Chairperson, the province of peace, that is, the Northern Province, supports this Bill. Whether our peacefulness is due to witchcraft or not is a separate debate which we can embark upon later. [Laughter.] On the Meat Safety Bill, this country has finally got a Bill for Africans in Africa by Africans themselves.
The Northern Province deeply appreciates that section of the Bill which accommodates cultural and religious slaughter. That is why we say that finally we have a Bill in Africa for Africans by Africans themselves. This Bill is a source of hope for our province, and we hope that the implementation of clauses 2 to 5, the logistics thereof, will not produce a bureaucracy parallel to the administration. We are hoping, but we know it may not happen.
We are also hoping that the various categories of abattoirs referred to by the speakers before me, including the slaughter pole, will also be given the recognition they deserve. This inclusion of all types of abattoirs - slaughter poles and others - in our view as a province will, we hope, also enable all the citizens of this country to participate in the meat industry, because the laws that prevailed before kept them outside.
We also hope, regarding slaughter for research purposes, that that function will be devolved. We hope the protocol approval for that function will be devolved to the research institutions or the administration units or to ethics committees, because we think that is where the function belongs.
Concerning the training, since there is also a clause on training, we also hope that the exact outcome of the training will be specified in accordance with the SA Qualifications Authority, so that communities can know exactly at what level the graduates of that training will be functioning.
Last, but not least, regarding Schedule 1, we feel that the broad principle needs to be specified, because the varieties peculiar to certain places may not be adequately addressed in the list. [Applause.]