I now call on the hon D W MacPherson. He will be making his maiden speech. [Applause.]
Hon Chairperson, I think the entire nation, including Luthuli House, literally heard the hon Tsopo tonight! [Laughter.]
The Portfolio Committee on Trade and Industry is surely one of the most important committees in Parliament as it is tasked with the responsibility of setting the tone of and course for industrialisation. It is similarly tasked with creating an enabling environment for investment, both foreign and local, and ensuring that regulatory institutions tasked with the mandate of protecting citizens' rights in a consumer market work effectively. Against this backdrop, we have to take stock of where we are in order to know where we are going as a committee, as Parliament and as a country.
Of the proposed budget of R9,8 billion, 45% of the budget, or R4,4 billion, is used as incentives to support sustainable and productive economic growth. This is a good thing. However, we have government departments that are working against one another, because we know that the ANC as a whole does not support the NDP. [Interjections.] We can see that the ANC and its alliance partners are pulling in opposite directions to the NDP and only pay lip service to it, with devastating consequences for investment and development.
The strike by the National Union of Mineworkers of South African, Numsa, which has now shut down the automotive manufacturing sector, is one such example. This department invests heavily in the sector through the Automotive Investment Scheme, yet it is prepared to stand back and watch the industry collapse and, in turn, the investment of South Africa's tax rands, because the Minister is unwilling to engage stakeholders - more specifically the unions and the Minister of Labour - on the matter.
Labour unrest is one of the biggest challenges facing South African manufacturing. Today, the Southern African Clothing & Textile Workers' Union, Sactwu, issued strike notices to employers of a strike in the textile industry commencing on Thursday. Should this happen, factories will close, jobs will be lost and government will lose its investment through its incentive scheme in the industry. Where is the Minister to be found? What is his plan? The manufacturing sector certainly doesn't know and neither do I.
Instead of ensuring an enabling environment for investment and manufacturing - which this department is tasked with - it would appear the department is hellbent on doing exactly the opposite. I refer to the Government Gazette of 15 July 2014, which is set to revoke corporate visa applications for those wanting to participate in the hospitality industry, fast food outlets, and franchises in the cosmetic and beauty industry. How can this be a good thing for our economy, hon Minister? How will this create jobs?
What is more worrying is how the Minister could have agreed to such a recommendation with Home Affairs when it was not even discussed in our committee. Even worse, it would seem that no regulatory impact assessment study to determine the effects of this decision on these industries was completed. If this is indeed true, then this must be one of the worst examples of this Minister and this department speaking with a forked tongue on investment and job creation, and then doing the exact opposite.
The National Empowerment Fund, NEF, is supposed to promote and facilitate black economic participation through the provision of financial and nonfinancial support to black-empowered businesses, as envisaged in the National Empowerment Fund Act, Act 105 of 1998. Regrettably, this is no longer happening due to budgetary constraints, depriving aspirant black entrepreneurs from contributing to the economy and creating much needed employment.
To date, the NEF has created 46 000 jobs and, should the agency be fully recapitalised, it could support 21 strategic projects that have been identified and support job creation for 80 000 people. The sad reality is that for the last 12 months up to April 2014 the NEF was unable to finance a single project because it did not receive sufficient financing from the DTI. However, the DA's Western Cape government gave R18 million to the NEF, while not a single ANC province in this country did the same thing. [Interjections.]
A request to Treasury for R2,3 billion was turned down, rendering the fund paralysed, with entrepreneurs being the biggest losers. Access to affordable finance is at the heart of emerging entrepreneurship, and the very entity that should be doing this can't, because it does not have the support of the DTI.
What has the department done to help them? Very little, only further showing how little the DTI is willing to engage in cross-departmental discussions, which is now at the expense of black businessmen and women. How do we grow black industrialists, hon Fubbs, when we can't even finance them? The National Regulator for Compulsory Specifications, NRCS, is another example of an entity under this department that is failing the people of South Africa who are trying to create jobs. It has come to my attention that the NRCS has unilaterally decided to change the procedures around letters of authority to the electro-technical industry. The lead time for applications has now gone from 21 days to 120 days. [Interjections.]
From what I understand, inadequate notice of this revision was given to stakeholders and it appears that very little, if any, consideration was given to the effects which this decision would have on the industry. We now have a situation in which goods are being held up by customs at ports because letters of authority are not issued. Where is the good story to tell? Minister, these are just a few examples that clearly need your attention and leadership.
On the whole, incentives in key sectors are working, but more can be done. We all agree that South Africa must industrialise on a scale that creates millions of real, sustainable jobs. We simply cannot pay lip service to the National Development Plan, NDP, and the Industrial Policy Action Plan, Ipap, which is currently happening.
There are no quick fixes to South Africa's jobs crisis, hon Minister, but you can either be remembered as the man who heeded the call of the 34% of unemployed South Africans to take urgent action, or you can be remembered as the man who ignored them, bound by an ideological fantasy, determined to go it alone, fighting a zero-sum game of political economic populism with your former Red revolutionaries.
I would just like to draw attention to two things that the hon Zulu raised. She said that by 2030, 11 million jobs would have been created. But this is not going to happen with growth of 1,7%. You truly have to be living on planet Nimrod to believe such a thing. [Laughter.] [Interjections.] In fact, we have lost 122 000 jobs just in this quarter. How on earth are you going to create 11 million jobs?
The hon Fubbs talks about manufacturing going up, but let me tell you, there are only three things that have gone up this year and they are interest rates, the petrol price and unemployment. Those are the only three things that are on the up. Employment is not one of them. I thank you. [Applause.]
Hon members, I just want to issue the call that those members who have declared that they would be making their maiden speeches, should be assisted and advised by their political party structures not to be controversial. All of those who have made maiden speeches have been controversial. We cannot build a culture of respect for those making maiden speeches, while we undermine that same culture. Thank you very much, hon members. I now call upon the hon Mr B M Mkongi, who will be making his maiden speech.
Hon Chairperson, Members of Parliament, and distinguished guests, I am standing here in the front of this House this evening to put forward a case for the youth, especially in the era of reindustrialisation. I am dedicating my speech to millions of young people and their generation, who stood firm and fought tirelessly against the apartheid colonial machinery that wanted to rob them of their freedom in their lifetime. [Applause.]
Over the past 20 years the ANC has laid a solid foundation for the creation of a national democratic society and a better life for all our people. The ANC-led government has put in place many policies aimed at youth development and the participation of the youth in the economy. For this purpose, the ANC-led government established the National Youth Commission in 1996, the Umsobomvu Youth Fund in 1998 and the National Youth Development Agency in 2009, including the National Skills Development Framework and the National Student Financial Aid Scheme, to name but a few. However, more needs to be done if we want to integrate young people into the mainstream of the economy.
Youth is a microcosm of society. The problems of our society are huge and difficult, therefore youth problems are complex and melancholy. More complex challenges still persist and most of them continue to affect young people in this country. This is a call for action in the case for the youth. It is in this context that President Jacob Zuma, in his 17 June 2014 state of the nation address, reminded all South Africans that, as we enter the second phase of our transition, we have to embark on radical socioeconomic transformation to push back the frontiers of poverty, unemployment and inequality; and that we have to realise that this change will not come about without some far-reaching interventions. Indeed, we need these far-reaching interventions.
The ANC understood that the problem in South Africa is structural unemployment, widening inequalities and widespread poverty. The ANC is of the firm view that this triple challenge is a direct result of the persisting and stubborn structural problems in the South African economy.
The ANC 53rd National Conference in Mangaung concluded that:
These structural problems in our economy require a structural solution that would transform the trajectory of our economic landscape.
Since the youth is the largest social group of the unemployed, it therefore goes without saying that any meaningful economic transformation will have to jealously target and benefit young people. Hence, in this second phase of the transition, the ANC has adopted a radical stance to economic change based on the currently existing material conditions. This radical stance is aimed at decisively breaking ranks with the past through a decisive break with rising youth unemployment, widespread youth poverty and widening inequality between the youth and the older generations in South Africa. This project also calls on us to rid our country of predatory and exploitative tendencies in the workplace.
This is why the ANC and the President adopted the position that if we want sustainable and inclusive growth in our country, South Africa needs to implement industrialisation, reindustrialise, and integrate youth in the forefront of our industrial strategies.
At the outset we need to state that industrialisation is key to any meaningful economic transformation to tackle the three interrelated social ills of poverty, unemployment and inequality. It is key, because it is only through massive industrial expansion of production that our economy will be able to create the large number of decent jobs that our country require and our youth desperately need, as well as to eradicate poverty as we reduce the income inequality gap.
The ANC welcomes the development of the Youth Enterprise Development Strategy by the Department of Trade and Industry, DTI, and many other similar initiatives that are aimed at increasing the contribution of youth- owned and youth-managed enterprises to the gross domestic product as well as increasing the number of youth-owned and youth-managed enterprise start- ups in all sectors of the economy. However, more still needs to be done.
Going forward, the intensive and extensive training of our youth to become the core of our labour-intensive, high-tech-based production processes is therefore essential. Our youth must be targeted in large numbers for training as artisans, technicians and engineers in various fields of the real production of the economy to groom them to be future industrialists.
The ANC-led government therefore remains committed to the agreements of the Youth Employment Accord, the Skills Accord and many other initiatives that are aimed at including the youth in skills development projects; to the improvement of education and training opportunities for the groupings between school leaving and first employment; and to connecting young people with employment opportunities through, amongst others, support for job placement schemes and work readiness initiatives.
The ANC embraces the creation of black industrialists as well as a nonracial and nonsexist entrepreneur class in South Africa. Hence our strategy involves the formulation and strengthening of policies that support the development of young black industrialists and entrepreneurs who will provide productive inputs into the real economy rather than the so- called shareholder transactions.
The Global Entrepreneurship Monitor 2012 Report notes that, throughout the world, shifts in population dynamics, technology changes, fluctuating economies and other dynamic forces have transformed societies as never before, bringing new challenges and opportunities to the forefront. Among the responses to these shifting forces is increased emphasis on entrepreneurship by government, organisations and the public.
Hence, at home we are facing a major problem of how to tap into this growing global trajectory when the challenges we are facing are further exacerbated by the history of the apartheid colonial system, which today still remains a major obstacle to our collective prosperity.
In a nutshell, our people face the well-known problems of inadequate access to credit, lack of business skills, and lack of business networks to facilitate a prosperous trading environment. Therefore, what we need to address during this fifth term of Parliament is marshalling and locating the youth as a key driver of economic growth. Whilst recognising the great strides that the DTI and our government have made for the youth in the past 20 years, I contend that we need to do the following, and fast.
On the regulatory front, we need a tax regime that facilitates the ease of doing business by new emerging black industrialists. This specifically means that in the same way that we aided the growth and sustainability of white businesses by allowing them to meet minimum broad-based black economic empowerment requirements, we should have specific incentives and relaxed regulations for emerging young black entrepreneurs, and Africans in particular. [Applause.] We should develop a tax system and regulations that encourage new small and medium enterprises, SMEs, and growing firms owned by young people, especially young women. Why do we have an income tax for micro enterprises or a tax system that hinders the entrance of young Africans in particular?
There is a clear correlation between exploitation of business opportunities and levels of education. It follows, therefore, that the long-term solution lies in education and further education and training, as Minister Blade Nzimade put it. It responds to the national priorities of the state. It must produce industrialists to respond to the era of industrialisation in South Africa. This was the design of apartheid for white kids. We should teach our youth to be independent thinkers and go-getters in business and arm them with entrepreneurial tools from an early age.
We should aim to achieve greater results in innovation, where the focus should be on new products and services as opposed to competing in the "me too" commodities and retail environment. We must find a way to reward innovation and encourage it amongst young entrepreneurs and finance those with highly innovative ideas that would benefit the youth.
We must improve the availability of financial resources in respect of equity and debt of small and medium enterprises owned by young people, including grants and subsidies.
Lastly, I believe that access to infrastructure is critical. We must ensure ease of access to physical resources such as communication, utilities, transportation, land or space at a price that encourages the sustainability of young people.
Well, I am taking my gloves off and removing my red beret. Hon Chance, you must not allow yourself to come into this House and take chances by telling this House about the DA's experience. I want to remind you that the DA has the experience of supporting slave wages in our economy. In the Western Cape, the DA has the experience of closing down every institution that is established to empower a black businessperson. [Interjections.] [Applause.]
I want to tell you about the kind of experience that the DA has. It has experience in closing down schools that are utilised by black children in this province. [Applause.] It has a negative track record, one of fighting against black economic empowerment. That is the DA that I know. It has governance experience of throwing people out of Lwandle and burning their shacks. That is our experience of the DA in this province. I had to migrate to Gauteng, run away from this oppression. [Interjections.]
Chairperson, may I address you on a point of order?
Hon member, you are on your last two minutes.
May I address you on a point of order?
In the last two minutes, the gloves are off. The matters that are related to the Freedom Charter ... [Interjections.]
Chairperson, I rise on a point of order and submit that the member is deliberately misleading this House. I ask you to rule on that. [Interjections.]
Order, hon member! It is unparliamentary to say that somebody is lying.
No, it was in the last sitting.
Order! Is he deliberately misleading the House?
He is misleading the House. [Interjections.]
Can I hear you? [Interjections.] Order! Order, hon members! Let us hear the point of order, please.
Yes, on a point of order: The member is misleading this House.
I rise on a point of order, Chair!
No. Sit down. Can you continue, hon member, and finish your last two minutes.
It is a national question that the DA closed schools that are utilised by black children in the Western Cape. It is true. [Interjections.] [Applause.]
Hon Chairperson ...
Is that a point of order?
Hon Chairperson, I want to know if the hon member will take a question on the falsehoods he is saying ...
I don't have time!
Take your seat! Hon member, will you take a question?
The Freedom Charter ...
Hon Chairperson, will he take a question?
Take your seat. Hon member, will you take a question?
No.
All right, continue.
The Freedom Charter is an authentic document of the people. The leader in terms of getting the demands of the people into the Freedom Charter is the ANC. And the ANC ... [Interjections.]
Order, just hold on, hon member. Can we avoid misusing time? [Interjections.]
I am not. Chair, I would like to ask you if the hon member is prepared to take questions on evictions in Gauteng. [Interjections.]
No. Hon member, that question has been raised and the hon member refused to take a question. [Interjections.] Please let us not misuse time unnecessarily. It is late in the night. Hon member, could you finish in 30 seconds?
With regard to the economic transformation agenda of the ANC, the ANC is an experienced driver that has a licence to drive a vehicle, and this vehicle is the South African masses. [Interjections.] The ANC cannot be a reckless driver and put our economic transformation trajectory in reverse, towards recklessness. Robustness is not equal to recklessness and radicalism is not equal to rudeness. The ANC, as the leader of society, is leading our people into a national democratic society, laying an economic foundation for that particular national ... [Interjections.] What I am trying to say is that the EFF is trying to engage in grandstanding. Thank you very much. [Time expired.] [Applause.]
Chairperson, I liked what Ms Tsopo said, namely that we should teach our youth to be go-getters. I think this is very important, because for a very long time the space was never created for our young black people to be go-getters. [Interjections.] I would also like to send the message to young people that they must never be afraid of confronting challenges.
My department envisages a partnership with Basic Education and with Higher Education and Training so that we will be able to inculcate the culture of entrepreneurship in our youth. This is the time for them to do so.
As I did not have enough time in the beginning, I would like to conclude by saying that I pronounce the Budget Vote as collectively presented by the leadership of the DTI and the Department of Small Business Development, which has focused on elements that are aimed at advancing our mandate. I would also like to say that we are new, we are young, we will be creative and we will be robust, because the most important thing that we have to do is deliver on our mandate. [Interjections.]
I want to say that our department will focus on the active participation of SMMEs and co-operatives in the priority sectors as identified by the National Development Plan, the Industrial Policy Action Plan, the New Growth Path as well as the priority areas for public procurement. I am mentioning these points because they are very important.
The implementation of the Entrepreneurship Development Programme through centres for entrepreneurship in all nine provinces came into being; the Seda Technology Programme has started in the nine provinces; the Incubation Support Programme increased and enhanced demand for goods and services produced by small businesses and co-operatives; the programme to enhance secondary co-operatives for inclusion in the value chain was implemented, as was the National Informal Business Upliftment Strategy, Nibus; and there is collaboration with the DTI on implementation of export villages and support for township economies, jointly with Economic Development.
I would also like to make it very clear that there is no confusion with regard to the functions that have to migrate to us. These are the following: Co-operative Development Strategy; gender and women empowerment programmes; the Incubation Support Programme; support for township business; the Small and Medium Enterprise Development Programme, SMEDP; Centre for Entrepreneurship; Small Enterprise Finance Agency; and the Small Enterprise Development Agency, Seda. I would also like to say that there are financial incentives that have supported SMMEs and co-operatives within the DTI.
In conclusion, I would like to address Mr Chance.
Mnu Chance, ngicela ungathathi ishansi. Ngicela ungathathi ishansi ngoba mina nawe sisasendleleni iminyaka emihlanu futhi nginesiqiniseko sokuthi kule minyaka eyisihlanu esizobe sisebenzisana kuyo, ngiyabonga ukuthi kukhona okuhle futhi okwakhayo okuvela ngakunina.
Kepha-ke, ngifuna ukusho kuwena Mnu Chance ukuthi angiyena u-Cinderella mina. Ngilapha ngoba ngikuvezile ukuthi kungifanele ukuthi ngibe la. Umzabalazo ungihambise amazwe amaningi engingabala kuwo i-Tanzania, i- Angola, i-Uganda, i-Russia kanye namanye amazwe. [Ihlombe.]
Ngakho-ke, Mnu Chance ungathathi amashansi ngoba angiyena u-Cinderella. Siyabonga, Sekela Sihlalo. [Ihlombe.] (Translation of isiZulu paragraphs follows.)
[Mr Chance, please don't take chances. Please don't take chances, because we have been working together for five years and I'm sure that something good and constructive will come from you for which I will be grateful.
However, I'd like to tell you, Mr Chance, that I'm not Cinderella. I'm here because I have demonstrated that it is befitting for me to be here. The struggle has taken me to many countries such as Tanzania, Angola, Uganda and Russia as well as other countries. [Applause.]
Therefore, Mr Chance, don't take chances, because I'm not Cinderella. Thank you, Temporary Chairperson. [Applause.]]
Chairperson, I think we have had an indication of the spectrum of opinion on these matters, which actually leads me to believe that we are on the right track. To start off with the DA, I think that they have been showing themselves to be very good at describing the woes. In fact, there is a phrase that was coined by the late bird fellow in the ideological sense, Spiro T Agnew, who was a Vice President of the United States, which I think sums them up to a tee: "They are a bunch of nattering nabobs of negativism!" [Laughter.] [Interjections.]
And, I think, while they are that, they are actually not very good at offering solutions. You see, the contradiction with the DA is that their inclination was summed up by the hon Alberts. They believe in light-touch- only interventions. I think Mr Chance was also moving in that direction in his intervention.
By the way, I tried to search Mr Chance on Google because I do not know him, but I find that he does not have a profile on Google, so he must be even more modest than I. [Laughter.] [Applause.] I think the contradiction is that when it comes to the Western Cape government, they want to claim all of the programmes that owe their existence to our interventions when, in fact, they have done very little to achieve anything in those programmes. [Interjections.] [Applause.]
That is true of the oil and gas industry in the Saldanha IDZ. It is true of the clothing and textile sector. It is true of the television manufacturing that is taking place in Atlantis. It is true of the green industries that are receiving IDC funding. It is true of the film incentives that have been the support of the film industry and it is true of the business process services. All of those programmes in the Western Cape province owe their existence to the DTI's incentive programme. [Applause.]
Let me come to a few points as quickly as I can. Let me say that we do not believe that industrialisation will be confined to the South African domestic market. We are not looking at an import substitution model. We are looking at turning industrial development towards the continent. We are looking at promoting regional integration, because that will create a large regional market that will support and sustain industrial development.
We have just come back from the Brics conference. One of the interventions that we made during our tenure as chair of Brics was that we launched a study into promoting value-added trade amongst Brics countries, and we have agreement on it. That is an indication that we are looking outside - but we are looking outside in a strategic way - and we are looking to support manufacturing and value-added investments.
On the bilateral investment treaties, I want to refer the hon Hill-Lewis to an article by Ann Crotty in the last Sunday Times. She points out quite correctly that the very people who have been mouthing off about our cancelling the bilateral treaties are now themselves having second thoughts about those treaties in the context of the negotiations that they are having with the United States. [Interjections.] I make no apology for being an early mover on a very important matter.
Let me just say to the hon MacPherson that we are in fact working energetically to recapitalise the National Empowerment Fund. We do believe that the National Empowerment Fund has a critical role to play.
With regard to the question of the LOAs, letters of authority, from the National Regulator for Compulsory Specifications, who is he speaking for? He is speaking for importers of potentially substandard products. [Interjections.] The time we have taken is so that we can do a proper assessment. By the way, the time that we have been taking is much less than two years, which is common in other places. Let me move very quickly ... [Interjections.]
Chairperson, on a point of order, a very serious one: The hon member who is sitting behind hon Manana just shouted, "Voertsek," across the floor. That is not parliamentary! [Interjections.]
Chairperson!
(Mr B L Mashile): Order, hon members! Is it an allegation, or have you really heard him? [Interjections.] Order, order! Hon Mandela?
Chairperson, the hon member is misleading the House. [Interjections.] No such thing was said. [Interjections.]
(Mr B L Mashile): Order! I did not hear it either. Did the hon member say, "Voertsek?"
Hon Chair, ek het ges:"Luister!" Hulle moet luister. [Tussenwerpsels.] [I said: "Listen!" They must listen. [Interjections.]]
Order! Thank you very much. Hon Minister, you can continue.
I want to recommend that they all get a bunch of hearing aids. [Interjections.] Can I just sum up what I think of the DA? The DA's approach to localisation and industrialisation is insufficient to bring about the structural changes necessary to realise the growth rates that they are talking about. So, the growth rates that they are talking about are just pie in the sky. Let me turn briefly to the hon Shivambu. He is quite correct in saying that we need to move further forward in localisation, towards the target of 75%, and that we need to do this building on local capacity. He is quite correct about that. In fact, what we are doing is that we have included food in the designations that we are dealing with. The designations are akin to our legal intervention. What I think is the problem with the hon Shivambu is he thinks that if we just stand up here and legislate 75% rather than move progressively towards that ... [Time expired.] Thank you very much. That's the problem, See you when I have enough time! [Interjections.] [Applause.]
Chairperson, can you allow him to conclude, please. [Interjections.]
Order! That concludes the business and the Committee will now rise.
Debate concluded.