Madam Deputy Speaker, firstly, the MF would like to applaud the hon Speaker for his remarkable leadership. We have indeed viewed your participation in the House, and you have carried out your duties with dignity, integrity and credibility - a job well done.
We further want to congratulate you, Madam Deputy Speaker, all the parliamentary office bearers and all the support staff on their commitment, dedication and hard work. Indeed, the National Assembly is a very, very important structure and we are very appreciative of the fact that, to a certain extent, there is respect for multiparty democracy.
Whilst the ANC is very, very accommodative, we, the MF, would also like to see a basic, reasonable amount of time allocated to a political party so that they can effectively participate in debates. We will request the hon Speaker to form a political parties' leadership forum so that matters of general concern can be addressed at the highest level - at the Speakers' Forum.
We, of course, are members of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association and we also want to suggest that when we have foreign dignitaries coming here, the leadership of all political parties be involved in receiving foreign dignitaries, etc.
Parliament has a very, very important oversight function indeed, and the engine room for our Parliament is our standing and portfolio committees. We must make sure that the independence of the legislature and the separation of the legislature from the executive are not compromised in any manner whatsoever, and especially in respect of protecting the interests of the citizens.
The hon President has repeatedly referred to the performance of parliamentarians and the Cabinet. There is an added, shall I say, responsibility in that the citizens are very much alive and awake. And they are concerned about what is happening in Parliament.
Therefore, we should have more outreach programmes for Parliament. We should go to all provinces to make sure not only that the citizens reach out to Parliament, but that we reach out to Parliament ourselves. That is our main constitutional responsibility - to make sure that we are legislators and that we are dealing with legislation objectively and independently. The MF supports the Budget Vote. [Applause.]