Thank you very much,
hon member. We only move in when we are invited. We are very careful not to overstep our mandate. In the event where something happens tomorrow and we are called upon to come in and deploy, I would imagine that it would be a request which will be favourable to the commander-in-chief.
I also don't want us to talk about the work of the SA National Defence Force in the context of dealing with issues of crime in the Western Cape. There is a lot which is being done by the soldiers.
When there is a disaster, be it in the country here internally or in the neighbouring states, the SA National Defence Force is called upon to go and conduct certain rescue in such instances. So where there is need for humanitarian support when there is disaster, the SA National Defence Force moves in and assist as much as possible. Recently, our soldiers remained in Mozambique for three months because there was a crisis in that country. Not only that, but here in South Africa you have areas, for instance, in the deep rural areas where there are no bridges or sometimes where bridges are
flooded and swept by the rain. What we do is to push in the SA National Defence Force. Our engineers move in and within two days a bridge is up and children and people in the village are able to cross the river.
When there are problems in our hospitals we deployed members of the SA Military Health Service to go in and work as doctors and nurses. Last year, for instance, the North West doctors and nurses decided to go on strike. This has worked very well. Really, you have the SA National Defence Force which, in spite of all the challenges they have in terms of budgetary constraints, always stand ready to go to whatever area where they are required to render assistance as long as it is within their mandate. Thank you.