Hon Chairman, allow me to speak to the Minister through you, on the premise that I do not speak on behalf of the rich. I am not one of them; we don't receive any money from them in our party, and I do not think we have any of them in our party, contrary to the DA and the ANC alike. [Interjections.]
I have a great deal of admiration for the Minister. We have a great deal of respect for his team. The Minister, who undoubtedly has his heart in the right place, has managed to assemble around himself a very competent, dedicated team of functionaries, which is unusual within our government structure. Yet we cannot support the course of action taken by his department. In that respect, I wish to take this from where Dr James left off. Indeed, the main thrust of this department at this juncture of history is industrial policy. We don't have a problem with the notion of industrial policy, or with pursuing one aggressively. We do have a problem with the direction in which it is taking us.
Unfortunately, this department is structurally now as it used to be during apartheid. Instead of being a Department of Trade and Industry, it is a department of social welfare for traders and industrialists. That is a cost borne by those whom I do represent - the poor and that middle class, to which the poor aspires. We ought to aspire for the middle class to grow at the same rate as the example given to us earlier by Dr James. The fact is that we are preventing that process of economic growth from taking place. It is extraordinarily painful for me to have to point out that on this present course of action, the Department of Trade and Industry is becoming inimical to the long-term cause of economic growth in our country, while pursuing very meritorious social programmes. The cost of the social programmes is going to kill our long-term opportunities for growth.
Minister, you mentioned and quoted Karl Marx, and I dare to think that perhaps, as a Marxist, you may read history through economics. As an Hegelian, I tend to read economics through history. I have stood here, since the first time three years ago, when we began this dialogue, pointing out that this crisis is historical. It will not go away, and will reshape the entire world order until resources and the industrial capacity around the world are moved in a manner in which we have never seen before. You, Minister, and Minister Gordhan have been clinging to what have been referred to as signs of recovery here and signs of recovery there. Three years later, we are going deeper and deeper into an economic crisis, with the likelihood of it becoming much worse before it gets better and engulfing Europe in the months to come. Against this, we do not have a plan to create industries that will be viable in the long term after all the dust will have settled; after all the distractions have been terminated.
We are promoting government-funded growth - which is not sustainable. It is what happened to Greece. Greece was doing very well. It had a great rate of economic growth until government could no longer sustain the very type of subsidies, the very types of tariff barriers, and the very type of preferential procurement policies that your government, Minister, is now implementing. When it pulled the plug, the entire economy collapsed and went from great economic growth into accelerated recession. This compounded the fiscal problems of the country, because the tax base had shrunk. It got itself into a domino-effect situation of negative consequences out of which it cannot emerge. A similar situation is happening in Italy. These are the times when one needs to have the courage to do the painful thing now in order to make long-term gains.
I know that it is anathema for many people here to refer to Margaret Thatcher, but a little pinch of Thatcherism - which is what took the United Kingdom out of the greatest economic crisis it ever experienced - is something that we should look at, rather than transforming the entire department into something that extends the welfare state to the industrialists and trade unionists. This is a time for courage. We are taking the safe route, not out of a recession, but possibly into a much deeper recession.
I see my time has expired, Mr Chairman. Thank you for the extra seconds. I really urge you, Minister, to have a more constructive dialogue with this voice of opposition, which is not necessarily a voice that wants to oppose you. I sent you some correspondence, which has not been answered. I hope it will be now. [Time expired.]