowing the destruction of churches and places of worship today?
These examples of misguided attempts to deliver services clearly illustrate a lack of community participation. The Fourth Parliament only exists so that "the people shall govern". This clear lack of community participation is widespread, it affects every one of us where we live, and some of us have resorted to service delivery protests to highlight our concerns.
Structures where communities can participate within government exist on the ground. These structures include community policing forums, where members of the community can engage with the South African Police Service around matters pertaining to crime in the areas where they live; school governing bodies, where parents can have a direct influence on the schools that their children attend; hospital and clinic management communities, where concerned residents can raise their issues around the health-care facilities and services in their localities; ward committees, where residents of a particular ward can engage the local authority through their ward councillor on issues around local government service delivery; and many outreach programmes and government imbizos, where South Africans can raise their issues.
These are the government's initiatives around community participation. There are other initiatives taken by political parties in South Africa, like general meetings at ward level, where everyone living in that ward can raise issues around service delivery. In this democracy the politically active among us can feel free to use our political structures to raise issues that affect our everyday lives.
The South African population have the responsibility to themselves to get informed, to get involved and to get active in the running of this government. The ANC firmly believes in the principle that the people shall govern.
Chairperson, as I mentioned earlier, there have been many service delivery protests based mainly on the lack of service delivery on the ground in all nine provinces. However, there is a light at the end of this dark tunnel in the form of the Local Government Turnaround Strategy. Vast consultation processes took place resulting in the formulation of this strategy.
This is a turnaround strategy, not a plan to supply a ceramic bowl and a flushing system and hope that the poorest of the poor will have some spare money or building material lying around so that they can secure their personal privacy in outside toilets. In this year's January 8 Statement, the ANC said:
We must build a state that is democratic, people-driven and people- centred. We must pursue a sustained development based on an inclusive growth path. It should be a state that unites South Africans around a vision of sustainable development and mobilises them to act as midwives to the birth of a truly united, nonracial, nonsexist, democratic and prosperous society.
This turnaround strategy is focused on achieving three objectives, namely, to ensure improved and accelerated delivery of basic services to the people; to ensure that municipalities are self-reliant and meet their constitutional obligations; and to ensure that our people are meaningfully engaged on issues that affect them.
As the fourth Parliament we have spent the first 20% of our term in office identifying the bottlenecks within service delivery. We have learnt that service delivery can be slowed by infrequent maintenance, ill-advised contract and project management and, in some cases, corruption.
The days of the corrupt are over. This government will seek out, expose and prosecute those individuals who misuse government resources for their own gain and attempt to undermine the ANC's principle of a better life for all. We will ensure that there are consequences for incompetence, corruption and a lack of accountability.
Tomorrow we will start the next 20% of our term of office, and we are starting from an informed position. We know what we are dealing with. We have a strategy to correct and enhance the service delivery machinery. This Parliament is a collective. All the political parties sitting here are accountable to the South African people. And with the people, together we can do more. Thank you. [Applause.]
The TEMPORARY CHAIRPERSON (Dr T S Farisani) Is the hon Swart still here? Mr Swart, I withdraw my ruling. We have denied you the use of 40 seconds and now we shall invite you to use them.