Chairperson, hon members, it is well known that the financial resources available in our country are insufficient to satisfy all human needs and wants. This clearly shows, therefore, that when distributing these resources, the state should focus on the main challenges of our country: unemployment, poverty, education, health systems and the evils of the past.
Corruption is always a problem and special attention is needed to deal with it. While this problem persists, the budget allocations to different departments will never sufficiently serve the purpose, which is to better the lives of our people.
The issue of labour brokers is one of many that contribute to the slow growth of our economy. This system makes the rich richer and the poor poorer.
To address the challenge of unemployment, people must be trained under the Expanded Public Works Programme so that they become employable and can then be encouraged to start their own businesses. The verification of the number of people reported to have job opportunities under these programmes should be made available.
The 9,1% that has been allocated to municipalities may not be enough, hon Chairperson. This is where service delivery is supposed to happen, especially in rural areas.
However, we do appreciate the fact that the Department of Basic Education received the lion's share in the budget, which is where the nation is supposed to invest. It cannot be right to build so many new schools while closing down others. Therefore, there should be a good balance between the building of new schools and rationalisation. We believe that the already existing schools should be improved in regard to libraries, laboratories and infrastructure. We hope that with this big budget that has been allocated to the Department of Basic Education, the low salaries that are being paid to teachers will be reconsidered, because the teaching profession is the mother of all professions. It is therefore not good that those people are paid such low salaries.
The energy crisis should also be looked into, because it impacts badly on our businesses and on the growth of our economy. [Time expired.] [Applause.]