THURSDAY, 25 MAY 2006 __

                PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY

                                ____

The House met at 14:05.

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

ANNOUNCEMENTS, TABLINGS AND COMMITTEE REPORTS – see col 000.

                             AFRICA DAY

                         (Draft Resolution)

The CHIEF WHIP OF THE MAJORITY PARTY: Madam Speaker, I move without notice:

That the House –

(1) notes that today, May 25, is Africa Day and that it is the day when Africa celebrates the founding of the Organisation of African Unity on 25 May 1963 in Addis Ababa in Ethiopia;

(2) recalls that for almost four decades the OAU waged a struggle against colonialism and ethnic strife and promoted unity, multiculturalism and a sense of common purpose among the people of Africa;

(3) believes that the new challenges confronting us today, demand of the people of Africa to unite in action, to work for the further strengthening of the African Union and NEPAD as we pursue the goal of creating a peaceful, democratic, prosperous, healthy and stable continent, fully living up to its promise and potential; and

(4) calls upon all humanity to unite in the struggle for the entrenchment of the culture of human rights and the eradication of poverty in Africa and the world.

Agreed to.

                            ASCENSION DAY




                         (Draft Resolution) The CHIEF WHIP OF THE OPPOSITION: Madam Speaker, I move without notice:

That the House –

(1) notes that today is Ascension Day and that it is a date of great religious significance for millions of Christians in South Africa and around the world; and

(2) resolves to convey good wishes to all Christian people.

Agreed to.

CONSIDERATION OF REPORT OF PORTFOLIO COMMITTEE ON MINERALS AND ENERGY

The DEPUTY CHIEF WHIP OF THE MAJORITY PARTY: Madam Speaker, may we request that this matter stand over until after the debate. We just want to consult amongst the parties on one or two aspects. Is that in order?

The SPEAKER: Is there any objection to the matter standing over for a while? No objection, so the matter will stand over in favour of consultation.

                         APPROPRIATION BILL

Debate on Vote No 30 - Minerals and Energy:

The SPEAKER: The hon Minister of Minerals and Energy - this is the hon outgoing Minister of Minerals and Energy. The MINISTER OF MINERALS AND ENERGY: Thank you, Madam Speaker. Hon Deputy President, Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, colleagues, hon members, ladies and gentlemen, I think today history is being made. I don’t think this bit will be so easily emulated. I am making both my first and my last budget speech. So, eat your heart out.

Madam Speaker, I stand before you today to present this budget speech. It has been an exciting though challenging ten months in this portfolio.

The past year has witnessed a global commodity boom that has seen the prices of oil, platinum group metals, gold, copper and other minerals move to levels not seen before. Except for the high oil prices, the commodity boom has had a favourable impact on our economy, which has seen our commodity sales grow by 14,1% from 2004 to 2005 and with R12,4 billion of commodities being exported from South Africa. This growth in commodity sales has gone a long way in helping to mitigate the effects of the high oil prices.

In past boom times the industry failed to invest wisely in the sector, hence we had a number of retrenchments immediately the commodity prices fell. This time around we have been a bit wiser, as my department, together with the unions, the Chamber of Mines, AngloGold Ashanti, Harmony, Goldfields, and South Deep have put aside R4,15 million for a comprehensive study that is to look into issues that we have to focus on in order to ensure that we ameliorate retrenchments that have been the norm in this sector.

The department, for the 2006-07 financial year, has been allocated R2,548 billion, a large portion of which was allocated to transfers to public entities, other organisations and municipalities, while 22,5% of the budget, which amounts to R572 million, has been allocated to the running of the department and regulating these diverse industries.

The impact of the high crude oil prices and consequently the high petrol price is felt by all, but more so by developing countries and poor countries and the poor in those developing countries. Furthermore, if these increases continue they could result in the slowing down of global economic growth, which would then have a major negative impact on our economy.

This situation has necessitated that we in South Africa look at alternatives in order to secure our energy supply. It is clear that for the government’s Accelerated Shared Growth Initiative for South Africa, Asgisa, energy is going to play a very crucial role. The projected economic growth, as well as the targets as expressed in Asgisa, necessitate a review of some of the assumptions that were made in planning for new energy capacity and infrastructure. The results of our review will be factored into the integrated energy planning process.

Our task, as a state, is to ensure that there are measures in place to secure energy sources that will power the economy of this country into a future where we all share in the benefits. For the hydrocarbons and energy planning this means that a robust integrated energy planning that will look at both the short and long-term needs, must be established. This plan will indicate to us available energy sources and those that we will need to develop in future. This will include, of course, looking at our strategic stocks policy, for both crude oil and petroleum products.

Coming to oil and gas, our Energy White Paper of 1998 envisaged a fully liberalised petroleum sector. However, recent events, both at home and globally, have necessitated a review of some of those assumptions that underpin our strategy also in this area.

When the country experienced fuel shortages in December of last year, there were indications that the shortages were largely linked to bottlenecks in the supply, transportation and distribution of finished products to the markets. At that time, I initiated an investigation that is being led by Adv Marumo Moerane. This investigation covers all matters that would offer us insight into the reasons that led to the fuel shortages. Adv Moerane and his team have been hard at work and they are expected to conclude their investigations by July 2006.

I have also appointed a task team that is looking at the short, medium and long-term constraints in the fuel supply industry. This task team includes members of the industry and the department, and will incorporate the findings of the Moerane investigation.

The primary output of this task team will be an analysis of the current downstream liquid fuels supply to the South African market. This analysis will show how and when bottlenecks will occur in the supply chain and what range of remedial measures should be put in place to overcome such bottlenecks. The medium to long-term analysis to be done by this task team will provide us with insight into the critical planning and management aspects of the downstream liquid fuels.

It will, therefore, become necessary for us to consider changes to the entire petroleum and gas value chain, which includes refineries, pipelines, wholesaling, distribution and retailing. This value chain cuts across both public and private sector organisations, with PetroSA, the state-owned national petrochemical company, expected to play a critical role here. Our policy review will contribute towards a realignment of our strategy, and preventing the recurrence of shortages whilst improving security of supply.

Coming to electricity provision, one of the foremost thoughts of many members in the House today would be the recent electricity outages in the Western Cape. I would like to use this occasion of my budget speech to address some of the issues, and really to assure Members of Parliament, investors as well as the public at large that the Department of Minerals and Energy, as the department responsible for energy policy and ensuring there is a framework for adequate provision of energy supply in the country, is taking these outages very seriously, and is taking steps to ensure there is sufficient energy capacity in our country.

Security of energy supply is the mandate of the Department of Minerals and Energy and we require a robust plan to ensure that there is adequate power supply in the country, both in the medium and the long-term. We have reinforced our capacity to deliver on this mandate; firstly with the introduction of the Electricity Regulation Bill, which provides regulatory clarity regarding the responsibilities of the Minister, vis a vis the regulator and Eskom. The Bill also introduces stiff penalties in the event of breaches of the licence conditions, and a centralised plan for electricity capacity expansion. It is also our intention to strengthen the regulatory framework to ensure effective regulation of the distribution channels of energy sources.

Hon members, earlier this month we held a workshop with the CEOs of energy companies, most of whom are here, with the chairpersons of those companies, with the regulator, with the energy research institutions, with other government departments and associated institutions. Together, we remain convinced that at present there is sufficient capacity in the country and there is no need for panic.

However, we are fully aware that the reserve margins are tight, and going forward new infrastructure and plants will have to be built. The Department of Public Enterprises and Eskom have already announced the extensive programme for refurbishing and building new power plants, which will generate a significant investment in our country. These plans will have to be informed by projections of the electricity demand, as well as projections of how fast the economy is going to grow. The Department of Minerals and Energy is also co-ordinating the introduction of private investors into the electricity sector. These IPPs, as they are called, will supply 30% of the electricity needs of our country over the next 10 years. The bids for the first two privately-operated peaking plants will be submitted by September 2006, and these power plants should be operational by the winter of 2009.

In addition to the new plants being built by Eskom and the private sector independent power producers, there is a need for public-private partnerships for the establishment of additional energy capacity.

Concerning nuclear alternative energy sources and energy efficiency, the problems at Koeberg have created very specific challenges for the Western Cape. The assistance of the French government in supplying the rotor has helped to ensure a speedy return to service of Koeberg unit 1, which is now fully operational. Koeberg unit 2 is now able to be refuelled - which has started, and by August this refuelling should be complete. We expect that by then the situation in the Western Cape will return to normal.

The problems at Koeberg have had positive consequences, though in an ironic way, because we have now taken the opportunity to embark on concerted energy efficiency and demand-side management programmes, both here and nationally. We have asked consumers in the Western Cape to conserve and to use alternative forms of energy for cooking, heating etc, so that we can reduce the amount of electricity required, particularly during peak times. When we all come back from work, we want to bath, cook and heat our homes.

Energy efficiency offers a short-term solution to some of our challenges and members of this House will be aware that, over the past few years, this department has been running energy efficiency campaigns. This year, we have declared May an energy efficiency month in South Africa.

We have, for several years, been looking to all businesses and citizens to take greater levels of responsibility for reducing their consumption of electricity. What is saddening is that, no matter how much we preach this energy efficiency …

… abantu bakuthi bayaqhubeka besebenzisa umbane ngendlela yokuwuxhaphaza. Siyazama koonomathotholo, koomabonakude, nasemaphepheni inyanga yonke le iphelayo, sisithi bethuna kukho ingxaki ingakumbi apha eNtshona Koloni ngoko ncedisanani nathi kule ngxaki. Ndithetha nabantu balapha eNtshona Koloni. Ndiyayazi ndihleli apha nje, -kodwa andizi kubiza magama abantu,- ukuba kukho abantu abalala bengazicimanga iimbawula zombane (heaters) zabo ebusuku, kanti xa ungena ebhedini kusuke sele kufudumele ekameleni ngoko ke yicime ihita. Kwakhona cima isibane xa uphuma kwelo gumbi. San’ukuwagcwalisa amanzi ashushu ebhafini bethu na. Cutha izinga lobushushu begiza yakho ingawatshisi kakhulu amanzi, ngoba aza kukutshisa ufele, atshise nabantwana. Andazi ukuba kufuneka sithini ngoku ukuze le vesi yokonga umbane, nale yokuncedisana nathi ivakale. Niyabona phaya kumabonakude ngoku uEskom ufake iirobothi ezithi xa zikhanyisa bomvu kufuneka ucime isitovu, ucime ihita, ucime igiza ngaloo mzuzu. (Translation of isiXhosa paragraphs follows.)

[… people continue to abuse electricity. We publicised this on TV and in the newspapers for the whole of last month, stating that there was a lack of electricity, especially in the Western Cape Province. I have been informed of people who go to sleep with their electric heaters on, but I will not mention names. If you leave your heater on, by the time you go to sleep the room is warm enough.

Other suggestions I can make are to switch off the lights when you walk out of the room. Do not fill up the bath with hot water when you bath. Lower the heating level of your geyser so as not to make the water too hot, as this will harm you and your children. I do not want to recite this verse again about the high electricity consumption. Eskom advertises indications of the levels of electricity consumption on TV. When the robot turns red, it means consumers must switch off stoves, heaters and geysers immediately.]

There is a huge demand … … yombane apha eNtshona Koloni, ngako oko ke siyanicela ke bantu ukuba nincedisane nathi, ukwenzela into yokuba singaphinde siwelwe bobu bumnyama bebumane busiwela. Igama lamakhosikazi malibongwe! [Kwaqhwatywa.] Ndizityela itheko lam. [Kwahlekwa.] (Translation of isiXhosa paragraph follows.)

[… for electricity in the Western Cape, therefore, we plead with the community to help in this regard, to minimise the chances of experiencing further blackouts. Let the name of women be praised! [Applause.] I am running my own show here. [Laughter.]]

Energy efficiency is not just a South African issue. At the recently held United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development that I attended, it was agreed that energy efficiency is the best possible way to decrease emissions. It pays for itself and, in most cases, it even generates savings.

Ngako oko sivile ke ukuba lo mkhankaso uyaqhubeka. Ukuba abantu abasimameli singurhulumente siza kude sithathe amanyathelo aqatha. [We have heard that this campaign is rolling. If the community does not adhere to this appeal, further action will be taken.]

One of those measures that we will be taking as the Department of Minerals and Energy will be to phase out the use of certain classes of incandescent light bulbs in our country, and replace them with compact fluorescent lamps

• CFLs. The implication is that, in the near future, the normal high voltage light bulbs that we buy in the supermarket will no longer be stocked; rather, we shall see these energy-efficient CFLs, that use a fifth of the energy and last up to six times longer, being made available.

As part of our diversification strategy of primary energy sources, we intend to promote renewable energy, not only because it is the right thing to do but also to ensure that we have other options for our energy mix. Nuclear energy offers a cleaner alternative to coal-fired power stations. For the Western Cape in particular, which does not have coal in abundance, we must consider nuclear energy as a viable option.

That said, there is a great deal of work that needs to be done before a new conventional nuclear power station can be built. A decision on whether we want to consider this option will need to be made in the next few months, in order to go through the proper consultative processes and have a new nuclear power plant operational by 2015.

Alternative and renewable energy sources such as hydropower, wind power, solar energy, and generating electricity from waves, are also being explored. Currently, the most significant potential for energy generation lies in hydropower; and this requires extensive regional co-operation in the construction of hydroelectric plants and bringing electricity across several neighbouring countries. My department is working very well with the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry in the development of hydropower potential for the country through the Central Energy Fund. Another impact of the high oil prices is that renewable and more environmentally friendly forms of fuel become more viable to produce, because the complaints from all involved have been that the cost is just too high to establish this industry.

Here, we refer to biofuels, which are fuels that can be manufactured from a number of different agricultural products such as sugar cane, maize or soya. The production of biofuels has been recognised as having significant potential for our country, not only because of the environmental benefits but also to create significant numbers of jobs in the agricultural sector and the second economy, and to reduce our dependency on the import of crude oil.

As we all know, biofuel is one of the priority projects for Asgisa. In December 2005 Cabinet approved the setting up of a task team, co-ordinated by my department, to look at this. We are at present working with several other departments as well as the Central Energy Fund and the Industrial Development Corporation. We have commissioned an extensive study of this sector. It is nice to say that the private sector has responded very positively to our shift in policy towards biofuels. We are looking at significant investment by the agricultural sector and in the manufacture of these fuels.

One of the largest allocations of our department’s budget is on electrification. A total of R1,3 billion has been allocated over the coming financial year. In 2004 the President announced, in his state of the nation address, the intention to achieve universal access to energy by 2012. According to our plans, in order to make this goal a reality, we are going to need no less than a R2,5 billion injection per annum. We are currently receiving an average of R1,4 billion per annum and we continue to engage with role-players to ensure that we receive this extra funding that is in shortfall. We believe we have enough capacity in the department to effectively implement this electrification programme.

We all know the benefits of electrification to poor households. It helps us; it reduces poverty; it can help people move from the second economy into the formal sector because if you bring electricity, I can buy a fridge and start making business wherever I am etc. Indeed, electricity creates a better life for poor people. So, we hope that we are going to get this extra allocation, hon Deputy President, in order for us to reach universal access on energy by 2012.

Of course, I have mentioned the benefits of small business opportunities. Electricity also has health benefits, where people stop using coal and are not exposed to the fumes. It has educational benefits where, suddenly, schools are lit and students can study for longer hours. All those benefits are well documented. With the support of provincial and local government we are, indeed, committed to attaining our goal of universal access.

Part of our strategy to improve the provision of electricity and to increase the social safety net to consumers has been to establish the regional electricity distributors, the so-called REDs that you are going to hear so much about this afternoon. [Interjections.] Mr Schmidt says yes. Last year we established RED 1 in Cape Town and we have learnt many lessons from this experience. We welcome the inputs from the City of Cape Town and the ones we received from the portfolio committee on this issue.

It is important to give clarity to this House that, in the process of establishing the REDs, we needed to have flexibility. One of the issues identified is the need to have six REDs based in the metropolitan areas, and a national RED that encompasses the regions outside of the metropolitan areas. This approach is based on the realities that we have identified, and we have been asked by Cabinet to model the viability of this national RED. A company by the name of EDI Holdings has done this modeling, which will be taken to Cabinet and later on to Parliament for finalisation.

We have acknowledged that there are indeed challenges that face us in the establishment of these metro REDs but we have made significant progress, and we look forward to meeting the timeframes that were indicated by the President in his state of the nation address. We look forward to all Metro REDs being in place by this time next year. With co-operation from all the players, local government, the unions, Eskom and other government departments, we have no doubt that we are going to achieve this vision.

Concerning the area of minerals, in the 2004-05 financial year the Mineral Development Branch was split into two, namely the Mineral Regulation Branch, which is responsible for the implementation of the Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act and other mineral policies; and the Mineral Policy and Promotion Branch, which is solely responsible for policy formulation and the promotion of our country as a good investment in mineral resources. One of the benefits of this split is the improvement on the turnaround time for processing of prospecting and mining licence applications in this sector. The capacity of the Mineral Regulation Branch has been increased to cope with the workload as well as to give the branch resources to assist first-time entrants in the industry. This branch received the biggest share of the department’s budget this year, at 28% of the total budget of the department.

We have started to see the results, because out of 6 785 applications received last year, 957 were rejected mainly for being incomplete, 191 were withdrawn, 861 were refused for non-compliance with the Act and 912 were issued. The balance of applications are still in the system. It should be noted that the majority of the 912 licences have a minimum of 15% black participation. Later this year we will be effecting amendments to the Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act, in Parliament, to further streamline the processing of applications.

As far as beneficiation is concerned, minerals continue to play a critical role in our economy and we need to see what we can do together with beneficiators beyond the boom time. We have seen continued growth in the processing of minerals and in 2004, for the first time, processed minerals overtook the gold and the platinum group metals in total sales although, with the significant increase in the commodity prices, the situation was reversed in 2005.

The growth in domestic sales of processed minerals indicates that there is a significant increase in local beneficiation and growth in the manufacturing sector. Our efforts in promoting beneficiation are starting to bear fruit, although we still have a long way to go.

It is gratifying that producers and companies in the ‘platinum group metals’ sector are looking at beneficiation. The CEOs of Lonmin, Angloplats and Amplats approached me with a proposal on how we can further extend the levels of beneficiation of the platinum group metals in South Africa. Subsequent to that, we have held a workshop with industry players and established a task team to achieve this process. It is fitting that we grow this industry and increase our levels of research into the uses of the platinum group metals, as we are the number one producer of this commodity in the world, with 87% of the reserves being in South Africa.

The passing of the Diamond Amendment Act and the Precious Metals Act last year will usher in the establishment of the State Diamond Trader and the Diamond and Precious Metals Regulator, both of which will go a long way in making a dynamic minerals beneficiation sector a reality. Indeed, it is a bold vision that we are looking for in the growth of our beneficiation sector.

My department has initiated legislation over the past year to encourage greater levels of value addition. We are now looking to the industry players to take forward that vision and ensure that … … ngokwenene igolide yethu yenziwa apha ekhaya, amacici nayo yonke lento eyenziwa ngegolide, iplatinamu, idayimane, ndibala ntoni na? UMthetho ukhona wona, silinde nje ukuba nisebenzisane nathi ukwenzela ukuba abantu bakuthi bafunde ukusebenzisa ezi zimbiwa. [… mineral beneficiation is actually done in this country, and the same applies to platinum, diamond and gold products such as earrings. There is legislation in place that is awaiting your commitment to established players in beneficiation.]

With regard to black economic empowerment, the department has seen several significant big deals over the past year and we have begun to see new faces in these deals with broad-based empowerment and women empowerment becoming more prevalent. With the implementation of our transformation legislation, the department will be in a good position to continue promoting effective black economic empowerment.

I think we still need to give more attention to seeing to it that all these deals are as broad based as they can be. And, indeed, we need to make sure that women are involved from the very beginning, because in most of these deals we really had to ask about the women and only thereafter were women brought in. SA Women in Mining Association, Sawima, and Women in Oil and Energy SA, Woesa, you have to be assertive to make sure that you are there right at the beginning when the deals are being discussed and before they are concluded. These are some of the challenges that come from this area that the incoming Minister will have to seriously address, particularly the participation of women but also the dilution of the deals.

In order to accurately assess the level of compliance with our targets as set out in the Liquid Fuels Charter, my department commissioned Empowerdex to do a study and conduct a five-year review. As you know, last year the charter had been in existence for five years and of course the results of the review were disappointing. Those results have been communicated to all the oil industries that are covered by this charter. The study showed that very little was being done on procurement and in some cases it was dismal as far as participation and equity are concerned. We have established Sasda to ensure that this area of procurement in the liquid fuels industry is taken care of.

In conclusion, the strong economic growth that our country is currently experiencing, which in part arises from the increased investment in mines and in beneficiation of minerals, both of which are energy hungry sectors, will place increasing pressure on our energy capacity. During the course of this year, we will be taking measures to ensure that there is alignment between our planning for energy and the 6% growth that is projected by Asgisa.

The role of women is very important. It is very important for Woesa and Sawima to participate and get support in these sectors. Today we’ve got in the gallery Namhla Mdoda, a learner from Brackenfell High School, who has been with me since this morning as part of the “bring a girl-child to work” day and she is my shadow minister for the day and hopefully a future mining magnate. [Applause.]

I request this House to approve my department’s budget of R2,548 billion. I would like to thank my Director-General, Adv Nogxina, for the support that she gave me throughout this period, DGs sitting here and the senior management of this department who have supported me from day one, sitting with me every Monday in the Executive Committee, trying to help me understand the intricacies of mining and energy. [Applause.]

I would also like to thank my Deputy Minister, Comrade Lulu Xingwana, who made sure that the department was made warm with heaters each time I arrived. [Applause.] We have worked so well with Lulu as a team and I am so happy about her promotion, it is well deserved. Congratulations! [Applause.]

In conclusion, I would like to thank the most important part of my life, my family, my husband Andrew, my sisters Busi and Yaya, my daughter Olwethu, they are all seated there. They are the backbone. [Applause.] And Vuyelwa, of course, is part of the family and Kagiso, who is not here. Those are the people who make sure that we do the job that we have to do in the best possible way. Thank you very much to the CEOs and the chairs of boards. I think I have worked very well with all of you because we were doing this for the common cause of South Africa. Thank you and farewell. [Applause.]

Mr E N MTHETHWA: Somlomo, Phini likaMongameli, boNgqongqoshe … [Madam Speaker, Deputy President, Ministers …]

… I want to start by saluting the heroic youth of 1976, and this year is the 30th anniversary of those events. We need to build permanent and everlasting monuments for those young gallant fighters. We’ll have to deepen youth development in all facets of our society. That is our duty.

The ANC supports the Budget Vote. The continued development of policies and legislation that advocate social justice is a clear portrayal of a government with conscience and social consciousness. It is in this context that the 51st national conference of the ANC held in Stellenbosch in 2002 resolved, and I quote:

That the process of rationalising electricity distribution should continue, ensuring viable and affordable electricity supply for all regions as well as progressive achievement of universal and affordable access, on the foundation of a minimum free basic electricity service to all households.

With regard to universal access to electricity by 2012, we are concerned because the programme is behind schedule due to inadequate financial allocation.

Ngakho-ke siyayicela leyo mali, Phini likaMongameli. [Therefore we request that that money be given to us, Deputy President.]

These are the targets we have set for ourselves and therefore we must embark on an aggressive rollout drive. Similarly, the Integrated National Electricity Programme, Inep, which is premised on the rollout to 500 000 households per annum for electrification, is compromised by the inadequate allocation of financial resources. The current budget for 2006-07 caters for 89 525 households per annum. The other area which is of concern to us, relates to the rolling out of regional electricity distributors. Given current challenges regarding RED 1, the likelihood of meeting the target for 2007 seems slim, in our own assessment, especially after the advent of the national RED, that is RED 7. This might affect the distribution of electricity. It also creates an uncertain situation and, as a result, we, as the portfolio committee, have resolved to call for public hearings on the matter.

In connection with renewable energy, our policy, as the ANC, embraces research into renewable energy technologies to increase the energy source basket and to increase the benefit of locals in the development of those sources. This is consistent with the position of the energy mix. It is imperative to acknowledge the fact that we have not exploited these energy sources optimally.

Primary to renewable energy development are partnerships that were established during the World Summit on Sustainable Development in 2002. They are premised on promoting the widespread use of sustainable energy sources. As the ANC, our stance on sustainable energy sources is clear: we are committed to take concrete steps to combat pollution arising out of greenhouse gases by setting clean targets in the context of sustainable development and also in the context of the Kyoto Protocol. The White Paper on Renewable Energy targets 10 000 gigawatts of renewable energy to final energy consumption by 2013. This will add about 1 667 megawatts of new renewable energy capacity.

The mineral sector is strategically positioned to bridge the gap between the first and the second economies. Regarding the mineral policy and promotion, groundbreaking legislation was introduced. Two of those pieces of legislation are the Diamonds Amendment Act and the Precious Metals Act. These seek to revolutionise the South African minerals industry, create a beneficiation industry and deracialise the ownership of the mineral resources of our country.

Quite critical to these legislative developments, is the transformation of the way the mineral industry is operating. These legislative tools seek to apply ideals contained in the Freedom Charter and the RDP. They embrace the principles of accountability, transparency, economic growth, and redistribution and job creation.

The revolutionary consciousness of the ANC is captured correctly by the RDP when it states, and I quote:

Mining and mineral products contribute three-quarters of our exports and the industry employs three-quarters of a million workers, but this could be much higher if our raw materials were processed into intermediate and finished products before export. Our RDP must attempt to increase the level of mineral beneficiation through appropriate incentives and disincentives in order to increase employment and add more value to our natural resources before export.

With regard to the development of small-scale mining, the SA Small-Scale Mining Chamber was launched in July 2005 in Kimberley, Northern Cape. According to estimations, about 1 000 jobs can be created out of every seven to 10 sustainable small-scale mining projects, if nurtured. It can assist in job creation and skills development.

About R120 million has been allocated for the rehabilitation of ownerless and derelict mines. Believe it or not, but there are ownerless mines here in South Africa. The priority is the cleaning up of abandoned and ownerless asbestos mines. Sixty-five percent of 578 identified sites, which are mainly in the Northern Cape and Limpopo, have been cleaned up. Further cleaning up of ownerless and derelict mines is taking place in various provinces. This creates jobs and builds capacity for the people of our land, particularly the youth and women.

Concerning the mine health and safety front, the ANC-led government has changed the thinking and approach. Whereas in the past the emphasis has been more on safety at the expense of health, we see no difference between the two. We see both of them as important.

The Minister has alluded to the review on the Liquid Fuels Charter but what is of major concern to us is the whole issue of fronting. That phenomenon is actually eroding what we have been trying to do because, in the process of fronting, the people who are intended to benefit from the process of broad-based black economic empowerment are co-opted into that scheme. As a result, it undermines the very essence of what we are trying to do.

In connection with nuclear energy, it is imperative to understand this energy source from the perspective of diversification of our energy sources. The future energy lies in this sector. It makes good economic sense for South Africa to invest in this energy source, as part of the energy mix.

On 12 May 2006, the portfolio committee hosted a delegation from the Czech Republic. It was indicated that 40% of the Czech Republic’s electricity is drawn from nuclear energy, and that they have challenges with regard to radioactive waste management storage, just like any other country in the world. It is a reliable and efficient energy source. The radioactive waste management policy has just been developed here in South Africa by the Department of Minerals and Energy, and it will be able to answer the questions that have been raised by various interest groups.

Lastly, we would like to acknowledge the commendable work done by the outgoing Minister of Minerals and Energy, Comrade Lindiwe Hendricks, and the Deputy Minister, Lulu Xingwana. We wish them well in their new appointments. We also want to extend a hand of friendship and welcome the new Minister of Minerals and Energy, Comrade Buyelwa Sonjica.

We just want to say, in conclusion, that so many Acts have been passed. Groundbreaking Acts were passed last year under the stewardship of Lindiwe Hendricks and Comrade Lulu Xingwana. We are not really worried about all these things that have been said in the media because we know that they have actually worked for this department. They have assisted this department to go forward within a very short space of time. They, too, shouldn’t be worried about all these things. You know that there are many so-called analysts and all these people who are talking. They are just talking because these papers must sell. Thank you very much. [Applause.]

Adv H C SCHMIDT: Madam Speaker, a report by US based consultancy Frontier Strategy Group, recently examined the issues facing mining companies in African countries. This consultancy group expected, and I quote, “a continued deterioration of South Africa’s above-ground environment for 2006”.

It was furthermore predicted that a significant flight of capital away from South Africa and into other parts of the continent would be prevalent, whilst South Africa was becoming a no-go area for those international mining companies that are not already active in the country.

It is exactly this perception that this Ministry should turn around and improve on. This situation is compounded by the looming energy crisis facing South Africa, as Eskom has basically run out of base load generation capacity. Currently, the reserve capacity of electricity generation is approximately between 5% and 10% with the forthcoming winter ensuring that load shedding will be a certainty.

A briefing by Eskom to the committees on Minerals and Energy, Trade and Industry and Science and Technology, as well as the President’s remarks that South Africa is not facing a national energy crisis, indicate that the responsible individuals in government are refusing to accept the fact that we are in serious trouble and that we are facing a crisis.

Eskom has indicated that it has a planning process that gives it a 20-year view at any one time, which is updated every eight months. In addition, it has a 5-year capital expenditure plan, which is approved annually, and which has been based on a growth rate of 4%.

Considering the fact that South Africa has had excess capacity to the extent that three coal power stations were shut down in the late 80’s and early 90’s, and the fact that we are currently faced with a national power crisis, it is abundantly clear that executive mismanagement at Cabinet level and the board of Eskom has taken place. This situation is detrimental to the South African public whose best interest has been squandered.

It is disconcerting to note that the chief executive officer of Eskom, together with Eskom’s executive directors, were the highest paid in the country. They earned approximately R73 million last year with the CEO earning R13 million for 2005. This is a shocking disgrace. This amount is five times more than Transnet’s chief executive officer is earning, and in that regard, it appears, if you compare it, a meagre, and I say it sarcastically, R2,6 million.

Continued blackouts seem to be the future for South Africans especially in areas such as Johannesburg and the Western Cape, in particular, this coming winter when a nuclear reactor at Koeberg is due for shutdown.

You will recall that the Minister of Trade and Industry - unfortunately he is not here - Minister Alec Erwin, on the day before the local government elections on 1 March 2006, stated that the failure of the Koeberg nuclear reactor was due to sabotage and undertook to ensure that the matter was investigated properly.

Despite undertakings by the government and various Ministers that the report of the investigation would be completed by the end of March 2006, two months ago, Parliament and its various committees still await such a report. No report has been made available at all and the question could well be asked as to when such a report will be available, if ever at all. The Minister should have avoided such heavily loaded political statements on the eve of the local government elections.

Whilst the committee has been informed on the progress regarding the implementation of Regional Electricity Distributors, REDs, and EDI Holdings, the entity responsible for the restructuring of the electricity distribution industry, it became clear yesterday that serious problems exist regarding the feasibility of this policy initiative. At present RED 1 can merely be described as an outsourced function or process of the Cape Town Metro Council without any assets and still in the process of restructuring itself nearly a year since it was formed.

In addition, the number of REDs has arbitrarily been increased by Cabinet from six to seven whilst the boundaries have been changed to reflect the six metros only, from Messina right down to Cape Town, with a national metro comprising all the other municipal councils.

The state of affairs in respect to the implementation and constitutionality of issues relating hereto is at best disgraceful. Bad planning and a lack of foresight are evident, with the resultant collapse thereof not impossible in the near future.

It needs to be noted that the Oilgate saga is a clear example of the manipulation of state entities to the benefit of the ANC at the cost of the public. It is an undisputable fact that R11 million was paid to the ANC a few days before Christmas in 2003, before the 2004 elections, by Imvume, which secured lucrative oil contracts from the Iraqi government due to the assistance of senior ANC members leading to this enormous payback as thanks for their efforts.

The double payment by PetroSA to the supplier of the oil before the money was due indicates how the ANC is prepared to muscle public entities and unscrupulously use private companies and institutions to its own benefit. The ANC should be forced to pay back this money, which it has exhorted from PetroSA and Imvume at the cost of the South African public. The terms of reference of the Donen Commission established to investigate this matter should be widened to enable it to investigate all issues relating to Oilgate, including the ANC, PetroSA and Imvume.

It would be appropriate to state the negative consequences of irresponsible mining activities in areas such as the West Rand in Gauteng. In towns such as Randfontein, vast tracts of land have been destroyed with sand dumps and slime dams littered in close proximity to residential areas.

To worsen matters, vegetation planted by previous mining companies has been left untreated and barren by - guess who - Harmony Gold Mine, causing mine dust to blow from these slime dams and sand dumps to the utter nuisance, irritation and possible negative impact on the health of local residents.

Due, in particular, to the neglect of this mining company to address the situation, the Randfontein Environmental Action Group, REAG, was formed and has interacted with Harmony, the Council of Geosciences and the Department of Minerals and Energy, to reduce the mine dust. Despite support from the local media, the Randfontein Westonaria Herald and undertakings by Harmony to address the issue, very little has been done by Harmony to resolve the matter. In fact, it can be argued that they reneged on their undertakings and that the situation regarding mine dust will be just as serious, if not worse, than during last year.

It is the task of the department to ensure that mine dust emanating from sand dumps and slime dams on a national level is addressed to the satisfaction of the community and the department.

It is also important to note that mine water decanting at certain points, in particular in relation to mine water decanting into, arguably, the Sterkfontein World Heritage Site, is another concern. [Interjections.] Sorry sir, I can’t hear you.

The department and the Minister are ultimately responsible for ensuring a dependable supply of fuel to the economy and must ensure that new regulations do not result in a disruption of supply. The breakdown in the supply of fuel during December 2005 and January 2006 can only be regarded as abysmal.

The Minister should have been involved with the contingency planning process and should have demanded full and frequent reports on the state of readiness regarding the clean fuels conversion deadline. In brief, she should have seen this crisis coming. Blaming the failure on the fuel companies not honouring a “moral agreement” is disingenuous. The regulatory and research capacity of the department needs to be strengthened and South Africa needs to invest in a fuel supply infrastructure that can accommodate the higher rate of growth that economists expect over the next few years.

Nkskz B TINTO: Igama lamakhosikazi!

AMALUNGU: Malibongwe!

Nkskz B TINTO: Mhlalingaphambili, amalungu abekekileyo, amaqabane, naye wonke umntu okhoyo apha. Mandibulele eli thuba ndilinikwe liSebe leZimbiwa naMandla, ukuba ndize kuthetha apha malunga nomsebenzi owenziwa phaya kwisebe. UMr Schmidt lo usuka apha, uthathe zonke ezi zinto zichasene nenkqubela kaKhongolozi azifunda emaphepheni waza kuthetha zona apha, wayeka ukuthetha le nto ibisenzeka phaya ekomitini, ngoba ebesiya ezintlanganisweni zekomiti, kodwa kucacile ukuba ebehamba nje. Ngako oko ke akandidanisanga bendiyazi ukuba uza kwenza loo nto.

Ndifuna ukubulela umama uLindiwe Hendricks esithe sanaye ixeshana elifutshane apha kwiSebe leZimbiwa naMandla. Ndifuna nokuthatha elithuba ndibulele nosekela wakhe uLulama Xingwana, naye othe wanyuselwa waya kuba nguMphathiswa kwezolimo. Ndamkele ngokunjalo umama uBuyelwa Sonjica esizakuthi sisebenze naye apha kweli sebe. Siyathemba ukuba siza kusebenzisana kakuhle nanjengokuba besisenza naba baPhathiswa bahambayo. (Translation of isiXhosa paragraphs follows.)

[Mrs B TINTO: The name of women!

HON MEMBERS: Praise!

Mrs B TINTO: Chairperson, hon members, comrades and all the people present here, let me thank the Department of Minerals and Energy for this opportunity and put across what is taking place in the department. Mr Schmidt, who was standing here, spoke about all the negative aspects from the newspapers which are against the progress of the ANC and said nothing about what was being discussed in the committee meeting. His presence in the committee meeting was not helpful. I am not disappointed by his reaction, as I expected that.

I want to thank hon Lindiwe Hendricks, who was part of our team in the Department of Minerals and Energy for a short time. I also want to thank her Deputy Minister, hon Lulama Xingwana, who has been appointed as Minister of Agriculture. We welcome hon Buyelwa Sonjica to the ranks of this department. We hope we are going to work as well with her as with her predecessors.]

It’s imperative to state that the ANC supports this Budget Vote. My focus is on the administration programme … [Interjections.] Keep quiet please, and listen like adults. [Laughter.] The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON (Mr K O BAPELA): Hon members, can I really appeal that the speaker should not be interrupted? Thank you.

Mrs B TINTO: Thank you, Chairperson. Fundamental to our support of the budget, are good administrative practices accompanied by principles of Batho Pele. At the core of our governance is the proclamation contained in the Freedom Charter – the people shall govern. This is a basic pillar of our hard won democracy …

… eningazange nayilwela nina. [Kwaqhwatywa.] [… that you never fought. [Applause.]]

It is for this reason that President Thabo Mbeki highlighted and acknowledged the challenges that face our government, including the skills shortage, unemployment and poverty. Mechanisms such as Asgisa and Jipsa have been put in place to address the challenges faced by our fledging democracy.

The department is strategically positioned to ensure that the objectives of Asgisa, which is aimed at halving poverty, job creation and skills development are attained. Primary to these will be the nurturing of the SMMEs through training and development.

Urhulumente wabantu uyazi into yokuba ikhona imiceli-mngeni ekuphuhliseni imfuno zabantu. Loo miceli-mngeni unakho ukuthi ayiphumeze. Simazi kananjalo ukuba urhulumente kaKhongolozi mininzi imceli-mngeni athe wayiphumeza. Andizi kugxininisa kuyo ke namhlanje. Enye into endifuna ukuthetha ngayo kukuxhotyiswa kwamakhosikazi nolutsha. Umongameli, kwintetho yakhe yonyaka, yokuvula iPalamente wayibeka ngokucacileyo le mingeni ikhoyo, nalapha kweli Sebe leZimbiwa naMandla. (Translation of isiXhosa paragraph follows.)

[The government of the people understands that there are challenges in providing services to the people. These challenges can be overcome. The ANC- led government is trying its best to overcome these challenges. I am not going to talk much about the challenges today. Another aspect I want to highlight is the empowerment of women and youth. The President in his state of the nation address clearly stated the present challenges and the challenges facing the Department of Minerals and Energy.] In order to succeed in delivering services to the masses, the department has re-aligned and increased the number of programmes from six to seven. This is in line with the goals set in the previous Budget Vote. The administration programme supports the work of the six other programmes, namely, mine health and safety; hydrocarbons; energy planning; mineral regulation; mineral policy and promotion; and electricity and nuclear energy.

Key issues of the administration have been the employment of women and youth, and training. In this regard, the department has made considerable strides, and this will be improved in the current financial year. Also, there are internship programmes aimed at absorbing unemployed graduates. This will go a long way in addressing the skills mismatch in the minerals and energy sector.

The minerals and energy sector will also play an important role in the achievement of the objectives of Asgisa, particularly through the metals and metallurgy sector. This is linked to the progress that government has made last year in areas of beneficiation and the passage of various pieces of enabling legislation. For the 2006-07 financial year, the department has also outlined seven programmes in which it will deliver on the targets set out in the state of the nation address and its strategic plan.

The department’s guiding fundamentals are premised in the following strategic objectives, namely: Active contribution to sustainable development; bridging the gap between the first and second economy; implementing relevant regulatory and promotional policies; and review of structures and capacity, so as to efficiently deliver on the mandate.

Key to the responsibility of the administration programme is to manage the department and provide administrative support, including policy formulation. The administration programme is centrally located and very critical to the success of other programmes of the department. In carrying out its mandate, the department and the Ministry require proper management of all programmes, and the development and implementation of policies.

The department has increased its budget for the administration programme to enable it to deliver on the mining and energy development areas. For the 2005-06 financial year, R111 million was allocated for the administration programme and for 2006-07, R151 million has been allocated – an increase of R39 million.

This increase is attributable to the increased number of personnel and the improvement of the information technology system in the department. The share of the administration programme in the overall budget of the department is 26%. It is second to the mineral regulation programme. This shows the significance placed on this programme and its centrality to the success of service delivery and the proper management of other departmental programmes. This year we will see the delivery of services in all areas of minerals and energy. Opportunities are forthcoming for the masses of our people, particularly women and youth. The committee has been engaged in, and will continue, its effective oversight role over the department, especially in making sure that the department fulfils its mandate.

Ndiyabulela, maqobokazana. [Kwaqhwatywa.] [I thank you, young women. [Applause.]]

Mr E J LUCAS: Chairperson, Ministers and colleagues, the overall allocation to the Department of Minerals and Energy has increased from almost R2,3 billion last year to R2,5 billion for 2006-07. With the exception of Programme 6: Electricity and Nuclear, the rest of the department’s seven programmes all receive increases to their allocation in the current budget. The allocation to the Electricity and Nuclear Programme decreased from just under R82 million last year to just over R55 million in the current budget.

The Department of Minerals and Energy should be proud of the work it has done in improving the lives of many over the past few years but some of the events that have transpired over the last few months have not been so good. The most notable is the electricity problem that was experienced in certain parts of the country.

Electricity is an essential service that not only impacts greatly on everyday lives of people, it also affects a wide range of activities. Besides the inconveniences caused by the power shortages there were also great financial losses incurred by many businesses and individuals. We, in the IFP hope that those power shortages serve as a wake-up call to all relevant stakeholders and emphasise the need for forward planning. We cannot afford to have another bout of power shortages, especially with the winter fast approaching.

We are, however, pleased to note that the repairs to the generator at Koeberg power station are nearing completion. The Portfolio Committee on Minerals and Energy needs to undertake study tours in order to get better acquainted with the working of this important facet of the department that has such a great impact on our lives. It is also imperative that alternative forms of energy are investigated and focused on.

Chairperson, the fuel shortages experienced a few months ago were very unfortunate and again caused unnecessary hassles and economic losses. We believe that with proper planning these shortages could have been avoided. Once again the need for forward planning is highlighted.

The ever-increasing price of crude oil is a cause of great concern and directly affects the price that consumers pay for fuel at the pump. It also has an impact on other sectors of the economy. If the current trend continues, fuel is going to become unaffordable for the majority of South Africans. We have to investigate ways of making fuel more affordable for the majority.

Sasol should be commended for the innovativeness that they have shown in developing technology that converts gas to liquid. It appears that this technology could play a part in providing cleaner fuel for diesel engines. Fuel is becoming a scarce commodity and we can only hope that this new technology will help South Africa meet its fuel demands.

The Department of Minerals and Energy has accomplished a great deal in attempting to normalise the mining industry. The role of the historically disadvantaged as well that of women have gained prominence within the industry. Although great strides have been made in acquiring prospecting rights, the mammoth task of raising funds in order to obtain a bankable document is a daunting prospect and without a bankable document it is almost impossible to get financial assistance from a bank or any financial institution.

Those companies that are willing to assist do so at ridiculously high prices. This has a negative effect and undermines the good work and achievements made by the department with regard to the mining industry. The Deputy Minister, who is now the Minister for Agriculture and Land Affairs, should therefore be commended as she came out strongly on this issue on television recently.

The passing of the Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act was a defining moment for the mining industry and this transforming piece of legislation has far-reaching, effects but the finalisation of the royalty Bill has been dragging on for far too long. We do understand that this Bill is the responsibility of the Finance Committee and that they have been attending to it but we urge them to finalise it as soon as possible.

The final point that I would like to raise pertains to cheaper solar panels that have been developed in South Africa but for some reason are being exported to Germany. I find this very puzzling, as I would have thought that this technology could have resulted in savings here in South Africa.

I don’t mean to be pessimistic and focus only on the negative aspects as these are also numerous positives but I do believe that issues I have raised in my speech are important and do warrant special mention. I therefore urge the department to look into the issues above and hopefully provide solutions.

Overall, the department has performed admirably over the past year and we therefore commend them for their hard work and great contribution to the economic and social upliftment of many South Africans. I must thank the Minister and the Deputy Minister for the good working relationship we had and welcome our new Minister. The IFP supports the Budget Vote. I thank you.

Mr B G MOSALA: Chairperson, hon Ministers and Deputy Ministers, hon members, comrades, ladies and gentlemen, the ANC supports this Vote. As we debate this Vote, I wish to begin by quoting the Freedom Charter:

The national wealth of our country, the heritage of South Africans, shall be restored to the people. The mineral wealth beneath the soil, the banks and monopoly industry shall be transferred to the ownership of the people as a whole.

It is these fundamental tenets that inform the legislative and policy formulation of the Department of Minerals and Energy. Primary to the agenda to transform the mineral and energy sector is our belief in the equality of mankind. The revolutionaries who met in Kliptown in 1955 were not in government. We are governing this country, and now we dare not let them down.

Indeed, the mineral wealth of this country must be shared by all its people. The “people shall share”, must not just be a slogan, but a reality. Consistent with the government’s vision to transform and open the petroleum sector to all sections of our population, especially those who were denied access in the past, various legislative and policy tools are in place.

The Liquid Fuels Charter is one of these tools. It provides a mechanism for the realisation of a deracialised and gender-compliant petroleum sector. It also seeks to empower historically disadvantaged South Africans, and creates space for them in the petroleum and liquid fuels industry.

Critical to the development and growth of the petroleum sector is the creation of employment opportunities and the development of small businesses in the spirit of BEE. In this instance, the Petroleum Products Amendment Act is another tool that pertinently promotes the advancement of historically disadvantaged South Africans. It also promotes the creation of employment opportunities and the development of small business in the petroleum sector.

It is also important to mention that this Act also ensures countrywide availability of petroleum products. Recently, all South Africans know that fuel was reported to be in short supply in some parts of the country. There was a huge outcry. All sorts of problems can occur in any industry anywhere in the world. But in this instance, the prophets of doom had a field day making all kinds of allegations and predicting gloom and disaster for the country.

I wish to take this opportunity to commend the Minister and her department for the commendable and responsible manner in which they handled this matter. They did what had to be done for the sake of all of us. We therefore thank them. We are confident that the Minister will confront all challenges in the water and forestry sector as well as she did in the minerals and energy sector. Thank you very much. [Applause.]

We firmly believe that BEE is a critical catalyst to bridge the gap between the first and second economy. To this end, we wish to move from policy formulation to policy implementation. BEE must begin to work for our people. We must be smart, and ensure that those who have been in the driving seat do not use this concept to further entrench themselves at the top.

Token appointments have been made in the name of BEE, merely to lend credibility to some institutions. Whereas BEE may serve as an option to counteract this trend, it will succeed only if departments are vigilant and capable of closing all the loopholes, failing which the majority - that is in the second economy - will continue to slide to the bottom. The vision of Asgisa will not be realised.

We must also find mechanisms to stop the scourge of fronting. This practice undermines the noble essence of BEE.

Another tool that assists with empowerment is the Petroleum Pipelines Act of 2003, which promotes healthy competition in the industry. It inhibits the monopolistic abuse of pipelines and storage facilities. The Act generally establishes a regulatory framework to promote stability. For the first time this year, the petroleum industry will be regulated by way of licensing and fuel quality regulation, underpinned by the Petroleum Products Amendment Act and the Petroleum Pipelines Act.

The department is also set to conclude the paraffin safety strategy this year, which will ensure the phasing out of paraffin as a household fuel, while looking at other more environmental friendly fuels. The provision of liquefied petroleum gas, which is colourless and odourless, will also be intensified.

We have also witnessed the banning of leaded petrol and the introduction of cleaner vehicular fuels, with the reduction of sulphur content in diesel. This is as a result of our ANC-led government’s commitment to the Kyoto Protocol, as well as our commitment to the utilisation of cleaner, healthier and safer energy sources.

We wish to commend the Department of Environmental Affairs, without quoting specifics, for their sterling work towards the creation of a South Africa free of pollution. They can always count on the Department of Minerals and Energy as a partner. With regard to biofuel, our approach as the ANC-led government is premised on three pillars, which are affordability, reliability and sustainability. The masses of our people must be in a position to afford this energy source, and it must be reliable for usage. Furthermore, the utilisation of biofuels is going to contribute to job creation in the second economy.

In connection with regional co-operation, we have bilateral gas exploration projects with Mozambique. Sasol supplies Mozambiquean natural gas to users in our country. What we have alluded to above in terms of legislation and other activities of the Department of Minerals and Energy in the hydrocarbon sector is indicative of the passion with which essential service is being rendered to South Africans. In due course, as our economy continues to prosper, our environments are also rendered pollution free.

I wish, at this point, to say to our counterparts in the opposition benches, the members of the DA, that one day we shall discover those skeletons that you are hiding in those cupboards. Today you are free to criticise the remuneration of certain officials in this country. We never knew what you earned, but one day we shall know. We shall know about all the perks that you had in your government that was not transparent.

As a transparent government today … [Interjections.] The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON (Mr K O Bapela): Hon Mosala, order please! I am not sure whether you are standing on a point of order.

Mr M J ELLIS: It’s a point of order, Mr Chairman. The hon member is deliberately misleading the House. The DA has never been in power. And I want to make that very clear to him, because he has his facts absolutely wrong. For him to say that we have skeletons in our cupboards and we are hiding things that one day will appear, is absolute rubbish.

The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON (Mr K O Bapela): Order, please! Thank you. Hon Mosala, just a minute. I am not sure whether he did refer to a specific party. He didn’t do so. He was just pointing in that direction.

Mr M J ELLIS: Mr Chairman, there is no doubt, sir, that he was referring to the Democratic Alliance. In fact, I think he actually made reference to us. He is really misleading the House.

The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON (Mr K O Bapela): If indeed he did, obviously you were not in power. He is incorrect. Hon Mosala, can you proceed. [Laughter.]

Mr B G MOSALA: Chairperson, we know the history of South Africa. We know where you come from, and you cannot deny your past. You know where you come from. You know that you are compromised, leader of the DA. We know about all that. [Interjections.]

The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON (Mr K O Bapela): Hon Mosala, order please!

Mr M J ELLIS: I rise on a point of order. I do not believe that it is parliamentary to refer to a member of another party as being compromised.

The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON (Mr K O Bapela): Hon Ellis, earlier you stood on a point of order saying that the member was unparliamentary, or deliberately misleading the House. In terms of that deliberate misleading, I don’t think it is unparliamentary. However, on the point that you are raising now, I don’t think it is a point either. So, let the member continue on that particular point.

Mr B G MOSALA: Thank you very much, Chairperson.

The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON (Mr K O Bapela): I am not saying I agree with him, but I am just saying for him to refer to the past is not a point of order.

Mr M J ELLIS: I am going to ask you, sir, if you wouldn’t mind taking that issue back, and have a look at it. Perhaps you can make a ruling at a later stage.

The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON (Mr K O Bapela): Can you repeat the issue first? Whether I agree with it, just repeat it again.

Mr M J ELLIS: Mr Chairman, he referred to our past – pointing to Mr Seremane – and said, “your past is compromised”.

The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON (Mr K O Bapela): Hon members, can I really appeal to you. I just want to hear what the point of order is. Can the Table really listen to that?

Mr M J ELLIS: Mr Chairman, I will repeat it again. The hon member at the podium referred to hon Mr Seremane and said, “your past is compromised”. I am asking you to please look at this because I believe that it is unparliamentary. I am not asking you just to make a ruling now, but perhaps you would come back to the House at a later stage.

The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON (Mr K O Bapela): We will come back to the issue at some point. Let the hon member continue his the speech. [Interjections.]

Mr B G MOSALA: Let me just conclude. Chairperson, you might have missed the fact that he said that I was corrupt. That is what he said. But, you know, sometimes when the truth …

The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON (Mr K O Bapela): Mr Mosala, hon member, there is another point of order from a member to the right of where you are standing.

Mr S K LOUW: Chairperson, I want your ruling on the fact that the hon member said that the hon member was corrupt. That is unparliamentary, and he must withdraw it.

The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON (Mr K O Bapela): Was there any reference to the member at the podium being corrupt? Could the person who really said it just stand up and apologise? There is no evidence presented to the House to that effect. Could somebody please, whoever said it, stand up and just apologise. Who was it? [Interjections.] All right, Mr Ellis, is it you?

Mr M J ELLIS: I think the hon member is hearing things, sir. He might have been referring to himself, but I am not sure. [Laughter.] Mr S K LOUW: Hon Chairperson, again, whether he referred to anybody, the hon member has to withdraw that.

The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON (Mr K O Bapela): Hon Louw, there is no name mentioned as yet. Although there is no one denying that such a remark was made. So, we will review the matter and report back on it. Thank you.

Mr B G MOSALA: Chairperson, this is a typical response when the truth hits home. Thank you very much.

The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON (Mr K O Bapela): I am quite aware that the person coming to speak now is a Minister, as appointed, and I would like to congratulate her on behalf of the Presiding Officers. On the speakers’ list you are still referred to as the Deputy Minister of Minerals and Energy.

The DEPUTY MINISTER OF MINERALS AND ENERGY: Chairperson, I will only be sworn in tomorrow morning. I am still the Deputy Minister of Minerals and Energy.

Madam Speaker, hon members, ladies and gentlemen, today I present my third and last Budget Vote as the Deputy Minister of Minerals and Energy. This year, I want to advise the industry bosses to loosen their seatbelts and relax. Today we are not fighting.

I am here to bid farewell and express my appreciation for their support, and the support of my colleagues, and hon members in the House, as well as for the support that I have received from all stakeholders. However, this does not mean that I will not raise concerns and issues close to my heart, and those of the department.

Today, I would also like to take this opportunity to introduce the new Deputy Minister of Minerals and Energy, Lerato Nqamano, from Hershel High School. [Applause.] Stand up. Lerato is going to be a future economist of the Reserve Bank of South Africa. I also have with me Sihle Ntsaloba, a future doctor at the Pretoria Academic. She is here today as the Minister of Agriculture of the Republic of South Africa. I also have Candy Jonas, the future Auditor-General, after she had becomes a CA. She is here as the new Minister of Land Affairs. [Applause.]

Chairperson, I would like to thank all the members of the industry, and members from both the opposition and from my party, who have congratulated me on my new appointment as Minister for Agriculture and Land Affairs. [Applause.] I hope, with your support, that I will be able to carry forward my new responsibilities, which, I believe, are a huge challenge.

I will not dwell on the electricity challenges faced by South Africans today, especially here in the Western Cape. The Minister has already presented the future plans on the matter. At this point, I would like to reiterate the Minister’s concerns and commitment, and how seriously the department takes these challenges.

For us, the critical issue is to ensure that both our short and long-term solutions are implemented as soon as possible. We have to acknowledge that while we are attending to short-term challenges, we do not overlook the fact that, what could be long-term plans today, might one day be short-term challenges. I want to remind the hon Adv Schmidt not to always look at the pessimistic side. That is why the voters of South Africa will not vote for the DA, because the economy of this country has never been so good. The rand has never been so strong. Because of the leadership of the ANC and President Thabo Mbeki, we have been able to achieve the levels that we are achieving, where we are now beginning to create jobs for our people. [Interjections.]

Significant progress has been made in the number of connections within the integrated national electrification programme. To date, we have managed to connect 126 000 households at a cost of R1,09 billion, and a total of 526 schools and clinics at a cost of R43 million, while 12 000 homes have been connected to the solar heating systems at a cost of R43 million.

These figures have contributed to an achievement of 72% towards universal access. We have continued to address the challenges of this programme with the aim of reaching universal access by 2012. Since the launch of free basic electricity, significant progress has been made throughout the country.

This has not been without challenges. In certain areas, progress has been stifled by the municipalities not signing the funding agreements with Eskom on time. The criteria used to identify recipients of free basic electricity have been relaxed to allow municipalities to apply their own tailor-made indigent policies to identify recipients.

Coming to integrated energy centres, a total of four integrated energy centres are operational in the Northern Cape, the Eastern Cape and Limpopo. We will be launching an additional three IECs in Limpopo, North West and KwaZulu-Natal.

I am pleased to announce that the Xabamdeni IEC continues to sustain its operation, liability free. In its first six months, the Xabamdeni IEC managed to pay off its creditors.

We want to thank Total and Sasol who have contributed in a private-public partnership programme with the Department of Minerals and Energy in setting up these important energy centres.

Coming to paraffin safety, the continuing health and safety hazards associated with the use of paraffin in households is of great concern to the department. By the end of June this year, we will conclude the paraffin safety information strategy to increase awareness on health and safety hazards related to paraffin. Through this strategy, we will initiate a campaign that is expected to promote behavioural changes with respect to the handling, storage and use of paraffin.

In the long term, we intend to phase out the use of paraffin as a household energy source. We have no illusions that this will not be easy. However, we believe that the wide availability of paraffin will have to be addressed because of the dangers to property, to our people and to young children in particular. However, it is our view that we need to act in order to stop the annual misery that comes with the burning down of homes, particularly here in the Western Cape, and property, due to the wrong usage of paraffin.

It is our intention therefore to look at alternative modern energy sources to ensure that they are made available and are affordable. Coming to gas, my department is exploring the future use of cleaner, safer and affordable energy as possible sources of energy at household level. In a collaborative effort with industry, we will soon launch a pilot project throughout the country, which will inform our people on the consumption of LPG for households.

To date, industry, in a related pilot project, has already connected a minimum of thirty thousand households around the country. The DME will in addition connect a total of 20 000 household before the end of this year. We further intend to have a total of 80 000 households connected by the end of 2007.

In mitigating the cost of energy and making it more affordable to the poor and all, my department is investigating the current pricing methodology of LPG with the intention of minimising the cost of delivery to consumers.

Coming to the radioactive waste management policy, hon members would recall that last year we reported on the extensive workshops we were conducting on the radioactive waste management policy. I’m glad to report that the radioactive waste management policy has now been approved by Cabinet and has subsequently been published. The policy has created certainty and confidence for the South African public in that there is a plan and strategy on nuclear waste management.

The implementation of this policy has started, and the main activity of this financial year will be the establishment of the national committee on radioactive waste management. As part of our public awareness programme, the department has published a booklet entitled “Understanding radioactivity and radiation in everyday life” and also participated in various public awareness and educational activities on the benefits of nuclear technology.

With regard to nuclear liabilities management, Cabinet approved a nuclear liabilities management plan and the funding for the discharge of liabilities arising from historical strategic activities on the Pelindaba site of the SA Nuclear Energy Corporation. The cost of this plan has been quantified at R1,8 billion over a period of 28 years, based on the 2004-05 rand value. An amount of R21 million has been budgeted for this financial year.

We have also welcomed Dr Rob Adam, the previous Director-General of the Department of Science and Technology, as the new CEO of the National Energy Corporation of SA, Necsa. We wish him well in his new role and we are confident that he will meet our expectations. [Applause.] I’m happy to report that owing to interventions the department made, we have been able to bolster the management capacity and through additional funding – thanks to the National Treasury – Necsa ended the financial year on a more sound financial footing.

A turnaround plan for Necsa was approved for implementation from the 2006- 07 financial year onwards. This turnaround aims to position Necsa, once again, at the cutting edge of South African nuclear technology research. The conversion of the Safari-1 research reactor at Necsa from using highly enriched uranium fuel to low enriched uranium fuel was approved and funding allocated. The public announcement in this regard was well received by the international community at large and continues to give expression to South Africa’s commitment to the peaceful use of nuclear energy.

As far as PetroSA is concerned, I’m very sorry to be leaving some of my friends and colleagues. PetroSA, as the national oil and gas company, is actively pursuing oil and gas blocs, mainly in Africa, in the development of the new generation gas-to-liquid technology. As we all know, PetroSA is spearheading this technology. We encourage PetroSA to prioritise the sourcing of natural gas for the South African market as feedstock for its own and for gas-fired power stations.

To give effect to that mandate, PetroSA has been actively participating in the procurement of oil and gas blocs, mainly in Africa, and in the development of the new generation gas-to-liquid technology. I want to leave this programme with the new Minister of Minerals and Energy. We have made inroads in Africa and we are beginning to get positive responses in terms of oil and gas blocs.

I then want to remind PetroSA that owing to the recent high crude oil prices and greater appetite by the Asian countries, amongst others, to secure oil and gas blocs in Africa, we have had to strengthen our efforts in this regard. China, in particular, has virtually outpriced most players, resulting in higher than normal signature bonuses. I hope the Minister of Finance is listening wherever he is. We need his support.

Significant progress has been made in the development of the new low- temperature Fischer-Tropsch, with the result that PetroSA, with its strategic partners Statoil of Norway and BHP Billiton – and, I’m informed, Sasol – has been short-listed for the Algerian gas-to-liquid project. Beneficiation is also an important programme that has been developed and initiated by this department. In striving to achieve the objectives of the Accelerated Shared Growth Initiative for South Africa, the department will forge ahead with its plans to ensure that the mineral resources produced in this country are beneficiated locally. Local and international players in the diamond cutting and polishing industry, as well as the players in the gold and platinum metals processing industry, have shown serious interest in investing in South Africa, following the changes that we have put in place through passing relevant legislation in this Parliament.

I also want to commend my Minister, Minister Lindiwe Hendricks, for the sterling work she has done. Her legal mind has helped us a great deal in passing the last few pieces of very complicated legislation in this Parliament. [Applause.] The department, in conjunction with local and provincial government, is continuing with the jewellery manufacturing projects in Kimberley and at Johannesburg International Airport, which have already been introduced to Parliament.

These will create a platform for the influx of investment, which will bring with it new skills, technologies, jobs and new funding mechanisms. All investors that have held discussions with the department have indicated a commitment to the transfer of knowledge and skills, based on their extensive expertise in this field.

With regard to training, in November 2005 five students were taken to Belgium for an extensive two-week training course in a more theoretical area, that is diamond jewellery management. These candidates reported that they gained enormous knowledge and that they would be able to build their own businesses and ensure that they get access to investors in Antwerp. English is my eighth language. As a result, two of these students are in a better position to start their own businesses. More of these initiatives will be undertaken by the department during 2006.

The department continues to work with skills development organisations. We have the Kgabane project that is continuing to train rural women in beneficiation and jewellery making. We have also been working closely with our Seta – the Mining Qualifications Authority - to enhance jewellery- manufacturing skills throughout the country. We have also facilitated the participation of a minimum of 90 young South Africans, mainly women, from previously disadvantaged communities in a training initiative in China in all aspects of jewellery making.

So, those gems that are not cuttable will be cuttable very soon in South Africa, because the Chinese are coming, the Indians are coming, with their special skills. Eight more groups of 15 young girls are expected to undergo training in Beijing. Fifteen are already there, undergoing training in jewellery making. For the next five years, we will be sending two batches of young girls for six months each to Beijing to do jewellery manufacturing. [Applause.]

Last week - I think it was my last major assignment - I had the honour of attending the 2006 Platinum Week conference in London at the invitation of Anglo Platinum. I thank you, sirs. [Applause.] This exposed me to all the opportunities and challenges facing the platinum group metals. It emerged from the conference that the world demand for platinum is increasing, which is very nice because 80% of the world reserves of platinum are in this country.

Most of this growth occurs in Europe and in the USA, and it stems mainly from the tighter emissions rules, which, I believe, have been passed by the EU and the USA government. I would like to advise my colleague, the Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism, to look at these new rules and strict measures on emissions. I believe this will create more opportunities for beneficiation. We will be able to produce more catalytic converters in this country, ensuring that our platinum group metals have a bigger market and a bigger industry, which will be able to assist us to create jobs and to transfer skills to our people and use our platinum and PGMs here in South Africa for the benefit of the nation.

There is a huge potential therefore for growth in the beneficiation of PGMs, which is driven by the following: industrial use, including the application of electronics, refining, glass manufacture, and medicines, including a cure for cancer and heart disease. Their use as autocatalysts has grown significantly, taking up 54% of the mined total production. Up to 30% of autocatalysts are now being produced in Germiston, South Africa, and the industry employs approximately 24 000 people, and is now planning to expand. Minister, I hope you will attend the launch in July of the expansion of this factory, and we believe that more jobs will be created.

I also had the opportunity to visit the De Beers Diamond Trading Company in London, where I was able to see some of our beautiful gems – Botswana gems and those of other African countries. I’m glad to report that with the signing of an agreement between the Botswana government and De Beers, those gems are coming back to South Africa. The dream of President Thabo Mbeki to make diamonds Africa’s best friend is becoming a reality.

I also want to share with you that I had a lunch meeting with Gareth Penny, the CEO of De Beers, and we agreed that they would give all their marginalised mines to the Minister so that the Minister could give them to small businesses and to women, and I would like the Minister to continue that conversation. [Applause.] We also discussed …

The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON (Mr K O Bapela): Hon Minister, your time has expired, and thank you very much.

The DEPUTY MINISTER OF MINERALS AND ENERGY: Can I thank my director-general and the staff for the support they have given me? I know he was the dean of all directors-general. That is why the President decided to take both the Minister and the Deputy Minister, and left him there to be the pillar and to continue to assist the new Minister.

I also welcome the new Minister to the warm minerals and energy sector of South Africa. You will enjoy yourself. [Applause.] I also want to say that I look forward to working with the farmers. I’m told I shoot from the hip. We are going to go on hunting trips, and I’m a very good shot and I know you love a woman who can shoot. [Applause.] [Laughter.]

Mnr J J COMBRINCK: Voorsitter … [Tussenwerpsels.] Amakhosikazi! [Ladies!] [Tussenwerpsels.]

Voorsitter, agb lede van die Parlement, uitgenooide gaste, dames en here, die ANC steun hierdie begrotingspos. In die Vryheidsmanifes van die ANC word daar duidelik melding gemaak dat die rykdom aan alle burgers in Suid- Afrika sal behoort. Verder word dit in die HOP-dokument verwoord dat daar elektrisiteit aan alle inwoners van Suid-Afrika verskaf moet word. Suid- Afrika se elektrisiteitsnetwerk is in ses RED’s, oftewel streekelektrisiteitverspreiders, verdeel, waarvan die eerste een reeds van 1 Julie 2005 in werking is … [Tussenwerpsels.] (Translation of Afrikaans paragraphs follows.) [Mr J J COMBRINCK: Chairperson … [Interjections.] Amakhosikazi! [Ladies!] [Interjections.]

Chairperson, hon members of Parliament, invited guests, ladies and gentlemen, the ANC supports this Vote. In the Freedom Charter of the ANC it is clearly stated that the wealth shall belong to all citizens in South Africa. Furthermore, it is stated in the RDP document that all inhabitants of South Africa must be provided with electricity. South Africa’s electricity network is divided into six REDs, that is to say regional electricity distributors, the first of which has been in operation since 1 July 2005 … [Interjections.]]

I know I am very long-winded.

… soos ooreengekom op die sperdatum gestel deur president Mbeki.

Die byvoeging van ’n sewende RED is egter oppad. Die vraag moet gevra word of dit nodig is, en wanneer die navorsing gedoen is om te bevind of daar nog ’n ekstra RED nodig is.

Ons ekonomie is hoofsaaklik afhanklik van steenkool, hoofsaaklik vanweë die feit dat ongeveer 75% van die primêre energie in die land van steenkool afkomstig is. Steenkool is ook verantwoordelik vir die produksie van 92% van alle elektrisiteit in Suid-Afrika. Alle aanduidings is egter dat hierdie tendens nog ’n paar jaar lank sal voortduur. Die elektrisiteitstekort in die land is grotendeels te wyte aan ’n ekonomie wat baie vinnig groei en sodoende die vraag na elektrisiteit laat toeneem. Dié van u wat vanoggend u posstukke in die posvakkies gaan haal het, sou gesien het daar is ’n dokument wat ek vir u daar gelos het. Lees asseblief die dokument en help Suid-Afrika elektrisiteit bespaar.

Weens die feit dat hierdie ingrypings met beperkte, bekostigbare tegnologie en beperkte water- en windhulpbronne aangepak word, en die uitbreiding van woestynvorming, veral wes van Suid-Afrika, is die meeste van die geïdentifiseerde moontlike tegnologie om die veerkrag, doeltreffendheid en omgewingsprestasie van die energiestelsel te verhoog nie geskik nie of bloot onbekostigbaar.

Nietemin moet ons werk aan beide die plaaslike en internasionale vlakke om verminderings- en aanpassingskwessies te hanteer. In baie opsigte kan ons toekoms van ons sukses afhang. Gedurende die afgelope twee dekades is hernieubare energie grootliks aangewend as die primêre energiebron vir alleenstaande kragoplossings wat lae-kapasiteitsaanwendings verskaf in gebiede wat ver van die elektrisiteitnetwerk verwyder is.

Netwerkaanwendings is beperk tot ’n paar hidrostasies en sekere biomassaopwekkings, hoofsaaklik vir eie gebruik, terwyl Eskom sedert 1998 besig is om grootskaalse aanwendings aktief na te vors in sy Suid- Afrikaanse grootmaat-hernieubare energie-opwekkingsprogram, oftewel SABRE- Gen. Tot op hede het hierdie program aanleiding gegee tot twee hernieubare energiedemonstrasie-inisiatiewe, te wete die Klipheuwel- windenergiedemonstrasieprojek in die Wes-Kaap en die sonskottelinstallering- inisiatief in Midrand, Johannesburg. Die vraag kan weer eens gevra word hoekom daar nog nie met sulke sonskottels in die Noord-Kaap geëksperimenteer is nie. Die provinsie is welbekend vir sy mooi sonskyndae.

Die ANC-regering het ’n verbintenis tot die VN se raamwerkkonvensie oor klimaatsverandering wat verlede jaar vorm aangeneem het deur ’n teiken vas te stel. Die regering se doelwit is om teen 2012 ’n waarde van 10 000 GWh hernieubare energie op te wek. Dit het die belangstelling aangewakker in verskeie hernieubare energiesektore, veral met betrekking tot die verwarming van water deur middel van die son. Alhoewel die doelwit tot betekenisvolle belangstelling deur projekontwikkelings gelei het, het die afwesigheid van geleentheidskeppende meganismes die aantal werklike projekte beperk.

Die Departement van Minerale en Energie is tans besig om ’n subsidiekantoor op die been te bring wat die geleentheid behoort te skep vir ’n aantal klein kragopwekkingsprojekte, maar dit is onwaarskynlik dat groot verskaffingsprojekte tot stand sal kom sonder enige ander meganismes wat geleenthede vir kragopwekkingsooreenkomste op die lang termyn sal bied. Die Suid-Afrikaanse kragstelsel werk op die tyd-van-die-dag-beginsel, waarvolgens krag wat gedurende die piekvraagperiodes opgewek word hoër gewaardeer word as dié wat gedurende middel- en nie-piekperiodes opgewek word. Die vermoë van heelwat hernieubare oplossings om die vraagkurwe te volg en op te wek wanneer krag vereis word, bly onseker, asook die kwaliteit van die verskaffing.

Windenergie sal moontlik net uitgebrei kan word tot ’n klein hoeveelheid eenhede. Suid-Afrika is ’n relatief groot land, maar die meeste wind kom in die kusstreke voor. Hierdie kusstreke is gewoonlik ekologies bewaarde gebiede en dit is daarom baie moeilik om enige ontwikkeling te doen met betrekking tot windlaaiers. Baie skaars voëls en plantspesies kan hierdeur beïnvloed word.

Die vernietigende krag van kernwapens en die vrees vir die onbekende wat betref kernfisika het groot agterdog gewek jeens die gebruik van kernkrag. Die tema is deeglik deur Hollywood uitgebuit, wat die siening van die publiek net meer versterk het. Wat min mense besef, is dat Three Mile Island een van die rampe was waar niemand beseer of gedood is nie. Tsjernobil het 31 lewens geëis en nog 10 mense later deur middel van bestraling. Elke onnatuurlike dood is een te veel, maar as ons die gevolge van dié gebeure vergelyk met dié van vlieg- en motorongelukke moet ons toegee dat ons nie konsekwent is nie. Kernkrag voorsien in omtrent 17% van die hele wêreld se elektrisiteit deur middel van 438 reaktors in 31 lande.

Omdat hierdie bron so belangrik vir ons geraak het, is die belangrikheid van ’n beleidsdokument oor kernafval van kardinale belang, want dit is juis die kernafval wat vir almal ’n groot probleem is. Die basiese beginsels van hierdie dokument moet die volgende insluit: die beskerming van menslike gesondheid, die beskerming van die omgewing, die beskerming van wat oor die grense van die land kom, met ander woorde om seker te maak dat ander lande nie hul kernafval in Suid-Afrika stort nie, en die beskerming van ons nageslagte.

Hierdie beskerming moet plaasvind binne ’n wetgewende raamwerk, beheer van radioaktiwiteitsopwekking en die beveiliging van hierdie fasiliteite. As ons aan ’n dokument kan werk wat bogenoemde punte sal beskerm, glo ek dat kernkrag ’n veilige oplossing vir Suid-Afrika se kragprobleme kan wees. Deur meer as R82 miljard tot en met 2012 te bestee, sal die elektrisiteitstekort beslis tot ’n einde kom.

Graag sluit ek af deur agb lede weer eens te vra om hul samewerking te gee om krag in Suid-Afrika te bespaar. Ek dank u. [Applous.] (Translation of Afrikaans paragraphs follows.)

[… as agreed to on the deadline set by President Mbeki.

However, the addition of a seventh RED is in the pipeline. The question must now be asked whether it is necessary, and when the research was done to establish whether an extra RED was necessary.

Our economy depends principally on coal, in the main owing to the fact that approximately 75% of the primary energy in the country comes from coal. Coal is also responsible for the production of 92% of all electricity in South Africa. All indications are that this tendency will continue for several more years.

The shortage of electricity in the country can be attributed largely to an economy which is growing very fast and is thus causing the demand for electricity to increase. Those of you who collected your mail from your pigeonholes this morning would have seen a document that I left there for you. Please read the document and help South Africa to conserve electricity.

Owing to the fact that these interventions are being tackled with limited, affordable technology and limited water and wind resources, and owing to the extension of desertification, especially to the west of South Africa, most of the identified possible technology to increase the resilience, efficiency and environmental performance of the energy system is not suitable or is simply unaffordable,

Nevertheless, we must work at both the local and the international levels to cope with decrease and adjustment issues. In many respects our future could depend on our success. During the past two decades renewable energy was largely utilised as the primary source of energy for individual energy solutions providing low-capacity utilisations in areas that are far removed from the electricity network.

Network utilisations are limited to a few hydrostations and certain biomass generations, mainly for own use, whereas Eskom has been actively researching large-scale utilisations since 1998 in its South African bulk renewable energy generation programme, that is to say, SABRE-Gen. To date this programme has resulted in two renewable energy demonstration initiatives, namely the Klipheuwel wind energy demonstration project in the Western Cape and the solar-disk installation initiative in Midrand, Johannesburg. We can once again ask the question why no experiments have been done with such solar-disks in the Northern Cape. This province is well known for its beautiful sunny days.

The ANC government is committed to the UN’s framework convention on climate change which took shape last year when certain goals were set. The government’s goal is to generate renewable energy to the value of 10 000 GWh by 2012. This has sparked interest in various renewable energy sectors, especially regarding the heating of water by means of the sun. Although the goal has resulted in significant interest by project developers, the absence of opportunity-creating mechanisms has limited the number of actual projects.

The Department of Minerals and Energy is at present establishing a subsidy office that should create the opportunity for a number of small power generation projects, but it is unlikely that large provision projects will be established without any other mechanisms that will provide opportunities for power generation agreements in the long run. The South African power system works on the time-of-the-day principle, according to which power generated during the peak demand periods is valued more highly than that generated during the medium and non-peak periods. The ability of a number of renewable solutions to follow the demand curve and generate when power is required remains uncertain, as well as the quality of the provision.

Wind energy will possibly only be able to be extended to a small number of units. South Africa is a relatively large country, but most wind occurs in the coastal regions. These coastal regions are usually ecologically conserved areas and it is therefore very difficult to do any development with regard to wind chargers. Many rare birds and plant species can be influenced by this. The destructive power of nuclear weapons and the fear of the unknown with regard to nuclear physics have caused a lot of suspicion regarding the use of nuclear power. The theme has been thoroughly exploited by Hollywood, which has only intensified the view of the public. What few people realise is that Three Mile Island was one of the disasters where no one was injured or killed. Chernobyl claimed 31 lives and another 10 people died later as a result of radiation. Every unnatural death is one too many, but if we compare the consequences of these occurrences with those of aircraft and vehicle accidents, we have to concede that we are not being consistent. Nuclear energy provides about 17% of the entire world’s electricity by means of 438 reactors in 31 countries.

Because this source has become so important to us, the creation of a policy document on nuclear waste is of the utmost importance, because it is precisely the nuclear waste that is a big problem for everybody. The basic principles of this document must include the following: the protection of human health, the protection of the environment, the protection of what comes over the borders of our country, in other words to ensure that other countries do not dump their nuclear waste in South Africa, and the protection of future generations.

This protection must take place within a legislative framework, control the generation of radioactivity and the safeguarding of these facilities. If we can work on a document that will protect the above-mentioned points, I believe that nuclear power could be a safe solution to South Africa’s power problems. By spending more than R82 billion up to and including 2012, the shortage of electricity will definitely come to an end.

I would like to conclude by asking hon members once again to give their co- operation to conserve electricity in South Africa. I thank you. [Applause.]]

Ms S RAJBALLY: Chairperson, firstly I would like to take this opportunity to thank hon Minister Lindiwe Hendricks for all her efforts and endeavours to lead the Department of Minerals and Energy – DME - to delivery. We believe that the hon President does have a strategy in his decision to reshuffle Cabinet and that Minister Hendricks’ valuable skills will benefit Water Affairs and Forestry. Our sentiments are equally expressed towards hon Minister Buyelwa Sonjica, as we welcome her into the Department of Minerals and Energy. The MF express its full faith in the President’s strategic decision.

Turning our attention to the Department of Minerals and Energy, the MF knows the challenges we are faced with. And we can certainly also acknowledge the dissatisfaction and inconvenience shared by the larger public as a result of the recent and unexpected power cuts and steeply rising petrol price. The explanation for the recent 39 cent hike in the petrol price is an increase in the international price of crude oil. This was certainly not welcome as the only solution given for motorists in light of this is to budget for petrol use and plan journeys properly.

Further, in response to the recent power cuts, the MF feels it is crucial to encourage our people. Having been told that, if there are powercuts, our domestic supply will not take priority over our supply to neighbouring states is discouraging. Our priority and commitment starts with our domestic need and supply. These blackouts not only left people in darkness, businesses unable to operate and hospitals frantic, but stopped the entire mechanics of our day- to-day living. Now in winter people are being promised blackouts again. The MF, in the light of this, calls for an entire reassessment of our power situation and if another power plant has to be erected to sustain need and supply then so be it. The MF supports the Budget Vote. [Time expired.] [Applause.]

Ms N F MATHIBELA: Madam Chair, hon Ministers, hon Deputy Ministers, hon members, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, let me begin by congratulating the incoming Minister Sonjica on her appointment to the Minerals and Energy portfolio as well as Minister Hendricks on her appointment to the Water Affairs and Forestry portfolio and also our Deputy Minister who is going to Agriculture. I wish them well in their new portfolios.

The ANC supports the Budget Vote. The mission of the Department of Minerals and Energy, as set out in the strategic plan for the period 2007-2011, is the regulation and promotion of the minerals and energy sectors for the benefit of all, and I do emphasise the words ``for the benefit of all’’. Through the Promotion of Mine Health and Safety Programme, the department executes its statutory mandate of protecting the health and safety of mine employees.

It is a known fact that mining is a difficult and dangerous occupation. Mineworkers labour under taxing and unsafe conditions, often under the earth. It has always been the view of the ANC that mineworkers are the heartbeat of the mining industry and therefore ought to be afforded protection against the dire effects of their working conditions on their health and safety.

The minimum standards aimed at ensuring the health and safety of mineworkers as set out in the Reconstruction and Development Programme were thus in keeping with the view of the ANC that mineworkers play a fundamental role in the development of the industry. Consequently, legislation regulating mine health and safety is guided by the standards set out in the Reconstruction and Development Programme.

In addition to passing laws aimed at ensuring the safety and health of workers within mines, the department has committed itself to monitoring the proper implementation and effectiveness of such laws.

Re a tseba gore kgale meepong go be go sa lebelelwe malwetši a mangwe. Go be go lebelelwa fela ge batho ba gobetše goba ba hlokagetše. Tše dingwe ba be ba sa di lebelele. Efela mmušo wo wa rena wa lehono wa ANC o lebelela batho ka moka le malwetši ka moka ao a swanago le bo HIV/Aids. [We are aware that back then mines used to overlook some of the illnesses. They only insured cases of injuries and deaths. The other illnesses were overlooked. The ANC-led government looks at all the people and illnesses, including HIV/Aids.] The department’s 2006-07 to 2010-11 strategic plan sets out the measures the department intends taking in ensuring compliance with and monitoring the effectiveness of health and safety laws and regulations. The strategic objectives of the department are, among others, firstly, to contribute to sustainable development by reducing the impact of mining on public health and the environment, addressing specific occupational health and safety problems, and dealing with public health and environmental hazards and the source of such hazards; secondly, to redress the past imbalances in the sector by ensuring sufficient and appropriate skills and human resource development strategies for the sector; and thirdly, to govern the minerals and energy sector to be healthier, safer and cleaner by eliminating occupational diseases and injuries over the next five to six years.

In each year over the period 2006-07 to 2010-11, the department has set as a target the reduction of workplace injuries and fatalities by 20% in respect of occupational diseases resulting from exposure to hazards. The target for the third year of the five-year period is a reduction of 15% occupational diseases from exposure to hazards and thereafter a reduction of 10% over the last two years of the five-year period.

Furthermore, the Safety in Mines Research Advisory Committee has a programme in place aimed at overcoming barriers to improved occupational health and safety performance. The barriers identified in the committee programme include rockfalls, rockbursts, explosions and fires, machinery and transport systems, airborne pollutants, physical hazards such as noise, temperature and radiation, occupational diseases with a specific focus on the effects of HIV/Aids, TB and silicosis.

The scourge of HIV/Aids has also had an impact on the health and safety of mineworkers. Critical to addressing the HIV/Aids challenge in mines, will be the introduction of the new family units and doing away with the old system of hostels.

There are also five key projects aimed at raising awareness on the prevention, treatment and care of HIV/Aids in the mining industry. These are the Powerbelt Project, for the coal mining areas, the Lesedi Project in Virginia in the Free State Province, the Lechabile Project in Welkom, also in the Free State Province, the Bambisanani Project in Lusikisiki in the Eastern Cape Province, the Carltonville Home-Based Care Project, in the Gauteng Province.

The issue of mine health and safety requires continuous review and development. Such review and development have been provided for in the strategic plan for the period 2006-07 to 2010-11 through measures such as policing compliance with the relevant laws and where necessary providing the necessary education and for the implementation of such laws in order to improve mine health and safety. Furthermore, the department’s ongoing self-assessment has led to the restructuring of the Mine Health and Safety Inspectorate, with the result that all policy-related issues are to be dealt with by the policy unit while all specialist-related issues on occupational health are to be dealt with by the special unit. This will ensure improved service delivery by the inspectorate.

The department remains committed to the betterment of the lives of all our people employed within the mining industry as well as those affected by mining activities and will appropriate the funds allocated to it in a manner that is in keeping with such a commitment.

I thank you, Madam Chair. [Applause.]

Mr C M MORKEL: Madam Deputy Chair, Ministers, past, present and future, departmental officials, colleagues, ladies and gentlemen, the President in his state of the nation address this year called upon us to herald for our beloved nation an age of hope.

For anyone to have hope of anything, they would need a fair amount of certainty and trust before they can envision the future and each milestone to reach the destination of that journey.

It is not different with democracy and development and, so too, it is not different in minerals and energy. The Progressive Independent Movement will therefore propose practical solutions for consideration in response to the challenges faced by the new Minister and department, as we did with the previous Ministers during this financial year.

In saying farewell to the previous Ministers, I want to commend personally your openness to simply listen. We wish you well in your new portfolios. To the new Ministers, we hope that our working relationship could be as open, frank and constructive as it has been with the previous Ministers.

Ministers, colleagues, with the budget at our disposal for this financial year, we would like to highlight a few of the following: The Minerals and Petroleum Resources Development Act would need to be reviewed or amended to provide greater certainty and specificity to its two components parts, both minerals and petroleum.

Whilst the minerals component has seen the forging of a Charter, it does not in our opinion cater sufficiently for the specificity each mineral subsector may require. For example, although we recently enacted the Diamonds Amendment Act, we cannot achieve accelerated and shared growth if we do not give more detailed attention to the specific factors that differentiate the economies of scale for example, in fluvial, alluvial, and kimberlite mining, especially at a small-scale mining level.

Ultimately, we would not want to see the same unintended consequences before this sector’s newly empowered PDIs, as was the case in the fishing industry with its flawed permit system. Many permit holders in that sector were forced to sell out with no access to finance, equipment, technical expertise, and allegedly this is also happening in the small mining sector.

Our second proposal is on the petroleum sector. Seismic data gleaned from our National Petroleum Agency suggests there are unexplored offshore geology beyond waters 250m deep. This is not that different from that in the oil and gas producing west coast on the West Coast of South Africa. What is different is the level of investment in our deeper waters, and the risks can be mitigated by a greater certainty on a fiscal regime, especially with regard to royalties.

Lastly, for now, we propose that the electricity sector, especially the rollout of new capacity, be streamlined by reviewing some of the EIA processes, and we would like to work with you on that. I thank you. [Applause.]

Mr G R MORGAN: Good afternoon, Madam Minister and members. In the last few months, the people of the Western Cape have learnt the meaning of a number of new words and terms: load-shedding’’,brown-outs’’, rolling blackouts’’ anddemand management’’.

But, of course, this new vocabulary is no consolation for the irritation, anger and massive economic loss, in the region of R3 billion, that the people of this region had to endure. And while all this outages were happening, no one was claiming responsibility. Eskom’s CEO, who earns more than R1 million a month, did little to calm nerves.

How did we get to this situation? The answer is simple and we knew the answer before this energy crisis even began: Bad planning, underinvestment in infrastructure, a skills shortages and a dash of arrogance.

I frequently heard that what happened at Koeberg, in conjunction with the transmission problems, was a worst-case scenario, as if that explanation somehow made it all better. But we should be planning for worst-case scenarios. What other worst-case scenario at Koeberg is Eskom not planning for?

South Africa has the capacity to produce approximately 37 000 MW of electricity. A safe reserve would be 15% over the peak usage. But, consider this: The expected peaked amount in winter is approximately 35 000 MW, leaving a reserve of about 6%. That is too close and means that if further power stations go down, further blackouts will occur, and there will be associated economic loss.

What amazes me is that this government set itself a goal of achieving rapid economic growth way back in 1996. With economic growth there is an ever- increasing demand for energy. And thankfully our economy today is growing steadily, but it seems as if the Department of Minerals and Energy never actually believed that we would achieve this growth when it was doing its scenario planning a decade ago.

Having said that, the DA supports moves by government to re-commission several old coal power stations and to construct new gas power stations in KwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern Cape in conjunction with the private sector. These moves will help to improve capacity and drive growth.

Furthermore, Eskom must invest in improving and maintaining transmission lines. Even if we could produce more electricity, it is not certain that we would be able to transmit it.

Like so many industrial sectors in this economy, the energy sector faces a skills crisis. In a recent survey conducted by the Solidarity trade union, 77% of respondents regarded the lack of trained staff with the necessary skills as one of the main reasons for the electricity crisis in the Western Cape.

According to Stan Bridgens, president of the SA Institute of Electrical Engineers, a consequence of the transformation drive has been that people who aren’t engineers have filled key decision-making positions, the result being that “the strategic decisions that need to be made are not made timeously”. If we are going to succeed in this highly technical sector, we need to get the right people to do the job, irrespective of race.

Investing in our energy security must be a priority. I agree that coal and nuclear-generated electricity is necessary to secure our base-load requirements, but diversification of sources helps to improve security. While this government plans to pump billions of rands into the pebble bed modular reactor project over the coming years, renewable energy sources receive insignificant funding for research and development.

This budget allocates a paltry R46 million for capital start-up grants for projects in the renewable and bio-fuels industry. Yet officials in your own department tell me, Madam Minister, that there are over half a billion rands worth of renewable projects crying out for support.

I accept that renewable energy needs to be economically viable, but the technology learning curves for these technologies are steep and deserve more government support, especially if we are to be genuine about achieving our renewable targets. The DA looks forward to the completion of the bio-fuel strategy. It is correct that the bio-fuels industry has been identified as a key project under the Accelerated Shared Growth Initiative for South Africa, for it has the potential to revitalise many rural communities by providing new livelihoods and reduce our reliance on imported oil.

Finally, in the wake of the recent electricity crisis in the Western Cape, demand-management has been thrust into the spotlight. While energy saving and efficiency strategies are crucial to this economy, many consumers feel like they are expected to take the hit for Eskom’s ineptitude. Nevertheless, this is a good opportunity to promote efficiency, as has been said already today.

And here is a challenge. I realise that your department has already undertaken certain efficiency initiatives, but how about this one? Why does your department not take the lead? Approximately 5% of electricity is used by appliances in stand-by mode, so, as an act of good faith, I suggest you recommend a directive where your department, and then perhaps others, commit to procuring electronic goods with a stand-by mode of 1 Watt for goods for which that is possible. For other goods, it won’t be possible, but you can find the best stand-by mode.

It is not anticompetitive, according to the World Trade Organisation Regulations. And, in this way, you would be able to indicate to the broader public that government itself is also committed to energy efficiency, not just the consumers of the Western Cape and beyond. We can call it ``a taste of government’s own medicine’’. Thank you. [Applause.]

Mr S K LOUW: Chairperson, we have been listening to some very good speeches in this House this afternoon, but I must say that despite the fact that we had those good speeches, some of the members from this side spoilt them. They keep on crying about Koeberg, which is a clear indication that they don’t have the answers on how to solve the problems. The cry from this side is because they are in charge of the Western Cape and they don’t know how to solve the problem, they must pass the buck. It is clear that they rule over an unstable city that doesn’t have answers to the problems of these people. [Interjections.]

The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON (Ms C-S Botha): Order! Please take your seat, hon member. Yes, hon member.

Mr M J ELLIS: Madam Chair, it would appear that there has been a very important piece of news coming through that we haven’t heard about in this House. The hon speaker at the podium has said that the DA is in charge of the Western Cape. We are not aware of that.

Mr S K LOUW: Chairperson, coming back to the Public Protector’s report, again, in this Chamber, the very same committee adopted the report. We had a joint meeting with Scopa and all of them agreed to the terms that they had to follow and we agreed that those that owed the department or anybody any money, should pay it back. Why should we open it? Why should we open it? It is not political bankruptcy. It is total bankruptcy. Allow me to focus on my speech.

The following analysis was made at a national consultative conference of the ANC in Mogorogoro in 1969:

Today, most of the wealth of South Africa is flowing into the coffers of a few in the country and others in foreign lands. The white minority as a group have over the years enjoyed a complete monopoly of economic rights, privileges and opportunities. An ANC government shall restore the wealth of our country, the heritage of South Africa, to the people as a whole.

At its 51st national conference in Stellenbosch it was resolved that:

The establishment of a vehicle to support mineral exploration by previously disadvantaged groups should be explored, especially rural communities, given the importance of sustaining the industry and bringing in new entrants through new legislation.

Looking at the stable position of our country’s economy, we can proudly say our country is in momentous processes of change, blazing a trail towards a secured future. This achievement enjoys a respect and admiration of the world at large. We must give effect to the government’s programme of action and contribute positively to the age of hope, as mentioned in the President’s state of the nation address. We must not lose sight of the many young leaders who fought the battle in the streets for economic inclusion 30 years ago.

Today, our debate on Minerals and Energy contributes enormously to the economy of our country. I remember the jubilation, the joy, the shouting of Mayibuye i’Afrika and the singing of liberation songs when the Minerals and Petroleum Resources Development Act was passed four years ago. That Act charts the way forward to ensure that previously disadvantaged people have meaningful participation in the industry. The implementation of the MPRDA brought with it a few challenges that the department has to grapple with to improve on service delivery in terms of the time taken to process the applications.

I must applaud the Minister, the Deputy Minister, the director-general, DDGs and the nine regional managers for the way they have handled this paradigm shift with a serious shortage of staff, especially in the Klerksdorp office. I must put a feather in the cap of Mr Levy Rapoo and Mr Vincent Twala. They spent lots of hours in the office to ensure a smooth process to meet the target. I am saying this despite the media tags that they are not delivering. They have stood their ground and ensured a smooth running of a process that is totally inclusive as applicants comply with the necessary criteria to get their licences.

Therefore, it was further necessary for the department to come up with the mineral policy and promotion as a structure to set in place. This branch is key in formulating mineral-related policies and promotes the mining industry to encourage investment. It is indeed a product of a split from the mineral development branch, thus it is linked to the Asgisa programme of creating jobs, especial the scarce skills in the mining industry like rock-breaking, metallurgical operators and many more.

The opportunities that we have in this industry cannot be over-emphasized. Institutions like Mintek, Geoscience and M2A play a pivotal role in empowering our disadvantaged groups. The potential and impact of beneficiation to employment creation will be sustainable if harnessed correctly.

We further believe that the development of them gem cutting and polishing industry in South Africa will play an immense role in job creation, bearing in mind that thousands of workers were retrenched previously because diamond cutting and polishing houses have had to close due to the scarcity of rough diamonds. Access to rough diamonds can be acquired through the state diamond trader for the local diamond beneficiators.

The SDT will purchase a portion of rough diamonds based on a requirement for local beneficiators and sell to beneficiators at a fair price. This is intended to stimulate growth and development for small role players and it will empower those who did not have access to rough diamonds. It will definitely stimulate competition and economic growth in the country for the benefit of all of us.

We also have to face a series of problems in the department. We must find a way to deal with the challenges that we face in regard to BEE and fronting in this industry. Fronting is fraud. Fronting is theft. It is unacceptable. We must reject it. This has become a matter of serious concern for government as well as stakeholders. We must look at structural issues to expand our economy and consolidate black involvement in our country in order to build a stable industry that satisfies the unemployment market. More and more people are needed to participate in the main and maintain or fill the scarce skills needed.

BEE should not be seen as a vehicle to make a quick profit or be an overnight millionaire. Neither do we need to dilute the shares or sign an agreement in which the shares will be locked up for 20 years or more and don’t get any dividend but let us rather see it as a vehicle to sustain the economy of this country. It must be more than the sale of equity to historically disadvantaged South Africans. It must further make an important contribution through recruitment, education, training and development of existing employment and benefit the wider community.

Allow me to focus sharply on small scale mining projects that were developed and implemented with technical support provided for them. This is one of the areas that we need to focus on more, with special emphasis on health and safety. The department needs to have a special structure to monitor and inspect this area. Primary to this is the environmental rehabilitation of small mines, especially in the Northern Cape and North West that we need to focus on in order to ensure a better environment to live in.

Mevrou die Voorsitter, die mynboubedryf is nie maklik toegangbaar as jy nie beskik oor die nodige kapitaal om ’n suksesvolle begin te maak nie. Daarom is dit noodsaaklik vir die departement om ernstige oorweging te skenk daaraan om ’n bevondsingstruktuur te implementeer wat uitsluitlik in hierdie bedryf gaan spesialisieer. Ons sal daardeur die misleidende frontering kan uitskakel en die groot probleem oor bevondsing vir die nuwe mynkapteine oorkom.

Met groot opgewondenheid word hierdie vereistes vanaf die departement begroet. [Tyd verstreke.] (Translation of Afrikaans paragraphs follows.)

[Madam Chairperson, the mining industry is not easily accessible if you do not have the necessary capital to make a successful start. Hence it is imperative that the department give serious consideration to implementing a funding structure that would specialise exclusively in this industry. We would then be in a position to eliminate misleading fronting and overcome the great problem of funding for new mining captains.

These requirements from the department are greeted with great exitement.[Time expired.]]

The CHIEF WHIP OF THE OPPOSITION: Op ’n punt van orde, asseblief Mevrou. [On a point of order, please Madam.]

Is it parliamentary for the member to say that the DA is the front of confusion? I would like to ask him to withdraw that, Madam Chair.

The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON (Ms C-S Botha): Hon member, it is my right to ask hon members to withdraw things, not yours. [Laughter.] Please continue, hon member.

The MINISTER OF MINERALS AND ENERGY: Chairperson, let me deal with a few issues that have been raised and in doing so thank the hon members. I would first like to thank the chair of the portfolio committee, Comrade Nathi, and all the members of the portfolio committee for their kind words, but also for a very good working relationship, which the Deputy Minister and I had with this committee. We have taken note of what has been raised by the portfolio committee on the formation of the national RED, and also note that they are planning to hold public hearings in that regard. My hope is that these hearings, which would be following right after the electricity workshop that was held recently in Gauteng, will assist all of us to enhance the quality of our final product.

I have noted the issue of fronting that the chairperson has raised. It has now been raised by Comrade Sam Louw. I agree indeed that it is a serious problem; it amounts to fraud; it reverses all the achievements and gains that we have had since this government came into power and, indeed, if you look at the Department of Trade and Industry’s codes of practice, fronting is dealt with there.

I am hoping that in the minerals and energy and liquid petroleum sector, we are going to establish similar regulations that would ensure that we take out these people and then put their names into a register, which would indicate that they would never get work from government again.

Coming to Adv Schmidt, who likes to talk and then disappear. He likes saying all kind of things and then disappearing. That is just the level of arrogance that he has. [Interjections.] There is no need to say sorry, because he can’t raise issues and then run away. But you will tell him what I am going to say. Thank you.

With regard to Koeberg, which is the first issue he raised, it is a fact that a foreign object was found in the generator. It is a fact it was not by accident. That is why an investigation was started. We are not going to make pronouncements on the outcome of that investigation until the correct authority that is investigating gives us a report and makes the announcements about those outcomes.

So, you must just be patient. [Interjections.] The issue of the replacement … Sheila, please! The issue of the replacement of the generator I dealt with in my speech, so I don’t know why he is raising that again. He says there is an energy crisis, I don’t know. I told you I was sitting with the CEOs, the chairpersons, the energy research institutions, everyone who deals with energy, and we remain convinced that there is no crisis.

There is an explanation for what is happening in the Western Cape. The Koeberg issue is a case that has never been foreseen. It is a situation never foreseen, and I will tell you just now, hon Morgan, I hope you are still here to listen to what you were raising. [Interjections.] I would explain to you right now what plans we had because you want to communicate a situation of a government that didn’t plan for its energy economic growth. We actually did plan.

The issue of the energy crisis I have dealt with it and there is no energy crisis in the country, and I did say we are conceding that, in fact, possibly the reserve margin that Morgan was talking about has declined to the extent that it needs to be increased.

What this means is that the capital investment signal has been triggered. You are all aware of the R84 billion investment for new power stations. So, I don’t know what this panic is all about.

On the Oilgate saga, this matter has died and I don’t know why it is coming back here. It is dead and buried. [Interjections.] The competent authorities in our country have investigated it, including the Public Protector. A report was presented in this House and was adopted by all members of it.

So, I do not understand how this matter arises, unless you didn’t agree with the recommendations in the report, which are being implemented, by the way. [Interjections.] So, don’t just be populists here and bring things that have been dealt with. [Interjections.] Maybe you are conflicted and not the report. With regard to slime dumps and mine water, what I want to say is that the rehabilitation and management of these dumps that have been raised here is being dealt with by our regional office in Gauteng as per agreement between the DME and the company involved.

On the issue of water, there is an interdepartmental task team that was set up and the whole issue has been assessed in both the western and central basins. It has been established that a canal will have to be erected to ensure that the water issue is addressed. So, there is progress on that front.

With regard to the problem of fuel shortages, I thought I addressed that in my speech and the investigation is going on. All I can say is that the DA wants to blame us for this, but, watch this space, when the Moerana investigation tables a report and, please, don’t stand in our way when we start implementing those recommendations, because you are the ones who are going to say that this government is interfering with business and how it is run, when, in fact, we are trying to correct the very problem of, possibly, a totally unregulated industry.

I agree with hon member Tinto on the issues that she raised. With regard to Mr Combrinck, he raised many issues, but I would like to respond to the issue of whether research was done before Cabinet decided that we should look at a seventh national regional electricity distributor.

What was done is that Cabinet confirmed the establishment of the metro Reds and requested the Department of Minerals and Energy to go and investigate and model the viability and sustainability of the seventh RED. That modelling, which I assume is the study that you were looking at, is complete and we are going back to Cabinet to say: This is what the modelling says, which is that a seventh RED is viable. I think I dealt with all the issues of equity and people paying different tariffs in different places, and the cost of energy, when I answered questions here the day before yesterday. So, yes, modelling has been done and the modelling results will be presented to Cabinet.

I would like to agree with Mme Mathibela, on the issues that she raised, which really are the very important, namely mine health and safety. I should apologise that both the Deputy Minister and I didn’t have time in our speeches to deal with this, but there is a lot that is being done in that area.

The rate of mine accidents has decreased, but we remain concerned that, in fact, there are still accidents, some of which result in death. We still believe that one death is a death too many, and we are continuously reviewing our mine health and safety regulations.

With regard to Aids, we are very involved with the industry, the companies that are mining in this country, on various programmes around HIV and Aids. Mr Morkel, those are very practical steps and I hope my colleague, Minister Sonjica, took note of all those steps. It is funny that when people talk they look at the negatives and don’t highlight the positives.

Mr Morkel was very worried about the outages in the Western Cape and he was phoning me frantically wanting to give me some information and, by mistake, I phoned Mr Morkel senior, because that is the number I was given. But, I must say, he was very pleased and surprised to be phoned by a Minister.

So, although people don’t say those things, there are concerned South Africans that want to give information and assistance in that regard. These are very important issues you raised, and we have taken note.

With regard to Mr Morgan, I can agree with you on planning in what you said and what we have done about it. You spoke of people with a touch of arrogance - I though you were very arrogant in the things that you were saying here.

Let me tell you, you say we didn’t plan for the situation in which we are. We predicted peaking capacity and we do have plans for those in the form of the two new power stations. As you all know, peaking power, I think I explained it, is needed for short periods when we all suddenly get home and use all kinds of appliances and put a huge demand on the electricity network. So, we predicted that.

These new two power stations, which are driven by gas turbines, are specifically designed for that, peaking capacity. With regard to the power station that is needed for the whole day, which is known as Base Load, we only expect to need that by 2009, at the current levels of growth. That is what our planning has produced. We believe that the current situation at Koeberg could not have been foreseen. It was never foreseen, it could not have been, and I have dealt with Koeberg. I will deal with the last issues. I have got only four minutes.

The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON (Ms C-S Botha): No, hon Minister, you have no more minutes left. But, considering that this is your last speech in this portfolio, I will allow you to continue.

The MINISTER OF MINERALS AND ENERGY: Thank you. I have noted the concerns from Mr Lucas around that. I think the lesson that can be learnt from that experience is that South Africans, particularly our own research institutions, have to make sure that our intellectual property is protected, particularly when government has invested a lot of money in the research and development of that technology. But, we do have a stake in that company. Anglo American also has a stake in it, but there are lessons to be learnt and together with the Minister of Science and Technology, the Minister of Environmental Affairs and myself, we are working on that issue.

The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON (Ms C-S Botha): Please conclude.

The MINISTER OF MINERALS AND ENERGY: I am concluding. The decrease in the allocation of electricity, I will leave that. Finally, welcoming the Minister of Water Affairs and Forestry into the department, I just want to say that I hope that all of you are going to give her the support that I got in my short stint as Minister.

The people I didn’t thank were the very people who make my office run. I don’t know where they are sitting. But, wherever you are, all the people in the Ministry are here. They are too many to mention. Those are the foot soldiers who make our work easy and, of course, women in mining up in the gallery, thanks for your support. [Applause.]

Debate concluded.

                         APPROPRIATION BILL

Debate on Vote No 26 – Communications:

The MINISTER OF COMMUNICATIONS: Hon Chairperson, hon Cabinet colleagues, hon members, captains of industry, distinguished guests and ladies and gentlemen, today we celebrate Africa Day, a day that the Organisation of African Unity declared would symbolise the collective desire and commitment to rid our continent of all forms of exploitation and colonisation.

That spirit, inspired by great African leaders like President Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana, was to influence future generations of Africans. One of these was President Samora Machel of Mozambique whose mysterious death on South African soil 20 years ago we remember this year. Another is our own President Mbeki.

There are other significant events that mark important moments in our history, which give me inspiration as I deliver this year’s Budget Vote speech. There are: the 100th anniversary of the Bhambatha rebellion and the satyagraha in commemoration of the life of Mahatma Gandhi; the historic march of the women to the Union Buildings 50 years ago, and the Soweto Uprising 30 years ago.

All these events are of immense significance. They provide us with an important framework within which to evaluate the work that we have done, and continue to do to sustain the benefits of our freedom, deepen our democracy and create a better future for the generations to come.

Today is also Cell-C’s ``Take a Girl Child to Work’’ day. This programme continues to be one of the country’s most creative and innovative community social investment programmes. It exposes girls to the workplace and its career possibilities. Our department is honoured to have been allocated a high school in Mamelodi, which is named in memory of one of the finest young men of our country, Stanza Bopape. I wish to acknowledge Tidimalo Phethle and Portia Digangoane, learners from that school who are shadowing my Director-General and myself today. [Applause.] Unfortunately, they are not here. [Interjections.] Oh, they are! Thank you, very very much. [Applause.] They haven’t spent much time with me, because I don’t have an office. I have squatted; I have moved around and had dust allergies. So, they have not been able to spend the time that they could have had with us.

Also, from KwaZulu-Natal, we have Sithabiso Khuluse from the Queensburgh Girls High School in Durban. [Applause.] We hope that they will have been able to learn something about the work and the challenges that Ministers also face. No one ever thought one could be kicked out of one’s office, even if you are a Minister! [Laughter.]

The vision of our department is to make South Africa a global leader in harnessing information and communication technologies for socioeconomic development. The social appropriation of the information and communication technologies by the majority of the marginalized in our society remains a critical challenge.

To meet these challenges, we have drawn lessons from two African proverbs: ‘To propel a canoe forward fast, you need to paddle on both sides.’’ There is another proverb that says: A fruit cannot appear on a branch unless the branch is part of the tree.’’ This taught us to work with others, and to balance the needs of the poor and the marginalized with those of the industry as a whole. Our theme last year was: `A river has to be filled by streams.’’ Today we have to paddle our canoe on this full river. In the spirit of Africa Day, our African Union heads of state provided us with a vision. We have the passion, and our officials have the drive. We are all able, willing and ready to succeed. What do we have to show for it? I hope this speech will show that!

Government set five key focus areas to meet certain socioeconomic development objectives by 2014. We are therefore anchoring our work within this government agenda. The ICT sector has a critical role to play in achieving the goal of at least 6% growth as stated in the Accelerated Shared Growth Initiative for South Africa that the President announced earlier this year. Investment in the ICT sector is central to the Asgisa initiative, which is aimed at removing impediments to economic growth.

With regard to achieving higher rates of investment in our economy, in my speech last year, I indicated that I would be establishing a digital migration working group. I’m happy to report that the working group was indeed formed and has been doing its work. We will receive its report soon. The digital migration strategy is one of our priority areas of work that will be concluded later this year.

Work related to the frequency spectrum, including consultations within the SADC region, has advanced. Input thereon to the International Telecommunications Union was on time. Our delegation is currently in Geneva at the Regional Radiocommunications Conference deciding on these important matters. Following the allocation of funds to Sentech for the digitisation of its signal distribution network, work has started to get us ready for the roll- out of digital-ready infrastructure.

Last year, we also said that we would address the question of increasing affordable access to, and thus use of, broadband. As clearly shown by international experience, where adequate infrastructure exists, access to it is more affordable. Experience has also shown us that where adequate infrastructure is in abundance, this has been as a result of direct and deliberate government intervention, particularly so in developing countries.

We have prioritised the roll-out of broadband infrastructure in the country. In this regard, there are three focus areas, namely, the information superhighway, wireless broadband and international communication network access.

As a country, we have to ensure that the broadband backbone is robust enough to meet our socioeconomic development, business as well as the science and research needs of our country. Our work in this regard is continuing at a good pace in collaboration with the Department of Public Enterprises.

Consistent with Cabinet’s declaration that ours is a developmental state, we have decided to examine the contribution that the assets of state-owned enterprises can make to achieve affordable broadband access in our country. A policy decision on this matter will be announced soon.

In addition to the broadband backbone cable that links large business centres, there is a need for wireless broadband access, especially to rural and remote areas. Wireless broadband networks are less costly to roll out as they do not require the digging of long trenches. It is for this reason that we have decided to invest in it. We will be strengthening the policy framework that encourages more players to consider investing in wireless broadband.

The July Cabinet lekgotla last year decided that Sentech is a strategic national asset, which has important infrastructure and expertise. I therefore hereby announce two policy decisions with respect to Sentech: Firstly, Sentech will form the core of our wireless broadband infrastructure network that our country will use to advance its socioeconomic development goals, and secondly, Sentech’s wireless broadband infrastructure network will be expanded beyond the current footprint and enabled to carry voice to the end-user in the provision of this service, thus giving full effect to its multimedia licence.

Accordingly, we will be expediting the finalisation of discussions to find an appropriate funding model that takes into account the fact that Sentech provides and should continue to provide both public and commercial services. Access to international communication networks accounts for a considerable amount of the cost to communicate. There are two policy decisions I wish to announce. The first relates to the speed with which we will implement the Electronics Communications Act in this regard. The second concerns the guiding principles of our participation in the New Partnership for Africa’s Development-led broadband network project.

In accordance with the spirit of section 3(2) of the ECA, we will ensure affordable access to international broadband infrastructure. I will be consulting shortly with the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa on my intention to issue a policy directive to the Authority regarding this matter. This relates to the timeframes within which Icasa will ensure that, amongst others, all arrangements regarding access to, or use of, international cables and/or facilities do not unfairly exclude others; access to such cables and/or facilities is provided on a cost basis; and, lastly, access is duly regulated as access to essential facilities as provided for in section 43 of the new Act.

I hereby declare that as a matter of policy, all holders of licences that will qualify to be converted into individual electronic licences will have the ability to self-provide with respect to their international traffic within six months of the promulgation of the ECA.

In reaffirming our commitment to support the development of the African continent and her people, we decided to be part, and the co-initiators, of the Nepad-led initiative to build an affordable broadband network. We are working with 22 countries in Southern and Eastern Africa to build a terrestrial and submarine broadband network for our region. This project is led by the Nepad e-Africa Commission, and involves in excess of 30 African companies. The Ministers of the participating countries will be meeting in Johannesburg in two weeks’ time, on 6 and 7 June, to consider the recommendations of our Directors-General and Permanent Secretaries.

In this regard, I have taken a policy decision to support the decisions of the latter’s meeting regarding the application of open, nondiscriminatory and affordable access to these networks, and that cross-border terrestrial and submarine cable segments of these networks can be developed, owned and maintained, as appropriate, by special purpose vehicles.

The objective of this important project, which encompasses both coastal and landlocked countries, is to support regional integration and our socioeconomic objectives through providing affordable connectivity. We took the decision to participate in this project in spite of being told repeatedly that this was not commercially viable and it would not find investors. I must say that we found that quite a number of investors were interested.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank the Industrial Development Corporation for responding to the request to support the Nepad e-Africa Commission with the development of the special purpose vehicle model when no one heeded e-Africa’s request. This is indeed what our leaders envisaged when they adopted the Nepad principle that we ``should rely on Africa’s resources and the resourcefulness of its people’’.

I can only say: What an Africa Day spirit! Ningadinwa nangomso. [Do likewise even tomorrow. Thank you.]

I have instructed the director-general to invite all our mobile operators to participate in the aforementioned project should they so wish.

As a country, we need to consider innovative and bold ways of increasing the rate of broadband penetration. This would include examining principles of open and nondiscriminatory access to essential ICT infrastructure at national level. In order to assist us, I have decided to establish a Broadband Advisory Council made up of African experts of international calibre.

This Council will be chaired by Dr Victor Lawrence from Ghana. It includes Dr Henry Chasia from Kenya, Ms Aissatou Dieng from Senegal and Mr Motlhatlhedi Motlhatlhedi from Botswana. The Council will be supported by a representative task team of South African experts, to be announced soon. The advisory council will report to me with recommendations before the end of the year.

The creation of an enabling policy and regulatory framework is important for increasing competition in the ICT sector, thus reducing the cost to communicate. This is essential to increasing the competitiveness of South Africa’s economy.

In this regard, we took a decision that we would issue special policy directives aimed at accelerating the reduction of these costs. Accordingly, the department hosted two successful consultative colloquia with excellent participation by the different stakeholders in our sector. Their report contributed significantly to meeting our objective. I wish to take this opportunity to thank them. I thank my Deputy for ably championing this.

In accordance with the spirit of section 3(2) of the ECA, and to ensure affordable open access, lower prices and wider choice of access to international ICT infrastructure, I will be consulting shortly with Icasa on my intention to issue a policy directive to the Authority regarding the timeframe within which it will enable all licensees of electronic communications networks to interconnect with Telkom’s last mile network. The Department will also be consulting with Telkom on this matter.

In order to give effect to this decision without delay, I hereby appoint Dr Marwala to chair the Local Loop Unbundling Committee, whose task will be to oversee the development and implementation of our local loop unbundling process, and to make appropriate recommendations. Dr Marwala was awarded with the Order of Mapungubwe for exceptional achievement in engineering science by the President.

Open standards are important to foster a climate of convergence and technological diversity and to enable a diverse range of platforms and services that are affordable. It is government policy that open standards in the electronic communication sector be encouraged. In addition and consistent with the spirit reflected in the object of the Act, to ensure the provision of a variety of quality electronic services at reasonable prices, it is also government’s policy to support the use of diverse technologies, particularly those that promote affordable access to ICTs.

I hereby announce my intention to issue a policy directive to Icasa to facilitate the deployment of WCDMA and other cost-effective technologies, taking into account, but not being limited by, the frequency spectrum requirements for broadcasting. In this regard, priority should be accorded to the needs of underserviced area licensees or users. In this way we will indeed be paddling the canoe on both sides.

The four areas of activity that we are focusing on as a contribution to broadening participation in the economy are job creation, SMME support, skills development and universal access to ICT infrastructure and services. In advancing universal services, our focus is on increasing the ICT footprint. In addition to underserviced area licences issued by Icasa, Digital Harps will be rolled out by the universal service agency in all provinces to complement these licences.

SMMEs have proved to be the biggest contributors to economic participation globally. Taking this into account, the department decided to prioritise the development of SMME ICT support to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of business operations of SMMEs.

MTN has embarked on an ICT and rural entrepreneurship programme, which is already being implemented in five provinces. It focuses on the use of ICTs by rural women. To date 18 centres have been set up and 500 rural women have been trained. They plan to establish 50 centres and train 1 500 women. [Applause.]

There are several BEE and job creation initiatives that companies in our sector are planning. Notably, Naspers will soon launch their most ambitious empowerment deal to date through Multichoice’s biggest empowerment in the sector. I trust that this deal will significantly increase broad-based participation of black people in the media. Vodacom, on the other hand, will, in support of Asgisa, and the Johannesburg CBD renewal programme, establish a call centre in the Johannesburg city centre and this initiative will provide 1 000 jobs. The department, in partnership with other stakeholders from public and private institutions, has initiated an ICT skills development programme through further education and training colleges, aimed at increasing the number of South Africans with ICT skills.

The programme is operational in Ekhurhuleni in Gauteng, Umfolozi in KwaZulu- Natal, Orbit in North West and Capricorn in Limpopo. In collaboration with the Departments of Labour and Education, we plan to upscale it to two FETs per province by the end of 2007.

In addition, the SA Post Office is implementing just over 1 000 learnerships that will contribute to the national effort of enhancing people’s skills. And I thank them for that.

Telkom and Vodacom have continued and improved their programmes to assist in developing students in engineering and information technology, including design and maintenance, in order to expand the skills at all levels. Nemisa has also redefined its training strategy to prepare students for the new converged environment, which embraces the whole ICT sector. We thank all of these people for this commitment.

Access to information plays an important role in creating conditions for meaningful participation of people in society. I wish to take this opportunity to acknowledge the 10th anniversary of Highway Africa and the critical role it has played in this regard under the guidance of Prof Guy Berger.

A priority of government is improving the capacity of the state to deliver on its mandate. In this regard we are strengthening Icasa through the allocation of additional financial as well as human resources with the imminent increase in the number of councillors.

The ECA will open the door by creating a vista of innovative opportunities for entrepreneurs to enter into the market place. The competition landscape will be such that there will no longer be any distinction between the different types of operators. There will also be no distinction between voice, video and data. Multiple services will be delivered on common platforms.

This age of digitisation will be leveraged to provide competitive services economically, effectively and efficiently. This will result in value for money to consumers, customers, including government. To this end, the authority is already rolling up its sleeves to embark on programmes to issue new licences for electronic communication networks and electronic communication services.

We now have a better alignment of state-owned enterprise strategies with government objectives. In addition we have also developed a strategy for improving our collaboration with stakeholders in the sector.

Our challenge is to ensure that ICTs are embraced at all levels of government as a critical tool for socioeconomic development. In this regard the department will soon be launching the Intergovernmental Relations Forum on ICTs with provincial governments. This structure will facilitate a co- ordinated development of an inclusive information society in our country.

The youth have a role to play in improving the capacity of the state to deliver. I am happy to announce the e-cadre pilot programme launched by the SA Post Office this past week. This pilot programme will utilise IT graduates who have faced challenges in gaining employment to play a facilitative role as volunteers in educating the public, and where necessary, even SA Post Office staff on the use of these technologies, using the outlets of the SA Post Office.

The capacity of our department has also improved. We have three new deputy directors-general. They are sitting here. They are Mr Harry Mathabathe in finance, Dr Keith Shongwe and Dr Harold Wesso. I wish to welcome them as well as the new staff in the Ministry and my department. [Applause.] I have no doubt that the director-general and the COO are already feeling the impact of their presence. I’d like to take this opportunity to thank our former DDGs, Mr Pakamile Pongwana, Mr Joe Mjwara and Ms Phumele Ntombela-Nzimande, and those members of the South African communications forum for assisting us to lay the sound foundation, which we say we are on in order to launch into the future.

At the centre of contributing to building a better world is our commitment to supporting the African agenda, strengthening South-South co-operation, reform of institutions of global governance, strengthening bilateral relations and following up on major summits and conferences.

This year, in honour of the 30th anniversary of June 16, National Youth Day, we will be launching the Nepad e-Africa youth programme. This initiative is aimed at engaging young people from different African countries in the development of the information society on our continent.

Amongst other programmes developed by the e-Africa commission is the Nepad e-schools project in which my department and the Department of Education are participating. This African project won the accolade of “Visionary of the Year” at the intelligent community forum awards ceremony in New York in July 2005. [Applause.]

Our industry has also received a lot of recognition. The Canadian South African animated and SABC-commissioned series called Magic Cellar – I hope your children have seen it – won the highest award, the Platinum Remi award at the world’s largest video competition in Houston, Texas.

The SA Post Office has also made South Africa proud by winning the World Mail Award in the customer service category in Paris for its electronic bulk mail delivery. [Applause.] Sentech has won the African ICT Achievers Award for the most innovative ICT company in Africa. [Applause.] The branch is beginning to bear fruit, but this is so because it is part of the tree.

Next year promises to be a very busy one. Amongst other things, South Africa will host the 5th World Summit on Children in Broadcasting in 2007. I am pleased to announce that in relation to the 2010 World Cup we are on track. My Deputy will speak further on this matter. Our ICT sector people are all pulling in the same direction and carrying the flag for South Africa in the technology sphere. Possibly the most exciting technical development recently is the current Multichoice Digital Video Broadcasting- Handheld test worked at in collaboration with the SABC, Sentech and our cellular companies.

South Africa will be one of the few countries in the world where every game of the 2006 World Cup will be shown, using DVB-H technology. South Africa, together with Finland, Germany, Italy and France, are all in the trial stage and this cutting edge technology has yet to be commercially launched anywhere in the world. South Africa is therefore showcasing the technologies of tomorrow – today.

I hope developments like these have put paid to the doubts of those Afro- pessimists who were suggesting that South Africa might not be ready for

1. I am not only confident that we will meet the requirements for 2010; I suspect we might even exceed them. [Applause.]

The Presidential International Advisory Council on the Information Society and Development has been instrumental in keeping us abreast of international trends and advising us on best practice. I would like to thank them and hope that they will recognise their own contribution in our actions.

Some of their recommendations will be reflected in the national ISAD plan being prepared by the Presidential National Commission on the Information Society and Development for presentation to the Cabinet.

I wish to reiterate that the Department of Communications recognises its responsibilities in this emerging era and is committed to positioning South Africa and its people in a proactive way to meet the challenges of a globalising world. I therefore ask you to pass this Vote and allow us to take our country to even higher heights.

I would like to thank the portfolio and select committees of Parliament for the role that they have played in the development of the sector and their continued support, as we put forth our documents within the parliamentary processes. The past year has been particularly challenging with regards to the two Bills, the ECA and Icasa Amendment Bill.

I’d like to pay special tribute to the MEC of Social Development in Gauteng, our former and very able chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Communications, Mr Kgaogelo Lekgoro. I hope he is in the House. We thank him and wish him well in his new job. To many others who have left us, we also say: Siyabonga. [Thank you.]

I’d also like to thank my Deputy Minister most sincerely for the manner in which we have co-operated to improve our department’s responsiveness to the ICT needs of our society, in particular for driving the processes to reduce the cost to communicate and for championing legislation through Parliament.

To Ms Lyndall Shope-Mafole, the director-general, I thank her most sincerely. She has been a beacon of strength and courage. She has demonstrated strategic leadership, not only to the department but to the sector as a whole and to the continent. I say: Kea leboha. [Thank you.] An organisation is only as strong and as powerful as its people: Re leboha [Thank you] to Team DoC. Thank you. [Applause.] Mr G G OLIPHANT: Chairpersons, hon members, friends, colleagues, comrades and members of the industry who are here, later on today or this evening we will bid farewell to the former Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Communications, Comrade Kgaogelo Lekgoro who is now the MEC for social development in Gauteng. [Applause.] Thank you. We wish him well in his new deployment, which is nearer home, and his family.

Comrade Lekgoro leaves behind a legacy of hard work, dedication, commitment and absolute tolerance for divergent views in the vibrant portfolio committee process. Our loss here in Parliament is a huge gain for the Gauteng provincial executive council.

Let me also take this opportunity to thank those committee members and staff who heeded the call to bring a girl-child to work today; and to welcome all the girls who have come to Parliament and elsewhere; and also for their company throughout the day, their valuable time and keen interest they have shown in what we do. We hope that our activities today will influence your future career decisions. We also thank Cell-C for their initiative in this regard.

Today, comrades, the 25th of May, is Africa Day, the significance of which we debated in this Chamber this morning. Most countries in the continent have accorded this day the respect it deserves by declaring it a public holiday. Although we in South Africa may not have declared this a public holiday, we join our brothers and sisters across the continent in celebrating this day. We need to find more creative ways of participating in the celebration of this very important day in the diary to enhance African solidarity. The debate in the House today was one example of such creativity and we are grateful.

Today, as we debate the Budget Vote on Communications, the National Union of Mineworkers, which is the biggest trade union within Cosatu, the biggest miners union in Africa, is also having its national congress to map out their strategies in this sector. We wish them well in their deliberations.

Coming back to this sector, the information and communication technology sector is a multibillion rand dynamic and vibrant sector, which continues to grow in leaps and bounds, under the favourable policy conditions created by the ANC government. Over the past decade, our country has experienced remarkable policies, policy directives and a regulatory framework which sought to enhance socioeconomic development by promoting a high quality of multimedia services which are fully competitive, affordable and lead to consumer satisfaction.

Some of the challenges in this sector include, amongst others, lowering the cost of communication; providing universal service and access to those in rural areas, especially the poor; providing adequate funding for infrastructure roll-out and closing the digital divide that still engulfs our country, more specifically in government; and skills development, skills development and skills development. Attracting new skills and retaining those skills inside the country is presently a more challenging and critical issue.

I am pleased to state that our country has recorded remarkable progress in ensuring sustainable development of this sector over the past 10 years. We have moved away from the old “poskantoor, draadloos en koerant mentaliteit” [post office, wireless and newspaper mentality] to New Age postal services, advanced telephony, multichannel television and computers with Internet services.

Presently, the SA Post Office is in a position to provide services such as the one-stop shop for government information, transactions and services; a financial services centre enabling citizens in rural and urban areas to transact safely and efficiently; a preferred authentication services provider facilitating electronic communications and transactions for government.

Now that we are at the crossroads of a convergent environment, the SA Post Office has enhanced its basic services such as postage stamps, letter and courier services and continues to expand its services. They are indeed moving with the times. Our communities today can go to the post office to access services such as banking facilities, public internet, collection of ID documents, motor licence renewals, registration services and social grants services through the biometric system.

Telkom has played and continues to play a pivotal role in the development of fixed-line telephone services in the country. [Interjections.] Somebody is complaining about the price. Now, with the recent licensing of the second national operator, we can only envisage that there will be economic growth and competition, affordable and better services, more jobs and skills development, infrastructure roll-out, and an advance in universal service and access.

The roll-out of computers to schools, the multipurpose community centres, post offices, workplaces and some homes, has made it possible for our people to communicate effectively, conveniently and expeditiously. At some point last year we were informed that several companies planned to roll out computers and laptops, an initiative that we welcome. We intend to have further discussions with the companies concerned in order to ensure that we are kept abreast of developments in this area and to encourage them to continue with the good work.

We wish to congratulate the SABC on the excellent manner in which they kept the country informed during the past local government elections. They are indeed the storyteller of the nation and deserve a round of applause. [Applause.] The SA Yearbook, the recent edition, gives an impressive historical overview of the evolution of broadcasting services in South Africa. For example, the first radio broadcast in South Africa took place under the auspices of the SA Railways in the 1920s. The SABC is now a fully-fledged public broadcaster. In 2005, Madam Sheila, the SABC national radio network comprised 15 public broadcast radio stations and three commercial radio stations, broadcasting in 11 official languages with an average daily reach of about 20 million adult listeners. Is that not impressive? [Applause.] [Interjections.]

Regarding TV, the SABC comprises three free-to-air channels and one satellite pay-TV channel that has audiences in Africa. There are more that 4 million licensed TV households in South Africa. We have the largest television audience on the continent and my colleagues will elaborate more on this subject and other important achievements.

Resources have been committed in this budget to ensure that SABC 4 and SABC 5 become operational as soon as possible. We are further encouraged by the progress made with Sentech, Nemisa, Siemens and other stakeholders to develop a multichannel strategy that should result in the delivery of more services to the citizenry.

The 2010 World Cup broadcasting capacity remains a major challenge for the SABC and other television channels. Soccer-loving people in our country, in the continent and the world expect the best from you and we will have no room for disappointment. We can only wish you well.

Regarding mobile telephones, the mobile operators are contributing handsomely to the socioeconomic development of this country through their community service telephones. The coverage for the mobiles operating in the country is very remarkable, for instance Vodacom has 20 million subscribers, Cell-C has 3,2 million subscribers and MTN has 10,3 million subscribers.

South Africa presently has 4 million Internet subscribers, which is an improvement compared to the price of broadband in the country. We have average usage of the service in the country. Industry, government and other stakeholders need to encourage utilisation of this efficient tool.

The committee will be conducting hearings on issues of convergence in the Internet industry, such as Internet protocol telephony and Internet protocol telephony networks. We will also be engaging government in these discussions. South Africa must have Internet protocol telephony by 2010. Government IT officers should look at the best electronic communications legislation in the region, if not the best in the world, to advance government services for our people.

Icasa has recorded many successes in this dynamic environment. There are still many challenges ahead, which call for more capital and human resources from government. The Minister has already referred to some of the allocations that have been committed to this body. The Electronic Communications Act and the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa Amendment Bill are important instruments to take us into this new environment we have been speaking about. For example, Newsbreak 082152, a news-by-telephone service, is one such excellent example. Many more exciting multiple-platform services are in the offing; watch this space.

More resources are needed, Minister, to ensure that Icasa is able to retain capable staff in order to regulate effectively in the convergence environment. More resources are also needed for streamlining our state- owned enterprises like Telkom, the SA Post Office, Sentech, the SABC, Nemisa and our Icasa. We are satisfied that the MTEF provides for adequate funding and scope for service delivery, job-creation and poverty reduction. More co-ordination is needed though to ensure that we communicate our South African message of hope and a better life for all in a country with encouraging possibilities.

Regarding the international front, the Department of Communications’ vision is to become a global leader in harnessing ICTs for socioeconomic development. Their track record in the country and elsewhere in the world proves that they are indeed equal to the task and need to be congratulated.

According to the third Press Freedom Index by Reporters Without Borders, released on World Press Freedom Day on 3 May 2005, South Africa ranked 26th in the world, coming ahead of countries such as the UK, Greece, Italy, Spain, Australia and Japan. South Africa, as a member of the International Telecommunications Union, has been active in its reform through, for instance, chairing its restructuring committee, and the list is endless. The Minister has already alluded to some of the achievements that we have made as a country, internationally.

Let me conclude by saying that on Tuesday we finalised, concluded, completed and finished the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa Amendment Bill deliberations. The report to that effect will soon be tabled.

I want to thank all members of the portfolio committee, the department, the press and everybody who participated in those vibrant deliberations. In particular, we are very thankful to our Presidency for applying its mind on this matter and proving to all and sundry that our young democracy rests on solid foundations.

The executive, the judiciary and legislature are becoming stronger and stronger than ever before. This young democracy, our democracy, is intact. With the wheel, the shield and the spear on the one hand, and the black, green and gold colours on the other, the ANC supports this Budget Vote. Ke a leboga. [I thank you.] [Applause.]

Ms M SMUTS: Sir, this should have been the Minister’s moment: the Electronic Communications Act would have been seen as her monument. The reason why it is not so, although she has made dramatic strides here today – dramatic towards ascending the pedestal - is that she has proved unable to let go of the idea of executive control of telecommunications.

She takes this position, despite, or perhaps because of, the fact that the two new communications laws have once and for all, as a result of convergence, done away with the differing levels of ministerial involvement that existed under the old Telecommunications Act, on the one side, and the old broadcasting laws, on the other.

For these 10 years, first Satra and then Icasa needed her concurrence before their proposed regulations could be gazetted. By contrast, the old IBA was an autonomous regulator and did a far finer job governing the broadcast sector and freeing up the airwaves than Satra or Icasa were ever allowed to do to date.

I wonder sometimes, when there is such pressure on pricing from a government concerned about the cost of doing business and rightly so, whether the hon Minister reflects on how much - not all of it - of the current trouble she could have avoided if she had not blocked Mandla Langa’s Icasa from reducing Telkom’s tariffs under the price-cap regime after the tariff-setting power passed from her to the regulator. I think we could have avoided a lot of the trouble.

But, of course, she inherited a previous Minister’s undertakings. She has my sympathy; we have discussed this matter before. The clear lesson that emerges is that independent regulators are there for a good reason and they must be allowed to regulate in the public interest. Those tariffs should have dropped in 2001, as Icasa wanted. This is because monopoly pricing power results in inefficient markets and, in the case of industries like this one that serve to create inputs to other industries, this will inevitably result in increased costs of doing business.

Now Icasa, under the new laws, will regulate the full, converged field of electronic communications, free of executive concurrence and control, and only the objects of the Act bind its regulation. This is as it should be.

There is a demonstrable conflict of interests when Ministries, which drive and conclude the licensing deals that bring in the strategic equity partners, then remain shareholding managers as in the case of Telkom, and/or remain concurrent regulation makers as with the SNO Telecommunications until the ECA is in force, or which, in any other way such as controlling the appointment and performance of regulators, exert direct or indirect influence on the market. There is a demonstrable conflict of interest.

Now Thintana was former Minister Jay Naidoo’s baby. The Second National Operator Telecommunications is the present Minister’s very own baby. She took over the licensing under a section that was written very badly – not by me – to allow spectrum and cell licences to be either auctioned or issued under the traditional beauty contest model.

She was, frankly, ultra vires when she gave shareholdings to two beauties whom Icasa had twice declared too ugly to participate. I said so at the time, but South Africa was so desperate for a competitor for Telkom by then that any protest petered out and everyone was plainly relieved to have Tata and the SNO.

But let’s be clear: the need for independent regulation therefore increases because of the role the Minister has played with the SNO. And it just beats me - I place it on record - that the department tried before the Constitutional Review Committee to take the “I” out of Icasa again, in so many words. We flatly refused any such thing in this committee last year when we started on the Icasa Bill and when it was also proposed. Now the executive - the Minister - appears to be trying another avenue, and setting her face against the President’s letter to Parliament on top of it. Let me just say this one thing: If the hon Minister does not appreciate the gravity of this matter then we have a problem, and it is a constitutional problem.

There is plenty of scope for the Minister in her policy-making powers and even in the now reduced policy-direction-giving powers under the ECA, our new law. She now has the role that she should have been playing to date. Indeed, the string of announcements made today demonstrates that scope. It demonstrates the scope available to her without intruding or trying to take control.

We will want to digest and study her announcements. What a speech, Minister! But let me say that the whole sector, all consumers, will cheer her on in creating cost-based access to essential services like the existing undersea cables under the new ECA, likewise for her intention, through Icasa, to trigger a timeframe for creating shared access to the local loop.

I am pleased also to have fuller information on the thinking behind Sentech’s wireless broadband roll-out, although the impact of that roll-out on the new market structure created under the ECA still needs to be thought through. I am very pleased to have the fuller information and argumentation.

When we concluded the Electronic Communications Act here last year, I said that it was presented to the House as much by the DA as the ANC. With the exception of those sections and chapters - they are few - to which we objected, as well as areas which require a rethink, I am happy to help defend the ECA against those voices now rising with assorted warnings, dire and otherwise. The voices come, not surprisingly, from big operators. They come, more surprisingly, from competition authority people, whom we after all invited into our legislative process.

I would like to say that we still believe that telecoms must eventually be regulated on competition issues by the Competition Commission, but we are persuaded that it will be a long time before our dominant telco can be kept in check just by ex post penalties. They come too late, when damage has been done.

It is typical of telecoms anywhere that there is a dominant original natural monopoly operator that has more information than the regulator. It is typical of duopoly models, the one we have been pursuing until now, that they do not compete on pricing. And that is why we need an independent regulator to oversee pricing where appropriate, to police and enforce access to existing networks, especially now that we have opened up the market.

Icasa has been given a set of tools, economic and legal, to restrain dominance, on the one side, and to open up the markets, on the other. It is my view that communications in South Africa will stand or fall on the success or failure of Icasa’s implementation of these powers. If this flops, then we might as well declare communications an open commercial contest and let the Competition Commission catch them, if and when it can, after the fact. And very good luck to them, because there will be collusion, cartels, price-fixing, and so forth that will follow.

Icasa would then be reduced to making frequency plans, policing for frequency interference and licensing out spectrum. The message I am trying to convey is that if we don’t look after Icasa now, we might as well start reducing its role. The thing to reflect upon is that there would then really be no role, whatsoever, left for the hon Minister. Thank you. [Applause.]

Ms M R MORUTOA: Hon Chairperson, hon Ministers, hon members of Parliament, members of the public, I greet you all. Sometimes I really wish I was thirty years younger. [Interjections.] I’ll tell you why.

Ms M SMUTS: [Inaudible.]

Ms M R MORUTOA: Yes, exactly to deal with you, Dene. This Budget Vote has confirmed to me that the wise words from the President’s state of the nation address, namely “that today is better than yesterday, and we are confident that tomorrow will be better than today”, are definitely true and they do relate to the state of the nation at present. This reminds me of my background as a child who grew up in a rural area, at a place called Kubusi, in a small town called Stutterheim in the Eastern Cape. Men in this area migrated to the cities, to places such as Johannesburg and other towns in the Free State where there were mines. If anything happened within the family their wives were left with no other option but to travel for more than 10 kilometres to send a telegraphic message, which they were not even sure would reach the particular person it was intended for. The message could even reach that person a month or more later.

This is how poor communication was during those years for people who were disadvantaged. I hope you take note of that, Dene.

This makes me wonder, every time I speak about communication, how the ANC managed to be established as early as 1912 and was able to communicate its messages successfully to become such a huge organisation.

This year we are celebrating the 50th anniversary of the women’s march to Pretoria. Just recently we celebrated the Freedom Charter in Kliptown. I’m mentioning these celebrations precisely because the success of these historical events was an indication of how the people of South Africa managed to communicate in the face of the oppression they experienced under the apartheid regime. [Applause.]

We all know that during those days there was no freedom of speech and no open lines of communication. This is the reason why when the ANC came to power the Cabinet committed itself to promoting the communication sector.

In February 1996 the South African Cabinet committed itself to the implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action, which since then has become an instrument of note in the advancement of women in the communication sector.

The Department of Communication accepted a gender equity policy for the broadcasting, telecommunications and postal sectors in order to give effect to issues of gender perspective in all policies and programmes of the South African government.

This was driven by the notion that women should be able to participate in the telecommunications-driven information society on an equitable basis. It was also resolved that the gender focus be placed on recruitment, training and operational policies and practices in the ICT sector.

Dene, ungandibophi ulwimi ndingakwazi ukuthetha. [Kwahlekwa.] [Dene, please do not cut my tongue so that I may not be able to speak again. [Laughter.]]

The department then took a conscious decision to improve the standard of living and status of women in its employment in order to create a representative sector reflective of South Africa’s demographics, and to reduce gender inequalities with regard to access to and control over the resources and benefits of deployment.

While I’m appreciative of what the department has done, a question arises when I go through the savings indicated on Budget Vote 26: Communications. I need someone to explain to me the reason for delays in most of the programmes initiated to improve the quality of life of disadvantaged people, especially those in the rural areas and some in urban areas, result in savings.

This becomes questionable because the utilisation of those savings does not focus on continuation of the programmes that the money was initially meant for.

One of the gender implications of the Accelerated Shared Growth Initiative for SA, popularly known as Asgisa, is that unemployment is coupled with the fact that amongst the ranks of those who are unemployed there is a great disparity and inequity in how people are remunerated. This problem has gender dimensions to it in that it is often women who are allocated low- paying jobs.

The following tells us how the ANC-led government has always been passionate about improving the lives of the poor, mainly women in the rural areas. The Department of Communications conducted a gender audit in support of previously mentioned endeavours. The findings of the audit were used as a guideline for the sector’s gender equity policy.

On the occasion of the National Women’s Day celebrations in South Africa House in London on 7 August 2002 … Niyangxola. [You are making noise.] … the Minister of Communications observed that: At present parastatals in South Africa have a large number of women serving on boards. I can mention here several parastatals that are led by women. For instance, chairpersons of Telkom and the SA Post Office, Sapo, the CEO of Sentech are women. Forty- three percent of staff serving in the Independent Communications Authority of SA, Icasa, are women.

HON MEMBERS: Malibongwe! [Praise!] [Applause.]

Ms M R MORUTOA: The aforementioned appointment of women to senior positions in the communications sector does give rise to the question of women in training in this important sector. Therefore, there is a dire need for more money to be allocated in the area of training of our young women.

This necessitates that one thanks Cell-C for their campaign of taking a girl-child to work. I know that the Department of Communications has taken a significant step by involving young women in the ICT sector through training programmes offered at Nemisa and the Institute for Software & Satellite Applications.

This information needs to be disseminated down to the people on the ground by us, members of Parliament, when doing our constituency work.

Siyavuya kakhulu ngomsebenzi owenziwa liSebe loNxibelelwano, wokuphucula impilo yoomama emakhaya. Enye into indlela yonxibelelwano izisa inxaxheba ebantwini, ngakumbi koomama abanamashishini amancinci anjengeevenkile ezaziwa njengezpaza, apho kuthengiswa amakhadi eeselfoni, nakwabanye abathengisi, ngokuvula ushishino lweemfonomfono ezikoneni zezitalato ezidolophini nasezilokishini. Kodwa yonke le nto iyacotha ezilalini.

Simvile ke noMphathiswa uEssop Pahad kule veki igqithileyo esixelela ngokwanda kwaMaziko oLuntu aSetyenziselwa iZinto ezaHlukileyo, ii- Multipurpose Community Centres. Abaluleke kakhulu ke la maziko eluntwini ngenxa yokuba abonelela ngolwazi ngezinto ezenziwa ngurhulumente ukuphucula impilo yabantu. Mandenze umzekelo. Xa ufuna ipasi, uyakwazi ukulufumana uncedo kula maziko. Nabantu abafuna ukuchazelwa ngezinto ezinxulumene nezentlalontle bayavuna apha kula maziko.

La maziko anazo neekhompyuta ezinganceda abantwana nabantu abafuna ukuchwetheza amaxwebhu aqulathe imbali ngezifundo zabo namava ngokwengqesho. Iyaziwa into yokuba abantwana bethu abanazo iikhompyuta emakhaya. Ayanceda ke la maziko ukuze bakwazi ukuthumela amaxwebhu abo aqulathe imbali ngezifundo zabo namva ngokwengqesho kwiindawo abafuna imisebenzi kuyo.

Ndifuna ukuyala abantu abanamashishini athengisa amakhadi omoya weeselfoni ukuba bangahendwa ngabantu abafana naba bebebhale kwiphephandaba i-City Press kule Cawe igqithileyo, besithi urhulumente ufuna ukubenza amahlwempu xa eza nomthetho onxulumene neeselfoni oza kuphucula uphuhliso lwamashishini abo. Lo Mthetho, obizwa ngokuba yi-Regulation of Interception of Communication and Provision of Communication-related Information Act, wenzelwe ukuba kubekho ulawulo kwimalike yamakhadi omoya weeselfoni noweefowuni. Kuthiwa abantu abathenga la makhadi mabazichaze ukuba bangoobani na. Kufuneka iinombolo zabo zezazisi qha, hayi enye into. Enkosi kakhulu. [Laphela ixesha.] (Translation of isiXhosa paragraphs follows.)

[We appreciate the work done by the Department of Communications, which seeks to better the lives of women in rural areas. This way, people, particularly women who have small businesses like spaza shops that also sell cell phone cards and others involved in the telecommunications business who run their businesses from the side of the street in the city, will have easy access to information that is vital for their businesses. But all this takes time to reach rural areas. We heard Minister Essop Pahad when he talked about multi-purpose community centres last week. These centres are very important because they provide information to people about government’s development programmes, which are aimed at improving people’s lives. For instance, if someone needs an identity document, these centres can assist in that regard. People can also receive certain information that they require about welfare and social services from them.

There are also computer laboratories that children and older people can use to type information about the history of their education as well as their CVs. It is a known fact that most of our children do not have access to computers, especially at home. This kind of access will enable them then to send their CVs to places of employment when they seek employment.

I would like to caution people who are in the commercial business of cell phone cards not to be influenced by an article that appeared in last Sunday’s City Press, which reported that the government seeks to drive them to poverty with its introduction of the Regulation of Interception of Communication and Provision of Communication-related Information Act. The aim of the Act is to regulate the cell phone cards market. It only requires people to identify themselves. It is only their identity numbers that are needed, and nothing else. Thank you. [Time expired.]]

Ms S C VOS: Chairperson, it is obvious that given the minutes that the IFP has at its disposal we cannot interrogate this Budget Vote exhaustively, but merely highlight the areas of which we believe mention needs to be made.

In response to the announcement you’ve made today, Minister, well done and wow! It really is your best ever budget, an action woman. And who would’ve thought that you have a member of the IFP here acting as your personal imbongi. [Applause.]

Of course, there is much that needs to be said about the department, about the Independent Communications Authority – Icasa; Sentech; the SABC; the Post Office; the second national operator - SNO; the Universal Service Agency; Nemisa and, crucially, policy formulation. And it is excellent work that is clearly being done and this is why the IFP will support this budget, and especially after today’s dramatic developments.

The urgent need for aggressive consumer protection throughout the communications sector, accelerated competition and upgrading and roll-out of national infrastructure are, once more, at the top of the list of concerns for the IFP. Luckily, they are concerns shared by the department.

So, Minister, we’re sorry to have to now move from positive to negative, and highlight the events of this week when, once again, you – we assume – through your director-general and the compliant ANC majority in the portfolio committee signalled government’s intention to, in effect, control the selection, removal and performance appraisal of Icasa councillors.

Many have hopes, and some have very high hopes, that the Electronic Communications Act will rapidly liberalise South Africa’s communications landscape for the better. Much, we have always known, will depend on the capacity of Icasa and the ability of Icasa councillors to apply their minds in terms of this Act and, indeed, the Constitution of the Republic expertly and, crucially, independently.

Unfortunately, we must now dispel ourselves of any illusion that the regulator will be able to act entirely independently of government, and the Minister of Communications and by extension the party-political control of the ANC majority.

The die has long been cast, when it appears that government’s intention has always been to exert an iron grip on the regulator and its councillors who operate in an environment in which the Minister has an open conflict of interests and a shareholding in some of the dominant players in both the telecommunications and broadcasting sectors. The IFP will obviously have more to say on this matter when the redrafted Icasa Amendment Bill, once again, returns to this House next week. And, of course, it will be approved by the ANC majority, like its predecessor, which was mercifully rejected by the President.

However, the IFP wishes to record in this debate that the means by which the department recently manoeuvred to overturn decisions of this House, and instead effect changes to its liking in the NCOP relating to the Icasa Amendment Bill, and specifically the powers of the Minister over Icasa councillors, were nothing short of disgraceful and, as it turned out for the department, embarrassing.

It is a memorable day when a member of this House has to thank the President, and by extension the executive arm of government, for exercising oversight over Parliament, memorable too when one hears Mr Oliphant also thanking the President for doing so. The fact that the Icasa Amendment Bill was sent back to this House for redrafting is a ringing tribute to our fledgling democracy and something about which we can all be very proud, notwithstanding the outcome this week, in which the Minister has gotten what she wanted, again, but this time skirting by a hair’s breadth the tricky issue of constitutionality.

One wonders how Icasa will ever manage to exercise its authority in the rates regime arena with the Minister a Telkom shareholder. However, to be fair, Minister, your announcement with regard to the local loop today cannot have champagne corks popping in the corridors of Telkom this afternoon. This is really, simply, a fabulous development.

The success of cellular uptake throughout South Africa has a mirror side. We all know the tragedy of the majority of citizens not being able to afford fixed line telephony and in particular access to the Internet. This comes at a time when government has put the acquisition and utilisation of knowledge at the forefront of nation-building. As Telkom continues to record massive profits, for the time being at least, we wish the SNO Godspeed in its uptake and outreach.

The negative impact on our learners of being cut off from the Internet and all that it offers, and their hampered ability to compete in a global knowledge-based world has to be devastating. The IFP therefore fully supports Sentech receiving in this tranche some of the funding it requires to help it start upgrading its tired and outdated infrastructure, and the announcement, Minister, that you’ve made today regarding Sentech is another major development, which we fully support. This investment will enable, as you have so clearly pointed out, enhanced wireless connectivity and could finally enable cheap and reliable universal access for citizens in both urban and rural areas, and especially to our learners. Your wireless broadband announcements are also applauded and welcomed.

Now, once again, the praise singing continues, but it is a pity that the issue of Icasa and its independence has yet again, from our perspective, somewhat overshadowed much of the outstanding work of this department and all of its multifaceted components.

With the little time left we have to salute the Post Office for its remarkable turnaround and, in particular, Post Bank for what appears to be the huge success of its low-cost banking product.

Once again, Minister, the IFP supports this budget and especially the important announcements you’ve made today, which we look forward to being able to interrogate more thoroughly. Thank you. [Applause.]

uMnu S E KHOLWANE: Somlomo, tiNdvuna nemaSekela ato, malunga eSishayamtsetfo, baholi beTelitiko leTekutsintsana, baholi betimboni kulomkhakha wetekutsintsana kanye nabo bonkhe labasivakashele lamuhla, ngingakayicali inkhulumo-mphikiswano yami ngiyatsandza kuhalalisela lona wekunene labenguSihlalo weLikomiti leTekutsintsana longangaMnu Kgaogelo Lekgoro emsebentini wakhe lomusha. Sitsi ndlela-nhle, babe. Chubeka usebentele sive. [Tandla.] (Translation of Siswati paragraph follows.)

[Mr S E KHOLWANE: Chairperson, Ministers and Deputy Ministers, members of the National Assembly, all leaders in the Department of Communications, leaders of industries in the sector and distinguished guests, before I enter into this debate, I would like to congratulate the hon member Mr Kgaogelo Lekgoro, who was the Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Communications. We wish you well in your new position and hope that you will go on to serve this nation with continued fervour. [Applause.]]

Chairperson, at our 51st national congress in Stellenbosch in 2002 it was noted without any doubt that communication plays a major role in deepening our democracy. It promotes a culture of human rights as advocated in the Freedom Charter that was adopted at the Congress of the People at Kliptown on 26 June 1955. I so wish, hon Morutoa, that I was born at that time because you said that you wished to be 30 years old and I also wish to be that old.

As a key pillar in the transformation of our country as a developing state, it is also understood that central to Parliament’s processes is engagement with the public and this budget debate forms part of those processes. Therefore, the resolution of dedicating parliamentary radio and TV channels, that we took some years ago in Stellenbosch, should be established to increase access to information by the people in general, particularly the poor, was an informed decision.

In my view, there is no doubt that it is shared by the majority of our people. This resolution remains more relevant today than it was then. This is because, presently, the only TV channel dedicated to parliamentary proceedings is through subscription. As much as we understand that the SABC command a lot of support or viewers in terms of TV, in the same vein we should remember that there are still millions of our fellow South Africans who cannot access both TV and radio channels which are provided by the SABC. Unfortunately those people happen to be poor and cannot afford even to subscribe.

However, we believe that the research that will be conducted by the universal service agent on the definition of universal services and service and access in terms of the broadcasting environment as detected by the Electronic Communication Bill will be instrumental in ensuring that in the future all our people do participate in these public debates in particular.

We should also note the development that SABC’s terrestrial TV channels have devoted about 17% of their time during prime time to news and news related programmes. I think that has been a major achievement. [Applause.]

Ngalesikhatsi Mengameli Welive etfula inkhulumo yakhe esiveni, mhla titintsatfu kuNdlovana kulomnyaka losetulu watsi: Sive sonkhana sesingene esigabeni selitsemba, njengaloku sisho kutsi lamuhla sekuncono kunayitolo.

Kugcizelela kuloku, ase ngente umzekeliso ngendzawo letfolakala lapha ngasemphumalanga neNaspoti, lekutsiwa yiMatsulu. Kuleminyaka leyendlulile yakhelwa liposi, kodvwa intfo lebuhlungu kutsi alizange selichunyaniswe nebuchakachaka betekutsintsana. (The post office was not online.)Loko kwabengela kutsi leliposi libe lekuposa nekutfola tincwadzi nje kuphela. Loko kwawugongonya kakhulu umphakatsi waseMatsulu.

Kodvwa lamuhla ngenca yebuholi kanye nekutimisela kwakho Ndvuna, kanye nebuholi betemaposi nikwente kwaciniseka kwekutsi imiphakatsi lebeyisesimeni lesifanana nalena yaseMatsulu ikwati kwekutsi igcine seyitfola inzuzo ebuchakachakeni betekutsintsana ngendlela lefanelekile.

Loku kuniketa imiphakatsi lefanana nalena yaseBhushbuckridge, eXimungwe kanye naleminye imiphakatsi kwekutsi ngalelinye lilanga nabo bayawuchunyaniswa nalobuchakachaka. Njengobe sisho setfu tsine maSwati sitsi; akuvelwa kanyekanye kungesiwo emadlebe embongolo.

Ngenca yekutsi emagatja emaposi atsite citsi saka nalo lonkhe lelive njengaloku alinganiselwa eti 2 000, loko kwenta kutsi kube lula kakhulu kubantfu, ikakhulu labatfolakala esigabeni sesibili kutemnotfo, batfole lusito dvutane kusukela ebuchakachakeni kuye kutetimali njengaloku sati kutsi bantfu labanyenti sebavule boMzansi Akhawunti emaposini. (Translation of Siswati paragraphs follows.)

[When the President delivered his state of the nation address on 3 February 2006, he said: “…our country has entered its Age of Hope… today is better than yesterday …”

To emphasise this, I would like to make an example of a place that lies in the eastern part of Nelspruit, called Matsulu. In the past few years a new post office was built but it did not receive an Internet connection. This resulted in the post office being used to send and to receive mail only. This proved to be a problem for the people of Matsulu.

Today, because of your leadership and dedication, Minister, working with the heads of the post office you have made it possible, for other areas that were in a similar position as that in Matsulu, to receive Internet connections.

This has given communities such as the one in Bushbuckridge, in Ximungwe and other communities hope that they too will one day be connected to the Internet. As the saying goes, Rome was not built in a day.

The fact that post office branches that have been built around the country today are estimated at 2 000, makes it easier, especially for those in the second economy, to have access to the Internet for all, including financial purposes. As we all know many people have opened the Mzansi account that is now available at the post office.] Last week, when the President was responding to questions in the House, he made mention that sometimes the mere fact that we have these technologies or infrastructure does not address our problems which we are facing as a country. Indeed, I agree with that assertion made by the President, because as long as people are unable to utilise those technologies, those facilities become useless to that particular community.

We appreciate the fact that in most of our post offices, public Internet terminals have been installed. However, we should register a concern that most of the personnel in the post offices are not in a position to operate these technologies.

The question that we should be asking ourselves is what more should be done about the communities. Are these technologies utilised optimum? If the answer is no, then what should be done? I am glad because the Minister, in her address, indicated that Sapo has engaged in the ICADA programme. That programme precisely will ensure that those graduates go and educate the public on how to use these technologies and facilities.

Ngalesikhatsi sisaye ekhefini njengeSishayamtsetfo, ngike ngavakashela emaposini ngacondzanisa ngco nangesikhatsi bantfu labadzala labahola ngaso imali yabo yempenisheli kanye nalabanye labatfola imali yetondlo nalokunye. Nangibutabuta batsi, impela lamuhla sekuncono kunayitolo. Abasafoli emalayinini kuze batfole impenisheli yabo. [Tandla.] Baya nome ngunini eposini bayewutfola timali tabo. Nangabe loko kungesiyo inchubekela embili kusho kutsi angiyati-ke inchubekela embili kutsi iyini. (Translation of Siswati paragraph follows.)

[Just as we were on break, as the National Assembly, I visited the post office. It was exactly at the time when senior citizens were receiving their pension payouts, and others, the child grants. When I asked around, people said today is indeed better than yesterday - when they had to wait in long queues to get their payouts. [Applause.] They said, they could now go to the post office at any time and still receive the money. If this is not progress than I don’t know what is!]

Furthermore, I appreciate the fact that the department has allocated more money in terms of programme 6, which addresses finance and shareholder management. Indeed we should strengthen that programme so that the department is able to ensure that we monitor the shares that we have in these public entities. We would particularly be able to influence their decision to ensure that those decisions benefit our people in general.

On 5 September 1998, His Excellency Dr Fidel Castro, better known as the President of Cuba, in his address at the Hector Peterson memorial service in Soweto said, that victory is not only achieved with arms, it is also achieved many times without arms. I don’t practise the philosophy of Mahatma Gandhi, but history has shown that many and great battles have been won fundamentally with ideas. That is why I always say the first thing is the idea, the second is the struggle for ideas and the third is to triumph with sweat and blood if necessary for those ideas to be achieved. [Applause.]

It is precisely for that reason that on 16 June this year, we will be celebrating the 30th anniversary of the 1976 student uprising. Who were these students? Why did the then regime kill them? What crime did they commit to be murdered? Which ideas were they defending?

I don’t doubt in my mind that these students were defending a feeling with which we were all born - everyone without exception - and that is a sense of human dignity. Indeed those students were sacrificed for that dignity.

Before I close, there is a problem here. Maybe we must embark on an education process. Someone here was saying that the letter was referred by the President to the Minister. That is not correct. The letter was referred, in particular, to the Speaker of Parliament, so that we in the Portfolio Committee on Communications could deal with the matter so raised.

We must set that record straight. I am not sure what the Minister has done to the hon Smuts. She hates the Minister. I don’t know why. Maybe you should slaughter for your ancestors, Minister. [Interjections.]

The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON (Mr G Q M Doidge): Order! Please take your seat, hon member.

Ms M SMUTS: Would you allow me to object please? It can’t possibly be parliamentary - it is flatly incorrect in any case - but it can’t possibly be parliamentary to suggest that one member hates a Minister, when that member has granted her objections on the Constitution itself. [Interjections.]

Mr S E KHOLWANE: I will withdraw. [Interjections.]

The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON (Mr G Q M Doidge): Thank you. [Interjections.]

Mr S E KHOLWANE: But there is bad blood between the hon member and the Minister. [Applause.] [Laughter.] You see, Chairperson, the problem is that they say the ANC has bulldozed the amendments in terms of this Bill. Unfortunately, we did not. It’s because the majority rule – the majority of our people have voted the ANC into power. We would be failing our people if we did not pursue our objectives. So, I suggest that you go for a campaign too so that you can get majority votes and then you can also bulldoze your ideas through. The ANC supports the Budget Vote. [Interjections.] The department has nothing to do with the portfolio committee work. [Interjections.]

Mr W P DOMAN: The President overruled the majority here.

Mr S E KHOLWANE: The President did not overrule the majority. Thank you, Mr Doman. [Time expired.] [Laughter.]

The DEPUTY MINISTER OF COMMUNICATIONS: Mr Chairman, yes, I think that it certainly would not be unparliamentary to declare our love for members of the House here. [Laughter.] I was hoping that Mr Gibson would have remained here because when Godfrey Oliphant, the chairman of the portfolio committee, was thanking members for their participation, I heard him also thank Dene Smuts.

I wanted to really say that, yes, I think it’s quite in order: we want to thank Dene Smuts for her participation. In the committee she indeed brings quite a vibrant tone to its discussions and work. The discussions on the Icasa amending Bill this time were so hot that she repeatedly said to me that she was feeling hot and would I take my clothes off. [Laughter.] I promptly said to Susan Vos, Susan, you had better listen to what she is saying, because she wants to start something here that just could never end, you know. [Laughter.]

Mr Chairperson, hon Minister, members of the portfolio committee and hon Members of Parliament, distinguished guests, representatives of the organisations and businesses that are here, ladies and gentlemen, in our budget speech delivered to the House last year we reminded ourselves that the future is a matter of choice and not one of chance. We also reaffirmed that the Department of Communications is imbued with the vision that ICTs – information communication technologies - have a strategic and important role to play both as an enabler of growth in the economy and as a development trampoline to leverage our people out of poverty.

In pursuance of this mission, the department’s strategic thrust, we remind ourselves, is best summarised by its commitment to becoming a global leader in harnessing ICTs for socioeconomic development. In keeping with this commitment, you would have heard from the hon Minister’s speech to the House that the strategy of the department was to liberalise the telecoms sector, to stimulate growth in the economy, to attract foreign direct investment, to reduce the cost of telecommunications and to increase competitiveness in the economy, to facilitate SMMEs and to promote BEE, and also to facilitate universal access in order to bridge the digital divide between the first and second economies in our country.

Fundamental to our approach on these matters is our understanding that the information sector has become an ever more central part of, and will continue to play an increasingly important role in South Africa’s national economic development.

Communication networks provide the infrastructure of the national economy and will constitute the basis and a major driving force for the higher growth rate of the economy, as envisaged in our Asgisa programme under the leadership of the Deputy President.

ICTs therefore must occupy a position of strategic importance in the growth and economic life of this nation, and in our strategy to reduce poverty and halve unemployment by the year 2014. The focus of our work in the past two years has been to prepare the legislative framework for this thrust. No doubt, one of the most outstanding achievements accomplished in the last year of our work has been the promulgation of the Electronic Communications Act. As members would know, this Act has been signed and all that remains is for a date to be announced on which this Act will come into force.

As we celebrate Africa Day today, we take pride in recording that we are the first country in Africa to promulgate the convergence law of ICTs and to make this a law, demonstrating by our practice that we indeed lead on matters of ICT on the continent.

The statement that development in technology always runs ahead of development in legislation must remain true for today. South Africa is starting to get a peep into the exciting, digitally networked future of a convergence era. It sounded like science fiction last year when we reminded ourselves that through a cell phone, you could answer your doorbell remotely.

Today the Minister told us about the launch of DVB-H - digital video broadcasting on cell phones. It is now possible that with this device, we will be able to receive television broadcastings on our cell phones. Also making its first appearance in South Africa is the idea that you may be able to send video mail via your television to a friend. Indeed, such are the emerging innovations in technology that will drive further growth and development in the ICT sector.

The real truth of the matter is that there is a revolution taking place right here in the world and before our very eyes, and it is arriving without very much fanfare. The combination of open global markets and innovative technologies lies at the base of this revolution.

In preparing ourselves, our country and our people to remain at the forefront of these developments and to catch the next wave of advancement in the technology of ICTs, four projects are very central to our work this year. These are the establishment of a task team to undertake a strategic analysis of the South Afican ICT industry, as you heard the Minister explain; the development of a broadband policy and infrastructure plan; the implementation of digital migration; and the ICT preparations for the 2010 Soccer World Cup.

Let me deal with two of these projects. With regard to the task team to undertake a strategic analysis of the South African ICT industry, this is a joint initiative of the ICT Ministry of India and our Ministry here in South Africa. A joint task team of experts from both countries will undertake a strategic analysis of the ICT industry in South Africa and propose a development plan for this sector.

A crucial element of this plan will focus on human resource development and training and on the growth of indigenous technologies that will also stimulate manufacturing, software development, and research and development in ICTs.

Arising from this synergistic partnership between India and South Africa, the analysis will outline a possible niche for the South African ICT industry in the global market and its responsibility in relation to supporting ICT developments on the African continent. This task team will draw participants from government, industry and academia. This proposal was accepted by both our governments during a visit to India in November.

As far as broadband is concerned, you have heard the Minister emphasise our thrust in the development of broadband policy and infrastructure. Most advanced economies in the 21st century are information and knowledge driven.

Value creation depends on the ability to efficiently and effectively manage new data in order to transform it into valuable knowledge and profitably exploit this knowledge. It is not fanciful to suggest that the macroeconomic importance of broadband in the 21st century is comparable to electricity in the 20th century and rail in the 19th century.

It is for this reason that we, through our work in the department, are fairly determined to ensure that we bring into being an effective policy in broadband and also establish the appropriate infrastructure to take us forward on these matters. The generation of available bandwidth at affordable prices is absolutely critical to the industry’s future growth.

Let me come to the second project that, I think, is important, and that is our ICT preparations for the 2010 Soccer World Cup. That day when we won the bid to host the 2010 Soccer World Cup will remain one of the greatest moments in our young and free nation’s history, a day when we were all one for the future of our country.

In this same way, the actual moment of hosting the 2010 World Cup will, likewise, constitute a great opportunity to build a high point of social cohesion in our emerging nation. Our ability to be technologically and ICT- ready to host the 2010 World Cup is absolutely crucial to our successful hosting of the 2010 Soccer World Cup. Central to this is our ability to deliver the ministerial guarantees on ICTs made to Fifa.

Working through the technical co-ordinating committee under the leadership of the interministerial committee for the games, the department and representatives of the ICT industry will participate in a joint working team to ensure that we make the necessary ICT preparations for the hosting of the World Cup.

In this regard, I’m pleased to announce the establishment of a sector-wide co-ordinating committee for the ICT industry for the 2010 World Cup. I’m also pleased to announce that the chairperson of this committee will be Mr Victor Moche.

The Department of Communications, as part of a broader government-wide initiative, is advancing plans to ensure that the country will certainly be ready for the 2010 World Cup. At the same time, strategies and plans are under way to ensure that associated economic opportunities will also emerge from the 2010 event and that the games will be truly an African event.

The infrastructure, comprised of an international broadcasting centre and the host city broadcasting centres, will provide a 2010 World Cup legacy that will certainly be put to good use by the industry following the closure of the games.

Yesterday the Minister of Sport and Recreation announced that even today, at the World Cup in Germany, the SA Broadcasting Corporation has already been invited to participate in the broadcasting of three of the current games at this year’s World Cup. This is so that they could get the necessary experience to make sure that South Africa is ready for the 2010 World Cup. As a country, we are determined to be 2010-ready and to meet the ICT conditions of guarantee given to Fifa to host the most amazing moment of Africa’s history in the 21st century.

In conclusion, let me say that we indeed appreciate the commitment and support given to our work by members of the portfolio committee and for the contribution made by its previous chairman, Mr Lekgoro, who is now an MEC in the Gauteng legislature. Allow me also to express my appreciation to the deputy directors-general, Mr Pakamile Pongwana, Mr Joe Mjwara and Ms Phumele Ntombela-Nzimande, for their valuable contribution while they were in the department and for their continuing contribution to the ICT sector in our country.

I also wish to express my support to the Minister for her continuing encouragement and support. I also express appreciation to the director- general and the staff for their commitment and dedication to ICTs in the country and, certainly, I express appreciation for and place value on my own staff in the office under the capable leadership of Mr Raymond Reddy. Your support is, indeed, very much valued.

Let me also give my words of welcome to the learners who are here today, namely Sithabiso, Portia and Tidimalo for being with us today and giving us some excitement in our lives. We value the fact that you were able to take time off from school and to discover some bits of the working life of Parliament and the working life of all of us in the service of our nation.

We express our appreciation to the private sector for their contribution to the portfolio organisations, and for all that they have done in ensuring that South Africa certainly makes an outstanding contribution in bridging the digital divide.

Lastly, let me say that as we marshal our resources, both financial and human, to execute the projects identified, we are certain that we will not let our people down. We will reinforce the confidence that the masses of our people have in our government’s ability to ensure that our people truly enter an age of hope, thereby confirming our President’s enunciation earlier in Parliament that today is better than yesterday and that, indeed, tomorrow will certainly be better than today. I thank you very much. [Applause.]

The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON (Mr K O Bapela): Thank you, hon Deputy Minister. Hon L E Yengeni. [Interjections.] Sorry, I didn’t realise that he was sitting there. Sorry about that. You can proceed, hon member.

Mr V C GORE: Hon Minister, Deputy Minister and members, there can be no debate and argument that in order for South Africa to achieve its intended target of 6%, as outlined in the Accelerated Shared Growth Initiative for South Africa programme, the information communication technology of our economy has to play an integral if not essential role.

However, if the world competitiveness report is anything to go by, South Africa is going backwards in this regard. The report released just over two weeks ago ranked South Africa 59th overall in terms of technology infrastructure out of 61 participating countries.

So, the question needs to be asked: Why are we doing so badly? It is the view of the ID that the reasons include a hurry-up-and-wait approach to legislation, policy and regulation, and an attempt by the Ministry to take over control of the regulator.

Unfortunately, the past number of years have been characterised by a hurry- up-and-wait approach to legislation, regulation and policy, and, thereafter, it sits in a state of hiatus.

One only has to think of the Telecommunications Amendment Act and Electronic Communications and Transactions Act of 2002 where significant sections of these Acts still need to be implemented. We are still waiting with bated breath for the final implementation of the second national operator and for it to start operating.

At this stage, I would like to congratulate the Minister and repeat some of the sentiments expressed in this House about the sweeping announcements made today, and I hope that these will be implemented without delay.

The impact of this approach is that, with particular reference to this sector, the incumbent Telkom has been able to maintain its exclusivity period way past its intended date of 7 May 2002, just over 4 years ago.

It is no longer a theoretical possibility that competition results in more affordable and quality services, but it is a practical certainty. The blurring of roles between the regulator and the Ministry, and the latest attempt by the Ministry to wrestle control from the regulator does not bode well part for creating a stable, protectable and efficient environment for bridging the digital divide and being an economic driver in this economy.

Unfortunately, South Africa faces the real possibility of no longer being a leader of ICT in this continent. We are being rapidly overtaken by countries such as Mozambique, who have rolled-out commercial broadband Y- max networks. Countries such as Egypt have connected more villages to broadband than South Africa has connected to fixed line services in the past three years.

Hon Minister, the challenge now lies before us. I thank you.

Nkz L E YENGENI: Sihlalo, ohloniphekileyo, malungu eNdlu yoWiso-mthetho amahle, Maqabane nezihlobo, ndiyanibulisa. Zindwendwe, namkelekile. Ndiziva ndinochulumanco ukuthatha inxaxheba kwiingxoxo zohlahlo-lwabiwo-mali zeSebe lezoQhagamshelwano. Olu suku lubaluleke kakhulu kwiAfrika jikelele kuba kaloku sithi “Huntshu!” kumhla wokubhiyozela ukusekwa komanyano lweAfrika ngomhla wama-25 kwinyanga kaCanzibe ngomnyaka ka-1963. Kufanelekile ke ngoko ukuba silukhuthaze ngamandla uqhagamshelwano lweAfrika. (Translation of isiXhosa paragraph follows.)

[Mrs L E YENGENI: Chairperson, hon members of the House, comrades and friends, I greet you all. I would like to welcome all our guests too. I am very glad that I am able to participate in the Budget Vote for the Department of Communications today. This is a memorable day in Africa since it commemorates the establishment of the Organisation of African Unity on 25 May 1963. It is important for us to encourage relations with the rest of Africa.]

This budget addresses a set of fundamental principles upon which media transformation is premised. It deals with the issue of universal service obligations, bridging the digital divide, universal access and service to marginalised and historically disadvantaged communities.

Since 1994, one of the main challenges facing South Africa’s first democratic government was to transform the media and broadcasting sectors and to bring this in line with international trends and standards.

Legislation and other initiatives were introduced by the ANC-led government with the intention to regulate and transform the powers and functions of particularly public broadcasting and other media sectors. One such piece of legislation was the Independent Broadcasting Authority Act. This Act is in accordance with provisions of the Constitution that require the regulation of the media independently and in the public interest.

This was an important foundation to build on and to realise the ultimate goal of an unbiased mass media in South Africa. It is crucial to critically look into the role of the print and electronic media in a transforming society. Broadcasting in South Africa has an extremely diverse media sector catering for the unique demands of the local and international market.

The core mandate of the national broadcaster is to contribute to social cohesion by broadcasting programmes that promote the development of a South African national identity, indigenous languages, traditions and cultures. Finally, its mandate is the strict adherence to accurate, factual, credible news and current affairs programmes.

As a result of the strategic position that the South African government occupies in the continent, SABC Channel Africa became a necessity aimed at advancing the agenda of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development. Secondly, it had to bridge the digital divide across the continent. Thirdly, it aims to communicate our foreign policy objectives and the objectives of Nepad to the rest of the African continent.

News and current affairs in the SABC and other media should not be defined by political and commercial elitist sections of society. The dominance of English and Afrikaans in programming of news, soapies, drama and commercials is not a reflection of the rich South African diversity.

While there is very little coverage of the situation and programmes of people in the rural areas and people with disabilities, there is excessive violence shown in both print and electronic media, against women and children.

The changes that have occurred in the media environments since 1994 have not been as far-reaching as to transform media in South Africa. Despite these changes, the function of media is still rooted in its history that characterised South Africa since the advent of apartheid. There is still no significant media which represents and articulates the aspirations, views and interests of the majority in the country. As an example, the information and knowledge gap between urban and rural areas is widening.

Media restructuring and transformation must take place as part of the broader political movement to democratise, deracialise and create a nonsexist South Africa. There is therefore the need to continually engage with the media around the attitude towards the democratic movement and government, and that the struggle for a media that reflects the diversity inherent in our society should not be confused with an anti-media stance.

There is a strong perception, though in varying degrees, that our media, both electronic and print, adopts the posture of being the opposition to the ANC-led government. This is witnessed by their continuous attack on government policies in accurate reporting of issues related to government departments and their viciousness when dealing with ANC members of Parliament and ANC leadership issues in general and blatantly breaking all the rules on commenting on issues that are patently sub judice.

And, to make matters worse, the media seems not to see anything wrong in this. They go on daily to defend their rights to break the rules. And, most recently, they have gone on the rampage, attacking a judge simply because they do not agree with his judgment. [Applause.]

This behaviour by the media is unbecoming and it must simply come to an end. Indications are that this kind of media behaviour has led to a decline in the esteem with which the media is held in almost all democracies in the world.

Freedom of the press is a right enshrined in our Bill of Rights and our Constitution. We must defend these rights with everything we can muster. But, equally, the abuse of this noble right should be fearlessly resisted. As long as the transformation of the media is off-limits as the subject of political debate, it would be difficult to imagine any qualitative change for the better in the relationship between media, government and the democratic movement.

The struggle for the transformation of the media should be rooted with a campaign to extend these media freedoms to be enjoyed by all South Africans. The ANC supports this budget. [Applause.]

Ndifun’ ukuthi ndlelantle kowabengusihlalo wekomiti yethu yezoqhagamshelwano. Ndimnqwenelela okuhle namathamsanqa. [I would like to bid farewell to the former chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Communications. I wish him well and the best of luck.]

The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON (Mr K O Bapela): Ngiyabonga bese ngithi ugqibile. [Thank you, I thought that you were done.]

Mr R B BHOOLA: Chairperson, the Minority Front welcomes the Department of Communication’s budget allocation for this year. Be it electronic communication, postal telecommunication or via broadcast, communication plays a vital role in our daily lives, our development, growth and progress. We therefore require a sustainable, effective and efficient department of communications, which our department is.

Proudly, South Africa ranks 34th amongst 104 countries surveyed in the World Economic Forum’s global information technology report of 2004-05, and is progressing. Telkom, heading telecommunication in South Africa, and owning half of Vodacom’s cellular company, has proudly achived a 40% higher headline profit for 2006 than it did last year. Listed on both the Johannesburg Stock Exchange – the JSE - and the New York Stock Exchange, Telkom contributes to the economy greatly in revenue and brings to the various corners of South Africa, a means to communicate.

The adjusted tariff has served to make telecommunications more accessible and the coming introduction of competition will serve to increase accessibility and lower costing. Even though cellular use has largely replaced landline use, our concerns are extended towards the dangers of radiation and health risks from signal towers in residential areas.

Further, we ask why, when Vodacom is off-line, MTN and Cell-C networks cannot carry Vodacom connections, as is the practice abroad. As for the postal regulator, the MF is pleased with the progress made in this sector, but, however, seeks an increase in postal service depots in areas to increase accessibility.

As for broadcasting, the MF is encouraged by the dividends brought in this sector. The TV licensing should be administered more strictly, as many continue to have access to broadcasting without meeting the legal dues in this regard.

As for electronic communication, Telkom reports a growth in the number of Internet subscribers to 225 280, representing a 49% increase. In light of this, the MF seeks an initiative to make electronic communication and the Internet more accessible to disadvantaged learning institutions. The MF supports the Budget Vote. [Time expired.]

Adv P S SWART: Chairperson, given our history, nothing can be crueller than opening up a window of opportunity for previously disadvantaged entrepreneurs to participate in the development and upliftment of the underserviced, and then unceremoniously slamming it shut in their faces. Apart, of course, from doing it through bungling delays or bureaucratic impediments that first eat up all their venture capital and then spit them out, failed and broke. Even worse, if this is done by a government that prides itself on ots commitment to development, the poor and redress through black economic empowerment.

I am referring to our seven user licence holders, all of whom are underperforming, while two of them are already in default of their subsidy criteria – and of whom you said very little today. Yet, you are inviting applications for another 14 licences. The question is: Do you intend to continue with new user licences or will you put the process on hold to rethink its viability in its current form?

This may be your last opportunity to salvage a scheme already referred to by the broader telecommunications community as Ivy’s well-intended disaster. Even your remarks today on digital HARPS to complement universal service agencies may well come to nothing if no viable universal service agencies are left after rollout.

The background to this is the good intentions of the Telecommunications Amendment Act of 2001, permitting small businesses to apply, on invitation of the Minister, for licences to provide telecommunication services and facilities in underserviced areas. These are defined as having teledensities of less than 5%. Maybe this definition and the restriction to only operate in such defined areas by itself posed a viability problem.

The fixed line operator had, by 2001, already failed in its attempt to penetrate these areas and subscriptions fell. In economic terms, this type of venture can only be classified as high risk, precluding successful bidders from securing finance through traditional sources. The R15 million subsidies over three years, paid through universal service agencies, are ring fenced for setting up the network and not for operating costs. The Business Day remarked on this financing problem with the Industrial Development Corporation stating:

Profitability and sustainability are non-negotiable.

White financiers cannot inject cash for equity as it is illegal, causing a senior manager from the universal service agencies to say, and I quote:

The universal service agencies are not allowed strategic financial partners because they need to empower previously disadvantaged people. These are the people who don’t have money.

In the meantime, the Development Bank of South Africa blamed ill-conceived licence conditions for the failures. In weighing bids for licences, only 45% goes to business aspects. The rest goes to factors like ownership, control and empowerment, which we agree are important factors for BEE but no indication of viable business operations.

Dominic Mokhethi, formally from Bokamoso, one such a universal service agency operator, regarded them as:

A golden opportunity to empower previously disadvantaged communities.

He now says that he has lost R600 000 of his own money, and he is broke and unemployed. With years of delays before the first licences were granted, and the fact that these operators must compete with two fixed line and three mobile operators, it is little wonder that they, from the first to the last holder, are disillusioned and call this a serious problem.

It goes without saying that the further liberalisation of the sector allowing companies to offer payphones or voice over Internet protocols, already impacts negatively on the universal service agencies’ viability, while those of the state-funded Sentech broadband network, which you referred to again, hon Minister, have yet to be determined. That most of them are ending up as just extensions of national mobile operators, is nothing but a struggle for survival caused by a lack of state support and licence delays. The DA is cognisant of the need to expand teledensity and the freeing up of telecommunications, but in a well-planned, sustainable way, keeping pace, in particular, with this ever-changing technological environment.

The universal service agency just lost their head. Please don’t lose yours. Do not send more black entrepreneurs to the poorhouse. Rethink this well- conceived disaster. [Applause.]

Mr M R MOHLALOGA: Igama lamadoda! [The name of men!]

Hon Chairperson and the House, the World Development Bank’s Report entitled: ``Knowledge for Development’’ of 1999 in the opening statement, says:

Knowledge is like light, weightless and intangible. It can travel the world enlightening the lives of people everywhere, yet billions of people still live in the darkness of poverty unnecessarily.

Central to the claim that we live in a global information society is a social construction of people, known as the information poor, which is an additional factor for people living under conditions of poverty. These people who do not participate in the new information economy will find it more difficult to climb out of poverty. It is in this context that the ANC government has been at the forefront of initiatives to bridge the digital divide and to provide universal service and access to information communication technology, and this has been possible through your visionary leadership, hon Minister, and the collective in the department.

By sharing information and communication amongst themselves and with others, these communities can certainly remove certain barriers to development and speed up their progress. Information communication technologies serve as a transmission belt to generate access, disseminate and share knowledge, data, information and communications best practices.

The ultimate objective should be to build a knowledge and information society, a society with the ability and capacity to generate and capture new knowledge and to access, absorb and use effectively information and ICTs.

However, the biggest impediment is the cost of telecommunications. Paying your monthly telephone or cell phone bill is like paying for a bond. Our telephone and cell phone tariffs must really come down and this is the point that the hon President continuously makes. However, as the ANC, we are determined to have a competitive information communications technology industry, an industry that provides accessible and affordable services.

It is our view that universal service and access should also imply that the cost of ICT services such as the basic telephone remain affordable, especially to those from low income families and people living in rural and suburban areas.

Icasa has released its international cellular pricing document last year and is currently conducting public hearings on the cost of mobile telephony.

Predictably, the operators are not in agreement. They do not agree with the Presidential National Advisory Council on ICT. They do not agree with the Presidential National Commission on the Information Society and Development. They do not agree that the cost of communication in South Africa is exceedingly high. We insist that we are correct and they are wrong.

Let me refer you to the article by Hodge Truen of Genesis Analytics, which appeared in the Business Day. They say that MTN subscribers in Uganda, Cameroon and Rwanda pay less for their cellular phone usage than MTN subscribers in South Africa. MTN subscribers in Uganda are paying 40% less for bundle services and in Cameroon they pay 35% less, and sending an sms on your MTN network would cost you 75c in South Africa but in Uganda it costs you only 37c.

Similarly, across the border in Mozambique Vodacom is offering customers a bundle of prices that are around 30% cheaper than in South Africa. A prepaid Vodacom customer in Mozambique will pay R1,31 per minute while a South African prepaid customer must fork out R2,99 per minute. The short message service will cost the Vodacom subscriber in Mozambique 39c while South Africans pay 80c. The net effect of that is that South African subscribers face cellular phone prices that are higher on average than what subscribers pay in other countries served by our own companies.

Our own cellular companies have shown us that they are capable of charging us as much as 35% to 40% less than we are paying. Consumers should not be content therefore with just a few ``happy hours’’ a day or being charged different prices everywhere they go, so they conclude:

Millions of our people still live in the darkness of poverty and remain information poor because of the high costs of communicating and yet this is a constitutionally guaranteed right which all of us should enjoy.

But what do the industry players say? They say that we should leave prices to market forces. Karl Polanyi in his book, The Great Transformations argues that self-adjusting markets could not exist for any length of time without annihilating the human and natural substance of societies, and I agree with that particular assertion.

Therefore, it is the role of Icasa to protect the interest of the consumer against this classical example of market failure. This failure cannot be spectated upon, we need regulatory intervention and we need it now.

This also applies to the cost of ADSL and fixed line telephony by Telkom. In May 2004 Icasa granted licences to users to expand services by government such as health, education, safety and security, welfare and so on. This was because it is not attractive for major operators to go into those areas because of their financial nonviability.

The issue that hon Swart is raising is an opportunistic vulgarisation of the issue we as the ANC raised during our budget hearings with the Universal Service Agency. Minister, we had an engagement with the Universal Service Agency during the Budget Vote hearings and it was clear that we needed further engagement on this particular model than the vulgarisation that hon Swart has just articulated.

The issue is that we need to look at the lessons learnt, the impact of telecommunications conditions that convergence would have on users and review what our measuring instruments for access should be, viz either you use teledensity or mobidensity or a combination of both. This is so due to the imminent equation emerging in the context of convergence and therefore is not an ideological rejection of a concept Universal Service licensee per se.

We did agree with the USA that we needed to probe this matter further moving forward. One other issue that could not emerge clearly was our universal service and access targets. We think that we need clear targets and time lines with regard to practical measures and time lines with regard to practical measures to cascade us towards universality. It is our view that the Universal Service Agency should start doing some work in that particular direction.

Developing a stable and predictable regulatory regime on e-commerce is central to the ANC government to move South Africa into the knowledge economy. After six year of existence, Icasa is at the crossroads. Changes in the legislative environment, with new roles and responsibilities and imperatives for more affordable communication services, put Icasa under pressure to transform in order to improve its capacity, efficiency and effectiveness.

Icasa has therefore launched a comprehensive transformation strategy, which centres on in-depth understanding and effective regulation of the communication sector, satisfying customer needs by putting into effect appropriate regulations and providing transparent and responsive processes that address the needs of the sector itself. Given the nature of the sector we are dealing with, there is always a challenge for Icasa to retain the skills and experience that we need for effective regulation. Ways have to be found to sufficiently resource Icasa given the imminent implementation of the Electronic Communications Act.I move for the adoption of the Budget Vote. Thank you, sir.

The MINISTER OF COMMUNICATIONS: Mr Chairperson, I would like to thank all the members in the House that stayed on and really wanted to listen to this important debate. [Applause.]

In some of the responses, I would like to start by saying to the hon Morutoa setori that when we made a commitment as a country we said we were making a commitment to ensure that this will not be a sexist and racist society. And there are certain things we had to do.

I am now looking at the team that is sitting behind me here, both at the top level and the boards. It is because someone did not go in and look through spectacles that just looked for certain things. You said one should be true to the things for which one’s party stands and if one wears glasses that can pick out women, young people or whoever one is looking for, one will find them. Do not wear glasses that won’t see what you are looking for. That is a representative sample of South Africa. [Applause.] It is that commitment because you are the ones who walked to the Union Buildings in Pretoria and said to us ``we struggled to get there. Implement what we fought for.’’ And, we tried as hard as we could. [Applause.]

The second thing I would like to take up with you is that you talk about multipurpose centres. I would like to link that with, for example, the competitive report that hon Gore raised, which is that South Africa is moving backwards. I think when we develop these multipurpose centres we should look at what definitions were used in their development. The unit of analysis in most of the countries where these multipurpose centres are developed is the household in rural areas where there is so much poverty and where our people live.

It is impossible to say that the criteria used in the development will actually be the right ones. So, when we have a multipurpose centre, it must service many people but on the criteria that they have used, that kind of looking at how this thing is arrived at is not seen. So, we cannot be discouraged by our performance. The other point about it is that when we do that it is precisely because we say we want to make sure we can, en masse, be able to empower our people - men and women, young and old.

Finally, tomorrow must be a better day because through those multipurpose centres, I will go to my grandmother and strap her up in that clinic or in that multipurpose centre and let a doctor listen to her heartbeat – whether it is in Umtata or Cape Town - read her blood pressure through the computers that we are using today and it will make my grandmother’s life easier because technology is now available. [Applause.] I would like to say to the hon Dene Smuts: it is nice to have a selective memory because the hon member was here even before I came. She knew what the problems were with the first IBA - of not being able to be monitored, not to be sanctioned and to be cajoled - in fact about all kinds of things about the perfection or efficiency of their work. And, that was because if the IBA had fights in between - and she knows about the fights - nobody could intervene. Even when I arrived during SATRA days, I just stood there unable to move to deal with the fights that everybody was causing within SATRA, including some members of her party.

We must therefore remember that when we said we needed performance agreements and a Chairperson to look at it is because we had actually tied the hands of the chairperson to be able to take any action against some of the members. So, we should not have selective memories.

We want to reduce, and not increase, poverty and therefore when we say these things must happen they must happen. I think the last speaker spoke about it. At a time when we want to move forward, you cannot have markets that just deal because the opposition looks at the free market. Whether the free market leaves others behind, those that get left behind are your problem.

We have to check where there will have to be interference in that market that is not always perfect. And we all know that markets are not always perfect. Therefore, when there are failures of markets, what kind of mechanisms must be brought in to make sure that things are put back together. So, it is not as easy as what it is made out to be.

With regard to the issues around the points that were made by hon Vos, I am glad that you are able to see that it is important that we should not leave the majority behind. Today, we have a Postbank and a Post Office that is very creative. Everybody had said to us that government must get out of the business of the Post Office. And we insisted that we had to bring business into the Post Office and today we see that working. It is working for your grandmother; it is working in rural areas and in the townships. [Applause.] That is what caused the turn around and it does not get these awards for nothing, is because everybody is recognising it.

Today, I can get hold of my grandmother in a rural area as long as there is a Multipurpose Community Centre, MPCC, or a Post Office. The Post Office types letters for people and sends them by e-mail to another Post Office and that Post Office actually goes and delivers the e-mail at the time. Those are the creativities and innovations that the Post Office has come up with. [Applause]

My Deputy said that the future is not a matter of chance but a matter of choice. It is the choices that we make that are not always easy but painful. But, it’s the choice we make in order to talk about how we bring the most marginalised people to the fore and make things better for them. That is quite important. So, we really need to look at these issues that we are talking about.

With regard to the points that have been raised by hon Yengeni, I am really glad that she raised that because it is time that we really have a debate that looks at our broadcasting across the spectrum, especially now that we are going to go into digital broadcasting as well as the rest of the media to deal with this question of how we create social cohesion when in fact there are such differences of power. Ten years have not changed those power relationships. We know who the owners are and who the ones are who do not own anything, whether it is ideas or other kinds of mechanisms. We need to start that debate. I think the time is right for us to be able to do so.

I am glad that the hon Mahlaloga has dealt with the performance of the USLs. So I won’t deal with it. But, I would like to say that the reason why we have actually decided to also open up the discussion and ask Icasa to look at the issue of CDMA was precisely the kinds of technologies that those users had chosen - precisely to bring our people in but where there was a clash with the broadcasting spectrum. And they could not move.

So, we must look at this. We are doing an evaluation on what it is that we did right and we must not be selective in saying what works and what does not work. Let us have an objective assessment of these things.

I think the hon Kholwane was right in saying the struggle for ideas is a very important thing because we have had to struggle very hard and battle with our ideas in this industry because this is a sector that has been, for a long time, predominantly white and predominantly male. Even white women did not participate in that. And today we do see differences in this sector. [Applause.] It is because we simply said, if I cannot win this, I am going to work slowly but I am going to arrive there.

Ha o tshwanetse o nyonyobe, o tla nyonyoba. Ba tla o fumana o se o le mane! Bona ba ntse ba o batla mona. Ka jeno re ne re ntse re nyonyoba re fihlile mane. [Ditlatse.] [If there is a need for you to sneak through, you will definitely do that. While they will be looking for you here, you will already be on the other side. We sneaked through and today we have reached our destination [Applause.]]

I would like to say thank you for all the ideas that have come up. I am sure as we stand here as South Africans; we have the feeling that something is going to happen. We are getting better and better. There are times where we would have to step back, but indeed we are going to shape that future for the betterment of all of us and all of you will be enjoying and celebrating a future that is the kind of future that we want, especially on this Africa Day.

Debate concluded.

CONSIDERATION OF REPORT OF PORTFOLIO COMMITTEE ON MINERALS AND ENERGY

There was no debate.

The CHIEF WHIP OF THE MAJORITY PARTY: Chairperson, I move:

That the Report be referred back to the Committee for reconsideration of the Committee’s recommendations.

Agreed to.

Report accordingly referred back to the Committee.

The House adjourned at 19:26. ____

            ANNOUNCEMENTS, TABLINGS AND COMMITTEE REPORTS

ANNOUNCEMENTS

National Assembly and National Council of Provinces

1. Membership of Committees

 1. Ms B A Hogan has been elected as Chairperson of the Standing
    Committee on Auditor-General with effect from 24 May 2006.


 2. Mr V G Smith has been elected as Chairperson of the Ad Hoc
    Committee on Appointment of Auditor-General with effect from 24 May
    2006.

National Assembly

1. Referral to Committee of papers tabled

(1)     The following paper is referred to the Portfolio Committee on
    Foreign Affairs for consideration:

      a) Strategic Plan of the Department of Foreign Affairs for 2006 to
         2009.

(2)     The following papers are referred to the Portfolio Committee on
    Transport for consideration and report:

    a) Convention on International Interests in Mobile Equipment,
       tabled in terms of section 231(2) of the Constitution, 1996.


    b) Protocol to the Convention on International Interests in Mobile
       Equipment on Matters Specific to Aircraft Equipment, tabled in
       terms of section 231(2) of the Constitution, 1996.


    c) Explanatory Memorandum to the Convention on International
       Interests in Mobile Equipment and the Protocol to the Convention
       on International Interests in Mobile Equipment on Matters
       Specific to Aircraft Equipment.

(3)     The following paper is referred to the Portfolio Committee on
    Safety and Security:


    a) Report of the Independent Complaints Directorate (ICD) for
       January 2003 to December 2003, in terms of section 18(5)(c) of
       the Domestic Violence Act, 1998 (Act No 116 of 1998).


(4)     The following paper is referred to the Portfolio Committee on
    Justice and Constitutional Development for consideration and
    report:

    a) Draft Practical Guidelines for Employees in terms of section 10
       of the Protected Disclosures Act, 2000.


(5)     The following paper is referred to the Portfolio Committee on
    Justice and Constitutional Development for consideration:

    a) Report of the Auditor-General on the Financial Statements of the
       Presidents’ Fund for 2003-2004 [RP 229-2005].

(6)     The following papers are referred to the Portfolio Committee on
    Justice and Constitutional Development:


      a) Report and Financial Statements of the Judicial Service
         Commission for 2005.


    b) Proclamation No R.3 published in Government Gazette No 28528
       dated 17 February 2006: Commission of inquiry to conduct an
       investigation into alleged illicit activities of certain South
       African Companies or Individuals relating to the United Nations
       Oil-For-Food Programme in Iraq, in terms of the Commissions Act,
       1947 (Act No 8 of 1947).
    c) Government Notice No R.159 published in Government Gazette No
       28528 dated 17 February 2006: Terms of Reference of the
       President of the Republic of South Africa for the establishment
       of a Commission of inquiry to conduct an investigation into
       alleged illicit activities of certain South African Companies or
       individuals relating to the Oil-For-Food Programme in Iraq, in
       terms of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996.



(7)     The following paper is referred to the Portfolio Committee on
    Education for consideration:

a) Strategic Plan of the Department of Education for 2006 to 2010.

(8)     The following paper is referred to the Portfolio Committee on
    Sport and Recreation for consideration:

a) Strategic Plan of Sport and Recreation South Africa for 2006 to 2010.

(9)     The following paper is referred to the Portfolio Committee on
    Water Affairs and Forestry and the Standing Committee on Public
    Accounts for consideration:

a) Letter from the Minister of Water Affairs and Forestry dated 7 April 2006 to the Speaker of the National Assembly, in terms of section 65(2)(a) of the Public Finance Management Act, 1999 (Act No 1 of 1999), explaining the delay in the tabling of the Annual Report of Bloem Water for 2004-2005.

TABLINGS

National Assembly and National Council of Provinces

1. The Minister for Justice and Constitutional Development

 a) A report in terms of section 9(5)(b) of the Magistrates’ Courts
    Act, 1944 (Act No 32 of 1944), a list containing information with
    regard to vacancies in the offices of magistrates which have
    remained unfilled for a continuous period exceeding three months as
    on 31 March 2006.


 b) Proclamation No R67 published in Government Gazette No 28282 dated
    29 November 2006: Commencement of sections 40 and 62(6) of the
    Regulation of Interception of Communications and Provision of
    Communication-Related Information Act, 2002 (Act No 70 of 2002):
    Amendment of Proclamation.

1. The Minister of Science and Technology

(a)     The Corporate Strategy of the Department of Science and
    Technology for (2006/7) 2005/6 to 2008/9.

1. The Minister of Home Affairs

 (a)    Report and Financial Statements of Vote 4 – Department of Home
    Affairs for 2004-2005, including the Report of the Auditor-General
    on the Financial Statements for 2004-2005 [RP 53-2006].

National Assembly

1. The Speaker

   a) b) Report of the Public Service Commission (PSC) on the State of the Public Service for 2006 [RP 39-2006].

COMMITTEE REPORTS

National Assembly

1. Report of the Portfolio Committee on Communications on the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa Amendment Bill [B 32D-2005] (National Assembly – sec 75), dated 23 May 2006:

   The Portfolio Committee on Communications, having considered the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa Amendment Bill [B32D-2005] and the reservations of the President on the constitutionality of clauses 7, 9 and 11 of the Bill (Announcements, Tablings and Committee Reports, dated 26 April 2006, p 562), referred to the Committee, reports the Bill with amendments [B 32E-2005].