Chairperson, hon members, the Green Paper on Improving Government Performance, states, in the context of the global economic downturn, which is affecting all of us, that -
... the pursuit of value for money is imperative if government is to improve service delivery standards. We must do more with less. Wasteful and unproductive expenditure and corruption cannot be afforded.
In his speech to Parliament when tabling this Paper, Minister Chabane said:
I will ask Parliament to apply its mind in assisting the executive to make sure that we spend the public funds entrusted to us in ways that promote clear and directed outcomes we need to develop this country.
Service delivery is what this ANC government is committed to. Let us not minimise the successes that this government has already achieved since 1994. [Interjections.] From 1994 to 2008, nearly 19 million people received access to running water. Since 1991, 3,6 million houses have been electrified and almost 11 million people have access to basic sanitation. In 1996, only 3 million people, a mere handful, had access to social grants, but today 12,5 million receive social grants. [Applause.] Only 34 000 children had access to social grants then, but today 8 million children younger than 14 years receive social grants; and 3,1 million subsidised houses have been built, including 2,7 million free houses for the poor, giving shelter to an additional 14 million people. No mean feat, I would say!
Raymond Ackerman, addressing the Cape Times Breakfast Club towards the end of last year said:
It is only when one reflects on where we were in the darkest days of the last century and on the poverty, lack of opportunity and political and economic paralysis that characterised our society, that we are able to appreciate the overwhelming magnitude of the difficulties that have faced us in building a new society from the tragedies of the old and recreating ourselves as a normally functioning and thriving economy.
[Interjections.]