Thank you, hon Deputy Speaker, for protecting me against hon Ellis. Conditional grants to local government aim to eradicate backlogs and build institutional financial capacity in local government. The total value of conditional grants, directly transferred to local government, including the water operating subsidy, increased from R27,5 billion in 2011-12 to R30,4 billion in 2012-13 and R32,7 billion in 2013-14.
The allocations referred to previously will indeed strengthen the developmental agenda of local government throughout the length and breadth of our country. As an activist Parliament, our committees are therefore called upon to exercise quality oversight to ensure that funds go where expected.
We must ensure that there is value for money, quality in spending, sustainability of projects and that the developmental impact is felt by our communities.
The current Bill under consideration is most important in the sense that it forms the foundational base for financing the New Economic Growth Path which takes the country into an innovative developmental trajectory. It is a path that focuses on the sustainability and inclusiveness of our economic model. It promotes economic growth, but also the quality of that growth, in the form of equity, job creation, improvement of the quality of all the people's lives, irrespective of their economic or social status.
It is a growth path that takes us to the society espoused in the Freedom Charter. In this regard, we welcome the emphasis it has placed on providing financial resources towards job creation programmes, education and training, social and economic infrastructure and health services. Most importantly, we are pleased with the progressive increase in the allocations towards local government, as this is the bedrock of service delivery to our people.
Going forward, we wish to continue on this path in order to increase the capacity of the provincial and local spheres of government. The 2011-12 Division of Revenue Bill places us firmly on course for addressing uneven development, economic disparities, unemployment, poverty, and the legacy of the past apartheid spatial planning and development. As the ANC, we commend and support this Division of Revenue Bill. I thank you. [Applause.]