Source document: https://docs-lawep.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/1698136138499.pdf (South Africa)
UNREVISED HANSARD NATIONAL COUNCIL OF PROVINCES WEDNESDAY, 8 JUNE 2022 Page: 1 WEDNESDAY, 08 JUNE 2022 ____ PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL COUNCIL OF PROVIINCES ____ The Council met at 14:00.

The Deputy Chairperson took the Chair and requested members to observe a moment of silence for prayers or meditation The DEPUTY CHAIRPERSON OF THE NCOP: Hon delegates, before we proceed I would like to remind you of the following: the virtual sitting constitutes a sitting of the National Council of Provinces.
the place of the sitting is deemed to be Cape Town where the seat of the National Council of Provinces is.

Delegates in the virtual sitting enjoy the same powers and privileges that apply in a sitting of the National Council of Provinces.

And for the purpose of the quorum, all delegates who are logged on to the virtual platform shall be considered present.
UNREVISED HANSARD NATIONAL COUNCIL OF PROVINCES WEDNESDAY, 8 JUNE 2022 Page: 2 Delegates must switch on their videos if they want to speak and they should ensure that the microphones and their gadgets are muted and must always remain muted unless they are speaking.

The interpretation facility is active.


Members of the executive, permanent delegates and others are requested to ensure that the interpretation facility on their gadgets are properly activated to facilitate access to the interpretation services.

Any delegate who wishes to speak must use the ‘raise hand’ function.

And any delegate who wishes to raise a point of order should, in accordance with Rule 69(3) indicate in terms of which rule he/she is rising.
I have also been informed that there will be no notices of motions or motions without notice.

Before we proceed to the First Order, let me take this opportunity to welcome the Ministers and the Deputy Ministers of Home Affairs; Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities, MECs and all special and permanent delegates to the House.

UNREVISED HANSARD NATIONAL COUNCIL OF PROVINCES WEDNESDAY, 8 JUNE 2022 Page: 3 Hon delegates and ...
I just want to, specially, welcome the Ministry of Women with which we are working very closely, in terms of the programmes that we are running.

But also a special welcome to hon Motswaledi and his Deputy also.

We will now proceed to the First Order.

APPROPRIATION BILL (Policy debate) Budget Vote No 5 - Home Affairs: The MINISTER OF HOME AFFAIRS: Chairperson, unfortunately the technical team in the NCOP were still helping me to try and get the parliamentary background, I don’t have it.
Can I continue, nevertheless?

The DEPUTY CHAIRPERSON OF THE NCOP: Yes.

We will make sure that next time you’ll definitely have that background.

But you may continue.

The MINISTER OF HOME AFFAIRS: My apologies.

UNREVISED HANSARD NATIONAL COUNCIL OF PROVINCES WEDNESDAY, 8 JUNE 2022 Page: 4 The DEPUTY CHAIRPERSON OF THE NCOP: I don’t think it is ... ja [yes] ... it’s fine, it’s really fine.

We want the content of your debate.

We will see it to it that you get the background later.
The MINISTER OF HOME AFFAIRS: Hon House Chairperson, my colleague, Deputy Minister of Home Affairs, hon Mr Njabulo Nzuza, hon Chairperson of Select Committee on Security and Justice, Ms Shaida Shaikh, hon members of the Select Committee on Security and Justice and hon members of the National Council of Provinces, the Director-General of the Department, Mr Tommy Makhode, the Commissioner of the Border Management Authority, Dr Mike Masiapato, and his team, the Commissioners of the Independent Electoral Commission, IEC, led by Commissioner Ms Janet Love and Chief Executive Officer, CEO, Mr Sy Mamabolo, the CEO of the Government Printing Works, GPW, Ms Alinah Fosi, and her team, members of the media, ladies and gentlemen, good afternoon.
I have the honour of updating this House on the progress we are making in delivering on the key priorities of the Department of Home Affairs in serving citizens better.

UNREVISED HANSARD NATIONAL COUNCIL OF PROVINCES WEDNESDAY, 8 JUNE 2022 Page: 5 It is not rocket science to guess that after ... [Sound overlapped.]

... the long queues in Home Affairs ... it will be expected because it is glaring and badly affects by all the citizens.
It gives me sleepless nights but also prompts me and the department into action.

But to take action, one needs to know, understand and analyse the causes.

While the causes are many and varied, I wish to specifically pick up the two important ones.

f these too are not resolved, then even if the others are severally resolved, it will still not make no dent.
These two most important ones are system’s downtime and shortage of warm bodies in front offices, warm bodies who must service the public in an efficient and timely manner because no human being enjoys standing in a queue for a long time.

As you will know the department consists of two main arms: The Civic Services and Immigration.

I will start with Civic Services because this is by far the biggest arm of the department.
As I have already mentioned, system downtime simply means the number of times and the duration during which our Information Technology, IT, system is down and unavailable for processing UNREVISED HANSARD NATIONAL COUNCIL OF PROVINCES WEDNESDAY, 8 JUNE 2022 Page: 6 of documents.

In my previous speech I have referred to it as the original sin.

Some members of the public simply understand it as Home Affairs computers that fail to function and the department that is unwilling to fix them.
I want to mention that system downtime is a failure of the whole system network, rather than just computers that needs to be fixed.

These systems are mainly, State Information Technology Agency, SITA, networks which provide IT services for state departments.

And, of course, Home Affairs also has its own system which interact with SITA systems to provide the wholeness of the IT services.
Last year both SITA and the Department of Home Affairs were summoned to appear in front of the Portfolio Committee on Home Affairs in Parliament in the National Assembly to outline clear plans to deal with this perennial problem once and for all.

Let me outline here the plan and the progress made up so far.

I’ll start with revamping the old network.

SITA has informed us that they are spending R400 million to revamp its entire network; having just completed a procurement process in this regard.
This revamp will be concluded in the third quarter of this financial year.

This revamp will help to stabilise the network.

UNREVISED HANSARD NATIONAL COUNCIL OF PROVINCES WEDNESDAY, 8 JUNE 2022 Page: 7 Secondly, implementing the Software Define Network, SDN.

This work has been concluded by SITA and will assist in increasing our bandwidth due to the number of applications we use at Civics.

This will increase our connectivity.

Thirdly, internet capacity.


I am not aware of any other government department that consume as much internet services as Home Affairs does.

Virtually, internet services are a sine qua non [an essential condition; a thing that is absolutely necessary] of the existence of the Department of Home Affairs.

SITA has now doubled its internet capacity and introduced three failovers located in three cities, in Tshwane, Cape Town and eThekwini.
This will ensure that if any of the network is down, there will be two more to support the services.

Members of the portfolio committee in the National Assembly have always asked about something called redundancy, meaning backup connection or network, hence this failovers in the three cities will assist in the redundancy.

Fourthly, development plan for cybersecurity.

SITA has finalised its procurement plan to address cybersecurity for our IT infrastructure.
This will be implemented during this financial year once the law enforcement agencies have given approval.

All in all, SITA has committed to spend R1 billion UNREVISED HANSARD NATIONAL COUNCIL OF PROVINCES WEDNESDAY, 8 JUNE 2022 Page: 8 on IT infrastructure to support the Department of Home Affairs and others.

But we all know that the Department of Home Affairs will be one of the major beneficiaries.

Fifthly, the roll-out of switches and routers.


The department, itself, has installed new 136 routers and 150 switches in 136 offices, and we still need to install 112 routers and 68 switches, which have already been bought.

Sixth, bringing in engineers from the banks.

Two weeks ago I told the National Assembly that we have reached an agreement with a leading bank to bring eight IT engineers to assist to stabilise our network and help install some key IT infrastructure.
Today, I can announce that, as I am speaking to you now, these eight IT specialists are in a meeting with the Department of Home Affairs, the State Information Technology Agency and SA Revenue Services, SARS, in a marathon meeting that started at 08h30 this morning and will end at 16h30 this afternoon.

This meeting will identify key interventions on IT infrastructure and networking capability to improve frontline system availability and delivery.
You may remember that I had announced as far back as 2019 that we had arranged with the banks to offer some Home Affairs UNREVISED HANSARD NATIONAL COUNCIL OF PROVINCES WEDNESDAY, 8 JUNE 2022 Page: 9 services like ID and passports in their branches.

But to do so, the banks need the Home Affairs and SITA systems to get into the National Population Register.

The banks were very enthusiastic about this plan, but later on we noticed that the uptake is slow.
And we then discovered that the banks are weary of our system downtime because this will cause reputational damage to them.

Hence we spoke to them and said, look, come and ... [Sound cut off.]

to stabilize our system because then it will allow you to open your branches for Home Affairs services, and that’s how we end up with these eight IT experts from the bank.

Seventh, the SA Connect.

This was a ... [Sound cut off.]

... the hon Minister of Communications and ... [Sound cut off.]
... Technologies and new technologies to connect schools, clinics, police stations and Home Affairs offices.

But we believe Home Affairs will be the major beneficiary.

Eighth, installing generators.

Apart from downtime due to SITA and Home Affairs network, we are also troubled by loadshedding.
We have installed generators in our 197 modernised offices but our remaining 215 non-modernised offices, especially in rural areas, are not operational during UNREVISED HANSARD NATIONAL COUNCIL OF PROVINCES WEDNESDAY, 8 JUNE 2022 Page: 10 every loadshedding episode, and further increasing the long queues.

Then there is the national scourge which Home Affairs is particularly vulnerable to, cable theft.
On the 26th of April this year, there was a headline in the Daily Dispatch, a newspaper publication in the Eastern Cape, which simply read: Cable theft shuts Home Affairs.

While technicians from SITA were able to resolve this, it took two days to install new cables, leaving the entire province of the Eastern Cape unable to access services.
Again, and needless to say, members of the public simply believe ... aah, there goes Home Affairs computers again, and they express their anger through abusive phone calls and e- ... [Sound overlapped.]

WhatsApp messages.

When we encounter this we deploy mobile trucks to some of these areas affected by cable theft, but the level of anger is always high.
National Joint Operational and Intelligence Structure, NATJOINTS, is trying their best to deal with this matter but it’s a killer punch to Home Affairs to have cables stolen.

Ninth, purpose-built Home Affairs offices.

We have long decried the need to have purpose-built Home Affairs offices in UNREVISED HANSARD NATIONAL COUNCIL OF PROVINCES WEDNESDAY, 8 JUNE 2022 Page: 11 the same way as police stations, clinics and schools are serving the public and they are not hired from anybody.
Unfortunately, Home Affairs offices are hired from somebody who has built them for another purpose, and so they are not purpose-built.

But we have started, we are spending, this year, R181 million in constructing purpose-built offices.

Last year we completed construction and now are operating such a modern purpose-built office in Lusikisiki in the Eastern Cape.
Construction is progressing very well in Thohoyandou and Mokopane in Limpopo, in Taung in the North West and work has recently started in Stanger in KwaZulu-Natal.

We also intend to build similar modernised offices in Hlabisa and Harding in KwaZulu-Natal, Randfontein in Gauteng and Mhala in Mpumalanga in the 2023-24 financial year.
In addition, we have registered 15 offices with the Presidential Infrastructure Coordinating Council to be built through a Private Public Partnership, PPP, for a high volume office.

In Gauteng there are two offices, namely, the Byron Place office in Tshwane and the Harrison Street office in Johannesburg.

In the Eastern Cape we have identified Buffalo City, Gqeberha and Mthatha.

In KwaZulu-Natal it’s Pinetown and uMgungundlovu.

In Mpumalanga, eMalahleni and Mbombela.

In Limpopo it’s in Polokwane.


UNREVISED HANSARD NATIONAL COUNCIL OF PROVINCES WEDNESDAY, 8 JUNE 2022 Page: 12 Tenth, Home Affairs offices in malls.

Two weeks ago I announced that we are opening Home Affairs offices in some malls in Pretoria, Johannesburg, Durban and Cape Town.

This move will enable us to offer services in improved conditions in that malls have ample parking spaces and can offer shelter away from the sun and the rain.
We have signed a Memorandum of Understanding, MoU, already with the owners of the malls to enable us to move and we are going to Menlyn Mall as early as September this year.

We’ll then rollover to the other malls and the other cities.

Since that announcement, a number of companies that own malls have contacted.
They are very much interested in this and we are finalizing the areas where we’ll choose these malls together with the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, CSIR, which helped us to identify what we call an access model.

Meaning where to place offices in terms of population density and service delivery imperatives.

Other malls that we are expanding to will be Cresta Mall and Southgate Mall in Johannesburg, ... [Sound overlapped.]

Tygervalley Mall in Cape Town.


UNREVISED HANSARD NATIONAL COUNCIL OF PROVINCES WEDNESDAY, 8 JUNE 2022 Page: 13 Eleventh, the appointment booking system.

The biggest statement we are making today in embracing ways of waging the war on queues is the rollout of the online booking system called the Branch Appointment Booking System, BABS.

This system is used to book appointments only for Smart-ID cards and passports.

It was piloted in 29 of our busiest urban and rural offices.
The Lusikisiki office in the eastern Cape is also part of this pilot.

The results of this pilot have given us confidence that we can roll it out to decrease long queues.

The pilot started in December 2021 and since we started, a total of 44 307 people have used the system between December 2021 and 31 May 2022; that is last month.

Our target is to rollout the booking system to all our 43 large offices by the end of June and we are on track to do so.
I think the Deputy Minister is going to expatiate more on this programme.

Twelfth, staffing the department.

Some five years ago Treasury ordered that no new posts must be filled, even if they have been funded before.

This led to havoc in Home Affairs where the staffing in our frontline offices plummeted to a low of 39%, in terms of capacity.
But this year Treasury has given us R266 million just to make a start in dealing with this UNREVISED HANSARD NATIONAL COUNCIL OF PROVINCES WEDNESDAY, 8 JUNE 2022 Page: 14 unsavoury state of affairs.

This money will enable us to hire 764 extra employees.

Unfortunately, it will only take us to 42% capacity from the present 39%.

Thirteenth, we also deploy mobile offices in the form of trucks.

They visit our communities and especially schools because we don’t want to see learners queuing at Home Affairs.
This is one of the most effective ways of taking services to the.

Home Affairs have 100 trucks; we have bought 10 more for R15 million.

In this financial year we are going to buy 15 more for R20 million.

These trucks will also increase a footprint and we aim to increase them by 100% in the following financial years.

These trucks are the ones that helped us to speedily provide replacement IDs and birth certificates to people who lost their documents because of the recent floods in KwaZulu-Natal.
Fourteenth, the issue of digitization.

Chairperson, you may remember that in the state of the nation address, the President announced that Home Affairs is going to hire 10 000 unemployed graduates for a period of two to three years to digitize 300 million paper records.

Our paper records stretch from 1895, and unfortunately they are all manual.
They contribute to the long queues because people have to come to UNREVISED HANSARD NATIONAL COUNCIL OF PROVINCES WEDNESDAY, 8 JUNE 2022 Page: 15 Home Affairs many times while information is being sort from the archives.

Fifteenth, on the issue of migration.

This is another area of concern.

I don’t have to outline what is going on about it, everybody knows it’s a crisis.

However, if I were to start analysing what’s happening in migration, it will need its own budget speech.
For the moment it will suffice to say we have decided on a complete overhaul of the immigration system of the country.

And complete overhaul means exactly that.

Very soon I’ll be unveiling it to you.

People just ought to be patient.

You are aware, hon members, we have now implemented the Border Management Authority, BMA, after NCOP helped us to amend it and send it back to the National Assembly, for which we need to thank members of the NCOP very hardly.
Now, we have hired the first cohort of Border Guards from Limpopo, Mpumalanga, Northern KwaZulu-Natal and Free State.

That means communities around the borders and they are busy implementing.

The Border Management Authority will be a 3A Public Entity by 1st July 2023, following a processes with the National UNREVISED HANSARD NATIONAL COUNCIL OF PROVINCES WEDNESDAY, 8 JUNE 2022 Page: 16 Assembly.

Because presently it is still incubated as a branch in Home Affairs.
We have also registered the PPP project with the Presidency for what is called a One-Stop-Border-Post, OSBP.

What is it?

It is a massive infrastructural improvement of six busiest ports of entry, being Beit Bridge with Zimbabwe, Lebombo with Mozambique, Kopfontein with Botswana, Oshoek with eSwatini, Maseru with Lesotho, Ficksburg with Lesotho.

These ... [Sound overlapped.]

... continental free trade ... because at the moment is just in words.
Hon members will recall that the One-Stop Border Post Policy was approved by Cabinet in March this year.

Sixteenth, on the issue of counter corruption.

We remain unflinching in commitment to fight corruption.

You are aware that we have been arresting people.

And since we have been arresting people, especially the Pakistani Kingpin in our Krugersdorp office.

Members of the public have come out in large numbers to tip us where corruption is taking place and we arrest, we don’t stop.
UNREVISED HANSARD NATIONAL COUNCIL OF PROVINCES WEDNESDAY, 8 JUNE 2022 Page: 17 This morning, I can confirm to you that, we have just suspended four officials working at the Maponya Mall Home Affairs offices in Soweto who have been found to be linked to the Pakistani Kingpin on passport fraud; the Kingpin who was arrested on the 24th of August in our Krugersdorp offices.
In the coming weeks we will continue to arrest more people, both foreign nationals and South Africans involved in passports fraud and other forms of identity fraud.

The success of this unit has given members of the public a lot of confidence.

And this unit is not just reactive, it studies our systems and identify loopholes that encourage fraud and other acts of malfeasance and propose appropriate solutions.
For this reason, we are going to augment the 13 members of this anticorruption unit with 12 more who, amongst them, will be analysts, will be investigators and all sorts of skilled people.

Chairperson, I wish to present a budget of R9,4 billion for Budget Vote Number 5 – Department of Home Affairs, for the consideration of this House.

Thank you very much.


UNREVISED HANSARD NATIONAL COUNCIL OF PROVINCES WEDNESDAY, 8 JUNE 2022 Page: 18 Ms S SHAIKH: Thank you very much, Deputy Chairperson, can I request that I turn off my video if I am allowed.

We are currently in the Eastern Cape doing oversight work with the Joint Ad Hoc Committee, and I am a bit concerned about the bandwidth on this side if you allow me?

The DEPUTY CHAIRPERSON OF THE NCOP: You are allowed, hon Shaikh, you may continue.
Ms S SHAIKH: Thank you very much, Deputy Chairperson, greetings to yourself, to the Minister of Home Affairs Dr Motsoaledi, the Deputy Minister Njabulo Nzuza, the Minister for Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities, members of the executive council, MECs, delegates of the National Council of Provinces, compatriots, comrades and friends.

Hon Chair, as we debate Budget Vote 5 of the Department of Home Affairs, we do so during the youth month.
We remember the selflessness, courage and resilience of the youth of 1976.

Central to their fight was the restoration of human dignity and justice.

We pay tribute to the endless heroism of the youth.

In the words of President Mandela: UNREVISED HANSARD NATIONAL COUNCIL OF PROVINCES WEDNESDAY, 8 JUNE 2022 Page: 19 Young people are capable, when aroused, of bringing down the towers of oppression and raising the banners of freedom.

Indeed, the South Africa we have today is a far cry from what we had then.
The department’s strategic outcomes are linked with a major focus of the National Development Plan, NDP, which is to confront the triple challenges of poverty, inequality and unemployment by enabling a higher economic growth rate.

The department plays a significant role in the inclusion of all citizens in democracy and development is enabled by providing them with a status and an identity that gives them access to rights and services.
The department further facilitates the acquisition of the critical skills needed for economic growth.

The department continues to drive integrated and co-ordinated border management to ensure our borders are effectively protected, secured and well-managed.

The department plays a key role in enabling regional development by working with SADC countries through the Department of International Relations and Co-operation to establish efficient, secure and managed migration.
The Department of Home Affairs is central to harnessing the 4th Industrial Revolution and building a UNREVISED HANSARD NATIONAL COUNCIL OF PROVINCES WEDNESDAY, 8 JUNE 2022 Page: 20 capable state.

The modernisation programme of the department can reduce fraud and the cost of doing business by enabling e- government which will attract more investment into the country.
In order to contribute to job creation and fighting the unemployment crisis facing the country, the President announced during his state of nation address that as part of his Presidential Employment Stimulus Package, the department will recruit 10 000 unemployed graduates to digitize over 300 million documents dating back from 1895 over the next three years.
This is part of the department’s strategy to curb corruption and fraud because it would be easier to trace the original documents such as birth certificates, identity cards, passports, and other civic documents.

All South Africans are dependent on the Department of Home Affairs because of its sole mandate to secure and manage official identity and status.

The Department of Home Affairs’ services are divided into two broad categories: Civic services and immigration services.
The Department of Home Affairs’ vision is that of a South Africa where identity, status and citizenship are key enablers UNREVISED HANSARD NATIONAL COUNCIL OF PROVINCES WEDNESDAY, 8 JUNE 2022 Page: 21 of citizen empowerment and inclusivity, economic development and national security.
The Department of Home Affairs’ mission is to: Being an efficient and secure custodian of citizenship and civil registration; securely and strategically managing the international migration; efficiently managing asylumseekers and refugees; and efficiently determining and safeguarding the official identity and status of persons.

It is a fact that South Africa has a problem of porous borders.

The historical fragmented border management approach has not assisted.
The many problems associated with porous borders are trafficking of women and children, the smuggling of drugs, stolen goods, counterfeit goods and contraband.

Counterfeit and the illicit goods trade cause immeasurable harm to our already strained economy and the local economy suffers the most.

The consequence of porous borders is the undermining of the security of a nation and its economic development.

Furthermore, no economy can flourish in an insecure environment.
In 2013, Cabinet agreed on the establishment of the Border Management Authority, BMA.

Guided by the National Development Plan 2030, the ANC’s 54th national conference reaffirmed the thrust of the mandate as outlined in the NDP that South UNREVISED HANSARD NATIONAL COUNCIL OF PROVINCES WEDNESDAY, 8 JUNE 2022 Page: 22 Africa’s borders are effectively safeguarded, secured and well-managed.
The conference accepted the security assessment which identified four categories of threats facing South Africa which are: Threats to the territorial integrity of the Republic; threats to the authority of the state; threats to the safety and wellbeing of South Africans; and threats to the country’s economic development.

The ANC believes that in order to address the question of irregular migration and border management, the BMA be expedited and implemented.
The ANC government took a decision to establish a Border Management Authority to take responsibility for all functions related to the management of our borders in an integrated manner.

The President signed into law the Border Management Authority Act of 2020 and the Act became effective 1 January 2021.

This was a critical step towards the establishment of the BMA, which will enable the implementation of an integrated border management approach in South Africa.
The BMA will have jurisdiction for implementing border law enforcement mandates such as facilitation and management of the legitimate movement of persons and goods within the border law enforcement areas and at ports of entry.

UNREVISED HANSARD NATIONAL COUNCIL OF PROVINCES WEDNESDAY, 8 JUNE 2022 Page: 23 We appreciate the appointments of the BMA Commissioner and Deputy Commissioner.

It has been reported that the BMA is continuing with its recruitment process to fill critical vacant posts.
We are confident that the BMA will be fully operationalised within the targeted period and it will play a critical role in addressing our vulnerabilities and challenges of porous borders.

We are aware that the BMA is still a branch incubated in the department of Home Affairs and they are hard at work to ensure that the BMA will be a stand-alone, listed as a Schedule 3A public entity BY July 2023.

The BMA Act provides for 9 Ministers to be part of an interministerial committee selected by the President.
The BMA Interministerial Consultative Committee and BMA Border Technical Committee have been established.

As aforementioned, the department of Home Affairs serves all citizens and migrants who enter the country legally.

The issue of long queues at the department is a huge challenge.

Long queues and system downtime affects everyone.

In response to long queues at the Home Affairs offices, the Minister indicated that there are short, medium and long-term solutions to this problem.
Amongst some of the measures to address this, UNREVISED HANSARD NATIONAL COUNCIL OF PROVINCES WEDNESDAY, 8 JUNE 2022 Page: 24 the department has rolled out 100 mobile trucks and procured an additional 10 mobile trucks to expand its footprint.

It approved 350 posts which are allocated to civic services to capacitate front offices, introduce and rollout the Branch Application Booking System to eliminate long queues in the front offices.
A memorandum of understanding, MOU, has been finalised to conclude public-private partnership with banks.

Once stable connectivity is achieved, the department will focus on online booking systems as this seems to be working well.

This will obviate the need for people to buy space in queues and counter corruption which is difficult to deal with.

We urge the department to continue working on addressing this issue of long queues and ensuring better service delivery.
The war waged against the bodies of women and children is relentless and is at such a heightened level.

Last year, the President declared gender-based violence as the second pandemic.

Gender-based violence goes against the ethos of the Bill of Rights.

It is a serious human ...

[Interjections.]


... rights violation with major social and developmental impacts for survivors of violence, as well as their families, communities and society at large ... UNREVISED HANSARD NATIONAL COUNCIL OF PROVINCES WEDNESDAY, 8 JUNE 2022 Page: 25 The DEPUTY CHAIRPERSON OF THE NCOP: Hon members, can you please mute those that are not on the platform.

I am sorry, hon Shaikh, but there is some kind of disturbance.

You may continue.

I am sorry for that.


The department reported that there is a gender-based violence and femicide, GBVF, plan and indicated that their sexual harassment policy needed to be revisited.
The department indicated that the policy has been improved and that the implementation plan includes awareness sessions talking to both men and women within the department and providing information on what needs to be done and mechanisms that are in place to ensure proper reporting to address matters quickly.

The department is working with other stakeholders.


The department offers support to officials in cases where GBVF has been reported and they are putting together communication material so that clients also know the steps they should take when experiencing such incidents.

We urge the department to continue its awareness raising initiatives in respect of GBVF and ensure that officials receive the necessary information as well as support.

The ANC is committed to fighting corruption.


Minister Motsoaledi established a ministerial committee headed by the UNREVISED HANSARD NATIONAL COUNCIL OF PROVINCES WEDNESDAY, 8 JUNE 2022 Page: 26 former Director-General in The Presidency, Dr Cassius Lubisi, to review all the permits issued since 2004.

This is the year in which immigration came into effect.
The committee will review various permits including all the Permanent Residence Permits; business and study visas, identity documents, passports and birth certificates.

They have high value and the DHA is under constant attack by local and international criminal syndicates.

Cybercrime is also on the rise.

The department has, over the years committed to strengthening the work of the Counter Corruption Unit, of uprooting fraud, bribery and corruption inside and outside the system.
We have seen some results.

In March this year, as the Minister indicated, a Pakistan kingpin was nabbed in a midnight sting operation in the department’s Krugersdorp office.

The department reported that it vowed that it would follow up all the members of the passport fraud syndicate, whether foreign nationals or South Africans.

A senior Home Affairs official in the White River office in Mpumalanga was arrested together with four South African citizens who are part of the passport fraud syndicates.
The UNREVISED HANSARD NATIONAL COUNCIL OF PROVINCES WEDNESDAY, 8 JUNE 2022 Page: 27 four citizens were transported from Eldorado Park in Gauteng to the Home Affairs office in White River, to give up their identities for passport fraud for a measly R500 per person.

This treasonous act of facilitating identity transfer directly attacks the values and ethos of our Constitution.
The successful operation was carried out by the Home Affairs Counter Corruption Branch, working with other law enforcement agencies including the SA Police Service, the Hawks and Crime Intelligence.

There are many other reports of the department’s efforts in cleaning the decay.

We appreciate these efforts and encourage the department to keep doing the good work it does without fear or favour.

Regarding convictions, the department works closely with the Hawks.
It has been reported that there is a lot of work going on in terms of disciplinary action, however some cases go to the labour courts three times through the appeals system, which are lengthy and creates further delays.

The Minister has indicated that the Counter Corruption Unit intends filling 12 posts to strengthen the Counter Corruption Unit.
We urge the department to maximize its efforts to address fraud and corruption and work closely with the relevant law UNREVISED HANSARD NATIONAL COUNCIL OF PROVINCES WEDNESDAY, 8 JUNE 2022 Page: 28 enforcement agencies to ensure that arrests are made speedily.

Through its collaborative work with law enforcement agencies and communities, the department should also continue to curb illegal migration.
The department should work towards digitization of all its manual documents and address the challenges it has in respect of IT capacity which will further contribute towards efficient service delivery in all provinces.

The department should find lasting solutions to the filling of vacancies and continue to collaborate with institutions of higher learning and to use interns to fill posts.
The department should address this as a matter of urgency, particularly in respect of the filling of vacancies of frontline staff.

The department should continue to rollout more mobile units as this will increase the reach of the department especially in rural areas and ultimately improve service delivery.

The ANC supports the Budget Vote of Home Affairs.

I thank you very much.


UNREVISED HANSARD NATIONAL COUNCIL OF PROVINCES WEDNESDAY, 8 JUNE 2022 Page: 29 Ms C VISSER: Thank you, Deputy Chair; hon members; hon Minister; the Deputy Ministers and all protocols observed.

Hon Minister, in July 2019, you stated that simple interactions with Home Affairs might become a nightmare for South African citizens.

Here, I can agree with you, hon Minister, turning Home Affairs into hell affairs being held hostage by an information technology, IT, system.
There is literally not one section of Home Affairs hell affairs that is not understaffed, under capacitated, under resourced in noncompliance to deliver services to such an extent that South Africans are now also forced to utilise the fraudulent war on queuing services allowed to by the department to openly run their business as being part of the system, further contributing to the complete failure of service and the dissatisfaction of extremely trusted citizens.
Fragile, aged and disabled citizens who are not being able to fight the wars on long queueing hell affairs nightmare experiences repetitively without receiving the documents required from the department equals inhumanity.

Recently it was published how intellectually disabled learners from the Itumeleng School in Gauteng have been struggling to get their identification document from Home Affairs for years.
UNREVISED HANSARD NATIONAL COUNCIL OF PROVINCES WEDNESDAY, 8 JUNE 2022 Page: 30 An 18-year-old student of this school ...

[Inaudible.]

... an inter-house athletics competition but is unable to compete provincially or nationally because she cannot present the needed documents.

Home Affairs turned their lives into hell affairs.

Although Home Affairs website provides a list of 12 banks where smart identification cards can be processed, this service is only available from one bank in Cape Town.
Phoning the other banks to establish its port ID cards can be obtained from them, it was confirmed that the plan could not be successfully implemented by the department.

Hon Minister, recently I had to assist South African parents working on a fixed contract in Zambia, who tried for 15 months to register their baby boy at the South African Embassy in Lusaka without success.
The Department of Home Affairs officials operating within the embassy were dragging their feet for 15 months, sending them from pillar to post, not following the processes as appears for birth registrations on your website.

Most of the time these officials were not even at office for a set appointment.

Instead, the officials referred them to the Zambian offices of birth registrations whilst Zambian legislation only allows birth registrations with babies born in Zambia from Zambian citizens.
UNREVISED HANSARD NATIONAL COUNCIL OF PROVINCES WEDNESDAY, 8 JUNE 2022 Page: 31 On their return to South Africa, the Zambian authorities refused to let the child return with the parents and threatened to place the child in an orphanage.

This was a hell affairs nightmare, where Member of Parliament, Khanyile, and I had to resolve this inhumane issue of incompetence.
Mr Thomas Sigama, the deputy director-general at Home Affairs, stated in the media that parents should register their children within 30 days of birth, of which most parents proudly want to comply with, but listening to the hell parents go through to get a birth registration done is impossible and boils down to incompetence of management.

Queries submitted to the department spokesperson are only that the department is working on it, but no further response is received to any follow ups thereafter.
Georgina Strydom was adopted by her biological father after her about her biological mother signed her off at the court judgment in 2018.
Despite the court order, all relevant documents driving up and down from Bloemhof to Wolmaransstad in the North West, then sent to offices in Bloemfontein in the Free State, then to Jan Kempdorp in the Northern Cape fighting your war on queuing closed offices, system failures, officials eating, drinking and watching videos on their smartphones resulted to noncompliance of her service.
UNREVISED HANSARD NATIONAL COUNCIL OF PROVINCES WEDNESDAY, 8 JUNE 2022 Page: 32 A hell affairs nightmares may still ongoing leading this young girl in an identity crisis with legal implications explaining why her surname differs from that of her parents because she is not entitled to receive the services of Home Affairs, hell affairs.
Hon Minister, the department has a constitutional and statutory mandate to provide services to the public, including birth registration, identity documentation, immigration status, citizenship, death certificates and much more.

This is the department’s job.

Citizens approach Home Affairs offices not requesting a favor from them, but exercising their rights and complying within the set legislation of the land, citizens of South Africa are entitled to efficient and transparent services at Home Affairs.
Sadly, we must concede that the Department of Home Affairs is failing the citizens of South Africa within every service and in every office truly creating anger in frustrated citizens.

We must acknowledge the collapse of the Department of Home Affairs as much as we do the collapse of ANC-run municipalities in South Africa.

I thank you.

Mr M S MOLETSANE: Thank you, Chairperson.

Let me apologise for not switching on my video as I am standing in for hon Zandamela.
Chairperson, the Economic Freedom Fighters reject UNREVISED HANSARD NATIONAL COUNCIL OF PROVINCES WEDNESDAY, 8 JUNE 2022 Page: 33 the proposed Budget Vote for the Department of Home Affairs.

One of the major responsibilities of the public sector is to ensure that all citizens have access to and receive services.
Yet, despite its numerous regional offices spread across the country, this department has not been effective in the performance of functions such as the regulation of migration, registration of births, marriages and deaths, the issuing of identity documents and passports.
The department stands as one of the most dysfunctional departments in government, which is concerning to note as the services of the Department of Home Affairs are central to the everyday life of South Africans and immigrants in the country.
We reject the Budget Vote for a department which is headed by a Minister which has on numerous occasions, displayed Afrophobic tendencies towards African nationals, blaming African immigrants on several occasions for clogging up service delivery in this country without a shred of evidence.

The solution to migration is the development of the African Continent and the creation of massive industries that will create sustainable jobs not the criminalisation of Africans who were born on this continent.
The Minister has also failed to deal decisively with the deadlock of asylumseekers who have UNREVISED HANSARD NATIONAL COUNCIL OF PROVINCES WEDNESDAY, 8 JUNE 2022 Page: 34 been waiting for many years for a decision of their application for asylum.

We reject the Budget Vote of the department which is known for nothing but its disheartening queues which often starts at the early hours of the morning beyond entrances of the majority of the branches of Home Affairs.
Long queues have become a permanent feature outside Home Affairs offices across all provinces from Johannesburg, to East London and Cape Town.

Despite a war on queues campaign having been initiated with the majority of the offices across all provinces suffering from the chronic problem of having their systems offline almost all the time, Johannesburg and King Williams town offices are forever offline, so much so that no one actually knows what the staff of Home Affairs are doing at these offices.
When offices are operational, the service received from staff is often appalling.

The situation is worse for those areas which are in the outskirts of town and rural areas which simply do not have access and as a result, our people have to travel long distance to start queuing at 4h00 at Home Affairs offices, only to be assisted at 10h00 and then told to return the following day because the systems are offline.
UNREVISED HANSARD NATIONAL COUNCIL OF PROVINCES WEDNESDAY, 8 JUNE 2022 Page: 35 It has been almost two months since floods hit KwaZulu-Natal and some parts of the Eastern Cape, yet our people cannot get social assistance because they are still without identity documents.

The Department of Home Affairs emergency operation functions like any other Home Affairs office in the country.
In the past five years, committee budgets and recommendation reports have all amended the shambolic state of Home Affairs offices.

Yet to date, none of the issues have been resolved instead the Minister comes here every day to ridicule Members of Parliament giving an impression that he knows it all and he is doing something when on the ground Home Affairs workers are suffering and our people are stranded every day at Home Affairs offices.
There exists a lack of leadership at Home Affairs, and Mr Motsoaledi has no capacity to lead a department such as Home Affairs.

As the EFF, we therefore, reject the budget of a department which offers such poor services, lack of information, lack of guidance, unprofessional staff and never ending technical problems.

We reject the budget of a department which has outdated offices located in areas which are not accessible to our people.
We reject the budget of a department which lacks backup network and works with outdated equipment leading to its branches going offline.

UNREVISED HANSARD NATIONAL COUNCIL OF PROVINCES WEDNESDAY, 8 JUNE 2022 Page: 36 The continued reliance on State Information Technology Agency, Sita, and the Department of Public Works and Infrastructure without a solution inside is a sign of the collective incompetence of the ruling party.
The State Information Technology Agency prides itself on being the government's biggest consumer of information technology, IT, goods and services because it relies on contractors who inflate prices and do poor work.

Chairperson, we reject the budget of the hopeless state of department which year after year remains the laughingstock of civil service.

Setswana: Ke a leboga, Modulasetilo.
The DEPUTY MINISTER OF HOME AFFAIRS: Hon Chairperson, Minister of Home Affairs, Dr Aaron Motsoaledi, Ministers and Deputy Ministers present, and Chairperson of the Select Committee on Security and Justice, members of the Select Committee on Security and Justice, the Director-General of the Department of Home Affairs, the management team, BMA Commissioners and fellow South Africans, it gives us great pleasure and honour to join the policy debate for Budget Vote 5, Home Affairs.
Chair, these debates are crucial for us as a department to share what the resources allocated the Department of Home UNREVISED HANSARD NATIONAL COUNCIL OF PROVINCES WEDNESDAY, 8 JUNE 2022 Page: 37 Affairs are able to make in improving the lives of the people.

It is through such debates where we get a platform on what we intend to do with the resources and what we were able to do with the resources allocated to us in the previous years.
The Department of Home Affairs carries the responsibility to ensure that no South African under any circumstances suffers the scandal of invisibility.

This, we do by managing citizenship and civil registration.

Chairperson, our commitment, resolve and ability to respond even in times of crisis were put to the test during the floods that ravaged KZN, Eastern Cape and other parts of our country.
The Department of Home Affairs responded to this crisis by deploying nine mobile units which have serviced 41 sites.

We have serviced 2 224 citizens for ID smart card applications and issued 349 birth certificates on the spot.

The reissue of both ID smart cards and birth certificates were at no cost to citizens understanding that this was a disaster situation.
The disastrous situation also displayed the capabilities of our mobile units to service people in areas in which they live taking both application and issuing of enabling documents.

UNREVISED HANSARD NATIONAL COUNCIL OF PROVINCES WEDNESDAY, 8 JUNE 2022 Page: 38 We are currently operating a fleet of 100 mobile units, which also provide support to high volume offices and offices under distress.

In the past financial year, the budget allowed us to conduct visits to 2 056 sites.
This fleet has also been able to service 131 164 clients and school learners with ID smart card applications in the 2021-22 financial year.

This resulted into citizens saving thousands of rands in travel costs that would have been incurred had they gone to our offices.

The 2021-22 budget allowed us to procure additional 10 mobile units which are ready for deployment.

We will be procuring a further 15 of these mobile units in the 2022-23 financial year.
Through the mobile units, we are better placed to reach out to areas where there is little or no Home Affairs footprint, especially in rural and remote areas.

The mobile units are also the backbone of our school Smart ID Campaign, which has benefited both urban and rural schools.

Using mobile units, we have been able to target learners ensuring that South African learners doing Grade 12 sit for their examinations already in possession of a Smart ID Card.
We have now also placed a focus to Grade 11 which saw the number of learners starting their Grade 12 without identity documents reduced from 8 186 in 2020 to only 2 560 in 2021 UNREVISED HANSARD NATIONAL COUNCIL OF PROVINCES WEDNESDAY, 8 JUNE 2022 Page: 39 academic year.

In the period, we visited 1011 schools working in partnership with the Department of Basic Education.
The additional mobile units purchased and the ones to be purchased in the new financial year will extend our reach and greatly enhance our school ID campaigns.

Those who reject the budget are therefore rejecting our ability to go further and advance in servicing children in schools.

Chairperson, the 2021-2022 budget allowed us to issue a total of 2 369 172 smart ID cards.

This would not have been able to do if we are forever offline.

The figures are more accurate than was perception.


This surpassing the targeted of 1,6 Million, despite the limitations imposed on operations by the COVID-19 pandemic and its management and preventative measures.

Of the smart ID cards issued, 966 068 were for first-time applicants comprising mainly of the youth.

It is a significant improvement compared to the 622 000 issued to first time applicants in the previous financial year.
It is indicative of the impact and the improvements we are making in the lives of young people of our country.

This we can never do, Chairperson, without the resources and the budget that we are deliberating upon today.
UNREVISED HANSARD NATIONAL COUNCIL OF PROVINCES WEDNESDAY, 8 JUNE 2022 Page: 40 The budget allocation for the financial year 2022-23 has allowed us to increase the planned issue of Smart ID cards with 37,5%, which is 600 000 more than the previous financial year, which means that in the 2022-23 financial year we will issue 2,2 million Smart ID Cards to citizens attaining the age of 16 years and above.

We continue to make steady progress towards universal birth registration.
We strive to build a credible, accurate and secure National Population Register, NPR, with a single point of entry, within the first 30 calendar days of birth.

In 2021-22, we had set a target of registering 700 000 births within 30 days.

However, surpassed this target by registering a total of 1 018 718 births, of which 800 057 accounting for 78,5% were registered within 30 calendar days.

This percentage is up from 73,7% of the previous financial year.
We intend to normalise early birth registration at above 90% by the year 2024.

That is why we promote parents to make sure that they register the birth of their children within 30 days.

Part of the strategy in this regard, to make it easier, is to expand our office footprint in health facilities, in order to bring Home Affairs services closer to the people.
In this way, parents can register their children before leaving the hospital or health facilities – a service which is more UNREVISED HANSARD NATIONAL COUNCIL OF PROVINCES WEDNESDAY, 8 JUNE 2022 Page: 41 convenient than planning a visit to Home Affairs at a later stage.

This service is rendered in partnership with the Department of Health.
The number of registration sites where births were registered during the review period was 803, consisting of 412 Home Affairs front offices and across 391 health facilities, which we intend to increase over the coming years.

The positive impact of the health facilities is demonstrated by the 42,3% of births registered in 2021-22 which were done at health facilities, which is an increase from 33,4% in 2020-21 financial year.
We anticipate that the amount of birth registration in health facilities will increase in the current financial year.

Our clients need customised and personalised services due to the unique nature of their needs, hence our technology must respond to the unique needs.

We have clients with names that have special characters, fingerprints that are damaged by years of physical labour, amputees due to medical or accidents and many other challenges.
It is our duty to ensure that our systems respond to such individuals irrespective of their challenges; hence we continue to enhance our technology to have multimodal biometrics like facial recognition.

UNREVISED HANSARD NATIONAL COUNCIL OF PROVINCES WEDNESDAY, 8 JUNE 2022 Page: 42 The 2022-23 budget will see us exploring new ways to better service citizens.
We will procure kiosks that will allow clients to self-service for passports and smart ID applications and reprint birth, marriage and death certificates making it easier to access our services.

The kiosk will be designed in the manner that will require authentication through biometrics and will be located in strategic areas to allow access even after office hours or weekends.

The self-service kiosk will usher a new era in the manner in which we service our clients.
The recently piloted Branch appointment booking system has proven to be the solution in as far as dealing with the management of queues.

The Branch appointment booking system can be accessed by clients through the Home Affairs website and is web based.

It provides citizens with the ability to book the dates and time slot of their choice and is linked to the national population register for additional security.
The rollout of the system will follow a phased approach and 43 large offices will have the system by 30 June 2022 and 120 medium offices will have the system by 31 October 2022 and 34 small offices by November 2022 and the remaining offices will continue as walk-in-services.
UNREVISED HANSARD NATIONAL COUNCIL OF PROVINCES WEDNESDAY, 8 JUNE 2022 Page: 43 Chairperson, we have the responsibility to ensure that the budget is managed in a responsible manner that is free of corruption, a budget must do what it is meant for that derives value for money.

We are pleased that the department achieved an unqualified audit result in respect of the 2020-21 financial year.

This was the fifth consecutive successive unqualified audit opinion for the department.
Matters preventing the department from achieving a clean audit outcome are the impairment of receivables and accrued departmental revenue.

We do acknowledge that there is still more to be done in improving the department audit outcomes, but our ability to maintain an unqualified audit opinion means we are taking correct steps in the right direction.
Through our collective commitment and resilience, I believe that the vision of a modern, secure Department of Home Affairs that strategically delivers its full constitutional mandate is within reach.

I would like to further thank the Chairperson and members of the select committee for the work they continue to do with us and for the guidance on key strategic issue.

Through your valuable guidance, together we can build a future-fit Home Affairs Department.

I thank You, Chair.
I thank You, Chair.

UNREVISED HANSARD NATIONAL COUNCIL OF PROVINCES WEDNESDAY, 8 JUNE 2022 Page: 44 Ms B M BARTLETT: Hon Deputy Chairperson, Ministers and Deputy Ministers, Members of Parliament and fellow South Africa, dignity has come to display three elements in constitutional adjudication post Second World War.

The ontological element which entails that human beings have equal inherent human dignity that cannot be waived or diminished.
The second element being the claim that inherent human dignity has to be recognised and respected; and the limited-state claim as the third element which entails that states have a positive obligation to progressively realise human dignity through the mechanism of socioeconomic rights.

Section 10 of the Constitution entails that: Everyone has inherent dignity and the right to have their dignity respected and protected.
Human dignity is a central value of the objective, normative value system established by the Constitution.

A person’s identity is inextricably linked to the right to human dignity.

The core mandate of the department ensures the realisation of this right, which is to secure and confirm our identity and citizenship.
Securing the identity and status of every citizen is part of our journey towards socioeconomic transformation UNREVISED HANSARD NATIONAL COUNCIL OF PROVINCES WEDNESDAY, 8 JUNE 2022 Page: 45 and the restoration of the dignity of citizens in line with the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa.

The Department of Home Affairs touches the lives of citizens from the cradle to the grave, starting with the registration of infants within 30 days of birth.
After Birth Certificates, the department issues Identity Documents which enable citizens to do various transactions, like opening an account, applying for a business licence or registering for a course.

Secured documents, like passports, also ensure our people are treated with respect even when they travel outside the country.

When people enter into marriages or civil unions, the department is involved.

Finally, when people die, their deaths are registered.
The civic arm of Home Affairs is the biggest and the most active.

For any individual to live a stable, productive, trouble-free and beneficial life within the confines of the laws of the country, such an individual needs the services of Home Affairs at least three times within their lifetime.

Hon Chairperson, one of the priorities of the ANC-led government is to build a capable and developmental state.
A capable state is necessary for effective service delivery and UNREVISED HANSARD NATIONAL COUNCIL OF PROVINCES WEDNESDAY, 8 JUNE 2022 Page: 46 guides economic development.

A developmental state must be capable of leading, guiding and mobilising all social partners towards achieving national objectives and goals.

The Citizen Affairs branch is responsible for providing secure, efficient and accessible services and documents to citizens and lawful residents.
It ensures that entry to the population register happens within 30 days of a child’s birth.

It maintains the number of smart identity cards, and it has a target of 3 million per year.

It also targets to issue 90% of machine-readable adult passports through the new live capture process within 13 working days.

One of the long standing priorities has been to clean up the National Population Register, the NPR, which continues, for historical reasons, to contain significant inaccuracies.
One of the key approaches to clean up the NPR has been to persuade all parents to register their children within 30 days of birth.

To optimise birth registration, the department continues to improve connectivity at health centres through its increased footprint plan.

The committee has recommended that the department connect more hospitals to ensure that more births are registered at the hospitals.

This will assist with cutting long queues at the Department of Home Affairs offices.
UNREVISED HANSARD NATIONAL COUNCIL OF PROVINCES WEDNESDAY, 8 JUNE 2022 Page: 47 During his state of the nation address, our hon President Cyril Ramaphosa announced that 10 000 unemployed youth will be hired to take on the enormous task of inputting the records onto the department’s digital system.

This is part of the Presidential Employment Stimulus.

With 10 000 people working on this, the department believes that it will have digitized records within two to three years.
It has been reported that there are more than 300 million paper records dating back to the 1800s.

This is an indication that the Department of Home Affairs is ripe for digitisation.

This recruitment drive will enhance the skills of those who are recruited and contribute to the modernisation of citizen services.

Addressing unemployment is critical in rebuilding the economy.

More than R222 billion has been requested from Treasury for this project, to cover equipment and salaries.
The Minister has indicated that this is not an internship programme, but rather a recruitment drive opened to all unemployed young people with IT qualifications.

We look forward to seeing this.

The triple challenge of inequality, poverty and unemployment must be addressed with urgency.

The Government Printing Works, GPW is a success story for the country.
This is a highly efficient self-funded organisation UNREVISED HANSARD NATIONAL COUNCIL OF PROVINCES WEDNESDAY, 8 JUNE 2022 Page: 48 that produces, amongst others, secure passports and smart ID cards.

The GPW has positioned itself as a high-security printer of official documents and contributes to security and credibility of government.

The GPW has expanded and is expanding its footprint in the SADC region.
For instance, the Namibian Ministry of Home Affairs and Immigration visited GPW on 14 and 15 of March 2022.

The targeted products were Birth Certificates, Marriage Certificates and Death Certificates.

A new product, Refugee Permit has been included in the portfolio.

About 60 000 copies of Namibian Birth Certificates have been produced and were delivered to Namibia in April 2022.
The GPW works with Eswatini University, the Examinations Council of Eswatini, Somalia, Kenya Government Press, DRC, Ethiopia and Lesotho.

This must be applauded.

Chairperson, the natural disaster which befell the people of KwaZulu-Natal and Eastern Cape could not have come at a worse time.

The ravages of the Covid-19 pandemic and impact of the July unrest still affect many people.
Deputy Minister Nzuza and KwaZulu-Natal Premier Zikalala handed over enabling documents to people who were affected by the floods in the province.

The rationale was to ensure that those affected by UNREVISED HANSARD NATIONAL COUNCIL OF PROVINCES WEDNESDAY, 8 JUNE 2022 Page: 49 the floods are able to access basic services such as banking and social services.

This was to ensure that the communities reclaim their lives and return to normality.
The Department of Home Affairs also deployed mobile units in order to receive applications for enabling documents, such as IDs and Birth Certificates, which were lost as a result of the disaster.

The reissuing of Birth and Death Certificates came at no cost to the affected communities.

This must be applauded.


Regarding the challenge of long queues, it has been reported that Sita has informed the department that they are spending R400 million revamping its entire network, having just completed a procurement process in that regard.

This revamp will be concluded in the third quarter of this financial year.
It has also been reported that Sita has doubled its internet capacity and introduced three failovers located in three cities, namely: Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality, City of Cape Town Metropolitan Municipality and eThekwini Metropolitan Municipality.

This will ensure that if any of the network is down, there will be two to support our services.

Minister has also indicated that the department would be bringing in eight IT Engineers from the Bank sector.
We will be monitoring this and other developments.

Creating a better life for all is a UNREVISED HANSARD NATIONAL COUNCIL OF PROVINCES WEDNESDAY, 8 JUNE 2022 Page: 50 priority of the ANC.

Hon Chairperson, the ANC supports the budget vote.

Mr I M SILEKU: Hon Deputy Chairperson, hon members, and hon Minister and Deputy Minister, ... Afrikaans: ... as ek aan mnr Malusi Gigaba, voormalige Minister van Binnelandse Sake dink, kom die gesigte van die Gupta broers by my op.
English: There was a special link between the Minister and the Guptas, but for a long time, the Minister could not remember whom of the brothers received South African citizenship when he was the Minister of Home Affairs.

However, I am extremely glad for the former Minister that at least two of the Gupta brothers are apparently returning home.

I hope that they will find each other in orange and get consensus about the citizenship issue.
Home Affairs has a new Minister, hon Aaron Motsoaledi, and in less than two years, this Minister will find out that the UNREVISED HANSARD NATIONAL COUNCIL OF PROVINCES WEDNESDAY, 8 JUNE 2022 Page: 51 people had, amongst others, enough of him and his dysfunctional Department of Home Affairs.

Home Affairs is an important department that affects the lives of all South Africans.

In the Sona 2022, the state President, Mr Phala Phala, promised that 10 000 new positions will be recruited from youth graduates.
I hope these youngsters, if the plan succeeds, of course, will apply the principle of the people first.

It is unfortunate that the poorest of the poor have to experience the lack of respect from a department, which is vital to them.

Every year, we debate the inabilities of this department and every year, matters get worse.

We hear about lazy officials that cannot or do not want to do the work and one would think they are being forced to work there.
We hear of people who stand in long queues for hours and when they get into the facilities, they hear that they must come back, as the system is off.

Afrikaans: Dit, Voorsitter, is ’n infame skande!

UNREVISED HANSARD NATIONAL COUNCIL OF PROVINCES WEDNESDAY, 8 JUNE 2022 Page: 52 English: Often, the service is so humiliating that the Human Rights Commission has to intervene.

However, not even this has an effect and the victims still have to go from pillar to post.
We hear of almost systemic corruption, and just recently, I read about directors that were suspended.

The problem is that corrupt officials simply follow the actions of more corrupt politicians.

We hear of people that pay to jump the queue.

We hear of people sitting in those queues without anything to eat or to drink.

We hear of elderly people who cannot get Sassa money because they do not have IDs.
Afrikaans: ’n Artikel wat Oupa Nkosi onlangs in die City Press geskryf het, illustreer die redes vir gemeenskappe se woede oor die Binnelandse Sake se power diens en ongevoeligheid.

English: Nkosi writes that only 184 of the 411 frontline staff have access to the system that issues Smart IDs and passports.

This article illustrates why Home Affairs is a failed organ of state.
Typically, Home Affairs does not admit their failures UNREVISED HANSARD NATIONAL COUNCIL OF PROVINCES WEDNESDAY, 8 JUNE 2022 Page: 53 and instead they blame misinformation, a lack of floor management and inadequate infrastructure for the chaos at their regional offices.

In the offices more than 200 000 smart ID cards and 70 000 green barcoded ID books are ready for collection.

Afrikaans: Laat ek vir u ’n werklike scenario skets van wat met ons mense by Binnelandse Sake se kantore gebeur.
English: On a morning in Roodepoort, Gauteng, people wrapped in blankets are prepared for a long day of waiting.

When the sun starts to rise, more people arrive and find their places in the respective queues for birth certificates, temporary IDs, IDs and passport.

Some, who needs to attend to physical needs, pay car guards to keep their places in the queue.

Inside the building, the security guards are waiting cozily for 8:00, before they start to book appointments.
After three hours in the line, a person has to return home because he could not show confirmation for an appointment.

UNREVISED HANSARD NATIONAL COUNCIL OF PROVINCES WEDNESDAY, 8 JUNE 2022 Page: 54 Afrikaans: Wat het geword van die beginsels van Batho Pele en die mense eerste?

English: I read about a woman who went to Home Affairs in 2020 to upgrade her child’s birth certificate.

She needed an unabridged version, as she wanted the father to have the legal power to step in, if something happened to her.
No one wanted to assist her.

The funding budgeted for Home Affairs is insufficient, but so is their effectiveness and abilities to render services.

I use this opportunity to plead to the Minister to increase the mobile offices and to take Home Affairs to the people.

At least that way, the people will not have to travel far for IDs.

I thank you.
I thank you.

Mr N M HADEBE: Hon Deputy Chairperson, hon Minister, hon Deputy Minister, it is undeniable that the Department of Home Affairs has been dysfunctional for years and has been functioning in a perpetual crisis mode.

The tragic reality is that the people of South Africa, hardworking people, bear the brunt of this broken system.
UNREVISED HANSARD NATIONAL COUNCIL OF PROVINCES WEDNESDAY, 8 JUNE 2022 Page: 55 This broken system sees our people rising at the crack of dawn to queue at a Home Affairs office, desperately waiting for some, if any assistance.

This broken system is aggravated by corrupt officials, a shortage of critical staff and dilapidated offices.
In its annual performance plan, the department emphasises that the department is, and I quote, “central to harnessing the Fourth Industrial Revolution and building a capable state”.

However, all we see and all the people of South Africa see, are endless queues, unanswered calls, dilapidated offices and a system that always seems to be offline.
On a daily basis, Members Parliament are being inundated with calls from citizens in desperate need of help with their passports, IDs, birth certificates and permits.

We have become the administration officers of this department and we continue to see this department further falling apart.

The IFP, however, believes that the biggest crisis the department faces, is an immigration crisis.

The current manual asylum-seeker system has been abused and riddled with corruption and fraud.
It seems that corruption is endemic and the Border Management Authority, being hailed as the so-called UNREVISED HANSARD NATIONAL COUNCIL OF PROVINCES WEDNESDAY, 8 JUNE 2022 Page: 56 solution, will not only cost us millions to implement, but it will also take years to become fully operational.

This immigration crisis, and our government’s deep failure to manage our borders in a co-operative manner, have seen citizens being pitted against noncitizens, the rise of xenophobia and has destabilised communities.
This is all directly due to a dysfunctional department and failing government.

It is time for our government to table to the nation a plan of action to fix our immigration system to ease the legitimate concerns South Africans are raising.

The IFP believes that such a plan must include a commitment for additional immigration inspectors and resources for deportations from Treasury.

Urgent action is needed to restore the credibility of the department.
The public has a right to be treated with dignity and to be served with efficiency and competence at the offices of Home Affairs.

Above all, the public desperately needs to have faith that corruption and fraud within Home Affairs will be fought on all levels.

This we need to physically see to UNREVISED HANSARD NATIONAL COUNCIL OF PROVINCES WEDNESDAY, 8 JUNE 2022 Page: 57 restore any faith in the department’s ability to fulfil its legislative mandate.

The IFP accepts the Budget Vote.


Mr D R RYDER: Thank you very much, hon Chairperson.

Home Affairs; the department where service delivery is incredibly erratic.

There are stories of people applying for their passports and ID Documents, and receiving them within a week.

No bribery.

No corruption.

Just an apparent alignment of the planets for them.

Amazing work.

Well done.

It just proves what is possible.

Sadly, by far, the majority of stories are not so positive.

It all starts in the queue.


We see those queues forming from around 5 or 6am in the morning or even before, snaking around buildings, and managed by the security guards who know nothing of Home Affairs intricacies, and less about customer relations, and yet are tasked with sorting out the queues, advising people on process and where to stand and generally running the show at the door.

And what a show it is.


I asked a question on this Minister, and your dismissive reply came back to me on 10 February 2022.

It showed no understanding of what actually goes on in your branches.

Take a leaf from the DA Leaders book.

He was on the ground doing UNREVISED HANSARD NATIONAL COUNCIL OF PROVINCES WEDNESDAY, 8 JUNE 2022 Page: 58 oversight at your branches in April.

What he found there was already known, the chilling nonetheless.
I urge you, Minister, to pick up yesterday’s Sowetan Newspaper which covers the story of a man who tried to get service from Home Affairs in his home town in East London and received no assistance.

He travelled with his wife to Pretoria where they hoped to get better service.

Instead the man, who is a priest, was met with aggression from the security guard manning the door.

He explained that he had applied and paid the appropriate fees, and yet he had not received the document that he needed.
He was not helped and when he attempted to get to see a staff member he was assaulted.

There is a picture of him on the ground being dragged by his feet through a Home Affairs branch.

Is this the dignity with which our own citizens are treated, Minister Motsoaledi?

The people who elected you?

Is no wonder that the many foreigners who have to visit Home Affairs just give up and take their chances as so- called illegal immigrants.
Your staff see them as nothing more than an ATM, and they are treated despicably.

If you want to look at the root cause of xenophobia just listen to the Minister of Home Affairs circumcision when UNREVISED HANSARD NATIONAL COUNCIL OF PROVINCES WEDNESDAY, 8 JUNE 2022 Page: 59 naming the nationality of the people being arrested as if the nationality itself is a determinant of their criminality.
There has been an outcry about the Irish Airline who asked people to prove themselves to be valid South Africans by talking Afrikaans.

We should not be castigating the airline, however misguided you may think they are.

We should be asking ourselves why was this even necessary.

The answer is plain.

Home Affairs has been internationally recognised as a joke, and the validity of South African Passports questionable due to the rampant corruption in this department.
The Minister spoke this afternoon about connectivity and information technology and yet he neglected to comment on the protractive down time of the Government Printing Works which its website has a massive impact on the communication of laws, regulations and other gazetted items potentially making news open to dispute.

Where are all the skills, Minister?

Your department’s Wage Bill indicates judiciary has a top IT expert in the country working free.
I just want to make the point, Deputy Minister, that having a mobile office is only we have bragging about if people who are supposed to serve them know where and when those mobile units UNREVISED HANSARD NATIONAL COUNCIL OF PROVINCES WEDNESDAY, 8 JUNE 2022 Page: 60 will be.

Irregularity of visits combined with the continuous availability of drivers has turned this service into a game of chance with us start again and that your government has put it in the street.
Programme 2 of this budget is called citizen’s affairs to draw houses attention to the fact that the budget shrinks by an average of 5,5% per year over the next three years.

The message to South Africans is clear.

The ANC government is not servicing your needs now and they are providing less money going forward so that the service levels even get worse.

Hon Bartlett know that a capable state is quite clear than we currently don’t have one.
So, whatever way you look at it, any funding given to this department should be condemned, until there is a strong political will to step in and fix the mess that the ANC has created.

As the DA, prepares to take government in South Africa, we have been developing a set of former policies.

So, once again I draw the attention of voters to the DA has recently released Migration Policy.

It’s a clear path to fixing this mess.

We’ll start doing this come 2024.

Thank you, Deputy Chair.


UNREVISED HANSARD NATIONAL COUNCIL OF PROVINCES WEDNESDAY, 8 JUNE 2022 Page: 61 The DEPUTY CHAIRPERSON OF THE NCOP: Thank you very much, hon Nkosi, you may continue with the debate.

I hope you’re right.

I haven’t seen ...

[Interjections.]

Mr T S C DODOVU: Hon Deputy Chairperson, this is hon Dodovu.

I’m going to take the position of hon Nkosi.

The DEPUTY CHAIRPERSON OF THE NCOP: it’s very clear, it’s not hon Nkosi.

Okay, hon Dodovu, you may continue.


Mr T S C DODOVU: Hon Deputy Chairperson, I am in the rural parts of the Eastern Cape.

Therefore, I am not going to use my camera, so that I am able to address this house in a properly way.

Deputy Chairperson, members of the NCOP, the Minister and Deputy Minister here this afternoon, I rise on behalf of the ANC in the first instance to support the budget.
This is a budget that seeks to ensure that at the end of the day, the department really becomes a custodian, a protector and a verifier of identity and the status of the South African citizens.

This is quite important to say this because of a mammoth task that the department must accomplish.
But today, this afternoon, I fully understand why this castigation against the UNREVISED HANSARD NATIONAL COUNCIL OF PROVINCES WEDNESDAY, 8 JUNE 2022 Page: 62 department, I fully understand why everything that is led by hon Motsoaledi is being challenged, criticised and being castigated, it is because hon Ryder from the DA has confirmed this afternoon that, the DA seeks the votes, they seek to become a government and therefore, anything and everything that the department is doing, is going to be challenged, because in that way, for me, he seeks votes like a predator at5 a smell of blood.
They want to attract the voters because they use this trumpet of attacking everything that the department is doing, despite acknowledging the fact that there are serious challenges that the department is confronting, and that the department is doing quite well to ameliorate the situation that we find ourselves in.
Now, at this time, hon Deputy Chairperson, under the leadership and guidance of hon Motsoaledi, I think that the department is resolute, I think that the department is positioned, I think that the department is ready to address all the challenges and the problems that are affecting us, be it the long queues that are experienced in our Offices of Home Affairs, be it the issue of illegal immigrants that we have in our country, be it corruption.
UNREVISED HANSARD NATIONAL COUNCIL OF PROVINCES WEDNESDAY, 8 JUNE 2022 Page: 63 For the very fact that, there are senior officials who are being arrested in the department, it is precisely because of the work that the Minister is doing to ensure that we uproot corruption and all of its manifestation, and this is very, very good.

Therefore, we are saying that, the Minister must stand up and address the important issue of overcrowding and long queues in the offices.
This is an important matter, and this budget seeks to attend to that.

I also want to sincerely implore on this department to ensure that, we truly, in a very genuine way, address this issue of long queues in our offices.

At the same time, the Minister has carried a bull by its horns, by ensuring that he speaks openly, in a very articulate way about the problems of illegal immigrants.
Some of these illegal immigrants, hon Deputy Chair, we must say it, they commit crime in our country, some of them open businesses illegally, some of them perpetuate the issue of drugs that we see in our society.

Not all of them, not all of them I must say, hon Deputy Chairperson, like some members has inclined us to believe.
Some of them are doing these things, and the hon Minister is at the forefront of the campaigns and at the forefront of ensuring that everybody who lives in South Africa is recorded, registered and known.

For me, this is quite important.


UNREVISED HANSARD NATIONAL COUNCIL OF PROVINCES WEDNESDAY, 8 JUNE 2022 Page: 64 It is a process that is going to take some time as a country to deal with, but having a Minister like hon Motsoaledi, we are quite confident that he is going to make an indelible contribution that is going to make an impact in terms of addressing this particular issue.

Also, I am surprised to hear hon Sileku speaking in the way that he’s speaking.
I think that he has developed a functional blindness on his own defects, for him to stand up and criticise without bringing solutions to the problems that he and me and the Minister are seeing as south Africans.

I think that he’s going down.

Our view is that, we need to continue to attend to this particular issue, hon Deputy Chairperson.

Hon Deputy Chair, the ANC in its January 8 Statement, has set out clear priorities for all ANC members and South Africans in terms of what needs to be done this year.
Among those priorities, is to defend our democratic gains against attempts to undermine our Constitution, as well as the order that we find ourselves in, to build a capable state, as hon Bartlett has already said it, to ensure that we are ethical, and that drives the implementation of transformative agenda.
UNREVISED HANSARD NATIONAL COUNCIL OF PROVINCES WEDNESDAY, 8 JUNE 2022 Page: 65 That is the way that is going to inspire confidence, and when you compare the situation that is obtained today, hon Deputy Chair, and the situation that has been obtained in the past, you can see that there are lot of changes that have been effected over a period of time in the Department of Home Affairs.
I hear hon Hadebe from the IFP repeatedly saying that, there are problems, and I wonder at a time that his leader, Chief Mangosuthu Buthelezi, was the Minister of Home Affairs, were these problems not obtained, because most of these problems started at that particular time.

But because we are not here for a blame game, hon Hadebe, we are her to give solutions to the many challenges that are facing us.
We will not be deterred, we will not be defocused, we shall be resolute in our conviction to ensure that we attend to these particular issues.

Now, this afternoon, I implore the Minister, and as the ANC, that we need to go out and resolve all the problems that are facing the department itself.

The issues of administration, the issues of filling key positions in the administration are very much fundamental.
The department must also go and attend to all the financial situations that are obtained, develop a very clear cut corruption plan within the department, because it is that UNREVISED HANSARD NATIONAL COUNCIL OF PROVINCES WEDNESDAY, 8 JUNE 2022 Page: 66 problem that demean and defocuses the department, whenever it is corruption relating to the ID documents, whether it is corruption in relation to allowing illegal immigrants in our country, whether it is corruption in relation to bribery or any other form of corruption, it must be attended to.
Our respective view as the ANC, is that the Minister, with the little budget that he has, he must focus the attention of the department in the realisation of that particular goal.

We are also happy, as the ANC, hon Deputy Chairperson that, we have ultimately finalised the legislation on border management.
This border management will help to ensure that the work of government is done in a co-ordinated way, it is done in an interdepartmental way and it is done in an intergovernmental way because, that is what is important, that all stakeholders in unison and in one direction, must focus in ensuring that we protect our borders.

All our stakeholders ...

[Inaudible.]

... and irrespective, to ensure the curb of illegal immigrants which is a problem in this country.
We are quite happy that all the systems are being put in place, and that all structures are being put in place, and that all processes are being put in place, and at the end of the day, we are going to see the rollout and the UNREVISED HANSARD NATIONAL COUNCIL OF PROVINCES WEDNESDAY, 8 JUNE 2022 Page: 67 implementation of the Border Management Authority, BMA, which is quite important, and in our respective view, given how we have adopted and passed this law, that is going to solve many of the problems that are facing us.
But in addition to that, I will sincerely encourage the Minister to ensure that, while that authority is being put in place, it must be staffed by competent, experienced, qualified people to ensure that they do their work in a very patriotic spirit, they do their work in a way that inspires confidence, but most importantly, they do it because we must preserve and reserve our South Africanisms in a way that will ensure that at the end of the day, we achieve the objectives that have been set before us.
With that, hon Deputy Chairperson, as I’ve indicated from the beginning, as the ANC, we fully support this budget ...

[Inaudible.]

... and we think that the new models that are characterised by the bit budget that we have and we believe as the ANC that, with this budget, and the annual performance plan of the department, the Minister, as part of leading the department, will make an indelible contribution in terms of attaining those particular issues.
Under the circumstances, UNREVISED HANSARD NATIONAL COUNCIL OF PROVINCES WEDNESDAY, 8 JUNE 2022 Page: 68 hon Deputy Chair, as the ANC, as I have indicated, we support this Budget Vote.

Thank you very much.

The MINISTER OF HOME AFFAIRS: Hon Deputy Chairperson, thank you very much.

Hon Visser from the DA, most of the problems you mentioned in your debate, I have already given solutions in the Budget Speech.

I will really humbly request you to go and read the Budget Speech again.
You will find the solutions there.

However, together with other members of the DA, you kept on mentioning the phrase, “collapsed department.” I want to give you statistics because figures do not lie.

From the 1st of January to the 31st of March, in a three-month period, 269 732 babies were born in South Africa.

The 204 108 of them got their birth certificates within 30 days.

The remainder got their birth certificates even though it was after 30 days.

That was the first three months of the year.


A total of 902 014 people received their smart cards, IDs.

We issued 26 864 passports for young people and 136 803 passports for adults.

All this work was done in the first three months by a department that is supposed to have collapsed.

UNREVISED HANSARD NATIONAL COUNCIL OF PROVINCES WEDNESDAY, 8 JUNE 2022 Page: 69 Now, there is a story of KwaZulu-Natal floods which keeps on being repeated from the EFF desks.
I am saying so because there was a claim during my Budget Speech which is two weeks ago in the National Assembly, that the flood victims are unable to obtain social services because the Department of Home Affairs did not play its role.

I am challenging you to go to Hansard, to find answers there in figures, but because this is being repeated, I would like to repeat it again.

This is for the third time.

The Deputy Minister gave the figures today again because he was running the programme.
I am also giving it for the third time so that there are three sources.

The Department of Home Affairs in KwaZulu-Natal visited 38 sides in eThekwini, physically going there to the people not waiting for them to come to home affairs.

Three sides in Ugu, four sides in iLembe.

In total 2 394 people who lost their documents were helped.

Sadly, 334 death certificates were issued without which people would not been buried.

These were free services, all-in-all.


So, please, to keep on repeating the same story again and again and hoping that one day it will be the truth that does not cut it.

UNREVISED HANSARD NATIONAL COUNCIL OF PROVINCES WEDNESDAY, 8 JUNE 2022 Page: 70 Home affairs went there with our mobile trucks.

Actually, the premier of KwaZulu-Natal was shown with the Deputy Minister, going around and giving people the IDs and documents they applied for.
Hon Sileku, you mentioned the issue of mobile trucks and I have said it in my speech that we are increasing them.

We have already bought 10 and we are going to buy 15 more this financial year.

We have taken a decision that we would like to double a number of trucks that we have, because one of the things we do not want to see, is school kids going to queue at home affairs in uniforms.

So, this is a school programme, but also help communities in outlying areas.
However, also helping communities in distress and emergencies like we did in KwaZulu-Natal.

The last issue hon Ryder, the story you see in newspapers about the assault, I am sure by now as an hon Member of Parliament, you do know that every story has two sides.

Yes, we saw somebody being dragged is definitely criminal and the Police and officials are going to deal with that.

However, I want to tell you to wait, because there is another side to this story, of what happened.
I am not justifying a man being dragged to the ground.

UNREVISED HANSARD NATIONAL COUNCIL OF PROVINCES WEDNESDAY, 8 JUNE 2022 Page: 71 However, there is an another horrible story which is an alternative story that has not been recorded on video, but being told from our investigation.

Please wait for the investigation then see the two sides of the story.

There are two cases opened by opposing groups in what has been shown in the newspaper, but you are mentioning only one story.
Wait for the other story and hear what the Police are saying about it.

Thank you very much.

Debate concluded.


APPROPRIATION BILL (Policy debate) Vote No 20 — Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities: The MINISTER OF WOMEN, YOUTH AND PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES: Hon Deputy Chairperson Madam Sylvia Lucas, hon Mmoiemang of the NCOP and chairperson of the Select Committee on Health hon Gillion, it is our honour to present to you and this august House the Budget Vote for the Department of Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities.
UNREVISED HANSARD NATIONAL COUNCIL OF PROVINCES WEDNESDAY, 8 JUNE 2022 Page: 72 The Budget Vote demonstrates the commitment by our department to empower and advance the interests of the most vulnerable groups in our society.
This must be achieved through socioeconomic acceleration to overcome the persistent scourge of gender-based violence and femicide, GBVF, the economic exclusion and marginalisation of women, youth and persons with disabilities, as well as the lack of representation of vulnerable groups in decision-making processes.
In accordance with our mandate, the department continues to advocate, monitor, evaluate and regulate for the rights and empowerment of women, youth and persons with disabilities, as enshrined in the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa.

The recent fourth quarter statistics released by the Minister of Police hon Bheki Cele, reveal a horrific picture on the state of our nation.
In this regard, the mounting socioeconomic pressures that millions of South African households are subjected to become the breeding ground for social instability, criminality and violence.

The unfortunate reality is that women, youth and persons with disabilities bear the brunt of the crisis of crime in our country.

We must therefore intensify our interventions aimed at addressing this second pandemic in our country.
UNREVISED HANSARD NATIONAL COUNCIL OF PROVINCES WEDNESDAY, 8 JUNE 2022 Page: 73 The National Strategic Plan, NSP, on GBVF is currently in its second year of implementation.

I am pleased to inform this august House that the interministerial committee, which I chair, continues to do its work of co-ordinating the implementation of the NSP.

This is supported by the department’s role in providing strategic leadership to advocate, co-ordinate, monitor and evaluate the implementation of the NSP.
To date, several strides have been made, including the following: Firstly, the National Council On Gender-Based Violence and Femicide draft Bill is currently being consulted with the National Economic Development and Labour Council, Nedlac, and will be tabled in Parliament later this month; Secondly, the multisectoral GBVF rapid response teams are in the process of being established in all provinces, districts and local levels because our women die in their localities ... some in their own houses; Thirdly, we are working closely with municipalities and sector departments to ensure integration of the priorities of the NSP on GBVF into the District Development Model, DDM; UNREVISED HANSARD NATIONAL COUNCIL OF PROVINCES WEDNESDAY, 8 JUNE 2022 Page: 74 Fourthly, technical monitors and data capturers have been placed in three pilot provinces, including KwaZulu-Natal, the Eastern Cape and Gauteng, to enhance the capacity of provinces to implement the NSP and the gender budgeting framework, thanks to the EU’s funding.
We will roll out this support in the remaining six provinces during the 2022-23 financial year; Fifthly, through funding from the German Agency for International Co-operation, the department is developing the national prevention strategy on GBVF; Sixth, we have ensured that national departments integrate the GBVF priorities into their strategic and annual performance plans; Seventh, the department co-ordinates and consolidates the submission of monthly progress reports on the implementation of the NSP to the President; and Eighth, we have, in partnership with the SA National Taxi Council, Santaco, initiated the training of taxi drivers and owners on GBVF.
UNREVISED HANSARD NATIONAL COUNCIL OF PROVINCES WEDNESDAY, 8 JUNE 2022 Page: 75 The success and impact of the NSP on GBVF must be rooted in collaboration across all sectors of our society.

Most importantly, it must be localised to respond to the unique needs of our provinces and localities.

Therefore, the NCOP plays a critical role in ensuring that the NSP on GBVF finds expression and is incorporated as a priority across our provincial governments.
On 4 May 2022, we launched the South African gender assessment report in partnership with the World Bank.
The report highlights the overall progress South Africa has made towards gender equality since 1994, including the following areas: Firstly, South Africa is among the top 10 countries globally to have successfully implemented reforms to improve women’s legal rights; and Secondly, in the Southern African Development Community, SADC, we are number two ... the second country in the SADC, according to the World Economic fund gender gap index of 2021; Notwithstanding these strides, we can no longer ignore the economic marginalisation of women, youth and persons with disabilities.
I therefore call on our provincial leadership to UNREVISED HANSARD NATIONAL COUNCIL OF PROVINCES WEDNESDAY, 8 JUNE 2022 Page: 76 ensure that economic interventions proposed at national level, including the economic recovery and reconstruction plan, must be intentional about the integration of vulnerable groups at a provincial and local level.

To ensure that our provinces are able to reach their economic potential, it is important that economic interventions are inclusive in nature.
Failure to do so, threatens the livelihoods of the vast majority and further reinforces unequal socioeconomic development across our provinces.

In this regard, we must always remember that this is going to require each and every one of us because those vulnerable people feel the pain at the most vulnerable level.
In this regard, we must continue to promote interprovincial trade to accelerate economic transformation, support labour-intensive growth and create competitive economies at a provincial and local level.

All these good measures contained in the NSP are commendable.

We call on our people to refuse to treat GBV as a private matter.

Take someone with you.

It is ...


If you do not respond to ... Sepedi: ... mokgosi wa sebatakgomo ... UNREVISED HANSARD NATIONAL COUNCIL OF PROVINCES WEDNESDAY, 8 JUNE 2022 Page: 77 English: ... everyone must get involved.

Leave no-one behind.

For its part, the government is tightening its efforts to eradicate this pandemic.
With regard to youth development, we had the honour on 2 June to launch Youth Month with the National Youth Development Agency, NYDA, under the theme, Promoting sustainable livelihoods and resilience of young people for a better tomorrow, at Morris Isaacson High School next to the Hector Pieterson monument.

We also visited the monument with the NYDA.

During the month of June, we will have various activities to address the pressing challenges of our youth and what they face, particularly unemployment.
Unemployed, educated but feeling the need to be creating jobs for themselves or being assisted.

I’m having a meeting tomorrow with the hon Minister of Higher Education to continue skilling our youth to ... that by the time we arrive in the Eastern Cape on the 16th, we ... have that which we could also be saying ... these are our plans.

The official June 16 commemoration will be addressed by His Excellency President Cyril Ramaphosa.
UNREVISED HANSARD NATIONAL COUNCIL OF PROVINCES WEDNESDAY, 8 JUNE 2022 Page: 78 Beyond Youth Month, I am excited to inform the House that the NYDA Amendment Bill was tabled in Parliament on 26 April 2022.

Furthermore, the Integrated Youth Development Strategy, as well as the Monitoring and Evaluation Framework of the National Youth Policy 2030 will soon be submitted to Cabinet for approval.

This will enable us to monitor the implementation of the national youth ... across all sectors.
In addition, the NYDA continues to support the Presidential Youth Employment Intervention, PYEI, by providing the following: the SA Youth mobi, the Youth Explorer and the youth mPowa.
In the 2022-23 financial year, the NYDA will target the following programmes: Firstly, the training of more than 25 000 young people to be youth entrepreneurs ... to be self-employed; Secondly, 2 000 youth-owned enterprises will receive financial assistance from the NYDA through the NYDA grant programme; Thirdly, 5 000 young people will be provided with skills development programmes to enable them to enter the economy; Fourthly, 10 000 young people will be placed in jobs through the National Pathway Management Network; and UNREVISED HANSARD NATIONAL COUNCIL OF PROVINCES WEDNESDAY, 8 JUNE 2022 Page: 79 Fifthly, 50 000 young people will be recruited in the structured National Youth Service.
We must harness the potential of our provinces in addressing inequalities by accelerating economic development.

It is for this reason that it is in our hands ... that we can work together through the DDM of the Department of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs to make sure that we leave no-one behind.

In March 2022, the department procured an exhibition space at the Africa Energy Indaba in Cape Town.

We utilise every opportunity that we find.


The department held three dialogues on renewable energy, but also everywhere else, including the imbizo on the eastern seaboard.

We have participated both in KwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern Cape, and we will be there in Alfred Nzo.

In October 2021, His Excellency President Cyril Ramaphosa launched the Women Economic Assembly, Wecona, that seeks to unlock a minimum of 40% of all procurement opportunities for women-owned businesses across sectoral value chains.
In this UNREVISED HANSARD NATIONAL COUNCIL OF PROVINCES WEDNESDAY, 8 JUNE 2022 Page: 80 regard, Wecona has developed a strategy to roll out to other provinces.

The second Wecona will be convened in October 2022.

We must ensure that the full implementation of the threshold for public procurement set at 40% for women, 30% for youth and 7% for persons with disabilities across provincial governments, happens.

It is our responsibility.


As the department, we will continue to work with the NCOP to ensure the effective monitoring of women, youth and persons with disabilities where public procurement takes place.

As the department, we will continue adhering to all international commitments, be it at the international level of the UN, the AU, the SADC, to make sure that even the African Continental Free Trade Area ... that we developed also benefits these vulnerable people that we are working with.
To strengthen disability inclusion in line with the UN convention and AU protocol we have signed, the department has developed and gazetted two frameworks on universal access and design and reasonable accommodation.

We welcome Cabinet’s approval of the National Strategic Framework on Disability Rights Awareness ... Campaigns ... UNREVISED HANSARD NATIONAL COUNCIL OF PROVINCES WEDNESDAY, 8 JUNE 2022 Page: 81 awareness.
One of the barriers to participation in the economy for persons with disabilities is access to education.

Last year, the department in partnership with the department of education held a summit on this framework.

The disaggregated data collected by the Department of Public Service and Administration, DPSA, on the employment of persons with disabilities in the Public Service, show that the Public Service is at 1% while our goal remains 7%.
Also, the research report published by the department on the impact of COVID-19 on persons with disabilities highlights recommendations towards upholding the rights of people with disabilities ... living conditions of persons that need our attention.

Parliament is also in the right process of ratifying the AU’s protocol on the rights of persons with disabilities.

Later this year, the department will convene the economic empowerment summit for persons with disabilities.
With regard to the implementation of the Gender Responsive Planning, Budgeting, Monitoring, Evaluation and Auditing Framework, we are continuing with this across all three spheres and we will continue ...

Similarly, there are plans to roll out this framework at the local government level in UNREVISED HANSARD NATIONAL COUNCIL OF PROVINCES WEDNESDAY, 8 JUNE 2022 Page: 82 collaboration with the SA Local Government Association, Salga.
The Department of Co-operative Governance has co-operated with us in making sure that the new councillors are also steeped into this ... that which makes all South Africans feel needed and part of the freedom we fought for.
We are happy to say to this House that there will be the roll- out of phase one of the project over the coming months by the National Treasury on how we partner with Treasury, the Department of Monitoring and Evaluation and the International Monetary Fund in making sure that all these vulnberable groups find us on the platform.

In fulfilling the mandate of socioeconomic empowerment, we will continue working together with all the spheres of government.
We continue to participate in the AU specialised technical committee.

We are also never found wanting on the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, Cedaw, commitments and committees.

We had the pleasure of chairing the Cedaw committee meeting this year and the members all sang praises with regard to the progress that South Africa is making.
UNREVISED HANSARD NATIONAL COUNCIL OF PROVINCES WEDNESDAY, 8 JUNE 2022 Page: 83 I am happy to report that South Africa met all its international obligations relating to women, youth and persons with disabilities.

In our commitment to strengthen diplomatic relations across the continent, in July we will be hosting the Nelson Mandela Youth Dialogue and Ethical Leadership Programme in partnership with the NYDA, the Nelson Mandela Foundation and others.
This will involve all our youth on the continent, who will also participate in the upcoming UN Conference of State Parties on ... disability and the Commonwealth meeting of Ministers of gender in Kigali.

The appropriation of the department increases from the 2022 financial year to the 2023 financial year from R763,5 million to R987,2 million.

It includes an amount of R100,7 million and R681,3 million earmarked for transfers to the Commission for Gender Equality, CGE, and the NYDA.
This appropriation includes a baseline increase amounting to R6,9 million for the CGE and R200 million for the NYDA.

The additional allocation for the NYDA is earmarked for the implementation of the PYEI that we spoke about earlier.

Regrettably, only R5 million is allocated for the co- ordination of the strategic plan on GBV.
UNREVISED HANSARD NATIONAL COUNCIL OF PROVINCES WEDNESDAY, 8 JUNE 2022 Page: 84 In conclusion, I wish to acknowledge and thank the hon Chair and hon members of the NCOP for their contributions and guidance, the development partners for their continued support, senior officials of the department and all those, particularly the Director-General Mikateko Maluleke and her team.

We must remain grounded and loyal to the mandate of improving the livelihoods of the most vulnerable in our society.
No contribution is small in the quest for an ethical and developmental state.

We all have the collective responsibility to address the challenges that continue to be a breeding ground for social instability, unemployment, criminality based on violence and poverty.

Finally, as we continue to commemorate Youth Month, our youth must be the catalyst in ensuring that we develop solutions to the challenges of our nation.

They are the present.

They are our future.


In the words of Tata Nelson Mandela: let me say this and say this with the utmost conviction: the nation owes you a clear policy and practical measures to ensure that the youth contributes to, and benefits from, our new democracy.

UNREVISED HANSARD NATIONAL COUNCIL OF PROVINCES WEDNESDAY, 8 JUNE 2022 Page: 85 The Mandelas and ma Shopes of this world fought for freedom.
What shall we be remembered for ... to open pathways for our young people to participate in finding solutions for the present and the future?

Sepedi: Ke a leboga.

IsiZulu: Malibongwe!


Ms M N GILLION: Hon Chairperson, hon House Chairperson, hon Minister, hon Chief Whip, hon members and all delegates present, our former statesman, Nelson Mandela once said, “As long as women are bound by poverty, and as long as they are looked down upon, human rights will lack substance.” Our aims and objectives as the ANC have always been to include the support and advance of the cause for women’s emancipation.
We have put women at the centre of the struggle to alleviate poverty and inequality.

Over the years, the government has worked tirelessly to eliminate the feminisation of poverty through strengthening women empowerment mechanisms across the government and society.

UNREVISED HANSARD NATIONAL COUNCIL OF PROVINCES WEDNESDAY, 8 JUNE 2022 Page: 86 As the ANC, we understand the significance of women’s empowerment and the impact it has on our society and economy.
Women's empowerment equips and allows women to make life- determining decisions through various challenges in society.

Empowering women provides women with their right to agency, and to be more independent to determine their life choices.

Empowering women has the potential to improve the lives of millions of people, not only women and girls, but also men and boys who are impacted by the women in their lives being empowered.
When women are empowered, they are better able to provide for themselves and their families, which has a direct impact on the well-being of those in their lives.

Women empowerment does not only aim to improve the rights of women but also other people that have been marginalised because of their genders, such as members of the LGBTQIA+ community and persons living with disabilities.
Women empowerment also includes efforts to expand girls' and women's access to education and health care, increase their economic power and reduce their risks of physical and sexual violence.

It also includes efforts to reduce gender stereotypes and discrimination which can limit girls’ and women's opportunities and increase their risks of harm, and to promote girls' and women's leadership and agency.
We are also UNREVISED HANSARD NATIONAL COUNCIL OF PROVINCES WEDNESDAY, 8 JUNE 2022 Page: 87 continuing to put forward women’s economic empowerment because, as the government, we understand and acknowledge the value of including women in various sectors of the economy through mainstreaming.

Much has been done to promote women’s economic empowerment and the mainstreaming of women into the economy.
The promotion of women’s rights and women empowerment is imperative if we are true to realise the nonsexist and equal society that we envision.

The government launched the Charlotte Maxeke African Women's Economic Justice and Rights initiative which aims to give practical effect to the country's commitment to the economic and financial inclusion of women.
Moreover, The Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy also launched the Women Empowerment and Gender Equality Strategy, which is aimed at ensuring that women become active participants in the energy sector in September last year.

In a bid to tackle inequality in key sectors of the economy, President Cyril Ramaphosa launched the Women Economic Assembly, WECONA, in October 2021, which put major sectors under the spotlight to evaluate the level of participation of women-owned businesses.
The assembly was launched during a hybrid event attended by businesswomen, government leaders and UNREVISED HANSARD NATIONAL COUNCIL OF PROVINCES WEDNESDAY, 8 JUNE 2022 Page: 88 officials, private companies, civil society organisations and other stakeholders.

The private sector, civil society, women’s organisations, businesswomen and the government have partnered to form the WECONA, an initiative to facilitate the participation of women-owned businesses in core areas of the economy.
We have made drastic steps to include women in all sectors of the economy, not forgetting the providing support for women in the informal economy such as the rural and township economy.

The government also continues to support women-owned businesses and entrepreneurship by resolving that 40% of public procurement be reserved for women-owned businesses.

We also have progressive strides toward achieving gender equality.
Through South Africa’s progressive laws, we are seeing more women serving in high-ranking positions than ever before.

The Economic Reconstruction and Recovery Plan indicated that small, medium and micro-enterprises owned by women will play a part in the delivery of infrastructure delivery.

Women are being encouraged and supported to form co-operatives in key economic sectors such as retail, agriculture and agro- processing, financial services and manufacturing and will be prioritised in access to funding.
Noting that we are a country UNREVISED HANSARD NATIONAL COUNCIL OF PROVINCES WEDNESDAY, 8 JUNE 2022 Page: 89 engulfed by high levels of unemployment, the Presidential Employment Stimulus has benefited 60% of women.

We are glad to hear that provinces have also emphasised the creation of jobs and economic opportunities aimed at women and youth.

This is in response to the challenges of unemployment and poverty that have been exacerbated by COVID-19 and the lockdown.
As the government, we will continue to work tirelessly to mitigate these challenges.

Although more still needs to be done in the labour market, since statistics reveal that the labour market is more favourable to men than to women.

Continuous upskilling of women, and women empowerment awareness programmes in the private sector are significant to mitigate the gap, we hope that provinces will continue to prioritise women in their planning.
However, we have also made strides in the private sector in the protection of women in the workplace on the development and the roll-out of sexual harassment policies.

Understanding that gender-based violence is cancer rooted in patriarchy that all members of our society ought to come together and uproot it in all of its manifestations.

We have to bring dignity to the vulnerable in our society such as children, particularly girls and persons with disabilities.
We hope that the provinces will be able to reach out to more schools while conducting their Sanitary Dignity Programme, UNREVISED HANSARD NATIONAL COUNCIL OF PROVINCES WEDNESDAY, 8 JUNE 2022 Page: 90 this time the programme should also incorporate issues that are affecting adolescence including boys, such as bullying, substance abuse, teenage pregnancy, human trafficking and programmes aimed at raising awareness about the dangers of social media and rather focus on how adolescence can use social media positively.
The Sanitary Dignity Programme should also target schools catering for children with disabilities and also conduct outreach programmes for children in those schools.

When we speak of persons with disabilities, we have to include all persons in the disability spectrum.

Chapter 2 of the Bill of Rights in the Constitution of the Republic recognises the rights and freedoms of all persons in the Republic, this includes the right to human dignity and equality.
Persons living with disabilities are no different, they deserve to enjoy the same rights as all citizens in the Republic.

They too are reserved the right to no discrimination.

Noting that persons with disabilities often feel excluded from society through mobility and accessibility, be it to services or infrastructure and an environment that is enabling to their needs.
Persons with disabilities are considered to be one of the vulnerable groups as often some are ostracized from their families and communities.

It is through this understanding UNREVISED HANSARD NATIONAL COUNCIL OF PROVINCES WEDNESDAY, 8 JUNE 2022 Page: 91 that the ANC is and will consistently champion and promote the rights of persons with disabilities to restore and bring dignity to persons living with disabilities.
The Africa Union Charter Protocol Human and People’s Rights on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities promotes and recognises the rights of persons living with disabilities, including the rights to equality, security, free from unfair discrimination, human dignity, accessibility and social inclusion to name a few.

It is in line with our Constitution and our social transformation agenda of building a better life for all and a South Africa that belongs to all who live in it.
That is why, as the ANC, we will continue to promote the rights of persons with disability through legislation such as the Disability Act which is underway and continue to assist persons living with disabilities through the provision of the disability grant to assist them the necessary support or mobility required to make their lives better.

Representation and inclusion of persons living with disabilities are significant to social inclusion, the government is leading this.
Our transformation agenda is to create a society where everyone feels safe and is able to walk freely.

A society that is free of violence and discrimination.

We have to fight for a society in which all are able to enjoy UNREVISED HANSARD NATIONAL COUNCIL OF PROVINCES WEDNESDAY, 8 JUNE 2022 Page: 92 the freedoms that this country offers.

The ANC supports Budget Vote 20.

Chairperson, I thank You.

Ms S MANI-LUSITHI (Eastern Cape): Thank you, hon Acting House Chair.
Greetings to yourself, the hon members and all delegates and all on the various platforms.

Hon Acting House Chair, well firstly, I think we want to start the debate by appreciating the agency of the discussion on this Budget Vote, particularly as we are facing a post-global pandemic that has heavily affected the lives of people living with disabilities, women and our youth.
As the Department of Social Development as we lead with the mandate of providing services and programmes to victims of crime and violence including the abuse of persons with disabilities, we understand abuse as really about power and control and people with disabilities face unique challenges and barriers to accessing the support and services and our disability rights ...

[Inaudible.]

... positioned to help this achieve this access.


Building on the foundations of the National Youth Development policy 2021, as the Eastern Cape government we are determined to force a relationships and this calls for the development and inclusion of young people into the mainstream of economy in order to improve their wealth and social wellbeing.

During UNREVISED HANSARD NATIONAL COUNCIL OF PROVINCES WEDNESDAY, 8 JUNE 2022 Page: 93 the new financial year, we will optimise the outcomes of the current ...
[Inaudible.]

development programmes for young people by partnering with other agencies to ensure that our young people are provided with income opportunities post training that are accredited.

In addition, as the department to increase the number of youth benefiting from the skills chain programme inclusive of 40 young people in our child and youth care centres who will receive driver licence training.
In addition, 17 youth initiatives which include poultry, piggery, crop production and car wash projects will be funded to benefit young people across the province.

As part of our practical intervention in implementing an ...

[Inaudible.]

... and social behavioural change programmes to address risky behaviour and the harmful social norms that negatively affect morals and values within families and communities.
This programme seeks to create a safe an enabling environment in which people can have meaningful engagements about social issues and ills including human immunodeficiency virus, HIV, and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome, Aids, prevention, teenage pregnancy and parental behaviour.

A total number of 3 000 young people between the ages of 10 and 24 are targeted through these programmes.
UNREVISED HANSARD NATIONAL COUNCIL OF PROVINCES WEDNESDAY, 8 JUNE 2022 Page: 94 Now, in our efforts to uplift these services during 2022-23 financial year, the department has accelerated efforts towards victim empowerment, gender-based violence and substance abuse reaching 219 422 people.
The department in collaboration with other stakeholders successfully implemented the drive masterplan through substance abuse prevention programmes and our social behavioural change programme which seeks to reduce these risky behaviours in our young people.

Hon members, our provincial outlook on teenage pregnancy records 17,1% of teenage girls between 10 to 19 years who fall pregnant.
In responding to this prevailing challenge the department will collaborate in implementing sexual reproductive health programme with the United Nations Population Fund, UNFPA, the Department of Health, the Department of Education and House of Traditional Leaders.

The programme will be implemented in a Nelson Mandela Metro, O R Tambo and Alfred Nzo Districts, as these areas have the highest incidents of youth teenage pregnancy and we are targeting 30 000 young girls both in and out of school.
Hon Acting Chair, we are also aware of the urgent need of strategically placing women at the centre of development.

Therefore, in relation to contributing towards economic UNREVISED HANSARD NATIONAL COUNCIL OF PROVINCES WEDNESDAY, 8 JUNE 2022 Page: 95 empowerment of women we are prioritising interventions that promote the rights of women to achieve gender equality through the implementation of skills development advocacy and social reproductive health and rights programme benefiting 7 874 women and 21 ...
[Inaudible.]

initiatives.

The department is again partnering with UNFPA which provides the technical support to the development of provincial women development policy and the implementation plan.

Now, in advancing women empowerment and economic development we have provided skills development and supported 13 184 women.

Hon members, as we are advance the struggle for women emancipation we must also face head on the pandemic of gender- based violence.
The issue of gender-based violence whether physical, sexual, economical or emotional is recognised globally as one of the most widespread and persistent violations of the rights of women and girls.

It is a universal problem, it cut across geography, class and culture.

It is certainly not unique to South Africa.


It is really my considered view that the fight against poverty and ill justice will only bear fruits if we invest in addressing the root cause of gender inequality and gender-based violence in our families, societies and nation, and that is the distraction of the patriarchal economy.
UNREVISED HANSARD NATIONAL COUNCIL OF PROVINCES WEDNESDAY, 8 JUNE 2022 Page: 96 Hon members, it is also true to people living with disabilities the reality is that it is people who are living with disabilities who experience the highest rates of domestic violence, sexual assault and abuse.

Abuse against a person living with a disability often take a non-traditional forms and person ...

[Inaudible.]

disability facing additional barrier where seeking help inhabits them from accessing services.
This means that we need to build them more integrated and inclusive society.

In marking the importance of the mainstreaming of services for people living with disabilities across all spheres of our society, the department remains committed to play the leading role in this regard.

The department through its programme provides integrated services that facilitates the promotion of the wellbeing and socioeconomic empowerment of persons with disabilities.
This encompasses a range of intervention in servicing including protective workshops capacity building support.

Critical in this programme is implementation of the community- based rehabilitation services and advocacy utilising the rights-based approach that contribute positively to enhancing the mainstreaming of persons with disabilities within their communities.
This, of course, is not enough which is why we are calling on our social partners and private sector to work UNREVISED HANSARD NATIONAL COUNCIL OF PROVINCES WEDNESDAY, 8 JUNE 2022 Page: 97 with this in mobilising resources to promote the rights of people who are differently able.

It was also critical to note that disability does not only affect the persons with the disability, but also the family and the immediate community.
Hence we must also create programmes that seek to creating enabling environment for the provisioning of appropriate support programmes for the families, caregivers as they are or should be the primary support system.

In many instances often the immediate families carry the financial, medical, physical and emotional burdens of ...

[Inaudible.]
[Inaudible.]

There is, therefore, a great need for support programmes which will enhance the quality of life for people who are differently able and their families throughout their lifespan.

The Department of Social Development is committed to working towards the mainstreaming and integration of programmes and that creating a better life for persons with disabilities.

Therefore, we realised that legislation alone, however, will not ensure that person with disabilities can enjoy their human rights.
We, therefore, applaud initiatives such as the departmental disability month which serves to create awareness with regards to employees living with disabilities.

UNREVISED HANSARD NATIONAL COUNCIL OF PROVINCES WEDNESDAY, 8 JUNE 2022 Page: 98 Hon Acting House Chair, we need to do more when ensuring that the national government fully complies with the legal framework policies, strategic framework mandates directive and prescripts relating to disability management.
This means that we need to ensure that disability form for employees who are differently able by establishing function so as to ensure proper representation of people living with disabilities in the work place.

More needs to be done to raise awareness to ensure that we change our mind-set with regards to persons who are differently able.

We should, therefore, continue to fight the stigma attached to our differently gifted brothers and sisters which still exist in our communities.
As government we should, therefore, continue in the fore-fighting leading and advancing the rights of people living with disabilities.

Hon Acting House Chair, as the Eastern Cape we support the Budget Vote.

Thank you, Acting House Chair.

Ms H S BOSHOFF: Thank you very much, House Chair, all protocol observed.

This is one of so many government departments that have dismally failed in all aspects to deliver on their mandate to the broader South African community.
It is rather an embarrassment to mention that it even exists, it’s all talk and no action.

In today’s context, this is the department that UNREVISED HANSARD NATIONAL COUNCIL OF PROVINCES WEDNESDAY, 8 JUNE 2022 Page: 99 should be the cornerstone of the fight in the current pandemic facing women, youth and people with disabilities.

South Africa’s gender-based violence statistics are equal to a country at war and that is no hyperbole.
South Africa is ranked as the world’s capital of crime against women, with 10 818 rapes taking place in the first three months of this year, and more than 2 695 women murdered every year.

In South Africa, one woman is killed every three hours.

It is therefore critical to note that there are many layers of gender-based violence, GBV, and socioeconomic issues such as teenage pregnancy and economic inequalities which are linked to GBV.

Addressing such cases would entail tackling these issues as well.
Women, youth and people with disabilities are faced with these issues on a daily basis and therefore government needs a comprehensive approach that will address them.

Regardless of which angle look at this from, it is imperative that all factors are addressed to fight the scourge of GBV This department needs to start being implementers on the ground and not in boardrooms, department summits and izimbizo.

South Africans need to see more action and less talks.
UNREVISED HANSARD NATIONAL COUNCIL OF PROVINCES WEDNESDAY, 8 JUNE 2022 Page: 100 According to a Statistics SA report, nearly 50% of GBV assaults are committed by someone close, 22% of assaults are committed by a friend or an acquaintance, 15% by a spouse or intimate partner, and 29% are committed by a complete stranger.
Government needs to create and maintain an environment that is safe and conducive for victims to report incidents of violence and abuse, and this environment must be one of empathy and care and must be free of judgement.

What is concerning is that as yet, the National Council on Gender-Based Violence and Femicide, NCGBVF, has not been established.

Treasury had allocated R15m for the establishment of NCGBVF over a 3-year period with R5 million being allocated in each financial year starting in 2020.
However, there is no movement on the NCGBVF and this has a massive impact on the implementation of the national strategic plan which is there to combat GBVF.

With these delays we are seeing, women and girls continue to suffer from violence on a daily basis.

Hon Minister, it is your department’s responsibility to ensure that the national strategic plan is implemented, monitored and budgeted for.

Why has nothing transpired?


UNREVISED HANSARD NATIONAL COUNCIL OF PROVINCES WEDNESDAY, 8 JUNE 2022 Page: 101 Hon Minister, we need action that will empower women and youth, these are the real issues that can unlock the scourge of inequality and give women the weapon against GBVF.

We need programs that will equip them with skills to match the male dominated world.
Young women are succumbing to the pressures of falling pregnant to gain access to child support grant as a means to an end to support their needs as women.

Women need real freedom to be able to fight the scourge of these inequalities.

Youth unemployment has a negative effect on the individual and the family, but also on the broader community in the form of serious economic and social consequences.
This includes economic welfare, production, erosion of human capital, social exclusion, and crime and social instability.

Substance abuse has become the haven for young people, and there is a need to address this with a remedial method before it affects their ability to be competent in the employment sector.

It is estimated that the unemployment rate of persons with disabilities in South Africa is in excess of more than 90% and approaching 100% in rural areas.

This is totally unacceptable.


Disability is more prevalent amongst females in comparison with males.

This puts an immeasurable burden on women in our UNREVISED HANSARD NATIONAL COUNCIL OF PROVINCES WEDNESDAY, 8 JUNE 2022 Page: 102 society.

Women empowerment is crucial and requires very urgent attention.

This department could be a champion department if they were only able to deliver addressing women issues on a broader scale.
This department to my knowledge is completely out of touch with the realities on the ground, and had it not been for civil society organizations, we would be faced with more dilemmas than what we are currently facing.

This department really needs to forge working relations with other government departments so as to provide a holistic approach to the challenges being faced by women, youth and people with disabilities.
The Department of Safety and Security needs to be proactive in dealing with cases of GBVF.

We need safe houses for victims of violence, we need access to the Department of Social Services so that women do not have to turn to selling their bodies to make ends meet.

Women are dealing with more than they can handle and are in dire need of comprehensive support from all spheres of society, but more especially from this department.
UNREVISED HANSARD NATIONAL COUNCIL OF PROVINCES WEDNESDAY, 8 JUNE 2022 Page: 103 The Department of Arts and Culture also needs to come on board to help with structural interventions to mould young people and to keep them focused and occupied.

There is a huge need for accountability, proper monitoring and evaluation processes from all the key role-players entrusted by government to deliver.
The National Youth Development Agency, NYDA, has to play a visible and meaningful role to fulfil its mandate on empowering youth and fight youth unemployment.

In doing so, it will assist in seeing a decline in crime related incidences as more young people will be able to enter the labour market.

We note with concern the vacancies in the NYDA for regional manager positions in the Eastern Cape, Northern Cape and the Western Cape.
These are critical positions in a country that is hugely confronted by youth unemployment.

Minister, we urge you to address this matter as quickly as possible.

There is no time to waste.

In conclusion, Minister, this department needs to be more on the ground and less in the media, this will go a long way in contributing towards the improvement of the lives of women, youth and people with disabilities.
UNREVISED HANSARD NATIONAL COUNCIL OF PROVINCES WEDNESDAY, 8 JUNE 2022 Page: 104 Hon Minister, we can no longer continue to live in a country where women, youth and people with disabilities are rendered less human and subjected to continued abuse, killings and inequalities.

This war has to end, and it must end now.

The ball is in your court, show this country that you care, it will be to the benefit of all.

I thank you.
I thank you.

Ms N NDONGENI: Hon House Chairperson, hon Deputy Chairperson of the NCOP, hon Minister, hon Chief Whip, hon members, special delegates, members of the society, good afternoon.

The young people in our country have become to one of the most vulnerable in our society.

We have to acknowledge the vast devastations that were worsened by the COVID-19 pandemic, which were not exclusive to South Africa alone.
COVID-19 devastated economies the world over and a number of people lost their source of income due to the implementation of lockdowns.

Young people in South Africa face numerous challenges, the biggest being unemployed, poverty, crime, unequal education opportunities, and mental health matters.

However, we realise that most of these challenges that young people face stem from the high levels of unemployment.
It is easier for youth to be drawn to toxic societal ills when there are limited UNREVISED HANSARD NATIONAL COUNCIL OF PROVINCES WEDNESDAY, 8 JUNE 2022 Page: 105 opportunities available for them.

However, as government we believe in taking care of the vulnerable in society and mitigate the challenges that young people face.
We acknowledge that the causes of unemployment in South Africa can be attributed to lack of education and training, labour demand and skills mismatch, lack of interest for entrepreneurship.

Ours as government is to turn this around, we have to ensure that young people, in particular, have to possess the necessary skills that are required in the labour market, we have to drive innovation and support with programmes that are aimed at increasing an interest to entrepreneurship.
If we are to attain our goals of the National Development Plan, NDP, of realising a 6% unemployment rate and 11 million additional jobs by 2030 we have to address the main drivers of unemployment in our country and develop our economy.

Statistics indicate that youth graduate levels of unemployment are less compared to youth that do not fall into this category.
That thus leaves us with the responsibility to drive the skills revolution, and encourage young people to seek education, skills and knowledge required by the labour sector.

UNREVISED HANSARD NATIONAL COUNCIL OF PROVINCES WEDNESDAY, 8 JUNE 2022 Page: 106 Hon House Chair, and hon members the 4th industrial revolution is before us and technology is transforming organizations, in- demand skills are changing rapidly.
If we are to mitigate the challenges of unemployment, we also have to transform skills to be aligned to those that are in demand in the labour market.

Furthermore, in mitigating the high levels of unemployment amongst youth, as the ANC we are cognisant that we have to advance the socio-economic empowerment of young people.
The onus thus rests upon the department of Women Youth and Persons with Disabilities to review the national youth policy and legislation such as the National Youth Development Agency Amendment Bill and therefore report on the recommendations.

The significance of the Bill is that, it will prioritise interventions that support skills development and foster employment.

These include the provision of support for young entrepreneurs, learnerships programmes and the implementation of youth programmes.
As the ANC we are pleased to note that over the medium-term period, the National Youth Development Agency, NYDA, will focus on providing interventions to support the creation of UNREVISED HANSARD NATIONAL COUNCIL OF PROVINCES WEDNESDAY, 8 JUNE 2022 Page: 107 decent employment and the development of skills, and encourage entrepreneurship, for all young people.
These interventions will take the form of financial and non‐ financial support to enable young people to access skills and jobs, establish and sustain enterprises, and gain access to markets.

Financial support is provided through grants to township and rural enterprises run by young people, whereas non‐financial support includes accounting, website development, business plan writing and marketing.
Notwithstanding the Presidential Employment Scheme that continues to benefit young people which has created over 850 000 opportunities for young people.

Young people also need to be more absorbed into the public service, the employment stimulus will also enable the Department of Home Affairs to recruit 10 000 unemployed young people for the digitisation of paper records, enhancing their skills and contributing to the modernisation of citizen services.
We hope that more departments absorb young people into the public service and not only in the form of internships but also in the form of permanent employment resulting in UNREVISED HANSARD NATIONAL COUNCIL OF PROVINCES WEDNESDAY, 8 JUNE 2022 Page: 108 sustainable futures.

Noting that the public service has high levels vacant posts, we hope that those post will be made available for young people too.
We are adamant that this year there will be even more youth and women that benefit from these initiatives to limit the scourge of unemployment and poverty.

We remain confident that the Social Employment Fund will create a further 50 000 work opportunities using the capability of organisations beyond government, in areas such as urban agriculture, early childhood development, public art, tackling gender-based violence.
The most important aspect of this vote that is it will uplift the lives and livelihoods of many youths and women at large.

A budget should always be responsive to the socio-economic challenges that the country faces.

Young people are not lazy, young people need to be granted the necessary platforms and opportunities for them to thrive.

As the ANC we are well are aware of the frustrations of young people and we are well aware of the frustrations caused by the pandemic.
Further efforts to create employment opportunities for young people have been made by government through the SAYouth.mobi UNREVISED HANSARD NATIONAL COUNCIL OF PROVINCES WEDNESDAY, 8 JUNE 2022 Page: 109 platform for young work seekers to access opportunities and support now has more than 2,3 million young South Africans registered.

Of these over 600 000 have been placed into employment opportunities.
The Department of Higher Education and Training has also place 10 000 unemployed technical and vocational education and training, TVET, graduates in workplaces from April 2022.

Noting that in his state of the nation address, the President alluded that the private sector is responsible for job creation, we hope that it creates job opportunities for young people and absorb a high number of them.
Hon members, hon House Chairperson, earlier I made reference to social ills affecting young people that can be attributed to the frustration of unemployment.

Statistics reveal that more and more young people are experimenting with narcotics, and many have become victims of sustainable abuse.

This is an issue that needs to be critically looked into amongst young people as the use of drugs and narcotics can be detrimental to the future of young people.
Children as young as 12 are reported to be experimenting with drugs.

UNREVISED HANSARD NATIONAL COUNCIL OF PROVINCES WEDNESDAY, 8 JUNE 2022 Page: 110 We therefore urge the department in partnership with various stakeholders to drive a campaign against the use of drugs in schools and tertiary institutions.

Drug dependency has especially hit the youth hard with the average age now at 12 and younger and decreasing.
South Africa is also among the top 10 when looking at narcotics and alcohol abusers worldwide.

A study conducted states that between 7,5% and 31,5% of South Africans already have a drinking problem or are at risk of developing one.

Often driven by frustration and social challenges children and youth turn to substance abuse to sort comfort.
Therefore, avenues and platforms that deal with bullying, depression and mental health matters should be easily made available to young people and all members of society to fight the now becoming culture of committing suicide.

We hope that the department will take forward this please working with the relevant stakeholders including the NYDA.
Substance abuse does not only affect the victim abut it also can have a detrimental effected to those that are close to the drug abuser, it disrupts the relations and alcohol abuse alone UNREVISED HANSARD NATIONAL COUNCIL OF PROVINCES WEDNESDAY, 8 JUNE 2022 Page: 111 is one of the causes of gender-based violence and can even lead to sexual violence.
It is up to provinces to also see that they have the necessary facilities such has rehab facilities to ensure that victims of drug abuse can also access these facilities.

There is a need to have positive role models in our society, we need role models that do not make alcohol and drugs fashionable.

We need role models that model the kind of society that we so envision.

We need role models that do not depict a life of crime as one of luxury.
Hon members and hon House Chair, young people are the future of our country and it is up to us to safeguard their futures.

The ANC supports Budget Vote 20.

I thank you House Chair.

Mr G P MASHEGO (Mpumalanga): Hon Chairperson, Members of the NCOP, the Minister and the MECs present, it is indeed a great honour for me to be accorded an opportunity to be part of this debate.
This policy debate is extremely important due to the fact that, it seeks to ensure that we advance most of the international and regional treaties we acceded to and some ratified.
UNREVISED HANSARD NATIONAL COUNCIL OF PROVINCES WEDNESDAY, 8 JUNE 2022 Page: 112 The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women of 1979, Millennium Development Goals of 2000, Beijing Declaration and Platform of Action Fourth World Conference of 1995, African Charter on Human and People’s Rights 1995 and a Solemn Declaration on Gender Equality in Africa 2004.
Hon Chair, we have domesticated this commitment by ensuring an institutional and legislative mechanism, to deal with inequalities that exist between men and women.

South Africa ratified the 2008 SA Development Community Protocol on Gender and Development, which requires a 50/50 representation on women in political leadership by 2015.
As the governing party we voluntarily adopted the quota system, and the evidence before us bears testimony that more women have assumed political leadership roles within the ANC.

Political participation is a fundamental right for every woman.
This is further attested to by article 25 the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights ratified by over 21 countries which provides that, every citizen shall have the right and opportunity without any form of discrimination, to take part in the conduct of public affairs UNREVISED HANSARD NATIONAL COUNCIL OF PROVINCES WEDNESDAY, 8 JUNE 2022 Page: 113 directly or through freely chosen representatives, to vote and to be elected at genuine periodic elections.
Hon Chair section 9 of South Africa’s in 1996 Constitution provides that, discrimination on the grounds of gender is unacceptable unless deemed to be fair discrimination by according the previously disadvantaged.

In this case, women have equal opportunities as men.

We must critically ... [Inaudible] ...whether or not South Africa’s ... [Inaudible] ...on equality according to women equal opportunities to participate in politics, have been and continue to be implemented within political parties.
Another critical factor is whether or not the environment within political parties is conducive enough for women to participate, and whether or not such participation is based on malicious compliance within political parties.

Hon Chair, whilst the advancement of women within political realm is appreciated.

We are still confronted with a plethora of challenges to deal with.

We have recently witnessed the brutal killing of women and children.
The recent incidents that happened in Mpumalanga are quite shocking.

The brutal murder of Hillary Gardee and the young girl Bontle Masdhiyane is UNREVISED HANSARD NATIONAL COUNCIL OF PROVINCES WEDNESDAY, 8 JUNE 2022 Page: 114 worrisome.

We appreciate the swift move by our law enforcement to put this heartless killers behind bars.

The issue of power dynamics, which is predicated on dominance, still prevail in our communities.

Men have for centuries been an enemy of women and children.
Abuse and ...[Inaudible] ... at the hands of men is has been common praise through any society you choose to observe.

And in in a contemporary world they continue to wage war against the very people who become the backbones of families, companies and society at large.

Men tend to commit violence against women as a means to exert dominance and control, and that this was exacerbated by social orders relegating domestic violence to a private problem of a family.
We must continue with our public education initiatives, campaigns and capitalising on media platforms, to convey the message that violence against women and children cannot be tolerated.

Hon Chair, the message must be clear that government declares war against women and children.

On the economic landscape, we have put in place mechanisms to ensure that women at assume previously male dominated occupations, and government has a number of programmes dedicated to women, such as women in construction.
We have witnessed a number of UNREVISED HANSARD NATIONAL COUNCIL OF PROVINCES WEDNESDAY, 8 JUNE 2022 Page: 115 women venturing into agriculture and the support provided by government is quite remarkable.

One of the programmes which continues to yield positive results is the Fortune 40 Young Farmers Incubation Programme.
Hon Chair and members, a plethora of research found that the economic realities of women in South Africa are such that, they are not paid at the right level for the work they do, exposing them to a form of economic dependence to their male counterparts.

Therefore, the first emergency measure that the government ought to table, is a legislation which outlaws gender pay disparity by 2025.

We as a country have been brilliant at using other countries as case studies for policymaking.
Now couldn’t it not be a better time to look at the likes of Ireland, which became the first country globally to outlaw the existence of gender pay gaps?

Hon Chair, South Africa is party to international laws and agreements such as the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities of 2006, which South Africa ratified in 2007 which means that the country accepts all the legal obligations that are imposed by this instrument.
The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, CRPB UNREVISED HANSARD NATIONAL COUNCIL OF PROVINCES WEDNESDAY, 8 JUNE 2022 Page: 116 seeks to promote, protect and ensure the full and equal enjoyment of all human rights by persons with disabilities.
Hon Chair, the CRPD defines personalities abilities to include those who have long-term physical, mental, intellectual or sensory impairments, which interaction with various barriers may hinder their full and effective participation in society on an equal basis.

This is a clear recognition that persons with disabilities are equal and valuable members of society and should be recognized in all aspects of life.
What is key being whether we are doing enough to promote, protect and ensure equal enjoyment of all human rights by persons with disabilities.

We must continue to monitor oversight government commitments on the 2% threshold in employing persons with disabilities.

It is also important for government to account for the positions or level of employment for persons with disabilities and whether their needs are catered for, such as braille and ramps for all buildings.
We must also find a way on legislation that all constructed buildings are compliant to ensure that persons with disabilities in joyful equal rights.

It is also equally important to ensure that persons with disabilities venture UNREVISED HANSARD NATIONAL COUNCIL OF PROVINCES WEDNESDAY, 8 JUNE 2022 Page: 117 into businesses and that they receive the necessary support.

Our interests as Parliament must be how ...

[Interjections.]
[Interjections.]

Therefore, I would like to encourage all in particular young people to take advantage of the programmes available to uplift your standard of living.

No country in the entire world can succeed in the realisation of socioeconomic advancements, without placing education on top of the development agenda.

In conclusion Chair, I want to quote Tata Nelson Mandela, open quote: To deny people their human rights, is to challenge their very humanity.

Mpumalanga Province supports the Budget Vote.


Sesotho: Re a leboha (We thank you) Ms S B LEHIHI: House Chairperson, the EFF rejects Budget Vote 20 on Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities.

Setswana: UNREVISED HANSARD NATIONAL COUNCIL OF PROVINCES WEDNESDAY, 8 JUNE 2022 Page: 118 Puso, bogolosegolo lefapha le, le paletswe ke go tsibogela dikgwetlo tseo di lebaganeng basadi.
Go gana lenaneotema le le kgolaganang la puso go lwantsha bosetlhogo jo basadi ba lebaganeng le bona jaaka dipolao le ditlhokofetso.

English: This department has also failed to respond to the challenges faced by people living with disabilities across all provinces in South Africa.
And despite promises of inclusion of persons with disabilities as a priority group, women and persons living with disabilities continue to experience a number of challenges such as people with disabilities make up 15% of the total population, and its estimated that eight in 10 people living with disabilities are unemployed.

The lack of equipment and machinery for support in different institutions is appalling.
Challenges faced by women, children and youth with disabilities vary from discrimination, lack of support centres, education facilities and many more.

The situation is worse for poor, black persons living with disabilities in rural areas of the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal, as they often have to contend with issues regarding access to health care, as they face more barriers.
This despite the right to UNREVISED HANSARD NATIONAL COUNCIL OF PROVINCES WEDNESDAY, 8 JUNE 2022 Page: 119 access to health care services being guaranteed by Section 27 of the Constitution.

Setswana: Batho ba kwa Maquassi Hills ba ba tshelang ka bogwele le bogodi, ba dutse mengwaga e feta meraro ntle le thuso tsa madi go tswa mo Lefapha la Tlhabololo ya Loago.

Botlhe, bana le basadi ba phuagantswe fela jalo, go sena thuso ya metsi, mantlwanaboithusetso kgotsa tsona dijo.
Didikwadikwe tsa batho botlhe ba ba tshelang ka bogole di thatafalelwa ke seemo se se mo Aforikaborwa.

Bontsi jwa dikolo mo nageng, ga di amogele dikolo tsa bana ba ba tshelang ka bogole.

Dikago tsa bone ga di letlelele gore motho yoo tshelang ka bogole a kgone a itsamaise.

Bontsi jwa barutabana ga ba rupelelwa ka ditlhokego tsa batho ba ba tshelang ka bogole.

Se se dira gore go nne thata go ka amogela bana ba ba tshelang ka bogole go tsena dikolo tse di tsenwang ke bana botlhe.
English: The story of disability in South Africa, remains one of social oppression.

This department has done nothing for women living in rural impoverished areas.

Setswana: UNREVISED HANSARD NATIONAL COUNCIL OF PROVINCES WEDNESDAY, 8 JUNE 2022 Page: 120 Basadi ba setse ba sotlakakiwa ebile ele bona ba utlwang manokonoko a tshotlego le a botlhokotsebe.

Ke bona ba ba sa boneng tekanego mo megolong go bapisiwa le megolo ya bana botlhe.
English: This department has done nothing to ensure that women feel safe in this country, and that those who are victims are provided with shelter and protection.

This department has failed the women of this country; it has failed young people and it has failed the differently abled.

The mess that is the National Youth Development Agency is proof of the continuing neglect your department has for young people in the country.

Today, almost 50% of the population is unemployed.


A great number of the unemployed are women and young people, with 74% of the youth of working age unemployed in this country.

The Minister has done absolutely nothing to promote initiatives of young people in their fight against unemployment.

Setswana: Lefapha ga le dire sepe go bona gore madi a kotlo ya batho ba ba tshelang ka bogole, e ba kgontsha go itlhokomela le go tlamela ditlhokego tsa bone gotlhelele.
UNREVISED HANSARD NATIONAL COUNCIL OF PROVINCES WEDNESDAY, 8 JUNE 2022 Page: 121 English: This budget is ignorant of the great urgency needed to deal with the problems of young people and young women in particular.

We reject this Budget Vote.

Thank you, House Chairperson.

Mr N HADEBE: House Chairperson, hon Minister, hon members, the Department of Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities proudly stresses in its latest Annual Performance Plan that it has developed three key pieces of legislation.
These are the National Council on Gender-Based Violence and Femicide Bill, the National Youth Development Agency Amendment Bill, and the Promotion of Women’s Rights, Empowerment and Gender Equality Bill.

However, the department fails to acknowledge its long delay in introducing these Bills.
In fact, the National Council of Gender Based Violence and Femicide Bill, providing for the establishment of the important multi-sectoral National Council on GBV and Femicide, was only published in October 2021 by the department.

This, after years and years of protest and countless promises by the government that it is serious about eliminating Gender- Based Violence and Femicide.
One of the first steps promised by government was the establishment of this council - yet UNREVISED HANSARD NATIONAL COUNCIL OF PROVINCES WEDNESDAY, 8 JUNE 2022 Page: 122 years later - we still face empty promises.

Policy development and drafting of legislation mean very little, if there is no real ambition to finalise such statutory measures and above all, if there is no real enforcement of these tools, once adopted.
The IFP also notes that the department’s Annual Performance Plan fails to provide any targets relating to these critical Bills.

How is the committee to monitor any progress or oversight over the finalisation of these Bills?

It is a critical failure hindering proper oversight by Parliament.

The IFP furthermore notes on consideration of the department’s Annual Performance Plan, that there seems to be no uniformity with the roll-out of the Sanitary Dignity Policy Framework.
This framework provides vital norms and standards for the provision of sanitary products to vulnerable girls and young women, especially in rural areas.

The monitoring of this framework should be a high priority for the department.

However, once again, we see little enforcement or proper oversight.

The sanitary dignity of vulnerable girls and young women cannot be compromised by the failure of government to ensure effective oversight.
UNREVISED HANSARD NATIONAL COUNCIL OF PROVINCES WEDNESDAY, 8 JUNE 2022 Page: 123 In conclusion, the IFP wishes to emphasise its concern with the use of consultants by the department.

It is highly concerning that R2,3 million is budgeted for the use of consultants to effectively do the work of the department.

There must be an effective transfer of skills from these consultants to department officials, as we cannot allow this expense in our current dire economic climate.
The IFP – nevertheless - accepts the Budget Vote.

Thank you, House Chairperson.

Ms D C CHRISTIANS: Thank you very much.

Hon Chairperson, hon members, and hon Minister, last Friday the South African Police Service released its first quarter crime statistics for 2022 and appallingly it stated that 900 women were murdered in the first three months of this year.
It seems that as a society we have become hopeless, disheartened and desensitized to reports of women and children being murdered and abused as no one bats an eyelid when reading yet another report, stating, and I quote from various media platforms; “Man in CCTV footage captured on day of Meghan Cremer murder could be the accused.” UNREVISED HANSARD NATIONAL COUNCIL OF PROVINCES WEDNESDAY, 8 JUNE 2022 Page: 124 “Teen arrested for allegedly stabbing 85-year-old neighbour to death.” “In honour of Hillary Gardee, a mother failed by her democratic society.” “Three life sentences for serial rapist who tried to stab victim in head with scissors.” “Still no closure for Karabo Mokoena’s family five years after her brutal murder.” “KZN girl, 6, dead, while sister, 8, found naked with bruises after they went missing in March.” “Man allegedly stabs ex-girlfriend, kills her police reservist boyfriend.” “Ntuthuko Shoba guilty of killing pregnant Tshegofatso Pule.” “I could see this thing coming' principal says he told teacher to get a gun before she was killed.” UNREVISED HANSARD NATIONAL COUNCIL OF PROVINCES WEDNESDAY, 8 JUNE 2022 Page: 125 “Tembisa man charged with beating, raping partner while holding her hostage for 6 months.” “Neighbours say cop who killed ex always parked outside her house, drunk.” And so, hardly a day passes in South Africa without yet another case of brutality against women is highlighted in the media.
We are losing the battle against gender based violence.

Last Sunday Barney Mthombothi wrote an article for the Sunday Times, he wrote that he fears for the women in his life because he fears gender-based violence, femicide and disrespect of women.

He expressed a fear that is the daily lives of all women in South Africa, the fear of what we have become as a society.

He is right of course; Society has failed hundreds of young women who have been murdered.
People in townships and villages across South Africa are murdered day in and day out in their numbers by gangsters, criminals, husbands, partners and thugs.

Women and children live in fear for their lives.

Their rights are violated every day and we must question whether the Constitution is any protection for us at all.
UNREVISED HANSARD NATIONAL COUNCIL OF PROVINCES WEDNESDAY, 8 JUNE 2022 Page: 126 The department has regrettably not been able to respond decisively to the plague that is gender based violence, nor have they responded to the huge youth unemployment rate and much less the plight of the disabled in the country.

An amount of R2,3 million will be spent on the use of consultants to do work like writing reports and collecting data, this begs the question; what are the current staff in this department doing?
Additionally, 19 staff members are being paid more than R1,2 million per annum yet the department is failing in its core mandate.

The department’s inability to work strategically with the Department of Social Development and the South African Police Service is of further concern as the one department does not have a clue how to respond to the challenges faced in the other.
Furthermore, of grave concern is the emergency response plan on gender based violence that has now been scraped notably as the worst performing program and not reaching their targets for the previous financial year.
Delays in reaching targets and continuous changes in organizational structure has had a huge impact on the department as we have seen Bills been UNREVISED HANSARD NATIONAL COUNCIL OF PROVINCES WEDNESDAY, 8 JUNE 2022 Page: 127 delayed and the national council on gender based violence and femicide still not established even though R15 million has been allocated to this over three years.
The sanitary dignity of our young girls remains in jeopardy as the department fails to provide any accurate information with regards to the rollout of this program.

According to statistics, at least three out of every ten girls miss up to seven days of school per month due to their period.
During a select committee meeting we raised the question of how many schools were beneficiaries of this program and to date we have had no response from the department, a clear indication that they are failing our young women.

A recent study has found that there has been a decline in the quality of police investigations of femicide cases, with many dockets missing information or perpetrators remaining unidentified.
The report stated that there is a regular lack of quality of police investigations when dealing with cases of gender based violence and femicide.

The country does not need another bloated department with high paid officials but rather a need for properly trained police officers when dealing with gender based violence and femicide UNREVISED HANSARD NATIONAL COUNCIL OF PROVINCES WEDNESDAY, 8 JUNE 2022 Page: 128 to ensure they are able to write proper statements and do thorough investigations.
The criminal justice system must provide adequate feedback on the progress of cases, perpetrators must be arrested without delay and investigations dealt with professionally or these perpetrators continue with their thuggery unchecked.

The ministry and the department's main priority is to ensure that the socio-economic empowerment and rights of women, youth and persons with disabilities are given priority in all areas of society.
This department is failing dismally because women are continuously subjected to gruesome killings and horrendous gender based violence, offenders frequently walk away unpunished, and youths and people with disabilities are largely not catered for in the job market.

We have reached a crises point and the indifference of this department in conjunction with the absence of a multi-sectoral plan has left the vulnerable at the mercy of criminals.

I thank you.
I thank you.

Mr I NTSUBE: Hon House Chairperson, the hon Minister, the Chief Whip of the Council, the MEC present here today, it has UNREVISED HANSARD NATIONAL COUNCIL OF PROVINCES WEDNESDAY, 8 JUNE 2022 Page: 129 become a dreadful tradition that annually we have to pay condolences to families that have lost their loved ones, to the obliterating pandemic of gender-based violence and femicide, GBVF.

This is a pandemic that we, as a country, continue to grapple with without success.
The fight against gender-based violence requires every fabric of society to confront toxic behaviours, and traditions.

The role to overcoming gender-based violence and femicide can never rest on government alone; it requires us, our families, our groups of friends, communities and the broader society.
We have to strengthen community structures in collaboration with the South African Police Service, Saps, such as the Community Police Forums to alert police of perpetrators of violence against women and children.

We coveys our condolences to the Gardee and Mtwa families along with the countless number of women and children brutally killed that have not reached mainstream media.

We are reminded again as a country that the second pandemic of GBV has not dissipated.
It begs the question of why does such a vicious pattern continue to persist in our country, why are women continuously being obliterated in our country?

We also have to acknowledge that gender-based violence and femicide affects UNREVISED HANSARD NATIONAL COUNCIL OF PROVINCES WEDNESDAY, 8 JUNE 2022 Page: 130 particularly those that are vulnerable in our society, women, children and persons belonging to the LGBTQIA+ community.
The COVID-19 has had a devastating impact on every sphere of life across the globe.

However, women and girls have been particularly impacted by this pandemic.

Women have largely borne the brunt of the pandemic, and it has been exacerbated by already existing challenges such as inequality, unemployment, gender-based violence and women’s economic empowerment.
It was devastating to see the number of reported cases of gender-based violence during the lockdown, which was a blatant reminder of the struggle that many women continue to face daily.

It was shocking to see that women and girls were not safe in the comfort of their homes and had to resort to centres to seek a place of safety.
Hon House Chairperson, as the ANC we have acknowledged that gender-based violence has reached crisis proportions in our country, and it affects every community in our country and touches the lives of most families in one way or the other.

We note and understand that these manifestations are deeply rooted in the patriarchal system that is embedded in the systems and traditions of our country.
UNREVISED HANSARD NATIONAL COUNCIL OF PROVINCES WEDNESDAY, 8 JUNE 2022 Page: 131 Hon members, if we are to truly eradicate gender-based violence in our society we have to dismantle the patriarchal system that enable this toxic system to persist.

We have to understand that patriarchal oppression was embedded in the economic, social, religious, cultural, family and other relations in all communities.
We have to ensure that all manifestation of patriarchy such as the feminisation of poverty, physical and psychological abuse and exclusion from positions of power all need to be consciously eliminated if we are to win the fight against gender-based violence and femicide — through the elimination of manifestations of patriarchy.

Recognising that a critical aspect is the creation of material and cultural conditions that would allow the abilities of women to prosper for women to reach their full potential.
It is through understanding and taking into account all of these manifestations of patriarchy that the ANC aims to dismantle the system of patriarchy.

That is why we will continue to harness economic opportunities for women and historically disadvantaged persons such as persons with disabilities and young people.

A developmental state is known to have interventions that improve the lives of its population.
Ours is to reverse the system that breeds many of our challenges UNREVISED HANSARD NATIONAL COUNCIL OF PROVINCES WEDNESDAY, 8 JUNE 2022 Page: 132 such as poverty, inequality and gender-based violence and femicide.

Acknowledging that the causes of gender-based violence are due to toxic cultural and religious norms that promote toxic masculinity, as a country, perhaps we should reassess certain cultural practices and traditions and evaluate their significance in our current time.
This emanates from the understanding that cultures, traditions and customs are supposed to keep a people progressive by moving with the times.

We have to perhaps assess these traditions and customs and evaluate whether they assist in solving our societal problems or whether they worsen the conditions that we find ourselves in at the present moment.

Hon members, gender-based violence begins in the home.

It stems from society’s patriarchal attitudes and how society view women.
We need to change our mind-set and the way we think, the manner in which we teach our boy children to view women.

We have to ensure that in schools, from the foundation phase, we have an intense programme that moulds the minds of the children to think and see things in a gender neutral and progressive manner.

We have to teach them about the dangers of psychological and physical abuse.
UNREVISED HANSARD NATIONAL COUNCIL OF PROVINCES WEDNESDAY, 8 JUNE 2022 Page: 133 Society is made up of families, and there is a need to strengthen the family unit.

We have to ensure that what is taught in school is re-emphasised in the school and society, and this can be done through awareness campaigns aimed at communities and families.

Government alone cannot fight gender-based violence; it requires the participation of every fibre in society and it begins with each and every one of us.
In building a non-sexist and nonviolent society, we have to call each other, men and women alike, on our toxic behaviours toward each other.

We need to confront toxic behaviours within our own spaces and need not to make abusers comfortable.

We have to be positive role models that our children can look up to, so that we can prevent minors assaulting each other.

We have to create a culture of activism in our society, and everyone needs to be a part of it.
We have to re-install basic fundamental principle of protecting the most vulnerable in society.

We have received numerous cases of children being abducted, mutilated and killed.

It is nauseating to imagine that a country like ours with a progressive Constitution would treat children in this manner.
Our Constitution enshrines a rights-based approach and envisions a prosperous non-sexist and nonviolent democracy UNREVISED HANSARD NATIONAL COUNCIL OF PROVINCES WEDNESDAY, 8 JUNE 2022 Page: 134 belonging to all.

As the ANC we are adamant in building a non- sexist and non-violent society, where women and children feel safe and are free to walk the street without harm.

A society that continuously improves the lives of women, where discrimination and patriarchal attitudes against women will be addressed.
However, we know that responding and combating gender-based violence requires a multi sectoral approach which led to the implementation of the National Strategic Plan, NSP, on Gender-Based Violence and Femicide.

Hon members, we should always be in support on mechanisms that aim to address matters of gender-based violence.
We have to ensure that all provincial departments incorporate the NSP in their planning and conduct programmes partnering with civil organisation to further drive the implementation of the plan.

Provinces should also develop their own gender-based violence programmes and campaigns particularly working with local government so that programmes can actively reach members of communities.
Through legislation reform we have called from stricter bail conditions and harsher sentences for perpetrators of violence and sexual violence against women and children.

As the ANC we have taken the stance against gender-based violence seriously UNREVISED HANSARD NATIONAL COUNCIL OF PROVINCES WEDNESDAY, 8 JUNE 2022 Page: 135 through the formation of the Caucus Gender-based Violence and Femicide Task team.
As the ANC-led government we will continue the advancement gender equality through inclusive economic growth and women empowerment.

We welcome the National Council and Femicide Bill, however, we hope that the process of fast tracking the establishment of the council will be put up to speed.

We also welcome the fact that government is fast tracking the implementation of the three gender-based violence Bills.
Hon House Chairperson, gender-based violence has no place in our society, and we all have to play our role in fighting it because somewhere somehow each and everyone of us might know a person that is abused.

Another matter that we need to be crucial of is gender-based violence against men, perpetrated by women.

We need not to be biased when we are addressing gender-based violence as a concept.

The culture of humiliating a man when reporting a case of abuse has to be rejected and cancelled.
Cases of gender-based violence have to be treated equality and when women are perpetrators of abuse, they have to receive the same about of punishment.

Our society must be zero tolerant when it comes to all cases of abuse.

The ANC UNREVISED HANSARD NATIONAL COUNCIL OF PROVINCES WEDNESDAY, 8 JUNE 2022 Page: 136 supports this Budget Vote 20.

I thank you very much, House Chairperson.

Debate Concluded.
Debate Concluded.

The ACTING CHAIRPERSON (Mr K M Mmoiemang): Thank you, hon Ntsube, for taking part in the debate on Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities, which is Vote 20.

Hon members, because of the Minister’s commitment, hon Ntsube was the last speaker for the day.

That concludes the debate.

I wish to take this opportunity to thank the Minister, MECs and all special and permanent delegates for availing themselves for the debate.
Hon members, this concludes the business of the day, the House is adjourned.

The Council rose at 17:28.