Madam Deputy Speaker, hon members and comrades, the current Budget has clearly argued that microeconomic and regulatory reforms are needed to ensure that a competitive and labour-absorbing economy emerges, especially under the circumstances of the current global economic crisis.
In this regard, the 2009 Budget has made a commitment that government will increase public investment spending, expand labour-intensive employment programmes, and work with business and organised labour to protect work opportunities and accelerate skills development.
To this end, the ANC welcomes the five principles underpinning the 2009 Budget, namely, protecting the poor, creating employment, investing in infrastructure, promoting competitiveness, and fiscal sustainability.
The ANC, in its 2009 election manifesto, recognises that despite significant progress in changing our economy to the benefit of our people, unemployment, poverty and inequality remain serious challenges. Thus, decent work should be the foundation of the fight against poverty and inequality.
Decent work embraces both the need for more jobs and for better-quality jobs. It is the protection within the discourse of labour rights. It speaks to the matters of provident funds and medical aids that promote sustainable livelihoods. It is about the promotion of the important role the mining and agriculture sector plays in the employment benefits of communities. This is effectively addressed through the current Budget as a political tool for socioeconomic development.
The principle that the Budget must respond to is that of the unemployed, of low-income workers and of vulnerable groups, all of whom stand to lose the most during the economic downturn, and who will face the greatest burden during this period. The potential of the economic downturn to destabilise the welfare of the vulnerable and increase inequality and poverty, is recognised and must be the greatest concern of the Budget.
All the activities indicated in the Budget must lead to strengthening the capacity of the domestic economy to grow and create decent jobs.
Increased public sector investment in economic infrastructure, increased resources for skills development and the introduction of effective industrial strategies, are indicators in this Budget of the areas that should be the focus over the next 3 to 5-year period.
There are fundamental aspects that emerge from the ANC's election manifesto and constitute the essence of the change and continuity theme that emerged from the 52nd national conference of the ANC. These aspects include ensuring that fisca1 and monetary policy mandates - including the active management of interest rates and exchange rates - promote the creation of decent employment, economic growth and broad-based industrialisation and reduce income inequality.
Die addisionele fondse vir Werk vir Water en Werk teen Vure, dra by tot groei en werkverskaffing en is 'n korrekte observasie van die regering se waardetoevoeging in agtergeblewe gemeenskappe.
So 'n voorbeeld is di van Christalena de Kella van Uniondale. Sy het Standard 10 in 2003 voltooi en nooit gedink dat sy 'n brandweervrou sou word nie.
Oorspronklik wou sy 'n rekenmeesteres word, maar het nie die finansies gehad om universiteit toe te gaan nie. Sy het toe by Werk teen Vure begin werk in 2004.
Die Suid-Kaap se distriksbestuurder het in 2005 haar potensiaal raakgesien en haar toe gemotiveer om haar eie basis te bestuur in Plettenbergbaai. Sy is in 2006 genomineer om die eerste mediaskakelbeamptekursus by te woon in Kaapstad.
Die Plettenbergbaaispan het in 2007 toegemaak, en sy het toe teruggekeer na Uniondale. Daar het sy die span ten alle tye gemotiveer en gehelp met opleiding en dissipline. Sy het egter, as gevolg van asma, aan die einde van 2007 van kursus verander. (Translation of Afrikaans paragraphs follows.)
[The additional funds for Working for Water and Working on Fire contribute towards growth and job creation and are a correct observation of the government's value added in disadvantaged communities.
Such an example is Christalena de Kella of Uniondale. She completed Standard 10 in 2003 and never thought she would become a firefighter. Originally she wanted to be an accountant, but she did not have the financial support to go to university. She then started working at Working on Fire in 2004.
The district manager of the Southern Cape noticed her potential in 2005 and motivated her to manage her own base in Plettenberg Bay. She was nominated in 2006 to attend the first course to become a media liaison officer in Cape Town.
The team in Plettenberg Bay disbanded in 2007 and she returned to Uniondale. There, she motivated the team at all times and assisted with training and disciplinary issues. However, as a result of asthma, she changed her course at the end of 2007.]
In 2008, she was given the opportunity to try out for the stock controller position at the advocacy office in Cape Town. It was another challenge to be working as part of the management team in Working on Fire.
On 17 February 2009, she passed her driver's licence test.
Now, after five years in the Working on Fire programme, she is looking to see how far she can go. She stated, and I quote:
I have managed to travel the country and meet so many people from all walks of life. Working on Fire is not just a stepping-stone for your future, but is also a good learnership programme that has managed to build a shy, immature girl into a grown-up woman who can stand up for what she wants in life
Today we have heard the DA explaining their economic model to us. I think our response as the ANC must be to point out that the market has a keen ear for private wants, but a deaf ear for public needs. We must also point out that you can make even a parrot a learned economist; all it has to learn, and repeat, are the words, "demand and supply".
The DA's manifesto builds on existing institutions and programmes. It does not offer new programmes; instead, it regurgitates current government policies and obviously bends these to suit a specific sector of our society. The document does not bring about a paradigm shift or add a new vision to the current policies.
The central argument of the DA's manifesto is a move away from the state- centric interventionist model where government is the main role-player in economic development. This is the main departure from the ANC's commitment to building the developmental state that will play a central and strategic role in building the economy. This includes major investment in the public sector and its personnel in order to build capacity for service delivery.
This departure is the foundation of the DA's job creation strategy for 2009. The current global crisis is a classic example of the results where markets are left to operate without any state intervention.
The ANC-led alliance resolution states that decent jobs are a central, long- term priority. Enabling policies should be fast-tracked; for example, an active industrial policy that will focus on employment creation.
Our response to the solutions on wage subsidies that we have been given by the DA is that South Africa already has a variety of measures to address poverty through social security systems and further skills development programmes, to increase the uptake of inexperienced learners in learnerships.
The wage subsidy proposals of the DA create a dual labour market and displace existing workers, and are further open to abuse if the beneficiaries are exempted from the protection of labour legislation.
What we require is the promotion of the employability of school leavers in order to halt the expansion of long-term unemployment. What we need is the ANC's decision on ensuring a system of social protection that recognises the needs of the working poor, thus ensuring that more households can participate in the economy.
As the ANC, we are proud of our past; we are confident of our future.
Ms Margaret Pathane was an unemployed widow battling to make ends meet by selling vegetables outside her home in Thembisa. She was the sole provider for her two daughters and two grandchildren. She joined the Working for Wetlands programme after it was formally launched in 2000, working on the Rietvlei wetland rehabilitation project.
In later years she would laugh at herself for having turned up for work in her new job wearing high-heeled shoes, readily admitting that she had known nothing about wetlands.
Within the space of two years, Margaret had seized the opportunities presented by the programme to the point where she was able to set up a small business as a contractor to the project, employing a team of twelve people to stabilise erosion dongas that, if left unchecked, would eventually drain and destroy the wetland.
She suffered from diabetes and died last year. Her legacy is that the opportunities provided by government, coupled with honest effort and determination, can change a life and can nurture that most precious of human states: dignity. Rest in peace, Margaret.
This story mirrors the ANC's tactics and strategy for the need to build a caring society and strengthen the motive force. It is here that the need for the creation of decent work and sustainable livelihoods becomes relevant to advance the national democratic revolution.
To this end, and out of their excitement and gratitude to the government for creating these kinds of programmes through the EPWP, the crews on the Working on Fire project made an effort to put together a poem. It was put together by crew leaders Papi and Blondie from Butterworth, and I would like to read it -
Our hearts go with you whenever you go, You gave us strength, You lead us not into corruption and fraud, You taught us to be committed to our work end to talk the truth, You taught us how to be good leaders - not to be bosses, You taught us discipline through drill, determination, perseverance and dedication, You taught us to plan for tomorrow, for life and for the future, You made us change our country through being fire fighters preventing veld fires, We are who we are because of you, We are fire fighters, We are soldiers of fire, We are as hot as fire, We love fire, Fire is our friend and, at the same time, it is also our enemy, Long live Working on Fire! You have brought joy into our lives, I have seen many provinces because of you, We learned a lot to communicate in other languages and people.
I thank you, hon members. [Applause.]