Mr Speaker, thank you very much, sir. I was hoping that hon Lekota would be here. [Interjections.] However, I will proceed, with or without him. Mr Speaker, Mr President, Mr Deputy President and Members of Parliament, I am very glad to have this opportunity to attend to a number of matters that I feel need to be put straight right away.
To begin with, I am very offended by the sexist and downright insulting language that was used here by hon Lekota, and I quote: "they employ all these people - concubines, etc". He was referring to people who serve the state. I know of no concubines in the Public Service. I feel it was unethical conduct and conduct unbecoming of anyone to speak so demeaningly of people who cannot defend themselves in this House. [Applause.] [Interjections.]
It is generally accepted that the output of the Public Service is less than desirable. We are all very concerned about it. Our responsibility is to do something about it. But hon Lekota has absolutely no right to insult them, none whatsoever! The truth is that they most probably do more work in a day than he and his party do. They are regularly measured and accounted for. I am not sure if hon Lekota and his party are accountable to anybody.
I wished he had been asked to retract his statement and apologise to the Public Service. But then again, he is the leader of a party and his party probably deserves such vulgarity - I don't know. In stark contrast, my President would never speak of people in that way - never! My President is respectful, humble and dignified. [Applause.] That is why, hon Lekota, with or without you in this House, his popularity continues to rise, while yours is condemned to the doldrums forever. That is why, hon Lekota, we will decimate you in the coming elections. Hon Manamela has given you too much credit by referring to you as Cassius. I see in you a dead man walking or one that walked out. [Interjections.]
Secondly, the selfsame leader of Cope rants as he always does; this time it is the wage bill. It is the first time that he is alive to the fact that there is something called the wage bill. He quotes the Minister of Finance' who indicated that the wage bill is 34% of government expenditure. Perhaps at this point, for his own edification, I need to indicate that in the shortest time, we brought this wage bill down from 37% to the current 34%, as indicated. We are committed to ensure that we can reduce it further in the next six months. We have brought it down through a number of cost saving exercises in the Public Service in particular.
However, the point I wanted to make is an important one, and to do that I need to unpack the 34% that hon Lekota has woken up to. The wage bill is not the money paid to public servants. It is the totality of the money that government spends on salaries for all the people who are paid through the public purse: the public office bearers such as Minister Lekota, the judiciary, Chapter 9 institutions and the Public Service at national, provincial and local government level. The salary of the former Minister or hon Lekota and his party is part of that 34% we are talking about - while they sit here unaccountable to anybody.
I want to, briefly, address my dearest father Shenge, who is also not here. Yesterday when Shenge spoke here ... [Interjections.]