Hon Chair, hon Ministers, hon Premier and speakers, and all other hon members, the initiative to take Parliament to the people is to be commended and encouraged. Here I want to give my thanks, through the Premier, for a fantastic job done. I have personally not heard one complaint.
At dawn on 27 April 1994, there were already queues of people at rural polling stations, incredibly excited at being able to vote and so have a say in the government of the land of their birth. That morning was the dawn of our democracy. Whether one looks to others as the cradle of Western democracy, where all the citizens gather to vote, or the African model of lekgotla attended by the local community, there is an element missing in our proud new democracy.
Government takes place at a distance, and this is what we are remedying here in the NCOP. Parliament sits far away from the vast majority of people it serves. We met and heard of many who were physically challenged, who need to be capacitated and empowered with basic skills. I think our hearts broke when we saw some of the people crawling in, as they were physically challenged. That was, I think, a defining moment for me in that tent that day.
We heard about fences that need fixing; how equipment fails because of lack of basic maintenance; farmers lacking basic management skills, threatening the viability of our emerging farmers; and local small businesses lacking the expertise to tender for contracts, leading to suspicions of nepotism.
I just want to say something about the farmers, the emerging farmers. I think we want to get away from emerging farmers. We need to look at the markets, look at the extra funding, look at the viability, and the technical inputs so that our farmers no longer sit there as emerging farmers, but become farmers in their own right.
On the plus side, while roads, or the lack thereof, is a major problem, labour-intensive Expanded Public Works projects had not only been used for local road construction but provided much-needed employment. We have seen that with the various companies who did this, and they pulled themselves up by the bootstraps. Many of the defects in school buildings and medical facilities could, I believe, be remedied with similar projects.
The philosopher Emmanuel Kant said, "The mode of government is comparably more important for a nation than the form of state.'' Julius Caesar famously said, "I came, I saw, I conquered." In our case, let it be ``We came, we saw and we will make sure that we will conquer some of these things.'' Thank you.