Madam Speaker, I do not know if the hon Leader of the Official Opposition has been asked by the MDC to serve as their postwoman. [Laughter.]
So, I don't know, she is offering to give me a letter which she was not given by the MDC and claims that it's from the MDC. That is why I am asking: Did the MDC say "Here is our letter, hand it over". Of course they didn't. So she shouldn't offer to be a spokesperson or a postwoman.
When we had a debate on the Budget Vote of the Presidency, the hon Deputy Chief Whip of the Majority Party raised an important question which I thought all of us understand by now, but clearly we don't. We have been asked by the SADC region to conduct a process that will facilitate an agreement among the Zimbabwean parties. The hon Leader of the Official Opposition refers to the Security Council's Presidential Statement and that statement refers to that facilitation.
What we have to do is indeed to encourage the parties in Zimbabwe to reach the agreement that is necessary. We continue to engage in that process. As I speak here, our delegation is in Zimbabwe engaging the leaders of Zimbabwe with regard to this matter. That is what we have to do.
The hon Andries Nel addressed this matter when we discussed it, just to give an indication of what it means to carry out a responsibility of this kind, which was originally given by SADC, but was confirmed even earlier this week by the United Nations Security Council - the same position taken by the African Union. That is a task to which we must attend. Anything and everything we do has to focus on that because that is what we are about, what the facilitation is about, what this region is asking for, and what the Security Council is asking for - that the Zimbabweans must arrive at a position from which, together, they can address the political and economic challenges that the country faces. [Interjections.]
You know, hon Tony Leon, that the reason we negotiated in South Africa, we sat and negotiated for a number of years and reached an agreement, was precisely because people were being killed. They were even being killed during the course of the negotiations. We had to suspend negotiations at least twice because of that. De Klerk is white, Mugabe is black, surely they are not the same. The one is this side, the other one is that side. I don't know! [Interjections.] The reason people negotiate is because they are at war. If they were not at war they would not need to negotiate. So, hon Leader of the Official Opposition, that is what we will do. We will continue to discharge the obligation that has been put to us. We have been asked if we could please lead this process and we will continue to do that. Hopefully the Zimbabweans, with such assistance as we can extend to them, will arrive at an agreement which will produce the kind of Zimbabwe that all of us want. [Applause.]