House Chairperson, the Department of Public Enterprises is one of the most important components of this country's Economic Cluster. However, for far too long these state-owned enterprises, SOEs, that have such a profound impact on the daily lives of every single South African and whose basic functioning can so profoundly fix the economy and future economic growth of our country, have been used for political gain.
We had the scandal of the awarding of a multimillion rand tender to Hitachi Power Africa to build boilers at Medupi, while being intrinsically linked to the investment arm of the ANC's Chancellor House. Then there is the ongoing power supply crisis that hangs over our country like a guillotine waiting to cut off the head of foreign investment and economic growth in our country, and the continued support for, or the granting of government bailouts to our economically defunct national carrier SA Airways, SAA, resulting not only in further depletions of our country's coffers, but also the stifling of competition in our airline industry.
The time has long since come to say enough is enough. Our country deserves better and the Department of Public Enterprises must step up and say, no more. The DA will not be voting for this budget.