Mr Speaker, the DA private member's Bill will decrease the power of the Minister of Police, and none too soon! The powers under the apartheid-era National Key Points Act are as breathtakingly broad and open to abuse as the world came to expect of this country prior to 1994. It is crystal clear that this legislation is unconstitutional and has no place in a democratic South Africa. That this apartheid-era legislation is still in existence 20 years into democracy is a national shame. There are a myriad of problems with it.
It allows the Minister of Police sole discretion over what is considered a national key point, without any checks or balances at all. We know how it was used in the apartheid days to prop up that illegitimate regime, but sadly, we equally know how it is being used and abused today.
That the Act is still being used is appalling. That it is being used to cover the abuse of the state coffer is even worse. It's because the very definition of a national key point is so vague that this current regime is able to use it as a free pass into the vaults themselves.
The apartheid regime didn't want the list of national key points publicly available so that they could hide behind the Act, while at the same time using it to arrest any protestor who unintentionally came near one, and then charge them with treason. Of course, it's extremely handy today that we have no clear published list of the national key points. This means no parliamentary oversight, which in turn provides yet another opportunity to loot a slush fund, as we've seen happen with the SA Police Service, SAPS, Crime Intelligence budget.
Another bizarre twist with regard to the National Key Points Act is that the Minister can, without anyone's permission, declare a property or entity to be a national key point, leaving the owners with the unenviable task of paying for security upgrades at whatever cost the Minister deems necessary. On the flip side, of course, he also has the absolute right to delve into taxpayers' pockets and make them pay for upgrades and so-called security needs as he wishes. Certainly, no power of this kind that negatively affects the rights of so many should be concentrated in the hands of one Minister. It speaks to the paranoia of the past.
This paranoia continues in the Ministry of Police today. I say this because other Ministers in this government - including State Security, Home Affairs, Health, and Science and Technology - have had no qualms about releasing a list to us, through parliamentary questions, of all the national key points falling under their control. Yet, Minister Mthethwa refuses to supply us with the current list of national key points.
The 2013-14 SAPS budget indicates that there will be 197 national key points by 2015-16, an increase of 15 from today. The national key points fall under the Police budget line item Government Security Regulator, which will receive R91,5 million this year.
So, I stand here today, faced with the situation that the so-called national key points have not been scrutinised by the portfolio committee, despite the budget being made available for their protection.
What we do know is that the money is being used, personnel are being paid, but we cannot hold government accountable for the use of this money unless we are given the full details. This includes the exorbitant expenditure of R206 million on President Zuma's private residence in Nkandla, which includes a number of nonsecurity-related expenses. Why a person's private residence has been declared a national key point has never been explained, nor indeed has the exorbitant expenditure on that private residence.
It is vital that this list is provided to the Portfolio Committee on Police, so that the Members of Parliament may conduct their mandated oversight role and hold the government accountable. That is what we as Members of Parliament are paid to do. The fact is that the existing system has proven to be prone to abuse, and this abuse continues, as there is no parliamentary oversight.
With our new Bill, parliamentary oversight is a paramount objective. This Bill will be implemented by the Department of Police and deliberated upon by Parliament's Portfolio Committee on Police, which is an open committee. Only under extenuating circumstances can the committee deliberate behind closed doors on matters pertaining to critical infrastructure, and the criteria for those circumstances are clearly set out in the Bill.
Indeed, the DA only accedes to attending an officially closed session of the committee when we are to be briefed on certain sections of crime intelligence that must of necessity remain behind closed doors. Every citizen knows, indeed it is common knowledge around the globe, that President Zuma and his Cabinet Ministers are using an archaic and unconstitutional piece of legislation to attempt to justify the expenditure and to hide its true extent.
This Bill is aimed at ensuring that this will never, ever, happen again. For the Minister to suggest today that the DA would ever propose a Bill that might in any way allow a threat to national security is both predictable and ridiculous. This Bill would protect true vulnerable entities, not bling up the private homes of a President or the Minister of Police himself at taxpayers' expense.
The ANC has failed to create an Act in line with our enlightened Constitution over the past 20 years, intentionally so. So, we have done it for them! Premature my foot! [Applause.]