Chairperson, hon Minister and Deputy Ministers, and members of this august House, Sunday, 24 April 2011 will mark the 18th anniversary of the passing of struggle icon Comrade Oliver Tambo. This struggle giant was able to sell and market the struggle of the South African people to the world, and he ensured that the parasitic and predatory apartheid regime was isolated from the international community.
It is also fitting to pay tribute to Oliver Tambo's legacy of being an internationalist by ensuring that the people's government promotes regional integration, continental development and international solidarity. This international dimension of the government's intervention is critical because our struggle was international in its character.
The founding President of Ghana, Comrade Kwame Nkrumah, once said that the liberation of the African continent started from the north, but he predicted that the economic emancipation of the continent would come from the south, through industrialisation and value-added exports. [Applause.]
It is fitting that South Africa is leading the way in promoting the issues of the continent in multilateral institutions like the United Nations and the World Trade Organisation, and in international fora like the World Economic Forum, the G20, and the Bric group - Brazil, Russia, India and China. Our participation in these fora is characterised by our development agenda which is now accepted by international bodies like the World Trade Organisation, WTO, and the World Intellectual Property Organisation, WIPO.
Budget Vote No 36 provides adequate funding for promoting regional integration through the programme on international trade and development. This programme has been allocated R129 million. This will ensure that the DTI is able to build an equitable global trading system that facilitates development by strengthening trade and investment links with the key economies of the world. This programme will also foster African development through regional and continental integration and development co-operation in line with the New Partnership for Africa's Development.
This programme is also responsible for the payment of membership fees to organisations like the WTO. During the portfolio committee's study visit to the WTO headquarters in Geneva last year, the portfolio committee observed the low representation of South African nationals in this institution. That is why the portfolio committee recommends that the DTI comes up with a skills programme on international economics for South African students so that they can take up positions in the multilateral institutions.
This would be a fitting tribute to the longest serving president of the ANC, Oliver Tambo, who ensured that our struggle for freedom was internationalised. We expect that the DTI will ensure that we fight unemployment and underdevelopment by ensuring that our youth take up positions in international fora.
Last year the heads of state communiqu of Sacu - the Southern African Customs Union - instructed the Ministers of trade in Sacu to ensure that all work on industrial policy, agricultural policy, unfair trade practices and other priority commitments in the Sacu agreement be implemented. This communiqu also directed the Ministers to develop a Sacu trade and tariff policy, and a trade strategy that supports industrialisation in the Sacu region. Therefore the Parliament of the Republic passed and adopted a trade policy and the Industrial Policy Action Plan last year.
The portfolio committee will expect the Ministry and the department - when they fulfil their obligations as per the communiqu - to always keep the committee in the loop so that they can interact with their counterparts in Sacu and avoid the recurrence of the economic partnership agreement saga like that with the European Union. This is so that we take the people of the region onboard when we make decisions.
This is motivated by the fact that when we were in Geneva, a Lesotho national came to me personally and pleaded with me that when I went back home, I must tell our committee and our people that the people of Lesotho are not in support of the interim partnership agreements with the EU because they know that, eventually, they were going to affect them adversely. That is why we would like the are committee to be kept informed when the department and the Ministry engage in such bilateral agreements. This will enable us to inform our counterparts so that we move in unison, as we move forward.
The people of Botswana, Lesotho and Swaziland were with us during our darkest hour of apartheid. They offered their material and political support to our liberation movement. As former President Mandela once said, the morality of South Africans demands that we don't abandon our friends during their hour of need.
We expect that when the revenue-sharing formula of Sacu is revised, our compatriots in these countries will not be adversely affected. You can see all the picketing and strikes taking place in Botswana and Swaziland, even in Lesotho, which shows that discord in this Sacu revenue-sharing formula is already affecting them adversely. So, really, as South Africa, we must take care of our neighbours first before we take care of people far away from us. We cannot sleep well when our neighbour's children are hungry and we are well off. [Applause.]
Chairperson, as Sacu is going to be used as a model for the building blocks of the integration of the SADC region, the portfolio committee and the people of South Africa support the spatial development initiatives and infrastructure development of the road corridors. These initiatives will promote the movement of goods and people within the region, and this will enhance intraregional trade.
With cross-border financing of these projects, the industrialisation of the region will be enhanced if the principles of the Industrial Policy Action Plan are used. Since SADC is dominated by underdevelopment and unemployment, the free-trade agreement offers a rare opportunity to have common industrial and trade policies within the region. These common positions will enable us and the region to negotiate better in international fora.
With all the noble intentions of the department of integrating the region and the continent, the department must ensure that we create a better South Africa, a better Africa and a better world. That's why the ANC says that all of us in this House must work together so that we can do more. That is why the ANC supports this budget.
But what is also critical is that there are certain things which cannot be left unattended in this House because, as we are speaking, we are speaking with the people of South Africa.
HON MEMBERS: Phez' kwabo! [Take them on!]