Hon members, before I call hon Ditshetelo, I want to give my rulings. Hon members, a number of points of order were raised yesterday during the speech by the hon Minister of Higher Education and Training. I undertook to study the Hansard and return to the House with a ruling.
In the first instance, hon Mazibuko raised a point of order to contest whether the use of the word "darkies" by the hon Minister was parliamentary. In considering whether a word is parliamentary or not, the Chair's judgement depends on the nature of the word and the context in which it is used. The way in which a remark is made or the tone can make a difference.
Having said this, I wish to emphasise that good temper and moderation are the characteristics of parliamentary language. Offensive and inflammatory language should be avoided.
Indeed, Parliament is the highest forum of debate in our land and we should set the example, especially when it comes to the use of racial terms and expressions. I must indicate that I did not immediately consider the term offensive, given the context and tone of proceedings. After consideration, however, and in view of the conversation of this House, I must agree that the word might be seen as a racial label and could easily be considered derogatory by some people.
I accept that perhaps certain sections of society may not necessarily view the label as such, especially when used in a particular context. However, rulings by the Chair should always seek to uphold the decorum of the House. I would, therefore, like to urge members generally to avoid language that could be construed as offensive and provocative by others.
Related to this, the hon Lekota essentially asked me to rule whether a member who criticises the government could justifiably be called a racist. While I cannot rule on hypothetical questions, regardless of their context, I will repeat the previous ruling that it is always unparliamentary for a member of this House to accuse another of being racist. In this case there is no record that the Minister did make such an accusation against a member.
Further, hon members, I wish to rule on a point of order, raised by hon Ellis in the same debate, in which he objected to another remark by the hon Minister. The hon Minister said and I quote:
You actually launched security to go and shoot innocent workers in Hout Bay because they are too close to a whole range of areas.
Mr Ellis in his point of order stated the following:
The hon Minister is standing there and deliberately inciting us by referring to us as shooting people in the townships. I am sure what he said is totally and utterly unparliamentary.
In responding to the point of order, the Chair's determination of whether the remark is unparliamentary or not, centres around the interpretation of the word "you". In other words, was the Minister referring to the DA as the party or was he referring to the DA members of this House? It is not the same thing. In practice, reflections on political parties have been accepted. In this particular case, the Minister's remark could be interpreted as either. Given the ambiguity and the context provided by the preceding and subsequent statements, I have decided to grant the Minister the benefit of doubt. I will therefore not ask him to withdraw the remark. [Interjections.] Order, hon members!
I again appeal to members of this House, as public representatives, to moderate their language and maintain the standing in which this House would always seek to be held. Thank you very much. That is the ruling. [Applause.]
Madam Deputy Speaker, may I just seek clarity in respect of one of the rulings that you have made? In respect of the word "darkie" used by the hon Minister Nzimande, is he being asked to retract that or not?
No, you were not listening. No!
Speaker, the President acknowledged the 17 years of South Africa's birth as a nonracial, nonsexist, equal and democratic society. However, after 17 years of what should have been freedom, we hold a world record in inequality.
The majority of the formerly oppressed Africans live in appalling conditions and dire poverty. I ask: What does democracy mean to people living in dire poverty? How do you translate the celebration of 21 years since Madiba's release for people with no basic services? What meaning does all this carry?
We welcome the progress made in providing our people with basic water supply; 400 000 is a substantial number. However, we look forward to a time when all South Africans can enjoy basic services because this is their right. We carry the responsibility of ensuring that they enjoy and benefit from these rights. Otherwise, there is no meaning to the equality clause in our Constitution.
We further appreciate the decline in crime stats, especially the 8,6% decline in the murder rate. Nonetheless, gender-based violence still ranks very high in our society. It was disappointing, with due respect, that the President did not dwell much on this, because this is a scourge that we must all rid our society of. This applies especially to rape.
Nine billion rand towards job creation shows real monetary commitment. It is obvious that the President intended focusing on unemployment in his address, but the decency and sustainability of job opportunities created has not been addressed succinctly. Even when it comes to the 4,5 million jobs that the Expanded Public Works Programme will create, we do not know if they'll be sustainable and decent.
In the recent past we lost a million jobs, but boast of having created 480 000 nonsustainable, "non-decent" jobs, and we cannot continue with such a trend.
We also welcome the allocation of R800 million towards communities affected by floods. However, we hope that the Ministers concerned will ensure that this reaches the intended beneficiaries and is not manipulated along the way, as we have so often seen.
We agree that unemployment deserves a lot of attention, but so does education and crime, and we felt that the President did not prioritise these enough. Access to education has been steadily improving over the years but we must equally focus repeatedly on quality.
The uncertainty and controversy that seem to always well up around matric results need attention. Converting loans to bursaries for final year students is a welcome move; but what do we say about financially needy students who want to enter tertiary education?
Bana ba rona ke boswa le letlotlo la ka moso. A re ba tlhokomeleng ka botlalo. Ke a leboga. [Applause.] [Our children are the heir and treasure of the future. Let us take full care of them. Thank you. [Applause.]]
Speaker, hon President and hon Deputy President, every year in the state of the nation address the goals are identified, but at the end of each year we still have challenges when the targets are not achieved. You have considered in your speech, Mr President, that there are challenges in respect of two important areas - poverty alleviation and job creation.
After your speech, experts have commented and they have been unanimous that you have not outlined any details as to how government is going to achieve those goals. The provinces have financial problems, especially the departments of health. Local government is suffering because there is no service delivery and there are service delivery protests.
The national Minister of Human Settlements said, a day later, that billions of taxpayers' money will have to be used to repair shoddy workmanship where there have been irregularities, corruption, etc. The main show in KwaZulu- Natal is making earth-shattering news every day with forensic reports and the Auditor-General's reports.
I regard your presentation to the country like a doctor who is giving somebody a medicine bottle of tonic for a cure. What you have done, Mr President, was to put on the labels on the medicine bottle, but you have not told us what the mixture inside the bottle is; and what we are interested in, is the outcome.
President Obama, after his party lost the congressional elections, said that the failure of his office was to make promises, but not saying how to deliver and they failed with regards to the outcome.
We are failing in agriculture and infrastructure. There are some very important messages you gave on a lot of incentives to the very big businessmen, but you just glossed over the most important job creators in history - the informal sectors and the small, medium and micro enterprises, SMMEs. After the great recession in the United States and after the Second World War, it was the informal sector and the SMMEs that made the United States, Germany and Japan into world economic power houses.
We must be disciplined. I want to tell you something very clearly, Mr President, and that is that some of your "generals" are letting you down. Look at the hotel bills and the expenses, at the time when the Minister of Finance mentioned that there will be finance stringency.
The MF praises your efforts in international relationships. You have done wonderful work in Africa. You have internally built excellent community relationships, but what the people need is known in the Indian language as roti, kapra aur markan; meaning they want food, shelter and work. [Laughter.]
I agree with you, Mr President, that every decision in this country and at the three levels of government must result in work, work and nothing but work. But if the government wants to spread its tentacles to control things and not allow public-private initiatives and partnerships, we cannot move forward.
The MF supports sound, meaningful economic transformation that must be translated into economic opportunities and social improvements in everybody's live. Look at India and China, where there is producer price indexes, PPIs, and decentralisation.
Thousands of youngsters from the minority communities are waiting to serve this country. Let us move away from race and affirmative action, and move to equal opportunity programmes and get the best brains in government and the administration. This country can take a giant leap forward.
Let us not let our youth matriculate and then frustrate by leaving them without a job. What we are experiencing is that people are getting tenders, tenders and more tenders. In Ethekwini they are using Rule 36 and people are swimming in money overnight. Give the Hawks a blank cheque, Mr President, to clean up our country and put it right. We are living in a wonderful and great country.
Mr President, you are very strongly identified with sport. Sport in our country is like a stepchild and we must remove the stepchild's image. Regarding the allocation of funds, sport must be treated fairly and squarely. It is not too late to include the great Shaun Pollock with Makhaya Ntini. The price of success is eternal vigilance. We must not only create jobs, but we must be able to keep the jobs we have.
We are becoming too much stuck in a socialist state. A developmental state creates jobs and if we remain stuck in social states, our country will undoubtedly stagnate.
Sexual abuse of school learners is linked to HIV and Aids and the government is dragging its heels when it comes to this. Schools lack the capacity and expertise to deal with learners who are victims of sexual abuse.
Mr President, some of the media don't believe in multiparty democracy. I want to condemn e.tv for unashamedly being the public relations officer of the DA. [Applause.] They should hang their heads in shame when it comes to the principles of fairness and equitability.
The great Mahatma Gandhi once said:
The best way to . . . lose yourself is to find yourself in the service of others.
In the very same context, there is a beautiful isiZulu proverb: "Umuntu umuntu ngabantu" - we are who we are because of other people. [Applause.] Let us commit ourselves today to delivering all our people from the shackles of poverty. Let us kick race out of the window and give everybody a chance. Together, in Madiba's words, everybody can build a great nation. Thank you. [Applause.]
Speaker, hon President, hon Deputy President, we are 17 years into our democracy. From the very first year of our democracy, crime has been a priority for the ANC government. For the opposition, it was a desperate rallying point; a disingenuous political tool which they believed they could use to garner support against the ANC ruling government.
Throughout these years, and despite the much criticism from the doomsday prophets from all corners, the ANC government steadfastly kept its focus on the fight against crime. That tenacity is now bearing fruit.
The ANC government is often accused of not prioritising crime and that it is not serious about fighting crime. Nothing can be further from the truth. There is no one political organisation that can benefit more from the success of the fight against crime than this very ANC government. Why do we say this?
First and foremost, it is a requirement of our own Freedom Charter. Secondly, it is a requirement and an obligation of government, through the Constitution of South Africa, to provide safety to South Africa's people and their property. Thirdly, South Africa is a developmental state and every rand that we spend on the fight against crime is a rand that we could have spent on addressing other pressing needs such as education, health or the creation of jobs.
The ANC, more than anyone, knows the importance of bringing crime figures down to an acceptable level and to free up the funds to be used in other priority areas. In 1994, the ANC government inherited a fragmented police force whose main focus was not the prevention of crime, but rather the enforcement of an unjust and undemocratic system. The challenge was to take that force and turn it around into a democratic police service that would be trusted by the broader community and would serve all South Africa's citizens equally.
Furthermore, the ANC government agreed that we need to professionalise our police personnel and enhance their skills, so that they can be equipped to address the changing challenges of crime prevention.
In 1995, the South African Police Service membership levels were 137 247; at the end of this year this will stand at 195 310. [Applause.] In 1995, the budget for the police was R9,8 billion; in the 2010-11 financial year, the adjusted appropriation budget component for the police stands at R53 529 740. In 1994, 25 960 people were murdered; in the 2009-10 financial year, murders came down to 16 834 despite an increase in the population.
This is the first time since 1994 that the murder rate dropped below 17 000. While every person murdered is still one murder too many, I am sure that we all agree that it is a significant decrease and speaks to the commitment and determination that is required.
Finances and resources are, however, not the only reason for the success in the fight against crime. The success that the ANC is achieving against crime and the criminals, who are spoiling the fruits of our democracy, was and still is based on community involvement in the fight against crime through Community Policing Forums and, more recently, the Community Safety Forums. These forums provide police with direct contact with the community, without which effective policing would just not be possible.
We must, however, guard against those forces that are trying to roll back the victories that we have achieved. In the Western Cape, we have experienced a concerted effort to frustrate the Community Police Forums by not providing them with financial or any other support through the department of community safety. This cannot be allowed, and we urge the Minister to intervene in this matter as a matter of urgency.
The concerted efforts to professionalise our police service through improved training also contributed to the success achieved. The increase in the number of detectives and along with that, the improvement of their training regime, further assisted us. Visible policing and patrols of known areas of crime contributed to the general decline in crime.
Prior to 1994, crime against women and children received little, if any, attention. This, however, became a priority area for the ANC government. In 1994, if one had asked any police officer to take him to a victim support room, he would have looked at you ... [Interjections.]
Hon members, there is too much noise in the House. Order!
... as if you were from Mars. Already 806 victim friendly facilities that provide support to rape victims and victims of sexual offences and domestic violence were established in police stations throughout the country. By the end of this financial year that figure should increase to 881 centres.
We have the Domestic Violence and Child Justice Acts in place. The Department of Justice has established Thuthuzela Care Centres and specialised courts to deal with sexual offences. Still, crime against women and children will remain a priority on the ANC agenda.
When the Hawks were established, the doomsday choir came together and predicted that the Hawks, would come to nothing. The truth is that the Hawks in the short period of their existence, have had a significant impact on specifically organised crime. Numerous big arrests were made for drugs.
I want to mention just a few of these drug-related arrests for the period April to December 2010. In August 2010, they discovered 166 kg of cocaine in the Port Elizabeth Harbour.
In December 2010, in Durban, 316 kg of cocaine was discovered and seven suspects were arrested in South Africa with further arrests in the United Arab Emirates, with more drugs, firearms and money found in the possession of those suspects.
In December 2010, in what was the largest consignment of cocaine ever found in South Africa, 1,7 tons of cocaine, with an estimated street value of R515 million was found in Knysna and five people were arrested.
It was said that the Hawks would not be able to investigate corruption, that they would be too scared. General Dramat and his team proved their resolve to deal with corruption without fear or favour. In the same period, the Hawks, in conjunction with the Department of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs, probed municipalities and arrested 106 people for corruption - amongst them 60 public officials.
In other corruption cases, a further 165 arrests were made. Many of their cases involve senior public officials and some very prominent individuals. But equally important are the arrests the Hawks have affected in crimes that impact on ordinary South African lives. Here the example that springs to mind is the arrests this week of bogus doctors practising in areas where the poorest of the poor go for services. This is what differentiates the Hawks from their predecessors. [Applause.]
Hon President, we welcome your focus on drugs and drug-peddling during your address. Substance abuse is destroying the very fabric of our society. It is destroying the cornerstone upon which it is built, namely our family structures. We also need to look at drug or substance abuse not merely as a crime, but as a contributing factor to crime.
Substance abusers do not start out as criminals, but more often than not they become criminals, at first being involved in petty crimes and later more and more serious and violent crimes in an effort to keep up their habit.
Mr President, we call on the government to come together and to intensify and improve existing measures and implement new measures, where necessary, to ensure a holistic, integrated approach on how to deal with this. We should look at all aspects of it, the social aspects, the rehabilitation and the criminal aspects. Drug and alcohol abuse have the potential to undo the progress that we as a nation have made.
Hon President, the ANC believes that significant progress has been made in the fight against crime. There are still challenges such as a need for further improvement in the quality and quantity of our detectives. We must determine how many detectives we need and then make sure that we get that number and retain it. Training and discipline remains a challenge. Corruption within the criminal justice system needs to be dealt with with resolve.
We want to commend the Ministers in this cluster for the decisive way in which they are dealing with corrupt officials and ask them not to let go of those reins. We need to speed up the revamp of the criminal justice system, and for the parliamentary security cluster, the implementation thereof will be a priority this year.
Hon President, we believe that the ground is now fertile to start addressing those core issues that contribute towards crime. We should now focus on these issues and address them through co-ordinated programmes.
The fight against crime can never be government's fight alone. As a nation, we should also now come together to fight crime. We need to liberate ourselves from crime and the effects of crime. We need to lead from the front and not wait for the police alone to do it. As a nation, we need to come together and unite as we did during the 2010 Soccer World Cup.
Let us stand up and stand together. Become activists against crime: Do not buy a pair of sunglasses or a watch that we know can never sell for that price. Ask yourself the question about what happened to the original owner.
Let us rid our houses, the clubs and the shebeens that we frequent, our streets and communities of crime by informing the police about known criminals and suspicious activities. Let us change our own attitude to crime. Let us do what is right, the right way at the right time. We must now have the courage and the determination and the will to become the nation that we can be. I thank you. [Applause.]
Speaker, comrades and hon members, the APC would like to congratulate you, Comrade President, on your state of the nation address. It has been our long-standing belief that freedom is supposed to help to address the appalling material conditions of our people, thus the fight against poverty, inequality and unemployment must be seen as liberation imperatives.
The APC believes that the role of the state in the economy has been highly minimised and it is long overdue that this is reserved. The APC therefore welcomes the thinking in the new growth plan of giving the state an active role in driving job creation.
We believe there is room and we need to do more to stimulate economic development. After all, the private sector does not have a proud track record of job creation since 1994.
The APC reiterates the call for the immobilisation of labour brokers. These are modern-day slave merchants. We agree with you, Comrade President, that South Africa and Africa, in general, cannot be wholesale exporters of raw materials and importers of finished products. Local beneficiation must be appreciated in the context of job creation and growing the economy.
The APC believes that our challenge in the public sector goes beyond the high vacancy rates to include, crucially, the orientation of our administrative cadres. South Africa needs public servants who have a sense of public duty, a common value system, norms and standards.
The APC would like to suggest that perhaps we need to strengthen the Public Service Commission by making it the point of entry into the Public Service - the recruiter and trainer of departmental officials. There is too much fragmentation, lack of control and central co-ordination, thus there are no common norms and standards within the current setting. Some officials, clearly out of depth in terms of their competence, rotate within government, leaving a trail of destruction.
The APC is on record for praising some of the measures you have taken in the drive to tackle corruption. We believe there should be enhanced co- ordination amongst the various agencies to deepen and advance the fight against corruption. Here we are referring to Sars, the Special Investigation Unit, SIU, National Treasury and Department of Public Service and Administration, DPSA.
The APC would like to suggest that we perhaps need a Special Investigation Unit Act that would make the SIU the primary body to investigate public sector corruption and do forensics. After all, they are a state entity and the cost for their services is less than half of what their counterparts in the private sector charge. Yet, they do thorough and comprehensive work which includes helping their clientele deal with systematic problems. As things stand, the work of the SIU is hindered by a lack of financial means, and having to wait for entities to ask for their intervention.
The challenges of education and health must be tackled head-on with added vigour and urgency. If we fail to do so, we face a future where we will be disaster-prone as a nation. In the Millennium Development Goals, it is in education and health that we are lagging behind.
In the provinces, it is these two departments of health and education that are poorly managed and yet they affect all our people and constitute a very high percentage of the provincial budgets. There is, once again here, a need to act with vigour and haste, firmness and determination.
The politics of regime change represents the crudest form of neo- colonialism. Yesterday it was President Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe by the British; today it is President Laurent Gbagbo in the Ivory Coast by the French. Who will it be tomorrow?
The genie is out of the bottle. The compradors have been toppled in Lebanon and Egypt, thus the fervent wishes and attempts to have protesters in the streets of Tehran. What happened in Egypt is a revolution. What they are attempting in Iran is a counter-revolution.
What does this all mean to the long-suffering but heroic people of Palestine? Only time will tell, but one thing is certain - their situation cannot be worse than it is at present. We are called upon to deepen our solidarity with the people of Palestine. After all, we are all Palestinians. Thank you. [Applause.]
Speaker, five sentences, that is how much attention was paid to local government in the state of nation speech. There were five sentences about the problem where most South Africans most feel the failure of the state. Those five sentences were designed to soothe, to placate and to obscure.
Those five sentences indicate the presence of Q7-vision. That is a view of the world through the tinted window of a 4x4 driving at a high speed in blue light convoy. It is pictures with no sound, or more accurately perhaps, sound with no pictures. Now let me give you some of those pictures that you will find if you go out there and you see for yourself.
Let us start at the Vredefort Dome. It is a World Heritage Site. In the town, against the wall of the local abattoir, a rectangular municipal drain stands open. Bubbling up through this hole and washing onto the surrounding ground is a tide of blood-red water. Dipping its snout into that water and eating whatever it can find that comes out of the abattoir, is a large pig. Just 20 metres behind that there are shacks where people are living. Now tell me, is that merely a challenge, or is that a crisis?
Go north from there and you will find untreated sewage flowing from municipal works into the Vaal River system. Infrastructure spending has not kept pace with demand and skills have been chased out. Treatment works are breaking down and our rivers are becoming stinking sewers. Is that a challenge, or is that a crisis?
Go south-east to Kroonstad, where the council cleared a foul lake formed by a blocked sewer main by breaking a hole in the adjacent storm water drain so the sewage would drain away - ending up in the dam from which the town gets its water. Last year we had a thousand cases of diarrhoea because the municipality found it had to buy cars and meals rather than chemicals to clean the drinking water. I ask again: Is that a challenge, or is that a crisis?
We heard in the state of the nation address about an additional 400 000 people who were given water connections last year. That's great, but how many of them are still connected?
Go east from Kroonstad and you will find Steynsrus, where there was no water in the taps for a month last year. Or how about Mahenge, near Port St Johns where, when I was there in December, the taps had not worked for six weeks, forcing people to walk an hour each day to fetch water from the town dam.
Here is another picture: In Ngqamakhwe village near Butterworth, RDP houses on a hillside are each accompanied by an above-ground plastic septic tank. People there use the tanks for storing drinking water, because the taps are nonoperational for so long. Is that a challenge or a crisis?
I would talk about more municipalities if I had more time. Do not just look at the official pretty figures; Q7-vision is not enough. Try more face-to- face rather than Facebook, Mr President. All this happens because infrastructure projects are built by people with political connections rather than people with expertise. This can be summarised in three words - corruption, collusion and nepotism. That is the motto that should be engraved on the letterhead of every ANC municipality. [Interjections.]
You do not need to take it from me; take it from Martin Sebakwane, the convenor of an ANC provincial task team in North West. He says state machinery is held hostage and captured by one group at provincial level, and a competing faction at local government level. He says that state resources are directed to municipal wards which have councillors who are part of the same faction. He says that councillors who are not part of the powerful faction are not allocated service delivery projects in their wards. Is this a challenge or a crisis?
The response that we hear all the time from this government is that there is no crisis. This is closely followed often by the response conceding that there may be a problem, but they are fixing it. Well, here is a news flash - it's not being fixed.
Let's look at the history. Project Consolidate ran from October 2004 and covered half of the country's municipalities. It deployed staff and expertise to fix local government in the words of the then ANC Minister "in line with the five-year strategic agenda for local government". Some strategy! Five years later, the ANC government had to institute the Local Government Turnaround Strategy. It's more of the same. Will it work if the political methodology of the ruling party is not addressed? I doubt it. The poster child in this regard is Nokeng Tsa Taemane, a municipality that was run into the ground by the ANC. The DA took it over in 2003 and got it out of financial trouble and delivered massively. The ANC took it over again in 2006 and last year declared it so bankrupt and so broken that it could not be fixed. So here we are coming to the truth of it. It is only when the ANC runs things that they become unviable.
There's another plaintive excuse when this government is on the ropes about service delivery - "Don't let us politicise this". So let us get it straight: When the law is made, it is political; when the officials are appointed, it is political; when the budgets are allocated, it is political. Then it all goes wrong and suddenly nobody wants to talk about politics anymore! Municipal failure is not an act of God. It is the direct result of failed ANC government policies.
The state of the nation address declared that at least some municipalities are working well. And, yes, DA-controlled Cape Town is working very well. From the days of capital starvation under the ANC, the rate of housing opportunities has been tripled, spending on infrastructure has almost quadrupled, the city's streets are clean and so are its audits. Cape Town's IT system is internationally recognised. When poor South Africans leave the ANC-run Eastern Cape to find a better life, do they go to ANC-administered Port Elizabeth? They do not. They go to DA-administered Cape Town. Some failure, Comrade Turok!
Compare that to Johannesburg, where tens of thousands of ratepayers with good credit records are being sent foolishly high utility bills and being cut off without warning. That's after a politically connected company gets the IT contract and fails to deliver. Mayor Masondo, of course, says there is no crisis.
Of course the Q7-vision is a political necessity. The ruling party cannot admit the extent of its failure to run local government. Despite the excuses, these failures are neither occasional, nor are they sporadic. They are devastating and systemic and they are everywhere. Thank you. [Applause.]
Speaker, agb President Jacob Zuma, agb Adjunkpresident Kgalema Motlanthe, agb lede en geerde gaste, tydens die dekades van apartheid en die voorafgaande eeue van koloniale en rassistiese regering, het vele organisasies, groepe en individue tot die rigiede segregasie, growwe ongelykhede, verwaarlosing en diepgaande rassediskriminasie in alle aspekte van gesondheidsdienste bygedra.
Sedert Suid-Afrika se eerste demokratiese verkiesing in 1994 het die ANC- beheerde regering met rasse skrede vooruitgegaan ten opsigte van die heropbou en ontwikkeling van die gesondheidsektor. (Translation of Afrikaans paragraphs follows.)
[Ms M N PHALISO: Speaker, hon President Jacob Zuma, hon Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe, hon members and distinguished guests, during the decades of apartheid and the preceding centuries of colonial and racist government many organisations, groups and individuals had contributed to the rigid segregation, harsh inequalities, neglect and deep-rooted racial discrimination in all aspects of health care services.
Since South Africa's first democratic election in 1994, the ANC-led government has made rapid strides in progress with regard to the reconstruction and development of the health care sector.]
The Bill of Rights in the Constitution provides for the right to access health care services, as well as the underlying determinants of health.
Since 1994, the ANC-led government has implemented a range of health- related policies. Much has been achieved since the dawn of our political democracy in the expansion of the primary health care system and the development of health care systems and structures.
The focus on primary health care has resulted in the reprioritisation of budgets and resources to bring about an equitable redistribution between primary health care and the sophisticated curative and tertiary care. An essential primary health care package was formulated, which set the norms for the provision of comprehensive primary health care services.
Dit is darem so. [It is the case, after all.]
To increase access to these services, user fees for public primary health care and all fees, including hospitals, for pregnant women and children under the age of 6 years were removed. To support the expansion of these services, hospital infrastructure was improved significantly, beginning with the Hospital Revitalisation Programme that focused on the improvement of infrastructure, equipment, management and quality of care.
A total of 1 800 clinics and community health centres and 18 new hospitals have been built and 250 hospitals revitalised since 1994. Today, 95% of the South African population can access health care within a 5 km radius of their homes.
In order to remedy shortages in the number of health professionals in rural areas, the ANC-led government recruited Cuban doctors in the immediate post- 1994 period and introduced compulsory community service for recently graduated medical doctors.
In order to ensure that health workers were both retained and sustained in rural areas and in the profession more broadly, the introduction of the occupation-specific salary dispensation allowances and rural allowances has begun. These initiatives are aimed at ensuring that our nurses, doctors and skilled professionals form part of our rural development strategy and provide the necessary health care services.
To make medicine more affordable, a comprehensive national drug policy was introduced in 1996 with the Essential Drug List for the public sector as one of the main pillars. It provided for greater rationalised drug prescribing and the introduction of generic medicines throughout the health system. This policy has had a major impact on lowering the costs of medicine and in this way has provided a huge increase in accessibility to health care for the poor.
Many other targeted health care programmes were introduced, for example those focusing on women and children, and those focusing on diseases such as HIV/Aids and tuberculosis, and targeted programmes on tobacco use, malaria control, mental health and nutrition.
Special mention needs to be made of the programmes that have been focused on violence against women. These have brought about substantial changes in the lives of thousands of women and provided both a platform to raise consciousness and give practical support to women and the women's networks.
In early January 2009, both the ANC and the Department of Health adopted a 10-point, five-year plan. This has already directly contributed to the restructuring of our health system. As we debate, we need to recall the priorities that we set ourselves at that time. These priorities were designed to ensure improvements in the health care system and assist the country in meeting the Millennium Development Goals.
The 10-point plan specifically addresses the following: providing strategic leadership in the health sector and creating a social compact for better health outcomes and unified action across the health sector; producing a White Paper, setting out the framework for the implementation of a National Health Insurance which has to be followed by draft legislation and be subjected to public comment; improving the quality of health care delivered at health facilities through measured standards against actual practice and filling gaps in order to ensure the delivery of high quality clinical care and effective support systems; putting financial management systems in place to improve audit outcomes with provincial expenditure patterns being monitored on a monthly basis and quarterly visits to each province taking place; improving human resource planning, development and management consistent with service delivery objectives and the reopening of nursing colleges in order to ensure the accelerated production of nurses; implementing a preventative maintenance of physical health infrastructure and primary level care facilities, in order to improve quality of service; accelerating the implementation of the National Strategic Plan on HIV/Aids and sexually transmitted infections and increasing focus on tuberculosis and other communicable diseases and to ensure existing treatment guidelines and strengthening prevention interventions; mass mobilisation for better health of the population with a national initiative to improve maternal, neonatal and child health in 18 priority districts and thereby reducing mortality as part of the Integrated Management of Childhood Illnesses programme; and reviewing of the drug policy to maintain a 0% stock-out rate of antiretroviral and tuberculosis drugs and strengthening research and development to generate key reliable information for health planning and service delivery monitoring.
Hospitals are important vehicles for the delivery of health care. The standard of cleanliness of our health care institutions, the standard of infection control, staff attitudes, safety and security of our patients and the long queues that our people have to endure in our hospitals are the challenges.
Our public health facilities will therefore be required to conform to agreed-upon quality standards that have been approved by the National Health Council, if they are to be accredited to deliver health services within the incoming national health insurance system. Management capacity in the health sector equally remains a challenge.
The skills development programme of managers at all levels must be aimed at enhancing leadership capacity in the health sector. As most of the health workers are located in the urban areas, this has resulted in a serious shortage in rural areas. There is a serious maldistribution of health workers, with only 60% of nurses and 40% of doctors in the country serving 85% of the population using the public health sector. The National Health Insurance system will address this.
Shortages of medical practitioners and other allied professionals negatively affect the access to quality health care for the majority of South Africans. Speaking on the occasion of the 2011 ANC January 8 Statement, President Jacob Zuma reiterated that -
... interventions must include appointing qualified personnel and improving infrastructure such as rebuilding dilapidated clinics and hospitals. The ANC must also ensure that government increases the training and employment of doctors, nurses, health technicians and other health professionals.
Nurses form the backbone of the health care system, and yet they are in short supply. It is therefore encouraging that the President announced the plan to revitalise 105 nursing colleges countrywide to train more nurses. This will not only improve the quality of our bedside nursing but will also give children from poor families access to professional training.
A major access problem for our people is that of affordability of health services. Real medical scheme expenditure per beneficiary has doubled in the past decade with excessive cost increases in key parts of the private health sector.
At the same time, and despite policy efforts, public sector health services continued to face budget constraints and still fall significantly short of the goal of a unified, comprehensive, equitable and integrated national system.
The tax policy on an expenditure subsidy for medical scheme contributors also has major flaws in that it is inconsistent with the principles of universal access, efficiency and equity. Those in the high-income brackets continue to benefit more from the subsidy than the middle- and low-income groups.
The mismatch of resources in the public and private health sectors, relative to the size of the population each serves, and the inefficiencies in the use of available resources, contribute to the very poor health status of our people, particularly in the lowest income bracket. This is basically due to massive inequalities in the distribution of income as well as health and other social services, which also contribute to poor health.
In contrast to the public sector, expenditure in the private sector is continuing to increase at annual rates far exceeding the inflation rate. As expenditure increases, so do the contribution rates that are charged by medical schemes with the result that membership of medical schemes has become completely unaffordable for South Africans.
We are all only too familiar with the situation where members of medical aids are disqualified from seeing private practitioners because they have exhausted their annual medical scheme allocations by the middle of the year. That is why the ANC National Policy Conference in June 2007 affirmed the need for the implementation of the National Health Insurance system.
At the ANC's 52nd National Conference in Polokwane, the vision was taken forward with the resolve that the National Health Insurance programme must be founded on the principles of the right to health care, universal coverage, social solidarity and a single public administration in which access to health will be based on need. It must ensure universal free access to health care at the point of service to all South Africans, rather than basing it on the ability to pay.
The primary health care approach that seeks to improve access to quality health care services will be at the core of revitalising and strengthening the South African health system. The first phase of the National Health Insurance system will involve improved primary health services in rural areas and underserved communities and an expanded programme of improvement, expansion and revitalisation of public health care infrastructure and services that are critical to the realisation of the principle of universal coverage and reduced inequalities of access.
Hon members, we cannot hear the speaker.
Om die ongelykhede met betrekking tot toegang en verspreiding van gesondheidsdienste reg te stel, sowel as om die gewenste gesondheidsuitkomste te behaal, benodig gesondheidsorg in Suid-Afrika 'n konkrete regstelling. Dit sal gedoen word deur die inleiding van die nasionale gesondheidsversekeringstelsel wat sal verseker dat die reg tot gesondheidsorg 'n werklikheid vir almal sal wees. (Translation of Afrikaans paragraph follows.)
[Ms M N PHALISO: To correct the inequalities with regard to access and the distribution of health care services, as well as to achieve the desired health outcomes, health care in South Africa needs a concrete solution. This will be done with the introduction of the National Health Insurance system, which will ensure that the right to health care will become a reality for everyone.] We are very aware of the debates in the media, which is ill informed by sources who have vested interests in maintaining the status quo. It is highly speculative and denies the country a balanced debate in the search for a lasting solution that does not lie in the market-oriented approach. [Applause.]
There must, however, be no doubt about the ANC-led government's commitment and resolve to develop a national health system that serves all of our people and that over the next 14 years, there will be a systematic implementation of the National Health Insurance system. I thank you. [Applause.]
Speaker, the hon President, Deputy President and members of the House, I salute you. Mr Speaker, in 2009 the hon President undertook to work harder to build a strong developmental state that would respond to the needs and aspirations of the people, better and faster than before.
Last year was meant to be the great year of action. The only action we really saw was the protection action throughout the country. This House had to establish the Ad Hoc Committee on Service Delivery. Was that the kind of action the President was referring to? Where are we with the developmental state?
Hon President, in 2010 you spoke about 27 000 cases which were to be assessed, using auditable written reports. We expected a report on how far that had progressed in all eleven languages. In 2010, the President spoke about rural infrastructure development and agricultural reforms to improve food security. We only saw development in Nkandla. [Laughter.] As Busisiwe Mrwetyana pointed out on Facebook, they too have voted for you, Mr President.
You said that your success will be measured by the increase in the number of small-scale farmers that will become economically viable. Therefore, the question is: where are they? The budget of the department does not agree with your statement.
A country that was once a net exporter of food is today a net importer. We are not in control of our food production anymore. Food prices have tripled in just two years. No country should tolerate the importation of food, and neither should we. We have enough land and people to produce our own food. This is a ticking time bomb. Where is our government's commitment in this?
One of the key aspects of job creation is investor confidence. Rule of law, sound policies and good governance influence investor confidence. The mixed messages on nationalisation are not doing us any favours, as they are causing the market to become jittery. We also want to see in very concrete ways how poor people in this country will benefit from the billions that the President has set aside for job creation.
We feel that throwing money at a problem will not necessarily mean that it will go away. We need to make sure that the money goes where it is meant to. The lack of jobs is a symptom of an unequal society and the belief that enough is being done to address this inequality on a permanent basis so that the gap between the rich and the poor in South Africa is reduced.
If the President had felt that creating jobs was the number one priority, he should have consulted the nation on what needed to be done. He should have called a national jobs summit to which all stakeholders, including the homeless and the workless, should have been invited.
While it is useful to get comments on Facebook and Twitter, it is not the same as hearing directly from them. How many of our poor and vulnerable have access to the Internet and modern technology? Their voices continue to go unheard.
One of the big problems in South Africa today has to do with the perception that some people are getting rich because of their political connections. It would have been important to hear the President talking about the vulgar flaunting of wealth by some of the new rich, while they invoke the name of the ANC.
We would have loved to hear the President reprimanding the sexist and racist rich people who eat sushi off the bodies of women and talk about its different taste when eaten off white women or black women. How inhumane and degrading that has been to the values of what Mandela stood for and presented. Such values are enshrined in our Constitution.
In your speech, Mr President, you informed us about hosting the 123rd international ... [Interjections.]
Hon members, the noise level in House is just too high. Could you please reduce it? Maybe during the adjournment, you can continue your discussions, but please hold them for now. Hon member, you may continue.
In your speech, Mr President, you informed us about hosting the 123rd International Olympic Committee General Assembly Session. You omitted to inform us of the hosting of the 17th United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in December, in Durban. This presents a unique opportunity for South Africa to demonstrate its commitment to emission reduction and the launching of the green economy. To create jobs on a massive scale, our country needs to make a technological leap to be in the forefront of the green revolution.
Our water supplies are already inadequate for our needs. We need to free up our water supplies and to be environmentally conscious, not only because it is the right thing to do, but because our very existence depends on the choices that we make today.
Big challenges need new ideas. The creation of millions of jobs will require a major paradigm shift and an end to the crony state. Mr President, be firm on that. Any failure on our part will mean that our Tunisia moment will be inevitable or even much closer. I thank you. [Applause.]
Mr Speaker, hon President and hon members, it has been a very long debate. Over the past two days, we have had the opportunity to gain a deep understanding of the concerns of opposition parties with regard to the state of our nation today.
As MPs we have reflected on the remarks made by President Jacob Zuma about some of the most pressing issues facing South Africans today and on what it is that this government can do and should be doing to address those challenges.
We have also had a very interesting insight into what was often referred to as the soul of the ANC, South Africa's governing party. Mr Speaker, what we have seen has not been pretty. First we heard from hon Ben Turok yesterday, who, by his own admission, instead of engaging in a productive debate about the future of South Africa, chose to deliver a lecture about such varied subjects as "the liberation struggle", "the masses" and, of course, his own pseudo-Marxist distortions of DA and liberal political philosophy. [Applause.] [Interjections.]
Then it was the turn of the hon Minister of Higher Education, Blade Nzimande, who was more concerned with spinning a conspiracy theory about the evil racist agenda of the opposition, and insulting the dignity of this House with questionable language, than with engaging the genuine concerns of opposition MPs about the state of education in this country.
I am sure that if one had enough time on one's hands to conduct a survey of all the speeches delivered by ANC MPs in the House over the past two days, it would reveal a startling number of mentions of the word "apartheid" in addition to "revolutionary", "revolution" and other permutations of the word.
Why is it that 17 years after the fall of apartheid, when millions of children born in 1994 are already approaching voting age and beginning to grapple with their own adulthood, the language of the governing party is so hopelessly mired in the past? Why the constant laboured references to the national democratic revolution and the 20-minute history lesson on the ANC centenary, from our Minister of Home Affairs, the hon Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma? How will those dense words help us to feed the poor, stem the tide of crime or educate our young people?
Even the ANC's youth arm, led by men and women in their 20s who were barely out of nappies when the battle to free this country was being waged, speak in outdated revolutionary-speak, instead of addressing the hopes, fears and dreams of their generation. [Applause.]
As my colleague, Prof Wilmot James, stated earlier today, and I quote:
Parliament cannot be treated like the politburo of the South African Communist Party, where outdated rhetoric of battles long since fought are the order of the day.
Mr President, we are here to talk about the present and the future. That is why it is called a state of the nation address. The history of South Africa and of its liberation are essential elements for an understanding of why our people are facing what they do on a daily basis.
I agree with the hon Dlamini-Zuma, that we should never forget which and how many South Africans made untold sacrifices to enable us to sit here in this venerable House, and debate the state of South Africa in an open and democratic space. We will never forget that.
The fact remains that it is not only the ANC that was responsible for the liberation of this country ... [Interjections.] ... just as it is a fact that the solutions to the crisis of joblessness, grinding poverty, and the increasing inability of our people to access decent education and public services, do not lie in a slavish preoccupation with the ANC's past.
What these challenges require is progressive thought, innovation and an honest assessment of our present circumstances. This is a debate about the current state of our nation, and what is to be done to achieve a better future.
In the DA we often say that the ANC is fast becoming a party of cronyism, corruption and a closed society. Senior leaders of the governing party have repeatedly expressed similar concerns in this regard. If we have learned anything over the past two days about the ANC, it is surely that it is also a party of the past.
It is so self-involved and mired in the ugly divisions of apartheid and the legacy of colonialism, that it increasingly is unable to look up and see the suffering of our people for what it is - a crisis of the present.
Fortunately, the DA is a party of the future. [Interjections.] It is constantly grappling with our present circumstances and actively seeking to craft a better and more prosperous future for all South Africans. The ANC members of this House often accuse those of us sitting in the opposition benches of longing for the days of apartheid or of wanting to preserve the outcomes of apartheid. I would argue that it is the ANC that longs for apartheid, for a time when references to the so-called masses - as if the people of this country are some theoretical construct - and sentiments about the glorious revolution and the colonial edifices were relevant.
Lastly, while we were talking about the so-called masses, perhaps the hon Nzimande can tell us when last he left his air-conditioned suite at the Mount Nelson Hotel or his two plush Ministerial homes in the suburbs, climbed into his R1,1 million BMW 750i and took a ride through one of the townships for which he seems to have so much affection. I thank you. [Applause.]
Speaker, Mr President, Deputy President, Ministers, Deputy Ministers, and hon members, the hon Mazibuko appears to have a very strange interest in the hon Nzimande and where he spends his time. [Laughter.]
I think that is his business and no one else's. It is the first time, hon Speaker and Mr President, that I have heard that apartheid is a dense word, which should not be referred to many times. Now, I always find this intriguing after just 17 years after the arrival of democracy and freedom in our country, because I compare it to the suffering experienced by the Jewish community under Nazism in Germany. And I am aware that many in this House, on all sides, each year participate in Holocaust memorial ceremonies, without referring to the Holocaust as a dense word after so many decades. [Laughter.] So this is a surprise to me, but I suppose it's a reminder of a comment once made by a certain member representing the diplomatic corps who said that apartheid cannot be compared to the Holocaust, because you are dealing with a totally different group of people and so it should not be such a worry, hence it is a dense word, I suppose.
The struggle to find fault and criticise was clearly evident in several of the contributions already made in this debate in the past two days. Nonetheless, one of the things that did happen is that all have acknowledged that the President is correct in the priorities he highlighted, and in the well-articulated focus on job creation.
Of course, the hon Lekota wished for more detail. I suppose one day, when he is president of Cope, his members will give him more detail, but at the moment he can't find it. We, certainly, as Ministers, will present the detail to the House. [Laughter.]
The hon members of the opposition were even keen to claim ownership of some of the proposals tabled by the President, ownership of policies of the ANC and of the strategies put before the House. We had, for example, the ludicrous claim that the three Ts in schooling are an invention of the DA. This was absolutely amazing to me as a former researcher in education, because I am aware that for hundreds of years researchers have identified the three Ts as absolutely imperative to educational practice. I, therefore, could not understand this assertion.
The worst response to the President's address has been the wilful obfuscation of the key strategies outlined in the speech. [Interjections.] Speaker, I know that there will be a lot of uncontrollable shouting, because the truth is always so tough to hear. [Applause.]
Many of the points the President tabled were obfuscated by some who spoke. Hon Motau, at no point did the President assert that government is the soul creator of jobs. The President and several Ministers have consistently, in public statements and in the House, stressed that the private sector has the key role to play in job creation.
A number of the incentives and policies referred to in the past few months by the President and hon Ministers are clearly directed at the private sector and at encouraging them to play a key role in growing our economy, creating jobs and reversing inequality. Of course, government also has a role to play. Government is today a significant employer, but we are aware that the challenge of jobs needs participation from a range of sectors in our economy.
One hon member sought to refer to South Korea and Japan as economies that allowed the private sector to thrive without any state intervention. Unfortunately the facts prove her wrong. The facts are that in both these economies the state played a leading role in economic growth through strategic development of a number of state-owned enterprises and through massive state investment in education and skills.
Most successful economies have begun with government support for growth and state investment in order to modernise industrial innovation. Examples we have in South Africa, in fact, are the Union Corporation, which was a mining company handed to government in South Africa. It eventually became Genkor, and then became the highly successful global corporation, BHP Billiton. It began as a state company.
One of the most horrifying aspects of the debate was the union bashing we sat through yesterday. Some members claimed to be supporters of the democratic aspirations of the people of Egypt and Tunisia. One of the demands of the citizens of those countries is for full workers rights. The union bashing we sat through in this Chamber suggests some of us are lesser democrats than we claim to be.
Even more distressing is the fact that bonus payments in America and Europe were criticised, while nothing was said about South African bosses who pay themselves huge bonuses when they have shop floor workers who earn a pittance. In fact, very little was said about the inequality of wages in South Africa; it seems that some believe we can have economic growth and poverty reduction through their favoured flexibility of impoverished workers who have no security and cannot alter their conditions of poverty. We cannot accept that. [Applause.]
Advice was also offered to the President on international affairs. We should remind members of this House that the ANC has decades of experience in international relations. We are able to draw on the well-known success of the movement in building a solid wall of international solidarity against apartheid. The reason we refer to our centenary is because we believe we have a proud history as an organisation, a movement we can be proud of.
I can assure the hon Mazibukothat in a 100 years from now none of those who are here in South Africa will remember or refer to the DA. [Applause.] When we, as the ANC, articulate our intention to advance a progressive global agenda that seeks to promote human rights, respect for international law, promotion of peace through violent means or rather nonviolent means ... [Interjections.] You are too late. I got you! You were too late to be able to spot that one ... and economic development based on co-operation in an interdependent world, it does so from well-honed experience and successful execution of an international agenda for freedom, one that is unparalleled in history. [Applause.]
We have built on that record of the ANC in our 16 years of democracy.
All of you recall the role played by our President alongside former President Mandela in resolving the conflict in Burundi and laying the basis for peace and human security in that sister country. Similarly, President Mbeki made immense contributions to conflict resolution in Cote D'Ivoire, Sudan and the DRC.
We all know that if the advice of the opposition were taken with respect to any of these conflicts there would have been deeper conflict in Africa. Our government has continued to play the role of peacemaker in various conflicts and in critical negotiations in international forums such as the recent climate change negotiations.
The role of South Africa and other African countries in crafting a unified Africa position on climate change and development is one of the major African achievements of the past year. Developed countries that are world polluters have tried to drive a wedge between developing countries in order to water down their own responsibility to support adaptation and mitigation.
The opposition forgot to say 2010 was a good international year for South Africa. [Applause.] As the President and some members have said, the UN elected South Africa overwhelmingly to a nonpermanent seat in the UN Security Council. By electing South Africa, the international community has once again acknowledged our capacity to contribute to the advancement of the cause of international peace and security.
We will build on the experience we gained in our first tenure. I would like to remind hon members that the mandate of the UN Security Council is to address threats to international peace and security.
Our record at the UN is an extremely positive one. South Africa is among the top 20 contributors to UN police and peacekeeping operations and has deployed personnel to major missions in Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo. We will continue to advance an African agenda during our term, while simultaneously promoting a culture of collective responsibility and responses to the challenges of our contemporary world.
The UN is also entering the dawn of a new era. Negotiations for its reform, including the expansion of permanent UN Security Council seats, are at an advanced stage. There can be no turning back; the council must become more representative and thus more effective.
This year we joined Brazil, Russia, India and China, Bric, as many members have acknowledged. This will add to our ability to enhance the work of the UN Security Council. We believe that our membership of the union of Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, Brics, heralds a potentially very powerful quintet on the world stage. President Zuma's visits to India, Russia and Brazil did much to ensure that Bric became the more representative and more powerful Brics. Our presence in a forum that brings together the most significant emerging economies of the world is an immeasurable trade and growth opportunity for Africa. We have worked hard as the continent to achieve the positive trends that we see in many of our countries today, and our African agenda seeks to promote strategies and interventions that will sustain and expand progress.
African leaders have agreed to push for co-ordinated implementation of infrastructure projects. It's not just us talking about infrastructure development; it's the entire continent. They have talked and agreed on strategies of co-operation to sustain the African response to the global economic crisis, and to give urgent attention to the necessary skills expansion in Africa in order for the continent to take full advantage of opportunities to create the base for an expanded knowledge-driven economy on the continent.
Our brothers and sisters in North Africa are grappling with new challenges. Egypt and Tunisia have initiated radical change in the past few weeks. Ordinary people came out and took to the streets, and mass protests toppled autocrats. Speaker, some in the House - some even outside the House, peculiarly - have expressed a belief that we, as the ANC, should expect some events.
Let me remind hon members that we are in a democratically elected Parliament that is freely chosen by the people of our country. The ANC introduced democracy to South Africa and has fully respected the constitutional mandate of free and regular elections. It also defined terms for heads of state. We will stick to those features of our Constitution. [Applause.]
We, as the ANC, do not need to be reminded about democracy by previous beneficiaries of exploitative and unjust governments. [Applause.] We do not have to be told of the meaning of freedom. We thirsted for freedom, but we didn't sit back; we fought for it.
We did call for peace and democracy in Egypt and in Tunisia. Our President made those statements; our Minister of International Relations and Co- operation made those statements. Our President spoke out. The claim that we were silent is absolutely not an accurate reflection of the contribution and statements made by our government.
While we celebrate the early signs of change in Tunisia and Egypt, we should not rest in our often stated commitment to support the people of Palestine in their search for peace. [Applause.] Hon President, we wish to ask you that increased attention is given to this intractable impulse and that support for humanitarian relief in Palestine should be strengthened. Similarly, Mr President and Mr Speaker, we should not forget the people of Cuba who continue to be victims of a cruel blockade. [Applause.] We should support their call for access to the world.
President, Speaker and hon members, South Africa has the experience, the institutional capacity, the global links and the commitment to advance a progressive world agenda that is based on equality and social justice. The progress that we have made in our international agenda in the democratic era clearly indicates that we have laid a foundation for a giant leap forward in regional, continental and global relations.
I conclude by saying that there are measures that have been taken against corruption. There is victory being won in the fight against corruption. We are saying that we hear the DA's objection to cadre deployment and it comes back to some of the issues Minister Nzimande referred to. What it means is that some of us don't have the capability to serve in a range of offices.
Now, can you imagine, hon members, if we were to accept a situation where we appointed members of the DA to serve us in government? I'm sure, given the hatred that is spouted forth here, that they certainly would not have appointed ANC appointees to the government of the Western Cape that they referred to.
Now, we are constantly being asked ...
Mr Speaker, on a point of order, sir.
Yes?
Mr Speaker, on a point of order: I'm not at all sure where the hon Minister gets the word "hatred" from, and what she implies by it. There is no hatred, sir. I believe that you cannot stand up in Parliament and refer to hatred in the way that the hon Minister has. I believe it's unparliamentary.
I will study the Hansard and come back with a response. Continue, hon Minister.
Speaker, I hear you and I wish you well in terms of studying the Hansard, but I stated it as I feel it.
We are being told that we do not have persons who are competent to serve in a range of positions, both in government and in state-related institutions. We are presented with a notion that, somehow, in the City of Cape Town and the Western Cape provincial government, ANC people are filling the offices and positions there. Well, we would want you to take a walk, hon members, to those offices and see whether you will find an ANC member. [Interjections.]
Mention was made of the fact that there is good governance, etc. Well, Mr Nzimande was asked whether he takes a drive to Gugulethu. I do take a walk to Khayelitsha from time to time. And I can tell you that you may think it is good governance when you are on Long Street, but if you go to Khayelitsha and you see Nomsa Mapongwana, you will not say there is good governance in the city or in the province. [Interjections.]
Jaanong, mmueledi wa rona yo o tsereng setilo se segolo mo Ntlong e, ke batla gore go na le batho ba bantsi ba e leng gore fa ba eme fa, ba rata go ganetsa gore mmuso o, o dirile. Batho bao, o fitlhela e le bona ba ba itseng gore fa ba tsamaya Aforika Borwa yotlhe, fa ba kopana le ntlo e nt?ha e agilwe ke mmuso o, fa ba bona sekolo se sent?ha se agilwe ke mmuso o, fa ba bona sepetlele se se nt?ha se agilwe ke mmuso o, ba a itse gore mmuso o, o a dira. Ba a itse gore kae kapa kae kwa o gatang teng o tla fitlhela ANC le koo e dirile. Ba batla go se ganetsa seo, mme nnete ga o kake wa e gana! Nnete e bolela se se leng teng. [Legofi.] (Translation of Setswana paragraph follows.)
[Speaker, I would like to say that there is a lot of people who like to disagree that this government has worked when they are standing here. You'll find that those people are the ones that know when they travel the rest of South Africa, when they see a new house, a new school and a new hospital, all built by this government, they know that this government is working. They know that wherever you go you'll find out that the ANC has also worked there. They want to disagree with that, you cannot oppose the truth! The truth tells what is existent. [Applause.]]
It is, of course, impossible for them to really stand up and say it is absolutely true that this government has indeed made a difference.
And, of course, you can only speak of density if you were never assaulted with teargas. You can only speak of density if you didn't spend a day in exile. You can only speak of density when you never sat in a cell and were being beaten. You can only speak of density if your child was not taken away from you when you were thrown into a prison cell.
If you had experienced that, you would repeat that word until the conditions existed where the inequality is totally eradicated, and every person believes that indeed the basis for their lives to be transformed has been achieved. That's when the word would become dense. Thank you. [Applause.]
Debate interrupted.