I thank you, Chairperson. The answer is that there were no penalty clauses written into the contractual agreement signed between the South African government and arms deal companies relating to job creation, direct or otherwise.
The penalties are applicable to obligations that were defined in terms of investments and sales, both locally and for exports. The job creation targets were estimates based on the expected outcomes, from the fulfilment of contractual obligations defined in these terms. Moreover, the estimated jobs include direct and indirect jobs and are cumulative in nature.
There is no contractual recourse available to the department should the 65 000 job target not be realised. The reality, however, is that this number has been exceeded. To repeat, the 65 000 jobs expected from the implementation of the National Industrial Participation Programme, NIPP, obligation, are both direct and indirect and cumulative in nature. The latest assessment conducted in 2009 on the NIPP reports that 26 442 direct jobs were created, compared to a target for direct jobs of 19 000, and that the total number of jobs - direct and indirect and cumulative in nature - since the NIPP started was 85 000 jobs of which 73 000 were attributable to the arms deal, compared to the 65 000 target. Thank you.