National Assembly - 17 March 2005
THURSDAY, 17 MARCH 2005 __
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY
____
The House met at 14:02.
The Deputy 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
NOTICES OF MOTION
Mr D K MALULEKE: Madam Speaker, I hereby give notice that I shall move on behalf of the DA, that the House debates the question of security at primary and high schools. Thank you.
EARTH TREMOR AT STILFONTEIN DRIDGOLD MINE
(Draft Resolution)
Mr M R BALOYI: Madam Deputy Speaker, I move without notice:
That the House—
1) notes with sadness the earth tremor at the Stilfontein DRIDGOLD mine
in which two people died and more than 58 miners were injured;
2) further notes that the effect of the tragic tremor caused injury to
scores of other people and damage to property in Stilfontein town;
3) recalls that this tremor, which, according to the project leader of
the SA National Seismograph Network, measured 5,3 on the Richter
scale and was a secondary effect from mining activity, resulted in
the rescue team having to work more than two kilometres underground;
4) further notes the continuing anxiety of the unions on issues of
labour and poor safety conditions in the Stilfontein DRIDGOLD mine;
5) believes that an urgent meeting of relevant Ministers and all
parties to resolve the above issues should be convened;
6) conveys its condolences to the bereaved families and wishes the
injured a speedy recovery; and
7) believes that these true and brave sons of the soil, like many
others, toiled and laid down their lives for a country they loved,
for the benefit of all of us.
Agreed to.
RACIAL SLUR BY AUSTRALIAN RUGBY PLAYER
(Draft Resolution)
Mr M J ELLIS: Madam Deputy Speaker, I hereby move without notice:
That the House—
1) expresses its extreme dismay at the racial slur made by an
Australian rugby player against a South African player during a
Super 12 rugby match on 12 March 2005;
2) notes that the offending player has owned up to the remarks, and
apologised for them;
3) believes that such behaviour has no place in sport in our country or
anywhere else in the world; and
4) trusts that the rugby authorities will take the appropriate action
against the guilty party to ensure that such behaviour is rooted out
of sport.
Agreed to.
MOTION OF CONDOLENCE
(The late Rev Allan Hendrickse)
The DEPUTY CHIEF WHIP OF THE MAJORITY PARTY: Deputy Speaker, I move without notice:
That the House—
1) notes—
a) with sadness, the passing away of Rev Allan Hendrickse on 16
March 2005;
b) the important role that Rev Hendrickse played in South
Africa’s political life as leader of the Labour Party, and
the contribution he made to our democracy as a member of the
Senate after 1994; and
c) that he was awarded the Order of the Baobab, Silver Class,
last year;
2) believes that Rev Hendrickse will be remembered for his
contribution to the struggle against apartheid and for the
positive role he played in the transition to democracy; and
3) extends its deepest sympathies and condolences to the Hendrickse
family, and mourns the loss of a South African patriot.
Mnr T D LEE: Adjunkspeaker, Helenard Joe Hendrickse, beter bekend as Allan, vir sommige net Meneer, sal in die anale van die geskiedenis van ons land onthou word as ’n baanbreker en ’n onverbiddelike kampvegter vir menseregte.
As hoërskoolonderwyser, en hy was ook my onderwyser, en predikant kon hy, as hy wou, ’n sorgvrye lewe ly, maar omdat hy soveel vir sy medemens omgegee het, het hy dit alles prysgegee en hom vir die bevryding van ons land en al sy mense beywer.
Allan Hendrickse het geglo dat mense nie omgee vir wat jy weet nie, maar dat mense wil weet dat jy omgee. Vir sy moeite is hy in 1976 onder die destydse staatsveiligheidswetgewing vir ’n baie lang ruk in afsonderlike aanhouding in die tronk, te Grahamstad, aangehou. Sy latere besluit dat die Arbeidersparty van Suid-Afrika moes deelneem aan die destydse driekamerparlement in 1984 is deur baie veroordeel, maar hy’t geglo dat daar binnelands na ’n vreedsame oplossing vir die land se politieke probleme gesoek moes word. Nawete sê vir ons dat sy besluit reg was, omdat hy daardie platform gebruik het om op ’n vreedsame wyse die arbeidswette uit te daag.
Wie sal ooit sy beroemde swem op die apartheidstrand in Port Elizabeth vergeet? Minder mense onthou hoe hy klein-apartheid destyds hier in die Parlement beveg het, en aangedring het dat alle eetplekke in die Parlement vir almal oopgestel moes word.
’n Groot seder in Suid-Afrika, en veral in die bruingemeenskap, het geval. Die DA se diepste wense en medelye gaan aan sy vrou, Terry, sy kinders, Arlene, Marie, Peter en Michael. Mag hy in vrede rus. Ek dank u. [Applous.] (Translation of Afrikaans speech follows.)
[Mr T D LEE: Deputy Speaker, Helenard Joe Hendrickse, better known as Allan, and to others simply as Sir, will be remembered in the annals of the history of our country as a pioneer and a relentless campaigner for human rights.
As a high school teacher, and he was also my teacher, and as a minister of the church he could, if he had wanted to, have led a carefree life, but because he cared so much for his fellow man, he gave it all up and dedicated himself to the liberation of our country and all its people.
Allan Hendrickse believed that people do not care about what one knows, but that they want to know that one cares. For his troubles he was detained in solitary confinement for a very long time in 1976 under the then state security legislation in the prison at Grahamstown. His later decision in 1984 that the Labour Party of South Africa should participate in the then tricameral Parliament was criticised by many, but he believed that we should be looking for a peaceful solution to the country’s political problems from within. Hindsight tells us that he was right in his decision, as he made use of that platform to challenge the labour laws in a peaceful manner.
Who will ever forget his famous swim on the apartheid beach in Port Elizabeth? Fewer people will remember how he fought against petty apartheid here in Parliament, and insisted that all the restaurants in Parliament should be opened to everyone.
South Africa, and in particular the coloured community, has lost a great man. The DA would like to extend their deepest sympathy and condolences to his wife, Terry, his children, Arlene, Marie, Peter and Michael. May he rest in peace. I thank you. [Applause.]]
Mr H J BEKKER: Madam Deputy Speaker, it is with sadness that we have noted the passing of the late Allan Hendrickse. The late Allan Hendrickse was a colourful person and throughout his career it was a case of you either agreed with him or you disagreed with him.
Of course, on a controversial aspect, there was a time that we would have regarded the hon Hendrickse as an opponent from the IFP perspective, especially at the time of the tricameral Parliament. But from our side, at a later stage, we also learned to respect, in particular, the way in which he in his own way addressed the particular aspects of apartheid, and how he became a person very well known in the struggle.
Particularly to his family - I was such a good friend of the family - his sons and daughters, we would like to convey our sincere condolences. May his soul rest in peace. We think of you, and we honour Allan Hendrickse. I thank you.
Rev M S KHUMALO: The ACDP would like to associate itself with the previous speakers. We wish to pay tribute to the late Rev Allan Hendrickse for his contribution to the political development of this country. As a leader of the Labour Party of South Africa in the 1980s, the late Rev Allan Hendrickse effectively became the voice of the disadvantaged within the tricameral Parliament at the time when oppressed communities were silenced at every turn. He made the historic declaration that he would make the system unworkable from within, and proceeded to make his mark in politics with great courage and determination. The late reverend leaves behind a legacy of bravery in the face of adversity. What he did in his life is an example to us all that striving for a principle with conviction is an attainable goal. Thank you.
Mnr S SIMMONS: Adjunkspeaker, kollegas, dit is met hartseer en leedwese dat die Huis kennis neem van die skielike heengaan van Eerw Hendrickse, Woensdagmiddag in Port Elizabeth.
Eerw Hendrickse sal die beste onthou word as leier van die arbeidersparty wat in 1987 by Koningstrand, toe dit nog slegs vir blankes was, gaan swem het. (Translation of Afrikaans paragraphs follows.)
[Mr S SIMMONS: Deputy Speaker, colleagues, it is with sadness and regret that the House notes the sudden passing away of Rev Hendrickse, on Wednesday afternoon in Port Elizabeth.
Rev Hendrickse will best be remembered as the leader of the labour party who went swimming, at King’s Beach in 1987, when it was still for whites only.]
Even though he was a member of cabinet, he was often in disagreement with Cabinet decisions and voiced his disagreements publicly. This did not have any impact on the cabinet itself. As a result, on 4 January 1987, in protest at government’s limited reforms of 1984, together with a group of supporters, he entered a beach reserved for whites only and started swimming. This was in direct violation of government statutes.
He later resigned from cabinet and joined the ANC after its unbanning, and in 1994 became one of the party’s senators. He retired from active politics at the next election. In 2004, Rev Hendrickse was awarded the Order of the Baobab by President Thabo Mbeki for his lifetime contribution to the struggle against apartheid, and for the establishment of a free and democratic South Africa.
On behalf of the NNP and the people of South Africa we wish to express our deepest condolences to Rev Hendrickse’s family and his loved ones. Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker.
Ms S RAJBALLY: Madam Deputy Speaker, the MF fully associates itself in expressing its condolences to the family of the late Rev Allan Hendrickse on the passing away of the reverend. We praise his contribution to the struggle against apartheid. May his soul rest in peace. Thank you, Deputy Speaker. Dr C P MULDER: Geagte Mev die Adjunkspeaker, dit is vir die VF Plus ’n voorreg om ons te assosieer met die voorstel wat voor die Huis dien, waarin medelye en simpatie uitgespreek word met die skielike afsterwe van eerw Allan Hendrickse.
Ek het die voorreg gehad om eerw Hendrickse te leer ken in die periode vóór 1994, tydens die driekamerparlement, toe hy hier opgetree het as leier van die Arbeidersparty. Ek het hom ervaar as ’n waardige politikus, iemand wat graag in debat getree het met ander partye, wat graag sy standpunt gestel het, én mens mag maar met hom verskil het of nie verskil het nie, maak nie saak nie, hy’t hom altyd op ’n waardige wyse gedra. Ons eer sy nagedagtenis.
Ons het ook die voorreg gehad om, nadat hy hier weg is, sy kinders te leer ken, wat in die politiek betrokke geraak het en wat vorentoe gegaan het. Ons ken vir Peter, wat tot vandag toe nog hier by ons in die Raad is, maar ook – baie van u mag dit dalk nie weet nie – sy seun Michael, wat ’n groot en prominente rol speel by die Verkiesingskommissie. Hy was ook ’n tyd lank ’n parlementslid, en het die politieke tradisie voortgesit.
Ek dra graag ons simpatie en meelewing oor aan sy gesin. Ons het miskien ’n kollega verloor, wat sommige van ons goed ken, en ander nie so goed ken nie, maar die Hendrickse-familie het ’n vader, ’n oupa, en ’n eggenoot verloor, en ons dra ons medelye aan hulle oor. Baie dankie. (Translation of Afrikaans speech follows.)
[Dr C P MULDER: Hon Madam Deputy Speaker, it is a privilege for the FF Plus to associate ourselves with the motion before the House, in which condolences and sympathy are expressed on the sudden passing away of Rev Allan Hendrickse. I had the privilege of making the acquaintance of Rev Hendrickse in the period before 1994, during the tricameral Parliament, when he acted here as leader of the Labour Party. I knew him as a dignified politician, someone who readily entered into debate with other parties, who readily put forward his viewpoint, and no matter whether one differed with him or not he always behaved in a dignified manner. We honour his memory.
After his departure from Parliament, we also had the privilege to get to know his children who became involved in politics and who made their mark in that field. We know Peter, who is still in the House today, as well as his son Michael - many of you may not know this – who plays a big and prominent role at the Electoral Commission. He was also a member of Parliament for a while, and continued the political tradition.
I would like to convey our sympathy and condolences to his family. We may have lost a colleague whom some of us knew well and others not so well, but the Hendrickse family have lost a father, a grandfather and a husband, and we convey our condolences to them. Thank you.]
Mr L W GREYLING: Madam Deputy Speaker, the ID would like to share the sentiments of the House expressed today. We were extremely shocked to hear about the untimely death of Rev Allan Hendrickse.
Rev Allan Hendrickse was truly an icon of the struggle and will be missed by all freedom-loving South Africans. We wish to convey our condolences to the family and friends of Rev Allan Hendrickse. Thank you.
Mr N T GODI: Madam Deputy Speaker, on behalf of the PAC, I also want to join the House in expressing our heartfelt condolences to the family of the late Allan Hendrickse. As already expressed by numerous speakers, the role that Rev Hendrickse played in the struggle was recognised by the National Orders award that he received. In his own way, from his own perspective, he did contribute to the realisation of the ultimate objective of the demise of apartheid.
I once again wish to express the PAC’s heartfelt condolences. Thank you.
Mr J BICI: Madam Deputy Speaker, on behalf of the UDM, I would also like to join the House and send our heartfelt condolences to the family of Rev Hendrickse, and of course we do realise the role that he played within the system to try and usher in the system that we have today. We are sure that his family is proud of this. May his soul rest in peace. Thank you.
Mr M RAMGOBIN: Madam Deputy Speaker, the ANC, in extending its condolences to the family of the late Rev Allan Hendrickse, would like to place on record in this Parliament as to why the ANC, in the first instance, extended to him the Order of the Baobab. Also, we would like to place on record our gratitude for the contributions made by Allan Hendrickse and his colleagues. I do not talk theoretically; I talk through the lived experiences with him as person, as a cadre of the ANC, and as a comrade.
I first met Allan Hendrickse in 1967-68 when, communists like Fred Peters, noncommunists like Sonny Leon, people like myself and others met in Durban to discuss the future of the oppressed people of our land. It was in that context that the Labour Party was born in Durban.
The question arose as to how we should build unity among our people, and Allan Hendrickse was in the forefront of saying, like the ANC had always done, that unity has got to be an action. And the first action that he initiated against the system of apartheid was the bread boycott in 1970-71 for which many of us were penalised.
On the heels of this, and through his relationships with people like the late Steve Biko, Barney Pityane and others, Allan never hesitated to be associated centrally in the resistance movement. When Soweto burned, Allan was one of the first people to come to Durban, and ask: “Now what?”
To understand why the Order of the Baobab was given to him, is to understand this background of Allan. On the heels of Soweto in 1982 when other sectors of the population were mobilised to protest and demand, we were suddenly saddled with the dilemma of the tricameral system and the Koornhof Bills, and it was in this context that I have a particular memory and I would like to share this with the House on behalf of the ANC.
On his way to Eshowe on the first day of January 1983, Allan had the strength of character to knock at my door at four o’clock in the morning to say that the future of the coloured people would be decided that day. He said:
I would like you to know that we are going to take a decision to enter the tricam or not to enter the tricam, but in the event that we do, I make a commitment that it won’t be a sense of betrayal, but a strategic move away to another terrain of struggle.
This was formidably seen when the likes of us took control and entered the British consulate as a result of our opposition to the tricam.
One of the first messages that I received when we had occupied the British consulate was from Allan Hendrickse, extending solidarity, wishing us well. When other members of the tricam were celebrating the entry of the tricam, and we were shoved into police vans, Allan Hendrickse was the first to say: “You are where you are, and I am where we are, but never forget that our destination is the same.”
During the time of the treason trial in Pietermaritzburg it was Allan Hendrickse who did not hesitate to be associated with us, notwithstanding the fact that, just after that, when we decided to take to the streets and initiate the concept of ungovernability, Allan found himself in a very difficult situation, but he didn’t hesitate, in a swimsuit, to defy the laws of this country, much to the ire and anguish of P W Botha.
I do not want to make a speech here; but we want to celebrate the life of Allan Hendrickse in extending our condolences to his family. This is why the ANC did not hesitate in 1991. I had the historical privilege of introducing the President of the Republic, Thabo Mbeki, to the Labour Party conference in Durban. If I remember well, Luwellyn Landers, the pronouncement was made then that, yes, we believe that South Africa belongs to all who live in it, and to you, Sir, we give the commitment that we will do our best to make it liveable for all who live in it. Luwellyn?
On the heels of this the Labour Party did not hesitate to become an integral part of the forces of the Freedom Charter at both Codesa and Kempton Park. Those of you who participated in the processes there will understand why people like Luwellyn Landers could chair sessions at Codesa and at Kempton Park, and why Allan Hendrickse could play the role that he played on behalf of the Labour Party and, in broad terms, on behalf of the so-called coloured people of this country to make it possible for us to be where we are.
To some of us, who were associated as closely as we were, a tragedy occurred in our lives when we realised that Allan, in physical terms, had lost his sight. In a telephonic discussion, however, with Peter on my side, he said: “I might have lost my physical sight, but with people like you around the sight of our nation will never be lost.” With these words, on behalf of the ANC, we can only pray and wish his family strength. We can pray that South Africans across the colour line will understand that, indeed, South Africa belongs to all who live in it. In the spirit of Allan Hendrickse it is our responsibility to make South Africa liveable for all who live in it. Thank you very much. [Applause.]
The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Thank you, hon members, these messages will be conveyed to the family. We did send some flowers on behalf of Parliament and on behalf of all of you to say that we are with the family at this moment. We know the family and the late Comrade Allan have worked with a number of people. The Speaker also wishes that her voice be added to the sentiments of this afternoon.
Debate concluded.
Motion agreed to.
Mrs C DUDLEY: Madam Deputy Speaker, on a point of order: There are other motions without notice.
The DEPUTY SPEAKER: All right! Proceed, hon member.
EASTER HOLIDAY CELEBRATIONS
(Draft Resolution)
Mrs C DUDLEY: Madam Deputy Speaker, I move without notice:
That the House-
(1) acknowledges that Easter Weekend, which begins on 25 March (Good Friday) -
(a) is celebrated by Christians worldwide; and
(b) is a time when Christians identify with the death and
resurrection of Jesus Christ; and
2) wishes everyone a peaceful and happy Easter holiday and wishes
those who are travelling at this time a safe journey.
Agreed to.
TRAGIC EVENTS AT BAVIAANSPOORT CORRECTIONAL CENTRE AND GROOTE SCHUUR
HOSPITAL, AND AT POPCRU DEMONSTRATION
(Statement by Minister of Correctional Services:) The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Hon members, before we proceed to member’s statements, I wish to advise the House that I have agreed to the request by the hon Minister of Correctional Services for an opportunity to make a statement.
The MINISTER OF CORRECTIONAL SERVICES: Madam Deputy Speaker, hon members, you will be aware of the tragic events that have unfolded at Baviaanspoort Correctional Centre in Gauteng on Sunday, 13 March, and at Groote Schuur Hospital on 14 March 2005.
Two juvenile offenders, who are normally cleaners at the hospital section at Baviaanspoort Correctional Centre during weekdays, breached security at the centre while they were supposed to be engaged in recreational activities, and misled two female nurses into giving them access to the hospital. Upon entering the hospital, they brutally and violently attacked the nurses, who are familiar with the offenders, resulting in serious injuries being sustained by both nurses.
I have visited the nurses in hospital, as well as their families, and assured them that the department will ensure that the law takes its course speedily to bring these criminals to justice. I have also given instructions that senior investigators do a thorough investigation into whether security breaches on the part of any member of the department contributed to this incident. The necessary steps will be taken if this proves to be the case. Both nurses are recovering well in hospital, and the department is ensuring that the victims and families of other traumatised members also receive the required medical treatment and counselling services.
In the Groote Schuur incident, four young men from the department’s emergency support team risked life and limb to ensure that an awaiting- trial detainee did not escape, or that the safety of the public at the hospital was not compromised. That resulted in the tragic death of Officer Jacques Horne, who succumbed to his wounds in hospital after the shooting.
I call on this House to join the department and myself in expressing our heartfelt condolences to his wife, Anneline, and their respective families. Sadly, their first-born will be born soon. Both the SA Police Services and Correctional Services investigators are investigating all avenues to arrest the gang of perpetrators of this horrendous crime who apparently attempted to free the inmate taken to the hospital for medical treatment.
These criminals showed no respect for human life and did not care about the safety of the public, using high-calibre weapons in a hospital in the presence of other patients. While the department remains committed to rehabilitation of offenders, there is a category of criminals who will never correct their offending behaviour, and it is such villains who will be incarcerated under conditions where they cannot present any threat to the public and to the custodial officials. [Applause.]
The manner in which the correctional officials responded to this incident speaks of courage and bravery. They did not care for their personal safety. One of them paid the supreme price, and another is injured and hospitalised. They did this in the service of their country and of our people and must be commended for this. [Applause.]
Despite having the opportunity to consider their own safety, they chose to remain true to the mandate as servants of the people of South Africa. We salute the fallen hero, Jacques Horne, and his colleagues. Officer Horne will be buried tomorrow morning in Tokai.
In both cases, the department has taken measures that will ensure that the culprits will not be in a position to repeat their devious deeds. At the same time, I must remind all correctional officials: Collusion with criminals and a failure to perform required duties that result in such tragedies will not only be dealt with in terms of the departmental procedures, but you will also be criminally charged.
Before the convening of this House, I am sure hon members might have witnessed a gathering in front of the gates of Parliament. It was a demonstration and a march organised by Popcru. It is purported that those who took part in the march are members of Correctional Services. While there were members of my department involved - some misusing a sporting event taking place in Cape Town to be present at this march today - reports that we have received from correctional centres in the Western Cape indicate that the levels of attendance at work are high and that all correctional centres are functioning optimally, with no threats to safety and security. [Applause.]
Popcru has consistently been misleading its members about negotiations with the department. The leadership of the union has been involved in negotiations with my department since July last year and as recently as Monday of this week, we met and reached a number of agreements in principle. They are not telling their members about these meetings. They are misleading the public and their members by meeting the department, while at the same time encouraging their members to embark on illegal strike and industrial action.
The union must accept full responsibility for the suspension and dismissal of its members from Correctional Services. They called on their members to go on strike, while agreeing with the department that Correctional Services is an essential service where industrial action is outlawed. Popcru knew that if their members went on strike they would face dismissals under agreements that Popcru had been party to. They use their members as canon fodder for their own selfish ends.
Even worse, when suspended and dismissed workers had the opportunity to make representations through the normal grievance procedures, the union failed to represent them. This was grossly irresponsible of the union who chose, instead, to further mislead these members by claiming that they would be reinstated by the department.
Those who called on the workers to strike are now sitting back comfortably, while the members and the family members of the dismissed workers have to suffer. Many of the dismissed workers are sole breadwinners of their families. They now have no source of income; yet the union continues to encourage other workers to embark on irresponsible actions.
Popcru has failed its members. They now resort to personal attacks and misleading information. They have still not admitted to the families of those dismissed workers that they were wrong to call them out on strike. Those families are suffering, while the union continues to mislead others - like today.
Nobody wants to see any person being out of a job, including the Minister of Correctional Services, who is called Maggie or a Storm Trooper. Those who were dismissed are starting to realise that the union has misled them. At many correctional centres, they are refusing to co-operate with the union and are instead turning to the department for assistance.
The commitment of this department to the safety of its members, the safety of the public, the inmates that we look after, remains undiminished and we will strengthen this aspect of our core business. However, we cannot agree to the abuse of public funds, as some have been doing with weekend work. We must use the resources of the state in such a manner that we address critical social issues, such as unemployment, by creating much-needed job opportunities within Correctional Services. That is why we are on a drive to recruit and to retain more and more professionals within Correctional services.
I have real empathy for the dismissed workers. Their union has let them and their families down. I sincerely would want to see all those workers back at work. I am human. I come from the ANC. We want to create jobs and make sure that people stay at their jobs. [Applause.] But, there is one thing that I will not compromise on – I will not compromise the labour laws that this House has put in place. I will not support their dismissals being reversed at the expense of undermining my own department, of undermining the government and of undermining this Parliament.
As an essential service department, there are mechanisms that must be used in disciplinary procedures. The union must let this run its course and allow the members to go through and represent themselves. I will not intervene in the disciplinary processes, as the union wants me to do. Those processes were created by our labour laws. I will not reinstate these workers without the due processes.
My heart lies with those dismissed workers. I would like to see them back at their jobs, but in a proper way that will not undermine any discipline within my department. The union must accept the reality of this and start negotiating in the joint technical committee, which I have put together, where they are co-chairs of that team. But what they say there inside is different to what they say to their members outside. Strong-arm tactics are unconstructive, and will not yield any results.
I’m sure that this House will agree that the union cannot expect the department and myself to agree to employ people who make themselves guilty of criminal activity such as taking officers hostage; destroying state property; brandishing firearms; encouraging prisoners to break out and escape; destroying state symbols by ripping off the insignia of others and destroying it; attacking members for refusing to support their strike action; closing gates so that supplies cannot come into prisons; not feeding the prisoners for a whole day; gross insubordination; neglect of duties, as was the case when union members, who were supposed to be guarding an inmate in hospital, chose to sleep in their car while others wondered off, only to find the inmate had actually walked out of the hospital.
Popcru enjoys the privilege of serving within the Department of Correctional Services on that JTC which I have created. This is a privilege not enjoyed by other unions. It is only this particular union which serves on that. They meet with my department behind closed doors, and they reach agreements with the department, but then they take to the streets, feeding their members disinformation.
Ek is nie kwaad vir enige iemand nie. [Tussenwerpsels.] [I am not angry with anyone. [Interjections.]]
Mr P J GROENEWALD: [Onhoorbaar.] [Inaudible.]
The MINISTER OF CORRECTIONAL SERVICES: Ek is nie kwaad nie. [I am not angry.]
I will continue to encourage the union, as with all other stakeholders, to engage with the department and with me in a rational way. If the union wants to be regarded as a progressive trade union, they must start representing their members with honesty and sincerity. They have to stop creating the false impression that they co-manage this department. I will not co-manage the department with anybody. [Applause.] While there is a space for all stakeholders in Correctional Services, it is only those mandated by this House and by the President of this country who will manage my department.
I call on this House to support the legitimate disciplinary and grievance procedures agreed to by all unions involved in Correctional Services and to support the efforts of the department to address the challenges that are facing us as a department, such as overcrowding, the issues of awaiting- trial prisoners, issues of insignia, issues of corruption and the recruitment that we are doing within the department of suitable candidates as correctional officials.
I will definitely consider, as I said in the beginning, looking at the categories of dismissed workers and dealing with that, not because the union marches, but because it is my responsibility as the Minister to make sure that that happens. And I will not let chaos reign within the Department of Correctional Services! Thank you.
Mr J SELFE: Madam Deputy Speaker, we’d like to thank the Minister for the prompt reports supplied, not only to the National Assembly today, but also to the Portfolio Committee on Correctional Services on Tuesday.
Many officials who work for the Department of Correctional Services have to endure conditions of work that are extremely dangerous and, as recent events have shown, even life threatening. We would like to extend our deepest sympathies to the families of officials who have lost their lives or who have been injured in the line of duty. The barbaric tragedies that occurred at Baviaanspoort and Groote Schuur are immediate examples of this, but similar events have happened in many other correctional centres over the past year, for example at C-Max in Pretoria last year, where two members died.
Each and every day correctional officials go to work with the fear that they may be stabbed or shot by gang members who infest our prisons. Every day these officials return to their homes, knowing that the gangs inside the prisons have friends on the outside who can threaten them and their families. The conditions of work are unpleasant in many other ways. The hours are long and, because of overcrowding, the average official has to look after too many inmates.
Despite these conditions the vast majority of the officials perform their duties cheerfully and conscientiously. They have pride in their work, they know it has to be done and they do it well. With their help the universities of crime can be transformed into centres of rehabilitation.
We must, however, take urgent steps to improve the security of our staff. There can be no more Baviaanspoorts or Groote Schuurs. We must ensure that they’re properly trained and properly paid. In some cases consideration should even be given to danger pay. The department is already employing extra staff, and this process needs to be accelerated.
Unfortunately, as the Minister pointed out, there seems to be a minority of officials who place their narrow interests ahead of what this country and its prisons need. These people refuse to accept that Correctional Services is, correctly, an essential service and that walking off the job, as they did last year in Nelspruit, must necessarily result in disciplinary action. These people seem to forget that structure, good management and respect are necessary for any efficient organisation.
We, therefore, support the action that the Ministry is taking. We do not, like some others, think that he is a stormtrooper or a Maggie Thatcher. [Applause.] He must take the process through to its conclusion and then we will have prisons that work. Thank you. [Applause.]
Mr V B NDLOVU: Deputy Speaker, firstly, we would like to associate ourselves with the condolences to the families and friends of the deceased. It was a tragic incident that is not acceptable at all. Secondly, we have debated this matter and we will send our chief whip and the deputy chairperson of our caucus to attend the funeral, because the tragedy happened while the House was in session.
The Department of Correctional Services is a service department. I hope the staff will take care of what they are dealing with, especially if they are going to strike, because it’s important that it’s a service delivery. They cannot just take a unilateral decision to go on strike if the process is not followed correctly.
Mr Minister, we support you on the gross insubordination, because we cannot allow that to happen in any department of the government, because immediately when it happens delivery gets lost and then people don’t get helped and assisted. We urge the Minister to be strong and tough, as you are trying to be strong and tough, and to make sure there is nobody who will divert you from the position you are taking, and follow the law as it happens.
That is why we say the law should be applied as it stands. Proper security measures must be properly done to make sure that when you are liaising with all the stakeholders, including the unions, the law is there to help you and assist you. Take the bold step and fire who is supposed to be fired. Thank you. [Applause.]
Rev M S KHUMALO: Madam Deputy Speaker, the ACDP identifies with the statement of the Minister and expresses its sincere condolences to the family and friends of those who have lost their lives. Correctional Services officials in general must be commended for their commitment to their duty, and the ACDP regrets the fact that there are some who have discredited this institution by their misbehaviour. I thank you.
Mnr P J GROENEWALD: Geagte Adjunkspeaker, die agb Minister kom en hy praat met betrekking tot die grieweprosedure. Ek dink nie dit is maklik om elke werksdag van jou lewe met misdadigers te werk nie. Die vraag is, is die prosedure billik en word daar verseker dat bewaarders billik gehanteer word?
Ek kan vir die agb Minister vandag sê – en hy sal binnekort my brief ontvang – ek weet van vier bewaarders van die Klerksdorp-gevangenis wat nou al ’n jaar lank geskors is. Hulle skorsing word nie afgehandel nie omdat daar onbillikheid was aan die kant van die voorsittende beamptes. Dit is dan onbillik teenoor die bewaarders wat moet opoffer en hulle lewens in gevaar moet stel om misdadigers op te pas.
Die VF Plus se standpunt is ook dat die agb Minister gedurig onder druk verkeer wat betref sy begroting. Daarom kan daar nie behoorlike salarisse betaal word en alles wat daarmee gepaard gaan nie. Dit het tyd geword dat misdadigers begin werk en hulle eie kos begin produseer in die gevangenisse sodat daar genoeg geld is om die bewaarders ’n behoorlike salaris te betaal. Dankie. (Translation of Afrikaans speech follows.)
[Mr P J GROENEWALD: Hon Deputy Speaker, the hon Minister comes here and talks about the grievance procedure. I don’t think that it is easy to work with criminals every workday of your life. The question is, is the procedure fair and do we ensure that warders are treated in a fair manner?
I can tell the hon Minister today – and he will receive my letter shortly - that I know of four warders from the Klerksdorp prison who have been suspended for a year now. Their suspension is not being finalised because there was unfairness on the part of the presiding officers. This is unfair towards the warders who have to make sacrifices and who have to put their lives in danger in order to look after criminals.
The view of the FF Plus is also that the hon Minister is constantly under pressure with regard to his budget. For this season proper salaries and everything that goes with it cannot be paid. The time has come for criminals to start working and start producing their own food in the prisons so that there is enough money to pay the warders a proper salary. Thank you.]
Dr S E M PHEKO: Madam Deputy Speaker, it is only proper that we support the Minister of Correctional Services on this occasion. We certainly cannot accept indiscipline in an important institution such as this one, and therefore gross insubordination cannot be accepted at all. We, as the PAC, would of course want the security conditions in these institutions to be improved. We do send our very heartfelt condolences to the families involved. Thank you very much.
Mnr D V BLOEM: Adjunkspeaker, dit is baie, baie hartseer dat mense hierdie soort voorvalle uitbuit vir hulle eie doelstellings. Dit is die tweede keer dat Popcru hierdie soort gevalle uitbuit. In C-Max het mense hul lewens verloor. Hulle het dit uitgebuit en gemaak asof dit ’n speelding is. Hulle wil populêr word op ander mense se bloed. Hulle is vandag hier voor die Parlement omdat twee vroue verkrag is. Dit is moeders wat verkrag is. Dit is ’n hartseer ding. Kinders het ’n pa verloor. Hulle is besig om ’n bespotting te maak van die hele voorval.
Minister, daar is geen manier waarop ons oor dissipline en respek in gevangenisse kan onderhandel nie. U moet u voet neersit: enigeen wat nie die gedragskode van die departement wil volg nie, moet sy baadjie vat en loop. Daar is nie plek vir enigeen wat ongedissiplineerd is nie. [Applous.] Daar is geen manier waarop ons mense se lewens in gevaar kan stel nie. Onthou, dit is moordenaars, verkragters en ander gevaarlike misdadigers wat daar binnekant sit, en as ons toelaat dat ’n vakbond hierdie departement gaan regeer, gaan ons chaos kry.
Iemand soos Pieter, wat nie weet wat in ’n gevangenis aangaan nie, sal kom praat soos hy hier praat, maar hy weet nie ons is elke dag daar binne nie. Die bestuurders daar binne kry baie swaar ten opsigte van dissipline en respek. Ons, as portefeuljekomitee, gaan dit nie langer duld nie. Ek wil dit baie duidelik stel: die portefeuljekomitee gaan dit nie duld dat daar nie dissipline in die gevangenisse is nie. Ons besoek al die gevangenisse en dit is ons boodskap dat mense moet onthou as hulle nie respek en dissipline het nie, moet hulle hul baadjie vat en loop.
Daar is nie plek vir ’n ge-toyi-toyi of enige iets soortgelyk nie. Ons steek dit nie weg nie. Dit staan enige vakbond, nie alleen Popcru nie, wat nie wil luister wat hierdie departement sê nie, vry om te loop. Daar is miljoene mense daar buite wat werk soek. Daar is duisende kinders wat elke jaar matriek slaag, maar ander mense speel . . .
Mnr P J GROENEWALD: Mevrou die Adjunkspeaker, kan ek net vir die agb lid ’n vraag vra, asseblief? [Tussenwerpsels.]
Mnr D V BLOEM: Vra hom, vra hom, vra hom! Ek is nie bang nie. Vra hom!
Mnr P J GROENEWALD: Dankie. Mevrou die Adjunkspeaker, ek wil net vir die agb lid vra . . . (Translation of Afrikaans paragraphs follows.)
[Mr D V BLOEM: Deputy Speaker, it is very, very sad that people exploit such incidents for their own purposes. This is the second time that Popcru has exploited these kinds of incidents. In C-Max people lost their lives. They exploited this and treated it as a game. They want to become popular at the expense of other people’s blood. Today they have appeared here in front of the Parliament because two women were raped. These were mothers who were raped. It is a sad thing. Children have lost a father. They are making a travesty of the whole incident.
Minister, there is no way we can negotiate about discipline and respect in prisons. You must put your foot down: Anybody who does not want to comply with the department’s code of conduct should take his hat and leave. There is no room for anybody who is undisciplined. [Applause.] There is no way we are going to put people’s lives at risk. Remember, those are murderers, rapists and other dangerous criminals inside there, and if we allow a trade union to govern the department we will have chaos on our hands.
Someone like Pieter, who does not know what goes on in a prison, will come and talk the way he does here, but he does not know that we are in there every day. The managers in there have great difficulty with regard to discipline and respect. We, as the portfolio committee, will not tolerate this any longer. I want to put that very clearly: The portfolio committee will not tolerate a lack of discipline in the prisons. We visit all the prisons, and our message is that people must remember if they have no respect or discipline, they must take their hat and leave.
There is no room for toyi-toying or anything of the sort. We make no bones about it. Any trade union, not only Popcru, that does not want to listen to what this department says, is free to get out. There are millions of people out there who are looking for a job. There are thousands of youths every year who pass matric, but other people are playing . . .
Mr P J GROENEWALD: Madam Deputy Speaker, may I ask the hon member a question, please? [Interjections.] Mr D V BLOEM: Ask it, ask it, ask it! I am not afraid. Ask it!
Mr P J GROENEWALD: Thank you. Madam Deputy Speaker, I would just like to ask the hon member . . .]
The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order, hon members! I think, even if we are angry, let us respect the House.
Mr P J GROENEWALD: Dis reg, ja. [That’s right, yes.]
The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Let the hon member first indicate whether he would like to take the question, and then you put the question.
Mr D V BLOEM: Ja! [Gelag.][Yes! [Laughter.]]
The DEPUTY SPEAKER: And before I actually finish with this ruling, no matter how angry we are, an hon member remains an hon member. There’s no Pieter here. Everybody will be referred to in the way the House has determined.
Hon member, you would like to ask a question? The hon member says yes, go ahead and ask the question.
Mnr P J GROENEWALD: Hy’t gesê hy sal die vraag aanvaar, dankie, Adjunkspeaker. Ek wil net vir die agb lid vra: as hy mooi geluister het na my toespraak waarin ek juis opgekom het vir dissipline, is dit billik en regverdig van hom om, omdat hy vir Popcru kwaad is, nou vir my ook kwaad te wees? Ek dink nie dis billik nie. [Gelag.]
Mnr D V BLOEM: Om jou te antwoord, mnr Groenewald, daar is geen rede waarom ek vir jou kan kwaad wees nie. Ek is ook nie kwaad vir Popcru nie. Ons het ’n taak om uit te voer as lede van hierdie Parlement, naamlik dat ons moet wys dat hierdie Regering nie deur enigiemand, maar énigiemand, uitgedaag gaan word nie, en dat hierdie Regering wette het. Mense het hulle bloed gestort vir hierdie vryheid en niemand kan speel en trap op daardie bloed nie. Ek kan nie kwaad word vir jou of vir Popcru nie. Al wat ek kan doen, is om hulle die regte pad te wys en te sê hulle moet terugkom, want die pad wat hulle loop, is verkeerd.
My laaste woorde is aan die Minister: Minister, u het die volle ondersteuning van die Portefeuljekomitee op Korrektiewe Dienste. Daar is nie ’n manier waarop ons enige ongedissiplineerdheid gaan toelaat nie. Hierdie lede wat hier sit – die kommissaris en sy mense – het ons volle ondersteuning. Ons besoek gevangenisse, en daar is sommige mense wat dink hulle kan doen wat hulle wil in die gevangenisse. Ons is vir rehabilitasie, maar as mense hierdie soort dinge doen . . . Ek stem heeltemal saam; ons moet harder optree teenoor gevangenes wat dink ons het sag geword teenoor hulle met dissipline. Ons meegevoel aan die familie van die twee verpleegsters, en aan die familie van die lid van Korrektiewe Dienste wat sy lewe verloor het. Ons weet daar is, uit die 33 000 lede, 10 of 15 wat ongedissiplineerd is. Die meerderheid van hulle – ons ontmoet hulle – is baie gedissiplineerde mense, mense wat regtig wil sien dat hierdie Regering se vlag hoog waai. Ons wil ook aan hulle sê ons waardeer wat hulle doen. Dit is ’n ondankbare werk. Hierdie arme mense kry altyd slegte woorde. Hulle kry nooit aanmoediging of dat iemand vir hulle sê hul werk word waardeer nie. Hulle werk dag en nag met gevaarlike mense wat ons mammas verkrag. [Tussenwerpsels.]
Elke mens in hierdie land moet die hoed afhaal en net ’n dag spandeer om te dink aan hierdie mense. Ons waardeer wat hulle vir ons doen! [Tyd verstreke.]
Die ADJUNKSPEAKER: Baie dankie, mnr Bloem. Mnr Groenewald, ek is baie bly u en mnr Bloem bly nog steeds vriende! Gelag.
[Mr P J GROENEWALD: He said he would accept the question, thank you, Deputy Speaker. I just want to ask the hon member: if he listened to my speech attentively, in which I, in fact, stood up for discipline, is it fair and just of him to be annoyed at me, just because he is annoyed at Popcru? I don’t think that’s fair. [Laughter.]
Mr D V BLOEM: To answer you, Mr Groenewald, there is no reason why I should be annoyed at you. Neither am I annoyed at Popcru. We have a task to perform as members of this Parliament, namely to show that this government will not be challenged by anybody, whoever they may be, and that this government has laws. People paid for this freedom with their blood, and nobody is allowed to play with and trample on that blood. I cannot be angry with you or with Popcru. All I can do is show them the right way and urge them to return to it, because they have gone astray.
My final words are addressed to the Minister: Minister, you have the full support of the Portfolio Committee on Correctional Services. There is no way that we will tolerate any undisciplined behaviour. These members sitting here – the Commissioner and his people – enjoy our full support. We visit prisons, and there are those people who believe they can do as they please in prison. We are in favour of rehabilitation, but when people do these kinds of things … I totally agree; we have to act more decisively against prisoners who believe we have gone soft on them regarding discipline.
Our sympathies to the family of the two nurses, and to the next of kin of the member of Correctional Services who lost his life. We know that, out of a total of 33 000 members, there are 10 or 15 who are undisciplined. The majority of these members – we meet them – are highly disciplined people, who really want to do this government proud. We also want to tell them that we appreciate what they are doing. It is an unrewarding task. All these poor people get, are harsh words. They never hear any encouragement, or hear someone say their work is appreciated. Day and night they work with dangerous people who rape our mums. [Interjections.]
Everyone in this country should take off their hats and spend just one day thinking of these people. We appreciate what they are doing for us! [Time expired.]
The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Thank you very much, Mr Bloem. Mr Groenewald, I am very glad that you and Mr Bloem are still friends! [Laughter.]]
Debate concluded.
MEMBERS’ STATEMENTS
FIRST AMCHUD CONFERENCE
(Member’s Statement)
Mr G D SCHNEEMANN (ANC): Deputy Speaker, the African Ministerial Conference on Housing and Urban Development, or Amchud, took place in Durban from 31 January to 4 February this year. This was the first conference of its kind, which brought together Ministers of Housing and Urban Development from across the continent.
The theme of the conference was urbanisation, shelter and development towards an enhanced framework for promoting sustainable cities and towns in Africa. The conference discussed and deliberated on the steps that need to be taken and the strategies that need to be implemented to reduce the number of people living in slums and the backlog in housing on the African continent.
South Africa was elected as the first chair of Amchud. We are confident that the Minister of Housing, Comrade Lindiwe Sisulu, will during the next two years provide the leadership that is required to ensure that housing delivery plays its part in helping, not only South Africa, but the continent of Africa in achieving the millennium development goals.
The ANC wishes the Minister every success in this position, and also congratulates the Minister, the Department of Housing and all those who helped to make the first meeting of Amchud the success it was. I thank you. [Applause.]
ZIMBABWEAN ELECTION
(Member’s Statement) Mr W J SEREMANE (DA): Hon Deputy Speaker and hon members, it is highly regrettable that the conduct of our government observer mission in Zimbabwe has so far been reprehensible. It appears that the government is intent on repeating actions of the year 2000, when it went out of its way to find the Zimbabwean elections free and fair, regardless of the enormous evidence to the contrary.
The credibility of the ANC is thus so severely compromised that it appears likely that, at this stage, the MDC may refuse to meet with the South African government delegation, and is also seriously considering not meeting with the ANC delegation. This is a stunning illustration of the low esteem in which the ANC is held within Zimbabwe, and it also pours scorn on its attempts to present itself as an objective observer of the elections.
In the light of its actions so far, any report presented by the ANC delegation should be treated with circumspection, as the impression can only be gained that it will do anything possible to rubberstamp what is already a flawed election. It is time that the ANC looks beyond old loyalties, acts in the interests of the people of Zimbabwe and also upholds human rights as it professes. I thank you. [Applause.]
SA MAN APPEARS ON WEAPONS CHARGES IN US
(Member’s Statement)
Mr V B NDLOVU (IFP): Ngiyabonga, Sihlalu. [Thank you, Chairperson.]
Christiaan Dewet Spies, a South African man who is believed to have worked for Armscor, was arrested in the United States while allegedly trying to finalise an arms deal with an undercover FBI agent. Mr Spies appeared in court yesterday along with 17 other conspirators for allegedly trying to sell former Eastern bloc and Russian anti-aircraft weapons, antitank rockets, rocket-propelled grenade launchers and semiautomatic machineguns to an undercover agent. If found guilty, he could be facing 30 years in prison.
We urge the relevant South African authorities to follow this case closely, and to assist US authorities if necessary. It is of the utmost importance that we rid the world of any threat of terrorism or acts that promote terrorism, especially at a time when the world is trying to rid itself of the threat of terrorism and terrorist activities, which have claimed the lives of so many innocent people.
NATIONAL WATER WEEK
(Member’s Statement)
Mr B G MOSALA (ANC): Chairperson, the ANC would like to join the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry in its Water for Life campaign. The week 21-27 March is National Water Week. The severe drought that is being experienced in some parts of the country has raised awareness regarding the value of water, economically, socially and recreationally.
Given the limited water resources, and the fact that these resources are unevenly distributed, the government should continue to lead in campaigns that raise water awareness. Water has played an important role in improving the social and economic life of South Africans.
When the ANC government took over in 1994, the existing legislation then denied millions of our people access to clean water and safe sanitation. Today 14 million people have been supplied with basic water infrastructure. Through proper sanitation and the provision of clean water reports of waterborne diseases have dropped quite drastically. [Time expired.] [Applause.]
PRIMARY SCHOOL NUTRITION PROGRAMME IN THE EASTERN CAPE
(Member’s Statement) Ms S N SIGCAU (UDM): Chairperson, the UDM expresses its shock regarding the reported state of the primary school nutrition programme in the Eastern Cape. Pupils in the Eastern Cape were regularly fed stale bread, biscuits infested with mites, as well as margarine and jam that were beyond their expiry dates. This was contained in a 2003 report on the primary school nutrition programme and later backed up by another report drafted at the beginning of this year.
The Eastern Cape was the focus of serious reports regarding malnutrition several years ago. The programme was initially under the Department of Health, but is now handled by the Department of Education. The taxpayers and this Parliament are committing millions of rands towards these programmes, but other children still go hungry.
We call upon the Minister of Education to urgently address this matter because our children deserve better. Thank you.
PROMISE TO DELIVER CLASSROOMS BROKEN
(Member’s Statement)
Mr L W GREYLING (ID): Yesterday the Western Cape provincial education department was greeted by the sight of hundreds of protesting primary school pupils who were demanding classrooms that had been promised to them. The ID is appalled that primary school students have to resort to protesting in order to get the government to deliver on what is their constitutional right.
What is even worse is that a commitment to deliver these classrooms was given last year, and that these promises were simply broken. If we are prepared to break our promises to children over something as important as education, then our society is in a very sorry state. The ID is tired of excuses and the passing of the buck to other government departments on this issue. The ID brought up the concerns of nondelivery of mobile classrooms in the Western Cape at the start of last year’s school year and still the problem has not been resolved.
Education is a constitutional right that does not have a resources limitation. This means that the government cannot claim it does not have money to build these schools and classrooms. It is for that reason that the President promised in his state of the nation address last year that by April this year no child shall be taught under trees or in unsafe structures. This target has not been reached and in fact the budget that was allocated for it fell woefully short.
Estimates are that we need between R12 and R20 billion to address the backlogs and school provision. This money must be made immediately available and ring-fencing conditional grants to provincial departments. If the Department of Public Works cannot live up to its mandate, then the Department of Education must take responsibility for this. The children of South Africa are entitled to their education, and this is one issue that our society simply cannot compromise on. The ID demands that urgent action be taken on this issue. [Time expired.]
TOXICITY OF WATER IN GAUTENG
(Member’s Statement)
Rev K R J MESHOE (ACDP): Chairperson, the ACDP is concerned that the health of the people of Gauteng is at risk, because of the pollution and toxicity of water in that province. Newspaper reports about the quality of water in South Africa’s richest province are raising serious concerns that require immediate intervention by the government. The confidential minutes from the Gauteng department of agriculture, conservation and environment have revealed that a lack of political will to remedy the problem is exacerbating the threatening situation as the government and the mining bosses squabble over who should bear the enormous costs of correcting the problem.
It is very unfortunate that the relevant authorities do not seem to care that the quality of water in Gauteng is slowly deteriorating. The Krugersdorp Nature Reserve is said to have lost animals, including a cheetah, lion and springbok as a result of pollution and toxic water from the stream running through the reserve. What is even more frightening is to hear reports that the entire water supply of Gauteng could be poisoned within the next three years, because of the provinces’ old toxic mines.
Therefore, the ACDP calls on the government to act swiftly and put the concerns of the members of the public to rest by informing them what government intends doing about the pollution and toxicity of water that threatens their health.
NATIONAL HERITAGE COUNCIL
(Member’s Statement)
Nksk N D MBOMBO (ANC): Kule mpela veki edlulileyo uSekela Mongameli uMsholozi ngokwake, uvule inkomfa yokuqala yezaMafa eBuntu Kraal eSoweto, ebonisa ukuba sithathe ubuzwe namasiko ethu ngengqalelo.
Siphide silungiselele nenkomfa kazwelonke okanye eyomhlaba wonke ezakuba ngoJulayi eThekwini. Siyabulela kuwe Khongolosi ngokusikhulula emakhamandeleni wasifaka enkululekweni, ngoku sazi izinto ebesifudula singazazi. Siyazidla ngoku ngobuzwe bethu. (Translation of isiXhosa paragraphs follows.)
[Mrs N D MBOMBO (ANC): During the past weekend, the Deputy President, Msholozi himself, opened the first heritage conference at uBuntu Kraal in Soweto. He was showing that we have taken our nationality and culture into cognisance.
We will again make preparations for the national conference or world conference that is going to be held in July in Durban. We thank the ANC for freeing us from the chains and taking us to freedom, now we know things that we did not know before. We are now proud of our nationality.]
The National Heritage Council is tasked to integrate our previously fragmented heritage institutes and restore our indigenous knowledge and integrity. Moreover, it seeks to ensure cohesion between the various manifestations of heritage in our country, thereby ensuring preservation and balance in the melting pot. It also plays a critical role, as demonstrated during the conference, by acting as a catalyst of the heritage sector, given that it engages with communities and all sectors of society.
As the ANC, we have no doubt that this Council will continue to be guided by democratic principles through which we wish the Ministry and other partners in this project great speeches as they continue to bring . . . [Time expired.]
FAILURES REGARDING HOUSING IN THE WESTERN CAPE
(Member’s Statement)
Mr A C STEYN (DA): Chairperson, the hon Minister of Housing continues to try and blame me or my party for her failures with regard to housing in the Western Cape. In reply to a question yesterday the hon Sisulu asked me if I knew who she was and where she came from. This, presumably, was in reference to her term as Minister of Intelligence. Am I meant to be intimidated or threatened by these remarks? [Interjections.] I will give the hon Minister the benefit of the doubt and say it was meant as neither.
The Minister also referred to her invitation to me to join her in a walkabout. I accepted the invitation then, as I do now. I have given her parliamentary liaison officer all my contact details. To date, I have not heard from her office in this regard other than the outburst by the hon Minister in this House. I wish to ask the Minister: Is this one of your empty promises? And in reply to her earlier question my answer is: Yes, Minister, I do know who you are. You are a servant of the people and it is time that you begin to serve all of them. I thank you.
LOSS OF LIFE DUE TO ROAD ACCIDENTS
(Member’s Statement)
Ms S RAJBALLY (MF): Chairperson, according to Statistics South Africa more than 34 lives are lost and there are 160 serious injuries on our roads daily. This has cost South Africa R35 billion a year.
During the holiday periods people indulge greatly in the consumption of alcohol. Many unfortunately travel on our roads in a drunken state, often costing lives, including their own. We support the Easter Road Safety Campaign, launched by the KwaZulu-Natal MEC for transport, which serves to bring down the number of road accidents and injuries. We call for measures to be taken in all provinces to make our roads safer.
We also call on the bus, trucking and tow truck companies to clamp down on reckless driving. The MF calls on public drivers and pedestrians to take care on the roads and to adhere to road safety.
Only yesterday a mother and two kids miraculously survived going down Chapman’s Peak. Accidents happen. Buckle up and be safe. To all the reckless and irresponsible drivers out there, I agree with the KwaZulu Natal MEC, Bheki Cele, namely that all drunken drivers who recklessly kill people in accidents should be charged with murder, not with culpable homicide.
RENAMING OF PRETORIA
(Member’s Statement)
Mr S B NTULI (ANC): Chairperson, we the ANC note and welcome the name change of Pretoria by the Metropolitan Council of Tshwane. The renaming comes after thorough research was conducted on the indigenous people who lived in the area earlier on in history. This act by the Tshwane Council is in fact a reinstatement of the original name of the area.
According to the report by the name changing committee, comprising of the fourteen academics, oral history says that the name Tshwane originated from the first Ndebele ethnic group, which had occupied the area under the leadership of Chief Muzi Mnyamane. Tshwane, who was one of his six sons, ruled after his death. Re a tshwana, we are the same. We welcome the name and let us all promote the name. I thank you. [Applause.]
NANTES PRIMARY SCHOOL CLOSED
(Member’s Statement)
Mr L B LABUSCHAGNE (DA): Chairperson, the DA has taken note of the fact that the Nantes Primary School, serving the disadvantaged Eersterust and Mamelodi communities in Pretoria, was suddenly closed yesterday without any prior notice by the Department of Labour.
Fourteen months ago the department had condemned the school on the grounds of health and safety. Despite requests to the education authorities, the board of management and the school was kept in the dark about developments. It is quite unacceptable that there has been no proper co-ordination or contingency planning between the relevant departments, the board and school about the sudden closure and arrangements for the children.
This could have been done during the aforementioned fourteen-month lead period and 1 100 children could have started this school year without disruption. Instead, they are now faced with a last minute scramble for alternative accommodation and temporary solutions. Surely they deserve better. This is clearly an example where primary school children have to bear the brunt of the ruling party’s incompetent and unco-ordinated administrative endeavours. I thank you.
BY-ELECTIONS IN NORTH WEST PROVINCE
(Member’s Statement)
Mme M W MAKGATE (ANC): Modulasetulo, setshaba sa rona ko Bokone-Bophirima se ithsupile fa se na le tshepo mo pusong ya mokgatlo wa ANC mo go tliseng diphetogo le ditlhabologo mo matshelong a batho ka boela ba go kgetha boemedi mo dithlophong tsa tlaleletso tse neng di tshwerwe ka di 07 March
- Dipholo tsona di yana, ANC e fentse ka 90%, Kgetlheng ward 3 ANC e fentse ka 67%, Kgetlheng ward 2 ANC e bone 53% batho ba tiisa tumelo ya bona mo Freedom Charteng le mo maikaelong a rona a tlhagelang mo Manifestong. ANC e tsea nako ae go akgola bathlophi bohle ba ba tswileng go ya go e tlhopha. Ke a leboga. (Translation of Setswana statement follows).
[Ms M W MAKGATE (ANC): Chairperson, our people in the North West have shown their confidence in the ANC-led government to bring changes and developments in their lives through electing representatives again in the by-election held on 7 March 2005. The results are as follows: The ANC won by 90%; in Kgetlheng ward 3 the ANC won by 67% and in Kgetlheng ward 2 the ANC got 53%. People reaffirmed their belief in the Freedom Charter and in our aims as reflected in the Manifesto. The ANC would like to take this opportunity to congratulate all voters who went out and voted for them. Thank you.]
The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON (Mr N P NHLEKO): We have come to the end of the statements, however there is an opportunity for the ANC to take up one slot if the party so wishes.
CONGRATULATIONS TO MS MASINGITA MASUNGA
(Member’s Statement)
Mr C L GOLOLO (ANC): Chairperson, I move that the House formally congratulates the activist and heroine Ms Masingita Masunga. Gauteng-based Masingita Masunga has given . . .
The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON (Mr N P Nhleko): Hon member, on a point of order: You are moving a motion?
Mr C L GOLOLO: It’s a statement.
The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON (Mr N P Nhleko): It does not sound like one, but let us give you an opportunity.
Mr C L GOLOLO: Chair, it is the recognition of people who are physically challenged.
Gauteng-based Masingita Masunga has given people with disabilities throughout South Africa an opportunity to make a viable contribution to society through projects created by her Tinyungubyeni Talent Promotion Company. As the company’s managing director and a champion of the physically challenged from an early age, Ms Masunga has overcome her own disability of cerebral palsy to establish an organisation that motivates men, women and the youth.
Chair and judge of the arts and culture category of the awards for all women, Mr Sipho Mabuze, said her contribution to physically disabled people in South Africa makes her a true model. Miss Masunga is an incredible activist in her field, who has risen above her challenging background to make her motivational impact. She is an outstanding role model. Malibongwe! [Praise!]
ACTS OF PROVINCIAL DEPARTMENTS OF EDUCATION, NATIONAL SCHOOL FEEDING
SCHEME, PROTEST BY SCHOOL CHILDREN AND NANTES SCHOOL
(Minister’s Response)
The MINISTER OF EDUCATION: Chairperson, I have to begin by saying there are many activities by some of our provincial administrations of education, which do cause me a great deal of concern, for example, the recent debacle with respect to the payment of educators who were not on strike last year. It is a worrying part of a lack of attention to effective administration. But I think those failures cannot cloud the massive achievements that our government is making in the education sector and the commitment to education shown by the allocation to educational activity in our national budget in South Africa.
With respect to the Eastern Cape, we are attending to this problem regarding the school nutrition scheme. What I would be happy for hon members to do is to assist the schools in their local area in implementing the national school feeding scheme. My belief is that the utilisation of large contractors to deliver services to our schools is part of the problem that we have, because a number of these companies are concerned about profit, rather than providing a service to our children.
I believe that the scheme should create employment opportunities in communities. Primarily women should be managing those schemes and ensuring that services are delivered adequately to our children. I believe members of Parliament can assist in this regard.
A great deal of money goes to the national nutritional programme - over R800 million - and I really wonder whether a slice of bread and a drink of orange juice is worthy of the R800 million investment by this government. Therefore, I am glad members are paying attention, but rather than being critical, let us look at how we can make the scheme work, because the children are the children of South Africa, not the children of a particular party in this House.
With respect to the Western Cape, I have learnt of the protest, and I will be meeting with the MEC this afternoon. Let me again say with respect to the provinces, hon members who may have studied the utilisation of provincial budgets would be fully aware that the allocation for infrastructure was not fully used in the year 2004-05. Therefore, it is not inadequate provision by government; it is actual implementation in the provinces where schools should be built.
We need to examine what is going on and I am doing that in order to ensure that we improve our ability in order to execute . . . [Interjections.] Stop shouting and listen. You like commenting, but you never listen. Give me the power to fire them. You wanted the kind of Constitution we have, which involves powers, so refer to provinces, look at what is happening in provinces rather than merely sitting here and shouting across the floor.
Finally, if I could just say that with respect to the Nantes Primary School, the acting Director-General of Education is in discussion with the Head of Education in Gauteng, as well as the Director-General in the Labour Department to see how we can assist with ensuring that education goes on for these children. I thank you. [Time expired.]
The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON (Mr N P Nhleko): Could I remind hon members that in terms of Rule 105, ministerial responses shall not exceed two minutes. However, in this particular case one had to exercise an element of discretion, given the importance of the matter. So, we had to add an additional minute. I think it is important to explain that. Are there any other ministerial responses?
SETTING UP OF A HERITAGE FOUNDATION FOR AFRICA
(Minister’s Response)
The DEPUTY MINISTER OF ARTS AND CULTURE: Chairperson, I just want to thank the ANC, on behalf of the Ministry of Arts and Culture, as well as the National Heritage Council, for the statement commending the National Heritage Council.
I also want to just inform the House that at the moment we are holding the precommittee workshop that the member referred to in preparation for the World Heritage Committee Conference, which will be held in July in Durban. This precommittee workshop is a workshop of African experts that are preparing for the July conference in Durban. It is presently dealing with the Africa Heritage Position Paper, as well as looking at setting up an African heritage fund or foundation. This fund or foundation for Africa will relate to the conservation, protection and promotion of African heritage. So, we have moved beyond just South Africa. We are rising to greater heights. We are actually looking at the African heritage landscape; we are looking further than just South Africa.
So, I just want to thank the member for this. It also puts heritage clearly on our agenda. Thank you. [Applause.]
CITATION OF CONSTITUTIONAL LAWS BILL
(Second Reading debate)
The DEPUTY MINISTER FOR JUSTICE AND CONSTITUTIONAL DEVELOPMENT: Chairperson, hon members, ladies and gentlemen, just under nine years ago representatives of the people of South Africa gathered in the Constitutional Assembly and with exuberant dignity, assented to giving life to a new nation.
This happened when we adopted the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa as the supreme law of the Republic. Confirming its significance on the occasion of its adoption, the Chairperson of the Constitutional Assembly, Cyril Ramaphosa, remarked:
The Constitution is a subject of a rather fortunate paradox. It is no
one’s Constitution, and yet it is everyone’s Constitution. Just as no
one party sees its constitutional proposals reproduced in their
entirety in this Bill, so no one person can claim exclusive ownership
of this Constitution.
It belongs to everyone in the Constitutional Assembly and it is a
reflection of our collective will for a new united and democratic
nation. This Constitution belongs to South Africans.
Today our esteemed Constitution, a product of a remarkable, open and transparent process of unprecedented levels of popular participation and breadth of consultation, from the beginning to the end, serves as a mirror of our society, reflecting our origins and past and our cherished values and vision as a new nation united in its diversity.
On the same occasion, the then Deputy President, Thabo Mbeki, said of the Constitution that it -
. . . constitutes an unequivocal statement that we refuse to accept
that our Africanness shall be defined by our race, our colour, our
gender or our historical origins. It is a firm assertion made by us
that South Africa belongs to all who live in it, black and white.
It gives concrete expression to the sentiment we share as Africans
and we will defend to the death that the people shall govern.
Hon members, because the Constitution is so exceptional, applauded throughout the world as a remarkable, progressive, basic law, it is imperative that we should accord it that status; also in practice. Unfortunately, this does not always happen. We are finding that many legal practitioners do not understand that we have a Constitution and that it is the supreme law of the land and, definitely, do not seem to understand that we live and operate in a constitutional state.
You will, for example, get many a magistrate and practitioner on the ground, who will refer to our Constitution as Act 108 of 1996. If it was just the way they referred to the Constitution, it would not have been problematic, but it is also symptomatic of the way in which they substantively deal then with issues that are of a constitutional nature.
Therefore, many persons, including members of the judiciary, especially the Chief Justice, the hon Arthur Chaskalson, have in the recent past expressed the view that the Constitution should be treated differently from other Acts of Parliament. For example, by not been allocated an Act number like other ordinary Acts of Parliament. The view has also been expressed that the short titles of all laws amending the Constitution should, as in some other countries, for example, India and the United States, be numbered consecutively.
Hon members, the Bill before the House today therefore seeks to give effect to these views by, amongst others, firstly, providing that from the commencement of this Bill no Act number is to be associated with the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa of 1996. In other words, the Constitution will in future be referred to as the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa of 1996. No Act number is to be associated with or allocated to laws amending the Constitution.
Secondly, we are substituting the short titles of existing laws amending the Constitution so as to provide for their consecutive numbering, for example, the Constitution First Amendment Act of 1997, the Constitution Second Amendment Act of 1998 and the Constitution Third Amendment Act of
- Thirdly, this Act provides that all the short titles of all future laws amending the Constitution must be numbered consecutively.
I therefore urge this House to unconditionally support this very important piece of legislation to further accord the necessarily respect and status to our Constitution. I thank you. [Applause.]
There was no debate.
Bill read a second time.
STERILISATION AMENDMENT BILL
(Second Reading debate)
There was no debate.
Bill read a second time.
DEBATE ON “A DECADE OF A DECISIVE ADVANCE TO EQUAL RIGHTS FOR ALL”
Mrs N B GXOWA: Ndiyabulela Mhlalingaphambili . . . [I thank you, Chairperson…]
Hon members and hon Ministers, as we celebrate Human Rights Day on 21 March this coming Monday, we should always remember that 10 years ago women of the world recognised women’s rights as human rights. It is a coincidence that a few weeks ago we celebrated International Women’s Day, recognising the progress that has been made in the world in assuring implementation of human rights, rights of women and of the girl child.
As we celebrate human rights and also the 50th anniversary of the Freedom Charter, it makes sense to recall the experiences of many of our women, particularly black women. We cannot celebrate achievements we have made as South Africans if we do not look back at where we came from. During the apartheid period women in South Africa, especially black women, experienced triple oppression, regarding gender, race and class, and all were vulnerable to various forms of oppression and discrimination.
For a number of women this manifested in a lack of education, and consequently illiteracy, lack of employment and poverty. Women have been subjected to violence in their homes and communities and to sexual assault, harassment and discrimination in their workplaces.
Women were exempted from decision-making roles and did not even have legal power; instead men had total power to run their lives. Women were treated as minors who could not have access to property, even when their husbands died. When their husbands died, permission to occupy the house would be given to a male figure, who could chase the women away if he wished to.
In the past, my son, as a male, had more power than I had. For instance, let me just give an example of what happened: After my father-in-law died in 1975, and then late in the 1980s my mother-in-law died, my husband had to take over the estate of the family in the rural areas of Queenstown in Lady Frere. When my late husband and I went together to the offices . . .
. . . siyakhona ngenjongo yokuba sibhalise abantwana elifeni. [. . . we went there with the intention of registering our children in the estate.]
As we entered . . .
. . . uNobhala wathi: “Unaye omnye umfazi ngaphandle kwalo?” [The Clerk said: “Do you have another wife except for this one?”]
My husband said: “No, this is my only wife.”
“Ndiphe amagama abantwana bakho,” kutsho uNobhala. [“Give me your children’s names,” said the Clerk.]
We have five children and the eldest is female. When we started mentioning the first one: “Nonkululeko”, . . .
. . . uNobhala wathi: “Heyi ndoda, awunabo abantwana?” [The Clerk asked: “Don’t you have children, man?”]
Umyeni wam: “Ndinabo abantwana.” [My husband said: “I have children.”]
Unobhala wathi: “Ndinike amagama abantwana ngoku!”[The Clerk said: ”Give me their names now!”]
My husband said: “But I gave you the names.”
UNobhala wathi: “Awunabo abantwana, musa ukusinika amagama amantombazana apha thina, sifuna amakhwenkwe, kanti awuwazelanga amakhwenkwe?” [The Clerk said: “If you have children, then give us the boys’ names, we do not want the girls’ names.”]
We then also reacted and asked: “What do you mean?” That meant the girl children did not have a right to the estate, only the boys had a right to the estate.
It was difficult for a woman to buy even a stove. In those days there were stoves known as “Welcome Dovers”…[Laughter.]… the cheapest stove you could get on the market, which cost about £49. You could not buy that, because you were a woman. You had no purchasing power. You had to get a man to sign a surety for you that you can buy the stove. This resulted in a woman going out and getting any man, even if you did not know that man, but he just had to go and sign for 25c at the Native Commissioner and get the certificate, and then sign a purchase order to buy a stove. As a result, because some of the men were unscrupulous, they took advantage of the situation, and this arrangement forced women into personal contracts with men they did not even know. Very few women could purchase on hire purchase.
Bekukho iibhedi ebezithengiswa kwa Ellerines kusithiwa zi’Golden dollar’ ukuba andiphazami. Ibhedi olala ngayo inyanga ibenye yophuke kodwa ungakwazi nokuyithenga ngetyala. [There were beds that were sold at Ellerines Furnishers known as ‘Golden Dollar’, a bed on which you only sleep for one month then it is broken, but women could not even buy it on hire purchase.]
Women could not buy cars, as a result there were very few women who drove cars in those days. It was not because they could not afford them, but they were not allowed to buy cars or own property. These attrocities were even harder on women in the rural areas. Whilst women in the rural areas carried the bulk of the subsistance farming, their access to land was limited by traditional patriachal values.
IiNkosi bezingafuni kubanika… [Traditional chiefs denied…]
Women in the rural areas lacked access to essential services such as water and health care. For many years women did not even know a maternity clinic. They delivered their children at home without medical or health care. As a result many women could not register their children in order for them to get identity documents. That is why today we have the problem of many people without these documents. Women could not register their children, because they delivered them at home and they had no vaccination certificates.
I remember a particular incident in Germiston at Georgetown, where a woman was pregnant at the same time as the employer’s dog. One day her madam said: “You and this bloody dog make me sick with your pregnancies.”
Banomdintsi kuye njengokuba bekhulelwe bobabini nje.[She detests them both, the pregnant woman and the pregnant dog.]
Now what this shows is that this hard-working woman was equated to a dog. At that time dogs had more rights to walk in the streets of suburbs than black women. Black women had to carry passes or permits, even when they visited neighbours.
For us 21 March will always stand foremost in our minds as the day in 1960 when the apartheid state unleashed its brutality on innocent people protesting against the hated pass laws in Sharpeville. Whilst we celebrate the day, we should always remember those who lost their lives in the struggle fighting for human rights. It is their fight that has made Sharpeville a household name around the world, so that it has come to symbolise the fight against racism and racial discrimination.
Throughout the world 21 March has been recognised as the International Day for the Elimination of all Forms of Racial Discrimination. As we celebrate Human Rights Day in South Africa, we should recognise the progress that has been made in pursuance of human rights, including women’s rights, which are at the core of South Africa’s Constitution. South Africa views gender equality as central to equal enjoyment of all rights and freedoms by all those who live in it.
One of the main achievements, in terms of violence against women, is the Domestic Violence Act, passed in 1997 for the protection of people in domestic relationships. However, despite the passing of the Act, violence against women remains a serious problem and sexual violence against women and children is still rife. The fact that many of these women go to court is an indicator that women and children are using the Act to protect their rights. Prior to passing this Act, domestic violence was an issue people did not talk about, and it was ignored by the legal system.
We, as the ANC-led government, recognise that violence against women and children remains a challenge that we need to put more emphasis on to ensure that it is dealt with in this second decade of democracy.
Today women enjoy the right to own property that has been denied to them for so long. Today they can buy and sell property. Today, we as a country have a Bill of Rights, a Gender Commission and human rights that ensure that women are protected. I thank you. [Time expired.]
Ms M SMUTS: Chairperson, I want to thank hon Bertha. I think we all enjoyed that, and we all rejoice in those specific advances.
I hope that all members heard the hon Deputy Minister for Justice and Constitutional Development say a minute ago that it is imperative that we accord the Constitution the status it deserves. It is in that belief that we say today that the question which should be debated is whether we have not seen half a decade of retreat from equal rights for all.
There is no room in our Constitution for the different treatment of different races, which is the hallmark of racist systems like apartheid, or for the granting of rights and privileges to one race, whilst withholding them from another. There is no room in our constitutional scheme for such an approach.
We did not sit down, after all, to negotiate a transition from white nationalism to black nationalism. Yet, a racial agenda has been driven over the last five years. It began with the media racism enquiry in 1999, and continued with the Racism Conference in 2000. The International Race Conference followed the next year, an occasion so filled with hatred and strife that South Africa has so far drawn something of a veil over the event.
Yet, the hon Minister for Justice and Constitutional Development has been quoted approvingly citing that conference in the context of the so-called transformation of the judiciary, which is the latest terrain of struggle for those who run with the race theme. And I mean that they literally run with the race theme. A prominent member of the Cape Bench was spotted in the gym last week wearing a t-shirt proclaiming the transformation of the judiciary.
Perhaps I should not be surprised at the Minister’s reference to that conference, considering that Prof Shadrack Gutto now advises her. This gentleman was a mover and shaker in the tabling in Parliament in early 2000 of the Equality Bill, a piece of work so wild that a leading jurist called it “evangelical”, and -
. . . so overwritten that it was clearly based on the slot machine
model of the judiciary - one puts a set of facts into the machine
which responds with noise and flickering lights and pops out the legal
answer.
This Bill had no fewer than four separate definitions of
discrimination, as well as something of a legislative first in the
form of a footnote, which defined “substantive equality” as “including
equality in terms of the law and in reality. This takes into account
equality in terms of process and outcomes.”
One can only sigh and start redrafting from scratch, which is what we did, because as Dr Mamphela Ramphele said, the right to equality does not mean the right to successful outcomes. Like the DA, she believes it is individuals who make the difference, once fast-tracked through the right kind of affirmative action programmes and once given the opportunities previously denied. Given our history, don’t they make us proud when they do shine; don’t they, those superb black CEOs, and those superlative female Constitutional Court judges? They make me very proud.
I want to tell you a little story here. I immediately tabled in that Equality Law Committee, the Constitutional Court’s authoritative ruling on what substantive equality is. The court rejected a redistributive interpretation, and said, both in conferring benefits on persons and by imposing restraints on certain other action, the state has to do so in a way which results in equal treatment of all persons.
The very next morning, Prof Gutto tabled in turn what he termed a synopsis of the so-called equality jurisprudence in which he omitted mention of this case, and advised hon members that they need not follow the higher courts, just as the lower courts where the majority of the masses are involved have, and I quote, in his view -
. . . many legally sound tactics to avoid the principles developed in higher courts and get off with only a judicial reprimand.
Now that is shocking.
He did recant. He recanted upon challenge, but I have kept that document, because the incident demonstrated what a senior justice department official said openly there, and what Prof Gutto himself now openly says.
It is the rulings of the court that are at issue. It is not the colour of the Bench. Race is being used to achieve ends that have nothing to do with equality. [Interjections.] The way in which our Constitution does provide for substantive equality is to use the key concept of unfair discrimination, which - I quote the Constitutional Court here –
. . . recognises that although equal treatment is our goal, we cannot achieve that goal by insisting upon identical treatment in all circumstances before the goal is achieved. Each case therefore will require a careful understanding to determine whether its overall impact is one which furthers equality, or not.
That is the question that we need to ask ourselves. Can we say that all laws and policy measures now in place will, over all, further the goal of equality? Or do they advance racial control of the country by a black nationalist government? Is the blunt instrument of demographic determinism, under which 5 000 SAPS members have been forced to leave their homes and their provinces to achieve national racial quotas in police stations, a bona fide section 9(2) provision, designed to give black policemen a place in the sun while furthering the ultimate goal of equality? Is that what was intended with section 9(2), the affirmative action clause? There must be a rational relationship between ends and means before affirmative action is constitutional - before the discrimination against non-African police can be fair. Is this acceptable?
This government, like the government it replaced, knows how to appeal to race over reason. But if, in the process, race triumphs over rational affirmative action, then we are in fact in retreat from equal rights. If a slot machine model of justice is established which spits out rulings that government likes, then we are in fact in full retreat from constitutionalism itself. [Applause.]
Mrs I MARS: Thank you, Chairperson. Hon Minister and colleagues, it has been 56 years since the United Nations adopted and proclaimed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Although solemn commitments were made by a world tired of war and atrocities committed against populations throughout the world, the abuse of human rights has occurred throughout the 56 years, and still occurs today in many parts of our global society.
The advent of a democratic dispensation in South Africa, I believe, makes this debate today very relevant because it will allow us to reflect on our achievements, confirm our ongoing commitment and act as a warning against future complacency.
There has been a decisive advance to equal rights for all. The fundamentals are firmly in place. South Africa has a human rights-based Constitution, a Constitutional Court, a Human Rights Commission and a vibrant civil society, which is most important to benchmark and to ring warning bells if and when necessary.
Yes, South Africa can take pride in what has been achieved in a short span of time. Our young democracy has progressed significantly in the arena of human rights.
We do need to remind ourselves, as the first speaker did for us, that a mere 11 year ago, the majority of our citizens were subjected to one or other form of human rights abuse on a daily basis over a long period of time. I feel that by rightfully taking pride in our achievements, we must not allow this pride to make us complacent as has happened in many other parts of the world.
Here I want to talk about a true human rights culture, which is something that needs to be developed. In order to take root, it needs to be nurtured. I believe that the United Nations, many years ago, fully realised this, and therefore stated in its preamble, and I quote:
. . . called on all member countries to publicise the text of the
declaration and to cause it to be disseminated, displayed, read and
expanded.
Here I am looking to the hon Minister of Education, principally, for this to happen in schools and other educational institutions. These very words were penned in 1948, and it must alert us to the reality that, even if all human rights instruments are in place, we have to be ever vigilant to develop a human rights culture, and we must work on this until every citizen accepts the challenge to honour every aspect of a human rights culture. The instruments and institutions can only lay the foundations.
We have to reach a level of development in our nation where the abuse of human rights will simply not be tolerated, not because the law forbids abuse of human rights, but simply because every citizen is appalled by it and will not tolerate it.
We have to work at achieving this culture and the understanding and respect for human rights because, in the final analysis, its not the institution, it’s not the legal aspect, it is the understanding by every citizen in our country, and we have to ask our Minister of Education: Can we compel our institutions of learning, as requested in the preamble, to include, disseminate, display, read and expound the Universal Declaration of Human Rights? Should it be part of the curriculum? Do we feel that young people need to be inculcated with these values? Thank you, Sir. [Time expired.] [Applause.]
Nmz J B SIBANYONI: Mhlalingaphambili ngithoma ngokuthokoza ukufumana ithuba lokobana nami ngiphophothe kulomnghanghiswano ngamalungelo wobuntu namhlanjesi. Begodu ngilotjhisa woke amalunga wePalamende ahloniphekileko. Mina ngizokukhuluma malungana nemithetho egade ikhona, ikhethulula mayelana nobuhlanga, igandelela abantu, idima abantu isithunzi. Okukarisako umbuso odoswa phambili yi-ANC uphelisile imithetho leyo. Ikulumo yami icale ubujamo bomthetho, ngamanye amezwi ngingathi ngikhuluma ngokuthi: Uthini umthetho? (Translation of Ndebele paragraph follows.)
[Mr JB SIBANYONI: Chairperson, let me start by expressing my gratitude for being granted this opportunity to join this debate regarding human rights in the present day. I would also like to greet all hon members of Parliament. I am going to speak about the past laws, discriminatory laws, laws that demoralised our people, and that denied our people their dignity. What is interesting is that the government led by the ANC has banned such laws. My focus area is the system of our law, in other words what the position of our law system is.]
In South Africa we have a history of no human rights, but a lot of human wrongs. The violation of human rights was not only done through policy, but it was also implemented through legislation. Laws that divided every sector of our community were passed by parliament. I will not endeavour to name all of them, but a few will suffice. We had laws such as the Reservation of Separate Amenities Act; the Immorality Act; the pass laws; the Registration of Voters Act; tricameral parliament laws - which established the national states parliaments of Transkei, Bophuthatswana, Venda and Ciskei; and the old Defence Act - which discriminated on conscription and through which only whites were allowed to join the army.
I would like to point out that the Population Registration Act was the basis for defining race. The South African nation was classified initially as Europeans and non-Europeans or Europeans and natives. Later, it was classified into whites, coloureds, Indians and Bantus. Although the word “Bantu” is plural in nature, and means people, the previous legislation referred to a black person as a “single Bantu” or “one Bantu”. Eventually the word acquired a derogatory meaning. It was later changed to “plural” and a person was regarded as “a plural”; one plural, two plurals. [Laughter.] There was a department of plural relations that dealt with matters affecting Africans.
The Native Land Act is an example of a piece of legislation that dehumanised the African community. In terms of this Act, we know that 87% of the land was allocated to the white community and only the remaining 13% was reserved for blacks. That is why we are so happy that land reform is being expedited so that within three years it will be finalised. To add insult to injury, influx control laws were introduced to keep Africans in the rural and semidesert areas, and in some pockets of land that were used as labour reservoirs. Here I am referring to townships or locations.
The Group Areas Act, for instance, segregated the community in terms of race. It referred to people as different groups. It reserved the big cities or towns for whites. Blacks, Indians and coloureds were not allowed to live or trade in towns. If, for example, you were a black person and wanted to open a business, such as an attorneys’ firm or a shop, you were supposed to use a person of that race to front for you.
In the implementation of this legislation, communities were forcibly removed from their areas. Here we think of, for example, the people of District Six, Sophiatown and many others that were evicted in terms of that legislation. Pass laws hindered and prevented the free movement of people from one area to another. People were arrested, tried and sentenced for merely being at a particular place at a particular time. Curfew laws were used to restrict the movement of blacks in the so-called urban areas, which were known as “blanke gebied” in Afrikaans.
The Separate Development Act created skewed communities, thus we have the first and second economies today. There was also a law that prevented people who were not of white descent from passing through the Orange Free State. There was a lot of harassment and intimidation. People in power then used to talk about “Haak Vrystaat”. There were Acts of Parliament that regulated, for example, education. We had the Bantu Education Act, the Coloured Education Act, which provided for the control of education for coloured persons, and the Indian Education Act that similarly provided for the control of education for the Indian people.
In 2002, Parliament passed an Act that established a mechanism to deal with crimes against humanity, derived from the Rome Statute, for example genocide. It made it possible for the court to sit in South Africa to try such cases and help maximise co-operation with the International Criminal Court.
Since the advent of democracy, the people’s Parliament has been repealing the discriminatory legislation. What still has to go is the Black Administration Act.
The transformation of the judiciary and the legal professions still poses a challenge. For example, we have courts that are still referred to by the names of the old provinces, such as the Transvaal Provincial Division. There is presently no High Court for Limpopo or Mpumalanga. The judiciary was even beaten by the local government structures, which were able to transform. Today we have wall-to-wall municipalities.
As South Africa, we have been pacesetters. One of the clauses of the Freedom Charter provides that all shall be equal before the law. The people’s Parliament is accelerating the vision of the Freedom Charter by ensuring that our people should realise that they are equal. At the first go we included a Bill of Rights in our Constitution, as Chapter 2. It took America years and years and amendment after amendment before they incorporated fundamental or basic human rights in their constitution as the 16th amendment.
Some of our judges play a role globally, in one way or another, for example Judge Goldstone. Today, South Africa acknowledges socioeconomic rights as part of our legal system. Such rights are justifiable or enforceable through courts of law, subject to the availability of resources.
Ngifuna ukuthi kufanele sizikhakhazise ngakho koke esikufumeneko ngokususa imithetho egandelelako, begodu kufanele sithokoze ngokubuyiswa kwesithunzi sabantu labo egade batlhoriswa ngesikhathi esigadungileko. Ngithi ngithokoza kuwo woke umuntu ogade alalaleko njenganje. Ayisele. [Ihlombe.] (Translation of Ndebele paragraph follows.)
[I want to say let us be proud of what we have achieved after these apartheid laws were banned. Also we must be grateful for bringing back the dignity of our people who were oppressed in the past. I thank everyone who was listening at this point in time. Thank you. [Applause.]]
Ms N M MDAKA: Chairperson and hon members, we salute those who gathered at various police stations throughout the country on 21 March 1960 to protest against repression, and we specifically remember those who lost their lives in the process.
To be able to gather in this House today, representatives of all the people of South Africa, where every party and ideology is granted an opportunity to participate, is an honour and a privilege that we can never take for granted. Certainly, we cannot ever take for granted the impact of 21 March 1960 on our history and on our ability to be gathered here today as a democratic and inclusive Parliament.
It is for these reasons that 21 March was granted special status in our calendar, and why we have chosen to celebrate it as Human Rights Day. We must remind ourselves regularly that the human rights we enjoy now were achieved at a high price; that freedom and equality are not a given.
We also need to constantly remind ourselves that the human rights, as enshrined in our Constitution, are objectives that we must continuously strive for and maintain.
We call upon all South Africans to celebrate this day in unity, and to reflect upon how far we have come since 21 March 1960. I thank you. [Applause.]
Mr L W GREYLING: Thank you, Chair. This past decade has certainly been a decisive one for South Africa in which we have managed to make a fundamental break with our tragic past. We have committed ourselves to the phrase ``never again’’ when it comes to the trampling on of human rights in South Africa.
This is expressed most vividly in our Constitution, which is praised throughout the world as embodying some of the most progressive human rights. This is something that we should all be rightly proud of, but more than that, it is something we must hold our government accountable to. The rights contained in the Constitution are mere paper rights unless we are able to turn it into a living document.
This is the challenge that we all face in South Africa, and it is one that the ID is committed to. In many respects, great strides have been made to restore a culture of human rights in South Africa, but great challenges still lie ahead. A culture of human rights can be judged by how we treat the most vulnerable or marginalised in our society.
Massive human rights abuses are still occurring in our prisons, which are grossly overcrowded. The most tragic aspect of this is the awaiting-trial prisoners, many of whom are too poor to afford bail, and are left to languish for months on end. Included amongst the prison population are also child offenders, who have to live in unbearable conditions.
Children’s rights are often also not being respected on our streets, where frustrated security people take out their pent-up anger against homeless children as young as eight years old. The streets are becoming a war-zone for children where they are being used as sex workers, drug pedlars and are even becoming involved in the human trafficking rings.
The ID would urge this government to do more to protect the basic human rights of these children. It was shocking to find last night that these children are not able to access even the most basic human needs such as food, water and shelter. Our children are our future, and we can only make decisive advances to equal rights when we begin with our poorest children.
The ID commits itself to realising a culture of human rights for all South Africans by bridging our divides and restoring our sense of common humanity. I thank you. [Applause.]
Mrs C DUDLEY: Chairperson, there is no doubt that huge strides have been made in South Africa in engendering a human rights culture, particularly when it comes to the removal of racial and gender discrimination. At the same time, much has still to be done in promoting God-given rights.
I refer here, specifically, to the lack of protection for unborn babies. Abuse of children in South Africa is shocking. Can one expect anything else when the underlying principle of choice of termination of pregnancy is: the younger the child, the less the value. Many more than 400 000 babies have been murdered by abortion. They have been denied their most basic God-given right, which is the right to life.
The ACDP also questions whether South Africa acts in accordance with its Bill of Rights in respect of human rights abuses in other countries. South Africa clearly responds in terms of international law regarding human rights abuses in some states, but this appears to be arbitrary and inconsistent. South Africa’s stance on Israel is a case in point, with the executive condemning Israel for its alleged violations of human rights, but when it comes to the Sudanese government or our neighbour Zimbabwe, the executive’s record is shameful.
These governments are clearly in violation of norms of international human rights law. There is hard evidence of torture and killing of political opposition. According to international law professor, John Dugard, regarding the Zimbabwean situation, “no serious condemnations are forthcoming from our executive, on the contrary, it is business as usual.” According to the learned professor, the failure of the executive to formulate and execute its policy in respect of Zimbabwe in accordance with the Bill of Rights is difficult to reconcile with section 8(1) of the Constitution.
In the words of Prof Dugard: “It is simply not good enough to condemn human rights violations in Palestine, Iraq and Guantanamo Bay, while condoning such violations in a neighbouring state.” The ACDP is disturbed as well to hear that a North Korean delegation will be visiting South Africa soon, and will be received by government. [Time expired.]
Dr C P MULDER: Hon Chairperson, whether we like it or not, the constitutional state and the concept of human rights in South Africa are under threat and, whether we like it or not, the hon Dene Smuts was telling the truth earlier when she said what she did. [Interjections.] You might not like what was said, but you’d better listen to what was said.
We are debating today a so-called “decade of a decisive advance to equal rights for all”.
Artikel 11 van die Grondwet sê elkeen het die reg op lewe. In die afgelope dekade waarvan ons praat, is daar in Suid-Afrika 250 000 mense vermoor. (Translation of Afrikaans paragraph follows.)
[Section 11 of the Constitution states that everyone has the right to life. In the past decade that we are talking about, 250 000 people have been murdered in South Africa.]
Sixty-eight were killed every day. For them there was no right to life.
Artikel 10 gaan oor “human dignity”. Elkeen het die ingebore waardigheid en die reg dat daardie waardigheid gerespekteer en beskerm sal word. (Translation of Afrikaans paragraph follows.)
[Section 10 is about human dignity. Everyone has this inherent dignity and the right for this dignity to be respected and protected.]
In this country, last year, 52 733 rapes took place; 144 each day. For those women, there was no human dignity, despite what the Constitution may say.
In artikel 25 word eiendomsreg beskerm. In die afgelope 10 jaar het roof toegeneem met 193%. Geen respek vir eiendomsreg is die realiteit waarmee ons sit.
Artikel 9 gaan oor gelykheid of “equality”. Elkeen is gelyk voor die reg, maar “affirmative action” trek a streep daardeur.
Ons gee baie keer hoog op, dit het vandag ook gebeur in hierdie Raad oor hierdie Grondwet. (Translation of Afrikaans paragraphs follows.)
[In section 25 property rights are protected. In the past 10 years robbery has increased by 193%. No respect for property rights is the reality that we are saddled with.
Section 9 deals with equality. Everyone is equal before the law, but affirmative action has put a stop to that. On many occasions we make a fuss, and it has also happened today in this House regarding this Constitution.]
It is said to be the most modern and the best constitution in the world. That’s not true. [Interjections.] No, it’s not. It’s a very good Constitution, but it’s not the most modern. Do you know why? It is because the real test for a democracy now is how you go about treating the minorities in your state, not just individuals. Go abroad and look at what’s happening. How do you treat and protect the minority communities in your state? That is what is contained in the most modern constitutions.
So, this one is good, but we can improve on it. We also sometimes refer to this as a final Constitution. There is no such thing as a final Constitution. It’s only the current Constitution. Believe me, there will come a time when there will be a new constitution. [Interjections.]
Dr S E M PHEKO: Chairperson, there would never have been a Human Rights Day in South Africa if the PAC had not taken that courageous and historic step on 21 March 1960, and vowed that the apartheid pass laws, which had enslaved the African people, must go.
When launching the PAC Positive Action Campaign against the pass laws, the founding President of the PAC, Mangaliso Robert Sobukwe said:
I need not list the arguments against the pass laws. All the evidence of broken homes . . . the regimentation, oppression and degradation of the African people . . . leads to one conclusion . . . that the pass laws must go. We cannot be foreigners in our own land.
Writing about the countrywide unrest on Sharpeville Day, 21 March 1960, Franzt Fanon said:
Sharpeville shook public opinion for months. In the newspapers, over the wavelengths and in private conversations, Sharpeville has become a symbol. It was through Sharpeville that men and women in the world became acquainted with the problem of apartheid in South Africa.
Influenced by the PAC, the United Nations declared 21 March each year as the International Day for the Elimination of all Forms or Racial Discrimination. The PAC is proud to have contributed this important day to the whole world, dedicated to the elimination of racism.
There is a concerted effort by certain elements in this country to falsify the history of Sharpeville. I appeal to our very understanding Minister of Arts and Culture to have a monument erected to our Langa martyrs who were killed by the apartheid colonialist regime on 21 March 1960. No heroes in our country should remain unrecognised on the grounds of their political affiliation. This is sectarianism, not nation-building.
Long live the spirit of defiance against injustice and inhumanity. [Applause.]
Mna M J MALAHLELA: Ke a leboga motlhomphegi Modulasetulo. A ke ke bontšhe gape motlhomphegi Pheko gore e re ge le namela sefofane - ka kua go Sawubona- le lebelele gore ba ngwadile eng ka Sharpeville, ka gore tšeo le di bolelago di gona ka kua.
Ge ke tšwela pele, ke tla kgopela tshwarelo go bašomi ba tlhathollelo ya maleme ge ba se ba hwetše polelo yeo ke e hlagišago ka nako, gobane ke tlile go e bea gabotse ka Sepedi sa mmakgonthe’a kgodi’a kgokgo wa lerotse. Gape ke bontšhe gore polelo ye, ke e dira segopotšo go wa mphato, mohu Comrade Castro William Pilusa gammogo le molekani ka yena, mohu Mokgadi Pilusa. A hudugile mantši moka re bona ka moti go ela!
Mokgatlo wa Makomanisi a Afrika Borwa o rile ge o tšea karolo ditheeletšong tša Khomišene ya Ditokelo tša Botho, ka kgethologanyo ya mmala goba bosemorafe ka gare go lefapha la boraditaba, wa bontšha gore go na le tswalano gareng ga bosemorafe le tlala. Makomanisi a bontšhitše gore tlala, e bonala kudu gare ga Maafrika – kudu go bathobaso – seo e le ditlamorago tša semorafe; semorafe seo se tsokotletšwego sentsokela ke pušo ya kgatelelo; mokokotlong wa pušo yeo e le bokapitale. Ke ka baka leo mmušo wa batho ka batho o tšerego sephetho sa go ikamanya le mebušo ya boditšhaba- tšhaba gore ka ngwaga wa 2014 e be re segile tlala ka bogare, go swana le mosadi wa MoAfrika ge a sega lešela la motoitšhi. Sephetho sa go nkgišetša tlala mahwafa; sephetho sa go nkgišetša tlala seriba sa tšhwene, se tlišwa ke kwešišo ya rena, bjaloka mmušo wa batho, gore keteko ya ditokelo tša botho, moo go renago lefetla la tlala, ke thogako go ngwana wa MoAfrika.
Tše ka moka, re di dira e le ge re tsokotlela ditokelo tšeo di lego ka gare go Molaotheo. Anke ke di di bale tokelo ya go ba le tlhaka godimo ga hlogo ya MaAfrika; tokelo ya go ba le diyamaleng; tokelo ya tšhireletso ya tša leago, le tše dingwe. Ke ka lebaka leo ge o lebelela Tona ya tša Leago, Mna Zola Skweyiya, a ratwago ke bana ba MaAfrika gobane o ntšha tlala ka gare go dimpa tša bona.
Kgato yeo e tšerwego ke Grootboom le ba bangwe, ya go iša mmušo wa batho ka batho Kgotlatshekelo ya Molaotheo, e bontšha gabotse gore MaAfrikaborwa ba na le kwešišo ya gore ditokelo tša bona ga se maemo, eupša ke tokelo yeo ba kago go e gatelela le Kgorongtsheko ya Molaotheo. Kgoro ge e tšea sephetho sa gore mmušo o agele Grootboom le ba bangwe ka ditekanyetšokabo tša mašeleng tlhaka godimo ga tlhogo tša bona, e be e le go raloka karolo ye bohlokwa – go tsokotlela ditokelo tša batho, tšeo Grootboom a di etšego kgotlatshekelo gore a di tsokotlele.
Ga se gwa felela fao, gobane Kgoro ya Molaotheo wa Bosetšhaba e bušitše ya tšea sephetho, go swana le seo e se tšerego go molato woo ke o boletšego pejana. Sephetho seo e se tšerego molatong wa bobedi e be e le sa molatong wa Treatment Action Campaign kgahlanong le Tona ya Maphelo. Sebakwa molatong wo e be e le gore go be le phatlalatšo ya diokobatši go Maafrikaborwa, kudu go bao ba swerwego ke bolwetši bja phamokate; gobane phamokate ye, ruri e a re rathaganya re le setšhaba go swana le ge selepe sa magagane se rema ngwana wa tšhuana. Molaetša wa ka go thaka ye tshesane ke wo: Ge o se wa e apeša, o seke wa e tsentšha! Ge e se ya apara, o se ke wa e dumelela! Ge o palelwa, o itshware!
E ka tswalela mphorokgohlong, ge re ka keteka ditokelo tša botho re sa bolele selo ka MaAfrikaborwa ao a sa itekanelago mmeleng gobane AfrikaBorwa ke ya gabobona le ka gobane keteko ya ditokelo tša botho ge e sa ba akaretše, di tla loma le barafi. Ke ka lebaka leo rena mmušo wa batho ka batho re tšerego sephetho sa gore MaAfrikaborwa ao a sa itekanelago mebeleng a swanetše go fiwa karolo ye bohlokwa go hlabolleng setšhaba sa gabobona gobane Afrika Borwa ntle le bona ga se ya felelela. Ke ka lebaka leo o bonago ba bangwe ba bona ba le ka mo gare ga Ntlokgolo – Lekgotlatheramelao la Bosetšhaba.
Afrika Borwa yeo re e agago, re e aga re kwešiša gore dienywa tša kago ye, ga se di lebane rena, eupša di lebane bao ba tlago tla morago ga ge rena bao re emego mo re iketše molete mohlaelathupa gobane Sepedi se re mokgodi wa moriti ga se modudi wa wona.
Re keteka ditokelo tša botho re lebeletše pele, gobane bana ba rena ge ba tlile go di keteka mengwageng yeo e sa tlago, ba swanetše gore ba keteke ka maleme a Afrika Borwa ka moka a lesometee ao a fapafapanego, e le ge ba ikgantšha - go swana le nna ge ke ikgantšha ka Sepedi - ka maleme a Afrika Borwa yeo e lokologilego. Se, a e be tlhotlho go rena bao re lego ka mo gare ga Lekgotlatheramelao la bosetšhaba gore bao re lego ka mo re se nyake go šomiša maleme a gaborena bjaloka dibetša tša go aroganya Afrika Borwa. Ge e ka se rage e tla tlatša kgamelo. A re šomišeng dipolelo tša gaborena bjaloka peu yeo e tlago tliša poelano go bao ba tlogo buša Afrika Borwa ge rena re iketše boyabatho. Re se ke ra swana le boMorena Mulder, ka go šomiša boafrikanere goba polelo ya gaborena ya Seafrikaanse go aroganya Afrika Borwa, e le ge re itšhireletša ka gore ke rena ba banyenyane ka gare ga batho ba bantši.
Rena baetapele ba lehono yeo re e gamago kgomo ke ya lefiša, gobane Sepedi se re mogami wa kgomo ya lefiša o gama a lebeletše tsela. A re tšeyeng malebiša go mohu Kalushi Mahlangu yo a rilego pele a tekeletšwa ka molala go fihlela a neela moya, a re: Mma, botša batho ba ka gore ke a ba rata! Ba botše le gore ba tšwele pele ka go lwa ntwa ya tokologo! Gomme madi a ka a tlo nontšha mohlare wo o tlago enywa dienywa tša tokologo – dienywa tšeo di ka se dirego gore rena bao re lego mo, re tle re rogake tokologo ya Maafrikaborwa. Ka Sepedi morwa Mahlangu o be a re: Molemi wa lekgwara o lema a tšwere setsiba sa kgokong. O robale ka kgotso! [Legofsi.] (Translation of Sepedi speech follows.)
[Mr M J MALAHLELA: Thank you, hon Chairperson. Let me indicate again to hon Pheko that when he is flying in an aeroplane, he must check out what is being said in the Sawubona on Sharpeville, because everything he says is in there.
When I proceed, I will apologise to the interpreters if they cannot follow my speech in time, because I am going to present it in proper Sepedi. I will also indicate that I dedicate this speech to the late Comrade Castro William Pilusa and his wife, the late Mokgadi Pilusa. Our heroes are gone, but their legacies stay behind!
When the South African Communist Party participated in the Human Rights Commission hearings, about racism in the media, it showed that there is a relationship between racism and poverty. The communists indicated that there is poverty in Africa, especially among the black people, which is the consequences of racism brought about by the apartheid regime on a capitalist government. It is for this reason that the government of the people by the people have agreed to join the international community so as to ensure poverty eradication by the year 2014. The consensus on poverty eradication comes with our understanding, as the people’s government, that celebrating human rights when there is still poverty is an insult to Africans.
All the efforts are taken with the focus to fight for human rights as tabled in the Constitution. Let me read them: the right to shelter, the right to food, the right to social security and so on. The reason the children in Africa adore hon Zola Skweyiya is that he fills their tummies.
The step that Grootboom and others took by taking the government of the people by the people to the Constitutional Court shows clearly that South Africans understand that their rights are not privileges, but that they can also emphasise them in the Constitutional Court. The court played an important role when they ruled that the government must build houses for Grootboom and others from the budget allocation, to fight for their rights, which was what Grootboom went to court for.
It did not end there because the National Assembly also came to a decision as I mentioned earlier. The decision taken on the second issue was on the Treatment Action Campaign against the Minister of Health. The issue was the dispensing of drugs, especially antiretrovirals to HIV/Aids infected people, as this diseases is destroying the nation like chopping an orphan’s head off with an axe. My advice to the youth is: If you do not have a condom on, do not have sex! If it is not wearing a condom, do not allow it in! If you cannot manage, behave yourself!
It would be chaotic if we were to celebrate human rights and not talk about our disabled people, because South Africa also belongs to them and there would be trouble if they were not included in these celebrations. That is why we, as the people’s government, decided that the disabled must be given an important role to play in developing their country because South Africa is not complete without them. Hence you see some of them in this House, the National Assembly.
We are building South Africa with the understanding that the benefits are not for us, but for those who follow after us when we have passed on. As is said in Sepedi: the one who does the preparation usually does it for the others who will follow after him.
We celebrate human rights focusing on the future because when our children celebrate it in future, they must proudly celebrate it in all the different eleven South African languages. I am proud of my Sepedi, a language of a democratic South Africa. Let this be a challenge to us in the National Assembly to not use our languages as tools to divide South Africa. We will achieve our goal of unifying the country. Let us use our languages as seeds that will bring about reconciliation for those who will rule South Africa when we have passed on. We must not be like hon Mr Mulder and use being an Afrikaaner or Afrikaans to divide South Africa, protecting them as the minority among the majority.
As the leaders today we work hard by focusing on the future, because we do not know what it will bring. Let us follow the example of the late Kalushi Mahlangu who said: Mother, tell my people that I love them and that they should go on with the liberation! My blood will serve as nutrients for the tree that will bear the fruit of freedom the fruits that will not allow us here to swear at the South African freedom. Mahlangu’s son said in Sepedi: One needs a lot of strength to be able to labour on a hard ground. Rest in peace! [Applause.]]
Ms S RAJBALLY: Chairperson, many of our citizens eagerly await public holidays as days to escape from work and other commitments, whilst others celebrate double pay. But how many actually commemorate these public holidays?
The MF calls on all the members in this House to make it a priority to educate our constituencies on the significance of public holidays such as Human Rights Day. Human Rights Day was founded as a celebration of human rights, as a reminder to all South Africans of our human rights and to remember all our human rights activists, our history at Sharpeville and our victory.
Our national Constitution of 1996 serves as the supreme law of our democracy. Enshrined in this Constitution is the Bill of Rights. Section 7(1) enshrines the rights of all people in our country and affirms the democratic values of dignity, equality and freedom.
Our Constitution is our passport to true democracy and in it one finds a duty incumbent on all households to have a copy of our Constitution so as to educate ourselves on our rights as citizens of this democracy. On our way to our 11th year of democracy, we have made every effort to do away with the horrors of the apartheid regime. Our Parliament has passed legislation and policies that will ensure this democracy’s success. Government is doing everything in its power to deliver to the people. All this is done in compliance to our Constitution and human rights.
The framework for democracy has been successfully set up, but we sadly still have in our midst people with apartheid mentalities that still espouse inhumanities, discrimination, racism and prejudice. It was, in fact, reported by the Western Cape branch of the Human Rights Commission that the Western Cape has the highest rate of racism and xenophobia. Maybe it is a result of the fact that after the first democratic election it was home to all opposition supporters. Currently the office is investigating 140 cases of racial intolerance, but the MF is pleased that since the establishment of the Equality Court in 2003 victims are liberating themselves by reporting these incidents. The MF is intolerant of any violations and contraventions of, or imposition on, human rights.
Our democracy is made up of varying citizenry. We are a government and a country for the people by the people with no reservation on race, colour or creed. We have come a long way to establish this democracy. We need to educate our people in abandoning these in human personas, as this slows down and hinders our democracy.
Human rights are a birthright, and the MF condemns any inhuman and barbaric acts that threaten or abuse this democracy. Thank you. [Applause.]
The MINISTER OF EDUCATION: Chairperson, in 1943 the ANC wrote in the preface on its Africans’ Claims in South Africa document:
We want the government and the people of South Africa to know the full aspirations of the African peoples so that their point of view will also be presented at the peace conference. We want the government of the United Nations to know and act in the light of our own interpretation of the Atlantic Charter, to which they are signatories. This document is our way of conveying to them our undisputed claim to full citizenship. We desire them to realise, once and for all, that a just and permanent peace will be possible only if the claims of all classes, colours and races for sharing and for full participation in educational, political and economic activities, are granted and recognised.
This is the African claim of the ANC and the people of South Africa, stated in 1943, well before any member of parties to my left became aware of rights for all South Africans. [Applause.]
For around 40 years, at the beginning of the 20th century, there was complete silence on universal human rights. The revival of the idea of human rights really began with a series of articles and letters published by the author H G Wells. He advocated the declaration of rights, that is a fundamental law, defining the rights of parliamentary peoples. What he managed to do was to distil into nine principles a declaration that was short and readable, and was very different to the previous language of the French and American declarations.
He began with the simple observation that since a man comes into this world through no fault of his own, he is in justice entitled, without distinction of race or colour, to nourishment, housing, covering medical care and attention sufficient to realise his full possibilities of physical and mental development and to keep him in a state of health, from his birth to his death.
Here was, for the first time since the 18th century, an attempt by a middle class socialist to restate human rights in a simple way, as a protection against the then coming world war. His declaration was very successful. It attracted a lot of attention, and he spoke on a number of public platforms about the new world order and its fundamental principles. After the war, this was to become one of the more influential books of the 20th century.
Passion and simplicity, these were the two characteristics of Wells’ vision. He used passion and simplicity to make a broader case, the case that the world needed to be protected against totalitarianism by a world order that relied on law rather than diplomacy. But when defeat began to look likely for Hitler and his allies, the simplicity and passion of his declaration was too radical for the allied governments to contemplate. Therefore they did not take up the call of rights for all.
The UN Charter identified human rights violations as a matter for global concern. It provided a mechanism, limited though it was, for international intervention in the affairs of nation states. However, there was no legal duty on member states to comply with human rights standards. That movement was to be agonisingly slow in coming, as we know full well, as South Africans, and movement was only seen after the atrocities of the late 1980s.
I think it is absolutely vital that we remember, as we speak, our own history of human rights in South Africa, and that our attention to human rights predates the universal declaration of the United Nations. Even more extraordinary in South Africa’s history is the fact that it was a liberation movement of oppressed people that led the process of developing and articulating human rights in South Africa.
It was the ANC that led the struggle for human rights in South Africa, the ANC. [Applause.] It formulated the 1943 African Claims in South Africa. The rights claimed were universal, but the form in which the rights were claimed was very particular, because of the racial form of discrimination that was practised in our country at that time. This historic focus on rights for all was given an even sharper focus in the Freedom Charter.
As we reap the benefits of this approach in our current Constitution, which bears the rights of the passion and simplicity of Wells, rather than the legalese and committee imprint of the universal declaration, it is thus not an accident of history that the ANC has led the struggle for human rights in South Africa for over five decades. It is no coincidence that with the advent of democracy, 10 years ago, the Constitution of South Africa incorporated political, socioeconomic, and green third generation rights.
Today South Africa is able to report a positive record on access to human rights. In education, over 12 million children and youth enjoy educational opportunities that were previously denied to them. Housing, health services and clean water are increasingly available to more and more South Africans.
In the context of civil and political rights, we have freedom of association, we have the right to protest and to open access to information and public services. In the area of political rights, we belong to parties of our choice and we have celebrated three free and fair democratic elections at provincial and national level. Our political institutions are open, accessible and accountable.
We have taken human rights beyond print and ink, and have worked to make them a living reality. This is because we are fully alert to the fact that bills of rights and charters, without active government promotion, are meaningless instruments. For all these reasons and achievements, we celebrate a decade of rights for all.
Despite this decade of laudable positive realisation, we are also honest enough to draw attention to the many challenges that still remain as weighty tasks that we must address. There are people in our country who have yet to accept that rights are for all, and not just a few, such as some of our colleagues in the FF Plus.
Sadly, our educational institutions are sometimes a poor example of human rights standards. Hon members are aware that some of our schools are not yet open to all our children. Some educationists and others believe that schools are for groups of children, and not for all children of our country. Some educators believe that learners are in school to be abused physically. There are practices that we have to stop in education and in a range of sectors.
We have to do more to promote nonracism and inclusivity in all our schools and our tertiary institutions. The full realisation of rights requires us all to do much more to promote equality and access for all.
I would now like to comment on some of the matters that arose in the debate. The hon Gxowa correctly reminded us of the work we still have to do to ensure the full liberation and equality of women in our society. Issues of culture, custom and history are still factors that impinge upon the realisation of equality for women in South Africa. Our history expects us to do no less than ensure that every woman enjoys full access to rights in South Africa.
The hon Smuts went back to her usual song. She said that we were pursuing a race agenda. The only thing that can be said about her input is that it was not a surprise to me at all. She would have disappointed me if she had referred to our achievements as a people and a country. She cannot do so, because our success is her disappointment. [Applause.] She and the DA cannot refer to full rights for all, because this would contradict her promise to get constituency that she will maintain the status quo and privilege. [Interjections.]
The notion that there is racial control over our country is absolutely ridiculous. Her purpose was not to recognise progress, rather she intended to whip up emotion, and to continue her awful agenda of holding back access to rights. [Interjections.]
She refers to the judiciary, and says that we want rulings that we like. This is utter nonsense. Our judiciary is independent in reaching its decisions. It is, however, not untainted by apartheid. As with every public institution in South Africa, it is open to scrutiny and comment, and must be reminded that this is a transforming South Africa with a new Constitution, a new ethos, a painful past, a positive aspiration, a South Africa requiring a judiciary fully alert to our history, our vision, and our context. There is nothing wrong with these demands. [Applause.]
The hon Mars is correct to expect education to do more, and we certainly will. Hon Sibanyoni is right to recall the core character of our Constitution, as an instrument offering a new dignity and new access to human rights. The hon Mdaka’s focus on Sharpville reminds us of the sacrifice of our people and what was done to achieve our freedom. The hon Greyling is being made to work too hard by the hon De Lille. He certainly is correct; we have to do more to address the needs of vulnerable children in our country.
The hon Dudley, of course, does not live in Zimbabwe, she is a member of Parliament representing the people of South Africa, and we wish she would attend to the issues of South Africa, and not Zimbabwe. [Applause.] The hon Mulder suggested that when the period of crossing the floor comes, he might be going to sit beside Ms Smuts, in the DA benches. He fully agreed with her sentiments. He objects to rights that are directed at correcting the wrongs of the past. The real test of democracy, he says, is attention to the rights of minorities. Well, I am very sorry, the real test of a democracy is attention to the rights of all the people in a country. [Applause.]
Hon Pheko, when the Constitution was adopted, my recollection is that it was adopted at a monument recognising those who participated and were killed in the massacre of Sharpeville. Therefore, as far as I am aware, there is a memorial. Certainly more must be done, I believe, in education, to record the history of the contribution of all our people through history, through a range of other learnings that we must have. But we have a memorial, and certainly we have recognised and do recognise the contribution that South Africans made. We are not sure who actually looked at the membership cards of those who were killed outside the gates of that police station. We don’t know whether they were members of any party, they were South Africans contributing to the struggle against oppression in South Africa.
The hon Mahlalela is absolutely right concerning “Sepedi sa nnete” [the real Sepedi]. We have to improve our utilisation of the indigenous languages of South Africa. I wish that more and more of us . . .
. . . ba ka dirisa maleme a rona mo ntlung e, ka gore re rata go bua ka sekgowa le nna ke rata tota go bua ka ga sekgowa nako le nako mme ke a leka. Ba ba ntsi ga ba nke ba ema fa ba bua maleme a rona. (Translation of Setswana paragraph follows.)
[. . . use our languages in this House, because we like to speak in English. Even I speak in English from time to time, but I’m trying. Most people do not stand when they speak our language.]
We are not doing enough to ensure that the indigenous languages of South Africa have a place in our country. I agree with the hon Mahlalela that poverty eradication cannot become an invisible part of the tasks that we need to address. Certainly, our Constitution must be the seed for building unity, but that unity cannot be at the expense of neglecting to attend to the formerly oppressed of this country. If we cannot ensure that those who were formerly oppressed enjoy the rights that are in our Constitution, and enjoy the full flight intended by our Constitution, our democracy cannot be sustainable.
So, while certainly all South Africans must be protected, hon Mulder, it is absolutely vital that we do not lose sight of the fact that what we are attending to, is the historic outcome of apartheid, and that we must address the residue of apartheid in turning around the fortunes of South Africa. This would then be a true realisation of the aspirations of those men and women who stood outside the gates of that police station in Sharpeville.
The hon Godi has been shaking his head, disagreeing with me. There was a historic contribution, but I believe we must recognise it as a contribution of all the people of our country, and not limited to one particular entity. We do this when we speak of the liberation movements and the historic role that they have played, the sacrifice that Solomon Mahlangu made, and his statement: “My blood will nourish the tree that will bear the fruits of freedom.” The next ten years must ensure full access to that freedom. [Applause.] Thank you, Chairperson. [Applause.]
Debate concluded.
The House adjourned at 16:43. ____
ANNOUNCEMENTS, TABLINGS AND COMMITTEE REPORTS
ANNOUNCEMENTS
National Assembly and National Council of Provinces
- Classification of Bills by Joint Tagging Mechanism:
(1) The Joint Tagging Mechanism (JTM) on 16 March 2005 in terms of
Joint Rule 160(3), classified the following Bill as a section 75
Bill:
(i) Convergence Bill [B 9 – 2005] (National Assembly – sec 75)
- Bills passed by Houses – to be submitted to President for assent
(1) Bill passed by National Assembly on 17 March 2005:
(i) Sterilisation Amendment Bill [B 12B – 2004] (National
Council of Provinces – sec 76)
(ii) Convergence Bill [B 9 – 2005] (National Assembly – sec 75)
COMMITTEE REPORTS
National Assembly
- Annual Report of the Portfolio Committee on Public Works
MAY – NOVEMBER 2004
- NAME OF COMMITTEE:
Portfolio Committee on Public Works. Chairperson: Mr F Bhengu
-
MANDATE OF THE COMMITTEE:
The Constitution of the Republic of South Africa mandates the Parliament through House Committees to exercise the oversight function over the Executive, pass legislation and monitor the implementation of such legislation and encourage public participation.
Mission: Guided by the Rules of Parliament promulgated in terms of the Constitution to play an oversight role on the ministry and the Department. To this end it will exercise a rigorous monitoring role in such a way that it contributes towards the improvement in the quality of life of all South Africans.
Vision: To deliver services by enabling people to provide for themselves, their communities and to better life for all.
a) List of Entities reporting to the Committee:
Independent Development Trust (IDT) Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB) Council For Built Environment (CBE
- CHAIRPERSON’S OVERVIEW:
The Committee in its initial oversight role, with specific focus on the Programme of Action as outlined in the Department’s Strategic Plan for 2004/5 financial year made the observations and concluded that:
• More focus will be given on the capacity building and effective
service delivery on all spheres of government and the National Public
Works Programme i.e.
a) Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP)
b) Construction Industry Development (CID) and
c) Property Industry Programme
d) State Entities
Engagements with National and Provincial departments: • The Committee in the next phase will engage further with and monitor the core departments that are coordinated by the Department of Public Works at National and Provincial respectively in the implementation of the EPWP • Coupled with that, and as an ongoing process the Committee will tirelessly interact and monitor the process in addressing the challenges faced by the department at National and Provincial level in assert and property portfolios. • The Committee will continue to promote corporative governance. • The Committee will strive to strengthen the constructive engagement with the National and Provincial Departments of Public Works. • The Portfolio Committee must strengthen working relations with the NCOP as prescribed by the Constitution and Rules of Parliament. • To monitor and oversee the role of the entities that are directly accountable to the department and • To vigorously and constantly monitor the adherence of financial and fiscal discipline by the department.
- CORE OBJECTIVES:
To pursue its MISSION, the Portfolio Committee on Public Works has five overriding goals namely:
• To cover a greater volume of work which is of relevance to its
MISSION.
• To strengthen the qualitative aspects of its investigative work.
• To understand and respond to existing areas of financial management
weaknesses and under-performance.
• To increase consistency, regularity and assertiveness of follow-up
actions where corrective actions are deemed necessary.
• To creatively and assertively influence improvements in financial
management, whenever it is
necessary in the broader public sector.
4.1 Legislation:
No legislation has been passed for this current year
4.1.1 Matters other than mandated legislation: 4.1.1.1 International Agreements and Protocols: None of the above comes to Committee
4.2 Oversight:
4.2.1 Institutional Oversight:
The Committee was briefed on the Budget Vote of the Department of Public Works .The Committee also conducted an oversight work on the Strategic Plan of the Department.
4.2.2 International / National Visits:
The Committee held a two-day strategic planning workshop with the Department of Public Works in Johannesburg on 7 and 8 September 2004. The delegations that attended the workshop mentioned above are as follows:
Mr F Bhengu: Chairperson Mr NJ Gogotya Mr NE Maluleka Mr HP Maluleka Mr K Moonsamy Ms MM Ntuli Ms CPM Ramotsamai Mr PS Sekgobela Mr S Siboza Mr JPI Blanche Mr SE Opperman Mr BC Ngiba Ms NM Mdaka Mr MT Likotsi Mr J Leburu – Committee Secretary
4.2.3 Conferences
The following members attended a conference on Construction Industry Development Post graduate Programme at the University of Cape Town:
Mr LD Maduma Mr K Moonsamy Mr NE Magubane Ms PS Sekgobela Mr SE Opperman
4.2.3.1 The Chairperson Mr F Bhengu attended the NEDLAC Conference in Sandton, Johannesburg. 4.2.3.2 Mrs TLP Nwamitwa-Shilubana attended the Launch of the IDT Report in Mpumalanga 4.2.3.3 Mr P Maluleka attended the Launch of the Property Industry Charter in Pretoria 4.2.3.4 Ms CPM Ramotsamai attended the launch of Youth of the Programme in Atlantis 4.2.3.5 Ms CPM Ramotsamai, Mr PH Maluleka, Mr JPI Blanche, Mrs TLP Nwamitaa- Shilubana, Mr F Bhengu attended World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) in Johannesburg 4.2.3.6 Ms PS Sekgobela and Ms CPM Ramotsamai attended the summit on Creating Black women in Property Industry
- OTHER COMMITTEE ACTIVITIES:
The Committee engaged in following activities:
- Establishment of Ad hoc Committee on Public Works and election of the Ad hoc Chairperson May 12, 2004.
- Adoption of Committee programme and discussion of Committee’s Business Planning and budgeting process May 19, 2004
- Briefing by Department of Public Works (DPW) on DPW Strategic plan May 26, 2004
- Briefing on the budget vote June 2,2004.
- Briefing by DPW on the Status of the Parliamentary Villages June 9, 2004
- Establishment of the Portfolio Committee on Public Works and election of the Chairperson June 24, 2004
- Visit to Parliamentary villages July 14, 2004
- Preparation for the strategic plan workshop with the DPW and consideration of report on the visit to Parliamentary villages August 5, 2004.
- Consideration of report on the visit to Parliamentary villages August 10, 2004
- Adoption of report on the visit to Parliamentary villages August 18, 2004
- Briefing by Committee Section Management on Committees’ budget and Business plan August 25, 2004
- The Committee attended the World Summit on Sustainable Development September 1 to 3, 2004
- The Committee attended the launch of Extended Public Works Programme September 2, 2004
- Preparation for the Strategic-planning workshop with DPW: briefing by UWC School of Governance September 6, 2004.
- Strategic workshop with the DPW September 7 to 8, 2005
- Information sharing with MECs and Provincial Chairpersons of Public Works September 14 to 15, 2004
- Chairperson attended the NEDLAC Conference in Johannesburg October 2, 2004
- The Committee was invited to attend the Construction Industry Development Programme Conference from 10 to 11 October 2004
- Preparation to engage with the DPW on the SCOPA public hearings 12 October 2004
- Information sharing with MECs and Provincial Chairperson of Public Works October 19, 2004
- Meeting with SCOPA on the public hearings with the DPW October 20, 2004
- Deliberations on the strategic workshop, public hearings with SCOPA and information sharing with provinces October 25, 2004
- Division of Committee into two clusters to look at consolidating the reports on Information sharing session, strategic workshop and SCOPA hearings October 27, 2004.
- Briefing by the DPW on its annual report November 2, 2004
- Meetings of Portfolio Committee Clusters to consolidate the Committee report November 3, 2004.
- Adoption of the Committee minutes November 10, 2004.
- Meeting of Portfolio Committee Financial Cluster November 12, 2004.
- Meeting of Portfolio Committee Clusters November 16, 2004.
- Briefing by the Department of Public Works on Construction Industry, Construction Seta and BEE November 16, 2004.
- Adoption of consolidated committee report and Committee ‘s annual report November 23, 2004
-
The Committee attended the Summit on Creating Black Women in the Property Sector on November 29, 2004
- FINANCIAL STATEMENTS:
Budget allocated to Committee: R366, 635.00
Expenditure: As on 20 October 2004
Catering: R9 430.70 Workshops: R81 267.00 Conferences: R4 500.00
Total Expenditure: R 95 197.70
- OUTSTANDING MATTERS: No outstanding matters
| The Committee has included: |
| A. Annual report of the Department of Public Works |
| B. MTBPS |
| C. MTEF and |
| D. Quarterly Financial Statement |
FORMAL ADOPTION OF ANNUAL REPORT BY THE COMMITTEE
The Annual Report of the Portfolio Committee on Public Works, having been put to the Committee, was adopted on 19 January 2005.
Joey Leburu 19 January 2005 COMMITTEE SECRETARY DATE
N Nonkelela 19 January 2005 CONTROL COMMITTEE SECRETARY DATE
F Bhengu 19 January 2005 COMMITTEE CHAIRPERSON DATE
APPENDIX I
COMPOSITION OF COMMITTEE:
| MEMBER | APPOINTMENT DATE | DISCHARGE DATE |
| African National Congress: | ||
| Mr TG Anthony (alt) | May 2004 | |
| Mr F Bhengu | May 2004 | |
| Mr C Gololo (alt) | May 2004 | August 2004 |
| Mr NJ Gogotya | August 2004 | |
| Mr Z Kotwal | May 2004 | |
| Mr LD Maduma | May 2004 | |
| Mr NE Magubane | May 2004 | |
| Mr LB Mashile | August 2004 | |
| Mr HP Maluleka (alt) | August 2004 | |
| Mr K Moonsamy | May 2004 | |
| Ms MM Ntuli | June 2004 | |
| Mrs TLP Nwamitaa-Shilubana | May 2004 | |
| Mr SN Nxumalo | August 2004 | |
| Mr JP Phungula | May 2004 | August 2004 |
| Ms CPM Ramotsamai | May 2004 | |
| Ms PS Sekgobela | May 2004 | |
| Mr S Siboza | May 2004 | |
| Democratic Alliance | ||
| Mr JPI Blanche | May 2004 | |
| Mr SE Opperman | May 2004 | |
| Inkatha Freedom Party | ||
| Rev KM Zondi | May 2004 | |
| Mr BC Ngiba* | October 2004 | |
| United Democratic Front | ||
| Ms NM Mdaka | ||
| May 2004 | ||
| Independent Democrats | ||
| Mr VC Gore | May 2004 | |
| African Christian Democratic | ||
| Party | August 2004 | |
| Rev S Khumalo | ||
| Pan Africanist Congress of | ||
| Azania | August 2004 | |
| Mr MT Likotsi (alt) |
SUPPORT STAFF:
Control Committee Secretary: Ms N Nonkelela Period from June 2002 to date.
Committee Secretary: Mr J Leburu Period from January 1996 to date.
Committee Assistant: Mr S Makeleni Period from Jan 2001 to date.
Secretary to Chairperson: Ms P Kakaza Period from October 31 2004 to date.
Researcher (Research Unit): Dr F Khan Period from Jan 2002 to date.
APPENDIX II
REPORTS TABLED: Date of ATC | | | | |Report visit to Parliamentary |Adopted of 23 June 2004 |9 August 2004 | |Villages. | | | | | | | |Report on workshop held with the |Adopted on 24 November 2004 |To be tabled | |Department of Public Works, Public | | | |hearings with MECs and SCOPA hearing | | | |on the Department of Public Works. | | | | | | | |Committee’s annual report | | | | |Adopted on 19 January 2005 |To be tabled | | | | | | | | |
- REPORT OF THE PORTFOLIO COMMITTEE ON PUBLIC WORKS ON THE WORKSHOP HELD WITH:
THE DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC WORKS
INFORMATION SHARING WITH MECS SCOPA PUBLIC HEARINGS ON THE ANNUAL REPORT OF THE DEPARTMENT THE BUDGET COMMITTEE PUBLIC HEARINGS WITH THE DEPARTMENT DEPARTMENT (ANNUAL REPORT) AS ADOPTED ON 24 NOVEMBER 2004:
VENUE: M46 DATE: 24 NOVEMBER 2004
COMMITTEE MEMBERS PRESENT African National Congress Mr TG Anthony Mr F Bhengu (Chairperson) Mr NJ Gogotya Mr LB Maduma Mr NE Magubane Mr HP Maluleka Mr SN Nxumalo Ms CPM Ramotsamai Ms PS Sekgobela Mr S Siboza
Democratic Alliance Mr SE Opperman
United Democratic Movement Ms NM Mdaka
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Content: Page
Glossary 2 Presenters 2 Members in attendance 2 Introduction 3 Workshop 3 NDPW Challenges 3-4 Challenges of EPWP 4 Challenges in Property Development Policy 4-5 Challenges in HR and Legal Services 5 Challenges on maintains Plan and delivery Improvement programme 5 Provincial briefings Eastern Cape 5-7 Mpumalanga 7 KwaZulu-Natal 7-9 North West 9-10 Northern Cape (Written presentation) 10 Limpopo 11 Free State 12 Western Cape (Written presentation) Gauteng (Written presentation Audit and Financial Statements Of the DPW 12-14 Conclusion 14 Recommendations 14-16 Reporting framework on Recommendations 16 Annexure Draft SCOPA Report 17-25
GLOSSARY Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) Construction Education and Training (CETA0 Director-General (DG Emerging Contractor Development Programme (ECDP) Extended Public Works Programme (EPWP) Head of Department (HOD) Independent Development Trust (IDT) Members of Executive Council (MECs) National Department of Public Woks (NDPW) Department of Public Works, Roads and Transport (DPWRT) Public Financial Management Act (PFMA) Property Policy Development (PPD) Provincial Steering Committee (PSC) Standing Committee on Public Accounts (SCOAP)
PRESENTERS Mr J Maseko: The Director-General (DPW) Mr S Phillips: Chief Operation Officer (COO) Ms L Bici: Deputy Director Property Holdings Mr Z Ntsaluba: Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Mr S Kwelita: MEC for Eastern Cape Public Works Ms M Masego-Dlamini: MEC for Mpumalanga Public Works Mr MB Gwala: MEC for KwaZulu-Natal Public Works Mr BM Cele: MEC for KwaZulu-Natal Transport and Roads Dr K Mbanjwa: HOD Department of Transport KwaZulu-Natal Mr C Chabane: MEC for Limpopo Public Works Mr R Shingange HOD Department of Public Work Limpopo Mr H Yawa: MEC for North West Public Works Dr H Sebego HOD Department of Public Works North West Mr S Mohai: MEC for Free State Public Works Mr S Maganedisa: Deputy Director Department of public Works
MEMBERS OF PROVINCIAL LEGISLATURE IN ATTENDANCE
Ms P Majodina: Chairperson Standing Committee on Public Works Eastern Cape Mr R Tsikwe: Chairperson Standing Committee on Public Works Northern Cape Mr N Hantiso: Member of the Standing Committee on Public Works Free State Mr T Gwabeni Chairperson Standing Committee on Public Works North West
National Assembly
Report of the Portfolio Committee on Public Works on its strategic workshop held with the Department of Public Works, information sharing with the Provincial MECs of Public Works and SCOPA hearings with the Department of Public Works took place on 8 and 9 September, 14, 15, and 19 September and 20 October 2004 respectively dated 23 November 2004.
The Portfolio Committee on Public Works, having embarked on the above-
mentioned processes on those dates, reports as follows:
- INTRODUCTION
This report will summarise the main points of the workshop held between representatives of the National Department of Public Works (NDPW) and members of the Portfolio Committee on Public Works on 7-8 September 2004, as well as two briefings held between representatives from the Department of Public Works and Department of Transport in the Provincial Governments and members of the Portfolio Committee on Public Works. The first briefing was held on 14 September 2004 with representatives from Mpumalanga, KwaZulu- Natal and the Eastern Cape; while the second was held on 19 October with representatives from the Northern Cape, North West, Limpopo, KwaZulu-Natal and the Free State. To date, reports from the departments responsible for public works issues in the Western Cape and Gauteng, have not yet been received.
In addition to providing a summary of the main points of the workshop and the briefings, this report will provide an overview of the progress made thus far, while highlighting any obstacles in the path of delivery. Finally, the report will conclude with a set of recommendations.
Members at present: Mr F Bhengu Chairperson, Mr TG Anthony, Mr NJ Gogotya, Mr NE Magubane, Mr HP Maluleka, Mr SN Nxumalo, Ms CPM Ramotsamai, Ms PS Sekgobela, Mr S Siboza, (all ANC) Mr S Opperman (DA) and Ms NM Mdaka (UDM)
- THE WORKSHOP1
The main aim of the workshop was to discuss the programmes informing the core business of the NDPW.
NDPW Challenges
Clarification of the NDPW’s mandate. Transformation. Service delivery improvement. Contribution to the land reform process. Black economic empowerment (BEE). Corruption. Asset management. HIV and Aids programmes. Backlogs. Equity.
Challenges of the Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP)
The following challenges confront the EPWP:
The EPWP is still not widely understood among stakeholders and communities. Lack of co-ordination of projects among provinces. There is difficulty in obtaining progress reports from the provinces and the social sector. Directors-General (DGs) does not attend steering committee meetings - this impacts on the co-ordination of projects as well as on the completion of progress reports. There are problems around the acceptance of CETA-accredited standards and the low numbers of training providers applying for accreditation. Programme management support for participating provinces and municipalities urgently needs to be put in place. Additional learnerships and training provider mentors need to be secured from CETA. There is a lack of personnel, especially in the social sector departments allocated to the EPWP, as well as a lack of high-level drive to expand EPWP programmes in this sector. The consolidation of existing programmes is progressing very slowly. Progress in securing the support and co-operation of Eskom, Transnet and the National Road Agency is rather slow.
A number of specific actions to deal with these challenges are in the process of being taken. Timeframes were given for various actions and all target dates reached were noted – for example, all EPWP launches have been completed.
Challenges in Property Policy Development (PPD)
The following challenges confront the PPD:
Inadequacies relating to the Emerging Contractor Development Programme (ECDP). Inadequacies relating to procurement guidelines and the involvement of previously disadvantaged communities in the construction industry. Problems relating to leased properties. Insufficient information on the state of the construction industry. Inadequacies in the management of immovable assets and in the maintenance of the Asset Register.
A number of specific actions to deal with these challenges are in the process of being taken. These actions (including those relating to the Asset Register, the Incubator Programme, the issue of ‘fronting’ etc), together with their target dates, were noted.
Challenges in Human Resource Management and Legal Services :
The following challenges confront this programme:
Finding, hiring and retaining top talent. The development of employees. Transitioning of employees. Business processes/work flow.
A number of ongoing strategies and actions are in place to address these challenges.
Challenges in the Maintenance Plan and the Service Delivery Improvement Programme:
The following challenges confront this programme:
Poor quality of service and lack of a customer-driven culture. Low morale among staff. Lack of professionalism among staff. Management of the maintenance programme. The provision of support to provincial sphere of government. The funding of a multi-year maintenance programme by National Treasury and sale of redundant properties to finance maintenance.
A number of ongoing strategies and actions are in place to address these challenges. Current and future actions, together with their target dates, were also noted.
PROVINCIAL BRIEFINGS
EASTERN CAPE 2
Socio-economic conditions:
High rural population. Widespread unemployment and poverty. Dominance of low-wage sectors (commercial agriculture and domestic work). Dependence on subsistence agriculture and the informal sector. Acute backlogs in access to potable water, sanitation and healthcare.
The Expanded Public Works Programme
The EPWP was launched in the province on 3 September 2004. Publicity material and information packages on the EPWP are being produced in order to publicise the programme. The EPWP is being driven by: the MEC for Roads and Public Works; the Provincial Executive Council; the Provincial Steering Committee; and the Cabinet Cluster on Economic and Infrastructure Development. The Provincial Steering Committee (PSC): The Committee is chaired by the Head of the Department of Roads and Public Works, and will report to both the Director-General and the MEC for Roads and Public Works on a monthly basis. The function of the PSC is to ensure that all departments, municipalities and state-owned enterprises contribute towards the success of the EPWP. The PSC reports to the national EPWP Unit on a quarterly basis. The EPWP is divided into three sectors (viz. Infrastructure and Economic; Social; and Environment and Culture), each consisting of a number of provincial departments, with a specific department nominated to lead each sector: The Infrastructure and Economic Sector is led by the Department of Roads and Public Works. The Environment and Culture Sector is led by the Department of Economic Affairs. The Department of Social Development leads the Social Sector. Each of the three lead departments is responsible for setting targets and performance standards, as well as monitoring and evaluating the performance of each sector. Challenges
There are a number of challenges that exist, all of which are currently receiving attention:
Given the challenges involved in establishing the EPWP, the province recognises the need to establish an EPWP Unit within the Public Works Directorate. However, lack of human resources precludes this from taking place at present. Clearly, the need to create additional capacity is urgent. There is a problem with lack of co-operation with line Departments. Co-ordination with local spheres of government is weak. There is lack of understanding of the programme by managers.
MPUMALANGA 3
The Expanded Public Works Programme
The EPWP was launched in the province on 30 August 2004.
Thus far, 1001 projects in various sectors have been identified, including gravelling rural roads and renovating or building schools. It is anticipated that these projects will result in 10 000 jobs. It is projected that an amount of R377, 602m will be spent on these projects. A number of strategies have been identified and/or launched in order to prepare the way for the implementation of the EPWP. These include: The re-launching of an existing project, Land care, according to EPWP principles. The identification of 45 learnerships. Under a road construction project, individuals in learnerships have been given two-year contracts via a relaxed tender procedure. The intention is that after the two-year period, these individuals will have been enabled to tender for projects on their own. The provincial Cabinet has been requested to increase infrastructural projects by 5%. Learner contractors will not need collateral to bid for projects up to R5 million. A deal has been struck with ABSA Bank, whereby contractors will be given access to overdrafts, service and investment accounts.
Challenges
In view of problems experienced in the past, attention needs to be given to redirecting the Municipal Infrastructure Grant. The issue of corruption, with specific regard to councillors who are also building contractors, is a major problem. Another aspect of the problem of corruption is the possible use of public works funding for other purposes.
KWAZULU-NATAL 4
The Expanded Public Works Programme
The EPWP was launched in the province on 28 September 2004. The general Provincial Public Works Programmes are done by the Department of Public Works but the EPWP done by the Department of Transport One third (viz. R320m) of the total amount of R960 million set aside for the next financial year, has been earmarked for EPWP projects Types of projects that are ongoing and to be included in the EPWP are: Construction, e.g. roads and school building projects. Maintenance, e.g. landscaping of public facilities, painting and renovation of public buildings. The social targets set are and will be in accordance with those set by the Code of Good Practice for Special Public Works Programmes, viz. 60% women, 20% youth; and 2% disabled. A number of targets with regard to jobs, projects and skills training have been set. 5 Budgeting arrangements to underpin these targets have been made.6
The Zibambele programme: This is a labour-intensive road maintenance programme that allocates a length of road to one household. The programme focuses on woman-headed households. 24 000 Zibambele contracts have been budgeted for this year.
The Vukuzakhe programme: This is a staged advancement emerging contractor programme Over the past five years, contractors on this programme have created more than 100 000 jobs. Over the past year, two new road construction programmes, with a budget of R25 million, have been launched Institutional arrangements: The Department is a member of the PSC, which is responsible for the co- ordination of provincial EPWP projects. A Business Unit responsible for the implementation of the EPWP programme is represented at Head Office, and also has sub-units in all four regions of the province. However, the Unit has not yet been fully capacitated.
Provincial Public Works Programme
Challenges Government properties and provincial assets accommodation are dilapidated. There is a illegal occupation of state property and vandalisation of these properties Occupants of properties are defaulting on payment of rents and rates.
NORTH WEST PROVINCE 7
The Expanded Public Works Programme
The EPWP was launched in the province on 2 April 2004 under the brand name, ‘Semelela ’.
A pilot project has been launched and aims to be completed by December 2005. The following departments are participating in the project: Public Works; Roads and Transport; Agriculture, Water Affairs and Conservation; and the Central District Municipality. The project comprises three labour intensive aspects: road maintenance and upgrading; agricultural projects and construction. Employment: 11 small contractors will be appointed to work on the projects. 275 labourers will work on construction and maintenance. 30 families will earn a living from farming. About 100 permanent jobs and 200 temporary jobs will be created. Additional income of about R1, 92 m per year will be generated for the target communities. Training will provided to contractors, farmers and labourers Institutional arrangements: The (provincial) Department of Public Works is the overall co-ordinator of the EPWP. The EPWP Steering Committee comprises all provincial departments, all municipal managers and the Office of the Premier. Technical Committee of the Steering Committee comprises the Department of Public Works, the Department of Local Government and Housing, the Office of the Premier, plus two municipal managers.
Challenges
Misunderstanding of the role of other departments. Insufficient reporting. Commitment to EPWP targets. Commitment and co-operation of targeted beneficiaries. Monitoring systems. Co-ordination at local and provincial levels. Financial constraints for emerging contractors.
NORTHERN CAPE PROVINCE8 The Expanded Public Works Programme
Implementation dates for Social Cluster learnerships have been set. The lead department, Education, is in the process of allocating the remaining 73 interns to the departments. An additional R1 million is required to reach the targeted number of job opportunities to be created for this year. An additional R14 million is required to reach the targeted number of volunteers this year. A ‘learnership on roads maintenance’ programme with 30 learners has been launched. 15 learnerships (for small contractors) have been approved. Joint ventures on road maintenance with other departments have been entered into. Special projects have thus far created hundreds of jobs in road construction projects. The main beneficiaries have been women and youth. Future projects on the construction and upgrading of roads and road infrastructure are planned. Technical teams have been re-aligned in accordance with the national sectors, viz: Infrastructure Sector. Social Sector. Economic Sector. Environmental Sector.
Challenges
The vastness of the province causes difficulties with regard to the supervision and monitoring of projects. Budget constraints. Lack of availability of training service providers. Lack of sustainable opportunities after qualifying as contractors and learners.
LIMPOPO9
The Expanded Public Works Programme
A number of projects have been identified for implementation, including the following: Labour-intensive Rural Roads programme (Gundo Lashu). The ECDP. The Electromech Contractor Development Programme. The Mechanical Mobile Units Contractors. Labour Intensive Maintenance. The Gundo Lashu Programme: Has been developed in consultation with 26 local municipalities in the province. 24 contractors and 6 engineering consultants have been trained in Lesotho. It has been proposed that a training centre for contractor development be established in the province, as it will be impractical to continue sending trainees to Lesotho. Institutional arrangements: The (provincial) Department of Public Works is the overall co-ordinator of the EPWP. The Infrastructure Sector is co-ordinated by Public Works. The Environmental Sector is co-ordinated by the Department of Agriculture. The Social Sector is co-ordinated by the Department of Health and Welfare. The Economic Sector is co-ordinated by the Department of Finance, Economic Affairs and Development.
Challenges
Limited understanding of the conceptual framework of the EPWP among stakeholders. Budget constraints. Lack of skills within the country to assist in developing business plans. Inherent conflicts with ongoing conventional projects. Unfair labour practices. Delays in finalising the business plans of the different spheres of Government and the timing of the financial years. Shortage of properly accredited training providers for the various sectors. Lack of clarity on training requirements.
FREE STATE 10
The Expanded Public Works Programme The EPWP was launched in the province on 28 September 2004. An amount of R52 million has been budgeted for the implementation of the EPWP. It is estimated that a total of 17 340 jobs will be created in the current financial year. 30 learnerships are targeted for the Infrastructure Sector. A number of projects have been launched thus far: Road construction. Construction of 1 000 low-cost houses – it is estimated that more than 500 people will be employed during the construction phase. A hydroponics project. A waste management project. Institutional arrangements: The province’s Department of Public Works, Roads and Transport (PWRT) is in the process of establishing an EPWP Unit to be led by a Chief Director. The current Executive Council Cluster will co-ordinate the work of the EPWP until a comprehensive approach to institutional arrangements has been decided upon. A Steering Committee, comprising provincial departments and district municipalities chaired by the head of the PWRT, has been established. The Steering Committee is responsible for the overall co-ordination and management of the EPWP in the province. Sector EPWP Management Committees are being established to co-ordinate projects at sector level.
Challenges
Co-ordination of the various structures, departments, municipalities and State-owned enterprises needs to be tightened up. There is insufficient training. Monitoring and evaluation – there should be more comprehensive reporting and consistency of representation. Audit and financial Statement of the Department of Public Works: Financial Cluster Group Discussions
Introduction:
The core functions of the Department make effective, efficient and economic 11 financial management the key drivers or success factors for the Department to implement and achieve its objectives. Such core functions are:
the provision and management of state property and the implementation of National Public Works Programme.
On the provision and management of state property core function, the implementation activities entail:
the provision, development and maintenance of accommodation acquisition and disposal of state asset and the management and maintenance of state property portfolio.
The implementation activities on the national public works programme entails: creating assets through the community public works programme influencing and stabilising the construction and property industries and ensuring the infrastructure is provided in a way that creates jobs, empowers communities and develops human resources.
Although, there could be integration and sharing of experiences at different levels of implementation, the two programmes are different and the point of reference in the strategic framework and implementation is different. However, the question of assets, creation and influencing asserts and maintenance of assets and property for job creation, economic development and empowerment is central for both programmes.
The skills required and the financial management capacities and capabilities needed for the continuously successful implementation of the programmes are of central importance. The Department’s challenges and limitations with the implementation of the Public Finance Management Act No 1 of 1999 requirements in the past appear to make this a conditionality 12. The same as most public institutions, the Department use of public resources and conditions that such resources are properly spent and that there is value for money becomes important. Audit and Financial Statement
The idea perhaps should not be reinvent the will on the work done by the work of the Standing Committee on Public Accounts (SCOPA). Based on the Departments financial statements, Auditor General Report, the Departments Audit Committee Report, the Standing Committee goes through evidence gathering process or hearing to identify and measure the Department level of progress in the implementation of the PFMA. The Department makes certain observations and recommendations. For now, it would be a logical process for the Portfolio Committee to ‘pick up’ issues at that level in order to monitor the integrated implementation of policies and their successes.
Fruitless expenditure
Note 12.4, p65 of the Departments financial statements discloses amount of R167, 000 in respect of fruitless expenditure. The amount has declined from R16, 547 million in the previous financial year and the Standing Committee has commended this.
The Department is also engaging with other Departments and relevant clients on conditions and consequences of vacating buildings before the rental contract expires. A system of user chargers is being introduced in about two years that will force user departments to budget for rental charges.
CONCLUSION
Based on the presentations at both national and provincial level, the Portfolio Committee has noted the numerous positive actions undertaken with regard to the core business of the NDPW, as well as the launch of the EPWP in the all the provinces and the projects initiated under this programme thus far. Notwithstanding the progress made up to this point, it is clear that a number of significant shortcomings, problems and obstacles remain at both national and provincial levels (see sections on Challenges). Recommendations13
It is therefore recommended that:
- National (see pp.2-3) - The NDPW urgently addresses the specific challenges relating both to its core business and the EPWP (p.2).
- The NDPW should prepare guidelines that would enable provinces to report comprehensively upon the monitoring and evaluation of their projects.
- The challenges faced by the PPD must be urgently addressed (p.2).
- The challenges faced by Human Resource Management and Legal Services must be urgently addressed (p.3).
- The challenges faced by the Maintenance Plan and the Service Delivery Improvement Programme must be urgently addressed (p.3).
- The Department should monitor tenders and their implementation more closely, as it is important to ensure that tendering process is a fair one and that it is free of corruption.
- A range of support services (including financial support) should be made available to emerging contractors, as a supportive environment is empowering and also prevents corruption.
- The Department must review its current guidelines to prevent the practice of “ fronting”
- Provincial (see pp.4-10) - The successful implementation of the EPWP at local and provincial level is critical to the ultimate achievement of job creation and poverty alleviation in South Africa. It is thus essential that the provinces urgently address the specific challenges relating to the implementation of the EPWP (pp.5-10).
- The lack of co-operation with line departments should urgently be addressed.
- There should be co-ordination with local spheres of government, for example, through the South African Local Government Association (SALGA) - the latter’s role should be strengthened.
- The issue of ‘fronting’ should be addressed otherwise the objectives of Black Economic Empowerment will not be met. Many black companies fail because they do not have access to the necessary resources and are then vulnerable to offers of fronting.
- A range of support services (including financial support) should be made available to emerging contractors. For example, the agreement reached with ABSA Bank in Mpumalanga, whereby contractors will be given access to range of services, should be published in all provinces. This type of support is closely linked to the promotion of BEE and the genuine empowerment of historically disadvantaged communities. In particular, access to finance and the ability to draw up a proper tenders are essential to eliminate the practice of “ fronting’.
- The issue of corruption should be urgently addressed – an example is that of the conflict of interest created by councillors responsible for decisions on public works projects and who also tender for building contracts.
- The issue of insufficient numbers of training service providers should be addressed.
- It is crucial and urgent for the Department to upgrade its debtor sub- system before the end of the current financial years in order to capture incoming receipts, as this was not done previously.
- It has been established that no interest is charged on outstanding amounts, and monthly invoicing and submission of statements to debtors is not done, therefore it recommended that the Department must implement initiatives that include an “interest clause” in all lease agreements, late payments and a market related annual rental increase should be implemented.
- Discrepancies on rates and services on different properties under the Department must urgently be streamlined and the billing system of the Department must be upgraded.
- The valuation policy and systems used by the Department must be clearly defined in line with norms and standards as required by the law. Seeing that the Department has no valuers of its own, it is recommended that the Department must utilize tertiary institutions and interns who will be supervised by experts in order to minimize the costs and to address unemployment in terms of EPWP.
- On issues of fruitless expenditure, governance and lack of independent checks in the Department, it is a matter of grave concern that policies and procedures are not followed. The Department therefore must urgently put in place mechanisms to ensure that the internal audit its work. This must be reported as per SCOPA recommendations and adhered to in terms provisions of the PFMA.
REPORTING FRAMEWORK
- By the beginning of the next financial year, a progress report is required on how the challenges facing the NDPW are being met.
- Future reports to Parliament should contain full details on how the NDPW’s challenges are being met, and whether the targets set by the Department are being reached and report to the Committee quarterly.
- The Department should establish a task team inclusive of Departments of Local Government, Land Affairs, Housing, SALGA and any other relevant departments led by the Department of Public Works to investigate and assist with the completion of the Asset Register. This team should report on progress to the Portfolio Committee on a six- monthly basis and complete their work within two years.
- The Department with continued interaction and involvement with the private sector should address the issue on procurement, BEE and job sustainability. The possibility of tax incentives could be considered to businesses, which successfully addressed this issue.
- An audit of vacant buildings, a disposal policy including any other information on property and land must be provided to the Committee on quarterly basis.
- In promoting interdepartmental cooperation, it is recommended that the Department must consult with the Department of Public Services regarding central bargaining chamber in order to resolve the issue of annual review tariffs for official housing, which has been outstanding, and report to the Committee before end of the current financial year.
- The Department must as a matter of urgency address the question of lack of management skills and provide full disclosure of plans on skills development programme, strategy on recruitment and employee’s retention at all levels. The Department must provide the Committee with its organogram before the end of the current financial year.
- The Department must provide report on progress made on the filling of the vacant posts of the DDGs: EPWP and Asset management in February 2005.
Report to be considered.
DRAFT RESOLUTION
(1ST DRAFT)
PUBLIC WORKS
VOTE 6 (YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2004)
The Standing Committee on Public Accounts (SCOPA), having considered the Report of the Auditor-General on the Financial Statements of the Department of Public Works (DWP) for the year ended 31 March 2003 and 2004:
- General observations, including previous SCOPA recommendations
Background: The Auditor-General reported that progress had been made in respect of eight of the fourteen recommendations made by SCOPA in its 112th Report for 2003. However, to date no formal response to the recommendations as adopted by the House has been provided to Parliament.
SCOPA hearing: During the hearing, the Committee probed the four matters that remain unresolved, as well as various other matters and where appropriate, made recommendations for the House to consider.
The Committee wishes to commend the Accounting Officer for the progress made in a number of areas. However, the Committee is disappointed that certain matters remain unresolved, especially the completeness and accuracy of the state-owned property register. The Committee also wishes to express concern about the new matters dealt with during the hearing, especially the high number of vacant positions within the DPW.
Recommendation: The Committee recommends that Parliament ensure that the recommendations contained in this Report, once adopted by the House, are transmitted to the relevant executive authority for response by the DPW. Debtors
Background: The following weaknesses were reported regarding rental debtors: the debtor sub-system (Property Management Information System or PMIS) is not fully utilised; no interest is charged on outstanding amounts, and monthly invoicing and submission of statements to debtors are not being done; receipts are not captured on the debtors subsystem; and NO debtors’ age analyses are made available for management purposes.
SCOPA hearing: The Accounting Officer reported to the Committee that a number of corrective steps had been implemented. This included the establishment of property management units, and implementing best practice standard lease agreements with client departments. Lease agreements now include an interest clause that did not previously exist. An age analysis module has also been incorporated into the PMIS and the information generated is discussed at management meetings.
Recommendations: The Committee recommends that:
the debtor system at the Department should be evaluated by the IT Section to determine whether the current system complies with all the needs of the DPW; and
progress made regarding the weaknesses of the debtor system should be reported, on a quarterly basis, to the Audit Committee of the DPW, who should monitor and evaluate the progress in order to report thereon in the next annual report of the Department.
- Revenue
Background: In terms of Section 38 (1) (c) of the Public Finance and Management Act (PFMA) an accounting officer must take effective and appropriate steps to collect all money due to the Department. The controls over rental revenue were reported to be ineffective. A lack of training of officials was also reported. An investigation into married and single quarter official housing highlighted that tariffs was last updated in 1995. In terms of Treasury Regulation 7.3.1 the accounting officer must at least annually review these tariffs if they are under his or her control.
SCOPA hearing: The Committee was informed that an annual review of the tariffs for official housing had not been carried out in about nine years. The Accounting Officer indicated that the tariffs were part of public service central bargaining chamber negotiations on service conditions, and that the DPW had little choice but to implement the bargaining chamber agreements. It was further argued that the loss to the State owing to lower than market related rental should not be regarded as a loss, seeing that it is part of service conditions of essential services.
Recommendation: The Committee recommends that this matter be taken up by the Accounting Officer with the Department of Public Service and Administration as a matter of urgency and reported on to Parliament by the end of the current financial year as the Committee is convinced that the position with regard to official housing could be better managed.
- Asset management
Background: The fixed asset register for moveable assets was incomplete. This was due to the implementation of a computer software program started in the previous year aimed at maintaining a register of item identification codes and locations. In addition, a “proof on concept” on the requirements for a complete, valid and accurate national fixed property register to meet accounting disclosure requirements still has to be developed. An evaluation by the Auditor- General of the proof of concept revealed that:
the PMIS database was not sufficient or updated to form the basis for a fixed asset register; the Department of Land Affairs database was found to be largely accurate, but did not disclose valuation details necessary for DPW purposes; and differences existed in the calculation of municipal valuations which, may impact on the apportionment of rates and taxes between government and private landowners in terms of the new Property Rates Act.
SCOPA hearing: The Accounting Officer indicated that progress has been made with respect to the database in question. He also indicated that the information system was intended to also produce useful management information. However, he pointed out that the Department of Land Affairs was responsible for the overall inventory of land, and that the DPW register was only part of such a bigger inventory.
Regarding confirmation of ownership, this was a Land Affairs project for which funding seemed imminent. The DPW would participate in such a project and would utilise information resulting from such a project for purposes of a fixed property register.
Indications were that a project to ensure a proper valuation model would require about R250 million over approximately five years. Funding was being discussed with National Treasury. The DPW was considering various options, including obtained international advice. However, SCOPA observed that the action plan seemed weak. It was also noted that it might lead to a qualified audit opinion in future years if not addressed sooner than five years.
Recommendations:
The Committee recommends that:
the Accounting Officer urgently attend to the finalisation of a valuation model. an action plan should be tabled at the next meeting of the Department’s Audit Committee for review and comment to the Accounting Officer and the Minister. The Committee should report thereon in the next annual report of the Department.
- General and application controls - computer environment
Background: A general control review by the Auditor-General identified certain significant system control weaknesses, including the absence of a disaster recovery plan.
SCOPA hearing: The Committee was informed that a proper disaster recovery plan was being finalised coupled with related improvements such as a service level agreement between the IT division and the departmental users.
Recommendation: The Committee recommends that:
the Accounting Officer ensure the urgent finalisation of a proper disaster recovery plan; the Audit Committee evaluate the adequacy thereof and report thereon in the next annual report of the Department; and the Accounting Officer and Audit Committee review the relevance of the last risk assessment exercise, as well as the adequacy of the current risk management strategy, and report thereon in the next Annual Report.
- Property Management Information System (PMIS)
Background: An information system audit of the application controls within the PMIS, conducted by the Auditor-General, found that although some controls were in place, significant weaknesses existed in the general control environment as a whole.
SCOPA hearing: The Chief Information Officer indicated in her comments that various corrective measures have been taken or envisaged.
Recommendation: The Committee recommends that:
the Audit Committee evaluate the adequacy of corrective steps implemented, and report thereon in the next annual report of the Department. the Accounting Officer and the Executive Authority take cognisance that the responsibility for implementing basic controls such as these was the obligation of all accounting officers in terms of section 38 of the Public Finance Management Act, and that failure to effectively implement such controls constitutes financial misconduct.
- Vacancies and Skills development Background: The Auditor-General indicated that a lack of management reviews seemed a likely underlying cause of financial management weaknesses. SCOPA hearing: The Accounting Officer maintained that the DPW was a highly technical department with core functions for which it was not always easy to procure the required staff. In spite of this, the DPW had recently managed to fill over 300 posts at highly skilled supervisory level and at middle management level. In addition, an extensive recruitment drive will continue.
Recommendation: The Committee recommends that:
in view of the incorrect information contained on page 90 of the Annual Report, the Accounting Officer provide SCOPA and the Portfolio Committee on Public Works with a correct and updated skills development plan; and the Portfolio Committee on Public Works monitor progress with the filling of all vacancies, especially financially related vacancies, and specifically the critical top management positions such as the Deputy Director General: Extended Public Works Programme.
- Unauthorised expenditure
Background: The appropriation statement reflects overspending of R30,360 million on one main division, which is also disclosed as unauthorised expenditure in Note 12 to the financial statements. In the previous financial year, unauthorised expenditure amounted to R227,088 million.
SCOPA hearing : The DPW argued that it was obligated to honour all rental contracts, even though adequate funds were not provided for in the annual national budget. The same applied to property rates and taxes. The DPW argued that both these categories constituted unavoidable expenditure. The DPW admitted, however, that the quality of its motivations to National Treasury could improve. However National Treasury disputed this and attributed it to inefficient planning and lack of expenditure reprioritisation.
The Committee further noted that the disclosure of information in the notes to the annual financial statements seemed inadequate, as no information was provided on the appropriateness or otherwise of disciplinary steps against relevant officials, or of other processes that have been instituted.
Recommendations:
The Committee recommends that -
The Accounting Officer, in future ensure –
better quality budget submissions to National Treasury; and
pro-active budgetary management as provided for in the PFMA to avoid over- expenditure.
- Fruitless and wasteful expenditure
Background: The notes to the annual financial statements (note 12.4, page 65) disclosed an amount of R167, 000 in respect of fruitless expenditure, which has declined from R16,547 million in the previous financial year.
SCOPA hearing: The Accounting Officer indicated that the DPW has been educating user-departments on the consequences of vacating buildings before the expiry of a rental contract. A system of user charges will be introduced in about two years and will force user departments to budget for rental charges. Recommendation: The Committee wishes to commend the DPW on the decline in the total amount of fruitless expenditure.
The Committee recommends, however, that: the DPW ensure that all user-departments are contractually bound to carry the cost of any fruitless expenditure arising from early vacating of rented properties; and the Department expedite the implementation of user charges.
- Account balances
Background: The following items, which originate from prior to 2002 remain unresolved due to a lack of supporting documentation:
transactions not accounted for through the income statement, originating on or before 1999-2000; as well as R12.6 million in respect of receivables; R19,3 million for other debtors; R2 million for payables (current); R0,2 million for staff debtors, and R0,19 million for advances.
The DPW has reportedly met with the Accountant-General and presented information supporting the write-off of these transactions. At the time of the publication of the Annual Report, finality on the possible write-off of these amounts was still outstanding.
The resolution of irreconcilable debts and debt inherited from regional structures is currently being addressed as a government wide initiative with all relevant stakeholders. The DPW has disclosed the various items in notes 11.2 and 11.3 to the financial statements.
SCOPA hearing: The Accounting Officer assured the Committee that in future, no documents will be destroyed before a period of five years or before audits have been completed. He argued that the pre-2002 situation was a historic situation beyond the control of the DPW, and that he believed that the amounts should be written off.
The Auditor-General indicated that a prerequisite for the write-off of the amounts in question was that proof would have to be provided that sufficient attempts had been made to either recover the amounts, or retrieve the relevant documentation. The department would also have to have a surplus from which such amount can be written off against.
National Treasury indicated that it required a consolidated figure of all departments, who were in a similar position, before the Treasury could consider approving its write-off.
Recommendations:
The Committee recommends that:
National Treasury consult all national departments who are in the same position, and clearly indicate what is required for this long outstanding matter to be resolved; and
the DPW continue its discussions with the Accountant-General in order to determine what more is required to resolve this matter.
- Financial Management
Background: There is a reported lack of independent checks and management reviews within the DPW resulting in policies and procedures as implemented by management not being fully adhered to.
In its 112th Report of last year, the Committee noted the lack of capacity within the internal audit unit within DPW, and the Committee recommended that the Accounting Officer consider outsourcing part of the internal audit function.
SCOPA hearing: The Accounting Officer indicated that management reviews had to be addressed by recruiting the right quality and number of skilled staff.
Regarding internal audit, DPW contracted in a consortium of private audit firms to assist with the internal audit function during the 2003-2004 financial year. The capacity in the internal audit has also been expanded at regional level. However, the training and skills transferring was raised as a matter of concern even at Audit Committee level. The Accounting Officer assured the Committee that measures have been taken to ensure that training and proper skills transfer take place.
Recommendations:
Having considered the evidence and steps taken by the Accounting Officer to ensure that all weaknesses as indicated by the Auditor-General have been addressed. The Committee recommends that:
a target date be set for the total independent functioning of the internal audit section throughout the Department; the Audit Committee should assess the feasibility of the target date, and monitor progress towards the final date agreed between the Audit Committee and the Accounting Officer; and the Audit Committee monitor management responses to the weaknesses reported in the audit management letters of the Auditor-General.
- The reconciliation of the PMIS to BAS
Background: In SCOPA’s 112th Report of 2003, the Committee recommended that:
the DPW should perform regular reconciliation’s (i.e. monthly) that will be reviewed by the Director-General on a quarterly basis; and monitoring mechanisms should be in place to ensure proper reconciliation.
During the 2003-2004 audit, the Auditor-General Office brought to the attention of the DPW the fact that reconciliation between PMIS and BAS was only carried out annually and not on a monthly basis.
SCOPA hearing: The Accounting Officer provided assurance to the Committee that reconciliations between PMIS and BAS were now being done on a monthly basis.
Recommendation: The Committee recommends that the Audit Committee review the adequacy of the monthly and quarterly reconciliations, and report thereon in the Annual Report for 2004-2005.
1 See ‘Report on the workshop between the NDPW and the Portfolio Committee on Public Works, 2-8 September 2004’ for full details.
2 See Briefing Report on the EPWP of the Eastern Cape Province to the Portfolio Committee.
3 See Briefing Report on Expanded Public Works Projects, Mpumalanga.
5 See Draft Asisebenze Plan, 2005-2008, KwaZulu-Natal, p.3.
6 See Draft Asisebenze Plan, 2005-2008, KwaZulu-Natal, p.6.
7 See Presentation by the North West Province to the Portfolio Committee on the EPWP.
8 See Presentation by the Northern Cape Province to the Portfolio Committee on the EPWP.
9 See Presentation by the Limpopo Province to the Portfolio Committee on the EPWP.
10 See Presentation by the Free State Province to the Portfolio Committee on the EPWP.
11 These are requirements and values embodied in the Public Finance Management Act 1 of 1999 and the Municipal Finance Management Act.
12 The continuous distinction between financial management capacities and capabilities and policy implementation, for example, on job creation, poverty reduction is not helpful. If an integrated understanding is developed continuous monitoring of the Department’s financial management capabilities and implementation will go a long way in making sure that policy implementations and successes are reliably measured.