House Chairperson, recently, over the past few weeks, we have seen very violent protests which resulted in the destruction of property throughout the country, whether it be in Malamulele or yesterday at the University of KwaZulu-Natal's Westville campus. In this regard, we would like to appeal for calm and for our people who are protesting not to vandalise the little that we have. We are taking steps backwards and this does not bode well for progress in the country.
While there are many problems, we believe that discussion and engagement with the relevant stakeholders should take priority. For as long as we are burning schools and libraries, we are burning our future, and so we want to appeal to all South Africans that in light of all the failures of the present government - which are very explicit, one might add - and despite all those failures, they should not take the country backwards.
We are appealing to all government departments to respond proactively and positively to the concerns of South Africans in order to ensure that we do not end up being a country that is burning. What is happening now does not bode well for progress.
Therefore, at the end of it all, we appeal in particular to the National Student Financial Aid Scheme to restructure itself in such a way that it responds to the needs of students because the corruption that is taking place there is a catalyst for the problems and violent protests that we have been seeing in institutions of higher learning. I thank you.