Date: 18/06/2003
Source: Department of Agriculture
Title: Didiza: Debate during Presidency Dept Budget Vote 2003/2004
ADDRESS BY THE MINISTER OF AGRICULTURE AND LAND AFFAIRS, MS THOKO DIDIZA, TO THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY ON THE OCCASION OF THE BUDGET VOTE OF THE PRESIDENCY, Cape Town, 18 June 2003
Madam Speaker
President Thabo Mbeki
Deputy President Jacob Zuma
Honourable Members of the National Assembly
Ministers and Deputy Ministers
Distinguished Guests
Ladies and Gentlemen
Mr President, today you shared with this august House your budget vote. In it you outlined what your office, the Presidency, has been able to achieve and hope to achieve in this last year of this term of office before our elections.
In the final analysis, ours, as a country and a people, is like what Mongane Wally Serote said "A tough Tale" for truly we have come a long way; we are indeed not spotless white shirts; we are really khaki; the rain; the dust; the wind did it all'
Under your stewardship as President, we indeed have come a long way in delivering democracy and its benefits to our people. In our labours to deliver a better life for all, we are not spotless white shirts. We have had to roll up our sleeves and walk the dusty roads at the crack of dawn. We have had to weather the storms with limited resources, balancing our expenditure to best meet the needs of our people in the cities, the townships, and the remote villages of our vast land.
When we read about pensioners dying in the queues while waiting to receive their pension grants, in some rural villages of our country, we are painfully reminded that ours is and have been a tough tale. But through your leadership you have made us to look for solutions to these problems we face and never give up. The interventions that have been made by the Department of Social Development, working with non-government organisations, has made us to turn the tide. The celebration of Children's Day in Port Elizabeth by government, civil society and religious communities, as well as the registration of children who qualify for the social grants, was an indication that in working together with our people we can find a solution to even the most challenging problems we may face.
Indeed, it is this resilience that has made your cadres in the Public Services to work tirelessly to produce change in the quality of our service that we deliver to the citizens. The various Ministers and Deputy Ministers in their budgets votes in this House have indicated how these resources have been spent in ensuring that we make a difference in the quality of life of all South Africans.
In the same breath we rejoice when we see how we have been able to reach those who were the forgotten souls in the land of their birth. In partnership with religious community we have brought social security delivery closer to those who need it, as a caring government we have provided relief in the form of food parcel and funds to those who have lost their goods during the natural disasters that have befallen our country last year in the various provinces working with local government leaders and communities, we cannot but appreciate how far we have gone in building a people's contract for a better tomorrow.
Again, Serote also told us that every birth has its blood and that ours would be no different. In our delivery from our not-so-distant past we have spilled our blood to reach our salvation and deliver democracy and development to our people. This has been a public process and experience known by all in our country. But like births being the special preserve of women, the pain has been felt more acutely by the impoverished in our land. These are still disproportionately our mothers and fathers in the rural areas and the children who depend on them.
But the delivery of democracy to our country, to our people and the accompanying pain, rapture of tissue and the spilling of blood to deliver new life in all its beauty and glory would have been so much more traumatic without a midwife, which is what you and your office have been. With you at the helm, we have been able to turn such a physiologically traumatic exercise into euphoria and elation. An experience perhaps only a woman would know, perhaps only a mother would know, and perhaps only the African National Congress would know.
As this House votes on your budget for this year, we must take note of the journey we have travelled and the distance we have covered. We must register the road ahead, laying bare the provisions we will need to successfully negotiate the future so that we reach our destiny.
In 1999, when you took office as the President you called South Africans to work in partnership with government in order to transform this society for the better. In 2000 during your budget vote in this House you reminded us of the unfinished business in our country, Africa and the world, the challenge of poverty and underdevelopment and what we need to do as a country to extricate ourselves from this very challenge.
In 2002 you gave us hope that no matter how tough the challenge may be, we as citizens working with the government have the capacity to push away the frontiers of poverty by taking initiatives of doing things that can change South Africa for the better, you forced us to dare to dream, to push us to the limits to do things that otherwise we might have thought impossible, in the integrated and focussed way the public service have dared to go an extra mile in delivering government services to the citizens.
The progress that has been made in building synergy can be seen in the way departments through the clusters are working and making an impact. The work on the justice, crime prevention and security cluster has improved our capacity to deal with crime in society. The Integrated Food and Nutrition Programme is another example of how within the social sector cluster government was able to respond to the crisis of food prices in October last year.
In the context of integrated sustainable rural development programme one can say progress on nodes have been made, for example in Kgalakgadi the diputi enterprise, which remains an anchor project, has seen the expansion from Bendel to other areas of Taung in the North West, where today 14 cooperatives have been set up comprising 200 people, the majority of whom are women. All of them have been trained and are now in full production. Rural infrastructure projects have seen the construction of roads going to villages and energy centres set up to ensure that people are able to purchase their energy sources closer to where they are.
In other nodes, we have seen the impact of the Community-based Public Works Programme, where local infrastructure, that supports both social development and economic growth, has been undertaken. This programme, which remains one of the important job creators of government, has seen to date the creation of 106 000 job opportunities in rural communities, some of which are temporary in nature, while others have created possibilities for long-term employment, in maintenance in particular.
The Community Production Centres on the other hand have helped to rehabilitate some of the infrastructure that is critical for sustainable production in rural areas of our country such as Ncora, Keiskammahoek and Upper Aribie in Limpopo. All these have made it possible that the rural development initiatives of government make an impact in fighting poverty in our country. If asked how these have been made possible, the answer lies in what you said "Masivuke sizenzele. You made us to become volunteers for change in our society. From this you have laid the foundations of a better South Africa, a better Africa and a better world.
Indeed this call has been heard by the vast majority in our country, some of them are the youth that we see in the House today. When Mama and Tata Ludidi in Elukholweni village at Mt Frere in the Eastern Cape decided to contribute to the sustainable food security programme at their locality by purchasing two tractors for their village and built a school out of their own resources we can say your call has been heard, when the young people in Langa township worked as volunteers to clean up the Langa Stadium with the Minister of Sports and Recreation, when we see on the images in SABC of young people in Soweto and elsewhere who have volunteered to look after orphans and the elderly in their communities, we can truly say we are building a people's contract for a better tomorrow and a caring society.
Madam Speaker, honourable President, this is contrary to what sometimes we hear from those who still wish us to fall and fail, and use the challenges we face, which sometimes are reflected in our failures, and therefore say "we said so', but those South Africans who want to build a better society are the ones who have come up and said we can lend a helping hand to push away the frontiers of poverty and underdevelopment in our society as volunteers for reconstruction and development.
One such example has been the partnership, developed between government and the private sector through the Business Trust, amongst others, that has made critical interventions in the area of education, tourism and health, particularly the fight against malaria in the Lubombo Spatial Development Initiative.
The partnership that has developed between farmers' organisations and government through the development of the agricultural sector strategy has ensured that many South Africans within this sector are able to develop partnerships and share experiences and expertise in order to achieve the best for the country. It has also created a framework from which we can deal with challenging issue that our society stills faces such as the areas of land reform.
Mr President, in your debate you have also raised the important role that this government and your office place in youth development. A number of departments have attempted in their areas of work to impact on young people in a manner that strengthens their existing capacities and capabilities, that also appreciate that as young people they are also aware of what their needs are and their responsibilities are as citizens of this country. The various departments have put in place learneship programmes within the National Skills Development Strategy that introduces learnerships as a mechanism to address the problem of skills and unemployment. For example, the Department of Labour has reported in its budget that about 8159.young people have benefited from this programme. Only yesterday the Minister of Intelligence showcased some of the young cadres who have made a choice to defend our democracy, by ensuring that indeed we can sleep peacefully and have an ordinary day while they experience and extraordinary one to make us safe. The work that the National Youth Commission is doing working with the Departments of Agriculture and Land Affairs, the Land Bank and the Umsobomvu Fund in the creation of young farmers are but just one example of how South African youth are seizing the opportunities that our democracy have created.
Mr President, through your leadership you have affirmed the role of women in our society. Your office has focussed on the challenges that women face and demanded of the whole of government and society to work with women as equal partners in development and peace initiatives. Through your office that also includes the Spousal Office, we have seen a growing movement for peace and development. Within the ambit of the Congolese Dialogue the Spousal Office convened a meeting which brought together more than 120 women from the Congo representing the political parties, religious bodies, business, traditional leaders and non-government organisations, to South Africa in order to have a dialogue with their counterparts in South Africa on how we can build bridges for peace in the Congo. The South African delegation was able to share their own experiences of how they participated in political process that led towards our own liberation as a country. This was a form of solidarity work that was aimed at supporting the Congolese women in their own transition, but more importantly to make them become the ambassadors of peace in their own country. A follow up meeting was held last month in Kinshasa to ensure that these experiences can reach a majority of the Congolese people and indeed the Great Lakes region.
The Spousal Office has therefore decided to convene a South African process in which women from all different sectors of our society will converge in July to reflect on the long road we have travelled to be where we are today, but not only to reminisce about it, but rather to build on that experience for the development of South Africa and Africa, so that through this experience South African Women can be the beacon of hope for peace in our Country and the continent.
We have come a long way being really khaki, not spotless white shirts, indeed with your leadership, with you as a midwife, with the ANC as our mother; we will deliver a better life for all our people.
I thank you.
Source: Department of Agriculture (http://www.nda.agric.za)
Source: Department of Agriculture
Title: Didiza: Debate during Presidency Dept Budget Vote 2003/2004
ADDRESS BY THE MINISTER OF AGRICULTURE AND LAND AFFAIRS, MS THOKO DIDIZA, TO THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY ON THE OCCASION OF THE BUDGET VOTE OF THE PRESIDENCY, Cape Town, 18 June 2003
Madam Speaker
President Thabo Mbeki
Deputy President Jacob Zuma
Honourable Members of the National Assembly
Ministers and Deputy Ministers
Distinguished Guests
Ladies and Gentlemen
Mr President, today you shared with this august House your budget vote. In it you outlined what your office, the Presidency, has been able to achieve and hope to achieve in this last year of this term of office before our elections.
In the final analysis, ours, as a country and a people, is like what Mongane Wally Serote said "A tough Tale" for truly we have come a long way; we are indeed not spotless white shirts; we are really khaki; the rain; the dust; the wind did it all'
Under your stewardship as President, we indeed have come a long way in delivering democracy and its benefits to our people. In our labours to deliver a better life for all, we are not spotless white shirts. We have had to roll up our sleeves and walk the dusty roads at the crack of dawn. We have had to weather the storms with limited resources, balancing our expenditure to best meet the needs of our people in the cities, the townships, and the remote villages of our vast land.
When we read about pensioners dying in the queues while waiting to receive their pension grants, in some rural villages of our country, we are painfully reminded that ours is and have been a tough tale. But through your leadership you have made us to look for solutions to these problems we face and never give up. The interventions that have been made by the Department of Social Development, working with non-government organisations, has made us to turn the tide. The celebration of Children's Day in Port Elizabeth by government, civil society and religious communities, as well as the registration of children who qualify for the social grants, was an indication that in working together with our people we can find a solution to even the most challenging problems we may face.
Indeed, it is this resilience that has made your cadres in the Public Services to work tirelessly to produce change in the quality of our service that we deliver to the citizens. The various Ministers and Deputy Ministers in their budgets votes in this House have indicated how these resources have been spent in ensuring that we make a difference in the quality of life of all South Africans.
In the same breath we rejoice when we see how we have been able to reach those who were the forgotten souls in the land of their birth. In partnership with religious community we have brought social security delivery closer to those who need it, as a caring government we have provided relief in the form of food parcel and funds to those who have lost their goods during the natural disasters that have befallen our country last year in the various provinces working with local government leaders and communities, we cannot but appreciate how far we have gone in building a people's contract for a better tomorrow.
Again, Serote also told us that every birth has its blood and that ours would be no different. In our delivery from our not-so-distant past we have spilled our blood to reach our salvation and deliver democracy and development to our people. This has been a public process and experience known by all in our country. But like births being the special preserve of women, the pain has been felt more acutely by the impoverished in our land. These are still disproportionately our mothers and fathers in the rural areas and the children who depend on them.
But the delivery of democracy to our country, to our people and the accompanying pain, rapture of tissue and the spilling of blood to deliver new life in all its beauty and glory would have been so much more traumatic without a midwife, which is what you and your office have been. With you at the helm, we have been able to turn such a physiologically traumatic exercise into euphoria and elation. An experience perhaps only a woman would know, perhaps only a mother would know, and perhaps only the African National Congress would know.
As this House votes on your budget for this year, we must take note of the journey we have travelled and the distance we have covered. We must register the road ahead, laying bare the provisions we will need to successfully negotiate the future so that we reach our destiny.
In 1999, when you took office as the President you called South Africans to work in partnership with government in order to transform this society for the better. In 2000 during your budget vote in this House you reminded us of the unfinished business in our country, Africa and the world, the challenge of poverty and underdevelopment and what we need to do as a country to extricate ourselves from this very challenge.
In 2002 you gave us hope that no matter how tough the challenge may be, we as citizens working with the government have the capacity to push away the frontiers of poverty by taking initiatives of doing things that can change South Africa for the better, you forced us to dare to dream, to push us to the limits to do things that otherwise we might have thought impossible, in the integrated and focussed way the public service have dared to go an extra mile in delivering government services to the citizens.
The progress that has been made in building synergy can be seen in the way departments through the clusters are working and making an impact. The work on the justice, crime prevention and security cluster has improved our capacity to deal with crime in society. The Integrated Food and Nutrition Programme is another example of how within the social sector cluster government was able to respond to the crisis of food prices in October last year.
In the context of integrated sustainable rural development programme one can say progress on nodes have been made, for example in Kgalakgadi the diputi enterprise, which remains an anchor project, has seen the expansion from Bendel to other areas of Taung in the North West, where today 14 cooperatives have been set up comprising 200 people, the majority of whom are women. All of them have been trained and are now in full production. Rural infrastructure projects have seen the construction of roads going to villages and energy centres set up to ensure that people are able to purchase their energy sources closer to where they are.
In other nodes, we have seen the impact of the Community-based Public Works Programme, where local infrastructure, that supports both social development and economic growth, has been undertaken. This programme, which remains one of the important job creators of government, has seen to date the creation of 106 000 job opportunities in rural communities, some of which are temporary in nature, while others have created possibilities for long-term employment, in maintenance in particular.
The Community Production Centres on the other hand have helped to rehabilitate some of the infrastructure that is critical for sustainable production in rural areas of our country such as Ncora, Keiskammahoek and Upper Aribie in Limpopo. All these have made it possible that the rural development initiatives of government make an impact in fighting poverty in our country. If asked how these have been made possible, the answer lies in what you said "Masivuke sizenzele. You made us to become volunteers for change in our society. From this you have laid the foundations of a better South Africa, a better Africa and a better world.
Indeed this call has been heard by the vast majority in our country, some of them are the youth that we see in the House today. When Mama and Tata Ludidi in Elukholweni village at Mt Frere in the Eastern Cape decided to contribute to the sustainable food security programme at their locality by purchasing two tractors for their village and built a school out of their own resources we can say your call has been heard, when the young people in Langa township worked as volunteers to clean up the Langa Stadium with the Minister of Sports and Recreation, when we see on the images in SABC of young people in Soweto and elsewhere who have volunteered to look after orphans and the elderly in their communities, we can truly say we are building a people's contract for a better tomorrow and a caring society.
Madam Speaker, honourable President, this is contrary to what sometimes we hear from those who still wish us to fall and fail, and use the challenges we face, which sometimes are reflected in our failures, and therefore say "we said so', but those South Africans who want to build a better society are the ones who have come up and said we can lend a helping hand to push away the frontiers of poverty and underdevelopment in our society as volunteers for reconstruction and development.
One such example has been the partnership, developed between government and the private sector through the Business Trust, amongst others, that has made critical interventions in the area of education, tourism and health, particularly the fight against malaria in the Lubombo Spatial Development Initiative.
The partnership that has developed between farmers' organisations and government through the development of the agricultural sector strategy has ensured that many South Africans within this sector are able to develop partnerships and share experiences and expertise in order to achieve the best for the country. It has also created a framework from which we can deal with challenging issue that our society stills faces such as the areas of land reform.
Mr President, in your debate you have also raised the important role that this government and your office place in youth development. A number of departments have attempted in their areas of work to impact on young people in a manner that strengthens their existing capacities and capabilities, that also appreciate that as young people they are also aware of what their needs are and their responsibilities are as citizens of this country. The various departments have put in place learneship programmes within the National Skills Development Strategy that introduces learnerships as a mechanism to address the problem of skills and unemployment. For example, the Department of Labour has reported in its budget that about 8159.young people have benefited from this programme. Only yesterday the Minister of Intelligence showcased some of the young cadres who have made a choice to defend our democracy, by ensuring that indeed we can sleep peacefully and have an ordinary day while they experience and extraordinary one to make us safe. The work that the National Youth Commission is doing working with the Departments of Agriculture and Land Affairs, the Land Bank and the Umsobomvu Fund in the creation of young farmers are but just one example of how South African youth are seizing the opportunities that our democracy have created.
Mr President, through your leadership you have affirmed the role of women in our society. Your office has focussed on the challenges that women face and demanded of the whole of government and society to work with women as equal partners in development and peace initiatives. Through your office that also includes the Spousal Office, we have seen a growing movement for peace and development. Within the ambit of the Congolese Dialogue the Spousal Office convened a meeting which brought together more than 120 women from the Congo representing the political parties, religious bodies, business, traditional leaders and non-government organisations, to South Africa in order to have a dialogue with their counterparts in South Africa on how we can build bridges for peace in the Congo. The South African delegation was able to share their own experiences of how they participated in political process that led towards our own liberation as a country. This was a form of solidarity work that was aimed at supporting the Congolese women in their own transition, but more importantly to make them become the ambassadors of peace in their own country. A follow up meeting was held last month in Kinshasa to ensure that these experiences can reach a majority of the Congolese people and indeed the Great Lakes region.
The Spousal Office has therefore decided to convene a South African process in which women from all different sectors of our society will converge in July to reflect on the long road we have travelled to be where we are today, but not only to reminisce about it, but rather to build on that experience for the development of South Africa and Africa, so that through this experience South African Women can be the beacon of hope for peace in our Country and the continent.
We have come a long way being really khaki, not spotless white shirts, indeed with your leadership, with you as a midwife, with the ANC as our mother; we will deliver a better life for all our people.
I thank you.
Source: Department of Agriculture (http://www.nda.agric.za)
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