Mr Speaker, it appears that the politics of personalised invectives that we have witnessed in the media have finally set foot in Parliament. The APC believes that our politics must be steered away from the froth and bubble to focus on the issues that affect the majority of our people.
The APC believes that the people expect us to be absorbed by a search for solutions to daily material concerns like unemployment, inequality, timeous and qualitative service delivery, and the fight against corruption and fraud in both the public and private sectors. The APC does not believe that it is objective to call for a no-confidence vote in a government that is less than a year into its five-year term. We believe that what should rather be occupying us as the National Assembly is how to strengthen and deepen oversight over the executive in, firstly, the fight against corruption, and wasteful and fruitless expenditure in government, as emphasised by both the President and the Minister of Finance; secondly, the proposed new economic growth trajectory that is premised on job creation, as proposed by Ministers Davies and Patel; and, lastly, the campaign for clean audits and service delivery by municipalities, better health care, quality education, and faster land reform.
The APC calls on all parties to show leadership and responsibility by being sincere, patriotic and mature, and to act with integrity. We call on the National Assembly to strengthen oversight and give greater support and more powers to its oversight committees, especially those that deal with the management and utilisation of public funds like the Portfolio Committee on Finance, the Standing Committee on Appropriations, and the Standing Committee on Public Accounts.
It must always be about the people and never about narrow partisan interests. The APC does not support the original motion for a vote of no confidence in the President of the Republic.