Do you see me? Do you hear me? Do I matter? [Interjections.] Three questions, Deputy Speaker, that the department has failed to answer. [Interjections.]
Hon members, do you hear me? Lower your voices, please! Please! Order! [Interjections.]
In turn, young people have been left ... [Interjections.]
Order! Order! [Interjections.] Go ahead, hon member.
Thank you.
In turn, we have been left with the brutal symptoms of the New Dawn. Youth unemployment continues to kill our dreams and hopes. This is not because young people have not fought. We have fought for our ideas to be put on the table. We have voted in hope of change. Young people have fought to have a seat at the table, yet we find ourselves at a dinner menu, slaughtered at the out by unending promises that have never seen the light of day.
How exactly do we expect this department to answer these questions when the Minister has failed to attend three consecutive meetings of the portfolio committee? These questions remain unanswered.
The failure of this department is a moral injustice. We are a country at war with our women. At the height of an outbreak of gender-based violence, the department made no meaningful interventions to show the nation that it is
indeed important. One wonders if it has failed to show itself as a pioneer.
The National Youth Development Agency, NYDA - which is tasked with creating jobs and skills opportunities for the youth - is currently without a board and unable to take decisions about the economic crisis that we face. This means that the governance of this institution is rendered useless. Don't forget that the unemployment statistics have just hit an 11-year high. So exactly what are young people supposed to do?
This conversation has gone on for way too long. We can no longer have conversations without including people with disabilities. This needs to stop.
The repeat finding of irregular, unauthorised, fruitless and wasteful expenditure is something which we have not been able to ask the Minister about because she has not been attending our meetings.
One thing we must remember is that history has a way of looking better than what it was. I hope that the record
reflects that this department has ignored the cries of vulnerable people. We reject the budget. Thank you. [Time expired.]
IsiZulu:
Njenge-EFF siyasichitha le sabiwomali sonyaka wezi-2019-20 [Ubuwelewele.] Lo Mnyango akukho nokukodwa okwenzela abantu besifazane. Intsha edlula amaphesenti angama-50 ayisebenzi kodwa ineziqu ifundile. Bahluleka nokuyenzela izinto engazenza intsha ukuze iphile. Intsha ize igcine ithatha indlela yokuzibulala ngenxa yemikhuba yenu nina ANC.
Abantu abakhubazekile ababhekelelwe neze noma kwakhiwa izakhiwa zikahulumeni. Ukuthi bazohamba kanjani noma bazongena kanjani ehhovisi kodwa nibafakile ohlelweni - lezi gebengu lezi. [Ihlombe.] Omama nabafelokazi basaxhashazwa lana kulo hulumeni ophethe we-ANC.
Laphaya eKhayamnandi eNtshonalanga Kapa sinenkinga enkulu esayibona ngowezi- 2015 abantu besifazane nabakhubazekile bama emiqgeni emide ngoba izindlu zangasese zikude nezindlu zabo. Izindlu abahlala kuzo zincane bahlala
phakathi bonke abesilisa, izingane ekamelweni elilodwa. [Ubuwelewele.] Iwadi le-12, 13,14 15 laba bantu basebenzisa indlu yangasese eyodwa abesilisa nabesifazane futhi bama imigqa ebusuku nasemini. [Ubuwelewele.] Inkinga ukuthi amacala abikiwe wabantu abahlukunyeziwe ngokwecansi nokuhlukunyezwa kwabantu besifazane lo hulumeni akakwazi ukuthi asitshele ukuthi asekuphi futhi athethwa nini nanokuthi bagwetshwa nini abantu. Abantu besifazane basahlukunyezwa ngokwecansi, bahlukunyezwa nangokwemisebenzi nangokwemihlaba. [Ihlombe.]
Sithi uhulumeni lo we-ANC funeka wazi ukuthi i-NPA iyehluleka ukulandela amacala akhona. Sicela uRamaphosa azi ukuthi ... [Kwaphela isikhathi.]
Deputy Chair ...
Speaker. [Laughter.]
Hon members and Minister in the Presidency for Women, one of the biggest oversights of this department is the lack of attention paid to women with disabilities. Women, as we know, have a harder time
entering the economy. This becomes further ... [Inaudible.] ... when these same women try to enter the economy through jobs or the opening of or operating of business.
This department needs to spend more money to ensure that disabled people such as those in wheelchairs are adequately assisted and are not limited by services not being available to them. For example, those who rely on wheelchairs for mobility and do not have their own transport often struggle to access taxi services in South Africa, while transport legislation needs to be amended to accommodate this need.
It is this department that must put forward the need for all taxis to be adequately equipped to safely and responsibly accommodate people living with disabilities. This department needs to spend its resources carefully in this regard to avoid further neglect of those people living with disability.
There is a backlog in the processing of claims for services rendered to government. At the presidential
dialogue last week, women entrepreneurs complained about not being paid on time.
IsiZulu:
USEKELA SOMLOMO: Mama uHlengwa isikhathi siphelile.
Yebo, siwu-IFP siyasesekela le sabiwomali. [Ihlombe.]
Deputy Speaker, in an ideal world and in an ideal democracy we should not even have a department like this. This is a department that should actually be obsolete because our women, our young people and our people living with disabilities are truly equal members of our society and there should be no discrimination against anyone.
I'm concerned about this department. There are a number of concerns that I have noted in the Budgetary Review and Recommendation Report. Core mandates of the department are lagging behind to the detriment of the people of South Africa.
I have mentioned this before, and I feel I have to reiterate this as it is a project close to my heart: the sanitary dignity project. National Treasury allocated R157 million to this project and distributed this to provincial departments. Then the department budgeted and additional R7,6 million to that allocation for the same project. Yet, there seems to be little to no co- ordination. The question thus begs to be asked: Are our girls being helped? Do our girls have sanitary dignity, and have the lives of these girls been improved since the inception of this project?
I think the answers to these questions will astound us all.
Afrikaans:
As daar gekyk word na die teikens van die departement asook die verbeteringe in hul teikens, sal ons sien dat dit amper uitsluitlik uit Program 1: Administrasie is.
Wanneer gekyk word na kern teikens - core mandates - lyk die prentjie maar power.
Die departement laat die indruk wek dat slegs goed lyk op papier belangriker is as wat die uitset en die werklike sukses van projekte is.
Ek deel die vrees van die Ouditeur-Generaal dat die organogram steeds top- heavy is, met min vakatures, maar dat daar steeds beperkte personneel is om kernprojekte uit te voer.
English:
We can go on and on about this project, but I believe the biggest challenge we face in this department is that it is lacking in proper leadership, as we can see by the empty seat of the Minister in the Presidency for Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities. [Time expired.]
Deputy Speaker, the African Transformation Movement supports the Report.
After scrutinising the department's report, we said to ourselves, R230 million is too little for the core function of this department, because this department
deals with vulnerable groups - women, youth and people with disabilities.
So, what can R230 million do for that department?
Out of R230 million, it has to transfer R80,7 million to the Commission for Gender Equality. That means the department is left with only R149,5 million. That lacks seriousness for those that really are supposed to make the point that at least there is increment allocation to this critical department.
However, we are saying, we are a little bit frustrated by the audit outcomes of this department because, if you have a budget of R230 million, we are expecting a clean audit, not a qualified audit opinion. So we are encouraging the audit committees and the risk committees of that department to come closer to that department.
Over and above the underspending of R149 million, it is unacceptable. Having R149 million, having this critical department and there is underspending and underspending
is around the core function of this department, that is Program 2 ...
And again, the Auditor-General's findings of this department of irregular and fruitless expenditure in an amount of R4 million is unacceptable. Fruitless and wasteful expenditure of R334 000 is unacceptable. A total of R30 million unauthorised expenditure from previous years ...
So, we are saying we support the report. Thank you. [Time expired.]
Declarations of vote (contd):
Hon deputy speaker, my colleague asked: What should the department do with R230 million? What can the Department of Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities do? They can champion the cause of women, youth and people living with disabilities.
The ACDP has considered this Budgetary Review and Recommendation, BRR, Report including the many concerns
and recommendations expressed by the Portfolio Committee on Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities.
This Report must be seen against the public outrage following the murder of a number of women, including University of Western Cape, UWC, student, Jesse Hess.
While we welcome President Ramaphosa's action plan to find gender-based violence with an additional R1,8 billion going towards funding programmes and shelters and Thuthuzela Care Centres, much still needs to be done to protect vulnerable women and children.
What is disturbing is that two months after the murder of Jesse Hess and her grandfather, no one has been arrested and very little progress has been made with this investigation. Jesse's family is still waiting on a forensic report; over two months after her death.
This appears to be the case with so many similar murder and rape cases. The perpetrators are never found and the victims just become crime statistics. This is unacceptable. There are many families who seek for
resolution for what was done to their mothers, sisters and friends.
This department should make a goal to engage with police and sectors of the criminal justice system to ensure that cases are prosecuted.
So, again, what do you do with R230 million? You champion the cause of women and person living with disabilities and youth. And you make sure that criminals go to jail ... who does things against women and children and people living with disabilities. I thank you. [Applause.]
Deputy Speaker, the NFP notes and welcomes the report of the Department of Women, Youth and Persons with disabilities tabled here today.
But allow me to congratulate Magistrate Goolam Bawa today for authorizing the naming of the suspect in the murder of the University of Cape Town, UCT, student, Uyinene, who was murdered recently and the suspect is Luyanda Botha. And I think some time today the magistrate has
authorized that he can actually be named; they were trying to protect that before.
Now, what we've noticed here is that while this department has spent 94,7% of its budget, it failed to achieve 68% of its targets.
The question that we ask is: Would the President, in this announcement that he made recently that over R1 billion and now I think it's going to about R1,6 billion that is going to be set aside to deal with issues of gender- based violence and things ... and if this is how this particular department, and I'm not saying the entire resources is going to this department, but if this is how this department performs and a great percentage of those funds are going to go to this department, then really I don't believe that they are going to achieve much in protecting women, youth and children.
The issue ... I've had a call yesterday of a girl that was assaulted, severely assaulted because she had in fact borrowed money from a loan shark, her stuff was taken away, she went through to the police and the police said
to her "NO, you must go through to the clinic, the day hospital and get a report"; my understanding was she should have been sent to a district surgeon. But again what does it show? It shows that theirs is no coordination between the justice between the police; there is no professionalism at this level to deal with some of the challenges that we have.
However, the NFP will support any initiative in trying to address the challenges that our women and youth in South Africa face. Thank you. [Applause.]
Deputy Speaker, there are a lot of families out there in the rural areas that are just living with people with disabilities but they are not known. Perhaps we may encourage that the people in the rural areas to go to the traditional leaders and they may be encouraged to assist in this regard so that we know who are these people, where do they stay and how they can be assisted.
You can imagine now a child who has not gone to school up to the age of 13 years because nothing is done about
that. Of course, we know that the department is doing something about it but it is not enough, so we should all come together and try to assist our people with disabilities.
We should also go to these areas and speak to the people that are there because we've got ward councillors in these areas who can assist the department, from local government, to give us the information so that we can be in a position to assist.
The 2% that has been put by the department for the employment of people with disabilities seems no to be working very much. It is worse now when it is 7%; perhaps this may be a dream. But now we should try to ... having given skills to these people in their centres, because they are centres for people with disabilities and they are given skills but now, this should be made use of, they should be employed, not just having skills then not being employed.
Most of the departments now are not adhering to this 2%, so, that should be discouraged. For instance, in our AIC
constituency in Gauteng, we did try to meet this 50% because we've got people now with disabilities who are employed in that office by AIC as a party there. So, that is very good, it should be appreciated. So, [Time expired.]
This department now has got unqualified audit report that is ... we do support.
Sepedi:
Motlat?asepikara wa Ngwako wo, rena bjalo ka mokgatlo wa badimo le batho - mokgatlo woo o etilego pele Afrika-Borwa - re thekga Pego ya Tebelelo ya Kabo le Ditegelo ya Kgoro ya Basadi, Baswa le Batho bao ba sa itekanelago. Ka fase ga kgoro ye go na le Et?entshi ya Boset?haba ya Tlhabollo ya Baswa yeo re ratago go e lebogi?a ka ge e ile ya hwet?a kahlolo ya tlhaki?o ye botse ya ngwaga wa ditshelete wa 2018-19.
Rena bjalo ka maloko a komiti ye, re re le ge e ka ba e le gore go na le t?e dingwe t?eo di sa fihlego ka mo kopanong ya komiti, re ka se tlogele go ?oma mo?omo wa
rena. Re tlet?e go ?oma; ga se ra tlela go ba dikgongwana t?a go lla bo?ego le mosegare re re moketekete ga a gona.
English:
We, however, note with concern the findings on legislation and regulation complimen... which is quite worrisome and has to be addressed.
Government should look at the CGE funding model with an intention to align it with Chapter 9 Institution.
The department must improve on having measurable predominant objectives and deliverables according to its mandate to better the lives of vulnerable and individuals in general.
The department is encouraged to follow due processes in reviewing its APPC and target because of its fundamental amendments and its plans and that has been approved by Parliament.
The ANC urges the department to positively implement AG's general audit and portfolio committee's recommendations which will be monitored closely by the committee.
We appreciate our oversight role in putting weight in the country's effort [Time expired.]
Sepedi:
Ke bolet?e ge re sa thoma gore rena bjalo ka ANC re a e thekga pego ye. Ke a leboga.
Question put.
Report accordingly adopted.