Mlambo-Ngcuka on the Presidency Budget Vote to the National Assembly, Cape
Town
7 June 2006
The President of the Republic,
Madame Speaker and Deputy Speaker
Honourable Ministers and Deputy Ministers,
Honourable Members,
Madame Speaker
On an occasion such as this one, the gathering of our National Parliament to
discuss the Budget Vote of The Presidency, it is important to remember the wise
and inspiring words of Amilcar Cabral when he extols us to âmask no
difficulties, mistakes and failures, and claim no easy victoriesâ.
Ours was a hard won liberation. Despite the enormous progress that we have
made this far, turning around an ailing economy and bringing services to
millions of people, the challenges remain daunting. We will not mask them nor
will we claim easy victories.
Recently, much has been said about the state of our democracy. Whether, our
democratic values and principles that our country was founded on and are
enshrined in our Constitution are still healthy and thriving or is democracy
being eroded?
The answer is a big yes. Our democracy is thriving and is in good health. In
fact it is robust.
The fact that people are able to publicly criticise government without fear,
of reprisals, demonstrates that our democracy, free speech and public discourse
is under no threat.
Our parliament remains supreme and a true representative of our people. As
Members of Parliament, we dare not forget that. As we go about our daily
business we are called upon to uphold our constitution at all times.
Leader of government business
Madam Speaker,
One of the responsibilities of the Leader of Government Business is to ensure
that we as an executive are accountable collectively and individually to
Parliament for the exercise of our powers and the performance of our functions
and ensure an interaction between the Executive and the two houses of
Parliament.
As Members are aware, the Executive sometimes faces an enormous challenge in
trying to meet the deadlines we have set regarding the introduction of bills.
We are establishing mechanisms to ensure that more realistic deadlines are set
and that there is improved monitoring of the processing of draft legislation
prior to submission to Cabinet. Through better planning and management,
requests for the fast tracking of Bills have been kept to a bare minimum to
ensure that Parliament has sufficient time to consider legislation.
At our recent meeting with the Madame Speaker of the National Assembly, we
discussed a range of issues of concern to this House and the Executive and we
agreed that such meetings must at least be held quarterly and I intend
establishing a similar arrangement with the Chairperson of the National Council
of Provinces, while maintaining the separation of powers and the oversight role
of Parliament.
The executiveâs delivery capacity can also be enhanced by the input from
Parliament so that we can work as partners who share a common vision and
destiny for our people
I hope in the coming year, we can improve the interaction between the Leader
of Government Business and Parliament, in particular with regard to Committee
Chairs and Leaders of opposition parties.
In this yearâs budget debates, Parliament has also been scrutinising
Departmentsâ interventions outlined in AsgiSA for improving the lives of the
poor. I wish to commend the MPs for this work because it will enhance the
integration and focus of the interventions. AsgiSA is not a stand alone
initiative but an integral part of governmentâs programme of action. On
International Obligations such as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in
particular, all the Departments seem to have strategically included these goals
in their programmes which imply that South Africa is well positioned to deliver
on MDGs. Our Legislation and policies are geared for the fulfilment of this
task by 2014 a year before the United Nations (UN) deadline of 2015. This is
important for Africa as we have been found to be least likely to make our
targets.
I wish to thank the Cabinet Secretariat for the sterling and efficient job
in supporting the Cabinet and myself as Leader of Government Business.
ASGISA
Madame Speaker, Honourable Members, you would also know that the President has
assigned me the responsibility of marshalling governmentâs efforts to
accelerate shared economic growth and address the integration of the Second
Economy. These efforts have culminated in the Accelerated and Shared Growth
Initiative for South Africa or AsgiSA. The initiative is designed to make
sustained accelerated shared growth possible, a minimum of 6% by 2010, and to
halve poverty and unemployment by 2014. I took the proposals of the AsgiSA task
team to Cabinet in October last year and in January this year and the President
announced AsgiSA during the State of the Nation Address in February 2006.
We talked to many people and groups which included business organisations,
trade union federations, women groups and youth groups.
This is why AsgiSA is not simply a government programme. It is an initiative
which belongs to all South Africans. It is a mechanism through which, as the
Presidency, we co-ordinate and support departments, institutions and other
partners to pool their resources together in support of a shared growth, to
close gaps where and when they occur and take full advantage of the
partnerships across different groupings in our society.
The selected sectors for shared growth must indeed give us both growth and
sharing. Progress has been made with regard to especially Tourism and Business
Process Outsourcing (BPO), which are priority sectors. Some of the remaining
challenges are to be given urgent attention especially in relation to
Governmentâs contribution. Both sectors will definitely give us jobs.
I wish to thank all the partners for their input and particularly the
contribution of the Business Trust and Organised Labour. This partnership is
proving to be solid.
Education and skills
Madame Speaker, Honourable Members, one of the most deadly blows to the
masses of our people by apartheid, was the inferior education provided to all
other groups except white people. In our growing and high performing economy,
the apartheid education legacy has come to haunt us. It has robbed us of the
critical skills needed to grow this economy which the democratic government has
managed so well. It is for this reason we widely consulted the sectors both in
need of skills and involved in training. Thereafter, we established the Joint
Initiative on Priority Skills Acquisition (JIPSA) in March 2006.
JIPSAâs focus areas include finding work or additional skills for the
thousands of unemployed graduates, support higher enrolment for learnerships,
internships and apprentices and together with the departments of Education and
Labour help clarify and enhance societal understanding of these concepts and
their application so that they are functional. We are encouraged by the
co-operation of our state-owned enterprises in searching for solutions such as
Eskom and Transnet, that also need these technical skills.
JIPSA aims to find work placement that will fast track the acquisition of
experience for our middle level managers and starting professionals in the
scarce skills category in private and public sector.
A report done by the University of Cape Town School of Business commissioned
for JIPSA indicates that at least 40% of students from historically
disadvantaged institutions in the engineering fields failed to graduate due to
their inability to secure internships and apprenticeships and not because they
have failed. We must respond decisively to this failure of the system to
accommodate these young people who are sorely needed in the economy and ensure
that all will find a place for their internships.
We commend that a start that has been made at local government level to
enhance capacity. At least 90 professionals have been identified by the
Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA) and thanks also to the Department of
Provincial and Local Government (DPLG) and National Treasury, 30 have already
been deployed. Some of these professionals who will each mentor one graduate
have been drawn from the database provided to us by the Freedom Front in this
house. This is good partnership and the opposition has to learn to collaborate
and work with government for the good of our people and nation building. We
would like to see more of this co-operation.
I wish to thank the Sector Education and Training Authorities (SETAs) who
have embraced this initiative and are working to respond to the challenges
ahead of us.
I also further wish to thank all our partners in JIPSA particularly the
National Business Initiative (NBI) who are providing the initiative with
secretarial support and the task team drawn from a range of institutions and
government departments and chaired by Mr Gwede Mantashe, the recently retired
Secretary General of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM).
Madame Speaker, Honourable Members, the skills shortage is a global
challenge and although we are undertaking an aggressive recruitment drive from
our country first, then globally, but there must be realism about what is
possible given the enormity of priority skills scarcity in the world. The
problem will only be decisively solved through training our people in our
universities, technical institutions, schools, corporations and communities in
the medium to long term. South Africa and the world has to grapple with this
global challenge sooner than later as the scarcity represents a huge cost to
economies and the cost of hiring people are becoming impossible.
The private sector must see the investment in human resources not as a
corporate social responsibility but a fundamental business imperative for their
survival, sustainability, profitability and productivity. The triple bottom
line index adopted by the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) is profit,
environment and corporate social responsibility â human resource development
must be considered in this sustainability index by companies with a real
vision.
The importance of provision of universal access to basic services to our
people
Madame Speaker, Honourable Members, in the Reconstruction and Development
Programme (RDP) the first democratic government committed itself to rolling
back poverty through the provision of social services and social
infrastructure. We remain committed to roll out these services and to reach
universal access before 2014, in order to give a better life to all our
people.
As the President already indicated, the soon to be published Macro-Social
Report finds that the social mobility of the poor is very low in South Africa.
Indeed, comparative evidence suggests that the likelihood of poor people moving
into better-off categories is lower in South Africa than in many other
countries because of the systemic nature of the apartheid legacy. In other
words, poor households and communities, comprising about one-third of South
Africaâs people, are locked into circumstances of poverty. The marginalised
people in âthe second economyâ have difficulties in pulling themselves with
their own bootstraps, at least not in acceptable timeframes.
It is for this reason that our interventions in the second economy, with
focus on youth, women and people with disabilities must be far reaching and
with focus on removing the underlying systemic challenges. This work, to
identify the correct interventions, is being done by the Policy Unit in the
Presidency and clusters.
On the positive side, the General Household Survey for July 2005, released
by Statistics South Africa last week, shows that between July 2002 and July
2005 school attendance rose from 96.3% to 97.8%, the percentage of young
persons not attending an educational institution because of a lack of money for
fees fell from 39.6% to 35.4% and with the no-fee schools that this will
further come down.
In the health sector, a positive sign is the rising percentage of patients
of both the private and public sector hospitals who are satisfied with the
services of these institutions rose to 82.1% and 96% respectively. The number
of households indicating hungry adults fell from 6.9% in 2002 to 4.2% in 2005.
The number of households with hungry children fell from 6.7% to 4.7%. These
numbers need to continue to fall with even greater speed.
In the private sphere, the availability of a cell phone for regular use by
households rose from 35% in 2002 to a remarkable 59.7% in 2005, which means
there is growing disposable income out there.
Universal access to basic services is a key intervention of Government to
address these inequalities, therefore we call on all spheres of Government to
prioritise and accelerate universal access to these services. I am sure all the
Members in this house will agree to this because our country must and can give
all our people a minimum standard of living.
Through our Government programmes, we focus on investments in poor
communities because it has high socio-economic returns. For example, investing
in the provision of electricity or communications can increase the output of
the poor by 40% of the value of the investment, while investments in roads can
yield 80% and higher. Hence the greater emphasis on road infrastructure through
the Expanded Public Works Programme and the Department of Transport. The effect
on poverty reduction of such investments, as well as investments in irrigation
systems, can have an even higher impact on poverty alleviation in poor rural
areas.
This is why accelerating infrastructure development is one of the key
interventions of our growth efforts, not only for economic efficiency, but also
for poverty relief.
South African National AIDS Council (SANAC)
Madame Speaker, Honourable Members, despite all the criticism, the council
has done much work in the areas of advocacy and social mobilisation for HIV and
AIDS. Some of the work of the council is ensuring that appropriate dialogue and
discussion of issues pertaining to HIV and AIDS policy takes place between
government and civil society; ensuring participation of civil society sectors
in the SANAC meetings, ensuring SANAC supports activities geared at
partnerships in the fight against HIV and AIDS (e.g. World AIDS Day). As the
Country Co-ordinating Mechanism, SANAC has contributed towards securing about
R458 million from the Global Fund towards support of NGOs and government in
fighting HIV, AIDS and TB.
During the recent SANAC meeting a presentation on a framework for the
National Strategic Plan for 2006 - 2011 was made, as a way forward after the
ending of the five-year Comprehensive Strategy adopted for 2000 â 2005, which
we remain committed to fast track. The Council agreed that the major approaches
of the strategy were correct and should inform the new plan. This month we will
complete this work and the review of SANAC. I wish to thank all the partners
and the Department of Health for working together and our hard working
Secretariat.
Moral Regeneration Campaign
Madame Speaker, Honourable Members, the moral degeneration of our country
has manifested itself in various ways such as the high rate of abuse of women
and children, abuse of our senior citizens, abuse of alcoholic substances and
drugs. Addressing these issues go to the core of the Moral Regeneration
Movement (MRM) business. Thousands of South Africans across the country have
participated in the drawing up and adoption of the charter for positive
values.
Efforts to further broaden participation and leadership is underway and MRM
has faith-based institutions in the main. We see a role for business
organisations, civil society including sports, youth and women in embracing
positive and ethical values as a way of life. There is further room to instil
these values through sports in education and social movements.
We cannot tolerate any women abuse as we are celebrating the 50th
Anniversary of the Womenâs March to the Union Buildings in Pretoria which took
place on 9 August 1956. The celebration of that heroic and historic womenâs
struggle calls upon us to be extra vigilant about the rights and the dignity of
women in our country. We must re-affirm our commitment in fighting against
women and child abuse. We salute the womenâs leadership and all the partners
for having extended the 16 days of no violence against women and children to
365 days. We urge all members to do their bit everyday of the year.
The backlash against women and resurgence of male chauvinism in whatever
form it disguises itself cannot be tolerated. Both men and women of our country
have made great strides in this respect and they must march on and not
regress.
Let us remember that any slide into male chauvinism will hit the poorest of
the poor women hardest because they have fewer possibilities to negotiate
favourable power relations at work, in communities, in bed and that could be
deadly!
Izimbizo
We have built on the Imbizo concept within our system of governance which is
a direct result of our belief that the voice and views of the communities are
important to us. In the past year, we have engaged different communities on
many Izimbizo. We have gone through the length and breadth of our country to
hear first hand what problems and challenges face our people.
We have visited many municipalities to better understand the bottlenecks
that exist so that we can come out with feasible solutions. We have spoken to
people through their Ward Committees and reinforced grassroots leadership
through Community Development Workers.
The interactions with this very important sphere of Government has exposed
us to the strengths, shortcomings and challenges of Local Government, we have
not masked difficulties, mistakes and failures, nor have we claimed any easy
victories. The Department of Provincial and Local Government (DPLG) through
Project Consolidate, has responded to the challenges they have identified and
those who have seen together during Izimbizo. We must respond to the needs of
the people (our constituencies) wherever we are located. This relates to all
political parties, we need to strive to service the people better regardless of
what party they support.
Women-specific interventions
Madame Speaker, Honourable Members, several interventions have been
identified to target women, to ensure that they share in providing leadership
and sharing economic benefits. To strengthen womenâs leadership and local
government, we are currently training, predominantly women groups, in local
government jointly with Old Mutual and the South African Management Development
Institute (SAMDI) on Project Management at Old Mutual business school. A total
of 100 local government practitioners will benefit from this course. The
President also has a womenâs working group made of women from civil society
alongside other Presidential Working Groups. We have initiated a national
co-operatives programme that is directed towards women in rural and urban
areas. The programme is called Jobs for Growth. The co-operative programme is
run by the Independent Development Trust (IDT) on behalf of government. Both
the department of agriculture and Trade and industry drive the initiative. The
programme has been launched, and 150 trainers have been selected and received
initial training. These trainers are presently training cooperatives at local
authority level. Several womenâs organisations and municipalities are assisting
in identifying womenâs groups and co-operatives. The programme is staffed and
fully operational and will report progress through the relevant
departments.
We are finalising placement of women for work experience and skills
acquisition in different companies in South Africa and abroad mainly in
construction, hospitality, finance, ICT and tourism. The Departments of
Tourism, Public Works, Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA) and IDT are
leading this work. I wish to thank the private sector and our international
partners in India, the United Kingdom, United Arabic Emirates, Canada, Kenya,
China, Spain, Australia, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, the United States of
America, the Netherlands, who are helping us with this programme and our
Department of Foreign Affairs.
Youth development
Madame Speaker, Honourable Members, I will not be doing justice Honourable
Members if I conclude this Budget Vote without touching on the subject that is
dear to me. That is, to talk about our national effort to improve the
socio-economic conditions of youth.
Many members of the Executive that have presented their Budget Votes have,
directly and indirectly, elaborated on how their departments are supporting
youth development.
The 2005 World Youth Report of the United Nations reminds us that âit is
essential to ensure that youth interventions are relevant and valid for the
current young generation in society and not mired in the realities of the
past.â Our country faces challenges beyond youth skills, poverty and
unemployment. We are challenged to build a socially cohesive society. This is a
society where communities share values, a vision, pride and passion for taking
our nation forward. We intend to achieve this through the National Youth
Service which Minister Essop Pahad is driving together with the National Youth
Commission, Umsobomvu Youth Fund and many other Government Agencies that
support young people.
Conclusion
Madame Speaker, Honourable Members, this year we lost one of our greatest
women, Mentor, Educator, Mother â that is Princess Nomzamo Stella Sigcau, a
traditional leader inn her own right who taught many of us on the dynamic role
of traditional authority and was part of giving meaning to the concept of a
developmental and progressive traditional authority. This we intend to uphold
in our work and uphold the culture of ploughing back to rural areas, which she
pioneered, by those who have migrated to urban areas and have gone up the
socio-economic ladder. In our work to support both MRM and developmental
traditional authority, we will uphold these partnerships.
I want to thank the President for his wise leadership and counsel, his quiet
dignity that speaks volumes. I am grateful for his help in keeping my eyes on
the ball and for his support. I also wish to thank Minister Essop Pahad for his
support. I wish to thank all our staff and advisors ably led by Rev Chikane for
always walking an extra mile and all our families that support all of us
consistently.
I wish to thank people in the gallery, partners in civil society, private
sector, you Honourable Members of Parliament and my colleagues in Cabinet for
their comradeship and more.
This is the age of hope. Lest we forget and our confused by the turmoil
around us, which in time and in history will only be a speck of dust in a much
bigger picture of people united in partnership for a better life.
It is the age of hope. Women must not be cannibalised by the revolution
which liberated them and gave them back their dignity.
It is the age of hope. Our childrenâs stomachs must not tickled by hunger
pangs or tears of pain from being violated but by pangs of being tickled by
loving hands of grown ups and tears from laughter out of joy and play.
It is the age of hope. Our youth must strive to leave a legacy, learn from
the youth under oppression who sacrificed; youth in a free South Africa can and
must do much more for the nation.
Madame Speaker, Honourable Members, in the past 30 minutes I have tried to
illustrate in so many ways the manner in which, as the Presidency, we are
building partnerships through various programmes of development of our country.
The successes and failures that we have experienced and the challenges we
tackled, we have indeed taken heed of the wise counsel of Amilca Cabral to
âMask no difficulties, mistakes, failures and to claim no easy victoriesâ. We
are very certain that the trajectory on which we are now can only strengthen
the fact that we are indeed in the age of hope. Through all our efforts, we are
starting to reap the fruit of our toil, the sweat of our brows and the place
called hope, is our destiny.
I therefore, call on this house to support the passing of this Budget
Vote.
I thank you.
Issued by: The Presidency
7 June 2006
