Chairperson, hon Minister, our responsibility as members of this committee and members sitting in this Extended Public Committee is to consider the budget allocated to the Department of Economic Development. To that end, as the IFP, I would like to say that we fully support the budget that has been allocated to the Department of Economic Development, save that there are areas, for example, in human resources and staff, where there is a bit of underspending. However, our view is that we should rather have less staff, but capable staff, instead of trying to create the impression to Parliament and to the outside world that you have spent all your money on human resources. So, you should rather err on the side of caution instead of spending all your money.
The hon Minister referred to the Competition Commission and the 472 cases that the Competition Commission looked at, particularly in the construction industry. To this end, Mr Minister, what we would like to see the Competition Commission do is to look particularly at the school infrastructure programme and possible collusion within the construction of schools. I say this advisedly, because I sit on another Committee on Appropriations and we were informed by the Director-General of Basic Education that the cost of building schools in the past years has risen exorbitantly. When one looks at the cost at which the private sector can build a school or organisations, like the Devine Life Society and others the cost of a classroom would probably be R100 000. When you go out to tender, it's about R500 000 to R600 000. I am just using these as examples, but I think one needs to look at this very carefully, particularly in the Eastern Cape.
I want to congratulate the Minister for hosting the second annual economic development infrastructure conference in Johannesburg. What was noteworthy is the fact that you brought together business, labour and other social partners. An area that is lacking within government itself is co-ordination between the national department, the provincial departments and municipalities. Municipalities have "local economic developments" and fancy wish lists, but when one assesses what they do at the end of a financial year, one finds that much of what they have indicated as programmes and projects are not completed at the end of the year. So, what I would like to see from our side is greater co-ordination in that regard.
When it comes to job creation, we know that we are facing external challenges, but what we need to do is to consider the youth very, very carefully in our country. The lack of employment among the youth is a ticking time bomb. We need to focus a lot of our energies as government departments collectively on ensuring that the youth of today are employed for tomorrow. They are the people who are going to be around in future. We will peter out because of old age and other reasons and go on retirement, but the youth needs to ensure that there is sustainable employment for them. I think that is an area that one should look at.
With regard to the solar water heating systems, it is commendable that there is a lot of investment in solar water heating, but here again I think that many small and medium enterprises are not being given opportunities to enter that particular market. I do hope that the department will look into that very, very seriously because a lot of money has been allocated and at the moment it is only the bigger firms that are benefiting from erecting solar water heaters at many places.
When it comes to what happened at the conference, one has a sense of dj vu when one considers the work that is being done by the National Planning Commission. Last week, Members of Parliament were exposed to three days of in-depth discussions in different clusters. When I look at what you presented at Birchwood Estate in Johannesburg the other day and compare it to what the National Planning Commission is doing, I think there needs to be a lot more co-ordination in terms of what you are doing. From what the Economic Development is doing, there seems to be action and implementation. The National Planning Commission is still more medium to long-term, but I think there can be greater synergy between the National Planning Commission and the department.
Lastly, when we talk about economic development and growth, growth is numbers and figures, rather than output However, we need to develop our community. Development is about improving the quality of life of people in South Africa. We have heard the term "economic emancipation" a lot, and unless our people are economically emancipated, any kind of economic growth is going to be meaningless for the future. Thank you. [Time expired.] [Applause.]