Hon Chairperson, hon Deputy President, Your Excellency, Cyril Ramaphosa, I want to declare my joy and profound gratitude to His Excellency J G Zuma, President of the Republic of South Africa, for his hard work in contributing to the establishment of the Brics Bank, which will have its African regional office in our country.
The establishment of the bank will mark the departure from economic dependency to economic co-operation with other developing economies like ours. This bank, once established, has the potential to bring about, amongst others, opportunities for South Africa, Africa and, indeed, the global economy. The ANC supports this appropriation as we believe this will assist government to put into effect the radical transformation of our economy.
We believe that enough resources have been allocated to enable government to take bold and decisive steps to implement the creation of more jobs, decent work and sustainable livelihood for inclusive growth; for rural development, for land reform and food security, for education, for health and for fighting crime and corruption.
As the study group of the ANC, we do not doubt that this appropriation is correct, because we have been reassured by heads of department during the Extended Public Committees, EPCs, that government has taken steps to do more with less. That is very encouraging to us.
As the study group of the ANC in the Standing Committee on Appropriations, we think we do have the necessary skills, the energy and the political will to hold government and all institutions that receive money from the fiscus to account. We are going to use all the tools at our disposal. We are going to use our laptops, the Budget Office, the Statistician-General, the monthly reports of the Accountant-General, the reports generated in The Presidency: Department of Performance, Monitoring and Evaluation. We are going to monitor on a month-to-month basis.
We are not going to allow departments to misbehave and appear before the Standing Committee on Public Accounts, Scopa. We do not want any department to appear before Scopa. That is our determination and we think we are equal to the task.
Before I go further, I just want to deal with a few issues that have been raised by the DA, two things that the DA did not think could be done. They said that it would not happen. You know, we are used to those stories in this House. We had the World Cup and the DA never believed that it would happen, but it happened. The DA always said that the ANC would not come back in this House and yet, we are here in our majority, 62%. [Interjections.] You did not believe it. It is not the question of belief; it is a question of votes. The people of the Republic of South Africa love the ANC and they will vote us back. [Interjections.]
Do not disturb me; I did not disturb you. I listen to you. That is why I can hear what you are saying.
Something happened recently, and that is the unauthorised and the irregular eating of food in the Gauteng legislature. [Applause.] I want to ask the committee secretary to actually get me a list of precisely what food was eaten, whether it was sandwiches or wings, because that might have very serious financial implications, and financial implications do have consequences.
In this Fifth Parliament, I am really appealing to Members of Parliament, MPs, to be realistic, because people come here and say they do not support this budget, knowing very well that their salaries are not in the appropriation; they are not included here. So, they do not worry as long as they receive their salaries. If we do not pass this budget, hospitals will collapse, schools will be closed and nothing will happen in the Republic of South Africa.
So, this gives me the impression that there are people who have come here to talk about their own salaries. [Applause.] So, this appropriation does not include salaries of MPs. Some MPs say they don't support this budget because they know that they and their families are well taken care off. I thank you. [Applause.]