Yes, they are very young. You see, Minister, you like talking. I have Stella here; she is very young. And I have Maynier on that side who is also very young and who is leading his delegation. The only person who I think is older than me is Tat' uTolo. I also have Tat' uMlangeni.
This is a good collective of people who have shown quite a lot of willingness and understanding in a very short period of time of the issues and challenges confronting the SANDF. The report they have been able to compile has been checked through thoroughly and everybody knows exactly what it is that they are supposed to be doing.
Minister, we want to say to you again that we are quite concerned about the issue of the unions. I note that you did not say much about them. This is an issue we would like you to reflect on at some stage, because we do think that the way they handled one of your generals was not correct - not a way that we appreciated in the committee. We are looking for anyone who is in the Defence Force to find a way of working with us.
If you have a criticism of or a view on the conduct of the generals, talk to us. As Parliament, we would like to see how we could help you to overcome some of the problems - but not when you start going outside and shouting at them. As generals they are doing a very good job. You must realise that Parliament, as an institution, as people who have been voted in, we are quite confident of these generals.
We are saying to you that they have done a lot of good work up until now, and we are very impressed with the work they have done. So, to insult them and to attack them, you are really calling on us to get down and tell you where we stand on this particular matter.
It would be very important, wherever the unions are, that they do accept the fact that we do understand and we are the ones who hold these particular generals accountable, and we are very impressed with the work they have been doing.
Madam Minister, the way you handled the issue of the military veterans was a test, and I knew that the committee wanted to see how you were going to approach that. We are behind you on the fact that you have created a task team. And we want to say to you and our own veterans: The Minister is very honest and very good. She does have integrity on what she has expressed around this particular development in the task team. We should all give her the necessary support in the time she is warranting. She has spoken to us about her own preparedness of being able to prepare and interact with the different stakeholders.
We are going to have a session with the Deputy Minister, not the former one. There is a new one, Comrade George Mluleki. You were the former one. [Laughter.] We have a new Deputy Minister now. So, we are going to deal with that Deputy Minister. We are going to have a session with him to go through the details of what the points of reference are for the task team itself.
We don't want to hear just that there is a task team. We want to hear and understand what the capacity is of that particular task team. How is it going to be prepared? We know as a matter of fact that during this budget period they have not been able to put money aside for them to build up capacity so that they could have their administration properly sorted out.
Now, we want to hear from the Deputy Minister how prepared and how organised he is around this particular area. This is because one of the things that my colleague Comrade hon Dlodlo will be outlining - and I don't want to take away from her speech - will be our own understanding of what Polokwane was and what that resolution means to all of us and to own former soldiers of uMkhonto weSizwe and Apla.
She will express herself and elaborate on that area very extensively, because she is one of those that laid down their lives. And she is one of those that left our country at a very young age and made their own contribution in uMkhonto weSizwe.
So, I wouldn't want to take away from her contribution at this particular moment because I said to her that I couldn't match her contribution. I was in an SDU, a Self-Defence Unit. She was a totally different calibre of soldier. We will give that responsibility to her to continue giving the views of the different soldiers on what they think about this particular area.
Madam Minister, around the issue of the declining Defence budget, we want to say to the country that we are not arrogant when we say, "Put every cent into Defence." But there is lack of capacity. If you all say to us that we need to be able to build and to make sure that the Defence of our country has the capability to defend the borders, make sure that you do give them the capacity. That's all that they are appealing for.
They are saying this if you want them to assist with maritime issues, if you want them to have a better landward infrastructure. This is the area that we are going to deal with because landward-wise we are really suffering. Landward infrastructure is hurting us.
We are saying to you that you help us. That's what the collective of our committee has said in that as long as the Minister is open to us and has an engagement that is more positive, we are quite willing to put a shoulder to the wheel and assist, but in humility, of not being arrogant but of being able to stand up to the challenge of saying what the issues are that are facing this particular department. That's what they have said they would be willing to do as a collective that is prepared to work and assist the department itself.
Thank you, Minister, again for being able to clarify how the SAPS is going to relate to this particular area, because we were a little bit worried when we started getting different signals. We were quite worried and you informed us about how far ... [Time expired.] [Applause.]