Thanks--to both chairpersons, in this case.
I have a few more questions.
Concerning your military academy, what I want to find out is.... There is a new concept. The thinking out there is that you don't want to equate it to your normal universities--you know, the academic standard--but that you have to infuse or inject some military aspect into it.
What would be of interest to me is how you view that particular view. What must be the balance? Should the development be more academic or more military? That would be my first question.
The other one is linked to your.... I do accede to the fact that you say you are also multicultural, but I want to find out about your language policy, because I notice that French and English are used very much.
To my knowledge, I know that at home we've got more than ten languages. We've then come to the point where we say that even though that is the case, at least there is a way for all groups to be accommodated. They are accommodated, but as we develop, at every moment remember that we are coming from the time when Afrikaans was the dominant language. Now we can almost say we can fairly deal with English, because it forces us that way. It is not that we're anti-Afrikaans, but at least we understand it. At the moment we are managing command and control, instructions, and so on and so forth, through one medium--English.
In your case, I want to find out if you are sticking only to the two. Then what happens to the other cultural groups' languages, in terms of your language policy in defence?
Third, I also want to find out about the ombudsman. Normally, if you look at the matter of the military ombudsman, there is a view on the one side that in our case, when we look at a military ombudsman, yes, we have explained it to ourselves; I am also saying that there are still questions we are still going to have an opportunity to ask him directly, but I am hearing that the military people here....
What will happen in most cases is you'll find that banks will have a bank ombudsman, and so on and so forth. The idea is to say that in addition to the command and control lines that are there and available in your command and your Parliament to the ordinary men and women in the defence force, there will be issues that will actually still perhaps not be adequately dealt with within that system, such that then the military ombudsman would be appropriate to deal with that.
Would you say it's still a matter that would not undermine the authority of your command and control, the line of command and control of defence?
I will rest there. Thanks.