Deputy Chair, let me just correct one thing. We should not equate the destruction of property during protest action with a disaster caused by a storm or flood. It is not the same. We need to correct that first of all. Let us pose this question as an independent question, without aligning it with or comparing it to a disaster, so that we can answer the question fairly. This is because a disaster is a disaster - storms or floods come, houses are swept away, and government has to respond. We actually have a ministerial committee waiting for such events to happen, because we know they will come at some point.
The protests where people display that anger that I talked about earlier and burn the houses of councillors - which is not legal - come at a particular time. The weaknesses in the way people deal with things, which I talked about earlier, are a phenomenon that has now become visible.
What are the reasons? The reasons that cause people to be so angry with the council are not all the same. For example, as I said, I went unannounced to a number of areas. I found councillors who were "lost". When I asked what was happening, the people would say that they were seeing that councillor for the first time. They had never seen that person before. So, there are different reasons behind particular communities having a particular attitude towards a particular councillor. In some cases, the reasons for people taking particular actions are political concerns.
I don't think we should have a one-size-fits-all approach to dealing with this issue. However, I agree that we must find a way to deal with it, as it has become an issue. We need to consider at all levels how we are going to deal with it. Generally, when such things happen, the police deal with the matter.
Of course, the reality is that the councillor is left homeless. What do you do? I think we need to look into that question, but we cannot look into it in isolation. What is it that makes people so angry? Is it a problem in them, as a result of that "culture" I talked about earlier, or is it something else? Can you remove certain social and human factors? Is it that some people have an axe to grind with a particular council for reasons that we might not know about? It may not be about delivery; it may be for other reasons. So, we have to apply our interventions according to what is really happening there. I agree it is a matter that we now need to look at. In the recent past it has become clear that the security of councillors is a problem.
Now, let us consider which of the councillors have security problems. Is it a national thing? All councillors? All of them, in their thousands? I don't think so. I think these problems affect particular areas and particular councillors. Other councillors work very well with their communities. In fact, some communities will say, "We hope you are not going to change our councillor." So, things are not exactly the same everywhere.
It is a matter that we need to look at from a particular point of view and we actually need to discover the root of what makes people go to that extent. Is it thuggery? Is it anything specific?
Once we establish the facts, then we will know what the remedy is. If we just took a general view, saying that because so many councillors have gone through this problem, we have to provide security to everyone, I don't think we would be hitting the nail on the head. We must discover what is behind each incident.
This august House pays visits to and actually goes into communities, so it also has a responsibility to help discover what the real issues are. Go to the councillors and find out what it is that makes people so angry. Once we know the cause, we can tackle the problem.
International nuclear energy production agreements
5. Mrs E C van Lingen (DA) asked the President of the Republic:
With reference to all international agreements on nuclear energy production signed by South Africa in the past three years, (a) with which (i) country and (ii) companies were these agreements made, (b) what are the commitments made by each party in each specified agreement, (c) which provinces will these agreements affect and (d) what are the relevant details of such effects?