Madam Chair, what is a national lottery? It is actually an admission that people like to gamble, and gambling is not a good thing, but it needs to be organised and legalised so we can get money off it. Or if you want to let your petticoats, your socialist petticoats, hang out, you link it to redistributing wealth in society. I have never heard such sophistry in my life.
The purpose of a lottery is to enable a state to give those people in our society who like, perhaps, to gamble more than at the odd Durban July horse races, an opportunity to do so. It is established and then the rationale is to take most of the money and give it to - and our Bill talks about - "worthy, good causes". That's what Lotteries are for: It's not a tax; it is individual - South African individuals - taking their own money, often very little money, and hoping to "tata ma chance"! Then they can use that opportunity for helping some worthy, good cause. So, I think we must be very careful with that money.
I want to say that I find the organ of state sinister, because you know there is no chapter on ethics in the Communist Manifesto - no chapter on ethics. [Laughter.] And this organ of state has all those sinister overtones and undertones. The hon chairlady's speech made me even more concerned about what the real intention of the organ of state is. The Lotto should not be used as a kind of financial safety net for badly run municipalities, for disasters, for areas where government doesn't work. It is for worthy, good causes and it is not to follow year-on-year; it's not a debit order system. It's ad hoc but, it may be for a three-year donation.
This is basically a good Bill and it is welcome. I think it is a commendation to the department that they are finally bringing this reform to the lotteries issue. I also think it's important to recognise not only our chairlady, who is an outstanding leader of the team and also a good leader of legislation, but also this committee, which works very hard. We have passed a number of laws. Some of my friends in the caucus say: "Why is that old man always speaking in debates?" It is because our committee works hard and we have all these laws to pass, so we have to come and make our contributions.
But the way our laws have been passed is thorough, because our committee staff work well, we have excellent parliamentary legal advisers, we have the state law advisers, and the Department of Trade and Industry has its own legal department. I think our portfolio committee and our chairlady are doing a good job.
Now, clause 21 deals with the linkage of the distribution agencies and the commission to the PFMA, and I think that is very important. The commission and the distribution agencies will now be much more tightly controlled, they will be full-time and this will, I believe, result in much less controversy about the awards that the Lotto makes. Thank you, Madam Chair.