House Chair, the ACDP supports the additional allocation of R2 billion for a building of Parliament, as well as the additional allocation of R1.1 billion for the IEC to prepare for the very important 2026 Local Government Elections.
It is crucial, in our view, that competent, able, God-fearing men and women are elected as Councillors—those who are trustworthy and hate dishonest gain, to rescue and save our dismal municipalities and provide much needed service to citizens.
Balanced against this is, of course, the bailouts for state entities. As far as the R7 billion allocated to PRASA is concerned, and whilst fully acknowledging the social importance of commuter rail, the ACDP remains deeply concerned about this additional allocation, given not only that it is after the fact, but that there have been damning findings of the Zondo Commission against PRASA, which remain largely unresolved.
Whilst some audit improvements have been made, the core issues of corruption, governance failures and a failure to prosecute individuals persists.
It is interesting that the 2020 High Court ruling which found the Siyangena Contract (worth R5 billion) unlawful, has seen hardly any recovery of those funds. Now we again, after the fact, are expected to approve a further allocation of billions of rands!
Surely, honourable Minister, it makes sense to insist that PRASA collects the billions of rands that are due to it before we allocate more. Are we not otherwise committing hard-earned funds yet again to a bottomless pit? The question then arises, are we then good stewards of the funds that are being entrusted to us?
As of February this year, PRASA is still dealing with the consequences of paying thousands of ghost workers and dealing with new fraud allegations.
The ACDP was under the impression that bailouts for state entities was coming to an end. But again, honourable Minister, we see this. And yes, we’ve heard of certain conditions that are to be imposed and hopefully, that will be helpful.
We are also concerned about the millions to SENTEC and the tension between it and the SABC.
Every hard-pressed taxpayer demands increased transparency and tighter control over state expenditure. We see the ship is starting to turn in the right direction, but until that is achieved, honourable Minister, we as the ACDP, cannot exercise good stewardship in approving these funds after the fact, which basically excludes parliamentary budgeting processes and oversight.
We will not support this Bill.
I thank you.
