Hon Chairperson of the NCOP, hon Deputy Minister, hon members, mayors, councillors, distinguished members who have filled this venue, the North West Province supports the Bill. It is an honour to be offered this opportunity to participate in the debate on the first Division of Revenue Bill of this administration.
When we as public representatives debate the manner in which the nationally collected revenue or cake is divided, we do so in order to make sure that the competing national, provincial and local needs are addressed in a manner in which revenue will be shared equitably. We fully understand that all the needs cannot be catered for at the same time, but consideration needs to be taken of the pressing challenges and needs facing the provincial and local government spheres.
Particular attention needs to be taken to cater for areas that do not have huge capacity to raise their own revenue. Rural provinces and rural municipalities are always negatively impacted upon by the final sharing of the cake or allocation of the national Budget.
One of the priorities of this government is rural development. It needs to be undertaken with the seriousness it deserves. It becomes a challenge when the two spheres of government in rural provinces have to address the challenges faced by the communities with the limited resources they have available at their disposal. It must be kept in mind that the rural provinces and municipalities are always at a disadvantage when it comes to their own revenue-generation capacity.
This division of revenue is debated at a time when national government cannot collect enough revenue due to the recession.
Ka jalo, kwelo tlase ya ikonomi e dira kgatelelo mo pusong ya rona mme go botlhokwa gore le fa maemo a ntse jalo, puso ya bogareng e tshwanetse e netefatse gore porofense le dinaga magae di kgone go bona madi a a ka di thusang go tsweletsa ditirelo pele. (Translation of Setswana paragraph follows.)
[As a consequence, the recession puts pressure on the government. Nevertheless, it is important that the national government must ensure that funds are allocated to both the provinces and the rural areas to ensure service delivery.]
I would like to remind this august House that redemarcation of the provinces impacts negatively on the donating and receiving provinces. The North West province, in this instance, is always negatively impacted upon by this process during every election period. In 2006, the reincorporation of Mabopane, Ga-Rankuwa and Hammanskraal into Gauteng province impacted negatively upon the province in various ways. With the recent reincorporation of Merafong into Gauteng, the North West province has once more been negatively impacted upon. The province always loses high-density areas to other provinces, a factor that dramatically reduces its population. It must also be considered that, although the province has many mines, poverty still continues to increase in the province.
I would like to outline how the reincorporation of Merafong into Gauteng has impacted negatively upon the equitable share allocation to the province. The province submitted budget proposals to National Treasury as expected. These figures were based on the services rendered to the Merafong community. These included the figures of personnel and the statistics of communities that were serviced in that area. National Treasury did not take these proposals or the structural reviews in the final allocation into consideration, as reflected in the Division of Revenue Bill. National Treasury top-sliced from the North West allocation without any consideration for the issues raised above.
Provision for health is one of the priorities of this government and the reduction of its allocation will impact negatively on the delivery of health services in the province.
Ke rata go gopotsa maloko a Ntlo e gore Porofense ya Bokone Bophirima e kaiwa jaaka nngwe ya diporofense tse di sa beeng madi a a bonalang a a lebaneng le tsa boitekanelo. Ga go a nna jalo, lebaka ke gore gangwe le gape fa melelwane e segiwa se?wa, madi a a neng a ka tsweletsa boitekanelo mo matshelong a batho ba rona a feletsa a ngotlega. (Translation of Setswana paragraph follows.)
[I would like to remind members of this House that the North West province is regarded as a province that does not give enough budgetary consideration to health. That is not true; the reason is the new demarcations that happen now and then, which cause financial strain in the health budget meant for our people.]
This situation has worsened with the top-slicing from the provincial equitable share and it will be very difficult for the province to recover from such a negative impact. With little resources available to the province, the delivery of this priority will be compromised to a certain extent. The provincial budget proposals were based on the available statistics which were not considered.
Fa ke lebelela thuto, le yona e tlile go amega ka ntlha ya phokotso ya madi a a neng a tshwanetswe a abelwe porofense ya rona. [In my view, education will be adversely affected due to the decrease in budget that was supposed to be allocated for our province.]
The same approach was followed when dealing with health and the challenge we face is how to make up for the money that we budgeted for the provision of services to our people as a provincial government without the funds that have been unjustly cut from the final allocation to the province.
Tota go tlile go nna boima gore re kgone go fitlhelela batho botlhe ba porofense go ka tlisa ditirelo tse di maleba segolo jang mo thutong le mo boitekanelong fa Matlotlo a Boset?haba a sa re thuse ka matlole a mangwe go fitlhelela maikaelelo a rona. (Translation of Setswana paragraph follows.)
[It is truly difficult for us to be able to render services to all the people of our province particularly in the education and health sectors, especially when the National Treasury does not help us with funds.]
A poor and rural province like the North West province with a low revenue base cannot provide improved service delivery without the R889 345 million that has unjustly been transferred to Gauteng as a result of the redemarcation process. We can do more with this money if it is redirected to the province. If not, National Treasury must provide additional funding that can assist us through this financial year to enable us to cope with the delivery of services.
We strongly believe that with the powers vested in Parliament, as outlined in Money Bills Amendment Procedure and Related Matters Act of 2009, our predicament as a province can be addressed for this financial year. Let us remember that this amount of R889 million can do a lot regarding the delivery of services to the people of the North West province.
Jaaka baagi le puso ya Bokone Bophirima re na le tsholofelo ya gore puo e re e tlhagisang mo kopanong eno e tla utlwiwa le go arabiwa ka mokgwa o o tla tlisang tsholofelo e ntsi go batho ba rona. (Translation of Setswana paragraph follows.)
[We, the people and the government of the North West province, have hope that the views expressed by us in this gathering will be heard and be responded to in a manner that will restore the confidence of our people.]
We are going to improve on the spending of conditional grants during this financial year. We also started putting measures in place to assist municipalities to spend conditional grants. We believe that this effort will go a long way in improving spending of conditional grants.
We have also, as a province, endeavoured to do more with the limited resources available at our disposal. To stabilise the utilisation of funds and improved delivery of services in our municipality, we have invoked section 139 of the Constitution in four municipalities, namely Madibeng Local Municipality, Moses Kotane Local Municipality, Tswaing Local Municipality and Ngaka Modiri Molema District Municipality.
This action was intended to improve the delivery of services to our people and also to spend funds effectively because of challenges that these people were faced with.