Through you Chair, hon Minister ... [Laughter.] [Interjections.] ... we must depoliticize the SABC. This is crucial because we are still hearing stories of politicization of the SABC and its going to destroy that institution. We must release the Stealth AUDIT and we must solidify the definition of roles. People are running around the SABC, they don't know what they are doing and it is important that everybody understands what their role is. You must put in proper financial and operational systems and we must not tolerate corruption because what has happened is that we have had the SABC enquiry.
There were recommendations and people are still running around and some of them are even opening their own political parties with the monies of the SABC. So we must go and arrest those people. We must recoup the monies that we have lost in the SABC
through corrupt operations, with the Guptas, with multichoice, we have lost archives, we have lost a lot and we must recoup all that money. And we must go back to the basic principles of broadcast, its information and education, entertainment and fairness. Those are all embodied within the broadcasting Act. These are some of the things that we need to look at in order for us to bring back the dignity of the SABC.
Ma'am, leave the broadcasting Act alone, leave it alone. There is nothing wrong with the Broadcasting Act. Now what happened in the last tenure is that your Minister when you were the Deputy Minister, your Minister went into that corner office of hers there and fiddled with the Broadcasting Act. We learned later that what she was doing was to centralize power between herself, Hlaudi and other corrupt individuals. Don't do those things. There is nothing absolutely wrong with Broadcasting Act.
Let's go to the SABC and fix what is in there. That is where we need to start. On digital migration, digital migration must now be the cornerstone of broadcasting in South Africa. Now, your department already told you that ... [Interjections.] ... I have
got a lot of time, thank you very much. We want numbers, we have got time now. [Laughter.] Your department already told you that we are already paying money towards Santech and preparing Santech for the digital migration so it is not operational but the money is already going out. So, its wasteful expenditure by definition, so to speak and failure to do so will result in the stifling on the development of the SABC.
The SABC should be giving us a whole lot more channels and it should give us a whole lot more service. Your stifling in the development of local transmission now at the moment the process of applying for a local television station is so cumbersome that there are at least five provinces that don't have those things. So, the digital migration will make it easier for them to open up and have ... we will continue to engage on these issues. There is a whole lot more that we are going to discuss but thank you very much but we will not be supporting your Budget until you do these things. Thank you very much.