Chairperson, today is a day when we are finalising the whole issue of cross-boundary municipalities that straddle provincial boundaries. At the same time, what I want to touch on is the issue of people's voices.
The parties that have been newly converted are the ones raising this issue on people's voices. How do they define that the majority of people in an area have decided in a certain way? Have they counted and looked at the population? Have they seen that the majority of people in that area have given their point of view, and if so, are they in a position to provide us with statistics? We do not believe that what you are saying is correct; it is invalid.
We believe in the ANC - the people's movement that has led this country for so many years and that has been in existence for 95 years. There is no political party in this country or even in Africa that is older than the ANC. The fact that it has survived for so many years shows that it has a visionary leadership that has been there for some time. The important issue here is that when you are a leader, you must be like a giraffe. A giraffe can see far. It must be in a position to see potholes and valleys so that the people that it leads are guided properly and do not fall in those valleys.
On this matter, we have seen that what is important is having municipalities that have a tax base and those that are able to raise their own revenue. The proposal that you have made, to transfer Matatiele Municipality and some sections in KwaZulu-Natal to another municipality, is not going to achieve that objective.
We were talking about a council that has four wards with seven councillors yesterday. That council is unsustainable and unable to raise its own revenue and it is a council that was not supposed to be there in the first place. We do not want that to be repeated in Matatiele.
However, I also think as a movement, we must be in a position to communicate our decisions unequivocally. We must be in a position to make our people clear about the reasons why certain steps were taken and not others. It must not be taken for granted that people will understand because we govern them. If we continue on that path we will lose the support of our people. We must be in a position to clarify our decisions. Our decisions must be predictable and people must be able to explain them. That, to me, has to be corrected. But that does not mean that the substance of the decision is incorrect.
The referendum is a matter that is not well defined in South Africa. We have not developed policies and laws in that respect. Therefore, we cannot be using this as a "gogga". The danger in that is that we can put policies in place that are against minorities in this country to hold a referendum. If we develop that system, we will fragment this country. Therefore, we must avoid using this terms when they suit us because they are dangerous. Let us not play with fire.
People are raising an issue of the Constitutional Court. The Constitutional Court is our establishment. We said that there must be a highest court in the country that must be in a position to evaluate decisions of Parliament in relation to its validity as far as its constitutional dispensations are concerned and whether they are constitutional or not. Therefore, it must not be spoken as if it was not us who propagated for this structure in that respect. Therefore, I am saying that the people from parties that have recently converted must not teach us, the people who taught them, how things are done. A teacher remains a teacher. You cannot have a situation where you emerge ...
engceni nje okanye uvuke esicithini ... [out of nowhere] ...and then speak in the way you do. It is not correct. The challenge that we are faced with here is to ensure that the Department of Provincial and Local Government sticks to what was agreed upon. We supported the Bill on the basis that the people in those areas were not going to be worse off because they fell in one province or the other.
As this Parliament, we must make follow ups in those areas. We must make oversight visits to go and check as to whether the department sticks to its decisions that it has made to us - not only to us but also to the public out there. It has a social contract with the people of this country in those areas. I think that is an area we must focus upon other than this issue.
We are burying this issue today and we are finalising it. It will not arise. What will happen is that we will wait for what the Constitutional Court will say on the issue of Khutsong. Even there, I do not think that the Constitutional Court can challenge Parliament to make a decision on the issue.
An issue that they can look at is procedural fairness. Substantial fairness is our responsibility as lawmakers in this country. Therefore, I do not think you must have high hopes as an opposition that you can win Khutsong as your area tomorrow. Those people remain ANC supporters. They will die ANC supporters. We will, irrespectively, continue servicing them.
Xa kukho ingxabano ekhaya, elusatsheni ... [If there is a family dispute ...]
... it does not mean that people will go away from their home. They will remain part of the family. The issue is that there is a dispute on one issue or the other and that is how things happened.
I am saying that the ANC has taken a decision on this matter and we are going to look at it. You must recall that we are still going to review the provincial boundaries. This issue of making these boundaries the alpha and the omega is not a correct view because even these ones that we have are still going to be looked at before the 2009 elections.
You might find that in this country we have different boundaries around provinces. You might find that we have five to six provinces in this country. Therefore, the issue that we are raising now must not arise at all. I thank you.