Hon members, I have received a copy of the President of the Republic's address delivered at the Joint Sitting on Wednesday, 3 June 2009, and the speech has been printed in the Minutes of the Joint Sitting.
Hon Speaker, hon President, before the President's inauguration on 9 May 2009, it rained to purify our land and its people. The sun shone immediately to mark the moment of renewal and to signal the pleasure of God and the gods at the ascension of the popularly elected President Jacob Zuma to the throne. [Applause.]
The inauguration of the President marked the beginning of the era of renewal. His opening address to Parliament contained a ten-point national programme of renewal. The programme is deeply rooted in spiritual and moral values that the President, like his predecessors, cherishes and believes are the prerequisites for building cohesive, caring and sustainable communities. In the opening paragraph of his speech, the President displayed a deep commitment to the moral and democratic culture and values born out of the spirituality and protracted struggles of our people, which gave birth to freedom and independence from the inhuman apartheid system. He highlighted the people's desire for change and their endorsement of the ANC's call for unity and co-operation, for continuity and change.
He reaffirmed the vision of an inclusive society, united in its diversity, and the collective wellbeing embodied in the Freedom Charter, which profoundly influenced the 1996 Constitution. The President recognised and acknowledged that the ANC received a decisive electoral mandate to create a cohesive, caring and sustainable society based on spiritual, moral and democratic values.
Furthermore, he demonstrated his confidence in the institutions of democracy, including the judiciary, established on the basis of, and to give effect to, our revolutionary democratic culture and values. He recognised and acknowledged the contribution of the founding President of the Republic, Tata Nelson Mandela, and his successors, Comrades Thabo Mbeki and Kgalema Motlanthe, and highlighted our culture of continuity and collective responsibility, and our exceptional ability to manage change.
President Zuma placed the war against poverty at the centre of our efforts to recover the humanity of black people as the surest means of securing the humanity of all South Africans, both black and white. He made the war against poverty the cornerstone of his administration, because he knows from experience that poverty dehumanises, that is, it robs people of their humanity.
The President reaffirmed that through social partnerships we can recover our humanity and its inherent values, and create cohesive, caring and sustainable communities. He and our revolutionary movement, the ANC, did not suddenly discover spiritual and moral values because of the 2009 elections. From its inception, the ANC's moral vision was shaped by spirituality and revolutionary moral values.
In his 1892 public lecture titled "Upon my Native Land", the founding president of the ANC and self-confessed Ethiopian Christian, John Langalibalele Dube, foresaw the birth of a spiritual, humane, caring and prosperous Africa. The values were echoed by Dr Pixley ka Isaka Seme, the convener of the founding conference of the ANC and the architect of the concept of an African Renaissance.
In his ground-breaking speech, the President echoed Dr Pixley ka Isaka Seme's call for unity and co-operation. In his call for social partnerships, President Zuma followed the path of the founders of the ANC who included intellectuals, and traditional and religious leaders. The President's commitment to working for a better Africa and world stems from the ANC 1919 constitution, which described it as a Pan-African organisation.
Soon after its formation, the ANC realised and acknowledged the need to build cohesive, caring and sustainable communities. For instance, in 1921 Rev Z R Mahabane observed in a public lecture that Africans were degraded and forcibly robbed of their humanity, denied the vote and made landless, homeless and hopeless. Thus at the 1923 ANC national conference, Mahabane argued that the African condition challenged the ANC to strive for the recovery of African humanity - ubuntu/botho - as a prerequisite for the recovery of the humanity of all people, both black and white. At this conference the ANC adopted the first bill of rights on the African continent.
The opening paragraph of this bill reasserted the African humanity and went on to demand the participation of African people in the economic life of the country. In 1943 the ANC adopted the African Claims, the second bill of rights, which called for the right of African people to self-determination, and cultural, social and economic rights, five years before the universal declaration of human rights.
In 1945 the Pan-African Congress held in Manchester in the United Kingdom established the principle that working together, we can achieve our rights. The conference called on peasants and workers, intellectuals, students, women and the youth, traditional and religious leaders to use all the means at their disposal to liberate their countries.
The 1955 Freedom Charter, adopted under the stewardship of former ANC president Albert Luthuli, which shaped our vision of postapartheid South Africa and profoundly influenced our Constitution, was the product of unity and co-operation of the kind that President Zuma spoke about. The first and only Congress of the People on South African soil inherited and propagated revolutionary morality and values of a cohesive and caring society. [Applause.] Nkosi Luthuli embraced all sectors and people of different political persuasions. He reconciled his African culture, Christianity, traditional leadership and political leadership, and saw nothing wrong in the alliance between the workers' organisations and the Communist Party of South Africa, among others.
Like Seme, Nkosi Albert Luthuli called for a unique civilisation for Africa and Africans. Following in his path, President Zuma told a gathering of intellectuals at the University of Johannesburg that universities should not produce graduates who are aliens to themselves. These are the values that President Zuma called on us to use for building cohesive, caring and sustainable communities.
Since his election as the ANC president in Polokwane, the President called on the youth, women, the rural poor, workers, professionals, traditional healers, organisations, and traditional and religious leaders to work together for the improvement of the quality of life of all South Africans. The social partnerships which emerged from this call led to unprecedented social mobilisation.
For the first time South Africa saw a high level of racial and religious tolerance that led to interfaith gatherings, including traditional healers and practitioners of African religion. This racial and religious tolerance has also seen the birth of a partnership between Afrikaner churches, the ANC Commission on Religious Affairs and the interfaith National Religious Leaders' Forum that is rooted among the people. The forum and its provincial, regional and local structures have put moral regeneration for sustainable development at the centre of its desired partnership with government for the creation of cohesive, caring and sustainable communities. In its manifesto, the ANC undertook to enter into partnerships with interfaith forums to advance social education for moral regeneration, religious tolerance, social cohesion and development.
President Zuma is alive to moral decay in our society. He condemns all manifestations of moral degeneration. The envisaged partnership between the President's administration and interfaith organisations should address, inter alia, the challenges of moral degeneration through social education. The President derived his moral vision from his predecessors, especially our icon, Nelson Mandela, and ANC conference resolutions. For instance, in his address to the National Interfaith Leaders' Summit, he observed that our Constitution embodies the values of the just and caring society that the ANC seeks to build. More specifically, he observed that the ANC seeks to build, and I quote:
A caring society based on ubuntu values and principles. Our value system, based on ubuntu, promotes social cohesion and nation-building by transcending our cultural, religious, racial, gender and class differences.
One of the resolutions of the Polokwane Conference was to integrate ubuntu/botho values and principles into public policy. The ANC strategy and tactics document, adopted by the Polokwane Conference, highlights the universality of the spiritual philosophy of ubuntu. It states, and I quote:
The dark night of white minority political domination is receding into a distant memory, yet we are only at the beginning of a long journey to a truly united, democratic and prosperous South Africa in which the value of all citizens is measured by their humanity, without regard to gender, race and social status.
The Polokwane Conference therefore correctly elevated ubuntu principles to an overarching value system for all South Africans, both black and white. In his address to the National Interfaith Leaders' Summit, held in Kempton Park on 27 November 2008, the President reaffirmed ubuntu values and principles, and I quote:
The challenge is how do we then inculcate these values in our society, starting with our children? We want to use education as a tool to cultivate moral and social values among the youth and encourage them to lead healthy lifestyles.
We want our children to respect the next person on the basis of their humanity and not based on their status in life. To promote these values among all people, we need to work together in all provinces in a structured way. The provincial interfaith forums should play a leading role in promoting moral regeneration and in the promotion of values to help us build the caring society we envisage.
The National Interfaith Leaders' Forum and its provincial structures have identified social dialogues and education as the surest means of moral regeneration for sustainable development. The President envisaged the partnership between interfaith organisations and government in definite and emphatic terms, and I quote:
We also see a critical role for religious bodies in providing social education and to help us build a caring society. From their inception, religious institutions played both a spiritual support and developmental role. A parish should have a house of worship; a library; community hall; community gardens; workshops for creative industries; health clinics; and a school.
On partnership between the interfaith organisations and government, President Zuma had this to say:
Many church institutions have underutilised facilities which can be used for social education in partnership with government and the private sector. Social education could address, in particular, moral regeneration and social development. Most importantly, we urge the faith communities to partner with us to achieve moral regeneration for sustainable development. Together with faith-based organisations, we engaged in the struggle to eradicate racism, sexism, gender inequalities and class oppression. We have also worked together post-1994 on reconstruction and development.
In September 2008 the ANC wished all religions well, including African religion, celebrating their spiritual and cultural festivals as the surest means of inculcating values and principles. African religion is not only a fountainhead of spiritual and moral values, but it is also important for moral regeneration, rural development and agrarian reform. It provides an indigenous calendar that regulates spiritual, cultural and agricultural festivals based on a cosmic framework which transcends race, creed and religion. For instance, the African calendar system places the new year in September, which is shared by the Muslim, Jewish and many indigenous African faith communities. The recognition of this calendar would promote rural development and agriculture based on indigenous knowledge systems that are rooted in African tangible and intangible heritage. The annual celebration of these cultural festivals by rural communities would restore spiritual and moral values, work ethic, love for agriculture and the culture of self-help and self-reliance.
The role of faith communities in development, as envisaged by the President, poses challenges to government departments, especially Arts and Culture, Social Development, Education and Agriculture, to consider urgently the establishment of the desired partnerships with interfaith organisations for sustainable development.
In conclusion, on his 91st birthday on 18 July 2009, we shall be celebrating Mandela Day, which offers us a platform to recall and internalise the ubuntu values and principles that Mandela espoused and used in his service of humanity in our troubled land. The annual celebration of this day will offer us a platform to celebrate and internalise our history, culture and revolutionary values of human compassion, social and international solidarity. The day offers all of us, including workers, families and learners, the opportunity to let their inner light shine upon others through service to others.
Through the constituency offices throughout the country, the ANC will call on all communities and sectoral organisations to celebrate Mandela Day on 18 July 2009 by spending at least 67 minutes of their time doing something useful within their communities, especially among the less fortunate. [Applause.] This will mark the beginning of a nationwide effort to build a caring society. On this day the ANC's idea of an activist Parliament will be realised. All public representatives will be instructed to lead community work campaigns on Mandela Day every year.
All of the things I have said above proceed from the understanding that comprehensive social transformation entails changing the material conditions of all South Africans for the better. It also ensures that we forge a nation inspired by values of human solidarity. It is the combination of these factors that describes the civilisation of national democracy we seek to build. Thank you. [Applause.]
Hon Speaker, hon members and distinguished guests, President Jacob Gedleyihlekisa Zuma ...
... wena mfokaMsholozi, Nxamalala ... [Ihlombe.] ... kaPhum' epheth' inyama ngapha namasi ngapha, siyakuhalalisela ngokukhethwa kwakho Msholozi.
Mina neqembu engiliholayo i-Democratic Alliance siyalihlonipha ihhovisi lakho, futhi singathanda kakhulu uma ingxenye yeqembu eliphikisayo kanye nabalandeli abayizigidi ezinthathu abalikhethile nabo bahlonishwe. (Translation of isiZulu paragraphs follows.)
[... wena mfokaMsholozi, Nxamalala ... [Applause.] ... kaPhum' epheth' inyama ngapha namasi ngapha, we congratulate you on being elected, Msholozi!
My party, the Democratic Alliance, and I highly respect your office, and would appreciate it very much if the side of the opposition party and the three million supporters who elected it are respected too.]
Mr President, you reminded us at your inauguration that this fourth democratic term of office is a moment of national renewal. You committed yourself and this Parliament to the historic undertaking by President Mandela that never, never and never again would this land experience the oppression of one by another.
You referred to the spirit of reconciliation that shone so brightly through the, regrettably, all too brief window of national pride during the late 1990s. The window is still there. All we need to do is draw back the dark drapings that have shut out the light in the past decade. This is a task that we are all surely up to.
Yesterday we were treated to the powerful words of two patriotic poets that provided us with soul food. We, the privileged few of this Parliament, must take care of our national thread.
You committed yourself to this in Pretoria. You said:
I commit myself to the service of the nation, with dedication, commitment, discipline, integrity, hard work and passion.
I, too, commit myself and my 66 colleagues in the National Assembly and my 10 colleagues in the NCOP to do the same.
Your state of the nation address was indeed positive. We need to be positive in these difficult times, but we need to be realistic and honest about the economic realities too. We have no choice in this regard because the people of this country have become disillusioned by what we do or don't do here.
If we do not change the way we do things, we might hear from the people of this country what the parliament of Oliver Cromwell heard from him when he put their term of office to end in 1653. Cromwell said that those representatives had dishonoured the parliament by their contempt of all virtue and practice of every vice. He said, and I quote:
You have grown intolerably odious to the whole nation. You were deputed here by the people to get grievances redressed, yet yourselves have become the greatest grievances and enemies to all good government.
Mr President, your international undertaking to hold ourselves to the highest standards of service, probity and integrity and to build a society that prizes excellence, rewards effort and shuns laziness and incompetence, is the clarion call that our nation so desperately needs and deserves to hear.
The challenge, however, is not only to speak these fine words, as you did yesterday, but to ensure that they translate into fine actions. There are immediate concerns that this noble intent is being undermined right here in the parliamentary committees by the appointment of people to positions of public authority who obviously do not espouse these values, people who have actually defrauded Parliament. The ANC will have to consider whether these appointments are in accordance with your public blueprint for national renewal and the call to arms against the cancer of corruption that is ravaging this country. [Applause.]
The DA commits itself to the proposed partnership for reconstruction, development and progress that you spoke of, sir, because you said that in this partnership there is a place for all South Africans, black and white. I found it significant that you made no differentiation between the languages they speak or their ethnicity; this is the essence of a true, successful rainbow nation.
The party that I represent here is a party for all South Africans, and we have promised our almost 3 million voters that we will contribute to building one nation with one future. Therefore, if you mean what you say, we can be partners in building this country into a prosperous nation.
As jy kyk hoe ons, as die DA, hier lyk, sal jy besef dat ons 'n weerspieling van ons bevolking is, en, nog meer, dat ons almal Suid- Afrikaners in murg en been is. Ons verteenwoordig nie kolonialiste of uitgeweke Suid-Afrikaners nie. U of die ANC kan ons nie wegwens nie, want ons is kinders van die stof van die vasteland van Afrika. Ons het nie 'n ander heenkome nie. Suid-Afrika is ons tuisland en ons wil en sal tot haar vooruitgang bydra deur ons rol as die amptelike Opposisie in die Parlement. (Translation of Afrikaans paragraph follows.)
[If one takes a look at our appearance here, as the DA, one must realise that we are a reflection of our population and, moreover, that we are all South Africans through and through. We do not represent colonists or emigrant South Africans. Neither you nor the ANC can wish us away, because we are children of the soil of the African continent. We have no other refuge. South Africa is our homeland and we are determined to contribute to her progress through our role as the official opposition in Parliament.]
Professor George Devenish recently said:
A responsible opposition is as necessary to the proper functioning of parliamentary democracy as is a responsible government. It simply requires political maturity to recognise this fact.
Personally, hon President, I am South African to my core. The bookcase in my office proudly accommodates my grandfather's Hansard records of his contribution in this Parliament, and they have found their way back to Parliament more than half a century later. I come from a family that has served this country and also paid the ultimate price over generations. My family and I remain committed to this cycle of service, motivated by proud patriotism and a deep love for this country. So are my colleagues. [Applause.]
Mr President, I appreciate the way you welcomed our party's leader, Premier Helen Zille, to your Cabinet lekgotla. You have done what you committed yourself to doing at your inauguration on 9 May, where you said that you would -
... seek a vibrant, dynamic partnership that is enriched by democratic debate, that values diverse views and accommodates dissent.
This example will, hopefully, eventually reach the ANC representatives in the Western Cape legislature and their alliance partners too.
Amalungu e-ANC apha eKapa awonwabanga, ingakumbi la ahleli kweli cala lasekhohlo. Kambe ke aza kude aliqhele eli cala. [The ANC members here in Cape Town are not happy, especially the ones who are sitting on the left- hand side. Be that as it may, they will become accustomed to it.]
The DA is accustomed to sitting on the left-hand side of the House - here and in most provinces - but all opposition parties aspire to occupy the benches that you and your party occupy. We have now achieved this in the Western Cape and plan to do so here too. [Laughter.] [Applause.]
We will not be spectators or passive participants in this House. We will hold you to account on your electoral and manifesto promises. We will play an even more vigilant oversight role, but will always offer alternate views and advice in the best interests of the country, in this regard. The role of the planning and monitoring commissions, with regard to performance evaluation of the Cabinet, will be closely watched. I hope this evaluation will be implemented better than the evaluation under the Public Finance Management Act and Municipal Finance Management Act that are also performance-related.
Speaking of that, it is now more important than ever that we recognise the full extent of the international recession and the fact that we are firmly gripped therein. We must begin to isolate the opportunities for South Africa in this global predicament. Many skilled people who left our shores are returning. We must harvest their skills and place them in the vacant critical posts of the Public Service in order to improve service delivery.
For far too long now, too many parents in this country have encouraged their children to attain a worldly education so as to be globally mobile; the truth is that the pastures are not greener on the other side. We must encourage our family members and friends to contribute to the development of South Africa and Africa. This is a place of enormous opportunity, but we will only succeed if our children and grandchildren become teachers, doctors, nurses, policemen, detectives, transport specialists, engineers, scientists and telecommunication experts, with a view to applying these skills to the advantage of a neglected continent and a developing country.
The 2010 Soccer World Cup, hon President, will be a success. To the amazement of the entire world, we showed that we could host the Indian Professional League T20 tournament. The tournament could not be hosted in India, because of their fractious elections, so we hosted it in South Africa, with three weeks' notice, during our peaceful election. [Applause.] We cannot allow this golden opportunity to showcase our wonderful country to the world to be jeopardised by self-serving parochial protestations.
When we come out of this cycle of recession, the focus of the developed world will become fixed on Africa, and South Africa in particular, as we are the gateway to a continent blessed in abundance with the natural resources that are in such short supply elsewhere. This will be our springboard to unprecedented economic growth and prosperity, if we are appropriately prepared.
Op die oomblik het u, mnr die President, twee dinge in gemeen met die president van die Verenigde State, president Barack Obama. Julle is albei onlangs verkies en julle moet albei die gevolge van 'n resessie hanteer en oorkom. (Translation of Afrikaans paragraph follows.)
[Currently you, Mr President, have two things in common with the President of the United States, President Barack Obama. You were both recently elected and both of you have to deal with and overcome the effects of a recession.]
This might not be the best time to become a president, but many of the greatest in history have emerged from similar adversity. I hope, for our country's sake, that your name will be added to the illustrious list of successful post-recessionary presidents. Remember though, at this time, that it is the poor that need more attention and that depend more on effective and efficient service delivery. The ANC's cadre deployment policies have compromised service delivery standards and need, for the good of the country, to be reconsidered.
What will also make things more difficult for you than for President Obama, is the dichotomous composition of your Cabinet and party. This is going to prove extremely difficult to handle, especially with regard to your macroeconomic approach in dealing with economic growth and the creation of decent jobs. A decent job is not one created by an Expanded Public Works Programme that, incidentally, abuses most labour legislation and takes people out of penury for a short while, while they dig a trench from point A to B, only to be plunged back into having to illuminate their homes again by candlelight or paraffin lamp after they had become accustomed to flicking a switch on a wall.
Your welcome reference to reducing bureaucratic red tape restrictions in order to allow for easier licensing and registration of SMMEs is good news, but you neglected to tell us what you are going to do with the most inhibiting factor in this regard, which is restrictive labour legislation.
Die SAKP-leier en Minister van Hor Onderwys, dr Blade Nzimande, het byvoorbeeld onlangs onomwonde ges dat wat Suid-Afrika nodig het, is 'n sosialistiese ekonomiese beleidsraamwerk. Hy het verder gegaan en ges dat die ANC nie langer die belange van sy linkse alliansievennote kan ignoreer, of toegelaat gaan word om dit te doen nie.
Mnr Heinrich Wyngaard van Die Burger het heeltemal korrek opgemerk dat dit sterk woorde is van die nuut bemagtigde linkervleuel wat kennis gee dat hulle die dividend vir hul aandeel aan u verkiesing soek. Ons gaan die saak fyn dophou om te sien hoe hierdie tweeledigheid ontvou. (Translation of Afrikaans paragraphs follows.)
[The SACP leader and Minister of Higher Education, Dr Blade Nzimande, for instance, recently stated unequivocally that what South Africa needs is a socialist economic policy framework. He went on to say that the ANC can no longer ignore the interests of its leftist alliance partners, nor would it be allowed to do so.
Mr Heinrich Wyngaard of Die Burger has remarked quite correctly that these are strong words from the newly empowered left wing, who are giving notice that they want the dividend for their contribution to your election. We shall be watching carefully to see how this duality unfolds.]
Your duty is to serve the country and not the SA Communist Party nor the ANC Youth League. [Applause.] What is more, you cannot afford their socialist agenda. With the constricting economy, tax revenues will decrease drastically, and your expensive plans of infrastructure spending, Expanded Public Works Programmes and additional social grants can only come from greater deficits, which is ultimately irresponsible in this economic climate.
The economic realities of this country are going to determine much of what we do over the next five years, and the ANC and its socialist tripartite alliance members would do well to recognise that our population estimates are way off the mark. This has a direct impact on the planning and provision of social services such as hospitals, housing, education and social security. The situation will have to be dealt with much more effectively and efficiently by the Department of Home Affairs and the Department of International Relations and Co-operation - and corruption is endemic in these departments. However, this fact also directly affects the Departments of Police, Justice and Constitutional Development, State Security, Transport, Tourism and Trade and Industry. South Africa is the destination of choice for African immigrants, and we need to be properly geared to deal effectively with the consequences of these migration patterns. Mr President, much has been said about the olive branch you have extended to the opposition - and I heard you do so again yesterday.
Kodwa ndifuna ukuthi, eli sebe andikaliboni mna. Ndibone abanye bephiwa amagqabi kwisebe loMnquma, kodwa ndicinga ukuba xa sibheka phambili siza kude silibone eli sebe. (Translation of isiXhosa paragraph follows.)
[I beg to differ, I have not seen this branch. I have seen some people being given leaves from the branch of the olive tree, but I think if we move forward we will eventually see the branch.]
It is a source of great concern to the DA to be called "secessionist". I know, hon President, that it is convention not to be too controversial in a maiden speech. But this is the part I want you to pay special attention to. It is a source of great concern for the DA to be called "secessionist" by none other than former Deputy President Baleka Mbete. It is also unacceptable that the Chief Whip of the ANC in the NCOP can say the following about the Premier of the Western Cape, and I quote:
I want to say, Chair, and of course, hon Chief Justice, that I am not a racist. If she wants to lead her race, she has the right to do so. She has won the race to lead, but not the people of my province. This is my home, and she has to be very serious when she leads the people of this province. My question is: Who is "our people", and who is not serious? This was said without rebuke from the Chair of the NCOP, the ANC or the media. No one in the DA here or elsewhere has ever uttered such racist drivel about the ANC electoral victory or indeed your appointment, sir. Neither have we called people witches or lesbians with a designed intent to malign and foster homophobic or genocidal emotions. We have not called any elected representatives an enemy of the state, nor threatened to make anywhere ungovernable. This kind of rhetoric has no place in our society, less so in our Parliament. [Applause.]
I hope, hon President, that this debate will set the tone for this term of office, so that we can concentrate on the seminal issues that challenge our nation's prosperity. Incidentally, for the Chief Whip of the ANC in the NCOP, the DA will be a government for all the people of the Western Cape. This Parliament will have to rise to the occasion.
Soos u gister ges het, mnr die President, ons sal mekaar se hande moet vat in die gees van 'n Suid-Afrikaanse gemeenskap as di 'n periode van hernuwing gaan wees. Baie dankie. [Applous.] (Translation of Afrikaans paragraph follows.)
[As you were saying yesterday, Mr President, we'll have to join hands in the spirit of a South African society if this is to be a period of renewal. Thank you very much. [Applause.]]
Hon members, I am advised that the interpretation system is down at the moment. It is being attended to, but that should not discourage people from using the language of their choice.
Hon Speaker, Mr President and hon members of this House, Cope takes this opportunity to thank the President for his address to the nation yesterday, and welcomes the opportunity to offer reflections on the speech and the plans that he outlined. Many South Africans welcome and agree with the President's analysis of the problems facing our country. Where we need greater engagement is on how we will respond to these.
Cope commends the President for reminding us that we have a nation to build, together. We support this call, as it is at the heart of our own agenda for change and hope, an agenda on whose mandate we stand here to speak and an agenda that would guide Cope in being a patriotic opposition.
The prudent economic policies that South Africa pursued over the past 15 years are in part responsible for shielding South Africa from the global economic crisis. Looking at the President's response to the recession, however, a few questions yearn for answers.
We would like to hear more about the government's practical intervention plans as a response to this recession. The country is left guessing about suggestions made by some to consider huge bailouts, as well as suggestions made by others to bankroll companies and/or banks in distress. A clear statement in this regard needs to be made. The investor community cannot be left guessing.
Baza kuncedwa njani kwaye bakhuselwe njani abantu ekuweni koqoqosho lwelizwe lakokwethu? [How are the people going to be assisted so that they can be protected during the economic meltdown in our country?]
We believe that we need to go beyond the generic mention of the social partners' consultation that would stop retrenchments. This is challenging. What we need is to hear more about the plans and details of the industries involved in plans that are going to assist us to overcome this problem. How are the fears of ordinary people going to be addressed? Job losses, repossessions and retrenchments are already the order of the day.
I missed in the President's speech a programme that inspires confidence among ordinary people, and how they should weather the storm in the face of repossessions by financial institutions. We need to hear more about a plan to engage these institutions in the face of the high repossession rates. Is there at least a call to these institutions by government to present a plan that would shield people from their crumbling financial situations?
All of this happens in the face of debilitating poverty. As the President correctly pointed out, 13 million people are reliant on social grants. It cannot be right that a quarter of the population has to be reliant on grants. We agree with the President that we need to extricate our people from this dependency.
We need to hear how the government plans to create stable and decent jobs for our people. We will look closely at the promised half a million jobs in the next six months, hoping these will not merely be job opportunities where people who have worked one week here and another day there are counted as having had one job. [Applause.] We believe that it is crucial to ensure that the government mobilises all the people to intensify the efforts of building and supporting small businesses and new enterprises.
In the past, the government of the Republic has had programmes such as the RDP, Gear, Asgisa and Jipsa. One expected that we would hear the President's analysis of the impact and effect of these schemes. We are left with a feeling that reference was not made to these programmes because they were not successful. Where is the follow-up on these programmes? Or are we going to see new plans without a proper evaluation? What is the plan to tackle poverty on a sustained basis? How are we planning to utilise social grants and public works as stepping stones to sustainable job creation, thus dealing with systemic poverty and turning South Africans into economically self-sustaining citizens?
We welcome the fact that a new department has been established to look at rural development. Of course, it is disappointing that after 15 years we still do not have a well-tried and developed strategy to transform our rural areas into economically active hubs. We will watch the pilot project in Giyani with bated breath.
There is a need for Parliament to be fully exposed to the plans to tackle poverty. Here is another issue that is beyond party politics, but must be the business of all of us in this House.
We welcome the President's call for nation-building. We also need to caution that such a call can no longer be made lightly. Members of Cope in the Public Service are being hounded out of their jobs. [Applause.] We will encourage them to use the President's hotline to complain and ask his office to take up their plight. The harassment of Prof Pityana, Prof Nkuhlu and many others calls for your intervention. [Interjections.]
Nation-building must become more than just a slogan. We welcome and embrace Mandela Day, as Madiba truly belongs to all of us South Africans and the people of the world. [Applause.] His legacy will inspire us to build tolerance. Finally, we are pleased that the President has highlighted the culture of learning. We support the rallying of children to study and the rallying of teachers to teach. It is the success of education in the long run that will help our people to extricate themselves from poverty as well as lay a foundation for the building of a value-centred society.
Because of the importance of education, we need to invest seriously in infrastructure to make education a success. The phenomenon of schools under trees, for example, is an embarrassing act and continues to say that we need to plan well for the education of our children. This is a matter of national concern which, unfortunately, did not find its way into the President's speech.
As we have said many times over, the problem in our country has never been policy. The state of our nation is that of despair when it comes to service delivery. That is why we welcome the President's determination to hold Ministers accountable. We look forward to a discussion between the Ministries of Evaluation and Planning about how Parliament will be included to ensure overall accountability. We also hope that this focus will permeate all levels of government, particularly the local level.
Mr President, we respect the choice of our people at the polls. And we wish you, Mr President, and your government well as you implement the promises that have been made. Where you excel, we will commend you. Where you falter, we will be there to point it out and work with you to build a country where all our people can be safe and prosperous. Thank you very much. [Applause.]
Hon members, I'm advised that the interpretation system is now working.
Hon Speaker Xhamela, your Excellency the President Nxamalala, hon Deputy President, hon Ministers and hon members, the people have spoken through the results of the last elections, last month, although there has been electoral fraud, especially in KwaZulu-Natal. [Interjections.] In spite of its extensive nature, one cannot detract from the fact that the people have spoken and that the President has received a powerful mandate to govern. I am therefore not rising to oppose the President or his government, but to offer my counsel and admonition.
I do not do so because I feel I am wiser than anyone else in the House. It is true that I may be the only one in this House, apart from my brother Andrew Mlangeni, who has interacted with heads of government of South Africa from Prime Minister Hendrik Frensch Verwoerd to Prime Minister Johannes Gerhardus Strijdom, Prime Minister Balthazar Johannes Vorster, President Pieter Wilhelm Botha, President Frederik Willem de Klerk, President Mandela, President Mbeki and President Motlanthe, all of whom I have seen rise to power and relinquish office. I have known and personally interacted with great leaders in the ANC, also its founder Dr Pixley ka Isaka Seme, who was my uncle. From my childhood I knew the first president of the ANC, Rev John Langalibalele Dube. I knew Dr Alfred Bitini Xuma and I had the privilege of having dinner in his home in Toby Street in Sophiatown with him and his wife, Madie Hall Xuma. I knew President James Moroka, and one of my mentors was none other than Inkosi Albert Mvumbi Luthuli.
I knew and worked with Mr Oliver Tambo until 1979, a fact which was confirmed at this podium by none other than President Mbeki in your presence. I have known President Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela over 60 years, and I had the privilege of being one of his Ministers. I have known President Thabo Mvuyelwa Mbeki and I was one of his Ministers for five years. I have known President J G Zuma for quite a few decades, and we worked together in President Mbeki's Cabinet.
But, hon Speaker, I do not speak from the strength of this experience. Today I am speaking with the confidence of a newfound sense of freedom. Throughout my life, history compelled me to balance conflicting interests in my contribution to public life. Before liberation, I was at the centre of political activities which were not banned by the apartheid regime. But this role limited what I could do. After liberation, I subscribed to our joint endeavours to consolidate the gains of our struggle. I accepted that in the initial stages of our post-liberation Republic, not all things would go well.
I am now free from all constraints and empowered by freedom of thought and speech I never enjoyed before. I now enjoy the freedom to speak truth to power. I do not intend to oppose or undermine the popular mandate President Zuma has received from the electorate, but to provide assistance in the form of counselling and admonition so that our Republic, through his leadership, may succeed in fulfilling the aspirations embodied in that mandate.
I commend the President for his positive overture to the opposition yesterday to be leading players in shaping the destiny of our nation. As patriots, we in the opposition must work together with the ruling party for the sake of our people in the present circumstances of global economic meltdown. I also commend the President for emphatically stating that our institutions and Constitution must be respected.
But in speaking truth to power, there are many aspects of the presidential debate which need to be addressed. Time dictates that I focus on the single most critical aspect. Nothing is of graver importance than addressing the economic crisis facing South Africa.
When I spoke in response to his Excellency President Motlanthe's state of the nation address this year, at this podium, I warned that South Africa would not be spared from the global depression and that we were ill- prepared to deal with it. Despite my warnings, government officials and politicians boldly declared that South Africa would only be marginally affected by the global depression. The worst, they said, was already over and recovery was in sight. I remember even our most popular magazine had a cover story assuring us of these things. And this was irresponsible nonsense, of course.
We lost precious time to formulate our response to the crisis. I know, Xhamela, that my contribution in trying to address this issue may be seen in the words of an old song, which was popular in my youth, to be rushing in where angels fear to tread.
Against this backdrop, South Africa is awakened to the harsh reality that in the first quarter, 22% of its manufacturing capacity has been shut down, mining has been reduced by 33% and the GDP is down by at least 6,7%. This is just the beginning. In all likelihood the recession will gather pace in the next quarter, and the collapse of the real estate market, which has been held back by the expectation of a quick recovery, now seems inescapable.
His Excellency the President addressed the problems of the economy in his state of the nation address and he was, of course, right, because the economy is our first priority. The recession will undermine government's efforts, from the upliftment of the poor to fighting crime - all issues which were addressed by the President yesterday. Mr President, the laudatory pledges you announced yesterday would be difficult to fulfil in times of prosperity, let alone in the times of severe austerity in which we are living.
The recession cannot be addressed by a bureaucratic administrative or legislative response. We are not going to fix the economy only by establishing new departments of state, appointing new Ministers or holding policy summits. The delay in taking action has restricted what we can do and what we could have done. We must now liken the global depression to a world war. We must transform our thinking and build a new financial architecture. Only the countries that adjust their economies will survive the global economic depression.
The impact of the global depression is going to be greater than World War II. We dare not be on the losing side, lest South Africa is reduced, once again, to a mere global supplier of commodities and raw materials. For years our country has tried to develop an industrial basis, and we must now protect it, as our future depends on it.
Already we are experiencing casualties. Hundreds of thousands of people have lost their jobs, and more will. As winter sets in, we will see widespread hunger and despair. Under such pressures, our health care system is likely to disintegrate, alongside our already failing education system. This, therefore, is not the time, to quote my friend Baroness Margaret Thatcher, to "go wobbly". The hour demands courage and determination.
Mr President, if we are serious about protecting jobs in our shrinking industrial base and attracting foreign direct investment, we must devalue the rand immediately. We cannot wait for months, weeks or even days. The United States Federal Reserve gave the example by cutting the prime rate to zero within hours of the United States markets hitting rock bottom.
Having a strong rand is nothing but ill-conceived national pride. Our economy is not reliant on imports and we produce enough to ensure that the devaluation of the rand will not necessarily affect the goods and services consumed by the low and middle classes. We must devalue the rand and then stabilise the devalued rand.
No business can cope in an environment of two-digit currency fluctuation. Government must aggressively use whatever means are available to keep the devalued rand stable. Undoubtedly, devaluing the rand will increase the inflation rate over time. But economists and policymakers have informed me that, for a country such as South Africa, it is better to deal with a little more inflation than with widespread joblessness and long-lasting depression.
We should act now. We should save our real estate market before it collapses and force the SA Reserve Bank to cut its interest rate to single digits and as close as possible to zero. This by itself will cause the devaluation of the rand, as the currency would no longer be attractive to currency investors and speculators.
This compels us to re-evaluate our relationship with the SA Reserve Bank, which still remains a private entity owned by private shareholders and controlled primarily by such shareholders which the law requires to be kept secret. One can only assume that this money trust of bankers acts in the public interest because they are so tied to our economy that if the economy suffers, they suffer too.
But we are living in extraordinary times. The American people have begun to question the old maxim that "what is good for General Motors is good for America". It might equally be the case that what is good for the South African bankers might not be good for the South African people and the economy. The SA Reserve Bank should become what the Constitution envisages it to be - an organ of state, part of the government of our country.
This process will take time, even if conducted through nationalisation. I think "nationalisation" resonates well with my brothers on the right. [Laughter.] But the urgent need to cut interest rates to a minimum cannot wait if we want to avoid the compounded domino effect of widespread repossessions and the domestic devaluation of the South African real estate asset base.
I know that it is difficult for us as politicians to focus on delicate economic issues, which are often subcontracted to academics, think-tanks and bankers. As politicians, we often rely on our gut instinct to know what is right or wrong and what needs to be done, and we are often right. But when it comes to economic issues, we have long been trained not to do so. I plead with His Excellency the President to be responsive to the mandate he received from the people and to make sure that we maintain employment levels, jobs and industrial capacity.
I respect the role in which history has cast His Excellency the President. And I hope that he will respect the role in which history has finally cast me. I received my mandate from the poorest of the poor, who stand to suffer the most. Both he and I live amongst the poorest of the poor. The economic crisis could jeopardise everything we have fought for. I plead with the President to focus on it, not only with his mind, but with his heart. I pledge to him my full and truthful support, without abandoning my role as an opposition party member, whose duty is to hold government to account and to keep government on its toes.
Finally, let us be honest ... [Interjections.]
NgingumZulu mina, angilona iNgisi! [Uhleko.] [I am Zulu, not an Englishman.] [Laughter.]
Finally, let us be honest about the widespread electoral irregularities in the recent elections. We saw acts unbefitting our democracy, such as the IFP secretary-general, who is our colleague in this House, the hon Rev Musa Zondi, being searched in broad daylight and being humiliated by the National Intervention Police Unit in Nongoma. Election irregularities are not new to us, but they should become unacceptable.
When the former Secretary-General of the OAU, His Excellency Dr Salim Ahmed Salim, who is now one of the "wise men of Africa", visited South Africa ahead of our elections, I met him in Durban. He was to lead the African Union monitoring team during the election. I gave him a copy of my aide- memoire, which I provided to the chairperson of the IEC, Dr Brigalia Bam, and members of the IEC when they met with me and members of the national council of my party on 31 March 2008. In it I had listed all the irregularities that had taken place during our elections from 1994 to 2004. [Interjections.] Dr Bam and the IEC had promised to come back to us. But a year had already passed and they had not done so.
In our conversation, I asked Dr Salim whether we in Africa were using different standards in declaring an election "free and fair". I recalled that in a previous election in Zimbabwe most political parties in South Africa sent monitors, including my own. All of them, except the IFP monitoring team, the chairperson of the IEC Dr Bam and the European monitoring team, declared the Zimbabwean election "free and fair". Dr Salim chuckled and said he preferred the word "credible" rather than "free and fair". This reminded me of the wisdom of one of our African sayings ...
Lentswe la Sesotho le re: "Motswalle wa moloi ke moloi, motswalle wa leshodu ke leshodu." [There is a Sesotho saying that goes: The friend of a witch is a witch, and the friend of a thief is a thief.] [Laughter.]
The mandate our President has received places great responsibility on his shoulders, and we wish you well, Msholozi, Nxamalala. [Applause.]
UNGQONGQOSHE WAMAPHOYISA: Somlomo ohloniphekile, nomhlonishwa uMongameli wezwe, mhlonishwa Sekela Mongameli wezwe, Sekela Somlomo ohloniphekile, oNgqongqoshe namaSekela oNgqongqoshe, Malungu esiShayamthetho, maqabani nabangani. Siyemukela ngezandla ezifudumele inkulumo kaMongameli nengumkhombandlela esizweni sonke.
Sinethemba futhi lokuthi umphakathi uzobambisana nohulumeni ukuze konke lokhu esizibophelele kukho kuphumelele. Kuningi okuyinqubekela phambili esesikuzuzile kwiqoqo lezobulungiswa nokuphepha ukuvimbela ubugebengu. Nokho, indlela isende, njengoba ubeka Umbutho Wesizwe ukuthi ngokubambisana singenza lukhulu.Njengoba echazile uMongameli, umthethosiseko nesimo somthetho wezwe kuqinile futhi kusesimeni esikahle, kuhlumelelisa intando yeningi. Iqoqo leMinyango ebhekene nokuphepha lisebenze ngempumelelo lengamela ukhetho lwesine ngaphansi kwentando yeningi. Nakuba siphumelela kokunye kodwa zisekhona izinselelo njengoba ucwaningo ngokusebenza kweqoqo nezinsiza zalo kucacisa.
Kodwa-ke siyoze sikuzuze ukuthula, ukuphepha nokuhlala kahle. [Ihlombe] Siwethulela isigqoko umphakathi ngokubamba iqhaza ekwakhiweni kwezinhlaka ezilwisana nobugebengu ubambisene namaphoyisa. Nathi njengoMnyango wezakaDalawane sizoqhubeka siwugqugquzele umphakathi ngoba impi nobugebengu idinga kubanjiswane.
Kwezinye zezinto ezishiwo nguMongameli izolo uthe:
Ngokubambisana masenze lukhulu ukulwa nobugebengu. Inhloso yethu ukwakha uhlelo lwezobulungiswa nokulwa nobugebengu oluhambisana noguquko oluxhaswe ngezinsiza-kusebenza lwesimanjemanje noluphethwe eqophelweni eliphezulu.
Emva kwenkulumo kaMongameli yayizolo kube khona abaholi abathile emphakathini abathe bafuna imininingwane ngezinhlelo zikahulumeni. Ake sisike elijikayo kwiqoqo lobulungiswa, ukuvimbela ubugebengu nokuphepha kanje ... (Translation of isiZulu paragraphs follows.)
[The MINISTER OF POLICE: Hon Speaker, hon President of the Republic, hon Deputy President of the Republic, hon Deputy Speaker, Ministers and Deputy Ministers, hon Members of Parliament, comrades and friends, we warmly welcome the state of the nation address, which is the programme of the nation as a whole.
We also hope that the public will co-operate with government in order for us to fulfil all our obligations. We have made good progress in the Justice and Security cluster to prevent crime. However, there is still a long way to go, as the African National Congress says that: "Together, we can do more". As the President explained, the Constitution and the criminal justice system of the country are strong and protected, thus strengthening democracy.
The Security cluster has worked successfully in providing security for the fourth general elections under democracy. Even though we have succeeded in some of the things, there are still challenges, as the research findings about the functioning of the cluster and its resources indicate.
Certainly, we shall have peace, safety and social stability. [Applause.] We salute the community for playing a pivotal role in the establishment of community policing forums to fight crime in partnership with the police. We, as the Department of Police, will continue to mobilise the community because the fight against crime needs co-operation.
The President said yesterday, amongst other things, and I quote: Together we must do more to fight crime. Our aim is to establish a transformed, integrated, modernised, properly resourced and well-managed criminal justice system.
After yesterday's state of the nation address, some leaders in the community said that they wanted details about government programmes. Let us copy a model from the Justice cluster, to prevent crime and strive for safety like this ...]
Hon Deputy Speaker, this is a massive task that involves many aspects of the criminal justice system. Central in this regard, is the development of capacity for fighting and reducing crime, and thus the need to review the functioning of the whole Justice, Crime Prevention and Security value chain and to ensure integration and co-ordination.
Specific measures include, amongst others: steps to ensure speedy finalisation of investigations and cases; use of alternative custodial sanction where appropriate; maintaining and safeguarding the identity of citizens and foreign nationals; the maximum and efficient utilisation of facilities and infrastructure within the cluster, including the integration of IT systems; bringing courts closer to communities; increasing the number of prosecutors; and the establishment of the awaiting-trial detainees branch as part of the Department of Correctional Services to reduce recidivism.
As part of the effort to improve our crimefighting capacity, the President highlighted, amongst others, the need to enhance our detective and forensic services. To give a sense of the scale of the programmes being undertaken, we should mention that with regard to detectives, approximately 12 900 members are already undergoing training in various detective courses, this financial year. [Applause.] More than 1 120 of this number are sitting for advanced courses. The programme started at the beginning of April 2009.
Contrary to the negative propaganda suggesting otherwise, our training programmes are benchmarked with international policing agencies to ensure the maintenance of the requisite standards.
Part of the criminal justice system modernisation process will involve the application of technology solutions to manage routine operations, reduce costs and eliminate waste, and automating paper-intensive systems. The IT systems of various cluster departments are being integrated to ensure greater utilisation of technology in the fight against crime.
Our forensic services will be strengthened through the passing of the Criminal Law (Forensic Procedures) Amendment Bill, a task we must accomplish within the year.
We have declared war against organised crime and corruption in the public as well as in the private sector. We shall move with speed to finalise all matters relating to the establishment of the Directorate of Priority Crime Investigation, the DPCI. As members know, the head of the DPCI has been appointed. We are on course to ensure that the DPCI will be fully functional by 5 July 2009. [Applause.]
We are going to be tough on criminals. We shall adopt the same approach as we did when we dealt with possible hotspots during the election campaign. [Applause.] A leaflet by the National Action Council in 1955, in preparation for the real and true Congress of the People, made a clarion call to the people of our land. Amongst other things, it said, and I quote:
Let us speak of the light that comes with learning and the ways we are kept in darkness. Let us speak of great services we can render and of narrow ways that are open to us. Let us speak of laws, and government, and rights ... Let us speak together of freedom. And of the happiness that can come to men and women if they live in a land that is free. Let us speak together of freedom and of how to get it for ourselves ...
The titanic struggle against the racist policies of white domination taught us never to surrender, even in the face of mammoth adversity. Through our own actions we taught ourselves to act in unity to determine our own destiny. It would be a great sociopolitical tragedy if the majority of the people of our land who were at the core of the battle against apartheid colonialism, those who played a central role in the realisation of the democratic form of government, were to remain marginalised and not take part in the process of defining and realising the content of our democracy. Such a situation is not only a threat to future stability, but also a break to development. The effort to ensure a people-centred and people-driven process to change must succeed.
Over the centuries, African communities used Letsema/Ilima as a way of tackling problems collectively. We must continue with the effort aimed at the retention of this progressive tradition which gives practical expression to the aspiration of human solidarity. We should work to deepen our understanding of the practical implications of this tradition, taking into account our history, the specific socioeconomic conditions, and short and long-term objectives.
The youth is the energy of society. Unemployment represents wasted creative potential. Therefore, the youth should occupy our foremost attention as we work to harness all the people's creative potential and to deepen the culture of civic responsibility and human solidarity. [Applause.] Let us commence so in this, the month of the gallant youth of our land.
It is the foregoing understanding that will inform our endeavours as we work to mobilise society, and in particular the youth, to take a more active part in the fight against crime. The young lions have the energy and capacity to land a telling blow against crime.
The time has come for the subject of crime to be on the agenda of every home, private or public organisation, not only in the form of passive debate, but as part of the effort to reclaim peace, security and comfort.
Rightfully so, the people of our land demand effective provision of safety. Our history has taught us that, in the execution of its duties, a police service should always be mindful not to infringe upon the people's human rights. We need an accountable and service-oriented police organisation.
We have an ongoing responsibility to improve our capacity to prevent crime before it is committed. However, no police organisation can be everywhere all the time. Nor is there a police service that can predict every possible incident of crime.
To ensure accountability, the continued observance of human rights and improved capacity to prevent crimes before they occur, we require partnerships between the police and the public.
Accordingly, government continues to strengthen the structural design aimed at assisting us to better realise our safety objectives and at deepening and tightening the interface between communities and the police service. This design includes the establishment of community safety forums, street or village committees, and the strengthening of the current Community Policing Forum establishment programme. To this extent, the Ministry of Police is in the process of establishing a section dealing with strategic partnership and popular participation.
Community safety forums will help in the monitoring and functional co- ordination of the criminal justice system at the local and municipality level. The establishment of street and village committees will take crime combating and crime prevention to every corner of our country. We commend those communities already in action on this score and encourage others to follow suit.
We have noted that there are certain isolated voices who have raised some objections about the establishment of street committees. We regard such objections as a typical case of social consciousness having fallen behind imperatives of social evolution and development. These are the views of those who are comfortable, wherever they are. The social status and high security walls have blinded them, making them unable to appreciate the daily reality faced by millions who, in order to have any sense of safety and security, must rely on state services and their own sense of civic duty.
There is nothing genuine about these objections. These views constitute the natural waste produced by the great river of progress. Let us ignore them and continue to speak together of freedom and of how to get it for ourselves.
As part of strengthening the social contract against crime, the Security cluster will also deepen the interface with labour, churches, business, the private security industry, traditional leaders and other stakeholders.
Hon Deputy Speaker, the President has indicated that government intends to improve the legislative framework governing the activities of the private security industry. In March this year, the Minister of Police appointed a task team to conduct an in-depth enquiry into the functioning of the Private Security Regulatory Authority. Consequently, we have come to the conclusion that the authority has in many ways become dysfunctional. Remedial measures are being taken to rectify that serious situation.
We are also determined to strengthen partnerships among government departments, as well as among various spheres of government.
The experience gained during the recent elections has convinced the Ministry of Police that every department within the security cluster indeed has a role to play in the fight against crime. We believe that crime and perceptions about it are such a serious matter in our country that all of us need to give added attention to the issue.
Law enforcement cannot succeed if social, economic, ideological and cultural conditions continue to spawn criminality. The living environment itself must be less conducive to crime.
Commenting on the role that other departments can play, the 1999-2004 White Paper on Safety and Security states, and I quote:
Important also, is the need to strengthen partnerships and co-operation with the key departments involved in crime prevention and those departments which have valuable skills and resources to offer, such as the South African National Defence Force.
It is our view that in a country where centuries of institutionalised racism condemn the black majority to conditions of extreme poverty, lack of skills and underdeveloped localities, the SANDF, with their skills, indeed can play an important role in the process of skills transfer and the transformation of the living environment. We should also contemplate ways in which the Force could assist in the fight against cash-in-transit heists - this is in the process of consultation. This murderous kind of crime is not only a source of fear to those guarding these assets, but also breeds a culture that cheapens human life.
In many cities and localities, environmental issues that create conducive conditions to commit crime remain a challenge. Together with local government, we must change this situation.
We also wish to inform the nation that we shall soon be launching and escalating throughout the country, Operation Washa Tsotsi. [Applause.]
Before the attainment of democracy, meagre policing resources were spent on poor communities. We have to monitor progress in this regard and ensure that this situation changes. Thank you. [Time expired.] [Applause.]
Madam Deputy Speaker, hon President, hon Deputy President, we appreciate your invitation to civil society, business and nongoverning political parties to come to the table.
Ek waardeer ook u poging om Afrikaans te praat. Ek kan help met 'n paar lesse! [Gelag.] [I also appreciate your effort to speak Afrikaans. I can assist with a few lessons! [Laughter.]]
It is our hope that this is not just a symbolic invitation to us, because we in the ID are ready to engage with you to find solutions to the challenges that we face.
The global recession means that we need a plan around which all South Africans can rally, a plan that can tap into our collective patriotism, skills and wisdom, and bring us together as a nation.
Mr President, in your state of the nation Address you shared the beginnings of such a plan. Your list of goals and priorities is laudable, but we've heard some of them before and the key issue, as always, will be implementation.
The ID has always said that without implementation and monitoring the best plans will come to nothing, which is why we need to hear the details about the National Planning Commission, how it will work and its role, so that we can get the job done.
The ID is pleased to hear that for the first time there is going to be monitoring and evaluation of the performance of Ministers. We have repeatedly said that Ministers should be held accountable and responsible for their actions. We hope that you will make these performance indicators public every three months, so that we as a nation can be kept abreast of delivery, achievements and failures.
It is our hope, Mr President, that you will become the first President to fire a Minister for incompetence and failure to spend their budget. [Interjections.] This is one time when "Mshini Wam" would be relevant and we in the ID will be prepared to sing with you. [Laughter.] [Applause.] Mr President, we think there are several issues that you should address. You have called upon our nation to cut our cloth according to our means, but you have made several promises and commitments which pose the question: Where will we get the resources from?
We are also concerned about the large-scale mismanagement of our state- owned enterprises at a time when we cannot afford it. The SAA, SABC, Denel and the pebble bed modular reactor have cost taxpayers billions of rands which we urgently need for health, education and rural development.
We are also concerned about the effect this recession will have on BEE as a whole. Often in the past we have relied on economic growth to fund BEE deals and the current economic outlook means that this funding has fallen away. The ID would like to see targets and timelines for BEE and affirmative action. Leaving these processes open and without sufficient targets has produced a few wealthy individuals while the vast majority of our people continue to be excluded.
Mr President, our public health system is in a state of disrepair and has been starved of financial and human resources. While the ID applauds your goal of delivering ARVs to 80% of Aids patients in need by 2011, this cannot be achieved unless there are drastic improvements in the sector as a whole.
The ID supports the idea of a national health insurance scheme and we urge Cabinet to devise a comprehensive plan for its implementation. We recognise the complexities involved, but the first step must be an injection of funds into the health sector and massive improvements in the way it is managed.
We also urge you to intervene in the dispute with the doctors in the public sector, who, we must all agree, are underpaid and overworked.
We welcome the emphasis on rural development and we support your comments that teachers must be in the classroom teaching. However, this commitment will only be realised if you are able to get the support of teachers, children, parents and the unions.
The economic crisis we are facing will require innovative thinking. It is our belief that we can turn this crisis into an opportunity, and the ID Member of Parliament Lance Greyling will present to this House ID solutions in this regard tomorrow. I thank you. [Applause.]
Hon Deputy Speaker ... [Interjections.]
Ewe, mfana, ndiza kuthetha kakuhle; andinangxaki ngaloo nto. [Yes, young man, I will speak well; I do not have a problem with that.]
Hon Deputy Speaker, His Excellency the President of the Republic and his Deputy, hon Ministers and hon members, the UDM congratulates the newly appointed Cabinet members. In the same vein, we wish to congratulate the new parliamentary leader of the DA, the hon Mr Trollip, for the honour bestowed upon him by his party.
The reality is that President Zuma and his Cabinet, as well as the majority opposition party, will be carefully watched by the voters who gave them the mandate to improve the quality of their lives. However, judging by the recent public spat between the two parties, the advice one can give is that if you want to focus on the real issues you would need to respect one another.
It is therefore gratifying to hear the hon Trollip recognising that ...
... ukususela ngomhla we-9 kuMeyi 2009, kuyasholozwa kweli lizwe [... there is a Msholozi buzz that has crept into the country since 9 May 2009]. The golden rule is that, irrespective of our mandates in this House, the office of the President must be respected.
Mr President, South Africans have taken note of your statements of intent. From today onwards we will try to unpack and understand them. The people in the rural areas and outlying towns in particular will breathe a sigh of relief after you committed your government to improving their conditions. For the first time the people from areas such as Mokgalwana and Matlametlong of the North West, and towns such as Umtata and Butterworth, who are struggling for water and electricity, and are experiencing impassable roads in their areas, will possibly be heard. Indeed, the people of the OR Tambo region in the Eastern Cape will expect an answer from your government as to why the building of the stadium promised to them for the 2010 Fifa World Cup has not yet begun.
One other issue which I wish to raise during this debate on the state of the nation address is how we as a country have conducted the recent elections. Despite the reported intimidation, the maturity displayed by all political parties is commendable. However, the IEC, government and political parties must accelerate the improvement of the infrastructure so as to eliminate any chances of fraud in future.
The fact that it is becoming so easy for any Jack and Jill to have access to ballot papers and scanners, as we witnessed in Cape Town, serves as a reminder that a lot still has to be done. I therefore would like to remind all political parties present here that the multiparty forum to which we all belong has been engaging with the IEC on a number of issues. We should use this legislature to finalise the pending issues, such as the party- funding legislation; the IEC's level of independence; the decision-making level of the political liaison committees; the media, especially public broadcasting; and creating an enabling environment for participatory democracy.
The most critical challenge facing our country and this new government today, I agree with Msholozi, is to continue to fight poverty through job creation.
We believe that jobs are the ultimate weapons against poverty and that the country must be managed to ensure the achievement of this goal. Government has a responsibility to intervene and protect the South African economy and jobs when necessary. Whilst free-market capitalism is the best economic system developed by humanity, it is still fraught with weaknesses and failures that must be actively managed.
We should take a leaf from the book of the outside world, which, when they were faced with an economic meltdown, did not pussyfoot around, but instead took decisive steps to remedy their situations.
Iyahlekisa le nto ndiyithethayo, Mphathiswa? [Is what I am saying amusing, hon Minister?]
South Africans are suspicious and mistrust government because of perceptions that it is not equitably distributing the resources of the country. Indeed, since 1994 there has not been consensus on a macroeconomic policy that can transform the economy in a manner that could create jobs and spread the wealth wider, and improve the lot of the disadvantaged majority. There are, in particular, concerns about the inadequacies and contradictions of the fiscal and industrial policies. Consequently, the gains of the liberation in 1994 have not translated into real economic freedom for all, and that's a reality.
A classic example is the recent call by Cosatu to boycott Vodacom products and services. However, their call should be viewed in the context of a directive issued by the former secretary-general of Cosatu in his capacity as the then Minister of Communications, Mr Jay Naidoo, which culminated in the selling of 15,2% of Telkom shares to the Thintana group of the USA. Those shares, as we all know, made their way back to a South African consortium, which includes an entity that carries a beneficial interest of some individuals and institutions aligned to the ruling party.
Before any intended boycott therefore takes place, I would like to call upon you, Mr President, to investigate the structure and beneficiaries of an entity known as Clident 1 and Clident 445 Pty Ltd, which also has an interest in the sale of Vodacom shares by Telkom.
We contend that this economic policy uncertainty is unhealthy for the long- term growth of the country. Just as Codesa served as a forum where the nation could gather to find broad consensus on the political dispensation, so an economic indaba is required to find broad consensus on the economic dispensation.
For our part, the UDM will enter such an economic indaba with one goal, namely to argue that the basis of economic policy must be the expansion of the economic cake so that we can give a bigger slice to everybody. Right now the economic cake remains overwhelmingly in the hands of the minority, and that of a small black elite, whilst the majority do not have a seat at the table and must survive on the crumbs that happen to fall on the floor.
Our only option, if we are serious about uplifting the masses and sustaining the democratic project, is to adopt economic policies that are geared towards opening the doors to the fortress of the formal economy for the millions who are locked out of it.
The very few blacks who are recipients of the BEE crumbs have instead accumulated more liabilities than assets through overpriced shares of the white-owned companies. Yes, we need to deracialise our economy. Since 1994 black South Africans have made no real progress in ownership and control of the economy.
In conclusion, both Minister Manuel and hon Minister Patel ... [Interjections.] No, you are not honourable.
Awukho "honourable" wena tu, mfana. [Young man, you are not honourable at all.] [Laughter.]]
... need to keep contact with the public. They should give serious attention to the UDM policy proposal to establish a presidential council on sustainable development where all stakeholders in society would actively interact and participate in developing their communities instead of being excluded and waiting for handouts.
Such an approach would quickly determine why people have been living in the dark without electricity since 1994, or why many have been living in shacks since the eighties in places such as Cape Town, leading people to ask where this so-called freedom of 1994 is.
We must begin to give the people of the country an input.
Hon member, your time has expired.
They can't simply be used as voting cattle every few years ...
Hon member ...
Uxolo, mhlekazi; ungu "hon Manuel". [I am sorry, sir, you are hon Manuel.]
Hon Deputy Speaker, hon President and Deputy President, hon members, our hon President laid out a comprehensive work programme for government. He identified both the tremendous possibilities that lie before us and the challenges we face today. He also emphasised the role that our country needs to play in the international world and in rejuvenating our economies, not only of South Africa, but of the continent as well. It must be the spirit of collectivism that guides us as South Africans and as Africans, otherwise ...
... ka Sepedi ba re: Tau t?a hloka seboka di ?itwa ke nare e hlot?a.Se se bolela gore ge re sa ?omi?ane mmogo le dinagamabapi, re tla ikhwet?a re le mathateng ao a fetago a re lebanego le wona. (Translation of Sepedi paragraph follows.)
[... in Sepedi they say: United we stand, divided we fall. This means that if we don't work together with other countries, we will find ourselves in more trouble than we already are.]
We are therefore called upon to play our role in the design of the international order that will better deliver for the peoples of the world, many of whom still live in conditions of abject poverty and squalor. The message of our movement, "Working together, we can do more", is relevant and apt to our international relations work. It will guide us as we build partnerships with other nations of the world to address the many challenges that face the international community.
Our people declared through the Freedom Charter that there shall be peace and friendship. Based on this vision of the Freedom Charter, the democratic South African government is at peace and enjoys friendly relations with the nations around the globe. Thus, as we start our new term of government, we can do no less than preserve this proud heritage. We are expected to marshal these peaceful and friendly relations for further advancement of our country and our people.
Mohlomphegi Modulasetulo, ge e le bothata bja ekonomi ya lefase, gora gore kgomo e tswalet?e mphorogohlong wa dithaba, e gana ge ba?emane ba t?ea mohlana wa yona ka gobane e hlaba. [Hon Chairperson, there is a huge problem which is difficult to resolve with regard to the economy of the world.]
If anyone had any doubt, the financial crisis has proved that today we live in a global village. A crisis that originated in one part has quickly spread to all the corners of the globe. In its wake it has left no country untouched, increasing unemployment in some countries and causing a recession in others. In general it is setting us back many years against the gains that we made in pushing back the frontiers of poverty in the developing world.
We know that the crisis was caused by, amongst other things, a lack of effective regulation of global finance. Significantly, the crisis has also exposed the democratic deficit in global governance. The existing global institutions do not reflect the world of today. They were not created to deal with the challenges that the world is facing currently. We should see in this crisis an opportunity to hasten the reform of global governance. We should not let this opportunity pass. We urge those who occupy positions of privilege in the current global architecture to realise that it is also in their interest that these institutions are reformed.
It is these perspectives that will inform us in our participation in both the UN conference on the global financial crisis in June and the next group summit of the Group of 20 and the G8 plus 5, as well as in all the WTO processes. Our view is that the strategy for South Africa out of this crisis would include, amongst other things, strengthening South-South relations, as those countries offer new market opportunities for South Africa's exports as well as opportunities for investment. We need to develop strong links with countries in Asia, Latin America and the Middle East, and further enhance our partnerships with IBSA and China and other like-minded countries.
It is our considered view that the United Nations as an institution that is at the centre of multilateral systems is also in need of urgent reform, both politically and structurally, in particular with regard to its key organs such as the Security Council. You may wonder why we are talking so emphatically about the reform of global governance. We talk about reform because of our strong belief in the importance of multilateralism. We therefore talk about reform, because we wish these institutions of global governance to be more effective in discharging their mandates.
I also wish to submit to this esteemed House that we will struggle to achieve the objectives that we have set for ourselves as a country without a conducive international environment. The current global environment also convinces us of the correctness of our quest for stronger and more effective integration of our continent. We have always been convinced that it is when Africa is united that our voice will be stronger in the world. As we conclude our term as the chair of the SADC, we are happy with the strides that our region has made. In addition to the launch of the SADC free trade area, work is advancing towards the implementation of other protocols that will further enhance the integration of our region. We have to continue pursuing this important objective.
What we seek is a regional integration process that is underpinned by our developmental perspective.
The President called upon the international community to support Zimbabwe's inclusive government to achieve their economic recovery. We can only add to that call by stressing that this is an important window of opportunity for all of us to help the people of Zimbabwe to help themselves. We believe that this support should not be delayed any longer, since it is critical for the consolidation of the political process in that country.
Bjale ka ge Mopresidente a bolet?e gore mo nakong ye re lego mo go yona e boima, e nyaka kopano magareng ga baagi?ane. [The President has alluded to the fact that we are in a difficult era, and the situation requires unity among neighbouring states.]
We will also continue to work with other SADC countries for the restoration of the democratic government in Madagascar.
We have always looked at the African regional economic communities, such as SADC, as building blocks to stronger continental integration. Indeed, this was the wisdom that informed the Abuja Treaty of 1991. Since then, we have also seen the entry into force of the African Union in 2002. The birth of the African Union marked a new dawn in the history of the integration of our continent.
What we have witnessed on the continent in the recent past could not have been foreseen a few decades ago. Then some saw our continent as a place without hope. In the eyes of some, Africa was defined only as a place of conflict and misery. But today we can boldly say that that these sceptics of yesteryear are also witnesses of the important progress that our continent is making. The spread of democracy and the increasing recognition of the need to respect human rights, the emergence of institutions such as the African Court for Human and People's Rights and the Pan-African Parliament all give us hope and give hope to the people of the entire continent. They also serve to redefine the image of our continent in the eyes of the world.
We also have to contend with the fact that challenges remain on our continent. Indeed, some of the progress that we speak of can still be reversed if we do not apply the necessary vigilance, and if we decide to rest on our laurels. What this calls for are strategies that include effective post-conflict peace-building and the provision of support to those who wish to build democratic institutions on our continent. It also means that we have to promote these and other values within the SADC and the African Union.
South Africa's role in post-conflict peace-building initiatives in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Burundi and Sudan is contributing to the consolidation of the peace processes in those countries. We have to continue on this path. As the President has said, and I quote:
We will continue to encourage a peaceful and sustainable settlement to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict based on the two-state solution. We will support the peace efforts of the African Union and the United Nations on the African continent, including in the Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic and Darfur in Sudan.
We also welcome the rapprochement between the United States and Cuba, and look forward to the normalisation of relations between these two countries.
At the ANC's 52nd national conference, we said that South Africa should be proactive in the debate and processes that lead to the creation of the African Union government, including the mobilisation of progressive forces and governments towards a common understanding of the strategic plan. This Union government must be built through regional structures as building blocks, with strong economic integration at all levels.
To achieve these objectives, we will partner with countries on the continent and others outside of the continent. It also means working for the implementation of Nepad and the strengthening of the African Peer Review Mechanism. It is also in this context that our government has taken the important decision to change the name of our department to the Department of International Relations and Co-operation. The President also reminded us that we will establish, as agreed at the 52nd national conference of the ANC, the South African Development Partnership Agency, which will enhance our capacity to contribute to the development partnerships that Africa needs.
Our work in international relations will continue to be informed by the domestic priorities of our government. The international relations work that the President highlighted in his address to this Chamber and the decisions of the ruling party's conference are based on the Freedom Charter and South Africa's own national interests.
The first President of democratic South Africa, Isithwalandwe, Tata Nelson Mandela, correctly and wisely reminded us that South Africa could never be an island of prosperity in a sea of poverty. We must use Mandela Day to propagate to the world the spirit of ubuntu.
A re kopantsheng lefase ka let?at?i le, re le dire let?at?i la bodit?habat?haba, le dinageng mabapi le mose wa mawatle. Serokolwana se senyane se ikoket?a ka monkgo. [Let us unite the world today, including our neighbouring states, countries abroad and make it an international day. Unity is power.]
We also join the President in popularising Mandela Day.
I have talked mainly about our work in advancing the consolidation of our African agenda. South Africa is privileged to enjoy peaceful relations with countries all over the world, both in the North and in the South. As the President indicated, we will continue to enhance these relationships. Our success as a country is predicated on peace in the world as well as on strengthening our cordial relations with countries both in the North and the South.
To achieve all these goals we also have to recognise the important role that nonstate actors play in international relations. Therefore, among the partnerships we will seek to build are partnerships with South Africa's own business community and civil society, including academics and the media. We have to enhance the potential and the capacity of all these partners to represent brand South Africa abroad.
In conclusion, the President also reminded us that we should continue to extend our solidarity with the suffering people of Palestine and Western Sahara. To all of us, and to the rest of the international community, it should not be acceptable that the sister peoples of Palestine and Western Sahara should continue to live in the conditions that they are in today.
Ours is to export ubuntu and partnership amongst the people of the continent and the world. Let their problems be our problems because "I ndlopfu ya hina leyi" [This is our responsibility.] We are, because they are. I thank you. [Applause.]
Madam Deputy Speaker, we were greatly encouraged by our hon President's remarks yesterday on the enhancement of judicial independence, even if that independence was rhetorically presented as part of transformation. The reference to independence was welcome, because it is so necessary.
I would like to say to the hon the President that I can think of no single act of statesmanship that would more resoundingly restore confidence in this government's commitment to our constitutional order than the appointment, in a few months' time, of a good choice for a Chief Justice of South Africa, and it would help with economic confidence too.
That appointment will perhaps be the single most important function which our hon President will fulfil during his tenure as head of the executive. He may also appoint a new Deputy Chief Justice - that would happen, should he decide to elevate the sitting deputy to the position of Chief Justice when our esteemed Chief Justice, Judge Pius Langa, retires.
The difference between those positions - the Chief Justice of South Africa and the Deputy Chief Justice - and the appointment of the other Constitutional Court judges is that our hon President can appoint a person, or in the second scenario two persons, of his choice. He does not have to draw on a list emanating from the Judicial Service Commission. He will choose, not in consultation with, but only after consulting the JSC and the leaders of parties represented in Parliament.
I remember that Mr George Bizos has said that his predecessor, President Mbeki, never departed from the JSC's recommendations and we hope that the President, too, will take wise counsel, because our constitutional order has been shaken to its foundation over the last year by unwise comment and sometimes by wild comment about the judiciary, such as the charges of counterrevolution made against our judges, which we all remember.
There was an aftershock recently, at the last weekend, when our new Justice chairperson, the hon Ramathlodi, said to the Mail & Guardian that the judges should know their place. Now, I hasten to add that the hon Ramathlodi offered us an explanation, unasked, on the occasion of his election this week and we readily acknowledge his assurance that he believes that our independent institutions need to be restored and to be given their rightful space.
It is just that we have so often felt, sir, during this last year that we were losing South Africa. Because it is no exaggeration to say that if the courts crumble, the whole of the constitutional construct comes crashing down, pillar and pediment. The courts are part and parcel of the constitutional architecture, but let us never forget that they are separate and subject only to the Constitution and the law, and that they are the authoritative interpreters of the supreme law.
Dit is ons werk, as die wetgewende gesag van Suid-Afrika, om uitdrukking te gee aan die Grondwet en aan die fundamentele regte wanneer ons wette skryf of herskryf. Ons interpreteer ook. (Translation of Afrikaans paragraph follows.)
[As South Africa's legislative authority, it is our duty to give expression to the Constitution and to the fundamental rights when we write or rewrite laws. We interpret as well.]
But it is the courts that can strike down our work and government's conduct for unconstitutionality. As a parliamentarian, I believe we, as one arm of the state, have a particular duty to the people to protect that other separate arm, and to protect in particular the status and the stature of the judges, the very people who can throw out our work, suspend it and send it back after months and years of work, because if we do not so respect and protect them, if there are no such courts, there is no supreme Constitution. Then Parliament is sovereign again, as it was until we created this constitutional democracy, and then our hon President becomes just like Mr P W Botha, who set up next door in Tuynhuys as an executive president. We don't want that, sir, and he will not want that.
I hope, therefore, that the President will send a clear signal of statesmanship and constitutionalism when he appoints the Chief Justice of South Africa a little later this year - I think in August, I am not sure.
A last thought: No doubt there is more than one good choice available on the highest Bench, but it is interesting to remember that when natural successors are passed over, confidence can be affected. Judge Michael Corbett, recently departed - much loved and rightly honoured - was the natural successor in 1986 to the Chief Justiceship, as it then was, when Judge Rabie was due to retire. The hon President will remember only too well that these were the emergency years. Judge Rabie, himself reappointed, was instrumental in getting the right man - Judge Mick Corbett - appointed after his own extended service.
The late Kobie Coetzee, whom many of us remember for his many contributions to the founding of our new state, was then Justice Minister and he was said to have been toying with another choice altogether at the time, but the right man was appointed. I leave only the thought, hon President, that it can make a very big difference to have the right person in the right post at the right time, and when the right people, moreover, make the right appointments in turn, well, you make new countries or you recapture them. We wish you very well, hon President. [Applause.]
The DEPUTY MINISTER OF AGRICULTURE, FORESTRY AND FISHERIES: Mr Chairman, President, yesterday I listened to the second state of the nation address this year and to my 17th since 1994.
My overarching impression of President Zuma's address was "back to business". Government in the past often got stuck in complicated ideological debates, debates where the existence of serious problems such as crime, Zimbabwe and HIV/Aids had been denied. This was not the case in yesterday's address. President Zuma had identified most of the core problems of South Africa and made proposals as to how these could be addressed. This includes the present recession and issues such as our high crime rate, corruption, poor health services, discipline in education, poverty, etc.
The FF Plus, however, foresees one big problem. Among these proposals of the government on the one hand and the populace on the other, one finds the Public Service. They have to implement these plans at ground level to the advantage of South Africa.
I know many wonderful public servants, who work very hard and go out of their way to deliver good services to the people, but I have encountered so many incompetent officials, officials who are political or cadre appointments, officials who are arrogant and do not go to any trouble to render a service to the public.
South Africa needs a professional, nonpolitical public service where competence and nothing else determines one's position and promotion. Such a public service is loyal to the government of the day, regardless of which political party is in charge. The President yesterday repeated that South Africa belongs to all who live in it. The Public Service also in the same way belongs to all South Africans. Therefore, if there is no renewal in the Public Service, many of these proposals will only create expectations, but will not be implemented in practice.
The President concluded his speech yesterday by saying: To be a citizen is not only about rights, it is also about responsibility, making a contribution to make ours a better country.
The FF Plus agrees with this. It is not only the government's job to make a contribution to a better South Africa. Every citizen, every nongovernmental organisation and every political party has a duty and a responsibility.
Then where does an opposition political party such as the FF Plus fit in?
In a mature democracy there should also be room for opposition politics. I stand here with a mandate from the FF Plus voters. That mandate differs from the mandate of the ANC or of the DA. It is a mandate to manage the interests of the FF Plus voters as best I can in this Assembly. It deals with self-determination, the protection of minorities, about the pressure which Afrikaners and Afrikaans are experiencing and with constructive opposition - that is the mandate.
Why does the FF Plus believe that good opposition is necessary and that it is our contribution "to make ours a better country", as the President said yesterday? Because the true test of democracy does not lie in the existence of different democratic institutions alone, but in the functioning of these institutions. The most important institutions would be the media, Parliament, opposition parties and the state watchdogs such as the Auditor- General and public accounts committees.
In countries where there has been a move from a democratic to an autocratic state, the move took place gradually. Government slowly scales down the role of the media and other democratic institutions. The result is that it becomes more difficult for the opposition and the media to gain access to the information it needs to fulfil its roles. The next step of an autocratic government is to employ people who are sympathetic to the ruling party in all the troublesome positions, positions such as the Auditor- General, the chairs of public accounts committees and judges. The annual reports of governmental departments become increasingly vague. Questions in Parliament are not answered. Through these steps, information regarding government's activities becomes less and less available. Without this information, the opposition cannot function effectively.
The last step in losing democracy would be elimination of the opposition as the unpatriotic enemy. In South Africa we are far removed from this, but this does not mean that we can take democracy and freedom of speech as a given. As an opposition party the FF Plus will help guard over this. It is important to remember that the longer any government rules, the less it tolerates being controlled.
Daarom het die VF Plus as opposisieparty nie gehuiwer om die ANC-regering Grondwethof toe te vat oor stemreg vir Suid-Afrikaners in die buiteland nie. Daarom het die VF Plus die Openbare Beskermer gevra om die vermorsing van geld te ondersoek nadat die aanklagte teen mnr Zuma laat vaar is. Indien nodig, sal ons weer sulke stappe doen. Ek het hierdie standpunt in my gesprek met die President oor die aanvaarding van 'n Adjunkministerspos aan hom oorgedra.
Sedert die stigting van die VF Plus met genl Viljoen as leier was die party se uitgangspunt dat verantwoordelike opposisie nodig is, maar dat dit nie net afbrekend is nie.
Suid-Afrika beleef tans 'n resessie wat almal raak. As die Suid-Afrikaanse skip ekonomies sou sink, dan sink die DA- en VF Plus- ondersteuners saam. Daarom is die VF Plus ook bereid om 'n konstruktiewe rol te speel in die belang van almal in Suid-Afrika. Artikel 83 van die Grondwet lui as volg:
Die President -
(c) bevorder die eenheid van die nasie ...
Hoe doen 'n President dit in 'n land met 11 amptelike tale, agt hoofgelowe en 31 kultuurgroepe? As President Zuma dan in sy inhuldigingstoespraak by die Uniegebou s, en ek haal hom aan:
We must forge a partnership for reconstruction, development and progress. In this partnership there is a place for all South Africans, black and white. It's a partnership founded on principles of mutual respect and the unfettered expression of different views. We do not seek conformity. We seek a vibrant, dynamic partnership that is enriched by democratic debate that values diverse views and accommodates dissent.
Dan s die VF Plus ons is bereid om die risiko te loop en as opposisieparty op hierdie basis 'n bydrae in die belang van Suid-Afrika te maak. Op hierdie basis steun die VF Plus se federale raad, as hoogste beleidmakende liggaam van die party, die VF Plus se aanvaarding van 'n Adjunkministerspos.
Die praktyk sal aantoon in watter mate sukses op hierdie basis moontlik is of nie. Kom ek gee vir u 'n voorbeeld: In sy toespraak verwys die President na 'n gemeenskaplike en inklusiewe benadering ten opsigte van naamsverandering. As dit in die praktyk op die grondvlak gaan lei tot 'n nuwe, lang en uitgerekte stryd van dorp tot dorp waar een groep se helde en name verwyder word en deur 'n ander groep s'n vervang word, dan is hierdie le beloftes. Dan sal dit net lei tot groter polarisasie en vervreemding tussen groepe in Suid-Afrika.
As die President se verwysing na 'n gemeenskaplike benadering van naamsverandering egter beteken dat daar so gou as moontlik duidelike riglyne kom oor hoe dit gedoen moet word, met erkenning aan alle groepe, dan verwelkom die VF Plus dit. Sulke riglyne sal aandui hoe daar ruimte gelaat moet word om erkenning aan almal se helde en verlede te gee, met 'n afsnypunt wanneer hierdie saak afgehandel behoort te word.
Suid-Afrika is 'n pragtige land met pragtige mense wat 'n model vir die res van die wreld kan word oor hoe verskillende tale en groepe in harmonie 'n toekoms uitwerk met 'n plek in die son vir elkeen, maar juis hierdie verskillende tale, groepe en verskille maak Suid-Afrika 'n baie ingewikkelde land wat met 'n verkeerde besluit of onverantwoordelikheid in geweld kan ontplof. Dis ons taak as leiers wat hier sit, almal, ook di wat hier mor, om die Suid-Afrikaanse skip veilig deur die waters te stuur. [Tussenwerpsels.] Die VF Plus beplan om as 'n konstruktiewe opposisieparty op die wyse wat ek hierbo uitgespel het die volgende vyf jaar sy rol in hierdie Parlement te speel. Ek dank u. (Translation of Afrikaans paragraphs follows.)
[For that reason the FF Plus, as an opposition party, did not hesitate to take the ANC government to the Constitutional Court with regard to the right of South Africans, who live abroad, to vote. The FF Plus also asked the Public Protector to investigate the waste of money after the charge against Mr Zuma had been withdrawn. If necessary, we will take such steps again. I conveyed this point of view to the President during our conversation about my acceptance of the position of Deputy Minister.
Since the founding of the FF Plus with Gen Viljoen as leader, the point of reference of the party has always been that responsible opposition is necessary, but that it should not only criticise everything.
South Africa is currently experiencing a recession that affects everyone. If the South African ship were to sink economically, then the supporters of the DA and FF Plus would sink together with it. For that reason the FF Plus is also prepared to play a constructive role in the interests of everyone in South Africa.
Section 83 of the Constitution states the following:
The President - (c) promotes the unity of the nation ...
How does a President accomplish this in a country with 11 official languages, eight main religions and 31 cultural groups? As President Zuma said in his inauguration speech at the Union Buildings, and I quote:
We must forge a partnership for reconstruction, development and progress. In this partnership there is a place for all South Africans, black and white. It's a partnership founded on principles of mutual respect and the unfettered expression of different views. We do not seek conformity. We seek a vibrant, dynamic partnership that is enriched by democratic debate that values diverse views and accommodates dissent.
The FF Plus then says that we are prepared to take that risk and, as an opposition party, make a contribution along these lines in the interests of everyone in South Africa. On this basis the federal council of the FF Plus, the highest policy-making body of the party, supports the acceptance of the position of Deputy Minister by the FF Plus.
Time will tell to which degree success will be possible along these lines or not. Let me give you an example: In his speech the President refers to a joint and inclusive approach with regard to name changes. If this were to lead in practice to a new, long, drawn-out battle from town to town at grassroots level, where the heroes and names of one group are removed and replaced with those of another group, then we are left with empty promises. That will only lead to greater polarisation and alienation between groups in South Africa.
However, if the President's referral to a joint approach to name changes means that clear directives are to be issued as soon as possible on how this should be done, with recognition of all groups, then the FF Plus will welcome the approach. Such directives will indicate how much room should be left to give acknowledgement to everyone's heroes and past, with a cut-off date for the completion of this process.
South Africa is a beautiful country with beautiful people and can become a model for the rest of the world as to how different languages and groups can, in harmony, work towards a future with room for everyone. But, because of these different languages, groups and differences, South Africa is a very complicated country, where a wrong decision or irresponsible behaviour can explode in violence. We leaders who are seated here, even those of us who are muttering, have the duty to steer the South African ship safely through the waters. [Interjections.] The FF Plus envisages that the party will, as a constructive opposition party, play a role in this Parliament over the next five years in the manner in which I have explained. I thank you.]
Business suspended at 16:17 and resumed at 16:32.