House Chairperson, I would like to start off by inviting hon members from all parts of the House as well as members of the audience to join us at the reception in the New Assembly Restaurant at a modest reception, I point out, immediately after the conclusion of this debate.
It's clear that there is consensus on some issues in this debate. Jobs are central. Inclusive growth is important, and by that we mean both higher rates of growth, but also more job-absorbing growth. The question is how. And I think what we have been able to do as the executive and what a number of Members of Parliament from the ruling party did was to spell out, indeed, concrete ways how we are doing that, how we are making an impact as government, how we are making an impact as Cabinet and how we are making an impact as a department through many excellent interventions, some great ideas which we will take forward. But not all the interventions have maintained that high standard. Perhaps, as someone pointed out, because an election is around the corner.
Hon Harris says that the Youth Employment Accord is shameful, it is the weakest document of government, it is going to fail, and so on. I have brought a copy of the Youth Employment Accord for the hon member. I will draw his attention to page 24. On page 24, I will draw his attention to the fact that one of the signatories of the accord is a certain Mr Gana Makhashule. Mr Makhashule is the federal Deputy Chairperson of the DA ... [Applause.] ... and until last week, he was the leader of the DA youth. He signed the accord on behalf of the DA youth. Perhaps he is a little bit more passionate about employment of young people and a little bit less concerned about the grandstanding that we saw from the hon Harris. [Applause.]
The hon Harris, of course, is described on the website as ``shadow minister of finance''. One of the requirements of a minister of finance is the ability to count. I think it is fairly intrinsic to the job. So, if you aspire to be the shadow minister - hopeful one day you will get to be more than the shadow minister - although that may be a very long time from now, let's, in the meantime, use the time to count. [Laughter.] On the website yesterday, before looking at anything, when the Statistics SA Quarterly Labour Force survey came out, Mr Harris rushed to print and he says in print:
Fortunately, the DA-run Western Cape bucked the negative trend by creating 8 000 jobs in the quarter, seeing unemployment reduced further.
I have brought the hon Harris a copy of the Quarterly Labour Force survey. I have taken the time to mark it with post-it notes. I draw his attention, amongst others, to the areas that indicate what has happened to employment in the Western Cape in the first quarter of this year ... [Interjections.] ... 14 000 jobs were lost. [Applause.]
Now, we don't celebrate that, because those are our people. Those are people for whom we need to try to get jobs, but what we do want to point out is that, as hon Ngonyama said, "Unemployment has no silver bullet". It means really working on it consistently in a stubborn focused way, and hon Mabasa showed us examples of concrete ways in which jobs have been created. I am going to leave a copy of the Quarterly Labour Force survey here for the hon Harris. [Laughter.]
I will also leave a copy of the Youth Employment Accord here for him so that he may be able to see what I have said. But it seems to me that, unfortunately, these things don't reside only in one member. The hon Mubu, who is generally very pleasant in our committee until an audience appears, as today, pointed out that the Walmart matter is a waste of public money. I will draw the hon Mubu's attention to the hon Ntuli, who provided a sharp, incisive, sophisticated understanding of competition policy. Please study the Hansard; it will be of great use to you. [Applause.] [Laughter.]
The hon Hoosen, who also aspires to be a shadow-something at some stage, posed a question. He says the information we gave in the Small Enterprise Finance Agency, Sefa, is not correct. I have a copy of the Sefa presentation here; I have a calculator here and I will leave a copy of the Sefa business plan for you. I have added up the five years; I have added 30% and I am happy - over a cup of coffee - to show hon Hoosen how to do a percentage calculation. [Applause.] [Laughter.]
Finally, hon House Chair, I would make the point that part of the drama of a debate is this kind of thing. It spices up the discussion and makes it less boring, and so on. But employment is serious, economic development is serious, fighting poverty, inequality, is serious. We need to build consensus to work together.
When the economy actually creates 44 000 jobs in three months, let's celebrate it. When it creates 199 000 jobs over 12 months, let's celebrate it. We are South Africans together. We are in this together, and we can win the battle against poverty, unemployment and inequality together. Thank you very much. [Applause.]
Debate concluded.