... can assist in building skills based in rural areas, creating co-operatives and rural enterprises.
The department, through its job creation model under the Comprehensive Rural Development Programme, has planned the following: increased employment on commercial farms; increased percentage of small farmers producing for the markets; increased number of employees in agro processing; jobs through Working for Water, Working on Fire and Working for Woodlands through the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries; jobs created on land reform projects, and the development and training of a number of entrepreneurs.
The pilot project launched by the President in August in Muyexe, Greater Giyani, Limpopo saw an intensive programme where national and provincial governments joined hands when it came to information gathering and initiated something that was the first of its kind.
Go ile gwa tsenwa motse ka motse go kgonthi?i?a gore malapa kamoka a a balwa gore go nyenkurelwe gore batho ba nyaka le go hloka eng. Se se ile sa fa mmu?o boteng bja maphelo a batho ba dinagamagae le go kwa seo bona ba bonago e ka ba tharollo mo bohumaneging bjo ba lego go bjona. (Translation of Sepedi paragraph follows.)
[Household surveys were conducted to find out the people's needs and wants. This gave the government insight into the challenges that are experienced by people in rural areas and what the people think could be the possible solutions to those challenges.]
Together with our people, we can do more. Out of that came a comprehensive plan to ensure that in each and every household one person was employed and initiated in basic technical skills. About 900 individuals were trained in social, technical and institutional facilitation and enterprise development. These individuals will be contracted for two years, which gives all 900 households an income for that period and a lifelong skill that can never, ever be taken away, not even by anybody who is talking against this department today.
Sixty percent of the salary earned through this intervention will go towards feeding the families of those who are employed. The intervention has a multipronged social impact, which is to reduce HIV/Aids infection - we know that people in the rural areas are very vulnerable when it comes to diseases - reduce dependency on social grants; reduce crime and domestic violence; and delay teenage pregnancy by at least two years.
The department plans to reach 160 wards under the Comprehensive Rural Development Programme by 2014 and ensure that one member is employed. This shall reach approximately 320 people. For this programme to succeed, it will require stringent monitoring so that the department can draw lessons from the effective roll-out of the programme throughout the country.
For the programme to create jobs, it should address the following: Rural jobs would require investment in economic infrastructure. The programme should also focus on the development and delivery of rural economic services that would act as a trigger and catalyst for local economic activities. It should be aligned with the concept of decent work and embrace dimensions such as increasing the quantity of work available in rural areas, improving the quality of work for workers, ensuring fair labour practices and general workers' rights and a society free from child and forced labour while promoting social dialogue.
T?hologelo ya batho go t?wa dinagamagaeng go ya ditoropong ke lehut?o la go ba kgauswi le ditirelo le go hwet?a me?omo, le gona go ba karolo ya bophelo bjo bo kaone ka go tli?a thlobaelo le go ?a?arakant?ha bophelo bja ka lapeng. Ke ka moo tlala, bohuma, bodiidi le gona go hloka mo?omo o hwet?ago di aparela kudu basadi le bana kua dinagamagaeng.
Bomme ba ikhwet?a e le bona bao ba ?alago ba hlokomet?e bana le go ba godi?a mola bopapa ba ile go nyaka bophelo bjo bo kaone ditoropong. Se ke seo se ilego sa hlohlelet?a bomma go thoma t?homi?anommogo ka go ipopa ngata e tee go thu?a go lwant?ha leuba la tlala. Let?ema e be e le thebe le sebo seo ba bego ba kgona go fepa malapa a bona ka sona. (Translation of Sepedi paragraphs follows.)
[People migrate from rural to urban areas in large numbers to look for jobs, access to services and better lives. This migration, however, impacts negatively on their families. The women and children in the rural areas are the ones who experience hunger, poverty and lack of jobs the most.
Women are faced with the responsibility to take care of children and raise them on their own when the fathers are out finding a better life in the cities. This is what prompted the women to unite and fight against hunger. Working together made it possible for the women to put food on the table for their children.]
The department is urged to assist communities in technical support and internal skills and assist in dispute resolution where disputes exist. Working together with rural people, we can try and defeat joblessness, hunger and deprivation.
Because land is a source of survival for every nation, the important role of owning land and being able to cultivate productively and sustainably cannot be overemphasised. The right to land, as enshrined in our Constitution, will protect, recognise and address the past injustices of the black majority by the white minority.
According to Another Countryside, a book edited by Ruth Hall, "Land reform is a political project that is yet to clarify its economic rationale."
As the ANC, we support the department's Budget Vote. [Interjections.] [Time expired.] [Applause.]