Madam Speaker, hon members, I much appreciate the 15 minutes, and I shall make full use of them.
Let me start by expressing a concern that I believe it is fundamentally important that Parliament be given adequate time to deal with issues such as adjustments appropriation because it is so significant. The oversight role of Parliament is so very important in this regard. Unfortunately, this was impossible this time. But I think we must mark it as a difficulty and try to prevent this kind of issue in the future.
The hon Pheko says that our budgets aren't pro-poor. Well, I will challenge the hon Pheko to walk with me in any township where poor people are in this country. People will recognise me before they recognise him because they know that our budgets are pro-poor and they know what we represent in their lives - to raise the standard of living on a continuous basis. I will challenge him to this any day. I will challenge him to meet us at the polls next year, and we will see where the ANC and the PAC meet. [Applause.]
Just to deal with some of the issues, the matter of the RAF is one that was of course attended to by the Minister of Transport with the Portfolio Committee on Transport. In the second quarter of this year, a new piece of legislation was promulgated. But as we know, there are so many vested interests in this piece of legislation. Those who enriched themselves on the backs of accident victims have not wanted to let go. This is a big, big problem. It is not so much that the RAF is poorly managed. The problem is that there are systemic failures in the system because, as designed, it is fundamentally wrong. What happened in respect of the Swiss citizen and the amount of money that he was able to secure out of the RAF suggests to me that the RAF suffers systemic failures. This is what we have to repair. Legislation is part of the way to doing this. But it is not about a liquidity issue. Solvency issues will arise from time to time because of the design of the RAF. So, we have to repair that.
In respect of pensions and some things that the hon Pheko has been talking about - he even suggested that we might have been completely careless in the way in which we dealt with this matter - let me just explain. When I rose at this podium in February this year to table the Budget, the old age pensions, and it is the same for the disability grants, was R870 a month. We announced an increase of R70 a month then. Normally, that increase would last for a year. So, after that announcement it increased to R940. Taking account of the effects that inflation will have on that now, we added a further R20, raising the pensions to a new level of R960 from 1 October to 31 March 2009.
I hope that we will be in a position to stand here before the country again in February and increase pensions again to take account of the changes. This isn't a change for the year; it is a supplement to take account of the fact that the value of pensions has been eroded by inflation. That is all. It is R20 on top of the earlier R70. That is the context in which I think we have to see the increase.
In respect of the school nutrition programme, again enough was said of it. I want to give the assurance that what my colleague, the Minister of Education, has done with the department in building up the capacity to ensure that we can overcome some of the difficulties encountered in local situations needs to be commended. At this stage, we are just increasing the amount available to ensure that the ravages of inflation on food don't stand in the way of feeding children who, as the hon Singh said, frequently have that as their only meal. But beyond this, the roll-out of the programme to ensure that more children are fed for more days of the year and also moving this programme from primary schools to high schools are going to be very important changes. The money is in the medium-term estimates, and we will take account of that.
With regard to issues of the Denel guarantee, this is the second instalment of the guarantee with British Aerospace, BAE. This is a matter that was canvassed very extensively at the time of the special appropriation last year. The total indemnity provided is R1,6 billion. The first claim was R220 million and now this amount.
On the strategic defence account referred to by the hon Swart of the ACDP, we had to roll out these amounts because we can't take delivery. It is recorded in that way. These issues always arise if you have a Constitution that says that you shall have a defensive capability. Not that you may, but you shall. If you are going to have one, you better have a good one, hon De Lille. There is no point in having a Mickey Mouse one. So, these issues will arise from time to time. But the Bill is largely supported across the House, and I would like to express our sincere appreciation for that support, Madam Speaker. [Applause.]
Debate concluded. Bill read a first time.