Deputy Speaker, there is just one phrase that keeps on coming to mind as the group of SAPS personnel came in to present before the Police Portfolio Committee: "Show me the money".
Certainly the Minister has dodged my questions in relation to expenditure after expenditure, such as the party held in Bloemfontein. Certainly no one is telling which programmes these millions came from. Who knows which programme is being used as a slush fund?
There are about 50 or more citizens who are murdered here daily, coupled with an increase in violence that shocks the nation. Yet the Minister has seen it fit to quietly drop the target, according to which our Police Service should decrease violent crime, to just 4% to 7%. So, the target has been dropped, yet, the money asked for is up to R53 billion, which boils down to a 3% target decrease in exchange for a 13% budget increase.
We have watched the Minister and his deputy squandering R7,1 million on bling and 5-star hotels - and that is just what we have uncovered to date. On top of that, the Minister has gone against those sages at the outset of our democracy, who determined that this protection entity should be a service rather than a force of the apartheid era. Indeed, he is now pretending as if he is running an army, although we already have one.
While there is a crisis of crime, millions and millions, which could have been used for building and renovating police stations, simply can't be accounted for. Imagine any corporation allowing this sort of report on finances that SAPS property management attempted to fob us off with a fortnight ago; heads would roll!
Patently, the Minister has no idea of what is going on, and certainly not in property management. His predecessor hid away a R7 million report from the head of the SAPS legal services division, and this Minister is choosing to use taxpayer's money as though it were his own.
The SAPS has been galvanised by the Football World Cup, but whether or not we are going to see the same dedication when August comes, is anyone's guess.
To be voting for this Bill, would suggest that the DA supports the Ministry's intention to spend in the same unwise, unaccountable manner. There is no indication that they will do otherwise. Therefore we cannot support this Budget Vote. I thank you. [Applause.]