Admin
08 May, 2015
Letter by Mr LB Gaehler, MP to the Minister of Social Development regarding concerns about abuse of child grants – Hillcrest, Mthatha, Eastern Cape
Dear Minister of Social Development, Ms B Dlamini CONCERNS ABOUT ABUSE OF CHILD GRANTS – HILLCREST, MTHATHA, EASTERN CAPE 1. The above matter has reference. 2. Numerous reports have been given to me verbally about the abuse child grants in Hillcrest suburb in Mthatha Eastern Cape. 3. It is alleged that many of the people who receives child grant are not using them in accordance with the relevant prescripts and as such children are not attending school and not fed properly. 4. I humbly request your good office to investigate this matter and where possible bring sustainable solution by enforcing the application of the relevant regulations. 5. We await your kind intervention. Yours sincerely, Mr LB Gaehler, MP United Democratic Movement NCOP – EC
Admin
07 May, 2015
SUBJECT FOR DISCUSSION: Vote 11 on Public Works
ADDRESS BY Mr ML Filtane MP Hon Chairperson, Minister and Members The United Democratic Movement supports the budget. However we want to drive home the following important issues for the department to pay the necessary attention to, during the current financial season. • For the financial year 2014/15, the Minister committed the department to creation of over a million work opportunities through the Expanded Public Works Programme as a contribution to the overall commitment to create 6 million work opportunities by 2019. In this regard, the department should quarterly and annually update its statistics against the targets and report accordingly. • During our oversight visit to Pretoria, one eight storey building, in which the Council for the Built Environment is involved, was discovered to be socially unfriendly and non-compliant with basic prescripts governing and regulating conditions for buildings, private and public. This matter needs to be attended to urgently. One ablution facility and toilet to serve 32 tenants in one floor is just not acceptable. • The Departmental Offices situated in Mthatha in the Eastern Cape, has not been functioning optimally for a while, allegedly due to internal management challenges. This situation, if left unattended to, is compromising the efficiency and effectiveness of the department to render its services to its clientele. The Departmental Administrative Head should ensure that the situation is resolved. • The department must move with speed in finalising all the outstanding lease agreements. • The security of the Parliamentary villages remains a very sore and critical matter, this is notwithstanding all important decisions taken in the past. We still receive reports of break inns and uninvited visitors from outside in the middle of the night, risking the security of members. The department must ensure that once decisions are taken, they are implemented with the speedy they deserve. It must be remembered that this is classified as PRESTIGE PORTFOLIO of the department. • We need to get an update reports on the suitability of all government buildings in terms of access by people with disability as regulated. The department undertook last year to ensure that all Government buildings are compliant. • This budget, must also consider the funding framework for the Independent Development Trust. This should be consistent with the mandate of the IDT. The future of the employees of this entity remains uncertain, whilst this matter remains in limbo. The UDM hopes that corruption that has been widely reported, painting the department as a heaven of corrupt activities, is being aggressively addressed at an accelerated pace. I thank you. End
Admin
07 May, 2015
UDEMWO Calls For Reviewal Of The Parole System
Statement by Thandi Nontenja: UDEMWO Secretary General The United Democratic Movement Women’s Organisation condemns the gruesome killings of women throughout the country. We are also calling on the Department of Correctional Service to explain how the parole system works. One of the accused in the recent murder case of the young teacher, Jayde Panayiotou in Eastern Cape has been in and out of prison for serious cases which include robbery and possession of illegal firearm which we view under serious charge and we are asking ourselves how was he able to be given parole. Three (3) months of being a parolee he is now facing a murder case, what does this say about the justice system of this country. It is even saddening to learn that Jayde’s husband is also in custody for his involvement in the murder of his own wife. This shows clearly that women in this country are not safe and always living in fear of not knowing what is going to happen to them. Everyday we are being abused and killed by those who supposed to love and protect us. We are living a life of fear in the hands of those we call loved ones. Men have forgotten and abandoned their role as protectors and builders of the nation. South Africa is known for the Spirit of Ubuntu but that is fading by day. As women we are not safe at all even in our homes. We are victims of crime everyday without protection and that is why we are calling for the hand of justice to prevail and not grant bail for those involved in the murder. We are also calling upon the Department of Correctional Services to view their parole system as we feel that somehow it is not applied appropriately. End
Admin
05 Jun, 2015
2015 Budget Vote 33: Tourism – address by Mr LB Gaehler, MP
Honourable Chairperson, Ministers and Members The United Democratic Movement supports budget vote number 33 on tourism. In this regard, we welcome the efforts and work done by the department and many other role players in ensuring that this country remains a destination of choice for many citizens of world. This is notwithstanding socio economic challenges that the country continue to be confronted which in many instances results to inhuman and barbaric acts by criminal elements within our communities. We also note with regret that more than 90 percent of tourism activities in the country are limited to the three economic centers of the country (Cape Town, Johannesburg and Durban). This means beneficiation from this industry is limited to the urban part of the country thus excluding the majority of the unemployed and poor, who are found in the extreme rural areas of our land. The further UDM notes and welcome the commitment by the department to its focus shift towards expanding the tourism scope. However, this shift must not reduce the beneficiation currently enjoyed by urban areas, instead, more investment must be towards rural areas whilst strategically empowering the urban tourism to sustain itself through proper management and diversification. The niche for rural tourism is its heritage. The department has already made a clear case for this as paradigm shift and we support that. There are many iconic attractions in our rural areas and we must take advantage of this and maximise its strategic role on tourism. Our wildlife, fascinating history, natural beauty and culture are major and primary tourist attractions and we need to grow them into global iconic places and experiences. Heritage must be at centre of rural economic development and for the realisation of this programmes, a collaborative effort between all key stakeholders like, the Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, the Economic Cluster and well as the Local Sphere of governance is the pre-requirement. Accordingly, the department must invest on heritage knowledge working together with other relevant stakeholders. Total implementation of the National Rural Tourism Strategy, the National Heritage and Cultural Tourism Strategy and the National Tourism Sector Strategy as policy tools that the department has in its position can no longer be postponed. Through consistent and aggressive implementation of these tools and working together with the rural citizens, will ensure that the department plays its critical role in the fight against poverty, unemployment and inequality. The department must not fail in this historic task. Thank you
Admin
05 Jun, 2015
Member’s Statement on the critical challenges confronting young women address by Ms CN Majeke, MP in the National Assembly
Honourable Speaker and members As we begin the 39 Anniversary of the Youth month, it is important that we focus on the critical challenges confronting young women. Many young women remain targets for gender based violence. The recent UN, 2010 report, on violence against women in Africa indicates that the scourge of violence against women in Africa is still largely rampant, but hidden beneath cultural practices and beliefs. Amongst other reasons accountable for this situation are recorded as: • The predominance of the system of patriarchy across the continent and our country is not immune; • Violence against women is accepted as a cultural norm in many of our communities and is often condoned by the communities; • The stigma attached to female victims has resulted in very low rates of reporting and some young women and in particular in the rural areas, do not report and or sometimes are turned away by authorities who see violence against young women as not important. All government institutions and in law enforcement agencies and our judicial system, must give priority to violence against young women. The World Health Organisation reports that the health of young women is affected by a plethora of factors, most of which revolve around lack of adequate health facilities and infrastructure. We need to give extra focus on this matter as well during this 39th anniversary of the youth months with specific focus on young women. Promoting gender equity and empowerment of young women will be of benefit to our economy and the society at large. However, we still face a stumbling block with regard to prioritising young women. The National Youth Agency must give the necessary attention on this area as it implements its programme during this month. The majority of the unemployed young people are young women. I thank you
Admin
04 Jun, 2015
2015 Budget Vote 23: Police address by Mr LB Gaehler, MP
Honourable Chairperson, Ministers and Members The United Democratic Movement supports budget vote number 23 on POLICE. The incident at the Alexandra police station yesterday is a cause for great concern. Not less than four lives have been lost in a short space of time. More disturbing is that the shooting of a wife, two relatives and a police officer took place at a police station where it is expected that citizen’s safety is guaranteed. Many police offers are working under stressful conditions with no support mechanisms. Some are reported to be resisting attending counselling fearing that if they are diagnosed with certain conditions, such may make it difficult to get upward mobility at work. One of the things that the department needs to priorities is the implementation of a doctrine that ensures that our police service functions according to a set of rules that are in line with the values enshrined in the Constitution of the Republic. The department must also run a consistent programme intended to condition the police for the demanding service they have to deliver to the communities. Related to this, is a concerted mobilisation of communities so that the relationship between the police and communities is the one that enhances the service and ensure maximum security of the citizens. The instability with the Independent Police Investigating Directorate (IPID), undermines the strategic objectives for which that directorate was established. The ministry must ensure that the IPID stability is high in its agenda. The allegations about police officer’s involvement in serious crimes are on the increase with little consequences if any. The low conviction rates of implicated officers suggest that the police do not take the problem seriously and that the policies in place to deal with this matter are ineffective. The department must pay attention to this crisis. The morale and discipline of some of the police officers in some of the police stations lives much to be desired. This is coupled with the conditions under which these officers are expected to deliver services as well as their attitude towards the service and citizens. On the 7th of October 2014, I penned a letter to the Minister of Police bring to his attention the poor service I was personally exposed to at the Ngangelizwe Police Station in Mthatha, Eastern Cape. A combination of two fundamental factors referred to above, in that police station they find expression. The station had no tools for operation, such as a mere photocopy equipment, inks and others, let alone long queues that not attended to. The service in this station is a direct opposite of what is presented by the Minister and the department on the kind of service they commit to deliver to citizen. Madam Chair, as I speak now, detective sections of many police stations across the country are unable to get photos from their colleagues in the photo section, because it is claimed that funds are not sufficient to make them available. This is rendering the detective sections incapable to discharge its responsibility and deliver services to the poor citizens. We call on the Ministry to attend to this as an urgent matter. The Ministry and the department must pay very close attention to the daily work and service given in these police stations across the country. Madam Chair, the turnaround time of the Legal Aid Board, is rather disturbing. There are cases that are not concluded due to their lack of timely response to service request by the public. We to repeat the call we made with regard to the creation of special courts to respond to spontaneous illegal activities by communities. We must also consider the transformation of the judicial system as a priority that must not be stretched too long. Security of prison and court officials as well as facilities thereof, constitute an area for consideration by the department as in some instances, there have been reports of a lack of safety in the correctional services centres. An integrated programme and implementation by all the justice cluster will help us resolve many of the challenges confronting this area of strategic importance in the broader transformation agenda. Thank you
Admin
04 Jun, 2015
Request for intervention: renewable energy sector challenges in the Eastern Cape
Dear Minister Patel, Minister of Economic Development RE: REQUEST FOR INTERVENTION: RENEWABLE ENERGY SECTOR CHALLENGES IN THE EASTERN CAPE The abovementioned matter has reference. Thank you for the interest you have shown on this matter. This letter highlights some of the challenges faced by renewable energy investors, whose projects are situated in former Homeland areas of the Eastern Cape. I had intended to bring some of these issues to your attention during the Economic Development Budget Vote Debate, but due to time constraints (3 minutes speaking time) I could not do so. While some of the issues here fall under the mandate of the Department of Energy and, to a less extent, the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform, I have decided to include them in an attempt to give you a comprehensive picture – and primarily because they all have a negative impact on the economic development of the aforementioned areas. Please find hereunder the details of the issues I would like to bring to your attention. 1. REIPP Procurement Programme In 2011, the Department of Energy launched the Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme (REIPPPP) consisting of 5 bidding rounds taking place over a five year period. The first 4 rounds saw 79 renewable energy projects being selected amounting to R170 billions of investment by the private sector nation-wide. The Eastern Cape Province was only awarded 1 solar project and 15 wind energy projects by the Department of Energy (DOE). The total Rand value amount of this investment is approximately R26 billion. However, regrettably none of these projects is located in former Homelands, despite these areas representing 40 per cent of the Province’s land mass and 60 per cent of its population. I therefore appeal to you Mr Minister to influence the DOE to spread the benefit of these projects as wide as possible. 2. Socio-Economic Impact of the REIPP Procurement Programme Apart from its primary objective of procuring energy, the DOE has commendably designed the REIPP Procurement Programme as a tool to foster long term rural development within a 50km radius of each project location. The social benefits of this are massive. Each successful renewable energy project is compelled and has to commit to spend between 1 to 2.1 per cent of its turnover on Socio-Economic Development (SED) contributions and Enterprise Development (ED) contributions over the 20 year life cycle of its project. In addition to the job opportunities created during the construction and operation phase, each renewable energy project has to set up a community trust that owns between 5 and 40 per cent of the project’s equity shares and the dividends should be spent on community upliftment projects. The long term benefits are substantial, and will definitely change the face of rural South Africa in the medium to long term. 2.1 Over-concentration of Projects While these policies have massive socio-economic benefits, several challenges about the overconcentration of projects in certain areas of the Province remain. For instance, the majority of Wind Farms in the Eastern Cape are situated in two areas, Jeffrey’s Bay and Cookhouse, and together they have a combined investment value of R26 billion. In other words, the entire R26 billion that has been invested on renewable energy in the Eastern Cape thus far has gone to the two “previously advantaged” areas. Needless to say, this creates a long term imbalance with regard to development in the Province. It is often argued that the Northern Cape also suffers from the same over-concentration of projects in some areas. This over-concentration results in a situation, where a few communities that happen to fall the same within the 50km radius experience massive development, while leaving those who fall outside largely depending on the limited resources of the municipality for development. If left unchanged, this will become a major source of future intra-community inequality, which would lead to major community tensions and instability in future. To balance development in the Eastern Cape and other Provinces, I would like to propose that 30 per cent of the 1 and 2.1 per cent of the turnover companies have to spend on socio-economic development and enterprise development over the 20 year life cycle of the project be channelled to municipal coffers for service delivery across the municipality. Government should also take active steps to address the over-concentration of projects in a few areas. In particular, there should be deliberate focus on projects that are situated in previously disadvantaged communities. 3. Complex Land Tenure Systems: Former Homelands at a Competitive Disadvantage A private investor has to secure land rights before participating in the REIPP Procurement Programme. To acquire such rights on communal land, an investor must follow a lengthy and complicated administrative procedure with the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform, which takes anything between 3 to 4 years to complete. In contrast it takes a couple of months to achieve the same result when land is acquired from a private landowner. Government has to streamline this process if it has to level the playing field. 4. High Community Ownership and the Role of Development Finance Institutions (IDC) In former Homelands, communities are the landowners, meaning that in rural areas instead of dealing with a few farmers as landlords; a developer has to negotiate with several communities and therefore has to ensure that the project will meaningfully benefit tens of thousands of people, who live on the land earmarked for development. However, when the community is the landlord, most developers will back-end the payment of dividends from the community trust as a way to increase the competitiveness of the project. In other words, developers delay the payment of dividends to the surrounding communities by 10 years. This enables a developer to secure much more favourable financing terms for the community trust, which has a direct impact on the improvement of the project’s finances. But the downside of it is that communities have to wait for ten years to get dividends. Again the playing field is not level, as high community ownership stakes and favourable financing terms are required for projects that have thousands of community members as landlords, but there are currently no incentive schemes or reward mechanisms built into the DOE’s selection criteria to reflect the positive long term socio-economic impacts of rural projects. Moreover, development finance institutions do not provide projects located on communal land in Former Homelands any preferential financing terms for community stakes. For instance, the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) has been very active in financing community stakes for projects located on privately owned land in the renewable energy hotspots with 50km radius overlap between projects. The terms offered by the IDC to project’s located in former Homelands are less competitive than commercial banks. For instance, one of the Wind Farms in Motherwell had to acquire finance from commercial banks in order to finance the community stake due to the IDC’s unfavourable loan conditions. Clearly, IDC failed to play its developmental role of bridging the inequality gap in our economy in this example. It is estimated that in order to finance a 30 per cent community ownership stake for the 400MW of renewable energy projects that are currently being developed in Former Homelands, about R600 million would be required at competitive rates. The amount of R600 million might seem like a lot of money. But it is not out of reach when one considers that the Department of Economic Development has set aside R23 billion to assist black industrialists out a R100 billion rand package earmarked for industrial development. Currently, lack of funding and other challenges force developers, who are located in former Homelands, to reduce community stakes, back-end the distribution of dividends and reduce the percentage of ED and SED contributions in order to stand a slim chance of winning in the REIPP Procurement Programme. In summary, to level the playing field, I propose that two actions be taken by Government: • The DOE gives more credit in its score card to projects located on communal land in the former Homelands. • Development Finance Institutions provide very competitive financial terms for community stakes in order to beat commercial banks and allow projects to be more competitive. 5. Underutilisation of Electricity Infrastructure. Since 1994, the ANC government has successfully built brand new electricity substations in former Homelands in order to give access to electricity rural communities. This new infrastructure represents cheap and rapid means of connecting renewable energy projects to the grid, while placing no additional financial burden on Eskom. However, the large majority of projects selected to date by the DOE require substantial network investment with the associated timing implications, while the country is in the middle of an energy crisis. The DOE has not taken into account the advantages former Homelands offer in terms of rapid, cheap and decentralized energy generation capacity they bring to the Eskom grid. In other words, it is easier to connect the small wind farm projects to the substations that are in rural areas than it is to connect big renewable farms to the same substations for reasons mentioned above. Again, the playing field is not level, as these advantages which have a financial implication for the country are not taken into account. I look forward to hearing from you. Mr Nqabayomzi Kwankwa, MP Copied to: Honourable Elsie Mmathulare Coleman, Chair PC on Economic Development
Admin
04 Jun, 2015
2015 Budget Vote 17: Social Development – address by Mr LB Gaehler, MP
Honourable Chairperson, Ministers and Members The United Democratic Movement supports this budget vote and in this regard, we would like to make the following comments. • The creation of a caring society is based on the willingness to provide the tools for achieving an inclusive society. This implies that life chances are partly detached, or de-commodified from social and economic origins and circumstances. • The core of the inclusive society is to create equal opportunities and equal access to services and infrastructure for specific groups such as unemployed and disadvantaged, disabled people, children and adolescents, older people and pensioners, ethnic communities and many others. • We need to grapple with the essential building stones for a caring society in order to achieve an inclusive society. In doing this, we must also strive to reach a stage where participation of society, in social, political and economic spheres while respecting diversity but deliberately empowering the disadvantaged and vulnerable. • We must underpin our conception of an inclusive society with education and family capital for us to sustain it. • Given the current demographics, economic and political pressure as well as financial constraints, welfare state reforms are on the political agenda everywhere in the developing world. The recent spate of missing children in particular children from poor families robes the nation of future leaders. It makes it impossible for society to invest in these poor souls for the future development of the nation. We must double the efforts in rooting out this barbaric act from our society. Both, the community and law enforcement agencies must work collectively as agents of change for the creation of a caring and inclusive society. Gender discrimination is a crucial factor in entrenching a caring and inclusive society in particular for women and girls who are vulnerable to all sorts of social and economic ills including human trafficking. A range of laws and policies and programmes have been adopted to promote gender equity. This is not only a political and constitutional priority but also a key developmental matter and central part of building a caring and inclusive society. I concede that there are, and shall always be complex and varied factors impeding realization of this noble goal, a caring and inclusive society, however, a combination of all efforts by all citizens can guarantee us a great success in this regard. Thank you
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