Honourable Speaker;
Honourable President;
Honourable Ministers and Deputy Ministers;
Honourable Members; and
Ladies and gentlemen:
I am honoured to address this august house on the occasion of the Budget Vote of The Presidency.
We are meeting during youth month and in two days' time we will be celebrating Youth Day.
Continuing with the theme of the state of the nation address, which declared that this is ‘the year of job creation’, it is fitting that we continue to dedicate as much of our budget allocations as possible towards combating unemployment and poverty, especially as they affect our youth.
Contrary to some of the public commentary, the biggest challenge facing our youth is not simply political apathy but unemployment and therefore economic marginalisation.
On this account, we are encouraged by the multitudes of young people who came out to cast their vote during this year’s local government elections.
In terms of the turn-out this was a highly successful election which signals the strengthening of our democracy.
Of course the challenge flowing from this is that all of us have to roll up our sleeves to speed up delivery of services to our people.
Given heightened expectations from these local government elections, new councillors have the duty to bring in efficiency, diligence, accountability, and skills in executing their electoral mandate for the next five years.
Honourable Members,
As we all know, investment in human resource development contributes significantly to growth in income, reduces inequality and improves the productivity of countries.
It is with this in mind that we have launched numerous interventions to systematically strengthen the skills base of South Africa.
Historically South Africa has had a mismatch between the skills produced by our education system and skills needed for the growth and development of our economy.
We are working hard to close the gap between what the education and training system produces and what the labour market requires.
To this end government has been able to create congruence between the priorities of the Human Resource Development Strategy (HRDS) and those of the New Growth Path. This means that investment in training programmes will mirror investment in the priority sectors.
As you would recall, I announced during last year’s budget vote that I would be appointing a Human Resource Development Council which would advise government on sector mobilisation and on a Human Resource Development Strategy managed through the Ministry of Higher Education and Training.
I am pleased to report this year that the Council is now fully operational and meets quarterly.
A technical working group led by the Minister of Higher Education and Training has also been set up to facilitate implementation of the Council’s decisions.
This technical working group has already developed a 1-year operational plan and will be finalising a five-year strategic implementation plan.
In essence the priorities of this Council are:
- to accelerate annual introduction of artisans into the economy;
- to ensure greater access to further education and training opportunities;
- to support the jobs fund by developing worker education and on-the-job training programmes; and
- to review Sector Skills Plans.
The Council will also focus on coordinating programmes that include career-guidance, setting targets for identified professions and building stronger relations with academics, higher education institutions and industry.
I am confident that these plans will reposition the education and training landscape thus helping South Africa to a higher development trajectory.
Honourable Members,
As it is to be expected these measures to improve the employability and productivity of South Africans are medium to long-term in nature and cannot immediately address the twin challenges of unemployment and poverty.
Therefore our strategies will include a number of short-term assistance packages that form part of a larger basket of anti-poverty measures.
To review the implementation of these strategies, we paid visits to uMsinga in KwaZulu-Natal, Bitou Municipality in the Western Cape, Nkomazi in Mpumalanga and Taung in the North West.
These visits enabled us to interact with households that are trapped in a cycle of poverty and who were not aware of where to go to for help – especially as we experience a shortage of social workers, paediatricians and career counsellors in some of our rural areas.
The absence of socio-economic infrastructure constrains the potential presented by, for example, agriculture and natural resources in some rural communities. Therefore people are unable to farm successfully and get their produce to the markets.
Our anti-poverty programme will strengthen government’s coordination and integration efforts.
This will be achieved through three specific War on Poverty Campaign outcomes:
- targeted delivery of services to poor households;
- monitoring household progression out of extreme poverty; and
- improved accountability and inter-governmental relations and coordinated service delivery by all spheres.
To achieve these outcomes government will in this financial year finalise a national poverty reduction strategy building on existing macro-economic instruments like the New Growth Path and Industrial Policy Action Plan 2 (IPAP 2) to demonstrate government’s determination to synergise our work for optimum outcomes.
We will also be holding regular meetings with the provincial and local spheres of government with the aim of unlocking bottlenecks to service delivery in the implementation of our anti- poverty programmes.
In addition we will also visit service delivery points and frontline offices to ensure that those at the coal face of delivery are not only able to do so efficiently, but also, receive support where necessary.
We are encouraged by the positive response shown by change agents in these poor households and the collaboration with different spheres to help these change agents access further learning and work opportunities.
Honourable Speaker,
Another concern evident in our anti-poverty work is that too many people are dependent on social grants.
We cannot pull back from our social security regime even though in themselves such interventions are not sufficient to migrate families out of poverty.
Therefore investment in improving the quality of education and job creation is vital.
In the final analysis we must provide opportunities for people to earn an income.
We are there forecommitted to the targets set under the Expanded Public Works and Community Works Programmes (CWP) and will continue to monitor progress on these interventions, which are driven by the Departments of Public Works and Cooperative Governance, respectively.
While these are not permanent work opportunities, they provide poverty relief alongside other social development programmes.
In this regard we must commend the significant successes we have seen in the Community Works Programmes projects as already reported by the Department of Cooperative Governance.
The Community Works Programme has now become the fastest growing component of our public employment initiative, with significant involvement of non-governmental and community-based organisations.
Honourable Members,
The Minister of Health told this house during his budget vote speech that our country faces a major burden of disease with the HIV, AIDS and TB pandemics leading.
Clearly winning this battle requires taking our collective efforts to another level through building on the commitment shown by our civil society partners, development partners and the international community.
In the past year we have made remarkable progress in the core pillars of our anti-AIDS strategy, which comprises prevention, care and treatment.
In this regard we are pleased to report that since the launch of the HIV Counselling and Testing Campaign in April last year close to 12 million people have been tested.
We are heartened by this overwhelming response and want to congratulate all who participated for taking active responsibility in managing their health and in turn protecting others.
We want to encourage those who have not tested to do so, because testing demonstrates a deep respect and value for human life.
If you test and find that you are HIV positive it means you can take precaution to prevent infecting your partner and receive timeous medical treatment.
We will continue to improve our condom procurement and distribution channels with a particular focus on expanding access to female condoms.
We are encouraged by reports that condom use particularly among young people is increasing.
Equally, we are pleased by the positive response of young people to government’s call for medical male circumcision as effective ammunition in our arsenal in the fight against HIV infection.
Once again we would like to thank community and traditional leaders for supporting this effort.
As honourable members are aware last year we revised our treatment guidelines and fortified capacity in primary healthcare centres to be able to administer anti-retroviral treatment safely in line with approved international norms.
This expanded capacity has enabled us to increase the number of people on ARV treatment to close to 1.4 million.
Honourable Speaker,
The challenge is to reduce the rate of new HIV infections and to mitigate its impact.
As the president stated the research outcomes presented at the 5th South Africa AIDS Conference convened in Durban indicate that there is a significant reduction in mother-to-child transmission, dropping from 10% in 2008to 3.5% currently.
New infections among youth have also come down; however, a lot more still remains to be done especially with regards to addressing the social determinants of this epidemic among our people.
As honourable members are aware, our National Strategic Plan for HIV, AIDS, STIs 2007-2011, is the blueprint which guides the Country Response to HIV, AIDS, STIs and all other co-related morbidities.
The current framework expires at the end of this year and the South African National AIDS Council has already endorsed the process for the development of the next plan 2012-2016. Due to the high rates of HIV-TB co-infection, the new plan will cover HIV, STIs and TB.
The South African National AIDS Council through its various structures at the national level will lead and coordinate the development of the new plan.
Provinces and Municipalities will input through Provincial and Local AIDS Councils to ensure that context-specific dynamics are factored in.
My office will maintain close oversight of this crucial process to ensure that we meet the deadline of December 1st for the launch of the new National Strategic Plan for HIV, AIDS, TB and STIs.
A series of consultative meetings will be held across the country over the next few months and these will include community dialogues to ensure that the voices of ordinary women, men and young people are captured and their concerns highlighted.
I urge people from all sectors, civil society, the private sector, labour, traditional leaders, development partners, faith-based organisations, and all relevant role players to participate effectively in this process to ensure that we achieve consensus.
In this way we can all agree on what needs to be done, who will do it, how will it be done, how will it be resourced and that we all have joint accountability at all levels.
By working together in the manner outlined above, I am confident that the new plan will unite us and bring all our efforts to bear on the challenges we face.
Equally we are humbled by the global recognition for our modest efforts in the fight against HIV and AIDS as recently expressed by the UN Secretary General, Mr Ban Ki Moon, as well as the UNAIDS Executive Director, Mr Michel Sidibe.
Honourable Members,
I am sure that you will recall only too well the electricity black-outs that the country experienced in 2008.
We have since then made significant progress in ensuring that we stabilise electricity supply.
However as our economy and population grow, our reserve margin will remain under pressure until such time that new power stations are commissioned.
Facing this daunting reality, the Energy Advisory Council, Eskom and the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Energy, have been working tirelessly to implement the Integrated Resource Plan recently released to the public.
Working together with our social partners we have developed a comprehensive strategy for energy security, with an appropriate mix, over a planning period of 20 years.
This long-term planning horizon will be the norm in the energy sector and beyond.
We are experiencing erratic weather patterns, which is a manifestation of climate change.
Our effort must therefore be geared towards efficient and alternative natural resource use to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions, reduce water consumption and other wastage.
We therefore encourage all consumers to continue to use energy efficiently.
At the same time government recommits itself to prioritising the roll out of solar water heaters, among others, and to ensure availability and affordability of Liquefied Petroleum Gas.
Honourable Members,
The global energy security landscape is complex and changing rapidly. The recent developments in North Africa and the Middle East have implications for energy security in Africa in as far as it affects growth and development.
For our part, South Africa will intensify our energy diplomacy in line with our broader international relations work for the benefit of all sectors of society.
We are encouraged therefore by the growing direct supply of crude oil to South Africa by Sub-Saharan countries such as Angola and Nigeria, and thus helping diversify sources to secure supply.
We hope to sustain this trend and ensure that we convert the short-term agreements into longer-term agreements that support intra-Africa trade.
We also seek to position South Africa as one of the main destinations for oil and gas beneficiation in sub-Saharan Africa.
These efforts are amongst our international relations initiatives announced by the President in the State of the Nation Address.
We intend to consolidate and deepen our relations with Nigeria within the framework of the Bi-National Commission chaired at Deputy Heads of State level.
Continuing with this Africa Agenda, we have recently established an Inter-Ministerial Committee on the Pan-African Infrastructure Initiatives to assist the President in his role of leading the African Union/New Partnership for Africa's Development (AU/Nepad) infrastructure projects as requested by the African Union.
As honourable members are aware, a pillar of our foreign policy involves strengthening North-South and South-South relations in pursuit of our development interests and those of our continent.
To this end we will strengthen diplomatic and economic relations with the Nordic countries.
A notable aspect of these relationships is the trilateral arrangements we have entered into which will see South Africa collaborate with some of these Nordic countries to support peace and development efforts in Africa.
South Africa attaches importance to our close and cordial relations with the Peoples Republic of China. We are indeed satisfied with the progress made in the Bi-National Commission and hope to deepen the existing Comprehensive Strategic Partnership.
We will continue to develop fraternal relations with a number of other states with a view to creating positive results in areas of trade, investment and people to people contact.
In the past financial year we have received visits from China, United States, Germany, Vietnam, and Japan; and have undertaken visits to Kenya, South Korea, Turkey, Syria, the United Kingdom and the United States and Vietnam. This is testimony to the diversity and strength of our international relations.
Honourable Members,
The flow of legislation from the Executive to Parliament has been proceeding smoothly. Although some of my Cabinet colleagues are not able to keep to the dates that were originally given for the tabling of their Bills, there have been no requests for fast-tracking in the past year.
Cabinet is committed to its accountability to Parliament, including attending committee meetings and answering questions on time.
Honourable Speaker,
Last year a government delegation met with the South African National Editors Forum (SANEF) to discuss ways of enhancing working relations between Government and the media.
In this engagement, we affirmed the important role of the media in our society and reaffirmed our commitment to work closely with SANEF to resolve any differences that may arise.
We agreed to regular in-depth engagements on the longer-term strategic issues faced by both government and the media in the building of a better South Africa.
In conclusion, Honourable Speaker, allow me to remind this august house that it is exactly a year ago since we hosted the first FIFA World Cup Final on African soil.
What the successful hosting of this global tournament showed is that we are indeed a capable nation when we work together towards a common goal.
Government has learnt from the World Cup experience that to accelerate delivery all three spheres must coordinate better and work and meet all the deadlines.
But more importantly, the World Cup united our nation in ways we had never seen since the 1994 democratic elections; it reminded us that social cohesion and nation building is the cornerstone of our democracy.
We have no choice but to work together to build a united, democratic, non-racial, non-sexist and prosperous nation.
On this score, I wish to echo those who have condemned senseless attacks against women and foreign nationals.
South Africa has no place for hooligans who taint our flag with barbaric acts of violence. Whatever the grievances or disputes may be, they can never be justified through violence against fellow citizens or foreign nationals who earn an honest living in this country.
Once again as we observe the 35th Anniversary of June 16 on Thursday we are reminded of the need to work even harder to bring about a better life for all our people.
I would like to end by thanking the President for his unwavering support, the Ministers, Deputy Ministers, Members of Parliament as well as Presiding Officers with whom I interact in my capacity as Leader of Government Business.
Let me also acknowledge the stellar support from the staff in my office and The Presidency in general.
Na Khensa, Ndo a livhuwa, ngiya thokoza, dankie, I thank you for your attention.
