Honourable Deputy Speaker, Mme Motlalepula Rosho.
Honourable Premier, Mme Thandi Modise.
Members of the Provincial Legislature including permanent delegates from NCOP.
Councillors' who are present.
Dikgosi tsa rona le boemedi jwa Ntlo ya Segosi mo Porofenseng.
Management and Legislature Staff; officials from various Departments and Municipalities present.
Members of the media.
Ladies and gentlemen.
Comrades and friends.
In two days time, our province will be celebrating Workers day which originates from the historical international struggles of workers in pursuance of fair employment standards and a culture of human and workers rights. It is also a reminder of the many challenges that still confront working people and the poor in South Africa and the world over.
The South African working class has been at the forefront of the struggle for a democratic, non-racial, non-sexist, prosperous and united nation as enshrined in policy positions of the ruling party. Madam Deputy Speaker, workplace struggles cannot be separated from broader social struggles; economic justice and equality cannot be achieved without bequeathing to the workforce equitable access to the livers of social emancipation. All dreams and aspirations of a society founded on human-rights persuasions as advocated for by our constitution shall ever become a deferred dream, if the rights of the working class do not hold a centre stage in our national democratic discourse.
As I present this budget vote on behalf of the legislature, what catches light in my mind is a French revolutionary, Frantz Fanon who wrote: "If a man is known by his acts, then we will say that the most urgent thing today for the intellectual is to build up his nation. If this building up is true, that is to say if it interprets the manifests will of the people and reveals the eager of African people, then the building of a nation is of necessity accompanied by the discovery and encouragement of universalizing values".
Madam Deputy Speaker, I am raising this text because we are preparing ourselves for local government elections which are set for the 18th May 2011. As we head to the polls, we must remind ourselves that, our country is in dire need of men and women of esteemed intellectual stature, who are prepared to build up its nation; who are prepared to patent the will of the people; who are prepared to hasten issues of service delivery.
Hon. Members this year's elections day coincides with the day in which one of our struggle icons, the late Walter Sisulu was born; the political space that he occupied, will forever provide a barometer with which the leaders of today and tomorrow, evaluate and assess their maturity in the world of politics and leadership in general.
I must at this point call upon all political parties to conduct themselves in a manner that befits our democratic culture of an inclusive society. We urge all political parties to cease from making utterances that are seditious, but should work with one another to ensure that there is continued peace in communities that we serve. We must always remind ourselves of what Alfred Adler said, "it is the individual who is not interested in his fellow men who has the greatest difficulties in life and provides the greatest injury to others.
Honourable Members, this year, is a year of action, I am saying this because it can't be business as usual; it can't be that policy pronouncements are made year in year out and there is no action. We must subscribe ourselves to what the Deputy President once said: "there is nothing that would beat a practical work, theory is sterile". In this context, we are not going to work on hypotheses in this financial year; we are not going to work on theories as opposed to practicalities, our impact must be felt in the process of executing our mandate as espoused in section 114 of the constitution. This legislature must be accessible to our people; it must be a nucleus which ensures that a better life is brought to the people of the North West. We must also strengthen our approach to make the executive and other organs of the state accountable. We must be responsive in our approach and put our vision and mission into action.
Madam Deputy Speaker, in tabling our budget vote for 2011/12, we are unpretentious to share with you our experiences of a journey we travelled since our last budget vote statement, and put forward our policy priorities and vision for the period ahead.
The hard heating noting point in the past financial year which brought twinge and grief in our hearts, was the loss of the late Hon. Yvonne Makume, who got involved in a tragic car incident whilst on duty: her contribution to this house will forever be remembered, she was one of the staunch intellectual women who demonstrated bravery and determination in building our nation.
Honourable Members, we have committed ourselves to what former President Nelson Mandela said: "Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world", and in pursuit of this important call, we are registering progress in building capacity of our members; I am happy to announce that on the 14th April 2010 the capacity building program for our members was launched, and out of 19 members enrolled we have 8 Members who have completed the last module and are ready for the graduation ceremony to be held soon; thereafter, they will continue with post graduation diploma and upon its completion, they will have an opportunity to enter a Masters' degree programme. Special thanks go to the Public Administration Leadership and Management Academy (PALAMA), and South African Legislative Sector committee that deal with training for members, for their commitment in ensuring skills investment in our members.
Honourable Members, one of our key constitutional mandate is law making; in a short period of time we drafted and passed three acts in this house, being: the Political Party Fund act, Petitions act and the Legislature management amendment act.
We have refined the Standing rules of the North West Provincial Legislature and the policy document that enables members to execute their responsibilities. Madam deputy speaker, most of our internal policies lack detail on important matters, we are currently in a process of reviewing all these policies in order to strengthen the administrative controls of this institution.
Honourable Members, public participation remains a process through which individuals and groups within our communities can exchange views and influence decision-making. We must congratulate ourselves on this aspect; we have travelled from city to city, village to village teaching our communities about their rights including the right to petition the legislature about any issue in their areas, as succh we are receiving many petitions from our communities. This is a clear indication that our communities are beginning to realise the importance of their activism in the broader socio-economic arena as administered by government. We will in due course establish a petitions committee in order to process all petitions as speedily as possible.
Madam Deputy Speaker, as we seal out the 2010/2011 financial year, we are happy to report that we successfully held five sectoral parliaments, namely: workers, youth, women, older persons and people with disabilities parliaments. Having noted these successes, we have however observed that, these sectoral parliaments have been very costly to the legislature when hosted outside of the capital city, as such to minimise costs, we plan to host some of these parliaments in the chamber and abandon some.
Madam Deputy Speaker, we have also been reflecting on the poor attendance in some of these sectoral parliaments by members; including members of the executive council. As the Legislature, we view sectoral parliaments as crucial avenues for the public to influence policy making, therefore we can never be at peace when these are poorly attended by policy makers, and this tendency must be brought to a halt.
Honourable Members, exercising an oversight role means committees of the legislature must be given an opportunity to conduct visits across the province, benchmark with other provinces and countries to look at best practices. Madam Deputy Speaker, due to limited financial resources appropriated to us by provincial treasury, portfolio committees were unable to execute this important constitutional mandate fully. I must however indicate that, despite these challenges, we were able to conduct several oversight visits during the financial year under review.
Hon. Members, strengthening and building the capacity of committees is not negotiable; we are proud that all portfolio committees have the necessary administrative backup and I must acknowledge that, some of the personnel deployed to committees need to be trained and retrained urgently. The tendency by some government departments to submit incorrect reports to committees is unacceptable. Henceforth, all reports submitted to committees will no longer be processed without expert analysis, and for us to succeed, it means departments must submit these reports on time and as prescribed by law.
Honourable Members, National Council of Provinces (NCOP) will continuously act as a bridge between the three spheres of government; we therefore have a responsibility to participate in all NCOP activities to ensure that the national government responds to challenges faced by our province. We have registered some improvement on both negotiating and final mandates fronts. Madam Deputy Speaker, the permanent delegates to the NCOP are members of the legislature, and have a responsibility to represent and raise issues affecting our province at a national level. Henceforth, members of the legislature would have to pose questions to members of the cabinet through our delegates, propose debates on matters of public importance, direct that motions must be raised on behalf of the province. We will as well invite our permanent delegates to participate in some of the debates in the house.
Hon. Members, having signed the Speakers Forum Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), we have committed ourselves to work together with other provinces to achieve the objectives set out in the MOU. As part of the sector, we are in the process of finalising the oversight model, public participation model and the collective bargaining forum for the sector. The rules committee will on behalf of the legislature make inputs on these important documents and once finalised, we will table same to the house for adoption.
Madam Deputy Speaker, our legislature has been part of Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA), which its mission is to promote the advancement of parliamentary democracy by enhancing knowledge and understanding of democratic governance; it seeks to build a formal parliamentary community which is able to deepen the commonwealth's democratic commitment and to strengthen cooperation amongst its parliaments and legislatures. Our legislature has been participating consistently in this association, and will continue to pledge our participation in ensuring that we put our institution on the global map.
Honourable Members, some sections of the legislature building are collapsing due to poor workmanship, and the conditions of this chamber are getting worse daily. We are in conversation with public works and I can say with certainty that we are making progress.
Honourable Members, allow me to present the actual allocations for the 2011/12 financial year. As I present this budget, it is of paramount significance to note that; we submitted R 216 526 000 to provincial treasury as budget estimates for 2011/12 financial year; undesirably, the provincial treasury gave us R151 659 00 which constitutes (0.79%) of the total provincial allocation from national treasury.
It is very clear that we have no option but to abandon some of our important activities.
An amount of R 59 256 000.00 has been provided for this program which includes office of the Speaker, office of the Secretary, Corporate Services, finance and internal audit.
An amount of R 23 563 000.00 has been provided for statutory payments for Members salary.
An amount of R 68 840 000.00 is allocated for this programme which includes logistics for Members, Exposure to Parliamentary Activities, Proceedings, Committees, NCOP Liaison Support, Public Participation and Information Services.
Honourable Members, in spending this budget, we must note that, our Legislature is entrusted with a constitutional responsibility of ensuring that the Executive Council adheres to strict financial discipline by avoiding wasteful expenditure, fraud, corruption, overspending and under-spending. We do this through proactive and reactive oversight. Equally, the Legislature as the highest oversight body in the Province is expected to practise what it preaches without fail, lest the public loses confidence and trust in its elected leaders.
In forging ahead, we must be cost effective and be bound to our priorities; unnecessary expenditure will not be tolerated. I am very sensitive when the legislature has to incur costs unnecessarily. The famous poet and novelist Nigerian writer Gabriel Okara wrote "It is all about being very sensitive to what happens around me. I see things in the way that others would not see them. For instance, in my ideal country, I think of a corruption-free country because it is corruption that pervades all sectors of the society.
Hon. Members I have declared the legislature a corruption free institution. We will use every tool at our disposal to fight corruption, pinch it in the bud and expose syndicates if there are any; because in my ideal situation, I can't head an institution where resources of the state that are meant to bring a better life to our people are being misused.
Madam Deputy Speaker, in 2009 we said our goal was to achieve a clean audit report; unfortunately we are still striving to achieve this important objective. Robin Sharma says success on the outside begins within'' The audit committee will have to closely monitor compliance with all controls that are already in place. Monthly and Quarterly Reports on risk areas such as Supply Chain Management, Finance, Human Resource will be closely scrutinized. Working together with the audit committee and our internal audit unit, we will ensure that we detect irregularities quicker and correct them immediately.
Honorable Members, our structure is now finalized and I must thank the Minister of the Department of Public Service and Administration for responding positively to our request for assistance in finalising the structure. I must as well thank all the officials who were deployed by the Minister for work well done. We remain convinced that our organogram responds to our strategic goals, namely: to provide a sound provincial law making framework; to promote public participation in legislative process; to exercise an oversight function; and to ensure business excellence in the legislature. In the same breath, this exercise has created twenty five (25) more vacant positions which warrant an additional amount of R7 284 777m, hence we intend filling these vacancies in phases because of our financial situation.
Honourable Members, this year we commit ourselves to monitor how our provincial government intends to achieve the Millennium Development Goals, which seek to amongst others, achieve the following by 2014: eradicate extreme poverty, achieve universal primary health care, promote gender equality and empower women, reduce child mortality and improve maternal health, combat HIV and Aids, malaria and other diseases, ensure environmental sustainability and develop a global partnership for development. Madam Deputy Speaker, immediately after the coming constituency period, we will organise a workshop for members on the role of the legislature in ensuring the achievement of the MDGs and empower them with the necessary skills and knowledge to start customising our oversight role on these MDGs as part of our responsibilities.
Honourable Members, section 41(h) of the constitution dictates that all spheres of government must co-operate with one another; to achieve this constitutional imperative, we will immediately after the upcoming elections establish the Provincial Speakers Forum and assist municipalities to setup the municipal public accounts committees, as we have a responsibility to assist municipalities to manage their affairs and to hold mayoral committees and other organs to account.
Executive Managers, Managers, and the entire staff of the institution for their hard work and support.
I thank you.