Thank you, hon Speaker and hon members. Hon Dr Van Dyk, I wish to reassure you that government remains committed to the fight against crime, to the rapid expansion of Eskom's generation capacity and to the acceleration of the land reform programme.
The fight against crime is receiving intense and sustained attention. Apart from the fact that we have increased our real spending to fight crime and that we are increasing the number of police officers, we are also seeking ways to improve the effectiveness of our crime-fighting efforts.
We have made it quite clear that fighting crime is a top priority of this government. The Minister of Police and the commissioner have addressed this, and we will continue to update Parliament regarding our strategy and its outcomes.
Similarly, land reform is a key element of rural development and we have clearly indicated our commitment to addressing rural development as a top priority of this government. As hon members are aware, as an indication of the importance we give to this area, we have established a Ministry and a Department of Rural Development and Land Reform.
Eskom's needs were anticipated in the Accelerated and Shared Growth Initiative for South Africa, Asgisa, infrastructure programme. The investment programmes are in place, but we still have a responsibility as government to ensure that the investment programmes are undertaken with sufficient speed and in such a way that they do not undermine our commitment to sustainable development.
These three issues were clearly identified as priorities in the Medium-Term Strategic Framework issued by this government in July 2009. Electricity falls under strategic priority two, land reform and rural development are addressed in strategic priority three, and crime prevention is the focus of strategic priority six.
We pursue these commitments and proceed from the understanding that they help the country address specific challenges and also because, individually and collectively, combating crime, and having improved reliability of electricity supply and improved land reform and rural development programmes are central to accelerated and inclusive growth efforts. I thank you. [Applause.]
Thank you, hon Deputy President. I want to put the following to the Deputy President: Asgisa's objective is to get the economy to a 6% growth rate, but, on the contrary, South Africa went the other way - into an economic recession. And one cannot just put the blame for this on the world economic downturn. Now taking this into account, Deputy President, is Asgisa just another sterile policy document of government, like the other two ANC documents, namely Gear and Development and Underdevelopment - full of promises that will eventually disappear from the scene? Thank you.
Thank you, Dr Van Dyk. Asgisa isn't a sterile programme. In fact, its infrastructure investment programme assisted a great deal in ensuring that this country did not sink into depression. When the world economic meltdown affected most economies, we were, in a sense, relatively better prepared than most countries. And, therefore, it had its value.
In the real world programmes must be dynamic, because nothing remains static. Matters, extraneous and internal - domestic, that is - continue to change. When you deal with such variables it is important to continue improving on the prescripts of any programme. So, Asgisa is no exception in that regard. It is not that it is a sterile programme. It has had it's time, and was useful in getting us onto a better footing when this meltdown was visited on our country. Thank you.
Ngiyabonga Somlomo, ngibonge uMongameli ngempendulo ecacile. [Thank you, Speaker, and thank you to the President as well for a clear response.]
Deputy President, the central challenges facing South Africa are to defeat poverty and substantially reduce the level of unemployment. In what way will the integrated programme on rural development, land reform and agrarian change be facilitated to ensure that these key components in our economic strategy deliver on this central challenge? Thank you.
Thank you, hon member. Well, as I have already stated, the establishment of the Ministry and Department of Rural Development and Land Reform is meant to ensure that we tackle poverty, particularly in the rural areas, by ensuring that the requisite infrastructure is put in place, and that our rural communities are empowered to address the critical issue of food production and therefore contribute towards the food security requirements of the country, as well as stemming the tide of the influx of job seekers into urban areas, as we know that most of them end up in informal settlements in urban areas.
Therefore, it is important for us through the Ministry of Rural Development and Land Reform to ensure that there is, in fact, development taking place in rural communities.
The thrust of that approach is to ensure that we defeat poverty in rural areas and create environments in which rural communities can be engaged in gainful economic activity without having to migrate to urban areas. Thank you.
Thank you, Speaker. Hon Deputy President, the ACDP and other parties called for crime to be added to the existing six binding constraints already identified by Asgisa for decisive and focused government intervention when Asgisa was first launched. This view was supported by Prof Stone of Howard University, one of the international experts commissioned by the National Treasury to study our economic growth potential, who stressed the benefits both for crime fighting and economic growth of including crime as part of Asgisa.
In addition, the World Economic Forum's Global Competitiveness Report released yesterday confirms that:
The poor security situation remains another important obstacle to doing business in South Africa. This resulted in South Africa being ranked last out of 133 countries on the issue.
In the light of this, hon Deputy President, do you not believe that government should reconsider its position and include crime as an additional binding constraint to economic growth, particularly in view of the current recession and the need to improve our international competitiveness? [Time expired.]
Thank you, hon Swart. In principle, there is really no difficulty in adding crime as a binding constraint. My response was informed by the understanding that even if we added it to the Asgisa list of constraints, we would not be doing anything more than what we are already committed to doing to fight crime as a priority of this government. Therefore, there is no principle, really, for including crime on the list of the Asgisa constraints. Thank you.
Speaker, it's me, Van Dyk, not Krumbock. Sorry, I pressed the wrong button.
Deputy President, in the light of the fact that you have indicated that crime and the Eskom crisis and backlogs in land reform will not become part of Asgisa, where then do you see these serious issues fitting into the broader economic crisis? Thank you.
Thank you, hon Van Dyk. The response that I have given to your question is informed by the fact that we don't think any more value could be extracted by simply adding these elements to the Asgisa list of constraints, because they are already priorities in the programme of government. Therefore, they are already prioritised to receive dedicated, intensive, comprehensive attention. That is why it's neither here nor there whether we add them. We could add them. As I said, there is really no ideological barrier for us to do that.
Government's stance on the lifting of sanctions against President Robert Mugabe and his government
6. Rev K R J Meshoe (ACDP) asked the Deputy President: Whether the Government has called for the lifting of sanctions against President Robert Mugabe and his government; if not, what is the position in this regard; if so, what are the relevant details?