SPEECH BY THE HON. JACKSON MTHEMBU, MP, MINISTER IN THE PRESIDENCY; ON THE OCCASION OF THE PARLIAMENTARY DEBATE ON THE STATE OF THE NATION; NATIONAL ASSEMBLY, PARLIAMENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF SOUTH AFRICA,
CAPE TOWN
25 JUNE 2019
THE YEAR OF UNITED ACTION TO GROW SOUTH AFRICA
THEME: Building the capable developmental State and its government with accountability, integrity and honesty focused on monitoring implementation and evaluating impact.
Thank you, Madam Speaker,
His Excellency, President Cyril Ramaphosa
Deputy President of the Republic, David Mabuza
Honourable Members of the House
Distinguished Guests in the Gallery
Fellow South Africans;
I would like to express our most sincere gratitude to the people of South Africa for bestowing upon us the responsibility to lead this beautiful nation. We reiterate the oath of office that we will serve our people with honesty, sincerity and diligence. I also extend a word of gratitude to our movement, the African National Congress (ANC), under the capable leadership of President Ramaphosa, for entrusting us with the responsibility of implementing the vision of growing a better South Africa for all.
I am grateful to our predecessors, those who remain part of the Cabinet as well as those who have since resigned from Parliament. We are taking the baton from you with humility and we remain committed in our pursuit of the collective dreams and aspirations of our people.
Honourable Members and Fellow South Africans,
The attributes of a Developmental State, which we strive to be, include its ability to improve the human capital base of the economy, reducing inequalities in both per capita income and expenditure, sufficiently modernizing its public service, embedding it in communities, and fundamentally transforming the economy (i.e. sufficiently industrialising and diversifying the economy). We want to build an entrepreneurial state.
Our strategic thrust led by the President as outlined in his State of the Nation Address (SONA), reflects our commitment to achieving the status of a Developmental State and as a country we are governed by a range of values and principles, and these lay a solid foundation for building a thriving economy and a stable society.
The 25 Year Review we have conducted demonstrates quite clearly that we have done very well in the expansion of the social services to the majority of our people across all parts of the country, including rural areas. The challenge remains the transformation of the economy, which has not performed well.
The review identifies the structural elements of the economy that remain unchanged and which continue to undermine our economic growth efforts. These include the persistent challenges of spatial injustice and lack of access to land and assets for the majority of our people. It also points to continued lack of competition in the ownership of the economy, underdevelopment of the small business sector, which would allow greater participation in the economy.
It is this analysis that informs our priorities, our Election Manifesto together with the collective voice of our people, whom we interacted with, as we criss-crossed the length and breadth of the country during the election campaign.
The President reaffirmed the NDP 2030 as our lodestar and our Vision approved by all parties in our society. While progress was slow particularly on the economic side, we confirm our intension to achieve our NDP targets to address the challenges of Inequality, Poverty, Unemployment and Economic Growth. The plan for the continued implementation of this vision was eloquently and succinctly articulated by the President in the following words:
“As South Africa enters the next 25 Years of democracy, and in pursuit of the objectives of the NDP, let us proclaim a bold and ambitious goal, a unifying purpose, to which we dedicate our resources and energies."
All our intervention strategies and strategic programmes are guided by this overarching plan. The Seven Priorities announced by the President emanating from our electoral mandate, will play a catalytic role in achieving a number of NDP targets in the next five and ten years. Government departments will be measured according to their performance in achieving the following priority areas:
Priority 1: Economic Transformation and Job Creation
Priority 2: Education, Skills and Health
Priority 3: Consolidating the Social Wage through Reliable and Quality Basic Services
Priority 4: Spatial Integration, Human Settlements and Local Government
Priority 5: Social Cohesion and Safe Communities
Priority 6: A Capable, Ethical and Developmental State
Priority 7: A better Africa and World
Honourable Members, let me remind you that the purpose of the State of the Nation Address is for the President to report on the status of the Nation and outline the overall strategic direction and priorities. This is followed by this debate, where more information is provided on key themes of the President's Speech, followed by the Minister of Finance's Budget Speech to indicate the resourcing framework for the priorities indicated by the President.
The purveyors of the misguided narrative that the President's SONA was slim on detail are disingenuous and very economical with the truth. The President made specific mention of sectors that can turn our economic fortunes around, elucidated on areas of great potential including stimulating local manufacturing and promoting the 'Buy Local' campaign, developing new markets in agriculture and agro-processing, and increasing international tourist arrivals to 21 million by 2030. He went on to say:
“Drawing on our successes in the automotive sector, we will implement master plans developed with business and labour in industries like clothing and textiles, gas, chemicals and plastics, renewables, and steel and metals fabrication sectors."
Furthermore, the various sector Ministers Budget speeches, which are now scheduled for the week of the 9th to 17th July 2019, will provide even further details of the programmes for implementation. All these platforms allow for debate and engagement at the appropriate level of detail until the process is concluded.
Those who claim that the SONA is all about dreams do not understand that all major revolutions worldwide begin with an idea. A people without dreams, without vision and purpose, is a people with no future. It was the dreamers who gathered in Mangaung in 1912, and formed an organisation that would wage a resistance struggle against colonialism and oppression informed by the dream of a free South Africa which now all of us enjoy.
In this epoch in South Africa, we are fortunate to have a great visionary in the calibre of President Ramaphosa as the Head of State. He is a big dreamer and a big doer at the same time.
The new smart city that the President talked about is our collective dream. It will be followed by decisive action, wherein we invite young innovative minds who are ICT savvy to share their ideas on the design and architecture of such a future smart city. It is our fervent view that such a smart city must be located in one our rural provinces so as to disrupt the colonial and apartheid spatial patterns.
In his previous SONA in February this year, the President made a commitment to reduce the number of Ministries and Departments in order to save costs and rationalise the structure of Government. At the start of this term, the President indeed finalised the rationalisation by reducing the number of Ministers from 38 to 30 and reducing the number of Departments by 5. It is also the President's constitutional right and prerogative to appoint and “disappoint" Ministers and Deputy Ministers. Those who wish to exercise this right must first win the elections.
The successful reduction of government departments is a very important achievement, which will result in more efficiency and integration of programmes for better results at a lower cost to Government.
For the new Medium Term Strategic Framework (MTSF) for 2019 – 2024, which includes resourcing, social compacts and accountability mechanisms, we have a limited set of priorities emanating from the electoral mandate. The new implementation paradigm is a radical shift to a comprehensive framework inclusive of resourcing, integration of all public sector institutions, Social Partners, accountability mechanisms. This informs all levels of Government planning through Integrated Planning Framework
It will put more emphasis on social partnerships resources and skills deployment by the Private Sector and Government. It allows for a clear line of site for the President, Cabinet and Parliament. The 5 Year NDP Implementation priorities will be spatially referenced, in accordance with the National Spatial Development Framework and will be monitored through an Implementation Delivery Model based on District Municipalities.
Honourable Members and Fellow South Africans,
The broad outline of the Medium Term Strategic Framework including the 5 Year NDP Implementation Plan was discussed in detail with all the Premiers and Ministers, at Cabinet Lekgotla and are being tabled at Provincial Executive Council Makgotla. The Lekgotla decision was that:
- In one Month, finalise 5 Year Implementation Plan with Ministers and Premiers response and commitment of their Departments reprioritisation and resource allocation;
- NDP 5 Year Implementation will show How, Where, When and by Whom Priorities will be implemented, in which District Municipality and linked to Performance Agreements
The NDP 5 Year Implementation Plan forms the basis for Departmental Strategic Plans and Annual Performance Plans. The structure of Government including Cabinet Clusters, Ministerial and Technical Implementation Fora for coordination and implementation will be streamlined for better results and effective delivery. Similarly, early in this 6th Parliament we will be presenting the proposed Integrated Planning Framework, which will ensure better integration across all levels of Government.
The Department of Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation (DPME), which I am privileged to lead, has spearheaded a Public Private Sector Growth Initiative (PPGI) to promote economic growth and create jobs. The Private Sector has committed investment of R840 billion in 43 projects in over 19 sectors of the economy to create 155,000 jobs in the next five years. Government has committed to prioritise the elimination of growth inhibitors or binding constraints to ensure successful implementation of these projects.
As Government, we further commit to a robust community engagement and consultation programme through the various Izimbizo Programmes involving the President and Ministers and will include this in Ministerial performance agreements. We shall ensure that Government Departments prioritise payment of their Debt to each other, to Municipalities, to State Owned Enterprises (SOEs) and the Payment of service providers within 30 days. We shall revive Operation Masakhane to encourage our communities to pay for services they receive and restore the culture of payment.
We are broadening our Monitoring System to include Frontline Service Delivery Monitoring, Citizen Based Monitoring, Community Based Monitoring and more effective use of Presidential Hotline. All these will be linked to our Programme of Action and its Biannual Review Weeks linked to Performance Assessments of Ministers, Deputy Ministers, and Directors General.
A capable state requires effectively coordinated state institutions with skilled public servants who are committed to the public good and capable of delivering consistently high quality services, while prioritising the nation's developmental objectives. We will ensure the appointment of the Head of Public Administration as espoused in the NDP 2030 by April 2020 to spearhead the professionalization of the Public Service and move to making appointments of Head of Departments more permanent to promote stability in the Public Service.
Developing a capable state requires commitment in overcoming corruption and lack of accountability and this needs a strong political will, sound policies and active citizenry. We shall also ensure improvement in Financial and Performance Management and Audit Outcomes for all levels of Government with targeted increase of unqualified and clean audit outcomes in 5 years. Similarly, we shall ensure the promotion of ethics and integrity management throughout the Public Service and Private Sector and enhance Capacity of Law Enforcement Agencies to fight Corruption, Crime and State Capture.
We must congratulate the President for achieving a 50/50 split in gender representation in his Executive. Gender mainstreaming must be replicated across all spheres of government as we continue to build a non-sexist society. It remains one of the imperatives that we will closely monitor in the public service.
Madam Speaker, allow me to invoke the profound words of our iconic writer, the late Prof Es'kia Mphahlele, whose centenary we celebrate this year:
“Everybody who is willing to work and has a nation-building vision rather than aspirations for a sectional power-base should be allowed to come forward and contribute ideas and hands."
With those words, I call upon all South Africans to join hands with us in pursuit of a better and more prosperous South Africa. It is a new dawn – let us rise to its promise. On behalf of the ANC and millions of South Africans who voted us into power, I fully support the President's State of the Nation Address.
Thank you.
