Hon Deputy
Speaker, we can never justify the violence and criminality that we have seen in our country in the past few weeks. The only thing we can do is to condemn it. As South Africans we must be honest and frank. We must call a spade a spade.
What happened is shameful. Violence has taken hold of our country. Some of these violence seem to be orchestrated to embarrass us and to distract South Africa from the real task- building a more just and inclusive society.
Violence, be it gender-based violence, gang violence or xenophobic violence must be condemned. Unless good South
Africans stand up and say enough is enough, this violence will continue with us.
As South Africans, we must always remember we are African. We are not an Island. We are part of this continent, and the continent is part of us. We must stop these useless ideological debates and focus on the reality of how to grow the economy and create jobs.
We must leave these outdated ideological debates and focus on the reality. Our people cannot eat ideology. The problems of our people know no political affiliation. When you are poor, homeless and landless; it does not matter what political party you belong to.
The solution is to create more opportunities for all our people and create an enabling environment for the private sector also to create jobs. Only then, when the people can see opportunities, see government is enforcing its laws and creating a level playing field that these useless violence stop.
At the same time, we also saw that South Africa has signed Africa Free Trade with Africa and in future, it will not only be goods and services that will be moving but also people will be moving across our borders.
South Africans must be empowered with the right tools, right attitude and right approach to take advantage of the open trade with Africa. We must welcome our brothers and sisters and create jobs for all of us and welcome our brothers and sisters to our country. I thank you.