House Chair, I would like to thank the committee for the work they have done to approve and process this important piece of legislation, the amendment to the Development Bank of Southern Africa Act.
The Development Bank of Southern Africa, DBSA, that we are talking about is an institution that has built its asset base from a mere R250 million to what it is today at R60 billion. So Anybody who has any doubts that the institution that we want to approve today, that this extension of its mandate has been underperforming, is delusional if not suffering from a disease that would be unparliamentary for me to mention. In general, I want to say to members who are raising issues about the DBSA's role at home, in the municipalities we have evidence that the DBSA has done extremely well in this space and it will continue to do so. Actually, the amendment to extend its authorised shared capital also covers that area. It's not only intended to finance the DBSA's expansion of its mandate.
Hon Chair, let me indicate one of the things that some members, including the hon George, who I thought had spent a bit of time in the committee, focused a lot of attention on. This time around he completely disappointed me. He didn't read the definitions. If we say, amongst the proposed new amendments on the existing definitions for the board, clause 1 of the Bill - if you haven't read clause 1 of the Bill, then what part of the Bill have you read? It includes definitions of authorised share capital, callable capital and issued share capital.
Authorised share capital, hon George, is the maximum capital the Bank may raise. It consists of the issued share capital and the callable capital. [Interjections.] I am just doing this for your benefit, knowing that if you didn't explain this to your other members it would be beneficial for them to listen to this part rather than talking on the side.
The issued share capital is that part of the authorised share capital that is issued. And the callable capital is the authorised share capital less the issued share capital. So all these definitions have been included in order to be able to clarify what it is that we seek to do.
The shareholder here is currently the state and we propose that it must approve a request by the Bank to take up any part of the authorised share capital which is not yet issued. Therefore, we are saying that we indeed, as hon members, have raised this. We will be circumspect in making sure that it invests in projects that actually do make sense - unless you are questioning the rationality of the shareholder.
Again, in explaining callable capital, we must also explain that this is a key tool for the bank to leverage the ratio for loans.
You also talk about the DBSA as if it is a company, hon George. It is not a company in terms of the Companies Act, as you have indicated. Its name was only entered on the register of companies in order to avoid the use of its name by other companies - that was the only reason, and it is for that reason that we say now that that part has actually been dealt with.
Hon members have indicated that it predates our democracy, but it has been transformed in the process up to this point. Again, we actually take note of the points made by members where they say we should make sure that these investments also didn't have an overlap - as Mr Kwankwa said - of mandates. We say that the African infrastructure gap is close to R100 billion, as, I think, Adv Swart or Mr Ross mentioned.
The fact of the matter is that is a huge gap, so that is actually to complement all other efforts of augmenting infrastructure on the continent. And that's the space that the DBSA is going to be playing in.
We therefore think that it's playing in a space where we are also shareholders, be it in the Brics' New Development Bank or the African Development Bank. South Africa also is a player in that space so there will be no overlap of mandates.
Indeed, it is our aim to make sure that we crowd-in the private sector. The fact of the matter is that, as government, we also have a responsibility to look after the interests of the millions of South Africans in addition to making sure that the private sector plays its role. We also would want to commit ourselves to this House to say that there will be no carte blanche for the bank to move into any country outside of the SADC region, because it would require ministerial approval and a plan of activities that we will approve on an annual basis as to how this will be done.
With those few words, and ignoring all other matters that did not relate to the DBSA Amendment Bill, I wish to thank the committee for the work that they have done.