Mr Speaker, I would like to respond to the statement made by hon Mabasa on the Brics co- operatives alliance. Yes, indeed, I agree with him that as a country we are lagging behind, based on the historical background.
I am glad to say that as a country we strengthened the Co-operatives Act and that is why we are going to set up an agency, a tribunal and a training academy to make sure that we train our co-operatives.
I would also like to state that, as we speak, we are hosting the International Co-operatives Alliance here in Cape Town, the first of its kind to be hosted in an African country. This shows that the world has confidence our dealing with co-operatives.
I agree with you that we will be able to deal with unemployment, inequality and poverty if we implement the amendments to the Co-operatives Act of 2005, which we debated earlier on. Let us all co-operate and make sure that we act in the spirit of co-operatives, as they have proved to work well in countries like Kenya, our neighbour, and Italy. We have learned a lot from the international conference. Thank you. [Applause.]