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TUESDAY, 17 MAY 2016
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PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL COUNCIL OF PROVINCES
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The Council met at 14:04.
The House Chairperson: Committees, Oversight, Co-operative
Government and Intergovernmental Relations took the Chair and requested members to observe a moment of silence for prayers or meditation.
NOTICES OF MOTION
Ms E PRINS: Hon House Chairperson, I move without notice:
That the Council notes with outmost appreciation the
implementation ...
The House Chairperson: Committees, Oversight, Co-operative
Government and Intergovernmental Relations (Mr A J Nyambi): Hon
Prins, Notice of a Motion.
Mr B G NTHEBE: Hon House Chair, I hereby give notice that on the next sitting day I shall move on behalf of the ANC:
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That the Council –
(a) notes that the Western Cape has struck off the EFF‘s urgent
application to have the NA Speaker interdicted from using the
Rules to address their continued disregard of the Rules and
the decorum of Parliament during today‘s sessions on questions
to the President;
(b) further notes that the EFF would also have wanted to the
questions postponed until the Speaker had given the court an
assurance that there will be no violence against any
opposition parties‘ Members of Parliament for anything that
they say in the NA, irrespective of their utter disturbing
actions to willingfully and with contempt show utter
disrespect and contempt to the institution of Parliament, as a
cornerstone of our democracy and the will of the people of
South Africa who voted us to represent them;
(c) further notes that the EFF‘s urgent interdict was not only
frivolous and contemptuously out of Parliament but also based
on their misguided perception of the stature of Parliament and
that their actions undermines it through their hooliganism
which they purport it to be correct; and
(d) take this opportunity to express its profound support to
collective leadership of Parliament and all the efforts that
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Parliament has implemented to restore and protect the dignity
and the image of our Parliament from the people who are hell-
bent in undermining everything that this Parliament stands
for.
Thank you, Chair. [Time expired.]
The House Chairperson: Committees, Oversight, Co-operative
Government and Intergovernmental Relations (Mr A J Nyambi): Hon
Nthebe, your time has expired, your Motion will be printed on the next Order Paper. Hon Michalakis, why are you standing up?
Mr G MICHALAKIS: Thank you hon House Chair, just for clarity, are we busy with Notices of Motions or Motions without Notice because that clearly was not a Notice of Motion.
The House Chairperson: Committees, Oversight, Co-operative
Government and Intergovernmental Relations (Mr A J Nyambi): Notice of a Motion.
Mr G MICHALAKIS: Then, hon House Chairperson I have respectfully just would like to indicate that was not a Notice of a Motion.
The House Chairperson: Committees, Oversight, Co-operative
Government and Intergovernmental Relations (Mr A J Nyambi): I have already made a Ruling about that one.
17 MAY 2016 PAGE: 4 of 211
Mr T C MOTLASHUPING: Hon House Chair, I hereby give notice that on the next sitting day I shall move on behalf of the ANC:
That the Council –
(a) notes that last Thursday 12 May marked a year since the death
of a veteran of our struggle for liberation and freedom,
Isithwalandwe, Seaparankwe, Mama MeRuth Mompati who died at
the age of 89 years after a short illness on 12 May 2015;
(b) takes this opportunity to pay homage ...
Ms C LABUSCHAGNE: Hon House Chair, on a point of order: this is not a Notice of Motion but a Motion without Notice.
The House Chairperson: Committees, Oversight, Co-operative
Government and Intergovernmental Relations (Mr A J Nyambi): Order members; take your seat hon Motlashuping. Let me sustain the point of order by hon Labuschagne. You are correct, that is a Motion without Notice.
Hon members, does any member wish to give a Notice of Motion?
Ms C LABUSCHAGNE: Hon House Chair, I hereby give notice that on the next sitting day I shall move on behalf of the DA:
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That the Council –
(a) debates the sustainability and socioeconomic impact of the
Waste Management Act in South Africa with specific reference
to the practice of buy and selling waste from other countries.
I so move, thank you.
DA COUNCILLORS IN THE FREE STATE JOIN ANC
(Draft Resolution)
Mr G MICHALAKIS: On behalf of the DA, I hereby wish to move without notice:
That the Council –
(1) notes that various former DA councillors fro Mangaung, such
as Enerst Tobie, Hendrik Minnie, Mpuse Mokone, join the ANC
sinking ship with funny fair this weekend;
(2) also notes that Tobie and Mokone were expelled and
reprimanded by the DA last months for mobilising members
along racial lines;
17 MAY 2016 PAGE: 6 of 211
(3) further notes that Hendrik Minnie was unhappy about his
position he received on the candidate‘s list;
(4) notes that the DA welcomes this move where the lazy, bitter
and racists are actually joining the mix of ANC;
(5) notes that although we would have given Minnie, Tobie and
Mokone a way for free, the ANC could at least have the
decency to pay for their own backing boards for the events
posters instead of ceding the DA‘s property. This is theft;
and
(6) finally, notes that the right of every citizen to associate
with a political party of their own choice within a
democratic society and we wish them well as we say good
riddance.
The DEPUTY CHAIRPERSON OF THE NCOP: Is there any objection to the motion?
[Interjections.]
The DEPUTY CHAIRPERSON OF THE NCOP: In light of the objection, the motion may not be proceeded with. The motion without notice will now become notice of a motion.
17 MAY 2016 PAGE: 7 of 211
DEATH OF WARRANT OFFICER MUZWANDILE JOEL SITHOLE
(Draft Resolution)
Mr E MAKUE: I hereby move without notice:
That the Council –
(1) notes with profound sadness and grief the death of Warrant
Officer Muzwandile Joel Sithole who died last Friday, 13 May
2016, while on official duty in Juba, as part of an advanced
security detail which had been deployed to Juba to prepare
for the working visit of Deputy President, hon Cyril
Ramaphosa to South Sudan;
(2) further notes that the Deputy President is visiting Juba as
part of our government‘s efforts to consolidate unity within
the ranks of ruling Sudanese Peoples Liberation Movement
with a view to sustain lasting peace and stability and to
lay a basis for the post-conflict reconstruction and
development for the benefit of the people of South Sudan;
(3) further notes that our government has been working
tirelessly around the clock in conjunction with the
government of South Sudan to ensure the repatriation of the
mortal remains of Warrant Officer Sithole back to his home
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at the latest by today and arrangements were made for the
members of the bereaved family of Warrant Officer Sithole to
fly to Juba yesterday to assist in the repatriation process;
(4) conveys its heartfelt condolences to the family of Warrant
Officer Sithole whose death remains a clear indication of
his resolute commitment to serve South Africa; and
(5) finally notes that our thoughts and prayers are with his
widow Sibongile Sithole, the entire Sithole family and
friends during this moment of their lives, conscious of the
pain and sorrow that the untimely death of their beloved
son has brought to bear on their entire family.
Motion accordingly agreed to in terms of section 65 of the
Constitution.
CONTRIBUTION BY INSTITUTIONS AND PEOPLE IN THE PRIVATE SECTOR IN THE
PROMOTION OF TOURISM INDUSTRY
(Draft Resolution)
Mr O TERBLANCHE: On behalf of the DA, I hereby wish to move without notice:
That the Council –
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(1) commends all institutions and people in the private sector
who are involved in the tourism industry, for the splendid
work that they are doing to increase the number of tourists
visiting our country, subsequently earning the country much
needed foreign exchange to boost the economy and ultimately
creating jobs.
Motion accordingly agreed to in terms of section 65 of the
Constitution.
WEEKEND ARREST OF MORE THAN 500 PEOPLE IN CAPE TOWN
(Draft Resolution)
Mr J M MTHETHWA: I hereby move without notice:
That the Council -
(1) notes with utmost appreciation the arrest of over 500 people
during a weekend crime prevention blitz in Cape Town, which
netted illegal firearms, drugs, counterfeit goods and led to
the arrest of several fugitives wanted for serious crimes
such as murder;
(2) further notes that more than two hundred and twenty (Z20) of
those arrested in the Nyanga cluster policing precinct were
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rounded up for dealing and possession of drugs such as
heroin, dagga, mandrax, crystal methamphetamine commonly
known as tik;
(3) also notes that this raid led to the discovery of six
unlicensed fire arms and the arrest of eighty eight (88)
suspects that were wanted for crimes ranging from murder,
attempted murder, hijacking, dealing in liquor, crimes
against women and children, possession of stolen and hijacked
vehicles, possession of housebreaking implements and stolen
property; and
(4) lastly, commends the police for their sterling work and the
decisive interventions to wage a concerted war against crimes
to rid our streets and corners of heartless and selfish
criminals that continue to hold our people captive.
Motion accordingly agreed to in terms of section 65 of the
Constitution.
POINTING OF LASERS AT AIRCRAFT IN SOUTH AFRICAN AIRPORTS
(Draft Resolution)
Mr C J DE BEER: I hereby move without notice:
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That the Council –
(l) notes with utmost concern the increasing number of laser
pointers at aircraft;
(2) further notes that this year alone, the Civil Aviation
Authority recorded 105 incidents of laser pointers most on
flights that are landing at OR International Airport, King
Shaka International Airport and the Cape Town International
Airport;
(3) also notes that this dangerous practice flashing lasers at
aircraft usually happens during the critical phases of a
flight such as during take-off or landing;
(4) takes this opportunity to condemn in the harshest possible
term such irresponsible, dangerous and reckless practice that
continue to compromise the safety of aircrafts in the
country; and
(5) calls on the Department of Transport to educate our people
about the dangers of laser pointers to aircrafts and legal
consequences for people who are caught flashing lasers at
aircrafts.
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Motion accordingly agreed to in terms of section 65 of the
Constitution.
TENDER FOR A CONSULTANT TO CONDUCT AN ORGANISATIONAL RE-ALIGNMENT IN
MPUMALANGA
(Draft Resolution)
Mr F ESSACK: on behalf of the DA, I wish to move a motion without notice:
That the Council -
(1) note that the Mpumalanga Economic Growth Agency, better know
as MEGA, has once again put out a tender for a consultant to
conduct an organisational re-alignment, despite having paid
R28,5 million to DeLoitte in 2014 for a restructuring
programme that has yielded zero results;
(2) futher notes that it is clear that Mpumalanga Economic Growth
Agency, MEGA, is without direction and vision and this is a
clear abuse of public funds by the Chief Executive Officer,
CEO, Mr Xola Sithole and his board of directors; and
(3) also confirms the DA‘s position that this agency needs to be
dissolved with immediate effect. We will continue to put
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pressure on this government to do away with this ineffective
agency in Mpumalanga.
The DEPUTY CHAIRPERSON OF THE NCOP: Is there any objection to the motion?
[Interjections.]
The DEPUTY CHAIRPERSON OF THE NCOP: In light of the objection, the motion may not be proceeded with. The motion without notice will now become notice of a motion.
BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION OF MR BAYER SMITH FROM LIMPOPO
(Draft Resolution)
Mr J J LONDT: On behalf of the DA, I move a motion without notice:
That the Council -
(1) notes that in 1980, an event occurred in Limpopo and today is
the 36th birthday of hon Bayer Smith, that the House
congratulate Bayer Smith on his birthday.
The DEPUTY CHAIRPERSON OF THE NCOP: Is there any objection to the motion?
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[Interjections.]
The DEPUTY CHAIRPERSON OF THE NCOP: In light of the objection, the motion may not be proceeded with. The motion without notice will now become notice of a motion.
BURNING OF BUILDINGS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF JOHANNESBURG
(Draft Resolution)
Ms T MOTARA: I hereby move without notice:
That the Council -
(1) notes with outmost concern the burning of the SANLAM
auditorium, the 24hour study centre and e-labs at the
University of Johannesburg‘s Kingsway campus;
(2) further notes that this incident will not only cause the
university millions of rands, but also affects the provision
of essential education services and facilities to students at
the university; and
(3) further condem in harshest possible terms, the burning of the
auditorium and the study centre at UJ is nothing, but
senseless and hideous act of irresponsibility.
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The motion is agreed to in terms of section 65 of the Constitution.
Ms L L ZWANE: On behalf of the ANC, I hereby move without notice:
That Council -
(1) notes the decision taken by the South African Broadcasting
Corporation, SABC, to implement a 90% quota for local music
to be played on all 18 SABC owned radio stations as of 12th
May 2016;
(2) notes that the ground breaking decision by the public
broadcaster follows an important and successful consultative
process with various representatives of the music industry
throughout the length and breath of the country; and
(3) commends the SABC, particularly its management and board for
such a decisive decision which will go a long way to
empowering South African artists and consequently promoting
the African culture locally and to the rest of the world.
The DEPUTY CHAIRPERSON OF THE NCOP: Is there any objection to the motion?
[Interjections.]
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The DEPUTY CHAIRPERSON OF THE NCOP: In light of the objection, the motion may not be proceeded with. The motion without notice will now become notice of a motion.
Mr A S SINGH: I hereby move without notice:
That the Council -
(1) notes the discovery of a hi-tech dagga manufacturing lab at a
mansion on Durban‘s Brighton Beach, which is also known as
the Millionaires‘ Mile;
(2) further notes that a 57 year old man was arrested for the
dagga lab and in being possession of hydroponic dagga plants
valued at about R100 000 and an unlicensed firearm and
ammunition; and
(3) congratulates the police for their vigilance and hopes that
this arrest will send a clear strong message to other
criminals, especially drug lords and peddlers that the long
arm of the law will eventually catch up with them sooner than
later.
The motion is agreed to in terms of section 65 of the Constitution.
Mr S J MOHAI: I move without notice:
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That the Council -
(1) notes that on Saturday 14th May, the people of the Free State
and in particular Mangaung braved a cold weather to witness
the launch of a manifesto at a provincial level Botshabelo
Kaizer Sibuthelo Stadium;
(2) further notes that this was led by comrade President Jacob
Zuma and the Chair of the ANC in the province, comrade
Magashule; and
(3) lastly, notes that the people of the Free State reaffirm their
commitment and support to the organisation of the people, the
ANC, that it is only through the ANC that their lives will
change for the better.
The DEPUTY CHAIRPERSON OF THE NCOP: Is there any objection to the motion?
[Interjections.]
The DEPUTY CHAIRPERSON OF THE NCOP: In light of the objection, the motion may not be proceeded with. The motion without notice will now become notice of a motion.
EXTENSION OF DEADLINE
17 MAY 2016 PAGE: 18 of 211
(Draft Resolution)
The CHIEF WHIP OF THE NATIONAL COUNCIL OF PROVINCES: I hereby move without notice:
That the Council in concurrence with the National Assembly,
extends the deadline by which the Ad Hoc Joint Committee on
Appointment of Board Members to the National Youth Development
Agency report be extended to 26 May 2016. I so move.
Question put: That the motion be agreed to.
IN FAVOUR: Eastern Cape, Free State, Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal,
Limpopo, Mpumalanga, Northern Cape, North West, Western Cape.
Motion accordingly agreed to in accordance with section 65 of the
Constitution.
The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON: COMMITTEES AND OVERSIGHT (Mr A J Nyambi): the secretary will read the first order of the day. Hon Labuschagne.
Sorry, I mean hon van Lingen.
Ms E C VAN LINGEN: Hon Chairperson, I do however, take it as a compliment. I sent a letter for an urgent motion to the Chairperson this morning to be published on the Order Paper. To date it is not on the Order Paper, it was handed in and it was referred to with a
17 MAY 2016 PAGE: 19 of 211 notice which said that it is referred to the Chie Whips office. Now, how do I get an urgent motion when it is handed in on time and it is not on the Order Paper? Can I read my motion? I submitted it in terms of Rule 81.
The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON: COMMITTEES AND OVERSIGHT (Mr A J Nyambi):
Order! Take your seat, hon Chief Whip. You can take your seat. Let me address it. You know the procedure and you know how to handle motions. I am not going to allow the House to regenerate and discuss the procedure, the office that has been subjected to, let that office deal with it. I am not going to take that position and subject it to a discussion of the House.
Let us allow the secretary to read the first order of the day.
Ms E C VAN LINGEN: SO, you do not know what the motion is all about.
You understand that it is an urgent motion, that it has been sent to the office of the Chairperson as a motion of urgency in terms of
Rule 81 and you reject it just like that, without knowing what it is all about?
The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON: COMMITTEES AND OVERSIGHT (Mr A J Nyambi): Hon
Van Lingen, I am not rejecting anything, I have a procedure in front of me as a presiding officer. I am using what is in front of me as a guide for what we are supposed to be discussing and I am saying that anything that is not part of what we are supposed to be what we are
17 MAY 2016 PAGE: 20 of 211 engaging on as the House has to be subjected to the relevant office so that it can be processed accordingly. That is what I am saying. I am not rejecting anything. Let us allow the secretary to read the first order of the day. [Interjections.]
Ms C LABUSCHAGNE: I just want to refer you to Rule 81:
An urgent motion directly concerning the privileges of the
Council takes precedence over other motions and over orders of
the day.
We put in a motion according to Rule 81 to the Chair of the National council of Provinces. Therefore it was referred to the Chief Whips office, so we want an answer on the procedure. We cannot just continue because it is not in front of you.
The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON: COMMITTEES AND OVERSIGHT (Mr A J Nyambi): Let me assist you. It is very problematic if you are going to go to a rule and read it selectively. The very same rule, if you look at it, says that the Chairperson of the Council may decide. May decide! It means that the Chairperson has not yet decided. So, I do not see anything wrong with what we are doing and that is why I am saying let us allow the secretary to read the first order of the day. I do have the very same Rule in front of me. Secretary, read the first order of the day.
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CONSIDERATION OF EXPROPRIATION BILL AND REPORT OF THE SELECT COMMITTEE
ON ECONOMIC AND BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT THEREON
Ms E C VAN LINGEN: In terms of what is now on the Order Paper, can we have the report, please?
HOUSE CHAIRPERSON: COMMITTEES AND OVERSIGHT (Mr A J Nyambi): Can we have what?
Ms E C VAN LINGEN: The report. We are discussing the Bill and the report and the report was not published in the Announcements,
Tablings and Committee Reports ATC. In fact, the ATC said that the
Select Committee on Economic and Business Development, having considered the subject Bill so and so ... referred to its reports that it has agreed to an Amendment Bill so and so ... report to be considered. That report was never tabled and it was never published.
So, we don‘t know what the report is and we don‘t know the content of the report. So, we cannot proceed until we get the report.
HOUSE CHAIRPERSON: COMMITTEES AND OVERSIGHT (Mr A J Nyambi): Hon Van
Lingen, we are dealing with the report of the committee and the report is going to be represented.
Ms E C VAN LINGEN: No, no, you can‘t debate a report before it is tabled and published. How can a report be in the House and committee
17 MAY 2016 PAGE: 22 of 211 has not seen the report and it has not been published in the ATC? It is floating somewhere. It has not been done.
Ms C LABUSCHAGNE: ... [Inaudible.] ... indicates on page 72 that the report is published in the ATC, but then there is a sentence in the
ATC, ―the report to be considered‖. That report has not been considered in the select committee on the 11th, the 12th and not today. So, we can‘t debate the Bill when the report has not been considered.
HOUSE CHAIRPERSON: COMMITTEES AND OVERSIGHT (Mr A J Nyambi): No, let me assist. The House is supposed to consider the report. The Bill has been dealt with by the committee. Now the House is supposed to consider that report and we are now in that process.
Ms E C VAN LINGEN: Chairperson, on a point of order: A report must be considered and published in the ATC before it is debated. How can we consider a report when we don‘t have time to read it? It must be an extensive report. It is a controversial Bill. Let us just be reasonable and follow due process.
HOUSE CHAIRPERSON: COMMITTEES AND OVERSIGHT (Mr A J Nyambi): My problem is when you are subjecting me to deal with the details of the report because we are supposed to consider the report. Now, you are alleging that it is a controversial one. I have been made to understand that it is a section 76 Bill.
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Ms C LABUSCHAGNE: Chairperson, on a point of order: You want to enlighten us and you want to give us guidance. We are considering the report in this House, but that report was never considered and published in the ATC. In the ATC, as I already said, on 11 May, it said that the report is being tabled, but it also stated in the ATC that it has to be considered. The report has not been considered.
Nobody in this House read the report. We cannot vote on a report that we did not read. So, where is the report? If you can find the
ATC of 11 May with the report published in it, we can consider voting on it. If you cannot find that, the House cannot continue.
That is the Rule of this Council.
HOUSE CHAIRPERSON: COMMITTEES AND OVERSIGHT (Mr A J Nyambi): Let me assist. I hope that I will be very clear this time. The report is to be considered by the House. The secretary has read the first order of the day. Hon Nthebe is supposed to come and present the report so that it can be considered by the House. Hon Nthebe, can you present the report? [Applause.]
Ms C LABUSCHAGNE: This motion on this Order Paper says a report and a Bill. Now, we must have the report considered and printed in the
ATC so that each and every person and the public can read that report. That report has not been published in the ATC. We cannot consider this report, with the chair reading it to us now. I don‘t have the report in front of me. We cannot continue with this. I suggest that you, as the Chair, take a break, caucus and come up
17 MAY 2016 PAGE: 24 of 211 with a decision because this House is not within the Rules, as explained in this Rule book. We cannot continue.
The CHIEF WHIP OF THE NATIONAL COUNCIL OF PROVINCES: Chair, surely, the Order Paper was given to members before the House sat and our learned colleagues have read through it. If they noticed the loophole, they should have brought this to our attention at the right time. [Interjections.] Thank you.
HOUSE CHAIRPERSON: COMMITTEES AND OVERSIGHT (Mr A J Nyambi): You cannot call a point of order on top of a point of order. Can you allow me to make a ruling? Hon Van Lingen, I am still presiding. Can you take your seat? What we are doing is not something new. Hon
Nthebe will present the report and it will be considered by the
House. He will explain what is happening. [Interjections.] What I have in front of me is: The Select Committee on Economic and
Business Development, having considered the subject of the
Expropriation Bill. It has agreed to an Amendment Bill and the report has to be considered. As we are speaking, it has not yet been considered by the House. That is what we are trying to do.
Ms E C VAN LINGEN: Chairperson, in terms of the argument about what the Chief Whip said about our learned members, our hon learned members did notice that this report was not published like any other report that we have to read or debate in the House. First of all, this is a section 76 piece of legislation, which we should debate
17 MAY 2016 PAGE: 25 of 211 and not just submit in a report and vote or speak on in a small declaration of three minutes. If the Table has stopped talking to you, then I can continue with what I want to say. [Interjections.] I have not finished.
The hon Chief Whip said that we did not notice what was on the Order
Paper. We exactly did that. So, we submitted an urgent motion in terms of Rule 81, which will have priority over all other motions and then has to be published in the Order Paper. That was not done.
In terms of that, we want to submit the fact that this Bill cannot be debated today, due to several issues around the Bill, other than even the report that was not published and submitted to us.
You see the Table staff or the committee staff run around in the
House before sittings, quickly putting reports on our tables to present a report before we debate anything. Here you want to force a
Bill through irregularly and not according to procedure because it suites you to push it through. We cannot go on like this. It is our duty, as the National Council of Provinces, to actually fulfil our mandate on legislation. It is not right to just rush this through and not to stick to the Rules. The more mistakes we make, the more stupid we look in this House.
HOUSE CHAIRPERSON: COMMITTEES AND OVERSIGHT (Mr A J Nyambi): The temptation is that if somebody is calling a point of order and then you respond to the point of order, ... That is not what I am saying.
17 MAY 2016 PAGE: 26 of 211
Let me be very clear and I will try to be very slow. What we are doing now is not something that we, as the National Council of
Provinces, will do for the first time. We have done it before. If I can remind you, on 11 May when we were dealing with small business and development, it was the same procedure.
You want to now subject me, as the presiding officer, to the debate on what happened in the committee, telling me about the illegal processes. Let us allow hon Nthebe to present and then provinces will have their opportunity to do that. I am not going to subject myself to what you want me to do. As I am presiding, I am being guided according to what was agreed upon. That is on my table. Hon
Nthebe.
Ms C LABUSCHAGNE: Hon Chair, you are not only the officer presiding over this House today, but you are also the Deputy Chair in management of the committees. So, you have two hats on your head.
So, it is your responsibility and you should have known that this report has not been considered and published in the ATC. So, therefore, this House can ask you to rule.
You should have known that this report is on a section 76 Bill where the provinces have the right to be enlightened and as the province in the Western Cape, I did not see that report. It has not been considered and published in the ATC and I cannot vote on it.
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When the chairperson stands up in this House today and reads the report to me, I cannot object. I cannot have any discussion with him, I cannot interject and I cannot do anything like that. So, it takes away my privilege and hon Londt‘s privilege sitting on the committee to do exactly that, to change and influence and to make sure that the report is a real reflection. So, therefore, I ask you to leave this motion to later today or do it tomorrow and get the report to the members of this House. It is as easy as that. Thank you.
HOUSE CHAIRPERSON: COMMITTEES AND OVERSIGHT (Mr A J Nyambi): Hon
Labuschagne, the issue of provinces dealing with their declarations is allowed and we have not even come to that. Now, let us allow hon
Nthebe to continue and present.
Mr B G NTHEBE: Thank you, Chair. The officer presiding, the Chief
Whip, members of the House, special delegates that are here today and the Ministries that are here with us, I‘m presenting the report of the select committee.
The Constitution of the Republic of South Africa as adopted and celebrated by many domestically and globally recognises expropriation as an essential mechanism for the state to acquire another‘s property for public purpose or in the public interest, subject to just and equitable compensation being paid.
17 MAY 2016 PAGE: 28 of 211
Because we are a country based on an egalitarian ethos; a constitutional democracy based on the rule of law, here in this country the Constitution as adopted reigns supreme over all of us and the courts are final arbiters of legality.
The Expropriation Bill before the House today seeks to repeal the
Expropriation Bill Act 63 of 1975 and all subsequent amendments because we need to ensure compliance and consistency with the constitutional provisions as crisply captured in section 25 of the
Constitution.
Given the absence of uniformity within all spheres of government which have the power to expropriate properties through various pieces of legislation, there is a dire need to ensure uniformity and this is exactly what the Expropriation Bill seeks to do without interfering with the powers of the expropriation bodies.
We need a common framework to guide the process and procedures for expropriation of properties by organs of state and this is what this
Bill affords us. Consultation as a defining feature of the Bill stands out as a colossus. We shall indeed remain true to consulting our people in decision-making processes.
The expropriation body is directed through this Bill ... that before any expropriation takes place there should be a need for such expropriation to be determined. That will be followed by tangible
17 MAY 2016 PAGE: 29 of 211 proof of public purpose or public interest. This directive by the
Bill comforts us that expropriation cannot be arbitrary nor can ever be willy-nilly.
Quite comforting is chapter 6 of the Bill which explicitly affords the parties involved a recourse path, guaranteed for those who are aggrieved by the process, to find solace in the rule of law. If the disputing party does not derive any joy from the mediation process which is part of the Bill, as a disputing party the disputing party is empowered to refer the matter to a competent court. This does not preclude any party from approaching a court on any other matter relating to the application of the Bill.
We are confident that such a competent court will declare null and void, invalid and of no force any application of the Bill that is not consistent with the prescripts of the Bill or the Constitution.
We are confident that we are all standing up for the developmental agenda that we pursue and ensure that there is a better life for all. It is only through that that we can be able to achieve what everybody commits to, working together.
The Expropriation Bill adequately appreciates the constitutional imperative and we all know that our celebrated Constitution commits us all to celebrate the property. That property cannot be limited to land is captured explicitly in the Constitution and any other view
17 MAY 2016 PAGE: 30 of 211 that wants to apportion that property relates to land is not adequate.
Allow me to quote Mary Shelley: ―If I cannot inspire love, I will cause fear.‖ Those who cannot find any fault in the Expropriation
Bill have chosen not to inspire love but to cause fear about the
Expropriation Bill; what I call a lost opportunity to demonstrate willingness to support the developmental agenda of our own people.
This is the best of time and indeed the worst of time. It is the best of time before us because there stands an opportunity for us to move along in unison and ensure that the developmental path of our own people is not derailed irrespective of the differences we have.
This is the time that we should be solidly agreeing that there is a way to go.
It is indeed on the flip side of the coin that worst of time becomes, because others among us have chosen to project the
Expropriation Bill as a bogeyman scaring away those who should be standing with us in appreciation of the goodness of the Bill.
I want to make a safe assumption that we are all for unity and the development of our own people. If my assumption is correct, then those who thrive on fuelling pessimism and fear of the unknown should be isolated as we march along.
17 MAY 2016 PAGE: 31 of 211
We call upon optimistic men and women of this great country to never dwell on negativity but to embrace the necessary change in pursuit of the future so bright. We shall reap the rewards of a developing country ... developed as a concept has always been created. The doubting Thomas‘s will go to the buzz word: you don‘t stop because others choose to dwell in restoring and maintaining skewed developmental patterns.
Allow me again to quote Mary Shelley when she says, ―The beginning is always today.‖ Hon members, lets embrace this ground-breaking era that we all define our developmental agenda as we move forward.
The report is as we present before the House. We received eight mandates all in all. Seven of the mandates ... we received eight mandates in exclusion of Limpopo. Of all the eight mandates that we received, seven of them agreed. The final mandate said we agree with the report and one mandate said we don‘t support the report. This is the report that we processed in the committee; a fully-fledged committee meeting that agreed and we processed the final mandate as we ... and all the final mandates observed the protocol of the
Mandating Procedures of Provinces Act of 2008. We have proof that those who were present in the committee were given proof of such.
All the members who are members of the select committee have that.
We want to submit that from the word go when this Bill was submitted to the NCOP all provinces were briefed after the draft Bill was
17 MAY 2016 PAGE: 32 of 211 processed in the select committee. All the provinces were briefed; all the provinces went on a massive consultation process. We received the negotiating mandates from the provinces. The negotiating mandates were in observance of the Mandating Procedures of Provinces Act of 2008. We processed the negotiation mandates and the final mandates were received. We also processed it.
I hereby stand here and report on behalf of the select committee that the seven mandates we received finally agreed with the Bill and therefore the Bill was agreed to. Thank you.
Debate concluded.
Ms C LABUSCHAGNE: Hon Chair, may I please address you first. Are we voting now on the report, on the Bill or on both?
The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON: COMMITTEES AND OVERSIGHT (Mr A J Nyambi): We are doing declarations on the Bill. It‘s a section 76 Bill.
Ms C LABUSCHAGNE: The person read the report. Are we voting on the report? The report has been tabled today for the first time. So are we accepting the report and voting on it? Or are we going directly to the Bill because I am very confused about the procedures in this
House today.
17 MAY 2016 PAGE: 33 of 211
The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON: COMMITTEES AND OVERSIGHT (Mr A J Nyambi): Hon
Labuschagne, I indicated that we are now expecting declarations from provinces. Let me indicate that we are not going to be voting on the report. We will be voting on the Bill, not on the report. Hon Van
Lingen?
Ms E C VAN LINGEN: This report ... no matter how flawed it is ... because it doesn‘t refer to a minority report at all which was submitted. The first bit is absolutely political; the second bit he
... I don‘t know if he‘s got it in writing but we will have to ask
Hansard for a full written report on what has been said because there is no reference to a minority report. There is no reference to the fact that he started the meeting on the one day and then pushed it over to the next day to wait ... to solicit more final mandates.
Chairperson, we must be able to object to this report. It cannot be accepted like that. I would certainly then like to submit a minority report which was tabled in the meeting before we started.
The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON: COMMITTEES AND OVERSIGHT (Mr A J Nyambi):
I‘ve said twice that this is a section 76 Bill. The second thing is that there is no provision for a minority provision. I think you know that very well, hon Van Lingen. Now I am requesting declarations by provinces if there are; if you have declarations from provinces.
17 MAY 2016 PAGE: 34 of 211
Ms C LABUSCHAGNE: On the same point of order; if you ...
[Inaudible.] ... and we said we are not doing something different in this House today that we haven‘t done before, which is debatable because on the Division of Revenue, Dora, Bill we raised the same point. That Bill was also not published in the ATC from the morning we raised it to the afternoon when we entered the Chamber. The report was published and put on the desk of each and every member in this House. Then we continued. I am just refreshing your mind.
Then on every report in this House ... on every Bill ... the provinces agree on the report or not and then we vote on the Bill.
Now if the report has not been accepted and parties or provinces didn‘t have the opportunity to table a minority report on a section
76 Bill this House is taking away the opportunity for provinces to bring out how they feel about the Bill.
We cannot proceed with it in this way because this Bill cannot go through saying that the report has been accepted by each and every member in that committee because that is simply not the truth. There is no urgency; there is nothing that prevents us from doing this
Bill tomorrow when the procedures are correct because the NCOP will get egg on its face again because we don‘t follow procedures.
Ms T MOTARA: Chair, you must really assist us. I think you ruled on the matter of the motion in terms of Rule 81 and you disposed of it.
That‘s the first thing. In a section 76 Bill it is provinces that
17 MAY 2016 PAGE: 35 of 211 are given mandates to their permanent members in the committee to confer voting rights on the Bill. If it comes to the House we must deal with it in that fashion.
An appropriation Bill is a Money Bill. It‘s a section 77 Bill; it‘s dealt with in a completely different manner. Hon Van Lingen is conflating the two issues and she is misleading the House. This is a section 76 Bill on the ATC of 11 May. The report is there if you read it word for word, unless they really wanted a repeat print of the Bill which is listed in the report.
However, you have dealt with the issue of the substantive motion which is not going to take us further. Can we please proceed? Vote on the section 76 Bill in the way we always do. There‘s no minority view in a section 76 Bill, unless it is reflected in each province‘s report.
The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON: COMMITTEES AND OVERSIGHT (Mr A J Nyambi): I now allow provinces an opportunity to make declarations.
[Interjections.]
The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON: COMMITTEES AND OVERSIGHT (Mr A J Nyambi): Hon
Van Lingen, you are not recognised. I‘m allowing provinces to make declarations, unless you are making declarations on behalf of a province. Hon Mthimunye?
17 MAY 2016 PAGE: 36 of 211
Mr C HATTINGH: Hon Chair, we are dealing with a very important principle here and I think everything must be recorded. There may be repercussions. Nothing that hon Van Lingen has said is on record because her microphone was off. Can I request that she repeat it on record please?
The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON: COMMITTEES AND OVERSIGHT (Mr A J Nyambi): Hon
Hattingh, hon Van Lingen was not recognised. I said we are dealing now with declarations by provinces. I said she will be allowed the opportunity and the microphone will be on. We are dealing with declarations by provinces. Hon Mthimunye?
[Interjections.]
The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON: COMMITTEES AND OVERSIGHT (Mr A J Nyambi): She is not recognised. That is why the microphone is off.
Mr C HATTINGH: Before you disrecognised her. [Interjections.]
The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON: COMMITTEES AND OVERSIGHT (Mr A J Nyambi): No.
Hon Michalakis, why are you standing?
Mr G MICHALAKIS: Hon House Chairperson, I would like to address you on Rule 171 if I may please.
17 MAY 2016 PAGE: 37 of 211
The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON: COMMITTEES AND OVERSIGHT (Mr A J Nyambi):
Continue hon Michalakis.
Mr G MICHALAKIS: Thank you. The Order Paper of the day says,
Consideration of the Expropriation Bill and the report. Now Rule
171(2) says that if it‘s not a unanimous report, which this was not, in addition to the majority report, express the views of any minority concerned. This was not done. The minority view was not reflected. So it‘s not in terms of Rule 171(2) and therefore it can‘t be in terms of the rules and the procedure.
The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON: COMMITTEES AND OVERSIGHT (Mr A J Nyambi): Can you put your hand down. No hon Makue, I‘m not recognising you. We are dealing with a section 76 Bill. Let me clarify it, hon Van
Lingen. We are dealing with a section 76 Bill and I expect heads of delegations to assist. On whose behalf are you speaking, because that‘s where the problem lies? This is a section 76 Bill and now we are dealing with declarations. Hon Mthimunye?
Declaration(s) of vote:
Mr S G MTHIMUNYE: The first point Chair, the perpetual standing up of DA ... [Interjections.]
The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON: COMMITTEES AND OVERSIGHT (Mr A J Nyambi): Are you doing declarations?
17 MAY 2016 PAGE: 38 of 211
Mr S G MTHIMUNYE: Yes Chair.
The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON: COMMITTEES AND OVERSIGHT (Mr A J Nyambi):
Okay.
Mr S G MTHIMUNYE: ... on this matter demonstrates, is not only unbecoming from where I stand, it is also contemptuous to this
House, even after you made a ruling on this matter so many times. At the centre of thing is not the procedure on the processing of this
Bill, it is the revolutionary nature of this Bill because it deals with clause 25, the property clause of the Constitution. That is their problem, so they are playing monkey tricks. We have processed this Bill in the committee and many provinces have given us a mandate to deliberate on the Bill and they came back to us and gave us final mandates to vote in favour of the Bill, with the exception of some provinces and we have a record of the committee meeting minutes to that effect. This Bill repeals the old Act of the 1970s that is at the centre of this contestation by members of the DA and nothing to do with procedure.
The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON: COMMITTEES AND OVERSIGHT (Mr A J Nyambi):
These are declarations.
Mr S G MTHIMUNYE: This Bill is not only concentrated on the question of immovable property as hon Nthebe has made reference to, it also
17 MAY 2016 PAGE: 39 of 211 deals with intellectual property. It is on that basis, as Mpumalanga province that we want to support this Bill. Thank you, hon Chair.
Ms E C VAN LINGEN: Mpumalanga or the ANC?
The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON: COMMITTEES AND OVERSIGHT (Mr A J Nyambi): It is the declaration of Mpumalanga.
AN HON MEMBER: It sounded like an ANC declaration. [Interjections.]
Mr J M MTHETHWA: We support the revolutionary Bill.
Ms C LABUSCHAGNE: I want to do a declaration Chair.
The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON: COMMITTEES AND OVERSIGHT (Mr A J Nyambi): Go on and do the declaration.
Ms C LABUSCHAGNE: Can I stand here or must I go there?
The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON: COMMITTEES AND OVERSIGHT (Mr A J Nyambi):
Either way.
Ms C LABUSCHAGNE: One of the NCOP‘s main functions is to have an oversight role over legislation in terms of Section 68 and 72 of the
Constitution. This Bill is flawed substantially in terms of the
Constitution and procedurally, not only in terms of the Mandating
17 MAY 2016 PAGE: 40 of 211
Procedure of Provinces Act 2008, name of the act. In terms of this
Bill, the NCOP has failed in upholding its constitutional mandate of representative and participatory democracy, accountability, transparency and public involvement. Today‘s Order Paper requests this House to consider the report of the Select Committee on
Economic and Business Development as per the ATC on the 11th of May, page 72. But the respective ATC simply indicates report to be considered. This report has never been considered by the respective select committee. The Mandating Act says that in terms of the
Constitution and Sections 5 and 7 of the Mandating Act that the provincial legislature must provide a negotiating mandate when considering a Bill after tabling and before consideration of final mandates, this did not happen. Legislative mandates are required from provincial legislatures in terms of Section 76 of the
Constitution. The select committee only received four procedurally compliant negotiating mandates submitted on time on the 3rd of May
2016.
On the 9th of May 2016, the select committee had only received three procedurally compliant final mandates submitted on time. These were considered in the select committee on the 10th of May 2016. The interpretation of the Mandating Act is a final. This Bill has lapsed and we should not be considering the Bill in this House today. The
Western Cape thus cannot the Bill.
17 MAY 2016 PAGE: 41 of 211
Moh M C DIKGALE: Mohl Modulasetulo, ke ile ka boelela gae mo ke tšwago gona profenseng ya Limpopo ke na le ba kgoro, ge komiti e nthoma gore ke ye ke ba tsebiše ka Molaokakanywa wo. Sepedi gape le sona ke leleme la semmušo ... (Translation of Sepedi paragraph follows.)
[Mrs M C DIKGALE: Hon Chairperson, I was sent to my home province,
Limpopo, for the second time with the department officials to introduce this Bill. By the way, Sepedi is also an official language
...]
... Somebody saying English,
Bjale, ke sepetše, ba e amogetše. Ba e amogetše; ba e thabela ka gore batho ba rena ba Limpopo ke kgale ba hlaka. Bjale Molaokakanywa wo o tlile go ba lokolla ka gare ga mathata ao ba bego ba lebane le wona. Re bile le tumelelano ya mathomo yeo e bego e akantšwe ya gore
Limpopo e a e thekga, le ge e le gore ka gare ga yona re be re kgopela kudukudu re le Limpopo gore magoši le wona a fiwe sebaka; ba se ke ba lahlelwa ka ntle.
Le ya mafelelo ye e tlilego ka iri ya bobedi, ye Modulasetulo ke kwelego a e hlalosa a re Limpopo ga se ya ba karolo ya tumelelano ye; Limpopo e e dumetše ebile e e thekgile. Ka go realo re re re tšwela pele ka wona Molaokakanywa wo. Ke a leboga. (Translation of
Sepedi paragraphs follows.)
17 MAY 2016 PAGE: 42 of 211
[I went there. They support the Bill because it is long overdue ...
The people have been through a lot. Now the Bill will set them free from the all the challenges they were facing. There was a suggestion that the chiefs be part of it, that they are not left out. Then there was another suggestion that came out at 2 o‘clock. The chairperson indicated that Limpopo was not part of it hence we shall proceed with the initial one. Limpopo supports the Bill. I thank you.]
Ms Z B NCITHA: Chair, Eastern Cape fully supports the Bill because time which was assigned to the province to look at the Bill was enough and all the issues that were raised by our province were adhered to. Thank you very much.
Mr E MAKUE: Chairperson, in Gauteng, what we did was to have involved five city regions meetings with members of the community, public meetings to which everybody was invited and the overwhelming majority of people in that meeting gave us in Gauteng a mandate to vote in favour of the Bill, therefore, if we are taking our electorate seriously and the mandate that they had given to us, we, from Gauteng, have no option but to support this Bill. Thank you,
Chair.
Mr E MAKUE: Chairperson, in Gauteng, what we did was to have involved five city regions meetings with members of the community, public meetings to which everybody was invited and the overwhelming
17 MAY 2016 PAGE: 43 of 211 majority of people in that meeting gave us in Gauteng a mandate to vote in favour of the Bill, therefore, if we are taking our electorate seriously and the mandate that they had given to us, we, from Gauteng, have no option but to support this Bill. Thank you,
Chair.
Mof M L MOSHODI: Ke a leboha Motsamaisi wa dipuisano, Foreisetata rea e tshehetsa hobane e tla tlisa diphetoho ho batho ba futsanehileng hore ba kgone ho una melemo e mengata ho yona. Rea e tshehetsa re le Foreisetata. (Translation of Sesotho paragraph follows.)
[Ms M L MOSHODI: Thank you, programme director. We as the Free State support it because it will bring changes to poor people so that they can get a lot of benefits from it. The Free State supports it.]
Ms E C VAN LINGEN: The Free State did not put in a final nor can they put in a voting mandate. So is it then okay for them just make a declaration like the hon member has just done because the Free
State cannot vote and bring out a voting mandate as it is now. It is unconstitutional and it is not according to the rules.
The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON: COMMITTEES AND OVERSIGHT (Mr A J Nyambi): Hon
Van Lingen,
17 MAY 2016 PAGE: 44 of 211
Ms E C VAN LINGEN: The translation or the interpretation of the
Mandating Procedures Act, in particular Section 5 and 7.
The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON: COMMITTEES AND OVERSIGHT (Mr.A J Nyambi): Hon
Van Lingen, there is a final mandate from the Free State.
Ms E C VAN LINGEN: It was not submitted.
Mr D STOCK: Hon House Chair, the Northern Cape under the leadership of Premier Sylvia Lucas fully supports the Bill. We are of the view as the province that the Bill will be able to change the lives of many South Africans and also be able to redress the imbalances of the past which were brought to our people by the then apartheid regime. I so move hon House Chair. Thank you very much.
Rre T C MOTLASHUPING: Puso ya Bokone Bophirima ka fa tlase ga boeteledipele jo bo tsepameng ebile bo ikemetse, jwa ga Rre
Ramoeletsi Supra Mahumapelo ... [Tsenoganong.]
Mme N P MOKGOSI: Ijoo, ijoo, legodu le legolo.
Rre T C MOTLASHUPING: ... e tshegetsa molao o o tlileng go tokafatsa matshelo a batho ba rona ...
Mme N P MOKGOSI: Le dikgetsi tsa gagwe.
17 MAY 2016 PAGE: 45 of 211
Rre T C MOTLASHUPING: E bo e netefatsa gore batho ba rona ba itse gore melao e e tlhamilweng wa dinako tseo ..., ke makadiwa ke mme yo o nkgoeletsang yo. Fa go tlhangwa Molao wa 1975, o ne a se mo pusong. Fa re ne re tlhama motheo, ba ne ba seyo.
Mme N P MOKGOSI: Bone le mang?
Rre T C MOTLASHUPING: Re tlhomile motheo, re tsaya matsapa go fetola matshelo a batho ... (Translation of Setswana paragraphs follows.)
[Mr T C MOTLASHUPING: The government of the North West Province, under the effective and efficient governance of Mr Ramoeletsi Supra
Mahumapelo ... [Interjections.]
Ms N P MOKGOSI: Oh, the greatest thief.
Mr T C MOTLASHUPING: ... supports an Act that will help to make the lives of our people better ...
Ms N P MOKGOSI: And his pockets.
Mr T C MOTLASHUPING: It will also ensure that our people know that the laws that were made then ... I am confused by the woman who is shouting at me, she was not in government when the Act of 1975 was formulated. When we started with the foundation, they was not there.
17 MAY 2016 PAGE: 46 of 211
Ms N P MOKGOSI: You and who?
Mr T C MOTLASHUPING: We have built the foundation, and we are continuing to make the lives of our people better ...]
Whether people like it or not we are going to do that.
[Interjections.]
Re a e tshegetsa ngwana wa ga mma. [We are supporting it, madam.]
The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON: COMMITTEES AND OVERSIGHT (Mr A J Nyambi): We shall now proceed to the voting on the question. I shall do this in alphabetical order per province.
Question put: That the Bill be agreed to.
IN FAVOUR: Eastern Cape, Free State, Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal,
Limpopo, Mpumalanga, Northern Cape, North West.
AGAINST: Western Cape.
Bill accordingly agreed to in accordance with section 65 of the
Constitution.
APPROPRIATION BILL
17 MAY 2016 PAGE: 47 of 211
(Policy debate)
Vote No 33 - Tourism:
The MINISTER OF TOURISM: Thank you Chairperson; hon members it is an honour to stand before you today to present the Tourism budget for
2016-17. Tourism is a powerful driving force for economic growth. In
South Africa, and all around the world, tourism is an important earner of foreign exchange; a massive provider of jobs and a powerful developmental tool.
It is a catalyst for entrepreneurial opportunities and transformation. In 2014, 680 000 people were directly employed in the tourism sector, representing 4, 5% of the total workforce. Hon members, this is direct employment. If you take the entire tourism value chain the sector supports 1, 5 million jobs.
The balance of trade from tourism has more than tripled, from R10 billion in 2010 to R38 billion in 2014. The tourism sector is well placed to continue contributing to addressing our triple challenge of poverty, inequality and unemployment.
Furthermore, the value of tourism goes far beyond its economic value, it crosses the boundaries of diversity and brings people together. It is the best way to learn more about the world we live in, and it most certainly brings better understanding amongst
17 MAY 2016 PAGE: 48 of 211 people. South Africa offers truly unique experiences, and we have untapped resources in abundance. We have all the ingredients to be one of the world‘s top tourism destinations.
All our nine provinces are blessed with great attractions: beautiful landscapes, wildlife and biodiversity, leisure and adventure options, warm and welcoming people who are steeped in cultural tradition.
This year‘s budget will be used optimally to ensure that our tourism economy continues to grow, and to create tangible and lasting benefits for our people. We all know that tourism took a knock last year. Thankfully, though, by the end of the year the clouds had started to lift.
This year, we are seeing spectacular growth and recovery. January arrivals were up by 15% on last year and February was 18% up.
Tourists from the world‘s top source markets like China are finding it easier to get visas, and are no longer deterred by the false fear of Ebola.
The best news is that the positive effect of growth in tourism is most certainly felt by people living in communities in all our provinces. Those who come into direct contact with tourists in remote rural areas, or in shops, restaurants and hotels will feel the benefits of more business, more demand for their products and
17 MAY 2016 PAGE: 49 of 211 services, and more opportunity. And those who are not directly involved in tourism will benefit from the significant contribution that our sector makes to our gross domestic product.
The World Travel and Tourism Council estimates that in South Africa, tourism will contribute over R380 billion to our economy this year.
The success of the national tourism industry starts with success at every establishment that serves tourists. This is why much of our budget will go towards enhancing our attractions and training our people, we want to improve the experience of local and international tourists in our country.
Just over a week ago, hon members, Durban hosted our premier trade show, Indaba, it attracted over 1000 exhibits of the most diverse and compelling attractions from Africa and in all our provinces.
There were over 1000 buyers from around the world. All our MECs for
Tourism were there to personally promote their provinces.
Chairperson, I was also delighted to see some of you there as well.
Indaba showed how the people of Africa can come together, and work together with a common goal. The United Nations World Tourism
Organisation forecasts that tourist arrivals in Africa will reach
130 million by 2030. I am convinced that we can do even better than this by making the right policy choices, investing, marketing wisely, and collaborating with each other.
17 MAY 2016 PAGE: 50 of 211
Hon members, our task is to get more tourists to visit our country, through ever better marketing and by making it easier for people to come here. We must continuously improve our destination and enhance the visitor experience. We must invest in our people so that they are able to offer the best possible service. We must support our small businesses in particular, because they are the mainstay of our tourism industry, and we must create opportunities for our own people to travel and experience our country and all that it has to offer. We are working on these things.
The budget is spread across all these important activities. We have an incredible country with a rich cultural and historical heritage.
Working with various partners, the Department of Tourism is building on this natural and cultural heritage. Robben Island is without a doubt one of our country‘s most iconic sites. We are working closely with the Department of Arts and Culture and Robben Island Museum to make the visitor experience a more profound and unforgettable one.
We are refurbishing the restaurant and visitor facilities, and training guides to relate the powerful story of Robben Island with all its meaning and significance. We are also digitizing important historical records so that they are preserved for future generations.
This year, we will also enhance four iconic national heritage sites that depict significant milestones in the life of our former
17 MAY 2016 PAGE: 51 of 211
President Nelson Mandela: the Nelson Mandela statues at the Union
Buildings and at the Freedom Park in Gauteng. The Nelson Mandela
Capture Site in KwaZulu-Natal, and the Groot Drakenstein Prison in the Western Cape, where Madiba spent his last years of imprisonment on his own. This is where critical negotiations took place, which led to the unbanning of political parties and to his own release, and ultimately to the freedom we all enjoy today.
The department has started with its energy-retrofitting program, and is assisting a number of our major destinations to convert to renewable sources. This will significantly lower their operational costs, contribute to our country‘s climate change commitments, and improve the image of the industry.
Travellers are becoming more environmentally conscious, and they factor this into their travel choices. We intend to expand this program to the private sector in the course of this financial year.
The department‘s social responsibility implementation programme creates and improves tourism infrastructure in rural areas to boost the rural economy and benefit local communities.
In the process, it also creates local jobs and develops the skills of our youth. This year the Social Responsibility Implementation
Programme, SRI programme will provide 7000 work opportunities across our country. It should be said though hon members, that many lessons have emerged during the implementation of these projects. These
17 MAY 2016 PAGE: 52 of 211 lessons will guide the program going forward. We do have serious challenges in this program.
I have instructed the department to urgently commission an independent evaluation to assess the impact, value for resources invested, governance and administration of these projects.
We have started shifting the focus of our Expanded Public Works
Program by employing 200 young people who will keep 50 blue flag beaches clean and safe. This is the beginning of our new ―Working for Tourism program,‖ and it will be expanded during the MTEF period to include hiking trails and even some urban precincts.
Our tourism industry is made up of thousands of small businesses.
The support we are providing to small businesses through our enterprise development programme is expanding through more training interventions, and the setting up of tourism business incubators near Pilanesberg and the Kruger National Park.
The department will also promote access to selected government-owned attractions through negotiated discounted rates. We want more South
Africans to be able to afford to visit our botanical gardens, game reserves, world heritage sites, and other places, which have cultural and historic significance. This project will target learners, youth, pensioners, and people with disabilities and others who cannot afford to go to these places.
17 MAY 2016 PAGE: 53 of 211
Hon members, domestic tourism is critical to the future of tourism in our country. SA Tourism has been allocated R110 million to promote domestic tourism this year. A media campaign has been launched, which includes a series of television commercials telling the stories of South Africans travelling for the first time, and how much it means to them.
Transforming the tourism sector is central to our aspirations for inclusive growth. The tourism industry was among the first to have its amended sector code gazetted last year. The new Tourism Charter
Council will be tasked with developing transformative strategies, as well as monitoring and reporting on the state of transformation in the industry.
Hon members, the success of tourism as a shared competency relies heavily on collaboration and alignment between all three spheres of government. This is absolutely essential. Local government is not only at the coalface of service delivery, but it also provides facilities and opportunities for tourism at the local level.
If we want tourism to succeed, we must consistently improve our tourism offer with good infrastructure, effective signage, and a clean, safe and secure environment. If we get these things right, tourism will grow and jobs will follow.
17 MAY 2016 PAGE: 54 of 211
Harmonisation of policy and strategy is essential within government.
We work closely with the Departments of Arts and Culture,
Environmental Affairs, and Sport and Recreation to promote our country.
Our Departments of Tourism and Home Affairs continue to make good progress in addressing issues around ease of access. Together with the National Treasury, we have established several working groups with our industry partners that are addressing issues like destination improvement and skills development across provinces.
Chairperson, I am very pleased that our MECs for Tourism are committed partners in the tourism space. We put a great deal of effort into ensuring that our various tourism marketing agencies, at city and provincial level, work together to achieve our common tourism goals for the country.
Hon members, I appreciate the efforts of the many people who are contributing to the success of tourism every day. I thank the Deputy
Minister Xasa, Director-General Victor Tharage and the entire
Department of Tourism, the Chairperson, Board and staff of SA
Tourism, the Tourism Business Council of South Africa, and all our partners in industry for their support.
17 MAY 2016 PAGE: 55 of 211
I would also like to express my appreciation to the Chairperson of the Select Committee, the hon Edwin Makue, and all the members of the committee. We appreciate your engagement and guidance.
If all of us, in every sphere of government, work together, and join hands with our partners in industry, tourism will continue to make a significant contribution towards eliminating poverty, unemployment and inequality in our country. Thank you very much. [Applause.]
Mr E MAKUE: Hon Chairperson and Members, Hon Minister Hanekom and
Deputy Minister Xasa, MECs present, the leadership and Board Members of Tourism Business Council, also the Board Members of SA Tourism, our delegates from SA Local Government Association, Salga. One does not need to congratulate a fish for swimming, but it is imperative that we congratulate the Minister, Deputy Minister and Director-
General, Mr Victor Tharage, of the National Department of Tourism for leading a winning team.
The Budget, Annual Performance Plan and Strategic Plan of the
Tourism Department are so good and important to South Africa that we have no choice but to vote in favour of it. Members of the Select
Committee received the plans and budget, with the warmth that tourists are received in KwaZulu-Natal, KZN, and unanimously supported its presentation to this august House.
In preparation for this presentation I asked myself six pertinent
17 MAY 2016 PAGE: 56 of 211 and strategic questions that we in government need to ask of any
Budget Vote.
Question One is: Does the Budget Vote reflect funding of the policy priorities of the government and ANC that I‘m a member of, and can this be traced to government programmes and projects in the Vote?
The answer to this question is an unequivocal yes. Job creation has been identified by this government as a policy priority. This priority can clearly and easily be traced to the projects of the
Tourism Department.
In the departments strategic plan the Legislative & Policy mandate is based on Tourism Act, 2014 Act No 3 of 2014 that aims to promote the practise of responsible tourism for the benefit of the Republic and for the enjoyment of all its residents and foreigners. The department strives for the effective domestic and international marketing of South Africa as a tourist destination. It is further committed to promote quality tourism products and services and finally, to promote growth in and development of the tourism sector and to enhance co-operation and co-ordination between all spheres of government in developing and managing tourism.
On visiting exhibitions during the recent Tourism lndaba held in
Durban from 6-9 May, exhibitors themselves bragged about the jobs they are creating in the tourism industry. The Small Medium and
17 MAY 2016 PAGE: 57 of 211
Middle Enterprises were promoted as never before.
Question Two that we ask as government is: Does the vote reflect a building of the capacity of the state?
The National Development Plan recognises tourism as one of the main drivers of employment and economic growth. The New Growth Path includes tourism as one of the six pillars of economic growth. The
National Tourism Sector Strategy provides a blueprint for the tourism sector in the pursuit of growth targets contained in the New
Growth Path.
By linking its Annual Performance Plan to the above, the capacity of the state will undoubtedly be strengthened in the work of the
Department of Tourism. But also note that the department conducts its business in a manner that creates public confidence in the state. This requires excellent systems for the management of public resources, ridding the system of any inefficiency and enabling oversight by institutions of the state in the interest of the public.
That takes me then to Question Three which is: Does the Vote address issues of adequacy given the mandate of the Department of Tourism?
Allow me to first indicate that the mandate of the Department is linked to Vision 2030. The mandate is: The National Development
Plan, NDP, is the 2030 Vision for the country. It envisions rising
17 MAY 2016 PAGE: 58 of 211 employment, productivity and incomes as a way to ensure a long term solution to achieve reduction in inequality, an improvement in living standards and ensuring a dignified existence for all South
Africans. The NDP recognises tourism as one of the main drivers of employment and economic growth.
His Excellency, President Zuma in state of the nation address 2016 made reference to the triple challenges of unemployment, poverty and inequality. Government has a 9 Point Plan to address these challenges and the Department of Tourism‘s plan is in line with this plan and also in line with the NDP.
Question Four is: Does the Vote reinforce issues of equity? The department‘s strategic outcome oriented goal is to increase the tourism sector‘s contribution to inclusive economic growth. The
Minister has spoken about that extensively. Tourism‘s contribution to the economy is measured by jobs created, contribution to Gross
Domestic Product, GDP, and revenue generated from tourism activity.
Furthermore, as a services export sector, tourism is a significant earner of foreign currency. In the South African context, this growth should be underpinned by the principle of inclusivity to drive tourism sector transformation. South Africa‘s tourism experience is unique. Township tours is becoming a sought after experience. Such tours contribute towards dealing with our historic challenges of inequality.
17 MAY 2016 PAGE: 59 of 211
Question Five is: Does the Vote reflect principles of financial efficiency? Annual Financial Statements and Auditors reports of the
Department of Tourism over the last number of years affirm its financial efficiency. Unlike the DA‘s Western Cape, Tourism is not producing unqualified audits only, but is also a game changer that creates a better life for both black and white South Africans, taking South Africa forward. [Applause.]
Question Six is: Does the Vote reflect sensitivity towards enhancing gender equality? The majority of the citizens of this country are women. This, therefore, becomes a very important question. The department has Programme Performance Indicators, namely: Percentage of Women representation in Senior Management Services, representation for people with disabilities and black representation. Women‘s representation in Senior Management Services is not to fall below 50% in terms of the strategic plan. People with disabilities representation is not to fall below 3%. Black representation is not to fall between 91,5%.
The Baseline is that the Executive Development Programme is developed to capacitate black women managers. The target is that 20 black women be trained at an institution of higher learning through a customised Executive Development Programme.
In close co-operation with the Department of Trade and Industry, the
Department of Small Business Development, the National Department of
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Tourism strives to incubate and build Small Medium and Middle
Enterprises, SMMEs, in the tourism industry where black women are targeted as the key beneficiaries. We have seen this at the Indaba in Durban. SA Tourism and the Tourism Business Council will build further on the Broad Based Black Economic Empowerment fundamentals in ensuring the economic empowerment of women.
Question Seven is: How does the Vote deal with unemployment and poverty? I will rush through the six points. I will only refer to sum of the Department‘s Strategic Objectives the first being:
To facilitate the development and growth of tourism enterprises;
To facilitate tourism capacity building programmes;
To diversify and enhance the tourism offerings;
To reduce barriers to tourism growth;
To enhance regional tourism integration; and
To create employment opportunities by implementing tourism
projects.
Let me return to the Western Cape. I recently read an article indicating that:
―Following Torino, Seoul and Helsinki, Cape Town is the fourth
city to be awarded the title of World Design Capital, an accolade
bestowed by the Montreal-based International Council for Societies
of Industrial Design, which charges a hefty fee to honour a
17 MAY 2016 PAGE: 61 of 211
different city with its logo each year. Cape Town has pumped
around £3m, multiply by 20 to get the current currency rate, of
public money into that year‘s design but it‘s hard to tell quite
where all the cash has gone.
There are craft fairs aplenty, showcasing fine ceramics and bespoke furniture, and open studios demonstrating bronze casting and elaborate taxidermy, but most of the funds appear to have been directed at a launch event in London. I hear the hon member when she says two years ago.
Yes, they‘ll produce a clean audit on wasted public money. So, when they talk about clean audit, we must look at where the money has been spent. It is public money that has not been spent to the benefit of the people of this country. On the other hand, the funds allocated to the National Department of Tourism Budget will move
South Africa forward and offer hope, a better life and decent livelihoods to all South Africans.
Therefore, I have the privilege of proposing acceptance of the
National Department of Tourism Budget. [Applause.]
Mnr W F FABER: Voorsitter, Minister en agb lede van die Nasionale
Raad van Provinsies – dit is ―National Council of Provinces‖ in
Engels – in hierdie finansiële jaar is daar ‘n begroting van
R2 miljard ter tafel gelê. In 2015 was daar ‘n afname in die
17 MAY 2016 PAGE: 62 of 211 toerismebedryf van 6,8%. Intussen het ‘n opwaartse kurwe hoop gebring dat toerisme weer sy regmatige plek in ons land se ekonomie kan inneem.
Minister Hanekom moes maar die beste van ‘n slegte saak maak, maar ongelukkig is die skade wat aangerig is te groot en het dit, in ‘n reeds sukkelende ekonomie, effektief duisende Suid-Afrikaners hul werk in die toerismebedryf gekos. Onthou, vir elke 12 toeriste wat voet aan wal sit in Suid-Afrika skep dit een werksgeleentheid.
Minister Hanekom, dit laat my nogal dink aan die storie van die
African Grey papegaai. Sy eienaar leer hom om dag na dag getrou geluide te maak, en so probeer die papegaai natuurlik sy eienaar tevrede hou. Hy raak baie gefrustreerd en soms wil hy net wys dat hy ook iets kan doen. Een dag besluit hy, nadat sy vlerke nou lekker sterk is, dat hy gaan vlieg, maar sy eienaar kom verby en knip sy vlerk – en hy kan nie vlieg nie, en hy kan nie presteer nie. Dit frustreer hom vreeslik.
Minister, dit laat my nou nogal dink aan hierdie storie. Die arme papegaai sit net daar in sy hok, en hy moet net doen wat hy aangesê word. Sy vlug wat hom die hoogte kan laat inskiet, wat hom opgewonde maak, word hom ontneem. Dit klink vir my amper soos die toerismeportefeulje in Suid-Afrika waar eie regulasies en besluite van medekollegas sommer net die toerismeportefeulje se vlerke kort knip.
17 MAY 2016 PAGE: 63 of 211
Hierdie sluit in die effek van die onlangse besluit wat, sonder enige konsultasie oor die invloed en skade wat dit aan Suid-Afrika se toerisme kan berokken, deur Minister Mbalula geneem is. Nog ‘n voorbeeld: In Januarie 2016 het die Engelse kriekettoer na Suid-
Afrika ons land se ekonomie na beraming ‘n hupstoot van R140 miljoen gegee. Ons almal besef dat transformasie in sport baie belangrik is, en dit moet plaasvind, maar ons moet dit kan doen sonder om toerisme
‘n nekslag toe te dien. Ek stel voor dat ons Ministers met mekaar begin praat oor die impak van besluite voor hul blindelings besluite neem – soos dit nou moontlik die tweede keer gaan gebeur.
In Tanzanië, byvoorbeeld, maak toerisme tans 17,2% van hul bruto binnelandse produk uit terwyl Suid-Afrika se toerisme ver agter is met net onder 8%. Toerisme ondersteun egter 1,5 miljoen werksgeleenthede in Suid-Afrika. Dit bied ‘n groot geleentheid vir werkskepping in Suid-Afrika, veral vir die klein toerisme- operateurs. Die DA waardeer elke rolspeler in hierdie bedryf. Daarom is klein rolspelers ook vir ons belangrik. Die regulering van pryse in die toerismebedryf moet aan die entrepreneur ook die geleentheid bied om te kan meeding om ‘n bestaan te maak.
Indien ons nie begin om die klein toerisme-maatskappye te beskerm en te help groei nie, sal entrepreneurs in hierdie bedryf nooit sukses kan behaal nie. Die realiteit is, ten einde, dat die klomp klein besighede baie werk skep in die arbeidsmark. (Translation of
Afrikaans paragraphs follows.)
17 MAY 2016 PAGE: 64 of 211
[Mr W F FABER: Chairperson, Minister and hon members of the National
Council of Provinces, a budget of R2 billion was tabled in this financial year. There was a decline of 6,7% in the tourism industry.
Meanwhile, an upwards curve brought hope that tourism would reclaim its rightful place in our country‘s economy.
Minister Hanekom had to make the best of a bad situation, but unfortunately the damage caused is too big and, in an already struggling economy, it effectively cost thousands of South Africans their jobs in the tourism industry. Remember, for every 12 tourists arriving in South Africa, it creates one job opportunity.
Minister Hanekom, it reminds me of the story of the African Grey parrot. His owner taught him to make sounds faithfully day after day, and so the parrot obviously tried to keep the owner happy. He got very frustrated and sometimes he just wanted to show that he could also do something. One day, after his wings grew strong, he decided that he was going to fly, but his owner came along and cut his wing – and he could not fly and he could not perform. This frustrated him terribly.
Minister, this now reminds me of this story. The poor parrot just sits there in his cage, and he has to do what he is told. His flight that could take him up high, which got him excited, is taken away from him. It almost sounds to me like the tourism portfolio in South
17 MAY 2016 PAGE: 65 of 211
Africa, where own regulations and decisions by fellow colleagues simply cut the tourism portfolio‘s wings short.
This includes the effect of the recent decision that was taken by
Minister Mbalula, without any consultation about the influence and damage it could cause to South Africa‘s tourism. Another example: In
January 2016, the English cricket tour to South Africa boosted our country‘s economy with an estimated R140 million. We all realise that transformation in sport is very important, and it needs to happen, but we have to do it without giving tourism a deathblow. I suggest that our Ministers start talking to each other about the impact of decisions before they take decisions blindly – as it will now probably happen for the second time.
In Tanzania, for example, tourism currently makes up 17,2% of its gross domestic product, whilst South Africa‘s tourism is far behind with just under 8%. However, tourism supports 1,5 million job opportunities in South Africa. It provides a big opportunity for job creation in South Africa, especially for the small tourism operators. The DA appreciates every role player in this industry.
Therefore small role players are also important to us. The regulation of prices in the tourism industry should also offer the entrepreneur the opportunity to compete to earn living.
If we do not start protecting the small tourism companies and to help them grow, entrepreneurs in this industry will never be
17 MAY 2016 PAGE: 66 of 211 successful. The reality is that the many small businesses create a lot of jobs in the labour market.]
I was fortunate to have the opportunity to attend the 2016 Tourism
Indaba in Durban two weeks ago and was pleasantly surprised by the tourism exhibitors. The weak rand, which dropped by approximately
25% after President Zuma‘s axing of Finance Minister Nene, coupled with the U-turn that government made on restrictive visa regulations drive the recovery in our tourism industry – effectively increasing tourism by 15% in January and 18% in February year on year. That is excellent.
Arrivals from China increased dramatically as agencies can now apply for visas on behalf of travellers. According to the United Kingdom
Post Office Travel Money‘s 10th Holiday Money Report, Cape Town is the lowest priced of 32 long-haul destinations and the third cheapest overall for British tourists. Visa on Arrival, which should be researched sooner rather than later, can also make a huge difference in our tourism industry.
In a panel discussion, CNN economics reporter Richard Quest posed difficult questions to our tourism Minister and his deputy. As vital as tourism is to our economy, the undermining of the department in key decisions and policies across government was under the spotlight. Mr Quest also touched on the struggling SAA and that it still cannot make a profit despite the oil price being the lowest in
17 MAY 2016 PAGE: 67 of 211 decades. In the words of economics reporter Richard Quest, this is a
―political football and that needs to stop‖.
We are looking forward to Minister Hanekom working on the Open Skies for Africa decision that might also generate an additional
155 000 jobs and contribute R1,3 billion to the GDP.
Statistiek deur die Minister van Polisie, Minister Nhleko, dui daarop dat daar die afgelope drie jaar ‘n toename van 14,5% in misdaad en sosiale onrus plaasgevind het. Ongeveer 49 persone word daagliks in Suid-Afrika vermoor. Suid-Afrika se moordsyfer is vyf maal hoër as die wêreldgemiddeld.
Minister, indien u dink dat hierdie syfers nie toeriste ontmoedig wat na Suid-Afrika wil kom vir ‘n ontspannende vakansie nie, moet u weer dink. Die negatiewe publisiteit plaas beslis ‘n demper op toerisme en die aantal toeriste wat ons land wil besoek.
Laastens wil ek die toerismebedryf bedank vir al hul harde werk te midde van die interne politieke warboel waarin hulle hul daagliks bevind. Minister, dankie ook vir u en u departement se harde werk.
Ek dank u. [Applous.] (Translation of Afrikaans paragraphs follows.)
[Statistics by the Minister of Police, Minister Nhleko, suggests that there has been an increase of 14,5% in crime and social unrest over the past three years. Approximately 49 people are murdered in
17 MAY 2016 PAGE: 68 of 211
South Africa daily. South Africa‘s murder rate is five times higher than the global average.
Minister, if you think that these figures do not discourage tourists that come to South Africa for a relaxing holiday, you have to think again. The negative publicity definitely puts a damper on tourism and the number of tourists that want to visit our country.
Finally, I want to thank the tourism industry for all their hard work amid the internal political turmoil in which they find themselves daily. Minister, thank you for your and your department‘s hard word. I thank you. [Applause.]]
Mr M MABUYAKHULU: Chairperson, on behalf of the province of KwaZulu-
Natal and the people our province, we wish to express our delight to the NCOP for affording us the opportunity to participate in this budget debate. Our province is also playing its part in terms of developing the tourism industry. It is however important,
Chairperson, as we participate in this debate; we are also driven by the national cause and national desire. It is important to say a nation is forged in the crucible of difficult times. What our nation needs now than ever before, is more of the voice of reason and the incisive leadership, rather than the voices of charlatans and armchair critics. For you to use a platform of this nature simply to become critics, it is a missed opportunity. Therefore, I would urge each and every member that comes here to this podium to think about
17 MAY 2016 PAGE: 69 of 211 him or her being a South African first and foremost. Secondly, being an ambassador of this country would be selling South Africa both from within and without.
Chairperson, the sitting of the NCOP could not have come at a more opportune time. We say this because the province of KwaZulu-Natal about two weeks ago, hosted yet another highly successful Tourism
Indaba, which was once again proved that it is only the biggest tourism – the Pan African Trade Show on the continent. For this, we must thank our hon Minister Derek Hanekom together with the Deputy
Minister, as well as the entire team tourism in the Republic – but at the centre of this being South African Tourism together with the various provincial agencies. For not only giving all the visitors to the trade show, a top of the drawer treatment, but also for working flat out to ensure that the Tourism Indaba was yet again a runner way success.
Chairperson, our view is that giving this era of radical economic transformation and the economic challenges we are facing, as a country and as the nation, it can no longer be business as usual. As such, we believe that it is incumbent upon all of us to use tourism as a vehicle for economic transformation and ensure that it becomes once, one of the central pillars of our economic efforts, aimed at altering for the better the lives of all South Africans.
17 MAY 2016 PAGE: 70 of 211
It is because of this reason that we took a bold step as KwaZulu-
Natal, KZN, of ensuring that we use Indaba Tourism Trade Show as a tool to promote small and macro enterprises, in particular to give historical either to disadvantaged South Africans an opportunity to partake in this industry. Nineteen black-owned small, medium and micro enterprises, SMMEs, companies were identified to participate in our KZN stand. Amongst these exhibitors were travel agents, tour operators, as well as accommodation providers.
Critically, our province was able to further utilise the Tourism
Indaba as a platform, to share with the world what it is that we are doing as a collective, to position the province as a global tourism destination of choice. In this regard, we are proud to state without any equivocation that we are among the provinces in the country that have put in place a 20-year Tourism Master Plan, whose vision is premised on ensuring by 2030 KwaZulu-Natal will be globally renowned as a Africa‘s top beach destination, with a unique blend of wildlife scenic and heritage experiences for all our visitors.
In this regard, our provincial government have identified key catalytic projects around which this vision is anchored. These are amongst others, include the development of beach resorts, the
Drakensburg cable car, the building of the iconic King Shaka‘s statue. To this end, the province of KwaZulu-Natal will in June this year host the Drakensburg cable car investment conference – a
17 MAY 2016 PAGE: 71 of 211 gathering which will feature investors, manufacturers of cable cars, as well as operators of these cable cars from all over the world.
Our department is also forging ahead with efforts to build a new beach resort in the province in order to attract the discerning international tourist. The Trade and Investment KwaZulu-Natal, which is our entity task with packaging and promoting investment opportunities in our province is working with Tongaat Hulett, who drive this programme. Our province is also assessing opportunities around the creation of the iconic King Shaka statue that will immortalise one of the greatest warriors who have actually walked on this earth.
All these projects, communicate one message. There are provinces under stewardship have upped the entire aggressive position in the province as a global competitive tourism destination. Chairperson, nothing more successful illustrates our provinces drive to achieve this goal of promoting the province than the strides that we have made in improving KwaZulu-Natal global air connectivity. In this fast pace world globalisation air connectivity has come, not only prerequisite for an economic growth and development, but a key leverage for growing the Tourism industry.
As all of us know, history was made when over the past five years, our international tourist arrival figures reach almost an excess of
1,2 million, which means that a sizable portion of the global
17 MAY 2016 PAGE: 72 of 211 tourism community flow into our shores. It is because of this reason that over a past few years, since the construction of the King Shaka
International Airport, the province of KwaZulu-Natal has worked aggressively to attract the international airlines that will fly direct into the province.
We are proud, Chairperson, that under the leadership and the strategic guidance of our committee, which is called the Route
Development Committee. We are now having international airlines, such as Emirates, Qatar Airways, Ethiopian Airways and the Turkish airlines, amongst others that are now flying directly to the King
Shaka International Airport.
Our government is also working flat out to negotiate with other airlines to also follow suite. Indeed, we will be working making announcements in the near future. The global tourism landscape is changing by the day. These days tourism is not only about the products, but about human experiences. We need to be alive to this reality so that we can provide the necessary strategic guidance to the industry.
Just this month, we learned from United Nation World Tourism
Organisation that international tourism arrivals around the world grew by 4,4% in 2015 while the income generated by accommodation, food, drink, entertainment, shopping and other services, reached
$1,23 billion. This clearly shows that the tourism sector is an
17 MAY 2016 PAGE: 73 of 211 industry of the future. With Africa emerging as a continent of the future, we need to position ourselves to the benefit - to benefit from the spoils of the global tourism.
In this regard, the transformation of the tourism industry should be our primary preoccupation. It cannot be the only way that our people can interact with the sector in tourism is when they are finding themselves working in the sector. It is on that basis, therefore,
Chairperson, that‘s what we say as KwaZulu-Natal there is a scope for us to have a core competition. We should first and foremost co- operate as a destination to ensure that we are able to build a vibrant tourism industry in the Republic. Within that in the context of the domestic tourism, then provinces can start to compete on the basis of that, but even that competition must be a healthy competition. We must understand that we are not competing just amongst ourselves, but against major destinations in the world. It is on that basis as KZN, we have taken upon ourselves to have offices in Gauteng and Western Cape. We will be embarking on a very big activation programme because we believe we still have got the bigger share of the domestic market that we have not captured as yet.
But we thought, we want to say to the Minister and the department – thank you, Minister for being such a very good leader and for providing incisive leadership at a time when we do need people who can lead and provide us with positive messages rather than who speak
17 MAY 2016 PAGE: 74 of 211 rhetoric but helping us with nothing. Thank you very much.
[Applause.]
Ms N P MOKGOSI: Modulasetilo, a ke tseye tšhono eno ke dumedise
Aforikaborwa ka bophara, bogolosegolo balwantwa. [Chairperson, let me take this opportunity to greet South Africans at large, especially the fighters.]
The EFF rejects this Budget Vote 33 on Tourism. The Department of
Tourism ought to promote and support growth and development of an equitable, competitive and sustainable tourism sector in order to enhance economic and social development in this country. To do this, the department has been allocated a total budget of R1,7 billion for the 2016-17 financial year.
Of this amount, over R1,1 billion has been set aside for policy and knowledge services, leaving just over R300 million for the promotion of domestic tourism which is crucial for the development of tourism in the country, and over R47 million for the development of international tourism. This indicates a very flawed strategic orientation of the department which compels it to spend more and more on peripheral issues rather than an actual development of domestic tourism in the country.
This budget also makes no provisions of any kind for stronger liaison with and building the capacity of municipalities to nature
17 MAY 2016 PAGE: 75 of 211 and enhance their tourism potential. It is at the level of the municipality where a lot of effort and thinking needs to be allocated to develop tourism potential that opens up opportunities for jobs and locally based economic multipliers.
Currently, ANC run municipalities do very little to promote tourism, even amongst locals. The Amahlathi Municipality in the Eastern Cape, which is home to a very rich heritage of our resistance history with gravesides of such brave leaders as Chief Maqoma, has no plans whatsoever of developing the municipality‘s tourism based on its heritage. Listening is a skill.
The Namakwa District Municipality endowed with Natural Wonders are unparalleled by municipalities of its kind, does very little to ensure that the millions of people who flock to the municipality, during the well-known flower season, leave benefits for the local people. Rather, our tourism continues to benefit those who have learned and who have sufficient capital build guesthouses and hotels. The vast majority of our people continue to work as cleaners and gardeners in tourism establishments owned by whites who continue to pay our people slave salaries.
This department promotes tourism still geared to benefit those who own land and who have capital. There is nothing transformative about the department‘s strategic orientation. This budget offers nothing
17 MAY 2016 PAGE: 76 of 211 significant aimed at transforming this industry. This leaves black people as spectators in the tourism game they should be part of.
EFF run municipalities will ensure that – now listen very clear – domestic tourism routes are developed and maintained; absorbing thousands of people who will be employed by the municipalities to maintain these tourism routes; EFF run municipalities will do more on development, cultural and heritage tourism routes which would help promote our history while attracting revenue through tourist attractions; EFF run municipalities will regulate the hospitality sector and make sure that tourists are encouraged to go to accommodation centres that are owned by or with shareholding held by black people. Only stronger, visionary municipalities can help unlock the vast potential that tourism offers our people.
It is only the EFF that has the vision and the capacity to develop tourism in this country. We therefore, reject this Budget Vote and ask the people of South Africa to reject the ANC and the DA, and vote EFF in the upcoming Local Government Elections.
Minister Hanekom,
... nako ya gago o o e tsaya o nnetse go laletsa Moporesidente wa gago Zuma ka tlhogo tse pedi gore lo ye go tlolatlola. O boe o laleltse Motlatsamoporesidente wa lona, nare Cyril, gore le ye go
17 MAY 2016 PAGE: 77 of 211 sapa le dishaka ... [Interjection.] (Translation of Setswana paragraph follows.)
[... you waste your time by extending an invite to your President
Zuma, with two heads, for bungee jumping; as well as your Deputy
President, Buffalo Cyril, for shark diving ...
Mr S G MTHIMUNYE: Hon House Chair, the speaker is grossly out of order. She refers to the President ... ka tlhogo tse pedi ... meaning two heads. That is demeaning on the part of the President.
Could she please withdraw.
The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON: COMMITTEES AND OVERSIGHT (Mr A J Nyambi): Hon
Mokgosi, can you withdraw that part.
Ms N P MOKGOSI: I‘m not withdrawing any truth. Now, Minister if you continue like that you‘ll end up missing ... [Interjection.]
The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON: COMMITTEES AND OVERSIGHT (Mr A J Nyambi): Hon
Mokgosi, hon Mokgosi, Hon Mokgosi, hon Mokgosi.
Ms N P MOKGOSI: Hon Chairperson?
The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON: COMMITTEES AND OVERSIGHT (Mr A J Nyambi):
Withdraw that part.
17 MAY 2016 PAGE: 78 of 211
Ms N P MOKGOSI: Which part? There are many parts that I said in my speech, which one are you referring to?
The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON: COMMITTEES AND OVERSIGHT (Mr A J Nyambi):
Attacking the character of the President of the Republic of South
Africa ... [Interjection.]
Ms N P MOKGOSI: I did not attack anything or anyone; I don‘t know what you are talking about. I just spoke the truth and the truth only in my speech.
The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON: COMMITTEES AND OVERSIGHT (Mr A J Nyambi): Can you read the part that was talking about the President?
Ms N P MOKGOSI: My time is finishing, I must finish with my speech.
Unless you stop it and then I repeat, then you will start the time again?
The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON: COMMITTEES AND OVERSIGHT (Mr A J Nyambi): Can you repeat that part?
Ms N P MOKGOSI: I can‘t. I will not repeat anything. I‘m finished.
Wherever I debated I‘m finished. I‘m continuing, in fact I‘m not going back Chairperson ... [Interjection.]
17 MAY 2016 PAGE: 79 of 211
The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON: COMMITTEES AND OVERSIGHT (Mr A J Nyambi): hon
Mokgosi, can you withdraw the part ... [Interjection.]
Ms N P MOKGOSI: I‘m not withdrawing anything. Everything that I said is the truth. I‘m not withdrawing anything, Chairperson.
The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON: COMMITTEES AND OVERSIGHT (Mr A J Nyambi): Hon
Mokgosi, withdraw your participation ... [Interjection.]
Ms N P MOKGOSI: No ... [Interjection.]
The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON: COMMITTEES AND OVERSIGHT (Mr A J Nyambi): ... in the ... [Interjection.]
Ms N P MOKGOSI: I‘m not withdrawing ... [Interjection.}
The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON: COMMITTEES AND OVERSIGHT (Mr A J Nyambi): ...
National Council of Provinces ... [Interjection.]
Ms N P MOKGOSI: I‘m not withdrawing anything. Everything in here is the truth. You can take my speech and check ... [Interjection.]
The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON: COMMITTEES AND OVERSIGHT (Mr A J Nyambi): I‘m saying, can you withdraw your participation in this debate because you can‘t withdraw what you have said about the President of South
Africa.
17 MAY 2016 PAGE: 80 of 211
Ms N P MOKGOSI: What is it that I said exactly that you are saying I must withdraw?
The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON: COMMITTEES AND OVERSIGHT (Mr A J Nyambi): I‘m no longer in that, I‘ve already made a ruling. Can you kindly withdraw your participation in today‘s debate. I‘m making a ruling.
Ms N P MOKGOSI: I‘m not withdrawing anything, therefore I will excuse myself from this House. You are not consistent, Chairperson.
You are biased. And ...
... lona maANC lo tletse fano go tla go opa diatla, lo o opa diatla
... [You, the ANC, are here only to clap hands, you do clap hands
....]
... you voting cows ...
The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON: COMMITTEES AND OVERSIGHT (Mr A J Nyambi): Let me indicate that this conduct will be referred to the Chairperson of the NCOP so that it can be attended accordingly.
Cllr G CAVANAGH: Good afternoon everyone; hon Presiding Officer, the hon Deputy Chairperson, our Minister Hanekom, our Deputy Minister
Xasa, hon members and ladies and gentlemen. Hon Chair, organised local government is critical to this debate and in realising the outcomes of this budget vote. SALGA is an ardent supporter of the
17 MAY 2016 PAGE: 81 of 211 role of tourism as an economic driver at a national, provincial and importantly local government levels where it impacts the lives of all South Africans. Our local municipalities receive and play host and provide essential services such as, roads, water and electricity to our great wildlife parks and our beautiful coastal regions. Every municipality plays host to this sector, whether those travelling back to their home to visit friends and relatives in our far flung regions or those in transit, travelling through our border towns of
Musina, Ficksburg, Ermelo and the like.
Let us touch on something about the sector growth. We at South
African Local Government Association, SALGA, are pleased to hear that the sector is rebounding well and exceeding growth expectations this year delivering much needed catch up growth. We also support the development and growth of historically speaking new source markets like China and India, not only will this spur in economic and job growth, but also diversify and insulate the sector from shifts and trends in our traditional source markets. We want to challenge the department however, to also focus on developing new source markets on the African continent. We need to recapture some of Nigeria and Egypt‗s growth - as their economies have overtaken ours in the last year - through catering to the travellers of these markets. Our nearest neighbours - the bird in hand - of course should also be targeted.
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An African market growth strategy also serves the many foreign nationals who already work and reside in South Africa. For these reason flight routes need to be developed, our border posts made safe and efficient, our border towns, regional service towns and towns along our national routes need assistance with a targeted tourism strategy to meet the needs of foreign and local road based travellers. Accommodation, overnight facilities, varied food service options and a whole town approach to tourism developed which includes the service excellence approach the Minister makes mention of. Salga, together with these municipalities and the department would work hand in hand to develop these whole town economic development and tourism strategies.
Let us touch something on regionalism, our domestic tourism, and the marketing. Adopting a functional region approach to tourism development holds value for a number of key objectives the Minister as well as Salga hope to achieve; that is, transformation — including enterprise development -, growth of the economic tourism, domestic tourism and more efficient and effective marketing of South
African tourism products. Salga is especially focused on the less well developed tourism regions and products, over and above, those such as the Southern and the South Western Cape, the Eastern
Mpumalanga, the KwaZulu-Natal coastal and central Gauteng. Greater value can be derived from among others, combining coastal and in- inland tourism into one product. In many instances these products exist separately, but are not marketed together by the industry.
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Adopting a regional approach also allows for areas less well known for tourism to collectively identify and develop their tourism niche. Towns in a region can examine their commonalities and differences and ensure that each town offers a unique product. This enhances or eases the job of marketing, and we do believe there needs to be greater coherence in marketing of South Africa as a brand, but also, its more unique and lesser known tourism offerings to local and foreign markets.
It is also often these less developed tourism regions, that hold promise for domestic tourism - South Africans visiting friends and relatives and locals visiting regional attractions - that is why cost effective accommodation, restaurants, retail offerings as well as tourism products is needed in these towns not only in our leading tourism areas. Salga is of the view that the generous amount
R110 million set aside for marketing domestic tourism is important, however, it is in the developing the tourism products and value chain at local level serving the domestic tourism market that needs to be prioritised first and foremost. For this reason, adopting a regional approach and working with the municipalities within a common region to develop existing and new tourism assets at a local government is both sustainable and strategic.
Lastly, on infrastructure and service excellence, it is also at a regional level that the need for existing tourism assets be upgraded, evaluated as well as the potential for new assets to be
17 MAY 2016 PAGE: 84 of 211 developed for each town in relation to one another within a region.
Thus, scarce resources can be applied in a strategic manner to develop tourism products within a functional region, whether that region is informed by transit corridors, bioregions or historical and cultural peculiarities. As Salga, we welcome the service excellence initiative. A manageable unit of intervention we put forward is at the level of a town. But again, getting an entire town or community to buy into the notion of improved service levels improves the lives and experiences of not only tourists but locals as well.
We believe that Salga has a role to play in assisting municipalities understand how their regulations, planning, land use and environmental health functions, among others, contribute to improving service excellence. When we touch on transformation, skills and enterprise development, we commend the department for establishing the broad-based black economic empowerment, BBBEE, codes for the industry. Transformation and enterprise development go hand in hand, the enterprise being the vehicle for economic transformation. Increasing participation and ownership of the economy within this industry can be achieved through slicing the existing pie or through growing the pie. We believe the latter is advantageous both because it grows the economy but also because developing an entrepreneurial class within those who were historically disadvantaged, is also a national imperative.
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Again, a regional approach in especially underdeveloped tourism areas holds very good prospects. Underdeveloped tourism markets provide low barriers of entry and competition for new entrants. We believe that the department‗s skills training are particularly well targeted and evidenced from the uptake rate of trainees into the job market. Specialised training however must be paired to the needs of the industry but also the requirements of new entrepreneurs. Again, it is arguable that adopting a regional approach may yield more widespread, tangible and sustainable results linked to a defined geographical strategy which incorporates all the department's keys focal points within the budget speech. In closing hon Chairperson,
Salga welcomes the budget vote presented by the Minister here today and his deputy. The leadership offered by the ministerial team, the director-general and his administration is commendable.
However, we believe that developing African source markets is important for sustainability and diversifying our source markets. In addition, we argue that there is a strong collaborative and co- ordinating role to be played between the department, South African tourism and the municipal sector, in particular at a regional level.
We argue that it is at the level of the region and the town within the region that the most value can be derived, managed and promoted.
This value is for new enterprises and transformation of the sector, domestic and eventually international tourists, infrastructure and asset development, skills and service excellence as well as coordination of the tourism value chain at an institutional level.
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Salga on behalf of its members, look forward to working with the ministry and the department towards creating a growing, competitive and inclusive sector supported by the role of local government. I thank you. [Applause.]
The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON: COMMITTEES AND OVERSIGHT (Mr A J Nyambi): Let me remind members about rules of debate, Rule 31(c). A member of the council may not end in any of the passages. I am just reminding members.
Mrs M C DIKGALE: Mohl Modulasetulo ... [Hon Chairperson ...]
... hon Minister of Tourism and other Ministers present, hon Deputy
Minister of Tourism and other Deputy Ministers present, hon members and special delegates, ladies and gentlemen, I reside within a rural community located in Limpopo province of this beautiful country, therefore my contribution to this debate focuses on tourism in the rural economy.
I join millions of other South Africans in asking the question, ―How does tourism development benefit rural communities?‖ For this question to be answered in the affirmative, there must be a focus, if not bias, on rural tourism. By rural tourism I mean a form of tourism taking place in rural areas or settlements, providing employment and income to the local population and offering individualised holiday products to consumers.
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It must be a tourism based on accommodation service which is complemented by additional service or facilities relying on the local social, cultural and natural resources, which are exploited according to the principles of sustainable development. It must live up to the sense of perceived rurality that holiday makers hold on to when thinking about country retreats.
Rural tourism is also a counterurbanisation measure as it draws people into the country with certain ideals. This means that the problem of rural depopulation is addressed more effectively and beneficial in-migration is encouraged further. This counterurbanisation has aided growth by bringing skilled, understanding entrepreneurs to these rural areas and allowing them to use their ideas and capital and develop the area as a viable tourism site with benefits for locals and visitors.
An important element of this is sociocultural development - something that is seen in those regional areas that embrace this rural heritage and promote local pride, making the perceived rurality more of a reality.
Once rural tourism is established in a community, the positive results can be quite far reaching. A great starting point is rural service retention. Facilities within these locations can be improved with new developments that cater for incoming tourists and transport links that are often enhanced to meet the greater demand – meaning
17 MAY 2016 PAGE: 88 of 211 that these remote communities are no longer so remote. Sometimes these businesses and cultural facilities will renovate run-down rural properties, and these resources are also ideal for accommodation for tourists and are even used for better housing for the local community.
On a related note, the new staff employed in these new businesses are given new skills and training in industries that may not have been in the area before — notably information technology, IT, and hospitality. This progression is enhanced even further by the fact that more women are being employed in areas where traditional male roles were more dominant. For example, today we have many bed and breakfast accommodations, B&Bs, in rural areas run by women. Not only is this addressing inequality, but it also stems the flow of female out-migration.
These positive changes then contribute to the creation of a better image for the area and regeneration initiatives that can lead to better marketing and attract even more investment into the area — all of which should mean a positive cycle of progression and growth.
Last but not least, there is the potential for environmental benefits, such as the preservation of the countryside for other activities such as hiking or conservation areas for wildlife enthusiasts. These examples show that rural tourism is a big business with a lot of potential. We therefore applaud and commend
17 MAY 2016 PAGE: 89 of 211 the government for promoting it, especially the work that the national Department of Tourism is doing through its National Rural
Tourism Strategy that is aimed at developing rural tourism.
However, we must not lose sight of the fact that rural tourism is a delicate balancing act. While focusing on the likely gains in revenue and employment for the area, we must ensure that such an area does not lose its rurality. We must guard against issues such as environmental damage and the likelihood of increased urbanisation.
This is so because the more people enjoy this rurality, the greater the pollution produced and the feet on the ground and the redevelopment of the landscape. Furthermore, the closer these formerly remote countryside resorts and lodges get to the urban cities, the more tainted they can get. And then urbanisation easily seeps into these areas putting cultural heritage at risk.
This balancing act must also extend to other socioeconomic factors such as revenue sharing and migration of people. It is of vital importance that this tourist attraction and their spending in provinces like Limpopo - which are predominantly rural, do not only benefit the rich and wealthy members of our society. Responsible tourism must contribute towards addressing the challenges of unemployment, poverty and inequality.
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People living in rural communities must benefit from the tourism industry. Equally, people who are living in such poor and rural communities must be able to visit tourism sites. Very often the entry fees to these sites are so expensive that poor people are unable to access these sites. The Mapungubwe World Heritage Site is but one of the great attractions in Limpopo and often local residents are unable to visit this site because they can‘t afford the fees. I am therefore glad that the department has a living document that is alive to these issues - the Domestic Tourism Growth
Strategy.
However, Minister, one issue that I would like to see forming part of the strategy is the issue of community participation. This is because community participation provides a sense of belonging or identity, a commitment to common norms, a willingness to take responsibility for oneself and others, and a readiness to share and interact.
This will enable the community to add the perspective of tradition and culture to the rural tourism strategy, as traditional and cultural tourism is associated with the traditional beliefs of rural communities. The fact that the Tourism Department bases its interventions on current market conditions will thus come very handy here. The participation by local communities will enable the department to plan and prioritise accordingly.
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The objective of the department to review the Domestic Tourism
Growth Strategy in order to revamp and revitalise the approach in marketing and growing the domestic market as the backbone of the industry, should be commended. It gives me hope because I know how local B&Bs and other small, medium and micro-sized enterprises,
SMMEs, are dependent on the tourism industry in order to participate in meaningful and sustainable economic activities. Many of these emerging entrepreneurs are struggling to gain access to markets.
The department‘s annual performance plan, APP, presented to the select committee also indicates realistic programmes and plans to equip and train tour guides from local communities and thus gives us hope that this will provide decent employment for many of the rural people countrywide.
Through its Enterprise Development Programme, the department targets a minimum of one hundred rural enterprises for development.
Similarly, the local government induction programme will focus on rural areas with tourism potential.
The concept of social tourism as yet another objective of the
Department of Tourism gives me, as a proud member of the ANC, good reason to support the department‘s budget and plans. The objective of this project is to facilitate social tourism initiatives that promote open access to selected government-owned attractions through the negotiation of discounted rates. This means access to parks or
17 MAY 2016 PAGE: 92 of 211 game reserves, world heritage sites and other cultural places of interest by targeted groups such as scholars, youth, pensioners, and people with disabilities. Other groups with limited economic means will also be able to access such facilities.
In addition, the department indicated in its plans that it will capacitate black women as managers in the tourism industry.
Qualifying and interested women will be trained at an institution of higher learning through a customised Executive Development
Programme. This is a very welcomed initiative - as in the ANC we know that once you‘ve trained a woman, you‘ve trained a village! We therefore support this Budget Vote.
Pele ke go leboga, Modulasetulo, ke re MaAfrika-Borwa ba tla be ba se sa na lebaka la go se boutele mokgatlo wa rena wo mobotse wa ANC, ge re ba thušitše ka dilo tše. Ke a leboga. (Translation of Sepedi paragraph follows.)
[Chairperson, before I say thank you, let me indicate that there will be no reason for South Africans not to vote for the ANC this glorious party of ours, for we have assisted them in many things. I thank you.]
The DEPUTY MINISTER OF TOURISM: Hon Chairperson, in line with the recently launched local government manifesto 2016, tourism advances people‘s power through local government. People and not products
17 MAY 2016 PAGE: 93 of 211 only are our most important assets in this industry. Tourism is therefore people driven and we as the national Department of Tourism aim to create an environment for sustainable employment and economic growth. Economic development is not possible without people development. Through giving expression to the local government manifesto, we aim to fulfil our core mandate as alluded to by the national Minister.
By the end of 2014 we had made tremendous growth and we are proud because the national government has also identified tourism as one of the pillars for inclusive growth in South Africa. Our link to the people is through local government which is the sphere of government closest to the delivery of our mandate. It is through this vehicle that we can advance people‘s power through tourism. Local government provides core utilities and it further operates attractions like museums, art galleries, convention centres, tours and other amenities, therefore local government for us plays a pivotal role in the economic and social development of our communities. So, we are very glad about the commitment that was demonstrated by Salga earlier on and we are looking into the issue of transforming this sector which is imperative to us in promoting inclusivity.
Our department promotes sustainability and good governance which includes initiatives to transform the sector, promote the practice of responsible tourism and unlocking of tourism economic development at local government level. The majority of workers in this industry
17 MAY 2016 PAGE: 94 of 211 are women and yet many of these women are relegated to menial and junior roles within the establishments.
The establishment of our women in tourism in 2014 aimed at addressing the economic inequalities and challenges faced by women within the sector has proven to be very successful with provincial chapters that have been encouraged and constituted. We recently launched also an executive development programme that the hon Makue indicated earlier on. This programme is aimed at building strong business skills and leadership capabilities amongst black women in the tourism sector to lead key parts in the tourism businesses and form a pool of top leadership entrepreneurs and industrialists in this sector.
The local government capacity building programme that we are doing, and I hope that it also responds to Comrade Dikgale, that it is an integrated approach on our capacity building for the public sector, private sector and community representatives which includes traditional leaders and counsellors as well as NGOs. Within this programme we have seven identified rural municipalities:
Bushbuckridge is one of them, KwaMsane in Maloti Drakensberg route,
Vhembe, Dr Ruth Segomotsi Mpati, Ngaka Modiri Molema, Nkomazi and Z
F Mgcawu. These seven rural municipalities have indicated for us their buy in into rural local government tourism.
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The highlights of this programme as we have done already has included the establishment of local tourism organisations in three municipalities, two interim in the North West and one permanent in
Bushbuckridge. A business breakfast was also hosted by the Local
Tourism Organisation and they are now planning to host local municipality business and tourism awards.
The project now has its footprint in eight provinces and operates in partnership with the University of SA which follows with a monitoring and evaluation tool that allows us to identify the impact as well as future needs. Universities in other provinces are also involved in continuous empowerment of local municipalities as follow up in. In 2016-17 the programme will be implemented in eight municipalities.
Our department has also established an enterprise development project management following the conclusion of the tourism enterprise programme contract on 31 March 2016. The enterprise programme will focus on development of the online information portal, business advisory services, tourism incubator hubs establishment and stakeholder engagement which encompasses community participation as was mentioned.
We will also continue to support 100 rural tourism enterprises with coaching and mentorship and in the iota years the number will increase and will not be limited to rural communities. We continue
17 MAY 2016 PAGE: 96 of 211 our skills development programme which includes but not limited to the tour guides play a key role as frontline professionals, information givers, entrepreneurs and destination marketers. We have a capacity building programme that is aimed at improving the levels of services rendered by existing tourism guides throughout South
Africa. We are also developing an app that will be a one stop shop to get hold of our tour guides.
Our Chefs Programmes, Tourism Ambassador Programme, Somilia
Programme, Food Safety Assurers Programme have all proven success with a lot of young people who have gone through the programmes having being absorbed into permanent employment whilst others are able t start their own businesses. Our national Tourism Careers Expo which we intend to continue working on as the department as one of our flagship programmes is gaining a lot of momentum and will be held in Bloemfontein this year on 29 September to 01 October. It is expected that the event will service more than 8 000 participants with students and unemployed graduates, educators and delegates from the industry itself with exhibitors and media houses.
We also have an upcoming niche market that we are looking at unlocking a lot more potential of tourism under the oceans economy initiative. Here we are looking at ocean safaris, boat based activities and blue flag bridges. In the process the coastal districts and local municipalities will be engaged. We are excited that tourism is becoming much more than a statistics but that it becomes a unifying energy and a catalyst for social cohesion and we
17 MAY 2016 PAGE: 97 of 211 are looking forward to more partnerships with local government. We are looking forward to more partnerships with the industry and at the same time we have developed much more niche markets which is indicative of the social inclusion and cohesion that we seek to translate as part of tourism.
We are therefore advancing peoples power and we are moving South
Africa forward. I thank you. [Applause.]
Mr F T DAU: (LIMPOPO: CHAIRPERSON-ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT, ENVIRONMENT
& TOURISM): Hon Chairperson, hon Minister, hon Deputy Minister, hon members, I greet you. With South Africa firmly established as a global leisure destination and the positioning of tourism in the
National Development Plan as one of the main economic sectors, numerous opportunities for tourism growth still need to be explored.
For Limpopo in particular, an opportunity to further expand our lead in the domestic market exist. Limpopo currently has 23% share of the total domestic trips taken in South Africa and a 17,2% share of international visitors
As we acknowledge our number one position in the domestic market negative space, we are committed to further analyse these trends to ensure we expand on this growth.
Hon Minister, Limpopo natural and cultural resources located within vast wilderness and rural settings remains our competitive
17 MAY 2016 PAGE: 98 of 211 advantage. The uniqueness of Limpopo‘s attraction is also recognised by the fact that two national orders have their roots in Limpopo.
These are the Order of Mapungubwe, which is awarded for excellence and exceptional achievement and the Order of the Boabab, which is awarded for a distinguished service that goes beyond the call of duty. The strategic location of the province furthermore supports the vision to create a boundless tourist destination with our neighbouring countries Botswana, Zimbabwe and Mozambique.
Supplementing the broader biodiversity of the region and the range of tourism products at the offer in Limpopo, the diversity of parks, including the Kruger National Park, two World Heritage Sites and three United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural
Organisation , Unesco, registered biosphere reserves firmly established the comparative advantage that Limpopo has within the region. These destinations are relatively large in size and comparison to other destinations and present unique mountain landscapes with high scenic value.
In addition, a diverse number of game species, including the big five and a number of endangered and indigenous game species enhances the provinces competitive edge in the wildlife industry. This supports the fact that Limpopo remains the preferred hunting destination, a growing industry worth R7,2 billion. The inclusion of the Hunting and Safari cluster as one of the six tourism clusters in our provincial tourism growth strategy is therefore imperative.
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Collaborating marketing initiatives require strong partnership agreements with the broader tourism industry and our communities.
The department therefore committed through a restructured tourism agency to prioritise its efforts towards marketing and supporting our local government structures and community tourism associations in positioning Limpopo as a preferred destination. This resulted in a revision process of the Limpopo Tourism Act that will be aligned with the new directive of the Limpopo Tourism Agency and the revised
Tourism Act and National Tourism Sector Strategy revision currently underway.
With strong emphasis on domestic travel, Limpopo can offer unique experiences not only for the niche tourism markets, for example,
Adventure and Avitourism, but also to the mass tourism markets.
Apart from events and conferencing, accessible and affordable recreation facilities should be facilitated to increase in local travel. Opportunities for community private public partnership programmes should be optimised and facilitated to acquire the necessary investment in tourism infrastructure, job opportunities, skills development and transformation programmes.
It is within this spirit that the department embarked on a dedicated programme to support transformation and youth development in tourism. Through this programme, the department provided support to
60 tourism Small, Medium Macro-sized Enterprises, SMMEs, 85 previously disadvantaged individuals and placed 36 unemployed youth
17 MAY 2016 PAGE: 100 of 211 at tourism establishments to gain experience in the hospitality industry. To enhance this programme in the 2016-17 financial year, the department committed additional resources to ensure tourism capacity building programmes are expanded to local government level within community tourism projects and youth development in the tourism industry.
With the extent of the Green Economy and Rural Tourism Development
Strategy, Limpopo ecotourism offerings and rural nature provide numerous tourism opportunities still to be explored. Water conservation and applying responsible tourism practises are crucial elements to manage in the fast changing climate conditions we are currently experiencing. This I believe our guest will experience during their visit to Limpopo.
Hon Chairperson, hon Minister, apart from ensuring service excellence and everlasting experiences, the safety of our tourists and wildlife is of utmost importance. We need to stand united against the poaching of our rhinos. This war must be won.
Our children must have the privilege to experience our wildlife in its natural state. The active participation of our rural communities and the private industry is crucial in safe guarding this valuable resource. The integration of certain programmes between the
Department of Tourism and the Department of Environmental Affairs is
17 MAY 2016 PAGE: 101 of 211 therefore crucial to ensure that Limpopo remains providing a sustainable wildlife product offering to our visitors.
In striving to build our tourism dream; certain challenges still need to be addressed. These are: Inadequate tourism staff structures on provincial and municipal level to drive the tourism agenda. To meet requirements as outlined in the National Tourism Sector
Strategy, and to position tourism as an important economic sector as directed in the National Development Plan, adequate resource capacity is required. With the limited budget allocations to perform this core function remains a challenge.
To address the capacity challenges on rural tourism product level, as well as to municipal level, more human and financial resources need to be dedicated. The province has numerous community tourism projects that were funded through the social responsibility initiatives that are not able to exist sustainably. A dedicated strategy should be agreed upon in how government will support these projects that were initially funded through the Summer Research
Internship, SRI Programme.
In dominantly rural provinces, road access is critical to enhance tourist flow. Dedicated financial resources are required to improve the provincial road network so that access to our icons and community tourism projects are in action to be improved. Access via air and rail furthermore hampers tourist flow to Limpopo.
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Partnerships with Transnet, our airlines and the Department of
Tourism are crucial.
An aspect that has a severe impact on tourism product development in
Limpopo is the continuous unresolved land claims. Not having secure land tenure or confirmation on who the rightfully beneficiaries are, tourism investment in these areas are negatively affected.
Uncoordinated land use planning between national and provincial departments remains a challenge. Simple Integrated Land Use
Orchestrator, Silo, planning has a direct impact on land use conflicts on local level where ad hoc developments are approved on national level that result in direct conflict with other developments planned on local level, eg, unique tourism destinations.
Acknowledging that there are still challenges to overcome, the province reaffirms its position to become the preferred tourist destination. To continue offering unique products and services that clearly differentiates Limpopo from other tourist destinations. To leave long lasting memories of unique experiences. To always provide excellent services and outstanding hospitality. To take cognisance of the vulnerability of our natural resources within a fast changing environmental and climate conditions. To protect our wildlife in its natural form so that our children can also have the opportunity ...
Thank you, Chairperson. [Time expired.] [Applause.]
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Ms B SCHÄFER (Western Cape): Chairperson, hon Minister, Hanekom,
Deputy Minister, hon members, ladies and gentlemen, good afternoon.
It‘s a pleasure to be here today to talk about a sector of the economy that showed a 15% growth in the first calendar month of the year. In real terms, that equates to 1 million tourist arrivals in
South Africa. This is certainly something to celebrate, Minister
Hanekom – but this was not the case 18 months ago, nor was it the case a year ago.
Last year was a challenging one for tourism, not only in our province, but across South Africa, as well. The onerous visa regulations that were introduced by Minister Gigaba in October 2014 changed the trajectory within a short space of time. It cost our economy dearly. It cost South Africans thousands of jobs, and it set the tourism sector growth back by years. It was the first time we had seen a plummeting of visitor arrivals and the subsequent negative growth of 6,8% to South Africa. As a result, reports stated that 2015‘s negative performance literally whipped out two years‘ worth of tourism growth.
Never mind the fact that Minister Gigaba thought for a moment that he was Minister of two portfolios, when he blurted out numbers, releasing bogus data to the press in a weak attempt to prove the worth of his onerous regulations. Minister Hanekom, kudos to you for calmly holding your own. It has been a battle of wills, but don‘t worry, your credibility remains strong. My advice to Minister Gigaba
17 MAY 2016 PAGE: 104 of 211 is to stay out of tourism. He has no idea how this sector works.
Leave this to Minister Hanekom to manage. He does a good job.
While you all mumble and say, ―Let‘s move on from here‖, I feel it‘s particularly important to paint the reality of that very picture.
South African Tourism estimated that South Africa lost R7,51 billion in revenue over that time. Furthermore, Grant Thornton has estimated that South Africa will continue to lose 578 000 foreign tourists per annum as long as these regulations are not scrapped. That‘s the reality. That‘s a fact. Scrap the visa regulations that affect tourists, I say.
The Western Cape has driven this fight against the onerous regulations since their inception, and thankfully, we are seeing some parts of the regulations having been lifted. I would like to thank the industry and the stakeholders and Minister Hanekom for supporting our fight against these regulations. The result of these concessions and the sheer resilience of the sector saw a record number of tourist arrivals move through South Africa and Cape Town
International Airport. Remarkably, arrivals from China grew by 93% after travel agents in China could apply for visas on behalf of their clients. We are also experiencing an astounding 200% increase in the number of visitors from Japan.
Tourism is the fastest-growing sector in the Western Cape, employing
204 000 residents in formal jobs. Through Project Khulisa, our
17 MAY 2016 PAGE: 105 of 211 focused approach to sectors in the economy that produce the greatest amount of jobs and growth, we are working to add a further 100 000 jobs through tourism in this province. How, you may ask, will we be able to create so many jobs? Tourism is not just waiting for a plane to land and then counting the number of visitors in an airport. It is much more strategic than that. It must be reactive, engaged and marketed.
The Western Cape has developed a data and real-time intelligence dashboard to ensure the province can respond to global trends. The
Western Cape maximises culture and heritage tourism in our province through a Madiba Legacy Tourism Route. We position the Western Cape as Africa‘s cycling capital by ensuring that we have world-class leisure cycling infrastructure and systems, and we continue to market the province as a leading food and wine destination. Lastly, we have launched the Cape Town Air Access strategy. This is a collaboration between the Western Cape provincial government, the
City of Cape Town, Airports Company South Africa, Acsa, Cape Town
Tourism, Wesgro, and the private sector, to link Cape Town to major global hubs.
Since its establishment six months ago, Cape Town Air Access has already had several successes. In February, Ethiopian Airlines added two nonstop flights from Addis Ababa, bringing the total number of services between our cities to nine. Turkish Airlines flies nonstop, daily, from Istanbul, since October. KLM has upped its frequencies
17 MAY 2016 PAGE: 106 of 211 to a year-round, daily service from Amsterdam. This will increase
Cape Town‘s international connectivity to major global hubs in
Europe, North America, Asia and India.
SA Airlink will fly nonstop five times weekly from Maun, Botswana, from 11 March. The London route will gain additional capacity next summer with three direct flights from Gatwick, operated by Thomas
Cook. In yet another direct Cape Town route announcement, Kenyan
Airways is the latest airline to do so, with a flight three times a week between Nairobi and Cape Town coming into effect in July 2016.
The Western Cape has launched the Cycle Tourism Framework, which is the first step towards a cycling tourism strategy. Events, such as the Cape Town Cycle Tour, the Absa Cape Epic and the Cape Rouleur, generate in excess of R750 million for the Western Cape‘s economy, each year. Visitors travel from all over the world to take part in these flagship events.
To boost our regional tourism, the Western Cape is busy developing a new, iconic cycling route, stretching from Cape Town to Plettenberg
Bay. The complete route is part of a five-year plan, but the goal is to have the first, 160 km phase between Plettenberg Bay and Mossel
Bay completed by 2017. This project aims to attract 100 000 cycling tourists to the Western Cape, each year. It also opens up the possibility of growing the cycling economy – including in
17 MAY 2016 PAGE: 107 of 211 accommodation, bike servicing and restaurants – along the full length of the route.
Our meetings industry plays an equally important part in our tourism sector in the province. The demand for conferences has grown rapidly, and, to date, the Western Cape has already secured conference bids worth almost R2 billion. A venue such as the Cape
Town International Convention Centre, CTICC, has created and sustained more than 91 000 direct and indirect jobs since its inception 12 years ago. In the 2014-15 year, the CTICC created over
8 000 jobs - in one year - and contributed R3,4 billion to GDP and
R3,1 billion to the regional GDP.
We have also seen the opening of the new Century City Conference
Centre and Hotel – a R1 billion investment by private business to meet the current demands. Just two of our secured conferences, the
World Ophthalmology Congress, in 2020, and the International Fiscal
Association Annual Congress, in 2022, will bring 16 300 delegates to our province and generate an excess of R262 million for our economy.
We cannot ignore this important contribution to the tourism economy of the Western Cape.
The tourism sector is key to the Western Cape‘s economy. With this focused approach and clear plan of action on how we plan to grow the tourism sector aggressively, we believe that our objectives will be met. These are to increase the annual number of international
17 MAY 2016 PAGE: 108 of 211 arrivals from 1,56 million to 2,1 million; to increase our annual foreign direct spend from R16,7 billion to R17,2 billion; to grow the number of the domestic market by 600 000 to 2,9 million; to increase the gross value added from the sector from R17 billion up to R28 billion; and finally, to increase the sector‘s contribution to GDP to 15% in the coming years.
By way of comment to the hon Makue, please get your facts straight when trying to spin cheap political points. Perhaps you‘d like to spend some time with me and our committee. We can actually update you on what the Western Cape is doing and how seriously we take tourism in this province.
To the other hon member, I think it‘s very important that, in this sector of the economy, we work together to create tourism for the whole of South Africa. I thank you. [Applause.]
Ms Z B NCITHA: Hon Chair, hon Hanekom, as well as Deputy Minister,
Tokozile Xasa, MECs that are present, representatives from SALGA, as well as the officials and our hon MPs. Before the speaker before me
I was thinking that we are the unitary state but when I was listening, I continued to feel like there is competition between the
Department of Tourism and the Western Cape. My apologies if I am picking the speaker wrongly. Straight to my speech, the Department of Tourism is charged with a very crucial mandate of serving as a catalyst tourist growth and development in South Africa. In line
17 MAY 2016 PAGE: 109 of 211 with the Vision 2030 of the National Development Plan, the tourism industry carries hope and aspirations of millions of South Africans, through its contribution to the Gross Domestic Programme of the country, job creation, SMMEs, and rural development. While other resource based industry such as agriculture, mining and manufacturing are shedding jobs, tourism is one sector making a positive growth to employment creation.
The accuracy of the collection of statistics under the offices of
South African Tourism Entity has come under question in the past.
However, such discrepancies cannot discount the vibrancy of the industry. In the medium term, the department plans to increase tourism arrival from 15 million in 2014 and improve the GDP contribution from 102 billion to 499 million by 2020 and subsequently created 225 jobs. These encouraging projections are as a result of the national tourism sector strategy of 2010 which is expected to gain more leverage in terms of the implementation of the
NDP. These achievements are as a result of the policy constantly created by the tourism Act 3 of 2014 at the department‘s needs to continuously review the national tourism sector strategy to ensure its policy alignment with the new Act.
Hon Chairperson, this policy co-ordination calls for a robust oversight from the select committee of trade, tourism and international relations - to ensure that we enforce the intergovernmental relation framework and assist the three spheres to
17 MAY 2016 PAGE: 110 of 211 work together for the benefit of our people. In the same vein hon
Chair, our committee will consider joint briefing with select committee dealing with Home Affairs so that industry concerns with regard to recent amendment to the Immigration Act are addressed accordingly without gaining cheap politics.
This is also consistent with the commitment of the trade tourism in terms of outcome 12 of 14 government priorities which is to integrate tourism priorities on other department sectors, including provincial and local government planning. This is also in keeping with the oversight role of the select committee to ensure that the department respond to the national policy directives. The tourism industry has particular problems with regulations of the Act which pronounce on specific requirements of an unabridged birth certificate for minors travelling in and out the country. A permission letter or an affidavit for minors not travelling with both parents as well as the provision for the in person collection of biometric data is required. Hon Chair, it is imperative that extra caution and delicate balance needs to be exercised in dealing with such issues as they have the potential to reverse the gain in employment creation and small business development in the country.
Hon Chair, the department has made remarkable progress on the number of issues which I want to highlight below. I want to applaud the department in dealing with transformation of the industry, and the development of tourism products in rural areas has been prioritised
17 MAY 2016 PAGE: 111 of 211 by the department as a key growth area. It is for this reason that the Expanded Public Works Programme should be monitored very closely as well as to support the rural tourism enterprise and emerging tourism businesses. Another intervention by the department is the development of tourism guide books and manuals in order to assist tour guides with indigenous knowledge plus enabling them to meet the requirements for the professional guides.
In accordance with the reporting of the department to try and address the transformation challenges in this sector, the department has developed a rural tourism strategy and special notes that have potential to stimulate growth and the rural tourism as it has been alluded to by the Deputy Minister. The South African tourism is expected to work even harder especially after it has fallen short in meeting the 1st and 2nd quarter targets of 464 687 and 524 683 tourists during 2015-16 financial year respectively.
The entity is expected to turn things around in an unfavourable economic condition to activate domestic tourism. However, the reconsideration made regarding the visa regulation and the weak rand show positively contributes towards positive growth in the international tourist arrival figures. Further more, the figure reported by Statistics SA indicates positive growth for the tourist arrival for the 2015 December period when compared with the same period in 2014. The entity also managed to attract 4, 5 billion and
17 MAY 2016 PAGE: 112 of 211
5, 8 billion of domestic direct spent against the targeted 5,
3 billion and 6, 6 billion for the 2nd and 3rd quarter respectively.
This target is also highly dependent on the number of domestic trips as well as their form of travel which in this case the majority of the trips taken were for the purpose of visiting family and friends.
This resulted in less spending for the restaurants and accommodation. There is a need for affordable package to be negotiated and package to grow the holiday trip segments of domestic tourism as it is more beneficiary for the economy. In this narrative hon Chairperson, it is clear that the domestic economic conditions are not helpful in improving domestic tourism.
In terms of the corporate governance, the National Department of
Tourism received a financial unqualified audit with material findings for 2014-15 financial years. It must be placed on record hon Chair, that the department met the expectation of the Auditor
General. When it comes to leadership, similar issues were raised in the previous financial year regarding the lack of IT support policy.
However, improvements and good co-operation governance commitments have been demonstrated by improvement in key risk areas notably, supply chain management and quality of performance reports. The
South African tourism entity also received a clean audit which we should also congratulate the board. Thank you. [Applause.] [Time
Expired.]
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Mr J J LONDT: Hon Ncitha, that was truly inspiring, now that we can wake up again. [Laughter.] Hon members, grabbing at straws and a thin silver lining comes to mind when I look at the Department of
Tourism in our current economic and political climate. The only positive that came out of the hon accused number one‘s weekend special during the end of last year was that a weakened rand makes the South Africa tourism package more attractive to international tourists. International tourists will get more value for their money when they visit South Africa and also get a good comedy show when they read our news and how we perform nationally. A lot has been said about the fiasco created by your colleague in Home Affairs with regards to the Visas so I will not belabour that point today.
However, for South Africa to really tap into the favourable conditions for international tourists, we also need to up our game locally.
We shouldn‘t just simply up our game locally for the international tourist, but also, and especially, for the domestic tourist.
On the other hand, the weakened rand is also making it more expensive for our own tourist in South Africa to travel within their own country. The additional R100 million announced during the state of the nation address and that is reflected in the budget earmarked towards domestic tourism is welcomed. However, these additional funding must be utilized in order to improve the domestic tourism
17 MAY 2016 PAGE: 114 of 211 market and also address the increased levels of unemployment.
National government cannot be the beginning and the end of driving tourism, especially domestic tourism. Transformation in the tourism sector will also not be realized if we do not get the buy in from everyone at all levels. Hon Minister, we have success stories of local tourism hotpots — but that wasn‘t due to any national intervention that was a local initiative. In order to have long term, lasting effects, will the Minister consider giving some of that funding earmarked for local tourism towards product development and destination marketing for rural areas in order to address the limited geographic spread. Tourism in our beautiful country can and should play a more prominent role in addressing our high unemployment and weak economy. Hon Minister, It is up to you to take that space. I thank you.
Mr M KHAWULA: Hon House Chairperson, hon Minister, hon Deputy
Minister, hon MECs and colleagues, tourism is one of the industries that contribute a lot to the country‘s GDP and the economy. Tourism also cuts across many sectors of the economy. When something happens in one sector perceived to be at a distance it may not be like that with its impact on the tourism market. Our tourism market as a country went down by 6,8% in 2015. The imposed visa and stiff travel documentation requirement to all entries in the country in 2015 had a contribution to this downfall. The requirements were indeed short
17 MAY 2016 PAGE: 115 of 211 lived but the lasting effects of the requirements and the impacts on the tourism market had a long lifespan.
The lifespan of hon Van Rooyen as the Minister of Finance might have been very short but the impact on the downward spiral of the economy had devastating long-life effects. The efforts and threats of imminent arrest towards current Minister of Finance Pravin Gorhan might have been short lived but the impact into the economic cause by such shenanigans have a devastating long-lasting effect. These latest developments have seen the rand down spiralling once more in the world markets.
Whilst the Minister is reporting a positive outlook of the country‘s tourism market once more in 2016, the fact of the matter is that some ground has been lost in the market due to poor decisions affecting the market in 2015. That lost ground has costs some people jobs, their businesses and has cost some South Africans a livelihood.
In this year‘s debate I just want to plead the case of KwaZulu-Natal with hon Minister. KwaZulu-Natal is very rich with attraction points with a potential boom in the tourism market. I do not think that the country is giving these enough and considerable attention. Up north the province of KwaZulu-Natal, we have the valley of kings, eMakhosini Valley, where seven of the Zulu kings before and after
King Shaka are buried.
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The province is housing one of the biggest territories of the Big
Five in Hluhluwe. The province has a battle site at Isandlwana where the mighty British army was defeated for the first time by an
African nation in 1879. There are many other battlefields around the area between Vryheid and Ladysmith. One of the greatest commanders to have ever lived in human history, King Shaka kaSenzangakhona is supposedly buried in Stanger. The first Black President of South
Africa, a world icon, was captured in Howick for the Rivonia Trial that so the banning of political parties.
The province boasts two of the World Heritage Sites, Isimangaliso
Wetland Park and the Drakensberg Mountains. Hon Minister, I can go on and on but the question is, what is your department doing about all these in order to benefit the people of KwaZulu-Natal and South
Africa from this treasure? It is a good thing that transformation of the department is prioritised as top in the list of the programmes of the department but such transformation must be accompanied with tangible programmes of empowerment and financial assistance.
The tourism market is a big friend of the property industry even if tourism can prioritise the transformation of tourism market if there are no changes to transformation in the property industry, tourism will not benefit much. Government must have the wholesome approach into these matters. I thank you. [Applause.]
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Mr B G NTHEBE: Hon Chair, hon Minister, Deputy Minister and your entire delegation, Members of Parliament and distinguished guests, this is the kind of enthusiasm that we create from our select committee hon Minister. You must thank the leadership of hon Makue that hon Khawula can become so optimistic about the future and clap hands as he walk to sit down. What a time to be debating Budget Vote
33 Tourism, Minister. It is an opportune moment to draw stock of what we are doing as a country to ensure a sector called tourism which is booming. A sector we all appreciate that it is one of the job drivers we desperately need to see working.
South Africa should tap into the possibility available in the Sub-
Saharan space Minister because we want to believe that we have got climate that is conducive, natural resources that we so need and motivated people. Let us also congratulate, once more, the beautiful hosting of Tourism Indaba in the City of eThekwini, a city led by the ANC-led government which we will continue to make sure that we win, moving forward so that we become progressive in how we implement.
South Africa continues to be an excellent tourist destination for the continent and globally and we appreciate that. We appreciate the growth that we begin to record in tourism and I think later on I will also speak on this. In the World Economic Forum that was held recently, Hendrick du Toit from Investec spoke at length about how
17 MAY 2016 PAGE: 118 of 211 tourism is beginning to boom in our country and how we must begin to appreciate it and move along in unison.
We should also never stop congratulating you Minister and your team on highly successful tourism Indaba hosted by eThekwini. We went there as a select committee and saw wonders and saw how optimistic was everybody there and willing to work with us to ensure that we make this a success. We are quite proud of what you can be able to do together with your proud team of South Africans.
Quite explicitly appreciated is the growth of African buyers whom we recorded in the Indaba. This is quite ecstatic from our part because this is Africa Month. We are celebrating Africa Month. We saw a spark in the African buyers who were part of the Indaba. This is part of the African penetration of the market that we want to see happening in future so that as we go the domestic tourism we also penetrate intra-African trades that we want to see happening.
African buyers who were in the Indaba were optimistic about the packages that we have for them and what they will benefit in the long future. This is something that we must appreciate all of us.
This is something to be celebrated because consistent with the commitment of Agenda 2063, we are having hands on deck building
South Africa we want. We want to reiterate that if Africa must rise, then we must begin to build blocks domestically, continentally and subsequently be competitive globally.
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Through this increase of African buyers, we are sure that we are resolving issues of intra-African trade market penetration which will open up markets of approximately six million markets in Africa alone. That will make sure that we blossom. Our emerging players in the tourism sector are excited about the potential of growth that is so visible. We must continue to look into our product packages and improve on them so that we maintain the competitive urge that we need as the country.
Just a few moments so that we can reflect on what other members were saying. However our intention as we came here was to become optimistic and not respond to issues that are thrown haphazardly.
Hon Faber, through you Chair, came here and said transformation in the sport sector is so bad and we should not take that into the tourism sector. Part of our responsibility as this government is to make sure that we transform the sector that it becomes inclusive; it implements and shows the demographics of South Africa. This will result to our people taking pride and ownership of their tourism sector.
There is a person who stays less than a kilometre from Sun City, I am from the North West, but that person has never been to Sun City.
He has never been able to reap the rewards that this democracy has been able to bring to the fore. Entrepreneur and small business will not strive if we do not become inclusive and not the transform the
17 MAY 2016 PAGE: 120 of 211 sector so that our people can be able to tap into possibilities that are there.
Hon Mabuyakhulu‘s KwaZulu-Natal Tourism Master Plan, in his absence, must be appreciated hon Minister and we want to assume that you are also assisting other provinces to follow suite so that we have a long plan of how we want to shape our tourism moving forward. How do we seek to capture Africa in the main and catalytic projects that are beginning to emerge? Hon Mogotsi, in his absence, should have been taken along to Isimangaliso so that she saw younger boys from me becoming owners of their tourism products. They were even given cars and are tourist guides. They know what is expected from them and are so in charge and we are appreciative of that.
Hon Deputy Minister, we want to appreciate that tourism is a people‘s driven sector and we want to see that appearing in whatever that we do. I am from the North West and the intention to assist
Ngaka Modiri Molema is appreciated hon Minister. We know that the vast majority of our people surrounding the parks in North West are beginning to benefit into the tourism. We are aware of that and people are appreciative.
The revitalisation of the Manyane Game Reserve in Mafeking, the capital city, through your department, is appreciated. Continue to support the 100 rural tourism enterprises that we want to do. Hon
Chair of Limpopo, please continue to be competitive as Limpopo even though we are not in the coastal area, North West also but we have
17 MAY 2016 PAGE: 121 of 211 the big five and we are using it as competitive advantage over
KwaZulu-Natal and the other coastal areas.
Hon Schafer, Minister Hanekom says you want to thank him for supporting your fight. Your fight?
Ms B SCHAFER: It was a big fight.
Mr B G NTHEBE: Your fight?
Ms B SCHAFER: Yes, it was a big fight.
Mr B G NTHEBE: You see this is a problem. They are not even shy to name the Madiba Legacy Tourism Route after Tony Leon because the same Tony Leon stood up and rejected the same Constitution that they claim to be protecting today. [Applause.] Why are they not doing that? They chose Madiba, an ANC product so that it can give them mileage. We want to tell you that Madiba remains, even in his revolutionary grave, an ANC member. [Applause.]
Employment opportunity inclusive and transformation sector is not there in the Western Cape. Tap into the possibilities that you are beginning to see in other provinces. If you want to go to Limpopo now many women – by the way hon Chair, in Africa 70% of the women are farmers. They want to tap into the resources and possibilities that we create in the tourism sector. We should, for instance, sell
17 MAY 2016 PAGE: 122 of 211 muringa so that we cure this problem that we have in the Western
Cape. [Laughter.]
We want to reject the statement that the DA released claiming they have the biggest Members of Parliament of colour because they have skills and this is the same argument that they put forward when we demand transformation sector. You cannot buy skills from Shoprite.
You acquire skills from the process of learning and skilling yourself. So, let us give our people opportunities so that they become owners of the means of production.
Hon Londt, you nationally is not the beginning and end of tourism.
Do you know that in Khayelitsha that refuse removal is not collected? They are this close to blame in the national government and say this is a national competency. When national intervenes they then come back and say it is not a beginning and end of tourism.
[Time expired.] [Applause.]
The MINISTER OF TOURISM: Chairperson, I trust that, because I didn‘t quite use my 12 minutes, you will give me just a little bit more than five minutes.
Mooi gepraat, kamerade en kollegas, mooi gepraat. [You spoke well, comrades and colleagues.]
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You all did very well. In the short time that I have, I am just going to pick up some of the points and try and refer to all of the speakers, starting off with the hon Makue. I can only agree with the many things that you said, but you reminded us of how much this ANC- led government is doing to make our country a better place for everyone. So, thank you for that. [Interjections.] Our department is passionately driven to not only make tourism grow but to bring a better life for all South Africans.
Hon Faber, without commenting on everything you said, the Department of Home Affairs is currently looking at Visa on Arrival and modernising its entire system, and I think that is good news. Just as a matter of information, though, the Minister of Home Affairs also recently announced that Russian citizens coming to South Africa for holidays no longer need visas, so we are making systematic progress in our discussions with the Department of Home Affairs, and we are working together very well.
The hon Mabuyakhulu is no longer with us here, but I must say that I agree with many of the things he said. Indeed, the Tourism Indaba was a resounding success. We have to thank the province of KwaZulu-
Natal and the City of eThekwini for hosting this magnificent event.
Let me also congratulate Mike Mabuyakhulu for being an outstanding
MEC for Tourism. He is really the dean amongst the MECs for Tourism.
[Applause.] We have to congratulate him for his energetic leadership in driving tourism in the KwaZulu-Natal province.
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The EFF, Chairperson, I am so sorry that the young comrade from the
EFF was asked to leave the room because I really wanted to hear what she had to say. The little bit that I heard – of course, I couldn‘t quite work out what she was saying. The problem with the EFF, though, is that whilst all of us here agree that we have to be tourism ambassadors, whilst we all agree that we have to be united in trying to bring tourism to our country – since Dr Motsoaledi has just arrived – the EFF is worse for tourism than Ebola was for tourism. [Interjections.] It is one of the biggest diseases affecting tourism because when you threaten to take over a democratically elected government with guns, you can only be sending out the wrong signal to the world. That is bad news for tourism.
Cllr Cavanagh ... did I get your name correct? Sorry. Let me just say that I take your point very seriously, the point of exploring and exploiting new source markets, but let me talk about the African market in particular. What we have seen January and February is growth in all markets: SADC markets, the rest of Africa, Europe, the
Americas, and Asia. Interestingly, Nigeria was 36% up in February this year compared to February last year. So, we have seen serious growth from the African continent. Kenya was 15% up, but, point taken, we must look at some of the nontraditional markets, such as the Middle East, for example, and Southeast Asia.
Hon Dikgale, we really take your points about communities benefiting from rural tourism and the potential that tourism holds to offer
17 MAY 2016 PAGE: 125 of 211 real, tangible benefits to rural communities. We have some outstanding examples, I must say. The Nahakwe Lodge in Limpopo province – I just had a little scan –is one of the social responsibility implementation projects. As I said earlier on, we have some real serious challenges with some of our social responsibility implementation projects; we know about them. We are trying to deal with them, but there are also some great success stories. We launched the Nahakwe Lodge just over a year ago. On
TripAdvisor, it gets four stars for its cuisine; on Facebook, it gets four stars for accommodation. It is a community-owned lodge.
There are some great success stories.
In the North West Province, Madikwe – that is what it is. It is a community-facilitated process, a real partnership between community, government and private sector. So, it is clear that we have to do all we can to exploit the great opportunities there are in our rural areas because that is where some of the greatest beauty lies, some of the greatest cultural experiences lie, so investing more in our rural areas – yes! The answer is yes.
My dear Deputy Minister, thank you for reminding us that tourism is more than statistics but, especially, for reminding us that through tourism, we are advancing people‘s power. Thank you for that. Indeed we are.
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The hon Skhosana Ka Mahlangu, where are you? Thank you for the points that you made. We do have some shining examples – other shining examples – of what this ANC-led government has done to change the lives of people, not only through tourism but through land reform. There we have the Makuleke community as a shining example where, through our land reform programme, through restitution, we restored 25 000 hectare to the Makuleke community, and there are now luxury lodges being run on this community-owned land. This is another shining example of how the ANC, over the years, has been transforming our country systematically, creating opportunity for people, making this country a better place and creating greater equity. It is a long road that we still have to travel, but we are on that road.
Hon members, I must say that I cannot see any other party being able to do it. [Interjections.] We are ... [Applause.] ... this party of ours, it is the difficult balance – striking that balance between economic growth, doing what is good for our economy and ensuring that we continue with our social programmes, doing the difficult things that Minister Motsoaledi has to do, but advancing systematically as we go ahead, and finding the balance between transformation, which is an imperative for economic growth. No other party will be able to find the balance as successfully as the ANC has and the ANC will continue to do.
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Hon Schafer, I think some of your points are well taken, but you corrected somebody for wrong figures. Just a correction on your figures – I just checked now. Japan did not have the dramatic increase that you are talking about. In fact, in February this year, we had 1 646 visitors in Japan. In February last year, there were
1 444. That is not an increase of 200%. Just check those figures.
Let me just say that we should not fall into the trap of blaming everything that happened in 2015 on the visas. That is not true.
Many of the countries that declined were visa-exempt countries, where the visa wasn‘t a factor; Ebola was the biggest single factor affecting the Chinese source market. Let‘s be honest about the situation.
Right now, of course, we, the ANC, are prepared to forever correct our policies, amend our policies because we are a responsible and responsive party. That is what we are. [Interjections.] That is what we did.
To the hon Ncitha, thank you. Let me say, as you were speaking, you reminded me of one thing: the fundamental aims and objectives of the
ANC. Our aim is to unite all the people of South Africa. No other party can do it for the complete liberation from all forms of discrimination and oppression. We are doing it. It is not an easy task, but we are doing it slowly, systematically and responsibly.
So, it is not an easy task, but that is our commitment. Amongst the
MECs for Tourism, we are united – even Alan Winde from the Western
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Cape. We are one – the MECs – and we want to be one. So, we are very pleased that we have unity amongst the MECs irrespective of which party they come from.
That is what the ANC is about: uniting the people of South Africa.
We sometimes fall in the trap of, perhaps, getting a little excited when the political discourse happens, but we should never lose track of the fact that our fundamental aim is to unite all the people of
South Africa. We must never forget that, comrades. [Interjections.]
Let me just say, I agree on the comments of domestic tourism, and I have to agree with the comments on KwaZulu-Natal from our dear IFP friend from KwaZulu-Natal. Let‘s give him a big round of applause.
You didn‘t do it when he spoke. [Applause.] Really, he spoke so well, and you didn‘t applaud. What is wrong with you? KwaZulu-Natal is a beautiful province. Actually, it has so much in one province.
It has the coastline, it has the Big Five, and it has culture and heritage tourism like few provinces can offer. So, really, I mean we just have to say there is one of the many gems of our country. Hon
Makue, we need to do more to exploit the potential that we have throughout our country.
Let me conclude by talking about the iSimangaliso Wetland Park. That is another shining example of community partnership really benefiting people. The declaration of that as a World Heritage Site
17 MAY 2016 PAGE: 129 of 211 and the many activities on the iSimangaliso Wetland site have brought huge benefits to local communities.
The hon Nthebe, let me just say you rounded off nicely. I am not even sure why I am speaking, but when I see the young talent in the
ANC, I know that I can quite easily retire from my job as Minister of Tourism. [Applause.] There are many waiting to take over from me.
Thank you, Chairperson. [Applause.]
Debate concluded.
The MINISTER OF HEALTH: Hon House Chairperson, colleague Deputy
Minister of Health, Dr Joe Pahla, Cabinet colleagues, Chairperson of
Select Committee on Social Services, Ms Lindiwe Dlamini, my colleagues the MECs of health present here today, hon members, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen good afternoon or good evening.
It is a great honour for me to present the 2016-17 budget for the
National Department of Health for consideration approval of this
House. Hon members, in December last year, we released a White Paper on NHI the National Health Insurance. Three month prior to that, a high level meeting of heads of states at the United Nation General
Assembly has adopted the 17 Sustainable Development Goals of the world. They called it an agenda of unprecedented scope and significance.
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Goal number 3.8 says, countries must introduce a system of universal coverage within their health systems. I have heard many people, especially members of the opposition, wrongly referring to universal health coverage as universal healthcare. The two mean different things: universal health coverage specifically means a health financing system where funds are pulled together to finance access to good affordable health for all on equal basis, whereas universal healthcare simply means providing some form of healthcare to all citizens but mostly on very unequal basis and with those not on medical aids not having any financial risk protection against healthcare expenditure.
In South Africa today, the pulling of funds is done in a form of medical aids but only for a selected few, to be precise, the system affords access to good quality but unaffordable health to only 16% of the population. Universal as the word implies means all and by all we mean all citizens not just a selected few like me and you in this House. That is what NHI stands to abolish, no body must be left behind from that type of financial risk protection. That is what the
Constitution in the Bill of Rights Section 27 intended us to do.
In the National Development Plan, NDP, amongst other things that health must do by 2030, is the implementation of universal health coverage or NHI, but the NDP says that South Africa must solve two problems in order to usher in the era of National health Insurance.
Firstly, it says South Africa must solve the problem of exorbitant
17 MAY 2016 PAGE: 131 of 211 cost of private healthcare. Last week in the NA I outlined this exorbitant cost which many South Africans have to endure whenever they seek private healthcare and I pointed out that it is impossible to sustain.
At the Health Market Inquiry being conducted by the former Chief
Justice, Sandile Nqcobo, into the cost of private healthcare in
South Africa, these exorbitant costs were alluded to by a body no less that the World Health Organisation as well as the OECD or
Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development from Europe.
Other South African health entities as well as patients and some members of the medical profession also alluded to these exorbitant costs. We are awaiting a final report and recommendation in December this year.
The second problem which the NDP says we must solve is the serious challenge of efficiency and quality in the public healthcare system.
Because of these two problems, that means the exorbitant cost of private healthcare and challenges of quality and efficiency in public health. The second paragraph of the White Paper on NHI deliberately states that NHI is a substantial policy shift that will necessitate a massive - and I repeat - a massive reorganisation of the healthcare system both public and private.
As part of this massive reorganisation, the public health system needs to be strengthened and be turned into an efficient machine.
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There are several programmes already in motion in order to achieve this. The main one is the Operation Phakisa Ideal Clinic Realisation
Model which seeks to turn primary healthcare clinics in our country into an ideal status which we will be proud of. For a clinic to be ideal it should not easily run out of drugs, there shouldn‘t be long queues, it should be very clean, there must be infection control and many other good things. This running out of drugs phenomena known as drugs stockout is a serious challenge to us. We have been battling with this challenge for some time now. It is exacerbated by the fact that just 12 years ago, in 2004, we had only 400 000 people on
Antiretrovirals, ARVs. Today we have 3,4 million people on ARVs collecting them everyday or every month in our health facilities.
When you add the explosion of diabetes, high blood pressure and other non-communicable diseases you have a serious congestion in our clinics which over stretches our stock.
In order to solve this problem, we have implemented what we call SVS or Stock Visibility System in our primary healthcare facilities. It is a mobile application that healthcare professionals use to scan medicine barcodes and enter stock levels of ARVs, TB medication and vaccine. This information is in real time and is available at any geographic location via the web. Six of our provinces have this SVS or Stock Visibility System covering 1900 or 60% of our clinics.
Our plan is that all clinics in our country, that means 100%, will be on this system within the next three months. Another programme
17 MAY 2016 PAGE: 133 of 211 that we need to start we need to ensure rational use of medicine. In
November last year we launched a program called Standard Treatment
Guidelines. This program is a mobile application to disseminate guidelines starting with primary health standard treatment guidelines. This application is freely available from all app stores and also works offline to assist health professionals in remote areas with poor or no conductivity. The application helps decision making at the point of care; it helps nurses and doctors and other healthcare workers to calculate dosages, understand side effects as well as indication and contraindication of particular medicine. It also has a function to report stockout of essential medicine. What this means is that any doctor who prescribes any medication that is out of stock can just press a button and that information will reach us in Pretoria immediately. At long last the doctor does not have to struggle with the management of the hospital which in the past might not have responded.
This application has already been downloaded 15 000 times in South
Africa. What is exciting is that it is a home-grown application developed by our own ... Hon Chair, there are people who are talking and I can hear them, I cannot help it. Increase my time here please
... [Interjections.]
The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON (Ms M C Dikgale): My apologies. Hon Stock, hon
Stock ... [Interjections.]
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The MINISTER OF HEALTH: ... and increase my time here because they are disturbing me. They have taken one minute of my time.
The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON (Ms M C Dikgale): Hon Stock.
The MINISTER OF HEALTH: I can hear every word ... Hon Chair, this application has already been downloaded 15 000 times in South
Africa. What is exciting is that is a homegrown application developed by our own medical research council. It is not from Europe or America or China as most of the time our innovations are from there. This one is our own and I am very proud to announce that the
World Health Organisation has taken interest in it and informing other countries and we have learned that it has been downloaded 1000 times by international users.
What is also brilliant about the system is that it is not only doctors who may use it, even you as a patient and member of the public, can download and use it. It can give you details of any public health facility in the country, including phone numbers and physical addresses and it can even direct you to that facility because it is linked to your Google Maps.
You can even inform us directly in Pretoria if you experience any side effects of any medicine you are on and we will solve it for you. If you go to any health facility and you experience a problem of unavailability of medicine, you can just press a button as a
17 MAY 2016 PAGE: 135 of 211 patient and the information will reach us in Pretoria immediately and we will take corrective action. Hon chair, whenever you get into this system we will know who you are, in other words we will be able to identify you. I am just warning those who might be tempted to play games misusing this very important tool.
Another programme is our intervention to deal with poor administration of patients‘ records and data as well as to drastically reduce patient waiting times. We have installed computers in 567 out of the 700 facilities that are in the NHI pilot project whereby we are putting a special application for a patient registration system. From April this year, we started installing it in 1400 facilities; the remaining facilities in the country will be completed in the 2018 financial year. What this system does hon
Chair, is that every patient who comes to our clinic or our facility can be traced within the system; we can tell you that this patient visited a particular clinic only yesterday and we can tell you what medicine they received there and what amounts of medicine.
This is important because at the present moment in South Africa patients move from clinic to clinic collecting medicine. Some of them collect it just to sell it on a commercial ... yes, we know that, you can ask people in Limpopo around Musina there. There are lots and lots of people who go to clinics to collect ARVs and go sell them. Once this system is complete that will come to an end
17 MAY 2016 PAGE: 136 of 211 because we will tell you that yesterday you were at this clinic and you collected medicine now what do you want here?
The last programme is what we call chronic medication distribution programme. With this programme we register patients who are stable, who do not have to be seen by a nurse or a doctor. They don‘t have to come to the hospital or clinic anymore. They can choose for us any place of their choice next to their home, preferably where they don‘t need to travel where they just need to walk, to collect their medicine. We will get the service provider to deliver the medicine there.
We already have 400 000 patients who are using this system, they are picking their medicine in a thousand pickup points including adherent clubs, occupational health sites, general practitioners and private pharmacies. We plan that by the end of this financial year we will be having 800 000 people on this system.
Let me finally thank my team of officials aptly led by the director- general, Mme Precious Matsoso and a team of deputy director generals, DDgs, and senior officials for their hard work and effort to improve our healthcare system. I also wish to thank my colleagues, the MECs particularly those who are here today to partake in this debate because most of these programmes I have spoken about have been discussed together in the Ministers and
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Members of Executive Councils Meeting, Minmec, and we have agreed together to implement them and I hope they support us.
Hon Chair, may I request the House to support the adoption of this budget? I don‘t know whether you gave me my minute for the disturbance I endured Chairperson. Thank you very much.
Ms L C DLAMINI (CHAIRPERSON: SELECT COMMITTEE: SOCIAL SERVICES): Hon
Chairperson, hon Minister and the Deputy Minister, MECs from the different provinces, special delegates, hon members, it is a pleasure to debate Budget Vote 16 of the Department of Health because of some of the initiatives that the Minister was talking about, given the constraints they have in terms of the budget allocation to the department. It is very important to note that our country is spending 8% of its GDP on health, on par with countries such as Australia. This budget is skewed towards a few individuals.
I had given them 17%, but you say that it is 16%. I do want to say that we need to be sombre when we talk about services that we get from the private sector as compared to the public sector and we must consider these issues. If 50% of the budget is spent by the private sector, servicing 16% of population and the public sector is spending the same 50% on 84% of the population, definitely, the services will not be the same. It will compromise services and the quality of service that we provide. So, when we try to criticise, we must bear in mind that the resources in terms of health are skewed
17 MAY 2016 PAGE: 138 of 211 towards a few individuals. That is what the department is trying to correct with the National Health Insurance, NHI.
Though we spend so much on our health sector, the country is still faced with what we call quadruple burden of diseases. These diseases include the following: a huge burden of HIV and AIDS and TB, as the biggest of them all; a burden of maternal and child mortality; an ever-exploding burden of noncommunicable diseases or diseases of life style, which is threatening to get out of control globally, not only in South Africa. We must bear that in mind.
With regard to injury, violence and trauma, especially on our roads, we must bear in mind that when these accidents happen on the road, it does not only affect the Department of Transport, it also affects the Department of Health. It is very difficult to budget for that because these things are happening in another sector. However, at the end of the day, it does affect the Department of Health. We are pleading with our people that they must observe the road rules because they will not only save their lives but also the budget, so that we can spend the money on other issues.
It is worth noting that South Africa had consistently improved against all the key health indicators, however, the speed of improvement was not fast enough to meet the Millennium Development
Goals for life expectancy, child mortality, infant mortality, and
17 MAY 2016 PAGE: 139 of 211 maternal mortality, which are acknowledged in the National
Development Plan.
It would be important to commend the department, given the constraints that I have indicated, for the amount of work they are doing. It is commended, not only at national level but also in all provinces. I do want to say that it was very encouraging when I attended the Taking Legislature to the People in the beautiful province of Mpumalanga where the sun rises. I was encouraged by the strategies that they are implementing when we visited the health sector. I must say there is hope that the province is turning the corner. I must also say, with regard to the universal health coverage that the hon Minister referred to, South Africa, is ahead of other countries.
In responding to the call by the World Health Assembly and the
United Nations, South Africa is on the verge of effecting significant and much-needed changes to its health system and financing mechanism. These changes are based on the principles of ensuring the right to health for all, entrenching equity, social solidarity, and efficiency and effectiveness in the health system, in order to realise universal health coverage. In South Africa, we call it the National Health Insurance. This is in line with the NDP, which is in line with the policies of the governing party, the
African National Congress and the Freedom Charter.
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In 2012, the hon Minister announced the NHI pilot districts. To this end, I must say that in December 2015, the Department of Health published the much-anticipated White Paper: National Health
Insurance for public comment. It is a very important step that the department has taken. It does give an indication when we are going to implement this important policy.
Since 2015, as country, we are far ahead. All the pilot districts had made significant progress in the implementation of the NHI. For example: the release of the White Paper; establishment of the Office of the Health Standards Compliance; public health facility audit, quality improvement and certification; appointment of district clinical specialists support teams; municipal ward-based primary health care agents; integrated school-based primary health services, and the general practitioners contracting. These are some the achievements so far, in terms of the implementation of pilot district.
We are very happy with Operation Phakisa in terms of the ideal clinic. I am not going to say much about that because the Minister has already spoken about it. An ideal clinic is a clinic with good infrastructure, adequate staff, adequate medicine and supplies, good administrative processes and adequate bulk supplies that use applicable clinical policies, protocols, guidelines as well as partner and stakeholder support, to ensure the provision of quality health services to the community.
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These standards must also be implemented in primary health care because those are the facilities that are closer to the people.
Primary health care facilities must be maintained to function optimally and remain a condition that can be described as the ideal clinic. Integrated clinical services management will be a key focus within an ideal clinic.
We will not stop talking about tertiary hospitals in provinces that do not have those facilities. We are saying this because it was very apparent when we met all provinces who are not doing well. It was very clear when MECs were saying that some of the challenges that they have are people coming from other provinces. Most of them who do have tertiary hospitals were saying that they are not complaining, but it does put pressure on their services. We are saying that when resources permit, let us ensure that each and every province does have a tertiary hospital.
With the rise of alcohol and drug abuse, we will not stop talking about mental hospitals, which are needed in provinces. When resources permit, please consider that.
The department received R38,6 billion for 2016-17, up from
R35,8 billion in the previous financial year. This is an increase in nominal terms of 7,9% and 1,2% in real terms. The two largest programmes namely Programme 5: Hospitals, Tertiary Services and
Human Resource Development and Programme 3: HIV and AIDS, TB,
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Maternal and Child Health, jointly constitute 92,3% of the total budget.
The Select Committee on Social Services hereby welcomes the budget allocated to the Department of Health for the 2016-17 financial year. The committee will continue to oversee the activities of the department to ensure that funds are spent to deliver important services to the benefit of all South Africans. [Applause.]
We have agreed as a committee, that we will be visiting three provinces as part of our oversight. We will go Mpumalanga. There had been an outcry for us to visit Rob Ferreira. We will also go to
Limpopo and see how they are doing after the lifting of the administration. We will also go to the Northern Cape. There is a hospital that has taken more than 11 years to be built. We will go there. I thank you.
Ms T G MPAMBO-SIBHUKWANA: Hon House Chairperson and hon Minister
Motsoaledi, today marks World Hypertension Day and now that you mentioned hypertension ...
... ndifuna ukuthi kubantu abagula lolu xinzelelo lwegazi mabenze nje ukuya kuthatha amayeza abo baze bawuhombele lo mgomo. [... I want to say to people suffering from this condition that they must collect their medication and stick to it.]
17 MAY 2016 PAGE: 143 of 211
According to the World Health Organisation, better health is essential to human happiness and general wellbeing. Not only does a country‘s health system have the potential to increase the lifestyle standards of members in a society, but because healthy populations have the benefit of living longer and more productive lives. It can also contribute to the country‘s overall economic progression.
Section 27 of the SA Constitution not only provides for the right to access to health care for all, but also compels the state to take reasonable and active measures to achieve the realisation of this human right.
Minister Motsoaledi, in order to fulfil this mandate and to reduce the wide inequality gap in our health system, the South African government proposed the National Health Insurance, NHI, as a central component in the process of achieving universal access to good quality health care for all.
To fulfil its initial goal, the NHI will require additional and better quality hospitals and clinics, medical doctors and address the shortage of nurses and other health professionals and services which the government is currently battling to make available at a rate that will be beneficial and cater to the needs of society. I will also allude to the fact that 83% of our population is dependent on a large but mostly under-resourced public sector while 17% the population has the access of the high quality private sector.
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However, hon Minister, the proposed NHI does not meet the
Constitutional requirement which binds the state to take reasonable measures within available resources
The government continues to provide short-term solutions by simply expropriating the available infrastructure and skills to lessen the public sector‘s overload and lessen public outcry. However, we as the DA, believes and is convinced that the only way to address the issue of access to health care for all, is to bring in a long-term smart and practical solutions that fit within the existing resource envelope . The DA therefore, proposes some cardinal policy measures that would give every citizen of South Africa and legal residents‘ access to health care:
That would be achieved firstly, through universal access could be achieved in one year if the Minister dropped the means test, brought the off budget medical aid credits on budget and defined a universal subsidy for all. The medical aid credits are worth R15,9 billion presently.
Secondly, the Minister could set up a maternal and child-care fund to finance - as conditional grants - the expansion of maternal and paediatric services at hospitals and clinics. This includes an extension of antenatal services and obstetric care to rural and underserved areas.
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The current form of the NHI proposed by the government compromises, rather than enhance, the access citizens have to health care in our country.
Currently, South Africans living in rural areas suffer as a result of the lack of ambulances and emergency services. A report published late last year by the SA Human Rights Commission, SAHRC, highlighted the critical shortcomings in the delivery of emergency services in the Eastern Cape. For example, the former Transkei region of the province only has 28 ambulances assigned to 1,3 million people. This means that residents often have a limited chance of receiving an ambulance in time and in need hence the death rate escalates. The poor performance in the Eastern Cape stands in sharp contrast with that in the DA-led Western Cape, where the response times for
Priority 1 call out is substantially higher.
South Africa does not fully utilise the availability of its skilled health professionals where, for every 1000 people, the country has less than one doctor available. We also have to consider the working conditions that the current doctors are forced to work in.
Attempting to provide care for an influx of people, while being under-resourced, not only harbours the environment which is frustrating and stressful but also lessens the incentive for doctors to stay in South Africa and share their skills.
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The issue of the disposal of medical waste is another cause for concern. The DA‘s visits to hospitals in the Eastern Cape, Gauteng, and Free State revealed the flaws in the healthcare infection control system. A shortage of professional staff trained in infection control has led to cleaners taking on the role of separating hazardous waste. This poses an incredibly high-risk to health that we as the DA identify as an issue needing immediate action in order to restore public confidence in the safety of our health care institutions.
With South Africa‘s burden of diseases including, HIV and AIDS, the maternal child mortality, sexually transmitted infections and noncommunicable diseases mainly, we are saying hon Minister, the violence, injuries, and trauma that is a daily effect has contributed to this outscourge. We as a country cannot afford to have such inefficiencies in our health care system. Poor authority, feasible accountability, marginalisation of clinics and clinicians, and low-staff morale are characteristics of South Africa‘s failing health system.
We as the DA, we do understand that prudent financial planning, health interventions and a proper restructuring of the system are needed in order to address specific needs which are unique to our country. The DA will continue to give effect to our Constitution and fight for better quality health care which is accessible to all. The
17 MAY 2016 PAGE: 147 of 211 right to life is enshrined in our Constitution and we will be unswerving in our fight to preserve this right.
We will move with the funding from one province to another if the government can propose to that because we inherit so many people from other provinces but the funding remains the same. So, if the government could propose some kind of an insert into a clause to say when 1 220 people move from the Eastern Cape to here, they can also move with the funding. I thank you, Chairperson. [Applause.]
Ms P DYANTYI: (EASTERN CAPE: MEC-HEALTH): House Chairperson, hon
Minister and hon Deputy Minister, my colleagues, the MECs from other provinces, Chairperson of the select committee, Ms Dlamini, hon members, ladies and gentlemen, good evening.
Hon Chairperson I am deeply humbled to be part of this 2016-I7
National Health Department‘s Policy and Budget Vote debate, to reflect on healthcare programme successes and also welcome policy directives outlined by Minister Aaron Motsoaledi, for this financial year at the time when all political parties are pulling all political scores to try and discredit the commendable work of the
ANC government, 22 years into our young democracy. This was just demonstrated a few minutes ago by the hon member, who I must request, she must go back and study and get the correct facts about ambulance situation in my province. We must not stick to the 2013 report.
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Ours is not about proving ourselves to any political organization that the ANC government has the ability to deliver or not, however our vested interests are more about the impact of our government‘s works on our people. Minister Motsoaledi, in tabling his Budget Vote speech in the past week extensively alluded to this and displayed how the ANC government has improved access and delivery of quality healthcare to the needy. Under this government we can say without any shadow of doubt, that more and more South Africans are exercising their constitutional right for access to health care services, irrespective of their geographical location or socioeconomic conditions. I am confident that with the implementation of the National Development Plan, NDP, Vision 2030, more is yet to come; our people shall indeed experience a long and healthy life for all.
Although we are reporting significant progress in provision and access to quality health care over the past 22 years, the quadruple burden of disease as a result of communicable and non-communicable diseases, however, still poses a serious threat to service delivery and thus requires us to augment our interventions in this respect.
It is for this reason that I wish to welcome the proclamation made by the Minister Motsoaledi, on the new World Health Organization,
WHO, guidelines on treatment of HIV/Aids is concerned. This is another advanced step in increasing life expectancy; ensuring that the burden of the disease is significantly reduced in South Africa
17 MAY 2016 PAGE: 149 of 211 and reduced mortality as a result of HIV and Aids. Our province will ensure that come the September roll-out date, we are ready to test and treat all diagnosed patients.
Madam Chairperson, our province is progressing very well in the fight against HIV/Aids and Tuberculosis, TB, in that through formal collaborations with the Eastern Cape Aids Council, ECAC, and various nongovernmental organizations, NGOs, our department has managed to scale up interventions related to HIV, STIs and TB programmes through implementation of more focused awareness campaigns; destigmatisation programmes, which consequently led to improved TB and HIV outcomes. Even on this new mandate, we will continue to work with our donor partners and serve the health needs of our people.
Hon members, I would like to commend Minister Motsoaledi‘s leadership on TB related issues. As a result of his guidance and leadership, our province has marked notable over achievements as far treatment and management of TB, especially the treatment success rate. His contribution to this global cause was recently acknowledged by the international TB community when he received the
USAID-TB International Award in recognition of his leadership in the global fight against TB.
For the 2O16-17 financial year, our department has allocated
Rl,7 billion to HIV and TB grant, to drive the department‘s major
HIV and TB campaigns; to implement programmes and projects that will
17 MAY 2016 PAGE: 150 of 211 lessen the burden as a result of these ailments and ultimately fulfil objectives of the NDP.
Hon members, the National Health Insurance, NHI, is a transformation health policy which will ensure that the people of South Africa have equal access to universal health care services and Minister
Motsoaledi, has released the NHI White Paper in December, which unpacks the NHI implementation in South Africa going forward. In
Eastern Cape Siyaqhuba ngeNHI and we are not turning back. I am proud of the implementation progress that we have made to date in the OR Tambo pilot district.
Through NHI, we have introduced the Central Chronic Medication
Distribution and Delivery Programme, which ensures that patients get their medication closer to their homes and significantly increased our infrastructure, including providing additional consulting rooms in 23 clinics in line with the ideal clinic realisation. To this effect, the province is now moving towards readiness for its own pilot district of Alfred Nzo, emulating best practices from the national pilot district of OR Tambo, for which we have allocated an amount of R7 million.
We have further allocated an amount of R1,4 billion for health facilities management, which includes replacement, maintenance, repairs, additions and medical equipments.
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In conclusion, hon Chairperson, the ANC has displayed over the years that its policies are all about serving the needs and interests of the South Africans and this is evident in the manner in which government budgets, including health focus more on service delivery related expenditure over nonessential programmes.
Our department has already highlighted its service delivery priorities for this financial year through the 20l6-I7 policy and
Budget speech and I can safely say we are ready to serve our people and promote a better life for all. I welcome the national health department‘s 2016-l 7 Budget Vote. Thank you.
Ms M L MOSHODI: Hon Chairperson, hon Minister, Deputy Minister,
Member of the Executive Councils, MECs, hon members, let me open my debate by quoting a sentence in the Freedom Charter under the clause, and I quote: ―there shall be houses, security and comfort‖.
Which states that, the aged, the orphans, the disabled and the sick shall be cared for by the State.
When we cast our minds back just over two decades ago, the majority of the black population has limited or non-existent health care until the ANC government took over in 1994. Today, the South African health care system provides free and low cost care to most of its population, especially the poor and the formerly oppressed South
Africans. We review this performance noting the achievements the government has made in fulfilling the aims of the Freedom Charter,
17 MAY 2016 PAGE: 152 of 211 which was and still is the will of the people in the achieving a better life.
Primary Health Care is the cornerstone of preventing and managing all types of diseases. This is done by developing and monitoring the implementation of legislation, policies, systems, and norms and standards for a uniform well functioning health system. This is what
Programme 4 seeks to address.
Looking at the successes the Department of Health has achieved in just over two decades since the caring government took over, it is worth noting that increased life expectancy of the population, demonstrate that the number of HIV/Aids-related deaths and infant mortality rates have dropped over the past few years. South Africa is making health wise with delivering antiretroviral medication to citizens living with HIV and Aids. A high number of women are participating in the government‘s programme for the prevention of mother to child transmission.
By March 2015, the department had screened 500 000 mine workers and their families for Tuberculosis, TB, in six districts. It also screened 150 000 prisoners in 242 correctional services facilities for TB, as well as screened the families of those who tested positive.
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The challenge we are still facing under this programme, such as access to all community based primary health care facilities and the improvement of quality of services are still to be addressed by partly the current budget. The reduction of risk factors and improving management for all non-communicable diseases, the establishment of a National Health Commission to address the social deterrents of health are some of the challenges we are still facing.
Though South Africa is not a highly malaria infested region as compared to our counterparts in the North, such as Malawi, it is planned to be eliminated by 2018, so that there is zero local cases of malaria. Programme 5 seeks to develop policies, deliver models, and clinical protocols for all hospitals and emergency services.
This will be done through alignment of academic medical centres with health workforce programme, training of health professionals and to ensure the planning of health infrastructure to meet the health needs of the country.
The programme also seeks to improve the quality of health infrastructure in the country. In September 2014, two new hospitals were opened, the Dr Harry Surtie Hospital in the Northern Cape, and the Natalspruit Hospital in Gauteng. The infrastructure programme will see 43 hospitals and 243 clinics being built over the next five years.
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The ANC caring government will increase the capacity of central hospitals to strengthen the local decision making and accountability to facilitate semi-autonomy of the central hospitals. It will also improve management of health facilities at all levels of care through the Health Leadership and Management Academy.
In order to ensure low-cost, but quality health care, the government of the people will regulate the sale of medicines and pharmaceutical supplies, including food control, and the trade in health products and health technology through Health Regulations and Compliance
Management Programmes. It will improve oversight and corporate governance structure, policies and tools. The amount of
R1,69 billion allocated to this programme will ensure a number of entities and statutory councils are monitored using dashboards for performance and compliance to legislative prescriptive.
In the Free State at our National Health Insurance, NHI, pilot site, in Thabo Mofutsanyana, the following have been successfully undertaken and we are about to roll them out to other health districts: The implementation of innovative models such as Central
Chronic Medication Dispensing and Distribution to create easy and for patients on chronic medication. We had targeted 46 Pick-up points throughout Thabo Mofutsanyana District and to date 44, which is 96% have been established; the contracting of private providers is ongoing at a slow pace due to scarcity of health professionals willing to serve in rural areas such as Thabo Mofutsanyana. This
17 MAY 2016 PAGE: 155 of 211 programme has so far successfully contracted 28 general practitioners with a view to accrediting them in future; the Ward
Based Primary Health Care Outreach Teams were trained, provided with uniform, jump bags and name badges for easy identification and allocated service areas.
In conclusion, the ANC government is aware that not all commitments it made when taking the reins in 1994 have been met. It was however made noticeable strides in meeting the basics of good quality health care system in the country, despite all the challenges. These challenges include economic challenges to social pressures increased by the influx of foreign nationals in search of greener pastures in our country. The ANC supports the Budget Vote. I thank you, hon
Chairperson.
Ms Q MAHLANGU: (GAUTENG: MEC-HEALTH): Hon House Chairperson, mme
Dikgale, the Chair of the NCOP in absentia, Minister Aaron
Motsoaledi, Deputy Minister Phaahla, my collegues, MEcs who are present here this evening, hon members of this august House, comrades and friends, I don‘t know why the EFF is not here - I would have really wanted to speak after they spoke to hear what they would say but ...
The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON: INTERGOVERNMENTAL RELATIONS AND CO-OPERATIVE
GOVERNMENT (Ms M C Dikgale): I am sure wherever they are; they are looking at you now. They are listening. [Laughter.]
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Ms Q MAHLANGU: (GAUTENG: MEC-HEALTH): I wanted them to be in the
House. It‘s nice ... [Laughter.] It‘s nice if they are in the House.
Thank you very much indeed, Chair. It‘s humbling to be back in the
NCOP and to engage in such important policy issues relating to our health services which many and thousands of our people rely solely on in the public sector. We stand here to commit to our government that as a province we will continue to work with the national
Department of Health led by Dr Motsoaledi and Deputy Minister
Phaahla, to make sure that the province is involved head to toe with the objective to implement the National Health Insurance, NHI.
In this regard, we have noted the progress in the national core standards that have just been established, as well as in areas where there has been regression. We have put plans in place to deal with those issues. For instance, Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic
Hospital would have moved from 81% to 76%. We are developing an implementation plan to make sure that indeed the services improve in this hospital. George Mukhari Hospital as well has attained an overall rating of 65%.
In this regard, we have our chief directorate who is responsible for developing continuous improvement plans for hospitals that are assessed. I think what is really humbling is that the Steve Biko
Academic Hospital continues to be a beacon of hope out of all our central hospitals in the country and it is located in Gauteng, not in the Western Cape! [Laughter.]
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I will also note the performance of Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital.
We can assure the Minister, the Deputy Minister and the House at large that we will spare no effort to try and make sure that Chris
Hani Baragwanath Hospital also joins the rank of Steve Biko Academic
Hospital. We are using Steve Biko Academic Hospital as an example and as a model for all our hospitals to perform in the province and
Dr Kenoshi is the leading head of a team of our managers in dealing with these issues.
With regard to our tertiary hospitals, we have again noted the performance at Kalafong Hospital. Kalafong Hospital has improved from a performance rating of 68% to 81% and I think it is highly commendable for a hospital as fragmented as Kalafong. It was really built for black people and it is difficult to manage that hospital.
We commend the management and the department for doing everything possible for the hospital to improve. We note the performance of
Helen Joseph Hospital at 70% and Tembisa Hospital at 68%. I want to assure members of this House that when meet next year things will definitely be different.
We also note the performance of Mamelodi Hospital; you might have read about it from time to time in the newspapers. At Rahima Moosa
Mother and Child Hospital, Tambo Memorial Hospital, as well as other hospitals, the performance has improved and Mamelodi Hospital‘s performance has moved to 73%. Again, there are concerns about
Mamelodi Hospital and all our hospitals that are overloaded with
17 MAY 2016 PAGE: 158 of 211 patients and of course, staff working overtime - I think fatigue has set in our management.
As I said, we will do everything possible to make sure that these hospitals are improving, in terms of their performance, reach the standard where Steve Biko Academic Hospital is. The performance of our regional hospitals is also noted. We also welcome, as part of strengthening management, the application that the Minister has introduced in supporting our hospitals so that management - at any given point in time, can be able to know what is happening at the health centres and hospitals - if they have done the right thing or have been able to do the work in the hospitals, as we expect them to.
One of the important things that the premier continue to force us to do is that we must do a long-term planning. In this regard, we have developed what we call the service transformation plan in the province for the whole city‘s region that is focussing on the overall needs of the health sector.
We are looking at the clinic sizes as well as the number of consulting rooms, the ambulances that are available and their state, community health care centres and all levels of care in terms of the hospitals, the number of doctors and nurses and other allied professionals, the population growth as well as the disease profiles.
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It is on these spaces of the sustainability and transformation plan,
STP, that we have started improving our health facilities. We are upgrading community health care centres in all the districts in the province. I think it will be pleasing to note that Lenasia South
Hospital as well as Discoverers were community health care centres but now they are being upgraded to district hospitals. Both of them will be 300 bedded hospitals before the end of this financial year.
This will go a long way to improve the services to the people that we serve. Furthermore, we are building new district hospitals in the following areas, Daveyton, Lillian Ngoyi, which is just a doorstep of Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital. Hillbrow District Hospital will also get a major refurbishment. We are working together with the
Heritage Council of SA to refurbish the Hillbrow District Hospital.
We are starting to work and plan and construction will start very soon towards building the Kempton Park Hospital.
Again, it will relieve huge pressure from Tembisa Hospital. We are also building a lot of clinics in Cosmo City, Finetown, Lehae,
Bramfischer, Chiawelo, Zola, Noordgesig and the East of
Johannesburg. In Tshwane there are about five or six clinics that we are building afresh because simply the clinics are now too small and the nurses are unable to deliver the services.
As part of strengthening the primary health care service, we are employing new additional 25 Cuban doctors who are going to start any
17 MAY 2016 PAGE: 160 of 211 minute from now - whose arrival we are currently waiting for. They are going to be a major boost for the delivery of health care services in the primary health care sector that we have in our communities. We intend to employ more.
This will enable us to give patients confidence that when they go to the clinic they will be seen by a doctor who is specialising in primary health care service but also ensure that the work done by the community health care workers in the community is supported by these Cuban doctors. We can only be truly grateful to the Cuban government that they continue to send their highly-skilled professionals to our country.
We are also buying additional ambulances and it is surprising that one person is speaking on behalf of the other province, like the DA colleague was attempting to do here. We are buying additional ambulances in this new financial year, about 150 of them. This again is to improve our response time in making sure that patients are collected on time.
We are also launching an interesting thing. Minister, you will be invited to the launch, what we call ‗Uber‘ kind of technology - where patients or families would know where the ambulance is, for example, which street they are taking to come to their house; who is the paramedic on duty in the ambulance. This is part of our modernisation and the work that we do. We believe that by doing so,
17 MAY 2016 PAGE: 161 of 211 it‘s all about ensuring that patients and families are served diligently by this ANC government.
The other aspect I like to talk about is the modernisation of our health care services. There is literature after literature from all over the world that demonstrate how Information and communications technology, ICT, can help us to transform the way we deliver services. That will in no doubt enable doctors as well as patients to be served in a much more diligent way.
One of the instruments we have developed now – an application that have been deployed in the Steve Biko cluster, is called bed management system that is linked to the ambulance control centre.
When a patient is picked up by an ambulance, the family will know which bed is available and in which hospital, at any given point in time. Again, as I said, with the ‗Uber‘ link, we will be able to trace those things because currently, all these things are manual.
The patient archiving system is going to serve us costs from this big films that we are currently producing. But the central, tertiary, regional hospitals‘ patients do not have to be moved left and right and centre. That is also being implemented across our hospitals. I have spoken about the ambulances. We have something called identity verification system which will enable us to trace the patients whether they genuinely have medical aid or whether they have SA Social Security Agency, Sassa, grant or not.
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On modernisation, we would be working with Vodacom, which is part of the national Department of Health‘s support in making sure that we roll out the application that monitors the stock in our facility so that nobody leaves the clinic without being given medication.
Lastly, I would like to talk about the strengthening of the primary health care. I know I have 49 seconds. The strengthening of the primary health care is very important - that of ensuring that we are extending hours in all our facilities, particularly the bigger clinics. With regard to small clinics, we are renovating them in a massive way. Municipalities that have decent budgets are also coming to the party.
We have built and refurbished a number of facilities in the province. We are also looking at increasing the number of nurses. Of pleasing, is the feedback we are getting from our community health care workers. Recently I met a community health worker in Kya Sands who brought a family that have triplets with no one in the household working. The community health care worker was able to bring the family to us. Now they are linked to the government services. We continue to say that the work that they do is very important, going forward. [Applause.] Thank you, Chair. I think my time is gone.
Thank you. [Applause.]
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The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON: INTERGOVERNMENTAL RELATIONS AND CO-OPERATIVE
GOVERNMENT (Ms M C Dikgale): Yes, thank you. I was about to tell you, hon MEC. Thank you.
Ms M MASEKO (WESTERN CAPE: CHAIRPERSON - HUMAN SETTLEMENT): Hon
Chair, Minister Ntate Motsoaledi, hon members, let me just say all protocols observed.
Before I start with my debate I just want to say that, hon members, you know this debate is important because we are dealing with the life. Immediately if you have a patient when it gets into the hospitals, either is going to be cured or is going to die. So I tend to think Minister came here wanting to hear if there is some blind spots where he has to talk to his budget to attend to those, it‘s not an issue of the political [Inaudible.] to can say that whether you are DA or you are ANC. It‘s an issue of life or death for the communities of South Africa.
In 2015, the Premier of the Western Cape, Helen Zille, committed the
Western Cape Government to realising 5 Strategic goals, among which was Strategic goal Number 3 that committed the Western Cape
Government to increasing wellness, safety and tackling social ill such as healthcare.
As outlined in the Provincial strategic plan 2014-2019, The
Department of Health is committed to promoting wellness by
17 MAY 2016 PAGE: 164 of 211 addressing the individual and broader social determinants of health by promoting healthy families, healthy communities and a healthy workforce.
On March 18 this year Minister Nomafrench Mbombo delivered the provincial budget for health and there she stated that in the
2016/17 financial year, the Western Cape Department of Health was allocated R19, 983 billion to provide quality healthcare to the approximately 4,8 million people who do not have access to private health insurance. This is exactly what the Department of Health in the province has been doing. Providing quality health care especially for the most vulnerable in our communities of western
Cape.
So where do we stand on health care services in the Western Cape today?
The Minister of Health in the Province recently released a statement where she outlined the Western Capes strategy to deliver quality health care services to the people of the Western Cape. I would like to welcome what the minister called a realigned community based service as this reiterates the department's commitment to delivering the quality health care services that the people of the Western Cape have been accustomed to. In order to provide quality services, public healthcare must be appropriately resourced.
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We note that the Western Cape Government Health's Rural Districts have shifted their focus of services rendered at community level to align with the Department of Health‘s wellness initiatives.
The move will see Community Health Workers, CHW, play a bigger role in the future as they will now form part of the Home and Community
Based Care services, HCBC. This means that instead of conducting regular home visits, they will now conduct door-to-door visits during which they will educate members of the family on various health topics. The Minister also revealed that during their door-to- door visits, the CHW‘s will educate members of the public on preventative services on a range of issues such as TB, diarrhoea, diabetes, and even refer people to the nearest primary health facility for further management.
Several community health workers have been appointed and have received the necessary training in the different rural districts in the Western Cape. For instance: Overberg District 249 that have been trained; Cape Winelands District 369; Eden District 404; West Coast
District 318; Central Karoo District 77.
These are just some of the important roles that will be played by the CHW‘s and we have to applaud this initiative as it will ensure that early detection of what would be serious more people across the province are able to access quality health care.
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With increased funding and the role played by all health care workers in the province, we don't have a have a good story to tell, it's an exceptional one.
The role of the CHW will definitely assist the department with the
TB and HIV programme in the Western Cape. The National Minister Dr
Aaron Motsoaledi mentioned the R4,2 Billion grant from the Global
Fund that will be utilised for the HIV and TB responses. We are pleased to note that the incidence of TB has continued to decrease in the Western Cape. Ending the scourge of AIDS is not just a dream.
Important to realising this is the Mother-to-Child HIV Transmission,
MTCT, programme which has resulted in a significant drop in the mother-to-child HIV transmission rate over the years. Currently the
Western Cape has the lowest mother-to-child transmission rate in the country. The department is committed to ensuring that everything necessary will be done to get to zero. On a national scale, AIDS deaths in South Africa have declined from 320 O00 in 2010 to 140 000 in 2014.
We also welcome national government‘s commitment to producing 1000
PHDs in the field of HIV and AIDS research and a total of
R40 million to the initiative.
The Early Childhood Development, ECD, policy and its implementation is one of government‘s most important policy interventions over the
17 MAY 2016 PAGE: 167 of 211 next 20 years in relation to the enhancement of the overall wellbeing and development of South Africa's children. It is for that reason that we applaud the Department of Health and the Department of Social Development in the Western Cape for developing and implementing the first 1000 days programme as research has shown that the first 1000 days of a child‘s life are critical for their development. Together with the Department of Social Development, the
Department of Health ensures that children receive the correct bundle of services at the right stage of their development. And those essential packages of services will be: Nutritional education and immunisation support; Positive and nurturing parenting by mothers and fathers; Stimulating play and early learning from birth in the home, community and in early childhood education centres.
Critical to the delivery of health care is the availability of well trained staff and last week we celebrated Nurses Day under the theme
‗Nurses: A force for change: improving health systems‘ resilience.‘
We paid tribute to the commitment and dedication shown by nurses in the Western Cape and elsewhere towards the realisation of health systems which deliver quality care to all patients.
The department aims to award 195 bursaries to nurses in 2016/17 as well as 50 bursaries to medicine students. However, Deputy Chair, the recruitment of qualified and skilled professionals poses a challenge. This is due to the scarcity of skills in specialist
17 MAY 2016 PAGE: 168 of 211 areas.
Furthermore, we commend the department‘s initiative of partnering with institutions of higher learning in the Western Cape:
Stellenbosch University, University of Cape Town, University of the
Western Cape and the Cape Peninsula University of Technology. Among the agreements with these institutions, they will increase the number of students admitted at their institutions, more so those from qualifying previously disadvantaged backgrounds; while
Stellenbosch University has committed to reopening their undergraduate nursing programme, which will go a long way to strengthen nursing in the province.
Without the dedicated men and women in the Department of Health‘s service points, we would be unable to meet the needs of the Western
Cape‘s people and we therefore salute all of our staff members and thank them for their commitment to providing quality health care in the province.
Infrastructure upgrades are another critical part in the department‘s task and as such the department continues to expand and upgrade health care facilities.
Deputy Chair, allow me to take a moment and take you back to what the department has achieved over the last financial year. In the
2015/16 financial year we completed the following infrastructure
17 MAY 2016 PAGE: 169 of 211 projects: The Community Day Centre, CDC, in Symphony Way, Delft; The
CDC in Nomzamo, Strand; The dental suite at Worcester CDC; The Paarl
Psychiatric Unit. Considerable progress has been made and the department is confident that targets will be met.
In conclusion, it is important that as a country we get to a point where were recognise that delivering quality health services is not just the responsibility of the Department of Health alone. Realise that the department has to function alongside other sectors within government. I would like to quote De Haan:
It is the responsibility of all services that improve the
environment and those that make it possible for individuals or
groups to improve their ability to earn or attain sufficient
incomes to improve their lifestyle in order to support a healthy
living environment that sustains and meets people‘s basic needs to
attain and maintain health.
In essence, health practitioners can only administer medicine but cannot ensure that an individual has had a meal before doing so; the same health practitioner cannot ensure that the patient has a roof over their heads. It is essential for all stakeholders to play an active role to ensure the wellbeing of our people of our people.
After all a healthy nation they say is a wealthy nation.
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Chairperson, allow me to thank all members of the department in their different capacities and acknowledge the important role that each of them play in delivering quality health care services to all in the Western Cape and the country at large ... [Interjection.]
The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON: INTERGOVERNMENTAL RELATIONS AND CO-OPERATIVE
GOVERNMENT (Ms M C Dikgale): Your time has expired, hon MEC.
Ms M MASEKO (WESTERN CAPE: CHAIRPERSON – HUMAN SETTLEMENT): Okay.
Furthermore, I also thank the front line staff for their role. I thank you, Deputy Chair.
Mr S M DHLOMO (KwaZulu-Natal: MEC - Health): Hon Chairperson,
Minister and Deputy Minister of Health, my colleague MEC, chairperson of the select committee Mme Dlamini, all the hon members of this House, again let me thank the Minister for giving us guidance on how to intensify efforts aimed at improving the lives of our citizens.
As a province we always take heed of what the Minister says when he says that we are actually facing the quadruple burden of diseases which is HIV and AIDS and TB; high maternal and child mortality; alarming increasing incidence of noncommunicable diseases; and lastly, violence and trauma. He called these in his last budget speech the four highways along which South Africans are marching to their graves. We are thus conscious of our responsibility that if
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South Africa is to achieve a goal of a country that is free from tuberculosis, HIV and stigma surrounding these diseases, our province, KwaZuilu-Natal, has to lead such changes because we have a huge burden of such quadruple diseases. We are very conscious and continuously be focused on a long and healthy life for all citizens in the country.
We must actually indicate that we have turned the corner in the province. The evidence is that our people are progressively getting healthier and are now living longer. Just recently we celebrated one million patients on antiretroviral, ART, in the province. Out of the 3,4 million South Africans who are on treatment of ARVs, the whole one million is in one province, KwaZulu-Natal. Thanks to our
Nurse Initiated Management of Antiretroviral Therapy, Nimart nurses.
Currently, in the province we have about 1,5 of those who were trained and some 150 of them are serving as mentors mentoring others. They are joining a team of 155 doctors who are trained in the HIV and Aids Diploma. So, a conscious decision was made and we thank the Minister for that that we cannot leave such a pandemic to be dealt with by doctors only because it is a pandemic that needs many more hands.
We are happy to announce that we have traversed the whole province visiting all 11 districts thanking the nurses for their outstanding work that they have done in making such a breakthrough. Hon
Minister, we did not invite you, but we are extending an invitation
17 MAY 2016 PAGE: 172 of 211 to you at the International Aids Conference. There is a slot that we have as a province where we will be launching the book documenting all the work that has been done to date over the past few years by the Nimart nurses.
We can also report that all these efforts have resulted in increasing initiation sites from 89 in 2008 to 632, by March last year. To date we can report that 75% of our patients on ART are managed at primary health care levels. That is where only nurses are found. As a province we can also indicate that we do not have any waiting list for any patient eligible for treatment. The Treatment
Action Campaign has given us that commendation and we thank them for this.
Among other things that have given us such success stories in the province is the pivotal role played by the Provincial Council on
Aids chaired by the hon the premier which serves as an added impetus in our fight against the disease.
We also have the newly adopted provider initiative counselling and testing approach which saw a total of 1 133 nurses being trained. We have expanded health services to high transmission areas such as taxi ranks, truck stops, universities, correctional services centres, farms and factories amongst other places. We continue focussing on the programme called the Hlola Manje - Zivikele
17 MAY 2016 PAGE: 173 of 211 encouraging people to come much earlier to do testing of all types of ailments.
We also have media mobilisation campaigns calling on all our citizens to test for HIV, at least once a year. First things First and Graduate Alive campaigns are the campaigns that we take to most of our institutions of higher learning where we encourage students to come and graduate still healthy and alive.
We have a concerted efforts done by our community-based care givers through Operation Sukuma Sakhe where they make sure that all our pregnant woman should and will attends a clinic antenatal care, every child is immunised and every patient on treatment should and will receives ongoing support on treatment.
Our biggest surprise to us is when we took the services to the taxi ranks. This was motivated by noticing that taxi people were coming to our clinics too late when we have closed and in the afternoon and in the morning they leave much earlier. This was very welcomed by the taxi industry. We were very please when the initiative got applauded by the SA National Aids Council, Sanac, requesting to host a taxi industry colloquium in KwaZulu-Natal as part of the build up events towards the 2015 World Aids Day last year.
To date, we have 630 000 men and boys who have been circumcised since the king made a call in 2010. We haven‘t had any death-related
17 MAY 2016 PAGE: 174 of 211 to the circumcisions except for just one serious adverse event where there was a near amputation and our doctors are currently attending to that in the province.
A success story on the prevention of mother-to-child transmission shows that in 2010, we had transmission of 9,5%, to date we have
1,2% transmission and that indicates that very soon we will be able to get children born by mother who are HIV positive, but will come out being HIV negative. But this is also a very difficult battle as pronounced by the Minister in his speech. He says, and I quote:
When it comes to the area of sociobehavioural interventions it is
an uphill battle especially in the age group of 15 to 24-years-old
especially among girls and young women.
KwaZulu-Natal wishes to state that it fully embraces this initiative that the Minister will be launching next month among other things, decreasing the infection amongst girls and young women; decreasing teenage pregnancy; decreasing sexual and gender-based violence; and increasing economic opportunities thereof.
Amongst other things that we did last year in December in the province of KwaZulu-Natal, we went to Zululand District Municipality and launched a campaign that we called Adolescent and Youth Friendly
Services. This is targeting to get young people to come into the clinics at a particular time. We have already launched part of that
17 MAY 2016 PAGE: 175 of 211 called a happy hour, meaning that all other people who are sick and unwell must come to our clinics, but at 15:00 the clinics are going to be dedicated to young people who are coming in from schools. They can come and get advices and talk about issues that worry young people. This is likely to improve youth dialogue and focuses on their challenges
We also have a programme that is focussing on young people, the Dual
Protection Campaign, where we are saying to young men please go and be circumcised and thereafter come and use a condom, and the combination is going to guarantee you no HIV infection, no sexual transmission infection and no making anybody pregnant if you don‘t wish to. The same we do to the girls where we give them contraceptive programmes together with condoms.
We have just had another campaign focussing on the use of the illegal abortion stickers that are all over the province. We are very happy to announce that there have been some arrests that have been made at the Ugu District [Applause.] and we thank the co- operation of the SA Police Service, SAPS, and the National
Prosecuting Authority that have helped us in this regard.
Taking the heed from the Minister, we would want indicate that we have seven hospitals where we have established human milk bank - that is the milk that is assisting sick babies whose mothers are not able to give. These hospitals are the following, Grey's King Edward
17 MAY 2016 PAGE: 176 of 211
VIII Stanger Edendale Newcastle and Lower Umfolozi War Memorial
Regional Hospitals and Port Shepstone. This is of great assistance to us.
We also have moved into getting the programme that the Minster talked about that 450 clinics are already implementing the stock visibility system known as the, SVS, and we intend to increase that to 112 more clinics. This is very helpful because indeed it check our stock levels to prevent a stock out and put in place a contingency plan how this would be done. We are happy to announce that to date we have 423 facilities that are mainly on the National
Health Insurance, NHI, sites, where we have the central chronic medicine dispensing and distribution programmes. There are 193 000 patients who have benefited from this. These patients do not have to come to our clinics. While they think that we are helping them we are extremely excited because to us it is helping us to reduce the long queues in our clinics and hospitals.
In closing we could have said a lot about the infrastructure. Safe to mention that we are building one facility that will be finished over four years, the Dr Pixley Ka Seme regional hospital that will cost R2,8 billion, and that will be built over four years. What we are excited about is that this year, not because we are campaigning, but we are going to be opening very good hospitals, Pomeroy hospital in the middle of nowhere, Msinga hospital in the deep rural of
Msinga. [Applause.] We will also be opening another hospital in
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Jozini in the middle of nowhere. [Time expired.] We support the
Minister‘s budget. Thank you. [Applause.]
Dr M MASIKE (NORTH WEST MEC - HEALTH): Hon Chair of the House, Mme
Dikgale, the hon Minister and Deputy Minister, my colleagues and
Members of the NCOP, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, in our era in our moment and now before every man, in every town, city and small dorpie, South Africans can attest to a national effort for accelerated service delivery of quality health care services.
This reality, hon members, can easily be tracked down to 1994, 17 years of ANC rule. We must not forget that the first five years, there was a Government of National Unity. You remember that there was a Deputy President De Klerk. So, we are 17 years in power.
The hon Minister of Health, Dr Aaron Motsoaledi has presented a telling story of the National Health Budget Vote and policy speech.
In many instances just as I have demonstrated in the North West province and policy speech, ours has been a coordinated national effort to broaden access to decent and quality health care service.
We have demonstrated health as a fundamental human right. Driven by this core principle of our Constitution, the Department of Health will continue to take part in building a solid basic for all human rights to prevail and such a base starts with access to health care.
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We do it in a coordinated fashion because we believe our people deserve better wherever they are, including the Western Cape because we coordinate right at the top.
This year, our people are marking the 61 years anniversary celebrations of the Freedom Charter. And this manifesto of our people remains to be guiding torch of the struggle of our people into the future. It is the basis for which we are building a human rights and responsibility driven society. By so doing, we want our communities and society at large to understand that health is not just a responsibility for the Department of Health, but a societal issue. We have indeed made tremendous achievements in building a true South Africa envisaged in the Freedom Charter. Never the less, much more still needs to be done to realise the objectives of this shared dream.
It is the primary responsibility of the state to provide preventative and curative health care services. It is equally the responsibility of the citizens to live a healthy lifestyle. It is the responsibility of our communities and individuals to take some responsibility for their health and reduce risky behaviour. The department has a healthy lifestyle programme, which we are committed to strengthen, but we need communities to also take the lead in this regard.
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We continue to prevent disease and if we can‘t prevent, we have to diagnose and treat and continue to control so that it does not spread.
Obesity is of serious concern to us. In South Africa, 30% to 40% of both sexes, especially females are most affected. We therefore support the Minister of Health; Dr Aaron Motsoaledi‘s contemplated regulation of sugar content of drinks and commercial foods. There is also need to regulate salt content of foods, which is a contributing factor to hypertension as it is hypertension day to day.
Through the provision of quality health services to the people of our province, we are indeed accelerating the objectives of the second phase of our transition for socioeconomic transformation of our country. We need a strong inter-sectoral team and collaboration to achieve.
We are confident to report to this august House that indeed a health system that works for everyone and produces positive outcomes is not far out of reach. We are confident that we will achieve a health system that can contribute to the rising of the life expectancy of the citizens of our country to at least 70 years.
We are confident that through effective health system, we will be able to produce a free HIV/Aids generation of under 20 years. We can
17 MAY 2016 PAGE: 180 of 211 significantly reduce the burden of disease and achieve an infant mortality rate of les than 25 deaths per 1 000 life births.
This is the vision enshrined in our National Development Plan. We are therefore making a special call to all the people of our province and South Africa in general to share with us this vision in our pursuit to build a new nation. One of the outstanding authors of our time, Idowu koyenikan says, and I quote: ―Your pride for your country should not come after your country becomes great; your country becomes great because of your pride in it‖.
No other government can attest to the massive health infrastructure projects which we have seen reach every corner of our land under this ANC government. I am just going to outline just a few of some of the projects that we are busy with. And as soon you realise, the facilities are more focus into what in the North West called VTSD,
Villages, Townships and Small Dorpies.
We have projects going on, for instance, the Bophelong Hospital staff accommodation, the Weltevreden Clinic, which is a replacement of the old clinic, Boitekong Community Health Centre, Mmakaunyane
Clinic, the new General De La Rey Hospital, upgrade of Gelukspan
Hospital, the Brits hospital staff accommodation, Maquassie Hills
Community Centre, the Job Shimankana Tabane, JST, as well.
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There are projects that are still ongoing at the De La Rey Rey
Pharmacy, replacement of boiler at St Mahikeng and Klerksdorp, the replacement of the old Madikwe Clinic, the new Ventersdorp Bulk
Pharmacy, the upgrade of Vendrand Hospital, the upgrade of Excelsior
Nursing College, the replacement of boilers at Klerksdorp Hospital as well as refurbishment of McKnzie and Steve Tshwete Clinic. I can go on and on.
Kuyasheshwa la, Sihlalo ohloniphekile. [We are moving faster here, hon Chairperson.]
We are also in the new financial year, officially opening the Joe
Morolong Hospital, St King CSC and Mathibe CSC and the New Bophelong
Psychiatric Hospital. So, we can go on and on.
TB remains the number one cause of mortality in South Africa.
However, we are turning the tide against TB. In the North West province, the number of deaths due to TB declined by more than 20% between 2009 and 2011 and the proportion of deaths due to TB declined by 10% over the same period. Our gains in this regard points to a multifaceted community based approach. Initiatives like what we called ...
... A re batleng TB Research Project ... [Let‘s look for the TB
Research Project ...]
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... which is aimed at identifying patients with chronic disease early to reduce death and complications from TB, HIV and hypertension, diabetes and obesity, points to a great success when government and community join hands to tackle social challenges.
We are registering satisfactory progress in combating HIV and Aids.
Empirical evidence highlights several gains made by this democratic government of the ANC towards improving the health status of all
South Africans during the period 2009 to 2014. The overall life expectancy has increased 59,6 years in 2013 and I believe I we are on track to achieve a target of 63 years as set in the 2014 and 2019
Medium-Term Strategic Framework, MTSF. The HIV prevalence has stabilised with decrease from 30,2% in 2011, 29,7% in 2012 and 28,2% in 2013.
The department is also implementing the 90-90-90 strategy to reduce the burden of disease, testing 90% of the population, initiating 90% of eligible clients on antiretroviral therapy, ART, 90% retained on treatment and 90% of viral load suppression achieved for clients on
ART and for TB programme, screening 90% of the population, testing
90% of TB suspects, initiating 90% on treatment and successfully treating 90% of all TB cases.
More of our pregnant mothers have registered on the MomConnect programme, which assists us to manage pregnancy and deliver healthy babies, 37 440 mothers registered against a target of 43 281, which
17 MAY 2016 PAGE: 183 of 211 is about 86,6%. This programme is part of our broader plan of stopping maternal and infant mortality.
And Primary Health Care Re-engineering remains the vehicles through which we are taking health care service delivery back to basics. We established Ward-Based Primary Health Care Outreach Teams with the objective to reach 70% outreach household registration visit coverage as planned in our Annual Performance Plan.
The Ideal Clinic Project continues to gain momentum. And this project is important to us as it is part of implementing Operation
Phakisa, which was launched by President Zuma on 20 June 2014 with our Minister. It is also part of our contribution to the Rebranding,
Repositioning and Renewal Programme in our province. In 2015-16, we identified 40 clinics for readiness preparation as Ideal Clinics.
And about 102 clinics have been assessed and put on Ideal Clinic
Programme as part of our plan to roll out the programme of the entire province. As we speak, 60% of them qualified to be called
Ideal Clinics.
We now have as we speak a benchmarking exercise by Zimbabwe in the
North West. We want to welcome the Budget Vote 16, Health
Appropriation Bill. And I thank you very much. [Time expired.]
[Applause.]
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Mr C HATTINGH: Hon Chairperson, firstly, I would like to congratulate my former colleague from the North West Provincial
Legislature, the hon Masike, here. He is, indeed, a very, very brave man. I know him like that. To come here and actually be proud of the achievements of his department in the North West province – I mean, there we have the Bophelong Psychiatric Hospital standing empty for two years. He promised us over and over again that it would be opened and they would start using it. There is no furniture in it, and they are involved in court cases, once again.
Then there is the Vryburg Naledi Hospital scandal and the Madibeng scandal. The MEC states that it is 17 years, but, in reality, it is much longer.
The North West government, in which my former colleague here is actually involved, unfortunately, blames Public Works all the time.
Blame them for the nondelivery of essential hospitals and equipment!
In any case, you remain brave for coming and standing up here and trying to be proud of it. [Interjections.]
The DA believes that a caring government must ensure that accessible, affordable, high-quality health care is available to every South African.
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The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON: INTERGOVERNMENTAL RELATIONS AND CO-OPERATIVE
GOVERNMENT (Ms M C Dikgale): Order, hon member. Will you please take your seat?
Mr C HATTINGH: I‘ll give autographs and take questions outside.
Mr O SEFAKO: Hon Chairperson, I rise on a point of order: Perhaps the hon member forgets that I am from Madibeng. The hospital there is a state-of-the-art facility and is functional. It is working. The point of order is this: He is misleading the House.
The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON: INTERGOVERNMENTAL RELATIONS AND CO-OPERATIVE
GOVERNMENT (Ms M C Dikgale): Hon Sefako, that is a point of debate.
Continue, hon Hattingh.
Mr C HATTINGH: Chairperson, the hon member is either ill informed or he has a very, very short memory, but there is medicine for that.
I‘m sure Dr Masike will assist. [Interjections.]
Now, the hon Minister alluded to the ...
The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON: INTERGOVERNMENTAL RELATIONS AND CO-OPERATIVE
GOVERNMENT (Ms M C Dikgale): Order, hon Hattingh. Order, hon
Hattingh!
Mr C HATTINGH: Oh, is it my neighbour again?
17 MAY 2016 PAGE: 186 of 211
Mr J M MTHETHWA: Chairperson, I rise on a point of order because it is my neighbour: Can he take a question, please?
The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON: INTERGOVERNMENTAL RELATIONS AND CO-OPERATIVE
GOVERNMENT (Ms M C Dikgale): That is not a point of order. No.
Mr C HATTINGH: The hon member indicated in the past that he is not trainable. He cannot understand our Rules. I am sorry, Chairperson,
I have to apologise on behalf of my neighbour.
An adequate supply of doctors, nurses and health care practitioners is critical in a primary health care-based system such as ours.
South Africa has approximately 200 000 registered nurses. This is simply not sufficient in numbers. The same applies to our doctors, who are in short supply. We have got about 55 doctors per 100 000 people, compared to Brazil‘s 185 per 100 000.
Since 1996 – and it‘s not 17 years, but 20 years ago, hon Masike – the government has, increasingly, started to turn to Cuba for support, including for the training of doctors. At one stage, it seemed that there was a Cuban obsession in health care. In 2001, an oversight visit to the Jubilee Hospital at Hammanskraal revealed, among other matters, a long list of critical and unattended-to issues. These included dysfunctional boilers, no working refrigeration equipment in the mortuary, no hot water in the maternity section, and not a single incubator in working condition.
17 MAY 2016 PAGE: 187 of 211
The North West government‘s response to this was to import a number of Cuban technicians to repair the incubators. They could have repaired them around the corner, or got the supplier in. It took a lot of money and more than three months to repair them. Twenty years later – and 15 years after 2001 - Jubilee Hospital is still in distress.
The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON: INTERGOVERNMENTAL RELATIONS AND CO-OPERATIVE
GOVERNMENT (Ms M C Dikgale): Hon Hattingh, could you please take your seat, sir?
Mr C HATTINGH: Is it the usual culprit again? [Laughter.]
The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON: INTERGOVERNMENTAL RELATIONS AND CO-OPERATIVE
GOVERNMENT (Ms M C Dikgale): Hon Hattingh, could you please take your seat? Hon Wana?
Ms T WANA: Chairperson, would the hon member take a question?
The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON: INTERGOVERNMENTAL RELATIONS AND CO-OPERATIVE
GOVERNMENT (Ms M C Dikgale): Let‘s check with the hon member. Are you prepared to take the hon Wana‘s question?
Mr C HATTINGH: Outside, as I said last time. Please remember that forever. [Laughter.]
17 MAY 2016 PAGE: 188 of 211
The Department‘s response to accelerate the training of doctors in
Cuba should be analysed.
The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON: INTERGOVERNMENTAL RELATIONS AND CO-OPERATIVE
GOVERNMENT (Ms M C Dikgale): There is another hand, hon Hattingh.
Please take your seat. Hon Motlashuping, please note that the member is not prepared to take your question.
Mr T C MOTLASHUPING: No, Chairperson, it is not about the member.
The hon Essack cannot utter the word he uttered now. He said, ―Moer them [Beat them up], Chris.‖ That is unparliamentary. We must maintain the decorum of the House. [Interjections.] This man!
The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON: INTERGOVERNMENTAL RELATIONS AND CO-OPERATIVE
GOVERNMENT (Ms M C Dikgale): Please, hon Essack, don‘t stand up and please refrain from uttering those types of words. Continue, hon
Hattingh.
Mr C HATTINGH: Yes, let‘s try again. A recent study indicated that the average cost to train a South African student to become a doctor in Cuba runs to approximately R875 000 per student per year.
The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON: INTERGOVERNMENTAL RELATIONS AND CO-OPERATIVE
GOVERNMENT (Ms M C Dikgale): There is another hand. My apologies, hon Hattingh. Hon Dlamini?
17 MAY 2016 PAGE: 189 of 211
Ms L C DLAMINI: Chair, it‘s not about the hon member Hattingh. The hon Essack is repeating it in isiZulu now: Uthi balimaze. [He says,
―Hurt them‖.] [Interjections.] He is saying the same thing, only in isiZulu now.
The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON: INTERGOVERNMENTAL RELATIONS AND CO-OPERATIVE
GOVERNMENT (Ms M C Dikgale): Balimaze. [Hurt them.] Hon Hattingh, please continue with the debate.
Mr C HATTINGH: Like I said, it is about R875 000 per year per student. This excludes hidden costs and the additional two years at a South African university where they have to go to get a proper qualification and registration, and a period of internship. These costs can easily exceed R5 million per student over the term, and it takes these South African students who‘ve studied in Cuba eight or nine years to complete their studies. Now, the average cost to train a doctor at a South African university, according to a UCT study, is approximately R1,3 million.
All indications are that the Cuban agreement will expand over the next five years, eventually adding about 1 000 undergraduates annually into our under-resourced local medical campuses from 2018, onwards. This is simply not sustainable, and not affordable. For the past three years, the annual output of Cuban-trained South Africans in their final years at local medical schools came to about 100 of the 1 300 graduates fully trained, locally.
17 MAY 2016 PAGE: 190 of 211
Our problem, Minister, is that South Africa has not increased its capacity to produce doctors since 1976. Limpopo now has the first new medical school that will come into being, but even if we just want to maintain our current, low rate of 55 doctors per 100 000 people, we need to double our medical schools in the next 15 years.
It cannot be done.
I am running out of time, thanks to the assistance I got from some colleagues, but the reality is that charity begins at home. We cannot sustain unlimited funding of our students in Cuba. We have to start investing in and building our own capacity. We have to home- grow our own doctors here and decrease our submissions to the Cuban students. Cuba has 25 institutions producing 11 000 doctors per year, mainly for export. We have to start doing our own thing in our own country. Thank you, Chair, and thank you for assisting me by controlling your rogue colleagues.
The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON: INTERGOVERNMENTAL RELATIONS AND CO-OPERATIVE
GOVERNMENT (Ms M C Dikgale): Thank you very much.
Hon Essack, please refrain from saying those types of words. No, no,
I‘m not requesting you to say anything. I am just asking you not to repeat those words again.
17 MAY 2016 PAGE: 191 of 211
Hon members, let‘s try not to stand on continuous points of order because it disturbs the person taking part in the debate.
[Interjections.] Are you withdrawing? Alright.
Mr F ESSACK: It‘s no skin off my face, Madam Chair. No problem.
The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON: INTERGOVERNMENTAL RELATIONS AND CO-OPERATIVE
GOVERNMENT (Ms M C Dikgale): Thank you very much.
The DEPUTY MINISTER OF HEALTH: Hon Chairperson of the NCOP, Minister of Health, Dr Aaron Motsoaledi, Hon MECs, Chairperson of our select committee, hon Dlamini and hon members of the committee, hon members of the NCOP, distinguished guests, good evening, it is an honour indeed again to be here in the NCOP in support of our Budget Vote.
Hon Chairperson, our country remains challenged by the quadruple burden of disease one of which as some members have alluded is the challenge of violence, accidents and injuries. Last week was the UN
Global Road Safety Week and it is therefore an indictment on us that over the past few weeks we witnessed one of the bloodiest times on our roads where dozens of our people perished either through crashes of taxis and buses or ordinary motor vehicles. It is a reminder that we need to double our effort in reducing the carnage on our roads.
As the Department of Health we will work tirelessly with the
Department of Transport to make sure that we can reduce this carnage
17 MAY 2016 PAGE: 192 of 211 in line with the decisions of the United Nations, UN. From our side we will contribute in terms of making sure that blood alcohol results can be available much quicker and we have already taken steps through increasing our capacities in terms of chemistry laboratories to turn around these results because there is no doubt that many of these are related to the consumption of alcohol.
Hon members, on 25 September 2015 as the Minister also alluded, the
UN General Assembly adopted the Sustainable Development Goals, and as a country and as a department we fully pledge our support for this and commit ourselves that indeed we will do all we can to make sure that all 17 goals will be achieved. But more specifically in terms of goal three which is to ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages.
In the area of communicable diseases the pledge is to reduce by one third premature mortality from noncommunicable diseases and we have intensions to achieve all this. Unhealthy diet remains one of the major challenges in this regard as mentioned earlier on by my colleague, MEC Masike that it contributes to obesity. In this regard in the last financial year we adopted a five-year strategy for the prevention of obesity. It is within this regard that we welcome the intervention of the Minister of Finance in terms of introducing sugar tax as many colleagues here will be aware that we are looking forward to the implementation of that tax and we hope that it will go a long way in terms of reducing the consumption of fizzy drinks.
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Just to remind members that one can of a fizzy drink is enough for your sugar requirement for the whole day. Therefore if you take one can then do not take anymore sugar not even in your tea because in terms of your body requirements that is adequate for the entire day.
Hon members, we continue to do a lot of work in terms of screening for these noncommunicable diseases including hypertension and diabetes. We are also encouraged by the fact that not only our adults but also young people are coming forward to test and to make sure that we can be more efficient, we have made sure also that we combine this together with our other major campaigns in terms of screening for HIV/Aids. So, we are making sure that this becomes a one stop service.
Another area that the hon Chair of the committee touched on is the area of mental health. We are conscious of the fact that although a lot has been done in this regard, a lot still needs to be done.
Therefore we will be increasing our resources in as far as detecting, managing and preventing mental diseases in line with the
World Health Organisation, WHO, which has recognised that depression and anxiety are a major contributor to mental ill health and we need to do all we can to prevent this.
In line with our Criminal Procedure Act and our Health Act itself, our department has a specific responsibility in relation to offenders in our correctional services that are either confirmed or
17 MAY 2016 PAGE: 194 of 211 suspected of suffering from mental illness. We do recognise that we still have limited capacity which results in a situation where there are a number of detainees in the last assessment. More than 921 detainees were awaiting observations because of scarce capacity within our institutions.
This also goes as far as in the area of state patients who also need to be taken away from correctional services into our medical facilities. There is a lot of shortage of beds and in March this year we had a seminar where we assessed all of this with our colleagues in the Departments of Justice, Police and Correctional
Services and we came with various strategies through which we will be able to address this challenge.
The other area in terms of noncommunicable disease is the question of cancer. A lot has been done over the last three years. We appointed a ministerial advisory committee which has been advising us in this area and they have come with a number if new interventions specifically in the area of breast cancer and cervical cancer in as far as women are concerned and prostate cancer for men.
There are a number of initiatives which they have proposed which will be able to take us forward in helping us reduce the burden of cancers.
In the area of malaria, one of our hon members, hon Moshodi did touch on that, we are also proud to say that a lot of progress has
17 MAY 2016 PAGE: 195 of 211 been made in as far as our commitment towards the elimination of malaria. We have reduced the incidents of malaria by 57% and we have reduced deaths by over 74%. A lot of progress has been made but we are continuing to redouble our efforts in making sure that we can reach our targets together with our neighbouring countries like
Mozambique and Swaziland. We have recently signed a declaration which will make sure that we will collaborate.
In the area of nursing I just want to assure members that we are on course in terms of revamping our nursing education and training. A national policy for nursing education is underway and the policy seeks to make sure that we can provide a framework for standardisation of training, address issues of curriculum and ensure that also the right people are also recruited in this regard.
I heard hon Hattingh talking about criticising our Nelson Mandela
Fidel Castro Programme in terms of training medical students. I want to say that the hon member is indeed misleading the House in terms of the figures we was throwing around. This is a very successful programme which will indeed revolutionarise our ability to provide doctors as already mentioned by the hon MEC for Gauteng. This includes recruitment of specialists also in the area of training our young people. [Applause.] It is a pity that his province, the
Western Cape, is an outcast in this regard.
17 MAY 2016 PAGE: 196 of 211
I want to conclude by thanking all other eight MECs who are working with us in making sure that indeed by the year 2018 we will be able to bring in more than 800 young final year students to come and complete their medical education here in South Africa. Thank you very much. [Applause.]
Mr M KHAWULA: Hon House Chair, hon Minister, hon Deputy Minister, hon MECs, colleagues, the programmes and policy outline of the
Department of Health are good on paper but suffer implementation inability. This is due to a commitment that does not transcend from the national office to all levels of the department. Whilst I am not able to go as far as referring to devils in white, I do however want to say that the first elephant in the room is the provincial administrations. Some provinces have thus far failed to implement the policies as per expectation. This is even reflected in the audit outcomes of the provinces. Five provincial departments have still failed to achieve unqualified opinions.
The department is planning to reengineer primary health care by increasing the number of Ward-Based Outreach Teams. The unfortunate part is that even the ones that you think are there are not always functional. The department plans to expand school health services.
The unfortunate part is that the existing school health services are very seasonal and session based. The lively activity that happens is sometimes based upon who would be coming to inspect what and at what time. Whilst the ideas of NHI are commendable for improving the
17 MAY 2016 PAGE: 197 of 211 provision of healthcare services across the board, the provision of infrastructure is a setback. The country‘s inability to attract and retain skilled personnel especially in the rural areas is another setback. Hon Minister, I do concede that on these issues some provinces are really trying the best they can. Therefore, this cannot be the question of ...
... zifa ngamvu yinye. [... being painted with the same brush.]
Those that are performing well, the IFP says keep it up and to those who are a setback we say, pull up your socks for the sake of your country.
The IFP further welcomes the plans of the department to introduce to
Parliament the long awaited Traditional Health Practitioners Bill.
Abelaphi bendabuko babeneqhaza elikhulu emiphakathini yase-Afrika ngaphambi kokuthi kufike izindlela zesimanje zokwelapha zasentshonalanga. Yebo, bakhona labo abathize abangcolisa baphinde banukubeze lezi zindlela ngenxa yemikhuba emibi. Kepha labo angeze babizwa ngabelaphi bendabuko kodwa bangabakhunkuli abadinga ukuvezwa obala.
Abelaphi bendabuko basiza abantu bezigulo zabo kuphela futhi kunezindlela zesintu ezelapha izifo okungelula ukuzelapha ngendlela yasentshonalanga. (Translation of isiZulu paragraphs follows.)
17 MAY 2016 PAGE: 198 of 211
[Traditional healers played a big role in African communities before the modern methods of western medicine. Indeed, there are those who discredit and abuse these methods because of their devious ways.
However, those cannot be referred to as traditional healers but they‘re witches who need to be exposed.
Traditional healers only help people with their ailments and there are traditional ways which heal ailments that are not easily healed with western medicine.]
Therefore there is some good that can be deducted from the traditional healing methods just as well as there is some good that has come with the western healing method. Surely, each can learn from the other.
Whilst the maternal mortality ratio has gone down a bit, but it still remains at proportionally high levels to accept, the same goes for the neonatal mortality rates which, though stabilised, remains at unacceptable levels. Of course, the ideal situation would be for the country to achieve zero levels of both. South Africa remains the leading country with a highest number of people living with HIV in the world. This is partly due to the disastrous approach of the late
90s to the mid 2000 that the country had towards this disease. It is pleasing that the Minister came with a new approach to at least arrest new infections.
17 MAY 2016 PAGE: 199 of 211
The new developing lifestyle of the so called blessers posses a new threat to this achievement. If drastic steps are not taken against this trend then the country will deviate back to where we were some
10 years ago. Lastly, hon Chairperson, I do want to commend my MEC from KwaZulu-Natal who is always here whenever there are issues on health that are debated in this House. Ngiyathokoza Dinangwe. [Thank you Dinangwe.] [Applause.]
Ms L L ZWANE: Chairperson, hon Minister of Health, Deputy Minister,
MECs from various provinces, special delegates to this session, hon members. Let me this opportunity to thank the Minister for the address that he has delivered, it was quite inspiring and insightful and I want to assure you Minister that it has ignited hope in the hearts of progress loving South Africans. Maybe before I go on with my input, let me just address a couple of issues. I wanted address myself to hon Mpambo-Sibhukwana but unfortunately she has left the
House as you say this business of actually always juxtaposing the country as a whole with the Western Cape, in so far as progress that is made is concerned is grossly unfair.
AN HON MEMBER: It is the leading province.
Ms L L ZWANE: You are responsible for only the Western Cape but you are comparing that with a mammoth task that the ANC is doing in terms if changing the quality of life of the people of South Africa in eight provinces and I want to say that 1 out of 9 really is not a
17 MAY 2016 PAGE: 200 of 211 good mark, you cannot compare it to 8 out of 9. So you cannot be proud of that and in any case the budget that you are using, you are getting it from the national government, led by the ANC. [Applause.]
And again, the second issue I wanted to raise with her is the issue of lecturing us on the Constitution, the provisions, the prescripts of the Constitution. Remember, the ANC are the architects of the
Constitution and we have got a full understanding of what it demands and what it says, so thank you for the lecture, it was highly unnecessary.
The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON: INTERGOVERNMENTAL RELATIONS AND CO-OPERATIVE
GOVERNMENT (Ms M C Dikgale): Hon Hattingh, please do not drown the speaker.
Ms L L ZWANE: And then the other issue that I wanted to raise with hon Hattingh, is that hon member, it‘s not going to assist South
Africans to come here at the podium and cite the scandals that are there, people of this country do not benefit anything from that, you need to tell the people what you are going to do for them using the budget that you are given by the ANC-led government. [Applause.] Not the scandals, they do not help anybody, they do not improve the state of health. [Interjections.]
Mr C HATTINGH: You must listen. You do not listen, that is your problem.
17 MAY 2016 PAGE: 201 of 211
Ms L L ZWANE: I do and then the other issue is the fact that you are saying that the ANC is not doing much in terms of improving or attending to the infrastructure but the new medical school, that you yourself that you yourself spoke about, is an attempt by the ANC to ensure that we increase the number of doctors that we produce for them to be able to go and attend to the people‘s health. I want to also acknowledge the input made by the MECs but my MEC, Dinangwe
[Dlomo], from KwaZulu-Natal, KZN, as to say that we are really very proud of the progress that the Department of Health is making, I heard Gabhisa [Khawula] say that the provincial administrations programmes are failing but I want to say that eyi, in KZN, there are hospitals, that are very good. One such example if I may cite Port
Shepstone Hospital, I took my sister there – she has a heart problem
– we thought she was going to be referred to Chief Albert Luthuli, they attended to her because the Department of Health has made sure that they have supplied the technology that is required to attend to such issues. [Applause.]
King Edward VIII is one the very good hospitals, Inkosi [Chief]
Albert Luthuli, Murchison Hospital, all these hospitals are very good, they have been upgraded and even as you enter, you can actually see their running, the cleanliness, the reception, a lot of good is happening in fact the landscape of the health systems in the
Republic of South Africa has changed drastically and we want to appreciate that. [Applause.]
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Besiya emtholampilo singabatholi odokotela. Bekungenzeki ukuthi uma uya emtholampilo ... [We used to go to clinics and not find doctors.
It never happened that when you go to the clinics ...]
... Ordinarily in the rural areas ...
... ufice udokotela.[... you would find a doctor.]
But now because of the leadership that you are offering, hon
Minister of Health, sometimes you go and you find that a doctor is there to attend to certain specific issues. That is progress because it used to not happen before so the primary healthcare system is actually improving drastically. Maybe some of us would know that the
Department of Health is implementing the world‘s biggest HIV and
Aids treatment programme, not Africa‘s biggest, the world‘s biggest, which was launched in 2010 and as a result of that campaign, we ended up as a country having tested 18 million South Africans on HIV and Aids over a period of only 18 months. That is a good story to tell.
Today, as we speak, about 10 million people go for testing because of this campaign. It has gained momentum and it has awakened a need in the minds of the people to go and test to the extent that even here in Parliament, hon Minister, you have actually brought some campaigns where you have called upon members of Parliament to go and test. Last year I was up there, your vehicles were up there, where
17 MAY 2016 PAGE: 203 of 211 you called upon the members of Parliament to go and test if they do not have Tuberculosis, TB. I was frightened because I was not sure if I had it or not but it assisted me because at least it cleared me. Why, because we have got the passion for the Department of
Health. If there is a Minister that has got passion, it is you.
[Applause.] And we also welcome your announcement where you said this year in June; the Department of Health is going to launch a three year campaign focusing on girls and young women between the ages of 15 and 24 and men who are infecting them and impregnating them. This campaign will have an objective of decreasing infections in young girls and women, it will decrease teenage pregnancy, and it will decrease sexual and gender-based violence. It will assist with keeping girls in school at least until they get matric, it will economic opportunities for young women and try to win them away from sugar daddies or ―blessers‖ as they are now called.
We also welcome the fact that the department has from this year employed or appointed an Ombudsperson, whose function will be to ensure that the complaints by different patients in different health institutions are dealt with and are resolved, so that is progress that we do welcome. As I draw towards a conclusion, I want to that we also welcome the attempts of the department with regard to school health. Those nurses that go to schools to check on the little ones, whether they have got sight problems or whether they have hearing problems or whether there is mental retardation problems, are very useful because teachers are not trained in health and they can then
17 MAY 2016 PAGE: 204 of 211 be able to separate and see and devise methods and means of handling learners according to the findings of those health nurses. Oral hygiene also is another critical issue.
Abantwana bethu abanamazinyo njengoba umbuso wobandlululo awuzange usinikeze lawo mathuba okuthi ezempilo zingene zisondele nasezikoleni, izingane zifundiswe zisezincane ukuzinakekela nokunakekela amazinyo nokunakekela isimo sonke somzimba.
(Translation of isiZulu paragraph follows.)
[Our children do not have teeth because the apartheid government didn‘t give us those opportunities of school health, in order to teach our children at a tender age how to take care of themselves, take care of their teeth and the whole body.]
Those programmes are very useful because,
Ligotshwa lisemanzi ngesizulu. [Strike the iron while it‘s still hot.]
And in conclusion, I want to say we really appreciate the roll out of these teams that go to communities, the healthcare givers, to go and assist, to go and ensure that people take their treatment timeously, to go and ensure that those that are on TB treatment take their treatment so as to prevent this issue diseases that develop to a stage where the drugs are no longer effective. That programme was
17 MAY 2016 PAGE: 205 of 211 not there, it is there now that the ANC is leading and the ANC-led government is in charge. [Time expired.] The select committee supports the budget. Thank you very much. [Applause.]
The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON: INTERGOVERNMENTAL RELATIONS AND CO-OPERATIVE
GOVERNMENT (Ms M C Dikgale): Alright, hayi, hon Zwane, we cannot call them the ―blessers‖, they are the destroyers. [Applause]
[Interjections.] Hon Minister, over to you, Ja, they are not blessing our kids they are destroying them. [Interjections.]
The MINISTER OF HEALTH: Hon House Chair let me deal with two issues only. First of all, let me take off where the hon Deputy Minister
Joe Phaahla left off because he ran out of time on this issue of
Cuba. Hon Hattingh when you quote figures please make sure that they are accurate. Firstly, you quoted that we are spending sending students to Cuba at R175 000 per student and you say that is exorbitant. The students who we are sending to Cuba in terms of what is happening in the country – the admission criteria, they would not have admitted them here because they all come from previously disadvantaged communities except in the Western Cape.
Now, when we put them in South African universities, this is what happened. We started it at Wits in 2011 to accept those students who they would not ordinarily have accepted and we paid for them. It cost us R200 000 per student, the first group which we sent to Wits under that scheme from previously disadvantaged communities. They
17 MAY 2016 PAGE: 206 of 211 were 40 students and we had to pay R8 million for them. So, it is still more expensive than sending students to Cuba. But Cuba has got an additional advantage of numbers but you are talking because of your ideology; the ideology of just hating Cuba. Let me also correct you – The last medical school in South Africa was not in 1976 by the way, was 1985. All your numbers are wrong and I do not know why. It was in 1985.
Your ideology of hating Cuba is based on your lack of understanding.
Cuba is practicing primary health care and we are practicing a curative medicine. That is why they are the first country in the world last year in November where the World Health Organisation,
WHO, announced that they are the first country in the world to bring an end to mother-to-child transmission. The mistake is ours here whereby when they come back here, we use them wrongly in our hospitals. They are primary health care specialists. You can ask hon
Dhlomo, in Mzinyathi District in KwaZulu-Natal there is a lowest maternal mortality because Cuban doctors have been deployed there in primary health care and they lowered maternal mortality.
The reason that we will keep on sending these students to Cuba is because under the National Health Insurance, NHI, our health care system is going to be primary health care. If you think that we are the only one, this matter was discussed at the World Economic Forum in Davos, that world care systems are becoming very expensive unless we run to primary health care. Even European countries, for your
17 MAY 2016 PAGE: 207 of 211 information, mark these words and write them down are going to rush to Cuba to copy that method because everybody wants it because it is the most effective way of providing health care. [Applause.]
The last issue that I want to quote, hon Mpambo-Sibhukwana unfortunately I do not know whether she is still in the House. I heard this story last week and it keeps on being repeated, the fantasy of DA that they come with an alternative to NHI. As I am listening I do not know whether it is deliberate or it is lack of understanding to confuse the budget with the GDP. She said the
Constitution says ―within available resources‖. It says we must do this section 27 within available resources.
If you listened to her, her available resources is the budget. That is not how universal health coverage is envisaged even by the United
Nations. It is not based on the budget but on the GDP. We want to share the GDP. At the moment the GDP of South Africa is R4 trillion and 8,5% of it is spent on health. That is why they are saying we are at the same level with Brazil but the difference is that in that
8,5%, 5% is spent only on 16% of the population and the remaining
3,5% of the GDP is spent on 84% of the population. Under NHI, this is what we want to change.
So, now you are trying to say, use the budget only for the rest of the population and we will hide the GDP away. It is about sharing because your members are on the stock exchange. We want to share
17 MAY 2016 PAGE: 208 of 211 what is on the stock exchange and not the budget. The budget is only
R153 billion for health and the total budget of the country is
R1,4 trillion but the GDP is R4 trillion. That is the one we want to share and that is what NHI will do. [Applause.] So you need to understand that very thoroughly.
Lastly, let me tell you what you are hiding because most of us, including yourselves have got medical schemes here. Let me tell you what you are hiding under that ...
The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON: INTERGOVERNMENTAL RELATIONS AND CO-OPERATIVE
GOVERNMENT (Ms M C Dikgale): Mr Esaack is on his feet, what is the problem hon Essack?
Mr F ESSACK: Hon House Chairperson, on a point of order: I am under attack her, just for standing up. I do not know what the excitement is all about.
The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON: INTERGOVERNMENTAL RELATIONS AND CO-OPERATIVE
GOVERNMENT (Ms M C Dikgale): Hon Minister, please take your seat, please take your seat.
Mr F ESSACK: Through you hon Chair, yes, Minister sit, you need to relax. Hon Chair, I would like to ask you if you can ask the hon
Minister if he can take a question from me, please. [Laughter.]
17 MAY 2016 PAGE: 209 of 211
The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON: INTERGOVERNMENTAL RELATIONS AND CO-OPERATIVE
GOVERNMENT (Ms M C Dikgale): Okay, but that is not an attack. You said you were under attack.
Mr F ESSACK: No, no I was attack on the floor. You saw that hon
Chair but be that as it may please through you hon Chair, may I ask you if the hon Minister will take the question.
The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON: INTERGOVERNMENTAL RELATIONS AND CO-OPERATIVE
GOVERNMENT (Ms M C Dikgale): Okay, let me check with the hon
Minister. Hon Minister, do you have time?
The MINISTER OF HEALTH: Why should I take time because I am already teaching him? [Laughter.]
The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON: INTERGOVERNMENTAL RELATIONS AND CO-OPERATIVE
GOVERNMENT (Ms M C Dikgale): He is not ready, he wants you to sit down and listen to him.
The MINISTER OF HEALTH: What question are you going to ask? I am already teaching you.
The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON: INTERGOVERNMENTAL RELATIONS AND CO-OPERATIVE
GOVERNMENT (Ms M C Dikgale): Hon Minister, please sit down. Hon
Essack please take your seat. Take your seat Essack, please. Take
17 MAY 2016 PAGE: 210 of 211 your seat hon Essack, the Minister is not ready for your question, please.
The MINISTER OF HEALTH: It is not that I am not ready; he will waste my time for educating him.
The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON: INTERGOVERNMENTAL RELATIONS AND CO-OPERATIVE
GOVERNMENT (Ms M C Dikgale): Hon Essack, please take your seat, hon
Essack. Hon Essack please take your seat. I know, you are a neighbour to the EFF members but they are not here. Please take your seat. Conclude hon Minister.
The MINISTER OF HEALTH: In conclusion Chairperson, let me tell you what the DA is hiding which they do not want me to tell you. Let us take the example of three medical schemes, ours in Parliament which also covers them, Government Employees Medical Scheme, Gems, and
South African Police Service Medical Scheme, Polmed, is R20 billion and it comes from the fiscus. From the very same budget which they say we must share with the poor.
The tax returns from 8 million people who are on medical aids, 16% of the population is R16 billion which the masses do not even have a share to it. The last amount that I want to quote – in terms of the insurance law, every insurance company must have 25% in reserves and that is for long-term insurance, unfortunately, medical aids are also covered by that law. Instead of leaving 25% in reserves, they
17 MAY 2016 PAGE: 211 of 211 have got 33% in reserves. Do you know how much that is? It is
R43 billion. That was at the end of December. It is invested all over. But many members of the medical aid schemes were told that their benefits are finished but R43 billion is lying there taken by all medical aids and NHI wants to bring that to an end. [Time expired.] [Applause.]
The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON: INTERGOVERNMENTAL RELATIONS AND CO-OPERATIVE
GOVERNMENT (Ms M C Dikgale): Thank you very much hon Minister for the free lectures. Thank you very much hon Minister and the Deputy
Minister for forming part of our debate. I think we need to request the hon Chief Whip, if it can be practical that we have a conference and in that conference we invite the Minister to come and lecture us on these issues of health.
Debate concluded.
The Council adjourned at 20:05.