Chairperson, let me start by taking this opportunity to thank all the members. There were really many important and informative contributions that were made. It is quite heartening for a new department that we are grappling with these issues, not alone but with members who are also seriously grappling with and thinking through these issues.
I think that it actually bodes well for the future. I also want to thank the portfolio committee, especially the chairperson Comrade Marius Fransman for his leadership, and also the colleagues for the contribution that they have been making in helping us to navigate this department, as also shown by the general contributions that have been made here. So, I am not going to respond to each and every issue that has been raised. We have listened, but I just want to highlight a few issues.
However, before I do that, I think that we made a mistake. We should actually have acknowledged the guests who are watching on the big screen at the Imbizo Centre, to say you are part of us. Thank you very much. It's because there has actually been a huge interest in this debate, and not everybody could fit in here.
Secondly, I would like to acknowledge the presence of the apprentices from the Manufacturing, Engineering and Related Services Sector Education and Training Authority, Merseta, who are also at the Imbizo Centre, watching on the big screen. You are our pride and our hope in our drive for artisan production in this country. I would also just like to inform members and announce - they may be aware that we've been having problems at the Durban University of Technology - that we have agreed with all the stakeholders to actually appoint a mediator and someone who is also going to investigate the problems, and Dr Vincent Maphai has graciously agreed to act as a mediator in this process.
By the way, this links me to the point that Mr Mpontshane was making. I am sure to call you "baba" uMpontshane, as it is more honourable than saying hon Mr Mpontshane. With regard to the SA Democratic Students' Movement, Sadesmo, and the students that were arrested, I think you know that during the registration period we set up a task team. It's a pity that in a Budget Vote you can't share everything that you want to share.
We have learned a lot of things, and I hope that through the House, and especially Comrade Marius through the portfolio committee, we will be able to have ongoing engagement on some of these issues. You see, it is clear that there are legitimate problems that are facing students at many of our institutions, including the problems of accommodation and so on, and that the students have the right to protest. But what we cannot accept is the destruction of property. I am not making a judgment about the students who were arrested, whether they were involved in that, but we must leave it to the judgment of the law enforcement agencies to actually take action and to take things to their logical conclusion.
I am disturbed when you say you smell a rat. I was assured, because I've also been engaging with the Commissioner of Police on some of these problems that we have been experiencing. The police have been asked to act firmly but with restraint, not carelessly, to try to protect this property that we need for our children and future generations. So, maybe we should allow the law to take its course, and then we will be able to see what it is that we can do.
Whilst talking about the matters that were raised by the hon Mpontshane, the issue of a revolutionary curriculum means, in simple terms, that we are suffocating from a singular totalitarian ideology which tells us that their market is the solution to everything. The world economy has collapsed precisely because of that intolerant totalitarian ideology which has failed the majority of the people in the world.