Hon Chair, hon Minister of Health Dr Aaron Motsoaledi, Ministers, Deputy Ministers, MECs present here today, portfolio committee chairperson, hon members, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, globally 90% of preventable premature deaths owing to noncommunicable diseases occur in low- and middle-income countries. It is estimated that, whereas high-income countries experience 13% of deaths for those under 60 years, this figure is as high as 30% in low- and middle- income countries like ours, South Africa.
The World Economic Forum also ranks noncommunicable diseases, NCDs, as one of the major threats to economic development. It estimates that when NCDs rise by 10%, the annual economic growth falls by 0,5%. With the double burden of communicable and noncommunicable diseases in our country, there is a need to develop a more integrated approach in improving the health of our population and their development.
Prof Mayosi et al in The Lancet medical journal refer to the burden of disease in South Africa as a cocktail of four colliding epidemics. It is like four silent tsunamis attacking us.
In asking this august House to support the Department of Health's Budget Vote as an enabler to tackle these major challenges, we are also saying to you and the people of South Africa that we are bringing good news. The good news is that our children and young people are living longer, our working population is more productive and alive to nurture their children, and the elderly are not burying their children and grandchildren at a rate like the years before. As we have survived the tsunamis of colonialism and apartheid, we are beginning to halt these epidemics.
I really don't know where the DA gets its figures. According to the Medical Research Council, between 2009 and 2011 life expectancy in South Africa increased from 56,5 to 60 years, with a 25% decline in infant and under five mortality rates.
Scientists all over the world are applauding our achievements with awe. Such progress indeed, they say, can only be experienced with major social changes like abolishing slavery and other such interventions. We should not allow petty party politics or posturing to discourage us through criticisms that intend to underplay these gains. These are major and profound gains. Our vision for a long and healthy life for South Africans is in the making. With respect to containing the disease burden that is still there - because there is no room for complacency - I want to indicate that we have gone ahead to implement the agreements in the declarations of the NCT summit we held in 2011.
Regulations will be enhanced in terms of containing the advertising of alcohol. The process of legislation to prohibit alcohol advertising is at an advance stage. The regulations of warning labels on alcohol containers will also be revised. Perry C, in The South African Medical Journal, reported that 130 people died daily as a result of alcohol-related diseases, costing the public health system in provinces and at a national level almost R6,7 billion.
We are also busy with regulations to ensure that we reduce salt intake in our diet. Research shows that halving the amount of salt in our bread will result in 7 400 fewer deaths owing to cardiovascular diseases within a year. Prof Graham Macgregor, the chairman of the World Action on Salt and Health, Wash, describes South Africa as taking a pioneering role in salt reduction programmes. Just to remind us, 60% of intake of salt in South Africa is through industrial supplies. In line with the World Health Organisation's recommendations, we call on our people that as we regulate salt intake from industrial products, we must also take care at home that we do not reverse these gains. South Africa's average salt intake is 40g per day, whereas WHO recommends that it should be 5g per day. In endorsing the WHO and the International Telecommunications Union on e- Health, we have finalised the e-Health Strategy of South Africa. Working with the Medical Research Council and the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, we will apply the framework that we have developed as a normative standard against which the current 42 health information systems in the public health sector have to be compliant.
The National Development Plan of 2030 indicates that given the escalating costs of services in both the public and private sectors and the high proportion of GDP that goes towards health care financing, it is important to create a culture of evidence-based planning and resource allocation in clinical practice. To this end, we have introduced the training of PhD scholars, and from this year we have started with the 13 PhD scholars funded as part of our endeavour to at least produce 1 000 PhD students over the next 10 years. [Applause.]
The successes that we have achieved in containing the Aids epidemic are because we use evidence-based solutions. In terms of the billions of rand saved through a more efficient drug procurement system that the Minister announced, we would also like to announce that the national central procurement unit has started to assist provinces to ensure that there is direct delivery to point of care, which is health facilities of medicines. We have intervened in this manner to ensure that the medical depots are no longer a reason for facility stock-outs on essential medicines.
The ANC government has demonstrated its resolve to ensure that our people live longer. With the commitment we have made and the expert committees that we have put in place - as well as working with stakeholders that include and are not limited to the ministerial committee on cancer, the ministerial committee on mental health care and many other committees, for instance, on research - we are confident that our vision of a long and healthy life for South Africans is in the making. This is happening in our lifetime under the leadership of the ANC government through our collective effort as a nation. We are aware that in a number of facilities, owing to an increase in the burden of disease and the historical legacies of underdevelopment, we have not achieved the successes that we want to achieve in terms of quality of care.
From the head office, we have facility improvement teams consisting of officials that visit a number of districts regularly to ensure that we have a bottom-up approach in improving the quality of care. We also want to applaud the House for passing the legislation that will introduce the office of standards to ensure that quality is at the core of our work.
Six important factors, we believe, have led to our success. They will ensure that we succeed in reducing the battle of disease and improve the quality of our services and effectiveness of our health system. They are based mainly on the love we have for our people, the decisive leadership we have demonstrated, the social compacts for social cohesion, evidence-based medicine, and a dedicated health workforce, as well as the appreciation that this high burden of disease not only threatens our developmental agenda, but also mocks the democracy our people fought for.
As we enter the second decade of our democracy, the ANC government is not only celebrating with our people her legacy as a liberation movement against political bondage, but also her role as a liberation movement against ill health, against suffering and against the threats that our democracy and prosperity face.
The budget that we present today aims to consolidate our efforts, respond to the remaining challenges, and to rally our nation towards successfully realising the NDP goal of increasing life expectancy from the current achievement of 60 to 70 years. Through strengthening the evidence-based approach and stakeholder involvement in our work and not allowing ourselves to be destructed by petty party politics, we are well positioned to succeed.
I would like to ask the House to support the budget that we have presented and indeed to continue celebrating the successes that we have achieved as a way of energising us to deal with the challenges that remain. I thank you. [Applause.]