House Chair, the Department of Economic Development's main activity is the co-ordination of the efforts of the other departments. In other words, the department has no projects of its own. Rather, what it does is piggybacking on those departments with coherent projects.

As I indicated in my Budget debate, this department has oversight over entities that have been cannabalised from other departments. I wish to reiterate what I said in the Budget Vote debate. I said that the department is unnecessary as it merely duplicates the functions of other departments. The department's New Growth Path is failing to meet its target of creating five million jobs by 2020, and should be abandoned in favour of the National Development Plan, NDP, which the DA supports.

The Youth Employment Accord is a poor cousin of the youth wage subsidy, and will not address youth unemployment adequately. Small, medium and micro enterprises, SMMEs, are being failed by the Small Enterprise Finance Agency, Sefa, by allowing intermediaries to charge up to 40% interest on small loans. This department must be disbanded and the DA will not support the budget. [Applause.]