Hon House Chair, when I first spoke in this House I used a quotation from Winston Churchill to emphasise the virtues of telling the truth and to encourage members to do so, particularly when reporting to the public about what you plan to do with their money. It's a pity that my advice was ignored. It may have prevented much of the emerging evidence with the far- reaching extent of state capture.
Estimates are that R1,7 trillion has been pilfered one way or another from state coffers over a period of approximately nine years. Put in another way, members of this government either stole or assisted others to steal or did nothing to prevent the theft of the equivalent of R30 000 from every single man, woman and child in this country.