Thank you, Chair. Hon Minister, you have inherited one of the most difficult ministries with major problems existing throughout many of our public enterprises. Despite all of these problems, though, as a social democratic party the ID still believes in the importance of certain key strategic public enterprises. It is important, however, that fundamental changes are put in place to ensure that these enterprises are well positioned to capitalise on the opportunities of this new century.
Unfortunately, the current diverse collection of public enterprises in many ways reflects the strategic priorities of the old government, rather than what our new democracy should be focusing on. The ID firmly believes, for instance, that the state should no longer be in the weapons industry and that those skills must be redirected towards building up our country's competitive advantage in emerging global industries.
If one of the focus areas of our new industrial policy is green industries, then why don't we ensure that some of our public enterprises make this a core focus area of their work? We need to be bold in our thinking. Public enterprises are perfectly positioned to get out in front of the technological curve of these new industries, rather than simply continuing to tie us to the old economic growth path.
To build public enterprises of the 21st century, though, we also need to deal with good governance principles. Public enterprises cannot in any way be used as a vehicle for the enrichment of a politically connected elite or, for that matter, the ruling party itself.
It seems paradoxical to the ID that everyone, except for Gwede Mantashe, recognises the major conflict of interest that exists in Chancellor House's shareholding in Hitachi Power Africa, but no one wants to take on the responsibility of doing anything about it. Even the World Bank tactically recognised the conflict of interest while trying to neatly evade it through claiming that their loan won't be used for the Hitachi component of the deal.
Minister, I agree with the sentiment expressed in your written response to my question on the conduct of business between state-owned enterprises and political parties - that this issue should be dealt with in a broader piece of legislation. However, it is your party that has dragged its heels in formulating this legislation. In the very court case that you mentioned, the ANC didn't say that it would welcome legislation. It said it would bring it to this House shortly, and that was five years ago. We are still waiting.
Until this happens, Minister, it is your responsibility to ensure that public enterprises are not compromised through these blatant conflicts of interest, either legally or ethically. You therefore have a duty to pass regulations preventing these controversies from occurring in the future. However, based on your speech today, I trust that the ANC will now finally support my motion to set up an ad hoc committee on party funding. The next Joint Rules Committee will reveal whether we can finally start trusting the word of the ANC again. I thank you. [Applause.]