Minister Essop Pahad
Address: The Presidency Budget Vote 2006/07
7 June 2006
National Assembly,
Madame Speaker and Deputy Speaker,
Cde President,
Cde Deputy President,
Honourable Ministers and Deputy Ministers
Honourable Members
Distinguished Guests
Ladies and Gentlemen
Madame Speaker and Honourable Members,
I echo the words of our President and thank you for providing us with the opportunity to present this Budget Vote and account to the National Assembly about the work of The Presidency.
In 1994 we inherited a nation that was racially fractured. We inherited a country beset with an immense legacy of material depravation faced by the vast majority of our people. This legacy included racialised and feminised poverty, racial segregation, a huge unequal division of land, wealth and income based on race, and legalised, institutionalised and systemic racial and gender discrimination in all walks of life.
We had a dual imperative to rapidly deal with the legacy of apartheid and transform a system regarded as a crime against humanity into one that was democratic, socially just and politically and economically stable. These were the objective demands, and the objective conditions facing us in 1994.
We had to act; we had to act decisively, with alacrity, with purpose and with vision. And we knew that this could not be accomplished by what in the 1990s was de rigueur among those enamoured with the Washington Consensus the neo-liberal minimalist state characterised by privatisation, deregulation, downsizing, delivering, decentralisation and devolution of responsibility. We consciously eschewed the neo-liberal state in favour of the developmental state with its responsibility of realising the mandate given the first democratically elected government in South Africa transformation and the progressive realisation of social justice for all.
There is also a Constitutional imperative to transform South Africa. In this respect Madame Speaker, the State in South Africa has a very high obligation to improve the quality of life of all South Africans in the context of dealing with the socio-economic injustices of the past, while at the same time protecting fundamental rights and freedoms as enumerated in the Bill of Rights.
The requirement to “Improve the quality of life” means dealing with underdevelopment, poverty, unemployment, unequal access to education, health care etc. To remedy these inequalities the developmental state has to act to ameliorate conditions of disadvantage. Failure to do anything about the historical legacy would mean that the State could, in effect, be violating the highest law of the land.
In committing to a developmental state we were simultaneously committing to the development of a well resourced centre capable of leading, capable of directing and giving guidance to all spheres of government. The centre must have sufficient capacity and be well resourced to provide policy direction in order to achieve our broad Constitutional and national objectives, measure the impact of resource allocation and where necessary intervene to ensure more efficient and effective service delivery and policy implementation.
The developmental needs of our country are of such an order that the provision of guidance and leadership is of paramount importance to ensure that government is capable of decisive interventions to ensure we improve the quality of life of our people. It is The Presidency together with Cabinet that has overall responsibility for co-ordinating the work of the developmental state and that has overall responsibility for what the State has to accomplish.
So Madame Speaker, unlike those who sit languidly among the ranks of the opposition we had to confront the reality of running a country and make a deep and immediate impact on the dual imperative. For our government elected on a platform of socio-economic development not to embrace a developmental state capable of engaging in rapid transformation would be an abdication of our responsibility and a betrayal of the will of the people as expressed in ever increasing majorities over successive elections.
In a recent communication the Leader of the Opposition indicated that in his opinion, “Whatever the gains for South Africa on the economic front … this presidency has had an impoverishing effect on the politics of democratic accountability”. In what way has this government in general and The Presidency in particular diminished democratic accountability? By improving the socio-economic conditions of the vast majority of our people? By upholding the rule of law and respecting the Constitution? By Ministers appearing before Portfolio Committees? By creating a macro-economic and political environment of stability? Or through facilitating a highly inclusive and participatory African Peer Review Mechanism Process?
The Honourable Leon is being thoroughly disingenuous. It is not The Presidency that has impoverished democracy or for that matter called the reputation and the will of Parliament into question. It is the Honourable Leon who recently insulted Parliament when he questioned our transformation agenda, “Part of the unheralded agenda of transformation” he says, “…has been the conversion of Parliament—and other constitutionally-mandated oversight bodies—from effective watchdogs to supine lapdogs”. And in another instance he served warning that “Parliament is in some danger of becoming a shell, an empty forum”. It is one thing to call into question the activities of The Presidency; it is another matter entirely to insult each and every one of you present in our National Assembly and National Council of Provinces. What hubris!
Honourable Members, the apparent confluence of the right and some on the left in two recent debates about centralisation and the absence of meaningful participation demonstrate that politics some times makes strange bedfellows indeed. The Honourable Leon is on record as saying that “Much of what the South African Communist Party and Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) have been saying about the democratic deficit in South Africa today is what the Democratic Alliance (DA) has been saying for the past five years.” And again, “we find ourselves in complete agreement with the “left” faction. Not, in this case, because they are “left” but because they are in fact right.” Strange bedfellows indeed!
There are some even in this august body who confuse the need for a strong interventionist developmental state with centralisation. The centralisation-decentralisation debate is a red herring; it is the refuge of those who lack vision, imagination and purpose. They use it to undermine both a President who derives his power and legitimacy from the Constitution and a responsible Presidency which is accountable and transparent. In personalising the centralisation-decentralisation debate they miss the key point namely, what kind of institutional arrangements make for efficient and effective policy development, policy implementation, service delivery and monitoring and evaluation.
Surely, Honourable Members, no progressive person would dare suggest that a government duly elected by the overwhelming majority of the people ought not to fulfil the mandate given it by the electorate. It is also useful to point out that our government takes participatory democracy very seriously. We engage in continuous dialogue with our people.
For us, democracy is not about asking our people to come to the ballot box every few years; it is about consulting them through the Izimbizo process, and through consultations. The President has also established a number of working and advisory groups on women, youth, higher education, big business, black business, religion, labour and the economy. All of these initiatives are important elements of the “People's Contract” and participatory democracy and serve as important feedback loops for the President and The Presidency.
Taking the concerns of our people seriously means placing the needs of vulnerable groups, women, children and youth and people with disabilities at the very heart of our institutions. It is about strengthening the work of the National Gender Machinery and the National Machinery on Children's Rights.
Our government locates the Office on the Rights of the Child, the Office on the Status of Women, the Office on the Status of Disabled People and the Youth Desk in The Presidency precisely because we believe that mainstreaming and applying a GDCY lens can best be accomplished and monitored in The Presidency working in close co-operation with other national departments, with provinces and with local municipalities. This is not about centralisation of power and resources; it is about democracy and accountability.
Madame Speaker, the Offices on the Status of Disabled People, the Office on the Rights of the Child and the Office on the Status of Women and the Youth Desk all play a vital role in four important respects. First they engage in a very dynamic way with civil society organisations in their respective sectors. The communication and consultation processes that have been established are very important for the advancement of the rights of historically disadvantaged groups and communities, they are also important for policy development and implementation and for service delivery.
Second they play a critical mainstreaming role. Third they interact with provincial and local counterparts to ensure that National policies are translated into action in the other spheres of government. And fourth, these three Offices and the Youth Desk identify the challenges and gaps in policy development and implementation and offer solutions that can be readily implemented. In these ways the three Offices and the Youth Desk act as a vital two way transmission belt linking government in a dynamic way with vulnerable communities so as to ensure that the quality of life of members of those communities improves.
All of the Programme areas have noted that they will work to:
- strengthen the capacity of focal points in national departments and in the other spheres of government
- increase awareness of what gender, disability, children and youth mainstreaming means and how it is to be accomplished
- strengthen ties with civil society in their respective sectors.
For the upcoming year the Office on the Status of Disabled Persons (OSDP) has indicated that it will work diligently to:
- strengthen the disability national machinery so that it is effective in coordinating disability programmes
- monitor more closely the implementation of a well coordinated disability integrated policy, and measure progress of service delivery, in for example the public transportation system, against the disability indicators
- work on the International Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities.
In a similar fashion, the Office on the Status of Women notes that in order to continue to advance women's empowerment and gender equality, it needs to:
- fast track the training of Public Service officials at all levels to deliver on gender equality
- ensure the development and consolidation of an integrated national action plan for gender
- identify ways of holding senior managers accountable for the delivery of gender equity and equality in performance contracts
- conduct gender-based analysis so as to ensure effective monitoring and evaluation of the implementation of legislation.
Madame Speaker, the Third Ordinary Session of the African Union's Assembly of Heads of State and Government, held in Addis Ababa, 6 – 8 July 2004, adopted the Solemn Declaration on Gender Equality in Africa. The Declaration seeks to “Expand and Promote the gender parity principle that we have adopted regarding the Commission of the African Union to all the other organs of the African Union, including its New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) programme, to the Regional Economic Communities, and to the national and local levels in collaboration with political parties and the National parliaments in our countries”.
The significance of this cannot be over emphasised. The challenge for this Parliament and for all the political parties present is to adopt and implement the principle of gender parity in elected office well before the next general elections. I am certain in this the year of the 50th Anniversary of the Women's March, the women of our country expect nothing less from us.
The core functions of The Office on the Rights of the Child (ORC) include mainstreaming of a child centred approach; mainstreaming capacity building in Government and monitoring and evaluation of children's rights delivery in Government.
The ORC identifies the need to:
- collect comprehensive statistics on vulnerable children in our country by conducting additional research on the socio-economic condition of children
- facilitate the development of a comprehensive National Policy Framework for the Protection and Development of Vulnerable Children in SA
- support service delivery by departments – for example, where child related tragedy has been experienced
- highlight the phenomenon of child headed households which has the potential in the long term, to undermine both the national efforts at building social cohesion and the goal of national prosperity
- strengthen awareness of existing child rights policies and resources, by among other things, developing essential material to promote and advocate for delivery on children's rights and responsibilities
- collaborate with countries in the region and internationally in regional and global child protection and development initiatives.
These activities and this information gathering the ORC believes are essential for meaningful planning, programming, monitoring, and evaluation and reporting.
June is Youth Month, and this year marks the 30th Anniversary of the Soweto and related uprisings. The President has spoken of the significance of June 16th in the lives of young people and in the history of our country. Madame Speaker, we are working closely with the National Youth Commission, the June 16th Foundation, the Johannesburg Municipality and the Province of Gauteng to appropriately mark the significance of the occasion.
To increase our capacity to support youth development work, we established a Youth Desk in The Presidency last September. Working with the National Youth Commission, the Youth Desk has helped us elaborate youth development opportunities and programmes within Government's Programme of Action thus improving monitoring, coordination and reporting. Beyond the Programme of Action, we are now mainstreaming youth work into the Government-Wide Monitoring and Evaluation System. This implies that trends in youth development will be monitored as part of the mainstream and not as a separate activity.
Youth development is high on the agenda of The Presidency. This is demonstrated by the success we have had in facilitating the implementation of the National Youth Service. Since the official launch of the programme in August 2004, ten thousand youth are set to participate in the programme so that we can make a significant dent in the challenge of youth unemployment, and simultaneously promote social cohesion. Let us all celebrate the spirit of Letsema and Vuk'zenzele displayed by our young people who are seizing the opportunities presented by democracy.
Active political participation and civic engagement are central to the realisation of our progressive vision and agenda. We recognise that participation in political institutions, political processes, and civic life are critical indicators of political inclusion.
It is reductionism in the extreme to suggest that centralisation is the primary factor that impacts on political participation by the masses of our people. The factors that either inhibit or enhance political participation by people have to do with the complex interplay between social identity, notions of citizenship, the struggle against oppression and discrimination and the degree of connectedness to the vision of creating a non-racial, non-sexist democratic society.
We fully understand the important relationship between formal political participation and participation in civic organisations. We recognise the need for strong civics and strong community based organisations. Social capital, information flows and political knowledge which derive from social and organisational networks, all play important roles in enhancing political participation and political mobilisation.
Democracy and the very institutions of democracy, including political parties and institutions of governance, cannot be sustained only by political participation via a ballot cast every four or five years. Thus we see the continual need to promote strong organisations in civil society. But at the same time we recognise the centrality of the developmental state as a corrective to the excesses of the marketplace and as the legitimate repository of the will and aspirations of the majority.
An excellent recent example of active engagement of and participation by broad based non-governmental and community based organisations (including business and labour) is the African Peer Review Mechanism.
The African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) process is about South Africa holding itself up for review by its Peers. It is also a mechanism for assessing what progress we as a country have made towards gender equality, equalisation of opportunities for persons with disabilities and the advancement of the rights of children and youth. The APRM process is fundamentally about engagement, inclusion and participation. It has reached into many corners of our country. It has stimulated the minds and the passions of many people in South Africa.
The Country Self Assessment Report which is the product of the process to date is reflective of our commitment to genuine dialogue, genuine listening, active engagement and inclusion and reflects our commitment to hearing the voices of our people articulating their concerns and their hopes. This is what participatory democracy in the age of hope is all about.
Madame Speaker, what I am about to say may well embarrass our President, but say it I must. Every Minister and Deputy Minister will agree with me Cmd. President that your leadership style is based on consensus. In cabinet meetings you listen to debate, you listen to all sides of an argument and then you guide and lead. I want to say from this rostrum that you are the quintessential consensual leader.
Honourable Members, opinion polls are not the basic measure of political legitimacy. We all know that different surveys, depending on their samples, methodology and the rigour of their processes can at a given moment produce different numbers when measuring the same thing.
Our Government's policies and actions are not based on polls but are informed by the verdict of the electorate and by monitoring the impact of the programme of action which the electorate has mandated us to implement.
Polls however do contribute to our understanding of views in our society and especially so when they show similar trends over time. In this regard a feature common to a number of recent polls has been the high level of popular approval for the President.
In February this year Markinor, observed that “since the election in April 2004, the approval for President Thabo Mbeki stayed more or less on the same level: in May 2004 and again in November 2004, eight in every ten South Africans (80%) indicated that they thought the President was doing his job “very well” or “fairly well”. In November 2005, this figure stood at 78%.”
Last week's Research Surveys reported that the approval of the President in metropolitan areas averaged 58% in 2004; 61% in 2005 and was 61% in April 2006.
The latest report of Institute for Democracy in South Africa (IDASA) Afrobarometer survey conducted in January and February this year, found a 77% approval.
Apart from the consistency of these trends, they parallel the increasing electoral support for our party which the President leads. Cmd. President, with you at the helm we have won the elections of 1999, 2004 and the recent 2006 local government elections with an ever increasing share of the popular vote. Clearly the people of our country appreciate you, your leadership style and the contribution our government is making to improve the quality of their lives.
In conclusion Madame Speaker, I would like to express my deep appreciation and gratitude for the work and commitment of the Rev Frank Chikane, Director-General, and the staff at all levels in The Presidency.
Thank you.
Issued by: The Presidency
24 June 2006
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