Hon Deputy Speaker, the South African government is continuing its efforts to engage the United Arab Emirates, UAE, authorities with a view to securing the return of Prof Karabus, as illustrated by the following.
Firstly, the moment that the arrest took place in August last year, we immediately sent our consul and consular support services out in order to give him our support and make an assessment of the issue.
Secondly, at the end of last year we wrote a letter, through our Minister, to the authorities of that country expressing our concern. At that time it was really just to make sure that there was a fair process. The judiciary on that side is independent and we did not need to get involved in the intricacies of that, but we did ask for a fair process. We called the UAE ambassador to South Africa in twice in order to express our concerns about the postponements in the case since 11 October last year. The South African government and the Embassy in Abu Dhabi had extensive interaction with the stakeholders in that country. Over the weekend just past, I had to visit Prof Karabus. I met him and made an assessment. I also met the UAE authorities and I essentially expressed our view that for humanitarian reasons he had to be allowed to return. If that didn't happen, we had to make sure that the case was finalised on 20 March this year. [Applause.]