Chairperson, with regard to the matter raised by the hon Kohler-Barnard. We, in the Department of Transport, have too read the reports about the alleged behaviour of the African National Congress Youth League, ANCYL, President and we are looking into the matter. We want to assure South Africans that none of us are above the law.
These are allegations we wish to stress at the moment, but we are seeking to establish what exactly happened. We would like to use this opportunity to assure traffic officers that they enjoy our support, and they must conduct their business without fear or favour. [Applause.]
With regard to the matter raised by the hon Smuts Ngonyama, it's very ironic; he comes from a party which calls itself the Congress of the People. Hon Ngonyama will know that at the real congress of the people a Freedom Charter was framed and endorsed. The Freedom Charter says that the wealth of the country shall be shared amongst all the people of this country. [Applause.]
It said the wealth beneath the soil and the monopoly companies should become a common wealth. It doesn't use the word "nationalisation", which is true. At least, that gives us an idea of how to ensure that the wealth of our country indeed becomes the wealth of all our people, and not of a small lite that benefit from elephant consortiums and other plundering of public resources.
The position of the ANC and of government remains the same as at the time when the hon member was the spokesperson of the ANC, and its approach is neither in favour of wholesale nationalisation nor of privatisation. We will address the issue of state-owned enterprises on the balance of evidence. You once used to say that, but now you are raising the "rooi gevaar" and all kinds of strange issues.
We wish to assure you that we will certainly protect the public property and public ownership and won't allow the plundering of our public resources, as it often occurred, as the member knows well from his own experience with the elephant consortium and the way in which public resources, in the case of Telkom, were taken over by private hands for self- enrichment.