Chairperson, I must just respond to some of the points that have been made here today, before I get to my prepared speech. The hon Mabasa made a speech today that opposed a policy of his own government. [Interjections.] The youth wage subsidy is a policy announced by President Zuma in 2009. I am not sure if Cosatu has deployed the hon Mabasa to come and oppose the ANC in Parliament. If so, hon Mabasa, please come and join us. Don't oppose the ANC from your own benches. [Interjections.]
It is very clear that hon Gcwabaza was deployed here today to try and invent every line possible to excuse and muddy the simple truth, because every South African now knows, after what happened in Braamfontein on Tuesday, that Cosatu stands opposed to the interests of the unemployed and my party is standing up for the unemployed. [Applause.] That is very uncomfortable for the ANC and very uncomfortable for the hon Gcwabaza, but now South Africa knows it is true. [Interjections.]
I want to thank the Minister for being one of the most available members of this government. As many have said, he is a really good Minister. His hands- on style is evident in the department. [Interjections.] His department has an enormous mandate. It plays a crucial role in unlocking economic development, driving growth, and opening up markets. It is right that the Minister focuses on these priorities, as he did in his speech today. But he must not do so to the detriment of the smaller, but equally important parts of his job. While they are not as grand, expensive or international in nature, the Minister must not neglect important issues in the entities that fall within the department's mandate. If he does so, the result is that often the department's more noteworthy achievements on the trade and industrial development front are overshadowed by other embarrassing and entirely avoidable issues.
Some of those have been mentioned. The seemingly insurmountable backlogs at the Companies and Intellectual Property Commission, the uncomfortable admissions about the failures of the National Industrial Participation Programme, the embarrassment that is the National Lotteries Board, and the latest high-profile fight that the Minister has had with the National Consumer Commissioner, have all consumed the Minister's and the public's attention. I only have time to deal with the National Lotteries Board and the National Consumer Commission, NCC.
The National Lotteries Board deserves the censure of this House for its absolute failure to run a transparent and efficient distribution system which enjoys the confidence of the public. Lately, while several NGOs face the imminent possibility of closing down and stopping their services to the community, the National Lotteries Board has said that they will "go to the ground", hon Fubbs, for further input on how they should spend the billions of rands available to them that they are just sitting on.
Of course, it is laudable that they should go to the ground and seek input, but they should not do so while NGOs like the Saartjie Baartman Centre in Manenberg, just down the road, are facing imminent closure because they can't get their act together. This is a waste of critical time - time that many NGOs simply don't have.
We are pleased with the latest information that a Lotto reform Bill is going before Cabinet next week, apparently, after which it will be released for public comment. This is urgent and we will hold you to it, Minister.
Last year, the Minister announced the creation of the National Consumer Commission, and the appointment of its first commissioner, with much fanfare. But it has been all downhill from there. The relationship is now so bad that the two parties are openly briefing against each other in public. The present war of words between Consumer Commissioner Mamodupi Mohlala and the DTI benefits no one. In fact, it is ordinary consumers who stand to lose the most from a National Consumer Commission whose attention is completely diverted from its core and crucial job, and that is instead defending itself against the attacks of the DTI.
One cannot escape the impression that the DTI has set up Commissioner Mohlala to fail from the very beginning. They reluctantly appointed her to the top job as the head of a crucial new entity, but then clipped her wings by allocating the NCC a budget woefully inadequate for the size and scope of its mandate.
The Minister has said repeatedly, in committee meetings and to the press, that he does not control how much his entities are allocated by Treasury. But this is only half true. The department makes representations to Treasury based on what they think the entities need. If Minister Davies had really wanted the NCC to succeed, he could have put up more of a fight for the money. He could have won that fight. The fact is, he did not.
Instead, the department has allocated R75 million in this budget to communications and Rl50 million for travel and accommodation, while the NCC, a crucial consumer protection agency, has had to take on big business and government alike, and defend all consumers against shoddy goods and service, with just R30 million. He then says the Auditor-General raised serious concerns about the NCC and that this explained the inadequate allocation. However, the final Auditor-General's dashboard report, released last month, shows vast improvement in internal controls. The Minister has said his department did not lose the employment contract of the commissioner and that they have followed it to the letter, but e- mails from the Minister's own office say it has lost the contract. Why, if the commissioner's appointment is confirmed by the portfolio committee, of which hon Fubbs is the chair, has our portfolio committee never been briefed on the steadily escalating crisis between the commissioner, the director-general, and the Minister? All these questions still need to be answered and one cannot help but feel that the Minister has not quite fully taken South Africa and this Parliament into his confidence on these matters.
I, for one, hope that we can resolve these matters soon so that the Minister and his Deputies, who are, sadly, as absent as he is present, can focus on the major priorities of this important department. Thank you.