Deputy Speaker, I think hon Bosman is confusing issues. The decision of the President to appoint Minister Chabane was merely to reinforce us in the work that we had already been doing in terms of engaging stakeholders in our final attempt to find solutions to the challenges that resulted in the strike. We do appreciate the intervention of the President because, by putting more heads together, we were able to resolve the impasse and we have come to this end.
To date, learning and teaching, as I have already alluded, has been restored based on the fact that there were now more people coming from different angles to try and help us resolve the impasse. Therefore, it was not a matter of the Minister being absent.
We were consulted, as the Ministry, on the decision of the President to appoint Minister Chabane and he has assisted us a great deal. We appreciate all these efforts because the issue of WSU was becoming a problem for all of us and the President could not sit back, considering the fact that some Members of Parliament and chiefs had already written to the President requesting his intervention. Thank you very much.
Reconciliation of differing statements on annual production of new artisans
291. Mr B M Bhanga (Cope) asked the Minister of Higher Education and Training:
How does he reconcile his reply to oral question 39 on 22 June 2011 with the pronouncement of his Deputy Minister in Butterworth in the Eastern Cape on 22 August 2013 that only 1 400 new artisans were produced each year? NO2829E