Thank you, hon Speaker. Hon members, the economic slowdown in the eurozone reduces the demand for South Africa's exports, since Europe is one of our major trading partners. Slowing global growth also raises the prospects of weaker commodity prices and constrained government revenue. Increased risk perceptions and financial market turbulence will raise uncertainty and reduce investor risk appetite, contributing to greater volatility of international capital flows and emerging market currencies, including the rand, of course. This raises the potential for large-scale capital outflows and currency depreciations. There is also a risk of increased trade protectionism following a global slowdown as countries attempt to protect their own interests. This would further reduce global growth and could harm South Africa's exports even more.
South Africa's direct economic exposure to those countries at the epicentre of the current market turmoil is reasonably low. Although the European Union is South Africa's biggest trading partner, exports to Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece and Spain constitute just about 5% of the total.
Our financial system remains relatively well insulated from the current turmoil, with little exposure to foreign funding. Foreign funding accounts for only 5% of overall bank funding - a small proportion by international standards.
To date, the impact on South Africa has been primarily through falling business and consumer confidence, and financial market variables such as capital flows and the exchange rate. The Medium-Term Budget Policy Statement, MTBPS, proposed an economic support package of R25 billion over the next six years to boost competiveness and promote structural change. This initiative will build on several broader programmes to support growth and employment.
The South African government will continue to call upon European governments and authorities to act more decisively to build the necessary firewalls to prevent the contagion spreading even further and creating increased uncertainty and economic decline across the globe, to make sure that we have endeavours to diversify our trading partners and work with our businesses to promote exports to other parts of the world, and to implement rigorously the plans outlined above to bolster the prospects of growth and job creation. I thank you.
Thank you, hon Speaker. Thank you, hon Deputy President, for providing quite a succinct response. Indeed, the fact that our export exposure to European countries still remains high makes us highly vulnerable to economic turbulence in that part of the world. The ramifications of such an unfortunate development are currently being felt throughout our country and our beloved continent, Africa.
Quite interestingly, hon Deputy President, according to the Department of Trade and Industry data there has been a spike of South African exports to Africa, which is reported to be currently hovering at 15% of our total exports. Doesn't this, hon Deputy President, suggest that South Africa and the broader continent of Africa need to relook at restructuring regional economies to meet these new challenges? If this is the case, hon Deputy President, what should be put in place to realise this noble cause? And, secondly, being cautious, of course, ... Thank you. [Time expired.]
Well, the key to opening up these new vistas of growth across the African continent is to improve interconnectivity between the various regional economic communities to ensure that we improve the banking system, the time taken for goods and people to cross borders, and the rail and road traffic.
The hon Minister Mr Manuel here is part of such a project, under the AU, of connecting North-South infrastructure. That's what I think is required for us to improve on intratrade on the African continent. Thank you.
Hon members, the system is now working. Members may press the "To talk" button if they wish to ask a supplementary question.
Speaker, on a point of order: The system is not working properly. Thank you.
The system is working properly, hon member. Please take your seat. [Interjections.]
It is not. You can come and have a look at the bench here. Thank you.
Will the officials please double-check? [Interjections.]
Thank you, Mr Speaker. Hon Deputy President, ...
... ngizobuza isikhaya nje. [... I will just ask a simple question.]
Deputy President, with all the international trade agreements which we have entered into so far, and which, I admit, are imperative for the development of all those parties that are involved or those that take part in them, at what point can we say that South Africa's economic and political sovereignty is secure or when can we say that the principles of reciprocity are satisfied?
In other words, Deputy President, can the hon Ramatlhodi here or the hon Magwanishe there establish a mall or an industry in China, or in Germany, or in Ghana, and take with him 100 or 200 or 500 unemployed South Africans to work there? Is there a provision in these agreements for us to do that? Thank you, sir.
Hon member, on my recent trip to China, I met with the Chinese leadership - the Prime Minister, the Vice President and the President. The main topic of our discussion was a demand from our side that we should have value-added goods which would be manufactured in South Africa and marketed in China, as well as projects that South African companies could identify in China. And that's what was agreed to. The Trade and Industry Ministry provided me with a list of 10 such products, as well as projects, which I handed over to the Chinese authorities.
So, it is indeed possible. In other words, once there's a project in China run by South African enterprises, it is possible to take South African labour into China. That's not difficult. The same applies to other investment outlets on the African continent.
Of course, we would not be as aggressive as the Chinese. As you know they have a population of 1,3 billion, so they normally outperform most countries. That is because their workforce works in a platoon system - they work 24 hours a day in a shift system. However, our workers work a five-day week, they have their weekends off, and so on. Therein lies the rub. Thank you.
Thank you, hon Speaker. Hon Deputy President, we are approaching the end game in Europe now, but we still do not know what will happen there. A recession is on the cards and that tells the story that South Africa cannot look to Europe now for assistance regarding economic growth.
This is now the third question on Africa. Is it not really time to see action from government, that we target Africa in a vigorous way and let Europe and China know that we are also eyeing Africa as a preferred destination? Let us allow our skills to go into Africa to assist the continent and so assist our economy.
I agree with hon Koornhof. However, the qualification is that we can never put all of our eggs in one basket. That is why we need to translate the goodwill that South Africa enjoys in Africa into real projects, but we should do likewise in Vietnam, China, India, Brazil and all the emerging markets where the growth prospects are really promising. I agree that we need to diversify in that regard.
For us to actualise that, we also need to be better organised, particularly the private sector. At the political level we get to identify and know of these opportunities. It is the follow-up and actualisation of those opportunities that tend to be extremely, extremely slow and that is a point of frustration. I agree with you that we really need to jack up our act in that regard. Thank you.
Hon members, although your screens might not come on, when you press the "To talk" button, the names appear on my screen. So, when you want to ask a supplementary question, please press the "To talk" button.
Thank you, Speaker. Our response to the last international crisis we faced was co-ordinated by the Deputy President, three years ago. It was the global financial crisis and the response was summarised in this document, which contained three main interventions.
The first one was a training lay-off scheme worth R2,4 billion. Our calculations show that we have spent only approximately R120 million of this money, which is around 5%, and we have trained only around 20 000 workers.
The second intervention was to spend R787 billion on infrastructure by March 2012. This is in three months' time. Has this money been spent, Mr Deputy President? The Non-Profit Consortium, NPC, for one, seems to have doubts about this, because they said in their plan last week, with regard to infrastructure, that current investment levels are insufficient and maintenance programmes are seriously lagging. Can you put their concerns to rest, Mr Deputy President?
The third was a R10 billion fund called the National Jobs Initiative. Has this money been spent, and on what? How is it that our response to that crisis three years on looks so weak, and how will you assure South Africans that our response to this crisis won't consist of empty promises?
Hon members, you are making it very difficult for the Deputy President to follow the questions. The noise level in the Chamber is very high.
Thank you very much, hon Speaker. Hon members, in 2008 the recession was triggered by the unregulated manner in which the American banks repackaged debt and marketed such debt as assets. So, there was a financial meltdown.
The response was informed by the understanding that we should not pull back from investing in infrastructure and ensuring that as few jobs as possible would get lost in the process.
At that time unknown to us, was the fact that the banks in America were actually in a much healthier state than the banks in Europe. That is what we had no sight of. It is all public knowledge today that our economy was directly affected.
We lost close on a million jobs, but our response was aimed at saving jobs, as well as saving South African companies from going down the tubes; hence these measures. The measures were negotiated and agreed to by organised business, organised labour and the communities, as well as government.
The monies allocated for lay-off schemes were utilised, though not fully, and many jobs were in that sense saved, but some job cutbacks were inevitable and we could not do anything about that.
The plan to invest in infrastructure continues. It is part of the New Growth Path, because the New Growth Path arose from that response at that time.
Now, of course, we are faced with a completely different challenge in that the USA is also in a dicey situation and they may default. The situation in the eurozone is well known to all of us. So, this calls for the kind of response that hon Koornhof alluded to - that we should diversify and move with speed.
In regard to the implementation of build infrastructure and investments, the government has established a commission on infrastructure which is chaired by the President, because we realise that the normal method of making allocations to the provinces and municipalities may not be able to address the infrastructure backlog, particularly with regard to the rural areas as well as the townships. That is why we as the national government have now established this commission.
The idea is to try to follow the approach that we employed in preparing for the Fifa World Cup, where we identify areas in which such infrastructure should be developed, set the timelines and co-ordinate the three spheres of government, so that we are able to implement this within the shortest possible time. That is the approach and I think it will address the key question of whether this money has been spent or not. Thank you. Position regarding steps taken to ensure the answering of all parliamentary questions
16. Mr A Watson (DA) asked the Deputy President:
(1) Whether he has taken any action in respect of any Minister who failed to answer oral and written parliamentary questions (a) within 10 working days and (b) before the question lapses at the end of an annual session; if not, why not, in each case; if so, in each case, (i) in respect of which Minister and (ii) what action;
(2) what corrective steps have been taken to ensure that all parliamentary questions are answered (a) within 10 working days and (b) completely;
(3) whether he intends to ensure that all parliamentary questions to the executive are answered before the end of the annual session; if not, what is the position in this regard; if so, what are the relevant details? NO4350E
Hon Watson, the Rule - I think it's Rule 117(1) - states that a member may request that a question for written reply be placed on the Order Paper for oral reply if it is not answered within 10 days. That is what the Rule says. For some reason this provision has not been used much in the past, but I notice that today this Rule is being used, as there are a number of written questions that have been transferred and are now questions for oral reply.
As I have stated on numerous occasions in this House, Cabinet is committed to meeting the constitutional requirements regarding its accountability to Parliament. Reports are given at each Cabinet meeting and Ministers are urged all the time to answer their parliamentary questions timeously.
I am informed that the procedure followed regarding questions in this Parliament is very similar to other Parliaments in the Westminster tradition, namely that there is really no specified penalty for Ministers for not answering questions, although some Parliaments do require an explanation if a question is not answered for some time.
As I have repeatedly stated, it is up to this House, not the executive, to decide whether the parliamentary Rules need to be amended to make a similar provision.
I would like to highlight the fact that on certain occasions the information that a member requests requires a lot of preparation. In this regard, I would like to draw your attention to the specific example of a question put by the hon Farrow to the Minister of Transport, which appears on today's Order Paper as Question No 78. In order to prepare a reply, the Minister had to go through five lever arch files to be able to respond to that question. He came to my office carrying them, to indicate the challenge.
Furthermore, sometimes the information that is being asked of the executive is freely available in annual reports or other documents already before the House.
At other times questions are asked about provincial matters, for which the national Minister has no responsibility. For example, questions about conditions in a school regarding teachers, or the situation prevailing at a provincial hospital, are essentially not the responsibility of the national sphere of government, but of the provincial sphere. In fact, such questions should be directed to the MECs in the relevant legislatures.
What I'm really saying is that as Cabinet we are committed to responding to all questions. Ministers are always reminded, whenever Cabinet sits, to do so timeously. But, what I'm saying to the members of the House is that it is really their call as to whether or not they believe that the current system isn't working and that the force of persuasion needs to be reinforced. Thank you.
Hon Speaker, through you to the hon Deputy President: I thank you for that reply, hon Deputy President. You replied, stating that this is actually a parliamentary responsibility and not an executive one, and that we have that escape valve of 10 working days. The escape valve is not there so that the questions can automatically be transferred. The duty to this House, where we have a constitutional responsibility, is to answer those questions within 10 days.
You referred to the question by the hon Farrow to the Minister of Transport, but none of these questions have been answered for nine months already! [Interjections.] Is it 50? Okay, 50. The point is that there are hundreds of these unanswered questions. Hon Deputy President, 789 questions submitted by members of this House remain unanswered; 613 of these have been outstanding for more than 10 working days.
I ask you, because you also have a role in this Parliament as Leader of Government Business, whether you will ensure that all parliamentary questions submitted this year will indeed be answered before the questions lapse on 13 December. If not, tell us why not and what measures you intend to institute to ensure that the 10-day-Rule will be adhered to in future. [Applause.]
As I stated, hon Watson, yes, indeed, Cabinet is committed to answering all questions. Even today we had a Cabinet meeting and each and every member of Cabinet was presented with a list of the outstanding questions and their numbers. We reminded them that they are expected to answer all of those questions. That's the spirit in which we approach this matter. Thank you.
Hon Speaker, let me first thank the Deputy President for the response. If we analyse the outstanding questions, I just want to raise a concern with regard to concurrent functions. It is not true that the Minister of Basic Education and the Minister of Health can actually argue that some of the functions are provincial functions. They are concurrent functions and, therefore, they ultimately hold the responsibility for those portfolios.
Can I just say that out of the total number of written questions submitted this year, 18% have so far not been answered. Out of the 3 684 questions that were submitted by all parties, 659 are still outstanding as we are gathered here today. What is more significant is that if you analyse questions not responded to by the executive, you will see that the ANC has only 2% outstanding questions, whereas the opposition parties have a lot more. In our case, we in Cope have 23% of the outstanding questions that have not been responded to, and 66% belong to the DA and other parties.
That gives the impression that the executive does not want to be accountable to a specific component of the National Assembly. I trust that that is not true. Will the Deputy President give an undertaking that he will again stress ...
Hon member, your time has expired.
... the importance of a responsive, open government? Thank you.
Thank you very much, hon Kilian. Yes, indeed, as I said, in every Cabinet meeting we remind each and every Minister about this, and furnish them with a list of outstanding questions. I must confess that we have not made an analysis of this, or put them into categories, in accordance with the party affiliations of the persons posing the questions. We just regard them as parliamentary questions and we believe it is important that all of them are responded to. We offer no excuse whatsoever in that regard.
With regard to concurrent functions, the point I'm making is that where a question requires specific information which is only available in an annual report, or which requires the Minister to go and seek answers from other people at provincial level, it is better to pose the questions to those at that level, rather than to elevate them to the national level, because then it takes a bit longer for the answers to be provided. But, what we are committing to is to respond to all questions timeously. Thank you.
Ndiyabulela Somlomo. Ndililungu elihloniphekileyo uDunjwa, umatshini wam awusebenzi. Ndiyabulela Sekela-mongameli ngeempendulo ezicacileyo othe wasinika zona nangokusikhumbuza ukuba sithe sath atha imigaqo yamanye amazwe. Siyakubulela ke ngokusikhumbuza loo nto. Kodwa ke, ndithe xa ndimamele ndeva ukuba uyacacisa ukuba ikhona into elungiswayo yi- ofisi yakho. Sithi ke asizokuphinda sibuze omnye umbuzo, ntonje sicela i- ofisi yakho, nesigqeba sakho kunye nathi singamaLungu ePalamente ukuba silungise apho siqondayo ukuba asenzi ngokufanelekileyo. Ndiyabulela. [Kwaqhwatywa.]
USEKELA-MONGAMELI: Nam ndiyabulela. [Kwahlekwa.] (Translation of isiXhosa paragraphs follows.)
[Ms M L DUNJWA: Thank you, hon Speaker. I am hon Dunjwa; my microphone is not working at all. Thank you, Deputy President, for the crystal clear answers you have provided and for reminding us that we have adopted the policies of other countries. We thank you for reminding us. However, as I am listening I heard that you are explaining that there is something your office is doing. We will not ask any further questions, but we request you and your staff at the office, the executive, the hon Members of Parliament to rectify what we have not been doing correctly. Thank you. [Applause.]
Thank you. [Laughter.]]