E Pahad: The Presidency Dept Budget Vote, 2007/08

12 June 2007

Madam Speaker and Deputy Speaker
Cde President
Cde Deputy President
Honourable Ministers and Deputy Ministers
Honourable members
Distinguished guests
Ladies and gentlemen

Today we are confronted with the most urgent need to consolidate, protect
and advance the gains made by our National Democratic Revolution. There are
critics on the ultra-left and the right who have wittingly and unwittingly made
common cause as they attack our hard won freedoms as they spread disinformation
about our socio-economic gains since 1994. They accuse us of corruption,
centralisation, narcissism, intolerance and of being unresponsive to the needs
of our people. All of these claims, unfounded in reality are based on a faulty
understanding of the institutional and administrative arrangements which make
for efficient and effective policy development, policy implementation, service
delivery and monitoring and evaluation. Institutional arrangements that are
needed to meet the central challenges of halving poverty and unemployment by
2014 and building a non-racial, non-sexist, socially cohesive and prosperous
South Africa.

There is ample evidence to demonstrate that success in the fight against
poverty requires a strong democratic developmental state which exercises its
role in policy implementation, monitoring and evaluation. Let us be very clear
that a strong developmental state committed to realising the peoples contract
must not be confused with a despotic state and those who seek to sow this
confusion in the minds of our people are disingenuous. The seeming confluence
of the ultra-left and the right at this critical juncture in our Second Decade
of Democracy requires us to undertake an analysis of that one word that so
dominates the lexicon of our critics – power. One has to wonder why they view
the exercise of power by the legitimately elected representatives of the people
of South Africa as intrinsically bad.

Power exists within the context of relationships among people, things and
patterns of ownership and control. Power does not exist in a vacuum. It is not
inherent in individuals. Power and power relationships can and as our own
experience tells us does change. This is something that the official opposition
has not fully understood. They hold to outdated notions of power. The liberal
parliamentary opposition which places itself within the intellectual tradition
of Lord Acton opposes the National Democratic Revolution led by our government.
Their reliance on Acton is explicit in a speech on Youth Day, 16 June 2004, by
the felicitously departed head of the Democratic Alliance (DA), Tony Leon,
where he set out his philosophy and the "The DA's Vision" - which one can only
hope the new leader will abandon.

In the "philosophical" section, Leon gave the final word of his "conclusion"
to Lord Acton. Leon said that the democratic South African government seeks not
to limit power, but to concentrate it in the hands of the African National
Congress (ANC) and in reality, in the hands of the ANC's National Executive
Committee, which is dominated by the President and the more that power is
concentrated in the hands of any powerful institution, the less freedom there
is for individuals. I should emphasise that it does not matter that the ANC
might wish to concentrate power in its own hands, to extend its 'hegemony' for
good reasons or in pursuit of noble aims such as the 'emancipation' of the
African majority. Because accumulated power concentrated in the hands of a few
party bosses is a dangerous thing, irrespective of their reasons for wanting
that power. "Power corrupts" as Lord Acton pointed out long ago and "absolute
power corrupts absolutely."

In the following articulation of the views and positions of Acton I draw
extensively on the forthcoming book by Ronald Suresh Roberts Fit to Govern, The
Native Intelligence of Thabo M Mbeki. Leon misquotes Acton who really said that
"power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are
almost always bad men." Drawing upon the worst traditions of the rhetorical
polemical repertoire the South African liberal analysis converts a tendency
into an ironclad rule. Acton incidentally did not apply his dictum against
absolute power to the Pope whose authority he agreed was absolute and who he
acknowledged was incorruptible and infallible.

Certainly power unchecked by the rule of law, by a constitution and by a
social compact with the citizenry can slide down a slippery slope. But the link
Acton makes between power and corruption is ironic considering that Acton sat
as Member of Parliament for Carlow, a famously corrupt rotten borough and was
vilified for his lack of diligence. Lord Acton, the hero of the Democratic
Alliance, supported slavery, seeing it as a bulwark against the evils of
socialism, "Slavery" he said, "operates like a restricted franchise, attaches
power to property and hinders socialism, the infirmity that attends mature
democracies." Thus slavery stood against socialism just as apartheid later
stood against communism.

The Secretary-General of Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU),
Zwelinzima Vavi, argued at National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa's
(Numsa) 20th anniversary celebrations that "reports of an economic boom in
South Africa were government propaganda similar to that of Hitler's Nazi
Germany". For Vavi, our government is using its power in a manner consistent
with that exercised by the most abhorrent regime of the 20th Century. Is Vavi
turning full circle to link with the DA suggesting that the power exercised by
our government based on a mandate given to it by the overwhelming majority of
South Africans is so absolute as to be dictatorial? Is this not what he
actually said in May 2006, when he likened President Mbeki to a dictator,
"Dictatorship never announces its arrival. It won't, like drum majorettes, beat
drums and parade down the streets to announce it has arrived."

The DA which eulogises Acton should know that he was a racist and an admirer
of "Aryan" despotism. In 1877 Acton argued that "wherever we can trace the
earlier life of the Aryan nations we discover germs which favouring
circumstances and assiduous culture might have developed into free societies."
Would it be farfetched to at least argue that ultra-leftists by drawing these
invidious comparisons are making common cause with slothful intellectuals and
opponents who draw their sustenance from the Lord Actons of the world? Their
reckless attempts to discredit our government and its achievements over the
past 13 years place them objectively on the side of those opposed to
progressive policies in our country. Politics does make very strange
bedfellows. The sad reality is that the DA speaks from both sides of its mouth
when it said in a local government by-election in Ermelo that negotiating with
the ANC is a waste of time."

However in Parliament the DA through the honourable MC Lowe proceeds to ask
the President for a meeting to discuss issues of poverty and unemployment
either himself or as a delegation of people to sit down and come up with some
constructive solutions for all the people in South Africa? And President Thabo
Mbeki in the spirit of inclusivity unequivocally answered, "Yes we are prepared
to meet to flush us out of our partisan spaces to really address these matters
as national challenges rather than promotion of particular parties and
agendas".

Power as we have always held it to be, is "Amandla Ngawethu" "Power to the
People". This understanding of power is closest to what many call empowerment –
the exercise of power with people, not over people. In this understanding power
is shared, it is about increasing the capacity of our people and unleashing
their talents to engage constructively in co-operative governance. Our
fundamental premise therefore is that since power can expand and can change,
empowerment as a process of change becomes a meaningful concept. For us the
central task of the developmental state in the contemporary period
characterised by globalisation, centres on wealth creation and distribution as
well as social protection.

The developmental state is essential to the NDR and to promoting and
protecting democracy. The developmental state is about actively supporting
economic development and forging partnerships with key stakeholders to pursue
objectives. It is about strategic leadership in the fight to eradicate poverty,
unemployment and underdevelopment. The democratic developmental state has to
ensure among other things that:
* democracy is respected and advanced
* the constitution and the rule of law are safeguarded
* the market in key and critical sectors is regulated
* market generated inequalities are addressed
* investing in people is as essential as investing in roads and stadiums,
water, sanitation and electricity
* dealing with the legacy of apartheid which includes massive socio-economic
inequality and mal-distribution of ownership and resources (through for example
promoting pro-poor growth, rural development and women-centred
development).

The exercise of power in the name of our people and with their consent takes
two primary forms in our country – political and administrative and it is our
responsibility to exercise it judiciously and with a view to realising our
national development objectives. We need civil servants who are professional
who practice the principles of Batho Pele and as our President recently said
"we must do much more to train and create a public service that meets the
highest professional standards that is proud of the fact that it exists to
serve the people, that is patriotic and selfless, that fully understands the
historic significance of the esteemed position it occupies as one of the
principles of a non-racial, non-sexist, prosperous and egalitarian South
Africa."

So the centre must be strong as it has the overall responsibility for
ensuring improved service delivery and ensuring that the mandate of the
government is fulfilled. Let us not, like others, confuse a strong government
that exercises its responsibilities with confidence fully aware that it has the
overwhelming majority of the people on its side with a despotic government that
oppresses and represses its own citizenry. In the pursuit of developmental
objectives there may develop a tendency for the developmental state to become
authoritarian. We understand this and that is why our government binds itself
to its citizenry through deep respect for a sovereign Constitution and a
People's Contract. It is the People's contract that is one of the most
effective antidotes to the exercise of unbridled power.

The People's Contract is a fundamental recognition that all social
relations, including political relations, are inevitably power relationships
and that power exercised in the name of the people must be shared with the
people. This is the essence of good governance. The notion of power as both the
development of the capacities and talents of the citizenry and "the capacity to
implement" in partnership with the citizenry sees power as a process occurring
in relationships, that gives us the possibility of empowerment. The notion of
empowerment embedded in the Peoples Contract is a multi-dimensional social
process that helps our people gain control over their own lives. It fosters
power in people for use in their own lives, their communities and in their
society by acting on issues that they define as important.

Our commitment to a Peoples Contract, a compact wherein we govern in the
name of and with our people found interesting expression recently when I went
to a local Imbizo in Lentegeur Mitchell's Plain. There I met Ms Somaya Cassiem
and Ms Ann Timotheus both of whom are present with us in the gallery. These two
remarkable women are deeply concerned about the high levels of substance abuse
in their community and have embarked on an innovative community campaign to
fight drug abuse and rid their communities of drug lords. This, Madam Speaker,
is what we mean by peoples' participation in governance – acting in concert
with their democratically elected representatives to deal with one of the most
pressing problems facing the youth of our country. We applaud the initiatives
of these two women working assiduously to improve the lives of young people in
their communities.

June, Honourable members, is youth month and we remember with sadness and
pride the enormous sacrifices our youth made in 1976 during the Soweto and
related uprisings. In this month it behoves us to reflect on the challenges
faced by the youth of our country and rededicate ourselves to working to
improve their conditions of life. Youth make up 41% our population and they
face challenges of poverty, marginalisation in the rural areas, unemployment,
unacceptably high school drop out rates and health issues including HIV and
AIDS and other communicable diseases and infections. All of these are
exacerbated by conditions of poverty.

As a government we are concerned about our youth for they are our future. A
well resourced, streamlined, effective efficient and motivated National Youth
Commission (NYC) is an essential and indispensable adjunct to the work of
government in its efforts to improve the well being and conditions of life of
youth in our country. The NYC is autonomous and its engagement with the
Presidency is limited to the execution of its mandate - to facilitate,
co-ordinate and monitor policies and programmes that promote youth
development.

The work of the NYC in fulfilling its mandate in the upcoming year will be
greatly enhanced by the restructuring exercise it is currently undergoing. We
are fully confident that out of the exercise the NYC will emerge a stronger
organisation. To date, the absence of a National Youth Policy has hindered the
ability of the NYC to secure buy-in from government with regard to fulfilment
of its mandate. Last week the Presidential Youth Working Group met to exchange
views on the important challenges faced by the youth of South Africa. A Draft
National Youth Policy was presented. There is still more work to be done on the
draft policy before it is finalised and presented to cabinet. Already
discussions around the draft policy have re-stimulated interest in the work and
the mandate of the NYC.

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 and our policies. It is about strengthening
the work of the national gender machinery and the national machinery on
children's rights. This ensures that the issues of critical importance to
vulnerable groups and communities are not left to a single line department but
are dealt with in a holistic integrated fashion. This we believe is the most
effective approach to ensuring that policies related to vulnerable groups are
not consigned to the margins of government work.

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 and it is about ensuring
crosscutting responsibilities in good governance.

Madam Speaker, the Offices 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. Second, they play a critical
mainstreaming role. Third, they interact with their provincial and local
counterparts to ensure that national policies are translated into action in the
other spheres of government. And fourth, they identify the challenges and gaps
in policy development and implementation and offer solutions that can be
readily implemented. In these ways they 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. The
Office on the Status of Women notes that in 2007/08, in order to continue to
advance women's empowerment and gender equality, it needs to:

1. co-ordinate and promote the implementation of the national policy
framework and an action plan on women’s empowerment gender equality
2. more effectively mainstream gender equality into government programmes,
legislation and processes
3. fast track the training of public service officials at all levels to deliver
on gender equality and identify ways of holding them accountable for the
delivery of gender equity
4. ensure that by 2009, 50% of the senior decision makers in the public sector
are women.

The Office on the Status of Disabled Persons (OSDP) has indicated that it
will work diligently to:

1. strengthen the disability national machinery so that it is effective in
coordinating disability programmes
2. monitor more closely the implementation of a well coordinated disability
integrated policy and measure progress of service delivery
3. begin collecting comprehensive statistics on disability in South
Africa
4. ensure that by 2009, 2% of workers in the public sector are people with
disabilities
5. fast track implementation of the un convention on the rights of persons with
disability.

The Operational Research Consultants (ORC) identifies the need to:

1. develop reliable data on vulnerable children and in this regard, the ORC
will partner with United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) to conduct South
Africa's 2nd situation analysis of the status of children in South Africa
2. facilitate the development of a comprehensive national policy framework for
the protection and development of vulnerable children in South Africa
3. strengthen awareness of existing child rights policies and resources by,
among other things, developing essential material to promote and advocate for
delivery on children's rights and responsibilities
4. collaborate with countries in the region and internationally in regional and
global child protection and development initiatives.

All the Programme areas have noted that they will work to:

1. increase awareness of what gender, disability, children and youth
mainstreaming means and how it is to be accomplished
2. conduct a Gender, Disability, Child and Youth (GDCY) analysis and implement
a GDCY monitoring and evaluation framework developed and informed by the
Government Wide Monitoring and Evaluation System (GWMES)
3. strengthen ties with civil society in their respective sectors
4. report on the fulfilment of our regional, continental and global
obligations.

Our government is deeply committed to ensuring the well-being of all South
Africans and especially of those who are vulnerable, disadvantaged and
marginalised. In conclusion Madam Speaker, I would like to express my deep
appreciation and gratitude to the Director-General, the Reverend Frank Chikane,
and the Head of the Policy Co-ordination and Advisory Services (PCAS) Mr Joel
Netshitenzhe and the entire staff at all levels in The Presidency for their
dedication, commitment and hard work over the past year.

Issued by: The Presidency
12 June 2007