Hansard: NCOP: Unrevised Hansard
House: National Council of Provinces
Date of Meeting: 05 Jun 2018
Summary
No summary available.
Minutes
TUESDAY, 5 JUNE 2018
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL COUNCIL OF PROVINCES
The Council met at 14:03.
The Deputy Chairperson took the Chair and requested members to observe a moment of silence for prayers or meditation.
NOTICES OF MOTION
Ms T G MPAMBO-SIBHUKWANA: Deputy Chairperson, I give notice that I shall move at the next sitting of the Council on behalf of the DA:
That the Council debates the high rate of women and child abuse in South Africa, with reference to their rights in the Constitution.
Mr J J LONDT: Deputy Chairperson, I give notice that I shall move at the next sitting of the Council on behalf of the DA:
That the Council —
debates the state of the bee industry in South Africa;
further notes that the industry has massive job-creation opportunities, with the country importing close to 2 000 tons of honey, annually, and honey production dropping to 40% of the production levels in the mid 80s; and
also notes this is an industry that requires support to help address high unemployment levels.
Mr O S TERBLANCHE: Deputy Chairperson, I give notice that I shall move at the next sitting of the Council on behalf of the DA:
That this Council—
notes that unemployment in South Africa has reached crisis proportions;
further notes that the situation has worsened over the last decade, with total unemployment at 26,7% and unemployment amongst the youth averaging at 51,95% over the 2013-17 period; and
debates at its next sitting urgent interventions that the government, together with the private sector, should take to grow the economy to create much-needed jobs.
DEMOCRATIC ALLIANCE AND PATRICIA DE LILLE
(Draft Resolution)
Ms E PRINS: Deputy Chairperson, I move without notice on behalf of the ANC:
That the Council —
notes with discontent the continued court battle between the DA and Patricia de Lille caused by the dodgy moves by the DA to get rid of De Lille;
further notes that it is not the first time that a member talks about his or her conditional resignation from the organisations, in particular, the DA, that has crafted a clause overnight to bar De Lille;
also notes that the reasons for the DA to throw her away are not as they are told to be, but the real reason being that De Lille is pro poor and her plight is with the disadvantaged people of this land as far as policy development and service delivery are concerned;
recognises this is part of the DA’s systematic campaign to get rid of blacks from occupying strategic positions, to enable the party to claim back its racist liberal space;
is therefore not surprised by this because of De Lille’s political background, and hopes justice will prevail.
The DEPUTY CHAIRPERSON OF THE NCOP: In light of the objection, the motion without notice will now become a notice of motion.
LAUNCH OF YOUTH MONTH IN SOWETO
(Draft Resolution)
Ms T MOTARA: Deputy Chairperson, I move without notice on behalf of the ANC:
That the Council —
notes that the Minister of Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation, Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, and the National Youth Development Agency launched Youth Month at the Hector Pieterson Memorial, in Soweto, yesterday;
also notes that the Minister urged the youth attending the launch to take part in the economic struggle, as well as the current discussions on land, which she said were interlinked;
further notes that she also stressed the importance of gaining skills and education and encouraged the youth to lead the skills revolution that we are talking about; and
therefore takes this opportunity to congratulate the young people of our country in this month and hopes that they will empower and skill themselves so that they can be suitable future leaders of our country.
Motion agreed to in accordance with section 65 of the Constitution.
CRICKET KUDOS FOR KAGISO RABADA
(Draft Resolution)
Ms Z V NCITHA: Deputy Chairperson, I move without notice on behalf of the ANC:
That the Council —
notes and congratulates fast bowler, Kagiso Rabada, for again sweeping the Cricket South Africa awards with as many as six trophies, when the awards were announced at a function in Sandton, last Saturday evening;
further notes with joy that a young man, aged 23 years, from the disadvantaged community of our country has, once again, registered a mark, not only in cricket, but the entire sport of our country and the world;
also notes that it’s not the first time that currently ranked No 1 in the International Cricket Council’s Test rankings for bowlers, Rabada, wins six trophies, as he did so even in 2016 where he dominated the awards night when he became the first player to win six awards;
also notes that the trophies that he won last Saturday include Cricketer of the Year, Test Cricketer of the Year, ODI Cricketer of the Year, Player’s Player of the Year, Fan’s Player of the Year, and his delivery to send David Warner’s stumps cartwheeling in the Cape Town Test in March this year, fetched him an award too; and
thanks Cricket South Africa and congratulates Rabada – who is here - the recipient of these awards, looking forward to them carrying the flag of the nation in sports through cricket.
[Applause.]
Motion agreed to in accordance with section 65 of the Constitution.
The DEPUTY CHAIRPERSON OF THE NCOP: It was not brought to my attention. However, may I also encourage members to speak into the microphone. It is very difficult to follow if you don’t speak into your microphone.
PRESIDENT CYRIL RAMAPHOSA HOSTS PRESIDENT BRAHIM GHALI IN PRETORIA
(Draft Resolution)
Mr E MAKUE: Deputy Chairperson, I move without notice:
That the Council —
notes that the President of the Republic of South Africa, Cyril Ramaphosa, will host his counterpart, President Brahim Ghali from the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, in Pretoria today;
also notes that the visit by President Ghali will provide an excellent opportunity for the two heads of state to appraise each other on the latest developments in the Western Sahara and Maghreb region in North West Africa;
further notes that both Presidents are expected to exchange views on regional and global issues of mutual concern, particularly peace, security, stability and development in Western Sahara; and
congratulates the two leaders on their positive engagements and wishes them well in their discussions.
Motion agreed to in accordance with section 65 of the Constitution.
CONGRATULATIONS TO THE FOUNDER OF THE 9 MILES PROJECT, MR NIGEL SAVEL
(Draft Resolution)
Ms C LABUSCHAGNE: Deputy Chairperson, I move without notice:
That the Council —
congratulates local Strandfontein resident and founder of the 9 Miles Project, Mr Nigel Savel, for being selected to participate as one of only 46 South Africans, out of 700 African fellows, in the prestigious Mandela Washington Fellowship in the United State of America in June 2018, as part of the Young African Leaders Initiative;
notes that Savel’s 9 Miles Youth Development Programme has expanded to three coastal communities since commencing in 2013, growing from 7 to 82 children in the various locations; and
wishes Savel all the best with his future endeavours.
Motion agreed to in accordance with section 65 of the Constitution.
THE STRUGGLE OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN YOUTH FOR EQUAL AND QUALITY EDUCATION
(Draft Resolution)
Mr O S TERBLANCHE: Deputy Chairperson, I move without notice:
That the Council —
observes the fact that the South African youth still struggles for equal and quality education, as well as skills development; and
debates this unresolved issue at its earliest possible convenience, as the nation is about to commemorate the 42nd anniversary of the 1976 uprising on 16 June this year again.
Motion agreed to in accordance with section 65 of the Constitution.
CONGRATULATIONS TO MARTLEY BAAYMEN AND GEORGAN KIEWIET FROM GROOTBRAK
(Draft Resolution)
Mr J J LONDT: Deputy Chairperson, I move without notice:
That the Council —
congratulates two young men from my constituency who will be participating in the Craven week during July in Paarl;
Afrikaans:
kennis neem dat die twee jong manne van Grootbrak is Martley Baaymen, wat haker speel, en Georgan Kiewiet, wat Skrumskakel speel;
English:
notes that the two young men and hundreds of other young boys will live out their dreams and follow in the footsteps of many current and former greats who also represented their provinces at the Craven week, such as our new Springbok Test Captain, Siya Kolisi; and
wishes all the young men all the best and may they play the game in a good spirit, make friendships and set an example for future generations.
Motion agreed to in accordance with section 65 of the Constitution.
SMILE WEEK HOSTED BY TYGERBERG ACADEMIC HOSPITAL, IN CONJUNCTION WITH THE SMILE FOUNDATION
(Draft Resolution)
Ms L C DLAMINI: Deputy Chairperson, I move without notice:
That the Council —
notes that the Tygerberg Academic Hospital, in conjunction with the Smile Foundation, will host the Smile Week, which will see 11 children receiving cleft lip and palate surgery, which will change their lives forever;
also notes that the 11 surgeries happening this Smile Week are assisting more children than would typically receive support during a normal theatre slate week;
further notes that the surgeries were made possible through Smile’s partnership with Big Shoe foundation in Germany, who have soccer players namely Mesut Ozil from Arsenal and Paul Pogba from Manchester United as ambassadors and together, they helped to raise the money; and
congratulates Tygerberg Academic Hospital and the Smile Foundation on the important work they are doing by putting smiles to these young faces.
Motion agreed to in accordance with section 65 of the Constitution.
CONSIDERATION OF REPORT OF SELECT COMMITTEE ON CO-OPERATIVE GOVERNANCE AND TRADITIONAL AFFAIRS IN LOCO – INSPECTION IN TERMS OF SECTION 139 (1) (B) OF THE CONSTITUTION IN INKOSI LANGALIBALELE LOCAL MUNICIPALITY
Mr M J MOHAPI: Hon Chair, Ministers, Deputy Ministers, special delegates, hon members, in particular, the Chief Whip, allow me to present the Report based on the unanimous decision taken by the select committee. Just to put a hider on what I have said hon Khawula, you would recall that in Nquthu, the same approach was used when we were dealing with the issue of intervention, the committee
unanimously agreed. I want to place it in record because some time to time as we know we debate or put issues we would always distort issues.
Without any waste of time allow me to present the Report based on section 139 of the Constitution around Inkosi Langalibalele local municipality. The current intervention in terms of section 139 (1)(b) of the Republic, in respect of Inkosi Langalibalele local municipality is considered an appropriate measure to enable the municipality to regain full recovery and functionality.
This intervention is resultant from a series of dysfunctions that emerged in this new municipality, subsequent to the merger of the former Imbabazane and Umtshezi local municipalities in KwaZulu-Natal after the 2016 local government elections. Imbabazane local municipality, one of the poorer municipalities in KwaZulu-Natal, had been under intervention in terms of section 139 (1) (b) of the Constitution in recent years.
In the period leading to the 2016 local government elections, in view of its poor performance its over-reliance on government grant funding and subsequent the recommendations of the Municipal Demarcation Board, it merged with Umtshezi local municipality, an
erstwhile good performing municipality in KwaZulu-Natal. It had been the government’s hope that upon the merger, the new municipality, Inkosi Langalibalele would perform even better. Contrary to this expectation, the new municipality since its inception regressed alarmingly to the extent that its ability to execute its Constitutional role and mandate was at stake, as a non-performing, unstable municipality in terms of the four pillars or Key Performance Areas of the Back-to-Basics Programme.
This accordingly triggers a new local government debate as to whether a merger of a poorly performing municipality with a narrow tax base, Imbabazane with a good performing municipality Umtshezi, is necessarily an answer to the challenges facing poorly performing and predominantly rural-based municipalities. Alone, these municipal mergers call for a more scientific research and methodology such that municipalities’ resultant from these mergers do not instead deteriorate or regress, both in terms of financial capability, good governance and accountability, management and political leadership capacity to the extent of necessitating intervention in terms of the provisions of section 139 of the Constitution. The KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Executive Council cites a number of prohibitive challenges, which have resulted into a state of dysfunction of
Inkosi Langalibalele as briefly highlighted per Key Performance Areas hereunder.
Under the municipal transformation and institutional development, there are dispute about municipal pay-parity of employees.
Institutional capacity of Inkosi Langalibalele municipality is a challenge. Huge, unaffordable salary and wage bill of 54% threshold, above the prescribed norm of 25 to 40% and, the absorption of 200 casual employees and appointment of 41 bodyguards.
In terms of good governance and public participation, it is one of the key performing areas that we are also looking upon the assessment of the municipality. Around the municipal financial viability and management, its one issue that we are also taking into consideration around it, we look at the insufficient funds to pay for fixed monthly operations and expenditure. There has been an improper use of conditional grants to finance its operational expenditure. The inability to pay its creditors is also one of the challenges and the inability to manage its financial affairs.
On the basic service delivery, there has been an inability to spend the Municipal Infrastructure Grant allocation and other conditional grants. There has been an inability to complete projects related to
electrification of households. And there has also been a notice of inability to provide sufficient tools of trade and equipment for service delivery.
As the select committee, after taking consideration of the inputs and the Report, we have observed the following: we noted compliance with all constitutional and procedural aspects; observed and noted with great concern the R69 million debts owed by the government departments and, we also noted with serious concern the contracting of 41 bodyguards and the complex nature of local municipal councillor’s safety.
The select committee having conducted it’s in loco-inspection Inkosi Langalibalele local municipality, accordingly recommends the following to the NCOP: that we approve the notice of intervention in terms of section 139(1) (b) of the Constitution and that the MEC of the Department of Co-operative Government and Traditional Affairs provides quarterly and exit Report to us as the NCOP; agree that the select committee should conduct proactive oversight in collaboration with the Portfolio Committee on Co-operative Government and Traditional Affairs; the select committee should ensure monitoring and adherence to the intervention terms of reference turn-around plan by applying Rule 91 of the NCOP. Lastly, that the NCOP calls
upon the administrator together with South African Local Government Association, SALGA to fast track the process of resolving pay parity.
We therefore recommend that the NCOP approves the recommendations as stipulated.
Debate concluded.
Question put: That the Report be adopted.
Voting [TAKE IN FROM MINUTES]
Report accordingly adopted in accordance of section 65 of the Constitution.
CONSIDERATION OF REPORT OF SELECT COMMITTEE ON CO-OPERATIVE GOVERNANCE AND TRADITIONAL AFFAIRS IN LOCO – INSPECTION IN TERMS OF SECTION 139 (1) (B) OF THE CONSTITUTION IN MPOFANA LOCAL MUNICIPALITY
Mr M J MOHAPI: Hon Chair, once again, for the record hon Khawula, the select committee unanimously agreed to adopt the report as I will be presenting it like we did in Nquthu.
The KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Executive Council on 18 December 2017, tabled notice of intervention at Mpofana Local Municipality in terms of section 139 (1)(b) of the Constitution. The Office of the Chairperson of the National Council of Provinces referred the notice for the attention of the select committee in compliance with the rules of NCOP, in particular, Rule 101.
Accordingly, the select committee embarked on an oversight visit to the above mentioned municipality on 24 May 2018 in order to interact with all critical stakeholders before it makes its own determination. For the record, Mpofana Local Municipality is one of the poorly performing and poorly led municipalities in KwaZulu- Natal. During the period before the 2016 local government elections, it has just been resuscitated from dissolution in terms of the provision of section 139 (1)(c) of the Constitution of the Republic.
It is very clear Chair that the new Municipal Council subsequent to the 2016 local government elections has not been able to obtain an appropriate foothold with regard to municipal institutional
leadership capacity, management capability, its management, control and political environment has not been conducive to good municipal governance with resultant unsatisfactory service delivery and unstable municipal environment.
The deteriorating standard of municipal performance coupled with its poor financial management capability, poor revenue collection, rising debt crisis as well as inability to fund its daily operations led into the need for another intervention being instituted in order to rescue the municipality from its current state of regression.
Chair, during oversight, interaction with the KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Department of Co-operative Government and Traditional Affairs, Gogta, as well as local stakeholders, which all supported the intervention, revealed a series of prohibitive challenges affecting the functionality of the municipality, in particular, the PEC cites the municipality’s inability to execute its constitutional mandate as required in terms of the four pillars of the government’s Back to Basics, B to B.
Some of the challenges tabulated, are categorised as:
Failure to fill critical vacant posts; appointment of an Acting Chief Financial Officer, CFO, who did not possess the required
skills and necessary experience; and failure to appoint a Municipal Manager.
On issues of good governance there has been a failure to implement the Code of Conduct for Councillors; there has been an inability to hold municipal management accountable for poor performance; there is also been a failure to implement the Auditor-General’s recommendations in response to the findings made during audit of the municipality; and there has been dysfunctionality of the Municipal Public Accounts Committee.
On the issues of the municipal financial viability and management, the municipality received a disclaimer of audit opinion for both the 2015-16 and 2016-17 financial years; there has been an inability to meet its monthly financial obligations and operating commitments totalling R8,6 million; there has been an inability to pay its creditors within the 30 days stipulated as required in terms of the Municipal Financial Management Act, MFMA; and there has been inability to collect revenue as well as weak credit control and debt collection.
Chair, on the basis of basic service delivery, the municipality only managed to spend less than 10% of its Municipal Infrastructure
Grant, MIG. There is also been a record of inability to implement its projects.
Chair, during oversight at Mpofana Local Municipality, the select committee noted the overall support of the intervention by local structures of political parties and other stakeholders with others advocating for dissolution of the Municipal Council in terms of section 139 (1)(c). Having regard to the support of the intervention, progress reported by the department and the administrator coupled with the need to rescue the municipality from its current dysfunctions, the select committee noted the following: Adherence to all constitutional and procedural requirements relating the intervention; the concerns raised the youth forum; concerns raised by SA Local Government Association, Salga, about an integrated approach to the support provided to municipalities and intervention; the rising amount of debts owed to Mpofana Local Municipality by State Sector Departments; and the commissioning of a forensic investigation in terms of section 106 of the Municipal Systems Act.
Having conducted the in loco inspection and interacted with both internal and external stakeholders, the select committee recommends the following to the NCOP:
That the NCOP approves the notice of intervention at Mpofana Local Municipality in terms of section 139 (1)(b) of the Constitution; that the MEC responsible for local government table a progress report to the NCOP regarding investigations conducted at Mpofana Local Municipality in terms of section 106 of the Municipal Systems Act; that the MEC provides quarterly and exit reports to the NCOP on the progress made in respect of this intervention; that the select committee should conduct proactive oversight in collaboration with the Portfolio Committee on Co-operative Government and Traditional Affairs; and that the select committee, in conclusion, should ensure monitoring of adherence to the Terms of Reference as well as the turnaround plan by applying Rule 91 of the NCOP.
I move that the NCOP approves the recommendations as stipulated. Thank you.
Debate concluded.
Question put: That the Report be adopted.
IN FAVOUR: Eastern Cape, Free State, Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal, Limpopo, Mpumalanga, Northern Cape, North West, Western Cape.
Report accordingly adopted in accordance of section 65 of the Constitution.
The DEPUTY CHAIRPERSON OF THE NATIONAL COUNCIL OF PROVINCES: Hon
members, before we proceed, let me welcome Ministers and Deputy Ministers present in the House and say that you are heartily welcomed. I therefore call Minister Nathi Mthethwa to introduce the debate. Oh! I am so sorry. I jumped the procedure. For record purposes, the secretary will read Third and Fourth Orders of the day.
APPROPRIATION BILL
(Policy debate)
Vote No 37 – Arts and Culture:
The MINISTER OF ARTS AND CULTURE: Deputy Chair, chairperson of the select committee, hon members, distinguished guests, members of the media, ladies and gentlemen, comrades and friends, I want to extend my warmest greetings to all of you present here. It gives me great joy to appear before this august body to interact with the representatives of our people.
This centenary is Madiba and Ma Albertina Sisulu centenary under the theme “be the legacy”. Had the two lived, they would have turned 100 years this year. This also marks the 40th anniversary of the untimely passing of the patriot and combatant of African liberation, Prof Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe. These giants of our country and our struggle lived because they had surrendered their very being to the people. They lived because their very being embodied love, an idea, hope, aspiration and vision of a collective destination.
Talking about our giants and legends, we want to congratulate Ladysmith Black Mambazo for their 5th Grammy award this year. [Applause.] This is supported by their 19th Grammy Awards nomination. This group, under Prof Joseph Shabalala, held the South African flag high across the globe. We agreed with their proposal to have a Ladysmith Black Mambazo mobile academy, and we will be embarking on this with them.
It is important to also note and acknowledge that in our country we have the glaring reality we have to deal with. Those are the challenges we have to face. If you look at the programme of the department, the institutional governance, which deals mainly with social cohesion and nation-building, the reality is that South Africa was conquered by force. For almost 400 years, it was ruled by
force until 1994. However, this does not justify any form of brutality, hence the focus on nation-building and social cohesion.
In confronting the pernicious ideology of racism, the department focused on the following pillars: ensuring education of our people against racism; asserting mobilisation of the people against the scourge of racism; and regulating unwanted behaviour working with the Department of Justice in the country.
The South African reality is that society remains fragmented, and this is accentuated by incidences of femicide, killings of people with albinism, emerging practices of cannibalism, abuse of drugs by the youth and many other social ills. In this regard, social cohesion advocates are active in pursuing cases against perpetrators of killings of people with albinism.
We have also reintroduced and re-energised the moral regeneration movement, MRM – the RDP of the soul. We hope that with its re- energising, we will be able to deal with the moral decay in our society.
The Charter of Positive Values is central to the work of MRM. Accordingly, the Department of Arts and Culture supported MRM
programme of ethical leadership in partnership with Salga. Our support extended to MRM programmes across ideological divide, especially on the Code of Election Ethics.
The 2012 Social Cohesion Summit in Kliptown was a milestone of its kind in bringing leaders from all backgrounds together and adopted a declaration. A follow-up summit of 2015 in Port Elizabeth gave impetus to the declaration because of its practical approach to engaging society in the discourse of social cohesion. In this context, conversations on this important area were extended to communities, meaning beyond academic spaces. In the past three years there have been over 100 conversations across the nine provinces of the country.
The department developed themes for conversations, and it became apparent that people are generally interested in discussing issues that affect them on daily a basis. For example, people were concerned about issues and levels of unemployment, service delivery, crime, etc. Some of the dialogues focused on the topical issue of racism, xenophobia and the likes.
National symbols of the country should remain central in the promotion of patriotism. In this regard, the department has printed
the passport of patriotism booklet to educate our people about national identity. The continuous distribution of the booklet is about speeding up the programme to heighten awareness and consciousness.
The passport is widely distributed at national events and also constitutes an important part of Life Orientation curriculum in schools. This education also includes protocols on the handling of national flags. In addition, the national flag has been hoisted in more than 80% of our schools in the country.
National days are one most important tool for social cohesion. Here, hon members, we note that there has been criticism that these national days become an African affair and people raising an issue around political affiliation. If 21 March this year is anything to go by, I think we are to see change because we had people across the colour line and political divide. That is the kind of reflection we want to see out of these days.
The department has been able to undertake the cultural seasons programme to China and Russia, and later this year Brazil will kick- start. India will be the focus of the next season towards the end of the financial year. On the continental front, the cultural seasons
have been successful in Algeria and Gabon. The next countries scheduled for the seasons are Angola, Kenya and Ghana. This is more about the exchange of cultural products from one country to the other. We also have a long-standing relationship with western Sahara in the film industry.
Africa month is about celebrating the founding of the Organisation of African Unity - now African Union - on 25 May 1963. It also provides an opportunity to reflect on the philosophies and values of the founding fathers and pioneers of the continent, including Kwame Nkrumah, Haile Selassie, Abdel Nasser, Leopold Sedar Senghor, and many other great leaders. It focuses on Africanness, African unity, African identity and pride.
During the past three years, the programme for Africa month has been extensive in the sharing of perspectives about the continent through the hosting of colloquia at institutions of higher learning in villages and townships. It is also about showcasing the kaleidoscope of cultural activities of the continent in various communities. Some of the prominent scholars that graced our colloquia during the past three years were Prof Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o, Prof Wole Soyinka, Prof Ben Okri and Prof Nuruddin Farah. Tomorrow I will be hosting Prof Fanon in Inanda, KwaZulu-Natal, for this year.
The cultural development branch is central to the transformation of the culture sector known as the Cultural and Creative Industry. We have mainly three areas: the Mzansi Golden Economy, which is mainly about the funding of the sector, touring ventures and ensuring that people who have ideas are supported, particularly in the public arts space. As part of Mzansi Golden Economy, the arm of the SA Cultural Observatory, we also launched the Art Bank in the Free State last year.
On touring ventures, for instance, the programme supported 78 projects across the country to the tune of R26 million. Some of these projects were international tours while others were local. As an example, the late Lucky Dube’s daughter, Nonkululeko Dube, is among those supported. She performed with her band in Jamaica at the Rebel Salute Reggae Festival in honour of her father, telling the South African story and celebrating reggae music. As a result of the support, she and many others received bookings to perform at festivals in Brazil, Salvador Bahia and also in Germany at the Reggae Jam Festival. These touring ventures expose our youth to many people around the world.
We also have the incubator programme - a total of 2 961 young artists who have produced and staged more than 30 new sets of
productions and have launched cultural enterprises in various disciples.
We also have a programme of the living legends. Since the programme was initiated in 2015, the living legends participated in more than
100 public programmes and impacted on more than 2000 participants ranging from master classes, colloquiums, guest lectures and incubator workshops at community art centres and public entities across the country. They have influenced, shaped and shared their skills, knowledge and African wisdom largely with the youth. Part of the initiative is to engage the living legends actively in programmes that promote arts and culture development as well as provide opportunities for interaction and impart skills, knowledge and experience to younger generations.
In the film industry it’s important to note that this is one area which has assisted a lot of countries in their economic development. You would know of Hollywood, Bollywood and Nollywood. We instituted research through our research arm on our own Sollywood because we believe that South Africa can grow bigger in this area, and we have all the potential to do that. Accordingly, South Africa has to claim its place in this particular industry.
Our research arm, which I spoke about earlier on – the SA Cultural Observatory, which is the momentum behind all as the sector nerve centre that develops, collects and analyses cultural data across the sector - is significant. The mapping study was conducted in 2017-18, which shows that in 2016, the GDP contribution of the sector was estimated at R63, 385 billion, which represents around 1,7% of the total GDP in the country. This percentage increases nominally to 5,7%, which is R233 billion if the multiplier effect is factored into the equation.
On employment, cultural occupations made up 2,52% of jobs in South Africa in both cultural and noncultural industries in 2015.
Including noncultural support occupations, the sector employed 4,2%. Altogether, the creative economy accounts for 6,72% jobs in South Africa.
On trade with Brics, the country’s exports of cultural goods accounted for 0,46% of South Africa’s total commodity exports in 2016 while imports accounted for 0,66%. A significant driver of this trend rested on the performance of visual arts and crafts domain, and also due to growth of performance and celebration and audio- visual and interactive media.
We are also in the process of launching our own publishing house as the state because we have seen how budding writers are suffering and struggling on this front.
On the heritage branch, the democratic South African story is incomplete without transformation of our heritage landscape. Therefore, preservation and promotion of heritage serves the dual purpose of understanding the genesis of the liberation history as people and the shaping of the future we want to see. Young people of our country have taken the initiative to undo public symbols that represent our repressive past, and thus seeking support for the nation-building project that the democratic dispensation espouses.
In this context, it remains our responsibility to properly educate against vandalising and destroying heritage infrastructure. Ours is to expose our people to new models, managing symbols of our painful past and illuminating symbols that posit nationhood and give energy in building the future.
On languages, we have about 500 students whom we supported through scholarships in seven universities in the country – Wits university, University of Cape Town, University of North West, etc. These for us are important because languages, especially indeginous languages,
are important to promote. Therefore, we find it important to ensure that the youth is given the opportunity.
As I conclude, Chair, South Africa hosted the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions, Ifla, conference in 2015. I must say that this year, our own library in South Africa is turning 200 years. [Applause.] During the conference, the department, in collaboration with Ifla, hosted the ministerial preconference meeting which adopted the Cape Town declaration. The African Library and Information Associations and Institutions committed to champion and monitor the implementation of the declaration and report to the Minister the continental developments in the library and information services sector.
I must also mention that South Africa - on the whole continent - is the only country which has a library for the blind. Countries on the continent appreciate the utilisation of our own library. [Applause.] We are rolling out libraries across the country. This year we are rolling out 29 libraries across the country.
We will host a follow-up ministerial meeting with African Ministers responsible for Arts, Culture and Heritage. The meeting will be held from 5 to 6 July 2018 in Durban. The purpose of the meeting is to
develop a coherent plan in terms of which African countries will commit to enhance the state of libraries. I must say that since we hosted the international library here three years ago, it had to move to another province. It will be moving to other provinces as well.
It is important to note that countries on the continent have to work very hard to have world heritage sites. In the world today we have 1073 world heritage sites declared. In South Africa we only have 10. In some countries like Angola they only have one. So, what it means is that we need to work very hard to ensure that the world understands our country by ensuring that we support the sites we declared as world heritage sites. We are doing this in line with our dossier which we are putting before Unesco later this year for the Nelson Mandela Legacy Sites. The event will take place on 29 June in Bahrain. The following sites have been nominated: Waaihoek, Mqekezweni, Constitution Hill, Sharpeville, Lilies-leaf, Fort Hare, Union Buildings, Ohlange, June 1976 Routes and Walter Sisulu Square.
Thank you for your attention.
The MINISTER OF SPORT AND RECREATION: A very good afternoon to you, Deputy Chairperson of the NCOP, my Cabinet colleague, Deputy
Minister of Sport and Recreation SA, hon Gert Oosthuizen, chairperson of the select committee, hon Zwane, and all the select committee members, chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Sport and Recreation and other members who are here with us, special delegates here, the Director-General of the Department of Sport and Recreation, and as indicated, the invited guests that we pride ourselves in, amongst them, Kagiso Rabada.
As we deliver this Budget Vote no 40 of our Medium-Term Expenditure Framework, MTEF, we wish to remember some of our forgotten sporting heroes; heroes whose gallant deeds were suppressed by the brutal apartheid regime to never be appreciated by this nation. These are the heroes that apartheid South Africa had taught its children to never recognise and celebrate. We therefore take this opportunity to bow to them. Remember Len Taunyane and Jan Mashiane who were South Africa's future Olympians and who participated in the St Louis Games during the Fédération Internationale de Football Association, Fifa, Fair at the 1904 Olympics. They were, in many ways, the trailblazers of yesteryear and who showed their dedication and gave their all towards ensuring that the plight of the African was noted by the world.
Apartheid was in many ways a terrible system that dehumanised people. When the apartheid sports plan was introduced in 1956, it laid a solid foundation for the exclusion of black people from mainstream participation in sport and recreation. Our history of sport project unearths the stories and heroic deeds of these black athletes of yesteryear and ensures that their memory and legacy is never forgotten. [Interjections.] Members, you must go and view our Sport in struggle exhibition.
The DEPUTY CHAIRPERSON OF THE NCOP: Order, hon members!
The MINISTER OF SPORT AND RECREATION: It is the suffering of these athletes under apartheid and many other irritations such as the pass laws, the Separate Amenities Act and the infamous Group Areas Act that led the stalwarts of our liberation movement, such as tata Nelson Mandela, to fight for the liberation of the black majority.
As we observe and celebrate the centenary of Nelson Mandela, there could never have been a fitting tribute to this late father of our nation than to honour his legacy, correct the wrongs of the past and contribute to his vision of a nonracial, nonsexist and a prosperous nation united in its diversity.
Accordingly, our programmes and efforts are premised on the tenets of outcome 14 of our government, and most importantly, on the output related to social cohesion and nation-building. These are important tenets that Nelson Mandela and mama Sisulu truly believed in and worked tirelessly to achieve.
Also, in honour of Isitwalandwe/Seaparankwe, tata Andrew Mlangeni, the Andrew Mlangeni Green Jackets programme will be held again this year. This programme was established in 2011 to recognise men and women who have excelled in sport, either as a player or as an official. The recipients are rewarded with a sought-after Andrew Mlangeni green jacket in recognition of their sporting prowess and achievements in their day.
As we mark the centenary life of mama Nontsikelelo Albertina Sisulu
— the fearless pathfinder of our democracy, a human right’s activist and a champion of women’s rights — we are celebrating this giant of our revolution under the theme: A woman of fortitude. We do so, recognising her courage, discipline, integrity and love for her country.
As we celebrate under a very bad spell, where our young women die at the hands of their partners who claim to love them, we as leaders of
our nation must continue the fight against women killings and ensure that South Africa remains a nonracial and nonsexist country whose prosperity belongs to all who live in it.
We have put together a team to develop a, Women in Sport policy, by this year. [Interjections.]
Listen, hon member!
Even with regard to the International Association of Athletics Federations, IAAF, matter, we have constituted a high-level panel that will challenge the newly-reviewed regulations which will affect women participating in athletics. Overall, we are also reviewing our case for sport and recreation in South Africa because we believe that sport has power to unite; it has power to contribute to the economy; it can create jobs; and it can contribute to a healthy nation.
Following our baseline reductions in December 2017, the department was compelled to review targets planned over the MTEF as well as to reconsider the project delivery modalities envisaged. As the largest baseline reduction was taken from mass participation, it affected
the numbers because from the target of 1 000 000 people we are down to 600 000 people for 2018-19.
Our budget of R1 billion this year, indicting a 2,19 per cent growth, is allocated to different programmes. One of them is for the support and provision of mass participation opportunities in sport. The other is for support and development of elite athletes. We also have a programme to develop and support an integrated support system to enhance the delivery of sport as well as the provision of sport and recreation facilities.
Furthermore, provinces have been allocated the following amounts. The Eastern Cape receives R67 million; Free State receives R95,986 million; Gauteng receives R85,482 million; KwaZulu-Natal receives R98,739 million; Limpopo receives R67,679 million; Mpumalanga receives R46,463 million; the North West receives
R41,855 million; the Northern Cape receives R31,389 million; and the Western Cape receives R52,843 million.
One of our keg pillars is transformation. Sport is a key catalyst for social cohesion and nation-building. We believe that fairness will not be achieved until we have levelled the playing field in the
provision of equality of opportunity for all South Africa's children.
On this path, we first have to ensure equity in sport, where all potential participants are fully empowered to be able to participate. Therefore, the quality of opportunity is essential to redress past imbalances. These beliefs we hold dear and they constitute the cornerstone of our approach and philosophy to the transformation in sport processes.
We do not mince our words with regard to this. Transformation of South Africa’s society is a key imperative. South Africa is undergoing a renewal - a new dawn - a period of hope. It's this new dawn of change that reverberates across all sectors of our society. Sport is no different. The sport sector also has to cleanse itself of all the negativities of the past. The sporting bodies, including the private sector, should also shag their tags and labels as pariahs that resist change and transformation. They should become part of the solution to embrace this new dawn. This new dawn provides us with an opportunity to further deepen the vision of tata Nelson Mandela and the building of this diverse nation as a cohesive nation for the purpose of achieving equality and prosperity. The true spirit of the clarion call made by our President Cyril
Ramaphosa, of thuma mina, implies that we rededicate ourselves and all our efforts to ensure that we are at the forefront of all efforts to help us achieve transformation. Section 13 of the National Sport and Recreation Act ensures greater compliance. We have already given a ministerial directive and our Eminent Person's Group, EPG, report indicates that our national federations are meeting their annual thresholds. However, our greatest concern is more on the five-year cumulative targets. To this extent, we impress upon national federations to devise plans on how they will meet these targets. They will be required to submit written plans and undertakings on how they will make up for the shortfall in the targets.
We also welcome seven new national federations that have signed up for the transformation agreements and we will provide political support and guidance to them.
School sport is a form of our sustainable transformation. We recognise that school sport is the bedrock of the entire development continuum. We continue to improve on this and we have accelerated the training of teachers as coaches, working with the Sport Coaches’ Outreach, Score, programme. We have signed the memorandum of agreement with Basic Education, which is also going to make sure
that we ensure that schools participate and we can grow the sustainability of our transformation interventions. Later this year we will launch the play sport manual, to assist with the training of teachers in early childhood development centres. This will offer better nurturing of the motor development skills for children at this formative stage.
Sport federations have been allocated about R179 million and all of them ... In consultation with the SA Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee, Sascoc, we will continue to prioritise federations and ensure that these federations are capacitated to optimally deliver their programmes to realise the sector’s vision of an active and winning nation.
As part of our departmental efforts, we have a federation intensive support programme, and our leagues for netball, basketball, hockey and amateur boxing have been assisted. They have national federations and there is positive impact that has been indicated, and the programme continues this year because last year the allocation assisted us to have an inaugural volleyball league that we held in Durban this year.
This year in our allocation for 2018-19, softball will be the recipient of this extra support. We want to establish a softball league. With regard to the other federations like netball and volleyball, we will continue to support them this year. Netball has done very well and is currently running the Brutal Fruit Netball League. We invite hon members to support them. The finals are on
17 June this year. They are number five in the whole world. [Interjections.] It’s in Pretoria ... Tshwane. I'm proud to announce that Softball SA has been declared the Federation of the Year for 2018-19.
Again, in our efforts, volleyball, football and netball will be supported this year to participate in the BRICS Games to be held in Durban or Johannesburg, between 18 and 22 July, this year. This is an intergovernmental collaboration to promote sport, amongst others, by the BRICS countries. We intend hosting the BRICS Sports Council and finalise the BRICS Sports Charter that will allow rotation of the BRICS Games every four years. It will also allow our athletes to participate and have ground to train on in these countries.
The SA National Defence Force, SANDF, the SA Police Service and the Department of Correctional Services have been approached to support talented athletes at their respective infrastructures. Operation
Victory Lap has been initiated in partnership with the SANDF and it will therefore assist us by allowing our athletes to participate. We hope to finalise our memorandum of understanding this year.
Furthermore, with regard to our interventions, we want to improve access to participation opportunities by developing facilities for our rural areas and townships, and we have approved a national facilities plan which has got norms and standards for the building of sports facilities. We are now linking this roll-out programme to our new approach of having focused nodes linked to specific sport codes. Our approach is informed by the imperative of starting where we are strongest in terms of the codes and have a greater footprint or foothold. Accordingly, provinces have been requested to identify codes they are strong in and wherein they have greater presence so that it assists us in the reprioritisation of our work in line with our focus. These facilities will accommodate clusters of schools and multicodes, and they will be accessible to communities.
Our rural sport is therefore integrated as part of this infrastructure approach and we are very happy that we are working with the National House of Traditional Leaders. We have enlarged our footprint to more traditional councils this year, expanded from two to five sporting codes in each of the traditional councils that
we’ll be playing with, and we hope that it will build more on the
1 960 participants who have benefitted out from this in the previous years. We have very positive developments and successes that we can talk to about this.
The DEPUTY CHAIRPERSON OF THE NCOP: As you conclude, Minister.
The MINISTER OF SPORT AND RECREATION: As I conclude, we also wish to recognise, reward and honour pockets of excellence and distinction in our quest to celebrate our champions, and inspire out next generation.
We salute our gold medallists from the Commonwealth Games. As I attended the Cricket SA Awards, I was taken aback to have a young man of Kagiso Rabada who is part of us ... [Interjections.] ... and who really has done outstandingly well. Let us as South Africa also congratulate our first black African Springbok test captain, Siya Kolisi, who will be part of Team SA the coming weekend.
We have many of our young people ... Let us celebrate them; let us embrace them; let us take them as role models ... [Applause.] ... to our communities; and we will continue to honour them. Our sports awards are on at the end of the year, in November, and our regional
annual sports awards have taken place already. We also have a special awards, where we are in partnership with gsport, to honour women achievers. We want to play this across and make sure we have our young women and men appreciated.
We will not be deterred by any of the negatives that are coming out of sport — the violence that you see and the racialism that you see. It will not be tolerated. So we continue to strengthen our arm through the review of our Sport and Recreation Act and conduct ongoing investigations. The inquiry on Sascoc is at a report writing stage and we hope it is going to assist us to change the landscape of sport. Thank you very much. [Applause] [Interjections.]
The DEPUTY CHAIRPERSON OF THE NCOP: Thank you very much, hon Minister Xasa. Order! Hon members, I’m now officially informed that our sportsman Kagiso is in the gallery. May I take the opportunity to recognise him? [Applause.] Thank you very much. You are welcome, ntate.
IsiZulu:
Nk L L ZWANE: Sihlalo ohloniphekile wale Ndlu, ngibingelele uNgqongqoshe ohloniphekileyo ophethe uMnyango wezoBuciko naMasiko uNgqongqoshe uNathi Mthethwa, ngibingelele uNgqongqoshe okhona
wezeMidlalo nokuNgcebeleka uMama ohloniphekile uXasa ehamba neSekela Ngqongqoshe lakhe uBaba uOosthuizen ohloniphekile, ngibingelele amalungu ahloniphekile ePhalamende akule Ndlu kanye nozakwethu uSihlalo weZemidlalo kwiNdlu Yomkhandlu KaZwelonke olaphaya kugalari nazo zonke izihambeli ikakhulikazi indodana uKagiso esithuliwe ezimbandakanya nezemidlalo. Kwangathi ungakhula ndodana.
Siyakubongela.
Angithathe leli thuba lokubonga mhlonishwa Ngqongqoshe Dingiswayo wena owasikhulisela inkosi kanye nomama uXasa ngenkulumo eseniyethulile. Kukhona nje okumbalwa ebengifisa ukuthi ngikuphawulwe ezinkulumeni zenu. Okokuqala, ngenkathi ukhuluma Dingiswayo n gizwile ukhuluma ngendaba yeLadysmith Black Mambazo Training Academy esiyithakaselayo nesiyinanelayo ngoba ngempela kufanele kube njalo. Ulibambe kakhulu iqhaza emculweni wezakacothoza.
Okwesibili, ngiphinde futhi ngibalule udaba lwaseRobben Island njenge National World Heritage Site esithi thina njengekomidi kufanele ukuthi wonke umuntu axhamule ngokulinganayo ngaleya Robben Island ngoba kwakuboshwe izingqalabutho zethu. Uma ngabe kukhona imikhumbi noma izikebhe ezihambisa abantu, asibekhona phela nesikebhe somuntu omnyama. Uma laphaya kwiCurio shop kuthengiswa
izinto semisebenzi yezandla akubekhona nokufakwa ngabantu abamnyama ukuze sonke sihlomule ngaleya-Heritage Site.
Umama uXasa ukhulume ngento ebaluleke kakhulu esiyithakasele ngenkathi sibuka usomqulu esibize ngokuthi uhlelonyaka lwakho loMnyango okuthi usuzoqala manje ukuba ushaye umthetho ozobhekela abantu besifazane ikakhulukazi ababamba iqhaza kwezemidlalo.
Siyakuthakasela kakhulu loko ngoba siyafuna ukubona isikhathi esiyofika lapho uBanyana-Banyana behlomula ngokulinganayo noBafana- Bafana, kungabikhona umehluko ukuthi laba abesifazane laba abesilisa. [Ihlombe.]
Siyafisa ukubonga ushintsho – the dawn- okhulume ngayo. oSiya Kolisi sebeqala ukuba ngokaptheni bebhola lomboxo eNinizimu Afrika kusho ukuthi ngempela siyalubona ushintsho olukhona. Engathi ningaqhubeka nisebenze ngesabiwomali esininikeza sona ukuthuthukisa izimpilo zabantu abamnyama eNingizimu ne-Afrika kube yilezo zimpilo ezingcono.
Mam’uXasa uphinde wakhuluma ngendaba kamama uNonsikelelo Sisulu esimhloniphayo ukuthi nezokwenza umkhankaso noma uhlelo egameni lakhe enizowubiza ngokuthi ‘Women of fortitute’. Siyabonga ngalowo mkhankaso sizowuxhasa sisonke. Lena iminyango ebaluleke kakhulu
ngoba yomibili leMinyango, uMnyango wezoBuciko naMasiko, uMnyango Wezemidlalo nokuNgcebeleka imayelana nokubunjwa kwesizwe saseNingizimu neAfrika nokuhlanganiswa kwezinhlanga ezahlukeneyo nemphakathi ehlukeneyo ukuze kubekhona ukuhlalisana, nokwamkelana, ukuphilisana nokuthuthuka ndawonye. Ngaphansi koMnyango wezoBuciko naMasiko kuqhakambiswa ubuciko namasiko ezizwe zonke lapho wonke umuntu ezizwa ekhuselekile ngaphansi koMthethosisekelo olawula ukuphatha kwaleli lizwe.
UMnyango wezoBuciko naMasiko laphaya kuhlelonyaka wawo uzogxila kulokhu: Ukulonda, ukuthuthukisa, ukuvikela, ukukhangisa amasiko, amagugu nokuqhakambiswa kwezilimi zonke kumbandakanya izilimi zabantu abansundu, izilimi zama-Khoisan kanye nilimi lwe-Sign Language njengefa laseNingizimu ne-Afrika. Ukugcinwa komlando, ubalulekile umlando, nolwazi lomlando, nezigameko nobuciko okwakukhona mandulo kugcinwa ngendlela ehlelekile okuzokwenza ukuthi noma ubani olufunayo lolulwazi akwazi ukuthi aluthole kalula.
Yilapho ke ezindabeni zomlando la ngifisa khona ukuthi ke ngithophe inkosi uCetswayo kaMpande. Izibongo zeSilo uCetswayo kaMpande.
Nguyena uNdabezitha noma iSilo samaZulu esasihola impi kwaZulu eyolwa namaNgisi Ngowe-1879 lapho uZulu wakwazi ukunqoba empini yaseSandlwana.
Izulu elidume phezulu eNdulinde Lazithatha izihlangu Zamadoda Indaba yenziwe NguManqina Obezalwa NguNkotshela
Itshe elineMamba Imamba yathi ukuvuka Yangena Ehlathin Ihlathi linembumbe.
Ngaphansi kwemithethe kwemithetho elawulayo uMnyango wezoBuciko naMasiko yiwona ozohola izinhlelo zemigubho, izikhumbuzo, imilando yezigameko zaleli lizwe kanye nalokho okusihlanganisa nezwekazi lase-Afrika akubalulile uNgqongqoshe kanye namnaye amazwe angaphandle. Enkulumeni yakhe yesizwe yonyaka wezi-2018 uMongameli waseNingizimu Afrika uBaba uCyril Ramaphosa ukubalulile ukuthi
izinhlelo zalo Mnyango zibalulekile ukuba ziqhubeke nokubumba isizwe ukuze kuqhubeke ukuba kubekhona uzinzo nokuthula izweni.
Njengekomidi leZemfundo nokuNgcebeleka sibenalo ithuba lokuxoxa ngohlelonyaka lwaloMnyango sabona ukuthi sifanele ukuba siyixhase noma sisesekele isabiwomali esabelwe loMnyango ngoba sibonile ukuthi uma sibheka izinto ezizokwenziwa zenza ukuthi impilo yomuntu wonke waseNingizimu Afrika ngokungacwasi ibala yenze ukuthi kube yimpilo
engcono. Kodwa ke ukuze le Minyango yomibili ikwazi ukufeza imiyalelo yevote [mandates] kufanele ithole ukusekeleka ngezimali ezanele esabelweni semali yezwe. Yomibili le Minyango isebenza kakhulu ngabantu abasha. Sonke siyakhala ukuthi abantu abasha abawatholi kahle amathuba emisebenzi. Ngakho ke iMinyango ekungiyona esebenza nabantu abasha nqo iMinyango ke leyo okufuneka ukuba isabelomali sikwazi ukuba sibhekelele kangcono ngoba kuzokwenzeka ukuba kwakheke amathuba emisebenzi. Izingane zethu zikwazi ukuthola amathuba emisebenzi ngaphansi koMnyango wesaMasiko nangaphansi koMnyango wezeMidlalo. Bekuzobaluleka ukuthi loko kubhekeleke ukuze silolonge amakhono ngoba izingane zingakwazi ukuthi ziphile ngamakhono uNkulunkulu aziphe wona kanye namathalente. Zinganciki kuphela ekuthaneni ziyothola amathuba emisebenzi.
English:
I want to move on to the South African Music Awards held on
2 June 2018. It was presided over by President Cyril Ramaphosa, accompanied by the Minister of Arts and Culture, the hon Mthethwa. The President presented the lifetime awards to three recipients: the late Spokes H, Steve Kekana, and Mbongeni Ngema. He also presented Shashika Mooruth with the international achiever award.
We also want to congratulate Mama Esther Mahlangu who started painting when she was 10 years old. The skill of being able to paint has taken her all over the world. She has been quoted as saying:
I never thought that painting would work out so well ... I got to travel the world just by doing something that I did out of love.
In other words, to train, to develop, and to give an opportunity to people who have artistic abilities yield positive results in the end.
The department has held community conversations across the nine provinces in a bid to address the scourge of racism and other social ills facing our society, hoping that through community conversations, racism, language, heritage, patriotism, inequality, unemployment and poverty will all be addressed. The abuse of women has actually escalated exponentially, and the Department of Arts and Culture is expected to play a leading role in addressing this issue, amongst others.
We also appreciate that the Pan South African Language Board, PanSALB, is up and alive and, working together with other boards, it
has been able to launch dictionaries, translating indigenous languages to English to start off with. We do want to see our own languages being promoted, being given the same status as any other language ...
IsiZulu:
... ngoba singabantu abansundu.
English:
It should not be the case that other languages are more important than our indigenous languages.
IsiZulu:
Siyishayela ihlombe leyo misebenzi enjengaleyo ...
English:
... by PanSALB to ensure that our indigenous languages, including the Khoi and San languages and sign language, are taken care of.
The Artists in Schools – and you did speak about it, hon Minister – we really appreciate the contribution that is made by the Artists in Schools programme to help the teachers who are teaching art to deliver in terms of the requirements. This programme has the
potential of creating sustainable job opportunities for the art practitioners. You also made mention of the living legends legacy programme, African Wisdom, and I remembered these indigenous knowledge systems.
IsiZulu:
La khona ebekade ethi umuntu uma kade egula, Ngqongqoshe, aye esibhedlela alashwe ngohlobo lwesilungu kuhlulekwe. Aye kumuntu nje omnyama ubaba wasemakhaya akhe ikhambi akwazi ukumelapha.
English:
That is indigenous knowledge systems. We need to acknowledge that and promote it for as long as it is within the framework of the law.
The arts and culture sector has been able to create much-needed jobs in the country in the following programmes: Mzansi Golden Economy, the programme to support librarians and support staff sustained through the community library grant, work opportunities created through the national day celebrations, and internship programmes rolled out by the department.
It is also pleasing to mention there has been a heritage bursary fund where about 180 students have completed their studies in
heritage-related fields at universities such as the University of Johannesburg, the University of Pretoria, the Sol Plaatje University, the University of Cape Town, the University of Venda, and the University of South Africa.
IsiZulu:
Sengizobhekisa laphaya kwaZulu-Natal, ngisheshisa. Siyabonga ukuthi
...
English:
... conditional grant, R183 million is going to be disbursed. Luthuli Museum is getting R14,8 million. The department is going to build nine libraries, including modular libraries, at a cost of about R136 million. The KwaZulu-Natal Museum is getting
R35,2 million. The Durban Playhouse is getting R81,4 million.
IsiZulu:
Siyasamukela isabiwomali sakho Ngqongqoshe sokuba ugedle zonke lezinhlelo zoMnyango. Izifunda zonke zitholile kodwa ngibalula uKwaZulu-Natali ngoba ngimele yena njengoba ngilana nje. Ngokufanayo uMnyango wezeMidlalo nokuNgcebeleka unomsebenzi obaluleke kakhulu wokuhlanganisa inhlanga zonke nokubumba isizwe ngaphansi kwezeMidlalo nokuNgcebeleka. Loku kubaluleke kakhulu ekuqoqeni
nasekukhuseleni intsha nokuthi kucije amakhono entsha. Ilekelelwe ukuba ithuthuke ize ifike emazingeni omhlaba.
Siluxoxile uhlelonyaka –APP yomnyango weZemidlalo nokuNgcebeleka eNingizimu ne-Afrika sabona ukuthi kukhona ukuhambisana phakathi kwalo uhlelo kanye noSomqulu wokuthuthukiswa kwezwe lilonke i-NDP kanye nesu lwesikhathi sinyakanhlanu lwawo uMnyango.
Ungqongqoshe ukhombise ukuba nombono ephusile. Sizithakasele izinhlelo zoMnyango wakhe kanti futhi yomibili leMinyango sizimisele ukuthi siyisekele ngako konke esinako njengekomidi. UMnyango wezeMidlalo nokuNgcebeleka uthi kuhlelonyaka uzoqhubekela phambili nokuba kwakhiwe izingqalasizinda zemidlalo nokuthi bonke abantu bakwazi ukuzisebenzisa lezi zingqalasizinda kungabikhona ukucwasana ngebala noma ngezindawo zokudlala, noma ukucwaswa ngokweminyaka yobudala. Ukwelekelela ukuthi izifundazwe phansi kwaloMnyango kanye nohulumeni basekhaya babambisane kuze kufike lapho imiphumela kaMcwaningi-Mabhuku Omkhulu (Auditor-General) ibe yileyo ehlanzikile ngokwezimali
Ama-federation azolekelela ukuba azingele athole labo abasha abanamathalente adingwa ukuthuthukiswa. Kuzobanjiswana noMnyango
wezeMfundo ukuthi izikole ezibalelwa ku-2500 zikwazi ukuthola izinsiza zokudlala nokuzilolonga kulonyaka wesabelomali.
UMnyango uzodidiyela izinhlobo ngezinhlobo zemidlalo kumbandakanya nalezi eziyishumi nesithupha [16 sports code] kanye nemidlalo yomdabu njengokungcwaka ngeduku, umjaho wamahhashi, umlabalaba, o- juskei neminye imidlalo. Siyasamukela ke nesabelomali saloMnyango kodwa asisho khona ukuthi akufanele kugcine la kusabelo soMnyango. Kufanele kubhekwe nezinye izindlela angazisebenzisa uhulumeni ukuthi kutholakale izimali zokwengezelela, Ngqongqoshe.
Sikhulumile ukuthi kukhona uhlelo olwaluqaliwe lokuthi uLotto alekelele ngezimali kuloMnyango noma bekungavunyelwana ngesixhamali esithize noma ngephesenti ethile kodwa kubalulekile uma sizikhathalele izingane zethu nezeMidlalo kufanele kubekhona ukulekeleleka okuthe xaxa.
Sikuthakasele futhi Ngqongqoshe ukuthi phakathi kwezinhlelo ezikhona izinhlelo zokuzivocavoca kwabantu abadala ukuze baphile impilo ende kwehle nezinga lezifo kubona. Siyabadinga abantu abadala futhi siyabazisa ngoba bawumtapo wolwazi esithathisa kuwo uma sesididekile ngobude bendlela.
Izivumelwano phakathi kwaloMnyango wokuNgcebeleka noMnyango weMfundo yamaBanga aPhansi esishichilelwe kuleli sonto eledlule siyasithakasela kakhulu. Siyafisa ukubona inani lezingane ezisizakalayo ngokufunda nje ngodaba lwezemidlalo ezikoleni liye ngokuthuthuka ngokuthuthuka ukuze kube nanothando lokungena zigxile ezindabeni zezemidlalo.
Abafundi abangamashumi ayisithupha bazohlomula kumfundaze walo Mnyango, nokuthi ke kuzoshaywa imithetho evele ikhona mhawumbe kugcizelelwe nje ukuthi lowa 15% weMIG okufanele uye kohulumeni basekhaya awuye njengoba unjalo. Siyazi ukuthi njengamanje kunamaphesenti amathathu okunguwona obekele ukuthi awuye ngqo uyokwenza le misebenzi yokwenza izingqalasizinda zezemidlalo komasipala nohulumeni basekhaya. Kodwa siyafuna ukuthi le mali ikhuphuke ize ifike kulo 15% owawukade uyisiklamu kwasekuqaleni.
Angibeke ke ukuthi nokho ke akusithokozisi futhi akusincumisi ukuthi uma kukhona ezemidlalo yalamaqembu amakhulu oPirates noKaizer Chiefs ebese kufa abantu - ukuphathile loko Ngqongqoshe Xasa. Leyo nto izosilimaza ngoba kusho ukuthi asezukwazi ukuba nengeniso.
English:
The economy that we derive from sporting activity is going to decline because people are going to start saying they would rather sit in their sitting room and watch sport than go to the sports field. So, that issue ...
IsiZulu:
... Ngqongqoshe sengathi ingasukunyelwa impela kuthi labo abathintekayo ekutheni kubekhona ubuxhanguxhangu ezinkundleni zebhola babhekane nesandla somthetho. Nalo lolu daba olwenzeka eMoses Mabhida lokucekela izakhiwo zikahulumeni phansi, zonke lezo zinto zidinga ukuba sizigweme kusese ekuqaleni zingaze zisiphundule. Imidlalo yonke ezokwenziwa ...
English:
... the Brics Games, after we had taken over the chairpersonship of Brics ...
IsiZulu:
... siyayamukela. Siyathemba ukuthi izothuthukisa ezomnotho namakhono. Siyaxhusa ke ukuthi ifundazwe njengoba zimelelekile la zimele ama-special delegates avela ezifundazweni. Siyathola ukuthi kukhona izifundazwe lapha kukhona equitable share allocation, aziyibeki imali yezemidlalo. Kukhona ifundazwe ezincike ...
English:
... solely on the grant disbursed by the national government. We would really request our colleagues here to support us on that one to ensure that provinces actually budget for sporting activities in the different provinces.
IsiZulu:
Sengiphetha, Mphathisihlalo, ngicela ukuthopha inkosi uZwelithini kaBhekuzulu, okuwuyena ophethe isizwe samaZulu njengamanje. Laba abakhuseli bamasiko. Amakhosi ...
English:
... are custodians of culture, and we need to give them that kind of respect.
IsiZulu:
Indlondlo enophapha ekhanda. Ndaba kawulelwe.
Awulalele izwi elimemezayo. Umemeza sengathi uyakhala. Ukhala isililo.
Uthi gula likaJama lichithekile. Lichithwa ingwele endala.
Eyakithi kwaMalandela. Umhlahlandlela ngowamakhosi.
Umhlahlandlela ngowabo Cetswayo, ngowabo Mpande. Onyawo zinhle mtakaNdaba.
Bhejane odla bakayise.
Phuma esiqiwini, mtakababa. Kade bekuvulele.
English:
Thank you. [Applause.]
The DEPUTY CHAIRPERSON OF THE NCOP: Hon Chabangu, I saw your hand. I don’t know what you are trying to do. If you seek the attention of a service officer, you would automatically raise your hand, but if you want my attention, you will stand on your feet.
Mr M M CHABANGU: You should have asked. I was just asking whether it is parliamentary for people to ululate. Why in the other one ... [Interjections.] ... is not making ...
The DEPUTY CHAIRPERSON OF THE NCOP: No, there is nothing wrong.
Mr M M CHABANGU: Why is the other one making is making “izithakazelo”
The DEPUTY CHAIRPERSON OF THE NCOP: Alright. Fine. There would have been nothing wrong. If you had sought my attention by being on your feet, I would have recognised you but, unfortunately, you lost that opportunity. We will therefore proceed with the debate. Hon Hattingh?
Mr C HATTINGH: Hon Chairperson, the Department of Arts and Culture in sync with the demands of the slow South African economy and the effects of the former President’s reaction to the Fees Must Fall protests, is also struck by budget constraints - in this context and with the department being more prone to budget cuts the challenges for the Department of Arts and Culture in a period of economic downturn with less money being available for arts, culture and heritage from state, corporate and public coffers.
It therefore needs very specific and intense planning and careful management for the department to achieve its objectives and to comply with the demands put on it by the National Development Plan.
Afrikaans:
Die toekenning van fondse aan kunstefeeste bly steeds kommerwekkend. Die departement is blykbaar nie in staat, of is onwillig, om die kriteria vir die toekenning van hierdie fondse te verskaf nie; ook
nie die redes vir die dupliseering van die befondsing van sekere byeenkomste asook die weiering om ander kulturele byeenkomste te befonds.
Selfs vanoggend het ons weer navrae gedoen om die verlange kriteria van die departement af te kry. Dit het net nie gekom nie. Die weiering om hierdie inligting te verskaf onderskryf die nie- deursigtigheid in hierdie toekennings vanaf die departement en maak ook hierdie toekennings twyfelagtig. Ek moet u herinner dat daar selfs ’n gospelgroep van vier lede is wat met miljoene rand deur die departement ondersteun word sonder enige verduideliking van die kriteria. Die volle kriteria, die redes vir die substantiewe ondersteuning van sekere kunstefeeste en geen vir baie groot feeste moet onverwyld verskaf word, soos inderdaad deur die departement onderneem word.
English:
The performance of this department’s public entities remains a concern. With two entities receiving an adverse Auditor-General’s, AGs, opinion, another eight receiving qualified opinions and two receiving an unqualified with issues opinions - almost 50% of the departments entities, attention should be given to the quality of board leadership and of its officials.
It is of particular concern that the Robben Island Museum public entity, taking the biggest chunk of public entity funding, was found only to have achieved 49% of its preset targets and was found to have from the AG and I quote, “Materially underspent on its conditional grants amounting to R60 414 300 - now listen carefully - funds received late in the year.” Included in is an amount of
R8,6 million from the Department of Tourism and R51,8 million from the Department of Arts and Culture infrastructure funding.
Similarly, the Nelson Mandela Museum could only achieve 60% of its targets, was mentioned for materially underspending of its conditional grant to the amount of R19,7 million as well as irregular expenditure incurred in the previous financial year which was not investigated. It is clear that the department should intensify its oversight role over its public entities.
It is significant that in this special Nelson Mandela year, the annual reports of two of the public entities closely related to Madiba are actually an embarrassment, not only for the department, but also for the government and for South Africa.
Former President Nelson Mandela stated and I quote:
Sport has the power to change the world. It has the power to inspire, the power to unite people in a way that little else does. It speaks to youth in a language they understand. Sport can create hope where there was once only despair. It is more powerful than governments in breaking down racial barriers. It laughs in the face of all types of discrimination. Sport is the game of lovers.
In this context we also need to look at who Madiba chose to be his political head to lead South African sport to inspire and I quote him:
It speaks to youth in the language they understand. Sport can create hope, where once there was only despair. It is more powerful than governments in breaking down racial barriers. It laughs in the face of all types of discrimination.
I noted the Minister’s strong efforts to create a better history for us. It will not work, Minister.
In this context, we also need to look ... [Interjections.]
He chose the late Minister Steve Tshwete, a former Robben Islander, of whom it was said as the head of the ANC’s sports desk he had the task of uniting sports that had been driven by apartheid and that he had the knack of bringing sworn enemies to the negotiating table and sending them away as allies. At Minister Steve Tshwete’s funeral, President Madiba said inter alia that he as the Minister of Sport and Recreation embodied all the spirit of reconciliation and nation- building some that has gone lost in the past period. He also knew how important sport was to the people of our country. He continued to say sport has the ability to influence people where politicians find it difficult to reach. He understood in those first years of our democracy, how to lead transformation while remaining sensitive to the fears, anxieties and concerns of those who might have felt threatened by change. His passion for national unity, and for the expression of that unity in and through sport, was deep and sincere.
This must sound very strange and foreign to people who come to this forum and speak in divisive language. Where speaker after speaker comes to this podium in this period in the policy debates in this Mandela year, praising Mandela and rightly so, the frequent question that comes up is: Where do we stand on the values of reconciliation and nation-building that Mandela held dearly? Do we still live up to
it, strive to live up to it or has it been thrown by the wayside in political expediency?
Yes, it is true that we went through the wedge driving divisive two- nation era of Thabo Mbeki and then what could perhaps at best be described as an era of corruptocracy during the state capture era in the Zuma reign where nation-building continued to be pushed onto the back burner.
Where does it leave sports specifically the context as was envisaged by Madiba?
The department states in its mission is to transform the delivery of sport and recreation by ensuring equitable access, development and excellence at all levels of participation and to harness the socioeconomic contributions that can create a better life for all South Africans. I want to emphasize it. All South Africans.
Now can this be achieved where the Minister in what appears to be a kneejerk reaction, without having the privilege of any facts of what has happened, pre-empted Supersport’s investigation into an alleged racist incident by stereotyping white South Africans. She said and I quote, “This behaviour of entitlement by some white South Africans,
who continue to think that their whiteness represent better, must come to an end.”
Compare this to a Steve Tshwete, eish, you cannot do that.
Racism should be identified for what it is and should be condemned regardless of the race or status of the perpetrator. Be it a Minister or Vicki Momberg, it is the same.
We come out of an era where millions of taxpayer’s money had been siphoned of to Bell Pottinger to divide our country on racial lines. The opposite of what was envisaged in the Madiba sport philosophy.
And then may I ask: Was only a coincidence that SA Tourism under the Minister’s watch spent 6,9 million on public relations, PR, services from the same Bell Pottinger at the same time the controversial Gupta family were using Bell Pottinger to sow racial division in South Africa and to divide our nation? I ask that and I will not get an answer.
The government has cut R34,8 million in the 2018-19 sports budget and over R111 million over the Medium-Term Expenditure Framework.
The department received a total allocation of 1,09 billion in 2018-
19 compared to an allocation of allocation of R1,07 billion in 2017- 18.
In nominal terms, the department’s total allocation increased by R24 million or 2,21% in the period. However, in real terms taking inflation into account, the department’s total budget declined by R23,2 million over the period.
Now can the Madiba dream be achieved where this budget is insufficient to ensure that sport events and infrastructure are safe, accessible and available to everyone? It is insufficient to ensure that the dreams of our youth are realised to pursue future careers in sport. It is insufficient to invest in the creating of new role models so necessary to inspire our youth into achievements in all facets of their lives.
It is insufficient to make the slightest dent into the continuously expanding backlog in infrastructure, so desperately needed and specifically in schools. It is even insufficient to address the massive backlog in sport infrastructure maintenance and for the procurement of so necessary equipment.
The DA will continue to prioritise sport as both as a social development tool, a source of national pride, a health enhancer and an opportunity to build social cohesion, the only party living up the Madiba dream. I thank you. [Applause.]
Xitsonga:
Man B T MATHEVULA: Mutshamaxitulu, vandla ra EFF ri alelana na Vhoti ya Mpimanyeto ya 37 na 40.
English:
The greatest failure of the ANC government over the last 24 years has been the failure to realise the transportive potential for both the Department of Arts and Culture and Sport and Recreation. Instead of being a vehicle of real social transformation and empowerment, these departments are empty shells of what they could be. It simply serves as employment agencies of ANC cadres and as a tool of corruption and abuse of state resources.
Our country is so rich in heritage with so many greatest icons to look up to and be proud of what they have done, to fight for a better future for us all. There are no two better examples of these then; Mama Winnie Mandela and Robert Sobukwe. It is the duty of the Department of Arts and Culture to ensure that their names and
history are preserved and remembered for the future generations. However, in Kimberley, Northern Cape, where Sobukwe spent many years, the provincial department has allowed his law office, which is of historical significance to this country, to compel and collapse. The department in the province still had an audacity to go and lay a wreath at his former office at the beginning of this year. We were fully embarrassed and ashamed of this shame because they knew that funds has been assigned to renovate the house but nothing was done and the funds were missing.
The story is the same as of Mama Winnie Mandela’s house in Brandfort where she was exiled to by the murderous apartheid regime for many years. While she was alive, Ace Magashule and the provincial Department of Arts and Culture in the Free State, were given R2,8 to renovate the house. Till this very day the house still stands. The money was stolen as is so much of the money which the department is given to historical projects. While still perfectly illustrates the corruption of this department, the Pan South African Language Board is the example of the department’s incompetence. The mandate of the Pan South African Language Board is to develop the 11 official languages of this country and to protect the language right of all South Africans. It has completely failed to do this.
The Sesotho, isiXhosa, IsiZulu, Xitsonga, Sepedi, Setswana, Siswati, IsiNdebele and Tshivenda are still intrigued as if they have no place in the workplace and academia. It cannot be that 24 years after democracy a child in Free State who can only speak Sotho and no Afrikaans is disadvantaged when being taught science or that a child in Limpopo who can only speak Xitsonga and no English is that disadvantaged when being taught Mathematics. What has the department and the Pan South African Language Board done to professionalise and formalise the use of all 11 official languages? The answer is nothing. This is why we reject the budget of the Department of Arts and Culture. As the Economic Freedom Fighters we also reject the budget of the Department of Sport and Recreation. It is just equally corrupt and incompetent as the Department of Arts and Culture.
However, we do want to once again use the opportunity to congratulate the Minister for her own stance on the Morocco world Cup bid. We also call on Safa to follow this example and not support Morocco’s bid to host a world cup. Nonetheless, we are willing to go on commending the department because there is nothing else to commend it for. The department has done nothing to realise the transformative and the liberating potential of sport. The recent racial incident on SuperSport 1, was the perfect example of this.
Those who would have seen Ashwin Willemse, who represented South
Africa at the highest level has been a television analyst for years, finally stood out the bullying, patronising attitude and the continued white arrogance which we see in many of our sporting codes. This is an arrogance borne from the fact that today, 24 years after our first democratic elections, whites continue to dominate South African rugby and other sporting codes at a playing level but particularly more at a coaching, management and administration levels.
We have brilliant black rugby players in every province of this country and long history of black rugby in the province like the Eastern Cape. The white boys club which has dominated the sport for over 100 years continue to gate keep to ensure that rugby at the highest level of play is dominated by whites. It is ironic that this very same people who complain about quotas and label of any player of colour to play rugby professionally a quota player where the biggest quotas player in this country has ever seen as a quotas back then was 100% white. How many of them would have actually played for the Springbok if generation upon generation of black, Coloured and Indian South Africans had been given an opportunity to play? This arrogance we talk of would have been a thing of the past if this department had done what is meant to do.
The failure to do so is also a reflection in how little attention and how few resources the government has been given to developing young black sports talent. Throughout our province, from the North West to Mpumalanga, young black children at schools in the villages and townships of this country have no access to proper sports facilities and equipments while all private schools and former model-c schools with many called white schools have top quality sports facilities with maintained fields, pools, equipments and good coaches. Not only does this have a direct impact on the possibilities of maximising the sporting potential and opportunities, but is the consequences on their health care, with children with better sporting facilities naturally being healthier.
If you want to transform sports in this country, you must tackle the racist culture on the top while at the grass root level you must ensure that all children regardless of race, access top quality sports facilities and equipments. We reject this budget vote.
Xitsonga:
Ndza khensa.
UNPARLIAMENTARY STATEMENT
(Ruling)
The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON (Ms M C Dikgale): Order! Order hon members. Hon Koni, order. Hon members, during the policy debate on Budget Vote 36; Water and Sanitation, on 30 May 2018, the hon Mthethwa, raised a point of order against a statement made by hon Mpambo- Shibukwana, and I quote:
I rise on a point of order. The hon member is misleading the public. The hon member said Nomvula Mokonyana paid for the conference millions, she knows very well that is not true.
Owing to the fact that I did not hear what was said, I then asked hon Mpambo-Shibukwana whether she made such statement as alleged and she denied. I then undertook to peruse the Hansard records and revert with a Ruling. Having perused Hansard records I have ascertained that hon Mpambo-Shibukwana did not make the statement as alleged. She is recorded as having said, and I quote:
It seems that the self-proclaimed mama action, which is Nomvula Mokonyana, was only really active in being responsible for frivolous spending in her department by this. I am speaking about the R2 billion that will be spent on the reserve bank.
The issue or the question is, whether the statement made by hon Mpambo-Shibukwana can be deemed as unparliamentary. As members are at liberty to exercise their freedom of speech as enshrined in the Constitution and the Rules, it should not permit them to rise on frivolous points of orders as that could potentially degenerate the proceedings of the House.
Moreover, I have observed recently that points of orders were being raised as a response to what the speaker on the podium was saying as the case on the matter before me. In this regard I would like to urge hon members to guard against raising points of orders as response, especially, where they hold a different view with the speaker on the podium.
The practice of this House and Parliament in general is that, where the member holds a different view or differ with the speaker on the podium, he or she should use the opportunity allocated to him or her when debating to rise those matters instead of rising on a point of order. This is all what debates is all about.
I therefore Rule that the allegations made by hon Mthethwa against hon Mpambo-Shibukwana cannot be substantiated and therefore the point of order cannot be upheld because it was just a response to
the speaker on the podium. I once again appeal to members to debate matters instead of rising on spurious points of orders.
Hon Hatting will remember that there was another one that you wanted me to Rule on it. On the issue of hon Nyambi and hon Julius, hon Hatting, Hansard has picked up that the matter was laid to rest.
Thank you very much. Hon members, we continue with the debate.
Mr M KHAWULA: Chair, on a point of order: Can I rise on a point of order before I proceed to the podium?
The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON (Ms. M C Dikgale): Yes.
Mr M KHAWULA: I just want to find out if the Chair has ascertained whether both the hon Mthethwa and the hon Mpambo-Sibhukwana are present in the House when making that ruling?
The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON (Ms. M C Dikgale): The hon Mthethwa is out, I have seen him but he is here in the House and the hon Mpambo- Sibhukwana is not alone in the House she has these members, they will deliver the message. Can we please continue?
Mr M KHAWULA: Can the Chair then repeat the ruling when both of them are in the House.
The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON (Ms. M C Dikgale): Hon member, can we please continue with the debate please. It is only the IFP that is alone in the House so we can not make the ruling ... [Inaudible.] So the other members have got their colleagues who will tell them.
Mr M KHAWULA: You are again out of order Chair.
The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON (Ms. M C Dikgale): Continue with the debate hon Khawula.
Mr M KHAWULA: Hon Chairperson, hon Ministers, hon Deputy Minister, on behalf of the IFP, let me begin by congratulating the boys from KwaMashu KwaZulu-Natal on winning the record of the year in the SA Music Award, Sama, 24 last weekend in Sun City. We also congratulate all the Sama 24 winners and we say, in actual fact, the music industry was the winner irrespective of who got the ultimate prize. Indeed we say ...
IsiZulu:
... “vala umlomo uvule amadlebe, kwagcwala kangaka layikhaya akuhambeki. Bashayisana ngezifuba.”
English:
Keep it up boys. We also wish to congratulate Siya Kolisi on his appointment as the Springboks captain. Be that as it may, we agree with the view that Siya Kolisi’s appointment as the Boks’ captain should not be misconstrued as the transformation. We note the Eminent Persons Report that “Rugby was one of the codes reflecting predominantly white representatives.” As the IFP we also note the comments by transformation analyst Ashwin Desai that whilst the appointment of Siya Kolisi as the Springboks captain is welcome it should however not be treated as the “New Dawn” in rugby. He said, in his own words:
To argue that this is the New Dawn will be an incredible mistake because the racism and the white baaskap that permeates rugby is still intact.
As the IFP, we further note that in 24 years of our democracy, rugby has never had a female SA Rugby Union, Saru, president; SA Football Association, Safa has never had a female president; Premier Soccer League, PSL, has never had a female chairperson. The list goes on
and on. The IFP congratulates Team South Africa and SA Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee, Sascoc, for their good performance in the 2018 April Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast, Australia. Whilst this is the case, we also note the continual dismissal performance of Bafana Bafana, who have again failed to qualify for the FIFA World Cup. The last time we qualified was when we were hosting, and we had only sneaked in on the bases of hosting, hence we never made it beyond the first round of the games. We also note the yoyo performance of the Springboks. I bet congratulations are in order to Kagiso Rabada, AB de Villiers and their colleagues for their cricket awards last weekend. It is pleasing to note that our cricket team seems to be regaining their form. The department of Sport and Recreation has a very small budget. Under the circumstances, it is really not so in order to blame them for the shortcomings in sports development in the country. But we do note that some provinces merely rely on the minimal grants they receive from Sport and Recreation national Department without putting anything of their own provincial resources to their provincial departments. This has to stop.
If they do not get any portions from the national department, how would they run programmes of their own in provincial departments? Why do they have sports and recreation departments in the first
instance if they will not budget for them? We also note that some municipalities do not put any resources to sports facilities on their Municipal Infrastructure Grant, Mig, allocations. That is why rural areas of this country mostly do not have any sports fields and sports facilities at all. The recently signed Memorandum of Understanding, MOU, between the Department of Basic Education and the Department of Sports and Recreation will not benefit rural pupils that much because of the lack of adequate facilities in rural areas. Sunday, last week saw Bafana Bafana again doing what they know best as they were kicked out of the Council of Southern Africa Football Associations, Cosafa, cup by Madagascar.
IsiZulu:
Indlela edlala ngayo iBafana Bafana ifana ncamashi nendlela i-ANC ephethe ngayo izwe. [Ubuwelewele.]
English:
The Department of Arts and Culture is the custodian of the use of Official Languages Act l2 of 2012 and its implementation. The implementation of the Act by the national departments, the national entities, and the national public enterprises has been very poor.
But the department has also been totally ineffective in taking action against the transgressors. That is why even 24 years after
our democracy; African languages are still being treated as inferior to English and Afrikaans in our government circles.
Our country’s national days are supposed to be celebrations that bring the people of our country together in the true spirit of unity in diversity. But this unity has continued to escape our country because our national days are turned to political party rallies of the ruling party at the expense of state coffers. The IFP has repeatedly raised this concern and ...
IsiZulu:
... ngiyathokoza-ke mhlonishwa Nyambose ukuthi namhlanje ukhulumile ngalolu daba wathembisa nokulithathela izinyathelo.
English:
Thank you very much about that. When Dr Nelson Mandela was President of this country, all political leaders of political parties represented in Parliament were always invited to all national day events and were always offered a slot at every national day celebration or event. With the Mbeki administration, the Zuma administration and the Ramaphosa administration, that good practice has not been carried through. The support that the department gives to some organisations that promote arts and culture is appreciated.
But the department must review the inconsistent allocations that are offered to these organisations. Some of these organisations are offered exorbitant amounts whereas others are offered very minimal amounts. For example, I want to argue that Macufe which started long ago and has been running for whatever years has much more strength and impact than the R3 million that is allocated to it.
Abafana bakaMgqumeni 6 to 6, well done, I was glad to see Indlamlenze, Khuzani Mpungose celebrating with Abafana bakaMgqumeni on stage. That is the kind of positive spirit of competition that we want to see in our artists.
IsiZulu:
Mhlonishwa Nyambose, ake kulungiswe nantiya ihlazo elenziwa ngumnyango wakho ngaphambi kokuba kufike wena, laphaya esigodlweni seSilo Enyokeni. Umnyango waqeqebula isigodlo seSilo kwathiwa kuyakhiwa, kwafakwa enkulu inkence ebalelwa ezigidini zamarandi, kepha umsebenzi owenziwe khona uma ubukwa, kuyaphikisana nenkence okuthiwa itshalwe khona. Ngiyathokoza, Sihlalo. [Ubuwelewele.]
Ms O MOLOI (MEC FOR SPORTS AND CULTURE - LIMPOPO): Thanks very much
hon Chair, the Minister and the Deputy Minister, and hon members.
As our country and the world commemorate the centenary of the late former President Nelson Mandela, in Limpopo Province, Sport and the Arts continue to remain at the centre of the ongoing celebrations of Madiba’s life of service to humanity.
We’re delighted that sport in general continues to bring together ordinary people from various cultural backgrounds in a celebratory mood; it augers well with our social cohesion endeavours as a province, which aims to fight the demons of xenophobia, tribalism, racism and sexism.
In addition to the intangible value, sport often brings with it the economic benefits to local economies, particularly in the hospitality sector. This highlights the significance of sports tourism in the economy. Sports tourism is a growing sector globally, and South Africa remains one of the favourite sports tourism destinations.
Our province is currently hosting the Cosafa Cup Tournament in Polokwane. Fourteen Nations from the SADC region are taking part in this tournament. In honour of Madiba’s memory, who was known for his enthusiasm for sport and believed in the power of sport to bring
people together, we’ve decided that entrance for all these games is free of charge for our people.
We also want to congratulate Black Leopards FC for gaining promotion into the Premier Soccer League, PSL. Lidoda Duvha now joins Polokwane City and Baroka FC in the PSL and this is a historic moment for our province because Limpopo now has three teams in the elite league and this has never happened before. [Applause.]
This is the good news for hawkers and the hospitality sector in the local economy. It is also good for football at the development level as youngsters will now aspire to play for one of these big teams. As a province we will continue to give the necessary support to all these teams that are in the PSL.
Still in the congratulatory mood, we want to congratulate Mama Ria Ledwaba who was elected for the first time as the Deputy President of the Vice President of Safa. We say Malibongwe! [Applause.]
Limpopo is piloting a Club Development Project that is aimed at building a structured club development system in the province. This development programme is being piloted in the Mopani district.
A total of 400 clubs consisting of 64 Netball clubs, 326 football clubs and 10 netball clubs athletics clubs are participating in this project. Through this trial project, we aim to professionalize sport at a club level and to promote good governance. This project is now in its third financial year, but it is already bearing fruit.
Hon Chair, we are delighted to announce that this project has produced players who now play in the ABSA Premier Soccer League, and they are: Wiseman Maluleke, who now plays for Polokwane City. Tshepo Hlatswayo who plays for Bloemfontein Celtic, Judas Moseamadi who plays for Cape Town FC, Gladwin Shitolo and Justice Chabalala who are playing for Orlando Pirates.
Our province is also implementing a Rural Sport Development Programme, along with other of provinces, with the aim to increase sport participation levels in the rural areas.
In Limpopo, the programme was first piloted in Moletjie and Ga- Seopela, the two jurisdictions under the traditional leadership of Kgoši Moloto and Mmakgoši Seopela, in the Capricorn District and Sekhukhune District respectively.
This programme will be expanded to Mopani, Vhembe and Waterberg, the remaining districts will be included in this financial year. We are expecting this project to produce 160 clubs in football, netball, rugby and athletics in rural areas.
We are heartened by the fact that the rural sport development programme will help to unearth talent in the rural areas. It will produce more of Caster Semenya, Hlompho Kekana and Oscarine Masuluke who put the continent on the world map with his spectacular goal.
Hon Chair, it is worth noting that the rural sport programme has already produced an Under 13 Girls Rugby National Championship team in the school sport. School Sport remains the bedrock of sport excellence. Myself and the MEC of Education Mr Ishmael Kgetjepe signed a Memorandum of Understanding, which will help us implement the school sport programme in a feasible manner.
Hon Chair, our province is largely rural and the historical backlog on sporting facilities is massive. However, we continue to prioritize rural areas in the construction of facilities.
The upgrading of two facilities in Hlogotlou in the Sekhukhune District and Ga-Ramokgopa in the Capricorn District, which have
football, rugby, tennis, volleyball, basketball, netball and athletics, have reached practical completion.
Hon Chair, we are upgrading facilities three areas in Leewfontein, Makwarela and Lebowakgomo. We are now building new facilities in Bela Bela Township, Ga-Marishane and Mulamula. All these facilities will accommodate multiple sporting codes and we expect them to start operating by the end of June 2019.
Hon Chair, we are currently upgrading our three museums in phases, namely Schoemansdaal, Dzata and Muti Wa Vatsonga. We want to ensure that these museums contain relevant artefacts and in partnership with the Limpopo Tourism Agency, we are working on a plan on how we can better market them.
We have declared war against illiteracy in our province.
Despite the massive backlog in libraries, we are working hard to capacitating the 94 libraries we are having in the province. For the past financial year more than 90% of the libraries were equipped with ICT, meaning free Wi-Fi, and other ICT facilities.
This financial year, we will purchase 32 000 books to capacitate our libraries. Since January, we have opened new state of the art libraries in Phokwane, Sekhukhune and Regirogile in Thabazimbi.
Constructions of Mahlabathini, Zamani and Maphalle libraries are now complete. In this financial year, we are going to be building libraries in Mavalani under greater Giyani Municipality, Tzaneen, Runneymede, Seleteng in Lepelle Nkumpi and Dumela under Collins Chabane Municipality.
On Cultural Affairs: Hon Chair, we’re also working towards preserving the liberation heritage of our province. The significance of recognizing areas that played important roles during the liberation struggle was discussed in detail during the Southern African Development Communities Ministerial Round Table deliberations in Pretoria in March.
In our province, we have identified Tshitangadzimeni in Vhembe, Tjate Provincial Heritage Site in Sekhukhune and the University of Limpopo in Capricorn District to Pilot the programme. A heritage impact assessment in all these sites has been done and it recommended that a business plan be done to take the project to the next level.
To preserve the memory of leaders who championed the liberation struggle, we will soon open the statue of the late president Sefako Makgato, in the Lepelle-Nkumpi area, where he comes from. Makgato became the second president general of the ANC in 1917 after John Langalibalele Dube.
We also want to point out that the monument of the PAC stalwart Josias Madzunya – I’m saying PAC because we are often accused of only focusing on stalwarts of the ANC - will be unveiled in the next few weeks. We are finalising arrangements with the family.
The construction of the statue of another ANC stalwart Mark Shope will be completed by the end of June, at the same time we are in the process of appointing a service provider who will construct the statue of Charlotte Maxeke, the freedom fighter from Botlokwa in Limpopo.
After the inaugural provincial Oral History Conference in partnership with the University of Limpopo and the University of Venda in September 2017, we have since trained 30 young activists from schools in how to identify topics and sources, interviewing skills and the transcription of information they capture from the elders and the veterans in communities.
The objective of this programme is to ensure that oral history is properly documented and archived. On the arts front, we continue to strive towards empowering our artists with relevant industry information.
In partnership with institutions such as the Southern African Music Rights Organisation, the National Film and Video Foundation and the National Lottery Commission, we regularly hold seminars for them.
We are currently developing a Creative Industry Strategy with the aim to address challenges that the creative industry continue to face. In collaboration with other departments we continue to work tirelessly to make sure that more new of our artists are placed in events so that they can be exposed.
Hon Minister, one of the points that the artists of our province have said I need to emphasise, is what we have been talking about in terms of ensuring that music of the local artist is played on radio.
However, secondly, to make sure that radios are not the source of a division. You cannot continue to have Munghana Lonene playing only Xitsonga music, Phalaphala playing only Venda music and Thobela FM playing only the Pedi music. That is not auguring well in terms of
our social cohesion endeavours. We need to make sure that we correct that.
In conclusion, all of us in the Department of Sport, Arts and Culture and the people of Limpopo, we embraced with enthusiasm, the “Thuma Mina Challenge” and we promise to run without tiring with the baton as we continue serve both the athletes and the artists of our province. Thanks very much. [Applause.]
The DEPUTY MINISTER OF SPORT AND RECREATION: Chairperson, I just
want to say that we live in interesting times. I listened to the hon Hattingh who said today that the DA embraces more the values espoused by a ... [Inaudible.] ... of the ANC, Tangana. It can never be true. It can never be true, but thank you for telling us your election campaign: divide and rule. We will meet you after the elections.
The National Development Plan, NDP, envisions a society where South Africans will be more conscious of the things they have in common than their differences. Their lived experiences will progressively undermine and cut across the divisions of race, gender and disability.
This budget policy statement is delivered at a time when the World Health Organisation has released alarming statistics regarding the growing inactivity of humankind all over the globe, including in South Africa. The estimates by the World Health Organisation that
35 million people are dying annually of chronic diseases such as high blood pressure, diabetes, hypertension, cardiovascular diseases and cancers cannot be ignored.
In the face of these challenges caused by inactivity, we urge all South Africans to join the active nation movement and support the “I Choose to be Active” campaign. Collectively, we have to address this growing phenomenon of inactivity, because the economic costs are unaffordable and the human costs are totally unforgivable.
We cannot allow this to continue unabated on our watch. In short, let us be practical in sharing and shaping how we intend to address and achieve these objectives.
Facilities play a critical role and are, indeed, are an enabler to ensure greater participation by communities. In the current financial year, we will have an improved focus on our provinces. All nine provinces will continue to utilise sport as a vehicle for
social cohesion and nation-building. This will be pursued towards addressing the need for social unification.
Through our “I Choose to be Active” campaign, all provinces will host the National Recreation Day in their provincial capitals on the first Friday of October. All provinces will also host the ever- growing Big Walk in their provincial capitals with the main event being held in Tshwane.
All provinces will also host the Golden Games. The aim is to encourage active participation among the elderly of our country. We will hold the youth camps to foster new patriotism among our youth in pursuit of the objectives of Outcome 14.
Limpopo has successfully hosted the Council of Southern Africa Football Associations Cup, or the Cosafa Cup, and will again play host to the Indigenous Games in Seshego later this year. We will also hand over a facility in the Elias Motswaledi Local Municipality in the village of Monsterloos. This fully fledged new community stadium cost us R10 million. We will also hand over a facility in village of Balloon in the Maruleng Local Municipality which cost us R5 million to build.
The Free State province has been allocated an additional allocation. It will receive, in the current financial year, an amount of
R95,9 million for its programmes, including an allocation for the building of the National Training and Olympic Preparatory Centre in Bloemfontein. This programme will be funded over multiple years.
When completed, the centre will be the country’s leading and cutting edge high-performance centre and, indeed, the secret weapon in our arsenal to decimate our sporting opponents. It is envisaged that construction will commence in the next financial year.
In the province of the Eastern Cape, we will be handing over a facility in the King Sabata Dalindyebo Municipality. The new facility includes ablution facilities, an athletics track and a soccer pitch. The project cost us R10 million. We will also hand over a facility in the Ntabankulu Local Municipality, which also cost us R10 million. What makes us proud about this project is that it has provided state-of-the-art facilities in a village.
In the province of Mpumalanga, we have handed over a facility in the Lekwa Municipality in Standerton. The project cost us R11 million and included comprehensive facilities including a new pavilion.
During the course of this financial year, we will also hand over another facility in Msuka Ligwa, which cost us R10,1 million to
build. We will also hand over a facility in eMalahleni which cost us R8 million to build. I am giving these because we are delivering.
In the Western Cape in Swellendam, we handed over a new club house facility catering for cricket, football and netball. We did this at a cost of R7 million just before our Budget Vote. [Applause.]
The Northern Cape is close to our hearts owing to its low levels of development and conditions felt by our citizens on the ground. We have allocated the Northern Cape additional resources. We have modified the allocation formula with the consensus of all provinces. This resulted in a significant improvement in the total allocation for the Northern Cape. This year we will hand over a facility in the Umsobomvu Local Municipality in the town of Colesberg. The facility cost us R6,5million to build. In this project, we refurbished the ablution facilities and built a new community stadium with a soccer pitch and a pavilion.
In KwaZulu-Natal in the uPhongola Local Municipality, in the village of Ncotshane, we will hand over a facility that cost R15 million towards the end of this financial year.
The CHAIRPERSON OF THE NCOP (Ms T R Modise): Please conclude, Deputy Minister.
The DEPUTY MINISTER OF SPORT AND RECREATION: Chairperson, I’m
terribly sorry – time is getting the better of me.
The North West province ... [Inaudible.] ... also benefiting. The Gauteng province will host the Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa games, or the Brics games.
In conclusion, I want to emphasise that the potential of sport - its global reach, its universal language, its impact on communities in general and young people in particular - is a fact that is increasingly being recognised right around the world. I call on all of us to choose to be active. Let’s choose to unite and to build the nation for a better tomorrow. I thank you. [Applause.]
Mr M T MHLANGA: Hon Chairperson, I believe I have indicated to the Office of the Chief Whip that I won’t be speaking on this Budget Vote but on that note that I have been put on the speaker’s list, as the ANC, we will support the Budget Vote with reasons.
Ms N P KONI: [Inaudible.]
Mr M T MHLANGA: As the ANC we support this Budget Vote with reasons that the Budget is responding in issues that were determined by the policy positions of the ANC and on that note therefore we support the Budget Vote but we must again emphasise on the renaming of the Cape Town International Airport to Winnie Mandela Airport. Thank you.
Ms A MARAIS: Chairperson, I thank you for the opportunity to engage on this very important national Budget Vote debate as I was both moved and hopeful while listening to Minister Mthethwa and Minister Xasa’s respective Budget Speeches last month. I have agreed on a few pivotal points raised, however, there are a few matters I would like to engage on in search of clarity and viability.
I agree with Minister Mthethwa as he stated and I quote:
“It is important to note and acknowledge the glaring reality that South Africa’s freedom would remain hollow for majority of the population, predominantly black if remain on the fringes of the economy”.
Yet, the majority of the population who are our vulnerable and previously disadvantaged are further pushed into despair by allowing
nation building taxpayer’s money to instead fund Nkandlas, maladministration, state capture and the sorts.
I can then also agree with Minister Nathi Mthethwa that, the road to our democracy in South Africa is drenched in blood and punctuated by centuries of racial and economic subjugation, discrimination and oppression, with many ordinary South Africans, especially the youth, making the ultimate sacrifice in the quest for freedom and democracy.
I have witnessed firsthand how Western Cape athletes and creative, mostly youth, have been locked out of national opportunities as a consequence or sacrifice of political grandstanding. This is unacceptable as our youth are still dying in townships, on the flats and in our remote rural areas as a result of despair and hopelessness caused by national nonchalance.
I am pleased to note that the Moral Regeneration Movement has been reinvigorated. I look forward to further engaging the Minister and fellow Member of Executive Councils, MECs, on dealing with the damaged moral fibre of our society as the Western Cape most certainly wants to be included and involved.
The Western Cape government welcomes the practical approach to engaging society in the discourse of social inclusion, as we firmly believe that we are better together and only once we understand that perspectives and lived experiences of others we can move forward as a nation.
We look forward to further improving the Mzansi Golden Economy and the Incubator Programme in its objective to intensify the realisation of job creation, content development and human capital development in the arts and culture sector.
I was particularly happy about the Living Legends Legacy Project and I also thank Minister Mthethwa for prioritising heritage development. This programme is aligned to the Living Heritage Policy, which seeks to preserve our living heritage and to create awareness of practices within different generations. I encourage all to look into and attend our next Oral History Initiative, OHI, rollout in the Western Cape and it will be in Wupperthal. It is aimed at documenting the oral histories of Western Cape residents for future generations to celebrate their heritage; our Oral History Initiative is going from strength to strength.
Much of the history of our communities is preserved only in the minds of their storytellers. Therefore, to truly understand our past from a unique perspective, it is important to drive a formal programme to capture the valuable stories beneath our social tapestry. Through the project, personal histories and community experiences become shared heritage and libraries social hubs once again, promoting social inclusion and community development through sharing and understanding. Our testimonies recorded on video are available at the participating libraries and the provincial archives.
As a partnership project between the provincial libraries, museum, archive services, twenty five municipalities and communities in the Western Cape, the main objective is to rollout the initiative to all public libraries in the Western Cape within a 5-year-period.
Measures have been put in place to afford community members the liberty to visit their local libraries and to share their personal stories. The librarian will then liaise with the library service officials who then alert museum services to conduct the interviews and recordings and documents the contributions on DVD discs which is made available for circulation in the public library and archives.
This project is one of our department’s most welcomed projects across the province. After each rollout more residents are keen to be interviewed to share and document their stories. Since its launch in 2015, approximately 193 interviews have been documented as the OHI has already been rolled out in each district.
As Africa month has just come to an end, I concur that South Africa has to claim its place in the film industry as I share with you the idea of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie who said and I quote:
“It is easy to romanticise poverty, to see poor people as inherently lacking agency and will. It is easy to strip them of human dignity, to reduce them to objects of pity. This has never been clearer than in the view of Africa from the American media, in which we are shown poverty and conflicts without any context”.
Although prevalent in many parts of Africa, this common image does not do our continent justice. We have so much more to offer, through her people and places, Africa oozes with natural beauty, diversity, excellence, the melting pot of cultures and so is the Cradle of Humankind.
As Africans, we all have to share the African story so that the world at large is aware of the realities of our continent. We need to make them aware of our achievements, our successes, our people, our food, our languages, our cultures and our everyday lives because who better to tell our stories than us? Who better to alert the world to fact that Africa is home to twenty two noble prize laureates.
The concept of Ubuntu and daily living that calls it into reality and in the case of South Africa, renowned world record holders in Caster Semenya, Wayde Van Niekerk, Chad Le Clos and paralympians like Hilton Langenhoven, Duyan Buys, Charl du Toit, to name only but the few.
Who best to challenge the negative global misconceptions by highlighting the enriching realities of Africa other than ourselves as Africans by nature? The elders have left a diversity of African heritage and cultural history for us to foreground, highlight, celebrate and preserve for future generations. I cannot think of a more effective way to showcase _our African identity than through the arts, cultural activities and sports participation by sharing our untold stories, through music, drama, dance, cuisine, fashion,
literature and sporting excellence which transcend language barriers?
By using sport and cultural affairs as tools to join the global conversation on Africa, is central to our efforts at the Western Cape Department of Cultural Affairs and Sport. We have made great strides in creating an enabling environment in which our constituents can thrive holistically. With our limited annual Budget of just over R760 million, we have prioritised our investment in the youth by increasing access and participation in cultural affairs and sport by funding organisations; increasing platforms for talent showcasing and forging new innovative partnerships with others for greater opportunities to come into fruition.
It is also for this reason that the Western Cape government continues to promote and develop a culture of reading and writing which is essential to teaching critical thinking and consciousness, contributing to nation building and identity.
I highlight two such successes in the Western Cape. One is the Heal the Hood Organisation’s Rhymes, Articles, Poetry, Short Stories and Sketches, RAPPS, initiative which is collection of Rhymes, Articles,
Poetry, Short Stories and Sketches produced by the Cape Flats community
The Heal the Hood founder, Emile Jansen best describes the project as he writes: a love for self can only be attained by reading positive stories and seeing positive images of the communities that we are from. The negative connotations associated with the Cape flats breed a negative sense of self work.
The RAPPS series will give a vent to the majority of the people whose stories are still not being told and thus the stereotype connected to the community continues. This is attempting to create our own voices and new spaces that were destined for so many years.
Another example is the remarkable women of Lavender Hill who against all odds compiled the Women’s Surviving Lavender Hill, a book in which seven women write their stories of surviving abuse and violence. Women Surviving Lavender Hill started as a healing process for women to address the traumas they have endured, especially abuse.
The two year writing project facilitated by the New World
Foundation offered the women various empowerment courses all of which culminated into the publication of the book. I do have the evidence with me so that you can’t accuse me of misleading the House.
Again, with reference to last night public meeting on a name changing of Cape Town International Airport, it is clear that our Western Cape residents are speaking, because they have been accustomed to a transparent, responsive and capable government and I urge Minister Mthethwa to listen to our people.
The Western Cape government promotes diversity and will ensure a vigorous public participation process in which all interested voices will be heard, considered and democratically implemented. Our people deserve freedom, fairness and opportunity. How better to honour Mr Madiba on his centenary by proactively building the all inclusive nation he once was prepared to die for.
While foregrounding nation building, I focus on the recent Willemse, Mallet and Botha which was unfortunate. They still exist much had pain both inferiority and superiority complexes that still need much healing and resolve through open dialogue and engagement.
I agree with Minister Xasa as she holds and I quote:
“To work done by South Africans who fought for united sports in South Africa and in international bodies must continue to unite the country and the world. It must exert the influence needed, so that the country and world can use sports as a tool to promote human rights, equity and inclusiveness never to regress”
I repeat, never to regress. I support the hon Minister also in saying with this small Budget, there is not much we can do alone. The serious partnerships are critical. We need to partner with the private sector, integrate and align programs in order to enhance opportunities in a co-ordinated manner.
I will be the first to join hands to improve and make a federation system more effective and efficient to ensure the gap between grassroots level participation and high level performance is reduced while the South African talent pool is increased.
Lastly, we are still very few women in sport in South Africa and I am delighted that the new Minister of Sport and Recreation South Africa is indeed a fellow woman and I urge her to make it count to make it matter.
The Minister is in the best suited position to advance the agenda of women in Sport to transform the face of South African sport from top down in influential senior positions and positively engage discourse from bottom up. There are so many competent, fit and purposeful women on our streets, waiting for the opportunity. We can’t be something we hove never seen before.
You are in a position to change what is seen, so as to see the change. In the spirit of Mr Madiba, it only seems impossible until it is done. I trust the Minister will choose to be active and heed the call by taking up this very important role and while we are at it, let us then also accelerate disability and gender equity in sport. I thank you.
Cllr T CHARLES: Hon Chairperson of the NCOP, Mam’u Thandi Modise, Minister of Arts and Culture, Minister Nathi Mthethwa, Minister of Sports and Recreation, hon Thokozile Xasa, please forgive me if I’m pronouncing it incorrectly, Deputy Minister, hon G C Oosthuizen, hon members, all protocol observed.
Hon Chairperson, may I greet you all on behalf of the Local Government fraternity on this day of deliberation on the Budget Votes for Arts and Culture, and Sports and Recreation in the context
of the centenary of former President Nelson Mandela and uMama Albertina Sisulu. Both of them have contributed fundamentally to the liberation, freedom and democratisation of this country.
This year we cannot help but remind ourselves about their lives, contribution and the passing of politician icon such as uMam’u Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, Dr Zola Sikhweyiya, arts legends such as Dr Keorapetse Kgosietsile and Dr Phillip Thabane. These are just few among others. I will firstly draw your attention on the Budget Vote for Arts and Culture as presented by the hon Minister Mthethwa.
As part of the dynamism of Arts and Culture in March 2018, our people have continued to celebrate their hard-earned freedom. This is despite the challenges of unemployment intolerable rate of crime and distracted provision of municipal services. All these factors, others not mentioned above, are intricate and require a transformed despotism and equally complex synergy between the spheres of local and national government.
In the context of nation-building and social cohesion, SA Local Government Association, Salga, it is in partnership with the moral regeneration movement and delivering of programme of ethical leadership which is central to the charter of positive, in order to
change this advocacy of the charter of positive value supported by the department. This will see series of lectures on various themes affecting the broader communities offered throughout the year as part of the 100 years centenary of uTata Madiba.
With the election of Councillor Parks Tau to the united cities and local government as its President, Salga has a valuable opportunity to leverage local government into the world, and the stage of purpose of among others, profane local government. At the Culture Summit held in Jeju, South Korea, in May 2017, Salga committed to advance the United Cities and Local Governments, UCLG, Agenda for cultural deve4lopment in South Africa.
To this end, recently in March 2018, Salga has had a partnership with UCLG and the Tshwane University of Technology. They hosted a workshop to promote culture as one of the key of the development of sustainable cities. It is clear that positive gain in nation- building and social cohesion can only be achieved through working together as such. Salga is also working together with other organisations like the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation, Unesco, and United Cities and Local Governments, UCLG, in order to monitor and demonstrate internal trends standard and cascade of arts and culture in the globe.
The issue of the provision of library service remains a concern to Salga. Engagements are continuing with National Treasury and Departments of arts and Culture on matters related to the funding of libraries, more so that the majority of provinces have delegated the responsibility of library management to municipalities without necessary funding. Major libraries are at a different stage of functionality at local levels. Some are basically functional and others are not so functional. The last group is not functional at all due to lack of proper funding, staffing and resources.
We welcome the Local Government Summit in Arts and Culture to be hosted by the department during this current financial year as announced by the Minister. This will end by having the right conversation to promote key issues and to ensure that the local government does not only provide leadership in the sector, but take pride in the products of the sector.
Secondly, in respect of the Budget Vote on Sports and Recreation as presented by the hon Xasa, as the Local Government, we support the call by the department’s theme: I choose to be active.
Municipalities through Salga have been encouraged to be physically active. The active nation emphasise a place on the physical well- being of the nation which is facilitated through active recreation
which falls under Programme 2 of 2018 and 2019 Annual Performance Plan of the Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, FRSA, with R704,1 million budget allocated for the province.
Here, the goal is to ensure that South Africans will reap the social benefits of passive and active recreation which will increase not only physical health but also mental health. Our support for this Budget is evident in the games. Our member municipalities are already engaged on Salga and are currently crafting a model for sport, which will have six pillars mainly, early childhood development games; development games; wellness games; golden games; paramedic games and Special Olympic Games.
In support of the Minister’s Mass Participation Programme, MPP, Salga is currently receiving support from two provinces in their games, namely, in KwaZulu-Natal, the game is known as KwaZulu-Natal Department of Sports and Recreation Games, as well as in the Eastern Cape, the games are named after our first democratic Minister of Sport, Vukile Steve Tshwete Games.
Minister, we hope that other provinces will follow on the footsteps of these leading provinces when it comes to municipal games. As the country focuses on transformation in Sports and Recreation, Salga
supports the notion that sports development funding need to be directed to the grassroots in our member municipalities. The provision of sports facility budget which was allocated to Programme
5 and stands at R13,8 million is also crucial to us as local government.
It is Local Government constitutional mandate as defined in schedule 5(b) to address sports facilities for our community sports games.
How we so wish as Salga that the bigger chunk of this amount can be accessible to our efforts of addressing the challenges of member municipalities are faced with. As an example of this, next week from
13 to 15 June 2018, Salga will be having a conference titled, Innovation Infrastructure Financing at Emperors Palace and sports infrastructure will be one of the key topics.
We are looking forward to the department’s input to this initiative from Salga. Salga with SA Chamber of Business, SACOB, Sports Trust and Sector Department, Sports and Recreation SA, SRSA, the Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs and Treasury, Municipal Infrastructure Support Agent, MISA, and Lottery needs to find amicable solution in addressing the backlog sports facilities as well as the range of challenges that exists in the facilities at municipality level.
Hon Chairperson, as the country is about to host the BRIKS Games, on
18 to 22 July 2018, Salga wishes to state that we are fully in support of this games as they enhance intergovernmental relations and collaboration among members counties. In conclusion, Salga wishes to state that, it fully supports the Budget Vote as presented by the hon Ministers. The Budget reflects on the good work and advances made in transforming the two sectors. I thank you.
Ms T G MPAMBO-SIBHUKWANA: Hon Chairperson, the Department of Arts and Culture plays an essential and significant role in developing and preserving South African culture in order to ensure the country’s sense of social cohesion and nation-building. As such, it is important for the department to take active measures to fulfil its mandate.
Currently, although the department has made strides in ensuring inclusivity, it still faces a number of shortfalls. Talking about inclusivity, I am very concerned, Minister, when you gave bursaries to people, you out people with disabilities. That sector shouldn’t be left out when giving bursaries.
Firstly, is the issue of Pan South African Language Board, Pansalb, that needs to be taken seriously and its failure to include and
treat sign language as an official language. Hon Mathebula, did speak about this. Although there has been development in talks on the addition of sign language as the 12th official language, it needs to be officiated, Minister. There is still a long winding road ahead that should be travelled before any tangible change can be felt.
While we can respect this process that is going on, we, as the DA believe that throughout the duration of this process, the deaf and mute are being left out of the process. If the main aim of the board is to not celebrate our country’s diverse language but to also save minority languages, then we are of the opinion that more focus and pressure needs to be applied when it comes to sign language. This will not just help the deaf communities but will also help the entire country and those who wish to study sign language. I just want to say, hon Chairperson, that even in this House, sometimes we get sign language interpreters sometimes we don’t on that screen.
That needs to be taken seriously, Minister.
Secondly, the issue the department is faced with is that of the pending and rebuilding of the Brandfort Museum. As we all know, April is a significant month in South Africa’s calendar - it is a month where we celebrate the lives, achievements and sacrifices of
our country’s current and past leadership that bestowed South Africa. It is, therefore, with great sadness that we in South Africa admit to the department’s failure to deliver on their promise to rebuild Winnie Mandela’s home, which is in Brandfort. After reports indicating mismanagements of funds and missing monies in Masilonyana Municipality, may Mama Winnie’s soul rest in peace in this regard.
The home still stands, incomplete and without the any dignity that it deserves. Minister, you were silent on this, though you know it. Your speech never even touched Brandfort and it’s a concern.
We, as the DA, therefore ask on the progress on the rebuilding of this national museum that is currently in limbo. We ask for transparency according to the timeframes, expenditure and the money that has been lost, Minister.
Minister Xasa, I wish to say that the importance of sports and recreation in our country lies in its ability to sustain and develop sport and recreation systems in our country. Not only does this encourage participation but it also develops talent that is found in youth and contributes to the general health and wellbeing of individuals and groups. With this in consideration, it becomes more important for the department to face its current issues and make some changes in order to bring about positive long-term effects.
Minister Xasa, the first issue that needs to be addressed is that of the cancellation the Minister made into the inquiry of the stampede that occurred at the FNB stadium, last July, where two people lost their lives and 21 people sustained injuries. The effects of the Minister’s decision should be understood. Without this inquiry, it means that no one is held responsible or accountable for the deaths and injuries experienced.
Although there are no direct links to this incident, last year, and the most recent one that happened, this year, we need to understand the message that is communicated when the department fails to go through the process of follow ups. It arguably builds a culture of misbehaviour with zero consequences, which is most likely to occur again and again.
Lastly, the issue of transformation has been ongoing for some time now. Although the department has taken active steps to ensure there is representation in sports, and with regard to sport teams that compete internationally by implementing quotas, we believe it is important to attempt to find the root cause of this issue without going to the easy scapegoat of racism.
We have to acknowledge the failure for the department to institute change from ground level. We need to increase accessibility, inequality and participation and that means ensuring that there are facilities for the youth to nurture and build their athletic skills and capabilities. These kinds of facilities should not only be limited to suburban neighbourhoods or highly funded private and semiprivate schools, but also to areas with more vulnerable members of the youth.
Sports bring discipline to the minds of the people. This is essential, Minister Xasa. I thank you.
Sepedi:
Moh T K MAMPURU: Modulasetulo, Ditona le Batlatšatona, ke a le dumediša ...
English:
... permanent delegates, special delegates, our guests in the gallery, allow me to advise the hon Mathebula that South Africa is a free country, you choose wherever you want your child to learn. Not knowing English is not a curse but a choice. In 1955 the ANC-led Congress Alliance, at the Congress of the People held in Kliptown, adopted the Freedom Charter that, among others, pronounced that, and
I quote, “All people shall have equal right to use their own languages, and to develop their own folk culture and customs.”
The ANC understood early, that culture ...
The CHAIRPERSON OF THE NCOP: Hon Mampuru. Hon Koni, you can do whatever, just don’t drown out the speaker who is on the floor. [Interjections.] Yes, in your touchiness, please allow the speaker to be audible to all of us. Please continue, hon Mampuru.
Ms T K MAMPURU: Chairperson ... [Laughter.] ... the ANC understood early, that culture and customs are important to human beings, at least to us Africans. It is out of our culture that we are able to show where we come from and what we are made of, like most of the time the Minister asks us if we know where we come from. I am still trying to find out where I come from but I believe I am from Botswana. I am not Sotho, and I am certain about that.
In other words, become full artists because of our culture. Both arts and culture are intrinsically interwoven in African societies. When we talk about the value of arts and culture to society, we always start with its intrinsic value: how arts and culture can illuminate our inner lives and enrich our emotional world. This is
what we cherish. But while we do not cherish arts and culture because of the impact on our social wellbeing and cohesion, our physical and mental health, our education system, our national status and our economy, they do confer these benefits and we need to show how important this is. We need to be able to show this on different scales — on individual, communal and national levels — so that we can raise awareness among the public, across the cultural, educational and political sectors, and among those who influence investment in both the public and private sectors. We need this information to help people think of our arts and culture for what they are - a strategic national resource.
However, we also understand that arts and culture have a wider and more measurable impact on our economy, health and wellbeing, society and education. It is important that we also recognise this impact to help people think of our arts and culture for what they are - a strategic national resource. The value of arts and culture to people and society outlines the existing evidence on the impact of arts and culture on our economy, health and wellbeing, society and education.
Life without the collective resources of our libraries, museums, theatres and galleries, or without the personal expression of literature, music and art, would be static and sterile — no creative
arguments about the past, no diverse and stimulating present and no dreams of the future. Of course the inherent value of arts and culture is, in part, a philosophical assertion that can’t be measured in numbers.
There is a lack of data, for example, about the economic benefits of museums and libraries, and about the importance of the arts to the creative industries, particularly in regard to innovation. We lack longitudinal studies of the health benefits of participation in arts and culture, and comparative studies of the effects of participation in the arts as opposed to, say - participation in sport. We cannot demonstrate why the arts are unique in what they do. And when it comes to crime, we have little knowledge about the effect that participation in the arts may have on reducing the numbers of people who reoffend. However, this lack of data should not be used as a justification to disregard the value and importance in our lives.
Arts and culture are important in various fields and sectors such as economy, health and wellbeing, social life, education and so on.
With regard to the economy there are five key ways that arts and culture can boost local economies. The key ways are attracting visitors; creating jobs and developing skills; attracting and retaining businesses revitalising places and developing talent.
Pertaining to health and wellbeing, research has evidenced that a higher frequency of engagement with arts and culture is generally associated with a higher level of subjective wellbeing. Engagement in structured arts and culture improves the cognitive abilities of children and young people. There are also a number of studies that have reported findings of applied arts and cultural interventions and measured their positive impact on specific health conditions which include dementia, depression and Parkinson’s disease.
On social life, culture and sport volunteers are more likely than average to be involved and influential in their local communities. There is strong evidence that participation in the arts can contribute to community cohesion, reduce social exclusion and isolation, and/or make communities feel safer and stronger. With regard to education, taking part in drama and library activities improves attainment in literacy. Taking part in structured music activities improves attainment in maths, early language acquisition and early literacy. Schools that integrate arts across the curriculum in the US have shown consistently higher average reading and mathematics scores compared to similar schools that do not.
Participation in structured arts activities increases cognitive abilities. Students from low income families who take part in arts
activities at school are three times more likely to get a degree than children from low income families who do not engage in arts activities at school. There are, therefore, some gaps that we must fill with regard to arts and culture in order to derive benefits therefrom. Of most importance are equality and diversity. Those who are most actively involved with the arts and culture that we invest in tend to be from the most privileged parts of society, engagement is heavily influenced by levels of education, by socioeconomic background and by where people live. We have to articulate a new language of cultural value that will help all of us to understand better the essential contribution that the arts make to our lives, just as the Freedom Charter envisaged.
Coming to sports, it is important to recognise that this debate is held during the month of the youth and we know that youth are an important stakeholder when it comes to sport. In my language we say
...
Sepedi:
... baswa le dipapadi ke ntepa le lešago.
English:
... and we must pursue that. Currently we have a serious challenge of youth unemployment in the country and sports can play a crucial role to assist in this situation. Our youth are also engaged in social misdemeanours such as drug abuse which then lead them to commit crime because they loiter our streets having nothing to do. As a result, about 90 % of inmates in our prisons are youths. Many of them are serving sentences for serious offences like murder and robbery. It is therefore imperative that sport participation among young people should be urgently increased to keep them away from social ills and prepare them as athletes of world-class standard.
Today our national football team, Bafana Bafana, is in shambles. In a week’s times different nations will participate in the 2018 Fifa World Cup in Russia, but we will not be part of it because Bafana Bafana did not qualify. So we need to reorientate our youth so that they also help in this Bafana Bafana course. There is no doubt that we have talent in South Africa; yes indeed. How did countries like Japan, Columbia, Senegal and Tunisia - to name but just a few, manage to qualify. Let’s work hard, we are a winning nation.
One area that needs serious or special attention is rural sports. I know that the then Minister of Sport and Recreation, Fikile Mbalula, launched the Rural Sport Development Programme that pays special
attention to sport development in rural provinces, but this seems to be taking too long to pay dividends. And the greatest impediment in this is infrastructure, which is largely nonexistent in rural areas. Minister, we therefore implore you to look into this concern through this budget.
Municipalities are also not assisting as expected in some instances. For example, there are many municipalities that are forced to return the Municipal Infrastructure Grants which are meant to build sport facilities back to the National Treasury due of poor planning. So we will ask you Minister to engage the Minister of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs to deal with this issue. Another Minister worth engaging is the Minister of Basic Education, because school sport is a perfect incubator of excellent athletes. Tertiary institutions must also come on board because the majority of athletes, especially because those that compete or must compete at international level would come from these institutions. In other words, there must be collaborative efforts from all stakeholders.
We will therefore, as the ANC, support this Budget Vote because we believe and know that it will assist the department to do these things that I have alluded to. On regulation, I wonder why we have lost interest. Only a few have interests, for example, in hiking,
horse riding, hunting, diketo, kgathi and morabaraba. Recreational activities are very vital as they have the benefits such as stimulation of the release of happiness hormones, improve our brain function and slow down the aging process.
Sepedi:
Ijoo, ke tše dintši; a re itlhokomeleng. Ke a leboga. [Legoswi.]
The MINISTER OF ARTS AND CULTURE: Chairperson of the select committee, thank you for your contribution. I am glad that you understand what the department is doing especially on languages. I did say earlier on here that we allocated almost R20 million to students on languages. Besides that, the Department of Arts and Culture has the terminology programme within the Unit of Languages in the department.
The other point to touch on is the issue of history. We, those who have had time to sit with us when we visit the committee would have known that we have been in discussion with the Minister of Basic Education about history because we want our youth to understand their history to know exactly what the hon Mampuru was saying to know ourselves. Our youth should not only know Hitler and Napoleon
Bonaparte but they must know Julius Nyerere. They must know who kwame Nkrumah was. They must know Heli Selus and others.
The hon member Hattingh, I think they gave you a wrong script. The entities you are talking about actually have turned around. Nelson Mandela and the Robben Island Museum, yes, you are correct, they have had challenges in the past but they are turning around. I would have volunteered to tell you which entity is struggling but I won’t do that. [Interjections.] I think you must keep quiet because I was listening to you.
The issue of you living Madiba, Madiba abort apartheid. He wouldn’t have Hart Netanyahu, never, never ever. So, don’t say things which are not true. [Applause.]
Quite clearly, the member of the EFF is one of those who has not benefited in our interaction with the committee because we come, we have time there, there is no much time limit as here, we are able to explain what we have done on the issues you have raised, issues related to language and so on. In fact, Pan SA Language Board, PanSALB, is one entity which has turned around 360 degrees. So, I don’t know what the member is talking about but maybe she understands.
The English Museum in Eastern Cape, for instance, we have made a condition that one of the things they are going to do is to include isiXhosa because where they are predominantly people speak isiXhosa. For the development of the languages they have that.
Hon Khawula, well, you say this thing all the time. There is a challenge on social cohesion when it comes to national days but your answer is bizarre to deal with that because your answer is always saying that you must have people from different parties to come and speak. Now, those are leaders. We are talking about people here across the board which we say think more on what is it that we need to do. I agree with you and I am happy with Abafana BakaMgqumeni, but on the Enyokeni matter, we discussed that matter extensively.
Actually, you were supposed to say, what did we do. You fell short of that. Those who would come to committees would know, hon member. So, you must safe your breath.
Now, hon Mampuru is so correct that it’s our duty, we have to understand and research who we are as individuals because that is going to help us. It’s going to help us on the ant-foreigner sentiment, otherwise known as xenophobia, which will be able to combat if we know that there is no foreigner anywhere else on the continent Africa.
Hon Mpambo, well, I agree and I sympathise with you on the issue of the Sign Language. I think we should do more. We have been challenge in the House here and in the other House in the National Assembly.
We should actually do more on this matter because it is one very important language.
On the issue of Brandfort, we have not at the time when you wanted us to talk because at that time nobody was asking us. The national government has intervened on the Brandfort matter. It is continuing together with the family. There are developments and soon that house is going to come to an end.
But hon Chairperson, I think generally, hon members have raised issues which are very important. We launched Usiba Awards last week. These awards are looking at different disciplines of arts culture and heritage. My colleague here, you know, hon MEC Marais, we are very much close to each other. We are like this, you know. [Laughter.]
The CHAIRPERSON OF THE NCOP: On that point of closeness.
The MINISTER OF ARTS AND CULTURE: We are on the same WhatsApp group. But you see the thing about people being locked out because of
political reasons; I think the two of us will have a coffee and understand who those are because you know; we meet all the time and talk about everything. So, here, if there are people who are locked out of any development because of political reasons, let’s find that and lets understand what that is. But all other things you raised, it shows that you attend meetings and we are actually working together.
IsiZulu:
Sinje mntakwethu.
English:
Thank you very much. [Applause.]
The MINISTER OF SPORT AND RECREATION: Thank you very much hon Chairperson, and a very good afternoon to you. Hon members, let me take this opportunity to thank all hon members who have contributed to our Budget Vote debate. I really appreciate those members who really are positively looking into how we can bring sport into the centre of nation building and also social cohesion in our country.
Hon Chair, I also just want to pick up on few of the areas, for instance, for hon Mathebula, its quiet a shame if you can stand here
and don’t really understand what needs to happen because it means
... [Interjections.] Who are you? [Interjections.] The EFF member. [Interjections.] Yes, who stands at the podium and alleged that our department is doing nothing. He even went outside because he doesn’t want to listen to what is happening. He has just say corruption, maybe that’s how he was even introduced to say corruption, corruption, and nothing else.
But what is very important is that we take this opportunity to also educate hon members because they need to go back to their communities and make young people to participate because we are giving them opportunities of a life time. Therefore, you know, we are proud that our department over the four years has been obtaining a clean audit which is an indication of how even in terms of financing, we are handling the matters and how we are following up on provinces where we are giving grants to make sure that they are able to spend the money accordingly.
We are very fortunate that in cases where provinces have not been performing because we do have underperforming provinces, Treasury has now given us a green light and an opportunity to shift such monies to performing provinces because we can’t wait any longer to have more of our young people participating.
We are excited about school sport because it now covers 25 000 schools that we have so that it is not only your previously advantaged schools and only schools that have infrastructure. So, co-ordinating all our efforts and channelling all our efforts, we are also building and ensuring that the confederation like your SA Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee, Sascoc, and then working with your SA Football Association, Safa, we are able to make them understand our mandate very clearly.
Then, they also have to take down that kind of responsibility into the clubs and everybody because we have been very straight forward even to say to Safa to make sure that we have a proud National Team because South Africans are proud of their South Africa.
I was at the Cosafa Cup this last Saturday. You could just see that there is no pride in those young people who were playing there. We are taking that responsibility back to Safa to say what do you do, how do you get people who have pride in playing for their nation? At the same time, we had a revelation in the very same match that in fact all the people who scored in the PSL games are foreign nationals which means that nobody is taking responsibility to nurture and develop people who are going to score.
Therefore, we have pride at clubs within South Africa. So, we are building it within our legislation that we are reviewing to make sure that we discourage or they make to have international participants or players coming into the country as a last resort because they have looked around, they have been working with us to develop that kind of a talent within South Africa, and demonstrating on the progress of what we have been doing, building rural sports or in the outlets that we have where we have them coming from rural areas. It is a real demonstration that it can happen but it requires consistent efforts.
So, the integration we are talking about and the fact that as we have now indicated to everybody our approach to move forward, it is also going to assist us to model our funding, be able, Chair, to point into how lottery is allocating even the existing funds that are earmarked for sport.
We are looking further to challenge back the country because when lottery was established, it was also having agenda to make sure that it finances sport. So, our new case for sport development and review is not only looking into the programmes that we have to participate, but it is also going to identify where we are going to find the funding in entities like lottery but also, you know, a massive
private sector participation so that every effort that is happening elsewhere, everywhere in the country is co-ordinated.
Therefore, from what is there, we can emancipate but we also believe that when it comes to healthy life style, we will also get monies from the department like the Department of Health because for a healthy nation then it also ease the burden on the fiscus.
Hon Chair, thank you very much that hon members have made the inputs. We are also looking forward to working with Salga because mostly it is in municipalities where we have a slow pace in terms of even our infrastructure that will take us forward to give opportunity to rural young people. Thank you very much.
The CHAIRPERSON OF THE NCOP: Well, hon Minister of Arts and Culture, you may want to know that this House is waiting very anxiously for the official declaration of the Sign Language as our twelve official language. We can’t wait. Hon members that conclude the Budget Vote debate on Vote No 37 and Vote No 40.
APPROPRIATION BILL
(Policy debate)
Vote No 35 - Transport South Africa:
The MINISTER OF TRANSPORT: Hon Chairperson of the NCOP Mme Modise, hon members of the National Council of Provinces, Ministers, Deputy Ministers and MECs, representatives of the SA Local Government Association, Salga, acting director-general of transport Mr Mathabatha Mokonyama, the leadership of all the representatives of transport entities, all members of the transport fraternity, members of the media, my dear wife, distinguished guests ... [Interjections.]
IsiZulu:
... Ehe, nginonkosikazi ... [Uhleko.]
English:
... ladies and gentlemen ... [Interjections.] [Laughter.]
IsiZulu:
... engathi bayakhalaza nje omama balana. [Uhleko.]
English:
We have dedicated our Budget Vote this year to the memory of
Isitwalandwe Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela and uMama u-Albertina Sisulu and we devote our every action, every effort and every utterance to the realisation of their vision of a democratic, just and equitable society. Guided by their example, we will use this last year of the fifth administration to reinforce our commitment to ethical behaviour and ethical leadership by fighting corruption and state capture uncompromisingly. We will also ensure that we improve our capacity to support black professionals, deal decisively with companies that resist transformation, use competition policy to open markets up to new black entrants, and invest in the development of businesses in townships and rural areas. To reverse the apartheid spatial development patterns, the ANC government developed transport policies and frameworks to improve access to roads and transport, especially for the rural and the urban poor. Indeed, as the three spheres of government, we have specific, exclusive and shared responsibilities for the three key elements of the transport system, namely; roads infrastructure, public transport and traffic management. In ensuring a cost-effective, accessible, reliable and safe transport system, we are also guided by the National Household Travel Survey to address the triple scourges of poverty, unemployment, inequality ... MEC Grant, I apologise, and I should have recognised you. To give effect to the Cabinet decision to place the North West provincial government under Section 100(1) (b) of the
Constitution, we have now established an intervention team as the Department of Transport to be lead by our acting director-general, to ensure that we continue to administer affairs of the Department of Community Safety and Transport Management and ensure that we continue to deliver services to the people of North West without fail.
Through the S’hamba Sonke Programme, which is a component of the Extended Public Works Programme, EPWP, we continue to invest in provincial roads to address spatial inequalities, create jobs, and to improve rural infrastructure and transport. The total amount of R10,8 billion was transferred to provinces as four tranche payments in the 2017-18 financial year. From this amount, only R10,4 billion was spent by provinces, which resulted in 97% spent as a percentage of the total allocation. Year to date analysis on nonfinancial performance will be finalised in July when according to the Division of Revenue Act, Dora, framework the S’hamba Sonke Grant Evaluation Report has been shared with provinces. We will continue to implement a new system for classifying our road network according to the function they perform, and we will assign the appropriate authority to manage it. Some provincial and municipal roads will be included in the road network for which national government is responsible. We will transfer the appropriate budgets to the authority that will
manage the infrastructure. In the 2018-19 financial year the SA National Roads Agency SOC Ltd, Sanral’s, key flagship projects remain the N2 Wild Coast, the Moloto R573 Road Upgrade, N1-N2-R300 Cape Town, N3 Van Reenen Development and N2-N3 Durban. These are at various stages of development. The Road Accident Fund, RAF, expansion programme has led to RAF having its presence in all the provinces, with 100 Hospital Service Centres, five Customer Service Centres and three RAF Mobi vans servicing rural areas. Through this intervention, claimants can now access all RAF services as well as lodge claims directly.
We are also seized with the work to ensure that we harmonise our traffic law enforcement across all spheres of government and also ensure that we finalise the implementation of a 24 hour law enforcement shift in all provinces. This will go a long way to ensure that we co-operate with all the stakeholders in provinces and municipalities to implement the National Road Safety Strategy. The newly appointed board of the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa, Prasa, will be responsible for the stabilisation and turnaround strategy of the business. In this current financial year, 58 new modernised train sets are earmarked to be deployed in the Gauteng North corridor.
Following the Pretoria to Pienaarspoort line, the next roll-out will be Pretoria CBD ring rail, linking Hercules, Koedoespoort and Pretoria. Thereafter Pretoria to Saulsville and Pretoria to Mabopane and De Wildt lines will be commissioned followed by the Johannesburg line. Signalling systems in Prasa’s three main regions — Gauteng, the Western Cape and KwaZulu-Natal — are also being upgraded in a multibillion rand project. Among the areas we have given our urgent attention, are challenges facing Prasa in the Western Cape, Cape Town in particular. We have begun tackling the safety and reliability of Metrorail in this corridor. Prasa is currently implementing a signalling programme to replace the old signalling system, and the project is near completion.
Furthermore, we are at an advanced stage with the construction of the Central Operation Centre for the control of rail operation in the entire Western Cape. We will be able to better manage our service, and improve our management and safety of our operations. Construction is expected to be completed by the end of this month. To address the inadequacy of the rolling stock, we will continue to refurbish our current rolling stock to meet the immediate demand of this corridor. The Cape Town corridor requires about 110 train sets. In the next 24 months, we will operate 88 fully configured train sets, not these half trains.
IsiZulu:
Sifuna izitimela ezigcwele ukuze sibhekane nale nkinga esinayo la.
English:
However, we are also working on our plans to rollout the new rolling stock, including putting in place enabling infrastructure such as the depot programme, perway and electrical works, to support the deployment of the new rolling stock fleet, although I must admit that I am concerned at the slow pace in these projects and I will pay very close attention to them. I have therefore directed the new board to pay of Prasa to pay urgent attention in dealing with these challenges and I expect a plan within the next two months. I will also convene a series of stakeholder meetings in the coming months countrywide but with a particular focus on convening stakeholder meetings between Prasa, the City of Cape Town, trade unions and their shop stewards, municipal councillors, and political formations.
We have already relaunched the Shosholoza Meyl service from Johannesburg to Musina and are committed to launch the Johannesburg to Mahikeng, Pietermaritzburg to Kokstad; Sterkstroom to Maclear; Hoedspruit to Kaapmuiden; the Durban via Port Elizabeth to Cape Town, and cross-border services from Johannesburg to Bulawayo,
Maputo and Lobatse. To live up to the affirmation of the Reconstruction and Development Programme, RDP, that commuters should be encouraged to use public transport, we will be reviewing the entire regime of the public transport subsidy, we have agreed with the MECs on this, including the amounts for the bus industry, commuter rail, Gautrain and the Bus Rapid Transit, BRT, systems. In short, we want to look at the public transport subsidy in its entirety in South Africa. Is it fair? Is it just? Who are we funding? Are we not subsidising the rich at the expense of the poor
- including, by the way, the issue of the subsidy to the taxi industry. It is something that I am very keen that we must get our handle on Mr Taaibosch so that we can see how far we can be able to go actually ensure an equitable public transport system. [Interjections.]
IsiZulu:
Yebo! Ubombuza, ukhona laphaya phezulu ... [Ubuwelewele.] Oh, uhleli la.
English:
We will continue to monitor the performance of the Integrated Public Transport Networks and we have also finalised the process to review the impact and performance of the Taxi Recapitalisation Programme.
The findings have been submitted to Cabinet. We remain determined to transform this industry for the benefit of commuters. I am also prepared together with the department to work with the taxi industry to actually explore opportunities for a self-sustainable taxi industry. There is no reason why taxis should be charged so much interest by the banks when the taxi industry could actually form its own co-operative banks and be able to fund their own taxis in a sustainable way. [Applause.] We are prepared to work with the taxi industry to help them in this regard.
IsiZulu:
Ngoba omashonisa siye sicabange ukuthi laba abatshelekisi ngotiki nozukwa, omashonisa abakhulu isikhathi esiningi yiwo amabhange lawa.
English:
We remain determined and concerned also about the levels to deal with the levels of violence in the taxi industry, which has claimed many lives in the Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal, Western Cape and Gauteng. I strongly condemn these acts of violence. Together with the Minister of Police, we are working tirelessly to ensure that perpetuators of these acts are apprehended. We can not have a public transport system that is working amidst the flow of blood of our people including passengers. The introduction of the National Land
Transport Amendment Bill, which is on its way this House, will further transform and restructure the national land transport system by ensuring a seamless working environment by all spheres of government.
We will improve the sustainability of the Shova Kalula bicycle project.
IsiZulu:
Sifuna wonke umuntu agibele ibhayisikili manje ...
English:
... if possible so that we all keep fit and increase its reach to including fostering partnerships with the Departments of Agriculture, Sports and Recreation, community development offices and health workers. We are also steadfast in the implementation of the National Learner Transport Policy to ensure that all learners who qualify to receive transport are provided with safe and reliable transportation.
IsiZulu:
Abaphuma KwaZulu-Natal bayazi ukuthi ngikhathazekile ngomalume laba ngoba babuye bazihlukumeze lezi zingane ezincane zamantombazane omalume isikhathi esiningi.
English:
Through the new Rural Transport Strategy, we will focus on the priorities of rural district municipalities and provinces, as well as improving the inadequate provision of rural transport infrastructure and services. This will contribute towards the development of the local and provincial economies by improving access to public transport. Our aviation sector remains a beacon of hope and the pride of the nation. In the last budget debate, we promised to come back and report to this House on the outcomes of the International Civic Aviation Organisation of the United Nations on Universal Safety Audit for our civil aviation programme. Today we are proud to mention that we excelled in the audit. The results reveal that South Africa’s effective implementation rating has increased from 83,83% in 2013 to the current rating 87,39%. [Applause.] This rating is significantly higher than the world average of 60%, and positions South Africa as number one in Africa, and number 31 globally. That is why we are not going to hesitate to act against airlines that do not maintain standards like SA Express now. If they do not maintain standards we take away the licences, we
hope they will learn a lesson and sort themselves out. Part of our efforts in this sector is to ensure that we continue to transform the aviation industry by producing the necessary aviation skills, targeting especially the previously excluded groups, on the basis of class, gender and race. We will thus, unapologetically take drastic action in this regard and I remain concerned that pilot training for instance still remains almost an exclusive preserve of very expensive private academies that are not adequately catering for the disadvantaged.
We are honoured to report that South Africa, represented by the national Department of Transport, retained its International Maritime Organisation, IMO, council seat. We would like to thank the Portfolio and Select Committees on Transport and Cabinet for their unwavering support in this regard. On the Operation Phakisa oceans economy in the transport and manufacturing category, to date we have invested R6,9 billion, and we have created 4 507 jobs. To respond to the implementation of the Cabotage Chapter of the Comprehensive Maritime Policy, we now have a 100% female black-owned company, Semona, with a specific focus on the energy sector.
IsiZulu:
Omama laba.
English:
The second company is Mnambithi Shipping a 100% black-owned company which is in the process of purchasing a chemical tanker vessel with the aim of registering and flagging the vessel locally. This will increase the number of registered vessels and will be the first 100% Black-owned South African registered vessel. Through the Ports Regulator‘s Tariff Strategy, we will rebalance ports tariffs towards a more cost-effective price level, and reduce the cost of living for all South Africans, including lowering the cost of undertaking new ventures. The increased investment in the transport system offers great opportunity for this sector to contribute to the government initiatives to reduce inequalities, poverty and unemployment.
The sector requires all organs of state in all three spheres of government to work together effectively and plan in a co-ordinated way for the delivery of an efficient transport system. I wish to state before this House that I remain committed to the gender transformation in the transport sector.
IsiZulu:
Hayi! Kuseyise mzini wezinsizwa la kwezokuthutha.
English:
I also want to embark on an investment drive into research and innovation, to support the sector. I was in Germany a week or so ago and I drove in a driverless car for the first time in my life. I could see that if we could invest in innovation there are many things we can achieve although I am not so sure whether we are ready yet for a driverless car in our country. I also want to prioritise working with the Department of Higher Education and Training in particular on the provision of skills for transport. I thank you. [Applause.]
Mr E MAKUE: Hon Chairperson, the hon Minister Blade Nzimande, our staff and leadership from the national Department of Transport, our MECs, our delegates from provincial legislatures, our delegate from Salga and our visitors in the gallery, June is the month in which we commemorate the tragic events in Soweto and other parts of our country 42 years ago. We support fully that motion which was presented earlier today by the hon Terblanche.
The horrific scenes of the massacre of innocent school children by the apartheid state inspired a whole generation of young people to join the struggle to liberate the people of South Africa from the shackles of national, class and gender oppression. The atrocities of June 1976 touched the hearts of peoples of the world. It touched the
icons of our struggles such as Baba Walter Sisulu and Tata Nelson Mandela who were in prison at the time.
During this year, 2018, and last week Friday, we also celebrated the 39th anniversary of the founding of the Congress of South African Students, COSAS. When I talk about it, I can see some members here looking younger when they were members of Cosas than what they look now.
I am raising this precisely because scholar transport and safety of our learners - especially in rural areas, with adequate protection from natural disasters like rivers that are overflowing, as well as criminal elements that are abusing our young girls and boys – are seen as challenges that need to be prioritised.
Due to apartheid social spatial planning, these children have to travel long distances and they use transport. Some of them even travel on bicycles, and As I said in the select committee meeting this morning, others travel on the back of bakkies.
This month is also the month we lost one of the mothers of this generation of young people, who herself was a gallant fighter. Our mothers kept the home fires burning while the children and their
fathers were being harassed and imprisoned by the brutal racist state.
Our government has dedicated this year to, Mama Nontsikelelo Albertina Sisulu. Mamma Sisulu, who passed away on 2 June 2011 would write letters to her dear husband, Tata Walter Sisulu. He wrote back one letter that I want to quote in humility, and it reads:
Concerning the progress you have made with regard to family matters and the manner in which you have handled them, I can only repeat what I have said in the past - absolute superb. I have never felt as comfortable as I am. I am really happy about all the children. It is true, I would have wanted the highest possible education for them but I think they will certainly make up for it.
These word of Baba Sisulu are words that ring in the hearts and the ears of many mothers in this nation. Many parents who want to see their children obtain a descent education so that they can fend for themselves. It is all related to scholar transport.
As we commemorate our icons we need to emulate their compassion, the courage and the perseverance to confront the vestiges of apartheid and build one South African nation. Our transport system is a
conduit for the development and integration of our people and every sector of our economy. I can’t imagine any sector that would function without transport, even when we look at the financial sector.
The percentage of workers wages spent on transport is a gross injustice. This paradigm has to change. We are debating this Budget Vote on the eve of yet another hike in the price of petrol, diesel and illuminating paraffin. It is in the context of the rise, globally, in the price of oil, as well as shifts in global currencies which impact upon the rand, given that our country is a floating currency and one of the most globally.
As we know, these increases will lead to an increase in transport costs, and these transport cost increases will have a knock-on effect on the prices of other goods that our people need, especially food products. In this context, this Budget Vote is essential in bringing relief to the masses of the working people and the poor of our country.
The National Transport Master Plan 2050, Natmap 2050, gives us a clear long-term vision of the type of transport system that is needed to support economic growth and development in South Africa.
The principles set out in the Natmap include efficiency, affordability and reliability of transport systems.
Poor transport links and infrastructure networks in the Southern African community and our continent have hampered the potential of our economies to translate the rapid growth and high demand for commodities into rising employment and living standards in the previous decade in which we experienced a commodity super-cycle.
Government has committed in terms of the National Development Plan to work to overcome these challenges. Ho Minister and your team from the Department of Transport, when we therefore looked at the budget that was presented to us and the annual performance plans, we looked at it against this backdrop also, as to: What is going to be the impact on Southern Africa; and what is going to be the impact on our African continent?
My next item will be on the mandate of the Department of Transport. The legislative framework and responsibilities of the national, provincial and local spheres of government with regard to airports, rail, maritime and road traffic management and public transport are established in: The Constitution of the Republic of South Africa; the 1996 White Paper on National Transport Policy; the National Land
Transport Act; Public Transport Strategy; and the National Freight Logistics Strategy.
It is important therefore to remind the officials of the Department of Transport that when you succeed, you are meeting a constitutional obligation and responsibility. The National Development Plan projects that the proportion of people who use public transport for regular commutes will expand significantly by 2030, and that public transport must therefore be user-friendly, less environmentally damaging, cheaper and integrated.
Government, in the medium to long term will therefore have to invest in public transport, which will benefit low-income households by facilitating mobility of these poor and vulnerable people in our society. Chapter 4 of the National Development Plan places the development of economic infrastructure at the foundation of social and economic development. This finds expression in outcome 6 and is also an element of the 2014-19 Medium-Term Strategic Framework, MTSF, to which the work of the Department of Transport is aligned.
Over the medium-term, we must focus on improving mobility and access to social and economic activities by facilitating and creating an enabling environment for maintaining provincial and national road
networks, whilst focusing on modernising passenger rail infrastructure and integrating public transport.
In terms of the Medium-Term Strategic Framework, government is mandated to increase the tonnage moved on rail by 2019 and improve the operational performance of sea ports and inland terminals through regulation, funding and investment in particular transport economic infrastructure.
The African Union’s Vision 2063 underscores: The role of infrastructure in accelerated integration and growth; technological transformation; and trade and development of the continent.
The ANC and government’s Nine-Point Plan for economic recovery and growth sets out clear objectives for transport infrastructure which include: Improving access to economic opportunities – and Minister Nzimande has spoken to that; advancing economic development - that benefits all people of South Africa, particularly people who have been historically marginalised; and enhancing the movement of people and goods.
Our President has made it clear, in the 2018 state of the nation address that the agenda of government is to pursue higher levels of
economic growth and investment and concerted efforts to reduce poverty and meet the needs of the unemployed. In this regard, government will invest in the transport sector in order to open up broader growth opportunities, both through improved urban commuter services and a substantial expansion in the capacity of freight rail transport. We are also looking at plans in the APP to enhance transport services at the local government level.
Let me go immediately to the highlights of the Budget Vote due to time constraints. The Budget Vote allocation for 2018-19 indicates commitment to national, regional and continental goals. This is manifested by substantial allocations to road, rail and public transport programmes. This vote provides for the continued maintenance of provincial and national road networks, upgrading and maintaining rail infrastructure, as well as improving public transport for road and rail commuters.
The fragmented residential settlement patterns, underdeveloped business areas in townships, particularly in metro municipalities, lead to long travel times and this raises the cost of living. They also increase service delivery costs and hold back small business development. As a nation therefore, we need a social compact and collaboration between municipalities, local business chambers, the
organised working class and civil society stakeholders to tackle these challenges.
We welcome the Department of Transport plans that will make the deployment of traffic officers on a 24-hour schedule possible, in order to increase visibility and law enforcement on our roads, as well as the nationwide rollout of the demerit system. In line with the NDP, our provinces will benefit from the implementation, in the medium term, with flagship projects that include – what the Minister has mentioned and I repeat them for emphasis: The N2 Wild Coast in the Eastern Cape; the Moloto R573 Road upgrade in Limpopo, Mpumalanga and part of Gauteng; and the Durban-Free State-Gauteng Logistics and Industrial Corridor.
It is unacceptable that our loved ones, who leave their families to work and make economic contributions, are prone to losing their lives on our rail and our roads. This cannot be tolerated. The Taxi Recapitalisation Programme initiated by Minister Dullah Omar when he served as the Minister of Transport is still a challenge for us. I am glad that the current Minister has emphasised how in this budget we are looking at that programme as well.
Let me conclude and talk just about the Africa Continental Free Trade Area, Cafta, and the allocations that have been made also by the New Development Bank of South Africa towards the infrastructure development on the African continent, totalling US $1,6 billion.
Pilot training is a very important area of development, particularly for our young women.
I had the honour this weekend to speak to the parents of a young girl called Cleo Bingle, who at the age of sixteen-and-a-half to 17 is already learning to fly. I saw her operating this plane, but the parents informed me that the cost for her training is closer to half-a-million rand. As you’ve said, Minister, many of our poor families cannot afford that. [Time expired.] It is transport that moves people. Such transport must be safe and reliable. As the ANC we support this Budget Vote. I thank you. [Applause.]
Afrikaans:
Mr W F FABER: Agb Voorsitter, vandag sien ons weer ’n nuwe Minister hier voor ons sit, om die chaos in die Departement van Vervoer te probeer oplos. Vervoer lewer moontlik een van die grootste bydraes tot ’n land se gesonde ekonomie, deur gebiede met mekaar te verbind.
Die skepping van infrastruktuur en die onderhoud daarvan is dus van kardinale belang. Die jaarlikse Begroting van die Departement van Vervoer kan ongelukkig net nie finansieel byhou, om die infrastruktuur so uit te brei, om aan die ekonomiese behoeftes te voldoen nie.
Vandag wil ek u die feite gee oor hoe die Gupta-geaffileerde maatskappye ons vervoerstaatskas geplunder het. Eerstens wil ek begin om te sê dat Transnet oor die vermoë beskik om ons eie lokomotiewe asook passasierswaens te bou, soos ons gesien het met ’n parlementêre oorsig te Koedoes-Poort in Tshwane, Nigel en vele ander Transnet fabrieke deur ons land.
Dit het ons dus stomgeslaan toe ons uitvind hoeveel kontrakte aan ander lande uitgegee word op tender, in plaas van dat ons eerder aan onsself voorsien, waar Suid-Afrikaners kan werk en geld kan verdien. En ons regering sê dat hulle ernstig oor werkskepping is.
Prasa het ook nou in hul vierde kwartaal bykans R5 biljoen van hul begroting nie spandeer nie. Minister, u weet dit. Ek wil dit herhaal sodat u mooi kan luister. Prasa het ook nou in hul vierde kwartaal R5 biljoen van hul begroting nie spandeer nie. Dit is die grootste onderspandering in Prasa se geskiedenis ooit. Daar word jaarliks ook
amper R1 biljoen tussen Prasa en Transnet gewissel, terwyl al die infrastruktuur aan een regering behoort. Weens die kroniese vermorsing sal ’n DA-regering die twee saamvoeg om ’n vaartbelynde en koste-effekte entiteit te skep.
Onlangs het dit aan die dag gekom deur die regsfirma, Werksman, in hul 219-bladsy verslag, gedateer 7 Desember 2017, dat mnr Brian Molefe openlik vir Transnet gejok het. Hy het die 1 064 lokomotiewe tender opgeblaas van R38 biljoen tot R54,5 biljoen, ’n verskil van R16,5 biljoen, wat deur die Gupta-gekoppelde maatskappye verkry is.
Drie lede van die Transnet-raad het skielik met die openbaring van die verslag bedank. Dit is glad nie ’n verrassing nie. Meneer Molefe; die hoof-direkteur, Mr Gama; asook mnr Jiyane, die Hoof van Transnet Verkrygingsbeleid, beter bekend as “supply chain management, moet verseker krimineel aangekla en vervolg word. In ’n DA-regering laat ons nie korrupsie toe nie, en soos gerapporteer in die media, tree ons daadwerklik op teen ons eie mense wat wette en reëls verontagsaam.
Met die reuse bedrog van bykans R16,5 biljoen kon die departement die totale infrastruktuur van Suid-Afrika se paaie hernu het.
Hierdie bedrag kan in RDP huise omgesit word teen R120 000 per RDP
huis. Kom ek maak dit vir u makliker, sodat dit makliker is om te sien hoeveel die R16,5 biljoen werd is. Dit is gelykstaande aan
130 000 RDP huise. Ja, lede, R130 000 huise kon gebou word met die geld wat deur die Guptas gesteel is.
Die ANC-regering het egter eenkant toe gekyk en toegelaat dat President Zuma en sy sakevennote, of saketrawante, die land verarm. Ongelukkig is dit die mees kwesbaarste mense in ons gemeenskap wat deur die korrupsie geraak word en hul lewensbehoeftes word nog verder agteruit geskuif.
In 2012 het President Zuma met die Taking Parliament to the People in die Noord-Kaap, De Aar belowe oor werkskepping en die bou van treintrokke in die gebied. Soos gewoonlik was dit weer net ’n Taking Parliament to the People “verkiesingsfoefie” en tot vandag toe, sien die mense van De Aar nie die beloofde werkskepping nie.
Dan is Metro Rail in chaos gedompel. Vanaf 2015 tot 2017 het ons net in Kaapstad alleenlik ’n afname van 30% in treinpassasiers gesien.
In vergelyking ... [Tussenwerpsels.] Moet ek hom los? Goed, ek sal hom los. ’n Getal van 1,2 miljoen mense word nou per dag vervoer, waar daar voorheen 2,7 miljoen mense vervoer was. Meer as 20% van ons kliënte is oor 20 jaar verloor, en dit meestal in die laaste vyf
jaar, ten spyte van ’n toenemende bevolking en ’n werksmag wat bygevoeg word.
Dit sal wys wees dat die Departement van Vervoer liewer vir Metro Rail aan die Stad Kaapstad oorgee, om profesioneel bestuur te word en om Metro Rail reg te laat werk.
Ten opsigte van padvervoer wil ek kortliks oor veiligheid praat. Een sterfte op ons paaie is een te veel en daarom wil ek graag ’n beroep op Minister Nzimande doen, om daadwerklik aandag hieraan te gee.
Padvaardigheid van voertuie, die bevoegdheid van motorbestuurders asook die bestuur onder die invloed van drank of ander verbode middels maak van ons paaie slagvelde.
Daar sal ook aansienlik aandag aan voetgangers gegee moet word, wat veral in die nag paaie oorsteek. Padsveiligheidsopvoeding in die plaaslike gebiede moet baie meer aandag kry as huidiglik. Dertig persent van padsterftes oor die paasnaweek was voetgangers. Dit is absoluut skokkend. Baie van die mense was blykbaar onder die invloed van sterk drank.
Minister, die toestand van munisipale paaie moet dringend aangespreek word. Meer en meer munisipaliteite word by die dag
bankrot en die herstel van infrastruktuur soos paaie word eenvoudig geignoreer. Dit is ook baie duidelik dat, daar waar die DA regeer, die paaie in ’n goeie toestand is en finasiële bestuur van munisipaliteite gewoonlik in orde is.
Laastens, die nuwe Administrative Adjudication of Road Traffic Offences, AARTO, wetgewing, in sy huidige wysigingsvorm moet in die verskeie provinsies bespreek word, voordat die provinsiale wetgewers dit na die NRVP verwys. Ons het reeds baie terugvoering van mense regoor die land deur entiteite en publieke deelname, ten opsigte van AARTO ontvang. Dit is duidelik dat daar baie probleme geopper word en in plaas van dat die departement net aan die bestaande wiel skaaf, wil hulle die wiel herontwerp. Die wysigingsinhoud van die AARTO Wet is baie meer as die oorspronklike Wet self, en moet in werklikheid eintlik as ’n nuwe wetsontwerp aan die Parlement voorgelê word.
Die implimentering van AARTO blyk ook om ’n onbegonne en onbekostigbare, duur program te wees. Die DA sal dus ook nie hierdie Begroting ondersteun nie. Ek dank u.
Mr M M CHABANGU: Chairperson, visitors from the gallery, all protocol observed. The state of public transport in South Africa
today from the cities of Gauteng to the rural areas of the Northern Cape and the Free State shows the lack of commitment, vision and political will the ANC has when it comes to transforming our country and society, and seeing a material change in the living conditions of our people.
Public transport in this country cannot be understood without understanding the broader spatial development of our country, especially apartheid spatial planning. And any attempt to build a new society cannot happen without the public transport system being radically transformed.
Today the city we are currently in is the perfect example of why this must be done. On the Cape Flats the majority of our people stay far from job opportunities, the city centre and general economic activities.
They have to get up in the early hours of the morning before the sun has risen, to get to work, and get home in the dark after the sun has set. But getting to work is not easy or safe, the trains are late or simply, do not arrive; the roads are over-crowded and taxis overburdened make them unsafe and a risk to the lives of their passengers.
However, the irony is that despite being inefficient, unsafe and unreliable, the poor, who are most reliant on public transport, are forced to spend their largest portion of the salary on this collapsed public transport system of ours.
A public transport system which has no social purpose, only an economic one which is to serve the interest of capital by ensuring that workers get to and from work, but nothing else. It is why the public transport system as dysfunctional as it is at peak operations in the morning and evenings during the week.
It is even worse on the weekends in every city of the country from Nelspruit to Durban. It makes no sense that on the weekends when people are engaging in social activities till late into the night that there is no reliable form of public transport for them to get home.
We keep asking, why are there so many alcohol related deaths on our roads? One of the reasons is because there is no form of public transport outside of meter-taxis and Uber for people to use late at night after a party. If we want to reduce drinking and driving related road accidents, Minister, we need to have an efficient, safe and reliable public transport system which is functional at all
hours of the day and night, as is common in countries throughout the world.
But if we want to realise this sort of public transport system, steps must be taken. The first of which must be the expropriation of land without compensation, so that land needed by the state and by society for public transport can be available. Secondly we need to make the train systems, along with taxis the backbone of public transport in our cities, I think South African National Taxi Council, SANTACO, is listening attentively, Mr Taaibosch.
This will require Prasa to get its house in order, and become an entity that serves the people of South Africa, and not various fractions of capital that have captured it. Taxis are the most common form of public transport in our country, particularly outside of the large cities, and provinces where there are little or no train services.
But despite being one of the few black-owned industries in our country, taxi associations from KwaZulu-Natal to Free State, support in every municipality and every provincial of our country. Taxi- owners are still are waiting for their shares in Free State, from QwaQwa buses, Ntate Taaibosch.
Instead of spending billions of rands in BRT projects that do not have a wide reach, and are a waste of money. The funds can be spent to support the taxi industry, making them safer, more roads worthy, the drivers better trained and the industry better managed.
Not only will this improve the overall quality of public transport, but it will also reduce the continued taxi violence we see as associations fight for routes. Therefore, this budget does not speak to any of these steps and does not realise the transformative potential of this department. That is why the EFF rejects this Budget Vote which does not meet the requirements of South Africa at large. Thank you. [Applause.]
The CHAIRPERSON OF THE NCOP: Hon Khawula, order, hon members, what is the point of order, sir?
IsiZulu:
Mnu M KHAWULA: Wo, cha, bengicela ukuthuma nangu uZungu umhlonishwa, ukuthi ayongimela, Sihlalo. Umhlonishwa uZungu.
The CHAIRPERSON OF THE NCOP: Hon Khawula, you do know that you should have done the arrangements a long time ago.
IsiZulu:
Awuthumeli ngemizuzu yokugcina la.
IsiZulu:
Mnu M KHAWULA: Mhlonishwa, Sihlalo ohloniphekile, mhlonishwa Mphephethe ...
English:
Every year when it is the popular holidays in the country, the department has to issue statistics of road fatalities and compare such with the previous year of the same period. This does not usually give a good picture. Each year road accidents fatalities usually surpass those of the previous year. This is not good.
The department must intensify visibility of the traffic officers in our roads. Over time this has proven to be the most effective deterrent to the road users who deliberately violate the traffic rules. In the provinces where the visibility of traffic officers on the roads is intensified, road fatalities are minimal.
In the provinces where visibility of traffic officers on the roads is minimal road fatalities are high. Coupled with this is the effectiveness of the department in fighting corruption amongst the
traffic officers. It is of no use to have increased visibility of traffic officers on the roads if they will be there just to collect bribes for themselves from the offenders.
The hon Minister Nzimande was unceremoniously fired by President Zuma from his previous position as Minister of Higher Education and Training last year. During the short spell when you were out of the Cabinet, Minister, you were all over the country declaring that our state has been captured; and that the capturers must be brought to book!
You said those who have stolen from the state must bring back the funds they have stolen; there is a lot more that you said. President Ramaphosa has brought you back to Cabinet as Minister of Transport. There have been serous allegations about how the Gupta family and their friends, influenced the Transnet locomotive acquisition and how the tender went from R38,6 billion to R54,5 billion. What the IFP would like to know is what have you done about this Minister?
AN HON MEMBER: Amen!
IsiZulu:
Akuye ngawo phela amagama enkehli; amandla obuwafuna usekunikile uMongameli.
English:
Where are the culprits? Where is the promised action?
The country’s public transport system has continued to be plagued with enormous challenges of lack of safety and inefficiency. The damages and cable theft on the rail system is crippling the economy of our country. Commuters, who are usually the workforce of our country, are usually late for work due to these challenges. The road public transport also suffers the same challenges of lack of safety due to taxi violence.
In broad daylight in KwaZulu-Natal, in Pine Town and in Gauteng, taxi wars have taken place to the detriment of the lives of users. This is not only about the innocent lives that got lost; also the image of our country in international markets has suffered a great blow.
In 2006, the government started a Taxi Recapitalisation Programme whereby taxi owners were to replace their old, unsafe taxi vehicles with new and safety compliant vehicles. A taxi owner would receive,
on average, an amount of R82 000 per vehicle as an incentive to scrap the old one. The programme was supposed to be completed in seven years, that is, in 2013. This did not happen. It stretched to 2016-17.
By 2016, these were the figures provided by the department on what it says had been spent by then: Eastern Cape R467 million; Free State R292 million; Gauteng R870 million; KwaZulu-Natal R460 million; Limpopo R429 million. The total on 66 000 taxis, the country had spent R3,9 billion.
From these totals, it is clear that some money was pocketed by some people. Hon Minister, the IFP would like you to conduct an investigation on these amounts. Thank you.
Ms G C SHABALALA (Mpumalanga): Hon Madam Chair Mrs Thandi Modise, hon members of the NCOP, hon Minister and MECs, representatives of Salga, acting director-general and staff of the department, the leadership and representatives of Transport entities, members of the media, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen: Sawubona.
Thank you for inviting us to take part in this very important debate on the Budget Vote speech of Dr Blade Nzimande. On behalf of the
Mpumalanga provincial legislature, I extend our appreciation for the strategic and effective leadership provided by hon Minister of Transport Dr Blade Nzimande in this important Budget Vote debate.
I have noted the theme of this Budget Vote, namely “Transport: Together Moving South Africa into a New Dawn”. However, for the purpose of my input in this regard, I have inserted the phrase on this theme: “Transport: Together Moving South Africa into a New Dawn: Celebrating the Tata Madiba and Mama Sisulu Legacy”, because the physical and intellectual contributions of these two icons to our national democratic revolution cannot be erased from our history; hence we shall celebrate their life and times so that we dare not forget where we come from.
Since the then Minister Maswanganyi indicated in June 2017 that R573, known as Moloto Road, was to be upgraded, the decision to upgrade Moloto Road was not taken because it was a nice thing to do but because it was necessary in order to prevent, once and for all, the unnecessary accidents and loss of human life.
As Mpumalanga, we appreciate the fact that the Minister has set aside R3 billion to upgrade Moloto Road and thereby create job opportunities over a period of five years. I duly confirm that the
project has indeed commenced in Thembalethu, Tweefontein and Vlaklaagte 1 and 2. However, it is serious cause for concern that the project is extremely slow. We believe that the phases of this project should be fast-tracked to prevent the occurrence of accidents that are fatal.
We have, however, received good news and are satisfied: The hon Minister Blade Ndzimande assured the nation that ... have intensified their effort of stabilising the Passenger Rail Agency of SA, Prasa, by dealing with its capacity challenges, appointing a new board that will lead to a turnaround strategy and attending to senior management vacancies in the organisation.
We believe that the identified challenges in Prasa were, largely, responsible for the delays in the phase-by-phase completion of the project. We hope that the soon-to-be-addressed senior management issues will also ensure that the aspects of monitoring and evaluation are taken seriously. As the province of Mpumalanga, we trust in the measures announced by Dr Blade Ndzimande, such as that within the next 12 months government will take final decisions regarding the planned rail component of the Moloto Corridor.
Although we note with appreciation the financial injection of R1 billion over 2018-19 and 2019-20 for the rehabilitation and
maintenance of coal haulage roads in Mpumalanga, there is a need to review the coal haulage road strategy in Mpumalanga. All stakeholders should convene a road summit because our roads are being damaged by the heavy vehicles and the time taken to repair such roads is rather too long. Notwithstanding the fact that the current coal haulage by means of trucks promotes socioeconomic development, we believe that this strategy should be balanced with that of rail coal haulage.
It is common cause that the electoral mandate of the fifth democratic government is to deepen the transformation agenda and implement the National Development Plan - to accelerate growth, create decent work and promote investment in a competitive economy. As the province of Mpumalanga, we are cautious of the fact that in terms of this mandate the government continues to be guided by our constitutional commitment to improving the quality of life of all our citizens and freeing the potential of each person.
Our context as South Africa demands that we realise our constitutional imperatives of ensuring equality and human dignity. Therefore, women, youth and people living with disabilities should
be involved in the socioeconomic development that is pursued through the policies of the Department of Transport. Certainly, we are impressed by the principled and strategic objectives of the National Transport Master Plan 2050.
This debate gives us an opportunity to review our socioeconomic strategies so that we can revisit areas where we might derail the implementation of National Development Plan Vision 2030. It is pointless to have beautiful plans in place, but if these plans are not implemented it is counterrevolutionary and a disservice to our people.
We urge the hon Minister and the MECs to ensure that in their agreement to review the subsidy regime they ensure that women, youth and workers, as well as people living with disabilities, do receive the lion’s share. We support the allocated budget indicated as follows: road transport: R27 billion; rail transport: R18 billion; civil aviation: R180 million; maritime transport: R120 million; integrated transport planning: R90 million; administration:
R430 million.
On 16 June 2018, we will be celebrating the 42nd anniversary of the youth struggle against the apartheid education, whilst being
cautious of the fact that youth unemployment on the 24th anniversary of our freedom and democracy is a ticking bomb waiting to explode.
If we ensure that we implement all our policies and plans to address youth unemployment, we will be recognising the legacy of Mama Sisulu. We know that in her lifetime as a medical professional nurse she cared about the wellbeing and development of the youth. When the youth of 16 June 1976 were fatally wounded, Mama Sisulu provided special care for their recuperation and assisted them in getting decent burials. She protected the youth who were harassed by the apartheid police, hence it is proper that we celebrate her centenary this year, and we need to use this budget in her memory.
In celebrating the centenary of Tata Madiba, we must remember how Mandela and Walter Sisulu suffered under the apartheid regime. They were key in the thinking, planning and devising of new tactics in fighting the oppressive regime. We need to bear in mind these historical facts when we plan and pass budgets that seek to transform our socioeconomic landscape and that they will be befitting of the memory of Tata Nelson Madiba and Mama Albertina Nontsikelelo Sisulu. This will ensure that the new dawn underpinned by the Thuma Mina Message of President Cyril Matamela Ramaphosa,
which is essentially about economic freedom in our lifetime, becomes more of a reality.
In conclusion, we should remember the following insightful words of wisdom as expressed by Tata Madiba: “We owe it to all the peoples of the subcontinent to ensure that they see in us, not merely good leaders waxing lyrical about development; but as the front commanders in the blast furnaces of labour, productive investments and visible change.” Hon Madam Chair, I thank you. [Applause.]
Ms T MOTARA: Hon Chairperson, Minister Nzimande, hon members, special delegates, ladies and gentlemen, today’s debate takes place a day after government, through the National Youth Development Agency, launched Youth Month at the Hector Pieterson Memorial Museum in Soweto.
In line with government’s programme to celebrate the centenary year of two untiring warriors and fearless revolutionaries of our struggle for freedom: Tata Nelson Mandela and Mama Albertina Sisulu, Youth Month this year will be commemorated with the theme: “Live the legacy: Towards a socioeconomically empowered youth”.
This year’s theme makes a clarion call on the youth of South Africa to follow in the footsteps of great warriors, such as Tata Nelson and Mama Albertina Sisulu and the generation of 1976, who made a conscious choice to wage a concerted battle against the subjugation of our people to discriminatory policies and suppressive political conditions that were often accompanied by brutality and even death.
The 2018 Transport Budget Vote focuses on improving mobility and access to social and economic activities by maintaining the provincial and national road networks. It also outlines government’s commitment to continually upgrading and maintaining rail infrastructure to ensure an efficient, safe, reliable and affordable transport network for our people.
In our commitment to developing the lives of our people through infrastructure, the ANC-led government has launched infrastructure programmes that are expediting the improvement of social infrastructure towards bettering the lives of our people. The ANC has thus identified infrastructure as the key job driver and as critical to development in at least three ways, namely it creates a favourable condition for production and consumption; it facilitates economic diversification; and it provides much-needed access for people to services, facilities and opportunities.
For us, therefore, transport infrastructure remains one of the fundamental programmes that are geared towards meeting the national commitments that we have made in the National Development Plan, NDP, in order to wage a concerted battle against poverty and unemployment.
Infrastructure development and its related investment through the budget, private sector and foreign investment must be encouraged through economic policy instruments that remain robust and targeted to shape inclusive and dynamic economic growth for our country.
Transport infrastructure development is critical for faster economic growth, higher employment, promoting inclusive growth and providing citizens with the means to improve their own lives and boost their incomes. The NDP highlights critical aspects of transport: infrastructure must be integrated, smooth flowing, reliable and safer. This will also improve the quality of life of poor people through developing the poorest regions of our country and overcoming spatial inequalities.
Part of the ANC’s contribution takes place through our government’s ongoing programmes of consolidated state-led industrialisation and infrastructure expansion for inclusive growth and jobs. These
programmes are changing our landscape, creating sustainable jobs for our people and improving South Africa’s economic capabilities through improving our passenger, rail and freight transport, gradually increasing local procurement and sustained investment in the sectors that create jobs.
The Department of Transport has made significant strides in ensuring an efficient, safe, reliable and affordable transport service for the people of South Africa. Improving the movement of people in social and economic spaces such as cities has seen the launch of the bus-rapid transit transport systems in three major South African cities: Rea Vaya in Johannesburg, MyCiti here in Cape Town and A Re Yeng in Pretoria. Other bus rapid transit systems are yet to be introduced in the Nelson Mandela Bay Metro, eThekwini, Polokwane, Rustenburg, Nelspruit and George.
Some highly notable developments in rail include projects by the Transnet rolling stock programme, with manufacturing taking place in Koedoespoort in Pretoria and the Passenger Rail Agency of SA’s, rolling stock fleet renewal programme to expand and modernise rail services in South Africa. This programme is expected to create 6 500 direct jobs and indirect jobs over a 20-year period of which 3 300 will be in the first 10 years of the programme. This project is
targeting 65% local content, and the first 20 sets of trains will be manufactured in Brazil while the remaining 580 trains will be manufactured in my home city of Ekurhuleni.
Investment in public transport and transport infrastructure in rural areas remains a priority for the medium term. Our people in remote rural areas cannot be cut off from major economic centres. Transport infrastructure remains the bedrock for providing access to markets, economic opportunities and access to social services. We will continue to assess and review the impact of the Rural Transport Strategy, which will inform transport services that are optimal and impact positively in critical areas that need assistance.
The mandate of the Department of Transport is to improve access to economic opportunities and social space; to advance economic development; to ensure greater mobility of people as well as goods; to promote regional integration, unlocking the potential of small and medium micro enterprises; to advance the aspirations of Operation Phakisa, through promoting growth of the Oceans Economy; and to continue to improve rural access, infrastructure and mobility.
The National Development Plan identified that South Africa needs reliable, economic and smooth-flowing corridors linking its various modes of transport, which are road, rail, air, sea ports and pipelines. These corridors are dominated by old railway technology that is prone to malfunction and poor intermodal linkages. The passenger rail system in our country is faced with enormous operational challenges characterised primarily by a decline in fleet availability.
One of government’s priorities has to address the challenges that workers and commuters, who depend on our passenger rail transport, have been complaining about for a number of years: the lack of reliability and safety of trains being key amongst them.
Government’s plans in the medium to long term must ensure that Prasa remains a leader in passenger transport solutions and that, as a modern public entity, it delivers high-quality passenger services in a safe and secure environment.
The NDP notes that currently outdated, malfunction-prone railway technology and poor intermodal linkages dominate these corridors. The Passenger Rail Agency of SA is aware of the need for reliable, economic and smooth-flowing corridors linking various modes of transport. In realising the objectives outlined in the NDP, Prasa
plays a crucial role in providing suitable public transport solutions that are safe, efficient, reliable and cost-effective.
Government needs to leverage investments in rail upgrades, such as the Rl9,5 billion earmarked for capital spending to upgrade existing infrastructure, which includes signalling systems and the
R173 billion in new rail rolling stock over the next 10 years.
Over the medium-term, Prasa aims to improve the reliability of rail services and increase rail passenger ridership. To this end, the agency will continue to make investments in its capital infrastructure including the refurbishment and overhaul of its coaches; acquire new rolling stock and locomotives; modernise depots and stations; and upgrade its signalling and other rail infrastructure. The agency also expects to finalise and implement its turnaround strategy to improve operational performance over the medium term.
In Gauteng, Park Station is the centre of intermodal transport and the station has passenger volumes in excess of 200 000 per day. The upgrade of Park Station is vital to meeting passenger demands and expectations for the present and into the future. This project will
ensure that the strategic goals of improving financial performance, managing risk and ensuring operational effectiveness are achieved.
Under the auspices of the City of Ekurhuleni, Prasa’s reindustrialisation plan is premised on restoring the once dominant role of rail manufacturing to Gauteng’s East Rand — a role that the services sector has replaced, becoming the major contributor to the regional economy. The reindustrialisation plan will include improved support for and responsiveness to manufacturing enterprises and upgraded infrastructure networks as well as local content percentage commitments based on the expenditure on the new trains.
Hon Chairperson, having said and highlighted all of these, as the ANC we do support this Budget Vote. I thank you! [Applause.]
IsiXhosa:
Mnu N E HINANA (Western Cape): Mandibulele ukufumana eli thuba lokuba ndizimase le Ndlu ebaluleke kangaga namhlanje. Ndibulisa ngakumbi kuMphathiswa uBlade Nzimande, umama osikhokeleyo, uModise.
Mphathiswa, ndithwale emagxeni uxanduva lwezinto eziphakanyiswe ngabahlali abathi ndizibeke kuwe. Mandibulele kuqala kwaye ndiyithethe nje phandle into yokuba uthethe ngolu hlobo namhlanje.
Intetha intle kwaye yamkelekile. Umqweno ngowokuba yanga ingenzeka ngale ndlela uyibeka ngayo.
Bathi abantu mandikuxelele Mphathiswa uBlade ukuba xa usika ikeyiki, nceda ubasikele ke nabo. Kaloku kuyenzeka ukuba kuthiwe ikeyiki yeyomntu wonke kanti iza kutyiwa ngabantu abathile abantu bangafumani nesuntswana eli. Bathi abahlali mabayifumane nabo ikeyiki.
Nazi ke iindawo Mphathiswa abantu abaziphakamisileyo abafuna ukuba xa usika ikeyiki uze ungabalibali: ikhona indawo ekuthiwa yiMehlomakhulu, Hlomendlini, Mdlambona, Rietfontein, Mbihli noFeyiyana. uFeyiyana yindawo esakhulela kuyo ukususela ebuntwaneni, ibizwa ngegama lesiNgesi kusithiwa yi-death road. Kule ndlela abantu oko bafa kakhulu nokuba umntu uhamba ngebhasi, bhayisekile, yimoto nokuba yintoni na, sakhula abantu begaxeleka ezingozini kule ndawo ngenxa yokuba indlela yayingalungiswa. Bayacela abantu ukuba xa kusabiwa le mali uze ungazilibali ezi ndawo ndizibalileyo.
Kakhulu ezona ndawo ndizithandileyo kwintetha yakho, ndithande iindawo ezintathu ezithi: uza kuyiqwalasela ngamandla into yokuphuhliswa koomama. Kaloku akufunekanga ukuba xa siqwalasela zonke izinto zophuhliso kubunakale ukuthi usebenzise igama lokuba
ngumzi weentsizwa. Omama basisininzi kodwa batsala emva kuzo zonke izinto. Xa uyithathela emagxeni wakho lo nto yokuba izinga labantu abangomama uza kuliqwalasela. Siyiqhwabela izandla loo nto leyo.
Ndiyayithanda nento yokuba usithi uza kuyiqwalasela into yokuxhaswa koonoteksi kukarhulumente. Ngenene yiqwalasele, Mphathiswa. Imali abantu abayihlawulayo xa bekhwela iiteksi besiya kuzo zonke iindawo abaya kuzo ingaphaya kwexabiso. Bathi xa bebuzwa ukuba kutheni bebiza kangaka? Babeka isizathu sokuba rhulumente akabaxhasi. Nceda ke Mphathiswa nibaxhase.
Ndithanda kakhulu ke Mphathiswa enye yengoma zenu; ingoma yamakomanisi. Andisayi kuyicula kuba ke ndihlonipha le Ndlu. Ithi ngoma:
English:
My mother was a kitchen girl my father was a garden boy.
Siyayifuna into yokuba mayibe ngumama notata kuphela ababesebenza emakhitshini nasezigadini. Inzala yabo kufuneka bangaze basebenze kwezi ndawo. Ngoko ke siyayithanda le nto oyiphakamisileyo Mphathiswa. Nceda uxhase.
Kukwanjalo naphaya kuPhuhliso lwezoThutho emaPhandleni. Njengokuba ubusitsho ukuba enye yezinto...
English:
... is to improve road access even in rural areas.
IsiXhosa:
Alukho Mphathiswa uphuhliso kwezindawo zisemaphandleni. Ukuba ujikeleza apha eKapa kuyakhiwa, kulungiswa iindlela yonke imihla, kuxakekiwe. Kodwa xa uphumela ngapandle uzibuza umbuzo wokuba kungokuba kutheni na le nto kwezinye iindawo ezisemaphadleni ungayiboni lenkqubela enje? Ngoko ke siyayiqwenela into yokuba zonke izinto ezenzekayo ezixhamlwa ngabantu abasezidolopini, abantu abasemaphandleni bangalibaleki. Ndithetha le nto Mphathiswa ndisithi, ebunyanisweni, intle intetha. Siqwenela into yokuba ingathi ungayibeka ngesiNgesi uthi...
English:
The new broom sweeps clean.
IsiXhosa:
Umnqweno ngowokuba singa kuqwayita ukuze...
English:
... have the energy to implement all those objectives that you have come up with. Hon Chairperson, among the provincial Department of Transport and Public Works’ main services and core functions are the administration of public transport operating licences and the establishment of subsidised public transport services. It is not our mandate to run Metrorail or Golden Arrow. However, as I will demonstrate, the DA-led Western Cape goes far beyond its mandate to ensure that commuters have a reliable and safe public transport.
What many fail to understand is that Metrorail and her mother body the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa, PRASA, have failed the country. This means that the national government must ensure that it takes the responsibility of intervening so that the plight of the commuters is made to be reliable and that they commute conveniently.
Mismanagement of SOEs by the national government is widely reported. I remind the House of the PRASA purchase of 4000 Spanish trains, which were 4,264 meters high, despite a national limit of 3,965 meters. This blunder cost PRASA and consequently South Africa, a staggering R2,6 billion. To add insult to injury, PRASA has still not delivered its outstanding 2016-17 annual report.
IsiXhosa:
Sinombuzo wokuba bayisebenzise kanjani imali? Siyakucela sizithoba kuwe Mphathiswa ukuba uyifune le mali ingaka ukuba iphi na? Loo nto iza kwenza ukuba ikwazi ukuza kusetyenziswa ngendlela eyiyo.
English:
More recently, PRASA’s incompetence and mismanagement resulted in the death of seven on Friday, 27 April 2018, who were tragically killed at Buttskop level crossing in Blackheath. PRASA has not yet completed their Level Crossing Elimination Programme in this area.
In my capacity as chairperson of Transport and Public Works, I have called for PRASA to eliminate these level crossings with haste. This is just one example of how the Western Cape government goes beyond its mandate to ensure that commuters and the public have a reliable and safe public transport.
Our trains are no longer safe to use. During 2015 and 2017, 32 murders and 114 incidents of assault with grievous bodily harm were recorded on trains and railway stations. A reply to my parliamentary question revealed that only 12 arrests were made on murder cases and only 59 arrests were made for the gross bodily harm. This equates to only 37,5% of the incidents of murder reported having led to arrests
and only 51,7% of incidents that involve gross bodily harm injuries.
Whilst it is not this provincial department’s mandate to provide transport to the province, the DA-led Western Cape government goes beyond its mandate to ensure that commuters have reliable and safe public transport. The Western Cape government, along with the City of Cape Town and PRASA, have signed a memorandum of understanding, where each will donate R16 million to improve safety and security in our Metrorail.
Not only are our trains unsafe but we cannot even count on them to get us to work, places where we pray, places where we study and where we go for leisure time. In October 2015, 3% of trains experienced cancellations, but by November 2017, it increased to 26%. Not to mention earlier this year, Metrorail’s central line, its busiest line, was suspended from Wednesday 21 February 2018 for exactly six weeks.
It is essential that these issues are addressed with haste as there has been a drastic decline in the number of Metrorail passengers in the Western Cape. In 2000, the number of Metrorail passengers was over 675 000. Fourteen years later, that is in 2014, that number decreased to 608 000. That number then decreased so drastically that
by 2017, the number of Metrorail passengers had dropped by 50% to 360 000 in 2017.
In all these efforts that we are highlighting to the Minister, is that we do want to have a very convenient transport system and make sure that all our commuters, all our people, the public are being assisted. To come back to the issue of the taxis that needs to be subsidised, that has to happen as quickly as it possibly can so that whenever they are having this problem of fighting amongst themselves, you then have a way of intervening because you cannot pump the money in the industry yet they are not held accountable while being assisted.
In all these endeavours, we are saying that everything that we have put on the table, I do accept that you can and implement it. Thank you very much.
Cllr T CHARLES (Salga): Hon Chairperson of the National Council of Provinces Mam Modise, hon Minister Transport of Transport Mr Blade Nzimande, Deputy Ministers, hon members: all protocol observed. We would first like to welcome the binding sentiment in the speech of the Minister of Transport, which reflects the principles of
inclusivity, stakeholder engagement and multiagency partnerships going forward.
On our part, the SA Local Government Association, Salga, in terms of its mandate, strategic plan and role, intends to be part of the solution. We would therefore like to express to the House today our clear commitment, as organised local government, to doing our part to show evidence of progress.
The SA Local Government Association supports the reflection to improve governance systems, accountability and service delivery of the key agency structures and stakeholders in the transport space. We also welcome your cascading approach, which includes international, national and local partnership arrangements. The approach, as articulated, will assist in expanding the technical transport networks, the transport expertise value chain, innovation and technology advancement awareness, and investment profiling and systems. This approach could also facilitate exploratory and innovative learning opportunity platforms, partnering with research institutions, higher education institutions and the private sector.
As indicated in your speech, hon Minister, the local authority environment is experiencing growing congestion on our networks, a
high incidence of road crashes and fatalities and, added to that, ageing and expanding road network assets and the expectation for marked improvement in the public transport menu of services and mobility choices for the users. To this end, we acknowledge the intended backing by the department toward local authorities, but urge that the reconfiguration of the department around planning, innovation, skills development, oversight and monitoring include improved investment in support of local authorities as per the legal mandate, since local authorities are experiencing skills, capacity, funding and other challenges in the transport sector.
However, as organised local government, we make the appeal that integrated planning principles and technical diligence are ensured through the processes. The appeal is to ensure that local authorities are partners in this space in order to capture the local, spatial, social, economic and environmental benefits, opportunities and consequences, which would and should be appreciated within the respective local authority and functional areas.
From planning through to operational management within the space of multimodal Integrated Public Transport Networks, or IPTNs, in municipalities, the public transport grant framework, as pertains to
bus rapid transit, is noted. The multimodal Integrated Public Transport Networks include the principle of universal design, accessibility and nonmotorised road- and rail-based public transport modes, and intend to eventually avail optimal choice to users.
The SA Local Government Association will continue to share the platform to guide, evaluate, monitor and advise on strategic adjustments and improvements in this process. With this backdrop, Salga welcomes the decision to initiate a process which includes the setting up of a panel of transport experts to facilitate innovation, and guide and advise on strengthening the stimulatory role of transport and the respective modes of transport going forward.
The SA Local Government Association notes the intention, principle and your ask of all transport entities to optimise job creation using various modalities in order to stimulate economic growth, and is further encouraged around the agreement to review the public transport subsidy regime. This is particularly important in light of the cited observations pertaining to funding, equity and the plight of workers and poor communities.
Within the policy context, we call on your Ministry and the department to ensure that the role of the various spheres of
government, agencies and operators are clarified for all with respect to road- and rail-based public transport and to air or maritime transport. Policy needs to ensure that the governance, institutional arrangements and funding regimes are appropriately structured so that there is a positive impact and continual improvement in the delivery of transport service standards and service choices for communities and users.
We agree with the hon Minister’s reflections on the rail and minibus-taxi industry challenges. We need to improve the day-to-day experiences of users of public transport. Given the dependence on public transport, the entire travel chain must be addressed where user mobility needs are the driver of change and an efficient system.
Where rail passenger transport is available there is large dependence on this mode in the daily travel chain. Appropriate investment must be made to ensure that our rail passenger transport system is robust and sustainable. We also need to understand the travel patterns of the poorest communities and those of other passengers so that we put the most efficient public transport modes in place. The social, economic, environmental and external costs and
knock-on effects of our public transport are immeasurable. A good system has positive effects; a bad system can be disastrous.
The SA Local Government Association welcomes the inventory of interventions including the new board of the Passenger Rail Agency of SA, Prasa, and the related turnaround strategy, the upcoming multistakeholder engagements, and the suite of technical programmes relating to safety, operations, signalling, refurbishment and plans for new rolling stock. We look forward to the plan as indicated, which should prioritise areas, including Prasa in the Western Cape, as specified in your speech, and with focused measures and interventions to address the identified challenges.
Hon Minister, we appreciate the strategies and legislative developments in the road safety space. A key dependence in this collective process is to ensure an evolution of change in road user behaviour and driver behaviour and must be premised on accountability and public responsibility.
The necessary institutional co-operation and checks and balances must be included in the operational framework and roll-out of the education, safety and enforcement plans on the ground. In the context of rail, the legal framework and the rail safety strategic
plan play a critical role. However, we would like to further highlight the value and importance of marketing, education, behavioural change strategies and the associated multiagency operational dimensions which are central to improving rail passenger safety and the management of level crossings.
Within the context of working towards integrated and multimodal transport, local authorities are best fit to enable, improve and implement transport interventions to improve the network, performance, experiences, quality services and choices to present and future users. In order to illustrate a more intermodal and interoperable transport system and service in the future, it is essential that empowerment of local authorities through structured and due processes toward the devolution of the lowest tier of government pertaining to rail, contracting and regulatory functions be taken forward.
In conclusion, hon Minister of Transport, we wish to highlight the following salient points. Local government and Salga, as organised local government, have a critical role to play in the roads, transport and broader mobility sector and we commit to fulfilling our part. We make the appeal that the best-fit responses are developed and implemented to improve day-to-day experiences and the
impact on the travel chain of the users of public transport and the transport network. We support the principle to improve service delivery of the key ...
The CHAIRPERSON OF THE NCOP: Cllr Charles ...
Cllr T CHARLES (Salga): ... agency structures and stakeholders in the transport space and we look forward to strategies in this regard. We will work with your Ministry and department to operationalise the principles of inclusivity, stakeholder engagement and multiagency partnerships going forward. We welcome the partnership approach ...
The CHAIRPERSON OF THE NCOP: Thank you, Ma’m. Ke a leboga. [Applause.]
Cllr T CHARLES (Salga): We thank you and look forward to your address. We support the budget. [Applause.]
Mr J J LONDT: Good evening Chairperson, good evening Minister, good evening colleagues, just in advance, I am willing to take questions, so, the floor is open. [Laughter.]
Hon Minister, one of the advantages of speaking at the end is that most of the issues have been already covered. I do want to highlight a few things and raise one or two small issues. The biggest problem that is facing our country at the moment is a massive unemployment rate. With the Gross Domestic Product, GDP, going down, the worst in the past nine years, it is jobs, jobs, jobs that we need to look at. Rail networks and road networks should be the veins of this economy, pumping and driving the economy so that we can create jobs. At the moment, a rail network and road network are not fulfilling that function and not helping to push our economy to create those jobs so as to address the crippling unemployment that we are facing in this country.
One of the issues that my colleague, hon Faber, did touch on, and I think hon Motara touched on it as well, is that trains should not be built anywhere in the world for South Africa but be built in this country for this country. We have the expertise, we have all the tools so why should we send our jobs out of the country when we can do it in South Africa. we do welcome your willingness to help address the problems that we are facing with the Metrorail.
Minister, Grant just before he left, asked me to raise this with you. There is a willingness from province to take the hands with national and the City to make sure that we address this massive
problem that we are facing. It is a unique problem that we have in the City.
In Johannesburg and Tshwane, you’ve got almost 360 degrees access to the city. Here you’ve got a mountain that is preventing your access, oceans on numerous sides, so we do need Metrorail to function properly because we currently sit with the most congested roads. One of the most congested roads in the world. It is not just about time spent on the road, time is money and that’s time that people can spent investing in the businesses to create further jobs to help grow the economy. More importantly, it is time that people can actually spend with their families. It is the other problem we are facing; we are not supplying a support structure for the children – the future of our country.
Hon Makue raised the issue about scholar transport. It is all great to have scholar transport that is working, families that can spend more time with their kids but we don’t have the education system that deliver kids into a working environment to compete in this job market. Hon Minister, that’s one of the things that you must please raise with your colleagues in Cabinet. You had that chalice of dealing with the Department of Higher Education but I do know that you still have an ear with your colleagues in Cabinet.
In conclusion, Minister, I smiled when you raised the issue of the bicycle project and you said we must all get fit. I do want to put a challenge to you and maybe to the colleagues in the NCOP. Why don’t you stop providing the bus services to the parks and let the colleagues in the NCOP either start using Metrorail or taking a bicycle and cycling to work. I thank you. [Applause.] [Laughter.]
The CHAIRPERSON OF THE NCOP: Order! Order members. Hon Mthimunye, you were called. Hon members, order! Order! It is not an outlandish request actually or proposal. Go to the Scandinavian countries your members ride bicycles to work. Please, proceed hon Mthimunye.
Mr S G MTHIMUNYE: Madam Chair, may I with respect request you in your high chair to sit back perhaps close your eyes, meditate, go down memory lane and think it is June 1976. Madiba is imprisoned, Mama Winnie Mandela is burnished somewhere in Brandfort, Mama Albertina Sisulu probably “declared a widow” while her husband was incarcerated and check where hon Hatting will be standing, check where hon Londt and hon Faber on which side of the struggle they will be standing. [Interjections.]
Mr W F FABER: Hon Chair, with due respect, I don’t think I hardly walked at that stage. So, I don’t know where I would be standing to be quite frank.
The CHAIRPERSON OF THE NCOP: Your point is taken, Sir. Hon Mthimunye.
Mr S G MTHIMUNYE: My hon friend, hon Hinana ...
IsiZulu:
... uyathembisa impela mhlonishwa ...
English:
... in that you declare that never again shall the black majority, both women and men, be regarded as garden boys and kitchen girls. I think you will emulate the brave Patricia de Lille in your organisation because you are not only behind enemy line but you are right inside the enemy camp. I want you to declare editorially in this House that you will not allow yourself to become a glorified garden boy.
Hon Chairperson, it is common course starting with colonial period that a spatial development of human settlement and spatial
development of colonial transport system had very little to do with the masses of our people. Instead, the transport system and its spatial development like all other colonies in Africa was designed for exploitive economy one in which imports from oversees and exports raw material back to the colonial homeland. The requirements of labour to make the system work resulted in added transport networks to dormitory locations. The onset of the National Party in 1948, may be built on the colonial design skewed transport system to serve the mining and energy complexes. The integrated transport system was given no thought at all. The immense challenge the ANC faced at the dawn of the political democracy in 1994, was; firstly, to put in place a policy framework that would regulate a transport system which will serve the needs of the entire nation, secondly, to reconfigure the system to meet policy designs, thirdly, to present a medium-term project plan on infrastructure to meet the needs of the reconfiguration and finally, to secure resources to ensure that these plans would be realised.
Madam Chair, we should never forget what we had to do especially in the urban areas to deal with a myriad of problems emanating from the historical inequalities of apartheid and colonial planning. The Reconstruction and Development Programme, RDP, called for a transport system that promoted safe and affordable public transport
as a social service flexible enough to take into consideration the local conditions. In order to make the best use of the available transport infrastructure, the RDP went on to articulate that all public transport services will be fully integrated and their functioning be co-ordinated and financed by one organisation. The National Land Transport Act of 2009, introduced proper co-ordination of the transport system. The Act restructured the National Land Transport System by consolidating all land transport functions under different spheres of government.
Chairperson, transport I a backbone for economic stimulation, development, connect people and goods to the markets. Outcome 6 of the medium-term strategic framework lays the basis for the transport to play a vital role as a catalyst for social, economic, provide a safe and more accessible transport system. The development of the transport master plan saw a comprehensive multi-modal integrated and dynamic framework not only for implementing transport but also for providing infrastructure and services. Most importantly, the plan seeks to develop and improve the efficiency and effectiveness of multi-modal transport system. This means a transport system that is well regulated and well managed across the sphere is effectively co- ordinated and promotes co-operation between the various spheres of government.
This budget vote has one of its critical goals in financing of a comprehensive public transport development strategy and investment plan cross all modal transports. The integrated transport turnaround plan is designed to improve the development of transport services and provide for the interventions needed to improve and further develop the transport system. The plan has to address the backdrop of major under investment in the sector which has driven down the quality of effectiveness of transport services, produced low recapitalisation and poor maintenance practices. The plan proposed a short, medium and long term interventions addressing current challenges and enhancing existing interventions such as integrated transport networks. In essence we are talking about transport restructuring integrated system and appropriate investment. The policy objectives of these are clustered into 5 key areas namely; public transport planning and regulation, spatial transformation, public funding, customer centred transport and public transport industry development.
Madam Chair, historically the integrated public transport turnaround plan will improve planning and implementation capacity in the municipal sphere. It rationalises and streamlines financial resources allocation for public transport, develop a public transport subsidy policy and transform old ordered contracts to
qualify public transport contracts including transformation of the taxi industry, implement the integrated public transport networks throughout the country using the principle of differentiated approach and the develop the national norms and standards for the public transport service. The integrated public network grant will be used to fund the infrastructure and operations of the integrated transport system. Chairperson, as I conclude ...
IsiZulu:
Ngiyamethemba ke umhlonishwa uMphephethwa uNzimande la. Ngimethemba ngoba uyiKomanisi ...
English:
... and one of the characters of a communist is that ...
IsiZulu:
... lihlala likhuluma iqiniso njalo. Uma likhuluma iqiniso njalo liyawenza futhi nomsebenzi walo njalo. Umlingane wakho ke mhlonishwa, umhlonishwa wangaphambili uDipuo Peters wakhuluma kule Ndlu ukuthi siyobona isitimela sifika kuleya ndawo eyayibizwa ngokuthi kukwaNdebele kudala, uyayazi leyo nto kule Ndlu siyibiza ngokuthi ...
English:
... it is executive undertaking ...
IsiZulu:
... ngoba liKomanisi sikwethemba nje sicabanga ukuthi uyoyilandela leyo nto sisibone isitimela sifika kuleyandawo sisaphila, mhlonishwa. [Uhleko.] Ngiyabonga.[Ihlombe.]
The MINISTER OF TRANSPORT: Hon Chairperson and hon members, let me start by saying if we work together, we will see the train.
IsiZulu:
... ifika kuleya ndawo.
English:
Firstly, what I need to do is to thank the members of the Select Committee on Economic and Business Development for the role that they have played in the shaping of transport policy and in doing their oversight. I would also like to congratulate uBaba Taaibosch for having been re-elected president of the SA National Taxi Council, Santaco. [Applause.]
I would like to say to the hon Faber that regarding the Passenger Rail Association of South Africa, Prasa, capital expenditure underspending, I have pointed out that I have appointed a new board. I have directed them to turn the situation around. It is, indeed, unacceptable that so much money has not been spent. As regards Transnet, it is a matter for the Department of Public Enterprises, but, as the Department of Transport, we would like to meet – and in fact, I am committed to meeting – with my counterpart to discuss Transnet-Prasa relations.
I do agree with the hon Makue and other colleagues who spoke about honouring the youth. This is a challenge, because the single biggest casualty in road crashes and fatalities are young people, which is a waste. Perhaps in honouring young people, we commit to road safety so that their lives can be saved.
We also commit to build transport. We agree with you, for instance, that the increase in the petrol price is something that is a challenge. We must also look at pilot training. This is a matter that I would like to give particular attention to. I have experienced it. Our youngest is a pilot with South African Airways, and that cleaned us out. We are going on pension shortly and we don’t have much in the kitty because of the amount of money we
actually paid to train a pilot in the private academies. We have to change that. We have to find a way so that children from rural areas, and elsewhere, who want to be pilots, can do that.
IsiZulu:
Bab’uKhawula i-recapitalisation programme asiyishintshi kodwa siyayibuyekeza ngoba sifuna ukuyiqinisa uma isenesidingo.
English:
Hon Londt, I want to assure you that the localisation programme is one of my priorities. In fact, of the 600 train sets that are to be acquired by Prasa, 580 will be built at the recently built manufacturing plant in Dunnottar near Nigel, Ekurhuleni.
An HON MEMBER: Hear! Hear!
The MINISTER OF TRANSPORT: This shows our commitment.
To all the members who supported our budget, thank you very much. I wish I could engage with you on everything you said, but time does not allow me to do so.
However, I would also like to say to the hon Londt that yes, Cape Town might have geographical challenges but transport alone will not solve that. We need to transform the apartheid settlement patterns because that is a most important thing to do, together with transport. You can’t just look at transport, alone. You can’t have the working class in Khayelitsha and Mitchells Plain and then have the rich in Constantia, and so on, and hope that transport is going to sort that out. So, that is very important.
As I have said, we have a new board at Prasa and I have instructed them to tackle all the things that hon members have mentioned here, in fact.
IsiZulu:
Bab’ uHinana angikwazi ukuthi usahlaleleni kwi-DA ngoba ukhuluma ulwimi lwethu uma ngikuzwa kahle. Nje woza uma ngabe wake waba kuKhongolose, buya uze ekhaya amasango asavulekile ngane yakwethu. [Ubuwelewele.]
English:
The NCOP has a very important role to play. We would also like to call on all our communities – and let’s all work together - to protect our transport infrastructure, including ensuring that our
rail infrastructure is not destroyed, and that we are all able to move together.
IsiZulu:
Ngiyabonga kuMotara nabanye abakhulume kahle kakhulu noSalga ukuthi asisebenzisane ndawonye ukuze sikwazi ukuthi le nqola yethu ihambe ibheke phambili. Ngiyabonga. [Ihlombe.]
English:
The CHAIRPERSON OF THE NCOP: Hon members, allow me to take this opportunity to thank the Minister, Salga, and all our special delegates for having sat through and participated in these two debates.
Debate concluded.
The Council adjourned at 19:21.