Madam Deputy Speaker, it was very clear from the Minister's interaction during the extended public committees that the department does not have a clear plan to meet the objectives which it had set out in this budget. Operation Clean Audit is now a distant fantasy, and anybody who thinks that we are going to meet the targets which were set would also probably believe in fairies and unicorns.
What we don't see yet is a plan to radically intervene and ensure that there is a consequence framework for local governments and municipalities that do not achieve the goals of Operation Clean Audit.
The slogan of the department is, "Local government is everybody's business" and that is absolutely correct. The problem, however, is that we have councillors and officials who have taken this literally and used municipal councils as their own personal businesses.
A classic case in point is in eThekwini Municipality where the Chief Whip of the municipality, Councillor Xulu, did R8,5 million worth of business with the council two financial years ago. He got a slap on the wrist of a small fine, with the consequence that he repeat-offended, and has done even more millions of rands worth of business with the council again.
We have a lack of action on corruption. The Anti-corruption Inspectorate, which the Minister announced to some fanfare years ago, has still not had any massive achievements and rampant corruption is still a problem in too many municipalities. The sad thing about this is that this corruption hurts the poorest in our country the most, who have to suffer because of a lack of service delivery.
We have no confidence that the Minister or his department will match up to the expectations which the budget sets out. This, as said again, was very clear during the budget process. We have too many councils in too many provinces which are collapsing and simply unable to deliver services that they need to deliver to the communities on the ground. We do not see the department or the Minister providing a clear plan out of these woods. Thank you. [Applause.]