A specific explanation was given to the committee by the department on why there is a shift from land restitution to land reform. It has been repeated so many times by both the Minister and the Deputy Minister here. That is why the Deputy Minister concluded by saying that the shift from land restitution to land reform has consequences which we are prepared to face as the ANC.
Also, I don't quite understand why hon Swathe mentioned the shops which people in the rural areas have to buy from. He knows the government does not build shops. Instead, he could have commented on the integrated rural infrastructure development programme which the department is part of. Furthermore, I would like to remind hon Swathe that we, the committee and the department, collectively acknowledged that the budget was not adequate. Yes, we collectively acknowledged - including the department - that their budget was not adequate.
There are three reasons why that budget was not adequate. [Interjections.] The first reason is that the department was under construction. It could not have been given R15 billion when its capacity with regard to reconstruction indicated that it could use only R3 billion. It is not possible. It is an irresponsible government that would give that amount of money to a department like that.
The second reason the department received the budget it did is that the Land Bank and Agriculture Bank of South Africa has a "revolving door". With that I refer to the Land Bank's practice of taking the land from the beneficiaries and then selling it back to the same people from whom it was bought. [Interjections.] Why should we continue to buy land when, in fact, we should be using the land that we have in our own hands? A question one would ask is: Why are we not stopping the Land Bank from doing this? [Interjections.]