[ Home ] [ Speeches & statements ]

12 February 2009

The Minister for the Public Service and Administration: Chairperson, Mr President, Deputy President and honourable members, in the novel Hard Times, Charles Dickens wrote of a teacher who placed great emphasis on facts, who said:
"Now what I want is facts. Teach these boys and girls nothing but facts. Facts alone are wanted in life. Stick to facts, sir."

As we debate the State of the Nation Address today, it is imperative to note some facts about the African National Congress (ANC) government’s record of service delivery, which is a guarantee for human dignity.

The people of South Africa have since witnessed that the ANC government sought to create a better life for all the people through the delivery of basic and advanced services for all. One of the success stories of factual evidence of service delivery is in the area of Comprehensive Social Security Protection, which reflects the ANC government’s move to further advance our struggle for service delivery as marked in the words of former President Mandela in his first state of the nation address when he said the following:

My government’s commitment to create a people-centred society of liberty binds us to the pursuit of the goals of freedom from what, freedom from hunger, freedom from deprivation, freedom from ignorance, freedom from suppression and freedom from fear. These freedoms are fundamental to the guarantee of human dignity. They will therefore constitute part of the centrepiece of what this government will seek to achieve.

Since then we have pursued the goal of freedom from poverty with accelerated speed. We have developed policies to promote human dignity. It is a fact that a decade and half ago the Parliament of South Africa adopted the Reconstruction and Development Programme as the pre-eminent vision of the new and democratic South Africa.

At the time many considered our bold vision to be unattainable. They argued that our plans were unworkable, but 15 years later we have made substantial progress towards the attainment of these goals.

Fifteen years after the words of Nelson Mandela, we have created a social safety net for those in society who are in great need. Whereas in 1996 only three million people had access to social grants, today 12,5 million people receive social grants. In 1996 only 34 000 children had access to social grants, but today nearly eight million children younger than 14 years receive social grants.

The fifteen year review conducted last year concluded that the lives of many poor people have been improved through well-targeted programmes broadening access to services and social grants.

There is overwhelming evidence that social grants reduce the poverty gap and promote desired social behaviour like school attendance, improvement in nutrition and accessing health care.

Since the dawn of our freedom, we have implemented programmes to address asset poverty. The immediate issue to be mentioned in this regard is in the provision of housing. Through the housing programme, the ANC government has restored the dignity of homeless people as well as those who had homes but no houses, with the provision of more than 2,6 million subsidy houses. Going forward we have allocated R12 billion, R15 billion and R17 billion for housing over the next three years respectively.

In addition, during this financial year to 2010, we have budgeted R120 million for the pilot Zanemvula project and R400 million for the N2 Gateway project.

We have expanded access to basic services as part of the comprehensive social protection. We made an effort as the ANC government to provide basic services like water and electricity to all, through the adopting the rights-based approach to service delivery.

We have also developed interventions through the indigent policies to mitigate the effect of costs to the accessibility of basic services.

Of course, we need a developmental public service to provide a seamless process of providing services to the people in a pro-poor and pro-development manner. We have gone a long way to perfect our public service in terms of professionalism, capacity, work culture and accountability. More still remains to be done and this will be our priority for the next five years.

We need to have public servants who denote the following features for us to accelerate service delivery: Breaking new grounds, inspiring success, able to raise the standard, strategist for continued service delivery, able to make a difference, collective responsibility and teamwork, on board and international activism.

It is a fact that the ANC’s comprehensive social protection policy has alleviated the plight of millions living in poverty. The ANC government will continue to expand the social security net in fulfilling our commitment to creating a better life for all.

Working together we can do more. Each and everyone in the public service and across civil society must brighten ones corner through social partnership to create a better life for all and to make South Africa a brighter place.

Thank you.

Issued by: Department of Public Services and Administration
12 February 2009