Hon Chief Justice, hon Speaker, hon President, I stand on behalf of the ACDP to wish you God's best during this five year term. May I remind the Speaker, as I also congratulate her on being elected as a Speaker of the National Assembly; that there are people out there who are not happy to hear about the
South African Parliament, particularly, the National Assembly being a circus.
There are people out there who are saying that the decorum of Parliament should be restored. There are people out there who want to see leaders who respect one another, leaders who operate in line with the Constitution, and leaders who understand that people who differ from you are not your enemies. Therefore, they would want to see order in this place. Those who refer to your past as a soldier know you as a person of order.
So, the ACDP requests that let the people of South Africa see that there is change in this House, that there is order. So, I congratulate you and hope that the expectations and wishes of South Africans are going to be realised.
To the President, we understood that there were things that you could not do earlier because you were an acting interim President but now you have been fully elected. We expect the President to show strength that you did not show the first few
years when he was acting. We expect the President to be tough on corruption.
Corruption is the number one giant facing South Africa and we are hoping that the President now having all the powers of the President, he will be able to deal with corruption wherever it raises its head. That the President will know that he is not only just the President of a political party, the ANC, but he is the President of the rest of South Africa. And may the expectations of the international community and South Africans in particular, not be disappointed.
You will be surprised Mr President, to know that there are people who are not members of the ANC who voted for you because they had hope that if we give him a chance, he is going to deliver. My wish and prayer is that you will become bold, bold to act when you have to act. My prayer is that you will not fear the face of men. My prayer for you Mr President is that you will be like a living fish; you know a dead fish follows a stream. It goes where the stream goes but a living fish can turn against a stream and go where it wants to go.
So, I pray and I wish that Mr President, you will show your strength, you will show courage, and you will show boldness. If there is corruption on your side, you will act decisively and when there is corruption on my left, you will also act decisively. I pray that the next five years will become some of the best since the days of the late Mr Mandela. Thank you and God bless you. [Applause.]