Today, political parties are posed two questions. Here are their answers:
Question 1. The skills deficit in our region needs urgent attention. What do you propose doing to tackle the problems facing tertiary skills centres?
ANC
THE PROVINCIAL government has spent R894.733 million in colleges over the four years to the end of 2008. This will rise to R359.17m in the 2009/10 financial year. The number of graduates from FET colleges has risen from 4 400 to 22 600.
A high-level Micro Economic Research (Meds) team has divided the economy into 24 sectors and analysed the constraints and possibilities for growth in each sector.
One of the constraints in many sectors is skills. Government and business are brought together in special-purpose organisations for each sector to work together to unblock constraints. Thus, for example, in the boat-building sector, a special satellite training centre has been funded. This operates under the auspices of the False Bay College in Muizenberg.
An ANC-led provincial government will work closely with the national government to streamline and improve the Sector Education and Training Authority (Seta), some of which have experienced serious problems.
DA
The DA is committed to providing businesses with the right mix of incentives to hire more workers and develop their skills.
Millions of South Africans without market-related skills have been sidelined by the jobs market.
In particular, the Seta system, which is supposed to provide skills training, is costly, wasteful, overly bureaucratic and largely ineffective. Bureaucrats, rather than employers, identify the skills that businesses require.
Seta should be scrapped.
In the Western Cape, the DA will provide incentives to small, medium and large employers to invest in the productivity of their workers. We will fully reimburse employers for any money that they spend on their employees' productivity through approved training programmes.
CDA
The CDA is concerned that employers are choosing machinery over people to meet production requirements. The number of apprentices as we knew them in the past has dropped by over 70 percent across all trades. Although this is a trend that will not change, the state is best positioned to provide labour-intensive production while contributing to improve the skills level of the general worker. The CDA proposes, alongside its economic development strategy, a threefold approach of bridging programmes to assist school leavers to be work-ready; labour-intensive manufacturing centres, geared toward skills provision to prepare people for easier entry into the labour market, and co-operative agreements with commerce to provide the framework and incentives for employing apprentices.
ID
The Independent Democrats aims to ensure that our education system is improved drastically to the point where we can deal with the mismatch between skills and the needs of our economy. The provincial government will expand access to tertiary education by increasing the number of FET colleges, and will also put emphasis on assuring quality outcomes from these institutions. Academic Support Programmes are important in assisting students and reducing the drop-out rate, but more funding is needed.
The ID will also seek to attract skills from other countries by streamlining Home Affairs processes that often prove to be an impenetrable barrier for foreign skilled professionals. The ID will also consider establishing a public service institution to train public servants, and root out the culture of political patronage that is driving away so many skilled South Africans. We also need to expand the bursary scheme for students wanting to study social work, nursing and teaching. We will also reintroduce teacher training colleges.
AMP
Vocational training will be subsidised by the state and more training colleges will be built around the country, especially in rural areas.
Grants and bursaries will be given to those who wish to further their education at tertiary level.
However, there will be restrictions on those receiving state grants from emigrating so that they can repay the society with their skills.
UIF
The problems facing tertiary skills evolve from primary to secondary schooling.
The education sector needs to develop a curriculum that channels the learner to the most needed skills in our country. Education must be given in such a way that it caters for scarce skills like technical skills, engineering etc. If the tertiary institutions receive well-prepared learners it will be easy to produce proper skills for our country. UIF will build more tertiary institutions.
Al Jama
Tertiary skills centres should be run like business centres, but following the sheltered employment models already in place in Ndabeni and Epping. While this focuses on people with disabilities, it can be applied more widely. This fits in with the ethos of providing full employment.
ACDP
The ACDP will open and properly equip technical and training colleges and also promote teaching as a profession; and review and improve adult education and provide communities with a range of family and learning services including drama, dance, music, sport and languages
FF+
Immediately reopen all teacher colleges. Motivate our children to recognise that secondary school education is not good enough; a tertiary education is the bare minimum you need. Build enough vocational training skill centres in our province.
Question 2. Housing is one of the province's biggest challenges. How can the delivery be speeded up and what checks are you prepared to put in place to guarantee that there is proper accountability for money spent on this?
ID
HOUSING is an extremely contentious issue that requires leadership, proper governance and a good working relationship between different spheres of government and relevant institutions. Rental housing has become very expensive and also contributes to overcrowding in flats and people living in backyards and shacks.
In line with our social democratic approach of people-centred development, an ID government will implement a number of solutions. We will make housing waiting lists simple and transparent; conduct a comprehensive audit and identify applicants who have been on waiting lists longest - they will be allocated houses first; provide security of tenure and basic services to informal communities; expand the People's Housing Process (PHP) to give recipients the opportunity to make decisions about what they want; expand low-cost rental schemes and extend materials, knowledge and resources to landowners to assist them in building their own houses.
The ID says that land must be provided free-of-charge and all housing sites must be serviced by the government, over and above the subsidy. The full subsidy will be used for a decent two-bedroom top structure to give families the dignity and privacy they deserve. Our green solutions to the housing crisis will ensure that all units have solar water heaters installed.
ANC
South Africa has built and given away 2.7 million homes, more than any other country, including China and India. Since 2004 the quality of homes has been improved from the single-bedroom RDP specification (20m2) to a new two-bedroom, full bathroom, Breaking New Ground or BNG standard (40m2). In the Western Cape, in Delft, the ANC-led government is busy building more than 10 000 homes as part of a national pilot project, the N2 Gateway. The singular aim of the project is to work out how to speed up delivery of an improved product.
South Africa's integrated human settlement housing policy seeks to build dignified homes in mixed communities with access to facilities, transport and communication infrastructure. The Auditor-General ensures spending accountability. The role of the provincial government is to implement the national housing policy, in co-operation with the national Department of Housing, its agents and municipalities.
DA
Under the ANC, the provincial Housing Department has created a shambles of its housing programmes. For example, in 2008 the Auditor-General found that 60 percent of houses delivered had serious defects (like cracks, leaks, and dampness); and at least 2 200 subsidy allocations, worth R65m, were given to people who did not qualify, possibly fraudulently, and R16m was unaccounted for. And the pace of delivery has been too slow.
In Cape Town, by contrast, the DA-led multiparty government has doubled the average annual rate of housing delivery, from the ANC's average of 3 000 per year between 2002 and 2006 to an average of 7 000 per year between 2006 and 2008. We have introduced fairer housing allocation procedures, and we have put in place checks to guarantee that there is proper accountability for money spent on housing delivery.
That is why we got an unqualified report from the Auditor-General in 2008.
The DA will speed up housing delivery in the Western Cape by freeing up suitable land for housing.
Cope
Cope's housing policy recognises that the outcomes which are planned for housing must be fully integrated with the social, economic and environmental goals of the nation. The focus should therefore be on the improvement of low-income urban settlements through community participation, public-private partnerships and the use of transferred knowledge and information. When people are equipped with expertise on environmental issues, technical housing matters, economic choices and the creation of viable communities, they become involved in solving a multiplicity of problems in a unified approach.
The importance of promoting gender equality and social inclusion cannot also be overstressed.
The provision of housing must also allow for a well designed mix of both government and market mechanisms. Policy must freely allow for innovative approaches mixing the efforts of government, private individuals, the private sector, NGOs, co-operatives, entrepreneurs and of families as a group wanting to meet a collective need.
Cope also advances a multi-tenure approach. Every development should invite entrepreneurs to participate in the development of houses for rental, using strict guidelines, alongside houses being developed for ownership according to a variety of schemes. Diversity, flexibility and local innovation must inform every development. The people of a given locality should be provided with useable information about access to land and finance, laying out of municipal infrastructure, use of co-operatives, ready availability of housing designs and costs, possibility of economic opportunities, the contribution of sweat equity and the availability to them of project management.
CDA
The province needs to provide a proper land usage plan, municipality by municipality, that provides a key guideline for future development, but also promotes the development of new industrial areas closer to existing poorer communities. Around this framework, land needs to be allocated for housing allowing for not only our current urgent demands but also our future needs.
We need to fast-track infrastructure to these areas, including facilities such as parks etc. We would establish an independent and transparent housing ministry that incorporates private enterprise and the community into decision-making so as to remove nepotism, corruption and maladministration.
UIF
Municipalities must be fully accredited to build houses. We must build capacity at municipalities to enable them to monitor the building of houses. There must be greater collaboration between national, provincial and local government in meeting and monitoring housing needs.
Waiting lists must be merged to avoid duplication. National data bases must be well monitored. Tenders must be given in a legal and proper manner without nepotism or favouritism.
AMP
Emphasis will be on the construction of low and medium-cost housing and severe restrictions will be imposed on building luxury homes. Construction material costs will be controlled, and the government will create a special fund to give zero-interest loans to first-time home buyers earning less than R50 000 a year. Using laws that severely punish corruption at any level, we'll create checks and balances.
FF+
The FF Plus believes that private contractors should be held liable for their performance or lack thereof. There will be no contracts for friends of the well-placed in government. There will be stiff performance penalties for defaulting contractors, who will be disqualified from tendering again.
Al Jama
The constitution should be changed, making it a constitutional right to be housed in a decent home. This will put everyone responsible on terms. A housing portal in the premier's office is the solution and this portal should have the absolute power to trump red tape of local municipalities without recourse to legal challenges.
ACDP
The ACDP will strengthen and actively promote partnerships with the private sector to accelerate housing delivery; vigorously pursue the speedy release of state-owned land; do a land audit, and encourage community involvement in housing with a view to restoring dignity and pride.The ACDP will ensure the use of cost-effective technology in housing.
The party respects property ownership and is committed to extending this to as many citizens as possible. The ACDP will incrementally provide access to adequate housing for all. It will promote the development of affordable housing through community-owned self-help schemes; encourage sustainable housing communities with amenities and services such as health, education, socio-economic and recreational facilities; focus on rural development to address the problems resulting in urban migration through incentives for industries to relocate to rural areas; and establish and review a comprehensive data-base of housing waiting lists.