Deputy Speaker, I want to support the statement from the UCDP on violence against women, and agree with the speaker that indeed, as South Africans, we should stand together and fight the violence against women as we prepare for 16 days of ...
Madam Deputy Speaker, I have not .... I rise on a point of order.
There's a point of order. What is your point of order?
Madam Deputy Speaker, my point of order is that we have not heard your ruling on the matter that I brought to your attention. [Interjections.]
I will make a ruling when I need to. Will you continue, hon Minister? [Interjections.]
Thank you, Deputy Speaker. As I said, I rise to support the statement from the UCDP. As we prepare for the 16 days of activism, we should indeed stand up together to mobilise our nation against this evil phenomenon. We should educate men in particular that real men don't abuse women. We should also educate our citizens that indeed women's rights and children's rights are human rights and they need to be respected. We hope that all the parties will join us, as an activist organisation, to rise up against women and child abuse.
I also want to thank the member of the ANC for the statement on education and say to her that indeed, regarding the reply I gave the DA, there was neither an intention nor reason to mislead the hon member. I did not have any reason to mislead the hon member by saying that no drugs were found in the Western Cape, if they were found.
What happened is that the Western Cape had not provided us with a reply. We used the information that we had at our disposal which, according to our records, indicated that they had 168 problematic schools. But because we didn't know whether they had been searched or not, we said that we were not aware of what had been found in the bags.
We further indicated with an asterisk in the reply that the Western Cape had not provided us with a reply. So, I want to thank the hon member for that information. I repeat: If there was miscommunication, my apologies. But there was no reason to mislead because there was no basis to mislead.
I think that with time, my colleagues would agree with me, it is quite difficult sometimes to account for things you are not responsible for. We are not responsible for collecting information in provinces and we don't keep that information. We are given unreasonable deadlines and are expected to respond, and this is a matter that we would like to engage with your office on. I think it is becoming a problem, as can be seen from this reply. Again, if there was miscommunication, my apologies. There was no reason or no intention to mislead at all. [Applause.]
Before hon Minister Peters gives her response, may I appeal to all members of this House that when we address Members of Parliament, we address them as "hon" members. Could we abide by that Rule, please?