Mr Speaker, last year, at this podium, President Zuma said:
We have repeatedly stated our commitment to fight corruption in the Public Service; we will intensify the fight against crime and corruption.
Last week he repeated his promise and said:
The fight against corruption continues.
But the question is: Do the voters still believe these promises? Let's look at how many have been fulfilled.
The first promise is declaring financial interests. A key element of clean government is that Ministers and senior officials must disclose what they own in terms of businesses and properties. But do they comply with this requirement? No! Mr Zuma, at the provincial level, a staggering 58% of senior officials did not comply; at national level a shameful 63% of directors-general did not comply.
However, in the DA government of the Western Cape, the compliance is 100%. [Applause.] However, if the President himself does not submit his financial interests by due date, how can he expect senior managers to submit theirs?
The second promise is accountability. Signing performance agreements by heads of departments and directors-general is crucial to holding senior officials accountable; and is indeed required by the senior management service handbook. But in the four years up to 2009, 20% of heads of departments did not comply with this requirement, while in 2010, 35% did not comply.
Unsurprisingly, the actual evaluation of performance is even worse. By March 2010, only half of all heads of departments had been evaluated. As the Public Service Commission Chair, Dr Ralph Mgijima pointed out: This means that roughly half of the national budget was controlled by accounting officers who were not subjected to a proper evaluation.
And President Zuma admitted:
The simple truth is that we face a crisis of accountability.
But Mr President, when will you start enforcing compliance with the rules? It can be done - once again, the Western Cape provides an excellent example.
Derdens is daar die belofte oor oop en eerlike tenders. In Junie 2010 belowe President Zuma, en ek haal aan: [Thirdly, there is the promise of open and honest tenders. In June 2010 President Zuma promised, and I quote:]
We continue our efforts to eradicate corruption in procurement and tender procedures.
As departementshoofde nie prestasie-ooreenkomste teken nie, as hulle uitsette nie gevalueer word nie en as hulle nie hul sakebelange verklaar nie, wat verwag 'n mens anders as dat bedrog sal voorkom?
Was die President regtig verbaas toe die Ouditeur-generaal bevind dat meer as 2 000 staatsamptenare kontrakte van meer as R610 miljoen aan besighede toeken waarby hulle 'n direkte belange het?
Weereens stel die DA regering in die Wes-Kaap die voorbeeld met die "Business Interests of Employees Act" wat dit verbied om sake te doen met maatskappye waarin werknemers meer as 5% belang het. Wanneer wys die ANC dat skoon regering ook hul erns is?
Vierdens is die optrede teen korruptes. President Zuma kondig trots aan dat hy die Spesiale Ondersoekeenheid gevra het om korrupsie in staatsdepartemente te ondersoek. Wat beteken ondersoek sonder straf?
Staatsamptenare betrokke in finansile wangedrag bedank eenvoudig voordat die dissiplinre ondersoek afgehandel is, sodat die ANC-ministers hulle kort voor lank weer in ander departemente kan aanstel - "redeployment" [herontplooiing]!
President Zuma, wanneer begin die ANC-regering amptenare verantwoordelik hou vir diefstal? Wanneer word korruptes krimineel aangekla en afgedank? Eers as die staatskas heeltemal geplunder is? (Translation of Afrikaans paragraphs follows.)
[Should the heads of department not sign performance agreements, their outputs not be evaluated and their business interests not be declared, what does one expect other than that corruption would take place?
Was the President really surprised when the Auditor-General revealed that more than 2 000 public servants award contracts totalling more than R610 million to businesses in which they have a direct interest?
Once again, the DA government in the Western Cape leads by example with the "Business Interests of Employees Act", which prohibits doing business with companies in which employees have more than a 5% share. When will the ANC demonstrate that they are also serious about clean government?
Fourthly, we have the matter of the action taken against the corrupt. President Zuma announced with pride that he had requested the Special Investigative Unit to investigate corruption within government departments. What good would investigation be without punitive action?
Public servants who are involved in financial misconduct, simply resign before the disciplinary investigation is complete, in order for the ANC Ministers to appoint them again, shortly thereafter, in other departments - "redeployment"!
President Zuma, when will the ANC government start holding officials to account for theft? When will the corrupt be criminally charged and dismissed? I guess, only when the state coffers have been totally pillaged?]
The latest promise is effective anticorruption units. Last week President Zuma again announced a new, special anticorruption unit. What happened to all the other units?
Since 2001, let me tell you, we have had the National Anti-corruption Forum; various national anticorruption summits; the National Anti- corruption Programme; an anticorruption co-ordinating committee; the National Integrity System; the National Anti-corruption hotline and the Anti-corruption Inter-Ministerial Committee. But what are the results?
Calls to the hotline are referred to the respective departments for action, and every year the report-back rate on action gets worse. Last year, it reached an all-time low of 10%! This means for nine out of 10 complaints of corruption, there is no action! In sharp contrast to this, the feedback figure in the Western Cape is 72%!
Mr Speaker, in conclusion, while the President's speech writers write books full of promises, on the list of actions there is nothing - it is empty! So, do you think the voters still believe you, Mr Zuma? [Applause.] The DEPUTY MINISTER OF AGRICULTURE, FORESTRY AND FISHERIES: Deputy Speaker, hon President, I am not going to tear up my speech at this stage - perhaps at the end.
While the President gave his address on Thursday evening, I was thinking of Dubai and Nigeria, as well as the similarities and the differences between ANC and National Party, the old National Party, of which I was a member. The similarities are astounding.
Let me give you one example. In 1978, Prof Gerrit Viljoen, as an Afrikaner intellectual, wrote a book titled Ideal and Reality. In the book he argues that the economic and other realities of South Africa are moving further away from the ideals and dreams of the National Party.
In the President's speech on Thursday evening, the same tension was experienced between the ANC's ideals and ideology, on the one hand, and the realities of South Africa, on the other. Let me give you some examples. In his speech, the President emphasised how important it is to create more job opportunities in South Africa. We totally agree with this, but in the same breath, he announces that new labour legislation will be introduced which, without a doubt, will stifle job creation.
Another example: In his speech he emphasises how important mining is and that it produces more than 30% of the country's income. In the same breath, he confuses foreign investors - who don't understand the nuances in South Africa - when he uses Malema's language about mineral wealth, which belongs to all South Africans with the state as custodian.
In his speech, he emphasised that corruption and misapplication of taxes will not be tolerated. The FF Plus applauds this, and the fact that the Special Investigative Unit, SIU, which is investigating maladministration, has already recovered R44 million from public servants who had illegally received housing subsidies. This is good, but then we have to read in the newspapers that R100 million - and 42c! - had been wasted on the youth festival.
These comments and actions send out conflicting messages to voters, to the private sector, to the agricultural community and to investors.
Why do I see some similarities between ANC and National Party? Since the establishment of ANC in 1912, the ANC has, through conferences, formed its policies and schooled its members. In 1994, ANC took over the government, and those policies then had to be applied in practice. The hard realities of South Africa make many of the ANC policies unenforceable in practice.
The National Party had, since 1914, formed its policies through conferences and debates. Another interesting example is that the nationalisation of mines and the reigning in of the Oppenheimers had been popular NP policies before the party governed. The hard realities of South Africa resulted in many of these policy views having to be adapted from 1948, when the National Party started governing.
Today the ANC is faced with the same dilemma. At Polokwane and other ANC conferences, various populist decisions were made by ANC members, decisions based on the propaganda on which ANC members had been schooled over many years. Because many of these decisions did not take the South African realities into account, they cannot be applied in practice.
What makes it even more difficult is that the ANC is made up of many factions. The ANC leadership has to try and keep its wide ideological church together. How does one keep together the nationalists, the traditionalists, the populists, the capitalists, the communists and the social democrats in the ANC? Which strategies are there?
To do nothing is paralysing, but to try to satisfy everyone is as paralysing. It leads to every faction pretending in public that its policy is not only the official ANC policy, but that it also enjoys the support of the President, therefore, we get these conflicting messages.
The only comfort that I have for President Zuma is that the ANC is not the only party with these problems. The old National Party struggled with it, the DA is struggling with it, and I must admit that the FF Plus is struggling with it. There is only one solution to this problem. Do not put ordinary party members on a political hunger diet with populist propaganda.
If I listen to the comments of the ANC Youth League, the "young lions" are in need of a political education in the realities of South Africa. They are clearly on a reality hunger diet.
The only solution is that members of the party are confronted with the realities of South Africa through honest discussion. Remember, every person is entitled to his or her own opinion, but not to his or her own facts. Therefore, leaders have to be prepared to take the right decisions regardless of the consequences after they have been informed.
The ANC leadership will shortly be confronted with important policy decisions. In the interest of South Africa, we are hoping that the right policy decisions will be taken, regardless of the consequences and reactions that might come from outside or from the ANC factions.
Agb President, ek het ook ges dat ek aan Dubai en Nigeri gedink het. Waarom? Dit is omdat ek glo dat hulle simbolies is van die keuses wat Suid- Afrika sal moet maak. Dubai is 'n moderne stad in die middel van die woestyn wat met miljoene dollar oliegeld gebou is. Hulle benut die huidige olie-inkomste om 'n infrastruktuur te vestig vir die dag as die olie opdroog.
Die President het in sy toespraak verwys na Suid-Afrika se mynboubates wat op US$2,5 triljoen bereken word en dit gaan vir dekades lank nog 'n inkomste verseker. Ons voer miljoene ton se steenkool uit, ons voer yster uit; dit is Suid-Afrika se olie.
Wat gaan ons vorentoe met daardie inkomstes maak? Gaan ons nog welsynstoelae uitgee, soos tans, tot daar geen inkomste meer uit minerale kom nie; of gaan ons die inkomste gebruik om Suid-Afrika te bou tot 'n supermoondheid en 'n moderne infrastruktuur te vestig?
Nigeri het die afgelope 40 jaar meer as US$400 miljard uit sy olie verdien. Dis R3 000 miljard. Wat het Nigeri daarmee gemaak? Die gewone Nigerir het geen voordeel uit die olie-inkomste getrek nie. Die getal Nigerirs wat van minder as US$1 per dag moet leef, het van 19 miljoen in 1970 gestyg tot 75% of 90 miljoen van die bevolking vandag.
Die belangrikste rede vir die verswakkende toestand in Nigeri is dat swak besluite deur die Nigeri se leiers oor jare geneem is. Die besluite wat geneem is, was nie in die beste belang van die bre bevolking nie, maar wel in die beste belang van die individuele leiers se finansile posisie. Chris Hani het kort voor sy dood in 'n onderhoud ges:
Wat ek vrees is dat die bevryders as elitiste sal ontpop en in Mercedes- Benze sal ry en hierdie land se hulpbronne sal gebruik om in paleise te lewe en rykdom te vergader.
Ons sien van tyd tot tyd berigte wat vertel dat dit presies is wat in Suid- Afrika aangaan.
My derde kleinkind is drie maande gelede gebore. Sy gaan vyftig jaar oud wees in 2060. Wat is haar toekoms in Suid-Afrika en hoe gaan dit dan lyk? Gaan ons uiteindelik 'n Nigeri of 'n Dubai wees waar die leiers vorentoe besluite neem en ons almal moet maar daarmee help?
Gaan ons soos Dubai die modernste geboue, die nuutste tegnologie, die beste infrastruktuur en 'n ho kwaliteit lewe vir almal h? Dit is moontlik en dit kan gedoen word. Of gaan ons uiteindelik 'n volbloed roofdierstaat met 'n korrupte politieke elite wees wat, soos mnr Kunene, soesji van vroue af eet?
Wat kan ons doen - almal wat hier sit - om hierdie negatiewe toekoms te voorkom? Ek kan in 'n toespraak soos hierdie vir die ANC wys op waar ek van hulle verskil en s dat ek glo hulle botsende boodskappe na die privaatsektor en die kommersile boere oor werksgeleenthede uitstuur.
Ek kan die ANC kritiseer so goed ek kan as VF Plus en as opposisieparty. Ek gaan egter ook as Adjunkminister in kabinetkomitees my standpunte in sulke debatte stel oor hoe Suid-Afrika oor 20 jaar daar moet uitsien. Dan is my kleinkind net mondig.
Ek kan my standpunt oor Afrikaans en die ander tale stel. Ek kan my standpunt oor die beste resep stel om harmonie tussen die verskillende groepe in Suid-Afrika te kry en oor wat ons kan leer van hoe moderne selfbeskikking in Europa, in Soedan en in Ethiopi toegepas word.
As Adjunkminister kan ek deel wees van besluite oor watter hawens ons moet vergroot en waar daar nuwe damme en besproeiingskemas gebou moet word, of dit sinvol is om 'n sneltreinspoor van Johannesburg na Durban te bou of nie, hoe ons van steenkool na kernkrag moet oorskakel, hoe ons Noord-Kaap se sonkrag ekonomies kan benut, ens. Dit is opwindende gesprekke. Dit is positief, toekomsgerig en gee ook hoop aan my kinders.
Ek glo elke geslag kan net sy deel doen. Meer kan ons nie doen nie, maar ons moet ons deel doen sodat die fondament stewig is. As ek dan die regering gekritiseer het en geprys het waar nodig, en my standpunt oor die bogenoemde vrae gestel het en gehelp het om besluite te neem wat ek glo reg is, dan is al wat oorbly om vanaand te bid: Die Here sal vir my alles goed laat afloop - Psalm 138. Werp al julle bekommernisse op Hom, want Hy sorg vir julle. Ek dank u. (Translation of Afrikaans paragraphs follows.)
[Hon President, I also mentioned that I thought of Dubai and Nigeria. Why? This is because I believe that they are symbolic of the choices that South Africa would have to make. Dubai is a modern city in the middle of the desert which was constructed with millions of dollars of oil money. They are making use of the current oil revenues to establish an infrastructure for the day when the oil dries up.
In his speech the President referred to South Africa's mining profits which is estimated to be up to US$2,5 trillion and which is still going to ensure an income for decades to come. We export millions of tons of coal, we export iron; this is South Africa's oil.
Going forward, what are we going to do with these revenues? Are we going to hand out more social grants, as we are currently doing, until there is no more revenue to be gained from minerals anymore; or are we going to use the revenues to develop South Africa into a superpower and to establish a modern infrastructure?
In the past 40 years Nigeria earned more than US$400 billion from its oil. This is R3 000 billion. What did Nigeria do with this? The average Nigerian didn't benefit from these oil revenues. The number of Nigerians who have to live off less than US$1 per day has increased from 19 million in 1970 to 75% of the population today.
The most important reason for the deteriorating state of affairs in Nigeria is the poor decisions that were made by Nigeria's leaders over the years. The decisions taken were not in the best interest of the broader population, but were really in the best interest of the individual leaders' financial position.
In an interview shortly before his demise Chris Hani said:
What I fear is that liberators will emerge as elitists who drive around in Mercedes Benzes and use the resources of this country to live in palaces and to gather riches.
From time to time we see articles that tell us that this is exactly what is happening in South Africa.
My third grandchild was born three months ago. She's going to be fifty years old in 2060. What will her future be in South Africa and what will it look like? Are we eventually going to be a Nigeria or a Dubai where the leaders go ahead and make decisions and all of us simply have to support this?
Are we going to be like Dubai and have the most modern buildings, the latest technology, the best infrastructure and a high quality of life? It is possible and it can be done. Or are we eventually going to be an out and out predatory state with a corrupt political elite who eat sushi off women's bodies like Mr Kunene?
What can we do - everyone who is sitting here - to obviate this negative future? In a speech like this I can point out to the ANC where I differ from them and state that I believe that they are sending out contradictory messages to the private sector and commercial farmers regarding job opportunities.
As the FF Plus and as an opposition party I can criticise the ANC. As Deputy Minister in such debates in cabinet committees I will also be stating my position with regard to what South Africa should look like in 20 years. By then my grandchild will be of age.
I can state my point of view regarding Afrikaans and the other languages. I can state my point of view regarding the best recipe to attain harmony among the different groups in South Africa and about what we can learn from how modern self-determination is applied in Europe, in Sudan and in Ethiopia.
As Deputy Minister I can be part of the decision-making processes as to which harbours we should be extending and where new dams and irrigation schemes are to be built, whether or not it makes sense to build a rapid transit railway system from Johannesburg to Durban, how we are going to transition from coal energy to nuclear energy, how we can economically make use of the Northern Cape's solar energy, etc. These are exciting discussions. This is positive, future-directed, and also gives hope to my children.
I believe that every generation simply has to do its bit. We can't do more than that, but we have to do our bit in order for the foundation to be solid. If I have criticised the government and praised it where it deserved, and I have stated my point of view regarding the above-mentioned issues and have assisted with taking decisions, which I believe to be correct, then the only thing that is left to do is to go and pray tonight: The Lord will accomplish what concerns me - Psalm 138. Cast all your cares on Him, because He takes care of you. Thank you.]