Chairperson, hon Ministers, Deputy Ministers and hon members, at its 52nd national conference in Polokwane the ANC's resolution on economic transformation stated that:
A developmental state must ensure that our national resource endowments, including land, water, minerals and marine resources are exploited to effectively maximise the growth, development and employment potential embedded in such national assets and not purely for profit maximisation.
The question can be rightly asked: How sustainable is sector transformation and job creation within the environmental agenda?
During the apartheid period the expansion and establishment of national and provincial parks in many parts of the country created severe hardships for the people by squeezing the majority of the population into 13% of the land in overcrowded homelands. The ill-considered conservationist approach of protecting species and habitants by willy-nilly denying access to a large percentage of people resulted in inequitable access to environmental services, social dislocation and contributed greatly to significant degradation.
However, in the last 10 years environmental issues have moved into the sociopolitical arena with government prioritising people's needs while safeguarding the country's natural assets. A wide range of legislative, policies and institutional developments across all sectors have served to bring about a new environmental management approach which focuses on development and poverty alleviation. They brought together human rights, access to natural resources, social justice sustainability and equitable access to resources. Strong initiatives are undertaken to make progress towards sector transformation and job creation by shifting away from the protectionist approach of the past.
Sector transformation objectives have resulted in the development of a strategic plan for the environmental sector for 2008 to 2013. Over the next five years the objectives for the sector are as follows: To increase the representation of previously disadvantaged groups within the sector in terms of employment and procurement; to increase broad-based participation in the key economic areas of the sector like wildlife breeding, hunting, commercial fishing and marine aquaculture; and to increase the participation of disadvantaged communities in environmental services like impact assessment, monitoring and enforcement.
The department's overview for the 2005-06 to 2011-12 periods reflects that, in line with the vision of creating an equitable society living in harmony with the natural environment, its strategic priorities include, amongst others: The creation of conditions of sustainable tourism growth and development; promoting the conservation and sustainable utilisation of natural resources; protecting and improving the quality and safety of the environment; promoting a global sustainable development agenda; transforming the environment and tourism sectors; and prioritising poverty alleviation through implementing Expanded Public Works Programme projects in the environment and tourism sectors. The focus of these priorities comprises sustainable tourism, through which the 2010 Fifa World Cup provides an ideal opportunity for raising awareness about South Africa as a tourist destination and securing repeat visits.
In his state of the nation address, our hon President, Jacob Zuma, said that we have to ensure that the country's training and skills development initiatives respond to the requirements of the economy. This issue is pointedly addressed by the medium-term focus that will be the creation of employment and skills development for poor communities through implementing the environment and tourism extend public works programme. This includes implementing the national youth programme and other poverty alleviation programmes for coastal communities.
An overview of Environmental Affairs and Tourism's programmes and their components reflects this government's agenda toward contributing to the sustainable developmental agenda with a specific focus on sector transformation and job creation. As an example, it can be mentioned that the Marine Living Resources Fund will: Administer fishing rights, permits and licences in identifying fisheries sectors; conduct annual performance reviews of commercial fishery sectors from 2009-10; allocate rights in one additional sector with the large pelagic sector; and finalise the subsistence rights policy in 2009-10, thereby ensuring equitable and sustainable use of marine and coastal resources to contribute to economic development.
According to the World Travel and Tourism Council, the contribution of tourism to the GDP has increased from 7,9% in 2006-07 to 8,1% in 2007-08 and the number of jobs created in the economy increased by 5%, from 896 000 to 941 000.
The social responsibility, policy and projects subprogramme is one of the initiatives to ensure a sustainable development agenda in sector transformation and job creation. It facilitates environmental rehabilitation and improvement and the development of tourism infrastructure projects under the Expanded Public Works Programme through the use of labour-intensive methods targeting unemployment, youth, women, the disabled and SMMEs.
Funding is allocated on the basis of approved business plans for the poverty relief projects. The objectives and measures reflect the promotion of the empowerment of designated communities by creating more than 1 000 permanent jobs, close to 85 000 temporary jobs, and 452 000 person training days through the Expanded Public Works Programme over the Medium-Term Expenditure Framework period where the main focus will be on projects which include working on waste, which protects environmental quality by promoting waste management and rehabilitation of polluted areas; sustainable land- based livelihoods, which rehabilitate wetlands and conservation landscapes, promote community conservancies and marine aquaculture and create livelihood opportunities through the sustainable use of natural and cultural heritage resources; and working for tourism, which supports the development of viable tourism products by creating opportunities to increase the share of SMME and BEE involvement in the tourism industry.
While the above may appear to be an expansive, expensive and overarching wish list to contribute to the sustainable development agenda, with a specific focus on sector transformation and job creation, the test of these initiatives will be in the oversight over the strategies, measures and objectives. Thank you. [Applause.]