Hon Chairperson, hon Deputy President, hon members, I believe that the DA, in saying that they do not support the Appropriation Bill for the 2011-12 financial year, has just made Minister Gordhan's job of allocating budgets in the years going forward much easier when they claimed that they do not need any more than 40% of the money that they utilised in the 2010-11 budget to run the Western Cape province.
The President of the Republic of South Africa, Nelson Mandela, addressing the National Assembly in 1999 said, and I quote:
Because the people of South Africa finally chose a profoundly legal path to their revolution, those who frame and enact the Constitution and law are in the vanguard of the fight for change. It is in the legislatures that the instruments have been fashioned to create a better life for all. It is here that oversight of government has been exercised. It is here that our society with all its formations has an opportunity to influence policy and its implementation.
According to Jeremy Heimans of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, OECD, the Budget is the most important economic policy tool of government and provides a comprehensive statement of the nation's priorities. He adds that, as the representatives of the people, Parliament is the appropriate place to ensure that the Budget best matches the nation's development priorities within available resources. An active role by legislatures in budget making and budget review provides a check on the exercise of fiscal authority by the executive within the confines of the doctrine of the separation of powers. Therefore, influence and pressure from Parliament is likely to increase budget accountability and transparency from which civil society groups will also benefit.
Heeding the call by former President Nelson Mandela and taking cognisance of its role in relation to the Budget, the Standing Committee on Appropriations undertook hearings to gain stakeholder insight and perspectives on whether the Appropriation Bill was consciously aligned to government's key priority areas. Three stakeholders made submissions. These are the Financial and Fiscal Commission, the Public Service Commission and the Human Sciences Research Council. This process culminated in the committee giving its support to the Appropriation Bill, with its findings and recommendations tabled in ATC of 20 June.
The manner in which the Budget is developed and crafted is a complex one. It is a helix of assumptions intertwined in a manner that aims to achieve a multiple number of interrelated goals. It is the considered opinion of the ANC that the 2011-12 Appropriation Bill achieves our objective of providing finance for a wide-ranging programme that has been translated into detailed, deliverable agreements and targets for national and provincial departments, agencies and municipalities. The single encompassing objective of public policy for the period ahead is employment and creation of decent work.
Economies have five main economic objectives at a macro level, namely economic growth, full employment, price stability, equitable distribution of income and wealth and the balance of payment stability. Economic policy is aimed at achieving these objectives, with one of them usually selected as the main priority. The pursuit of economic growth requires an expansion of national production and income. This is a prerequisite for job creation, improved living standards and economic development. Likewise, the incremental pursuit of full employment or the eradication of unemployment is an obvious objective of economic policy, particularly in South Africa, where unemployment remains a major socioeconomic problem.
President Zuma, in his 2011 state of the nation address, emphasised the creation of decent work and called on all sectors of government to redouble their efforts to achieve this objective. This call comes after the Cabinet approved the New Growth Path in 2010 as the overarching policy framework to deliver on the outcome of creating decent employment through inclusive growth.
The policy's principle target is to create 5 million jobs over the next 10 years. This framework reflects government's commitment to prioritising employment creation in all economic policies. It identifies strategies that will enable South Africa to grow in a more equitable and inclusive manner while attaining South Africa's developmental agenda.
The New Growth Path identifies five other priority areas as part of the programme to create jobs through a series of partnerships between the state and the private sector. These include the green economy, agriculture, mining, manufacture and tourism. The New Growth Path proposes major improvements in government, with a call for slashing unnecessary red tape, improving competition in the economy and stepping up skills development.
The framework identifies the developmental package, which is a co-ordinated set of actions across a broad front. These consist of macroeconomic strategies, microeconomic measures and stakeholder commitments to drive employment and economic growth. Against this background, it is in the interest of all political parties to ensure that government succeeds in meeting its policy objectives and implementation targets.
In general, when a party wins in an election, they have a mandate from the people to address the national development interests in accordance with the manifesto put forward by the party.