Deputy President Baleka Mbete cheerfully admitted on Monday that the government could do better.
“Government has been sincere and the first to admit that in spite of all the achievements that are well documented by our work across the country, on our continent, and across the world — that more still needs to be done,” she said, “and that, still, we can do better when we work together.”
Opening the debate on the president’s State of the Nation address in the National Assembly, Mbete however rejected the notion that South Africa is about to become a failed state, or that “we have a fractured, weak, incompetent state”.
“Surely, they don’t know the South Africa we live in,” she said. “Failed states do not have functioning parliaments like the one we have; failed states have no well-run economies that can even survive the weight of crumbling global financial markets; in weak, incompetent states people don’t dare speak out about the head of state and continue to be free.”
She said that the government has been frank about challenges facing the public service, and has even instituted corrective measures to improve our efficiency and effectiveness in the delivery of government services.
“But our country would not have survived the recall of the former president, for example, had it not been for our dedicated and patriotic public servants who ensured that the transition was smooth and painless for our country and people,” she said. “All in all we have a competent and hard-working civil service that holds our country together and ensures that the machinery of the state runs regardless of political storms.”
Listing the tasks that remain for the incoming government to tackle, the deputy president told MPs that when South Africans go to the polls later this year they will want to see a continued effort to provide quality health, education and better services.
“Those in our rural areas who have always turned up in big numbers to cast their vote, want to see our land reform programme accelerated and their part of our country fully developed,” she said. “The unemployment rate, which is still high by our standard, has to be decisively tackled by improving and accelerating our programmes which are aimed at creating decent work and sustainable livelihoods.
“Our work in turning around and revamping our criminal justice system has to be stepped up to intensify our fight against crime and corruption.”
She added that young people remain high on the government agenda and she noted that the merger of the Umsobomvu Youth Fund and the National Youth Commission into one entity, the National Youth Development Agency, will go a long way in fast-tracking and streamlining youth development in the country.
“This is an example of how we have learned lessons from our experiences of the past 15 years and agreed on a way of how to improve our institutions,” she said. — I-Net Bridge