... saying I'm right when I made the mistake of saying "wasting" instead of "using", suggest that they do not see the necessity of this money being spent on making sure that our learners get good food when they go to school. [Applause.] It does not surprise me. They might see it as waste, whereas it is a necessity.
Chairperson, I'm proud to say that in the past financial year alone we managed to benefit 6,5 million primary school learners from poor and disadvantaged primary schools - that is, quintiles one, two and three - through this school nutrition programme, as well as learners from quintiles one and two secondary schools. In total, 8,1 million learners benefited. This shows that we are really contributing to the eradication of poverty down there where people need it most.
Chairperson, allow me to emphasise again the importance of getting stakeholders to take an interest in what is happening in schools. It should be everybody's responsibility to see to it that the funds allocated are used appropriately. Minister, let me thank you for looking at and monitoring these programmes with a hawk's eyes. The whole country can attest to the fact that you have really shown that funds allocated to these programmes do indeed benefit the people they were intended to. We have seen what you have done in the Eastern Cape and, hopefully, all the provinces will learn a lesson. Minister, we really hope we are going to see such things happening.
What we applaud is that through the National School Nutrition Programme a number of job opportunities have been created for food handlers and suppliers. Minister, the issue of co-operatives should be taken up, so that especially our people from poor backgrounds can benefit from such co- operative initiatives.
As the ANC, we are pleased that the poverty reduction programmes in the department are working well. We also acknowledge the challenge of insufficient resources and funds for these programmes. However, this does not mean that we cannot do much with the little we have. We will continue addressing all these challenges to create better communities for better teaching.
Chairperson, before I sit down: I was a little disturbed, but again not surprised, by some of the members. The first was hon Mpontshane ... [Laughter.] I was a little disturbed, but really it did not surprise me to find hon Mpontshane standing proudly in front of the nation, looking at the gaps and saying that education is not delivering what it is supposed to deliver.
I want to refer hon Mpontshane back to the province that they have led for many years. At this moment, we are in a position to count the schools that are mud schools, whereas before we couldn't even say anything because all the schools were in that condition, and most of them were in a bad state. But because hon members are no longer in the ruling party, they point fingers and say that there are mud schools here and there.
When we talk of mud schools and learners learning under trees, even in the Eastern Cape, we are still redressing the imbalances of the past, because most of these structures were put there by the apartheid government. [Interjections.] So, after the department has made such hugh strides, can't you stand up and applaud the department for doing much, even though more still needs to done? [Interjections.]
Lastly, Chairperson, I was very happy today to hear hon James becoming the shop steward for educators, because he is the one who always does not want to hear anything about trade unions. Today, I understood that he doesn't want trade unions because he wants to speak for the educators when he comes here. It was very surprising to hear him talk about the conditions of educators, because we have people who do that. Hon James, I think the trade unions are going to thank you for that. Thank you, Chairperson. [Applause.]