Hon Chairperson, the hon Coleman is very disparaging about today's topic of debate. Hon Coleman, the truth is that the technical programming committee of Parliament, which consists of the National Assembly, NA, Table and the ANC programming Whip, approved the topic for debate, and that decision was approved by the ANC Chief Whip. If you have a problem with that, perhaps you should take it up with him.
Chairperson, once she had finished attacking the premise of the debate, hon Coleman turned to undermining the existence of the World Economic Forum and the methodology of the survey. This is typical of the denialism of the governing party. They can't tolerate any analysis of their failures, even from this independent, not-for-profit, altruistic organisation. The truth is, as hon Singh explained, South Africa's performance is a mixed bag. The members on this side of the House can't applaud the areas where we do well, but dispute the areas where we are the worst in the world. As far as global rankings go, the members of this House will have become used to our country appearing at the top of the tables, the best in the world, in terms of financial regulation, national accounts and equity markets.
In the report we are debating today, the World Economic Forum Global Competitiveness Report 2012-13, we are ranked first or second for financial regulation, auditing standards and corporate governance. [Interjections.] Are you listening to me? Our budget processes won first place in the 2010 Open Budget Survey. It's an incredible achievement. But ... [Interjections.]