Chairperson, South Africa has to be a state where socialism must prevail, and it must not be a state where a significant amount of the population relies on hand-outs. One can understand that as an interim measure, because of the long period of apartheid, people have to be assisted. But we must bear in mind that 25% of South Africa's population relies on state grants, and we have to reduce this figure and make sure that we are a developmental state.
During the time of recession and taking into consideration the number of people that are unemployed, there has been speculation about unemployment grants, or people who do not qualify for grants. The MF recommends that the government consider very seriously what might be called the dole.
During the elections, lots of food parcels were handed out. We are concerned - from our experience and our personal observation - about what the criteria were for selecting the recipients. In KwaZulu-Natal province, the Department of Social Welfare did not have sufficient funds to perform its core function. I refer, for instance, to providing funding for child-welfare societies and senior citizen organisations, yet it had unlimited funding to give out food parcels and food vouchers indiscriminately.
We have to make sure that with the limited resources government has, the recipients are selected in such a manner that they are deserving cases for the grants. The MF supports the Vote. [Time expired.] [Applause.]