Mr Speaker, hon members, I do want to thank each one of you who participated in this debate on this very important matter. Indeed, it is clear from your input that this country is actually in a crisis as far as the mining industry is concerned.
Mines are oases in which billions of rand in precious metals and other mineral resources are being produced. Yet, they are surrounded by oceans of poverty and squalor, as many of you have confirmed, which none of the black economic empowerment, BEE, programmes has yet addressed. The country is on fire, and we think we are able to extinguish these fires merely by talking about them in Parliament.
It would be normal for one to close a debate of this nature by patting Parliament on the back on how good we have been to spend an hour of our time speaking about the sufferings of others. However, if that is all we do, we will have but added insult to injury. Too often, this Parliament thinks it can satisfy its responsibility of addressing our country's worst problems merely by talking about them or passing a resolution. None of this is enough at all. If the closing of this debate is the end of this Parliament's commitment to addressing the issues debated today, Parliament will have failed all those who have placed their expectations on our collegial leadership.
We must expect the Portfolio Committees on Minerals and Energy, Labour, Police, and Trade and Industry to take heed and guidance from this debate and formulate legislative measures and administrative guidance capable of going to the root of the problems. This they can do by urgently reforming our Labour Relations Act, our black economic empowerment, our Police Service training and the procedure they apply for crowd control, the regulatory conditions which guarantee the health, safety and welfare of miners, and the entire system of migrant mineworkers.
The IFP reiterates and supports the call for a mining commission to be established to assess and review the working of all the mines in South Africa, focusing on the role of the investors, the economic contributions and the socioeconomic conditions of miners, and also to enhance the working charter on the issues of transformation. Ngiyabonga. [Thank you.]
Debate concluded.