Madam Deputy Speaker, His Excellency the President and colleagues, the hon President has received a more favourable reaction than a negative one for his historic state of the nation address. The MF joins the accolades, but will make certain constructive suggestions.
We are very glad that the hon President has adopted a no-nonsense approach - let us make South Africa a country of hardworking people. We are glad that the government wants excellent competence in Ministers, even in the provinces, and that there must be a high measure of economy.
The MF proposes that the monitoring and evaluating of politicians take place very strongly, both at provincial and local government level, and that any Minister or councillor be removed if they are not worthy of their responsibilities.
The MF proposes that at every level a special force be created, either in the SA Receiver of Revenue or in the SA Police Service, to deal with unaccounted-for enrichment, like the Central Bureau of Investigation of India where there is a no-nonsense approach. There should be zero tolerance in respect of corruption amongst political office bearers. Mr President, India has been hit hard by recessions, but has a growth rate of 6%. At one stage, agriculture contributed 20% to the GDP; now it is a dismal 3%.
At a time of recession, the government's highest priority must be expenditure on a very, very thrifty scale, and infrastructure development is going to be the key. We suggest that the President keeps a very watchful eye on infrastructure development. One of the finest decisions was to establish a planning commission, but in our considered view there is one important weakness: Planning commissions have succeeded only when they are supervised by a politician, but not headed by a politician.
We submit this suggestion to you, Mr President, to review the situation. I suggest that you invite to South Africa the chairman of the planning commission of India, Professor Montek Ahluwalia, who turned around the economy of India.
Mr President, you have achieved what no President has achieved: You received very high praise from the Leader of the Opposition in the House. We are glad that you are adopting a multiparty approach.
To the SACP I say that you must learn from communist China. Communist China has a White Paper on multiparty democracy, a copy of which I have with me, Mr President, and will hand to you at the end of my speech. [Interjections.] China is controlled by the Communist Party, but a multiparty system exists and there is strong multiparty co-operation and co- ordination.
Mr Wan Gang is the Minister of science and technology and belongs to one of China's minority-interest parties. Mr Chen Chu is the health Minister and is an independent. From 1998 to 2003, Mr Rong Yiren was Vice President and belonged to the China Democratic National Construction Association. Two of these Ministers were appointed from minority parties. [Interjections.] I see no reason why this cannot be done at provincial level. [Interjections.]
Mr President, the MF will support you, but will also disagree with you in a very, very constructive way. [Interjections.] What you have done is outline the points contained in the election manifesto. We are going to judge the country by the budget and the performances of each Ministry and its department. The country is watching you when you say that you are not going to tolerate incompetence.
May I suggest to the new Minister of Finance to note that former members of the tricameral parliament, former Bantustan leaders, have been appointed as Ministers at the national level and that he should not live in the past.
At a time of recession, government's expenditure is of the outmost importance, but you must make sure you concentrate on rural development also. The release of government money is very vital. Therefore, the President's monitoring mechanism must play a crucial role.