Hon Thandi Modise, Chairperson of the NCOP, Deputy Chairperson, the Chair of Chair, the NCOP Chief Whip, delegations from Salga, hon members of the NCOP, Deputy Ministers present, Members of Executive Council, MEC's present, traditional leaders, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, we are gathered here to debate issues of national importance on the Report of the Taking Parliament to the People main visit that occurred on 19-22 November 2018 in Gauteng.
Indeed, this was a progressive flagship programme by the NCOP to host the Taking Parliament to the People main visit as a tool to allow national, provincial government and municipalities to sit under one roof to improve the lives of our people. The Taking Parliament to the People visit to provinces is on a rotational basis and in 2018 it was Gauteng's turn.
As Gauteng, we supported this initiative from its conception including the previsits as well as the main visit to tackle the impact of migration on service delivery under the theme and I quote:
"Impact of Migration Deepening Cooperative Governance for Accelerated Service Delivery and Development".
It is therefore, a great pleasure and honour to be afforded the opportunity to debate on behalf of the Gauteng Provincial Legislature, GPL, at this important NCOP debate.
Migration is described as the movement of people from one place to another, either within a country or from one country to another. Migration happens when people are seeking employment, escaping wars, or looking for better opportunities.
Gauteng is South Africa's economic hub and has experienced migration since the gold mining boom of the 19th century. Since the first democratic elections in 1994, Gauteng has seen a dramatic growth in domestic and international migration and attracts the highest number of migrants of all South Africa's provinces.
As a result, the province is home to a wide variety of people, from many parts of the country, the continent and the world, which will need basic services at some point, as provided for in the Bill of Rights. All migrants, regardless of immigration status, enjoy these constitutional rights. In this context, Gauteng is expected to
include provision for healthcare, access to education and housing for all in its provincial Budget allocation.
As we will be celebrating 25 years of democracy, we wasted no time in building the GPL to be an activist and transformative legislature that inspire public confidence by operating in a manner that places the people at the centre of its business, vigorously advocating and promoting public interest in a nonpartisan way. In this way, the GPL is a true tribune of the people.
Over 60 service delivery sites that include schools, immigration offices of the Department of Home Affairs, hospitals, police stations and early childhood development institutions were visited. There were also public meetings that took place at the Alberton Civic Centre in the City of Ekurhuleni, to find out what service delivery issues the residents were grappling with and to hear their views about possible solutions.
The NCOP's Taking Parliament to the People, as a dynamic and progressive flagship programme of closing barriers between representatives of the people in Parliament, to realise a true people's Parliament that makes a difference in the lives of the
people. The NCOP visit to Gauteng was the last outreach programme during the fifth term of Parliament.
There has been a lot of effort and emphasis on the work bestowed upon us, as custodians of law making, oversight and public participation. This is what characterises the GPL as the epitome of creating opportunities for the people of Gauteng to participate in law making and oversight processes.
Pixley ka Isaka Seme, the founder of the ANC, once said and I quote: "the regeneration of Africa means that a new and unique civilisation is soon to be added to the world".
The profound words of Pixley ka Isaka Seme still hold true and have reverberated in the chambers of the Alberton Civic Centre, summoning Africa and the world to a new way of thinking and a new way of doing things.
The people of Gauteng have spoken. They have told us in so many ways about the stresses caused by migration in Gauteng and the pressure placed on existing health care facilities.
They told us about a series of challenges facing education, including lack of schools, poor infrastructure and overcrowding. We responded that everything was being done to deal with the challenges, most of which resulted from exponential growth of the Gauteng population, because of migration and rapid urbanisation.
I can safely indicate that currently in Gauteng, a new school is built every month in previously disadvantaged communities. These schools have been furnished with specialised equipment, including smart boards, science and computer labs and smart classrooms. The future of our children is now brighter than ever before.
Through the NCOP's Taking Parliament to the People, we have managed to tackle the triple challenges facing our people, poverty, inequality and unemployment, which remain the key socio-economic and developmental challenges in South Africa.
We are well aware that the restructured programme of Taking Parliament to the People includes a report back session, which enables the NCOP to monitor progress in implementing undertakings and accountability on the part of the executive. We are looking forward to the report back session, wherein we will provide a comprehensive report to the citizens of Gauteng and to the NCOP.
Indeed, can we claim that, in the tradition of Seme and other intellectual giants of his generation, the ANC-led government has enormously brought the National Development Plan, NDP, goals of 2030 within reach?
It has put us on a firm trajectory to being a developmental state that is accountable, focused on citizen's priorities, and capable of delivering high quality services consistently and sustainably through co-operative governance and participatory democracy.
These are some of the measures of political maturity and progress that underpin Seme's vision of Africa's regeneration. Let us first remind ourselves of the words, during his Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech, where Chief Albert Luthuli declared and I quote:
"Somewhere ahead there beckons a civilisation which will take its place in God's history with other great human syntheses Chinese, Egyptian, Jewish, European. It will not necessarily be all black: but it will be African".
The paradigm that underpins this yearning is about long-term strategic thinking informed, at the same time, by the kind of pride in history that acknowledges and draws lessons from NCOP's Taking
Parliament to the People experiences. It is a mindset that takes pride in the unique contribution that the NCOP has made to the historical advancement of humanity, as Seme did so eloquently, in his magnificent speech in Columbia University in 1906.
Let me indicate to say that in a demographic movement of people, it is generally understood that people would always move from where it is perceived there is none to where it is perceived there is plenty. So, it is not an anomaly that people are moving from anywhere else in the world coming to Gauteng, it is because they perceive there is plenty in Gauteng. It is not necessarily that there is plenty but it is perceived that there is plenty.
In conclusion, we support the recommendations of the report and you can count on our continued support of the NCOP Taking Parliament to the People Programme as we continue to improve the lives of our people. I thank you.