Sihlalo weNdlu yoWiso-mthetho, yelizwe lakowethu, aBaphathiswa abakhoyo, amaLungu ePalamente kunye neendwendwe ezibalulekieyo, mandiqale ngondoqo. Umbutho wesizwe i-ANC iyaluxhasa olu hlahlo-lwabiwo-mali. Ndiyitsho loo nto ndicacelwe yinto yokuba imoto ehambayo ziyayikhonkotha kodwa, emileyo ziyayichamela. [Kwaqhwatywa.] (Translation of isiXhosa paragraph follows.)
[Mr J M MATSHOBA: Chairperson of the National Assembly, Ministers present here, hon Members of Parliament and important guests, let me start off with the core of my speech; the ANC supports this Budget Vote. I say this conscious of the fact that successful people's actions are more likely to lead to debate than the actions of those who are not. [Applause.]]
The ANC-led government is unequalled when it comes to the delivery of services, striving to address the imbalances of the past and resolve the inequitable development patterns, as can be witnessed across all provinces. No government in the country has ever done this before.
Urhulumente wombutho wesizwe i-ANC akanayo intanga xa kufikelelwa kumba wokuhanjiswa kweenkonzo. [The ANC-led government has no equal when it comes to the issue of service delivery.]
The Municipal Demarcation Board was established in 1999 in terms of Chapter 7 of the Constitution. It is an independent constitutional body, a juristic person challenged to perform its functions without fear. The independent status of the board is underscored by the findings of the Ad Hoc Committee on the Review of Chapter 9 and Associated Institutions.
Additionally, the role of the board was strengthened by the Constitutional Court on 15 November 1999 when it confirmed its power to categorise municipalities throughout the republic. It is funded by Parliament through the national Department of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs. In terms of accountability and oversight, it is answerable to Parliament by way of annual reports and has, from time to time, to appear in Parliament to report on its performance.
It is responsible for the task of spatially transforming and reversing the apartheid geography by determining municipal outer boundaries and inner ward boundaries. It is also in existence to address the apartheid settlement patterns which in the past have been spatially, socially and economically distorted. For example, in the past, the country had only four provinces and 10 homelands - or you could also call them Bantustans, some of which were fragmented.
In terms of achievements, the Municipal Demarcation Board has made a tremendous breakthrough as revealed in the following milestones. With regard to the integration of municipalities, during the period 1999 to 2000, the board has successfully rationalised the total number of municipalities from 843 to 284. Eight metropolitan municipalities, 44 district and 231 local municipalities were demarcated within a period of 15 months. Successful elections were held in the years 2000, 2006 and 2011 within wards duly delimited by the board; for the year 2000 elections, 3 754 wards were delimited; for the year 2006 elections, 3 895 and for the year 2011 the wards grew up to 4 277.
Regarding capacity assessments, all was undertaken to empower provincial MECs responsible for local government to adjust powers and functions between district and local municipalities to enhance service delivery. Regarding district management areas, the board was instrumental in cleaning up local government structures by withdrawing all declarations of these management areas during the 2008 to 2009 period. With regard to ending the era of cross-boundary municipalities, the number of the district municipalities was reduced from 47 to 44.
Whilst some achievements have been made since the inception of the board, there have been some incidents of protests around the question of demarcation, as witnessed in Sasolburg.
Mandiyicacise ke le nto. Abantu bakuthi bayantlokothiswa. Abantu bethu mabangayivumeli into yokuntlokothiswa ngabantu abazibiza namhlanje ngokuba zii-concerned groups. Bathatha abantu bakuthi kuba bengazi nto ukuba baye kuthatha ngolunya izinto zabantu njengaseZamdela. Umonakalo owenziwe eZamdela ngabantu bethatha izinto zabantu ngenxa yentlungu yokungazi, umntu omnye okanye abantu abanye bakhwaze abantu babe bengenalwazi lupheleleyo.
Le nto iyafana naphaya eSterkspruit, abantu babizwe ngumntu ongazi nto yena buqu, kuba kaloku esonqena ukufunda, athathe abantu bakuthi abantlokothise. Ngenxa yokuba umbutho wethu ukrelekrele, zonke izinto uzibeke phantsi kolawulo, uyazazi ukuba uzilungisa njani. Andifuni kuyichaza ngoku kuba iya kundithatha ixesha kodwa sele egqibile ukulungisa ezo zinto. [Kwaqhwatywa.] (Translation of isiXhosa paragraphs follows.)
[Let me explain. Our people are being misled and they should not allow themselves to be misled by the so-called "concerned groups". These groups encourage our people, because they are nave, to loot shops, as was the case in Zamdela. Huge damage was caused in Zamdela as a result of looting by nave people, who were misled by a few individuals. The same happened in Sterkspruit, where people were called together by a person who himself knows nothing because he was lazy to study, and they were misled by him. Because our organisation is wise, everything is under control and our organisation knows how to resolve these things. I do not want to elaborate for lack of time, but the organisation has already resolved these issues. [Applause.]]
Some of the key challenges to be looked at broadly include political parties engaging with the redetermination of words and ward processes in order to ensure that they are not joining in late; national and provincial structures engaging the Minister in the determination of the formula for the number of councillors; provincial structures integrating the section 18 notice of MECs before publication and seeking board assistance; regional structures fully engaging with the ward delimitation process and understanding its intricacies; and branches and constituency offices fully participating in public meetings and hearings.
The Municipal Infrastructure Support Agency is an infrastructure support and development arm of the state intended to provide needed support and assistance to municipalities to speed up infrastructure service delivery and the spending of the municipal infrastructure grant allocated to municipalities. His Excellency, the hon President Jacob Zuma, in his state of the nation address reiterated the government's massive infrastructure investment plan. It is therefore imperative for local government to pull up its socks in the area of infrastructure delivery and to improve its spending patterns.
A series of delivery challenges have been reported across all provinces as a result of nonperformance in the area of infrastructure development and spending. At some stage, municipalities were reportedly spending a minimum of only 14% of their allocation, as was the case with their spending pattern regarding the R9,9 billion allocated during the 2011-12 financial year.
Whilst the agency is positioned to support municipalities with planning, management and other technical expertise to roll out infrastructure more efficiently and effectively, the state is very mindful of the role of other stakeholders, which must ensure that the agency works in a more coherent way.
The SA Local Government Association, Salga, is part of this partnership and must continue to provide technical and human resource support to all municipalities through its programmes and report accordingly. Active participation of strategic partners like the Department of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Cogta; Salga; the SA Municipal Workers' Union, Samwu; the Independent Municipal and Allied Trade Union, Imatu; the Development Bank of SA, DBSA, and the Public Administration Leadership and Management Academy, Palama, is considered crucial for the success of all support arrangements.
Section 129 deals with interventions in municipalities. The rising trend in the fall of performance and regressive decline of compliance by municipalities has culminated into a steady flow of local government under administration in terms of the provisions of section 139 of the Constitution. Notwithstanding the form of intervention that has been implemented by the government from time to time, it would appear that intervention in some municipalities is hardly yielding the expected results.
The ANC-led government hereby acknowledges upfront the problem of underperformance by some municipalities as a cause for concern. The government continues to provide support to such poorly performing municipalities by means of municipal recovery plans, which have been approved as new targets for performance improvement and compliance. These plans make use of the Auditor-General's reports as source documents and performance checklists for service delivery improvement planning.
Siyazichaza thina ezi zinto ngobunjalo bazo, asizifihli. [We put these things out in the open; we do not hide them.]
In the North West, as of now, there are two municipalities which are under administration. They are Ditsobotla and Maquassi Hills Local Municipalities. In KwaZulu-Natal, they are Mtubatuba, Imbabazane uThukela, UMzinyathi ...
Sizichaza zinjalo kuba siza kuzilungisa. [We put these things out in the open because we are going to resolve them.]
Ndiyabulela. [I thank you.] [Time expired.] [Applause.]