Thank you very much, Deputy Speaker. I would like to respond to three of the statements.
The first one that I would like to respond to is the one from the hon member from the IFP, I believe, who spoke about the 16 Days of Activism, and say that indeed I believe in a national consensus around our need to ensure that we get involved in actions that will take forward a national response dealing with violence against women and children. The theme this year is one that says: "Action against abuse." And it has clearly come to the fore that in many instances the issues of domestic violence and violence against women and children are identified as social crimes. Judging from the work that has been done by the police and the criminal justice system, it's very clear that the victims have had crimes committed against them by people whom they know and, in many instances we assume, people whom they trust.
This means that the intervention is only an intervention from the side of the state, but it also has to be an intervention that involves all role- players in society. Very clearly, at the core of this are community and families. So, we would envisage that in this instance and for these 16 days and into the future, there would be a consolidated response by all players in society to engage in common action around the 16 Days of Activism and beyond as a combined action against abuse.
The second matter that I want to deal with is the allegation in the statement by Mr Simmons, where he would like to align himself with hon Koek van der Merwe - I mean Koos van der Merwe - who has raised various allegations about the President not meeting with them as required. I think we very clearly need to move away from a situation of trying to overdramatise the situation.
I think, much to the President's regret, he clearly cannot meet everyone who would like to meet him. But I think the hon Simmons is aware that he has had a meeting with a Presidential Councillor where there was an agreement that he would meet the President on providing certain details on the matter under discussion, namely certain issues around Afrikaans- speaking Coloured people. The view was that we could not have one party engaging with the President around that. Every party in this House would argue that they have a common constituency. And as a result, hon Simmons was expected to refer back to the councillor with more details and that has not happened. I believe that the presidency is awaiting the follow-up and we trust that that will happen.
On the third matter which the hon Davidson brought to the attention of the House, namely the issue of expenditure in relation to accommodation, transport, and what he calls "food and drinks". In terms of the response in relation to my own portfolio, we have very clearly indicated that on the issue of food and drinks it was not easy to make that extrapolation and reflect on that. But in relation to transport and accommodation, I want to assure the hon members and this House that there has been a significant increase in our work in Africa. There has been an increase in our work in the DRC and the fact that we have teams working there. And in view of the circumstances under which they work we value that they are in appropriate accommodation and that they come home regularly to be with their families. Secondly, we are doing work in the Sudan as well, and we have appropriately looked at their transport and accommodation.
Furthermore, looking locally, in KwaZulu-Natal there is a specific intervention that we are engaged in. A team has gone down and is located in KwaZulu-Natal where we cover their accommodation and their periodical transport home. So, I will be quite willing to share that with the House and elaborate on how we are involved in conscious interventions where staff will go either to different provinces or to particular areas on the continent. We regard this as part of our re-engineering of government work, as well as restructuring and rebuilding the state. And I think that it's appropriate to invest appropriately.
A second department mentioned was Sport and Recreation, and I want to remind hon members about the amalgamation of the Sports Commission into the department, which has brought personnel as well as responsibilities and tasks with it. Obviously that would show quite an increase, which doesn't necessarily reflect in the manner as may have been inferred by the hon Davidson. But I'm sure the inference was unintended. Thank you very much.
Hon Minister, thank you very much for correcting that slip in the tongue, namely that despite the fact that we had a lot of "koek drama" last week the name still remains hon Koos van der Merwe.