Budget vote declaration in Parliament - or rather in the new National Assembly tent

Yesterday, the House sat from 10 am to 7:30 pm (with a 1-hour lunch break) to consider and vote for the Appropriations Bill and all 41 department budgets. We have to pass the budget before 31st July otherwise the financial markets will go into a tizzy, the rand will tank and SA's credit ratings will take a dive.

The National Assembly has been accommodated in a new temporary home on a parking lot a few minutes walk from Parliament - some call it a marquee, others a tent, but whatever it is, it's no substitute for the superbly designed NA building that was so callously set alight and destroyed three years ago.

Speaking of tents, FF+ MP Wouter Wessels was forced by House Chair Cedric Frolick to withdraw a comment he had made during the Presidency's budget vote debate, in which he described the antics of certain members (mostly EFF and MKP and other members of the "progressive caucus") as a circus. While most MPs had a good laugh, for circuses do take place in tents after all, Frolick deemed it disrespectful of the dignity of the house. MKP MP Visvin Reddy (who pitches up in military fatigues for all sittings) was also forced to withdraw his jibe at Wessels as he left the podium, calling him Mr Bean, regarded as insulting language unfit for Parliament.

In the past the DA, as the Official Opposition, has chosen to support some department's budgets and to oppose others. Now, as a member of the government of national unity (GNU), we have the responsibility of maintaining the integrity of the state so it would have been irresponsible to vote down the budget - and land SA in a big pickle financial.

So we decided to support the Appropriations Bill and all the department budgets (which are called budget votes in the lingo) - for the first time since 1994. 

Each spokesperson (I am the spokesperson on trade, industry and competition) decides whether to make a "declaration" on his or her budget vote and the caucus leadership (chief whip, deputy chief whip and leader) ration them out according to policy priorities and the time allotted to each party for their declarations. I was allocated a slot, along with 8 other spokespersons, each of us getting 90 seconds to make our declarations. 

The party line was to explain that we supported the budget but would engage with the ANC and other members of the GNU in the time leading up to the next budget so we could influence its content. Our rationale was that, in addition to keeping the ship of state afloat, this was not the GNU's budget but the last ANC government's budget, giving us the leeway to criticise it and make recommendations for future budgets and priorities.

       

                                        Photo courtesy of Dianne Kohler Barnard MP

This was my declaration - vote 39 of 41 so I had to wait until after 6pm to give it,

We acknowledge that this is a legacy budget and we support it in order to allow the GNU to continue with its work.

However, the DA will engage the ANC and other parties within the GNU on the following points towards the midterm and next budgets:

·         Fill critical vacancies at senior management levels both in the department and its entities to ensure focused and accountable governance
·         Loosen up the legislative, non-tariff and regulatory framework to ease the cost of doing business for all companies, large and small
·         Review and bulk up the incentives available to local business to build sustainable export markets, and to overseas companies investing in South Africa with the primary aim of boosting exports and entering global value chains
·         Identify and capacitate one or more special economic zones to test a package of reforms to attract investment and create jobs. These would include eliminating or reducing compliance requirements in triple BEE, preferential procurement, and selected labour laws and tariffs with a view to implementing these reforms more widely
·         Negotiate and finalise purchase, investment and management agreements for industrial parks, both in townships and former homeland areas, to re-invigorate existing tenants and attract new ones focusing on innovation and exports