National Assembly - 04 June 2003
WEDNESDAY, 4 JUNE 2003
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PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY
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The House met at 15:05.
The Speaker took the Chair and requested members to observe a moment of silence for prayers or meditation.
ANNOUNCEMENTS, TABLINGS AND COMMITTEE REPORTS see col 000.
LAND RIGHTS ISSUES
(Notice of motion)
Mr A J BOTHA: Madam Speaker, I move on behalf of the DP:
That the House -
(1) notes that property rights are enshrined in the Constitution and that section 34 gives everyone the right to have any dispute heard by the courts;
(2) believes that the issue of land needs to be dealt with as sensitively and transparently as possible; and
(3) therefore resolves to debate the issue of the mechanisms used to give effect to land reform in South Africa.
DRAFT RESOLUTION BY MS R TALJAARD ON 28 MAY 2003
(Notice of Motion)
Mr V G SMITH: Madam Speaker, I move on behalf of the ANC:
That the House -
(1) notes -
(a) the written notice of a draft resolution given by Ms R Taljaard
of the Democratic Alliance on 28 May 2003.
The SPEAKER: Order, order, Mr Smith.
Mr D H M GIBSON: On a point of order, the hon member said that he is moving this motion. You are at the moment asking for notices of motion. I assume he is moving an unopposed motion?
The SPEAKER: Are you giving notice, or are you moving a motion?
Mr V G SMITH: I am giving notice.
The SPEAKER: Then please proceed.
Mr V G SMITH: Thank you, Madam Speaker. [Interjections.]
The SPEAKER: Order!
Mr V G SMITH: Madam Speaker, I move on behalf of the ANC:
That the House -
(1) notes -
(a) the written notice of a draft resolution given by Ms R Taljaard
of the Democratic Alliance on 28 May 2003 in which she alleged
that the Auditor-General had stated that he had no choice in
editing the JIT Report due to section 4(6) of the Auditor-
General Act, 1995;
(b) that in making this allegation, Ms Taljaard is misleading the
House as this assertion is factually incorrect, because -
(i) section 4(6) of the Auditor-General Act requires the
Auditor-General to consult with the President, the
Minister of Finance and the responsible Minister
regarding certain accounts ``provided that the reporting
on any unauthorised expenditure or other irregularity
shall not be so limited'' - the requirement in the Act is
therefore that the Auditor-General must consult, but
there is no requirement that he must edit the report;
(ii) in a press statement dated 26 May 2003 the Auditor-General
reiterated the statutory requirement of consultation and
the fact that he did not have a choice as far as ...
Mr D H M GIBSON: On a point of order, is this a substantive notice of motion that the hon member is giving, or what?
The SPEAKER: Can we come to the resolve part before we resolve this?
Mr D H M GIBSON: It’s a very long motion as well. [Interjections.]
The SPEAKER: I don’t know that the Rules provide for a length of notices of motion, but they do require an actual resolution, which will resolve this. So, I will wait for that before we deal with it.
Mr V G SMITH: Shall I start again, Madam Speaker?
The SPEAKER: No, don’t start again! [Laughter.] You will only promote more points of order! Please will you continue.
Mr V G SMITH: … as far as consultations were concerned, but the Auditor- General did not state or even imply that he was forced to edit the report;
(c) that in her motion Ms Taljaard of the Democratic Alliance claims
that section 4(6) of the Auditor-General Act was used by the
apartheid regime, but that this is a chronological impossibility
as the Act was passed in 1995 and the democratic order began in
1994; and
(d) that Ms Taljaard's motion casts aspersions on the Auditor-
General by stating as a fact that the statement confirms that
key issues were edited out or glossed over by the JIT Report,
and that this is in violation of Rule 66, as it reflects on the
competence or honour of a person whose removal is dependent upon
a decision of this House; and
(2) therefore resolves to call on -
(a) Ms Taljaard to withdraw her motion and to apologise for
misrepresenting both the Auditor-General Act and the Auditor-
General's statements as well as for casting aspersions on his
competence or honour; and
(b) the Democratic Alliance to stop distorting the facts in the
pursuit of cheap electoral political gain.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. [Applause.]
The SPEAKER: Thank you. I will look at both the original motion and this one with a view to whether we publish these motions at all, and if not, we will withdraw one or the other accordingly.
I will look into it, but notice of motion has been given …
The CHIEF WHIP OF THE MAJORITY PARTY: Madam Speaker, I just wanted to bring it to your attention that the motion of 28 May has been published.
The SPEAKER: I am aware of that. That was the point I was making - that we will then consider whether it should be expunged if it meets those criteria.
SENTIMENTS EXPRESSED BY DEPUTY PRESIDENT IN BONTEHEUWEL ON 3 JUNE 2003
(Notice of Motion)
Ms T E Millin: Madam Speaker, I hereby give notice of the following motion:
That the House -
(1) warmly commends the hon Deputy President of the Republic for his comments yesterday at the Bonteheuwel civic centre while visiting members of the community who are directly affected by the current tidal wave of criminal gangsterism, resulting in the killing of many young, innocent children;
(2) notes that, if he is correctly quoted, the hon Deputy President has hit out at aspects of the Constitution, which protect the rights of vicious criminals at the expense of the innocent law-abiding citizens of our country; and (3) therefore endorses these sentiments and calls for an urgent review of those sections in the Constitution which favour the rights of the individual without balancing those rights with obligations of the individual, thereby placing a disproportionate emphasis on the rights of the lawbreakers at the expense of similar rights for the victims of criminal activity.
Thank you, hon Deputy President.
The SPEAKER: I want to tell hon members that a notice of motion really implies a debate that follows where we take a resolution on one thing or another.
We will look at that, and I assume that the Deputy President is not going to claim he was misquoted. [Interjections.]
MOTION OF CONDOLENCE
(The late Mr E Mogale) Mr A C NEL: Madam Speaker, I move without notice:
That the House -
(1) notes with shock and profound sadness the untimely death of the hon Ephraime Mogale, who passed away on Tuesday 27 May 2003;
(2) recognises that Ephraime Mogale was a South African patriot who, throughout his life, demonstrated deep commitment to the struggle for the liberation of our country;
(3) recalls that he played an active and leading role in the development of student and other progressive movements in this country, beginning from the 1976 student mass protests, rising to become first COSAS president in 1979, serving in SAYCO, UDF and SACP;
(4) acknowledges the dynamic contribution that the hon Mogale made to the House in the period 1999 to 2001, before his redeployment to Mpumalanga Provincial Legislature;
(5) believes that he leaves a legacy of dedicated service to our country;
(6) expresses its condolences to his wife, children and the entire Mogale family.
Agreed to.
The SPEAKER: I take it there are no objections to this motion? The motion has been adopted.
We will convey the condolences to the family.
DISTRICT HOSPITAL IN ZOLA
(Member's Statement)
Ms S D MOTUBATSE-HOUNKPATIN (ANC): Madam Speaker, my constituency is called Zoja Zem, in deep Soweto. A district hospital is to be built in Zola. The Mandela-Sisulu Brixton Clinic will also be constructed this year at a cost of R2,7 million. In addition, R10,3 million will be spent on the upgrading of Hillbrow Community Health Centre.
The second-phase construction of the Stretford Clinic in Orange Farm and that of Stanza Bopape Clinic begins this year also at a cost of R5 million. This good news concerning the health of our people was recently delivered by Gauteng MEC for Health, Gwen Ramogopa.
In May 1992, the ANC asserted in its ready-to-govern policy guidelines that access to basic health care was a basic human right. We expressed then in no uncertain terms the urgent need to reduce inequalities in access to health services, and to encourage and develop delivery systems and practices that are in line with international norms and standards.
These measures constitute some of the steps we continue to take in the cause of destroying the apartheid/colonial legacy and in the pursuance of the goal of health for all. Phambili ngempilo yabantu phambili! [Forward with the people’s health, forward!] [Applause.]
ARMS DEAL INQUIRY
(Member's Statement)
Ms R TALJAARD (DA): Madam Speaker and hon colleagues, the Government’s legal adviser has reported that there are sufficient grounds for the arms deal inquiry to be reopened. This opinion confirms concerns about the JIT report itself and strengthens our calls for a new inquiry.
The DA has called for an ad hoc committee of Parliament to be established to use section 56 of the Constitution to investigate the whole deal and spotlight differences between the draft and final JIT report.
The role of the President and members of the executive in the doctoring of the report needs to be investigated, and we call on all the Ministers concerned and the President to co-operate fully with this committee, so that the truth can finally be known. [Applause.]
WORLD ENVIRONMENT DAY
(Member's Statement)
Dr U ROOPNARAIN (IFP): Madam Speaker, tomorrow, 5 June 2003, marks World Environment Day. It is the day for all of us to reflect on our dependence on the environment. Clearly, the wellbeing of the peoples of the world can never be served until the environment and the ecosystem that sustain all life on earth are secure. The environment knows no frontiers, no territorial borders. It does not recognise any north/south divide or east/west distinction. As in a family, every element of nature, however small, is part of a whole. Every animal and plant species known and unknown has a place, role and function, deserving of our protection.
There is no chance of protecting the environment without a greater sense of mutual responsibility, especially in an age of interdependence and especially since the environmental footprint left by some societies is so much larger than others.
I hope that all of us will use this opportunity to raise environmental consciousness and awareness and not leave it solely with the Minister for Environmental Affairs. Let us all do our bit.
CO-OPERATION BETWEEN UNIONS AND JALI COMMISSION NEEDED
(Member's Statement)
Mnr D V BLOEM (ANC): Mevrou die Speaker, met verwysing na die mediaberigte oor die onttrekking van Popcru aan die bedrywighede van die Jali kommissie van ondersoek, wens ek hiermee ‘n baie dringende en ernstige versoek tot Popcru en al die unies betrokke by die Departement van Korrektiewe Dienste te rig om hulle volle samewerking te gee aan die Jali kommissie wat in 2000, op versoek van Minister Skosana, deur die President aangestel is.
Dit is kontraproduktief vir die Regering om ‘n kommissie van ondersoek aan te stel wat geboikot word deur die personeel wat vir die departement werk. Indien ons daarin wil slaag om korrupsie uit te roei, het ons alle rolspelers se samewerking nodig. Dit is net in die belang van Popcru self om deel te neem aan die werksaamhede van die kommissie. Baie beweringinge word voor die deur van dié unie gelê, en hulle het ‘n gulde geleentheid om dit te betwis of te weerlê. Dankie. [Applous.] (Translation of Afrikaans member’s statement follows.)
[Mr D V BLOEM (ANC): Madam Speaker, with reference to the media reports about the withdrawal of Popcru from the proceedings of the Jali Commission of Inquiry, I hereby wish to address a very urgent and serious request to Popcru and all the unions involved with the Department of Correctional Services to give their full co-operation to the Jali Commission that was appointed in 2000 by the President at the request of Minister Skosana.
It is counterproductive for the Government to appoint a commission of inquiry that is being boycotted by the staff that works for the department. We need the co-operation of all role-players if we want to succeed in eradicating corruption. It is only in the interest of Popcru itself to take part in the activities of the commission. Many allegations are being laid at the door of this union, which they now have a golden opportunity to dispute or refute. Thank you. [Applause.]]
UNROADWORTHY BUSES REMOVED FROM ROAD
(Member's Statement)
Mnr J J NIEMANN (Nuwe NP): Mevrou die Speaker, die Nuwe NP was geskok om te hoor dat Bellville se verkeersdepartement verlede Donderdag ses Golden Arrow passasiersbusse en twee insleepwaens van die pad afgehaal het omdat hulle onpadwaardig was. Boonop beloop die agterstallige lisensiegeld van een van die businsleepwaens R67 000. Die busse was onder meer ongeskik vir verdere diens weens swak remstelsels, olielekplekke, swak en foutiewe ligte, defektiewe stuurmeganismes of stukkende onderstelle.
Volgens ‘n woordvoerder van die verkeersdepartement kry hulle al vir ‘n geruime tyd klagtes oor die swak toestand van die maatskappy se busse, en het hulle dus op verrassingsoptrede besluit om die omvang van die probleem te bepaal.
Die Nuwe NP wil Bellville se verkeersdepartement gelukwens met hul positiewe optrede om Suid-Afrikaanse paaie te beveilig. Daarteenoor vind ons dit heeltemal onaanvaarbaar dat ‘n groot maatskappy soos Golden Arrow, wat boonop deur die Regering gesubsidieer word, hulle skuldig maak aan sulke ernstige oortredings van die padreëls. Dit lyk soos ‘n geval van die Regering wat nie toepas wat hy self predik nie.
Daarom doen ons ‘n beroep op die waarnemende Minister van Vervoer om onmiddellik die situasie te ondersoek en die skuldiges aan die pen te laat ry. Ek wil ook dadelik daarby sê dat dit nie net in die stad Bellville is waar busse nie voldoen aan die verkeerswet nie, maar in alle ander stede kan busse ook om hierdie selfde redes ondersoek word. Ek dank u. (Translation of Afrikaans member’s statement follows.)
[Mr J J NIEMANN (New NP): Madam Speaker, the New NP was shocked to hear that last Thursday six Golden Arrow passenger buses and two tow-trucks were taken off the road by the Bellville traffic department because they were unroadworthy. In addition to this, the arrears in licence fees for one of the bus tow-trucks amounted to R67 000. Among other things the buses were unfit for further service as a result of poor brake systems, oil leaks, poor and faulty lights, defective steering mechanisms or broken chassis.
According to a spokesperson for the traffic department they have been receiving complaints about the poor condition of some of the company’s buses for a considerable time, and they therefore decided on surprise action to determine the extent of the problem. The New NP wants to congratulate the Bellville traffic department on their positive action to render South Africa’s roads safe. On the other hand, we find it completely unacceptable for a big company such as Golden Arrow, that is furthermore subsidised by the Government, to be guilty of such serious contraventions of the traffic regulations. It would seem to be a case of the Government not practising what it preaches.
Therefore we appeal to the acting Minister of Transport to investigate the situation immediately and to bring the perpetrators to book. I also want to add immediately that it is not only in the city of Bellville where buses do not comply with the road traffic law, but buses in all the other cities can also be examined for the very same reasons. I thank you.]
THE NEED FOR CONSTITUTIONAL REFORM
(Member's Statement)
Rev K R J MESHOE (ACDP): Speaker, most South Africans agree with the statements that we saw in the media today that are attributed to the Deputy President, who is alleged to have said that our Constitution protects criminals. The ACDP also agrees with the Deputy President that our constitutional values need to be reviewed so as to be in line with the values of the majority of South Africans.
The human rights framework that we have in our Constitution is too liberal, and protects the perpetrators of crime more than the victims. This framework has compromised the capacity of the police to combat crime. The fact that about 60% of the police officials that were killed did not defend themselves because of the uncertainty in their minds about what their constitutional rights were compared to those of the perpetrators of crime, is a case in point.
The ACDP therefore calls for an overhaul of the Constitution through an all- inclusive constitutional reform assembly. INTERNATIONAL AWARD FOR SA CHILDREN’S TV PROGRAMME
(Member's Statement)
Mr Z KOTWAL (ANC): Madam Speaker, Takalani Sesame, the popular children’s educational series, a joint venture between the Department of Education and SABC Education, recently scooped the Intermedia Globe Award at the World Media Festival 2003 in Hamburg, Germany. As a consequence thereof, it contended for the grand award which it duly won. At least 24 countries participated in this competition. Takalani Sesame achieved this feat through a special episode dedicated to World Aids Day in the children’s category.
The fact that the winning educational series is rich in local content is significant in the light of the calls we have consistently made for matters of local content, gender sensitivity and culture to feature in our programmes. The ANC congratulates Takalani Sesame, the Department of Education and the SABC on this memorable occasion and hopes that this achievement will give further impetus to all efforts aimed at strengthening early childhood development.
Let us create the future in children today. [Applause.]
SECURITY GUARD AT COMMUNITY HEALTH CENTRE KILLED
(Member's Statement)
Mr G T MADIKIZA (UDM): Madam Speaker, the UDM extends its sympathy to the family and friends of the security guard who was struck dead while on duty at the Khayelitsha Community Health Centre. The needless killing of this guard led to the closure of the clinic until yesterday, and the trauma unit will be closed at night until such time as a security gate has been installed.
This highlights the high level of crime in many South African neighbourhoods. It is a sad indictment of the Government’s failure to address crime that security guards are necessary, in the first place, at clinics and hospitals. Now a community in desperate need of health care will not be able to access the nearest trauma facility due to the impunity with which some in our country resort to violence, often through the deadly use of firearms, to resolve situations that do not suit them.
The community is a mere stone’s throw from this House, yet they and most other communities live in perpetual fear of murderers, rapists and hijackers. It is time for the Government to say: Up to here and no further. Only then can we call on all South Africans to contribute in the fight against crime. Without that unequivocal acknowledgement of Government’s constitutional responsibility to protect its citizens, people will merely take the law into their own hands. I thank you.
CUBAN ENGINEERS IN PROCESS OF COMING TO WORK IN SOUTH AFRICA
(Member's Statement)
Mnr P J GROENEWALD (VF): Mevrou die Speaker, die Regering is op die oomblik besig om op grond van ‘n ooreenkoms met die Kubaanse regering 50 Kubaanse ingenieurs na Suid-Afrika te bring om hier te kom werk.
Die VF verwerp die Regering se standpunt dat daar ‘n nypende tekort aan Suid-Afrikaanse ingenieurs is en dat die Regering daarom gedwing word om Kubaanse ingenieurs na Suid-Afrika te bring. Baie Suid-Afrikaanse ingenieurs word gedwing om in die buiteland te werk of is tans werkloos as gevolg van ‘n tekort aan werk in Suid-Afrika en dan ook vanweë regstellende optrede. Suid-Afrikaanse ingenieurs wat tans nie werk in Suid-Afrika kan vind nie, kan met reg die billikheid van hierdie regeringsoptrede bevraagteken.
In die lig hiervan het die VF Maandag met ‘n twee weke lange veldtog begin waarin ingenieurs wat tans nie in hul beroepsveld werk kan kry nie, of in die buiteland werk moet soek, genooi word om die VF by 0861 700 700 te skakel of die VF se webwerf by www.vf.co.za te besoek en te kliek op die skakel ``Sê jou sê’’. Die eerste paar dae het alreeds ‘n ongekende reaksie ontlok, en talle werklose ingenieurs hier en in die buiteland het van hulle laat hoor.
Die inligting wat gedurende hierdie veldtog versamel word, sal ‘n aanduiding gee of daar werklik ‘n tekort is en of die ANC bloot groter waarde aan sy vriendskap met Kuba heg as aan die belange van sy eie burgers. [Tussenwerpsels.] (Translation of Afrikaans member’s statement follows.)
[Mr P J GROENEWALD (FF): Madam Speaker, at present the Government is bringing 50 Cuban engineers to South Africa to come and work here in terms of an agreement with the Cuban Government.
The FF repudiates the Government’s point of view that there is a serious shortage of South African engineers and that the Government is therefore compelled to bring Cuban engineers to South Africa. Many South African engineers are compelled to work overseas or are at present unemployed as a result of lack of employment in South Africa and also due to affirmative action. South African engineers who cannot find work in South Africa at present can justifiably question the fairness of this government action.
In the light of this the FF started a two-week campaign on Monday in which engineers who cannot find work in their own field at present, or who must look for employment overseas, are invited to phone the FF at 0861 700 700, or to visit the FF’s website at www.vf.co.za and to click on the link ``Sê jou sê’’. During the first few days there has already been an unprecedented reaction, and many unemployed engineers here and overseas have been in contact.
The information gathered during this campaign will be an indication of whether there really is a shortage and whether the ANC simply values its friendship with Cuba more than the interests of its own citizens. [Interjections.]]
COMBATING ILLEGAL DRUGS AND SUBSTANCE ABUSE
(Member's Statement)
Ms D M MOROBI (ANC): Madam Speaker, the SA Police Service has been making considerable strides in intercepting drugs from reaching the streets of South Africa.
Recently, three people were arrested at Johannesburg International Airport after having been found in possession of Ecstasy tablets and cocaine to the value of R4 million. In an unrelated incident, a woman and a foreign national from Nigeria were arrested for having in their possession Ecstasy tablets worth about R3,6 million. The SAPS, in tackling the war on drugs head-on, are registering momentous victories, proving that crime does not pay. The war on illegal drugs and substance abuse must continue.
The ANC congratulates and supports fully our women and men in uniform as they fight to rid our country of the scourge of illegal drugs. We further call on all communities to work with the police in eliminating the illegal drug trade and substance abuse from our communities. I thank you. [Applause.]
COMBATING CRIME - DA POLICY DOCUMENT
(Member's Statement)
Dr J T DELPORT (DA): Madam Speaker, Deputy President Zuma yesterday by implication admitted that the Government fails to combat crime. In his response he showed a lack of respect for the Constitution and a lack of understanding of how to fight crime.
It is not the law which is failing the public; it is the Government. You cannot fight crime by undermining the basic rights enshrined in the Constitution. Criminality, and especially crimes involving arms and violence, must be met with deeds.
The DA’s anticrime policy document shows how South Africa can win the fight against crime. Amongst others we need a properly staffed, equipped and trained SAPS with 150 000 police officers on the streets protecting the public, investigating crime and arresting criminals. We need an effective court system; one that jails and keeps the guilty in jail where they belong. We also need a support system for victims of crime.
The fight against crime can only be won through determined action. Laws without the will and infrastructural support will never be the solution. That is what the Deputy President must address. [Interjections.] I thank you. [Applause.]
MISS UNIVERSE 2003 PAGEANT
(Member's Statement)
Mrs L R MBUYAZI (IFP): Madam Speaker, the Miss Universe 2003 pageant was held in Panama yesterday. In this most prestigious pageant our own Cindy Nell was selected as second runner-up. This 21-year-old child of the soil was among the 70 contestants competing for the honours.
Miss Universe is not just about external beauty and flaunting of women’s bodies, which is sometimes interpreted as exploitation of women. The pageant seeks to advance young women’s careers, and personal and humanitarian goals, as well as to play a critical role in making the next 100 years a century of women.
It is therefore encouraging to see our own young women take up the challenge and make their mark in this pageant. This puts our country and the continent as a whole on the same footing as the rest of the world as more young women from our continent take part in these competitions.
We therefore want to thank Cindy Nell on behalf of the country for taking up the challenge and making a mark for the country. We are very proud of her and wish her all the best in her future endeavours. I thank you.
WESTERN CAPE PROVINCIAL CRIME PREVENTION STRATEGY - RECRUITS
(Member's Statement)
Mr M S BOOI (ANC): Madam Speaker, the Western Cape provincial crime prevention strategy has recently been boosted by the arrival of 3 212 new recruits who began their duties on 30 May 2003. An additional number of 2 850 constables are due to arrive next year. This year also, 1 718 new recruits graduated from the police college in Pretoria and were subsequently deployed to various provinces.
The ANC welcomes these positive developments and many others that, on a daily basis, take place across the length and breadth of our country. As we continue as a people to address in a meaningful and honest manner the problems that confront our country, the prophets of doom will gradually run out of nightmares with which to scare us. Let us continue to march forward, creating a future in which there shall be peace and friendship. Thank you. [Applause.]
SA CAPE CORPS - INCORPORTATION OF FORMER MEMBERS INTO ECONOMY
(Member's Statement)
Mr J DURAND (New NP): Madam Speaker, the New NP has for some time now concerned itself with the plight of former South African Cape Corps members. The Government has invested a lot in these members’ training and their skills can be used to the advantage of our economy.
With the demobilisation of the former SA Defence Force, large numbers of these members should have been taken up in the economy. At present, many of these former members are struggling to make ends meet. The changeover from the commando system to a new system, which will be manned by more than 100 000 members, has brought about the opportunity to integrate these members, members whose expertise can still be applied effectively.
These members can also be integrated with the reserve forces to assist when the permanent force is occupied elsewhere, for example during peace missions in Africa. They can play an important role in maintaining the home front.
Currently, the New NP is in discussion with the Government to explore these possibilities. The long-term solution lies in drawing these members into the economy and therefore they have to be organised into a viable economic entity. Empowerment and training is essential. This aspect is also being discussed with the relevant departments.
The New NP also lends support in terms of guidance in order for former SA Cape Corps members to develop such an economic entity. At present these people are suffering and it is inexcusable that parties like the DA are using this situation as a political football. I thank you. [Interjections.]
ARMS DEAL REPORT
(Minister's Response)
The MINISTER OF TRADE AND INDUSTRY: Speaker, it would seem that the hon member Taljaard specialises in trying to make distortions and I hope that the process of examining whether she has, in fact, incorrectly impugned the reputation of the Auditor-General will continue. [Interjections.]
Once again in this House, a moment ago, she distorted matters, did not say
what the opinion was, did not give any indication of what scope I actually
discussed today and deliberately used the word doctoring''. You must know
that that is an allegation against the Auditor-General and I really wish to
bring that to the attention of the House. If you accuse someone of
doctoring’’, you are accusing them of being dishonest. And that is the
Auditor-General that you are talking about. [Interjections.]
It never ceases to amaze me how this party, that purports to be liberal and stand for the Constitution, impugns the integrity of constitutional appointments whenever it suits them and persistently attempts to find ways of finding dishonest people where there are no dishonest people. I really think they would make a greater contribution to this country if they did not, with gay abandon, impugn the reputation of each and every constitutional appointment and everyone else in this House. [Applause.] [Interjections.]
The SPEAKER: Order, hon members. Order! Order!
ARMS DEAL INQUIRY
(Minister's Response)
The MINISTER OF DEFENCE: Madam Speaker, the issue of the arms procurement is with us again. I think that it is important, it is very important, that as we develop and advance our new democracy, we take careful steps and watch carefully what precedents we put in place, because some of those precedents will catch up with us and annul a lot of the good work and efforts that have been made in the past. And in this regard it is important to take into account the fact that the behaviour of our courts is also a critical element in assisting us to put in place instructive precedents, and not ones which will undermine the work we have already done.
Now one of the most disturbing issues with regard to the current uproar surrounding the arms deal is the fact that a document that is a draft report can be raised to the status upon which national decisions may be based. There has never, in history, been a situation where a draft document is given such status upon which decisions are based, especially in the search that was being conducted around the arms deal. Three agencies were involved and the draft report had to be built out of the reports of three agencies. So to take any one of the drafts and upon it allow for decisions to be taken, to be made now, decisions based on submitted reports, is therefore a dangerous precedent. I think that is really the challenge before us at this time. [Applause.]
DA POLICY DOCUMENT ON COMBATING OF CRIME
(Minister's Response)
The MINISTER OF SAFETY AND SECURITY: Thank you, Madam Speaker. The Democratic Alliance, Madam Speaker, is hoping that there will come a time, as they continue to say things that are not true, when there will be people who will believe what they are saying.
They have a document that they call a `policy document.’ Do you know what it says? It says they want special courts in South Africa, and they believe that it is a profound statement.
They do not know - and this is very sad for anybody who is serving our people from this platform - that we have so many specialised courts in our country. We have `Saturday courts’ to start with, but apart from that, there are commercial courts, there are central courts, we have even child courts. All these courts are dealing with these matters as special courts. They do not know that. [Interjections.]
But let me come to this matter of crime. They say - you should shut up and listen - that we do not know how to deal with crime. They have never dealt with crime at any point. They have always been in the opposition - a small opposition. They do not know how to handle any of the things that I am raising. [Interjections.]
They will not be able to handle crime, because, among others, what they say is their policy is actually what is embedded in our own policy documents. So I do not understand what they mean when they talk about their own policy. They are not going to be in government; they are not going to be able to deal with crime. Someone should actually take them into our specialised courts so that they see these specialised courts that they are talking about. [Applause.]
ALLEGED COMMENTS BY DEPUTY PRESIDENT
(Minister's Response)
The DEPUTY PRESIDENT: Thank you, Madam Speaker. I am just rising to help the members who are very excited, who saw the very excited headlines this morning, because the headlines were not saying what the Deputy President said. And this morning they were late to follow the news, because early this morning a correction had been made.
The Deputy President talked about the criminals who do not respect the Constitution of this country when they commit crimes against citizens of this country when they kill them, when they do all sorts of things. As soon as they are arrested as criminals, they then remember the Constitution and say that the Constitution must protect their rights when they do not respect the rights of other people.
And that is the point that we made when we were talking at the Cape Flats yesterday. And there is a statement we made today - the members could help to educate themselves with the statement. Thank you. [Applause.]
CO-OPERATION BETWEEN UNIONS AND JALI COMMISSION NEEDED
(Minister's Response)
The MINISTER OF CORRECTIONAL SERVICES: Thank you, Madam Speaker. I think the hon member Bloem was simply sharing fundamental advice with the House. Judging from the response of the House, he was saying that a head of state cannot appoint a judicial commission of inquiry and subsequently have it undermined by civil servants. They all need to co-operate. I think this is what he was saying.
THE NEED TO ACCELERATE GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT THROUGH PARTNERSHIP AND
ACTIVE PARTICIPATION IN ORDER TO PUSH BACK THE FRONTIERS OF POVERTY
(Subject for Discussion)
Dr R H DAVIES: Madam Speaker, Deputy President, Ministers and colleagues, this debate takes place ahead of the Growth and Development Summit, or GDS, which is scheduled to take place on 7 June, next Saturday. None of us who will participate in this debate will be in any position to comment in any meaningful or definitive way on the detailed contents of the agreements that will hopefully be adopted on Saturday. At this point, when these agreements are still being fine-tuned, it would be inappropriate for us to do so. What this debate will hopefully be able to achieve is to allow us as parliamentarians to reflect on the broad strategic context within which the GDS will take place and also on some of the challenges that the GDS might pose for us in our work here at Parliament.
In looking at the strategic significance of the GDS for our national effort to build a better life for all our people, it is perhaps necessary to begin by dealing with two common misperceptions that have emerged in various quarters regarding the GDS. The first of these places excessively high and unrealistic expectations of what is, after all, a one-day event, expecting it to provide an instant panacea for all our challenges and problems. The second misperception, which appears to be characteristic of the approach of the DA, is to dismiss the GDS up front as a mere talkshop or nonevent.
The GDS will, in fact, be neither a panacea nor a nonevent. It needs to be recognised as an exercise in social dialogue. Social dialogue can help build a national consensus on priorities for sustainable growth and development and it can also mobilise concrete commitments from social partners to work together to contribute to advancing this strategy. Those who are sceptical are perhaps ignorant of the important contributions made by social dialogue processes in other countries, for example in the case of Ireland.
It is, in my view, important for this Parliament to give a clear signal, among other ways through this debate today, that we are looking forward to a successful outcome to the summit on Saturday. More than that, though, the agreements that will hopefully be reached at the summit will inevitably require a work programme of follow-up activities to give effect to framework agreements. It will be important for us in Parliament to find ways to engage creatively with such processes, thereby helping to ensure that the GDS agreements realise their full potential in practice. The GDS takes place against the background of increasing agreement, not necessarily on every detail but on the broad direction and priorities for economic and developmental policy in the period that lies ahead. The key thrusts have been enunciated by the President in successive state of the nation addresses in recent years. In 2001 the President spoke of a shift in the focus of economic policy from macroeconomic stability to microeconomic reform. This shift envisaged a greater focus in our efforts to promote growth and development on real economy issues, such as infrastuctural development and the integrated manufacturing strategy. This year the President spoke of a concerted effort to roll back the frontiers of poverty. More specifically, he spoke of creating a society in which our people rely for their wellbeing and income on normalised participation in economic activity.
Our current reality, as the President also acknowledged, is that many of our people, through no fault of their own, do not and cannot earn their income through normal participation in economic activity. Official figures indicate that 29% of our working age population are unemployed, according to the strict ILO definition. If we drop the requirement of actively seeking work, the percentage according to the so-called expanded definition of unemployed rises to 40%. While we have more recently seen a small sign that the tide may be turning, with positive net job creation being recorded in the manufacturing sector in the third quarter of 2002, these figures highlight the enormity of the challenge that lies ahead.
How we understand the unemployment challenge facing us is critical in determining an appropriate and workable response. A number of analysts have pointed out that our challenge is not to deal with an unemployment problem that is fundamentally cyclical in nature. It is not something, therefore, that will disappear with growth alone, if that is understood simply as the expanded reproduction of the existing structures and relations of production. Nor is our unemployment problem, as the careful study of the 1996 report of the Presidential Commission on Labour Market Policy underscored, the product to any significant extent of rigidities in the labour market. As many analysts have argued, what we face is rather a problem of structural unemployment that has its origins in the crisis of the accumulation model that developed under colonialism and apartheid, and which has been exacerbated by perhaps inescapable adjustments to the new realities created by globalisation.
It is worth reminding ourselves of the central features of the apartheid accumulation model. It was based on the brutal exploitation of large numbers of low-paid unskilled labourers, drawn from the oppressed black population. This model was developed in the primary product sectors of mining and agriculture and was later carried over into manufacturing. It depended on racially discriminatory, oppressive and coercive measures to draw large numbers of black people into unskilled jobs, ensuring that their wage rates were kept low. Pass laws, closed compounds, racially discriminatory labour laws and the migrant labour system were all integral to this model of accumulation. The fact is that this model began to unravel and enter into crisis in the context of the world economic downturn of the mid-1970s. My comrade Arthur Moloto will expand on this.
For the moment, all I want to point out is that structural employment, falling particularly on the unskilled, has been a central feature of the South African reality since the mid-1970s. Pressures of globalisation from the mid-1990s onwards added a new dimension. Our country, along with others, came under pressure to reduce tariffs and expose our previously highly protected manufacturing sector to competition from abroad. Competitive pressures were seen by Government as requiring an inescapable major restructuring if we were to avoid the imminent possibility of deindustrialisation. This restructuring, which saw a shift from Fordist assembly line methods of production to more flexible and knowledge-based methods of organisation, succeeded both in raising competitiveness and in increasing export performance by the manufacturing sector - both key objectives. But this came at the cost of adding to the tendency to reduce the demand for unskilled workers, particularly those in activities peripheral to the core business of manufacturing enterprises.
When we say that we face an unemployment crisis that is structural in nature, what we mean in short is that over the past 30 years or so there’s been a process which has seen a sharp contraction in demand for unskilled labour linked to processes of restructuring within the branches of production in the formal sector of our economy.
Correctly understanding the nature of the unemployment challenge we face is central to defining a way forward. Recognising the problem as structural in nature means acknowledging that there is no solution from growth alone, understood as simple expanded reproduction of what we have. Of course, we need to raise growth rates, but we cannot do so without addressing the constraints created by poverty and underdevelopment. Ever since the drafting of the RDP, we have hence emphasised that growth has to be linked to development. Nor does the view that the key problem is labour market rigidities capture the fundamental reality of structural unemployment. Recognising this reality means acknowledging the need for a raft of responses, targeted in particular at overcoming structural constraints. These need to include both short and long-term interventions.
Linked to the infrastructure development challenge that has been identified as key to overcoming several of the real economy constraints to increasing growth, we need significantly to expand the National Public Works Programme. At our 51st congress in Stellenbosch the ANC resolved that an expanded Public Works Programme should involve a deliberate choice in favour of labour-absorbing techniques, particularly in developmental public works programmes. Linked to this there must be an expansion of training and skills development programmes. This will need to be complemented by a social security expansion, particularly to create conditions for the poorest of the poor to engage in productive activity.
In established formal sectors of our economy we need to encourage and provide incentives for labour absorption and job retention. The Integrated Manufacturing Strategy, or IMS, has identified the need to promote dynamic linkages between big projects and small business, and between downstream and upstream activity through the concept of integrated value matrices. These linkages are not automatic and won’t be achieved, in my view, by focusing on the large anchor investment alone. More attention needs to be focused on directly empowering smaller enterprises, and upstream and downstream activity, and in interventions to actively promote beneficial linkages.
But even if all our efforts in this regard were to succeed, we need to accept that our quest to end the scourge of unemployment and poverty must be broader than expanding wage labour employment in the formal sector. Many of our people are obliged to seek their livelihood in informal sector activities, but these, as studies by Stats SA have underscored, are at present overwhelmingly low income and low quality in nature. Our quest to end the scourge of unemployment and marginalisation must embrace a broader concept of promoting sustainable livelihoods and raising the quality of alternative economic activity. This must involve an accelerated push to support SMME development with more attention on the very small and micro enterprises that are currently marginal to many existing programmes. Co- operatives are an accessible collective form of economic activity which must have particular significance and which merit priority attention and support.
All of these are key thrusts of ANC and Government policy. The Growth and Development Summit can contribute and add value to all of these. The summit on Saturday will hopefully produce an agreement that will draw support from the social partners for expanded public works programmes. These will hopefully include agreements on a strategic choice in favour of labour- absorbing techniques and on the modalities for the implementation of such and agreement. The GDS will also hopefully include agreements for social partners to support an extension of training and skills upgrading, SMME support and support for co-operatives.
A particular challenge will be to unlock and mobilise resources in the hands of private capital to support increased investment of a developmental nature, which has as its objective economic and social development, increased job creation and is not driven by narrow considerations of profit maximisation alone. In this respect it has to be hoped that the GDS will build on and give impetus to the important Agreement on Capital Markets and Investment, reached at the Financial Sector Summit in August last year. This laid out a process and defined clear tasks for the social partners to promote increased private sector involvement in developmental investments. Importantly too, the Financial Sector Summit agreed that:
The Financial Sector commits itself to the disclosure of its investments and to engagement around the establishment of realistic targets for this type of investment.
The GDS, finally, will have to take all of this down to local level and make the agreements have real meaning for the inhabitants of townships and rural areas, where the majority of our poor, marginalised and currently unemployed reside.
The GDS will challenge us in Parliament to find creative ways to engage with the process. The GDS is not an event that will take place on one day. Rather, we need to see next Saturday’s event as the launch of a process which will require much follow-up activity to implement what will inevitably be framework summit agreements.
Yesterday, in the debate on development funding, we began to speak of the need to fund new models and modes to conduct parliamentary oversight, reaching beyond the silos that we are accustomed to operating in. The GDS will, I believe, similarly challenge us to find new ways to engage and oversee processes arising from it. Perhaps we will need to engage Nedlac on an appropriate mechanism for this.
In conclusion, on behalf of the overwhelming majority in this House I am sure, I want to wish those involved in the GDS all the best for a successful summit on Saturday. They, and we, have much work to do to ensure that we turn the tide of poverty in our country and create a better life for all. We dare not fail our people. Thank you. [Applause.]
Mr C M LOWE: Madam Speaker, I can remember a very different South Africa, a country at war with itself, a time when the infamous P W Botha presided over an imperial apartheid republic, where we lived under a state of emergency, where good men and women were banished and banned and where students of Natal University were baton charged, brutalised and detained or simply disappeared in the night. Today we live in a far better country than at any time in our past. We must never forget our terrible history, but we cannot keep on living in it or blaming it for everything that happens today.
Today, despite our nation’s achievements and advances, South Africa is not working. One in every three South Africans, over seven million people, is either looking for a job or has given up looking, realising that they are not going to find one. Government has failed to grasp job creation as our most urgent national priority and the latest unemployment statistics, structural or otherwise, are an appalling indictment of the ANC’s failure to deliver on the one thing that it promised so vehemently to do - to provide jobs. Even this year’s Budget, which provides some measure of poverty relief and awards tax rebates to those lucky enough to have employment, avoids or evades the key question: Where are the jobs?
There are no new jobs. Like the long-awaited but seldom seen broad-based black economic empowerment policy, jobs too have failed to materialise under an ANC regime that chooses dogma over doing well, floundering in the murky darkness of joblessness, unsure, unwilling and unable. After nearly a decade of ANC rule, we have one million jobs lost. Nearly 42% unemployed with nearly 27 million South Africans living below the poverty line. The reason for this lies squarely at the door of this Government, precipitated by a President who has failed to demonstrate moral leadership or instil confidence in a country crying out for foreign investment, a crisis of confidence caused by his attitude to Zimbabwe, his stance on Aids, and a crisis of confidence created in a country awash with corruption and crime - a country living and dying in fear.
How dare we talk of a better life for all when 7 million of our people cannot find a job. For the truth is that along with the much-promised better life for all, there is another South Africa - unemployed with hungry children, with people living in fear of murderers and learning more everyday of nepotism and corruption that exists and goes unchecked, pointing to ANC cronyism and secret deals reaching up into the very highest reaches of Government, where spectacular empowerment deals serve only to further enrich the already fabulously wealthy, leaving the majority of South Africans just as marginalised and as impoverished as ever they were. And how has Cabinet met this job crisis, our country’s greatest challenge? Not by making investment and growth a single-minded obsession, or by recognising that small business - not big business, and certainly not Government - will be the only generator of new job opportunities.
Instead, they remain arrogant and intransigent, ever more remote and unyielding, always looking backwards and blaming the past, not forward in embracing the future, determined to hang on to their rigid and inflexible labour dogma. As last week’s Labour Budget debate showed, not only does the ANC not know what they need to do about the mounting job crisis, but by their words and their actions, they simply don’t give a damn.
And so to the much-heralded but now strangely silent Growth and Development Summit, only days away with embarrassing topics like the HIV/Aids and Gear swept under the carpet while Cosatu threatens to reject any pre-arranged jobs pact that Government may already have settled with the other two alliance partners.
South Africa cannot afford another failed summit like the Presidential Job Summit of 1998. It cannot afford a Government that only looks after the employed, leaving the jobless defenceless and destroyed. Frankly, South Africa cannot afford another 10 years of ANC rule, for until they deliver on jobs, the ANC has delivered on nothing at all. No amount of spinning or posturing or even silence this Saturday in Johannesburg will change that one simple fact. Thank you. [Applause.]
Prof H NGUBANE: Madam Speaker, hon Deputy President, hon colleagues, I want to use this opportunity to examine more closely the requirements for meaningful partnerships. The relative equality between partners is the cornerstone of the relationship, to the extent that the partners are convinced that they each have something to gain from the partnership.
There is also another requirement that is, in fact, a precursor or prerequisite to the formation of meaningful partnerships. That is the existence of goodwill and mutual trust. Almost ten years after the first democratic Government in South Africa, there are small indicators that a relative measure of goodwill exists across the racial divide in different parts of the country, but it is still very fragile and tends to crumble at the slightest disturbance. What we all need to do is to encourage and promote such goodwill whenever we come across it, and all of us need to attempt to indicate our goodwill, spreading over everything we do to encompass everyone around us.
The recent publicity given to Happy Sindane’s story carries within it an example of goodwill. Betty Sindane, who brought Happy up after he had been abandoned as a young child, is obviously poor, but was prepared to share her meagre means of life with her son and Happy. The indications are that the two boys grew up as brothers, speaking Isindebele and observing the relevant cultural behaviour. Betty Sindane illustrates a fountain of goodwill in having taken in a little boy who had nowhere to go, giving him love without question in spite of the hurt and pain that many black people still carry within them as a result of the apartheid experience.
On the other hand, what is reflected through the media is a sense of shock that a white child could have been stolen by the maid and later abandoned in the heart of poverty with black people. The Cape Times on Tuesday, 27 May reported that ``Happy’s claim that he had been abducted by his family’s domestic worker caused an international media frenzy’’. No doubt, if it was a black toddler who had been abducted and abandoned, there would probably have been no international media frenzy.
As South Africans, we are constantly faced with interference of a racist nature in situations that appear not well disposed to the interests of the white people. We need to be vigilant and close ranks to be truly South African in order to dissuade racist responses that may emanate outside of our country. Because of outcries based on race, the good relations that Betty and Happy had forged together over the years are overlooked - especially the beautiful expression of Ubuntu by Joana towards Happy.
There are various instances of goodwill if we care to look around us and take note. Two weeks ago, on a Saturday preceding Mother’s Day, I was doing my shopping. While I was walking along within the mall, a white girl of about 10 years old gave me a rose, wishing me a happy Mother’s Day. I was very elated by this gesture. I made up my mind that as soon as I returned home, I would write an article about this episode, which I would send to the Cape Times to tell the young person what her kind act did for me and to thank all those around her who might have encouraged her in her endeavour.
As you know, good intentions are not always matched by fortuitous opportunity. I became obstructed on my way home and never wrote the article. I suppose I am not the only one with the problem of procrastination. Yet, acts of goodwill such as the one mentioned above need to be given the maximum publicity to encourage one another and to promote endeavours of goodwill in our young democracy. With regard to partnerships, in order to push back the frontiers of poverty, a good example has recently been provided with the setting up of the Unemployment Insurance Fund. This fund is meant to enable those who are on the lowest rung of labour, such as the domestic servants and farmworkers, to be registered so that, if they lose their jobs or are unable to continue working, they could be covered for some time through this insurance fund.
To put this process into operation, there is a need for co-operation between the employers and the Department of Labour. These two sectors become partners in their efforts to assist the employees within the particular category to gain benefits from insurance. These benefits would be set out by contribution of a small sum of money from the employer and then topped up by the Department of Labour to make it worthwhile for the relevant employee thus registered. No doubt the Department of Labour has been satisfied by the relatively good co-operation in this partnership.
Nonetheless, reports of exceptions, where some of the employers are said to have reduced the wages if they were above R800 basic wage and placed the employee in the R800 bracket, making an argument that the Department of Labour has so ordered. Other cases are reported where the hours of work have been reduced in order to pay less wages and cases of summary dismissal are also plentiful. Other instances include reduction in the employee’s wages in order to pay the sum of money required by the Department of Labour from the employer every month.
As said earlier on, not everybody is imbibed with the goodwill that is a prerequisite for workable partnerships. If these employers found that the procedures in setting out the UIF were vague, or had a lot of loopholes that could give rise to unintended interpretations, they could at least have contacted the Department of Labour to alert it of such shortcomings.
I want to congratulate the Minister of Labour - hon Mdladlane - on taking up the thorny question of the domestic servants and farm labourers. I only hope that the co-operation to ease the lives of these employees will flourish to contribute in pushing back the frontiers of poverty. Thank you. [Applause.]
Dr W A ODENDAAL: Mr Chairman, the subject of today’s discussion neatly encapsulates the central policy challenge confronting all of us who care about South Africa. How do we accelerate growth and development to enable us to push back the frontiers of poverty? The short answer is by raising the standard of living across the board. No government can allow the wealth gap between rich and poor to keep on widening. Only irresponsible governments will try to close the gap by implementing policies that will leave everybody equally poor.
The means to achieve the goal of raising living standards across the board, however, is no simple task.
The only sustained way in which to eradicate poverty over time and empower breadwinners to regain their dignity and care for their own families is to provide enough jobs. There is no other way to win the war against poverty than job creation through growth and development. Safety nets like grants and free health care will alleviate poverty but it will not roll it back. South Africa’s economic growth rate has now been hovering around 3% for a number of years, a remarkable achievement amongst developing countries. All this resulted from sound fiscal management and a disciplined financial system for which the South African Government should be commended.
It has been acknowledged worldwide that South Africa needs a sustained annual growth rate of more than 5% to be in a position to reduce the unacceptable persistently high unemployment rate of more than 35% by 50 % by the year 2020. The current rate of economic growth will not roll back poverty.
The basic challenge of any government wishing to accelerate economic growth is to create an environment of confidence and predictability in which investors will feel comfortable enough to risk capital and expand their businesses. It is, however, not the formal sector and big business alone that have to contribute to the creation of job opportunities. The major role small and medium enterprises have to play in providing new jobs that will serve as a training ground for future successful entrepreneurs in all spheres of economic activity is often overlooked and underestimated by many people, also in our country. South Africa will depend on subsistence and small-scale farming to pave the way towards generating a meaningful number of successful black commercial farmers. The same process has to take place in commerce and industry to provide the number of black captains in the industry who will be able to create the much-needed job opportunities in the formal labour sector.
Medium and small enterprises, however, suffer severely from rigidities in the existing labour market. The policy of minimum wages and the highly centralised collective bargaining procedures pose a major obstacle to these small entrepreneurs. They cannot all afford the enforced minimum wages while bargaining only take place between big business and big labour. The small employers are not allowed to bargain with their own employees. The result is that emerging entrepreneurs shy away from expanding their businesses and employing more workers.
The problem of a slow growth rate is further exacerbated by the chronic skills shortage amongst the unemployed.
One of the solutions should thus indeed be to accelerate skills transfer to previously disadvantaged entrepreneurs by means of partnerships and active participation in enterprises in all sectors of the economy, agriculture, commerce and industry. It should be supported by an aggressive training programme specifically aimed at the unemployed.
South Africa must learn from the experiences of the Pacific Rim Tigers. In countries like Taiwan, South Korea, Malaysia and others, massive training and skills transfer programmes empowered future entrepreneurs who advanced via the route of small and medium and often, informal economic sectors to develop into the champions of agriculture, industry and commerce.
The secret to the acceleration of economic growth and job creation lies in the ingenious stimulation of entrepreneurship within the informal economic sector. Labour market rigidities should therefore be removed and centralised collective bargaining procedures relaxed to enable the SMMEs to fulfil their pivotal role in reducing the unemployment rate and eventually weeding out poverty.
South Africa can do it. The New NP looks forward to being part of the solution to our country’s problems, not to being the problem itself. [Applause.]
Mr K A MOLOTO: Chairperson, any person can mention unemployment statistics without providing a penetrating and useful analysis of the challenges. It is much easier to avoid engaging in putting things in their proper context and only offer vote-catching phrases. That is what is called intellectual laziness. That is what hon Lowe did this evening. I do not agree with his thesis that South Africa is not working. This argument cannot be sustained in any debate.
A systematic analysis of the origins of the socioeconomic problems of South Africa and the challenges it faces today warrants the attention of this House. It is only through such an analysis that this House will appreciate the efforts taken by this Government to unlock the growth potential of this country and create a better life for all our people. We need to engage in serious discussions on this matter without the fashionable vote-catching phrases.
The current challenges South Africa faces have a historical background that needs an exposition. The interwar years provided the pact Government of 1924, which was constituted by the National Party and the Labour Party to create employment opportunities for a large number of poor whites and to create an economic base that would take over mining when gold reserves got depleted. The National Party represented Afrikaner farmers, public servants and working-class Afrikaners. The Labour Party represented the English- speaking section of the working class.
This pact Government was based on job-reservation for whites, support for the agricultural marketing system and co-operatives of Afrikaner farmers and a total denial of trade union rights for blacks.
With regard to black workers, one can safely characterise this period as one of extreme labour market inflexibility. Heaven forbid, I hope that the hon Lowe is not crying for a return to this era. This labour market flexibility provided no improvements in the quality of life of black people. It denied them access to skills training.
It was during this period that minimum wages were set for workers in various industries where there was no collective bargaining. Wage legislation established the Wage Boards to achieve these goals. Colour bar legislation excluded Africans and Indians on the mines from most categories of skilled and semi-skilled work. These measures had disastrous and far-reaching consequences for this country. This is a point I will continuously come back to during my speech. This is a very critical matter. Failure to realise this will result in ill- conceived economic strategies and exploitative sweat shops.
The outbreak of the Second World War provided an even faster economic expansion in industrial activity. There was an increase in production of military goods for South Africa and the Allied forces. There was also a growth of industries that produced goods that could not be imported because of disruptions caused by war.
According to John Pampalis, a distinguished academic, factories started to manufacture armoured cars, artillery guns, ammunition, soldier boots, uniforms and other equipment. The local steel industry grew as a result of these developments. There was also a rapid growth in mining production and building construction. The engineering, chemical and textile industries also experienced a rapid growth. The National Party appealed for the economic interest of Afrikaners. Its policies appealed to white farmers who resented the large-scale movement of blacks to cities which increased pressure for an increase in agricultural wages. Agricultural wages were much lower than urban wages at that time. It provided the Afrikaner working class with skills-training opportunities.
According to John Pampalis, a distinguished academic:
The nationalists frightened whites with the spectre of swart-gevaar and promised to deal ruthlessly with black opposition of any sort. They critised the Smuts government for its failure to deal with high crime rates, rising prices and white unemployment.
This sounds very familiar. Indeed there are certain things that have not changed. I think I have heard these messages during the 1999 elections. I can predict with certainty that we will still hear these statements again. You also see posters featuring very angry men, asking voters to keep the ANC out of power. Let me just offer you one piece of advice: Please smile on these posters! There is a bright future ahead of this country. The tide has turned.
The 1950s is a period that can be characterised by an unprecedented economic boom in South Africa. The reduction of wages of black workers as a result of repressive laws by the National Party government resulted in super profits for all sections of the capitalist class. These super profits, arising from super exploitation of black workers, attracted massive foreign investment from Britain, the United States of America and Western Europe. There was massive investment in manufacturing and mining. South African mining houses started to invest heavily in manufacturing and it was during this period that manufacturing began to be dominated more and more by only a few very large firms.
The whole economy was particularly given a boost by the development of the newly discovered Free State gold fields. The state also intervened directly in the economy by establishing Sasol, expanding production of Iscor and establishing an industrial finance corporation of mining and manufacturing.
The National Party provided farmers with favourable prices for their products. It is recorded that these prices increased by nearly 50% in the first five years of National Party rule.
During the 1960s, the apartheid regime consolidated its power militarily. There was a sharp increase in military spending, which gave a massive boost to the economy, with particular reference to factories producing goods for the South African Defence Force. Foreign investors had all the confidence in the might of the regime. The assault on the rights of unskilled black workers continued unabated. Cheap labour continued to ensure super profits. This was a period of sustained economic growth.
Towards the end of the 1960s, there was increased consolidation of farm sizes. Big farm owners started to buy smaller farms to consolidate their farm holdings. Agriculture became heavily mechanised. It relied heavily on machines for production. Mining became capital-intensive. It should be noted that previously, these two sectors were labour-intensive. Massive unemployment occurred as a result, and Bantustans became the dumping grounds for this surplus labour.
It is also ironic that the capital-intensive method of production was allowed to take place by the government in the midst of surplus labour and massive unemployment. It is therefore correct that the ANC calls for labour- intensive production methods where possible in other sectors of our economy.
Hon members, let us take this moment to reflect briefly on the sources of these contradictions: Firstly, you had a manufacturing industry that was uncompetitive and protected from imports by use of tariffs and other measures. The manufacturing industry could not even produce products that could compete in the export market. Secondly, you had this high unemployment rate among black people, who constituted the majority in this country. In brief, the economy suffered from a lack of internal or domestic demand for goods produced by the South African manufacturing sector.
The gold price fell sharply in 1975 and in the 1980s. This resulted in massive retrenchment of workers. Prof Servaas van den Berg of the University of Stellenbosch indicates that:
In this period - 1975 to 1988 - the labour force grew by 3.9 million whilst formal employment grew by only 900 000, leaving an increase in the excess labour force of 3 million to seek a living in the informal sector or subsistence agriculture or to remain unemployed.
The drop in the price of gold caused further complications beside retrenchments in the mining sector. Gold accounted for 44% of export revenues. This put major pressures on the balance of payments and caused the rand to depreciate sharply.
According to Jonathan Leape of the London School of Economics, the rand value of the South African foreign debt rose from R12.6 billion in 1980 to R60.1 billion - an increase ten times that in dollar terms. This resulted in the debt crisis of 1985. The debt crisis put the squeeze on economic growth.
Hon members, we can clearly see that this was a house of cards. It was bound to implode. The critical question that has to be posed is: What has the ANC Government done to resolve these internal contradictions in the South African economy?
The interventions made by the ANC Government have ensured that the manufacturing sector is not wiped off the map by the process of globalisation. The ANC Government moves from the premise that cheap labour can no longer be a source of competitive advantage in the global economy. A broad national skills base has to be built to enable this country to take a premier or strategic place in the global value chain. It also acknowledges that commodities are traded on an international level and possession of such can no longer be considered a competitive advantage. For South Africa to be a solution hub in various sectors of the economy, it needs a broader skills base. Skills training and learnerships will ensure that this country marches forward in the world of innovations. The development of skills had an impact on all sectors of our economy. Of course, there is the challenge of how to accommodate this large pool of unskilled workers.
This has been a difficult task. It is like building in a storm. The forces of globalisation have the potential to cause major dislocations in the economy. It has not been an easy task. However, one can state with conviction that the ANC Government has put in place measures to rebuild the South African economy, with particular reference to the manufacturing sector.
Public works programmes, land reform, small business development and financing are such measures that will address some of these challenges.
Lastly, during the public hearings on the budget, it was established that the private sector is sitting on R300 billion of surplus cash, just lying idle. I am convinced that the different role-players, in our economy and during the Growth and Development Summit will address all obstacles towards the deployment of that surplus cash in a productive economy. I thank you. [Applause.]
Adv Z L MADASA: Thank you, Mr Chairman. We must not talk about pushing back the frontiers of poverty. To me, this is a very ugly phrase. We should rather talk about the elimination of poverty, instead.
The real challenge that the country faces is how to ensure global competitiveness and local benefits. At the moment, there is undue focus on competitiveness with less emphasis on development. What is needed is shared growth, not just profitability. Ironically, if growth is increased and shared, there will be more profits and accelerated competitiveness.
Economic growth does not, per se, precipitate more jobs, although it definitely increases profits. On the other hand …
The DEPUTY CHAIRPERSON OF COMMITTEES: Order! I think, hon members, you are drowning out the speaker here. Could you please come to order. Order, please! Hon member, you may now proceed.
Adv Z L MADASA: Economic growth does not, per se, precipitate more jobs, although it definitely increases profits. On the other hand, a lack of or less economic growth causes more job losses. Acceleration of growth unaccompanied by strategies to ensure development will not be beneficial to a growing economy.
Our challenge is how to ensure increased participation in the economy by the majority of South Africans who are still on the periphery of economic activity. Most people are marginalised from the economy, not only through job losses, but also through a lack of skills and equal opportunities to become entrepreneurs. The economy cannot grow to ideal levels when so many people are living off the existing economy without contributing to its growth.
We also need to bridle the tempo of deregulation and privatisation in order to ensure that we are not too far ahead of the pack and to consider the social impact. Where markets fail to deliver on development, the Government needs to intervene swiftly. Such an approach will also enhance the capacity of our negotiators at the World Trade Organisation by giving them enough leverage or ammunition so as not to have to argue merely on fairness.
Our industrial strategy must include support for the downstream and labour- intensive industries. More investments, maintenance and building of the infrastructure is crucial to stimulating growth.
In order to ensure competitiveness and shared growth, the Government must ensure better co-ordination and spending of all available development funding, which is a matter we dealt with yesterday.
Partnerships between the developed and the developing worlds are crucial to support development and the elimination of poverty. Nepad is a welcome concept in this regard. Partnerships between the governments in the developing world and the private sector and civil society are also indispensable.
But partnerships only work when the partners are committed to the partnership. Corruption and greed weaken partnerships. We must act swiftly to remove the few remaining corrupt, yet influential, freedom fighters on the continent and replace them with fighters for freedom and development. Thank you.
Mr G T MADIKIZA: Chairperson and hon members, the unemployment crisis threatens to undo everything that democracy offers this society. Rightly, therefore, the need for accelerated economic growth and development is recognised by all here, but to speak of achieving this goal, and I quote, ``through partnership’’, is disingenuous.
This topic is brought to this House whilst no party here, aside from the ruling party, will be represented at the Growth and Development Summit. Is this the level of consultation that the ruling party intends to accord to others on this vital issue?
The ANC Government is saying that they are willing to recognise that there is a problem, perhaps because the elections are coming, but what it won’t acknowledge is that, after years of implementing its policy, nothing has really changed. Therefore, even those who are important or pliable enough to attend the summit are told beforehand that the Government’s policy is not up for discussion.
A debate, a proper discussion involving the entire South African society, is required. Proper in length - certainly. One day cannot achieve anything. Proper in participation - certainly. All stakeholders should be involved. Proper in content - certainly. All issues of economic policy must be open for discussion.
In short, this country needs an economic Codesa. I thank you.
Mr P H K DITSHETELO: Deputy Chair, there is no doubt that the eradication of poverty remains a major challenge for the democratic Government. It is this state of poverty that denies our people the opportunity to enjoy our hard-won democracy. We have to act as a matter of urgency to push back the frontiers of poverty. The challenge we all face is how to respond to this pressing situation, whose responsibility it is to address poverty and what has been done already.
As much as social grants are desirable as part of the overall strategy to combat poverty, we would not regard them as the panacea to solving our social problem. What we need in our country is to harness our human potential of youth and women, who are in the majority. We need to get them into our mainstream economy. Their participation in a transformed economy is long overdue if we are to seriously fight poverty. We have to prepare them for the realities of the global economy, through accelerated innovative education and training programmes.
Whose responsibility is it to address this challenge? It is every South African’s responsibility to fight poverty with whatever means at our disposal. We have to encourage active participation by the private sector, civil society and Government in devising and jointly implementing programmes aimed at addressing the issues that contribute to the state of poverty in our country. The Government cannot fight poverty without involving other stakeholders.
It is hoped that the planned Growth and Development Summit will, indeed, provide an opportunity for South Africans to come forward with concrete steps to … [Time expired.]
Dr S E M PHEKO: Deputy Chairman, the need to accelerate growth and development is not in doubt. However, the monotonous repetition of ``pushing back the frontiers of poverty’’ can be shouted until horses grow horns, but poverty will not vanish.
The eradication of poverty will not happen until there are economic policies in place which seriously confront poverty. Gear and the privatisation of state assets are destroyers of jobs. They aggravate poverty. Section 25(7) of the Constitution is inimical to the eradication of poverty. It has consolidated the land dispossession of the Africans and their poverty.
The enormous wealth of this country is in minority hands and more of it is daily getting concentrated in their hands. Mineral wealth that ought to have radically raised the standard of living of all the people of this country is enjoyed by the minority rich, who see Africans only as employees owning nothing. The result is that 98% of our country’s economy is controlled by the minority.
When it comes to poverty, it is the Africans who are suffocating in the quagmire of poverty. Their country is like the one which was described by Prophet Jeremiah, when he said: ``Our inheritance has been turned over to the foreigners. We buy our water to drink’’.
To eradicate poverty, land must be equitably redistributed, not as from
- The wealth of the country must be shared. There must be a bottom-top approach to development and spending of more money and training on the poor. The Government must not abdicate its responsibility to eradicate poverty by allowing laws and policies which perpetuate the economic servitude of the majority population of this country. Thank you.
[Time expired.]
Mrs B M NTULI: Chairperson, Deputy President, hon members, friends and comrades, we are addressing a very important topic today in the House. It is important because we are nearing the Growth and Development Summit. This summit is important because it is an indicator of the consensus and progress made by our society that includes all of us, Government and private sector. Stakeholders will come with varied perspectives, but the objective is to find common ground so that all can benefit from the outcome of the summit.
The importance of this debate in the House is to support the process, provide guidance and encourage stakeholders to find one another.
Our deliberations today will provide a map of various challenges to unlock the development opportunities of our communities and increase participation by the disadvantaged people of South Africa in the economic mainstream. Our role as MPs should give effect to the central task that is given to us by the statement of 8 January, the 51st national conference resolutions, the President’s state of the nation address and the lekgotlas that underpin the ANC strategy towards a better life for all.
This includes the elimination of poverty, boosting of productivity, stimulating economic growth on a sustainable basis and improved social conditions. We should aim to bring about economic and social transformation that would create a broad-based pattern of income-generating and wealth- creating opportunities for the poor and the closing of the inequality gap.
The Integrated Sustainable Rural Development Programmes seek to improve the lives of the poor people, especially the rural poor, and particular efforts will be made to target women, youth and the disabled. These programmes would enhance income generation, local economic development, improved infrastructure, social cohesion and physical security within rural communities. Through these programmes, local people and all stakeholders are committing themselves to trying to find solutions to the current job crisis that rural areas are facing.
To advance the struggle against poverty, a number of obstacles need to be overcome. Some of these obstacles are: ensuring higher rates of growth in the economy to remain competitive as a country and to increase both domestic and foreign investment - that is very important; to generate sustainable employment in the rural areas in particular, and to develop SMMEs, women organisations and the involvement of community organisations and church groupings; to raise the skills level amongst our people through the Setas, Abet and on-the-job training; to improve the outreach of our microcredit programmes by implementing the apex funds; to develop the co- operative sector in all agricultural areas for emerging farmers; to implement Integrated Sustainable Rural Development and Urban Renewal Programmes and advance black economic empowerment programmes aimed at sustainable development; and, of course, to build an efficient competitive agricultural sector to support the emergence of successful smallholder farming enterprises.
In South Africa, the current growth in the economy takes place in the context of job-shedding. The relationship between joblessness and unemployment must be looked at. Large numbers of our people live in poverty. In the early 1990s approximately 17 million people lived in absolute poverty, of which approximately 95% were African and 75% were rural. The unemployment rate was 16% in 1995 and just over 27% in 2002. The number of unemployed is increasing amongst the unskilled section of our labour force and in our rural areas. This was created by those who seem to forget that they are the architects of this poverty.
In this regard, Setas can play a vital role in training and skilling our workers so as to increase productivity. In terms of unskilled labour in the rural areas, we would like to see more land available in this sector to empower black people so that they can have an asset base and are encouraged to become employers of themselves. We must involve agriculture extension officers to give their full support to emerging farmers through in-field training. In this regard, retraining of our extension officers is vital in the area of marketing and managerial skills.
We would also like to see more labour-intensive industries that can absorb the excess labour, for example agro-industries in rural areas, small-scale mining and processing of our agricultural produce and adding value to our minerals in the country. Through this effort, productive employment opportunities are opened for new work seekers, including school-leavers. This would improve the effectiveness of our labour markets and increase investment in skills development and training, so that we can have a productive workforce.
We acknowledge the establishment of the Umsobomvu Youth Fund to provide training for young people to become entrepreneurs. However, we see the slow process of engagement and implementation as an issue that needs to be relooked at. Government needs to unlock the limited resources to create more infrastructure to improve the delivery of effective services and to achieve the set target of halving unemployment by 2014 through public works programmes that will eradicate poverty and address the legacy of apartheid, ensuring the economic participation of blacks, disabled, youth and women; promoting investment and creating low-skill jobs and jobs for unskilled labour; ensuring the benefits of the trickle-down effect across sectors and value matrices.
The Department of Trade and Industry must bring the SMMEs into the mainstream of the economy. SMMEs can absorb unemployment in the micro and survivalist sector and create linkages with large firms in terms of contracts, outsourcing and networking.
South Africa has become increasingly capital-intensive over time, and this capital intensity is relatively high by international standards. Many job losses are associated with low skill levels in the labour force. Policy- makers should therefore focus on developing proper skills and training for entrepreneurs and speed up the BEE policy. This is very important.
Most of the SMMEs are situated in the rural areas, producing simple goods for local demand. However, the poor infrastructure hampers their competitiveness and increases the urban-rural bias. In addition, the high interest rates influence consumption patterns in the SMME sector.
SMME support programmes should therefore be fine-tuned and tailor-made for the disadvantaged areas. They should address managerial skills, information, communication and technology. Finance institutions in these areas, banks in particular, do not fulfil the needs of SMMEs in terms of access to finance and the provision of collateral. Some intervention by the Government would be helpful, but as we know, there is always room for improvement - room for improvement does exist.
We hoped that the amended National Small Business Bill, which provides for a small business advisory council, would address many of the problems that SMMEs are facing. However, we all know by now that there is no easy and quick solution to the unemployment problem. We therefore need to engage constructively and responsibly to change the conditions to achieve a better life for all.
I-ANC ayikahluleki ukuvula amathuba emisebenzi. Ukuze sibe nale nhlupheko engaka kwadalwa ukuthi sathathelwa umhlaba yilaba ababesibusa ngaleso sikhathi. Okunye-ke, ukuze abantu bahlale bahlupheke ngale ndlela abahlupheka ngayo abazenzanga, babesebenza kodwa besebenzela ize. Abanye babesenzela ukuhlala endaweni lapho babehlala khona. Abanye babesebenzela ukuphiwa impuphu ukuze badle, bedla impuphu yodwa njengamagundwane. Akuzange-ke kuthathwe umhlaba kuphela. Senziwa izigqila ezweni lobaba, ezweni lethu. Sasisebenzela laba asebehlumule namhlanje abizibona ukuthi bangcono, abazibona ukuthi ngaphandle kwabo ngeke siwavule amathuba emisebenzi thina.
Manje simemezela kubo bonke abantu, simemezela kuzo zonke izifundazwe ukuthi abantu abasukume bazenzele ngoba akekho omunye umuntu ozobenzela. Laba abakhuluma kakhulu kangaka, basebenzela izikhwama zabo. Babevele bekwenza lokhu ngoba babethatha bathumele lapho bevela khona, ngoba vele banamanye amakhaya ngaphandle kwaleli khaya esinalo thina.
Sekuyikhathi-ke sokuthi azibuye zonke emasisweni. Awubuye umhlaba, ayibye imisebenzi iphathwe ibe sezandleni zabantu bendawo ukuze abantu bakwazi ukuzithuthukisa. Omama, abantu abasha, abantu abakhubazekile nathi sonke muzi onsundu e-Afrika asisukume sizenzele. Akekho omunye umuntu ozosenzela.
Ngiyanxusa-ke koNgqongqoshe bonke ukuthi bambisanani. Uma unokuthize ngakolwakho uhlangothi, hlanganisa nokuthize ngasohlangothini lukababa uNgubane ukuze sidale amathuba omsebenzi, siwadalele abantu bakithi, ngoba empeleni abakithi abantu abahluphekayo. Laba abakhuluma kakhulu abahlupheki. Lokhu abakwenzayo bakwenzela nje ukuthi bazobiza abantu bakithi ukuthi babavotele, kuphela nje into abayenzayo.
Ngiyacela-ke bakwethu ukuthi asibambisaneni ukuze sithuthukise izwe lakithi, sizithuthukise nathi uqobo lwethu, nabantwana bethu baze bafike banyathele lapho thina sihambe khona, babone ukuthi kunyathelwa kule ndlela, umuntu uyazithuthukisa, umuntu uyazenzela. AbeSuthu bathi: Ntho tse ntle motho o a iketsetsa
[One does good things for oneself.] Ngiyabonga kakhulu. [Ihlombe.] (Translation of isiZulu paragraphs follows.)
[The ANC has not failed yet to create job opportunities. The reason why we have so much suffering is because we were forcibly removed from our land by those who were governing us at the time. Another thing, people did not bring this suffering onto themselves. They worked, but for nothing. Others worked in order to stay where they lived. Others worked so that they would be given maize meal to eat. They would eat only that maize meal, like mice.
Not only were we forcibly removed from our land, but we were also enslaved in our forefathers’ land, our land. We were working for those who are well- established today and who also think they are better. They think that, without them, we can’t create job opportunities. Now we call upon everybody, and all provinces, to ensure that people take the initiative because nobody will do it for them. Those who have big mouths work to benefit themselves. They were already doing this, because they took things and sent them to where they had come from, since they also have other homes outside this country other than this that we have.
It is now time to bring those things back. The land must be given back to its rightful owners. Jobs must be given to indigenous people in order to develop them. Mothers, fathers, the youth, the disabled and all of us, the black nation in Africa, let us take the initiative.
I appeal to all the Ministers to work together. If you have an idea, share it with the hon Ngubane, for example, so that we create job opportunities for our people because in fact it is our people who are suffering the most. Those who have big mouths are not suffering at all. What they are doing now is just to woo our people so that they vote for them. That is all they are doing. I appeal to everyone that we work together in order to develop our country, ourselves and our children so that they follow in our footsteps and see the way. One develops oneself and does things for oneself. The baSotho say: Ntho tse ntle motho o a iketsetsa [One does good things for oneself.] Thank you. [Applause.]]
Miss S RAJBALLY: Thank you, Chairperson, Deputy President, Ministers. Poverty is one of our greatest challenges, and we have embarked on many projects, policies, programmes, plans and efforts to tackle it. But often it seems as though the more we fight it, the more it fights back.
However, we have come a long way. Though the media often do not portray us that way as a governing body, we have an excellent system in place which, if utilised efficiently, could produce a successful battle against poverty.
Poverty is influenced by many factors to which our horrific past has been the major contributor. However, to attain progress, we need to focus on our future, and not waste time mourning the past, though we should use it as a reminder of what we would never want to be again.
As a Government for the people by the people, public participation in Government is crucial. A strong relationship between Government and our people is crucial to advancement. We need to reach into our constituencies and physically partake in our community so that our people know that we are committed to delivery.
The thought of the gravy train needs to be done away with. Deputy Chair, the train may be there but unfortunately the gravy is gone with the apartheid regime.
The MF calls for all members’ increased involvement and visibility in poverty-stricken areas, not just in the form of public meetings, but in physically making a constructive contribution to society.
By Government actively participating in communities, partnerships may be built, with the incorporation of the private sector too. This would certainly contribute to accelerating growth and development, which would assist in pushing back the frontiers of poverty. Thank you, Chairperson. [Applause.]
Mnr C AUCAMP: Agb Voorsitter, die Nasionale Aksie plaas ‘n belangrike premie op die makroprobleme van Suid-Afrika en die makronasionale uitdagings. Daarom is dit ook vir ons belangrik om aan hierdie tipe debatte deel te neem.
Benewens misdaad, en die bekamping daarvan, is werkskepping en die bevordering van ekonomiese groei van die hoogste prioriteite op ons Nasionale Aksie-plan. Ons glo daaraan hoe groter die koek gemaak word, hoe minder gaan ons onderling baklei oor hoe die koek verdeel moet word. Daarom steun ons ook planne om armoede te beveg en om die grense van armoede terug te skuif.
Daar is twee maniere hoe dit gedoen kan word, gesien van die Regering se kant af. Die een manier, dis die verkeerde manier, is die Staat as agent. Dat die Staat deur … (Translation of Afrikaans paragraphs follows.)
Mr C AUCAMP: Hon Chairperson, the National Action places an important premium on the macroproblems of South Africa and the macronational challenges. Therefore it is also important for us to participate in this type of debate.
In addition to crime, and combating it, the creation of jobs and the promotion of economic growth are amongst the highest priorities in our National Action plan. We believe that the larger the cake is made, the less we are going to fight among one another about how it is to be divided. Therefore we also support the plans to combat crime and to push back the frontiers of poverty.
There are two ways in which this can be done, seen from the side of the Government. The one way, which is the wrong way, is the state as agent. That the state gives …]
… hand-outs, becoming a welfare state, taking foreign loans. That is not sustainable - only to give hand-outs and become a welfare state. Even a basic social grant would fall in this category. We don’t support that. The other way is …
… die Staat as fasiliteerder, die Staat as katalisator wat moet sorg vir ‘n omgewing wat belegger-vriendelik is sodat die broodnodige kapitaal kan instroom. En daarom moet ons sê dat die manier waarop die huidige Regering die Zimbabwe-krisis hanteer totaal kontraproduktief is. Ek kry ons President amper jammer. Hy sit daar en by die G8-vergadering in Frankryk om ‘n mooi voet voor te sit vir beleggings in Suid-Afrika, en Mugabe is besig om alles hier agter te verwoes. En ons hoor nie ‘n woord daarvan van ons eie Regeringsmense se kant af nie. Dit trek ‘n streep deur alles.
Ons glo ook dat werkskepping alleen bevorder kan word as die arbeidswetgewing meer toeskietlik gaan wees, en as daar ook ‘n geleentheid gaan wees vir kleinsake-ondernemings om te kan groei. Dan wil ons ook sê aan die agb Pheko om grondhervorming terug te vat tot 1652 gaan presies armoede in hierdie land bevorder. Ek wil hom daaraan herinner, hoe emosioneel hulle ookal oor grond voel, mens kan nie grond eet nie. Daar moet produksie kom. Mens kan kos eet en daarvoor het ons boere nodig wat wel kan produseer. (Translation of Afrikaans paragraphs follows.)
[… the state as facilitator, the state as catalyst that has to ensure an environment that is investor-friendly so that the essential capital can flow in. And therefore we have to say that the way in which the present Government is handling the Zimbabwean crisis is totally counterproductive. I almost feel sorry for our President. He sits there at the G8 meeting in France to create a good impression for investments in South Africa, and Mugabe is destroying everything behind the scenes. And we do not hear a word about that from our own Government’s people. This negates everything.
We also believe that job creation can only be promoted if labour legislation becomes more flexible, and if there will also be an opportunity for small business undertakings to grow. We would also like to tell the hon Pheko that taking land reform back to 1652 will, in fact, promote poverty in this country. I want to remind him, no matter how emotional they may feel about land, that one cannot eat the soil. There has to be production. People can eat food and therefore we need farmers who can, in fact, produce.]
The DEPUTY CHAIRPERSON OF COMMITTEES: Order! Hon member, your speaking time has expired.
Mnr C AUCAMP: Ek dank u. [I thank you.]
Ms R TALJAARD: Hon Deputy President, colleagues, in a recent Article IV Consultation document the IMF states that the central policy challenge facing South Africa remains the quest for higher growth and lower unemployment. The IMF notes:
Success in meeting these goals hinges on maintaining a sound and stable financial environment, which will require implementing the inflation- targeting strategy, maintaining fiscal restraint, and rebuilding international reserves. But growth performance is also dependent on attracting foreign investment, which in turn is dependent on undertaking further structural reforms in the areas of privatisation and trade liberalisation. In addition, more ambitious labour market reforms would help to ensure that investment absorbs rather than displaces labour.
The challenges are therefore clear: attracting investment; continued structural reforms in the areas of labour market flexibility, trade liberalisation and privatisation. The challenge of seeking consensus on these politically divisive driving factors of fixed foreign direct investment is also clear. But they must be overcome.
South Africa has a dual economy. As Reserve Bank Governor, Tito Mboweni, has elegantly captured it:
South Africa is regarded as having a dual economy. On the one hand it is an emerging market with its fair share of challenges regarding economic growth, wealth distribution, and inflation. In particular, we face the challenges of high unemployment, low savings levels, a high HIV/Aids infection rate, and a volatile currency. We are also severely affected by commodity prices, especially oil and gold. On the other hand, South Africa is blessed with a sophisticated, privately owned, financial system comparable in many respects with the best of the developed economies …
Our dual economy faces a dual challenge: firstly, it has to continue modernising; continue structural reform; lure foreign investors and increase productivity at a time when Government, sensitive to social pressures, faces increasing demands for the living standards of the very poor to be raised in a resource-constrained environment. Secondly, inequalities have to be reduced as a priority and poverty alleviation strategies have to be emphasised. A recent study by the SA Human Rights Commission has emphasised that Government is failing the poor in rolling out service delivery and social relief fast enough, despite having the available resources to do so.
These are the twin priorities of our country as we leave behind political upheaval nearly ten years after democratisation and move our focus to continued economic and social reform.
It is clear that the nature of our dual economy calls for a more intensive debate on the balance to be struck between export promotion strategies and stimulation of domestic demand and the respective roles of the public and private sector in this process. The core functions of Government and business must not be confused. Government’s primary responsibility is for social investment. Business must be an active social partner, yes, but must pursue its core business: commercial returns and the broader goal of sustained and higher levels of economic growth. There will be a natural limit to what social role business can reasonably be expected to play.
These are the areas of discussion that should receive the bulk of attention at the upcoming Growth and Development Summit. This Summit must not be a repeat performance of the 1998 Job Summit. If it is, it will be a questionable endeavour.
While a social accord based on the Dutch and Irish experience may not be forged and may not be the outcome of this Summit, what is clearly required is a greater understanding of what needs to be done to attract fixed investment as a first prize.
The condictio sine qua non for any agreed job creation ``road map’’ must be the question of how we catapult our economy to a higher growth rate in excess of 6% and what enhanced response we craft to correspond to the skills challenge we face. For Government some of this may require a more courageous step in terms of structural reform. For business it may entail a more comprehensive social partnership role, sensitive at all times to the constraints of commercial realities. For labour it could mean pressures for productivity increases and wage moderation in an inflation-targeting context. The Growth Summit offers an opportunity for consensus-building not only about the hard economic challenges facing South Africa, but also about the social challenges facing us, particularly in terms of HIV/Aids. Regrettably these social challenges have fallen off the agenda and will constitute a missed opportunity.
The social development challenges facing our country are critical to attracting fixed foreign direct investment. Long-term investors assess the socioeconomic risk profile of any country it assesses for long-term investment opportunities.
While we may have made strides in macroeconomic management and fiscal policy, social investment has often been lagging. While no one would advocate a ballooning deficit, it is clear that we should spend more efficiently and prioritise better. Unless social development indicators are treated as part and parcel of an investment strategy, fixed investment will lag.
Investors want to see a comprehensive response to HIV/Aids …
The DEPUTY CHAIRPERSON: Order! Hon member, your speaking time has expired.
Ms R TALJAARD: … and poverty. In short, investors want to see a clear untrammelled vision and a fundamental political commitment …
The DEPUTY CHAIRPERSON: Order! Order, hon member. Order, hon member!
Ms R TALJAARD: We do not need a Summit … [Applause.]
The DEPUTY CHAIRPERSON: Order! Hon colleagues, in spite of asking for your co-operation, you are continuing to make conversation. That’s in order, but for you to be turning your back and to be making conversation with those behind you, is completely out of order. Now a number of you are doing it.
This morning we discussed at a meeting on decorum what would constitute decorum in the House. Now speaking to your neighbour behind you is something, definitely, that will not be permitted. If you need to make that conversation, please move across to your neighbour and make that conversation, but in a manner that’s not going to disturb the House. Now if you are going to persist, then I will have no option but then to call you to order.
Ms S B NQODI: Chairperson and members of the House, our survival and prosperity as a nation, our enjoyment of our hard-won victories and liberties following our liberation struggle and our claim of emancipation from the chains and bondages from colonialism and imperialism physically, mentally, socioeconomically and politically can never be comfortably acknowledged and realised if we forget our historical past and the essence of our liberation struggle.
It is because of these facts that we have decided, as this Government, to adopt a holistic and integrated approach to the solution of both the social and economic ills that continue to infest the very fabric of our moral being, our existence, including our co-existence with other people here at home and beyond the borders of our country.
Having heard so much from the previous speakers about what we mean by growth and development here at home, the remaining question to be answered perhaps is: What are we doing in the region to promote growth and development?
My input in this debate moves from the premise that says that as a nation or a country, we co-exist with other people. For effective domestic sustainable growth and development to bear any of the desired outcomes, it is essential for us to recognise the importance and necessity of the multilateral approach as encapsulated in the aims and objectives of the regional blocs such as SADC and Sacu.
This is where the thrust of my debate will be. Guided by our foreign policy objectives, which seek to promote democratisation and respect for human rights, prevent conflict, promote peaceful resolution of disputes, advance sustainable development and alleviate poverty and, lastly, build a better Africa and world, we can take pride in realising that as an upper middle economy, our country has so far performed excellently and responsibly as a regional economic powerhouse in elevating the status of the region and strengthening South-South trade relations.
Yes, as the last politically emancipated African country, even nine years down the line from our liberation, we are still experiencing all the teething problems associated with an emerging economy or market. What is encouraging however is the confidence we are beginning to enjoy on a daily basis from the people of this region because of what we are doing for them internationally.
Our progressive Constitution is an example of, and has laid a foundation for, deepening democracy and respect for human rights in this region. Our sound economic fundamentals have earned us positive ratings from the monetary institutions such as the IMF, the World Bank and Standard and Poors, which makes it easier for us to raise cheaper capital abroad and to be a favourite investment destination.
Our positive GDP growth and improved savings have attracted business confidence in the region. Our healthy balance of payments accounts, falling debt-servicing costs and the closing down of net open forward position recently have all contributed positively to the economic growth and prosperity of SADC countries. We have all the reasons to celebrate. For the first time since the 1970’s, this economy has never experienced the positive growth that we see under the ANC-led Government. The backlog of high unemployment that we are confronted with even today is an inheritance we carry from the past which, amongst others things, was also characterised by double-digit inflation.
Our influence and leadership in chairing such important organisations as the Non-Aligned Movement, the Commonwealth, the OAU which is now the African Union, and the Women’s Portfolio Desk of both SADC and IPU should enable us to push the agenda of commitment, promotion and implementation of sustainable regional development and economic co-operation. We have to take the lead in turning the tide on the African continent.
I am certain that no one in this House can ever doubt or deny the fact that ever since our coming into power, as the ANC-led Government, we continue to be a visible and active player and participant in all socioeconomic, cultural and political levels, debates and foras in our region and on international platforms in our determination to try and promote growth and development. This is not only working well for us as a country, but it is also contributing to the profile and economic prosperity of our regional member states within SADC. An example of this is that, quite recently, as a country, the House will remember that we hosted a number of regional and international conferences such as the World Conference on Aids; the World Conference Against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance; the WSSD; the Media and Social Responsibility Conference; the Inaugural Summit of the AU; the first Pan-African Parliament and so on.
All these events have definitely raised our international profile and leadership credentials within the region. Indeed, we are turning the tide as far regional development is concerned.
Who but a political imbecile or idiot would doubt the good work done by Government when it comes to conflict resolution and the promotion of peace and security within our region and the continent, including our peace- promoting interventions internationally? In as much as we cannot claim to have offered lasting peaceful solutions to the political turmoil and economic crises that continue to plague our region and the continent, we must however take pride in acknowledging the fact we have been instrumental in opening dialogue and offering guidance to otherwise long-warring enemies and belligerents, who in reality are supposed to be friends and sometimes relatives, instead of foes.
We have witnessed with appreciation and pity the long exhaustive hours of round table negotiations spent by our leaders in Government in their genuine and responsible efforts of trying to secure peace settlements in countries like Zimbabwe, the DRC, Burundi, Lesotho, Swaziland, Angola and so on. This was a step in the right direction towards promoting sustainable growth and development on our continent.
Through the protocols, treaties and agreements we have entered into with our neighbouring states and through the massive developmental projects we have initiated and supported in the region, such as the Great Limpopo and the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Parks, the Maluti-Drakensberg Transfrontier Conservation Area, the Lesotho Highland Water Project and the Maguga Dam Project in Swaziland and so on, South Africa has, no doubt, contributed positively towards targeting poverty-reduction initiatives, promoting health care, water purification and sanitation, job creation, promoting a clean environment and encouraging responsible and accountable governments, and by making use of the comparative advantage strategy amongst SADC members, we have liberalised and strengthened regional trade and economic co-operation.
Last but not least, we would be failing in our oversight function as Parliament if we did not express our unreserved acknowledgement and appreciation of our President’s foresight, statesmanship, integrity and international diplomacy in carrying out his political mandate with zeal and responsibility.
He has managed to turn the tide in as far as promoting and restoring the dignity, self-respect, integrity, assertiveness and the ability of the African people is concerned in handling their own affairs in relation to the international community. He has improved, promoted and corrected the negative image and perception that the world held about African people. By spearheading the African Renaissance, which gave birth to the establishment of the African Union and Nepad, he has put Africa in the spotlight of global politics. We can say with confidence that South Africa has opened a window of opportunity for North-South interaction and dialogue. Our region and the African continent today is represented in some of the meetings of the G20 and the G8 countries and the Bretton Woods institutions. All these have a bearing on the promotion and implementation of sustainable growth and development within SADC.
In conclusion, indeed in spite of all these achievements, as a region and continent, the challenges facing us remain insurmountable. The political destabilisations, the HIV epidemic, exacerbated by abject poverty due to the rising statistics of unemployment to which we remain subjected remain are, definitely, a threat to our prosperity and economic emancipation. [Applause.]
Mr C R REDCLIFFE: Deputy Chairperson, the Government and its Nedlac social partners have a profound responsibility to ensure that this Growth and Development Summit is not a repetition of the 1998 Job Summit, which essentially degenerated into a glorified talk-shop. We hope this summit will be about action. In the light of our high unemployment rate and increasing unequal income levels, it simply must deliver on investment, growth and jobs. It is in the interest of all the people of this country that all the stakeholders forge a national consensus to tackle the issues of poverty, job creation and economic growth.
The challenges become more urgent if one considers a survey done by the economist intelligence unit, which projects a significant rise in the unemployment rate during the next five years. It also states that the Gini coefficient has been worsening in recent years. In other words, our income inequality has been worsening. Last week, during the debate on the hon Minister of Labour’s budget Vote, I referred to rigid and onerous labour legislation, particularly as it affects SMMEs, a sector which is universally regarded as being potentially the biggest contributor to job creation. If the coming Growth and Development Summit is serious about job creation, it will revisit some of our labour laws, especially for SMMEs to create jobs. However, I wish to speak about one of the themes to be discussed at the summit, namely, skills and equity. The DA agrees that our high unemployment rate in South Africa can be attributed, in part, to the skills mismatch in the economy. South Africa’s human resource development record has been rated as one of the poorest in the world - the poor quality of basic education and systematic exclusion of black South Africans from decent training opportunities being major contributors. Our illiteracy rate is high and the level of schooling among the majority of our people is generally low. The DA also believes that skills development should enjoy a very high priority. We must invest in our human capital, and training should be largely by the market for the market.
Last year, the Director-General of the Department of Trade and Industry, Dr Allistair Ruiters, stated that we have an estimated skills shortage of 500 000 people which this country does not possess. The question we need to pose is this: If the Government has identified the skills shortage, what is being done to address the issue? Surely this is something that can be done immediately. Why do we need to have a summit to do this? If we urgently recruit 500 000 people, it has been estimated it will, firstly, raise our growth rate between 0.5% to 1%. Secondly, we will have a multiplying effect because for every one of those skilled persons, two unskilled persons will almost immediately be employed. That is a total of 1.5 million people that can be absorbed into the economy immediately.
Does the right hand know what the left hand is doing? To what extent is there co-ordination in Government? To what extent are our immigration laws hampering the importation of these skills? This country has made it difficult for skilled foreigners to obtain work permits with delays of eighteen months or longer not being uncommon. If South Africa wants economic development, we have to accept that there is a vital need to open our borders to human capital skills. It will be a mistake to think that this could be done at the expense of our own people.
To obtain short-term results, the DA proposes that we firstly abolish the whole principle of quotas. They are expensive to implement, are cumbersome and an irrational form of bureaucracy, and do not relate in any way to dynamic business situations. Secondly, we should actively encourage skilled immigration and discourage skilled emigration by having a new open-door migration policy and by launching an intensive campaign in other countries to attract skills to South Africa. [Time expired.] [Applause.]
Mr R M MOROPA: Chairperson, I must say that from the answers, the DA again has used a very important debate to do this country disservice. They are raising issues that attack, prematurely, the Growth and Development Summit opportunistically, and want to send a message of despair to our people that this summit is not going to achieve anything. I think we have to try and respond to that in this speech that I am making.
To suggest that a summit of such a high-level discussion regarding rate of investment and growth to push back the frontiers of poverty is a talk-shop is an insolent insult, not only to Government, but to organised labour, business and civil society.
Since the country came under the new political management of the ANC in 1994, the task of post-apartheid reconstruction and development for accelerating economic growth and sustainable development has begun in earnest. Also of significant importance was the launch of the institution for social dialogue - Nedlac - which socioeconomic partnership for the historical task of an active engagement with issues of governance and development is something this country has never seen before. A process that makes Government more accessible has been instituted.
Considerable progress with Nedlac in regard to laying down the foundation for economic growth and a developmental framework has been attained. Today this particular debate has been occasioned by the need for our country and its people to respond to the call made by the President in his state of the nation address this year for all South Africans, and that included this opposition here, to lend a hand to accelerate the pace of change and increase access to a better life for all.
Some of us are greatly honoured to respond to such a clarion call and participate in a debate which takes place just 22 days before the 48th anniversary of the Freedom Charter. It is also just 12 days before the 27th anniversary of the uprising in Soweto, which marked a turning point in the history of our national democratic struggle in this country.
This debate therefore seeks to make strategic interventions with regard to issues of the economy in relation to challenges of meeting the basic needs, alleviating poverty and creating employment for our people. Through Nedlac, social partners have engrossed themselves in the principal objective, which is to push back the frontiers of poverty. The nation is waiting in suspense to see social partners united in action for a better life for all. We must be mindful of the painful, protracted path that we have overcome. To have passed such a struggle is indeed a huge achievement that could only have come about because the political leaders of our country did the things they could do, however limited, to move forward and provide confidence, and an effective tonic for our country’s political dispensation. The main aim of this struggle and why it had to be taken forward was firstly to establish the strong and people-centred democratic state that the Freedom Charter envisaged 48 years ago.
In the Freedom Charter, a crucial point is made when it asserts -
… that only in a democratic state, based on the will of the people, can secure to all their birthright without distinction of colour, race, sex or belief … that our country will never be prosperous or free until all our people live in brotherhood, enjoying equal rights and opportunities.
That democratic political dispensation has been achieved and is now being consolidated. The struggle for economic change to achieve meaningful labour- absorbing growth and development to push back the frontiers of poverty, inequalities and underdevelopment becomes inescapable. We are aware of the expectations our people have, which are based on the past experience they have had with their brave national democratic movement, of enormous integrity and capabilities to tackle these socioeconomic challenges, of which job security tops the list.
We want to caution, however, that such work requires social partners to be united in action for socioeconomic change. Painless quick-fix solutions to South Africa’s unemployment and aggravated social problems are not an option in our long-term developmental agenda in the historical and global context which underpins the dual economy and society in our country.
The issue of flexibility that is been reiterated by the opposition only looks at one side of the equation, which is the side of firing workers, not at the side of hiring workers, and irresponsibly so, not looking at our workers and how they actually spend their income. Our workers have extended families, and we have people to look after, unlike those who have not and are only looking after themselves, and not after other members of their families.
Our macroecomomic fundamentals and democratic culture are now in place and the necessary socioeconomic partnerships in policy engagement are being achieved. We wish the Nedlac constituency success in their deliberations at the Growth and Development Summit that is taking place two days from today. Our Government has the necessary policies and programmes to further strengthen our position, firstly as a nation and secondly as an international role-player. These objectives are in line with the Reconstruction and Development Programme.
Labour market reforms had to be introduced to remove the legislation and the legacy of the past inequalities within the labour force of our country. We had to redefine an employee to include black workers, who were excluded, for the first time in this country. Black unions could not be registered, as the labour market laws prohibited them. The then government’s official Yearbook of 1978 reported as follows and I quote:
According to the Black Labour Relations Regulations Act, black unions cannot be registered and are not officially recognised. An investigation has indicated that machinery of the Industrial Conciliation Act which is intended for traditional trade unions is alien to black man. In fact the whole concept of trade unionism is foreign to him.
Surely, these labour market policies have highly rigidified the labour market environment, and it is not the ANC that has made this labour market unequal. Removal of such legacies must constitute the bulk of our transformation agenda. The legacy is responsible for the entrenched poverty crisis, and is a fetter to further economic growth and sustainable development.
However, comprehensive transformation of public policy and its implementation has brought us to this position where we can call for urgent local action with a programme with the greatest possible impact in the shortest possible time for accelerating growth rate, investment and job creation. These progressive policies desire to stimulate national effort to ensure that economic progress goes hand in hand with social progress.
These transformational measures that redress the imbalances of the past are described by the DA, with its simplistic notion and lack of analytical capacity, as rigid and unfavourable to investment. Let me tell the DA that such a notion is scientifically groundless and further aggravates the condition of the unemployed and the poor. The notion that workers are responsible for their unemployment is irresponsible and politically insensitive.
The other area of achievement that enhances our growth platform as South Africa is the productivity improvement we have scored in the past years. The last world competitiveness report recorded that, out of the 49 participating countries, South Africa currently ranks 39; a rise of three places over our previous position of 42.
As our socioeconomic lives connect with the rest of the world, how we are perceived globally is a key issue in promoting economic growth and investment for sustainable development, part of an overarching framework for visible service delivery. The necessary legislative measures are already in place and reduction in the skills deficit in South Africa is taking place. A new skills development paradigm and stabilisation of the labour market has been achieved which will provide additional growth and investment opportunities in our country.
Although problems are being experienced by some of our Setas thus far, we are equally overwhelmed by the outstanding work done in regard to learnership programmes. The Minister of Labour is attending to the areas of weakness. He announced his legislative measures necessary to improve the skills training and human resource development in regard to the weak Setas. We must target the youth in areas of skills scarcity in this regard, both as a skills development and affirmative action strategy to achieve the necessary progress in employment equity. There is no doubt that our success in qualitative skills production will result in the improvement of labour productivity and enhanced economic growth and development.
National productivity institutes should be commended for lifting our country, region and continent to the podium that is shared by the winners of the world. Their productivity, capacity-building programmes on SMMEs, with all their limitations, contribute hugely to fostering employment creation and economic growth in this country. The NPI’s schools debate campaign makes a good start to what is a challenge to cultivating a culture of productivity, behaviour and productivity practice amongst our people.
The ability of South Africa to ratify, implement and practice international labour organisation conventions, which member states are obliged to comply with, is an additional point for our international credibility and standing. Equal opportunity and equal treatment for men and women in employment is not only a requirement in line with the national Reconstruction and Development Programme; rather, it is also an international obligation. The new labour market regime that we have created today in this short space of time is based on the broader international labour market trends, and the ANC is respected as an architect of the South African labour market.
New vigour for social partners with strong emphasis on techniques of labour- intensive programmes at all levels of Government and society will be required, especially in the rural areas. The principle of vigorous labour- intensive community-based public works programmes will serve the urgent call for local action that will make the greatest possible impact at the earliest possible time.
In conclusion, although a lot of ground has been covered towards the attainment of noble goals as set by the Freedom Charter, issues of economic growth and development remain core to our strategic task as fundamental components of transformation of our country. We want to inform our people that the ANC-led Government is proceeding with urgency to attain qualitative advances on this complex and difficult plan. We will succeed in turning the tide. We call on labour, business and community constituencies to intensify their commitment to genuine partnership with Government in ensuring that the South African economy and political positions are consolidated both nationally and internationally, a task the Government cannot achieve alone.
The ANC fully supports the establishment of community development workers to carry out tasks that would extend the work in terms of Government policy and programmes towards economic growth and development. This will enhance our achievement of more milestones in pushing back the frontiers of apartheid legacy. Building on the excellent work we have so far achieved in areas of clean water supply, access to educationÿ.ÿ.ÿ. [Time expired.] [Applause.]
Debate concluded.
The House adjourned at 17:31. ____
ANNOUNCEMENTS, TABLINGS AND COMMITTEE REPORTS
COMMITTEE REPORTS:
National Assembly:
-
Report of the Portfolio Committee on Trade and Industry on the National Small Business Amendment Bill [B 20 - 2003] (National Assembly - sec 75), dated 28 May 2003:
The Portfolio Committee on Trade and Industry, having considered the subject of the National Small Business Amendment Bill [B 20 - 2003] (National Assembly - sec 75), referred to it and classified by the Joint Tagging Mechanism as a section 75 Bill, reports the Bill with amendments [B 20A - 2003].
-
Report of the Portfolio Committee on Water Affairs and Forestry on Hearings on Budget Vote 34, dated 21 May 2003:
The Portfolio Committee on Water Affairs and Forestry, having
considered Budget Vote 34 - Water Affairs and Forestry, referred to it,
reports as follows:
A. INTRODUCTION
The Committee held hearings on Budget Vote 34 on 11 March, 31 March and
2 April 2003. The Committee wishes to express appreciation to all
participants for their contributions. Written presentations submitted
by participants form part of the records of the Committee Section. The
Committee also wants to express gratitude to the Director-General and
his staff for their presence and contributions during the hearings. A
list containing the names of all who had made oral submissions is
included in the Report.
B. OVERVIEW OF BUDGET
- Main Functional Areas
The Department of Water Affairs and Forestry (DWAF) is responsible for three main functional areas, namely water resource management, water services and forestry. In managing these three functional areas, the aim of the Department is to ensure the availability and supply of water at national level, to ensure the equitable and efficient provision of water services at local level and to promote sustainable forestry management. A description of each of these functional areas was given.
- Programme Developments in 2003/04
During the 2002/03 financial year the Department went through a process of restructuring the programme to bring it in line with the main functional areas. The budget structure is now divided into four programmes on the Exchequer Account and two Trading Accounts, namely the Water Trading Account and the Equipment Trading Account.
- Expenditure 2002/03
The 2002/03 expenditure is shown in the table below, where the allocation for the three main functional areas as well as the support function is indicated. The Adjustment Estimates have been included and it is expected that further minor adjustments will still be made when the books are finally closed at the end of the financial year.
Expenditure 2002/2003 (Amounts in million Rand)
Functional Adjusted Appropriation Expected Deviation Area Voted Expenditure
Administration 227 927 226 743 1 184 Water Resources 5 398 658 5 394 355 4 303 Water Services 822 052 805 447 16 605 Forestry 399 161 399 008 153 Total 847 798 6 685 485 22 245
Apart from the Exchequer Account, the Department also operates two trading accounts, the Water Trading Account and the Equipment Trading Account. In these trading accounts expenditure is offset against revenue and in the case of a deficit, augmentation is made from the Exchequer Account. Information on expenditure and revenue at the end of the financial year is given below:
2002/03 Budget(R million) Trading Account Expenditure Revenue Deficit/Surplus
Equipment 31 917 49 077 17 160 Water 2 933 271 1 838 601 1 094 670)
The Department has transferred the water services projects from the former administrations into the Water Trading Account. Currently cost recovery on these schemes is very low and this is the reason for the deficit shown above.
- Budget 2002/03 to 2005/06
The Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) budgetary allocation for the three years for the three main functional areas and administration (which is considered as an overhead) is given in the table below. For convenience the 2002/03 allocation is also shown.
Exchequer Account: Budget 2003/04 to 2005/06
Functional Area 2002/03 2003/04 2004/05 2005/06
Administration 225 917 237 071 251 129 267 210 Water Resources 1 161 485 1 056 113 768 061 827 376 Water Services 1 944 155 2 439 722 2 287 241 2 487 539 Forestry 401 134 353 637 347 935 371 410
Total 3 732 961 4 086 543 3 654 366 3 953 535
Reasons for significant changes from 2002/03 to 2003/04 in the various functional divisions are given below. Inflation and improvements of service conditions account for many of the increases. 3.
Programme 1: Administration - Increase of R11, 154 million
The allocation increases by 5,7% a year over the medium term, having grown by an average of 7.3% a year between 1999/00 and 2002/03. The increase reflects the increase in the costs of IT management and restructuring.
Programme 2: Water Resources Management - Decrease of R105,372 million
Expenditure increases by about 28% between 1999/00 and 2002/03 as a result of the implementation on the National Water Act, particularly in relation to resource information management, licensing, improving water quality and building water resources (in partnership with neighbouring states like Swaziland). However, expenditure on this programme will decrease by about 9% in 2003/04 and by 27% as the poverty relief allocations for Working for Water will cease to exist, pending the review of the entire poverty relief programme.
Programme 3: Water Services - Increase of R465 567 million
Expenditure between 1999/00 and 2002/03 has increased by about 7%, driven by the urgency to eradicate the backlog in basic water services, and especially the need to speed up the delivery of basic sanitation. Expenditure will increase by about 24% in 2003/04 due to the refurbishment of water schemes to be transferred to local authorities, and the acceleration of sanitation and basic services. In terms of government policy, the capital grant should be transferred to the Department of Provincial and Local Government in 2004/05.
Programme 4: Forestry - Decrease R47,497 million
The allocation will decrease by an average of 2,2% a year over the medium term as state-owned forestry assets are restructured.
Spending is expected to decrease over the MTEF period, due to the human resource costs involved in restructuring. There has also been a shift in expenditure towards community and indigenous forestry management to compensate for past underfunding.
Summary of 2003/04 expenditure
The total budget is R6 033903 000, of which R3 291 045 000 comes from the Water Trading Account and R2 742 858 000 from the Exchequer Account. Of the Water Trading Account, R1 947 360 000 is from own revenue and R1 343 685 000 is augmented from the Exchequer Account.
Of the monies from the Exchequer Account 59% will be spent on Water Services, 26% on Water Resources Management, 9% on Forestry and 6% on Administration.
From the Trading Account 27% of the monies will be spent on Water Services, 63% on Water Resources management and 10% on the Working for Water Programme.
- Provincial Distribution The distribution per Province per programme of the Department’s Budget and Water Trading Account was also presented.
C. RESPONSES TO THE BUDGET
- Civil Society Organisations
1.1. Transfer of Schemes to Municipalities
DWAF has not budgeted adequately for the transfer of schemes. Extra
funds must be made available for DWAF's sustainability budget.
Substantial funds must be made available for refurbishment of
infrastructure and the setting up of viable water institutions. The
budget should be increased by an extra R80 million over the next four
years, to provide for an average of R400 000 per project.
Local and institutional and development support budgets must be increased on medium term of another five years for the communities and the local government in order to ensure skills development and capacity to local communities.
1.2. Free Basic Water
DWAF must ensure that sufficient finance is mobilised and catered for
in the budget to cover the following points:
Review of Free Basic Water and Indigent policy
Ensure that DWAF is a stronger regulator regarding tariffs
To implement a comprehensive water leakages policy
1.3. African Support
The government has embarked on NEPAD with little consultation with
interested and affected parties, which make it difficult for civil
society to support NEPAD. The budget provision for African Support
show that NEPAD is inserting itself into the budget, which means an
emphasis on the building of big dams, without using the
recommendations of the World Commission on Dams.
1.4. Water Resource Protection Measures
Only a small portion of the budget is allocated to protection
measures. Because DWAF does not place a priority on protection
measures, companies like Thor Chemicals and many others are able to
continue to pollute water resources.
The Green Network also highlighted the problems of stream water
pollution by industrial dumping into rivers, broken sanitation pipes
and build-up of algae, as well as the fact that communities downstream
have to use polluted water. There is a lack of monitoring, and the
budget needs to look at the costs of monitoring. Although the budget
provides for stakeholder empowerment it does not reach the right
constituencies. Communities are therefore not empowered to participate
in forums like catchments management agencies and cannot make inputs.
Dr Mike Whitcutt of the Highveld Biological Association also informed
the Committee of research that was done on the evaluation of the
quality of water on the East Rand. He expressed concern that very good
legislation is in place against water pollution, but that it is not
backed up by strong action by politicians. Business interests are
being looked after and according to business clean water will cost
more and will therefore reduce employment and trade. However, there is
no proof that this is the case, and government should take a stronger
approach and implement the legislation.
1.5 Consultants
The budget vote shows that 44% of the budget will be spent on
consultants in the medium term. It was questioned, because DWAF needs
to build its own capacity rather than using consultants.
1.6 Dam building
Programme 2 on Water Resource Management is geared on the building of
dams. This section rotates around the building of 18 new dams and
inter-basin transfers, which shows that it is business as usual rather
than a new strategy. This stands in direct contrast to the World
Commission on Dams, which DWAF has been involved in.
The budget should make provision for reparations/compensation for
those who have been displaced because of the construction of dams.
Finances should be released to affected communities for workshops and
information dissemination and accumulation.
1.7. Promotion of Productive Uses of Water for the Pool
The Rural Women's Association gave input on the use of water for
domestic food production. They recommended that the budget should
provide for the following:
DWAF should promote and extend schedule 1. Promote productive uses of
water by the poor. The Department should publicly provide permission
for people to harvest, store and use water and it should allow the use
of pumping devises for free.
DWAF should assist in promoting the use of water for productive uses
by the poor by providing information and technical support.
All punitive measures should be removed. Information on alternative
sources of water should be promoted. The Department should also
develop collaborative relationships with civil society organisations.
1.8 Water Leakages and Cut-offs
The Ilithe Lomso Children and Youth Organisation of Khayalitsha noted
that the organisation had conducted its own research to try and find
strategies and solutions for water issues. They had established forums
to address issues like water cuts and household leakages. To address
problems the budget should focus on projects that target the youth and
unemployed women. The budget should promote the funding of community
research and training, and investing in user skills to attend to
household water leaks.
1.9. Water Services Backlog
The concern of the South African Water Caucus is that Programme 3 on
Water Services does not address the main problems in this sector.
DWAF's assertion that 10 million more people have received access to
water since 1994 is incorrect, as many of the projects that were set up
have since collapsed. In addition, many communities that previously
received water for free, now have to pay. This lack of access to water
has resulted in the emergence of problems such as cholera. The budget
vote comes to problematic conclusions - it talks about extending access
to all, but then later reduces the targets to 7 million for access to
water and 18 million for access to sanitation.
1.10. Privatisation of Water Services
The South African Water Caucus expressed concern that the mention of
National Water Utilities for provision of water services was in fact a
major step toward privatisation. They further note that the budget
vote endorses public sector delivery in theory but does not show any
ways of strengthening it. It encourages privatisation in the sense
that there is an assumption that if the local authority cannot provide
a service, it should be privatise, rather than improve the capacity of
local authorities.
Other organisations, like the Rural Development Services Network,
echoed these sentiments. They requested that government should halt
all privatisation initiatives and prioritise public sector delivery.
The restructuring of the public sector should be prioritised to build
the capacity of development-oriented local authority to deliver more
effective services while reducing costs and redistributing existing
resources.
7.2 SALGA (South African Local Government Association)
2.1. Implementation of Free Basic Water
Sound progress has been made with 765 municipalities providing to 26
704 348 people. The 2003/04 budget makes provision for R2,7 billion
for Free Basic Water, sanitation and refuse. It is envisaged that this
allocation will increase over time.
2.2. Sanitation Delivery
SALGA has identified the delivery of sanitation as one of the key
priorities. SALGA has currently a special focus on bucket eradication
in support of the ministerial target set for 2007. For ease of
reference, it would be proper to indicate specifically the budget
allocation for sanitation implementation.
2.3. Transfer of DWAF’s Water Assets
Significant progress has been made in this critical area, which shall
see the transfer of 321 bulk schemes and 3 027 rudimentary schemes
transferred to 84 Water Service Authorities. DWAF, SALGA, DPLG and
National Treasury have finalised a Joint Transfer Policy to guide
implementation. SALGA notes the additional budget allocations made to
the transfer programme, but wish to see an increasing trend in this
regard.
Further, a dedicated grant to fund the transfer programme is welcome
as it provides better planning, transparency and accountability. It
further noted that the timeframe outlined in the 2003 Division of
Revenue Bill under this grant, may not be feasible given the complex
nature of the programme.
2.4. Water Boards
Transfer payments to Water Boards are noted, and the allocations over
the three budget cycles with a gradual phasing out of the transfer
totals R301 million. It is, however, anticipated that in the next
budget, there will be more specific information on these transfers to
better inform policy.
2.5. Catchment Management
Although SALGA supports the goal of managing our scarce water
resources effectively, concerns exists regarding the governance of
these agencies and the role of the local sphere of government.
Concerns regarding the financial impact of the implementation of the
national pricing strategy on municipalities are heightened by the
expenditure trends noted in the budget, which indicate a significant
decrease over the next budget cycle.
2.6. Water Services Project Grant
This programme showed an increase of about R103 million from the
2002/3 allocation, to the present level of R1 102 812. The DWAF
Transfer Programme makes special provision for the transfer of 375 out
of 1003 completed RDP projects.
It would be proper for DWAF to ensure that the transfer of the balance
of these schemes and those under implementation are sustainably
transferred to Water Services Authorities.
2.7. Sectoral Investment
SALGA commends DWAF and National Treasury for recognising the
constraints under which some municipalities operate, as evidenced in
the increased allocations. The additional budgetary allocations and
financial certainty that they brought to the sector are most welcome,
but it is clear that to meet delivery targets even greater investment
will be required.
Current challenges facing municipalities, including reducing the
infrastructure backlog, and eventually targeting subsidies to those
most deserving, need to be addressed through the budget. Commitment is
therefore necessary from DWAF to continue to increase budget
allocations to improve service delivery.
- NAFU (National African Farmers Union of South Africa)
NAFU does not believe that adequate attention has been given to the requirements of the emerging Black farming sector in DWAF’s strategy and the budget.
NAFU also raised the following concerns:
One of the primary reasons for the inability of Black farmers to develop from emerging to commercial status relates to the imbalances that continue to exist in the allocation of water usage rights.
The decrease in subsidies for charges for water provided from government water schemes to emerging farmers over a period of five years will have a negative impact on a sector that battles to achieve commercial viability.
Capital costs subsidies are available to emerging farmers who are members of water user associations. Very few emerging Black farmers have been enabled to participate in such associations.
White farmers are now moving from water-intensive activities, e.g. game farming, but they still hold water rights. The Department should come up with an audit of these water rights so that they can be reallocated.
The budget allocation to address these issues is not sufficient, and the Minister and Committee need to review the amounts.
D.ISSUES RAISED BY THE COMMITTEE MEMBERS
- Changing Role of DWAF
As a result of legislative and policy changes, DWAF's role is changing
from implementation agency towards providing the national policy and
regulatory framework within which other institutions will manage the
water resources, water services provision and forestry resources.
DWAF's focus will therefore be more on developing policy and
implementing policies, implementing monitoring and evaluation
mechanisms and providing support. The Committee is comfortable that
this changing role of the Department is reflected in the budget.
- Transfer of Water Schemes
The Committee welcomes the increased budget in 2003/04, which provides
for the refurbishment of water schemes to be transferred to local
authorities and the acceleration of the delivery of basic water
services. We further note the finalisation of the Joint Transfer Policy
to guide the implementation of the transfer of water schemes, but want
to express the concern that the time-frames indicated in the Division
of Revenue Act may not be feasible, given the lack of capacity at local
government level.
-
Sanitation Backlog
Although the additional money for sanitation delivery is welcomed the Committee wants to urge the Department, as leading agent in the National Sanitation Task Team, to remove capacity and other constraints which hamper the eradication of the huge sanitation backlog.
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Poverty Relief Programme
The Committee notes the decrease in the allocation to Programme 2 - Water Resources Management, because of the termination of the poverty relief allocations during the review of the entire poverty relief programme. We want to question the necessity to cease poverty relief allocations during the review of the programme, as it will have a negative impact on the beneficiaries of these allocations. Our question is whether the findings of the review should not determine the nature and extent of changes to poverty relief allocation, instead of terminating all allocations prior to finalisation of the review.
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Free Basic Water
The Committee takes note of the issues raised by the civil society organisations about free basic water, including the revision of the policy, increasing the lifeline (25 to 50 liter per day), influence of tariff structures, choices of technology, water leakages, water cut- offs, affordable services, cross-subsidisation, use of equitable share, indigent policy, etc. SALGA has also raised the challenges facing the implementation of free basic water. It is therefore recommended that the Committee have special hearings on the implementation of the free basic water policy.
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Consultants
The Committee raised concerns about the use of consultants and the fact
that 44,2% of the budget will be spent on professional and special
services over the medium term. The concern was raised that too much
money is spent to pay consultants, while not enough is done to develop
this kind of capacity within the Department and at local government
level.
The Department's response was that allocation is mostly for contractors
and consultants, but 90% is for contractors and design consultants. It
is not for the Department to do this work itself. The Department needed
to focus on its work and could not develop its capacity in areas where
there would not be much need for full-time employment, for example
building.
SALGA's response to the use of consultants at local government level
was that some municipalities have not been able to build up their
structures. Once that is done, there should be very little use for
consultants. There also needs to be a way for consultants to leave some
of their skills behind.
- Contamination of Ground Water Sources
The Committee takes note of the issues raised by the civil society
organisations about water quality and contamination of water. Members
raised the issue of ground water as a source of water supply and
concerns about the contamination of ground water. It is proposed that
the Committee approach the Department about this issue.
E. ISSUES RAISED NOT RELATED TO THE BUDGET VOTE
1. Future role of Water Boards
SALGA supports the concept of the regionalisation of water service
provision that is driven by Water Service Authorities to achieve
efficient and effective service delivery. There is a need to
investigate whether the current Water Board structure reaches the
above objective, as this may contribute to the future clarity on the
role of water boards. This issue will be addressed during the
briefing by the Minister and the Department on the White Paper on
Water Services.
2. White Paper on Basic Household Sanitation
SALGA raised concerns with regard to the adequacy of consultation
between municipalities and DWAF in the development of the White
Paper on Basic Household Sanitation and the National Strategy. It is
anticipated that these concerns will be addressed and the outcome
will result in enhanced municipal support consideration to re-visit
the policy
Mvula Trust raised the concern that DWAF is not playing its
regulatory role adequately, especially in the sanitation sector. The
National Sanitation Task Policy is not being implemented as the CMIP
money is going into building toilets in rural areas and has no
health and hygiene component. This radically undermines the national
policy. It is unlikely, therefore, that the 2010 target will be
reached. There needs to be an alignment and consistency from funding
government departments. There needs to be a comprehensive rethink
around the national sanitation policy. There also needs to be
integration of a comprehensive sanitation policy into the Water
Services White Paper process.
3. Civil Society Engagement
Mvula Trust raised the concern of inadequate support and promotion
of civil society organisations. DWAF is funding a civil society
engagement process, but not enough money is allocated. Water sector
NGOs are in serious trouble and face collapse. If DWAF is serious it
must help to support and promote NGOs.
They ask:
For short-term financial support for water sector NGOs under threat;
That DWAF must instruct Programme Management Units at provincial level to assist NGOs to prepare business plans for municipalities; That DWAF must engage DPLG, SALGA and municipalities at senior level to increase NGO and CBO participation in Masibambane.
They also claim that the DWAF Head Office has under spent on its Masibambane budget.
G. LIST OF PARTICIPANTS
The following people made oral submissions before the Committee, representing different organisations. These submissions are available on request from the Committee Section of Parliament.
- Ms Julie Smith, Water Action Campaign
- Mr Sandile Ndawonde, Green Network
- Mr Eddie Cottle, Rural Development Services Network
- Mr George Dor, South African Water Caucus
- Mr Abegnego Matu, South African Water Caucus
- Ms Tshepo Khumbane, Rural Women’s Association
- Ms Marne de Lange, Rural Women’s Association
- Mr Patrick Bond, Municipal Services Project
- Ms Kathy Eales, Mvula Trust
- Mr Mike Whitcutt, Highveld Biological Association
- Mr Buntu Morolong, Mashakane Youth for Future
- Mr Mashile Phalane, Batlhabine Development Trust (Tzaneen)
- Mr Vukhile Manzana, Gariep and Van der Kloof Dam Affected Communities
- Mr Richard Mokulo, Anti-Privatisation Forum
- Mr Senza Kula, Ilithe Lomso Children and Youth Organisation
- Councillor N M Khoza,South African Local Government Association
- Ms B Pretorius, South African Local Government Association
- Ms S Makotoko, South African Local Government Association
- Mr Motsepi Matlala, National African Farmers Union of South Africa
- Mr Wilkenson, National African Farmers Union of South Africa
- Mr Hendricks, National African Farmers Union of South Africa
- Mr M M Muller, Director-General: Department of Water Affairs and Forestry
- Mr M J Mabala, Chief Financial Officer: Department of Water Affairs and Forestry
- Ms M Modipa, Deputy Director-General: Corporate Services, Department of Water Affairs and Forestry.