Chairperson, this hon member is not a member of the ANC. He won't understand what I'm talking about. You are not part of the ANC component. So just listen and hear what I'm going to say. I've given you a chance; just give me a fair chance, too, to participate in these issues.
Comrades, it is imperative that women must lead, leading in the sense that they participate in capacity-building programmes because they are part of skills development programmes.
Allow me to quote from Comrade Thenjiwe Mthintso's letter in the ANC Today called, "The revolutions within the revolution": "We do not want only to support women to enter leadership positions in all spheres of life but also to transform these spheres." I am emphasising this point because in the recent service delivery protest against councillors, some of the municipalities were headed by women.
The decision of a skills audit in municipalities is not new to us. In 1956 we adopted the Freedom Charter. It says: "The doors of learning shall be open to everyone." It is one of our policies and one of the ANC's resolutions under the social cluster that countrywide, skills audits of municipalities must be done. This was also one of Cabinet's resolutions on 5 March 2007.
A national skills audit steering committee was formed, which consisted of provincial and local government: the Local Government Sector Education and Training Authority, the SA Local Government Association, the Independent Municipal and Allied Trade Union - Imatu - and the SA Municipal Workers Union - Samwu. The main aim of the skills audit was to obtain baseline information that would facilitate the implementation of capacity-building initiatives and human resource planning in order to effectively develop appropriate interventions to redress local government skills and competence deficiencies. This process was facilitated over a period of 15 months in all nine provinces. Skill audits, inclusive of section 57 managers in the district and local municipalities, were conducted.
You are hounding me because I'm correcting what the hon Doman was saying here. He was talking about things that happened 10 years ago. [Interjections.] The methodology of the skills audit ... [Interjections.] ... I am debating the programmes that are in place in terms of which we can correct the skills shortages in municipalities.
The methodology of the skills audit was based on the customisation of the competency framework drawn from various government models, such as the Senior Management Services Competency Framework, the National Treasury and municipal regulations on the minimum competency level. Following all these guidelines, a competency framework was formed that consisted of six clusters.
I am going through all these processes to bring to people's attention the mere fact that because the DA has introduced this debate does not mean that nothing has been done. Things have been done. Listen to these programmes. [Interjections.] Through having done this exercise, we are very aware that a vacancy rate of 13,45% exists in municipalities nationwide. We know that. In accordance with organisational design and human resource principles, such vacancies ...