Hon Chairperson of the NCOP, Mr Mahlangu; hon Premier of the Free State, Mr Ace Magashule, and other premiers who are present here from other provinces; hon Speaker and members of the provincial executive; executive mayor of the Thabo Mofutsanyana District Municipality, Councillor Mopeli; mayor of Maluti-A-Phofung Local Municipality, Dr B E Mzangwa; provincial chairperson of Salga, hon Councillor Mr J Ramokhoase; hon Adv M Mopeli, Chairperson of the Provincial House of Traditional Leaders, and esteemed traditional leaders among us here today, esteemed councillors, distinguished invited guests, ladies and gentlemen, dumelang, molweni!
Let me begin by expressing my gratitude to the people of Maluti-A-Phofung Local Municipality, Thabo Mofutsanyana District Municipality and the people of the Free State province, as a whole, for the warm welcome you have extended to us. I am particularly pleased that the National Council of Provinces has decided to hold this important meeting in this region.
We are standing in the shadows of the majestic Maluti mountains. In this region is some of the most beautiful natural scenery in the whole of South Africa. Bushman paintings on some of the rocks here bear testimony to the creativity and ingenuity of our people. The Free State province is also known for more than the beauty of its valleys and the majesty of its mountains. This province has witnessed some of the major events in the history of our nation.
Almost a hundred years ago, a few dozen black South Africans from all corners of this land, and beyond, answered the call of freedom and came to this province to reaffirm a simple principle: that this country belongs to all who live in it. Therefore, whenever I come here, I am always reminded of the historical fact that Africa's oldest liberation movement, the ANC, was born here. [Applause.]
This birthplace of our movement, a movement that was established by all the people of this country, also reminds us of our continuing responsibility to improve the lives of our people, a task which this historic movement was established to achieve. Like the parable of the mustard seed told by Jesus Christ, the seed of freedom planted in Bloemfontein in January 1912 has grown into the biggest tree of freedom that we all enjoy today, regardless of political affiliation, colour or creed.
The National Council of Provinces has called us here today to reaffirm another fundamental principle that lies at the heart of our democratic republic. That principle is that institutions of governance and authority should derive their legitimacy from the will of the people. The essence of this principle is reflected in the wisdom of our people when they say, "Inkosi Inkosi ngabantu", and "Morena ke Morena ka batho" [A king is king because of people].
This programme of Taking Parliament to the People is a living example of public representatives who know that their power comes from the people. That means that they should be in constant touch with the people, visit them where they live, and interact with them, so that they can know what their concerns and aspirations are. Interaction with the people will enable public representatives to better understand and better conduct oversight over government as it carries out its duties.
We are pleased to visit this region during this phase of the administration, when we have completed the planning and reconfiguration, and have shaped government in a manner that we think can make it best deliver services. In the past year and a half, we have taken important steps in changing the way government works. Initially, at the beginning of this administration, we reorganised government departments in order to facilitate the speedy delivery of services to the people. We created some new departments and split up others to enable them to focus on the priorities of government.
I have completed the process of signing performance agreements with Ministers, who, in turn, have signed delivery agreements with their counterparts in the provinces and municipalities. The reason we have taken this approach is to ensure that everybody, from the highest levels of government to the lowest, should be accountable for the work they are responsible for.
Last month, we made changes to the national executive. We created four new Deputy Ministries in portfolios that we felt needed more pronounced attention, such as Higher Education and Training, Energy, Mineral Resources, and Monitoring and Evaluation. Having completed the technical reshaping of government, we now have to emphasise service delivery and also the manner in which those services are delivered.
We have said government should work with speed to address the needs of the people. We have said that government officials should treat citizens with respect. We have said it should not take a long time to get an ID document when you apply for it. Changing the way government works also means that public servants should not abuse the power that has been entrusted to them. A grandmother should not have to bribe a government official in order to get her old age pension. A young man who wants to get a driving licence should not have to pay somebody in order to get a driving licence.
Those who are employed and get paid to do a job must do it. Teachers must be in class, on time, teaching for seven hours a day. Police officers should respond with speed when citizens call for them. Nurses should treat patients with the compassion that our common decency and humanity demand should be extended to the sick and the vulnerable. These are simple values that we are seeking to entrench in government. Fortunately, some government departments are responding speedily to this new ethos. However, many still lag behind, making the experience of government not a pleasant one for most people.
Some people's experience of government is that of an institution far removed from them. They think government officials do not care about their concerns. They think government takes far too long to solve simple problems. They think government officials spend public resources on things they should not spend them on. This is how some people look at us, as government. What an unfortunate situation!
We have to change these perceptions through changing the way we work as government. That is why I have ongoing discussions with directors-general in the Public Service, nationally and provincially, so that they can ensure that they build the type of Public Service we envisage.
Most of the problems that confront our people exist at a local level. The challenges that exist in this region mirror those experienced in many different parts of the country. As we are all aware, the Thabo Mofutsanyana District Municipality is under a section 139 intervention. This means that provincial and national government departments are making interventions to alleviate the grave challenges faced by the people here. Maluti-A-Phofung was also chosen as one of the presidential nodal points because of the scale of the challenges and backlogs prevailing here, particularly with regard to unemployment and poor service delivery.
On this note, I commend the provincial leadership for the interventions made through the premier's Operation Hlasela programme, which gave momentum to various projects. [Applause.] We acknowledge the work of the local municipality here for developments which the mayor indicated this week, particularly regarding basic services such as potable water, sanitation, houses, access roads, clinics and sporting facilities. I also understand that a significant number of jobs were created through the Expanded Public Works Programme and the incentive grant, but these are not enough. I learnt, among other things, that some agricultural projects related to the Integrated Sustainable Rural Development Programme, ISRDP, here have faltered. These must receive attention and be revived. In the same manner, the considerable backlogs regarding human settlements in Maluti-A-Phofung should also receive attention. I would like to emphasise that all deserving people should receive these houses, particularly our senior citizens.
Everybody who qualifies should get a house when these become available, not only ANC members, as some residents have alleged. [Applause.] There has been an allegation that these houses are received by ANC members only, which is why I am emphasising the point. Government is for the citizens of this country - all of them. We all know that we should not go against the grain of our Constitution. It is not how government works.
Social facilities and amenities which are not working should be made fully functional. The challenges encountered in the schools regarding nutrition, water and clean facilities, among others, should also be addressed. So should the necessary infrastructure, such as roads and bridges, which enable children to have access to schools, even during rainy weather.
Primary health care should be provided with all the infrastructure and communication. These include vehicles for mobile services, telephones, and the proper supply of medication and relevant health personnel.
That Member of Parliament is complaining! [Laughter.] [Applause.] Please attend to the member! But it also indicates that this is the Parliament of the people.
HON MEMBERS: Yes!
Absolutely. [Applause.]
As critical facilities, health centres should also enjoy a reliable supply of electricity. Waste management services should also be improved. I am just counting what should be standard services in any municipality, the standards we should aspire to for our people throughout the country.
It is clear that while a lot of work has been done by the province and municipalities, much more still needs to be done in this area, hence our theme, "All spheres of government working together to speed up the delivery of services".
Concern was raised this week about the poor relationship between the communities and some of the councillors in this area. [Applause.] I must hasten to add that we need to be careful about blaming all councillors for any wrong that is done by just a few. The majority of councillors and officials around the country work diligently. Where this is lacking, let the provincial authorities address the matter to improve service delivery.
And I want to stress this point: There is a tendency to generalise about the corruption of councillors. [Applause.] I think it is unfair to the many councillors who are working, who are honest, and who are serving the people, if we tend towards making generalised statements. Let us deal with the councillors who are corrupt, and not generalise. Let us be very specific, so that we can address the question. [Applause.] A perception is being created that once you are in government, you are just corrupt. It is wrong and it is unfair.
The scale of some challenges experienced here is local, provincial and also national, which means that intervention should be collective and should cut across those three spheres. It has been raised that there is no proper collaboration of the three spheres of government in some of the projects implemented in this area. This must be attended to. We cannot underestimate the need for collaboration amongst the three spheres of government. I emphasise that point whenever I meet the premiers in the President's Co- ordinating Council every quarter.
We are one country; we are not a federal country. [Applause.] All the arrangements that have been made have been made for easy administration. You see, that is part of the problem: People fight about boundaries as if they are the borders of a country, when we are in one country. And indeed, the way people act it is as if we are in different countries. When an ambulance is close by, because it belongs to another province, it cannot take a patient. It is a misunderstanding of how these things are arranged and for what reason. They are not different countries. We will end up asking for a passport if some people drive into a province - it is really ridiculous. We are sitting with border disputes. I do not know what border it is, in one country. We, as politicians, might have created this misconception.
We are scheduled to meet again on 26 November as the PCC, the Provincial Co- ordinating Council. You know, these acronyms are, at times, a problem to us ...
... kithina bantu la eMzansi. Umuntu akuxoxele indaba ngamagama afingqiwe [acronyms]. [... the people of South Africa. A person will tell you a story in parables.]
PCC means Provincial Co-ordinating Council.
The NCOP represents the voice and interests of our people in the provinces at the highest levels of our democratic republic. The fact that it also sits outside of Parliament in Cape Town is a very important and unique development. Most of the issues that have come out this week have enabled members of the National Council of Provinces to obtain a first-hand account of the challenges in this area and region. When you discuss legislation relating to how poverty affects our people, you will do so informed by the conditions on the ground. The lessons that we have learned here should be instructive for other areas, both here in the Free State and in other parts of the country.
Therefore, as we meet here in the Free State today, we should make sure that the National Council of Provinces' programme of Taking Parliament to the People continues to form a critical part of what it means to be an elected representative. It should not just be seen as a deviation from your normal schedule as MPs, as this is a valuable interaction that helps our Members of Parliament to keep in touch with the people they represent.
We truly appreciate being here with you, as we will be able to experience whether we are truly changing the way government works. We thank you for your kind attention.
Siyabonga kakhulu ukusamukela kwena kule ndawo. [Thank you very much for welcoming us to this place.]
Re leboha haholo hore le re amohele kajeno baheso. [Thank you very much for welcoming us today.]
Thank you, Chairperson. [Applause.]
Our Excellency has given us words of wisdom.
Usikhuthazile ukuthi masivuselele isithembiso esasenza uma sithunywa ukuthi sizosebenzela isizwe. [He encouraged us to revive the promises we made when we were asked to serve the nation.]
Thank you very much, our President.
Hon Deputy Chairperson of the NCOP, His Excellency the President of the Republic, hon Jacob Zuma, all the premiers present here today, hon speakers who are present here today, hon Councillor Ramokhoase who is the Deputy President of the SA Local Government Association, Salga, hon members of provincial legislatures and hon Members of Parliament, traditional leaders, citizens of the Free State and other provinces who have visited here today, I greet you all.
Ke rata go t?ea sebaka se mohlomphegi modulasetulo, ke leboge Mopresidente wa naga ge a iphile sebaka se gore a tle a bolele le rena mo Ntlo ng ye ya go hlomphega ya National Council of Provinces. Tla re mo tieleng matsogo go t?eye gabotse!! Ye taba e re laet?a gore ke Mopresidente wa batho. Ye taba e re laet?a gore ke Mopresidente yo a ratago go re, re tsebe gore mmu?o wa gagwe o ?oma eng. Ka lebaka leo re leboga ge a ?iile me?omo ye ment?i go tla mo go thu?ana le rena.
Mopresidente o ile a bolela, ge a namela setulo se sa bo presidente, o tla loki?a dilo t?e go swanet?wego go thongwe ka t?ona t?e mmalwa t?e e lego gore mmu?o o tlamegile go di dira. Nka se di bale ka moka, fela ke t?ona t?e re tlilego ka t?ona fa lehono re tlo di lebelela gore a di a phethagala na. Sa mathomo, Mopresidente le khabinete ya gagwe ba ile ba bolela t?eo di latelago ... (Translation of Sepedi paragraphs follows.)
[Hon Chairperson, I would like to thank the President of the Republic for spending time with us in the National Council of Provinces. Let us applaud him. This shows that he is the people's President. He is the type of President who updates the people about what is taking place in the government. We appreciate the fact that he left his many other commitments to come and work with us.
The President indicated during his inauguration that he will make sure that the government starts working on a few things that need urgent attention. I cannot mention them but we are here today to check if those promises are being fulfilled. The President, together with his Cabinet, said ...]
... there will be a speeding up of economic growth and transformation of the economy to create decent work and sustainable livelihoods; development and implementation of a comprehensive rural development strategy linked to land and agrarian reform and food security; improvement of the health profile of all South Africans; intensification of the fight against crime and corruption; and building of cohesive, caring and sustainable communities. The hosting of the Taking Parliament to the People programme in the Free State has helped us deal with some of these important aspects in relation to government priorities. These include the provision of electricity.
Mohlagase wo le wbolet?ego ka wona beke ka ka moka ge re be re le fa. Ke rata go leboga mmu?o wa Free State, ke leboge le mebu?o ka moka: wa mmasepala, wa selete le wa selegae ka gore ba ?et?e ba thomile. Fela tema le swanet?e go e lema ka gore ga se la fet?a metse ka moka go tsenya mohlagase. Batho ba kgopela seo. "[Legofsiswi.]" Kudu kudu mola go Wate ya 29, ba ile ba tsenealela taba ye kudu. Ke nyaka gore ge re tloga fa, re nape re yo thoma gona re lebelele go re mo?omo o a thoma o a sepela. Kke a tseba gore le ?et?e le beakant?e, kitimang ka lebelo gore kabo ya rena ya diterelo e tle e kgone go t?wela pele ka potlako.
Taba ye nngwe yeo e lego gore e ile ya bolelwa mo gare ga beke ge re dut?e fa Mopresidente o ?et?e a e hlalo ?it?e, ke taba ya dintlo. Go na le bakgekolo le bakgalabje ba rena ba be ba eme mo ba lla ka megokgo ba kgopela gore hle a nke le re lebeleleng le rena re bana ba lena le le mmu?o, le le Palamente. Ke a leboga moPrimiaraTonakgolo Ace Magashule. Ba ile ba emelela tonanakgolo le ba?omi ka yena, ba eme mo pele ga rena ba re ba tlile go thoma ka lena gomme ba bannyane ba tla latela. Ke rata go ba leboga kudu ka gore ba kwele kgopelo ya lena. (Translation of Sepedi paragraphs follows.)
[We have spent the whole week debating the issue of electricity. I would like to thank the Free State Provincial Administration, the district and local municipalities, because they have already started with electricity projects. You still have a long way to go because you have to provide electricity to all the villages. People need electricity, especially in Ward 29. [Applause.] This ward needs urgent attention with regard to provision of electricity and we also have to go there for an oversight visit. I know that you have plans in place for this, so please ensure speedy service delivery.
We debated the issue of houses during the week and the President talked about it also. Old men and women were making an appeal here, asking for help from the government and Parliament. Thank you, Free State Premier, Ace Magashule. The premier together with his cabinet made it clear that they want to start by serving you first, then other people later. I appreciate the fact that they heard your request.]
And the premier has committed himself regarding that.
Ke la mathomo mola lenaneo le le thomago, ke bona Tonakgolo ya profenseProfentshe a dut?e le rena mo go tloga Mo?uopologo go fihla Labohlano a ?oma le rena mo fase mo. Ke la mathomo! O be a ?oma le rena ka mo ntlong ye a le theedit?e gore le reng, ge re eya fase a sepela le rena mafelong a tekolo go yo bona gore go diragala eng kua mafelong ao. A re gonna a re: "Mahlangu sepela le wena o ye go bona gore go diragala eng". Ke rata go mo leboga le Matona a gagwe ka moka. Le ?omile gabotse. Se sengwe seo Moprimiara a se bolet?ego ke gore, go na le batho bao e lego gore ge ba filwe mo?omo wa mmu?o gore ba le agele dintlo, ba t?hela selepe goba ba age ntlo e be seripa, mola e le seripa ba t?habe ka t?helete ba kitimele go gongwe. Tonakgolo o tloga a ithaopile gore batho bao ba tlile go ngwalwa maina ka moka ba ka sehlwe ba hwet?a mo?omomo, o tlo ba tlo swarwa. Tona ya Tlhabollo ya Dinagamagae le Tshokollo ya Naga t?a Selegae Morena Nkwinti o be a le mo go lena. (Translation of Sepedi paragraph follows.)
[This is the first time I have seen the premier of a province working with us here from Monday to Friday since we started with this programme. I have never seen it before. He listened to our debates and he even went on oversight visits with us. He said to me: "Mahlangu, you must also go and see what is happening out there." I appreciate the work done by the premier and his cabinet. The premier indicated that there are contractors who got paid and ran away without completing the houses they were building. He further indicated that he will make sure that those contractors get blacklisted and they will also be arrested. The Minister of Rural Development and Land Reform, hon Nkwinti, was also present.]
Uye wakhuluma nani ukuthi, angeke kusenzeka ukuthi umbuso uninikeze indawo nihlale kuyo ningayisebenzisi, siswele ukudla. Into ezokwenzeka ukuthi labo abazonikezwa indawo yokulima emasimini bazoqashiselwa leyo ndawo basinike ukudla. Uma nihluleka ukusebenza emasimini umbuso uyanikhipha ufake abantu abafuna ukusebenza.
Lokho kuzokwenza ukuthi nikwazi ukunciphisa izikweletu zenu, nikwazi ukuqhubekela phambili nithole imisebenzi nakhele nabanye abantu imisebenzi.
Mongameli ngithanda ukubonga kakhulu ukuthi ukhulule oNgqongqoshe bakho beze kithi bazohlanganyela nathi. Nayi into emnandi ngoMkhandlu Kazwelonke Wezifundazwe, bonke abaholi beza lapha ukuziphendulela ebantwini. Namhlanje uMongameli unathi khona lapha. Nimzwile eziphendulela. ONgqongqoshe bethu bakhona namhlanje bazohlanganyela nathi ukuze banazise ukuthi benzani ezifundazweni.
Abesigungu sikaMongameli abaphumelele ukufika banitshelile ngazo zonke izinto ukuthi zisebenza njani embusweni. AmaKhansela neziMeya babemi lapha phambi kwethu. Amalungu ePhalamende emi lapha phambi kwethu. (Translation of isiZulu paragraphs follows.)
[When he spoke to you, he warned that you will not receive land on which to stay or to use since we experience food scarcity. What will happen is that farms will be let to those who will produce food for us in return. But when you fail to work the farms, the government will remove you from those farms and give them to others who are willing to work.
This will enable you to minimise your debts and continue finding jobs and creating jobs for others.
Hon President, I would like to thank you very much for releasing the Ministers to be with us. What is good about the NCOP is that all the leaders come here to account to the people. And today the President is also here amongst us. You heard him responding in person. Our Ministers are here today to be with us and to tell us about what they are doing in the provinces.
Those who are members of the President's executive council have talked about how things are done in government. They were all standing here before us - councillors, mayors and Members of Parliament were standing here before us.]
There is no other House in the whole world that can do that except the National Council of Provinces. [Applause.]
Ezemfundo, ngaphambi kokuza lapha sisebenze izinyanga ezinhlanu senza amalungiselelo okuza lapha. [We were engaged in education for five months before we came here, and then we were kept busy preparing for coming here.]
I myself was here, together with the Deputy Chairperson, leading the teams that are working on the ground.
Umsebenzi omningi wenziwe ngaphambi kokuba sifike lapha. Uma ungadlula eMamello Primary School lapho safika sathola khona izindlu zangasese zingekho, kunuka futhi kuvuza, uMnyango weZemisebenzi yoMphakathi usuyasebenza kuleyo ndawo.
Nakwezinye izindawo esizivakashele ngoba sasikhulume noNgqongqoshe baphakathi kanye noNgqongqoshe weSifunda, kanye naboMeya sebashona phansi bayasebenza kulezo zindawo. Sifuna ukubona impumelelo ebantwini nezimpilo zabantu zenziwa ngcono. Sizwene noNgqongqoshe ukuthi ngonyaka ozayo phakathi koNcwaba noMandulo sizobuya khona la bazositshela ukuthi yiziphi izinto abazenzile. (Translation of isiZulu paragraphs follows.)
[Most of the work was done before we came here. At Mamello Primary School there were no toilets, and there were leakages which caused a terrible smell. The Department of Public Works is working there.
And even during our visits to other places we spoke to the Ministers, the MECs and the mayors about these problems and they are busy fixing them now. We want to see progress and the people's lives being made better. We agreed with the Minister that next year between August and September we will come back here so that they can account on the issues they have addressed.]
Re tlo boa go lena re le begele, re ba fa ngwaga ba tle ba re bot?e gore ba dirile eng ka ditaba t?eo di hlagi?it?wego ke batho ba. Ge re etla mo go t?a Maphelo, re kwele gore go na le badirelaleago bao ba tsenago mo?omong ka iri ya seswai ba t?wa ka seripagare go t?wa go iri ya lesomepedi mosegare. Mme Ntombela o bolet?e mo maabane, o ile go nyaki?i?a ka bothata bjoo. Ga gona motho yo a tlo tsenago mo?omong ka iri ya seswai a t?wa ka iri lesomepedi re mo lefela t?helete ka moka mafelelong a kgwedi. Ge e le gore ga ba nyake go ?oma, tsela e bulegile a ba ?uthelele ba bangwe.
Go na le taba yeo le e hlagi?it?ego, ge ke be ke le mo ke theeledit?e ke ile ka e araba. Re bolet?e ka taba ya makhanselara ka mokgwa wo Mopresidente a ?et?ego a bolet?e gore ba seke ba swara me?omo ye ment?i motho a nno?i. Ke le bodit?e ka re mmu?o o a e hlokomela taba yeo gore le tla bona phetogo ka morago ga dikgetho t?e di tlago t?a mmu?o wa selegaebo mmasepala gore motho o swanet?e a kgethea gore ke moruti?i goba ke mokhanselara goba ke eng. Mmu?o o a e hlokomela taba yeo, le tla bona diphetogo di etla ka pejana, le tla di bona. Ge re etla go taba ya bosenyi. Le mo kwele MEC wa mMaphodisa le Mokhomi?enare wa Profense wo moswa wa maphodisa le mmone ba mo tsebi?it?e mo. Mokhomi?enare wa Profense Senganine o t?wa kua Limpopo ke mo tseba gabotse. Ke motho wa go t?ea gabotse- botse, o tlo ?omi?ana le lena gore bosenyi bjo bo tle bo fele, fela re kgopela batho ba go patrola le lena batho ba set?haba le ?omi?ane le di CPF le maphodisa gore re kgone go fet?a bosenyi mo fase. Ka mant?u a mmalwa ao ke a fet?a, ke a leboga Modulasetulo. (Translation of Sepedi paragraphs follows.)
[After one year they have to come back and report to us about their intervention on what has been said by these people. We heard that there are social workers who arrive at work at 8:00 in the morning and leave at 12:30 in the afternoon. Hon Ntombela indicated that she is going to investigate this. People do not have to arrive at their work at 8:00 in the morning and leave at 12:30 in the afternoon while they receive a full salary. If people do not want to work they must resign and give a chance to those who are ready to work.
We debated the issue of the councillors who hold two full-time jobs at the same time. The President indicated that the councillors are not allowed to hold two full-time jobs at the same time. I told you that the government is working on this issue and after the coming local government elections no person will be allowed to hold two jobs at the same time. You are going to see some changes very soon.
The MEC touched on the issue of crime and the new provincial commissioner N C Sengani has been introduced to you. I know him very well; he is from Limpopo. He is a hard worker and he is going to work with you in combating crime. We are also appealing to the public to work with the community police forum, CPF, and the police to curb crime. I hereby conclude my speech. Thank you, Chairperson.]
Hon Chairperson, your Excellency Mr President, hon Chairperson of the National Council of Provinces, NCOP, hon Premier of the Free State, other dignitaries, hon members, ladies and gentlemen, ...
... sanibonani mphakathi waseMamelodi. Ngiyanibingelela nonke. [... greetings to the community of Mamelodi. I greet you all.]
Kgotsong bomme le bontate ba Foreisetata. Ke a le dumedisa ka lebitso la DA. [Good day, ladies and gentlemen of the Free State. I greet you in the name of the DA.] [Laughter.]
Chairperson, service delivery, along with the eradication of poverty by promoting job creation, is indeed the biggest challenge facing the government of this country. The co-operation between all spheres of government is of paramount importance ...
Hon member, there is a point of order.
Deputy Chairperson, on a point of order: We are not at a rally but in Parliament for Parliament's business. No one can greet people in a party's name here. [Applause.]
Continue, hon Watson.
Deputy Chairperson, I said that co-operation is of paramount importance if this is to be achieved. The question to ask is, however, whether the three spheres of government are working together efficiently, if at all.
Listening to the people this week and, in fact, on previous visits across the length and breadth of the country, it is obvious that government has failed dismally in this regard. From my own activities, along with my colleagues in the Select Committee on Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs, conducting intervention oversight visits to numerous municipalities, mostly dysfunctional and placed under administration, I can relate many instances of unbelievable mismanagement usually going hand in hand with massive corruption, Mr President, which could probably have been avoided or solved more speedily if co-operative governance had been practised properly.
Owing to the very limited time allocated to the opposition parties in this three-hour debate, I will have to limit my input to one or two examples.
Ba mphile metsotso e tsheletseng feela. [I was given six minutes only.]
I hate to tell the opposition members in Parliament this week, hon President, that the solution to their problems is to join your party. Now would it not be nice and profitable for all the cadres and comrades if the opposition disappeared completely? Would that not be a nice day for all of you?
Nee, meneer, dit is geheel en al nie 'n opsie nie. Net hier aan die agterkant van die berg is die majestuese setel van die distriks- munisipaliteit Thabo Mofutsanyana wat ook onder administrasie geplaas is. Luister bietjie hierna: Die burgermeester onder wie se beheer die munisipaliteit in chaos verval het, is nou die verantwoordelike LUR vir samewerkende regering in die Vrystaat en in beheer van plaaslike regering.
Ek vra u, meneer die President, of dit nou is hoe samewerking tussen die sfere van regering bevorder moet word. (Translation of Afrikaans paragraphs follows.)
[No, Sir, this is not an option at all. Just on the other side of this mountain one will find the majestic headquarters of the Thabo Mofutsanyana District Municipality that has also been placed under administration. Listen to this: The mayor under whose control the municipality fell into a state of chaos is now the MEC for co-operative governance in the Free State and is in charge of local government.
Now I'm asking you, Mr President, if this is how co-operation between spheres of government should be promoted.]
Deputy Chairperson, let me also tell the President about the municipality undoubtedly very close to his heart, which we visited last week. I am referring to Msunduzi, the so-called city of choice, where services virtually came to a standstill earlier this year because of the very evils of incompetence and corruption.
Fortunately, your MEC intervened in terms of the provisions of section 139 of the Constitution and appointed an administrator after the removal of the incompetent and reportedly corrupt mayor, together with a number of senior officers.
This administration secured the services of a very efficient task team, who not only uncovered maladministration and corruption of untold dimensions but also laid serious charges against a number of downright crooked officials in that administration. Our task was to investigate the continuation of the intervention, and I must say that I have seldom seen the community represented by a packed hall of citizens from all walks of life, so united in their condemnation of the situation and absolutely unanimous in their quest for the continuation of intervention and also for the indictment of the culprits.
The continuation of the good work done by them, until at least after the local government elections next year, was therefore a given but whilst the MEC eagerly agreed, she also ruled in favour of the immediate disbandment and removal of the task team, thereby negating the good work that had been done thus far and virtually guaranteeing the alleged perpetrators a free pass.
Ndiyabuza, Bawo uMongameli, ukuba bafihla ntoni? Ingathi bayalwamkela urhwaphilizo. Ndiyakuxelela ukuba ngale ndlela, lo mtshini wakho awungekhe usebenze. [Kwahlekwa.] (Translation of isiXhosa paragraph follows.)
[I am asking, hon President, what are they hiding? It seems as if they condone corruption. I am telling you, if this continues then your machine gun will stop functioning. [Laughter.]]
It seems to me ...
Hon member, you only have one minute left. Please, conclude.
I'm finishing off. It seems to me, sir, that instead of speeding up service delivery, it has nearly become a conduit of corruption for those who have government connections in many areas of our country.
Mamelang hantle batho ba ka. Batho ba haeso ke batho ba ka. Nna ke holetse dithabeng tsa Lesotho, Mashaeng. Ke tloha ke le moo nna, ke batho ba ka ba mono. Ke hopola hantle hore moo Lesotho Basotho ba re: "Ho fepa difariki ke ho fumana madinyana". Jwale ka selemo se tlang, le tla kgetha makhanselara a matjha. Le se ke la lebala hore ho fepa difariki ke ho fumana madinyana. Ke a leboha [Mahofi.] (Translation of Sesotho paragraph follows.)
[Listen attentively, my people. My fellow people are my people. I grew up in the mountains of Lesotho, in Mashaeng. I am originally from there, those are my people. I remember that in Lesotho the Basotho say: "When you feed the pigs, you will get piglets." So, next year you will be choosing new councillors. Don't forget that when you feed a pig, you will get piglets. Thank you. [Applause.]]
Hon Deputy Chairperson, hon President Baba Gedleyihlekisa Zuma, Chairperson of the NCOP Baba Mahlangu, Premier of the Free State province Baba Ace Magashule, all fellow premiers, MECs, Speakers, executive mayors and mayors, traditional leaders, Salga leadership, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, I greet you all. Good morning.
The period since we came into office, deployed of course by the ANC, guided by the leadership of our hon President, about 18 months today, has been the most challenging, stimulating and rewarding period of our lives. We take pride in the fact that we, as a collective, have sought to understand our inherited challenges, devise strategic responses to those challenges and begin to see meaningful results. Leadership of such a large and complex project can never be easy, but when genuine progress becomes discernible, even after such a short period, it is indeed gratifying.
The challenges of poverty and underdevelopment, especially of the former Bantustans; unemployment and deindustrialisation, which has been exacerbated by the recent economic crisis; huge infrastructure and service backlogs; and service delivery challenges in both provincial and local government are well known.
Our response as provincial leadership has been a twofold strategy: firstly, to correct the inherent and systematic weaknesses in the state, focusing on health, education, local government and fiscal recovery.
Secondly, it is to address the structural weaknesses in the provincial economy through developing programmes and projects which, if resourced and implemented, will reposition the Eastern Cape on the new national growth path. These projects include the Coega transshipment hub, the Coega-Gauteng logistics corridor, the upgrade of the East London harbour, the Wild Coast N2 Development Corridor, the King Sabata Dalindyebo presidential project and the Umzimvubu water transfer scheme.
Another case in point where intersphere collaboration is working well is the King Sabata Dalindyebo Local Municipality intervention. In this intersphere collaboration a master plan for the economic hub of the region, which spans a 20-year horizon, has been developed. It addresses challenges and identifies 280 projects for implementation in various focus areas, as well as emphasising the need to approach the projects in an integrated and co-ordinated manner. It is worth mentioning that the importance of strengthening intergovernmental relations in order to bolster the principle and spirit of working together by all spheres of government is key.
Furthermore, the strategic goal of the turnaround in the Departments of Education and Health is to restore public and state trust in these departments. To reach this goal, the following objectives are being pursued, which are to eliminate corruption; to deliver on the departmental mandates in an effective and efficient manner; to employ appropriate capacity at both management and operational levels; and to achieve an unqualified audit opinion from the Auditor-General.
Already, as part of this turnaround, good progress has been made in easing the backlog in payments to service providers, identifying areas where huge savings have been made, and will continue to be made and improving the supply chain management contract and project management systems as part of addressing irregular and fruitless expenditure plaguing these two key departments.
In addition, disciplinary and criminal action has been instituted against many officials found to be complicit in these practices.
The process of establishing early childhood development centres, ECDCs, is progressing quite well, with 1 262 ECDCs being funded, benefiting 55 696 children. We have stabilised our school nutrition programme and currently 4 767 schools with 1,5 million learners are benefiting from that. Of these, 4 588 schools have been provided with cooking utensils and are on the cooked meals plan with 10 117 meal servers.
With regard to health care, there are now 31 community health centres implementing 24-hour services and 22 community health centres implementing 60% of the primary health care package in the province. The number of patients on antiretroviral treatment, ART, is now at 123 552, having tested 399 851 people as part of the HIV counselling and testing campaign. The TB cure rate is at 62,4% of TB patients that have been screened for HIV.
As you know, hon Deputy Chairperson, the Eastern Cape is largely a rural province. We are taking many positive steps towards making the lives of our rural communities better through integrated rural development initiatives and through putting in place rural development pilot sites in all districts of our province, taking on board the successes achieved at our first pilot site in Mhlontlo.
Next week, on 25 and 26 November in East London, we will be hosting our public sector transformation summit to drive home the message and reorientate our public servants in the various spheres of government to be part of the solution and not the problem in speeding up service delivery. Various build-up engagements have already taken place across the province to start addressing the mind-sets of employees to better serve the needs of our developmental state.
Several other notable service delivery achievements are: the province is progressing well with its Expanded Public Works Programme, EPWP, targets with the department creating a total of 22 294 work opportunities; we have completed our provincial industrial development strategy, which aligns well with the national government Industrial Policy Action Plan 2; and in the East London Industrial Development Zone, IDZ, four major investments have been completed - dairy worth R160 million, diamond polishing worth R150 million, mariculture worth R40 million and solar water heaters worth R120 million, which together will create 600 direct jobs and 1 000 indirect jobs. Furthermore, about 1 300 construction jobs have already been created in the IDZ.
The Eastern Cape government is committed to continuous improvement in the delivery of services to communities and stands firm in the belief that, through honesty and dedication in working together, we have achieved and shall continue to achieve more. The province is ensuring that the lessons learnt from the 2010 World Cup experience regarding the effective and efficient delivery of services are translated into current governance practices. We are mindful that a lot of work still lies ahead as we move towards the end of our current financial year. We would like to assure our President and the House at large that indeed the intersphere collaboration approach works well for the province, and has made us achieve more. Thank you, hon Deputy Chairperson. [Time expired.] [Applause.]
Deputy Chairperson, I want to acknowledge the hon President Jacob Zuma, the Chairperson of the NCOP Mr Mahlangu, the premiers, the MECs present here today, hon members, councillors, mayors, Salga, and most importantly, our bosses - people in the gallery at the back there who voted us into power, for whom we are supposed to be working.
Firstly, I want to say that the importance of distinctive, interdependent and interrelated spheres of government cannot be overemphasised. The different spheres must co-operate in order to give effect to coherent governance and ensure the wellbeing of all South Africans. By the same token it is exactly the independence of a sphere of government that can ensure that those rights afforded to all of us by our Constitution are protected.
Therefore, we should guard against increased centralisation and control under the national government as it undermines the spirit of our Constitution. It is important to have a separation of powers between local, provincial and national government in order to strengthen democracy and ensure accountability.
Centralisation affects the way in which we can hold our representatives accountable. It may also make justice more difficult to achieve where power is abused, as the different spheres of government form important checks and balances on each other.
I believe that we should create broader opportunities so that everyone in our society has a chance to fulfil his or her potential. I believe that each sphere of government - the local, the provincial and the national - has an important role to play and needs to be independent of the others.
Yes, they do need to work together. However, local solutions to local problems can provide better service delivery. What does a bureaucrat in Tshwane know about gangs in Hanover Park? What does an official sitting behind a desk in the capital know about the suffering of the people in this province in that they do not have access to clean running water? Each sphere should therefore be bolstered so that local municipalities can provide proper services to communities so that provinces can be actively involved in ensuring good levels of education and health, for example.
Having said that, it is the responsibility of ordinary citizens to ensure that they get the services that they are entitled to; they cannot provide running water and sanitation on their own. That is the role of government.
Two of the biggest threats to our democracy in society today are corruption and incompetence of government officials. Corruption prevents delivery of services, because some politicians have benefited from a deal that resulted in a project not being done, or the quality of that project is so bad that it will have to be done over at double the cost. Incompetence of officials that are unable to spend the money allocated to their particular municipality is another threat, because they don't have the ability to do so because they are not trained to carry out that mandate.
However, in a democracy the politicians must fear the electorate and not the other way around. It is only when leaders start fearing the very people who voted for them that we will see real delivery and accountability. When leaders don't deliver on their mandate the electorate has the power to remove them and vote for an alternative government. [Applause.] It is no use voting for a government in May and then toyi-toying down the streets in June protesting about the lack of service delivery. What sense does that make?
Voters, the people, get the government that they deserve. As voters, you have the right to choose your government. More importantly, you have the responsibility to hold that government to account when they fail in their duty. The only way you can do that is to hit hard where it hurts the most; and that is at the voting station.
Too many of our public representatives see public offices or being an MP as a nice, cushy job. Oh! Madam Chair, we must come out of that culture and do the work for which the poor voted. In a democracy you have a right to change your mind and that does not make you any less loyal to your particular movement or your ideology.
In the Western Cape government we have developed a system whereby every minister is held accountable based on their own performance. The model we have developed is based on each ministry obtaining the highest points of excellence. Our people deserve the best quality service and as provincial ministers we must be held accountable. In other words, I challenge voters to fire me as well if I don't deliver.
Everybody, irrespective of their political affiliation, has a right to access all the services. This should never be dictated to you by any political party. No government is without its fair share of challenges. Officials are appointed to ensure that services are delivered to all the people, but if they are not fit for that purpose, the only ones losing out are in fact ordinary people like you and me.
When councillors are not qualified to do the job as public representatives, they should be replaced! We must stop the practice of appointing friends, girlfriends and party loyalists to jobs that they are not able to do! [Applause.] They need the necessary skills to be effective in the job that they are appointed to do. Otherwise, the ordinary man in the street will suffer.
Madam Chair, you can choose to put up with the lack of service delivery and continue to protest and toyi-toyi or you can use the democratic power of your vote and opt for an alternative government, which has earned the reputation for excellent service delivery for all the people.
It cannot be right for a community to burn their only library in the area down. It cannot be right for a community to burn motor vehicles that enter certain areas because of a lack of service delivery. It cannot be right for a bus full of innocent children from Khayelitsha - in our own township on their way to a music camp - to be injured by stone-throwing people, with a small group of them completely traumatising those children! It cannot be right for people to attack one of our vehicles transporting matric exam answer sheets from hundreds of matriculants of Khayelitsha. In our democracy we have legal channels through which aggrieved citizens can channel their grievances.
Where the law has been broken, where police and private vehicles are destroyed, the law must take its course and the guilty person must be brought to book. In this regard, we must also hold the police accountable to arrest the perpetrators and have them prosecuted. As a country we cannot afford to have our country slip into anarchy. South Africans must use their votes - not stones - to effect a change in government if it is needed. The power is in your hands.
The Western Cape government fully supports co-operative governance between each of the distinct spheres of government, in order for the people of this country to really benefit from service delivery of the highest standard. Each sphere of government needs to focus on their core area of service delivery, and once this has been achieved we will truly see our Constitution in action. I thank you. [Applause.]
Deputy Chairperson, Chairperson of the NCOP, His Excellency President Jacob Zuma, Premier Ace Magashule, all other premiers, hon members, nani nonke bantu abagcwele apha [and all the people who are here], I greet you. The ANC firmly welcomes the President's address. Hon President, you were addressing us - as you have mentioned - in the birth province of the ANC. This is a province that holds political and historical significance in the history of our country.
This region is named after a great stalwart and son of our movement, Comrade Thabo Mofutsanyana, a dedicated compatriot who cultivated and nurtured the seeds of the struggle against apartheid. He, together with other ANC giants like Prof Z K Matthews, led the people to rise against the repressive laws of apartheid. Allow me to pay tribute to the great stalwarts and committed sons and daughters of our movement.
Deputy Chairperson, indeed, for the ANC, the Free State represents the birthplace of the struggle for freedom, and the crystallisation of the yearning of our people to create a formidable organisation to take up the fight against apartheid. It is fitting therefore that we extend our appreciation to the people of the Free State and this district. The President spoke about our government's commitment to ensure that all spheres of government work together. As the ANC, we remain truly committed to advancing the principles of co-operative governance, and ensuring that the various spheres of government work together. The three spheres of government have a constitutional duty to assist and support each other, share information and consult each other, co-operate in the development and execution of their policies, adhere to agreed procedures and maintain friendly relations. These principles are clearly expressed in our Constitution.
All spheres of government should respect and adhere to the Constitution and the institutions that it has established, such as Chapter 9 institutions. We have heard of provinces, or rather a particular province, that undermines the Constitution. When the SA Human Rights Commission ruled against the Western Cape government on the dehumanising toilet saga in Khayelitsha, that particular government called this commission the political hit squad of the ANC.
We cannot allow any suggestions that seem to postulate that the institutions established through the Constitution are hit squads of the ANC, simply because they ruled against a particular government.
Shockingly, this past Tuesday, on 3rd Degree, one of the investigative programmes on e.tv, the mayor of the City of Cape Town, Mayor Dan Plato, in fact, supported the building of zinc toilets for the people of Khayelitsha, and he argued that because they stay in shacks their toilets should be the same. What else would you call this? Would the same be said if these people stayed in Constantia? You can only call this racism at its worst.
We have also seen projects like Sakhisizwe, which was the initiative of the ANC's city council ... [Interjections.]
Hon Skwatsha, please wait just a second. Mr Watson, please behave.
Am I speaking too much truth? The DA-led city council cancelled projects that were created by our people for refuse removal in Mitchells Plain and surrounding areas in the Cape Flats. Some residents had their water cut, and when they complained they were accused of having been bribed or bought by the ANC. The selective delivery of services and neglect of townships by this city is an issue that all of us should look at with utmost urgency and vigilance. We as the ANC cannot keep quiet.
Our common struggle to build a better South Africa and ensure a better life for all the people knows no boundaries, as the President has emphasised. All artificial, political and geographic boundaries will have to be brazenly dismantled to ensure that all the people of South Africa enjoy the fruits of freedom, regardless of their location within the boundaries of our country. I want to support the MEC who has just spoken here in that the will of the people must always be respected, but I also want to assure the MEC that when people vote for a particular party, and a few months down the line they protest, that is a democratic expression of their will, and they have every right to do that. There is nothing wrong in doing so.
Hon Deputy Chairperson, as a person who comes from the Western Cape, I was excited to be in a province that is completely free. I interacted and communicated with the people of Diyatalawa, a project that you can see is there for the benefit of our people. We want to join the premier of the Free State in reassuring the people of this district and this municipality that we have heard of their plight.
Working together with our people will harness opportunities presented by this democracy. We are aware that as we prepare for next year's elections our people will continue to be part of our resolve to dismantle the legacy of apartheid. As we prepare for these elections I also want to support the President in saying that councillors are hardworking, and for those few that are lazy there is no place. Our people can no longer wait to be free. [Applause.]
When we took up the fight against apartheid we understood that the darkness that had befallen our people for many years was only a momentary setback, and that the sun would rise to make their lives prosperous. Operation Hlasela is a case in point. [Applause.] Such was our optimism when we were fighting apartheid that we were inspired to take it to the streets against the might of apartheid, and we were only armed with our conviction. We did this because we knew of and understood the plight of our people. Despite their frustrations the people bear testimony to the fact that steadily, through operations like Hlasela, the dark clouds of despair are lifting, giving way to a season of hope. Our country has for centuries bled from a thousand wounds of neglect. We are now a nation at work building a better life for our people.
The ANC is conscious of the fact that transforming South Africa and ensuring a better quality of life is made harder by the effects of the apartheid system. We welcome the commitment made by the various spheres of government to move decisively, responding to the plight of the people of Thabo Mofutsanyana. We welcome the commitment made by the Free State government to work with local farmers to intensify the land reform programme, and to ensure that more land is in the hands of the rural poor.
We are pleased by the pronouncements that the people of Thabo Mofutsanyana, particularly the youth, will also join the masses of young people who are given technical skills and financial resources to generate economic opportunities.
Premier, with our own eyes we have seen the successes of Operation Hlasela in areas like Diyatalawa - as I have mentioned. We leave your province with a great sense of pride and urge you to continue with the good work. [Applause.]
We are making these pronouncements with neither hesitation nor doubt, precisely because we know that this provincial government is a people's government. It continues to deliver a message that says to our people, "We know your challenges, and we will ensure that they are resolved so that you too can enjoy a better quality of life."
We should ensure that criminals do not take over our streets and compromise the safety of our people in their homes, and in the streets. We want to thank the President for reassuring our nation that the ANC remains committed to the realisation of the interests of the masses of our people. Working together we can do more. I thank you. [Applause.]
Before I ask the next speaker to proceed, may I just plead with everyone who is going to come forward to bear with us in terms of time, please? Unfortunately I am going to cut your speaking time by two minutes, which will actually allow us to ensure that the people who are still going to travel are on time for their flights. Thanks.
Deputy Chairperson, His Excellency the President of South Africa, J G Zuma, Chairperson of the NCOP, hon premiers, hon speakers, members of the executive council, hon Members of Parliament and members of the provincial legislature, executive mayors and mayors, Salga representatives, councillors, traditional leaders, ladies and gentlemen, I stand to support the address by the President of South Africa, His Excellency President J G Zuma.
The pace of service delivery in provinces is not only dictated by the budget allocation and resources one has towards addressing the needs of our communities. Those needs come about through the legacies that were left behind by apartheid. The spate of incidents of municipal unrest that has taken place in the past year also points to the growing demand by our people for speedier service delivery despite our budgetary constraints in the provinces. The working together of all spheres of government therefore becomes critical in addressing this particular demand, while also noting that service delivery occurs in the local government space and sphere.
There is a growing need for us to harness our resources for the acceleration of poverty eradication through delivery of clean water and proper sanitation, and provision of electricity and decent shelter. We need to have a joint focus on the manner in which we conduct our government business, focusing on planning, enhancement of competencies and capacity to implement. We need to strengthen our monitoring and evaluation processes and the Ministries dealing with planning, monitoring and evaluation must strengthen this function across all spheres of government.
We need to also focus on the signed delivery and performance agreements, as the President has alluded, in order to improve performance across all spheres of government. We must discharge our responsibilities with effectiveness and efficiency, emphasising the priorities that we have set ourselves to achieve, using the Batho Pele principles. Public representatives must close the social distance that sometimes exists between them and the communities they serve; queries from the communities must be processed promptly within the set timeframes.
The Mpumalanga government has, in the past year, through its improved intergovernmental relations, managed to address challenges with regard to municipal unrest that erupted throughout the province immediately after the 2009 national government elections - three months after the elections, to be exact.
We are still indicating that it was the right of the people to do this. We have put four municipalities under section 139 and we have succeeded in stabilising these municipalities. As I am speaking all municipalities are currently stable. There were councillors who were forced to resign after these interventions by the province and let me indicate that in all the by- elections that resulted from these processes the ANC managed to win all seats. [Applause.] We have also launched a successful comprehensive rural development programme in the Mkhondo municipality in the Gert Sibande District. Our intention in the coming financial year is to roll out this programme to five more municipalities within the province. Under agriculture, we also have a programme called Masibuyele Emasimini whereby seeds are issued to households and we assist the households with ploughing. This programme is being rolled out throughout the province, together with the Department of Water and Environmental Affairs; we are rolling out massive water infrastructure projects across the province towards the provision of clean potable water to our communities.
We are continuously rehabilitating our coal haulage routes, the road network that is there in the Gert Sibande and Nkangala districts. We are going to continuously upgrade our roads. In the coming financial year we aim to upgrade up to 12 different roads across the province. We are going to continuously rehabilitate the route network that we have.
On the education front, let me indicate that we are currently doing away with all unsafe structures and our target is to make sure that all children learn under a safe roof, in a proper classroom. Realising that we did not perform very well in our examinations in the past year, we have come up with support programmes for learners. We are also happy with the support of and interventions that the Ministry of Basic Education has made in normalising challenges with regard to irregularities in the matric examination.
We are looking forward to an uneventful examination process and much improved examination results. We are also grateful for the support we enjoy from the Ministry of Higher Education towards the building of a university in the province; this is highly appreciated. We have made significant strides towards the provision of jobs.
Hon member, please conclude.
Deputy Chairperson, it is indeed through working together that all spheres of government can speed up service delivery and provide a better life for all, I thank you.
UMntwana M M M ZULU: Phini likaSihlalo wale Ndlu, Mama uMemela, mhlonishwa Mongameli wezwe lakithi eNingizimu Afrika, Msholozi, amalungu ahloniphekile ale Ndlu nezimeya zonke namakhosi akhona, singekufihle ukuthi lapha ezweni lakithi kusekhona izindawo lapho izinsiza zisahamba kancane khona. Njengakuso lesi sifundazwe kodwa akuyona leyo into engingama ngihlonize ngayo bese ngithi ngihlomile ngoba ngiyimbangi sekufanele ngeshele ngayo intombi. Uma singakwazi ukugcizelela ezinhlakeni zoMthethosisekelo wezwe njengoba nawe ushilo ngaphambilini ukuthi ukusebenzisana kohulumeni kuyinto ekhona emphakathini. Uma oNgqongqoshe bethu ezingeni likazwelonke bengangababukeli phansi oNgqongqoshe abakohulumeni bezifundazwe, cishe siyophumelela ukusiza bonke abantu. Uma oNgqongqoshe kuhulumeni bezifundazwe bengangabukeli phansi izimeya namakhansela kusho ukuthi ngempela siyokwazi ukuqeda usizi kubantu bakithi.
Akuzona lezi izinto esingahlala ngazo sigiye phezu kwazo. Nasi nje isibonelo esisodwa engingasenza, uma ungabheka umasipala walaphaya eNkandla unikezwa izigidi ezingama-49 ngonyaka, uyokwenzani kubantu baseNkandla? Ayikho into oyoyenza into eyinselele enkulu ngukuthi akufuneki kube khona imincintiswano phakathi kwayo yonke le mikhakha emithathu kahulumeni. Uma sithi sizoncintisana afike uKhabazela abhavumule eNkandla, kusho ukuthi udlala ngosizi lwabantu bakwamkhulu uMamonga. Uyazi-ke uKhabazela ukuthi uMamonga wayeshaya ekhaya; manje-ke asifisi-ke ukuthi abantu bakithi babe njalo.
KuMnumzane uMagashule, ngithi mnewethu uyingane encane enezinyanga eziyi-18 izelwe kodwa-ke yize noma kunjalo mina nginethemba ngoba kufanele ngilingise ubabamkhulu uMqalajuba. Nginethemba lokuthi kukhona lapho uya khona, [Ihlombe.] Ngithi ezinsizweni nezintombi zakithi osebenza nazo faka isitswebhu kakhulu ngoba engikubonile akuyona into engingabuya ngizogiya ngayo la, kodwa ngithi ngiyakwethemba njengendoda. Ngiyabonga. [Ihlombe.] (Translation of isiZulu speech follows.)
[Prince M M M ZULU: Deputy Chairperson, Ms Memela, hon President of our country, South Africa, Msholozi, hon members of this House, mayors and all chiefs present, we cannot hide the fact that here in our country there are places where service delivery is still slow. An example is this province, but that is not something I can stand here and perform about and use as my weapon to score political points because I am from the opposition. If we can emphasise the spheres of government as you have said before, working together as government is something that is happening in the communities. If our Ministers in the national sphere of government do not undermine our MECs, we will be close to helping everybody. If the MECs do not undermine the mayors and the councillors it is clear that we will be able to overcome the misery of our people.
These are not the things we should dwell on and make a noise about. Here is one example I can mention: If you look at Nkandla municipality, they are allocated R49 million a year, and what is it going to do for the people of Nkandla? It is not going to do anything. The only challenge is that there must not be any competition amongst these three spheres of government. If we are going to compete, Khabazela will come and growl at Nkandla, which means he is finding joy in the misery of the people of my grandfather Mamonga. Khabazela knows that Mamonga used corporal punishment at home for his children; now we do not wish for that to happen to our people.
Mr Magashule, my brother, you are an 18-month-old baby but even so I have faith because I have to try to be like my grandfather Mqalajuba. I have faith that you are going somewhere. [Applause.] To the brothers and sisters you are working with, you must tighten your ropes because what I saw is not something I would come and be amused about, but I have faith in you. Thank you. [Applause.]]
Deputy Chairperson, and Your Excellency Mr President, given the fact that our time has been cut, I table my prepared speech. In essence the concept of my speech is a tribute to two people: the first one is the doctor who was recently raped in Pelonomi Hospital. It is a tribute to the nurses, doctors and personnel that provide health services to our people in the province and in South Africa.
The second tribute is to a Grade 2 learner, called Sibongile Zwane, a learner at Teboho Primary School. She fractured her arm last week Tuesday; 10 days later she has not been attended to by a doctor at the local hospital. Ten days, no doctor; and for little Sibongile, no service delivery. She is an example of what hundreds of citizens of this area attested to as everyday experiences trying to manage their day-to-day lives in this area.
This is certainly not what Thabo Mofutsanyana stood for. He once said, "All we were fighting for was to live like people in the country of our birth." We heard this week many stories of people complaining. As one lady said, "We are treated as if we are not South African citizens." Sibongile was, this week, treated as one of those.
In presenting alternatives, it is the Congress of the People's considered view that drastic measures will be the only way to resolve addressing these challenges. [Interjections.]
Firstly, the NCOP must do serious introspection in terms of our functionality in dealing with our core function.
Secondly, the executive needs to take the activities of the NCOP more seriously. The hon President and the Deputy President must honour their commitments to the NCOP. Unfortunately, as once again experienced this week, the Ministers do not have the same contributions. In terms of co- operative governance, the roles and responsibilities of the various spheres of government need to be synchronised. There are too many chiefs and too few Indians; there is too much talk and too little action.
Lastly, the constitutional imperative of organised local government needs to be enhanced. Currently, Salga is only part of the high profile activities like today. We must increase their activity in the NCOP. If government does not act swiftly and implement some of these proposals, the experience of Sibongile Zwane this week, as echoed by many others, will become the norm. The people of this area certainly deserve better. I thank you.
Hon Deputy Chair of the NCOP and Chairperson of the session; Chairperson of the NCOP, Mr Mahlangu; Your Excellency President of the Republic of South Africa, Mr Jacob Zuma; Premier Ace Magashule, our host premier; all other premiers present, as well as the MECs representing their premiers; Members of the NCOP; Members of the National Assembly, as well as members of the provincial legislatures; Cllr Ramokhoase, representative of the SA Local Government Association, Salga; traditional leaders present, executive mayor and my good friend, Mayor Queen Mopedi; all mayors, executive mayors, speakers and councillors; people of South Africa, the Free State and Thabo Mafutsanyana in particular; and ladies and gentlemen, it is indeed a singular honour for the Northern Cape province to acknowledge and support the address of our President, Mr Jacob Zuma, to this august House.
We are gathered here with the express view of ensuring that we continue to serve our people with dedication, dignity and integrity, serving them selflessly. We are indeed delighted to speak on the pertinent matter, that of "All spheres of government working together to speed up the delivery of services".
The spheres of government are intended to promote and facilitate co- operative decision-making, and make sure that policies and programmes of government, across all spheres, encourage service delivery that meets the needs of citizens in an effective way. When delivering his 2010 state of the nation address, our hon President, who is here with us today, called 2010 the year of action, with an emphasis on a government that knows where people live, understands their needs and works faster and smarter. Further priorities as identified by the President were, inter alia, education and health, crime fighting, land reform, rural development, and job creation.
Furthermore, our President reaffirmed that the South African government's commitment is to advance the vision of an inclusive society: a South Africa that belongs to all; a nation united in its diversity; a people working together for the greater good of all. The developmental state is, thus, a concerted effort by government to build our nation, eradicate poverty, promote literacy, provide health and decent education, and grow the economy in a manner that must ensure that people are not left out, but are fully participating and become part of the solution to their problems, hardships and challenges.
It is for this reason that we say that the three spheres of government must live up to the expectation which, in essence, is aimed at accelerating the prospect of growth and development, as well as enhancing service delivery to all our people.
As the ANC-led government in the Northern Cape province, we have committed ourselves, as the leadership collective, to - for the duration of our term of office - striving to ensure that no person sleeps without food and that all people have decent shelter, access to electricity and provision of potable water, as well as proper infrastructure.
As a result of the rural characteristics of our province, we have also started to implement a comprehensive rural development strategy to respond to the myriad of problems faced by rural communities in a holistic and integrated manner. We will see to it that the programme succeeds and makes a meaningful and tangible impact on the lives of all rural communities in the province.
I need to make an example here of Riemvasmaak, in the Siyanda District, which is an area that is a notable example of an integrated and comprehensive rural development programme that is beginning to yield positive results and bring much needed services to this far-flung rural community. There is a need to strengthen the capacity of all our government structures, especially the local sphere of government, to discharge their responsibilities efficiently and effectively.
Yesterday, we launched an Expanded Public Works Programme, EPWP, project in Mier in the Kalahari where, in a joint venture between national, provincial and local governments, we were able to create job opportunities for 315 previously unemployed people, using labour-intensive EPWP methods. This venture is in anticipation of the Bloodhound Project which will take place in Hakskeen Pan in 2012, when Andy Green, a fighter pilot from Britain, will attempt to break the world land speed record. A number of infrastructural and tourism promotion projects will be embarked upon to ensure that we are ready to receive and host approximately 10 000 international visitors during the event.
The local sphere of government must, as a matter of principle, attract people with the requisite skills to ensure that they render services in a transparent, accountable and responsive manner. Municipalities need to grow local economies, so that they can respond to the twin challenges of poverty and unemployment, as well as contribute to the improvement of socioeconomic conditions of our communities.
As the Northern Cape provincial government, we will be launching Operation Nala, with the express aim of integrating and co-ordinating our efforts across all spheres of government, and to change the pace and effectiveness of service delivery.
I would also like to take this opportunity to inform this House that the Square Kilometre Array, SKA, as well as the Karoo Array Telescope programme and infrastructural preparations, are progressing well. This is also an example of where the three spheres of government are working very well together.
Considering that we only attained freedom in 1994 and being mindful of the fact that, within the context of state affordability, we have progressed remarkably well as a nation, we are, however, obliged to acknowledge that much work lies ahead in our collective attempt to serve as a sparkling example to the rest of the world that indeed South Africa is a winning nation. Thank you. [Applause.]
Hon Deputy Chairperson of the NCOP, Chairperson of the NCOP, His Excellency President Jacob Zuma, hon Minister, Deputy Ministers, hon premiers, hon Premier of the Free State Mr Ace Magashule, hon speakers of provincial legislatures, deputy speakers of legislatures, MECs, MPs, MPLs, hon executive mayors, mayors, speakers of councils, councillors, Salga leadership, Chairperson of Traditional Leaders, our officials, the House at large and my fellow people of the Free State, as I stand in front of you today, I am putting forward the voice of the people and the SA Local Government Association, as well as all supporters of the local government.
We stand here today, Mr President, to support the statement you have just put forward because it is a reflection of the school of thought that Salga believes in throughout. We therefore want to support the statement and commit to continuing to support the President and his Parliament throughout.
As we march towards the 2011 local government elections, this week has given us a significant opportunity as a province and government as a whole to reflect on the progress made in expanding the delivery of services and to acknowledge the challenges facing government in our quest to speed up service delivery to our people.
Effective performance against our constitutional mandate requires a coherent and co-ordinated set of support initiatives from all spheres of government. While local government is uniquely positioned as the sphere of government closest to the people, it is the responsibility of all spheres of government to ensure a better life for our people. But, as indicated earlier in the week, the belief that we are one government is yet to be solidified in policy, practice and implementation. The President has just alluded to that.
While there is a realisation that the achievement of shared growth and integrated sustainable development requires collaboration and partnership among various actors, particularly between the spheres of government and its departments, it has proven to be especially challenging in the light of the varied roles and resources of the different spheres to invest in the same physical spaces. Remember that it is a call by the President that we need to do things quicker, cheaper and faster.
The fact is that the national and provincial governments, while equally responsible, are not at the coalface of the delivery chain and so are not subjected to the same pressure as local government, which is then perceived as the villain when service delivery breaks down. That is a matter that we are all aware of and we believe and understand that local government and councillors are at the coalface for the people.
In this regard, we would like to acknowledge the work of Parliament's multisectoral Ad Hoc Committee on co-ordinated Oversight on Service Delivery, whose report was adopted by the National Assembly on 10 September. This was very good for us. We believe that this has created an understanding among policy-makers of the complex Co-operative governance framework within which local government operates and the support required by municipalities in delivering key government services. It is very important that other spheres of government see it as we see it from Salga's perspective.
Parliament would also be able to hold executives at national level to account for the incoherent approaches followed with regard to supporting or failing to support local government and failing to adhere to the constitutional and legislative framework when dealing with local government. This is an important element in moving towards an integrated governance framework centred on local government.
Accountability is fundamental to our democratic system of government, as embedded in section 195 of the Constitution. It should also form the bedrock of our outcomes-based approach and commitment to do things differently and result in a clear understanding and appreciation of the roles and responsibilities of the relevant participants, importantly, those of the responsible political, administrative and financial heads.
Sound governance is often a combination of legal and organisational structure, management and leadership, aimed at facilitating accountability and improving performance. Failure to do so in practice, on our part, will ultimately lead to poor service delivery.
However, equally critical to its success is that politicians and administrators alike must understand the interrelationship and interdependencies of the activities in the governance environment. The importance of sound monitoring systems - the President has alluded to those things - and instruments cannot be overstated. Our interrelationship system and supporting structures must ensure that relevant information flows up, down, across and in all levels in the various government departments in a timely manner to allow for effective decision-making.
To conclude, in my view, unless an integrated and coherent approach to addressing the challenge of governance is taken, the spheres and departments of government will continue to plan and implement policies and programmes in isolation from each other. Such an approach is prudent and vital because, from the residents' and investors' perspective, there is only one government, also mentioned by the President. Communities are not interested in which sphere of government or which department is responsible for providing housing, sanitation or health care. They become frustrated when municipalities appear to pass the buck to provincial or national government. We must begin to operate as one government. Thank you. [Time expired.] [Applause.]
His Excellency President Zuma, the Chair and the Deputy Chair of the NCOP, Premier Magashule - our host premier - premiers, MECs and Members of the NCOP, Salga members, mayors, councillors, traditional and religious leaders, and the community of the Free State and neighbouring provinces, we want to thank the NCOP for inviting us to this session and we also want to indicate our appreciation to the President for his address.
I wish to indicate that KwaZulu-Natal is making progress in meeting the priorities of our government in line with the electoral mandate. All national government outcomes have been aligned with departmental plans in KwaZulu-Natal. The signing of service delivery agreements by the premier and the MEC with the Minister signifies KwaZulu-Natal's commitment to ensure that targets set by the President are met. This has necessitated change in the manner of doing business on the part of provincial governments, with more integration and co-operation across departments and all spheres of government. We want to agree with the President that provinces should not behave like independent states. They should respect the fact that in some cases there might be a different party in charge of a province other than the ruling party at national level.
The challenge which was faced by government at the beginning of our term was that of overexpenditure totalling more than R4 billion, mainly due to salary increases and the occupation-specific dispensation in the departments of health and education. The provincial government put in place severe austerity measures to reduce this. The process was uncomfortable and required resolute leadership in implementation, which the provincial government and political leadership provided, with good results. This financial year we face a much better year with no overexpenditure forecast. The province began to stay cash-positive and earned positive praise from the Minister of Finance, who recommended that this model be used for other sectors of government.
A strong effort has been put into combating fraud and corruption in government, with several investigations and progress resulting in several public servants being suspended and internal disciplinary procedures being initiated through a dedicated team led by a retired judge. Several other public servants and private individuals are facing arrest or are already facing courts or have been convicted. The message of zero tolerance against fraud and corruption is loud and clear.
We have committed ourselves to ensuring food security and supporting agrarian and land reform. We embarked on a One Home, One Garden programme, supplying seeds and implements to indigent families to encourage food security. We formed a special vehicle, which we call the Agribusiness Development Agency, to expedite land reform and save emerging farmers and beneficiaries of land reform from losing their farms through repossession by banks. Indications are that the agency is yielding good results, and the mechanisation by our provincial government is assisting farmers on communal land to maximise productivity and move towards self-sufficiency. We have received a lot of support. One example is that of SA Breweries, where we have been able to persuade them to remove beer pictures on a number of township billboards and put up vegetable billboards that say "One Home, One Garden". They also complied with us on a contract of 5 000 tons of maize to be purchased from emerging farmers on communal land.
Crime prevention measures are co-ordinated through our united front against crime, bringing together the police and the community and business leaders to combat crime. This operation has ensured that community safety structures focus on priority crimes, including those in rural areas as well as in the farming community. We have had shocking massacres such as in Ntshongweni where 10 people, including a six-month-old baby, were killed. Police responded with speed in apprehending the perpetrators. Unfortunately two of those suspects were killed in the exchange of fire with the police. The remaining suspect made a full confession to the court on this crime. We commend the police on this and on other cases for a speedy response and firm hand in sending a message that crime does not pay and that the government is serious about fighting crime.
We are embarking on a strong campaign to fight drugs. They seem to be a factor in most of the shocking crimes, especially the type which is locally known as "whoonga". We appeal to our national government to urgently assist in a comprehensive programme to combat drugs, including the rehabilitation of addicts. Our programme will involve community organisations - religious, cultural and others - sports mobilisation and attention on youth development, women and vulnerable groups.
HIV and Aids is most severe in our province. We have embarked on a very strong campaign to deal with this challenge, ensuring that we have united leadership at all levels, which plays a very strong role in leading the campaign. We have designed a programme for implementation in every ward, mobilising all community structures and individuals to work together with public servants to fight the disease. Almost all of 300 clinics have started dispensing antiretroviral treatment and anti-TB treatment together as instructed by the President. We have also initiated male medical circumcision. Up to now - in the past nine months - we have circumcised 18 000 males. Community health workers have been integrated to focus on this important duty as a first line in the fight against diseases in our primary health system, managed jointly by the departments of social development and health.
More than 3 000 new nursing posts have been filled. The community volunteer service programme has been initiated to ensure peer education and behavioural change amongst the youth whilst providing skills and job opportunities. This is what we believe is important in combating the spread of HIV and Aids. It will also deal with problems of crime amongst young people. We thank the Ministers of Defence and of Rural Development and Land Reform for support in this particular programme.
Additional support has also been given to boost education and improve matric results and skills development. We are aggressively addressing infrastructure backlogs to ensure job creation. But we also had block housing projects. We have revived many of these. Yesterday I inspected and handed over a number of successfully completed houses to new owners in eThekwini. Provincial government continues to work together with municipalities to speed up service delivery. Whilst 500 000 houses have been delivered since 1994, we note that 900 000 houses remain as a backlog for the province.
Road construction, especially with regard to access to rural areas, ensures access to public amenities and opens up economic opportunities. The Expanded Public Works Programme has assisted in job creation, and we use infrastructure delivery to keep up the economic growth stimulated by the 2010 World Cup. On 9 and 10 December we will convene a summit on water and energy which will be hosted to speed up delivery of these services together with municipalities.
We continue to face challenges in municipalities and have had to impose section 139 of the Constitution on several municipalities - Msunduzi, Indaka, Tugela and uMhlabuyalingana. This is also showing good results. I just want to indicate that it was the ANC leadership that removed the mayor and executive committee members, taking responsibility for the challenges that were taking place in these municipalities. So, the information of the hon Mr Watson is deficient. KwaZulu-Natal ... [Interjections.]
Thank you very much. We continue to work together to deliver a better life for all. KwaZulu-Natal supports the approach the President has taken. [Time expired.] [Applause.]
Hon Deputy Chair, hon Chair and His Excellency hon President, all protocol observed, allow me to just add my voice to what the President said this morning when he said that officials in departments are not doing people a favour when they carry out service delivery. He said it is their duty to carry out service delivery because it is the people who voted for the government and they work on behalf of the people there.
Let me echo the words of the Chairperson on Monday night when he said that we must think, talk and act. I think it is high time there was action in this rural area; it is high time people were served with dignity; and it is high time we served the people of this area with respect and honour so that they can reap the fruits of the struggle.
Let me also applaud the premier of this province, hon Ace Magashule. He set an example. I was amazed, and I agree with the hon Chairperson. Since we have taken Parliament to the people, he is the first premier to be here every day of the week. [Applause.] I challenge all other premiers in this country to do the same. Take the people seriously! [Applause.]
Something else that I would like to say is that he set an example by building 60 m2 to 70 m2 houses for the elderly. He appreciates the elderly because it is because of the elderly that we are what we are today. They have suffered and struggled. Why must they still suffer with their own government? [Applause.] It is time that he moved away from petty issues and served the people; it is time that he took the bull by the horns; and it is time that he set an example. Let us remove those who are not willing to listen or work! [Applause.] He was born in this province so that this province can prosper. Some of the leaders of this province - councillors - put this area in a mess because they don't want to think or talk and therefore can't act. [Applause.] You need to think and talk, and then you can act. I challenge this district municipality. When we listened to other people during this week, there was an indication that there is no youth development. [Applause.] The youth are crying. How can people plead for help in the new democracy for 16 years? The premier can't do it alone. He needs the people to assist him. Remember what he said in the extended lekgotla this year ... [Interjections.] [Time expired.]
Ha ke lebohe Motsamaisi wa mosebetsi. Ke lebisa tlhompho e kgolo ho Mopresidente wa rona Jacob Zuma, Modulasetulo le Motlatsi wa Modulasetulo wa Lekgotla la Naha la Diprovense, Letona Ace Magashule le Matona a mang, Maloko a Lekgotla la Naha la Diprovense le Maloko a Matlo a ketsamelao, marena a rona, boetapele ba Lekgotla la Mmuso wa Selehae la Afrika Borwa, setjhaba sa Freisetata, le bohlokwa haholo.
Ha ke nke monyetla ona Motsamaisi, ho leboha setjhaba ka ho tshepa mokgatlo wa ANC ka puso ya naha ya bona. Mokgatlo wa ANC o ile wa re puso e tla ba ya setjhaba ka setjhaba. Re lebohe mokgatlo wa ANC ka ho tshepahala kanong eo. Ke ena Palamente e tlile bathong, e a mamela. Ha e ipate, ha e balehe mme ha e bolaise batho gase e llisang mahlo le dithunya. [Mahofi.] Mehleng ya mmuso wa bohanyapetsi re ne re tla e bona kae ntho e monate hakana?
Ba mebala yohle ka ditumelo ho fapana, ba batona le ba batshehadi, re kgona ho phela le ho nyakalla mmoho. Ba ileng ba tswa ka hara naha ba ntse ba kgutla. Ba bone hore ha ho na makgulo a matala ho feta makgulo a Afrika Borwa tlasa boetapele ba mokgatlo wa ANC. Tshepo ena ya setjhaba ho puso ya mokgatlo wa ANC e bonahetse hape le ka dikgetho tsa tlatsetso tseo re tswang ho tsona. Wa ripitla, wa papetla mokgatlo wa ANC. Wa bontsha hore ke ona lefika la mengwaha setjhabeng sa rona mme o tla nne o boele o etse jwalo le ka dikgetho tsa mebuso ya lehae tseo re yang ho tsona. Ke mokgatlo wa ANC feela oo e leng tshepo ya batho. [Mahofi.]
Naha ya rona ya hlohonolofatswa ka ho ba le boetapele bo tsotellang, bo mamelang, bo ikokobeditseng mme bo le bathong tlasa boetapele ba Mopresidente Jacob Zuma. Moetapele wa sebele ya sa kgeseng mmala kapa maemo a motho. Borapolasi le mmapolasi ba Freisetata, ba batsho le ba basweu ke dipaki tsa taba eo ke e buang. Mopresidente o ba etetse le pele e ka ba Mopresidente. A ba etela le ka morao hoba e be Mopresidente leetong la hae la morao-rao mane Boertjiefees, Bultfontein.
Boetapeleng ba mokgatlo wa ANC re fetola maphelo mapolasing. Maloko a Palamente a iponetse. Le tswa Diyatalawa matlong a polasi a disekwere tsa dimetara tse 74. Dikamore tsa ho robala di tharo ho isa boneng mme di na le kamore ya ho hlapela le ntlwana. Ho na le sekolo, sebaka sa tlhokomelo ya bana le holo. Ba reketswe dikgomo mme ba ahelwa sebaka sa ho di hama. Ba batletswe dikgoho le ho ahelwa dirobe tsa tsona. Re ntse re lokisa ditsela moo. Mafapha kaofela a na le seabo ho tsetela Motseng wa Temo wa Diyatalawa. Kgolokweng ha e a salla morao. Re ahela morena le setjhaba matlo. Re ahile le tleleniki moo. (Translation of Sesotho paragraphs follows.)
[Ms M QABATHE (Free State): I would like to thank the Chairperson. I want to express my greatest respect to our President Jacob Zuma, Chairperson and Deputy Chairperson of the National Council of Provinces, Premier Ace Magashule and other MECs, Members of the NCOP and members of the legislatures, our chiefs, leadership of the SA Local Government Association, and the people of the Free State; you are very important.
Let me take this opportunity, Chairperson, and thank the people for having trust in the ANC to govern their country. The ANC said that this government would be by the people for the people. We also thank the ANC for being trustworthy in that promise. Parliament has finally come to the people. It listens. It does not hide and it does not run away and fire teargas and rubber bullets at the people. [Applause.] Where could we see this during the apartheid government?
People from different races and different positions, males and females, live and rejoice together. Those who left the country are now coming back. They have realised that there are no greener pastures than here in South Africa under the leadership of the ANC. People's trust in the ANC has been evident even in the recent by-elections. The ANC destroyed and defeated others. It showed that it is the backbone of our nation and will do the same in the upcoming municipal elections. The ANC is the only hope for the people. [Applause.]
Our country is blessed with a caring leadership that listens, obeys and is always with the people under the leadership of President Jacob Zuma. He is a true leader who does not discriminate against race or one's position. Free State farmers, both black and white, are witnesses of what I am talking about. The President visited them before even becoming the President. He also visited them after he became President, during his recent trip to the Boertjiefees [Boertjie festival] in Bultfontein.
The leadership of the ANC is changing the lives of those living in the farms. Members of Parliament have witnessed this. You visited farm houses of 74 m2 in Diyatalawa. They have three to four bedrooms and a bathroom with a toilet. There is a school, a crche and a hall. Cows were bought for farmers and they were provided with structures where they could milk them. Chickens were bought for them and chicken hatcheries were built. We are still constructing roads there. All departments have a role to play to invest in Diyatalawa Agri-Village. Kgolokweng has not been left behind. We are building houses for the chief and the community. We have also built a clinic.]
All government spheres are working together to give a comprehensive service.
Sena ke qalo feela hoba re sa fetela mapolasing a Wilhelmina, Cherry le a mang. Re sebetsa mmoho le matjhaba rona pusong ya mokgatlo wa ANC. Ke kahoo re fumaneng thuso ya dimilione tse 45 ho tswa mmusong wa China. Re ntse re aha sebaka sa qhotsiso ya mahe a ditlhapi mane letamong la Xhariep, seterekeng sa Xhariep. Kaho e a phethelwa kgweding ya Tshitwe. [Mahofi.]
Hosane Letona Nkwinti o tla be a le motseng wa Bloemfontein moo a tla beng a thusa borapolasi-potlana ho ba le karolo ya diabo ntlong e nngwe ya tse kgolo tsa ho buhela diphoofolo Bloemfontein. Letona Tina Joemat-Pettersson o tla tlisa dipakana tse 85 tsa diterekere Freisetata. (Translation of Sesotho paragraphs follows.)
[This is just the beginning because we are also going to do the same at farms like Wilhelmina, Cherry and others. We work together with communities in the ANC government. That is why we received a donation of R45 million from the government of China. We are busy building a fish hatchery on the Xhariep dam, Xhariep district. The construction will be completed in December. [Applause.]
Minister Nkwinti will be in Bloemfontein tomorrow to assist developing farmers to acquire shares in one of the biggest abattoirs in Bloemfontein. Minister Tina Joemat-Pettersson will bring along 85 tractors to the Free State.]
Indeed all spheres of government are working together to speed up service delivery.
Tlasa boetapele ba mmuso wa mokgatlo wa ANC, re ile ra tshwara dikopano tsa basebeletsi ba mapolasi diprovenseng kaofela. Di ile tsa felella ka Kopano ya Naha ya Baseletsi ba Mapolasi. Ka morao ho Kopano eo, mona Freisetata re ile ra hira babatlisisi ba babedi le motho ya nang le digerata tsa molao ho sala morao le ho rarolla dinyewe tsohle tsa ho lelekwa mosebetsing ka tsela e seng molaong, ho lelekwa polasing le ho thunthetswa ha ditokelo tsa botho tse ileng tsa hlahiswa kopanong eo re neng re le ho yona. Tse ngata re se re di hlotse le ho di lokisa. Maqhama re a a aha mahareng a borapolasi le basebetsi ba bona.
Mmuso wa mokgatlo wa ANC o aha naha. Re le mmoho ba batsho, ba basweu le ba mmala, re ketekile Mohope wa Lefatshe mapolasing, ra isa dithelebishene tse tsamaiswang mapolasing, ra tshehetsa Bafana Bafana re le kaofela, re le ntho e le nngwe, re kopane.
Re ntse re kopane kaofela, ba batsho le ba basweu, re hlwekisa metse. Re hlwekisa dinoka tsa rona. Re sebetsa mmoho le bomasepala. Ha re otlwa ke koduwa ya sewa sa kgohlo ya Rift, re ile ra nna ra sebetsa mmoho. Ha re welwa ke koduwa ya mello ya hlaha e ileng ya tjhesa mona Freisetata, re ile ra nna ra sebetsa mmoho ho tima hlaha. Mmoho, ba batsho le ba basweu, re a sebetsa. Ha ho na mang kapa mang ya tla kena dipakeng tsa rona ho re qabanya. Presidente re o utlwile. (Translation of Sesotho paragraphs follows.)
[We have held meetings with farm workers in all provinces under the leadership of the ANC government. This ended with the National Farm workers' Summit. In the Free State, we hired two investigators and somebody with a law degree after the summit to follow up and resolve all unfair dismissal cases, farm evictions and human rights abuses that were raised in the summit we attended. We have dealt with and resolved a lot of issues. We built relationships between farmers and their workers.
The ANC government is building the nation. Together as blacks, whites and coloureds we celebrated the World Cup on the farms. We brought big screens, and we supported Bafana Bafana together as one and united.
We are all still together, blacks and whites, to purify water. We purify our rivers. We work together with the municipalities. We also worked together when we were hit by Rift Valley Fever. When we were experiencing wild veld fires around the Free State, we continued to work together to battle the blaze. We work together, blacks and whites. No one will come between us and cause friction. We have heard you, President.]
All agricultural projects that have faltered will be given immediate attention. On local government and human settlement, we say to the nation we are on course with regard to Operation Clean Audit 2014. The Auditor- General's report ...
... e bontsha hore ho na le ntlafalo mafapheng ka kakaretso. Bomasepala le bona ba tlo ba motjheng. Re lebelletse diphetoho tse ntle. Re kgonne hore ho bomasepala ba 25 bao re nang le bona, re kwale dikgeo tse 23 tsa Baofisiri ba ka Sehloohong ba Ditjhelete. Botshwari ba Matlotlo le Puso ya Kopanelo le Merero ya Setso di sebetsa mmoho le bomasepala. Mashano ana a mokgatlo wa DA a ho reka divoutu ha se nnete. Ho a sebetswa ho bomasepala. [Mahofi.]
Tlasa boetapele ba Letona Ace Magashule, boetapele bo nang le tjhebelopele, ditho tsa Lekgotla la Phethahatso provenseng di ronngwe ho sebetsa le bomasepala ho tlisa botsitso le momahano ya maqhama a tshebetso ... (Translation of Sesotho paragraphs follows.)
[... shows that there is an improvement in the departments in general. Municipalities will follow suit. We are expecting favourable changes. We were able to fill 23 of the 25 chief financial officer vacancies in our municipalities. Treasury, and Co-operative Governance, Traditional Affairs, and Human Settlements work together with the municipalities. Rumours by the DA about other people buying votes are not true. People work hard in the municipalities. [Applause.]
Under the leadership of Premier Ace Magashule, the leadership with vision, members of the executive council in the province have been mandated to work with the municipalities to bring stability and ideas for working relationships ...]
...to enable us to deal proactively with the challenges rather than reacting to them.
Ha e yo ntho e ntseng e buuwa ya batho ba lapetseng divoutu mme ba bua dintho tse ngata tseo re sa di tsebeng. [There is no such thing as people being hungry for votes. They talk about so many things that we do not know about.]
All spheres of government are definitely working together, Mr President!
O botsa potso kgafetsa, Presidente ... [You often ask a question, Mr President ...]
Madam Chair, on a point of order: Can you please rule? Is it in order for a member to stand at the podium and call another member a liar? The interpreter said that.
Ke a leboha Motsamaisi wa dipuisano. Ke ne ke re Mopresidente o re botsa potso kgafetsa. O re: ... [Thank you, Chairperson. I was saying the President often asks a question. He asks: ...]
"What is it that you are doing differently where you are?"
Potso ena re ile ra e utlwa. Ke a leboha Motsamaisi wa dipuisano. Mosebetsi o etswang Freisetata o mongata haholo. Feela re re mmuso wa mokgatlo wa ANC tlasa boetapele ba Mopresidente Jacob Zuma ke wona feela, ha ho na o mong. (Translation of Sesotho paragraph follows.)
[We have heard this question. Thank you, Chairperson. There is a lot of work that has been done in the Free State. We say the ANC government, under the leadership of President Jacob Zuma, is the only one, there is no other.]
The ANC lives and the ANC leads. [Applause.]
Hon Chairperson of the NCOP, Mr Mninwa Mahlangu; Deputy Chair of the NCOP; His Excellency the President of the Republic, Baba Jacob Zuma; esteemed NCOP delegates that are here; the Premier of the Free State, Ace Magashule, and other premiers and hon members, let me start by saying that as the Gauteng province we acknowledge and welcome the invitation from the NCOP to make a statement, and also welcome and align ourselves with the address by the President of the Republic of South Africa.
One of the critical challenges we face is the delivery of quality services, and in this context we are talking of delivery on time and with the necessary speed to meet the expectations of our people. The scale and the enormity of the challenge are such that our people are impatient for effective service delivery. It is in this context that numerous groupings have come up to highlight the living conditions of our people and some of the protests that we are seeing should be seen.
It is also important that I indicate the fact that, as government, we have always been aware of the concerns of our people and the conditions in which they are living. In this regard, we have consistently crafted different approaches and tactics to address the hardships and suffering afflicting our people. Notwithstanding the fact that service delivery is taking place at a very high level that has never been seen in our country before, in my view it is not enough; and I think more can still be done.
However, the conditions that impact on the rich and the impact of service must actually be appreciated. In this context, I want to factor in the Gauteng province and I'm addressing the national executive here, Mr President, to say that the main issue of limited resources is the one that is going to give us problems. I'm quite aware that the Treasury and national executive committee are doing quite a lot in addressing what has come to be known as the equitable share.
Our province, as one knows, is a province of "amagoduka" [people who reside in rural areas but work in the urban areas]. I'm sure each one of us here knows a person who is staying in Gauteng. Therefore, we have the challenge of in-migration and that in-migration is going to result in poverty and cause limitations in so far as the issue of resources and service delivery is concerned. We want to raise that issue very sharply.
There are four issues that we want to raise: Firstly, we are conscious of the critical areas that require intervention in the three spheres of government. Now, we know that our greatest weakness, as government generally, across the system is the effective co-ordination of programmes amongst the three spheres of government. This has resulted in a situation where programmes are conceived, only to falter on implementation because delineation of roles and responsibilities is not clear and this results in poor delivery of programmes. This challenge of co-ordination sometimes leads to squabbles over who controls the budget for which programme. Unfortunately and cumulatively, this tends to compromise service delivery.
Secondly, the other challenges we have observed are poor planning and a lack of capacity. In many instances poor planning manifests itself in the duplication of projects, which results in resources being wasted across the three spheres of government. It also shows in situations where we plan and implement projects without encouraging the involvement of communities, resulting in projects being vandalised as an expression of rejection by communities. This reflects the problem of capacity within our Public Service, as well as a lack of commitment. That talks directly to the issue of diagnosing the real problems of our people and ensuring that we correctly, concretely and adequately pull out what the issues are.
Generally, the area of intergovernmental relations remains a challenge in our system of government. We need a proper framework and strategy that will promote closer working relations amongst the three spheres of government. In Gauteng we have gone a long way in working on that.
Notwithstanding the challenges that we have raised, in Gauteng we are working hard to strengthen the areas of weakness in this regard. The structures to promote co-ordination between municipalities and the provincial government are in place and are addressing these situations. We are now putting more emphasis on resources, particularly with regard to monitoring and evaluation. We understand that if we focus on this area it will be easy for us to detect problems in the system as early as possible. We are happy that the SA Local Government Association, Salga, is actually on board but I think it is something that is still a challenge; we have to work very hard on that.
We have also embarked on a drive to improve skills, particularly through training amongst employees, fill vacancies and also follow strict recruitment procedures, particularly with regard to searching for the best talent in the market. This is done in order to address the issue of capacity and competence in the workplace. Two issues that are very important in Gauteng - and I'm sure even in other provinces - are the issues of project management capacity skills within government and, most importantly, contract management, because very often our government is actually adversely affected by the manner in which our Public Service negotiates our contracts, as it were.
It is our belief that government can achieve more and deliver quality services if the three spheres of government work in sync with one another. There is no doubt that collaboration amongst the three spheres should be encouraged, and if we want to speed up delivery we should actually go in that direction. It is in this regard that, as Gauteng, we think that the platform of the NCOP will ensure the realisation of the objective of ensuring that there is co-operation amongst the municipalities. Thank you.
Mudzulatshidulo; Mudzulatshidulo wa NCOP, Vho M J Mahlangu; Phuresidennde wa Riphabu?iki ya Afurika Tshipembe, Vho Jacob Zuma; Mulangavundu wa Free State, Vho Ace Magashule na vha?we vhalangavundu vho konaho u swika, ndi khou vha resha. (Translation of Tshivenda paragraph follows.)
[Mr M G PADAGI (Limpopo): Deputy Chairperson; Chairperson of the NCOP, Mr M J Mahlangu; President of the Republic of South Africa, Mr Jacob Zuma; Premier of the Free State, Mr Ace Magashule, and other premiers who are present, I greet you.]
I bring you warm and fraternal greetings from the government and the people of Limpopo.
Chairperson, in Limpopo we have vibrant policies in place which seek to guide our energy in a direction that benefits the people, especially our people in the rural areas, as Limpopo is largely rural and the basic services do not easily reach them. We have devoted much of our attention to the cause of ensuring proper implementation of such policies in an environment that is planned, monitored and perpetually evaluated.
This approach enables us to regularly inspect and evaluate our impact as government in delivering and making interventions where it is necessary. Our programme of action for service delivery is underpinned by the Medium- Term Strategic Framework, which is the bedrock of our administrations policy direction.
What forms part of our key priority areas are the provision and the improvement of health care facilities; the Comprehensive Rural Development Programme, which is linked to land and agrarian reform and food security; the enhancement of skills and human resources through, among others, the opening of the doors of learning; the fighting of crime and corruption; and the building of a strong economy that is able to create decent and quality job opportunities for our people.
We are still faced with the elementary obligation of providing basic services to our people, which include houses. We are at work realising our resolve in ensuring that the people of Limpopo are, in the main, beneficiaries of economic activities that are taking place in the province, given the large mineral deposits in our region. We have drawn up the Limpopo Employment, Growth and Development Plan, which is an economic document that is aimed at growing the path of our economy.
We have identified job creation as a sustainable new method of fighting poverty and underdevelopment among our communities. We are hard at work building an economy that is able to grow while it is creating vibrant job opportunities for our people. Through the Limpopo Employment, Growth and Development Plan we are working towards ensuring that the mining activities in the province that bring in millions also benefit the local communities. We have managed to deliver a crime-free and incident-free World Cup tournament in our province.
Once more Limpopo has emerged as the leading province with regard to the crime rate. We are deepening our interaction with communities around enforcement in order to ensure that crime is exposed and fought from all corners. Our low crime rate has been attested to by the latest crime statistics that show our province has one of the lowest crime rates.
The process of expediting service delivery to the people continues to make a meaningful difference in the lives of the majority, especially in the rural areas of the province. Although our province is ranked the lowest when it comes to access to universal basic services, we have managed to expand the provision of basic services in the form of water, sanitation, and electricity to many people. We have continued to provide people with houses and other infrastructure development programmes.
We have declared this year the year of intensive learning in the province as we continue to regard education as a strategic bedrock for a sustainable and better tomorrow. The number of children with access to basic education has exceeded the anticipated target. The school nutrition programme assists in the realisation of our resolve to fight hunger at schools, enabling the environment to be conducive for learning to take place. Through working closely with communities we have been able to register great strides in the war against crime and corruption.
This brief account of Limpopo should serve as a motivation that we are on the correct path in building a prosperous society which is able and committed to the overriding cause of creating a better life for all. Thank you.
Hon Chair, may I start by saying that it is interesting to have noted that during the debate on the address by the President, a very interesting observation was made that a member and leader of Cope took an opportunity to quote Thabo Mofutsanyana. I found it interesting that Cope could quote, in actual fact, one of the greatest communists that this country has ever produced. Perhaps it is a lesson that, as we move forward, some of these liberalist approaches that they have would definitely not be of comfort to a great communist such as Comrade Thabo Mofutsanyana. [Applause.]
Let me also take this opportunity to pay tribute to our grandmother, Gxowa, a revolutionary, an organiser, a visionary, who joined the ANC in the early years of her life. She participated in and led the programmes leading up to the Women's March and, subsequent to that, the adoption of the Freedom Charter. It is indeed fitting that the National Council of Provinces held its programme of Taking Parliament to the People here. This exercise is a fulfilment of the vision of the Freedom Charter that the likes of Mrs Gxowa fought for.
Accordingly, the strategic objective of the ANC, which is the creation of a nonracist, nonsexist and democratic South Africa - that particular characterisation of this strategic objective - continues to teach us that, while people say that in 16 years the ANC has done nothing, fundamentally ours has been to build a nation; fundamentally ours has been to build a society that has respect for women and a society that has an understanding that in actual fact we have been divided for many decades by the very same former National Party that was mentioned by a member here earlier.
Members will remember that as the ANC we resolved that the Fourth Parliament needed to be characterised differently and that the characterisation of this particular Fourth Parliament needed to be as an activist Parliament. It needs to be a Parliament that is rooted amongst the people. It needs to be a Parliament that responds to the needs and the interests of the people. It needs to be a Parliament that must strengthen its oversight capacity in order to be able to hold the executive accountable. It is that kind of Parliament that we have here today - a Parliament that is engaging with the people; a Parliament that is engaging with the executive; and a Parliament which says: "Yes, together with our people we will march forward."
The National Council of Provinces plays a very central role in bringing the three spheres of government together. It remains the only democratic institution in the country that is constitutionally designed to bring all three spheres of government together under one roof. Through programmes such as Taking Parliament to the People, the NCOP gets an opportunity to bring together all our people under one roof. This would include, amongst others, the community, the Cabinet, the President, the MECs, mayors and everybody who is involved in the process of transforming our country for the betterment of the lives of our people. This is the reason why we need to emphasise our commitment in ensuring that at the end of each programme the lives of our people become much better.
In fighting poverty we take note of the issues raised during the visits and public hearings, including that there are fundamental challenges in supporting small business initiatives. The Freedom Charter clearly states: "The people shall share in the country's wealth."
While our organisation, the ANC, has made substantial progress in realising this goal, we acknowledge that we have not yet achieved true economic transformation, which includes fundamentally changing the structure of the South African economy and the distribution of wealth and income in our society.
The National Council of Provinces commits to monitor the promises made by our councillors, without specifically mentioning names, particularly with regard to a commitment that was made yesterday that the district has a budget set aside to assist small and emerging businesses to buy stock or embark on training and development. It would be quite an interesting aspect for us as the NCOP with our committees to do follow-ups into understand exactly what our commitment is and what it is that is happening on the ground.
We are told a lot about corruption. Yes, of course, the way that corruption is put to us and to society sounds like a new thing. As the ANC, we have taken it upon ourselves to ensure that we put systems in place that will combat corruption. We have put systems in place in government that identify and expose corruption. It is no coincidence that so many cases of corruption have been reported, so many cases of corruption have been captured. In actual fact, it is this organisation, the ANC, that went to Polokwane; that went to Durban and re-emphasised the point of the transformation of the judiciary by strengthening the instruments that are put in place in order to fight corruption. Therefore, as the ANC, we cannot be taught how to fight corruption. It is our resolve to fight corruption. [Applause.] Interestingly as well, it is quite hypocritical the way this whole issue of corruption is put to society, especially by the DA. The manner in which they put the matter of corruption to society is by saying that the ANC is corrupt, but they are not talking about the white-collar crime that is happening; they are not talking about the corruption that is happening in the private sector. Let me give an example of something that the DA never said anything ...
... ka sone, bagaetsho. A le a itse gore go na le dilo tse ba di bitsang di "cartel". Ke ditlamo tse di kopanang, mme di rerisane go baya tlhwatlhwa e e amang batho ba ba kobo di khutshwane; batho ba ba sokolang; batho ba ba tlhokang thuso mme DA ga e bue ka batho bao. Gona jaanong go ne go na le "cartel" e e bonweng molato mo borothong. Bana ba tlhoka borotho kwa sekolong. (Translation of Setswana paragraph follows.)
[... about. Did you know about a thing called a cartel? It is a consortium of independent organisations formed to limit competition by controlling the price, production and distribution of a product or service that affects poor people, struggling people, people who need help - and the DA does not talk about those people. Now there is a cartel that was found guilty of price fixing on bread. Children need bread for school.]
They are hypocrites nevertheless. Thank you very much, Chair. [Time expired.] [Applause.]
Hon Chair of the NCOP, hon President of the Republic of South Africa, hon premiers, MECs, members of the House, traditional leadership, SA Local Government Association, Salga, leadership, our hon councillors, the hosting mayor, Dr Mzangwa, Mmathokwana Mopedi and the community, the NCOP is doing such a good job. The Taking Parliament to the People programme, I think, must be commended.
Thank you to the hardworking members of the NCOP for coming to the Free State. I'm sure, moving forward, we can draw strength from whatever you have said. Let me remind South Africans - and I agree with the President - that South Africa is a unitary country and, indeed, there are different challenges in different provinces. The Free State is not like the Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal or Limpopo.
In the Eastern Cape there are big challenges. I think the history of where we come from in terms of the Bantustans or homelands - for example, the Ciskei and the Transkei - and the poverty created in that province and many other provinces must be taken seriously. Therefore we need the support of the people of South Africa and the national government to work together with all the municipalities, local governments and provincial governments.
Let me take the members back to the past. In the past, ...
... re ne re sa dumellwa ho vouta rona re le batho ba batsho. Re ne re lahletswe dibantustaneng Kapa Botjhabela kwana Transkei le Ciskei. Re lahletswe Bophuthatswana, KwaZulu-Natala le Venda. Ha re hopoleng nalane eo. Ha re hopoleng hore dipetlele tsa rona kajeno lena ke tsa batho kaofela, ha pele ho ne ho na le tsa makgowa le tsa batho ba batsho.
Ha re hopoleng moo re tswang teng hore dimaene le moruo wa naha, ditsela le marokgo a Afrika Borwa a ahilwe ke rona batho ba batsho ba dulang mona Afrika Borwa empa mofufutso oo ha o se o qhalehile, ha ho letho leo re ileng ra le etsa.
Ditoropo tsa rona di ne di na le matlo, tsamaiso ya dikgwere-kgwere, ditsela tsa sekontiri, motlakase le tsohle. Ha re hopoleng hore rona batho ba batsho re ne re sa kgone ho dula moo re batlang mme re sa kgone ho tsamaya moo re batlang. Ha ke le nke hanyane ha e le mona le tswa nalaneng eo, ke le bontshe ho ya pele hore re entse eng rona re le mmuso wa mokgatlo wa ANC diprovenseng le tlase ho bomasepala. Ha re hopoleng moo re tswang teng hore batho ba batsho ba ne ba sa fumane tjhelete ya penshene e lekanang le ya makgowa.
Ha re hopoleng moo re tswang teng hore ka selemo sa 1953 Ngaka Verwoerd o ile a fetisa molao wa Thuto ya Kgethollo. Ha thwe bana ba rona ba batho ba batsho ba tla rwalla dipatsi le ho kga metsi, mme ba se dumellwe ho etsa Mmetse le Thuto ya Mahlale. Jwale, ha re bua ka dintho tseo kaofela ha tsona, ha re hopoleng moo re tswang teng hore re tle re kgone ho utlwisisa moo re batlang ho ya teng re le mokgatlo wa ANC mmoho le setjhaba sa Afrika Borwa.
Ha re hopoleng moo re tswang teng hobane Palamente le Mopresidente ba ne a sa kgone ho fihla setjhabeng empa kajeno lena ba fihlile. Jwale, ha re bueng ka seo re batlang ho se etsa hobane ka selemo sa 1994 ha setjhaba se qeta ho voutela mokgatlo wa ANC, lona batho ba ka hara Ntlo ena le ne le qala ho vouta. Ka mora dilemo tse ka bang makgolo-kgolo mmuso wa kgethollo le kgatello o re tshwere, la qala ho vouta.
Jwale, ha le voutile ka selemo sa 1994, le tla kgona ho utlwisisa hore ba neng ba hloka metsi e ne e le dimilione-milione tsa batho. Ba neng ba hloka dibukana tsa boitsebiso e ne e le dimilione-milione tsa batho. Ba neng ba sa kgone ho vouta e ne e le rona. E ne e le rona ba neng ba sa dumellwa ho dula le ho kena dikolo moo re batlang teng mme re etse Mmetse. Nna le wena re ne re etsa "Momo le Semboho ba mema Didimaho". Le lebetse ka pele jwang? [Mahofi.] Le lebala ka pele jwang? Mopresidente o re kopile hore re etse dintho ka tsela e fapaneng le ya pele, Modulasetulo. Taba ya ho tlisa Palamente bathong ... (Translation of Sesotho paragraphs follows.)
[... we were not allowed to vote, as black people. We were thrown into Bantustans in the Eastern Cape - the Transkei and the Ciskei. We were thrown into Bophuthatswana, KwaZulu-Natal and Venda. Let us remember that part of history. Let us not forget that our hospitals today are for everyone, whereas before there were separate hospitals for white and black people.
Let us remember where we come from, that mines, the economy of the country, roads and bridges were built by us, black people, who live here in South Africa. But when all that sweat had gone to waste, nothing was done.
Our towns had houses, sanitation, tarred roads, electricity and everything. Let us remember that as black people we could not stay wherever we wanted to. Now that you've remembered all that history, let me continue to show you what the ANC government has done in the provinces and even in the municipalities. Let us remember that black people did not receive pension money equal to that of white people.
Let us remember that in 1953 Dr Verwoerd passed the apartheid education law. It was said that our black children would fetch wood and water, and they were not allowed to do maths and science. Now, let us talk about all those things. Let us remember where we come from so that we can understand where we want to go as the ANC, together with the nation of South Africa.
Let us remember where we come from because Parliament and the President could not reach the nation but today he is here. Now, let us talk about what we want to do because in 1994 when the nation voted for the ANC you people in this House were also voting for the first time. After years and years of the government of discrimination and oppression, you could now vote.
Now that you voted in 1994, you will understand that there were millions and millions of people who needed water. A million others needed identity documents. We were the ones who could not vote. We were the ones who were not allowed to live and attend schools where we wanted to and do maths. You and I used to do noun groups by reciting them according to their prefixes. How can you forget so quickly? [Applause.] How can you forget so quickly? The President asked us to do things in a different way to before, Chairperson. The issue of bringing Parliament to the people ...]
... means we are doing things differently because, for the first time since 1994, the people of South Africa can interact with the Ministers and Members of Parliament. What a good thing!
In the Free State, President, our manifesto said we must create decent jobs. Within four months during our administration, we ensured that 1 069 temporary teachers became permanent. Today they are permanent. [Applause.] When we took over, you said we must create decent jobs. In our hospitals and government buildings where we had security companies, we have made sure that those security officers and some of the police reservists are well trained. We have terminated contracts of security companies because those people must be permanent so that they can have decent jobs. [Applause.] In terms of education, I have documents which I will give to the Chair of the NCOP and the President. These documents reflect that 3 099 students have been taken to schools and universities through our bursaries as a provincial government. [Applause.] Since Motheo District Municipality is the biggest, it has 1 228 learners; Thabo Mofutsanyana has 563; Lejweleputswa has 631; Fezile Dabi has 410; and the Xhariep District Municipality has 208.
I have just checked how many people from Qwaqwa are our bursary holders. In terms of this report - their names, identity documents and telephone numbers are here - 239 people from Phuthaditjhaba, Maluti-A-Phofung Local Municipality, have bursaries from the provincial government. [Applause.] I also tried to check whether our bursaries are only received by black people. No, that is not the case because in 1955 in die Vryheidsmanifes het ons ges dat Suid-Afrika aan almal behoort - wit en swart [... in the Freedom Charter we stated that South Africa belongs to everyone - white and black].
Lengolong la tokoloho ka 1955 re ile ra re Afrika Borwa ke ya rona kaofela. Ha ke bala mabitso hona jwale tokomaneng ena ke fumana boVan Zyl, Naude, Botes, Blignaut, Viljoen, Oorkamp, Koornhof le Sinclair. Ba bangata feela ho etsa bonnete ba hore ha re aha Afrika Borwa ho ya pele, le ka 1996 ... (Translation of Sesotho paragraph follows.)
[In the 1955 Freedom Charter we said that South Africa belongs to all those who live in it. When I read out the names now in this document I find people such as Van Zyl, Naude, Botes, Blignaut, Viljoen, Oorkamp, Koornhof and Sinclair. There are so many of them because we wanted to make sure that when we built South Africa going forward, even in 1996 ...]
... ons het ook in die Grondwet van Suid-Afrika ges dat Suid-Afrika aan almal behoort - wit en swart. [... we also stated in the Constitution of South Africa that South Africa belongs to everyone - white and black.]
Ke kahoo re tla yang pele re tsamaya mmoho le setjhaba sa Afrika Borwa. Ke kahoo selemong sena se fetileng sa 2010 re butseng dikolo tse 12 tse ntjha tseo bana ba rona ba ka ithutang ho tsona. Ke a kgolwa Ditho tsa rona di di bone. Mona Qwaqwa feela ... (Translation of Sesotho paragraph follows.)
[That is why we will move forward together as the nation of South Africa. That is why last year, 2010, we opened 12 new schools, schools where our children learn. I'm sure that our members saw them. Here in Qwaqwa ...]
... we have 20 students' who are studying medicine - 20, at different universities. [Applause.] In the whole of the Free State, we have given 108 medical students bursaries, and we are going to give them bursaries for the next six years. We will do this because we have identified and we know that there are no doctors. You can't blame us for not having doctors as a province. You must blame apartheid because it denied black people the opportunity to study mathematics and science. Therefore when you want to blame us you must understand where we come from.
Consciously and deliberately, we are investing in human resource development as a country. We have built farm schools. You can go to Manthatisi here in Qwaqwa and you will find rural kids at that school. We have given, as I have said, bursaries to blacks and whites.
In terms of health, no one can deny that we have challenges. People must not make as if we are denying that there are challenges in health. However, I have said you must look at our history; you must flash back. In the past these hospitals were only meant for white people and there were very few. Today we have free medical access, and many of our people have access to these facilities.
Yes, there might not be medicine available tomorrow. The reason for that is that the numbers have increased and these numbers were denied this access in the past. So understand where we come from so that you will understand how we must build the future as we move forward.
People must understand that in the past they could criticise us. However, let the truth be told. You can go to our various municipalities where you want us to appoint people on merit. We agree that that is what we should do because the Freedom Charter demands that we do that. However, go there and see how many white people were employed there in the past without qualifications. [Applause.] The truth must be told. We are compiling that report and we know.
That is why in our municipalities - you can go to Moqhaka Local Municipality, Ngwathe Local Municipality and various provincial departments - we have employed black and white chartered accountants. There are many black chartered accountants who are prepared to come and work for government. I think we must congratulate them.
Moving forward, and if we work together, we can do more. We can tell you about qualifications because when something is black, people criticise it. I think the qualifications, competency and merit of our heads of department must be known.
We have revitalised and are still busy revitalising our townships. That is why in the next financial year we have decided to put aside R300 million just for township roads so that we move forward as a province. Moving forward, in terms of local government, I think we agree that there are challenges. I was saying to the people here that to be a councillor is not like being a Member of Parliament or a premier because a councillor is there on the ground. When people want water, water is there on the ground. When people want better services, these services are there on the ground. If people are not paying for their services they can't get better services because the province collects money and sends it to the local government. That is why we need to work together.
I agree with the President and everybody that there are many good councillors. There might be a few ...
... hobane ho thwe tapole e le nngwe e bodisa tse ngata, empa re se ke ra akaretsa. Re etse bonnete ba hore re sebetsa mmoho. Ke kahoo ke batlang hore ... [... because it is said that one potato can spoil the whole bag, but we must not generalise. We must make sure that we work together. That is why I want ...]
Hon Watson says, "The government has failed dismally."
Ho tjho ntate Watson. Bomasepala ba rona ha ba a atleha. Empa bomasepala ba rona ha ba tshwane le ba nako e fetileng bao e neng e le ba makgowa feela. Ba ne ba isa ditshebeletso ho batho ba mmalwa feela. Metseng ya rona le kajeno re ntse re hloka mabone. Dintho tseo kaofela ke tseo re tlamehileng re di lwantshe ho ya pele.
Ke batla hore ka mantswe ana, re utlwile dillo tsa baahi mme re se re nkile dikgato. Re se re dumellane le ba tsa bophelo bo botle hore re tla aha ditliniki tsane tse Bolata re sebedisana mmoho le setjhaba. E re ke re ho Ditho kaofela ... (Translation of Sesotho paragraphs follows.)
[So says hon Watson. Our municipalities did not succeed. But our municipalities are not the same as the previous ones who were serving whites only. They provided services only to the few. Even today in our communities we still need electricity. We must fight all of those things in order to move forward.
In conclusion, I would like to say that we heard the cries of the citizens and so we took a step. We made an agreement with the Department of Health that we will build those clinics in Bolata, working together with the community. Allow me to say to all the members ...]
... Gesende Kersfees en 'n voorspoedige Nuwejaar. Ke a leboha. [... Merry Christmas and a prosperous New Year. Thank you.][Time expired.][Applause.]]
Thank you!
Please sit down and listen! The President is responding.
Thank you, Chairperson of the NCOP, once again for the opportunity to say something in response to the debate. Thank you very much for a very good debate by the members of the NCOP, the premiers, and members who represented their own premiers. I think, as usual, it has been a very lively debate. Of course, at times people miss the opportunity by focusing in a different way in the debate on the matters that affect the citizens of this country.
I am referring to a statement that was made by an hon member here, and the statement was that the government had failed dismally. I don't know. Unless I don't understand English, I don't know what that means. It is an exaggeration. It is actually aimed at making propaganda, because it is not true. It cannot be true. Government is functioning very well. There are challenges, and I think the statement should capture the fact that there are challenges. I have always said to the opposition that they should be an opposition in a constructive fashion, that they should help the government to do the work in the country, and that they should identify the specific areas they believe need to be identified as weaknesses.
These sweeping statements are very nice to make. You can make them at any time and say that generally people are corrupt and that generally the government has failed and is dysfunctional. I mean, it says nothing. This is what educated people talk about, "full of sound and fury, signifying nothing". That is because it says nothing. [Applause.] I think the debate must help us to understand what the shortcomings are, so that we can deal with them. Of course, that is how the debate becomes lively.
I must also come back to the point of corruption, because I think, again, the approach to corruption at times does not help us. For example, before 1994 there was no talk of corruption, and corruption was something that touched the core of government then. In fact, if you talked about corruption before 1994, you were likely to be the one who went to prison. [Applause.] There was a lid on it; nobody could talk about it. What this government did when we came into power - because we knew this was a problem - was to say that we would fight corruption, and we would expose corruption. We took the lid away, and the struggle against corruption only started after 1994 in this country, not before. It is this government that has said that it will fight corruption until it is eradicated, and we are fighting it. People have lost jobs, some have gone to prison, and some have had to pay back the money. It is important to acknowledge that, because if you just keep on saying that this government is corrupt, without recognising that, you then ensure that we don't listen very carefully to what you say.
Thank you, premiers, for the contribution you have made. I think generally you have indicated that provinces are working and there are programmes that you enumerated here. That is pleasing. Premier Ace, you said a number of things, but one of the things that I believe we need to take lessons from is how you have solved the problem of part-time teachers. I think we must all learn from what you have done. I just don't know what the formula is. [Applause.] It is one thing, among the many things you have said, that we must take away.
Hon members, I will not refer to each and every person who spoke here, because that could take long. I am mindful of the fact that the presiding officers said that we should limit the time because people have to travel. Therefore, I will just say a few things which I believe are important.
We have made the call that we must work differently. We must do things differently, and it is important that we adhere to that. Governments historically do things in a particular way, and this is what I think we must change. Usually, the wheels of government turn very slowly. It walks very slowly, and we are saying that it must change. There is something in government that just makes people do things very slowly. I am saying that it must change, because it causes unnecessary blockages and delays and, therefore, it slows down delivery. It creates an impression about government. What you should realise is that when a person has been a public servant in the corridors of the government buildings, when they walk, they walk very slowly to take a document from one point to another. The same person, if he is employed by the private sector, will walk very fast in the corridors of the private sector buildings. There is something wrong that we need to correct, and I think we have an opportunity to correct it. We must do things differently. I agree with those who have made those points. I think the majority of the speakers have said that we should work as one government. That is true. Let us work as one government. We are not many governments in one country.
We can't make people suffer because they belong to the government of either the Free State or Gauteng, as if they are not our people. I think the manner in which, politically, we described the situation of the three spheres of government could not explain it appropriately. Therefore, people believed they lived in other countries. It is one country.
I am also aware of the challenges that we face. At times we make an unfair comparison, because the government in the past - the one I say we said nothing about - governed a minority of people in this country. Other people were not party to it. They were outside. They were given their places, such as homelands. So, you had a very small government in terms of how modern governments are structured. We now have a government that governs the entire population of this country in the same way. It is a big challenge, with backlogs that are critical in every respect. I think we should also appreciate that as we move forward.
We have said, in this administration, that there are areas we need to focus on, and I want to touch on these areas, because I think it is important to have the same frame of mind. We have five priorities, and all of them are meant to address the challenges of our country. They affect all citizens. Education is one, and we have done a lot of work in planning how to tackle education.
There is a 10-point plan for us to tackle education. Because education is so important, it is one of the portfolios that we separated into two - Basic Education and Higher Education and Training. The reason for this was that the bigger department tended to make all of us focus on higher education in the main. We did not focus on basic education, and yet anything that has life has to be attended to at the beginning - the foundation.
We therefore ended up with the problem, for example, of continuous bad results for matric. We thought that it was important to focus on this, so that we are able to produce young people who will do things differently in education, because even with those who pass, a good percentage do not qualify for tertiary education. They pass without exemption. We need to remedy that.
This is a matter that all of us need to appreciate. If we talk about nation- building, education is one of the critical building blocks. Therefore, it should be government and the nation as a whole that affect, in the main, those who deal with education. There must be that understanding that if you don't pay attention to education, you are actually failing to pay attention to the development of the country. With education we can solve the poverty problem in all its facets. So, we have identified it as a critical point. I am happy now because it's not just a dream.
I have just come from South Korea, a country that was poverty-stricken and living on donations. What it did was focus on education, and it has defeated poverty. It is now a donor country, helping others who are still trapped in poverty. They have many universities - not a few, many. So, building universities is not a waste; it is in fact the creation of a foundation for education. I am saying this fully aware that two of our provinces do not have even a single university. This is a terrible statement against us. We must correct that.
We also put health as another high-level priority. Again, a lot of work has been done to plan how to turn health around, because any nation needs health. If you visit countries that have succeeded in delivering on health, you will realise they have developed. To us it is even more important because we are dealing with a huge population that was disadvantaged for decades, if not centuries. So, it is one of the priorities.
We also prioritised rural development. I was very happy that many of the provinces said that they have programmes that deal with rural development. Fortunately, the Minister dealing with this is doing a lot of work to try and do things differently at that level. I believe that very soon we will hear what is happening.
We also said that, as a priority, we are going to fight crime. I think that there is evidence that we are fighting crime very seriously.
What we then said was that we must create jobs. That is a priority that I believe we need to put all our efforts into. I think we have done a lot of work on others. The creation of jobs we need to work together on, almost as if it's the only priority. If we solve the question of jobs we almost halve the problems. Everybody must be employed. That directly addresses the poverty.
We need to be innovative, so that we don't say other people can't work because they don't have skills, unless you qualify the types of skills that you are talking about. Everyone can work; let us create the jobs that relate to what those people can do. This is an issue that I believe, from next year, must be the critical thing for all of us - in all departments, in the provinces, as well as in the municipalities. We must determine what jobs we can create.
I was speaking to someone just yesterday, to those who can count money, big money. I can only count up to thousands. Some can count up to millions; some tell me about Bs; some tell me about Ts. I can't count that much. I have never seen a trillion in my life, or even a billion. [Applause.] I was saying to them, because we are told that the rand is too strong and there is money coming here, let us change that disadvantage into an advantage. Let us put that money where the challenges are, so that by the time the problems go away the money has been invested. I think we can do more if we work together.
Chairperson, I am sure that we have taken time to debate the input, and I think I can't, once again, introduce the debate. I think that we have debated enough. Mine is to thank you and thank the hon members for debating my input in the manner in which they have done. I am sure that this will go a long way as regards the debate today, but you have been here interacting with the community. I am sure that the community is very pleased to see Parliament here, and to be able to interact with it. You must continue to do so; it is a good thing. [Applause.]
Ke a leboga, bagaetsho. [Thank you.]
Challenges are big; we need to stand together, both men and women. Not just men and women in the general sense.
Bomme ba nnete, a ba sware thipa ka bogaleng; le bontate ba nnete, dikwankwetla, bao ba nago le maatla, bao ba kgonago go ?oma ka maatla. [I mean real women who can deal with challenges and overcome them; real men who are strong and powerful; men who are committed to their work.]
We still have a challenge to fulfil or to achieve what this province said to us in 1912, what we must do to change the quality of the lives of our people. We need to work harder, all of us. If we work together, we certainly can do more. [Applause.] Thank you.
Ke a leboga. [Thank you.]
Debate concluded.
MODULASETULO WA NCOP: A re t?eeng madulo a rena. Le seke la t?wa, dulang fase, ga re a fet?a. Ke a tseba gore le lapile e bile le mmerekong. Ke tlo dira ka mokgwa wo, ke tla dira ditsebi?o.
Ga bjale, ge ke fet?a go tswalela Ngwako wo, le dule fase le seke la t?hikinyega. Mopresidente wa naga, Tonakgolo le nna, re tla ya mola. Ka Labone ge re boledi?ana le bao ba sa itekanelago, ke ile ka kgopela Tonakgolo gore re ka dira gore re ba thu?enyana ka se sengwe. Ba kgonne go re humanela ditulo t?a mabili t?e 20. [Legoswi.]
Re tla fa ba babedi fela gore re seket?e nako, t?e dingwe Mme Ntombela o tla ?ala a di fa ba bangwe. Go na le ba babedi gona bjale ka mo Ngwakong, t?e dingwe ba tla ba fa ge ba ?et?e ba sepela. Taba ya bobedi, bao ba ba namelago dinamelwa t?a bona kua O R Tambo, ke kgopela gore le seke la ya dijong t?a mosegare. Dinamelwa t?a lena di le emet?e mola diofising t?a selete. Ge le tloga fa, itlhaganeleng gona gore di seke t?a le tlogela, le kgone go humana difofane t?a lena kua O R Tambo. Re tla kgopela bjalo. Bao ba ikotlellago ba ka ya dijong t?a mosegare.
Ke rile le dule fase. Ge re fet?a mo le Mopresidente, a ?et?e a t?wile, kamoka ga lena le ka emelela la t?wa. Ga bjale dulang fase hle go fihla ge Ngwako o fet?a.
Ke tla kgopela Mopresidente le Tonakgolo gore ba ye go phethagat?a mo?omo.
Ba?omedi ba peleng, Maluti Bus Service, ba tla hwet?a t?heke ya dimilione t?e R11 go t?wa go Mopresidente. Re a ba lebogi?a. Re leboga ka maatla. (Translation of Sepedi speech follows.)
[The CHAIRPERSON OF THE NCOP: Let us all take our seats. Please do not go out because we are not done yet. I know that you have been working and as a result you are tired.
I have announcements to make and I therefore request that you remain seated when the House adjourns. The President of the Republic, the Minister and I will go to that side. When we were talking to the people who are physically challenged on Thursday I suggested to the Minister that we do something to help them. There are 20 wheelchairs here that are to be given to them. [Applause.]
We will give only two wheelchairs to two people who are now present in the House. Hon Ntombela will issue the rest of the wheelchairs to the others when they leave.
People who are to catch a flight at O R Tambo International Airport will have to miss their lunch because their transport is waiting for them at the district offices. Please make sure you don't miss the transport because that will lead to you missing your flight as well. Only those people who are using their own transport can remain for lunch.
Please remain seated. When the House adjourns we will allow the President to leave first and then the rest of the members will be allowed to leave.
I will request the President and the Minister to fulfil the task.
The previous service provider, Maluti Bus Services, will receive a cheque of R11 million from the President. We congratulate them. Thank you very much.]