Thank you very much, hon Chair. Hon Minister, the issue of shortage of water requires intervention all over the country. The biggest problem is that seemingly there are no urgent
interventions available when areas are identifies as needing it. People then resort to providing water through water tankers. Water tankers cannot be a sustainable intervention. The question is, what are other urgent interventions that can be identified to address this? Also to look at issues of corruption because if we don't deal with officials or politicians who have been found with corruptive practices, we are not going to deal with this. In uThukela, for example, the department funded the uThukela district with more than R20 million and that dam is still seated there unmaintained.
The MINISTER OF HUMAN SETTLEMENTS, WATER AND SANITATION: Hon
Chair, I would like you to protect me from questions that are not on the paper being asked by hon Waters.
Yes, we do know that there is drought coming, but there is legislation. [Interjections. There is same difference. But there are processes that need to be followed. The Minister of Cogta, in consultation with me and the Minister of Agriculture will be meeting and together we have the authority to declare a drought when that is recommended to us and we would have followed all the legal steps that are necessary.
Yes, we are suffering a great deal of shortages everywhere in the country and we are very concerned about this and we have been going all out to make sure that we can give the necessary assistance. I do not hon Ngwezi that there is a great deal of corruption in this environment. This is something that we have been dealing with. [Interjections.]
AN HON MEMBER: Comrade Ngwezi!
IsiZulu:
Ngwezi! Ngwezi! Ngwezi! Ngwezi! Zakwethu ngingalilibala kanjani igama lakho. [Uhleko.] [Ubuwelewele.] Cha, ngizokhuluma ngesiZulu.
English:
There is a lot of corruption in the way that the responsibility of water is cascaded to the lowest level. I explained to you the last time I was here that one of the first things I did when I became Minister of Water was to go to KwaZulu-Natal and I experienced first hand what the problem is. We are working on that trying to make sure that whenever it is possible the Minister will intervention, whenever it is possible the Mec will intervene.
But the structure of government as it stands now requires certain ways in which we are able to intervene and give the necessary support. The level of corruption is greater at the level of municipalities which falls completely outside of the scope of the Minister of Water and Sanitation. But as I have indicated we do have regular meetings with the Minister and we are dealing with this matter and we have suggested that perhaps there should be an anticorruption Bill that deals specifically with the levels of corruption that we are experiencing that impact very negatively on our people, the poorest of the poor. Thank you.
Question 274:
The MINISTER OF SPORTS, ARTS AND CULTURE: Chair, the Department of Sports, Arts and culture and the Department of Trade and Industry have ongoing engagements of the Bill.
In April 2018 the two departments met to discuss the Bill and the ratification of the World Intellectual Property Organization, WIPO, treaties: the WIPO copyright treaty, WIPO performances and phonograms treaty, Beijing treaty and audio-visual performances, and Marrakesh treaty.
In 2018 the two departments participated and made inputs to the Portfolio Committee on Trade and Industry during the development of the Bills.
In 2019 the two departments again held a joint consultative workshop with the Ministers and the creative industry to address concerns raised by the creative industry on the Bill after it was passed in Parliament by the NA and the NCOP.
The departments met in November 2019 to discuss future of the Bills and issues of constitutionality. As we speak now, the Bills are with the legal teams of both departments so that the President is given proper counsel. Thank you. [Applause.]