National Council of Provinces - 12 June 2002
WEDNESDAY, 12 JUNE 2002 __
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL COUNCIL OF PROVINCES
____
The Council met at 14:04.
The Deputy Chairperson took the Chair and requested members to observe a moment of silence for prayers or meditation.
ANNOUNCEMENTS, TABLINGS AND COMMITTEE REPORTS - see 000.
The DEPUTY CHAIRPERSON OF THE NCOP (Mr M L Mushwana): Order! I know hon members have had to cut short their watching the soccer. We are going to be here until a quarter past eight. We could not delay our meeting, otherwise members would have been here until a quarter past ten. All members wanted to speak, and you did not want to cut your speaking time. So, unfortunately, you cannot have your cake and eat it. NOTICES OF MOTION
Mnr C ACKERMANN: Voorsitter, ek gee hiermee kennis dat ek by die volgende sitting van die Raad gaan voorstel:
Dat die Raad -
hom vereenselwig met die standpunt van mnr Leonard Ramatlakane, Wes-
Kaapse Minister van Gemeenskapsveiligheid, naamlik dat mnr Tony Leon sy
negatiewe uitlatings oor die Langa-polisie se betrokkenheid by terreur
wat gemik is teen die DA/DP óf staaf óf terugtrek. (Translation of Afrikaans notice of motion follows.)
[Mr C ACKERMANN: Chairperson, I give notice that at the next sitting of the Council I shall move:
That the Council -
identifies itself with the contention of Mr Leonard Ramatlakane,
Western Cape Minister of Community Safety, namely that Mr Tony Leon
should either prove his negative statements regarding the Langa
police's involvement in terror levelled against the DA/DP, or withdraw
it.]
Mrs C NKUNA: Chairperson, I give notice that I shall move at the next sitting of the House:
That the Council -
(1) condemns the blocking of a humanitarian aid mission to Palestine, headed by South Africa’s Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs;
(2) believes that in conflict situations efforts to alleviate the humanitarian consequences of a crisis should be carried out without delay;
(3) further believes that the actions of the Israeli government is in direct conflict with the observance and application of international humanitarian law; and
(4) calls on the Israeli government to observe internationally recognised humanitarian principles and international humanitarian law, by allowing the South African humanitarian aid mission to proceed without delay.
Mr B J TOLO: Chairperson, I give notice that I shall move at the next sitting of the House:
That the Council -
(1) rejects with contempt the accusations by DA leader, Tony Leon, against President Thabo Mbeki;
(2) notes that the DA’s attack against the President is devoid of any substance, and comes at a time when yet another corruption scandal has rocked the DA, this time involving its Western Cape provincial chairperson;
(3) strongly believes that the DA leader has no credible defence against the charges of corruption levelled against his party;
(4) further believes that the accusations levelled against the President are merely an attempt to deflect public attention from the deep crisis in which the DA finds itself; and
(5) calls upon Mr Leon to stop deflecting attention from the real problem of corruption within his party.
Mr K D S DURR: Chairperson, I give notice that I shall move at the next sitting of the House:
That the Council -
(1) notes the report ``Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act 2000, trafficking in persons report of June 2002’’ of the US Department of State, in which it is stated that -
(a) in the past year at least 700 000, and possibly as many as four
million, men, women and children worldwide were bought, sold,
transported or held against their will in slave-like conditions;
(b) this modern form of slavery is known as ``trafficking in
persons'';
(c) traffickers use threats, intimidation and violence to force
victims to engage in sex acts or to labour under conditions
comparable to slavery for the trafficker's financial gain,
including forced labour in sweatshops, prostitution and sex
tourism; and
(d) the practice also takes other forms, namely abduction into rebel
armies, the sale of women and children into domestic servitude,
and the use of children as street beggars or agricultural
workers;
(2) also notes that the report rates South Africa as a destination country for women, mainly between 18 and 25 years old, from other parts of Africa, Eastern Europe, Asia and the former Soviet Union, mostly for the sex industry;
(3) further notes that the report says that -
(a) South Africa has had few trafficking investigations;
(b) South Africa has no programmes in place to help such women;
(c) witness protection only applies to South African citizens;
(d) most foreign victims are immediately deported and thus cannot
assist with prosecutions; and
(e) the Government has not conducted any public awareness
programmes; and (4) calls upon the Government to take note and to remedy the situation in
South Africa, and to consider action against countries like the Sudan
and countries in West Africa where slavery still exists.
Mr A E VAN NIEKERK: Chairperson, I give notice that I shall move at the next sitting of the House:
That the Council -
supports Bafana Bafana in spirit, whilst we cannot be with them in
person, as we have to engage with the health of the nation.
CHILDREN'S RIGHT TO QUALITY EDUCATION
(Draft Resolution)
Mrs J N VILAKAZI: Chairperson, I move without notice:
That the Council -
(1) notes with concern that nearly five million children throughout the country have no access to good education because their parents cannot afford to pay for it;
(2) further notes the statement by the Minister of Education that children can no longer be expelled from or harassed in schools on financial grounds;
(3) believes that it is a disgrace that so many South African children do not have access to quality education even in public schools because their parents cannot afford to pay for it; and
(4) therefore calls on the Minister of Education to ensure that all possible steps are taken to protect the children’s right to quality education.
Motion agreed to in accordance with section 65 of the Constitution.
REQUEST FOR SUSPENSION OF BUSINESS
(Draft Resolution)
Ms J L KGOALI: Chairperson, I move without notice:
That the House -
(1) notes that our team, Bafana Bafana, has made us proud so far;
(2) requests that we adjourn for an hour in a patriotic …
[Laughter.] [Applause.] [Interjections.]
The DEPUTY CHAIRPERSON OF THE NCOP(Mr M L Mushwana): Order! Because you did not finish your motion, you may not proceed with that motion.
GOOD WISHES TO BAFANA BAFANA
(Draft Resolution)
The CHIEF WHIP OF THE COUNCIL: Chairperson, I move without notice:
That the House -
(1) notes -
(a) that South Africa stands at the threshold of a historic victory
by entering the next round of the World Cup finals;
(b) the dedication and the commitment of the players in the Bafana
Bafana team; and
(c) that Bafana Bafana has just managed to level the score, having
trailed 1-0 in the first seven minutes of the game; and
(2) wishes Bafana Bafana well, and expresses the hope that in the remaining 45 minutes of the game they will perform to the best of their ability and do South Africa proud.
Mr A E VAN NIEKERK: Chairperson, I would recommend that we move the following amendment:
That the following paragraph be added after paragraph (2):
(3) acknowledges the dedication of Bafana Bafana, as well as the dedication of the members of this Council for sitting here while Bafana Bafana is doing its best. [Laughter.]
The DEPUTY CHAIRPERSON OF THE NCOP(Mr M L Mushwana): Order! Hon member, I gave an indication when we started. It was an honest explanation of what happened between the Chief Whips and me. They were told that they should either cut their time, or we would have to sit here until past ten tonight, which I think none of you would have wanted. When nobody wanted to cut time, we could not but proceed. We are therefore proceeding.
Is there any objection to the motion of the Chief Whip? Mr M I MAKOELA: Chairperson, I want to introduce another amendment to the Chief Whip’s motion, namely that the House further agrees that we should be informed of and updated on the score every 30 minutes.
The DEPUTY CHAIRPERSON OF THE NCOP (Mr M L Mushwana): There is no substance in the motion now. [Laughter.] It is losing any substance it has. Can we move on to other notices of motion which have substance?
Motion agreed to in accordance with section 65 of the Constitution.
PREMATURE CROSSING OF THE FLOOR
(Draft Resolution)
Mnr P A MATTHEE: Voorsitter, ek stel hiermee sonder kennisgewing voor:
Dat die Raad -
(1) saamstem met die opmerkings van die Speaker van die Nasionale Vergadering gister met die strekking dat lede wat van politieke party wil verander, versigtig moet wees om nie voortydig vorms te teken om dié voorneme aan te dui nie, aangesien die lid die gevaar loop om sy of haar setel daardeur te verbeur, en
(2) voorstel dat lede van provinsiale wetgewers, sowel as raadslede, deeglik daarvan kennis neem, veral in die lig daarvan dat daar reeds verskeie dissiplinêre stappe deur die DA ingestel is teen raadslede wie se lidmaatskap die DA wil beëindig voordat die oorloopklousule in werking tree. (Translation of Afrikaans draft resolution follows.)
[Mr P A Matthee: Chairman, I hereby move without notice:
That the Council -
(1) concurs with the remarks yesterday of the Speaker of the National Assembly to the effect that members who wanted to change their political party membership should be careful not to sign forms prematurely to indicate this intention, as the member would be in danger of forfeiting his or her seat as a result; and
(2) proposes that members of provincial legislatures as well as Council members seriously take note of this, especially in view of the fact that the DA has already instituted various disciplinary actions against Council members whose membership the DA wants to terminate before the floor-crossing clause comes into effect.]
Motion agreed to in accordance with section 65 of the Constitution.
HIV/AIDS INFECTION RATE STABILISING
(Draft Resolution) Mrs J N VILAKAZI: Chairperson, I move without notice:
That the Council -
(1) welcomes the announcement made by the Minister of Health that the HIV infection rate in the Republic is stabilising;
(2) notes that this serves as recognition of the Government’s HIV/Aids policies which encourage safe sex and the use of condoms;
(3) further notes that communities need to co-operate with health officials and HIV/Aids activists in fighting this dreadful disease; and
(4) commends the Minister of Health for this breakthrough.
Motion agreed to in accordance with section 65 of the Constitution.
ASSOCIATION OF LEGAL PROFESSIONALS FOR AFRIKAANS
(Draft Resolution)
Mnr A E VAN NIEKERK: Voorsitter, ek stel hiermee sonder kennisgewing voor:
Dat die Raad -
(1) daarvan kennis neem dat Afrikaanssprekende regslui oor die naweek ‘n Vereniging vir Regslui vir Afrikaans gestig het en dat die vereniging bereid is om mense in taalgedinge by te staan;
(2) ‘n beroep doen op regslui van die ander inheemse taalgemeenskappe om dieselfde vir hulle tale te doen; en
(3) saam met talle welwillende Afrikaanssprekendes en Afrikaanse organisasies alles in sy vermoë sal doen om hulle hierin by te staan.
(Translation of Afrikaans draft resolution follows.)
[Mr A E van Niekerk: Chairman, I hereby move without notice:
That the Council -
(1) notes that this weekend Afrikaans-speaking legal professionals established an association of legal professionals for Afrikaans and that the association is prepared to assist people in language-related cases;
(2) appeals to legal professionals from the other indigenous linguistic communities to do the same for their languages; and
(3) together with numerous benevolent Afrikaans speakers and Afrikaans organisations, will do everything in its power to assist them in this regard.]
Motion agreed to in accordance with section 65 of the Constitution.
RATIFICATION OF DECISION OF JOINT PROGRAMME SUBCOMMITTEE
(Draft Resolution)
The CHIEF WHIP OF THE COUNCIL: Chairperson, I move the motion printed in my name on the Order Paper, as follows:
That the Council ratifies the decision that the Joint Programme Subcommittee on 11 June 2002 took in accordance with Joint Rule 216(2), namely that the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa Second Amendment Bill [B 17B - 2002] (National Assembly - sec 74), Local Government: Municipal Structures Amendment Bill [B 22B - 2002] (National Assembly - sec 75) and Loss or Retention of Membership of National and Provincial Legislatures Bill [B 25 - 2002] (National Assembly - sec 76) be fast-tracked by, where necessary, shortening any period within which any step in the legislative process relating to the Bills must be completed, in order to make it possible for the Bills to be passed by Tuesday, 18 June 2002 (see Announcements, Tablings and Committee Reports, 11 June 2002, p 652).
Motion agreed to in accordance with section 65 of the Constitution.
APPROPRIATION BILL
(Policy debate)
Vote No 16 - Health:
The MINISTER OF HEALTH: Chairperson and hon members, the act of presenting the national Health budget to this Chamber of Parliament focuses our attention on the challenges of co-operative governance. We have come to appreciate that co-operative governance demands a high level of alignment in the planning of programmes and budgets among provinces, and between provinces and the national department. Without such an alignment, the achievement of national health goals will remain a distant dream.
The challenge of aligning our efforts becomes particularly critical as the health sector consolidates its involvement in the third sphere of government with the building of the district health system. This will significantly increase the number of points of influence over the outcome of our interventions. Clearly there are many strengths to this decentralised approach. The point being made, however, is that collaboration and commitment to common goals are absolutely necessary for the system to work, and we cannot assume that this kind of co-operation will occur spontaneously.
Perhaps a starting point is for all of us to have a common understanding of what we hope to achieve through the many strategies aimed at reforming our health system. Briefly, we wish to provide a solid platform that delivers decent quality health care services, in a caring manner, to all our citizens on the basis of need - services that are equitable and reach the rich and the poor, the urban and the rural areas.
We see the universal provision of a basic package of care as an important contribution by the health system to the national effort to push back the frontiers of poverty. This basic package represents a health safety net for the poorest and most disadvantaged sections of our society.
We are striving for a health care system that is efficient and affordable and that impacts on our population in a way that promotes economic development and raises the standard of living, for instance by prolonging life, reducing disability and lowering dependency ratios.
We view our health system as an instrument well suited to forging good relations with our neighbours and supporting the broad development of our region and continent, and, hopefully, as a contribution to humanity’s common struggle against disease and suffering.
More particularly, our health system must support intersectoral efforts aimed at keeping South Africans healthy, particularly promoting equality and developing our human resources, including gender equality.
I highlight these points to indicate that there are competing demands on our system and that the relationship between different components of the system will not always be harmonious. Pain may have to be endured in one area in order to achieve substantial benefits in another. This, I believe, is the perspective that needs to inform our analysis as we examine the budget before us.
At the outset, let me state that, although we continue to make progress, we can do even better. Above all, we need to take responsibility for our actions. We cannot be indecisive and sloppy, yet expect good results. We cannot lead without good leaders. Wherever there is strong leadership, we see the reward of good results. At the same time, indecision can only lead to the disappointing results we see, for example, in some of our provinces and, to some extent, in other provinces as well.
It is fitting, therefore, as we consider the policy objectives that this budget of R7,18 billion supports, that we survey the resources and the capacity available across the country, to implement the approaches we have adopted. We cannot ignore the fact that our public health system still features grave inequities among provinces. Many of our national budget goals, and many of the millennium development goals, relate to dealing effectively with the risks to good health. Programmes of prevention and health promotion, plus early intervention, make the most impact when it comes to improving health indicators.
I spoke extensively about these in my address to the National Assembly and looked particularly at factors like tobacco use, alcohol abuse, drug abuse and environmental hazards. Risk management in relation to the health of mothers and children is also critical to the achievement of our core health goals. The reduction of infant and under-five mortality rates is a critical objective in our national health strategy and international programmes that we have endorsed.
Improved immunisation is a key success factor in reducing child mortality. As a country we have succeeded in expanding the number of illnesses we immunise against, in running mass immunisation campaigns and in improving the proportion of fully immunised children. The last aspect has been won slowly and it has come about largely as a result of integrating our primary health care services and running clinics as one-stop shops. Clinic workers are encouraged to use every contact with the child to catch up on missed opportunities.
However, there are one or two provinces that lag behind. The gap between our worst and best provinces, in terms of the proportion of fully immunised children, is as much as 25%. International experience is quite clear: Once immunisation levels drop below a critical point, diseases aggressively reclaim their ground. We truly need the co-operation of all provinces to ensure that this does not happen here. Another intervention that has been shown internationally to improve the survival chances of children is the integrated management of childhood illnesses. I am happy to report continued progress in expanding this approach across the country.
Last year we reflected on the challenges we face in improving the Primary School Nutrition Programme, which continues to benefit more than 4 million children. A review of the PSNP produced a series of recommendations, and Cabinet has given us the green light to act on these. At the heart of the changes is improved co-operation between the Departments of Health and Education, increased community involvement and the incorporation of national standards.
We will need support from all provinces later this year when we introduce regulations that will require manufacturers of mealie meal and wheat meal flour to add a range of micronutrients to their products. Although we have taken care to work with the major interest groups and taken precautions to ensure that small milling companies will be able to meet the requirements, some opposition to this change is inevitable.
It is important, therefore, that we are clear about the need for this intervention. The primary evidence comes from the food consumption survey that showed high levels of micronutrient deficiency and a low calorie intake in children under nine years old. It also revealed stunting in 22% of children in this age group.
Turning to our goals in relation to women’s health, the risks that relate to pregnancy and childbirth remain a central concern. I feel compelled to refer to the issues that have come to the fore in relation to implementation of the Choice on Termination of Pregnancy Act. The message that filtered clearly through last month’s parliamentary hearings is that women seeking terminations are being denied this choice, because too few health workers are prepared to perform the procedure. We know, through our systematic monitoring of maternal deaths, that loss of life due to septic abortions has dropped during the past three years. we believe that this is due to the availability of free, safe and legal terminations. However, the decrease in deaths due to abortion is still not what we would like to see.
The public health system must take more seriously its responsibility for eliminating abortion-linked deaths, through more accessible contraceptive programmes, in the first instance, and through a termination service that is able to respect and act on women’s choices.
During the past year we have produced national guidelines on contraception and a policy on youth and adolescent health. We sincerely hope that these documents will assist provinces to extend age-appropriate reproductive health services.
We understand the causes of maternal deaths only because we have a dedicated, anonymous monitoring system. It has been operational for about four years, and now I wish to acknowledge the effort that our committed health workers make to ensure its maintenance. In some provinces there is such a shortage of gynaecologists and obstetricians that monitoring depends on better-resourced provinces sharing monitoring committees with their neighbours, as in the case of the Free State, which has been supporting the Northern Cape.
When it comes to the programme goals for HIV and Aids, we have come to appreciate that a strong voluntary counselling and testing service is the foundation for success in many more specific interventions. This was one of the first lessons from the research sites on reducing mother-to-child transmission of HIV. The quality of the counselling and the convenience of the testing facility actually determined the uptake on the services.
For the last two years, since the introduction of the rapid HIV test, the expansion of testing sites has been a priority for which special national funding has been made available. In practice, the expansion has been quite variable from province to province. Some provinces have more that 100 testing facilities, others only a handful. Undoubtedly this is an area in which we must jointly reassess our targets and tackle some of the human resource constraints that affect the creation of accessible, user-friendly testing facilities.
On the HIV prevention front, there is evidence of involvement in public events and campaigns across the country. Surveys indicate close to universal availability of condoms at clinics, and this year we will be supplying 350 million condoms free of charge. Members of the public cite health facilities as an important source of information on HIV and Aids. School-based life skills programmes are gaining ground, although at different rates in different provinces.
The major boost that we have received from the Global Fund will benefit all provinces through stronger prevention campaigns, the improvement of youth- oriented services and better TB control. I would like to recognise those provinces that are moving ahead rapidly to utilise the conditional grant for step-down care. For instance, during the April Health Month, the Free State launched step-down facilities in a number of districts almost simultaneously. Gauteng and the Western Cape have also done well in this area.
Another area in which substantial progress has been recorded in the last year is the training of health workers in various aspects of the treatment of people with HIV and Aids. Some of this training has taken place through Health department training structures and some has been a product of the Diflucan Partnership with Pfizer. KwaZulu-Natal built a particularly good training programme around this. The provision of Diflucan is going well, but we suspect there are pockets of unmet need. We would welcome feedback from the public and public representatives about the gaps in this service.
We have also seen a strengthening of the intersectoral approach at provincial and district level, with the consolidation of provincial Aids councils and the expansion of Aids councils in municipal areas. We now have Aids councils in at least 55% of local government jurisdictions.
The North West province has taken the process through to all 18 subdistricts. The importance of local-level co-ordination and networking cannot be overestimated. It lays the basis for integrating prevention, treatment and care, and it is our only hope of ensuring that positive individuals get appropriate support and treatment at every stage.
In recognition of the need to increase resources for the treatment and care of people living with HIV and Aids, Cabinet factored an additional R400 million into the equitable share allocated to the provinces. All provinces except the Eastern Cape have recovered growth in their health allocations for the current year, and it appears that this allocation to improve our collective response to HIV, Aids and TB has largely reached its intended target.
However, it remains a concern that even as the national department is in talks with the Treasury for additional funding to improve our response to HIV, Aids, STIs and TB, there are a few pockets of money allocated for Aids programmes that go unspent.
Improving mental health care is certainly an item on our checklist of national priorities. Just a few weeks ago this House set its stamp of approval on the Mental Health Care Bill and we now must ready ourselves to implement it. At the national level this has meant finalising the draft regulations that will deal, among other things, with the licensing of establishments for the treatment of mental health problems and will set quality standards for some of the more controversial forms of treatment, such as electrotherapy and sleep therapy.
However, the weight of preparation for implementing this legislation really rests with the provinces. The law seeks to place a much greater emphasis on treating mental health conditions within the community or within general health facilities.
This requires that a large number of health workers in primary health care settings and general hospitals must be trained to manage mental health problems. I believe that the essentials are in place - the training materials and the trainers - and I trust that the President’s signing of the law will be the catalyst that is evidently required to get this process moving.
The new law also states very plainly the obligations of health service providers in terms of upholding and promoting the human rights of patients. A particular challenge is the assertion that the patients’ rights to dignity must be upheld at all times. The physical state of some of our psychiatric hospitals, fortunately not all of them, is truly an affront to human dignity and this must receive urgent attention. The rehabilitative element of patient care also demands greater investment.
The issue of quality of care and patients’ rights is, of course, a critical issue at all our health institutions. The hospital rehabilitation programme and hospital management deal with some substantial elements of quality of care. They focus, on the one hand, on the physical necessity for decent care - the buildings and the technology - and they target the management systems and the skills needed by managers in order to drive a process of quality improvement.
This comprehensive approach has kicked off at one hospital in every province this year. Planning is already under way to include another three hospitals per province from next year. Eventually the bulk of the hospital rehabilitation grant will be channelled into carefully planned initiatives to boost patient care from various angles, instead of being used only to replace or patch up buildings.
Encouraging though these developments are, a word of caution is in order. Hospital rehabilitation is a slow process and we are tackling a huge backlog. To appreciate progress, we need therefore to take a long-range view. We certainly will need increased resources to make a meaningful impact, and provinces too will have to improve their financial contribution to maintenance and capital works.
This year, in a principled move towards equity, the conditional grant for tertiary care will be shared more equally among provinces instead of being focused purely on the four provinces with the major academic hospitals. Most provinces will gain from this allocation of resources, and we firmly expect a visible improvement in patient care. The Eastern Cape, for instance, in terms of the new like-for-like funding of tertiary services, gets R124 million this year. KwaZulu-Natal gets R50 million more and the Northern Cape’s allocation increases by 44%.
A key innovation in the national tertiary services grant is the inclusion of a development component aimed at assisting poorer provinces to recruit specialists without dipping into their equitable share.
It is almost self-evident that the availability of appropriate health technology is critical to the quality of care. Until recently there was no systematic data on problems relating to technology.
In the last year, however, we have received the results of a detailed health technology audit, done on a pilot basis in two provinces, the Eastern Cape and Limpopo. These are both rural provinces with similar socioeconomic profiles, and this might lead one to expect similar levels of service infrastructure. But the audit showed this was not the case when it came to health technology.
Despite its modest resources, Limpopo managed to come acceptably close to several international norms in terms of the age, the turnover and the maintenance of equipment. As a province, the Eastern Cape fell short on all counts, although there were individual hospitals within the province that fared better. Overall the message was clear. Money alone will not have the desired impact on improving health technology. Good management is the critical ingredient. Without skilled technology management, we will have expenses without good care.
This audit has been so useful that it will be extended to the renaming seven provinces. Quality of care at the district level may be measured objectively against the standard package of care that has been formally adopted for national implementation. During the course of this year we got the results of an audit that measured current services against the standards set in the package. We were encouraged to find that there are clinics that are already doing more than 95% of what is expected. But there were also a substantial number trailing around the 50% mark and we have until 2007 to get these up to standard.
The package of primary care services is also our yardstick for improved health care in the nodes of the Integrated Sustainable Rural Development Programme. In every node, a specialised worker has been appointed to guide the process of closing the gap between the present levels of service and the levels set out in the package of care. We are also emphasising the generation of good health information in the nodes and, more than that, ensuring that this information is used by local communities and planners to address local needs.
The structural interventions and the systems that create the possibility of better care are extremely important, but equally, if not more, important is the creativeness and dedication of hospital and clinic managers, of ward sisters and ordinary health workers who have the power to turn an ordinary or poor service into something special. There are many examples of this and I would like to share a few.
A quality assurance has been in place at Piet Retief Hospital in Mpumalanga and has reduced mortality among newborn babies simply by making relevant protocols available to its nurses, training them in the use of the protocols and teaching nurses how to monitor mortality rates. It has also focused on improving the detection and treatment of tuberculosis and has, within a year, increased the TB cure rate from 40% of cases to 80%.
In Gauteng, some of the shortlisted services in the annual Khanyisa awards for service excellence have focused on reducing the waiting times for patients by using various systems of booking and categorising patients. At Kagiso Clinic the waiting time for acute cases has been reduced to 20 minutes in a facility where about 120 patients are seen daily by just three professional nurses, a nursing assistant, a health promoter and a clerk.
In the nation’s response to HIV and Aids there are countless projects that are born out of compassion and respect for the community. Fifty inspiring case studies are presented in a booklet called Our young people take it on, which is a joint publication of the Departments of Education and Health.
At the district level, the incomplete merging of provincial and municipal health services continues to present problems in terms of the effective management of facilities. We view the incorporation of municipal workers into the Public Service, effectively creating a single Public Service, as the most significant contribution that could be made at this stage to the building of our district health system.
Health workers have dealt with considerable uncertainty during this protracted restructuring and have gone to great lengths to make the informal or functional integration of provincial and municipal services work. But it simply is not sustainable to have professionals who do comparable jobs in the same clinic earning different salaries, working different hours and receiving different benefits.
For some sectors, the creation of a single Public Service is merely an option. For the health sector it is a necessity without which we cannot consolidate the primary level of service. The relationship between the private and public health sectors remains a challenging area of work where we have only begun to exploit the possibilities. Of course, the interaction takes many forms, from regulation to co-operation, and it occurs at all levels right down to individual health facilities.
The interaction that claimed the headlines this year was the dispute between Discovery Health and the Council for Medical Schemes. No doubt hon members are aware that the parties settled their differences a few weeks ago and I must say I am pleased that they have avoided a protracted court battle. I am even more pleased to note that the settlement is firmly within the boundaries of the Medical Schemes Act and it affirms to council’s role in protecting the consumer. If we want to encourage more people to join medical schemes and assume responsibility for the cost of their own health care, we must offer potential members security and cost containment. The Act seeks to do this by ensuring that schemes meet prescribed levels of financial reserves and by limiting the exposure of schemes to the commercial environment of the insurance industry. In his handling of the Discovery matter, the Registrar of Medical Schemes has shown that we have a robust law that can be used quite effectively to protect the interests of the public.
In the year ahead, we expect to see some movement on the restructuring of medical schemes cover for public servants. Government, as the biggest single employer in the country, is responsible for no less than 12% of the total amount paid into medical schemes, but there are some obvious shortcomings about the way this cover is structured. Firstly, public servants can belong to any scheme of their choice, so Government contributions are fragmented. Secondly, only 40% of public servants are covered because most cannot afford existing medical aid tariffs.
The Ministers of Health and Finance have also resolved the question of how medical scheme brokers will be regulated. They will remain part of the medical schemes environment and a major amendment to the Medical Schemes Act will clarify their position further.
Because of the grave inequities in this country between public and private health care, we are concerned about avoiding irrational expansion in the private sector. We believe that expansion must be strictly needs-based and result in greater access for our people. We are therefore not in favour of the mass expansion of health tourism, which has the potential to further drain personnel from the public health sector to serve foreign patients while our own people lack care in many areas.
In the arena of service delivery, public-private partnerships are beginning to register their presence. At the new Nkosi Albert Luthuli Hospital in Durban, the maintenance of the facility and all equipment has been contracted to the private sector in a bid to ensure that the hospital always has cutting-edge technology available for tertiary-level services.
In the Free State and Eastern Cape excess bed capacity in hospitals has been leased to the private sector. In addition to the lease payment, the private sector puts up capital for the refurbishment of the hospitals involved.
At Johannesburg Hospital, a pilot project involving differentiated amenities for private, paying patients was launched quite recently. Differentiation only extends to the hotel services while the standard of clinical care is uniform across the hospital. Kimberley Hospital has successfully implemented a similar model.
All of these initiatives aim to pump additional funds into the public sector and bring us a bit closer to our central objective of quality health care for all our citizens.
In closing, I would like to extend ny sincere thanks to a whole range of individuals and structures that have assisted me in fulfilling my role as the national Minister of Health during the past year. The provincial MECs for health, the heads of the provincial health departments and the representatives of the SA Local Government Association and the SA Military Health Service make a crucial contribution and really give meaning to the notion of co-operative governance.
Of course, this top layer of management depends on the support and expertise of a wide range of managers, including managers on the front line in our hospitals and district services. I would like to say very clearly that we know just how valuable they are to the public health system.
I wish to thank the members of the select committee in this Council, and especially the chairperson, the hon Jacobus, for their interest, their constructive criticism and the perspectives they bring from their respective provinces.
My thanks also go to the portfolio committee in the National Assembly and to chairperson Ngculu in particular. I am indebted to my Cabinet colleagues for their interest in matters pertaining to this portfolio and to social cluster Ministers for their supportive work. I would like to recognise the Director-General of Health, Dr Ayanda Ntsaluba, for his leadership and to thank the team in the department.
Finally I would like to express my appreciation to those who support me most directly, my advisers and all personnel in the Ministry, my family, in particular my husband Comrade Msimang, and my two daughters, and my household support staff, the lady who helps me in the house and the gardener. [Applause.]
Ms L JACOBUS: Chairperson, it is unfortunate that we have to compete with the excitement that is taking place outside.
Hon Minister, MECs, special delegates and members, it is again the time of the year when we review our progress made over the past year and also highlight the areas where attention is needed.
Whilst we will pat ourselves on the back where we have done well, we must also critically look at areas where we need to improve. We are all agreed that the Budget is the one instrument that we have at our disposal to realise service delivery to the poorest of the poor. It is the one instrument that we have at our disposal with which we can push back the frontiers of poverty. In the words of our Minister of Finance in his Budget Speech to the nation in February 2002:
We must be clear about the fact that the reason we need to combat poverty is that it deprives individuals and, by extension, societies of their full potential. It robs children of their childhood. It condemns adults to illiteracy. It deprives people of access to simple necessities such as safe drinking water. It condemns many millions to disease. It wears down the human spirit and robs people of their dignity. We must fight poverty, because until it has been overcome we cannot lay claim to being a compassionate society.
It is against this quote as a backdrop that I want to submit my input today. Areas I will highlight are the following: per capita spending and interprovincial equity, the Primary School Nutrition Programme and, last but not least, HIV and Aids.
Firstly, let me pledge the support of the committee to the health budget for 2002-03. It reports an overall increase of 4,4%, which, in rands and cents, translate into R538 million. A percentage breakdown of this amount per province comes to 0,9% for the Eastern Cape and the Free State provinces, 6% for Gauteng, -0,5% for KwaZulu-Natal, 13,6% for Mpumalanga, 8,7% for the Northern Cape, 8,9% for Limpopo, 13% for the North West, and 5,1% for the Western Cape.
The details for these increases will be deliberated upon by the MECs present here and special delegates from various provinces. It is, however, heartening to note that the bulk of these increases go to Mpumalanga, the North West and Limpopo. It shows a commitment from the Department of Health to accelerate health service delivery in these provinces, commonly referred to as the poorer provinces.
Getting to per capita spending and interprovincial equity, at present Gauteng spends R1 506 per person, the Western Cape R1 218 per person and KwaZulu-Natal R886 per person. These still remain the top three in per capita spending. This pattern seems to be continuing for the next two years. Although a steady increase is recorded in the per capita spending per province over the past three years, Limpopo spends R513 per person, the North West R548 and Mpumalanga R554. These three remain at the bottom end of the scale.
The latter three provinces have also been identified as falling within the category of poorer provinces. It is therefore also assumed that people in these provinces, especially in the remote rural areas, would also have less or no access to clean drinking water and balanced nutrition. Diseases of poverty would therefore also be much more prevalent in these areas, and it would therefore be logical to distribute resources in way that favours our poorer provinces. We might have to consider turning the budget on its head if we want push back the frontiers of poverty, as per the directive of our hon President and the Minister of Finance.
The budget hearings which I attended also revealed that we are not significantly narrowing the gap between the historically disadvantaged provinces and the better-resourced ones. This is of great concern, especially in the Northern Province, or Limpopo, where the health and social sector only received 16% of the global budget.
If we look at the Eastern Cape we come across the same dilemma, where conditional grants constitute the bulk of the equitable share and very few resources are thus available to deal with service and service delivery. A question that arises then is the following: Do the provinces have the ability to negotiate bigger budgets? Do they have the capacity to spend these budgets?
In my own understanding, to both these questions, the answer is no. We must therefore look at ways of assisting these provinces to build and strengthen capacity in terms of political and technical assistance. We, as MPs and public representatives from our various provinces, have a critical role to play in terms of advocacy to ensure that we move closer to our goal of achieving equity amongst our provinces.
On the Primary School Nutrition Programme, the main aim of the introduction of the Integrated Nutrition Programme, or INP, is to improve the nutritional status of children, to enhance their learning capacity and to improve the school attendance of primary school learners from poor households.
The Department of Health must also be congratulated on the increase in the coverage of primary schools that qualify for the feeding scheme. To date a total of 4,8 million children are fed, covering a total of 14 500 schools throughout the country. A marked reduction in underweight children and stunted growth has been recorded in schools where the programme is operative.
I was, however, saddened and disappointed when I attended one of the public hearing sessions organised by the portfolio committee chairperson about the budget. The North West in particular - and it is unfortunate that there is no MEC or special delegate from that province - reported underspending in two very critical areas, the HIV/Aids programme and the INP, which is the nutritional programme. I want to propose that MECs and Ministers look at disciplinary measures against officials who do not account for the spending, or rather underspending, of allocated funds.
The Eastern Cape and North West had underspent on their nutrition programme conditional grants, with the Eastern Cape spending 44% and the North West spending 58%. Overall the provinces only managed to spend 78% of the total budget of the INP, and this is a drop from the previous year, when 87% was spent. It seems that provincial treasuries in the provinces are transferring payments too late, reportedly around November, subsequently affecting service delivery. Also with regard to the INP conditional grants, the long chain of command causes further bottlenecks, and we recommend that simpler methods and structures of accountability be explored.
With HIV and Aids being one of the priority focus areas of our Government, it is indeed good news to note that the budget for HIV/Aids has been increased. This increase has also been reflected in the respective provincial allocations. It reflects Government’s commitment to fighting the scourge of HIV/Aids, which threatens to wipe out mainly our economically active youth and plunge families further into the dark pit of poverty.
The Minister of Health, in her statement on 10 June 2002, highlighted survey findings that HIV prevalence was 24,8% nationally. Unfortunately we do not have a full provincial breakdown of this figure, but I hope that the provincial allocations are proportional to the prevalence rate, which, according to a 1998 Department of Trade and Industry survey, reflects Mpumalanga, KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng to be amongst the highest in prevalence.
Although the provinces have improved their spending on HIV and Aids, there have been differences in performance according to province. For example, Mpumalanga did not spend its allocation at all for community home-based care. A 0% spending was recorded. The Eastern Cape only spent 67% of their allocation. At least is it the bulk of their allocation. If provinces are to expand their PMTCT programme, then support must be given to provinces that have capacity problems, such as the Eastern Cape, Limpopo, Mpumalanga and the North West.
The issue that directly impacts on service delivery must be addressed at a technical and political level, for example the chronic late transfer of funds, which I referred to earlier. If we are to successfully expand community and home-based care programmes, much more community participation and mobilisation is an absolute prerequisite.
Successful expansion of our HIV and Aids programmes is also reliant on intersectoral participation in matters such as water and social service delivery. We cannot rely on the health sector exclusively. The social development sector has to be recognised as another entry point for services to those affected and infected.
In closing, we were also informed by the Department of Health when we got our briefing that provincial heads of health are expected to submit monthly and quarterly financial reports. These reports could serve as an early warning sign, and where expenditure problems could be detected. Timeous interventions could then be made to avoid crisis situations involving either underspending or overspending. We were also told that in most instances it is easier to get blood out of a stone than to get the provinces to submit these reports.
I see no reason why the MECs, some of whom are here today, and the Minister cannot deal with officials who execute their job descriptions selectively. The common task we as public representatives and civil servants have is to ensure that services are delivered to our people, especially the poor and marginalised. As I said at the beginning, the one tool we have at our disposal to do this is the budget. If we are serious about pushing back the frontiers of poverty in order to create a better life for all our people, we need to act against anyone who does anything that impacts negatively on quality service delivery to the poor and vulnerable.
I would also like to take this opportunity to thank the Minister of Health, who is always available and whose cellphone is always on. She sometimes phones me at 6 o’clock on a Saturday morning. I would also like to thank her department, led by the director-general and his team and very competent officials, some of whom are here in the gallery today. They are always available to respond to the needs of the committee at all times.
Last but not least I thank the members of the committee, who, sometimes under very difficult circumstances, are always there to perform their duties as public representatives from the various provinces. [Applause.]
Ms M N S MANANA (Mpumalanga): Chairperson, hon Ministers and hon members, let me begin by wishing all young people throughout the country a prosperous and a successful Youth Month. As we all know, June is Youth Month. I would like to say to the youth that by their actions they must demonstrate that they are a youth united in action against racism, sexism, xenophobia and all forms of discrimination.
I feel very grateful to be invited to and afforded an opportunity to take part in today’s debate. Let me indicate from the outset that Mpumalanga still stands firmly for transformation to achieve social justice, particularly through the service we deliver that touches the lives of those who are most deprived.
The budget that the department of health in Mpumalanga has been allocated for this financial year of 2002-03 is R1 656 566 000, of which R1 449 817 000 is for the equitable share and R206 749 000 is for conditional grants.
Health should be seen as an investment rather than an expenditure. The health of the people will be served and improved mainly through the achievement of equitable social and economic development.
If we are to achieve these, we must also turn our focus onto the promotion of healthy lifestyles and the provision of a high quality of care. A range of preventative and promotional programmes have been designed to promote healthy lifestyles for the Mpumalanga inhabitants, for gains in the health status of the population are secured mainly by the interventions that take place outside our hospitals and clinics.
We have seen the Ministers and MECs, especially during the health month of April 2002, taking to the fields with hoes to promote food gardens and good eating habits throughout the country.
In addition, the department is engaged in the following campaigns: drug and substance abuse awareness campaigns and teenage sexuality programmes targeting the youth; breast and cervical cancer screening and awareness programmes targeting women; and programmes promoting awareness of the hazards of tobacco products and smoking, especially amongst men.
African countries are categorised as developing countries. Most of them are poverty-stricken. Therefore an urgent intervention from the world community is needed. People are affected by diseases, hunger, unemployment and migration. The launch of the Health Month in April 2000 was a consolidation of our programmes, as the month was focused on nutrition. Through our programmes, the following were addressed: Poverty alleviation, improvement in household food security, community development empowerment and food security in poverty-stricken areas, targeting primary schools.
These programmes contribute to the alleviation of poverty through the implementation of sustainable nutrition projects by ensuring self-reliance in communities involved in these projects. The role-playing sectors are provided with technical support, nutritional education and promotion to ensure household food security and adequate care for the successful implementation of intrasectoral and intersectoral projects. Currently 37 projects are being implemented. Five new projects are in the process of being implemented.
Approximately 1 322 primary schools, which consist of 450 000 needy primary school learners from farms and rural areas, benefited from the primary health school feeding programmes. These programmes also benefit approximately 2 506 unemployed women from the surrounding communities who help with the preparation of food and 31 SMMEs that are suppliers. The department needs to ensure that the SMMEs are encouraged to buy supplies from the community members involved in those community development programmes. The integrated nutrition programme has been allocated R39,728 million.
HIV/Aids, TB and STDs remain our biggest challenge. Given this scenario, HIV/Aids cannot be addressed as a single issue or by a vertical programme. A multisectoral approach is a prerequisite for the containment of the spread of the infection. The department is in partnership with the National Youth Commission and various progressive NGOs like Napwa and Phaphamani and radio stations like Ligwalagwala and Ikwekwezi.
The department finds it necessary that the youth commission and the young positive living ambassadors play an important role in promoting awareness and education amongst the youth of the province. I would like to thank the chairperson of the youth commission, Mr Mxolisi Dladla, the youth commissioners and the CEO of the youth commission, Mr P Mnisi, for the good work that they are doing in the province.
Indeed, it is true that Mpumalanga did underspend on this programme the past financial year, precisely because the leader was engaged in the activities of his NGO, which is called MPSA, and as a result the work of the unit suffered. Investigations were conducted and he has since resigned. This had the effect of delaying the implementation of the project. The new director of this unit has since been appointed with effect from January
- Business plans are in place to conduct programmes of this unit such as the awareness campaign, voluntary counselling and testing, the prevention of mother-to-child transmission, home-based care and the step- down facilities. The unit will be submitting monthly and quarterly reports.
As far as home-based care services are concerned, the provincial integrated plan on HIV and Aids was approved by the social cluster and is being implemented in six sites, namely Tonga, Eerstehoek, Mmamethlake, Matibidi, Kwamhlanga and Piet Retief, and 45 home-based care co-ordinators have been trained in the national minimum standards of home-based community care. A population of 132 000 is accessing home-based community care, services as part of the integrated plan. A plan to promote the supply of community- based care kits is in the process of finalisation. The department’s aim for the current financial year is to expedite the funding of the NGOs to sustain and expand the provision of home-based care.
With regard to voluntary counselling and testing services, 200 lay counsellors have been trained to provide VCT and 48 mentor counsellors have been trained to support the counsellors’ services. Forty medical sites are providing the VCT services. All the sites are using the rapid testing kits. Approximately 20% of the population has access to the VCT services. Social awareness campaigns are being conducted at the sites.
In addition, all health workers need to be trained in VCT, especially to administer HIV rapid testing. The department further plans to lobby the NGOs as support structures for marketing VCT services in the public and private sectors.
As far as the PMTCT programme is concerned, the research sites for the prevention of mother-to-child transmission where established as required by the national department. Our sites for nevirapine are continuing to provide the drug to pregnant women and newborn babies. We have invested considerable time and energy in preparing the research site for the prevention of mother-to-child transmission. The programme is closely integrated with the VCT programme.
During the month of July, the Shongwe site will be testing nine-month-old babies. The department is expanding the programme to the feeder clinics in both sites. We are also planning the provincial roll-out of the programme to be in line with the national target date of 30 December 2002. The training of the master trainers is expected to take place from 15 to 26 July in all the provincial hospitals.
Despite the challenges that lie ahead of us, we are certain that we are well on the road to building a health service that all the inhabitants of Mpumalanga can be proud of. To achieve this, we have … [Time expired.] [Applause.]
Dr P J C NEL: Mnr die Voorsitter, ek het die voorreg gehad om deel te neem aan die gesondheidsdebat in die Vrystaatse wetgewer op 12 Maart en ek het ook die geleentheid gehad om na die agb LUR wat ook vandag hier is se begrotingstoespraak te luister. Daaruit was dit duidelik dat die agb LUR en haar span wel deeglik die vingers op die pols van gesondheidsdienste in die Vrystaat het en dat hulle baie positief is om die uitdagings die hoof te bied. (Translation of Afrikaans paragraph follows.)
[Dr P J C NEL: Mr Chairman, I had the privilege of taking part in the health debate in the Free State legislature on 12 March and I also had the opportunity to listen to the budget speech of the MEC, who is also present today. From that it was clear that the hon MEC and her team thoroughly have their fingers on the pulse of health services in the Free State and that they are very positive about overcoming the challenges.]
It was therefore was indeed a great disappointment for me to hear the following remarks from the hon MEC in her budget speech, and I quote:
It is clear that there is little new money to introduce new programmes. An analysis in the department showed that in real terms, the department is allocated less for its comparable activities in 2002-03 than it was allocated in the previous financial year.
This is really putting a tremendous burden on health care delivery in the Free State. The ever-escalating burden that the HIV/Aids pandemic is putting on the health sector as well as salary increments and the normal health inflation are making it even more difficult. The department of health in the Free State is, however, striving to improve its efficiency to face the challenges. The hon MEC stated in her budget speech that the total revenue collected at the end of the 2002-03 financial year will be about R56 million. This is 10% more than the revenue expected at the end of the previous financial year. One has to appreciate the fact that the Free State is performing well compared to other provinces in this respect. The public-private partnership initiatives to privatise some of the unutilised beds in the Pelanomi and Universitas hospitals are on track and will, when realised, generate a considerable income that can be utilised.
Dit alles ten spyt, baat die departement van gesondheid in die Vrystaat geensins finansieel daarby nie, want hulle word steeds nog nie deur die Tesourie toegelaat om eens ‘n gedeelte van die inkomste wat ingesamel word, te behou om die tekort in die begroting aan te vul nie. Ek glo dat die nasionale Tesourie se goedkeuring ook hiervoor verkry moet word en ek versoek die agb Minister vandag om hierdie geleentheid met die Tesourie op te neem. (Translation of Afrikaans paragraph follows.)
[All of this notwithstanding, the department of health in the Free State does not at all benefit from it financially, because they are still not permitted by Treasury to keep even a part of the collected revenue to replenish the deficit in the budget. I believe that the national Treasury’s approval for this has to be obtained and I request the hon Minister today to take this matter up with the Treasury.]
I am aware of the fact that the total budget allocated to the national Department of Health has not increased in real terms. The New NP, however, appreciates the fact that, in spite of this, based on what we have heard from the hon the Minister in her budget speech in the National Assembly and listening to her today; it is quite clear that the national Department of Health is really striving to improve its efficiency. We support the hospital rehabilitation programme and believe that the proper maintenance and regular upgrading of the infrastructure in the health sector is vitally important for the delivery of good health services and will hopefully, in future, prevent us from experiencing the pain of hearing negative findings regarding our hospitals, like the findings of the Ethics Institute of South Africa, published in their ethics audit conducted on the Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital in 2001.
The audit revealed, inter alia, revealed that one of the largest hospitals in the world, with a bed capacity of 3 400 and employing 4 880 people, with its dilapidated infrastructure was an unsafe, dirty, depressing workplace. The staff morale was very low because they felt that they were working in a second-class hospital - so low that a large percentage of patients had to bribe the staff for treatment.
The New NP would therefore like to encourage the Department of Health to continue with the hospital rehabilitation programme and, if possible, to expand the programme. We also support the expansion of the compulsory community service system. We believe that the delivery of community services in the rural and other underserviced areas is imperative. However, we want to stress that community service must never be a way to fill posts in major institutions. Community service must never be seen as a way to obtain cheap labour for the state.
My party het ook waardering vir die belangrike optrede wat oor ‘n baie wye terrein van stapel gestuur word om MIV/Vigs te bekamp, asook die beduidende verhoging in die geld wat vanjaar hiervoor beskikbaar gestel is. Dit is egter ook waar dat van die geld wat wel beskikbaar gestel word vir die program nie behoorlik aangewend word deur sommige van die provinsies nie. Beter monitering behoort toegepas te word en stappe behoort geneem te word om dit reg te stel. (Translation of Afrikaans paragraph follows.)
[My party also has appreciation for the important actions launched over a wide terrain to combat HIV/Aids, as well as for the considerable increase in the money made available for this purpose this year. However, it is also true that some of the money made available for the programme is not properly utilised by some of the provinces. Better monitoring should take place and steps should be taken to rectify this.]
In conclusion, I would like to say that we shall not overcome HIV/Aids unless we address poverty, and we shall not beat poverty unless we address the HIV/Aids pandemic effectively and holistically. The fight against HIV/Aids has just begun. [Applause.]
Ms M A MOTSUMI-TSOPO (Free State): Chairperson, national Minister of Health, Dr Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, hon members, colleagues, ladies and gentlemen, the challenges of poverty that are continuously facing us in the country are even more stark in the province that has been characterised as the poorest, the Free State.
It is therefore it is with great delight and appreciation that the people of this province hear positive messages and see decisive actions taken by their elected representatives to push back the frontiers of poverty wherever they exist in our land. This theme from the President’s opening address in Parliament is in keeping with the realities in our country in general and the Free State in particular. We are glad that the President has never hesitated to acknowledge this reality.
In her budget speech on 4 June, the hon the Minister, Dr Manto Tshabalala- Msimang did not deviate an inch from this theme laid out by the President. The Minister’s budget speech also acknowledges the critical role that health can play in poverty alleviation. I stand here to support this budget speech of the Minister.
I think that it is common knowledge amongst us all that equipment is another major factor contributing towards quality service delivery. As a province, we have made strides in the purchasing of equipment to advance our goal of quality service delivery and the betterment of people’s lives.
In the last financial year alone we bought equipment to the total value of R136 million for primary health care facilities and hospitals. Amongst the critical equipment we have purchased we can count the following: state-of- the-art computerised tomography equipment at Manapo Hospital worth R4,9 million, computerised tomography and floor and suspended Bucky units and a fluoroscopy unit worth R5,6 million at Pelonomi Hospital and a magnetic resonance imaging scanner worth approximately R14 million at Universitas Hospital.
Infrastructure improvement remains at the top of the list in the province. The clinic upgrading and building programme was an indisputable success in the previous financial year. Currently, 28 projects, of which 13 are new and 15 are upgradings, to the total amount of R28,428 million, are being undertaken. Most of these projects commenced during January 2002 with the construction phase to be completed by August 2002. An additional 17 projects, which include nine clinics and eight upgradings, will commence this financial year.
In the year 2001-02, we continued with the process of making underutilised beds at Pelonomi and Universitas Hospitals available for purposes of the private-public partnership initiative. The total fee to be received by the department over 15 years is estimated at R127,2 million. The income will be used to upgrade and maintain existing buildings, mainly Pelonomi Hospital. The department is currently finalising negotiations for a 15-year agreement with the preferred bidder. National Treasury approval was obtained and the agreement will probably be signed before the end of August 2002.
The development of personnel is one of our key strategies and also the pillar of our mission statement. It is therefore against this background that the department has allocated a total of 327 bursaries to needy students in the province. To us, this strategy of bursary allocation is an investment as we hope that the particular students will come and plough back what they have learnt into our province and their communities in particular, especially the rural communities, where I believe health services are most needed. In years to come, the impact of this strategy on local communities will be incalculable.
The department also awarded 232 part-time bursaries totalling R1,624 million to its personnel to improve the quality of care as an incentive to employees within the province. The department is also in the process of improving the academic quality of health services in the rest of the province with the objective of the betterment of service delivery.
As a consequence of this factor, we have established a satellite campus of the University of the Free State at Goldfields Regional Hospital. The department has appointed two full-time principal specialists, three full- time senior specialists, two registrars and a number of part-time specialists to get this programme off the ground. Registrars in the major disciplines are already rotating through this satellite campus. The faculty of health sciences at the University of the Free State plans to commence the placement of undergraduate medical students at this satellite campus from the 2003 academic year.
The number of cataract operations has increased from 465 in 1999 to 1 790 in 2001, which I believe is a tremendous stride. An amount of R1 million was made available for the development and authenticating of eye care services, with cataract surgery in particular. From January to April 2002, 516 cataract operations were performed. This shows a significant increase this year as compared to this time last year. The province is also in the process of establishing a sight-saver centre at Manapo Hospital in Phuthaditjhaba and also one in Kroonstad.
In as far as the programme on disability is concerned, we have made strides. Most of our facilities are currently being upgraded to meet the minimum requirements as set out in the accessibility assessment criteria. Also highlighting our commitment and dedication to the issue of disability is the process we have embarked upon for accelerating the provision of assistive devices. In April we launched the vocational evaluation and rehabilitation centre, whose objective is to benefit people with disabilities in terms of preparation for the job market. We have also trained 97 frontline officials in sign language in the last financial year and we are planning to train 291 in this financial year in collaboration with the University of the Free State’s Unit for Language Facilitation and Employment.
On emergency medical services and nonemergency medical services we are making breakthroughs. In the last financial year, we were able to procure once more 53 ambulances - 15 4x4s and 38 2x4s - 21 response vehicles, 12 rescue vehicles and 19 eight-seater patient transport vehicles. The total fleet in the Free State is sufficient for us to deliver quality health services as regards our emergency services.
The tender for the construction of control rooms is currently also with the central procurement evaluation committee. Once the tender process is complete, the construction of the control rooms will unfold in phases. We will also make sure that our communities are able to reach the services whenever they are needed.
With regard to tuberculosis, our battle against the scourge of TB has been rekindled by the spirit of Vukuzenzele following a call made by the President, Thabo Mbeki, for Letsema. The department has reached a new TB cure rate of 68%. The Dots coverage is at present 70%, but training is under way to reach 100% coverage by the end of this financial year. We have developed a draft volunteer policy to cater for the volunteer workers in the province. This development will certainly assist us in increasing the TB cure rate to at least 70% by the end of this financial year. We will continue to place TB on top of our priorities amongst other challenges facing us.
The multiple drug resistance unit that we are busy building at Moroka Hospital will be completed by September 2002 and not in March 2002 as we reported last year. The commissioning of this unit will lead to the Free State health department taking full control of TB management in the province.
Child health programmes are some of our key programmes. The right of a child to health is basically given existence by factors such as food security and nutrition. We are totally aware of the fact that some of the parents cannot afford to cater for the needs of their children for many reasons. We are therefore providing the necessary assistance as part of our endeavour to push back the frontiers of poverty through the Primary School Nutrition Programme, PSNP, and the Protein-Energy Malnutrition Scheme, PEM. [Time expired.] [Applause.]
Mr H T SOGONI: Chairperson, hon Minister, MECs, special delegates and hon members, in making my contribution in this debate, I wish to cite the department’s statement in which it indicates that the current budget’s theme is ``the reduction of poverty and vulnerability’’. HIV/Aids also features prominently in the department’s health policy and services expenditure framework. The UDM fully supports the initiatives of the department to address these issues. The substantial increase reflected in the budget allocation should certainly go a long way in attempting to meet the challenges facing the department. The Budget Vote therefore receives our support.
The South African survey 2001-02 offers some significant statistical insights and valuable information about the state of affairs in health in the country. To mention but a few: Firstly, South Africa has more people living with HIV/Aids than anywhere else in the world. Secondly, South Africa’s overall health system performance was rated 175th out of 191 member states in the World Health Organisation’s world health report of
- Thirdly, the infant mortality rate by race in South Africa is the highest among Africans. Fourthly, unfortunately the Eastern Cape, which is my province, has the highest infant mortality rate and mortality rate amongst under-five-year-olds in the country. Incidentally, it is one of the poorest provinces in the country.
The key objectives of the department, which are listed as, amongst others, the reduction of morbidity and mortality, the improvement of the quality of care and primary health care and the district health care system, are therefore all clear indications that the department is fully aware of the health and other social challenges it faces. The briefing to the select committee by the department clearly illustrated the programmes and strategies that the department has developed to meet its responsibilities.
However, the department also informed the committee about the inability to spend funds of some provinces, as has already been indicated in this House. Human resource capacity, management capacity and poor or absence of proper infrastructure were mentioned as some of the factors affecting spending, but indications are that the department has put monitoring mechanisms in place to look after the problematic provinces. This is encouraging.
The department considered, however, that such monitoring mechanisms and processes would work well where there are effective back-up structures in the provinces. This is a real challenge for the provinces.
There is therefore an urgent need for effective co-ordination and a joint strategy by all the state organs responsible for the health, social and economic development of communities to work together towards effective service delivery. This call was also echoed by the Alfred Nzo District Council during the provincial week, when it referred to the lack of a clear and common understanding and an integrated approach among the various levels of role-players responsible for championing service delivery programmes in the area.
I am aware that the Department of Health is now focusing on the nodal areas and that a nodal strategic initiative is being developed to concentrate specific programmes towards these nodes. Therefore all obstacles and limitations to these plans should be removed. [Time expired.] [Applause.]
Ms B S MOHLAKA (KwaZulu-Natal): Chairperson, Minister of Health hon Dr Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, hon members and special delegates, thank you for the opportunity afforded to me once more to give my input through this debate.
First of all let me congratulate the hon the Minister on her very good speech. I am aware that we have been given guidelines to follow when debating Vote 16. Please pardon me, Chairperson, because, especially as delegates coming from KwaZulu-Natal, we feel that the issue of cholera should be addressed as well. When there was an outbreak of cholera in KwaZulu-Natal, the department was given a clear mandate by the national Government to utilise its funds with the promise that the national Government would then reimburse the KwaZulu-Natal department of health. Unfortunately I have to inform the hon the Minister that this has not been the case. A sum of R131 million was an unfunded mandate. It is therefore my humble request that KwaZulu-Natal be reimbursed with R131 million. Ngithi okukaKhesari makubuyele kuye uKhesari. [I say what belongs to Caesar must be given to him.]
The strategic overview and account of key policy developments from 1998-99 to 2004-05 is appreciated. KwaZulu-Natal is doing its utmost in pushing the programmes.
Chairperson, I hope you will give me extra minutes because of the technical problems I am experiencing with the sound system. [Interjections.] Chairperson, please protect me. Someone is disturbing me.
It must, however, be pointed out that whilst food security programmes are implemented, one wonders whether, at the distribution level, food reaches the deserving learners.
It is encouraging that KwaZulu-Natal home-based care is being implemented well. However, some level of supervision by community workers is necessary in order to ensure that there is uniformity in the rendering of health care in accordance with set standards. The role played by various actors, songwriters, storytellers, umuzi we Zintsizwa, amongst others, should be encouraged to facilitate the prevention, treatment and rehabilitation of infectious diseases, particularly HIV/Aids.
In conclusion, KwaZulu-Natal is very proud that it has trained a good number of forensic nurses who are working very hard at assisting the victims of rape, gunshots and stabbings. It is for this reason that forensic nurses should be given higher salaries. Forensic medicine was confined to district surgeons, and now the nurses are doing the district surgeons’ duties.
One is not quite clear whether miscellaneous expenditure also covers medicolegal claims brought by relatives as the department suffers a gross shortage of professionals. Because of the efficiency of the department of health in KwaZulu-Natal and nationally, KwaZulu-Natal finds itself overspending its allocation. The rand-dollar exchange rate is a contributing factor because most of the hospital equipment is imported. This includes some drugs.
Let me humbly request you, Chairperson, to allow me to put on record that KwaZulu-Natal is requesting its R131 million owed by the national Government. [Laughter.] [Applause.]
The DEPUTY CHAIRPERSON OF COMMITTEES: I do not know whether the hon member has cut short her speech, but I think the point has been taken very well and that the Minister is actually taking it quite seriously.
Ms E C GOUWS: Chairperson, hon Minister and hon colleagues, my committee is focusing on child poverty in pushing back the frontiers of poverty. Thus the state of our children comes to the fore and that will be my subject: the situation of health in the Eastern Cape and how it affects the youth.
According to the sources that I consulted, 12 million children die every year in developing countries. Many of these children die before their fifth birthday and many during the first year of life. Seven out of ten of these deaths are due to acute respiratory infections, pneumonia, diarrhoea, measles, malnutrition and often a combination of these conditions.
The IMCI, or integrated management of childhood illnesses, is a strategy to promote child health and improve child survival. Implementation of this involves the development or improvement of the skills of health staff by providing guidelines on childhood illnesses and appropriate family and community practices. According to my sources, training and implementation are ongoing in South Africa and, in July 1999, the then Minister of Health and her provincial counterparts declared that the IMCI would be in place in every district throughout the country by the end of 2003.
Will this be achieved? I can just say I have my doubts, and I stress the point that my doubts concern the Eastern Cape. ``Prevention is better than cure’’ is a very old expression but a very apt saying when we talk about health care. In our budget there is provision for maternal, children’s and women’s health. We must make use of the money allocated and make sure of the prevention of child morbidity and mortality from vaccine-preventable diseases through an effective immunisation programme.
I say again that we know what to do and we set money aside for our needs, but it seems we do not know how to implement these programmes.
Ons kan seer sekerlik nie alles wat verkeerd gaan met Suid-Afrika se gesondheidsprobleme voor die Minister se deur lê nie, maar sy behoort ernstig te besin en aandag te gee aan ons gesondheisdienste en instellinge in die Oos-Kaap. Veral kinders en ouer mense sterf, omdat gesondheidsdienste onvoldoende is en hospitale en inrigtings nie kan funksioneer nie. Daar is tekorte wat strek van swak en verouderde instrumente tot medisyne- en voedseltekorte. (Translation of Afrikaans paragraph follows.)
[We most certainly cannot lay everything that is wrong with regard to South Africa’s health problems at the door of the Minister, but she should seriously contemplate and address our health services and institutions in the Eastern Cape. Particularly children and older people are dying because health services are inadequate and hospitals and institutions cannot function. There are deficiencies that range from poor and antiquated equipment to medicine and food shortages.]
Our hospitals, clinics and health institutions are in a shocking state. I have the biggest respect for our nurses, doctors and health workers. They do the best they can under trying circumstances, but we will lose all our good people. A good nurse has empathy with her patients and will, in the end, not cope with the stress of not being able to give the patient the best, because she was trained to save lives. Hospitale en inrigtings, veral in die platteland, word willens en wetens gesluit. Ek kan vir agb lede ongelooflike stories vertel van lyding en ellende wat ons kinders en oumense moet verduur. In die Langkloof, byvoorbeeld, was daar in ‘n stadium geen distriksgeneesheer nie. Die hospitaal is gesluit en is steeds net ‘n dagkliniek. ‘n Afgetrede geneesheer van Jeffreysbaai - ongeveer honderd kilometer van daar af - kon telefonies gekonsulteer word en pasiënte moes 80 km vervoer word na ‘n hospitaal op Humansdorp, waar daar nie die geriewe was vir die toestroming van pasiënte nie. Die mense wat ly en ontberings verduur is die arm mense. Dit is die kinders wat 20 km ver kaalvoet skool toe moet loop. Terloops, daar is ook nie skoolbusse nie. Die ambulanse wat die siekes moet vervoer, is óf onpadwaardig óf nie beskikbaar nie, want daar is hopeloos onvoldoende vervoer om die siek mense na Humansdorp en Port Elizabeth te vervoer.
As ‘n mens dan die begroting bestudeer, word daar genoeg voorsiening gemaak vir Gesondheid. Die fout, weer eens, lê by die implementering daarvan. ‘n Land se toekoms lê in sy jeug. Dit is verblydend dat die aantal MIV/Vigs- geïnfekteerde tieners ‘n merkbare afname toon. Dit is egter totaal onaanvaarbaar dat tuberkulosehospitale op die drumpel van sluiting was, en maar nog steeds op die gevaarlys is en dit omdat hulle toelaes nie betyds oorbetaal word nie.
Ons weet almal die agb Minister staan op haar punte en dat sy eintlik in die volksmond bekend staan as ‘n persoon wat nie nonsens vat nie - verskoon my daarvoor. Sy moet nou asseblief so ferm wees in haar optrede wat die Oos- Kaapse gesondheid betref. Ons raak nou moedeloos en skaam om altyd uitgesonder te word as die provinsie wat die swakste presteer. As mense nie kan of wil werk nie, moet hulle vervang word. Ons hoop is op die Minister gevestig. Ons kan nie bekostig om letterlik en figuurlik ‘n siek gemeenskap te wees nie. (Translation of Afrikaans paragraphs follows.)
[Hospitals and institutions, especially in rural areas, are deliberately being closed. I can tell you unbelievable stories of suffering and misery that our children and elderly people must endure. In the Langkloof area, for example, there was no district surgeon at one stage. The hospital was closed and is still only a day clinic. A retired doctor from Jeffrey’s Bay
- approximately a hundred kilometres from there - could be consulted telephonically and patients had to be transported 80 km to a hospital in Humansdorp, where there were no facilities for the influx of patients. The people who are suffering and enduring hardship are the poor people. It is the children who have to walk 20 km to school barefoot. Incidentally, there are no school buses either. The ambulances that should transport those who are ill are either unroadworthy or unavailable, because there is hopelessly insufficient transport to transport the ill to Humansdorp and Port Elizabeth.
If one studies the budget, one finds that sufficient provision is made for Health. The problem, once again, is with its implementation. The future of a country is with its youth. It is therefore heartening to note that there is a decrease among HIV/Aids-infected teenagers. However, it is totally unacceptable that tuberculosis hospitals were on the brink of closure, and remain on the danger list, and that because their grants are not paid timeously.
We all know that the hon the Minister has firm standpoints and that she is actually widely known as a person who does not take any nonsense - pardon my saying so. She should please be just as firm now in her actions with regard to health in the Eastern Cape. We are becoming disheartened and ashamed of always being singled out as the province that performs the worst. If people cannot or do not want to work, they should be replaced. We place our hope in the Minister. We cannot afford, literally and figuratively, to be a sick community.]
We have had enough of incompetence. I am glad that the Minister agrees that we cannot afford to be indecisive and sloppy. Now is the time for the Minister, as our national Health Minister, to step in and get health in the Eastern Cape on a healthy basis.
Aristotle once said these wise words: ``It is better for a city to be governed by a good man than by good laws.’‘We depend on the Minister. [Applause.]
Mr M D QWASE (Eastern Cape): Chairperson, hon Minister and hon members …
nam mandizibulisele. Ndiyabona ukuba uqhankqalaza nje lo mboko wokuthetha
kungenxa yokuba ifani yam iqala ngo Q''. [Kwahlekwa.] [I would also like
to greet you. I can see that this microphone is boycotting because my
surname begins with a Q’’.] (boycott'' being - qhankqalaza’’ in
Xhosa). [Laughter.]
I stand here on behalf of the MEC, who could not attend due to other serious commitments within the executive council of the province. I must preface my input by describing the context in which we operate. The rural nature of the Eastern Cape and its historic infrastructural backlogs continue to be among the biggest challenges facing the department. These challenges impact negatively on the province as they make it very difficult to attract and retain skilled personnel and, in turn, provide health services to the people.
High poverty levels and the growth of HIV/Aids strain the health budget even further. The budget that has been allocated by the department cannot address all these challenges overnight, and we therefore continue to engage the provincial treasury for additional funding to augment the R3,9 billion that was budgeted for health in the province in the current financial year.
We have been able to agree with the provincial treasury on that additional funding, as a result of which we will be advertising about 1 400 critical posts in the coming two weekends. Amongst those adverts are 653 for professional nurses, 100 for middle-management nurses, 250 for nursing assistants, approximately 100 for doctors, including medical practitioners and specialists, and 40 for pharmacists. Over and above these posts there are posts for managerial positions within the province to ensure that we strengthen the province. By the end of September we hope to have filled the posts, in the process alleviating the shortage of staff and, in turn, improving the health services in our institutions. This will also assist in and alleviate the burden on those committed health workers in those institutions, and address the question of the brain drain that results from this high burden in those institutions.
As I have indicated earlier, HIV/Aids is also one of the critical challenges facing the province. We have integrated the HIV/Aids programme into the health system so that it is not seen as a stand-alone programme within the programmes of the health department.
As I speak, 203 midwives and five doctors have been trained in counselling and testing. They have also been trained in the management of Caesarean operations to ensure that mother-to-child transmission is limited. There has also been 15-day training sessions for 18 counsellor trainers for nine health districts. The VCT sites have been extended from 8 to 74, and are now available in all six district municipalities in the province. In addition, 107 counsellors are continually being trained.
With regard to the prevention of mother-to-child transmission, as I said earlier, we have also trained these midwives and doctors not only in testing and counselling, but also in the management of Caesarean section operations. The PMTCT prevention of mother-to-child transmission - sites have been extended to two more sites, that is the Dora Nginza Hospital in Port Elizabeth and the Holy Cross Hospital in Flagstaff as well as to their surrounding clinics. This means therefore that we have five hospitals and 87 clinics that are now providing PMTCT, the five arising from the fact that the Makiwane and the Frere Hospitals are two hospitals in one complex.
With respect to home-based care, in 2002 alone 14 home-based care master trainers were trained, and the national integrated plan pilot sites on home- based care in Mhlakulo and Butterworth which are in operation. The province is intending to expand to three more sites, at Sterkspruit, Humansdorp and Maluti. We have also distributed home-based care kits to those home-based care-givers. In our budget we have set aside money to purchase additional kits for that purpose.
With regard to sexually transmitted infections, 90% of primary health care facilities are using the syndromic approach to STI management. Male condoms are available at all clinics and, with respect to female condoms, 20 pilot sites are in place, and the province is planning to increase the number of sites even more.
The HIV/Aids and STI programmes are complemented through communication and social mobilisation such as radio talk shows, adverts, awareness campaigns and partnerships with various stakeholders. As I have indicated, one of the critical issues that is affecting the province is the high poverty level so the primary nutrition programme is meant to address that.
The department is in the process of eliminating the bureaucracy within that programme to ensure that the poorest women and children on the ground benefit most from that programme. As we have a number of stakeholders, suppliers and NGOs we find that the poor children and women on the ground do not benefit in that process. We want to eliminate that chain so that those on the ground benefit most and that the poverty on the ground is addressed. The decentralisation of control to district municipalities and SGBs will also ensure an intersectoral approach, women empowerment, cost- effectiveness and efficiency in the management of that programme. The joint venture with the departments of agriculture, social development and economic affairs is critical also in addressing the challenge of poverty and malnutrition in the province. Health alone is unable to address that. We are working closely with these departments in the social cluster to address this.
I want also to touch on hospital services and management support. The Cohsasa, Council for Health Service Accreditation in Southern Africa, programme in 19 hospitals in the former Transkei has yielded positive results and will now be extended to other hospitals in the province. The process of putting up IT infrastructure will be complete in 70 hospitals by the end of the financial year. That will improve information management, the general management of these institutions, monitoring and revenue collection.
The appointment of the outstanding CEOs, senior executive officers and executive officers in these prioritised hospitals will be finalised by the end of September so that we beef up and strengthen management at these hospitals. The province is also looking at reinforcing management systems by engaging external bodies with management skills in the three major complexes, that is in the Umtata, East London and Port Elizabeth complexes.
I must also touch on infrastructure development. The R231 million meant for new facilities, upgrading and maintenance will see us through the finalisation stages of the Nelson Mandela Academic Hospital; enable the replacement of 42 old clinics with new ones; facilitate new additions to both hospitals and clinics; finance 57 projects for the upgrading of hospitals arising from the conditional grant of R81 million; and provide for the general maintenance of lifts, boilers, refrigerators and mortuaries that always have problems, especially in those hospitals.
Linked to the above is the process of outsourcing the distribution of pharmaceutical and medical suppliers and management support for the provincial pharmaceutical depots. Adverts calling for expressions of interest were out by April, closing in the middle of May 2002 and we will follow the necessary procurement procedures up to the signing of the contract agreement stage before the end of the financial year. This will improve the management and supply of drugs to the institutions, address the question of pilferage and also save a lot of funds for other programmes within the department.
I must say, in conclusion, that the budget will never be enough to cover our demands and challenges, but with effective utilisation of the resources at our disposal, we will make a great impact on the provision of health services to our people in the province. We are on course. [Applause.]
Mr D M KGWARE: Chairperson, hon Minister, hon MECs present, hon cadres, ladies and gentlemen, my apologies for speaking on behalf of the MEC, Comrade Dipuo Peters. She is also tied up in the Cabinet meeting.
The President of the country, Mr Thabo Mbeki or Comrade Thabo Mbeki, in his state of the nation address called upon the nation to volunteer its time and expertise. Never before have we witnessed such enthusiasm and commitment by a nation. Men and women and the youth of this province responded magnificently when the call was made. They have on their own integrated the spirit of the volunteers of old into their work and daily lives. When I speak about this I am talking about the Northern Cape.
In 1999 the Northern Cape Department of Health vowed to achieve excellent, holistic, people-centred and affordable health care. A year ago we pledged vigorously to improve the quality of service rendered to our people and to improve them over time. This dream is being realised stage by stage. Our goal remains a primary health care-driven service with a defined referral path for those patients who require higher levels of care. To this end, we are strengthening primary care service through our 24-hour service, and expanding the service platform with the introduction of an effective community-based and home-based care platform.
Various priority programmes, such as those on HIV/Aids, tuberculosis and maternal, child and women’s health are incorporated into the primary health care delivery model. In order to ensure a referral path, we have identified hospitals that provide different levels of care. In particular, we are improving tertiary level services at the Kimberley Hospital complex to ensure access to these services by all patients in this province. The department of health in our province has previously committed itself to decreasing overexpenditure and has left no stone unturned in achieving this goal, while rendering the highest quality of service. The department’s overspending trend was as follows: in 1999-2000, it was R46,6 million and in 2000-01 it was R17,5 million. Hon members can see the trend for themselves.
Medical inflation, which is significantly higher than the consumer price index, has a profound impact on our expenditure. This has also impacted on the expenditure trend of medicines and medical and surgical sundries which continue to be significantly higher than that of the previous year.
The scourge of HIV/Aids will therefore have a significant impact on our resources, with the number of patients presenting with opportunistic diseases and our treatment protocols of these infectious diseases increasing the medicine bills.
The allocation to district health service is R316,093 million. In order to implement the 24-hour policy at clinic level R2 million has been allocated to personnel; to address capital deadlocks R5,5 million has been allocated to emergency medical services; and R2,5 million has been allocated to fund the two-crew ambulance system.
The province’s health department’s capital spending is derived from both the equitable share and conditional grants. Envisaged capital projects for this financial year are the following: primary health care centres will be built at Galeshewe and Platfontein. The Kuyasa and Lowryville Clinics will be completed. Regarding the new Colesberg Hospital project, a sod-turning ceremony was held on 23 April 2002. Earthwork will commence during August, with the actual construction beginning by October. The expected date of completion is towards the end of 2003. The cost of this project is estimated at R15 million.
The planning of a new hospital in Calvinia will start during this year, with the intention to commence construction in the next financial year. The Kimberley Hospital complex will procure a CAT scanner to the value of R7 million. Expenditure on the hospital information system will amount to R1,1 million. Provincial hospital services have been allocated R3 million for the procurement of medical equipment. Emergency medical services have been allocated R4 million for the procurement of 20 ambulances and 15 vehicles to transport patients.
In the real spirit of Masakhane, a culture of payment for service, has been cultivated among our people. Revenue increase can be directly linked to the introduction of our private-preference beds in our institutions. Politicians - hon members, I repeat, politicians - and senior managers in the provincial administration are using public health facilities as far as possible. We want to encourage all public servants to follow suit.
With the implementation of the national policy aiming to increase the capacity of hospitals, the Kimberley Hospital has improved quality of care in all facets of service delivery.
Two conditional grants, namely the grants for the distribution of tertiary services and for hospital reconstruction and rehabilitation, were successfully utilised to upgrade the hospital. The front entrance, specialist clinic and pharmacy were upgraded.
We are consequently revisiting previous proposals for hospitals such as Garies, Postmasburg and Hartswater. These proposals were delayed because further investigation into Colesberg and Calvinia necessitated the construction of new hospitals with higher costs.
Jan Kempdorp Hospital will become the TB hospital for the Frances Baard district. Services at Jan Kempdorp Hospital will therefore include the following: a 50-bed TB facility, a 24-hour casualty and 10-bed in-patient facility and maternity services. A major constraint is the difficulty attracting nurses to the rural and most remote areas of the province and retaining them there. This limits our ability to ensure optimal access to certain services.
The life-skills programme, with the Department of Education as the primary implementing department, is being implemented both in and outside school. Life-skills is a major programme which attempts to change the sexual behaviour of young people, both those at school and those out of school. The education department expects to train 40 master trainers in life-skills during this year.
The voluntary counselling and testing programme was provincially launched on 26 April 2002 in the Frances Baard district. At present we have 42 sites in the province.
Community-based organisations were at the forefront of mobilising our people to live in a healthy way. The response of the Northern Cape communities was overwhelming, and, still today, food security, nutrition and the promotion of a healthy lifestyle are vigorously promoted amongst our communities. Individual communities take it upon themselves to create a better life for themselves. Indeed, Letsema is a call to our people to enter into partnerships with government, to reconstruct and develop for a better and brighter future.
A major contributor to household food security is the primary nutrition programme funded from conditional grants. A total of 314 schools, with 110 000 learners, benefit from school-feeding committees at all participating schools, with training in financial control measures.
The following projects were funded during the previous financial year: the Kakamas food garden, the Kimberley Hospital breast-feeding launch, the Kalahari crèche feeding scheme and the Sundra food garden.
The Red Cross Society is assigned the responsibility to provide food parcels to 100 destitute families affected and infected by HIV …
The DEPUTY CHAIRPERSON OF COMMITTEES: Hon member, your time has expired.
Mr D M KGWARE: Thank you, sir. I had a lot to say. [Applause.]
Mr R Z NOGUMLA: Chairperson, Minister, hon members, as the ruling party we knew that we would have enormous challenges in bringing about equity in health. We also knew that the majority of our people in our communities did not have access to health services and that obviously we needed to immediately set about rectifying those wrongs.
In 1994, no one had done a cost estimate that came anywhere near the actuality of how expensive the exercise of equity would be. Nowhere is the gross underestimation of cost clearer than with the impact that HIV and Aids have on our lives and on our country. Over the last few years, we have become more sophisticated in our knowledge of these conditions and their causes, effects and potential remedies. Therefore our costing estimates have improved considerably. With each new piece of information the Government had to improve its strategies. The department had to look at the backlogs of cases, staffing requirements and capacity priorities that needed to be reversed in order to accommodate the new paradigms.
The department’s approach gradually took on a multipronged format which focused on boosting the immune systems of those already infected by the disease. We looked at improving the nutritional levels of poor patients in particular through nutritional programmes that would enable them to take their drugs. We looked at preventive measures such as condom distribution and informing communities through awareness programmes focusing on monogamous relationships, and finally we have to continue to conduct ongoing research into a vaccine that will prevent the disease from killing any more people.
The impact of HIV and Aids is indeed far-reaching. We heard last year and the year before exactly how each province was affected by the prevalence of HIV and Aids. All of us noted with dismay that KwaZulu-Natal, of all the provinces, had the highest prevalence rate. As a result, we were all collectively concerned that we would not be able to overcome the challenges that faced us, and we feared for the future of our youth.
I believe that we are better equipped today to deal with the HIV and Aids pandemic, especially if one refers to the findings of the recent report of the 12th national HIV seroprevalence survey of women attending public antenatal clinics in South Africa, released on 10 June this year. According to the survey, the overall national statistics show that there was an increase from 24,5% in the year 2000 to 24,8% in 2001. Because the increase was so insignificant, the department is confident that the prevalence rate has stabilised. More significantly, as a measurement for the continued success of our intervention strategy, the survey shows that in KwaZulu- Natal, where the department has focused its attention, there was a notable decrease from 36,2% in 2000 to 33,5%. The intervention strategy employed by the department focused on young people has also been shown to be a successful one, as proven by the 5% decrease in prevalence among pregnant women under the age of 20.
This Government has shown that it can forge ahead quietly but powerfully. We faced the challenges of negative media attention around our President’s position on the cause of Aids and the distribution of nevirapine to HIV- positive women, among many others. Despite all the negative publicity, our people now know about the important programmes, such as voluntary counselling and testing and home-based care, thereby ensuring that HIV and Aids are everybody’s business, and not something to be hidden in a corner somewhere. Of course there is still work to be done to remove the stigma, but all the information out there makes disclosure easier by the day.
The other battle that the Government won with regard to HIV and Aids was to bring about intersectoral co-operation between community-based organisations, nongovernmental organisations, faith-based organisations, the SAPS, traditional healers, business, agriculture, local government, traditional leaders and educators.
Our interaction on the continent has also raised our own awareness of HIV in Africa. Joint projects under the auspices of Nepad have looked at co- operation to bring relief to the estimated 2,4 million Africans currently at an advanced stage of the HIV disease.
It was found that globally, the resources, including financial resources, are available to meet the challenge and to launch a full spectrum of responses required to fight HIV and Aids. The only challenge that remains is to mobilise these resources.
In South Africa the challenge is the same. We have the financial resources to find a vaccine and educate our people. What remains is to effectively manage those financial resources. We are convinced that the Government is fully aware of the current challenges and prepared to do whatever it takes to eliminate the scourge of HIV and Aids. In each of the strategies of the Department of Health, the focus has been on saving lives or at least prolonging and improving the quality of life of those who are already infected. To us as the ANC, every South African is valuable and therefore irreplaceable.
We want to see, as has been our goal from the beginning, an increase in the number of HIV-positive pregnant women taking nevirapine so that unborn children are offered as much protection as humanly possible. We would like to see people change the bad sexual habits of a lifetime and also use condoms for protection. We want to see our people engaged in agricultural endeavours that will make them eat healthy meals. We should try our best to be the first country to discover a vaccine for Aids. We know that the disease is a tragic reality, and not a figment of someone’s overactive imagination. We are all committed to treating it as such.
The department should continue its intersectoral and interregional co- operation to overcome HIV and Aids. [Applause.]
Dr R A M SALOOJEE (Gauteng): Mr Chairman, South Africa, with most of Africa, is deeply mired in poverty. Do all South Africans really understand the extent and depth of the problem? Are the measures we are taking effective enough to make the kind of interventions that will create a sustainable difference to the lives of the people, in both the short and the long term? Do we, as South Africans, have the collective will to tackle the problem, which should be at the heart of our concerns and deeply embedded in our social conscience, and to pull together?
There is no simple or concise definition to describe poverty. The World Summit for Social Development in Copenhagen in March 1995 defined it as follows:
Poverty has many manifestations, including the lack of income and productive resources sufficient to ensure sustainable livelihoods; hunger and malnutrition; ill-health; limited or lack of access to education and other basic services; increased morbidity and mortality from illness; homelessness and inadequate housing; unsafe environments and social discrimination and exclusion. It is also characterised by a lack of participation in decision-making and in civil, social and cultural life.
It is evident from this that poverty alleviation and eradication require a multidisciplinary approach, but these cannot and must not function in isolation, as single and separate disciplines. In order to avoid inefficiencies, wastage of resources and duplication of services, an intersectoral, integrated and multipronged approach must be implemented.
We note that Government’s project development and programming are now based on integrated development planning and organised clusters. We hope, through these realistic and pragmatic ways of operating, we can obviate the negative outcomes resulting from poor management, disjointed implementation and the very real lack of available human resources and expertise.
We cannot limit the need for poverty alleviation and eradication within the confines of provincial borders. Poverty is a national tragedy of gargantuan proportions. Even if some provinces are able to deal with some of the many issues with meaningful levels of success and are able to meet success targets, the impact of levels of poverty in the rest of the country might make this a Pyrrhic victory and one of short duration.
It is estimated that 13 million South Africans are subsisting under the poverty datum line. The additional impact of mass urbanisation, illegal immigration and refugees worsens the situation. We must also remind ourselves that South Africa is not an island. We must be aware of the effects of transnational poverty, particularly in other sub-Saharan African countries, and the ghastly consequences of drought, famine, starvation and political turmoil in Southern Africa, where another 13 million are currently under threat of hunger and social catastrophe.
We cannot minimise the impending disaster facing our country and the African continent. We know that every effort is being made to grapple with the issues of economic stagnation and the harrowing double standards on which the unequal relationship between the developed, developing and underdeveloped worlds is based. We form part of a continent where the consequences of this are the gravest and are further fuelled by the endemic political insecurity that continues to plague many regimes in Africa.
The United Nations Global Environmental Outlook report recently issued gives an Armageddon-like perspective on what life on earth will be like by the year 2032, and maybe even earlier in parts of Africa, if we do not mend our ways and if a united, unselfish and sincere commitment is not only made but effectively pursued and implemented in facing the multifaceted yet integral and all-pervasive calamities of poverty, leading to a bleak future which is not only to ghastly to contemplate but also grisly to comprehend.
One of the assessments this report makes is that unless the world changes its current market-first approach, the survival of the essential element, which allows life to exist, will be seriously compromised. We in South Africa who will host the World Summit on Sustainable Development will be involved in finding collective solutions to an ever-increasing diminution of resources which will need crucial interventions and critical decisions to save millions of lives.
We are currently facing a crisis with the HIV epidemic, and added to this we have to contend with opportunistic infections, including tuberculosis, malaria and sexually transmitted diseases, and an ongoing collapse of the moral mores of our society. We have been spending too much of our energy in talking at cross purposes on the issue of HIV/Aids, which has resulted in mixed messages to the broad masses of vulnerable people whose immune systems have been fatally ravaged. We know that at present there is no cure for the HIV infection and no real medical deterrent. We also accept that in cases of viruses, regardless of which strains, the only possible cure is finding appropriate vaccines. We know that present research into finding a vaccine or a combination of vaccines for the treatment of the different types or subtypes of mutating viruses causing Aids is still in the experimental stage, and it will take years or decades before we can even claim its efficacy as a form of effective treatment.
We also know that antiretrovirals are a temporary, stopgap, palliative measure, which may prolong life and improve the quality of life. Just like other drug treatments, such as chemotherapy in cancer cases, it definitely has a place in certain defined circumstances of the disease phase, and has a place in the total scheme of treatment protocols, but it is not the panacea for eradicating the scourge. Over 95% of the programme for the prevention and spread of the disease is still based on issues of safe sexual behaviour, awareness programmes, education, counselling, voluntary testing, balanced nutrition, boosting the immune system, treating opportunistic infections and minimising sexually transmitted diseases.
I have never had any reservations about the judicious use of antiretrovirals in appropriate circumstances, but I also believe in seriously taking into account, not the views of the dissidents, but the caution proposed by responsible and knowledgeable physicians who say the following:
The complexity and toxicity of treatment means that the prescribing of antiretrovirals needs to be concentrated in specialised services, such as HIV infectious disease units and sexual health services, and GPs with significant caseloads who have undergone special training in HIV medicine.
This would include knowledge of side effects of ARTV agents and interactions with other drugs commonly used in primary care, and careful counselling regarding testing and the interpretation of the results of testing, risk factors and confidentiality. The path to success is often strewn with poisonous uncertainties. Monitoring has to be exhaustive rather than flippant and cursory. The use of postexposure administration in cases of occupational exposures, for example needlestick injuries, or nonoccupational exposures, such as rape or condom breakage, are based on plausibility rather that any convincing evidence of benefit. The issue of resistance, toxicity, the impact of infection, and the treatment under general medical care and interactions between common drugs and anti-HIV drugs, merits comprehensive understanding and knowledge.
As the spectre of poverty visibly deepens through unemployment, hunger and social disintegration, coupled with the incremental corrosion of the physical and psychological fulfilment of life, replaced by pain, starvation and agony, leaving millions perilously in the twilight zones of hopelessness and terminal wretchedness, our social cohesion as a nation, battered by crime, mounting numbers of Aids orphans and sexually abused women and children, and rising tides of malnourished, alcoholic, drug dependent, hopeless and mentally stunted fellow citizens, families and neighbours, should arouse in all of us, as South Africans, a sense of guilt and determination to mobilise into an army to declare war on poverty and its deeply rooted dehumanising outcomes. Our barbed wire fences, high walls, burglar alarms and security gates will not shield us from being affected by the horror suffered by the victims of poverty.
Too early in our democracy most of us have latched onto the rights given to us by the Constitution, without first paying attention to healing the chronically festering wounds of deprivation, denial and indignity which are crippling the birth of an emerging national ethico-moral ethos in our society. Should we not, as a nation, first plant the foundation of a caring, harmonious, compassionate and emancipating social order, instead of the rhetoric and self-righteous chest-thumping adversarial behaviour and posturing of many of our citizens?
Should we not be working together, rather than carping and dividing constituencies and communities? Should we not be consolidating that which we already have as social security safety nets, by enrolling and bringing into the fold those who should benefit from pensions for the aged and support and foster grants for children, the disabled and the frail, and working diligently in providing urgently needed job creation and employment, which can fund and feed those desperately in need of immediate assistance, coupled with massive skilling programmes?
We must not be bogged down by interminable seminars and workshops whilst resources remain untapped, or have a bureaucracy which is unable or unwilling to translate policies and programmes into efficient implementation, whilst others wantonly plunder the public purse through corruption and fraudulent procurement practices. The political will to fasten onto the prospect of relief and hope must become our clear imperative for change.
Whilst a long-term vision and missions are vital for sustainable success, we have to have immediate restorative and attack action plans which will contain and stem the immediate dangers and fatal haemorrhaging caused by the pestilence of poverty. I think that is the national ethos and the national vision which we should be following, rather than the divisions that exist among us. [Applause.]
Mr J O TLHAGALE: Chairperson, hon Minister, hon MECs and special delegates and colleagues, it is estimated that some 40% of all South Africans live in poverty and that a large proportion of them live in the rural areas, where health facilities are least developed. This problem is further aggravated by the failure of agricultural projects due to climatic conditions and the lack of the necessary resources. In such a situation, we are agreed and are supportive of the fact that the Government of the day cannot and may not fold its arms and bemoan the situation.
It must rise to the occasion. It must take the monster by the horns. It cannot afford to see our people being devastated by poverty and our womenfolk bearing emaciated children, as happens elsewhere on our continent. So the allocation of funds to alleviate this distress is not negotiable. It is also not a privilege but an imperative. It is gratifying to note the amount allocated for this purpose. However, the monster has grown so large and out of proportion that consideration should be given to increasing the allocation so as to deal the monster a devastating blow to the nose.
Consideration must also be given to the fact that poverty alleviation cannot be managed if it is attacked from one front only. It must be attacked from all sides. The health facilities in the rural areas must be adequately supplied on a regular basis with the necessary medical supplies. This would bring about an improvement in the quality of life of our people.
Another threatening monster in our communities is the prevalence of HIV/Aids. This issue has been the subject of a hot and acrimonious debate in the media, and the battle is far from won. My party, whilst appreciating this allocation, is in support of the supply of antiretroviral drugs to pregnant mothers at all suitable and ready hospitals as a matter of urgency.
One disturbing issue I need to refer to in my province, although not directly the responsibility of this department, is indirectly related to it. At a school in the far west of Mafikeng, there is the problem of a lack of toilet facilities. The learners have to go over the fence into a thick forest on the Botswana side of the border to relieve themselves. The area is teeming with python which threaten them, and the whole area is a health hazard.
However, it is hoped that the relevant department, to which some representations have been made, will heed our cry. My party supports this Budget Vote. [Applause.]
Mr R MASHABA (Northern Province): Chairperson, hon Minister, hon members, we would like to thank you for the opportunity you have given us to present our views on the challenges of health care delivery in the country and in particular in our province. We accept it as a necessary aspect of our responsibility to express our profound gratitude to the leadership role that the NCOP continues to play in ensuring that our challenges in the provinces remain on the national agenda.
As we have seen previously in several other encounters, ours remains a province that is characterised by unsatisfactory levels of service and socioeconomic disparities. Those are the challenges that continue to haunt our population, of whom 89% are rural, 54% are women, 36,9% are aged and 46% fulfil the definition of ``unemployed’’.
With 44 public hospitals and 477 clinics in the province, our department continues to do everything possible to provide health care services to these communities that we have just described to the honourable House. During the past eight years or so, we have relatively succeeded in broadening the accessibility of services to these communities, notwithstanding the very serious challenges of insufficient resources, dilapidated facilities and a generally disintegrated and underdeveloped infrastructure.
We mention these factors because, one way or the other, they partly, though significantly, explain why the department is currently able to provide 24- hour service in only 183 of the 477 clinics in the province, because they better explain why we are unable to provide adequate security at the health facilities, as well as satisfactory levels of care to our communities, and, of course, because they better explain why we can afford to provide only 60% of medicines in the clinics.
Similarly, we mention these constraints because they continue to impact negatively on our capacity to confront the scourge of HIV/Aids in the province. The pressures associated with programmes of prevention of mother- to-child transmission of HIV/Aids, care for victims of sexual assault and care for children affected and infected, and the need to robustly implement the five-year strategic plan, definitely demand of Government to capacitate personnel and improve the capacity of our facilities.
We will continue to hammer on the serious problem of infrastructure because, as a result of the province’s bad road networks, our ambulances do not last long and because, by virtue of the inadequacy or lack of sanitation and water facilities, our poor communities continuously live under the real threat of a cholera epidemic and other unacceptable conditions. Quite obviously, our very constrained resources are struggling to address the many and varied expectations that result from the pathetic socioeconomic status that characterises our province.
Whereas we are doing better relatively in terms of our capital works budget, which is mainly from national conditional grants, the majority of the health facilities in the province remain dilapidated. The provincial allocation has declined from R190 million in 1998-99 to R21 million in the 2000-01 financial year, while conditional grants have increased from R24,4 million in 1998-99 to R92 million in 2001-02.
These allocations are significant, and yet they will not necessarily be able to address the enormous infrastructural problems that we have in some of the institutions. For instance, Nkhensani, Lebowakgomo, Zebediela, Dilokong and Jane Furse Hospitals are still fragmented and do not provide a comprehensive service. In some cases a paediatric ward is about 5 km from other wards. It is estimated that in order to have all these hospitals relocated and for them to reach a stage of comprehensive service, capital expenditure of about R200 million is needed. We continue to emphasise these realities because we believe that they should inform strategic thinking at all levels of policy debate and formulation.
As we confront and honestly engage with these issues, we also learn valuable lessons that will definitely take our country forward. For instance, progress that is beginning to be registered as a result of the Government’s integrated development strategy and other initiatives at local level clearly serves as an indication that through a collective sense of determination, mutual understanding and collaboration we can succeed in unravelling some of these problems.
We have learned through the past few years that rather than throwing up our hands in despair, we can wisely and optimally utilise our limited resources in the best interests of our people. As a result of this attitude, we have managed to maintain a relatively positive indicator in so far as the general health status of the province is concerned. This has been reflected by, amongst other things, the rate of infant mortality, which decreased from 57 per 1 000 live births in 1994 to 37,2 in 2001, the under-five mortality rate, which decreased from 83 per 1 000 live births in 1994 to 53 in 2001 and the maternal mortality rate, which dropped from 53 to 30 per 100 000 live births during the same period.
In terms of its morbidity rate, the province is doing relatively better, with the average reported cases of TB standing at 40 per 100 000 in the population, and with malaria at 65, typhoid at 1,7, measles at 5,6 and viral hepatitis at 2,7. We believe that with determination and courage, coupled with adequate resources, we can do even better.
In spite of these achievements, the province occasionally experiences various downsides, some of which have been making the most sensational of media headlines in the country. We have been firm and principled in dealing successfully with the problems of shrinkage, corruption, impropriety and general ill-discipline in the institutions and the department as a whole. It is for this reason that in the period ranging from 1 July 1999 to date, we succeeded in dismissing no fewer than 89 of our employees for various serious offences, whilst a substantial number have also been given final written warnings. We implement all these measures not out of malice, but because we have a moral and constitutional responsibility to protect public resources and the public interest.
To further enhance the capacity of the department to address some of these challenges and, as such, improve conditions of service, a process is being embarked upon to realise the appointment of competent chief executive officers who will better administer and manage public health institutions in the province. It is expected that those CEOs will sign performance management agreement and receive, amongst other things, the human resources and the financial and procurement delegations so as to manage their institutions effectively.
As we capacitate our service points, we are also ensuring that we do not neglect the responsibility of devolving relevant health care services to the local level. Accordingly, we remain part of national, provincial and local efforts that are aimed at clearly defining these processes and developing an enabling framework within which these functions have to be devolved.
We have also been worried by the fact that in the past year, indications were beginning to emerge of a downward trend the impact of our expanded programme on immunisation. We are, however, confident that robust interventions such as the SADC-inspired launch of the polio certification committee, which took place recently in our province, will serve to steer our courage and determination to succeed. [Time expired.] [Applause.]
Mr P MEYER (Western Cape): Chairperson, hon Minister of Health Dr Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, I would like to take this opportunity to thank the Minister very much for the keen interest that she has taken in the Western Cape, especially the Red Cross Children’s Hospital, this year. The personnel are most gratified and the Minister has helped and inspired them during these difficult times.
The mission of my department in the Western Cape is to promote the health of the people of the Western Cape and beyond. This is exactly what the Red Cross Children’s Hospital does. The burns unit now treats 1 000 children a year, mostly younger than six years old. The Red Cross Children’s Hospital also has the only paediatric neurosurgery facility in South Africa and has done 60 liver transplants over the past 10 years, as well as 100 renal transplants since it began that intervention in 1968.
The successful separation of the conjoined twins Zinzi and Zanele Kona attracted worldwide attention and media coverage to the Red Cross Children’s Hospital. It was the 35th time that conjoined twins had been separated by teams at the Red Cross Children’s Hospital.
Obviously, the need to address the inequitable distribution of resources between provinces has impacted on the conditional grants that fund the large academic teaching hospitals and university faculties of health science.
This will have a significant impact on the funds available for health in the province, with an envisaged decrease of R230 million over the next five years beginning during 2002-03. Obviously such a highly specialised level of service demands and well-resourced operations depend mainly on financial resources to counteract the high cost of medical consumables and support structures.
A large proportion of items used is import-based, especially pharmaceuticals, equipment and specialised consumables. As the House is aware, the national conditional grant for the Western Cape tertiary institution was significantly reduced, A projected shortfall of up to R12 million is indicated for this financial year and everything possible will be done to avoid the painful course of reduced patient care in terms of numbers and specialities.
However, we will not lose sight of our province’s key objectives. The key objectives for the Western Cape department of health are an improved quality of care, the control of HIV/Aids and the allied threat of TB, and the reshaping of health services.
Our priorities also include the control of trauma, the effective decentralisation of management and the emergency medical service, which I have selected as a special ministerial priority. After delays under the previous dispensation, the district health system has been tackled with vigour in the Western Cape.
Because services were provided at so many different levels in the past, they were very fragmented. In the marriage of the local authorities to the provinces, such fragmentation is being eliminated as the respective areas of jurisdiction take shape around the first objective: quality, integrated and comprehensive primary health care. To this end, the marriage partners are sorting out borders, legislation, services and functions, and financial arrangements are being made for personnel, conditions of service and labour.
We have calculated that 90% of health care in the primary health care model is dispensed at the first level by nursing staff. Add to this the first level of hospital care provided by doctors and nurses as well as the second level embracing specialists and general practitioners, and the figure becomes 98%. The third and fourth levels of care by specialists and super- specialists shared by the Western, Eastern and Northern Cape account for the remaining 2%. By focusing on the first level, we are taking care of many problems that would have presented higher up.
I would also like to refer to the results of the 2001 annual HIV antenatal survey, which were released this week. We are all hopeful that this trend will continue. The plight of young women should feature prominently in the fight against a disease that, as the hon the Minister noted, is still claiming too many lives in South and Southern Africa.
In the Western Cape we have noted that the prevalence of HIV has increased in urban areas and decreased slightly in the rural areas. If this means that we have to reprioritise our spending to ensure that we are addressing the problem, then that is what we will do.
The Western Cape department of health also notes that different solutions have to be found for HIV-positive and HIV-negative orphans. An important emerging aspect of HIV and Aids care in the Western Cape is that different public sector players work with NGOs to provide step-down facilities and home-based care. Obviously the hospitals and other formal health structures will play a leading role in this, but our best chance of success is if there is close co-operation between health, social services, education, NGOs, local government, traditional healers and academic and research bodies.
There have been requests from various private organisations to provide children’s step-down facilities. A process is now in place to guide these initiatives, as many issues must be considered before the go-ahead is given to these organisations, for example sustainability, equity within the province and an analysis to identify where there is the keenest need. Step- down care is proactive rather than reactive, and that makes it a more manageable intervention. It is a holistic health care approach which allows the very frail to reduce isolation and spend their last days in familiar surroundings, while rendering a service to their families. It reduces the pressure on hospital beds and other resources and shares the cost of care.
Accountability and a sense of ownership are generated by, amongst other things, avoiding referral to and from higher levels. A step-down facility is a stepping down from the high level of care administered by hospitals. As such it may dispense palliative care to patients who are too ill to be at home, but not ill enough to be in hospital. For some it is a temporary shelter, a sort of halfway house for two or three weeks before going home. It might provide people with shelter for their loved ones while the family or care-givers take a short break. For others it will act as a hospice, providing terminal care and a place to die with dignity.
As a society we are moving steadily to a point of no return in the provision of more community care, home-based care and especially frail care for our growing number of HIV and Aids sufferers.
We depend on the commitment of the care-givers, because step-down care must be person-centred and sensitive to culture, religion and value systems in order to respect dignity and privacy. It must ensure quality of care and access to other support services. It must be cost-effective, sustainable and specific in what needs to be done. It must empower and allow for capacity building to promote the independence of the individual and the family or care-givers.
March 2002 saw the official opening of Southern Cape/Karoo facility linked to George Hospital as well as the Paarl Frail Care Centre, which is part of the community project of the NGO Agape.
The Drakenstein municipal authority, which has taken over from the Paarl municipality, has fortunately agreed to honour the very favourable rental arrangement of R10 per month. The province has committed R800 000 per year and set the ball rolling. The second centre with 20 beds was launched in April at St Joseph’s and the third in May at the Frans Conradie Hospital, also with 20 beds. The province’s fourth facility planned for this financial year comprises 25 beds at Lentegeur and is on track for next month.
Boland/Overberg has the Bram Fisher Care Centre, which is a hospice that functions as a step-down facility. Negotiations are under way to assist Worcester Hospice, which is already functioning as a hospice, and Grabouw Training College as a step-down facility. This is in addition to the other children’s step-down facilities funded by the province in the metropole. [Time expired.] [Applause.]
Cllr N MAYATHULA-KHOZA (Salga): Chairperson … [Interjections.] [Laughter.] Am I protected, Chair?
The DEPUTY CHAIRPERSON OF THE NCOP (Mr M L Mushwana): Order! You are protected, hon member. You may proceed.
Cllr N MAYATHULA-KHOZA (Salga): Chairperson, hon Minister, hon MECs, hon members of the House, ladies and gentlemen, let me thank you for the opportunity of representing Salga in this Health budget debate. Let me also commend the hon the Minister for her comprehensive budget speech this afternoon.
One of the critical key performance areas where local government has to succeed is the attainment of acceptable health standards in the delivery of municipal health services.
There is an indisputable link between an effective health policy and services on the one hand, and the social and economic development of our people on the other. Malaria is estimated to have slowed economic growth in Africa by up to 1,3% per cent each year and HIV/Aids to have done so by up to 2,6% in high-prevalence countries.
Good health enhances development in many ways. These include the survival of trained labour, higher productivity amongst healthier workers, higher rates of savings and investment and greater enterprise and agrarian activity, as well as increased direct foreign investment and tourism. Children’s educational achievements are higher, which ultimately enhances productivity, lowers rates of fertility, and thereby changes the dependency ratio.
It is therefore abundantly clear that the flip side of this coin is that ill health exacerbates poverty at the family level. We must do everything in our power to break the stranglehold of poverty over our people.
We note that R483 million of the total R7,1 billion of the budget constitutes the budget for the national Health department. The remainder is transferred to provinces and other institutions to support the priorities of the national department. This, in our view, demonstrates the budgetary commitment of the department to its key roles, which are, amongst others, to lead and co-ordinate the national health system, to develop policy and legislation, and to support and monitor implementation. Salga supports the priorities as outlined in the budget and will make brief reference to them. The area of mental health is an important component of the health system and has for long being neglected. Its prioritisation will enhance the social development function of local government.
The strengthening of mortuary services in preparation for their transfer from the SAPS is also a critical priority area. Practical problems are experienced on a daily basis by municipal staff in respect of deaths in clinics. This will assist with the streamlining of services to communities.
In the area of HIV and Aids and sexually transmitted infections there are significant increases through conditional grants and funding to provinces. What Salga would like to see is a systematic flow of funds to local government, which is at the core of delivery. Currently provincial allocations in this regard are occurring in very limited circumstances and there is no clear and consistently applied policy which spells out the role of local government in this regard. Local government needs part of the allocations that are currently made to provinces for HIV and Aids to have a ring-fenced component intended for transfer to all municipalities in a province.
The training and development of health professionals is another critical priority area for local government. Primary health care services that are run by municipalities are dependent upon a functioning referral system to district and other hospitals. Any investment to increase the availability of specialist medical support at such hospitals, especially in the poorer provinces, is strongly supported.
Similarly the hospital management and quality improvement grant is supported by Salga as a mechanism to assist the institutional development and support of hospitals that serve the municipal primary health care centres.
We also want to indicate that although the maternal, child and women’s health budget has been decreased this year for valid reasons, it is welcomed by organised local government to ensure the prevention and management of various diseases, injuries and illnesses in women such as cervical cancer and breast cancer.
We also welcome the report that the role of local government and the progressive devolution of primary health care services remain high on the policy agenda, that service agreements with local government are to be developed and that district planning and implementation of the district information systems are to strengthened. Our request however, is that views and suggestions by organised local government on this matter should be taken into cognisance.
The final issue we would like to raise is that of the National Health Bill, which was published for comment in November 2001. As Salga we have submitted our comments in February and understand that a revised draft is due for release soon.
The key concerns for Salga are the provisions for the establishment of the
district health system and the definition of municipal health services''.
The definition of municipal health services’’ will determine the
financial responsibility of metropolitan and district municipalities in
respect of health service delivery.
The current proposed definition is that municipal health services are equivalent to environmental health services. Even this narrow definition may place an unaffordable burden on district municipalities. This is particularly the case where health services have traditionally been cross- subsidised from other local income such as property rates which are not available to district municipalities.
Furthermore, the equitable share allocation that district municipalities receive does not include a component for environmental health. In this regard Salga would put forward that the equitable share formula for district municipalities be revised to include a component for municipal health, whichever way it is defined, as part of its basic services.
In conclusion, the effective implementation of health policies and the sustained delivery of health services are key to the social and economic development of our people. It is clear from the budget that the bulk of resources are transferred to provinces in order to support delivery. The priorities as set out in the Vote are supported by Salga and its member municipalities. We therefore look forward to the finalisation of the National Health Bill as a means to provide a better life for all our people.
I therefore would like to take the opportunity once more to express our appreciation of Salga’s effective participation and contribution to Minmec meetings that basically deal with policy and legislative issues and strategic health programmes, as well as health service delivery and the Letsema campaign.
Although I joined the Minmec meetings only a few months ago, I am convinced of a productive and healthy working relationship between Salga and Minmec even though Salga is seldom mentioned on issues of health services. Maybe Minmec should be called ``Minmec-Salga’’ or something like that. [Laughter.]
The Minister being the driving force in the Minmec as well as in the Ministry itself, Salga would like to congratulate her especially on her department’s effective spending of funds on related programmes and on health services, although we heard today that some of our provinces are not really spending all the budgets that were allocated to them.
We want to commend the Minister on the good work done in spite of all the difficulties we have faced during this past financial year and we need to congratulate her on this. [Applause.]
Ms W G THUSI (KwaZulu-Natal): Chairperson, hon Minister of Health Dr Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, hon NCOP members, hon MECs and special delegates, I bring warm revolutionary greetings from the warm and evergreen KwaZulu- Natal. [Applause.]
I would like to thank the Chairperson for affording me the opportunity of participating in this important debate. I want to thank the hon the Minister for such an informative budget speech.
I would like to focus my speech on HIV/Aids and the food security programme, for the simple reason that studies show that KwaZulu-Natal is leading in HIV/Aids infection statistics and it is one of the poorest provinces in the country. The fight against HIV/Aids and poverty alleviation are our province’s priorities. In the last two years KwaZulu- Natal has hit the headlines in the media because of the outbreak of malaria and cholera. As long as the majority of the people are still poor and living in poor conditions, it is going to be difficult to eradicate the preventable communicable diseases. Poverty alleviation and food security are important programmes and must be addressed aggressively. We therefore welcome the increase in the KwaZulu-Natal allocation, although it will never be enough.
We in KwaZulu-Natal are optimistic that, with all our efforts, the situation in the province will be turned around. Our approach is holistic and is in line with the national HIV/Aids and STD strategic plan for South Africa in 2000-2005.
We do not believe in just dispensing drugs, but also in dispensing care, compassion, comfort and empathy in an environment of tolerance, openness and understanding. An HIV/Aids action unit was established in the province in 1999 in order to combat and deal robustly with the impact of HIV/Aids in the province in a co-ordinated manner.
The Provincial HIV/Aids Action Unit is in the process of setting up voluntary counselling and testing centres in all hospitals and clinics in the province. This follows the successful launch of over 20 VCT centres in nonmedical science last year and early this year. Linked to this, the Paau runs a successful lay counsellors’ training course. Counsellors are central to both the VCT and the prevention of mother-to-child transmission programmes.
The training has been taken over by Paau from three organisations, Atic, Actsa and TAC in order to standardise the service. There are over 140 counsellors who are contracted to the department. With the introduction of the integrated plan on children infected and affected by HIV/Aids, the Department of Health, through Paau and the Department of Social Development have jointly implemented a home-based care programme which ensures continued care from the hospital to the home of the person living with HIV/Aids.
Last year, over 800 home-based care kits were given to home-based care- givers who had undergone training on the new integrated module. Paau has managed to successfully establish partnerships with all government departments, resulting in the formation of a KwaZulu-Natal interdepartmental Aids committee, consisting of a representative from each department, which meets every two months. Paau also runs another programme which focuses on the army, the police and members of the correctional services, under the umbrella of the SA Civil-Military Alliance. Paau has to date trained a total of 1 148 traditional healers on HIV/Aids, STDs, TB and other conditions like malaria and cholera. Master trainers from the traditional healers trained their colleagues. Along with these 155 amagosa [officials], leaders in the isicathamiya [traditional Zulu music] and traditional dance groups are also trained.
Paau has also forged partnerships with the private sector. An Aids orphan trust fund has been formed, which is an initiative between Paau, local media and business and international consulates. The trust is aimed at raising funds for orphans locally, nationally and internationally and was launched in February 2002. Paau, SA Breweries and Taverners have also formed a partnership, which was launched in Port Shepstone last year, and the programme is to be extended throughout the province.
The taxi industry is also targeted, and Paau has implemented a successful campaign with the transport sector. A major awareness campaign is ongoing on two main provincial radio stations, in the main newspapers and on private radio stations to get the message through to the population of KwaZulu-Natal. We do have poverty alleviation programmes which are currently being implemented in two phases, namely community projects and clinic garden projects. There are 22 community alleviation projects implemented and administered by four cluster managers, namely the Lima Rural Development Foundation, Mathus Nutrition and Development Advocates, the Zakhe Training Institute and Operation Hunger.
We would like to tell the hon the Minister of Health that as KwaZulu-Natal we therefore support the budget. [Applause.]
Manana C NKUNA: Muchaviseki Mutshami wa Xitulu, Muchaviseki Holobye wa Ndzawulo ya Rihanyu kun’we ni Vachaviseki Vahubyankulu, ndza khensa ku nyikiwa nkarhi lowu. Lowu hi wona nkarhi wa ku va Mfumo wu languta migingiriko ya wona lomu eka swifundhankulu ku vona lomu va ha kayivelaka no pima migingiriko leyi. A ndzi na ku kanakana ku vula leswaku vanhu va xifundha xa Afrika Dzonga va kuma ku tshunguleka no pfuneka ku tlula nkarhi lowu hundzeke. Leswi swi endliwa hi Vaholobye va swifundhankulu na Ndzawulo ya Rihanyu.
Ndzi pfumeleleni ku tlangela Ndzawulo ya Swa Rihanyu eka ntirho wo kula swonghasi lowu va wu endlaka kun’we na tiMEC tin’wana. Ha swi tiva leswaku vusweti bya hambana ku ya hi swifundhankulu leswi swi endlaka leswaku nhluvuku wu nga fiki xikan’we, hambileswi ku nga na komiti yo pfuneta leswaku swifundhankulu leswi swi hluvuka.
Hi ku landzelela ndzavisiso lowu veke kona eka Mfumo wa le Xikarhi na wa swifundhankulu, ku na nhlanga yo huma ngati. Mfumo wu endla leswaku tindhawu to fana na titliliniki ti pfuna vanhu swinene. Swibedhlele swo tala swi antswisiwile hi ndlela yo antswisa miako na hi ndlela yo antswisa switirho, kun’we ni hi ndlela yo antswisa matshungulelo. Swibedhlele swo fana na Pretoria Academic, Nkosi AlbertLithuli na Nelson Mandela Complex eUmtata, swi le ku pfuniweni hi nongoloko lowu vuriwaka Hospital Reconstruction and Rehabilitation. Human Resource Development and Management, laha tin’anga kumbe vaongori hinkwavo lava tirhaka eswibedhlele va nga eku pfuniweni ku fikelela timfanelo ta vanhu, hi ku endla leswaku tindhawu ta le makaya ti fikeleriwa hi vaongori.
Eka leswi vuriwaka legislative reform, kumbe leswi fambelanaka na nawu, hi languterile Nawumbisi wa swa Rihanyu lowu nga ta pfuna ku tiyisa no seketela leswi vuriwaka private and public sectors mayelana na vutshunguri. Ku nga ri khale hi pasisile nawu mayelana na lava va vabyaka swa le miehleketweni ku vuyisela kumbe ku thlerisela vumunhu bya vanhu na hi xikongomelo xo eneta Vumbiwa ra Afrika Dzonga. Hi tinyungubyisa ngopfu hi maantswiselo ya vutomi bya vanhu hinkwavo.
Ku vile na nhlangano wa misava lowu a wu langutene no herisa vusweti. Afrika Dzonga a ri ri rin’wana ra swirho. Ku na nongonoko lowu vuriwaka Nepad, laha vusweti bya matiko ya Afrika byi langutiweke na kona xifundhankulu xa Afrika Dzonga i xin’wana xa swirho leswi rhangelaka nhlangano lowu emahlweni eku lweni ni vusweti bya matiko ya SADC. Xikombiso, nhlangano wa Nepad wu amukele Mpfumelelano wo hula wa Abucha mayelana ni mavabyi ya Malaria kumbe Dari na HIV/Aids.
Xo hetelela i ku khensa nakambe Ndzawulo ya Swa Rihanyu eka ntirho wo tika swonghasi wo antswisa vutomi bya vanhu. Tiko ra hina ri hambanile ni matiko man’wanyana. Ntirho wo antswisa xifundha lexi a hi wuntsongo. Yanani emahlweni na ntirho lowunene. Tiko ra khensa swinene. Timinete tin’wana ndzi ta ti tirhisa mundzuku. [Phokotela.] (Translation of Xitsonga paragraphs follows.)
[Mrs C NKUNA: Hon Chairperson, hon Minister of Health and hon members, first and foremost, I would like to say thank you.
This is the ideal time for the Government to look at our performance in all our provinces, to evaluate whether we have done well and where we still need to make some improvements in our activities. Without doubt I am aware of the fact that our people in South Africa are receiving better essential health services than in the past. This is made possible by our ministers of Health in our provinces.
Allow me to congratulate the Department of Health for the great work undertaken by this department. The department is managing to do all this through the leadership of our MECs, even those from other departments. We know that poverty differs from one province to the other. This causes development not to take place at the same time. There is a committee responsible for helping with development in our provinces.
According to the research conducted by central Government together with provincial governments, there has been good progress. The Government makes a point that citizens receive help from our clinics. Most hospitals were upgraded, where buildings had been renovated and equipment and medical care was improved. Hospitals like Pretoria Academic, Nkosi Albert Luthuli and Nelson Mandela Complex are up to standard. At Umtata there is a programme responsible with upgrading of hospitals and is called Hospital Reconstruction and Rehabilitation.
Human Resource Development and Management, where doctors and nurses are working hard in enabling people to have access to public care is commendable and enables people to be assisted in health care in rural areas.
The legislative reform goes hand in hand with this Act. We are looking forward to the tabling of the Health Bill that is going to help in the strengthening of the private and public sectors in regard to medication. In the past, we approved a Bill concerning the mentally handicapped people, in terms of which they are treated in order to be able to live a normal life again. This is done in order to fulfil the South African Constitution.
We are proud of managing to improve the quality of life of all people. There was a national conference responsible for doing away with poverty and South Africa was also represented and has membership.
There is a programme called Nepad, through which poverty in African states is being considered. South Africa is a member of Nepad. South Africa is leading in a fight against poverty in all countries under SADC. For example, Nepad accepted the peace agreement at Abuja regarding diseases like Malaria and HIV/Aids.
Lastly, I would like to thank the Department of Health for this great task of improving the quality of life of our people. Our country is different from other countries. The improvement of our country is not a small task.
Please continue with your good work. The country is very appreciative of what you are doing. [Applause.]]
The MINISTER OF HEALTH: Chairperson, I asked to speak for 30 minutes, but I only spoke for 23 minutes.
The DEPUTY CHAIRPERSON OF THE NCOP (Mr M L Mushwana): Order! You spoke for 40 minutes, hon Minister.
The MINISTER: No, Chairperson, I was monitoring myself. I will be very brief, though, in my response.
Firstly, I would like to thank all the hon members for a very lively and constructive debate and for supporting the budget before us. I just want to say that the debate has given us the opportunity to share our experiences, achievements and challenges in the delivery of health care services in our country.
I would like to comment on only two other issues, without attributing them to any particular hon member. I would like to thank hon members for having participated in the activities of the April Health Month, and I am sure that most will have received the prescription that came free of charge from the national Minister of Health. I would encourage hon members to also try to obtain the Health in Action booklet, which assists one to manage certain conditions without necessarily going to the health institutions.
With regard to the issue of equity, which I think is a burning issue, I would like to remind the House that I did refer to the national tertiary services grant and the manner in which we propose to handle them this time, so as to address the problems of inequity.
There is just one more thing before I sit down. It is about the issue of HIV/Aids. I think we can say with confidence that, as a nation, we are now responding to the HIV infection together. There is transparency that is growing out there, in terms of talking about HIV and Aids, and we are beginning to strengthen the intersectoral approach.
As a department, we have moved very speedily to develop the protocol for the administration of AZT and 3TC for the survivors of sexual assault. Of course there are challenges that we have identified in terms of the administration of nevirapine, which we will be addressing in the coming year. We also acknowledge that there has been an increase in the budget for the national response, so that we can indeed expand our programmes, particularly the home-based care and community-based care also consolidate and sustain our programmes.
The last thing is about TB, because it would be incorrect of me not to refer to tuberculosis. As hon members know, there is currently a conference in Durban on TB and other lung diseases that is being attended by over 600 participants from Africa and Europe. It is indeed a very big conference, and we think that out of that conference will emanate some of the solutions that might assist us in addressing the problem of tuberculosis in the country. I must add that I think we are doing well in this context too. In the last year we have been able to increase the TB cure rate from 56% to 62%. What we intend to do this year and next year is to increase the Dots coverage in the country, because there is much disparity in terms of Dots coverage, ranging from 24% to 100%, and we want to fill that gap. Lastly, I would like to thank my colleague Piet Meyer for his kind words. I believe he holds the record as the shortest-lived premier in South Africa. [Laughter.] I can assure him that we are happy to have him back in the health family. [Applause.]
Debate concluded.
The DEPUTY CHAIRPERSON OF THE NCOP (Mr M L Mushwana): I wish to take this opportunity to thank the Minister for having been very brief in her reply and for engaging this House in a lively debate.
PRECEDENCE TO SUBJECTS FOR DISCUSSION
(Draft Resolution)
The CHIEF WHIP OF THE COUNCIL: Chairperson, I move without notice:
That the second item under ``Orders of the Day’’ will be proceeded with thereafter. I have consulted with the party Whips and they have indicated that they have no objection to the arrangement.
The DEPUTY CHAIRPERSON OF THE NCOP (Mr M L Mushwana): Are you dealing with the second matter for discussion?
The CHIEF WHIP OF THE COUNCIL: Chairperson, I am proposing that we deal
with items 1 and 2 under Subjects for Discussion'' and thereafter proceed
with item 2 underOrders of the Day’’.
Motion agreed to in accordance with section 65 of the Constitution.
MEDIA AND PARLIAMENT: A PARTNERSHIP TO PROMOTE REPRESENTATIVE AND
PARTICIPATORY DEMOCRACY
(Subject for Discussion)
The MINISTER IN THE PRESIDENCY: Chairperson, for those members who have been very diligent and disciplined and have been sitting in this House while some of us were doing something else, it is with great regret that I must inform them that Bafana Bafana are coming home. We lost 3-2 to Spain and Paraguay beat Slovenia 3-1. We lost by one goal. They scored six and we scored five. Some of us were having heart attacks while the hon members of the NCOP were quite safe here, sitting in this Chamber. [Laughter.]
I thank you very much, Chairperson, and hon members, for this opportunity. Even those who have traditionally been critical and even dismissive about African achievements are recognising the progress made. The momentum of change on our continent is beginning to match or eclipse the vast steps forward a generation or more ago, when Africa began to throw off colonialism. It is noteworthy that since 1990 no fewer than 42 of the 48 countries in sub-Saharan Africa have held multiparty elections.
These developments impact not only on populations at large, but on the media throughout Africa, for the groundswell of democracy brings with it new challenges and opportunities for newspapers and the broadcast media.
In a repressive society, there are few demands on the media, and a drab, uncritical uniformity is the order of the day. Sycophantic journalists are honoured and critics, if any, are locked up.
In a democratic environment there is a healthy tension between government and media, but mutual respect for one another’s institutional independence. There is, moreover, a flowering of media activity and talent in such an environment, and this puts special pressure on the shoulders of those who own, edit, market and train in the media industry.
An institution that supremely requires media attention in a democratic environment is Parliament itself. Indeed, to the extent that parliamentary events are neglected by the media, democracy is impoverished. Those who take the trouble to elect parties and their representatives to Parliament are entitled to know what these representatives are doing and saying, how they behave and how they approach the many issues that confront the nation. Parliament is not an exclusive social club, but an open forum for the whole nation.
With reference to the subject of our debate today, it should be said that the nature of the relationship between Parliament and the media is not ideally to be seen as a partnership. Each institution is too jealous of its freedom of action and independence for that comfy description. They are not in bed together, except on rare and sometimes celebrated occasions when an individual enterprise achieves what institutions avoid.
Parliament and the media are institutions that stand alone, and each must be given space by the other to get on with their important work, which is central to democracy. That said, it must be accepted that Parliament without the media presents as barren a scene as the media without Parliament.
We in South Africa must not lose sight of the fact that good governance is central to the success of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development, Nepad, on which so much on our continent and country depends. Recently, this inspired plan for Africa received, as hon members will know, a valuable boost at the Africa summit meetings of the World Economic Forum in Durban.
Parliament in a democracy is inherently newsworthy. The debate and engagement among MPs, even operating under a strict party whip, can lead to unexpected outcomes, and the very basis of news is the unexpected. Moreover, a democratic parliament is in touch with the feelings of the populace in general and, to this extent, there is a strong news interest in what it gets up to. Charting the process of legislation, motions and questions in Parliament, not to mention the diverting activities of personalities and parties, can be an exacting job, and it is up to Parliament to ensure maximum access and proper facilities to journalists so that they can do their job.
I have commented elsewhere on the irony that the South African Parliament enjoyed more space and time in the media in the days when it was merely a rubber stamp for the repressive apartheid rulers. Admittedly, much of what was said was so crassly stupid or blatantly racist that the media had a responsibility to preserve it for posterity, so that our children can, in wide-eyed wonder, now see what went before. But it is an undoubted fact that now that Parliament is a creative, meaningful, and democratic force in the land, it should attract more attention from the media. It has a myriad activities, numbers of fully reportable committees and many newsworthy full- dress occasions to attract journalistic attention. The President regularly addresses Parliament and answers questions, as does the Deputy President.
This brings me specifically to the NCOP. This is a meaningful House, not in the mould of second or upper houses in South African history or elsewhere, which have been repositories of incompetence, party loyalty or mediocrity. It has direct links with the provinces, which lie at the very coalface of administration and delivery in South Africa. It is a place where premiers tread. But it does seem obvious that the National Assembly enjoys greater attention in the media than this House. It would be a good idea if the NCOP looked closely at the situation and devised strategies to raise its profile via the media. This is not to downplay past efforts, which have led to some considerable success, but it is an ongoing and uphill battle, particularly when one considers that this House is so strongly representative of provincial interests, whereas the media generally, as currently constituted, are concentrated in the cities.
So I should like to issue a challenge to both this House and the media. Both should see what they can do creatively and effectively to raise the profile of this place in the very real interests of the nation.
The media can be asked to provide a coherent and systematic account of what goes on in Parliament, though it remains free to choose its subjects for reporting and comment. At the same time, it is up to the legislature to ensure that its own activities are newsworthy and properly communicated. If the legislature feels that it is not getting the attention it deserves, it is better to see this as a spur to greater effort, rather than cause for complaint.
Generally, media do have special responsibilities. A crucial one is to maintain the highest standards of reporting and comment. Editors are the upholders of these norms, and when journalists depart from them, it is the editors who must curb their excesses and make amends in public through adequate and spontaneous correction and, where warranted, apology - something which, incidentally, legislators should also do when we err. As I have argued before, in order to edit, editors should, surely, have intimate knowledge of their journalists’ sources and exercise some judgment about their veracity. Do they all?
Editors should, moreover, raise the status of their parliamentary journalists if they want to give a coherent account of law-making, and if they wish to have a meaningful relationship with the institution of Parliament. I have gained the impression that this is an area which requires substantial and urgent attention at editor level. If they do not give their parliamentary reporters the attention they deserve, other areas of reporting, for example financial, environmental and information technology, will eclipse parliamentary reporting, to the nation’s loss.
In South Africa we are about to embark on a system of accrediting journalists to cover the Presidency. It would be a pity if this move were seen as competition for parliamentary reporters, and not as complementary to what they do. Without in any sense downplaying the significance of reporting the executive, it is necessary for the media to maintain the balance between the legislature and the executive, and it would be an idea if reporters sought to cover both, as far as possible.
So I would like to make an appeal to the media to extend, not to reduce, their coverage of Parliament. They should consider more detailed information on parliamentary programmes and greater depth in analysis, which involve careful study of basic documents and more attention to speeches, which are currently almost totally ignored in large sections of the media. This, of itself, would ensure that speech quality improves. To know that one’s utterances are likely to be reported is a discipline that can exercise the mind wonderfully, and be a spur to newsiness and creativity.
To close, I would suggest that never before in South African history has Parliament had closer links with the people. Surely this should be reflected in the media, a worker, if not actually a partner, in the same democratic cause. [Applause.]
Mr A E VAN NIEKERK: Chairperson, listening to the hon Dr Pahad, I realise that this debate is long overdue, but it is also apparent that not everything is 100% in balance, and we must realise that it is not a simple issue.
But, just as Parliament is one of the main pillars of democracy, so is the free and independent media one of the other important institutions of democracy. In a sense, we as parliamentarians and the members of the media are partners and, in more ways than one, two sides of the same coin. We both have a complementary role to play in the enhancement of the democratic process to better inform the electorate.
In order to raise the esteem of our Parliament and, particularly, this House, as the hon Pahad mentioned as well, we should be able to work with the important fourth pillar, the media, to promote the values of our growing democracy. In order for Parliament and the media to perform their respective duties to that end, both groups must work together, despite a degree of healthy mutual suspicion that will always be an essential part of such a relationship. But we should still respect the media and avoid adversarial relations.
It also places on the media in Parliament a huge responsibility, amongst others, to report in a responsible and informed fashion at all levels, of the proceedings of the institution. In order to do so, every journalist has to keep abreast of happenings and developments and, brush up on her or his knowledge comprehensively on the position and role of Parliament and MPs, as well as every relevant subject.
All should work through an information overload to analyse reports and documents in more detail, so that they are able to inform the readers or viewers or listeners fairly and factually about the things that they need to know.
A few gremlins have been spotted in recent reporting. Opinion creeps into a lot of reports and is disguised as fact or so-called ``objective contextualisation’’. Others focus more on trivialities and the fabrication of scandal, tensions or controversy, or even the elevation and overplaying of honest disagreements over policy in parties.
Furthermore, some modern-day reporters tend to rely solely on news releases, the so-called ``cut-and-paste reporters’’. Some even plagiarise releases and present them as the product of their own research. This could be the result of the glaring juniorisation that is taking place in the parliamentary media. Even students are spotted assisting from time to time. The numbers of the members of the media have dwindled, leaving those behind to work at an even heavier pace to keep up to time and those dreaded deadlines.
Parliament is the people’s forum and thus deserves coverage at the highest standards befitting it as the duly elected voice of the people, and attention should be paid to the views expressed by all MPs. Parliament should also consider its own measures of support to make it possible for media houses to keep their best reporters in Parliament. Added to this, it should be suggested that an own news service be established also to serve those well-loved regional and local publications or radio stations with topical news and updates on the work done by their representatives here.
Both MPs and members of the media have a role to play in determining the way forward. It would be wise to get round-table talks under way in our Parliament to speed up the process of building an effective relationship. More imaginative and attractive ways must be developed to enhance parliamentary coverage so that people are encouraged to take greater interest or participate in their society’s principal democratic forum. Therefore, vital issues of the day should be discussed more promptly in Parliament.
We as MPs should accept that our Chambers are modern-day TV studios - reality TV at its best with live shows. As the directors and actors of our own show, we should make it more interesting and relevant. We must raise the standard of debate and discourage that which will, inevitably, lead to adverse coverage.
Maybe we should ask if we would have watched the soapie that has just been played out in this House in the debate before this one, whether that was interesting enough to keep the attention of the viewer. We should urge Ministers and members to deliver important statements and reports in, rather than outside, Parliament. The Commonwealth Parliamentary Association, together with the World Bank Institute, has done tremendous work at this level. In February 2002 in New Delhi, representatives of MPs and journalists identified, for the first time, ways to improve the relationship between parliament and the media, all in order to promote representative and participatory democracy.
International concern is growing that in almost every country the trend towards governments making statements outside parliament draws the media’s attention away from parliament and tends to detract from the role and the importance of business conducted in the House.
Our House has had to be contented with that wooden spoon for far too long. In turn, this means the media is informing the electorate inadequately of the work of its representatives.
To avoid this abyss, media representatives suggested in 2002 possible guidelines of action to make Parliament the main game in the politics of the country. It was followed up by the April 2002 Indian Ocean Rim conference on securing an effective relationship, which led to the adoption of the Cape Town principles of an informed democracy by MPs and media professionals. Both these important papers should be a guide for our own or similar discussions. We should also investigate the possibility of, in future, including representatives of our own to such international conferences.
It is also understood that the new presidential press corps to which the hon Pahad referred could redirect the attention of political reporting away from Parliament and eventually create a new elite of journalists that will compete for space and time, just to push reporting from this institution into a less prominent position. This brings to mind the inevitable: that an overhaul of the landscape of the political reporter is at hand.
Reform is also needed here in our Parliament. The media in Parliament needs to transform itself into a more inclusive body that also caters for other role-players and media practitioners in order to make itself ever more relevant. Here I am thinking of political reporters and correspondents as a whole, including those reporting on government at all levels and working on provincial legislatures or local councils. It would be wise to include such groups as the Media Liaison Officers Forum, political party practitioners and the presidential corps in a national forum for political media workers.
In conclusion, although self-regulation is preferred, the media also has a duty to ensure that calls for or threats of legislation to control the media are avoided by constantly maintaining high standards in its coverage of Parliament, politics and society. Both groups have no choice but to co- operate voluntarily. Let us start soon. [Applause.]
Mrs C NKUNA: Chairperson, hon Minister and hon members, if one walked through Parliament today, one would notice that there is a whole section filled with the offices of media representatives and journalists representing different newspapers from all sectors. They cover the day-to- day activities and decisions made by Parliament, expressing their free, independent opinions. This reflects a true democracy. It is a reflection of a complementary relationship between Parliament and the media.
Allow me to raise a concern that has been preoccupying my mind for some time. Somehow the press, for whatever reason, tends to cover what happens in the National Assembly and, for some reason, neglects or bypasses the proceedings in our own Chamber - that is, the NCOP - to the extent that Parliament is taken to be the National Assembly only, whereas it is the two Houses.
Many people seem to wonder about the actual role of the NCOP because half of the issues we deal with are hardly covered by the media. Let me put it bluntly and say that it is an oversight, because the NCOP is part of Parliament. Most importantly, it is the direct voice of the provinces. Our constitutional obligation is to link the national Government and the provinces. To quote one speaker:
Parliament and the media are the two most vital institutions in a democracy. Both owe their origins to democratic thinking. Parliament represents the will of the people and the media is a link between parliament and the people. Both develop their own procedures and are masters of their own. However, it is important that a balanced relationship is developed between these vital institutions.
The debate today is about just that. It is about stressing the importance of good relations between the media and Parliament and strengthening that relationship for us to have a vibrant democracy - a relationship that is bonded and yet independent, but dedicated to the interests of all South Africans. It is that relationship that is committed to nation-building, improvement of the quality of life of our people and a vibrant, competitive economy, a relationship that promotes Afro-optimism, which reflects that ours is an Africa of hope. We are talking about what our hon President often refers to as the new patriotism and at times as a workable dream.
It is indeed a challenging initiative to develop a society without Parliament and the media complementing one another. To quote one speaker:
A free, responsible and diverse media is as vital to parliament as democracy is to the maintenance of the freedom of the press.
As we all know, we come from a past where neither the media nor the government represented the needs of all the people of South Africa. But today we are speaking a different language, a language of unity, of hope, of optimism, of good relations between these two sectors that play a very important role in the lives of our people.
This relationship is crucial, if we intend having a workable democracy and indeed making sure that our vision of African success does take place. Nevertheless, it does not come without challenges, for we are a nation with a past, a nation whose long road of struggle has just ended and yet at the same time has just begun.
The relationship between Parliament and media has always been a very controversial issue, not only here, but also in several other democracies. Even President Roosevelt himself felt that the press hated him. As much as the press should be a major critic of government, that criticism must be enriching, positive and constructive. It must contribute to the prosperity and maturity of our democracy.
The media contributes vitally to the people, making them understand what happens in Parliament, informing them about the policies, the initiatives and so forth. It also informs the Government about the people’s views, helping it understand the concerns of the people and their responses to some of the Government’s initiatives. In that sense, it is deeply involved in the political life of the nation.
Hence, as we speak, the people are being updated every day on the news about the latest developments, for example, with regard to the public hearings we are having on the Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Bill.
To conclude, the media together with Parliament must work for change and for a better life. To the media let me say: Please, cover the business of the second House of Parliament - that is, the NCOP. By so doing the media will be teaching the nation that Parliament consists of two Houses. I can assure the hon the Minister that we definitely would like to raise our profile. [Applause.]
Mr K D S DURR: Chairperson, Minister, one can honestly say that one of the greatest assets this country has is the free, and lively and developed media we have and its long tradition of independence and courage. It is a great asset which we must, of course, preserve at all costs. The debate on the interrelationship between Parliament, the executive and the media, and so on, is, of course, a never-ending one and will always go on, but it is a dynamic situation which remains dynamic.
I have read some of the Minister’s speeches, including the speech he made at the Indian Ocean Rim conference, and I have to say I could not agree more.
I have to say also, listening to the Minister today, that his attitude is a fine one, one that respects that independence, and I have no difficulty with it. In fact, I am proud to be in a parliament where the senior Minister with particular responsibility for the media - one doubts that any Minister could be said to be in charge of the media - has taken the largely objective, though not uncritical, view that the Minister has taken. None of us likes it when the press are against us. Then we think the press are bad, but when the press are for us, we think they are very good. That is in the tradition of parliaments. That has been my experience.
I have difficulty, however, with the word ``partnership’’ to describe the relationship between the media and Parliament. Possibly there can be partnership between the media and Parliament, but certainly there must never be a partnership between the executive and the media, and the executive in Parliament must not be in partnership with the media. Dr Pahad himself said on 15 April, speaking at the Indian Ocean Rim conference on Parliament and the media:
The relationship should, however, not be over close. They should stand at arm’s length …
I could not agree with the Minister more.
It is very easy for the siren song of the powerbrokers to pull the media in on the inside track and to silence them by virtue of the fact that they are insiders. It is better for the media to remain an outsider.
The press mirrors what goes on in Parliament and in our society. The problem, of course, is that when we look that mirror we often do not like what we see or hear, and often, then, we wish to kill the messenger. That is nothing new about us. It is something that is universal.
The Minister mentioned the influence of Nepad on the press, the media and parliamentary relations. We know that as far as media relationships and interrelationship are concerned, our Parliament and our media should and will become active in other African cultures. We know that we have a role to play there. One asks the question: Has much attention been given to the role of the media in the new Pan-African Parliament? What arrangements are going to be made for that media - to host and organise that media and to allow it to function?
Where the media come under attack in Africa, we as a free Parliament, no matter what the executive may be doing, should, in fact be seeking to preserve their liberty. Liberty and freedom of speech, which includes media freedom, are indivisible. One either protects it everywhere or protects it nowhere.
I ask myself seriously: What have we in this Parliament done - whatever the Government might have done and for whatever good reason, on which we might or might not agree - specifically to protect press freedom, for example, in Zimbabwe, which is just across the river, which is our closest neighbour? What have we done about the harassment of our own correspondents in that country? Very little. We hardly raised a voice on that. Are we really serious about press freedom in Africa? In the past two years the Mugabe government has stolen US $18 billion, or Zim $1 trillion. [Time expired.] [Interjections.]
Mr L G LEVER: Chairperson, the subject for discussion is: Media and Parliament, a partnership to promote representative and participatory democracy. In the democratic South African state, governed by the 1996 Constitution, Parliament has obligations to ensure participatory democracy, which is enshrined in sections 59 and 72 of the Constitution.
Section 59 provides that: (1) The National Assembly must -
(a) facilitate public involvement in the legislative and other
processes of the Assembly and its committees; and
(b) conduct its business in an open manner, and hold its sittings,
and those of its committees, in public, but reasonable measures
may be taken -
(i) to regulate public access, including access of the media,
to the Assembly and its committees; and
(ii) to provide for the searching of any person and, where
appropriate, the refusal of entry to, or the removal of,
any person.
(2) The National Assembly may not exclude the public, including the media, from a sitting of a committee unless it is reasonable and justifiable to do so in an open and democratic society. Section 72 makes the same provisions applicable to the National Council of Provinces. Section 1(d) of the Constitution provides for:
Universal adult suffrage, a national common voters roll, regular elections and a multi-party system of democratic government, to ensure responsiveness and openness.
These are the obligations that the Constitution places on both Houses of Parliament to ensure a representative and participatory democracy.
The rights of the media are set out, with the rights of every resident of our country, in section 16(1)(a) and (b), which state that:
16.(1) Everyone has the right to freedom of expression, which includes -
(a) freedom of the press and other media;
(b) freedom to receive or impart information or ideas ...
While these rights imply that the media has an obligation to exercise its freedom to receive or impart information or ideas, its obligations go far deeper than that. The public expects the media to be a guardian of their rights to receive and impart information. The public expects the media to watch the politicians that make up the executive, the legislatures in Parliament and the other spheres of government, and to report to the public both on their legislative activities and their implementation of policy, as well as delivery of services.
In this sense, the partnership that ought to exist between Parliament and the media is not a comfortable and friendly relationship, nor should it be comfortable and friendly. If the media is to have any credibility with the public which it serves, it must maintain an independent and critical arm’s- length relationship with the executive and the legislatures.
It is natural that there should be an inherent tension in this relationship, which is healthy for participative, accountable and transparent democracy. This tension between politicians and the media arises from the fact that the media does not owe allegiance to any politician, no matter what his or her ideology or political persuasion is, but owes its allegiance to the general public.
Another dynamic of this relationship is that politicians cannot afford to ignore or disregard the media, because they need the media to communicate their respective ideas and ideologies to the public. The media cannot ignore or disregard the body politic in the country, firstly, because of its obligation to the public, and, secondly, because to some extent at least, it is reliant on politicians to provide it with the information that it needs.
Has South Africa achieved the right balance in this mix? In my opinion, probably not. The Indian Ocean Rim conference on Parliament and the media, held here in April, is telling in this regard. The process in respect of this conference was controlled by the Speaker and the Chairpersons of the respective Houses of Parliament, as well as the executive, it seems. The conference was ostensibly about the relationship between Parliament and the media. However, despite being the subject of the conference, neither the members of our Parliament nor the members of the parliamentary press gallery were officially invited.
The final and crowning embarrassment was that a member of the executive, who, although a member of the National Assembly by virtue of our political dispensation but who, in essence, represents an entirely different arm of government, addressed a parliamentary conference on the relationship between Parliament and the media without any formal participation by either the members of Parliament or the parliamentary press gallery - the respective representative bodies most intimately acquainted with the relationship between Parliament and the media. This, quite simply, beggars belief.
Mr M J BHENGU: Chairperson, I think that my Whip has made a mistake because I was not informed by him that I should participate.
Ms M P THEMBA: Chairperson, hon Minister, hon members, Parliament and the media are very important institutions in any democracy. The media, on the one hand, informs people, influences how they think and expresses its own liberal, free thoughts. Conceptualisation of political issues, events and personalities depend on what is portrayed by the media, meaning that the media can have a lot of influence on people and how they think and make decisions.
Parliament, on the other hand, represents the interests of the people, it is voted for by the people, engages with the people and passes legislation that is in the interests of the people. This is why it is critical that we communicate our activities and duties properly. It is therefore incumbent upon us to revisit our relationship with the media in order for both Parliament and the media to preserve the integrity of Parliament. We would like think that we have, over the past eight years, demonstrated our commitment to transparency and to making information available. Therefore a harmonious relationship between these two important spheres is very crucial.
To quote one of the speakers: ``An aspiring and ambitious democratic policy needs them both in equal measure and if that is so, the relationship between them cannot be that of allies or adversaries, but only complementary to each other.’’ For their relationship to be effective, they must have knowledge, understanding and appreciation of each other’s role, duties and functions, as well as of their own area of work and responsibility. They have to lead the path of morality and values, which would be an inspiration for the rest of the community.
This is very important especially in the time in which we live, a time in which one actually wonders what is happening to the moral fibre of our society. Therefore, today’s debate is about how the media and Parliament can work together in a productive way for us as a nation to have a true democracy, be a progressive nation and an African success. It is not a secret that we come from a very hostile past, but today is not about that, but at looking at workable solutions that are favourable to our democracy. As a new democracy, we have encountered a lot of challenges with regard to transformation, in particular with regard to the media. But today we say that the past must remain in the past. We can only learn from it and use it as a reminder of what we should never repeat as a nation.
The immediate objective should be to open the door to a relationship that is mutually constructive between Parliament and the media. Central to this should be a common objective that is dedicated to nation-building and the bettering of the standards of living of our people, the major focus being on unifying the nation, discouraging Afro-pessimism and working together so that we can indeed make this country ours.
The relationship between Parliament and the media has always been a subject of intense debate. To quote Ben Bradlee of the Washington Post:
Show me a government that is satisfied with the press, and I will show you an autocracy. Show me a press that is satisfied with the government, and I will show a lifeless and ill-informed people.
In a democracy it is the free choice of the media to report and comment as they wish. A free media is a product and a symbol of a true democracy.
A World Bank study showed that those countries with democratic governance, a free press and an impartial judiciary achieve higher levels of growth and development than others. Therefore, it is this free media that we support as Parliament and, together with the media, let us make our country an African success.
As the Minister and other colleagues have already mentioned, a weakness the media, both electronic and print, has consistently been displayed in its reporting on the activities of this important House of Parliament, the National Council of Provinces, especially in its debates, speeches and affairs.
For example, when the Select Committee on Labour and Public Enterprises was briefed this morning by the Department of Communications on a very important piece of legislation, the Electronic Communications and Transactions Bill, no media were present. Their focus is almost exclusively on what is happening in the National Assembly. We believe this to be invidious and would remind them that Parliament, after all, comprises two Houses, each one having its own identity and aura.
Moreover, we would like to assure the media that our efforts to suggest improvement should not be construed as interference and a threat to media freedom. We are forever mindful of our duty to ensure that our conduct and activities reflect the ethos of this institution.
Allow me to conclude with the words of Cicero, who said: ``For real respect is earned by improving one’s reputation by one’s own merits, not by climbing upon the distresses and disasters of someone else.’’ [Applause.]
The MINISTER IN THE PRESIDENCY: Chairperson, may I take this opportunity to welcome and express my deepest thanks to all the people who spoke in the debate today, particularly for all of the constructive points that were made by the speakers. I would just really like to say that I think this debate on how to improve relations between the NCOP now, specifically, and the media must carry on.
Let me make a suggestion, although this may have been done already as I sit in the other House and do not know what goes on here. Hon members might want to consider having an open session between themselves as the NCOP and the representatives of the media, including the parliamentary journalists over here. The aim of this session would not be to represent a particular party’s point of view, but for members of the NCOP to discuss with the media how the NCOP can be better reported in the media. We can complain, of course, but if nobody listens to one’s complaint it will still stay with one here.
Therefore, I propose that hon members consider doing something positive, if they have not done it already, and to have interaction with the media. I know that members sit on all these committees, but I cannot see that there should be anything in the parliamentary Rules that would prevent hon members from having such an interaction. I really think that that would be, perhaps, a useful starting point from the point of view of the NCOP getting and the media giving a greater amount of reporting on what goes on in the NCOP.
So, once more, let me thank the members of this House for a very constructive response to what I said and for the all kind words that were said. [Applause.]
Debate concluded.
SUSTAINABLE YOUTH DEVELOPMENT
(Subject for Discussion)
The MINISTER IN THE PRESIDENCY: Chairperson, as you know, a few days ago we lost a member of Parliament, the hon Peter Mokaba, who had been a leader of the youth movement in South Africa and who died while still very young. I want to take this opportunity, while addressing the NCOP on the issue of youth development, to express to the family of Peter Mokaba my own and, I am sure, the Council’s very deep sympathies.
The word sustainable'' seems to enjoy more Internet hits than most others
in the English language. Its use has become a habit in any discussion about
the way forward in human endeavour, and for good reason. It is a mark of
the degradation and danger that have befallen our planet that it is
necessary to prefix any serious discussion with the word sustainable’’.
This is because the planet is in danger, and any plans that we make need to
be sustainable. This means simply that things should be made to last.
In South Africa, our youth endured the brunt of the onslaught of the apartheid state and, in fact, missed out on much of their youth in consequence. This Sunday, 16 June, we as a nation will bow our heads and commemorate the thousands who were cut down by police bullets, wounded, jailed, tortured, harassed, whipped, teargassed and driven into exile. The struggle was a necessary and glorious interruption in their daily lives, and we witnessed then how, on both sides of the racial and political divide, young people were locked into violent conflict instead of being able to live ordinary lives in peaceful conditions.
The peace has now been won, the abnormal made normal, and we sit jointly here in Parliament, former friend and foe, as we approach the end of the first decade of our democracy with a sense of optimism, and living in a stable and progressing South Africa.
Particularly because of our country’s awful past and the way it adversely affected the youth, we owe young people now, the postapartheid generation, a chance to live out their lives to adulthood in a spirit of optimism and fulfilment. The Government must play its full role in achieving this, though this should be in active partnership with the private and NGO sector and civil society generally.
The youth themselves have heavy responsibilities. Their conduct and their bearing in public will influence in great measure how adult South Africa responds to their needs. They have to earn their place in the future, as much as the Soweto generation did with such brilliance and discipline, though employing different means.
I should like to make an earnest appeal to youth organisations across the board to take this point to heart, and to seek always to act with courtesy and respect for the law and peace and order in whatever campaigns they choose to pursue. The armed struggle days have gone. The new struggle, for development and jobs, is on in earnest.
With these thoughts, I commend to this honourable House, as appropriate to this debate, a document which will speed our nation towards integrated national youth development initiatives and programmes. It is the National Youth Development Policy Framework 2002-2007. I hope that those hon members who have not had an opportunity to study this document yet will do so after the debate and that those among the youth who have not read it yet will do the same. The framework was approved by the Cabinet late last year and has been made available by the National Youth Commission. It is an easy read at 20 pages and warrants careful study by members of this honourable House.
As I state in the foreword, one measure of a progressive state is the way it treats its youth. Our democracy is in the forefront of enlightenment in the world, for instance in upholding human and socioeconomic rights, in ensuring gender equity almost unequalled in the world, in resolute affirmative action and in adopting generous and tolerant attitudes on important social and moral issues. We must ensure that the way we treat the youth is in line with the levels of enlightenment we have achieved in other respects. The Government must take a lead. Its departments have, for a number of years, interacted with the National Youth Commission to ensure that youth issues remain central to their activities.
The framework provides an overall view of the national objectives being sought on the youth front. It sets out in some detail a whole range of matters, for example the historical context, the definition of ``young person’’ and the rights and responsibilities of youth. It describes in some detail the framework for the advancement of youth development generally, touching on subjects including nondiscrimination, the need for sustainability in both rural and urban settings, participation in the new struggle ahead, transparency, young women, youth with disabilities, unemployment and youth at risk. It also outlines strategic interventions and policy guidelines. The latter concern education and training, economic participation and empowerment, justice and safety, social mobilisation, capacity-building and advocacy. There are separate sections on the institutional environment: government, legislatures, independent institutions and civil society. It is a holistic, compelling account of what needs to be done.
A critical factor, as spelled out under sustainability'' in the
framework, is to ensure thatthe needs of the present are met without
compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs’’.
In these matters, the Government must not only take a lead; it must be tested. The objectives set out in the framework and other documents must be met and be seen to be met. The public at large must assess critically what has been achieved and what remains to be done. Public and private institutions, notably NGOs, should make their voices known on whether, in their view, we are achieving what we set out to do. Frameworks without action are empty.
This Parliament, and specifically this House, has a critical role to play in monitoring - through committees, plenaries and individual members’ effort - whether we are reaching our targets and realising our benchmarks. So I invite you all to make your input and to be frank and critical, if that is your wish. I would also invite hon members, on their provincial visits, to take this youth document with them and see to what extent the provincial governments themselves are remaining consistent with the national youth policy.
I would like also to use this opportunity to salute our youth in this Youth Development Month. It is a special month, a chance to rally to the presidential call, in the spirit of volunteerism or Vukuzenzele, to lend a hand. This call was central to the state of the nation speech that we listened to with such appreciation and conviction.
As the National Youth Commission co-ordinates a programme of activity that will see young people involved in partnerships with Government in the eradication of poverty through volunteerism in the cause of reconstruction and development; as the youth rally in the spirit of 1976 to the call ``Letsema: youth service for sustainable development’’; as the youth prepare for voluntary work in schools, hospitals, courts and prisons and in the fight against HIV and Aids, and help to register children eligible for the child support grant; and as Government departments set up centres where young people can offer themselves for voluntary work - as these things happen, we march on with a purpose.
The coming two months offer splendid opportunities and challenges for youth. Next month’s inauguration of the African Union and the gathering momentum for the G8 discussions in Canada on the New Partnership for Africa’s Development later this month will involve youth events including a SADC Youth Parliament and seminars. Youth will, moreover, be actively mobilised towards the World Summit on Sustainable Development at the end of August in Johannesburg.
Africa’s time has come. Youth’s time has come. [Applause.]
Mr G A LUCAS: Chairperson, hon Minister in the Presidency, hon members and hon special delegates, although Bafana Bafana have lost 3-2, I think we would all agree that they played with character and determination until the end. We must salute them for their splendid performance today and hope that in the near future, in 2006, we will bring the World Cup to Africa. In fact, there is still a chance of the World Cup being brought to Africa this year. Senegal is still there, performing very well, and we hope that Africa’s time has arrived.
In 1980, Comrade O R Tambo, the late president of the ANC, called upon the youth of our country to make the country ungovernable and the apartheid state unworkable. That generation of young people responded to his clarion call positively. Indeed, the country was made ungovernable and the apartheid state rendered unworkable. In each and every community young lions were roaring, demanding an end to apartheid and proclaiming the need for freedom for all.
At the helm of the massive youth resistance struggle was the sterling leadership of a young cadre, a selfless revolutionary, a loyal and dedicated young lion, a true volunteer, a patriot. Here I am speaking of Comrade Peter Mokaba.
Death has robbed us of a lion of the north. We therefore lower our revolutionary banner to bid farewell to the one we loved and respected. We will most definitely pick up the fallen spear and continue with the battle ahead, because we are supposed to do so as the young people of this country. We must look at the example set by our former cadres and move forward with the struggle for the improvement of the living conditions of our people.
This month of June has been declared Youth Development Month. Young people have responded to this clarion call with enthusiasm. June was not identified as a youth month just for its own sake, but in recognition of the fact that this month symbolises youth activism in the struggle against apartheid. We should remember that in 1952 we had the volunteers of Chief Albert Luthuli, who were, in the main, young people. These were the youth who went from door to door, from community to community, in preparation of the People’s Congress, which adopted the Freedom Charter on 26 June 1955. It is therefore no mere coincidence that this month was declared Youth Development Month.
We will also remember that 16 June 1976 represents an historic moment when young people were at the forefront of our resistance struggle against apartheid education and, in particular, against Bantu education and discrimination. We remember very well that the apartheid regime responded to people’s resistance with gun-crazy hooligans who had no respect for human life. They thought that by killing our people they would make us succumb and crush us into pieces. On the contrary, our struggle intensified and reached greater heights.
It was only a matter of time before they had to accept that apartheid had no future in this country and that the only solution to our problems was a democratic society and a democratic government.
Again amongst that generation was the leadership of Peter Ramoshoang Mokaba. Ra re robala ka kgotso, lesole la rona, qhawe lamaqhawe. [Rest in peace, our soldier, hero of heroes.]
The theme of ``Letsema: Youth Service for Sustainable Development’’ is an appropriate theme to call youth into action for voluntarism. This theme exactly responds to the challenge posed to all of us by our President at the beginning of this year that all of us must become volunteers for reconstruction and development. Accordingly, the National Youth Commission and the progressive youth formations have embarked on a vigorous youth mobilisation programme to ensure the success of our month-long programme of action.
Thus far, young people have responded positively to this challenge of voluntarism. In all communities young people are engaged in cleaning schools, hospitals and community centres while others are caring for those infected and affected by HIV/Aids and other communicable diseases.
On Saturday I was fortunate enough to be in Richmond, KwaZulu-Natal. All of us who are acquainted with Richmond know it to be an area that was involved in a great deal of trouble and violence. Today it is a peaceful area. When I was there on Saturday, young people were cleaning the school for the deaf. Everybody, in particular the young people of Richmond, from across party-political boundaries, was participating in that programme of cleaning that school. This shows the significance of the struggle that our youth waged in the past. It is beginning to bear fruit. We are beginning to realise that peace is achievable and, indeed, that a better life is achievable under these conditions.
The challenge that remains is that beyond this month, we need to inculcate a culture of voluntarism amongst young people, to do away with tendencies of material gain and, at all times and above everything, to inculcate a culture of Ubuntu/Botho.
Motswana o rile motho ke motho ka batho ba bangwe. Re kgona go agisana setshaba fa re dirisa mmogo. [Unity is the power. We can build the nation if we work together.]
It is what we need to build in our youth. The National Youth Commission, the Umsobomvu Youth Fund, the Land Bank and other state agencies will be launching various programmes and projects to ensure youth participation in the economy. These projects will mostly be launched in the various nodal points identified by the President. This is in response to youth unemployment and skill shortages in our country, and in particular in the nodal points that have been identified.
For instance, the National Youth Commission and the Land Bank will be launching youth farming projects in Groblershoop in the Northern Cape and Bethlehem in the Free State. These farms will be owned, managed and run by young people themselves. They will be accountable and will report to those who will be constituting these youth farming projects. Indeed, this is a very noble objective that all of us must support, which seeks to address some of the problems that are there.
Although young people still face immense challenges, all of us must take collective responsibility in meeting them. Government, the private sector and society at large must play a meaningful role in addressing problems which affect young people. At the outset I must dispel the notion that South Africa has failed its youth. South Africa has not failed its youth and it will never fail them. Those who seek popularity on the basis of saying that South Africa has failed its citizens have got no future in our country and have got no role to play in the advancement of our revolutionary course.
There are indeed challenges which the Minister has highlighted in terms of the youth policy. Central among those is the question of youth unemployment. The other issue is the question of the lack of skills among the young and, in particular, the access of those who are previously disadvantaged to institutions of higher learning and the fact that the Setas that we have established do not cater for youth who are unemployed. These are some of the challenges we need to continue to meet. The other challenge we must address, which continues to plague us, is the question of poverty and, indeed, problems related to poverty with respect to HIV/Aids, TB and malaria and other communicable diseases. All of us as a collective must respond to it with vigour and enthusiasm. Again another challenge is to ensure that we clearly define the role of the youth in the rebirth of the African continent, in particular with regard to the African Union and Nepad, especially in ensuring that there is popular participation by the youth in the success of our continental renaissance.
The other challenge that still remains is the question of youth service, in particular how we approach the implementation of the National Youth Service Programme, as formulated by the National Youth Commission.
In conclusion I do hope and wish that members of this House and other public representatives will prioritise the issue of youth development in their constituency work, precisely because the success and improvement of the living conditions of young people indicate the success of the nation as a whole. We owe it to the youth of yesterday, today and tomorrow to ensure that we succeed. We cannot fail and we will never fail, and, indeed, Afrika ke nako! [Africa, now is the time!] [Applause.]
The DEPUTY CHAIRPERSON OF THE NCOP (Mr M L Mushwana): I allowed the youth one or two more minutes, because there is no other youth in the House, I believe. [Laughter.]
Mr N M RAJU: Chairperson, hon Minister in the Presidency and hon colleagues, let me also preface my remarks by paying special tribute to the youthful Bafana Bafana and echo sentiments expressed by the previous speaker. Though our youthful team made their exit from the World Cup today having lost 2-3 to Spain, they have, however, shown promise, resilience and character in the matches played there. That is what matters in the final analysis. As a famous Englishman once said,
For when the One Great Scorer comes To write against your name, He marks - not that you won or lost - But how you played the game.
The team has brought the nation pride and honour, although it failed to go to the second round, but the world has now taken note of the quality of soccer that emanates from the Southern tip of the African continent. Bafana Bafana, we love you. [Interjections.]
That the June 1976 uprising of the youth of Soweto played a cataclysmic role in hastening the arrival of a democratic dispensation in South Africa is beyond dispute. That ever since the Vietnam War for instance, it was the youth that formed the phalanx of the war battalions is beyond dispute. That in recent years also, in internecine, interethnic wars that ravaged fiercely like an uncontrollable inferno in Central Africa and Sierra Leone, the combatants and victims were men and women in their prime is also beyond dispute.
Can we then deny that the youth of the world, wherever they may be - indeed, the flowers of the nation, to use the description of Bob Dylan, when he captured the pain and anguish of the American nation in a song entitled ``Where Have All the Flowers gone?’’ - have sacrificed their lives in the cause of democracy and freedom, and a common brotherhood/sisterhood of men and women? Can we also doubt that right here on our doorstep, in Boipatong, Katlehong, Umlazi, KwaMashu and such places, when violence erupted in the cause of political hegemony, hundreds of our young compatriots paid the ultimate price?
So we stand today, as South Africans across the political spectrum, either with our heads bowed or with our fists raised in silent tribute to the valiant, intrepid, young men and women who led the struggle forward.
But is the struggle really over? For starters, the spectre of unemployment has cast a dark shadow on the future of our youth. The anger and disillusionment felt by them in our society is increasingly difficult to contain. I really sympathise with the Minister, and with the Government, because there is no doubt that the Government places a very high premium on the development of our youth.
But for national Government’s plans to be meaningful, there must be other players - the provinces, the private sector, the corporate world and fellow South Africans - to join forces so that together, hand in hand, we can take our youth to greener pastures.
Unfortunately, in recent months, we have seen an ugly side of youth anger and disillusionment: the trashing of university campuses, the defiance shown against school management, the looting and outright vandalism. The temptation is to condemn these acts as sheer hooliganism and thuggery, but I hear a shrill cry from somewhere that these are the manifestations of tortured souls. The Government and all of us must hearken to the plaintive cries and address the problems that afflict or hinder the development of our youth.
I shall refrain from contemplating the ghastly consequences and the toll of HIV/Aids that is condemning the flowers of our nation to premature death. The consequent loss to the economy is unthinkable. Poverty triumphs when the most productive of our youth succumb to this pestilence.
We must surely attempt to address the co-ordination between national and provincial government in youth programme delivery. We must seriously attempt to manage the roll-out of National Youth Service projects and the delivery of Government departments. The National Youth Commission’s public advocacy and media profile also need revisiting.
Finally, let us harness the enormous energies and goodwill of our youth for the betterment of all South Africans. [Applause.]
Mr F ADAMS: Chairperson, hon Minister, hon members of this House, with roughly half the world’s population currently under the age of 25, young people are a global priority. They will either threaten or contribute to the global economy and global security now and in future. The goal for young people must go beyond survival to development and involvement. It is in their and our interest to ensure an adequate standard of living and protection from economic, sexual, emotional and physical harm or exploitation.
Global productivity and security will hinge on developing their full potential and engaging them not only as beneficiaries, but as participants and problem-solvers. Research confirms what parents around the world know. Every young person needs five basic things to not only survive but thrive: at least one adult who is irrationally committed to his or her wellbeing; a safe place for sleeping, playing, learning, working and being; a healthy start and a healthy lifestyle; the chance to contribute and serve others; and opportunities to learn values and marketable skills for adulthood.
Vanjaar, met die viering van Jeugdag, is die 26ste herdenking van die 1976- opstande. Die jeug van Suid-Afrika moet voortdurend talle uitdagings in die gesig staar. Armoede en onderontwikkeling is die oorsaak van baie van die euwels in die samelewing. Om hierdie rede is die volgende tema in jeug geledere aanvaarbaar: ``Letsema, jeugdiens vir volhoubare ontwikkeling.’’
Geïnspireer deur die nasionale oproep van Vukuzenzele moet daar gedurende die jeugontwikkelingsmaand van Junie, en daarna, ‘n aantal aktiwiteite plaasvind wat sal fokus op dienslewering. Die skepping van ‘n soort vrywilligerskorps in alle gemeenskappe sal die ruggraat vorm om die volhoubaarheid van jeugdiens, ook ná Junie, te verseker.
Die jeug moet ook kennis neem van die belangrike besluite wat geneem is deur die leiers van die kontinent van Afrika vir die transformasie van die Organisasie vir Afrika-Eenheid na die Afrika Unie, en die loodsing van die Nuwe Vennootskap vir Afrika se Ontwikkeling (Nepad). (Translation of Afrikaans paragraphs follows.)
[This year, with the celebration of Youth Day, it will be the 26th anniversary of the 1976 unrest. The youth of South Africa must continuously face numerous challenges. Poverty and underdevelopment are the root of many evils in society. For this reason the following theme is acceptable amongst the youth: “Letsema, youth service for sustainable development.’’
Inspired by the national call for Vukuzenzele, a number of activities that will focus on delivery of service must take place during June, the month for youth development, and afterwards. The creation of a type of volunteer corps in all communities will form the backbone to ensure the sustainability of youth service, even after June. The youth must take note of the important decisions taken by the leaders of the African continent for the transformation of the Organisation for African Unity to the African Union, and the launch of the New Partnership for African Development, Nepad.]
Yet alongside this growing urgency, there is hope. There are people and programmes throughout the world that are effectively meeting young people’s needs. In the same vein, the youth must be supported to fulfil their potential through proper parenting and upbringing, as well as through the acquisition of functional education and skills. Adequate recreational and sporting facilities, as well as opportunities in the arts, must be provided to ensure the all-round development of South African youth.
The youth must focus on holistic development, emphasising prevention and early intervention, not just treatment and remediation; the development of a young person’s character, competence, confidence and connectedness to his or her community; and the active involvement of youth in carrying out the programmes, combined with involvement by parents and community members, so all feel they have invested in a programme’s success.
Sustaining effective practice goes far beyond individual programmes themselves. It requires commitment at all levels of society to the issues facing today’s young people and our collective future. It requires sound government policies. It requires co-ordinated efforts among the public, private and nonprofit sectors. No one organisation or group can do it alone. That is why we must forge strategic partnerships, helping to build a critical mass of understanding, commitment and action in support of today’s children and youth.
Over the past years, we have seen the important role which the hon the President, the hon the Minister in the Presidency, provincial Ministers and the National Youth Commission are playing in enhancing and strengthening the role of the youth.
We in the New NP know that our future depends on the quality of the development of our youth. We will therefore do everything in our power to ensure sustainable development of the highest possible quality for all our youth and continue constructively to participate in the mainstream of politics, so that we can make a meaningful, positive contribution to making our country work and to creating a better future for our youth and all our people. [Applause.]
Ms P C P MAJODINA: Chairperson, in the name of my Creator and in the name of my Saviour Jesus Christ I greet this honourable House. Let me wish all fathers a happy Fathers’ Day. A happy Fathers’ Day also to all mothers who act as fathers in their homes. [Interjections.] As a tribute to my leader, Comrade Peter Mokaba, I would like to say to him: Go well and tell them that the youth are still on track. Without you, as the former president of the ANC Youth League, no one is going to put the perspective of the ANC Youth League in the correct way there in heaven, because I believe that the ANC is also governing somewhere.
We hold this debate on the eve of the 23rd anniversary of Youth Day. As this historic event is remembered, the ANC Youth League is calling on today’s youth to continue that struggle for a better society on a sustained basis through a volunteer corps. The youth must volunteer to register needy children for the child support grant and to clean schools and public spaces in communities.
The 1976 youth uprising has formed a permanent feature in the history of the liberation struggle in South Africa. The freedom that we enjoy today has largely been shaped by deliberate youth action in our country. The contribution of many young people in fighting the previous undemocratic regime cannot be questioned. It is there to be seen in the struggle embodied in the gallant and selfless service of uMkhonto weSizwe, with many young people swelling its ranks. It is fitting that Youth Month should provide the necessary zeal and activism and inspire all to serve to build reconciliation and unite all South Africans. This Youth Month should revive the spirit of patriotism shown by the class of the 1970s and 1980s, many of whom gave up their youth in exchange for the freedom we enjoy today. Youth month is a month that repositions us as youth firmly in the path of the African Renaissance.
It is also important to note that our young people live at a time when the whole of Africa is liberated. One significant factor about our youth in our country today is that they see beyond immediate demands and aspire to a fundamental change in the socioeconomic situation. The youth today should be in the forefront of the struggle to reconstruct and develop our country.
Youth faces challenges across the spectrum of society, whether it be in the home environment from abusive parents, in the schools from exploitative educators, in the communities from rapists and child-traffickers, in the economy from job shortages or in their health from deadly diseases such as HIV/Aids.
We must make a clarion call to the youth to be involved in national youth service for sustainable development. Our young people must be encouraged to respond to the President’s calls for volunteer work. They must be encouraged to lend a helping hand in the following areas: being part of the fight against drug abuse; joining the reservists, road construction youth brigades or community policing forums; being informers and assisting in the fight against crime and against the abuse of women and children; mobilising the youth and community around the objectives of Nepad; mobilising and uniting African youth in the defence of the African Union; struggling against the scourge of HIV/Aids; and fighting to eradicate poverty through the Vukuzenzele concept.
The youth need a skills-orientated type of education so as to fit well in an economic market. If the children and youth of a nation are afforded the opportunity to develop their capacity to the fullest, if they are given the knowledge to understand the world and the wisdom to change it, then the prospects for the future are bright. In contrast, a society which neglects its children, however well it may function in other respects, risks eventual disorganisation and demise. To us every South African is valuable and therefore irreplaceable. Sustainable moral regeneration in society will allow our youth to have role models in their communities. [Applause.]
Mr T B TAABE: Chairperson, hon Minister Comrade Essop Pahad and hon members, we meet here today on the eve of the celebration and commemoration of the struggle of the youth of this country spanning decades. Today’s debate on sustainable youth development therefore remains relevant and befitting this occasion.
One of the gallant fighters of our times, the late Comrade Solomon Mahlangu, who went to the gallows on 6 April 1979, had this to say, and I quote:
My blood will nourish the tree that will bear the fruit of freedom. Tell my people that I love them and that they must continue the struggle.
I thought it was indeed critical to raise this today in the light of us making a concerted effort to fight poverty, the HIV/Aids epidemic and problems relating to colossal unemployment and other socioeconomic ills facing young people in this country today.
Our President asked an equally significant question on 5 April 2001, when he asked, and I quote:
Why did our Youth perform heroic feats of struggle in 1976 and later years? Why does our country owe them a permanent debt?
It so is precisely because our country at one stage had no hope of making progress in the political, economic, social and cultural spheres because apartheid madness had become a heavy chain blocking all development. The situation at the time demanded that our people as a whole understood that they could not delegate the struggle to somebody else while they waited for victory day so that they could join the celebrations. Hence, in the centrality of the mass struggle, in our strategy for the victory of the national democratic revolution, the youth added enormously to that mass struggle. In fact the youth of this country led such struggles. We should continuously remind ourselves of why we owe our youth a permanent debt, but also, above all, of why we must ensure that the youth play a proactive role in the transformation of this country.
Whatever strategy we employ as the ANC to address the complex challenges facing young people must, therefore, unmask past imbalances and issues relating to gender inclusivity, combat racism, ensure ongoing participation of the youth in matters affecting them and - as we used to say during the heyday of our struggle in the words of the popular slogan - attack the enemy on all fronts. This time around I guess we should be talking about attacking the Aids enemy on all fronts. I think this is the most pressing challenge facing us today as young people.
The determination of young people to liberate this country from apartheid and inequality is still needed for sustainable youth development. We must celebrate with the youth of our country the fact that new opportunities have opened up for them irrespective of race, colour, creed or sex.
As the ANC we have committed ourselves to mobilising our people, the youth in particular, to become participants in the process of the reconstruction and development of our country. We have resolved on strategies that would seek to end the situation of the demobilisation of young people, some of whom have come to believe that all that they have to do is to wait to receive whatever benefits the Government can bring them. We believe that young people must be organised and activated to become their own liberators from poverty and underdevelopment.
The programmes we have engaged in as the ANC this year, which has been declared the Year of the Volunteer, we hope have made and will continue to make a positive difference to the lives of young people in this country. These activities were not and are not, we contend, once-off efforts but rather part of a programme which communities can sustain. We would continue to encourage the youth to contribute to a culture of community service and development throughout the length and breadth of our country.
We must assert that this development requires the support of all sectors and not only Government. In this vein, the time has come to call on our brothers and sisters, particularly in the black economic empowerment sector, to match the commitment which we have made as the youth of this country and indeed as Government in terms of ensuring that they can be drawn into the epicentre of the country’s economy. They must plough back into our communities to provide for much-needed skills for young people and for the creation of much-needed jobs, for they are faced with a very simple and stark choice. They must either practically assist the youth in sustainable projects or they will relegate our youth to a future of poverty and underdevelopment. At worst they run the risk of wanting to create a nation whose culture is rooted in enrichment, individualism and narcissism, a nation without a common purpose, pursuing its own goals at the peril of the youth of this country. I think this is the challenge we must put to our brothers, particularly in the BEE, or block economic empowerment sector. What, then, is the potential role that our business community could and should be playing in our journey towards building a human society whose youth is empowered?
Our national campaign must be built on our passion to contribute towards and share in the experience of the realisation of the potential of our South African youth. Our vision should therefore be one of a South African community where we all have a commitment to social and economic justice, where we share in the custodianship of and take co-responsibility with our fellow South Africans for extending the socioeconomic wellbeing of young South Africans across the racial divide and spectrum.
To the youth of our country, wherever they are, in case they are watching this debate this afternoon, I have these words to say: The new challenge is a continuation of struggles that we have been waging in the past. The reward for the new struggle is the ability to challenge obstacles. Ignoring them is equal to failure. [Applause.]
The MINISTER IN THE PRESIDENCY: Chairperson, let me reiterate once more what I said last week when I was here. It is always a pleasure to be in this House. The hon members are very nice. They are very kind to each other and to the Ministers too. [Laughter.] Let me thank all of the speakers. There are some powerful orators here, and perhaps Comrade Peter did hear the message.
If I had closed my eyes when listening the hon Mr Raju I would have been able to tell his age, but I can tell now because of his grey hair. I want to thank him for reminding this House about a period in the life of all of us, the Vietnamese struggle and what happened then. But, just in case, I would like to tell Mr Raju that ``Where have all the flowers gone?’’ is not a Bob Dylan song. It is an old American folk song made famous by Joan Baez. Hon members can tell my age from that. [Laughter.]
But we were all young once, including the President of this country, who at one stage was a leader of the ANC Youth League. On Sunday, which is 16 June, after he officially launches Freedom Park in Pretoria, he will go to Bloemfontein to attend the national Youth Celebrations organised by the National Youth Commission, because it is one his tasks and responsibilities to ensure that on national Youth Day, at least, he speaks to the youth of our country.
In case hon members did not know, on 18 June, when we have the debate on the Presidency’s Budget Vote in the National Assembly, he will no longer be young, he is going to turn 60. We are going to welcome him into the ranks of the veterans, because he will have left his youth behind. On Sunday he can make his last speech as a youth, because he will turn 60 on 18 June.
Let me also take this opportunity to thank the Deputy Minister for Provincial and Local Government for allowing my two debates to come before hers. She very kindly agreed to that. I did explain to her that I have to rush somewhere else.
Once more I would like to thank the NCOP very much for all the opportunities that it has given me. I cannot wait to go to the renovated Chamber to do this. I am a bit tired of coming here - of walking past this building and going to the NCOP Chamber, then seeing building works and saying,``Oh God! They are still in the Old Assembly’’. [Laughter.] Could the hon members of the NCOP please ask them to hurry up so that I can go to the right place at the right time when I am invited again? I thank this House very much for all the invitations. [Applause.]
The DEPUTY CHAIRPERSON OF THE NCOP (Mr M L Mushwana): Order! Ms Versfeld, I am sorry, but I did not see you. On what are you rising?
Mrs A M VERSFELD: Chairperson, on a point of order: I would like to know whether it is advisable for the Deputy Minister to swear in this Chamber.
The DEPUTY CHAIRPERSON OF THE NCOP (Mr M L Mushwana): Order! Who is the Deputy Minister, by the way? [Interjections.]
Mrs A M VERSFELD: Chairperson, I am speaking to the Chair. I am asking a question. Is it advisable to swear? [Interjections.]
The DEPUTY CHAIRPERSON OF THE NCOP (Mr M L Mushwana): Who is that? Do not speak in parables. [Interjections.]
The MINISTER IN THE PRESIDENCY: Chairperson, I am a Minister and not a Deputy Minister, to start with. [Laughter.] Through the Chair, if she is offended, I withdraw the word. I do not see why she should be so offended, but OK.
Mrs A M VERSFELD: Thank you. [Interjections.]
Debate concluded.
COMMISSION FOR THE PROMOTION AND PROTECTION OF THE RIGHTS OF CULTURAL, RELIGIOUS AND LINGUISTIC COMMUNITIES BILL
(Consideration of Bill and of Report thereon)
The DEPUTY MINISTER FOR PROVINCIAL AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT: Chairperson, I am not sure which Chairperson I ought to thank. [Laughter.]
First of all, I would like to pay a special tribute to the late Comrade Peter Mokaba. I wish to express my deepest sympathy to his family, comrades and friends. May his soul rest in peace.
May I just correct one thing? My initials are N G W, and not L. They have taken the wind out of my sails, because it is now 18:55.
We come from a past when the policies of the then Government were designed to treat Bantus, coloureds and Indians, as they were then called, as inferior citizens of this country - a time when the cultures, religions and languages of the indigenous people of this country were deliberately and systematically stifled or obliterated. By introducing this piece of legislation, we believe that we can, all together as a nation, find ways of ending this legacy of the past, which was brought about by colonialism and apartheid.
The Bill that we are debating today, in this House, is a national effort to find a sustainable way of addressing the interests and aspirations of all the cultural, religious and linguistic groups within our diverse society in a balanced manner which would, in the final analysis, benefit the nation as a whole. We should therefore desist from creating false hopes and expectations.
Let us also be reminded today that, in 1996, we adopted a Constitution in which we proudly declared that we ``believe that South Africa belongs to all who live in it, united in our diversity’’, and this we need to uphold. In his speech opening the National Assembly debate on the establishment of the Commission for the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Cultural, Religious and Linguistic Communities in August 1998, President Thabo Mbeki, then the Deputy President, challenged all of us to identify the role that each one of us would play in the transformation process in our country. He directed the question to all of us when he said (Hansard 1998, col 4611):
What is it that we will have to do together to overturn the great inequalities created by our colonial and apartheid past? What must be done to create a situation of equality among our diverse cultural, religious and linguistic groups so that they can live and build a happy future together in conditions of peace and friendship, united by their common humanity?
As we debate in this House today, I would ask that we keep this in mind.
I believe that this Bill, particularly the establishment of this commission, is an important step in strengthening South Africa’s constitutional democracy and the process of nation-building and reconciliation which our Government embarked upon in 1994.
Equality for all citizens is the cornerstone of our Constitution, which embodies the core founding values of the South African state, namely nonracialism and nonsexism. It is for this reason that we consciously incorporated, in section 185 of the Constitution, the primary objects of the commission, which are: to promote respect for the rights of cultural, religious and linguistic communities; to promote and develop peace, friendship, humanity, tolerance and national unity among cultural, religious and linguistic communities, on the basis of equality, nondiscrimination and free association; and to recommend the establishment or recognition, in accordance with national legislation, of a cultural or other council or councils for a community or communities in South Africa.
The challenge is to demonstrate that within a culture of nonracialism and nonsexism, various cultural, religious and linguistic communities can prosper and jointly provide content to the South African nation. The commission has the task of promoting this unity in diversity as envisaged in the preamble to the Constitution. This Bill provides for the following objects of the commission: to promote respect for and further the protection of the rights of the cultural, religious and linguistic communities; to promote and develop peace, friendship, humanity, tolerance and national unity among and within cultural, religious and linguistic communities; to foster mutual respect among cultural, religious and linguistic communities; to promote the right of communities to develop their historically diminished heritage; and to recommend the establishment or recognition of community councils.
The Bill enables the commission to monitor, investigate, research, educate, lobby, advise and report on any issues concerning the rights of cultural, religious and linguistic communities. The commission may also bring any relevant matter to the attention of appropriate authority.
The involvement of cultural, religious and linguistic communities in the work of the commission is provided for through the national consultative conferences. The commission must convene two conferences during every five- year term of the commission, consisting of delegates from the various cultural, religious and linguistic communities and governmental and nongovernmental role-players. The purpose of the conferences will be to provide a forum for discussion and for the evaluation of progress and to provide an opportunity for requests and recommendations to the commission.
The Bill links the commission to communities by providing for the recognition of community councils. The aims of community councils are described in the Bill as, firstly, to preserve, promote and develop the culture, religion and language of the community for which it is recognised and, secondly, to advise the commission on, and assist in, matters concerning the achievement of the objects of the commission.
The Bill provides that the commission be composed of a chairperson and no fewer than 11 and no more than 17 other members appointed by the President in accordance with a procedure set out in the Bill. The commission must be broadly representative of the main cultural, religious and linguistic communities and broadly reflect the gender composition of South Africa.
Given the historical legacy of division in our country, the process of establishing the commission needs to be managed in such a manner that it enhances tolerance and unity, rather than promotes ethnic and racial prejudices. In order to achieve this, the Department of Provincial and Local Government and the technical committee embarked on an elaborate process of consultation in 1998, with the aim of ensuring inclusive deliberations and collective ownership of the commission by all stakeholders.
The commission is one of the constitutional institutions supporting our democracy. By giving effect to the Constitution through the establishment of this commission, we, as South Africans, are contributing to the process of building a united and democratic nation. The establishment of the Commission for the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Cultural, Religious and Linguistic Communities is only the start of a long and hard road. I do believe that we are on course. However, time will tell whether we are able to meet the challenge posed by President Thabo Mbeki.
In conclusion, I wish to take this opportunity to thank the technical committee, under the able leadership of Prof Marivate, who handled the consultation processes meticulously and with dedication. I also wish to thank the Select Committee on Local Government and Administration, as well as the Portfolio Committee on Provincial and Local Government, for the hard work which resulted in this exceptional piece of legislation.
Lastly, I would like to thank the officials of the Department of Provincial and Local Government who assisted both the technical committee and the parliamentary committees. I commend this Bill to the hon members. [Applause.]
Mr B J MKHALIPHI: Chairperson, hon Deputy Minister and hon members, the concept of the commission emerged from a heated debate over whether South Africa’s new Constitution should balance the protection of individual rights with mechanisms to protect the collective rights of South Africa’s various cultural, religious and linguistic communities. At that time, 1994- 1996, this position was advanced most forcefully by proponents of Afrikaner nationalism. In its strongest, or should I say most negative, version, it took the form of a call for political autonomy through separate administrative structures such as the now defunct volkstaat.
The Constitutional Assembly overwhelmingly rejected this approach. However, as a comprise, it provided for a special commission that could prevent discrimination against any cultural, religious or linguistic group and promote tolerance and mutual respect amongst these various groups. Several drafts of the Commission for the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Cultural, Religious and Linguistic Communities Bill were discussed at national conferences on Heritage Day, 24 September, in 1998 and 1999, and at provincial workshops held in the middle of 2000.
Of the six state institutions mandated to support constitutional democracy in this country, the Commission for the Promotion and Protection of Cultural, Religious and Linguistic Communities is the only Chapter 9 institution not yet established as contemplated in section 181 of the Constitution. Therefore, part of our business here today is to finalise this piece of legislation, not only to comply with the stipulations of our Constitution, but to bring closer to reality the noble notion of our founding fathers - that is, to nurture an enabling environment for a free, nonracial, nonsexist and united society.
The drafters of our Constitution, in their wisdom, rightly recognised the power of persuasion as opposed to compulsion in order to achieve a change of mindset. While it is possible, perhaps, to enforce the tenets of the Bill of Rights, a lasting transformation of a mindset is better achieved by persuasion. This explains the difference in approach between this commission and the other Chapter 9 institutions.
True to the spirit of the drafters, the operative terms in this Bill are,
amongst others, promote'', protect’’, persuade'', recommend’’,
facilitate'' and co-ordinate’’. This puts the intention of the
legislator clearly, so that the commission’s functions do not necessarily
overlap with those of other institutions performing almost similar
functions. Wider consultation and research has, on my part, eliminated the
perceived grey areas when the functions of this commission and those of,
perhaps, the Human Rights Commission are compared.
Closer and objective scrutiny of the arrangements for the effective functioning of the commission reassures one that this commission will be a credible and accountable institution with the requisite power and resources to fulfil the mandate of healing the wounds of the past, progressively achieving unity in our diversity while we respect and tolerate the cultures, religions and languages of one another.
I am sure that each of us practises and, to some extent, enjoys, though sometimes unaware of doing so, the culture of one or the other group. Distorted and discredited history books of Bantu education portrayed hunting as a culture of primitive people. But now who goes out on hunting safaris these days? I will not bore hon members with the answer. If hon members doubt my assertion, could they explain the mushrooming of thatched rondavels in the elite suburbs of our cities? In one way or the other, each one of us spontaneously but subconsciously declares: ``Hi, Mr Khoi. I need your language in order to augment the culture which I am enjoying and which I learnt from Mr San.’’
Passing this piece of legislation today will go a long way towards the advancement of the noble project of nation-building. [Applause.]
Ms C S BOTHA: Chairperson and hon Deputy Minister Botha … [Interjections.] … globalisation presupposes that the dominant culture is the acceptable culture. In this regard, the dominant culture assumes a homogenisation of cultures. This is a problem. We in this part of the world, seized as we are with a variety of cultures, have to ensure that our cultures live. Our cultural diversity must survive.
This is a direct quote, not from a South African publication, as members might have thought, but from the ambassador from Saint Kitts and Nevis at a conference on the Caribbean.
Sela en amen. Politieke vryheid gee implisiet erkenning aan diversiteit. ‘n Uniforme gemeenskap sal net deur dwang tot stand kom en is lynreg teenstrydig met die grondliggende filosofie van die DA. Daarom steun ons dus enige wetgewing wat die diversiteit eie aan ons in Suid-Afrika wil koester en ook hierdie wetgewing.
Ons neem die Grondwet ernstig op, wat aan almal die gegee reg het om die taal van sy of haar keuse te gebruik. Ek wil sommer al 11 amptelike tale in die Grondwet by naam noem, so mooi is hulle: Sepedi, Sesoetoe, Setswana, Siswati, Tsivenda, Xitsonga, Afrikaans, Engels, isiNdebele, isiXhosa en isiZulu. [Tussenwerpsels.]
Daarby het ons die bepaling van die PanSAT wat alle amptelike tale moet bevorder en ontwikkel. Dit klink alles wonderlik, maar is dit? Hierdie Regering oortuig my nie daarvan dat dit hulle erns is om in enigiets meer as lippetaal te betuig aan hierdie vrome wetgewing nie.
Die Engelssprekende eentalige Minister Asmal kom gister weer in hierdie Huis met ‘n stelling dat taal nie ‘n hindernis moet wees vir toelating van enige student tot die Universiteit van Stellenbosch en Potchefstroom nie. Goed en wel, maar wat beteken dit? Overgeset synde: Afrikaans moet plek maak vir Engels. Let wel, hy vra nie dat Engels moet plek maak vir Afrikaans by die Universiteit van Kaapstad nie. Dit gaan in wese net oor die posisie wat Afrikaans het.
Wat beteken dit vir al die ander amptelike tale? Dit beteken maar hulle kan hul moedertaalbehoeftes op hulle magies skryf en met hul hempies uitvee. Hierso kry ek vandag van die Minister af ‘n hele klomp boeke - 11 tale, almal amptelike tale. Hy wil vertel dat ons tot standerd 9 en 10 al die lieflike tale leer. En wat gebeur dan daarna? As hy nie eens in hierdie stadium kans sien dat Afrikaans sy regmatige plek aan die universiteite inneem nie, wat gaan hy met al hierdie ander tale maak wat julle mense hier praat? [Tussenwerpsels.] Ons sal sien. Hy sal maak wat hy met Afrikaans maak. Nie een van daardie tale sal tot hulle reg kom in hierdie land nie. Al ons praatjies van kulturele diversiteit gaan van die tafel gevee word.
Neville Alexander het vandeesweek die benadering van die Minister op sy naam genoem. Hy sê dit is nonsens. Dit beteken dat sprekers hul reg op hul taal moet opsê, omdat ander dit nie verstaan nie. Vergeet van die mooi lysie van taalname wat ek voorheen genoem het. As dit van hierdie Regering en sy meelopers afhang, dan is dit: Engels, Engels, alles Engels. Engels wat jy sien en hoor - en die res is niks meer as ‘n slampamperliedjie nie. [Tussenwerpsels.] (Translation of Afrikaans paragraphs follows.)
[Amen to that. Political freedom implicitly recognises diversity. A uniform community will only come into being by force and is in direct opposition with the fundamental philosophy of the DA. We therefore support any legislation which seeks to nurture the diversity unique to us in South Africa, and also this legislation.
We take the Constitution seriously, which has given everyone the right to use the language of his or her choice. I would just like to name all 11 official languages in the Constitution. They are so beautiful: Sepedi, Sesotho, Setswana, siSwati, Tsivenda, Xitsonga, Afrikaans, English, isiNdebele, isiXhosa and isiZulu. [Interjections.]
In addition to that we have the stipulation of PanSALB which must promote and develop all official languages. This all sounds wonderful, but is it? This Government is not convincing me that they are serious about doing anything more than paying lip service to this pious legislation.
The English-speaking, unilingual Minister Asmal made a statement here again in this House yesterday that language should not be an obstacle to admission to the University of Stellenbosch and the University of Potchefstroom for any student. That is all well and good, but what does it mean? In my opinion: Afrikaans must make way for English. Please note, he is not asking that English should make way for Afrikaans at the University of Cape Town. The issue is essentially just about the position which Afrikaans holds.
What does this mean for all the other official languages? It means that their mother-tongue needs are merely wishful thinking. Today I received from the Minister a whole pile of books - 11 languages, all official languages. He says that we learn all the beautiful languages up to standards 9 and 10. And what happens after that? If at this stage he does not even see his way clear for Afrikaans to take its rightful place at the universities, what is he going to do with all these other languages which you people speak here? [Interjections.] We will see. He will do what he is doing with Afrikaans. Not one of those languages will come into their own in this country. All our talk about cultural diversity is going to be wiped from the table.
This week Neville Alexander called the Minister’s approach by its name. He said it is nonsense. It means that speakers have to give up their right to their language, because others do not understand it. Forget the lovely list of languages which I mentioned earlier. If it were up to this Government and its followers, then it would be: English, English, everything English. What you heard and saw would be English - and the rest nothing more than a carousal song. [Interjections.]]
Chairperson, please help me here with this gentleman.
Die ANC is so gretig om die Wes-Kaap in hul mag te kry en die Nuwe NP … [The ANC are so keen to get the Western Cape under their control and the New NP …]
Mr V V W WINDVOëL: Chairperson, on a point of order: Is it in order for the
hon member to refer to us as you people'', instead of saying hon
members’’? [Interjections.]
The DEPUTY CHAIRPERSON OF COMMITTEES: Hon member, can you respond to that? Did you say that?
Ms C S BOTHA: Chairperson, yes, certainly. I will rephrase, ``the languages of all the hon members here’’. I agree, it is most preferable to put it that way.
Ons mense, julle mense, almal wat hier sit, ek, ons almal. [Our people, your people, everyone who is sitting here, myself, all of us.] But I will say ``the hon people’’. It is preferable by far. I have so many interesting things to say about languages that I will have to cut out of my speech, because I know my time has been used by this question. Therefore I will concentrate on one or two points.
Die ANC is so gretig om die Wes-Kaap in hul mag te kry en die Nuwe NP is so haastig om hulle daarmee te help, dat die Nasionaliste bereid is om hul geboortereg vir ‘n pot lensiesop te verkoop. Hier is derduisende Afrikaanssprekendes wat gewag het om van die NP ontslae te raak, sodat Afrikaans ook bevry kan word van sy politieke juk. Wat gebeur nou? Alles behalwe Engels word die slagoffer van die historiese stryd van mense wat nie slaag daarin om die uitdagings van ‘n nuwe en diverse Suid-Afrika te bemeester nie.
As die kommissie effektief gaan wees, sal dit onder andere moet kennis neem dat van die 5 000 tot 7 000 tale wat vandag in die wêreld gepraat word … [Tussenwerpsels.] Ag nee, man. (Translation of Afrikaans paragraphs follows.)
[The ANC are so keen to get the Western Cape in their power and the New NP is so hasty to help them to do that, that the Nationalists are prepared to sell their birthright for a mess of pottage. There are thousands of Afrikaans speakers here who were waiting to get rid of the NP so that Afrikaans could also be liberated from its political yoke. What is happening now? Everything apart from English is becoming the victim of the historical struggle by people who are not succeeding in mastering the challenges of a new and diverse South Africa.
It the commission is going to be effective, it will, inter alia, have to note that of the 5 000 to 7 000 languages which are spoken in the world today … [Interjections.] Oh no, man.]
Dr E A CONROY: Chairperson, on a point of order: Has the hon member’s time not expired yet? [Laughter.]
The DEPUTY CHAIRPERSON OF COMMITTEES: I do not know, but that is my responsibility. Will you please continue, hon member?
Ms C S BOTHA: Chairperson, what I can say is that that particular member’s membership of his party, or rather his party itself, has expired. That I can tell you. [Laughter.]
As die kommissie effektief gaan wees, sal dit onder andere moet kennis neem dat van die 5 000 to 7 000 tale wat vandag in die wêreld gepraat word, omtrent 2 500 op die punt is om uit te sterf. Vir oorlewing van ons 11 tale, benodig hulle die volgende: Hulle moet tuis gepraat word; hulle moet ‘n literêre en letterkundige bestaan hê; hulle moet wetenskaplik en akademies gebruik word; hulle moet ekonomiese nut hê en hulle moet owerheidsfunksies ook hê. Dit is wat betref taal. Dit raak nog nie aan die kritieke debatte rondom godsdiens en kultuur, wat ook deur die kommissie aangespreek moet word nie.
Die Suid-Afrikaanse transformasie het impetus gegee aan ‘n trotse, nie- rassistiese Suid-Afrikaanse identiteit. Ek het my verheerlik in Minister Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi se woorde gister toe sy gesê het: ``Djy moenie krap waar dit nie djeuk nie.’’
Dit veroorsaak dat ek vir die eerste keer in my lewe met Pieter Mulder kan saamstem, waar hy sê dat die tyd nou aangebreek het om in ons gemeenskap oor dié saak oor politieke grense heen, saam te werk. Helaas, ook om saam te stem met ANC-portefeuljekomiteevoorsitter Yunus Carrim. (Translation of Afrikaans paragraphs follows.)
[If the commission is going to be effective, it will, inter alia have to note that of the 5 000 to 7 000 languages which are spoken in the world today, approximately 2 500 are on the verge of dying out. In order for our 11 languages to survive they need the following: they must be spoken at home; they must have a literary existence; they must be used scientifically and academically; they must have economic use and they must also have government functions. That is as far as language is concerned. That does not yet touch on the critical debates surrounding religion and culture, which must also be addressed by the commission.
The South African transformation has given impetus to a proud, non-racist South African identity. Yesterday I celebrated Minister Geraldine Fraser- Moleketi’s words when she said: ``Djy moenie krap waar dit nie djeuk nie.’’ [Don’t meddle in other people’s affairs.]
This means that for the first time in my life I can agree with Pieter Mulder, when he says that the time has now come in our communities to work together on this matter across political boundaries. Unfortunately, also to agree with ANC portfolio committee chairperson Yunus Carrim.]
If the commission works effectively, it will serve to gradually de- emphasise racial identities by giving expression to ethnic identity in a way that is reconcilable with the emergence of a national South African identity.[Time expired.] [Applause.]
Mrs E N LUBIDLA: Chairperson, hon Deputy Minister and hon membersÿ.ÿ.ÿ. Mev Botha praat so baie van Afrikaans en praat so sleg van Engels, maar haar leier is ‘n Engelssprekende persoon wat nooit Afrikaans praat nie. [Tussenwerpsels.] En ons tale is net so belangrik soos haar taal. [Tussenwerpsels.] [Mrs Botha talks so much about Afrikaans and talks so badly about English, but her leader is an English-speaking person who never speaks Afrikaans. [Interjections.] And our languages are just as important as her language. [Interjections.]]
Over the years we have put forward and sustained the position that the creation of the material conditions that would both underpin and represent nation-building and reconciliation could only be achieved over a protracted period of time. This is confirmed by the fact that the Government of South Africa continues to lay a solid basis for our constitutional democracy.
The 1993 Constitution of the Republic ends with an epilogue entitled ``National Unity and Reconciliation’’. Among other things it says:
This Constitution provides a historic bridge between the past of a deeply divided society characterised by strife, conflict, untold suffering and injustice, and a future founded on the recognition of human rights, democracy and peaceful co-existence and development opportunities for all South Africans, irrespective of colour, race, class, belief or sex.
The pursuit of national unity, the wellbeing of all South African citizens and peace require reconciliation between the people of South Africa and the reconstruction of society.
The 1996 Constitution took this mandate a little step further, in the form of Chapter 9. This Bill gives effect to the provisions of sections 181, 185 and 186 of the Constitution, which established, as one of the institutions strengthening constitutional democracy, a Commission for the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Cultural, Religious and Linguistic Communities.
This Bill stems from the fact that the South African nation consists of a diversity of cultural, religious and linguistic communities. The past policies have bequeathed a legacy of division and inequality between these communities. In trying to correct these structural flaws, our Constitution, through this Bill, seeks to heal these divisions of the past by establishing a nonracial and nonsexist society based on democratic values, social justice and fundamental human rights. It is through this Bill that we want to promote equality and achieve unity in our diversity. Section 185(1) of our Constitution provides that:
The primary objects of the Commission for the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Cultural, Religious and Linguistic Communities are -
(a) to promote respect for the rights of cultural, religious and
linguistic communities;
(b) to promote and develop peace, friendship, humanity, tolerance
and national unity among cultural, religious and linguistic
communities, on the basis of equality, nondiscrimination and
free association; and
(c) to recommend the establishment or recognition, in accordance
with national legislation, of a cultural or other council or
councils for a community or communities in South Africa.
I believe that these are the issues we must address when we speak of the reconciliation and nation-building envisaged in this Bill. They stand at the centre of the future of South Africa as the home of a stable democracy, human rights, equality, peace, stability and a shared prosperity, more specifically for cultural, religious and linguistic communities.
Accordingly, we must attend to the question of whether, with regard to all of these issues and at all times, all of us behave in a manner which promotes the achievement of the goals as set out in our Constitution, which will from time to time inform the direction of this commission towards the realisation of our objectives of reconciliation and nation-building, without which the kind of South Africa visualised in our Constitution will most certainly not come into being.
The Bill tries to fulfil this constitutional task of playing a key role in assisting with the building of a truly united South African nation, bound by a common loyalty to our country and all our people. It is therefore in the light of these prescriptions that are contained in our Constitution, which have been translated into this piece of legislation that shows the utmost commitment of the Government of South Africa which we represent today, that we are interested in ensuring that, as people, we move as rapidly and consistently as possible towards transforming South Africa into a nonracial country.
We are interested in ensuring that our country lives up to its constitutional commitment to transforming itself into a nonsexist and nonracial society based on democratic values, social justice and fundamental human rights. Therefore we support this Bill in its entirety. [Applause.]
Mnr A E VAN NIEKERK: Voorsitter, ek het vandag geen begrip vir die agb Botha, dit is die een van die DP, wat hierdie debat misbruik het vir ‘n paar politieke punte wat sy probeer aanteken het nie. [Tussenwerpsels.] Die enigste rede wat ek daarvoor kan sien, is dat die DP/DA polities so bankrot is, dat hulle emosie gebruik, en dat hulle geestesgoedere soos hierdie misbruik vir eie gewin.
Die lid het vandag Afrikaans, en veeltaligheid, ‘n onguns bewys, en ek wil die DP versoek om hulle uit hierdie debat uit te hou as dít die vlak is waarop hulle dit gaan voer. Hulle mors dit op. [Tussenwerpsels.] (Translation of Afrikaans paragraphs follows.)
[Mr A E VAN NIEKERK: Chairperson, I cannot understand the hon Botha today, that is the one of the DP, who has abused this debate in order to try and score a few political points. [Interjections.] The only reason I can see for that, is that the DP/DA is politically so bankrupt that they are using emotions, and abusing spiritual assets such as these for self-gain.
Today this hon member has done Afrikaans, and multilinguism, a disservice, and I want to request the DP to stay out of this debate if that is the level at which they are going to conduct it. They are messing it up. [Interjections.]]
Having gone through a long process of preparation involving many interested persons and institutions, we can say that the Bill in front of the House today is the best of all the drafts.
According to the preamble to the Constitution, South Africa belongs to all who live in it, united in our diversity. In other words, within the process of nation-building our diversity is not to be ignored, but to be utilised as a building block.
In accordance with this point of departure, the Constitution provides for 11 official languages in section 6 and for the right to use the language and participate in the culture of one’s choice in section 30, to join with others for this purpose in section 31, to be educated in the language of one’s choice, where practicable, in section 29(2) and to enjoy freedom of religion in section 15. Traditional leaders, indigenous law and systems of religious, personal and family law are recognised in sections 211, 212 and 15(3).
Provision has now also been made for a commission to protect and promote the rights of cultural, religious and linguistic communities in terms of sections 185 and 186. The Constitution clearly recognises our diversity in these provisions and we have the responsibility to give effect to this point of departure in our legislation.
When we are engaged in this legislation establishing the section 185 commission, excessive restrictions on the commission in respect of its powers would be inconsistent with this point of departure. As a matter of fact, the more effective the powers of the commission, the better it will be able to contribute to the integration of our diversity into our nation- building efforts. The provisions of subsections 185(2) and (4) envisage the powers that will be conferred on the commission by this enabling legislation.
The argument was advanced in the select committee by the department that the section 185 commission is supposed to promote, rather than to protect, the rights of cultural, religious and linguistic communities and therefore does not require powers to enforce its decisions. We agree that the emphasis should be on promotion, but, apart from the fact that one is not allowed to read the supreme Constitution as selectively as this, the argument is, in any case, based on the false assumption that in order to promote these rights, the commission does not require powers of enforcement. How will the commission be able to promote the rights effectively if it is unable to enforce its decisions?
It has also been alleged that such enforcement should be left to the Human Rights Commission as the proper institution to protect rights. This argument does not reflect the co-operative approach followed in the Constitution. The constitution-makers intended that the commission should focus on a particular aspect of human rights as mentioned, not to the exclusion of the Human Rights Commission’s work, but complementing it. I have no doubt that the commission requires powers of enforcement in order to achieve its objectives and to strengthen our constitutional democracy.
The legitimacy of the commission will be undermined if it is unable to deliver real solutions to violations of the language, cultural or religious rights of communities. PanSALB is a very good example of exactly that. The enabling legislation may even be unconstitutional if it restricts the powers of the constitutional body. For these reasons it is essential to provide for effective powers for the commission.
We provided amendments which were declined on, to quote the hon Ralane, a member of the committee, `` political grounds’’. I am sure that something else was meant. We also anticipated using the rules of the NCOP to submit the amendments again today, but because of technical reasons it was not possible.
We have tabled a private member’s legislative proposal to come into effect the moment this Bill becomes an Act, and we hope that we will jointly be able to strengthen this Act before the commission starts its very important and reconciliatory work. We are prepared to work side by side with the hon the Minister and the department to achieve this.
The people of South Africa have waited a long time for the establishment of this commission and we are glad to see the birth of this instrument that will really contribute to nation-building.
Voorsitter, die geloofwaardigheid van dié kommissie sal bepaal word deur die mate van deelname deur die Afrikaanse en ander inheemse taalgemeenskappe. Deelname moet van die begin af daar wees en daarom moet daar in die gees van hierdie wetgewing, uit die staanspoor, hande gevat word en kennis gedeel word om ons te posisioneer en voor te berei vir die deelname.
Ten slotte wil ek die departement bedank vir hulle volgehoue werk aan hierdie wetsontwerp en in die besonder vir mnr Beukman, wat van die begin af by hierdie wetsontwerp betrokke was. Ons steun hierdie wetsontwerp, maar met voorbehoud oor die gebrek aan afdwingingsmag. [Applous.] (Translation of Afrikaans paragraph follows.)
[Chairperson, the credibility of this commission will be determined by the degree of participation by the Afrikaans and other indigenous linguistic communities. Participation should take place from the start and we should therefore, in the spirit of this legislation and from the outset, be holding hands and sharing knowledge in order to position ourselves and prepare for this participation.
I would finally like to thank the department for their sustained work on this Bill and in particular Mr Beukman, who has been involved in this Bill from the start. We support this Bill, but with reservation about the lack of power to enforce it. [Applause.]]
The DEPUTY CHAIRPERSON OF THE NCOP (Mr M L Mushwana): Order! The next speaker is the hon Kgoshi Mokoena. [Applause.]
Kgoshi M L MOKOENA: Chairperson, I am humbled by this acknowledgement.
I am disappointed by the contribution of my colleague and friend the hon Sandra Botha. She deliberately misled this House. At no stage did the Minister of Education suggest that Afrikaans would be replaced with English. That was just cheap politicking, I would like to say to her. She is just playing big in a very narrow passage. [Laughter.] Maybe she was being very economical with the truth.
All self-respecting South Africans will smile from ear to ear after the adoption of this Bill. It is with a sense of joy and happiness to know that immediately after this Bill is passed into law, communities will be able to practise their cultures, traditions and religions with pride.
Before I dwell on the contents of the Bill, I want to indicate that I understand and sympathise with the concerns raised by my colleague Mr Van Niekerk. It took the committee a couple of days of looking into the proposed amendments he is referring to. We thoroughly looked into how could we accommodate those amendments.
Hon members would have heard that the main concern is that the commission does not have teeth or much power. To assure my colleague, clause 6(3) of this Bill gives the commission some powers to report directly to the SA Human Rights Commission on any unbecoming behaviour by anybody, any institution or any organ of state. It even recommends that action be taken against anybody who tries to violate the work of the commission.
Again, I want to refer the hon member to the provision of clause 7(2)(a) to (e). This clause also gives the commission powers to conduct investigations and make recommendations so as to correct whatever needs to be corrected.
There was also the concern that the commission must report to Parliament, not to the National Assembly alone. It is our belief that any committee in the NCOP is entitled to call on any Minister, any department, any official or any institution to furnish it with any information or report. This is clearly stated in the Constitution. So one does not have to fear. Again, we felt it would be improper for us to equate this commission with the chapter 9 institutions. But we fully understand our colleague’s concern. I am switching over to Thobela FM now. [Laughter.] Lehono ke kwa bose Modulasetulo, ke a mnyemnyela, ke a tsatsanka, ke bontsha le la mohlagare. Ge nkabe ke na le diphego nkabe ke fofa, seo ke tla bego ke se dirisa ke go tseba gore setso, ditokelo le maleme a rena maAfrika Borwa a tlo sireletsega.
Nakong tsela tsa kgale modula setulo, ga go motho goba mmuso wo o be go o sireletsa ditokelo tsa batho baso, re be re tshaba le go bolela dipolelo tsa borena, ka go tshaba go re batho ba tla reng goba ba tla re sega. Molaokakanywa wo, ohloma komishini yeo e tla go go sireletsa, go lota le go boloka le go iša pele dipolelo le di tso sa maAfrika.
E tla thusa gape go bona go re setso sa gaborena ga se gatakwe ka maoto. Mafaseng a mangwe ga ba tshabe go phetha ditso tsa ga bobona. Ke ka lebaka la eng ge rena re tshaba naa? MaAfrika Borwa a naa re loilwe ke mang? (Translation of Sepedi paragraphs follows.)
[Chairperson, I am very thrilled today. If I had wings, I would fly, because I know that our African cultures, rights and languages are protected.
In the past there was no one, including the government, who protected the rights of black people. We were even scared to talk in our own languages, because people would laugh at us. This Bill establishes a commission that will protect, enhance and promote our African languages and cultures.
It will also help ensure that our cultures are not disrespected. In other parts of the world, people are not shy to perform their cultural rituals. So, why is it that we are shy to do the same? South Africans, who has bewitched us?]
People are even ashamed to perform some rituals in the belief that they will be seen as people who are not civilised. This is the time to decolonise our minds. [Laughter.] Some people even go to the extent of changing their African names.
Let me give hon members an example. We have the African name Matome''. A
person will change that intoMouton’’. [Laughter.] There is also the name
Makgona'' - it will be changed to Morgan’’. An African name like
Phathekile'' is changed toParticle’’. [Laughter.] I am now switching
over to Radio Munghana Lonene.
Na le kerekeni loko u tsarisa vito u ku hi wena Risimati, va ku cinca va ku vitana hi vito leri ra xilungu. Loko u nga swi koti, loko ku ri wena Risimati, va ku cinca va ku hi Raizemate. Loko u ri Phakade, va ri cinca va ku hi wena Parcade. Loko u ri John wa ka Tate, va ku cinca va ku hi wena John Tait. (Translation of Xitsonga paragraph follows.)
[Even at church when you went to register your name and said you were Risimati, they would change your name and call you by your European name. If you were Risimati, they would change your name and call you Raizemate. If your name was Phakade, they had to change it and call you Parcade. If you were John Tate, they would convert it and call you John Tait.] I am changing back to Thobela FM.
Modula setulo a re ikgantsheng ka ditso le meragelo ya segagesho. Ke seke ka reta ge e ba ke a kgona, o tla kwa okare o ja todi ya dinose, ge ngaka goba nkadingala goba tšhegi a reta taba tša gago. O tla kwa a re ``di wele makgolela, di wele mpherefere, ge e le sa morara ga se kgole se makgatheng a nko le molomo’’. (Translation of Sepedi paragraph follows.)
[Chairperson, we should be proud of our diverse cultures and languages. Let me not start praising, because you will think that you have honey. These are the things which traditional doctors say when they throw up their bones in order to diagnose problems.]
How many of us in this Chamber are still communicating with our kids in our mother tongue? [Time expired.]
The DEPUTY CHAIRPERSON OF COMMITTEES (Mr M J Bhengu): Order! I can say to the hon Kgoshi that that is the price one has to pay to be free, the price of being colonised. So one has to be decolonised.
The DEPUTY MINISTER FOR PROVINCIAL AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT: Chairperson, firstly, I would like to thank all the members who participated in this debate. I am especially impressed by the hon Kgoshi Mokoena who got me a bit bamboozled because, while listening to one language, he changed over to another. My earpiece was not functioning and I did not hear some of the things that he said.
So this has taught me that I should make a point of learning all the 11 official languages, plus two. [Interjections.] Yes, sign language and the indigenous language of the Khoi and the San.
When I visited the Northern Cape I could hardly pronounce the name of the district municipality and I still cannot - Xe Xa … [Laughter.] Those are the difficulties, and I am saying this because I am over 50 years old, I have been in this country for more than 50 years now and I am still learning. For a young democracy which is less than 10 years old, the hon Sandra Botha really cannot expect that we would be that advanced. This is a process. We have our ups and downs, our difficulties, and the hon Sandra Botha is invited, as I have already said in my speech, to play a role in making this a reality. However, I welcome the support of the DP for this Bill.
The hon Mkhaliphi touched on the point of nation-building. I appreciate that. I so wish that we could all keep that at the back of our mind every time we speak. Every time we have these debates we should keep in mind that we ensure that whatever we say and do contributes to nation-building.
Yes, every one of these languages is very important, as are our cultures and our religions. We are hoping that the commission is going to ensure that all these issues are brought to the conferences where every one of us will have an opportunity to put forward our views.
The hon Van Niekerk raised an issue which I understand was also raised in the deliberations in the committee. It is the issue of giving more powers to the commission. I think it is important to note that the commission has been given wide powers. I thank the hon Kgoshi for explaining this to the House, and I am not going into that because he has already explained. The commission is not restricted from doing all the things that the Kgoshi raised. I think the important thing is for all the constitutional bodies that we have established in terms of the Constitution, the Chapter 9 institutions, for example, actually to work together to achieve the broader objective, which is the creation of a nonracial, nonsexist, united, democratic society.
I am not sure why we want to emphasise the point of the extra power that this commission has to be given. I feel that the powers that are in the Bill are sufficient to get us started. We will await the private member’s Bill which the hon Van Niekerk referred to and again we will sit in this House and debate that. I thank all hon members very much for supporting the Bill so that we can go ahead and give the commission an opportunity to start its work. I also hope that every one of us will support the commission. [Applause.]
Debate concluded.
Bill agreed to in accordance with section 75 of the Constitution.
The Council adjourned at 19:50. ____
ANNOUNCEMENTS, TABLINGS AND COMMITTEE REPORTS
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
National Assembly and National Council of Provinces:
- The Speaker and the Chairperson:
(1) The Joint Tagging Mechanism (JTM) on 11 June 2002 in terms of
Joint Rule 160(6), classified the following Bill as a section 75
Bill:
(i) State Information Technology Agency Amendment Bill [B 24 -
2002] (National Assembly - sec 75).
National Council of Provinces:
- The Chairperson:
(1) Bill passed by National Council of Provinces on 12 June 2002: To
be submitted to President of the Republic for assent:
(i) Commission for the Promotion and Protection of the Rights
of Cultural, Religious and Linguistic Communities Bill [B 62B
- 2001] (National Assembly - sec 75).
COMMITTEE REPORTS: National Council of Provinces:
-
Report of the Select Committee on Public Services on the Disestablishment of South African Housing Trust Limited Bill [B 3B - 2002] (National Assembly - sec 75), dated 11 June 2002:
The Select Committee on Public Services, having considered the subject of the Disestablishment of South African Housing Trust Limited Bill [B 3B - 2002] (National Assembly - sec 75), referred to it, reports the Bill with proposed amendments, as follows:
CLAUSE 1
- On page 2, in line 7, to omit “July” and to substitute “September”.
CLAUSE 4
- On page 3, in line 23, to omit “Appropriation Act, 2002 (Act No. 2 of 2002)” and to substitute “relevant Appropriation Act”.