Yes, I am coming to administered prices, and I want to tell you that this committee - driven by the ANC, of course, may I add - actually looked at administered prices. [Interjections.]
However, I will say this of my colleagues in the DA, Cope and the rest, that they were very, very collegial - very, very collegial. We worked together - of course, after persuasion! We worked together to ensure that we got to the root of what was causing this increase in sending some of our goods outside the country.
I know Minister Gordhan will agree with me that port charges played a significant role, and we were able to persuade the CEO in this regard. By the way, we don't like your model, which has actually put the highest prices for transport from the ports onto manufactured goods - beneficiated items! That is not ANC policy! He fully agreed and has committed himself to significant reductions in port charges. The point here is that the committee brought together the stakeholders, helped them see sense and reason, and they agreed. And this, I can tell you, is a total victory!
Mr Chairperson, because of the oversight work in our committee we have cut that price. There are a few more things we are going to be cutting because, after all, Eskom has also realised the need to balance these issues to ensure ... [Interjections.] No, no! It didn't take them as long as the previous government before 1994! [Applause.]
We wish to congratulate ... [Interjections.] No, let us congratulate them. Let us also be aware of where many of us are. For example, I don't know where Tim Harris is today. Maybe he is in the Other Place ... [Interjections.] Indeed, he is an honourable man. The hon Tim Harris was in the committee at the time when we went to the World Trade Organisation, WTO, and he knows how we all felt about, should I call it, the "skewed sight" that they had on the developing world.
We are very happy to congratulate the new Director-General of the WTO, Mr Roberto Azevedo. Of course, I don't say his name as well as the Minister, who has a knowledge of Portuguese. Mr Azevedo is currently with the Permanent Mission of Brazil to the WTO. We look forward to a deepening appreciation of the development objectives of the WTO and how they pan out in Doha, which we believe may be getting a fresh life.
I believe he will bring an informed understanding of the role of emerging economies, developing countries, and countries classified as "MIC". That is not a "Mickey Mouse" statement! That is "middle-income countries" - that is what it stands for. An example is South Africa, for the following reason. When you look at the total GDP of South Africa, you think, "Wow! We can't help South Africa!" But, as a matter of fact, the gap between the haves and the have-nots is the second biggest internationally, and that is a direct result of the legacy of apartheid. [Applause.] Now, in regard to the imbalances ... [Interjections.] We have tackled that. [Interjections.]