ADDRESS BY THE DEPUTY MINISTER IN THE PRESIDENCY,
MS PINK KEKANA, MP,
ON THE OCCASION OF THE 2023/2024 BUDGET VOTE FOR THE DEPARTMENT OF PLANNING, MONITORING AND EVALUATION
NATIONAL ASSEMBLY, PARLIAMENT OF SOUTH AFRICA
CAPE TOWN - 18 MAY 2022
Madam Speaker, Hon. Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula/ Honourable House Chair
Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee
Members of the Portfolio Committee
Minister in the Presidency for Planning, Monitoring & Evaluation, Ms Maropene Ramokgopa
Ministers, Deputy Ministers and Director-Generals
Members of Parliament,
Distinguished Guests,
Members of the media
Fellow South Africans,
Honourable Chairperson, we thank you for this opportunity, to present the Budget Vote of the Department of Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation (DPME), together with the Minister in the Presidency.
South Africa reimagined as an equality-centric, prosperous nation, is the goal for the three spheres of government and its entities, requiring a resolute focus in implementing the electoral mandate for:
- the National Development Plan (NDP) 2030,
- the continent's blueprint – Agenda 2063,
- and the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG's)
The NDP is aligned to the SDG's and Agenda 2063, and therefore achieving the NDP goals also achieves the continental and global goals.
To this end, the NDP is being reviewed by the National Planning Commission (NPC), with a critical focus on 3 (three) Cross Cutting issues:
- the stubborn poverty levels of 40% of the population
- the increasing income-related inequality
- and the ragingly high unemployment levels
South Africa's Gini co-efficient of 0.69 puts us at the top of the “highly unequal" category – clearly indicating that our development trajectory is not on course.
For this reason, the National Planning Commission has called for improved coordination of the NDP's implementation, specifically better planning and collaboration optimising a partnership culture between government, private sector, and civil society. Our responsibility as the DPME is to ensure that government's developmental plans, implementation mechanisms, and most importantly, our performance, must be obligatory to all South Africans.
Last week I addressed the Presidential Hotline PLO Forum, and in the spur-of-the-moment I asked them to stand and pledge a commitment of delivery, with the first commitment being," I commit in thought, word and deed to SHOW our people that government is firmly committed to improving the quality of our people's lives."
The full pledge is on the DPME website, but the hugely emotional response with real tears wept by the PLO's, reaffirmed to me that the majority of people in this government, in this administration puts the lives and livelihoods of our people first!
Last year we spoke of the successes from the social compact approach, when faced with the flood disasters in parts of the country. This year, I am here to report on the gaps closed from a systems, planning and monitoring perspective, using this same model of social compact and partnership.
As an example, the DPME works closely with the Tswaing Local Municipality, North West Premier's office, relevant national departments and business community for the Deelpan Village.
The Task team, chaired by the DPME, has created significant impact, with access to schools restored; roads graded to facilitate movement; and land for the development of 104 residential sites, inclusive of four (4) supporting social sites – a crèche, businesses and a park.
The required relocation of the Deelpan Village is due to it being originally located on a wetland, which is unsafe for human settlement, and also compromising environmental sustainability.
Similarly, the Driftsands Informal Settlement is located around the Cape Nature Reserve's wetlands and dam walls, and there we are happy to report that the Intlungu YaseMatyotyombeni Movement, a group of community activists representing the dwellers, with the National and Provincial Departments of Human Settlements and the City of Cape Town have resulted in an in-principle agreement for relocation.
These are just 2 examples of the prevention of potential disasters with a huge loss of life, because of effective monitoring, evaluation and planning with a social compact lens applied. Competency is a core value of the DPME and as such we are identifying proficiency systems, towards implementing Cabinet's directive on disaster management, facilitated by United Nations-South Africa (UN-SA).
Honourable Chairperson,
We have also institutionalised this social compact model in our frontline monitoring efforts. In applying this proven methodology, we have established the undeniable dependency our frontline monitoring efforts have on partner participation.
This was evidenced in the activated operationalisation of the Atlantis Special Economic Zone, by getting the required approval of the 3D application by the Minister of Finance. With its Green Tech theme, ASEZCo is a unique SEZ that appeals to investors in green tech manufacturing and is positioned as a cutting-edge destination for manufacturers wanting to supply their technologies to Independent Power Producers bidding on the National Government renewable energy programme, the REIPPPP. It aims to create about 1 000 new jobs and estimated investment in the region of R3-billion.
Another SEZ first, is the Saldanha Bay Industrial Development Zone SOC Ltd (SBIDZ) which is the first to be located in a port, and is the only sector-specific IDZ in South Africa, and observes its 10th anniversary in October this year. A monitoring site visit this week, revealed that after all these years, there is still no operating model between SBIDZ and Transnet Port Authority, resulting in a lack of necessary upgraded port infrastructure needed for key investment return.
Our visit resulted in a meeting with National Treasury to unlock the tax incentives, and we are in the process of engaging Transnet for political and administrative buy-in.
As Minister said, “We plan for change. We plan for impact. We plan for development."
We are proud to report that we have increased onsite monitoring visits to more than 400 in the past year, a significant increase year on year, prior to my administration.
But, what has the impact been?
In the interest of time I will give you just some of the highlights:
- A total of 157 schools were monitored under the Sanitation Appropriate for Education (SAFE) Initiative
- 146 clinics monitored under Ideal Clinic Programme
- 23 Informal settlements monitored for basic service provisioning in Khayelitsha (WC)
- 23 Executive Oversight Monitoring visits by Political Principals in the Presidency were undertaken which covered areas including:
- Special Economic Zones
- Gender-based Violence and Femicide Hotspots
- and the close out report of the COVID-19 Vaccination roll-out programme
The results of these monitoring activities were communicated to the relevant provincial and national departments and the process of developing improvement plans with timelines facilitated and monitoring continues.
'IMPACT' is at the heart of our activities, so we have filtered our learnings into the development of the Khawuleza App, which was introduced to expand platforms for citizens to engage with government and improve case management efficiency.
The DPME has prioritised the follow-up on all queries that have been lodged through the Presidential Hotline for resolution. We have since written to all Departments with low-resolution ratings, and this is notification here and now to all those Departments, that we will be following this initial letter with another letter that will be escalated 1 level higher.
This escalation process will continue until it reaches Portfolio Committee level and Parliamentary enquiry - as per our mandated objectives.
Honourable Chairperson,
The DPME has recently launched the State-Owned Entity Monitoring Framework in February 2023, to improve the governance and performance of SOE's by strengthening the oversight role of shareholder departments.
The Department is also working with the Presidency to ensure the implementation of the National Anti-Corruption Strategy 2020-2023, seconding senior DPME officials to the Office of the Director General in the Presidency to establish and advance the national anti-corruption agenda, which includes the following priority projects:
- The establishment of the National Anti-Corruption Advisory Council, chaired by Prof. Firoz Cachalia
- The development of a coordination and monitoring mechanism for referrals from the Special Investigation Unit (SIU) and implementation of the actions from the President's Response to the Recommendations of the State Capture Commission
- Strengthening capacity for monitoring and evaluating the implementation of the National Anti-Corruption Strategy in 2023/24
In addition, the Transparency, Integrity and Accountability Programme (TIP) is a partnership programme funded by the Governments of Germany and Switzerland to contribute to the implementation of the National Anti-Corruption Strategy (NACS) by taking a whole-of-government-societal approach. The DPME as the lead Department, concluded the Implementation Agreement for Technical Cooperation between the department and GIZ, co-signed by the DPME Director-General and the GIZ Country Director for South Africa, Lesotho and eSwatini on 18 January 2023.
Monitoring and evaluation feedback will be provided to the public in due course, as our role is to coordinate the implementation, monitoring and evaluation of the National Anti-Corruption Strategy (NACS).
While all the APPs and meeting the goals of the NDP 2030 is the overall objective, we recognise that some areas require a critical focus, as I have highlighted. And so, for the next fiscal year, we will be adding to our critical list, including but not limited to:
- the NACS
- The Energy Action Plan announced by President Ramaphosa on 25 July 2022, ensuring energy security in South Africa
- The National Food and Nutrition Security Plan which was meant to have found success by 2023
- The implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) which South Africa ratified on the 10th of February 2019
- The National Strategic Plan on Gender-based Violence & Femicide which had an estimated R162 million pledged to the fund, with 75% of this amount already disbursed but the statistics tell a worsening tale
Honourable Chairperson,
It's probable that we could add to this list during the course of the year, but for now these are the ones which have emerged as critical areas to focus on in 2023-2024.
We are confident that our success in outcome-based impact, speaks for itself in voting for funds to enable the Department to continue our work for accelerated development, ensuring that corruption does not undermine the efforts made by the majority to rebuild our country and restore our economy.
The DPME was created to ensure that the voices of the citizens forms the biggest part of the continuum of evidence on government performance.
This country belongs to all of us, because after all we are in this together.
