"National Assembly Chamber Main",Unrevised Hansard,13 Oct 2005,"[Take-65] [National Assembly Chamber Main][NAC-Logger][slr].doc"

(Statement)

The MINISTER FOR THE PUBLIC SERVICE AND ADMINISTRATION: Madam Acting Speaker, hon members, I would wish to thank this House for the opportunity to address you on the Africa Peer Review Mechanism and South Africa’s implementation process. In the words of Kwame Nkrumah:

This is the spirit I would wish to believe that the South African people should have as we enter the peer review process.

My address today will explain what the Africa Peer Review Mechanism is about and how we are going to implement it, what has already been done and what plans we have for the process over the coming nine months. It will also reflect on the importance of that and what opportunities it presents us.

The African Peer Review Mechanism is important to all of us as a country, not as parliamentarians, not as members of the executive or as government officials, not as members of civil society or representatives of any structures but as citizens of our country – as South Africans.

We have started working on the Peer Review Mechanism for some time now, and I would like to share some experiences with you and indicate that my honest conclusion is that it is a wonderful and inspiring mechanism and it will be a wonderful process for all of us to engage in as a country.

Like many things from Africa, it seems simple at first but this is misleading. As you come to understand it better, you will realise that it is an apparent simplicity that marks great complexity and subtlety, that it offers opportunities to each of us, no matter how we chose to define ourselves or to structure our lives as members of South African society.

So, today I’ll be talking more about the surprising challenges and opportunities the Africa Peer Review Mechanism presents to our young democracy. I also look forward to debating it here today. I know it will allow us to deepen our understanding of the peer review mechanism. The debate will also contribute to building a shared understanding of the mechanism and how it should be implemented.

The Africa Peer Review Mechanism is a system introduced by the African Union and its development programme, NEPAD for countries to improve their governance systems. It’s a way of planning for the future and looking forward whilst taking into account where we are today. It involves the development of African approaches to solving Africa’s problems.

Participation by countries in the system is voluntary. Ghana, Rwanda, Kenya and Mauritius are ahead of us in the system and we aim to learn from their lessons and build on their experiences. A panel of eminent persons oversees the implementation of the system throughout Africa and is supported in its work by Nepad Peer Review Mechanism Secretariat. In the instance of South Africa, the eminent person responsible for our country is Professor Adedeji. I’ll speak more about that later.

The system has a number of stages. The development of our country self-assessment report, and I want to emphasise ``country’’. It’s not government’s, it’s a country self-assessment report and a programme of action. This is based in a Questionnaire that looks at four thematic areas: democracy and political governance; economic governance and management; corporate governance; and socio-economic development. Once we have developed the country self-assessment report and a programme of action that will be submitted to the APRM Secretariat, a country review team led by the panel member responsible for South Africa will visit us to consult on wide-range of stake on the report.

The country review team rights are a response to our report, and all the reports are submitted to the APRM forum and later publicly released. The country review team will allow for an engagement with their comments on the report. Progress by countries in implementing the programmes of action is reviewed in later years. The point of these activities is to encourage African countries to plan a way forward for themselves and to implement their plans so that they can achieve their long-term development goals.

South Africa’s APR process will be overseen by our African Peer Review Mechanism Governing Council, which has ten members representing civil society and five members representing government. The members of the Africa Peer Review Council are as follows: Mr Bheki Sibiya from Business Unity SA; Mr Looks Matoto from the Disabled People of South Africa; Ms Anna Letwala from the South African Non-Governmental Organisation - SANGO; Dr Nomonde Mqhayi from the South African Youth Council; Ms Thabisile Msezane from the South African Council of Churches; Mr Randal Howard representing Cosatu; Dr Mongane Wally Serote from our arts and culture sector; Mr Master Mahlobongoane from SANCO; Mrs Laura Kganyago from the National Women’s Coalition and Mr Moemedi Kepadisa from NACTU; the Minister of Finance Mr Trevor Manuel; the Minister of Trade and Industry Mr Mandisi Mpahlwa; the Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development Miss Bridget Mabandla and the Minister in the Presidency Dr Essop Pahad;

I have been honoured, and I am honoured to be appointed as the country focal point and also chair the governing council. This means I lead the collective responsibility that the governing council has for leading South Africa’s involvement in the peer review mechanism process. [Applause,] I take responsibility for the co-ordination thereof.

Over the next two months, South Africans will become familiar with two Africa Peer Review Mechanism structures, a country support mission and a country review team. The country’s support mission will be arriving early in November to assess how state of readiness and to review our approach to the Africa Peer Review Mechanism. It will engage with the road map that will be presented by the governing council and will point to areas that we can sharpen. This country support mission will also be available for any group who may want to make submission before them. The country review team will visit us once we have submitted our country’s self-assessment report and will meet with many stakeholders to assess the report and the programme of action attached to that. That meeting will take place early in 2006.

The country’s review team will engage with parliamentarians. It will obviously engage with the governing council, communities and broad institutions in civil society. It will ensure that it is an inclusive process.

Professor Adebayo Adedeji, as I indicated, is the eminent Nigerian leader and an academic, and he will lead both these visits. I am sure the House will participate in the programmes for this important events and I look forward to its involvement.

The APRM is based on a country self-assessment report. I repeat this because there are many who make the assumption that this process is a government process. This process is one where there is an assessment of civil society, an assessment of the private sector of business and an assessment of government.

I would like to reflect briefly on self-assessment as an approach. Self-assessment is increasingly recognised as a valuable technique to encourage growth and development at all levels, individually as a group or as a country. The value of the approach is that it is not imposing and it ensures the ownership of the outcomes as well as commitment to whatever resolution emerges.

The danger of self-assessment, however broadly, is that it could open old wounds without necessarily providing the means to cope with old pain or grief that arises. In our case, I believe that the participatory broad-based nature of our process will ensure that this does not happen. I believe that as a country we are moving beyond the healing of the wounds of the past to formulating a new growth path for ourselves. This involves agreeing with a clear national vision for the future and a plan for getting there.

This is exactly what the Africa Peer Review Mechanism offers us - the opportunity to reap benefits of a negotiated dialog-based plan for our future. The APRM will also allow us to build a deep and wide reserve of stakeholder capital. This will help us to bind our diverse society. And I strongly believe that the APRM is a way for us to create a shared collective future in which all South Africans have a stake. Let me just restate that: Not only to build but to deepen a shared collective future in which all South Africans have a stake.

How will we approach the APRM? About implementing this exciting initiative, I wish to stress that this country’s process will be undertaken on a partnership basis. Our process will be based on the principle that it should be participatory and inclusive in order that the whole country benefits.

In any event, we have a rich history of … Mme...

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of social dialogue, a rich history of social engagement. This is almost natural. Look at our izimbizo processes: they do not exclude anyone. I want to stress that there is no intention or plot for any one partner to dominate the exercise. Indeed, anyone who thinks that it is either desirable or possible clearly does not understand the mechanism or what it intends to do.

We will be rolling out the process over the next nine months with extensive civil society involvement. This will mainly take place through provincial processes that will include local structures such as ward committees as well as other local and community-based bodies. Community development workers will also be deployed to undertake community consultations, while a network-based partnership will be set up under the leadership of the governing council. This network will allow us to mobilise all kinds of research bodies as well as those with expertise in public participation. All these activities will be supported by a staffed and resourced secretariat that will have components dealing with research, communication and public participation. Government is making a significant contribution to its expenses, as well as making personnel and other resources available.

One of the items to be discussed at tomorrow’s inaugural meeting of the governing council, is what else should be done and how we mobilise resources to make our additional plans possible. Our plans for the APRM have a number of different elements, including the implementation of a high-profile, large-scale communication strategy to support our public participation activities. These strategies will target South Africans from all walks of life and in all corners of our land, calling for them to make submissions on the governance issues of their choice. We aim not only to inform and educate people about the process, but also to get them involved and to get them to contribute.

We want this to become a massive countrywide social conversation, the likes of which we can only imagine, and it is pertinent that it is the 50^th anniversary of the Freedom Charter when we do this APRM, because those of us who appreciate that process will remember that in 1955 there was a call for 10 000 volunteers to go to the different corners of our country and get the responses of our people. Let the APRM process be as inclusive as that process. Let it be as inclusive as our constitution-making process, let it be as inclusive as the processes that South Africans should undertake to make it what it should be.

Our communication and participation strategies will generate contributions and submissions that will be drawn upon in a research programme. In addition to public submissions, we will also be seeking more structured participation from research bodies. I cannot discuss the details thereof at this point, because our governing council will preside over these proposals. However, members of this House, rest assured: we are planning exactly the kind of inclusive participatory process that concerned and involved South Africans can expect and should receive. Members should also be aware that our work will be presented at the 2^nd national consultative conference. This conference will be a great opportunity to consolidate our process and to finalise our reports and programme of action.

We do have major issues and challenges. South Africa’s civil society is diverse and a vibrant sector that spans many different kinds of organisations and institutions, from charities and welfare bodies to development structures, cultural groups and sporting clubs. One of the challenges facing the APRM is ensuring that our civil society participation draws on the sector’s full diversity and does not overstate the interests of certain interest groups. We also need to work harder to ensure that the press helps build up a constructive momentum and does not take the easy route of focusing on the premature complaints of marginal lobby groups.

In conclusion, as chairperson of the governing council, I want to thank Parliament for its participation in this process and its activities in this regard. It is important for us to avoid a multiplicity of parallel processes. We must ensure that the mechanisms for public participation are clearly understood and do not seem to be contradictory. It is in that vein that I want to thank Parliament for having started its process, a process that will form and feed it into the governing council process, as much as it will be distinctly separate, being part of the legislative arm of our broader governance structures. We should ensure that all elements of South Africa’s APRM process should dovetail and integrate with each other and lead to the formulation of a convincing, excellent report and programme of action, one that will clearly reflect the engagement of everyone. All the submissions that will come in will be brought together in a common country report. When the final report is done that will also be tabled before Parliament in order to engage with it. Let us ensure that we take forward the call that says "the people shall govern" and let’s ensure that it is a process that reflects umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu. [You are a person because of others.] Thank you. [Applause.]

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BMM