Thank you, Chair, hon Minister Chabane, hon Deputy Minister Obed Bapela, hon director-general from the department, distinguished guests from all the entities, ladies and gentlemen, we have been celebrated in France. It is funny that we are often not celebrated in South Africa by our own, but we are celebrated by overseas people. As one government that has promoted diversity, indigenous languages and community radios, we were actually hailed at a conference in France for having done very well as a country with regard to diversity and indigenous languages.
Our community radios are promoting indigenous languages, which have been downplayed in the past and today, because there is a culture in a language. In fact, research has shown that people study better in their mother tongue. As a result, indigenous languages are very important and they have been promoted by our community radios.
Some of the community radio stations that we visited were doing very well despite limited resources because they had been doing some fund-raising in villages and in rural townships. They were actually offering bursaries to rural boys and girls in schools to learn for artisan jobs and even to go to tertiary institutions. Some of them have actually had on-the-job training and become journalists who ultimately went into mainstream radio and the print media. So, we are very proud of the work that is being done to diversify and promote indigenous languages.
Although my colleagues have already done so, I just quickly want to add to the issue of salaries, which has been raised by the opposition on so many occasions. In my opinion, the problem of salaries in this country has been caused by the constituency that is represented by the opposition - the private sector. You have a company like Shoprite, where in the same year the CEO is earning an annual income of R47 million and gets a performance award of R37 million - the salary is R47 million annually and the performance award is R37 million. On average it is said that in South Africa top CEOs in the private sector earn R5 million a month. Now you can see that people are playing with millions while others in the same companies are earning meagre salaries. I know that often it is said that that is the private sector; they generate their own income, while of us in government it is said that we are abusing taxpayers' money.
The point is that there is only one labour market. I will give you an example from the teaching profession. We need teachers in mathematics, science and accountancy. People with BSc and BCom degrees ultimately are attracted by the private sector because it pays twice, three times, even five times more than what government can afford to pay teachers.
Therefore when your constituency pays high salaries in the private sector, they are actually distorting the labour market in South Africa. Ultimately, you cannot match the private sector. We need people in government to deliver services. Whatever we do in government, we have to pay salaries that can, to a certain extent, retain them in the public sector or else we are going to lose very good people in government.
So, if you want to blame anybody, blame the private sector, because inequalities there are so big that the whole labour market in South Africa becomes distorted. [Interjections.]