Chairperson, Minister, Deputy Minister, colleagues, ladies and gentlemen, and comrades, let's start by expressing, on behalf of our committee, our appreciation and thanks to the now new director-general, Elroy Africa, and his team of officials for their co-operation and support to the committee during its oversight interaction with the department. [Applause.] Welcome, sir. We hope you will continue the tradition of co- operation, as your predecessor did.
We equally express appreciation to the leadership of the South African Local Government Association, Salga, and the Local Government Sector Education Training Authority. Even though they report to the Department of Labour, they worked with us to let us understand what they were doing in the area of municipalities. I would like to express our appreciation to the outgoing chief executive officer and to the new team that is coming in to take over their work.
To the Commission for the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Cultural, Religious and Linguistic Communities, CRL Commission, and the National House of Traditional Leaders, thank you for working with us in seeking a better life for the communities that we are meant to serve. This Budget Vote takes place on World Earth Day, a day dedicated to re- energising the campaign to save or, as others would say, to prolong the life of our planet by adopting, individually, organisationally and institutionally, environmentally sustainable practices. This department, working together with its sister departments at the provincial and local level, has a critical role to play in providing robust leadership in this area.
Our Polokwane resolutions on climate change epitomise the call to action that we must heed today and every day. Naturally, we expect the turnaround strategy that you spoke about earlier, Minister, to have this "green campaign" central to its agenda.
Minister, we will support the Budget Vote this year, because we realise that the transition from third to fourth administration has been hectic. You spoke about disorientation and reorientating yourself.
However, we wish to emphasise the necessity to urgently address the organisation and management of the department so that we return its financial management to clean audits, as judged by the Auditor-General, to position its personnel to exhibit better morale, and to work with its counterparts in the provinces and at municipal level collaboratively and co- operatively. The leadership and members of provincial executive councils and Salga across the board and across the country must feel that their voice, their presence and their views always receive respect and broad support from you and your team of officials.
The ANC also wishes to appeal to you, sir, to mediate promptly and speedily to resolve KwaZulu-Natal's noninvolvement with Salga, which we do not understand. It causes problems with the Auditor-General's work. So we urge you to work on that issue urgently. A healthy relationship between your department and Salga will enable both of you, supported by your colleagues in Cabinet and ourselves in Parliament, to repair our damaged relationship with some of the communities around the country.
Our collective pressure will also stem the tide of corruption that threatens the national democratic revolution itself. We should be unwavering in conveying to the corrupt that they must not expect us to be quiet about their completely unacceptable behaviour.
Reverend Jesse Jackson, who is visiting now, is correct when he calls it antirevolutionary behaviour, but we draw our courage on this matter from the spirit of Oliver Tambo, Chris Hani and Solomon Mahlangu, whom we remember this month. April is Oliver Tambo month, it is Chris Hani month and it is Solomon Mahlangu month. That is courage - they died fighting to free our country of corruption, among others.
It was announced this week on radio that the BBC World Service conducted a worldwide survey about what people thought was the most pressing problem that faces humanity, and the overwhelming majority said poverty. So, Minister, we reject corruption because it significantly hampers our fight against poverty and inequality. It is this campaign against poverty and inequality that must inform the turnaround strategy.
We also cannot continue with a system that reproduces poverty and inequality instead of eradicating it completely. We must search for alternatives that will work. It is for this reason that the reported decline in employment by municipalities is unacceptable. This is reported in the Treasury's local government review. We cannot have a situation where, when we demand that there should be more jobs, there is a reported decline in employment practices. Decent employment including labour- intensive work programmes must be the orientation of all municipal programmes.
The challenge we face at local level is to support vigorously those who act against corruption, expose it and help build the credibility of this campaign. Those who killed Jimmy Mohlala must not be allowed to get away with it. They must feel the pressure of the entire movement, and the police must be assisted to convict the guilty.
The ANC has repeatedly, through its president and its general leadership, expressed a number of initiatives intended to heal our own organisation and, among others, to free it of corruption and build its professional competency in government. So we need the department itself to develop capacity to prevent conflict from being toxic and affecting government negatively. If we succeed in this area, especially coupled with effective and prompt responses to communities, to municipalities and to provinces, we will succeed at least in reducing this problematic area.
Let us also talk about the internal organisation of these municipalities. In particular the necessity for computerisation is crucial, and the convenience of information exchange management cannot be overemphasised. Record keeping, document tracking, monitoring and evaluation occur best when technology is used effectively. You, sir, working with the State Information Technology Agency, must support, cajole and encourage municipalities to go this route.
The Auditor-General's major function, or rather major complaint, among other things, is this inability to locate and track documentation, if they find the officials to account for their work. So in the 21st century technology is really not an option to consider. It is the only way to go.
This will minimise the conflict we are seeing in the speed of communication across the spheres, but also with communities themselves. Conflict itself is not bad, and protests themselves are a key part of our democratic governance. People must be able to protest if things don't go the way they wish. It is when they become violent, when they become toxic, that we ourselves must protest and remind those involved of their co- responsibility.
Minister, culture is dynamic. You've reverted to some practices about which there will be policy documents, you say. There is going to be robust debate when they are tabled. We would like to see those, but the most important part that I want to talk about is the indigenous knowledge system, especially. We've had disasters here in the past. People survived those disasters because they learned, living harmoniously in and with nature, to avoid being swamped by nature. So we must effectively draw from those skills.
Some of the people who survived the tsunami in Phuket did so because elephants that speak and listen with their feet knew the tsunami was coming. People followed them to higher ground, and that is how they survived. Indigenous knowledge is critical. We must reverse the rubbishing of our people's knowledge and appreciate their experience in the conduct of government affairs. [Applause.]
Meneer, ons gaan apartheid nooit vergeet nie. [Sir, we are never going to forget apartheid.]
You can trust us on that one, sir. If you don't, we ... [Interjections.]