Chairperson, hon Deputy Minister, senior officials of the department, I must say that most issues have been covered. As far as deliberations at committee level are concerned, there are no contentions or contestations arising from public hearings on the substance and content of the Bill.
Maybe it's important, Deputy Minister, to note that the lobbying and advocacy during this Bill was of the most robust I have ever seen, at least in committees I have participated in in Parliament. But unfortunately, this lobbying was not from the side of our people; it was from the industry. Our attitude has always been that they are welcome.
We engaged with the industry quite robustly. We agreed where we agreed and disagreed where we disagreed. We need to make this statement in public that when we differ with the industry, we are the final arbiters. We have a mandate as elected representatives in this country to make laws. When we differ with them and take a different direction, they need to respect that. We are the final arbiters; we are the only ones who are the final arbiters on any matter in this country for which there has to be legislation. We are quite concerned that some of the representatives of the industry were circulating messages through SMSes and e-mails to members, casting aspersions on the integrity of the process and senior officials of the department, in particular the director-general of the department, Mr Thami Mseleku, for lack of consultation.
This was of concern to us as a committee and we had to take up the issue as it would be wrong for the department to take such a Bill to Parliament without consulting sufficiently with stakeholders. The evidence presented before the committee refuted the claims that were made by the industry. We are quite confident and satisfied that sufficient consultation was undertaken by the department or Ministry with every stakeholder.
We want to further advise that consultation and interaction with government and Parliament in particular does not begin and end with the law-making process. We need to teach our people. I thought it was only people in the rural areas where I come from who did not understand how Parliament functions. But I have learned that even those who are learned and in industries that are resourced do not understand that they have the right, at any given time, to come and interact with government and Parliament on any issue of concern, as long as the issue is of a legislative nature. So I felt it was important that we made this particular statement.
We are happy that hon Mackay alluded to the robustness of the lobbying. Some even boasted about how they had convinced our provinces to take certain positions. But I went through the mandates from the various provinces and they refuted the claims that were made in some of the e- mails.
Hon Deputy Minister, I must also bring to your attention the concerns about the enforceability of the Bill. This was raised quite sharply before the committee, and we did not take for granted the capacity of the SAPS, our judiciary and the magistrates to take on the loads of people who might have violated this kind of legislation.
Our starting and ending point is that this kind of legislation deals with lifestyle issues. Critically, to success in this regard does not lie in this piece of legislation only. Public awareness is critical in terms of ensuring that we mobilise our communities, young people, elders, priests and everybody else within the community and in society in general to be aware and conscious about the effects of smoking. So this is one of the critical concerns.
In this respect, I think it is critical that we also challenge the industry to forge a very formidable and working relationship with government in terms of unleashing this kind of public awareness. This cannot be the role of government only. I think political parties also have a critical role to play in this. The issue of smoking and drinking is not something you do by law. It is something you do by persuasion. You don't do it mathematically and say, for example, that today hon Kgoshi Mokoena stopped smoking or drinking, and then say hallelujah, amen. It is about consciousness, mobilising society, changing values, changing the attitudes of people and changing the lifestyles of the people. I think this is the paradigm that should inform our debate and approach in relation to this particular Bill.
Lastly, we don't want the old apartheid sins. It is a fact that the majority of successful men and women in this country are from poor families. Some of them could afford to become doctors, advocates, priests and even Members of Parliament in this august House because their mothers sold umqombothi which was illegal.
It is a fact today that many children survive the cold nights of the winter, deriving their meal from the sale of tobacco - whether you call it a "loose draw", "RDP", etc, hon Mazibuko. We don't want the enforcement of this Bill without the necessary conscious approach to these people to mobilise them, make them aware and also teach them about alternative opportunities where they can sell other things instead of surviving on these kinds of things which are illegal.
That is the attitude we have adopted in this committee. We hope that we are not going to see local municipalities just issuing bylaws and government issuing regulations and our people in taxi ranks just getting their property confiscated. This is the kind of attitude we need to be conscious of when we deal with this.
Oliver Tambo said that one is not a leader if one doesn't understand their speed in relation to the speed of the masses. If you are moving faster than the masses and you think you are a leader, you may be confusing the people at times and you would not be aware because you would only be hearing their footsteps. This is one of the teachings of Oliver Tambo.
So, as we move with the implementation of this Bill, we need to prepare the ground in such a manner that our people will legitimately become part and parcel of the transformation of shifting their attitudes and lifestyles, and begin to venture into other options away from this killer lifestyle. Thank you very much, Chairperson.