Mohlomphegi Modulasetulo, Matona ao a lego gona, bahlomphegi ka moka, maloko a komiti, makhomoreiti, bakgotse le baeng bao ba hlomphegago, ke a le dumedi?a.
Ka ngwaga wa 1955 kua Kliptown, ka di26 t?a June, Congress Alliance e ile ya kopanya mekgatlo ka moka ya dipolotiki go hloma ... (Translation of Sepedi paragraphs follows.)
[Ms D F BOSHIGO: Hon Chairperson, Ministers present, all hon members, members of the committee, comrades, friends and distinguished guests, I greet you.
On the 26th of June 1955 in Kliptown, the Congress Alliance brought all political parties together to form ...]
...the real congress of the people, which adopted the Freedom Charter, which says the people shall govern.
Against the bigger picture of the new South African state that is constructed on principles of democracy and participation by all, the Public Service and Administration was transformed to reflect these values. The understanding of local government has changed dramatically since 1994. One such change has been a move towards local governance and participatory democracy. It is stated in the 1996 Constitution, as an objective of local government to encourage the involvement of communities and community organisations in matters of the local government.
In the 1997 document entitled Towards a White Paper on Local Government in South Africa, it is stated that:
Throughout the world, municipalities have come to appreciate that the relation between government and those who are governed is as important as government itself. This is what is meant when people speak of the shift from government to governance. Governance is a way of governing. It takes the views and interests of those affected by government more seriously than in the past. Relationships, partnerships and alliances have therefore become much more important for local government than in the past.
Furthermore, in line with our Constitution, the White Paper on Local Government states that local government must play a developmental role. Developmental local government means a local government committed to working with citizens and groups within the community to find sustainable ways to meet their social, economic and material needs, and improve the quality of their lives. It should target especially those members and groups within the communities that are most often marginalised or excluded, such as women, disabled people and very poor people.
The Constitution further enjoins reasonable steps within available resources, to ensure that all South Africans have access to adequate housing, health care, education, food, water and social security.
To achieve the above, the manifesto of the ANC talks of a developmental state, which will play a central and strategic role in the economy, which will be oriented towards people-centred and driven change, which has the capacity to lead in the definition of a common national agenda and in mobilising all of society to take part in the implementation. Therefore, such a state has effective systems of interaction with all social partners and exercise leadership informed by its popular mandate.
One of the key developments in the area of public administration internationally in capacitating communities to manage their own affairs is the broadening of the number of stakeholders in the governance situation and the more important roles awarded to organs of civil society. This is a trend that we are also familiar with. The people's contract reflects on this.
Public participation in South Africa builds on the commitment of the democratic government to deepen democracy, which is embedded in the Constitution and above all in the concept of local government, as comprising the municipality and the community.
Public participation involves a range of activities, including, creating democratic representative structures, ward committees, assisting those structures to plan at a local level, community-based planning, implementing and monitoring those plans using a range of working groups and community- based organizations, CBOs, supporting community-based services and supporting these local structures through a cadre of community development workers. The ANC views public participation as a tool to build local capacity and self-reliance.
The ANC regards public participation as an open, accountable process through which individuals and groups within selected communities can exchange views and influence decision-making. We regard it as a democratic process of engaging people in deciding, planning and playing an active part in developing and operating services that are affecting their lives.
In this context, public participation is designed to promote the values of good governance and human rights, acknowledge the fundamental right of all people to participate in the governance system and most importantly is designed to narrow the social distance between the electorate and elected institutions.
In South Africa, in the context of public participation, community is defined as a ward, with elected ward committees, hence ward committees play a central role in linking up elected institutions with the people, and other forums of communication reinforce these linkages with communities, like the izimbizo, the road shows, the makgotla and so forth.
Government, accordingly, also treasures the relationship with the public sector and labour unions as partners who have a particularly important contribution to make development in our country.
We have created organs of people's government attached to all strategic departments to ensure participation by civil society and to increase access to service; we have created Thusong Centres and appointed community development workers. We have established collective bargaining and participative processes in legislative and governance matters in which our trade union movement finds space to be on board. Of course, we will admit that more still needs to be done to ensure the highest level of civil society participation and implementation of collective decisions emanating from those engagements.
We have since 1994 led government and have established structures that empower people to participate in the activities of government. We are committed democrats who believe that democracy is more than electing representatives to power once every five years. It means empowering people, especially women, workers, youth and rural people, to participate in decision-making processes that affect their lives.
The Community Development Workers', CDWs, initiative is a very important initiative providing grassroots staff of the municipality who can support ward committees and assist in communication links between communities and the government. The CDWs are being trained at present and they will be trained further in community-based planning, CBP, and implementation skills.
In 2008, the CDWs' master plan was developed and launched. The aim of the master plan is to position them within government's access strategy and service delivery.
Rena re le ba mokgatlo wa ANC, re thekga Kabotekanyet?o ye. Ke a leboga. [Magoswi.] [As the ANC, we support this budget. I thank you. [Applause.]]