Hon Chairperson, hon Ministers and Deputy Ministers, provincial members from various legislatures, Salga and members of the House, I am privileged to speak on behalf of this House on issues that are critical to service delivery.
Firstly, as the ANC we would like to congratulate members deployed in Parliament and in the legislatures for having done such good work thus far - 16 years, compared to the 300 years of deprivation.
As the ANC we speak here knowing full well that this is the year of the local government elections. We are convinced that the ANC, in terms of the judgment with regard to service delivery, has done well and that the people are ready in terms of the brief of that judgment to go to the polls with a smile. As we go to the local government elections, we go with a tool called the Local Government Turnaround Strategy, precisely because in regard to assessment and evaluation there are challenges that still need to be dealt with.
We would remember that in terms of demarcation the hold on all municipalities is new, precisely because it was brought by the democratic revolution. If it were not for that, we would not be solving these problems that are legacies of whoever has been removed from power in the past.
As the ANC we are indeed committed to making sure that our people are getting a better life. To realise that, we have embarked on the transformation of local government. It is only when local government is fully transformed that our people will reap for themselves what freedom is all about.
Once more, we would like to congratulate the deployed members, like the Deputy Minister for Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Yunus Carrim, for crafting, as part of correcting, the White Paper on Developmental Local Government of 1998. It is the framework that sets us off in creating municipalities as we see them today. Indeed, it is yielding much.
We would also want to offer congratulations on the system itself because, for the first time, after 300 years or so, the community and the citizens as stakeholders are able to engage in the resolution of socioeconomic matters of the heart. It is now 16 years and we are able to say that the municipalities are on a path of irreversible growth.
This year, with the Local Government Turnaround Strategy, we are seeing better development in our communities. We have been able to reduce 283 municipalities to a lower number, so that we are able to address apartheid spatial challenges that made it difficult for some of the municipalities to deliver services. When we go into the elections - and I can even refer to the past with the TRC and the 2000 elections, where we transformed municipalities - we always ululate because our elections will always be free and fair compared to those before 1994.
Everyone knows about the 2007 survey and the achievements of the ANC-led government. I am not going to bore you with the details. Of course, the hon Mazosiwe has already spoken about what we have achieved in regard to water, sanitation and so forth. I believe that everyone was listening. However, we still have challenges from province to province.
In terms of the Provincial Week report, we are constrained by a certain lack of service delivery as a result of the system and structural challenges that need to be dealt with. To confirm what the Eastern Cape delegate said about the Cacadu District Municipality, this is a municipality that has a lack of necessary funding. That is just an example. It is not the only district municipality in the country that is lacking funding. That is due to the division of revenue, which is under review, and we believe that as time goes on that problem will be solved. There is also the issue of the Blue Crane Municipality, where there is a lack of water as a result of droughts. As we have already been told, the water infrastructure is old and has been impacted negatively. There is also sewer spillage. We are happy because the provincial executive is drawing up a plan to ensure that these issues are indeed addressed.
Another issue that needs to be addressed in the Eastern Cape is that of houses. The Deputy Minister of Human Settlements is here to confirm what was said. In the Sundays River Valley Municipality there are problems with houses. We made a determination in the House that the housing issue should be addressed. Maybe we should recommend that before a municipality can be given a task, we should first assess its capacity. That is because there is an accreditation problem and the committee will start there. In some way or another, the municipality has been overburdened by what it is not able to do. That should also be looked into.
As government implements section 139, we will always come to the House and give a report. Our reports are based on a particular determination and brief. When we say there is a problem, it is because the problem is judged in terms of particular indicators and targets. It does not mean heaven and that everything is good. Because you come from a particular understanding and a particular mechanism, we are saying there is a particular problem and we therefore recommend a termination of what is happening. There are some other forces that would even like to politicise the scientific issues that are seen here. As an ANC-led government, we should contribute because we are observing how those deployed by us are handling the task.
As we moved on in the provincial report, we read about the issue of Public Works, especially the Expanded Public Works Programme. We would indeed recommend that because there are a lot of mistakes in that department, there should be a form of intergovernmental relations, IGR, between the municipality and the department.
There is also an issue around the information that flows from the department to the municipalities. We found that there were constraints and the municipalities were losing out. If we can strengthen the department's IGR with municipalities, we believe that there will be a lot of improvement. The department has the capacity for maintenance and paving, and it will assist where municipalities are in need.
We also want to recommend precisely because of the fact that we are going to the 2011 local government elections. As we have seen, some of the protests were genuine and some were what we call third forces, if we are to use a light word. Deputy Minister, we also recommend that because the period between now and June is going to be a period of political protests and nomination, we would like to see Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Cogta, and the Treasury really forming an advanced unit. If we don't do that, we will have an imbalance between the old and new calculations, and therefore lack capacity in terms of budgetary processes. We would like to recommend a unit, an advanced team, that would intervene in cases where municipalities are unable to pass budgets as a result of a particular experience. If that could happen, it might solve the problem.
The other issue is in Gauteng, in the Lesedi Local Municipality, where we have noted that there has been an improvement in housing delivery. However, I think we need to be briefed as to how far they are, precisely because in this one we want the Gauteng portfolio committee to ensure that on behalf of the NCOP it monitors the situation and makes recommendations. If need be, let us have an arrangement that is bilateral so that we can improve on that one.
As I have already indicated, the issue is always raised in regard to housing and it is the local municipalities that are suffering, but if they have accreditation we won't have a problem.
In the Western Cape, the Swellendam Local Municipality has its own problems, like financial management and a shortage of staff. We will also have to go deeper into this one in order to assist in regard to the provincial ... [Time expired.]