I think the point that was raised by the hon Seremane concerning the issue of reintegration is important. We really have to push that, so that we do not have, as a kind of semipermanent feature of our country, these isolated communities of foreign nationals. The point that was made about the education of communities is also important; that is the issue about the mobilisation of communities to say that foreign nationals should come back and that those communities would protect them because there was never any fighting amongst them.
The work should be focused on those sorts of areas and it would be an important part of ensuring that this thing doesn't recur. We should also focus on attending to these other issues that are raised, some of which are legitimate, of people who come into the country illegally and then they get employed as they will accept rates of pay that South African workers wouldn't accept. They have to accept them because they are in a desperate situation. That results then in people saying: You are accepting low rates of pay and therefore keeping out South African workers.
That is something that we have to attend to. It is not the fault of the foreigners. It is the fault of our system. On the matter raised by the Somali traders - that we should not allow a situation where you get an oversupply of small shops in local areas - inevitably, that is going to result in conflict. We have seen that happen for instance with regard to the taxi conflicts. It is the same issue where there is insufficient regulation; you get particular routes oversupplied with taxis and it results in this kind of conflict. I think those are the specific matters that we need to attend to so that indeed, as you indicated, hon member, we don't allow this thing to recur. Government's stance iro meeting on global food crisis held at Food and Agriculture Organisation of UN
8. Mr F T Maserumule (ANC) asked the President of the Republic:
How does the Government assess the current offer from the developed world to agriculture in light of the past meeting on the global food crisis at the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the UN?