Chairperson, I was saying that we must face the fact that there is an accountability crisis at the Department of Defence and Military Veterans, and at the centre of that accountability crisis is the Special Defence Account. There are 21 separate references to funds being rescheduled within the Special Defence Account in the Adjusted Estimates of National Expenditure, and yet we have never been briefed on the billions of rand being spent every year on defence acquisition and being channelled through the Special Defence Account. Just yesterday the Department of Defence and Military Veterans refused point blank to disclose any information about the multibillion rand acquisition project called Project Hoefyster. We cannot go on like this.
My question to the Minister is: Will he, in his capacity as the Justice, Crime Prevention and Security cluster Tsar, commit to providing a comprehensive and open briefing on defence acquisition to this Parliament? I have full confidence in the Minister's answering the question, but he might consider calling for the assistance of the hon Minister for the Public Service and Administration, who I see has just jetted into Parliament.