Hon House Chairperson, I just want to indicate at the outset that, as the ANC, we proudly support this Budget Vote. [Applause.] We are aware of the fact - and I think it has been proven - that the two opposition parties, that is the EFF and the DA, are really running short of ideas and reasons for opposing this Budget Vote. What they are saying now are the things they have been saying previously, except for the EFF, that has just joined. [Interjections.]
Why do you question the existence of a department whose responsibility is neither yours, nor mine or even the Minister's? I think we all know that that responsibility lies with the President. It is the President's own prerogative to decide what department to establish and who to appoint and on what grounds, of course, directed by the ruling party. We are involved in a national democratic revolution and we cannot be ashamed of that. We said that we need to speedily transform the economic situation of this country. We cannot leave out that role and not assign that responsibility to someone, thereby giving meaning to it; hence this department's existence.
I want us to also understand that previously it was the relationship between the NDP and the New Growth Path ... [Time expired.] [Applause.]
Vote agreed to (Democratic Alliance and Economic Freedom Fighters dissenting).
Vote 29 - Energy - put.
Declarations of vote: