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

2 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

3 NATURE OF PRESENTATION Section three: Program of the NHTL Section four:International trips Section five:Conclusion Section six:Recommendation

4 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)

5 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

6 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.

7 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

8 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)

9 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

10 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.

11 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.

12 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

13 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 R The workshop which will be held on the 19 th 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.

14 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

15 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.

16 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.

17 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.

18 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

19 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.

20 Programs of the NHTL Pro-Active communication Relationship with SALGA The signing of the MoU with SALGA took place on the 03 rd 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.

21 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.

22 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.

23 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

24 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

25 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)

26 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

27 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 19 th of June will address most of the challenges that we are having.

28 Recommendations It is recommended that: The committee agree on the workshop scheduled for the 19 th 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..

29 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

30 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:

31 Assistance by DPLG 1. 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

32 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

33 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

34 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