Hon Chair, hon Deputy Minister and hon members, there is no doubt that given the constraints placed upon him by the policies of the ANC and its alliance partners, the Minister of Finance has produced the best possible allocation of funds that he could. However, it is unfortunate that the allocations continue the long-standing trend of establishing a social welfare system at the expense of economic development. Economic development is the only way of achieving long-term poverty elimination and the reduction of income inequality. In his article in Focus recently, Prof Fedderke of University of Cape Town, UCT, argues that the stringent fiscal and monetary policy adopted by previous administrations has made funding available, which has been used for the development of the social security system and not for the development purposes of the economy. Thus, there has been reduced spending on key factors such as education, health and housing. The consequences for the country will be devastating as we fall further and further behind our global partners in terms of the availability of a high-quality workforce.
Another consequence of this skewed funding allocation towards welfare will be the inability to increase funding for health, policing and housing. There will be a reduction of funds available for these functions and the high expectations of the poor created by the ANC promises and endless plans without action will inevitably lead to more and more discontent and protest action.
Many in this House would have heard admissions and threats by people making submissions at this week's public hearings - that unless the government delivers on its promises of jobs and service delivery, they will continue to steal or will embark upon theft. What has our society come to when people can publicly, in the presence of Members of Parliament as well as senior members of the police, admit to being thieves or disclose their intention to engage in theft? Is this desperation or is it simply frustration at the lack of delivery on promises made for the past 16 years? I think it is the latter, because to suggest that poor people are thieves is an insult to the millions of poor people who do not resort to crime nor even contemplate doing so.
The local government sphere is allocated the smallest share of revenue. This is contrary to the view of the DA, which holds that as much authority and accountability as possible must be devolved to the sphere of government closest to the people. Local government is the sphere of government tasked directly with the provision of services, which, with some notable exceptions, has failed to meet the expectations of the people and, yet, they get the smallest allocation.
There is the vexed question of conditional grants, whereby the national government dictates to other spheres of government how funds should be spent. The ANC may argue that the municipal sphere of government in particular is beset with poor governance as well as a critical skills shortage. The way to deal with this problem is certainly not the centralisation of power, as is currently happening. The simple and obvious solution is to rapidly reverse the ANC policy of cadre deployment. Only persons of ability and who owe no debt of gratitude for their appointments to the ANC should be appointed as officials.
Despite the urgent need to address the issue of redistribution of land without negatively impacting upon food production, a mere R1,9 billion has been allocated to the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform as compared to the R6,2 billion requested by the department. The question of land reform cannot continuously, Budget after Budget, be effectively put on hold by way of relatively small allocations of funds. There is an urgent need for the remaining and vast rural land claims to be resolved and for both the claimants as well as landowners to be given closure on this process which has dragged on for the past 15 years. Unless funding for settling claims is increased dramatically, there is a distinct possibility that frustrations experienced by both claimants and landowners will increase levels of violence and attacks on farmers and, inevitably, will lead to a lack of food security, as has been the case in Zimbabwe.
Hon Deputy Minister, it is great to hear you say that there should be cuts in nonessential expenditure. May I suggest to you, sir, that your Cabinet colleagues look at a few areas where they could cut nonessential expenditure such as ministerial cars, the presidential jets and high ministerial hotel bills. Perhaps that's where we should start.
In conclusion, I raise the thorny issue of the use of police cars and personnel to escort members of the NCOP over the past few days. Not only do these vehicles and personnel carry out escort functions but they do so with blue lights flashing and sirens blaring. This bullyboy behaviour cannot be justified in our new democratic society. This is the kind of behaviour which one expects of failed states such as Zimbabwe, but certainly not in our new and successful South Africa. [Time expired.]