Thank you, hon Speaker. Firstly, a communication that is sent after having being written depends on how it goes. [Interjections.] It does. While I was growing up we used to receive post written by hand. After you have written a letter, you don't know when it will arrive, really. [Laughter.] [Applause.] You can't say that if you were to act in the manner in which I did, you would then wait until you had a response to then say that indeed the letter had arrived. Once you have written a letter and it has been posted, you have written a letter. [Laughter.]
Now, I think if we said that we cannot move until a letter has been responded to, then it would be a new way of corresponding among ourselves. You write a letter and once you have posted it, you then act on matters that you need to act on, unless you are writing a note like here in Parliament which can be sent by a messenger who can see it being given and responded to, or you can see that, yes, it has been handed over to hon member so-and-so.
I am in Pretoria; you are in Cape Town. I write a letter and leave it in the office, and I don't necessarily follow who the particular person in the office is who deals with it. I think, again, that would be a new thing. If you are talking about the Office of the President, there are quite a number of people there. I have never followed each and every letter - who they were written by - and I don't see why I should conduct an enquiry now as to who actually dealt with it.
The fact of the matter is that the letters arrived; not so? [Applause.] And they arrived not over a week later but in a matter of three days, not so? The post was quick enough. I don't think we should pick up on the issue. I could appreciate the issue if I had spoken when the opposition parties had not received the letter. But once an explanation was given, the matter to me, really, was not a matter to be pursued - because I had given an explanation publicly on what happened, and the letters were dated.
By the time I spoke to the Pretoria Press Club, the letters had been written. For example, I had already sent the letter to the JSC. I had met with the chairperson of the JSC and had had the letter hand-delivered. So, really, I don't see why this should be a big issue. That is the explanation. I don't think I can explain it in another way. I also do not think that it needs some enquiry. I don't think so. [Applause.]