House Chairperson, in 2012 the Portfolio Committee on Communications visited the province of the North West from 6 to 8 June. During that visit, the committee visited various post offices, community newspapers, community radio stations, Thusong Service Centres, telecentres, Sentech and the SABC regional offices in the North West.
I must say, on behalf of the portfolio committee, that we were satisfied and suitably impressed with the work that government is doing: the services that the Post Office is providing to the various communities as well as the support that the community radio stations and community newspapers are receiving from the Media Development and Diversity Agency, MDDA, and the Department of Communications.
What was quite inspiring is that many of these community radio stations and newspapers are run in the main by young people and that they play a very active role in informing their communities on what's happening around them.
We were also happy with the Thusong Service Centres and telecentre projects throughout the North West providing invaluable access to many people, the internet, information about government services and a range of other services in government departments that are actually housed in the Thusong Service Centres.
Sentech is the signal distribution entity of government and we were fairly satisfied with the signal distribution throughout the North West as well as the work that the SABC is doing.
I want to say that one of the things that the portfolio committee does when it goes on its oversight visits, is that it takes representatives of the various entities with it so that, while we are on that oversight visit, they are able to identify particular challenges. In some instances, they take steps to resolve the challenges on the spot. But at the end of each visit the portfolio committee undertakes, they report back to us and tell us exactly how they intend to resolve some of the challenges or problems that we have found.
Already the portfolio committee has received an update on progress made by the various entities in the communications sector as to how they are resolving some of the challenges that were found during that visit. I want to raise but a few. For instance, at the Kanyamazane Post Office there was no branch manager. That position has since been filled. The same post office had no internet connections; the internet connection has now been installed and they are now on the internet. The Mabeskraal Post Office was in need of serious refurbishment. That is being undertaken.
I want to raise one or two more challenges we came across. We went to a particular radio station, the Letlhabile Community Radio Station. One of the challenges they had was with the capacity of the board of the station, how to run the station, and they were also in need of a grant from the MDDA. They've received their grant and the training is being rolled out.
I have raised the few of these issues, because it does highlight that the visits of the portfolio committees to various areas of the country to do oversight work are not just about doing oversight work, but also help to ensure that challenges we find are resolved. I want to commend the various entities on the work that they've done so far.
However, I also want to say that before the completion of this Parliament, we expect a comprehensive report on the challenges that we've raised so that we can be satisfied that the work we've done has not been in vain.
I want to raise two things before I conclude. Firstly, the Retlhabetse telecentre was established and opened on 6 July 2012. One of the things that we established during the visit is that the telecentre was there beforehand and it had already started to make a major impact on young people in the area.
The last thing that I want to highlight is that government has a programme that it's rolling out: the rolling out of street and postal addresses to communities across the country. In the North West, there are a total of 929 000 households; that is the figure that we were given.
Since the 2005-06financial year, the Post Office in the province has rolled out 679 000 street and postal addresses and it is in the process of rolling out a further 264 000 postal and street addresses. The reason why I wanted to raise this is that just a little while ago, a few months ago, the hon Butch Steyn of the DA proudly announced that ... [Time expired.] [Interjections.] We commend this Report to the House.
There was no debate.
The Chief Whip of the Majority Party: Chairperson, I move:
That the Report be adopted.
Motion agreed to.
Report accordingly adopted.
Hon members, before I conclude, I briefly want to say something, and perhaps say it on behalf of the Speaker, Deputy Speaker and many of us who are sitting here.
Personally, I understand the excitement and the emotions. However, I fail to understand the anger that makes us view each other with suspicion and mistrust, and even causes accusations of deceit.
I think, at times, we even want to undermine or bully the Chairperson. If we continue in that way, then we are moving towards the precipice of disaster, a very dangerous one. If we do so, we may end up destroying this institution of the people, which does not really belong to us. If that happens, then I shudder to think of the alternative.
I therefore want to appeal to members that we refrain from doing that. Let us act and treat each other as honourable members. Let us make comments that are within the bounds of civility. [Applause.]