Chairperson, Minister, Deputy Minister, officials and guests, this is my maiden speech on this department. I would like to state upfront that Cope fully supports the aim of the department to promote and regulate the mining sector for transformation, growth and development. It is right and proper that all South Africans derive sustainable benefits from the country's wealth.
However, Imperial Crown Trading, ICT, used falsified copies of title deeds of farms on which mineral rights had been awarded and got the then deputy director-general for the regulation of mineral resources to make the award to ICT, despite senior officials' specifically asking him to reject it. More importantly, the prescribed application form was not even included at the time of the lodgment of the papers. This scandalous behaviour highlights a serious problem that is costing the country billions of rands in investments. Cope would really like to know if there are any consequences for those, like the then deputy director-general for the regulation of mineral resources, who blatantly subvert ... [Interjections.]