Hon Chair, I would like to start by expressing my appreciation for all inputs made by hon members in the debate.
Earlier on I forgot to welcome our former chairperson and the present Deputy Speaker of the North West Provincial Legislature; they were both members of this portfolio committee. I want to suggest that one day they should be brought in here just to provide a bit of an education to some of our hon members on the other side. [Laughter.]
I am saying this because I don't know what to respond to, especially as regards the hon member from the EFF. I have written here, "I don't know", because I honestly don't know what he was saying. [Interjections.]
As for hon Steenkamp, I think you have a long way to go, even though there is potential, ma'am. You have a long way to go in regard to understanding the kinds of things that we are talking about. [Interjections.] I have only three minutes in which to respond, so please sit down. [Interjections.]
Let me respond to the very positive inputs made by some members. Hon Holomisa, your suggestion about Madiba is most welcome indeed, and I think we will have to work together on that. There is a thought about the legacy of Madiba regarding the heritage issue - a world heritage site or even a national heritage site. So, we can work on those issues and include them there.
I now come to the issues raised by hon Singh. There is an issue that we are already working on which needs intervention, and that is the declassification of waste; so, we will have to revert to you in relation to that. With regard to the DNA sampling, certainly there is a lot happening. I want to indicate, as I have already said in my speech, that there is a lot of work that is beginning to be done in respect of Vietnam and China, particularly in Hong Kong. By the way, a consignment was found there by the authorities, and they have alerted us in South Africa. So, great work is being done there.
Why did I say there is still a long way to go for hon Steenkamp in regard to the issues that she raised? It is because it took quite a while for those of us who were not acquainted with the portfolio of the Department of Environmental Affairs to understand a lot of the work that is being done in curbing rhino poaching. I have now learnt a lot, so I have a lot to teach to you and those on that side.
It is indeed necessary that when we as South Africans stand up to speak, we must remember that there is a lot that is happening and we must contribute to what government is doing. Government is putting a lot of effort into this; we haven't spoken here today about even a quarter of what government is doing. It is important to realise that. Yes, we have a proposal that we will submit to that corps. It will be well researched, as I said, and it will be well thought through. There will be consultation and there will certainly be contributions from South Africans, as there always have been. There will be those who say, "We think this is what you should do," and we will listen. But we will find it difficult to listen to those who say, "You are not doing this and that, but you are doing that and this." That is a problem. So let us learn to handle this.
On the issue of the recycling economy, I think many members from the ANC made good contributions; we welcome and appreciate their inputs. The issues we are dealing with are environmental matters that started to become more important in 1994 only - chairperson, you were so right.
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development report does state that South Africa has indeed moved a long way. By the way, there are hon members from the other side who, from their inheritance and movement away from their original parties, have come from a background of not doing anything about these issues, so we have made strides.
The OECD report also points out the kind of things that you are saying. Our task is to be focused and move forward. Ours is to ensure, and I agree with you, that the environmental impact assessments that are being done must enable development. I said this is the reason why we actually integrated the systems to make a coherent system - read about it again - to ensure that mining authorisations are done now under the National Environmental Management Act and no longer under the Environmental Management Programme Report. So, we are moving in that direction and it is of our own accord; we were not taught by the DA to do the things that we are doing.
With regard to the Eskom emissions issue, we stated, hon member of the DA, that there is a greenhouse gas inventory that we drew up, together with South Africans, in order to understand the amounts of the gases that there are out there. Right now, even as we say we are facing not so good a picture, it is still not beyond what we have actually calculated it to be at this point in time, given our mitigation scenario. We are not so worried because we know that, given the actions that we said we would take in respect of allocations for the desired emission reduction outcomes, the industries allocated will take action. Indeed, we are certain that there will be a reduction at least by 2020.
Thank you very much for supporting the Budget Vote. [Time expired.] [Applause.]
Debate concluded.