I now call the hon Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries. You have only five minutes.
The MINISTER OF AGRICULTURE, FORESTRY AND FISHERIES: Chairperson, thank you very much for giving me the 45 minutes that I used earlier. I would like to acknowledge our women farmers, our fisher folk, our farmworkers, organised agriculture, the President of Agriculture SA, the leadership of the National African Farmers Union of SA leadership, the leadership of the National Treasury Technical Assistance Unit. I thank them for sitting throughout the entire budget speech.
I would also like to thank the Ministers and the Deputy Ministers, in particular our Deputy Minister of Finance and Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry. I thank my sister who came to hold my hand as I was scared to come here today. I asked her to come and hold my hand. I thank you very much for sitting throughout the entire debate. I would also like to thank the MEC of Limpopo. I do not know if she has left already. Could you please tell her that I have thanked her? I would also like to thank Mr van Rensburg for sitting through this entire debate.
Hon members, I will not be able to do justice by responding to 14 people in four minutes. There is no way in which I can respond to 14 people within four minutes. I am, therefore, requesting that you send me all your inputs and copies of your speeches. Please send them to me for my personal attention. I shall treat all your inputs as parliamentary questions and respond to them as questions for written response. You will receive a written response to your questions. [Applause.]
I would also like to urge you to attend the farmworkers' summits as they happen in your provinces. Radical information is coming out in these farmworker summits. Farmworkers now have a platform to voice their grievances. I want to say to the women: you now have a platform from which to voice your grievances without fear of dismissal or violence. I want to ensure hon members that all agricultural colleges will be reopened. [Applause.]
I would also like to thank our sponsors. None of them has an interest in our sectors and, thus, we have no conflicts of interest. In fact, we were warned that there was a sneaky one, thanks to our vigilance. We have secret agents who assist us and give us information. We then, through vigilance, refuse the kind donation.
The area which we have highlighted and continue to highlight is the safety of farmers and farmworkers. This is neither symbolic nor a matter of race. Black farmers are also killed, and it is not our intention to deal with this as a race matter. I must tell you that I was evicted from the graveyard so I could not go right up to the coffin of Mr Terre'Blanche. I wanted to see the coffin go down the grave, as is ritual, but I was told I could not go there.
I reiterate for the sake of food security that bread must be sold at cost price. Our interactions with certain companies have been that they can do it. So I am convinced that they can do it. It is not good to take away bread. I am also not living in cloud-cuckoo-land.
Ek wil die Visserygemeenskap bedank vir hulle lankmoedigheid. Daar is so 'n word. Dis suiwer Afrikaans. Ek wil weer eens vir hulle verseker dat die totale funksie van Visserye na Landbou sal kom en dat ons, soos die agb lid Du Toit ges het, inderdaad sal moet kyk na bestaansvisserye. Ons kan nie mense laat krepeer van die honger, as hulle tradisionele kennis het nie. (Translation of Afrikaans paragraph follows.)
[I want to thank the fishing community for their being so "long-suffering". There is such a word. It is a proper Afrikaans word. Once again, I would like to give them the assurance that all of the duties of Fisheries will be transferred to Agriculture and that we, as the hon member Du Toit, has said, will indeed have to look at subsistence fishing. We cannot let people die of hunger if they have traditional knowledge.]
I am going to conclude by asking you to please get a copy of the media statement, because the media statement gives a little bit more information that is not in the budget speech. It was impossible to go into a lot of detail in the budget speech of 20 minutes. So, if I have not mentioned your name, if I have not mentioned your sector or your industry, I ask you to please forgive me and to understand that there is only so much I can say within 20 minutes.
My time is up. I invite you to dinner at Pigalle's - and it is not at the expense of taxpayers. I will declare who has sponsored the event. You are most welcome. Please do not stay away because then it will have been fruitless expenditure for my sponsors. I thank you. [Applause.]
Debate concluded.