Issued by African National Congress - Parliament
9 February 2004
Madam Speaker
Honourable President
Honourable Deputy President
Honourable Ministers and Deputy Ministers
Honourable Members
Mevrou die Speaker, ek wil graag ons geagte President se woorde van verlede week beklemtoon. Ons is besig om die toestande van die verlede te verander en ons sal aanhou om saam met die mense van ons land, te sorg dat Suid Afrika 'n goeie en veilige land vir al haar kinders is. Daar is baie dinge wat 'n mens kan se oor die laaste tien jaar, maar niemand kan se dat ons mense nie beter doen as ooit tevore nie. Dit is ook baie belangrik dat ons kinders die geskiedenis van ons land ken. Veral, die dae toe pensioene verdeel was volgens ras. As jy 'n dompas het moes jy omtrent drie maande wag vir jou pensioen; terwyl blankes dit onmiddelik en maandeliks ontvang het. Die "nie-Blankes" (soos ons toe genoem was) het ook baie minder geld gekry as Blankes. Vandag, kry ons almal dieselfde aantal en ons almal kry dieselfde diens.
Al ons mense het meer huise, meer toegang tot opvoeding, beter mediese sorg en ons welsynsstelsel is van die beste in die wereld.
Mevrou die Speaker, ek sal binnekort uitbrei oor hoe goed ons welsynsstelsel is, maar ek wil net gou iets aanspreek. Ons mense weet dat hierdie regering vir hulle omgee en dat hulle veel eerder in vandag se omstandighede wil lewe as om terug te gaan na 'n tyd wanneer meeste van ons mense in onmenslike omstandighede gebly het.
Borremogolo ba kile ba bolotsa ba ya ntweng ba na le basweu. Morago ga dingwaga, magale a boela gae. Basadi ba ntaa mogolokwane ka boitumelo fa ba goroga. Bangwe ba idibala fa ba utlwa pegi ka borre ba ba ileng badimong. Basadi ba ikgomotsa ka gore phimola- keledi e borre ba tla e bonang, e tla ba ntsha mo ditlaleng tsa dingwaga-ngwaga. Ija! Ba swaba nko go gaisa molomo fa borre ba newa baesekele le jase ya "solala-phi." Basweu bona ba amogela matlo, ledi (chelete) le le bonagalang, pensione kgwedi le kgwedi, mme bana ba isiwa dikolong. Re leboga mmuso wa ANC go re ntsha mo bokgobeng, gompieno re na le molao-theo, re itse ditshwanelo le maikarabelo a rona. Rotlhe re a lekana.
Our ten-year democracy has been marked by undeniable achievements in fields such as social delivery and I want to repeat and reinforce what has been said by our honourable President. Madam Speaker, this is a good time to be living in South Africa, we have problems. However, we also have major achievements and it is about time that we proclaim our achievements for all to see.
Our social welfare system is hailed as one of the most effective amongst developing countries anywhere in the world.
With regard to social grants: they are diverse and structured to meet peoples' needs. There are at least seven types of grants currently administered by the Department of Social Development and these are targeted at pensioners, poor families with children, war veterans, foster care and grants in aid for families taking care of children and people in need.
The expenditure on social grants has increased by 3.5 times between 1994 and 2003. The number of beneficiaries has almost tripled over the last ten years and this figure is likely to increase. One of the most important improvements in grant payments has been in replacing the racially scaled child maintenance grant with the child support grant. The number of children in receipt of this grant has increased by 62,25 % in the period April 2002 to April 2003. There has been an extension of this grant to include children up to the age of nine years and the Department plans to extend this grant to children up to 14 years. All the extensions are aimed at providing the grant to an estimated additional 3,2 million children. This is vastly different from the situation, which prevailed under the previous regime and our ANC-led government is committed to see that the very good policies we have put in place in this regard, will be executed without too many problems.
One of the most important challenges in this area, is actually service delivery. It is an unfortunate fact that we are not reaching all of the poor and vulnerable. There have been problems with private service providers and we have dealt with them decisively. There are problems in the relationship between the departments of Home Affairs and Social Development and an extensive effort needs to be made to sort this out. People cannot access their grants if they do not have the necessary identification papers!
Some tribal authorities expect social grant applicants to pay a levy in order to facilitate processing of their applications. This is corruption and I appeal to all those who have paid such a levy, to lay a charge against these corrupt authorities.
We are of the opinion that the proposed National Social Security Agency will provide the eventual solution to many of the existing problems in our grants payment system, but until this Agency is fully functional: We will continue to address human resource and other problems, which hinder grant beneficiaries from accessing their grants.
As part of the objective to provide employment and to move people away from dependence on mere social grant (money) transfers, the public works programme has employed a total 124 808 people since 1998. However, most of the jobs created were temporary. 3407 permanent jobs were created in 1999-2002 and a total of 141 permanent jobs were created by the first half of 2002/03 financial year. Whilst public works programmes increases the provision of assets to the community, but are not as efficient as income grants in alleviating poverty.
However, these public works programmes also serve to create a skills base, which participants may be able to rely on to create further income.
Several social challenges still remain in our country, as the President said in his state of the nation address and our government has identified that several things have to be done in order to further improve the lives of our people. The aim is to create a massive Public Works Programme, improve the access to social security measures, with better vehicles to improve service delivery while reducing the number of citizens dependent on grants.
We must also continue to promote national identity and pride, ensuring that households develop civic responsibility, including a culture of paying for services (beyond the free basic provision) and taking responsibility for protecting the infrastructure in their communities.
As stated by the president on several occasions, voting in the elections is a fundamental and hard-won right and citizens have a responsibility to exercise it and keep our democracy strong. The Department of Home Affairs has waived the costs for photographs and re-issues until the closure of voter registration to facilitate easy accessibility of IDs.
The Independent Electoral Commission reports that the current Voters' Roll has increased to more than 20 million and that young people between the ages of 18-25 accounted for almost 60% of the newly registered.
I would like to say that this figure, despite opposition rhetoric to the contrary, indicates that our people are NOT apathetic about the coming elections. Nor are they despondent about conditions in our country!
On the contrary, we are hopeful and committed to achieving the tasks of reconstruction and development. It is only by working together in a peoples' contract that we can really fulfil the amazing potential of our beautiful country.
In conclusion, Madam Speaker, the journey we started in 1994 was always aimed towards the realisation of this goal. We have a caring government, led by the ANC, who is fully conscious of the fact that we have entered into a contract with the people, to work in partnership with all South Africans to build a winning and successful nation.
I thank you.