House Chairperson, hon members of the House of Parliament, MECs present, the Chairperson of the National House of Traditional Leaders, provincial leaders of traditional houses present, representatives of business, leaders of Salga, representatives of organised labour, key partners and stakeholders, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, during the state of the nation address debate that took place earlier this month, we declared to Parliament that, as the Ministry of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs, we would diligently perform our function and play our role as the "choir conductor" in terms of ensuring that our system of co- operative governance works, and works very well.
Today we come to this august House and to the nation with the symbol that defines our mandate and the style of co-operative governance that we are going to see over the next five years. As the choir conductor, this is the stick that we have. [Applause.] We are going to ensure that we conduct this choir! This stick symbolises our collective commitment to work together in new ways, in government and with those that are outside of government.
We pledge to perform this role with one overriding objective, that is, to create decent jobs and ensure that our people have better lives, through partnerships and working together.
This new administration, under President Gedleyihlekisa Mhlanganyelwa Zuma, is convinced that through effective co-ordination across government as a whole, and acting in harmony with communities, we can accelerate service delivery and sustainable development.
It is for this reason that today we will reflect more closely on our choir conductor's role. This will include looking at the following: what is expected from our choristers in government and in civil society; the main factors and risks that can create disharmony and discord; the main factors that will enable us to deal with the choristers who are not keeping tune or singing according to the song sheet; indicating what we intend to do to decide when it is time to sing at full volume and when it is time to sing softly in pleasing tones; how we intend to get feedback from the audience; and how the audience can continue to enjoy our melodious music in their homes, in their schools, at places of work, at places of worship and in social clubs.
It is our understanding that the Department of Provincial and Local Government is no more. The old department focused more on local government, to the neglect of provincial government and traditional leadership. Today we are introducing a new Department of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs.
Lo Mnyango usanuka umlungu, musha. [Ihlombe.] [This department is still new. [Applause.]]
This department has a new and expanded mandate which will see a greater focus on improved vertical and horizontal co-ordination across the spheres of government and public entities. This department will ensure that we strengthen, support and oversee provincial government. We will ensure that there is improved co-ordination between government and communities, strengthen our focus on the institution of traditional leadership in our single system of governance and ensure that traditional communities are able to find a voice and expression in terms of planning, budgeting and implementation.
We have a compelling and urgent case. Our view is that in South Africa the developmental state is characterised by the following: one, directing development through a common vision; two, improved state leadership, technical and organisational capacity and capability; three, faster service delivery; four, outcomes-based co- operative governance, which means focusing on making people's lives better; and five, not simply engaging in technocratic exercises, but rather in a revolutionary approach that will require "revocratic" means and an activist demeanour in the way we conduct ourselves, and ensuring that public representatives and officials are playing their role. What it means in essence is that we must ensure that public representatives do not outsource power to officials. They must play their role to ensure that oversight is conducted, and is conducted diligently.
An honest reflection on our past performance highlights important achievements, while at the same time there were also major weaknesses and shortcomings. In 2004 we launched Project Consolidate, which was hands-on support to local government. We agreed at the time when the initiative was launched that this programme would run for two years. In 2006 we took the support to municipalities - to a higher level - to the next gear. In doing so, we launched a programme called the Five-Year Local Government Strategic Agenda in 2006. That programme must come to an end when the term of local government ends in 2011.
Of course there are challenges in this programme, as much as there have been achievements. I must say that we are engaging now in a process that ensures that we have a programme that can take us forward. We agreed earlier that we never focused on supporting provincial government. They did not get a lot of support from our side and that is why there is now a detour in the way we do things. We are therefore saying that the choristers in government have not all sung according to the same song sheet.
We also need to be self-critical as choir conductors. Our assessment is that the former Department of Provincial and Local Government failed to position itself in a way that ensured that it was a good choir conductor. The department primarily focused narrowly on local government and did not effectively address the causal, systemic and accountability problems in this sphere. Furthermore, it did not resolve the fractures in intersphere relations as they relate to achieving cohesion and integrated development in municipalities. The result has been a discordant choir producing dreadful music and not fulfilling the needs of its audience.
This is demonstrated by the example of the O R Tambo District, a district that has 1,7 million people, but with very high levels of poverty and underdevelopment. This municipality, over the next three years, will be getting an amount of R1,8 billion. Although this municipality was part of a presidential node, the interventions that were applied there did not help that situation.
The statistics tell us that the poverty rate in that municipality is 78,2%, compared to the provincial average of 62% in the Eastern Cape. Within the age group 15 to 64 years, 67% of the people of the Eastern Cape are unemployed.
This district has produced outstanding, world-class leaders, the doyens of our revolution - O R "Magegwane" Reginald Tambo and Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela, uDalibunga. Those leaders sacrificed their lives for freedom. The district also produced 32 Pondoland martyrs who came from Ingquza in Pondoland. These 32 were hanged in Pretoria after receiving the death sentence. They were hanged from the gallows by the white minority regime.
However, after 15 years of freedom, these people have not experienced much in terms of development. There is no water, no electricity and no sanitation, despite the struggles that they conducted.
We also believe that we want to look at the situation in other areas from which freedom fighters come, particularly Chris Hani, who came from kuSabalele, and Sabelo Pama, the commander of the Apla forces of the PAC. We shall be going to that area to look at the poverty that prevails there.
I am just making an example of O R Tambo District - it is not an isolated case. A similar situation exists in many other parts of the country. Despite the many issues that have been raised, we believe we will be able to deal with the situation, and we will be able to do more. However, it is important to note that the core problem is at times not the issue of resources; it is about the lack of public sector performance, excellence and accountability. We believe that there is still a high level of mistrust between communities and local government, and there are issues between ward committees, community development workers and ward councillors. We believe that these issues are issues that we are going to attend to, because they cause conflict and tension. We believe that government must be able to work in harmony to ensure that things are addressed and there are no problems.
Having outlined all these things in terms of the challenges that are experienced by the country, we say that our strategic posture is guided by the imperative of building a developmental state.
We are also guided by the urgent imperative of turning around local government by 2011. It is our intention that by 2011 and 2014 we should have achieved the following - listen very carefully, because you must hold me accountable next year to these deadlines. We are saying: complaints by people regarding local government must be reduced significantly by 2011; municipal debt, which has increased to more than R41 billion, must be reduced by half by 2014; greater progress in working towards a debt-free society, by promoting a culture of saving and paying for services, must be implemented, without fear or favour or prejudice; all municipalities and provincial government departments must have clean audits by 2014; fraud and corruption in municipalities and at other levels must be significantly reduced, to the minimum, by 2011; and clean cities and towns must be promoted, through the management of waste in such a way that it creates employment and wealth, by 2014. The establishment and maintenance of people's parks is one such example, where we will create the parks to promote love in this country.
Ward committees should be given the necessary powers and resources to develop and implement the ward development plans by 2011. There should be increased and effective monitoring of service providers by public representatives, officials and communities. We must ensure that councillors, traditional leaders, officials, ward committee members, community development workers and community activists are trained and competent by 2014. The regime of remuneration and the provision of tools of the trade for councillors, ward committee members and community development workers must be reformed by 2011. The number of service delivery protests must be reduced significantly, and the Thusong Centres must become the face of co-operative governance at a local level and must be run by this department.
We believe that training for and capacity-building of councillors and local govern-ment practitioners will receive special attention. Secondly, we demand greater accountability and discipline from all choristers, especially those in the public sector. The department is going to ensure that we promote clean government and develop a high level of responsiveness and accountability at national, provincial and local levels. Thirdly, we will play a more hands-on support role so that service delivery and development are accelerated and vulnerable groups are attended to.
Fourthly, we are also going to ensure that the programme of the Pondoland Revival Project is addressed soon. I can see the MEC from the Eastern Cape, uTata Gcobana. We are saying eMampondweni is a sleeping tiger. It's an important area, and it's a jewel of the country. If it could be developed, many people would want to come and stay in that area.
Finally, we will foster development partnerships, social cohesion and community mobilisation to ensure that co-operative governance unleashes the potential and the resources of South Africa. We are saying ... ... uzoy'ithola kanjani uhlel'ekhoneni? Walala wasala! [... how will you achieve anything without any effort? You snooze, you lose!]
Across these five priorities, we will drive a carefully crafted and sequenced legislative reform programme between now and 2014. In implementing these five priorities, our postion over the current term will be defined by urgency, activism, coalface dedication, impatience with incompetence and a ruthless mission to root out corruption.
We want to ensure that, as we go forward, the institution of traditional leadership is at the centre of development in rural areas that capacity and potential must be utilised for the benefit of our people.
We will be reviewing the disputes and claims legislation that deals with traditional leadership. We feel that the matter of this Bill has caused a lot of division, disharmony and unhappiness between brother and brother, in terms of the institution of traditional leadership. We are going to attend to this matter. We would be happy if this Parliament could pass the Bill before the end of September this year.
We will also come to you with the Municipal Property Rates Act. We want to see it being reviewed so that we can attend to certain issues. The intention is to ensure that it is the sharp end of the spear, so that it can pierce through in terms of development of our issues in this country.
We are going to ensure that the electricity distribution industry process is dealt with. We feel that the regional electricity distributors, REDs, are important. But what I can promise South Africans is that there is no way we can agree to any system that will take away the financial capability of municipalities through this REDs process. [Applause.]