Mr Speaker, one of the biggest mistakes that can be made by policy-makers is to ignore evidence that contradicts their own worldview, even worse when this leads to actively suppressing other viewpoints. At the last meeting of the Portfolio Committee on Mineral Resources, the ANC members were not happy to hear the facts about our growing body of evidence suggesting another failure in government's stewardship of mining. Because of that, they closed down questioning from the DA.
Mining is an industry that employs more than half a million of our people directly. It is in dire straits, largely through mismanagement of this government. Regulation and enforcement mistakes are paid for in lost jobs. But, the ANC only wants to talk about its own version of the world and chooses to ignore anything that conflicts with that. If parliamentary committees are not allowed to interrogate, and if we do not correct witnesses, then those who will not question their party line will bear responsibility for flinging thousands of our people into the misery of poverty that comes with unemployment.