Hon Chairperson, hon Minister, and hon members, for 14 years women, children and people with disabilities have not been asking for policy formulation from the government. They have been clamouring for action and service delivery. Even today, this is what they are still asking for.
Minister, unfortunately government is becoming much too big and much too expensive. As with Greece and Portugal, our country too may very soon be in a predicament. We are exhausting state revenue at a very rapid rate on government itself. This leaves little for ordinary people to benefit from government programmes.
This department, for example, is consuming nearly R100 million of taxpayers' money. How much of this will directly benefit people on the ground? At the same time, the fastest growing item on the budget line is the cost of servicing government debt. To put this in perspective, multiply the budget of this department by 728 and that is the amount of money government has to allocate, this year, to service its debts. Tax money is not going into socioeconomic programmes and as the economic squeeze tightens, government will offer ordinary people less and less. The promise of a better life for all rings very hollow today.
We in Cope want to see gender equality being achieved but we believe that this Ministry is being set up to fail. When it fails because of all the circumstances that surround it, it will be said that a woman failed the women of this country. It was wrong to make women's affairs a woman's responsibility. To have absolved men just like that was equally wrong. What has happened to all the women activists of our country that they allow such an ill-conceived deployment to occur?
In addition, this department is also responsible for ensuring the attainment of children's rights and responsibilities. To begin with, over 1,5 million children of South Africa are orphans. The number of child- headed households is staggering. All of these problems concerning children are of a great magnitude. They are very, very serious problems. How will the government advance the rights of these 1,5 million orphans? How will it help to resolve the problem of child-headed households?
On the question of people with disabilities, it is noble of the government to ask for all issues concerning people with disabilities to be mainstreamed. Last year, Deputy President Motlanthe promised that people with disabilities would be beneficiaries and equal partners in all governmental programmes to halve unemployment and poverty. When will this be fulfilled?
This year's theme concerning persons with disabilities is "Making Millennium Development Goals inclusive". This is to be achieved through the empowerment of people with disabilities and their communities. We would like to see programmes being implemented countrywide. We want to see government action; and not government in distraction.
Chair, we in Cope are very uneasy. This Ministry has an enormous responsibility. If the Minister proves me wrong and succeeds with all her strategic objectives to the satisfaction of all the people, I will be only too happy to eat humble pie. If, on the other hand, what we believe is going to happen does happen, then money, opportunity and trust will be permanently lost.
Minister, we beg you to prove us wrong. We beg you to succeed. We urge you to make this Ministry relevant and save it from the irrelevancy into which it was moulded. I thank you. [Applause.]
Ms L L ZWANE (KwaZulu-Natal): Chairperson, Minister Mama Mayende-Sibiya, and hon members KwaZulu-Natal is one of the provinces that was very excited about the introduction of the Ministry of Women, Children and People with Disabilities. We felt that it was time the voice of women was heard and a platform created to address their needs and aspirations. We can never thank the President of our country enough for the introduction of this Ministry.
There is a lot of work to be done by this Ministry, as the Minister said in her speech that it is going to monitor other government departments to ensure that gender is mainstreamed and that children's rights as well as the rights of people with disabilities are taken care of. But, as the KwaZulu-Natal province, we still want to say that a very small budget has been allocated to execute this monitoring.
Minister, we would have expected more to be given to your Ministry since it concerns women. We know that there is a lot of work to be done with regard to addressing women's issues that have bugged our society for centuries. We have a lot of work to do with regard to training women to understand the pieces of legislation that affect them because, in most cases, they are exploited or abused simply because they don't understand how to use the legislation that is there for them. That is an area this Ministry needs to focus on.
In many cases, children are abused simply because they've not been given training to understand the legislation provided for them to assist them to stand up for their rights. But then that protection also goes with training to understand their responsibilities as young people.
Your task is going to be a bit complicated and difficult because we understand that there are no MECs at the level of provinces that are dedicated to these programmes which fall within the offices of the premiers and as such we are going to demand a lot from this Ministry. We want to see the Minister trotting around the provinces engaging, addressing, and discussing issues with women. This is going to take a lot of her time and it needs to be budgeted for. This Ministry is as important as any other department. As women, we need to support it in every way we can to encourage the Minister to do her duties and those of the Ministry properly.
Regarding the issue of people with disabilities, Minister, in KwaZulu-Natal we have ensured that the 2% allocated to employ people with disabilities is implemented by the departments. But there is a need to monitor whether these things do happen in an effective way or are implemented in full. Broadly speaking, as KwaZulu-Natal we look forward to your guidance, support, strengthened communication and visibility so that at the end of the day we don't cast aspersions on the Ministry. We look forward to supporting you and ensuring that your programmes are well received by the different provinces.
In conclusion, as other speakers have said earlier, I want to say that we are aggrieved that we have been allocated so little but I want to assure you that the province of KwaZulu-Natal, or rather, the mighty province of KwaZulu-Natal, supports this budget. Thank you. [Applause.]