Mr Speaker, Cope believes that the President of the Republic, President Zuma, has again turned what should have been a great public-relations exercise on a global platform into a huge embarrassment and a diplomatic furore for this country.
We say this as Cope, because we have consistently been critical of the President of the Republic appointing friends and cronies to high, influential and diplomatic positions of this country and abroad, not taking into consideration the issues of capability, capacity and their suitability to the office.
As a result of naive advice President Zuma unfortunately asserted that it was the British people in general who held the view that Africans were barbaric. This is not only unfounded, as is evident from an examination of facts, but it is also deeply embarrassing to the people of South Africa in their entirety.
The ANC spokesperson, Jackson Mthembu, has engaged in quick damage control to restore the reputation that the President painted of our country. We have missed another opportunity to fly the flag of South Africa high in an overseas land and to make great impact. I thank you. [Applause.]