Chairperson, I am here in the place of Mr Paul Mnguni, who is not well. So it's a privilege to speak on his behalf. At least the Department of Public Works does not own or manage the Lost City or Sun City, so I will not ask about the Gupta wedding. However, I did notice that with two hard, bold communists in the Minister and the Deputy Minister in this department, the hon Blade Nzimande came in just to make sure, as a good commissar would, that they are performing properly. [Laughter.] [Applause.] [Interjections.] Yes, I noticed that his presence keeps the guys in place.
I want to congratulate, first of all, the Minister on his new arrival. I must say that I am reading through the website and doing some research. I think he is really trying his best, and if he can do for the Department of Public Works what Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma did for the Department of Home Affairs, he will do South Africa a great service. [Applause.]
I also want to welcome the new Deputy Minister - they call him the "velvet communist". [Laughter.] I think he is very pleased to be in Public Works, because he has been bumping heads with those fierce entrepreneurs and champions of free enterprise and defenders of property rights, the kombi taxi owners' industry. I am sure he is very pleased to enter the quiet waters of Public Works. Finally, I would also like to welcome Director- General Mziwonke Dlabantu. I am very pleased he is not a Hollywood director- general. He really is the director-general. It is difficult to find anything about him. I have searched him on Google and Wikipedia, but I am sure that he has been carefully chosen. We wish him well.
The department is there to look after the state's assets, and it is very important that it realises that it is a technical and service department. It has a huge institutional memory, going back 110 years, and it needs to do its best to provide good service. One of the things I want to encourage the hon Minister and his department to do is to try and retain competence and efficiency. Since the Department of Public Works has been so badly run, other departments, like Home Affairs and Defence, have been trying to start their own building and construction. I don't believe that is in our national interest. I believe the Department of Public Works should do that because they have the skills and they have the background. I also want to encourage the department to use retired engineers and technical people. There are lots of people out there, mostly old white men, like me. They are guys who have a lot of experience and they have "isithunzi" [dignity], as we say in isiZulu, and they would like to help South Africa; they are not opposed to helping. I think the Minister should try to source those people.
I also want to commend the Minister on his press release of 6 March about all the money that has been stolen. It makes one sick, actually, but I am pleased he is doing something. The Department of Public Works, with its public money ... I am not going to make any friends now, neither in the ANC or in my party or the opposition. One needs to point out that the "umjondolo" or "umkhukhu", a backyard room, in the Western Cape will be rented out from R400 to R800 a month. In our parliamentary villages, Members of Parliament pay half the rent that is paid for an "umjondolo" or "umkhukhu".
There is a similar situation with transport services. One sees big buses running with two passengers. The Minister should get the village management boards to account for the money that they use. Has Prestige Management done any research on the rentals of the Ministers' houses? Does the department provide tax returns to SA Revenue Service, Sars, for fringe benefits tax purposes?
I want to ask the Minister what his plans are with regard to a new Parliament. We see big pieces of open land around here. Is he going to expand in Cape Town or is he going to build a new Parliament in Pretoria? If he goes to Pretoria, he should remember that at the time the Union Buildings were built, there were already concept plans in 1909 or 1910 for a Parliament to be built there.
The parliamentary villages in the Western Cape are valuable real estate and the parliamentary buildings here could also be recycled, maybe for the new Pan-African Parliament to use.
I learned about customary law in lectures in 1961 at UCT from one of Minister Nxesi's heroes - and I see the Deputy Minister is shaking his head as well - a man called Professor Jack Simons. Now, Jack Simons did not teach us Marxist lessons, but he taught us about "inkosikazi yesokudla", he taught us about "inkosikazi yesokunxele": the right-hand wife and the left- hand wife and the Mnumzane. He told us that the "nkosikazi yesokunxele" is "encane" [junior] and the "nkosikazi yesokudla" is senior.
Therefore, you could have four wives in the isithembu [polygamy] culture. What is interesting and obvious about Nkandla is whether this department has specifications for dealing with the traditional homestead and its security arrangements and all the tunnels there to enable the husband to go and visit the wife of his choice without the security seeing him or so that he cannot be shot at. [Laughter.] Professor Monica Wilson taught us about religion and she also taught us about "ukuthakatha" [witchcraft], especially prevalent amongst the wives for whom lobola, in the form of cows, has been paid and where it mostly comes from "umona" [jealousy], which turns into "inzondo" [hatred]. So the challenge of ...
... isithembu, ukuthi phela manje sekufanele uthenge amasaka amabili amazambane. [... polygamy is that you must now buy two bags of potatoes.] [Laughter.]
Nobody objects to our giving security to our head of state. Go to Betty's Bay and you will see the barracks that were built for Dr Verwoerd by the state at his Betty's Bay holiday cottage. We do not object to that. It is just that it has gone crazy. You know, if you are a Stalinist, you live in fear of your people. You are frightened of your people. I do not understand why people are so frightened. I do not know if P W Botha was as frightened of his people that he needed such security around his place. Really, I mean, we are not dealing with ... who is that guy in the CAR? He was the president there. Is it Bokassa? Mr Francois Boziz. South Africa is not CAR, or Mobutu Sese Seko. We are a modern, good, open country and there are no no-go areas in South Africa.