Chairperson, hon Minister, hon Deputy Minister, hon members, hon MEC from the Western Cape, ladies and gentlemen, it is indeed an honour for me to rise in this House in support of Budget Vote No 32 of Rural Development and Land Reform for 2010-11. In fact, as Minmec, we have already supported the Budget Vote. We are calling for this endorsement with confidence that the budget policy presentation by the hon Minister will indeed significantly contribute to our vision of building viable, equitable and sustainable rural communities, with food security for all. In achieving this vision, we are guided by the hon President's state of the nation address of 2009-10 when he said that -
... abantu basemakhaya nabo banelungelo lokuba nogesi, namanzi, izindlu zangasese ezigijima amanzi, imigwaqo, izindawo zokuqeda isizungu nezemidlalo, kanye nezindawo zokuthenga eziphucukile njengasemadolobheni.
Nabo banelungelo lokusizwa kwezolimo ukuze bazitshalele imifino nokunye, bafuye nemfuyo bakwazi ukuziphilisa.
Sizimisele ukuqala lo mkhankaso wokwakha izingqalasizinda ezindaweni zasemakhaya. Uma sibambisene nezakhamizi, amakhosi, amakhansela, nezinduna siyokwazi ukuwusheshisa lo msebenzi. Uma sisebenza ngokubambisana sizokwenza okuningi. (Translation of isiZulu paragraphs follows.)
[People from the rural areas also have a right to have electricity, water, flush toilets, roads and recreational and sports facilities, as well as decent shopping centres like those in the urban areas.
They also have a right to be assisted in respect of agriculture so that they can grow vegetables and other things, and have livestock in order to earn a living.
We are determined to start with this campaign of building infrastructure in the rural areas. If we work together with the communities, chiefs, councillors and headmen we will be able to speed up this task. If we work together we will do more.]
Therefore, Gauteng province supports the Minister's Comprehensive Rural Development Programme approach not only because it is in line with what the President said, but because it is in line with our ANC election manifesto, which has set a new course for postcolonial reconstruction and development which will be achieved through co-ordinated and broad-based agrarian transformation.
The hon Minister has indicated that this programme will focus on quite a number of things, and I quote:
Building communities through social mobilisation and institution- building; strategic investment in old and new social, economic, information and communication technology, ICT infrastructure and public amenities and facilities co-ordinated through the rural infrastructure programme; a new land reform programme implemented in the context of the reviewed land tenure system; the rendering of professional and technical services as well as effective and sustainable resource management through the component of geo-spatial services, technology development and disaster management; and the effective provision of cadastral and deeds registry, as well as surveys and mapping services.
It is in this context that our province, particularly the department, has recommitted itself to the development of rural areas within the province as a whole, even though many of our people in South Africa believe that rural development in Gauteng is a rumour. I would like to say this afternoon that this is not a rumour because it is indeed happening. [Laughter.]
I would also like to confirm that Gauteng is the smallest province in our country, covering only 1,7 million hectares or 1,4% of the total area. Of this, 438 628 hectares are potentially arable. This tells us that there is indeed rural development and agriculture in Gauteng. A total of 4% of the province's population resides in rural areas, including on agriculturally arable land. We can no longer continue to develop rural communities by chance. We have a clear strategy, plans, outcomes and outputs, as well as targets, in line with the national strategy and programme.
In the province, we have finalised the Gauteng comprehensive rural development strategy in line with the Comprehensive Rural Development Programme approach. We have also revised the Gauteng integrated food security strategy, and we are implementing these strategies accordingly.
We have also committed ourselves to working towards realising national outcomes 7 and 10 of the 12 outcomes pursued by the national government over the Medium-Term Strategic Framework period. We have already made mention of outcome 7. Outcome 10 is about protecting and enhancing our environmental assets and natural resources in urban and rural areas in particular. The success of these outcomes will also be measured through the delivery of outputs as outlined by the hon Minister: sustainable land reform; food security for all; rural development and sustainable livelihoods; as well as job creation linked to skills training. We in Gauteng have already adopted these outputs in line with the national outcomes.
On sustainable land reform, the Gauteng provincial government will work together with the national Department of Rural Development and Land Reform to ensure a democratic and equitable land allocation to our people. Indeed, at our Polokwane conference, we all agreed as the ANC that the willing- buyer, willing-seller model has not worked for our people, hence the initiative to review the legislation to allow equitable land allocation to take place in our country and in our province in particular, as well as to deracialise the rural economy for shared and inclusive growth.
We have already identified three pilot projects in Gauteng for comprehensive rural development. These are areas such as Devon in the Lesedi municipality, Hekpoort in the West Rand and Sekhulumi in Metsweding. Therefore, we are moving very fast in implementing the Comprehensive Rural Development Programme in line with our national principles, as outlined by the Minister and the department.
On rural development, we are promoting equitable development to overcome the urban-rural divide and to ensure that rural communities have access to decent services, infrastructure and economic opportunities. We will work together with all other provincial departments to build sustainable rural livelihoods because as a department alone we cannot achieve comprehensive rural development in Gauteng.
On food security for all, we will continue to intensify the establishment of food gardens. In fact, we did launch a campaign on one household, one food garden, especially in the 20 prioritised townships and in the 50 poorest wards in Gauteng. We will also continue to intensify the establishment of co-operatives in Gauteng and assist smallholder farmers to become commercial farmers. We will also continue to support commercial farming, including agro-processing.
We have also supported the Minister's job creation and skills training programme, and therefore we will continue to ensure that the prioritised households in the 50 poorest wards will benefit from the creation of decent jobs through our Expanded Public Works Programme in the rural and urban areas, the Community Works Programme and agricultural and rural infrastructure development.
Therefore, we support the national policy and legislative processes on agrarian transformation, rural development and land reform processes, including the Land Tenure Security Bill, amongst other things, in order to protect the rights of farm workers. Let us also report that we have convened a very successful summit in Gauteng with farm workers and the unions. We all agreed that we needed to see a cordial working relationship between farmers and farm workers and that the conditions of farm workers should indeed be improved.
We were sad to hear the farm workers saying that, after 16 years, they still do not feel part of the democracy and the freedom that we are enjoying today. Therefore, we will continue doing this work and ensure that there is a cordial working relationship between the farmers and the farm workers, with the aim of ensuring food security for all in Gauteng. Very soon we will also be consulting with our people in Gauteng on the Green Paper and the Bill that has been supported by Minmec.
Let me conclude by indicating that in the name of our Freedom Charter, Gauteng supports Budget Vote No 32. We believe that the national Department of Rural Development and Land Reform, led by the Minister, will succeed in achieving the outcome and the outputs that we have set for ourselves, as long as we work together with the provincial government, all departments, the local government, and most importantly, our communities, all roleplayers and stakeholders. I thank you. [Applause.]