Thank you very much, Deputy Speaker. Well, I hope that I'm not going to fall into the category of ubab' uKomphela [Mr Komphela] in terms of the ability to remember who is chairing, who is presiding.
Deputy Speaker, comrades in Cabinet, Deputy Ministers, hon members and ladies and gentlemen, it is with a great sense of pride and honour that we present in this august House a process that will be undertaken in developing a Green Paper that will subsequently lead to the White Paper on Co-operative Governance in South Africa.
An attempt has been made in the past to ensure that legislatively the Intergovernmental Relations Framework Act of 2005 was developed with the aim of trying to translate Chapter 3 of the Constitution on co-operative governance. The Constitution of the Republic of South Africa recognises and appreciates the fact that there are three spheres of government in this country: they are interdependent, they are interrelated, and they are autonomous, meaning that we recognise the fact that South Africa is one country, has one President and that we must move to a situation in which there is one system.
On 11 May 2009, the President of the Republic, with his visionary insight, established the Department of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs. This happened after the weaknesses had been identified. These weaknesses were related to the issue of policy development, implementation, monitoring and evaluation, budgeting, and the utilisation of human resources. As much as the outcome recognises the fact that there is a lot of duplication, there is a silo mentality and, at the same time, there is a challenge in respect of co-operation and co-ordination within the spheres of government.
The resources that are quite important in respect of human resources and financing, as well as time which is a precious commodity, illustrated that they are not utilised optimally. Therefore, the issue here is that, at times, we don't get value for money. Our motto that has been borrowed from the people's movement, the ANC says: "Together we can do more", and we can do more with fewer resources and with less input for greater output and greater outcomes. We are saying it cannot be business as usual. We must do things differently, particularly under this global economic meltdown. This situation compels us to mend our ways.
It is against this background that we are embarking on a process of developing a Green Paper on Co-operative Governance. It is an area in which we haven't claimed to be specialists or in which we haven't claimed authority. Therefore, we are calling upon all South Africans from all walks of life, from across the length and breadth of our country, to come forward and assist in developing a system of co- operative governance in this country that is simple, uncomplicated, easily understandable and accessible, a system that incentivises value for money and maximises the impact as a result of co-ordination and co-operation between government with all its spheres and the people of South Africa.
Let us look at where we are structurally within the three spheres of government. In South Africa, at a national level, we have a Cabinet, which is the highest decision-making body in government, with its committees. We also have the Fosad, the Forum of South African Directors-General, which is a structure of officials - where the DGs are sitting. We have the provincial executive councils and their committees, and on an administrative level they are led by Fosad. In local government, we have mayoral or executive committees with their committees. Administratively these structures are led by municipal managers.
The co-ordination of these structures in all these spheres is as follows. The supreme body is the Presidential Co-ordinating Council where the President, with the premiers and, of course, the mayors and also some - not all - Ministers sit. We also have 16 Minmec which are sectoral structures dealing with concurrent functions. We have nine premiers' intergovernmental fora, and 46 district intergovernmental fora that are led by the mayors of the districts working with local mayors. These are the structures that are prevailing. The SA Local Government Association, Salga, participates in these structures.
We are going to be assessing the efficiency and efficacy of the structures, looking at their output and at the value added in the system of governance. There is a litany of structures between government and civil-society formations which, as we speak, we do not know how many of them there are. We will be doing an assessment of the structures; we will be looking at them. We will also be looking at the issue of trying to avoid public participation fatigue. In addition, we will be looking at resources of these structures as to whether we are funding democracy in the proper way.
On concurrent functions, this process will also inform us whether nationally agreed-to priorities are implemented by provinces as they are supposed to be. We have agreed that the Green Paper will be ready in April 2010. That Green Paper will be presented, having been developed allowing a process of consultation and engagement. This process will be led by an interdepartmental team, composed of Cogta, the Department of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs; the Presidency, the National Treasury, the Department of the Public Service and Administration, the Department of Health, the Department of Education, the Department of Social Development, the Department of Human Settlements, the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform, the Department of Water and Environmental Affairs, the Department of Energy, the Department of Police, the Department of Economic Development, and the SA Local Government Association, Salga.
Whilst the policy is being developed, there are interim arrangements that have been agreed upon by Cabinet. These arrangements say that in terms of concurrent functions, when a Minister goes to a community, the Minister must be able to engage with the premier of the province, must be able to engage with his or her counterparts at the local level on concurrent functions, and must be able to communicate with the district and local municipalities about the visit so that we are able to promote co-ordination and co-operation on the way in which things are being done as we go forward.
We have agreed that these guidelines must be followed. I want to say at this sitting that some premiers - about five of them - have written letters raising the same issues before even being told: that when leaders go into their own areas they would like to be extended the courtesy of being told beforehand. This is because at times there are commitments that are made by national leaders, and you find that national leaders, when they are no longer there, the issues still remain with the local leadership. Therefore the best thing to do is to ensure that we work together cohesively and coherently in the way we do things.
The other area that has been agreed upon, that is going to be taken up, is that when powers and functions are assigned, it must be done within a policy framework and a set of guidelines that is called "Assignment of Powers and Functions," which was developed in 2007. We are saying the letter and spirit of this policy have to be followed, because this will prevent a situation in which unfunded mandates are given to municipalities in a way that undermines their ability to do the work.
The review of the concurrent functions will be done by the sectors, co- ordinated, of course, by Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs, which will, in turn, report to Cabinet on a quarterly basis, also looking at the value added of these structures.
I must say, in the execution of this duty, we'll be meeting with the leader of the DA, the Premier of the Western Cape, at which we will be discussing some of the areas of disagreement with regard to the visit of the Minister to Mitchells Plain and Khayelitsha, where the water was cut off. You may find that we're not singing from the same page in our engagement of these issues.
Therefore, what we are saying is that we'll be meeting to look at effecting the prescripts of the intergovernmental relations framework, wherein, if there are disputes or disagreements between the spheres of government, they must be able to sit down and engage. We'll be engaging on this, but I must hasten to say that people must know that there is no part of South Africa where the national government is not going to go, irrespective of any party that is governing that area. [Applause.]
We must allow a situation in which, if citizens in a particular area are calling upon a Minister or an MEC or the President, these people have the right to go and listen to the people on the ground, and we are going to do the same. The Western Cape as a province, Cape Town as a municipality, are not going to be excluded from that or treated specially when we deal with those issues. [Interjections.] [Applause.]
We are calling upon everyone who has a contribution to make to come to the party when we conclude. Leonard Bernstein said:
If the conductor uses a baton, the baton itself must be a living thing, charged with a kind of electricity, which makes it an instrument of meaning in its tiniest movement.
Many voices, but one message, melody and song! Thank you very much. [Applause.] [Interjections.]