Chairperson, I'm glad that she didn't press my button! [Laughter.]
Chairperson, hon Minister, I think the moot question here is: What is the mandate of your department? Because the question here asks if you have compiled a master plan. Now is it within the mandate of your department to do this? I'm saying this, because yesterday we received a briefing from the director-general in your department, Mr Minister, and he said, to be able to monitor and evaluate any department required the co-operation of that department and the Minister.
Now, there is no legislative pronouncement that says that your department can do A, B or C in another department, for example, like the Auditor- General can. Is it not time, because this is a very, very important Ministry, for a Cabinet directive to be issued, which will empower you as the Minister to be able to intervene in any department where you find things like corruption or maladministration or like the question we asked the President last week about findings the Auditor-General had made in a certain department and other members of the executive responsible for that Ministry not acting on it. So, I'm asking if there shouldn't be a Cabinet directive leading to legislation that empowers your Ministry to do these kinds of things that we would require to ensure that we don't have poor service delivery and poor administration. Thank you.
The MINISTER IN THE PRESIDENCY - PERFORMANCE MONITORING AND EVALUATION, AS WELL AS ADMINISTRATION IN THE PRESIDENCY: Chairperson, hon member, when I started I said no, there was no master plan to deal with the issues you have raised. But then I went into detail to explain that in the absence of that, what steps we were taking to deal with the question that has been raised and which can almost have a similar effect to what has been raised.
Regarding legislation, the issue was raised early on in 2009, as to why we didn't create legislation to deal with these matters. Our response at that time - which was correct - was this: We said it was the first time that we were implementing a system like this. If you create legislation or something that you're not sure how it is going to pan out, you're likely to consolidate mistakes within the legislative framework. It is better for us to go through experience and gather enough evidence and information to ensure that we are able to put a legislative framework in place that will be able to assist us to do the type of work which we are supposed to be doing.
We are at the stage now where it is possible for us to look at options - we are exploring that route - within the current framework and the issues you are raising to see what it is that we need to do. With regard to whether we should not have a Cabinet directive, a Cabinet directive does not have the same weight as legislation. There are enough Cabinet directives now to deal with these issues, which are sufficient for us to carry out our work.
Therefore, we have noted the point you have raised and we have explained it before. Now we are confirming that we are in that process, after having learnt the experience, to begin to see what type of issues need to be legislated for, for the work to be carried out. Thank you.