Speaking of "number one", this Parliament finally achieved - after being stone-walled, and here the pun is intended, for most of the year - a debate on the unconstitutionality of the National Key Points Act. [Interjections.] For an entire 80 minutes, Parliament was engaged and allowed to talk about Nkandla and the President's R200 million kraal and tuck shop. [Interjections.] Not even Ministers Nxesi, Radebe or Mthethwa could get an interdict to prevent this debate. None of these actions and achievements would have been possible without the DA. The DA requested these debates and asked for Dina Pule to be investigated by the committee. [Interjections.]
Oh, I nearly forgot to mention one final scrumptious achievement: Parliament successfully ate its way through R16 million worth of food this past year! [Interjections.] Yet, not even all these cakes and tarts and pastries could entice our ANC colleagues to sit here long enough to pass their own bad Bills. Yes, I am, of course, referring to the ANC not getting enough of its own members to pass its job-killing Labour Relations Amendment Bill and corruption-condoning National Lotteries Amendment Act.
However, there are other, more serious things that Parliament did not achieve this year. It is a grand failure of this Parliament that the Economics Cluster has answered oral questions only once this entire year, at a time when the people of South Africa are desperate for jobs and desperate to know that their leaders are helping them. The reason for this may be simple, however. The last time the President tried to reassure the country on its economy, the rand dropped to 10 against the dollar. Alternatively, perhaps the Economics Cluster has adopted the same approach to Parliament as Minister Shabangu has to the mines - also will not be visited this year, at all. Minister Shabangu, are you here? [Interjections.] Point made. All in all, this is not a very good balance sheet of the achievements and failures of Parliament under an ANC majority.
All is not lost, however. If Parliament were as blue as we are out there amongst the voters, I can promise you that the following things would have been added to our list of achievements this year: We would have debated Nkandla over and over; we would have debated the presence of the South African troops in the Central African Republic; we would not have allowed Parliament to pass the Speaker's naive supply chain management regulations; our Private Members' Bills would have been made law by now, which would have prevented attempted sex offenders from working with children; and we would have ensured that traditional knowledge is properly protected. [Interjections.]
Fear not, however, because as this House rises, a new dawn is breaking. [Interjections.]