I would like to greet the hon Madam Deputy Speaker, hon members in this august House, the few guests in the gallery and the executives. Sanibonani. [I greet you all.]
Steadily, as the dark night of the white minority political domination recedes into the distant past, our vision becomes more enhanced as we behold the shape, form and content of the legacy bequeathed us by that ignoble system. The ANC is proud of the past 16 years of democracy and service delivery, and confident of our future, for the seed of the future is in the present and today is but tomorrow in its embryonic form.
Equality and human dignity are the most fundamental yet most fragile of our constitutional values. Equality is so important in the ANC's context, not because it is a nice-to-have, but because it is the antithesis of our treacherous past. The ANC believes that equality should therefore be an equality that seeks to heal the divisions of the past. It is true to say that equality is the equal treatment of equals; the corollary being that equality is the unequal treatment of unequals.
The two-tier health care system that exists in our country perpetuates health care inequalities. The private sector uses 60% of our financial and medical personnel resources but provides only 14% of our population with health services. Our public facilities shoulder an overwhelming burden while they are underfunded. The ANC strongly believes that this contradiction greatly contributes to the inequality of access, because access depends on affordability. If you do not have a medical aid or you're not sitting at the right salary notch, you cannot afford quality health care.
The ANC assures the people of this country that while it leads and lives, every life matters, regardless of race, sex, colour or creed. All people should enjoy quality health care. In 2002, in Stellenbosch, the ANC stated that:
With regard to health care, we should act to strengthen primary health care, especially in rural areas.
As a result of this commitment by the ANC, the policy was formed, and that policy was one of a community-based service that ensured that every individual, even in rural areas, received a proper health care service.
In the 2011-12 Budget, R1,4 billion was allocated for improving district- based maternal and child health services. An amount of R2,9 billion was allocated to improve public health facilities. Therefore, it is surprising and very disappointing to know that there are those within the House who still strongly believe that the ANC is dismally failing to deliver on its promises. The allocation of R1,2 billion over a three-year period is one of a number of initiatives that will lay the foundation for the National Health Insurance, NHI.
The ANC-led government introduced the new family health care teams, currently known as community health care workers. These workers will understand the disease profile of each district in the country for they will go door to door, seeking information from each and every family. This will create uniformity for family-based health care. I therefore plead with the hon Dion George to ensure that when he does his research on health care provided by the ANC, he should do so accurately and efficiently.
The ANC therefore requests the national Treasury, in partnership with the Department of Health and the Department of Performance Monitoring and Evaluation, to design an effective monitoring tool to ensure that an efficient oversight function is rendered by all finance committees. The ANC believes that this approach to primary health care, if implemented well, is the most cost-effective, makes better use of limited human resources and will also create new jobs.
The time has come and the time is now to build the foundation of the NHI, whether the DA approves or not. [Applause.] The ANC calls on all sectors of society to support this initiative to extend health services to all our people. We call on public health centres to strengthen their health services. We also call ... [Interjections.]