Chairperson, human rights imply human freedom - the freedom of every individual irrespective of their circumstances at birth to become everything that they are capable of being. This requires freedom to make choices; to choose what they will do on their journey through life; to choose where they will live, what they will learn, how they will contribute to society, who they will be associated with, who they will love and how they will participate in the economy. To exercise human rights, human beings need more than the political freedom to choose who governs. Political freedom is a milestone on the road to socioeconomic freedom for all, and we have a very long way to travel. Political freedom enables the people to choose a government that will offer them the opportunity to rise above past economic circumstances; that will offer an enabling environment within which they can thrive and pursue their dreams. They can choose a government that empowers them and adds value to their lives, a government that doesn't loot the people's money entrusted to its care. Crucially, they can change the government when it fails them.
Our country's history is deeply troubled and scarred by the trauma inflicted by colonialism and the apartheid crime against humanity that led to the Sharpeville Massacre and deep divisions in our society, artificial spatial divides and glaring inequality in access to resources. Under conditions of grinding poverty and without the freedom to choose that comes with access to resources, a dignified life is not possible.
It is the role of government to facilitate the access to resources that will pave a pathway out of poverty. This objective has been achieved elsewhere in the world, and we can do it here too. Government can design economic policy to ensure that our economy grows big enough for everyone to participate in it and to enable our economy to accelerate at a faster and sustainable growth rate. The DA's plan for growth and jobs reveals this possibility.
Post-apartheid economic history has already recorded several stalled economic policies, such as the Reconstruction and Development Programme and the plan for growth, employment and redistribution that began as great ideas and then stalled on implementation and eventually fell over. We've heard very noisy calls for nationalisation and expropriation without compensation and have received very mixed signals from the New Growth Path and the National Development Plan.
The DA believes that the significant time and effort devoted by the National Planning Commission to craft the National Development Plan was well spent and it should be implemented. Such is the irony of our beloved country that the DA provincial government in the Western Cape will implement the National Development Plan, yet the governing party in national government doesn't have the political will to implement the plan, championed by the person who could have been the President if his party had selected the best qualified person to do the job, rather than a lowest common denominator able to keep all the squabbling factions within the national governing party coalesced around a common objective that isn't clear to anyone.
The ANC is no longer the universally admired liberation movement that held the moral high ground against the illegitimate apartheid regime. We're not sure what it is now, but the voters will soon tell us what they think about the R30 billion per annum that haemorrhages from the public financial system every year. They will tell us what they think about being left behind while some politically connected cadres feast on the people's money.
There is no doubt that past legacies have left very deep structural defects in our economy that will take a long time to be resolved, even under a coherent economic policy and improvements in global economic conditions. Management of the public finances, the scarce financial resources that can make an immediate difference to the people's lives, can be improved right now to advance the socioeconomic freedom of our people.
Our public financial system is in deep distress. Basic disciplines are not in place and there is no accountability. Financial procedures need to be in place and properly managed. The internal audit function needs to test and report on financial controls and procedures to the audit committee that should then take appropriate steps to resolve any problems. This will ensure that the Auditor-General receives correct and coherent financial statements that can be subjected to their audit.
Without these basic principles in place, recorded in deteriorating audit outcomes, our people do not receive the standard of education that will help to break the cycle of poverty. Entrepreneurs do not get the support that they should to grow their business. Our public enterprises do not deliver as they should. The Department of Public Works becomes a conduit for politically connected cadres to steal the people's money, and SABC boards keep collapsing.
The Standing Committee on Public Accounts' visit to Limpopo offered a glimpse of what happens when government loots the people's money. It's pleasing to see that some action is finally being taken, but this has nothing to do with good governance; it is about punishing those who have fallen out of political favour in the ANC - an internal faction fight that has left the people far behind and out of pocket. What about the human rights of the schoolchildren who never got their textbooks, or the patients in the hospitals who didn't get the care their country could afford to offer them if their money wasn't siphoned off by bloated, politically connected cronies?
Time isn't needed to solve this problem. Action is needed, and that action could happen tomorrow if there was political will. It is clear that there isn't any and that government will not act unless its arm is twisted. It will loot the people's money and then hide behind one turnaround strategy after another, behind the revolving doors of cadre deployment, or behind apartheid legislation, as it is attempting to do with the Nkandla misappropriation.
Government only acted against Julius Malema when he became an international embarrassment and a threat to the President's re-election. It never acted in Limpopo until the executive supported another candidate for President. Government's belated action has nothing to do with ensuring the human rights of our people to access the financial resources our taxation system was designed to redistribute, and nothing to do with holding to account those cadres who stole the people's money. It had nothing to do with opening opportunities for those who would otherwise be left behind, and everything to do with the enrichment of a few at the expense of everyone else.
Fortunately, individuals do have the freedom to choose who governs them and they will be exercising that freedom next year. The people will decide whether they want more and more looting that crowds out more and more opportunities and erodes their human rights and prevents the advancement of socioeconomic freedom for all; or they will choose the better option: a DA offer of an open-opportunity society for all. Thank you. [Applause.]