the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry (DWAF), on DWAF Family Day,
Pretoria Show Grounds
8 December 2006
Vision for Department of Water Affairs and Forestry (DWAF) and the
sector
Soon after arriving at DWAF I attended the DWAF Lekgotla at a forum. I
reminded DWAF managers of the priorities for our organisation; then on the
occasion of my first 90 days in office, I called a media conference in Pretoria
to share with the media my understanding of the challenges facing the
Department and my view of the road ahead. I now want to share with you, the
DWAF Family, what I see as the way ahead and our flagship projects for the
upcoming year.
Firstly the internal flagship projects, most of which I have already spoken
to, they are:
1. A clean audit report during my term of office
I have made this commitment to the public and to Parliament. I want each one
of you, heedless of your rank in the department, to think about the role that
you are going to play to ensure that we receive a clean audit report. With good
planning, unreserved commitment and hard work, we will receive a clean audit
report indeed. But this is going to require a "business as unusual"
approach.
An analysis of the Auditor-General's Audit Reports for the financial year
2005/06 shows that apart from lack of financial skills, policies and systems,
at the centre of the financial problems of this department is lack of an
effective performance management system. For example, the Auditor-General has
identified the following as some of the reasons for qualified audit opinions:
failure to comply with existing policies; failure to submit reports; lack of
proper management frameworks; failure to adhere to certain provisions of the
Public Finance Management Act; late submission of documents; inadequate
monitoring.
2. Alignment of the department to address the needs of the sector
I have already spoken at length on this flagship project and it will be the
final phase of our restructuring process and we will be bringing in external
service providers to help us achieve our goals.
3. Performance management and signing of performance agreements
It is important to realise that, in order to turn around our financial
situation, we must address lack of performance agreements in DWAF, an issue
which I have already addressed. The Director-General (DG) and I are leading by
example here, and we expect every one of you to respond positively to our
marching orders.
4. Capacity building and skills development
Our department must, through its work, contribute to the Joint Initiative
for Priority Skills Acquisition (JIPSA) of South Africa. We must continue to
build a cadre of young people and employees who will address the capacity needs
of the department and also the water and forestry sectors. Our new learning
academy will start to formalise our commitments. Our department must strengthen
the partnerships with institutions of higher learning to fasttrack talent
building.
5. Underspending in the department
Last year our department did not spend almost 5% of its budget and a
significant amount of funding had to be rolled over to this year. Given the
needs that exist in the water and forestry sector we should as far as possible
be spending our entire budget. This year despite warnings every month from the
acting Chief Financial Officer (CFO) we are still behind on our spending.
Spending requires a commitment from managers and their teams to proper planning
and implementation of projects. I have therefore felt it important that we
prioritise underspending as a flagship project until our systems are in place
and we are using the resources of the department to maximise impact on the
sector.
The external flagship projects for the coming year will be:
1. Empowerment of women. I have made a personal commitment to ensure that
women are firmly in the driving seat in forestry, water and sanitation not only
as recipients of basic services, but as empowered owners of their own
enterprises in providing goods and services to the sector. I have also made a
commitment to support the establishment of an organisation for women in water
and sanitation, which would play a role in identifying opportunities for women
and supporting their entry into this sector. We need to have a gender
mainstreaming strategy with timeframes.
2. Improved Governance and the alignment of the DWAF Public Entities.
There is a need to improve DWAF's co-ordination of the institutions that it
manages so that we effectively utilise them to better achieve the objectives of
DWAF and government. We must scrutinise their business plans and strategic
plans to ensure alignment. The department is driving the process of the
establishment of catchments management agencies and the transfer of forests and
water schemes, all of which will make a significant impact on the sector. The
resources of these institutions must be effectively utilised and we must ensure
that they are not going in a different direction. As part of this flagship
project we must assess the need to amend our legislation so that it enables us
to achieve our goals and create a sector that is dynamic and one that supports
the broader vision of government.
3. Forest Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) Charter
The Forest Broad-Based BEE Charter, which is going to serve as a framework
for the transformation of the forestry sector, is on the verge of being
concluded. Lots of work has been done by various government departments and the
forestry industry through the Steering under the able leadership Ms Gugu Moloi.
With Cabinet having approved the revised codes of good practice on Wednesday, 6
December 2006, we can now move fast to conclude the charter and start with
implementation. The Charter should be concluded by early next year.
As members of the DWAF Family, I expect each one of you to familiarise
yourself with the Charter and ask yourself the question: what contribution can
I make to ensure the success of the charter. The Forestry Enterprise
Development strategy is part of the transformation of the sector and the South
African Forestry Company Limited (Safcol) must also support our transformation
efforts.
4. Meeting the Water and Sanitation targets (and support to Local
Government)
The targets of this government are to eradicate bucket toilets by December
2007, to wipe out the water supply backlog by December 2008 and to provide
basic sanitation to all by December 2010. We have to meet these targets. These
are not arbitrary targets � because every day a family lives without basic
sanitation or water brings risk of ill-health or even death and undermines
their dignity.
As you know, women and children are the people most responsible for fetching
water, so the need to address their conditions is linked to the whole question
of realising equality and emancipating women. We are well aware of the
challenges of lack of capacity and lack of funding. And our strategy must be
how we overcome these challenges. We need creative and innovative approaches
and we need to build a culture in our department where people are encouraged to
think creatively, innovatively, in ways that will benefit the people of South
Africa.
I am calling upon each one of you to play your role to ensure that our water
and sanitation targets are met. We must ensure that the demeaning bucket
toilets in established settlements are eradicated and that all schools and
clinics have adequate water and sanitation. As part of this flagship project we
will continue to provide support to local government. Regions must be proactive
and go to municipalities to see what help they need and what are the real
backlog figures, as well as, what their needs are.
5. Water conservation and water demand management
Over the past few days I have asked several different groups about whether
there is a shortage of water in South Africa. All the evidence points towards
our country being water scarce yet the way people behave in their use of water
makes one think that we have an abundance of this precious resource. We must
find ways to change people's attitude towards water use and encourage water
saving. This needs to be done across the water cycle starting from the rivers
and streams, all the way through to the storage, cleaning, distribution, and
utilisation of water and ultimately to the treatment of waste water.
South African's need to change their behaviour in how they use water, and I
see DWAF playing a lead role in driving this behaviour change. Already there
are many proposals and possible actions that we can take as part of this
flagship project I would like to see a coherent plan of action being developed
and implemented. In addition to these five flagship projects, I have identified
a further four flagship projects, they are:
6. water allocation reform
7. the establishment of the Water Resource Infrastructure Agency
8. water quality management, as well as the management and maintenance of this
infrastructure
9. strategic engagement with other African countries on water and forestry
issues, in particular the relationships within our region.
While we will be running these flagship projects and receiving reports on
them at our quarterly Management Committee (MANCO) meetings this does not mean
that other work of the department should stop; all the projects we run are
important and implementation must continue. Some of these projects are cross
cutting and will affect different parts of the department; project leaders will
need to be assigned and I look forward to receiving the first reports on these
projects by March 2007.
I thank you.
Issued by: Department of Water and Forestry
8 December 2006
