Speaker, hon members, hon colleagues from the Finance family, hon Deputy Minister of Finance, ladies and gentlemen, the Minister of Finance indicated in his Budget Speech that the 2013 Budget takes the National Development Plan, NDP, as its point of departure. As the ANC, we welcome that statement as the core element of the National Development Plan, which contains many elements of the five priorities of this democratic government.
The National Development Plan opens with a quotation from the Reconstruction and Development Programme, RDP, which states:
No political democracy can survive and flourish if the mass of our people remains in poverty, without land, without their basic needs being met and without tangible prospects for a better life. Attacking poverty and deprivation will therefore be the first priority of the democratic government.
The NDP defines the core elements of decent living standards as, amongst others, housing, water, electricity and sanitation, quality education and skills development, quality health care, safe and reliable transport, safety and security, social protection, job creation and leisure, clean environment and adequate nutrition.
Let us see how this Division of Revenue Bill addresses these issues. My input will focus on the following areas, namely local government equitable share, human settlement, Expanded Public Works Programme, and education.
As regards local government, the Bill deals with the reform of the budget, recognising differences in our municipalities in terms of socioeconomic profile by directing the allocation to the poorest municipalities without unduly punishing the relatively well-off municipalities.
The new formula makes provision for 52% of allocations to be directed to a basic services component benefitting both metropolitan and rural municipalities, where the majority of people live. This formula is designed to ensure that each municipality, including the rural municipalities, have enough resources to provide for basic services to each poor household.
The SA Local Government Association did not support the grant as they felt it would increase the burden of accounting because of the proliferation of grants that municipalities are required to report on. The meeting, however, resolved that Salga should be consulted in order to solicit their support.
The Department of Human Settlements administers a number of grants, including the urban settlement development grant and the rural household infrastructure grant, amongst others. These interventions are intended to improve the lives of the poor in urban and rural areas.
The urban settlement development grant is a relatively new grant whose purpose is to assist the metros to improve urban land production and focus on poor households so as to improve spatial integration and density. It also supplements capital revenues in order to support human settlement development programmes such as the laying of bulk infrastructure. The grant is intended to address the challenges of informal settlements. However, its performance remains a challenge.
Lastly, as regards human settlements, I will deal with the rural household infrastructure grant, which is a big challenge as the grant was originally with the Department of Water and Environmental Affairs and was moved to the Department of Human Settlements late in 2010. The purpose of this grant is to ensure that rural communities have access to sanitation. This Bill changes it to become a Schedule 5b grant - a Schedule 5b grant is a specific purpose grant - instead of making it a Schedule 6b grant, which is a grant-in-kind that would continue to be administered by the Department of Human Settlements.
The new arrangement gives the responsibility to the municipalities. The committee would recommend that the Department of Human Settlements, National Treasury and Salga work out a solution to report to Parliament about the measures they would take in building capacity at local level. However, in terms of the Constitution, we are aware that sanitation is a local government responsibility. This government continues to ensure that access to education is improved by, amongst others, eradicating mud and inappropriate structures, the majority of which are in the Eastern Cape.
The President announced that out of the first 49 schools, 40 beautiful schools would be ready for occupation by the end of March. The Standing committee on Appropriations has witnessed the schools that have changed the rural landscape in the Eastern Cape areas. The programme started a bit slow, but now it is in full swing because of the persistent oversight by Parliament. The provinces also build schools from their education infrastructure grants. We therefore commend the government for the aggressive way it has taken to address the shortage of space in schools.
There are still challenges in terms of accelerating capital expenditure within the provinces. The programme has surely created thousands of quality jobs and professional skills have emerged as a result of this infrastructure programme. It has also created access roads to these schools. The national government is opening up more learning opportunities to the children of South Africa, whilst the Western Cape is closing schools in poor communities. Luckily, these communities are not going to allow the closure of their schools. The government is creating short-term jobs through the Expanded Public Works Programme, incentive funding and community works programme. Over 200 000 work opportunities were created in the 2011-12 financial year, excluding the work created in the social cluster. Provinces can play an important role in this area, as evidenced by the Department of Transport in the KwaZulu-Natal province.
The conditional grants are an extremely important instrument to ensure that national priorities are achieved. However, we need to avoid creating many short-term conditional grants. The Financial and Fiscal Commission did a lifespan analysis on the conditional grants over 12 years, starting from the 2001-2002 financial year. It found that the practice may create volatility and make the task of planning administration difficult and, in many cases, affect the grant spending.
The Bill, for the first time, directs resources to be spent on specific cases, such as direct budgets for maintenance and damaged infrastructure in education or in human settlements. For instance, it has allocated money to complete priority projects in areas like Mdantsane in the Eastern Cape; Khutsong, Lufhereng, Diepsloot and Sweetwaters in Gauteng; Cornubia in KwaZulu-Natal; Lephalale in Limpopo and Drommedaris in the Western Cape.
The Department of Human Settlements has allocated funds to six metros to build houses in the event they are accredited. The metros are at different stages of accreditation. Some are ready for level three so that they can deliver houses directly once the provinces are convinced that those metros have developed sufficient capacity to deliver houses. This is a step in the right direction as the process will accelerate the delivery of houses and the creation of bulk infrastructure.
The government wants to distribute more additional resources to poorer municipalities. National government and provinces have a duty to create the necessary capacity and lend the necessary support to municipalities. Structures such as the Municipal Infrastructure Support Agency should go a long way in supporting municipalities. To many poor and rich, progressive people of South Africa, the government, with the support of Parliament, is definitely on track on meeting the needs of our people. The positive thing is that where officials or officers tarnish the image of our government, government acts decisively.
The ANC is on track with delivery regarding the living standards mentioned in the National Development Plan. The ANC will support the Bill. I thank you. [Applause.]