Hon Chair, hon Ministers and hon members, I rise in unconditional support of this Bill on behalf of the ANC. May I also thank everyone that played a role in drafting a Bill which at last, I think, is going to be very important in the future of this country, particularly as it relates to the poor.
When we started working on the Bill, as the hon Kilian and others have pointed out, we were very aware of the risk attached to a venture like this. We looked at other examples in the world, as our chairperson has already said.
For example, Japan and Germany, major industrial countries, started these state banks just after the war, and today they are huge conglomerates and enterprises, having focused on the poor, the needy and the disadvantaged in those societies.
Therefore, as we started working in the committee, all the parties were quite clear as to what the vision was in this regard. So, we want to thank everyone that helped us draft a Bill that, in the end, actually contained the risk that attaches to a venture like this. And, obviously, in that sense, one is very saddened by the last-minute turnaround of the DA.
The members of the DA in the committee co-operated very well throughout on the objectives of the Bill. It was at the last minute that they said that their caucus was not prepared to vote on this Bill, and today they have gone even further and we have seen the sleight of hand of their Chief Whip who tried to pretend that this was a money Bill.
I say "tried to pretend" because you don't have to be a genius to know what a money Bill is. You take this Constitution, you open it at section 77 and there the heading says "Money Bills". It doesn't say "Other Bills"; it says "Money Bills". [Laughter.] It tells you exactly what a money Bill is. Section 77 says that a money Bill is a money Bill if it "appropriates money"; "imposes national taxes, levies, duties or surcharges"; "abolishes or reduces, or grants exemptions from, any national taxes, levies, duties or surcharges"; or "authorises direct charges". Later, the section says that nothing else may be in a money Bill except those four issues; and elsewhere it says that only the Minister of Finance can introduce a money Bill.
Now, of all the submissions that Cabinet, the Minister of Finance, the state law advisers on this document, Parliament's tagging mechanism and the committee received, not a single person even vaguely referred to section 77 and this Bill being a money Bill. It is clearly not a money Bill. That was just a sleight of hand to try to stop this Bill.
Now, I don't understand this, because I would ask the DA members, those that are able to understand things, to take this Bill and read it. [Laughter.] Read it as it is now, and then tell me that this Bill doesn't target the poor and the marginalised and that we haven't looked at the risks and created mechanisms to try to deal with those risks.
Last week I read a whole lot of articles in the newspapers on how the DA was going to reach out to the poor. They buy people, so the media is now writing these things about the DA. [Interjections.] The DA is going to ... [Interjections.] You buy the media; your premier has said so. You go and pay them and say, "Give us space", and if someone else does that then you say, "Oh, that's terrible. This is the worst thing for democracy." Can I suggest that you buy more space and get more consultants, read this Bill, and then you will see a few things. [Interjections.]
Firstly, it is targeted totally and utterly towards ... [Interjections.] Oh, you know, you are such a ... You've got that grating voice, you know. You really ... [Applause.] [Interjections.] Why they made you the deputy president of the organisation, God alone knows.