Hon Chair, the reason why the DA opposes this Budget Vote is the fact that we do not support the existence of the Economic Development department, and we believe that its duties and actions can be performed by Finance and by Trade and Industry.
The other point that concerns us is the situation that the department should be providing some form of direction in economic policy. With regard to the annual report that was done by the department, the report that actually appeared in the Announcements, Tablings and Committee Reports, ATC, was different from what was agreed on in the committee and the support for the national democratic revolution was placed in there.
Of great concern to us is that it's causing uncertainty - this failure to provide policy direction. We believe that the department has done that by including support for the national democratic revolution in a report, something that was actually not agreed to by the members of the committee. For that reason, we will be opposing this Budget Vote. Thank you.