Deputy Speaker, government talks too much and does too little. And talking is expensive.
Minister Blade Nzimande tells me that his department spent R1,7 million on the Higher Education Transformation Summit held in April 2010. I asked him why the Centre for Educational Policy Development, a body he chaired before becoming the Minister, having only resigned from it on 12 May 2009, received the contract for the summit without the issuing of a tender. He said that as it was donor money there was no need. I have learnt that it was not donor money, but unused funds left there by the old Department of Education. So the question is, who is telling the truth and who is lying?
The CEPD is an ANC-aligned education think tank. John Pampalis, Minister Nzimande's advisor, was a trustee of that body once, as was Mary Metcalfe, his director-general, and Minister Angie Motshekga was a trustee too. It is, hon members, a revolving door of individuals, ideas and money and gives another meaning to recycling bad governance in a cosy club that masquerades as policy-making.