Hon Chairperson, let me first take this opportunity to greet the executive authority of Parliament, who is the Speaker, Mama Modise. I also like to greet my colleagues and the distinguished guest which are up there in the gallery. First of all Chairperson ...
IsiZulu:
... ngizothanda ukubonga bonke abantu baseNingizimu Afrika abaphuma ngobuningi bababo ngomhlaka 8 Meyi 2019 lapho kwaphuma khona banikeza i-ANC igunya elikhulu ukuthi iqhubeke iphathe lelizwe leli. Sithi singu-ANC sizoqhubeka sibasebenzela njengoba sabasebenzela kusukela ngowe-1912.
English:
The ANC supports Budgets Vote N0:2. The ANC supports the budget vote of Parliament because it knows that this Parliament was created through the blood, the sweat, and the tears of the people of South Africa. This is evidenced by the fact that last
week on the 11th July 2019 we marked the 56th Anniversary of the arrest of the Revonia Trialists in the Lilies farm in Gauteng. They were arrested because they fought for the equality of all the people before the law. This equality which they were clamouring for was based on the clarion call of the Freedom Charter that no government could claim legitimacy unless it is based on the will of the people. It is befitting that this week also marks the 101 Anniversary of the birth of Isithwalandwe uTata, uNelson Mandela who was also a Revonia Trialists and the first President the Democratic South Africa.
This Parliament rightly adopted the motto, we the people, this presupposes that the work of Parliament will be centred around the people that is why the ANC came with the concept of an activist parliament which is expected to take the issues of the people from the constituencies, non-profit organizations, NGOs, community based organizations, whereby these issues will be addressed by this Parliament.
As we pass this budget of R2 6 Billion we have to ask a question, whether this funding is adequate since parliament is
the other arm of state, which is supposed to oversight the executive whose budget is more that a trillion rand. To answer this question, we to ask whether the parliamentary office is adequately resourced, to adequately deal with various programmes of Parliament, so that their allocation meet mandate they have to execute, for example the work of the executive must equal to the work of the oversight of Parliament.
The Parliament cannot be found wanting in holding the executive to account. In this current budget there's a deficit of more than R424 million. So the is issue is how effective are the parliamentary committees and constituency offices going to be in ensuring that the policies of government impact positively to the lives of the people of South Africa, since we are still faced with the scourges of the triple challenge of poverty, unemployment and inequality.
Chairperson I will make an example here, in my constituency the Department of Water Affairs and Sanitation undertook a project of building a sewerage pump station which was shoddily built, when this was brought to the attention of the regional head of
the Department of Water Affairs and Sanitation in the province, he reported that the project was not in their books and when the office of the Auditor General came the constituency to assess the project, the was no trace of the company which was involved, when they knew that the Auditor General was coming the following day, they disappeared the previous night and they were no where to be found.
That is why I agitate that in the next financial year there must be increase in support for the portfolio committees and the constituency offices so that the misuse of resources like these can be arrested when they are still in progress in progress not by Standing Committee on Public Accounts, SCOPA, where the mischief has already occurred.
Hon Chair, having painted this bleak picture, the ANC will in this regard implement its 53rd conference resolutions whereby it resolved to play a more effective role in the legislature's budgets, structures and human resources issues. As such, the ANC agreed to use the appropriate channels, which include the budget process as envisaged in the Financial Management of Parliament
Provincial and Legislature Act, FMPLA, to address this challenge. In doing so, the ANC will be in mindful of fiscal consolidation that was announced by Minister of Finance in his budget speech in February and cognizance of the separation of powers.
One of the critical constitutional mandates of Parliament is to exercise oversight over the executive. This constitutional mandate becomes very crucial to ensure that National Development Plan, NDP, objectives are achieved by 2030.In this regard, in it is the 53rd conference of the ANC resolved to improve the legislatures' oversight model and capacity. Therefore, the ANC is pleased with how the previous Parliament planned to finance the development and implementation of the refined oversight and accountability model to ensure that the executive implements the objective of the 2014-19 and thereby abide by objectives of the NDP.
Parliament must ensure that adequate funds are budgeted for the proper implementation of this model so that the Parliament through its committees is able to identify, root and prevent
wastage of resources, which compromises service delivery and hence therefore, the attainment of overarching broad objectives as set in the