National Council of Provinces - 12 June 2008
THURSDAY, 12 JUNE 2008 __
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL COUNCIL OF PROVINCES
____
The Council met at 15:01.
The House Chairperson (Mrs M N Oliphant) took the Chair and requested members to observe a moment of silence for prayers or meditation.
ANNOUNCEMENTS, TABLINGS AND COMMITTEE REPORTS – see col 000.
NOTICE OF MOTION
Mr M A MZIZI: Chairperson, I hereby give notice that on the next sitting of the Council, I shall move on behalf of the IFP -
That the Council -
1) notes that –
a) two Johannesburg metro police officers were arrested in Rosebank
on Friday and
b) have allegedly been implicated in serious crimes;
2) further notes that –
a) these men were employed to protect us from crime and uphold the
laws of our country and
b) if they are found guilty of any criminal activities then they
must be dealt with in a manner befitting their crime and feel
the full wrath of the law; and
(3) congratulates the authorities who uncovered the illegal criminal activities of these metro policemen and hopes that the investigations and strategies to weed out the criminal elements from the SA Police Service are ongoing and successful in exposing and prosecuting the corrupt police officials.
SOLUTIONS TO HOUSE VICTIMS OF XENOPHOBIA
(Draft Resolution)
Mr V V Z WINDVOЁL: Chairperson, I hereby move without notice:
That the Council -
1) notes the report of a legal fight between the Western Cape
provincial government and the City of Cape Town over a High Court
Order to open up community halls to foreign nationals displaced by
last month’s xenophobic violence;
2) further acknowledges that while there is a need for a short-term
solution to redress the crisis that was fuelled by the displacement
of foreign nationals in certain parts of the country, provinces and
municipalities have to work together to find alternative sites that
are humane, and closer to communities rather than putting them far
away and closer to the sea, where ultimately the people, due to
frustration, threatened to commit suicide;
3) therefore calls on the leadership of both the province and the City
of Cape Town to work collectively and co-operatively within the
constitutional framework to find an amicable solution; and
4) lastly condemns those ring leaders within those refugee camps who
are instigating rebellion and resistance, leading to hunger strikes,
denying innocent women and children food to eat and also mobilising
other people to commit suicide and other unacceptable behaviour.
Motion agreed to in accordance with section 65 of the Constitution. WORLD ELDER ABUSE AWARENESS DAY
(Draft Resolution)
The CHIEF WHIP OF THE COUNCIL: Chairperson, I move without notice:
That the Council-
1) notes that Sunday 15 June 2008 marks “World Elder Abuse Awareness
Day”, which is intended to raise awareness around the growing
numbers of elderly people who are subjected to blatant abuse and
discrimination by their families and communities across the globe;
2) further notes a report by the Pretoria Care for the Aged, which says
that about 85% of abusers are family members or persons known to the
victims and that at least seven females to one male between 70 and
80 years are abused every month; and
3) therefore takes this opportunity to call on all the people of South
Africa to act against any abuse, discrimination and violation of the
dignity of elderly people in their households and communities.
Motion agreed to in accordance with section 65 of the Constitution. BEST WISHES TO COMRADES MARATHON RUNNERS
(Draft Resolution)
Mr A WATSON: Thank you, Madam Chair. The DA moves without notice:
That the Council-
1) wishes all the hundreds of Comrades well who will be running the
Comrades Marathon on Monday, 16 June 2008; and
2) hopes that they will all complete the marathon in good health and
that each will reach the heights that they aspire to.
Motion agreed to in accordance with section 65 of the Constitution.
WELCOMING CHILDREN AND TRADITIONAL LEADERS OF INKANDLA AND SURROUNDING AREAS AND UMHLATHUZE MAYOR
(Draft Resolution)
Mnu D D GAMEDE: Sihlalo, ngizophakamisa:
Ukuthi le Ndlu–
1) yamukele ukuvakashelwa yizingane zaseNkandla kanye namakhosi akhona
nezindawo ezakhelene neNkandla;
(2) ayibenze bezizwe bemukelekile kuhulumeni wabo bephelezelwa iMeya kaMasipala waseMhlathuze, iKhansela uZakhele Mnqayi. Ngiyophakamisa kanje. (Translation of isiZulu draft resolution follows.)
[Mr D D GAMEDE: Chairperson, I move without notice:
That the Council-
(1) welcomes the children and the traditional leaders of Nkandla
and the surrounding areas; and
(2) makes them feel welcome in their visit of their government in
the company of the uMhlathuze Municipal, Councillor Zakhele
Mnqayi.]
The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON (Mrs M N Oliphant): Thank you, hon member. [Interjections.]
Ngethemba ukuthi lokho kusho ukuthi niyasivumela lesi siphakamiso. Isiphakamiso samukelekile ngaphansi kwesigatshana 65 soMthethosisekelo. [I hope that indicates you agree with this motion. The motion is agreed to in terms section 65 of the Constitution.]
Motion agreed to in accordance with section 65 of the Constitution.
ARRIVAL OF NEW BABY
(Draft Resolution)
Mnu A WATSON: Sihlalo, ngiphakamisa:
Ukuthi le Ndlu ivume ukuthi sithumele ilungu lethu, UJuanita Terblanche, incwadi sicela ukuthi lo mntwana ogama lakhe u-Gustaf afike ngoMsombuluko ngoSuku Lwentsha abe ilungu elincane kunawo onke. (Translation of isiZulu draft resolution follows.)
[Mr A WATSON: Chairperson, I move without notice:
That the Council wishes the hon MP Juanita Terblanche well on the birth
of her son, Gustav, planned for Monday 16 June, on Youth Day, and so
becoming the youngest member of this Council.]
The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON (Mrs M N Oliphant): Siyabonga, mhlonishwa u-Watson. Ngabe ukhona ophikisana nesiphakamiso esibekwe uMnu u-Watson? Akekho ophikisayo ngakho-ke isiphakamiso kuyavunyelwana naso ngaphansi kwesigatshana 65 soMthethosisekelo. [Thank you, hon Watson. Is there anyone who disagrees with the motion raised by Mr Watson? No one? So this motion is agreed to in terms of section 65 of the Constitution.]
Motion agreed to in accordance with section 65 if the Constitution.
APPROPRIATION BILL
(Policy debate)
Vote No 17 – Sport and Recreation South Africa:
The DEPUTY MINISTER OF SPORT AND RECREATION: Hon Chairperson, hon members of this august House, before I start, please, allow me to put in an apology for our Minister of Sport and Recreation. Unfortunately, he was requested to chair a meeting that is taking place. As I speak, I think he is on board his flight to attend that meeting. He asked me to assure this august House of his appreciation for the hard work, and asked me to convey his apologies.
It is a great honour for me to address you in our fifth year in office, and, as is the norm, to give you a report card on our progress. With all report cards, we also need to address that part which says: “could do better”, and thus need to highlight the important areas that should be addressed by all South Africans going forward. I emphasise this as transformation cannot happen in a few isolated pockets of enlightenment, but it has to be done systematically at all levels of sport and recreation, and by all involved, in the best interests of our future generations of sports stars.
Transforming South Africa into a country that belongs to all who live in it, united in our diversity, remains our fundamental mandate. That is why we have the National Assembly and the NCOP, in order to ensure that all parts of our wonderful country are represented and are contributing to the transformation of our nation. We will recall those heady days post-1990, and particularly from 1991 onwards, when sport led the way in uniting the disparate federations. Since then we seem to have lost impetus and, more importantly, the ability to have a lasting impact.
One of the first challenges we faced upon taking up office was the restructuring of sport. In the report accepted by Cabinet, the establishment of what has become the SA Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee, Sascoc, was approved, together with the focus of our department on mass participation and the establishment of a national academy. Sascoc was established in November 2004 after the Athens Olympic and Paralympic Games and has faced many challenges in its infancy. As the organisation continues to develop, we are convinced that it would be faced with more challenges. In the process of restructuring, it has been clear that our progress has been severely hampered by the lack of a sports plan to guide our endeavours. We are addressing this as we are speaking. The social and economic value of sport lies at the heart of sport as a global phenomenon, and an integral component of modern society – some call it entertainment but it has become a global business.
In 1999, sport accounted for approximately two per cent of the gross domestic product in South Africa, contributing R795 million to our economy. Sport has delivered to nations socially and economically, but we need to leverage the impact of sport by guaranteeing the quality of the overall sport systems to manage, direct and align the entire sport system and to work collectively as government on all spheres and co-operative with the private sector towards common goals and objectives.
There is ample evidence to demonstrate that sport and recreation does make a difference to people’s lives as well as to the communities in which they live. For every unit of monetary investment there are multiple returns in terms of national, regional and local community development; community regeneration; health; disease prevention; psychological well-being; learning and productivity improvement; poverty alleviation; social policy areas, like women, youth at risk, marginalised youth and the aged; as well as employment opportunities.
Evidence highlights the positive impact of sport in relation to creating stronger communities, addressing issues of community safety, including a decline in antisocial behaviour, the propensity to commit crime and reduction in the fear of crime amongst the wider community. Sport and physical activity have gained recognition as a simple, low-cost and effective means of achieving development goals.
In its report, Sport for Development and Peace: Towards Achieving the Millennium Development Goals, the United Nations Inter-agency Task Force specifically concluded that, and I quote: “the fundamental elements of sport make it a viable and practical tool to support the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals.”
Sport offers potential benefits with regard to each of the Millennium Development Goals but is commonly linked to the eradication of poverty and extreme hunger; achieving universal primary education; promoting gender equality and empowering women; and combating HIV and Aids, malaria and other diseases.
To complement our sports plan, in a matter of months, we will deliver a facilities plan. On numerous occasions we have said that we need facilities in the right places to be able to transform our sport. I am confident that we will also achieve another fundamental aim, which is to regain the funding allocated to the Municipal Infrastructure Grant so that we can direct the provision for sporting facilities to the areas of need – that is to areas outside the metropoles in your provinces.
I said in the National Assembly, and I am saying it again here today, that we could not explain why Municipal Infrastructure Grant, MIG, funding is being used to upgrade Orlando Stadium when our rural citizens are crying out for basics. I want to repeat: They are crying out for basic multipurpose sporting facilities. Our clear motivation is based on the fact that, during a four-year period starting in 2001-02, when Sport and Recreation South Africa received funds for the Building for Sport and Recreation Programme, we built 363 basic sporting and recreational facilities where they were most needed.
Since 2004 to date, as part of the Municipal Infrastructure Grant funding, only 45 facilities have been built, mostly in the metropoles of our country. To this end, a Cabinet memorandum to have the Building for Sport and Recreation Programme restored to us has been discussed within the DG’s clusters, and we anticipate some resistance from certain quarters. Having said that, we have a deadline to achieve this, which is 25 July this year; and we are working hard to do so. We are also confident that we would succeed with our aim in this regard.
For us, transformation, increasing participation, improving health through exercise, and providing facilities are integrally intertwined. We know that there are municipalities which receive less than R10million for their whole MIG allocation to cover sanitation, eradicate the bucket system, build health and education facilities, and so on. Therefore, it is extremely difficult for them to prioritise sporting and recreational facilities. Yet it is those areas which are our priority.
We know there is so much talent in the rural and peri-urban areas. You hon members also know that. The Minister and I have travelled in your provinces and have seen this with our own eyes, but the federations are not able to get there. We have seen the talent there. So it is incumbent on our department to assist. Like you, we recognise that sport in our schools is fundamentally important and we have, as recently as last week, met our colleagues in the Department of Education to address areas of perceived weakness in the implementation of the framework on collaboration signed in March 2005. Therefore, it is critical that the nurturing of sports and other talent is supported in every way possible in future.
Following confirmation from the two Ministers, we will report to you in detail. But we are continuing to push for an increase in the amount of time allocated to physical education and sport within the context of a full curriculum, which is presently restricted by a school day that starts at 08h00 and stops at 14h00. Despite this, I wish to record our thanks and gratitude to our colleagues in the Department of Education, for their commitment to this aim within the constraints in which they operate.
We have also started to explore other areas in which we can co-operate to ensure that we expand the opportunities for our children to participate. This is a welcome development. We hope that during this financial year, we will jointly be making some exciting announcements about the progress that we have made. Promoting physical education and sport in school is important for life-long participation. People who exercise regularly in their youth are more likely to continue to exercise in later years. Research that has been done in the United Kingdom since 2002 also indicates that specialist sports schools as well as those focusing on physical education and sport have shown improved academic results and reported reductions in truancy – this is why we are so committed to ensure that physical education and sport become stand-alone subjects in schools.
There could be no question that physical education is the competence of our sister department. However, we can and will assist. To this end, we have already committed to making all teaching materials for physical education that we have on our books available to the Department of Education. It is important that, in bringing physical education back into the curriculum, we ensure a quality experience for our children. We need to ensure that our educators are able to help children develop their motor learning skills and their basic fitness, which is a good foundation technique and is critical to the child’s future development.
Once the learner is identified as having talent, through collaboration with our national federations, we need to place them with provincial academies and develop that talent. We need to do this in close co-operation with the Department of Education, the national federations, and our tertiary institutions which hold the expert knowledge of sports science and medicine.
In the spirit of the 2010 Fifa World Cup, we launched the South African Schools Soccer World Cup, together with the Department of Education, and in partnership with the SA Broadcasting Corporation and the Fifa 2010 World Cup Organising Committee.
This tournament for under-14 and under-18 boys and girls will mobilise our communities from now until the 2010 Fifa World Cup. This project will be linked with other 2010 legacy projects such as the Supersport one million ball project for schools which, in addition to the training of volunteers, will, we are convinced, contribute to a lasting legacy.
We are clear: Educators must run sport in schools. We will continue to encourage the national federations to take responsibility for sport in schools in conjunction with the committees of educators who bring so much experience and energy to our federations. We need a seamless process to ensure that our children and youth get the full benefit of sport for competition and recreational purposes without having to understand who controls what aspect of sport.
However, the Minister and I have both been fortunate to identify talent during our forays into the rural areas; talent which has not come to the notice of the federations. We alluded to that earlier on. We are therefore pushing our department very hard to establish a club that will take such athletes into the system to be developed and handed over to the federations, which are important partners in the process of ensuring that we leave no stone unturned in our continuing search for success.
We have agreed that the best way forward towards a national academy is for us to use the expertise and decentralise the services provided to our elite and subelite athletes where they live and train. Thus we have brought on stream all our tertiary institutions with the 19 identified priority sporting codes.
After the Olympic and Paralympic Games this year, we will review with Sascoc the criteria for what should be seen as a “priority sport”, include government priorities as part of the criteria, and consider the performances of the federations not only in terms of on the field but also in the boardrooms.
Accountability at all levels is important. In this process we believe that we need to expand the services offered to athletes in the short term. These will include insurance, career development, and life skills advice. Too often an athlete gets injured and is unable to compete and consistently earn a living from the sport. When he or she does earn a living, we need to ensure that they are also able to continue their training to be able to perform at an optimal level through leveraging appropriate job and study opportunities for them.
There have been many stories, particularly, of successful Kenyan runners who made their fortunes but were not able to keep them, and we hope that life skills support will guide our athletes better in this regard.
Among our other international commitments this year are the Commonwealth Youth Games and the Supreme Council of Sport in Africa Zone VI under-20 Youth Games, which South Africa will be hosting in Tlokwe, Potchefstroom, from 7 to 17 October 2008, in the wonderful province of North West. These developmental games in seven sporting codes - athletics, which will include track events for the visually impaired; swimming; basketball; boxing; soccer; netball; and tennis - will attract the best under-20 athletes in our country to compete against our Southern African Development Community neighbours. The mark of these games will be top class competition, cultural exchange, and social cohesion contributing to the New Partnership for Africa’s Development, Nepad, in a very real way. We hope that these games will add to other efforts to establish friendships across the borders and help fight xenophobia in our country and elsewhere on the continent.
I would like to thank our colleagues from the Ministry of Defence for their assistance in accommodating the teams at their installation in Tlokwe, the Tlokwe Municipality, the North West Province, and the University of the North West’s Potchefstroom Campus for their support in this endeavour which, I can assure you, will be a great success.
This is an excellent example of one of our up and coming towns enjoying the benefits of sports tourism. When we talk about a legacy for 2010, people will appreciate that legacy is not just about mega sporting events but also about regional and local events. It is also not just about building facilities and upgrading, roads but it is also about the soft side of a legacy – the positive impact on the people, the national pride demonstrated by the volunteers who will remember the experience for the rest of their lives, the residents of Tlokwe experiencing of the cultures of SADC, and the benefit for our children by learning to appreciate and support diversity.
South African Tourism tells us that in 2006 approximately 1,6% of all foreign arrivals were to participate in or observe sporting events hosted in our country. This translates into 130 000 visitors out of the 8,4 million who came to South Africa in 2006. In 2007, 10% of GDP was generated through tourism globally and this is estimated to triple by 2020. It is important that South Africa increases its share of this market. Internationally, in 2006, just over half of all international tourist arrivals were motivated by leisure, recreation and holidays – a total of 430 million. We as South Africans need to tap into this market and reap the benefits of sports tourism for South Africa. Germany, in 2005, earned US$29,2 billion from tourism.
In 2006, this increased to US$32,8 billion – a large portion of this as a result of hosting the 2006 Fifa World Cup. Already, tourism contributes seven per cent to our GDP and working together, we can expand this by bringing more sporting events to our country. For example, the 1995 Rugby World Cup generated direct expenditure of R300 million and indirect expenditure of up to R500 million. This is the reality of sports tourism that must be co-ordinated and guided for the benefit of our citizens.
Staging major sporting events is a catalyst for inward investment and it is stimulating economic regeneration in regions and cities, as Barcelona did for the 1992 Olympic and Paralympic Games and as London is doing in its Docklands in preparation for 2012.
A greater understanding of the broader economic benefits has led to increased competition for staging major events. Hosting the Triathlon World Cup in Richards Bay in KwaZulu-Natal has done wonders for the reputation of Richards Bay, for the province and for South Africa in the world of international sport.
Limpopo has an excellent shooting range, and we should again investigate hosting a great world event there. We are looking to develop a strategy to host international and continental events to bring the benefits to our country and to ensure decentralisation to our smaller towns wherever possible. Can you imagine if we were able to host a Formula One event similar to the Monaco Grand Prix, how many people around the world would be able to view the beauty of the host city and the host country via television? For free. There would be many spin-offs, and not just of cars, for South Africa should we host such major international events, and we trust that our strategy will address this.
When we talk about sports tourism and hosting international events, we have to talk about the 2010 Fifa World Cup Tournament. Yesterday marked exactly two years from the start of the 2010 Fifa World Cup finals, leaving the country with only 24 months to get ready for the experience of a lifetime and to host the best World Cup ever. The fact that Fifa agrees with us when we say South Africa is ready to host a memorable World Cup in 2010, should be and is by now well known and common knowledge.
While the delays in stadia construction have been identified and are being managed accordingly, the issue of cost escalations continues to be a problem, which we are closely monitoring and managing. I must report that an intervention team from the Department of Public Works has assisted in looking at ways of managing the cost escalations, as well as strengthening capacity at host cities in so far as project management is concerned. In terms of transport, the national Department of Transport is assisting the host cities with technical support to ensure that the transport operational plan is submitted to Fifa by the end of this month, June 2008. We have no doubt that we will also succeed here.
Our electricity challenges are documented. Equally, our efforts towards minimising the impact of power cuts, for example through procurement of generators, are well-known. While Eskom has guaranteed that the stadia construction projects and the tournament will be protected from power outages, our electrical-technical working group comprising different host cities, the Department of Minerals and Energy, and the National Energy Regulator of South Africa, Nersa has been established. This working group is looking at technical aspects of events specific to stadia power requirements.
As part of government’s efforts to open business opportunities to our people, the Department of Trade and Industry has commenced with provincial business opportunities road shows. These road shows have already been held in Mpumalanga, the Free State, and the Eastern Cape. In terms of legacy, Chairperson, the Local Organising Committee and the departments, as well as other spheres of government, are in full gear in implementing legacy projects. These projects include positioning our people to benefit in trade, tourism and management opportunities.
We have alluded to schools and communities that are going to be mobilised to build a firm support base for this tournament. We have already launched the Schools Cup on 10 May 2008, involving as many young people as possible and creating hype for around 2010.
As we report on this aspect of work, we cannot leave out the work done by the 2010 unit in our department, and in that regard to pay tribute to and thank Dr Joe Phaahla, who asked to be relieved of his duties to follow a chosen career in business and politics. To this end, we wish him well and also thank him for what he has done up to now as director-general in our department.
Chair, I need your guidance. I understood that I had more time but this shows that my time is up. I need another three minutes. Thank you.
We also need to thank our colleagues in the provinces for working to expand our mass participation programmes in our everyday lives. We are too often driven by meeting numerical targets, but we also need to address the quality of our programmes and measure our success creatively, perhaps by taking people’s resting heart rates and after an activity over a period of times, so that progress can be seen not only by the participant but by our sister department as well. They will, I am convinced, come back for more regular exercise. We, together with the national federations and the provinces, will increase the number of wards in which we work from 36 hubs or wards in 2004 to 451 in this current financial year.
We will as a result also increase the number of people involved. We will need to track the increase as a measure of our success together with the improved health of our citizens. There are numerous synergies that we need to bring to bear by working with our international partners through our international agreements, our NGOs, our federations, and those who just go out and make it happen. We also need your assistance in monitoring the progress we make in the wards, and we welcome your advice and guidance in this important area.
A very interesting study done last year on the impact of our Mass Participation Programme, MPP, showed that 12,4% of the co-ordinators obtained permanent employment outside the Mass Participation Programme, and 58,5% viewed themselves as more employable as a result of the experience they gained by working with us. If we all play our part in the creation of this active and winning nation that we want, we can achieve more, including creating more jobs.
Another partnership which we rightly need to recognise is that with the sponsors. There are some who work at the top end of sport where the return on investment is publicity, exposure and sales. There are many who work at the development end and their return on investment is employee satisfaction when they get involved in development projects, and spreading the name of the sponsor in all communities, which ultimately raises the profile and sales of that sponsor.
Whatever the reason for sponsorship, we are thankful that so many in the private sector publicly and privately support sport. We hope that many more will see the benefits of sport and get involved; not only by giving money but also by providing expertise.
We need to expand our horizons and see the possibilities of an airline company partnering a sport because the research on aerodynamics could well be applied to cycling or perhaps sailing.
Some companies can – and unfortunately should – assist in guiding our federations in improving their corporate governance. Others can provide accounting services and the list goes on. As our President said, this year is marked by the need to make “Business Unusual” and the creativity of the private sector combined with sport is an exciting prospect.
As you will be aware, we were able to pass legislation in the form of the National Sport and Recreation Amendment Act last year. This has already brought some sanity to our sports system and has been tested. Recently, the Minister was able to apply it in respect of the SA Football Association by bringing in a foreign coach, and we wish Mr Joel Santana well in guiding our national asset to 2010. We also hope that he will leave a definitive legacy by mentoring some of our younger coaches.
We have federations at all levels working with SA Sports Confederation and Olympic Committees, Sascoc, to resolve SA Sports Confederation and Olympic Committees, their disputes internally without recourse to the courts. We still need to encourage federations to ensure that their constitutions comply with disputes being referred to Sascoc and our department, rather than to the international federation or, worse, to the Court of Arbitration for Sport. This piece of legislation is long overdue and must be applied not only in spirit but in terms of the letter of the law.
Many federations speak about autonomy. The amending Act makes it clear that there is no autonomy without responsibility and accountability. As a nation, we must ensure good governance and that we achieve our nation’s priorities together.
I have outlined some of our successes achieved and the challenges faced by us. We still have to meet many challenges. With the guidance of the Minister of Sport and Recreation, Mr Stofile, and with the support of our department and colleagues in the NCOP, I am looking forward to overcoming these challenges.
In closing, we remember the pinnacle of our success last year and that was undoubtedly regaining the William Webb Ellis Trophy in rugby. I sincerely hope that our Olympic and Paralympic teams which have now been announced will emulate their successes of 2004 – beating the hosts on their home ground will make the medal more of an achievement for South Africa. To those who are going out to represent our nation, they must do so with pride, dignity and in the spirit of ubuntu. In doing so, I urge our federations and sporting heroes and heroines not to let the opportunity slip through our fingers and, once again, to instil in our national psyche the ongoing contribution we must make to social cohesion and thus to contribute to our motto of: Striving to create an active and winning nation.
I thank you for your kind attention. [Applause.]
The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON (Mrs M N Oliphant): Thank you, hon Deputy Minister. Hon members, I have given the Deputy Minister some extra time so that members can get the information on what the department is doing. I believe it will also assist those members who are going to participate in the debate.
Ms H LAMOELA: Chairperson, Deputy Minister, colleagues and special delegates.
In die afwesigheid van die agb Minister bring ek vandag groete en ’n groot dankie aan die mense wat van ver kom - en hy sal weet na wie ek verwys – naamlik die mense wat van Humansdorp in die Oos-Kaap kom. Hulle sê u betrokkenheid by hul sportuitdagings word intens waardeer. (Translation of Afrikaans paragraph follows.)
[In the absence of the hon Minister I would like to thank and extend a warm welcome to the people who have come from far – and he would know to whom I am referring – namely the people who came from Humansdorp in the Eastern Cape. They say your involvement in their sporting challenges is highly appreciated.]
As we are assembled here today, plus-minus two years away from the 2010 Fifa Soccer World Cup Tournament, work on stadia construction is going on in the various host cities. Challenges that were delaying progress in some places seem to be something of the past. I would like to congratulate all those host cities whose work is ahead of schedule, in particular the City of Cape Town under the leadership of the dynamic hon Mayor Helen Zille, one of the women leaders that this country continues to produce. [Interjections.] She is following in the footsteps of great leaders such as Helen Suzman, Dr Mamphela Ramphele, and many more - it would take me a day to exhaust the list. For those host cities whose work is behind schedule, we wish you recovery and hope you are able to complete on time. This will only do South Africans proud, because each city’s success is the success of all of us.
The DA also congratulates Bafana Bafana on redeeming themselves, after a loss against Nigeria, by beating Equatorial Guinea 4 to 1. The Bokke also won their encounter and this is making South Africa proud. Tennis needs a big revival, because they seem to have gone to the graveyard for a nap.
Great nations emerge from sport and education and South Africa must not be an exception. The best way to build competitive nations in sport is to establish sport academies that will develop and nurture the talents of our children so that they have a chance to become world champions. This is our last Budget Vote before the 2009, elections and one is not sure whether one is going to return, not just to this department, but to Parliament. [Interjections.] I hope when you return, the new President will consider appointing you in this portfolio to finish what you plan to do - I think you must first listen to what I want to say - as you performed extremely well, not only in your portfolio, but also in human relations. You have acknowledged that quotas is not the way to transform sport in South Africa, but one would want to see what concrete plans you put in place to redress the imbalances of the past without putting more hope on the various sport federations.
One hon member in this Parliament keeps on counting heads without due regard for all the basics you require. If hockey is represented by mainly white athletes, it means that it is incumbent upon the department to build infrastructures in the previously disadvantaged areas to provide access for those who were denied access in the past. Are you considering establishing recreational facilities for the elderly in rural areas so that they could become participants in activities that would ensure continued good health for them? Bowling is one form of activity that is well suited for the elderly.
During our last interaction with you, Minister, there was a good indication of your willingness to do more in terms of the provision of facilities, despite the small budget that is normally allocated to your department. I hope Treasury will listen carefully to your request this time around. We know the demands that this department is facing, yet the implementation of a memorandum of understanding between Education and Sport must be introduced for the upliftment of our children.
Thanks for helping Oscar Pistorius in his quest to compete with able-bodied athletes. We hope he will take the chance and opportunity that has availed itself during the forthcoming Olympic Games. Boxing SA must put its house in order to ensure that the boxers, board and promoters are driving the sport in the right direction. We wish the new board good luck in its endeavour to put its house in order. It is time that sport is allocated sufficient funds, because its operations cut across all departments.
Hon Minister, in your absence I once again want to thank you for taking the time to listen to those enthusiastic sports lovers of the Eastern Cape and want to assure you that the legacy of your involvement in their lives will live on forever. I thank you. [Applause.]
Mr B J TOLO: Chairperson, hon Deputy Minister, special delegates and hon members, the stated mission of Sport and Recreation South Africa is to improve the quality of lives of all South Africans by creating an environment conducive to maximising access to participation in sports and recreation, as well as hosting and participating in world-class events. Our task as a select committee is to check how far the department has gone in realising its noble mission in the past four years or so, or during the Third Parliament of our country. My colleagues and I will therefore highlight the milestones as well as the challenges we think the department faced since 2004 to date.
In the years under review, Sport and Recreation South Africa underwent a complete metamorphosis. It disestablished the SA Sports Commission and incorporated its functions into the department. This meant the establishment of a new organogram and the redeployment of officials. The process led to a lot of instability in the department as everybody, from top to bottom, became active in the process. Inevitably, the situation has not affected the realisation of the department’s mission in a positive manner. We as a committee were very vociferous in urging the department to move with speed to complete its reorganisation process. We can report to this House today that stability has once again returned to the department and that it is now poised to deliver, as it does, on its mandate.
A prerequisite to creating an environment that broadens access to participation in sports is, inevitably, adequate sporting facilities, especially in rural and previously disadvantaged communities. It is our considered view that most of these areas in our country are still without sporting facilities and therefore a better life through sport will remain a mirage.
We are not insinuating that nothing is happening in terms of building sporting facilities. We are merely saying that we still have a mountain to climb. In the last four years, we, as the committee, visited most of the provinces for oversight. We have seen how young people are participating in different sporting codes in the different hubs. Initially, there were many problems like a shortage of equipment, hub co-ordinators not getting their stipends on time, etc. Today, we can confirm that this programme is becoming bigger and bigger and the capacity to run it is also improving. This is due to the increased transfers that Sport and Recreation South Africa gives to the provinces for this programme. Through building sports programmes, Sport and Recreation South Africa was able to deliver sporting facilities in some areas of our country. As the Deputy Minister has already indicated, from 2001 to 2004, the programme was able to deliver 364 facilities and, unfortunately, this programme was discontinued in 2005 and the money for building sporting facilities was incorporated into the Municipal Infrastructure Grant. It was envisaged that municipalities should now build sports fields. It was not to be, as municipalities used the money for other pressing needs.
One of the Polokwane resolutions is that the budget for sporting facilities should be delinked from the Municipal Infrastructure Grant. If implemented, this resolution will enable Sport and Recreation South Africa to once again embark on building our sporting facilities. In this way the department will quickly realise its mission of bettering the lives of our people through participation in sport. In the period under review Sport and Recreation South Africa signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Department of Education on their shared responsibilities of sport in schools. We as a committee can report to this House today that Sport and Recreation South Africa has honoured its part of the Memorandum of Understanding.
There is an abnormal situation in our country. We have a situation where we have different emblems for different sporting codes. We know that this is a sensitive matter, but it is high time that we reach a consensus on one national emblem for our country. We think that a process needs to be started now.
Only yesterday we got a thorough briefing from the department about our readiness as a country to host the Fifa World Cup and the Confederations Cup next year. Hon members will remember that preparations for the Fifa World Cup started some time ago. This House passed two Special Measures Bills which were in the main guarantees for Fifa to hold its World Cup event in South Africa.
Listening to the officials from the department yesterday, we are convinced that we will deliver the best World Cup ever. All departments that have a role to play seem to be on top of the situation. Although all the stadia are behind schedule in terms of construction we are assured that they will be ready for both events, the Confederations Cup in 2009 and the Fifa World Cup in 2010. The only worrying factor, as the Deputy Minister has indicated, in this regard is the escalation of costs for the building of stadia. This has been unforeseen and it is due to the high prices of petrol and diesel. Just the other day, I learned in the news that the Airports Company South Africa, ACSA, will suspend some of its planned upgrading of some airports due to the high cost of borrowing money. This is a worrying factor.
The recent events of xenophobia, which we condemn in no uncertain terms, have obviously dented the image of our country, internationally and especially in Africa. Some people in Africa are obviously asking themselves the question as to how genuine we are when we say that this is not a going to be a South African World Cup but an African World Cup. So far the government has done well in communicating to the world that these unfortunate events are not representative of the views of the vast majority of our country’s people. Between now and the Confederations Cup and the Fifa World Cup, we as a country need to make a concerted effort to show the world, and especially Africa, that we are people of goodwill and will do everything in our power to let everybody feel at home during these two events.
The 48 million of us must say, as our President, Comrade Thabo Mbeki said, and I quote:
We want, on behalf of our continent, to stage an event that will send ripples of confidence from Cape to Cairo - an event that will create social and economic opportunities throughout Africa. We want to ensure that one day, historians will reflect upon the 2010 Fifa World Cup as a moment when Africa stood tall and resolutely turned the tide on centuries of poverty and conflict. We want to show that Africa’s time has come.
These wise words must not just be recited as if we were parrots. We must live them; we must internalize them; and we must work towards its realisation as a nation. We regret the departure of Perreira, the then coach of Bafana Bafana. He left at a time when we thought he had found a winning combination for the national squad. We welcome Joel Santana, the new coach, and wish him well in his endeavour to prepare the team for the Confederations Cup as a dress rehearsal for the Fifa World Cup.
In a few months time, we will send our Olympic and Paralympic teams to China to represent us in these prestigious games. We have no doubt that these teams will do us proud as they did in the past. We therefore wish them well.
In conclusion, we want to reiterate that sport and recreation is an important tool for nation-building. It is an important tool to build a healthy and productive nation. Sport and Recreation South Africa deserves more money if it is to deliver on its mission. It is said: “Mens sana in corpore sano”, a healthy mind in a healthy body.
We support the Budget Vote of the department. [Applause.]
Nk N M MADLALA-MAGUBANE: Ngiyabonga Sihlalo, ngizothanda ukubingelela iPhini likaNgqongqoshe, ngibingelele ihhovisi ahamba nalo liholwa inhloko yehhovisi, ngibingelele abahlonishwa. (Translation of isiZulu paragraph follows.)
[Ms N M MADLALA-MAGUBANE: Thank you, Chairperson. I greet the Deputy Minister, officials from the department that are accompanying him led by the head of the office as well as hon members.]
The Department of Sport and Recreation is trying hard to transform South Africa into a country that belongs to all, united in its diversity. It is dedicated to co-operate, with all provinces and municipalities in the country.
Sihlalo mangisho ngithi kukho konke lokhu kuzimisela kwalo Mnyango nokuzikhandla kwawo, isabelomali kasigculisi neze uma usiqhathanisa nesabelomali sika 2007-08 kanye nesika 2008-09. Lesi sabelomali sehle ngamaphesenti angama-31. Kusho ukuthi sehle ngo R1,6 billion, sikhinyabezwa yimidlalo ezayo yeFiFa Yendebe Yomhlaba ka 2010. Ngizogxila kwezinye izinhlelo zalo Mnyango. Okokuqala ngizoxoxa ngeqhaza labesifazane kwezemidlalo. (Translation of isiZulu paragraph follows.)
[Chairperson, I must say that despite all the hard work done by this department, the budget allocation is not satisfactory when you compare the allocation of 2007-08 to that of 2008-09. This budget allocation has dropped by 31%, which means that it has dropped by R1,6 billion, and this is so as a result of the forthcoming 2010 Fifa World Cup Tournament. I will focus more on other programmes of this department. I will firstly talk about the Women in Sport project.] This project is aimed at addressing the gender imbalances in sport and recreation, at the level of both participation and administration. The department is not doing enough because males are still dominating, especially at administrative level.
Noma kunjalo ngithanda ukuhalalisela uMnyango ngokuba nowesimame ohola lo Mnyango. Ngiyabonga Phini likaNgqongqoshe. Mangisho ukuthi akucacile kahle hle ukuthi lo Mnyango uphokophele kuphi ngohlelo lokuthuthukisa amantombazanyana kwezemidlalo. Akuzwakali kahle ngezidingo kanye nokuqeqeshwa kwamantombazanyana asakhula.
Engibona ukuthi kubalulekile kanti futhi kunesidingo, kubukeka sengathi uMnyango ugxila kakhulu emidlalweni yabesimame kanye ngonyaka, ngenyanga ka- Agasti. Phakathi konyaka akuzwakali lutho. UMnyango uthule ngemidlalo yabesimame. Siyakuthakasela ukubona isibalo sanda emidlalweni efana nebhola likanobhutshuzwayo elidlalwa yiBanyana Banyana, ezesibhakela, ibhola lombhoxo kanye nalo ikhilikithi.
Nakhu okunye engithanda ukukuphawula, izaguga ikakhulukazi ezingomama azinakekelwe kahle kwezemidlalo. Uma usubuka, singathola ukuthi kusafana nesikhathi sobandlululo lapho izalukazi zabamhlophe kwakuyizo ezazinakekelwe kwezemidlalo. Kwimidlalo efana ne-bowling, nanamhlanje kubukeka sengathi kusenjalo.
Izalukazi emalokishini azinazo izinkundla ezifana nalezi. Emalokishini izalukazi zisahleli phansi aziqeqeshiwe ngokushukumisa umzimba kanti futhi azikhuthazwa. Noma-ke izinkundla zingekho, izaguga mazikhuthazwe ukuthi zishukumise imizimba ngandlela thize.
Izaguga mazikhuthazwe ukuthi zihambe amabanga amade mhlawumbe zibe ngabasubathi bakuleli. Ngaleyo ndlela-ke zizonciphisa izifo ezibhidlangile emphakathini, izifo ezifana nezokuphakama kwegazi kanye nesifo sikashukela. Izibhedlela zethu zingaba nomthwalo olula kakhulu.
Ngizothanda ukungena kwezemidlalo yendabuko. Mangisho ukuthi uMnyango awugxilile ngokwanele kule midlalo. Izifundazwe azikhuthazwe ukuthi zigxile ngokwanele kule midlalo, ikakhulukazi emaphandleni lapho izin kundla zokudlalela zingekho nhlobo.
Kanti-ke futhi nayo intsha kubalulekile ukuthi iyazi le midlalo. Mazibuye emasisweni. Uma singaqinisa ukukhuthaza intsha ngale midlalo, kunesiqiniseko sokuthi sizonciphisa izidakamizwa, utshwala kanye nokunye emphakathini. Intsha yethu ingondingasithebeni noma ihlala phambi komabonakude kuze kuyovalwa. (Translation of isiZulu paragraphs follows.)
[Despite these shortcomings, I would like to congratulate the department for having a woman as the head of the department. Thank you, Deputy Minister. I must also say that it is not clear what the department is doing in terms of empowering young girls in sport. There seems to be virtually nothing in place for young girls in terms of their needs and training.
I view this as an important matter, and it looks like the department focuses on women’s sports only once a year, in August. Before and after that, nothing is said about women’s sport. We are happy to see the number of women increasing in sports like soccer as played by Banyana Banyana, boxing, rugby as well as cricket.
There is something else that I would like to comment on, and that is that the aged, especially the grandmothers, are not taken care of in terms of sport. When we closely look at the situation, we can see that things are still the same as during apartheid where white elderly women were the ones who were taken care of in sports like bowling, and even today it still looks like things are pretty much the same.
The elderly women in the townships do not have sports grounds that look like that of their white counterparts. Elderly women in the townships are still not doing anything, they are not trained and encouraged to exercise. Even though there are no sports grounds, the elderly must be encouraged to exercise in some way.
The elderly must be encouraged to walk long distances, and, who knows, they may even become this country’s athletes. In this way, we will be able to minimise the diseases that plague the communities – diseases like high blood pressure and sugar diabetes – and lessen the load on our hospitals.
I would like to divert my focus to indigenous games. I must say that the department does not seem be doing enough about indigenous games. Provinces should be encouraged to focus on these games, especially in the rural areas where there are no sports grounds at all.
It is also equally important for the youth in rural areas to know these games. Let’s go back to our roots. If we could encourage the youth to take sports seriously, I am sure that we would be able to fight drug abuse, alcohol abuse as well as other plagues in the communities. Our youth are either loafing around or watching television all day long.]
Modulasetulo ke se ke batla ho kgutlela Sesothong, ka hore dipapadi tse tshwanang le kgati le diketo, morabaraba, dibeke le molamu di a hlokahala ka hare ho setjhaba sa rona. Ha re tshepeng hore lefapha lena la Dipapadi le Boithapollo le tla kgothatsa diprofense kaofela ka dipapadi tsena. (Translation of Sesotho paragraph follows.)
[Chairperson, now I would like to go back to Sesotho by saying that games such as kgati [skipping], diketo [game played with stones small stones], morabaraba [African board game], dibeke [African dodge-ball] and stick fighting are necessary in our communities. Let’s hope that the Department of Sport and Recreation will encourage all the provinces to bring back these games.]
Sihlalo ngifisa sengathi singafana nezinye izizwe ezidlala imidlalo yazo yendabuko njengesizwe samaShayina sona esingakhohlwa imidlalo yaso. Ngisho sebekhulile bayaqhubeka nokushukumisa imizimba. Uma sengigoqa inkulumo yami, ngithanda ukuphawula ukuthi kusenemidlalo yabathile emphakathini engafinyelelwa yinoma ubani kepha eyezigwili kuphela, njengomdlalo wegalofu. Wona ungowezigwili kuphela. UMnyango awuke ucubungulisise lokhu ngoba siyafuna ukuthi izingane zethu zifinyelele kulo mdlalo wegalofu. Ngiyabonga Sihlalo. [Ihlombe.] (Translation of isiZulu paragraphs follows.)
[Chairperson, I wish that we could be like other nations who play their indigenous games without letting up, for example the Chinese do not stop practising their indigenous games. Even when they are old, they continue exercising.
In conclusion, I would like to comment on the fact that there are still sports, like golf that are still exclusively for a specific group of people who are rich, which exclude almost everyone in our communities. Golf is only for the rich. The department needs to review this matter, because we want our kids to also have access to this game of golf. Thank you, Chairperson. [Applause.]]
Mrs J N VILAKAZI: Chairperson, hon Deputy Minister, and hon members, the mission of Sport and Recreation SA is to improve the quality of life of all South Africans by creating an environment conducive to maximising access to participation in sport and recreation, as well as hosting and participating in world-class events. This mission must be realised if this department is to play a meaningful role in improving the lives of millions of South Africans.
We are currently celebrating Youth Month in South Africa and Youth Day will be celebrated on 16 June. I therefore feel that it is important for me to focus on the positive role that sport can play in improving the lives of our many young people. The violence in our schools, as well as the criminal behaviour, and unemployment levels are just some of the many problems that our young people have to overcome.
It is a sad sight to see our young people sitting around and doing nothing or just wandering around aimlessly on weekends or after school. They need stimulation. I believe that if our youth had an outlet for all their energy and creativity, then they would not be tempted into a life of crime and violence.
By providing increased access to sporting facilities and to participation in sport, this department will be saving the lives of millions of young people. Our next soccer, rugby or netball star might be waiting to be discovered in these unfancied areas with little or no access to sport. We, in the IFP, therefore, urge the Minister, together with other governmental departments and stakeholders, to find ways of increasing access to sporting facilities in schools and to encourage our young people to take part in sport.
Sihlalo ohloniphekileyo, i-IFP iyasemukela lesi sabelomali kodwa nakhu okusikhathazayo; kukhona ukukhathazeka emphakathini ngentsha yethu engasebenzi, futhi engafundi, ukuthi ngabe izosizakala kanjani yona kulesi sabelomali. Kunesidingo esikhulu sokuthi le ntsha iqoqwe ifundiswe ezemidlalo, ilolongwe impela ukuthi ibambe iqhaza emidlalweni ka 2010.
Kukhona intsha yethu engafundi mhlawumbe ngalezi zizathu; Esokuqala, imali ayikho yokuqhubeka nemfundo; imifundaze ayitholakali; kumbe yona ayiqedanga kahle umatikuletsheni kanye nokunye. Okwesibili, imisebenzi ayikho intsha yethu eningi uyithola ihamba imishungu emibi egcina isigebenga abantu, iphuza utshwala, ibhema nezidakamizwa.
Ukuzihlanganisa nezemidlalo kungenza impilo yabo neyomphakathi ibe ngcono. Isigcino kungaba yimpumelelo kuwo wonke umuntu. Yiwo lo Mnyango kaNgqongqoshe obalulekile ekufezeni lezi zidingo esengizibalile. (Translation of isiZulu paragraphs follows.)
[Hon Chairperson, the IFP supports the Budget Vote but we are concerned about a few matters. There is a concern in the community about how youth who are not working or studying will benefit from this Budget. There is a great need to gather these young people, to teach them about sports and to train them thoroughly so that they can participate in the 2010 Fifa World Cup.
Firstly, there are our young people who are not studying maybe because of certain reasons. Maybe there is no money to further their studies, bursaries are inaccessible, they did not complete their matric well, and so on. Secondly, there are no job opportunities, hence you find most of our youth travelling in large groups robbing people, drinking alcohol and smoking drugs.
Participation in sport and recreation can better their lives as well as those of the community. In the end this can be a benefit to everybody. And it is the Minister’s department that needs to play a vital role in the accomplishment of all these things as I have mentioned them.]
It is important that this department plays its part in uplifting the lives of our many young people, especially now during Youth Month. The IFP supports this Budget Vote. Thank you.
Mr S MKHIZE (Gauteng): Chairperson, hon Deputy Ministers, hon members, ladies and gentlemen, good afternoon. Firstly, I must apologise for the MEC for Sport, Arts, Culture and Recreation, Ms Barbara Creecy, who will be delivering her budget speech at the Gauteng legislature tomorrow, and therefore is unable to be with us today. However, because my committee does effective oversight on the work of the department, I think I can speak with authority on the department’s budget and plans.
It is a great pleasure for me to stand in front of you. Exactly a year ago, I stood here to talk about the conditional grant on sport and recreation that the provinces, including Gauteng, have been receiving for the past three years and how was utilised. Now it is the fourth year that the conditional grant has been received.
In line with the Millennium Development Goals, and the Vision 2014, and the national contract that the ANC government entered into with the people of South Africa when it was voted into power again in 2004, the Gauteng provincial government adopted a five-year strategic plan of action to ensure that it delivers to the masses during this term of office and beyond.
The 2008-09 financial year is the last of the five-year term of office and we therefore regard it as a period for ensuring that the priorities that we set ourselves are fulfilled. Flowing from the Gauteng provincial government’s strategic priorities, one of the key strategic priorities was that of promoting safe, secure and sustainable communities and a healthy lifestyle through the delivery of community-based recreation and mass participation programmes for sport, arts and culture, and by encouraging communities’ involvement in heritage management.
Whilst we were still reviewing budget allocations immediately after the elections in the 2004-05 financial year to commence with the implementation of programmes on our way to fulfilling the mandate, we were all fortunate as provinces to receive from the Department of Sport and Recreation a conditional grant for the Siyadlala Mass Participation Programme.
In the first year of the conditional grant funding, the Department of Sport, Arts, Culture and Recreation was allocated an amount of R1 million with a specific emphasis on implementing activities in communities. These activities are aerobics, general gymnastics, fun runs and walks, street football, street handball, street basketball, junior dipapadi, rugby, volleyball, cricket, baseball, netball, swimming, boxing and indigenous games such as dibeke and diketo, njuva, iintonga, kgati, morabaraba and jukskei.
Through its stakeholder participation meeting, the department found that many recreation centres do not organise sporting activities to be freely available for the historically disadvantaged communities. Their challenges include, among others, shortage of facilities, user-fees where there are facilities, and the nonexistance of certain sporting codes as they were not accessible to the poor sections of our communities.
As one of the principles of the Mass Participation Programme is to implement activities in highly depressed areas in our communities to create a culture of mass participation in recreational activities in order to minimise antisocial behaviour, we have identified and established eight recreational centre hubs in 2004-05: at Westbury; Moletsane; Munsieville; Mamelodi; Onverwacht; Sebokeng; Katlehong; and Diepsloot. To date, through an incremental approach year by year, the department has now established 50 hubs, which have been spread across Gauteng with special emphasis on the historically disadvantaged communities.
It is worth mentioning that for this financial year, the department has received an amount of R44,978 million as a conditional grant to be allocated to the Siyadlala Mass Participation Programme, the School Sports Mass Participation Programme and 2010 legacy projects. You are familiar with the former two programmes. The latter is new and is there to ensure that the 2010 Fifa World Cup, unlike apartheid, should leave a positive legacy that should be enjoyed by generations to come. From that R44,978 million an amount of R13,797 million has been allocated for these 2010 legacy projects, including football development. The rest of the allocation will be used for the Siyadlala Mass Participation Programme and School Sports Mass Participation Programme. Still on 2010, the department was appointed by the Premier to lead in the co-ordination and the facilitation of the preparations towards the World Cup. In November 2006, the Gauteng executive council adopted the Gauteng 2010 strategic framework, which was further endorsed by the stakeholders at the summit that was held in March 2007.
I must stress that this 2010 strategic framework has mainly two components. Firstly, it ensures that the province assists in implementing of the commitments of government, more especially those that are a competence of the provincial government towards hosting a successful 2010 Fifa World Cup. The second component is that of ensuring that we use the World Cup to fast- track the government’s agenda in areas of economic growth, job creation, fighting poverty, skills development for young people in particular, and leaving a lasting legacy for our people.
Though we have challenges in certain areas, it is without doubt that the various departments of Gauteng provincial government, municipalities, host cities and nonhost cities, and various entities have stepped up their operations in preparation for the Confederation Cup in June 2009 and the World Cup in 2010. It was through these processes that we can now report that our Premier officially launched the Disaster Management Centre and Emergency Services Management Centre in November 2007. Both centres have a responsibility of co-ordinating rapid responses to emergency situations such as any form of disaster and accident that might occur. It is worth mentioning that the co-ordination and facilitation of activities around relief for the recent xenophobic incidents that occurred in the province were undertaken in these centres.
Though there is a challenge in terms of the traffic congestion on our roads, there are discussions and work that are being co-ordinated by the Department of Public Transport, Roads and Works, with its partners such as the Department of Transport, Department of Public Works, SA National Roads Agency Limited, municipalities and transport operators, including railway services.
It is with great appreciation and pleasure that we can indicate that the construction and upgrading of both 2010 Fifa World Cup match and practice venues are within Fifa and the Local Organising Committee’s timeframes. In fact, the Soccer City Stadium is five months ahead of schedule and both Ellis Park and Loftus Versfeld will be ready for the Confederations Cup in June 2009.
As a Mass Participation Programme is about many of our people participating in various sporting, art, cultural and recreational activities in the hubs, we have now gone beyond the 600 000 mark of people, both young and old, participating in these activities. They include various sporting codes, indigenous games, carnival preparations and school holiday programmes. It is our intention to reach at least 700 000 people amongst whom will be our foreign nationals in order to contribute to their reintegration into the communities they have been staying in.
Participating in these hub activities also paved the way for many people to participate in events such as Human Rights and Freedom Day’ Fun Runs, 702 Walk the Talk, Soweto Marathon and other events. Two thousand four hundred people from these recreational centres participated in the Soweto Marathon and five of these participants notched qualifying time for the Comrades Marathon. We are now sending them to run in this year’s Comrades Marathon. The mere fact of receiving a medal for participating in these events has ensured the increase in the number of participants in MPP.
The scope for participation in the MPP is growing. The province participated in the National Indigenous Games and, as a result, some of the participants in these games are now part of Team SA, which will participate in the International Indigenous Games to take place in September this year, in Korea. Critical in the implementation of the MPP activities is ensuring that the contract workers acquire skills that should assist them beyond the Mass Participation Programme.
In raising the bar on the issue of training and development, I mentioned in my speech to the NCOP last year that the department entered into a joint venture with the University of South Africa and the local government sector education and training authority, Seta to provide training to the hub complements in areas such as event management, project management, fitness training, first aid, coaching and mentoring, community development, workers’ learnership, office management, the Public Finance Management Act, and minute-taking. Those who entered the programme have since graduated and received their certificates. It should also be emphasised that the skills acquired in the MPP and training programme will create a better opportunity for them in the labour market.
Beyond this training, the sports development workers will, this year, undergo training by the sports federations to ensure that correct application of rules and techniques are observed in the hubs. This will allow the participants not only to participate in the activities, but also to learn more about becoming trainers even beyond the hubs. Capacity- building for coaches, managers, technical officials, and stadia managers will be implemented, equipment in the old hubs will be replenished, and new equipment will be purchased for the 10 new hubs.
In my address last year, I mentioned that 2007-08 was the first year of the introduction of the School Sport MPP. Most of the activities conducted were the recruitment of sports assistants and identification of educators who should assist in the implementation of the programme.
In partnership with the Gauteng Department of Education, 200 schools were targeted where educators, sports assistant volunteers and young people were trained in the areas of leadership, event management, life skills and first aid. This year, the department has increased the number of schools to 300. These primary and secondary schools are … what happened this time? I thought that I’m managing my time. Thank you. [Time expired.] [Laughter.]
Ms K A KGAREBE: Chairperson, hon Deputy Minister and hon members …
… ke a bua ke kopa tsebe. Ke ne ke botsa gore a kwa North West kwa dikgaolong tse di kwa tengteng tsele, a batho ba teng ga ba na tshwanelo ya go neelwa tsa metshameko gore mesifa ya bone le marapo a bone di seka tsa omelela? (Translation of Setswana paragraph follows.)
[… May I have your attention please? I would like to know whether people in the inner regions of the North West do not have the right to sporting facilities so that they can use it to keep their bodies healthy?]
The budget for Sport and Recreation plays an important role in the life of an individual African being. The budget has the potential to build social cohesion and national unity. The national government is responsible for implementing policies and programmes regarding sport and recreation in the country. This task is then relayed to provincial and local government for implementation. The three spheres of government – national, provincial and local government, including other departments and stakeholders, are the source of information to the people.
Sport reflects our own culture and custom; it develops good relationships among youth and generates income; it keeps children off the streets; and it avoids illegal activities like vandalism, drug and alcohol abuse, etc. Sport and Recreation co-ordinates and supports the identification and development of talented athletes. Certain projects are expected to stimulate skills development and also play a role in the hospitality industry. Well-established infrastructures promote the image of the sporting activities and give access to the people who enjoy sports.
Surely but not slowly, this budget of 2008 and of the years to come contributes to the 2010 World Cup.
Sejo sennye ga se fete molomo. [Half a loaf is better than none.]
The UCDP supports the Sport and Recreation Budget Vote. Thank you.
Mr Z SISWANA (Western Cape): Chairperson, hon Deputy Minister, hon members of the NCOP and colleagues, the Minister Makhenkhesi Stofile in his Budget speech in 2004 acknowledged the most negligible funding allocation for Sport and Recreation, resulting in a similar insignificant per capita expenditure of a meagre R2,00 per annum for schools to participate in sporting and recreational activities.
The development of sport under such financial constraints and circumstances was stifled and it was not progressing at a pace which we all could be proud of. Key to the development of sport is facilities and a well co- ordinated school sport system. The audit of facilities, commissioned by the Department of Sport and Recreation, paints a skew picture created by the legacies of many years of apartheid. This is placing a huge burden on the present government to accelerate the provision of facilities for previously marginalised communities as a mechanism of laying a foundation for access to all and levelling the playing field in sport.
We all are aware that school sport is a critical component of the school curriculum. Schools are the base for talent identification and nurturing, and must continue to be reliable feeders to mainstream sport. However, for this to take place there must be effective leadership and co-ordination at the highest level.
Currently the National Co-ordinating Committee responsible for sport does not inspire confidence. It goes without saying that if there is a problem in the leadership the ripple effect is bound to impact negatively at the lower levels. We want to appeal to the Ministry to intervene with the National Co-ordinating Committee to ensure that effective co-ordination of schools takes place. We acknowledge the positive changes being effected in the current term of the Ministry as we are now talking a different language altogether in as far as prospects for development of sports.
Since 2006, the introduction of the Siyadlala Mass Participation Programme, SMPP, and the School Sport Mass Participation Programme, SSMP, had contributed immensely to establishing a culture of sport in schools and in our marginalised communities. I am taking this platform on behalf of the provincial Ministry of Cultural Affairs and Sport to acknowledge the substantial increases received in conditional grants for the Siyadlala Mass Participation Programme and the School Sport Mass Participation Programme, respectively, for this financial year.
These programmes in our view have exceeded their original objectives of just promoting sporting and recreational activities in disadvantaged communities. Our view is that sport can play an important role in social cohesion and nation-building through these programmes. The contribution sport is making towards the economic growth of our country is also unquestionable. We thank the Sport and Recreation Department for their strategic leadership in terms of the Siyadlala Mass Participation Programme and the School Sport Mass Participation Programme.
Provincial departments of sport are considered to be the smallest, and therefore they have always been allocated the crumbs of the overall budget. The conditional grants are indeed a welcome intervention, enabling provinces like ours to address some of the social ills and the challenges we are facing.
The Western Cape Department of Cultural Affairs and Sport has created 406 new job opportunities through the SMPP and SSMP, respectively, proving that sport can contribute towards reducing poverty in our communities. Through these programmes the department is not only providing employment or temporary relief to the unemployed youth but it is also creating a pool of skilled sports trainers and coaches.
In the Western Cape a few success stories have already been reported, where some hub co-ordinators and school sports assistants have since been recruited by the formal sector as qualified fitness trainers, and others have been recruited abroad to run and manage youth camps.
To date, five assistants from the Western Cape have successfully applied for jobs in the UK and the USA. Charlie Adendorf runs and manages a summer youth camp in Mexico; Anita Meyer is a fitness trainer in the UK; and two more are based in Miami running youth camps. The impact of these programmes therefore should not be underestimated but should be sustained at all costs. Evidently these programmes could go a long way in mitigating the challenges that confront us. It is also an opportunity to acknowledge the intervention by the Ministry of Sport and Recreation with regard to the resolution of the Polokwane Conference in terms of sporting facilities provision, following the presentation by our MEC for Cultural Affairs and Sport in this House that funding for sporting facilities should revert back to the Building for Sport and Recreation Programme.
We have noted with appreciation that the Polokwane Conference has adopted this resolution. This is an important development for accelerating the provision of facilities. Surely we can relax knowing that funding earmarked for sport will be spent on its intended purpose, unlike what has been happening in respect of the Municipal Infrastructure Grant where the municipalities are funding other priorities using funds intended for sporting facilities.
We welcome this resolution and we wish to remind the Ministry of Sport and Recreation to take provinces on board in the process of implementing the Polokwane resolution because there is still no clarity. As the custodians of the development of sport we remain upbeat about the prospect of addressing the backlog of facilities.
In conclusion, I want to congratulate our national teams, Bafana Bafana and the Springboks, for their brilliant performance this past weekend. We also note and encourage Springbok coach Peter de Villiers for making the brave decision of fielding more players of colour in his team and wish both teams well in the coming contest. Thank you.
Ms A N D QIKANI: Modulasetulo, Motlatsa Letona, le Ditho kaofela tsa Ntlo ena ke a le dumedisa, [Chairperson, Deputy Minister, and all the members of this House, I salute you].
Kwingxoxo yanamhlanje, ndiza kungena emxholweni, ndizeke mzekweni xa ndibeka, ndinabisa uluvo neembono zam ngazo zonke izinto endiqinisekileyo ukuba zibalulekile kolu hlalo lwabiwo-mali sixoxa ngalo ngale mvakwemini.
Okokuqala, mandikubeke kucace ukuba ndinoluvo lokuba imeko yezophuhliso kwiSebe lezeMidlalo noLonwabo ingcono kunaleyo yamandulo. Ukusukela ngexesha loMphathiswa wokuqala wezeMidlalo noLonwabo phantsi korhulumente wenkululeko, umhlekazi uSteve Tshwete, eli Sebe lalisoloko libonakalisa ukuzimisela ngaphezulu kunawo onke amanye amasebe. Kodwa ke, oko akuthethi ukuba akukho sikhwasilima kwaphela, ngakumbi ngokubhekisele kumaphondo onganyelwe yintlupheko njengeMpuma Koloni.
Njengoko sele ndikhankanyile ukuba iphondo leMpuma Koloni liphakathi kwalawo abethekileyo, ndiza kusoloko ndigxininisa oko kuba bonke abaPhathiswa beSebe lezeMidlalo noLonwabo bavela kweli phondo, kwaye bayayazi imeko yokungaphuhliseki kwesininzi seendawo zala maphondo. Ingumnqa into yokuba urhulumente akholose ngokuphuhlisa iindawo zasezidolophini ezinkulu, alibale ngeendawo zasemaphandleni ezizezona zinxanelwe uphuhliso. Akukho maziko namabala okudlala okanye okuthamba umzimba kwiindawo ezininzi zaseMpuma Koloni, nangona kunganqabanga mhlaba wokwakha.
Ukwakhiwa ngokutsha kwebala lombhoxo laseBhayi, kulungiselelwa ukhuphiswano lomdlalo webhola ekhatywayo weNdebe yeHlabathi kubonakalisa ubuchule bokuhlangabezana nophuhliso, ngokuthi kubethwe iintaka ezimbini ngelitye elinye. Oko kuza kwenza ukuba izuze yomibini le midlalo sele ndiyikhankanyile.
Kufuneka ukuba intshukumo enje ngale isetyenziswe ukuze kuzuze yonke imidlalo enokuthi ibe senyhwebeni yokusebenzisa ibala elinye. Andithethi ukuba le yinkqubo emayisetyenziswe xa kusakhiwa onke amabala, koko ndincoma nje intsebenziswano.
Kwakhona, ndiyakhala ngesitediyam saseMthatha esingasekhoyo ngoku. Ndiyacela kubaphathi Besebe ukuba basiqwalasele esi sikhalo, ukwenzela ukuba lo mnyhadala uzayo kowama-2010 ungabukelwa nje kumabonakude ngabantu baseMthatha, koko nabo bathabathe inxaxheba kuwo; nokuba kuza kudlala la maqedlana mancinci, kodwa nabo mababe yinxalenye yolu khuphiswano lakufika ixesha elifanelekileyo. Siyaluxhasa uhlahlo lwabiwo-mali. Enkosi. [Kwaqhwatywa.] (Translation of isiXhosa paragraphs follows.)
[In today’s debate, I will go straight to the point and elaborate on my views and vision regarding all matters pertaining to the Budget Vote that we are discussing this afternoon, which I think are important.
First of all, let me make it clear that, in my view, there has been an improvement in the handling of the affairs of the Department of Sport and Recreation compared to what used to be the case in the past. From the time that the late Steve Tshwete took the helm as the first Minister of Sport and Recreation in the democratic dispensation, this department has always demonstrated more commitment compared to other departments. This, however, does not mean that it has been plain sailing for the department, particularly with regard to the poorer provinces such as the Eastern Cape.
As I have already indicated, the Eastern Cape province is among the poorer provinces, I emphasise this point because all the Ministers in this department, since the advent of democracy, have hailed from the Eastern Cape province. Therefore, all of them should be aware of the underdevelopment in many parts of these poor provinces. It is surprising that government is concentrating on developing urban areas and ignoring rural areas, which are in dire need of development. There are no stadiums and recreational centres or gymnasia in most areas of the Eastern Cape, although there is no scarcity of land for the construction of such centres and facilities. The reconstruction of the rugby stadium in Port Elizabeth in preparation for the Soccer World Cup in 2010 demonstrates foresight in tackling developmental issues. This, in my view, is like killing two birds with one stone as both sporting codes will benefit from the reconstruction of this stadium.
Sporting facilities should be constructed in such a way that they become multisport facilities so as to benefit many sporting codes. I am not suggesting that this must apply to the building of all sporting facilities, but I am just admiring the sense of co-operation reflected in such a form of development.
Furthermore, I regret the fact that the Mthatha stadium is no longer in existence. I appeal to the powers that be to heed my call in this regard, so that the people of Mthatha do not only watch the 2010 Fifa Soccer World Cup Tournament on television, but also participate actively in it, even if it’s on a small scale. We support this Budget Vote. Thank you. [Applause.]]
Mr M A SULLIMAN: Chairperson, hon Deputy Minister, colleagues and comrades, the United Nations recognises the participation in sports and recreation as a fundamental human right, and it obliges its member states to make this right available to all its people. In South Africa we take this obligation very seriously and even take it further by insisting that this should be executed with consideration of human dignity, equality and freedom, as underpinned in Chapter 2 of our Constitution.
Former President, Comrade Nelson Mandela, insisted at all times that sports and recreation is one of the best tools to utilise in the quest for nation- building and to rid society of social pathologies such as drug abuse, racial intolerance and crime.
In 1994, the ANC promised the people of South Africa a better life for all, a vision it never ever abandoned and a responsibility it never shirked. In sports, this means that we have to ensure that all South Africans have equal access to sports and the opportunity to participate. In proper sporting terms, we have to level the playing fields.
Many people would not want to know this, but we have sped up the rate of transformation in sport. And here I wish to make it clear that it is about racial transformation, meaning that we need to get more black players in our sporting teams, especially those dominated by white players.
Just this past weekend, the ANC’s transformation programme was vindicated when the Springboks beat Wales by 43 points to 17. And to rub salt into the wounds of the detractors of our transformation agenda, I have to mention that Wales is the Six Nations Cup champions and hosts of the Triple Crown trophy. I would like to commend our first black coach, Peter de Villiers, on his bold decision to include seven black players in his starting line-up - the most number of such players since readmission to international sports in 1992.
Despite negative reporting in the media, we have yet to see a Bafana Bafana team going into the field without players from all racial groups. This is something that other sporting formations can really learn from, notably our national cricket squad. It seems to be the norm in cricket to replace one white player with another.
Criticism notwithstanding, the fact is that our national sporting teams are populated by mostly white players. There are reasons for this, but right now we need to focus on ensuring that there are competent black players available to replace white players. This would ensure that our teams do represent the demographics of South Africa as well as the aspirations of the people of South Africa. Our people deserve nothing less.
I agree with the Minister right now that we need to make it clear to sporting formations that transformation in sports must start at the lowest levels, that is where children start to play; in the streets and in schools, at our institutions of higher learning, at club level and even at union level. This would ensure that our national coaches do have sufficient numbers of black players to select from.
I think that as far as doping in sport is concerned, we have excellent programmes to deal with that. We just need to speed up the process of rolling out these programmes to all levels where our sports are played. The fact that we had no official doping scandal in the past year should tell us that we are actually ahead of many other countries in rooting out drugs in our sporting codes.
Chair, please allow me the opportunity to share with the House some of our achievements over the past year. Of course, we have to start with us being the World Rugby champions. I think only a few people would forget the feeling when President Thabo Mbeki lifted the William Webb Ellis Trophy in France last year. Following that, the International Rugby Board, IRB, also selected the Springboks as the team of the year, Jake White as the coach of the year, and Bryan Habana as the IRB Player of the Year.
In the All Africa Games in July, we scored a total of almost 180 medals - including 61 gold medals - and secured a third place in the rankings. South Africa dominated in all swimming contests last year, with Ryk Neethling, Roland Schoeman and Natalie du Toit again doing us very proud. I have to mention here that Natalie won the Vista Nova 7,5 km swim from Bloubergstrand to Robben Island on 27 April 2008. This is remarkable, considering that it was her seventh consecutive win in this gruelling contest, and she has beaten even her male competitors. All this, added to the fact that she is actually a paraplegic athlete. Furthermore, we also have to remember that the double amputee, Oscar Pistorius won his appeal at the International Sports Tribunal to compete with able-bodied athletes in the upcoming Beijing Olympics, and we wish him well in his endeavours. At the Nedbank Championships for the physically disabled, Teboho Mogalagadi won gold medals in both the 100 m as well as the 200 m.
I also wish to mention that South Africa now has two Two Oceans Marathon winners, after Bethuel Netshifhefhe won this year’s edition of the popular marathon. For the past three years, this marathon has been won by Zimbabwean athletes.
We have had a lot of sporting successes over the past year, too many to mention, but I would be failing in my duty if I do not point out that, in August 2007, Ms Mbali Zantsi of Showtime Boxing Promotions and Ms Kenosi Mlabateki of Rams Boxing Promotions became the first two female South Africans to co-promote international professional women boxing tournaments, the first-ever tournament featuring professional female boxers from South Africa.
In conclusion, we do have some challenges to address, but I am equally sure that South Africa has the spirit, the will and the means to ensure that our great nation becomes even greater, and that our flag will always fly very high at all sporting events that we will be participating in. Phambili 2010, Phambili! [Forward 2010, Forward!] The DEPUTY MINISTER OF SPORT AND RECREATION: Chairperson, hon members, I will try to answer and respond to some of the matters raised. I will not be able to respond to all of them, but I would like to assure the hon members that we have officials from the department who noted everything and we will respond accordingly in writing.
However, let me start with the hon Lamoela. Thank you so much for your kind words. Just a reminder: You may have missed it, but we will have the play- offs for the Davis Cup Tennis Tournament, the weekend of Madiba’s birthday, in South Africa this year. Gauteng will be hosting it and we are absolutely convinced that that will lift the profile of tennis and also showcase the ability there.
However, you also mentioned, like the hon Sulliman, the success of Oscar Pistorius. Let me just say this much: The unfortunate part is that the court did not pronounce itself on disabled people, or people with disabilities or transplants in general. This was an Oscar Pistorius specific case. So, whilst we are very happy for Oscar, and whilst we hold thumbs and hope that he will qualify to participate in the Olympic Games, I have to share with the House that it was a bit of a wake-up call and, to a certain degree an indictment, that the research that supported Oscar in achieving victory abroad was done by an American university and not one South African institution offered assistance. That was a wake-up call to us, so we are working on that; we are attending to that to make sure that in the future we don’t have a situation like that.
Hon Tolo and Chairperson, thank you so much for articulating what we all know and that is that we have a shortage of facilities in especially the poverty nodes – the much-needed areas in the rural areas – and we thank you for your support in our endeavours to make sure that we speed up that process. Thank you so much for a good account on 2010.
To the hon Madladla-Magubane, who referred to women representation in our department, I just want to point out: Right there you will see that they are also separated; the three women are sitting in front and the three males are sitting at the back. Why, I don’t know, but we have well over 50% representation. I think it is 63% in the entire spectrum of the department, but when you refer to top management, it is 35,5% and hopefully we will be able to get to a more equitable balance there, but it is going to work through to the bottom.
When you speak about the facilities and its availability in our rural communities for the elderly and the marginalised people, I would like to remind you of the Go Go Girls in Limpopo Province. Those old gogos are playing soccer like hell. They are absolutely fantastic and they are an example to emulate right through. Yes, they are not taking their blood pressure pills anymore; they are not going to the clinic so often anymore, so that is something to acknowledge.
However, we do recognise the other shortcomings as far as indigenous games are concerned. Hon member, two years ago we had a festival in the Eastern Cape, which we are repeating on an annual basis. There is one in the Western Cape in the Oudtshoorn area every year. We are trying to popularise this and, in fact, we have agreed with our counterparts in Education that indigenous games must form an integral part of the curriculum in terms of school sport and the School Sport Mass Participation Programme.
Hon Vilakazi, I am in agreement with your assessment of the virtues of sport. You pointed out the shortage of sporting facilities at schools. I think we have to say quite openly that in the same way a school has to have toilet facilities for boys and girls, or should have a laboratory, or should have a library, a desk, and a blackboard – we say that is the norm – we should say, and we should insist, that it should have sporting facilities – at least a multipurpose facility. That is part of the continuum. You spoke so well, and thank you for that.
Hon Mkhize, thank you for a good account. He left for Gauteng to prepare for the Budget Vote speech tomorrow, but he gave a very good account, Chairperson, of what Gauteng is doing. Whilst listening to him I couldn’t help but think that that is why they say Gauteng is the home of champions in terms of sport.
Hon Kgarebe, thank you so much for alluding to the virtues of sport. Hon Siswana from the Western Cape, can I just point out to the hon member that we are absolutely aware of the hiccups we have with the National Co- ordinating Committee on school sport. There was a decision, unfortunately without the knowledge of the executive, to withdraw from the National Co- ordinating Committee, Nacoc. We have redirected; we are now fully involved with Nacoc. We have met with our counterparts in Education; we have attended to the problems; and hopefully we have ironed out all the difficulties in terms of Nacoc to ensure that we overcome the teething problems that we have had in the whole process.
Yes, we have taken note of your request to take the provinces on board in terms of whatever we plan forward, but I would like to remind the hon member that we have a Ministry meeting quite often where we share all these plans with the provinces and take them on board with us.
To the hon Qikane from the UDM, yes, we recognise what you pointed out – that there is a shortage of facilities. I think there was broad agreement about that, but may I just say that where we have facilities in the rural areas, it is also incumbent upon us sitting here, hon members, firstly, to make sure that our communities take ownership of those facilities; and secondly, that we make sure that the municipalities budget for the maintenance for those facilities, because it is no use building the facility without having a maintenance programme in place.
Hon Sulliman, thank you so much. You spoke so well. We are absolutely in agreement with what the hon member said. It was a very good input; we noted that and we would like to place on record our appreciation for that.
Chairperson, at the end of this Budget Vote, I would like to thank every member for their positive input, and make a couple of remarks by way of closing. We did allude, in the opening speech, that we are in the process of putting a sporting plan together that will be supported by a good facility plan. For that process we are now reviewing the White Paper on Sport and Recreation. It has become outdated. It is a consultative process we have embarked on. I have been informed by the multistakeholder committee that they have identified well over 160 items that need to be addressed. Hopefully, when we get to concluding the new White Paper for sport, aligning it with the restructured view the Cabinet directed us to take, we will have a sports plan coming from that.
Secondly, something very positive happened and developed and is now part of the programme of action, that is Sport for Peace. It is not only sport for peace; it is sport for peacekeeping; sport for peacebuilding – not only in foreign countries but also in South Africa. In time to come we hope to be able to report on the progress made in this regard.
In conclusion, yes, we agree that we face many challenges. We are facing challenges from being the department with the smallest budget, but with the most advisers – sometimes free of charge and now and then ill-informed – but we are facing that challenge; we agree to that. We know that we are facing a facilities and equipment challenge and that we have a backlog that we have to catch up with.
Having said all that, it is incumbent upon us to make every rand that we spend count for the best and the benefit of society at large. In this regard, thank you so much to every hon member for your support to make sure that every rand we spend will count at the end of the day; in creating an active and winning South Africa. I thank you.
Debate concluded.
APPROPRIATION BILL
(Policy debate)
Vote No 29 – Provincial and Local Government:
The MINISTER FOR PROVINCIAL AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT: Chairperson, Deputy Minister Nomatyala Hangana, delegates from provinces, Councillor S W Mxolose, hon members, ladies and gentlemen, nine days ago, we had the privilege to present to the NA a detailed report on the progress made since the adoption of the White Paper on Local Government in 1998. We were able to show that the upward movement of the performance and delivery curve has happened at a pace and on a scale without precedent in South African history.
Drawing on findings made in the recently released 2007 Community Survey, we spoke of the substantial material improvements which government effort has had on the collective quality of life of our people. The Statistics SA Survey found that: In 2007, 86% of the population of South Africa enjoyed access to piped water; again in 2007, a little more than 60% of households in South Africa had access to flush toilets; by the end of March 2008, 91% of the buckets identified in February 2005 had been removed in formal established areas throughout the country; electricity for lighting has increased in all provinces with 80% households in South Africa using electricity for lighting; between April 2007 and March 2008, access to free basic water increased from 73% to 77%, and during this same period, access to free basic electricity increased from 60% to 73%.
Working within the historical process of the negation of the exclusionary effects of the pre-1994 colonial and apartheid dispensations, we targeted the households and spaces which were previously denied access to basic amenities and life-sustaining resources. In those households and spaces, we sought to create improved lives for our people. To this end, we have formulated modalities of governance which emphasise the need for all three spheres of government to coalesce into a seamless network which presides over processes of social provisioning and the creation of conditions for sustainable economic development.
The urban and rural nodes are sites where many national and provincial sector departments received their first exposure to what it means to support local government. Basing ourselves on that experience and insights gained in the nodes, we used Project Consolidate to add new momentum towards institutionalising support to local government in general.
As we reported on previous occasions, we worked together with the Business Trust to produce economic profiles of all nodal municipalities. These profiles confirmed, amongst other things, the lack of road infrastructure as a threat to local economic development, especially in the rural nodes. For example, the Kgalagadi District Municipality indicated that there was only 291 km tarred road within the node that mainly covers the major towns and mines. The remaining 2 335 km was gravel road. The Department of Transport has allocated money in Kgalagadi and O R Tambo District Municipalities to undertake an assessment of integrated transport plans and to assist in the provision of road and transport infrastructure.
Meanwhile all urban nodes are implementing roads and public transport related projects through the Municipal Infrastructure Grant and the Department of Transport. All roads in Alexandra are now tarred.
Additionally, the node has made huge progress in upgrading major roads linkage to promote easy access to N3, M1, Sandton and Wynberg. The future location of the Malboro Gautrain Train Station on the doorstep of Alexandra is expected to enhance job creation. All major roads in Motherwell are surfaced and are in fairly good condition. Upgrading, resurfacing and servicing of roads in and around Motherwell are an ongoing process. Untarred and secondary roads will also benefit in terms of the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality’s Comprehensive Programme aimed at removing the backlog of untarred roads by 70% within the next five years.
In addition, the Department of Transport has allocated funds in some of the nodes for the construction of pedestrian and bicycle paths, and funds have been allocated to implement the Integrated Mobility and Access Project in Sekhukhune, Umkhanyakude and O R Tambo District Municipalities.
When good things of this kind begin to happen, we all face the challenge of doing what needs to be done in order to maintain the trend. It is for this reason that at its July 2007 lekgotla, Cabinet decided that we should pay greater attention to the task of helping the provincial government sphere to acquire the wherewithal to co-ordinate government work within provincial spaces. In particular, it was decided that offices of the premiers must play a leading role to ensure better co-ordination of information and improved quality of performance. It was also decided that the provincial departments of local government must support the offices of the premiers in ensuring implementation, monitoring and reporting on the operationalisation of the five-year local government strategic agenda.
The Department of Provincial and Local Government, DPLG, has conducted capacity assessments of both the provincial departments of local government and the offices of the premiers. The necessary advice will be given regarding structural modifications that need to be effected in order to match the determination to do the right things with real capacity.
Focusing our attention on what is happening in provinces is beginning to pay dividends. For instance, the alignment of the provincial growth and development strategy with other strategic processes has continued to improve across all provinces. The participation of sector departments in the development and implementation of the provincial growth and development strategy in all provinces has also improved.
There is also increased visibility of provincial sector departments in the integrated development plans review processes of local government. In the particular case of the Kwazulu-Natal province the Department of Social Welfare and Population, Department of Housing, Department of Sport and Recreation, Department of Health, and the Department of Transport have been identified as the best performers in this regard. We congratulate these departments for such an exemplary conduct.
We continue to implore national and provincial sector departments to emulate the example of the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry, Dwaf. This department’s recent performance and successes serve to underscore the value of intersphere co-ordination and integration. Its water sector support plans have been developed in alignment with the provincial growth and development strategies.
The successes which will ensue from this will build on the achievements made earlier when, in collaboration with the DPLG, the provinces and local government, Dwaf was able to come within a whisker of completely removing the bucket-system of sanitation in the formal residential areas.
Chairperson, the co-ordinated presence of the spheres of government as well as sector departments has, in some instances, enabled us to build a platform for significant private sector investment in large townships. This has also enabled us to cluster public sector involvement in areas which require priority attention. Examples include the Khayelitsha CBD where there is co-coordinated focus on public services, retail, public transport interchange and recreation facilities; the KwaMashu Town Centre, the Bridge City (Inanda) development, currently under construction, as well as the Pan Afrika Square Development that is currently under construction in Alexandra.
In the rural areas, our ability to promote and sustain steady socio- economic growth will depend, in part, on how well we imbricate the institution of traditional leadership into our system of government. Provincial governments have an important role to play in this regard. Working with the National House of Traditional Leaders, we have drafted a National Programme of Support for Traditional Leaders and we proceeded to consult with provinces on it. Provinces have since submitted their costed provincial programmes of support. Information submitted by provinces is currently being analysed for inclusion in the final, costed National Programme of Support. The programme will soon be submitted to Cabinet for adoption.
The programme will be used, amongst other things, to enhance levels of participation by traditional leaders in the formulation of municipal integrated plans as well as to make considered inputs into the development, by the legislatures, of laws which have a direct and immediate bearing on the practice of culture, custom and tradition. In its own right, the institution of traditional leadership has many responsibilities which it must discharge to its own members, our people and to the country at large. For that reason, Cabinet decided to initiate a process which will culminate in the establishment of a separate department that will focus on traditional affairs. We are presently working together with the National House of Traditional Leadership to give effect to this decision by doing the necessary groundwork for the implementation of Cabinet’s decision.
If all these tasks are to be executed with maximum efficiency, then we have to bring the policy review process on the system of provincial and local government to finality. As hon members are aware, the Extended Cabinet Lekgotla of 2007 mandated the Ministry and Department of Provincial and Local Government to initiate a process to develop a White Paper on Provincial Government and to review the existing White Paper on Local Government. We have received a total of 157 submissions from civil society organisations, all three spheres of government, statutory bodies, academic institutions and political parties. The first progress report was submitted to the Extended Cabinet Lekgotla of January 2008, and to the Extended Presidential Co-ordinating Council in May 2008.
The department will release a Draft White Paper on the system of provincial and local government in July 2008. This will be released for consideration by the Extended Cabinet Lekgotla. Thereafter, an extensive consultative process will be embarked on with key stakeholders within and outside of government. The legislatures and Parliament will have an opportunity to engage with the process. It is critically important for the process to benefit from the insights of hon members of this House, particularly because more than any other, you are the one body whose work is aptly germane to the life of the provincial sphere of government.
Chairperson, I wish to conclude by thanking especially the chairperson and other members of the Select Committee on Provincial and Local Government for the unconditional support they gave and continue to give to both the Ministry and the department. At each faltering step, they were there to lend a hand, to join with us in order to help us, to be of better service to our people and our country. I thank you.
Mnr D J P VAN DER MERWE: Agb Voorsitter, agb Ministers, agb Adjunk- minister, agb kollegas, die DA wil die Minister en die departement bedank vir die R231 miljoen wat in verlede jaar se boekjaar beskikbaar gestel is, asook die R161,3 miljoen wat vir die huidige boekjaar in die Noord-Kaap aan behuising toegestaan.
Die Noord-Kaap is ’n groot provinsie wat 29% van die totale oppervlakte van die land uitmaak. Die temperatuurwisselings binne die provinsie maak goeie behuising noodsaaklik. Agt-en-dertig persent van die bevolking se inkomste is R800 en minder per maand. Hierdie mense woon in afgeleë gebiede en het nie altyd toegang tot dokters, hospitale en landdroskantore nie, en moet dus ver reis om hierdie dienste te bekom.
Ek is van mening dat die bevolking in die plattelandse gebiede reeds jare lank verwaarloos word. Ek wil graag die agb Minister vra dat hulle in dié begroting na hierdie afgeleë gebiede in ons land moet kyk en meer fondse moet bewillig. Daardeur kan hierdie mense se omstandighede gouer verbeter word. In dié stadium is die beskikbare fondse nie genoeg om dié afgeleë gebiede se agterstand uit te wis nie.
Verlede jaar is 98% van die begroting aan munisipaliteite en organisasies oorbetaal en daarvoor kan die departement geloof word.
Ten spyte van die goeie voorneme dat geld aangewend moet word vir infrastruktuur, gebeur dit dat die geld eers in die volgende boekjaar deur munisipaliteite spandeer word. Hierdie jaar verwelkom ons die feit dat die departement ’n beleidsverandering teweeg bring, naamlik dat fondse geskuif kan word na munisipaliteite wat die fondse wil spandeer.
Dit is onstellend om te sien hoe bestaande infrastruktuur agteruit gaan en nuwe infrastruktuur geskep word, maar nie vinnig genoeg ontwikkel word nie. Verskeie munisipaliteite is die afgelope maande onder administrasie geplaas. Daagliks word oor die televisie gesien hoe die ontevrede publiek betoog teen swak of geen dienslewering nie.
Verlede week het ’n agb kollega gesê dat ons die media met ’n groot oog moet dophou, maar ek weet nie hoe hy gaan maak as daar oor televisie erken word dat daar geen dienste is nie, want hulle sit en kyk vir hom in sy oë, terwyl hulle dit sê.
Ek stem nie maklik met die ANC saam nie, maar ek het een ding waarmee ek met die ANC saamstem vandag en dit is dat ons agb kollega, mnr Mack, hier gesê het: Ons moenie altyd glo wat die media vir ons sê nie. Ek weet hy is ’n man van sy woord, daarom vra ek hom om dit ook nie te glo as die media negatief praat oor my leier, Helen Zille, nie. [Tussenwerpsels.]
Van die redes wat aangevoer word vir swak dienslewering is onbevoegte mense wat in poste aangestel word. Die toestand van ons paaie in die munisipale gebiede is uiters swak en het reeds lewens geëis.
Die Hop-huise wat deur kontrakteurs gebou word, word gewoonlik deur munisipaliteite geadministreer. Daar is gevalle waar fondse opgeraak het, terwyl die projek nog nie voltooi is nie. Vergaderings is belê tussen die provinsiale Departement van Behuising en die Departement van Plaaslike Regering. Op ’n vraag wat gevra is aan beide die departemente, naamlik wie die verantwoordelike departemente is wat moet toesien dat inspeksies van bouwerk uitgevoer word en daarvolgens vorderingsverslae maak, het die twee departemente mekaar blameer. Nie een van die bogenoemde departemente wil verantwoordelikheid aanvaar nie.
Die DA voel dat dit baie swak bestuur is en dat daardeur baie geld gemors word. Ek sal graag wil weet of daar deur die nasionale regering riglyne gestel kan word oor wie die verantwoordelikheid moet aanvaar om toesig te hou oor die bestuur van so ’n projek.
Baie dorpe en stede se watervoorsiening en pypleidings is uitgedien en bars op ’n gereelde basis. Hierdie tipe waterlekke kos munisipaliteite miljoene rande aan herstelkostes en waterverliese. Deur goeie beplanning en beskikbare fondse kan hierdie probleem die hoof gebied word, wat op die lange duur koste- en waterbesparings te-weeg sal bring. Ons land het reeds baie min water.
Die DA voel dat daar dringend aandag aan hierdie probleem gegee moet word. Ek vra die agb Minister om in die begroting te kyk of daar nie spesiale fondse beskikbaar gestel kan word, waar munispaliteite, met soortgelyke probleme, geïdentifiseer kan word nie.
Kragonderbrekings is nie net Eskom se probleem nie, maar ook dié van bestaande kraginstallasies van munisipaliteite waarvan die onderhoud nie op standaard gehou word nie. Die swak instandhouding van hierdie installasies, wat die afgelope jare nie gedoen is nie, veroorsaak dat substasies uitbrand en kragonderbrekings veroorsaak en die vervanging van hierdie eenheid kan tot twee dae duur.
In die 2007-08 begroting is daar vir die eerste keer in jare begroot vir hierdie instandhoudingsdienste te Sol Plaatje-munisipaliteit.
Ek wil graag ’n versoek rig aan die agb Minister, dat daar gekyk moet word hoe provinsiale en plaaslike regerings se fondse bestuur work. Ek dank u. (Translation of Afrikaans speech follows.)
[Mr D J P VAN DER MERWE: Hon Chairperson, hon Ministers, hon Deputy Minister, hon colleagues, the DA wants to thank the Minister and the department for the R231 million that was made available in the previous financial year as well as the R161,3 million that has been approved for housing in the Northern Cape for the current financial year.
The Northern Cape is a large province which constitutes 29% of the country’s total surface area. Temperature variations within the province make good housing essential. The income of 38% of the population is R800 or less per month. These people live in remote areas without regular access to doctors, hospitals and magistrates courts, and so they have to travel far to access these services.
I am of the opinion that the population in the rural areas has been neglected for years. I would like to ask the hon Minister to take a look at these remote areas in our country and grant more funds in this budget. In that way the circumstances of these people can be quickly improved. At this stage the available funds are not sufficient to erase the backward position of these remote areas.
Last year 98% of the budget was paid over to municipalities and organisations, for which the department should be lauded. Despite the good intention to utilise this money for infrastructure, the money is actually only spent by municipalities in the following financial year. We welcome the fact that this year the department has effected a change in policy, that funding can in fact be transferred to municipalities that want to spend it.
It is disturbing to see how existing infrastructure is deteriorating, and new infrastructure is being created, but it is not being developed fast enough. In the past few months various municipalities have been placed under administration. Every day on television one can see the disgruntled public demonstrating against poor or nonexistent service delivery.
Last week one hon colleague said that we should watch the media with eyes wide open, but I don’t know what he will do once they admit on television that there are no services, because they are looking up to him while they are saying that.
I don’t readily agree with the ANC, but today there’s one thing about which I will agree with them, and that is what our hon colleague Mr Mack said here: We should not always believe what the media is telling us. I know he is a man of his word, and so I ask him also not to believe it when the media reports negatively on my leader, Helen Zille. [Interjections.]
One of the reasons advanced for poor service delivery is that incompetent people are being appointed to posts.
The roads within our municipal areas are in extremely poor condition and lives have already been lost.
The RDP homes built by contractors are usually administered by municipalities. There have been instances where funds have run dry while a project was still incomplete. Meetings were scheduled between the provincial housing department and the Department of Local Government. In reaction to a question asked of both departments, namely which one of them is responsible for performing building inspections and the subsequent compilation of progress reports, the two departments blamed each other. Neither of the above-mentioned departments wishes to take responsibility.
The DA regards this as very poor management, through which a lot of money is being wasted. I would like to know if national government could draw up guidelines regarding who should take responsibility for overseeing the management of such a project.
The water supply and pipelines in many villages and towns have become obsolete and are bursting at regular intervals. This type of water leakage is costing municipalities millions of rand in repair costs and loss of water. By way of proper planning and available funds this problem can be countered, which in the long run will generate cost and water savings. Our country already has so little water.
The DA feels that urgent attention should be given to this problem. I am asking the Minister to take a look at the budget if special funds can be made available and municipalities with similar problems can be identified.
Power cuts are not only the problem of Eskom, but also of the existing power installations of municipalities where maintenance has not been kept up to date. The poor maintenance of these installations, which have been neglected in the past few years, is causing substations to burn out, creating power cuts while the replacement of such units can take up to two days.
For the first time in years the 2007-08 budget has provided for such maintenance work at the Sol Plaatje Municipality.
I would like to appeal to the hon Minister that we must investigate the financial management of provincial and local governments. I thank you.]
Mr N J MACK: Chairperson, hon Minister, Deputy Minister, councillors, special delegates, Mr McKenzie from the Western Cape, and members and comrades, I need to thank, especially, our Deputy Minister for her presence at the briefing when the department briefed us on local government, as well as her your input. The political insight, and the whole overview you gave us, was of immense importance and assisted us in our speeches today, just by stating where we were in ’94 and before ’94, and where we are today. Even bats wouldn’t be able to fly around if they were as blind as we would have to be not to see the difference. The huge improvement is there for all to see.
Minister and Deputy Minister, I am highlighting some challenges only I am confident – all of us are confident – in the knowledge that it’s only the ANC and our Ministers who can solve these problems and challenges of our people. That is why I would like to say that we are in agreement with the whole White Paper and the whole review of local government, because this is part of transformation and for the betterment of our people.
While our local government system reveals a strong sense of commitment towards development, it is regrettable to note that municipalities are facing difficulties in accessing the Municipal Infrastructure Grant. Some of them don’t know how to access this grant, while some do get the grant and we’ve found out in our oversight that some spend it on salaries. There are also difficulties posed by the creation of unnecessary bureaucratic layers that hinder development.
A significant degree of achievement continues to be made around the eradication of the bucket system, as prioritised in the state of the nation address, and replacing it with decent sanitation facilities. The ANC is determined to ensure the goal of provision of free basic services is achieved.
The concept of government of the people by the people means that the ANC- led government did not only improve participation of citizens in decision- making, but also in the allocation of resources and the identification of local needs and priorities in the form of ward-based IDPs. As a result, more people this year have access to clean water and electricity, and have more opportunities to improve their lives.
On Tuesday, the Minister of Minerals and Energy in her budget speech in the NCOP referred to how we should define the supply of basic services whilst not identifying other types of basic services normally used by the poorest of the poor. Maybe it is time that Local Government and Minerals and Energy get together and just work on this to find out more.
Ek wil graag ’n bietjie Afrikaans praat, want ek is van die Wes-Kaap en my mense praat Afrikaans, en ek wil hulle taal praat. [Tussenwerpsels.] U sien, in die ou dae, in die tyd van apartheid, as ’n mens skuld gehad het, het hulle vir jou ’n pienk brief gebring – die finale kennisgewing – waarmee jy uitgesit word, en jy’s bang en skaam as jy daai pienk brief kry, want die bure langsaan begin al skinder, “Hulle gaan uitgesit word”, en wie weet wat nog alles.
Minister, elke maand kry duisende mense nou dié pienk briefies in Mitchells Plain, en dit lyk my die “Plain” word “ge-“target” soos ons sê, deur vir dié mense te sê hul krag of water gaan gesny word as hulle nie voor of op die sewende dag van die maand na vore kom om die agterstallige bedrag te betaal of om reëlings te tref nie, maar wat verskriklik snaaks of onbehoorlik is – jy moet nou mooi luister, agb lid – is dat indien jy die reëling wil gaan tref, dan moet jy die volle huidige bedrag betaal.
Sê nou die huidige bedrag is R500, dan moet jy daai R500 betaal en jy moet nou ’n sekere persentasie van die agterstallige bedrag ook betaal voordat jy ’n reëling kan tref. Dit maak dit mos vir ons mense onmoontlik. Dis mos onmoontlik! Met so ’n beleid is dit duidelik dat die mense nie ’n reëling kan tref om eens vorendag te kom om te betaal nie. [Tussenwerpsels.] Dis ’n burgemeester hier in die Kaap, ja. Ek wil nie name noem nie.
Die ander saak is, die mense moet nou ’n volle dag afneem by die werk, want die kantore is nie op ’n Saterdag oop nie. Ons mense moet nou die dag afneem en dan nog ’n halwe dag by die kantoor kom sit voordat hy kan betaal. [Tussenwerpsels.] As ’n mens ’n werk het – ek is seker baie van die lede gaan met my saamstem – wil dit nog nie sê jy is ryk nie. Ons mense verdien min. Hulle werk, maar dit wil nie sê hulle is ryk en hulle kan ’n klomp krag voor die tyd koop nie.
Ek wil ook net verwys … (Translation of Afrikaans paragraphs follows.)
[I would like to speak a little bit of Afrikaans, because I am from the Western Cape and my people speak Afrikaans, and I want to speak their language. [Interjections.] You see, in the olden days, during the time of apartheid, if you had debt, they brought you a pink letter - the final notice - according to which you are evicted, and you are afraid and ashamed when you get that pink letter, because the neighbours next door now starts gossiping, “They are going to be evicted”, and who knows what else.
Minister, at present thousands of people in Mitchells Plain get these pink letters every month, and it seems to me that the “Plain” is being targeted, as we would say, by telling these people that their power or water will be disconnected if they do not come forward to pay the arrears amount or make arrangements before or on the seventh day of the month. But what is very strange or improper is that - you have to listen carefully now, hon member
- if you want to go and make an arrangement, then you have to pay the amount due in full.
For instance, if the amount due is R500, then you have to pay that R500 and you also have to pay a certain percentage of the arrears amount, before you can make an arrangement. Of course this makes it impossible for our people. Indeed, this is impossible! With such a policy it is apparent that people cannot even arrange to come forward to pay. [Interjections.] It is a mayor here in the Cape, yes. I do not want to mention names.
The other matter is that the people now have to take an entire day off from work, because the offices are not open on a Saturday. Now our people have to take off a day and then they still have to come and sit at the office for half a day before they can pay. [Interjections.] If one has a job - I am sure many members will agree with me - it does not mean one is rich. Our people earn very little. They work, but that doesn’t mean they are rich and that they can buy a lot of electricity in advance.
I also just want to refer …]
The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON (Mr T S Setona): Hon member, could I just take a point from the hon Watson.
Mr A WATSON: Voorsitter, sal die agb lid ’n vraag beantwoord? [Chairperson, is the hon member prepared to take a question?]
Mr N J MACK: Nee. [No.]
Mr A WATSON: Dan ken hy seker nie die antwoord nie! [Then he probably doesn’t know the answer!]
The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON (Mr T S Setona): Order! The member is not prepared to take a question.
Mnr N J MACK: Ek wil ook graag na iets anders verwys. U weet, ons praat van goeie regering; wat Delft betref en die aanhitsing van mense om die huise te beset, wil ek iets vra. In die Stad Kaapstad was daar ’n hele hofsaak oor ’n raadslid wat daaraan skuldig bevind is dat hy mense aangehits het, en die Speaker in daardie raad het nog niks gedoen omtrent daardie saak nie. Graag wil ons weet wat daar aangaan, want die besetting van daardie huise was gegrond op rassisme. Dit was ’n geval waar swart- en bruinmense teen mekaar afgespeel is.
Minister, ons wil ook graag vra dat u net vir ons op ‘n ander saak lig moet werp; by Ysterplaat is daar grond wat reeds in 2002-03 vir behuising geïdentifiseer is. Ons wil graag weet hoe ver daardie proses is. Die grond is nodig, en sommige munisipaliteite sit nog met grond. Hoe kan ons die grond vir behuising beskikbaar kry? Dis egter ’n groter skande dat die Kaapstadse stadsraad nog nie eens die helfte van sy behuisingsbegroting bestee het nie. Dit is regtig ’n skande. (Translation of Afrikaans paragraphs follows.)
[Mr N J MACK: I would also like to refer to something else. You know, we speak about good governance; with regard to Delft and the incitement of people to occupy the houses, I want to ask something. In the City of Cape Town there was quite a lawsuit about a councillor who was found guilty of instigating people, and the Speaker in that council hasn’t done anything about this matter yet. We would really like to know what is happening there, because the occupation of those houses was based on racism. It was a matter of playing off blacks and coloureds against each other.
Minister, we would also like to ask that you shed light on another matter; in Ysterplaat there is land which had been identified for housing in 2002-
- We would really like to know how far that process is. The land is needed and certain municipalities still have land. How can we access this land to make it available for housing? It is, however, an even greater shame that the City of Cape Town hasn’t as yet spent half of its housing budget. It is really such a shame.]
Then I would like to speak about the instabilities of municipalities. Recently, what we’ve had, and mostly in the Western Cape, was what our MEC calls these “Maak ’n Las” municipalities, in which we have hung councils or one independent or a one-person party, and this one person holds the balance. Every time when it suits him, he becomes the mayor and with that everything, the MMs and all the officials, changes. There should be something we could do to get around this, because this affects delivery in our municipality.
Let me also refer you to my own constituency, Prince Albert, where we have three DA and three ANC councillors, and time and again councillors get up and walk out in an effort to stop the continuation of a council meeting. We should somehow address this in some way.
On the presidential nodes, I come from a presidential node, the Central Karoo, lots have been done. Our concern there is that we have an arts and culture centre and we have hydroponics; everything is built there, but how is the municipality supported to get projects and programmes going? At the moment the arts and culture centre is struggling. There are actually few things happening there. Maybe we can look into that.
We have now seen many programmes that are directly aimed at building capacity within the local municipalities, namely the Municipal Service Partnership, MSP. The MSP is based on implicit recognition that the capacity and skills in local government differ. Consequently, municipalities are assisted in the identification of potential service delivery partnerships as well as in the development of technically sound contractual arrangements.
It is also important for municipalities to have effective monitoring systems and tools in place to support free basic services. We have identified institutional challenges in operationalising the priorities specified in the Integrated Development Plans, IDPs. We must also express our disappointment in the continuous favouritism towards urban municipalities to the disadvantage of rural communities.
The concept of government of the people by the people means that this ANC- led government did not only improve participation of citizens in decision- making, but also in the allocation of resources and the identification of local needs and priorities in the form of ward-based IDPs. If we want to speak … The hon Watson is still moaning and groaning! Coming to the Community Development Workers, CDWs in the Cape Metro, there was no budget for them, no financial support.
With regard to the ward committee system in the Cape Town Metro, they now want to change it to a ward community forum. Why do we always have to do things differently in Cape Town than in the rest of South Africa? [Interjections.] Why is this always the case, as if we are an island and we don’t belong with South Africa? [Interjections.] This is the other issue that we should really look into.
It is, however, important to note that while all the other provinces and districts have launched their disaster management centres in compliance with the National Disaster Management Framework, others have confused this with an emergency service. It is also encouraging to see that other disaster management centres are in the advanced stage of having an easily recognisable toll-free communication number for emergencies.
There are challenges in disaster management which include the shortage of personnel, institutional arrangements, and the fact that the people who are driving disaster management issues are usually juniors, and maybe we should speak to people who have authority. Minister and Deputy Minister, I urge the House to support the Budget Vote. Thank you.
Mr M A MZIZI: Chairperson, Minister and the Deputy Minister, I salute you. There are many things that need to be taken into account when the budget is tabled. The department is expected to outline things or projects and its vision, which it will embark on during the financial year of spending the funds allocated to each programme or project. In that vein, the department has embarked on projects and supported provinces with the rolling out of the Local Government Anti-Corruption Strategy. The IFP welcomes this move.
To develop anti-corruption policies is a good concept when put down on paper. The question is whether our municipalities are ready to implement these strategies. Do they have the capacity to push this vehicle without hinderance? Does the department have sufficient funds to help capacitate these municipalities to train the personnel needed to enhance these projects?
A worrying factor in our local municipalities, especially those that are poor, is that one only hears of their failures when they are on the brink of collapsing. One does not get the sense that the provinces are offering help to these local municipalities at an early stage before intervention in terms of the Act. Chairperson, allow me to move onto another area.
The issue of traditional leadership as well as the national House of Traditional Leaders is another concern. We would like to get the opinion of the Minister on whether he thinks that the handling of issues of this house should be a competency of provincial or national government. [Interjections.]
The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON (Mr T S Setona): Is it parliamentary to eat and ask a question at the same time?
Mr B J TOLO: I’m not eating, Chairperson. I’m asking whether he is ready to take a question.
The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON (Mr T S Setona): Hon Mzizi, are you ready to take a question?
Mr M A MZIZI: I will take it at the end of my speech. He must just remind me. [Laughter.] My dilemma is that there is legislation being referred to the provinces as well as to the House of Traditional Leaders. I would appreciate if the statutes of the House of Traditional Leaders can be explained.
Sihlalo, ngivumele nje kengedlulise lo myalezo. Uyabona, lapha sikhuluma ngobukhosi bendabuko. Mhlawumbe abanye bacanga ukuthi sikhuluma nje ngoba sifuna ubukhosi noma sifuna ukuba amakhosi thina uqobo lwethu.
Kuthe ngosuku lumbe kule nyanga efile ngilaphaya eThekwini, Ngqongqoshe, ngahlangana neSilo samabandla endlini yangasese lapho kungena khona wonke umuntu. Ngazibuza ukuthi ngabe umthetho olandelwayo ukuphi. Ngasala nombuzo wokuthi kazi ubani ohlelayo uma iSilo samabandla sihamba siya ezindaweni. Ngacabanga nje ukuthi kazi uyakubheka yini lowo ukuthi siphephe kangakanani.
Ngqongqoshe, angikusho lokhu ukuthi isimo sobukhosi bendabuko, njengoba kuke kwasho uMongameli we-IFP, asisihle neze. Wabuye wacela nokuthi uMongameli wezwe ake alufakele izibuko lolu daba ukuze sikwazi ukuxoxisana kube khona lapho sifika khona ngalo, ngoba siyabona ukuthi amathunzi ayewukela - kuyashabalala.
Akungabi yithina, izingqalabutho, esavula leli Phalamende bese ngakusasa kuba yithi futhi okuthiwa sifike sadicilela phansi isithunzi sobukhosi bendabuko. Angifuni-ke ukuthi sisale nalolo fa. Ngqongqoshe, uma unesikhathi, asihlale phansi sixoxe ngalolu daba ukuze sikwazi ukuthi sifinyelele lapho esifuna ukuya khona. Ngiyabonga. (Translation of isiZulu paragraphs follows.)
[Chairperson, allow me to pass on this message. You see, here we are talking about traditional leadership. Maybe others think that we are just merely talking because we want amakhosi to be on our side or we want to be amakhosi ourselves.
Last month, when I was in Durban, hon Minister, I bumped into his Majesty King Zwelithini in the public toilets. I asked myself what protocol was being followed in letting his Majesty use the public toilet. I asked myself as to who the organiser of the king’s diary is. I wondered if that organiser cares about the safety of his Majesty.
Minister, let me say that the issue of traditional leadership, as the President of the IFP has alluded, is not treated with respect. He has also asked the President of the country to scrutinise this matter so that we can discuss it and reach common ground, because we can see that things are not going the way they should be - they are on the verge of vanishing.
We as the pioneers of this Parliament should not be seen to be stooping so low as to downgrade the integrity of the traditional leadership in future. I do not want us to leave such a legacy. Minister, if you have time, let us sit down and discuss this matter so as to move forward. Thank you.]
The DEPUTY MINISTER FOR PROVINCIAL AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT: Chairperson, the acting chairperson of the Select Committee on Local Government, hon members of the House, the hon provincial delegates, distinguished delegates from the SA Local Government Association, local councillors, ladies and gentlemen, this year, we have the opportunity and the duty to reflect on ten years of the implementation of the White Paper that was adopted in March 1998.
Today, I want to reflect on two areas where the White Paper gave us clear policy guidance, namely: Local government’s role in deepening local democracy; and the need for national and provincial government to support municipalities.
Ladies and gentlemen, how do you deepen local democracy? In 1998, the White Paper was clear when it stated that municipal councils play a central role in promoting local democracy. Municipalities need to be aware of the division within local communities and seek to promote the participation of marginalised and excluded groups in community processes.
Municipalities must adopt inclusive approaches to fostering community participation, including strategies aimed at removing obstacles, and actively encouraging the participation of marginalised groups in the local government community.
Hon members, two years after the adoption of the White Paper on Local Government this democratic Parliament passed the Local Government: Municipal Structures and Local Government: Municipal Systems Act of 2000, which spelled out how our municipalities should structure community participation through a system of ward committees across the country, which the acting chairperson has just referred to.
Today we have 3 895 wards demarcated across 6 metropolitan municipalities and 231 local municipalities. Our assessment is that 99% of these ward committees have been established, but their optimal functioning remains a challenge in many areas.
From national government’s perspective, we have developed national guidance and a tool kit to assist our municipalities with the establishment and functioning of these ward committees. The Municipal Imbizo Programme, which is aligined with Project Consolidate, that we undertook since 2005 was also aimed at highlighting the importance of deepening the mechanism for community participation on ward communities in particular.
Looking back, ladies and gentlemen, there has been a few indicators which suggest that our ward committees are not functioning as they should be. These include the low credibility of some of our Integrated Development Plans, IDPs, the local protests that we saw in some parts of the country, and most recently the attacks on foreign nationals.
If our systems of community participation were working very well, then many of these challenges could have been avoided or at least minimised. Where were they when these attacks took place? Where were the early warning signs that this was going to happen in our communities? This means that there is a big challenge in our system of ward committees and the Community Development Workers, CDW, programme.
The Local Government Strategic Agenda is committed to advancing and deepening the core principles of the 1998 White Paper on Local Government with regard to community participation. We have undertaken an assessment of some of the key obstacles to community participation, and we have reached the conclusion that one area that requires dedicated attention is the need to improve and stabilise the resource base of our ward committees.
What the Department of Provincial and Local Government has done in this regard is to launch a draft funding model for ward committees in 2008. This document describes a model for municipalities to better support and better fund the operations of ward committees. This has been an outcry for a long time, and we appeal to members of this House and our communities on the ground to give comments on this document.
In our assessment of municipalities, there are certain good examples of community participation. It is clear that these municipalities – such as Mangaung in the Free State Province, between 2001 – 2002; Blouberg Local Municipality in Limpopo in 2007; and Strand Local Municipality in the Western Cape – have set aside specific funds and resources, so all other municipalities can do the same.
Ladies and gentlemen, as the White Paper has argued, our motive for deepening local democracy is aimed at accelerating delivery and meeting the target for basic services that we have set as a country. We remain committed to our 1998 position, when we said that the participatory processes must not become an obstacle to development and narrow interest groups must not be allowed to capture the development process. Hon members know what am I referring to here.
It is therefore important for municipalities to find ways of structuring participation, which enhance rather than impede the delivery process. Hon members, our intergovernmental system compels national and provincial government to support municipalities in building their own overall capabilities, to manage their own affairs and exercise their powers, and to perform their functions. The Local Government Strategic Agenda that we adopted in 2006, for the current term of local government, was centrally focused on this objective.
Again, we are very mindful of the 1998 White Paper, when it stated that national government must establish an overall framework for municipal capacity-building and support; national government is committed to supporting and strengthening organised local government and to enable it to perform its constitutional role.
Between 1998 and 2008, we as a government, organised local government, Salga and key partners, have collectively mobilised significant support for our municipalities. Our fundamental conclusion is that we have to organise that support to meet the developmental outcomes that we have set ourselves as a government.
Today, we are happy to announce to the House that last week we launched and revised the National Capacity-Building Framework for Local Government. This framework is aimed at providing a set of overarching goals for local government capacity-building, building on the foundation of ongoing appropriate capacity-building such as the lessons from Project Consolidate, providing a framework for a package of support based on government-wide and local priorities and, largely, managing and ensuring a more enabling environment for capacity support.
Hon member, before I conclude I would like to say thank you to the Hon Minister for Provincial and Local Government, the hon Sidney Mufamadi, for the wonderful opportunity of working with him. It has been an enriching period that has provided us with great experiences. Hon Minister, to you I say: “A road well travelled together”.
Many thanks to the staff members of the Ministry and the department as well as to all of the hon members who have in the past assisted us and kept a check on us, just to ensure that we stay focused on our programmes and our mandates that are necessary to improve our country. I would also like to say thank you to the Director-General of the Department for Provincial and Local Government and her helpful team.
It has been a long road, hon members, but I am proud that we have travelled it with great determination so far, and we feel good about handing over the batons to other members of our organisation to run the next lap. We will always wish them success in all their endeavours that are aimed at improving people’s lives, and we will always be there and be ready to assist where our hands are needed.
In conclusion ladies, gentlemen, I believe we have laid the bases for deepening local democracy and strengthening our intergovernmental support to our municipalities. We call on all our communities, ward committees, municipalities, and key stakeholders to deepen their commitment, to partner with us so that we can realise the vision of the Freedom Charter as it was adopted in Kliptown in 1955 when it said that the people shall govern.
I thank you. [Applause.]
Mr P MCKENZIE (Western Cape): Hon members, Minister, it’s again a privilege to be here and thank you very much for the opportunity.
Ek wil net vir daardie agb lede sê wat gesê het dat ek nou gaan klippe gooi: Al wat ek wil sê is, ek onderskryf wat die agb Mbeki gesê het. [Gelag.] [I just want to tell those hon members who have said that I am now going to throw stones: All that I want to say is, I endorse what the hon Mbeki has said. [Laughter.]]
The Western Cape province, of course, is encountering unique challenges, especially with regard to disasters and fires, particularly given the shifting realities of our climate change in the Western Cape and in the country as a whole. It’s shocking but during the last year alone, disasters cost our province R1 billion.
In the past five years we have seen a range of disasters. These include fire damage to informal settlements in the Metro; flood damage in the Southern Cape; drought in the Karoo, and by now we know for a fact that fires will occur in the Western Cape during the summer months. We also know that there is going to be floods in the Western Cape during the winter months.
Given that reality, and because all of us are aware that those things are going to happen, we in the Western Cape had to change gear in terms of being proactive and, therefore, carefully plan in terms of mitigation, preparedness and recovery. An initiative funded by the Development Bank of Southern Africa is an example of what we have done to mitigate such risks. This initiative established 11 trainee, education and awareness teams in high-risk areas. The project includes first aid training, fire prevention, home care and environmental health as well as disaster risk reduction. Presently, there are approximately 926 volunteers, trained as part of this effort, to make these high-risk communities safer.
Over 2000 learners and 50 teachers from primary schools in Kayamandi, Phola Park and Khayelitsha will also be involved in this initiative to incorporate learning about risk management into their curriculum. That is the best way to go in terms of getting more and more volunteers involved.
The Vulnerability Study Index which we commissioned in December 2007 is another way that we are using in order to be more proactive. The aim of the study was to identify and develop a list of high risk informal areas that are vulnerable to flooding and fires in the Western Cape. You will recall that in our informal areas there is always flooding during the winter months, and these have become high-risk areas. This study is currently being refined to include the state of living conditions in these vulnerable areas, and is set to be completed by September this year.
As a cornerstone of our preparation and co-ordination efforts the Disaster Management Centre launched its intergovernmental relations structures on 1 April 2008. The purpose of these structures is to ensure that the political as well as technical and administrative activities and policies are aligned with proper implementation of the Disaster Management Act.
These structures will also ensure good working relations between the provincial ambulance services, the provincial traffic services, Disaster Management Services, and above all municipalities. We are still waiting for the Cape Town Municipality to work with us; I see we are in and out of court all the time. The Minister needs to assist so that the Cape Town Municipality can play a positive role, as our Freedom Charter states that South Africa belongs to all its people. So we also say that the Western Cape belongs to everyone who lives in it, and therefore those people need to be protected.
Recent major incidents that have just occurred are the Harlem hail disaster as well as the West Coast and southern coast floods. It’s almost clear to us that in the Southern Cape, with the roads that have been ruined and in the absence of access roads, this could become almost a norm in our society. It is also apparent that our preparation for the 2010 World Cup must include serious planning for the increased risk exposure from transport related accidents and a possible lack of essential services such as water, electricity, sewerage and health.
The National Defence Force in collaboration with the SA Police Service utilised the Disaster Management Centre here in the Western Cape as a joint operational centre during the multidisciplinary exercise, which was aimed at securing the airspace around our Green Point Stadium. The feedback that we received from the role-players involved was that the provincial Disaster Management can be regarded as the best of its kind in the country.
Through our community outreach programmes that we have been doing in the Western Cape this year, we have travelled through this province meeting communities in municipality halls, school halls and even in open fields. To date, we have interacted in the Western Cape with 14 500 community workers, to listen and engage on the bread and butter issues. This programme gives community members a platform to question us because we are accountable. The ANC leadership is accountable to the people with regard to what we do and how we do it. We also share our wisdom with each other.
Following our Integrated Development Plan Budget Education and Awareness Campaign last year, we continued our efforts to improve community participation in local government activities. Our findings from the campaign told us that unfortunately some municipalities continue to view public participation as a mere legislative compliance issue, and not as one of its core competencies. We need to stress the fact that municipalities are only municipalities because the people voted for them and therefore they are responsible to speak to the people.
Simple changes are required in order for citizens’ participation to be meaningful. For example, the language used in the IDP budget documents can become a barrier for engagement, and this is what we have seen. We have, thus, committed ourselves to an annual education and awareness campaign to open up the consultation process, and educate communities on the importance of their involvement in the IDP and other local government processes. The roll-out of the second phase of the IDP public awareness campaign in the Western Cape starts this month.
We have certainly travelled a long road with the municipalities on the strengthening of IDPs in the Western Cape. Four years ago, IDPs were largely compliance driven and focused on the terms of the council. The analysis contained in the IDPs was underdeveloped and did not reflect long- term thinking. In contrast, our most recent assessment – the 2007-8 assessment of IDPs in this province – we have identified 23 credible IDPs, three excellent and four underdeveloped IDPs. In fact, I can honestly say that it was in the DA municipalities where there was a lack of community participation.
As part of our work to improve consultation with regard to development plans as well as the quality of those plans, we have given individual feedback to municipalities on the IDPs through assessment reports, which identify areas where they have done well and those areas that need further development. This year we have managed to bring all sector departments into this process of scrutinising specific areas.
So, I want to say that local development is very challenging and we are seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. I want to say: Thank you, Minister, to you and your department for the initiative, the planning and the forward focusing because service delivery basically happens at local government level. I thank you. [Applause.]
Mnu Z C NTULI: Mphathisihlalo, Ngqongqoshe, Sekela Ngqongqoshe, Bahlonishwa Nabahlonishwakazi. Ngizocaphuna laphayana kuMqulu Wenkululeko lapho uthi khona Abantu bayobusa kumbe abantu bayophatha”. Yingakho-ke uhulumeni oholwa yi-ANC ekubona kubalulekile ukuthi umphakathi kube yiwona obamba iqhaza ekuphathweni kwabo.
Izinsizakusebenza nokwakhiwa kukahulumeni wasekhaya kusezingeni elifanele. Umsebenzi omkhulu kuhulumeni kusukela ngonyaka ka 1994, bekuwukuhlakaza izinhlaka zobandlululo ukuze kwakhiwe lezo ezingacwasi nezakha isizwe esibumbene.
Uhlelo lokuhlakazwa kwalezi zinhlaka lubulale izakhiwo zemikhandlu yomasipala ebiyi-1200 eya yakhiwe ngezimiso zobandlululo. Izinhlaka ezine zokuphathwa kwezifundazwe nezinye eziyishumi zama- Bantustan. Zonke lezi zinhlaka seziqheliswa, kwafakwa omasipala abangama-281 ; izifundazwe eziyisishiyagalolunye kanye nohulumeni kaz welonke. Zonke lezi zinhlaka zesekwe izimiso zentando yeningi.
Lolu hlelo oluthintwe ngenhla beluphoqa ukuthi kwakhiwe uhulumeni wentando yeningi, kanye nohlaka lohulumeni basekhaya oluthuthukisayo nolwazisa abantu. Yilona futhi lolu hlelo olwenzelwe ukuba sakhe imigomo emihle nezimiso zokwakhiwa kukahulumeni wabantu. Ekugcineni bekufanele sigcine sakhe uhulumeni wasekhaya okulungele ukubhekana nezinselelo zokuthuthukiswa kwemiphakathi yakithi.
Ngenxa yokusondelana nomphakathi, uhulumeni wasekhaya wanikwa amandla okuthola nokuqondisa izinhlelo zentuthuko ngokumbandakanya umphakathi nokwakufanele uphinde uqeqesheke ngentuthuko yawo.
Ngaphambi kuka 1994 ukunikezelwa kwezidingo zomphakathi kwakuya ngokuthi ungumtakabani, kwakungekhona okomphakathi wonkana futhi kwakungahlinzekeli abadinga izinsizakalo. Konke lokhu kwavele kwaphoqa ukuthi kuphasiswe imithetho nemigomo emisha ukuze uhulumeni omusha wasekhaya abe ngonakekelayo.
Sihlalo, igxathu elibalulekile ohlelweni olusha lukahulumeni wasekhaya elokumbandakanywa komphakathi nezindawo zomasipala. Amakomidi amawadi adlala indima enkulu ezibophezelweni kukahulumeni nomphakathi. Siyakuqonda ukuthi kungasithatha isikhathi eside ukuthi lokhu kuzimbandakanya kwenzeke ngendlela elindelekile, ikakhulukazi ukusebenza kwamakomidi emawodini.
Lokhu-ke kuyasiphoqa ukuba sibe nomkhankaso wokuqeqesha imiphakathi ngobukhona kwamakomidi amawadi kanye nokusebenza kwawo. Phela yiwona kanye asekela isiqubulo lesi engike ngasisho esithi Abantu bayobusa”, futhi nesisinikeza isisindo embonweni wentuthuko eholwa ngabantu.
Kubalulekile ukuthi sifake izinsizakusebenza kulawa makomidi. Sihlalo, Ngqongqoshe kungakuhle ukuthi ama-IDPs lawa enziwa komasipala abe nesabiwomali sawo odwa esivela kuhulumeni kazwelonke. Lokhu ngikusho ngoba phela sonke njengoba silapha nje sihlala emawadini yize-ke noma ngokokusebenza kwethu siwuzwelonke.
Okunye okufanele sikuqaphele ukuthi sizame ukwakha imiphakathi enobuntu kanti futhi eyaziyo ngamalungelo ayo. Lokhu kungenzeka ngokuthi uma kukhona izimbizo abantu banikezwe ithuba lokubeka zonke izikhalazo zabo. Inselelo kufanele ibhekiswe ebantwini ukuthi bazi ngemisebenzi eyenziwa ngamakomidi amawadi bakhulumisane nawo uma behlangabezana nezingqinamba.
Kukhona lo Mthethosivivinywa esizama ukuwuchibiyela, okuyi-Local Government Laws Ammendment Bill. Ngqongqoshe isigaba 139 salo Mthethosivivinywa esikhuluma ngokuhlakazwa kukamasipala, besithi uma ngawe umasipala uhlakaziwe, kungaba kuhle phela ukuthi amakomidi amawadi anikezwe amandla kube nosihlalo ozokwazi ukuthi aqhubeke asebenze. Lokhu sikusho ngoba bekuyaye kuthi uma kuhlakazwe umasipala bese nekomidi lewadi lithi alisazi ukuthi lizohlangana kanjani ngoba alisenaye usihlalo.
Kwabuye futhi kwenziwe nohlelo lwama-community development workers ukuze kuvalwe izikhala kuphinde kwandiswe indlela yokuletha intuthuko kubantu abahluphekayo nababe cindezelekile phambilini. Lolu hlelo luzosisiza futhi ekuphuculweni ubudlelwano phakathi kukahulumeni nabantu baseNingizimu Afrika.
Uhulumeni oholwa yi-ANC wethule uhlelo lokuzama nokulwa nenkohlakalo, i- anti-corruption strategy ngonyaka ka 2006 ngemva kokhetho lohulumeni basemakhaya. Kwethulwa nendlela yokuziphatha kwamakhansela. Lokhu kukhombisa ukuthi i-ANC izimisele ngokuthi imelwe ngamakhansela afanelekile futhi azofezekisa izidingo zomphakathi.
Okufanele kucace ukuthi yize uhulumeni wayenza le ndlela yokuziphatha kwamakhansela, kepha lokho akusho ukuthi inkohlakalo isizophela ngelanga eliphezulu, kodwa-ke ukuba khona kwayo kuyawenza umehluko. UMthetho Wokuphathwa Kwezimali Zomasipala ukubeka ngokusobala ukuthi amakhansela akufanele ukuba ahlale emihlanganweni yamathenda, futhi akufanele aphazamise nokuphunyeleliswa kwawo amathenda.
Siyakhumbula Ngqongqoshe ngesikhathi sokukhankaselwa kokhetho lohulumeni basemakhaya ngonyaka ka 2006 ukuthi kwaba yi-ANC kuphela eyathi amakhansela kuyofuneka ukuthi njalo ngemva kwekota abuyele ayochaza ngezinto azenzile nezinto angazenzanga, asho nokuthi akude kangakanani nokuthi kulethwe intuthuko.
Kanti futhi sabuye sathi amakhansela amawadi kuyodingeka ukuthi ahlale lapho ekhethwe khona ngumphakathi. Lena kwakungenye yezindlela zokutshengisa njalo ukuthi silwa kanjani nenkohlakalo. (Translation of isiZulu paragraphs follows.)
[Mr Z C NTULI: Thank you, Chairperson, hon Minister, hon Deputy Minister, and hon Members of Parliament. I will start by quoting from the Freedom Charter, where it is says that “The People Shall Govern”. And it is for this very reason that the ANC-led government felt it very important that the people should shape their own destiny.
The facilities and infrastructure for local government are on an acceptable level. Since 1994, the main task for the government has been to dismantle apartheid structures so as to give way to the formation of nondiscriminatory structures and those which would help in building a united nation.
The dismantling of these structures did away with about 1200 structures of municipal councils that were based on discriminatory principles. There were four provincial administration structures and also ten Bantustan administrations. All these structures were done away with, and instead 281 municipalities were put in place, supported by nine provinces and national government. And all these structures are based on democratic principles.
The above-mentioned programme was meant to enforce the establishment of a democratic government and the local government which develops people and which is people-orientated. It is this very programme that is also meant to make good policies and principles which we used to form the peoples’ government. Eventually we had to form a local government which was ready to face the challenges of developing our communities.
Because of its proximity to the people, the local government was therefore empowered to find and direct development programmes through the involvement of the very communities who would in turn receive training about their own development.
Prior to 1994, the provision of services was for a selected few, it was not for the entire community, and did not cater for the needy. All this necessitated the passing of new laws and new policies to enable the new local governments to care.
Chairperson, the important objective in the new programme of local government is to involve the municipalities and the communities at large. Ward committees play a major role in government’s commitment to the communities. We fully understand that community involvement might take a longer time to function as expected, especially the functioning of ward committees.
This therefore forces us to have a campaign of educating communities about the presence of ward committees and their functions. After all, ward committees form a base for the clarion call I quoted earlier on, which says “The People Shall Govern”, and which gives weight to our vision of people- centred development.
It is important that we place more resources in these committees, thus empowering them. Chairperson, hon Minister, it would be an ideal situation for the IDPs in the municipalities to have their own budget which is from National Treasury. I am saying this because we are all from the wards even though we are here as national government.
The other matter that we need to be vigilant about is to try and build communities who have ubuntu and know their rights as well. This would be possible if we call izimbizo and people are given opportunities to voice their concerns. The challenge must be directed to the communities who should be informed that they need to learn more about the functions of the ward committees and engage them when they are faced with difficulties.
There is a Bill that we are currently amending - the Local Government Laws Amendment Bill. Hon Minister, where section 139 is concerned it would be proper, when the council is dissolved, for the ward committees to be given powers to function and be given a chairperson who would keep the ball rolling. We are saying this, because initially when the council was dissolved, the ward committees were unable to function because they could not meet without the chairperson.
The programme for community development workers was also started to close the gaps that are there and also to spread the wings of development to the struggling and the previously oppressed communities. This programme will also help to improve the relations between the government and the people of South Africa.
The ANC-led government introduced an anti-corruption strategy after the local government elections in 2006, which was aimed at fighting corruption. A code of conduct for councillors was also introduced. All this shows that the ANC wants to be represented by councillors who are without blame and who will deliver and fulfil the needs of the communities.
What must be made clear here is that, although the government introduced this code of conduct for councillors, it does not mean that corruption will just vanish overnight, but the presence of such mechanisms does make a difference. The Local Government Municipal Finance Management Act states clearly that municipal councillors are not supposed to be part of tender or bid meetings; they are also not supposed to interfere with the tender processes.
Hon Minister, you will remember that it was only the ANC during its campaign in 2006 for the local government elections which, in its manifesto, had a clause stating that all its councillors would have to report back on their achievements and failures at least four times a year. Councillors would also be expected to mention the distance they have travelled in terms of service delivery.
We also stated that ward councillors would have to remain in the same ward where they were elected. And this was yet another way of showing our seriousness in fighting corruption.]
In 2004 Project Consolidate was launched for the support and engagement programme, which focuses on struggling municipalities. The main aim for Project Consolidate was to introduce service delivery facilitators into the municipalities to assist with service provision, financial management and other municipal functions where there was a lack of capacity.
Hon Van der Merwe, you have to look at intervention from a positive angle. If the provincial government intervenes, they are assisting the municipalities, which involves Project Consolidate. So look at the positive side, don’t be pessimistic. [Interjections.] A positive impact has been shown by the municipalities who have been using Project Consolidate. In the meantime, there are about 136 Project Consolidate municipalities. Improvement has been shown in the Project Consolidate municipalities; vacancies have been filled; key posts like Municipal Managers and Chief Financial Officers have been filled; and reporting to the accounting system is in place.
Baba uMzizi, i-IFP kade iphethe KwaZulu-Natali iminyaka elishumi yonke kodwa asizange siyizwe le ndaba yenu yamakhosi ukuthi nina ngokwenu nifuna ukuthi aphathwe kanjani.
Sengathi-ke Baba ùMzizi ningeza nesisombululo ningahlale nijikijela nigxeka nithi i-ANC ayisho ukuthi amakhosi mawuphathwe kanjani. Ake nisho nina-ke ukuthi nifuna ukuthi amakhosi aphathwe kanjani, ngemva kwalokho siyobe se siyahlangabezana-ke. Siyasesekela lesi sabiwomali. (Translation of isiZulu paragraphs follows.)
[I wish to inform the hon Mzizi that the IFP has been in power in KwaZulu- Natal for ten years and we have never heard its pronouncements on the treatment of amakhosi. The IFP has never presented a clear-cut stand on the treatment of amakhosi.
How we wish that hon Mzizi and the IFP may come up with a solution on the treatment of amakhosi and not just always criticize and point fingers at the ANC. We dare you to tell us how you want us to treat them. And we will then meet each other halfway. We support the budget.]
Cllr S W MXOLOSE (Salga): Hon Chairperson, hon Minister and Deputy Minister, hon members and special delegates, ladies and gentlemen, let me first apologise on behalf of our national chairperson, Cllr Masondo. He meant to be part of this meeting today, but owing to, South African Local Government Association, Salga business overseas, he cannot be with us today. Please, accept his apologies.
The transformation of local government in our country over the past 15 years has placed it strategically in terms of the developmental role it must play. This is particularly so in view of the close and tangible location of local government with regard to the communities they serve. Specifically, local government is at the coalface of service delivery and as such is the most well-placed sphere of government to interact with the communities.
If local government is to achieve the aspirations of finding sustainable ways to meet communities’ social, economic and material needs and improve the quality of their lives, we must ensure that there is an appropriate financial capacity, financial sustainability and the embedding of developmental governance within municipalities.
To date, numerous interventions and support programmes have been undertaken in an effort to strengthen municipal finance capability. These have included the deployment of chartered accounts to address challenges regarding audits and financial procedures. Engineers have also been deployed to strengthen the municipal project management function, particularly in terms of infrastructure management activities.
We applaud the 503 financial management interns who were supported through the financial management grant. The same group is being formally integrated into the staff complement of our municipalities in order to address the issue of skills shortage.
Salga is currently prioritising efforts in the area of fiscal transfers. This is regarded as the critical area that will enable municipalities to retain revenue streams. This will also increase the resources available for service delivery.
Accordingly, we welcome and support the increase by 17,1% per annum of local government transfers. The increase recognises increased service delivery costs, increased demand for basic infrastructure for the poor, and support for poorer municipalities.
Over the medium-term period from 2008-09 to 2010-11, through the local government equitable share, the Municipal Systems Improvement Grant and the municipal infrastructure grant, local government will receive a total of R122,5 billion.
Needless to say, we are conscious of service delivery challenges, including restraints on capacity to spend which, in our view is a passing phenomenon, as demonstrated immediately below. This is a serious boost to local government’s readiness to take on the war against poverty and the eradication thereof.
Salga has noted that spending patterns show improvement. Municipalities have been able to spend 97% of their allocations by the end of the municipal financial year. As many as 113 municipalities were able to spend 100% of their municipal infrastructure grant allocations by the end of March this year.
Salga will continue to work with stakeholders to eradicate impediments that impair the capacity of municipalities to implement effectively planned projects, which will lead to 100% spending of allocated funds.
The Auditor–General has said that, with regard to the submission of municipal financial statements, there has been an improvement. By the due date of 31 August 2007, the number of timely submissions of these statements stood at 81%, meaning that 230 municipalities submitted their statements timeously.
Whilst the essence goes beyond the submission to the quality thereof, we must say that “a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” Salga will continue to work together with the Department for Provincial and Local Government, national sector departments, provincial departments, traditional leaders and other stakeholders to support and improve the performance of our municipalities.
In order to maximise the impact of our investments, it is critical to deepen the consolidation, co-ordination, and integration between government spheres. Salga believes that this approach will provide greater insight into the challenges faced with regard to economic delivery and economic development, as well as the resource requirements to address the challenges.
I want to conclude by saying that the collective objectives of government at large are achievable. It is therefore incumbent upon all three sphere of government to act in unison, to support one another in a manner that ensures that their joint actions are greater than the sum of their individual efforts.
I must quote the words of Minister Manuel during his Budget Speech, when he remarked, and I quote:
The goals and challenges we have discussed and the constraints of our present circumstances confront all of us who share a stake in the South African economy, as government, as business, as workers, as local communities, as families, as citizens and taxpayers. We are in this together …
Salga is “in this together” with you, Minister Mufamadi, to ensure that the goals as outlined in the department’s Budget Vote are realised. I thank you very much, Chair. [Applause.]
Ms B L NTEMBE: Hon Chairperson, hon Minister, hon Deputy Minister, hon members and all other protocol observed, we are aware of the effort of the government to try and rectify inefficiency, corruption and bad service delivery in local government. However, why the secrecy in relation to results when cases are reported and supposedly investigated? Whatever the outcome, those who reported such matters need to be informed of the outcome. Because of the lack of this kind of response, people are under the impression that steps are not taken to rectify matters when needed. Yes, we know about being innocent until proven guilty, but when found innocent or guilty, according to the Bill of Rights, everyone has the right of access to any information held by the state. Why is it so hard to obtain this kind of information?
When complaints are submitted, the response will come by acknowledgement of receipt of a letter and/or who the letter is directed at, and it ends there. If this is the trend, how are we going to root out corruption? Is government really serious about fighting corruption, if this is the approach it has? You’ll hear now, hon Mack.
Transparency on these issues is important, however, the message that we get at the moment is that you can’t know government business, if you are not a member of the ruling party. [Interjections.]
When we are chosen by the people to lead and serve them, surely we are not doing them a favour. It is our responsibility to do so. We are getting paid by the people to do it. I was told from this podium that we must take the complaints or cases to the police. It is fine to do so, if we have access to the files of the relevant municipalities, when complaints come through. Are we allowed access to these files? No, not at all.
With regard to complaints about corruption in projects at Victoria West’s Ubuntu Municipality, and at the De Aar’s Emthanjeni Municipality in the Northern Cape the hon Sulliman knows where it is – in the Naledi Municipality, and the Mafube Municipality in the Free State, nothing is heard from the relevant authorities …
The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON (Mr T S Setona): Hon member, can you take an order from the Chair? I will have difficulty protecting you from heckling by members, if you don’t take orders from me. I am taking an order and you just continue to speak.
Mr M A SULLIMAN: Chair, I would like to know if the hon member is prepared to take a question?
The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON (Mr T S Setona): Are you prepared to take a question?
Ms B L NTEMBE: At the end, hon Chairperson. Thank you. [Laughter.] Even when the Ministry of Local …
The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON (Mr T S Setona): Hon member, can I take another point of order. The hon member seems to have a problem today and I don’t know why. Hon Chief Whip.
The CHIEF WHIP OF THE COUNCIL: Chairperson, can the hon member please address us and not sing to us.
The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON (Mr T S Setona): Hon member, please continue.
Ms B L NTEMBE: Hon Chairperson, I have learned this from the ANC. [Laughter.] Even when the Ministry of Local Government …
The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON (Mr T S Setona): Can I take a point of order from the hon Themba?
Ms M P THEMBA: Chairperson, is it parliamentary for an hon member to mislead the House?
The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON (Mr T S Setona): There is consensus that you can’t make reference to another member using the word “mislead”. I’ll check that, hon Themba, and I will make a ruling on the matter.
Ms B L NTEMBE: Chairperson, even when the Ministry of Local Government refers such alleged corruption cases to the anti-corruption unit and a follow-up is done, you will be asked to resend the file. [Time expired.]
Mr A L MOSEKI: Thank you, Chairperson, hon Minister, hon Deputy Minister, colleagues, Salga representatives and our honoured guests, I just to want to start where the hon Ntembe left off. She is saying that she has learned this misbehaviour from the ANC. That is probably the reason why she actually left the ANC, because members of the ANC do not misbehave. They are not mischievous. [Interjections.] They are politically disciplined. That must be corrected, Chairperson.
Chapter 3 of the Constitution states that:
In the Republic, government is constituted as national, provincial and local spheres of government which are distinctive, interdependent and interrelated.
In that context again there are principles that guide the interrelationship of the three spheres and that is to “preserve the peace, national unity and the indivisibility of the Republic” so as to “secure the well-being of the people” in the country.
It is also to “provide effective, transparent, accountable and coherent government” in all spheres. This is in the spirit of interrelatedness in government. These principles emphasise the need for the three spheres of government to work together continuously in order to ensure that effective and quality services are delivered to our people.
In the past 14 years we have, on a yearly basis, interacted with the department to review progress made since the last financial year, but there has also been continuous interaction on matters of strategic importance. In all these interactions we have learned that the local sphere of governance has had serious challenges at the beginning, particularly with regard to the development and submission of their IDPs at the beginning of the financial year.
Having identified these problems, the department developed what they called a hands-on strategy to assist the municipalities to get out of those emergency situations. We as the select committee are pleased to report in this House that at our recent meeting held with the department, we received a report saying that the situation has improved in the last two financial years. Indeed, in the last financial year, a 100 per cent of the IDPs were submitted on time, as required. For that we want to commend the department for doing this wonderful job so as to ensure that our local government sphere is able to execute its responsibilities as required.
On the other hand, as a select committee we have also identified a challenge that seems not to be addressed. When you look at what the national department is doing, vis-à-vis what the provincial department is doing with regard to helping the municipalities, the national department is doing more than the provincial departments. We have learned that the department has already taken steps to ensure that the provincial departments are also capacitated. We therefore want to urge the department to intensify that programme to ensure that the provincial departments of local government are able to monitor and identify problems that confront the municipalities continuously and intervene decisively in time. We believe that if that is done most of the problems that the municipalities are being confronted with will be dealt with in time and we might actually learn, in the next term of Parliament, that none of the municipalities have had problems.
The other important issue that we want to raise with regard to this debate is the issue of local economic development. Local economic development is of strategic importance in terms of ensuring that the lives of our people, particularly the most disadvantaged and vulnerable communities, are improved. The committee has observed that whilst the frameworks are there and much effort is being made to ensure that this area is attended to, much more still needs to be done to ensure that key stakeholders and role- players at the local community-based structural level are taken on board to boost what the municipality and other departments would have done.
With regard to the issue of traditional leaders, the Minister has referred to this matter to say that a lot is being done. We agree that a lot has been done and a lot is still to be done. It is our observation that these institutions have a tendency of losing their main core function and focusing on other things that are actually the core functions of other entities. We therefore want to appeal to the institution itself, first of all, to begin to take its own core functions very seriously. We raise this because when you look at the promotion of our cultures and traditions as Africans, in some areas it leaves much to be desired. You expect this institution to play that role to ensure that the traditions of our people are actually promoted at all times.
The other important issue that we wanted to raise is the issue of the donors and international relations. We are happy that those states are helping us to develop as a developing democracy but we say that this should be unconditional and it should be used to strengthen our democracy and nothing else.
In conclusion, we want to thank the department and the Minister for the co- operation that they have given to the select committee. Thank you very much.
The MINISTER FOR PROVINCIAL AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT: Chairperson and hon members, allow me to say a big thank you to all the hon members who participated in this debate, and for the words of advice that were proffered in the course of the discussion. I must also say that we are in the company of officials from the department who are very alert and who would have taken note of the various issues that were raised and which require follow-ups.
The hon Mr Van der Merwe wants to know if our planning of budget allocation does take into account what he calls “remote areas” and is worried about the perceived bias towards urban municipalities. Well, I must say, as I indicated earlier, that we tend to be biased indeed in favour of those municipal areas which were historically neglected. So, there will be no basis for suggesting that there is perpetuation of the injustices of the past. Indeed, the big challenge we face is because of that legacy. There are problems of capacity constraints which you cannot solve merely by throwing money at the problem.
In fact, I was surprised that after this concern was expressed, we were commended for withholding meagre allocations to municipalities that are considered to be lacking the capacity to spend those allocations. I must say that, on the contrary, our view is that in instances where there is insufficient capacity we must find capacity from outside those municipalities concerned and deploy that capacity to those municipalities.
However, we are aware that whatever progress you realise on the basis of this kind of deployment of external expertise such progress will not be sustainable, which explains why, as the Deputy Minister was saying, we have launched a National Capacity-Building Framework for local government in order to ensure that we can work with weaker municipalities and enable them to put resources into uses for which they are allocated.
The hon Mr Mack drew our attention to the spending problems, the incapacity, again, to spend on the part of some of our municipalities. He said that there are instances where funds are actually used for purposes other than those for which they were intended. A case in point is allocations for the Municipal Infrastructure Grant which he says end up being used on salaries.
The Municipal Infrastructure Grant is a conditional grant and the transfers are effected on the basis of business plans or infrastructure projects provided by municipalities as they make applications for allocations.
I wouldn’t imagine that if there are instances of the kind that were referred to by the hon Mr Mack, those problems would be that pervasive. They would rather be exceptions, particularly in view of the report that was given by the hon representative of Salga, Councillor Mxolose, about the spending patterns which have improved and the actual outcomes that we have seen on the ground.
I have taken note of the alleged inadequate support to the Central Karoo Municipality, which is a rural node. Present amongst the officials in this department is the Deputy Director-General responsible for the Urban Renewal Programme as well as the Rural Development Programme. Therefore, with her having taken note of this, we will be happy to follow this up later.
The hon Mr Mzizi wants to know the Minister’s view about whether provincial government or national government should take responsibility for the management of the affairs of the provincial House of Traditional Leadership. Well, I must say that the opinion of an individual, irrespective of the position that individual occupies, is less important than the collective view of this House, as well as the NA.
You have decided as members of this House that this must be a concurrent function. I don’t know why it becomes necessary for you to establish what my personal opinion is. [Laughter.] This is a shared responsibility; it will remain such irrespective of which party is the majority party in any province. So, we need to be less expedient and stay principled on the matter. If it was convenient for this matter to be handled by provinces in 1999, then it must remain convenient even now.
I have also taken note of the concern raised by the hon Mr McKenzie about the instances where language becomes a barrier to participation in municipal affairs. I hope he took note of a three-day national conference that was held here in Cape Town on multilingualism, especially the discussion about the role that municipalities should play in making sure that we facilitate the participation of the generality of the population in the affairs of government, in particular of municipalities, through ease of access, especially linguistic access, to the business of municipalities.
The hon Ntembe was unfortunate because her time was too short. She finished before I could make sense of what she was trying to say. [Laughter.] I hope we will have an occasion to discuss some of the issues, especially if she comes back to the ANC where she will have a better opportunity to discuss matters. Thank you very much. [Applause.]
The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON (Mr T S Setona): Hon members, I must once more take the opportunity to thank the Minister and Deputy Minister and senior officials of the department for responding to their obligation - an obligation to come and make this presentation here. We really appreciate that, hon Minister. Thanks very much.
Debate concluded.
CONSIDERATION OF REPORT OF SELECT COMMITTEE ON PETITIONS AND MEMBERS’ LEGISLATIVE PROPOSALS – FACT FINDING MISSION TO NEW EERSTERUS, HAMMANSKRAAL
ON 29 NOVEMBER 2007
Mr F ADAMS: Hon Chairperson, distinguished members of the House, today I put to you the report of the Select Committee on Petitions and Members’ Legislative Proposals on the Fact Finding Mission to New Eersterus, Hammanskraal on 29 November 2007 as printed in the ATC on 2 June 2007. Today it is 12 June 2008 and I hope that members used their 10 days to read this report. I put this report to the House to be adopted. Debate concluded.
The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON (Mr T S Setona): I shall now put the question. The question is that the report be adopted. As the decision is dealt with in terms of section 65 of the Constitution, I shall first ascertain whether all delegation heads are present.
In accordance with Rule 71, I shall first allow provinces the opportunity to make their declarations of votes if they so wish.
We shall now proceed to the voting on the question and I will do this in alphabetical order per province.
The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON (Mr T S Setona): Eastern Cape?
Mr A T MANYOSI: Supports.
The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON (Mr T S Setona): Free State?
Mr C J VAN ROOYEN: Supports.
The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON (Mr T S Setona): Gauteng?
Ms N M MADLALA-MAGUBANE: Supports.
The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON (Mr T S Setona): KwaZulu-Natal?
Mr Z C NTULI: Siyavuma. [We agree.]
The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON (Mr T S Setona): Limpopo?
Ms H F MATLANYANE: Ya seketela. [We support.]
The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON (Mr T S Setona): Mpumalanga?
Mr V V Z WINDVOЁL: Stem volkome saam. [We support.]
The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON (Mr T S Setona): Northern Cape?
Mr M A SULLIMAN: Stem volkome saam. [We Support.]
The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON (Mr T S Setona): North West?
Mr Z S KOLWENI: Ke a rona. [We support.]
The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON (Mr T S Setona): Western Cape?
Mr N J MACK: Ondersteun. [We support.]
The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON (Mr T S Setona): All nine provinces voted in favour. I therefore declare the report adopted in terms of section 65 of the Constitution.
Report accordingly adopted in accordance with section 65 of the Constitution.
CONSIDERATION OF REPORT OF SELECT COMMITTEE ON SECURITY AND CONSTITUTIONAL AFFAIRS - JOINT OVERSIGHT VISIT TO POLLSMOOR PRISON TO CONSIDER POSITION OF AWAITING-TRIAL PRISONERS, DATED 21 NOVEMBER 2007
Mr N J MACK: Chairperson, the joint oversight visit to Pollsmoor prison was meant to assess the position of awaiting-trial detainees, juveniles and women prisoners. The objectives were to determine the conditions under which juveniles and children awaiting-trial detainees, as well as pregnant women, are kept at Pollsmoor; to communicate with the above-mentioned categories of the awaiting-trial detainees in order to identify the particular difficulties they were experiencing, namely, access to legal assistance, bail applications and so on; and to gauge the length and time spent in prison before being sentenced as this was of great concern to the committees.
Among the challenges that we observed, were a lack of effective communication between the parole boards and the Pollsmoor facility and the Legal Aid Board; few awaiting-trial detainees and offenders are being considered for diversion; as well as the length of time it takes before an offender is sentenced. Sometimes it takes three years. The report proposes that details of the type of crime have to be filed in on the document for possible assessments and interventions.
Many of those who have committed petty crimes, often of an economic nature, are detained because they cannot afford the bail. This practice needs to stop as it could not be justified considering the cost of detaining an individual, which is R123 per day, and the chronic overcrowding facing the department.
The committee made two recommendations. One is the need for collaboration between all role-players around ensuring better conditions for and the speedy sentencing of awaiting-trial detainees. This refers to co-operation between the Departments of Justice, Social Development, Safety and Security and Correctional Services.
Magistrates and judges should, wherever possible, make use of alternative sentencing, so as to ensure that those who have committed petty offences are not sent to the already overcrowded prisons.
Prisons should be for dangerous criminals who repeatedly offend and pose a threat to society. The facility should forward a breakdown of the number of detainees with bail amounts of less than a R1 000, as well as the length of incarceration to date.
The Select Committee on Constitutional Affairs believes that the report reflects on the need for a developmental state to regulate and control corrections.
These include the necessary resources and growing the budget with regard to both places of safety and strengthening the community corrections.
Thank you. [Applause.]
Debate concluded.
The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON (Mr T S Setona): That concludes the debate. I shall now put the question. The question is that the report be adopted. As the decision is dealt with in terms of section 65 of the Constitution, I shall first ascertain whether all delegation heads are present.
HON MEMBERS: Yes
The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON (Mr T S Setona): In accordance with Rule 71, I shall first allow provinces the opportunity to make their declarations of votes. We shall now proceed on the voting on the question and I shall do this in alphabetical order per province.
The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON (Mr T S Setona): Eastern Cape?
Mr A T MANYOSI: Supports.
The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON (Mr T S Setona): Free State?
Mr C J VAN ROOYEN: Supports.
The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON (Mr T S Setona): Gauteng?
Ms N M MADLALA-MAGUBANE: Supports.
The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON (Mr T S Setona): KwaZulu-Natal? Mr Z C NTULI: In favour.
The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON (Mr T S Setona): Limpopo?
Ms H F MATLANYANE: Ya seketela. [Supports.]
The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON (Mr T S Setona): Mpumalanga?
Mr V V Z WINDVOЁL: Stem heelhartig saam. [Agrees whole-heartedly.]
The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON (Mr T S Setona): Northern Cape?
Mr M A SULLIMAN: Siyavuma. [We agree.]
The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON (Mr T S Setona): North West?
Mr Z S KOLWENI: Re a e thekga. [We support.]
The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON (Mr T S Setona): Western Cape?
Mr N J MACK: Ondersteun. [Supports.]
The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON (Mr T S Setona): All nine provinces voted in favour. I declare the report adopted in terms of section 65 of the Constitution.
Report accordingly adopted in accordance with section 65 of the Constitution.
The Council adjourned at 18:43. ____
ANNOUNCEMENTS, TABLINGS AND COMMITTEE REPORTS
ANNOUNCEMENTS
National Assembly and National Council of Provinces
The Speaker and the Chairperson
- Introduction of Bills
(1) The Minister of Transport
a) National Road Traffic Amendment Bill [B 39 – 2008] (National
Assembly – proposed sec 76) [Explanatory summary of Bill and
prior notice of its introduction published in Government
Gazette No 31058 of 15 May 2008.]
Introduction and referral to the Portfolio Committee on
Transport of the National Assembly, as well as referral to the
Joint Tagging Mechanism (JTM) for classification in terms of
Joint Rule 160.
In terms of Joint Rule 154 written views on the classification
of the Bills may be submitted to the JTM within three
parliamentary working days.
(2) The Minister for Agriculture and Land Affairs
a) Provision of Land and Assistance Amendment Bill [B 40 – 2008]
(National Assembly – proposed sec 75) [Explanatory summary of
Bill and prior notice of its introduction published in
Government Gazette No 31102 of 30 May 2008.]
Introduction and referral to the Portfolio Committee on
Agriculture and Land Affairs of the National Assembly, as well
as referral to the Joint Tagging Mechanism (JTM) for
classification in terms of Joint Rule 160.
In terms of Joint Rule 154 written views on the classification
of the Bills may be submitted to the JTM within three
parliamentary working days.
(3) The Minister of Minerals and Energy
a) National Radioactive Waste Management Agency Bill [B 41 –
2008] (National Assembly – proposed sec 75) [Explanatory
summary of Bill and prior notice of its introduction published
in Government Gazette No 31090 of 26 May 2008.]
Introduction and referral to the Portfolio Committee on
Minerals and Energy of the National Assembly, as well as
referral to the Joint Tagging Mechanism (JTM) for
classification in terms of Joint Rule 160.
In terms of Joint Rule 154 written views on the classification
of the Bills may be submitted to the JTM within three
parliamentary working days.
TABLINGS
National Assembly and National Council of Provinces
-
The Minister of Safety and Security (a) Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the Government of the Republic of South Africa and the Government of the Republic of Uganda on Contribution of South African Police Service Members to assist in the Provision of Security to the Meeting of Commonwealth Heads of State and Government to be held in Uganda, tabled in terms of section 231(3) of the Constitution, 1996.
(b) Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the Government of the Republic of South Africa and the African Union (AU) contributing members of the South African Police Service to the African Union Electoral and Security Assistance Mission (MAES) to the Comoros, tabled in terms of section 231(3) of the Constitution, 1996.
(c) Arrangement between the Minister for Safety and Security of the Republic of South Africa and the Minister of the Interior and Kingdom Relations of the Kingdom of the Netherlands on Bilateral Police Cooperation, tabled in terms of section 231(3) of the Constitution, 1996.
COMMITTEE REPORTS
National Council of Provinces
- Report of the Select Committee on Finance on the Financial Intelligence Centre Amendment Bill [B18 B – 2008], dated 10 June 2008
The Select Committee on Finance, having considered the Financial Intelligence Centre Amendment Bill [B18 B – 2008] (National Assembly – Section 75) referred to it and classified by the JTM as a Section75 bill; reports that it has agreed to the Bill.