South Africa: Support (Hansard, 26 April 1994)

§ Baroness Chalker of Wallasey
My Lords, we plan to increase our bilateral support for a new South African Government pursuing sound policies. We are encouraging the relevant multilateral agencies to provide substantial and effective programmes there.

§ Lord Judd
My Lords, I thank the Minister for that Answer. Has she seen the recent statistics produced by the Overseas Development Institute which estimate that apartheid has left one in four black people living in squatter camps or crude temporary housing; only 5 per cent. with electricity; 40 per cent. with no access to clean water; 50 per cent. illiterate; and one in four black children still not at school? Does she agree that that represents a gigantic challenge to us all if the democracy that we have advocated is to succeed? Will it not require a massive co-ordinated international effort involving aid, investment, trade and technical assistance, together with enlightened IMF and World Bank policies? Will the Minister tell the House what she is doing in that respect? Does she understand that she will have the fullest possible support from this side of the House as the brave people of South Africa go into the next chapter of their struggle for freedom and the future of their nation?

§ Baroness Chalker of Wallasey
My Lords, since my first visit to South Africa some eight years ago, it is the conditions of so many that have caused people to worry whether there could be a peaceful conclusion to this great step forward towards non-racial democratic elections. We know that there is much to do. We hope that CDC will soon begin investing in South Africa. We hope that the World Bank will quickly begin lending in 517 South Africa. We have helped it to prepare the ground for urban sector loans which will cope with some of those problems. But above all South Africa must look to the private sector, the international financial institutions and development finance organisations. We shall be giving technical co-operation. That will be continuing and growing over the next three years, but there is a great deal that can and should be done by the private sector in South Africa.

Lord Bruce of Donington
My Lords, is the Minister aware that many of us on all sides of the House have the utmost confidence in the personal efforts that she will make in her ministerial office? Can she give the House an assurance that in the multilateral efforts which will involve liaison with the World Bank, the OECD, and so on, she will take steps to ensure that the European Commission clears up its own mess first and does not get involved in this?

§ Baroness Chalker of Wallasey
My Lords, the noble Lord, Lord Bruce of Donington, knows that I am very much at one with him in wanting to see development by all bodies properly targeted and co-ordinated. I thank him for the kind things that he said at the beginning of his remarks. The European Community has a programme involving about £80 million per year. We are working with it on this to increase its poverty focus and to improve the quality of the programme. I shall be discussing it at the Development Council on 6th May.

§ Lord St. John of Bletso
My Lords, will not one of the major challenges facing the new South Africa be to meet the needs and, for that matter, the expectations of the so-called emancipated peoples? Will not one of the greatest challenges be to raise the level of education in South Africa? Will the Minister comment upon initiatives which the Government are taking as well as the other initiatives of which I have heard recently, such as Education Africa, which are fulfilling that objective?

§ Baroness Chalker of Wallasey
My Lords, without notice, I cannot give your Lordships the details of South African Government initiatives, but over the past eight years we have been involved in something called the Molteno Project which has been training the trainers of teachers and sending them out into schools all over the country. We hope that that kind of project will multiply still further, and that the basic school buildings and equipment which are needed so urgently will be provided, as I believe all believers in South Africa have pledged to do.

§ Lord Mackie of Benshie
My Lords, does the Minister agree that the provision of housing may be the most visible improvement that could be shown to the expectant people? Will she give full backing, financial and otherwise, to efforts in that direction?

§ Baroness Chalker of Wallasey
My Lords, I believe that housing, education, basic health, clean water and power are all important. There will obviously be enormous challenges to be faced, particularly in the densely populated areas. I can assure the noble Lord that 518 we are doing all that we can, but we must accept that there are many technically able people in South Africa, and that while they may need a bit of technical co-operation from us, many of the things that need to be done will be done by South Africans of all backgrounds themselves.

§ Lord Judd
My Lords, I thank the Minister for all that she has said in response to these questions. Will she recall with us all that in the difficult years after the Second World War a vital factor in the rebuilding of democracy in Europe was the United States imaginative Marshall Aid programme? Is not the challenge presented by South Africa now, if democracy is to succeed, every bit as real as the challenge presented by Europe in 1945?

§ Baroness Chalker of Wallasey
My Lords, I believe that the challenge is as great, but we are better equipped today than ever before to rise to it. I hope that the private sector, not just from this country but from all countries, will involve itself, together with governments, in helping the new South African Government of national unity to meet that challenge.