Thank you, Speaker. Hon Deputy President, the ACDP and other parties called for crime to be added to the existing six binding constraints already identified by Asgisa for decisive and focused government intervention when Asgisa was first launched. This view was supported by Prof Stone of Howard University, one of the international experts commissioned by the National Treasury to study our economic growth potential, who stressed the benefits both for crime fighting and economic growth of including crime as part of Asgisa.
In addition, the World Economic Forum's Global Competitiveness Report released yesterday confirms that:
The poor security situation remains another important obstacle to doing business in South Africa. This resulted in South Africa being ranked last out of 133 countries on the issue.
In the light of this, hon Deputy President, do you not believe that government should reconsider its position and include crime as an additional binding constraint to economic growth, particularly in view of the current recession and the need to improve our international competitiveness? [Time expired.]