Hansard: JS: Resumption of debate on President’s State-of-the-nation Address
House: Joint (NA + NCOP)
Date of Meeting: 15 Feb 2023
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Minutes
UNREVISED HANSARD
JOINT SITTING
WEDNESDAY, 15 FEBRUARY 2023
PROCEEDINGS AT HYBRID JOINT SITTING
Watch video here: JOINT SITTING Resumption of debate on President’s State-of-the-nation Address
Members of the National Assembly and the National Council of Provinces assembled in the Cape Town City Hall at 14:01.
The Speaker of the National Assembly took the Chair and requested members to observe a moment of silence for prayers or meditation.
The SPEAKER: Order! Hon members ... [Interjections.] Order! Hon members, may you please be seated. [Interjections.] Hon members, may you please be seated. Thank you. The secretary will read the Order of the Day.
RESUMPTION OF DEBATE ON THE PRESIDENT’S STATE OF THE NATION ADDRESS
The CHIEF WHIP OF THE COUNCIL: Hon Speaker of the National Assembly, hon Chairperson of the National Council of Provinces, His Excellency, the President of the Republic of
South Africa, Cyril Ramaphosa, His Excellency, Deputy President, Mr David Mabuza, the Deputy President of the ANC, Comrade Paul Mashatile, hon members, distinguished members of the SA Local Government Association, hon Speaker, allow me to join the Chief Whip of the Majority Party, Comrade Pemmy Majodina and other ANC speakers that as the ANC, we enter this debate with a clear conscience of providing a detailed account of the route we have traversed since the last state of the nation address and to point out the new trajectory at the centre of which is putting the interests of our people above anything else. We do this by rejecting with contempt the provocations by those who come here for electioneering posturing as a strategy to conceal their inability to provide concrete solutions to the problems that face our people.
The state of the nation address is about the people. It is in their interests, and it is for their interests. Perhaps, it is worth reminding this august House that, contrary to hon Steenhuisen, the ANC is not a narrow electoral machine like the DA that scavenges on the sufferings of our people for survival but has, throughout its existence, served as an agent for fundamental change and transformation.
We are here today to join our President, his Excellency Matamela Cyril Ramaphosa, to reassure South Africa that, despite the difficulties in our midst, with our 29 years of uninterrupted accumulated experience of governance, together with our people, we shall overcome our challenges for a better future for all. The President outlined the accountability for last year's Sona commitments before this Sona in the “One Year Review of Progress on the 2022 State of the Nation Address Commitments”. Anyone bothered to read this account will see it as an honest reflection displaying progress. Several factors impact the implementation of some of these commitments, the escalating electricity crisis, the sluggish growth of the economy despite rebounding from the impact of the coronavirus pandemic and the persistence of the triple challenges of poverty, unemployment and inequality.
This place vast expectations of our people on this state of the nation address debate. It is our view as the ANC that central to these expectations is nothing else but to put the country on a new permanent trajectory of breaking ranks with the scourge of poor delivery of basic services and infrastructure, which is critical for economic recovery, reconstruction and development. Infrastructure is a primary route to economic growth and development in that it releases
of latent productivity in the factors of production and brings about an increase in the output of individual factors and units of production. It helps to co-ordinate inputs, outputs, space and time to maximise the economic growth rate and enables the maximum utilisation of a plethora of resources leading to rapid economic development through efficiently employing all means available.
Mr President, contrary to sceptics, you have surpassed the target of mobilising international investment, especially for infrastructure development. As an international standard, the rule of law and good governance are fundamental for global investment. Mr President, on this front, only the blind will fail to see how you have invested more energies and resources in strengthening and repurposing the criminal justice system in line with its constitutional mandate of acting without fear or favour in the fight against crime and corruption. This will go a long way in ensuring the safety of all South Africans and reassuring international investors that South Africa is a destination of choice for global investment. Infrastructure development and maintenance are the primary base for socioeconomic development and job creation in any community and local economic development is a developmental mandate that all municipalities carry. Through our oversight function, we
have identified various factors in the three spheres of government.
Firstly, merely allocating more funds is not a panacea to the challenge of basic services. Secondly, lack of capability, poor project planning and management, poor project implementation and a lack of accountability are a deep reality that should be addressed. Thirdly, budget reprioritisation under fiscal consolidation over several Medium-Term Expenditure Framework cycles has had a negative impact and has yet to assist in enhancing the status of basic services and infrastructure spending. Fourthly, the lack of state capacity and capability and where the state has contracted the private sector has resulted in high levels of underspending of allocated conditional grants and other projects. And lastly, poor leadership and criminal networks, in most instances, which is pointed out from various Chapter 9 institutions.
Efficient economic infrastructure is the critical driver of economic efficiency, job creation and inclusive economic growth. It links markets in different areas and ensures that rural areas have access to markets contributing to food security in the country. The National Infrastructure Plan 2050 is a critical vision which accords the nation a long-term
trajectory which should inform planning and financing. Its purpose is to promote dynamism in infrastructure delivery and address institutional backlogs and weaknesses that hinder success over the longer term. It guides the way towards building stronger institutions that can deliver on the National Development Plan 2030 aspirations for investment linked to the provision of physical and digital infrastructure, including energy, water, commercial transport, and telecommunications. At the same time, Phase 2 of the National Development Plan focuses on social infrastructure.
Our infrastructure development should be climate change resilient to ensure sustainable development. Many of us are aware of the recent floods. About seven of our nine provinces are heavily affected. So, it is imperative, that this should be accommodated in terms of our plans to ensure that we can withstand these challenges.
The impact of the commuter rail route from Soweto, in Naledi, to Johannesburg has brought about relief for many workers who spend a significant portion of their salaries on transport.
Such an intervention lowers the cost of living for many. There is indeed progress, and we need to accelerate these efforts.
The second phase of the Lesotho Highlands Water Project - a partnership between South Africa and the Lesotho Mountain
Kingdom, which the President highlighted, will go a long way in creating jobs for the people of Lesotho, whilst simultaneously addressing the water scarcity and supply in the provinces such as Free State, North West, Gauteng and others.
In the last two years, the government, under your leadership, President, has introduced the District Development Model as part of the critical interventions. But I must, before that, hasten to say that one of the good example of reindustrialisation and the progress that we are making is the Highveld Steel Industrial Complex. Through the efforts of the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition, we are now manufacturing railway lines that can be used on mainlines, as well as the bridge that will shorten the N@ between Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal is made in Mpumalanga. This shows the success of localisation, and building an integrated national economy.
The District Development Model remains a critical instrument for microeconomic development and the creation of small, medium and micro-sized enterprises, SMME’s, which contribute to local job creation. The One Plan One Budget must be developed to enhance regional economic development and harness the capacity and capability of the state to deliver on its
mandate. Despite this and the continued government support in the form of Municipal Infrastructure Grants allocated to address water, sanitation, roads and lights, people in many towns across the country continue to witness deterioration in their road infrastructure, lack of reliable and safe water supply and the use of pit and bucket toilets.
Hon President, you visited all provinces during your ANC Letsema campaigns and the Presidential Imbizos. You have been in touch with the people and you know their concerns and their frustrations. Communities highlighted problems, articulated their issues and they demonstrated that they are far ahead of many of the opposition parties which came here and grandstand
– speaking as if they are speaking on behalf of communities.
They shared those issues with you, Comrade President. The issues of potholes and the general deterioration of public infrastructure due to a lack of quality maintenance.
Budgeting for maintenance and the existence of maintenance plans should be a critical requirement for all capital expenditures, Capex. Water, sanitation, housing, load shedding and many other, are the critical and burning problems faced by our people in many parts of our country. We have seen how the persistence of these problems has and continues to force
investors to move from low revenue and poorly serviced municipalities to high revenue and well-serviced municipalities in the recent past. This will negatively affect or impact the local economic development of distressed municipalities. Undoubtedly, this not only reverses the gains on local employment creation but also undermines the national efforts on economic recovery, reconstruction and development. The envisaged public procurement reforms will go a long way in addressing these gaps and ensuring on-time procurement of quality goods and services transparently and ethically. We need to ensure that our procurement policy enables the development of local manufacturing capacity of infrastructure inputs, and government should have a significant component of labour-intensive methodology to increase the impact of infrastructure development in lowering unemployment.
The voice of the Organised Local Government is loud and clear despite the subjective weaknesses that we have highlighted and the current fiscal framework of local government which continues to be a cause of concern. In line with the ANC’s decision for decisive action for renewal in the interests of our people to turn around the local government sector as a critical vehicle for infrastructure development and
maintenance, we must proceed from addressing these bottlenecks.
Building technical capacity at a national level to intervene in distressed provinces will be critical to address underspending and poor project management. We must review all infrastructure development units through a skills audit to ensure all infrastructure implementing departments and that municipalities have adequate technical skills and capacity.
This will be critical to ensure that government can develop a robust, credible and bankable project pipeline. Your Excellency, developing state capability, capacity and skills remain a priority, and even partnerships with the private sector will require the enhancement of state capability in all three spheres of government to deliver on major infrastructure projects.
In conclusion, hon members, this place enormous expectations of our people on this state of the nation address debate.
Central to these expectations is to put the country on a new permanent trajectory of breaking ranks with poor delivery of basic services and infrastructure. The facts confirm the political will, progress and trajectory of inclusive growth. We believe that under your leadership, Comrade president, that
this country is set to attend to the very burning issues that affect our people. I thank you. [Interjections.] [Applause.]
Mr A G WHITFIELD: Madam Speaker, Mr President, South Africans are less safe today than they were when you came to office.
And that is a fact. How can we possibly feel safe when we are governed by a criminal syndicate that steals from the poor to give to the politically connected? A government run by a political party in which political killings have become standard operating procedure to climb the patronage ladder.
What example are criminals in South Africa to follow if not the example of their own government?
At every state of the nation address, Sona, your broken promises on fighting crime echo across the country and into the homes and broken hearts of families across the country, living in fear every day that they will be the next victim. When you became President you promised to halve violent crime within ten years but murder has increased by nearly 20% since you took office while all contact crimes are up 13% in the last year. Last year, in your reply to the Sona debate you acknowledged my contribution when I called for more effective use of technology, but one year later not even the telephone lines are working. There are no drones in the sky and no body
cams on police officers. The recent mass killings in the Eastern Cape further expose your broken promises, Mr President. Two mass killings in rural Bityi outside Mthatha in as many months. In Kwazakhele in Nelson Mandela Bay there have been two mass killings in just two weeks leaving 12 people dead and others injured, leaving the community shocked and shaken. It is not the kind of shock that you often exclaim, Mr President. This is real and painful shock of the brutal and unrelenting slaughter of family members and neighbours in our communities.
In the Northern Areas of Nelson Mandela Bay, gang-violence has taken the lives of more than 20 people since the beginning of the year, while the Chatty Police Station in that area remains understaffed and under resourced. In fact, police officers at this station lock themselves inside at night during load shedding because their generator doesn’t work and they fear being attacked like the five police officers who were killed in the Ngcobo Police Killings.
Across KwaZulu-Natal, the fear in the aftermath of the violent unrest of 2021 still lingers yet of the 10 police stations I visited in that province in one-week last year only one had a generator that worked. While others complained that they
hadn’t worked for years or that they couldn’t get diesel due to centralised procurement challenges. The evidence is clear Mr President, your Minister is failing to deliver results but you are desperately clinging to him while our nation descends into criminal chaos. So bad is your Minister that he stood here yesterday and told this House that 4909 people were arrested last year for gender-based violence, GBV, related crimes as though it was some sort of a victory. What he didn’t tell you Mr President is that 57 102 women were victims of violent crimes last year which means that your Minister’s victory represent arrests of just 8% of the total number of GBV related crimes.
In your Sona last week, you said government will partner with the private sector to support the proper functioning of the 10111 centres. And while this is welcomed if it is to be believed, it only made its way into your speech because in January this year the DA exposed the complete dysfunction at the 10111 centres across the country. That’s a fact.
Dysfunction, which has left millions of victims and witnesses of crime helpless on the end of seven million dropped phone calls over three years because they have less than half the staff required to man the phones.
These dropped calls are crime statistics Mr President, there are victims on the end of these calls. I received one message recently from a grandparent in Missionvale which was written as follows and I quote:
We need help, my grandson has been shot more than five hours ago. His body is still in the house. They shot him. Do you know who to contact? The police don’t respond.
So, here is a challenge for you Mr President. If you can turn this situation around and have 75%, at least, of required staff employed with less than 10,000 dropped calls and uninterrupted power supply to every 10111 centre by your next Sona, I will literally eat the words off these pages. You see, without an actual plan, a deadline and the results which follow, your words will remain meaningless while lives will continue to be lost.
Over the years, you have successfully created the illusion that you are bolstering the ranks of the police with more members when the truth is that there has been a net loss of 20 000 police officers over the last ten years. You need only read the South African Police Service, SAPS, Annual Report which reveals that there were 199 000 staff personnel at the
end of 2012, 182 000 at the end of 2021, and 178 000 by the end of this financial year, including your new recruits.
And while we have many excellent police officers who go above and beyond the call of duty under the most difficult circumstances, they are being outnumbered by the unfit, poorly trained and corrupt cadres. What the South African Police Service, SAPS, needs to promote merit within its ranks and not cadres. And ensure that all appointments are beyond reproach if we are to have any hope of reversing the decline. South Africans want results not more broken promises and this is what they will vote for in 2024, a party that delivers results!
In Parliament last year, you committed to investigating the Western Cape Government’s Law Enforcement Advancement Plan, LEAP, Community Safety Model after acknowledging its successes. Now is the time to for you to act in order to keep your promise to keep our communities safe by throwing your full support and the fiscus at a tried and tested policing model with proven results. LEAP was deployed to Philippi-East in 2022, that station has completely fallen off the list of top 30 contact crime stations in South Africa. Over a 12-month period, Gugulethu noted a 30,6% decrease in murder, Delft has
seen a 17,4% decrease in murder, with contact crime also coming down.
These are the results which should follow from a promise, this is the kind of leadership we deserve to build a safer South Africa for all. This is how you get things done, Mr President. You make a promise and then keep it. We don’t need more hollow words and broken promises from an empty suit at your next Sona. We need results! And you can start by firing your Minister.
The MINISTER OF HUMAN SETTLEMENTS: Thank you very much, hon Speaker, His Excellency, the President of the Republic of South Africa, President Ramaphosa, the Presiding Officers, Cabinet members, colleagues, hon members, ladies and gentlemen, good afternoon. Hon Whitfield, it is important to acknowledge that, indeed, there are issues to deal with in fighting crime and corruption in the country.
Also, it is untrue to not to acknowledge that there are men that have been trained and passed out in recent months, as part of ensuring that there is police visibility on the ground. Many of us who understands the importance of fighting
crime, would understand the presence of visibility and police visibility to make sure that people do feel safe.
Sepedi:
Mopresidente wa rena, boikemo bjo bogolo bja rena, go sa kgathalege gore re mehlobo mang, re ba mmala ofe goba re karolong efe ka gare ga naga ya rena, re swanetie re tsebe gore bodulo bja rena bo be gabotse - re dule le ka boiketlo. Ka bjona boikemo bjoo, le karolwana ya 26 ya Molaotheo wa Afrika Borwa yeo e tlhahlago melawana ya tia mengwako ya mmuio wa Afrika Borwa. Re ikemiieditie go bea bahloki le batiofadi pele mo lenaneong la kabo ya rena ya mengwako ya mmuio. Re ialetie morago kudu ka kabo ya mengwako, eupia re tshepiia gore kabelo e tla dirwa ka lebelo.
Batho ba gaborena ke kgale ba letile mengwako ya bona, le ge ba bangwe ba setie ba e hweditie. Mmuio wa rena o menekana le ditlhohlo tieo di lego gona gore re kgone go aba mengwako yeo e lego gona gore batho ba rena ba be le bodulo. Ba bantii ba letile ka tshepo, ba lebeletie rena gore re ba thuie ba humane ditirelo tieo di ba swanetiego.
English:
I think we can all draw inspiration from the words of Michelle Obama when she said, and I quote:
You may not always have a comfortable life and you will not always be able to solve all of the world’s problems at once, but don’t underestimate the importance you can have because history has shown us that courage can be contagious, and hope can take on a life of its own.
Equally important is that, it can be able to ensure that people look forward to tomorrow. Furthermore, let me quote Martin Luther King when he said: “Three hundred years of humiliation, abuse, and deprivation cannot be expected to find voice in a whisper.” Housing for the missing middle, remains a serious challenge. A revised First Home Finance Scheme, formerly known as the Help Me Buy a Home programme, was revised in this financial year, amongst others, to allow for the funding of households who hold permission to occupy certificates in communal land.
This is particularly important in relation to the extension of credit and funding to households in the rural communities.
This will allow the missing middle to start acquiring economic assets without which they struggle, to meaningfully
participate in the economy. Mr President, yesterday hon Malema said to you that, and I quote: “It is irresponsible for a man to be on top and do nothing.” I totally agree with him.
However, he got it wrong. You are not a man on top who does nothing.
Under your leadership, sir, you have done the following: You have acquired buildings in the inner city areas such as Sea Point, Cape Town, listen, and two Eskom buildings located in Braamfontein, Johannesburg, and Kimberly for social housing purposes. This development has potential to release 1 200 units for families. These are efforts, hon members, to build an inclusive society and cities, through our social housing programme, and to alter the apartheid spatial planning and this has gained momentum.
Mr President, in the coming weeks, we will be launching a number of social housing projects that have taken place under your leadership, and these are the following: The Tshwane- Marabastad project, which has produced 1 200 units, and this has been driven by black-owned companies, and 60% of them are women-owned, as part of our commitment to transformation.
There is also Mohlakeng project, with a total of 1 020 units
in the West Rand in the Gauteng Province. This is another transformational achievement.
Another one is the Hope City project with a total of 114 units and located in the Nkangala Municipality in the Mpumalanga Province. It is 100% black-owned and 30% women-owned. There is also John Street project, which has 385 units, located in the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality. It is 63% black-owned and 30% of them are women. The other one is Maitland project here in the City of Cape Town, and it’s not a DA project, it is national government driven, with a total of 204 units that will be completed by the end of March 2023. President, this is what has been happening under your leadership.
Mr President, yesterday hon Steenhuisen said to you that, instead of leading us cross the Rubicon at the state of the nation address, the President has told us to turn around. I am glad, Mr President, that you did not follow what hon Steenhuisen’ Rubicon was taking you to because, it would had been indeed a disaster for the majority of the working class and the poor, who remain, and who we, mainly represent as the ANC. They have their hopes and dreams in your hands.
It is for this reason, Mr President, that our attempts to integrate the poor and working class into urban communities has faced serious backlash and resistance. I am speaking here of a group in the urban rich that we call, not-in-my- neighbourhood. Hon Nkondlo spoke about them earlier on. This is a challenge for us, led mainly, in the majority of time, by the DA councillors. These are well-resourced groups whose sole purpose is to ensure that the poor and the working class families remain in the outskirts of our cities.
This group is motivated by a mixture of racism and disdain for the poor and the working class. They regard the poor in the cities as refugees who must be rounded up and be shipped back to rural areas. Every time our government acquires land for human settlements, hon members, for these families, this group stands up to say very loudly, not-in-our-neighbourhood. They utilise all sorts of tricks to resist, including the courts, causing long delays for these families to receive shelter.
The only crime these poor and working-class families have committed to receive this abominable treatment is that, they are the descendants of the victims of apartheid and they were born without means. All freedom loving South Africans, both black, white, coloured, Indian, all races and all classes,
need to stand up against these bullies. Hon members, a title deed in the hands of an elderly woman who has never owned a property in her life, means the world to her.
It is for this reason that this government decided to fast track the release of tittle deeds, as an important instrument of economic empowerment. Working together with Operation Vulindlela, we will be able to expedite this. We have started unlocking the project in Gauteng, especially in Mawiga, where it will give us 14 000 title deeds of houses in that area.
Land distribution is also important as part of our work. We are working together with the Department of Public Works and infrastructure, as the President has said, to release earmarked 14 000 hectares of land.
Currently, we have 2 689 hectares which been transferred to the Department of Human Settlements to give us more than
64 000 housing opportunities, planned as part of the released land, to ensure that there shall be houses security and comfort, as the Freedom Charter has envisaged. Hon members, we have 2 700 informal settlements in the country and counting. Out of this, we have made already started working with 1 284 informal settlements upgrading at various stages. What does that mean?
This means that we are able to provide water, electricity sanitation and security of tenure in these informal settlement, and we are currently working to ensure that we upgraded them. They are at various stages across the country, and we are intensifying this work. We will be able to make sure that we can be able support all the people that are in this country. Mr President, the issue of climate change and natural disasters are continuously affecting us.
You would have seen the floods and the fires at the beginning of this year. We are reconfiguring our work, so that we can be able to respond within speed at a time that we are being requested to do, but more importantly, to ensure that the families that vulnerable and the poorest communities, can be able to receive support from us and government. We will also rework in terms of our programme, to build climate change resilience in terms of the infrastructure going forward.
This will happen because, it is very clear that, with the climate change, we are unable to do what is required of us. Mr President, you are a man at work. Thank you very much. [Interjections.] [Applause.] [Time expired.]
IsiZulu:
Nk M DLAMINI: Sibonge, Sihlalo, ...
English:
... greetings to the commander-in-chief and the president of the EFF, president Julius Malema, members of the central command team, fighters and ground forces, we would like to take this opportunity to send our deepest condolences to the Ngema family in Mkhondo Ward 3, who lost their 17-year-old daughter who was murdered during a service delivery protest. Yesterday, the overrated Deputy Minister of the Department of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Cogta hon Nkadimeng stood here unashamedly and spoke about a White Paper that speaks about local government that works together with other spheres of government while people are dying because of lack of service delivery. When she was reminded about her tenure in Polokwane as a mayor she shouted that she’s no longer there and those things are of the past. The reality in Polokwane Municipality under her and even now is nowhere near close to being an exemplary municipality. There is still a water and drainage problems and crises in Polokwane. [Interjections.]
The SPEAKER: Order, hon members. Don’t drown the speaker.
Ms M DLAMINI: As long as they get it, Speaker. Roads in the city and in townships are not taken care of. There are no functional street lights and basic necessities, yet someone was screaming here as if she was a paragon of local government. The district development model she screamed about has not given any results and yet she pretends and want to act as if she is a panacea to South Africa’s development and lack of service delivery disasters. How on earth can anyone in their right mind claim successes of the local state when almost all of them are dysfunctional?
These claims of the ANC’s successes in municipalities are misleading. Tshwane is in crisis and the crisis in Tshwane started under the very overrated Sputla Ramokgopa whom the ANC tried to replace with Ms Thoko Didiza and lost elections dismally. There is not a single municipality that is run perfectly by the ANC in South Africa.
It is unfortunate that the Deputy Minister comes here and speaks of a discredited 1998 White Paper on Local Government by scientific and empirical research. The idea that you can revive local government through the White Paper and the so- called district development model is foolish and misguided. The list of incorrect and misguided 1998 assumptions in the
White Paper is long. But, just to name a few. The White Paper assumed that municipalities would be functional. Your President just told us that the number of dysfunctional municipalities has increased to 163 today from 123 before he took office in 2018. The Auditor-General reports tells us these every year. Secondly, it assumed that municipalities will collect revenue. Municipalities do not have the administrative capacity to collect revenue, let alone keep basic records. The ANC did not build any administrative capacity in local government in the last 25 years since the adoption of the White Paper. Even if they can collect revenue, our people do not have money. More than 11 million people are unemployed. More than 28 million people are on social grants. Only 1,6 million taxepayers out of more than 20 million who can work and pay taxes are excluded by the system.
Who is going to pay for municipal services and property rates? The White Paper assumed that with democracy, South Africa's spatial planning would change from race-based to more integrated. The opposite has happened. The ANC has perpetuated apartheid economy and racial spatial planning. Nice and clean cities for whites, and a few blacks and informal settlements are for the black majority.
A viable local government will need internal capacity through the insourcing of critical municipal services and the appointment of competent and well-remunerated workers, industrialisation through building local economy and local procurement, food security for all households and clinics open
24 hours. We need municipalities with clear town planning programmes.
The reason why the ANC is being decisively defeated in all of South Africa’s major metropolitan municipalities is because the ANC lacks the collective and individual capacity to deliver meaningful and impactful services to our communities. In 2026, the ANC will be wiped out in all municipalities because our people are saying enough is enough. [Time expired.]
Cllr B STOFILE: Speaker, Your Excellency the President of the Republic, the Deputy President, the Ministers and Deputy Ministers, the Premiers, members of this House. I must first say, it would be important to put the facts correctly. Since the establishment of the local government system in South Africa, on the 5th of December 2022 the country was completing
22 years of local government wall to wall system.
Coming from a local government system that has been divided on the basis of class, race and colour and the amalgamation of the municipal system, it created a municipal system, that today we have 257 municipalities, that do not look on the basis of the location and the colour of individuals and that is the fact.
The 1998 White Paper, located functions and responsibilities in local government and it is a fact that 46% of the constitutionally declared functions are located in local government. It is therefore important that ... [Interjection.]
The SPEAKER: Order hon members! Hon Stofile, take your seat. Hon member Ndlozi, what is your point of order.
Dr M Q NDLOZI: Thank you Speaker, I wanted to ask, the councillor is shaking, don’t you want to check if he is okay? Because, the next thing he might collapse, it might be a real exigent matter.
The SPEAKER: That’s not a point of order.
IsiXhosa:
Gqr M Q NDLOZI: Ndiyamvela, ndiyamvela Somlomo.
English:
Maybe he must speak while sitting down.
The SPEAKER: Okay thank you. Hon member, that was not a point of order. Please, you may proceed hon councillor.
Cllr B STOFILE: Where as local government has undergone rapid transition and transformation over the 22 years. There can be no doubt that it has had a profound impact on the lives of ordinary South Africans in expanding the provisions of service to our people.
While it is true that a number of serious and complex challenges persist in some municipalities, by and large there are extensive examples, as confirmed by the municipal
non-financial census, that local government has delivered quality services and the better life for the majority of our people.
Madam Speaker, local government has in the same breath came under a lot of scrutiny recently. Perhaps necessarily so as this is the most visible sphere, closest sphere of government to the people.
Furthermore, our system of wall to wall municipal system means that all developmental work happens within a municipal ward.
In one way or another, nearly all services of our people get or do not get from government find the most concrete expression at local government level.
Despite its most pivotal role, it remains the step child and therefore we appreciate the work that has been done by the President of the Republic in the recent past, in allowing the cooperative governance to function and that is why over the last couple of months, we’ve been engaging the different Ministers including Minister of Small Business Development in so far as how do we collaborate and cooperate in making sure that economic development does take place in local government.
Secondly, we do appreciate that having 22 years of existence in local government we have been shouting for lack of funding in the system. And I must appreciate and say here at South African Local Government Association, SALGA, leadership that we appreciate that the national government allows us to enter into discussions and hence we have an engagement with the Minister of Finance, looking in the funding modalities that must assist local government. It’s something that we must appreciate.
Over the past 20 years, various policies, legislatures and support program measures have been brought about and previous leaders of SALGA have asked what next have this been done. And what became crystal clear at the time, it was the support to local government, because the success of local government is the success of government as a whole and thereby it requires us to entrench all the cooperative governments and build solid system of government to respond to challenges that our people are facing today.
Turning to the current elephant in the room called coalition government, that none of us are talking about in this room. We wish to spend some time in sharing our frustration as an association and thereby a problem in the country.
Unlike previous elections, the 2021 local government elections gave rise to the most dramatic results as it relates to coalition governments. These developments suggest that coalition government would clearly become a common feature of our political landscape in South Africa going forward.
In 2021 it was only three parties that formed coalition government. But today coalition government have risen from 27
to 87, led by more than six parties, today. And that tells us that there is a crisis that we are going towards.
As South African local government, working together with the University of the Western Cape, we have developed a framework of coalition. It is common knowledge that if you go to a municipality today you will find a mayor, in the next two hours you will a different mayor. And therefore it means the situation in local government becomes unstable. And it requires leadership and members of Parliament to look at that.
One of the issues where in many places including the places where you are operating, anywhere. In many places in South Africa, President in South Africa if we don’t deal with this animal called coalition, if we don’t deal with animal called coalition, this animal called coalition robs the majority of our people. Majority of our people went and vote – when they vote you political parties, you locked yourselves in a room and cut the cake according to what is your interest, at the time when communities are locked outside there.
When the service delivery is not rendered the blame goes to municipality. And we are calling on government and calling to Parliament to act on this because it’s a problem that is going
to be with us for a very long time. And we suggest that there must be certain instrument that must be introduced.
One of the instruments is as follows; I will make an example for instance, President. On various metros in the country, if I can take Nelson Mandela Bay for instance, if we can go as a country and accept to change the type of municipal system – currently the type of municipal system is one to six, and six is metro and in the metro you are allowed to have an executive mayoral type. In a coalition arrangement, everyone demands to have a right to employ and that is why you see the emergency and rise of employment cost in the municipality.
Because, it’s a problem that we must all deal with, because leadership, political parties locking themselves in a room discussing about who should be the leader of that municipality. One of the dispute is about what is it that I must benefit as a political party A. And that issue must be dealt with. And we are saying, for instance, in Nelson Mandela Bay, President – we want to put because you are a member of Parliament, you are contesting elections all of you, from political parties.
In Nelson Mandela Bay for instance, if you take a collective, executive type municipality, in that municipality and any other municipality. What it means, it means ANC is going to get four seats, DA is going to get four seats, EFF is going to get one seat and the community organisation in Port Elizabeth is going to get one seat. What it requires, is for us to have a conversation amongst yourself as political parties to deal with the challenge that you are facing at local government.
The second issue President, is the killing of councillors and municipal officials and the killing of councillors and municipal officials, is a problem that creates and works the intention of professionalising of local government.
There would be no professional that would want to go to an unsafe place. And therefore, it is important that the local government space to be created safe and be protected. In our endeavour to make sure that the local government does function. Otherwise if we don’t spend time in protecting those that have accepted to render service and be threatened by criminals in the local space will create a problem.
The next point President that we wish in the state of the nation address to be addressed, is the protection of the
revenue base of the municipal system and the rising of the tax-based of a municipal system. A municipal system according to White Paper is not reviewed yet, is the House that has the power to review, but you are working from it. It says 90% of the income generation of a municipality will come from municipal income. And that assumption was based on the believe that there will be growth of the economy and many other activities and there will be people that will be paying.
Currently, we are facing the same challenge that the community is not growing and therefore, they will not be able to pay and therefore it requires some other way of protecting the revenue base. Including number of issues that individual organisations that want to flood the local government with eroding the income levels of a municipal system.
In this sense President ... that is why to us as local government, we believe that it is correct thing, learning from 2020 disaster situation in our country.
What we have appreciated as local government in that period, is the ability of the government in all spheres to work together, consolidate their energy, both human resources and financial resources and intervening communities. And it
benefited us, because it speaks on law that we have passed as this House called Intergovernmental Relations Framework Act. That compels different spheres of government to work together towards achieving the same objective that is service delivery to our communities.
And that is why in ourselves, listening to debate of yesterday, one question and example that was made to a community member somewhere in the Eastern Cape, where the house was burned down by electricity as it comes back. And can sit wherever you are and imagine, of a councillor sitting at home and that house is burned down because of electricity and that councillor is not empowered. Whom to interact with when there’s that disaster. Because the councillor is the closest person of our communities.
And therefore, that is why as South African Local Government Association, we believe disaster declaration is the right thing to and coordinate processes towards rendering service to our communities. [Applause.]
The issues about how the money is used, I think it’s your political thing that you can deal with. Our interest is that how do we service our communities as a government not as a
different individual and spheres. But how do we optimally intervene on the challenges that our communities are facing. And we believe that it can go a long way.
There are mistakes that we have learned in the disaster in the past and we can improve on those mistakes, our people need service, they don’t want politicking. They need service at whatever material time. Whatever differences that we have but it is important that our people get service from the government and from the Parliament that they have elected.
And, that is why in our view, we still believe that in the engagement between ourselves and the Minister of Finance to improve on financial allocation on the municipality, it’s a right decision and it’s a process that we need to follow going on to the future.
The last issue on this issue President is that we acknowledge and accept that we have established a crisis committee dealing with the energy crisis. We would love as local government to participate there, so that we can give a local content on that debate and discussion rather than being on the national level.
It is our important role, because our interest is that any decision taken at any level, it must go down into communities where we live and where we work.
It is our interest that anything that had to do with a life of our people, local government had to be taken on board and be engaged and we really appreciate that, at least we have an engagement with various Ministers, in trying to pull them and help and infuse and give the will and energy on the Intergovernmental Relations Framework. Because that is the route to go. Cooperation of government, it had to come together and work together. Thank you. [Time expired.] [Applause.]
Mr M HLENGWA: Madam Speaker, hon President and hon members, Mr President if I had 47 minutes, I would urge you not to appoint a Minister of Electricity because you are duplicating political bureaucracy in an already bloated and excessive Cabinet. You have got the Minister of Minerals Resources and Energy who deals with policy, the Minister of Public Enterprises continues to be the shareholder. At the same time, you have declared a state of disaster, where the Minister of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs comes in to actually deal with those matters.
On top of that, you have got the National Energy Crisis Committee, NECOM, which is dealing with this crisis in the presidency. What is clear, Mr President, is that every time your Ministers don’t perform, instead of firing them you protect them by taking things into the presidency. Be decisive, Mr President, fire them! Don’t have a nanny Cabinet.
IsiZulu:
Awusiye umzanyana. [nanny]
English:
If they’re not working, fire them! What has happened is that you’ve got a bloated mega presidency now. Operation Vulindlela, which ordinarily should be with the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition or the Treasury is in the presidency; the Energy Action Plan and Energy Security Plan, which should be with the Mineral Resources and Energy is with the President; the Presidential Youth Employment Intervention, which should be with the National Youth Development Agency, NYDA, or the Department of Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities is with the President; Infrastructure Investment which is supposed to be with Public Works and Infrastructure, is with the President; the Just Energy Transition Investment Plan, which must be with one of these many departments, is
with the President; the Presidential Climate Commission, which should be with the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and Environment, is with the President; and the Red Tape Reduction Task Team and the Red Tape Reduction Council, which must be with the Department of Small Business, is with the President.
So, Mr President, quite frankly, it seems to us that you have no confidence in your own Ministers. Let me go to this, Mr President, let me start where you started, where you said that our people are not defined by the minerals under the earth and the work that we do. Your apology over the weekend to President Mbeki, notwithstanding, one must agree with you that it’s the failure of government that our people don’t have access to the opportunities that come with mining, the oceans’ economy, the minerals of this country, the land and so forth. We cannot be defined by what we do not own. So, the transition and the transformation which should have taken place, Mr President, under your watch and under the ANC’s watch has certainly not happened.
All of these things combined and all of these factors combined actually speak to failure. Mr President, there’s been a lot of song and dance about traditional leadership and about the
wall-to-wall municipalities that we have in the country. Here
too, I want to make a call to you, Mr President, respond positively to the Cabinet Committee decision of December 2000, which sought to amend Chapters 7 and 12 of the Constitution, to provide clarity on the powers functions and responsibilities of traditional leaders, if there is to be any cohesion, effectiveness and efficiency in the governance and management space of development in the spaces where there are traditional leaders and municipal councils.
So, Mr President, what comes out of this is that you are overstretching yourself and your Ministers are sitting at home doing absolutely nothing. So, as the reshuffle comes, deal with your Ministers, stop taking on responsibilities that ordinarily should be with Ministers. I thank you. [Time expired.]
Ms F A MASIKO: Hon Speaker, Ms Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula; His Excellency the President, President Ramaphosa; His Excellency the Deputy President; the two Chief Whips of the Majority Party; Members of Parliament and fellow South Africans; we stand before this august House with a deep sense of appreciation and humility to debate the state of the nation address on behalf of the people’s movement, the African National Congress. Our honour is derived from the fact that we
are a year shy from the 30th anniversary of our democratic breakthrough.
We, the formerly oppressed, still occupy this platform where the future of our country is debated and decided. As we progress towards the 30th years of democratic South Africa, we have progressed in our transformation agenda and we greatly appreciate that. More importantly, we know for a fact that despite the many challenges we face as a country, our country is a far better place to live in, as the post-apartheid dispensation ushered a society premised on equality, justice and shared humanity.
It is unfortunate that our detractors without substance have yet again attempted to deny millions of South Africans in all corners of our country the opportunity to receive a detailed analysis and account on the journey our beloved country has travelled in the current conjunction. The Sona, delivered by the President of our Republic was a true and frank reflection of our society in the current epoch. It gave a clear indication of what needs to happen for us to successfully navigate our stormy seas. Therefore, to suggest that the address by the President lacked detail is both disingenuous and a pure political theatrics driven by populism.
Madam Speaker, it is indeed due to the greatness of our glorious movement, the African National Congress, and all its virtues that our Parliament is independent and empowered to perform its oversight role effectively, with transparency and without hindrance. Hon members, through the oversight role of Parliament, we will make sure that we hold the executive to account. However, unlike our friends from the opposition, the performance of our work does not seek to overthrow a democratically elected government by underhanded means, but by one that seeks to advance the attainment of a national democratic society.
It is such a shame that our country is becoming a laughingstock which undermines our standing amongst nations because of a minority of members of this Parliament who, having failed to win through the ballot, have sought to prohibit a democratically elected government from addressing this House. [Applause.] Madam Speaker, we are proud that not less than 21 Bills are before this Parliament for consideration, which the opposition parties are opposed to because theirs is a rejectionist approach without substance to take our nation forward.
These transformative Bills before the Sixth Parliament include, the Eighteenth Amendment Bill to the Constitution, so as to recognise South African sign language as one of the official languages; the National Health Insurance Bill, which seeks to transform our country’s healthcare for equitable access and distribution; the National Youth Development Agency Amendment Bill, which seeks to respond to the outcry from public regarding the poor visibility of the National Youth Development Agency, particularly in the rural areas and to optimise service delivery; the much awaited National Council on Gender-Based Violence and Femicide Bill, which seeks to establish a multisectoral, independent and nonpartisan statutory body that will be tabled before the Portfolio Committee of Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities; the Basic Education Laws Amendment Bill, which seeks to enhance our education system and accelerate addressing structural challenges in the sector; the Climate Bill, which seeks to enable adaptation and mitigation interventions to respond to transit to low carbon economy; and the Expropriation Bill, which provides for the expropriation of property for a public purpose or a public interest. This legislation will enable the acceleration of land reform.
This is to mention a few transformative legislations which the ANC is advancing in Parliament, to transform our society and to respond to challenges confronting the nation. We are a Parliament at work. We appreciate that our people did not fight for democracy alone but for material changes in their lives.
Hon Speaker, about a month ago our country was plunged into darkness with the passing of one of the foremost activists for liberation and women’s emancipation, the first Speaker of this Parliament and the democratic era, Dr Frene Ginwala. A fearless fighter for women’s rights and our liberator, who was never far from the battle front and had no fear to execute the struggle.
It is as a result of the struggles of Dr Ginwala, Mama Charlotte Maxeke, Mama Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, Helen Joseph and Portia Ndwandwe that women like ourselves cannot only dream but are an integral part of building a new country out of the ruins of apartheid. [Applause.] I am happy to report, Mr President, that women across the country have heeded our call for action for all South Africans to work together to tackle the challenges we face, instead of wallowing in despair and lamenting our fate.
Mr President, three South African women have long answered your call and they are representing our country in platforms many of us in this House never heard of. Mrs Ncumisa Ndelu, the founder of One Family One Stockpile; Ms Melanie Brummer, the founder of Up-Cycled Clothing Collective and Ms Pamela Padayachee, the founder of Woman’s Pact, are using Facebook to change some of the things that they don’t like about the country they live in. They are the only three South Africans on the Exclusive Facebook Community Accelerator Programme, which is a global platform for Facebook community managers, who are making a positive impact in their communities. All three of these women are recipients of a $40,000 grant from Facebook to continue the work they are already doing on their own to the benefit of South Africa and many others beyond our borders.
Hon members, as we execute the current phase of the struggle, we will not be defocused by sideshows and theatrics. We will endeavor to remain true to the ideas of our founders of this struggle. Lastly, we know that we have a capable captain ... [Inaudible.] ... in the form of President Ramaphosa. Thank you very much. [Time expired.] [Applause.]
Rev K R J MESHOE: Hon Speaker, firstly, I want to thank you and hon members for your prayers and kind words of condolences at the loss of my courageous, loving and dear wife of 46 years, Mrs Lydia Meshoe, who passed away on 25 January this year. She left me with three amazing children and three wonderful grandchildren. Secondly, I want to thank you, Mr President, most heartily for visiting my family at home, to convey your personal condolences and pay your last respects to a great woman who was your secretary when you were the chairman of the Students Christian Movement at the University of the North in 1973. Mr President, my children specifically asked me to convey their gratitude to you for the hour you spent with them and spoke to them like a caring father and not like a President. Thank you. [Applause.]
As I have decided to dedicate my speech today to my precious wife who is now with the Lord, I will raise two issues that she was unhappy about at the time of her home-going. Besides high-levels of crime in the country, particularly the rape of women and children that she was very upset about, she was concerned about the regular blackouts that are costing jobs, livelihoods and the loss of lives of patients who rely on constant electrically-powered machines that supply them with oxygen. Mr President, it is very unfortunate to note that the
unreliable Eskom of today used to be the number one power utility in the world.
While addressing leaders of political parties on 15 January 2023, the President told us that the challenges of Eskom include criminality, corruption, lack of maintenance, lack of accountability, and lawlessness. The President further said that the journey of Eskom started gloriously, right at the beginning, when it attracted some of the best skilled engineers. However, because it was run as an apartheid entity, he said: “When government embraced transformation, that led to a number of challenges.” The President further said that they have sourced the expertise of an international company to address the culture of lawlessness at the Eskom.
The ACDP does not agree with this decision, just as we do not agree with the addition of yet another Minister to an already bloated Cabinet to deal with Eskom’s challenges. We are convinced that Eskom does not need another politician with the title of Minister of Electricity, but it needs a professional, skilled engineer who knows what the team that made Eskom win the title of the best power utility company in the world did, regardless of their skin colour.
Speaker, our people are tired of these unending rolling blackouts that make their lives difficult, they want electricity now. They want government to stop putting their skin colour before skill, competence and efficiency. [Applause.] Demands for electricity in South Africa are increasing daily. Whilst there is increasing pressure to adopt nonfossil fuel electricity-generating technologies, the abundant reserves and low cost of coal make it the preferred energy source to meet increasing electricity demands for the foreseeable future.
The world’s relative dependence on coal does not mean that the role of coal burning in global climate change will continue unchecked. A variety of options, referred to as “clean coal technologies”, are being researched and implemented throughout the world with South Africa and Eskom making significant contributions to this field. Clean coal technologies use coal for power generation in more environmentally acceptable and economically viable ways. They include processes that can be applied before, during and after utilisation
Therefore, as I conclude with the second issue that concerned my wife and also a number of ACDP people, is that there is now a talk of a New World Order that the President we know
supported when he addressed the rally on 27 April 2018 in the Free State. That is disappointing to us because we know what the implication thereof will be. I want to announce today that my family and I will, together with faithful members of the ACDP never be part of this one world religion that will come with the new order that will be imposed on citizens of the world by agents of the anti-Christ. We believe in Jesus Christ alone and will never apologise for it. I thank you. [Applause.]
The SPEAKER: I thank you, Ntate Meshoe ...
IsiXhosa:
Siyabulela ukuba ube phakathi kwethu nokuba kunjalo.
Mr D R RYDER: Thank you, Madam Speaker. Mr President, how dare you stand up here and coldly quote statistics of failed local government as if you are not part of the failure of local government. You, Sir, spent four years as the Deputy President, the Leader of Government Business, and today marks the fifth anniversary of your tenure as President. That’s nine years that you have had to fix local government, Sir. Your very own nine wasted years.
It was you, Sir, that appointed Minister Nkosazana Dlamini- Zuma as the Minister in the Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Cogta, role. She has failed municipalities dismally, but more importantly she has failed residents. This is demonstrated not only in the implosion of municipalities, but also by her department’s own evaluation, having not achieved almost half of the agreed departmental outcomes.
Mr President, I’m quite pleased that you didn’t mention the District Development Model in your state of the nation address speech this year. I presumed that you have realised that this project was dead before it even started. However, Mr President, the line that you spoke last week about enhancing capacity amongst officials was almost a copy and paste of your speech from 2021. In fact, if one looks back to the promises that were made in the National Development Plan, NDP, when it was launched in 2013, the same promises were there and have been regularly repeated ever since, but on the ground sir, dololo, nothing. Also in last week’s speech you promised that interventions from national government would take place where local governments fail in their responsibilities. This too should not be something new either. The Constitution makes it an imperative, especially in cases such as the Emfuleni Local
Municipality where the provincial efforts of administration have failed repeatedly. Five years of provincial administration and the experience of people living in Emfuleni has become dramatically worse, not better.
However, while speaking of the failed Emfuleni Local Municipality, one just has to look next door to Midvaal, the neighbour which announced their 9th consecutive clean audit earlier this month. [Applause.] Service delivery, while under pressure as a result of the population grows as people come to Midvaal seeking a better quality of life, service delivery continues. This is simply because of good governance, a term that is poorly understood but is probably better described as the DA difference. However, the Midvaal story is not alone.
Instead of comparing two different municipalities, let’s compare the DA-led uMngeni Local Municipality with itself when it was under ANC government until recently. The stark contrast is understood after a brief discussion with the people of Mpophomeni who are receiving fair services for the first time ever, smashing the myth that the DA only services wealthy suburbs. [Applause.] The DA is raising the standard of living across all racial and economic groups, and doing this while also paying off the municipality’s ANC incurred debts.
The residents of South Africa are voting with their feet, and migrating in their numbers to Democratic Alliance-led municipalities and to the DA-led Western Cape Province.
Yes, it takes time to turn around a big metro after years of ANC misrule, mismanagement and misappropriation, especially with the underqualified and over-politicised cadres that are deployed in municipalities at all levels. Yes, coalitions are hard to manage, especially in minority governments. However, overall if you live in a DA-led municipality you can rest assured that the funds entrusted to the council are being well-spent on a service delivery focussed agendas. While the model of local government in South Africa does, indeed, need
some tweaking, the model is not the cause of the collapse. The thieving ANC is the cause of the collapse.
Mr President, I’m sure I don’t need to remind you that you are not only the President of our country, but you are also the President of the ANC. In fact, you have made it plain to South Africans on numerous occasions that you disappointingly value your ANC presidency above that of South Africa. However, how can you have allowed there to be two ANC mayors in the North West province in Ditsobotla Local Municipality for almost two years? How embarrassing and ridiculous to have a mayor from
each of the two biggest factions within your organisation, and your Minister did nothing. And you, Mr President, did nothing, neither as President of South Africa nor as the President of the ANC.
Mr President, it is way past time for a decisive shuffle. The media is full of stories claiming that Minister Dlamini-Zuma will remain in the failed Cogta portfolio in spite of her proven ineptitude, perhaps she will be ensuring that cigarettes and alcohol are banned because their consumption may lead to increased electricity usage under your version of a State of Disaster. The fact is, Mr President, that any Cabinet shuffle will still leave us with the same rotten ANC members that we already have like the boorish Police Minister. The best of the ANC is substantially worse than the worst of the DA. This country does not need a Cabinet shuffle, it needs a government shuffle. Woza 2024. Woza freedom from the ANC. Woza freedom for all South Africans. I thank you. [Applause.]
The MINISTER OF SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT: Hon Speaker, President of the Republic and president of the ANC, like it or not, by the way, he is the President of the country and the fact that he is the president of the ANC does not mean he is not conscious of the fact that he is the President of the country. The
reason why you see him sitting here throughout and listening to everyone, patiently doing so, is because he is the President of South Africa.
IsiZulu:
Futhi nje, mhlonishwa Somlomo, bengingasoze ngiqale la ngiqala khona manje. Kusuke nje kwaba elinye ilungu umhlonishwa u- Ryder ovele wadelela nje ilanga libalele. Wavele nje wacabanga ukuthi kulungile ukuthi yena athi kuwe ...
English:
... Mr President, how dare you. I wonder if ...
IsiZulu:
... bekungalesiya sikhathi sabo, kume umongameli wabo la, ubengasho ukuthi ...
English:
... how dare you.
IsiZulu:
Usho njalo ngoba uyeyisa. Usho njalo ngoba uyadelela. Usho njalo ngoba uzitshele ukuthi umongameli we-ANC, uMongameli wesizwe, uzotshelwa nguye ukuthi uNkosazana Dlamini-Zuma
kuzofuneka ukuthi kwenziweni ngaye. Azizukutshelwa nguwe-ke Mnumzane u-Ryder.
English:
Get it right today and for tomorrow. Mr President, hon members, ...
IsiZulu:
Inkinga esinayo la kule Ndlu, inking esibhekene nayo ukuthi abanye bavele basukume bazoma la, babhede bese balindele ukuthi sizobalalela. Siyafuna ukunilalela. Sifuna ukunilalela umangabe ninezinto ezithize ezisifundisayo ukuthi sizoyilungisa kanjani iNingizimu Afrika. Umangabe ningakwazi ukwenza lokho, nifuna ukudlala ipolitiki ekuseni nantambama. Hlalani lapho nodwa. Thina siyasebenza. [Ubuwelewele.] Futhi nje, Mnu Mongameli, kwakukhona isikhathi ...
English:
... when people used to clap and make noise and be happy about the antics of Parliament. Mr President, I was one of those but the people of South Africa are tired of it hence I took that decision to say, it shall not happen again. I will tell you why it must not happen, it must not happen because we sit here as Members of Parliament and we have people at home
watching us and copying some of the things that are ugly when they happen here. I repeat, Mr President, the time for our antics are over.
The people of South Africa want to hear how we are going to deal with load shedding. How are we going to deal with water problems? How are we going to deal with housing? How are we going to deal with all the social ills that are facing the people of South Africa? Now that I have said my first say, Mr President, may I thank the Deputy Minister ...
IsiZulu:
... ongigqokise lesi sikibha engisigqokile namhlanje. Ngicela nje bamubone ngoba naye ugqoke sona leso sikibha.
English:
Mr President and Madam Speaker, permit me to observe that pursuant to the spirit of South Africa’s collective hope, common purpose and people-centred action that the President is reviving in all of us through the Sona, please allow me to congratulate South Africa’s women's national cricket team for their triumphant performance against New Zealand on Monday. [Applause.] To them I say, against all odds, you embodied President Ramaphosa’s characterisation that, “it is hope that
sustains us and fuels our determination to overcome even the greatest of difficulties”. Your selfless commitment to the South African collective reminds us of what our society is capable of when acting for a common purpose. Yes, underlying our national character is our collective undefeated spirit, and this spirit has been undefeated since some of us became members and cadres of the ANC when we were 19 years old.
This country was liberated. To the young people of South Africa, please look up to these young women because some people stand up and say you do not have people to look up to. These are the women which I believe young people of South Africa can look up to. Noting 2023 as the year of decisive action to advance the people's interests, individually and collectively, we are better off invoking the forces that draw us together and deploying our respective resources towards carrying out our national mission. Our national mission requires that we draw contributions from each one of our most precious resources, namely each South African, towards the better building of a society. Your deeds must ignite the hearts of your immediate family, community and the people of this land. Your best deeds must be directed towards moulding the people’s collective aspirations into the South African reality that we want. It is the time, Mr President, that you
spoke about gender-based violence and it is the time that we have to be united against fighting all forms of ills in our society and in particularly violence. Not only violence against women and children but violence in general because we still suffer the hang-ups of the olden days of apartheid, days which were instilled in us to say that we need to fight at every corner. Now is the time for us to collectively fight against gender-based violence.
We have a programme which the President spoke to briefly, the National Strategic Plan on Gender-Based Violence and, Mr President, may I take this opportunity to say to those who were criticizing and saying you didn’t say much about it, it is our responsibility, all of us, as Ministers, to come here and explain exactly what we are going to do about it. How are we going to do it and when we are going to do it? Owing to the rising cost of living, and with the view to cushion the most vulnerable among South Africans from the effects of known and novel risks alike, the Department of Social Development in its portfolio is in the process of devising something which scares some people, something which makes the people of South Africa have hope, and that is the basic income grant.
We have already agreed that the people of South Africa who are most vulnerable need it. It is also about what we are going to do about it. While these historic conditions resulted in the innovative delivery of free basic services, including housing, health services, public amenities, and social grants, to the majority of South Africa’s population. I remind you that last year, the Minister of Finance, hon Enoch Godongwana, informed us that the government will be spending R3,33 trillion on social wages over a three years. While we are entering the second year of the three years, we should particularly be mindful that this allocation is targeted at leaving no one behind.
There are those, Mr President, who are saying where this money is going to come from. Let me remind us all, the majority of South Africans who are at home could have, 20-30 years ago, taken care of themselves because they had jobs they could be able to take care of the future, but they were unable to do that. So if they were not able to do that, it becomes our responsibility to take care of them. Notwithstanding the sharp economic growth slowdown globally, and owing to the centrality of the role of the people in the reconstruction of our national life, the Sixth Administration continues to prioritise the provision of all categories of the social wage.
This government considers the dignity of each South African as indispensable, including ...
IsiZulu:
... le eyenu nani enihleli ngapha ngakwesobunxele, neyenu ...
English:
... is indispensable. Mr President, I wish to indicate to the people of South Africa that as the Department of Social Development, we will be coming back with a plan just like all other Ministers, we will be coming back with a plan and the plan is to march towards 2024.
IsiZulu:
Laba abathi bazosibonisa, sizobonisa bona. [Ubuwelewele.]
Mr A M SHAIK EMAM: Hon Speaker, Mr President, Deputy President, hon members in the House, allow me at the very outset to pay tribute to our artist who was gunned down, AKA. Condolences to his family, friends and the country at large.
But also allow me to pay tribute to a selfless leader Mr President, that was brutally and mercilessly gunned down in Eldorado Park, Ayob Mungalee. His only fault was he was doing
what we should be doing in this House, and that is protecting our communities from drug dealers and gangsterism. He was gunned down right in front of this house. May his soul rest in peace.
Allow me also to express my disappointment that we have not said anything about the first indigenous nation, who are the rightful heirs of the land, the water and the minerals in this country, but let’s hope that with the remaining part of the debate something will be said in recognition of their own.
Mr President we’ve heard a whole lot of political parties say a whole lot of things and let us admit we are in a crisis, and we’ve got lots and lots of challenges in this country. But the question is, what are we going to do about it? I think the time has come to admit we have made mistakes; we are facing difficulties and to come together as a united nation to find solutions in the interest of the 62 million people that we serve.
Now, let me say this Mr President, sorry through you hon Speaker or Madam Speaker, local government will never come right. These coalition governments that you see, that are collapsing on a daily basis are not collapsing because they
care about the people on the ground, no Mr President. It is all about corruption and looting, about where we can get more. When you get less today than you go there tomorrow, when you get more there, you’ll come this side. That is what it is all about.
So, I want to plead with you which I’ve done repeatedly Mr President, close the gaps to corruption at local government level. Let’s have a more credible and transparent process. I’m not sure if the Deputy Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs is here, because - with a very good contribution yesterday. [Applause]
What I’m saying is, let us through the local media, provide on a monthly basis the names of every service provider who have been awarded contracts, together with the names of those companies, the values and the itemised billing. That will not eradicate it totally but it will to some extent deter these corrupt politicians that are engaging in coalition governments, particularly if you see what is happening in KwaZulu-Natal and many other parts of the country. That is why there’s very little or no delivery of services.
Mr President, I think one of the problems is and that I must agree that if you’re going to talk about a Minister of Electricity we’re going to need one of water, because the crisis you’re going to face in South Africa of water is going to be 10 times that of energy. I want to say it again and again, you don’t need one for potholes, I’m told you’ve already found one. But, water is a crisis, even though you talk about projects that we want to implement, you are losing 54% of water through leakage and poor infrastructure in the country.
Mr President speak to police officers you will then find out why they’re not motivated. A constable earns R13 000 a month and after deductions takes home about seven or eight thousand rand. The moment he dons that outfit of the police services, and I’m not talking about branded goods of Gucci and others Louis Vuitton, the police outfit, his life is already in danger. Do you know what they get Mr President? Four hundred rand for a danger allowance. Do you think they can do justice? No, they can’t.
Mr President we need to address the state of dysfunctional families. Last year we had 91 000 children give birth to children in this country and we think it’s okay. Let me tell
you the statistics of education Mr President, the pass rate in mathematics and science is so dismal and yet we talk about wanting engineers, what engineers are we going to produce?
Sixty percent of those that go to TVET colleges which you talked here Mr President of funding 30 000, 60% drop out in the first year. That is the state. Children as old as 10 years old cannot read and write Mr President.
Indeed, my time is running out, restricted to five minutes. I have a lot to say Mr President. Lastly, on the issue of land, what stops us from providing every South African family through your local governments, a piece of property which they can call a home and give them back their dignity? Give them the services of water and sanitation. Five years later, they’ll be happy but distribute today to every South African family, through every local government in the country. Thank you very much.
IsiXhosa:
Mnu B B NODADA: Somlomo, malungu ahloniphekileyo ...
English:
... fellow South Africans, ...
IsiXhosa:
... molweni.
English:
Mr President, I sat on these very benches last Thursday night to listen to your Sona speech. To be honest, I did so with little less hope than the thousands of parents who in 1994 put their trust in the ANC to escape oppression. They trusted that Bantu education would be replaced by quality education that would provide a pathway out of poverty and unemployment.
Mr President, imagine a child born into our democracy. Not only their parents’ pride and joy, but the hope of the nation. Let’s take the story of young Khanya, whose name means light, born in Xholobeni. Twenty-nine years into our democracy, Khanya will have to overcome so many obstacles if he is to become one of only three in every 10 young adults who are employed in this country, living a life of dignity.
He like many will quickly realise that he has had the misfortune of being born to one of the 30 million South Africans who live under the R17 a day, stretching their support grant as far as possible to survive child stunting. The reality is that he will most likely be one of the 50% of
Grade 1 pupils who drop out and never complete matric. His parents will soon realise that he is one of eight in 10 Grade
4 children who can’t read for meaning in any language.
Attending one of the 89% of schools without a library to even help him with his reading.
By Grade 6, he surely would have been taught by one of the
1 575 unqualified teachers. Teachers who fail exams for the very same subjects that they teach. Khanya might find himself in one of the chronically overcrowded classes struggling with the pace and content of the Caps curriculum. Khanya’s light is dimming by the day.
Given that South African teachers spend an average of 12% less time teaching than planned, Khanya is most certainly going to be one of the 80% of children who will receive an education that is amongst the very worst in the world across all indicators, sending him to a lifetime of poverty. There is a high likelihood that his life, like thousands of other children, will be endangered in one of the 1 423 schools that still had used pit toilets and dilapidated mud and asbestos infrastructure despite your ANC government’s promise to eradicate them. Or, he might lose his life to violent crime
and behaviour on school grounds like Shawn Mphela, who was fatally stabbed outside Geluksdal Secondary School in Brakpan.
At this point he may even consider dropping out, potentially joining the 3,8 million youth not in education, employment or training. A figure that has increased by over 500 000 young people since your last Sona speech Mr President. If through sheer grit and determination Khanya and the millions of young South African learners beat these odds of poor quality teaching, overcrowding, dropping out, survive dying in a pit toilet or being stabbed to death; and in fact actually pass a matric exam; chances are that they will be part of the 68% of matrics without a bachelor’s pass with slim chances of accessing institutions of higher learning.
Mr President, the real matric pass rate is in fact 54,6%, not 80,1%. [Applause] This paints a darker picture than the one you tried to make us believe on Thursday. Your government has in fact left behind more than 337 000 learners who should have completed matric in 2022. Mr President, your government’s sole focus on quantity means nothing if quality and depth in education is left out of the equation. [Applause.] Only 32% of this cohort achieved a bachelor’s pass and even worse only 13%
will access a university and the rest will be left starring unemployment in the face.
If Khanya and the thousands of learners qualify to access a university, they might form part of the 50 to 60% of first year learners who are unable to cope and fail due to poor foundational education. When the ANC education system is done with Khanya and the millions of young people, they will form part of the seven in every 10 young people who are unemployed, standing at robots with their graduation gowns seeking for jobs, sentenced to a lifetime of poverty by this ANC government.
Mr President, your party’s broken education system has blacked out Khanya’s light and shattered the hopes his parents once carried. Load shedding his future and the millions of young South Africans like him to a life of unemployment. This Sir, is your government’s legacy, the new form of oppression. [Interjections]
IsiXhosa:
I-ANC sele ijike yangumbutho wengcinezelo. Icinezela ulutsha lwaseMzants Afrika ngokubanika imfundo engekho mgangathweni. Imfundo eza kubaqhubela kubomi bentlupheko, apho bangenakho
ukufumana imisebenzi, baphele bengoomahlalela bekhongozele kulo rhulumente we-ANC ongu hohl’esakhe. Nilibulele ikamva labantwana beli Mongameli. [Kwaqhwatywa]
English:
It was at this podium last year Sir, that you promised to eradicate pit toilets and rapidly build more schools to curb overcrowding. Yet, nothing was budgeted nor mention of progress in your Sona speech and you had accepted some of my proposals. It is at this podium where I warned you that poor quality teaching is a major cause of poor quality outcomes, and that you should prioritise the professional development of teachers and establish an independent schools monitoring evaluation authority, to monitor quality teaching in the classroom. Still no action.
I pleaded with you to track, trace and retain learners to schools so that we don’t lose them to unemployment, poverty or crime. You agreed, yet there has been no mitigating strategy to curb the problem thus far. Early literacy is the key Mr President, last year I begged you to prioritise reading, writing, language and numeracy by backing it with a budget to catch up, yet there is still zero in the basic education
budget for reading. There is no silent revolution happening in our schools, Sir there is a thunderous crisis.
However, there is one place working hard to give Khanya a pathway out of poverty, where more learners stay in school until matric, where quality teaching is monitored. There is investment in reading for meaning and, infrastructure is being built. Through its Rapid School Build programme, the DA-run Western Cape has managed to build the equivalent of one school every four days. [Interjections]
Through its independent Schools Evaluation Authority, the Western Cape is promoting quality teaching in the classroom and therefore learners get quality education. And through its reading programme, the DA-run Western Cape is going all-out to address the reading crisis. If children can’t read, they are doomed before they even begin. Children in Western Cape schools are spending an extra 2 hours per week on reading, and a new budget of R111 million has been allocated for reading, targeted at all Afrikaans and IsiXhosa schools. That is why there is double the number of children who can read in the Western Cape in comparison to the rest of the country. [Applause]
Sir, your new purpose vehicle must fly off the paper and be implemented. Fellow South Africans, I know many of you too are Khanya and your light too has been blacked out by the ANC government. [Interjections] Now is the time to cut the ANC’s power. Now is the time to vote for the DA that will forge an education pathway out of poverty. [Interjections] Like Madiba said:
If the ANC does to you what the apartheid government did to you, then you must do to the ANC what you did to the apartheid government.
It is now time to this oppression. [Interjections] I thank you. [Interjections] [Applause]
The MINISTER OF HOME AFFAIRS: Madam Speaker, His Excellency President Ramaphosa, my colleagues in the executive, hon members, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, the speaker who was pranking here like a small chihuahua eating at the heels must be very careful because he belongs to a party that easily does black shedding. He might be black shed next week. So he must just tread very carefully.
Mr President, last year in your state of the nation address, you announced that the Department of Home Affairs will be hiring 10 000 unemployed graduates in the field of IT record and document management. Last week you gave reports by making it known to the nation that the Department of Home Affairs has already appointed the first cohort of these 10 000.
Mr President – yes - we have divided the young ones into three cohorts. The first 2 000, the second 4 000 and the last 4 000.
These first cohorts have completed their training last week in Benoni, and have already been dispatched to all provinces to start their important job. Their first work in their lives.
These young people will be employed for a period of three years to transform these paper records into digital files.
The advert for the second cohort of 4 000 is out already and the closing period is in the next two weeks. All the 10 000 young people will be on the job by the end of April this year.
I must state that the recruitment process unveiled young people with highly impressive qualifications and technical skills. Like 29-year-old Phaphedi Sebjeng from Polokwane in
Limpopo, who has master’s degree in information studies and was hence appointed as one of the Managers’ Digitisation Project. I can assure Mr President that this has nothing to do with where the Minister of Home Affairs is coming from. It just happened.
After your announcement Mr President, there are many people who were asking; what are these paper records all about?
They are actually files of records of birth, marriage, death, IDs, passports and other identification documents that are in our possession since 1895. Some of you in this House might regard this as a mundane project. His Excellency Mr President, some of these records have already helped some families to claim back their land because they were able to prove through the records who their ancestors were.
Now can you imagine if they were to fade away due to age or worse still, to perish in a fire or some natural disaster?
Statistics SA has been digitising these files for the past seven years but were only able to complete five million per annum. Thanks to Treasury for availing R2,4 billion for the
next three financial years for this project of national significance.
Members of the Portfolio Committee on Home Affairs often get irritated when members of the public complain that they have been waiting for a very long time for an amendment or a rectification on their name or date of birth. Remember, when you change anything on your date of birth, or even your name, you actually get a new ID altogether. You are a new person.
Some of these people even resort to the courts and on many occasions the courts rule in their favour.
Now, where is the delay? We actually spend many months because officials have to literally forage among these 350 million records to check the original details that a person seeks to amend. So this project is a significant milestone for us in Home Affairs and the citizens as a whole. Many people will relish not having to pay repeated visits to Home Affairs as they are doing.
Mr President, annually, we get around 80 000 people who want to amend their dates of birth or spelling or something on their surname. You can imagine having to look for 80 000
records among the 350 million. During our Budget Vote last year, we announced that we were going to do everything in our power to provide the public with multiple platforms to acquire identification and travel documents from Home Affairs to avoid the long queues and its attendant hardships. One of such platforms is to offer services in the main shopping malls of the country where people do not have to queue, but come and do their shopping while waiting their turn to be served.
I am happy to announce that systems and equipment have already been set up at Menlyn mall in Tshwane and we are ready to roll in the first week of March.
Yes, Mr President, in three weeks’ time you may go to Menlyn and experience waiting to being served while you are doing your shopping. And I suggest that you take Mr Steenhuisen with you. He is making a lot of noise here. He must go and see what delivery is. Please invite him when you go. Immediately after officiating at Menlyn, we will go to Cresta mall in Johannesburg, the Pavillion in eThekwini and Tygervalley here in Cape Town. We believe that all of those will be functional before the end of the coming financial year. That means this calendar year.
Mr President, we have been accused of acquiring very expensive space from rich mall owners at a very high cost to the state. I want to mention here that for the next five years, we are not going to pay a single cent for rental because this project is mutualism. We bring people to the mall to shop come and the mall give us space and other convenient facilities. So we both gain. [Applause.] On the day that we will be opening Menlyn mall, we will also significantly expand the platform to acquire identification documents. We will be receiving 20 brand new vehicles - mobile Home Affairs units. That means Home Affairs on wheels to travel the length and breadth of the country giving people their identification documents.
We have already put an order for another 100, because these 20 are ready, they are just waiting to be delivered. They are in Gqeberha as I am speaking, at Nissan. But we have already made an order for another 100. In essence, it means we are increasing our mobile offices by 120%, and we will do so every year, at least for the next five years. They are all fitted with in-built generators to deal with load shedding.
Mr President, we are on course in establishing the Border Management Authority. On the 14 July last year, you are aware that we deployed 200 border guards and we are waiting on
Treasury for another 400 border guards. We have been unjustifiably ridiculed by some dishonest and disinterested people, that we are trying to isolate South Africa from the rest of the continent when we manage our borders. Surprisingly at the same time, we are being ridiculed for porous borders.
Mr President, every country I know of in the world is interested to know what is going on at their borders. What is coming in and what is going out. So we are not about to apologise to anybody for deploying border guards to do what other nations of the world are doing. [Applause.]
In the past festive season, from 7 December 2022 to January 2023, the border guards processed 4 037 415 cross
border movements without any hurdle. This time around, because the BMA exists, the Portfolio Committee on Home Affairs did not have to go to the borders to do any oversight. The media who were hiding at Beitbridge, waiting for a catastrophe to happen in the form of chaotic congestion, were phoning us grudgingly asking us what went wrong? Why there were no problems at the borders? Instead of asking what is it that which we have done right this time around.
Yes, we have deployed border guards. They have confiscated – just this December; 2 236kg of non-complying regulated
agricultural projects, 4 120 pairs of counterfeit shoes, eight bars of copper, 13 vehicles. If we count from July, 42 vehicles which were about to leave the country, 11 containers of diesel of 20 litres each. These are some of the things that they have been able to do. They stopped 13 620 undocumented people who wanted to enter our country illegally. Thank you very much. [Applause.]
The SPEAKER: Hon members, I will now suspend proceedings for a
15 minutes’ break. Bells will be rung to alert members to the resumption of business. Business is now suspended. Thank you.
BUSINESS SUSPENDED AT 16:02
RESUMPTION OF THE BUSINESS at 16:20
The PREMIER OF THE NORTH WEST (Mr K B Maape): Hon Chairperson, His Excellency President Cyril Ramaphosa, Speaker of the National Assembly, Deputy Chairperson of the NCOP, Cabinet Ministers, Deputy President of the governing party, hon Paul Mashatile, Members of Parliament, leaders of political parties represented here today, esteemed guests, ladies and gentlemen, good afternoon. In his state of the nation address, the hon President stated that the people of South Africa want action,
they want solutions, they want implementation, and they want government to work for the people.
In responding to this call and what the people desire, our province has prioritised accelerated service delivery and job creation as key focus areas for the next financial year. [Interjections.] The foundation of such a programme requires the building of capacity within government, to allow departments and municipalities to discharge their responsibilities.
I want to speak about a real concrete example and take us away from hypothetical debates. What I try to illustrate is that there is no truth in the statement that there has been a lack of development in municipalities under the tenure of President Ramaphosa. So, I want to take you to a concrete example.
Setswana:
Ke rata go bua ka lefelo la fa ke tswang teng. Ke tswa kwa 1602 Mahura Street, kwa Vryburg. Kwa gae re na le ntlwana boithusetso ya sešwa, pompo le motlakase. Go na le batho ba ba konomakang mebila, ka jaalo, re dula mo go leng phepa teng.
Ditsela tsa rona ga di na sekontere jaaka tsa kwa Mosiapoa, Nelson Mandela le Oliver Tambo, mme seo ga se re tshwenye. Re
letetse gore ditsela tsa rona le tsone ba di tsenye sekontere gonne re ikopetse jalo. Karabo e ba re fileng yona ke go re re letele nako ya rona.
English:
The municipality is busy repairing other streets and this is happening in Colridge, the coloured township. The other day, I was called by Mr Cassim from Kismet Park, which is an Indian residential area, and he said to me that the road leading to our residential area is full of potholes. After three days, he sent me a WhatsApp and he said to me that he is happy because they were repairing the roads. Three days! [Interjections.]
Afrikaans:
Ek praat nie nou teoreties nie, want ek bly daar. Ek is bewus dat Voortrekkerstraat in Vryburg ook herstel word. Ek weet Dr Van Zyl bly daar en hy is baie bly dat hierdie pad nou reggemaak word. Dr Van Zyl was die dokter van Mam Ruth Mompati. [Tussenwerpsels.]
English:
I was pleased to notice that the cemeteries have been fenced. You know, for me, that restores the dignity of people who are buried there.
Last time, I received a report that there was no water at Joe Morolong Memorial Hospital. I was a little bit disturbed, but in no time, MEC Sambatha gave me a report that they have managed to fill the reservoir. Maybe, that is a short-term solution. He went further and said to me that they have discovered a borehole, not far from the hospital and that they were going to use that water to provide water to the hospital on a more sustainable basis. [Interjections.]
Mr President, we are happy that you told us that we must address challenges at the prison. We are doing exactly that. [Interjections.] You are invited to come to Vryburg in April, to officially open a state of the art school there. During that visit in Vryburg, where I come from, - I am not talking theory – you must couple that visit with the opening of the new mall there. The mall came into being through the efforts of the municipality, and it’s going to give employment to many people in that area. [Interjections.]
I want to turn my attention to Ditsobotla. I see many people here are in love with Ditsobotla. When we realised that there were problems in Ditsobotla, we formed a task team and we worked with business. We succeeded with business to tar the roads there, not using money from the municipality, but using
contributions from business. We tarred the roads there. They even repaired faulty traffic lights. [Applause.] [Interjections.]
I always thought that I have friends in the EFF. Now, they are making a noise. I always thought that I have friends in the EFF. Why are they doing this to me? [Interjections.]
Many people speak glibly about section 139 not working and we listened to them. A gentleman was here and he said there were two [Inaudible.] over two years. I think that is hyperboweled. We accepted that. There cannot be truth in that statement, but we intervened. Can you tell us whether you still see two mayors? Can you tell us, because we intervened and we are fixing that municipality? [Interjections.]
We are working very closely now with the Development Bank of Southern Africa, DBSA, and the university to build the capacity there. We are more concerned about solutions, because we realised that the officials there do not have capacity, particularly project preparations and projects and we are responding to the problem. [Interjections.]
You know, there are people who proclaim that there are no roads in the North West, but I am using those roads more than any other person. I travel from Mafikeng to Rustenburg. I travel from Mafikeng to Klerksdorp. I travel from Mafikeng to Schweizer and from Mafikeng to Madibogo. I don’t hit any potholes. [Interjections.]
It is true that some of our roads are not in a good condition. As much as that is true, some roads are in an excellent condition. [Interjections.] So, that is the picture. That is the true picture.
Afrikaans:
Boere kla dikwels oor die pad tussen Wolmaransstad en Schweizer-Reneke, en die pad tussen Koster en Lichtenburg. Hulle kla ook oor die pad tussen Ottosdal en Delareyville. Luister bietjie hier, ons het na die pad tusssen Ottosdal en Delareyville gegaan. Die grootste gedeelte van die pad is klaar. Ek was daar en ek het dit met my eie twee oë gesien. Die pad is uitstekend. Ek is bly daaroor. [Tussenwerpsels.]
Mr X NQOLA: Chairperson, on a point of order: Yes, members are allowed to heckle, but they are now drowning the speaker. You are not protecting the speaker. Please, protect the speaker.
They are drowning the speaker. The speaker is not ... [Interjections.]
The CHAIRPERSON OF THE NCOP: Hon members, I am sure there is no harm in a little bit of heckling, but to drown a speaker is another question all together.
The PREMIER OF THE NORTH WEST (Mr K B Maape): There is a story that people like. The Clover story. There is the Clover story. When we are told that Clover was disinvesting from Lichtenburg, we were very worried. We formed a group some with some ...
The CHAIRPERSON OF THE NCOP: Order! Order, hon members!
The PREMIER OF THE NORTH WEST (Mr K B Maape): ... to look at the problem. We did not understand what the cause of the problem was, until the matter was taken to court. In court papers, Clover stated that the company has been operating in a difficult environment, hence the need to embark on restructuring. They ended up relocating from Lichtenburg, Milnerton, City Deep, Heilbronn, Frankfurt and other places. [Interjections.]
I had the opportunity to speak to one of the farmers there. [Interjections.]
Afrikaans:
Hy sê toe vir my: “Moenie worry [bekommer] oor Clover nie.”
English:
He said: “Their business model is not working here. We want to take over their premises. We want to operate there and we as South Africans are aware that we don’t have electricity, but we are prepared to buy a generator to ensure that we operate.” This is what we want to hear from South Africans. [Interjections.]
I really never thought about a fight with the EFF. I really
... You have been well behaved for the whole day. [Interjections.] How can a person like me provoke you to howl like ... [Interjections.]
The CHAIRPERSON OF THE NCOP: Order, hon members! Order!
The PREMIER OF THE NORTH WEST (Mr K B Maape): We have been interacting with business in the North West. We have interacted with the mines and the person that initiated this
interaction with the mines is hon Gwede Mantashe. We have met with Pilanesburg Platinum Mine, PPM, which said that they are investing R9,4 billion over a five-year period. In that investment, they are going to create 3 300 jobs. [Interjections.]
To the DA, if you go on like this, I will respond to you. I warned the EEF, but you. I warn you. [Interjections.]
The CHAIRPERSON OF THE NCOP: Order, hon members! Can we just ensure that the speaker is able to continue? Can we have a bit of order.
The PREMIER OF THE NORTH WEST (Mr K B Maape): We have met with several mines, such as Samancor and the others and they are all saying that they are expanding. They all said that they like the support.
We have met with the tourism sector and they said that we must repair the roads. We are meeting regularly with organised agriculture.
Afrikaans:
Praat net ... Waar is daai Du Toit? Praat net met Boeta Du Toit en Naude Pienaar. Ons ontmoet gereeld. Ons praat oor landbou in daardie provinsie, en hoe om dit te gebruik, om werk te skep. En daar is vooruitgang.
English:
Some people say that there is nothing happening in the country. I want to tell you that there is a company called Supreme Chickens that invited me and they said that they want
... And they have operations all over our province and they said that they want to invest and expand. It is not only them. Many in the chicken industry are expanding. As a result, I think we are becoming the number one province in the production of chicken. I am just telling you a few stories.
Afrikaans:
Aangesien die DA in my belangstel, ... Ek wonder hoekom hulle in my belangstel.
English:
I just want to say this: You are happy, hon Steenhuisen. You lived in apartheid South Africa. We experienced a situation where our names could be changed willy-nilly. If you are Mthimkulu, the next day you can become Grootboom. Since you
are Steenhuisen, maybe you will become Brickhouse. You must note that, when they do that, they continue to bastardise your name. You might not even end with Brickhouse, you may become brick-something. It does worry me what brick you will become – brick-something. What worries me is your statement, wherein you said that people will vote for you. You only think of black people when you want their votes. You don’t think about them as leaders. With that, we think that you are being patronising and paternalistic. We really don’t like that.
I want to advise you, go and read the book by Amilcar Cabral on unity and struggle. In that book, he defines what people mean. When you read it carefully, you will realise that you do not qualify to be called people. In fact, your party represents the antithesis of people.
Afrikaans:
Laat ek net bietjie met Groenewald en Du Toit praat. Groenewald, hou op. Moenie hier kom en vir ons vertel dat BEE [swart ekonomiese bemagtiging] en affirmative action [regstellende aksie] verkeerd is nie. [Tussenwerpsels.]
The CHAIRPERSON OF THE NCOP: Premier, as you move towards closing. The time, yes.
Mr M NHANHA: The less said about the North West Premier, the better. It explains why North West is in such a mess.
Hon Chairperson of the National Council of Provinces ...
IsiXhosa:
... ngale njikalanga, nam mandizeke mzekweni ndizibulisele kuni noshumi.
English:
I am about to say something that the majority of this House would not want to hear but it is unfortunately the truth and I would speak truth to power. Apartheid was bad, it left many of us with physical and emotional wounds and scars are still visible. But not everything about apartheid was bad.
The democratic government was bequeathed with State Owned Entities, SOEs, with amongst other things well established and functioning SOEs. Guess what the ANC did.
The CHAIRPERSON OF THE NCOP: Hon Nhanha, just a minute. The man at the back, on what point are you rising hon member?
Mr E T MYENI: Yoh, yoh, yoh, yoh! This is very worrisome. Apartheid is a crime against humanity. Chair, can you rule this hon member to order. There is no way he can say apartheid was not bad on all centres, apartheid was bad on every life of South Africans including the same white people. Thank you very much Chair.
The CHAIRPERSON OF THE NCOP: Thank you very much hon member but that is not a point of order. Please proceed hon Nhanha.
Mr M NHANHA: Please look at my time hon Chair. The democratic government was bequeathed with amongst other things well established and functioning SOEs and guess what you ANC did with Eskom, SA Airways, SA Express, Pedro SA, Prasa, SA Post Office, SA Broadcasting Agency and Transnet to mention just a few. The corrupt ANC government systematically obliterated each of these entities some to extinction once others are a shadow of their former glory costing a taxpayer a fortune.
The failed ANC government gives credence to unfounded stereotypes that blacks cannot govern and South Africa will be just another failed typical African state. Many South Africans go to bed without food, others are losing their jobs on a daily basis, businesses are closing due to load shedding. Is
it not shameful that the Minister of Arts and Culture despite all of this wanted to sped R22 million on a 100-metre-tall flag?
To add insult to injury, the South African tourism wants to sponsor Tottenham Hotspur with nearly R1 billion. These are nothing else but a waste of taxpayers’ money by a government that is out of touch with the hardships of its citizens.
Mr President, your cadres in the Eastern Cape municipalities have taken rot, maladministration and corruption to new heights. Public infrastructure is in many municipalities either near or have completely collapsed and Enoch Mgijima is leading the perk.
Shortly before 2021 local government elections, in an attempt by the ANC to get votes, a pomp ribbon cutting event for the official opening of a R15 million stadium in Komane badly backfired. It later transpired that in fact this goat trap called Lesseyton sports field was costing about R22 million.
In February 2022, the cash strapped Enoch Mgijima was at it again. This time they had awarded a tender to construct a mere 6,7 kilometres of road at a cost of R97 million. Industry
Express will tell you that the cost of constructing a
1 kilometre road will cost you just over R1 million.
These days, after shaking an ANC member’s hand, you better count your fingers just in case one if not all of your fingers are missing.
Hon members, let me be clear, the collapse of infrastructure in our municipalities is as a result of corruption perpetuated with impunity by the ANC. However, it is not all doom and gloom in the Eastern Cape. As the saying goes, “every dark cloud has a silver lining”. A DA government in Kouga Municipality is that silver lining. Having inherited a bankrupt municipality from a corrupt ANC administration in 2016, the late executive mayor Elza van Lingen along with her team rolled up their sleeves and got stuck to clean up the ANC mess.
Whilst the country is suffering from load shedding with no plans in place from the governing party except the Minister of Electricity, the executive mayor of Kouga Municipality, Horatio Hendricks is aiming to be less dependent on Eskom.
Our government will be undertaking a six months’ feasibility study to determine the viability of alternative means of renewable energy and power generation by independent corporate users. This study will be completed by the end of June.
Kouga has been hardest hit by the longest drought and they are working all out to provide clean and drinkable water for their citizens. Hon President, start clearing up your desk in the Union Buildings, your time is up. John, Vuli’gate. We want the keys.
IsiZulu:
Siyabangena.
Mr B M HADEBE: I think it was Steve Biko who once said the most important weapon in the hands of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed. Hon Nhanha is the living example of that.
Thank you hon Chairperson, Mr President, all protocol observed. It is one of the greatest fantastic moments in life for me to be standing parallel to you, perpendicular to the ground and vertically opposite to the force of gravity.
Mr President, one of our outstanding freedom fighter Walter Sisulu famously said:
It is the law of life that problem arise when conditions are there for their solutions.
Mr President, last week when you delivered the state of the nation address, you highlighted monumental achievement of this government in meeting the needs of our people. Mr President, your address was an appeal for us to remain hopeful as we navigate difficult challenges that we face as a nation. You called on us to reignite the resilient spirit of our forefathers, our fallen maîtres who against all odds fought for fearlessly and defeated apartheid in order for us to attain freedom in our lifetime. Mr President, you gave us hope against despair, a sense of purpose against disillusionment and courage in the phase of adversity.
Indeed, Mr President, it was a sounding call to come together and stand united as we build our country in the hope for a better tomorrow. Mr President, you demonstrated acute awareness of the challenges we face, you inspired the nation when you said and I quote:
Whatever difficulties of the moment, whatever crisis we face, we will rise to meet them together and together we will overcome them.
Yes, Mr President, united we stand and divide we shall fall like the read overalls and teletubbies on Thursday when they tried to climb up the stage they fell because they were divided.
Madam Speaker, one of the critical challenges highlighted by the President was the question on corruption. On this note Mr President, you presented concrete steps, progress and gains that have been made in reinvigorating our law enforcement agencies to intensify criminal prosecution on State Capture networks, recovery of stolen funds and the seizure of ill- gotten assets.
Hon members, it is on this basis that I rise like a phoenix on behalf of the ANC to commend the good work done under your stewardship and firm hands Mr President.
Hon members, yesterday there was a DA hon member, his initials are L.A, he said Mr President, not even one person believes that you are serious about fighting crime. What a joke.
Mr President, fellow South Africans, today I stand before you to demonstrate decisive action from the executive and our law enforcement agency in addressing corruption and maladministration.
This administration led by President Cyril Matamela Ramaphosa has placed combating corruption as a critical priority and the Parliament in the capable hands of Dj Penza aka Wai Tjukutja has also played its oversight role in ensuring accountability and action is taken in the fight against corruption. Our law enforcement agencies are fully equipped, they operate independently without fear and favour.
Now, fellow South Africans, here are the facts but not fictions. Amongst other critical successes in the fight against corruption, the National Prosecuting Authority, NPA, Investigative Directorate has finalised a long overdue but extensive settlement process with the Swiss-Swedish multinational corporation business, ABB, and this company has paid back R1,5 billion punitive reparations to South Africa. This payment is part of the NPA funding about criminal probe into systematic corruption at Eskom and the company has been blacklisted. Facts not fiction.
The NPA Investigative Directorate only established in 2019 and has taken 187 accused persons to court in 32 State Capture and corruption cases. Facts not fiction.
Over R7 billion has been returned to the state from the State Capture cases including McKinsey & Company, R1 billion settlement related to Eskom. Fellow South Africans, to date R12,5 billion of funds and assets have been frozen. Now this is a decisive action and we should commend and welcome Mr President’s leadership and our law enforcement agencies.
Hon members and fellow South Africans, indeed this administration under the ANC has taken a firm stand against corruption, maleficence in the interest of our people and our revolutionary advance truly ethical and democratic development state.
Fellow South Africans, only on the 1st of April 2020 to 31st of December 2022 under the capable hands of Advocate Mothibi, the SIU has referred 384 companies to be blacklisted. Hon members, blacklisting is one of the important steps to implement consequence management and shows that implicated companies are restricted from doing business with the state.
Three hundred and eighty-four companies are now prohibited from doing business with the state.
Still on SIU, 110 number of motivation for proclamation have been submitted to the President via the Department of Justice. Out of the 110, 69 have been gazetted and 41 are currently being processed by the Department of Justice. As a result of that, just one financial year 2021/22, R6,2 billion value of potential losses have been prevented.
Facts, R5,5 billion value of contracts and administrative decision have been set aside and deemed invalid. Now, this is sterling work done by Advocate Mothibi and his excellent team in the SIU.
Hon members, fellow South Africans, numbers do not lie. The DA and Mr John Wick, hon Steenhuisen, you are entitled to your own opinion but surely not your own facts.
Now, Dj Penza, allow me to take a swipe and deviate a little bit and deal with DA’s myth that where they govern they govern better. By the way, I am an MP deployed in Khayelitsha.
Khayelitsha is my parliamentary constituency office, PCO. Let us deal with the public transport.
The City of Cape Town is a tale of two cities. A city for the rich and a city for the poor. In the City of Cape Town ... as I conclude, let me take this opportunity and thank you Madam Speaker for your leadership last week.
IsiZulu:
Kulaba ababecabanga ukuthi la ikwamagida sbhekane, ikwamam’ uyangichaza, bahlangane nezimbila zithutha ziholwa emhlophe phambili, ama-overall agcwala umoya, bezwa engathi bayasha kanti vele sebeshile. [Ubuwelewele.]
English:
Thank you.
Mr N M HADEBE: Hon Chairperson of the NCOP; Your Excellency the President; hon members – Mr President, considering that you engaged with us on the state of our nation, let us respond with a discussion on the experiences of the people of our nation.
In your address, you communicated that the Department of Water truly has deep knowledge of what is needed, however, the lived experiences of South Africans highlight the department’s shallow understanding of the water crisis.
During the 2022 “NCOP Taking Parliament to the People” in KwaZulu-Natal, where you were also present Mr President, members of the public reported that in the Ugu District, it can take 6 weeks between water deliveries. They claimed that Izingolweni, Ward 33, has been without water for 10 years.
However, the day before the last municipal elections water came gushing out of the community tap in this community. This
lasted until 10 am the following day and then ran dry, which
raises the question if there really is no water or just indifference from the ANC-led government to provide the
services to the people. The Minister of Water and Sanitation visited Ugu in both July and November, yet nothing has
changed. Water is already a crisis in South Africa and we cannot ignore the warning signs following the same route as
the energy crisis. Immediate intervention is needed if we want
to avoid another declaration of disaster in years to come.
At municipal level, we are given the perfect example of the government’s lacking ability to deliver services even under conditions favourable for rectification. When municipalities are placed under administration under section 139, it means that they are desperately in need of help from those who have the skills to execute an emergency plan so that service delivery becomes the main focus. Unfortunately, we are seeing
ineffective administrators merely shift from one failing municipality to another. These administrators have little oversight and there is a lack of clarity on the requirements for consideration of the administrator role and the performance tools used to monitor them.
A few years ago you signed performance agreements with your
Cabinet in what seemed like a promise to afford South Africa
the accountability and service delivery that we deserve. Regrettably, the terms of the agreement you have entered into
have found to have no bite when it comes to ensuring that our Cabinet is free from corruption, and is orientated toward
service delivery and objectives.
As the respective Ministers at the 2022 NCOP week stood up to
the podium to address the plight of the people, which highlighted the true state of the nation, they were unable to
empathise and engage beyond their prepared notes. This emphasises the disconnect between our country's people and her
government.
Mr President, last week in an IFP Statement we mentioned that in your state of the nation address 2022, you highlighted the role of entrepreneurs and small businesses and praised Mr
Thando Makhubu, the founder of an ice-cream shop, the Soweto Creamery, whose business provides employment to four people. Fast-forward to the state of the nation address 2023. Thank you, Chair. [Time expired.]
The MINISTER OF BASIC EDUCATION: Chair, the Excellency the President of the Republic of South Africa, President Matamela Ramaphosa, the hon Speaker and Deputy Speaker, the Chairperson and Deputy Chairperson of the NCOP, leaders of different political parties, Whips, colleagues, hon members, ladies and gentlemen, I stand here to address you in full support of the state of the nation address, which was delivered by our President.
But allow me Speaker, to quote from the February 2021 publication of the Development Bank of Southern Africa, which succinctly summarises “the role of education in economic development” and it says, and I quote:
Education in every sense, is one of the fundamental factors of development. No country can achieve sustainable economic development, without substantial investment in human capital. Education enriches people’s understanding of themselves and the world. It
improves the quality of their lives, and leads to broad social benefits to individuals and society. Education raises people’s productivity and creativity; and promotes entrepreneurship and technological advances.
In addition, it plays a very crucial role in securing economic and social progress and improving income distribution.
Therefore, Chair, access to, retention as well as inputs in the quality of equitable education are the critical determinants of strategic and structured developments of the socio-political economy of every country.
We are Chair, as the ruling party very proud and encourage of the improvement we have made in schools. We are on the other hands also concede that more needs to be done to contribute to skills, knowledge, competencies and innovation.
The ruling party indeed great as it is - was correct in declaring education as a societal matter. They have solid foundation for an equitable, quality and efficient education system. It is thus very important to acknowledge the work that has been done by the business or partnership that we have struggled with business, with different provincial
departments, civil societies, statutory bodies, learners, teachers and parents. Speaker ...
IsiXhosa:
... njengokuba uNodada ezithethela njee ezidadela ...
English:
... I can say can report that our Basic Education system is, indeed a system on the rise, a fact that was recently recognised by the World Economic Forum in its exposé of “Countries with the best education systems in Africa”. From amongst the all African countries, South Africa was rated the 4th top country with the best education in the continent. [Applause.] South Africa at number four it followed Orania, which has a population of 4,6 million. It was the third best system, Tunisia with a population of 12,3 million, it was the second best system and Seychelles was the leading African country with the population of less than a 100 000 people. So indeed, in terms of our size we remained the best system in the continent. [Applause.]
IsiXhosa: Akutsho mna.
English:
So President, as we are congratulating the class of 2022 with the remarkable pass rate of over 80% we really have to congratulate them and say other points I have raised before about the class of 2022 but I really I think we are making a mistake if ...
IsiXhosa:
... andimphenduli uNodada kwamsinya. Uyazithethela njee into angayaziyo umntwana womntu. Uthetha ngezinto ezingenasihlahla ahamba eziva.
English:
And I will respond to some of things that Nodada has said. Amongst others before ...
IsiXhosa:
... ndibhekise kuwe Nodada ...
English:
... I want to remind the House that this cohort that gave us
80 plus pass rate it’s a group that was registered for Grade 1 in 2011. Out of 1, 1 million 775 000 of them accessed education, which equates to about 65,7% of the pass rate.
Bearing in mind that currently we even have 500 000 learners in Tvet colleges 400 000 of them went straight to Tvet colleges coming from schools.
And again gain Chair, we want to say also that this cohort is the second highest pass rate which was achieved since the introduction of the National Senior Certificate exams.
IsiXhosa:
... eyenze ...
English:
... wonderful Cape Town and I really don’t want to compete with Cape Town because Cape Town kids are also kids and we are a national structure ...
IsiXhosa:
... asingonomgogwana wendlu enye.
English:
We really appreciate all of them but we can say this very cohort has seen one of the biggest provinces in KwaZulu-Natal even ...
IsiXhosa:
... ibabuyisele emva ooSchoongezicht bashiyeka phaya kwinqanaba lesine.
English:
So, some of the facts that we want to raise will be contained in the report. The other point I also want to raise is this myth about 30%. And I want to say slowly, Chair. I think I should briefly speak to the notion of the pass rate of 30%, which has been the subject for discussion for some time now. Let me start off by saying that the notion that you can pass your matric by just obtaining 30% is not true. Actually the current system does not work on averages. If any candidates get 30% aggregate, that candidate will have fail. I just want to remind members of the public about what are the requirements. For instance, to get a Bachelor Study, which is the majority of learners that passed in this 81%, you have to pass at least one subject at 40%, which is your Home Language and it does not mean that you had to get 40%, four of your subjects must be at 50%. [Applause.]
To get a Diploma, you have to get minimum of 40% and three of your subjects must be at 40% and the requirements are saying that you must at least pass six ...
IsiXhosa:
... asisebenzi nge ...
English:
... average, six out of seven subjects for you to pass.
IsiXhosa:
Ngoko ke, le nto ithethekayo yama-30 ekhulwini ...
English:
... I think it has been raised and I also want to report, Chair, that the concerns that were raised on this matter, as early as 2014, President, I did establish a Ministerial Task Team to evaluate the National Senior Certificate and address some of the concerns raised. And the team was led by Professor Brian O’Connel, comprising distinguished and experience educationist, Professor Howie was there, Elspeth Khembo was there, Godwin Khoisan was there, Professor Shireen Motala was in the committee and Professor Renuku Vithal was there. And they made a number of recommendations, amongst others saying we have to reduce the number of examinable subjects from seven to six and we decided to keep it at seven because we really felt that we still want very high quality passes. But the long and short of their report was saying and I want to quote. It
says ... [Interjections.] It says, let me just repeat. It recommended that overall recommendation of these team ...
Sesotho:
... eseng lehlokwana la tsela ...
IsiXhosa:
... okanye into ethethwa njee apha esithubeni ...
English:
... was that we should retain the pass requirements of Basic National Senior Certificate as is.
IsiXhosa:
Apha bekuthetha ooprofesa, bekungathethi noba ngubani oza
kuthetha izinto aziva esithubeni. Andisayi kumamela abantu abava izinto esithubeni ezingenasihlahla bekhona ooprofesa. Ooprofesa
bathe siyibambe kule ndawo ngolu hlobo.
English:
That’s why we are here. So Speaker, I also wish to inform South Africans, that the Council of Education Ministers, we have also agreed on the comparative analysis of provincial performance, using a basket of indicators, comprising the
overall pass rate so that we don’t only rely on percentages but look at a basket of indicators. And they really give us very interesting results, which shows that there is no province in essence outside the percentages, which is better than any other. Those baskets of indicators will indicate that
KwaZulu-Natal has the highest uptake of maths. It will indicate that Limpopo and Eastern Cape have the highest
retention so that kids don’t drop out earlier and it would
also show quite a number of indicators that are not found even in what you call your top provinces and we will be using that
in the future.
But we also wish to inform the public on the latest innovations we are currently piloting. To better understand
the learning trajectory from primary to secondary schools, a
Systemic Evaluation study, which is currently underway.
The CHAIRPERSON OF THE NCOP: As you move towards closing. [Interjections.]
IsiXhosa:
UMPHATHISWA WEMFUNDO ESISISEKO: Kuthiwani?
The CHAIRPERSON OF THE NCOP: Is time, Minister! [Interjections.}
Setswana:
TONA YA THUTO YA MOTHEO: Ke tswelele pele? [Setshego.] [Legofi.]
English:
The CHAIRPERSON OF THE NCOP: Thank you very much, Minister. [Interjections.]
Mr S M JAFTA: Hon Chairperson, President Ramaphosa delivered his seventh state of the nation address last week Thursday. Let’s do the count properly, in his first address in 2018, the President extensively recited Hugh Masekela’s composition, Thuma Mina.
In retrospect, we know that the meaning of the song has been distorted throughout the President’s term. There is no hand shown to lend. There is a regression from the past years and a complete lack of vision. In our view, it was ironic that the President left out Letta Mbulu’s iconic song that says Not Yet Uhuru back in 2018. The song depicts the real state of our nation. Mbulu reminds us in the song that:
IsiZulu:
Umhlaba wakithi bo,
Usemi ndawonye,
Akukho mehluko kulelizwe,
English:
She goes on to say:
IsiZulu:
Ilifa lezithutha,
Lidliwa ngabahlakaniphileyo,
English:
As expected, she urges South Africans to break the shackles. This sentiment is unusually shared across the spectrum and among retired judges, academics, professionals, capital, trade unions, the working class and the poor. They all insist that the crippled electricity supply, state corruption and the dire living conditions of our people must rally everyone into action to end the reign of this poor administration.
This ... [Inaudible.] ... believes that the current crises constitute a failed revolution. Hon members, the President is fond of hope. The following timeline reflects this obsession. From 2019, the word “hope” appears not less than 15 times in his multiple Sona addresses to the nation. The President is
perpetually hopeful. It is not, regrettably, hope that will address the widening Gini coefficient and the income per capita divide in the country
Hope will not get us secure electricity. Hope will not reverse the impact of load shedding on businesses and farmers who continue to be the hardest hit by this calamity. We need decisive leadership, not hope. We know under President Mbeki that the interest of the country took precedence over those of the ANC membership. President Mbeki would not have created an electricity department out of fear of firing a dismal Energy Minister. Where are Mbeki’s courage and foresight?
It is this courage and foresight which saw a budget surplus of 0,6% of GDP back in 2007. The President must lead with a firm hand. The President has to realise that, given that South African coal is competitive on the world market, Eskom will be affected by the increases in coal exports. To deal with this, the President must urgently proclaim coal as a strategic resource to disconnect the domestic market price from the export price.
This will be a temporary measure pending the maintenance of Eskom’s power plants. We are also of the view that demanding
the Ministers to meet their KPIs instead of burdening the fiscus with continuous duplicate-ridden appointments conjures up bold leadership. In closing, we wish to offer the following solutions to the President; to end unemployment among the unemployed graduates; a graduate supplier development fund must be created to provide said funding for graduates who want to be entrepreneurs. So the President must be decisive and we also want to advise him to bolster the capacity of the state to industrialise and an import substitution strategy must be established immediately. To end load shedding, electricity generation must be left to the private players, at least in the interim while Eskom continues to maintain its old plants. I thank you.
The PREMIER OF MPUMALANGA (Ms Refiloe Mtstweni-Tsipane): Madam
Speaker and Chairperson of the NCOP; His Excellency, the President of the Republic of South Africa, Mr Cyril Ramaphosa; hon Chairperson and our hon members, I want to join the millions of South Africans who have congratulated you, Mr President for delivering a comprehensive address, premised upon unity in purpose to steer this country back to a path of sustainable development in this year of decisive action to advance the people’s interests and the renewal of our nation.
It is fitting that the President delivered the proverbial umkhombandlela for government at all levels, here in the City Hall of Cape Town, where the father of our nation, uTata Nelson Mandela gave his first public address as a free man, 33 years ago.
Mr President, your presence on that seminal day and the faith
uTata Mandela had in you, primed you to lead this beautiful
nation through the most challenging period since the advent of our democratic dispensation.
Just like uTata Mandela, you are an emissary of hope for a
better future of our people. Your address last week reminded all of us, of the South Africa we want to build for the
benefit of our future generations.
A South Africa with equal opportunities, a South Africa that
actively protects the dignity of her people and a South Africa that brings to fruition the Freedom Charter's declaration that
no government can claim authority unless it is based on the will of the people.
Our renowned Constitution and the laws that stem from it, have shown that no political democracy can survive if the majority
of our people remain in poverty and without prospects for a better life.
As such, our work in Mpumalanga is premised upon accelerating socioeconomic transformation that will materially change the
quality of life of our people.
We welcome the bold and ambitious initiatives that shall be
embarked upon to address the electricity shortfall. We agree with you, that, in the short term, priority should be given to
fixing Eskom’s coal fired power stations, in order to improve existing supply.
Secondly, and most importantly, from Mpumalanga’s perspective,
is the acceleration of procurement of new capacity from
renewables, gas and battery storage.
We have taken heed of what the President emphasised in the Sona address, when he stated that and I quote:
We will continue our just transition to a low- carbon economy at a pace our country can afford and in a manner that ensures energy security. Above all, our just transition
will prioritise workers and communities in vulnerable industries to ensure that no one is left behind.
As we are all aware, Mpumalanga is home to 12 coal power stations that produce 80% of electricity for the country. Most
of these power stations are now reaching the end of their lifespan. One of them has already been de-commissioned.
We are also mindful that most of the economic activities that are polluting the environment leading to high carbon
emissions, are based in Mpumalanga.
The impact of these carbon emissions is catastrophic, not only to the environment but also to the overall health of our
people and therefore, we need to double our effort to balance
economic activities in our province with the urgency to transition to a low-carbon economy.
In an effort to adequately balance the issue of high carbon
emissions and the need to produce sustainable and green energy, we convened an energy summit last year. The summit brought together stakeholders from various sectors such as government at all levels, our private sector, civil society formations and organised labour.
Along with an incredible inheritance of mineral resources, our province also has extremely rich solar and wind resources. As technology has evolved, it is now becoming possible to convert these wind and solar resources into sources of clean energy and value for the province.
When we hosted the Energy Summit, we were aware that globally,
and in South Africa, there are increasingly urgent imperatives
for low-carbon development.
The summit gave more drive and a sense of urgency towards the implementation of the Mpumalanga Green Economy Development
Plan. The plan propagates the proactive exploration of opportunities in the Green Economy for opportunity-led growth
and to transition our economy to a labour-absorbing green-
focused province.
At this summit, a new vehicle of partnership was launched. This is the Mpumalanga Green Energy Cluster Agency, which is
comprised of representatives from academia, Industry and Government.
10 months into its existence, I am pleased to report that the agency is already working with private sector players to
remove barriers to the development of over three gigawatt of renewable energy projects in our province. [Applause.]
Since the launch of this agency, I am happy to also announce the signing of over R78 billion worth of investment
declarations, by developers interested in investing in renewable energy projects in our province. This makes it even
more urgent to remove barriers to economic development
embedded in our bureaucratic processes as spheres of government to enable these investments.
To this end, the Green Cluster Agency, has produced market
intelligence reports for the green economy, identifying and quantifying opportunities for green jobs and investments in
water, agriculture and energy value chains.
For us in Mpumalanga, just transition is not only limited to
energy but also to preserving our scarce water resources, pursuing agriculture in a climate-friendly manner, investing
in skills and promoting circular economic activities. All these practices are crucial in saving our planet.
We will position our province to remain an energy hub that plays a leading role in the production of renewable energy and
associated activities. We shall apply for the classification of a second Special Economic Zone, SEZ, in Secunda in support of green energy and associated industries.
Working in partnership with the Presidential Climate
Commission, the Climate Investment Fund and the World Bank, we are exploring plans to; diversify our local economies to
reduce dependency on coal; re-skilling and upskilling the most
vulnerable in the labour force; and supporting small businesses and co-operatives in local communities to access
emerging opportunities in the green economy sector.
Once again, we remain thankful to you Mr President, for raising the matter of climate change and the just transition
in a manner that takes into account the importance of concrete
actions for mitigation, adaptation and sustainable economic development pathways.
Hon Chairperson, the hard lockdown has had an adverse impact
on employment in our province, especially amongst women, young people and people with disabilities.
To contextualise and put this into perspective, our unemployment rate was at around 35,1%. Worryingly, the
unemployment rate amongst young people, between the ages of 15 and 34 years is around 46,5%.
In order to decisively address this problem, we have developed the Mpumalanga Economic Recovery and Reconstruction Plan,
MERRP. This plan is an important vehicle to accelerate the implementation of key catalytic projects, which will not only
stimulate growth, but shall also be highly labour intensive
with a key focus on young people, women and people with disabilities. [Applause.]
Through this plan, we will be rolling out high impact green
economy initiatives and industrialisation through localisation, employment stimulus initiatives, tourism and
agriculture programmes.
An important pillar of the MERRP is the strategic positioning
of our province as a tourism destination of choice.
Our province is endowed with tourist attractions that encompass scenic beauty, wildlife and diverse heritage. We are in the process of augmenting our natural attractions with artificial and adventurous sites.
One of the key sites whose construction will commence in March this year, is the God’s Window Skywalk which is a Public Private Partnership, PPP, project aimed at attracting between
45 000 to 60 000 tourists along the Panorama tourism route.
The project is planned to be complete and operational in March
2025.
Another, PPP project is the development of a cable car linking
Drie-rondavels view site and Swadini Dam.
In the Barberton Makhonjwa Mountain World Heritage Site, we will be building an education centre, geo-sites and geo-trails
in order to make the site appealing to academic tourists interested in anthropology.
All these developments are aimed at increasing tourist arrivals, both domestically and internationally.
Hon Chairperson, in order to address the scourge of youth
unemployment and the acceleration of youth participation in the mainstream economy, we came up with an initiative to support youth-owned enterprises called the Premier’s Youth Development Fund which has to date, funded 97 entrepreneurs to
the tune of R140 million in various sectors of the economy. [Applause.]
The impact of the Premier’s Youth Development Fund has been enormous and has resulted in the creation of sustainable
employment opportunities for young people, women and people with disabilities.
Chairperson, the ANC-led government is driven by the moral duty to preserve the dignity of the people of our beautiful
country.
In our province, a large majority of our people now have access to water, not negating the fact that some of our
communities, are still accessing water through water tankers
and communal stand pipes.
In order to address these challenges, we are in the process of rolling out the massive Loskop Dam Regional Bulk augmentation
project, which will benefit the people of both Thembisile Hani and Dr JS Moroka Local Municipalities. [Applause.]
Secondly, the construction of a dam in the City of Mbombela, will further enhance and guarantee reliable bulk provision for
our communities. Feasibility studies are currently underway and indications are such that the dam construction shall be completed by 2027.
Our consistent implementation of the Economic Reconstruction
and Recovery Plan as guided by the strategic interventions announced by you, Mr President, is gradually paying off.
The implementation of the District Development Model is also beginning to show positive results. Since its inception in
2021, all three spheres of government have been working closely together, especially on high impact catalytic projects
yielding better synergies, economies of scale and stronger intergovernmental relations.
Our district municipalities are now central in the implementation of service delivery programmes within their
respective districts. Projects such as the Nkomazi Special Economic Zone, SEZ, God’s Window Sky Walk, Nkosi City, Steve
Tshwete Hotel and Convention Centre, Loskop Dam, to name just a few, which are projects that have attracted billions of rand of investments.
Hon Chairperson, we also want to applaud the Security Cluster for having worked swiftly with other sectors of law- enforcement in government to bring stability in Mkhondo Local Municipality.
For a long period of time, the people of Mkhondo have been living in fear and terror of the rolling brazen shootings that
have been going on in the area.
We also welcome the recent decision by the Minister of Police
to establish a dedicated investigative unit, to investigate 19 politically related murders that have blighted our province
for the past 15 years. We want to urge both the Ministers of Police and Justice and Correctional Service, to ensure that
justice is served.
Our province, not only managed to arrest a decline that had
commenced with the 0,3% reduction in the overall pass rate in the matric class of 2021.
We managed to record a 3,2% increase in our overall pass rate, to 76,4 % for the matric class of 2022. This was attributable to various interventions we have embarked upon to ensure that teaching and learning proceeds without hinderances.
For the past two years, we have invested significantly in e- learning, by procuring 64 000 tablets preloaded with data, e- textbooks, study guides, literature and past question papers with a specific focus on matriculants.
The tablets also allowed students and teachers to establish support chat groups and be able to work beyond the four walls
of the classrooms.
Mr President, once again we want to appreciate the sterling
work that you have done last week. Thank you very much. [Applause.]
Mr W M MADISHA: Mr President, when you became President of our country I became very happy, in that because you acknowledged the terrible mistakes made by your organisation and those who came before you. You promised South Africans a ‘New Dawn’. You said with your ‘New Dawn’ you would address problems of poverty, unemployment, corruption, state capture, inequality, absence of skills development and many more that South Africans faced.
But after having listened to you for two hours a few days ago as you delivered your state of the nation address, I ashamedly
accepted that your ‘New Dawn’ is in fact a ‘New Darkness’; permanent darkness for South Africans. [Interjections.]
South Africans received nothing from your ‘New Dawn’, they are hungry and unsafe. We are, at the moment, in the top five in the world of the extremely poor countries.
Now, on the state of disaster you have declared, it is a very serious decision. We are not faced with an earthquake. If that was the case, a state of disaster would be the first compulsion. You know, Mr President, why we are faced with this problem.
The present situation is the continuation, President, of what happened in 2008 and 2014. The Presidency, I’m referring to yourself and Mr Zuma, was informed about the causes of loadshedding by the Special Investigating Unit, SIU, which had been instructed to investigate.
The SIU report indicated that key causes were: Firstly, corruption. Eskom employees made deals with coal suppliers and got kickbacks, so, the problems were self-created.
Secondly, deals with coal suppliers were made without any proper tender processes, some tenders were given to coal companies, those tenders lasted for more than 10 years. As you know, sir, those tenders raised Eskom’s debt to more than R1,4 trillion. Even Deloitte and Touche auditors, and another international company called Dentis, gave you, Mr President, reports that proved dirty dent tenders given by Eskom
employees to diesel companies which were not even known in the diesel industry. Brokers were used and they gave employees kickbacks, and I’m talking here about millions of rands.
South Africa has coal, but quality coal is exported to Germany, China and other countries. [Interjections.] We need that quality coal for electricity. We do not need a Minister for all this. We are saying that you must employ engineers so that they can deal with this thing.
What must be done to solve these problems: Firstly, you must revisit fuel, including diesel, duty levies; secondly, you must deal with corruption in Eskom itself; thirdly, you must assess wind and solar systems so that help can emerge; fourthly, improve age average of assets, given that most of them are very old.
Just forget about saying you increase and increase and increase your Cabinet. Some of them, like I’ve said on very many occasions, would not even know them, they are there just to take money and do whatever they want to do and not to take that to the people of South Africa.
I, therefore, want to say that: Sorry, Morena, you have failed again. [Interjections.]
The MINISTER OF HEALTH: Chairperson of the NCOP, also my greetings to the hon Speaker of the National Assembly, his excellency, the President of the Republic, President Ramaphosa, our executive colleagues, Ministers and Deputy Ministers, Premiers, hon members, distinguished guests, thobela [good afternoon.].
I appreciate this opportunity ... let me thank my Chief Whip for the opportunity to participate in this very important state of the nation debate based on the address of the President on the evening of the 9th of February.
I think the less said by predecessor on this platform ... because I think, firstly, we shouldn’t blame him, first of all he needs to sort out who is the leader of their party
[Laughter.] once that is sorted out I’m sure he can be able to advise us on any matter; let’s start there first.
Mr President, a year ago when you delivered the state of the nation address we were still in the grip of the high levels of the COVID-19 pandemic, having just been gone through the fourth wave driven by the Omicron Variant.
Few months before that our country and the Southern African Development Community, SADC, neighbours had been isolated from the world through travel bans. Today all this, I think to very many hon members here who are able to cast lot of aspersions, it looks like maybe this was just an amnesia, it looks like it never happened in their lives.
President, you made a commitment, at that time, that we would end the state of disaster and lift all the restrictions when the situation was right. And at that stage, as well, the doubting Thomases did not believe you, now it sounds like déjà vu, that indeed, we went on as you promised to deliver. Before the end of April last year, we had already lifted the state of disaster and by the 22nd of June we had lifted all the restrictions in relation to the pandemic.
Interestingly just yesterday, the government was in court, led by the Minister of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs, CoGTA, with one of the organisations which opposed the state of disaster, but now the same organisation is in court with us because it is claiming that it was illegal to terminate the state of disaster. So, when hon Mantashe spoke about people who speak from both sides of the mouth [Interjections.] I’m sure this particular organisation must be somehow linked to some of hon members on this side; who speak from both sides of their mouths.
On the one extreme as we were looking after the health of the country as we went through ... [Sound cut off for over one and half minute.] ... memorial hospital, may their souls rest in eternal peace.
When we see serious flare ups of the covid in some of the countries abroad like China, Taiwan and others, this becomes a reminder that, indeed, it’s not all over. But here at home, through the leadership of the government of this country led by the President, whenever we just see small fires, as Prof Carrim once warned us that we must deal the small flames before they become wild fires. I think the way we dealt with
it under your leadership, clearly, we have not seen any flames, we have only seen small fires.
I want to say, vaccination is still the best protection for all of us and for all South Africans. [Interjections.]
At the present moment, under your leadership, President, I’ve administered just under 49 million doses of vaccine, 51,1% of the adult population is covered through vaccination. But we want to say, even today that, it’s still time to come forward, we still need protection.
The boosters, we have the capacity to administer for those who still haven’t taken their first jab, but also for those who are eligible for boosters.
Just to remind hon members and members of the South African public that adults between the ages of 18 and 49 years can get their boosters after 90 days of their last jab. And also whether it was Pfizer or Johnson and Johnson, J&J, you’re eligible for boosters. But also, for those who are 50 and above, you can also get one booster, you are also eligible after every 90 days to get another booster because the virus is still in our midst. So, we urge everybody to come forward
and be protected; we don’t want to see what is happening in some of the far-flung countries. [Interjections.]
Your leadership, President, in this fight against covid and the campaign for equity of access to the tools, including vaccines and therapeutics, is recognised in the African continent but also beyond. As a result of this, over the last year of 2022 we have received various invitations, either directed to the President or to the Ministry of Health, to take part in various discussions about pandemic preparedness and prevention, including at the United Nations, UN, where the President was invited and we had the honour of representing him there.
But I can say to the members of this House and to the nation that, indeed, South Africa is held in high esteem in terms of how managed to deal with the pandemic and how we still protecting our population. [Applause.] [Interjections.]
The pandemic and the steps we have taken resulted in some setbacks in as far as dealing with some of our health programmes, including childhood vaccines. One of the results of such has been the recent outbreak of measles, starting in the Limpopo province in October and then spreading to
Mpumalanga, North West, Free State and Gauteng province. At the current moment, just over 500 children have confirmed measles.
Vaccination programme is being rolled-out. We have the capacity and the abilities, so, all provinces are rolling-out vaccination for measles for children between 6 months and 15 years. We take this opportunity to call on all parents to make sure that they can check their children’s road to health cards. And if you are not sure about the vaccination status, take your child to the nearest health facility so that they can be vaccinated against measles. [Interjections.] The nearest clinic and the nearest hospital.
On Sunday the 5th of February we confirmed that two sisters from Diepsloot in Johannesburg were confirmed by laboratory test to have contracted the disease of Cholera after travelling to Malawi, our neighbour. In Malawi Cholera has really taken a very high toll with more than 1 200 people already passed away from this. Since then, a third member of the family was also confirmed to have Cholera.
But almost 10 days after this, the cases have remained only the three and there’s no further clinical and laboratory
confirmation. And we are confident that ... because the incubation period for Cholera is two to five days. We are confident that this is now being contained. But we, nevertheless, still call upon all South Africans to take the necessary precautions because Cholera can be prevented with using clean water, but also making sure that we keep hand hygiene whenever we use the bathroom.
Another area that we are busy with in terms of catching up is in the area of combating HIV, Tuberculosis, TB, and Sexually Transmitted Diseases, STIs. During the high levels of covid and various restrictions, a number of people testing for HIV had reduced and also those who initiated on treatment had been going down.
But under the SA National Aids Council, SANAC, we have developed a catch-up plan and a welcome back for those who have stopped taking their treatment.
Similarly with Tuberculosis, there was a reduction in terms of people who have been tested and those who were starting on treatment and similarly ...
The CHAIRPERSON OF THE NCOP: As you move towards closing.
The MINISTER OF HEALTH: ... we have started our catch-up in terms of this.
With the situation being stabilised I can say to you, excellency, President, and members, that we are also catching up in terms of improving the quality of services [Interjections.] including infrastructure, which we are rolling-out all over the country.
One of the flagships which we’ll be launching in the next few weeks is the Limpopo Academic Hospital, which will change the state of health services in that province and reduce the ... [Time expired.] ... need for people to travel from Limpopo to Gauteng for specialised treatment. [Applause.] So, siyaqhuba [we are working.].
Ms N K SHARIF: Hon Chair, today, I stand here to echo the voices of women who have been lost. Women whose innocence has been stolen, young girls who would be murdered today, tomorrow and next week. These voices cannot go unheard.
With all due disrespect, Mr President, declaring gender-based violence and fermicide, GBVF, a pandemic without proper ring- fenced budgets, prioritizing implementation, proper resourcing
of GBVF frontline workers and without any political will is misleading and frankly patronizing. Now it is the time for the debates to stop! GBVF is not a tool to be used for politics.
Minister Cele, this is our lives. The crime stats paint a socking picture of your importance to protect women. You have the nerve to shamefully weaponise the experience of women on this stage and use it as a cheap gimmick.
The crime stats are staggering. In the last five years there have been 281 806 sexual offences, 223 5444, rape, 40 909 sexual assaults. These are not just stats or numbers; these are real people’s lives. I want you to think long and hard about this, Minister, “lucky to be raped once”. It’s estimated that only 4% of rape incidents are reported, which means the number of people who have been raped since 2017 up until 2022 could be as high as 5,5 million. Take a moment, Mr President, let that sink in. The National Strategic Plan, NSP, is meant to combat this. We must interrogate the progress of the NSP and ensure its implementation before it becomes a dusty file in a shelf in an office. The work civil society has put into the NSP cannot be wasted.
There is still no national council of GBVF. Let us starts there. what is your intervention, Mr President? What did not
you tell us what is happening there? Instead, we have a secretariat that is getting paid money but is not meeting targets. Is this what you call the fight against GBVF? Because to me it’s pretty weak. Let’s talk facts, 52% of the measly R21 million budget is allocated to departments for the NSP has been used and only 22% of the targets have been achieved. That is a massive failure. Whatever way you look at it, 22 out of
100 is a massive fail. And 35% of targets not achieved is even worse. You should all hang your heads in shame. The numbers speak for itself. What this means in simple terms ... [Inaudible.] ... is that the fight against GBVF is failing. The lack of progress lays at the feet of the ANC-led government, and as South Africans we must take it upon ourselves and fire them at the polls.
Mr President, you focused on load shedding, but failed to consider and address its effects on GBVF. Like everything in society, gender-based violence and its interventions will be impacted by the energy crisis. In a country that already hates women, being in total darkness so often, poses so many risks to the direct safety. Walking, driving home or being alone in complete darkness has increased our anxiety that we as women feel everyday living in this country. How much more must we suffer before we are taken seriously?
You glossed over Sexual Offences Courts, but failed to address the effects of load shedding on continuous and increased postponements of multiple GBVF cases across the country. Load shedding has forced the Johannesburg High Court, for example, to return to online hearings or finding alternative venues.
And magistrates and regional courts may have resource constraints that limits their ability to have online hearings. The continuous postponement of cases causes major secondary degree trauma to victims, while in many cases the perpetrator is out on bail.
Mr President, resilient won’t save us, only bold action will. Being resilient cannot be the start and the end of women in this country. Tomorrow, in your rebuttal, I urge you to choose action over resilience. I thank you.
The MINISTER OF COMMUNICATIONS AND DIGITAL TECHNOLOGIES:
Chairperson, His Excellency, President of the Republic of South Africa, hon Speaker of the NA, Chairperson of the NCOP, Deputy President of the governing party, the African National Congress, hon members, fellow South Africans ...
Tshiven?a:
... ndi masiari.
English:
In the not so distant future, we should be able to use predictive technology of artificial intelligence, AI, to amongst others detect undue conduct in this House to strengthen the work of the Speaker in upholding the decorum of the House and maintaining order. In this regard, we have established the Artificial Intelligence Institute of South Africa, AIISA, which was launched on 30 November 2022, in partnership with the University of Johannesburg and the Tshwane University of Technology. In part, as an acknowledgment that AI technology holds the greatest potential of resuscitating socio-economic recovery and development of the country and secondly, in line with the Recommendations of the Presidential Commission on the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
Home-grown AI solutions are being developed within the AIISA to support the application of AI across sectors and harness innovation-based production for commercialization. The immediate beneficiaries of the work of the AIISA and in support of the great strides underway to improve the quality of basic education. Of course, the masters of contradictions would want South Africans to believe otherwise. And supported by the Chemical Industries Education and Training Authority,
CHIETA, youth linked to the AIISA JBS-Hub have developed a virtual science laboratory that will be rolled-out to Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math, including Computer Science, STEM, schools without science laboratories, and this would enable learners to perform science experiments virtually instead of the current situation where they only read science experiments in their textbooks, thus using technology to bridge societal gap. The Tut-Hub will be launched in March 2023 and four new centres of excellence of the AIISA will be established in the 2023-24 financial year.
At this point, I would like the House to join me in extending well wishes to Professor Tshilidzi Marwala, the incoming Rector of the United Nations University, who has contributed immensely to this country, Southern African Development Community, SADC, region and the African continent’s progress in artificial intelligence, machine learning and emerging technologies. We look forward to his continued contribution in the development of science and technology in South Africa and Africa in general.
Tshivenda:
Tsela tsweu, Prof, Nwali a fhatutshedze u bva na u dzhena havho.
English:
Hon Chairperson, when our nation was weeping the sudden departure of our beloved Mama Winnie Mandela, there were those who took to the podium to ask for a signal from Mama to divide the women of our nation. I want to assure Mama Winnie that analog signal will soon be a thing of the past. We have concluded the consultations on the analog switch off for the broadcast digital migration, BDM, in full compliance to the order of the Constitutional Court, but most importantly 44% of the Set-Top-Boxes installers are women. And these we do to make sure Mama Winnie [spirit] multiplies and that women do not continue to be victims of GBVF owing to their economic dependence on men.
The South African Broadcasting Corporation, SABC, is starting to take advantage of the increase in the number of channels on the Digital terrestrial television, DTT, platform that is the direct outcome of the broadcast digital migration. The SABC has launched a 24-hour news channel on the DTT platform in all indigenous languages, meaning that for the first time in the history of broadcasting in this country, millions of South Africans no longer wait for evening news bulletins and current affairs shows to receive news and information in their own languages. We are engaging the regulator Independent
Communications Authority of South Africa, ICASA, to make sure that we find mechanisms to ease the participation of more content producers as television channel owners. The technology is ready to increase channel capacity on the DTT platform.
Digital migration is enabling the transformation of the broadcasting sector to ensure that edu-and infotainment becomes the base for a viable and sustainable creative industry. Sentech will soon launch a home-grown over-the-top, OTT, platform that will be anchored by National Electronic Media Institute of South Africa, NEMISA, but will be available to other content producers. NEMISA continues to train upcoming content producers include training unemployed youth on podcasts, vlog and story-telling using mobile devices. Our goal is to eventually make this platform home for quality films, documentaries and children’s stories, in addition to the SABC-Plus OTT platform. The launch of this OTT platform will be in the first quarter of 2023-24 financial year.
Hon Chairperson, the telecommunications companies have five- years to complete the roll-out of 4G and 5G networks including to the rural areas. This from the spectrum released through BDM and the auction that we just completed to connect South Africans to a high speed broadband. In the meantime, through
Broadband Infraco SOC Limited, BBI, and funded by the Broadband Access Fund of the Presidential Employment Stimulus
- and Hon Hlengwa, it is not managed from the Presidency. We are facilitating the rollout of 3000 Wi-Fi hotspots across 16 districts of our country. Through this fund, we are connecting
50 000 households on fibre-to-the-home and Wi-Fi to the home technologies. In addition, through the SA Connect programme, we are going to roll-out 14,024 community Wi-Fi hotspots in the 2023-24 financial year across 16 districts. The other 19,515 community Wi-Fi hotspots will be rolled out in the 2024-25 financial year across the 36 districts, completing the over 33 000 community Wi-Fi hotspots that will enable South Africans to have universal access to the internet. The BBI is
going to use Internet Service Provider, ISPs, to connect these WiFi hotspots as part of transforming the sectors to make sure that Mama Winnie does not need to send the signal because this government will ensure network availability to all rural areas.
The cost to communicate are not decreasing at the pace that government wants. And to mitigate this, in the first quarter of the new financial year, we are going to issue a policy direction to the regulator ICASA to study models that other
countries are adopting to fast-track the reduction of cost to communicate without relying on market forces.
Government has completed stakeholder consultations on the consolidation of different emergency numbers to a single emergency number for the country in a manner that harnesses our competitiveness in call centre operations and partnership with the private sector. We will soon provide a policy direction to the regulator to amend the regulations related to emergency numbers. This will improve the rate of responses to emergency calls including through the use of interactive voice responses.
We appreciate that the South African Post Office, SAPO, is a critical service channel for our people, in particular for those in rural and remote areas. For the post office to achieve this, we need to operate as a viable business and all efforts are being made to rebuild this important service agency to a sustainable business. At present, personnel expenditure constitutes 68% of total company expenditure.
Obviously, this situation is untenable and requires open and frank engagement between the leadership of the post office, workers and workers’ representatives to consider all options for purposes of returning SAPO into a viable entity that will
create more jobs in the future and provide for the e-commerce logistics backbone for the country. At the moment, the options are, do we save some jobs or lose all jobs? Do we close some post office branches or close all post offices?
Our commitment to the viability of the post office is because its branch network provides the base network infrastructure for the Postbank. As we await the National Assembly to finalise the Postbank Amendment Bill, we will continue to work with the Reserve Bank to finalise the corporatization, licensing and repurposing of the Postbank as a fully-fledged bank, but as a state bank. The Postbank will commence with the revamping of 100 post office branches to ready itself for its new role. In addition, to the repackaging of its product and service offering, the Postbank has commenced with the on- boarding of township businesses such as spaza-shops to form part of its payment channels. This is part of the first steps to ensure that townships and small businesses are not stepchildren in the economy of this country due to financial exclusion.
Hon Chairperson, during the debate, hon Malema stood here and criticized the response of the Presidential Protection Services by the action they took to protect the personality of
the President. I don’t even want to comment on hon Steenhuissen because I will have to ask about his post-matric qualification. As Mama Winnie has once said and I quote:
Any acceptance of humiliation, indignity, or insult is acceptance of inferiority.
We are not inferior and we won’t accept attempts to make this President inferior. We are descendants of great and resilient leaders. A self-respecting member of this House, addressing the joint sitting, rises here and justifies apartheid, which is declared a crime against humanity. It is a pity that in this House, some members are brainwashed to behave like puppet after their puppet master. But if I do not know better I would sing this song, “Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery”.
Mr N F SHIVAMBU: Thank you very much, Chairperson of the National Council of Provinces, I had not anticipated that the speaker who spoke here is going to sing as well. We are going to deal with the others who came here to sing for supper.
Allow me, commander-in-chief, to once again avoid responding to the childish and mostly paltry, trivial and insignificant inputs that came from members of the ruling party. We are
going to utilise this opportunity to take a nuanced approach and speak much-more decisively to what should be done in relation to the electricity crisis confronting society. Many of the speakers who came here never presented anything much- more tangible and believable as to what should be done. One of the careerist, Member of Parliament who spoke last yesterday, even sang a children’s kindergarten song seeking for a job from his President.
What are those lyrics again, Dr Mbuyiseni?
“ee-i-ee-o, ee-i-ee- o Mr Rama-dollar give us a job, ee-i-ee- o” [Laughter.] I think that as part of the Whippery, we must also hire a jumping castle so that after singing that song they must go and jump there. They’ll be joined by this one who just sang again here. This person who just left here now is presiding over the State Information Technology Agency, which is failing to synchronise all the technological platforms that the state has: police stations, health care facilities and the entire system operate in separation. But I’ve got a sitter that cannot provide a singular synchronised system. She is presiding over a South African Post Office, which is going to retrench 6 000 workers in the immediate and she is waxing radically about things that are really not there. She is
presiding over Independent Communications Authority of South Africa, Icasa, which is failing to deal decisively with the monopoly of ... the MultiChoice’s dominance that has been operating almost alone without accountability in the broadcast industry.
I say, President and the commander-in-chief, that the approach today will be nuance. So, I am going to speak first to the solutions as to what has to be done in relation to electricity, and then I will conclude with the diagnosis. So we will take it the other way round so that we can then be able to move forward. But first, let us make reference to the founding manifesto of the Economic Freedom Fighters, which was adopted 10 years ago in Soweto when this mighty movement was founded. On energy, the founding manifesto says:
Stabilisation of energy sources in particular the supply of electricity, is important for the economic development strategy that will include the development of more industries. Whilst the South African state should intensify the efforts currently in place for sustainable consistent energy provisions. Other energy means and other forms of generations should be explored and this includes further research on how energy derived from uranium can be safely be transferred into
sustainable environmentally friendly electricity for industrial development, public purpose and for use by household.
We said 10 years ago that let us explore the usage of uranium as a source of energy. We even said that the principle of energy is that the green energy sources should be pursued and that the state should heavily invest in the green energy corporations, which will explore manufacturing and install green energy alternatives in the whole of South Africa. When we spoke about green energy source, we spoke about it in the context that it should be the state not independent power producers, IPPs, that must be at the centre of the rollout of renewable energy.
Now, I am going to talk to the solutions as to what needs to be done. Firstly, we must stop this illusion that South Africa is going to immediately discontinue the usage of coal as a base load energy source, because that is the only way we can sustain our electricity. In that annual pilgrimage that you go to in Davos in the World Economic Forum, one of the Vice- Premier of the People’s Republic of China, Liu He, who is the director of the central financial and economic affairs responded when he was asked about what is the PRC going to do
about carbon neutrality. He said that China is going to increase its investment in carbon capture and storage. And this is against the fact that China consumes possibly 20 if not 40 times of energy more than South Africa. The energy sources that come from coal in China, Minister Mantashe, is 1000 000 Megawatts. Eskom in its entirety is not even at
50 000 megawatts currently. And then, the leader of the PRC says that we are going to invest in carbon capture and storage, but when South Africa was in the United Nations Climate Change Conference, UNFCCC, in Glasgow and in Sharm el- Sheikh in Egypt both 2021 and 2022, we kept on committing there that we are going to close off our power stations ahead of schedule. We even accepted this, 8,5 billion US dollars, which was promised by the West as a way of diverting us from what, otherwise, should be our base load in terms of energy supply. The President of the ANC even ridiculed the Minister of Energy when he said that the West is trying to bully South Africa on the African Continent into abandoning coal. He said no, this one is a mine worker, he doesn’t know anything. We are in a crisis now, in terms of what has happened under all of those issues. Now, that illusion must be dealt with. We have to invest in clean coal technologies working with the CSIR and the Council of Geo Sciences.
Secondly, we need to plug into the National Grid the Floating Storage Re-Gasification Units, FRUs. The Secretary-General of the ANC will not know what that is because in the schooling system before tertiary, they don’t teach that. [Laughter.] So, the FRUs when Germany was faced with the energy crisis out of the necessary military’s operations that are happening in Ukraine now, they approved within 12 months the power ships.
The power ships are like the power stations that come from the sea and then, it parks on the shores and plugs into the national grid.
Here in South Africa, through the risk mitigation IPPs procurement programme, South Africa approved car power ship from Turkey to plug in 1220 megawatts of electricity. Again, Secretary-General of the ANC, the 1220 megawatt can electrify the entirety of the Northern Cape, even the entirety of the Eastern Cape on its own. But due to those who are seeking bribes, those who are trying to extort the people who are awarded that bid, the car power ships cannot be plugged into the grid to now ameliorate the energy crisis that we have. The reality is that in the immediate, you’ve got no any other solution except plugging in the FRUs from Turkey, China and the Russian Federation. That is one of the immediate things that we must have to deal with. [Applause.]
Thirdly, we need to approve the proposal by the Rosatom. The Rosatom nuclear power station and energy company which currently provides more than 20% of electricity in the Russian Federation, it employs more than 250 000 people. It has been here in South Africa saying that why don’t you give us your power purchaser like you are giving to your friends from the West and build up to 6 000 megawatts of nuclear energy, which everyone allows and agrees that it is part of clean energy sources. That is one of the things that have to be done in the immediate. But also we must not surrender the state capacity to invest directly in renewable energy. We must do what the ground fighters had said in Uncle Tom’s hall in July 2013.
We said that the state must play a central role in renewable energy. That is what the founding manifesto of this 10-year- old organisation said must be done. Part of the immediate things that you have to deal with, is to cut off the aluminium smelters because they consume upward 800 megawatts, which can then lessen the pressure on the grid.
In terms of what should happen, let us collaborate with Mozambique to complete the Cabora Bassa hydro-electric power station so that we can continue ... So, these are some of the issues. We have to talk about these because we know that you
are going to be out of power. We are going to take power as the EFF. [Interjections.] We do not want to take power under darkness. [Applause.] The question is: Why are all of these things not pursued? It is because fragrantly the President of the ANC defies his less than two months’ resolution of shifting Eskom from public enterprises to energy. And the purpose, he says here that the reason is because the Minister of Public Enterprises must continue to restructure Eskom. What is that restructuring? It is the mutilation of Eskom into three different components. So like Eskom is supposed to be one body but it has been mutilated now into three different companies. He makes a false claim that such is consistent with the global practice - that is not the truth.
The biggest power utility in the world is in China. It generates more than 4 000 gigawatts. It has got more than 900 000 kilometres of transmission lines. It is involved in
distribution of electricity. The Rosatom I spoke about in the Russian Federation is involved and its one company that is involved in the value chain of distribution of electricity. In Germany Unipower goes to an extent of even being involved in mining the entire value chain. One company but you want to mutilate Eskom. What is the purpose of the mutilation of Eskom? They want to allow the municipalities and different
divisions to distribute and be the ones who had coalface of facing with the rate payers of electricity and, then have Eskom with the 48 000 kilometre of transmission lines which must be necessarily be forced to buy electricity from IPPs.
The former Deputy President of South Africa once said that Eskom is not going to be privatised. It is privatised. So, the entire crisis of South Africa is to want to privatise Eskom, particularly power generation. Let us have transmission there and then we call our friends to come and be the ones that plug energy into the transmission line. That is at the centre of the South Africa’s problem. A capitalist driven greedy project that seeks to undermine everything else there. If you want to attach the profit motive into the energy public good provision, you are definitely not going to have a solution.
Electricity is a public good, it must be provided by all of us.
Now President, I am going to close. You know, one of the biographers of Mr Cyril Ramaphosa, Antony Butler says that when he bought his first car, he was known for driving that particular BMW car in reserve gear for 100 metres. So a person drives a car in reserve gear for 100 metres is recorded. It is apparent and very evident now that what Mr Ramaphosa did to
his car, he is doing to South Africa today. He is taking our country into reverse gear. Everything else that we thought we had made progress on is going backward. We thought that we are not going to have the crisis of electricity. We have the crisis of electricity now.
Whoever thought that we are going to have water shedding? We have got a problem of water now. Whoever thought that we are going to be in a situation that more and more population is growing, more and more people are going to lose their jobs.
The levels of unemployment, more than 12 million people are unemployed because of this man. He is taking this country in a reverse gear the same way he did when he was utilising his first car.
The public infrastructure is collapsing. The hospitals are collapsing. The schooling system despite the claims that you make here, it is not working appropriately. How do you explain that you have got close to a million children who write their exams at the senior secondary level, but you only have only
160 000 spaces available to take them at post-secondary level?
What nonsense is that? What kind of thinking of a government is that? We are being taken on a reverse gear because we do
not have a solid government. What excites him is that petty thing he was doing in Mpumalanga. He says he is closing a pothole and he is fascinated by closing a pothole on a gravel road. [Laughter.] What logic is that? That is what we are dealing with. We have to save South Africa from this nonsense. We have to save ourselves from this rubbish. What is happening in this country is a man-made crisis that is why when we go on the 20th of March 2023 we must be saying
IsiZulu:
Phuma, Ramaphosa phuma! Phuma, Ramaphosa phuma! Buya, electricity buya! Amandla!
English:
Thank you very much.
The CHIEF WHIP OF THE OPPOSITION: Speaker and the Chairperson of the NCOP, it would be remiss of me to not express deep disappointment following the events of Thursday night in this Chamber. We could never justify the disruption of the business of Parliament to the point where the Sargent- at -arms is called to wrestle MPs off the stage. Equally, and perhaps more crucially, we cannot have Presiding Officer who fails to keep the House in order, despite being empowered by the rules to do
so. The failure of the Presiding Officer resulting in armed security forces on the floor of Parliament.
This Chamber is a separate arm of state with its own security personnel who do not report to the executive. Armed guards are barred from this House unless there is a threat to life. The case that the DA brought before the Constitutional Court, confirms this crucial principle of the separation of powers.
The scenes that we saw on Thursday night should never be repeated, that violence and chaos has absolutely no place in a constitutional democracy. [Applause.] We cannot allow Parliament to degenerate in that manner. It is more so when the people of South Africa are looking to their public representatives for solutions to the crisis they face daily.
There has never been a time since the dawn of democracy that our country needed to hear from the President about the issues that are the perpetual albatrosses around their necks.
Instead, the President delivered to us a state of disaster.
It is the disaster that has come to characterise his term in office, the disaster that is his cabinet, and the disaster that is the ANC Caucus of the Sixth Parliament. [Applause.]
Speaker, allow me to direct this to the President. I fear the trappings of power and the cushion of executive office has left us with a head of state that is completely out of touch with the issues that South Africans are facing. Sir, people are forced to make choices that are beyond your grasp. A choice between a meal or a taxi fare ...
IsiXhosa:
... umbane okanye ukukhwelisa abantwana abaya esikolweni. Ukulinda de kuse xa umntu efuna ukuya esibhedlele kuba akukho kwalo nqwelo yezigulana iza kuza. Abafazi nabantwana abaninzi bazibona bemathidala ukuya kwizikhululo zamapolisa xa bexhatshaziwe okanye bedlwenguliwe kuba bayayazi abasayi kufumana ncedo. Imihla nezolo kukho abantu abalala bengatyanga; nokuncinane abanako kuyonakala, kubole kuba umbane uyemka iintsuku zilandelelana.
English:
Young people are without work and have no hope. All they have is a life of indignity because of joblessness.
IsiXhosa:
Umbutho we-ANC uzimisele kwinto yokuba babe ngoohlohl’ ezabo. Umbutho okwaziyo ukuba imali eyayibekelwe ukunceda abantu
ngexesha likabhubhane weCOVID19. Amaqabane atshintshiselana kuphiswano lokutya imali yabantu. Inkuluba-Phathiswa, uDube- Ncube ebezingomba isifuba apha kodwa abantu baseThekwini badada enyunywini, sithetha nje. Akukho ziinkonzo eziya abantwini.
Njengomntu omtsha, ndicela nimamele – [Uwele-wele.] Njengomntu omtsha, noko okhokela sekukudala nina nisedabini, ndiye ndizibuze ukuba ingaba nina nonelisekile kusini na yimeko yabantu baseMzantsi Afrika phantsi korhulumente we-ANC? Nitsho qho ukuba nanilwelwa inkululeko yesi sizwe, kodwa ngokuqinisekileyo, ngoku seningabacinezeli babantu abamnyama abangathintweni. Abazali bethu baathemba iingcuka ezombethe ifele legusha apha kuni.
English:
I have no doubt in my mind that the founders of this organisation who are towering figures in our history books can no longer recognise their party under this current crop of leaders. You have brought this country to its knees, you have nailed the coffin and created a nation in disaster.
I want to agree with Minister Zulu when she congratulates South African women cricket team for their victory but
Minister, I want to take it a step further. I want to say to you, women’s teams need to be paid and they need to be paid equally. The platitudes are not going to work and they need to get what is worth to them. [Applause.]
Listening to the speakers in this debate, it is no wonder we find ourselves in this state of paralysis. Minister Gungubele levelled an attack on the best-run metro in the country, an accolade his party could never dream of doing. Perhaps, if I should give you an insight into why the City of Cape Town Metropolitan Municipality is the ‘golden goose’ as hon Manamela says, who is the perpetual Deputy Minister. I really hope during the Cabinet reshuffle this time hon President, you will finally appoint him because he is ... [Inaudible.] auditioning for that job for decades now. [Interjections.] Let me educate you how we did this. The DA wrestled this city from the ANC, ran a multi-party coalition, subsequently won with a majority, cleaned out the rot of corruption and began the hard, long process of building a world class city.
As we speak, this is the only metro that spends its largest portion of its budget on the poor. The only city that has the lowest unemployment rate as against the national average and
it is now one of the DA-led governments that seeks to free its citizens from Eskom.
IsiXhosa:
Akutsho mna, kutsho ...
English:
... every single independent service delivery barometer in the country. Where we have governed with a majority we are doing the same. We attempted the same model in the City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality, before the cheque-book politics of the ANC kicked into full swing. In the City of Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality, we inherited a 16-year old legacy of disastrous ANC-led governance, where the likes of Sputla were using the city as their ATM. The process of uncovering and cleaning out the rot meant that service delivery suffered and that the true state of the city’s finances finally came to bare. However, we do not hold ourselves to the same standard as the ANC.
Where we were voted out of the City Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality because we refuse to hand over the safe keys to criminals, we took to the opposition benches to hold government to account. [Applause.] Where service delivery and
financial management was not at the standard that we expected in Tshwane, we held our own to account. I can understand why the concept of accountability and transparency is foreign to the ANC. President Ramaphosa, would rather add another Minister to deal with the energy crisis than to fire Ministers Mantashe and Gordhan who have dragged us into a state of disaster.
Mr President, I must say, it is cruel, even for ...
IsiXhosa:
... inkalanzinzi efana noMphathiswa uMantashe ...
English:
... for him to hear of his demotion during the state of the nation address like the rest of us. A quick WhatsApp message could have done, Mr President. To add insult to injury, it is reported that the former Mayor of Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality who presided over the decay and destruction of the city, Sputla Ramokgopa, is now likely to be appointed as this Minister of Electricity. In the ANC, ineptitude and corruption are rewarded with executive office.
If we are to start rescuing South Africa from the ANC’s disastrous years in government, we must start with ensuring that Parliament works. When Parliament works, South Africa will work. A working Parliament would have never nominated and elected a Speaker who has a questionable record in government and views Parliament as an extension of the Executive. A working Parliament would have grabbed the opportunity to self- correct with both hands; following the Zondo Commission Report into state capture.
Under this Speaker, there is a deliberate reluctance to deal with the findings of the report. A working Parliament would have never shamelessly shielded a sitting President from accountability from multiple crimes which took place on his Phala Phala farm. It would have voted to investigate the President.
Indeed, ours is not a functioning Parliament because we would have long established a Portfolio Committee for the Presidency. And now to the most important people, the people at home, whose lives have been plunged into darkness, I urge you to be angry. I urge you to be angrier than usual. Our resilience as a nation should not be taken as license to be
abused. We do not have to tolerate this corruption, poor service delivery and the state of disaster.
Let us take our anger to the polls. Let us vote out the ANC. Let us vote them out.
IsiXhosa:
Badiniwe kwaye kwanele ngoku. [Kwaqhwatywa.]
The MINISTER OF JUSTICE AND CORRECTIONAL SERVICES: President
Ramaphosa, Chairperson, my colleagues in the executive, and all hon members, the President has presented a pragmatic and decisive speech to resolve the challenges of the people of this country.
I expected a debate from the opposition parties, but what did they come and do here? All of them, without exception, the EFF, DA, FFPlus, presented election manifestos [Interjections.] They weren’t here to present solutions to the people of this country. In fact, the commander-in-chief or the supreme leader of the EFF even presented the state of the City of Johannesburg. Hon Shivambu, who has just left here, attempted to present some ideas. I am very disappointed with hon Shivambu, almost like hon Steenhuisen. Hon Steenhuisen
quoted his hero P W Botha without acknowledging him on the Rubicon speech. Hon Shivambu has just dusted all ANC documents and presented them here as his. [Applause.] Let me show you how. Hon Shivambu spoke about the state-owned bank. The ANC has resolved on the state-owned bank, and the Minister of Telecommunications has already put a Bill before this House.
The state-owned bank is already in the process of being constituted. On the issue of Eskom playing a role on renewable, Eskom is already repurposing Komati to play a role on renewables. There is nothing new. As we speak now, Eskom’s Komati is being renewed. We are working to ensure that Eskom plays a role on renewables. He also came here and spoke about China that China only deals with one company with regard to unbundling. China has various state-owned companies in various provinces and regions dealing with energy generation, with distribution and supply of electricity. It does not have only one company like ourselves. It is therefore dishonest and an intellectual misrepresentation by hon Shivambu. [Interjections.] We have a unique challenge and a unique situation which we have to respond to as the governing party. The President has never said that the state must never play a role in renewables or in the energy mix. It is an energy mix that has been presented over years through Economic Reconstruction and Recovery Plan, ERRP. It is not something
that has been brought by President Ramaphosa. Mobil once proposed the unbundling and the divisions in Eskom. That does not come from President Ramaphosa. We have just dusted off the idea and are rebuilding on it because of the current challenges that the country is facing. So, hon Shivambu has said nothing new here. He has just spoken about what the ANC is currently doing ... [Interjections.] [Applause.] ...
Hon Gwarube who has just left here, argues that we have not done anything on COVID-19 theft. It is public knowledge that people have been arrested, and monies have been recovered for the theft on COVID-19. The ANC government has held people to account. Through the Special Investigating Unit, SIU, stolen money during the COVID-19 has been recovered. This ANC government, continues to work on building and strengthening the National Prosecuting Authority, NPA.
She also said that we are not doing anything with Phalaphala. This Parliament debated, considered and thoroughly looked at the report on Phalaphala. This Parliament decided in terms of its own Rules to reject the report of the Panel. [Interjections.] So, this Parliament has considered and engaged on the Phalaphala report.
Hon members, and the Leader of the Opposition, hon Steenhuisen, fresh from being labelled a mampara of the week by the Sunday Times has unconsciously exposed the true intentions of the DA. Hon Steenhuisen, who quoted the Rubicon speech without acknowledging it because he is ashamed to acknowledge the source - the leader of the apartheid regime, P W Botha - but in reality, the people of South Africa know that you are cut from the same cloth both in words and in deeds.
Even if you choose not to acknowledge your hero, the Deputy Minister of Higher Education, hon Manamela has unmasked you. The skewed racial service delivery in the City of Cape Town, in the Western Cape, Tshwane, the City of Johannesburg, and everywhere where you are governing ...
The CHAIRPERSON OF THE NCOP: Hon Ndlozi, on what point are you rising?
Dr M Q NDLOZI: Chairperson, I am rising on a point of order
... [Interjections.] ... Which dusty document of the ANC mentions FSRU?
Sepedi:
Akere dilo tie le di tiea kua go lena.
English:
Which document that gathered dust in the ANC talks about FSRU? And how many votes did you get at Nasrec? [Interjections.]
The CHAIRPERSON OF THE NCOP: That’s not a point of order, and we will therefore allow the Minister to proceed.
The MINISTER OF JUSTICE AND CORRECTIONAL SERVICES: Don’t worry
about hon Ndlozi, this is the only opportunity he has to speak
... [Interjections.] [Applause.] ... All the minutes have been taken by the supreme leader.
The position of the DA to attack cadre deployment is also consistent with the P W Botha vision. It is a sophisticated racist trope that black people should not hold strategic and leadership positions in the country. As hon Kondlo yesterday correctly demonstrated, there are countless incidents of the DA deploying their own people here in the Western Cape and other places where they govern at the expense of the fiscus and rationality. Let me remind the DA, when Eskom was named the Global Power Company of the Year, it was not under apartheid, it was led by the ANC in 2002 ... [Applause.] ... by the Financial Times’ Global Energy Awards under the chief executive officer, CEO, Thulani Gcabashe. The Sars, not long
ago, was the best tax revenue collection agency in the world. The commissioner was none other than P G Gordhan. This shows that cadre deployment works. We have done it before, and we will do it again. [Applause.]
With regards to rebuilding the state-owned entities, we will continue to ensure that people of unbreakable records and ethical leaders lead state-owned entities, they lead in government and they revive state-owned entities including government departments. The two institutions that I have just referred to, Eskom and the Sars were not broken down by cadre deployment but by systematic corruption and not just by being led by black people, as the DA strongly says. It was corrupt individuals. It is for that reason that, last week, here in the Western Cape in court, when the officials of the City of Cape Town appeared for corruption, it wasn’t said that it was the DA, but it was those officials who appeared in court. The trial of those officials is continuing and we will allow the processes of the law to take place, same as allowing the processes of the law to take place with all the people that have been arrested for the corruption at Eskom. [Applause.] Those individuals will be held accountable, and a free and a fair trial will ensue.
Hon Speaker, here sits leaders of the opposition parties who meets regularly with one sole purpose, to remove the ANC from power. [Interjections.] It has nothing to do with service delivery or about the people of this country. Their agenda has nothing to do with water, and nothing to do with provision of electricity, it is only ... and nothing else. The people of South Africa must know them because this country is not only run for elections, but we are running South Africa to provide services. It is about the people. [Interjections.] [Applause] We do not just exist for our own sake, but to deliver services to the people of this country. We will continue, guided by the Sona that the President has delivered, to resolve the challenges of electricity, water provision, unemployment, and the challenges of gender-based violence that were raised here. I will give the statistics.
Hon members, the President has led by sharing his power, even accepting some of the inputs from various political parties in this country. It is what we expect that opposition parties must come to the party. The crisis we face is not of our making, it is not a crisis of political opportunism to campaign. We will all have the opportunity next year to go and campaign. For now, let’s resolve the energy crisis which is Eskom. The President said, everyone must bring their ideas.
Hon Schreiber made us to play a guessing game yesterday of who said what. Well, let’s see if you could guess this, hon Steenhuisen, if the government declared the state of disaster, it will unlock the emergency reprioritisation of resources.
Guess who said this, hon Steehuisen? It is not Fikile Mbalula, the secretary-general of the ANC, no, it is not. It is hon Cachalia, the DA spokesperson on Public Enterprises ... [Interjections.] [Applause.] ... But what does the DA do? They have flip-flopped, they have changed and are saying a state of disaster will lead to unemployment. I must tell you, hon Gwarube, it is not the state of disaster that led to unemployment, it was the COVID-19 pandemic, and it was the pandemic that affected a number of jobs, a number of challenges, unemployment and all the issues that we have today that led this country to struggle economically.
We are now working to rebuild the economy and we are back to the pre-COVID-19 economic growth statistics. What we need is to build from there as a society, and we can do so if we resolve the energy crisis, we would be able to resolve the economic challenges of our country, the unemployment and the high crime rate that hon members are bemoaning. Hon Gwarube said there is no conviction on gender-based violence. I must state that that is totally incorrect and it is wrong. On
gender-based violence, we have 74% conviction rate across the country. People are being convicted every day. [Applause.] Our courts convict someone every day and giving them harsh sentences. And this, I am not thumb sucking. It is a reality. Katlego Mabote was convicted by the Johannesburg High Court.
Three hundred and ninety-six convictions from 420 cases. Five additional Thuthuzela Care Centres, TCC, sites were established from the 2020-21/22 financial years, bringing the total to 60. During the reporting period, 34 456 matters were reported to the Thuthuzela Care Centres, a conviction rate of 76%. It is not true that there is no work that is being done. Indeed, gender-based violence continues to be a challenge, but here comes hon Sharif and said we must not politic and use gender-based violence, but she does the opposite. She does exactly what she warns us not to do. This is a matter that all of us must work together to resolve as a society. It is a challenge that is facing this country, and we must work to ensure that we eradicate all forms of gender-based violence.
As you spoke here, hon Steenhuisen, hon Gwarube and hon Shivambu, you wanted to continue to play the divide and rule with the ANC, believing that you are going to divide the Deputy President and the President, you’ll divide the President of the Republic and the newly elected Deputy
President of the ANC. You also believe you can divide the hon Mantashe and Pravin Gordhan. That’s why you continue to start playing those games, hon Shivambu, hon Groenewald and everyone. You will not divide the ANC. [Applause.] We have emerged from a conference, we are united in unison, marching together to address the challenges the people are facing. We are out of Nasrec, we are done. I heard hon Ndlozi thinking he is mocking me with the numbers. As a true democrat, I have accepted the outcome. All of us in the ANC know that we can only resolve the challenges of our country if we work together as a unit and united. We will call the people of South Africa to march with the ANC through the call that the President has made that all of us must contribute to resolve our social challenges.
I want to conclude, hon Chairperson, by paying tribute to the fallen heroes of our struggle. The fallen heroes who have played very important roles in our country. The former Speaker Ginwala and the people in the arts and sports, the former captain of Orlando Pirates, Mr John Moeti, who belonged to the golden generation of Bafana Bafana, and also the untimely murder of AKA. We call upon the police to swiftly arrest those who perpetrated this crime including his friend, the chef, Tebello Motsoane.
In 2017, on NTV in Kenya, on an interview with Larry Madowo, who is now an international CNN correspondent, AKA said the following, and I quote:
We are trying to go to the next stage of our revolution. The first stage of the revolution was political power. Now we are trying to get economic power for the masses in South Africa, but I believe in the potential of South Africa, I believe in my people as our greatest resource.
Rest in peace Super Mega. May the law take its course! Thank you very much. [Applause.] [Interjections.]
The DEPUTY MINISTER OF DEFENCE AND MILITARY VETERANS: Hon
Chairperson, thank you very much for the privilege. I rise on a point of privilege on a matter of national importance.
In the course of this debate on the state of the nation address by the President, there were statements that were made from the podium of the Joint Sitting by Members of Parliament that I believe were out of oversight.
I wish to urge the hon Speaker and the hon Chairperson of the NCOP to consult Hansard and establish the consistency and the
admissibility of the statements that were made by the hon leader of the EFF, Sello Julius Malema and hon Mente wherein they called for the removal of the constitutionally established government of the day through extra-constitutional and unlawful action. [Interjections.] I want to urge the presiding officers that the statements must be referred to the relevant committees of Parliament ... the Rules Committee ... and their conduct be referred to the Ethics Committee of Parliament in order to establish whether that was in keeping with the oath of office of members, but also to establish whether ... [Interjections.] That is my submission, Chairperson and hon Speaker.
Lastly, the seriousness of these statements must also be verified. In the event that there is seriousness of intent on the part of those who made the statements, Parliament must urge and enjoin government to take the necessary lawful steps to make sure that anarchy is not let loose on the land. Thank you. [Applause.]
The CHAIRPERSON OF THE NCOP: Thank you very much. I am sure the point is noted and will be looked at.
Hon Bheki Radebe, I saw your hand was up.
Mr B A RADEBE: Thank you, hon Chairperson. I am rising on the fact that the matters that have been raised happened yesterday. Their time has passed and the Rules do not allow that. So, let us close the matter, please. Thank you, Chair.
The CHAIRPERSON OF THE NCOP: Okay. I see hon Gwarube’s hand is up.
The CHIEF WHIP OF THE OPPOSITION: Chairperson, I think it is quite important that, before people make lengthy speeches, you educate them on the Rules. If the matter has passed, a member can’t simply speak drivel for five minutes without being stopped by you. That is against the Rules, Chairperson. You should have ruled them out of order. Unless there was someone on the podium saying something problematic, the Rules do not allow members to make their input now, outside of the debate.
The CHAIRPERSON OF THE NCOP: Hon members, I do think that we need to be a bit more measured and a bit more tolerant. The matter raised by hon Makwetla was a point of privilege. All I did was to listen to it. I have already made a ruling that the matter will be looked at.
The Joint Sitting adjourned at 18:58.
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