Thank you very much, hon member. I guess it is very obvious that if we were to establish dedicated units for compliance and monitoring, we would have to establish the Blue Scorpions, the Green Scorpions and maybe even the Brown Scorpions. It is necessary to understand that as government we would like to ensure that we actually utilise our teams in such a manner that they make a difference wherever they work.
The current team of Green Scorpions are obviously deployed all over for industrial pollution, air quality, even water quality, and so on. We probably need Blue Scorpions. However, the establishment of another dedicated team, if we are to establish it, will have to depend on the strengths of the teams that we are to set up in different provinces as we continue to strengthen the compliance and monitoring system, and even the teams.
At the national level we recently established the directorate. It used to be one directorate lumped with policy formulation. We have separated them now.
We are now establishing a dedicated team at the national level. Naturally, that will follow even in the provinces and regions where we are, because we call them regions. Those kinds of teams should then flow from the national team. It depends on the amount of work that they have, and on the amount of work that the Green Scorpions currently have. Only then will we be able to determine whether we need more and more teams. This is the beginning of setting up these compliance teams and their functioning. By the way, they do a lot of good work as well. We will then be able to decide at that time whether to expand on these teams or not. Thank you.
Steps taken to build a caring society
206. Mrs Y R Botha (ANC) asked the Minister of Social Development:
What steps has she taken to build a caring society in which children are inspired, motivated, involved and protected?