Hon House Chair, let me respect the Chairperson of the NCOP, the Chief Whip of the NCOP, special delegates and my colleagues. Chair; allow me to have an entry point in the debate my quoting one of the military genius, the master of tactic and its applications, General Von Nguyen Giap:
If a nation is determined to stand up, it is strong. A commander's greatest source of happiness is to stand by his soldiers on the battlefields. We can put the past behind, but we cannot completely forget it.
This connects to the quote that I want to lift up from the political report of the SACP Central Committee February 2019. It avers:
The crisis of social reproduction is most of our communities manifest in many ways including many ways including economic challenges of location of most of our communities far away from the centres of economic production.
This is ingrained in the systematic reproduction of the apartheid spatial planning and human settlement which is the continuation of the past in the present. We have a sacred duty to restore the integrity of our democratic revolution.
The revolution must use its discursive power to imperiously intervene in the desperate conditions of the mass forest of our people. Because optimism is radical and therefore the hard choice and most needed in the face of despair just as the car as most useful when there is a distance to close. History and fable show nothing is ever entirely lost. No hope is ever too small optimism is our instinct to inhale while suffocating. Our need is to declare what needs to be in the face of what is. Optimism is our instinct to inhale. Optimism is not uncool; it is rebellious and daring and vital because believing is an act of rebellion.
I am quoting a person called Guillermo Del Toro. Governance is a process structured organisational tradition that determines how
power is being exercised and how decisions are taken and those involved be held accountable. Governance is about methods used to establish strategic goals and development of strategies and space given to evaluate accountability.
Elements that are involved are accountability, authority, decision- making processes which form the basic facets of governance. Hon Chair, just make me aware when I am left with two minutes so that I reprioritize. The current equitable share model or formula is not helping our municipalities. It needs a serious review in the immediate future of the Sixth Parliament. The local government raises revenue mainly from the charges, rates and taxes. As a state and society we need to synthesise the past experience and seriously analyse the concrete conditions with an implacable will power to change what is not working.
We stand for all strength without any fear or doubt in the face of the suffering of our people and the tormenting poverty that characterised their daily lives. We need serious focus on local economic development and business initiatives by our people within the context of sustainable development, strategic planning and monitoring economic activities laced with co-ordination for the benefit of our people.
The issues of demarcation of municipality boundaries, at the centre, should be the needs of our people, the social progress and the enhancement of strategic objectives of planning and deepening democracy. This should be the scientific outcome that advances transformation and accountability in local government. That should be developmental in content and form. Once we understood the above, it is our sacred duty to fight and defend parasitic forces with their sordid schemes and charge all master grand larceny who are looting our state resources.
Our people cannot suffer because of the connivance of leaders with their grisly schemes. We must interrupt the intersections that produce conditions for corruption. Our war against corruption must be caustically with political sanguine that gives hope to our people. We need a responsiveness and efficient governance in our institutions on the basis of the social needs of our people and the centre of this is integrated approach on development and planning with the shrewd foresight.
In this process of Taking Parliament to the People we interact with our people by public hearings. Allow me House Chairperson to lift up two desperate cases which need imperious intervention. The case of Vanilla Mkhonza from Tembisa who is visually disabled since 2012 and
wants her job back and be allocated a school to continue working. The case of Sylvia Mabona, Ward 94 is struggling to get a space for a child and was taken from pillar to post. It is only good to highlight and appreciate the good work of our nonprofit organisations' initiatives by our people in our communities. We need to pay special attention to the expenditure of the centre we visited during that process. The repatriation centre which its operations and workings takes R9 million monthly for taking illegal foreign nationals back to their original country and this is not sustainable.
The financial sector must be forced to transform and invest in productive investment in our society. This sector should be forced to invest in housing, skills development and education. We do not need makeshift projects which are far lesser on impact and the dignity of our people. We need to give momentum to the process of land access for human settlement in our municipalities. Our municipalities should be discouraged to sell land to developers who make profit out of these transactions whom people cannot even afford to buy such serviced sites.
This approach undermines strategic objectives of land distribution and ownership by the people. We need to firm up our efforts and
impetus to allocate adequate houses for disabled people. We remain tenacious that all challenges in local government can only be surmountable with judicious leadership and commitment to serve our people. Thank you. [Applause.]