the first annual progress report on the implementation of South Africa's
Programme of Action, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
31 January 2009
Your Excellencies
Heads of States and Government of the African Peer Review Mechanism
participating countries
Members of the Panel of Eminent Persons
Members of the diplomatic corps
Distinguished guests
The world faces trying times. Many major world economies have entered
recession due to the global financial crisis. The destruction of lives and
displacement of people continues throughout the world and our continent.
Against this background it is critical for African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM)
participating countries to respond to the question: what are we doing to deepen
democracy, enhance political stability, eradicate poverty and the suffering of
our people? This summit also provides an opportunity to encourage other African
Union (AU) member states to accede to the African Peer Review Mechanism and
become part of this collective that seeks to strengthen the struggle to build
political stability and eradicate poverty.
Your Excellencies, South Africa went through the peer review process in July
2007, in Accra, Ghana. It noted our good progress and the development of good
governance practices to democratise the country and reverse the apartheid
legacy of underdevelopment and inequality. Actions to address the challenges
identified in the review were incorporated in Government's Programme of Action
(PoA).
This annual report covers the period from November 2007 to December 2008 and
reflects on progress made in the implementation of the Programme of Action.
This reporting period coincides with the final phase of the electoral mandate
of the current South African government in a few months time. During this
period, South Africa has focused on the implementation of 24 Apex priority
projects to deal with current challenges including poverty, crime, national
planning and land reform.
Your Excellencies, South Africa continues to advance towards a cohesive
society which is underpinned by values of respect for human dignity, the
achievement of equality, advancement of human rights and freedoms, and the
recognition of the supremacy of the Constitution and the rule of law. South
Africa is committed to ensuring its parliamentary democracy is not eroded.
Consequently, we have addressed the concern raised in the country review report
by abolishing floor crossing in legislatures.
However, there have been robust engagements on a common understanding of the
meaning of judicial independence and the boundaries of the separation of
powers, particularly between the judiciary and the other arms of government.
Constitutional democracies across the globe are characterised by the inherent
and necessary tensions between the three arms of government which must
cooperate as they discharge their mandates.
South Africa continues to believe that an independent, vigilant, fearless,
vigorous and sensitive judiciary is the cornerstone of democracy. The
government respects, and has unequivocally pledged its commitment to the
independence of the judiciary and the rule of law.
Excellencies, South Africa is proud of its sound macro-economic policies
that have ensured that over the past fifteen years, our economy grew at
unprecedented levels. Owing to these appropriate macro-economic policies and a
strong banking and financial sector, South Africa has been cushioned from the
global financial shock resulting in what has been called the deepest crisis
since the Great Depression of 1929. We are confident that our policies and
interventions will demonstrate the required flexibility to address this
prolonged economic downturn and reduce the negative impact on our economy.
We also moved speedily to strengthen our corporate governance framework. A
new Companies Bill was approved by Parliament late last year. The Bill
simplifies the registration process of companies and introduces corporate
governance provisions for the organisation and management of companies.
Furthermore, the Bill also addresses the need for the promotion of shareholder
activism, which will be implemented once the Companies Bill of 2008 is signed
into law.
Parliament also approved the Competition Amendment Bill of 2008. The
Competition Amendment Bill is designed to create an efficient competitive
environment, promote the interest of all role players, reinforce the
Competition Act of 1998, and further empower the role of competition
authorities in South Africa by ensuring competitiveness and market
transparency.
This will ensure that we deal with the uncompetitive practices that we have
witnessed where some companies were involved in price fixing on certain goods
including basic commodities. I have returned the bill to Parliament for further
consideration due to concerns about its constitutionality. South Africa remains
committed to accelerating socio-economic development to achieve sustainable
development and poverty eradication.
Government undertook a fifteen year review of performance and found that the
number of people living in poverty had been significantly reduced but
inequality had increased. In August 2008, government launched the "War on
Poverty" Campaign as one leg of a broader anti-poverty strategy. Furthermore,
Government has successfully mainstreamed its anti-poverty initiatives into the
planning and implementation of its programmes and the budgeting process. The
aim of these initiatives is to more effectively reach the poor.
The Social Security Assistance Programme remains the most significant pillar
of the anti-poverty strategy. Cash transfers in the form of Old Age Pensions,
Disability, Child Support and Foster Care Grants and Grant in Aid (intended for
care services for the aged, orphans and terminally ill) have made a positive
impact on the lives of poor South Africans.
South Africa continues to improve the lives of the poor and bolster the
health system. In this regard, the fight against HIV and AIDS remains a key
priority as evidenced by the elaborate and pragmatic plan to combat HIV and
AIDS. The funds spent by the public sector to combat HIV and AIDS and mitigate
its impact have increased from R5,317 billion in 2006 to R5,768 billion in
2007. The reporting period witnessed significant increases in expenditure for
laboratory testing, ARV, nutrition and health system upgrades. The Department
of Social Development has also increased its HIV and AIDS spending from R339
million to R452 million in 2007. All of these including the comprehensive plan
to combat HIV and AIDS indicate that South Africa is making huge strides in the
fight against the pandemic.
Expenditure on education grew from R30 billion in 1994 and 1995 to over R101
billion in the 2007/2008 financial year. Access to education has improved in
all sectors, with most growth seen in the school sector itself. South Africa
has attained the goal of universal primary education, and an increasing number
of children (around 60%) remain in school for the full 12 years. Access has
also been strengthened by the declaration of no-fee schools in poorer
communities where parents cannot afford school fees. During 2008, 40% of both
primary and secondary schools were declared no-fee schools.
Your Excellencies, redistribution of land is also central to South Africa's
anti-poverty strategy. During this reporting period, approximately 5,2 million
hectares of land have been redistributed to land reform beneficiaries under the
different programmes. This includes 857 645 hectares of State land. There is
also recognition that more needs to be done and as a result the Provision of
Land and Assistance Amendment Act, 2008 (Act No. 58 of 2008) was enacted. This
will ensure sustainable use of land where Government will be able to buy land
and movable property such as agricultural equipment, tractors and shares in
related business.
In order to ensure stability, peace and development it is necessary that we
tackle crime comprehensively. This is a key priority area and Government
expenditure on crime prevention has been steadily increasing through the
recruitment of more policemen and women, as well as through infrastructure
improvement. These efforts bolstered by strong partnership between Government
and civil society are starting to yield the required results. There is a marked
decrease in contact crimes such as murder and robbery
South Africa continues to make progress in the advancement of women empowerment
in all sectors.
To ensure that this continues, the national gender machinery is currently
being revamped. Active steps are being taken to address the global problem of
human trafficking through a three-pronged approach. Firstly, by strengthening
international relations especially with neighbouring States to enhance the
fight against organised and other forms of trafficking in women and children,
including trafficking for the purposes of sexual and labour exploitation,
pornography, prostitution and sex tourism.
Secondly, by prosecuting human traffickers using existing administrative
mechanisms and legal provisions to combat organised crime, money laundering and
criminal activities.
Thirdly, a law reform process has been initiated to create an integrated and
holistic legal framework that facilitates the fight against human trafficking
including an investigation by the South African Law Reform Commission into
improving the legislative framework.
While we wait for the Commission's report, the recently enacted Sexual
Offences Act provides for interim measures to implement aspects of the United
Nations Convention against trans-national organised crime. Our law enforcement
agencies are working tirelessly to ensure that crime is drastically reduced.
Our criminal justice system is being bolstered to ensure that perpetrators of
crime are dealt with speedily and effectively. We are also addressing some of
the contributory factors to crime such as poverty and joblessness.
Linked to this, the fight against corruption remains another key priority
area. In addition to the anti-corruption review emanating from the APRM,
Government has initiated the appraisal of the national anti-corruption
framework. The appraisal points to a need to focus more attention on the
implementation of the framework while providing the necessary capacity to
strengthen the fight against corruption.
Fellow Africans, during June 2008, South Africa experienced violence of
immense proportions fuelled mainly by what many believed to be xenophobia. Some
people were killed, others injured, and others were displaced or separated from
their families. There have been various dimensions of what has been widely
reported as xenophobia. One dimension is that not only foreign nationals were
killed but South African citizens as well. They had migrated to those
localities where the incidents occurred in search of better job opportunities.
Another dimension is that these incidents did not occur within middle class
communities but in poor communities.
In some areas it is reported that violence also occurred between foreign
nationals themselves. In addition, criminals took advantage of the situation
implying that in certain cases the violence was purely opportunistic and merely
replicated to advance criminal actions.
In order to address this matter, Parliament established a task team to probe
the attacks and establish the root causes. The findings indicate that the
violence was fuelled by socio-economic inequalities, competition for scarce
resources, poor living conditions and a high rate of unemployment. All these
underscore the class dimension of these attacks and the challenges of unequal
development. Further, to raise awareness, government held a summit called the
Social Dialogue on xenophobia involving 27 non-governmental organisations
(NGOs), religious groups, communities and organisations of foreign
nationals.
The summit agreed to a declaration to work against all manifestations of
Xenophobia including a commitment to social cohesion between foreign nationals
and South Africans. Summits are being held in each of the nine provinces to
popularise the declaration. These attacks have been condemned by South Africans
from all walks of life signalling a united voice against all forms of
discrimination including xenophobia. South Africans have opened their hearts to
the survivors by giving donations to the displaced people, cooperating with the
police in bringing perpetrators to book and staging protest marches in
solidarity. We are determined to prevent these heinous deeds from happening in
our country again. Migration and xenophobia are important cross cutting issues
that South Africa would like to have discussed further by the APRM Forum at a
later date.
Conclusion
Fellow Africans, in preparing for the 2010 Soccer World Cup Show piece,
infrastructure has been built to ensure that South Africa hosts a successful
African World Cup. In addition to stadiums, there has been massive investment
in the transport infrastructure to ensure it is geared to absorb the increased
volume and demand. We are now ready to host the COSAFA Cup and we have no doubt
that we will make Africa proud.
We believe that the APRM epitomises a truly African solution to the
challenges of governance and development. We salute those countries that
participate in this mechanism in a bold step towards a change for the better.
We wish to encourage those who have not acceded seriously to consider becoming
part of this initiative for good governance, democracy and economic
integration.
Excellencies, it is my pleasure to present South Africa's first annual progress
report.
I thank you.
Enquiries:
Thabo Masebe
Cell: 082 410 8087
Issued by: The Presidency
31 January 2009
Source: The Presidency (http://www.thepresidency.gov.za)
