Thank you, Chairperson. I have four minutes, I will try to cut it down to three so that we can all go home early. Every government in the world has the responsibility to deliver services to its citizens. Such services include the creation of a safe environment for citizens, the creation of a safety net for citizens who are unemployed and poor, the creation of an educational environment, in which individuals are enabled to improve their skills and the creation of an enabling environment for economic growth and job creation. The provision for funding - this is important to make service delivery possible - and ensuring then that the necessary policies, planning, management and control for the efficient usage of funds so provided are in place. Unfortunately it is in the planning, management and control of funding where government departments are failing dismally. We read in the press the reports about the Ikhaya Hospitality Centre, an example of the problems that we have in planning and management, and we are pleased to hear that the Minister of Sport is going to investigate the issue. But the tendency of poor management and control permeates through all three levels of government. The Auditor-General reports that only 2 out of 247 municipalities countrywide have received unqualified audit reports and this at a level of government where service delivery is absolutely crucial.
National government departments owe just five of the metro municipalities in South Africa R602 million in arrears for service charges, and that excludes Pretoria, where the largest number of government departments is housed. How are local authorities expected to fulfil the mandate of service delivery if their counterparts in government display a laissez-faire attitude towards payment of accounts?
There is a general tendency by government departments to underspend on their budgets. After the first quarter of the financial year,the spending patterns in particularly the Departments of Provincial and Local Government, Foreign Affairs, Communications and Public Service and Administration give cause for concern. The same applies to Samdi, the management training arm of the public service, which is also notorious for underspending on their budgets.
The first quarter of this financial year, the Department of Labour spent only 2.67% of its capital budget. Whenever the matter of nonperformance against budget is raised with departments, the stark answer virtually all the time is a lack of skills and the high vacancy rates. This despite high unemployment levels in the country and the fact that thousands of matriculants and graduates are roaming our streets without jobs. The excuses are lame.
Drastic action by government to get rid of poor performance and to appoint managers with the requisite skills to do the job properly is now urgently required. It is only in this way that government will show its commitment to service delivery, thereby ensuring that the daily boycott actions and protest marches throughout the country against poor service delivery are avoided. The DA will support the amendments proposed by the Chairperson of the JBC and will also support the recommendations of the committee. I thank you.