Date: 07/06/2006
Source: The Presidency
Title: Mlambo-Ngcuka: The Presidency Dept Budget Vote 2006/07
Address delivered by the Deputy President, Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka on the Presidency Budget Vote to the National Assembly, Cape Town
The President of the Republic,
Madame Speaker and Deputy Speaker
Honourable Ministers and Deputy Ministers,
Honourable Members,
Madame Speaker
On an occasion such as this one, the gathering of our National Parliament to discuss the Budget Vote of The Presidency, it is important to remember the wise and inspiring words of Amilcar Cabral when he extols us to ‘mask no difficulties, mistakes and failures, and claim no easy victories’.
Ours was a hard won liberation. Despite the enormous progress that we have made this far, turning around an ailing economy and bringing services to millions of people, the challenges remain daunting. We will not mask them nor will we claim easy victories.
Recently, much has been said about the state of our democracy. Whether, our democratic values and principles that our country was founded on and are enshrined in our Constitution are still healthy and thriving or is democracy being eroded?
The answer is a big yes. Our democracy is thriving and is in good health. In fact it is robust. The fact that people are able to publicly criticise government without fear, of reprisals, demonstrates that our democracy, free speech and public discourse is under no threat.
Our parliament remains supreme and a true representative of our people. As Members of Parliament, we dare not forget that. As we go about our daily business we are called upon to uphold our constitution at all times.
Leader of government business
Madam Speaker,
One of the responsibilities of the Leader of Government Business is to ensure that we as an executive are accountable collectively and individually to Parliament for the exercise of our powers and the performance of our functions and ensure an interaction between the Executive and the two houses of Parliament.
As Members are aware, the Executive sometimes faces an enormous challenge in trying to meet the deadlines we have set regarding the introduction of bills. We are establishing mechanisms to ensure that more realistic deadlines are set and that there is improved monitoring of the processing of draft legislation prior to submission to Cabinet. Through better planning and management, requests for the fast tracking of Bills have been kept to a bare minimum to ensure that Parliament has sufficient time to consider legislation.
At our recent meeting with the Madame Speaker of the National Assembly, we discussed a range of issues of concern to this House and the Executive and we agreed that such meetings must at least be held quarterly and I intend establishing a similar arrangement with the Chairperson of the National Council of Provinces, while maintaining the separation of powers and the oversight role of Parliament.
The executive’s delivery capacity can also be enhanced by the input from Parliament so that we can work as partners who share a common vision and destiny for our people
I hope in the coming year, we can improve the interaction between the Leader of Government Business and Parliament, in particular with regard to Committee Chairs and Leaders of opposition parties.
In this year’s budget debates, Parliament has also been scrutinising Departments’ interventions outlined in AsgiSA for improving the lives of the poor. I wish to commend the MPs for this work because it will enhance the integration and focus of the interventions. AsgiSA is not a stand alone initiative but an integral part of government’s programme of action. On International Obligations such as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in particular, all the Departments seem to have strategically included these goals in their programmes which imply that South Africa is well positioned to deliver on MDGs. Our Legislation and policies are geared for the fulfilment of this task by 2014 a year before the United Nations (UN) deadline of 2015. This is important for Africa as we have been found to be least likely to make our targets.
I wish to thank the Cabinet Secretariat for the sterling and efficient job in supporting the Cabinet and myself as Leader of Government Business.
ASGISA
Madame Speaker, Honourable Members, you would also know that the President has assigned me the responsibility of marshalling government’s efforts to accelerate shared economic growth and address the integration of the Second Economy. These efforts have culminated in the Accelerated and Shared Growth Initiative for South Africa or AsgiSA. The initiative is designed to make sustained accelerated shared growth possible, a minimum of 6% by 2010, and to halve poverty and unemployment by 2014. I took the proposals of the AsgiSA task team to Cabinet in October last year and in January this year and the President announced AsgiSA during the State of the Nation Address in February 2006.
We talked to many people and groups which included business organisations, trade union federations, women groups and youth groups.
This is why AsgiSA is not simply a government programme. It is an initiative which belongs to all South Africans. It is a mechanism through which, as the Presidency, we co-ordinate and support departments, institutions and other partners to pool their resources together in support of a shared growth, to close gaps where and when they occur and take full advantage of the partnerships across different groupings in our society.
The selected sectors for shared growth must indeed give us both growth and sharing. Progress has been made with regard to especially Tourism and Business Process Outsourcing (BPO), which are priority sectors. Some of the remaining challenges are to be given urgent attention especially in relation to Government’s contribution. Both sectors will definitely give us jobs.
I wish to thank all the partners for their input and particularly the contribution of the Business Trust and Organised Labour. This partnership is proving to be solid.
Education and skills
Madame Speaker, Honourable Members, one of the most deadly blows to the masses of our people by apartheid, was the inferior education provided to all other groups except white people. In our growing and high performing economy, the apartheid education legacy has come to haunt us. It has robbed us of the critical skills needed to grow this economy which the democratic government has managed so well. It is for this reason we widely consulted the sectors both in need of skills and involved in training. Thereafter, we established the Joint Initiative on Priority Skills Acquisition (JIPSA) in March 2006.
JIPSA’s focus areas include finding work or additional skills for the thousands of unemployed graduates, support higher enrolment for learnerships, internships and apprentices and together with the departments of Education and Labour help clarify and enhance societal understanding of these concepts and their application so that they are functional. We are encouraged by the co-operation of our state-owned enterprises in searching for solutions such as Eskom and Transnet, that also need these technical skills.
JIPSA aims to find work placement that will fast track the acquisition of experience for our middle level managers and starting professionals in the scarce skills category in private and public sector.
A report done by the University of Cape Town School of Business commissioned for JIPSA indicates that at least 40% of students from historically disadvantaged institutions in the engineering fields failed to graduate due to their inability to secure internships and apprenticeships and not because they have failed. We must respond decisively to this failure of the system to accommodate these young people who are sorely needed in the economy and ensure that all will find a place for their internships.
We commend that a start that has been made at local government level to enhance capacity. At least 90 professionals have been identified by the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA) and thanks also to the Department of Provincial and Local Government (DPLG) and National Treasury, 30 have already been deployed. Some of these professionals who will each mentor one graduate have been drawn from the database provided to us by the Freedom Front in this house. This is good partnership and the opposition has to learn to collaborate and work with government for the good of our people and nation building. We would like to see more of this co-operation.
I wish to thank the Sector Education and Training Authorities (SETAs) who have embraced this initiative and are working to respond to the challenges ahead of us.
I also further wish to thank all our partners in JIPSA particularly the National Business Initiative (NBI) who are providing the initiative with secretarial support and the task team drawn from a range of institutions and government departments and chaired by Mr Gwede Mantashe, the recently retired Secretary General of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM).
Madame Speaker, Honourable Members, the skills shortage is a global challenge and although we are undertaking an aggressive recruitment drive from our country first, then globally, but there must be realism about what is possible given the enormity of priority skills scarcity in the world. The problem will only be decisively solved through training our people in our universities, technical institutions, schools, corporations and communities in the medium to long term. South Africa and the world has to grapple with this global challenge sooner than later as the scarcity represents a huge cost to economies and the cost of hiring people are becoming impossible.
The private sector must see the investment in human resources not as a corporate social responsibility but a fundamental business imperative for their survival, sustainability, profitability and productivity. The triple bottom line index adopted by the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) is profit, environment and corporate social responsibility – human resource development must be considered in this sustainability index by companies with a real vision.
The importance of provision of universal access to basic services to our people
Madame Speaker, Honourable Members, in the Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP) the first democratic government committed itself to rolling back poverty through the provision of social services and social infrastructure. We remain committed to roll out these services and to reach universal access before 2014, in order to give a better life to all our people.
As the President already indicated, the soon to be published Macro-Social Report finds that the social mobility of the poor is very low in South Africa. Indeed, comparative evidence suggests that the likelihood of poor people moving into better-off categories is lower in South Africa than in many other countries because of the systemic nature of the apartheid legacy. In other words, poor households and communities, comprising about one-third of South Africa’s people, are locked into circumstances of poverty. The marginalised people in “the second economy” have difficulties in pulling themselves with their own bootstraps, at least not in acceptable timeframes.
It is for this reason that our interventions in the second economy, with focus on youth, women and people with disabilities must be far reaching and with focus on removing the underlying systemic challenges. This work, to identify the correct interventions, is being done by the Policy Unit in the Presidency and clusters.
On the positive side, the General Household Survey for July 2005, released by Statistics South Africa last week, shows that between July 2002 and July 2005 school attendance rose from 96.3% to 97.8%, the percentage of young persons not attending an educational institution because of a lack of money for fees fell from 39.6% to 35.4% and with the no-fee schools that this will further come down.
In the health sector, a positive sign is the rising percentage of patients of both the private and public sector hospitals who are satisfied with the services of these institutions rose to 82.1% and 96% respectively. The number of households indicating hungry adults fell from 6.9% in 2002 to 4.2% in 2005. The number of households with hungry children fell from 6.7% to 4.7%. These numbers need to continue to fall with even greater speed.
In the private sphere, the availability of a cell phone for regular use by households rose from 35% in 2002 to a remarkable 59.7% in 2005, which means there is growing disposable income out there.
Universal access to basic services is a key intervention of Government to address these inequalities, therefore we call on all spheres of Government to prioritise and accelerate universal access to these services. I am sure all the Members in this house will agree to this because our country must and can give all our people a minimum standard of living.
Through our Government programmes, we focus on investments in poor communities because it has high socio-economic returns. For example, investing in the provision of electricity or communications can increase the output of the poor by 40% of the value of the investment, while investments in roads can yield 80% and higher. Hence the greater emphasis on road infrastructure through the Expanded Public Works Programme and the Department of Transport. The effect on poverty reduction of such investments, as well as investments in irrigation systems, can have an even higher impact on poverty alleviation in poor rural areas. This is why accelerating infrastructure development is one of the key interventions of our growth efforts, not only for economic efficiency, but also for poverty relief.
South African National AIDS Council (SANAC)
Madame Speaker, Honourable Members, despite all the criticism, the council has done much work in the areas of advocacy and social mobilisation for HIV and AIDS. Some of the work of the council is ensuring that appropriate dialogue and discussion of issues pertaining to HIV and AIDS policy takes place between government and civil society; ensuring participation of civil society sectors in the SANAC meetings, ensuring SANAC supports activities geared at partnerships in the fight against HIV and AIDS (e.g. World AIDS Day). As the Country Co-ordinating Mechanism, SANAC has contributed towards securing about R458 million from the Global Fund towards support of NGOs and government in fighting HIV, AIDS and TB.
During the recent SANAC meeting a presentation on a framework for the National Strategic Plan for 2006 - 2011 was made, as a way forward after the ending of the five-year Comprehensive Strategy adopted for 2000 – 2005, which we remain committed to fast track. The Council agreed that the major approaches of the strategy were correct and should inform the new plan. This month we will complete this work and the review of SANAC. I wish to thank all the partners and the Department of Health for working together and our hard working Secretariat.
Moral Regeneration Campaign
Madame Speaker, Honourable Members, the moral degeneration of our country has manifested itself in various ways such as the high rate of abuse of women and children, abuse of our senior citizens, abuse of alcoholic substances and drugs. Addressing these issues go to the core of the Moral Regeneration Movement (MRM) business. Thousands of South Africans across the country have participated in the drawing up and adoption of the charter for positive values.
Efforts to further broaden participation and leadership is underway and MRM has faith-based institutions in the main. We see a role for business organisations, civil society including sports, youth and women in embracing positive and ethical values as a way of life. There is further room to instil these values through sports in education and social movements.
We cannot tolerate any women abuse as we are celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the Women’s March to the Union Buildings in Pretoria which took place on 9 August 1956. The celebration of that heroic and historic women’s struggle calls upon us to be extra vigilant about the rights and the dignity of women in our country. We must re-affirm our commitment in fighting against women and child abuse. We salute the women’s leadership and all the partners for having extended the 16 days of no violence against women and children to 365 days. We urge all members to do their bit everyday of the year.
The backlash against women and resurgence of male chauvinism in whatever form it disguises itself cannot be tolerated. Both men and women of our country have made great strides in this respect and they must march on and not regress.
Let us remember that any slide into male chauvinism will hit the poorest of the poor women hardest because they have fewer possibilities to negotiate favourable power relations at work, in communities, in bed and that could be deadly!
We have visited many municipalities to better understand the bottlenecks that exist so that we can come out with feasible solutions. We have spoken to people through their Ward Committees and reinforced grassroots leadership through Community Development Workers.
The interactions with this very important sphere of Government has exposed us to the strengths, shortcomings and challenges of Local Government, we have not masked difficulties, mistakes and failures, nor have we claimed any easy victories. The Department of Provincial and Local Government (DPLG) through Project Consolidate, has responded to the challenges they have identified and those who have seen together during Izimbizo. We must respond to the needs of the people (our constituencies) wherever we are located. This relates to all political parties, we need to strive to service the people better regardless of what party they support.
Women-specific interventions
Madame Speaker, Honourable Members, several interventions have been identified to target women, to ensure that they share in providing leadership and sharing economic benefits. To strengthen women’s leadership and local government, we are currently training, predominantly women groups, in local government jointly with Old Mutual and the South African Management Development Institute (SAMDI) on Project Management at Old Mutual business school. A total of 100 local government practitioners will benefit from this course. The President also has a women’s working group made of women from civil society alongside other Presidential Working Groups. We have initiated a national co-operatives programme that is directed towards women in rural and urban areas. The programme is called Jobs for Growth. The co-operative programme is run by the Independent Development Trust (IDT) on behalf of government. Both the department of agriculture and Trade and industry drive the initiative. The programme has been launched, and 150 trainers have been selected and received initial training. These trainers are presently training cooperatives at local authority level. Several women’s organisations and municipalities are assisting in identifying women’s groups and co-operatives. The programme is staffed and fully operational and will report progress through the relevant departments.
We are finalising placement of women for work experience and skills acquisition in different companies in South Africa and abroad mainly in construction, hospitality, finance, ICT and tourism. The Departments of Tourism, Public Works, Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA) and IDT are leading this work. I wish to thank the private sector and our international partners in India, the United Kingdom, United Arabic Emirates, Canada, Kenya, China, Spain, Australia, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, the United States of America, the Netherlands, who are helping us with this programme and our Department of Foreign Affairs.
Youth development
Madame Speaker, Honourable Members, I will not be doing justice Honourable Members if I conclude this Budget Vote without touching on the subject that is dear to me. That is, to talk about our national effort to improve the socio-economic conditions of youth.
Many members of the Executive that have presented their Budget Votes have, directly and indirectly, elaborated on how their departments are supporting youth development.
The 2005 World Youth Report of the United Nations reminds us that “it is essential to ensure that youth interventions are relevant and valid for the current young generation in society and not mired in the realities of the past.” Our country faces challenges beyond youth skills, poverty and unemployment. We are challenged to build a socially cohesive society. This is a society where communities share values, a vision, pride and passion for taking our nation forward. We intend to achieve this through the National Youth Service which Minister Essop Pahad is driving together with the National Youth Commission, Umsobomvu Youth Fund and many other Government Agencies that support young people.
Conclusion
Madame Speaker, Honourable Members, this year we lost one of our greatest women, Mentor, Educator, Mother – that is Princess Nomzamo Stella Sigcau, a traditional leader inn her own right who taught many of us on the dynamic role of traditional authority and was part of giving meaning to the concept of a developmental and progressive traditional authority. This we intend to uphold in our work and uphold the culture of ploughing back to rural areas, which she pioneered, by those who have migrated to urban areas and have gone up the socio-economic ladder. In our work to support both MRM and developmental traditional authority, we will uphold these partnerships.
I want to thank the President for his wise leadership and counsel, his quiet dignity that speaks volumes. I am grateful for his help in keeping my eyes on the ball and for his support. I also wish to thank Minister Essop Pahad for his support. I wish to thank all our staff and advisors ably led by Rev Chikane for always walking an extra mile and all our families that support all of us consistently.
I wish to thank people in the gallery, partners in civil society, private sector, you Honourable Members of Parliament and my colleagues in Cabinet for their comradeship and more.
This is the age of hope. Lest we forget and our confused by the turmoil around us, which in time and in history will only be a speck of dust in a much bigger picture of people united in partnership for a better life.
It is the age of hope. Women must not be cannibalised by the revolution which liberated them and gave them back their dignity.
It is the age of hope. Our children’s stomachs must not tickled by hunger pangs or tears of pain from being violated but by pangs of being tickled by loving hands of grown ups and tears from laughter out of joy and play. It is the age of hope. Our youth must strive to leave a legacy, learn from the youth under oppression who sacrificed; youth in a free South Africa can and must do much more for the nation.
Madame Speaker, Honourable Members, in the past 30 minutes I have tried to illustrate in so many ways the manner in which, as the Presidency, we are building partnerships through various programmes of development of our country. The successes and failures that we have experienced and the challenges we tackled, we have indeed taken heed of the wise counsel of Amilca Cabral to ‘Mask no difficulties, mistakes, failures and to claim no easy victories’. We are very certain that the trajectory on which we are now can only strengthen the fact that we are indeed in the age of hope. Through all our efforts, we are starting to reap the fruit of our toil, the sweat of our brows and the place called hope, is our destiny.
I therefore, call on this house to support the passing of this Budget Vote.
I thank you.
Issued by: The Presidency
7 June 2006
Source: The Presidency
Title: Mlambo-Ngcuka: The Presidency Dept Budget Vote 2006/07
Address delivered by the Deputy President, Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka on the Presidency Budget Vote to the National Assembly, Cape Town
The President of the Republic,
Madame Speaker and Deputy Speaker
Honourable Ministers and Deputy Ministers,
Honourable Members,
Madame Speaker
On an occasion such as this one, the gathering of our National Parliament to discuss the Budget Vote of The Presidency, it is important to remember the wise and inspiring words of Amilcar Cabral when he extols us to ‘mask no difficulties, mistakes and failures, and claim no easy victories’.
Ours was a hard won liberation. Despite the enormous progress that we have made this far, turning around an ailing economy and bringing services to millions of people, the challenges remain daunting. We will not mask them nor will we claim easy victories.
Recently, much has been said about the state of our democracy. Whether, our democratic values and principles that our country was founded on and are enshrined in our Constitution are still healthy and thriving or is democracy being eroded?
The answer is a big yes. Our democracy is thriving and is in good health. In fact it is robust. The fact that people are able to publicly criticise government without fear, of reprisals, demonstrates that our democracy, free speech and public discourse is under no threat.
Our parliament remains supreme and a true representative of our people. As Members of Parliament, we dare not forget that. As we go about our daily business we are called upon to uphold our constitution at all times.
Leader of government business
Madam Speaker,
One of the responsibilities of the Leader of Government Business is to ensure that we as an executive are accountable collectively and individually to Parliament for the exercise of our powers and the performance of our functions and ensure an interaction between the Executive and the two houses of Parliament.
As Members are aware, the Executive sometimes faces an enormous challenge in trying to meet the deadlines we have set regarding the introduction of bills. We are establishing mechanisms to ensure that more realistic deadlines are set and that there is improved monitoring of the processing of draft legislation prior to submission to Cabinet. Through better planning and management, requests for the fast tracking of Bills have been kept to a bare minimum to ensure that Parliament has sufficient time to consider legislation.
At our recent meeting with the Madame Speaker of the National Assembly, we discussed a range of issues of concern to this House and the Executive and we agreed that such meetings must at least be held quarterly and I intend establishing a similar arrangement with the Chairperson of the National Council of Provinces, while maintaining the separation of powers and the oversight role of Parliament.
The executive’s delivery capacity can also be enhanced by the input from Parliament so that we can work as partners who share a common vision and destiny for our people
I hope in the coming year, we can improve the interaction between the Leader of Government Business and Parliament, in particular with regard to Committee Chairs and Leaders of opposition parties.
In this year’s budget debates, Parliament has also been scrutinising Departments’ interventions outlined in AsgiSA for improving the lives of the poor. I wish to commend the MPs for this work because it will enhance the integration and focus of the interventions. AsgiSA is not a stand alone initiative but an integral part of government’s programme of action. On International Obligations such as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in particular, all the Departments seem to have strategically included these goals in their programmes which imply that South Africa is well positioned to deliver on MDGs. Our Legislation and policies are geared for the fulfilment of this task by 2014 a year before the United Nations (UN) deadline of 2015. This is important for Africa as we have been found to be least likely to make our targets.
I wish to thank the Cabinet Secretariat for the sterling and efficient job in supporting the Cabinet and myself as Leader of Government Business.
ASGISA
Madame Speaker, Honourable Members, you would also know that the President has assigned me the responsibility of marshalling government’s efforts to accelerate shared economic growth and address the integration of the Second Economy. These efforts have culminated in the Accelerated and Shared Growth Initiative for South Africa or AsgiSA. The initiative is designed to make sustained accelerated shared growth possible, a minimum of 6% by 2010, and to halve poverty and unemployment by 2014. I took the proposals of the AsgiSA task team to Cabinet in October last year and in January this year and the President announced AsgiSA during the State of the Nation Address in February 2006.
We talked to many people and groups which included business organisations, trade union federations, women groups and youth groups.
This is why AsgiSA is not simply a government programme. It is an initiative which belongs to all South Africans. It is a mechanism through which, as the Presidency, we co-ordinate and support departments, institutions and other partners to pool their resources together in support of a shared growth, to close gaps where and when they occur and take full advantage of the partnerships across different groupings in our society.
The selected sectors for shared growth must indeed give us both growth and sharing. Progress has been made with regard to especially Tourism and Business Process Outsourcing (BPO), which are priority sectors. Some of the remaining challenges are to be given urgent attention especially in relation to Government’s contribution. Both sectors will definitely give us jobs.
I wish to thank all the partners for their input and particularly the contribution of the Business Trust and Organised Labour. This partnership is proving to be solid.
Education and skills
Madame Speaker, Honourable Members, one of the most deadly blows to the masses of our people by apartheid, was the inferior education provided to all other groups except white people. In our growing and high performing economy, the apartheid education legacy has come to haunt us. It has robbed us of the critical skills needed to grow this economy which the democratic government has managed so well. It is for this reason we widely consulted the sectors both in need of skills and involved in training. Thereafter, we established the Joint Initiative on Priority Skills Acquisition (JIPSA) in March 2006.
JIPSA’s focus areas include finding work or additional skills for the thousands of unemployed graduates, support higher enrolment for learnerships, internships and apprentices and together with the departments of Education and Labour help clarify and enhance societal understanding of these concepts and their application so that they are functional. We are encouraged by the co-operation of our state-owned enterprises in searching for solutions such as Eskom and Transnet, that also need these technical skills.
JIPSA aims to find work placement that will fast track the acquisition of experience for our middle level managers and starting professionals in the scarce skills category in private and public sector.
A report done by the University of Cape Town School of Business commissioned for JIPSA indicates that at least 40% of students from historically disadvantaged institutions in the engineering fields failed to graduate due to their inability to secure internships and apprenticeships and not because they have failed. We must respond decisively to this failure of the system to accommodate these young people who are sorely needed in the economy and ensure that all will find a place for their internships.
We commend that a start that has been made at local government level to enhance capacity. At least 90 professionals have been identified by the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA) and thanks also to the Department of Provincial and Local Government (DPLG) and National Treasury, 30 have already been deployed. Some of these professionals who will each mentor one graduate have been drawn from the database provided to us by the Freedom Front in this house. This is good partnership and the opposition has to learn to collaborate and work with government for the good of our people and nation building. We would like to see more of this co-operation.
I wish to thank the Sector Education and Training Authorities (SETAs) who have embraced this initiative and are working to respond to the challenges ahead of us.
I also further wish to thank all our partners in JIPSA particularly the National Business Initiative (NBI) who are providing the initiative with secretarial support and the task team drawn from a range of institutions and government departments and chaired by Mr Gwede Mantashe, the recently retired Secretary General of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM).
Madame Speaker, Honourable Members, the skills shortage is a global challenge and although we are undertaking an aggressive recruitment drive from our country first, then globally, but there must be realism about what is possible given the enormity of priority skills scarcity in the world. The problem will only be decisively solved through training our people in our universities, technical institutions, schools, corporations and communities in the medium to long term. South Africa and the world has to grapple with this global challenge sooner than later as the scarcity represents a huge cost to economies and the cost of hiring people are becoming impossible.
The private sector must see the investment in human resources not as a corporate social responsibility but a fundamental business imperative for their survival, sustainability, profitability and productivity. The triple bottom line index adopted by the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) is profit, environment and corporate social responsibility – human resource development must be considered in this sustainability index by companies with a real vision.
The importance of provision of universal access to basic services to our people
Madame Speaker, Honourable Members, in the Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP) the first democratic government committed itself to rolling back poverty through the provision of social services and social infrastructure. We remain committed to roll out these services and to reach universal access before 2014, in order to give a better life to all our people.
As the President already indicated, the soon to be published Macro-Social Report finds that the social mobility of the poor is very low in South Africa. Indeed, comparative evidence suggests that the likelihood of poor people moving into better-off categories is lower in South Africa than in many other countries because of the systemic nature of the apartheid legacy. In other words, poor households and communities, comprising about one-third of South Africa’s people, are locked into circumstances of poverty. The marginalised people in “the second economy” have difficulties in pulling themselves with their own bootstraps, at least not in acceptable timeframes.
It is for this reason that our interventions in the second economy, with focus on youth, women and people with disabilities must be far reaching and with focus on removing the underlying systemic challenges. This work, to identify the correct interventions, is being done by the Policy Unit in the Presidency and clusters.
On the positive side, the General Household Survey for July 2005, released by Statistics South Africa last week, shows that between July 2002 and July 2005 school attendance rose from 96.3% to 97.8%, the percentage of young persons not attending an educational institution because of a lack of money for fees fell from 39.6% to 35.4% and with the no-fee schools that this will further come down.
In the health sector, a positive sign is the rising percentage of patients of both the private and public sector hospitals who are satisfied with the services of these institutions rose to 82.1% and 96% respectively. The number of households indicating hungry adults fell from 6.9% in 2002 to 4.2% in 2005. The number of households with hungry children fell from 6.7% to 4.7%. These numbers need to continue to fall with even greater speed.
In the private sphere, the availability of a cell phone for regular use by households rose from 35% in 2002 to a remarkable 59.7% in 2005, which means there is growing disposable income out there.
Universal access to basic services is a key intervention of Government to address these inequalities, therefore we call on all spheres of Government to prioritise and accelerate universal access to these services. I am sure all the Members in this house will agree to this because our country must and can give all our people a minimum standard of living.
Through our Government programmes, we focus on investments in poor communities because it has high socio-economic returns. For example, investing in the provision of electricity or communications can increase the output of the poor by 40% of the value of the investment, while investments in roads can yield 80% and higher. Hence the greater emphasis on road infrastructure through the Expanded Public Works Programme and the Department of Transport. The effect on poverty reduction of such investments, as well as investments in irrigation systems, can have an even higher impact on poverty alleviation in poor rural areas. This is why accelerating infrastructure development is one of the key interventions of our growth efforts, not only for economic efficiency, but also for poverty relief.
South African National AIDS Council (SANAC)
Madame Speaker, Honourable Members, despite all the criticism, the council has done much work in the areas of advocacy and social mobilisation for HIV and AIDS. Some of the work of the council is ensuring that appropriate dialogue and discussion of issues pertaining to HIV and AIDS policy takes place between government and civil society; ensuring participation of civil society sectors in the SANAC meetings, ensuring SANAC supports activities geared at partnerships in the fight against HIV and AIDS (e.g. World AIDS Day). As the Country Co-ordinating Mechanism, SANAC has contributed towards securing about R458 million from the Global Fund towards support of NGOs and government in fighting HIV, AIDS and TB.
During the recent SANAC meeting a presentation on a framework for the National Strategic Plan for 2006 - 2011 was made, as a way forward after the ending of the five-year Comprehensive Strategy adopted for 2000 – 2005, which we remain committed to fast track. The Council agreed that the major approaches of the strategy were correct and should inform the new plan. This month we will complete this work and the review of SANAC. I wish to thank all the partners and the Department of Health for working together and our hard working Secretariat.
Moral Regeneration Campaign
Madame Speaker, Honourable Members, the moral degeneration of our country has manifested itself in various ways such as the high rate of abuse of women and children, abuse of our senior citizens, abuse of alcoholic substances and drugs. Addressing these issues go to the core of the Moral Regeneration Movement (MRM) business. Thousands of South Africans across the country have participated in the drawing up and adoption of the charter for positive values.
Efforts to further broaden participation and leadership is underway and MRM has faith-based institutions in the main. We see a role for business organisations, civil society including sports, youth and women in embracing positive and ethical values as a way of life. There is further room to instil these values through sports in education and social movements.
We cannot tolerate any women abuse as we are celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the Women’s March to the Union Buildings in Pretoria which took place on 9 August 1956. The celebration of that heroic and historic women’s struggle calls upon us to be extra vigilant about the rights and the dignity of women in our country. We must re-affirm our commitment in fighting against women and child abuse. We salute the women’s leadership and all the partners for having extended the 16 days of no violence against women and children to 365 days. We urge all members to do their bit everyday of the year.
The backlash against women and resurgence of male chauvinism in whatever form it disguises itself cannot be tolerated. Both men and women of our country have made great strides in this respect and they must march on and not regress.
Let us remember that any slide into male chauvinism will hit the poorest of the poor women hardest because they have fewer possibilities to negotiate favourable power relations at work, in communities, in bed and that could be deadly!
We have visited many municipalities to better understand the bottlenecks that exist so that we can come out with feasible solutions. We have spoken to people through their Ward Committees and reinforced grassroots leadership through Community Development Workers.
The interactions with this very important sphere of Government has exposed us to the strengths, shortcomings and challenges of Local Government, we have not masked difficulties, mistakes and failures, nor have we claimed any easy victories. The Department of Provincial and Local Government (DPLG) through Project Consolidate, has responded to the challenges they have identified and those who have seen together during Izimbizo. We must respond to the needs of the people (our constituencies) wherever we are located. This relates to all political parties, we need to strive to service the people better regardless of what party they support.
Women-specific interventions
Madame Speaker, Honourable Members, several interventions have been identified to target women, to ensure that they share in providing leadership and sharing economic benefits. To strengthen women’s leadership and local government, we are currently training, predominantly women groups, in local government jointly with Old Mutual and the South African Management Development Institute (SAMDI) on Project Management at Old Mutual business school. A total of 100 local government practitioners will benefit from this course. The President also has a women’s working group made of women from civil society alongside other Presidential Working Groups. We have initiated a national co-operatives programme that is directed towards women in rural and urban areas. The programme is called Jobs for Growth. The co-operative programme is run by the Independent Development Trust (IDT) on behalf of government. Both the department of agriculture and Trade and industry drive the initiative. The programme has been launched, and 150 trainers have been selected and received initial training. These trainers are presently training cooperatives at local authority level. Several women’s organisations and municipalities are assisting in identifying women’s groups and co-operatives. The programme is staffed and fully operational and will report progress through the relevant departments.
We are finalising placement of women for work experience and skills acquisition in different companies in South Africa and abroad mainly in construction, hospitality, finance, ICT and tourism. The Departments of Tourism, Public Works, Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA) and IDT are leading this work. I wish to thank the private sector and our international partners in India, the United Kingdom, United Arabic Emirates, Canada, Kenya, China, Spain, Australia, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, the United States of America, the Netherlands, who are helping us with this programme and our Department of Foreign Affairs.
Youth development
Madame Speaker, Honourable Members, I will not be doing justice Honourable Members if I conclude this Budget Vote without touching on the subject that is dear to me. That is, to talk about our national effort to improve the socio-economic conditions of youth.
Many members of the Executive that have presented their Budget Votes have, directly and indirectly, elaborated on how their departments are supporting youth development.
The 2005 World Youth Report of the United Nations reminds us that “it is essential to ensure that youth interventions are relevant and valid for the current young generation in society and not mired in the realities of the past.” Our country faces challenges beyond youth skills, poverty and unemployment. We are challenged to build a socially cohesive society. This is a society where communities share values, a vision, pride and passion for taking our nation forward. We intend to achieve this through the National Youth Service which Minister Essop Pahad is driving together with the National Youth Commission, Umsobomvu Youth Fund and many other Government Agencies that support young people.
Conclusion
Madame Speaker, Honourable Members, this year we lost one of our greatest women, Mentor, Educator, Mother – that is Princess Nomzamo Stella Sigcau, a traditional leader inn her own right who taught many of us on the dynamic role of traditional authority and was part of giving meaning to the concept of a developmental and progressive traditional authority. This we intend to uphold in our work and uphold the culture of ploughing back to rural areas, which she pioneered, by those who have migrated to urban areas and have gone up the socio-economic ladder. In our work to support both MRM and developmental traditional authority, we will uphold these partnerships.
I want to thank the President for his wise leadership and counsel, his quiet dignity that speaks volumes. I am grateful for his help in keeping my eyes on the ball and for his support. I also wish to thank Minister Essop Pahad for his support. I wish to thank all our staff and advisors ably led by Rev Chikane for always walking an extra mile and all our families that support all of us consistently.
I wish to thank people in the gallery, partners in civil society, private sector, you Honourable Members of Parliament and my colleagues in Cabinet for their comradeship and more.
This is the age of hope. Lest we forget and our confused by the turmoil around us, which in time and in history will only be a speck of dust in a much bigger picture of people united in partnership for a better life.
It is the age of hope. Women must not be cannibalised by the revolution which liberated them and gave them back their dignity.
It is the age of hope. Our children’s stomachs must not tickled by hunger pangs or tears of pain from being violated but by pangs of being tickled by loving hands of grown ups and tears from laughter out of joy and play. It is the age of hope. Our youth must strive to leave a legacy, learn from the youth under oppression who sacrificed; youth in a free South Africa can and must do much more for the nation.
Madame Speaker, Honourable Members, in the past 30 minutes I have tried to illustrate in so many ways the manner in which, as the Presidency, we are building partnerships through various programmes of development of our country. The successes and failures that we have experienced and the challenges we tackled, we have indeed taken heed of the wise counsel of Amilca Cabral to ‘Mask no difficulties, mistakes, failures and to claim no easy victories’. We are very certain that the trajectory on which we are now can only strengthen the fact that we are indeed in the age of hope. Through all our efforts, we are starting to reap the fruit of our toil, the sweat of our brows and the place called hope, is our destiny.
I therefore, call on this house to support the passing of this Budget Vote.
I thank you.
Issued by: The Presidency
7 June 2006
Advertisement
EMAIL THIS ARTICLE SAVE THIS ARTICLE FEEDBACK
To subscribe email subscriptions@creamermedia.co.za or click here
To advertise email advertising@creamermedia.co.za or click here
