Voorsitter, ek wil my opregte dank uitspreek teenoor die parlementre navorserspan bestaande uit Kashifa Abrahams, Crystal Levandale, Gary Rhoda en Tasneem Matthews, onder leiding van die senior navorser, Joy Watson, in besonder vir hul doelgerigtheid en vir die uitstekende navorsingswerk gelewer aan die Portefeuljekomitee oor Vroue, Kinders en Mense met Gestremdhede.(Translation of Afrikaans paragraph follows.)
[Mrs P C DUNCAN: Chairperson I would like to express my sincere gratitude to the parliamentary research team comprising Kashifa Abrahams, Crystal Levandale, Gary Rhoda and Tasneem Matthews, headed by the senior researcher, Joy Watson, specifically for their sense of purpose and for the excellent research work produced for the Portfolio Committee on Women, Children and People with Disabilities.]
Many thanks also go to Ms Barbara Thomson, our chairperson. She is the most impartial chairperson that I have met in my political career. It is a great disappointment that the previous Office on the Rights of the Child, Office on the Status of Women and Office on the Status of Disabled Persons that were initiated during the first democratic parliamentary period since 1997, and irrespective of being placed under the highest authority of our country - being the Presidency - lacked sustainable political will. This lack of political will is especially evident in the inability of the Presidency to capacitate and use these structures optimally in achieving the desired impact right through to the period of the Fourth Parliament. So the national ANC-led government, without question, has failed women, children and people with disabilities.
Was there really a need for a new Ministry if the introduction of a new Ministry, in essence, is still the same as the previous structures? I will be so bold as to say no, because the structural changes to a Ministry do not ensure better or more dedicated specific service delivery to these sectors. Instead, it means that money must now be used to physically establish a completely new department, to recruit critical skills and competencies, as well as for personnel compensation. We must stop reinventing the wheel.
Would it, then, not have been better to improve the old structures and to have left them under the highest authority of the country, namely the Presidency? The Ministry and department have now been established by the President, so it is probably unlikely that the functional responsibility of staying in the Presidency will be reconsidered strategically. This new Ministry, therefore, will have the unresolved challenges the previous structures had, as well as added ones, such as the Commission for Gender Equality.
Having said this, it is thus important to highlight some of the areas that need urgent attention should this new Ministry and department be expected to function optimally. Firstly, the lack of adequate resources, both financial and human, to deliver on South Africa's international and national gender, disability and children obligations must be resolved as a matter of urgency. The R97,8 million budget allocated to the department, inclusive of the R51,9 million for the CGE, constitutes 0,02% of the total appropriation of all departmental Votes. It is one thing to put a structure in place, but it is quite another to demonstrate that the structure is able to sustainably perform its mandate, especially if the mandate is extended.
Secondly, the report of the Auditor-General reveals ... Sorry, there goes my one minute. [Laughter.] For example, additional tasks added to the Ministry are that of the management of the relationship between government and the CGE through a transfer payment, something which was not part of the previous structure. The management of this relationship in itself requires dedicated personnel, especially in terms of the Public Finance Management Act. The Public Finance Management Act indicates that it is the responsibility of the accounting officer for a department to ensure that expenditure of the department and the main divisions within the Vote are in accordance with the Vote of the department. This, in effect, means more responsibility for an already underresourced department. The department has accounting responsibilities for a Chapter 9 institution whose budget is even bigger than its own.
Secondly, the report of the Auditor-General reveals that they could not express an opinion on the financial statements of the CGE for the 2007-08 financial year owing to insufficient appropriate audit evidence as this could not be obtained, and this is a further great concern for the newly established Ministry. This opinion, in simple words, means wasteful and fruitless expenditure.
As the DA, we stand solid in combating corruption. I therefore express my discontent with the CGE. As an independent state institution, its primary function is the following: "The Commission for Gender Equality must promote respect for gender equality and the protection, development and attainment of gender equality." It is failing women's empowerment in gender equality in this country dismally, and its existence should be revisited without fear or favour.
When looking at the three sectors within the budget respectively, the women's programme has a mere R7,1 million, the children's programme the same, and the disability programme also has a budget of R7,1 million. Perhaps this increased budget could have improved on the 2008-09 budget of the old structures and be used to address the long-standing challenges of the lack of adequate human and financial resources far better.
According to the Ministry, it will take three years to fully establish the new department. This is a concern. Currently, the department is in a marginalised situation in terms of the broader budget allocations. I want to urge Treasury to reconsider the amount of R346 million that was originally proposed by the department, as the department intends working across all departments, as well as all spheres of government. This is something that the previous structures struggled with tremendously in terms of adequate human resources.
Furthermore, the department's mandate, in broad terms, is to deal with human rights concerns, which often remain marginalised in the mainstream of government work. The many manifestations of the marginalisation of human rights and equality concerns, as perpetuated by government itself, are unacceptable, and this must stop.
In my maiden speech, I said that the role and responsibility of all departments do not suddenly disappear with the emergence of this new Ministry. The responsibility is on the whole of government, if this new Ministry wishes to be a success. I also said that the bulk of the resources continue to be within all other departments in the different spheres of government, nongovernmental organisations and the private sector.
Having said the above, the department, after proclamation, now has the authority to hold all government departments responsible and accountable for delivery within their line functions. Departments are also responsible and accountable for allocating budgets for dedicated and mainstreamed actions so that the fulfilment of the rights of women, children and people with disabilities can be achieved. Surely, this must be supported.
Lastly, the government's adopting of an outcomes-based service delivery model has my dedicated support. This will give us the opportunity to measure whether the budget spending in all departments indeed has the necessary sustainable effect on the lives of all our people. I thank you. [Applause.]