Honourable Deputy Speaker
Honourable Presiding Officers
Honourable Premier
Honourable Chief Whip and Deputy Chief Whip
Leaders of Political Parties
Chairpersons of Committees
Members of the Gauteng Provincial Legislature
Invited guests
Ladies and Gentlemen
Friends and Comrades
People of Gauteng
“Government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the Earth.”-This is a quote elegantly put by Abraham Lincoln which asserts that people should at all times be a priority for any government serving them. As the Gauteng province we strive in ensuring that in all we all do is as mandated by the people of Gauteng. 2011/12 has been a daunting yet exciting year, widely characterised with proactivity from citizens who effervescently utilised the Gauteng legislature to air their views on many issues pertaining to their government. As representatives bestowed with the responsibility of oversight, it is paramount that we execute with astuteness, prudence and diligence in our day to day duties.
At the beginning of the 2011/12 Financial Year, we made undertakings to implement programmes that will improve our oversight, law making and public participation functions. We committed that the Committees of the Gauteng Provincial Legislature and the MPLs’ approach to oversight activities will be driven by the desire and the quest to improve the lives of the people of Gauteng, particularly those who are at the margins of society. To realise this objective, the Gauteng Legislature is committed to represent the aspirations of the people of Gauteng and to give them a voice in the processes of governance.
Therefore, our commitment to work towards a better life for all through the continued process of the democratisation of our society based on equality, non-racialism and non-sexism; national unity in diversity remains our collective strength as a people and the synergising glue for every South African.
To this end, the Gauteng Provincial Legislature has a responsibility of strengthening the legislature as an institution of popular democracy. Needless to state, the GPL seeks to play an active role in promoting social cohesion and sustainable communities.
The Annual report of the Gauteng Provincial Legislature for the financial year 2011/2012 that we are presenting today shows that we are making important progress in improving our role of oversight over the Gauteng government, facilitating public participation in legislative processes and creating laws that are aimed at addressing the needs of the people.
We therefore present this report with utmost pride to the people of Gauteng. We can confirm today that we have laid a solid foundation for a democratic, activist and a transformative Legislature. Our achievements during the year under review are a reflection of the on-going work that began 18 years ago. We are still on the journey that began at the dawn of democracy and still intent to creating a democratic state and an inclusive society based on the will of the people, equality and respect for human rights.
The presentation we are making today will highlight the important gains that were registered during the year under review on our constitutional mandate of oversight, law making, public participation and cooperative governance. We will also reflect on the institutional challenges that we must still overcome to reach our potential and lastly give an outlook of the route ahead towards 2014 and beyond.
This annual report is presented to the people of Gauteng in order to account on how public resources were and are utilised in realising strategies and programmes that seek to enhance democracy and create confidence in democratic governance. This is in line with the vision of “fostering public pride and confidence in democracy and enabling service delivery to the people of Gauteng”.
As a leadership collective of the people of Gauteng, this august House should take pride in its sterling efforts and work. Well done to all of you!!!
Public Participation
Honourable Members, the constitution of our country has mandated the legislative sector to encourage pro-active citizens and popular participation in democratic processes of the country and thus fostering social cohesion. This vision is the cornerstone of our country’s Constitution, namely; “that no government can claim legitimacy unless it is based on the will of the people”. This task, Honourable Members, must continue to inform our governance processes in Gauteng.
All of us have agreed that democracy is more than electing representatives to power once every five years. It means empowering people, especially women; workers; youth and rural people, to participate in decision-making processes that affect their lives. To this end, the collective of MPLs have a responsibility to mould the Gauteng Provincial Legislature into a strong institution of popular democracy tasked with the mandate of mobilising people of Gauteng behind a common programme of nation-building, development and the deepening of our democracy. This is the context in which our public participation programmes have been unfolding.
GPL has adopted a public posture that seeks to engage the people on an on-going basis to build partnerships and strengthen oversight and law-making processes. During the year under review, we have held sector parliaments for women, children, youth, women, the elderly, workers and persons living with disability. The sector parliaments have provided an opportunity for all groups in our society to have a say in legislative matters.
A distinct feature of these Sector Parliaments was the partnerships forged with SETAs, NGOs, business and labour who attended these sessions and supplied our people with information for empowerment as well as resolving some of the pertinent concerns raised. In this way, sector parliaments have become the real tribune of our people. This is an investment worth making to guarantee and protect our hard won freedom and democracy as well as to build a new nation.
The GPL is in the process of finding the most appropriate mechanism that will translate the inputs of the people into tangible programmes that are aimed at improving their lives. This is a task that we are ready to implement so that our public participation processes can be more meaningful and can also be empowering to the communities of Gauteng. This I believe is a long held view by all the Members of this august House.
It is a real pity then, when some amongst us, having agreed to the need to engage with our people on an on-going basis, deems it appropriate to express opinions in public that contradict our agreement and seems to be challenging the collective wisdom of this House. This House must demonstrate intolerance towards such tendencies because they will have the effect of reducing public confidence in the Legislature and its functions.
We should call on all the MPLs, and in particular the leaders of the political parties represented at the Legislature to reduce the appetite of scoring cheap political points by publicly attacking the processes of this House as if they are not members and as if they did not contribute to the decisions of the Legislature. It is your duty, to protect the integrity of this House. There are many other issues and platforms through which you can launch your elections campaign. The legislature is not one of them. So hands off the Legislature!
The confidence and trust in the GPL as demonstrated by the people of Gauteng during the various popular participation processes is an indication that we are on the right track in our quest to represent the interests of the people. We will work harder to increase and sustain the trust that our people have placed on the GPL.
During the year under review, additional sector work to increase interaction and initiatives to work with people to find solutions to the challenges that they face was undertaken by several Committees of the House interacting with various sectors such as seminar held between GEYODI and GBLTs, Early Childhood development (ECD) workshop by Health and Social Development Committee, Shelters Network Conference by Community Safety and Liaison Committee, Economic Deployment Seminar by the Economic Development Committee, etc.
GPL hosted a successful Public Participation Indaba under the theme “The people shall govern: public participation beyond slogans”. The Indaba was attended by both local and international guests, experts and practitioners. Through such interactions, we have shared our public participation processes with some of the available brightest minds around the world in order to continue learning so that we can improve on our work. There are many lessons learned in this regard and processes are underway to seek appropriate ways of implementing them.
Through the Petitions Committee, a petitions campaign was launched and this has resulted in an increase in the number of petitions. During the year under review, 104 petitions were received by the GPL from the people of Gauteng expressing their concerns about a variety of service delivery related matters. The Petitions Committee has attended to all these concerns working together with the affected residents and the relevant government departments. We have called upon the Premier and the MECs to ensure that government departments respond as quickly as possible to the concerns of people that are raised through our petitions system.
Honourable Premier and Members, the petitions system of the GPL is increasingly becoming the vehicle through which people of Gauteng choose to resolve their problems. We take pride in the fact that during the year under review the people of Gauteng used our petitions system to demonstrate their concerns and find solutions to the grievances of the people of Gauteng on housing and the highway tolling system respectively.
This means our call to the people of Gauteng to use petitions systems and other governance processes to resolve problems is being heard. We will continue to publicise this democratic space as the proper platform to raise concerns in an orderly and responsible manner. The violent nature of the so called service delivery protests in Gauteng must become a thing of the past.
People of Gauteng continue to participate in oversight and law making processes of the GPL through House committees’ meetings. In addition, House Committees have broadened interaction with various communities of the province through initiatives such as Bua le Sechaba campaign and convening ordinary meetings in identified communities as part of bringing the Legislature closer to the people. We strongly believe that these interactions are important inroads we are making to strengthen democracy and bring it closer to those who would otherwise be excluded on the basis of lack of knowledge, or their socio economic - conditions and other inhibits.
Our shared history of exclusion and marginalisation of a large section of our communities from governance on the basis of skin colour as practiced during the apartheid era should be enough to inspire us to want to increase the number of House and Committee meetings we convene in the previously excluded sections of our society.
Some amongst us, who view this actions as a waste of money should be persuaded to think differently, lest they are still trapped in the past and still seek to exclude certain sections of the people from their legitimate right to be part of governance. Going forward, we will continue to increase committees’ visits to communities across the province and ensure that more and more people are involved in legislature processes.
There has been increased media profiling of the GPL and public education through radio slots wherein Chairpersons of committees were interviewed on a range of policy matters affecting people. These sessions have served to empower people to understand legislative work.
In line with our decision to take the Legislature to the people of Gauteng and to cover all areas of the province, the GPL staged a successful Opening of the Legislature ceremony and State of the Province Address sitting in Tshwane region during the month of February 2012. There are emerging legacy projects out of the event that the GPL is working on, including a partnership with the University of Tshwane’s Journalism Department, wherein honours and 3rd year students produced newspaper articles relating to issues raised during the opening.
These were published in the special edition of the Mamelodi Voice. We will continue to seek many other opportunities for legacy projects of the GPL, working together with identified stakeholders and the people of Gauteng.
Whereas we have opened up more opportunities for popular participation in legislative processes, we are yet to profile the translation of public participation inputs into meaningful intervention programmes that are meant to resolve the problems of the people. In addition, there is more focus required to increase the public education campaigns of the Legislature with a view of empowering the people of Gauteng on how to use democracy to resolve their own problems.
Public education campaigns of the GPL should lead to improved interactions between people and their government. For example, the nature of civil protests and articulation of residents’ concerns currently witnessed in the province could be improved by a better understanding of democratic governance and processes in place to resolve problems.
Lastly, we are currently reviewing the efficacy of Parliamentary Constituency Offices in Gauteng with a view of improving their role as effective outlets for public involvement in legislative processes.
Oversight and Accountability
The annual report indicates that our oversight and scrutiny work continues to play a crucial role in the government’s ability to deliver services. We note with pride that our work in this regard is bearing fruits. For example, the increased number of clean and unqualified audits in the province in the year under review is as result of our oversight work.
We must congratulate SCOPA and other House Committees for their efforts in fostering good public sector governance in the province. On the same note, we must also congratulate the Gauteng Premier and the Members of the Executive Council (MECs) on their leadership in pursuing a clean audit for the province by 2014.
We are also happy to note that there is increased accountability of the Premier and the Members of the Executive Councils (MECs) to the Legislature as observed through general improvement in the submission of departmental performance reports on a quarterly and annual basis. In addition, the Premier and the MECs have been responding to questions from the Members of the Provincial Legislature (MPLs) on service delivery matters.
We can safely conclude that the mechanics of our oversight system are fully functional. There still questions about the extent to which our oversight can be proactive in approach. We are seized by these transformative questions and in due course we will report to the House on the appropriate mechanisms required to strengthen oversight and scrutiny of the legislature.
Honourable Members, it gives me pleasure to report that we have successfully convened 331 committee meetings and 33 House sittings in the year under review to consider various matters of our province. The participation levels and attendance to these meetings has significantly improved and resulting in much more exciting debates during our sittings. Let us continue to work hard in pursuance of a better life for the people of Gauteng.’
The GPL, in pursued of a more effective and result driven oversight environment, has adopted a Committee Oversight and Accountability Framework (COVAC) whose primary objective is to guide the full implementation of oversight methodology of Programme Evaluation and Budget Analysis (also known as PEBA).
The Framework provides for specific focused areas of oversight that committees should report on in the House. These include tracking progress on implementation of provincial priorities, monitoring performance against the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs); public finance management practices, compliance to applicable legislation, etc.
We have noted that the current format of the legislature programme does not provide opportunities for increased robustness of oversight activities such as consideration of quarterly reports, consideration of focused intervention studies reports, question time in the House, etc. secondly, we have observed that the quality of performance information from departments, especially performance indicators has not assisted to improve on the oversight function of committees. Thirdly, that the oversight outputs of committees have not yielded tangible policy interventions at provincial and national levels.
In response to the above challenges, the following actions are planned to improve on oversight work;
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To review the legislature programme in order to make provisions for much more strategic oversight. In this regard the following areas will be revised:
- Budget vote process (to shorten the period of considering the appropriation bill and create more time for interacting with the people of Gauteng)
- Annual Performance Plans: create more time for committees to scrutinise Annual Performance Plans from departments and secure agreements on indicators
- Increasing the period and meaningfulness of the public participation processes
- creating more legislative opportunities for influencing the NCOP oversight and law making processes
- Increasing the accountability of the Executive
- creating more opportunities for House debates on matters of public interest
- Create time for House debates on the midyear and 4th Quarterly reporting
- Engage the Executive, the AG and Treasury with a view of finding common ground on the format of performance information required for oversight.
Law Making
The Legislative Sector suffered a tactical blow in the year under review when the Constitutional Court confirmed its decision in the Limpopo judgment that all Provincial Financial Managements Act are inconsistent with the Constitution and therefore declared unconstitutional.
However, the Court further suspended the declarations of invalidity for a period of 18 months, as the immediate declaration of invalidity would have resulted in a legislative lacuna which would negatively impact the interests of good governance. The Legislatures have been ordered to a report with the Court by the 9th September 2013 to inform the Court of remedies taken to correct the defect. Work is under way to comply with the judgment.
Our flagship project of undertaking oversight on Subordinate Legislation continues to bear fruits and increased accountability on the development and implementation of appropriate regulations for various provincial laws. In the year under review 18 regulations were passed by the House and thus giving the Executive powers to implement the applicable legislation with more vigour. It is through the effective implementation of laws that we can improve the quality of lives of the people of Gauteng.
It is for this reason that we have commissioned a research study to determine the impact of laws passed in Gauteng since 1994. The findings of the study will help us to determine what else we can do to improve the quality of lives of the people of Gauteng through transformative legislation. The final report will be tabled in the House during the 2013/2014 financial year.
Honourable Members, our law making function in the GPL continues to lag behind in terms of outputs. This is despite several calls by the Speaker to encourage Committees and MPLs to initiate laws. In addition, oversight on the implementation of applicable legislation by departments is not yet a key focus of the oversight work of committees.
We will in future improve on the shortcomings mentioned above through, amongst others, using outcome s of oversight and public participation recommending policy interventions. In addition, we continue to encourage our MPLs to initiate Private Members Bills on matters of provincial interests.
Cooperative Governance and Stakeholder management
The GPL has committed to work with other organs of the State, all spheres of the government, Institutions Supporting Democracy and other relevant stakeholders with a view of leveraging on the strengthen of these organisations to improve the legislative outputs.
In the year under review, we have increased our efforts towards contributing to the strengthening of the legislative sector at both national and provincial levels.
The GPL is the political sponsor for legislative oversight in the country and to this end we have championed the development of a legislative sector oversight model. The model seeks to establish common norms and standards for oversight throughout the country.
We are proud to inform the House that the backbone of this sector oversight model is the programme evaluation and budget analysis methodology of the Gauteng Provincial Legislature. At a provincial level, the Speaker has been working with Speakers of local municipalities to set up provincial frameworks for oversight, public participation and law making.
We are in the process of creating a vision of provincial legislative work in the context of a global city region approach. To this end the separation of powers of municipal Councils and establishment of local legislatures remains our key focus. We believe this work will yield increased government accountability and improved popular participation at local government level.
The GPL has been working well with the NCOP as it relates to influencing national legislation by submitting mandates of the GPL on national legislation that has provincial implications; participating in the oversight activities of the NCOP on provinces such as the NCOP provincial week and further more being involved in the public participation programmes of the NCOP such as Taking Parliament to the people and People’s assembly.
Our work in the international arena of legislative work continues to grow every year. In the period under review, the Presiding Officers and the House Committees have hosted dignitaries from various countries around the world as well as visited other legislatures to learn on their parliamentary best practice areas. These interactions serve to provide a platform through the GPL can continue to be a learning organisation as well as to share their knowledge with other legislatures around the world.
The area of cooperative governance and stakeholder management is one of the growth points of the GPL and to this end more work will be undertaken in this area in the remaining two years of the political term. Amongst others, we will seek to influence the work of the CPA at all levels to focus more on contributing toward the building of a better Africa and a better World.
Secondly, we will support the on-going work of establishing local council legislatures and creating a provincial approach towards law making, oversight and public participation.
Thirdly, we will increase our interactions with organisations of civil society with a view of establishing partnerships with progressive civil society organisation and using these relations to strengthen public education and empowerment of sectors of our society.
Lastly, our on-going relations building and collaborations with institutions supporting democracy will be consolidated.
Leadership and governance of the GPL
Honourable Members, our intention to build a responsive institution that is poised to enhance democratic rule continues to improve the GPL’s compliance to extending its accessibility to all sections of the community we serve.
During the year under review, our main building was renovated to make provisions for access for people with disability. The facilities installed in the building will make sure that no person is excluded from our legislative processes on the basis of their physical conditions.
The GPL’s equity report shows that we are making strides to exceed compliance to equity requirements. Women are taking their rightful places in decision making processes of the GPL. The House is now composed of 51% women MPLs and 9 of the 16 Committees’ Chairpersons are women.
Similar strides are being made in achieving equity in the administration services of the GPL. 58% of the staff of the GPL is female 48% of senior management team is composed women.
Our preferential procurement report for the period under review indicates that 57% of our business transactions were entered into with people from the historically disadvantaged background. Women businesses constituted 30% of our business transactions, youth received 10% and People with Disability gained 0.01% from our business transactions. More will be done in the coming years to continue excelling in this area of work.
Honourable Members, the GPL received an unqualified audit opinion with matters of emphasis from the office of the Auditor General. This is a regress from the clean audit received in the previous financial year. We have subsequently held several conversations with the office of the Auditor General and Senior Managers of the GPL with a view of correcting this lapse.
We are committed to taking the status of clean audit because we must continue to lead by example. It cannot be that as an oversight body we are seen to be failing to achieve the standard that we set for the departments.
Conclusion and outlook towards 2014
GPL has made significant strides towards the attainment of the strategic goals and outcomes that it has set for itself. Interaction and consultation with the people has improved, the quality and depth of oversight is continuously increasing, and the ability and capability to make laws that are relevant and enhance the quality of life of the people has also improved. These improvements have brought about new challenges which require appropriate responses. Whereas significant progress has been attained, we have no illusion regarding the amount of work that lies ahead.
As an organisation that represents the aspirations and needs of the people of Gauteng, our responsibility goes beyond advocating on their behalf. The Legislature is charged with the responsibility of effectively addressing the triple challenges of unemployment, inequality and poverty, improving access to quality health services and education, creating safe communities where the children are protected and job opportunities are created, especially for the youth of the Province.
The above tasks require that GPL should continue improving its work and finding creative ways towards achieving the constitutional mandate of law-making, oversight and public participation.
As we sprint towards 2014 and beyond. We are going to be positioning the GPL into well-oiled machinery poised to serve democratic rule in the province. During our interactions with Oversight Committee on the Premier Office and the Legislature (OCPOL) we made undertakings to improve the efficacy of our implementing operations. We will in due course submit a report to the OCPOL and what we have done to implement our commitment.
We also committed to take the work of the GPL to another level by developing a legislative posture towards long term planning in the government, particular in response to the Global City Region approach, the GPG 2055 vision and the 2030 National Development Plan. A detailed plan will be submitted to OCPOL in this regard.
The Presiding Officers are grateful for the work that all MPLs are doing in discharging their constitutional responsibilities. We are similarly appreciative of the daily positive contributions made by people of Gauteng towards improving the lives of their fellow citizens. We will continue to do our bid to mobilise of society to work together in building a prosperous province.
Our heartfelt gratitude goes to the staff of the GPL who supports all Members with a diverse set of services. The GPL will not be what it is without this hard working team. Keep up the good work and continue to make us proud.
We are committed to working with and for the people of Gauteng in relation to creating a better life for all and ensuring that Gauteng is a better place to live in.
Our mandate as the GPL is not like marathon runners who will eventually get to the finishing line, but sprinters, who sprint in the right direction.
Thank you.
