Chairperson, last year on 26 May during question time to the President of the Republic, the hon member of the DA asked the President whether he is aware that the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform is faced with 24 court orders. The President was not sure about it and the hon member came back and asked the question again.
When the President understood he said that he did not know that. The DA helped me to have a sense of some of the challenges faced by our department. Then we did two things after consulting with my colleague. I said to him that I want to have an analysis of the challenge facing us in the department as a result of that good question to the President.
I went back, looked at it and made an analysis. I found, firstly, that what the department had been doing over a number of years was to shift money from redistribution to that. They would do it each year because there would be more exposure with restitution.
Secondly, that resulted in the exposure of government to R12,2 billion in terms of court orders. I looked at that and I then said to my colleague, "Let us do a reprioritisation. Let us reprioritise this amount so that we can put more money in restitution because there is more exposure to government." I was reacting to what the DA had raised.
We also rationalised the Land Claims Commission itself so that we can reign in and control the provinces. We appointed all commissioners at the provincial level under the Public Service Act. It was all in response to that question to the President. We have done something and I'm disappointed that the DA is unable to recognise its own success. It is a pity, because that is what we did. Now they think that we did nothing about it. Thank you. [Applause.]