Hon Speaker, while on the issue of corruption, I hope that Agang has sorted its own problems out with regard to missing money. I mainly wanted to deal with the issue of the DA's statement on the appointment of a provincial ombud. I think the issue we must remember about policing is that we are not a federation and we therefore need to look at tackling the problems of South Africa as a whole and not get caught up in provincialising issues. [Interjections.] The Constitution does provide for certain oversight powers over policing, but it would be interesting to see what has actually happened. The DA loves saying how wonderful the Western Cape is, but we know that the matric pass rate, for example, has come down to about fourth place, whereas when the ANC was in power, it had the highest percentage in terms of the matric pass rate. [Interjections.] [Applause.]
You have been in a provincial government with oversight over the police for some time; what have you done? The Provincial Police Act that you passed, which you spoke about, and that you cut and pasted came into effect over a year ago - is there a difference? What have you done? I just wanted to highlight those issues. [Interjections.]
But you challenged it!
Then, coming to the hon Leader of the Opposition's posturing on the President's attending Parliament. [Interjections.] I mean the real issue is that - remember it has been an election year - although the Rules do provide for four times a year, we have had an election. That also meant we have had two state of the nation addresses and two state of the nation debates when the President was in Parliament to respond to issues as well as for the Presidency Budget Vote. [Interjections.]
As far as the issue of complaints about the attendance of Ministers at question time, I do not think that there was any problem yesterday. [Interjections.] In fact, we had a Minister present to answer questions, which was not originally provided for. I think the hon members from the DA need to remember that they are basically just an opposition. People this side are running the country. Thank you. [Applause.]