Chairperson, I have partly answered this. I am not going to answer all of it but just to give you an indication of the exodus out of the National Prosecuting Authority: Over the last four years, from April 2003 to March 2007 this year, we have lost 112 prosecutors. Seventy-one of them were ordinary prosecutors; 22 were regional court prosecutors; six were senior public prosecutors; 12 were state advocates; and one was a senior state advocate. So it is a big pool of experience that we have lost over the last while.
As the hon member knows, the National Prosecuting Authority has been losing a significant number of prosecutors to the magistracy and to the private sector, including to law firms. Competition for skilled lawyers has therefore had an impact on the NPA.
In order to address this matter holistically, government has, through the Department of Public Service and Administration, started a process of determining an appropriate salary level dispensation for officials performing legal functions in government as a whole. This will ensure that such officials are remunerated equitably within the same bands for similar work. This will hopefully reduce the movement of officials from department to department or within departments.
I wish to advise the hon member that this process is now at an advanced stage. Negotiations between government and labour have commenced at the bargaining chamber and the outcome will be communicated to all stakeholders. In addition, the NPA has embarked on extensive capacity- building programmes, both at organisational but particularly at an individual level to try and make the NPA an employer of choice.
Excellence and performance across and within the NPA, the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development, the Legal Aid Board and the judiciary, underpinned by the availability of capacity - that is skills, human capital resources and systems - attracting and retaining the right capacity, its location and optimal use, as well as maintaining an ethos of service is of central concern and importance for government, and this occupation-specific dispensation that is being proposed is part of addressing that problem. Thank you.