Madam Deputy Speaker, the DA cannot support the R2,4 billion in this Vote which is being allocated to the National Prosecuting Authority, NPA. The National Director of Public Prosecutions Advocate Simelane's strategic plan did not match the Estimates of National Expenditure or of that of the Appropriation Bill. For example, R81 million is specifically allocated to the Asset Forfeiture Unit, which Advocate Simelane attempted to shut down. And an amount of R481 million was allocated to co-operative services, which he has decided to move to Justice without the permission of hon Minister Radebe.
We welcome the hon Minister Radebe's attempt to reverse the changes of the Director of Public Prosecutions, but he was simply ignored by Advocate Simelane. We welcome the hon President Zuma's more successful instruction to stop all proposed changes. However, deferring any restructuring until the Ministerial cluster has resolved how they will implement their performance agreements and mandate is unsatisfactory and remains dangerous.
Advocate Simelane should have been called back and told by the justice committee that we would not vote in favour of the budget unless he formally undertook to stop restructuring, shutting down units and demoting prosecutors.
We are deeply concerned about the trends at the NPA, including, amongst other things, that the NDPP seems to make unilateral decisions and that not even hon Minister Radebe is aware of this.
The DA would want to see, for example, Advocate Gerry Nel's salary paid. However, we need to register our protest at the fact that he and his team were taken off a case like that of defeating the ends of justice against the former crime intelligence head, Mr Mulangi Mphego, resulting in the case being thrown out.
Our objection is specifically against the R2,4 billion for the NPA. However, due to the intertwined nature of the departments, we have no choice but to voice our dissatisfaction in the strongest way by voting against the budget as a whole. [Applause.]