Mr Speaker, when examining the state of our nation, the state of the Presidency, the foot soldiers of the ANC, better known as the National Youth Development Agency, NYDA, the many scandals, disasters and fiascos, where we find ourselves today politically and economically, and the role that the President has played in all of this, I could speak for days.
Our President says that the National Development Plan contains proposals for tackling poverty, inequality and unemployment, yet he upgrades his own residence, begins to secure a sparkling new jet and has had the South African public foot the bill for his R28 million in legal fees since assuming office. This unrestrained spending by the President and his Cabinet is routinely and loudly justified in terms of the Ministerial Handbook. Yet, when we enquired about the revised version of these guidelines, the President himself undertook to review it in 2009. However, there has not been a peep.
A similar silence is reserved for the mysterious Presidential Handbook, a secret document which may not be made public, and which therefore undermines Parliament's responsibility to effectively hold the executive to account.
This year the Auditor-General pointed out that almost R25 billion had been lost in unauthorised, irregular, fruitless and wasteful spending by national and provincial departments and entities due to lax internal controls, weak political leadership and a disregard for procurement rules.
Mr President, with R25 billion we could have built 400 schools, 500 prisons, paid R7 million in child support grants, covered the country's total water and sanitation infrastructure for one year and, indeed, paid the President's salary for many terms.
Our research conducted in April 2012 projected that the President will cost R1 billion over two terms of office. That works out to R200,00 per minute. What happened to Operation Clean Audit of 2009? It was just a pipe dream.
Mr Speaker, when Bruce Koloane was being probed about his role as a state protocol officer, he responded in a nutshell by saying:
I take care of the President's international business. I host foreign guests and facilitate conferences and events hosted by South Africa. I co- ordinate the opening of Parliament. I travel with the President, leaving before him to make sure that details like security, venues, travel routes and hotels are ready.
Mr Speaker, our number one has missed a golden opportunity to tell us about the nature and extent of his discussion with Mr Koloane on 22 April this year while they were on the same flight, eight days before the controversial landing of the Gupta plane. I thank you. [Applause.]