Deputy Speaker, the under-five mortality and the maternal mortality rates in South Africa are on a decline. That has contributed to the increased life expectancy. Yes, indeed, we are less than 1 000 days to the 2015 Millennium Development Goals. With the interventions that we are implementing and the downward trend that we are experiencing in child and maternal deaths, we are sparing no effort to achieve the targets we have set for ourselves. So, 2015 has not yet come. We still have many months ahead of us and we will spare no effort to move towards that.
For example, in the Free State province, in just one year, the maternal mortality rate plummeted by 43%. So, we have not given up on ourselves. Yes, we started at very high levels of maternal and child mortalities but we are still on track to move towards achieving those targets. We will count our success finally when we have arrived. Thank you. [Applause.]
Steps to deal with housing backlog and reduce amount spent on rectification processes
265. Mr K P Sithole (IFP) asked the Minister of Human Settlements:
What steps is her department taking to (a) ensure that the backlog of houses is dealt with as soon as possible and (b) reduce the amount of money spent on instituting rectification processes by ensuring that contractors (i) do not take shortcuts when building houses and (ii) who provide shoddy work pay for the rectification themselves?