Deputy Speaker, as this is our first debate since the election, let me begin by congratulating Mr President on your election as the President of the Republic. I am sure the President dreamed (fond as he is of dreaming) of beginning his first full term in office in more favourable conditions, but the last decade under this government means that we meet today in this Chamber at a time of great of national anxiety. No amount
of presidential fantasy can mask the harsh economic facts that we must now face together as a country. The haze of Ramaphoria has given way to the sober reality of what we face. Years of excess and sin - spending, debt and corruption - have all caught up with us now. The cupboard is bare, there is no more money.
Our national debt has never been higher. Millions of people in our country are desperately worried about how to get work or whether they will still have a job at the end of the month. They worry what will happen to their life savings, how they will pay the bills, and what the future holds for their children. To the President, the last ten years is just a "lost decade", but to the country it is an entire "1ost generation" of unemployed young people. A moment like this requires bold and decisive leadership. It is one thing Sir to lift the national gaze with a vision of the very distant future. It was absolutely right to focus the attention of the country on the urgent need for faster economic growth, but unless that is matched by a real commitment to make the difficult choices to actually achieve growth, then it's all just empty words.
It is easy to speak of growth and jobs. President Zuma did that in his first state of the nation address in 2009 and nearly every state of the nation address there after. If you say we are going to obsess about growth, then you must also commit specifically (by name) to stopping all of the growth, kill policies that your government is responsible for. If you say you are committed to responsible economics, then you need to commit explicitly to debt reduction. If you say you've got a plan for Eskom, then you better had to tell the country exactly what it is. If you say that yours will be a government of doers, then you better stop promoting all of the takers. Dreaming has its place, Sir, but it is no substitute for real action and there was precious little of that, in Thursday's address. The central question I was left with from your speech is this - Why could you not make one single concrete announcement? Not one! The answer is this: There is no agreement in your party about a focus on growth. Is there? There is no agreement on responsible economics [Applause.]. There's no agreement on what to do about Eskom, or reducing debt, or the Public Wage Bill.
There is no consensus in the governing party about any one of the major questions facing our economy. [Applause.]. Far from it! The truth is, this President is in office, but he is not in power. Sir, it is easy to call- is the truth- it is easy to call on the courage of citizens to endure these hardships, they must currently endure, but where is your courage in matching dreams with tough action? Don't talk to us about courage, show it yourself. You cannot go on forever, Mr President finding a messy compromise in every problem, leaving everyone guessing as to what you really think, and telling everyone what they want to hear. It's time that you stare down the enemies of growth.
Mr President, you do not make a crocodile a vegetarian by feeding it more meat. Every time you compromise with the looting, lunatic left, you just embolden them more. One day, when you have compromised everything away, they will come for you. They are not your friends. They are not the friends of South Africa; they are a danger to this country. It is time that you call them out. It is time that you show that you are prepared to make the tough decisions necessary to achieve growth. If you are really committed to growth, here are few
things you can do in your reply tomorrow, they are not difficult: Get rid of your 17 priorities and 15 goals and consolidate them all into one, economic growth, above all; open the way for the Metros to purchase electricity from whoever they want; scrap the Carbon Tax, for it is nothing but than a Manufacturing Tax; make clear that there will be no more money for South African Airways, SAA and make clear your opposition to the nationalisation of the Reserve Bank and the prescription of assets. [Applause.]
If you do these few things, you will show that you meant what you said, but if you do not, then we can only conclude that you are in thrall to your political pay masters. So while it's very difficult to know where you stand Sir, it is absolutely clear where the Democratic Alliance stands. The enemies of growth have lost the economic argument completely, but still they continue to dominate the debate. Everything they propose, everything, has failed everywhere it has been tried. It is time that we took control of the economic argument. We are the only party with the ideas and sound economic principles that will deliver a future of broad prosperity for all. [Applause.]. We are determined that
the cruelty of poverty can be eradicated from our society. That is our highest ambition and our sole obsession. The only way to eradicate poverty and build prosperity is to grow the economy faster, through policies which unleash enterprise and individual aspiration.
We are committed to fiscal responsibility as the foundation of economic growth. We know that millions of South Africans depend on public services, and that precisely because so many depend on those services, they need to be well funded and well run. We recognise that, without growth, government has no money to spend on the poor. You do not sustain a country on debt, only on investment and savings. To grow, we must have policies that support the risk takers, policies that recognise that entrepreneurs create jobs, not government. Policies that support private ownership, uphold the rule of law, reject narrow protectionism, and embrace the global market. That is where we stand, Sir. That is what sets us apart [Applause.] as the party of jobs, of growth, and of broad prosperity for all.
We are keen for a fight. I want to tell the ANC and the other branch, the EFF that we in this party find it obscene that millions of young people can't find work because of your bad ideas. [Applause.] You are clutching to the sinking wreckage of a statist ideology, and you threatening to take the whole country down with you. Not on our watch. We love South Africa too much to let you drag us down with you. [Applause.]. Sir, we will fight your failed ideas that have got us into the mess we now face. We will defend the independence of the Reserve Bank, and we will protect the retirement savings of ordinary hard- working people. [Applause.] This will be the defining fight of the next five years. We are ready to make our case with growing confidence and vigour.
It is time for the rational centre of the South African politics to dominate the economic debate, to stand up for what works and for what is right and to beat back the enemies of growth, whether they be here or there. If you are not prepared to do it Mr President, then we will. [Applause.]