Baloyi during the debate on President's State of the Nation Address
12 February 2009
The Minister for the Public Service and Administration: Chairperson, Mr
President, Deputy President and honourable members, in the novel Hard Times,
Charles Dickens wrote of a teacher who placed great emphasis on facts, who
said:
"Now what I want is facts. Teach these boys and girls nothing but facts. Facts
alone are wanted in life. Stick to facts, sir."
As we debate the State of the Nation Address today, it is imperative to note
some facts about the African National Congress (ANC) governmentâs record of
service delivery, which is a guarantee for human dignity.
The people of South Africa have since witnessed that the ANC government
sought to create a better life for all the people through the delivery of basic
and advanced services for all. One of the success stories of factual evidence
of service delivery is in the area of Comprehensive Social Security Protection,
which reflects the ANC governmentâs move to further advance our struggle for
service delivery as marked in the words of former President Mandela in his
first state of the nation address when he said the following:
My governmentâs commitment to create a people-centred society of liberty
binds us to the pursuit of the goals of freedom from what, freedom from hunger,
freedom from deprivation, freedom from ignorance, freedom from suppression and
freedom from fear. These freedoms are fundamental to the guarantee of human
dignity. They will therefore constitute part of the centrepiece of what this
government will seek to achieve.
Since then we have pursued the goal of freedom from poverty with accelerated
speed. We have developed policies to promote human dignity. It is a fact that a
decade and half ago the Parliament of South Africa adopted the Reconstruction
and Development Programme as the pre-eminent vision of the new and democratic
South Africa.
At the time many considered our bold vision to be unattainable. They argued
that our plans were unworkable, but 15 years later we have made substantial
progress towards the attainment of these goals.
Fifteen years after the words of Nelson Mandela, we have created a social
safety net for those in society who are in great need. Whereas in 1996 only
three million people had access to social grants, today 12,5 million people
receive social grants. In 1996 only 34 000 children had access to social
grants, but today nearly eight million children younger than 14 years receive
social grants.
The fifteen year review conducted last year concluded that the lives of many
poor people have been improved through well-targeted programmes broadening
access to services and social grants.
There is overwhelming evidence that social grants reduce the poverty gap and
promote desired social behaviour like school attendance, improvement in
nutrition and accessing health care.
Since the dawn of our freedom, we have implemented programmes to address
asset poverty. The immediate issue to be mentioned in this regard is in the
provision of housing. Through the housing programme, the ANC government has
restored the dignity of homeless people as well as those who had homes but no
houses, with the provision of more than 2,6 million subsidy houses. Going
forward we have allocated R12 billion, R15 billion and R17 billion for housing
over the next three years respectively.
In addition, during this financial year to 2010, we have budgeted R120
million for the pilot Zanemvula project and R400 million for the N2 Gateway
project.
We have expanded access to basic services as part of the comprehensive
social protection. We made an effort as the ANC government to provide basic
services like water and electricity to all, through the adopting the
rights-based approach to service delivery.
We have also developed interventions through the indigent policies to
mitigate the effect of costs to the accessibility of basic services.
Of course, we need a developmental public service to provide a seamless
process of providing services to the people in a pro-poor and pro-development
manner. We have gone a long way to perfect our public service in terms of
professionalism, capacity, work culture and accountability. More still remains
to be done and this will be our priority for the next five years.
We need to have public servants who denote the following features for us to
accelerate service delivery: Breaking new grounds, inspiring success, able to
raise the standard, strategist for continued service delivery, able to make a
difference, collective responsibility and teamwork, on board and international
activism.
It is a fact that the ANCâs comprehensive social protection policy has
alleviated the plight of millions living in poverty. The ANC government will
continue to expand the social security net in fulfilling our commitment to
creating a better life for all.
Working together we can do more. Each and everyone in the public service and
across civil society must brighten ones corner through social partnership to
create a better life for all and to make South Africa a brighter place.
Thank you.
Issued by: Department of Public Services and Administration
12 February 2009
