Madam Speaker, due to executive mismanagement, a looming energy crisis is facing South Africa as Eskom has basically run out of baseload generation capacity. The forthcoming winter will ensure that load- shedding will be a certainty, as is currently being experienced in the Western Cape.
The Minister of Trade and Industry, on the day before the local government election on 1 March 2006, stated that the failure of the Koeberg nuclear reactor was due to sabotage and undertook to ensure that that would be investigated properly. Despite various undertakings, Parliament and its various committees still await such a report. The question could well be asked as to when, if ever at all, we will receive such a report?
With respect to REDs, it is clear that RED 1 can merely be described as an outsourced function of the Cape Town metro council. In addition thereto, Cabinet has arbitrarily increased the number of REDs from six to seven whilst the boundaries have been changed to reflect the six metros, with the so-called national-regional RED comprising all the other municipal councils. The state of affairs, with respect to the implementation and constitutionality of issues is, at best, disgraceful.
The Oilgate saga is a clear example of the manipulation of state entities to the benefit of the ANC at the expense of the public. It is an undisputable fact that R11 million was paid to the ANC a few months before the 2004 election by Imvume. Imvume secured lucrative oil contracts from the Iraqi government through the assistance of senior ANC members, including the ANC secretary-general and the ANC treasurer-general, leading to this enormous payback as thanks for their efforts.
The ANC should be forced to pay back this money which it extorted from Petrosa at the expense of the South African public. The breakdown in the supply of fuel during December 2005 and during 2006 as well as the looming fuel crisis we are facing, once again, can only be regarded as abysmal. The Ministry's failure in both these instances is totally unacceptable. The DA opposes this budget.