The question is two-fold. I've got a duty as Deputy President to ensure that all government departments nationally do honour their debts. I take that. When I leave here I am going to ensure that all government departments comply. [Applause.] I'm going to insist. I'm going to write to each and every Minister ... to do that. I'll take it upon myself to help the President ensure that those who owe, do pay. If they don't pay they must explain to the President why they are not paying. [Applause.]
It's a duty that I'm prepared to do because that is stipulated in our law. We can't sit here and process laws that we ourselves
finally don't respect. The laws that we pass here ... we must be the first to uphold those laws. So I take that responsibility.
However, the second part ... which you yourselves are involved in as members of this House ... the culture of nonpayment of our people. Some of you were part of those struggles in telling our people not to pay, and it's time to go back and say to our people it's time to pay now. [Applause.] The struggles are over. At that time we were fighting a system. We wanted to pull down a system so we encouraged everyone not to pay. Some amongst you here were part of that campaign of telling our people not to pay. So, let's stand up with the same vigour and the same push to tell our people to pay.
Those who can afford must pay because as we speak municipalities are providing water to a number of residents and very few of these people are paying. Municipalities are providing electricity to a number of villages and the majority of those people are not paying. So, if we are talking about the challenges that are faced by our municipalities, our communities are part and parcel of the problem. [Applause.]