An impression that was given to voters was that their grants would be taken away if they didn't vote for the ANC. [Interjections.] That must be condemned and, hopefully, Minister, you will eradicate such conduct and give us the assurance that the budget you request us to approve is not going to be used to fund party-political campaigns. [Applause.]
The Special Investigating Unit has, in a recent report, disclosed that close to 7 000 public servants were caught with their hands in the social grant till. Over R400 million of social grant money has been stolen through these acts of corruption. On top of this, over 21 000 public servants were illegal recipients of social grants. [Interjections.]
How much more of this corruption accounts for the plundering of resources meant for the poor? We hope that your investigation into this social grant issue will not leave those found guilty unpunished. To make matters worse, we had to read in the newspaper that your predecessor was part of a fraudulent tender award to a company associated with his wife. This is bad and it shouldn't happen. We don't want our leaders in the papers.
We call for a full-scale investigation into the multimillion-rand tender for the distribution of grants to ensure that no government official can use the poverty of our people to enrich themselves. Thank you. [Time expired.] [Applause.]