THURSDAY, 8 JUNE 2006 __

          PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL COUNCIL OF PROVINCES
                                ____

The Council met at 15:03.

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

ANNOUNCEMENTS, TABLINGS AND COMMITTEE REPORTS – see col 000.

               WELCOMING OF MINISTERS, DEPUTY MINISTER
                       AND MEMBERS OF THE NCOP

The DEPUTY CHAIRPERSON (Ms P M Hollander): Hon members, I would like to take this opportunity to welcome the Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism, the hon M C J Van Schalkwyk, and the Deputy Minister, hon T R Mabudafhasi. Hon Watson, welcome back.

                          NOTICES OF MOTION

Mnr A WATSON: Agb Voorsitter, ek gee hiermee kennis dat ek by die volgende sitting van die NRVP sal voorstel:

Dat die Raad –

 1) kennis neem van die uitslag van die tussenverkiesing wat gister, 7
    Junie 2006, in Wyk 23 van die Steve Tshwete Munisipaliteit in
    Middelburg, Mpumalanga, plaasgevind het;


 2) verder kennis neem van die klinkende oorwinning wat die DA behaal
    het om hierdie wyk van die ANC te kon verower met ‘n oorweldigende
    en beslissende meerderheid; en

(3) voorts die DA se nuwe Raadslid, Anphia Grobler, verwelkom in die geledere van openbare verteenwoordigers en derhalwe ook ‘n hartlike gelukwensing rig aan die DA se Midveld Bestuur en medewerkers met hierdie uitsonderlike prestasie, maar veral ook aan die kiesers van Middelburg met hulle oordeelkundige keuse in belang van goeie bestuur en dienslewering. (Translation of Afrikaans notice of motion follows.)

[Mr A WATSON: Hon Chairperson, I hereby give notice that on the next sitting day of the NCOP I shall move:

That the Council –

(1) notes the result of the by-election which took place yesterday, 7 June 2006, in Ward 23 of the Steve Tshwete Municipality in Middelburg, Mpumalanga; (2) further notes the resounding victory gained by the DA in winning this ward from the ANC with an overwhelming and decisive majority; and

(3) furthermore welcomes the DA’s new Councillor, Anphia Grobler, to the ranks of public representatives and therefore also sincerely congratulates the DA’s Midveld management and co-workers on this exceptional achievement, but in particular also the Middelburg electorate on their judicious choice in the interests of sound management and service delivery.]

Me H LAMOELA: Agb Voorsitter, hiermee wil ek kennis gee dat ek op die volgende sittingsdag van die Raad sal voorstel:

Dat die Raad kennis neem dat –

(1) die DA gister, 7 Junie 2006, ‘n pragvertoning gelewer het in die tussenverkiesing in Tafelsig met ‘n oorwinning van 67,9%;

(2) die OD en sy ANC vennoot ‘n verpletterende nederlaag gely het;

(3) die kiesers van Tafelsig ondubbelsinnig bewys het dat ‘n sterk opposisie noodsaaklik is in die land;

 4) die DA se beheer oor die Kaapse Metro by die dag al sterker word;

(5) die kiesers van Tafelsig geluk gewens word met hul politieke insig; en

(6) die laakbare en rassistiese gedrag van OD ondersteuners skokkend was. (Translation of Afrikaans notice of motion follows.)

[Ms H LAMOELA: Hon Chairperson, I hereby give notice that on the next sitting day of the House, I shall move:

That the Council notes that –

(1) yesterday, 7 June 2006, the DA displayed a splendid performance in the by-election in Tafelsig with a victory of 67,9%;

(2) the ID and its ANC partner suffered a crushing defeat;

(3) the Tafelsig electorate proved unequivocally that a strong opposition is necessary in this country;

(4) the DA’s control of the Cape Metro is getting stronger by the day; (5) the Tafelsig electorate is congratulated on their political insight; and

(6) the reprehensible and racist conduct of the ID supporters was shocking.]

Mr M A SULLIMAN: Chairperson, I wanted to propose an amendment to Mr Watson’s motion.

The DEPUTY CHAIRPERSON OF THE NCOP (Ms P M Hollander): I didn’t see your hand. You may continue.

Mr M A SULLIMAN: Chairperson, I just wanted to say that the ANC did not participate in those local government elections. The impression was created here that we participated in those by-elections.

The CHIEF WHIP OF THE COUNCIL: Chairperson, we earlier moved a motion with regard to the situation of Mr Watson. We would like to take the opportunity to welcome him back and we know that he is not well yet. We want to advise him to take it very slowly; not to be too vigorous. Thank you.

                          LEAVE OF ABSENCE


                         (Draft Resolution)

The CHIEF WHIP OF THE COUNCIL: Chairperson, I move the draft resolution printed in my name on the Order Paper, as follows:

That the Council, notwithstanding the provisions of Rule 17(1) of the Rules of the National Council of Provinces, grants hon J O Tlhagale leave of absence from proceedings of both the Council and committees of the Council in terms of Rule 17(2) until the hon member has recovered sufficiently to resume duty.

The motion, as it was prepared, also included Mr Watson, who is back with us today on the 15th day, when it was necessary to pass this motion.

The DEPUTY CHAIRPERSON OF THE NCOP (Ms P M Hollander): As there is no speakers’ list, we shall now proceed to voting on the question. I shall do so in alphabetical order per province. Delegation heads must please indicate to the Chair whether they vote in favour or against or abstain from voting. Eastern Cape?

Ms B N DLULANE: In favour.

The DEPUTY CHAIRPERSON OF THE NCOP (Ms P M Hollander): Free State?

Mr C J VAN ROOYEN: In favour.

The DEPUTY CHAIRPERSON OF THE NCOP (Ms P M Hollander): Gauteng? Mr E M SOGONI: Siyavuma. [We support.]

The DEPUTY CHAIRPERSON OF THE NCOP (Ms P M Hollander): KwaZulu-Natal?

Mr Z C NTULI: KwaZulu-Natal supports.

The DEPUTY CHAIRPERSON OF THE NCOP (Ms P M Hollander): Limpopo?

Ms H F MATLANYANE: Limpopo votes in favour.

The DEPUTY CHAIRPERSON OF THE NCOP (Ms P M Hollander): Mpumalanga?

Ms F NYANDA: Mpumalanga supports.

The DEPUTY CHAIRPERSON OF THE NCOP (Ms P M Hollander): Northern Cape?

Mr C M GOEIEMAN: Noord-Kaap steun. [Northern Cape supports.]

The DEPUTY CHAIRPERSON OF THE NCOP (Ms P M Hollander): North West?

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

The DEPUTY CHAIRPERSON OF THE NCOP (Ms P M Hollander): Western Cape?

Ms N P MAGWAZA: In favour.

The DEPUTY CHAIRPERSON OF THE NCOP (Ms P M Hollander): Nine provinces have voted in favour. I therefore declare the motion agreed to in terms of section 65 of the Constitution.

Motion agreed to in accordance with section 65 of the Constitution.

                         APPROPRIATION BILL


                           (Policy debate)

Vote No 27 - Environmental Affairs and Tourism:

The MINISTER OF ENVIRONMENTAL AFFAIRS AND TOURISM: Chairperson, 8 June is an auspicious date for this policy debate, falling as it does in the middle of the International Year of Deserts and Desertification, at the start of Antarctica Month, at the end of National Environment Week, and on World Oceans Day.

There is a proverb, which our colleagues from KwaZulu-Natal will know, that says: “Akusagaywa ngoludala, kugaywa ngolusha.” [Interjections.] Literally translated it means that we no longer grind with old stones - that things have changed. Ours is a country renewed. Ours is a people emboldened and energised both by the fires of our shared past and by the hope and promise of future prosperity. When the President stood before Parliament at the start of the year, he captured this spirit in his challenge to us all to build the Age of Hope. This shared national endeavour asks much, but promises more, especially in this portfolio. As we celebrate 10 years of constitutional protection, it is the environment and tourism that increasingly take centre-stage in our efforts to ensure that hope is grounded in lasting improvements, sustained growth and a better life for all South Africans.

Chairperson, since this is World Oceans Day, let us reflect for a moment on the importance of our marine and coastal resources in sustaining hope. The hon members will no doubt be aware of our process to allocate long-term commercial fishing rights, which thus far has achieved much in transformation and empowerment. However, the reality is that the fish stocks of Africa and South Africa are at an all-time low.

Take, for example, the spawning biomass of deep-water hake – one of the very lucrative fisheries - which dropped from 1,5 million tonnes in 1970 to less than 200 000 tons in 2004. Catches of West Coast rock lobster have declined from 10 000 tons in 1970 to less than 2 000 tons today. Yet the 2005 World Fish Report reveals that, just to maintain the current per capita fish supply of almost 7 kg per year, will require a 20% increase in production by 2015 and a 32% increase by 2020. Simply put, our oceans alone cannot meet these needs.

There is simply not enough fish and in the medium to long term, widespread food insecurity will threaten the hopes of our people. To meet this shortfall, South Africa must move swiftly to develop and expand our marine aquaculture industry - one of the issues that the chairperson of our select committee, Rev Peter Moatshe, has staunchly advocated for some time.

Worldwide, this sector represents more than R650 billion in global value, yet South African mariculture accounts for only about R3 million and about 2 500 jobs. Our department is committed to developing the necessary legal framework, aggressively building the needed capacity and skills and helping to drive sustainable growth of this industry, ensuring both competitiveness and significant small, medium and micro enterprise participation.

Regionally our department has also been working closely with our neighbours on the West Coast to improve the management of the Benguela Current Large Marine Ecosystem. Together with compliance and enforcement initiatives, such as our joint SADC marine patrols, these programmes are helping us to protect fish stocks across national borders, for all the people of our region.

I am pleased today to announce that we will, before the end of this year, be signing an agreement with Namibia and Angola to establish an interim Benguela commission, to advise on trans-boundary fish management, as well as the impact of human activities such as fishing and mining on our marine environment.

Chairperson, through the growing success of our role in regional programmes such as the Benguela initiative, South Africa is earning a reputation for excellence in environmental leadership. This is one reason we have been chosen by the Global Environment Facility, the so-called GEF, to host the International Waters Conference in 2007.

The news of our having secured the hosting of this conference builds on the excitement and value to South Africa of our hosting later this year the GEF annual assembly, one of the most important global forums for deciding on allocations of environmental financial assistance. I can confirm today that South Africa has officially decided to become a donor to the GEF and will allocate R38,4 million over the next five years. This will provide us with a formal voice in the negotiations to replenish the GEF, which we will use to advance a more equitable and even-handed approach to resource allocation for our fellow African countries.

South Africa has taken on ever-growing international commitments in tourism and the environment. Our department is now either the lead department or one of the major drivers in 33 separate international agreements, conventions and protocols. To ensure success in these global partnerships, we have created a specialised new unit within the department to drive and co-ordinate our participation, which we call the International Co-operation and Resources Unit.

In the past year alone we have already seen the fruits of this investment with South Africa making major international contributions and advancing the shared interests of our continent, such as our assistance in unblocking the climate change negotiations in Montreal; the facilitation of a compromise deal on the handling of genetically modified organisms at the meeting of the Convention on Biodiversity in Brazil earlier this year; and the negotiation of common African policy positions on water and sanitation within the Millennium Development Goals Plus Five Summit in New York.

All of these international meetings, conventions and conferences also form a key component of our tourism strategy. We have achieved much in leisure tourism and plan much more for event tourism. However, this year has seen the third pillar of our master plan - business tourism - reach new heights with our “Business Unusual” global marketing campaign.

It is our heritage of dialogue and unique approaches, our ability to merge centuries of African wisdom with the demands of modern business that set us apart and make business tourism in South Africa so exceptional. That is why we will break into the top 10 global conferencing destinations in the next four years.

We need to shoot for the stars when it comes to our ambitions for tourism. We need to set ourselves goals, such as finding it hard in 2010 to find anyone who has only been to South Africa once. We need tourism and hospitality products of such excitement and quality that the question is not “if” but “when” to return.

We need young people, professionals and pensioners, across the length and breadth of South Africa, who accept tourism as their own and who make hospitality their personal business. Only then will we meet and exceed the targets that we have set for tourism success: 500 000 new jobs; 8,5 million international arrivals and R100 billion contribution to the economy within five years.

Hon members may have seen our announcement of a new R20 million equity fund to support small and medium-sized wheel and tour operators. This, like the R185 million that we will, over the next three years, be investing in the Tourism Enterprise Programme, is funding that will be used to greatly expand the services and support that we offer to smaller tourism businesses.

Our initial TEP target for the next three years is to have in excess of R1,8 billion in transactions facilitated; more than 2 000 enterprises assisted, 75% of which will be BEE; more than 20 000 tourism SMME trainees taught in over 1 200 courses; at least 840 local government officials trained; and at least 1 000 SMMEs on a new 2010 suppliers database. Chairperson, hon members will tell you that there are communities across our country for whom hope entails any measures to improve their environment and access to basic resources. One need only speak to families such as those in the south of Johannesburg, where low-cost housing has been developed alongside mine dumps and landfill sites and under high-voltage power lines; or communities in the North West province whose homes have been flooded by damage to sensitive wetland systems; or the people of Vanderbijlpark, where serviced plots lie immediately adjacent to industries belching out pollution.

To build the Age of Hope we need to first build communities of hope. This is the reason we have announced the expansion of our existing Environmental Impact Assessment Processing Unit and a new unit to build capacity and provide support to other authorities involved in EIAs. This combined increased capacity will drive our new EIA regulations.

I am pleased today to also announce that, regarding the issue of the quality and independence of EIA practitioners, we expect an application for the creation of a national EIA practitioners registration authority to reach us by April next year, the result of which will be firm self- regulation and an industry-wide improvement of EIA standards. And if members would like to raise this issue, I will react in more detail in my reply.

We also spoke this week in the National Assembly about new ambient air quality standards for our country to scrub the brown haze from our skies. We will, by the end of this year, identify South Africa’s second air pollution hot spot, using unique aircraft infrastructure from our SA Weather Service to analyse the air over areas such as the eastern highveld, Gauteng, Durban, Richards Bay, Cape Town and parts of the Eastern Cape.

The year 2006 has also been a year in which South Africans in every community have come face to face with the realities of resource constraints. We have seen major electricity shortages and blackouts; we’ve been confronted by the threat of contaminated water supplies; we’ve faced flooding and unseasonable storms in some parts, and dams whose water levels continue to fall in others.

To address these challenges and to meet our obligations as global champions of sustainable development, we will, by August this year, publish for public comment our national strategy for sustainable development - a powerful tool for addressing priority issues such as water quality and quantity, climate change, waste management, soil loss and pollution, food production and strategic biodiversity management, within the context of our developmental priorities in order to address poverty and basic human needs. It is a vehicle that will help us to popularise and build on existing policy frameworks to ensure sustainable development in all South African communities.

Our national parks lie at the centre of our South African character. They reflect and strengthen our sense of place. They protect and support our unmatched biodiversity; and, increasingly, they anchor growth, job creation and hope through tourism for our communities.

Since 1994 we have established five new national parks and added 379 000 hectares to our parks system. I am pleased today to announce that we will be adding another 230 000 hectares to our national parks in the near future. This will include the Knysna forests and Soetkraal, which will become part of Tsitsikama; and the QwaQwa Nature Reserve which will be added to Golden Gate Highlands National Park. I haven’t seen the Free State MEC here, but colleagues from the Free State and the officials who are here can take the message back, that we would like to do that very soon. Added to this are a number of other recently acquired areas in Addo, Namaqua, Mapungubwe, Agulhas and the Karoo National Park.

Our focus is to ensure that these expansions focus on biomes, such as grasslands, which are currently underrepresented in the priority areas identified in our newly-published national biodiversity strategy and action plan. This is also one of the main reasons that, after thorough consultation with local communities and the royal houses, we will be able to formally declare portions of the new Wild Coast National Park as park areas before the end of this financial year. And I would like to thank our Deputy Minister for the role she played in this regard. That is an area recognised globally as a biodiversity hot spot, with more than 1 500 plant species. It is projected that tourist numbers to the area will swell from the current level of about 170 000 to over 245 000 by 2008, and 270 000 by 2013. I believe that that figure is too low; we can actually increase it substantially, if we approach it correctly. Thereby we will be creating about 3 260 direct and indirect new jobs.

We will also be declaring as a park – and I hope that many of my colleagues will be present on that day for the declaration - the new Blyde River National Park on Heritage Day, that is on 24 September 2006, Rev Moatshe. With more than 2 000 plant species, of which 163 are Red Data Book plants, more than the whole of the Kruger Park, the canyon and its surroundings contain one of the richest combinations of plants and animals in Southern Africa.

With an infrastructure budget of R18 million for the next three years, and work about to start on a R10 million luxury hiking trail, this new park is expected to inject R500 million into the local economy over the next 10 years. With 500 planned beds, restaurants, adventure activities and a cableway, Blyde has the potential to become one of the fastest growing malaria-free tourism destinations in Africa.

In conclusion, I wish to thank all of our provincial colleagues for the work that has been done in every part of our country concerning both the environment and tourism. I believe our MECs will agree that, as a team, our portfolio has performed well over the past year, and that the foundations for the Age of Hope have been firmly laid. I want to say to Rev Moatshe and the other members of our select committee: All of you have the appreciation and support of our department.

I wish to thank our statutory bodies and our management team, which is under Director-General Pamela Yako – they are sitting in the benches over there. I must also express the appreciation of our Deputy Minister, Rejoice Mabudafhasi and myself. It remains an honour to work with such talented, dedicated and enthusiastic colleagues.

Ultimately, what we debate today, the budget policy for Environmental Affairs and Tourism, could not be more fundamental to the dreams, aspirations and hopes of our people. A better environment and better tourism is, quite simply, the basic requirement for a better South Africa. Ngiyabonga. [I thank you.] Ndiyabulela. [I thank you.] Ke a leboga. [I thank you.] Enkosi! [I thank you very much.] [Applause.]

Mor P MOATSHE: Mmusakgotla, Tona ya lefapha, Motlatsa-Tona, Lefapha la Merero ya Tikologo le Bojanala, Ditona go tswa kwa dikgaolong, baemedi ba diporofense ba ba leng teng fano, badirikanna, fa re tlisa Tekanyetsokabo e fa pele ga Khansele ya Bosetšhaba ya Diporofense, re e tlisa ka boipelo le boitumelo jo bogolo gonne ke Tekanyetsokabo e e tlang go agelela godimo ga seo se dirilweng go simolola ngwaga wa demokerasi fa o tlhoga mo karolong eno ya lefatshe.

Ka gale fa re buisana kgotsa re tlhaeletsana ka Tekanyetsokabo ya mothale o mo Lefapheng la Merero ya Tikologo le Bojanala, go mpontsha gore tota … (Translation of Setswana paragraphs follows.)

[Rev P MOATSHE: Chairperson, Minister and Deputy Minister of the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism, MECs from various provinces, representatives of various regions who are here with us and colleagues, we are proud to present this budget before the National Council of Provinces and we hope it will strengthen the foundation which has already been laid by the new democracy in our country.

It is common practice in the department to debate a budget of this nature and this clearly shows that …]

… we are co-creators with God, God who created all things. And we continue to create and recreate what God has given unto the people of this country and of the world. Therefore I would love to quote from the chapter that deals with the beginning:

And God said, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”

Indeed, we are co-creators. Therefore, this makes this department very, very important. At the same time, we want to thank you and your Deputy Minister and the department for co-operating with the select committee. There is a sound relationship between your department and us and that is why we urge this House to support this Budget Vote.

The mandate and core business of the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism is underpinned by the Constitution and all other relevant legislation and policies applicable to the government, including the Batho Pele concept. As a build-up towards the South African 2010 World Cup, we have to roll up our sleeves and work harder than ever before because, obviously, people of the world will be coming to South Africa. Obviously, South Africa is a unique country amongst the countries of the world. We must improve the standards so that, indeed, we are able to convince the people who will be touring this beautiful country about what we have to offer.

The paramount goal of the South African Tourism Company is to market South Africa internationally, regionally and domestically. As a body that focuses on tourist destinations, it promotes tourism to and within South Africa, maintains and enhances the standards or facilities and services, and, as far as possible, co-ordinates the marketing activities of role-players and participants in this industry.

We must increase the annual volume of tourists visiting South Africa from all corners of the globe. The amount of money tourists are spending during their stay in the country should increase. We should assist with the development and marketing of a wider range of products and activities that will encourage tourists to stay longer in the country. Domestic travel and utilisation of tourism products by all South Africans should be strongly encouraged.

The nature of SANParks’ business poses a fundamental challenge for the organisation to strike an optimum balance in meeting its public goal and mandate of conservation management and constituency building through a people-centred approach to conservation as well as socioeconomic development programmes. It also has a private goal mandate of growing the nature-based tourism business at a surplus. To do this, SANParks has to adapt the public good principles, measurements and standards and the business and strategic principles of successful private enterprises.

The organisation has a significant role in the promotion of South Africa’s nature-based tourism or ecotourism business, targeted at both international and domestic tourism markets. The ecotourism pillar of the business provides for the organisation’s self-generated revenue from commercial operations that are necessary to supplement government seed funding of conservation management.

Sound financial management and discipline are central to strategic and operational delivery. Therefore SANParks will ensure that its budget processes and monitoring, in accordance with the systems, can provide the operational and capital expenditure information to ensure that it is managed in accordance with planned or authorised activities. SANParks will implement the financial controls and cultural discipline to ensure that it duly collects all income due, and that the budget and forecasts are appropriate and extensively managed.

As a build-up to the 2010 World Cup, SANParks need a total upgrade to be a world-class attraction for tourists, and the budget before this House should contribute towards this upgrade we are talking about.

The SA National Biodiversity Institute was established through the National Biodiversity Act and was listed as a public entity in terms of the Public Finance Management Act. It is a centre for excellence and co-ordinates research on the taxonomy, value status, functioning and dynamics of South Africa’s biodiversity as well as sustainable living resource management.

The organisation also has to monitor and report on the status of biodiversity in South Africa and is the preferred national resource regarding guidelines, tools, research and information on best practices relating to the identification and conservation of threatened species and ecosystems. It also has to ensure sustainable use of biodiversity and living resources; assess the impact of invasive alien species; and implement rehabilitation programmes that systematically target threatened ecosystems supporting the goals of the Expanded Public Works Programme.

Concerning the environmental impact assessment study, I am glad that the Minister did mention this important issue that involves development and the environmental itself. It is echoed in many quarters outside at this point in time that EIA is causing delays in as far as development is concerned. We are glad that the department has taken this matter up in order to address it so that EIA doesn’t impact negatively on development. It should impact positively and nurture development so that we are able to speed up development on the ground. It impacts much more negatively on the emerging people who have to go to private consultants who request exorbitant amounts. As a result of that, the emerging people are giving up in as far as development is concerned. Therefore we hope that by the stipulated date there will be some relaxation of the EIA processes.

Regarding the issue of aquaculture - which is so close to my heart - we learnt that when the marine resources of other countries were depleted, aquaculture kicked in and allowed people inland to breed fish on a larger scale. That is why the Select Committee on Land and Environmental Affairs is spearheading the acquisition of more information on this very important issue, because we have to learn from other countries. If other countries had depleted resources in as far as fish in the sea is concerned, we can complement our marine resources before they get depleted. Therefore aquaculture becomes paramount.

But, again, aquaculture has a bearing on three departments: Environmental Affairs and Tourism, Agriculture and Land Affairs, and Water Affairs and Forestry. Therefore, as a cluster, we have to put our heads together and look into this important issue so that we can speed up the policies and help the provinces to fast-track this important resource for food security.

For provinces like Gauteng as well, I think, in as far as aquaculture is concerned, you can breed fish even in your back yards. [Time expired.] [Applause.]

Ms H F MATLANYANE: Deputy Chairperson, hon Minister, hon Deputy Minister, officials from the department, hon members, comrades and compatriots, it is true that tourism in South Africa is exceptional; it’s so exceptional that Dave Matthews of the Dave Matthews band said in South African Story:

South Africa gives me a perspective of what is real and what is not real. So I go back to South Africa to both lose myself and gain awareness of myself.

Tourism is a key industry for South Africa and has the potential for growth in international and domestic markets. The department’s objective is to develop the sector by stimulating both domestic and international demand, and removing obstacles to growth. As a labour-intensive industry, tourism helps to create jobs and attracts foreign investment.

South Africa is indeed one of the fastest growing tourism destinations in the world due to the establishment of the invigorated South African Tourism, which is used to implement the government’s international tourism growth strategy, developed on the basis of detailed market research and focused on marketing efforts concerning priority markets and market segments that will generate maximum tourist revenue for South Africa.

It has been involved in the spatial development initiative and transfrontier conservation area programme throughout the country. These are strategic initiatives aimed at unlocking the inherent and underutilised economic development potential for certain locations in South Africa. These are development instruments with the potential to expand the tourism product portfolio and maximise the establishment of small, medium and micro enterprises and income opportunities, especially for the rural communities.

As domestic tourism is not seasonally based, raising awareness about opportunities for domestic travel must continue to be a priority for the department. The aims are to encourage South Africans to travel within their own country; to make tourism products accessible to all; to facilitate the development of a culture of tourism; and to create a welcoming environment for visitors.

Tourism is South Africa’s fastest growing industry and contributes about 7,1% of the gross domestic product, employs about 3% of the South African workforce and is regarded as potentially the largest provider of jobs and earner of foreign exchange.

The launch of the tourism growth strategy by South African Tourism in May 2002 gave proper direction and content to the industry, and also positioned South Africa as a world-class destination. The strategy seeks to increase tourism volumes, spending, and length of stay and to improve seasonality and geographic spread.

Priority markets have been identified in Europe, Asia and Africa. The strategy is not only about increasing arrivals, but is also underpinned by other core principles such as increased spending; ensuring that tourists travel throughout the country and not only in Gauteng and the Western Cape; and facilitating transformation and black economic empowerment in the tourism industry.

The department’s poverty relief projects promote the development of community-owned tourism products and the establishment of tourism infrastructure, including roads, information centres and tourism signage. The projects are categorised into project development, capacity-building and training, and the establishment of SMMEs and business development projects.

Nepad identified tourism as an important sector to address development challenges facing Africa, with the Nepad Tourism Action Plan providing a more detailed framework for action at national and sub-regional levels.

The department has embarked on a legislative reform process to reflect on the guidelines as set out in the White Paper on Tourism, which culminated in the Tourism BEE Charter and Scorecard launched by the Minister in May last year. The charter is the result of intensive negotiations with the tourism industry, representing the commitment of this industry to transform.

The score-card comprises seven indicators, namely, ownership, strategic representation, employment equity, skills development, preferential procurement, enterprise development and social development, and the way and targets of each indicator have been set for 2009 and 2014. The score-card applies to both large and small business alike.

Lefapha le swanetše go emelela, le ye porofenseng ya Limpopo, le fetele Ga- Mmalebogo le dire gore bakgekolo ba Ga-Mmalebogo bao ba kgonago go loga magogwa ao lehono re a swerego re a humanego lefapheng le bao ba kgonago go dira dipheta tše kaone, ba ba tšee ba ba hlahle gore le bona ba tle ba kgone go ikhweletša se sengwe le gore ba kgone go emiša segagabobona gore le sona se emelele ka maoto, se tsebege mo lefasng ka moka. Ke a leboga, Modulasetulo. [Legofsi.] (Translation of Sepedi paragraph follows.)

[The department must go on a site visit to Limpopo province. They must go to ga-Mmalebogo to encourage the old women whose hand-made reed mats we have here today, and also those who make beautiful beads. They must run entrepreneurship workshops for them, so that they can learn how to make money. That will also help them to promote their own culture and make it known across the world. Thank you, Chairperson. [Applause.]]

Mr G R KRUMBOCK: Deputy Chairperson, hon Minister and hon members, there is no doubt our planet is facing critical challenges with respect to environmental well-being, with global warming, desertification and unprecedented extinction of species dominating the news.

Our country boasts an astonishing range of geographical, climatic and biodiversity variations. The National Spatial Biodiversity Assessment published last year reveals that too many of our ecosystems, rivers and estuaries are either threatened or critically endangered. Our population is growing, our economy expanding and the government rightly prioritises tourism as an accelerator of growth. All these factors imply ever- increasing pressures on our finite land mass and impose significant responsibilities on the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism to manage precious resources. With proper leadership, we know South Africans can beat the scourge of unemployment through rapid economic growth, banish the criminal army from our streets and eliminate housing backlogs. But we cannot easily bring back extinct species nor reverse inappropriate and established human settlements in sensitive bio-resource areas. Indeed the department has to walk a tight and often zero-sum line between creating conditions for sustainable tourism growth and development and maximising economic growth within the sectors on the one hand, while simultaneously promoting conservation and environmental management on the other.

These are difficult requirements which require proper funding. The department’s budgetary allocation has increased from R1,4 billion in 2002- 03 to just over R2 billion in 2006-07. Given these challenges, it is instructive and ultimately disappointing to note that the department’s share of appropriations has in fact declined from 0,8% last year to under 0,5% now. This is clearly moving in the wrong direction and the Minister can count on the DA’s support for an increased budgetary allocation in percentage terms in the future. Our environment deserves no less.

A fundamental component of Asgisa will be a significant infrastructural programme where the proper application of EIAs will be critical in ensuring that environmentally sensitive development is promoted. In this regard, more and better trained staff in the provincial environmental departments are as important as the finalisation of internal regulations governing their profession and independence by the private sector. The 700 environmental management inspectors who have been appointed by the department are a worthwhile achievement. Their contribution in ensuring that our economic growth does not adversely affect our environment will play a similar role.

The allocation of fishing rights has been a hotly contested arena in recent years, with many a political reputation rising and falling like a lobster boat on the West Coast swell or being buried at sea. Many of my colleagues will recall the spirited debates in this House punctuated by lively interaction from unsuccessful applicants in the public gallery. Those were interesting, certainly, but fraught with difficulties.

The department has correctly identified criteria whereby rights can be allocated on a transparent and objective basis, including whether the applicants reside in a fishing zone, and whether they have access to suitable vessels and had worked on a vessel before.

In the case of the West Coast rock lobster fishing rights, the allocation has increased from 418 to 812 out of a total of 4 070 applications, with the total allowable catch declining by 10%. Even with these objective criteria applied in the real world, one never finds that the total number of allocations will be exactly the same as the total number of qualifying applicants. And, indeed, I understand that further rights could have been allocated, had a greater total allowable catch been possible.

Having to exercise these life-changing decisions for the people concerned must place an intolerable strain on the officials concerned, who would need the wisdom of Solomon to get it exactly right. The department’s sensible objective criteria should be built upon and be constantly re-evaluated to ensure that fairness, as far as possible, is always the inevitable result of the process.

South Africans are justly proud of our country’s natural beauty and want to protect our environmental resources. Scuba divers are no exception to this. The DA believes that attempts to overregulate scuba divers are misplaced, as the Marine Living Resources Act confers the right to regulate consumptive users, which scuba divers are not. I urge the Minister to include scuba divers in his underwater environmental protection armoury, a role I believe they’re uniquely placed to play.

Turning to my province of KwaZulu-Natal, the Minister would be aware that the review of Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife is on the agenda and that plans to absorb our nature conservation agency into the provincial department of agriculture and environmental affairs have aroused grave concerns among well-known conservation personalities.

Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife has coped admirably in balancing the tension in conserving as well as deriving economic benefit from the same resource and has, deservedly, along with its predecessors, developed a reputation across Africa and the world, and I quote, “… not only for sound environmental and conservation principles but also for innovation”.

Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife requires a semi-autonomous independence to ensure that the needs of conservation and development are balanced. If there is to be a change, I urge the Minister to ensure that this process is conducted with full and open public participation and with great care.

One of the consequences of our rapidly expanding economy and burgeoning housing construction industry is a proliferation of upmarket developments in sometimes sensitive and highly desirable areas of our country. Each individual development is assessed and approved or otherwise, through the applicable process which will include an environmental impact assessment and related comment from the department of agriculture and environmental affairs.

Municipalities spell out our various environmental considerations within their area of jurisdiction through the land use management system, Lumps, while the province conducts an oversight role in each municipality through agriculture and environmental affairs in this regard. Technically and legislatively, the province will determine the overall effect and, recently, the Department of Agriculture has heightened its awareness and sensitivity to urban spread into high quality agricultural land.

It is the holistic effect on a particular area which may change the overall character of the area as well as the need to balance development and environment within that context which is increasingly exercising the mind of local government and other role-players, particularly in the Development Facilitation Act context, where municipalities’ roles are often truncated.

A good example is the country Midlands Meander area between Pietermaritzburg and Mooi River which, due to its natural beauty, has recently been earmarked for over 20 applications concerning the Development Facilitation Act. A cartoon in the local newspaper summed up the dilemma eloquently in one picture, where a jaded individual in the midst of the concrete jungle remarked to his friend that he was tired of the oppressive urban sprawl and needed to relax on the Midlands Meander. His friend remarked that they already were on the Midlands Meander.

Local government councils representing the area in question grappled earnestly with the problem of how to promote incremental development, which may ultimately alter the very character of the area which attracted development in the first place. It is therefore more the macro than the micro level where I believe greater attention should be focused and where a clearer framework of the consultation of interested and affected parties could be adopted. I thank you, Chairperson. [Applause.]

Mr P W SAAIMAN (Northern Cape): Deputy Chairperson, hon Minister, hon Deputy Ministers, members, our Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism, I want to say from the outset: Please accept my apology if I have to leave after my speech. We have a presidential imbizo tomorrow and I have to drive back to Springbok. I have conveyed this to the Deputy Chairperson and the Minister.

To start, I want to quote the following:

We have the responsibility to ensure that our country becomes and remains a living ark. Our communities must stand as custodians of conservation and the guarantors of biological diversity.

These were the words of the hon Minister Van Schalkwyk recently when he launched the SA Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan. They are sentiments I wish to echo in this Chamber today. I do so, however, with a heavy heart, for just a few weeks ago a trainee member of the Green Scorpions in the SA Police Service in the Northern Cape had to bust a farmer and confiscate almost eight tons of illegally harvested Hoodia Gordonia, plants with a commercial value of about R2 million. The Good Book, on the other hand, teaches us that it is better to live in hope than to die in despair.

We must learn from such wanton acts of destruction and ensure that we commit ourselves to the protection of our biodiversity. I therefore wish to use the platform today to thank those farmers who blew the whistle that led to these arrests. We all have a duty as custodians of conservation to protect our rich heritage for future generations to experience. The Northern Cape is proud of the actions of its trainee Green Scorpions and members of the environmental management inspectorate.

We are extremely mindful that, as a province covering an area of 366 km² and 384 km of coastline, we only have 16 trainee environmental management inspectors, EMIs. We will be undercapacitated, opening the doors to poachers and illegal harvesters. We therefore appeal to the Minister and to the department to complement these EMIs and add to the number of enforcement officers at DEAT’s own cost for duty along the coastal and marine zones and the transfrontier parks in and around those parks in the Northern Cape.

It is well known that the Northern Cape possesses scarce, rare and tremendously valuable flora with important herbal and medicinal qualities. The Northern Cape has already lost out on financial benefits, which should have enhanced the lives of our citizens because of the vague and unregulated situation around bioprospecting of these scarce resources.

Industries have also been established outside of the Northern Cape for cultivating, processing and selling plant materials that originate from our province, without any benefits for the people of the province. Urgent measures should be considered in the regulations to protect this unique heritage of our country and to create the instruments for provinces to be able to economically empower our people to benefit from their own intellectual property and unique natural products.

The same measures that are required for hoodia will have to be applied to devil’s claw. What we require as a country is to have the highest protection status for our valuable flora that are of great economic benefit to our people at large. This, if we may make a suggestion, can be done by ensuring that no country can grow our valuable flora in their respective countries without permits, and that will also provide for economic benefits to our people. Where provincial-specific valuable plant resources is concerned, the issuing of permits should be done in such a way that wherever cultivating and processing takes place, permits can only be issued where there is an agreement that it will benefit the people of the specific province. Hoodia or ghoba or ghaap as we commonly call it, has been used by the San for many generations to suppress their appetite and thirst while hunting for very long periods. Since it has been discovered by scientists as a product that can assist in weight control, the demand for Hoodia material has increased dramatically worldwide. We will discuss this shortly, with the help of the national department, and we will find a way forward. If I look around in this House, I see that many of us here may be potential buyers of this product. [Laughter.]

On a sadder note, the situation amongst the fishing community in the Northern Cape is a desperate one. It is with great sadness that I have to report to the NCOP that it seems that four fishermen from the Port Nolloth fishing community may have drowned whilst trying to catch fish yesterday. Ironically, these fishermen were unsuccessful in their application for fishing rights and, in desperation, had to face the perils of the rough seas in an attempt to catch fish to put food on their tables. We haven’t heard from the rescue teams yet and they are currently still searching.

The Minister recently announced an increased allocation of fishing rights and the effect of this on poor communities. From the Northern Cape’s side, we are pleased with the increase in the allocation of West Coast rock lobster and near-shore rights after the completion of the appeal process. However, we are disappointed that only four applicants from Hondeklipbaai were successful – and this when the need is so great. We fully understand that allocations are based on the availability of the natural resources.

The department has decided not to allocate any new fishing rights in the hake, long-line and West Coast rock lobster offshore fishing. The decision not to allocate rights was taken after expectations were high that new entrants would be accommodated in these sectors. Many historically disadvantaged community members of the Northern Cape incurred huge expenses in the preparation of their applications.

Because allocations in the existing fisheries have now been finalised for a period of up to 10 years, we would like to ask the hon Minister and the department to launch a joint investigation in the Northern Cape, together with our provincial government, to determine how new fisheries can be established in the Northern Cape.

Over the years, fishing as an industry in the Northern Cape has been forced to a standstill as successful quota holders landed their catches in ports of other provinces to the detriment of employment and the economy of the Northern Cape. Factories were mothballed and landing facilities were left to rot. Mariculture has for some time now been regarded as a growth industry in South Africa. The Northern Cape made work of it and in our provincial growth and development strategy identified the mariculture and fishing industries as key features of the Northern Cape’s economy. The Namaqua Mariculture Park in Port Nolloth subsequently followed and the provincial government supported experimental abalone ranching ventures along our coastline. We need more development support from Marine and Coastal Management. We wish to make a call for a mariculture sector policy to be finalised as soon as possible.

Marine and Coastal Management initiated the process of establishing the Mariculture Institute of South Africa in order to promote the development of this sector. The process came to an abrupt end since it could not function without the finalisation of the mariculture sector policy. In the meantime, our country is lagging behind because, internationally, as we have heard from my colleague, the aquaculture industry is rapidly replacing the traditional fishing industries.

Much has been said about climate change. Earlier this week we celebrated World Environment Day with the theme of deserts and desertification and the slogan: Don’t desert drylands! According to the experts, the Northern Cape will be one of the major provinces at the forefront of climate change and resulting desertification. We are already seeing the effects of encroaching desertification and climate change and that it is going to be a major concern in the Northern Cape.

Questions about these issues have already been asked at presidential izimbizo. We therefore, again, ask the Minister and the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism to consider supporting the Northern Cape to host the next major conference on climate change as a joint venture with the Northern Cape. [Time expired.]

Nkk J N VILAKAZI: Sihlalo ohloniphekileyo, mhlonishwa Ngqongqoshe noMnyango wakho, bahlonishwa bonke abakhona kule Ndlu, namhlanje sibhekene nesabiwomali sezeMvelo nezokuVakasha. Inkinga ekhona kulo mkhakha, okuyiyona ethanda ukuhlukumeza umphakathi osuke useduze naleyo ndawo, yintuthu eshunqa koshemula bese ihogelwa ngabantu. Ngesinye isikhathi kungcola nomoya ube nephunga elibi, abantu asebelibiza ngokuthi “uMondi”, kususelwa kumkhiqizo wephepha.

Intuthu embi isezindaweni ezikhiqiza umnotho. Kungumsebenzi woMnyango ophethe ukubheka ukuthi uMthetho osewashaywa wokugcina umoya uhlanzekile uyalandelwa yini noma qha. (Translation of isiZulu paragraphs follows.)

[Mrs J N VILAKAZI: Hon Chairperson, hon Minister and your department, hon members present in this House, today we are dealing with the Budget Vote for the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism. The problem that exists in this sector, which is crippling the community living near that area, is the smoke from chimneys that is inhaled by people. Sometimes the air is polluted and has a bad smell; people refer to it as “Mondi”, as it is generated by the production of paper.

There is a bad smoke problem in industrial areas. It is the duty of the department to see whether the Act, which was created to ensure the air is kept clean, is obeyed or not.]

We know that successful implementation of any kind of law in the country needs constant monitoring through oversight and supervision.

The second concern deals with the fishing rights. We accept that the department has to find the correct balance between protecting the marine environment and providing the ability to alleviate poverty and create jobs in respect of fishing communities. This is not an easy task.

Whilst some improvements have been made to the rights application process and the East Coast, we feel that too many traditional coastal fishing communities can no longer provide for their families and their communities because they have been deprived of the right to fish for a living.

We applaud the department’s efforts aimed at empowerment in the fishing industry, but this should never be done at the expense of communities that depend on fishing for a living. Granting these communities fishing rights need not be inconsistent with empowerment objectives and, in fact, should empower these communities to help themselves.

We accept that foreign tourism brings huge amounts of money into the country and creates much-needed jobs. As much as foreigners are welcome to visit our beautiful country, we should also look inwards to the promotion of domestic tourism. Currently, accommodation and other prices are set in US dollar terms for foreign tourists. This means that, for many South Africans, a holiday in their own country is too expensive. It might even be more affordable to visit a neighbouring country than your own country.

It is therefore vital that the industry prices take into account that not all tourists are foreigners and that domestic tourism can be a vital instrument in the long-term sustainability of the tourism sector.

Siyojabula uma umhlonishwa uNgqongqoshe engasicabangela ekutheni kuthuthukiswe umkhakha wezokuvakasha nokungcebeleka nakhona lapha ekhaya eNingizimu Afrika. Kuhle kodwa sicatshangelwe ukuthi asiphathi amadola thina kodwa siphatha amarandi. Iqembu lami le-IFP liyasixhasa lesi sabiwomali. Ngiyabonga. (Translation of isiZulu paragraph follows.)

[We would be grateful if the hon Minister could think about us and develop tourism and recreation in South Africa. You must take into consideration that we don’t use dollars, but rands. My party, the IFP, supports this budget. I thank you.]

The DEPUTY MINISTER OF ENVIRONMENTAL AFFAIRS AND TOURISM: Chairperson and hon members, “throughout Africa, women are the primary caretakers – holding a significant responsibility for tilling the land and feeding their families. As a result, they are often the first to become aware of the environmental damage as resources become scarce and incapable of sustaining their families.” These are the words by Prof Wangari Maathai.

Over many decades, women learned to manage their resources to preserve them for future generations. Despite the available knowledge, women have been sidelined in policy and decision-making processes. The consequence of this has been unsustainable development practices associated with massive depletion of natural resources. Although we no longer march against oppressive laws, as heroic women did some 50 years ago, today’s women are faced with unprecedented environmental problems that result in high levels of joblessness and poverty within our communities.

In order to empower women to resolve these problems with courage and determination, our department will hold its second women and environment conference in Mpumalanga in August this year, in commemoration of the 50th anniversary of women’s protest in 1956. At the margins of that, we will also have a youth side event in commemoration of the 30th anniversary Of the youth uprising. This conference will be an ideal opportunity to follow up on decisions made at the first conference and provide feedback on our international engagements under the umbrella of the Network of Women Ministers for the Environment, which we co-chair with Sweden.

Coming to one of our major problems, the problem of waste management remains one of the serious challenges faced by our society. In response to this problem, our department has signed a memorandum of understanding on voluntary recycling targets with the plastic and glass industries.

We also hope to sign another memorandum of understanding with the tyre industry later this year. We are continuously engaging these industries in order to monitor and review progress in the achievement of recycling targets set out in the MOU. To this end, a study to assess the impact of plastic bag regulations will be undertaken during this financial year.

While remarkable progress hs been achieved in the recycling of waste, our department’s future programmes will also focus on the reduction and reuse of waste. We have already attended a Reduce, Re-use, Recycle Ministerial Conference in Japan last year. This conference was followed by a study visit by MECs and senior government officials from the national, provincial and local government departments. We will now be making follow-ups to ensure that our learning experience is put into practice for the benefit of our communities.

During the current financial year we will, in consultation with the department of local government, conduct a comprehensive study to determine the study of waste services, and to assess capacity and skills challenges facing the local government. These studies will form the basis of a programme of action aimed at improving waste management services by local authorities.

I am happy to announce that the responsibility for the recording and issuing of permits for landfill sites has now been formally handed over to our department. This arrangement will further assist the process of recording and issuing of permits for landfill sites. Our department has already developed a comprehensive system for this purpose. We are currently in discussion with all nine the provinces regarding the handing over of pertinent responsibilities once we are sure that there is an adequate human and financial capacity to do so.

The harmful effects of hazardous waste such as obsolete pesticides and Thor chemicals on the lives of our people and animals cannot be emphasised enough. We will recall that during our budget speech last year, we undertook to establish a comprehensive inventory of the quantities of Thor Chemicals stored in Cato Ridge. I am pleased to report that this task has now been successfully accomplished. Our future work will entail the implementation of the recommended methods of disposing of these chemicals, after consultation with interested and affected parties.

Our efforts to remove the obsolete or unwanted and harmful stocks of pesticides have been boosted by a grant agreement which we signed with the World Bank to the tune of US$1,7 million. We are now in the process of calling upon all members of the public to declare their obsolete stocks for disposal using this funding.

Allow me to remind hon members that the fundamental reason for providing weather and climate forecasting by the South African Weather Service, Saws, is to facilitate the planning of people’s daily lives and economic activities as well as for the protection of life and property of the citizens of this country. Last year Saws issued over 150 adverse weather warnings. These warnings were often accompanied by advisories that vulnerable communities needed to heed.

To increase its forecasting capability, Saws will spend in excess of R6 million this year to expand its weather radar network in order to cover existing gaps in areas of our country that are prone to adverse weather phenomena. This is in addition to a huge infrastructure recapitalisation programme which we used to install the state-of-the-art lightning detection network, which provides real time data on electric storms occurring across the length and breadth of our country.

Hon members will agree with me that unless communities living in and around protected areas derive tangible benefits from natural resources our government will be failing to discharge its responsibility to its people. One of our key challenges is that there needs to be a fundamental shift from the current management style of conservation at the expense of the poor to people-centred approaches that build on poor people’s priorities and capabilities. Meeting this challenge calls for a broad-based commitment to integrating concerns of poor and vulnerable groups into mainstream conservation and development processes at all levels of society.

As an important step to ensure that we turn differences between conservation goals and people’s aspirations from a problem into an asset, we established a “people and parks forum” which met for the first time in

1. An important outcome of this meeting was the development of a comprehensive and ambitious plan to address issues such as access and benefit sharing, co-management and establishment of partnerships. A second meeting of the “people and parks forum” will be held in October this year in the Karoo.

The SA National Parks, SANParks, through its People and Conservation division, is playing a significant role in strengthening relations with communities neighbouring our parks. Activities in this regard include public consultation and participation through park forums, and also include implementing cultural and biodiversity conservation projects that benefit local communities.

Noting that this year has been declared the International Year of Deserts and Desertification, it will be appropriate for me to reflect on our work in some of the arid areas of the country. Over the past financial year, SANParks has partnered with communities in the Northern Cape to launch community water efficiency projects at Augrabies National Park, Kamieskroon and Hondeklipbaai, near Namaqua National Park. The second phase of the project, which entails a water-wise community gardening project, is planned to take place during this financial year.

One of the key focus areas for the Greater St Lucia Wetland Park this year will be the creation of alternatives to unsustainable use of wetlands for communities. This includes an R8 million programme for the development of the community gardens around there.

We all know, as already mentioned by the Minister, that today is World Oceans Day. It is our responsibility to continue to create awareness campaigns for our people who live next to oceans so that we keep our oceans clean.

Through one of our flagship projects called the Coastcare programme, our country is participating in the Blue Flag campaign. This is an international award given to the beaches that achieve excellent standards of service to tourists in the areas of safety, amenities, cleanliness and environment protection. Through this activity, we are able to create jobs for our people.

That is why it is also important that this awareness must also be taken inland, because there are rivers that run through our communities – so that they become aware that they need to keep them clean, as those rivers will end up in the ocean. I am optimistic that the number of beaches participating in the Blue Flag campaign is going to increase this year.

In addition to the Blue Flag campaign, we are also implementing the Western Indian Ocean Lab project that deals with ensuring that untreated municipal sewage does not end up in our seas and oceans. This was launched in Madagascar. It will also assist and strengthen our oceans to remain clean and healthy for our people.

We are very proud that 34 of our beaches already have this Blue Flag status and we are the only country outside Europe that has this status. We encourage other municipalities that have not yet started to join this campaign. It will increase the number of our tourists and we will be healthy and the marine resources will be healthy.

Allow me to conclude by thanking our Minister, who has given good leadership and commitment in taking this Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism to the heights where it presently is. I would also like to thank the leadership of the select committee, the chairperson and his committee, for playing an oversight role - sometimes under difficult conditions.

I must extend our gratitude to the MECs for their support in the provinces. We really thank you and the director-general and her staff for tireless efforts and for finding better and innovative solutions to ensure a healthier and safer environment. I will end with this quotation by Wangari Maathai:

In the course of history, there comes a time when humanity is called to shift to a new level of consciousness to reach a higher moral ground, a time when we have to shed our fear and give hope to each other.

The time to do that is now. Thank you, Chairperson. [Applause.]

The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON (Mr T S Setona): Hon members must know that the hon Sogoni is going to make a maiden speech in this House in his new capacity as MEC. Welcome, the floor is yours, hon Sogoni! [Applause.]

Mr M SOGONI (Eastern Cape): Hon Chair, hon Minister and Deputy Minister, hon members, I’m indeed greatly honoured to represent our province for the first time here today. In fact, I know some members might have been thinking that my brother, hon Sogoni, would actually stand up. The limelight belongs to the younger brother today.

I also think hon members might have thought that the bags that are here were brought by me and we have been told that it is the department that brought the bags. I must also acknowledge the presence here of hon Maswale and hon Malgas from the Eastern Cape, as well as the head of department.

The Eastern Cape and the department of economic affairs, environment and tourism in particular welcome the promulgation of the new environmental impact assessment regulations. And we hope that they will facilitate and streamline the entire EIA process.

We have begun to increase our human resource capacity in this area by employing additional environmental practitioners. And I hope that we will also benefit from the EIA unit created by the national department, as announced by the hon Minister. This will confront the problems in situations where the EIA process is being seen as a deterrent rather than a facilitator of economic development and investment.

We look forward to the full economic benefits and to facilitating the effects of the EIA regulations. They will be implemented with efficiency and due consideration, so that economic development can be maximised, but not at the expense of environmental protection.

Mechanisms to protect people against air pollution are vitally important, as we enter the age of industrial development. The Eastern Cape welcomes these initiatives by the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism to ensure progress towards a clean environment, as a constitutional human right. These mechanisms are also built into our draft provincial industrial development plan that is being formulated as part of our provincial growth and development programme.

The introduction and beefing up of capacity in the environmental management inspectorate, the Green Scorpions, is a long overdue development and will be of tremendous assistance to the Eastern Cape province. Enforcement capacity is of critical importance to the affected areas in the Eastern Cape such as Hamburg in the Peddie district and Port St Johns. The province of the Eastern Cape also whole-heartedly applauds these measures.

Our province welcomes Asgisa’s focus on tourism as a vehicle for economic growth and development. Tourism has been established as a new separate programme in our new departmental structure, and is one of the priority programmes in the provincial growth and development programme. Some of our principal tasks are to ensure access to, and to maximise participation of our own people in, tourism. In this regard, we hope to launch the tourism development fund before the end of June 2006.

Arising from the Eastern Cape provincial job summit held in February this year, the province will arrange an important tourism sector summit before the middle of 2007. It would be most useful and beneficial to hold this provincial event after the national department’s tourism skills conference in order to maximise the benefits that will inevitably flow from that experience.

The Wild Coast National Park is now a reality and has been approved by the provincial executive council. This development will have enormous economic growth benefits in the area, which is underdeveloped and economically depressed. However, hon Minister, we would wish to reopen discussions with you on how the province can participate in the development and management of this park. We know that this is a discussion that has been entertained, but we have a strong sense that we may have to go back to that discussion again.

The department of economic affairs, environment and tourism looks forward to engaging the national department on proposed policies in matters related to fishing rights and quotas. The fishing industry has a significant growth potential in the province, with its extensive coastline. Realising that potential will inevitably facilitate investment, grow the economy and generate sustainable jobs.

As the provincial economic growth and infrastructure cluster, we will be working with our social needs cluster colleagues to take advantage of the 2010 World Cup and in maximising the economic benefits that we stand to accrue from that.

Our department and the province join the Minister in celebrating the achievements recorded in our national parks and other protected areas. In this regard, we are proud that our own Addo Elephant Park is part of this list.

We also welcome the introduction of the national register of protected areas, and the envisaged improvement of and expenditure on the parks infrastructure. May I take this opportunity to thank the hon Minister for the leadership that he is providing to all of us. Thank you very much. [Applause.]

Dr F J VAN HEERDEN: Mr Chairperson, I am going to address the House in Afrikaans, not, as is indicated in the speakers’ list, in English.

Die aspek wat ek met die Ministerie wil opneem, val streng gesproke nie in sy trefwydte nie, maar ek meen dit is tog baie belangrik. Dit gaan oor ’n probleem wat die Ministerie ervaar met die jag van wild met behulp van honde, spesifiek in die meer tradisionele inheemse etniese gebiede.

Dit word in daardie plekke hoofsaaklik as ’n sport bedryf en nie soseer vir voedsel nie, en dis belangrik om daarvan kennis te neem. Die motivering en die dryfkrag is ook meer om die spoed van die honde te meet en te toets, en nie soseer ’n begeerte om dood te maak nie. Helaas moet gebruik gemaak word van lewende prooi. Dis van kultuurhistoriese belang en moet beheersd toegelaat word.

Die goed georganiseerde jag neem nou egter ernstige afmetings aan. Tans het dit ’n groot probleem geword omdat daar ’n ernstige dobbel-dimensie bygekom het, soveel so dat tot R100 000 en meer op die hond verwed word wat eerste die prooi neertrek. Jaghonde word tans ook verkoop teen tot R20 000 stuk.

In die Verenigde Koninkryk was daar in die jare 1800 ’n dergelike probleem en dis effektief ondervang deur ’n goed gereguleerde renhondbedryf. Dit het stropery in die Verenigde Koninkryk feitlik geheel en al uitgewis.

In Suid-Afrika is hondewedrenne tans onwettig, maar nogtans het die renhondbedryf ontwikkel in ’n goed georganiseerde en intern gereguleerde bedryf. Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife het by meerdere geleenthede die georganiseerde renhondbedryf genader om ’n oplossing vir die stropery te probeer bewerkstellig, maar die renhondbedryf word tans nog aan bande gelê deurdat wedrenne onwettig is, al is die bedryf self nie onwettig nie.

Die bedryf is geruime tyd al besig om die proses weer ’n keer te wettig en wel by wyse van onderhandelings, en dit sal die behoefte vervul wat bestaan om die renhonde se spoed te meet. Weliswaar is dit ’n aangeleentheid wat, soos ek gesê het, streng gesproke nie hier hoort nie, maar dis nodig dat die Minister kennis neem van hierdie pogings.

Ten slotte ’n baie belangrik vraag aan die Minister, en verskoon my onkunde: ’n baie groot deel van die inkomste van die … [Tusssenwerpsels.] (Translation of Afrikaans paragraphs follows.)

[The matter that I want to raise with the Ministry does not strictly, speaking, fall within his ambit, yet I feel it is nevertheless very important. It deals with a problem that the Ministry is experiencing with regard to the hunting of game with the aid of dogs, especially in the more traditionally indigenous ethnic areas.

This is primarily practised in those areas as a sport and not so much to acquire food, and it is important to take note of this. The motivation and the drive behind this are more to measure and test the speed of the dogs, and not so much a desire to kill. Unfortunately live prey has to be used. It is of cultural historical significance and should be allowed in a controlled manner.

However, well-organised hunting is now reaching alarming proportions. Currently it has become a big problem because a serious gambling dimension has been added, so much so that up to R100 000 and more is being wagered on the dog that brings down its prey first. Racing dogs are also currently being sold for up to R20 000 each.

A similar problem existed in the United Kingdom in the 1800s and was effectively resolved by a well-regulated dog racing industry. This virtually eradicated poaching in the United Kingdom.

Dog racing is currently illegal in South Africa, but the dog racing industry has nonetheless developed into a well-organised and internally regulated industry. Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife has on more than one occasion approached the organised dog racing industry in an attempt to solve the poaching problem, but the dog racing industry is currently still being limited because races are illegal, even though the industry itself is not.

For a considerable time now the industry has been trying to have dog racing legalised by means of negotiations, and this would meet the need that exists to measure the speed of racing dogs. Admittedly this is a matter which, as I have said, strictly speaking does not belong here, but it is necessary that the Minister takes note of these efforts.

Finally, a very important question to the Minister, and pardon my ignorance: a very large portion of the revenue of the … Interjections.]]

The CHIEF WHIP OF THE COUNCIL: Thank you, House Chair. I am very interested in this “dog thing”. Although I think that it belongs to sport and recreation, I just want to know whether the member has consulted the SPCA on that issue.

Dr F J VAN HEERDEN: No, I did not consult the SPCA because it is not necessary, Mr Chairperson. Can I just conclude? It is going to be very brief. It is a very important aspect.

’n Baie groot deel van die inkomste van die batebeslagleggingseenheid word juis verkry uit bates in die vorm van mariene hulpbronne waarop beslag gelê word. ’n Mens wonder maar net hoeveel van hierdie fondse wat só deur die batebeslagleggingseenheid bekom word, word weer gekanaliseer na Omgewingsake, waar dit gebruik kan word vir opheffing en die alternatiewe skepping van bestaansmiddele vir dié mense wat ’n bestaan maak uit die onwettige bedryf van stropery. Ek dank u. (Translation of Afrikaans paragraph follows.)

[A very large portion of the revenue of the Asset Forfeiture Unit is, in fact, obtained from assets in the form of marine resources that have been confiscated. One wonders what proportion of these funds that have been acquired in this way by the Asset Forfeiture Unit are channelled back into Environmental Affairs, where they could be utilised for upliftment and the creation of alternative means of support for those who are making a living from the illegal business of poaching. I thank you.]

The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON (Mr T S Setona): Hon members, at some point we have to make a determination and possibly review our Rules or re-examine at some of the conventions that we have inherited with respect to any subject of discussion in the House, because it has became a permanent thing not to talk on the subject under discussion.

Of course, we do tolerate hon Van Heerden. He is the only member of the FF and he may have a lot of issues. At some point we really have to re-examine that issue regarding everybody in the House, with due respect, hon Van Heerden.

Cllr P TSOTETSI (Salga): Chairperson, Minister, Deputy Minister, MECs of various provinces, officials, representatives of various organisations - if they are here - ladies and gentlemen, I must indicate that I am delighted to be given this opportunity to represent Salga in this important Budget Vote.

We know that Salga is a representative of organised local governments, and one of its roles is to make sure that it interacts and engages with various national and provincial departments. In this regard, we are happy as Salga to indicate that we have been engaging well with the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism on a number of areas. A few of the areas we are engaging on as municipalities, in relation to the state of the environment, are tourism matters, waste management, environmental impact assessment studies, air quality and so forth.

Having said that, I need to remind the House that the local government elections have ushered in new leadership in most cases in our local areas. Having ushered in new leadership, there are expectations that are put forward to this leadership. These expectations are such that this leadership must respond to service delivery in a way that will better the lives of the people.

One of the issues that we will raise with the department is that the capacitating of that leadership and the officials is critical and that we must find a way in which the department, together with Salga, are able to come up with programmes that will help in this regard. As you may have noted, some issues that are in Environmental Affairs and Tourism are of a technical nature, and it will be important for us to have a way of empowering the leadership at that level.

In view of the budget speech, we note that there is progress that has been achieved and there are future plans that are aimed at achieving the objective of improving the lives of the people. We therefore feel the following should be taken into account by the department, in terms of engaging local government regarding taking forward the implementation of the future plans, as raised by the Minister in this budget speech.

With the Deputy President prioritising tourism issues through Asgisa, we believe that the department will constantly engage local government through Salga in skilling relevant officials and politicians, as I have indicated earlier.

The activities around the 2010 Soccer World Cup are expected to put more responsibility on municipalities. In this regard, we acknowledge and we are happy to indicate that issues that were raised in the conference last year in Sun City are issues that help local government understand where we are in relation to this particular matter.

However, we would want to see this matter being taken forward such that municipalities are always engaged so that they are able to understand their role. You will also note that the safety and security of tourists is going to be very critical, with regard to that particular event. The Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism, together with the Department of Safety and Security, needs to engage municipalities in many other areas.

It cannot be disputed that tourism in South Africa is one of the fastest growing industries. However, the majority of our people have not yet adequately benefited from this growth trend. We use the word “adequate” because we noted that many of our people are achieving prosperity but the majority still have to gain from these processes of transformation. Therefore, the transformation process on tourism needs to be speeded up and the third sphere of government needs to be prioritised.

We humbly appreciate the introduction of programmes that will support skills development and the SMMEs, as indicated in the speech. But we must also indicate that these programmes must try by all means to meet the demands that are faced by the youth, women and people with disabilities. It is important that, as we move forward, the programmes raised in the budget speech aimed at developing the vulnerable groups are taken forward in terms of prosperity and bettering their lives.

With reference to the local government session which was led by Italy during the World Summit on Sustainable Development in 2002, that session committed the participants to implement the outcomes of the summit. It also adopted the Local Action 21 approach.

It should be noted that the Millennium Development Goals are the inclusive responsibility for implementation by national, provincial and local government spheres. In short, I would like to mention a few areas where all governments are expected to deliver, viz the eradication of poverty and hunger and the promotion of gender equality and the empowerment of women. We also need to ensure environmental sustainability and combat HIV/Aids, malaria and other diseases.

In order to ensure the proper implementation of the above, the three spheres of government are obliged to work hand in hand, and hand in glove. There is no doubt that co-ordination and interaction amongst the three spheres of government is of paramount importance, in relation to service delivery. In this regard, we appreciate the role played by the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism, Deat, in capacitating the provinces and local governments concerning the regulations pertaining to the environmental impact assessments. It must be noted that, in many cases, this matter is being raised as being a hindrance to development.

After we had noted issues related to the regulations, we then felt that, while we deal with the regulations, we must accept that the applicants themselves do not provide the necessary information when they make applications. As a result, the department will not agree to something if there is not enough information. So, it is critical that the regulations should be of help when dealing with this matter, ie that the EIAs are generally a hindrance to development. We hope that this particular intervention will help in addressing the matter. We value the role played by Deat in capacitating metros and districts, with regard to the air quality management function. We are told that this matter will soon be devolved to metros and districts. We believe that the department has been doing well so far in engaging local governments in this particular matter. We also hope that the capacitation of the metros and districts will take us forward.

Salga further acknowledges the support given by Deat with regard to the industrial waste exchange programme and the capacitation of councillors and officials concerning the integrated waste management training programme. We believe that these programmes should be able to help us respond to the demands that are facing us. We would also like to express our appreciation for the secondment of relevant officials to municipalities by the department, when there is a need for such. We have noted that these things are happening.

I would have raised a number of other issues but seeing that various MECs have already spoken and raised those issues, I do not want to repeat them. But we were happy when we heard the speech of the Minister. The issues that we would have raised seem to have been covered even before we could engage on them. So we appreciate what the Minister has indicated.

In conclusion, local government is a constitutionally recognised sphere of government. In particular, it is responsible for service delivery. And it can only achieve this with the support of the national and provincial spheres of government. That is critical.

This should happen through constant co-ordination and interaction amongst the three spheres of government, guided by the national spatial development framework, provincial growth strategies and the IDPs. In this regard, I have to indicate again that we appreciate the role that is played by the department. We hope that we will continue to build on what is happening within the department. We therefore generally support the Budget Vote.

Ms N P MAGWAZA (Western Cape): Chairperson, hon Minister, hon Deputy Minister and hon members, over the past year, one of the goals of the department of environmental affairs and development and planning has been to entrench sustainable development in the province. Last year the department held a very successful sustainable development conference and it is currently finalising a provincial sustainable development implementation plan.

The department has laid the foundation to achieve the goal of entrenching sustainable development through a number of policy interventions and other initiatives. We are also proud to say we have achieved a number of firsts in the country, at provincial level. Let me just mention a few: the urban edge guidelines; a Status Quo Vulnerability and Adaptation Assessment of the Physical and Socio-economic Effects of Climate Change in the Western Cape; the draft Western Cape integrated energy strategy with the focus on renewables; the 2Wise2Waste initiative; biodiversity management and protection; air quality management; and unlocking the potential of an environment economy.

It has become clear that the negative consequences of many of the current development trends, such as urban sprawl and urban growth, that continue the spatial patterns of apartheid, high water and energy demand, private car usage and waste-generation patterns, will impact on our ability to reduce our ecological footprint. The Western Cape generates 8,8 million m³ of waste per annum - this is equivalent to 36,6 million wheelie bins a year.

Average solid waste per annum per capita is 2 m³ for the high income group, which is also the smallest number of people, who are generating nearly 60% of all solid waste. Thirty per cent is generated by the middle class income group and only 10% by the poor. Five out of six waste sites in Cape Town are on the Cape Flats, which means that the poor community is carrying the brunt of the pollution generated.

Most of the landfill sites are nearly full. Private motor vehicle ownership in Cape Town is at a current ratio of 178 cars per 1 000 people, resulting in an increase in petrol consumption, pollution and congestion. The Western Cape is heading for a water demand and supply crisis. Eighty per cent of the city’s water treatment works do not comply with standards and a number of other municipalities are experiencing serious sewerage capacity constraints.

Fifty-four per cent of the total residential energy consumption is taken up by urban medium to high-income groups; 35% by urban low-income groups; 7% by rural medium to high income groups; and 4% by rural low-income groups. It is clear that our current consumption and waste generation patterns in our province are unsustainable. It is also clear that the consumption and production patterns, especially amongst our high-income groups, have become unsustainable.

Challenges in our province include shortages of water and energy as well as dealing with protracted fire seasons. The citizens of the Western Cape have been jolted out of complacency in recent times. Water, energy and fire have dominated our day-to-day lives and have certainly been a wake-up call to all people in the province. In the past year, we experienced a long dry cycle resulting in the need to enforce water restrictions in a number of municipalities across the province.

In February this year, we experienced the second major power outage in the Western Cape, which had a critical impact on our communities and the economy. The threat of further outages prevails. This past summer, we witnessed a protracted fire season with major human and ecological consequences. We have had a taste of our fragility as a water-constrained, energy-insecure and fire-vulnerable province. The impact of climate change, rapid economic and pollution growth, and inadequate long-term spatial and resource planning, is a reality for us now.

One of our key priorities for the coming year is the unlocking of the potential of the environmental economy and 2Wise2Waste. The 2Wise2Waste project, which started out as a departmental initiative to reduce our own ecological footprint through the Reduce, Reuse and Recycle Programme, will now be catapulted into a province-wide project.

The department is embarking on an initiative to stimulate the the recycling economy and to improve access for the informal sector to the recycling economy. This is the department’s contribution to achieve the target of shared growth and accelerated growth. At the same time, it is to address the need to minimise waste generation due to the landfill-air-space crisis which the province is facing.

With regard to tourism, towards the end of last year, South African Tourism announced that, for the first time in the history of our country, the tourism sector had surpassed gold to become the top earner of foreign exchange. It was also reported that during the 2004-05 financial year, this sector had increased and created 27 000 new direct jobs. Tourism is, without a doubt, a sector with the potential to create many more jobs and alleviate poverty.

The Western Cape government is aware of the importance of tourism in driving our provincial economy. For instance, about 9,6% of our workforce is employed in the tourism sector, that is about 150 000 people. It also contributes about 9,8% to the provincial GDP. It is for this reason that we included tourism in our micro economic development strategy.

Tourism is not only a sector with potential for growth but it can be a useful tool in accelerating broad-based black economic empowerment and alleviating poverty and unemployment. The 2005-06 financial year saw us implementing schemes that sought to develop and promote the tourism sector. Most importantly, during this period we also identified and implemented interventions that would enhance the equity and shared growth that is so pivotal to our general economic development.

Some of the highlights of the past financial year include the following: a tourism business management programme; we built capacity for a total of 801 entrepreneurs during the previous fiscal year; we successfully hosted a tourism youth indaba and awards in Oudtshoorn during 2005; and, of course, we had the tourism safety and security campaign, which seeks to provide assistance to tourists during times of distress while they are on holiday in the Western Cape.

During the 2005-06 festive season, our victim support programme handled 49 incidents of distress involving tourists. One of these was the robbery of a group of German tour operators on a tour bus in Khayelitsha. I am pleased to announce that the tour operators were so impressed with the victim support programme that when they returned to Germany they collected an amount of R72 000 which will be donated to four different township charities in Cape Town.

Based on the success of 2005-06, we look forward to an exciting 2006-07 financial year. There are plans that we have for the financial year. We will, for the first time, implement tourism’s 10-year vision, as outlined in the micro economic development strategy.

This vision is covered in a seven-point plan, which seeks to implement the following big initiatives. We will formulate the integrated tourism development framework. With regard to tourism, safety and security, we have been successful in the past two years in pioneering the victim support programme and the tourists in distress campaign.

As part of a detailed monitoring and evaluation framework, we will be examining the quality of existing attractions, products and services, and the quality of routes … [Time expired.] Mr F ADAMS: Chairperson, I see that my comrade hasn’t used all the time allocated to her, so can I probably use some of that time. Thank you, Chair.

Voorsitter, Minister en Adjunkminister, LUR’e, kollegas en amptenare, ons het beslis rede om fees te vier in Suid-Afrika. Daar was nog nooit ’n beter tyd om ’n Suid-Afrikaner te wees as nou nie. Dink ’n bietjie waar ons tans staan en hoe vinnig ons beweeg het. Twaalf jaar is skaars genoeg tyd vir die veroudering van goeie wyn, Sulliman!

Nogtans het die regering in hierdie 12 jaar van ons Suid-Afrikaanse demokrasie meer gedoen om die menswaardigheid van miljoene mense te verbeter as wat in die voorafgaande dekades gedoen is. Ons aanskou hoe gemeenskappe geïntegreerd ontwikkel, hoe hoop meegebring en hoe nuwe krag gegenereer word deur ons vasbeslotenheid om selfonderhoudbare en suksesvolle gemeenskappe te bou. Suid-Afrikaners se krag lê in die karakter en inbors van sy mense.

Deur die ontberings en suksesse in ons kort geskiedenis van demokrasie is ons mense gevorm om stamina te hê, ’n vasberadenheid om te oorleef en te leef en met wortels wat hulle met diepe lojaliteit in ons land anker. Afgesien van stabiliteit en die afbreek van skeidsmure tussen ons gemeenskappe was die grootste bydrae van hierdie regering tot die toekomstige sukses van ons land die instelling van ’n langtermyn- beplanningshorison en die aandaggee aan die onderliggende oorsake van talle van ons ernstige uitdagings.

In 12 jaar is daar groot suksesse behaal, maar dit is nie genoeg nie. Ons sal harder moet werk, agb Frik van Deventer van die VF Plus, want ons is dit aan ons kinders verskuldig. Ek glo dat daar geen ander keuse is nie as om voort te bou op die hoop en in belang van beide ons huidige en toekomstige generasies moet ons vorentoe beweeg na alternatiewe en volhoubare ontwikkeling vir Suid-Afrika.

Die maatskaplike weefsel van ons vissergemeenskappe is broos. Ek haal aan wat Hermann Melville, die Amerikaanse romanskrywer, in die laat 1800’s reeds verstaan het: (Translation of Afrikaans paragraphs follows.)

[Chairperson, Minister and Deputy Minister, MECs, colleagues and officials, we definitely have cause for celebration in South Africa. There has never been a better time to be a South African than now. Just think where we are now and the quick pace at which we moved. Twelve years is hardly enough time for good wine to mature, Sulliman!

In these 12 years of democracy in South Africa, the government has nevertheless done more to restore the dignity of millions of people than was done in the preceding decades. We are witnessing the integrated development of communities, the way hope is being brought about and how new strength is being generated by our determination to establish self- sustaining and successful communities. The strength of South Africans lies in their character and integrity.

In our short history of democracy, hardships and successes have shaped our people to acquire stamina, determination to survive and to live, and roots that anchor them to our country with deep loyalty. Apart from stability and the removal of barriers between our communities, the greatest contribution of this government to the future success of our country was the establishment of a long-term planning horizon and devoting attention to the underlying causes of many of our serious challenges.

In these 12 years we have had major successes, but that is not enough. We shall have to work harder, hon Frik van Deventer of the FF Plus, because we owe it to our children. I believe that we have no option but to continue to build on the hope and, in the interests of both our present and future generations, we have to move forward to alternative and sustainable development for South Africa.

The social fabric of our fishing communities is fragile. I wish to quote what Herman Melville, the American novelist, already understood in the late 1800’s:]

We cannot live only for ourselves. A thousand fibres connect us with our fellow men; and amongst those fibres, as sympathetic threads, our actions run as causes, and they come back to us as effects.

Yet, the majority of our people, mostly poor, negotiate these trying circumstances that history has dealt them with an admirable sense of dignity, with the barest minimum support they find in the various social and family networks, and displaying a remarkable resilience and tenacity to strive for a better life. These are the people that we seek to empower, around whom we seek to design our interventions, building on their acquired heroism and dignity, not succumbing to a paralysing fatalism. I draw inspiration from the renowned playwright and statesman Václav Havel, who said:

The kind of hope that I often think about, I understand above all as a state of mind, not a state of the world. Either we have hope within us or we don’t. It is a dimension of the soul and it is not essentially dependent on some particular observation of the world or estimate of the situation. Hope is not the conviction that something will turn out well but the certainty that something makes sense, regardless of how it turns out.

What makes sense to me is that our country possesses unlimited potential because our people possess great ingenuity, captured in the prescient photographic essay by Chris Ledochowski, entitled Cape Flats Details, Life and Culture in the Townships of Cape Town – where I stayed all my life, hon Watson: This evocative work narrates the power that resides in the will of our people to survive and invent against the odds and do it in a manner that sustains community dignity and self-worth amid cruelty and violence.

Yet our people find ways of insinuating beauty into their lives. I ask you to notice the carefully tended gardens in the so-called informal areas. I ask you to appreciate the interesting artworks inside areas of recreation. I ask you to feel the rhythm of makeshift bands that continuously reinvent our unique Cape melodies. All I ask is that we store our hope in the belief that if everyone has an opportunity to have their dignity affirmed, they will flourish as members contributing to our work in progress – a better life for all.

There are still those that will resist change, and try to hang onto privilege at all costs. We find that there are those that will continue to object to proposed developments, especially when these developments promote the integration of our towns and cities. We also find some developers who would want to develop at all costs, even though these developments will have a detrimental impact on people and the environment. All of these, of course, are done in the name of job creation.

The exploitation of the desperation of the poor is not acceptable. We will have to look at the quality and sustainability of the jobs and training opportunities provided. The days when poor black people in this country were considered to be hewers of wood is long past. The challenge now is to eradicate poverty and underdevelopment within the context of a thriving and growing first economy and a successful transformation of the second economy. We can only overcome these challenges in the country if we fully embrace the vision of our government. We need to get rid of our fears and our insecurities and develop a sense of pride in our country.

We are bound by a common future. Shared growth depends on development that is sustainable; development and growth that can be maintained over time and that will result in long-term progress and prosperity. Shared growth is people-centred growth; growth that brings us together in unity of purpose and confidence in the future.

Shared growth must be unifying. It means looking at the whole picture and recognising that, to use that time-honoured slogan, hon Krumbock: “An injury to one is an injury to all.” [Interjections.] In addition, shared growth must pursue the goals of spatial equity, through analysing the geographical and physical impediments to growth and redesigning our spatial environment in order to achieve greater economic and social inclusion.

In short, shared growth means that we all need to think outside the box, hon Lamoela. It means that we need to work out solutions and strategies that will create a new and prosperous life for all citizens, within the compass of our greater vision of a better life for all.

Over the past years, I believe that we have indeed begun to make real inroads in transforming the divisive social and economic patterns of our past. It is imperative that we focus our energies on achieving the objectives, as stated by the Minister, within the framework of sustainable growth and development in our country. This indeed is a vital component of our growth and development strategy.

We are learning not to despair or turn our heads away from the poverty and inequity that surround us. We have to begin to grasp that the future is in our hands, provided we all work together and agree on a common direction. We cannot throw up our hands in despair at the work ahead. We cannot afford to become weighed down by minor differences and interpretation, like the DA always does. [Interjections.]

Let us join hands like the freedom-loving South Africans did in Kliptown in 1955 and commit ourselves, as activists for sustainable development, to the challenge that our President set out for the second decade of liberation.

Today we call to mind in this House the 1956 march by women on the Union Buildings, where they made known their intention that women shall not carry passes. In the lead up to 9 August this year, we wanted to honour them by commemorating 50 years of women’s courage, leadership and equality in the struggle for a better life.

They may have marched … I want hon Krumbock and hon Lamoela to listen. Hon Lamoela, take good advice, keep quiet, sit still and listen. [Interjections.] They marched under the black, green and gold of the ANC …

The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON (Mr T S Setona): Hon member, can you address the House through me please.

Mr F ADAMS: … but they did it for all South African women. We owe it to our women and our youth in this country. It is therefore correct that the best way to celebrate and commemorate the struggles of our women and our youth is to prioritise delivery to them, Minister and Deputy Minister.

I believe that we can rise to these challenges in this country. We are one family, one people, united under one South African patriotism. The ANC supports this Budget Vote. I thank you. [Applause.]

The MINISTER OF ENVIRONMENTAL AFFAIRS AND TOURISM: Chairperson, thank you very much for the opportunity to reply. I would like to thank all hon members for the contributions and the quality of the contributions. It’s impossible, obviously, to reply to every request, statement and remark made, but I will react to some of the remarks made by the chairperson, hon members Matlanyane and Vilakazi, and then also react to Mr Krumbock and Mr Van Heerden concerning the long-term fishing rights.

Let me start with the two questions that Mr Van Heerden posed. The first one was on the amount of money that flows back to our coffers from confiscated fishing stocks, boats, cars and diving gear. From the side of Marine and Coastal Management, MCM, R38 million came back in the past financial year. With regard to the Asset Forfeiture Unit, we are discussing the issue with them, as all government departments are, and we hope that, obviously, we will get a huge chunk from what they have confiscated - which is rightfully ours.

With regard to the issue of hunting with dogs, it is actually part of our portfolio. In the last hunting regulations we attempted to deal with that matter, apart from the moratorium that applies to the issue at the moment. It’s actually not a difficult issue. It is an easy issue in the sense that no nation which believes in decent values can ever defend the practice of hunting with dogs or hunting with a bow and arrow as we have had in this country up until recently. Up until we published the regulations, we had in our country the hunting of rhinoceros with a bow and arrow.

No civilised nation should allow and defend those hunting practices. That is why, from the side of government, we felt that it was very important to send a strong signal and to deal with that issue. We intend dealing with that issue. Of course, the only exception where dogs can be used is in tracking or tracking a specific wounded animal. That we make provision for.

Let me deal with the three issues that were raised: the allocation of long- term fishing rights allocation, tourism, and then the environmental impact assessments, EIAs. Maybe I should start with the EIAs. We introduced the system of EIAs in 1997. Since then, we have received 43 600 applications. At the present moment, there is a backlog of 4 000 EIAs at provincial level, not at national level. That is where the real challenge is. It is at provincial level where we have to be quite honest and upfront about how we are going to deal with that challenge.

There are three dimensions to this challenge. The first one is to really bring about total change in the system. The new EIA regulations that will come into effect on 1 July will streamline the process. There are now compulsory timeframes for government. We have increased the thresholds and smaller developments no longer need EIAs.

Colleagues, it’s not easy for any government to commit itself to timeframes, and we have done that: it is about 14 days for administrative actions, 45 days for the next category, and between 60 and 105 days for the really complicated developments. We intend to honour that commitment.

The second challenge is the difficult one and let me first deal with the issue of practitioners. In my speech I referred to the fact that we will, very shortly, be able to recognise one authority, proper standards that are being set for that profession and a code of conduct with teeth.

The third dimension is the really difficult one – capacity. From 1 August, at national level, we will have five times the capacity that we had a year ago. We will be able, at national level, to deal with what we are expected to deal with. At the present moment we are sitting and working out the masterplans and the timeframes with all the other key government departments, for instance the Department of Public Enterprises and Eskom, to make sure that we know when we will receive the applications, and to make sure that we have the capacity to deal with that at provincial level.

There are, in our view, a few provinces that have the capacity to properly deal with EIAs. But, colleagues, it is unacceptable that people apply and wait for one year, two or three years for an answer from government. They deserve an answer – yes or no - because some of them make huge investments and then we don’t deal with the applications. That’s indefensible. We intend to support those provinces that feel that they need support from the side of national government.

It’s in the provinces’ interest and it’s in our interest - that’s one of the units that I referred to. We will deal with that. But we cannot have a situation again in which, as is the case now, although we deal with 50% of applications within a six-month period, about 6,5% to 7% take us longer than a year and sometimes up to three or four years. Nobody can defend that.

Regarding the issue of EIAs - and some members referred to that - let me say that EIAs are very necessary. They are not working against the poor. Environmental impact assessments are there to protect the poor of this country. They make sure that they don’t end up with factories next to them and their children for the rest of their lives, being the victims of certain illnesses.

They are there to protect the poor and their children so that they don’t play on mine dumps, because it’s the only place where they can play. They are for protecting their children so that they don’t have to play in polluted rivers, dams and wetlands. So, EIAs are there to protect the poor people of this country and to find that balance between development and the protection of our environment.

But then, as a government, we must not become party to this new thing where people say EIAs are the scapegoat for something. Let me say quite bluntly: it is nonsense. The problem is developers not submitting the EIA applications at the start of the process when they start working with us. They wait until the very last moment. Two or three weeks before they want to make an announcement or launch something, they then suddenly table the announcement and say EIAs are holding up the process. That is the problem. The EIAs are not the problem. We will make sure, from the side of government, that we deal with that aspect properly.

The second issue I want to deal with concerns the allocation of long-term fishing rights. The hon member is correct: it is a difficult process and a difficult decision to take. Colleagues, I can look all of you in the eye and say that we have delivered what we promised you last year. We said we would return many of the rights to the real fishermen and women in this country. We have done that.

If you look at the allocations, with regard to the West Coast rock lobster and traditional line fish, you will find that we have actually fulfilled that promise. We have honoured our commitment to weed out the non- fishermen: the business people from other provinces and policemen who get a quota. We published the list, not once but twice in some of the fisheries, so that people could come and inspect it and say to us, “That one is not a real fisherman or fisherwoman.” I think you don’t hear that complaint any longer.

What is difficult is the following reality: I referred to some of the statistics in my speech – how the resources are just diminishing and shrinking. But, if you just take the West Coast rock lobster, 30 years ago about 70% of the catches took place between Saldanha Bay and Port Nolloth – more to the north of that part of the coast. At the moment, 90% of the catches take place between Dassen Island and the Cape Peninsula.

The reason is that that resource, the West Coast rock lobster, for reasons that our scientists don’t yet fully understand - we think it has something to do with climate change and the warming of some of the sea currents - is shifting itself around Cape Town up to Kleinmond and Hermanus.

It is a pity that the hon member from the Western Cape – the MEC - is not here, because he should actually help us and work with us. He should help us to go back to people and explain to them that it’s not because this government is one that doesn’t care about people. That’s the reason why we only allocate four rights in the area that he referred to. It is because it will be highly irresponsible of us if we allocate more rights, because nothing will be left for the next generation. In five years, nothing will be left in that area if we allocate more rights. And that is the hard reality.

What the provincial government should understand is that they must now come to the table with other forms of economic development in these coastal regions. We have made a few proposals and are willing to work with them to make sure that we achieve that.

The last issue concerns tourism. Last year, we achieved the target of seven million international visitors to this country. We have always said that is the goal that we would like to achieve and last year it was 8,5 million people. I announced our new targets in the National Assembly earlier this week. We would like to push it up to 8½ million per year. We think that by 2010 we can achieve the target of 10 million international visitors to this country per annum. Actually, I think we could do even better.

One of the members said tourism is the fastest growing sector of the economy, and indeed it is. There is a new challenge for us. Traditionally, we relied on Britain, the Netherlands, Germany, and to some extent the United States, as our key markets, because they were historically the developed markets where we invested money.

They are good markets for us and we must continue to make sure that those tourists come here but we must have a broader vision. That is why we have opened tourism offices in China and Japan. In future, we will concentrate much more on those markets. They are the new markets with potential.

The other one is Africa. People think that the people in Africa don’t have money to travel. We know that that’s nonsense. If you look at the planes from Kenya or Nigeria coming to this country, it’s no longer South Africans travelling there as was the case five years ago. It’s now Kenyans and Nigerians travelling to this country to come and do shopping and enjoy our leisure tourism here.

An interesting new statistic - I referred to that in the National Assembly

• is that the highest spending tourists in this country are no longer the Americans but the Angolans. So let us have a broader vision and really develop that market.

The very last issue concerns the hon member Vilakazi, who referred to domestic tourism, and the hon member Matlanyane as well. We are developing domestic tourism because we understand that if you want a strong tourism market, the domestic part of it must be as strong as the international visitor path.

The Sho’t Left Campaign was a huge success. We will be launching the second phase in July this year. We believe we can get most of those 6 to 7 million South Africans, who are not yet tourists in our country, from the previously disadvantaged communities, because they can afford it. There is still resistance because they haven’t grown up with it, and they don’t know whether, when they come to our parks, they will be treated well or not.

What I am telling you now are real facts. We must convince those people, who can afford to become tourists in their own country, to provide that opportunity to their children and themselves. That market will become the key market for us in future. Thank you for a very good debate. I enjoyed it and thank you for your participation. [Applause.]

The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON (Mr T S Setona): Order, hon members! On behalf of the House, hon Minister and Deputy Minister, we want to thank you, once more. We do acknowledge that it is your constitutional duty and obligation to come from time to time and brief this other House on the work of your department. But, it’s an African way of doing things to say all the time, “Thank you.” We want to say: Thank you.

Debate concluded.

The Council adjourned at 17:25. ____

            ANNOUNCEMENTS, TABLINGS AND COMMITTEE REPORTS

                                ____ ANNOUNCEMENTS:

National Assembly and National Council of Provinces

The Speaker and the Chairperson

1. Classification of Bills by Joint Tagging Mechanism (JTM)

 (1)    The JTM on 8 June 2006 in terms of Joint Rule 160(3) classified
     the following Bills as section 75 Bills:


     (a)     Regulation of Interception of Communications and Provision
          of Communication-related Information Amendment Bill [B 9 –
          2006] (National Assembly – sec 75).


     (b)     Repeal of the Black Administration Act and Amendment of
          Certain Laws Amendment Bill [B 11 – 2006] (National Assembly –
          sec 75).

 (2)    The JTM on 8 June 2006 in terms of Joint Rule 160(4) classified
     the following Bill as a section 76 Bill:


     (a)     Health Professions Amendment Bill [B 10 – 2006] (National
          Assembly – sec 76).

National Council of Provinces

The Chairperson

1. Message from National Assembly to National Council of Provinces in respect of Bills passed by Assembly and transmitted to Council

 (1)    Deeds Registries Amendment Bill [B 5 – 2006] (National Assembly
    – sec 75)


 2) Sectional Titles Amendment Bill [B 8 - 2006] (National Assembly -
    sec 75)


    The Bills have been referred to the Select Committee on Land and
    Environmental Affairs of the National Council of Provinces.

COMMITTEE REPORTS:

National Council of Provinces

1. Report of the Select Committee on Public Services on the National Land Transport Transition Amendment Bill [B 38– 2005] (National Council of Provinces - sec 76), dated 7 June 2006:

   The Select Committee on Public Services, having considered the subject of the National Land Transport Transition Amendment Bill [B 38 – 2005] (National Council of Provinces – sec 76), referred to it and classified by the Joint Tagging Mechanism as a section 76 Bill, reports the Bill with amendments [B 38A-2005].

2. Report of the Select Committee on Social Services on the Older Persons Bill [B 68D – 2003] (National Council of Provinces - sec 76), dated 8 June 2006:

   The Select Committee on Social Services, having considered the subject of the Older Persons Bill [B 68D – 2003] (National Council of Provinces – sec 76), referred to it, recommends that the Bill be rejected.

   The Committee further recommends that the Bill be referred to the Mediation Committee in terms of Joint Rule 186(b).