Madam Deputy Speaker, it is during this time of the year that all departments and government as a whole await their budgets, so that they can start their engines to meet targets of delivery and contribute towards the sustainable growth and development of our country.
Without a doubt, during great globaly economic turmoil, our hon Minister of Finance, Trevor Manuel, has, together with his team of professionals, outwitted the crisis and most certainly devised a budget that has us steamrolling ahead with our endeavours.
The MF is most pleased about the attention paid to education and the acknowledgement that education is an investment. We are strongly in support of attaining equality of education and, more importantly, quality of education. This does mean qualified and dedicated teachers, earning good salaries and teaching in classrooms. We cannot afford to have teachers on strikes and most importantly cannot afford having our children not being taught.
We also need to bring some stability to disruptions in universities and tertiary institutions. We are certain that the hon Minister of Education and her department will effectively institute the budget of this department to attain the efficient and effective administration, management and education of the country.
We recognise the accomplishments of the Department of Housing but would like to see a speedier delivery in terms of areas like KwaZulu-Natal, where people have been waiting for far too long. We are aware that constraints exist and we hope that the department will tackle these so that they may go forward in the construction of homes for the poorest of the poor.
With regard to energy, we are hoping that the department will look at alternate methods to attain funding for the loopholes in Eskom. Our people have already been burdened with a huge increase in the cost of electricity and the government has made a substantial loan for the matter too. I would hope that our citizens will not have to pay for our shortfalls when poverty already has them living from hand to mouth.
We would like to see the speeding up of delivery in terms of land redistribution and retribution. We have people who have been waiting from 1996 for settlement. If we need to look at introducing a special unit to assist the process, then we need to certainly do so quickly.
Crime remains a central issue for all South Africans. We feel that while we may boast of the freedom our Constitution has awarded us, the same freedom is hijacked by the crime situation. The MF is eager to see our 2009 budget for safety and security filtered to attaining more resources for police stations, more police stations, more trained personnel and a faster rate of police appearing on the scene of crime. We need to embrace our communities in this regard and strengthen our ties between the communities and police through anticrime forums.
The health sector has also been awarded a favourable budget for 2009, and we are hoping that the system will continue expanding to become the largest antiretroviral programme for those living with HIV/Aids and that it will effectively eradicate cholera and malaria from our midst.
The MF also expresses its concern over escalating medical costs and hopes that the costs can be carried out and imposed on private hospitals too.
The MF, however, does feel that we need to realise the importance of sports and recreation to the development of our youth and the growth of our country. We hope that deadlines for 2010 will be met and that the budget will be used to speed up this process.
We applaud the contribution made to KwaZulu-Natal and sincerely hope that the funds shall be used effectively to address the needs of our largely densely populated and poverty-stricken communities. The MF supports the Appropriation Bill. I thank you. [Applause.]