Hon Deputy Chairperson
Hon Deputy President of the Republic
Hon Premier of the Mpumalanga province
Hon Speaker of the Mpumalanga Provincial Legislature
Hon Premiers and Leaders of Provincial Delegations
Hon Permanent and Special Delegates
Salga representatives.
I thank the Deputy President for addressing us this morning. We are happy that he came to address us whilst we are sitting with the people of the Gert Sibande District Municipality. About 70% of the people in the district are young people. The future of our country is here.
As the National Council of Provinces (NCOP), we value the opportunity of bringing together the people, and their leaders from the different spheres of government, to talk about service delivery issues. It is our contribution to promoting cooperation.
Importantly, we see this exercise as democracy in action.
In a democracy, people must have space to raise issues and advise government about their needs. They must raise matters anytime they wish to, and not wait for elections.
In a democracy, leaders must listen to the people and solve people’s problems.
In a democracy, leaders and the people protect the resources of the state. The people do not burn down state property but engage their leaders and find solutions.
In a democracy, people are provided with correct and relevant information to engage their leaders.
In our democracy, leaders who are reluctant to come to the people do not understand the notion of participatory democracy.
This week we clearly demonstrated that we can do more when we work together.
For example, the following were some of the doables:
1. When we were here in January this year, Mr Geelbboi Rakgaba who is blind and Ms Busisiwe Nkosi, an elderly woman, told us about their desperate need for shelter. By the beginning of this week, government had already built them new houses.
2. The Silobela clinic was in a bad state. Now it has been refurbished and in acceptable condition. General assistants have been employed to keep the facility clean.
3. Youth centres, which complained about support, have now signed an agreement with the National Youth Development Agency. They are being assisted with project initiation, training and funding.
Without doubt, we can do better. Our people deserve accelerated progress given their patience all these years.
For the elderly,
1. I will write to the Minister of Social Development for SASSA to rectify mistakes in documentation speedily, and;
2. Request the Minister of Home Affairs to consider waiving the R140 required when applying for replacement IDs, for the elderly and the indigent (this is allowed in special cases).
For young people,
1. The Minister of Sport and Recreation has promised R1 million for sport facilities. He said he will come here in few weeks to meet with everybody, and will bring sport outfit for schools in the area.
2. However, this investment will need people to maintain healthy lifestyle.
During the course of the week, the people raised a number of issues. Most of the issues require us to increase our speed.
To do so, we need among other things to improve governance. We need transparent processes and systems for managing public resources.
They also raised issues relating to:
1. Infrastructure, for example for water, schools, hospitals, roads.
2. Health – the Minister of Health has responded by, among other things, making available mobile facilities and left them here.
3. Public engagement, implementation, monitoring and follow-up.
4. Functional coordination – departments at national, provincial and local government need to talk and coordinate services.
5. Engagement between municipality and stakeholder groups – especially the private sector for purposes of development.
6. Administration of land reform – we need transparency in how our people are assisted after they receive land.
The question is: Now that the people have spoken what are we going to do?
We will share our report with the Presidency, national departments, the provincial government and the municipalities. We will continue to engage the Deputy President, as Leader of Government Business, on how government is responding to the issues raised.
We will come back to see what has been done.
We have set aside 2013 to focus on socio-economic development through oversight and public participation.
We thank the leadership and the community for supporting and participating in this week’s programme. For the first time, national Ministers attended all the sessions.
Thank you.
