Premier of KwaZulu-Natal Dr Zweli Mkhize
MEC for Local Government and Housing in KwaZulu-Natal, Ms Nomusa Dube
Chairperson of the National House of Traditional Leaders; Kgosi P Maubane
Kings and Traditional Leaders of KZN;
Chairperson of the Provincial House in KZN;
The Director-General of the Department of Traditional Affairs and officials
Esteemed guests;
Ladies and gentlemen.
It is with great humility and honour that we join you to speak and engage you at this auspicious occasion. The assessment of the state of governance within Traditional Affairs in the provinces by Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (CoGTA) constitutes an important historic milestone in the efforts of government to place all matters pertinent to traditional affairs, including their institutions, at the centre of social, political and economic development.
For many years the affairs and institutions of traditional leadership remained in the periphery of development. That situation often led to marginalisation of traditional leaders and their institutions with regard to meaningfully influencing the critical policy and programmatic matters pertaining to development. The consequence thereof has been that the communities that live under traditional leadership, most of whom residing in rural areas, have had their development needs not given the necessary and sustained attention as they ought to be given.
The African National Congress (ANC) government under the leadership of His Excellency, President Jacob Gedleyihlekisa Zuma is, through amongst others these provincial assessments processes, committed to turn that situation around. This assessment in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) is the seventh assessment done thus far throughout the country. We aim to complete these assessments with the North West province in early August 2011. The Western Cape is the only province where the assessments will not be done because they have no traditional leadership structures.
Therefore through these assessments, CoGTA is also looking at ensuring that, like any public representatives tasked with the mammoth responsibility of serving the public, the leaders and members of the Houses nationally and provincially must be guided by principles of good governance. The principles of good governance include, among others the following:
- Promotion of service delivery – this can be done through cooperation and building partnerships between structures of traditional leadership and local government. This has become even more critical following the fourth democratic local government elections held on 18 May 2011. Those elections have opened up a golden window of opportunity for taking the relationship between the elected representatives of local government and traditional leaders to a qualitatively new, higher, improved and strengthened level. Strong relations between elected representatives and traditional leadership are the cornerstone of service delivery. They will indeed go a long way in ensuring that we realise our objective of building a responsive, accountable, effective and efficient local government system, sooner rather than later. We therefore hope that this platform will be utilised to take make us realise that objective sooner.
- Fostering unity and partnerships– fostering unity among traditional leaders themselves, unity among the different houses, unity among different ethnic groups, and building unity with structures of government locally, provincially and nationally is indeed critical. The Department of Traditional Affairs is in the process of developing a Partnership Strategy that will ensure a structured working relationship with other government departments, provinces and municipalities.
- Accountability – accountability to government, accountability to structures of traditional leaders and perhaps most importantly, accountability to rural communities. The current traditional affairs legislative review is also addressing the issue of accountability by traditional leaders, and in particular the houses of Traditional Leadership.
- Clarification of roles – the clarification of roles between traditional leadership and government structures, through the amendment of legislation and allocation of roles to traditional leaders by government departments will go a long way in ensuring that development and service delivery is promoted. In the next two days, after this provincial assessment, the officials of the Department of Traditional Affairs will meet with other national departments, provinces, South African Local Government Association (Salga) and other key stakeholders to discuss the allocation of roles and responsibilities to traditional leaders.
- Transparency – transparency in terms of leadership, utilisation of financial and other resources.
The assessment exercise also seeks to establish the status quo in the various provinces on issues such as the budget allocated to traditional leadership, resources allocated to houses, relationship between the structures of traditional leadership and local government structures and relationship among structures of traditional leadership and implementation of legislation on traditional leadership.
The assessment process will help identify the discrepancies with regard to dealing with traditional leadership in the provinces, with a view to devising an effective Traditional Affairs-wide strategy to deal with identified challenges. The turn around strategy will among other things result in the development of a partnership model between Traditional Leadership and Local Government. The discrepancies with regard to the salaries and resources of Traditional Leadership will also be addressed. At this juncture we would like to commend the leadership of the National and Provincial Houses for being part of this assessment process. This gives credence to the stance “nothing for traditional leaders without traditional leaders”.
After these assessments a report will then be compiled, and this will help give a clear picture of the state of Traditional Affairs in the country. That in turn will then help inform policy and strategic interventions required to ensure the strengthening of Traditional Leadership and Affairs in the provinces, and across the country as a whole. In order to effectively address the challenges facing traditional leaders and communities including rural development, it is important to strengthen traditional institutions especially with regard to governance.
Challenges of instability in Traditional Houses
Programme director, it has indeed been disturbing to observe that for quite some time, the National House of Traditional Leadership has been characterised by several challenges, particularly at the leadership level. The current term of the House has seen three different Chairpersons and three different Deputy Chairpersons assuming positions at different times.
When this current term comes to an end in May 2012, there would have been no Chairperson or Deputy Chairperson of the House who would have served a full Five Year Term of Office. The removal of Chairpersons and Deputy Chairpersons has been due to either challenges relating to provincial legislation dealing with the establishment of provincial houses, and other times a vote of no confidence by members in their leadership. Irrespective of the reasons, you will fully agree with us when we say that something is seriously wrong. This situation is a reflection of deeper challenges that must be rooted out once and for all.
Such a situation does not reflect the National House of Traditional Leaders (NHTL) in a positive light, and neither does it contribute to the building of a positive image for the National House, provincial houses and institutions of traditional leadership in general. This therefore calls for self introspection by the leadership and members of the both provincial and national houses. We have no doubt that honest and frank self introspection will lead to the election of the Chairperson and Deputy Chairperson who will finish their respective next full Five Year Terms in office. We are quite certain that the current leadership and membership of the NHTL will contribute in no small way in this regard.
Last year, in a similar function, the Chairperson of the Eastern Cape of Traditional Leaders, who we believe was echoing the sentiments of other provincial houses, referred to the NHTL as “a centre that was failing to hold”. We are quite hopeful that the election of the current Chairperson and Deputy Chairperson a few months ago, which was also attended by Chairpersons of Provincial Houses, marked the beginning of long lasting unity and good relationship between and among the houses of traditional leaders.
New Department of Traditional Affairs
Programme director, it is however heartening to state that despite the challenges that have been faced in the past, a lot of ground has been covered since 2010. One of the achievements of this government under the leadership of President Zuma is the establishment of the Department of Traditional Affairs.
As you would recall, the establishment of the Department of Traditional Affairs was as a result of constant and persistent calls by traditional leaders over the years for a dedicated focus on matters of traditional leaders. With the establishment of the Department of Traditional Leadership, matters of traditional leadership are being dealt with more broadly, systematically and in focused and sustainable manner. One of the major responsibilities of this department is to reclaim the vast lost ground lost to other departments and structures. This includes issues of heritage, traditional medicine and healing, indigenous knowledge system, just to mention a few examples.
The new department will, in a constructive manner, vigorously engage with other national departments and organs of state to ensure that it plays a leading coordinating role on all relevant matters. It is the role of the Department of Traditional Affairs to ensure that traditional leaders are effectively and meaningfully involved on matters of rural development.
We are here to provide the necessary political leadership, and administratively the Director-General, Professor Nwaila and his team of capable officials will play a coordinating role on matters of allocation of roles by national departments to traditional leadership and that the necessary legislation and policies are in place and implemented accordingly.
Amendment of legislation on traditional leadership
One of the critical areas that the Department of Traditional Affairs, with its expanded mandate, is also busy amending legislation in order to create an enabling legislative and regulatory environment for dealing effectively and efficiently with traditional affairs. We aim to make sure that matters of traditional leaders are dealt with holistically and in a sustainable manner. Accordingly, the National Traditional Houses Act and the Governance Framework Act have been consolidated into one. This will help simplify the governance processes.
Representation of the Khoisan in the National House and Provincial Houses
The amendment of legislation will also ensure, among others, that traditional affairs, rather than only traditional leaders, will take centre stage. The Khoisan communities will also be fully represented in the National House. Of course, provincial legislation will have to be amended as well to ensure that the Khoisan communities are also represented in the relevant provincial houses. As you would know, the representation of the Khoisan in the Houses is long overdue.
Guidelines on the operations of the National House of Traditional Leaders
We are quite pleased to mention that the Department of Traditional Affairs is in the process of finalising guidelines on the operations of the National House of Traditional Leaders. These guidelines will constitute the first internal document that deals specifically with issues of operation and tools of trade for members of the National House. In the past these issues were dealt with through departmental policies that were primarily meant for officials of government. Once finalised and operational, we would urge provincial government departments to develop similar policies to deal with matters affecting provincial houses of traditional leaders.
Summit between traditional leaders and councillors
When opening the House of traditional leaders in June this year, the President referred to the planned summit between traditional leaders and councillors that will take place later in the year. The assessment of the state of traditional leadership will bring the much needed insight that will inform and enhance the engagement with councillors during the summit. Other work has already been done that will also assist the summit. For example, an Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the National House and SALGA has been signed and a draft implementation plan developed, work that will be taken further during the summit later in the year.
Commission on Traditional Leadership and Claims
The Department of Traditional Affairs continues to give a dedicated support to the Commission on Traditional Leadership Disputes and Claims. At the national level, the Commissioners as well as the Chief Executive Officer have been appointed. Provincially, the Department is busy working with the provincial governments to finalise the appointment of the provincial committees.
Issuing of recognition certificates
As part of the implementation process after the release of the Nhlapo Commission findings on Kings and Queens, certificates of recognition have already been issued to four incumbents in the Free State and Mpumalanga. Other recognition certificates will be issued to the identified incumbents in due course. The department is also dealing with court challenges regarding the implementation of the Nhlapo Commission recommendations as and when they come.
Seriti Commission
As far as the work of the Commission on the Remuneration of Public Office Bearers is concerned, progress is being made too. In its next report, the Commission is likely to make a determination on the salaries of headmen as well as on local houses of traditional leaders. The department will also work closely with the Commission to ensure that challenges regarding the implementation of the determination on medical aid, pension and death benefits for traditional leaders are overcome.
Reconstitution of traditional councils and the establishment of local houses
A lot of work has been done. However a lot more still to be done to ensure that traditional affairs take their rightful place in the country’s development agenda. Outstanding work includes the reconstitution of traditional councils in some provinces and the establishment of local houses. With the establishment of the new Department of Traditional Affairs, and the establishment of provincial departments with a similar mandate, we have no doubt that these challenges will also be dealt with successfully.
We therefore look forward to close cooperation and collaboration by all stakeholders during these assessments. We hope that through these assessments constructive recommendations will come out that will indeed help us advance much faster towards our common cherished goal of a better life for all,especially and most vulnerable that live in rural communities.
Siyabonga.
Source: Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs
