Mr Chairman, making mistakes is part and parcel of the burden of governance. An ANC government, IFP government and DA government are all bound to make mistakes. Good governance is not about not making mistakes but rather about recognising mistakes made, then backtracking and correcting them as soon as possible.
The DA government has made a mistake in the way it handled the construction of luxury office space in the World Heritage Site at Chapman's Peak Drive in Hout Bay. It made a further mistake by not listening to the unanimous voice of its own constituency in Hout Bay and the surrounding areas, which opposes the project.
This Parliament and the Minister of Water and Environmental Affairs have also neglected their respective duties to ensure that national legislation and the World Heritage Site conventions be respected. The approval for the construction was given without following the parliamentary procedures set out in national law. The International World Heritage Site Convention has been breached.
Parliament has thus far not fulfilled its oversight role and the Minister has neglected her responsibility of intervening to determine how it became possible that the national parks authority gave its permission for the construction without following the prescripts of the law.
We call on both the national ANC government and the provincial DA government to correct the respective errors and rise to the challenge of protecting this unique national asset for generations to come. [Interjections.]