SPEECH BY MINISTER MUFAMADI ON THE OCCASION OF HIS BUDGET VOTE NO 22, PROVINCIAL AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT,

National Assembly, 8 June 2000

Madame Speaker;
Honourable members:

The issue of governance continues to engage the minds of practitioners and scholars all over the world. The first five years of democratic governance in our country has given us a basis to test the viability of theories, systems and structures which are germane to this issue.

There is no terminus Madame Speaker, where, as practitioners, we can sit back and proclaim that our democracy is finally developed to perfection. In human affairs there are always new issues to confront, new methods to apply and new insights to discover.

We are yet again at an exciting moment in the history of our country. The continuing mutation of our structures of governance and some of the initiatives which Government is undertaking, may bring about a profound change of course in the life of our nation.

Some of the elements which define this exciting moment are the fact that:

• A team of experts has just submitted to Cabinet, an audit report based on a reality- check of our inter-governmental structures, systems and processes.
• The Department of Provincial and Local Government has released a discussion document on the role, place, powers and functions of the institution of traditional leadership. The department is also finalising a report on challenges facing the Khoisan Comity.
• The process of redesigning municipal boundaries and transforming local governance is nearing completion.
• The road to local Government elections is now open. The necessary enabling legislation is either in place or nearing completion. We are confident that these elections will be held within the constitutionally projected timeframes.
• The Technical Committee, which was appointed to oversee the process of finalising the draft Bill on the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Cultural, Religious and Linguistic Communities, has completed its mandate and submitted its report on theh of June 2000. I would like to express our deep gratitude for a job well done by the Committee under the able Chairpersonship of Professor Cynthia Marivate.

In all these undertakings, we are driven by the conviction that the pathway to sustainable stability and prosperity is firmly anchored on the foundation we have built since 1994.

The year 1999 saw an increase in the tempo of local Government transformation. Consequently, we are now coming to the end of the negotiated phase of local Government transition. Our post-election vision of local democracy is one of a system of municipal governance, which will have the following features:

• We shall have six Metropolitan cities. These cities must be consolidated into a citadel of hope, with a distinct role to play on the world stage. Given our country's painful reality of the physical duality of extreme poverty and extreme wealth, there specific problems in the metropolitan areas, which must be understood as constituting challenges of governance. These are problems such as the intolerable levels of crime, the scourge of contagious diseases including the HIV/AIDS pandemic, overcrowding and unemployment. Those whom the electorate will entrust with the task of governing these metropolitan areas, must see these cities as sites of innovation. It goes without saying that our success in these metropolitan cities will immensely enhance the productive base of our country.
• The second feature will find expression in the 46 District Municipalities. These will function as strategic catalysts for integrated development throughout the non-metropolitan parts of our country. The challenge for Government, the private sector andvil society in its various dimensions, shall be to ensure that our developmental goals for these areas are attainable and sustainable. Meeting this challenge will mean that no place, not even a village whose name is not known to a single parliamentarian, will exist beyond the frontiers of our developmental endeavours.
• The third feature is represented by local municipalities. There shall be 232 of these. They constitute the bedrock upon which governance outside the metropolitan areas will be built. The goal of creating financially viable, economically sustainable anocially integrated municipal Government in South Africa will not materialise unless we invest in a programme of capacitating these entities.

The Municipal Demarcation Board has played a major part in the restructuring programme and it will continue to fine-tune the municipal boundaries. Now that the building blocks of the new system are in place, the Department of Provincial and Local Government will increasingly move to the forefront to lead the charge in ensuring that we:

• Enhance and deploy the requisite financial and administrative capacity,
  
• Share the best practices of municipal governance, and
  
• Properly target the development needs of our country.

An important part of this process is to bring into the main stream of governance for development elements of what is good from our heritage. Finding a meaningful role for the institution of traditional leadership in our democratic dispensation is an indispensable ingredient for stabilising governance in the rural areas. We are not raising this issue because we just want to look into our past with warm nostalgia. Rather we are raising it because, looking into the future, we see a definite role for traditional leaders in helping solve problems of poverty and landlessness. Working together with elected public representatives, traditional leaders can help create conditions for local economic development.

Decades of neglect for rural areas have left these areas without much-needed infrastructure, resources and management capacity to generate and sustain development. Since its inception, the Consolidated Municipal Infrastructure Programme has helped, not only to redress this imbalance, but also to reduce the backlogs generally.

Through CMIP the department has, with the assistance of provincial and local Government, completed 1787 projects benefiting well over 12 million people.

Originally the programme was skewed and biased in favour of urban areas. The change in this bias has resulted in a situation where today, 43% of CMIP funds are utilised in rural areas. The programme also had the positive impact in enhancing the quality of service delivery. To date, out of a total of R2.3 billion that has been made available to subsidise the delivery of services, an amount of R2.05 billion has already been committed to actual projects. 318 projects are currently under construction and 759 projects have already been completed. We must also ensure that this new infrastructure is secured against natural disasters such as cyclone Eline and Gloria.

Another mechanism, which we created in order to implement Government's overall poverty alleviation programme, is the Local Economic Development Fund. Through this, we want local communities to exercise a significant measure of control over their own economic life. They have to do so by designing and managing projects, which have a potential to contribute meaningfully towards growth.

The previously neglected areas are increasingly becoming the target of our development focus as a significant number of our LED projects are located in the rural areas as well as on the peripheries of affluent cities and towns. These activities are having the effect of tilting the balance further to the advantage of the poor. This will further add to the effort of creating sustainable communities. For it is the absence of local businesses that provide employment to local people, which deny rural councils of the fiscal base necessary for the maintenance of local infrastructure and social services.

Our programmes are more than just delivery programmes. They also have the objective of strengthening the local Government sphere. In the drive to deliver municipal infrastructure and to implement LED projects, certain management and technical deficiencies have come into conspicuous view. In addition, there are policy and institutional weaknesses, which have been detected and are being attended to.

Presently, the most optimistic figure suggests that 50% of municipalities in the country have Integrated Development Plans of varying qualities. The President's Co-ordinating Council, which brings together the President, the Ministry of Provincial and Local Government and the Premiers will facilitate the preliminary work of putting together IDPs on behalf of Category A and C municipalities that are to emerge after the forthcoming local Government election. In this we shall work together with the South African Local Government Association. The Ministry and department will also be looking at ways of ensuring minimum requisite capacity for municipalities so that these entities are placed in a position that will make it possible for them to fulfil their mandate.

As I said earlier, I have received the report from the Committee, which is overseeing the work of drafting the Bill on the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Cultural, Religious and Linguistic communities. I will soon be seeking Cabinet approval for the principles in the draft Bill as well as making recommendations on the handling of the Volkstaat Council Report. I intend to table this Bill in Parliament in July. I hope that the outcome of this process will help us to approach future challenges with mutual caring and tolerance for diversity, for these are essential foundations of the healthy societies we hope to create.

Madame Speaker, the rising importance of paying attention to the task of improving the quality of our governance system cannot be overemphasised. As parliamentarians, the esteemed representatives of our people, you are called upon to contribute your insights into the process.

The Department of Provincial and Local Government has had to restructure itself in order to be better prepared to respond to the needs of the times. The Director General, Mr Zam Titus and all members of staff deserve my expression of gratitude for co-operating with the Ministry in this regard. I welcome to the cause, the Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee, Mr Yunus Carrim and all the other members of the Committee. I thank them for their understanding and for always being available to act in pursuit of our shared agenda.

I look forward to seeing all of you at the cocktail party this evening.

I thank you