Thank you, Speaker. Our response to the last international crisis we faced was co-ordinated by the Deputy President, three years ago. It was the global financial crisis and the response was summarised in this document, which contained three main interventions.
The first one was a training lay-off scheme worth R2,4 billion. Our calculations show that we have spent only approximately R120 million of this money, which is around 5%, and we have trained only around 20 000 workers.
The second intervention was to spend R787 billion on infrastructure by March 2012. This is in three months' time. Has this money been spent, Mr Deputy President? The Non-Profit Consortium, NPC, for one, seems to have doubts about this, because they said in their plan last week, with regard to infrastructure, that current investment levels are insufficient and maintenance programmes are seriously lagging. Can you put their concerns to rest, Mr Deputy President?
The third was a R10 billion fund called the National Jobs Initiative. Has this money been spent, and on what? How is it that our response to that crisis three years on looks so weak, and how will you assure South Africans that our response to this crisis won't consist of empty promises?