Modern, Growing, Successful Province

Department of Co-operative Governance, Human Settlements and Traditional Affairs Budget Speech

Budget and Policy Speech of the Northern Cape MEC for Co-operative Governance, Human Settlements and Traditional Affairs Mosimanegape Kenneth Mmoiemang, MPL; Provincial Legislature, Kimberley 06 April 2011

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Honourable Speaker and Deputy Speaker;
Honourable Members of this August House;
Honourable Premier and Members of Executive Council;
Chairperson of the Provincial House of Traditional Leaders, Kgosi Bareki;
Traditional Leaders Present here this afternoon;
Provincial Auditor-General, Mr Latief Kimmie;
Provincial Electoral Officer of the IEC, Mr Bonolo Modise;
Chairperson and the Leadership of SALGA in the Province;
Executive Mayors, Mayors, Speakers and Councillors;
Director General of the Province, Adv Justice Bekebeke;
Acting Head of Department and the Management Team;
Provincial Manager of LGSETA, Ms Nohayaze Tladi;
Representatives from the DBSA, led by Mr Faiez Jacobs;
Municipal Managers and their Chief Financial Officers;
Our Partners in Local Government and Human Settlements;
Distinguished Guests, Comrades, Gentlemen and Ladies.

Honourable Members,

It is liberating to open the debate on Budget Vote 9 with the words of Amilcar Cabral, Guinea-Bissauan writer, Marxist and nationalist guerrilla, in 1969 when he wrote:

“We must always remember that people do not fight for ideals or for the things on other people’s minds. People fight for practical things: for peace, for living better in peace, and for their children’s future. Liberty, fraternity, and equality continue to be empty words for people if they do not mean a real improvement in the conditions of their lives”
Cabral has captured the main message we want to convey today: what matters to us as the African National Congress-led government is those practical things- the real changes we make to the daily conditions in which people live.

We are not just referring to the physical structure of a house, but the basic services which are essential to people’s dignity.

As the ANC, we have committed to building a developmental state that efficiently guides economic development by mobilising the resources of society and directing them towards the realisation of common goals.

We place the needs of the poor and social issues such as housing, health care, education and a social safety net at the top of government agenda.

Honourable Speaker,

It has been our conviction as the ANC that the aims of democratising our society and growing our economy inclusively can only be realised through a Responsive, Accountable, Effective and Efficient Local Government System that is part of a Developmental State.

In the context of the South African Constitution, a developmental state implies that municipalities assume a greater and significant role in economic and social development.

The impetus that informs the drive for a developmental state, which promotes growth and development hinges on the capacity of the local sphere of government to effectively discharge its responsibilities.

Local government is expected to effectively attain its mandatory mission of delivering services that are adequate and responsive to the needs of the community

Honourable Members,

Our work as a Department is guided by the following:
• The ruling party’s 2009 election manifesto which identified five priorities;
• The 2009 – 2014 Medium Term Strategic Framework which is an expression of Government Programme of Action;
• Outcomes 8 and 9, with accompanying outputs and strategic activities adopted by the January 2010 National Cabinet Lekgotla;
• The Performance Agreements signed between President Jacob Zuma and Ministers Sicelo Shiceka and Tokyo Sexwale respectively; and the
• Delivery Agreements of outcomes 8 and 9 we have signed with Ministers of COGTA and Human Settlements.

As a Department, we remain steadfast in our commitment of creating Integrated Sustainable Human Settlements and Improved Quality of Households Life, and also building an Efficient, Effective and Responsive Local Government System, as well as improving the Developmental Capacity of the Institutions of Traditional Leadership.

RECOVERY AND REHABILITATION FOLLOWING THE JANUARY 2011 FLOOD DISASTERS IN THE PROVINCE

Honourable Speaker and Members,

We have in the past 3 months experienced distress on floods, which happened in various locations of the 4 districts of our Province: Frances Baard, Pixley ka Seme, Siyanda and Namakwa.
Floods were due to heavy rainfall that occurred in the catchment area of the Vaal River in Gauteng, Orange River in the Free State and the Northern Cape, the inflow of run-off water feeding the Vaal – Bloemhof – Van der Kllof and Gariep Dams increased drastically.

A Provincial Joint Operation Centre was established on 21 January 2011 to ensure a co-ordinated management of flood situation in the Province.

We wish to report to the House that the Minister of Water Affairs has set aside R1 190 000 million from the Minister’s Discretionary Fund to fund for water infrastructure.

National Treasury has ring-fenced R600 million to cover post-disaster long term recovery and reconstruction needs associated with the disasters.

National Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs has availed R1 850 billion Conditional Grants funding for immediate disaster needs for both municipalities and Provinces over MTEF.

R254 million has been set aside by Social Development, Agriculture and water Affairs for Disaster prevention and Mitigation over MTEF period.

In terms of the Province, the proposed housing allocation for disaster is R672 450 million and R25 524 313 million for roads and bridges.

 

 

 


STRIDES OF THE PAST 10 YEARS IN LOCAL GOVERNMENT

Honourable Speaker,

It has been ten years of the first truly democratic and fully representative municipal councils in South Africa. Since the ushering in of the new democratic municipal dispensation in December 2000, the ANC has been enabled by local government to achieve a number of significant social and economic development advances.

Local Government remains the most significant trajectory in the provision of a better life to our people. With the crucial role of local government, the majority of our people now enjoy access to a wide range of basic services and more opportunities have been created for their participation in the economy.

In terms of housing in the Province, we have built 40 073 housing units across the Province over the last 10 years. A total number of 95 279 households have been provided with water across the Northern Cape, and provision of basic drinking water has steadily increased over the past 10 years from 1 133 households to 15 603 households by 2010.

In areas where our municipalities found it difficult to provide water to households up to the yard, it was provided through a communal point not more than 200 meters away from households.

Honourable Members,

We have, furthermore, provided 60 603 households with basic sanitation and 58 766 households with basic electricity throughout the Northern Cape between 2000 and 2010.

We are very proud to inform the House that all pre-1994 bucket eradication projects in the province have been completed, except for Siyancuma and Tsantsabane Municipalities. At Siyancuma municipality, 2 projects are currently under construction in Bongani and Breipaal to eradicate the buckets.

The rest of the bucket eradication projects in the province are post-1994 and will be catered for in our Human Settlements Delivery Programme.

PREPARATIONS FOR THE 2011 MUNICIPAL ELECTIONS

Honourable Members,

The term of office of the current municipal councils, which commenced on 01 March 2006, expired on 02 March 2011, and the fourth Local Government elections will be held on 18 May 2011.

Preparations of the 2011 Local Government elections by the Independent Electoral Commission are at an advance stage, as the voter’s roll has been closed, and only those persons that were registered on the voter’s roll as at 5pm, on 10 March 2011 will be eligible to vote.

In terms of the Province, there has been an increase in the numbers of wards and councillors. The number of wards has increased from 174 to 194 and the number of councillors from 427 to 471.

As we go to the 2011 Local Government elections, we wish all political parties in this house the best of luck during elections campaign, and the mighty African National Congress to emerge victorious.

REVIEW OF THE 2010/11 FINANCIAL YEAR

Honourable Speaker,

In the previous financial year, the Province received an additional R174 million in February this year to the original R273 million of the Human Settlements Conditional Grant Allocation due to our good performance in terms of our Provincial Human Settlements Delivery Programme.

This additional R174 million has assisted the Province in housing approximately 2 000 more deserving beneficiaries across the Province. The allocation of funding to municipalities was based on the readiness of projects to deliver and in a short space of time.

In demonstrating the Provincial Government’s commitment to the residents of the Northern Cape, the province has as at end of February 2011 delivered a total of 3 077 houses and serviced 1 028 sites in various areas throughout the province to improve the quality of life of our citizens.

To promote home-ownership, the department has fast tracked the transfer of 2 994 properties in various areas in the Province to beneficiaries. They are now proud title deed holders to their property.

Honourable Members,

We are very proud to announce that the Human Settlement Delivery Programme in the province has created 1 372 jobs thus reducing the unemployment and poverty within the Province.

A total number of 2 983 beneficiaries have been trained on the maintenance of their homes, health and hygiene and food security through the encouragement of creating home gardens.
During May 2010, an Emerging Contractors Conference was held in Upington under the theme of “Making the Delivery System Work for Emerging Contractors”. The conference was to support and create an enabling environment for emerging contractors with stakeholders from both the private and public sectors.

On the 18 July 2010, we joined hands with the World and the nation to celebrate the Mandela Day which teaches us the ideal that each individual has the power to transform the world, the ability to make an imprint to the vulnerable.

Some of the beneficiaries of the 2010 Mandela Day included Mr Obakeng James, a 109 year-old from Ikhutseng in Warrenton, and Mrs Annah Raad, a 90-year old from China Square in Galeshewe.

In our resolve to touch the lives of the vulnerable and honour the brevity of our mothers, we dedicated the Women’s month by constructing 408 low cost houses in China Square in Kimberley. 22 women contractors were involved and this was under the guidance and project management of the South African Women in Construction.

In terms of providing housing to the Upington 26, eighteen sites have been acquired and serviced and funding for forty square meters is available.

Thirty youth received theoretical training from the National Home Builders Registration Council and practical training was done on the Upington 915 and the Ouboks projects.

We are pleased to inform the House that Frances Baard and Pixley Ka Seme District Municipalities have received Level-two accreditation certificates from the National Department of Human Settlement to undertake some of the human settlements functions on behalf of the Provincial Government.
Honourable Speaker,

As we stated earlier, the struggle for building a Developmental State that is more accountable to the people it serves, and capable of accelerating the project of socio-economic transformation continues.

In the words of Ernesto Che Guevara, the legendary Cuban revolutionary:

“The state sometimes makes mistakes. When one of these mistakes occurs, a decline in collective enthusiasm is reflected by a resulting quantitative decrease of the contribution of each individual, each of the elements forming the whole of the masses. Work is so paralysed that insignificant quantities are produced. It is time to make a correction”

We want to applaud those communities who remain our eyes and ears. When they march to their own government, it shows that they know that their government will listen and attend to their concerns.

Honourable Members,

We want to report to the House that during the 2010/11 financial year, all 32 municipalities in the Province adopted their individual Municipal Turn-Around Strategies, in order to have a plan on how they are going turn the situation around for better service delivery.

About 95 per cent of our municipal councils adopted their Integrated Development Plans and the Budgets and Service Delivery and Budget Implementation Plans on 30 June 2010.

It is clear that the Local Government Turn-Around Strategy has assisted in ensuring that our municipalities are able to render services to their respective communities.
Operation Clean Audit 2014

Honourable Speaker,

The Provincial Government, under Premier Hazel Jenkins, aims to promote good governance, strengthening financial management to achieve operational efficiency and encouraging accountability within municipalities.

The ultimate goal is that by 2014, all 32 municipalities in the Province will achieve clean audits on their annual financial statements.

To show the seriousness of the provincial government on this matter, an Operation Clean Audit 2014 Steering Committee has been established and is convened by the Director General in the Office of the Premier.

The Steering Committee is comprised of COGHSTA, Provincial Treasury, SALGA Northern Cape and the Development Bank of Southern Africa.

Between January and February this year the Director General dispatched Technical Teams to municipalities to assist in determining the extent of support or intervention required by municipalities in submitting Annual Financial Statements in time and the Director General will in due course submit a comprehensive report to the Executive Council.

As resolved during the last MUN-MEC meeting held in Upington on 16 February 2011, that is the meeting of the MEC and all 32 municipalities in the Province, which was attended by Executive Mayors, Mayors, Municipal Managers and their Chief Financial Officers, municipalities must cooperate with the provincial government in realising the objectives of Operation Clean Audit campaign.

MUN-MEC also emphasised the need to provide leadership based on a culture of honesty, ethical business practice and good governance, and also to ensure oversight responsibility regarding financial and performance reporting and compliance and related internal controls.

Operation Nala

Honourable Members,

The 28th of March last week saw the official launch of Operation Nala, which was announced by the Premier during the Human Rights Day Commemorations held in Paballelo Township, Upington on 21 March 2011.

The campaign is intended to expedite our township revitalisation and rural development initiatives. As the Premier said on 21 March 2011:

“Operation Nala will accord a thorough assessment of the objectives and functions of the municipalities both within their current and historical contexts”.

As custodians of local government in the Province, COGHSTA will play a prominent role in the implementation of Operation Nala by ensuring that capacities and capabilities of municipalities are enhanced so that they are able to make a positive difference and deliver the necessary services to our people.

Operation Nala is informed by the following eight-point Plan, which forms the main objectives of the Campaign:
- To foster greater co-operation among all spheres of government for better service delivery;
- To build changing and developing communities;
- To set the province on a sustainable growth path;


- To create work, expand jobs and fight poverty;
- To foster community participation in the affairs of local government;
- To compile a basket of community projects that needs to be monitored on an on-going basis;
- To develop checks and balances for sustainable community development and track the progress thereof; and lastly
- To provide social protection, fight against crime and corruption.

ROLE OF TRADITIONAL LEADERS

Honourable Speaker,

The strategic role of Traditional Affairs requires the Department to ensure the transformation and development of the Institutions of Traditional Leadership to allow it to partner in the development of rural communities.

This is to ensure that the community needs with regards to development, service delivery, and access to indigenous knowledge management systems, traditional courts and indigenous law are adequately met.

To this end the Department participated in a conscious effort to assess the state of governance within the area of traditional affairs.

Legislation dealing with indigenous communities is an on-going national process and there is a consistent engagement with the Khoisan communities in this regard.

 

 


OUTLOOK FOR THE 2011/12 FINANCIAL YEAR

Creating Integrated, Sustainable Human Settlements in the Northern Cape

Honourable Members,

In terms of creating sustainable and integrated human settlements and improved quality of household life in the Northern Cape, we plan to build 3 078 subsidy houses, 100 rental houses and service 1 537 sites.

Furthermore, 3 000 title deeds will be issued to beneficiaries to promote home-ownership. 1 500 housing beneficiaries will be trained on maintenance and upkeep of their homes, value of title deeds and food gardens.

We will also give hands-on support to the other three District Municipalities, Siyanda, Namakwa and John Taolo Gaetswe, as well as the following Local Municipalities: Sol Plaatje, Emthanjeni, Nama Khoi, Ga-Segonyana and Khara Hais, to qualify for accreditation which will enable them to perform certain human settlements functions on behalf of the provincial government.

In attempting to support and creating an enabling environment for women and youth, the department will provide 100 women and youth with theoretical training in construction through the National Home Builders Registration Council. The youth will also receive life skills education through the National Youth Development Agency.

 

 

 

Upgrade of Informal Settlements Programme

Honourable Speaker,

The Upgrading of Informal Settlements Programme (UISP) is one of the ways we help to uphold our people’s dignity where they live. The UISP targets vulnerable communities living in well located informal settlements.

Through this programme, sites are upgraded in existing informal settlements so that residents experience minimum disruption to their lives and their families are not up-rooted.

Our UISP priority projects are large scale projects and will be completed over a Medium term Expenditure Framework period, depending on the funding from the National department of Human Settlements.

We will during the course of 2011/12 financial year, continue with the construction of the houses in Ouboks, Upington and Pampierstad. We will also continue with the construction and installations of internal services in Lerato Park and once completed, construction of houses will start. With regard to the Kuruman 4 500 units, we will be starting with town planning and surveying of the area.

Building A Responsive, Accountable, Effective and Efficient Local Government System

Honourable Members,

Local government is aptly defined as a sphere of government located within communities and well-placed to appropriately respond to local needs, interests and expectations of communities. It is the first point of contact between an individual and a government institution.

The objectives of building a Responsive, Accountable, Effective and Efficient Local Government System, will be achieved through implementation of the seven outputs we have identified.

These are:

1. A differentiated approach to municipal financing, planning and support

We all know that our municipalities have different capacities and are faced with different social and economic challenges. Depending on the different challenges, it will be necessary for the municipalities to focus on those responsibilities that they are able to deliver on.

It is therefore important that we consider the potential of differentiated approaches to provision of services.

We will therefore do a rigorous, data driven and detailed segmentation of municipalities into a number of categories that better reflect the varied capacities and context within municipalities across the province.

Furthermore, we will take the unique circumstances of each municipality into consideration when providing support to that municipality in terms of financing and development planning to provide access to water, sanitation, electricity, waste management, roads and disaster management.

2. Improving Access to Basic Services

Service delivery and infrastructure are operationalised within the planning framework of government. Coordinated strategic planning should lead to better delivery through integrated planning and greater coordination among government departments.

To execute the intentions of plans, the principle of alignment of local plans with national and provincial plans remains the key thrust of intergovernmental development planning.

To deliver on the basic services, consideration must be given to the establishment of a Provincial Bulk Infrastructure Fund to unlock delivery of reticulation services, fund bulk infrastructure, procure well located land, align Provincial Infrastructure Grants and Municipal Infrastructure Grants with housing projects and grants and to upgrade and rehabilitate bulk infrastructure such as Waste Water Treatment Works

3. Implementation of the Community Work Programme

Honourable Speaker,

Community Work Programme is a key initiative to mobilise communities in order to provide regular and predictable work opportunities at the local level.

In providing employment safety net for unemployed and under-employed people of working age, including those whose livelihood activities are insufficient to lift out of poverty, the Provincial Government, through COGHSTA and Social Development, will make sure that at least two wards per municipality are identified for the implementation of Community Works Programmes.

Wards Committees will play a central role of identifying useful work in line with its community work priorities such as a strong focus on food security, home-based care for HIV and TB affected households and auxiliary care, cooking, cleaning, care of orphans and vulnerable children, child-headed households, social programmes to tackle alcohol abuse, violence, crime and development of recreation spaces and sporting facilities targeting youth.
4. Actions to Support the Human Settlement Outcome

Infrastructure development, encompassing the management of building integrated human settlements and basic services such as water, electricity and sanitation remain the core focus of municipal IDPs.

We need to have long-term plans with a 15 to 25 year horizon. And the 5-year IDPs must be located in terms of these long term plans.

The establishment of the Provincial Planning Commission will contribute significantly towards long-term planning. It will be mandated to develop a Provincial Plan with 2025 as a possible horizon.

Municipalities will contribute towards the Provincial Plan and have roles to play in implementing it.

5. Deepen Democracy through a refined Ward Committee model

Honourable Members,

Municipal wards form the basic units for participatory and democratic local government

The present ward Committee System raises serious challenges with regard to effectiveness and appropriate intervention. In order to address this, it will be necessary to strengthen our people-centred approach to governance and development which is a core part of building the developmental state in South Africa.

Legislative framework for Ward Committees and Community Participation will be reviewed and strengthened and consultation on the draft proposal is currently underway.
6. Improving the Financial and Administrative capabilities of Municipalities

We will intensify the 2014 Operation Clean Audit Campaign, which the aim of not only improving the financial management of municipal revenue, but also asset management, procurement and overall performance of municipalities, particularly in ensuring more effective and efficient service delivery and development.

Part of our campaign is to ensure that municipalities have functioning audit committees and qualified personnel to manage their finances and other resources.

We also want to assist municipalities in establishing public accounts committees. We will work very closely with the Provincial Treasury, SALGA Northern Cape and our District Municipalities to pay more attention to this campaign. As COGHSTA, we are going to be much more active in this campaign.

This will only be achieved if there is adequate human resource capacity to perform basic financial and management functions. This will initiate capacity building programmes to bridge the skills gap, and new appointments of finance staff will need to meet the prescribed competency requirements.

The next focus area is to strengthen the governance structures and regimes. This will only be achievable if there are effective governance arrangements in place, which includes a fully functional internal audit committee to ensure that internal controls are adequate and any in-efficiencies are dealt with timeously.

Proper risk management and established audit committees will also play an important role.

Mechanisms must also be put in place to implement plans to remedy audit queries and findings raised in the audit reports.

However, to comply with all the elements of good corporate governance, the commitment and participation of senior management is essential.

For the 2011/12 financial year, we set the following targets:
• Increase municipalities with unqualified audit to;
• Raise the average monthly collection rate on billings;
• Reduce the percentage of municipalities with debtors more than 50% of own;
• Improve the percentage of municipalities that are overspending on OPEX;
• Reduce the percentage of municipalities under-spending on CAPEX; and
• Reduce the percentage of municipalities spending less than 5% of OPEX on repairs and maintenance;

7. Single window of co-ordination

Honourable Speaker,

A single entry point for any National or Provincial Government programme, policy directive, or other initiative for support that moves into a municipal area must be done via COGHSTA as custodian of local government in the Province.

This will assist to lessen the fragmentation within the cooperative governance arrangements impacting on local government.

A regulatory framework has been revised at national level to strengthen coordination of local government.


In the context of the Province, a new approach to the coordination of support and capacity-building initiatives will have to be concluded with the Office of the Premier, Provincial Treasury, SALGA Northern Cape and all other stakeholders so that other sector departments come on board.

Honourable Members,

We will eradicate sanitation backlogs on 30 766 formal stands with acceptable sanitation system as well as eradicating water backlogs on 8 623 formal and 2 721 informal stands by 2014.

Strengthening and Supporting the Institutions of Traditional Leadership

Honourable Speaker,

We will during the course of the 2011/12 financial year, be focusing on strengthening and giving all the necessary support to the Institutions of Traditional leadership in the Province. We will partner with the Local Government Sector Education Training Authority.

Furthermore, the amendment to the Northern Cape Traditional Leadership, Governance and Houses of Traditional Leaders Act Number 2 of 2007 will be given a priority so that it is in line with the Traditional Leadership and Governance Framework Act Number 41 of 2003, which is currently a draft Bill.

The main aim of the draft Bill is to provide for a more effective role for Traditional Leaders in service delivery and development, and more effective cooperation between Traditional Leaders and Public Representatives.

As part of this, a Bill is to be introduced in before the end of the year to address issues of the Khoisan communities.

REVIEW OF LEGISLATION IMPEDING ACCELERATED SERVICE DELIVERY

Honourable Members,

Some of the legislation we have passed since 1994, not just local government legislation, is too onerous, costly and difficult to implement, and has the unintended consequence of impeding accelerated service delivery.

There are also provisions in different Acts that are in conflict or overlap, causing uncertainty, confusion and inordinate delays. We are under enormous pressure to accelerate service delivery and development.

We have no choice but to review legislation that serves as obstacles to accelerated service delivery.

We will work with the Office of the Premier, Treasury and national Department of COGTA in addressing the overlaps and contradictions in the municipal financial legislation, as well as identifying the provisions in various Acts that need to be reviewed, but the different departments will process the necessary legislative amendments.

INTERNAL CAPACITY BUILDING

Honourable Speaker,

Our re-organisation of the Department has been designed to make COGHSTA more responsive and flexible and better able to implement the varied local government, human settlements and traditional affairs programmes. Increased capacity will enable a greater customer focus for COGHSTA.

We have put an internship programme and external bursary programmes in place to help us to attract and retain suitably qualified technical and professional staff.

For the 2011/12 financial year, 30 employees have been awarded with bursaries to enhance their skills. However, despite these skills development initiatives, the filling of vacancies on the organisational structure remains an on-going challenge in light of the sizeable demand for scarce skills and technical competencies.

The current vacancy rate in the Department is 27.5% and we commit ourselves to reduce it by 7% per quarter.

2011/12 FINANCIAL YEAR BUDGET PROPOSAL

Honourable Speaker,

I hereby present the budget of R560 480 million for the Department of Cooperative Governance, Human Settlements and Traditional Affairs, Vote 9 as outlined below:

PROGRAMME ALLOCATED AMOUNTS 2011/12
Administration R 62 789 million
Human Settlements R366 339 million
Co-operative Governance R122 774 million
Traditional Affairs R 8 578 million
TOTAL R560 480 million

Honourable members,

The Department’s overall increase by 11% in the 2011/12 budget allocation is mainly due to salary adjustments paid from July each year. The Human Settlements Conditional Grant increases by 15%.
Payment for capital assets increased by 6% and this is due to the appointment of new personnel at both provincial head office and regional offices.

Programme 1: Administration

This programme is only increasing with 4% which is very limited for policy implementation as a support function to all programmes. It consists of the Office of the MEC and Corporate Services. There has been a positive growth in personnel from 803 to 851, thus representing an increase of 5.97%.

For the 2011/12 financial year, Programme 1 receives R62 789 million.

Programme 2: Human Settlements

Honourable Speaker,

It is clear from the year-on-year analysis that the running cost within Programme 2 are not sufficiently catered for. The increase in operational costs of administering the grant does not increase at the same rate as the conditional grant.

The Human Settlements Conditional Grant budget is increased to R322 639 million in the 2011/12 financial year and the programme receives R366 339 million for the 2011/12 financial year.

Programme 3: Co-operative Governance

This programme increases by 2% and it is not sufficient to sustain the hands-on support to municipalities, operational and personnel expenditure of Community Development Workers as well as monitoring and evaluation of municipalities.

An amount of R122 774 million is allocated to this programme.

Programme 4: Traditional Affairs

The 20% increase on this programme will mainly be for the payment of salaries, due to the shortfall since the programme was transferred from the Office of the Premier, and the implementation of salary level adjustments of Traditional Leaders as per Department of Public Service and Administration resolution. Operational expenditure will remain a challenge in this regard.

For the 2011/12 financial year, Programme 4 receives R8 578 million.

CONCLUSION

Honourable Speaker and Honourable Members,

Fulfilling our governance mandate is a two-fold responsibility. One, there are those who are directly charged with serving our people through their duties as public servants or public representatives. This is a privilege and an opportunity to live the ANC creed of selfless service.

The second part of this responsibility falls on the ANC leadership and structures, to assist in the monitoring and evaluation of public servants and public representatives. This is done consistently and without fear or favour.

As Amilcar Cabral understood, we did not struggle for ideals; we struggled so that the masses of our people could live better, safer lives on a daily basis.

As the ANC, we continue to emphasise those practical things: a safe space to live and all the spin-off benefits that go with it.
These are some of the practical things which we think are worth fighting for, which will make real changes in our people’s lives, and which we believe will promote their dignity where they live.

By doing so we directly address impatience with slow service delivery and work to boost the social cohesion.

For us, real impact of our programme is not the physical structure or service, but the opportunities and possibilities that open up to a family when those practical things are taken care of.

The strategic directions and departmental programmes we have described today constitute our plan for creating real improvement in the conditions of our people’s lives in the Northern Cape.

Honourable Speaker,

We would like to pay tribute to all the serving municipal councillors, majority of who are ANC councillors, for the outstanding service they have rendered to our communities over the last five years.

They have worked under very difficult conditions and yet continued to inspire with their leadership and commitment to do well under highly challenging environments.

In recognition of the selfless sacrifices of these councillors, and mindful of the fact that it is only through all our people working together with them, we salute them for carrying out their political mandates and constitutional responsibilities with honour, distinction, dedication and commitment.

 

We congratulate them on the exceptional leadership qualities which they displayed in instituting a number of new developments. Their remarkable abilities in helping our communities must be acknowledged and applauded.

May we take this opportunity to extend our profound gratitude to Members of the Executive Council; the Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on COGHSTA, honourable Moipolai and the rest of the members.

Let me not forget to thank Traditional Leaders and municipalities, especially Executive Mayors, Mayors and Speakers who have guided us on the needs of our people.

In concluding this Budget and Policy Speech, allow us to thank the Acting Head of Department, the Management Team, all staff within COGHSTA, the Ministerial staff, the Leadership of SALGA in the Province, the Office of the Provincial Auditor General, LGSETA, DBSA and all our partners in Human Settlements, Local Government and Traditional Affairs.

My special thanks to the honourable Premier Hazel Jenkins, who has given us the responsibility in a Department that exposes us more closely to our communities’ real challenges.

“Together We Can Build Better Communities”

I thank you.

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