Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you, Minister, for those good promises. We just hope that they will be met. Let me start by acknowledging the fact that the response before me was written by Dr James, presented by me with his approval.
A focus on skills development is overdue, as it brings - to cite Elizabeth Bibesco's aphorism: "certainty to hope". We cannot continue to see communities inhabit a world - whether by design, default or neglect - that fails to nurture the talents of people, particularly those who by virtue of poverty are starved of opportunities through no fault of their own.
The DA therefore supports the proposition that a skilled and educated nation is a prosperous one in material and spiritual terms. We are critical, though, of the government's approach. We are aware that, as the United States of America discovered, the markets do not educate and skill a nation, but neither, as China discovered, does central planning in the style of the former Soviet Union.
Firstly, therefore, to skill South Africans requires a governance system that artfully combines local knowledge of - and practical support for - communities in need of education, and not one that comes from on high. Our position is to improve on existing governance arrangements instead of pursuing the inefficient and unnecessary folly of pulling everything to the centre.
Secondly, we propose a higher education system with multiple entry points at a diversity of institutions and, importantly, having multiple exit points with students having obtained excellent qualifications, for excellence, and not mediocrity, has a market.
We propose a system that starts with the further education and training colleges for technical, vocational, and professional training, including for teachers, nurses, agricultural extension workers and the police. Those who wish to continue their education can trade up into the second or third year of an undergraduate degree - some may go further to graduate level.
Finally, Setas are not a broken good design, but a wasteful design and should be abolished. They should be replaced by a modern apprenticeship system regulated with trade unions and employers, by industrial councils that certify quality of training undertaken at the FET colleges. A famous 17th century Frenchman once said: "Steadfastness of the wise is but the art of keeping the welcome human emotions of agitation locked in their hearts." Thank you. [Applause.]