Deputy Speaker, Mr Speaker, Comrade Deputy President, comrades and hon members, on behalf of the APC we stand to support this Budget Vote. We congratulate Parliament for having received an unqualified audit opinion from the Auditor-General for a number of years, and for the recognition of the progressive addressing of the issues that has thus far been identified. We hope Parliament will progressively move towards a clean audit.
However, we want to raise a few issues around vacancies. We are aware that in the previous year vacancies were around 17%, although it was actually even higher in other divisions and areas. The question is what impact this has on some of the issues that are still on the negative side, issues like the failure to pay service providers within 30 days and the use of consultants. We are aware that it has moved down from R66 million to about R54 million. We would like that to be progressively reduced.
Regarding the issues around the misstatements in the annual financial statement of the previous year, to what extent is the lack of personnel responsible for the inability to prepare statements appropriately? We are also happy that irregular expenditure has been whittled down from R10 million to about R600 000 in the previous year. However, we would like to see this completely eliminated. As the APC, we want to congratulate Mr Coetzee on his appointment as Secretary to Parliament. Hon Speaker, I hope that the chief financial officer, CFO, position will equally be permanently filled timeously.
We support the strategic priorities and spending focus of Parliament, especially the one that deals with increasing public participation and the increase of oversight visits by committees. During the centenary of the Natives Land Act, I was reminded of our people who are evicted from farms in the areas around Piet Retief, Commondale, Dirkiesdorp, Wakkerstroom. Nineteen years after democracy we have people who are self-sufficient peasants, who are thrown off farms, who lose their cattle, goats, chickens and maize. Basically, people who were self-sufficient have today been rendered indigent and are a burden to government.
Last week I saw a family of 30 people who have been evicted from a farm and are living in a hall. They have been living in that hall since November. There are about seven beds in that hall, where the grandmother, children, daughters-in-law and the kids all sleep. Now even the municipality is threatening to throw them out of that hall. The question is, what does parliamentary oversight do to ensure that these kinds of things do not happen?
I have seen people who have been shot and those who have lost their eyes and limbs; all of them are victims of brutality of the farmers in those areas. The question is, where are we as representatives of the people, and how do we positively impact the lives of these people?
The ability of Parliament to enhance oversight visits will go and can go a long way in ensuring that the lives of our people are improved. As the APC, we support the Budget Vote. I thank you. [Applause.]