Mr Chairman, there are times when I am quite proud to be a parliamentarian and such a time is now. Here we have a situation of the Auditor-General doing his job and a Minister baring his chest to us with all humility, and I would say he has done that. He has come here and he has said, look I am sorry about it.
My heart goes out to him because it cannot be an easy position to find oneself in. One inherits a job, one is doing one's best, one is well intended and suddenly one is landed with this kind of situation with the Auditor-General. Our hearts go out to him, and whatever I say here today is not meant to make life more uncomfortable for him than I know it already must be.
But we in a functioning Parliament also have a duty to the poor. He recognised that in the way he responded to the situation. It is not good enough for us to respond that it is because of the apartheid government, and that there are a lot of officials that were there before. I think the hon the Minister's speech would have been enriched if he had not said that. [Interjections.]
However, the fact is that we have now had three years of this backlog doubling each year. Our only interest here today is to see that this situation ends. We are not interested in recriminations. We are not really interested in apportioning blame, although one has to in order to correct what is wrong. What we are interested in is a speedy resumption of effective payments to those people that are poor.
The reason we say that, is that it is not only a question of people not getting money. The social consequences are immense. When people do not get paid, those people, particularly people with no reserves at all, or maybe reserves for a few days only, get thrown upon their families, who often cannot afford to do much for them. They are then thrown upon the churches and the community. There is a tendency for crime to escalate under those circumstances, in so far as crime can sometimes be driven by extreme poverty, which puts an additional strain upon the police and the security forces.
It certainly puts an additional strain upon the clinics and hospitals. People that are malnourished and poor tend to have a greater susceptibility to illness. So, the community as a whole, apart from the individuals themselves, bears the consequences of the inefficiencies that the Auditor- General has uncovered in the hon the Minister's department. However, I respect the way that he has reacted to the situation.
We as parliamentarians also have another duty. To some extent, what the Minister's department is doing is flouting our instruction and that of the executive, as confirmed by this Parliament. He has identified issues and Parliament has apportioned money for a particular purpose to reach particularly poor people. By not listening to that budgetary instruction, there is a degree of flouting the will of Parliament, and flouting, therefore, the democratic will of the people.
We do not want to leave an impression of hardheartedness. We know that there is a heart-rending need on the part of the poor. This kind of thing, although it brings discredit to Parliament and the executive, also brings an element of credit, because it shows that our system works. It is working in the sense that the Auditor-General has uncovered a situation, the hon the Minister has responded positively, we are debating it, he is going to put it right and we are going to make sure that he does put it right. Next year we are going to be here, and we are going to ask him how he has progressed, and then we will not be so kind to him as we are today.
So, we wish the hon the Minister well. We have to say that when this kind of thing happens, it does put stresses upon the churches, the charities and the NGOs that have to step in and take the responsibility that his department is not honouring by doing what it is supposed to do. Maybe if he looks around he can also have a heart for those people, and see how he can co-operate with them.
We wish him well and we hope this matter will be speedily resolved. [Applause.]