Hon Speaker, hon President, and hon Deputy President, as so many newspaper headlines have already said over the past couple of days, the honeymoon is over. Rebekah Kendal wrote on 4 May 2010, "Phew. What a year. Yip, it's been almost a year since Jacob Zuma was sworn in as President of the country in a bash that cost the South African taxpayer a whopping R75 million. Since then, things have pretty much followed the formula of the inauguration: Expensive."
In your last state of the nation address, you undertook to outline the missing details in the budget and ministerial debates. Frankly, not having a portfolio committee to consider your budget, which incidentally is growing at an alarming rate, leaves me none the wiser because the forthcoming detail you spoke about never materialised. In fact, the fact that the Presidency didn't even present a strategic plan for the past financial year, notwithstanding some fundamental changes, amongst them the commissioning of two new Ministries in the Presidency and the Presidential Hotline that continues to "tilt at every conceivable windmill" with very limited impact, makes one wonder whether there is indeed a strategy or a framework. The recent resignation or redeployment of some of the senior presidential staffers suggests that this is not a happy place, nor a well co-ordinated and organised place.
Dit op sigself vereis dat daar meer eerder as minder toesig moet geskied ten einde te verseker dat die Presidensie se begroting van R727 miljoen, wat tot R815 miljoen in 2012-13 sal toeneem - voor enige onvermydelike hertoedelings - effektief, doeltreffend en ekonomies bestee word. (Translation of Afrikaans paragraph follows.)
[That, by itself, necessitates that there is more rather than less oversight in order to ensure that the Presidency's budget of R727 million, that will increase to R815 million in 2012-13 - before any unavoidable reallotments - is effectively, efficiently and economically spent.]
The apparent support from the Speaker, the House Chairpersons and the multiparty Chief Whips Forum for a body to oversee the Presidency is welcomed by the DA. Apart from the fact that this Parliament cannot allow any budgets to go unaccounted for, it perforce needs to ensure that the transversal responsibilities of the Presidency are appropriately implemented and fulfilled across the board without exception. Only authentic oversight by this Parliament can ensure that this happens.
Mr President, I can't help thinking that many of the challenges that rest on your weary shoulders could have been averted or addressed through decisive leadership, the kind of leadership that is clearly set out in an ANC discussion document titled "Through the Eye of the Needle". It is extremely nave ... [Interjections.] ... ewe, ndiyifundile. [Kwahlekwa.] [... yes, I have read it. [Laughter.]]
It is extremely nave to think that your Cabinet will decide for government, when Cabinet itself is so divided and dichotomous on so many critical issues, especially the macroeconomic policy of our country. Michael Spicer of Business Leadership SA describes this situation well when he says, "It leads to contestation and policy paralysis and an attempt to be all things to all people."
Mr President, you cannot be all things to all people, as you will either let them all down or else they will let you down. I wonder, for example, what the last straw was that broke your silence and prompted you to act, at last, against Julius Malema. [Interjections.]
Was it the fact that he spoke the unspeakable about supporting Mugabe and Zanu-PF or, more sinisterly put, the fact that he said what the ANC silently wishes should happen in Zimbabwe? Your lack of decisive leadership regarding the unacceptable behaviour of the ANC Youth League, and its leadership in particular, has allowed the South African political discourse to descend into the gutter.
It is now time for you to take control and do what is necessary to prevent the further unravelling of our national thread. The hosting of the 2010 Fifa Soccer World Cup is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, hon President. Ubuntu ... [Laughter.] Ubuntu, as so eloquently put by the speaker before me, sets us apart from other non-African countries.
Ubuntu buhamba kunye nembeko, ikakhulu imbeko yokukhahlela abantu abadala okanye abantu abakhulu. Kuxhomekeke kuthi ukukhusela ubuntu. Ubukrwada asinto yamkelekileyo. [Ubuntu goes with respect, more especially respect of greeting the elderly. The protection of ubuntu depends on us. Rudeness is not accepted.]
You also need to understand that your nondisclosure of financial interests, as required by the Executive Members' Ethics Act, has been a lamentable transgression, especially considered against your claim that your administration would seek to combat corruption. Your explanations for this non-compliance can at best be described as a red herring and at worst simply disingenuous.
In this regard, Mr Malema trumpeted just more than a year ago that voters should never trust politicians that can't account for their wealth. [Interjections.] Well, he has done really well for someone who ostensibly holds no business interests or directorships and has an unbelievable amount of disposable income to spend on bling and birthdays for someone who is a salary earner in the ANC structures. What is more, it is now he who can't or won't explain his very apparent opulence.
Regarding the other departmental budgets, Mr President, allow me to say that it is with regret that you weren't here to observe the performance of some of your Ministers, their deputies, committee chairs and ANC committee members. Minister Shiceka derided me in his own very inimitable fashion for attending the budget debates to ensure that, in his words, "my members spoke the language of their master". All the more is the pity you didn't do the same to assess what these people were saying, Mr President.
Minister Shiceka misinformed the public about expenditure on the 2010 World Cup stadia. He blamed the DA for the R4 billion price tag of the Cape Town stadium and compared this with the cost of the Orlando Stadium. First of all, he forgets that it was President Mbeki who negotiated with Sepp Blatter in 2005 that Green Point was the place to build the stadium. He ignored the appeals of the people of Cape Town to build it in Athlone or Newlands. And, if the hon Rasool was here today, he would tell you that he was instructed by Essop Pahad that that is the wish of the President, so hence the R4 billion price tag.
What he should have done further, was that he should not have misled the people and compared Orlando Stadium with Green Point Stadium. What he should have done was compare apples with apples. He should have compared it with the R3,2 billion price tag of the Soweto Stadium, and not the Orlando Stadium. [Interjections.]
Furthermore, the hon Shiceka said, "Do not politicise local government." Hello! Who politicised local government? He said, "Where are the problems of political leadership? Are they in other municipalities or in the Western Cape? They are here." Well, a quick audit revealed that there are currently 23 out of 275 municipalities, 8,4%, under administration, all in ANC- controlled provinces ... [Interjections.] ... with ANC cadres deployed as administrators, and all the failed councillors and mayors continue to receive their salaries with little or no impact from the curatorship interventions. [Interjections.] It is ANC municipalities that have two mayors. It is ANC municipalities that don't meet for a year because of intrapolitical party politics in the ANC.
In contrast, Mr President, in the Western Cape 23 out of 30 municipalities received unqualified audits; 29 of the 30 municipalities spent 100% of their municipal infrastructure grant; and 96% of that grant has been spent by the City of Cape Town, unparalleled expenditure of the municipal infrastructure grant. [Applause.] No wonder he says don't politicise local government, because it is political dynamite.
Wanneer mnr Shiceka s dat die DA-beheerde Wes-Kaap en Stad Kaapstad "'n eiland van uitmuntendheid omring deur 'n see van probleme is", kan ek nie anders as om met hom saam te stem nie, want hy erken die doeltreffendheid van DA beheer en die mislukking van die naburige ANC-beheerde provinsies en munisipaliteite.
Mnr die President, en ek haal aan uit die Presidensie se begrotingsdokument: "Die doel van die Presidensie is om te lei, te bestuur en die strategiese sakelys van die regering te ontwikkel, daaroor toesig te hou om sodoende die verwesenliking daarvan deur die Staat in sy geheel te verseker." U moes teen hierdie tyd reeds verseker het dat die makro- ekonomiese en rigtinggewende beleid afgehandel is en dat die Beplanningskommissie hom moet toespits op die beplanning van die langtermyn - ekonomiese strategie en rigting van die land. Dit behoort gekoppel te word aan prestasie-verwante ooreenkomste wat aanvaar moet word deur al die Ministers en al 28 adjunkte, wat, met die uitsondering van 'n paar, hulle alleen weet wat hulle eintlik doen.
Wat die skep van werkgeleenthede betref, is u ver van u verkiesingsbelofte om 500 000 werkgeleenthede te skep. Tussen April 2009 en April 2010 het Suid-Afrika 'n netto verlies van meer as 'n miljoen werkgeleenthede gehad. Tog wag ons steeds vir 'n strategiese plan oor hoe ordentlike werkgeleenthede, veral vir die jeug, geskep gaan word. (Translation of Afrikaans paragraphs follows.)
[When Mr Shiceka says that the DA-controlled Western Cape and the City of Cape Town "is an island of excellence surrounded by a sea of problems", I have no other option but to agree with him, because he recognises the efficacy of DA management and the failure of the neighbouring ANC- controlled provinces and municipalities.
Mr President, and I am quoting from the Presidency's budget document: "The aim of the Presidency is to lead, manage and develop the strategic agenda of government and oversee and ensure its realisation by government as a whole." By this time you should already have ensured that the macro- economic and directional policy is completed and that the Planning Commission is focussing on developing long - term economic policy strategies and the course of the country. It should be linked to performance-related agreements that must be accepted by all the Ministers and all 28 deputies, who, with the exception of a few, only they know what they are actually doing.
Regarding the creation of job opportunities, you are far from your election promise of creating 500 000 job opportunities. Between April 2009 and April 2010 South Africa had a net loss of more than a million job opportunities. Hitherto, we are still waiting for a strategic plan on how decent job opportunities, especially for the youth, are going to be created.]
For example, what has become of Minister Gordhan's call for a wage subsidy and a two-tier labour dispensation for first-time young job-seekers? Has Cosatu's objection pushed this onto the back burner forever? I know that all of this seems like a tall order for one year in office, but you have effectively been the Deputy President for six years and the President of the ANC since 2007, and it is you, hon President, that constantly refers to the ANC as a collective. This means that you didn't become President in a vacuum. The ANC has been in government for 16 years, and allow me to remind you that success has many fathers and failure is an orphan.
If the Ministerial Monitoring and Evaluation System is not underpinned with punitive action for nonperformers, as per Minister Chabane's explanation, failure will become your constant companion, because this is not the behaviour of an administration pursuing excellence. It is the sign of an administration paying lip service to accountability but, underneath the rhetoric, is really concerned with the entrenchment of its own power through deployment on the basis of political patronage.
Mr President, with regards to this failure to perform and provide, is it not yet time for you as President of South Africa and the former Chair of the Southern African Development Community, SADC, to give the citizens of this country, and this Parliament, a full and detailed report on what is actually going on in Zimbabwe and the status of the Global Political Agreement? This is especially important as it appears as if prime minister Tsvangirai has succumbed to Stockholm Syndrome and the mesmerisation of the octogenarian wizard.
Further, you need to clarify what kind of real investment protection the toothless Bilateral Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement offers South African investors that conduct business activities in Zimbabwe, especially against the stated objectives of the draft Bill on indigenisation of foreign-owned businesses in Zimbabwe.
Locally, much has been made of your and Minister Shiceka's call to prevent political party office bearers from holding public administrative office and that if such an appointment is made, that the relevant councillors will be held to account. All I can say is: Ha, ha!
Give this House but one example of such accountability, and I'll retract this derision. I am confident that there is no such example, though, as the examples that do exist highlight instances of startling embarrassment and costly litigation across the country.
Accountability is something that is not yet synonymous with the ANC at all, as even here in Parliament, despite the Deputy President's intervention as the Leader of Government Business to get the Ministers to answer the questions, the questions remain unanswered. This is not only arrogant disdain of the opposition - and some Ministers refuse to go to special oversight committees - it is, more worryingly, a disdain for Parliament and the Constitution.
It is important to say to you, hon President, in this House, taking note of what the hon Ramatlhodi said, that if and when you, and anyone in government, seek to transgress or undermine the Constitution, the DA will do what it deems necessary to prevent this both in Parliament and the courts of law with our own money, no matter how irritating and inconvenient you and your Cabinet find this. This is not only the role of an effective opposition; it is the role and responsibility of a collective opposition to prevent an abrogation of our much-vaunted Constitution.
The same applies to your profligate Ministers whose penchant for excessive and wasteful expenditure has taken the DA's Wasteful Expenditure Monitor beyond the R1 billion mark. Mr President, this past year, unfortunately, can never be honestly described as a year of "faster, better, smarter" governance. This debate might not be taken too seriously by you and your Cabinet, but ignore it at your peril, as the 2011 local government elections are looming. [Interjections.] Sizakubona! [We'll see.] [Time expired.] [Applause.]