Hon Chairperson, hon members, special delegates, ladies and gentlemen, we arise from the province of KwaZulu-Natal, part of the unitary state of South Africa. We are happy to be a province of South Africa and not a province on our own, despite having a kingdom that we are also proud of.
I come from the province of KwaZulu-Natal, but I am a member of the ANC who is proud to lead KwaZulu-Natal. [Applause.] I am thankful that the voters voted overwhelmingly on 22 April 2009 in asking the ANC to undertake commitments as they are contained in the priorities of the manifesto that was sold to them.
The manifesto included, amongst other things, paying full attention to rural development and agrarian reform; making sure that crime is attended to, differently to before; and that the health status of our people's needs are attended to by ensuring that there are effective reforms in health care, that the ground is prepared in the province to deal with the expected national health insurance, which will assist in making sure that poor people have full access to health services, and that health services are enhanced and there is better investment in them.
As we know, as a province we are faced with tuberculosis, with multidrug- resistant tuberculosis, HIV and Aids and many other health-related diseases that are also escalated by poverty. Part of the priorities contained in the manifesto deal with food security matters, and we are worried in the province by the fact that land reform is not equal to the usage of the land. We urge the people of KwaZulu-Natal ...
... ukuthi basukume bakhe. [... to start doing something about their plight.]
We would like to ensure that they are involved and empowered. That is contained in the manifesto and it was in the provincial address by the premier in which he gave all of us tasks to undertake and commit ourselves to.
When the permanent delegates visited KwaZulu-Natal during the provincial week, we met with the speakership and the whippery on the first day, and we met with MECs of Co-operate Governance, Education and Rural Development. For us it was revealing how committed the government is to the people: the integrity of the leaders of those institutions who briefed us on the work they are already undertaking and the heads of the departments that they are employing to do the work.
We also met with the KwaZulu-Natal Local Government Association, Kwanaloga. For the past few years Kwanaloga and Salga have been receiving qualified audits. The role of Kwanaloga and Salga in supporting municipalities, capacitating and guiding them has always been questioned. But at our meeting with them we saw a turnaround plan when the new CEO of Kwanaloga, Mr Cele, shared with us how seriously worried Kwanaloga is about the support for municipalities - human resource-wise and capacity wise.
We also met with the Premier of KwaZulu-Natal and the executive council. In the briefings with them we were informed about the plans that were in place and the resources that were available to tackle the issue of service delivery in the province.
Part of the briefing was about a necessary campaign to tackle food security. The campaign "One home, one garden" is a campaign that KwaZulu- Natal has undertaken to ensure that people do stand up and have greening in their houses. We are starting to tackle the scourge of food insecurity amongst the people. [Applause.]
Matters that were challenges for us, as raised by the briefings, entailed the problems around water and sanitation. This, we believe, is a national problem and the Department of Water Affairs and water service authorities need to look seriously into water conservation and the problem of water scarcity. This is because rural development, agrarian reform and food security are dependent on water, so if we were to honestly tackle them we need water.
However, we are glad that efforts are being made. For instance, we were informed of efforts to deal with the problem of Jozini Dam, which is privately owned and which does not supply water to the surrounding areas - this dam is on fertile land in KwaZulu-Natal and the communities can't access the water contained in the dam. This matter is being tackled and we hope it will be finalised and that people will receive water from this dam. This would change the lives of the people around Jozini Dam and on the Makhathini Flats.
We were also informed of the need for co-ordination between the legislature and the NCOP, particularly in ensuring that we play our role of monitoring, evaluating progress and making sure that we assist in removing blockages to quality service delivery in the province.
We were also informed about the good work of the government in ensuring, for once and for all, that the problems of supply-chain management in the procurement of government services or the buying of goods and services by government would now be addressed. They must ensure that there is no corruption because it has been found to be a hindrance to service delivery in the province. Monies get wasted and government is being pickpocketed by some officials who are working together with businesspeople that are luring them into this wrongdoing. The plan is to work with the Special Investigating Unit and other investigating authorities to deal with the matter of corruption in government procurement.
With regard to the Dube Trade Port, we saw the potential of how it could contribute to the country and not just to the province. As I have already indicated, we are a province in the unitary state of South Africa. The investment of this government in the Dube Trade Port demonstrates its commitment to economic growth. We hope that in due course it will contribute to the economic growth of South Africa and ensure that we compete with all the exporters of the world - and that our rate of export trade will rise and assist in making contributions to our manufacturing and thus help the country to fight job losses.
In the province of KwaZulu-Natal we are thankful that the investment in peace made by the ANC has now yielded fruit. This investment has yielded fruit because there are indications of peace and stability. We believe that there wouldn't be peace and development if there was no social stability amongst people. Hence, we believe that we are now empowering communities in conflict resolution amongst themselves as part of the campaign that the government has undertaken with the people. We support the report of the provincial week as the KwaZulu-Natal government and province. Thank you, hon Chair. [Time expired.] [Applause.]