Deputy Speaker, thank you very much. The National Freedom Party supports the bill that is tabled here today. The bill seeks to provide for the protection, promotion, development and management of indigenous knowledge. The bill also provides for the establishment, management and functions of the national indigenous knowledge office; to provide for the indigenous knowledge communities; and also to provide for the constitution of the advisory panel on indigenous knowledge systems.
Indigenous communities have been abused for many years. There is a lot of indigenous knowledge on healing and medicine, but indigenous communities have never been beneficiaries to the fruit of their labour and wisdom.