1 NHTL: BUDGET REVIEW PRESENTATION OF THE BUDGET REVIEW OF THE NATIONAL HOUSE OF TRADITIONAL LEADERS FOR THE FINANCIAL YEAR ENDING MARCH 2007.

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NHTL: BUDGET REVIEW

PRESENTATION OF THE BUDGET REVIEW OF THE NATIONAL HOUSE OF TRADITIONAL LEADERS FOR THE FINANCIAL YEAR ENDING MARCH 2007

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NATURE OF PRESENTATION

The presentation will take the following shape

Foreword by the Chairperson of the National House of Traditional Leaders

Section one : Mandate of the NHTL Pieces of Legislation Vision and Mission

Section two: Administration Administrative support of the NHTL

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NATURE OF PRESENTATION

Section three: Program of the NHTL

Section four: International trips

Section five: Conclusion

Section six: Recommendation

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MANDATE OF THE NHTL

The following are some of the pieces of legislation that affect the institution of traditional leadership in general. Traditional Leadership and Governance Framework

Act, 2003 [Act 41 of 2003] Disaster Management Act, National House of Traditional Leaders Act,1997 (Act

No. 10 of 1997) Municipal Structures Act, 1998 ( Act No. 117 of 1998) Municipal Systems Act, 2000 (Act No. 32 of 2000)

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Mandate of the NHTL

White Paper on Traditional Leadership and Governance, 2003

Constitution of the Republic of South Africa Intergovernmental Relations Framework Act,

2005 Communal Land Rights Act, 2004 ( Act No.

11 of 2004) Remuneration of Public Office-bearers, 1998

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Act of the NHTL

The National House of Traditional Leaders like any other House of Traditional Leaders is established by the Act of Parliament.

The Act has specific requirements that the NHTL must fulfill which amongst others are the following:

Promotion of the role of Traditional Leadership within the Constitutional dispensation

Enhance unity and understanding amongst Traditional Communities

Enhance cooperation between the National and all other Houses of Traditional Leaders.

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Act of the NHTL

May advise Government and make recommendations relating to the following:

Matters relating to Traditional Leadership The role of Traditional Leadership Customary Law, and Customs of Communities observing the system of

Customary law

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Act of the NHTL

The NHTL may investigate and make information available on Traditional Leadership, Traditional Councils, Customary Law and custom

The NHTL shall, at the request of the President, advise him or her in connection with any matter referred to it for consideration; and

Shall present an annual report to Parliament (an exercise that the NHTL is doing now)

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Act of the NHTL The Budget Review presented here today is based

on the strategic plan of the NHTL and the actual performance

The DPLG will present the financial aspect regarding the NHTL taking into account that we do not have our own CFO and therefore we rely on the Dept. for this service.

The report will indicate the achievements and challenges facing the NHTL

The NHTL will not explain the provisions of each Act but will reserve it for the workshop to be facilitated by the Committee

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Section two: Membership of the NHTL The NHTL is composed of 18 members who are representing

six provinces viz: Limpopo Mpumalanga North West Free State KwaZulu-Natal and Eastern Cape

Each province is represented by three members who are elected by their Houses. Unfortunately the Act of the NHTL does not compel provinces to send women traditional leaders to the NHTL as compared to the Framework Act.

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Administration

The NHTL has one staff member who is assisted by staff members seconded by the DPLG for that purpose.

The NHTL has an overall staff compliment of 13.

The challenge remains that the present staff compliment cannot give adequate support to the NHTL to realize its objectives.

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Section three: Programs of the NHTL

In terms of the strategic plan of the NHTL, there are four strategic goals viz: Advancement of Service Delivery Custodian of cultures, customs, traditions and

values Pro-active communication Capacity

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Programs of the NHTL

Advancement of Service Deliver Alignment of strategic plans

The NHTL visited all Houses to request them to align their plans with that of the NHTL. The alignments will ensure that all Houses and traditional institutions focuses on similar objectives.

The challenge though is the financial capacity of the Houses to deliver even on the strategic plan. Traditional Institutions are not adequately funded to enable them to deliver on their mandate. One cannot expect a traditional council to render a good service with a grant of about R50 000.00. The workshop which will be held on the 19th of June will probably include all the MEC’s and other relevant stakeholders in the traditional leadership matters to address the concerns that the NHTL have.

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Programs of the NHTL

Establishment of Forums Due to the omissions in the NHTL Act

regarding the working relationships with Provinces, the NHTL resolved to established the following Forums that act as a support base for the NHTL:

Social Development Forum Internal Arrangement Forum Constitutional Development Forum Traditions and Cultures Forum

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Program of the NHTL

Building of working relationship It is a known fact that the NHTL and

government did not have a good working relationship prior to the promulgation of the Framework Act and even thereafter.

The NHTL has worked very hard to increase interaction and participate in the government programs. The interaction with Cabinet has indeed open gates for the NHTL to bring matters of traditional leaders to the entire cabinet of the country.

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Program of the NHTL

Participation in the Legislative processes The NHTL has participated and made inputs

to a number of pieces of legislation which includes the Civil Union Bill.

The NHTL acknowledges the fact that it does not have capacity to deal with all pieces of legislation that goes through the NCOP, however, we are determined to make inputs in as many legislation as possible like the Traditional Courts policy framework that the Department of Justice is working on.

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Program of the NHTL

HIV and AIDS The NHTL is represented by three members in

the SANAC. The SANAC plan is handled by the Social Development Committee which is planning to resuscitate the traditional leadership HIV and AIDS chapters. The resuscitation will involve getting funding for those structures to be able to work noting that traditional councils do not get any budget.

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Program of the NHTL

Crime Prevention Traditional Leaders are actively participating in

the prevention of crime in South Africa. The participation is through the National Crime

Prevention Strategy (NCPS) which give the following pillars:

Criminal Justice System Social Value and Education Environmental design and Transnational crime

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Program of the NHTL

Custodianship of Culture, Custom and tradition The NHTL has worked very hard to establish the

CHOTLA, already two meetings were held and the third one will be on 17 May 2007 to adopt the establishment Protocol.

Culture The NHTL together with SAHRC and the CRL

commission have jointly conducted a public hearings to ascertain the misuse of initiation. The report will of these hearings will inform a policy to be drafted by the NHTL and the two organizations.

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Programs of the NHTL

Pro-Active communication Relationship with SALGA

The signing of the MoU with SALGA took place on the 03rd of April 2007 (which falls out of the reporting period), the MoU will indeed decrease and ultimately end the fights between Municipality and traditional leaders.

MoU with Unisa A MoU with Unisa was signed to get the

professional assistance for the NHTL to make more meaningful inputs and service delivery.

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Programs of the NHTL

Capacity Capacity building programs

The NHTL together with DPLG and LGSETA will be delivery comprehensive capacity building programs for traditional leaders. This capacity building will include Local Economic Development which will be conducted in June-July of this year.

The Program of support by DPLG will play a very meaningful role in capacitating traditional institutions to know their mandate.

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Programs of the NHTL

Capacity building on Gender Violence The MoU with the NPA and the Dept of Justice is

bearing fruits as some traditional leaders have graduated from this training. A second phase training is being organized to take place before the end of the first quarter of this financial year.

Poverty Alleviation The NHTL together with Social Development

Department has capacitated spouses and female traditional leaders on poverty alleviation program. There are many orphans that are taken care of by spouses of traditional leaders through this poverty alleviation programs.

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Program of the NHTL

Workshop/meeting of the NHTL and the Committee The NHTL appreciated the decision by the Committee

to facilitate the first meeting. However, the following stakeholders are suggested:

All MEC’s responsible for Traditional Affairs All Directors of Traditional Affairs in the six provinces All Chairpersons of Houses of Traditional Leaders All Portfolio Committee Chairpersons of Legislatures

responsible for Traditional Matters

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Programs of the NHTL

Members Guide The NHTL has developed a set of policies

called members guide The members guide attempts to close the gap

not provided for by the commission on remuneration regarding the benefits due to public representatives who are not covered by any public service policy including the parliamentary policies for public office bearers

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Programs of the NHTL

Women Indaba The NHTL arranged a conference of spouses and

Female Senior Traditional leaders in Warmbath last year (2006)

The conference was a follow up to a conference held in Kopanong in 2005 on capacity building

The Warmbath conference provided a status quo of the progress made in the various provinces

It was immediately followed up by a capacity building workshop organized by Social Development Department (Durban Capacity building workshop)

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Section four: International trips

The following trips were undertaken by the NHTL during the past year Namibia

Explanation of the Continental House Zimbabwe

Attending the Zimbabwe traditional leaders conference and talking about CHOTLA

Botswana Attending the election of the new House

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Conclusion

The report has in brief informed the NCOP of what the NHTL did with the money appropriated to it. We could have done more, but because of the scarce resources we could not even appoint staff members that will take the NHTL forward. We have appointed very few that are helping but much must still be done. We believe that the workshop scheduled for the 19th of June will address most of the challenges that we are having.

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Recommendations

It is recommended that: The committee agree on the workshop

scheduled for the 19th of June 2007 The committee attends to the various

functions of the NHTL including the committees of the House in order to see the proceedings and advise accordingly..

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Annexure

Annexure A is the performance of the NHTL which I have summarized.

Annexure B is the responses to questions raised by the committee during our last engagements

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Comments by the Committee

The Committee made remarks and some observations during our engagements last year.

Though answers were provided to each question asked, it is important to highlight the following comments:

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Assistance by DPLG Assistance by DPLG1. Mainstreaming (hands on) support to the institutions of Traditional

leadership to improve governance, performance and accountability.• Resource and Infrastructure mobilization for all structures of

Traditional Leadership.• Provision of Administrative Support to the institution • Provision of Dedicated Support to the National House of

Traditional Leaders. Development and execution of a Comprehensive Skills Development Programme for Traditional Leadership Institutions (see attached document on a draft skills development framework)

• Provide support to provinces who received and or released traditional communities as a result of re-determination of provincial boundaries in terms of the 14th amendment to the Constitution

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ASSISTANCE BY DPLG

Rendering of sustainable support to the institution of traditional leadership to promote and enhance the involvement of the structures within the institution in the development processes of their communities.

• DPLG to coordinate, facilitate and monitor support actions of national government and provincial government to the institution

• Promote the involvement of traditional leadership institutions in service delivery

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ASSISTANCE BY DPLG

3. Reviewing and strengthening the policy and regulatory framework in order to give greater attention and support to the institution of traditional leadership in respect of the implementation measures and processes.

Drafting and finalization of national and provincial regulations on the reconstitution and functioning of traditional councils

Finalization of the Policy on the Khoi-San Communities Amendment of the legislation dealing with Houses of

traditional leaders in line with the White Paper and the Framework Act

Provision of dedicated support to Kings and queens in terms of the new legislation

Assessment of the alignment of the provincial legislation with the White Paper and the Framework Act on Traditional Leadership and Governance

Involvement of Traditional Leadership Institutions in Intergovernmental Relations

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ASSISTANCE BY DPLG

4. Addressing the structure and governance arrangements of the state in order to better strengthen, support and monitor the traditional leadership institution Establishment of an all inclusive National Technical

Forum on Implementation of National and Provincial Legislation

Provision of benefits to traditional leaders (senior traditional leaders, headmen/headwomen, members of Houses)

Develop and maintain a comprehensive information system on traditional leadership and institutions

Reconfiguration of the DPLG and other relevant Departments in order to provide adequate support to the Institution