Chairperson, hon members, Ministers and Deputy Ministers, the Treasury team, comrades and friends, as always, it brings joy for one to address this august House on matters of national importance, matters that mean life and death to the vast, destitute majority out there.
Indeed, it becomes an honour and privilege for anyone of us to stand here and speak, not only to a few of us here, but to the poor and rich, to the young and old, to the black and white, to the literate and the illiterate, to the South Africans, the Africans in Africa and in diaspora.
Appropriation of monies from the National Revenue Fund for requirements of state in the 2006-07 financial year becomes a vital component of our democracy as we continually seek to entrench it. This we do consistent with the constitutional requirements of section 213(2) that stipulates that -
Money may be withdrawn from the National Revenue Fund only - a) in terms of an appropriation by an Act of Parliament; ...
Furthermore, the Public Finance Management Act of 1999 provides that Parliament must appropriate money for each financial year for requirements of state.
For the progressives led by the ANC, we contribute in this debate in fulfilment of the Freedom Charter's slogan that stipulates that, "The people shall govern." More importantly, this governance must and can only and mostly be felt at local government level where the coalface of delivery is to be seen and felt.
Our debate takes place against the backdrop of 21 March, officially declared as Human Rights Day on our calendar. Lest we forget, an official figure of 69 of those peaceful marchers shot dead was recorded at Sharpeville.
Human rights are people's rights, people's rights to basic services. They are people's rights to govern their lives through ward committees and other spheres of government. These are human rights to live a better life. These are people's rights that stipulate that for you to talk of human rights, you must have shelter, a job and food.
Those living perpetrators who engaged in such callous acts need to go back to those communities and publicly apologise for their actions that caused so much misery to the dear ones of the deceased and the living, maimed both physically and spiritually.
Yes, the truth and reconciliation term came and is indeed gone forever, but reconciliation is a process that involves forgiveness. President Mbeki said: "Today is indeed better than yesterday, and tomorrow will certainly be better than today."
Part of this act that we are engaged in seeks to make local government work better for you and your communities. Having identified the constraints and the gaps, we build on reconstruction and development, and the human resource development strategy by focusing on capacity-building through the Accelerated and Shared Growth Initiative for South Africa, Asgisa, as it is popularly known. Together with the RDP, Asgisa is continually to build on a sound economic basis that is aimed at bringing about a better life for all.
This initiative is also intended to enhance Project Consolidate, an intervention that seeks to bring a working system to the ailing municipalities in order to have effective and efficient local government. Minister Manuel's proposals on zero-rating municipal property rates will go a long way to simplify the accounting tax records of municipalities. We have inherited a complex structure of municipal systems that must be made people-friendly and must talk to the daily experiences of our people.
Once again, skilling at this level of governance ensures the extent of capacity-building in our local government. Capacity-building must be supported by a strong learnership programme, thanks to the extension of this programme to 2011. This then calls on the private sector to join government in supporting these programmes that will ensure young people enter into training and gain experience and jobs.
Local government, through the Joint Initiative for Priority Skills Acquisition initiative, Jipsa, must call on the skilled and the newly skilled audit in order to enhance the skills base that seeks to bring about a better life for all. The ANC supports this budget, a budget that talks to the building of capacity within our municipalities, the coalface of delivery. I thank you. [Applause.]