Deputy Chairperson, hon members, ladies and gentlemen, 29 years ago in February Nelson Mandela took the first free steps out of prison and began to work and to walk to integrate South Africa towards nationhood. Suddenly the words liberation and sovereignty were no longer treasonous, the words nation, people and freedom were no longer far an aspirational. We began to work towards services common to all our people. The Freedon Charter stopped being what Madiba described as a mixture of practical goals and poetic language. Every man and every woman in South Africa felt counted but, of course we know that, that did not automatically mean all South Africans were equal.
We know that the demographic barriers, social chains, the language, religious and cultural realities of the past 300 years of inequality remained even as we inaugurated the first democratically elected President of South Africa.
The people shall govern, was possible we said. So, our programme of Taking Parliament to the People is a direct response by Parliament towards the inclusive and participatory government of the people
that gives voice to the voiceless within our electorate. Our decision to review this programme in 2014 was meant to sharpen the voice of the public and to give ourselves the courage to tackle societal matters that we would necessarily not have had on our programmes. We then adopted the sector approach while still being open to any other business that the public might want to put before us.
Hon member we'll remember that we had our pre-visit to Gauteng from the 17th to the 21st of September 2018 following our research and desktop study which we had started conducting in early 2017. In November we visited the province and verified our research on the Gauteng Province. This report reflects on the sites we visited during both the pre-visit and the main Taking Parliament to the People.
This report captures the views of the people on many issues that affect them. Many people spoke to us. They raised concerns which ranged from the quality of education and the facilities of learning, from sanitation to water, housing, equality of housing, clinics and the crimes and scams within the service delivery chain. The people spoke out on the crimes, they did not spare the police nor did they spare the home affairs. They were quite forthright about what they
thought about us as politicians and they were also quite forthright about our public service. The discussions on the movements of South Africans across the provinces shed light on their perception on quality of services in the different spaces. This actually talks to the human and material resources which are deployed within these provinces and in particular within Gauteng.
We had commitments from the executives from local, to province, to national government. We held public hearings on education, health, safety and security of infrastructure and human settlements. We had inputs on economic growth and research. We visited various sites of service delivery in Johannesburg, Tshwane and Ekurhuleni Metro as well as the Westrand in the Motsweding District.
Throngs of people of Gauteng attended our programme. Chair, we are very proud to say that the commitments of members of this House, some members of the NA, member of the provincial legislatures and various councillors, mayors and speakers who worked with us throughout this very difficult period. We have learned a lot from this period. We get immensed in this programme, in the lives of those who have sent us here. We are driven to push forward for the integration of different races, languages and beliefs in South Africa.
Taking Parliament to the people both in Gauteng and elsewhere, brought to our attention certain matters which include the fact that Gauteng has been able to deliver and is usually considered to be the main driver population changes. Migration continues to be significant, not only demographically but also politically, economically and socially. Statistics South Africa report shows that South Africa is estimated to receive a net immigration of 1.02 million people between 2016 and 2021. Some of the challenges which are faced by the Gauteng Province are that the public held system services almost three times the number of people it serviced in 1994, a growth of 7 million to which is a growth from 7 million to about 20 million per annum.
The number of learners in the public education system grew from 1.2 in 1994 to 2.3 in 2018. Urban poverty is acute with close to 20% of residents experiencing food insecurity leading to increase in city slums. Crime, unemployment and the use of illicit drugs are the top three various concerns for the Gauteng residents. Education health and housing delivery is under pressure due to immigration and rapid urbanisation. The housing back log remains at 1 million people and 30% of the people who use the public health service are patients from the Sadaq region. Some of the consequences of migration for Gauteng highlighted during the Taking Parliament to the People
public hearings and sites visits includes the influx of workers in urban areas, increases the competition for jobs, house, educational facilities and other services. Having a large population puts pressure on the natural resources. The children of the migrants grow up in poverty and have little or no access to proper nutrition, education or health. Migrations surges can increase slum areas in cities and may increase many problems such as health, crime and pollution etc. I thank you Chair.