Oral Replies by Deputy President Shipokosa Paulus Mashatile to questions in the National Council of Provinces, Parliament

Honourable Chairperson,

Prior to responding to questions by Members of this House, let me wish all those celebrating a Happy and Blessed month of Ramadan. May it be a turning point for the people of Palestine, and the oppressed nations of the world.

On High unemployment rate among youth

Honourable Chairperson,

In October 2020, Cabinet approved the National Youth Policy (NYP) 2030, which is a cross-sectoral policy intended to redress the injustices of the past and deal decisively with new challenges affecting the youth.

As part of our commitment to reduce youth unemployment, the Minister of Finance has announced an amount of R7.4 billion set aside for the Presidential Employment Initiative for the 2024/25 financial year. 

Thus far, the Presidential Employment Initiative has assisted over 1.7 million people through a combination of job creation, job retention and income and skills support interventions.

Honourable Chairperson,

In addition, the South African Employment Services System, which serves over 7 million job seekers, provides nationwide platforms for youth to register for employment, match with employment opportunities, and receive placement counselling. 

Through public-private partnerships, government supports various internship, learnerships, and apprenticeship programmes across various government departments to provide experiential learning and facilitate entry into the labour market for young people.

By supporting the growth of Small, Medium and Micro Enterprises (SMMEs), government is playing a critical role in addressing South Africa’s youth unemployment crisis. Government is also implementing the Preferential Procurement Policy Framework Act to promote SMMEs that are key to job creation, and economic growth.

We must continue to strengthen multi sectoral partnerships to increase opportunities that promote youth empowerment and participation in the labour market. Together, we can contribute to national efforts to create employment and get South Africans working.

I thank you.

On addressing skills shortage

Honourable Chairperson,
 
After the Fourth Human Resource Development Council Summit that was held in 2021, partners who are represented in the Council, comprising government, business sector, organised labour and civil society, signed three social compacts.

The compacts are aimed at strengthening relationships and positively impacting the human development value chain in our country.

The first social compact focuses on building the foundation for a transformed economy and society. The second compact focuses on skills for a transformed economy and society, and the third one relates to the building of a capable state, and professionalisation of the public service. 

The signing of these compacts demonstrates government and social partner collaboration to address skills shortages in critical economic sectors. 

The social compacts prioritise digital skills for the 21^st century, aligning them with global demands of the Fourth and Fifth Industrial Revolutions.

Honourable Chairperson, 

The Department of Higher Education and Training established a National Skills Fund that prioritises employment creation interventions through the rollout of work-integrated learning programmes designed to facilitate the transition of graduates and technical vocational education and training college students into the labour market.

This year, R800 million has been set aside for the National Skills Fund to develop skills in the digital and technology sector through an innovative model that links payment for training to employment outcomes. 

Moreover, the Human Resource Development Strategy: Towards 2030 recognises that education and skills in South Africa constitute the nerve-centre of the country’s economic growth and the national transformation goals set out in the National Development Plan’s vision for 2030.

The country’s re-conceptualised Human Resource Development Strategy and Master Skills Plan, which is currently being developed, will give further impetus to our efforts of addressing skills shortages across all sectors of our economy.

Last week, on Friday 8 March 2024, we held a Human Resource Development Council meeting, which took the form of a retreat where we reflected on both achievements and challenges relating to the shortage of skills in critical sectors of our economy.

One of the critical observations of the Council is that there is a need to improve the speed of policy execution across the state, the private sector and civil society to realise our global competitiveness.

I thank you. 

On resolving water crisis/disruptions

Honourable Chairperson,

Government is implementing improvement plans as part of its rapid response interventions to resolve the water crisis and electricity disruptions in various municipalities in the country.

Through the Service Delivery War Room, the Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, as the coordinating department, has developed a number of improvements plans to implement rapid response interventions that include the following:

• The establishment of the Results Management Office.
• The introduction of reforms in the Municipal Infrastructure Grant to fund repairs, refurbishment and renewal of their infrastructure.
• Continued deployment of technical professionals through the Municipal Infrastructure Support Agent.

As part of the Results Management Office's responsibility, the Working Group on Energy assists municipalities in advancing demand side management measures and providing alternate energy supplies. These initiatives are aimed at reducing the impact of load shedding, and its effect on substations and transformers.

Honourable Chairperson,

Last week, together with the Deputy Ministers of CoGTA and Water and Sanitation, we visited Knysna Municipality to find solutions to some of the challenges the municipality is facing. We are happy to report that with the support of Municipal Infrastructure Support Agent (MISA), the pump station that had been vandalised in the Hornlee area has been repaired, and water supply has been restored to the community. As this government, we are committed to working within the Inter-Governmental Relations Framework to ensure that we assist Municipalities in delivering services to our people. 

The Municipal Infrastructure Support Agent, continues to engage the private sector to fund bulk-water infrastructure projects. Two examples of these private sector engagements include Sishen Mine in the Northern Cape Province and the Anglo Platinum Mine in Limpopo Province. These private sector entities have stepped up to fund wastewater treatment works upgrades in the Northern Cape and Limpopo Provinces, respectively.

Furthermore, Eskom has initiated the Active Partnering Programme, which provides technical support to Municipalities through targeted interventions based on each municipality’s needs, and to strengthen the capacity of municipalities to address the high failure rate of mini sub-stations and transformers.

Parliament is currently processing the South African National Water Resources Infrastructure Agency SOC Limited Bill to establish the South African National Water Resources Infrastructure Agency as a state-owned company, and a major public entity. The Agency will enable South Africa to expand our bulk water infrastructure and improve the management of existing water assets to ensure water security over the next decade.

As the government of the African National Congress, we will continue to work tirelessly to assist municipalities who are Water Services Authorities to meet their constitutional obligation to provide reliable water and sanitation services to all South African citizens.
 
I thank you.

On the District Development Model

Honourable Chairperson,

The District Development Model (DDM) is in operation across the three spheres of government. Since assuming my responsibilities as the Deputy President of the Republic in March 2023, I have been on the ground conducting several DDM-linked outreach visits to provinces, specifically to troubleshoot service delivery hotspots at the municipal level, and implement intervention measures that are in line with the District Development Model. 

To this end, I have conducted outreach programmes to different sites in the North West, Gauteng, Free State, KwaZulu-Natal, Eastern Cape and Mpumalanga provinces. These included interactions with stakeholders that are seized with the implementation of the DDM in their localities, including; traditional leaders, government, business and community organisations.  

Honourable Chairperson,

On Thursday, 07 March 2024, President Cyril Ramaphosa led Government’s interaction in the form of a District Development Model Presidential Imbizo with communities and stakeholders in the Nkangala District Municipality in Mpumalanga.

This 12^th Imbizo was part of the ongoing interactions with communities and stakeholders, aimed at enabling successful implementation of the “One District, One Plan” District Development Model. In line with the theme of, “Leaving No One Behind”, residents, Traditional and Khoi-San Leaders, Business Formations, Organised Labour, Faith- and Community-Based Organisations work with government across all phases of planning, implementation, and evaluation.

Our interactions with these partners have assisted in identifying areas of best practice and those that need strengthening in the implementation of the One Plans of municipalities. 

In particular, collaborating with the Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, we are looking into ensuring that implementation of the DDM leads to strengthening partnerships with development partners and investors underpinned by a longer term DDM Vision and One Plans.  

Through the implementation of the District Development Model, the African National Congress-led government will continue to invest in our people by ensuring that local governments deliver and provide basic services to all communities. 

I thank you.

On the transfer of agricultural land

Honourable Chairperson,

Government is accelerating land redistribution through a variety of instruments, such as land restitution and expropriation of land, in order to boost agricultural output. 

To this end, in his 2023 budget vote speech, the Minister of Public Works and Infrastructure announced that 221 land parcels measuring 148 796 hectares have been released from the Department property portfolio to the Department of Agriculture, Land Reform, and Rural Development for transfer to the approved land claimants. Approximately 1 576 hectares of land is earmarked to be released before the end of this financial year.

To further address the skewed patterns of land ownership, 125 land parcels, measuring 25 549 hectares of agricultural land was released to support subsistence farming and food security. This is in keeping with what we have been doing over the last 30 years.

Furthermore, the government is in the process of transferring State Agricultural Land, through which is known as FALA (Financial Assistance Land) properties, where there has been compliance with the rent-to-buy agreements. 

The Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development is developing criteria for category 3 and commercial farmers as part of the rollout plan for the release of state land. Category 3 includes medium to large-scale commercial farmers who have already been, or intend to farm commercially at various scales, but are disadvantaged by location, size of land, and other resource constraints that are limiting their growth.

Under the land reform programme, the Department of Public Works and Infrastructure, as the custodian of national state-owned land, receives requests from the Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development to release land to settle land claims for restitution, and for agricultural purposes.

As a government, we will prioritize providing extension and technical support in order to ensure that we distribute properties that are productive and contribute to South Africa’s food security. 

I thank you.

On the genocide case against Israel

Honourable Chairperson,

As South Africa we have no regrets about becoming the first country to file the lawsuit against the State of Israeli at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague, to compel her government to end the deadly and relentless genocidal bombardment of Gaza.  

The UN Humanitarian Agency estimates that more than 30,000 Palestinians, including over 10,000 children, have been killed. Over 70,000 have been injured while 10,000 are missing under rubble. This brings the number of civilian casualties to about 110,000, amounting to roughly 5% of Gaza's 2.3 million population. We will not condone genocide. 

Similarly, I must reiterate South Africa’s condemnation of Hamas for the indiscriminate and wanton violence meted against Israeli civilians.
 
Honourable Chairperson,

We are mindful that not every citizen supports our government’s decision to refer the Gaza bombardment to the ICJ. We are also aware that some, here at home and abroad, started off by opposing our position. However, they have revised their view, taking into consideration the number of deaths and sheer scale of human suffering. 

We also know that there are some for whom support for the State of Israel is an ideological and, in some instances, a religious matter. They will never be swayed no matter the facts and however persuasive the argument. There are, frankly speaking, some whose idea of human pain is informed by the pigmentation of the perpetrator and the victim. Others do not so much as care about anything that happens beyond our borders and would rather that we become an insular society even as the world shrinks into a village. 

However the ANC led government will continue to engage every sector of our society especially on matters contentious. 

Honourable Chairperson,

Our country is committed to the promotion of social cohesion, which does not mean the absence of difference, but the promotion of consensus and evolution of a practical programme of action for progressive social change.

It is in the context of Ubuntu and the building a better Africa and the world that we remain committed to promoting the Bill of Rights, which enshrines the rights of all people in our country and affirms the democratic values of human dignity, equality and freedom.

We will continue to pledge of our solidarity with the people of Palestine in their struggle to end all acts of the apartheid system by Israeli government, and the genocide emanating from that evil system, and supporting their collective right to self-determination. As President Nelson Mandela emphasised that: "Our freedom is incomplete without the freedom of the Palestinians." Indeed: If I am only for myself, what am I?

I thank you.