We have achieved near universal access to basic education for young children of 14-17 years of age. Even in the state of the nation address, the President spoke about a further focus on early childhood development, ensuring that our children not only come across real and formalised education at the point when they go to primary school. [Interjections.]
Despite the highlights and gains of a democratic state... [Interjections.] Of course, the support for the TVET college students from poor and working class background has increased tremendously. Although, amidst serious challenges that the Department of Higher Education is looking at and is addressing.
Despite the highlights and gains of a democratic state, the challenges still facing South Africa are immense with poverty, inequality and unemployment still affecting vast majority of our people. However, we did not stand still. We said we are going to deal with issues of transforming the economy of South Africa radically. That became our role here in parliament, in doing exactly what is expected as people's representatives.
We dealt with the National Minimum Wage Bill which seeks to address radical economic transformation. We dealt with the Public Audit Amendment Bill which seeks to give the Auditor-General more teeth to be able to deal with matters related to accountability. [Applause.] We dealt with the Bill that is related to Infrastructure Development Act of 2014, which will accommodate and ensure that artisans - African artisans in particular - young women and young people have access to infrastructure development and therefore also participate in the mainstream of the economy. [Applause.] [Interjections.]
We have also dealt with the Competition Amendment Bill, as the ANC- led activist and developmental Parliament, to ensure that competition is open to all in South Africa. We deal cartels. We deal with people who fix prices. We deal with things that would ordinarily disadvantage Africans in particular, which the DA opposed in so far as those Bills are concerned.
We stand here to urge South Africans to always be analytically aware that the revolutionary-sounding phrases do not always reflect revolutionary policy; and revolutionary-sounding policy is not always the springboard for revolutionary advance. Indeed, hon Oliphant, what appears to be 'militant and revolutionary' can often be counter-revolutionary. It is surely a question of whether, in the given concrete situation, the course or policy advocated will aid or impede the prospects of the conquest of power.
Let us always remember that it is naive to believe that oppressed and beleaguered people cannot temporarily, even in large numbers, be won over by fear, terror, lies, indoctrination and provocation to treat liberators as enemies. This is exactly the position of the opposition now, wanting to brand the current democratic progressive government as the enemy of the people. We should not be blind to the
fact that our people might be trapped into that indoctrination and populism due to the level of their poverty. [Interjections.]
After indoctrinating our people and making them believe that the current democratic state is an enemy to them, the opposition want to occupy a posture that says they are the real liberators. [Interjections.] This is without really looking at the role they played in entrenching, protecting and advancing apartheid colonial laws and contracts.
We need to go down to be analytic, advocate and tell our people that laissez-faire liberalism as espoused by the DA will not progressively take South Africa forward. Theirs is about deregulation of the market. They propagate for free trade and diminish state influence on the economy through privatisation and fiscal austerity. This is where the poor people shall be disregarded and be called names because being poor would be seen as their fault, not the system.
They are against National Health Insurance, Broad Based Black Economic Empowerment, land expropriation without compensation and any form of destroying any remnant of apartheid colonialism. Instead, they will do anything to defend that. In 2018 the Public
Protector found the tweet about Colonialism by the Western Cape Premier, Helen Zille, in violation of the Constitution and Executive Ethics Code. But until today, what did the DA do to Zille? [Interjections.] Nothing! She is still in office. [Interjections.]
The DA is an organisation that is committed to defending white privilege and to preserve the status quo. Hence, they could not intervene in the situation of Ms Stuurman's situation. We came to hear about Ms Stuurman's situation when we took Parliament to the people in the Western Cape. She is a person living with disability, on a wheel chair.
She has been appealing to the Western Cape administration and to the local municipality without any assistance until it was brought to our attention as the National Council of Provinces. Together with the Department of Human Settlement we dragged the provincial and local spheres into our programme in ensuring that Ms Stuurman gets what she deserves, as a human drive. [Applause.] Today, as we speak, a house was delivered to Ms Stuurman.
We are a caring, activist and a developmental-driven people. As we sit here as Members of Parliament, that is our attitude to the kind of Parliament that we always endeavour. We want to build South
Africa together with our people. While doing that, we will not be surprised that today we are accused of plagiarism. For what?
We have always been an inclusive organisation and an inclusive government. We have always said, "Together with our people, we will change South Africa for the better." At no stage have we seen South Africa as a country separated and polarised according to racial, ethnic and other forms of discrimination. That is why the fundamental principle of the National Democratic Revolution is the, "Creation of a nonsexist, nonracial and united South Africa".
It is only now that the DA is beginning to realise that we need one South Africa. For all this time, they have been seeing the Western Cape as not part of South Africa. However, today they are telling those that believed them that, yes it is true, it is time to build one South Africa, when in actual fact, the ANC ... [Interjections.]