Thank you, hon Speaker. The ANC welcomes Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa's announcement that the SAPS is to establish an educational trust fund that will benefit children whose parents or guardians have died in the line of duty. The announcement was made on the SAPS National Commemoration Day, to honour the 110 police officers who died in the line of duty during the past financial year.
The SAPS Education Trust Fund is expected to be fully operational by January 2011. During this Commemoration Day, the Minister noted that many of the police officers who died were fairly young, and even though the SAPS paid out their pension and policy benefits, it was evidently impossible that those payments would sustain the loved ones left behind.
The criteria in terms of permissibility into the educational trust fund will be voluntary, but consideration will be on the neediest. The SAPS Educational Trust Fund will be the first of its kind, and will be a lasting legacy to those who have lost their lives in the service of the country. I thank you.