Hon House Chair, let me just give you some statistics quickly. The bottom 90% of the population which is 31,8 million people only control 14% of the wealth in South Africa, 50% or 17,7 million people have a negative net worth of minus R16 000 in South Africa and 1% own or control 55% of all wealth in South Africa. That is why socioeconomic transformation in South Africa will remain a distant dream. Now, let me just tell you why I say this.
The automotive trade is being captured in South Africa, the financial sector is captured in South Africa, the mining sector is captured in South Africa and the food sector is captured in South Africa, we've heard today how the health sector is captured in South Africa, the retail sector is captured in South Africa, the media is captured in South Africa, and yes indeed, almost all the municipalities are captured in South Africa. That is why we lose R240 billion a year, Minister. Yes, the initiative of a transparent open system for tenders will help if we can introduce it immediately.
But, what are some of our problems? Economic growth is down, businesses are closing, corruption is rife, state-owned entities, SOEs, are in a crisis because of corruption and interference, and not forgetting Coleman Andrews who came and sold you an entire fleet and leases it from himself again. Yet, we did little or nothing of it. Okay, I want to give you a good example, I had an opportunity of meeting somebody else, the Minister Patel is present, but I see that he's not here now. How an organisation in Atlantis was able to successfully deal with issues of energy and Eskom up to 2012, and at that stage we didn't have crisis?
Secondly, they are able to produce the wheels of the trains, but they are not getting that opportunity. Right now, they can create 400 jobs in Atlantis, which is one of the poorest areas in the Western Cape. Let me tell you what you are going to be doing next week Tuesday. You are going to auction all the industrial machinery in parks, rather than creating an avenue for them to create those jobs and those businesses. Nobody wants to help them. These are the problems.
The manufacturing industry is down. We continuously import, and we say that we are going to give them incentives, but it is too expensive to do business in South Africa. There needs to be a balance, Minister. You can't win that because, while the unions are calling for high labour costs, you want it to be down in order to be able to be competitive. So, the challenges are immense.
We need a holistic approach where all the roleplayers and political parties must come together so that we can find a common solution which will take South Africa forward. Thank you. [Time expired.]