Hon Chairperson, Ministers, Deputy Ministers and hon members, the Millennium Development Goals, commonly referred to as MDGs, commit the international community to an expanded vision of development, one that promotes human development as the key to sustaining social and economic progress in all countries. In his speech to the United Nations in June 2010, the UN Secretary-General, Mr Ban Ki-moon, stated that:
The goals represent human needs and basic rights that every individual around the world should be able to enjoy - freedom from extreme poverty and hunger; quality education, productive and decent employment, good health and shelter; the right of women to give birth without risking their lives; and a world where environmental sustainability is a priority, and men and women live equally.
Countries such as our own that have committed themselves to these goals are expected to report periodically on progress made towards achieving these goals. The 2010 country report on MDGs indicates that, in some cases, South Africa has achieved its MDGs more than five years before 2015, while in others a lot more work needs to be done. The report also highlights that:
As a middle-income country, South Africa is less dependent on foreign aid, and improvements in the MDGs ...
... will depend on how well government and other stakeholders including Parliament -
... mobilise domestic resources to achieve these targets.
During the 3rd World Conference of Speakers of Parliament held in Geneva last year to discuss, among other things, the progress on MDGs, the Speakers agreed that parliaments must use their legislative and oversight powers to assist their governments in the attainment of the MDGs. The declaration adopted by the conference stated:
Our parliaments can do more to ensure that development goals are taken into account in our daily work and translated into national programmes and laws. Likewise, we encourage our parliaments, when they examine draft budgets and Bills, to assess their impact on the fulfilment of the goals. We pledge to support these efforts, monitor progress closely and do our part in meeting the targets by 2015.
In direct response to the challenge highlighted in the 2010 UN report on MDGs, our own country report and the 3rd World Conference of Speakers of Parliament held in Geneva in 2010, the South African Speakers' Forum hosted, in March this year, an international consultative seminar for presiding officers which initiated a discussion on MDGs across the legislative sector in our country and our continent.
Subsequently, from 5 to 6 September 2011, Parliament, in partnership with the UN Development Programme, UNDP, hosted a national consultative seminar in order to mobilise all stakeholders towards the attainment of the MDGs. This seminar was attended by 225 participants, including the Members of Parliament and of the provincial legislatures, government Ministers, representatives from the SA Local Government Association, the SADC-PF, the Pan-African Parliament, the UN Development Programme, civil society organisations and institutions of higher learning.
Keynote speakers included the Minister in the Presidency, the hon Trevor Manuel, and the Minister for the Public Service and Administration, the hon Richard Baloyi, as well as Dr Zacarias, the UN resident co-ordinator and UNDP resident representative in South Africa. The objectives of this consultative seminar were to engage with external role-players and stakeholders on MDG reports that were developed by relevant committees within the legislative sector. Furthermore, they were to obtain inputs from invited participants on progress with regard to attaining the MDGs and, more importantly, to produce a comprehensive South African legislative sector MDG oversight report, with recommendations on how the South African legislative sector could improve and co-ordinate the oversight activities aimed at attaining the MDGs.
In preparation for the seminar, committees that have an important role to play in this regard were requested to exercise more explicit and regular oversight over departments and relevant entities and to report on their findings and recommendations. The same was done at the level of the provincial legislatures.
It is for Parliament to ensure that commitments to the MDGs are truly reflected in national, provincial and local government plans, policies and budgets. Each government department is required to indicate in its strategic plans, which are submitted annually, how its activities will respond to the MDGs. The departments' annual reports also have to reflect this.
Gender equality and the empowerment of women are at the heart of the MDGs and are preconditions for overcoming hunger, poverty and diseases. The Multiparty Women's Caucus in Parliament started looking at progress in this regard from a gender perspective and participated in a number of workshops focusing on female Members of Parliament and members of the provincial legislatures. Furthermore, the Multiparty Women's Caucus also visited the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal to interact with our provincial colleagues.
The Millennium Development Goals speak to the basic right of every citizen to equality and human dignity, as stipulated in the Constitution of our country. It is thus a constitutional obligation for all public representatives to ask tough questions of the executive and to exercise effective oversight over departments to ensure that budgets allocated to achieve the intended objectives - to improve the lives of our people - actually achieve these objectives.
Oversight must be a proactive process aimed at detecting problems early and must work with the executive to find solutions to the challenges that confront us. During the discussions at the seminar, it became evident that the MDGs do not necessarily tell us of the quality of the services that our people receive. They also do not tell us how efficient we are in measuring our own performance and that of departments in terms of the attainment of the MDGs.
Commissions that participated in the seminar were subsequently requested to focus on the following areas: Focusing on and identifying the good practices, as well as areas for improvement and where, in the legislative sector, focus and co-ordinated oversight is indeed possible. They also had to focus on the question of what recommendations could be made for the sector to work together to achieve the MDGs within the four years that are remaining.
Based on the reports that were considered during the seminar, we also had to assess the involvement of other sectors of society, including civil society and institutions of higher learning, in the work that has been done and how this could be improved. Furthermore, we had to answer the critical question of how we can ensure, not only in Parliament but also in provincial legislatures, that we mainstream the MDGs in our daily oversight work.
Following the discussions during the plenary session, a set of resolutions was adopted and other participants in this debate will reflect on these resolutions. The reports that served before the seminar - the actual report of the seminar that we are adopting today, as well as any other recommendations emanating from this debate - will be consolidated into a final report that not only reflects on the role of Parliament, the provincial legislatures and local government with regard to the MDGs, but also comments to some extent on the status and perceived challenges in this regard. It is envisaged that Members of Parliament and the provincial legislatures would use this final report as a tool of reference when participating at regional and international forums dealing with the Millennium Development Goals.
In conclusion, as public representatives we must continuously maintain a close link with our communities to ensure that we articulate the needs of the most vulnerable in society. We must interact proactively with the executive to oversee the design and implementation of policies and interventions that are needed to eliminate the persistent inequalities between the rich and the poor; between those living in urban and those in rural areas; and for those who are disadvantaged by geographic location, sex, age, disability and ethnicity. We owe this to all our people; we dare not fail. I thank you. [Applause.]
As legislators we must obviously acknowledge the importance of attaining the Millennium Development Goals, MDGs, and at the same time we must realise that our Constitution, in its Bill of Rights, goes much further than the MDGs in creating the kind of democracy that we strive for in South Africa. Poverty, for instance, is far more than merely the lack of income. It is also the lack of schools, the absence of health facilities and the unavailability of medicine.
In ensuring that the executive meets the MDGs, oversight should be based on actual outcomes and not simply on money spent. It is not good enough to be satisfied with the clean audit report and then not to know anything about the quality of service or the impact of resources on the lives of people, especially the poor. A performance audit is just as important as a financial audit. On oversight visits, legislators should especially engage with this kind of information, which is never reflected in the annual reports of departments.
Minister Baloyi reported that the country was on course to meet its obligation to meet the target in human development by 2015. In some instances we have even exceeded the targets.
In terms of MDG 2: Achieve universal primary education, we have met the target for enrolment ratios for primary education of 99,4%. We can just tick that box and say to ourselves "target reached, well done". This figure does not, however, measure the quality of education being received, the number of days that teachers are in the classrooms, or the number of dropout children in five years' time. This does not indicate why we, despite spending about 6% of the gross domestic product, GDP, on education, form part of the bottom quartile of performers on our continent. Being guided by the MDGs is clearly not enough. As parliamentarians we should perhaps be engaging differently with these issues while we insist on oversight, be it as a member of a portfolio committee or as a head of a constituency. We should be asking, as hon Trollip said, difficult but relevant questions.
We should gather anecdotal data to enable us to form an idea of how ordinary people at ground level experience service delivery. We should visit schools, clinics, hospitals and libraries. We should regularly speak to, for example, teachers, health workers and parents. In that way we can hear first-hand what their concerns and issues are and then hold officials accountable for instances of ineffective service delivery.
Oversight, then, is a tool to ensure that the services that are delivered make a difference in the lives of people. The objective of oversight anywhere in the world is to raise the level of accountability. Parliament has a mandate to hold the executive to account. We can expect from them and demand of them to attend meetings to convey certain information we need for exercising our oversight duty in a proper fashion.
We must hold officials to account and summon them to appear before the committee whenever we find it necessary. If a director-general, in the Free State would not allow a portfolio committee to perform oversight at a Thusong centre in Kroonstad, she should be summoned to appear before the portfolio committee because officials are by law accountable to Parliament. Officials must be expected to account, to answer difficult questions concerning service delivery.
Parliament and provincial legislatures indeed have a very constructive role to play in attaining the Millennium Development Goals. Members of Parliament and MPLs should ensure that the achievement of the MDGs is only the first step in creating the type of democracy all South African citizens are entitled to. [Applause.]
Hon Chairperson and hon members, the executive summary of the report we are considering today notes that Parliament has always had a critically important oversight role to play in monitoring the MDGs. Parliament did not always focus on reviewing these monitoring processes. Monitoring did not specifically address MDG targets and indicators, nor did it verify information submitted to Parliament. Parliament did not have a sustained and regular engagement with the departments regarding the MDGs, and civil society participation was not properly factored into the monitoring process.
This House should therefore adopt the recommendation in the report that MDG goals and targets should be mainstreamed in Parliament. This is an essential first step and we in Cope strongly suggest that this should be done. The next step is to evaluate how our country is progressing with each of the eight goals we have to meet. The gap between the rich and the poor is widening and government seems paralysed in correcting this. We are the world's most unequal nation. State resources are not being utilised effectively to eradicate poverty.
As a country we are not even doing enough to create green micro-economies to enable poor people to source energy cheaply, derive income therefrom or grow their own food. We have no five-year plan to help the most marginalised to climb out of this pit of poverty.
With regard to primary education, here again there is no five-year plan substantially to improve literacy and numeracy to an acceptable standard. Vocabulary deficits still continue to be the single largest obstacle to personal growth and advancement. If these vocabulary deficits are not remedied, our education will lag behind that of most countries.
Gender-based violence is still a scar on our young democracy. The high incidence of rape and other forms of violence against women needs to be vigorously tackled, not only by the police but by society in general. Programmes to empower women economically must be escalated.
Child mortality is another area in which we as a country are doing very poorly. The problem needs to be tackled through the thorough education of young women regarding sexual health, pregnancy, HIV/Aids, breastfeeding, immunisation, nutrition and child care. State-sponsored community-based support should occur on a wider scale. Help for childhood diseases should be brought closer to communities. Hospitals and clinics should also be challenged to improve their record in respect of child mortality.
Regarding maternal health, once again our democratic government has not been able to bring down the maternal mortality ratio in any significant way. In a country where radio is easily accessible - to a large extent, television also - not enough is being done to help women acquire greater knowledge of pregnancy and childbearing, yet knowledge is the best means of improving maternal health.
With regard to HIV/Aids, malaria and other diseases, if a million people in South Africa fully understood what retroviruses were and how they compromised the body's immune system, such knowledge would filter through to the ground.
Hon Njobe, your time has expired.
But I have seven more seconds ... [Laughter.]
Mine says minus eleven.
Hon Chairperson, the Millennium Development Goals, MDGs, are a declaration of intent and a veritable commitment to action by the 193 United Nations, member countries, seeking to address the reduction and eradication of many of the socioeconomic ills that plague humanity today. Goals have been set and agreed to and the deadline of 2015 accepted.
We are already 11 years into the 15-year term set for the achievement of these goals, and there is still a great deal of work to be done. Our role as Parliament must therefore be one of diligent and proactive oversight of the executive in order to ensure that everything that can be done is being done by both the executive and ourselves in the realisation of these goals for the benefit of our people.
It is vital that the status quo regarding the MDGs is assessed and corrective action taken, to ensure that the goals are met by the deadline of 2015. In this regard, the consultative seminar hosted recently by Parliament, as well as our periodic reports to the UN, are vital in ensuring that our cause is maintained and the goals are timeously accomplished.
The consultative seminar focused on methods that would facilitate oversight, standardise monitoring formats and enhance communication by all relevant stakeholders. Emphasis was laid on the use of information and communication technology as a form of communication between all stakeholders, not only because of its speed and ease of use, but also for its minimal impact upon resources and the environment. Minimum prescribed meetings by a monitoring committee were agreed upon and a yearly seminar scheduled in order to ascertain progress herein.
In conclusion, reports and input by legislatures will now be included in country reports and used as a basis for interaction between provincial and national spheres. [Applause.]
Chairperson, since the start of our democratic dispensation in 1994, we have battled to root out poverty and reduce the growing levels of inequality. Though we have managed to create opportunities, not enough has been done to broaden access to those opportunities for as many people as we possibly can. While efforts have been made to eradicate extreme poverty, and achieve universal primary education and other noble MDGs, not enough has been done to ensure that in areas such as education and health our people receive quality services.
We must, however, hasten to point out that we are pleased by the new approach, which seeks to map out how better co-ordination and relations between the three spheres of government, academic institutions and civil society organisations could improve oversight over the MDGs. We can only achieve the MDGs and thus improve the plight of the poor if we communicate regular feedback on the progress we make and areas of improvement. Ke a leboga. [Thank you.]
Chairperson and hon members, among others, the objectives of the seminar were, firstly, to develop a comprehensive understanding of the state of affairs regarding the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals, MDGs, at local, provincial and national government levels, through the work of the committees of Parliament.
The second objective was to determine the contribution of the legislative sector - which is Parliament and provincial legislatures, as well as local councils - to the achievement of the MDGs. The role of Parliament and parliamentarians in ensuring progress towards the achievement of MDG targets cannot be overemphasised. It has been recognised globally and serves as an impetus for accelerating improvement of the lives of the citizens.
In terms of the Republic of South Africa's Constitution, Parliament, as the legislative arm of the state, has an obligation to conduct oversight over the action of the executive and has a critical role to play in ensuring the attainment of these goals by 2015. The Interparliamentary Union, IPU, asserted that more focused work needed to be undertaken by legislatures to monitor progress towards the attainment of the MDGs.
Through extensive interaction, deliberations on presentations and periodic reports presented by the delegates to the seminar, it transpired that, as much as the MDGs are important, the Freedom Charter and the Constitution are ultimately the key pledges to advance equality and human dignity and uproot poverty.
The long-term benefits of parliamentary engagement with the MDGs are manifold and can, among other things, result in enhanced consensus on MDG- related policy issues; increased national ownership of the MDGs; and the creation of a higher profile for the MDGs in the country. Parliamentary engagement with the MDGs can also offer governments a national platform to share policies aimed at achieving the MDGs; afford civil society organisations and nonmajority groups an opportunity to voice their opinions on MDG-related policies, as well as on the progress made towards their achievement; and create an open and transparent mechanism for countries to monitor progress towards achieving those MDG targets.
The following are observations that were made by the delegates.
Le ndlela yangoku yokulandelela nokubeka esweni ayihambi ngokwamagunya amasebe. Oko kuthetha ukuba ulwazi olufunyanwa yiPalamente kwimithombo eyahlukileyo efana noMphicothi-zincwadi jikelele, amasebe karhulumente, njalo njalo alwanelanga ukuba kungabhaqwa kulinganiswe ukuba izimali ezabiweyo zisetyenziswe ngendlela efanelekileyo na. Ukufak'ingxelo ngempumelelo ngokusebenzisa inkqubo kaphawula ibhokisi, laa nto ke esithi sifika sijonge, simana sibuza ukuba into ethile iyenzeka, sihambe. Lo nto ayibonakalisi umngangatho weenkonzo ezinikezelweyo, kuquka nokukhawulelana nomba kamakulinganwe kunye nokusebenza ngokuvakalayo kwemigaqo-nkqubo nemithetho epasisisweyo.
Ingcaciso enganelanga nokuqondakala kwemisebenzi yangoku kusenokuba negalelo ekuphazamiseni inkqubela-phambili karhulumente yokuphumeza izibhambathiso zeeMGD. (Translation of isiXhosa paragraphs follows.)
[The manner in which supervision and monitoring take place nowadays does not go according to departmental mandate. This means that the information gathered by Parliament from different sources such as the Auditor-General, government departments and so on, is not sufficient to measure and find out whether the allocated funds were utilised appropriately.
To give a report regarding success based on ticking a box, which is what we usually do when we monitor - we ask a few questions regarding how a particular issue is handled and thereafter we leave - does not reflect the standard of service delivery, including equity and the effective implementation of policies and Acts that have been promulgated.
Insufficient explanation and understanding of today's fields of employment can contribute towards disrupting government's progress towards achieving the objectives of the MDGs.]
Some of the barriers to the provision of quality education include poor management, poor levels of teaching and inadequately skilled teachers to teach the current curriculum. The inability to provide quality education is also compounded by the lack of well-resourced science laboratories, especially in rural and township schools.
As a result of poor financial management, schools are unable to develop and maintain existing infrastructure. There is also a nonalignment of strategic plans and budgets to meet the targets on the MDGs. Currently, the MDGs are not adequately incorporated into targets and indicators of government plans and programmes. Oversight planning and activities by legislatures also do not incorporate the MDG programme. The departmental budgets and plans lack development programmes for women, the youth and co-operatives.
There is a lack of impact assessments and evaluation of policies and legislation passed in relation to the MDGs. There is a lack of implementation and enforcement measures to enforce policies, for example, to reduce carbon emissions that result in air pollution and to conserve the wetlands. A lack of capacity in monitoring and evaluation was cited as a factor that contributed towards hindering progress. There is also a lack of research capacity in legislatures and a lack of systems to monitor and combat fraud and corruption practices in some of the departments. Municipalities lack capacity to monitor and enforce bylaws to protect the environment and deal with the management of medical waste. There is also no comprehensive communication strategy to promote and enhance the active participation of various stakeholders in the endeavour to meet the MDGs.
The lack of cost recovery mechanisms therefore poses a real possibility for unfunded mandates, and the reality remains that any authority remains provisional. There is a lack of clarity on how to fund municipalities for the operating costs associated with the provision of services related to concurrent functions. Lastly, a lack of integrated and collaborative oversight between legislatures and local governments was identified.
Xa ndiyivala, kangangokuba le ngxoxo ibalulekile, ikwazile ukuvelela zonke iinkalo, umzekelo ... [In conclusion, to show how important this debate is, it has managed to highlight all perspectives, for example ...]
... the seminar finally agreed that South Africa's challenge is not that of funding, but merely the lack of effective and quality service delivery, including the lack of monitoring mechanisms.
Loo nto ke ithetha ukuba iPalamente kufunekadingeka ukuba isebenzise yonke imithombo enayo ukuqinisekisa ukuba kuyaqinisekiswa ukongamela. Okunye okufanelekileyo ukukuba imithombo esetyenzisiweyoi yenze le nto ifanelekileyo ukuze kuphume iziphumo ezilindelekileyo. Okunye kokokuba ... (Translation of isiXhosa paragraph follows.)
[That means Parliament needs to utilise all resources at its disposal to ensure that proper monitoring takes place. In addition to that, it needs to ensure that resources utilised perform according to what is expected of them and those are expectations of producing the expected results. Furthermore ...]
... the constituencies should be empowered to understand issues around the MDGs.
Loo nto ithetha ukuthi ii-ofisi zePalamente zengingqi zamalungu kufuneka zisetyenziswe ukuze abantu bafundiswe ngeeMDG, bakwazi nokuzisa ingxelo ePalamente ngeengxaki abadibana nazo, neendawo ekufuneka bancediswe kakhulu kuzo. Loo nto ke, ifuna ukuba iPalamente mayiqinise kangangoko inakho. Ndiyabulelaonga. (Translation of isiXhosa paragraph follows.)
[That means the regional constituency offices must be utilised to educate the people about the MDGs, so that they can forward reports concerning their challenges to Parliament, as well as issues that may need parliamentary assistance. That, therefore, means Parliament must be thorough in its monitoring and evaluation. Thank you.]
The ANC supports the report. [Applause.]
Chair, focused engagement with the executive and civil society is going to be important for MPs in order for South Africa to achieve the Millennium Development Goals, MDGs.
A total of 58 000 infants under the age of five died in South Africa last year, according to the United Nations report released last week. The 2011 report shows South Africa, along with several other countries in Africa, to be making little or no progress in curbing infant mortality, with the average annual rate of reduction being less than 1% over the past 10 years.
This contrasts with international rates, which dropped by more than one third. Madagascar, Malawi and Tanzania, however, are among six of the 14 best-performing countries in the world, with under-five mortality reduced by over 50% in the past 20 years. Neonatal mortality rates have remained the same in South Africa. While HIV/Aids is largely responsible, research shows that educating mothers in ways of improving home hygiene could save the lives of many.
Behavioural attitudes in men are also thought to be key. A research paper by the South African Institute of Race Relations shows widowed men to be less likely to care for their children than widows. This directly impacts on the survival of young children, who are four times more likely to die the year following a mother's death than if the father alone had died. Siblings who are also less likely to be enrolled in school will complete fewer years of education and have less money spent on their education than children whose widowed mothers are still alive.
Behavioural changes in men are said to have impacted significantly on Zimbabwe's HIV statistics, which have almost halved in the past several years. This is attributed to a unique combination of men having less disposable income to maintain sexual relations outside marriage, widespread education, a fear of exposure to Aids deaths and the heeding of messages promoting faithful marriage. The ACDP calls on all men in South Africa to take up the challenge and prove the current research wrong.
As I said, the role of Parliament includes engagement with the executive and civil society ... [Time expired.]
Madam Chair, of the 852 million people worldwide suffering from hunger, 796 million live in countries of the developing world and 315 million of those - that is 37% - live in sub-Saharan Africa. Worldwide, half of all people suffering from hunger live in rural areas. This means that the greatest effort to end hunger and poverty should be in the rural areas.
The adoption of the Millennium Development Goals by many governments of developing and developed countries is enough evidence of the common agreement on the urgency to end world poverty and hunger. At the global level, there have been policy declarations and policy initiatives towards this.
The key to solving this crisis lies in unlocking the full potential of rural economies. Many countries have initiated plans to do just that. Some of these plans include poverty reduction strategies, initiatives on HIV/Aids and rural development plans. The private sector and NGOs have also contributed to overcoming this challenge.
But more still needs to be done to improve the lives of poor people in rural areas. Difficulties in the agricultural sector across the world have compounded this crisis. Agriculture has experienced a number of damaging shocks in recent years, such as record high oil prices, commodity price spikes, challenging trade restrictions and, of course, the global economic downturn. Although the world produces more than enough food to feed its population, many people still cannot gain access to food markets or afford to buy food. The questions are: What are the implications for South Africa? Is our government able and willing to take note of the situation?
According to us, we need to drive expansion in our agricultural sector for the benefit of all our people. By developing our rural economies, we can create new jobs and spread wealth more equitably.
Successful land reform has certainly been one of the largest challenges in agricultural development. We need to have a successful land reform policy. We need to focus on two objectives in this regard, namely equity and productivity, and we need to balance these two objectives responsibly. It is not enough just to transfer land. We need to make sure that those farmers have the support, knowledge and capital necessary to be successful.
The challenge to be met is therefore to arrange land and agricultural matters in such a way that both equity and productivity are improved. This will contribute to real redress in rural areas, redistribution, improving living standards and, importantly, food security and economic growth. We need to do the following to balance equity and productivity: Firstly, we must have a clear policy framework to induce confidence and enhance investment in the sector - and threats to nationalise land and limit farm sizes destroy the needed confidence.
Secondly, the admitted failure of the restitution programme to maintain production needs a new approach. We must overhaul our land reform programme to ensure that emerging farmers have adequate support. We need to identify people with an interest in farming and have proper partnership agreements between experienced and new farmers.
Thirdly, new farm owners should have freehold title ownership to unlock the economic potential of their assets. Also, the implementation of a disaster risk management system with adequate funding to manage droughts, floods and fire damages is now long overdue.
There is a need for more resources to be allocated to research and infrastructure development, and that will assist in agricultural development.
Lastly, the high crime rate in rural areas needs to be addressed. Farmers and their workers remain soft targets and millions of rands are lost annually through theft.
In conclusion, affordable food is of vital importance to reduce hunger in South Africa. The expertise of our commercial sector provides a platform for viable development. We should harness the expertise, as well as our natural resources and the ingenuity of all our people to reach our Millennium Development Goals. [Applause.]
Chairperson, obviously all this challenges us in terms of our oversight role. As leaders of South Africa and indeed the leaders of the world, when we adopted the Millennium Development Goals in the year 2000 we fundamentally committed ourselves to making the world a better place. Eleven years later, despite the great misfortunes we have to contend with as global citizens, we remain convinced that the Millennium Development Goals, MDGs, represent the pivotal global vision of our times.
There is an author by the name of John C Maxwell who talks about this vision. He says:
The vision begins with one person, but it is only accomplished by many people.
I therefore believe that our presence here today epitomises yet another collective effort towards further championing this global vision, not only in thought but also in action. During our consultative seminar on the MDGs last month it became very clear that together we can certainly do more to further advance the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals.
Today we present to Parliament the report of the consultative seminar on the Millennium Development Goals that took place on 5 and 6 September 2011. This report represents yet another major achievement as we seek to find ways and means of achieving the MDGs within the legislative sector's context.
There is no doubt that the consultative seminar gave us yet another opportunity for reflection on the path we have travelled in seeking to achieve the MDGs. In the process, and as recorded in South Africa's 2010 country report on the Millennium Development Goals, we have noted with pride the progress achieved thus far regarding the implementation of the MDGs. We have also noted with a sense of duty that challenges still lie ahead as we head towards the 2015 reporting process.
We believe that meaningful oversight work regarding the implementation of the MDGs is imperative in ensuring that our government is able to deliver on its global commitments for the benefit of our local communities. In the context of our respective mandates as partners for social change, Parliament, and the provincial legislatures too, have a formidable role to play in the achievement of the eight MDGs. We therefore applaud the collective efforts of the National Assembly and the NCOP in ensuring that the entire legislative sector collaborates in contributing towards the achievement of the MDGs within the context of effective oversight.
The Portfolio Committee on Public Service and Administration has recently been talking a lot about the collaboration of institutions as it conducts its oversight on major strategic and political tasks. The buzz words "collaboration of institutions" become critical because it is only when more institutions come together that you can realise a greater impact in terms of our role of oversight. We believe that such a task will make us work better and smarter as we seek to achieve our major objective: holding government accountable in fulfilling its global commitment for the benefit of the local communities. [Interjections.]
Members, please keep the noise level down. Please continue, hon member.
Section 195 of Chapter 10 of the Constitution, which addresses public administration, requires that the Portfolio Committee on Public Service and Administration, on behalf of this Parliament, has the task of overseeing the entire Public Service. This means that this committee has the responsibility to oversee entire clusters of government, which include governance and administration, peace and stability, social development and transformation and the economic sector and employment. And the portfolio committee did as it was required to do.
In the context of the MDGs, the Portfolio Committee on Public Service and Administration has a keen interest in determining the extent to which the implementation of the MDGs has filtered through to the intended beneficiaries. It was a privilege to oversee all the clusters, as it provided an overarching insight into the work of government in its entirety.
It is pleasing to realise that as a country we are making progress towards the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals in a number of important areas. As recorded in the 2010 country report, notable progress has been made in relation to MDG 1, which focuses on the eradication of extreme poverty and hunger, and MDG 3, which focuses on the promotion of gender equality and the empowering of women. These are largely located within the governance and administration cluster.
In this context, these two goals have received much attention in terms of their implementation through government departments that fall within the governance and administration cluster. Among other things, gender parity in the political sphere of our country is being progressively addressed. According to the United Nations Development Programme, UNDP, South African report, more than 40% of the 400 seats in Parliament are held by women. The report also shows that this progressive trend in women's representation has been achieved in the provincial legislatures too. Since 1994, women's representation in the provincial legislatures has increased from 25,4% to 42,4%. Globally, South Africa is rated 3rd in the world with regard to countries with the highest number of women MPs. In terms of gender parity, therefore, the country is closer to achieving its 50% target with regard to representation in the political sphere.
The overall assessment of the country's progress against MDG 3, which focuses on gender equality and empowerment of women, is that there have been significant achievements, mainly from our government. These include the establishment of a Ministry for Women, Children and People with Disabilities; an Office on the Status of Women in all provinces in the premiers' offices; a Joint Monitoring Committee on Improvement of Quality of Life and Status of Women; the existence of the Commission for Gender Equality; the enactment of the Employment Equity Act of 1998; and the Promotion of Equality and Prevention of Unfair Discrimination Act of 2000.
We are also happy that the following initiatives have occurred to ensure that gender parity and the empowerment of women actually happen while we are still alive, not later, when we are dead. Our youth will say, "It happened in our lifetime." These include the establishment of the parliamentary Multiparty Gender Caucus; that South African female parliamentarians actively participate in the UN programmes that promote gender equality and seek to assist in the achievement of the MDGs; and the adoption of a 50% target for the employment of women in senior management positions in the Public Service, with 36,6% having been recorded so far in 2010.
There is no doubt that progress has been made towards the achievement of MDG 3. During the oversight activities that we embarked upon, we also recorded progress regarding MDG 1, which is eradicating extreme poverty and hunger. This has been possible through government's many interventions, which include the focus on achieving full and productive employment and decent work for all, including for women and young people. The oversight visits undertaken by the committee to Thusong centres in Gauteng and the Northern Cape and, just last Monday, to two more centres in the Free State, determined that these centres do indeed contribute positively towards job creation.
In spite of some of the achievements articulated here, our country report indicates that more still needs to be done towards achieving the 2015 deadline. In the context of our constitutional mandate, Parliament and the provincial legislatures have to play a formidable role in the achievement of the eight MDGs. This means that Parliament has a more enhanced role in overseeing the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals by 2015.
We are happy that the report on the consultative seminar on the MDGs has captured very important recommendations made by various commissions in relation to the role of Parliament and legislatures in the achievement of the MDGs. In terms of some of the recommendations, it seems necessary to change our current model of portfolio committees and put the emphasis on co- ordination and integration with regard to overseeing the implementation of the MDGs. The committees of Parliament would have to be empowered to take charge of crosscutting oversight roles over transversal programmes such as the MDGs and the values articulated in section 195 of the Constitution.
This therefore means that we would have to encourage the cluster formation because the government that we are overseeing has already organised itself in the form of clusters. That will make our work much easier and more reasonable and will avoid repetition, duplication and the crisscrossing of various committees. It will make sense if things are done that way.
As we consider the report on the consultative seminar focusing on the role of Parliament and provincial legislatures in the achievement of the MDGs, it is critical that Parliament looks at adopting an implementation strategy and a plan of action regarding the recommendations that are articulated in the report. Since today is a long day I won't take hon members through all the recommendations - they do appear in the report. This would ensure that Parliament and its committees derived maximum value from the consultative seminar on MDGs and that parliamentarians were able to play their "enhanced role" in overseeing the attainment of the MDGs.
It is important to indicate that what becomes important is the separation of powers. As you know, government will have its role of oversight, Parliament will have its role of oversight, and the judiciary should do its work. We need to understand that. We also need to watch out carefully that we don't have one institution playing a role that seems to threaten or topple our democracy. "Constitutional experts" who connive to co-govern with the ANC are problematic because there seems to be a leg that wants to topple the democracy that the ANC has achieved, because the history of the ANC is written in blood. It is important for us, in terms of the separation of roles, that no one leg wants to see itself emerging and asserting a certain kind of democracy that we don't understand.
We need to discuss the clear separation of roles, especially when it comes to MDGs. We must discuss who is supposed to do what. We know that the report has come from the civil service and government. We now realise that the crisscrossing of roles in terms of the separation of powers is a problem. There are areas where we see that democracy might be toppled. Perhaps, Chairperson, I need to leave it at that.
Debate concluded.
Chairperson, I move:
That the report be adopted.
Motion agreed to.
Report accordingly adopted.