Speaker, the performance review of the Department and Trade and Industry's National Industrial Participation Programme, the NIPP, tabled last week reveals that international arms deal contractors have created only 40% of the jobs that government expected them to create - only 26 000 jobs in 10 years, instead of the 65 000 jobs originally promised.
The R48 billion arms deal was signed on condition that international arms companies would offset their contracts by investing directly in South Africa. A decade on, it is close to impossible to assess the status of the NIPP because the Department of Trade and Industry continues to obfuscate in its reporting, concealing the true cost of the arms deal to our country. There is simply not sufficient information in this report to properly assess the programme. What numbers there are, however, point to a general failure to create a sufficient number of jobs. In addition, the German frigate consortium, backed by ThyssenKrupp, is R1,3 billion short on its offset obligation.
The NIPP report refers to R136 billion worth of offsets realised, but given that the strategic defence package accounts for approximately 85% of the NIPP, the total amount of arms deal offsets realised so far would be around R116 billion. Eleven years ago, the Defence Minister announced that the NIPP would bring in R110 billion, but, in 2010 prices, that amount should be upwards of R200 billion. If that is the case, where will the missing R84 billion come from?
The legacy of the arms deal lives on, but accountability cannot fade with time. The NIPP report needs the considered attention of this House and government. I therefore look forward to the Department of Trade and Industry's presentation of the progress report on the NIPP to the Portfolio Committee on Trade and Industry as promised in their annual report. [Applause.]