Madam Deputy Speaker, supporting this budget would require us to make a leap of faith which we are not prepared to make. We would have to believe that the local government turnaround strategy is working when all the evidence that we have shows that it is not, and it will not.
Officials deployed by the department to dysfunctional municipalities are incapable of putting things right, either because they are not able to perform or because they receive inadequate support. In some ways a talk is being talked. There is more money being spent on oversight and control, but in the face of continued rampant misspending by municipalities we are not sure if this money is not just being wasted.
How strongly will any message of financial probity and prudence be received by municipalities when the chief sales person of such prudence, Minister Shiceka, is spending money in the way that he has? I am referring here only to the spending that he has admitted to. This case has been kicked for touch with the Public Protector rather than being dealt with swiftly by the President or by Parliament. So, we are forced to then ask how much of this budget we are asked to approve will be spent on rooms at top hotels for spiritual advisors.
If we would support this budget, it would be because we believed that the turnaround measures were being vigorously implemented. It is clear from the length of time it has taken to sign the Municipal Systems Amendment Bill that vigour is not in the vocabulary of this department or of this government. Accordingly, the DA will not support this budget. [Applause.]