Mr Speaker, I'd like to thank Mr President for his response, but I must say that I'm very disappointed in it. The issue has such a long history. I'd like to remind the House that this issue has been on our agenda since the Convention for a Democratic South Africa, Codesa, and culminated in negotiations between traditional leaders and the executive just before the 2000 local government elections. In terms of these negotiations, agreements were reached with the executive, but they have not been implemented yet.
To remind you, for example, your predecessor, President Mbeki, agreed that should the powers and functions of traditional leaders be diminished as a result of the municipal system being implemented, then the Constitution would be amended. And he repeated that statement in the NCOP.
There were negotiations with Minister Mufamadi, which failed. I remind the President that in his capacity as Deputy President in the past, he served on a Cabinet committee that had actually concluded an agreement with traditional leaders to the effect that the Constitution would be amended.
The problem we have is that nothing has happened since then. I hear the President's response in terms of today's reply, and all those things are commendable. We agree with all of them, they are great. But the questions that I'm asking are: Is government going to stick to the agreement that it has reached already? Is it prepared to accept that there was an agreement reached that needs to be implemented? All the other things are peripheral for now; the real issue is that an agreement was reached. When is it going to be implemented?
I would also like to ask the President whether he is prepared to reconsider his position on this matter. Thank you.