Chairperson, Minister and Deputy Minister, the leadership of state-owned companies, the director-general of the Department of Public Enterprises, officials, comrades and members, the Auditor-General rates the Department of Public Enterprises as one of the three best managed departments in the Public Service. Congratulations to the Ministry, the director-general, Mr Tshediso Matona, and all your officials on a job well done! [Applause.]
As a shareholder in eight major state-owned companies, the department has oversight of companies that affect the majority of South Africans including manufacturing, transport, energy and broadband communications. Their economic impact on our economy is substantial. They have the ability to get South Africa growing, working and moving.
This is how we will start our journey towards 2030, the year in which we will be living in a country which we have remade. I wish that every Member of Parliament and every South African would read the vision statement of 2030 contained in the National Development Plan, which states:
We say to one another: I cannot be without you. Without you, this South African community is an incomplete community. Without one single person, without one single group, without the region, or the continent, we are not the best that we can be.
The question is: Do we all have the desire to become part of this success story?
Flowing from a chapter in the National Development Plan on improving infrastructure, the ANC refers in detail to an infrastructure building programme in its policy documents, highlighting the fact that we need to almost double the scale of the current infrastructure, including the need to maintain and expand our rail network and the need to double our capacity to generate electricity.
Members will recall that the President in his state of the nation address earlier this year announced that Transnet, as part of its market demand strategy, will spend R300 billion over the next seven years, of which R200 billion will be in freight, rail and ports projects. Nearly 70% of this capital investment will be funded from Transnet's operating cash flow. This capital spend will include maintenance and expansion. More importantly, the market demand strategy will result in the creation of more jobs in the South African economy as well as increased localisation and black economic empowerment.
Together with its current operations, Transnet is expected to create employment for 588 000 people at its peak with a large focus on skills and capacity-building. The Minister has referred to the fact that R7,6 billion will be spent on training over the next seven years, on average, more than R1 billion per year.
The faint-hearted who may try to identify the negative must take note that Transnet has already identified execution risks and mitigating actions as well as an implementation strategy. Minister Pravin Gordhan, in his Budget Speech on 22 February 2012, stated on infrastructure implementation:
We shall step up the quality of planning, costing and project management, so that infrastructure is delivered on time and on Budget.
This important point is emphasised in the ANC policy document on economic transformation: "Mechanisms should be put in place to monitor the implementation of the infrastructure programmes of the state-owned enterprises." This is not only the infrastructure spending plan of Transnet. It is our plan, and therefore the plan of South Africa. The ANC states in its policy document:
It is critical that infrastructure investment should not just be seen as a technical process, but an opportunity to mobilise our people to create a new society and expand economic opportunities.
Let us, as Members of Parliament and the oversight committee, ensure that Transnet has the capacity to implement; that it creates the necessary jobs over the next seven years; and that it remains financially sustainable. The objective must be to lower the cost of doing business in South Africa. The same applies to all other state-owned companies.
This urgent need for large-scale investment includes opportunities for public-private partnerships. The investment of R300 billion by Transnet and the investment of R200 billion by Eskom is simply not enough. We probably need to double these amounts as we have lost a whole generation of investment. We need to promote competition by placing an emphasis on localisation, private investors and other SOEs to bring in capital and skills.
In the report of the portfolio committee on our study tour to countries in South America in July last year, we recommended that the Department of Public Enterprises should consider exploring the successful development role model of state-owned companies in Brazil in establishing entities on clear-cut corporate governance principles, competitiveness and appropriate legislation. These critical success factors are the drivers of successful state-owned enterprises in Brazil. The question is: Do we all support the infrastructure spending programmes of the state-owned companies?
I also want to touch on the strategic importance of Denel as a state-owned company. Denel, hon Ambrosini, plays a strategic role as the custodian of defence capabilities as it is a critical supplier to our SA National Defence Force in the development of advanced manufacturing, skills and exports. This year, it will deliver the Rooivalk helicopter to our air force, as the Minister has announced. It will also deliver a ground-based air defence system and is in the process of procuring a modernised infantry fighting vehicle for our army.
Two important events occurred during the last three months which will impact on Denel, and they are: a budget allocation of R700 million for the recapitalisation of Denel Aerostructures; and the release of the draft SA Defence Review 2012. Our portfolio committee is excited about the allocation of the recapitalisation amount, following our oversight visit to Denel Aerostructures in June 2011.
Regarding the report of the Defence Review Committee, it is vitally important that Denel, through its shareholder, the Department of Public Enterprises, interacts with the recommendations on Denel contained in the report of the Defence Review Committee.
This Budget Vote implements the policy and the priorities of the governing party, the ANC. It emphasises the point that training and skills development must go beyond the own needs of a state-owned company. It confirms the intention of government to provide the leadership for the infrastructure build programme to be rolled out, facilitating collaboration between the public and the private sector. It creates a developmental state that is capable of delivering on its mandate.
The question is: Do we all support this Budget Vote, which will start South Africa on the path of growing, working and moving?
In conclusion, the future is ours. Let us join hands with the Department of Public Enterprises, including its eight state-owned companies, and create opportunities for all our people, from the Northern Cape to KwaZulu-Natal, from Limpopo to the Western Cape. Let us work to improve the lives of ordinary people. I end with a quote: "The steeper the mountain, the harder the climb, the better the view from the finishing line."
The ANC supports the Budget Vote. Thank you. [Applause.]