Hon Chairperson, Mr Minister and all, good morning. I must say to hon Trollip that you have done well. Cope wants to thank you greatly. [Applause.] We are going to miss you and therefore go very well. Cope shall contine to speak with you from time to time. I hope with your experience you will be able to help. The strategic goals of this department are to foster land reform and land restitution; implement agrarian reform; ensure spatial equity; improve food production; and improve access to sustainable employment and skills development. These are five very important goals. The big question that this House should be asking is how the department evaluates itself in respect of each of these goals. A self-evaluation would show serious intent and commitment. Our task as Members of Parliament, MPs, would then be to interrogate that assessment for progress, accuracy and validity.

Cope believes that a budget debate should actually be a progress evaluation and value for money. In its five years of existence, this administration's national debt has increased by a massive R1 trillion. One trillion rand has twelve zeroes. To service this debt costs R100 billion. As this cost rises further and government revenue declines because of the economic downturn, fiscal space will diminish at an alarming rate. The warning of the Minister of Finance regarding social turbulence is evident every day, whether on television or in any other media.

Land and agrarian reforms must be speeded up and deliver outcomes, which have to be presented to us as a nation. When are we going to get the results of a performance audit? Consultants brought in from outside cost this department R1 billion over three years. This monumental expenditure has to be properly justified to this House. According to the Auditor- General of South Africa, Agsa, the use of consultants by government over three years cost R102 billion. This is utterly shocking and an indictment of us for allowing resources to be diverted from infrastructure in this way. This is unacceptable.

Land restitution cannot be seen merely as land transfer from one group to a dispossessed group to achieve transformation. A going concern should be maintained. Productive land under commercial farming cannot be reduced to a subsistence type of farming. Cope would like to know whether it is a rumour or a fact that one million hectares of commercial farms had, after restitution or transfer, properly gone out of production. If this is true, restitution is creating an unintended consequence. This must be addressed with the vigour it deserves.

In 1980, our country had 128 000 commercial farms. Three years after the democratic government came into office this number had declined to 58 000. We would like to know from the Minister how many commercial farms are in existence this year and what the projections are for the next five years. This is something this House urgently needs to know. The Minister is urged to make a pronouncement.

Cope believes that the land issue must be decisively resolved. It will soon be 20 years, and instead of being told that the matter was satisfactorily concluded, Ministers come to this House on and on -year after year - to roll what should have been completed by target date. There has never been any conclusion at all. What we and the intended beneficiaries get - the ordinary people out there - are excuses and promises. This government is good at promising but always lacks delivery on time.

Furthermore, everyone needs certainty. It is the lack of certainty that is driving the rand down, as we saw yesterday. It is driving investors away. To all intents and purposes, our economy is being sabotaged from inside.

Agrarian reform is of vital importance, for five reasons: Firstly, citizens need their food security to be guaranteed. Secondly, all productive land has to be used to increase the gross domestic product, GDP. Thirdly, employment opportunities have to be expanded. Fourthly, land must be available and affordable to new farmers. Fifthly, agricultural exports must have full support as it is in the European Union, EU, and the USA.

Agrarian reform requires clarity and action, and our economy demands this. The five or more million people who are out of jobs require that. Why is this matter not getting the high priority status it deserves? We need answers, Mr Minister. I must say among the majority of Ministers I respect you more.

Cope also demands to know why the laws and programmes aimed at protecting tenure rights of farm workers and labour tenants are not being vigorously and supportively implemented. We use this word ubuntu as rhetoric when we should be using it as our South African way of life.

Any agrarian reform that stalls or fails will cause social upheaval. Mr Minister, we have to get this right in terms of our constitutional order. Therefore, Cope calls for a land Convention for a Democratic South Africa, Codesa, because South Africans have shown ...