Chairperson, members of the NCOP, and Deputy Minister Johnny de Lange, I'm not going to ``gooi kole'' [go for it] because I think we've already done so. Agreeing to pass this Bill today has been that journey where we were really ``gooi- ing kole'' [going for it].
I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone for reaching this consensus for the sake of the people of that area so that we can continue and start looking at issues that affect that community in terms of infrastructure and all that. I'm very happy that we've reached this end, for the sake of the people of that area of Matatiele.
I would like to thank members of this House for participating in the debate on the Constitution Thirteenth Amendment Bill and the Cross-Boundary Municipalities Laws Repeal and Related Matters Amendment Bill. We are all aware that the two Bills before us emanate from a judgment of the Constitutional Court whereby it declared that the KwaZulu-Natal Province failed to facilitate public participation in the legislative process, as required by section 118(1)(a) of the Constitution. The order of invalidity was suspended for 18 months, during which time Parliament was given the opportunity to correct the constitutional defect that led to the order of invalidity.
Today we are here as part of the process to correct this procedural deficiency that the Constitutional Court ruled on. The Cross-Boundary Municipalities Laws Repeal and Related Matters Amendment Bill seeks to amend the Cross-Boundary Municipalities Laws Repeal and Related Matters Act of 2005 by substituting and re-enacting those provisions of the said Act that were declared invalid by the Constitutional Court.
I am given to understand that during the hearings on the Bill, especially the Cross-Boundary Municipalities Laws Repeal and Related Matters Amendment Bill, comments that were received from the public and organisations in Matatiele raised issues relating to, amongst other things, personal preferences, ethnic and cultural links, and service delivery.
We need to continuously remind ourselves that we belong to one country and that we are one nation. Government will always strive to hold dear the values of our Constitution which is premised on building a united, nonracial society where the ongoing improvement in the quality of life of all our people is our overriding objective.
It is this very objective of creating a better life for all that was compromised by our system of cross-boundary municipalities. Our cross- boundary municipalities saw a very complicated set of administrative, governance and service delivery problems pertaining to the implementation of differing provincial legislation pertaining to health and traffic; the co-ordination of different provincial housing and infrastructure projects; the finalisation of integrated development plans, IDPs, and its alignment with different provincial growth and development strategies, and different provincial financial management systems impacting on the affected municipalities.
In retrospect, this system of cross-boundary municipalities impacted negatively on our communities and deprived them of the optimal set of services due to them. Since 2005, government has embarked on a range of measures to ensure that our people in our former cross-boundary municipalities are better off than what they were before.
The Matatiele Local Municipality continues to be a beneficiary of government's programmes and targeted financial transfers. Matatiele's allocation from the local government equitable share increased from R4 million in the 2005-06 financial year to R18,5 million in the 2006-07 financial year, and finally, to R34,7 million for the 2007-08 financial year.
Similarly, the allocation from the municipal infrastructure grant programme to the Matatiele Local Municipality is projected to drastically increase by over 70% in the medium-term from R10,1 million in 2006-07 to R17,1 million in 2009-10. That was the commitment from the department's chairperson, hon Shiceka.
When we look at all the former cross-boundary municipalities, then we have 173 MIG projects in the design and tender phase that are estimated to benefit an estimated 511 722 households. In addition to this, a total of 484 MIG projects are in the construction phase with a value of R3,8 billion aimed at benefiting an estimated 3,4 million households. For the current financial year 2007-08, government has allocated a total of R1,146 billion in MIG grants to all the former cross-boundary municipalities.
From this, it is clear that government is determined to employ critical interventions directed at lifting investment in infrastructure and accelerating the pace of redressing service delivery backlogs in the former cross-boundary areas. This is in line with the ANC's vision for 2014 of radically reducing poverty and unemployment, creating jobs and broadening access to basic services.
While there are still many challenges to overcome in the former cross- boundary municipalities, as government, we continue to explore the mobilisation of necessary resources and human capital to ensure that our people enjoy the benefits of our democracy. In this regard, we also continue to intensify our interventions of the Local Government Strategic Agenda 2006-11.
I would like to express my appreciation to the two select committees of the NCOP and their chairpersons, the hon S Shiceka and the hon Kgoshi Mokoena as well as the Chairperson of the NCOP, the hon M J Mahlangu for their able management of the passing of this Bill.
My appreciation also goes to the provincial legislatures, and especially the Eastern Cape and the KwaZulu-Natal provinces, for their support, commitment and dedication to the processes involved with the Bills. Furthermore, a special word of thanks should also go to all the residents and interested parties that participated in the consultation processes on this issue.
We want to call on everyone involved in the processing of this Bill before the House as well as those involved in the processing of the Constitution Thirteenth Amendment Bill to vote in favour of the Bill. And so saying, I would like to reassure members of the opposition parties who are in fact against the passing of this Bill that this ANC government is a government that cares. Thank you. [Applause.]
Debate concluded.