Chairperson, acting chairperson, the hon Bikani and hon members, may I take this moment to convey my sincere condolences to all mineworkers who passed away during the past year. Today, we are honoured to table our budget allocation of R1,394 billion for the 2013-14 financial year, which represents an increase of R218,316 million at the most testing time in the postapartheid history of the mining industry.
We are mindful of the fact that we are tabling this budget one year short of two decades of freedom, whose 20th anniversary we will celebrate next year. This, in fact, is the last budget of the current administration. Our Budget Vote also coincides with the 50th anniversary of the formation of the Organisation of African Unity, OAU, now called the African Union, which played a key role in the decolonisation and liberation of the people of Africa. This is also a time when we are celebrating Workers' Month.
Through the budget we are tabling today, we are outlining the actions that we are taking to respond to the challenges currently bedevilling the mining industry. We are confident that, despite the current cyclical downturn and labour relations challenges, the medium- to long-term outlook for the South African mining industry looks extremely attractive. Last week, our President, Jacob Zuma, quite correctly called for leaders of this industry to restore calm and confidence in the sector. Following this, the Minister of Finance and I met with the leadership of the mining industry on Friday last week in a bid to address the challenges faced by this important sector of our economy. In this regard, we drew inspiration from our long-standing and well-entrenched culture of ... [Interjections.]