Hon House Chair, colleagues ...
... masithetheni ngolu hlobo. [Let us do it like this.]
Let's first provide a very important distinction, a fundamental distinction, between cyclical and structural issues so that we can give this debate the right kind of context.
In so far as what the government has done in terms of dealing with short- run issues and demand management or stabilisation policies when, for example, you use the interest rate or you use fiscal policy and you then rely on your countercyclical fiscal policy stance ...
... asikwazi ukunigxeka kuba nisendleleni. Kodwa ndicinga ukuba imiba eyiyingxaki yinto yokuba ukuba niza kuthetha ... [... we cannot criticise you because you are on track. But I think if you are going to talk ...]
... about the developmental state, there are structural issues which are more long term ...
... ekufuneka zijongiwe ... [which need to be looked at ...]
... like your parastals, the state-owned enterprises and the role they play and whether or not we are getting value for money. The efficiency of state- owned enterprises, SOEs, because they are an important element to make sure that as a developmental state, the objectives that are set are achieved.
Once you start talking about the structural issues, the challenge we have is that it affects the fabric of the economy and then the debates become ideological.
Ke thina uphuhliso lwesizwe njengefilosofi yezoqoqosho sayithetha kuqala kune-ANC. [But as far as national development as an economic philosophy is concerned, we talked about it long before the ANC.]
I think what is important now is to keep on reminding you about the ways of doing it including the governance issues.
Kutheni sisoloko nje sisilwa nemiba yorhwaphilizo, ... [Why do we always fight issues of corruption, ...]
... precisely for the reasons of making sure that governance is on the right track. Let me give an example about the state-owned enterprise, Eskom, the ruling party likes to say that there are no bail outs. There are no enterprises that are bailed out. It is like saying the grass is green and the other person saying, green is the grass because at the end of the day once you give a guarantee if they do not pay, who will pay? The government will pay. In essence even if it is better like that it raises government contingent liabilities. So, it is a bailout in the true sense of the word.
The question we must ask is, for how long are we going to continue bailing out the state-owned enterprises that are not effective and efficient instead of dealing with especially the people who run these state-owned enterprises and making sure that they are effective and efficient? They deliver on their developmental goals and their developmental agenda of government so that the developmental state is achieved.
How do we make sure that the role, in particular, of development financing institutions - to ask a critical question - is to build and also mediate in the interaction between government on the one hand, and the private sector, on the other, because that will ensure that the objectives that we set, which we want to achieve when we put economy on a different path, are correct. [Time expired.]