Madam Deputy Speaker, I am rising to welcome the statement by the hon N Mdaka on the launch of the Veteran Social Workers Forum and also to point out that in government's own training strategy, retired professionals can play a very important role in training and nurturing younger professionals, especially in cases in which, in some of the professions, we have fewer people qualifying.
It is very important that these retired professionals are also given a role, especially to supervise younger workers and to accelerate work- placement training programmes. This is part of a very important strategy of my department and in terms of working with the Department of Social Development to accelerate the production of professionals in order to overcome the apartheid problem of black people having been prevented from accessing certain professions. Thank you very much.