Honourable House Chairperson,
Honourable Chairperson and Members of the Portfolio Committee,
Honourable Minister Pravin Gordhan,
Deputy Minister Andries Nel,
MEC’s, Mayors and Councillors,
Leadership of Houses of Traditional Leaders,
Leaders of Contralesa,
The DG DCOG and DG DTA,
Chairpersons of Gogta Public Entities,
Ladies and gentlemen,
Fellow South Africans.
My Theme is “Local Government is everybody business – Be part of it and make it work” and is Taken from COGTA Slogan.
We present this Budget today, as we celebrate the 20th anniversary of freedom and democracy and the start of the 5th administration in which the President announced that - We now have a Deputy Minister with special focus on Traditional Affairs.
His Excellency President Jacob Zuma said “Local Government is the heart of the lives of the people of South Africa. It is where we get the water we drink, the electricity we use, the roads we drive in, the parks that our children’s use to play, and is about building healthy living communities”.
A narrative of what is a long story by John Lennon on what he said could be an ideal community and municipality.
“You may say I am a dreamer, but I am not the only one. Together we can bring this city and surrounding areas closer to our ideal vision. But in order to build a place that better suits the needs of everybody. We need everyone’s voice and everyone’s help! So stand up”.
Going forward we must make municipalities functional and ensure that they do not compromise basket of services, to take us to this ideal community or municipality, that john Lennon dreamt about by doing the right things efficiently, diligently, responding to service delivery and working with all people in a partnership. At the same time, honourable Speaker, there must be a harmonization of Local Municipalities and Traditional Leadership
South Africa’s rural towns are characterised by deep levels of poverty, while ironically they are a home to rich agriculture, environmental and mineral resources. The rural population finds it most difficult to get any form of employment.
As government, our role is to unblock the barriers that to date are affecting the development of the rural towns including areas such as:
(i) inefficient usage of the spatial planning instruments at local government level to strengthen linkages between rural and urban spaces and other major economic nodes,
(ii) easing tensions between elected councils and traditional leadership.
The NDP recommends two main focus areas for strengthening the rural towns:
- Prioritising attention to agriculture and rural enterprise development in areas of high market access, especially within peri-urban zones and along major mobility corridors.
- Furthermore that initiatives be accelerated to provide targeted support to small towns. We will support the Small Towns Redevelopment Programme working together with other government and non-government partners.
Honourable members, Districts Municipalities also have a role
An important role to play and ensure that we attain our developmental vision in our rural towns and municipalities.
We acknowledge that instead of playing their role as envisaged in the White Paper on Local Government, their role has gradually shifted over time. Although this approach has assisted in dealing mainly with service delivery backlogs in most local municipalities, the unintended consequence has been that they have not been able to play their role as regional development facilitators.
Honorable members, this brings me to Traditional Affairs
1. The announcement of the establishment of the Department of Traditional Affairs. Its mandate is to promote and protect the cultural, religious and linguistic rights of communities as supported by the Commission for the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Cultural Religious and Linguistic Communities.
These constitutional provisions and mandate are exercised in collaboration with other departments and structures of government.
2. Secondly the department has the Commission on Traditional Leadership Disputes and Claims which is occupied with attending to the claims and disputes that were lodged up to August 2010. To date, about 700 claims out of 1244 have been finalised for kingships, and this financial year. The Commission will process 320 claims. It is envisaged that by December 2015 all the claims will have been completed, to ensure stability in traditional communities.
3. The Traditional Affairs Bill is intended amongst others, to affirm and recognise the Khoi and San leadership and structures. This Bill will be going through the Parliamentary process during this financial year, for tabling, as approved by Cabinet.
4. Furthermore, South Africa will be participating in the United Nations World Conference on the Rights of the Indigenous People of the World on the 22nd to 23rd of September 2014, to contribute to the finality on Rights and Indigenous people.
5. In addition, we will be consulting further on Traditional Courts Bill working together with the department of Justice and Correctional Services. This Bill is critical for traditional councils to be able to function effectively.
6. We are committed to working together for the restoration of the respect of dignity of the Traditional Leadership, attend to their needs and requirements development of the Institutions, including recognition of Customary Law in line with the Constitution.
7. One important milestone in this regard is that the Department, working together with SALGA, to maximise and ensure the meaningful participation of traditional leadership at local government level, and to ensure that this institution plays its developmental role to improve service delivery and socio-economic development within traditional communities, as part of normalisation relations.
The department will continue to work with interfaith organizations as part of its mandate to promote religious and spiritual rights. Furthermore we will be consulting with the interfaith sector as a method of promoting social cohesion.
We greatly regret the deaths of the initiates during this winter initiation season which has risen to 42. The department maintains in “Zero Fatalities Campaign”
that one death is one too many. Government has employed many mechanisms to curb this loss of life during this important cultural practice, and resulting in a decline from 419 in 2012, to 116 in 2013, to 42 in 2014.
The Initiation Policy has been discussed extensively with various traditional institutions and will be submitted for Cabinet approval in this financial year. This Policy will enable us to legislate and regulating into law the running of initiation schools.
Banning all illegal schools, Compulsory pre-medical screening, Integrating Medical Male Circumcision into initiation practice, Abuse of initiates outlawed, Setting up initiation schools inspectorate teams and expediting prosecution of offenders.
We also welcome the voices from provincial governments as well as traditional leaders in condemning the physical abuse and the deaths of initiates.
- National House of Traditional Leaders Initiation Task Team,
- Mpumalanga Ingoma Forum,
- Limpopo for establishing effective measures and integrating Medical Male Circumcision into initiation practice,
- Eastern Cape - both government and traditional leaders for their active role.
- The Imbumba Yamakhosikazi Akomkhulu – an organization led by Women from Royal Houses.
We are currently preparing for the summer initiation season, as we are still aiming for “Zero Fatalities” focusing on Eastern Cape and Free State.
Honour members, in closing let me say that
At Cogta we are committed to improving the lives of the people. As part of my programme, I will be visiting different Kings and the Houses of Traditional Leaders. The intention of the visits will be to encourage cooperation and working together to improve the living conditions in traditional communities.
Tomorrow, the country and the world will mark the first International Mandela Day, since the passing of the late former founding president of our democracy.
We implore all South Africans to dedicate at least 67 minutes of their time, to clean their local areas and “To keep South Africa clean”.
Local Government is everybody business – Be part of it and make it work. Together let us move South Africa forward.
Ndaa! Ndi a livhuwa – Thank you!
