Speaker, I thank the hon President for his reply. The ACDP is concerned that a decision has been made to establish what appears to be a duplicate structure, a parallel structure, which might also fail to fulfil its mandate, just like the rapid deployment capability of the African Standby Force did. We wonder whether the causes of the failure of the African Standby Force have been sufficiently addressed in order to ensure that they are not repeated.
We are also concerned that the AU budget will, as has been reported, not be used to fund the deployment of this rapid reaction force, but that, instead, individual countries supplying troops and equipment will be responsible for paying for the deployment.
What I want to know from the hon President is how many countries have made a commitment to supply troops and equipment whenever there is a need, because we know that many regions in our countries are poor and they will not be able to afford the heavy price tag of such deployments.
I also want to know what the hon President intends doing to ensure that the deployment of this military rapid reaction force does not become a financial burden to the South African taxpayers. Thank you.