Minister, in your own departmental report you claim quite rightly that the Telephone Interpreting Service for South Africa is "pivotal to the framework and the promotion of linguistic diversity in this country".
I would like to know, Minister, how it is that Tissa has collapsed so soon after you heralded the fact that 10 government departments and public entities had installed the Telephone Interpreting Service. Indeed, your attempt to reach a target of 100 government department sites has been a resounding failure, and yet the budget for the national language service programme was increased by nearly R20 million.
Minister Balfour impressed this House mightily yesterday saying that heads of those who had failed in his department would roll. I would like you please to assure us that those behind the hiring of this consortium, this latest debacle in your department, will be dealt with in the same manner that Minister Balfour will be dealing with members of his department. One wants to know why on earth a contract would be given to a body so obviously incapable of doing the very job for which they were paid.