Hansard: NCOP: Unrevised hansard
House: National Council of Provinces
Date of Meeting: 07 Jun 2022
Summary
No summary available.
Minutes
UNREVISED HANSARD
NATIONAL COUNCIL OF PROVINCES
TUESDAY, 7 JUNE 2022
Watch: Plenary
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL COUNCIL OF PROVINCES
____
The Council met at 14:01.
The House Chairperson (Mr A J Nyambi) took the Chair and requested members to observe a moment of silence for prayers
or meditation.
ANNOUNCEMENT
The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON (Mr A J Nyambi): Hon delegates, before we proceed, I would like to remind you of the following: The virtual sitting constitutes a sitting of the National Council of Provinces, the place of the sitting is deemed to be Cape Town where the seat of the National Council of Provinces is. Delegates in the virtual sitting enjoy the same powers and privileges that apply in a sitting of the National Council of Provinces. For purposes of the quorum, all delegates who are logged on to the virtual platform shall be considered present. Delegates must switch on their videos if they want to speak.
Delegates should ensure that the microphones and gadgets are muted and must always remain muted. The interpretation facility is active, and permanent delegates, special delegates and Salga representatives are requested to ensure that the interpretation facility on their gadgets are properly activated to facilitate access to the interpretation services. Any delegate who wishes to speak must use the “raise hand” function. Any delegate who wishes to raise a point of order should, in accordance with Rule 69(3), indicate terms of which Rule he or she is rising.
Hon delegates, I have been informed that there will be no Notices of Motion or Motions Without Notice. Before we proceed to the first order, I would like to take this opportunity to welcome the Acting Minister of Public Service and Administration, Acting Minister Nxesi, Deputy Minister of Public Service and Administration, MEC and all special delegates present to the House. Hon Delegate, we will now proceed to the first order, Policy debate on Budget Vote 2:
Parliamentary Appropriation Bill. I will now call upon the hon Masondo, Chairperson of the National Council of Provinces, to open the debate.
APPROPRIATION BILL
(Policy debate)
Vote No 2 — Parliament:
The CHAIRPERSON OF THE NCOP: Greetings to everybody. Deputy Chairperson of the National Council of Provinces, hon House Chairpersons and Chief Whip of Council, hon permanent delegates, Ministers and Deputy Ministers on the platform, representatives of the South African Local Government
Association, Salga, ladies and, after every storm there is a rainbow. Having emerged from two years of the Covid-19 pandemic, we are now better positioned to intensify the work of Parliament, and to consolidate the gains we have made so far under our democratic order. Parliament is an organ of people’s power and a critical instrument for the transformation of our society. Yes, we felt the impact of the pandemic, the shocks caused by the July 2021
unrest, the fire damage done to our own buildings of Parliament, and the damage wrought by the heavy rains and flooding in at least three of our provinces recently. As has been said before, life’s roughest storms prove the strength of our anchors. While these disasters wreaked havoc and caused the loss of many lives, they have also given us the opportunity to build back better.
On the overview of the work of the National Council of Provinces, the resumption of our physical work in the provinces, evidenced by the Provincial Week programme, is a signal of our readiness to build again. The following forms part of the work we undertook representing the interests of the provinces and supporting municipalities in the previous financial year:
We processed and adopted 19 Bills looking, amongst other things, at their impact on the provinces. We processed 42 reports from committees, including reports on the allocation of nationally raised revenue to the three spheres of government. We dealt with 12 interventions by the provinces in the municipalities. The national government began a phased process of pulling out from the North West, while ensuring continued support. We recorded and followed up on 64 executive undertakings. We convened and followed up on some of the issues which emanated from the 10 Ministerial Briefings we held, which focused on matters of national importance. We held the executive to account through a total of 865 oral and written questions, 670 of which were answered by the end of
March this year. We led, together with the National Assembly, the sectoral parliament programme to unlock opportunities for socioeconomic advancement. A critical development in this regard, which the Deputy Chairperson, hon Lucas, will elaborate on, is the deepening of our efforts to empower women. Of course, we must do more. On key achievements in the past financial year, the previous financial year occurred during the second year of the Covid-19 pandemic. Although the country and the world continued to face the scourge of this pandemic, Parliament proved its resilience.
On law-making, House Chairperson, Parliament’s law-making mandate was successfully executed. Key among the legislation we dealt with related to the national Budget which, amongst other things, focuses on spending priorities, and sets out the detail on how government intends to address the developmental needs of the public. Furthermore, upon the assessment of the Electoral Amendment Bill, in February already we requested more time beyond the June 2022 deadline to do more justice to this important legislation.
On oversight, s an activist people’s Parliament we continued
to strengthen measures aimed at ensuring greater
accountability and oversight over the executive. The
parliamentary committees held 1 217 virtual meetings,
conducted budget reviews, and monitored the implementation of
legislation. Parliamentary committees also embarked on ...
[Inaudible.] ... oversight visits and conducted 155 public
hearings on different Bills. Both Houses held sittings that
dealt with debates on issues of national importance, reports,
policy, and Bills.
On public participation, with the gradual lifting of the
Covid-19 restrictions, we have now begun to use physical
meetings to interact with the public.
On co-operative governance, House Chairperson, the state needs
to address apparent weaknesses in planning, which include the
lack of alignment of plans in the different spheres of
government. The challenges which have been brought to the
attention of the NCOP include, among others, the following:
That there is insufficient evidence-based planning, that there
is fragmentation of the planning system and inadequate
alignment and coherence across the three spheres, and that at
times, a plethora of ineffective intergovernmental forums are
established.
While pursuing the resolution of these challenges, we cannot
over-emphasise the importance of co-operation and proper co-
ordination in the planning and implementation of government
policies and programmes. The workshop on Co-operative
Governance and Intergovernmental Relations, hosted by the NCOP
in February this year, went a long way in equipping us for our
oversight role in this regard.
On international engagement, a number of our challenges as a
nation can only be addressed through improved international
and regional co-operation. For example, risks such as
infectious diseases, climate action failure, extreme weather
patterns, biodiversity loss, geo-economic confrontation, debt
crises, trade barriers, cyber security failures, and natural
resource crises will all require greater co-operation and
collaboration at global level. As such, we continue to use
international fora to deal with these challenges and more. We
will continue to take advantage of the improving conditions
for physical engagements ... [Inaudible.] ... in the conduct
of parliamentary ... [Inaudible.]. During 2021 Parliament
continued with its work on regional, continental and
international platforms. The engagements included the 49th
Southern African Development Community’s Parliamentary Forum
Plenary Assembly, the Fourth Ordinary Session of the Pan-
African Parliament, the 143rd Inter-Parliamentary Union
Assembly, the Seventh Parliamentary Speaker’s Summit, the 51st
Commonwealth Parliamentary Association, CPA, Conference. As we
speak, we are part of the CPA Africa Region Conference taking
place here in Freetown, Sierra Leone. Africa and its
development remain the central objective of South Africa’s
international perspective and policy.
On audit outcomes, Parliament continued to achieve a clean
audit for the seventh consecutive year. Worth noting is that
despite the declining fiscal allocations caused by
deteriorating economic conditions, the control environment
remained strong, as the Audit Committee, internal audit and
the risk management capacity progressively improved.
On the Parliamentary Institute, to accelerate the development
of the human capital, in December last year the South African
legislative sector launched the South African Parliamentary
Institute. We hope that its board of directors, among them the
deputies of our two Houses, will help steer this important
initiative in the right direction.
On policy priorities of the Sixth Parliament, House
Chairperson, improving the quality of life of South Africans
remains our ultimate goal. In pursuing this societal impact,
government developed the National Development Plan, NDP),
which sets out how quality of life will be improved by 2030.
The plan reflects the objectives and measures to increase
employment, eradicate poverty and reduce inequality. The
Medium-Term Strategic Framework, MTSF, for the 2019-24
electoral period elaborates government’s plan towards the
achievement of the goals set out in the NDP. The following are
some of the priorities: Building a capable, ethical and
developmental state, economic transformation and job creation,
education, skills and health, spatial integration, human
settlements and local government, a better Africa and world.
The Sixth Parliament’s strategy and Annual Performance Plan,
APP, has set out the required change initiatives which include
an oversight plan to co-ordinate oversight priorities and
activities of committees, Houses, and legislatures; a public
participation strategy to enhance public information, access
and participation; a knowledge management strategy to manage
information and knowledge for the benefit of members, the
institution and stakeholders; the digital strategy to allow
the implementation of modern technology; a human resources
strategy to unleash capacity and skills; and a facilities
management strategy to rebuild and modernise the precinct of
Parliament.
On Parliament Budget 2, House Chairperson, the 2022-23 budget
for Parliament is set against the backdrop of declining
budgets in the state as a whole. The present downward trend is
forecast to continue during the medium-term. In dealing with
the current budget shortfall, we were assisted by the under-
expenditure during the Covid-19 period. However, without
taking steps to correct the allocation or reduce expenditure,
a significant budget shortfall could occur in the 2024-25
financial year.
The total budget for Parliament is R 2,7 billion. However, the
total allocation received from the National Treasury is R
2,6 billion. The shortfall in the amount of R74 million will
be funded through retained earnings and revenue of Parliament.
The three different programmes are to receive allocations as
follows: Administration R776 million, legislation and
oversight R754 million, and associated services and transfer
payments to political parties R755 million.
There are of course other pressures. They include inflation
which is expected to increase by more than 6%, the expected
rise in the cost of our goods and services due to the lifting
of the Covid-19 restrictions, and funding for the effective
functioning of the Parliamentary Budget Office. Therefore,
Parliament will need to engage the National Treasury on the
impending shortfalls.
In conclusion, the financial resources availed to Parliament
are not sufficient to sustain the expenditure levels seen in
the pre-Covid-19 years. This poses challenges as we seek to
ensure the sustainability, effectiveness and efficiency of the
institution.
House Chairperson, let me thank the Speaker of the National
Assembly, the Leader of Government Business, the presiding
officers of Parliament and provincial legislatures for a great
working relationship. The support of the Deputy Chairperson of
the NCOP, hon Lucas, the House Chairpersons hon Nyambi and hon
Ngwenya, the Chief Whip of the NCOP, hon Mohai, has been
immense. We also saw permanent and special delegates
increasing their robustness in the debates.
The work of the Acting Secretary to Parliament, Ms Baby Tyawa,
speaks for itself. We thank her for holding the fort all these
years, and we extend appreciation to the Secretary to the
NCOP, Adv Modibedi Phindela, and the entire parliamentary
administration for their support to this House. We are
confident that the appointment of the new Secretary to
Parliament, Mr Xolile George, will help us to consolidate the
gains we have made so far and to move to higher ground. Thank
you very much, hon Nyambi.
The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON (Mr A J Nyambi): Thank you very much,
hon Chairperson of the National Council of Provinces, Ntate
Masondo, you have put the bar high in terms of the time.
Hopefully other speakers will be like you and have speeches
that will be according to their time allocated. Thank you very
much, Chair of the NCOP, Ntate Masondo.
Mr T J BRAUTESETH: Thank you, hon House Chairperson. Hon House
Chairperson, hon members and fellow South Africans, it is
common cause that the Constitution of the Republic of South
Africa forms the basis of our democracy. It is not only the
cornerstone and foundation of our country, but also the roof
under which we shelter and are protected. It is, therefore, a
priceless asset that should be protected at all costs.
Parliament is the primary protector of the Constitution
alongside the Constitutional Court.
House Chairperson, the institution conducts this business in
line with following values: Openness, responsiveness,
accountability, teamwork, professionalism and integrity. We
have, however, seen a steady erosion of the budget allocated
to Parliament to the point where the five programmes that used
to drive budget expenditure in Parliament have been
dramatically reduced to only three programmes. We are now left
with administration, legislation and oversight and associated
services. The programmes that have been removed are strategic
leadership and governance and core business.
The Zondo Commission has strongly criticised the strategic
leadership and governance of Parliament and so it is
conceivable that, under a cloud of embarrassment, this
government has moved this programme into the shadows until it
one day rediscovers its moral compass. However, what of the
other orphan child, the core business programme? What is the
Core Business of Parliament? In short it is procedural and
legal advice, analysis, information and research, language,
content and secretarial legislative drafting services for
meetings of the National Assembly, National Council of
Provinces and their committees. Public education, information
and access to support public participation. Analysis, advice,
content, protocol and other administrative support for
parliamentary international engagements.
It can be argued that this programme is the most important, as
it forms the intellectual backbone of Parliament. It is the
foundation of knowledge that will help this House which should
be primarily focused on reviewing, amending or creating
legislation that will find practical and effective purchase on
the ground and amongst our people. Without this programme,
this House is doomed to be the lackey of the National
Assembly, rubber stamping its decisions and feverishly
emulating their activities. The abandonment of this programme,
core business, simply precludes this House from its core,
constitutionally mandated function.
The recent oversight visits of the flood stricken areas of
South Africa are a case in point. Whilst the National Assembly
members of that committee function to bring attention to the
infrastructural and social work government must do to restore
normality, the members of this House, the NCOP, should be
considering what legislative amendments or innovations are
necessary to plan for and mitigate future catastrophes. This
is important work and this should be our mandate. However, it
is cut off at the knees by removing a programme that provides
research and expert facilities required for such a task.
Instead, the budget allows for R694 million for
administration. Perhaps they were planning for Mr George’s
demand of R5 million per year ... [Inaudible.] ... the fact is
that more of the budget of Parliament is ... [Inaudible.]
administration and remuneration and then anything else.
This budgetary adjustment point to us ... [Inaudible.] ... to
the ability of this Parliament to protect our democracy.
Whilst not oblivious to the contraction of the economy and
with that the painful exercise of tightening belts, the
funding of core functions should absolutely be non-negotiable.
Parliament is like a house, the shelter of our democracy. You
may consider not painting it for a period time or not
upgrading the kitchen, but you certainly should always
maintain the roof, the windows and keep the foundation in tip
top condition. Therefore, you certainly should not install a
new Jacuzzi and then not pay the water bill. To illustrate
this point and the distortion of priorities of Parliament
serving its administration and members, the institution
recently embarked on a members’ satisfaction survey. The
results of this survey found that 70% of members were, on
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average, satisfied with the service given to them. This was
based on a survey of 49 out of 490 members, the reason being
is that Parliament insists on using the parliamentary email
addresses which very few members use. The absurdity is plain
for all to see.
However, Parliament in our meeting trumpets these results in
every report and they miss a fundamental point. The
satisfaction survey of Parliament should be amongst the people
of South Africa, not the members. Would the people of South
Africa be happy with the inaction of Parliament throughout the
Zuma years, the pandering visits during the Durban riots and
the floods? The promise of R1 billion by Treasury that has
evaporated like the mist before the morning sun. Would they be
happy with our key performance indicator, the ability to hold
the executive to account? No wonder Parliament was
disrespected by the mayor and deputy mayor of eThekwini in our
recent floods oversight visit there. If we keep eroding our
institution, it will become a paper tiger, not worthy of any
respect.
Simply put, hon House Chairperson, we need to shift
priorities. We need to focus on the core business of
Parliament. We need to hire eager and fiery young researchers
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determined to hold the executive accountable rather than third
rate researchers who simply summarise documents and provide
inane comments that members know anyway. We need to use that
research to change committee meetings from chummy engagements
to tough inquisitorial hearings with structure and purpose
where no quarter is offered or given. We need to shift funds
to making Parliament even more accessible to South Africans
with an additional channel on the public broadcaster to screen
our business to the people.
All of the suggestions above, of course, rest on the premise
that the governing party actually want Parliament to work. It
does however appear that this ANC government is, however,
quite content to let this fine institution slide down a
slippery slope to the insignificant and status of a lapdog to
the executive. After all, we all know that the ANC comes
first. It is time to protect the people of South Africa from
this narcissistic organisation and restore the true
constitutional purpose of Parliament. The DA is committed to
that ideal and will fight tooth and nail for it. I thank you.
Ms D G MAHLANGU: Hon House Chairperson, the Chairperson and
the Deputy Chairperson of the NCOP, Minister and the Deputy
Ministers on the platform, MEC and Speakers, permanent and
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special delegates, SA Local Government Association, Salga,
delegates ...
IsiNdebele:
... sitjhaba sekhethu seSewula Afrika, lotjhani.
English:
Hon House Chairperson, as the ANC enters this debate, we are
conscious of the fact that a Budget of Parliament is whether
the transformation project of Parliament is on track? And
whether we have the necessary financial resources to take that
project to a higher level over the next 12 months?
The ANC orientation therefore, is to transform the state
machinery to serve the course of social change. This is true
of Parliament as it is central to contributing to the
democratic transition of our country as a tribune of the
people. We are tasked to ensure that through our oversight and
legislative role, there is a speedy roll out of meeting the
needs of our people. That appropriate legislation that speaks
directly to the needs of the people and will benefit them must
be past.
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Hon House Chairperson, our role is one that oversight is a
continuous fact in which there is the re-enforcement of
working relationship between the legislature and the
executive. Ensuring that the ANC-led government policies and
programmes are implemented effectively and efficiently.
In assessing the work of the administration, its performance
and programmes, we are guided by Parliament strategic plan of
2019 to 20224. Assessing performance means that we need to use
indicators of which nine of the 12 indicators that Parliament
use are new and do not have a benchmark established to ensure
them.
Hon House Chairperson, what we can say is that the strategic
leadership and governance programme has witnessed far greater
progress. The coherency of the Office of the Chairperson and
the Deputy Chairperson of the NCOP, has been extremely helpful
and the support structures that surround them. We have
expressed ourselves at length over the past year on the matter
of the Parliamentary Budget Office, PBO, what is lacking is
the reference group, to advice the executive authority on
areas of work, programmed, research, etc given that it reports
to the executive authority.
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Equally, the governance structures of the PBO needs to
demonstrate far greater leadership and guidance. We welcome
the appointment in the Treasury Advice Office and are
encouraged by the recent advisory support coming from this
office.
With regards to the core business programme of Parliament, we
can only assess its performance in broad terms. The
methodology of assessing performance in Parliament is not a
qualitative way of measuring performance. Instead of using a
conventional way of measuring performance, we are given a
model that is deeply flawed that of member satisfaction. Until
we move back to a methodology that is standard qualitative way
of assessing performance all the 100% achieved, etc will
remain very hollow.
Hon House Chairperson, more attention needs to be given
Parliament, to ensure that members master the subject matter
that they have oversight responsibility for. This means
Parliament needs to identify courses that will build
capability of committee members in their subject matters. In
this way, Parliament will be ensuring a qualitative higher
level of oversight. It is insufficient for Parliament, in its
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core business programme to say we seek to enhance oversight
capacity when the evidence thereof is lacking.
With regard to advisory research and information services, we
welcome the legal support that has been given to committees,
we want to suggest that far more time be given to legal
interpretation. More advice in the area of legal
interpretation is very necessary. Not just legal explanation.
Since this is well litigation against transformative
legislation that we need to pass is contested.
Hon House Chairperson, we have just emerged from the ANC
caucus mid-term review where we discussed at length, moving
Parliament to an enhanced oversight model. An enhanced
oversight is about a qualitative shift in the oversight
approach to focus on outcomes and impact assessment. This is
done through the use of appropriate oversight tools and
indicators; for the ANC the nonattainment of policy outcome
and poor impact can be traced to the weakness of performance
information and reporting.
This lead to oversight structures being more reactive than
proactive due to lack of relevant and strategic information.
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The fact that oversight is largely after the fact result in
adequate monitoring and performance.
The 2017 54th National Conference of the ANC on the oversight
role of Parliament noted that and I quote:
The oversight role of Parliament will be re-examined so as
to ensure an ANC progressive and consistent agenda is
implemented in Parliament. We want to ensure consistency
and robustness of Parliament’s oversight role. In addition
to exercising oversight over the executive, Parliament must
also turn its attention to matters affecting broader
society.
Hon House Chairperson and fellow South Africans, the critical
question is how we move oversight to outcomes and impact
assessment. The legislative sector oversight model is
inadequate in this regard. Two things need to happen;
Parliament must move towards an outcome-based reporting system
and not just target-based on client satisfaction. Currently,
we have a Parliament system geared towards outputs.
In addition, enhanced oversight means oversight over
implementation which should be outcome and impact orientation.
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Hon House Chairperson, on the current matters before
Parliament, which have an impact on the budget of Parliament
are the proposed amendments of the Financial Management of
Parliament and Provincial Legislatures Act. We are very
cautious that this process has been going on since 2017 and
that the Speakers Forum has an established position. Whilst
the matter was referred in a sitting of the National Assembly,
to the Standing Committee on Finance, who originally initiated
the Bill back in 2005, the implications for oversight requires
that the Joint Standing Committee on Financial Management of
Parliament needs to be involved. It is not the Standing
Committee on Finance that has oversight authority on the
performance of Parliament.
On the budget of Parliament, we have stated it before that the
current arrangement is not only unsustainable and demeaning to
the institution of Parliament. We cannot be treated as a Vote
of funds, rather Parliament must be part of determining its
budget internal priorities and alignment of its needs.
There are specific line items that create a shortfall in the
budget of Parliament. This needs to be addressed before the
February budget next year when the estimates of national
expenditure are tabled. These matters are not with the control
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of Parliament, but sit as line items in the budget of
Parliament without Parliament having a say over the matters
and are a major cause of the shortfall in the budget of
Parliament.
Hon House Chairperson and hon members, there is Parmed Medical
Aid Scheme, travel entitlements of former members of the
executives, loss of office gratuity and political party
allowance. We call on for the speedy resolution of these
matters with the National Treasury to enable Parliament to
have a budget that addresses the actual needs of the
institution, members and the people of South Africa
specifically. Currently, the budget of Parliament is
determined through consultation with the National Treasury and
the executive authority. This creates a challenge in the
budget process. Greater attention needs to be given to
alignment of the budgetary calendars of both Parliament and
the National Treasury.
With regard to Parmed, the reality is that there has been a
200% increase in main member’s contribution since 2008. Yet
the actual increase in the salaries of members is a fraction
of this, since 2008. Therefore, in real terms, members are
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getting the worst deal every year and the matter is just
compounding itself.
It is grossly unfair for Parliament to have to fund the
obligations related to previous members of provincial
legislatures. Parliament must provide the National Treasury
with the breakdown of Parmed’s responsibility so that the
National Treasury can engage provincial legislatures about
their responsibilities.
With regard to political party allowances, the problem
statement lies in where the political party allowance funding
responsibility should reside. Currently, it rests with
Parliament and there are contradictions in this area besides
where it should lie, the actual internal parliamentary formula
has to reviewed.
With regard to the matter of loss of office gratuity, this
places a huge strain on Parliament’s budget and it will result
in the end of the Sixth Parliament with a large outflow of
funds.
Hon House Chairperson, the entity in this case Parliament,
from which a matter finally exist is liable for a full service
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of the member, irrespective of where they have served in
government.
Between 2009 and 2021 Parliament has paid out R273 million in
the loss of office gratuities. It is recommended that a Kepil
system be introduced.
With regards to entitlement of former Members of Parliament
and the executive, it is clear that new policy provision must
prevail in order to reduce the current expenditure of
R46 million last calculated between 2015 and 2020.
Hon House Chairperson, in conclusion, the unsustainable
expenditure levels coupled with the structure and composition
of the Parliament Vote of funds added to the key risks and
constrains and the budget reduction all require major
interventions between now and 2023 Budget. The Joint Standing
Committee on Financial Management of Parliament must be ceased
with these issues raised going forward. We look forward to
seeing a qualitative change in the quarterly reports that will
be tabled going forward. Without these change, we are on an
unstable path as we speak.
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Hon House Chairperson, let me take this opportunity on behalf
of the ANC to support Vote No 2 – Parliament.
IsiNdebele:
Akhesithokoze abonobesa nabosobesa, ukobona badlulise kuhle
amagwabo njengombana iKosi ithabile. Siyathokoza.
Mr M S MOLETSANE: Chairperson, the EFF rejects the proposed
budget for Parliament. We reject the budget of a Parliament
which fails to fulfill its constitutional mandate of
representing the interests of our people, as well as the
interests of provinces in the national sphere of government.
Section 55(2) of the Constitution of the Republic of South
Africa of 1996 stipulates the role of Parliament to oversee
the activities of government and any organs of state so as to
realise a better quality of life for all the people of South
Africa. However, Parliament has been unable to fulfill its
primary responsibility of holding the Executive to account for
the many challenges faced by our people. Instead, Parliament
sits by and watches idly as the country continues on a
downward spiral.
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Perhaps, there exists no greater challenge than the high
unemployment crisis which we currently face. As we enter into
youth month, we are faced with the stark reality of a youth
which continues to bear the brunt of unemployment, with an
unemployment rate higher than the national average. This is
irrespective of educational attainment.
The high unemployment rate, creates a perfect storm for other
social ills, such as crime, gender-based violence and social
unrest. We know this to be true as our crime continues to
spiral at alarming rates, as in the Eastern Cape’s Lusikisiki,
Inanda in KwaZulu-Natal and Delft in the Western Cape recorded
the highest incidents of rape for this quarter. The law is
not enforced and there exists little to no repercussions for
those who break the law.
The current condition of South Africa is of a society where
thousands of people face severe problems in accessing even the
most basic services, such as health, water, sanitation,
electricity and refuse removal. This House has been unable to
hold the executive to account for their destructive actions
and the role which they continue to play in pushing the
country into a failed state.
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Members of Parliament are continually caught between
responding to the needs of the communities or their political
parties. The reality being that political needs often
outweigh those of the people. There exists a protective
relationship with the ANC. Members of Parliament use this
House as opportunities to defend their corrupt ministers. The
truth of the matter stands that this Parliament has become the
greatest enabler of the looting and destruction that has been
going on in this country for a while.
This House has also failed to initiate or prepare legislation
and there exists no plan to build state capacity. This House
has failed to amend the Constitution to allow for land
expropriation without compensation. It failed to amend the
South African Reserve Bank Act to nationalise the central
bank. It failed to amend the Banks Act of 1990 to allow state-
owned companies to apply for a full commercial banking
license. It has failed to amend the National Health Act to
allow for clinics to open 24 hours. And, it has failed to
amend the Liquor Act to ban alcohol advertising.
Parliament lacks capacity to facilitate the development of all
these Bills, and it fails to listen to reason on alternative
methods of building capacity and preparing legislation by
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Members of Parliament. Parliament has faced so many challenges
throughout the years, that it has placed doubt on its primary
function of passing legislation and overseeing the executive.
It has failed to deliver the needs of communities.
In a country of so much inequalities, unemployment,
exploitation and the general moral degeneration reflected by
those who lead the state, as the EFF, we reject the budget of
a Parliament which sits by, watches and does nothing to change
the condition of our people.
We reject the budget of a Parliament which failed to establish
a joint-steering committee to oversee the implementation of
crime prevention measures with specific focus on gender-based
violence, as the EFF has on many occasions requested. We
reject the budget of a Parliament which consistently refuses
to take the increasing pandemic of rape and sexual assault
seriously. Chairperson, we reject this Budget Vote.
Sesotho:
Ke a leboha!
Ms C LABUSCHAGNE: Hon Chairperson and hon members, the role of
the NCOP as part of Parliament is spelled out in the supreme
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law of the country, the Constitution. Two of the main
functions, is: To present the interests of provinces in being
a forum where issues affecting provinces are debated publicly;
and law making.
The Strategic plan of Parliament determines three indicators
to focus on, namely poverty, unemployment and inequality. It
also defined seven ways of doing so. Due to time concerns, I
am focusing on two of the most important ones: Increase
accountability by strengthening oversight over executive and
oversight in general; and increased public demand for greater
involvement.
The first concern about the aspiration of increased oversight
is that the time allocated in the NCOP program framework to
oversight visits for committees has been ironically reduced
from two weeks to one. No explanation; no reasons given! It
might be not to discover more of the same - total collapsing
of local governments, as well as looting sprees of provincial
and national government.
Another function of oversight is to increase the
responsiveness and accountability of parliament. How is it
supposed to work? For one, feedback of oversight findings and
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recommendations must inform the strategic plans and budget for
the next cycle. Well, the oversight reports are written, ATC’d
and most of the time forgotten. The report on state capture or
Zondo Commission report as we know it, clearly states the
failure of Parliament in fulfilling its oversight role.
We cannot get different outcomes and results in doing the same
things, the same way, year after year. A quick glance at the
number of interventions referred to the NCOP over the 5th and
6th Parliament up till now reveals that 78 municipalities were
referred for section 139 interventions. Another nine has been
referred, but not being decided on - that is 31% of
municipalities.
Is it not time that we have a dedicated select committee
focusing on local government and interventions? Such a select
committee should be more than a tool in the hands of the ANC
to try and sort out factional fights. A dedicated committee
for Cogta should: Focus on the co-operative and
intergovernmental roles and functions of the provincial
governments requesting these interventions; indicate the lack
of support; help that should have been given by provinces or
national government before interventions are being approved;
and when approved, monitor and guide the process in such a way
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that it serves the citizens of that municipality with better
service delivery, contributing to better lives.
An in-depth look at our program will reveal the little time
we’ve spend in this Parliament on debates - the platform where
we need to debate provincial or, in other words, issues that
matters to the people, in the public. It is one space where
the Ministers should debate, and not give presentations.
Hon Chair, the second aspect of how to address the strategic
plan indicators is increased public demand for involvement.
Public involvement is most important in our lawmaking process
– also spelled out in the Constitution. Sec 76 Bills can be
introduced in the NCOP. Provincial interests can be addressed
first hand via public participation. Even more so, the same
amount of time that is being spent on Bills in the NA could be
done in the NCOP as well.
I am requesting and challenging the Presiding Officers and
Whippery to take a stand to address the leaders of government
business, LOGB, and Premiers of provinces on this matter. The
mandating Act, as is, does not provide clear guidelines nor
does the Rules on exactly the manner in which proposed
amendments should be dealt with in committees. The result is
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very few Bills are being amended in the NCOP, despite the time
and huge amount of money spent on public participation.
The NCOP cannot claim that we really know what the impact of
new legislation or policies are on the quality of life of our
people. A good example of that is the court case on the Small
Scale Fishery Policy. We only become aware of the impact when
a high level panel is appointed to do the job that the NCOP
should have done.
Hon Chair, it is clear that the only way poverty, unemployment
and inequalities will be successfully addressed by Parliament,
is to change the ruling party of Parliament in the 2024
General Elections. I thank you.
The DEPUTY CHAIRPERSON OF THE NCOP (Ms S E Lucas): Hon House
Chairperson, Mr Nyambi, Chairperson of the NCOP, House
Chairpersons, Chief Whip of the NCOP, permanent and special
delegates, Acting Minister and Minister Nxesi, who is present
on the Virtual platform, as well as the Deputy Minister
Pilane-Majake, Acting Secretary to Parliament - Secretary to
the NCOP, distinguished guest ladies and gentlemen, fellow
South Africans, let me right at the beginning start by saying
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it is really an honour for me to have the opportunity to speak
on the occasion of the tabling of the Parliament Budget Vote.
The Financial Management of Parliament and Provincial
Legislature Act, Act 10 of 2009, FAMPLA, requires the
Executive Authority to oversee the preparation of Parliament’s
Annual Performance Plan and budget. The proposed expenditure
set out in Budget Vote 2 will support the execution of the 6th
Parliament strategy, through our Annual Performance Plan, APP,
as tabled in June 2021. This plan specifies performance
measures and indicators for assessing Parliament’s performance
in achieving the objectives and outcomes detailed in the
strategic plan.
Chairperson, as we are tabling the Parliament’s budget, the
African continent remains at a crossroads. The world is
uncertain, volatile, dangerous, and indeed unjust. A number of
international political and economic factors have shaped the
contemporary world order. Acting together, these factors have
engendered growing uncertainty in the world and destabilised
our global governance.
In the context of increasingly open and contested markets that
are a feature of the globalised international economy,
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competition from these influential emerging economies is
regarded as a threat by many industrialised countries. In
practical terms, this has been illustrated by growing
opposition to further trade reforms in many countries, and has
been underlined by the failure to conclude the Doha Round of
multilateral trade negotiations.
Chairperson, the World Economic Forum indicated that the
coronavirus pandemic was not an outlier, but that it is part
of the new normal of our interconnected and viral world.
Epidemics will become more common with an increasingly
connected world. These social risks will require more and
better collaboration and co-operation on international and
regional levels.
Despite the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic,
Parliament’s multi-party delegation to the 143rd Inter-
Parliamentary Union, IPU, Assembly in Madrid in 2021,
supported the IPU African Group’s proposed resolution,
“Harnessing global parliamentary support for vaccine equity in
the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.”
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In the discussion, parliamentarians pointed to a clear
discrepancy between Africa and the rest of the world in the
global roll-out of vaccines.
According to the World Bank and the World Health Organization,
less than 2% of people living in Africa’s low-income countries
have been fully vaccinated and less than 10% in lower-middle-
income countries. In comparison, over 60% of the population in
advanced economies is vaccinated. The resolution called on the
international community to ensure timely, equitable and
universal access to safe, affordable, quality and effective
vaccines, with particular regard to the needs of low and
middle-income countries and the most affected regions. It
implored parliamentarians to work with their national
governments to exert a global and collective influence on the
World Trade Organization, WTO, to eliminate all export
restrictions and any other trade barriers on COVID-19 vaccines
and the inputs involved in their production. It insisted on
the fact that both national and international efforts to raise
awareness regarding the effectiveness of vaccines, to engage
communities, and to reduce vaccine hesitancy are indispensable
to attain a sufficient degree of immunization around the world
and that considerably more efforts in this field are required.
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The abovementioned resolution was referred to the Portfolio
Committee on Health for action, particularly on engaging
communities to reduce COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy and on
working with the national government to exert a global and
collective influence on the WTO to eliminate all export
restrictions and any other trade barriers on COVID-19 vaccines
and the inputs involved in their production.
Hon members, collectively we must continue to reject moves to
politicise scientific research in the interests of an
imperialist global agenda. In this era of pandemics,
scientific collaborations across our globe is critical for
progress and for the protection of humanity. Scientific fields
of origins or source-tracing of viruses, is a critical
instrument in the campaign against their spread.
Chairperson, the strategy map of the 6th Parliament sets out
our desired long-term impact. Improving quality of life is the
ultimate goal and impact that Parliament wishes to see. In
pursuing this societal impact, government developed the
National Development Plan, NDP, setting out how quality of
life will be improved by 2030. The plan reflects objectives
and measures to increase employment, eradicate poverty and
reduce inequality.
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The Medium-Term Strategic Framework, MTSF, is government’s
strategic plan for the 2019-2024 electoral term. It stipulates
the outcomes to be achieved, which includes high-level
development indicators for each outcome. That is where they
had set out the seven priorities, with related outcomes and
indicators.
The development targets set out in the MTSF enable Parliament
to monitor progress of implementation, and hence, the overall
impact on society. Parliament’s oversight role must be
pronounced by the manner in which these development targets
and indicators are scrutinised, and how the executive is
required to account for delivery to the people of South
Africa. When reflecting on the development targets of the 6th
Parliament, it has become evident that there is a need to
ensure a targeted oversight focus on the economy, so as to
ensure that the previously marginalised have access to a
better quality of life, through their participation in the
economy.
Research has shown that the confinement of the knowledge
economy has momentous consequences for the economy and the
society. Today, it has become the single most important cause
of both economic stagnation and economic inequality. To
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overcome this confinement by moving in the direction of an
inclusive vanguardism, would be to reignite accelerated growth
and to begin redressing the sources of extreme inequality in
the hierarchical segmentation of the economy.
Structural constraints in the economy, continue to create
barriers to entry and meaningful economic participation. The
current epoch of struggle hence demands a targeted focus on an
advancement of inclusive economic growth, by paying special
attention to the economic cluster, so as to ensure that the
most vulnerable and marginalised are able to meaningfully
participate in the economy. Our sectoral work and sectoral
focus, has primarily been underpinned by a focus on the
advancement of inclusive economic growth, particularly as
articulated in the provisions of the Economic Reconstruction
and Recovery Plan, ERRP, which is principally aimed at growing
an inclusive economy, that is able to address the multifaceted
social challenges faced by ordinary South Africans.
The Secretary to Parliament has carved significant inroads
since the beginning of the 6th Parliament, effecting a
paradigm shift for reporting on sectoral issues across
provinces, metros and districts, while strengthening social
compacts, with stakeholders across various sectors of society.
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We have also been able to assist Parliament to determine its
oversight and policy agenda, by highlighting issues of
significant importance, which have the ability to
significantly impact the developmental trajectory of our
country.
Furthermore, given the fact that sectoral issues are
inextricably linked to other interrelated factors of
governance and policy issues, it has become evident that
sectoral matters cannot be addressed without firstly
addressing the prevailing conditions that hamper meaningful
change in the lives of the poor and marginalised.
Critical policy and governance matters have emerged as driving
factors to enable meaningful material change, which includes
the need to focus on the state of the economy and its ability
to create mass employment. Issues of unemployment, poverty and
the widening gap between the rich and poor cannot be
overlooked, as these conditions are maintained by the current
structure of the economy, which makes it very difficult for
the previously marginalised to participate in the economy. We
also cannot ignore issues relating to joblessness and the
precarious nature of work in the informal economy, which
mostly affects the poor and marginalised.
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In addition to these pertinent issues, matters relating to the
capacity of the state to implement key development catalysing
policy priorities, more so given the impact of the COVID-19
pandemic on the living conditions of ordinary South Africans.
As we began our public participation trajectory at the
beginning of the 6th Parliament, we were mindful of these
factors, and employed every effort to shape not only the
landscape of public engagement, but also to define the
intervals for sustained report back.
On the Women’s Charter for Accelerated Development, Parliament
has successfully completed its nation-wide “25-Year Review of
the Women’s Charter for Effective Equality Effective
Equality.” Through the country wide review sessions, we were
able to gather information and findings, which have now become
the basis upon which sustained engagements with provinces,
metros and districts will continue, particularly for the
advancement of gender equality, through strategic oversight
mechanisms.
The newly adopted 2021 Women’s Charter for Accelerated
Development, which encompasses 15 strategic objectives and
sets out a roadmap of broad priority actions, appropriately
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encompasses the invaluable inputs received from all sectors of
society concerning gender equality.
In seeking to address all the pertinent issues raised during
the review process, Parliament has established a social
compact with provincial governments across all provinces,
including local government, Chapter Nine Institutions and
civil society organizations, in order to monitor on a
quarterly basis, the progress made in implementing the
provisions of the charter. This is by far a significant
achievement for Parliament, as we continue to ensure that the
gender transformation agenda, remains firmly embedded in
government’s on-going development trajectory.
From a policy perspective, issues relating gender-based
violence and femicide, GBVF, women’s equitable access to land,
women’s participation in the economy, are some of the critical
issues anchoring the charter. Furthermore, a process to
engender the provincial growth and development strategies of
provinces as well as the Integrated Development Plan, IDPs and
Local Economic Development, LEDs, of municipalities is
underway, which will significantly reshape and inculcate a
gender perspective in the planning and budgeting processes of
provinces and local government.
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Parliament, through its sectoral work is embarking on a
sustained and targeted oversight and accountability campaign,
in order to oversee the implementation of the 2021 Women’s
Charter through quarterly engagement and report back sessions.
As articulated during the Women’s Charter review process,
Parliament will continue to embark on a process to track
progress made in implementing the provision of the charter to
enable measurable progress in the realisation of gender
equality. Two provinces have already been visited and those
provinces are the North West and Limpopo province. On the 10th
of June 2022, we will be in the Gauteng province.
One of the key pillars of the Women’s Charter review process,
was its underpinning law reform pillar, through which we
sought to identify key policies and legislation for review, as
guided by their centrality in the process to advance gender
equality. The principle intention was to identify gaps in key
policies and legislation that are employed for realizing
gender equality.
In order to advance recommendations for the amendment of such
key policies and legislative instruments, Parliament is now
implementing the next phase of the law reform process, which
is to engage important stakeholders on the amendment of key
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policies and legislation, so as to effectively advance gender
equality. To this end, one of the key policy instruments that
were highlighted as requiring urgent and extensive review and
amendment, is the National Gender Policy Framework,
particularly given the evolved policy and developmental
landscape in South Africa, which has further been impacted by
the COVID-19 pandemic. There is also recommendation emanating
from the review process, to amendment the Money Bills
Amendment Act, in order to address the none-binding nature of
gender responsive budgeting, which currently is not mandatory
to implement. Amendment of this crucial Act, will also ensure
that the budget is not passed without segmenting clearly, a
multi-sectoral development portion, which must be allocated
towards the development of women.
We have now formed men’s Parliaments which is an integral part
of the GBVF oversight approach, as Parliament continues to
build strategic social compacts to ensure an effective
response to GBVF across communities.
Given the current state of GBVF in the country and
particularly after the President’s announcement of the
National Strategic Plan on GBVF, the issues relating to GBVF
have been placed firmly on Parliament’s agenda, across the
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relevant committees, including the Sector Parliaments Planning
Session programme.
We continue to agitate that our courts be constantly reminded
that as the final arbiters in matters involving GBVF, they
have the power to protect women and children and to
effectively punish the offenders. In so doing send a clear
message to perpetrators that such conduct will not be
condoned. That they have the inherent ability to ensure that
court room policies and procedures are sensitive to the
victim, and that the victim who go through the legal system
are not subjected to secondary trauma in the form of harsh,
humiliating and unnecessary cross-examination.
On the 19th April 2022, Parliament through Sector Parliaments
Planning Session hosted a three-sphere planning session. The
objective of the programme was to tighten Parliament’s role in
monitoring and evaluating executive undertakings, and be more
effective in tracking the implementation of strategic policies
and programmes, by strengthen three-sphere planning, co-
ordination and Oversight through a targeted policy focus for
accelerated implementation.
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That planning process was meant to assist Parliament to
strategically align its overarching oversight trajectory to
clearly delineate policy priorities of the electoral mandate,
MTSF and the NDP.
In building a capable developmental state, academics have
strongly asserted that South Africa has not lacked policies,
it has lacked dynamic capabilities inside the public sector to
implement those policies. Three inter-related areas have been
highlighted by the head of the Wits School of Governance and
these includes the following. The dynamic capabilities needed
to improve implementation of chosen strategic missions and
related programmes, including digital capabilities, innovation
in public service, especially with respect to co-ordinating
activities that yield outcomes in a defined locality, but very
much driven by a set of missions, and the idea of a
developmental state whose aim is to achieve both greater
efficiencies and equity outcomes.
State capability is a critical enabling factor in advancing
South Africa’s transformation agenda. Parliament has an
obligation to ensure that it begins to build the appropriate
oversight systems, that respond to the inherent institutional
factors, which hamper the transformation drive in our country.
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We will continue to focus on these matters through our
sectoral programme, in order to ensure that we systemically
and meticulously begin to identify systemic blockages to
accelerated transformation and move South Africa forward.
Parliament’s constitutional mandate of law-making has been
executed partially successfully. We passed more than 20 Bills
during this period. Key among the Bills which Parliament
passed, were Gender-Based Violence Bills that are aimed at
enhancing government’s fight against the abuse of women and
children. Which included the Criminal and Related Matters
Amendment Bill, the Criminal Law, Sexual Offences and Related
Matters Amendment Bill, and the Domestic Violence Amendment
Bill.
We have been allocated a budget of R2,683 billion for 2022-23
financial year. However, expenditure levels seen in the pre-
covid years are not sustainable anymore, and a possible
shortfall is forecasted for 2024-25.
The strategic plan and annual performance plan for the 6th
Parliament sets out its journey of change and transformation.
It provides a roadmap to ensure the sustainability,
effectiveness and efficiency of the institution, guaranteeing
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that Parliament continue to represent the people, and to
ensure government by the people, under the Constitution.
Given the reach and impact of the Sector Parliaments
programme, it is imperative that we put mechanisms in place to
effectively segment the unique contribution made to the work
of Parliament through this programme. We must ensure that this
programme is properly funded and effectively resourced, in
order to ensure that this programme continues to bring about
the desired impact, through the strategic engagement of the
three spheres of government.
Chairperson, in conclusion through our sectoral work, we have
sought to ensure agile governance that is adaptive, which
acknowledges that policy development is no longer limited to
governments but rather is an increasingly multi-stakeholder
effort. Hence, we would like to take this opportunity to thank
all stakeholders who are continuing to add value to our work.
From the academics we invite to our Lecture Series, to Chapter
Nine Institutions such as the Commission for Gender Equality,
Statistics South Africa, Financial and Fiscal Commission, FFC
and the Parliamentary Budget Office and many others. We are
pioneering new ways of conducting strategic oversight and
gaining deeper insights through your strategic analysis and
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guidance. Through these kind of social compacts, we will
significantly continue to carve out a path to accelerate the
country’s transformation agenda.
Hon Members, as we welcome Parliament’s budget, we hope and
believe it will assist us in emphasizing the imperatives of
mainstreaming gendered perspectives and priorities into
government’s planning and state machinery arrangements, across
the three spheres of government, so as to improve state
capacity to implement gender sensitive policies and
programmes.
Let me express our appreciation to the Chairperson of the
NCOP, the House Chairpersons, the Chief Whip of the Council,
all members as well as the administration for consistent
support in making sure that we can execute our programmes.
Thank you very much.
Mr M QOBOSHIYANE (Eastern Cape): Hon Chairperson, Deputy
Chairperson of the NCOP, the Delegates of the NCOP here and
hon Minister ...
IsiXhosa:
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... mandithathe eli thuba kule nyanga yamagorha namaqhawe,
yolutsha olwayibamba intsimbi itshisa, lwajongana ngqo
notshaba, lusilwa lwaze lashukumisa iziseko zengcinezelo.
English:
The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON (Mr A J Nyambi): The interpreter, is
audible.
Mr M QOBOSHIYANE (Eastern Cape): Ooh sorry ...
IsiXhosa
Ubunzima ababejongene nabo ngelo xesha sade saba
siyaphumelela. Ndifuna ukuthi ubunzima ababejongene nabo
abantu abatsha, namhlanje butshintshile ngenxa yokusetyenziswa
kobuchule bethekhnoloji. Umhlambi ongenamgqeku awunakamva.
English:
Let me welcome the budget vote as presented by the Chairperson
of the NCOP. It is also important to commend the NCOP for
adapting the during this period under review and continue to
carry out the constitutional mandate with diligence despite
the challenges posed by the Covid-19 pandemic and the
unfortunate fires that ravaged our Parliament earlier this
year. Hon Deputy Chairperson, as you reflect on the
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achievements and the challenges of the previous financial
year, we should remember as hon members our staff that have
lost their lives during this period of the pandemic. The
continued strain on the public purse and the difficulties on
the economic environment remain a risk to the funding of the
Parliament and legislature.
Therefore, the smooth functioning of these organisations and
the fulfilment of their constitutional mandate, the role of
Parliament and legislatures in building capable, ethical and
developmental state remains at risk with the current finding
model of funding of Parliament and the legislatures. Hon
Chair, we should commend the NCOP for being responsive to the
plight of our people and responding to the scourge of gender-
based violence and femicide by passing Gender-Based Violence
Bills in the period under review.
The committees are primary vehicles for oversight and primary
increasing the participation in the legislative and other
processes of the NCOP. To this end, former Speaker of the NA
Max Sisulu, stated that:
It is in the legislature that instruments have fashioned
to create a better life for all. It is here that
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oversight of government must be exercised. It is here
that our society in all its formations has had an
opportunity to influence policies and its
implementations.
We should therefore, always strive to try to strengthen the
committees in order to deepen our understanding and
relationship with the executive within the context of
oversight for effectiveness of our oversight on the Executive.
It is also important that the public and the various sectors
of the communities see an impact of our oversight.
Hon members, the NCOP should at all times work closely with
the provincial legislatures from planning stages to
implementation of the public participation programmes in
particular the public hearings. Hon Deputy Chairperson, allow
to congratulate both Houses for achieving the clean audit in
period under review. This is very much encouraging and a good
example for the departments that we also oversight.
In conclusion, despite the difficulties of the economic
environment and the challenges posed by the Covid-19 pandemic,
I would like to congratulate the NCOP for successfully
implementing its constitutional mandate. I also like to
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implore the legislative sector to expedite the efforts in
concluding the funding model of this sector. As the Eastern
Cape province, we once again welcome the Budget Vote 2 as
presented by the Chairperson on behalf of the NCOP.
IsiXhosa:
Isizwe samaMpondo, Sihlalo, nephondo laseMpuma Koloni,
uMzantsi Afrika jikelele, siphantsi kwenzila yokukhothama
kweKumkani uZanozuko. Aah Zanazuko! Sifuna ukuthi ke kuye,
hamba kakuhle Faku, hamba Ziqelekazi, hamba Thahla kaNdayeni,
Mahlamba ngobubende, Matshob’ endlovu.
English:
Rest well, Your Majesty, your strides shall forever be
emulated by those that are coming after you. Thank you very
much Chair.
Mr N M HADEBE: Hon Chairperson, I suppose, I am audible Chair?
The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON (Mr A J Nyambi): Yes, you are.
Mr N M HADEBE: Hon Chairperson and hon members the
unprecedented restrictions imposed on our democracy due to the
Covid-19 pandemic have had disastrous effects in our
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communities and their participation in government. The essence
of our work in Parliament is to be one that is reflecting the
people and be responsive to their interests. Covid-19 pandemic
placed tremendous stress on our ability to execute our mandate
in terms of our oversight, accountability and transparency of
our government’s affairs but we did not give up.
We did our best to continue working under the most exhaustive
Covid-19 pandemic lockdown. This necessitated the co-ordinated
plan by all of us in Parliament to use digital and
technologies to continue our work. Many of us who have not
come from privilege background or even a more useful approach
to technology were thrown in the proverbial deep end of the
Fourth Industrial Revolution. Then at the beginning of this
year, the parliamentary precincts were predictably set aflame.
The inferno took fire fighters three days to bring under
control and finally extinguished.
The extent of the structural damage is still uncertain but I
think it is safe to say that it will be years before the
damaged part of the precinct which houses the NCOP, Old
Assembly Chamber and NA would be operational once again. Faced
with these mammoth challenges it is thanks to the will of all
of us here today who have found a way to attempt and providing
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the best providing reach of our mandate. Special mention must
go to the tireless efforts of our Chairperson, all the
parliamentary staff, Parliamentary IT and the Table Staff who
has made it their duty to walk besides us in our duty to the
people of South Africa.
Without the staff working in the background so diligently, we
would not see such smooth flow of parliamentary plenaries yet
again. The IFP thanks you for your service. Hon Chairperson,
we must bring to the lights that parts of parliamentary
communication remain out of service such as telephones. This
must be prioritised as it hinders members and parliamentary
staff in the fulfilment of their duties.
Hon Chair, this is the People’s Parliament and it must be
opened, accessible and business as usual as soon as possible.
Virtual meetings are not accessible to a large majority of the
South Africans. Additionally, it becomes difficult for all
South Africans to engage and hold government’s officials to
account. Government’s lack of attention towards the provision
of electricity and affordable data to South Africans leaves
many of the voices of South Africans mute in terms of
development.
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Chairperson, the IFP Caucus would like to thank you Sir and
the Speaker for her open door approach during the recent
engagements with opposition party leaders. The strategy and
decision-making discussions will go a long way in building
unity of reaching the goals of the National Development Plan,
NDP Vision 2030. While surveys show that public confidence in
Parliament is only around 27%, if these engagements can
realise fruitful outcomes for the people of the country, then
I am sure that we will see greater trust in Parliament.
Hon Chairperson, in conclusion, I wish to say that the IFP
supports the budget vote. I thank you.
Mr M NHANHA: Thank you hon Nyambi, hon members. Our
Constitution allows for three arms of state, namely the
judiciary, the executive and the legislature. Each of these
arms is independent from each other and are designed to
strengthen our fledgling democracy. We all know the importance
each arm plays in ensuring that none of the three overreaches
or abuse its authority.
Again hon members, we all know Parliament’s primary mandate is
to enact laws and oversight over the executive. So, in
essence, Parliament should position itself as a people’s
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House, set on serving the nation and safeguarding of the
people’s civil liberties. The House of Parliament should be
viewed by the electorate as theirs, and so too are their
elected representatives.
Occasionally in Parliament, I have hosted visitors from the
Eastern Cape and elsewhere in the country. It is during these
visits that I realised the meaning of Parliament to ordinary
South Africans. I could see the excitement, the joy, the sense
of belonging, the sense of ownership, whilst taking
photographs in front of the buildings of Parliament. Selfies
next to the statue of the First Democratic President, Mr.
Nelson Mandela, and that to be finished off with a scrumptious
lunch at either New Wing or Marks building restaurant.
I have further observed South Africa’s love for their
Parliament. When we were still recovering from New Year's Day
babalaas, we were we were awoken to unsavoury news that the
House of Parliament was in flames. There was a real sense of
sorrow amongst a vast majority of South Africans. Of course,
except opportunists and populists who sought to use such a sad
moment in the history of our country, by calling for the
relocation of Parliament to Pretoria.
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Hon members, scale up the 13 stairs going into the National
Council of Provinces building. Those stairs are littered with
truly amazing words such as freedom and democracy, equality
and diversity, unity and reconciliation, openness and
participation, oversight and accountability, reconstruction
and development and co-operative governance, which by all
accounts this is what Parliament should be about.
Hon members, it is about time that as Parliament we must take
a hard look at ourselves, whether we have lived up to the
truly amazing words littered on the stairs in front of them in
front of the National Council of Provinces building. I am
afraid the answer will not be so encouraging. The House of
Parliament which should be a shield for ordinary South
Africans has not covered itself in glory.
During the nine wasted years of state capture by former
President Jacob Zuma and his enablers by the way, who some of
them are still members of this House, Parliament slept on the
job. Parliament failed to do its work. Parliament sat on it on
its hands. In fact, put it bluntly, those like the DA who
called for action by Parliament, instead the ANC used its
majority to shut it down those voices. The ANC looked away and
close ranks behind their President. As hon Brauteseth earlier
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said: “To them it is party first and South Africans are less
important”
Hon members, by extension Parliament was complicit in the
theft of our country’s resources. This is confirmed by Judge
Zondo’s Commission of Inquiry into Allegations of State
Capture Report. Months after Judge Zondo released his report
directing Parliament to implement remedial actions, presiding
officers are once again refusing to act in the same in the
same manner in which they did during the Zuma years. They are
citing frivolous excuses that they are awaiting President
Ramaphosa to table that report before Parliament.
Parliament’s own legal advisors agreed with the DA that, the
presiding officers did not have to wait for another arm of
state. Hon members, Parliament’s refusal to process the report
is an attempt to protect those Members of Parliament who are
implicated in the Zondo Commission of Inquiry into Allegations
of State Capture. Thank goodness with the DA around, you won’t
get away with it. A charge led by the DA’s Deputy Chief Whip
hon Siviwe Gwarube who took the presiding officers head on
before they could agree to table the Zondo report to
Parliament.
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The legislature is an arm of the state is independent of the
other two arms, and therefore we are no lapdog of the
executive. The presiding officers must without delay table
this report, and all remedial actions are undertaken in their
totality.
Hon Mahlangu, I do not know who wrote your speech because I
write my speeches, but there seems to be contradictions in
terms. For some reason you seem to think that, oversight is
exercised to ensure that the executive implements ANC
resolutions, you are wrong my sister. The best definition of
oversight - I just hope you were listening to hon Labuschagne,
that is the best definition of oversight. It has got nothing
to do with your party’s resolutions.
Secondly, hon Lucas I agree with you, we must hold the
executive to account. But tell me, how do we do it if the
chairpersons of portfolio committees, if the chairpersons of
select committees prevent us from holding those in the
executive to account? How do we do it? Therefore, the buck
still stops with you. Get your house in order as the ANC
Caucus we are here to help you to your work successfully.
Thank you very much.
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The CHIEF WHIP OF THE NCOP: Hon House Chair Nyambi, allow me
to start on a personal note in memory of the 1976 June 16
youth. As we celebrate the 46th anniversary of the 1976 youth
uprising this month, it is worth noting that over this past
weekend one of the former members of uMkhonto weSizwe, a
generation of the 1976 uprising and a long-serving member of
the State Security Agency until 2021, Comrade Ronnie Khoabane
was laid to permanent rest after a sudden illness. Comrade
Ronnie was one of the most professional and dedicated public
servants, with unquestionable loyalty to the Constitution, a
loyal cadre of the ANC till the end. May his soul rest in
peace.
House Chair, Deputy Chairperson hon Sylvia Lucas,
distinguished special delegates and hon members, this Budget
Policy debate affords us an opportunity to take the public
into confidence about how we have spent the budget allocated
to us as this august House. It is an opportunity to take stock
of the route we have traversed over the last financial year,
what strides we have made in executing the constitutional
mandate of this House, and most critically, how all our
activities have impacted on the lives of our people.
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This is critically so when this Budget Policy debate takes
place midway into the sixth democratic administration and
within the global context of the declining capacity of
democracy and its institutions, especially Parliament, to push
back the escalating crises of poverty, unemployment and
inequality.
Contrary to some cynics who believe that the low voter turnout
is unique to South Africa and attributes it to the so-called
poor service delivery by the governing ANC, the literature on
democratic renewal is replete with empirical evidence that
political apathy, as evidenced by low voter turnout, is an
international phenomenon driven by the disenchantment of the
masses with the failure of neoliberal democracy and its
institutions to address the persistence of deepening levels of
poverty, unemployment and inequality. Despite this pervasive
international crisis, many leading and international research
institutions single out South Africa as amongst the leading
countries in the world with high voter turnouts.
Most critically, the Budget Policy debate also takes place
against the domestic backdrop of the qualitative setbacks and
reversals of our democratic gains occasioned by three critical
developments of the recent past. Firstly, the outbreak of
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COVID-19 and its continued persistence; secondly, the 2021
July unrest in some parts of KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng; and
lastly, the recent outbreak of the devastating floods in
KwaZulu-Natal and some parts of the Eastern Cape. Against this
background, the critical question that arises is whether we as
the National Council of Provinces have risen to the occasion
and seized the moment to inspire our people about a better
future.
Critical to answering this question is how have our programmes
set the national agenda that responds to the needs of our
people. As the common course, the agenda of the NCOP is set by
the programming committee led by the Chair, which sits
regularly to consider and sequence a range of activities for
the House and its committees. At the core of these activities
are the consideration of legislation, oversight and public
consideration of issues that affect the provinces.
The Whips’ Forum, which is convened by the Chief Whip, plays a
critical role in the political management of the business of
the NCOP by facilitating the inputs of provinces and the
political parties represented in the NCOP in determining the
programme of this House. The multiparty Whips’ Forum serves as
a political and strategic clearing house of all contentious
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issues to ensure that by the time the programme serves before
the programming committee, there is some minimum consensus. In
its modus operandi, the Whips’ Forum always seeks to arrive at
its decisions by consensus, shaped by political debates,
mutual compromises, trade-offs and counter trade-offs. It is
worth reaffirming the fundamental principle of democracy that
where consensus is not reached, the voice of the democratic
majority must prevail.
In pursuance of the strategic mandate of this House as a
catalyst for integrated co-operative governance, we have
adopted three key high level flagship programmes. Firstly, the
NCOP Provincial Week; secondly, the NCOP Local Government
focus Week; and thirdly, the NCOP’s Taking Parliament to the
People.
These programmes are standardised in the annual plan of the
NCOP to give effect to the three inter-related strategic goals
respectively: to connect the NCOP’s permanent delegates with
their provincial legislatures in terms of section 113 of the
Constitution; to give a structured voice of local government
in the NCOP in terms of section 67 of the Constitution; and to
facilitate public engagement with the three spheres of
government under one roof.
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It is worth noting that the NCOP is the first House of
Parliament in the whole world to design and implement a robust
public engagement model in the form of the NCOP’s Taking
Parliament to the People. To this end, we stand proud that the
2022 Global Parliamentary Report, jointly sponsored by the UN
Development Programme and the Inter-Parliamentary Union,
identifies public engagement as a critical pillar of
democratic renewal and consolidation in the current epoch.
Through these programmes, we have been able to identify the
gaps in terms of the unintended impacts of national policy on
the provinces and local government, integrate the voices of
provinces and local government in national policy-making, and
solicit the views and feedback of our people about the impact
of national policy on their lives.
As part of our integrated response to the disruptions and
restrictions imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic, we have piloted
and adopted a new way of doing business in the NCOP through
what is referred to as Ministerial plenary briefings. Contrary
to some initial cynicism against this initiative, the idea
behind the new way of doing business was informed, first and
foremost, by the recognition that the COVID-19 pandemic and
its impact cuts across all sector departments; and secondly,
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the capacity of these kinds of briefings to bring ... once the
three spheres of government under one roof.
As Amilcar Cabral teaches, “Tell no lies, Claim no easy
victories”. To paint our past as completely rosy without
setbacks and reversals borne out of subjective weaknesses,
will be tantamount to telling lies and claiming easy
victories. Looking back over the last two and a half years,
there are many critical lessons worth pointing out if we are
to claim the future. Critical amongst these is the
synchronisation between the programme of the National Assembly
and the National Council of Provinces, the capacity of the
House to follow through ... its own decisions and the
executive’s commitments and lastly, the review of our flagship
programmes.
The NCOP and National Assembly have distinct constitutional
mandates, although complementary. The Questions for Oral
Reply, Questions to the President and Deputy President, and
the Budget Vote processes always occur simultaneously or too
close to each other. For instance, this robs the NCOP of the
opportunity to review the impact of the previous budget on the
provinces and local government, thus defeating the strategic
agenda of this august House of forging integrated co-operative
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governance. More often, the Questions for Oral Reply to the
President and Deputy President in the NA is always followed by
the same process within a period — at times a week — in the
National Council of Provinces.
The NCOP has various exciting programmes through which it
engages with the executive. More often, critical issues are
raised that require careful and thorough processing and follow
up, but this has not been the case and in the process critical
issues are lost as a rush to grapple with new issues ensues. A
glaring example is our annual Local Government focus Week,
where we go without even a review of decisions/recommendations
of the previous focus week. It is my submission that we need
to explore intermediate processes of engagement to process and
follow through our decisions as a standard operating
procedure.
I am sure that hon members would agree that the conditions
have changed drastically since the design and adoption of our
flagship programmes. Since the adoption of these programmes,
new realties have emerged and insight gained in terms of how
these programmes can be enhanced and improved. For instance,
among the critical questions we must ask is whether the
provincial legislatures feel part and co-owners of the
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Provincial Week and Taking Parliament to the People
programmes, from the planning and actual implementation of
these programmes, or as invited guests. We are raising these
questions because at the end of the day, and more often,
governance and service-delivery challenges are borne out of
omissions and commissions by the provincial government which
the NCOP has no power to oversee. Without the active
participation and follow up by the legislatures on key issues
emanating from these programmes, our impact as the NCOP is not
possible.
To conclude, allow me to express my gratitude as the Chief
Whip of the National Council of Provinces ... the provincial
Whips and the leaders of different political parties for their
continued and constructive involvement in the Whippery. I must
also thank the presiding officers for their guidance and
support. I therefore move in support of the Vote. Thank you.
The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON (Mr A J Nyambi): Thank you, hon Chief
Whip, tata Mohai. Hon members, that concludes the debate. I
wish to thank the Chairperson tata Masondo, Deputy Chairperson
me Lucas, Chief Whip tata Mohai, Deputy Speaker of the Eastern
Cape legislature and all delegates for their participation in
this very important debate.
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Hon delegates, I have been informed that there will be one
debate on Orders Two, Three and Four. We therefore proceed to
the Second, Third and Fourth Orders - Policy debate on Budget
Vote 11: Public Service and Administration, Policy debate on
Budget Vote 12: Public Service Commission and Policy debate on
Budget Vote 7: National School of Government.
Hon members, allow me now to call upon hon Nxesi, the acting
Minister of Public Service and Administration, to open the
debate. Hon minister Nxesi? Then hon Deputy Chairperson me
Lucas will continue chairing whilst hon Nxesi takes the
platform. Hon Minister?
Debate concluded.
APPROPRIATION BILL
(Policy debate)
Vote No 11 – Public Service and Administration:
AND
APPROPRIATION BILL
(Policy debate)
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Vote No 7: National School of Governance:
AND
APPROPRIATION BILL
(Policy debate)
Vote No 12: Public Service Commission:
The ACTING MINISTER OF PUBLIC SERVICE AND ADMINISTRATION (Mr T
W T Nxesi): Thank you very much, House Chair of the NCOP, hon
Chairperson and the Deputy Chairperson of the NCOP, members of
the House, the Deputy Minister for Public Service and
Administration, Dr Chana Pilani-Majake, Minister and Deputy
Ministers, hon Chairperson and members of the select
committee, the Chief Whip of the NCOP, the premiers and
representatives of the provinces, the SA Local Government
Association, Salga, representatives, acting chairperson and
commissioners of the Public Service Commission, the
chairperson and the board of trustees of the Government
Employees Medical aid Scheme, GEMS, chairperson of the Public
Sector Education and Training Authority, chairperson of the
African Peer Review Mechanism National Governing Council, the
heads of the institutions within the portfolio of Public
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Service and Administration, esteemed guests, and ladies and
gentlemen.
On the 4th of April 2022, President Cyril Ramaphosa appointed
me to act as Minister for Public Service and Administration.
The Minister of Public Service and Administration is
constituted by four entities: The Department of Public Service
and Administration, Vote 11, led by the Director-General Ms
Yoliswa Makhasi; the National School of Governance, Vote 7,
led by the principal Professor Busani Ngcaweni; the Government
Employees Medical Scheme, GEMS, which generates its own income
and not covered in the Budget Vote and is led by the principal
officer Dr Stan Moloabi and the Centre for Public Service
Innovation led by the Acting Director, Ms Lydia Sebokedi.
The Public Service Commission, PSC, is an independent
institution for which I shall also table its Budget Vote 12
established in terms of chapter 10 of the Constitution. The
PSC, Public Service Commission, is currently chaired in an
acting capacity my Professor Somadoda Fikeni and
administratively led by Advocate Dinkie Dube.
The Deputy Minister hon Pilani-Majake will speak to the role
of the Centre for Public Service and Innovation. Our apex
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priority for the current administration as the country and the
department is to build a capable, ethical and developmental
state.
As articulated in the Medium-Term Strategic Framework, MTSF,
a capable state is the one which has the required human
capabilities, institutional capacity, service processes and
technological platforms to deliver services to the people.
An ethical state is one which is driven by constitutional
values and principles of public administration and the rule of
law focused on progressive realisation of economic rights and
social justice as outlined in the Bill of Rights.
A developmental state is one which aims to meet the people’s
needs through interventionist, developmental, participatory
public administration leading to an active citizenry through
partnership with all sectors of the society.
This sphere marks 25 years since our government adopted Batho
Pele principles championed by the first postapartheid Minister
for Public Service and Administration, the late Comrade Dr
Zola Skweyiya, who wrote that, I quote:
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The transformation of our public service is to be judged
by the practical difference that people see in their
everyday lives.
These principles remain relevant today.
The DPSA has the task of creating conditions, policies and
procedures and norms and standards but promote a capable
ethical and develop oriented public service to strengthen
service delivery.
Flowing from the 2019 to 2024 Medium-Term Strategic Framework,
the department adopted priority programmes: Firstly, the
revitalised implementation of Batho Pele; secondly, the
implementation of Public Administration Management Act,
thirdly, stabilising the public service; fourthly, fighting
corruption; and lastly, effective implementation of public
service policies.
In relation to the effective implementation of Batho Pele,
Cabinet has approved the Batho Pele revitalisations strategy
to promote a people focused public service. The Public
Administration Management Act, PAMA, is aimed at harmonising
all three spheres of government to ensure uniformity and
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synergy and its implementation will go a long way towards the
realisation of a capable state as envisioned by the National
Development Plan, NDP.
Central to the stabilising efforts, will be the effective and
efficient management of the public service finances. The fight
against corruption is ongoing. Corruption and other aspects of
poor governance and weak institutions have substantial adverse
effects on economic growth.
Effective implementation of the public policies is about
service delivery. Public policy is the translation of public
needs into action. We are committed to an integrated approach
which fosters partnership of all government institutions
across the spheres, which fosters collaboration of
institutions within the public service and administration
portfolio and through engagement of labour, civil society and
business as we endeavour to improve the service delivery.
The work we do as government relies on having a cadre of
dedicated, skilled and hardworking public servants who are
responsive, innovative and committed to help realise
government objectives. Let me repeat this. We are not
apologetic. And I want to emphasize, we are not apologetic
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about this. The work we do as government relies on having a
cadre of dedicated, skilled and hardworking public servants
who are responsive, innovative and committed to help realise
government objectives.
Ongoing implementation efforts to improve the performance of
the public service municipalities, public entities require the
development of an intervention’s framework from government,
modernising of the public administration, strengthening of
government monitoring and evaluation and other systems,
systematising human resources and organisational development
and Batho Pele initiatives all to ensure that government
machinery can contribute to the promise of a better life for
all.
Strengthening service delivery is not just about technical
exercise, it is about transformation. Pillar 1 of the White
Paper on the rights of persons with disabilities refers to
removing to barriers access and participation.
The framework on the gender responsive planning, budgeting,
monitoring and evaluation and auditing requires institutions
to reserve specific budget for gender matters. South Africa is
party to the convention on elimination of all forms of
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discrimination against women which seeks to ensure the
protection of the rights of women at the workplace.
The Public Sector Wage Bill is under severe pressure due to
the general constraints faced by the South African economy.
The situation has been aggravated by the COVID-19 pandemic. It
has become increasingly important to develop a new
remuneration framework for the public sector including a wage
sector mechanism to better manage the Public Sector Wage Bill
and ensure a greater degree of alignment in remuneration
between the various paths of the public sector.
We convened with unions a timely Public Service Summit on the
collective bargaining on the 28-30 March 2022, where all
parties engaged in a frank exchange but we were able to agree
on a number of areas in the final declaration with regard to
resourcing, reconfiguration aligned to job security,
anticorruption, the fight against poverty, unemployment and
inequality and the principle of centralised collective
bargaining. Parties to the Public Service Co-ordinating
Bargaining Council, PSCBC, have agreed in principle to align
wage negotiations to the government’s planning and budgeting
sector.
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The National School of Governance, NSG, has the mandate to
provide or facilitate the provision of education, training and
development interventions in the public sector. The school’s
five-year strategy is unfolding in a dynamic manner coinciding
with the events like the COVID-19 pandemic and harnessing the
potential of the rapidly expanding digital transformation
responding to the challenges of unemployment and inequality
and constraint budgets.
The National School of Governance implements the National
Digital and Future Skills Strategy which government adopted in
2020, and recognises that the digital skills are required for
public servants to directly address service delivery and
overcome the log jam caused by limited physical capacity to
service a large number of citizens particularly in remote
areas.
The NSG achievements include the following: 135 000 e-learner
enrolments; rolling out programmes in the areas of effective
governance, gender and transformation, leadership induction
and policy regulation; hosting successful leadership
development interventions including economic governance
schools, the programme of ethical leadership and executive
oversight and the induction programmes for boards of public
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entities. The NSG provides training to local government and
recently signed training agreements with the City of Cape Town
metropolitan municipality and the Gauteng provincial
government.
Today, I am encouraged that elected representatives and
appointed officials are going back to class. In March 2021,
President Ramaphosa together with members of the executive and
other officials joined a master class. I am encouraged that
mayors and state entity board members are being inducted on
ethical leadership and executive oversight. I am encouraged by
the thousands of public servants including our teachers who
are completing courses on ethics.
Hon members, professionalising the public administration is
one of the key imperatives for the state capacity.
The President in the Sona indicated that we are now at an
advanced stage of finalisation of the professionalization
framework with an emphasis on pre-entry, recruitment,
selection, induction, continuous learning and career
progression of the public servants.
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I wish to assure you that the framework has now been finalised
consideration by Cabinet. It proposes radical public sector
reforms which include more decisive intervention on consequent
management especially in dealing with mediocrity, unethical
behaviour, corruption and criminal acts.
Instruments to undertake integrity testing before any
individual joins the public sector. Stabilizing the political
administrative interphase across the public service with
regard to the tenure of the head of departments, HODs. We
shall consider increasing the period of tenure to 10 years,
subject to performance. Repurposing the role of the Public
Service Commission for insulating of recruitment and selection
practices from parties and influence and manipulation for the
appointment of the director-generals and their deputies.
Review and strengthening recognition of learning for the youth
in the public sector. The Public Service Commission remains a
critical institution committed to establishing sound and good
governance in the public service based on principles of
accountability, participation, responsiveness to the needs of
the people, transparency and the rule of law.
In relation to the goal of development orientation, the PSC
has found that South African planning system turns to be
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geared towards reporting and auditing rather than resolution
of development programmes necessary to combat poverty,
unemployment and inequality.
The PSC’s 2021 state of the public service report reveals a
lot of variable income capacity and performance across the
public service with major deficiencies in departments existing
side by side with pockets of strengths and excellence. So, the
report makes proposals on the need to build institutional
capability.
The PSC annually conducts announced and unannounced
inspections of service delivery sites to evaluate service
delivery from the perspectives of the citizens and identify
service delivery challenges that can be addressed immediately.
In the last year, included in the sites to provinces of the
North West, Eastern Cape as well as 57 Home Affairs points
across the country.
The PSC participated in the mission to Waterberg District
Municipality in 2021 as part of the partnership between the
United Nations and the Department of Co-operative Governance
and Traditional Affairs initiative to support the
implementation of the District Development Model. A critical
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programme building the state capacity and ensuring improved
responsiveness to the community needs.
The PSC’s citizen’s forum is distinctly South African method
of engaging citizens. It involves government working with
citizens to propose critical measures to improve service
delivery. The PSC continues to monitor the performance of the
departments in terms of payment of invoices of the suppliers
within 30 days’ timeframe stipulated in the Public Finance
Management Act.
Further to this, the PSC continue to intervene in the matters
of unresponsiveness by the public institutions. These
interventions include, as an example, requiring the SAPS
forensic services to release the forensic report to enable a
grieving family to bury their loved ones, the issuance of
matric certificates and payments of the Sassa COVID-19 relief
funds during 2021-22 financial year. The PSC has continued to
contribute towards the improvement of the sound labour
relations in public service through investigating grievances
that could be resolved between the departments and their
employees.
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The PSC’s final report on effectiveness of the continuous
employee development in the public service will assist the
departments to develop and review their training and
development policies in response to the Fourth Industrial
Revolution or 4IR skills needs in order to support the
government operations and service delivery.
The national anticorruption hotline assists members of the
public service to report corruption and fraud occurring in the
public service. The PSC has witnessed an increase in the level
of the utilisation of the hotline from 872 to 1 563 calls in
the 2021-22 financial year, resulting in the recovery of
monies fraudulently obtained and punishing of wrongdoers.
The PSC conducted an assessment of the effectiveness of the
complaints management system in the public service. The study
found that there is no consistency in the management of
complaints in the public service and that the monitoring the
evaluation of complaints lacks vigour. The PSC has made
recommendations aimed at assisting departments in this area of
work.
One of the flagship projects of the PSC is the assessment of
the effectiveness of government support to service delivery
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with a particular focus on information and communication
technology as well physical accommodation of the government to
deliver.
In supporting Parliament to exercise its oversight role and
hold executives accountable, the PSC will conduct inspections
in partnership with Parliament. The PSC will contribute
towards the professionalization of the public service,
continue to conduct investigations in the public
administration malpractices and address the underlying causes
of ineffective discipline management in the public service.
Legislation will be tabled to strengthen the independence of
the PSC as a Chapter 9 institution.
The following budget has been allocated in the respective
programmes and entities. The DPSA budget allocation for 2022-
23 financial year is R540 million, an increase of 1,6% from
the final allocation for 2021-22.
The DPSA programmes have been allocated the following
resources: Programme 1, which is administration has been
allocated R245 million; Programme 2, the human resource
management and development is allocated R53,6 million;
Programme 3, negotiation labour relations and remuneration
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management is allocated R106,9 million; Programme 4, e-
government services and information management is allocated
R32,3 million; and Programme 5, government services access and
improvement which also the transfer of payment to the Centre
for Public Service and Innovation is allocated R102,3 million.
The budget for the NSG for this financial year is R228 million
as the NSG has to generate an additional revenue for its
financial sustainability. The training trading entity has
budgeted to raise income from the course fees of R101 million.
The PSC budget allocation for 2022-23 financial year is
R280 million.
In summary, our task is to change the lives of South Africans
for the better through an ethical, capable and developmental
public service.
Let me finally thank the Deputy Minister, the director-
general, the officials of the DBSA and the entities for their
commitment and the hard work, and for also inducting me as the
Acting Minister. I hereby table the budget of the DPSA, its
entities and the PSC for 2022-23 financial year. Thank you
very much, House Chair.
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Mr K M MMOEIMANG: Deputy Chairperson of the NCOP, Mme [Ms]
Sylvia Lucas, allow me to also extend a word of greetings to
the National Chair, Ntate [Mr] Masondo, and the two House
Chairs, the Chief Whip of the NCOP and also the Minister
together with the Deputy and also greetings to the permanent
delegates and special delegates.
Hon Deputy Chair, allow me on behalf of the ANC to voice my
support to the three votes as tabled by the hon Minister,
particularly with regard to locating the role of these three
institutions within our broader developmental agenda,
precisely by virtue of the fact that as we celebrate June
month we need to remind ourselves that those callant young
people, when they rose against the system they were conscious
of the fact that they expect us as the current generation of
leaders to confront the legacy of colonialism of a special
type and that colonialism and apartheid created a particular
relations of capitalism which created landless majority,
propertyless and unskilled labouring class and we, therefore,
agree with the Minister that we need a state that is
unapologetic to the captain of industry, but be bold to lead a
long concerted effort drive for the economic growth and ensure
that the resources are mobilised for developmental purpose
like the East Asian economies did in the past.
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The National Development Plan, NDP, commits us to this vision
of building an ethical, capable and developmental state. This
state was defined as having the capacity to mobilize the
private sector, the working class and all sections of society
towards a developmental agenda aimed at resolving the triple
challenges of poverty, unemployment and inequalities.
Therefore, the developmental state that we referred to is
rooted in the realities of a mixed economy wherein the state
has to be interventionist in its nature for a strong and
vibrant public and private sector, and also protect the poor
and the working class from the excesses of the market. For the
state to be able to undertake this mammoth task, with
identified in the NDP, that there is a need to build
capabilities and inculcate progressive values in the public
service which mirror those envisaged in the Constitution.
The Constitution of our country outlines, in section 159(1),
that the public service must be governed by democratic values
and principles enshrined in the Constitution, among others (a)
a high standard of professional ethics must be promoted and
maintained, and also that (c) public service must be
development orientated, and have a (h) good-human resource
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management and career development practices to maximize human
potential, which has to be cultivated.
We remain committed to the implementation of the steps that
were identified in the NDP to promote the values and
principles of public administration as enshrined in the
Constitution. Therefore, the NDP highlights that in order to
address the challenges of poverty and inequality there is a
need for a well-run and effectively coordinated state
institutions with skilled public servants who are committed to
the public good and capable of delivery consistently high-
quality services, while prioritizing the nation’s
developmental objectives.
Furthermore, as the ANC we believe that in building human
capital we need to ensure that this is done through the
development of retention of qualified and capable public
service, which is quite important for the developmental state
because it allows it to pursue its developmental objectives in
order to foster sustainable and more inclusive growth.
The capable public service also has the ability to be
innovative and resolve modern day challenges in a manner that
saves time, energy and resources. This means that we can
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foster a culture of specialization and focus on maximizing
areas where the public service has a competitive edge. With a
capable public service, the limited resources of government
will be channelled towards better service delivery and the
pursuit of developmental objectives.
Hon Chairperson and hon members, unevenness in capacity tends
to leads to uneven performance in the public service. This
unevenness is caused by a complex set of factors, including
tensions in the interface between political and administrative
institutions, instability also at administrative level, the
skills deficits insufficient attention, the erosion of
accountability and authority, poor organizational design and
also low staff morale.
Therefore, we appreciate the steps are being taken by the
democratic state, led by the ANC, to strengthen skills,
enhance morale, clarify lines of accountability and building
an ethical of public service. These steps are guided by the
need for a long-term policy stability as well as awareness of
potentially adverse effects of over-regulation.
The democratic state, led by the ANC, has already promulgated
legislation which lay the basis for what we seek to achieve in
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the public service. First, we must ensure that public servants
are not pursuing narrow business interests at the expense of
the public. However, we take comfort in the fact that in 2016
the Public Service Regulations, in which regulation 13c
prohibits public service employees from doing business with
the state or any of its organs. Furthermore, section 8 of the
Public Administration Management Act of 2014 criminalizes the
conducting of business with the state for public
administration and for advisors.
We continue to monitor the implementation of these provisions
in order to ensure that we root out rent seeking elements in
the public service. For example, in Eskom, it was discovered
that there are 3 812 employees who were doing business with
the entity and we have to begin a process of ensuring that
there is consequence management applied.
Furthermore, section 18 of the Public Management Act provides
for the Disclosure of Financial Interests and setting up the
Ethics, Integrity and Discipline Technical Assistance Unit as
well as the Office of Standards and Compliance Regulations.
This is also one of the basis why as the ANC we are supporting
this budget. Because this has been implemented through the
introduction of the new and improved Z83 form which requires
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those interested in the public service to satisfy these
requirements. Our role is to ensure that there is full
compliance around these provisions and where there is no
transparency, proper consequence management must be meted out.
There is also a need for the implementation of electronic
systems for self-diagnostics and compliance audits through the
measurement instruments of the Office of Standards and
Compliance. The Organisational Functionality Assessment Tool
is being consolidated to measure institutional governance, as
well as organizational administration.
Globally, the trends in public service is gravitating towards
the 4th Industrial Revolution and this has an effect in terms
of how the old and outdated methods of public service will be
effective. So, therefore, the department will be leading
digital transformation and digitization transformation of the
public service. Some of the key interventions in this regard
will include developing required prescripts to enable and
support the digital transformation of the public
administration. This will ensure that government is a key
economic enabler and player that positively benefits from the
digitalization and the digitization.
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The improvement in service delivery requires that we deepen
the professionalization of the public service framework, as
raised by the Minister in his debate. This requires us to
return to the Batho Pele principles and the Public Service
Charter and strict monitoring thereof. In addressing the gaps
and the weaknesses, the department will, over the Medium-Term
Expenditure Framework, MTEF, period, institutionalize a number
of integrated interventions which include, amongst others, the
strengthening of the implementation of the Operations
Management Framework and Service Delivery Improvement Plans as
well as a revised programme to strengthen the implementation
of the Batho Pele Programme. Hence the ANC supports this
budget.
Professionalizing the public service requires a nonpartisan
approach. Because as the ANC we believe that it is in the
interest of the national democratic revolution for the public
service to be nonpartisan. For this to be realized, the public
service must be depoliticized and government departments must
be insulated from the politics or political parties’
micromanagement. Because the bureaucracy must continue to
loyally and diligently implement the political mandate set by
the voters and the party, but to refrain from being political
actors themselves. This requires us to inculcate a culture of
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meritocracy in the public service that encourages the
development and retention of the most capable and skilled
public servants; this has been a serious challenge because the
most capable minds are lost to the private sector. In order to
address this, we must make public service to be a more
attractive career choice with proper reward systems; this is
much more critical at the local government level.
One of the driving factors for the degeneration at local
government is the lack of human resources. This was
highlighted in the Auditor-General’s Municipal Finance
Management Finance, MFMA, 2018-19 audit report which was
titled ‘Not enough to go around, yet not the right hands at
the till’. This report basically highlighted that finance
departments in municipalities are staffed to capacity and yet
there is an overreliance on consultants to do the work. This
is because of tendencies such as nepotism in the recruitment
processes.
We need to synchronize the interventions which have been made
with regard to the professionalization of the public service
with the work being done at local government level.
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The intentions of a developmental state are to provide
direction to capital and all other sections of the society by
driving investment into productive sectors of the economy;
these are sectors that are labour intensive and ensure that we
employ our people. Hence my opening statement, hon Deputy
Chair. This starts with investment in public service.
The developmental state must first invest in the development
of skills and expertise in the public service which will be
innovative and creative in the prosecution of the public
mandate and service delivery, this will be attractive to
private investment.
We must also reflect on this question within the broader
context of the Economic Reconstruction and Recovery Plan that
was announced by the President as a response to negative
impact COVID-19 global pandemic. The developmental state with
technical and political capacity to lead development and
transform the economy is identified as one of the pillars
required to drive economic reconstruction and recovery.
In conclusion, the plan also reflected on the reconstruction
and transformation of the economy, this, it explained entailed
as inclusive of building a sustainable, resilient and
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inclusive economy. The plan identified priorities such as
interventions to be made, and these include employment of
orientated strategic localization and export promotion, and
gender equality and economic inclusion of women and youth. The
public service must be at the forefront of these intervention
and it must suggest innovative ways in which these must be
carried out at all levels of the state. One of these
interventions should be the implementation of the Gender-Based
Violence and Femicide National Strategic Plan, GBVFNSP, which
proposes, amongst others, streamlining and budgeting on
budgeting for gender interventions. The ANC leads, ANC lives.
We support the budget. Thank you, Chair.
Mr T J BRAUTESETH: Hon Deputy Chairperson, hon Minister, hon
members and fellow South Africans, let me start by saying that
I have deep empathy for the Minister, he has been given the
unenviable task of supervising two massive departments, the
Department of Employment and Labour and the Ministry under
scrutiny today, the Department of Public Service and
Administration. On reflection, it would appear that hon
Ramaphosa has, however, seen employment and the public service
as essentially the same thing. After all, it is a perfect way
to ensure continued patronage amongst the workers towards the
governing party. In simple terms, the Minister has oversight
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of the Department of ANC Voter Affairs, a thinly disguised new
seat on the Cabinet table.
But this department is not only designed to ensure patronage
with mechanisms like the minimum wage. It is also perfectly
positioned to ensure the furtherance of corrupt activities. It
is common cause that to bite the hand that feeds you would be
career suicide. So why would you risk the future of yourself
and your family by biting back at the political hand that has
pointed out the corrupt favour required? I would like to
remind the Minister of the formula of corruption in academia.
Corruption equals power, plus discretion, minus ethics. Or
perhaps more appropriate in the South African context, power
plus discretion, minus ethics, equals corruption.
In an ethics-free environment, Minister, you have corruption
in its purest form. From 1994 onwards, the slow poison has
been quietly seeping into the system, cancer that could take a
young nation with a world on its feet, to literally being on
its knees in front of the world, Frantz Fanon reflected in his
The Wretched of the Earth how inevitably every post-colonial
country will always replace the previous bourgeoisie with a
new one. He predicted that the new class, like those before
it, would exploit their new power to extract benefits for
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themselves without actually creating anything. In its pressing
need to bolster their vote under this disguise of
transformation, the ANC began its programme of cadre
deployment. This policy first formulated in 1985, placed a
huge emphasis on loyalty to the party and not the state. The
policy of cadre deployment, confirmed by the President in the
Zondo Commission meant that suitably qualified individuals
were overlooked as a result of the policy. Legions of South
Africans were placed in government because of their
credentials and sacrifice in the struggle but many more were
deployed merely out of the pledge to the ideals of the
national democratic revolution, as espoused by the ANC. So the
slow poison referred to earlier took hold and departments
slowly became dysfunctional, not overnight, but in the slow
process that has taken almost three decades to manifest itself
fully.
The next ruinous effect to take hold was in the ugly head of
greedy cadres. Businessmen and businesswomen became alive to
the fact that with a little prompting, these deployed cadres
could be swayed to serve their interests. After all, these
cadres had power and discretion, and with a bit of
encouragement could be persuaded to compromise their ethics.
In their admirable effort to ward off these effects, the
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government promulgated a raft of anti-corruption legislation,
with the Public Finance Management Act, PFMA, being the
flagship. But the inherent weakness in such a well-regulated
environment lies in enforcement. The simple fact is that South
Africa is policy rich but implementation poor.
Any critique, any challenge to the state of affairs would be
vigorously rejected as counterrevolutionary and fought off at
all costs. Frantz Fanon reflected on the cognitive dissonance
of the time:
Sometimes people hold a core belief that is very strong.
When they are presented with information that works
against that belief, the new evidence cannot be accepted.
Let me be clear, the dissonance referred to by Fanon knew no
demographics or political persuasion. It is a human condition.
It is often said that the true definition of intelligence is
not the IQ test. It is the ability to adapt to change. There
is nothing wrong with acknowledging the mistakes of the past
and taking a new path. Minister, it is not a sign of weakness.
It is indeed a sign of courage. In this environment South
Africans were given hope when legislation like the Public
Administration and Management Act was promulgated in 2014,
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this Act gave rise to the Public Service Regulations of 2016.
Another feature of this legislation was to establish the
Public Administration, Ethics, Integrity, and Disciplinary
Technical Assistance Unit, quite a mouthful. This unit was
formally established in April 2021. There is still, however,
confusion about its role and any work accomplished to date. In
our last engagement in this committee where the Minister was
present, I requested an update on its work. A report was
promised on 11 May, almost a month later, I am still waiting.
Again, policy rich, implementation poor. The Annual
Performance Plan refers to the Public Administration and
Management Act being implemented by 2025. Talk about kicking
the can down the road to the next Minister of ANC Voter
Affairs. It also speaks to intensified, anti-corruption
activities. But again, no action to date. This budget totals
some R450 billion, which is a third of the nation’s fiscus. A
budget fit to ensure a massive amount of patronage and ensure
loyalty to the national democratic revolution and the
mothership. However, if only it were true.
The reality, Minister and members of the NCOP are that the
sands of our country are shifting under the feet of the
governing party. In academic circles, the whispers are growing
to a crescendo. Cadre deployment and broad-based black
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economic empowerment, BBBEE, are being rejected and seen for
what they are, cynical mechanisms for self-enrichment. The
people of our country are starting to express themselves, not
only in the dusty streets but also at the ballot box. The
electoral reversals for the ANC are coming quick and fast,
starting with the carnage in November 2021, to the most recent
landslide win for the DA in Kareeberg in the Northern Cape.
Voters are slowly starting to realise that the DA, obsessive
about appointing the public service on merit and not
allegiance, governs better to the benefit of all citizens
where they hold power. Where the DA governs, we govern well.
Our officials are committed. They work with the true values of
Batho Pele, and they take ownership of their work. When our
politicians and officials make a misstep, they take it on the
chin and they step aside without threats and legal action. The
question that remains is whether the Minister will remain
trapped in Fanon’s cognitive dissonance, or whether he will
break the chains and act to reform the public service in a
meaningful and effective manner. What will you do, hon
Minister? The time for change is now.
IsiZulu:
Siyabangena. [We are making our presence felt.]
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English:
I thank you.
Ms M L MAMAREGANE: Hon Deputy Chairperson, hon Minister, Deputy
Minister, hon Chief Whip, hon members, public servants are the
backbone of Public Service administration. They are the
implementation drivers in government, and it therefore becomes
crucial that the Public Service possess skilled and
experienced public servants. Our transformation agenda as the
ANC entails building a capable developmental state that serves
the interests of South Africans. Our approach has always been
people-centred. We are building a developmental state that
provides effective basic services and with capabilities to
take forward a far-reaching agenda of national economic
development whilst at the same time placing people and their
involvement at the centre. Building a developmental state
requires skilled, capacitated and experienced human resources
to put forward our transformation agenda. Public servants are
fundamental to ensure proper implementation of government
policies.
Hon Deputy Chairperson, when we speak about capable, we imply
a state capable to formulate policies that respond to the
rapid challenges of poverty, inequality and unemployment, and
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implement such policies to mitigate these challenges and
developmental in that those policies focus on overcoming the
root causes of poverty and inequality. However, we recognise
that building sate capacity is the most crucial step of all In
the National Development Plan, NDP. We recognised that uneven
collaboration and co-ordination in capacity in all three
spheres of government to be a weakness caused by a complex set
of factors including a skills deficit in the Public Service.
We note that a deficit in skills and professionalism affects
all elements of the Public Service from a senior, middle and
junior levels. We acknowledged that previously there was
insufficient focus on providing stimulating career paths that
ensured the production of skills and foster a sense of
professionalism.
As the ANC if we are to ensure the building of a capable and
developmental state at all three spheres of government, we
must also emphasise strengthening and professionalising public
administration, particularly top management and the delivery
sectors. Building the educational feeder system to produce
developmental skills, technical and professional personnel.
Noting all the characteristics and requirements of building a
capable developmental state, we must recognise the
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significance of the National School of Government to be the
main driver of driving capacitation in the Public Service.
When we speak about capacity we are making reference to human
resources and the required skills necessary in driving our
transformation agenda. The Public Service is tasked with
building a meritocratic and professional Public Service.
However, the National School of Government is responsible for
the development of technical and special professional skills
and appropriate career paths for technical specialists. The
National School of Government also plays a crucial role in
capacitation of public servants in all spheres of government
to ensure that we attain the goals of the national democratic
revolution. The National School of Government provides for
talent management across all spheres and therefore should
continue to provide guidance for appointments succession,
planning and career development.
The National School of Government must continue to ensure that
it provides training and development opportunities to public
servants and elect public representatives to fulfil their
responsibilities.
The National School of Government is the main driver of the
professionalisation framework of the Public Service. We are
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pleased to note that the process of public consultation has
taken place and we will be awaiting the finalisation of the
framework. We comment the National School of Government, NSG,
for the consultation of various groups such as civil society
organisations, institutions of higher learning, regulators,
policy departments, oversight institutions and quality
councils to name a few.
As the ANC we welcome the training programme offered by the
NSG at a local level, the local government leadership
programme. We commend the fact that the NSG is responsible for
capacitation in all levels of government and encourage public
servants at the local sphere to enrol in the course to further
strengthen their skills and capabilities. This is in response
to challenges that has been raised at a local government level
and therefore commend the NSG for heading to the call.
The National School of government has made impressive strides
to ensure quality education and training for its students
through the signing of agreements with higher education
institutions to expand learning opportunities for public
servants. These institutions include Fort Hare University,
Nelson Mandela University, University of Pretoria, Tshwane
University of Technology, University of Johannesburg, Rhodes
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Business School, North West University, Durban University of
Technology and Stellenbosch University. Key deliverables of
this partnership involves the development and review of
curriculum in various areas related to public sector
performance and development, quality assurance and joint
certification of programmes, codeveloped and delivery of NSG
programmes using the high education institutions, HEI’s human
resources expertise, provide expert input in
various education and training areas of relevant fields and
subject matters, undertake research projects with the NSG as
well as the provision of coaching and mentoring services to
various levels of public sector officials.
The partnership with the higher learning institutions enables
the NSG to provide the programmes throughout the country which
expands the scope of professional development for public
sector employees and leaders. In selected cases, the programme
will help participants with the recognition of prior learning
whilst also opening opportunities for further study in
relevant fields. Public servants, members of the executive,
employees, members of legislatures, councillors and employees
of all organs of state will be eligible to enrol for
programmes delivered through this partnership on a cost
recovery basis. This is not a public bursary scheme.
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We are pleased to know that provincial governments and local
governments such as the City of Cape Town are also
beneficiaries of the programmes and courses provided by the
National School of Government. Earlier this year in February,
the National School of Government and the City of Cape Town
Metropolitan Municipality entered into a memorandum of
agreement for the NSG to provide training programmes to the
employees of the City of Cape Town Metropolitan Municipality
on financial management and supply chain management amongst
other key education, training and development interventions.
The NSG will provide training on areas including contract
management, bid committee, ethics in local government and
municipal supply chain management. As the ANC we are pleased
to know that the DA government also utilises the services
offered by the National School of Government although they
reject its reports when tabled. We have to give credit where
it is due. The NSG has made visible strides in ensuring
professional capacitation of public servants where required.
Recently, the NSG has launched partnerships with the World
Economic Forum, WEF, in February. The partnership will enable
public servants to access information from WEF’s strategic
intelligence platform. The objective of the landmark
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partnership is to support public sector initiatives through
access to a wide array of research and insight.
As the ANC we recognise and commend the work that is done by
the National School of government, however, we would like for
the school to fast-track the finalisation of the
professionalisation framework for further implementation for a
more professional Public Service through the NSG. As the ANC
we are adamant in building and creating a skilled Public
Service cadre that serves and delivers on government’s mandate
diligently. We urge the National School of Government to work
in collaboration with the Centre for Public Service Innovation
to drive innovation in the Public Service and particularly in
the field of digitisation to provide learners with more
avenues and platforms when it comes to learning. We support
the Budget Vote. Thank you, Deputy Chairperson. I Thank You.
Ms G BROWN (Free State): Deputy Chairperson of the NCOP hon
Lucas, allow me to recognise Chairperson of the NCOP hon
Masondo, Minister Nxesi, Deputy Minister hon Pilane-Majake,
House Chairperson hon Nyambi, Chief Whip of the NCOP Hon
Mohai, chairperson of other committees present Members of
Parliament and provincial legislatures, MECs and the community
on the virtual parliamentary platform, good afternoon.
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Hon Chairperson, thank you for the opportunity to reply to the
debate on the budget vote speeches which was well delivered by
the Department of Public Service and Administration, DPSA,
National School of Government, NSG, and Public Service
Commission, PSC.
The ANC drafted this year’s manifesto with a priority on
policy directives to build a capable developmental state with
an effective and ethical public service that drives the
implementation of South Africa’s transformative agenda.
It is upon this premise that we will continue to have the
above departments a centre of governance and as a priority
framework in Cabinet by the ruling party.
As we enter the month of June, as we celebrate this youth
month, we are reminded that we will continue to employ young
people into the public sector not only in learnerships and
graduate programmes but also permanent positions within
various departments across all three spheres of government.
That is why we will support the entry level positions review
on entry level requirements.
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Hon members and members of the NCOP, this year marks 25 years
since our government adopted the Batho Pele principles,
championed by the first post-apartheid Minister for Public
Service and Administration, the late Dr Zola Skweyiya.
As Acting Minister Nxesi already quoted I wish to repeat
this quote as it is very relevant.
“In his foreword to the Batho Pele White Paper, Dr Skweyiya
pointed out that the transformation of our public service is
to be judged, rightly, by the practical difference people
see in their everyday lives. These principles remain
relevant today.”
In his speech Acting Minister also outlined that the apex
priority for the current administration as a country and the
department is to build a capable, ethical and developmental
state.
As articulated in the Medium-Term Strategic Framework; A
capable state is one that has the required human capabilities,
institutional capacity, service processes and technological
platforms to deliver services to the people.
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The Minister also articulated that an ethical state is one
that is driven by the constitutional values and principles of
the public administration and the rule of law, focused on the
progressive realization of socioeconomic rights and social
justice as outlined in the Bill of Rights.
He also outlined that a developmental state is one that aims
to meet people’s needs through interventionist, developmental,
participatory public administration leading an active
citizenry through partnerships with all sectors of society.
Hon Deputy Chair, ongoing implementation of efforts to improve
the performance of the public service, municipalities, and
public entities requires the development of interventions
framework for government, modernizing of public
administration, strengthening of government monitoring and
evaluation and other systems systematizing human resource and
organizational development within these Batho Pele initiatives
and implementation and build government machinery that can
contribute to the promise of a better life for all within the
Republic of South Africa.
Deputy Chair, we may have a short discussion about our
national fiscus as we are going to deal with the finances of
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this budget. Our national fiscus has been challenged, given
the global economic challenges, the Covid-19 pandemic and the
various constrained budgets over a period of five years or
more.
Our expenditure is greater than revenue by 15% as national
government has or as the national fiscus which has led to the
increase in debt to GDP to 69,9%.
The DPSA’s work thus far on the National Wage Bill as well as
norms and standards within the public service, the creation of
standardisation of organisational diagrams and other
optimisation programmes across all spheres of the public
sector are mechanisms to address increasing expenditure as the
government.
The benchmarking on cost of employment has been further
mechanisms to support the draft financial efficiencies towards
creation of lean and mean structures within the public
service.
The DPSA role on attrition rates within the public service has
also formed part of the enhancement exercises to bridge the
gap on expenditure. So as we all within the provinces are
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looking at cross containment exercises and measures, treasury
notes to deal with such challenges that we are experiencing,
you can see that the national department is leading when it
comes to policy setting on being able to create structures
within government that would be able to help a sustainable
fiscus.
Hon Deputy Chair, the National School of Government has a
mandate to provide and facilitate the provision of education,
training and development interventions as they do within the
public sector.
We should also be aware that the school’s five-year strategy
is unfolding in a dynamic manner, coinciding with events like
the Covid-19 and harnessing the potential of a rapidly
expanding digital transformation, responding to the challenges
of poverty, unemployment, inequality, constrained budgets and
responding to the changes in our global economy.
Deputy Speaker, the President in his State of the Nation
Address indicated that we are now at an advanced stage of the
finalisation of the professionalization framework which other
members have already outlined. If I can just touch on some of
those matters in terms of the framework, we are so excited
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about the proposed radical public sector reforms which will
include a more decisive action and consequence management
especially dealing with mediocrity, unethical behaviour,
corruption and criminal acts committed, instruments to
undertake integrity testing before any individual joins the
public sector, stabilizing the political-administrative
interface across the public sector with regard to the tenure
of HODs, heads of departments, as well as those SMS, senior
management service, members repurposing the role of the Public
Service Commission for insulation of recruitment and selection
practices from partisan influence as well as review and
strengthen recognition of prior learning within the public
sector.
Hon Deputy Chair, the Public Service Commission remains a
critical entity of the department committed to establishing
sound and good governance in the public service based on
principles of accountability, participation, and
responsiveness to the needs of the people, transparency and
the rule of law.
Hon members, the PSC’s 2021 State of the Public Service Report
reveals a lot of variability in capacity and performance
across all spheres of government with major deficiencies in
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departments existing side-by-side with pockets of strength of
excellence.
Hon Deputy Chair, as the Free State Province we are proud to
realise that the PSC continues to monitor the performance of
departments in terms of payment of invoices of suppliers
within the 30-day timeframe as stipulated by the Public
Finance Management Act.
The PSC also monitors the financial disclosures of senior
management official within all departments and provincial
governments and has successfully received 100% of financial
disclosures from all departments in the Free State this year.
Further to this, the PSC in its quest to be responsive to the
needs of the citizens and ensure accountability continued to
intervene in matters of unresponsiveness by public
institutions. We then allow and support the PSC with those
specific required services and the various support.
These interventions include, for example, the SAPS forensic
services release of a forensic analysis report to enable a
grieving family to bury their loved one and the issuance of a
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matric certificate, and payments of the Sassa Covid-19 relief
funds. Congratulations to the PSC for the work they have done.
In closing hon deputy chair, the PSC’s final report on the
effectiveness of continuous employee development in the public
service will assist departments to develop and or review their
training and development policies in response to the Fourth
Industrial Revolution skills needed in order to support
government operations and service delivery and remain relevant
within the technological changes within governments across the
globe.
All of the above can be achieved with a shared vision. Part of
the shared vision, is completing a skills audit and lifestyle
audits across all spheres of government, training on the
management of the political and administrative interface which
is also being conducted in various provinces.
These are various mechanisms to proactively address some of
the listed challenges that we heard before. Hon Deputy Chair,
as the province we support this budget.
Sesotho:
Ke a leboha.
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The DEPUTY MINISTER OF PUBLIC SERVICE AND ADMINISTRATION:
Thank you, Chair. Hon Chairperson of the NCOP, Ntate Amos
Masondo, the Deputy Chairperson of the NCOP, Mme Sylvia Lucas,
Members of the NCOP, the Chairperson of the Select Committee,
Ntate Mmoiemang, Acting Minister of Public Service and
Administration, hon Nxesi, the Premiers and members of the
judicial Executive Council present here with us today. Hon
Deputy House Chairperson, in considering the Strategy and
Annual Performance Plan of the entities of the Department of
Public Service and Administration, the committee emphasised
that, plans and budget allocations, must serve the needs and
aspirations of the citizens.
This was expressed to the understanding that all sufficient
budget allocations serve as a key instrument for government to
promote growth and development in South Africa. Budget
allocation plays a critical role as an economic instrument of
government across provinces, to reflect the country’s
socioeconomic policy and priorities. The budget, serves as a
vital tool to operationalise government programmes towards the
achievement of intended priorities. Without the budgets, the
annual performance plans remain a pipe dream. The Department
of Public Service and Administration is mandated by section
195(1) of the Constitution, which sets out our basic value and
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principles that the public service should adhere to, and the
Public Service Act has amended.
The Public Service Act of 1994 takes care of dissolution of
powers and control to provinces and molding responsibilities
of the Minister for Public Service and Administration, which
amongst others are these: The health and wellness of the
employees, electronic government and information management in
public service, integrity, ethics and anticorruption,
transformation reform, innovation and any other matter to
improve the effectiveness and efficiency of public service.
The problems of the Department of Public Service and
Administration talks to public administration, policy
formulation and implementation, regulation and improvement of
public service conditions of employment, technological
connectivity and digitisation of government, ensuring service
delivery, improvement through Batho Pele principles and
ethical norms and standards. Connectivity and digitisation of
government remains a huge challenge, that will be resolved by
finalising of Treasury engineered, technical integrated
financial management system.
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House Chairperson, I just want to address the paranoia that
some members of the opposition have when they actually made
their presentation in the House. Hon Brauteseth of the DA, has
actually continuously, but I think it’s not only him, whenever
the DA actually gets a platform, they talk about cadre
deployment in government, and that cadre deployment creates an
impression that the ANC only appoints people who are
associated with the ANC in government. This is not the case.
When South Africans look for jobs, there is public service
regulations that guide us that allows them to come into the
public service because we want all South Africans to have
public service as a career of choice.
Nobody has been asked to present a membership card of the ANC
when they enter into government, and the political party like
the DA knows it better, otherwise, we would have had a lot of
cases at the law of the courts by challenging ...
[Interjections.]
Mr M NHANHA: With due respect, Deputy Minister. You know that
what you are saying is not true.
The DEPUTY CHAIRPERSON OF THE NCOP: Order, order, hon Nhanha.
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Mr M NHANHA: You are lying through your teeth, Deputy
Minister.
The DEPUTY CHAIRPERSON OF THE NCOP: Order. Continue to debate,
hon Deputy Minister. Hon Nhanha, please, order.
The DEPUTY MINISTER OF PUBLIC SERVICE AND ADMINISTRATION:
Thank you, Deputy Chair. He had his opportunity to speak, now,
he wouldn’t allow me to speak and to clarify what is the
paranoia around this that confuses South Africans because this
is the platform to engage South Africans and to help them
understand how government is intending. Today, therefore, we
are looking at a budget, how much of money is there, and this
is what all other political parties are supposed to assist us
to do, instead of creating stories as if this is a platform
for campaigning.
Hon Deputy House Chairperson, this ANC-led government, through
the Department of Public Service and Administration has
intensified a fight against corruption by strengthening
anticorruption practices in public service in terms of setting
norms and standards for Public Service of SA, appointment of
ethics offices by all government departments, to monitor and
despond to corrupt practices, lifestyle audits for public
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servants, comparing employees’ salaries to assets they own, a
launch of disciplinary and integrity technical task team that
works jointly with civil society in building anticorruption
strategy in public service and the protection of
whistleblowers.
In this regard, I wish like to appreciate the legislative
amendments that have been put in place by the Department of
Justice and Constitutional Development, in strengthening
legislation that protects whistleblowers, and this is being
done in the form of the Amendment of the Protected Disclosures
Act. There is also a fusion center that brings together all
the security agencies to intensify the fight against
corruption. Anticorruption hotline that is operated by the
Public Service Commission, is but one of the other measures
that we have managed as government to put in place in order
for us to demonstrate and be in a position to manage to deal
with corruption.
There is also annual declaration of interests by public
servants, to ensure that they are not conflicted in doing
business with government. There is also an improved
consequence management practices, such as ensuring that public
servants who transgress the law and are sanctioned, do not
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manage to get their back into public service. Hon Deputy House
Chairperson, the Centre for Public Service Innovation, CPSI,
is established in terms of section 7(a) listed in Schedule 3A
of Public Service Act of 1994 as amended.
The mandate of the Center for Public Service Innovation is to
entrench solution-oriented culture and practice of innovation
in the public sector to improve public service delivery.
Through its mandate, the Centre for Public Service Innovation
contributes towards building of a capable, ethical and
developmental state through innovation or innovative
solutions. Some of the notable solutions for Centre for Public
Service Innovation are but not limited to:
Agritech solutions, COVID-19 induced e-learning solutions,
water-filtering systems, that improve on the quality of water,
fire prevention device for informal settlements that we know
are forever experiencing fire hazards, personal safety and
crime prevention such as memeza, which is an instrument that
is utilised by ordinary people, especially in informal
settlements, to manage to bring attention to themselves for
managing to alert their neighbors when there is something
wrong that is happening to them.
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There’s also Online Thusong Centre, the hackathons which are
forums which are utilised to bring together young people who
are technologically ensued to come together, and they are
given a problem to come up with solutions for public service.
A lot has been done in this regard. The CPSI unearths
innovation towards improved public service, it nurtures
innovation in public service and does the annual awards for
innovators, it continues to grow a number of in-house software
developers in government departments, building solutions
internally, in a fraction of a price normally charged.
The Government Employee Housing Scheme, GEHS, was established
after the negotiations between the employer and labour, which
culminated in the Public Service Council Bargaining Chamber,
PSCBC, Resolution 7 of 2015. The purpose of the scheme is to
assist government employees to access affordable housing
through various interventions, including administration of
housing allowance facilitating access to affordable housing
finance, facilitation of the provision of housing stock,
enrolling the employees into the scheme in order to aggregate
demand and offer advice, education and counselling of
employees, with the aim of improving their chances of
accessing homeownership.
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Deputy House Chairperson, as at 31 March 2022, employees who
are receiving housing allowance as homeowners, has increased
from 743 895 compared to 532 103 in 2015. Hon Deputy House
Chairperson, I wish to thank the Director-General and senior
management of the Department of Public Service and
Administration for the commitment they put in ensuring that
access to basic solution and economic services is possible for
all South Africans. To all South Africans, I would like to say
...
Setswana
... ka puo ya rona ya Setswana, puso ya lona ya Aforekiaborwa
e e tlisitseng tokologo, ke puso e e lo ratang, puso e e tla
netefatsang gore tsotlhe tse lo di batlang lo di fitlhelele.
Gone jaanong, ban aba tsena sekolo ntle le gore batsadi ba
duelele thuto ya bana, le maokelo ga a duelelwe, gape ga se
ban aba bahumi fele ba ba kgonang go fitlhelela thuto e e kwa
godimo, seno se diretswe bana botlhe gore ba kgone go e
fitlhelela. Ke a leboga, Motlatsamodulasetilo. [Nako e
fedile.]
Mr T APLENI: Deputy Chairperson, may I start by apologizing
for the video. I am in Ntabankulu and Telkom network is too
bad here. Thank you very much Deputy Chairperson.
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The DEPUTY CHAIRPERSON OF THE NCOP: Can we just see is it
really you that is speaking? Just open the video for a moment,
so that we can see the real person.
Mr T APLENI: Oh, it’s me hon Deputy Chairperson, you cannot
doubt that, hello.
The DEPUTY CHAIRPERSON OF THE NCOP: Continue, continue please.
Mr T APLENI: Hon Deputy Chairperson, the EFF rejects the
Budget Vote on Public Services and Administration. We reject
this proposed budget vote for the same reasons we rejected the
previous proposed budget votes, even if the ruling party
refuses to admit it.
The EFFs were correct about the current state of collapse and
incapacity of public services. South Africa, currently stands
as a country which lacks capacity, incapable of responding to
small every day challenges faced by its own people.
We are a state which stands fainting in face of pandemics. Our
health care facilities such as hospitals, clinics could not
even respond to demands of COVID-19 pandemic [Interjection.]
Hon Deputy Chair, can you protect me please.
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The DEPUTY CHAIRPERSON OF THE NCOP: I am sorry, ...
[Inaudible.] ... you may continue please.
Mr T APLENI: Thank you, Deputy Chairperson, we are a state
which stands shaking in face of pandemics. Our health care
facilities such as hospitals, clinics could not respond to
demands of COVID-19 pandemic, instead our people died,
including our nurses and doctors.
When floods hit KwaZulu-Natal disrupting everyday life
functioning of the province. The governing party lacks
capacity to respond to roads infrastructure, houses and
schools destroyed in eThekwini Municipality and other affected
areas, in Umlazi, Phoenix, Pinetown and other affected areas.
Because of the incapacity of the state.
Our people in KwaZulu-Natal are still waiting for water,
electricity, sanitation and health care services weeks after
the floods.
The living conditions of our people have been severely
affected and it has taken a long time to recover. As delayed
actions and announcements have been the order of the day. We
are a country that has no capacity. We are a nation which has
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swayed so away from the direction of economic development and
our state capacity continues to detoriate.
For the former liberation movement has surrendered its
developmental responsibility to private sector, which has on
countless occasions demonstrated that it has no obligation to
develop South Africa, as long proven this as it is motivated
to ... [Inaudible.] ... right of our resources.
Government has failed to increase skills levels and failed to
create jobs or tackle poverty. So much so that our country
stands far removed from any conception of developmental state.
Our people are battling with poverty, unemployment and
inequality.
Our state-owned entities, are in a state of disaster, plagued
by mismanagement and corruption. Corruption remains a serious
challenge, it severely cripples the ability of the state to
pursue its commitments to economic development by draining
resources away from economic development goals.
Corruption has been institutionalized, through deployment of
cadres throughout the government and public service training
institution. This has resulted in poor management, higher
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levels of financial and administrative corruption. I was so
surprised when the previous speaker just before me was denying
this fact. It’s a fact that cadre deployment is killing our
country.
Cadre deployment has worsened problems related to corruption,
poor procurement systems, wasteful expenditure and the
detoriating state of our local government. It contributes to
the state of disaster or chaos in local government, stands as
a threat in realizing developmental goals objectives in all
spheres of the economy.
Deputy Chairperson, what we need is a shift to a capable state
which will improve the capacity of the wealth, used in its
capacity [Interjection.] to ... [Inaudible.] ... hello mam.
Ms C LABUSCHAGNE: [Inaudible.]
The DEPUTY CHAIRPERSON OF THE NCOP: No someone is speaking and
I saw hon Labuschagne and I was just asking her to mute so
that the shouldn’t be disturbance. You can continue.
Mr T APLENI: Thank you very much, Deputy Chairperson, what we
need is a shift to a capable state which will improve the
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quality of work and use its capacity to drive local
administration development of the economy.
A shift to a developmental state with state capacity which
will be able to intervene and stop the killings, kidnappings
and abduction of women and children. As parents are losing and
burying their children on a weekly basis.
What we need is a shift to a capable state, which will improve
the quality of work, use its capacity to drive local
industrialization and the development of the economy.
A developmental state which will have a capacity to ensure
reliable electricity generation, water and sanitation, enable
to build key institutions such as hospitals and clinics for
our people.
Our public service therefore must have its own capacity and
this is going to start by building state capacity and
insourcing workers. We know insourcing is practical and
implementable because, they did in the city of Johannesburg,
in Tshwane, in Nelson Mandela Bay, at South African Revenue
Service, SARS and many other state institutions that have
listened to the EFF guidance.
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We need to train public servants, so that they are dependable
and the national school of governance must build its own
capacity. We must increase their salaries to an acceptable
standard. Starting with our doctors, teachers, nurses, right
through the cashier workers, who are currently earning R3500
in retail stores, an embarrassment for a country like ours.
All temporary workers and interns employed in state
institutions must be hired on a permanent basis with a
benefits and pensions and that must happen. All government
employees who are doing businesses with the state must be
given 30 days to leave businesses or leave the state. That’s
the choice they have, if they don’t want to leave their
businesses, they must leave the state.
Unless we recognize public services according to these
implement agreement proposals, we will not support this budget
as the EFF. I hope the Deputy Minister who was speaking with
me was not dejected into South Africa last night. Because
anyone who has been a citizen of this country, knows very well
that cadre deployment is destroying our country. Thank you
very much, Deputy Chairperson.
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Mr M A P De BRUYN: Thank you, hon Deputy Chair. I am also
requesting that my video stays off down but I don’t have a
problem with that because my devise is with camera. It’s not
working today and I don’t know what’s went wrong.
The DEPUTY CHAIRPERSON OF THE NCOP (Ms A Lucas): You may
continue.
Mr M A P De BRUYN: Thank you, hon Deputy Chair. The Department
of Public Service and Administration should be ensuring
effective service delivery of basic services. We have seen
year after year service delivery is the last thing that is
prioritised by this department and the ANC government.
Instead, unrealistic and sky high Wage Bill are rather seen as
priority number one. And because of cadre deployment and
political agendas, unqualified and inexperienced staff and
officials are being appointed. This department and every other
department under its oversight has deteriorated into yet
another bottom necks of corruption and failure under the ANC.
Service delivery in every department under the oversight of
this department is at all-time low and the taxpayers are the
ones that are pulling on the shorting.
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The Minister stated that the fight against corruption are
being prioritised but unfortunately no one in South Africa has
seen this so far. If this was actually the case, where all the
corrupt staff, officials and politicians that we should have
seen on orange suits by now. And if this department truly
prioritised the fight against corruptions every province in
South Africa would have a dedicated officials and politicians
by now.
Deputy Chair, regarding the mandate of labour relations, the
conditions of service and condition of employment practices
this department has also feel miserable and this is evidence
by the countless number of how many service strikes over the
last couple of years. Countless strikes that there is disrupts
delivery even further has cost millions in damages.
In short hon Chair, this department is not living even to a
single one of its mandate. There is no service delivery. There
is no labour relation. The health and wellness of employees
are not taken seriously. Integrity ethics and anticorruption
is nonexistence and an improvement and effectiveness of public
services is a joke.
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Deputy Chair, this department is failing in every aspect of
its mandate and it will continue to do so until the really
ethics appoint quality staff and officials and when
consequence management are taken seriously and persons guilty
of corruption are being placed behind bars. Chair, this will
only start the date effect after 2024 elections when the ANC
has lost its majority and a coalition government takes over.
And until then this budget cannot be supported. Thank you.
Ms H S BOSHOFF: Thank you very much, Deputy Chair. I am of the
opinion that government is not taking seriously the demands
being made by unions on behalf of public servants regarding
the increase in the public sector wage negotiations. Which if
not addressed could see many unions instructing their members
to lay down tools and bringing the public sector to a complete
standstill, which the governing party can sorely not afford.
The demands being made are way above consumer inflation rates.
Inflation rates have always been built into the structure of
wage adjustments in the past. Previous negotiations were
reneged on as the governing party won the court battle which
has now led to the unions changing their outlook regarding
their proposals on how remuneration will be negotiated going
forward.
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Unions will now only negotiate wage adjustments for a single
year. Past experiences have taught them that to enter into a
multi-year wage negotiation with government has cost them and
their members dearly, breaking the trust they once had with
the governing party.
In 2006 the number of employees in the public sector was
1,2 million with a Wage Bill of R154 billion. In 2022 it
stands at 1,3 million employees and a Wage Bill of, listen to
this, R682,5 billion. Their pay has tripled in the last decade
which is ludicrous to say the least, especially in light of
the high levels of poverty being experienced by the majority
of the citizenry. We are all aware that government has
rejected the demand by the public sector trade unions for a
10% pay hike this year which would have cost the fiscus a
whopping R49,2 billion, money this government does not have.
We however see unions like the Federation of Unions of South
Africa, one of the largest federations in the country, already
warning government about a possible collision course with
workers getting agitated over low wages. They feel that public
servants are being treated unjustly and given a raw deal due
to government not implementing the last leg of the multi-term
wage agreement, resolution 1 of 2019.
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Furthermore, public service unions are adamant that they need
to see a 10% pay hike as they are emboldened by rising
inflation, food prices soaring, fuel and transport costs
increasing due to inter alia the Russian and Ukraine war and
the levies imposed on fuel prices.
Hon Deputy Chair, we need clear and decisive actions from the
Minister on how his party will address this issue to eliminate
the state being held hostage by the public sector, as
government and the unions are aware that Treasury has
committed to not award public servant inflation related wage
increases as it needs to bring down the Wage Bill to more
affordable levels.
Talks and negotiations which are set to start again in July
and end in September 2022 are going to need a tough stance by
the Minister to show that government is serious in cutting
down on the Public Sector Wage Bill to furthermore ensure that
this country does not find itself in more pernicious debt
crises. Your limits will be tested and how you act on them
will be the deciding factor for future negotiations, hon
Acting Minister.
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Please Minister, do not follow in the steps of the previous
Minister Ayanda Dlodlo, who recently saw it fit to award a
R450 million salary increase for millionaire managers in the
Public Service.
This was definitely an insult to the nearly 12 million
unemployed South Africans and the private sector, who at long
last were acknowledged by the President in his state of the
nation address debate in February 2022 as the creators of
jobs.
The country is watching these negotiations with an eagle eye
and 2024 is around the corner where your decision will be the
catalyst of this country seeing the voting in of a multi-party
coalition government, with the majority party, namely the DA,
who has a proven management track record, taking this country
forward to break the chain of poverty and create employment
and equality for all the people of South Africa. I thank you.
Mr N M HADEBE: Hon Chairperson, hon Acting Minister, the
Department of Public Service and Administration has one of the
most challenging mandates in government. The mandate to
improve the professionalism of the public service is important
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for setting an example of greater societal behaviour and how
our government conducts its business in terms of ethics.
Over the last few years, we have seen unprecedented economic
struggles and a severe spike in unemployment. The global
Covid-19 pandemic has brought about additional stress to our
employment and economic development. Unfortunately, if we are
honest, we have been experiencing an overall rate of decline
for several years.
There have been lasting effects of corruption within our
public sector and the slow response to root out the additional
fraud and maladministration. Public confidence in government
even before the looting and floods in KwaZulu-Natal is at an
all-time low, which has now branded South Africa as an open
supporter of such ills. The lack of ethical leadership in our
ruling party has tainted the image of our hard-fought
democracy.
The importance of the role of the Public Service Commission in
overseeing, monitoring, evaluating and investigating public
administration practices, as well as creating a capable,
ethical and developmental public service must be emphasised.
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The recent floods in KwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern Cape saw
many lives lost, leaving many people destitute. The most
disappointing discussion amongst the people was their first
concern regarding the mismanagement of relief funds allocated
towards mitigating the devastation.
The Minister of Transport with nowhere to maneuver was forced
to reveal that in just one entity, Prasa, there were some 3
000 ghost employees. This shows the extent of the rot within
our public sector, in which salaries were being paid under a
fraudulent scheme - a scheme where foreign nationals, people
with criminal records or fraudulent documents all received
monies from the state.
Additional insult to injury, Prasa is riddled with ill-
conceived procurement processes that cost the taxpayer
billions of Rands. Prasa, as an example, with all its ills,
still feels as if it is entitled to receive a bailout from the
taxpayer. It is unacceptable that an entity of the public
sector does not feel that it is accountable to the public and
that it needs to meet profitability demands. It is equally
unacceptable that the same entity be riddled with corruption
and escape without serious sanction.
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Unfortunately, for the poor in South Africa, this suffering is
not temporary; it is relentless and accumulated. The
heartbreak manifests itself in their everyday struggles, while
those who already have plenty, get more.
We further wish to emphasise the need for the synchronisation
of all three levels of administration, in order to achieve
anticorruption objectives.
As the IFP, we support the Budget Vote, and we will continue
to work alongside the department, to ensure that the
professionalisation is truly fulfilled. The IFP supports the
budget. I thank you.
Afrikaans:
Mnr J J LONDT: Agb Adjunkvoorsitter, ...
English:
... hon Minister, hon members, hon Mmoimang, I am going to
start with you who serves as the Chair of the select
committee. I fully agree that one of the most important assets
for an organisation can and must be the human capital.
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I will go in a different direction and start by telling you
how it should work with something as simple as renewing your
driver’s license. Middle May, I went to the Mossel Bay
Municipality. On arrival, there was an official, Ms Jody
Isaacs, who stepped forward and greeted all the people who
arrived. She was friendly, had a proper knowledge of who needs
to go where and what they need and immediately created
positive experience, not just for herself and her municipality
but also for government in general.
The same experience was given to people every step along the
way, with other staff such as Ms Kannemeyer and Ms Mosterd and
many others doing exactly what you and the Minister spoke
about.
So, hon Minister, if you did your speeches today and referred
to public servants such as the Mossel Bay people that I
mentioned above, you would’ve been applauded. They are
dedicated and skilled, they are diligent and knowledgeable,
they are ethical, but unfortunately, they are by far a
minority. They are a minority because the majority of public
servants. Maybe, we should stop using the broad term. There
are true public servants and they deserve the title. Then
there are cadres.
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Honest public servants do not need courses in ethical
leadership, but cadres definitely need it. Ethics is within
you. It lives within you, and you cannot teach an old dog new
tricks. This old dog called the ANC is inherently corrupt, no
wonder those they deploy are also corrupt.
Hon Mamaregane, public servants are indeed the backbone.
However, our backbone now has cancer brought in by your cadres
and the cancer has spread into every national department,
national entity, provincial departments and entities across
provinces and local government. This ANC cancer has spread.
That is why I had a little chuckle when the ANC-deployed cadre
who chairs our select committee proclaimed that the ANC leads
and ANC lives. You are leading us down a path of no return,
and you barely still live, since you are not just riddled with
cancer, you are cancer itself.
There is no one that argues with your that there was a system
in place before 1994 that only looked after parts of the
country. But Hon Moimang, you should be ashamed of how you and
your cadre-filled party have failed the youth of today.
Twenty-eight years after the dawn of democracy, 80% of Grade 4
learners cannot read with comprehension. How do you expect
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them to then compete in the job market and to add to the
public service, as you proclaimed in this debate? It is
definitely no laughing matter and if you do want to joke about
it, with a hint of truth, I assume you wanted to get these
Grade 4s to read at the level of ANC MPs.
Finally, hon Minister, you referred to consequence management
in dealing with the corrupt. No one believes you. Not a single
person. Your party is corrupt. Your cadres that you deploy are
corrupt to the core, and as a country, we are fed up with the
corrupt.
You are dying, as the ANC, and we and history will not really
mourn you and we will not really remember you fondly for what
you’ve done to this beautiful country, since the dawn of
democracy. I do hope that we see the back of you very soon and
we, in the true sense of the word, get a competent public
service free from cadres that get deployed from a central
office that only looks after a party and not the citizens of
this country. I thank you.
Mr M DANGOR: Deputy Chairperson, it’s a bit difficult to
follow up after Londt. It would have been easier to follow up
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after hon Tim because at least, he makes an argument, he
doesn’t rant. Deputy Chairperson, hon Minister ...
Mr C F B SMIT: Ag shame!
Mr M DANGOR: ... Deputy Minister, hon Chief Whip, hon members,
the Public Service Commission is a constitutional body
responsible for the promotion of values and principles in the
public service. Including promoting a high standard of
professional ethics and to propose measures to ensure
effective and efficient performance within the public service.
As the National Development Plan, NDP suggests, we need to
continuously strengthen the role of the Public Service
Commission in championing norms and standards in the public
sector. The Public Service Commission is assigned an advisory
and oversight role, which includes promoting values of the
public service and investigating breaches of procedure.
To fulfil this role, the Public Service Commission needs to be
a robust champion of a meritocratic public service with a
strong oversight role. What would intensify the role of the
Public Service Commission even further is, if we were to
require departments to responds to the recommendations that
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have been put forward by the Public Service Commission. The
intern would improve accountability in the state. Part of the
challenges that we experience in the public service is lack of
practice such as conducting business with the state.
Corruption and lack of transparency are some of the critical
issues that we face as government.
However, as indicated, the ANC has aimed to deal with such
challenges in all three spheres of government and work has
been done in provinces to mitigate these challenges. We hope
that the provinces will fast-track good governance strategies.
Particularly, those provincial departments that have been
implicated in matters of corruption. Hon members, we must
uproot all forms of corruption as it impedes on the
credibility of government. As the ANC, we must lead the moral
generation in our society, we must mobilise communities and
society around the issues of corruption. We encourage members
of the public to utilise the Anti-Corruption Hotline to report
any incidents of corruption in the public service.
We acknowledge and recognised that there are consequence
management measures in place to deal with public servants that
have been implicated in corrupt practices or breaching the
code of conduct. We hope that more stringent consequence
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management measures will be put in place to deter public
servants and officials from committing such acts. Corruption
undermines good governance, which includes sound institutions
and the effective operation of government in South Africa.
In a democracy it is crucial for political leaders and public
officials to account to the citizens for their actions.
Transparency increases the already implemented things, and I
am glad that hon Tim has acknowledged that the ANC has put it
in place ... [Inaudible.] ... necessary to put these things
forward, but what he complains about is the implementation
thereof. What we all need to do collectively, him, I and the
rest of South Africa to ensure that we all implement these
measures.
The NDP sets out the criteria in obtaining an accountable
state, and as such, as the ANC, we are adamant in building an
accountable state through the building a resilient anti-
corruption strategy which was adopted from 2020 in which
government has implemented; strengthening accountability and
responsibility of public servants, which has been implemented
through stringent consequence management and the conducting of
lifestyle audits.
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Transparency is an important element of public accountability.
Dissatisfaction about lack of access to information on service
delivery is prominent in public protests. Section 32 of the
Constitution enshrines the right to information. The Batho
Pele Principles state that government should inform citizens
about the services they are entitled to and government
administration must be open and transparent.
The Public Service Commission must continue to promote values
and principle in the public service to ensure that public
servants fully embody the Batho Pele Principles which is a
people’s centred government, and must continue to make
recommendations for public servants to state what they are
doing and where they are doing it. As an example, I would like
to see the Batho Pele Principles at every police station,
promptly displayed in other areas where the public goes, where
they have access to the public to display what those
principles are.
Without a reliable, honest, efficient court system, there can
be no access to justice, no confidence on the part of
investors in the economy and little prospect of holding
powerful private and public actors to account. Also understand
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that private actors play a large role in some of the issues we
may have and what people may perceive to be wrong.
We therefore commend our judiciary for actively engaging and
dealing with maters of corruption decisively. As the ANC
government, we will continue to fight for the independence of
our judiciary system through improving the quality of judges
and upscaling judicial training. Hon members, building a
capable and developmental state encapsulates a whole arena of
factors, and they are all interlink. It requires a capable
government with capacitated human resources able to drive
government’s transformation agenda. It requires a government
that will actually use the interventions of the state to deal
with the challenges of the country and that of an unequal
society and to bring all people and all stakeholders to
benefit from the state.
I just want to turn to some experiences that I had somewhere
else. There is organ called the Ozarks Freedom Farm and the
Ozarks Freedom Farm trained young people and others into
conducting and undertaking what they then called the colour
revolutions in North Africa. They also trained the activists
in Hong Kong and make no mistake, Ukraine was started in 2014
when they trained the people there to go on a colour
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revolution there. My question is; who in South Africa has been
trained on a colour revolution? And our people planning a
colour revolution? Because if you had a PVC record that was
stuck, it said 2024 – 2024 – 2024. All we are hearing here is
that come 2024, now google said; if you repeat a lie often
enough it will become the truth. Maybe those that are
repeating 2024 wants that to become the truth. It will not
become the truth.
Mr J LONDT: You won’t be here in 2024. You would have retired.
Mr M DANGOR: That’s fine. I don’t intend to be anywhere.
Mr J LONDT: You are struggling to pronounce 2024 because you
are used to 1652.
The CHIEF WHIP OF THE NCOP: Please Londt, respect hon Dangoor
... [Inaudible.]
Mr M DANGOR: ... [Inaudible.] ... really started in 1652,
which hon Londt will deny. He will deny that it wasn’t when
Jan Van Riebeeck came in. Robbed the poor people in the Cape
of their land. Raped and sold. He will deny that happened. It
never happened in his view. That is where it started and this
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building that I see behind me, the Parliament building, it is
our heritage. It is our collective heritage, but when they
break down, the graves of the Khoi and the San in Salt River,
that is also our heritage. We are concerned about the Khoi and
San heritage as we are about our collective heritage behind
us. I have gone away from what I intended to say but I just
hope that the repeat of 2024, is not from those that have been
trained to undertake the colour revolution. Colour revolutions
bring blood. Make no mistake and be careful. When you said you
have alliances, I listened to two of those alliance partners
today and one said we pray too much and the other one said we
pray too little, but they are going to form an alliance.
Our transformation agenda should always respond to the triple
challenges of unemployment, poverty and inequality. Minister,
carry on with the good work. I thank you very much.
The ACTING MINISTER ON PUBLIC SERVICE AND ADMINISTRATION (Mr T
W T Nxesi): Thank you, Deputy Chairperson. I hope you have
counted my minutes which I did not finish the first time. Hon
Brauteseth, you raised an important issue on policies,
however, the poor implementation in some areas is a problem. I
think that is fair. It is an issue that we must address
indeed. I take this as constructive criticism. We must
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definitely all of us – as some of the speakers have said -
deal with the corruption in both the public and the private
sector because there is a corruptor and a corruptee. The
private sector should not be spared here.
However, I cannot agree with the hon member when he accuses
the ANC of cadre deployment, which is exactly what they did
when they came to Cape Town leading what I would call the
white cadre deployment. What the DA did the first thing when
they came to Cape Town, when they took over, was to remove the
well-respected community leader, Dr Wallace Mgoqi, because he
was black. They continued with their terror of removing black
people with their white cadres. Nevertheless, they are
accusing us of cadre deployment.
They have been doing it and they continue to do it. You are
taking the country back by ensuring that you protect the white
apartheid inherited privileges. It cannot be accepted.
Exchanges between Tony Leon and some of his supporters like
Mike Waters in the Twitter with the Mayor Phalatse, of
Johannesburg, speaks for itself. You only want the black
people for votes. You do not want to give them space and
respect to lead. Where are the Maimanes? Where are the
Mazibukos? Where are the Mbali Ntulis? Where are the Van
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Dames? Many others are still following once you have used
them. Maybe, Mnqasela is also following.
Let me thank the hon members for their contribution in the
debate. Those who have contributed positively, we will take
some of the inputs into consideration. Nevertheless, we live
all the illogical, unsound and unreasoned groundless noise by
the EFF. They have never supported anything. Also, let me ask,
who is the DA to talk about Labour Relations for public sector
workers when they have and continue all the years arguing for
deregulated labour market. Do you want it for the public
sector but oppose it for the private sector, where there is
super exploitation in some of the sectors?
As we speak, it is the private white employers who in the
farms are employing foreign nationals without any benefit and
distorting the labour market by exploiting those desperate
economic refugees. Only to take us back by your apartheid
practices by treating the workers as slaves, but you have the
audacity to come here and talk about the government bargaining
processes which has been stable. Yet, you hardly say anything
about the slave condition in your farms. We cannot accept
that. With that said, Deputy Chairperson, we are moving
forward where people are constructive, but if people are
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starting to take us back, we will hit back very hard. Thank
you. [Applause.]
An HON MEMBER: ... [Inaudible.] ... only one clapping, uh!
An HON MEMBER: Tell them!
The DEPUTY CHAIRPERSON OF THE NCOP: I am laughing because, hon
Chief Whip, they are allowing you to be the only one to
applaud the hon Minister. The problem is, I have got different
guides, so, I am looking for the final one before I can
conclude the business of the day. With that said, I want to
conclude the business of the day. The two Orders; debate on
Budget Vote 2: Parliament; and Budget Vote 11: Public Service
and Administration as well as Budget Vote 7: National School
of Government. Let me thank the Acting Minister; the Deputy
Minister; the members of the executive council, MECs; the
Deputy Speaker of the Eastern Cape to debate in the Vote;
special and permanent delegates; the Chairperson of the NCOP;
the Chief Whip; those who participated in the debate, let me
express our appreciation for the constructive debate,
sometimes not so constructive, but we have concluded the
business of the day. After thanking everyone, let me adjourn
the House. Thank you.
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Debate concluded.
The Council adjourned at 17:47
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