Chairperson, hon members, Minister and Deputy Minister, without any hesitation or shadow of a doubt, I must say from the onset that the ANC supports the Budget Vote. Hon Minister and Deputy Minister, the ANC also supports the agenda of your department of continuing with the transformation of the Public Service. We support this Budget Vote not because we are praise singers, but because we know that, as a caring government we have a solemn agenda to achieve a better life for all our people.
As the ANC always says, together we can do more; this is how we want to do it. We believe that it is incumbent on the executive and Parliament to make sure that the agenda of ensuring a better quality of life for our people becomes a reality, not a deferred dream.
The ANC, which is the champion of the liberation of our country, believes in a united, nonracial, and nonsexist South Africa. Therefore, we want to support the Ministry for the Public Service and Administration in its pursuit of a Single Public Service. We are aware that only those who do not want to see a real change in our country are opposed to this. I must also remind the hon members that we created provinces so that services can reach our people faster and satisfactorily, not to be homelands of a special type. [Interjections.] We did this because of our commitment to dismantle all apartheid social relations and boundaries. We remain firm in our commitment that our people get the same services, irrespective of their race and location.
Hon Minister, we would like to request you to move with speed in creating a Single Public Service. We say this because we know that if this is not done quickly, you will soon see a province that will have no room for black people - and I mean black people in general. [Interjections.] A good example in this regard is the province where we are seated. In this province a black woman was removed from a top position only to put a white man in her place. [Interjections.] This was not because she had no capacity, but to maintain a white male-dominated administration. A young African man, who has scarce skills, was removed because he is an African and was therefore perceived to be an ANC member. [Interjections.]
Furthermore, in this province that is led by a woman, one would have thought that women would be in their majority in senior positions of administration. But, unfortunately, the opposite is true because women are not regarded as anything by another woman. I want to put it categorically that since the DA took over the leadership of the Western Cape, this province has regressed and recently polled as not only hostile to black people but plainly a racist province and, of course, it also has its seat in a racist city of our country. In fact, if truth be told, this has become a haven for all racists and "verkramptes" in this province. [Interjections.]