Comrade Chairperson, Comrade Minister, Deputy Minister Mulder, members of the portfolio committee, Director-General Comrade Langa Zitha and the staff from the department, distinguished guests, this debate takes place at a historic moment in time, the celebration of the centenary of the ANC, a movement proud of its 100 years of selfless struggle and confident in its future, testify to the correctness of its policies, strategy and tactics.
In response to the resolutions of the 52nd national conference of the ANC in 2007, government adopted in October 2010 a new economic framework called the New Growth Path as a policy framework for implementation.
The New Growth Path sets out core strategies to achieve job creation and broad measures to address unemployment, poverty and inequality. In so doing, it seeks to put in place a more equitable economy. One of the measures of this economic framework is to support employment creation through rural development. It is within this context that this Budget Vote debate takes place.
Any debate on the forestry sector must respond to the demands that the New Growth Path places upon the forestry sector. The policy seeks to ensure that across the sectors of our economy we develop labour-absorbing practices, a long-standing ANC perspective. Support mechanisms in the forestry sector must therefore respond to this, and this includes financing.
Of the five job drivers in the New Growth Path, Job Driver 5: Spatial Development speaks directly to the rural population who are engaged in the rural economy. It is here that the future plans and restructuring of the forestry sector must be addressed. Future plans and, indeed, Programme 5 of the Budget Vote must, in its objectives, measures and subprogrammes, be aligned with the macro and micro objectives of the future shape of our rural economy.
Research indicates that rural development programmes have the potential to improve the livelihoods of some 500 000 households, to which the forestry sector must respond.
Forestry plays an important role in rural development and should have an integrated approach in both its own programmes and that of rural development. The design and implementation of these must be devised in collaboration with rural communities. Whilst management of plantations and indigenous forests is very important, the environmental and economic orientation must be driven by a policy perspective that places the masses of our people in the rural areas at the centre. The role of this budget must therefore be looked at in this context.
The institutional framework of the forestry sector and its programmes has been informed by the 1997 National Forestry Action Plan. Generally speaking, most policy documents, after 15 years in existence, require assessment and evaluation.
The key question here is whether what the plan set out to do has been realised, If not, what were the challenges? Secondly, the National Forestry Action Plan was drawn up in the first phase of a macroeconomic strategy which, at that time, favoured the selling off of state forests to the private sector. This position no longer holds and, rather, we are informed by the needs of the New Growth Path, not least of all because the job drivers in the New Growth Path have relevance for employment levels and criteria that are applied in forestry as measured per hectare. The perspectives on spatial development in the rural areas and the development of the rural economy and forestry must converge in concept and practice.
Since the National Forestry Action Plan was instituted, there have been major institutional changes. The first phase of our transition paid close attention to redefining the categories of forests and under which department they should fall. It also dealt with the long-standing environment - commercial - community forest debate.
The more recent institutional changes have been driven by the economic rationale of the governing party, the ANC. These have been to institute better co-ordination of the agricultural and forestry sector, with planning being done within the ambit of a single department. It was back in 1994 that the ANC first put forward integrating the Department of Forestry with that of Agriculture.
In terms of the land and its use, clauses 3 and 4 respectively of the Freedom Charter speak to the country's wealth and land, and I quote: "The people shall share in the country's wealth and the land shall be shared among those who work it!"
This has direct implications for the forestry sector since the Freedom Charter in these two clauses speaks to distribution and production perspectives, which constitute the relevance of any attempt at changing land-relations patterns and systems of land ownership and control in our country.
There is a direct relationship between these perspectives and assertions of the Freedom Charter on wealth and land. This means that the future direction of the forestry sector must place the ANC-led government's economic structure at its centre and address the essence of the relationship between land and the forestry sector. The ANC is committed to ensuring security of land tenure, especially for women in rural areas, as a way of promoting agriculture and forestry.
With regard to dealing with challenges going forward, the Forest Sector Charter Council has a lifespan of 10 years. The ANC, in its preparations for the national policy conference in June this year, has been looking critically at an impact assessment of what has been achieved under broad- based black economic empowerment. The approach in the forestry sector therefore needs to reflect this. This was greeted with much fanfare in the latter part of the 1990s in the forestry sector with the sale of state forests.
The key question that we need to ask is: What is the impact assessment of this period and what have we achieved? Are these achievements in line with our policy objectives in the first place? Equally, unlike what happened in the late 1990s, there has to be a noticeable increase in job creation in this sector in terms of the New Growth Path.
The state of the nation address in February of this year committed government to addressing unemployment, poverty and inequality, and therefore the forestry sector is no exception. The fact that 12 000 green jobs were created through the forestry livelihoods strategy in the 2010-11 financial year bears testimony to there being progress.
Institutional restructuring must be constantly under review in any national democratic revolution. This relates in particular to the SA Forestry Company Ltd, Safcol, which is currently located under the Ministry of Public Enterprises.
Its history is well known and its historic influence on practices within the forestry sector shaped a particular approach, which favoured the commercialisation of forests. To its credit, Safcol played an important role in the implementation of the National Forestry Action Plan, but its location outside of the Ministry that deals with forestry needs to be examined.
In conclusion, I would like to thank the Minister and her team for all their hard work and the engaging debate. This is a sign of a healthy political relationship. The ANC supports Budget Vote 26. I thank you. [Applause.]