Hon Deputy Chairperson of the NCOP, MECs present and those that are still coming, members of this august House, as well as the officials and members of the media, once more, it is an honour for me to be given this opportunity to come and present the Budget Vote of the Department of Co- operative Governance and Traditional Affairs in this august House.
The interaction with this House reminds me of and revives the fond memories of debates we had in this House. We used to have very serious and robust debates and discussions, particularly when I was at the service of this House as a Chairperson of the Select Committee on Local Government and Administration.
Members will recall that during the past debate on the first budget of the department, we raised issues which we believed this House had to ensure that it focused on. One of the most important things that we raised is that the NCOP has to be reviewed, and that it must be a structure that represents the interests of provinces and municipalities. By so doing, you ensure that municipalities have permanent status and do not come here as observers. Equally, that is going to increase the numbers of the NCOP to ensure that you come with a figure that will enable you to do your work properly.
It is quite important that we begin to look at how we ensure that the Department of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs, as a custodian of Chapter 3 of the Constitution, is able to work together with the NCOP because I believe that, in terms of our mandates, we are partners. Your area of focus is the legislative component, and ours is the executive. The question is: How do we begin to engage ourselves in this? I'm now concretely proposing in this forum, this Friday, that we must, probably, have a bilateral relationship as the Department of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs and the NCOP. As we speak, there are three important things that we are doing, which we think are at the centre of your work. Firstly, we are developing a Green Paper on co-operative governance, which we believe the NCOP can enrich as we move forward. Secondly, we are developing a law on support, monitoring and intervention by national government in provincial governments and by provincial governments in municipalities. Of course, the custodian of oversight with regard to that aspect is the NCOP.
We would be happy, hon Deputy Chairperson, if you can give us your technical people to work with us on this from the start, as we are drafting this. For example, we know, as a matter of fact, that one of the experienced officials that you have is Mr Momothi who deals with such issues. We think that, if you do so, we will be able to ensure that we move forward.
The last area of importance which we think we are supposed to collaborate and co-operate with you on is the area around "Taking Parliament to the People." We believe that issues that emanate from that programme are supposed to be tabled before us as much as they are tabled to the Leader of Government Business. We believe so because our responsibility is to ensure that local and provincial governments work well and in tandem with the national government. We are co-ordinating the whole of government and that is why we are called the "Department of Co-operative Governance". From our point of view, we believe that you are more of our partners than any other person in the executive. Therefore we must be able to take that one up.
One of the most important things that I think we must be able to engage in with you is the executive taking the NCOP seriously. From the level of the premier to the MECs, we must begin to engage in this question. Their House is this one and it's more important than the National Assembly. When they go to the National Assembly they sit in the gallery like any other visitor, but here they are afforded an opportunity to engage in the issues. I think we must be able to talk about this as we move forward. [Applause.]
South Africa is moving to exciting times. One of the most important things in this ANC-led government is that there is going to be a transparent process called an outcomes-based system. Through this process we will ensure that the President signs an agreement with the Minister. The Minister will in turn sign an agreement, not only with counterparts but all municipalities. Through this process we will also identify areas of performance for a period of four years so that the nation and everybody knows what is going to be done, what is expected, and how to ensure that we take the country forward.
This is an element which I think the NCOP, at some point, must be taken through because those are the tools and instruments that are going to be used to monitor the performance of Ministers. From our point of view, we believe that this is exciting. There is no government, which I know of, that ever came up with an outcome-based system - a system of how to monitor the performance, not only of the administrators but also of the elected politicians. That is why I'm saying we are living in exciting times as we move forward.
We believe that the issues of oversight, strong intergovernmental relations, and monitoring and evaluation are quite important with regard to issues of service delivery. The voice of the NCOP has been heard, particularly during the protests when people were raising issues and when the committee was crisscrossing our country engaging on those matters. We are saying you must continue and do your work looking at issues. You must continue to do your work without fear, favour or prejudice. You are representing the interests of our people here. You are representing the voice of the voiceless in these structures. Therefore you must be able to take up issues.
The department has developed the local government turnaround strategy, LGTAS, which is a mantra and a strategy that you must know by heart. This strategy is going to be the basis for the programmes of government at the local level for many years to come. Many policies are going to be developed out of this. Many laws are going to come out of this. It is important that you and the citizenry are informed about this.
Yesterday I listened to somebody, who is a Member of Parliament and a chairperson of a committee in the National Assembly, saying somebody, who is not a Member of Parliament, was criticising the LGTAS. This chairperson - a very important and powerful chairperson - said he could not engage in that debate because he had never read the LGTAS. He further said that the debate motivated him to go and read it. I told him that he was supposed to have done so a long time ago. I told him to go and read the document.
It is more dangerous and bad when members of the community engage you on the turnaround strategy only to find that you, as Members of Parliament, don't know about it. We believe that the LGTAS is something we want to take up. The committee has made us aware that they would require us to have a workshop on it. We are ready. We are going to workshop you so that you understand it by heart.
One of the most fundamental things here is that we have been given the responsibility of co-ordinating government, particularly in areas of municipal basic services: water, sanitation, electricity, refuse removal, disaster management, as well as municipal roads. We believe that these issues are issues that we must attend to. We must make sure that the way in which we do our work doesn't allow a situation where money is withheld by government because the municipality could not spend it.
The question that is supposed to be asked by the NCOP is: If the municipality could not spend, what support mechanisms did you give to that municipality? What capacity programmes did we implement in that municipality? It is not a municipality's fault; it's the apartheid system's fault that these municipalities don't have the capacity. It's due to the historical past. Therefore, the role that you must play is that of taking up these issues, engaging in them, and ensuring that these municipalities are functioning.
We want to create a special purpose vehicle - a structure that can ensure that services are delivered on the ground. In South Africa we have a situation where the weak are the least supported, and the strong are the ones that are given resources because the system of budgeting and allocating resources is based on the number of people, that is, the population statistics. It means that if you are a bigger population you get more money. If you are poor you remain poor due to the way the resources are allocated. We are, therefore, saying that that system has to change. We must be able to look at the backlogs and the topography.
With regard to service delivery in the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal, for example, when you have to pump up water in the hills and hillocks, it requires more resources than bringing such services in a flat and plain area like Gauteng, North West and the Northern Cape. Therefore, you must be able to factor in the topography of areas when allocating resources. We are saying, therefore, there must be a review of the way resources are being allocated.
Furthermore, the municipalities' baseline was based on the fact that municipalities get 95% of their funds from their own revenue. The reality is that close to 40% of their revenue is from grants. This means that the way we have been allocating resources is something that has to be reviewed and changed.
We have quantified the six services that I've spoken about. The required resources add up to an amount of about R495 billion. We have even managed to identify where four of these are being least delivered. We have found that the Western Cape is leading. Eighty-eight per cent of these services are found in the Eastern Cape; followed by Gauteng with 79%; the Northern Cape is third; and the province with the least services is Limpopo. Only 15% of Limpopo areas have these services. The reasons for that are that they incorporated underdeveloped homelands into their system, and the issue of budgeting doesn't consider these things. This means they will remain poorer if we don't change the way things are done.
At the same time, when you look at electricity only, in terms of backlogs in relation to electricity infrastructure, it's about R27 billion that is required to ensure that you provide electricity to all. We will be having discussions with the Minister of National Treasury and the Minister of Energy in order to look at the surcharges on electricity. The department feels that resources are not used in a manner where they are ploughed back to electricity. They subsidise other services and you find that our infrastructure leaves a lot to be desired.
Furthermore, we will be having such discussions because electricity is the number one generator of revenue in municipalities, and you find that this resource is not used in a manner that ensures that maintenance of the cash cow takes place. So we will be discussing the ways and means of dealing with these issues.
One of the critical things that we are also presenting is that the time for municipalities to employ unqualified people is over. Next week we will be presenting a Bill in the national Cabinet where we will be coming with criteria for people to be employed. We are saying that should anybody - including the councillors - employ unskilled people, they will take personal liability and responsibility. And if we know ... [Interjections.] All parties employ their cadres.
Let me tell you about this issue of cadres. The Western Cape government has been involved in an African cleansing. [Interjections.] They have removed 130 black managers who are Indians, coloureds and Africans. [Interjections.] They removed them. If you go to the provincial government here, they have removed women - some of them with disabilities, like Shanaaz Majiet - and employed males in those positions, white males to be specific. The issue of cadre deployment must not be used as a way of trying to undermine what is being done.
The DA practises cadre deployment. The difference between the DA and the ANC is that the ANC is vocal about cadre deployment. It doesn't do it secretly and in dark corners; the ANC is very transparent. [Applause.] Therefore I'm saying let's not politicise the issue of local government. Let's deal with the facts.
I can tell you about wrong things that are done by this Western Cape government and the City of Cape municipality; they are shocking. One of these is that you have a 40 000-seater stadium in Orlando, which cost R280 million to build, while Cape Town spent over R4 billion building a 70 000-seater stadium. When they were designing this stadium here, they didn't know the variations of 60% of the costs.
You look at the bus rapid transit, BRT, here; they underestimated by an amount of over R3 billion. Here, in the Western Cape, they've built toilets with no structure and people need to hide when using those toilets. [Interjections.] We have an area here known as Khayelitsha, where you have 5 000 people - in the heart of the city - with no sanitation. When they want to relieve themselves, they have to cross the N2 road in order to do so. [Interjections.]
There are a lot of things that are happening here. People are trying to create an impression that the Western Cape is run so well and it does things well; that's not true. Let all of us focus on dealing with the problems; let's not politicise them. Let's ensure that we improve the system of local government in South Africa. All of us can make it better without applying party labels and saying one is doing well. There are many things that I can reveal about the way the DA runs things. I don't want to go into that but, equally, don't provoke us because we have information that we can present to you ... [Interjections.] ... in your face; that is what we always do.
We also want to say that we are moving forward; we are surging ahead. Issues of development are being taken up, and we believe that we will never betray our people in focusing on what has to be done. Local government is changing for the better. It is going to change and you are going to see a difference. We believe that the only way to succeed is to work together. That's the only way to take things forward.
We must be able to rise above sectoral or party petty interests, and focus on issues at hand. Our people expect us to lead them. Our people expect us to be able to give them improved quality of lives. That is what our people are expecting us to do as they have deployed us in this House. This rings true particularly with regard to the NCOP. The NCOP is a House that represents the interests of provinces. It is not a House that represents the interests of parties. We must not forget that. We must always be reminded of what this House is all about and be able to stick to that mandate. Some people always say that the ANC undermines the Constitution and forget about the way they do things.
In conclusion, Deputy Chairperson, we want to say without fear of contradiction that the choir in South Africa is beginning to sing very well. From the melody and song we will succeed. Thank you very much. [Applause.]