Cape Town – President Jacob Zuma says the National Council and Provinces and government have made a lot of progress in improving the lives of many people in various provinces in the past 20 years.
Delivering his annual address to the National Council of Provinces (NCOP) on Thursday, the President also said in celebrating 20 years of a democratic Parliament, people should never forget how far the country has come, where the laws of the land were made and designed to favour a minority group while oppressing many.
“We appreciate these achievements more when we think of where we come from.
“The reality of the vast majority of our people before 1994 was poverty and deprivation, with no hope for a better future. Every aspect of society was designed to favour the minority, at great expense to the majority of our people.
“The entire structure of our society had to be dismantled and reassembled to give effect to the imperative of equality.
“This we have done. We have not completed the transformation process yet, but we have certainly made a good start in the past 20 years,” he said.
President Zuma delivered his address under the theme "Celebrating 20 years of a Democratic Parliament -- together moving the NCOP forward as a vanguard of the interests of provinces".
The President said the NCOP has played a very important role in ensuring that the laws are, unlike in the past, now biased to favour the needs of all South Africans.
“The NCOP has played its role efficiently over the past few years. This House has provided a platform for the provinces to shape legislation and the national agenda. The NCOP has also diligently processed many transformative laws falling within its oversight, particularly the Section 76 Bills which affect provinces,” he said.
The President also said that on top of taking Parliament to the people, the NCOP has also played a meaningful role in the continent and has helped other African countries shape their own houses of parliament.
“It is through our effectively functioning institutions such as the NCOP that we are able to celebrate 20 years of democracy with pride and a strong sense of satisfaction and achievement.
“Indeed, South Africa is a much better place to live in now than it was before 1994,” he said.
The President said South Africa was today a stable democracy with a firmly entrenched human rights culture and a Constitution that is recognised as one of the most progressive in the world.
This, he said, included the development of policies that favour the poor.
“The result is that our country is on track to achieve most of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals by 2015.
“We have made good progress in meeting these goals which include the eradication of extreme poverty, the achievement of universal primary education, attaining gender equality and the empowerment of women, reducing child mortality, improving maternal health, reducing the burden of disease through primarily combating HIV and Aids, malaria tuberculosis, protecting the environment and mobilizing global partnerships for development by 2015.
“What is more impressive with the achievement of the education targets is that the proportion of girls attending primary, secondary and tertiary education has improved significantly,” the President said.
First 100 days in office
President Zuma also said the new administration had already worked tirelessly to ensure that basic services are provided to the people.
This included connecting 48 751 households to the electricity grid and providing 37 86 households with access to electricity using non-grid technologies.
He said the development of the energy master plan was testament to government’s concern of a shortage of power supply.
The President also said that Municipal Infrastructure Support Agency was providing technical support to 27 poor priority district municipalities to assist them to deal with water and sanitation backlogs
“In the past 100 days, practical training has been provided to 17 waste water process controllers and 22 artisans in the Vhembe District Municipality in Limpopo.
“Last week we visited the community of Giyani in Limpopo, to celebrate the provision of water to 55 villages, alleviating water shortages in Mopani District Municipality,” he said. – SAnews.gov.za
