Could I have a week for responses this afternoon?
No. [Laughter.]
Let me deal with what is clearly a very big issue raised by a number of members, namely, the terrible violence and eternising conflict that we witness primarily in Gauteng. The first issue I want to raise is that it is necessary for us to guard against labelling and, secondly, it is necessary for all of us as elected representatives of the people, everywhere, to guard against fanning the flames.
I was rather struck when I heard the Leader of the DA, Mayor Zille, addressing a meeting in Mitchells Plain last night and saying that the xenophobia was caused by the fact that foreigners were selling tik to our children. It's wrong. It has to be fundamentally wrong that we are inflaming it in this kind of way. All of us have a responsibility to guard against fanning the flames because what is happening cannot be in the interest of any South African at any time. [Interjections.]
Please proceed, hon Minister.
Madam Speaker, I am asking for your protection, please.
The hon Minister has something to say and has to be given the opportunity to do so. And we have to listen to him.
I said we have a responsibility because the issues on the ground cannot be resolved by the military or by merely the police. The call by Members of Parliament for higher visibility of public representatives is highly needed. We don't need statements on television by the President, but we need higher visibility of public representatives in all of the affected communities. We don't need exposure.
We heard in the first statement this afternoon the initiative taken by the hon Lumka Yengeni. She went to Dunoon which has experienced conflicts in the past and prevented that from happening again. I hope that all members of the House respond to the call by visiting as many areas as possible, and deal with the issues as they are.
The second point I would like to raise is in response to both the hon Ndlovu and the hon Groenewald. The SA National Defence Force is deployed in support of the police only. [Interjections.] Madam Speaker, would you protect me from that horrible man with the moustache over there? [Laughter.]
You are totally protected.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. [Interjections.]
Madam Speaker, on a point of order ...
What is the point of order, hon Ellis?
I cannot believe that calling an hon member "horrible" is in fact parliamentary. [Interjections.]
Hon Ellis, it is a point of view of the hon member, and I think you should not worry about it.
It was a Freudian slip, that you must accept. [Laughter.]
I think it is very important to recognise the fact that the Constitution should be upheld. The deployment here was in support of the police, and on their request as a backup and not as a first line of defence. This is what has happened within the context of section 202 of the Constitution.
I want to give members the assurance that it happened with a great deal of caution and circumspection. We must ensure that the police are able to do the policing - which is necessary. More importantly, we need to ensure that we have higher visibility of political and religious leaders and others on the ground that people can relate to, because that would always be superior to any statements made to newspapers. That is a call on that issue.
In respect of the issues raised by hon Bici, for the record, let me state that Eskom took advice because it was sitting on huge stockpiles of coal. They sought professional advice and it came in the suggestion that stockpiles could in fact be managed at a considerably lower level. In the downward management of that, supply conditions and prices changed, and you had a fallout. I think that, as a consequence, the coal that they were then using was slurry and was from the bottom of the stockpiles. It tended to be wetter than in summer. That then created the maintenance problem. It is very necessary that we give the management full support so that they can deal with the issue as we go forward. I think I have covered the issues raised by the hon Simmons.
In respect of what the hon Waters had raised, Hansard is always perfect. What do you do now about the fact that there might still be contaminated water somewhere in the country? There is no crisis. I want to repeat that: There is no crisis, because all of us drink tap water all the time. We are one of the few countries in the world that can do that. So let's stop shouting that there is a crisis.
But how do you prevent it? Do you go around and hand out rehydration kits to everybody, just in case there might be a crisis? [Interjections.] You are speaking from the perspective of hindsight and I think it is unhelpful in the circumstances. I thank you. [Applause.]