A brief summary of the Minister's statement follows:

The Minister opened with a quote from President Mbeki's speech, "Learners learn, educators educate and managers manage."

He stated that he intends having dialogues with NGOs and others to establish his priorities, which he will as of yet not disclose. Consultations will take place until the 26 July. He stated that 91% of his department's budget is allocated to the provinces.

The Minister wishes to create a national mobilisation on education to establish a consensus about what exactly needs to be done. He is looking to reinstate the belief and trust in teachers and at the same time to re-establish an environment in which teachers can enjoy dignity and stature in society. In this regard, he focussed on violence in schools. He further mentioned the need to give priority and esteem to teachers and teaching.

An important focus is on adult education and literacy and in this regard Minister Asmal stated that he believes that Universities should play an important role and he is planning to put that challenge to the vice chancellors in this regard.

A Performance Audit is on the cards, which will make department officials and in so doing the Minister himself responsible for anything that happens on a provincial level (such as the matric results scandal in Mpumalanga in 1998).

In closing, Minister Asmal stated that to reduce violence in schools, the Department of Education is working closely with Gun Free South Africa.

A brief summary of the Minister’s statement follows:

The main focus of the department is to speed up delivery. To do so, would involve an improvement in both the subsidy systems and the administration and management of those systems. The department is looking to come up with alternative tenure options for their market, starting the end of June/beginning of July.

The vision is for all subsidies to optimised and linked to other departments as well which would involve strict co-ordination between departments (the agriculture and transport departments were specifically mentioned here). In this regard, the Minister also mentioned that the concept of growth of cities must be speeded up which would involve the co-ordination between departments to ensure that all services are delivered at the same time.

A further focus is to ensure that the backlog on housing be alleviated. This backlog at present is between 2 and 3 million.

The Minister further mentioned a tri-partite plan between the government, trade unions and the financial sector, which will ensure that even those who fall into the low-income bracket will be able to afford adequate housing. In this respect the Ms Mthembi-Mahanyele stressed the need to adhere to the principle of deracialising society through the mixture of the different income groups.

There was a stress on the need for housing units in the cities especially in such areas as the Gauteng Province, which have a high number of informal settlements. In this regard, the Minister stressed the importance of the Urban Renewal Project.

There was a further reference to the importance of making sure that "the right hand knows what the left hand is doing" with regards to the co-ordination between Ministers in different departments. In this respect, Ms Mthembi-Mahanyele stressed the importance for all government projects to leave behind complete communities (with regards to such things as houses, water, roads, electricity, etc)

There was also a reference to the need to go to grassroots level to understand mobilisation through a better understanding of the stokvels, which will enable the better allocation of subsidies.

Finally, the Minister stated that perhaps one day housing subsidies would be linked to savings.

A brief summary of the Minister’s statement follows:

The vision of the Minister for agriculture is that of an agricultural sector that is globally competitive, sustainable and diverse in its structure and participation. A primary concern is that of food security and ensuring that the agricultural sector lives up to its important role in social and rural development by focussing on maximising the positive impact of agriculture in rural areas.

The Minister envisions a closer alignment of work between both the departments to ensure economic growth, food security and rural development. The implementation of farmer settlement programs will focus on women and children. This will take place as the restitution and land affairs programs are implemented. The Minister referred to a vision of improving food schemes in schools and rural areas.

She further referred to the revised co-operative legislation in Parliament, which allows for broader co-operation in government. In this respect, she gave the example of such developments as the Village Banks, which are a result of co-operation with the Department of Finance.

In closing, Ms Msane-Didiza stated that she wants economic development to take place in an environment in which those who invest are confident in the tenure system.

A brief summary of the Minister’s statement follows (no written press briefing was handed out):

The Minister said that within the next year, all government buildings will become "disabled friendly". This means that there will be adequate facilities to cater for the needs of any disabled people.

The Minister further stated that this would assist also those women with children in prams, as there would be lift facilities where there were previously only stairs.

The office is further awaiting the results of the Gender Audit, which will hopefully indicate the extent of the focus of government departments on the empowerment of women. This will further illustrate the position of not only national government departments, but provincial government departments as well.

The Minister stressed the need for the creation of a non-sexist society in South Africa and indicated that it has to be created through cohesive policy formation and allocation of existing resources.

Finally, Dr Pahad indicated that the President wants an overall assessment to be made in all government departments to gauge each department’s policy regarding children. This would enable the establishment of what still needs to be done to ensure that children get the attention that they deserve.

The floor was then opened for questions and the chairman indicated that the questions could be directed to any of the five ministers.

Questions from the media were taken in groups and after each group of questions, the ministers were given the opportunity to respond.

QUESTIONS FROM THE MEMBERS OF THE PRESS (paraphrased)

Reuters (directed at Minister Asmal) Will you be knocking on Minister Manuel’s door for more money?

The Citizen (directed at the Minister of Health) The National Health Bill, will it be a departmental focus and does the National Health Security System remain with the Welfare Department or will it be going back to you?

Alistair Sparks (directed at Minister Asmal) How do you propose to drive and energise the process from your position as Minister?

The Sunday Times Are those of you who have not as yet indicated your targets for the next 5 years, set targets and if not, why not?

ANSWERS FROM THE MINISTERS (paraphrased)

Minister Asmal:
The fundamental issue is not getting more money, but rather how we will be using the money that we have at present. Unfortunately, 91% of our budget is at present allocated to salaries and we need to shift this figure to allocate at least 6% to capital expenditure and books. This is both a political and ethical matter on shifting of the budget and we need to ensure that we are getting value for money.

We need to make in-service training our priority and for this we need investment from the "central coughers". How we do things is as important as how much money we get.

The way in which to drive the process is not to allow spurious constitutional distinctions to get in the way of equitable service delivery. (The Minister used the example of allocating the same number of books to a Model C school and a school in an informal settlement. This is by no means an equitable allocation as the Model C school already has so much more than the other school).

In terms of our departmental targets, as I mentioned before, those have not as of yet been established, however in terms of literacy, I propose that our target should be to wipe it out within 5 years.

Ms Sankie Mthembi-Mahanyele:
The budget has to spread to other needs in society; we should be focussing on the quality of life and people not the number of houses that we build. We need to look at what the budget does to the lives of people, and how can you quantify giving better lives to people. The most important issue is how to best optimise the budget, to take the focus away from counting statistics.

Ms Manto Tshabalala-Msimang:
The National Health bill will be tabled early next year.

Ms Thoko Msane-Didiza:
Our targets will be produced within the next couple of months. What we do however know, is that we want to minimise the number of restitution claims.

MORE QUESTIONS FROM THE MEMBERS OF THE PRESS (paraphrased)

SABC Radio News (directed at Minister Asmal) Do you have a program in place to revive the value system of the learners?

SABC Radio News (directed at Dr Pahad) Is there any co-ordination between central and provincial level to ensure that the co-ordination that occurs at the central level will be implemented on the provincial level?

SABC Do you have a single priority (as the Criminal Justice cluster did) as to how you will work together?

The Washington Post (directed at Ms Sankie Mthembi-Mahanyele) What impact has migration had on the production of housing?

Business Day (directed at Ms Thoko Msane-Didiza) How exactly will you speed up restitution?

Minister Asmal:
There is a new approach to learners as well. We are looking at forming closer links with student representative unions. We must help the students realise that direct action should not be the first reaction to any situation. The time for slogans has passed. We further need to do things collectively involving headmasters and teachers so that the communities are behind them. We must however make it clear and realise that the obstacles that we are facing now are self-created.

With regards to the priority of our cluster, each department has its own priorities, there is no one priority for all of us, but we will make sure that we move and work together.

Ms Sankie Mthembi-Mahanyele
Migration is a problem as it interferes with allocation, planning and distribution of housing. At the same time it creates a problem for how we develop and grow in the housing market. What is therefore needed is a rural strategy to keep people in those areas so that they neither want to nor need to move to the urban areas.

An example as to how to do this is the project to promote economic activity in the rural areas, (which needs co-ordination with the Department of Trade and Industry).

Ms Thoko Msane-Didiza
With regards to the subsidising of farmers, I do not think that it is correct for South Africa to necessarily follow the example of others. The issue should be taken in the context of making producers competitive and whether support will be sustainable. Although the government does not directly subsidise farmers, we are assisting them through other projects such as the development of the rural market.

We are further creating mechanisms for farmers to participate in a more productive environment.

With regards to the restitution of land, we need to realign the institutional mechanisms to try and streamline the process to ensure faster delivery.

Dr Pahad
With regards to the co-ordination between central and provincial government, the Minister of Provincial Affairs (Mr Mfumandi) and local government will be specifically looking at this issue. We need to more specifically address the issue of capacity building at local government level to empower them. MinMECs already exist which co-ordinate the ministers with the MECs and work on broad policy issues and co-ordination. These will continue to function.