Dankie, mnr Van Niekerk. Ongelukkig mt ek u nou knip! [Gelag.] (Translation of Afrikaans paragraphs follows.)
[The first perception we must correct is that all private slaughtering facilities are unhygienic. Of course this is not true. Not all slaughtering on farms or in backyards is unhygienic. However, the problem normally arises somewhere along the chain from that point onwards, and where people handle the meat in an unhygienic manner.
It surely now becomes an impossible task for a government to deal with and to take responsibility for the hygiene of meat from the point of slaughter for three, four, five days, or however long afterwards. It must therefore be scaled down to a point where responsibility can be taken.
Then there are two aspects which we must look at. These two aspects are the live animal and the animal once it has been slaughtered. There are certain diseases which one can observe before the animal is slaughtered, and for that reason people should be available to do inspections beforehand.
One can easily observe certain diseases merely by looking at the live animal; when it is feverish, when it is tired, when it looks like some of our colleagues here late this afternoon! One can already observe this in the animal from the external attitude - I am almost tempted to say in the body language. However, that is only one aspect. It is also the easy aspect, but we must look at it.
However, there are certain diseases which can only be identified once the animal has been slaughtered. These must also be looked at. For example, one can see whether the lymphatic glands are full of TB germs. One cannot observe it in the live animal, but once you dissect it, one can see that caseous abscess which is there, and then one knows what it is. Measles, those tapeworm eggs which are between the fibres of the meat, cannot be observed in an animal when it is simply standing there. One has to open it up and cut that fibre. That TB and measles can have a detrimental effect on humans if they are ingested.
There are other problematic illnesses which one cannot observe in a live animal and which one can also not see once one has slaughtered an animal, but which can only be observed by way of blood tests of the animal. These are things like brucellosis, which eventually leads to Malta fever in humans. This can only be identified by testing the blood of the animal and there are therefore programmes in place precisely to identify it, kill the animals and compensate the people - almost like the foot-and-mouth epidemic which we have now and where this was done because it was the only option.
This process was firmly established here in our country, so that brucellosis and TB-affected dairy cattle and breeding animals were virtually entirely under control. It now seems to me that the hon the Deputy Minister's department has run out of money or has lost steam and that programme is no longer in place as used to be the case. Today I would like to appeal to the hon the Deputy Minister that that programme should once again be considered so that it can support this legislation and can help us in that regard.
We have only two concerns, and this is very brief, Mr Chairperson. I see that you want to cut me short. Do not!
HON MEMBERS: Cut him short! Cut him short! [Interjections.]