Date: 31/01/2009

Source: The Presidency

Title: SA: Motlanthe: Speech by President Kgalema Motlanthe on the presentation of the First Annual Progress Report on the implementation of South Africa's Programme of Action, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Your Excellencies
Heads of States and Government of the African Peer Review Mechanism Participating Countries
Members of the Panel of Eminent Persons
Members of the Diplomatic Corps
Distinguished guests

The World faces trying times. Many major world economies have entered recession due to the global financial crisis. The destruction of lives and displacement of people continues throughout the world and our continent.

Against this background it is critical for APRM participating countries to respond to the question: what are we doing to deepen democracy, enhance political stability, eradicate poverty and the suffering of our people? This summit also provides an opportunity to encourage other African Union member states to accede to the African Peer Review Mechanism and become part of this collective that seeks to strengthen the struggle to build political stability and eradicate poverty.

Your Excellencies, South Africa went through the peer review process in July 2007, in Accra, Ghana. It noted our good progress and the development of good governance practices to democratise the country and reverse the apartheid legacy of underdevelopment and inequality. Actions to address the challenges identified in the review were incorporated in Government''s Programme of Action (PoA).

This annual report covers the period from November 2007 to December 2008 and reflects on progress made in the implementation of the Programme of Action. This reporting period coincides with the final phase of the electoral mandate of the current South African government in a few months time. During this period, South Africa has focused on the implementation of 24 Apex priority projects to deal with current challenges including poverty, crime, national planning and land reform.

Your Excellencies, South Africa continues to advance towards a cohesive society which is underpinned by values of respect for human dignity, the achievement of equality, advancement of human rights and freedoms, and the recognition of the supremacy of the Constitution and the rule of law.

South Africa is committed to ensuring its parliamentary democracy is not eroded. Consequently, we have addressed the concern raised in the country review report by abolishing floor crossing in legislatures.

However, there have been robust engagements on a common understanding of the meaning of judicial independence and the boundaries of the separation of powers, particularly between the judiciary and the other arms of government. Constitutional democracies across the globe are characterised by the inherent and necessary tensions between the three arms of government which must cooperate as they discharge their mandates.

South Africa continues to believe that an independent, vigilant, fearless, vigorous and sensitive judiciary is the cornerstone of democracy. The government respects, and has unequivocally pledged its commitment to the independence of the judiciary and the rule of law.

Excellencies, South Africa is proud of its sound macro-economic policies that have ensured that over the past fifteen years, our economy grew at unprecedented levels. Owing to these appropriate macro-economic policies and a strong banking and financial sector, South Africa has been cushioned from the global financial shock resulting in what has been called the deepest crisis since the Great Depression of 1929. We are confident that our policies and interventions will demonstrate the required flexibility to address this prolonged economic downturn and reduce the negative impact on our economy.

We also moved speedily to strengthen our corporate governance framework. A new Companies Bill was approved by Parliament late last year. The Bill simplifies the registration process of companies and introduces corporate governance provisions for the organisation and management of companies. Furthermore, the Bill also addresses the need for the promotion of shareholder activism, which will be implemented once the Companies Bill of 2008 is signed into law.

Parliament also approved the Competition Amendment Bill of 2008. The Competition Amendment Bill is designed to create an efficient competitive environment, promote the interest of all role players, reinforce the Competition Act of 1998, and further empower the role of competition authorities in South Africa by ensuring competitiveness and market transparency.

This will ensure that we deal with the uncompetitive practices that we have witnessed where some companies were involved in price fixing on certain goods including basic commodities. I have returned the bill to Parliament for further consideration due to concerns about its constitutionality.

South Africa remains committed to accelerating socio-economic development to achieve sustainable development and poverty eradication. Government undertook a fifteen year review of performance and found that the number of people living in poverty had been significantly reduced but inequality had increased. In August 2008, government launched the "War on Poverty" Campaign as one leg of a broader anti-poverty strategy. Furthermore, Government has successfully mainstreamed its anti-poverty initiatives into the planning and implementation of its programmes and the budgeting process. The aim of these initiatives is to more effectively reach the poor.

The Social Security Assistance Programme remains the most significant pillar of the anti-poverty strategy. Cash transfers in the form of Old Age Pensions, Disability, Child Support and Foster Care Grants and Grant in Aid (intended for care services for the aged, orphans and terminally ill) have made a positive impact on the lives of poor South Africans.

South Africa continues to improve the lives of the poor and bolster the health system. In this regard, the fight against HIV and AIDS remains a key priority as evidenced by the elaborate and pragmatic plan to combat HIV and AIDS. The funds spent by the public sector to combat HIV and AIDS and mitigate its impact have increased from R5,317 billion in 2006 to R5,768 billion in 2007. The reporting period witnessed significant increases in expenditure for laboratory testing, ARV, nutrition and health system upgrades. The Department of Social Development has also increased its HIV and AIDS spending from R339 million to R452 million in 2007. All of these including the comprehensive plan to combat HIV and AIDS indicate that South Africa is making huge strides in the fight against the pandemic.

Expenditure on education grew from R30 billion in 1994/1995 to over R101 billion in the 2007/2008 financial year. Access to education has improved in all sectors, with most growth seen in the school sector itself. South Africa has attained the goal of universal primary education, and an increasing number of children (around 60%) remain in school for the full 12 years. Access has also been strengthened by the declaration of no-fee schools in poorer communities where parents cannot afford school fees. During 2008, 40% of both primary and secondary schools were declared no-fee schools.

Your Excellencies, redistribution of land is also central to South Africa''s anti-poverty strategy. During this reporting period, approximately 5, 2 million hectares of land have been redistributed to land reform beneficiaries under the different programmes. This includes 857 645 hectares of State land. There is also recognition that more needs to be done and as a result the Provision of Land and Assistance Amendment Act, 2008 (Act No. 58 of 2008) was enacted. This will ensure sustainable use of land where Government will be able to buy land and movable property such as agricultural equipment, tractors and shares in related business.

In order to ensure stability, peace and development it is necessary that we tackle crime comprehensively. This is a key priority area and Government expenditure on crime prevention has been steadily increasing through the recruitment of more policemen and women, as well as through infrastructure improvement. These efforts bolstered by strong partnership between Government and civil society are starting to yield the required results. There is a marked decrease in contact crimes such as murder and robbery

South Africa continues to make progress in the advancement of women empowerment in all sectors. To ensure that this continues, the national gender machinery is currently being revamped. Active steps are being taken to address the global problem of human trafficking through a three-pronged approach. Firstly, by strengthening international relations especially with neighbouring States to enhance the fight against organised and other forms of trafficking in women and children, including trafficking for the purposes of sexual and labour exploitation, pornography, prostitution and sex tourism.

Secondly, by prosecuting human traffickers using existing administrative mechanisms and legal provisions to combat organised crime, money laundering and criminal activities.

Thirdly, a law reform process has been initiated to create an integrated and holistic legal framework that facilitates the fight against human trafficking including an investigation by the South African Law Reform Commission into improving the legislative framework.

While we wait for the Commission''s report, the recently enacted Sexual Offences Act provides for interim measures to implement aspects of the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organised Crime.

Our law enforcement agencies are working tirelessly to ensure that crime is drastically reduced. Our criminal justice system is being bolstered to ensure that perpetrators of crime are dealt with speedily and effectively. We are also addressing some of the contributory factors to crime such as poverty and joblessness.

Linked to this, the fight against corruption remains another key priority area. In addition to the anti-corruption review emanating from the APRM, Government has initiated the appraisal of the national anti-corruption framework. The appraisal points to a need to focus more attention on the implementation of the framework while providing the necessary capacity to strengthen the fight against corruption.

Fellow Africans, during June 2008, South Africa experienced violence of immense proportions fuelled mainly by what many believed to be xenophobia. Some people were killed, others injured, and others were displaced or separated from their families. There have been various dimensions of what has been widely reported as xenophobia. One dimension is that not only foreign nationals were killed but South African citizens as well. They had migrated to those localities where the incidents occurred in search of better job opportunities. Another dimension is that these incidents did not occur within middle class communities but in poor communities.

In some areas it is reported that violence also occurred between foreign nationals themselves. In addition, criminals took advantage of the situation implying that in certain cases the violence was purely opportunistic and merely replicated to advance criminal actions.

In order to address this matter, Parliament established a task team to probe the attacks and establish the root causes. The findings indicate that the violence was fuelled by socio-economic inequalities, competition for scarce resources, poor living conditions and a high rate of unemployment. All these underscore the class dimension of these attacks and the challenges of unequal development. Further, to raise awareness, government held a summit called the Social Dialogue on Xenophbia involving 27 NGO''s, religious groups, communities and organisations of foreign nationals. The summit agreed to a declaration to work against all manifestations of Xenophobia including a commitment to social cohesion between foreign nationals and South Africans. Summits are being held in each of the nine provinces to popularise the declaration.

These attacks have been condemned by South Africans from all walks of life signalling a united voice against all forms of discrimination including xenophobia. South Africans have opened their hearts to the survivors by giving donations to the displaced people, cooperating with the police in bringing perpetrators to book and staging protest marches in solidarity. We are determined to prevent these heinous deeds from happening in our country again.

Migration and xenophobia are important cross cutting issues that South Africa would like to have discussed further by the APRM Forum at a later date.

Conclusion

Fellow Africans, in preparing for the 2010 Soccer World Cup Show piece, infrastructure has been built to ensure that South Africa hosts a successful African World Cup. In addition to stadiums, there has been massive investment in the transport infrastructure to ensure it is geared to absorb the increased volume and demand. We are now ready to host the COSAFA Cup and we have no doubt that we will make Africa proud.

We believe that the APRM epitomises a truly African solution to the challenges of governance and development. We salute those countries that participate in this mechanism in a bold step towards a change for the better. We wish to encourage those who have not acceded seriously to consider becoming part of this initiative for good governance, democracy and economic integration.

Excellencies, it is my pleasure to present South Africa''s first annual progress report.

I thank you