Chairperson, I think one must, on your behalf, officially thank the members of the executive who have clearly made it their responsibility to participate in this debate, because this is the kind of interaction that we would like to see more of as a House of Parliament.
I am saying this precisely because the governing party at its conference resolved that one of the key things it would do is to build a developmental state. In its characterisation of a developmental state it stated that one of the key things would be to ensure that it was a people-driven state. That is a state that takes the interests of the people along with it when doing its work. When it comes to issues of service delivery, the people are the voice into which the executive will tap in delivering these kinds of services. Beyond that it also gave a mandate to the members of the legislatures, saying that they needed to define their role in how to ensure that they strengthened and contributed to the development of this developmental state in terms of its character, form and content.
What we as legislatures then said was that our work was to build an activist Parliament. In the characterisation of this, or in trying to give content to this activist Parliament, we had already identified the fact that we as the NCOP had instruments that actually spoke to an activist Parliament. What is an activist parliament? It is a parliament that is there with the people. It is a parliament that works together with the people. It is a parliament that acquires knowledge and is guided by the wisdom of the ordinary people that have elected those public representatives to parliament, etc.
So, this debate is a reflection of those two things as we look at it: a state at the level of the executive that wants to be developmental in its character, and we as legislatures said this was our role as activists who were, when doing our oversight consistently, going to also strengthen what the executive were doing. It is in that sense that I, on behalf of the Chairperson of the NCOP, honestly and humbly thank the executive very much. We wish that we saw more of other members of the executive participating in the activities of the NCOP as well.
I must say that the debate was quite enriching and it sought to really speak to the kind of work that we need to do. As I was sitting here, I was already beginning to think about what the role of the committees of the NCOP would be; how we would ensure that the committees of the NCOP also spoke to this kind of report and what was happening in the provincial legislatures, the municipalities, etc.
I also thank the Leader of Government Business from the North West very much. It's like he was reading my mind, asking how we could ensure that we translated the kind of debate that we had today and see that it also took place in the provincial legislatures, so that provincial legislatures, while they might not have a debate as broad as we have had, might have one that specifically focused on issues that related to matters of the particular province.
This also speaks to what Limpopo was proposing in regard to the level of interface between the permanent delegates of the NCOP, the provincial legislatures and the local municipalities, which is something that we have consistently been preaching. As the Deputy Minister for Cogta has said, we have a unique House here, which should be utilised effectively to drive and deepen the intergovernmental relations programme. This is the platform that we need to use, so that there will be a level of interface between the two, in actual fact three Houses - the legislatures, the local municipalities and the NCOP - in regard to the level of work that we will be able to do.
It is for that reason that we say that through programmes such as Provincial Week we too support the commitment by the ANC, the ruling party, and we share the responsibility for the problems that people have experienced at all levels.
However, our oversight activities, as I have said before, must ensure that there is constant monitoring to make sure that our people continue to benefit from this advancement. It would be pointless for us to have these kinds of interactions and debates if the debates and interactions did not translate into concrete responses or concrete deliverables that would begin to advance or change the lives of our people very much for the better. Otherwise, it will not make any sense to an ordinary person who lives in Komatipoort or elsewhere. Committee meetings, plenaries and other forums must be able to guide us in making an assessment of the direction we are taking in resolving the challenges. We can only come up with a practical assessment if we continue to embrace the relationship already fostered and, of course, this strengthens Salga. We call upon provincial delegates, Whips and the legislatures at large to play a central role in ensuring that we succeed in our work.
Some of our committees have, of course, already visited certain provinces to look at similar issues to those highlighted in the report. Subsequently, our NCOP programme has reflected the intention of more committees to undertake the kind of work that we have already identified in our report.
I would like to re-emphasise the point of our calling upon members, as they go back to their committees, to ask the critical question that we need to ask: "Where does our programme reflect on issues related to Taking Parliament to the People, to Provincial Week? Do our committees speak to these kinds of things?" This is an emphasis on the part of the work that we are calling upon our members to do.
The NCOP commitment to effective public participation is one of the many ways that we hope to use to strengthen programmes such as Provincial Week in conjunction with Taking Parliament to the People. Our House in general is placing a strong emphasis on our public participation as a form of expression of people's power; hence the development of the public participation model. That is one of the things I want to call upon members to familiarise themselves with in the oversight model of Parliament.
It will also assist members in their committees to model their work and their programmes on the framework of the oversight model. If you don't do that, you do not align your work with the kind of model that we have adopted as Members of Parliament, and you tend to run the risk of doing something and thinking that you are doing what you intended to do, only to find that you are doing something totally different from what you are supposed to be doing. So, that is an area that we are appealing to members to familiarise themselves with.
We wish to take the model and, through the level of interfaces, work with our provinces and municipalities, and also begin to share this kind of model, because it will only strengthen the kind of work that we are doing when it comes to oversight. It is important that we do that. We have already heard the president of the ANC speaking to the question of the level at which the manifesto of the ANC relates to these matters.
I just want to touch on one thing. We should not leave this House with misconceptions, or having misled ourselves on concluding certain matters. I find it quite interesting that the DA acknowledges that they have visited a school and that in that school they have found a disparity, but they still, from their philosophical point of view, continue to say that that is a reflection of an open and equal society. What does it say to you as an individual if you do not even recognise that historically there have been disparities and therefore, as a result of these disparities and inequalities, we will not be able to treat matters in the same way?
There should be those who are given more resources in order to advance and reach those who already have. We don't have an equal society and we as public representatives cannot continue misleading our people out there and saying that it is about an equal opportunity society, when in actual fact we are grappling with high levels of inequality within that society.
So, it is quite misleading to misdirect such an important debate and want to drive it with a wrong ideological and philosophical posture of an equal opportunity society, when in actual fact we know the deep-rooted problem of our society is the inequalities that have been created as a result of class differentiation and the like within the society of South Africa. Thank you. [Applause.]
Debate concluded.