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Date : 18/06/2003
Source: The Presidency
Title: E Pahad: The Presidency Dept Budget Vote 2003/2004


ADDRESS BY DR EG PAHAD, MINISTER IN THE PRESIDENCY, ON THE OCCASION OF THE PRESIDENCY BUDGET VOTE (VOTE 1), National Assembly, 18 June 2003

Madame Speaker,
Cde President,
Cde Deputy President,
Honourable members

However unwelcome the passing years might be to all of us, we are once again able, in this debate, to offer Mr Thabo Mbeki our warmest birthday wishes on reaching another milestone.

As we approach the 10th anniversary of our democracy, it is worth noting how far the building blocks of progressive statehood have been put in place.

Things are vastly better, and those South Africans - small in mind and numbers - who wish to hark back to the "old days" should appreciate their luck in sharing in one of the world's recognized democracies which is forging ahead, instead of living in a country which a former editor of the Burger described as the "polecat of the world".

This "harking back" increasingly rears its head as some fire their first election campaign salvoes.

For example, last Sunday, the Leader of the Official Opposition got onto a podium and made claims regarding what he termed too high a cost for the President's security.

I need not deal with the gross anomalies in his so-called facts. He himself must calculate whether the vast amounts he pays researchers are worth it - in this case to feed him with misinformation regarding the JHB Metro Police budget. A basic misreading of a speech by the JHB Mayor, it seems, led the honourable member to proclaim that the total budget of the Metro Police for 2003/4 is only R14m, when indeed this budget is over R400m after a healthy 22% increase on the previous year. Even a cursory reading of the Mayor's speech shows that the Mayor merely indicated that as part of this 22% increase, R14m is allocated and set aside for capacity building for Metro Police officers.

The issue is the security of the President of the Republic. To compromise on this, the least I would argue would be to undermine the stability we sought to build since 1994. The Leader of the Official Opposition may wish to hog the headlines on any issue as is his wont; but I do not think he seriously would like our government to compromise the security of his President, our President! The question is, is the life of a black president less valuable than even that of former apartheid presidents.

Madame Speaker, despite these efforts to hark back and misinform, there are everywhere firm signs of progress - the tide has turned.

Let me take a few instances of integrated and interactive governance led by the Presidency.

The imbizo programme, as the President outlined in this House on 5 June, is up and running. Since 2001, no fewer than five provinces have had this special attention by the President and four by the Deputy President. Ministers, Deputy Ministers, Premiers, Provincial MECs, Mayors and local councillors have played their part too, including in four National Focus Weeks, not to speak of provincial executive outreach programmes. It has indeed become a way of life for this government.

I believe the real effect of this Imbizo way of life is still to be fully understood and will form part of many a postgraduate study and research topic regarding communications and governance in the years to come.

One has but to see the enthusiasm of our people when presented the opportunity to interact with and directly question our President and Deputy President, or others in the executive. Our people seem to more eagerly speak their minds and raise difficult issues.

Things happen when people and government interact directly that we do not see anywhere else, whether in political meetings or at conferences. The President has a tendency to respond and intervene on the spot. Recently in the North West, to the consternation of his security, the Rev Chikane and myself, he jumped from the stage in response to a speaker living with HIV who had been struggling to meet his MEC on HIV and AIDS issues. There in the hall, while the Imbizo was proceeding, he brought the MEC and this person together and had the MEC agree to a meeting. That meeting has already taken place and the issues are being resolved.

Equally, the young man who said to the President at another Imbizo in the North West: "We need projects - we have hands - we can do it ourselves," was expressing sentiments heard over and over again at izimbizo, as a people's contract for development takes shape in the spirit of vuk'uzenzele and letsema.

The success of Imbizo and its rapid growth means that we as government will have to increasingly deal with the issues raised and the resulting action required.

The working and advisory groups set up by the Presidency covering, for instance, big business, organised labour, black business, commercial agriculture, international investment, religious communities, are now part of the routine backup for executive governance in an interactive democratic setting - indeed they are another aspect of imbizo.

Recently we officially launched the first NEPAD cultural project between South Africa and Mali, which stems from the President's state visit to Mali, and commitments he made there, last year. The SA/Mali Timbuktu project is looking at ways in which to ensure that this rich part of the history of our continent and its peoples remain intact for our children.

Honourable Members

There is an unwritten convention in a number of countries that, the leading figures of the executive as well as leading figures in the opposition, when travelling abroad they do not deliberately, wilfully and shamelessly undermine their own country. What is worse is when the Leader of the Official Opposition, the honourable Mr T Leon, actually parades distortions as political analysis.

Here are some of the choice comments and quotes of what this honourable member said at a conference in Mexico during April 2003. After hearing what he said, I invite the House to make up its own mind:

"... the overwhelming majority of South Africans say that they are unhappy with the way the country is governed."

"The future of the DA will depend on the success of its efforts" - to eat into the support of the ANC -"... and we are making rapid progress"

"... many of the ANC's new cheerleaders, by their own admission, are keen to ride the government gravy train."

"But for now the SA democracy is looking fragile. The ANC now possesses, without the aid of its coalition partners, a two-thirds majority in the National Assembly. This means it has the power to amend the Constitution at will, in addition in passing any laws it likes. If the courts declare legislation unconstitutional - well then the ANC can simply change the Constitution. It is in short, colonising the Constitution's checks and balances."

"The ANC is now more centralized and hierarchical than ever before, complacent about its constituents' concerns and hyperactive in extending its reach into every area of state."

"Today the ANC tolerates the idea of political opposition, but insists that opposition outside the orbit of the ruling party is illegitimate The ANC wants to select and control its political interlocutors."

This is dishonourable, honourable Leader of the Official Opposition.

Madame Speaker;

Regarding the rights of children, gender equality and women's empowerment, the concerns of people with disabilities and the youth, we have significantly moved forward and are ready to face remaining challenges.

Government recently adopted a policy framework for a National Youth Service Programme and the implementation plan will soon go to Cabinet for approval. The very positive response government departments have made will ensure that the National Youth Service Programme is implemented as part of ongoing interventions to roll back the frontiers of poverty.

The NYS Programme will play a catalytic role in enhancing the skills of our youth whilst they are involved in community development initiatives and other programmes. The Growth and Development Summit committed to 72 000 learnerships by 2005, 95% of which are to be under the age of 35. GDS commitments around the Expanded Public Works Programmes will increasingly benefit young people. In 2000/1 and 2001/2, 15% of beneficiaries of the Community Based Public Works and the Working for Water Programmes were young people.

The National Youth Commission further strengthened the partnership with the Umsobomvu Youth Fund and the SA Youth Council. This troika interacts with government at all levels to provide ideas and better coordination for interventions to benefit our young people.

The Office on the Status of Women continues to put women's empowerment and gender equality foremost on government's agenda. As part of ongoing work with the NEPAD Secretariat, the OSW and the NEPAD Secretariat co-hosted a Gender and NEPAD conference in April this year.

Recently we launched the South African Panel for the African Gender and Development Index. South Africa is one of 13 countries piloting this initiative of the UN Economic Commission in Africa. It will establish a baseline across Africa against which we can measure advances and identify areas for intervention.

The Gender Machinery convened regular consultative meetings in the past year, promoting coordinated responses by all - as in last year's very successful 16 Days Campaign of No Violence against Women and Children.

Similarly the OSW and other gender structures will constructively engage in the processes towards the 10 year celebrations when they convene soon to initiate a broad based conversation amongst women - "Towards 10 Years of Freedom ...What it has Meant to Women".

The first three-year training programme run by the OSW with the UN Economic Commission on Africa and the UNDP concluded last month. The University of Pretoria now accredits this as a certificate course and the OSW has initiated development of a training manual on gender issues for SAMDI to incorporate into public servant training modules.

Although our Coordination Framework is in place we have not yet met all our targets for representation of women at all levels of public service employment In terms of the 30% target for women employed at management level we set ourselves in 1995, the figures at the end of 2002 indicates that we have not reached this yet and that there is a 6% gap to breach before we reach this target Government is committed to ensure that this happens. Ensuring that the private sector mirrors these employment equity commitments remains a major challenge.

On that point Cde President, if I look at the ANC benches in this House I see represented here that diverse nation that we are, including a more representative gender balance. When looking to my left, all I see is a collection of pale, male faces. Surely we need to do something, more accurately to reflect in these ranks the race, class and gender diversity of our nation. The ANC has a minimum of one-third women representatives and the official opposition seems woefully backward on this question. Should the relevant portfolio committee not consider making this minimum one-third representation of women a statutory obligation for all parties who wish to be represented in this House?

The Office on the Status of Disabled Persons continues to coordinate the Integrated National Disability Strategy. In the past year the Office further enhanced government capacity by training officials and providing advice on integrating disability into mainstream society. As with the OSW, SAMDI will ultimately take over responsibility for training trainers to integrate disability in all SAMDI curricula.

The recent African Regional Consultation made decisions on implementing strategic plans for the African Decade for the Disabled. South Africa has been requested to host the Secretariat for the African Decade and we expect it to be functioning by August/September this year. We have confirmed donor funding for the Secretariat as well as for the initial roll out of the Decade plans.

South Africa's contribution to the development of a UN Convention on Rights of Disabled Persons is well established and continues.

With the assistance of Flemish Government funding the OSDP will roll out a public awareness campaign in coming months. As with gender equity, we must work harder to reach the target of 2% people with disabilities employed in the public service in the next 2 years. The figures at the end of 2002 indicate that we have a 1.99% gap to breach before we are there. Important is to ensure that in breaching this gap people with disabilities are also employed at management level.

The Office on the Rights of the Child (ORC) was established with a mandate to monitor implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child by ensuring that our government structures advance the interests of children. Stakeholders are currently considering a draft of our second Country Report to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child.

South Africa's participation at the UN General Assembly Special Session for Children last year saw our renewed commitment to ensuring that what is outlined in the document "A World Fit For Children" is implemented in our country over the next decade.

Whilst legislation helps realize the rights of the child, the ORC and its partners in the National Programme of Action is mindful of the need for effective implementation. In this respect, 29 sexual offences courts, 5 one-stop multi-disciplinary centres and 64 Victim Friendly Facilities have already been established. There has been extensive collaboration and partnership with the Non-Governmental Sector and structures working with children.

To help deal with the rape of children the CSIR, in partnership with the ORC and government departments, developed a web-site to capture information from volunteers. This will enhance the service to abused children, matching volunteer skills to needs of organisations. The Child Volunteer Network, which is supported by the Joint Monitoring Committee in this House, was launched in October 2002.

Although much has been done to improve the lives of children, many challenges remain. One of them is to mainstream children's rights. This requires that we design programmes, practices and responses based on the premise of the child as the most important actor. In line with this the ORC and its partners are looking at how to strengthen the National Programme of Action, Provincial Programmes of Action and to ensure that every local and district council develops a Programme of Action for Children.

Indeed, for all these vulnerable groups, steady progress has been made. While challenges remain, we can confidently say that as we move towards 2004, South Africa is an infinitely better place today than before.

All instant analysts are in danger of over-simplifying the short term and under-rating longer-term trends. South Africans should take this advice to heart, and I make no apology for developing ideas I raised in this debate a year ago.

If we look at the broad sweep of history, we will be vastly buoyed by what we see. We see an average real growth rate for one and a half decades of around 1,5% (1976-92); then a percentage point more for 1993-1999; and in the past two years around 3%. Even if the current figure, under global pressures, falls back to 2,5%, this in no sense negates the medium- and long-term improvement, one that measures well against global trends.

We see real per capita income increasing by 3,3% cumulatively from 2000 to 2002, up on the 2,2% from 1994 to 1999.

The point is for us to look at longer-term trends. And let us not look simply at cash wages, but at the whole spectrum including the social wage, which underpins the poor and has helped to boost the living conditions of very many South Africans.

Of course, there are major pools of poverty. And, of course, there is a revolution of rising expectation that prompts people who now have a house instead of a shack, to demand a proper ceiling, good construction, security, etc. Naturally, in life success breeds new expectation.

But, faced with these challenges, let us as a nation put shoulder to the wheel and do something to ensure that the disempowered are equipped to secure their share of what South African democracy has to offer, to secure their pensions and child support grants, to visit the health care facilities that are now there, to access the care now available for HIV and AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria and other opportunistic infections, and all the time to put pressure on their public representatives - which means me and you - to do more for the people.

In less than a year, the nation will celebrate 10 years of freedom. 27 April 2004 will be both celebration and dedication - celebrating the end, a decade ago, of many years of repression and super exploitation of labour power; and dedicating our nation to rise to greater heights. As we move towards this important point in our evolving history, let us together build our nation and find common answers to our challenges.

The preparations are underway and we call on all groups, institutions and individuals in the land to collaborate in ensuring that this milestone contributes to the future well being of a united nation. Indeed to make it a national celebration.

We need in the way we mark this historic birthday to draw on the immense creativity of our people. We should honour the children born not in bondage but in freedom, since 27 April 1994. They are harbingers of our hopes for the future. We wish to share our national joy and sense of achievement with others, from other countries - particularly those who contributed so much to our liberation. We want to pause next year, and reflect, so that we can move forward - like our Everest mountaineers, our polar explorers and winners of the Comrades Marathon - to the continuing challenges that present themselves.

All members of this House are part of this great process. All members will have something to offer.

Madame Speaker

My thanks and appreciation go to the JMC on the Status and Quality of Life of Women and the JMC on the Status and Quality of Life of Children, Youth and People with Disabilities. It has been a pleasure working with these committees and their chairpersons.

Similarly it has been a pleasure to work with the Chairperson, Commissioners and staff of the National Youth Commission during the past year.

And then, my deep appreciation and gratitude for the work and commitment of the Director-General specifically and staff in the Presidency in general.

Comrade President

You are a credit to this House;
You are a credit to the ANC;
You are a credit to the country;
But above all, comrade President;
You are a credit to those who have nourished you and continue to sustain you - the masses of our people!

Issued by The Presidency, 18 June 2003

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