House Chairperson, colleagues, members of this august House and members of the public, this debate is taking place in an important month, a month that is important in the struggle for women's emancipation. It is also dealing with an important topic that touches the lives of all our people. Local government is the structure that touches everyone.
Ifana noNdabazabantu ... osithinta kusukela sizalwa ukufinyelela ethuneni uma ujabulile ukwazi ukuthola-ke isithifiketi somshado yindlela akuthinta ngayo uNdabazabantu, Umnyango Wezasekhaya. (Translation of isiZulu paragraph follows.)
[This is like Home Affairs ... which has your particulars from birth to death; if you are lucky you can even get your marriage certificate which is one of the ways in which the Department of Home Affairs works for you.]
I have listened to everyone who engaged on this critical subject matter, and we have heard views from various parties. The ANC also raised critical issues and at the same time talked about the best practices that are prevailing. There are those who are cynical when raising their issues, as if there is nothing positive that has been done here.
We would like to commit ourselves here in this House, as a big family for local government, to build a local government that is efficient, effective, responsive and accountable. We are telling you that this is the task that we are going to do in the next coming five years. By the year 2014, we should all be able to experience the four things that I have spoken about.
We are also saying that it is important that all of us in this House should rise above petty political differences and also our ideological orientation, and ensure that we all contribute to building local government, not only for ourselves but for our children and future generations. It is in our interest that we do so.
As the department, we have unleashed a comprehensive assessment of each and every municipality in this country, because we would like to understand what is happening. We do not only have to understand that, but we should be able to come up with solutions that are tailor-made and are specific to each municipality.
We can't use a one-size-fits-all approach to deal with the issues of the local government, because where these challenges are experienced, they are not the same. This revolutionary process is driven at the provincial level by the MECs, and co-ordinated at the national level by the Department of Co- operative Governance and Traditional Affairs. At the same time, we believe that the consolidated reports that come from municipalities should be approved by provincial Cabinet, that is, the provincial executive committees at that level.
They should be able to do so by the middle of September and ensure that there is an outline of the state of municipalities in each and every province - a process that is driven at a political level, and that is going to enjoy political oversight.
Those reports should be sent to my department at the national level, so that we can outline the state of municipalities in South Africa. We should be able to take the report to the summit. We would like to have a national indaba, as it has been raised by Cope. We agree with you on this one and the process will be undertaken. We would like to hold this national indaba at the end of October, where all of us would be able to engage on the state of municipalities and begin to draft a turnaround strategy for local government in this country.
Now we are saying to everybody who would like to express their views and opinions to come forward to the conference. Governmental and nongovernmental organisations, including universities and learning institutions, should be able to come and contribute in taking this process forward. From our side, we are saying that this turnaround strategy should be approved by Cabinet before the end of this year. Next year we should be able to implement the turnaround strategy that has been agreed upon by all South Africans. Once we have come up with a turnaround strategy for each and every municipality, people should be able to engage and say how they would like to be governed in their own localities. At the end of the day, they would be able to monitor the implementation of a turnaround strategy. We don't want to allow anyone to be left out. Wonke umuntu makaze ngaphambili. [Everybody must come on board.]
Together, we should be able to turn this country around. That is why we are saying we should rise above petty political things because local government is a matter that concerns everyone. You can't afford to politicise it. We should be able to confront the issues and to engage from the side of the Ministry. We are also going to engage Cope, the DA and all other opposition parties so that we are able to find solutions for South Africa, because it is in our interests to do that.
We believe that there is a requirement from you. The requirement is that you should accept that the outcome might require us to amend the laws. One of the major weaknesses that you have in the local government legislation is that there is no oversight, and there is no separation of powers between the executive and the legislative component. That is within the Constitution. It might mean that for us to be able to deliver services to our people, we should be able to ensure that we amend the Constitution. At times we should be able to amend the laws so that we are sharper at the end of the spear in dealing with these issues. We are calling upon you, so that when that time comes you would be able to support us. You should be able to agree with us that that should be done in the interests of the country and its people, wherever they are. We are also saying that in dealing with the turnaround strategy, we should agree that all of us should make a contribution where we live, because every public representative who is here has his or her own municipality.
The question that we should be asking ourselves is: What is your contribution to your own municipality? Because you are not just an ordinary citizen, you are a public representative who is supposed to be playing an oversight role wherever you are and wherever you stay, to ensure that local government is taken forward.
We are calling upon you to give us reports on whatever you've experienced in your own areas, good or bad, so that we are able to take the best practices forward and at the same time deal with and undermine the negative tendencies that are prevailing in our municipalities. We are the first to admit that not all is hunky-dory in municipalities. Together we can find solutions and ensure that we take these processes forward when dealing with them. Therefore, we believe that all of us, together with this Parliament as an institution and as individuals, should ensure that we make local government everyone's business.
We should be able to ensure that in the next five years, in local government, we don't speak in the same way, in all respects. I won't talk about the content of the state of the municipalities because due process is unfolding and is taking place. Let's await that process to go forward. We will be able to report on the outcomes of the state of the municipalities in this House so that it engages itself with that process.
From our point of view we would like to agree with some members on the issues raised concerning corruption, that it does not have any place in this country. Together we should be able to combat corruption, uproot nepotism and state that it is not allowed. I would like to indicate that the issue of nepotism and appointing people from the same party is not only an ANC matter. Let's talk about the DA here. The DA has removed almost all Africans who were in leadership positions in the city of Cape Town. [Applause.] One of them was the most able person, Mr Nhlakanipho Nkontwana, who is now my special adviser. He was one of the best people who performed his work very well. Last year, his achievement was the amendment of the Constitution which was presented in this House concerning the issues of Merafong and the law within a period of three months. That has never been done anywhere in this country.
Therefore, the issue of removing people is not only an issue of the ANC. You have recently removed a woman, Ms Majiet, who was the head of the Department of Local Government in this province. She is a disabled woman who was removed by the DA. Her sin was that she was not appointed by the