Date: 12/06/2003
Source: Ministry of Provincial and Local Government
Title: Mufamadi: Provincial and Local Government Dept Budget Vote 2003/2004
SPEECH BY MINISTER FS MUFAMADI, THE MINISTER FOR PROVINCIAL AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT, ON THE OCCASION OF THE BUDGET VOTE OF THE DEPARTMENT OF PROVINCIAL AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT, VOTE NO. 5, National Assembly, 12 June 2003
Madam Speaker and
Honourable Members
1.Introduction
Meeting at the Congress of the People in June 1955, our country's freedom fighters promulgated the vision of a South Africa in which the people shall govern. United in a common sense of mission they undertook to reconstruct the socio-economic foundations of South African society - to make South Africa a place whose wealth is shared amongst those who work it.
Madam Speaker, the vision we speak of, became the legacy that tempered the steel. It inspired the youth of the 1970s. These were the young lions who took to the streets in June 1976. As they took to the streets, their roaring voice haunted the apartheid regime with a spectre of its own negation. Some of them have since passed on, leaving us with the obligation and the honour to build the South Africa of the 21st Century into a monument that celebrates their dream.
Seated in the public gallery this afternoon are some of the pathfinders of our democratic system of government. They include members of the Provincial Executive Councils (MECs), mayors and councillors, municipal managers and other practitioners. Sitting alongside them are the traditional leaders of our people, led by iNkosi Mpiyezintombi Mzimela. These esteemed representatives of our people are guided in their work by the slew of legislation which was passed by this house. The laws we passed in this house sought to define the meaning of national development, as well as the mechanisms and strategies by which development is to be achieved.
2. Overview of the Apartheid State
Those who are at the coalface of the effort to make our democratic system of government functional are familiar with the syndrome of issues which constitute the formidable challenge we face. They know what it means to deal with the enduring legacy left by those who pursued exclusionary policies and strategies. Some of them are today saddled with local areas that are without any productive economic activity to speak of and therefore, local jurisdictions without a revenue-base that can be used as a platform from which to make welfare-enhancing interventions.
Previously, state structures were mechanisms of domination that discounted participation by the masses of the people. The toy telephones that were established in the townships and in the so-called homelands were meant to draw those who were willing to auction their souls, into dyadic networks of patronage. Similar distortions could be observed in the composition and operation of the parastatals. These were part of a public system that sought to produce a racially skewed pattern of resource allocation. They were complicit in the act of spawning indigence in a country that is not only endowed with an abundance of natural and mineral resources, but also has a relatively developed industrial base.
The totality of the apartheid state machinery consisted of a central government, four administrations, ten Bantustan administrations, and over 1 200 racially segregated local government administrations. Within the relatively short period of nine years, we have been able to bring down that apartheid edifice, and to construct a new state machinery with an inclusive, democratic, and egalitarian orientation.
3. Policy Imperatives and Objectives Underpinning the Developmental State
When they wrote the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, our law-makers were driven by the desire to create a structure of government which would be suited to the task of overcoming conditions of under-development - conditions which to this day continue to beset our country.
In the first five years of democratic governance, building governmental structures at the level of the national and provincial spheres was an area of priority focus. Under the rubric of the Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP), government was able to define key sectors and areas for immediate intervention. What began with the four priority areas of the RDP, namely:
* Meeting basic needs;
* Developing our human resources;
* Building the economy; and
* Democratising the state and society resulted in a fundamental reconstruction of the South African polity.
National Government's achievement in extricating the economy from the doldrums of negative growth is a matter of record. Following growth of 3% in 2002, the economy is set to expand by 3.3% this year, rising a further 3.7% in 2004 and 4% in 2005.
Whilst these projections are encouraging, it is important for us to realise that the achievement of dynamic growth cannot be assured unless we have functional, efficient and developmentally orientated structures across our three spheres of government. It goes without saying that had such structures been in place from the onset of our democratic transition, we would by now have realised more robust rates of economic growth.
4. Provincial and Local Government
Madam Speaker, this year's division of revenue provides for a strong real growth in national transfers to provinces and local government of 6.1% and 12.2% respectively over the Medium Term Expenditure Framework period. These increases speak to our commitment to accelerate the delivery of Free Basic Services and to extend provision of these services to those who cannot afford them. The increases also signal our intention to direct resources towards the goal of creating employment opportunities through the expansion of labour-intensive infrastructure development programmes.
Provinces are increasingly proving that their place in the developmental division of labour entails more than serving as the locus of social spending. They need to be orientated more and more towards making a more intimate and substantial contribution to the national effort of growing the economy. The growing ability of provinces to make effective use of increased funding from the national fiscus is a matter that is deserving of commendation.
In this regard, we are particularly heartened by the outstanding achievement of the Limpopo province. Between 1995 and 2000 the province experienced an average growth rate of 5.5% in real terms - this is way above the national average. Although this growth is off a low base, the fact that it is happening at all means that our confidence in the provincial government system is not misplaced. It is even more gratifying to see that this is happening in what is predominantly a rural province. It says to us that depending on what we do, the rural areas of our country can also emerge from the trap of negative economic growth and even the doldrums of low surplus equilibrium.
Mindful of the need to reinforce these positive trends which are emerging within the provincial sphere, the Ministry and Department of Provincial and Local Government have been systematically working at helping to improve provincial governments' capacity for developing Growth and Development Strategies and to ensure that there are synergistic links between those strategies and the Integrated Development Plans of the municipalities.
Experience has shown that the impact of the progress we make, thanks to the efforts of national and provincial governments, has tended to be minimised by the absence of support from local jurisdictions. The growing maturity of local government increases the possibility for our overall system of government to pay a consistent and co-ordinated attentiveness to the problems which beset our local economies. With this in mind, we are paying attention to the task of increasing the capacity of municipalities to make informed interventions - interventions which seek to stimulate economic growth and to put us in a position to meet the basic needs of our people on a sustainable basis.
Through the Integrated Development Plans, municipalities are developing local socio-economic profiles, which should help the public sector and the private sector to take decisions that are mutually beneficial. In particular, we are encouraging municipalities that are home to designated rural development and urban renewal nodes, to make use of these mechanisms in order to influence investment within the small-scale segment of the economy. The stimulation of economic activity in these areas, however small, will touch in very positive ways, the lives of those of our people who are confined to positions that are marginal to the economy.
In the 2003 budget we make substantial resources available to the local government sphere. This is meant to provide for poverty relief, to extend infrastructure delivery and to further strengthen the local government system. National transfers to local government increase at an annual growth rate of 18,4% from R8, 8 billion in 2002/ 03 to R14, 6 billion in 2005/ 06.
The bulk of the additional resources will be directed towards the provision of Free Basic Services and the extension of services to areas which are not presently serviced. Part of that resource will also be directed towards infrastructure development. In total, R4, 1 billion over the Medium Term Expenditure Framework period will be made available for water, electricity, refuse removal and sanitation. This will be done as part of Government's commitment to provide Free Basic Services to households who cannot afford them.
So immense are the responsibilities which are progressively devolving to local government that all of us will have to pay unflagging attention to the task of building local government capacity. Although uneven, the progress made by our municipalities so far is significant. Key areas of progress include the fact that all municipalities have now adopted Integrated Development Plans. The overall quality of these IDPS is now steadily improving. Further improvements are expected in the light of increased funding for various municipal capital, operating, and capacity building grants from national government. Municipal capital and operating budgets are estimated to total R74, 5 billion in the 2002/03 financial year, compared to R64, 5 billion in the 2001/ 02 financial year.
The spatial distortions which are a function of the differential impact of the apartheid legacy, are manifested in part by the fact that our municipalities are variable in their capacity to discharge their constitutional mandate. The district municipalities in particular, are in the lower spectrum of capability. So far we have succeeded to augment the institutional capacity of district municipalities by establishing Planning, Implementation and Support Centres, or PIMS Centres, in 39 district municipalities. It is our intention to make sure that in the not so distant future, these PIMS centres shall have been established in all 47 district municipalities.
An additional R300 million over this Medium Term Expenditure Framework has been set aside for capacity building. An interim framework has also been adopted for aligning the capacity building grants into a single grant by 2005/ 06.
5. Public Participation in Governance
Madam Speaker and Honourable Members, as we all know, our local government legislation provides for a system of local government which attaches significant importance to societal participation in matters of governance. Indeed, communities in our country cannot make the transition from poverty to prosperity without governmental structures that approximate the ideal-type model visualised in our local government legislation. The absence of such structures constrains our ability to achieve development.
There is a continuing need for us to ensure that we have structures of government with the necessary capacity to mobilise and arouse the masses of our people into co-ordinated action for sustainable development. On the 24th and 25th of this month, the Ministry and Department of Provincial and Local Government are convening a national conference to look at the functional status of ward committees. Ward committees already exist in many of our municipalities. We want to learn from the invaluable diversity of experience gained by ward committee members in the crucible of practice.
The importance of ward committees cannot be over-emphasised. If a ward committee does not yet exist in your local area, it means that you have not yet taken the opportunity to bring democracy to the place you live. The quality of service you receive is only as good as the quality of democracy you have in your local area. I therefore urge all our people to take their destiny into their own hands by participating in the activities of ward committees.
With each passing day, we see the tide of democratisation continually and irreversibly turning towards the pinnacle of human achievement. Our conviction in the inevitability of that for which many in our country sacrificed their lives, is enhanced by the actions of many South Africans of goodwill. We have noted with appreciation the recent study visit undertaken by the parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Provincial and Local Government. Members of the Portfolio Committee visited 63 municipalities in various parts of the country in order to put their collective finger on the heartbeat of the system. They came to a conclusion with which we agree, namely that the system is alive. Our collective responsibility is to pay continuing attention to the health of the system.
The progress made thus far, to the extent that our Ministry and Department are associated with it, could not have been possible without the peer counsel of my Cabinet colleagues. In addition, Deputy Minister Ntombazana Botha, Director-General Lindiwe Msengana-Ndlela, as well as the rest of the Ministry and Department staff have always done what they have to do in order to render tolerable the weight of the load we carry.
The Premiers, MECs, traditional leaders, mayors and councillors are amongst the partners whose continuing co-operation is a sine qua non of our success. Our overall capacity to serve this, the country of our birth, has improved thanks to the contribution of our many partners, some of whom are in the gallery this afternoon. With partners such as we have, whose commitment to our country and our people is so unconditional, the prospects for the future could not be brighter.
I thank you.
Issued by Ministry of Provincial and Local Government
12 June 2003
Source: Ministry of Provincial and Local Government
Title: Mufamadi: Provincial and Local Government Dept Budget Vote 2003/2004
SPEECH BY MINISTER FS MUFAMADI, THE MINISTER FOR PROVINCIAL AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT, ON THE OCCASION OF THE BUDGET VOTE OF THE DEPARTMENT OF PROVINCIAL AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT, VOTE NO. 5, National Assembly, 12 June 2003
Madam Speaker and
Honourable Members
1.Introduction
Meeting at the Congress of the People in June 1955, our country's freedom fighters promulgated the vision of a South Africa in which the people shall govern. United in a common sense of mission they undertook to reconstruct the socio-economic foundations of South African society - to make South Africa a place whose wealth is shared amongst those who work it.
Madam Speaker, the vision we speak of, became the legacy that tempered the steel. It inspired the youth of the 1970s. These were the young lions who took to the streets in June 1976. As they took to the streets, their roaring voice haunted the apartheid regime with a spectre of its own negation. Some of them have since passed on, leaving us with the obligation and the honour to build the South Africa of the 21st Century into a monument that celebrates their dream.
Seated in the public gallery this afternoon are some of the pathfinders of our democratic system of government. They include members of the Provincial Executive Councils (MECs), mayors and councillors, municipal managers and other practitioners. Sitting alongside them are the traditional leaders of our people, led by iNkosi Mpiyezintombi Mzimela. These esteemed representatives of our people are guided in their work by the slew of legislation which was passed by this house. The laws we passed in this house sought to define the meaning of national development, as well as the mechanisms and strategies by which development is to be achieved.
2. Overview of the Apartheid State
Those who are at the coalface of the effort to make our democratic system of government functional are familiar with the syndrome of issues which constitute the formidable challenge we face. They know what it means to deal with the enduring legacy left by those who pursued exclusionary policies and strategies. Some of them are today saddled with local areas that are without any productive economic activity to speak of and therefore, local jurisdictions without a revenue-base that can be used as a platform from which to make welfare-enhancing interventions.
Previously, state structures were mechanisms of domination that discounted participation by the masses of the people. The toy telephones that were established in the townships and in the so-called homelands were meant to draw those who were willing to auction their souls, into dyadic networks of patronage. Similar distortions could be observed in the composition and operation of the parastatals. These were part of a public system that sought to produce a racially skewed pattern of resource allocation. They were complicit in the act of spawning indigence in a country that is not only endowed with an abundance of natural and mineral resources, but also has a relatively developed industrial base.
The totality of the apartheid state machinery consisted of a central government, four administrations, ten Bantustan administrations, and over 1 200 racially segregated local government administrations. Within the relatively short period of nine years, we have been able to bring down that apartheid edifice, and to construct a new state machinery with an inclusive, democratic, and egalitarian orientation.
3. Policy Imperatives and Objectives Underpinning the Developmental State
When they wrote the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, our law-makers were driven by the desire to create a structure of government which would be suited to the task of overcoming conditions of under-development - conditions which to this day continue to beset our country.
In the first five years of democratic governance, building governmental structures at the level of the national and provincial spheres was an area of priority focus. Under the rubric of the Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP), government was able to define key sectors and areas for immediate intervention. What began with the four priority areas of the RDP, namely:
* Meeting basic needs;
* Developing our human resources;
* Building the economy; and
* Democratising the state and society resulted in a fundamental reconstruction of the South African polity.
National Government's achievement in extricating the economy from the doldrums of negative growth is a matter of record. Following growth of 3% in 2002, the economy is set to expand by 3.3% this year, rising a further 3.7% in 2004 and 4% in 2005.
Whilst these projections are encouraging, it is important for us to realise that the achievement of dynamic growth cannot be assured unless we have functional, efficient and developmentally orientated structures across our three spheres of government. It goes without saying that had such structures been in place from the onset of our democratic transition, we would by now have realised more robust rates of economic growth.
4. Provincial and Local Government
Madam Speaker, this year's division of revenue provides for a strong real growth in national transfers to provinces and local government of 6.1% and 12.2% respectively over the Medium Term Expenditure Framework period. These increases speak to our commitment to accelerate the delivery of Free Basic Services and to extend provision of these services to those who cannot afford them. The increases also signal our intention to direct resources towards the goal of creating employment opportunities through the expansion of labour-intensive infrastructure development programmes.
Provinces are increasingly proving that their place in the developmental division of labour entails more than serving as the locus of social spending. They need to be orientated more and more towards making a more intimate and substantial contribution to the national effort of growing the economy. The growing ability of provinces to make effective use of increased funding from the national fiscus is a matter that is deserving of commendation.
In this regard, we are particularly heartened by the outstanding achievement of the Limpopo province. Between 1995 and 2000 the province experienced an average growth rate of 5.5% in real terms - this is way above the national average. Although this growth is off a low base, the fact that it is happening at all means that our confidence in the provincial government system is not misplaced. It is even more gratifying to see that this is happening in what is predominantly a rural province. It says to us that depending on what we do, the rural areas of our country can also emerge from the trap of negative economic growth and even the doldrums of low surplus equilibrium.
Mindful of the need to reinforce these positive trends which are emerging within the provincial sphere, the Ministry and Department of Provincial and Local Government have been systematically working at helping to improve provincial governments' capacity for developing Growth and Development Strategies and to ensure that there are synergistic links between those strategies and the Integrated Development Plans of the municipalities.
Experience has shown that the impact of the progress we make, thanks to the efforts of national and provincial governments, has tended to be minimised by the absence of support from local jurisdictions. The growing maturity of local government increases the possibility for our overall system of government to pay a consistent and co-ordinated attentiveness to the problems which beset our local economies. With this in mind, we are paying attention to the task of increasing the capacity of municipalities to make informed interventions - interventions which seek to stimulate economic growth and to put us in a position to meet the basic needs of our people on a sustainable basis.
Through the Integrated Development Plans, municipalities are developing local socio-economic profiles, which should help the public sector and the private sector to take decisions that are mutually beneficial. In particular, we are encouraging municipalities that are home to designated rural development and urban renewal nodes, to make use of these mechanisms in order to influence investment within the small-scale segment of the economy. The stimulation of economic activity in these areas, however small, will touch in very positive ways, the lives of those of our people who are confined to positions that are marginal to the economy.
In the 2003 budget we make substantial resources available to the local government sphere. This is meant to provide for poverty relief, to extend infrastructure delivery and to further strengthen the local government system. National transfers to local government increase at an annual growth rate of 18,4% from R8, 8 billion in 2002/ 03 to R14, 6 billion in 2005/ 06.
The bulk of the additional resources will be directed towards the provision of Free Basic Services and the extension of services to areas which are not presently serviced. Part of that resource will also be directed towards infrastructure development. In total, R4, 1 billion over the Medium Term Expenditure Framework period will be made available for water, electricity, refuse removal and sanitation. This will be done as part of Government's commitment to provide Free Basic Services to households who cannot afford them.
So immense are the responsibilities which are progressively devolving to local government that all of us will have to pay unflagging attention to the task of building local government capacity. Although uneven, the progress made by our municipalities so far is significant. Key areas of progress include the fact that all municipalities have now adopted Integrated Development Plans. The overall quality of these IDPS is now steadily improving. Further improvements are expected in the light of increased funding for various municipal capital, operating, and capacity building grants from national government. Municipal capital and operating budgets are estimated to total R74, 5 billion in the 2002/03 financial year, compared to R64, 5 billion in the 2001/ 02 financial year.
The spatial distortions which are a function of the differential impact of the apartheid legacy, are manifested in part by the fact that our municipalities are variable in their capacity to discharge their constitutional mandate. The district municipalities in particular, are in the lower spectrum of capability. So far we have succeeded to augment the institutional capacity of district municipalities by establishing Planning, Implementation and Support Centres, or PIMS Centres, in 39 district municipalities. It is our intention to make sure that in the not so distant future, these PIMS centres shall have been established in all 47 district municipalities.
An additional R300 million over this Medium Term Expenditure Framework has been set aside for capacity building. An interim framework has also been adopted for aligning the capacity building grants into a single grant by 2005/ 06.
5. Public Participation in Governance
Madam Speaker and Honourable Members, as we all know, our local government legislation provides for a system of local government which attaches significant importance to societal participation in matters of governance. Indeed, communities in our country cannot make the transition from poverty to prosperity without governmental structures that approximate the ideal-type model visualised in our local government legislation. The absence of such structures constrains our ability to achieve development.
There is a continuing need for us to ensure that we have structures of government with the necessary capacity to mobilise and arouse the masses of our people into co-ordinated action for sustainable development. On the 24th and 25th of this month, the Ministry and Department of Provincial and Local Government are convening a national conference to look at the functional status of ward committees. Ward committees already exist in many of our municipalities. We want to learn from the invaluable diversity of experience gained by ward committee members in the crucible of practice.
The importance of ward committees cannot be over-emphasised. If a ward committee does not yet exist in your local area, it means that you have not yet taken the opportunity to bring democracy to the place you live. The quality of service you receive is only as good as the quality of democracy you have in your local area. I therefore urge all our people to take their destiny into their own hands by participating in the activities of ward committees.
With each passing day, we see the tide of democratisation continually and irreversibly turning towards the pinnacle of human achievement. Our conviction in the inevitability of that for which many in our country sacrificed their lives, is enhanced by the actions of many South Africans of goodwill. We have noted with appreciation the recent study visit undertaken by the parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Provincial and Local Government. Members of the Portfolio Committee visited 63 municipalities in various parts of the country in order to put their collective finger on the heartbeat of the system. They came to a conclusion with which we agree, namely that the system is alive. Our collective responsibility is to pay continuing attention to the health of the system.
The progress made thus far, to the extent that our Ministry and Department are associated with it, could not have been possible without the peer counsel of my Cabinet colleagues. In addition, Deputy Minister Ntombazana Botha, Director-General Lindiwe Msengana-Ndlela, as well as the rest of the Ministry and Department staff have always done what they have to do in order to render tolerable the weight of the load we carry.
The Premiers, MECs, traditional leaders, mayors and councillors are amongst the partners whose continuing co-operation is a sine qua non of our success. Our overall capacity to serve this, the country of our birth, has improved thanks to the contribution of our many partners, some of whom are in the gallery this afternoon. With partners such as we have, whose commitment to our country and our people is so unconditional, the prospects for the future could not be brighter.
I thank you.
Issued by Ministry of Provincial and Local Government
12 June 2003
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