Modulasetulo, badirammogo, Tona Rre Enver Surty, Tona Rre Shiceka, yo o tsamaileng fa a fetsa go bua le rona, fa nkabo ke le kwa kgotleng ke ne ke tla re ke la me leo. Fela go botlhokwa ka gore ... (Translation of Setswana paragraph follows.)
[Mr A J L MOSEKI: Chairperson, colleagues, Minister Enver Surty, Minister Shiceka, who left after delivering his speech, if I was in the council I would have seconded but it is important because ...]
... we also represent the North West province. North West, as a progressive province, is better than other provinces and supports the passing of this legislation. We do that because we understand the importance of the development of our people in this country. The second thing is that we understand that South Africa is a unitary state.
Go nna kwa Gauteng, Bokone Bophirima kgotsa Limpopo ga go kae sepe. [It does not matter whether you live in Gauteng, the North West or Limpopo.]
The bottom line is that we are all citizens of this country. The development brought by government to communities is intended to improve the lives of all South Africans.
North West is negatively affected by cross-boundary municipalities and has lost a number of areas such as Kgalagadi, Phokwane, Mabopane, Ga-Rankuwa, Temba and now Merafong to other provinces. We never protested and are not going to do so.
Go sa ntse go na le morafe wa GaMothibi o o batlang go tswa kwa Bokone Bophirima o ye felogongwe. Ke batla go kopa gore puso e matlafatse lenaane la thuto ya set?haba gore re nne le bokao bo le bongwe ba gore Aforika Borwa ke eng. (Translation of Setswana paragraph follows.)
[There is still the community of GaMothibi who wants to move from the North West and be incorporated somewhere else. I would like to urge government to improve its programme of educating the nation so that we can all have a common understanding of what South Africa is.]
Firstly, we appeal that citizens at the lower level must have the same understanding as other citizens at other levels about what South Africa is and what it means to be a citizen of this country.
Our second appeal is in respect of what the South African Local Government Association said in terms of revenue, economic space and equity shares. North West is losing a lot in this regard. We want to urge the Minister and Cabinet to speed up the process of the review and consolidation of provinces. It is our view that if we don't do that speedily the caucus problems we have regarding Matatiele and other areas are going to continue. If you review a number of provinces in the country and consolidate them to a manageable number, you will have a permanent solution to our problems.
Another important thing we want to say, as members of the ANC having said what the North West would have wanted to say, is that the ANC-led government is a caring government. Our people must understand that if this government was not a caring government, it would not have reconsidered what the people of Merafong have been saying. It should be understood by Mr Worth and others that, being the caring organisation that we are, after realising that some of the decisions taken in the past are no longer fulfilling the interests of our people, we reviewed them and decided to address the will of our people. That shows how caring the ANC is. It is not because the DA or IFP have said something, but because we are a caring organisation.
We also want to mention this for other parties to understand that we are doing these things in the spirit of good governance. We are mindful of the fact that if people are not satisfied, there is no way that there can be good governance in this country. As a caring organisation, we want to ensure that there is good governance at all levels.
We see the need for the people of Merafong to be part of that good governance. We want them to be happy. We want the people of Merafong to enjoy the warmth of the ANC and to enjoy the love of the ANC. We are happy that we listened to the people of Merafong in the public hearings, speaking with one voice, saying that they'd want to be relocated to Gauteng. Therefore, the ANC supports the passing of this Bill. Thank you. [Applause.]