Chairperson, it is an historic occasion to participate in this debate in the Limpopo province during Taking Parliament to the People. It is also historic because it is the first time that we debate the Division of Revenue Bill and report to the NCOP as required by the Money Bills Amendment Procedure and Related Matters Act of 2009.
The late Comrade Moses Kotana was an architect of the struggle in this country to set the pace for renewal and to better the lives of our people. The Freedom Charter as adopted in 1955, the strategy and tactics as reviewed by the Polokwane conference, the ANC manifesto for which the ANC- led government received overwhelming support on 22 April 2009 and the state of the nation address inform the division of revenue to address the specific objectives to improve the people's lives and give them dignity. In 1994, the people of this country got political freedom, but the struggle for economic freedom is still on. That work to get economic freedom, which the late Comrade Moses Kotane started, still continues.
Last Thursday, the new alliance of the opposition parties had the audacity to put forward a motion of no confidence in the Head of State of this country. One thing that they forget is that the Head of State of this country engaged with countries of the world to get programmes going, to uplift the people in Africa to get water and to get sanitation and went to Copenhagen to engage with countries of the world to set the pace and get sensible resolutions to save the world. That is the Head of State about whom they put forward a motion of no confidence.
During the state of the nation address, the Head of State gave the marching orders for South Africa for the next five years. Going back to 22 April, South Africa's people spoke, and last Thursday Parliament spoke, and the opposition dismally failed.
The ANC government steeled its resolve to create a better life for all and roll back the frontiers of poverty by focusing on the five manifesto priorities as demonstrated in the equitable division of revenue across all its spheres. Hon Lees came to the podium and addressed this House regarding the social welfare of our people - that we create a social welfare system at the expense of economic development. Sometimes it seems to me people cannot read, because we dealt with a review of the Budget; we dealt with the speech of the Minister of Finance, and we dealt with the Budget as a whole and with the division of revenue.
It is all set in a programme to get South Africa economically viable and to get jobs for our people. What is the reality in this country? We had Bantustans - this province where we are now had two - the former Venda and Lebowa. The then National Party did not spend what it was supposed to spend on water, sanitation and job creation in the Bantustans. Go and read the Tomlinson Report, which you can get at the library in Parliament. It will give you the facts. That is the history and that is why we must deal with the reality as it is now.
The statement is made that we lied for 15 years and made promises. Memories are very short. Since 1995, 1 568 new schools were built, 47 771 new classrooms were erected and 13,6 million people are receiving social grants and can say tonight that they have got bread on the table. You want to take it away. If you take it away, what do you put in its place? What answer are you going to give to the constituency if you take the statement that you made on this podium? How are you going to do that?
Five hundred new clinics were built, 2 298 were upgraded, 125 mobile clinics were established, 13 new hospitals were built and 2,9 million houses were built. That is a reality. Now it is said that we make promises and we cannot keep the promises. I think we must give the opposition a political education lecture.
The division of revenue as a developmental tool should be acute in correcting the past wrongs and past imbalances and create a democratic society. South Africa is a country in transition, from a past of the exclusion of the majority from decent services. We admit the challenges are huge. We also admit we must still do more. We are not running away from our responsibilities. Many of our provinces are a conglomeration of the erstwhile South African Development Trust and the former Bantustans. This led to tension amongst provinces in resource allocation and service delivery. The provincial equitable share allocations, the local government equitable share allocations per municipality and all other allocations are allocations to meet target priority programmes of government.
The ANC supports the objectives of the Division of Revenue Bill as stated in section 2 of the Bill specifically referring to accountability by ensuring that all allocations are reflected in the budget of receiving provinces and municipalities, and by ensuring that expenditure of additional allocations is reported on by the receiving provinces and municipalities and its implementation.
The total equitable share to provinces is R260,9 billion, of which R61,8 billion is in conditional grants, totalling R322,8 billion to assist provinces to see that the circumstances of their people are improved.
The ANC is committed to increasing its oversight and we will do it. We are starting this weekend during the constituency period to see to it that the allocated funds towards our spending priority are well spent. I am referring to expanding employment and safeguarding social security, improving quality education and skills development, improving health care, rural development, and creating a built environment to support economic growth and to combating crime and corruption.
We are serious when we say we want clean governance and co-operative governance standards that must not be compromised. The division of revenue in the hands of government, based on the will of the people and the people- centred and people-driven principle, should be outcomes-based.
My time was cut, but the ANC supports this Division of Revenue Bill. Thank you. [Time expired.]