Chairperson, I wish to thank all the hon members for their support of this very important Bill. As we all know, our country is richly endowed with minerals. For the most part, we dig lots of holes all over the country and take out the minerals and send them elsewhere. We are also blessed with biodiversity. By and large other people come and harvest it, produce advanced goods out of it and we buy them at higher prices.
We also have lots of clever people in our country and we hope that with the passing of this Bill, we will be able to combine this richness in intellectual power and in expertise with the riches that we have as a country and will therefore be able to develop better. We will bring together our muscles and our brains. That can only be wonderful. So, thank you, hon members. I also wish to thank Deputy Minister Derek Hanekom. This has been a very long road as far as this Bill is concerned and we travelled it together. The portfolio committee and the select committee really worked very hard at this and in the process of engagement we learned a lot and we were able to improve the Bill as we went along.
More than any other people, I would like to thank officials from the Department of Science and Technology. They really worked very hard and hon Derek and I really slept well at night because we knew that we had "baie goeie, skitterende mense wat werk" [outstanding, excellent people who worked] in the department.
We are not the only people who are proud of them; I think the people in the portfolio committee are also proud of them. They call them every now and then, not just to look at them because they are beautiful, but also to listen to what they have to say. Thank you very much, hon members. [Applause.]
Debate concluded.
Bill read a second time.