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22 Jul, 2014
Eastern Cape: Budget vote Roads and Public Works
Speech by Mr Mhlati, leader of the UDM in the legislature Honourable Speaker, Honourable Premier and the Executive, Honourable Members, government officials in supporting the budget allocation of the department, the UDM would like to place more emphasis on the acute shortage of skilled personnel within the department. It is unthinkable that a government department can just literally depend on consultants for it to perform its functions. I plead with the Executive to give their full support in the recruitment drive to put the staffing of the department to the acceptable levels. As matters stand we are not sure whether the companies are forming cartels or not against this government as price escalations have become the order of the day. Although the establishment of the yellow fleet within the department is appreciated the lack of quality supervision is of great concern. Some of these yellow fleet teams are selling the diesel earmarked for the machinery to people who have trucks and tractors and you always find the employees roaming about in the rural areas and when you ask them why the machinery is standing idle, there is no diesel. It is also important that the traditional leaders should be called upon to perform their function as eyes and ears of government and to report any fraudulent activities by the members of the yellow fleet. The department should please ensure that companies awarded tenders in rural roads have the appropriate equipment for road -making not just a grader, we expect quality work for the quality money we pay out. A clear line of demarcation of responsibilities between the department and other departments such as health and education of which this department has a part to play. Clear memorandums of understanding among the parties should be drawn putting the areas of responsibility of each player up until the final product is completed and quality assured. The Government should come out in the open as to whether we want quality roads and buildings or we want to promote emerging contractors at the expense of quality work. This issue comes out of the N2 road through Mthatha to Viedgesville which has not yet finished two years but is being done patch work on a daily basis. I faced some managers for the shoddy work which they do for the Government and they put the blame on the emerging contractors they are forced to take. Stringent steps should be taken by the Department to complete the development of the asset Register of Government properties in the Province and must make use of the Surveyors to search and identify the properties. Furthermore, illegal occupants of Government properties should be prosecuted and caused to pay rental. The total budget of R4,025 444 billion for the Department is fully supported. I thank you
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22 Jul, 2014
Budget Vote 2: Parliament
Address by Mr Nqabayomzi Kwankwa, MP in the National Assembly Budget Vote 2: Parliament Madam Speaker, Deputy President and Honourable Members, Parliament derives its power directly from the people. We are therefore all here to implement the will of the people. Once elected, our people therefore expect us to rise above ideological cleavages and narrow partisan interests to build a better South Africa for all, both Black and White. Deputy Speaker, Speaking time is essential for pluralist and representative debates that communicate the will of the people of South Africa and the constituencies the various political parties in this House represent. We are concerned that the current proportional speaking formula in Parliament does not provide us, the so-called smaller opposition parties or other parties as we prefer to call ourselves, enough opportunity to clearly articulate the will of our people and constituencies. Applying the crude principle of proportionality on speaking times does not bode well for both the reputation and image of this august Institution. For example, at times speakers’ times expire before the speakers had managed to put their points across – thus leaving the public questioning the purpose and quality of contribution. It is therefore important for Parliament to look into ways in which speaking times allow all parties to add maximum value to what are often complex parliamentary debates. We are aware that political parties have since the beginning of this term worked together to improve the situation and we appreciate the efforts. However, we believe there is still more room for improvement. Our view is that the minimum speaking time for parliamentary debates should be five minutes. Deputy Speaker, In the last term, there were instances, where people complained about the lack of proper consultation on Bills before this House. There were also a number of cases, where Bills were withdrawn to allow for further consultation. The Info Bill was example where the public consultation process was not done properly. There have also been cases, where Bills were passed by this House only to be declared unconstitutional by the Constitutional Court. We have to work hard to improve the quality of the legislation we pass. We also have a duty to ensure that the public is central to the lawmaking process of Parliament. Our laws should be based on and informed by the will of the people. Put differently, the People Must Govern! Deputy Speaker, We commend support systems that Parliament has been put in place, such as the Budget Office, to shore up the work of individual Members of Parliament (MPs) and the Committees. This will go a long way towards improving the effectiveness of MPs and Parliament in their oversight role and in holding Government accountable for its programmes. The UDM supports Budget Vote 2. Thank you.
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22 Jul, 2014
Budget Vote 5: International Relations and Cooperation
Speech by Mr Bantu Holomisa, MP and UDM President in the National Assembly Honourable Chairperson Minister and Deputy Minister Honourable Members The United Democratic Movement believes that the national interests of South Africa should be defined and pursued strictly according to the norms and principles, expressed in the Constitution of the Republic in the execution of the country’s relations with the outside world. The recent and rapid developments in the global political landscape, demands of the South African Parliament, plays an active and central role in the conduct of foreign policy. The mandate of the Parliamentary portfolio committee for International Relations and Cooperation should stretch beyond oversight on activities of the department to include assessment and evaluation of executive decisions and commitments made in the execution of our foreign policy and actions. In this way, Parliament like in many other countries will be at the centre of foreign relations. Such an approach would allow us an opportunity to present a united front in conflicts such as in the Middle East. In this regard, a radical intervention from South Africa must seek to champion the implementation of the UN Security Council Resolutions on the Middle East. South Africa should engage all other states who tend to undermine the multi lateral decisions on this ongoing conflict. On the 9 September 2013, I penned a letter to the President of the Republic, the then Minister of Public Service and Administration and carbon copied the then and current Minister of International Relations and Cooperation; in which I alerted the President to serious and disturbing information of alleged looting of state resources by Director General of the Department of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO). These concerns were also reported to the Minister of International Relations and Cooperation by the Audit Committee of the department. The audit committee held an opinion “that the management report together with the audit report (for the financial year ended 31 March 2013), are materially misleading, not true reflection of the state of affairs and are not fair presentation of the financial position” of the department. The amounts involved here exceed half a billion rands with allegations of possible executive directives leading to unauthorised and irregular expenditure. More than 10 months since I raised the matter with all the relevant offices, either than empty promises from the office of the Minister, we have no record of what has been done with these serious allegations. It is in the public interest that this matter be disposed of as soon as possible. Until this has been addressed, the United Democratic Movement cannot support budget vote 5. Thank you
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21 Jul, 2014
Budget Vote 10: National Treasury
Chairperson, Honourable Minister and Deputy Minister, Honourable Members, Once more, Budget Vote 10 is delivered against the backdrop of severe economic challenges facing the world today. It takes place at a time when some economies around the world are making a slow economic recovery, while others are still in economic deepfreeze. We acknowledge that appropriate economic policy responses have been undertaken in order to place the country on a path to economic growth and prosperity. However, challenges remain. South Africa is still grappling with a chronic unemployment problem, especially among the youth. The current economic growth rate of approximately 2 per cent per annum is not sufficient to save the poor from the yoke of poverty. The low economic growth does not only negatively affect job creation, but it also means less money for Government to deliver services to our people. Hence the need for the 4 per cent budget deficit to finance the country’s development needs. To make matters worse, big businesses and wealthy individuals devise all manner of strategies to both avoid and evade tax. This needless to say erodes the same tax base from which the revenue for service delivery must come. I am aware that plans are afoot to deal with this problem. We however wish to add our voice in calling for tough sanctions to be imposed on the culprits. Mister Minister, It is going to be difficult to address spatial gaps and inequalities, when State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs) seem to lack the capacity to spend funds allocated for infrastructure development. You are aware as I already indicated in the Public Enterprises Budget Vote that over the past two years, SOEs s over the past two years spent approximately 70 per cent of the funds committed to infrastructure development. In addition, in far too many cases the quality of the basic human settlements infrastructure leaves much to be desired. Drastic steps should be taken to improve the capacity of the Departments responsible for implementing Government’s job creation and service delivery. We have to double our efforts to ensure that with increased budget allocations come commensurate rises in our people’s standards of living. Mister Minister, We are concerned that Government’s debt and deficit reduction programme seems to principally depend on optimistic economic growth forecasts. Output growth in South Africa has been sluggish for quite some time and judging by Government’s failure to achieve past targets, we are not convinced that the new targets will be achieved. The UDM believes that output growth forecasts should be realistic so that we can begin the process of setting the country’s finances on a path to fiscal consolidation. The UDM supports Budget Vote 10. Thank you.
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17 Jul, 2014
Budget Vote 11: Public Enterprises
Address by UDM Deputy Secretary General, Mr Nqabayomzi Kwankwa, MP at Committee Room E249 Chairperson, Honourable Minister and Deputy Minister, Honourable Members, For many years, South Africa’s economic growth potential has been shackled by a lack of properly planned infrastructure investment. This resulted in immense disparities in the quality of the infrastructure between rural and urban communities. The poor and rural communities have to make do with inadequate and poor quality infrastructure, which confines them to the margins of economic activity. Through properly planned infrastructure development and rural development programmes, state-owned enterprises (SOEs) have an important role to play to boost economic growth in order to ensure equal opportunity for all people to participate in our country’s economy. However, this objective will be difficult to achieve if drastic steps are not taken to improve the capacity of SOEs to spend their allocated budgets. For instance, over the past two years, SOEs have been spending approximately 70 per cent of the funds committed to infrastructure development. To make matters worse, SOE managers also achieve approximately 70 per cent of their performance agreements. These factors together with the number of times Government has had to bailout some of the SOEs reveals that SOEs are far less productive than private sector companies. How does one then justify the high salaries paid to the executives of the SOEs? The United Democratic Movement (UDM) believes capacity levels at SOEs need to be improved if they (SOEs) are to truly serve as an engine for economic growth and development. We are also of the view that steps should be taken to ensure that the right people are employed into right positions at our SOEs, with clear and strict performance contracts. We believe that in large infrastructure development programmes, the Department needs to rope in the private sector to either invest in or play a part in them. Honourable Minister, We were too happy to hear that the Department has reduced its vacancy rate from 16.7 per cent in 2009 to 11.9 per cent 2013. However, our celebration was short-lived, when we discovered that the use of consultants features prominently in the plans of the Department for the current financial year. We believe that filling vacancies should result in lower usage of consultants, and not the opposite. The UDM supports Budget Vote 11. I thank you.
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17 Jul, 2014
Budget Vote 30 – Environmental Affairs (MTEF 2014)
Address by the President of the UDM, Mr BH Holomisa MP, in the National Assembly Honourable Chairperson Minister and Deputy Minister Honourable Members The United Democratic Movement (UDM) supports budget vote 30 – Environmental Affairs.In my limited time I will dedicate this speech to Madiba, the environmentalist. When the President of the republic made a call to all South Africans, to remember and celebrate this years’ birthday of this environmental activist by participating in cleaning activities, it reminded me of the olden days in the former Transkei when the 26th of October each year and as an Independence Day, the government will work together with its people, dedicating the day to a clean and healthy environment. In celebrating the first birthday of Tata Madiba, without him, we can’t but remember his passionate love and care for the nature and the environment, its relation to human kind and the people of South Africa in general. I am reminded of one of the question this icon directly asked me when he returned from his early village walks in Qunu during the early 90s. He asked me: “Bantu what happened to all the birds that used to inhabit this place, their harmonious sounds, their beautiful singing which made them to enjoy the tranquillity and nature of the village”. In response to Madiba, I said: “….due to the high level of poverty in the area, local people were forced to fell trees for use as wood fuel”. Certainly, there is a direct relationship between poverty and environment and unfortunately it is not always a good one. The concern in the question by Madiba exposed us to the need to urgently give an immediate attention to preserve our environment. The reforestation programmes for an example, will one day make it possible to have the pleasure of walking through a forest, listening to the beautiful sounds of nature as Madiba so wished. To realise his wish, the UDM suggests that as part of the much talked about cultural liberation route from Maritzburg should be to consider establishing what we would call Madiba or Nelson Mandela Forests. Such forests would go a long way in responding to the challenges of climate change, biodiversity management, combat desertification, heritage, conservation and facilitate sustainable economic growth and job creation. Given the current questionable infrastructure development map of our country, this proposal would present an opportunity for equitable reconstruction of our country. In one of his encouraging letters to me during the occasion of the tree planting ceremony in Mqanduli in 2010, Madiba said “It is wonderful to think that one day people will again have the pleasure of walking through a forest, listening to the beautiful sounds of nature … these are things no child should be deprived of”. Thank you
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16 Jul, 2014
Budget Vote 7 – Public Works (MTEF 2014)
Contribution made by UDM Member of Parliament, Mr ML Filtane, in the National Assembly Honourable Chairperson Minister and Deputy Minister Honourable Members This department is charged with the custodianship and management of government immovable assets; ancillary thereto, it takes initiatives to develop such infrastructure as may be needed by various government departments, from time to time. It must also reform and radically improve the construction sector of our economy. This is a department that is consistently surrounded by allegations of fraud and corruption on a number of fronts like leasing of buildings and construction of new assets; add to that, a very inadequate mix of staffers to drive its programmes. The staff inadequacy results, specifically in poor service delivery and poor financial controls. It is against this backdrop that the United Democratic Movement (UDM) submits thus: • The filling in of critical and strategic posts must be prioritised by the department so that lease agreements can be efficiently managed. • Incentives need to be offered to enhance the recruitment and retention of appropriately qualified personnel. • Some very experienced building contractors were strategically and cruelly eliminated from the CIDB system when it was established. As has been the case with land claims, the department is urged to re-convene another construction Indaba this financial year so that those who were left out earlier could find an opportunity to enter the system. That will constitute an element of radical change to the CIDB system. This CIDB is just not serving the purpose for which it was established in the first place. African contractors are seldom found in the grades higher than 1 and 2. The R827 billions set aside for this term will be a pie in the sky for them. The reason offered by the board for not effectively improving the qualifications for these African contractors to meet the procurement requirements are not convincing. • The department should develop policy and legislation that supports the cause of improving the qualification levels of the African contractors. • Transfers to provinces and municipalities need close monitoring to ensure in particular, that the EPWP funds and utilised for the development intentions that we intended and this is with specific reference to municipalities. This fund, we propose, should be linked to other socio economic programmes of local government. A policy will have to be developed to guide municipalities in this regard. • We can’t over state the continued failure to pay service providers like contractors as per the generic government policy. In this regard, the department must put an end to this behaviour and toe the line of government. Thank you
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16 Jul, 2014
Budget Vote 2 – Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MTEF 2014)
Contribution made by UDM Member of Parliament, Mr ML Filtane, in the National Assembly Honourable Chairperson Minister and Deputy Minister Honourable Members The United Democratic Movement (UDM) makes the following contribution to this important debate and subject. In the previous term the department achieved very little in so far as its core business is concerned. We are talking about the business of, amongst others. • Ensuring food security for all the citizens of the country especially through agriculture and fisheries and indirectly through forestation. Statistics South Africa reported in August 2013; that 21.5% of people suffered severe inadequate access to food as of 2012. In the Eastern Cape that figure translated to 1.3 million people out of 6.2 million as at that time. 11% or 5.6 million SA citizens actually experience hunger as we speak. The department is mired in institutional operational and policy related problems. To compound the situation, it has a totally new ministry; consequently it is failing to deliver on its mandate. This has left the door wide open for established practitioners in farming, fisheries and forestry to just maintain the status quo. The charters are not being operationalised. Currently more than half of all smallholder households live below the poverty line. How can they produce food for anyone then if they themselves are starving? The department is unable to prevent the exploitation of marine reserves. Rich export markets can only be accessed by those with expert industry knowledge, none of these has been produced yet by the department. Timber products are exported with hardly any consideration for supporting local economic development initiatives, not even those supported by government itself. The Baziya Forests in the EC are a typical example here. In Baziya afforested land is the subject of a validated claim but the claimants are not benefitting in anyway, be it jobs, rent or products and the company running the forest is enjoying a recently renewed lease for another 60 years. This department is folding its arms, helpless in the meantime. The fiasco in fisheries permits is well documented and published, no solution yet, jut plans by the new minister. The department has neither bold/robust nor radical plans to change the situation. The EC has all the potential to be the food basket of South Africa but the Ncera farms programmes has collapsed right under the watchful but ineffective management of the department. It is facing either closure or transformation when either of those happens momentum is sure to be lost. The UDM responds and recommends: • Stop planning too long the past 5 years are enough, start implementing, even bit by bit. Fund communities in afforestation. • Implement your charters and thus create jobs for the surrounding and interested communities. • Fast track partnerships between community-based co-operatives and the well established practitioners and appoint dedicated mentors for at least 2 years, where it is not possible to have partnerships. • Make sure that all your programmes are developmental and food productive in nature otherwise there is no social value for money. • Lastly, ask yourself Hon Minister, Do I have the right mix of entities and do the current one speak with one voice that of addressing the core goal of the department. Thank you
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