Mr Speaker, ons hoor daagliks op televisie en radio, en ons lees dikwels in die koerante en sien op Facebook hoe mense hul misnoe uitspreek oor die toestand van ons land. Suid-Afrikaners is besig om vertroue in ons te verloor. Hierdie land het soveel gedaanteverwisselinge - met so baie diagnostiese planne en uiteindelik die Nasionale Ontwikkelingsplan - ondergaan. Nieteenstaande hierdie planne is die gebrek aan implementering en korrupsie aan die orde van die dag. (Translation of Afrikaans paragraph follows.)
[Mr J J MCGLUWA: Mr Speaker, we hear daily on television and radio, and we often read in the newspapers and see on Facebook how people are expressing their dissatisfaction concerning the state of our country. South Africans are losing confidence in us. This country has undergone so many metamorphoses, including so many diagnostic plans and ultimately the National Development Plan. In spite of these plans, the lack of implementation and corruption are the order of the day.]
If the government fails to clamp down on corruption, how can we expect South Africans to have any confidence in President Jacob Zuma? The President's address supposedly provided a progress report on the R860 billion in government spending. This was the classical trick of double counting, because these funds had already been spent in 2009. He failed to inform us how much money was lost on these projects due to corruption. The President also missed a golden opportunity to clarify if he actually condoned the R206 million upgrade of his Nkandla compound.
The response of the Minister for the Public Service and Administration to my question, number 972, in April last year regarding the Ministerial Handbook was that it would be finalised in mid-2012. In 2009 the President established one of his famous task teams to review the Ministerial Handbook. Four years later this has not been done and some of our Ministers continue to spend taxpayers' money extravagantly on office upgrades and other perks.
Ho monate mona Palamenteng! [It is nice here in Parliament!]
Parliament also remains in the dark about the so-called presidential handbook. Mr Mac Maharaj, whose criminal case was withdrawn by the Scorpions in 2009, informed Radio 702 that there was no presidential handbook. What a contradiction! If this is true, my advice to the Deputy President is to be careful as somebody might just have set him up.
Mr Cyril Ramaphosa was recently asked about the implementation of the Integrity Commission. "Watch this space", was his laidback response, as if he were speaking about the next season of a soap opera. How can South Africans trust commissions like this when the government continues to shower rewards on those who are politically connected?
One of the most powerful examples of corruption is worth comparing to that of President Jacob Zuma's complacency in fighting corruption within his own government. The British parliamentary expenses scandal makes a powerful point of comparison, where 25 public representatives who were involved either resigned, retired or announced that they would not stand again. This included the Speaker of the House of Commons. Why is this significant? It is because public servants should be held to the highest standards of integrity and ethics.
The hon Speaker informed this House in 2011 that Parliament had failed to recoup R12 million owed by errant Travelgate MPs. It was decided to write the debt off. Some of these MPs remain here today. [Interjections.] The crisp point is that several MPs who were convicted for corrupt activities or fraud still have cushy jobs within the government and the ruling party. [Interjections.] Some of them head up important entities in government. This is a question of political leadership and the President's leadership. The buck stops with him.
A case in point was the opportunistic appointment of Adv Menzi Simelane, which clearly runs counter to the interests of the justice system. Section 218 of the Companies Act bars any person who has been found guilty of fraud and sentenced to prison without a suspended sentence from being a director of a company. Yet, befitting this President's unique style of leadership, Tony Yengeni is heading up the ANCs political and misnamed school of thought. Mr Yengeni was found guilty of corruption and he only resigned his directorship after unprecedented public pressure. Those who admitted guilt were never censored by the ANC. On the contrary, Patrick Maloyi for example, was an ANC candidate in 2009 and Bruce Kannemeyer was rewarded with a municipal manager position. The President's government often seems content to stay just inside the law, but the President fails to understand that the absence of ethics is in itself a form of de facto corruption. Take the E350 Mercedes Benz that was meant to be delivered to the then Tlokwe/Potchefstroom ANC mayor, costing the taxpayer more than R700 000. The new DA mayor, who was appointed after a motion of no confidence was passed against the ANC administration, sent that car back. [Applause.]
In the Northern Cape, John Block had for years mined salt in the Kalahari with a fraudulent mining licence. In KwaZulu-Natal, the Manase report exposed unethical behaviour by ANC officials on a massive scale. Once again, this report was then suppressed from public viewing. In the North West, the member of executive council for social development used R170 000 worth of taxpayers' money to attend the ANC's elective conference in December to cast her vote to re-elect President Jacob Zuma as the President of the ANC. Yet some of them still remain in office. This list goes on and on and on.
The South African people do not have confidence in the President, who looks away while the tentacles of corruption spread through our public life. He fails to understand that the importance of politics to government lies in the ethics and moral compass which he, and only he, can provide. I thank you. [Applause.]