Madam Deputy Speaker, I have a suspicion that the failure of the voting system this evening is a pretty good reflection of what happens in Parliament generally and the way Parliament is operating.
The DA opposes this Vote. It is the first time that we have actually ever opposed the Parliamentary Budget Vote, but we do so today to express our serious concerns about the way that this institution is being run. In the first instance, we pass Rules affecting this Parliament which are never implemented and of course the best, or perhaps worst, example of this is the nonimplementation of the Financial Management of Parliament Act, which would effectively create oversight over ourselves in Parliament. This Act was passed for good reasons and its nonimplementation is certainly a sorry reflection of this Parliament.
Secondly, we as the DA are not satisfied that Parliament performs its oversight roles properly or fully. While much is said and written about oversight, the mechanisms for performing this essential part of our duties as MPs are underplayed and underperformed in Parliament. Certainly, even an important aspect such as question time, designed to allow MPs to really question members of the executive, is undermined by the executive itself, many of whom make a mockery of the process by either not answering questions at all or by answering them in such a way that, as I say, it makes a mockery of the system.
Finally, we are not convinced that there is a genuine desire on the part of the ANC to accept anything other than mediocrity in terms of how this Parliament is run. Parliament requires a very urgent shake-up and reorganisation but regrettably there is no sign that this is happening at the present time and therefore we cannot support this Budget Vote. [Applause.]
Hon Deputy Speaker, the Speaker of this House has consulted fully with all the parties on the policy imperatives of this Parliament. In his speech, he was honest about the implementations of those unanimously agreed-upon policy imperatives. Criticism against, for instance, the building project was well explained and it exposed the fact that those who where criticising the building project had not done their homework and were shooting somewhere in the dark. We hope that by the end of today this will be clarified and there will be no basis not to support the budget.
What the hon Ellis is saying is just a bare rejection without a sound foundation. We are really disappointed that a man of your stature can do that. I hope it's just because you are tired, seeing that it is late in the afternoon. I think that the Speaker has provided a very good basis.
With regard to the other issues that you are raising, the Speaker has indicated to this House that they are enjoying attention. In the two years that we have worked together in the multiparty Chief Whips' Forum, you never raised those issues. You are raising them now for the first time and this is really disturbing. [Interjections.] I hope that you will find an occasion just to evaluate what has happened on this question because what you are saying is not reflective of the truth; it is not reflective of what happened. Thank you.
Vote agreed to (Democratic Alliance and Independent Democrats dissenting).
Vote No 3 - Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs - put.
Declarations of vote:
Madam Deputy Speaker, supporting this budget would require us to make a leap of faith which we are not prepared to make. We would have to believe that the local government turnaround strategy is working when all the evidence that we have shows that it is not, and it will not.
Officials deployed by the department to dysfunctional municipalities are incapable of putting things right, either because they are not able to perform or because they receive inadequate support. In some ways a talk is being talked. There is more money being spent on oversight and control, but in the face of continued rampant misspending by municipalities we are not sure if this money is not just being wasted.
How strongly will any message of financial probity and prudence be received by municipalities when the chief sales person of such prudence, Minister Shiceka, is spending money in the way that he has? I am referring here only to the spending that he has admitted to. This case has been kicked for touch with the Public Protector rather than being dealt with swiftly by the President or by Parliament. So, we are forced to then ask how much of this budget we are asked to approve will be spent on rooms at top hotels for spiritual advisors.
If we would support this budget, it would be because we believed that the turnaround measures were being vigorously implemented. It is clear from the length of time it has taken to sign the Municipal Systems Amendment Bill that vigour is not in the vocabulary of this department or of this government. Accordingly, the DA will not support this budget. [Applause.]
Madam Deputy Speaker, we will definitely support this budget. The budget, as presented to us, is explicitly designed to build local government further. We have just come out of an election. We now have space to see the implementation of the local government turnaround strategy, which emerged just before the elections. What leap of faith are we told about? There is no leap of faith here! [Interjections.]
Concretely, the elections are over. We must talk about the new councillors receiving support from the induction of councillors we have come from this morning, and from the budget proposals that are in place to assist with service delivery across the board. There is explicit co-operation that we are receiving from this department. From the beginning of the year the leadership inside the internal audit committee has been appointed. We are receiving absolute interaction in the committee with the department about sorting out any irregular expenditure that may have been there before. The department receives strong recommendations from the Auditor-General. We are experiencing absolute collaboration and nothing else with this department.
The challenges that local government faces are too important for grand- standing opposition to the Budget Vote. It goes to service those municipalities and other departments that work with municipalities to provide the services that we would like to have. The Budget Vote that we support here today is going to go a long way to implementing the local government turnaround strategy they are saying they have not seen its light of day. How would that happen without this support? [Applause.]
Vote agreed to (Democratic Alliance, Freedom Front Plus, Independent Democrats and African Christian Democratic Party dissenting).
Vote No 4 - Home Affairs - put and agreed to.
Vote No 5 - International Relations and Co-operation - put.
Vote agreed to (Democratic Alliance and Independent Democrats dissenting).
Vote No 6 - Performance monitoring and Evaluation - put.
Vote agreed to (Democratic Alliance, Independent Democrats and Congress of the People dissenting).
Vote No 7 - Public Works - put.
Declarations of vote:
Madam Deputy Speaker, the Department of Public Works is not the type of department that should be attracting headlines but it does. The credibility and internal governance measures of this department have large question marks hanging over them.
The DA cannot in good conscience support a budget for this department when we know the Public Protector's report, whether it is finalised or not, is critical of Public Works Minister Gwen Mahlangu-Nkabinde, Police Commissioner Bheki Cele and businessman Roux Shabangu. [Interjections.] The report deals with irregular leases for the police in Pretoria and Durban. The DG has stated in the report that he feared for his safety and was pressurised into approving the two police deals, apparently worth R1,6 billion.
The public deserves value for money, but the Department of Public Works is not securing the best deals for properties that are to be used by government departments. The Minister herself said recently that we need to clean our houses and give South Africa a better service. The DA agrees and we are waiting for the results. The department is facing large amounts of litigation, which is costing a lot of taxpayers' money. This is money that should rather be spent on service delivery. If this department can fix itself and root out corruption, the DA will support this budget next year.
Deputy Speaker, the ANC will support this Budget Vote. Firstly, I want to say that hon Rabotapi is not being honest with this House. In the portfolio committee we took a decision that we are going to deal with these reports - the Durban and the Pretoria reports - simultaneously. We have not started discussing those reports. So he is not being honest with this House.
Deputy Speaker, the Portfolio Committee on Public Works, having considered Vote 7 of the Department of Public Works, assents to the passing of the budget for the 2011-12 financial year. The intention is to ensure that more jobs are created ...
Deputy Speaker, I rise on a point of order: The hon member said that hon Winston Rabotapi was not honest with this House. I don't believe that that is parliamentary. [Interjections.]
Hon Deputy Speaker, we took the decision, and all of us agreed to the decision, that we were not going to tamper with this issue. We will attend to it immediately when the second report is sent to the Speaker of the House, and the Speaker directs it to the portfolio committee. That was the agreement. That is why I said that he was not honest with this House.
Please continue with what you said earlier, hon member.
The Expanded Public Works Programme is especially aimed at providing job opportunities to assist the large numbers of poor, unemployed and marginalised communities in South Africa.
Vote 7 also plans to assist in addressing the backlog in maintenance of government's immovable assets, which intends to provide additional work opportunities, especially for the youth. The continued emphasis on job creation and skills development is a priority of government, one which Vote 7 aims to address in the 2011-12 financial year. The ANC supports this Budget Vote. Thank you.
Division demanded.
The House divided: