Hon Speaker, if we have R101 billion for compensation of employees in an economic classification, it is an extraordinary budget in the context of value for money that taxpayers get from the Public Service.
In some instances the pay scales at senior management level surpasses that of equivalent private sector posts. The question I want to ask is whether, as a developmental state such as ours, we can afford an ever-increasing public sector wage bill, where we have huge leakages of funds to corruption. It was reported that in 2010 about R20 billion was lost through corruption, and in 2011 R25 billion was also lost through corrupt practices and, of course, poor services. We are not getting value for money.
As a nation, we invest about 20% of the government budget towards education. We spend more per capita GDP on education them similar middle- income developing countries, but our education system is a disgrace. Our education system is a high-cost, low-output system where there are systemic problems ranging from poor teacher salaries to poor teaching in general, underqualified teachers, poor school infrastructure and the declining quality of matriculants. Suffice to say that government has failed in this top-priority outcome. In the 2010 World Economic Forum rankings South Africa was ranked 130 out of 139 countries overall in education, and 137 out of 139 for Maths and Science education.
The Eastern Cape and Limpopo are the worst provinces in terms of provision of infrastructure and teaching. Only about 50% of learners who passed Grade 10 in 2009 made it through to the Grade 12 examination in 2011. The question is, what happened to the rest and what are we going to do about the rest? What marked improvement has the section 100 intervention had in the Limpopo education department? What has it done in the Eastern Cape education department? The Eastern Cape is in fact in deficit; there is a need to have a social partner agreement to make up the lost time in teaching during the strike period.
There is a need for life skills development courses for matriculants which will equip them with a portable skill, enabling them to compete for entry level jobs. Given the current unemployment crisis, we need to reintroduce the apprenticeship model to equip the learners for the knowledge economy.
In Limpopo, in Water Affairs, we are concerned about the scarcity of water, the water leakages and the investment in water. From Limpopo to the Free State there is a lot of uncertainty over weekends, particularly in terms of the provision of water, because the water is shut off over weekends and people don't have water. The Department of Education and the Department of Women, Children and People with Disabilities do not provide value for money in respect of their own outputs and this is, of course, questionable. The use of a consultant to perform a core function that should have been performed by the Public Service is a cause for concern, because of the jobs that are not filled but were supposed to be filled.
In conclusion, it is essential that portfolio committees carefully analyse the performance plans since we cannot continue to have instances where there are seemingly high expenditure levels but defined measurable outputs that are not being attained by the department. I thank you.