The Minister for Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Richard Baloyi: State of the Nation Address (SONA) debate

15 Feb 2012

Hon Speaker,
Mr President,
Mr Deputy President,
and Hon. Members,

Just as we set ourselves to do big things in government, there are those among us who will always refuse to accept that reality. They are always blinded by their own beliefs and they refuse to rise from their deep sleep of ignorance. Of course, it is by choice.

This state of affairs reminds us of the writings of William Eggers and John O’Leary in their book entitled Getting Big Things Done in Government, where they identify several traps that people have to overcome in order to realise that it is possible to do big things in government. One of the traps is that of creating walls between those who do good things and those who believe that nothing good can be done until it is done by them.

For us as the ANC we are proud of our track record of doing big things for the people of South Africa. We delivered freedom; we introduced democracy; we united and reconciled South Africa in terms of the truth and reconciliation project; and we created structures for a people’s government.

The infrastructure development programme that punctuated the state of the nation address (SONA) is yet another commitment by the ANC to continue to do big things for the people of South Africa. That should be enough for all leaders of substance to embrace such a practical programme of delivery.

Nkulukumba Phuresidente, u tiyisile loko u vula leswaku laha ka ANC ka tirhiwa. Hi famba hi tiforo ta dzundze ra tiko hi khomile mujeko wa ANC. Lavo pfumala mavondzo va ri karhi va ku: “Vaxumi!” Hi nkarhi wolowo hina va ANC hi hlamula hi ku: “A hi va voni!”  

[Mr President, you are quite right when you say we are working hard in the ANC. We follow in the footsteps of the President and render services to the country in accordance with the policies of the ANC and keep its flag flying. Whilst those without jealousy are saying: “Greetings to the workers,” during that time we, as the ANC, respond by saying: “We are trying!”] ... due to our humble character, availing ourselves in the service of the nation without being hypocritical about it and always aiming to rise to the level of the challenges confronting our people.

Hon members, the triple challenges of inequality, poverty and unemployment that the President referred to in his address are always reflected at the local area. It is therefore at this level that we would hear loud voices shouting for help when the going is tough, and it will be these voices heard, loudly celebrating the good message in infrastructure development as announced by our President.
The local area is at the coalface of service delivery, hence, as the ANC-led government, we introduced a system of co-operative governance and built a three-sphere governance mechanism that is distinct, interdependent and interrelated. We so guided these spheres to work together for the development of the local area. Promoting co-operative governance is in fact an act in promoting and implementing the Constitution. It is the dictate of the Constitution that these three spheres of government have to work together in a complementary manner and that they are discouraged from litigating against each other.

The infrastructure development programme is meant to succeed with the strengthening of intergovernmental relations and it is in this context that the programmes pronounced have to be included in the integrated development plans of municipalities, although they are driven by sector departments, either at national or provincial level. In doing so, the beneficiary communities would be taken on board. This is an anchor for our democracy, which is public participation.

Mr Speaker, the Traditional Affairs Bill that the President referred to is meant to strengthen the role of our traditional institutions in developmental programmes. In terms of this Bill, four pieces of legislation are meant to be reviewed. Amongst other things is the repeal of the Traditional Leadership and Governance Framework Act, the amendment of the National House of Traditional Leaders Act, the Municipal Structures Act, as well as the Act governing the activities of the commission that deals with the remuneration of the traditional leaders.

It is our target that the Bill should reach this House by June this year. What is meant to be achieved in this Bill is the recognition and location of the Khoisan community and others as important pillars of organs of a people’s government in a democracy; the establishment of local houses of traditional leaders; and an effective mechanism to provide space for traditional leaders to have their voices clearly heard in interacting with the commission responsible for the remuneration of traditional leaders.

Whilst at this point of the remuneration of traditional leaders, I want to state that we are trying our best to manage the situation. One of the serious challenges that we are managing is in the definition of the sphere, roles, jurisdiction, powers and tools of trade for the junior traditional leaders, otherwise called headmen and headwomen. The complex issue about that is the absence of generic rules governing their situations, hence the numbers and criteria for appointment differ from one royalty to another. We know of the situation of headmen and headwomen in Limpopo, as referred to by Mr Godi yesterday. We are meeting them soon to manage the situation and provide answers to the questions they raised.

We are prepared to engage on this matter with a view to create space for those leaders to be listened to. Of course, we know that one of the major developments in the transformation of traditional affairs is the conclusion of the process dealing with leadership claims at kingship and queenship levels although there are court challenges in some of these areas.

We are now dealing with claims of leadership at senior traditional level. I can assure hon members that although it is not easy to undo the wrongs of colonial and apartheid distortions of history in general and its impact on traditional institutions in particular, as the ANC we remain focused to restore the dignity of traditional institutions.

There is no doubt that our traditional communities stand to celebrate the infrastructure development programme announced by the President as that empowers the local spheres where the triple challenges of unemployment, inequality and poverty is mostly felt. It is therefore the responsibility of all leaders of note to reach out to these traditional communities to unpack the infrastructure delivery programme and what it means to the people.

Our traditional leaders have the responsibility as individuals and as members of houses of traditional leaders to take this message. Of course, I have no doubt that the Congress of Traditional Leaders of South Africa, Contralesa, will be there with the people, as they always are. I call on all Members of Parliament who have constituency offices in traditional communities to take this message to that level of the local community.

The President confirmed our position that, as the ANC, we do not claim easy victories and will tell no lies. He admitted that the willing-seller, willing-buyer policy is not succeeding according to our dreams and plans. Similarly, the ANC government admitted in 2009, after doing an assessment of the state of governance at the local sphere, that our local government profile called for serious intervention - hence the introduction of the local government turnaround strategy.

Pfhumba lera ku cinca maendlelo eka mafambiselo ya mifumo ya le makaya i rivoni leri langutaneke na ku voningela makorhokele ya vanhu leswaku ku tshemba ka vona ku nga tshuki ku huma eka mfumo na leswaku timasipala ti kota ku tirha hi ndlela leyi hlawulekeke.

[The local government turnaround strategy is a light responsible for illuminating the servicing of the people so that they may not lose confidence in the government and that the municipalities are able to operate in a special way.]

Through the local government turnaround strategy we aimed to build confidence between the people and local government through strengthening the municipalities to be effective, efficient and developmental.

In terms of the turnaround strategy, an accelerated effort had to be exerted in terms of mobilising players to act in unique ways according to their strategic location in the context of co-operative governance such as the following: National government to be well organised in relation to the local government sphere. In this regard we resolved to ensure that all national departments partner with municipalities to assist them to address their challenges. The focus of this support should be based on the understanding that, whereas they plan at national level, departments should know that they deliver at local level and that at times municipalities get blamed for the failures of national departments.

Provincial governments should improve their support and oversight of the local sphere of government for the same reasons that were mentioned for national departments. Municipalities should draw up a shortlist of their respective delivery projects and aim to achieve that within a given period of time, and that was meant to be contained in their municipal turnaround strategies. All three spheres of government were to be mobilised to improve intergovernmental relations. Political parties should promote and enhance the institutional integrity of municipalities. The public should be encouraged to actively participate in matters of local government.
These were the questions all of us should ask ourselves for whatever time that we derive interests in the local government turnaround strategy. The question that we have to answer today is whether we have achieved that broad aim of the strategy and whether the strategy is still relevant to deal with challenges of local government.

Mr Speaker, in keeping with the exemplary leadership by the President of admitting where we believe there is room for improvement in our performance record, we should together say that there is still work to be done at the level of local government.

Whereas it is not all doom and gloom and whereas there are remarkable pockets of excellence in the functioning of our local government, the following issues have the potential for eroding confidence in our local government structures, namely financial management, governance, fighting corruption and service delivery. I call on all players to take positions in line with our respective roles to support the local sphere as it is everybody’s business.

The record of financial management and municipalities poses a serious threat, as can be seen in the recent Auditor-General’s report and the report recently produced by the National Council of Provinces (NCOP’s) Select Committee on Finances after their visits to one of our provinces. If things go at this rate, we may see ourselves realising the clean audit target beyond the year 2014 and that’s against our target.

We note on governance issues that there are quite a number of municipalities that were placed under section 139 and that they only got out of it on technicalities, such as their terms coming to an end. We will soon present a report on our assessment in this regard as to whether there has been a turnaround after those interventions.

In this regard we note one example recently reported of the Sundays River Valley Local Municipality in the Eastern Cape, which responded positively to the section 139 intervention and corrected all identified challenges. Our fight against corruption remains at the top of our agenda as we provide support to the municipalities and call on all players to co-ordinate their efforts in the spirit of co-operative governance.

We have taken a decision that, instead of keeping a stand-alone unit to fight corruption, our role should be to provide a co-ordination mechanism of all created instruments for fighting corruption in a co-ordinated manner. We should all avail ourselves to intensify our efforts to accelerate service delivery at the local level.

We said of ourselves that in committing to work hard in order to realise the objectives of the local government turnaround strategy, we resolved that we would assist municipalities to the point that we will all refer to our municipalities and say, “My municipality, my service”. We are going to work closely with the South African Local Government Association, (SALGA), and provide support to it so that at the end of the day all of us will say, “My Salga, my collective voice”.

In support of the institutions of traditional rule we committed and resolved to work very hard so that at the end of the day all of us, one by one will refer to it and say, “My traditional institution, my pride”.

We are positioning co-operative governance in such a way that, when it comes to intergovernmental relations, all of us will proudly say, “My Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Cogta, my intergovernmental relations co-ordinator”. Let us work together. Let’s support each other. It is possible to do big things in government. Mr President, thank you very much.

Issued by: Department of Cooperative Governance

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