Baie dankie, agb Voorsitter. [Thank you very much, hon Chairperson.]
I will not be able to respond to all the issues raised by hon members because of the little time I have. Let me start by thanking all the members for their contributions. I want to assure them that I have taken very detailed notes of their comments and we will be able to take into account all those issues as we implement our programmes.
I did not hear whether the hon Van den Berg supported the Budget Vote or not. [Interjections.] That's fine. I thought that if you did, then we would succeed in our work. Earlier the hon member said that he didn't think we were succeeding... Sorry, it was not the hon Van der Berg but the hon Mulder. Sorry, hon Van den Berg. The hon Mulder said that we were not succeeding in our work, but I can assure him that if he supported this Budget Vote, we would show him that we are indeed on the right track and that we are going to succeed. [Applause.]
I think the task of nation-building is not something that you can deal with emotionally. It's a very difficult task indeed. Perhaps I should advise him today that he should have tea with hon Sunduza and have some discussion. Earlier I said that one of the things we are doing is to encourage dialogue and conversation, because the way to build a nation is through dialogue, conversation and understanding each other's culture and history. I think it is important that when we deal with history, we deal with the history of all our people. We should not be selective. [Applause.] I think we will succeed. I want to say to the hon Van den Berg ...
... ons werk baie hard om kultuur te depolitiseer. Ons weet in die verlede was kultuur en kuns verpolitiseer. [... we work very hard to depoliticise culture. We know that culture and arts were politicised in the past.]
We are working hard to ensure that we change that past and to ensure that culture is the culture of the people. We must work with everybody in the country to ensure that we do exactly that.
Let me try to conclude by making a few points. There are members, like hon Van Schalkwyk, who talk strongly about the funding of museums, including the William Humphreys Art Gallery. We agree that museums and heritage sites are very important because tourism in the country develops due to many of these institutions. Whether people go as local or international tourists, they go to our museums and heritage sites. We are working hard to ensure that they are properly funded and that those places are upgraded, including the roads leading to those areas. We are going to work hard to address that.
There was one issue that came across strongly from a few members - two in particular - namely a statue of Nelson Mandela here at Parliament. It does seem as if all parties agree on this issue. If that is the case, we will discuss it with the Speaker and work on implementing it. [Applause.] Of course, we remain sensitive to history as we do these things, but I think there is consensus that we should move in that direction. We will erect a statue at the Union Buildings and we will also erect one here at Parliament in response to this consensus.
We have noted the rest of the issues, including that of funding. We will make sure that we work, particularly with the portfolio committee, to address these issues. Thank you very much for your support. You can be assured that everything you said here will be done.
Baie dankie. [Thank you very much.] [Applause.]
Debate concluded.