Thank you, Chairperson, and all the members who have participated in this debate. I sincerely appreciate all their contributions, including those of the hon De Freitas. [Laughter.] I wish to advise him that if he has letters concerning service delivery needs, he should direct them to me. Hon members from his party have done so and we have been able to resolve matters when they were drawn to our attention, but we don't use the fact that we resolve them to extol our contributions in the House. [Interjections.] He is certainly able to refer those letters to me and I will try to address them.
I chose not to deal with all the problem issues today. There is no way that the Department of Home Affairs is absolutely perfect. It is not. There are many problems, but that's not what the budget debate is about. The budget debate must be about the budget, what we have done ... [Applause.] ... during the past financial year and our intentions in the new financial year. That's my business and I have done it.
To the hon member from the IFP, with respect to the issue of UK visas, there have been lots of discussions between the two governments on this matter. We had been promised that after the Olympics there would be a focus on whether or not the visa requirements could be lifted. There hasn't been any movement and I think that the time has come for us to consider reciprocity. Certainly it is something that we are looking at. [Applause.]
Hon Mnqasela, I don't have 144 staff in the Ministry. I don't have 149. I don't have the number that you mentioned, but the few people I do have on my staff work like 149 people. [Interjections.] [Applause.]
I also wish to thank the hon members for the excellent comments that they made with respect to the entities. Indeed, we have excellent entities associated with the Department of Home Affairs, and I am sure that all the chief executive officers are most thankful for the remarks hon members have made.
Hon McIntosh, Cuba is our partner. They have excellent systems and programmes for managing and retaining the integrity of national population databases. We seek to draw on that experience, because we believe that as we move towards developing our own national identity system, we should look at countries that actually do have an excellent record.
Previously, when I was in my other Ministries, I worked with colleagues from Cuba. They were excellent in biotechnology and literacy. The very Kha Ri Gude programme, which is having such an impact in South Africa, drew on the Cuban example, and worked with Cuban technical persons in literacy. I think that they do have the capacity that we can draw on. They are a partner that we will work with, not only with regard to the skills they offer, but also because of the historical friendship that we enjoy. We can never deny the role that they played in partnership ... [Applause.] ... with us in fighting colonialism and apartheid.
I agree with hon members that we must strengthen the service orientation within the department. That is why we created the learning academy. I agree that we must fight corruption, and fight it harder. We will do so. I have told our unit on countercorruption that I want them to start being like intelligence officers. They must be out there in the queues at the refugee reception offices and see who is bribing people, identify our officials who are corrupt and ensure that they are arrested. They cannot sit in offices at headquarters and think that we can fight corruption from behind our desks. They will be active. [Applause.] With regard to the scarce skills list, I am very happy to report that just this week our colleagues in my department have been meeting with colleagues from Labour, Trade and Industry and Higher Education. We are working with speed in order to produce this list. I have asked them to work more closely with the Human Sciences Research Council, HSRC, with the Centre for Development and Enterprise, CDE, and others who hold excellent research databases that can help us as we draft this list.
I didn't come here for Pandor policies, but I came here to advance the programmes of this government. I was very clear right at the beginning of my speech that I haven't come here to promote my reputation, or a "vision", as the hon McIntosh called it. We have a vision, we have a programme, we have priorities. Mine is to ensure that we implement, and implement effectively. That is what I was talking about today. [Applause.]
On the matter of the Public Protector, we will, of course, respond to her ... [Inaudible.]