Thank you, Chairperson. Since we have taken back the ID's votes, perhaps we can also take their time! It will give us an extra two minutes.
I wish I had enough time in this debate to respond properly to the hon Prof Ben Turok, but I will simply remind him of that old economic adage that there is no such thing as a free lunch. Lunch has to be paid for, so if the state enjoys a long, boozy, expensive and delicious lunch today, the waiter eventually will come round with the bill and you are going to have to pay the bill. The only way to pay that bill is to have an economy that grows sufficiently and generates enough revenue to pay off the debt and keep investments alive. To do that, you have to put people at the centre of economic policy and not the state.
Let me add that our country has three challenges, and I want to mention this because it is my last debate in this Parliament, if not in Parliament forever. The first thing is to protect the integrity of the Constitution and live its values. That means accepting the foundational idea that the state's power over its citizens must be limited by a Bill of Rights and that key institutions and, most critically the judiciary, must remain independent of the executive and the ruling party. Secondly, we need to find it within ourselves to overcome racial nationalism and the bigotry to which it gives rise, because those nationalisms are the taproot of the resentment, suspicion and division that colour our politics to this day.
And more relevant to this debate, we must build a state that facilitates the opportunity of every person to develop themselves and pursue their own ends in life, and not one that controls and directs the lives of South African people in accordance with the ruling party's vision of who they should be and what they should do.
One problem with the ANC's developmental state is that it is not actually premised on Amartya Sen's insight that development should be measured by the extent to which people develop the capabilities to direct their own lives, and not simply by the outcomes - like per capita GDP - that economists conventionally prefer. This puts the state, not the people, at the centre of every policy and, more essentially, of economic policy and, in so doing, retards the very development that it seeks to advance.
The other problem with the ANC's developmental state is that it won't even generate the conventional outcomes it seeks to achieve. Indeed - and somebody needs to say this and it might as well be me - making decent work the objective of economic policy is an unusually striking example of a government setting itself up for failure, for it fails to take into account the economic and fiscal circumstances we face over the course of the next five years.
When this recession finally ends, we are going to experience a number of years of very sluggish growth, both domestically and abroad. Under those circumstances, any work will be a godsend for millions of our people, even if we pursued the most aggressive growth-orientated policies possible.
And so the more adjectives we place before the word "work", the more certain we are to disappoint the millions and millions of unskilled, unemployed people who so desperately need to find a way into employment. And that is not to say that decent work isn't what every human being should have; rather it's a matter of understanding our circumstances and doing what it takes to lift people out of poverty and unemployment and to give them a job - something we have failed to do adequately over the past 15 years.
There are only three things that the state should do with the money it takes from its citizens. The first is to provide them with security of person and property, for that remains the heart of the compact between the state and its citizens.
The second is to provide or, preferably, to facilitate the provision of goods and services which the market cannot. For those with too little income, this includes access to health care, education and shelter, among other things, many of which are outlined in our Constitution.
The third is to provide a welfare safety net for those unable to provide for themselves. This is a moral imperative in a society that values human solidarity grounded in a capacity for empathy. What it should not do is own, and mismanage, on behalf of the people it claims to serve, a long list of failing public enterprises like SAA and Denel, among others. And it should not try to turn itself into a kind of Warren Buffett, deploying taxpayers' capital in industries of its choice in the hope that they will generate a superior return. We will create more jobs, including more decent jobs, if we let people invest their own money.
The aim of industrial policy should be to create the conditions in which enterprise can turn a profit, not to decide for the taxpayer which enterprise he or she should invest in. Only the opportunity state can achieve the developmental outcomes the ANC desires, because its motive force - to use a term those on the other side of the House will appreciate - and its objective is human freedom, the kind of substantive freedom that can be lived and enjoyed daily until our time on Earth is up. And that is a fine objective to be in politics for!
Let me just say that having made that speech, I'm now off to try to help make the state work in the Western Cape. I would like to say that in my very short and good association with the Minister of Economic Development, I would like to wish him well. We might disagree with regard to some of our economic policies and aspects of our economic vision, but I think the approach he has taken to a relationship with Parliament and the portfolio committee is exemplary.
And, if anything, at the end of the day, whichever policy or path South Africa pursues, it will be better if it's the product of a proper debate in which everybody does listen and engages properly and is open-minded enough to take a point from the other side - whatever the Polokwane resolutions or the manifesto of the ANC might say. So, on that note, thank you very much, Chairperson, and thank you to the Minister of Economic Development. [Applause.]