Hon House Chairperson and hon members, a number of very helpful ideas and many supportive comments have been made in the debate, and there appears to be a wide consensus on the importance of the green economy.
Hon Adams has cautioned us to go beyond abalone. I am happy to report to him that the programmes that we have in a number of areas will attempt to focus on the broad range of aquaculture and we hope that this can be an important part of job creation in coastal communities.
He also referred to the importance of acting firmly against price collusion. I am happy to advise hon Adams and members that we took action over the last number of years and eight motor vehicle companies have paid R51 million in penalties as a result of the work of the competition authorities.
Four airlines have paid about R108 million and three companies were levied with penalties totalling a combined R340 million for fixing the price of bread.
Hon Lees has said he is not convinced that we need economic development departments. I am happy to advise that in the province where the DA is in government, it does indeed have an economic development department. I am also happy to report that that department has asked us to work closely with it in addressing the economic challenges of the province.
More seriously though, hon Lees has raised the question about economic planning. I would like to point out that we put ideology aside and look at the facts out there in the world. Some of the fastest-growing economies in the world, that of China, India, Korea and other countries, have very substantial economic planning capacity that is available to the modern state and, therefore, outperformed many economies that have not had that capacity.
Finally, I would suggest to hon Lees most respectfully that simply repeating the mantra of deregulation doesn't constitute coherent policy. The experience out there in the world has been that countries and governments have to grapple with the right balance between the state and the market.
To find that balance is an evidential issue; it is based on the evidence before us. Indeed, the simplistic cause for deregulation lies at the very heart of the global economic crisis. The failure of government to effectively regulate financial markets has caused enormous damage to growth and to our joint efforts to address the challenges of poverty all over the world.
I have taken note, hon members, of the various comments that have been made with regard to particular provinces. In respect of the Northern Cape, I would say to hon Sinclair that the province is depending very highly on the primary sector. We need more balanced economic growth in the Northern Cape, but we have to do this while being mindful of the locational and physical challenges of the province.
We think there is an enormous opportunity for a major energy initiative. My colleague, Minister Peters, has spoken about the work that her department and others are doing to bring a large solar generating capacity on stream. We are now conducting studies to see how feasible this is.
A number of members have spoken well about the challenges of jobs. The hon Mnguni and hon M B Khoza have elaborated on aspects of this. I would like to make a point in support of what the hon Khoza has said. Take a photograph of Sandton and Lubala and compare them: one country, two realities.
What that points to is that economic growth, important as it is, is not sufficient. We need high and sustained economic growth. You need development policies that ensure that the growth takes place equitably across the country and that growth draws in opportunities for decent employment for the poorest South Africans. I believe the comments made by hon Khoza are particularly appropriate to that challenge.
You have also pointed, hon Khoza, to the importance of the economic agencies in KwaZulu-Natal and elsewhere. We have a challenge as far as economic agencies are concerned. Economic agencies are part of the machinery that is available to the public sector, but some degree of disconnection has begun to develop between the plans of Cabinets, whether it is a national Cabinet or a provincial cabinet, and the programmes and activities of many of the agencies. We need to find ways in which we can reconnect these so that we develop accountability.
Accountability would have at least four or five characteristics to it. Firstly, it would be to ensure that we have proper and tight oversight. Ultimately, the shareholder, the public sector, must take responsibility for the agencies that act in the name of the public. Secondly, there must be clarity on the mandate; if the agency knows what it is that the government expects from them and what their shareholder expects, then their conduct must be aligned to the requirements of their mandate.
Thirdly, we need to address the funding models of a number of the agencies to ensure that we have the sustainable capacity to finance the industrialisation and other economic development challenges. We have done some work now, looking at Brazil and Germany, to see what the underlying industrial funding model is that these economies are using to grow their manufacturing sector faster.
Germany is arguably the world's most competitive and advanced manufacturing sector. So, we are learning from their experience and seeing how we can catch that experience and share it with our development finance institutions, DFIs, and how we can get the Industrial Development Corporation, IDC, and other institutions to benefit from that.
Finally, it requires a regular evaluation of the impact of our development agencies at national, provincial and municipal level. Also, perhaps we can share a lot more of the joint work on this issue.
Hon Walters made two comments; one was on the importance of the green economy and I'm glad that hon Walters is supporting the government's thinking on the green economy. However, hon Walters has said, or certainly implied, that rural poverty had been caused by what he calls "the neglect of the ANC". This is a stunning denial of our history and disrespect for the facts because it implies a model that says that under apartheid, before the ANC came into power, there was a wealthy, prosperous and happy rural population in the homelands.
The reality is sadly not so. We sit with the legacy of migrant labour, poor infrastructure, weak skills and land dispossession. Our challenge as government is to reverse all of that. If we are saying, and if our paid people are saying that we must make this a greater priority than it has been in the past, then as the government we agree completely.
We have five priorities and we have elevated rural development to one of those five. We have created a dedicated Ministry to address this issue and we are working collegially to strengthen rural development.
In conclusion let me say that the challenges that we are facing cannot be addressed only at national level. They require fundamentally a better and a more effective system of intergovernmental co-operation and co-ordination. When national, provincial and local government work well together; when we take our separate resource envelopes and we try to find ways in which we can synchronise that; when we find ways of avoiding waste and duplication between the three levels of government, we can release the resources to address the challenges of our people.
We owe that to the people of Lubala, we owe it to the people of Dimbaza and we owe it to the people in each of your provinces. Thank you very much. [Applause.]