Hon Chairman, Your Excellency the President, Your Excellency Deputy President, hon Ministers, hon members of the National Assembly, on 15 February I stood before this House during the debate on the President's state of the nation address and spoke certain unpalatable truths, which begged the question whether our country's leadership can be trusted with the responsibility of nurturing democracy. Since then, the local government election results and the coalition in KwaZulu-Natal, including the attendance today by the premier and two of his Ministers of the inauguration of the mayor of the Zululand, have resonated my concerns and underlined the veracity of what I said.
The question of trust has arisen again. It is necessary that I raise this point, hon Ministers and hon members, as the President delivers his third Budget Vote because we are engaging in a debate on money and leadership. The efficient financial operation of The Presidency sets the tone for all government departments, and the allocation of The Presidency's budget sets the course.
It is therefore unavoidable that in The Presidency's Budget Vote we become seized with questioning the value the country receives for the money it invests in this appropriation. The President per se does not have an operating department, but a supervisory one, and it carries the ultimate responsibility for providing the policy leadership, motivation and inspiration for the work of all other Ministers and departments. Therefore we must assess how well The Presidency has exercised its leadership role in the past two years.
We should have noticed enormous progress, almost in leaps and bounds, compared to the previous administration. But this does not seem to be the case. Since the time of the previous administration, The Presidency has been strengthened with two full Cabinet Ministers who have the functions of planning our future and overseeing compliance with current policies respectively.
The hon Minister in The Presidency with the function of National Planning and the hon Minister in The Presidency with the function of Performance Monitoring, Evaluation and Administration should have enabled The Presidency as a whole to be much more effective, capable and experienced. But that does not seem to be the case. There are no signs of such progress.
The only thing that is clear is that the budget for The Presidency has increased enormously. It is also clear that other departments of state are exercising an ever-increasing leadership role within the affairs of the Republic, especially the Treasury and National Intelligence. I must hasten to say that it was already the case when I was the Minister of Home Affairs under President Mandela and President Mbeki that no Cabinet Minister would get beyond committee level to reach the full Cabinet if opposed by the Treasury and National Intelligence. It appears that this trend has intensified at the expense of the leadership role to be exercised by The Presidency.
Considering the size of The Presidency and the significance of its efficiency or lack thereof, the IFP believes the same measure of oversight should apply to The Presidency as applies to other departments. We therefore propose a parliamentary portfolio committee to oversee The Presidency, which would ensure not only accountability and transparency, but provide assurance to South Africans that their leadership does not operate with unfettered autonomy.
I believe this is important because there is an increasing perception in the public debate that the law has a limited reach, in direct relation to political connectedness. The level of corruption and wastage in the public service impacts on public trust. We cannot sweep under the carpet the Special Investigating Unit's estimate that some R30 billion of state procurement expenditure is lost each year to overpayment and theft. We cannot afford for South Africans to doubt their leaders' integrity any more than we can afford a lack of integrity in our leadership. Our people, living in the conditions they do, must believe that their President has their best interests at heart.
This is brought into stark relief as we consider this Budget Vote. Looking at what The Presidency has achieved with last year's allocation and what it intends to achieve this year, one cannot help but fear that what we have accomplished is insignificant compared to the vast needs of our country. In saying this, I do not seek to belittle the achievements of The Presidency, nor The Presidency's intentions; I applaud our country's executive where applause is due.
The Diagnostic Overview, for instance, positioned as it is in The Presidency, holds the potential to arrest the bureaucratic practice of making excuses and passing the buck. This is particularly welcome considering the signs of decline contained in the overview. The overview is also promising in that it directs the focus to two issues, education and unemployment, rather than covering the plethora of issues at hand. This expresses a more realistic approach.
But it also highlights the challenge before the President of providing leadership, both within the country and within his party. It is argued that the greatest obstacle in tackling the two highlighted priorities of education and unemployment is resistance from within the ruling party. In both instances, a firmer hand is required with trade unions and it is unlikely that the ANC's tripartite alliance partners and the President's allies on the other hand will take kindly to this development. The tripartite alliance has been shaken repeatedly under President Zuma's administration and it will take courageous leadership to risk shaking it again.
But, as I said on 15 February, our President cannot take several courses of action that are in conflict with one another in the hope of pleasing everyone. Integrity comes at a very dear political and personal cost. It requires taking a course of action which inevitably pleases some and displeases others. But failing to take bold leadership decisions will paralyse South Africa into inaction.
We cannot afford to take a decade to do what must be done in a matter of months. We can also not set unrealistic targets, of course, and raise our people's expectations beyond what can be met. This is playing irresponsibly with our national psyche. Again, it is a question of accountability.
Since 1994, a lack of accountability has been a stumbling block to development and progress. It is therefore unacceptable that the executive is often unavailable to respond to members' statements in this House, because the Minister responsible for monitoring and evaluation is absent. Similarly, written questions demand a response that is often not forthcoming.
There is still a sense of coming from the top, that government is not answerable to the citizenry. The ongoing financial fiasco of the National Youth Development Agency is a case in point. Has the burning question of why R100 million was spent on a youth festival ever been answered, either adequately or at all? The many unresolved complaints received through the Presidential Hotline suggest that answers are not a priority.
This brings the debate back to the leadership challenge facing the President. There are undoubtedly contradictions between what the ruling party wants and what the development of the state requires. How The Presidency makes good on the promises contained in this budget will to some extent answer the question of whether our country's leadership can be trusted with our fragile democracy.
It is an answer we deserve and I have always said on this podium that although the ruling party is possessive of the President, the President, as the head of state, is also our president and the president of all opposition parties. In that capacity, I would like to say that we wish him well in his mandate. The President stated today that parties should find a common solution. I have stated here before and I repeat today that whenever The Presidency implements measures to uplift the poorest of the poor or acts in the best interest of the country, the IFP will support the President.
But we are now finding it confusing when the National Democratic Revolution is mentioned - in which direction will it take our country? The hon Mr Mufamadi stated that the ruling party accepts peaceful protest. We all do, sir, but I must say that the arson that took place in the ANC's office in Pietermaritzburg two days ago, the numerous incidents of the vandalisation of property and burning down of offices, including such facilities as libraries, in the ANC-controlled municipalities is very worrying.
Uma sengiphetha... [As I conclude]... my party supports this Budget Vote.
Okokugcina Xhamela, Ngqongqoshe wezokuPhepha nomhlonishwa uSomlomo, asinalo igama esingalisho ngokusivelele ngoba umama uSisulu ubengunyoko nje ngoba enizala; ubengumama wethu futhi engumama wezwe. Ngakho-ke kuningi esakusho ningekho. Ngifisa ukuzwakalisa ukulila kwami nokudabuka okukhulu kwethu sonke, ngokuthi namhlanje umuthi omkhulu obesihlezi ngaphansi kwawo uwile. Ngiyabonga Sihlalo. [Ihlombe.] (Translation of isiZulu paragraph follows.)
[Lastly Xhamela, the Minister of Defence and Military Veterans and the hon Speaker, we have no words to say about what has befallen us because Mrs Sisulu was a mother to you as she gave birth to you; she was our mother too and the mother of the nation. Therefore we said a lot in your absence. I wish to express my mourning and our deep sadness today in that the big tree under which we sat has fallen. Thank you, Chairperson. [Applause.]]