Hon Acting Speaker and hon members, as I have reported to this House before, I do provide a report to each Cabinet meeting on the overdue replies to parliamentary questions, both in this House and in the NCOP. Ministers are well aware of their obligation in terms of the Constitution to account collectively and individually to Parliament for the exercise of their powers and the performance of their functions.
Having made enquiries regarding the reasons for failure to reply to the 13 outstanding questions in the period that the hon Ndlovu refers to, it would appear that the difficulty lies in the desire on the part of Ministers to provide accurate information so that they do not end up misleading the House. The nature of the questions is very extensive, and in some cases it covers provinces as well. So, that can account for the delays. However, Ministers are reminded on a regular basis at each and every sitting of Cabinet. Thank you.
Acting Speaker, thank you, hon Deputy President. It seems as if there are challenges, because if the Ministers cannot fulfil their functions because of a problem in their offices hampering them from doing so, something has to be done. One aspect is that if people who are supposed to respond to their questions are not suited to doing that, they must be fired and other people who are qualified to do the job must be employed. Two, when this House asks questions, we ask questions for information, not for our people or our own sake but for the sake of the country and that of other people, too, so that they will learn from those questions.
Therefore, if the Ministers cannot fulfil their functions, that means they are neglecting to do their duties. What are we going to do about it? Steps have to be taken against those people who are supposed to do the job properly. Thank you.
Thank you very much, hon Ndlovu. Indeed, as I stated, Ministers are well aware of their obligations to account to this House. My role and my duty really are very similar to the role of flight attendants who continue to remind even frequent flyers of the safety procedures. [Laughter.] This is what I do to my Cabinet colleagues, too; I do remind them of this obligation. I do insist that they should respond to all questions without fail.
There are some departments and Ministers, as I indicated earlier on, who always have a clean slate and no outstanding questions whatsoever. We have said to colleagues who have accumulated outstanding questions that a formula does exist in these colleagues' departments. So, please do draw lessons from that and copy what works, so that we can all have a clean slate and account to Parliament. Thank you.
Hon Acting Speaker, the very genuine undertakings from the Deputy President and also the steps he took are unfortunately not adequate at this stage because there was a decline in the number of answers given from 2010 to 2011. In fact, it worsened by 47%. Some of the worst offenders unfortunately include the President of the country. His failure rate in terms of responding to questions is 22%; that of the Minister of Correctional Services, 48,39%; the Minister of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs, 29,46%; and the Minister of Communications, 20%. Obviously, this is totally unacceptable.
Despite the fact that the National Assembly Rules provide for 10 parliamentary working days after publication of the questions, some 254 questions remained unanswered towards the end of last year. We therefore want to know what other steps you are contemplating to make a turnaround so as to make sure that the people respect the Constitution and their duty to account to Parliament and to give the necessary information - including possible deductions from their salaries. Thank you.
I can only use persuasion and constant reminders and be a gadfly to my colleagues in terms of reminding them of their responsibilities. The power to impose any penalties rests with this august House. Indeed, if there are to be some disincentives, they have got to come from this House. However, in Cabinet, we have a standing item on the agenda of every Cabinet meeting dealing with this very issue of outstanding questions. Even this morning, I provided my colleagues who have outstanding questions with the list of all questions that they have to respond to. Thank you.
Acting Speaker, hon Deputy President, to say that I am stunned by your answer about the Ministries not being able to provide proper answers is putting it mildly. Sir, indirectly you are referring to the incompetence of Ministries to answer questions. In this day of information technology, IT, and information readily available, there should not be a waiting period of longer than 10 working days.
I also wish to correct your figures. You said that 13 questions remained unanswered. As of Friday, 19 October, 332 questions remained unanswered. Sir, if you are saying that you are using the method of being the flight attendant, then I think you are offering your Ministers far too much of a lifejacket, because there isn't a penalty. There is no explanation, and, quite frankly, it smacks of arrogance that they refuse to answer questions.
On 24 November last year, you yourself said that there were no checks and balances in place and that you would attend to that. I would like to know what you have done so far, 11 months down the line. [Applause.]
Acting Speaker, hon Kalyan, the questions I am responding to, posed by the hon member Ndlovu, were those of before 31 March 2012. The question was very specific and it referred to 13 questions. I was not, by any stretch of the imagination, suggesting that those are the only outstanding questions.
I do have a list of outstanding questions that I presented to my colleagues this morning, in the Cabinet meeting. Unfortunately, I have not totalled them up but I have the numbers. I could give you the exact figure, as it were. Thank you.
Masibulele Sekela-Mongameli ngokuphinda usikhumbuze ukuba wawuphendule wathini. Siyazi ukuba xa abaPhathiswa bezama ukuba bangayikhohlisi iNdlu, ngelinye ixesha kuye kuthiwe bayonqena okanye akukho nto bayaziyo. Kodwa ke, siyi-ANC siyema sikucela kwaye sikubongoza ukuba ukhondoze ukubacela ukuba baphendule imibuzo. Sonelisekile yimpendulo yakho kwaye siyabulela ngemizamo yakho. Enkosi. (Traslation of isiXhosa paragraph follows.)
[Ms M L DUNJWA: Thank you, Deputy President, for reminding us of what you said in your reply. We know that when Ministers try not to mislead the House, they are sometimes accused of being lazy or of knowing nothing. However, as the ANC we beseech you to continue appealing to Ministers to reply to questions. We are satisfied with your reply and we thank you for your efforts. Thank you.]
Amount spent on War on Poverty Campaign
18. Mr J J McGluwa (ID) asked the Deputy President:
How much has the Anti-Poverty Programme spent since 1 January 2012 on its War on Poverty Campaign? NO3515E
Acting Speaker, hon members, including hon McGluwa, may be aware that the War on Poverty programme was created to accelerate service delivery by identifying beneficiaries who are entitled to receive already existing services from government, but for some reason or other are not. Once these beneficiaries are identified, their characteristics profiled and the services that they are entitled to identified, the War on Poverty programme then refers them to the appropriate department or agency where the budget for the particular service resides. Thus, for example, if the service needed is an identity document, then we bring in people from Home Affairs to process that application.
To this end, the War on Poverty programme does not have a dedicated budget, but the approach aims to address gaps where an existing service does not reach the beneficiary.
An important feature to also note is that once the service that has been referred to is rendered, the department or agency does not account for it separately from the rest of the services extended to all citizens. Thank you for your attention.
Acting Speaker, Deputy Speaker and hon Deputy President, as you are aware, 57% of South Africans live below the poverty line. It's actually a pity today that the answer does not accommodate the amount of money spent on poverty.
When looking at the spending of more than R200 million on President Zuma's Nkandla homestead, I would like to ask the Deputy President whether he thinks the money that has been spent is justifiable, given that we have so many people who live in poverty in South Africa. Thank you.
That sounds like a new question altogether because you are essentially asking me to comment on a matter which, correctly speaking, should be responded to by the Minister of Public Works. [Interjections.]
All I am saying is that it is actually unrelated to the war on poverty. [Interjections.] It is unrelated in the sense that we have allocations for different uses. So, if you ask how many loaves of bread we would have provided to people who go without, had we perhaps not chartered a plane but used public transport - we can go on and on and on like that. The fact of the matter is that this particular question that you are posing is not a follow-up to the question that you posed in the first instance. Thank you. [Applause.]
Madam Acting Speaker, the 2011-12 annual reports released over the last months reveal that government spent R4,67 billion on entertainment, catering and travel during that financial year. In view of our unusually high levels of unemployment, poverty and extreme inequality, how does the Deputy President justify this amount that government spent on eating, drinking and partying?
Acting Speaker, hon members, I saw this figure for the first time in the media and unfortunately there is no breakdown of what is meant by eating and drinking. This is a hell of a lot of money. [Laughter.] [Applause.] I really mean it. It's a lot of money.
I suspect that if we were to ask the Minister of Finance to look into this matter to confirm and break down the figure, you may very well find that a big chunk of it is accounted for by the fact that everything we do is in duplicate. We have to maintain all tools of trade in Pretoria as well as in Cape Town. There are lots and lots of costs in this, which I am sure would account for a big chunk of this amount. But, as I said, unfortunately I am not able to shed any light on it. It's something that I could perhaps check with my colleague, the Minister of Finance, to break it down for me, and if it pleases you I can then share with you in writing what he says. Thank you.
Acting Speaker, my question relates to the war on poverty. Hon Deputy President, Millennium Development Goal 1, MDG 1, is the Eradication of Extreme Poverty and Hunger. In 2010 the President of our country, the hon J G Zuma, said:
In addressing the scourge of poverty, MDG 1 is South Africa's first priority. We shall speed up growth and transform the economy to create decent work and sustainable livelihoods.
Hon Deputy President, from the 2011 MDG Report, which I have, I quote:
Based on recent economic growth, performance and forecasted trends, the extreme poverty rate in the sub-Saharan region is expected to fall below 36%.
Hon sir, my question is, given that the economic growth rate in our country is much lower than what was forecast two years or even a year ago, do you think South Africa is on target in reaching MDG 1 by the year 2015? Thank you.
Thank you very much, hon Singh. Indeed, our growth projections were revised downwards and therefore it may very well mean that we will not be able to meet the set targets. In fact, we have been keeping an eye on another indicator, which is the number of people who are recipients of social grants. That has also been rising. In the current global economic climate many other countries will not be able to meet the targets set in the MDGs and so it is understandable that we may not be able to meet those targets.
That is why we have been convening meetings of all stakeholders to try and lift the outlook of the country, because even the rating agencies have given us a rather negative outlook. This means that we have got to pull up our socks and do everything possible to get the economy and the confidence of investors on a firm footing so that we can indeed tackle the challenges of poverty and hunger. Thank you.
Acting Speaker, hon Deputy President, it is clear that we are not winning the war against poverty, especially if we go by the figures that have been released, in research done by the UCT Children's Institute, that 60% of children in South Africa now are living in poverty. The majority of these children come from homes that have earnings of approximately R575 on a monthly basis.
Therefore, if that is the case, it means that there should be serious intervention being planned by the government. Can you take us into your confidence as to how exactly government is planning to actually work on the special interventions to deal with poverty? When will we have realignment of antipoverty programmes directly with the National Development Plan? Thank you.
Hon members, the President took the initiative to convene all the major stakeholders in the economic sphere to try and get common appreciation of the very tight and difficult situation in which we find ourselves today, with a view to harnessing all of their brainpower and resources to see whether we can give a lift to efforts of literally pulling ourselves by our bootstraps out of this rut in which we find ourselves.
The question of levels of poverty, unemployment and inequality is accepted and well appreciated by all. However, the critical point is, what do we do about it? That is why the President felt that it was time to get out there and mobilise all of our people who are in a position to make a contribution to the effort of tackling these challenges. When all is said and done, and if you strip away all the analysis and the frills, the reality is that, unless we are able to create new jobs in a manner that would absorb new entrants as well as reduce the number of people who end up being dependent on social grants, the situation will only get worse and become a vicious cycle, as it were.
That is why the social dialogue is aimed at ensuring that all hands on deck can be mobilised for the effort of improving the economy, because the investors also follow how we are rated, and so on. We have got to address all the messages as well and begin to speak more positively. We have also been in touch with the editors in the National Editors Forum, so that we should try to communicate positive messages.
There are areas in which we are doing fairly well. Life expectancy has gone up and the mother-to-child transmission of HIV and Aids has been truncated, so there are those positive areas where we have been making better progress, but with regard to the elimination of poverty, it is only through economic growth that we will be able to address that issue. The New Growth Path and the Presidential Infrastructure Co-ordinating Commission, PICC, assist with efforts in ensuring that we pull out of this rut. Thank you. [Applause.]
Steps to ensure balance in power of three arms of govenment
19. Nkosi S P Holomisa (ANC) asked the Deputy President:
What steps does the Government intend to take to (a) ensure a balance in the powers of the three arms of government and (b) guide the judiciary to exercise judicial restraint in their decisions without applying any other measures to control the judiciary?