WEDNESDAY, 18 MAY 2005 __

          PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL COUNCIL OF PROVINCES

                                ____

The Council met at 14:03.

The Deputy Chairperson of Committees took the Chair and requested members to observe a moment of silence for prayers or meditation.

ANNOUNCEMENTS, TABLINGS AND COMMITTEE REPORTS – see col 000.

                         APPROPRIATION BILL


                           (Policy debate)

Vote No 15 – Education:

The MINISTER OF EDUCATION: Chairperson and hon members, it is indeed a great pleasure to be with you this afternoon. My greetings to the members of the executive councils who are with us today, my colleagues in the Council of Education Ministers; greetings to the young persons and our educators who are with us in the public gallery, ladies and gentlemen, comrades and friends, you would all be aware that in recent months government has spent a great deal of time reflecting on the important subject of impediments to the achievement of our national priorities.

The reflections have confirmed some positive progress. However, our reflections also alerted government to worrying trends of slow, inadequate or inappropriate features of implementation, or lack of progress with implementation throughout government programmes and structures.

All the studies that we have undertaken confirm that our country has sufficient resources to make a difference to the lives of all the people of South Africa. Yet, our President reported in his state of the nation address earlier this year that government had failed to meet several key priorities, and that the Public Service had to be held accountable for much of this lack of performance.

In the education sector these failed priorities relate to infrastructure provision and the ongoing skills challenges of South Africa. Our major concern remains the condition of most of our schools. Day in and day out I receive letters and read reports in the media about the poor quality of infrastructure and the continued existence of schools without classrooms. We continue to have schools that lack basic facilities for learning; that have no sanitation, no electricity, no libraries and, in many areas, no water. Our people expect their caring government to do much more.

Several media and research reports have highlighted these outstanding challenges, for example on 3 March this year the Financial Mail wrote about classroom shortages and what they termed a “public works detour”. The article stated:

At present rates of progress, the classroom shortage in the worst affected provinces will take 18 years to eliminate. Hon members, we do not have 18 years. I believe that the planning process that we recently agreed on with the public works departments is an important step in overcoming these challenges.

But all the reports published recently tend to promote the myth that nothing is being done. Contrary to what some might project, we are building schools and classrooms. In 2004 the provincial departments of education, assisted by Public Works, spent nearly R2,3 billion on capital works, both new infrastructure as well as maintenance. That sum was a huge increase on the R459 million spent in 1999. It meant that we built 2 700 classrooms, and that 26 000 classrooms were under construction.

An additional amount of €60 million will be spent in the next four years on school buildings, thanks to a grant from the European Union. These new schools and classrooms will be built in the provinces of KwaZulu-Natal, the Eastern Cape and Limpopo, where the need is greatest in our country. These investments will serve to improve the quality of education and its environment by providing proper classrooms, by providing facilities such as libraries and laboratories, as well as through providing water, electricity and sanitation.

In 2003 some of our provinces, in particular KwaZulu-Natal, North West and Gauteng, actually overspent on their capital budgets. However, in terms of the preliminary results for the 2004-05 financial year, provinces appear to have spent only 78% of their infrastructure budget. This is according to figures I received on 31 March 2005. This represents a R2,3 billion expenditure of the R2,9 billion adjusted budget for the 2004-05 financial year. This leaves an under-expenditure of R660 million that I am anticipating will be spent when we receive the final figures for that financial year.

In regard to the matter of children who undergo schooling without any classrooms provided for them, the challenge is rather more complex than we tend to state it. It is related to family and community movement patterns, as well as to our inability as the education sector easily to predict the impact of demographic changes on school provisioning. Part of the problem also relates to the continuing challenges of needing to provide quality schooling in the least advantaged communities.

There are several schools in our towns and villages that are not full, but due to poor facilities or poor academic results, parents choose to go elsewhere. We need to intensify our efforts to make all schools quality schools. The phasing in of the new curriculum at the FET level offers our provinces an opportunity to begin to create these new centres of excellence. We could, for example, create information technology-focus schools in areas where the majority of our people live, as well as schools directed at the trades and technical skills areas.

This, of course, should not be construed as an intention to limit the choice of parents. The right to choose freely is one of the rights we fought for, and it’s one of the rights parents must have in our country. Nevertheless, the choice should not be limitless disadvantage, nor should it be neglected schools.

Our parents in South Africa must also support us in our endeavour to plan effectively. In some provinces thousands of children arrive in an area eight weeks into a new term at the beginning of a year. Often we have facilities, such as mobile classrooms to assist, but it is very difficult for us as the education sector to react effectively to such late registrations.

As I have mentioned, we have arrived at increased collaboration with the departments of public works, at all levels, in order to ensure more effective delivery. I am very pleased to see that both Limpopo and KwaZulu- Natal have actually announced significant infrastructure budgets intended to eliminate the phenomenon of schools where children have no classrooms. I have directed a national audit of every school in the country. From this we will develop a priority list, which will be systematically tackled as our financial resources allow.

This audit that we are beginning will be complemented by two other sets of official data: Firstly, a redesigned education management information system, built around individual learner records. This will assist us in planning, in tracking pupils and in monitoring their progress through the system. Secondly, a human resource development database, which will allow us to manage the newly agreed performance management scheme for teachers, and also allow us to reward those who are playing their part in delivering quality education, will complement the audit. We will also assist in ensuring that we have qualified teachers for the subjects they are teaching, and not any teacher teaching any subject - as is the practice in many schools in our country today.

The recent agreement between public works and us has drawn clear attention to where the problems lie, and we have undertaken to ensure that progress is accelerated.

But there is a worrying trend that emerges from our recent analysis of provincial government spending on education. It suggests that we do not have levels of allocation that would significantly support full transformation in education. Provincial education budgets show a nominal growth of 8,3%, from R64,9 billion in 2004-05 to R70,2 billion in 2005-06, and an 8,2% annual average growth to R82,2 billion at the end of the MTEF in 2007-08. This growth is lower than the 11,8% growth of the total provincial budgets. To put it another way, the share of education to total provincial budget falls from 33,9% in 2004-05 to 32,9% in 2005-06 and 32,4% at the end of the MTEF period. This is a worrying decline.

Though the average share of total budgets is 32,9% for this financial year, four provinces, namely the Western Cape, the Northern Cape, Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal have allocated significantly less of their budgets to education. Looked at in per capita terms, we may say provinces such as Limpopo, KwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern Cape have budgets that are lower than the average per capita. But we should emphasise that lower allocations don’t always point to inadequacies in budget, because costs may be different across provinces, so these might be measures of efficiency, because higher per capita spending does not necessarily translate into better academic performance, nor into improved maths and science outcomes for learners.

It is up to each province and this House to assess to what extent each education budget reflects efficiency or an inadequate budget allocation. Various reports that we have studied have shown that overspending pressures on education are often a result of inadequate budget, so the notion that education departments are wasteful is not always proven by a true analysis of the financial allocation. At times our departments are getting less than is necessary, given the challenge we must address.

Members might be aware that the Minister of Finance has changed the weightings of the components in the equitable share formula with the removal of social development weightings, as well as backlog weightings. The education component of the formula is now 51%, while an additional component targeted toward poverty with a weight of 3% has been added. This means, with this change, poorer provinces receive a greater share through the 3% poverty allocation.

I will be encouraging our provincial colleagues that at least 1,5% of the poverty allocation should be used to deal with poor as well as rural schools in our country.

In the past we had a great deal of questions raised about our progress with respect to co-operation across the spheres of government; questions as to whether we have a unitary set of departments of education or whether we are federal in our character and our practices. We have agreed with the MECs that in fact what we have is a unitary system that we are committed to infusing with quality practices.

We have agreed that we should work co-operatively, and I am pleased to say that in our first year we have worked together very well. We sought to strengthen co-operative governance. The heads of department have also been working very diligently together very diligently.

We, of course, have not as yet been able to define the necessary tools of evaluation and accountability for this relationship of co-operation. Members know that the national government sets norms and standards that are defined, implemented and evaluated at the provincial level. At times, when we have poor execution of a policy, it is difficult to assess the exact reasons for the failure. We do not have measures in place that require deep analysis of every facet of education, and perhaps this is a flaw in our law that we must address.

Thus, each time we confront policy failure, we tend not to develop effective measures to resolve the problem, but seem to allow it almost to perpetuate, and I think we really need to do much better in analysing what is happening in education, what is happening in our classrooms and how we are actually improving classroom performance and learning by our young children.

A case in point is the poor progress of children in maths, science and reading in the lower grades. Who is responsible for ensuring no repeat core performance? Who is held accountable for repeated poor performance? What is the responsibility of each sphere in such instances? I believe that we, as the education collective, need to deliberate on these issues and address them fully at some point. I see that my time is running out, and I am very worried about it, because we certainly have a range of issues that we must discuss. I think that, linked to these matters concerning the nature of co-operation and the nature of analysis and management of the system, we also have to ensure that each part of the chain in education executes its obligations.

Our educators are the most important part of the chain. How do we hold educators accountable and responsible for academic performance? If we are to succeed in building quality into our system we have to answer this question. We cannot pursue quality without actually ensuring that we test whether in the classroom children are learning. Education can only be judged by educational performance, nothing else. This means that we produce children who can read, who can write, who are numerate, and who are able to hold their own in any academic task.

I would now like to turn to a number of issues that we would be promoting in order to sincerely address the issues that we must face in the next year. In the next few months our schools, as well as the system, will be preparing for the end-of-year exams, as well as for the implementation of the FET curriculum. The new curriculum will offer new opportunities to senior level learners. The initial phased introduction must be adequately supported by us, and we must intensify our efforts to ensure our teachers and schools are ready. There are many schools where teachers are working hard to ensure that we succeed.

We must remember, though, that every change in South Africa is met with strong resistance because of its implications for positive progress. I have announced that we will proceed with the phased introduction of the FET curriculum, and already we see predictions of doom from the usual quarters. We have a solemn duty to ensure that we do not fail. We cannot fail our children.

I am sure the MECs are working in a focused manner to create success in this policy move. For the first time all children in our country will do maths up to Grade 12 - for the first time. [Applause.] Opportunities to study scarce subjects will be increased over time, and our schools will eventually become centres of talent and diverse opportunity for all our learners.

This policy shift will not be easy, but we cannot continue with the present confusing arrangement. Our biggest challenge is this one of successfully introducing the FET curriculum. We intend, as well, to ensure that we proceed to introduce the revised curriculum into the junior phases of schooling. We will introduce the Grade 6 Revised National Curriculum Statement, RNCS, in 2006. We are looking at the possibility of preparing to introduce the RNCS in Grades 8 and 9 in 2007, because they both occur at the secondary school level, and therefore it would make sense to introduce them across the two grades instead of waiting and approaching this in a staggered manner.

Secondly, our support for reading continues throughout the curriculum. The policy on school libraries will be developed, and we will provide an increased allocation to Masifunde Sonke, so that together we signal our pursuit of the goal of building a reading nation. I have also instructed our department to find ways of ensuring that every classroom has some books in it – 100 books of fiction, simply for pleasure, for fun, for our children to enjoy. [Applause.]

Thirdly, the tenders for the conversion of the first 30 schools to become “full-service schools” have been awarded, and we will soon see children overcoming many of the historical barriers to learning, including physical impediments.

Fourthly, we have conducted an evaluation of children at Grade 6 level in the fields of maths, science and language. I hope we will have the final report at the end of June, but already we are seeing indications that many of our children are still underachieving and that much more needs to be done to ensure that learning occurs.

We have signed a protocol with the Minister of Sport and Recreation on the issue of organising school sport and working to promote sport and a healthy nation. We have also worked hard to ensure that the FET college sector comes into its own in South Africa. Our thanks must be given to business, and particularly the Business Trust and the organisations that support it, for their interest and support to the FET sector. I am also excited by the investment of the Umsobomvu Youth Fund in a number of our FET colleges and in critical training programmes for young people in South Africa.

In closing, I would like to deliver some messages to the members, as well as to the people of our country. I would like to begin by saying in isiXhosa: Wonke umzali onabantwana kufuneka aqinisekise ukuba abantwana bayasihamba isikolo, kananjalo bayawenza umsebenzi wabo wesikolo ngelixa besesikolweni. [Every parent who has children must make sure that they attend school, and that they do their class work when they are at school.]

NgesiZulu ngithi: Imiphakathi kumele ivikele iphinde yeseke izikole zethu, njengezindawo ezivundulula zibuye zithuthukise amakhono ezingane zethu. [In isiZulu I am saying: The communities must protect and support our schools as places where the skills of our children are discovered and developed.]

Barutabana ba tshwanetse go netefatsa gore bana ba a ithuta le go fitlhelela bokgoni. Ba tshwanetse go nna kwa sekolong, kwa tirong, go tlhabolola maemo a bokgoni jwa setšhaba sa rona, ka gonne ga re di bone dilo tse di direga. [Teachers should ensure that students learn so that they could reach their potential. They should also ensure that they remain at school, working, and to improve the skills level of our nation because at the moment this is not happening.]

Re kopa hore ba ka sehloohong ditabeng tse amanang le thuto, ba tshwanetse hoba le seabo ka botlalo. Ba ise dibuka dikolong ka nako. Ba tshehetse dikolo ka tjhelete nako e sa le teng, mme ba etse bonnete ba hore mesuwe le mesuwetsana e kenngwa mesebetsing le ho iswa moo e hlokahalang teng. [Ditlatse.] [We appeal to authorities in educational affairs to take part fully, deliver books to schools on time, subsidise schools timeously and ensure that teachers are employed and deployed where they are needed.] [Applause.]]

NgeSiswati sitsi: Bantfwana bafanele kusebenta kamatima futsi bati kutsi imphumelelo ibita kutsi bakhutsale. [In Siswati we say: Children must work hard and they should know that success comes at a cost.]

Kha ri shume rothe u bveledza lushaka lu gudaho na u takusa tshiimo tsha pfunzo. [Let’s work together to develop a learning nation and promote the status of education.]

A hi tirheni swin’we ku tumbuluxa rixaka leri dyondzaka ni ku tlakusa xiyimo xa dyondzo. [Let’s work together to develop a learning nation and promote the status of education.]

We conclude in Afrikaans: Elkeen van ons kan ’n ware verskil maak in die opvoeding van ons kinders. Baie dankie, Voorsitter. [Applous.] [Each one of us can make a real difference in the education of our children. Thank you, Chairperson. [Applause.]]

The DEPUTY CHAIRPERSON OF COMMITTEES: Order, hon members! Thank you very much, hon Minister. I will take this opportunity to welcome our guests. I was a bit cautious, hon Minister, because there are quite a number of people in the public gallery, not just to welcome students, because there are probably other important people. I do not know who they are. Suffice it to say that everybody in the public gallery is welcomed to this historic budget policy debate of education - the first in the second decade of our democracy. I am sure all of us have listened quite attentively to the statement of the Minister, which seeks to map out a vision of where we will be taking our education in the next five years.

Mr B J TOLO: Ka Sepedi re re: Bana ba swanetše gore ba ithute. [In Sepedi we say: Children are supposed to learn.]

Chairperson, hon Minister and Deputy Minister, hon MECs present here today, hon members, friends and compatriots, there is a saying that goes: “A little learning is a dangerous thing; drink deep, or taste not the Pierian Spring, for little draughts intoxicate the brain, but largely drinking sobers us again”.

The only tool that will propel us all out of underdevelopment, poverty and squalor is education. Without this any nation will be perpetually condemned and forever to go to developed nations cap in hand. Investment in education is a guarantee for a bright future. It is for that reason that the education budget in this country took a great leap from a mere R31,8 billion in 1994 to R123 billion in 2005. This is almost 6% of the gross domestic product. Compared to other developing countries we rank among the best, although we still feel that more needs to be given to education.

In the past 10 years the Department of Education has piloted laws and developed policies that have put our education system on the correct path. What is and will be on the agenda in this second decade will be to improve quality, access and equity, as the Department of Education has itself indicated publicly. As a committee we are saying you can bank on our support in realising your noble goals. From 1994 to date the department has won many battles in the struggle to provide our people with quality education. The point, however, is to win the entire war.

The victories of the department of education, together with the provinces registered in the last 10 years, are unparalleled: From the dismantling of racist apartheid education, that condemned the majority of our people to perpetual strife, to the creation of a system that is geared to mould our children to become fully developed citizens, patriotic and ready to participate in the development of their own country.

We commend the department for a job well done. Indeed, the doors of learning and culture are open. However, the path ahead is not strewn with roses as we endeavour to realise a South Africa characterised by high technological and scientific skills needed by our economy, a South Africa where illiteracy and backwardness will be banished with all their ramifications. The fact that the phenomena of overcrowding in classrooms, children under trees, low pass rates, shortages of teachers, especially those of Maths and Science, etc, are still rampant is an indication that we have not yet reached the mountain tops, although your department has programmes in place to deal with these challenges.

My comrades that will follow me will deal at length with some of the challenges, whilst I will only take a cursory look at some of them. We said in the past debates, as we saying now, that adult basic education is a prerequisite for development. Illiteracy is a legacy that we inherited, and it has become a factor in the decisive advancement of our country. Hitherto provinces do not seem to have taken this seriously.

Our interaction with communities and stakeholders in the provinces clearly indicates that this programme has been a Cinderella. But we must hasten to say that we are pleased to see that in this financial year the national Department of Education has put some sizeable amounts of money aside to expand this programme. We call upon provinces to budget adequately for this programme, lest we remain forever on the periphery of development.

We welcome the fact that the Departments of Education and of Public Works are in discussion to address the problem of infrastructure backlog in schools. In the same vein it is our considered view that there will be no universal remedy or a quick fix for this problem. We believe that provinces will go a long way in addressing these problems if they can engage the services of some of the big private sector companies involved in construction. Public Works can supervise to see to it that government standards are maintained.

We say this mindful of the fact that there are government policies that are meant to affirm the previously disadvantaged. But this is not business as usual. It is in our view a crisis situation that needs to be addressed, even if we have to use extraordinary means. We also agree with the view that the Department of Education cannot wholly depend on the Department of Public Works for technical know-how when it comes to provisioning of school infrastructure. They need to have their own civil engineers and other relevant skills so that they can engage Public Works on these important aspects and will be able to operate on the same wavelength.

The policy to exempt the lower quintiles from school fees in our public schools is a victory for our people. School fees have always been an albatross around the necks of our parents out there. Although the position has always been that no child must be refused access on account of school fees, certain schools have always used school fees to deter children from attending schools. This therefore will allow greater access and we commend the department for this bold move.

Schools need to be well resourced for them to function optimally, but practice has shown that resources alone are not a panacea. There are schools in most remote areas, especially in Limpopo, and I am sure the MEC of Limpopo will be in a position to attest to this – that have put to shame some of the former Model C schools with all their resources in terms of quality of the results of their matric last year. This, therefore, means that there is a subject factor at play. A well-managed school without adequate resources can perform better.

We believe that government needs a tool to redeploy principals of schools that continuously underperform in spite of programmes that are put in place to help them. We cherish an ideal where the medium of instruction at all levels of schooling will be the child’s mother tongue. We are heartened by the fact that other countries like Tanzania, after decolonisation, developed their own indigenous language, which is Swahili, and today this language is the medium of instruction up to university level.

A study co-ordinated by the Human Sciences Research Council in 2002 showed that students who do subjects like Maths and Science in their mother tongue perform better than those who do these subjects in a second language. We therefore urge that the development of our indigenous language move into the fast lane so that we realise our ideal not in the very far distant future, and we are happy that the Minister has actually addressed this, I think yesterday in the NA.

Another study by the same body, the Human Sciences Research Council, shows that about 56% of our teachers want out of the system. Among other reasons advanced is the fact that there is no job satisfaction. This is a worrying factor, as where there is no job satisfaction productivity will inevitably also go down. But we are pleased that government, and the Department of Education in particular, has in this financial year put money aside to improve the conditions of service of our teachers. We have no doubt in our minds that this would turn the situation around in the teaching fraternity.

Every time we have an opportunity to speak in this House we consistently raise the issue of the national school nutrition scheme. We will continue to do so until we are satisfied that this programme is addressed and addressed adequately. If provinces continue to project this very important service as business, and go the tender route so that it could be provided, we will attract sharks who are only interested in super-profits, rather than the wellbeing of our children. We do not understand why this scheme is centralised at provincial headquarters, when it can be devolved either to the districts or to the schools themselves.

We need to know what the rationale is when schools are given section 21 status, but at the same time we do not trust these very schools to be able to provide this important service. During the April/May constituency period I afforded myself the opportunity to visit some schools during eating time to actually see the menus and to chat to both teachers and children to get a hands-on impression as to what they think about this scheme. While they agree that it is a great thing that government has done for our children, they also strongly believe that it can be improved.

At the schools that I visited the children were fed pap and soya beans day in and day out. Some children are no longer eating, because they have had enough of these soya beans, whilst others brought their own relish, like “atjar”, and milk to eat the pap with. Next to one of the schools there is a taxi rank and at that taxi rank there was a truck selling vegetables, but the school cannot access those vegetables. When the principal and the teachers ask the people who deliver the food for a change of menu, they would be told that they have no contract with the school but they have the contract with the Department of Education. The school is unable to start a vegetable garden due to a shortage of water in the area.

The situation we are describing above is not an exception to the rule, but it is the norm, as it happens in many other provinces. When we visited the Eastern Cape, we found that in some schools children are fed biscuits day in and day out. Our appeal, therefore, to provinces is that schools and communities should creatively even stretch the rand to feed the children, as there will be no middle man who takes some of the money as his profit. The menus will be varied to the advantage of the children. If the provincial departments have entered into long contracts with some service providers they must look for an escape clause so that they could get out of those contracts to give this scheme to the schools themselves to provide the food.

Brazil runs the biggest nutrition scheme in the world as it feeds about 38 million children. What impressed us most about their scheme is that all levels of government are actually participating in the scheme, and that each and every local authority contributes about 25% of their income to the very scheme. Obviously Brazil has a bigger economy than South Africa, but we think we can learn a lot from this type of situation.

In general we as a committee and as the ANC support this department unreservedly. We have no doubt that the Minister and her team are hard at work further to open the doors of learning and culture in an endeavour to better the lives of our people. We must all work together until we realise a situation where we would all be in a position to say, like the Russians: “один для всех и для одного”. [One for all and all for one.] I thank you. [Applause.]

Mr M A TSOPO (Free State): Chairperson of the NCOP, hon Minister Pandor, hon Deputy Minister, colleagues in education, hon NCOP members, ladies and gentlemen, the hon Minister, Ms Pandor, addressed key issues in our education system during her budget speech today. In support of her speech I will highlight some, but not all the issues due to the time allocated to me.

The Free State department of education has formulated a comprehensive strategy, called Operation Jack-Up, in which 25 priorities and areas of intervention have been identified. Allow me to focus on some of the priorities, not all of them, because 10 minutes is highly insufficient.

Firstly, we are focusing on the implementation of the new curriculum statement, we are improving school institution management and governance, teachers are being empowered in support of the new curriculum and bursaries are being awarded so that they could further their development. This is also aimed at eliminating the problem of underqualified and unqualified educators in the province.

We are also fostering a culture of effective learning and teaching to improve the performance of learners in all our grades. We are developing and fostering partnerships and collaborating with provincial, national and international stakeholders and donors, through the development of a partnership management strategy.

We are also improving risk and the internal control environment through a comprehensive strategy and relevant action plans, and also focusing on the weaknesses identified in the Auditor-General’s Report of 2004. A full investigation into our financial management system will be undertaken this financial year.

We will also be filling all posts in line with our equity targets, and implementing the infrastructure development plan to eliminate backlogs in classroom shortages and undesirable and unsafe learning environments. We will be expanding the reach of Adult Basic Education and Training through improvement in participation with other programmes, and ensure that other programmes support the Expanded Public Works Programme. We will be providing relevant and responsive quality equity learning opportunities by establishing effective monitoring mechanisms.

We are also developing a suitable curriculum and training programme for the pre-Grade R learners, in collaboration with the Flemish government and our sister government departments in the province, and implementing life skills and HIV and Aids programmes relating to all the employees in all the institutions, as well as in the workplace. This also involves collaborating with all the relevant stakeholders and role-players.

In pursuit of the objectives to foster partnerships, the department has held bilateral meetings with all our government departments in the province, so that we would be able to collaborate and share resources. A memorandum of agreement was concluded in April this year with the department of sport, agriculture, science and technology.

We have also identified several projects, which I am not going to mention due to time constraints, for collaboration with the department of social development, the department of public works, roads and transport, the department of public safety, security and liaison, together with our schools in the province, the department of health and the department of local government and housing.

The five-year sustainable infrastructure development plan of the department is aiming at providing access to basic education facilities and service through the elimination of backlogs and maintenance of the existing facilities, the elimination of platooning schools and overcrowding, as well as conditions where teaching and learning takes place in unsafe and unacceptable conditions. The department will begin this year with the construction of two new schools in Matjhabeng and Setsoto and the department will complete six other schools, which we commenced with last year. The upgrading, renovation and building of additional facilities will also be undertaken in this financial year to improve physical conditions at our schools in the province. We are also in the process of building 13 new schools through a public-private partnership, which will be completed by 2008.

The learner support programme is a combination of the learner transport project, the hostel project and the primary school nutrition programme, including the care of our orphans in the province.

Baithuti ba dikolo tsa mapolasing tse hlwailweng, ba nehwa bodulo dihosteleng tse sa sebedisweng hohang kapa tse sa sebedisweng haholo. Sena se ba neha monyetla wa ho ba hosteleng ho fihlela ba phethela sehlopha sa 12.

Nakong ya jwale, ho na le dihostele tse supileng tse sebediswang molemong wa baithuti ba dikolo tsa mapolasing, Freistata. Ho ntse ho lokela hore ho bulwe dihostele tse ding tse tharo hore re fihlele sepheo sa ho ba le dihostele tse pedi seterekeng ka seng.

Selemong sena lefapha le tla atolosa lenaneo la phepo ho barutwana kaofela ba dikolo tse tlase dibakeng tse neng di kotetswe nakong e fetileng, mme profensing ya rona re se re qadile ka dijo tse futhumetseng ho phethisa seo Modulasetulo, eo ke mo etellang pele ha jwale, a seng a buile ka sona. Sepheo ke ho thusa barutwana ba tsamayang sebaka se selelele ho ya dikolong.

Ka lenaneo lena, lefapha le ikemiseditse ho etsa bonnete ba hore bana bohle, ho kenyeletsa le ba dikolo tsa mapolasing, ba fumantshwa thuto ya boleng bo hodimo. Ha jwale, ke ditereke tse nne ho tse hlano tse kgolang molemo projekeng ya rona ya dipalangwang bakeng sa barutwana ba tsamayang dikilomitara tse fetang 21 ka hara profensi. Re ntse re nahana ka mokgwa o mong wa ho thusa bakeng sa setereke se seng sa rona se bitswang Xhariep, se ileng sa se kenyeletswe hobane ho ne ho sena batho ba kgonang ho fana ka tshebeletso eo seterekeng seo. (Translation of Sesotho paragraphs follows.)

[Farm students from identified schools are given residence in unused or partially used hostels. This gives them the opportunity to reside in the hostels until they finish Grade 12.

At the moment, there are seven hostels that are used by farm students for residential purposes in the Free State. We are still short of three more hostels to reach the target of two hostels per district.

This year, the department will extend the school-feeding programme to all primary schools in the previously disadvantaged areas, and in our province we have begun to give students warm food to fulfil what the Chairperson, whom I lead, has said. The aim is to assist the students who travel long distances to and from schools. With this programme, the department is intent on ensuring that all students, including farm students, receive education of a high quality. At the moment, there are four out of five districts that benefit from our transport project for students who travel more than 21 kilometres in the province. We are still working on a strategy to assist the other district, called Xhariep, which was included because there was no one who could render those services there.]

In alluding to the Freedom Charter, we are committed not only to opening the doors of learning and culture to all, but we also want to ensure access to quality education for all our learners in the province. The implementation of the national quintile to achieve equitable school funding for poor communities and the abolition of school fees for the first two poorest national quintiles in 2006 is our key objective.

As the Free State department of education, we have, however, decided to fund the two poorest quintiles to the amount of R516 per learner above the adequacy level in this academic year, 2005, to fully prepare ourselves for next year.

Re tlhomile letsholo la go phepafatsa dikole, go meka-mekana ka tsenelelo le maemo a a sa itumediseng a dikole dingwe tsa rona mo profensing, segolo bogolo kwa mafelong a a neng a sena ditshiamelo mo nakong e fetileng.

Re tlhomile semphato le South African Biodiversity Institution ka maitlamo a go ntlafatsa ka dijalo, dikole di le 20 tsa profensi ya Freistata. South African Biodiversity Institution e tlile gape go rotloetsa go jalwa ga ditlhare tsa selegae go ruta baagi ka kgokagano magareng ga tjalo ya ditlhare, phetogo ya tikologo, mekgwa le dinako tsa go na ga pula, tshilafatso ya loapi, jalo jalo.

Re tlhamile gape semphato le mafapha a mangwe a puso, jaaka Lefapha la Pusoselegae le Kago ya Matlo, bommasepala, Lefapha la Merero ya Tikologo le Bojanala, Lefapha la Merero ya Metsi le Tjalo ya Dikgwa go matlafatsa le go ntlafatsa dikole tsa rona mo profensing.

Barutwana le barutabana ba rona ba solofetse go itshola sentle go rotloetsa tswelelo e e tlhomameng ya dithuto, go ema Tona Pandor nokeng. Re le Lefapha la Thuto la Freistata, re ikuwela gore tsotlhe tse di amanang le thuto di tsamaisiwe ka tolamo. Bagokgo le ditlhopha tsa tsamaiso tsa dikole ba tshwanetse go dirisana mmogo go lolamisa maemo kwa dikoleng.

Makgotla-tsamaiso a dikole a tshwanetse go tlhoma melawana ya maitsholo a barutwana le go thusa dikole tsa bona mo mererong yotlhe ya pusiso. Barutabana ba tshwanetse go ikobela molawana wa maitsholo wa Kgotla- Barutabana ya Afrika Borwa. Re ikuwelela kwa baaging botlhe go tlhokomela dikole le ditheo tse dingwe tse di kwa mafelong a bona, jaaka karolo ya dithoto tsa bona. (Translation of Setswana paragraphs follows.)

[We have started a campaign to clean up schools and to tackle unsatisfactory conditions at some schools in the province, especially the places that were previously disadvantaged.

We have started a relationship with the South African Biodiversity Institution, with the aim of improving gardens at 20 schools in the Free State province. The South African Biodiversity Institution is going to encourage the planting of trees and teach the community about the link between the planting of trees, change of climate, kinds and times of rain, air pollution, etc.

We also started a relationship with other departments of government, like the Departments of Local Government, Housing, Home Affairs, the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism and the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry to empower and improve our schools in the province.

Teachers and learners promised to improve their behaviour to encourage good progress in their studies to support Minister Pandor. As the department of education in the Free State, we appeal that all that is relating to education must be dealt with according to the regulations. Principals and management teams of schools have to work together to improve conditions at schools.

School councils have to have a code of conduct for learners and assist with all the affairs relating to schools. Learners have to respect the code of conduct of the Council of Teachers of South Africa.

We appeal to the community to take care of schools and other institutions that are in their areas as if it is their personal property.]

In conclusion, in line with the ready-to-govern guidelines, we believe that education and training is a basic human right and that all individuals should have access to life-long education and training, irrespective of race, class, gender, creed, age, sexual orientation, physical or mental disability.

We can confidently state that we have improved access to schools and significantly improved equity. In some respect, we have only just begun the journey towards the full transformation of our schools. With all these strategies and interventions, we are clearly on the path to opening the doors of learning and culture for all in the province, in terms of the Freedom Charter. I support the Budget Vote of the Minister.

Pele ya pele, Mme Naledi. Diqi tsa hao re tla di sala morao, ho leng boima kapa ho leng hokae. Ke batla le ho re ho Modulasetulo, rona mane profensing ya Freistata ha re tshabe ho nka karolo e etsang hore bonnete bo etsahale. Ke a leboha. [Nako e fedile.][Mahofi.] (Translation of Sesotho paragraph follows.)

[Forwards ever, Madam Naledi. We shall follow in your footsteps, whether it is difficult or whatever. I want to add, Chairperson, that in the Free State province we are not afraid to participate to ensure that the goals are achieved. Thank you. [Time expired.] [Applause.]]

Ms H LAMOELA: Hon Chair, hon Ministers, hon members, there are several challenges education has to face. Education remains our largest single budgetary item, with primary school enrolment rates remaining steady and secondary school enrolment currently at approximately 85%.

However, serious challenges facing our government in the area of education is visible and certainly cannot be wished away. Some of these challenges are the tremendous impact of HIV/Aids on our teachers, as well as learners; teenage pregnancies; backlogs in the provision of classrooms or schools and the severe effect of crime in and around schools.

Crime undermines our goal of providing each and every child with a place of learning that is safe and comfortable. We should be working and co- operating at every level to ensure that violence is eliminated from our schools so that we can have places that are conducive to learning.

Daarom dan die vraag aan ons agb Minister of die Veilige Skole-program nie miskien hersien moet word om sodoende die hulpbronne op ’n meer gekoördineerde manier te kan gebruik nie. [Therefore the question posed to the hon Minister is whether the Safer Schools Programme should perhaps be reviewed so that resources could be utilised in a more co-ordinated manner.]

Security at schools is of utmost importance to learners and the department and educators, in co-operation with parents and communities, should ensure that violence is eliminated from our schools. It is the primary duty of our department to ensure that teaching takes place in a safe environment and that the wellbeing of teachers and learners is of the utmost importance.

On the national school nutrition programme the impact of the national school nutritional programme on keeping learners in schools cannot be minimised. Studies and research have shown how important school lunches are in terms of attendance, particularly when supplied on a regular basis, significantly reducing drop-out and failure rates. Yet to a greater extent it is a dismal failure due to the department’s continued delay in paying service providers, who eventually withdraw their services.

This is in contrast with the aim of the department to, firstly, alleviate short-term hunger; secondly, enhance active learning capacity and thirdly, improve school attendance, especially in our rural areas. Approved menus were followed, but non-compliance with quality and feeding time has been identified. The food safety standards have not been compiled with fully as the majority of targeted schools have no preparation shelters or kitchens. Thorough monitoring of the projects and support are called for.

Outcomes-based education is still not up to standard, OBE demands individual attention by the educator and the teacher:pupil ratio is yet another worrying factor where OBE is concerned. The department needs to evaluate OBE to determine whether OBE has achieved what it was intended to. Educators need to be properly trained in mastering outcomes-based education. Schools also need to be equipped with the most needed resources such as libraries, etc, to enhance performance. Under-qualified teachers should be given time to improve their qualifications in order to allow them to compete in the teaching arena. Training of teachers should be spread over long periods seeing that one cannot equip or develop able practitioners in a short space of time. I firmly believe that qualified educators and overall quality of teaching and management produces good schools. The lack of specialists in inclusive schools still remains a serious problem and should be attended to.

On transport, recently - and this is rather annoying - in Gauteng more than 2 000 or more pupils could not attend school one day due to non-payments of transport contractors by the department. The department’s failure to honour its contracts with transport companies is an embarrassment and should be rectified as this leads to the frustration of educators, managers, learners and communities because children tend to roam the streets and get involved in mischievous activities.

Educators’ salaries and incentives for educators should be revised and improved if the department is to avoid teachers from leaving the country to seek better jobs abroad. An education information website is long overdue and should be installed in order to serve as a resource for teachers.

In conclusion, I would like to say that we need to find constructive solutions to problems still hampering the advancement of education to ensure that the doors of learning are opening to all. I thank you. [Applause.]

Mr G A LUCAS (Northern Cape): Hon Chairperson, hon Minister and Deputy Minister, MECs and special delegates from provinces, permanent delegates of the NCOP, the last time I was here I was standing there when I wanted to speak and now I must come forward so there is quite an improvement in the NCOP, which shows that there is real improvement and I want to come back again.

On the 26th next month we shall celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Freedom Charter. We shall do so against the background of having improved access to education for most of our children, thus bringing into fruition the assertion that the doors of learning and culture shall be opened to all. We shall continue with our endeavours to open even wider the doors of learning and culture and to further undo the damage created by apartheid education. Our key goals in post-apartheid education remain equity, quality, access and redress.

We have been successful in all these areas, but our greatest success has been in transforming education from a sector serving a privileged few to a sector serving all our people. In response to the Minister’s call last year, we as a province are in a fortunate position because we do not have learners receiving education under trees.

However, the province has a number of structures that are not conducive to delivery of quality education, which is how we regard learning under trees. We have 33 non-brick schools, which translate into 439 classrooms and three of these schools are constructed from asbestos panels. The remaining 30 schools are constructed from materials such as pressboards and fibre cement panels. We have therefore planned a five-year strategy to completely eradicate school infrastructure backlog in the province.

We have also since the beginning of this current financial year started the process of ensuring that all our learners have access to clean water and sanitation and in this regard I can ask the committee to come and visit the Northern Cape and it will find no school without water and proper sanitation.

The other area of great challenge is our FET college and in this regard the process of recapitalisation is going on and we are addressing issues as it relates to the curriculum offered by our colleges as it relates to our provincial growth and development strategy, but more importantly its relations to the various municipal IDPs. To this extent we are confident that our province’s two FET colleges will use the R50 million for situational analysis to ensure that the curriculums of the FET colleges are able to address these issues. What we want is that young people should not look at the FET colleges as their last choice, but as their first choice because of the programmes that they will be offering.

The other area of great improvement and the need that we are giving attention to is the improvement of learner achievement in the province across the entire system. Therefore we are moving away from the notion that learner improvement can only be measured by the Grade 12 results and that we need to look at the progress of our learners from Grade R to Grade 12 and see what is happening to our children in the whole schooling system. Accordingly we have a learner improvement plan in place that we are going to implement from Grade R to Grade 3 in the first three years and Grade 10 to Grade 12 in the very first three years to see how this particular programme is working, to ensure that all our educators and learners are able to perform to their best potential in the coming years.

I will also in the same vein like to mention – and also to invite the Chairperson - that we don’t need to go to Brazil to see how the school nutrition programme is working. The Northern Cape has a very effective school nutrition programme in place, which is run by our parents in all 429 schools and all of them are receiving a stipend on a monthly basis and they give our children nutritional food. Brazil is too far, the Northern Cape is just around the corner.

What this programme does is that it provides our children both at primary and secondary school with basic nutrition that is nutritional and healthy at all times. Like the hon member of the DA was saying, with the school nutrition programme in place, the number of learners in our schools continue to increase, especially in farming and rural communities. We are not looking at school nutrition programmes as a means to provide our children with food, but as a nutritional value and health supplement to ensure that they indeed learn under good conditions.

Many of our schools and our teachers and learners continue to perform far beyond their widest imaginations, despite the most trying and desperate conditions under which some of them operate. Through their performance they continue to assert that our forward march towards excellence and a quality educational system is becoming increasingly irreversible. They continue to defy formidable odds to emerge as the pride of our province. In order for us to maintain this momentum we will continue to make sure that learner support materials are delivered on time, and that the problem of 3% of schools not receiving their learner support material on time at the opening of the schools this year will be eliminated in the next financial year. We will continue to ensure that textbooks and stationery reach our schools by the end of each year before the schools open in the new year.

If effective teaching and learning is to take place right from the first day, we must be able to make sure that resources reach our schools on time. Therefore, as a province we have looked at addressing the issue of temporary educators, which is creating a problem in the context of ensuring that on the first day all our learners have access to an educator who is able to assist them in their learning and teaching.

The other important area to ensure quality education is our educators and to this extent extensive training is being undertaken to ensure that they are ready with regard to the curriculum roll-out. I am pleased to announce that training in this regard has already commenced and will be going on for the coming two years. We are also pleased that over 80% of our schools offer mathematics, science and technology. This bodes well for our programme of science and technology strategy and our Dinaledi schools are beginning to show real progress in the manner in which they are providing science and technology especially to our disadvantaged learners.

This steady increase in the number of learners offered maths and science has been encouraging indeed. This year alone about 50% of the total number of matric candidates will be studying for maths and science and will be writing maths and science towards the end of the year.

The training and reskilling of our maths and science educators continue to receive the necessary attention as we seek to develop and improve the skills base of our province. Therefore we will continue to give detailed attention to the issue of maths, science and technology.

In line with the objectives of the education White Paper, paper 7, of having all schools provided with computers and Internet facilities by 2014, we are pleased to state that computer laboratories have been installed at 277 schools throughout the province and have access to the Internet.

Earlier this month, in collaboration with our partners in the private sector, we installed an additional 20 computers at rural schools and to this extent we are left with only 60 schools without access to computers and the Internet. We have budgeted that by the end of this financial year all our schools should have access to computers and the Internet and therefore they will be able to interact with their MEC and Minister directly, without going to the Post Office to post a letter. We intend to ensure that the private sector partnerships that we have we are able to reach this particular objective.

The challenges that we need to continue to confront in our second decade of freedom are challenges of access by the poor and most vulnerable in our society. We will therefore continue to give greater attention to detail in this particular area of our work. And in this regard the province fully supports the Minister’s call that from next year on certain particular schools, especially in quintile 1, should be exempt from paying school fees so that the majority of our people could have access to our schools.

We as a province have also started engaging Salga in the province to ensure that we look critically at the services rendered by our municipalities, especially as it relates to rates and services levied at schools. Our view is that schools can’t be charged the same amount as businesses and therefore they have no additional resources to spend on learning and teaching material. Let me conclude by stating that the province has no agenda or intention of destroying any particular language, in particular Afrikaans. Our contention, however, is that language, culture, school fees or sporting codes should not be used to deny our people access to education, especially the poor from our public schools. To this extent let me state that the department has not declared all schools in the province dual-medium schools, as certain media commentators and politicians have said. To this extent we will continue to support the initiatives to ensure that all our languages, in particular the indigenous languages in our province, are taught and receive the necessary respect and dignity with regard to this particular issue. Thank you very much, Chair. [Applause.]

Mr S B NGIDI (KwaZulu-Natal): Hon Chair, hon Minister, colleagues in the NCOP, may I first congratulate the Minister on her linguistic excellence. Where we come from, KwaZulu-Natal, we can only speak isiZulu. We envy people who are able to speak as many of these African languages as you do. You are truly a South African person.

The matter that I would like to bring forward is that you, hon Minister, would begin to look at protecting those whom I would call “the weak” in our education system. We still find in our province, either because of the rural nature of the province or because of HIV and Aids, that some of the learners don’t find themselves on the way to school. We don’t seem to have in our system a way of forcing communities to send their children to school. Coupled with that, you find that there are those who do go to school but their parents die while they are still at an early age and therefore more especially the girls are made to leave school and take care of their siblings or their ailing parents. We do have this particular situation, which is aggravated by HIV and Aids. Children therefore leave school at a very early age.

This tells me that the system of education itself is actually bleeding and haemorrhaging. This happens, for instance in KwaZulu-Natal, where we have 2,7 million learners in the whole system. We have only 110 000 of them in Grade 10. It shows that less than 20% of our learners move out of the system before they even reach the age at which they can legally leave school, and that is when they turn 15 or get to Grade 9. So, this is a systemic thing, which we really need to begin to look at so that we could help to open the doors of learning to the disadvantaged pupils in particular.

I do agree with you, Minister, and with the injunction by the President, that we should not allow a situation where we have learners under trees, as of last year. There are attempts in the province and money has been provided in the province to look into this particular matter. But we still do have, as I speak, those unfortunate learners who are still receiving their education under such unbecoming circumstances. For them life is very difficult. So, we need to look into those particular matters.

One other thing that I want to talk about is the school governing bodies. Most schools would aspire to move towards attaining section 21 status. The main reason for most of these schools to move towards section 21 status is because if they’re in section 20 they could be made to receive service from accredited service providers that are accredited by departments. In most cases, those accredited service providers charge an arm and a leg for whatever services they provide. I mean, even when they need to buy brooms from the list of these accredited service providers, it becomes very expensive. They can see that if they could go to an open market they could get these things at a reasonable price. Therefore, they then apply and aspire towards attaining section 21 status. But it does not work, because on one side the level of skill of those governing bodies to be able to handle the requirements of section 21 status leaves much to be desired.

When schools opened we went to a certain area in uMsinga and asked the principals there whether they had received the learner support materials, and they said they had not yet received the learner support materials. We ultimately found out that they were in the section 21 status situation. Therefore, they do have money and they could have provided these materials out of the moneys with which the department provided them, but then, the level at which they have been trained and skilled is such that it does not help the education system to arbitrarily give section 21 status to schools where the governing bodies are not really equipped to be able to handle the pressures of section 21 status.

Lastly, hon Minister, we would like to support the endeavours that you are coming up with to steer this big ship and provide education for all our learners in the country. I thank you. [Applause.]

Mnr M A SULLIMAN: Agb Voorsitter, agb Minister, agb Adjunkminister, lede van die Huis, LUR’e teenwoordig, dit is inderdaad vir my ’n besondere voorreg om in hierdie Huis deel te hê aan hierdie onderwysbegrotingsdebat - besonders in die sin dat beide die agb Minister en die Adjunkminister gewese ampsdraers hier was en hulle nie net onderskei het nie, maar ook hoë standaarde gestel het.

As politici en burgers in Suid-Afrika ondervind ons tans tye van genoegdoening en ook tye van uitdaging. As die ANC ervaar ons die afgelope 10 jaar enersyds tye van absolute euforie en andersyds tye van kommer betreffende die diepliggende nalatenskap van apartheid en kolonialisme. Anders as wat egter verwag word en verwag is, het ons met duidelike, deurdagte beleid en programme die basis gelê vir die soete vrugte wat ons tans geniet in die onderwysbestel, wat steeds enorme uitdagings bied.

As die ANC word ons natuurlik gelei deur ’n revolusionêre program, by name van die Vryheidsmanifes, waarvan ons op 26 Junie die vyftigjarige bestaan sal vier. Hierdie Vryheidsmanifes, vir die oningeligtes, lê dan ook vir ons as ’n politieke beweging kritieke take uit, selfs al is dit 50 jaar gelede goedgekeur.

In die geval van onderwys het ons as regering van die dag ’n ondubbelsinnige, oorweldigende mandaat van ons mense gekry om transformasie deur te voer en ons programme en beleid te implementeer. Hierdie mandaat word ook onderskryf in ons kontrak met die mense om armoede te beveg en om werk te skep.

Die uitstaande kenmerk van die begroting voor hierdie Huis vandag is eerstens die feit dat dit getrou bly aan ons beleidsdokumente, wat natuurlik die ontwikkeling van ons menslike hulpbronne as hoofdoel het, en tweedens dat dit ’n versnelling teweeg bring in soverre dit die implementering betref. Ons het geen twyfel nie dat beide hierdie doelstellings ons bewapen vir die tegnologiese en wetenskaplike uitdagings en ekonomiese eise wat ons tweede dekade van vryheid in Suid-Afrika gaan bied.

Sentraal in hierdie saak, is die Nasionale Strategie vir Wiskunde, Wetenskap en Tegnologie. As ons ’n terugblik doen, word ons herinner aan wat president Thabo Mbeki reeds in sy parlementêre openingsrede in 2000 gesê het:

Special attention will need to be given to the compelling evidence that the country has a critical shortage in mathematics, science and language teachers, and to the demands of the new information and communication technologies.

In hierdie geval is die Naledi-skole dan ’n sprekende voorbeeld van die nasionale departement se doelgerigtheid om die lae vlakke van sukses van hierdie vakgebiede, veral onder histories agtergeblewe leerders in die stelsel, aan te spreek. Meer nog, dit is dan inderdaad inspirerend om te weet dat die departement tans besig is om die Naledi-skole uit te brei en dit na alle uithoeke van ons land te neem.

Ons verneem ook dat, behalwe wiskunde, wiskundige geletterdheid ook deel van die nuwe kurrikulum sal wees. Dit op sigself is ’n welkome verwikkeling – welkom in die sin dat dit aan duisende leerders die kans sal bied om die vrese vir wiskunde te bemeester en te oorkom. Dit sal ook baie mense in volwasse geletterdheidsprogramme die geleentheid bied om ’n basiese begrip van wiskunde te hê en sodoende basiese vaardighede vir die alledaagse transaksies te verwerf.

Teen hierdie agtergrond is dit ook duidelik dat die sensitiewe kwessie van opvoederontwikkeling bespoedig moet word. Dit is algemene kennis dat die werwing en retensie van voldoende getalle gekwalifiseerde, kundige opvoeders ’n geweldige uitdaging bied vir ’n landelike provinsie soos die Noord-Kaap, selfs meer so aangesien die “bright boys, big city”-sindroom ál meer sy tol sal eis.

Jong gegradueerdes, met die jongste kennis van die leerplanne, keer eenvoudig nie terug na hulle provinsies van herkoms nie, met die gevolg dat die ouer en minder kundige opvoeders voor die eise van transformasie en die evolusie van die kurrikulum gestel word, en óf weier om dit die hoof te bied óf eenvoudig net te maak asof hy dit doen.

Die Minister se aankondiging betreffende die nuwe taalbeleid in skole is een wat ons met entoesiasme begroet en na ons mening beslis verhaas moet word. Soos die agb Minister bewus is, dien daar tans ’n paar sake voor die hof in die Noord-Kaap wat verreikende gevolge vir onderwys in die provinsie kan hê.

Hier moet ’n mens ’n bietjie stilstaan. Dit is ’n feit dat daar in die vorige bedeling slegs twee tale bevoordeel is, en die tyd het aangebreek dat die ander tale ook aan boord geneem moet word. Die media en sommige van ons kollegas wil dan spekuleer asof Afrikaans kwansuis nou in die see gegooi gaan word, wat ’n infame leuen is. Ek wil dit laat boekstaaf: geeneen van ons het ooit gesê Afrikaans is nie ook ’n amptelike taal in Suid-Afrika nie, maar die klem moet tans val op die ander nege tale wat nooit aandag geniet het nie. Daardie tale moet ook op die voorgrond geplaas word.

’n Saak wat seker ’n baie netelige een vir ons as openbare ampsdraers is, is die kwessie van skoolvervoer. Met ons oorsigwerk as komitee in die verskillende provinsies het ons ondervind dat daar vervoerprobleme in sommige van die skole is. Ons sien hierdie as ’n uitdaging vir ons provinsies en hierdie aangeleentheid behoort aandag te geniet. Ek wil graag voorstel dat hierdie aangeleentheid sy weg moet vind na die agenda van die agb Minister en haar provinsiale ampsgenote.

Ter afsluiting, ons het kennis geneem van die kritiek en selfs subtiele dreigemente op die Minister se rigtinggewende aankondigings, maar as die ANC is ons doelstelling hoofsaaklik histories van aard, naamlik om die onderwys te transformeer en ’n instrument vir die totale bevryding van ons mense te maak. Ons gaan ons, in ons pogings om hierdie doelstellings te bereik, nie aan bande laat lê of laat intimideer deur mense met agteruitwaartse neigings nie. Ons doen daarom ’n beroep op alle rolspelers om hande te vat en uit te reik, want slegs as ons saamwerk, sal ons die wa deur die drif trek. Ke a leboga! Enkosi! [Ek dank u!] [Applous.] (Translation of Afrikaans speech follows.)

[Mr M A SULLIMAN: Hon Chairperson, hon Minister, hon Deputy Minister, members of the Council, MECs present here, it is indeed a special privilege for me to participate in this debate on the Education Budget Vote in this House, a special privilege in the sense that both the hon Minister and the Deputy Minister were office-bearers here in the past and not only distinguished themselves, but also set high standards.

As politicians and citizens of South Africa, we are at present experiencing times of satisfaction as well as times of challenge. As the ANC we have been experiencing times of absolute euphoria on the one hand and times of concern regarding the deep-rooted legacy of apartheid and colonialism on the other hand during the past 10 years. However, contrary to what is being expected and what was expected, we established with a clearly considered policy and programmes the foundation for the sweet fruits that we are currently enjoying in the education dispensation, which still presents enormous challenges.

As the ANC we are, of course, guided by a revolutionary programme called the Freedom Charter, and on 26 June we will celebrate its fiftieth anniversary. This Freedom Charter, for the sake of the uninformed, sets out critical tasks for us as a political party, even though it was adopted 50 years ago.

In the case of education we, as the government of the day, received an unequivocal, overwhelming mandate from our people to carry through transformation and to implement our programmes and policy. This mandate is also endorsed in our contract with the people to fight poverty and create jobs.

The outstanding feature of the budget before this Council today is, firstly, the fact that it stays true to our policy documents, which, of course, have the development of our human resources as its main objective, and, secondly, that it expedites its implementation. We have no doubt that both these objectives equip us for the technological and scientific challenges and economical demands that our second decade of freedom in South Africa is going to present.

Central to this issue is the National Strategy for Mathematics, Science and Technology. If we look back, we are reminded of what President Thabo Mbeki said in his opening speech back in 2000:

Special attention will need to be given to the compelling evidence that the country has a critical shortage in mathematics, science and language teachers, and to the demands of the new information and communication technologies.

In this case, then, the Naledi schools are a striking example of the national department’s determination to address the low levels of success in these subjects, especially amongst historically deprived learners in the system. Furthermore, it is indeed inspiring to know that the department is expanding the Naledi schools and at present taking them to all the corners of our country.

We also hear that, apart from mathematics, mathematical literacy will also be part of the new curriculum. This in itself is a welcome development, welcome in the sense that it will give thousands of learners the opportunity to master and overcome the fear of mathematics. It will also offer many people in adult literacy programmes the opportunity to acquire a basic understanding of mathematics and thus to acquire basic skills for everyday transactions.

Against this background it is also clear that the sensitive issue of the development of educators must be expedited. It is common knowledge that the recruitment and retention of adequate numbers of qualified, expert educators present an enormous challenge for a rural province such as the Northern Cape, even more so since the “bright boys, big city” syndrome will increasingly take its toll.

Young graduates with the latest knowledge of the syllabuses simply do not return to the provinces they came from, with the result that the older and less skilled educators face the demands of transformation and the evolution of the curriculum, and either refuse to overcome it or simply pretend to be doing so.

The Minister’s announcement regarding the new language policy in schools is one we hail with enthusiasm and in our view it should definitely be expedited. As the hon Minister knows, there are a few court cases in the Northern Cape at present that could have far-reaching results for education in the province.

Here one has to pause for a while. It is a fact that in the previous dispensation only two languages were prioritised, and the time has come for other languages to be taken on board as well. The media and some of our colleagues even want to speculate that Afrikaans would ostensibly be tossed into the sea now, which is a downright lie. I want to have it put on record: None of us has ever said that Afrikaans was not also an official language in South Africa, but at the moment emphasis must be placed on the other nine languages that never received attention. Those languages must also be brought to the forefront.

A matter which is probably a very thorny issue for us as public office bearers is the question of school transport. With our oversight work as committee in the various provinces we have found that there are transport problems in some of the schools. We regard this as a challenge for our provinces, and attention should be given to this matter. I would like to suggest that this matter should find its way onto the agenda of the hon Minister and her provincial counterparts.

In conclusion, we have taken note of the criticism and even subtle threats regarding the Minister’s direction-giving announcements, but as the ANC our purpose is mainly of a historical nature, namely to transform education and make it an instrument for the total liberation of our people. In our efforts to achieve these aims we will not let ourselves be hampered or intimidated by people with backward tendencies. For this reason we appeal to all role-players to take hands and reach out, because only when we work together will we be able to pull the wagon through the drift. Ke a leboga! Enkosi! [Thank you!] [Applause.]]

Nkk J N VILAKAZI: Sihlalo ohloniphekileyo, mhlonishwa Ngqongqoshe woMnyango, amalungu onke ahloniphekile ale Ndlu, siphethe udaba olubaluleke kakhulu impela okuyisabiwomali soMnyango wezeMfundo. Lokhu engizothi qaphu qaphu ngakho kuthintana ngqo nesifundazwe sami iKwaZulu-Natali, yize noma inkinga yethu ingehlukile kangako kwezinye izifundazwe. Esikhathini esincane enginaso ngizokha nje phezulu okumbalwa okudinga ukubhekisiswa uMnyango wezeMfundo ukuze kulunge isimo emfundweni yabantabethu.

Okokuqala, angibonge koNgqongqoshe beMfundo kanye noMnyango ekusukumeleni ukufakwa kolimi lwendabuko emfundweni yabantwana bethu kuze kuyofika ebangeni eliphakeme. Sithi halala boNgqongqoshe boMnyango! Halala! Ngqongqoshe, yibambe futhi uyibambe ngakho. Okwesibili, KwaZulu-Natali sidinga isabiwomali esithe xaxa ukufeza lo msebenzi kwazise phela ukuthi kunomsebenzi omkhulu odingekayo ukuthi wenziwe, ukuze kuthuthukiswe ulimi lwethu lwendabuko obese lushabalala sikhona.

Okwesithathu, maqondana nesigungu sesikole – sebeshilo ozwakwethu abanye – okuthiwa phecelezi “school governing bodies” kufanele uMnyango wezeMfundo ubhidlange ulungise isimo kulo mkhakha. Abantu abawazi umsebenzi abawukhethelwe. Akube futhi nemali yokubafundisa umsebenzi wabo ukuze kulunge izinto, ikakhulu emakhaya. Izikole okwakungezabamhlophe bodwa, nkosi yami, azishintshe phela kukhombise ukuthi sekuxube izinhlanga kulesi sigungu, akusebona bodwa abamhlophe. Akwenzekile lokhu Ngqongqoshe. Njengoba ngithi bhidlanga nje, ake nibhidlange ngempela khona nizobona ukuthi akwenzekile. UMnyango unomsebenzi omkhulu wokulungisa lesi simo. Siyakhala impela Ngqongqoshe.

Okwesine, mayelana nabantwana ezikoleni – sebeshilo ozakwethu – kudingeka imali ethe xaxa kulo mkhakha ukuze abantwana abesweleyo emindenini bathole umsoco. Ukudla akube nomsoco emzimbeni ukuze abantwana bafunde kahle. Sike saya e-Brazil lapho sibone khona into enhle kabi. Ingane efundayo akusho lutho ukuthi ikuliphi ibanga, ingakanani nokuthi iphumaphi kodwa iyadla. Lokhu kwenzeka kuwona wonke amazinga. (Translation of isiZulu paragraphs follows.)

[Mrs J N VILAKAZI: Hon Chairperson, Hon Minister of the department, hon members of this House, we are dealing with the important issue of the Budget Vote for education. What am I about to say deals directly with KwaZulu-Natal province, though our problems do not differ from problems experienced by other provinces. In this little time allocated to me I will try to highlight some of the things that need to be considered by the education department to create conditions conducive to the education of children.

Firstly, I would like to thank the Ministers of education for ensuring that an African language is included in the curriculum of our children up to the tertiary level. We are saying: Congratulations to you, Ministers of education! Congratulations! You should carry on like that, Minister.

Secondly, KwaZulu-Natal needs an increased budget to carry out the mammoth task that needs to done with regard to the improvement of our indigenous language, which is facing extinction.

Thirdly, with regard to the governing bodies - other speakers have already indicated that the department of education should work hard in this field. People who are elected do not know their duties. Funds must be set aside to train them, especially in rural areas, so that work is done properly. The previously white schools only have to change to show the diversity of these bodies. This has not happened. I have indicated that you should work hard, work hard indeed so that you can see that it has not happened. The department has a duty to change this situation. We are indeed concerned.

Fourthly, in relation to children at school - my colleagues have said this

• an additional amount is needed so that needy children from poor families could be given food with vitamins. Food should have vitamins to enable the children to learn well. We have been to Brazil, where we saw wonderful things. Every schoolchild, regardless of grade, years and where he comes from, receives food. It happens in all spheres.]

This is a challenge to us all. The department can achieve a lot by ensuring that all children, regardless of their social status, are entitled to school nutrition, as is done in other countries such as Brazil, as I have mentioned.

Okwesihlanu, mayelana nokuvikeleka kothisha nabantwana, sekuvamile ukuzwa ngokudutshulwa kothisha esikoleni futhi besemsebenzini phambi kwabantwana. Kuthini lokho esizweni sonke na? Imali ayinakulinganiswa nempilo yomuntu. UMnyango uyadinga ukuba nesabiwomali esithe thuthu ngaphezu kukaxaxa ukwenza izikole zibe indawo ephephile. Abantwana besikole kudingeka bafunde endaweni ephephile ukuze bafunde kahle izifundo zabo, hhayi ukufunda bethuka izanya. Nothisha ngokunjalo, abanakufundisa kahle beqalaza izinswelaboya ezibaphanga ubucwebe namaselula abo phakathi emagcekeni esikole. Ukwakha kanye nokulungisa izindawo zokufunda kuyosithokozisa.

Kithi KwaZulu-Natali, uNgqongqoshe wezemfundo ethula isabiwomali usinike ithemba lokuqeda ukufundela ebunzimeni phansi kwezihlahla - useke washo uzakwethu kanye nabanye – nasekufundeleni emaxhibeni odaka oludilikayo okuthi uma kufika imvula kwemuke. Siyethemba ukuthi kuzofezeka lokhu. Inkinga izoba semalini yokufeza lokhu ncamashi. Isikhwama semali yokuxhasa abantwana abeswele imali yokuqhuba imfundo ephakeme, phelezi NSFAS, isabiwomali saso siyasibona ithe xaxa. Abantwana badinga ukuxhaswa kalula ngaphandle kokuthi ingane yehle yenyuka icela uxhaso noma kuthiwe kufuneka i-payslip yomzali. Usuke enenkinga lowo mzali. Ngakho abayithole kalula abantwana imali.

Kunenye inkinga edinga ukubhekelwa uMnyango, Ngqongqoshe omuhle. Othisha abathatha impesheni kuthatha iminyaka impesheni yabo bengayitholile. Bakhale, behle benyuka noma nathi sithi siyathintathinta ngezinye izindlela uthole ukuthi laba abasebenzayo bakhala ngokuthi kunomsebenzi omningi osasilele. Bakhala futhi ngokuthi baningi abangayitholile, kwabanye sekuphele iminyaka emithathu. Ake nibhukule. Bhukulani BoNgqongqoshe engibahloniphayo. (Translation of isiZulu paragraphs follows.)

[With regard to the safety of teachers and children, we have heard several reports about the shooting of teachers at school whilst on duty and in the presence of children. What does that mean to our nation? One cannot compare human life with money. The department needs an extended budget to make sure that schools are safe. Children have to be taught in a safe environment for them to do well in their studies rather than being in a state of suspense. The teachers cannot teach either whilst thinking about thugs who rob them of their cellular phones and necklaces on school premises. Building and repairing of school structures would be welcomed.

The minister of education in KwaZulu-Natal gave us hope when delivering the budget, saying that there will be no teaching under trees - as my colleagues have said as well - or teaching in classes made of mud, which are washed away by floods. We hope this will be achieved. The problem would be the money to carry out all this. We recognise that the budget to support the needy, known as NSFAS, has increased. It should be easy for students to access financial support, to avoid a situation where people travel up and down, and a parent’s payslip is demanded. Parents have problems. Students should therefore obtain funds easily.

There is also a problem that needs to be addressed by the Minister. It took years for retired teachers to get their pensions. They complain, going up and down, even when we try to help, only to find that we cannot help. Those who are working complain of unfinished work to be done. There are complaints by many people that they have not received it. Three years have passed in some cases. Please work hard. Work hard, hon Ministers.]

Every child, whether rich or poor, deserves better education facilities. The onus is on the department to remove all barriers to learning so that children learn with less stress in a conducive environment.

Thina be-IFP siyasivuma lesi sabiwomali esibekiwe. Sithi phambili boNgqongqoshe. Sibekile, nina seniyohluza ukuthi yikuphi enikwenzayo. Ngiyabonga. [Ihlombe.] [The IFP supports the budget that has been presented. We are saying: Forward, Ministers! We have presented our case and it is up to you to determine what you are doing.]

Mr C DUGMORE (Western Cape): Deputy Chair, hon Minister, Deputy Minister, my colleague MECs, including my colleague from the North West who has just received an urgent call . . . [Laughter.] . . . members of the House, friends and comrades, I think the impact of our Minister’s speech yesterday and also today is being felt, because what I heard in this House today for the first time was a member from the DA at least, if not specifically, supporting the Freedom Charter, and specifically supporting the clause of the Freedom Charter which relates to the opening of the doors of learning and culture. [Applause.]

I don’t even know if we have to look at it but, I think, Minister, you are obviously having an impact, because I’m sure all of us are united in our commitment to making sure that we do open the doors of learning and culture. No reasonable person can be opposed to such a call, because it is something that all of us support. So I don’t think the DA should be embarrassed about that.

Ek dink ook dat die toespraak ander dinge veroorsaak het, soos die feit dat die agb lid Sulliman so mooi Afrikaans gepraat het. [I also think that the speech caused other things, such as the fact that the hon member Sulliman spoke such beautiful Afrikaans.]

I don’t know if he has been inspired by the announcements you’ve made around language, the need for us to support our indigenous languages. Minister, I think that there is excitement about what was said yesterday and the challenges that you have raised specifically with us as provinces today.

From our province we welcome the Education budget for 2005. We do believe that we are on course, under the leadership of our Minister, to really make strides in opening the doors of learning in our country.

I believe that central to the fact that we are celebrating 50 years of the Freedom Charter this year is not only to celebrate but really engage in a very honest reflection as to how far we have come in realising this objective, and then, obviously, to make sure that we intensify the steps that we need to take to make this clause a reality.

Yesterday in the National Assembly our hon Minister mentioned that the impact and imprint of apartheid education is as hard and unyielding as a crocodile skin. I believe this is, in fact, very true and underscores the need for us to be very focused and determined in our efforts to remove these footprints of apartheid once and for all.

In our province we face major education infrastructure backlogs, firstly, because African people have for so many years been literally regarded as visitors to our province, without any adequate planning taking place in regard to housing and other social needs, including education. Also, many of our schools in the historically coloured communities were also built almost as second-class facilities. Some of them were constructed out of chipboard and inferior materials.

But it is not just the infrastructure backlogs and inequalities which impact on our campaign to open the doors of learning and culture. It is, in fact, the very deep-seated social problems bequeathed by apartheid and the differential oppression it created in our province that impact on our communities and schools every day.

Thus, as we strengthen our campaign, we need to embrace the call of our President to build a contract to fight poverty and create work. This contract has to mobilise our parents, teachers and learners into action.

Only yesterday I had the opportunity of meeting with over 100 representatives from our learner representative councils in our metro north district at a summit in which we actually engaged with them on ways to build safe schools and actually manage our diversity – key issues that are impacting on our education in the Western Cape. I believe that there is energy, commitment and passion amongst these learners. They and their teachers spent four hours discussing and looking at practical ways of dealing with the problems faced by our schools together with us, local government and community safety.

I think to deal with the challenges we have to strengthen our partnerships with our communities and very definitely make sure that all spheres of government work in a seamless and integrated way to address the issues which impact on education.

We welcome the initiatives of our Minister, and we will work hard to ensure their successful implementation. These include concrete steps to ensure the implementation of our new FET curriculum in our schools next year; plans for the promotion of indigenous African languages; the move towards no-fee schools in our poorest communities in 2006, while also ensuring that fee exemptions continue to be provided in fee-based public schools.

In this regard, we believe that it is very, very important that a massive advocacy campaign be conducted amongst our parents in regard to the issue of fees. It appears that there is a huge amount of disinformation in regard to the right of our parents, in fact, to apply for full and partial exemptions. In terms of the investigations that we have done, there are serious issues in regard to the manner in which the school fees are debated and discussed by many of our governing bodies. Parents are not adequately involved and, while we are moving towards no-fee schools in our poorest quintiles, we need to focus very clearly on those schools which will continue to charge school fees and enhance our advocacy campaign.

We also welcome the R1 billion investment in FET public colleges to increase the number of students enrolled in high-quality vocational programmes, and also the emphasis which has been placed on early childhood development which will include the finalisation of the norms and standards funding for Grade R.

I believe that the main thrusts of the challenges in education that our nation face are, firstly, access, equity and redress and, secondly, the key challenge of improving our country’s skills profile to secure the long-term sustainability of our democracy and economy.

In regard to the first challenge, we welcome the bold move towards no-fee schools. Although it is not going to be possible to extend the no-fee schools to all of our schools in 2006, it is a very concrete and direct step towards realising both the vision of the Freedom Charter and the right contained in our Constitution to basic education.

The increased funding that our poorer schools will receive will contribute to much-needed redress and equity in these schools. And, Minister, we want to accept your challenge to the provinces in regard to the funding our departments are receiving. I think that in terms of ensuring, for instance, the swift roll-out of our no-fee schools programme for next year, it is going to be critical that we engage with our colleagues at a provincial level to actually ensure that the resources are there to ensure that we implement this very basic right.

I am also pleased that at present – this has been mentioned - a national audit is being done of all school infrastructure. Central to establishing quality education for all is, obviously, the need to address the backlogs in the physical infrastructure faced by many of our schools. As I indicated earlier, not only were schools in African and coloured communities built on very small sites, but critical infrastructure was simply not provided.

Thus, at this point in time, over 600 of our schools in the province do not have school halls or forums; basic sports facilities are lacking; and there are backlogs in maintenance in many of our schools. It is vital that a mechanism be established to ensure redress at the level of infrastructure.

In addition to the gradual increase in the number of no-fee schools, this, I believe, will create an environment in which teachers, with the support of our parents, can in fact develop the full potential of every learner.

We have started – as, I think, our honourable MEC from the Northern Cape has also indicated in their province – a process with local government about how our poorer schools can be assisted with a very special dispensation in regard to rates and municipal services. The funds from the norms and standards allocation that has to be spent on such services, I believe, could be better utilised to ensure increased learner-support material and other needs at the school. This is another way in which equity and redress can be achieved.

I am convinced that the majority of residents who for pay services and the rates to the local authorities, and who are also parents, would support their municipalities in taking steps in this regard.

We also welcome the initiatives in the progression of the language policy and fully support the revision of the South African Schools Act in respect of the role of our school governing bodies. In our province, we are working very closely with our provincial language committee in looking at ways to take forward both mother tongue education and multilingualism in our province in order to boost, in particular, isiXhosa, a language which is being neglected in our province.

We in the Western Cape know full well the extent of the marginalisation of learners on the basis of language. We fully support your call to make the learning of an indigenous African language, which in our province is isiXhosa, compulsory. Further factors in our province impacting on access and equity are racial prejudice and the levels of violence in and around our schools. Just recently our Premier commissioned a respected retired principal and other colleagues to investigate the brutal killing of a learner and other incidents of violence. The report, among other things, said that learners came from communities in which poverty, violence, family disintegration and the effects of the destruction of the general social fabric were part of their daily experience.

The report recommended efforts to ensure appropriate local and regional interventions to promote diversity and manage it, and to foster nonracialism, family support services and establish secure and safe schools. We are now in the process of following this up, not only as the education department, but also as the provincial executive council.

In regard to the second challenge of improving our skills profile, there have been slight increases in the number of learners completing Grade 12 and gaining access to tertiary education. It is clear, however, that we are not producing sufficient learners for higher education and nor are we providing the knowledge and skills in sufficient numbers required by our economy.

We have been challenged by the Premier actively to develop a human capital strategy with the focus on youth as one of the lead strategies for our economic development strategy “Ikapa Elihlumayo”. The performance of our learners in terms of literacy and numeracy is key to laying a solid foundation. In addition to the Minister’s plans on Grade R, early childhood development also forms a key part of our draft human capital development strategy.

Our mandate as an education department is to provide schooling for learners of compulsory schoolgoing age, and obviously also to subsidise Grade R schooling for our pre-Grade 1 learners. But we have decided to work with our partners in health and social services to develop a co-ordinated strategy to early childhood development, focusing on children aged from naught to four. In this regard, we will be guided by the national process, which has been referred to by our hon Minister.

One of our key concerns in the province are the levels of numeracy and literacy amongst learners in all grades, and we believe that this is an important indicator of our reversal and liberation from the legacies of apartheid in education; how far we have moved.

We have, as a province, commissioned a programme for regular testing to identify areas for special attention. In this respect, it is clear that the majority of our learners are still not performing at acceptable levels in all grades. What we have done is to set up a high-level departmental literacy and numeracy task team, headed by our Deputy Director-General for Planning. This task team will ensure that teachers receive support in teaching literacy and numeracy skills to their learners.

In addition, our teachers will receive assistance with regard to appropriate classroom practice and teaching skills, and guidance in the best possible use of the 100 books as literary resources. A particular focus of the task team will be advocacy, including ways in which parents and guardians can assist their children to develop literacy and numeracy skills.

Our human capital development strategy seeks also to increase the participation and success rates of learners in the general education and training band and FET in both our schools and colleges. We really are aiming to increase the number of FET learners who qualify to enter higher education institutions, especially for learners from poor families.

Our department encourages all foundation phase and intermediate phase teachers to use the home language of the community as the medium of instruction. This practice of additive bilingualism, I believe, allows schools to switch to English-medium in the senior phase with confidence.

Intensive training for life-orientation teachers has also been taking place to equip our teachers to offer comprehensive career guidance and support for our wellness programme. In line with the objectives of our national White Paper of e-Education, we are also developing plans to include a compulsory computer literacy component in the life-orientation portfolio for our Grade 12 learners. By the end of this year, we are very pleased to say, every single high school in the Western Cape will be equipped with a computer lab, which will in fact assist us in meeting this objective.

We are also planning a principals’ conference for all of our schools with the FET band for next month to ensure that every single principal of an FET school in our province receives first-hand the latest information regarding implementation of the FET in 2006 and all the planning implications for the schools.

You can see that we are making progress in regard to preparing for the introduction of the FET curriculum in Grade 10 for next year. In fact, our department has been preparing for this moment for the past three years. We believe that with the time that is still available to us we are definitely on track to achieve our objectives for 2006.

We have implemented our plan in two phases. The first phase comprised three integrated projects involving advocacy, teacher training and research into training needs. We have now launched the second phase, which involves a major training programme, driven by national and provincial task teams working together during the course of this year. Every teacher will now get the opportunity to attend a five-day orientation session in at least one subject in July or September this year.

Special programmes to support the ongoing development of FET colleges are also advanced. Thank you very much, Deputy Chair. [Time expired.] [Applause.]

Mr K SINCLAIR: Hon Chairperson and hon Minister, maybe it is important just to say that one needs to understand the conduct of the DA after a sermon that happened here yesterday in this honourable House in which the hon Rev Moatshe converted the DA and they accepted the principles of the Freedom Charter. [Applause.]

A report by the World Bank on Sub-Saharan Africa during 1989 said that to survive and compete in a competitive world in the 21st century, Africa will require not only literate and numerate citizens, but also highly qualified and trained people to perform top quality research, formulate policy and implement programmes essential to the economic growth and development. So, hon Minister, when we debate education in South Africa we are actually debating the product of at least 12 years’ contribution by government educators, parents and other role-players to an individual who must contribute towards building a new South Africa, a new Africa and a new future in this demanding world.

This product must compete not only in South Africa. This product must be better than what Africa and the rest of the world has to offer. This debate then, hon Minister, is in the final instance about sustainable, accessible, quality education. As you would have experienced by now, this is a demanding challenge, given South Africa’s past, but also our current day dynamics.

We, the NNP, believe that since your and the Deputy Minister’s appointment about a year ago, a fresh new wind has been blowing in the education fraternity in South Africa and I think it is suffice to say that sometimes that wind came close to being a tornado.

As people whose roots are in Africa, we realise that this continent is the only one in the world where in the past two decades, per capita income has been in decline. In a time when the rest of the world has experienced rapid economic growth, most of the people in Africa have been left behind. Nearly half of the continent’s people are living on less than a dollar a day. But Africa is changing. In this process of change education will be one of the cornerstones of the awakening of Africa.

As with other issues, South Africa must and will be the bastion for quality education. That is why it is necessary to have the will to act.

Investment in education is amongst the highest returns of all developmental activities. It is no longer good enough for teachers just to be teachers. They must be educators par excellence. Therefore, hon Minister, I appeal today that you and your government must appreciate, invest and comfort the majority of educators who have committed themselves to your noble vision, because these educators are the people who, sometimes under difficult circumstances, form the educational products that must compete in a demanding and challenging world. In achieving that, it is appropriate that we remember the words of our previous President, Nelson Mandela, when he said:

Education is the great engine of personnel development. It is through education that the daughter of a peasant can become a doctor, that the son of a mineworker can become the head of the mine and that the child of a farmworker can become the president of a great nation.

Quality, accessible education is indeed the key towards hope, prosperity and to better all the citizens of our country. [Time expired.] [Applause.]

Nk N SIKHAKHANI (Gauteng): Ngiyabonga Phini likaSihlalo, amalungu eNdlini, uNgqongqoshe nePhini lakhe, ondunankulu bezifundazwe nalabo abazothamela inkulumompikiswano ngezemfundo. [Thank you Deputy Chairperson, members in the House, the Minister and his Deputy, Premiers and those who are here to listen to the education debate.]

Gauteng welcomes the direction that the Minister has laid out for education. We are encouraged that the marginalised sector of education, which is adult basic education and training, ECD and further education and training colleges are prominent in the plans of the Minister. We also welcome the commitment to progressively introduce free education to those in poor communities who cannot afford fees.

In relation to early childhood development, we welcome the Minister’s commitment to begin the realisation of White Paper Five and specifically the funding norms. However, we request that the Minister develop a solid regulatory framework in line with the White Paper concerning the role and status of ECD practitioners, their working conditions and their remuneration. The province also requests that a clear plan for the financing of the expansion of Grade R be developed with the National Treasury in relation to further education and training colleges of the NCS for FET.

We are geared to ensure the successful roll-out of our provincial recapitalisation plans. In relation to the language policy, the province welcomes the introduction of parental choice in deciding the medium of instruction and additional languages.

We believe that parents are the best people to make choices together with their children. In relation to basic literacy, we welcome the commitment of the Minister to drive a basic literacy campaign to ensure that all our citizens can become more functional in life and manage their own affairs adequately.

In relation to the conditions of employment for educators, the province welcomes the attempt to incentivise educators and reward them for excellence. The province also agrees with the Minister that some school governing bodies are acting to delay transformation at school level. We believe that the choices facilitated by SGBs at school level will affect the ability of their children to fully integrate into the broader society, which is what we envisage.

We want to say that we are in full agreement with the Minister on the roll- out of the new curriculum in Grade 10 next year. We are happy with the findings of the Minister’s Review and concur that we will never be more ready than we are now to roll out the curriculum.

Ukuphetha sihlalo, ngithanda ukusho ukuthi kuyinkinga ukuthi amalungu angaveli esifundazweni saseGauteng akhulume ngezinto angazazi. Ngisho mayelana nelungu elithi izingane aziyanga esikokeni ngenxa yamabhasi abengakhokhelwanga uhulumeni.

Iqiniso ukuthi abanini bamabhasi babetelekile ngoba bethi imali ekhokhwa uhulumeni ayanele. Ngakho, sithanda ukusho ukuthi uhulumeni uyayikhokha imal, amabhasi akhona.

Enye into engithanda ukukhuluma ngayo ngaphambi kokuba ngisuke lapha, uhlelo lokudla ezikoleni. Izingane ezifunda emabangeni aphansi lo hulumeni wenze isiqiniseko sokuthi aziyi esikoleni zingenalutho esiswini. Ngempela izingane ziyakuthola ukudla esethemba ukuthi ngesikhathi esizayo nasemabangeni aphezulu ngokunjalo izingane zizokuthola ukudla.

Mayelana neGauteng On-Line, ngizothi siyisifundazwe esibizwa ngokuthi yismart province. Sikhuluma nje ingane ngayinye eGauteng inekheli layo le- imeyli, okubonisa khona ukuthi lo hulumeni uzimisele ukuya phambili ngemfundo yendlu emnyama eyayikade incishwe amathuba ngaphambilini.

Ngiyabonga sihlalo. [Ihlombe.] (Translation of isiZulu paragraphs follows.)

[To conclude, Chairperson, I would like to say it is a problem for the members who do not come from Gauteng province to talk about issues they are not aware of. I am referring to the member who says children did not go to school because the government did not pay for the buses. The truth is, the bus owners were on strike, saying the money paid by the government was not enough. So, we would like to say the government is paying the money, and there are buses.

The other thing I would like to talk about before I leave here is the nutrition scheme in schools. As regards children who are in the lower grades, this government gave the assurance that they would not go to school on empty stomachs. It is true that children are getting food, but we believe that in future even children in higher grades will get food.

According to Gauteng On-Line, I would say we are called the “smart province”. As we are talking, each child in Gauteng has his or her own e- mail address, which shows that this government is prepared to develop education for the blacks, who were previously deprived of opportunities. Thank you, Chairperson. [Applause.]]

Mr O M THETJENG: Hon Minister, Chairperson, Deputy Minister - who I see is here - delegates and colleagues, quality education in any country is a vehicle for social transformation. It shapes the cultural, religious and economic dynamics of a society that is preparing to compete in the global markets.

Teacher training becomes the focal point in this discourse, as they are the primary drivers of any sort of transformation because of their influence at school level. The training of teachers in critical learning areas, such as mathematics, science and economics has been abandoned by this government for almost 10 years now.

In the province of Limpopo a specialised teacher training institution for mathematics, science and technology was discontinued, albeit that it was established after 1994 by the MEC of education at the time. I think he is here today. Was this an indication of poor planning or confusion by the powers that be?

This could have been used as one of the supply chains for the country’s needs. Those students that completed their training at this institution and others are roaming the streets of our villages and towns in search of employment opportunities that are hard to come by during this term of office of this government. They have lost hope and many of them are now attempting to divert to other professions, despite the financial difficulties that they face on a daily basis.

Recent survey reports indicate that many teachers want to leave the profession, because of the perceived confusion that the department is sowing. If given the opportunity, they will do so. [Interjections.] We have to start by retraining some our teachers in new entrepreneurial skills so that they are able to impart them to the pupils. Quality education prepares learners to be entrepreneurs and not job hunters, as we find ourselves trapped in this situation today. South Africa seems to be on a continually dangerous and meandering path that never ends. [Interjections.] The past has never been good, the present is in a state of stagnation and the future does not show a ray of hope. [Interjections.] Education has only changed hands, from one . . . [Inaudible.] . . . master to another. At any rate, the two masters today are . . .[Interjections.]

Mr B J TOLO: Would the hon member take a question?

Mr O M THETJENG: No, it is not Question Time. [Laughter.]

The DEPUTY CHAIRPERSON OF THE NCOP (Ms P Hollander): I think I’m still presiding thank you, hon member. Will you take a question?

Mr O M THETJENG: No.

Mr B J TOLO: He is a coward.

Mr O M THETJENG: At any rate, the two masters today belong to the same alliance, and one can say boldly that the ANC is responsible for both the past and the present crisis in education. [Interjections.] Schools still lack sanitation facilities and water, teachers lack teaching resources, libraries are nonexistent and/or do not have books for learners to utilise, and yet this department continues to have unspent money year in and year out. We need these moneys to be well spent to provide these facilities. Functional schools exist where governing bodies are functional, and these are not only found in urban areas but also in rural areas. Schools such as Mbilwi, Hayani, Motse Maria and Harry Oppenheimer – these are in Limpopo, by the way – are continuing to do well despite the fact that they are in rural areas. The governing bodies are functional and do not forget that their first language is not English or Afrikaans, but Northern Sotho, Sepedi, Venda, Xitsonga, Ndebele and many African languages. [Interjections.]

Subjects are taught in English and yet their performance even surpasses that of some of the previous Model C schools. These are the schools that we are proud of in Limpopo. These schools are just an example; if this government could concentrate on capacitating the governing bodies and not on taking their powers away, as is envisaged, this country could have more teachers that are accountable to the parents in many ways.

Hon Minister Pandor has denied that the department would be taking away the rights of parents to decide who teaches their children. However, this is simply not true and it is disingenuous. [Interjections.] If the Minister’s new regulations are passed, the provincial departments will be able to overrule the decisions of school governing bodies.

The new criteria, that have nothing to do with education, will be imposed on the governing bodies. Parents, through the governing bodies, must be given the authority to manage the education of their children. The government must take responsibility for those who cannot manage to pay as they have a constitutional right to education. Their status or poverty must not deny them their constitutional right.

We want to see parents like Morgan Freeman from the movie Lean on Me, whose character defied the authorities that concentrated on fire regulations governing the management of schools accommodated in confined buildings, while overlooking the big issue of the drug peddlers who take advantage of these regulations to push drugs. Morgan won the battle against these rules in favour of the safety of learners that parents had entrusted to his care.

We want to see more teachers that have the courage displayed by Morgan Freeman. Parents must take up their constitutional right to manage their schools without the interference of the government. We need more university graduates with entrepreneurial skills in critical areas so that this country can start to provide job opportunities to many of the unemployed. I hope, Minister, that the budget for this financial year will try to address these problems that continue to torment us in this particular . . . [Inaudible.] Thank you very much. [Time expired.] [Applause.]

The DEPUTY CHAIRPERSON OF THE NCOP (Ms P Hollander): Hon members, I have an announcement to make. I will have to leave for another appointment, and as the Deputy Chair of Committees will be debating I therefore, in accordance with Rule 11, appoint the hon B J Tolo to preside. Thank you very much.

Nk N F MAZIBUKO: Sihlalo, ngibingelela amalungu kanye noNgqongqoshe wezeMfundo neSekela lakhe, ngibonge nami leli thuba engiliphiwe ukuze ngibambe iqhaza kule nkulumompikiswano ephathelene nezemfundo kule Ndlu. Ayikho nje impela into ekhulunywe ilungu elisanda kusuka lapha phambi kwethu. NgesiSuthu sithi, “ke bo mabina go tsholwa”. Yena ngokwakhe wayewuthisha ngesikhathi sobandlululo ngakho kufanele ancome umsebenzi omuhle esesiwenzile. Ngolimi lweNdlovukazi yamaNgisi kuthiwa phecelezi, “if you teach a woman, you teach the nation”. Thina makhosikazi sikhuza sithi, “Wathinta abafazi uthinte imbokodo”.

Siyabonga Ngqongqoshe namuhla ngayo yonke imisebenzi oyenzile. Kuyasho ukuthi lo Mnyango wakho usezandleni zomuntu wesifazane. Uphethe futhi phatha njalo. Sonke siyazi ukuthi nasemakhaya abantu besifazane yibo abaphatha kangcono imizi yabo. Obaba selokhu bahamba bathi bayothenga isinkwa. Siyabonga-ke Ngqongqoshe ngawo wonke lo msebenzi ofaka ushintsho kulo Mnyango futhi ulandela imigomo yoMqulu weNkululeko. Ngokomgomo kaKhongolose oqukethwe kulo mqulu, onke amasango okukanye iminyango yezemfundo izovuleka, zonke izingane kumele ziyokhongozela ulwazi lwezemfundo olungakhethi bala lamuntu neminyaka nokuthi unemali - udla izambane likampondo noma udla imbuya ngothi. Zonke izingane kumele ziye esikoleni ngoba yilungelelo lazo.

Kudalo izingane zamantombazane zazingavunyelwe ukuya esikoleni, ngoba kuthiwa ukuchitha imali ukufundisa ingane yentombazane ngoba izoyogana bese iyokwakha eminye imizi. Izingane zabafana zona bekuthiwa mazihambe ziyonakekela imfuyo le emahlathini. Ngokunjalo nohulumeni wengcindezelo wawubandlula abantu abamnyama, ikakhulu abantu abampisholo babenqatshelwa ukuthi bafunde. Babethi abelungu uma ngabe umuntu ompisholo efundile, kumele nje akwazi ukuba yisisebenzi esizokwazi ukukhuluma nomesisi kanye nobasi. Kepha manje seligaya ngomunye umhlathi. Kunele kwaphatha uhulumeni wentando yeningi ngaphansi kukaKhongolose, akubantu babulala inyoka abaphokophele ezikoleni bayofunda. NgesiSuthu kuye kuthiwe, “kesi mpithi ke go fete”. Bonke baphikelele khona.

Izinhlelo eziningi kulo Mnyango wezeMfundo ziqondene nokulwisana nobubha ngokuba nezinhlelo zabantu abadala, ikakhulu i-Abet, ukufundiswa kwezingane ezincane kanye nokondliwa kwabantu jikelele. Ngenkathi sisazabalaza Ngqongqoshe, sasilwela imfundo yabantu bonke lokhu esithi phecelezi, “peoples’ education”. Sasilwela ukuthi abazali babambe iqhaza ezigungwini eziphethe ezikoleni - lokhu okuthiwa “school governing bodies” – SGBs - ukuze abazali bakwazi ukuba yizishayamthetho ezikoleni lapho izingane zabo zifunda khona. Kepha iphutha esalenza ukuthi sayekelela lama-SGBs aba namandla amaningi. Ngesintu siyaye sithi isitha somuntu nguye uqobo lwakhe. Sazilimaza kakhulu ngokubayekelela. Amanye awo lama-SGBs ontamolukhuni kanti amanye ondlovukayiphikiswa.

Kukhona ngapha ngaseBenoni isikole okuthiwa i-Noordeling Skool. Usihlalo we- SGB yakulesi sikole ugqoka okhakhi aphinde alengise nesibhamu engafakanga nezicathulo ngoba ethusa zona izingane zabantu abamnyama. Kufunda kuphela izingane zamabhunu kuleso sikole kanye nezingane zabantu abamnyama ezimbili. Amanye amalungu e-SGB ethusa othishanhloko. Ngiyakutshela ngithi ichalaha lemuka isimaku ithambo. Baphatha baze baphathe ngisho nemali yesikole. Baxosha izingane uma ngabe zingakhokhanga imali yesikole noma uma zingembethe izingubo zesikole. Banikwe amandla okubusa kodwa bona baxhaphaza abantu ngawo. Benqabela izingane ukuthi zingene esikoleni ngenxa yolimi ezilukhulumayo. Ngiyethemba siyazi ukuthi kuyenzeka lapha eNtshona- Koloni.

Ngqongqoshe, masibonga imigomo yakho kanye nemithetho oyibekile. Ngempela lama-SGBs kufanele siwanqume izimpiko zawo. Umlayezo okufanele awuthole ukuthi itshe selome inhlama. Sekuphelile ukubusa ngendlovuyangena kanti futhi nezinto sekumele zihambe ngendlela ehamba ngokomgomo kahulumeni kaKhongolose. Okunye ukudla okuphiwa izingane ezikole kubalulekile. Eminye imiNyango yezemfundo, ikakhulu ezifundazweni. Ukudla okudliwa izingane kwezinye izikole kuyethusa. Ezinye zidla iphalishi kanye nesobho – khona nje esinye isikole esibonwe uyena usihlalo. Kwezinye njena kudliwa amakhekhe omile, kungadliwa nazithelo. Uyabona nje nawe ukuthi iboshelwe yondile. Ngesikhathi sisakhula iningi lethu lifunde kulokhu esithi phecelezi, “boarding schools”. Sizokhumbula ukuthi sasidlani khona. Sasidla ukudla okufanayo mihla yonke. Mina-ke uma ngikhuluma iqiniso ngifunde esikoleni sase-Marianhill. Sasidla isitambu mihla yonke. Kwakuba ngconywana ngeSonto ngoba sasidla inyama yenkukhu. Uma ngabe kini benemali, bewuthola-ke ithuba lokuthi uyozithengela itamati sosi okukanye imayonesi noma yona-ke i-asha, uxube nesitambu kube mnandi ukuze sikwazi ukwehla emphinjeni. Kwezinye-ke izikole bebedla iklabishi abaze baliqamba negama elithi Johan 14. Manje-ke uma ngabe izingane zidla kanje, ngesiNgisi baye bathi, “you tend to have an attitude towards such food”. Kepha kwezinye izikole kuyancomeka ngoba abantwana badla kangcono.

Kulesi sabiwomali salo nyaka kanye neminye iminyaka elandelayo, kusemqoka ukuthi izingane zondliwe ngaphakathi emagcekeni esikole futhi zidle ukudla okunomsoco okuzokwazi ukwakha amathambo omzimba kanye nengqondo. Masikhuthaze futhi ukukhiqizwa kokudla emiphakathini yethu ngokuthi senze izivande lapha emagcekeni ezikole. Amanye amagceke anokhula olude nje olulingana nami. Uma ngabe kungasuswa lonke lolu khula, ngethemba ukuthi singakwazi ukuba nezivande. Ukuphepha nakho kubalulekile ezikoleni ngoba izingane eziningi zitholakala zihlezi lapha ezikoleni kuze kushaye isikhathi santambama.

Thina esifundazweni sethu eGauteng – lesi esiyaye sithi sihlakaniphile – sasinohlelo esasilubiza ngokuthi “Adopt a Cop” lapho emaphoyisa ebesebenzisana khona nezikole ukuze kuphephiswe izingane. Imfundo yamabanga aphansi nayo ibalulekile ezinganeni. Othisha kufanele baqeqeshwe kahle ukuze bakwazi ukufundisa izingane. Imali ekhokhwa ezikoleni enye yezinto eziyimpicabadala. Izingane eziningi azisayi ezikoleni ngenxa yokuthi abazali abanayo imali yokukhokha.

Siyathokoza ngezinyathelo osuzithathile ukwethulela abazali lo mthwalo omkhulu kangaka. Angethembe nokuthi inhlangano yabafundi i-Cosas isizozeswela izinhlelo zokutoyiza babuye badube nezifundo ngenxa yokuthi basuke betoyizela ukuthi ingakhokhwa imali yezikole. Uma sengiphetha, abantu besifazane ngokwendalo bawothisha. Kusukela ingane isazalwa ifundiswa ngumuntu wesifazane. [Kuphele isikhathi.] Siyabonga. [Ihlombe.] (Translation of isiZulu speech follows.)

[Mrs N F MAZIBUKO: Chairperson, I greet members and the Minister of Education and her Deputy. I am also grateful for this opportunity given to me to take part in this debate in this House, which is about education. The member who has just spoken said nothing. In Sesotho we say: “Ke bo mabina go tsholwa.” [Those who did not participate only come in once the benefits have been received.] According to him or her they were teachers during the apartheid era so they should commend the good work we have done. In English it is said: “If you teach a woman, you teach the nation.” We women shout out and say: “You touch a woman, you touch a rock.”

We thank you, Minister, today for all the work you have done. It is self- explanatory that a woman heads your department. You are on the right track, continue. We all know that even at home women are the better managers. Fathers would be away for a long time while they had said they were going to buy bread. We are very grateful, Minister, for all the great work that brings about change in this department and you also follow the principles of the Freedom Charter. According to the ANC principles that are contained in this charter, all doors of learning shall be open, all children must get an education, regardless of colour, age and whether you have money or whether you are rich or extremely poor. All children must go to school because it is their right.

Previously girl children were not allowed to go school, because it was said that taking a girl child to school was just a waste of money because she would marry someone and contribute to someone else’s home. Boy children were told to go and herd the livestock in the bushes. And the apartheid government also oppressed African people, especially black people, who were refused the right to be educated. Whites would say a black should just be educated so that they could be servants that could talk to either the madam or the “baas” [boss]. But now things have changed completely. Since the democratic government under the ANC took over many people have flocked back to school. In Sesotho we would say: “Kesi mpithi ke go fete”. [They are all going there.]

Most programmes in the Department of Education are aimed at fighting poverty, by having programmes aimed at educating older people, like Abet; the teaching of young children and the feeding of people in general. During the struggle, Minister, we were fighting for education for all, which we called a “people’s education”. We were struggling so that parents could take part in school governing bodies, so that parents could be policy- makers in the schools their children attend. But the mistake we made was giving too many powers to these SGBs. In the African way, we say that a person’s enemy is the person himself. We injured ourselves by letting them run wild. Some of these SGBs are composed of conservatives and others despots.

There is a school in the Benoni area called Noordeling Skool. The chairperson of the SGB of this school wears khakis and carries a firearm and walks barefoot in order to scare the African children. Only Afrikaners’ children and two African children attend this school. Other members of the SGBs threaten principals. I am telling you that they are very bureaucratic. They even manage the school funds. They chase children away if they have not paid the school fees or if they are not wearing uniforms. They have been given powers to use but instead they abuse them. They refuse children from attending schools because of the language they speak. I hope we all know that it happens here in the Western Cape.

Minister, we thank you for the principles and rules that you have put in place. We indeed need to exercise some control over these SGBs. The message they should get is that things have changed. The reign of terror is over and things have to go the way the ANC government dictates. The other thing is that food given to children at school is important. Furthermore, there are education departments in all the provinces. Food eaten by children in some schools is alarming. Some eat “pap” [porridge] and soup – the chairperson saw one of these schools. At other schools children are fed dry biscuits, and no fruit. You can really see yourself that things are extremely difficult.

When we were still young, many of us were educated at what we call boarding schools. You will also remember what it is that we ate there. We ate the same food every day. To tell the truth, I went to school in Marianhill. We ate samp every day. It would only be better on Sundays, because then we would eat chicken. If your family had the money, you could at least buy yourself tomato sauce or mayonnaise, or even achar, and you would then mix it with the samp and it would become nice and one would even be able to get it down one’s throat. At other schools they ate cabbage daily and they even renamed it Johan 14. And if children continued to eat this kind of food, in English they would say “you tend to have an attitude towards that food”. But it is recommendable for other schools because the children eat better food.

With this financial year’s budget allocation, and in the years to come, it is important that children should be fed on the school premises and given nutritional food that contains iron to boost them both physically and mentally. Let us encourage the production of food in our communities by having vegetable gardens on school premises. In the precincts of some schools weeds grow as tall as me standing. If all these weeds could be done away with, I hope that we could have vegetable gardens instead. Safety in schools is also important because most of the children stay at school until late in the afternoon.

We, in our province, Gauteng – the province we normally say is tops – had a programme that we called “Adopt-a-Cop” through which police officers would work hand in hand with schools for the safety of children. Primary school education is also important to children. Teachers must be trained very well so that they are able to teach children. The money paid to schools is one of the things that remain a riddle. Many children are no longer going to school because their parents do not have the money to pay school fees.

We are grateful for the steps you have taken to relieve parents of such a big burden. Let me also hope that the student organisation Cosas will not have something to toyi-toyi about, because they at times engage in class boycotts, saying no to school fees. In conclusion, women are natural teachers. When the child is born, it is the woman who teaches it. Thank you. [Time expired.] [Applause.]]

The DEPUTY MINISTER OF EDUCATION: Agb Voorsitter, ek wou oorspronklik in Afrikaans gepraat het, maar nadat ek na die puik taalgebruik en woordeskat van Mnr Sulliman geluister het, voel ek baie veiliger in Engels. [Hon Chairperson, originally I wanted to speak in Afrikaans, but after having heard the excellent language usage and vocabulary of Mr Sulliman, I feel much safer in English.]

I will thus proceed in English.

Hon Minister, hon MECs who are present – and thank you for being present - hon members of the NCOP, members of Salga, if they are present, our beautiful young children who are in the gallery and honoured and esteemed guests, I think that the hon M Thetjeng, very much like Rip van Winkle, has been sleeping through a social and political revolution . . . [Laughter.] . . . if he believes that the past decade has been a decade of stagnation. He must ask who brought him his freedom, who gave him back his dignity, and who brought him the right to be equal to others. Certainly, I think the reality is that he and his party have been stagnating; they have been reactionary, and they cannot cope with the transformation that is taking place for the improvement in the quality of the lives of all our people who have been colonised and marginalised for more than 300 years.

Hon Chairperson, I would like to take this opportunity to commend all those involved in education for their commitment and contribution to the transformation of our education system.

The NCOP, in particular, has significantly contributed to ensuring that we work in an integrated and co-ordinated manner in addressing this intricate and often difficult task of transforming our education system.

However, serious challenges remain as we seek to consolidate and advance the collective gains we have made in creating a suitable environment for quality teaching and meaningful learning. The provision of quality teaching to all learners is a constitutional imperative and a key pillar of our struggle to redress past racially based imbalances. It is a value-driven exercise underpinned by principles such as the development of human potential, the realisation of democracy, the promotion of reconciliation, equality and justice, and the pursuit of national reconstruction and development.

These are the values that underpin and inform our policy framework for education and flows from the vision expressed in the Freedom Charter that “the doors of learning and culture shall be opened to all”.

Creating an appropriate teaching and learning environment conducive to quality education for all therefore remains the key priority. In the light of this, we remain committed to consolidating our efforts around the critical area that constitutes the scaffolding upon which we are building such a teaching and learning environment.

The Minister and other speakers have eloquently highlighted these critical areas. On my part, I wish to expand on three of these areas, namely, the national mathematics, science and technology strategy - and I appeal to my colleague from the DA to listen very attentively to this – sport in the curriculum, and opening the doors of culture.

Yesterday, we elaborated quite comprehensively on our plans to expand our strategy to get more learners to enrol and participate in mathematics and science. We also indicate the huge and enormous strides that we have made in the past three years. We indicated our commitment very soon to increase the numbers of Dinaledi schools to 400 in order to reach our objective of 50 000 mathematics and science learners by the end of 2008.

Today we look more closely at the role of provincial and local government in addressing the challenge of expanding this programme. For provinces, the first critical task is to identify and select an appropriate number of schools that will benefit from being given Dinaledi status. It is not just an operational matter to which little attention has to be paid. It is something that has to be done with careful consideration of the potential of those schools.

In doing so, provinces must pay particular regard to virtue and excellence. The establishment of a constellation of schools of virtue and excellence must shine as brightly as a constellation of stars, giving true meaning to the notion of ``Dinaledi schools’’.

The expansion of these schools with special regard to rural, urban and geographic spread will be a true expression of the provincial government’s commitment to creating access and opportunity for the poorest of the poor. It is through this exercise that we will be best able to produce the cohort of black engineers, be it civil engineers, electrical engineers, mechanical engineers, geologists, town planners, architects, chartered accountants or actuaries from amongst our black people, and respond effectively and efficiently to the developmental needs of our developing state.

As roads, bridges and schools are being built, we as provinces and national government must develop the human capital and skills that are desperately needed to design, construct and build such roads, bridges and schools.

The second responsibility for provinces in this regard is to monitor and support these schools in a credible and active way through focused and concentrated attention. Provinces must progressively provide facilities and equipment for the effective teaching of mathematics and science. One of the difficulties in the past has been that there has been too little oversight and too little monitoring of the assigned or dedicated Dinaledi schools. They will furthermore be required to conduct regular visits and put in place a dedicated programme of in-service training and support through subject specialists, curriculum advisors and curriculum implementers to ensure that schools are given cross-curricular support. Provinces may wish to designate – and I would appeal that they do so – a senior official to co- ordinate the monitoring of Dinaledi schools. The sense we get from the provinces in our consultations with them is that they are quite keen on doing so, as they regard this as a serious and important task in terms of our human resource development strategy.

Thirdly, provinces will have to ensure that competent and appropriately qualified teachers are allocated to these schools and, where appropriate, provide incentives linked to performance.

Fourthly, they should harness technology, as is the case in the Northern Cape and Gauteng, through Gautengonline, and in the Western Cape and other provinces to ensure that more is done in terms of integrated and interactive learning which should occur within these Dinaledi schools.

Finally, provinces will have the responsibility to identify feeder schools that could benefit from the resources provided at the Dinaledi schools by quantitatively enhancing the numeracy and literacy skills of learners at a very early stage so that those who enter into the further education and training band are adequately equipped to deal with mathematics and science.

The national Department of Education will endeavour to mobilise additional resources and consolidate the support from various donors, which will be distributed equitably amongst the provinces.

Sport – that’s the second item – continues to play a role in promoting national reconciliation, social transformation, social cohesion and the achievement of a national identity. This year is the international year of sport, dedicated as such by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation. It is also a year in which particular emphasis should be laid on the role of women participating in sport.

We are happy to announce that we will be hosting two national sports events later this year in recognition of the importance we attach to sport in education. The girls’ games, and we remain true to the commitment by Unesco, and the farm and rural schools’ games will be important milestones in our efforts to encourage greater participation amongst those marginalised sections, and demonstrate how sport can be used as a vehicle to promote social cohesion. Indigenous and traditional sports are also going to be exhibited at these events. I had the benefit of joining the MEC from the Free State at the indigenous sports event that took place there, which was extremely successful, where children from all racial groups were able to participate in a wonderful way in indigenous sports, which really reflected the social cohesion that can occur through sport.

The sound framework on sport adopted by the Ministeries of Education and Sport and Recreation poses particular challenges to provinces and local governments. At the moment, there appears to be a separation in the line functions of the provincial departments for education, sport and recreation. For purposes of planning, it will become critical that the two political heads – the MECs for education and sport and recreation – collaborate closely to ensure that they are able to respond in an integrated and co-ordinated way to the new programmes that will be implemented in the provinces, flowing from the agreements.

The steps that have already taken place in some provinces such as the Western Cape, Northern Cape and Mpumalanga are commended. The two departments, together with provincial representatives, have already made significant progress in establishing the joint structures and developing programmes of action for implementation in the nine provinces.

Local government has a critical role to play in terms of the maintenance of the amenities and facilities that are available within their localities as well as through creative town planning where, in terms of the planning, adequate attention is paid to the needs of schools in the provision of amenities that are so critical, particularly in the historically disadvantaged areas.

Our commitment to transform education in arts and culture for learners in the formal and non-formal sectors as a fundamental part of lifelong learning must continue. This means that we must increase community awareness of the developmental, economic and educational values of arts and culture in education.

It is therefore significant and critical that we collaborate very closely with the Department of Arts and Culture. We as provinces must work closely in various areas with the Department of Arts and Culture in the promotion of multilingualism, the development of an awareness of the national symbols such as the flag and the national coat of arms, and in developing a national skills plan for arts and culture.

Just two weeks ago, in the Department of Education, we launched an exhibition of art. We were ably supported by the curators from the Apartheid Museum, and we had an astounding display of art by our young children. Its wonderful aesthetic appeal was one thing, but the context in which they interpreted the Freedom Charter was quite wonderful, and the impact of their art and the potential of our learners across all racial lines was clearly visible, and it was a wonderful exhibition of the potential of our youth that we can unleash in our democratic society.

However, it should not end here. I think provinces have a particular role to ensure that we promote an awareness of our national symbols, that we promote arts and culture in its various forms in terms of music, in terms of photography, dance, literature, film and various other expressions of art which could best be articulated through co-ordinated programmes.

We also intend, in terms of the programme of the national department, to make the Freedom Charter available to all our schools, so that they can become aware of the fact that that is the founding document formulated when the Congress of the People convened on 26 June 1955 in Kliptown to affirm the dignity, freedom and equality of our people, and which inspired our final Constitution, the Constitution we are so proud of.

Those aspirations of the people in 1955 are the aspirations of our people today. Certainly, we cannot separate the values and aspirations of the Freedom Charter from those of our Constitution. In demonstrating our commitment in this regard, we will be hosting a number of national events, including the Tirisano schools’ choral eisteddfod and the Ngoma Indigenous Music, Movement and Games Festival this year.

Hon Minister, you may be surprised about this, but I have received a request that you and I perform a duet, singing one of the indigenous songs at this particular festival. [Laughter.] I am told quite reliably that one of the tasks that I would have to perform is to play the drum with an African beat, and the two of us would have to sing “Meadowlands” together. [Laughter.] We ask our MECs to celebrate with us and be part of the choir as we do “Meadowlands” at this particular festival.

We can celebrate more purposefully and meaningfully the adoption of the Freedom Charter by opening the doors of learning and culture, proclaiming proudly and patriotically that “South Africa belongs to all who live in it, black and white.”

Finally, it is most appropriate to conclude with the following words of our President:

  Acting together, we do have the capacity to realise these objectives.
  And sparing neither effort nor strength, we can and shall build a
  South Africa that truly belongs to all who live in it, black and
  white.

Before I leave the podium, I want to say that I have received reliable information that many universities have taken quite a progressive approach and have celebrated 10 years of freedom and democracy, and have celebrated our victory in the achievement of freedom. However, there are institutions that seem to be resistant to a reasonable and legitimate request from the representative councils of universities that the national anthem should be sung at universities. Their argument seems to be that it may reflect a lack of sensitivity to foreign students; alternatively, that it is not a national event.

I believe our anthem is an anthem that belongs to all of us. It should be sung wherever possible – in our schools, technikons and universities - with pride and dignity, and I believe that we should not impede any opportunity to transform our nation and to embrace the important symbols, particularly symbols that have more than one language, that represent the unity of our nation. We would like these authorities to reconsider their position in terms of their resistance to transformation and change. Thank you, Chairperson. [Applause.]

Mr M MATOMELA (Eastern Cape): Chairperson, in her speech, the hon Minister has touched on a number of important areas that are close to the heart of the poor provinces, one of whom I have the honour to represent. The people of the Eastern Cape welcome the very important announcement by the Minister that serious and urgent consideration is to be given to the exemption of the poorest of the poor from the undue burden of paying school fees.

For many of our learners, these fees, although in some cases relatively small, have nevertheless proved to be a barrier to learning. Even when this was not the case, we have had to witness pitiful scenes in which extreme sacrifices had to be made by families to acquire what is by our Constitution a right to basic education.

It is therefore entirely appropriate that as we celebrate 50 years of the Freedom Charter, in which the aspirations of our people were clearly articulated, that we take action to open the doors of learning and culture to all. This will serve to deeper entrench our commitment to the free basic services to the poor and to ensure that all children of our province do attend school. One of the biggest problems we have in the Eastern Cape is the lack of infrastructure. We are pleased to note that this new policy will see an amendment to the norms and standards so that hopefully the poorer provinces will receive a better slice of the cake for this purpose.

What I want to indicate, of course, is that despite the challenge of the R602 million deficit, which we experienced during the 2003-04 financial year, we have reduced our budget for infrastructure to R283 million for the current financial year. But by 2007-08 it will increase to R800 million. Indications are clear that our department, for the first time, has not overspent its budget for the last financial year. The Minister also mentioned the language issue in her speech. It must be clearly understood that, as a province, we support the Minister in her endeavours to make the education system responsive to the fact that there are more than two official languages in our country.

We have been concerned that in the assimilationist model, which still prevails in many of our suburban schools, learners are not offered the opportunity to study their mother tongue on an equal level with English or Afrikaans. In some cases this is because some schools have resisted true transformation, and we therefore welcome the steps to deepen and further transform our education system through amending the powers of governing bodies and to take the new curriculum into the FET band.

The Eastern Cape is ready to implement the National Curriculum Statement, but we are working very hard to improve in areas identified for improvement in our induction with the national department. We appreciate more funding for FET colleges and in this regard we are busy providing the necessary resources to these colleges in order to enable them to respond to local economic market demands for relevant skills.

It is therefore important that we, as the ANC government, are convinced that we are on the right path to deliver quality public education. All of us must commend the Minister for her guidance and leadership, especially at the MEC meetings and we promise her the full support of our province. And I want to take this opportunity, Minister, to thank you for your assistance to the Department of Education. Since July last year we have made good progress in the implementation of the turnaround plans, which were developed after the IMT intervention.

For example, we have finished filling the first phase of critical posts, which were in areas of finance and co-operation services. Members will remember that the Eastern Cape, in the last 10 years, has been faced with a vacancy rate of 60%. So effectively we are running a skeleton department. We have also made progress in terms of placing subject advisors. You will remember what I reported to you last time that we officially have only 34 subject advisors, instead of 600, to support our schools.

We are finalising the placement of these noneducator posts. We have also started to apply seriously the national norms, especially around areas like post provisioning that deals with the split between personnel and non- personnel budgets. Our budget at some stage was in the area of 95 personnel to 5 nonpersonnel, and we are improving as far as the split between educator and noneducator is concerned.

These have been serious areas, which were not attended to by the department, and as a result our spread of resources was used towards one area. This, of course, will include the employment of temporary educators, some of whom have been in the system for more than 10 years, remaining in temporary posts. I mean, since 2002 we have not been issuing advertisements for the employment of educators, and we are busy doing that now.

This, therefore, hon Minister, is an indication that the department has turned the corner due to your assistance. Of course, the hon chairperson of the portfolio committee on education and culture indicated some problems concerning school nutrition. We have since changed the management of the programme, and there has been great improvement. Last week, in fact, I received a letter from the service providers thanking us for that kind of change in terms of payment and in terms of monitoring themselves, because we have cancelled contracts with those who failed to provide quality food to our learners.

In fact, some of them even failed to feed our children, but claimed payment; we are dealing with this. And with those few words we want to demonstrate, hon Minister, that as the department of education, we support this budget and we are confident that it is going to make a big change in the Eastern Cape province.

Mr J O TLHAGALE: Hon Chair, hon Minister, hon Deputy Minister, hon MECs, special delegates and hon members of the House, education is one of the most important long-term investments a country can make for its citizens. So the President’s injunction that no learners and students should still be learning under trees, in mud schools or in any dangerous conditions that would expose learners and teachers to danger by the end of this financial year, is most relevant and welcome. However, if provinces spend less and less of their capital allocation this ideal could take longer to achieve.

Another drawback in our efforts of achieving that ideal situation is that not only rural schools were poorly built, but some urban schools of the previous years were structurally weak, as they were regarded as good enough or “goed genoeg vir hulle” [good enough for them] by the powers that be at the time. So, as we build classrooms, a few of the bad ones will continue to crumble due to the elements of nature.

However, this should not discourage us, as this only happens to a limited degree.

A good number of teachers are at pains to improve their professional qualifications. Some of them do so with bursaries offered by their provincial departments, but the snag is that even with the improved skills their remuneration is not going to be raised. This practice tends to demotivate them, detrimentally affect their morale, as they feel that their improved qualifications make no difference. One requests the Minister to give this issue her considered attention.

In our visit as select committee to some provinces we have discovered that it took surprisingly long before the posts of principal and other vacancies in the schools could be advertised and filled. In some cases teachers and principals were appointed only on a temporary basis. It would be appreciated if this matter could receive the Minister’s urgent attention, so that the filling of posts is done as expeditiously as possible.

Scholar transport, especially regarding farm schools, remain a worrying factor. The UCDP supports this Budget Vote. Thanks. [Time expired.]

Mr M NOEL (KwaZulu-Natal): Chairperson, hon Minister, Ms Pandor, all hon members of this House and our very welcome visitors up in the gallery, I bring you greetings from KwaZulu-Natal. On behalf of the KwaZulu-Natal education department I wish to convey our grateful thanks for the increase in our education budget allocation.

KwaZulu-Natal has 6 000 schools, 78 000 teachers and 2,7 million learners. One hundred and ten thousand six hundred and thirty one learners wrote the matric exam in 2004.

On the national average, one in four Grade 12s were from KwaZulu-Natal. There was a 73,9% pass rate of Grade 12s in 2004. There are 300 schools under trees, some that don’t even have trees, Minister, and 334 schools without water or sanitation - the principal, staff and learners have to use the same bush when the need arises.

There is a serious backlog of at least 2 900 classrooms, which the department hopes to eliminate by 2009. Four hundred mobile classrooms have been ordered in the first quarter of this year to help in the worst cases. The department hopes to provide 2 500 new sanitary facilities. Also, R126 million has been set aside for repairs and renovations.

I hope I have convinced you with these few statistics that the KwaZulu- Natal education department needs a huge injection of funds to eliminate this backlog and in order to attempt to provide further infrastructure to meet the needs of all our learners.

I also wish to say something about the school nutrition programme. The department has set aside R187 million for the school nutrition programme. This is hopelessly inadequate, with the unemployment rate reaching 40% in our province, and with HIV/Aids taking its toll on both parents and children. Sometimes the meal that the children get at school is the only nutrition they will receive for the day.

With the demise of apartheid and the Group Areas Act the demographics of most areas have been turned upside down. With more and more people flocking to the towns in the hope of a better life, informal settlements have mushroomed all over the place. As much as 80% of the children in what used to be former House of Delegates or House of Representatives schools are children from informal areas.

The feeding scheme has not taken this into account, and as these schools were not considered as needy in the past, the present learners are suffering greatly. The staff of these schools and people in the surrounding areas do what they can, but this is not sustainable or sufficient. There should be a whole new review of this programme to include these schools.

Another vexing question is the role of school governing bodies. Very often they are just hand-picked tools of the principal. SGBs should be workshopped thoroughly on a regular basis to understand their role, be taught how to budget and how to prioritise needs at their particular school. The needs of their children should be paramount; they should not listen to what the principal wants them to do at the expense of their children.

It is my personal belief that SGBs should not be allowed to appoint staff. This should be in the hands of professionals. There is a firm belief in KwaZulu-Natal that serious thought should be given to making primary school education free of charge. Unemployed parents cannot bear the burden of school fees, stationery, uniforms and feeding children adequately.

There is a serious concern about the quality of the matric passes. Of the 73% plus pass rate in 2004, not even 9% got matric exemption or an endorsement that would allow learners to proceed to a tertiary institution, and of this number - this 9% I’d mentioned - not even 4% had maths or science.

After twelve years of school, and billions of rands later, are we getting value for our money? Are we doing justice to our children? Are we helping our children to meet the shortage of skills? Thank you. [Time expired.] [Applause.]

Mr S N SIKHOSANA (Mpumalanga): Hon Chair, hon Minister of Education, members of our provincial cabinets, colleagues in the different legislatures, compatriots and friends, partners in the education fraternity, visitors, this year’s budget deliberations for the Education Department take place at a time when our nation and friends on the African continent and elsewhere on the globe, join us to celebrate the progress towards the building of a democratic, nonracial, nonsexist and prosperous South Africa.

It also takes place at a moment when, as a country, we are poised to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of our historic Freedom Charter, a blueprint guiding all of us in undertaking the immediate task of making measurable progress in realising the strategic objectives of our national democratic transformation enterprise.

Hon members of the NCOP, expenditure on education must remain the largest budgetary item in South Africa, as it is through education that we can improve the human capital of our nation. Progress in our education system runs ahead of the minimum development goals, and ahead of most comparable developing countries. Such improvements are also reflected in a parallel increase in the matric pass rate in our province last year.

Hon Minister Pandor, like both your predecessors, you are consistent with the democratic struggle objectives which, as a matter of historical necessity, will loom over us for a long time as we proceed along the path of national emancipation, away from illiteracy, poverty, lack of skills, underdevelopment and geographical disadvantage. Good and quality education will without a doubt contribute significantly and decisively to the urgency of dealing with the human tragedy that the apartheid regime exacted on our people.

The progress made in the past 10 years towards physical access to education institutions in terms of integrated schools, that is racially and ethnically, and even learners with special education needs who can attend mainstream schools, remains frustrated by the scourge of poverty, a legacy that the democratic state has been confronted with since the advent of our democracy in 1994.

On behalf of the masses of our people, we congratulate the government on the progressive policy initiatives regarding school uniforms, school governing bodies and school fees, relating especially to the poor and indigent children of our country and the nation. This policy intervention will ease the access to education and open the doors of learning to all. Parents will be expecting the implementation of this progressive policy soon, and would wish the Minister and MECs responsible for education all the best in dealing with the implication of this policy regarding resources and the cost of education.

This didn’t come as a surprise to us, because the ANC, through its policy of free education, made a profound commitment; the first 10 years remains critical to the attainment of opening up the opportunity of learning and culture to all.

As part of government’s endeavour to enhance higher education in our province, I am expected to urge the Minister to speed up the process of establishing an institute in Mpumalanga. This will have a huge impact, even on how the people of the province view education and educational achievements. This problem of institutional capacity in our province contributes hugely to the inadequate research capacity of higher education, and it is therefore to the disadvantage of our socio-economic position in South Africa.

This whole range of issues of institutional research capacity is to help us alleviate the shortage of quality research and should form part of policy measures aimed at widening access of designated groups, such as women, blacks and the differently abled, to subjects and disciplines that were traditionally the domain of males, that is maths, engineering, accounting, and so forth. This teaching and research mandate of a higher education institution in Mpumalanga, if it remains unfulfilled, can be partly attributed to the challenges to the sector to produce more graduates as a result of a higher level of student drop-outs.

The establishment of this institution forms an integral part of the transformation of the higher education system, as envisaged by the Freedom Charter, to meet the national democratic and developmental growth needs of our country and the continent. These challenges require participation in the campaign to build a culture of learning, teaching and service by all structures of civil society, especially business, to support the schools in whatever manner possible, changing our schools into centres of quality education activities.

It therefore becomes discouraging for some of the teachers who would, upon consideration of self-enrichment, suppress the needs of our growing economy and the international standing of our country and undermine our educational examination system and cheat in that system.

I want to pay tribute to the decisive leadership displayed by our Ministry in dealing with the matter jointly with the provincial government. I urge the Justice Department to pass the appropriate sentences, and as such teachers must never join the profession again. We urge the hon Minister to interact with the Department of Justice in this regard.

I think that at this point we must remind the DA that the right to make policy comes with the mandate from voters. It means you earn this right. Until they have won the elections they will remain the opposition, and therefore they should leave policy matters to the ruling party.

The supreme law of our land compels our democratic state to recognise the historically diminishing use and status of the indigenous languages of our people. It further dictates that the state must take practical and positive measures to elevate the status and advance the use of these languages. The claim of hon Zille that the revised Bill is “a watershed for the worse” simply suggests that South Africa must not use African languages in their African country, because they are not languages capable of meeting the standard of foreign languages such as English. This is an insult to the Africans who are in the DA, and at this time they should consider coming back home to the People’s Congress, the ANC. [Interjections.]

Our South African students rejected Afrikaans in 1976. I thought that as they read history the DA was familiar with the rationale involved. Before the arrival of their forbears, the languages of Africans were used and respected. It was this colonial oppression that sought to destroy these languages and this government is following the prescriptions of our Constitution, the supreme law of our land, in seeking to redress the legacy of apartheid colonialism. [Interjections.] Members of the DA who are here benefited from that system.

We call on all parties to join us in building a new patriotism in education, founded on common commitments, to the interests of all South Africans, which discourages the pursuit of narrow, selfish interests by any group or individual. The call by this group for the Premier of Mpumalanga to axe the MEC for Education is ill conceived at best, and politically dangerous at worst. It communicates to us the level of political bankruptcy by some of our detractors. [Interjections.]

An HON MEMBER: Name them.

Mr S N SIKHOSANA (Mpumalanga): It’s Benade and Hash. I want to state categorically that such utterances will not assist us in going forward, and they are equally divergent from the just cause we pursue. Hon Minister, from our province we welcome the education budget and wish the department well in pursuing the path of opening the doors of learning to all our people. I thank you, Chair.

Rev E ADOLPH: Hon Chairperson, protocol observed, hon national Minister of Education, the ID believes that quality education is indeed the key to unlock the latent potential that is living in our children in South Africa, both black and white. We are also of the opinion that we need to work together with government as a collective to reach our goals and our dreams in line with our constitutional obligations.

We also welcome the announcement by the national Minister of no school fees. It is about time that learners will not be excluded from education due to lack of fees. Instead, we all need to work together to eradicate this evil. We must create safe havens for learners to be educated in order to be able compete in the global village. We are not alone anymore; we participate in a global village. It is and it will remain our collective responsibility as citizens to ensure quality education for our future generations.

We are also mindful that there are serious challenges like HIV and Aids, but an even greater one is poverty. Poverty is crippling our people, and everybody. I mean everybody! Parents and business people must roll up their sleeves and work together with the education system to improve the situation. If we do not assist we can’t blame anybody else.

The ID wants to commend the national Minister and her department for taking such bold steps in the right direction. It is about time that certain school governing bodies are stripped of their power, because they abuse their power by excluding learners and educators from the schooling system. Now is the time.

I tend to disagree with Mrs Helen Zille of the DA. She misses the point completely. [Interjections.] She fails to understand the dynamics of the education system in South Africa. She doesn’t understand that we can’t just integrate the schooling system in South Africa. We went a long way to transforming the schooling system, but integration where learners are just learners, black and white, irrespective, is still a long way off. [Interjections.]

I just wonder where the DA leadership’s children attend school? Maybe they go to private schools in the United States or wherever they could afford it? [Interjections.] They had choices; they had opportunities; now it is time for us to educate our people and our learners as an investment for the future. [Interjections.]

Minister, we acknowledge also that there are certain challenges that you are faced with in your department. I recently visited North West province, and I also want to the challenge the ANC-led government to practice what they preach. I am concerned that a quintile five school is getting the same allocation, percentage-wise as a quintile one school. That’s a disaster. It is a recipe for turmoil. I would like to have a summary of the quintile percentage distribution in North West province. It’s impossible that a school serving the poorest of the poor can get the same amount of money, in terms of norms and standards, as a more well-resourced school. [Time expired.]

Mr A MOTSOALEDI (Limpopo): Chairperson, hon Minister, hon Deputy Minister, colleagues in the executive councils of various provinces, members of the House, ladies and gentlemen, the issue of school infrastructure, which the Minister referred to yesterday and today has grabbed the nation’s imagination and provoked unending debates in the media.

But in the debates one quite often detects that some people do not understand this issue clearly. Some assume that South Africa was a homogeneous country throughout, with everybody getting all the resources they ever needed. Others assume that since 1994 nothing has been done.

In Limpopo, we believe that we must deal with this issue once and for all, but systematically and as strategically as we possibly can. While the Minister has adequately outlined some of the factors that contribute to this problem, especially that of learners under trees, I wish to further to outline some of the factors that we have unearthed in our province, so that members of this House can understand our approach to this issue.

The first thing is history, which we are always told to forget. We cannot to do so, because it is not possible. Historically all African communities within homelands built their own schools without any help from the government. The government only took this responsibility in 1994. That is only 11 years ago. Communities built these with very meagre resources; the results were this great shortage and very poor quality schools.

The second issue is the urban rural migration where people are looking for greener pastures and employment. The third one, which the Minister mentioned earlier, is migration in search of good results. We do have schools where there was no reason for anybody to be under a tree in December, but immediately after the matric results have been announced, in January, it is full under the trees, because people are migrating there to look for better education.

The other factor is fast-growing settlements, that means RDP settlements, which are often put up without interaction with the Department of Education by the responsible departments, and we will soon bring this to an end. The other issue is classrooms, which exist one minute, and are gone the next. They are blown over by just a passing breeze due to the poor quality of construction, as communities had no resources to build something of good quality.

The last issue is that there are whole school buildings constructed by using burnt materials, like asbestos. In my province we still have wholly asbestos-built schools, which were build in the past, and which we can no longer keep. Hence our strategy goes beyond removing children from under trees, but encompasses total infrastructure positioning, which will be in line with the new curriculum, but we also take into consideration the introduction of grade R and deal with their resource inadequacies of the past.

Hence we have divided our classroom shortages, our infrastructure shortages in Limpopo into seven identifiable categories. However, before mentioning these categories. I wish to put on record, as I said, this does not mean we did nothing in the past.

In Limpopo, since 1994, 20 000 new classrooms have been put up, but we still have children under trees. Our statistics are like this: At the present moment there are 17 schools that still have children under trees, 5 742 children. The number of new classrooms required is 236 and an amount of R36 130 million is needed to eradicate that situation. We also have children who are not under trees, but in shacks, and by shacks we do not mean dilapidated buildings, we really mean “mkhukhus” made of plastic or wood and all the other materials which communities sometimes put together to put up classrooms.

We have 181 such schools and there are 21 919 learners inside them, and the required number of classrooms is 716, representing the amount of R107 030 million. So, as I am speaking, in Limpopo we are putting up these classrooms worth R144 million for both schools under trees and shacks, and we believe that definitely by the end of this year, the academic year, not even the financial year, we shall have completed those classrooms.

Our second category are the new offshoots, because we have discovered that we need totally new schools as a matter of urgency if we are to avoid this perennial problem of schools under trees. This approach is important, because there are schools which get new classrooms every year, but almost every year we still have some learners under trees. This phenomenon is occurring because there are communities which are growing faster than the school can cope with, and hence in Limpopo, this year, we are going to put up 30 totally new schools that never existed before.

Our third category is condemned schools. There are schools which have been condemned by experts within the building industry. These schools need to be demolished and rebuilt right from the beginning, and we must warn that this is not going to take one year, because there are many. Out of the 4 281 schools in Limpopo, the government of the past built only 200. More than 4 000 schools were put up by communities with their meagre resources and hence more than 80% of them will need to be replaced if we are to talk of good quality schools. The schools built by the communities are aging very fast, and, as I said, some simply collapse every day.

Our fourth category will be special schools for a very good reason. We have discovered that some disabled children stay on waiting lists for many years, because they cannot be put under trees. Our fifth category is overcrowding, which we also wish to warn is not something that will be dealt with in one year. But by any means, we will never take 18 years.

The sixth category is circuit offices because we also realise that the infrastructure needs are not only with regard to schools, it is also regarding offices for our inspectors and subject advisors, and if we are to get enough subject advisors, as we have been promised, for the new curriculum, we are going to have to build this.

Our last category, in the province, is the comprehensive schools that we want to introduce; schools that will be the best of the best. We are going to place one in each district every year in each of the 6 districts of Limpopo and at the end of the decade we will have 60 such schools which have everything. Our budget for this year is R455 million, R375 million for next year, and R393 for the following year. So, in this MTEF period we are going to be spending R1 billion, R224 million for infrastructure provisioning, and we are looking forward to the coming MTEF, by which we believe we would have fulfilled all our needs.

We are getting ready to establish the new curriculum and in this case, from June this year, we are going to be retaining 18 000 teachers, 10 000 for the FET and for Grade 10 and 8 000 for Grade 7. We have put aside R130 million for this preparation.

On early childhood development, I wish to mention that we are busy opening the first door. Yesterday you mentioned that its knob is beyond the reach of many of our children. We will definitely reach your target by 2010, because in Limpopo, as I am talking now, we already have 90 000 Grade R learners in our ordinary public schools. We are subsidising 1 008 community sites for R18 million.

We are fully behind you regarding school governance, and will defend you and your intention to amend the South African Schools Act and review the powers of school governing bodies with everything at our disposal. I realise that there are people who . . . I do not know what is wrong with our opposition. Their members come to the Limpopo parliament in pyjamas. One of their members rightfully, as every normal human being would, embraced the Freedom Charter, but immediately denied it. They are very worried that your budget speech is being supported by the press. The only person who does not support it is Ms Zille from the DA, and I understand that is what they do all time.

I want to mention, Minister, that we will support you, because history will judge us very harshly if we do not do so. School governing bodies in the former white areas are using their powers to perpetuate racism, but this also happens in black communities. In black communities they use their powers to perpetuate system of “ngwana wa mobu”, the child of the soil, and we experience these issues all the time, but when the result collapses we are the ones to blame, never the school governing bodies. Minister we are with you all the way. Thank you. [Applause.]

Dr F J VAN HEERDEN: Chairperson, I am going to test the policy of the Minister against one of the ANC’s documents that came across my desk today. Before I return to that then, I would like to refer the hon Minister to it. I am sure she is very well acquainted with this document of the ANC’s National General Council, dated 29 June – 3 July 2005. To begin with, in this document – and we fully associate ourselves with this – there are many signs indicating that Afrikaners are embracing the new South Africa and Africanism. The FF Plus endorses this. Furthermore, this document also analysed the national question – I do not have time to elaborate on it – and states that this statement is not intended to diminish the importance of the rights of minorities. We associate ourselves with that as well.

Furthermore, all South Africans should enjoy the right to practice their own culture. We endorse that. Furthermore, a mutual respect for languages, cultural practices and spiritual beliefs of different groups. We endorse that. Furthermore: The African personality still struggles for breath. And the next: Our education system somehow still uses the approach: The more European-like, the better educated.

We agree with this statement, but we say that it is wrong. Then there is another one:

We do not advocate the need for a monogamous sameness in which we are all cultural clones of each other. In fact, nationhood will never be achieved without cultural groups exercising their freedom and without the genuine comfort with the cultures of other South Africans.

We fully support this. Now let us look at the policy of the Minister.

U teiken twee groepe: U teiken Afrikaanse skole wat teenstrydig is met u eie beleid wat u hier uiteensit; en u teiken Afrikaanse universiteite. Kom ons kyk net vinnig na die stand van universiteite. In ’n baie onlangse verklaring is aangetoon dat Suid-Afrika nie eens 1 uit 200 van die topuniversiteite in die wêreld het nie. Die 20 beste instellings . . . [Tyd verstreke.] (Translation of Afrikaans paragraph follows.)

[You are targeting two groups: You are targeting Afrikaans schools, which contradicts your own policy explained here; and you are targeting Afrikaans universities. Let us take a quick look at the state of universities. In a recent statement it was indicated that South Africa did not even have 1 out of the top 200 universities in the world. The 20 top institutions . . . [Time expired.]]

Nkskz A N D QIKANI: Mhlalingaphambili, ndivumele kuqala ukuba ndikhahlele. Mphathiswa, mandikhahlele kuwe kuqala, ndithi: Malibongwe! Ndinethemba lokuba xa ibanjwe ngumana soze iwe phantsi, kuba sithi thina maXhosa ubushushu bomntwana buviwa ngumama.

Ndiza kujonga eMpuma Koloni, apho ndivela khona. Ndiyacela, Mphathiswa, ukuba xa usinika isabelo siyiMpuma Koloni, singa noko singaba sikhulu kunesamanye amaphondo kuba sineengxaki. (Translation of isiXhosa paragraphs follows.)

[Mrs A N D QIKANI: Chairperson, allow me to greet the Minister first, and say: Malibongwe! [Let it be praised!] I believe that when women handle a matter it never fails. In the Xhosa culture it is alleged that the mother of a child is the one who recognises that the baby is sick.

My focus is on the Eastern Cape, where I come from. Minister, I plead with you that when you compose the budget to give the Eastern Cape a larger share than the other provinces, because the province is faced with difficulties.]

For example, during a recent oversight and constituency visit to the Eastern Cape I noticed many aspects of delivery of educational services that required attention. There is a large number of children who have to travel more than 10 kilometres to and from school. It is vital that reliable transportation is made available because harsh weather conditions and the inability to afford own transport result in poor attendance by these children.

I also need to report that there are children who are still being taught under trees, especially in Port St Johns. There are inadequate numbers of classrooms, as well as a lack of proper facilities and other basic infrastructure, such as fencing, which make proper schooling almost impossible.

There is also the problem of lecturers or teachers who are kept on in an acting capacity for a long time. For example, at East London College most lecturers are appointed on a temporary basis. This state of affairs affects the morale and, therefore, the productivity of staff.

Xa ndigqibezela, ndicela ukuphinda ndicele uMphathiswa ukuba aqwalasele ngokumandla imfundo yabadala phantsi kwenkqubo i-Abet. Ootitshala abafundisa abantu abadala bayafuna ukuqwalaselwa kuba bakhalaza kakhulu kuthi ngokuba iimali zabo azifiki ngethuba, loo nto ibenze banganikezeli ngenkonzo entle.

Enye into endiyibulelayo, Mphathiswa, kukuba ukwazi ukufaka abantwana bethu kwizikolo esasingakwazi thina ukungena kuzo. Thina sasifunda kwizikolo ezazicalula ngokwebala, kukho ezabamnyama nezabamhlophe bodwa. Ngelo ke, Mphathiswa, siyabulela ngokuba uzenzile zonke ezi zinto. Enkosi, Sihlalo. [Kwaqhwatywa.] (Translation of isiXhosa paragraphs follows.)

[In conclusion, I appeal to the Minister to deliberate well on the issue of the Abet programme. Abet teachers complain to us about their late salary payments which results in poor teaching performance.

I want to thank you, Minister, for placing our children in schools that we could never afford for them to attend. We studied during the time of racial discrimination, when there were whites only and blacks only schools. Now, we say thank you for overcoming those boundaries. Thank you, Chairperson. [Applause.]] The DEPUTY CHAIRPERSON OF COMMITTEES: Chairperson, hon Minister, hon Deputy Minister, distinguished special delegates, friends, colleagues and comrades, I am quite confident that Oliver Tambo would be smiling in his grave that, after 50 years, the noble vision a programme that seeks to undo the legacy of apartheid colonialism, is now being embraced, more so by a leader of an organisation which I also think is more on the right than the DA, namely hon Van Heerden of the FF Plus. I want to congratulate you on that particular point. [Applause.]

The budget policy debate this afternoon is one living testimony that steadily but surely national consensus is emerging in terms of where we should take our education system in the 21st century. This consensus is not an accident of history, but a product of supremacy of vision and leadership of the ANC for more than nine decades. The vision of the ANC has not been assailable for nine decades. It has been attacked. It has been challenged but no force has been able to diminish and to obliterate that vision. The fact that one member of the DA, hon Lamoela . . . don’t be afraid and don’t be shy, it was not a slip of the tongue, but it is because that vision is unassailable, namely the vision of the Freedom Charter. Hon van Heerden, that vision is unassailable and you are welcome within the ranks of the millions and millions of the people of this country who share this vision.

Assembled under the leadership of the ANC in the open veld of Kliptown, 50 years ago, our people proclaimed that the doors of learning and culture shall be opened for all. The debate today affords us an opportunity to make a determination of the extent to which we as a country have moved to realise this noble vision.

Yesterday, this august House adopted a motion of condolence to the family of the late Frans Mohlala, the former Chief Whip of the Limpopo Legislature. At about the same time two years ago, the NA and the ANC lost one of its greatest fighters in a car accident, the late comrade Ephraim Mogale. I mention these two cadres of our movement because we cannot write the history of the education of this country without them. It is Ephraim Mogale and others who assembled at Wilgespruit to launch the Congress of South African Students.

I am sure the Minister will agree with me that it is no one but Cosas that, when no organisation, including the trade union movement, could carry the banner of the Freedom Charter, did so. We cannot celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Freedom Charter separately from the celebration of the fighting years of Cosas. As we celebrate this anniversary, we take pride that no one but Cosas took the Freedom Charter to the streets when the apartheid regime was virtually declaring the Freedom Charter illegal and, at worst, as a Communist manifesto. It is not a Communist manifesto. I think hon Van Heerden would agree that it is not a Communist manifesto. It is a vision that unifies the people of this country.

There is no organisation that can do that; only the ANC can do that. Today our country is united behind the vision and the banner of the Freedom Charter, hence everybody in this august House is guided by the battle cry: The doors of learning and culture shall be open for all.

Hon Minister, I have listened quite attentively to all the speakers who spoke before me. I was a little bit worried that none of them have paid sufficient attention to the issue of adult basic education and training. There is no country that can be globally competitive in terms of productivity when the majority of its workforce is illiterate. Transformation will be meaningless if our mothers and fathers, brothers and sisters, cannot even write their own names.

I think that is a challenge that this debate should address and maybe the department should look at that challenge. As a country we must rise to that particular challenge. Accordingly the status and significance of adult basic education and training should receive urgent attention in the planning, resource allocation and priority setting of the Department of Education.

The vision of a reading nation cannot be confined to the classrooms but should be extended to our homes, where our grandmothers and grandfathers, our sisters and brothers are. It should be extended to the workplaces, where the people who are producing the wealth of this country, are from eight to five. It should be extended to our old-age centres, where our grandmothers and grandfathers are. For an effective literacy campaign to be waged, we ought to mobilise all sectors of our society. It is one thing for the department to make available resources, but something else to get enrolments.

I know that in some areas within my own province some of these adult basic education training centres are collapsing, not because there are no resources, but because people enroll and in the course of time they just drop out of the course. Maybe it is one other critical area that the department must apply its mind to, in terms of research, and that is how we are going to sustain enrolment in these particular centres. We need to take the example of the Socialist Republic of Cuba. I will be accused of being a Communist and, of course, I am a member of the Communist Party. One of the key challenges must be to eradicate illiteracy. This is a challenge that I really believe none of us is paying sufficient attention to.

Related to the above is the whole question of the recent disruptions in our institutions of higher learning. To my mind, at the heart of this disruption was nothing but a lack of a strong education movement united behind a common vision for the transformation of our education. One of the dangerous things that South Africa did when we got our freedom in 1994 was a subtle attempt to depoliticise students. That posed a danger.

I want to remind hon members that in 1985, with the imposition of the first state of emergency, there was virtually no schooling in South Africa. It was Oliver Tambo who made the call from Lusaka that students should go and fight apartheid education within the classrooms. The apartheid security forces could not fight that. Nobody but the very same Cosas convened parents and academics and educators in Durban and launched what we then called the national education co-ordinating committee and without that movement education in this country could have been something else. One of the key challenges in terms of governance and management of education broadly, not at the micro level, I think it is a challenge; the state cannot do that.

I quite understand the distinction between the state and the party. It is a challenge to political parties to ensure that with this common vision that we share in terms of how are we taking our education forward, we actually begin to grapple with the whole challenge of establishing a very strong education movement that will provide not only leadership but will assist the department and society broadly in terms of dealing with the day to day challenges that education is facing.

There is no doubt that with a weak South African Student Congress - I refer to it, because it has a history . . . I was pleased to note yesterday that the former secretary-general of the national education co-ordinating committee is now the director-general of the Department of Public Works. Without a strong South African student congress the Minister would continue to run into these universities like a riot squad. It reminds of 1976 when some of the members who are now audacious enough to stand in front of this House and talk about a lack of libraries and resources in schools. They tend to forget that they are led by a person who in 1976 when the students were revolting against this brain-damaging colonial education system, was in a helicopter up there, monitoring, shooting and maiming our people. Today they want to tell us that they are new people, because they have changed their name. We don’t agree with that. We don’t agree. Hon Loe does not even know the history of her party or the history of her leaders. [Interjections.]

Tony Leon was a soldier and he was one of the soldiers, a lance corporal in a helicopter above the streets of Soweto, firing tear gas and bullets at the unarmed students. Thank you very much. [Applause.]

The MINISTER OF EDUCATION: Modulasetulo, selo se ke sa se rateng ke gore motho a ntsene ganong. A bue mantswe a re ke mantswe ame, ke sa a bua. [Chairperson, I don’t like it when people interrupt me, putting words in my mouth that I haven’t said.] I don’t like people to put words in my mouth. I have never, never, said that I would take away the powers of school governing bodies. That would be very ridiculous English and I don’t speak ridiculous English. [Laughter.] Let me go on to say that the attempt to present this particular Minister as someone with the rampant intention to destroy quality education is patently ridiculous, patently untrue and a refusal to acknowledge the attempts we are making to improve education in South Africa.

Of course, as hon members have said, we do not need the particular support of the opposition in our attempts to ensure that, indeed, we change educational practice in our country. I would think, given our concern as all political parties in ensuring that the people of South Africa indeed enjoy quality access to education, we would put our shoulder to the wheel, instead of focusing on phantoms, and actually ensure that we move from school to school, parent to parent, community to community, assuring ourselves as political leaders and parties that, indeed, our children are getting the education they should. That is the role I think we should play. So, let us not put words in our mouths. Let’s get down to constituency work in every activity to ensure that, indeed, quality education is being provided to our children.

I would then like to thank hon members, those who made positive contributions to changing the quality of education in our country.

I am very sad that not all our MECs could be here today. I think all MECs should really have made a strong attempt to be here, because this House needs to know what it is we are achieving as the collective of education nationally. [Applause.] I really believe, Sir, you must ensure in future that all MECs are here, because we received very important reports on our progress in advancing our programme in education. I believe that one of the things that you can see is that there is synergy in terms of this desire to change the context that we inherited, and to advance the gains that we have made in the 10 years of democracy.

A number of points have been raised by hon members. Firstly, I think the matter of the welfare of our children, and indeed the implementation of the national school nutrition programme is important.

There are problems, the hon member of the DA is correct. Each time we spot a problem, we react immediately. It is not a matter of our being neglectful. It is sometimes the communities we are dealing with, sometimes the businesses that we contract, things that we often cannot control. My belief, and that of my department and my colleagues, is that we should make this programme increasingly community-based and school-run. We should encourage the development of gardens and let our schools have greater independence in managing the programme.

I do believe we need to look at how the funds are being utilised, because the amount we allocate is significant – over R800 million. For a child to get soyabeans and samp every day suggests that the R800 million may not be used appropriately. We do need to look at whether the money is going primarily to providers rather than to feeding. My sense, as it is, is that that needs to be changed, but we are certainly following through and improving, and let us report that we feed over 5 million children every day for the time stipulated in the programme, over 200 days in some of our provinces.

The matter of HIV/Aids is a very serious matter, particularly with respect to our children becoming aware and educated about this disease and the pandemic, as well as how to protect themselves and getting the values that will allow them to engage in practices that won’t expose them to danger. I think the report of the Education Labour Relations Council, the ELRC, which indicated prevalence among educators, presents worrying statistics to us. For me, the most worrying part is the fact that our educators don’t seem to be fully alert to how one can protect oneself from becoming infected.

This is a worrying phenomenon, which suggests the need for greater education about HIV/Aids. I was a little surprised at this particular finding, because educators are training our children, and if they are not aware then there is something wrong in terms of their ability to absorb the information about the disease and how, indeed, you conduct your life. But we are strengthening the intervention that we have at the school level.

Certainly, I agree with hon members. Quality education has to be our mantra; has to be the pursuit that we engage in for the next four years. We have to have targeted and focused interventions, as the Free State indicated. I must say that the Free State province has been implementing a number of exciting initiatives. For example, their use of principals of excellence in a range of schools, the movement of principals to improve quality where quality doesn’t exist is, I think, an important lever for changing performance and something that all of us should look at, namely that where there is a good principal whose school has a base of staff that can carry on the good practice, we should use that leadership elsewhere to improve quality there. These good principals can thus become resources for our schools. That is an exciting utilisation of school leadership.

Certainly, we must improve the quality of training of educators. I also think that we must restore the bursary programme for training pre-service candidates. I think it is a pity that we stopped the bursary programme. I understand why some of that happened, but I believe we need to reinsert it into the education system.

I cannot repeat everything that I said in my Budget speech yesterday. I would ask you to read that speech. We’ve dealt with the matter of illiteracy and the issue of Cuba. I believe is a route we need to look at, and certainly we will be assigning a group to look at that for us. We believe, and I believe very sincerely, that a mass-based literacy programme is the way to go. The use of schools as sites and the achievement of Level 4 of the Abet programme as the objective, doesn’t address the kind of illiteracy that the hon Setona is referring to, and therefore, mass-based provision facilitators at the local level, utilisation of a model such as the Cuban model, which can roll out to many millions at a given period, is a route I believe we should examine.

You have heard reports of the infrastructure and how we are responding to it. Let me deal with some of the issues that were raised and which I believe need factual correction. Firstly, teachers who upgrade their qualifications are paid a cash bonus by the departments of education. We can’t, of course, justify a permanent increase, because improvement in performance is not reliant on the degree that you acquire, it is driven by other things, such as the performance of the learners and so on. As you know, we are implementing the Integrated Quality Management System in order to be able to have ongoing review of educators so that we reward them appropriately.

I have also announced that through the R4,2 billion that has been provided by the Treasury for improving the remuneration of educators we are seeking to create career path opportunities for teachers. As you know, at the moment, when you become a teacher, you stay a teacher for life, and that is why a lot of teachers want to exit from the system. I want to see the possibility of someone entering as a new professional, but then being able to grow and be recognised in expertise until they are at a senior level of teacher within the system and paid and remunerated appropriately.

I want to remove this thing of teachers having to become school principals in order to advance. I would like them to be able to advance while staying in the classroom, because we lose good teachers in their becoming principals. [Applause.]

Regarding the matter of the school governing bodies, SGBs, there is clearly a misunderstanding. There is a rule in Parliament that we cannot pre-empt a discussion on a matter that will come before the House. I used to be a Whip, so I know the rules. I thought the Whips would stand up when this matter of SGBs kept coming up, because there is a Bill that is before Parliament already, which is addressing an amendment.

I believe that members will have the opportunity in the select committee to address the issues that they wish to address, and finally the House will debate that Bill. Let us not presume that what is before the House will stay as it is without discussion. We haven’t yet got a fact that’s complete. The fact that a Minister drafts a Bill doesn’t mean it is an Act. Parliament has to sanction that legislation. Let us give it a chance to come through the House.

We were presented with the spectre that most of our teachers are unqualified. This is not true. We’ve worked very hard to reduce the backlog of unqualified teachers and underqualified educators in our country. What we have done is that we have trained over 80 000 teachers since 1994 and improved their qualifications. We are dealing with the few that remain, but the notion that our educators are undeveloped, have no opportunities for in- service training and so on is not right. Let’s not be dishonest.

I am on injury time, Chairperson; I am always on your injury time. You are so unkind to me. [Laughter.] But, thank you for allowing me. I thought, as a former presiding officer, you would give me more time . . . [Laughter.] . . . than the other Ministers, but I do recognise, Sir, that you must maintain the decorum, dignity and time of the House.

Let me conclude by saying I trust that our efforts to change our curriculum in South Africa will indeed work, and that finally we will offer a curriculum to the children of our country that doesn’t predetermine their opportunity for success, because our previous curriculum circumscribed a pupil’s chance to do well. The new curriculum offers a pupil limitless opportunity to succeed.

Hon Van Heerden, I am glad you read the resolutions of the ANC. You were going to conclude by saying that we need to do more to provide support to higher education institutions. I agree with you, hence our look at funding for higher education and really seeking to improve both the infrastructure, as well as what we are able to do in terms of research abilities. Thank you very much for those points. Do read the resolutions from the National General Council this year. Thank you. [Applause.]

Debate concluded.

The TEMPORARY CHAIRPERSON (Mr B J TOLO: I see that people in the gallery are now moving out and I just want to thank those of you who have been here today to listen to the debate. It is the first time that we have seen this gallery so full. It means that people are very interested in education and we appreciate that very much. Come back tomorrow and come back every time you get an opportunity. Thank you. [Applause.]

               SOUTHERN AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT COMMUNITY

                     (SADC) MUTUAL DEFENCE PACT

                      (Consideration of Report)

Mr Z C NTULI: “Mhlonishwa Sihlalo, bahlanishwa n ahahlonishwakazi bakule Ndlu. . . ” [Hon Chairperson, hon members of this House] . . . driven by virtuous commitment to freedom and peace, the ANC continues to commit itself to fighting for the safety and security of all citizens and countries of the world; safety and security are the necessary imperatives for world peace and democracy.

In particular, the ANC firmly supports the initiatives and efforts which seek to encourage and promote mutuality and co-operation in politics, defence and security. This is the context within which the Southern African Development Community Mutual Defence Pact should be understood, as it has been launched to promote co-operation in politics, defence and security among the countries of the entire SADC region.

The signing of this mutual agreement is, in biblical terms, neither alpha nor omega. The mutual defence pact flows from the establishment of SADC’s Organ for Politics, Defence and Security, which structure or body is intended to prevent conflicts and the breakdown of law and order, both between and within member countries in our region.

As the maintenance of peace and stability in our region remains one of the big challenges, signing of this mutual agreement by countries of the SADC region cannot be the end. In responding to the African challenges, South Africa should continue to be informed and guided by, among other things, the concept of “African solutions to African problems”.

As we engage in this debate, we must continue to be informed by a common understanding that meeting South Africa’s developmental challenges cannot be separated from the quest for peace and democracy in Africa and the world. Therefore, our country must continue to commit itself to becoming part and parcel of continental and global players, who genuinely seek to find lasting solutions in the SADC region, the African continent and beyond.

However, Van Nieuwkerk’s suggestion that mutual defence pacts will never protect the peoples of the region from continuing local and global exploitation is unfounded. Equally unfounded is a belief that pacts of this nature constitute nothing else but the ruling elite’s obsession with power and force. Seemingly, Van Nieuwkerk’s analysis of mutual defence pacts is informed by an understanding that conflict is inherent in the international system and for this reason no lasting achievements towards greater order and reduced conflict will ever be possible.

Let us agree with Anthoni Van Nieuwkerk when he says, and I quote:

In essence, the pact allows for collective self-defence and collective
action, stating that ‘an armed attack against a state party shall be
considered a threat to the regional peace and security and such attack
shall be met with immediate action’.

On behalf of the select committee, I submit this protocol for adoption by the House. I thank you. [Applause.]

Debate concluded.

The TEMPORARY CHAIRPERSON (Mr B J TOLO: That concludes the debate. I shall now put the question. The question is that the report be adopted. As this decision is dealt with in terms of section 65 of the Constitution, I shall first ascertain whether all delegation heads are present in the Chamber to cast their provinces’ vote. Are all delegation heads present here? They are here.

In accordance with Rule 71 I shall first allow provinces the opportunity to make their declarations of vote if they so wish. Is there any province that wishes to make a declaration of vote?

We shall now proceed to voting on the question. I shall do so in alphabetical order per province. Delegation heads must please indicate to the Chair whether they vote in favour or against or abstain from voting. Eastern Cape?

Mr A T MANYOSI: The Eastern Cape supports.

The TEMPORARY CHAIRPERSON (Mr B J TOLO): Free State?

Ms A TSOPO: Free State votes in favour.

The TEMPORARY CHAIRPERSON (Mr B J TOLO): Gauteng?

Mr E M SOGONI: Siyavuma. [We agree.]

The TEMPORARY CHAIRPERSON (Mr B J TOLO): KwaZulu-Natal?

Mr Z C NTULI: KwaZulu-Natal iyavumelana. [KwaZulu-Natal agrees.]

The TEMPORARY CHAIRPERSON (Mr B J TOLO): Limpopo?

Dr A MOTSOALEDI: Re a domela le rena ntate. [We also support, Sir.]

The TEMPORARY CHAIRPERSON (Mr B J TOLO): Mpumalanga?

Mrs M P THEMBA: Mpumalanga supports.

The TEMPORARY CHAIRPERSON (Mr B J TOLO): Northern Cape?

Mr K SINCLAIR: Northern Cape supports.

The TEMPORARY CHAIRPERSON (Mr B J TOLO): North West?

Mr Z S KOLWENI: North West ke ya rona. [North West supports.]

The TEMPORARY CHAIRPERSON (Mr B J TOLO): Western Cape?

Mr N MACK: Western Cape supports.

The TEMPORARY CHAIRPERSON (Mr B J TOLO): All provinces have voted in favour. I therefore declare the Report adopted in accordance with section 65 of the Constitution. [Applause.]

Report accordingly adopted in accordance with section 65 of the Constitution.

Hon member, are you rising on a point of order?

Mr A WATSON: Yes, Chair, I rise on a point of order . . .

The TEMPORARY CHAIRPERSON (Mr B J TOLO): Who is out of order, because we have finished voting?

Mr A WATSON: Chairperson, nobody is out of order. I didn’t say “point of out of order”. I said “point of order”. Regarding the votes that we have given here today, I want it noted that none of the delegations met to decide how they should vote. [Interjections.] Mr Sinclair has just confirmed that. In terms of the Rules, the delegation must make the decision. I want it noted, Chair, that you have allowed voting to take place and none of the delegations were consulted.

The TEMPORARY CHAIRPERSON (Mr B J TOLO): That should be an internal matter. If there are problems with provinces, those are their own problems. Let them sort out those problems themselves. They must not bring them here. Thank you. [Interjections.]

Mr A WATSON: No, Chair, you didn’t hear my point.

The TEMPORARY CHAIRPERSON (Mr B J TOLO): Can you sit down.

Mr A WATSON: Chair, you didn’t hear my point. My point is that the delegations didn’t get together to decide on the vote. This is not a one- man show, but delegations. We keep hearing that we are part of delegations and that we must sit according to delegations, but we are absolutely ignored when it comes to decisions. I want it noted, please, Sir.

The TEMPORARY CHAIRPERSON: (Mr B J TOLO): I am saying that it is your own provincial problem. We are not going to entertain a provincial problem here. We are not going to do that. If you have a problem, discuss it with your own delegation and don’t bring it here.

The Secretary will now read the next item on the Order Paper.

Mr K SINCLAIR: Chairperson, I just want to make a point of order.

The TEMPORARY CHAIRPERSON: (Mr B J TOLO): What is the point of order? Who is out of order? You know, I can’t understand these things.

Mr K SINCLAIR: Chairperson, maybe on a point of clarity then: The hon Watson has tried to create a very wrong impression. [Interjections.]

The TEMPORARY CHAIRPERSON (Mr B J TOLO): Please, I have ruled on that matter. I ruled that he should sit down and sort it out there, not here. [Interjections.] Please, let us not open it up again.

         UNITED NATIONS OPTIONAL PROTOCOL TO THE CONVENTION
            ON THE RIGHTS OF THE CHILD ON THE INVOLVEMENT
                    OF CHILDREN IN ARMED CONFLICTS
                      (Consideration of Report)

Ms F NYANDA: Chairperson, hon Ministers, hon MECs, special delegates and colleagues, central in the South African Constitution are fundamental human rights, in particular, recognition, respect and protection of human dignity of all citizens without regard to, amongst other things, race, gender and age. Our democratic government has committed itself to ensuring protection of all human beings, including children of South Africa, the African continent and beyond, who find themselves in circumstances, which are not in the best interest of the child.

The human rights of children and the standards to which governments, including South Africa, should realise the rights of all children are most concisely and fully articulated in the international humans rights treaty, The Convection on the Rights of the Child.

Having ratified the most universally accepted human rights instrument in history, South Africa should recommit itself to protecting and ensuring children’s rights and once again agrees to hold itself accountable and responsible for the commitment before the international community.

The ANC notes with disapproval that boys and girls under the age of 18 continue to be involved in armed conflicts all over the world in which they are used as combatants, messengers, porters, cookers and to provide sexual services.

In particular, during armed conflicts, girls and women, continue to be threatened by rape, domestic violence, sexual exploitation, trafficking and sexual humiliation.

Therefore, the ANC supports and endorses the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflicts, which Optional Protocol does not only enjoin state parties to raise the age of compulsory recruitment and direct participation in conflicts to 18 years, but also raises the minimum age for voluntary recruitment beyond the current minimum of 15 years.

Being committed to the principle of the best interest of the child, the ANC is convinced that the Optional Protocol to the Convention, which raises the age of possible recruitment of persons into armed forces and their participation in armed conflicts, contributes to the implementation of the principle of the best interests of the child.

Following a long history of regional conflicts and antagonism in Western Europe, there emerged unprecedented degree of both formal and informal integration among countries of the Western Europe region. This achievement dwarfs other considerations and eliminated serious contemplation or preparation for the possibility of war against each other, which suggests that a security community can be achieved even in the SADC region as a necessary condition for productive economic integration.

Underlying the commitment of the countries of the SADC region, including South Africa, to ensure peace and stability in this region, our Minister of Defence, hon Mosiuoa Lekota, has recently said:

We will continue to move together, as a collective, in sustaining this peace, in developing our region, and in contributing to peace and stability on the continent.

I thank you.

Debate concluded.

The CHAIRPERSON OF THE NCOP: That concludes the debate. I shall now put the question and the question is that the Report be adopted and as the decision is dealt with in terms of section 65 of the Constitution, I shall ascertain whether delegation heads are present in the Chamber so that they are able to cast their provinces’ vote. Are delegation heads all here?

In accordance with Rule 71, I shall first allow provinces the opportunity to make their declarations of vote if they so wish. Is there any province that wants to make a declaration of vote? No province. We shall now proceed to voting on the question. I shall do so in an alphabetical order. Delegation heads must please indicate to the chair whether they vote in favour, against or abstain. Eastern Cape?

Mr A T MANYOSI: The Eastern Cape votes in favour.

The CHAIRPERSON OF THE NCOP: Free State?

Ms A TSOPO: Free State votes in favour.

The CHAIRPERSON OF THE NCOP: Gauteng?

Mr E M SOGONI: Iyavuma iGauteng. [Gauteng agrees.]

The CHAIRPERSON OF THE NCOP: KwaZulu-Natal?

Mr Z C NTULI: KwaZulu-Natal iyavuma. [KwaZulu-Natal agrees.]

The CHAIRPERSON OF THE NCOP: Limpopo?

Dr A MOTSOALEDI: Limpopo is in favour.

The CHAIRPERSON OF THE NCOP: Mpumalanga?

Ms M P THEMBA: Steun. [Supports.]

The CHAIRPERSON OF THE NCOP: Northern Cape?

Mr K SINCLAIR: Northern Cape supports without the support of the DA. [Laughter.] The CHAIRPERSON OF THE NCOP: North West?

Mr Z S KOLWENI: North West votes in favour.

The CHAIRPERSON OF THE NCOP: Western Cape?

Mr N MACK: Western Cape supports.

The CHAIRPERSON OF THE NCOP: All provinces have voted in favour. I therefore declare the Report adopted in accordance with section 65 of the Constitution.

Report accordingly adopted in accordance with section 65 of the Constitution.

The Council adjourned at 17:54. ____

            ANNOUNCEMENTS, TABLINGS AND COMMITTEE REPORTS

ANNOUNCEMENTS

National Assembly and National Council of Provinces

1. Introduction of Bills

 (1)    The Minister of Sport and Recreation


     (i)     South African Sports Commission Act Repeal Bill [B 13 –
         2005] (National Assembly – sec 75) [Explanatory summary of Bill
         and prior notice of its introduction published in Government
         Gazette No 26477 of 25 June 2004.]


     Introduction and referral to the Portfolio Committee on Sport and
     Recreation of the National Assembly, as well as referral to the
     Joint Tagging Mechanism (JTM) for classification in terms of Joint
     Rule 160, on 19 May 2005.


     In terms of Joint Rule 154 written views on the classification of
     the Bill may be submitted to the Joint Tagging Mechanism (JTM)
     within three parliamentary working days.

1. Draft Bills submitted in terms of Joint Rule 159

   1) South African Sports Commission Act Repeal Bill, 2005, submitted by the Minister of Sport and Recreation on 15 April 2005. Referred to the Portfolio Committee on Sport and Recreation and the Select Committee on Education and Recreation.

National Council of Provinces

1. Referrals to committees of papers tabled

   The following papers have been tabled and are now referred to the relevant committees as mentioned below:

 (1)    The following papers are referred to the Select Committee on
     Finance for consideration:

        (a)  Strategic Plan of Statistics South Africa for 2005/06 to
          2009/10.

        (b)  Report of the Executive Officer of the Financial Services
          Board on the Road Accident Fund for 2003-2004.
 (2)    The following papers are referred to the Select Committee on
     Finance:

   (a)  Amendment of Money Laundering Control Regulations tabled in
          terms of section 77 of the Financial Intelligence Centre Act,
          2001 (Act No 38 of 2001).


    (b) Government Notice No R.225 published in Government Gazette No
          27388 dated 15 March 2005: Amendment: Treasury Regulations
          tabled in terms of the Public Finance Management Act, 1999
          (Act No 1 of 1999).

    (c) Government Notice No 290 published in Government Gazette No
          27442 dated 1 April 2005: Appointment of members to the
          Amnesty Unit in terms of the Exchange Control Amnesty and
          Amendment of Taxation Laws Act, 2003 (Act No 12 of 2003).


    (d) Government Notice No R.287 published in Government Gazette No
          27425 dated 1 April 2005: Regulations: Calculate the tax
          payable in terms of a Small Retailers Vat Package in terms of
          the Value-Added Tax Act, 1991 (Act No 89 of 1991).

    (e) Government Notice No 292 published in Government Gazette No
          27439 dated 31 March 2005: Determination of a date for
          purposes of section 12(1)(a) of the Public Investment
          Corporation Act, 2004 (Act No 23 of 2004).


    (f) Government Notice No 318 published in Government Gazette No
          27447 dated 31 March 2005: Allocated allocations in terms of
          the Division of Revenue Act, 2004 (Act No 5 of 2004).

    (g) Government Notice No R.180 published in Government Gazette No
          27344 dated 1 March 2005: Notice setting out arrangements for
          purposes of section 76A (1)(a) and section 76A (1)(b) in
          terms of the Income Tax Act, 1962 (Act No 58 of 1962).


    (h) Proclamation No R.15 published in Government Gazette No 27433
          dated 31 March 2005: Commencement in terms of the Public
          Investment Corporation Act, 2004 (Act No23 of 2004).


    (i) Proclamation No R.14 published in Government Gazette No 27427
          dated 1 April 2005: Fixing of a date on which sections
          164(1)(c), (g) and (o), 166(1)(b) and (d) and 169(1)(f), (h),
          (j) and (k) of the Revenue Laws Amendment Act, 2003 (Act No
          45 of 2003), and sections 92(1)(g) and (k), 95(1)(a) and (c),
          98(1) (f) and 103(1)(b) and (c) of the Revenue Laws Amendment
          Act, 2004 (Act No 32 of 2004), shall come into operation.

    (j) Proclamation No R.4 published in Government Gazette No 27209
          dated 28 January 2005: Determination of a date on which
          section 69(1) shall come into operation in terms of the
          Revenue Laws Amendment Act, 2003 (Act No 45 of 2003).


    (k) Proclamation No R.17 published in Government Gazette No 27448
          dated 1 April 2005: Commencement of the Financial Services
          Ombud Schemes Act, 2004 (Act No 37 of 2004).
   (l)  Proclamation No R.360 published in Government Gazette No 27478
          dated 12 April 2005: Technical Correction to Proclamation by
          the President of the Republic of South Africa in respect of
          the Commencement of the Securities Services Act, 2004 (Act No
          36 of 2004).


  (m)   Government Notice No 66 published in Government Gazette No 27206
          dated 28 January 2005: Dimension of, design for, and
          compilation of, the 2005 Natura gold coins in terms of the
          South African Reserve Bank Act, 1989 (Act No 90 of 1989).


    (n) Government Notice No 67 published in Government Gazette No 27206
          dated 28 January 2005: Dimension of, design for, and
          compilation of, the 2005 Protea coins in terms of the South
          African Reserve Bank Act, 1989 (Act No 90 of 1989).

    (o) Government Notice No 68 published in Government Gazette No 27206
          dated 28 January 2005: Dimension of, design for, and
          compilation of, the 2005 R1 and R2 gold coins in terms of the
          South African Reserve Bank Act, 1989 (Act No 90 of 1989).

    (p) Government Notice No 69 published in Government Gazette No 27206
          dated 28 January 2005: Dimension of, design for, and
          compilation of, the 2005 Crown size and 2½c sterling silver
          coin series in terms of the South African Reserve Bank Act,
          1989 (Act No 90 of 1989).


    (q) Government Notice No 70 published in Government Gazette No 27206
          dated 28 January 2005: Dimension of, design for, and
          compilation of, the 2005 sterling silver coin series in terms
          of the South African Reserve Bank Act, 1989 (Act No 90 of
          1989).


    (r) Government Notice No R.333 published in Government Gazette No
          27455 dated 8 April 2005: Regulations: Prescribing conditions
          for the provision of scholarship, Bursaries and awards for
          study, research and teaching in terms of the Income Tax Act,
          1962 (Act No 58 of 1962).

(3) The following paper is referred to the Select Committee on Finance and the Select Committee on Security and Constitutional Affairs:

  Government Notice No R.194 published in Government Gazette No 27365
  dated 11 March 2005: Regulations regarding the Register for tender
  defaulters in terms of the Prevention and Combating of Corrupt
  Activities Act, 2004 (Act No 12 of 2004).

(4) The following papers are referred to the Select Committee on Finance and the Select Committee on Local Government and Administration:

  (a)   Government Notice No R.308 published in Government Gazette No
       27431 dated 1 April 2005: Municipal Investment Regulations in
       terms of the Local Government: Municipal Finance Management Act,
       2003 (Act No 56 of 2003).


  (b)   Government Notice No R.309 published in Government Gazette No
       27431 dated 1 April 2005: Municipal Public-Private Partnership
       Regulations in terms of the Local Government: Municipal Finance
       Management Act, 2003 (Act No 56 of 2003).

(5) The following papers are referred to the Select Committee on Local Government and Administration for consideration:

  (a)   Strategic Plan of the Department of Public Service and
       Administration for 2005 to 2008.

  (b)   Strategic Plan of the South African Management Development
       Institute for 2005/06 to 2009/10.


  (c)   Strategic Plan of the Public Service Commission for 2005 to
       2008. (6)   The following paper is referred to the Joint Monitoring Committee on
  the Improvement of the Quality of Life and Status of Children, Youth
  and Disabled Persons for consideration:

  Report and Financial Statements of the National Youth Commission for
  2003-2004, including the Report of the Auditor-General on the
  Financial Statements for 2003-2004 [RP 197-2004].

(7) The following paper is referred to the Select Committee on Security and Constitutional Affairs:

  Proclamation No R.9 published in Government Gazette No 27288 dated 14
  February 2005: Commencement of sections 12, 13 and 19 of the Judicial
  Matters Amendment Act, 2002 (Act No 55 of 2002).

(8) The following paper is referred to the Select Committee on Economic and Foreign Affairs for consideration:

  Strategic Plan of the Department of Minerals and Energy for 2005/06 to
  2009/10.

(9) The following papers are referred to the Select Committee on Public Services for consideration:

  (a)   Strategic Plan of the Department of Home Affairs for 2004/05 to
       2006/07.


  (b)   Report and Financial Statements of the Road Accident Fund for
       2003-2004, including the Report of the Auditor-General on the
       Financial Statements for 2003-2004 [RP 33-2005].

(10) The following paper is referred to the Select Committee on Labour and Public Enterprises for consideration:

  Strategic Plan of the Department of Public Enterprises for 2005-2008.

(11) The following paper is referred to the Select Committee on Labour and Public Enterprises:

  Annual Financial Statements of Aventura Limited for the year ended 30
  June 2003.

(12) The following paper is referred to the Select Committee on Social Services for consideration:

  Report and Financial Statements of the National Development Agency
  (NDA) for 2003-2004, including the Report of the Auditor-General on
  the Financial Statements for 2003-2004 [RP 157-2004].

TABLINGS

National Council of Provinces

1. The Chairperson

   Report of Delegation to 9th Session of African, Caribbean, Pacific- European Union Joint Parliamentary Assembly, Bamako, Mali, 16-21 April 2005.

   The 9th Session of the African, Caribbean, Pacific-European Union Joint Parliamentary Assembly (ACP-EU JPA) met in Bamako, Mali from 16 to 21 April 2005. As usual, the joint plenary was preceded by meetings of the ACP and Joint Bureaus (of which South Africa is now a member), of the ACP plenary and also of the three Standing Committees – on Political Affairs, on Economic Development, Finance and Trade and on Social Affairs and the Environment. A highlight on this occasion was the launching of the ACP Parliamentary Assembly at a ceremony on April 15th following the signing on by a little more than the requisite one third of eligible ACP parliaments. The Deputy Chairperson of the NCOP, Mrs Peggy Hollander, signed on behalf of the South African Parliament.

   The delegation consisted of NCOP Deputy Chairperson, Mrs Peggy Hollander, Dr. Rob Davies and Ms Dumisile Nhlengethwa (of the ANC) and Mr Les Labuschagne (DA). We were accompanied by Ambassador Jerry Matjila and Mr Saul Pelle of the South African Embassy to the EU in Brussels, Ambassador Pandelani Mathoma of the South African Embassy to Mali, Ms Nonthato Skolo of the Department of Foreign Affairs, Ms Grace Constable of Parliament’s International Relations Unit and Ms Georgina Smith, personal assistant to Mrs Hollander.

   The 9th Session operated according to the established rules of procedure providing for resolutions to be tabled via the Standing Committees with the possibility of only two “urgent resolutions” being tabled independently on topics agreed by the Joint Bureau. It was agreed at the Joint Bureau meeting held in Brussels in January that the “urgent resolutions” at the 9th session would be on “The Situation in the Sudan” and “The Situation in the African Great Lakes Region”. The Joint Bureau agreed on two other debates without resolution on “The impact of the December 2004 tsunami” and “The Situation in Togo”. The ACP plenary was informed of an invitation to include ACP parliamentarians in an ACP mission to observe the Togolese elections on April 24th. Due to an absence of funding this invitation could not, however, be taken up.

   The plenary agenda also included the customary statements by, and questions to, the EU Commission (represented by both the Development Commissioner, Louis Michel, and the Trade Commissioner, Peter Mandelson), the ACP Council (represented by the Minister of Foreign affairs of Cape Verde, Mr Victor Borges) and the EU Council (represented by the Luxembourg Minister for Cooperation and Humanitarian Action, Mr Jean-Louis Schiltz). In addition there was a statement followed by exchanges of views with Ms Evelyne Herfkens, Executive Coordinator of the United Nations Millenium Development Goals Campaign.

   As usual, there was a formal opening ceremony with speeches from the Co-Presidents, the Mayor of Bamako, Mr Moussa Traore, and the President of the National Assembly of Mali, Mr Ibrahim Keita. The President of the Republic of Mali, Mr Amadou Toumani Toure, formally declared proceedings open in a speech that noted that political development was far outpacing economic development in ACP countries and referred to the acute challenges facing Mali in the areas of cotton production, food security and the management of the Niger river among others. President Toure also explicitly commended President Thabo Mbeki for his efforts in the Ivory Coast peace process.

Launching of ACP Parliamentary Assembly and Formation of Working Group on EPAs

  As indicated above, the ACP plenary concluded on April 15th with a
  formal signing ceremony to launch the ACP Parliamentary Assembly. The
  ceremony took place in the presence of both the Prime Minister and
  Speaker of the National Assembly of Mali. Representatives of 27 of the
  79 eligible ACP Parliaments signed the Charter of the Assembly. They
  included ourselves, with Mrs Hollander signing on behalf of the South
  African Parliament. As one third of the total was the minimum required
  to launch the Assembly it was declared officially launched. Its real
  business will, however, not begin until the time of the next JPA, at
  which time it is expected more ACP parliaments will have signed on. A
  decision taken in the ACP plenary of potential significance for the
  future work of the ACP Parliamentary Assembly was to establish a
  Working Group on the Economic Partnership Agreement negotiations. Rob
  Davies at the request of the Co-President convened an initial meeting
  which brain stormed potential parameters of a work programme. A
  document is being prepared for presentation to the ACP Bureau.

  One of the three Workshops forming part of the JPA agenda dealt with
  progress in EPA negotiations in three of the 6 EPA negotiating
  configurations- West Africa, the Pacific and Caribbean. For the moment
  discussions are mostly focusing on identifying development issues and
  addressing non-tariff barriers. However, the work programmes envisage
  formal Free Trade Area (FTA) negotiations beginning by September. In
  the exchange with Commissioner Mandelson, it became clear that while
  he continues to insist that these will not be conventional FTA
  negotiations driven by EU commercial interests, the Commission is not
  yet ready to commit even to positions championed by the British
  government (which include renunciation of all offensive interests and
  an upfront offer of full duty free access to the EU market). The
  timetable for implementation, proposals for additional resource
  allocations and the shape of the promised alternatives to EPAs,
  meanwhile, appear to remain as vague as ever.

Committee Programmes and Resolutions

  Although we are full voting members of the Committee on Economic
  Development, Finance and Trade, the delegation divided itself to cover
  discussions in all three Committees. Mrs Hollander and Ms Nhlengethwa
  also attended a meeting of the Women’s Forum, which seeks to promote
  dialogue among women participants in the JPA.


  The resolutions emerging from Committees were on “Post-conflict
  rehabilitation in ACP countries” (Political Affairs Committee),
  “Budgetisation of the European Development Fund” (Committee on
  Economic Development, Finance and Trade)  and “Progress made in
  achieving universal primary education and gender equality in the ACP
  countries in the context of the Millenium Development Goals” (Social
  Affairs Committee). The first resolution called for flexible,
  coordinated programmes of support that sought to link relief,
  rehabilitation and development. The second resolution, which was the
  product of lengthy compromises between MEPs favouring including ACP
  development financing in the European budget and ACP countries wary of
  such a move, called for a joint study on the implications of
  budgetisation. The third resolution noted progress but also called for
  additional efforts to reach MDGs on education and gender equality. The
  next topic to be dealt with by the Economic Development, Finance and
  Trade Committee is on “Agricultural and Mining Commodities”. In the
  Committee meeting we tabled amendments seeking to strengthen
  references to EU Registration, Evaluation and Authorisation of
  Chemicals (REACH) legislation not becoming a non-tariff barrier to
  developing country exports. These amendments will be discussed,
  together with any others tabled, at the next Committee meeting in
  September – see also lunch meeting on REACH below.

Resolutions on Urgent Topics, the Bamako Declaration on MDGs and other Matters

  The main draft resolution tabled on the “urgent topic” of Sudan was
  drafted by the two participants in the joint mission agreed at the
  last bureau meeting – ACP Co-President Sharon Hay-Webster of Jamaica
  and Luisa Morgantini of the GUE/NGL group. Several of the European
  Parliamentary groups had tabled amendments generally strongly critical
  of the Government of Sudan. We were again asked by the ACP Co-
  President to work with Professor Ephraim Kamuntu, the delegate from
  Uganda, to participate in the conciliation process, which eventually
  resulted in the passage of a resolution supported by all sides.

  The draft resolutions on the “Situation in the African Great Lakes
  Region” were less contentious and were composited into a single
  resolution that commanded widespread support. It was, however, noted
  in the ACP plenary that no ACP draft resolution on this important
  issue had been tabled.

  In addition to the resolutions, the JPA also adopted by acclamation
  “The Bamako Declaration on the Millenium Development Goals”. This was
  based on a text drafted by ourselves after discussion in the Bureau in
  January. It essentially supported a renewed “big push” to attain the
  MDGs focusing on debt cancellation, fair trade and increasing resource
  flows and the setting of clear deadlines for the EU to meet
  commitments in this regard. The Co-Presidents were also mandated to
  find an appropriate way for the JPA to participate in parliamentary
  processes linked to the UN General Assembly’s review of the MDGs later
  this year.

  In the plenary, we took the floor in the debates on the MDGs and on
  “exchanges of views” with the Commission and ACP council. An
  unexpected feature of the interaction with Commissioner Michel was
  strong opposition from conservative MEPs from “new” member states to
  the Commissioner’s meeting with President Fidel Castro of Cuba. This
  drew a strong response from several ACP speakers (including ourselves)
  in favour of continued dialogue with Cuba (which is a full ACP member)
  on the contribution it can make to development programmes in ACP
  countries, particularly in the health sector.

  We had previously tabled questions to the ACP and EU councils (on the
  implications of the REACH legislation and on MDGs). The ACP Council’s
  answer to the question on the REACH indicated that the ACP was
  concerned, was looking into the matter and was looking to the South
  African embassy to the EU to provide a lead in this regard.


  The Joint Bureau received a report on follow up letters sent by the Co-
  Presidents in response to matters raised in the Human Rights report
  tabled at the last meeting and other matters raised by Bureau members.
  This indicated no substantial reply had been received on the matters
  concerning human rights issues in the EU. A letter sent to the
  Zimbabwean Speaker on the issue of the detention of Roy Bennet, on the
  suggestion of MEPs, however, provoked a sharp retort from the
  Zimbabwean Ambassador to the effect that the Bureau had no business
  dealing with this matter and that Bennet was being detained in
  accordance with Zimbabwean law.
  As usual Workshops were held on issues pertinent to the host country –
  “The Cotton Sector in Mali” and “Desertification and saving the River
  Niger”. The third workshop was on EPAs (see above). In addition, the
  hosts organized an excusrsion to Timbouktou on April 17th. Mrs
  Hollander, Ambassador Matjila and Mr Labuschagne participated in this.
  Members of the delegation as usual participated in lunches with
  political groups associated with their political parties. These
  lunches, that have now become an established part of the programme,
  offer an opportunity for an exchange of views across the ACP-EU divide
  with “like minded” political groupings.

REACH Lunch Time Meeting

  Given the importance of the impending EU REACH legislation, its
  potential impact on ACP countries, and the unique opportunity offered
  by the JPA to interact with a range of opinion formers in the European
  Parliament that will ultimately be responsible for the passage of the
  REACH legislation, the delegation organized a working lunch on the
  REACH on April 20th. Practical arrangements were handled by the two
  embassies and the meeting took the form of inputs from Rob Davies and
  a representative of the Malian Ministry of Mines followed by inter-
  active discussion. Dumisile Nhlengethwa chaired the meeting, which was
  attended by representatives of all major parties in the European
  Parliament, and particularly those with a special interest in the
  REACH, a number of ACP parliamentarians and officials and both Co-
  Presidents. We made it clear that we were not opposed, in principle,
  to legislation designed to protect consumers and the environment
  against potentially harmful chemical substances, but were concerned
  that the potential impact in terms of creating a non-tariff barrier to
  ACP exports, including but not only of mineral products. We called for
  exemptions, simplification of procedures and assistance to ACP
  countries to comply. Several of the EU political groups are strongly
  in support of REACH and up to now have seen opposition as special
  pleading by chemical companies seeking to avoid raising safety
  standards. They acknowledge, however, that concerns from developing
  countries have had little impact on the debate in the EU thus far and
  several participants in the lunch meeting indicated a willingness to
  consider amendments that would accommodate at least some ACP concerns.

  The next Bureau and Committee meetings have been scheduled for 12th –
  15th September in Brussels, and the 10th Joint Parliamentary Assembly
  will take place from 19th to 24th November. The venue for the 10th JPA
  has, however, not been settled. The EU Presidency at the time will be
  Britain, but the Secretariat has not yet been able to secure an
  appropriate venue in Britain. If they do not manage to find one, the
  JPA will be either in Luxembourg or Strasbourg. The provisional
  programme for 2006 was also agreed by the Joint Bureau. Committees and
  the Bureau will meet in the week of January 23rd; the 11th JPA will be
  in the EU in the week of June 19th; Committees and the Bureau will
  meet again in the week of 11th September and the 12th JPA will be in
  an ACP country in the week of November 20th.