Madam Speaker and hon members, this debate takes place during two significant events, firstly, Heritage Month - we have just had a Joint Sitting this morning - and, secondly, the Constitutional Court is today hearing the Khutsong matter.
In my speech I will focus on written submissions received from the public on the Constitution Thirteenth Amendment Bill. These submissions concern the following: firstly, some people give cultural and ethnic reasons for suggesting that Matatiele be incorporated into the KwaZulu-Natal province; secondly, others give personal preferences for retaining Matatiele in the Eastern Cape province or its inclusion in the Kwazulu-Natal province; thirdly, there are those who raise concerns about possible future lack of service delivery by the Eastern Cape province, especially regarding health and education.
South Africa is a fairly unitary state and some people will argue and say with some federal features. When the new Constitution of South Africa was signed, it was a landmark in the history of our country that enshrined in law the need to build a society based on democratic values, social justice and human rights, in which every citizen is protected by law.
The current Constitution provides, and I paraphrase, that the Republic of South Africa is one, sovereign, democratic state founded on the values of human dignity, nonracialism, nonsexism, etc. I am mentioning but a few characteristics of our South African state.
Under apartheid rule, people were segregated along racial and ethnic lines. The advent of democracy spelt the end of such discrimination. Some people still see today's provinces as remnants of the homelands. They believe that in order to practise their ethnic or cultural activities, they need to be in one province and not in another. Even today we still have people with preconceived ideas. They wish to belong to a particular province in the belief that their cultural activities will be more secure in one province than in another.
People should not regard a province as a homeland for a specific ethnic group. For instance, people should not regard the Eastern Cape as a homeland for Xhosa-speaking people or KwaZulu-Natal as a province for Amazulu. On this basis, residents of Matatiele should not say, "We are not Xhosas, thus we cannot be part of the Eastern Cape province, but we are Zulus and we prefer to be part of KwaZulu-Natal to enable us to practise our cultural activities freely."
In my constituency of Kungwini, for example, which was a cross-boundary municipality between Mpumalanga and Gauteng, some traditional leaders indicated that they preferred that Kungwini be part of Mpumalanga, because they feared that they would not be recognised in Gauteng and that their subjects would not be permitted to practise their culture. Kungwini is today part of Gauteng. These traditional leaders are still recognised as traditional leaders and, during the last season, we saw more initiation schools being conducted in Kungwini.
The Constitution further provides, among other things, that persons belonging to cultural, religious and linguistic communities may not be denied their rights. They will not be denied their rights by the change of boundaries. They will be free to enjoy their cultural practices, religion and language.
I would like to point out to the people giving personal preferences as to how the places should be demarcated, that the days of influx control are gone. In order to exercise their rights, people need not belong to a particular province. People can move freely from one province to another as they wish. They can live in the Eastern Cape province and work or buy in the province of KwaZulu-Natal. The South African Constitution recognises the right of freedom of movement. The alteration of provincial boundaries does not affect this constitutional right.
With the proposed Constitution Thirteenth Amendment Act, persons are not moved from their residential areas to another area against their will, as the hon Swart has indicated. That would be unconstitutional.
There is a process on the way, conducted by the Ministry of Provincial and Local Government. Here I am referring to the policy review of the system of local and provincial government; the public participation process plan; questions, for example, on provincial government, two of them being question 37 and question 38.
Question 37 says, "Should there be a provincial system of government, how should this be determined and what are the alternative options?" Question 38 says: "If provinces are to be retained, what should be the criteria for determining the following, for example, purpose, structure and functions, number and sources of funding?"
People all over South Africa are free and are required as well as encouraged to participate in this review process so as to air their views.
To those who raised concerns about future lack of service by the Eastern Cape province, I would like to refer them to the status report on service delivery by the Matatiele Local Municipality, updated as at 11 September 2007. Page 37 says that the year-on-year growth for 2006-07 was 18,2% for Eastern Cape and 10,2% for KwaZulu-Natal.
Concerning classrooms it says that a number of schools and classrooms were built between 2003-04 and 2006-07, and 141 new schools were completed for the Eastern Cape while none were completed in KwaZulu-Natal. There is a significant increase in the number of physical science standard grade passes from 73 667 in 2005 to 81 151 in 2006, so says the report on page 6.
In terms of the child nutrition programme, recent surveys indicate that KwaZulu-Natal spends 90 cents, which is the lowest per day per learner, as compared to R1,17 in the Eastern Cape per day per learner.
According to these statistics there is no disadvantage in service delivery. The ANC supports this Bill. Thank you. [Applause.]