Chairperson, hon Minister Manzankosi and Deputy Minister, hon MEC, ...
Izinhlelo zethu zezezokuthutha kuleli lizwe ziphucuzeke kakhulu, njengoba sazi ukuthi ezokuthutha kuleli lizwe yizona zinhlelo ezikwazi ukuxhumanisa bonke abantu basemakhaya nabasemadolobheni ukuze izinto zakhona zikwazi ukuhamba kahle.
Ngithi-ke, Manzankosi nginokukwethemba ukuthi kukhona ongakwenza kulolu hlelo lwakithi ngoba kulesiya sifundazwe sobukhosi baKwaZulu-Natali kuningi owakwenza wathukisa izindawo zethu zasemakhaya. Sayeka ukwemuka nomfula uma sihamba siwela imifula njengaseSikhwebezi nje siya kwezinye izindawo. Sasingakwazi ukuwela kahle, sasiwela amanzi ashaya lapha bese sihamba siya esikoleni iSilanda.
Ngithi-ke, Manzankosi ngiyakwethemba njengendoda eqhamuka kulesiya sifundazwe ukuthi uzowenza lo msebenzi. Ngiyethemba futhi ukuthi ngeke usiphoxe ngesikhathi Sendebe Yomhlaba. Uyobe usukulungisile lokhu okuzintwala okuhluphayo laphaya ezitimeleni njengoba umnawami kade esho ukuthi uthola omama bethwele kakhulu, kuminyene, bebelethe nezingane, behla nakabuhlungu ezitimeleni.
Bese ngithi-ke ngizocela ukuthi ubambisane kakhulu noNdosi ezimpini lezi zamagovu lawa akithi angoSomatekisi ngoba isibhamu sisekhona. Ngoba uma uhamba ngetekisi uvele wazi kahle ukuthi awuphephile. Ngizocela impela ukuthi nibambisane njengamadoda aleli lizwe kanye nezakhamizi njengoba oyihlomkhulu bayilwela le nkululeko, nikwazi ukuthi izigebengu lezi niziqoqe nizibeke endaweni yazo.
Ngithi-ke isabelomali somnyango wakho, njengoba ufika nje, ngabe ngenza obukhulu ubuxhwe uma ngingagxeka. Uyafika, ufake izicathulo ezintsha. Lezi zicathulo ezintsha-ke ngicela ukuthi uzifake Manzankosi, usebenze ngokwethembeka kuleli lizwe lenkosi, uthasisele kulokhu owawukwenza le ekhaya, uphinde ukwenze nalapha. Ngithi-ke isabelomali soMnyango wakho ngiyaseseka egameni leqembu leNkatha Yenkululeko Yesizwe. [Ihlombe.] (Translation of isiZulu paragraphs follows.)
[Our transport programmes in this country are well developed. We all know that transport programmes make it easy for people in the rural and urban areas to meet so that everything can run smoothly.
Manzankosi, I trust that you can do a lot in this programme because in our province, KwaZulu-Natal, you did a lot in developing places in rural areas. We no longer get washed away whilst crossing rivers, for example, the Sikhwebezi River, in order to get to other places. It was not easy to cross; the water would reach up to here when we were going to school in Silanda.
Manzankosi, I trust that you will execute this task as a man from that province. I also hope that you will not disappoint us during the Soccer World Cup; and that by that time you would have taken care of those people who are causing problems on the trains, such as those my colleague mentioned. Amongst other things is that you find women with lots of parcels and children on their backs in overcrowded trains, and they also find it difficult to disembark from the train.
I urge you to work together with Cele in fighting crime in the taxi industry because they still have guns. When you travel in a taxi you know that you are not safe. I urge you to work together as men and citizens of this country because your forefathers fought for this freedom, and you must be able to put these criminals where they belong.
With regard to the budget allocation of your department, it would be really unfair of me to make slanderous remarks because you are still new in your position. Manzankosi, I urge you to work with integrity in your new position; do more here than what you did back home. I support your department's budget allocation on behalf of the Inkatha Freedom Party. [Applause.]] Mr B H CELE (KwaZulu-Natal): Chairperson, Minister, Deputy Minister, colleagues, friends, foes and comrades, the budget is speaking to us regarding a couple of aspects. Hon Minister, talking to you ...
... kufana nokuthela amanzi emhlane wedada ... [... is a waste of time ...]
... because you understand these things very well, but let us start with the 2010 and infrastructure budget. Its shortcoming is that it has concentrated on host cities and developing cities only, and has completely forgotten the rural areas. That is the problem about the billions of 2010. I hope that, at a certain given point, we will pick that one up, because it is very serious.
Where I come from - you know very well where - we have just completed a process of trying to find out what we can do in the rural areas which are short of 474 pedestrian and vehicle bridges. We are building a pedestrian bridge at a cost of R6 million per bridge. If we build 10 a year, it will take us 43 years to build enough bridges for everybody in that province to cross a river when it is raining.
Whilst speaking about the province, I am sure that several provinces like Mpumalanga, Limpopo and Eastern Cape share the same problems as KwaZulu- Natal where people still postpone funerals and weddings because they cannot cross the river on the day of the function. They shout out messages, saying: Ningabe niseza, asisashadi sizoshada ngesonto elizayo. [Do not come, we are no longer getting married; we will get married next week.] People cannot cross the river to reach the place where the wedding is taking place on that particular day.
So, these are the things we need to understand as we enjoy the 2010 Fifa World Cup; seeing Gautrain and the bus rapid transit, BRT, system and everything. Life in rural areas for some reason has not been taken up to speed, like the 2010 furore. So, we need to understand that. Having said that, we appreciate the infrastructure that is there, but as I am trying to make everybody understand, it should not just be for the urban South Africa and the developed areas only, but the rural South Africa should also benefit from the 2010 infrastructure. We are in danger of completely forgetting the rural areas where we come from.
We did a check and would like to agree with you on the point of road safety. I have been accused of exaggerating when it comes to road safety, hon Minister and hon Deputy Minister. I would love to see road safety picked up at the same level as HIV/Aids. Sometimes they feel that I am exaggerating I am not. Imagine that you lose 15 000 people a year, and that those people you are losing are between the ages of 18 and 35 or 40. Imagine those people have just finished school and acquired degrees, be it medical degrees, chartered accountants, etc. Those are the kinds of people who die on the roads. They die on the roads because they can afford to buy speedy cars and they die on the roads - 15 000 of them - at an expense of R56 billion a year, money that no one has budgeted for. Going to the ICU, you are moving from being healthy straight to the ICU, which no one has budgeted for. Therefore, we need to pick up on road safety seriously.
Actually, we should move away from the mentality of thinking that road offences are ordinary and normal road offences. There must be some kind of an understanding that you are committing a crime, because most of these accidents are criminal offences rather than traffic offences. You cannot just go into a bar ...
... unkunke utshwala, unkunke utshwala, unkunke utshwala bugcwale isisu ... [... and gulp liquor, and gulp more liquor, until you cannot take anymore ...]
... and when you are really drunk and nasty, you get into a car and drive. And when you kill people everybody thinks that ...
... wenze ingozi.[... it was an accident.]
There is no accident about that. There is no culpable homicide. That is murder. So, we must begin to understand and treat those things with some kind of understanding. The countries that we look up to, countries like Australia, have nothing like road offences. They call it crime. If you drive at 210km per hour where you are supposed to be driving at 100km per hour and you kill people, they charge you for culpable homicide ... "ubulele ngengozi," [You committed culpable homicide.] When you were flying on the road ... Roads are not for flying; they are for driving and there are people who are flying on the roads and we are still arguing that it was an accident. It cannot be an accident; it is murder.
So, we need to shift our understanding of road accidents. They kill our people, they kill young people and therefore our economy, because the people killed either owned these cars and were active in the economy or were in the buses or taxis going to work or they were school kids. They are therefore killing the future and not only the present.
Hon Minister and Deputy Minister, there is a programme that we have taken that is meant for visiting the victims of road accidents. You need to go and see what happens when people have died on the roads. Some kids have been going to the best schools, and when they are supposed to go back to township schools for the first time, because their whole lives their parents have been driving them to school, they find out for the first time where the taxi rank is.
Usizi. [It's sad.]
The pain that engulfs these families when people have died on the roads is amazing. So, it is important that road safety is really taken care of and that we pick up on it in the very serious way it deserves and that we are very serious about it.
Lastly, Minister, I know job creation is close to your heart and I hope that you will push it very hard. There are programmes like Zibambele that we need to carry through. When you left the province you had targeted to create these 40 000 Zibambele jobs for the period 2009-10 and I am sure that you will be happy when I tell you that we have already created 39 997, which is only three short to complete 40 000 before the end of period 2009- 10.
There are two important things about these Zibambele jobs. Firstly, they are permanent; and secondly, they help the most unemployable people, people whom, even if the country had an upswing economically, would never be able to get their CVs, because they are completely illiterate. So, even if you create more jobs, that won't help them. Therefore, it is important that these jobs are created for these people. But more than that Minister, the report is that they have created clubs and managed to get something out of nothing. These people work three days a week and get about R450 to R490 now. They have saved R12 million amongst themselves with their saving clubs - R12 million.
What we are trying to do at the moment is that they are saving in different places and pooling their money together; soon they are going to be creating what we call Thenga kanye-kanye. This is when they are going to buy their groceries in bulk and we have calculated that if they buy groceries together, where they would normally pay R270 per package, they would only pay R200 with this scheme. And at the same time they will work with one mode of transport that will deliver rather than paying money to go to town to buy, but these things will be delivered. I think we can all sit down and share these ideas together and spread them nationally.
And the last one is Siyazenzela. Through the Extended Public Works Programme, EPWP, we have formed joint ventures with municipalities where, instead of giving tenders for garbage collection, the individual household is contracted to collect garbage and weigh it and then get food of the same weight as the garbage they have collected. So, we have four municipalities working on that and we are prepared to sit down and share these ideas together and spread them through the whole country so that we make sure that the jobs that the President has spoken about are achieved. That is the contribution that KwaZulu-Natal is making. We support this Budget Vote and we hope that all these runs will walk a longer distance. Thank you very much, Chairperson. [Applause.]