Public representatives walking in step with the people

On Monday of this week, I had occasion to address the National General Council (NGC) of the South African Local Government Association (SALGA), which had convened to assess the progress made and the problems experienced in the area of local government since the municipal elections of 2000, among other things.

As our readers will remember, these elections marked the introduction of the new local government system. This week's SALGA NGC was the first since the introduction of this new system.

One of the questions that delegates to this meeting had to deal with was whether the programmes and work of the councils and councillors had brought about the necessary development of municipalities as well as a visible change in the living conditions of the residents in our cities, towns and villages.

On the following day, Tuesday, November 12, I addressed the National Council of Provinces (NCOP). This was at the annual sitting of the Council, which is attended by the President and the Premiers. This session is part of the important process of interaction between the executive and our legislatures.

It is a moment that allows government and public representatives to reflect and evaluate the work that is being done to transform South Africa from an undemocratic, unequal and racially defined society to a democratic, non-racial, non-sexist country that is characterised by equity, justice and better living conditions for all the people.

Both meetings of SALGA and the NCOP were important because critical component groups of our collective of public representatives had gathered to discuss the pressing question of the development of our country and the impact this has on all our people.

Together with the National Assembly, the Provincial Legislatures and the Municipal Councils, the NCOP is an important institution that ensures that we indeed have a vibrant and participatory democracy. It occupies a unique place in our system of cooperative governance.

It straddles the three spheres of our system of governance. Representative of this, the session this week was attended and addressed by representatives of local, provincial and national government.

It is through the NCOP and its sister legislatures that we have succeeded to entrench democracy in our country, ensuring that we realise the central demand of our lifelong struggle, as appropriately articulated in the Freedom Charter that - The People Shall Govern! There is no doubting the fact that we stand among the best in the world with regard to the major advances our country had made in building and deepening democracy in the short space of time since 1994.

Accordingly, we make bold to say that our democracy is irreversible. Its strength and resilience defies its tender age of eight years. Undoubtedly, this is due to the steadfastness, commitment and loyalty of our people to the cause of democracy and to the work of the main political movement for democracy in our country, the organisation of the democratic masses, the ANC.

Having built and consolidated democracy, which we must continue to defend and entrench, the dominant challenge that must occupy the collective mind of our movement is, clearly, the question of the development of our country so that we defeat and eradicate poverty and underdevelopment. This is not a new issue. But given the progress we have made in the area of political transformation, we now have a better possibility to accelerate our advance in the struggle against poverty and underdevelopment.

Again, as was and will continue to be the case with the struggle to build and consolidate democracy, the challenge of development needs the broadest, conscious participation of the masses of our people.

In this context, one of the most important and positive activities arising from the reports given in our interaction with the members of the NCOP this week, is their programme of engagement with the citizens of our country through their quarterly Provincial visits.

As the Chief Whip of the NCOP reported to the sitting on Tuesday this week, through these visits, they have met with ordinary men and women, spanning all sectors including traditional leaders, professionals, youth, women, academics, business people and many other South Africans.

The main purpose of these visits is to listen to the people, investigate the problems and challenges that they encounter, and assess the progress or otherwise of the work that government is doing to reconstruct and develop our country.

The members of the NCOP are then able to draw the attention of the relevant authorities to their findings, with the request that these authorities take urgent appropriate action to respond to these findings.

This is an important part of the work of public representatives, of constantly engaging the people so that together we are better able to work for change and development, always informed by the reality of the concrete conditions that our people face on a daily basis.

Recently, there has also been better and increased interaction between our public representatives from National Assembly, Provincial Legislatures and municipalities with our people in most parts of the country.

We must therefore commend all our public representatives who have, through the Imbizo process, made consultation and dialogue with the people a permanent feature of their work.

While this is encouraging, we still need to improve our contact with our people and avoid the wrong conduct of some amongst us who meet their constituencies only during election time or when forced do so.

Coming as we do from an almost-century long tradition of the ANC, of ensuring that we always walk, neither ahead nor behind the people, but side by side and in step with the masses of our people, we expect that every ANC public representative must, as a matter of course, plan, work and find solutions to problems with the men and women who elected them and the people as a whole.

Our regular interaction with the people must and will ensure that both the legislators and the electorate gain a clear understanding of our possibilities and constraints with regard to the processes of development. This will also help us to build the partnership between the people and the government that informs our strategic perspective of ensuring a people-driven process of change.

Through these regular meetings and consultations, we will give more clarity to the fact that is already known to our people - that delivery happens in stages and improved services will reach some before others. This will help to defeat the rightwing and ultra-left elements in our society that dishonestly claim that we can eradicate the legacy of poverty and underdevelopment overnight.

The NCOP members have, in line with government's theme of this year, of lending a hand to push back the frontiers of poverty, focused, in their provincial visits, on three important areas:

• The 21 rural and urban development nodes in all the provinces;
• The monitoring of the Municipal Integrated Development Plans and their alignment with the Provincial Growth and Development Strategies; and
• Progress on Local Economic Development with the emphasis on SMME, infrastructure development and the accessibility of government institutions that support this development.

Clearly, these are very important and critical programmes in our transformation process. Together with many other initiatives and processes of government, these programmes will ensure that we continue to make visible progress in our struggle against poverty and underdevelopment.

While respecting the absolute need to be frank, honest and truthful, the planning and implementation of the monitoring and evaluation programmes by our public representatives must be done in a co-operative manner that will assist the process of development and transformation. It should never be done in a way that suggests that one set of public representatives are spying or supervising others.

Apart from the unnecessary tensions that this will cause, it will fail to create the kind of comradeship and spirit of collaboration required for the execution of the collective mandate of bringing a better life to all our people. This is one of the important messages we heard at the NCOP session.

The co-operative nature of our government demands that we must work in an integrated way. This means that from planning and budgeting to implementation, we should integrate our work such that it has far greater impact than would be the case if we were working separately.

It is in this context that we must ensure that there is an alignment of the Provincial Growth and Development Strategies and the Municipal Integrated Development Plans. These should in turn be aligned to the national development programmes.

It is important that the unified and integrated impact of our delivery must be felt by all our people, in both rural and urban areas. Through the integrated and unified way of planning and implementation, we will be able to effect faster and qualitatively better changes in poor areas of our country.

As we engage in our work from various and different fields, we should do so fully conscious of the dominant challenge that is facing our country. We all have a duty to create a fully developed South Africa free of grinding poverty, debilitating disease and underdevelopment.

Government, civil society, the private sector, labour and others must together focus more resources and create viable programmes that will take us further into the reality of our collective dream of a prosperous South Africa that benefits all our people, especially the poor.

We should do this marching together with the masses of our people, working on very clear transformation programmes that we have set ourselves, always reflecting and evaluating whether our implementation creates the necessary developed, viable and sustainable communities, towns, cities both in rural and urban areas. We should always monitor whether our efforts make the required impact of providing a better life for all our people.

The ANC, as the premier organisation of our people, must help us to ensure that all of us raise our response to the central challenge of development to higher levels. It must also help us to mobilise the people around this challenge. This organisation of the people must assist all of us as we evaluate the actual development impact of our policies. This responsibility assumes even greater significance as we prepare to hold our National Conference.

We are proud of the contribution to the realisation of all these objectives made by the ANC representatives who serve in the institutions with which we interacted this week, SALGA and the NCOP. Like their comrades in the National Assembly and the Provincial Legislatures, they continue to demonstrate our movement's commitment to serve the people of South Africa.

Violence against women and children

South Africans mobilise for 16 days of activism

South Africans are mobilising to mark the 16 days of activism for no violence against women by collecting pledges from members of the public rejecting violence against women and children and working to combat it.

The 16 days of activism, which is a global campaign, begins on the International Day of No Violence Against Women on 25 November. It ends on International Human Rights Day on 10 December.

During these 16 days, all South Africans are invited to sign a pledge rejecting violence against women and children. The pledge reads: "I promise to expose, oppose and combat all violence directed at women and children -in whatever form - wherever I encounter it; be it in my home, my workplace or in my community."

The pledges will be available to the public at various points around the country, and will also be circulated by various organisations, government offices and private institutions.

There will be a national event at the Union Buildings on 24 November to begin the 16 days of activism. Apart from raising awareness and consciousness, the event aims to raise funds for the many civil society organisations that do volunteer work within the justice and health sectors. It is planned that for every person that crosses a digital counter at the entrance of the Union Buildings on that day, corporate sponsors will donate R1 to a fund which will be channelled to non-governmental organisations, community-based organisations and other service organisations within the criminal justice, social development and health sectors.

In marking the 16 Days of Activism, government this year decided to focus on the Letsema spirit of volunteerism by developing projects and events that raise awareness while involving public participation and interaction. They are also intended to benefit, in a tangible way, the communities in which they take place.

This year's activities are also aimed at recognising the important contribution that NGOs and CBOs make to government's programmes. There are about 2,000 volunteers who support the work of government in the cluster of departments rendering services within the criminal justice system alone. These volunteers represent the efforts of a wide range of NGOs and other civil society organisations that provide support daily - and in a variety of ways - to many of the thousands of women and children who are the public clients of the departments of Justice, SA Police Service, Health and Social Development.

This year's programmes is intended to strengthen the partnerships that exist between government and this vital volunteer sector.

While reliable statistics are difficult to find, the Department of Justice estimated in a 1997 report that one in four women is a survivor of domestic violence. Different studies suggest that between 40 and 50 percent of all women murdered in South Africa were killed by their husband or partner.

Violence against women must be fought at many levels. The unequal power relations between men and women in society and at home lies at the heart of this violence. It is necessary therefore to challenge social attitudes which makes the rights and needs of women subject to the will of men, whether their spouse or partner. The right of women to equality, to freedom and security of person, and to the other freedoms contained in the Bill of Rights, needs to be asserted and defended.

Violence against women is the result also of the high levels of violence within society generally. The apartheid system was maintained by violence directed against the people of South Africa. Since 1994, much progress has been made in changing this, starting with the transformation of the police and security services themselves.

There have also been special initiatives within the police service, the prosecuting authority and the courts to better tackle sexual offences, including improved facilities for survivors of sexual violence.

The fight against violence against women has been strengthened by the Domestic Violence Act, which came into operation in 1999. Much work must still be done however to make women aware of the law, and improve the capacity of the police and courts to effectively implement it.

While there can be no excuse for violence against women - abusers must bear full responsibility for their crimes - factors such as poverty increase the vulnerability of women to violence. In many instances, abused women are financially dependent on the abuser, not being employed themselves or having insufficient skills. This is particularly the case where women fear the effects on their children's material security and well-being. The eradication of poverty, already a national priority, must therefore feature as one of the main weapons in the struggle against violence against women.

Improving the life possibilities of the girl child today is one of the most important ways of ending violence against women in the future. The provision of water and electricity to poor households, for example, substantially reduces the amount of time required for basic household work. This not only improves the position of adult women, but also girl children, who are often required to shoulder domestic responsibilities from an early age.

South Africa's participation rate for girls is currently among the highest in the world. The challenge remains to ensure greater numbers of female learners complete their secondary education and proceed to higher education.

Before being designated as the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women in 1999 by the United Nations General Assembly, 25 November had been marked in Latin America as a day against violence against women. It originally marked the day in 1960 when the three Mirabel sisters were assassinated in the Dominican Republic during the Trujillo dictatorship.

More Information:

• 'Preventing violence against women', WomensNet
• Information on violence against women, Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation

Earning and Spending Report

Research highlights extent of poverty and inequality

While pointing to progress in access to housing, water and other services, research released by Statistics SA this week shows that tackling poverty and inequality remains the country's greatest challenge.

The study, which presents comparisons between income and expenditure surveys in 1995 and 2000, found that apartheid-era inequalities continue to persist, with African households having the lowest average income in the country -followed by coloured, Indian and white households.

During both 1995 and 2000, female-headed households were generally earning and spending less than male-headed households. White, male-headed households were the most affluent.

Coming, as it does, on the eve of the ANC's 51st National Conference, the report highlights some of the key themes that will be under discussion at the conference. As the highest decision-making structure of the movement, the National Conference is responsible for setting policy and reviewing its implementation. Draft resolutions from the National Policy Conference in September, which will be considered by National Conference, focus extensively on the challenge of tackling poverty and inequality.

The study found that when taking inflation into account, average annual household income and expenditure decreased over the five year period from 1995 to 2000.

In African households in particular, income has decreased. When the average annual household income in 1995 is adjusted to market prices in 2000 it was R32,000. This is higher than the actual average household income of R26,000 in 2000. Indian households also reflected a decrease in income from an adjusted figure of R96,000 for 1995 to R85,000 for 2000.

By contrast, coloured households increased from an adjusted average of R43,000 in 1995 to R51,000 in 2000. Among white households the inflation-adjusted figure for 1995 was R137,000, against R158,000 for 2000.

Among other things, these statistics vividly show the vast disparities in income between white and black South Africans, with the average annual income of white households being more than six times higher than the average for african households.

Over the same period, however, there has been a marked increase in the number of households in formal housing and with access to clean water and electricity.

Between 1995 and 2000, there was an increase in the proportion of households living in formal dwellings from 66 percent to 73 percent. Since 1994, the ANC-led government has built more than 1.3 million houses, investing more than R18 billion.

The proportion of households with access to clean water increased from 79 to 83 percent. Government figures show that since 1994, clean running water was provided to an additional 7.2 million people.

There was an increase in the proportion of households using electricity for lighting from 64 percent to 72 percent, while the proportion of households using electricity for cooking has remained constant. A slightly smaller proportion used electricity for heating in 2000 than in 1995.

In the same five year period, the percentage of households with a telephone in the house or a cellular phone increased from 29 to 35 percent. In its mid-term report, national government report the installation of over 2,5 million new phones since 1997, more than half of which were in historically under serviced areas. Around 2,700 villages were connected for the first time.

The Stats SA report also indicated a gradual increase over the five years in the use of public health care facilities and a gradual decrease in the use of private facilities.

Central to the challenge of tackling poverty is the creation of jobs. The extent of this task is shown in the survey report, which indicates that the demand for work is far greater than the number of new jobs being created in both the formal and informal sectors.

Stats SA estimates an increase in the country's population from 40,6 million in 1996 to around 44 million in 2000. About one-third of the population is less than 14 years old. This means that the number of people of working age has increased over the last few years, and will continue to increase for some time.

This has meant that although the number of people employed, in both the formal and informal sector, increased from 9,3 million in 1996 to 11,9 million in 2000, the number of unemployed people also increased - from 2,2 million to 4,1 million.

The results of the Statistics SA research underline the importance of the planned Growth and Development Summit, due to take place next year. The summit is intended to bring all stakeholders together to agree on a set of key interventions to boost job creation and economic growth.

It will have the task of ensuring that the progress already made in expanding the access of South Africans to basic services and infrastructure is complemented with measures to significantly increase employment and household income, thereby tackling poverty and inequality.

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