occasion of the Presidency Budget Vote
7 June 2006
National Assembly,
Madame Speaker and Deputy Speaker,
Cde President,
Cde Deputy President,
Honourable Ministers and Deputy Ministers
Honourable Members
Distinguished Guests
Ladies and Gentlemen
Madame Speaker and Honourable Members,
I echo the words of our President and thank you for providing us with the
opportunity to present this Budget Vote and account to the National Assembly
about the work of The Presidency.
In 1994 we inherited a nation that was racially fractured. We inherited a
country beset with an immense legacy of material depravation faced by the vast
majority of our people. This legacy included racialised and feminised poverty,
racial segregation, a huge unequal division of land, wealth and income based on
race, and legalised, institutionalised and systemic racial and gender
discrimination in all walks of life.
We had a dual imperative to rapidly deal with the legacy of apartheid and
transform a system regarded as a crime against humanity into one that was
democratic, socially just and politically and economically stable. These were
the objective demands, and the objective conditions facing us in 1994.
We had to act; we had to act decisively, with alacrity, with purpose and
with vision. And we knew that this could not be accomplished by what in the
1990s was de rigueur among those enamoured with the Washington Consensus the
neo-liberal minimalist state characterised by privatisation, deregulation,
downsizing, delivering, decentralisation and devolution of responsibility. We
consciously eschewed the neo-liberal state in favour of the developmental state
with its responsibility of realising the mandate given the first democratically
elected government in South Africa transformation and the progressive
realisation of social justice for all.
There is also a Constitutional imperative to transform South Africa. In this
respect Madame Speaker, the State in South Africa has a very high obligation to
improve the quality of life of all South Africans in the context of dealing
with the socio-economic injustices of the past, while at the same time
protecting fundamental rights and freedoms as enumerated in the Bill of
Rights.
The requirement to âImprove the quality of lifeâ means dealing with
underdevelopment, poverty, unemployment, unequal access to education, health
care etc. To remedy these inequalities the developmental state has to act to
ameliorate conditions of disadvantage. Failure to do anything about the
historical legacy would mean that the State could, in effect, be violating the
highest law of the land.
In committing to a developmental state we were simultaneously committing to
the development of a well resourced centre capable of leading, capable of
directing and giving guidance to all spheres of government. The centre must
have sufficient capacity and be well resourced to provide policy direction in
order to achieve our broad Constitutional and national objectives, measure the
impact of resource allocation and where necessary intervene to ensure more
efficient and effective service delivery and policy implementation.
The developmental needs of our country are of such an order that the
provision of guidance and leadership is of paramount importance to ensure that
government is capable of decisive interventions to ensure we improve the
quality of life of our people. It is The Presidency together with Cabinet that
has overall responsibility for co-ordinating the work of the developmental
state and that has overall responsibility for what the State has to
accomplish.
So Madame Speaker, unlike those who sit languidly among the ranks of the
opposition we had to confront the reality of running a country and make a deep
and immediate impact on the dual imperative. For our government elected on a
platform of socio-economic development not to embrace a developmental state
capable of engaging in rapid transformation would be an abdication of our
responsibility and a betrayal of the will of the people as expressed in ever
increasing majorities over successive elections.
In a recent communication the Leader of the Opposition indicated that in his
opinion, âWhatever the gains for South Africa on the economic front ⦠this
presidency has had an impoverishing effect on the politics of democratic
accountabilityâ. In what way has this government in general and The Presidency
in particular diminished democratic accountability? By improving the
socio-economic conditions of the vast majority of our people? By upholding the
rule of law and respecting the Constitution? By Ministers appearing before
Portfolio Committees? By creating a macro-economic and political environment of
stability? Or through facilitating a highly inclusive and participatory African
Peer Review Mechanism Process?
The Honourable Leon is being thoroughly disingenuous. It is not The
Presidency that has impoverished democracy or for that matter called the
reputation and the will of Parliament into question. It is the Honourable Leon
who recently insulted Parliament when he questioned our transformation agenda,
âPart of the unheralded agenda of transformationâ he says, ââ¦has been the
conversion of Parliamentâand other constitutionally-mandated oversight
bodiesâfrom effective watchdogs to supine lapdogsâ. And in another instance he
served warning that âParliament is in some danger of becoming a shell, an empty
forumâ. It is one thing to call into question the activities of The Presidency;
it is another matter entirely to insult each and every one of you present in
our National Assembly and National Council of Provinces. What hubris!
Honourable Members, the apparent confluence of the right and some on the
left in two recent debates about centralisation and the absence of meaningful
participation demonstrate that politics some times makes strange bedfellows
indeed. The Honourable Leon is on record as saying that âMuch of what the South
African Communist Party and Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU)
have been saying about the democratic deficit in South Africa today is what the
Democratic Alliance (DA) has been saying for the past five years.â And again,
âwe find ourselves in complete agreement with the âleftâ faction. Not, in this
case, because they are âleftâ but because they are in fact right.â Strange
bedfellows indeed!
There are some even in this august body who confuse the need for a strong
interventionist developmental state with centralisation. The
centralisation-decentralisation debate is a red herring; it is the refuge of
those who lack vision, imagination and purpose. They use it to undermine both a
President who derives his power and legitimacy from the Constitution and a
responsible Presidency which is accountable and transparent. In personalising
the centralisation-decentralisation debate they miss the key point namely, what
kind of institutional arrangements make for efficient and effective policy
development, policy implementation, service delivery and monitoring and
evaluation.
Surely, Honourable Members, no progressive person would dare suggest that a
government duly elected by the overwhelming majority of the people ought not to
fulfil the mandate given it by the electorate. It is also useful to point out
that our government takes participatory democracy very seriously. We engage in
continuous dialogue with our people.
For us, democracy is not about asking our people to come to the ballot box
every few years; it is about consulting them through the Izimbizo process, and
through consultations. The President has also established a number of working
and advisory groups on women, youth, higher education, big business, black
business, religion, labour and the economy. All of these initiatives are
important elements of the âPeopleâs Contractâ and participatory democracy and
serve as important feedback loops for the President and The Presidency.
Taking the concerns of our people seriously means placing the needs of
vulnerable groups, women, children and youth and people with disabilities at
the very heart of our institutions. It is about strengthening the work of the
National Gender Machinery and the National Machinery on Childrenâs Rights.
Our government locates the Office on the Rights of the Child, the Office on
the Status of Women, the Office on the Status of Disabled People and the Youth
Desk in The Presidency precisely because we believe that mainstreaming and
applying a GDCY lens can best be accomplished and monitored in The Presidency
working in close co-operation with other national departments, with provinces
and with local municipalities. This is not about centralisation of power and
resources; it is about democracy and accountability.
Madame Speaker, the Offices on the Status of Disabled People, the Office on
the Rights of the Child and the Office on the Status of Women and the Youth
Desk all play a vital role in four important respects. First they engage in a
very dynamic way with civil society organisations in their respective sectors.
The communication and consultation processes that have been established are
very important for the advancement of the rights of historically disadvantaged
groups and communities, they are also important for policy development and
implementation and for service delivery.
Second they play a critical mainstreaming role. Third they interact with
provincial and local counterparts to ensure that National policies are
translated into action in the other spheres of government. And fourth, these
three Offices and the Youth Desk identify the challenges and gaps in policy
development and implementation and offer solutions that can be readily
implemented. In these ways the three Offices and the Youth Desk act as a vital
two way transmission belt linking government in a dynamic way with vulnerable
communities so as to ensure that the quality of life of members of those
communities improves.
All of the Programme areas have noted that they will work to:
1. strengthen the capacity of focal points in national departments and in
the other spheres of government
2. increase awareness of what gender, disability, children and youth
mainstreaming means and how it is to be accomplished
3. strengthen ties with civil society in their respective sectors.
For the upcoming year the Office on the Status of Disabled Persons (OSDP)
has indicated that it will work diligently to:
* strengthen the disability national machinery so that it is effective in
coordinating disability programmes
* monitor more closely the implementation of a well coordinated disability
integrated policy, and measure progress of service delivery, in for example the
public transportation system, against the disability indicators
* work on the International Convention on the Rights of People with
Disabilities.
In a similar fashion, the Office on the Status of Women notes that in order
to continue to advance womenâs empowerment and gender equality, it needs
to:
* fast track the training of Public Service officials at all levels to
deliver on gender equality
* ensure the development and consolidation of an integrated national action
plan for gender
* identify ways of holding senior managers accountable for the delivery of
gender equity and equality in performance contracts
* conduct gender-based analysis so as to ensure effective monitoring and
evaluation of the implementation of legislation.
Madame Speaker, the Third Ordinary Session of the African Unionâs Assembly
of Heads of State and Government, held in Addis Ababa, 6 â 8 July 2004, adopted
the Solemn Declaration on Gender Equality in Africa. The Declaration seeks to
âExpand and Promote the gender parity principle that we have adopted regarding
the Commission of the African Union to all the other organs of the African
Union, including its New Partnership for Africaâs Development (NEPAD)
programme, to the Regional Economic Communities, and to the national and local
levels in collaboration with political parties and the National parliaments in
our countriesâ.
The significance of this cannot be over emphasised. The challenge for this
Parliament and for all the political parties present is to adopt and implement
the principle of gender parity in elected office well before the next general
elections. I am certain in this the year of the 50th Anniversary of the Womenâs
March, the women of our country expect nothing less from us.
The core functions of The Office on the Rights of the Child (ORC) include
mainstreaming of a child centred approach; mainstreaming capacity building in
Government and monitoring and evaluation of childrenâs rights delivery in
Government.
The ORC identifies the need to:
1. collect comprehensive statistics on vulnerable children in our country by
conducting additional research on the socio-economic condition of
children
2. facilitate the development of a comprehensive National Policy Framework for
the Protection and Development of Vulnerable Children in SA
3. support service delivery by departments â for example, where child related
tragedy has been experienced
4. highlight the phenomenon of child headed households which has the potential
in the long term, to undermine both the national efforts at building social
cohesion and the goal of national prosperity
5. strengthen awareness of existing child rights policies and resources, by
among other things, developing essential material to promote and advocate for
delivery on childrenâs rights and responsibilities
6. collaborate with countries in the region and internationally in regional and
global child protection and development initiatives.
These activities and this information gathering the ORC believes are
essential for meaningful planning, programming, monitoring, and evaluation and
reporting.
June is Youth Month, and this year marks the 30th Anniversary of the Soweto
and related uprisings. The President has spoken of the significance of June
16th in the lives of young people and in the history of our country. Madame
Speaker, we are working closely with the National Youth Commission, the June
16th Foundation, the Johannesburg Municipality and the Province of Gauteng to
appropriately mark the significance of the occasion.
To increase our capacity to support youth development work, we established a
Youth Desk in The Presidency last September. Working with the National Youth
Commission, the Youth Desk has helped us elaborate youth development
opportunities and programmes within Governmentâs Programme of Action thus
improving monitoring, coordination and reporting. Beyond the Programme of
Action, we are now mainstreaming youth work into the Government-Wide Monitoring
and Evaluation System. This implies that trends in youth development will be
monitored as part of the mainstream and not as a separate activity.
Youth development is high on the agenda of The Presidency. This is
demonstrated by the success we have had in facilitating the implementation of
the National Youth Service. Since the official launch of the programme in
August 2004, ten thousand youth are set to participate in the programme so that
we can make a significant dent in the challenge of youth unemployment, and
simultaneously promote social cohesion. Let us all celebrate the spirit of
Letsema and Vukâzenzele displayed by our young people who are seizing the
opportunities presented by democracy.
Active political participation and civic engagement are central to the
realisation of our progressive vision and agenda. We recognise that
participation in political institutions, political processes, and civic life
are critical indicators of political inclusion.
It is reductionism in the extreme to suggest that centralisation is the
primary factor that impacts on political participation by the masses of our
people. The factors that either inhibit or enhance political participation by
people have to do with the complex interplay between social identity, notions
of citizenship, the struggle against oppression and discrimination and the
degree of connectedness to the vision of creating a non-racial, non-sexist
democratic society.
We fully understand the important relationship between formal political
participation and participation in civic organisations. We recognise the need
for strong civics and strong community based organisations. Social capital,
information flows and political knowledge which derive from social and
organisational networks, all play important roles in enhancing political
participation and political mobilisation.
Democracy and the very institutions of democracy, including political
parties and institutions of governance, cannot be sustained only by political
participation via a ballot cast every four or five years. Thus we see the
continual need to promote strong organisations in civil society. But at the
same time we recognise the centrality of the developmental state as a
corrective to the excesses of the marketplace and as the legitimate repository
of the will and aspirations of the majority.
An excellent recent example of active engagement of and participation by
broad based non-governmental and community based organisations (including
business and labour) is the African Peer Review Mechanism.
The African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) process is about South Africa
holding itself up for review by its Peers. It is also a mechanism for assessing
what progress we as a country have made towards gender equality, equalisation
of opportunities for persons with disabilities and the advancement of the
rights of children and youth. The APRM process is fundamentally about
engagement, inclusion and participation. It has reached into many corners of
our country. It has stimulated the minds and the passions of many people in
South Africa.
The Country Self Assessment Report which is the product of the process to
date is reflective of our commitment to genuine dialogue, genuine listening,
active engagement and inclusion and reflects our commitment to hearing the
voices of our people articulating their concerns and their hopes. This is what
participatory democracy in the age of hope is all about.
Madame Speaker, what I am about to say may well embarrass our President, but
say it I must. Every Minister and Deputy Minister will agree with me Cmd.
President that your leadership style is based on consensus. In cabinet meetings
you listen to debate, you listen to all sides of an argument and then you guide
and lead. I want to say from this rostrum that you are the quintessential
consensual leader.
Honourable Members, opinion polls are not the basic measure of political
legitimacy. We all know that different surveys, depending on their samples,
methodology and the rigour of their processes can at a given moment produce
different numbers when measuring the same thing.
Our Governmentâs policies and actions are not based on polls but are
informed by the verdict of the electorate and by monitoring the impact of the
programme of action which the electorate has mandated us to implement.
Polls however do contribute to our understanding of views in our society and
especially so when they show similar trends over time. In this regard a feature
common to a number of recent polls has been the high level of popular approval
for the President.
In February this year Markinor, observed that âsince the election in April
2004, the approval for President Thabo Mbeki stayed more or less on the same
level: in May 2004 and again in November 2004, eight in every ten South
Africans (80%) indicated that they thought the President was doing his job
âvery wellâ or âfairly wellâ. In November 2005, this figure stood at 78%.â
Last weekâs Research Surveys reported that the approval of the President in
metropolitan areas averaged 58% in 2004; 61% in 2005 and was 61% in April
2006.
The latest report of Institute for Democracy in South Africa (IDASA)
Afrobarometer survey conducted in January and February this year, found a 77%
approval.
Apart from the consistency of these trends, they parallel the increasing
electoral support for our party which the President leads. Cmd. President, with
you at the helm we have won the elections of 1999, 2004 and the recent 2006
local government elections with an ever increasing share of the popular vote.
Clearly the people of our country appreciate you, your leadership style and the
contribution our government is making to improve the quality of their
lives.
In conclusion Madame Speaker, I would like to express my deep appreciation
and gratitude for the work and commitment of the Rev Frank Chikane,
Director-General, and the staff at all levels in The Presidency.
Thank you.
Issued by: The Presidency
7 June 2006
