Thank you, Chairperson. It is unfortunate that this government is hell-bent on ensuring that it dismantles all that is working and fixes all that is not broken. It also intimidates Ministries that are performing. The Ministry of Public Enterprises is a case in point in this regard. Talks about dismantling this department are at an advanced stage. Your sin, amongst other things, Madam, is speaking on principle against the Chancellor House-Hitachi relationship and the Transnet-Siyabonga Gama one, with the latter having close ties with some bigwigs within the ruling party. Those bigwigs are on record as saying that they would do everything in their power to protect them. I am afraid that the bigwigs are now getting back at you for sticking to your principles. Cope is not surprised by the recent announcement by the President that SOEs will be assessed and that a Cabinet reshuffle after the World Cup is looming.
It has been said on countless occasions that as a country we have a chronic shortage of skills, particularly in specialised disciplines. In the past 10 years, R8,7 billion has been invested in the pebble bed modular reactor, PBMR. As at March 2009, the PBMR had 851 employees, of which 70% were engineers, scientists or technologists. This is a nuclear skills base at the country's disposal and, unsurprisingly and as usual, lack of leadership from government regarding the future of the PBMR has led to uncertainty and poaching of personnel by countries that can put them to good use. Such expertise may be lost to us forever.
In June last year, Freddy Enslin from Springs in Gauteng wrote to me asking what Cope would do to protect the poor from the Eskom tariff increase. [Interjections.] To you, Freddy, and millions of South Africans out there, Cope and other parties have fought the tariff increase, but we were bound to fail because the ruling party is set to benefit by over R1 billion from the deal through its investment arm, Chancellor House.
It is worth noting that the ruling party has joined the list of tenderpreneurs, following in the footsteps of many in their ranks. As Karima Brown of Business Day puts it, the arrangement between Chancellor House and Hitachi patently constitutes a deep conflict, "a strong body of opinion within the leadership is holding out for the money". [Interjections.] If the ruling party is a centre of power, well, in my opinion, the opposite is true: the centre is not holding.
Ndivumeleni ke - phulaphula! phulaphula! - ndivumeleni ke ndinibulele ngokundiboleka kwenu iindlebe. [Uwele-wele.] Lo mthendevu wasemaMpondomiseni, uJola, ithole leenkunzi zaMakrancolo, ooMbema, ooMsiza, ooMbuyeni, uyanibulela. Maz' enethole! [Uwele-wele.] (Translation of isiXhosa paragraph follows.)
[Allow me - listen! Listen! Allow me to thank you for listening to me. [Interjections.] This dark complexioned man belonging to the Mpondomise clan, Jola, an offspring of Mkrancolo, Mbema, Msiza, Mbuyeni is thanking you. [Interjections.]]