Thank you, Chairperson. The members have tabled a very wide variety of statements and clearly I will not be able to respond to all of them.
Suffice it to say, that we are equally horrified at the disgraceful stabbing of Comrade Mcebisi Skwatsha at a meeting in Worcester and we will support the hon Sonto in calling for all persons, be they members of the ANC, any other party or the general public, to conduct themselves with due regard to the law.
This is absolutely disgraceful conduct and such people are not welcome in our organisation, and as leadership we will act against such people and ensure that we restore the confidence of the people of South Africa in the ANC as well as in its leadership. With regard to the matter of health care costs, as far as I understand the Bill on the matter of how we regulate costs in the health sector will come before Parliament and once it has been deliberated upon by the committee we will then have a decision.
Suffice it to say, the interest of government is to ensure that indeed we decrease the very high costs of health care in many, many private institutions in the country, given the need to have greater access for all South Africans to health care. Given the large measure of needs, it is impossible for the public sector to be the entire and single provider of health care for the majority in our country. We therefore do need a framework that would ensure that there is greater access enjoyed by all South Africans; and this is the intention of the policy.
As for the matter of the resignation of a public official, public servants may resign for a range of reasons and it is difficult for me to know the background and I would suppose the hon member and the committee could proceed to look into this further.
I would support the ANC's tribute to particularly the young men and women who sacrificed their youth and their lives for us to have the liberation we enjoy today. Many of them gave up their education, their homes, their youth in order to ensure that today we could stand here and engage with each other as leaders - as the President of the country called for yesterday - committed as leadership to building our society and not merely to point fingers.
This is what Stanza Bopape hoped for, as did all the other comrades who lost their lives and their youth in their sacrifice for liberation. And as we say this we recall that Monday 16 June is Youth Day and is again an opportunity for us to bow our heads in memory of all those young people who sacrificed for South Africa's freedom.
The Setas remain a matter upon which the Minister of Labour is fully engaged. He has indicated that he would work towards improving the performance of Setas. Hon members noted in the debate of the Labour Budget Vote that indeed there has been an improved performance. As government we will continue to ensure that the Setas do execute their full role. We must say it is a minority of the Setas that tend to let us down. The majority of Setas are performing very well and are providing skills that are very useful and taken up in our economy.
Finally, I think we all are very supportive of the efforts of the Minister of Minerals and Energy to improve health safety. It is not this government that seeks that there should be accidents in mines, loss of life and injury to our people, and I think that Parliament could certainly look at the matter of whether the Compensation Fund should be reviewed in order to provide improved support for those who are injured, maimed or, in fact, lose their lives. This is something that Parliament could hold hearings on and advise the executive as to the findings, but all of us are committed to increasing health safety and to our people being safe as they work in the mines.
Chair, could the hon Minister answer a question?
I am not sure why the hon member is continuing to engage. I also would say ... [Interjection]
Just to inform the hon member that these are responses to statements, you had an opportunity to make a statement. There are further questions, so use the next opportunity.
With respect to the matter of corruption in the police service, again I would repeat, the majority of policemen and policewomen in our country are honest, hardworking persons who are trying to do their best to address crime in our country. It is a minority that are corrupt and it is important that we acknowledge that there are policemen and policewomen who do their jobs properly, and we thank them for their service to the nation. We also say to the Minister of Safety and Security that certainly those who are corrupt or do not perform at their jobs as they should must most certainly be thrown out of the police service.
We certainly would agree that public enterprises and the various parastatals are important institutions for the economy of South Africa. While we are not aware of mouldy food and so on, we would say we acknowledge that SAA continues to win international prizes both for safety as well as for service. And therefore I think if the hon member has been served a meal with fungus I encourage him to write to the CEO of SAA to indicate his complaint; but we do know that South African Airways is one of the best airlines in the world.
The housing delivery programme of government both in Langa and in Pennyville in Soweto, confirms the conviction of the Minister of Housing to ensure that our people have proper shelter in which they live and that the promise of the ANC that all shall have shelter, which is articulated in the Freedom Charter and in our law, must be realised by our government, and we will continue to deliver housing and proper shelter and communities to the people of South Africa.
With regard to the matter of access to land, clearly the situation with respect to land access in South Africa is unacceptable. If we are saying we want, as South Africa, to fight the rise in food prices by producing more we must make sure that our people have access to land. And one of the ways would be to address the matter of expropriation by government in order to give more and more South Africans the opportunity to grow food, to be productive and to be part of supporting our economy. Again, the Bill the hon member of the DA referred to will come before the House for Parliament to debate.
Finally, with regard to local government, we are committed through Project Consolidate, Siyenza Manje and other government initiatives to ensure that we support local government to truly deliver to our people. But again we say those local governments where we have failings tend to be the minority of local governments. In the main, local government is delivering and is making a difference in our country. Thank you.