Thank you, Chair. As usual, Cope did not log in.
On Freedom Day, we celebrate the start of our democracy 18 years ago, as well as our Constitution, flag and other symbols. It was the first election involving all South Africa's people. To many South Africans, it was the time when they were liberated from the oppression, servitude and subhuman lives to which they had been subjected under apartheid. This year we also commemorate the centenary of the ANC, which fought for our freedom.
Here in the Western Cape we are too often reminded of the pain and indignity of being kept from being full citizens in the land of our birth for over 300 years. Unfortunately, this day of the celebration of freedom is not such a joyous occasion for many people in the Western Cape. Although we are thankful for our rights under the Constitution and the protection it brings, for too many people of the Western Cape these rights have still not been realised in their daily lives.
It is because this is the last province that has not been fully liberated. Too many people still experience this province as one where people are not really welcome and are viewed as aliens or strangers who are not full citizens. This is especially true under the DA government in the Western Cape, where people testify that they are seen as aliens intruding or taking the place of other people. We heard the MEC for health in the Western Cape saying the people from the Eastern Cape were what caused others not to get full services. His party repeatedly says people of the Eastern Cape push in at the front of the line. We hear the same mantra from other MECs, who tell us that housing, roads and other services are under pressure because of people from the Eastern Cape.
The DA tells people that these incomers or aliens are bused in to outvote the people of the Western Cape. It is surprising, then, that DA councillors in Cape Town have on two occasions led land grabs where people robbed housing because they perceived the incomers to be the priority beneficiaries in the province. The DA's spin doctor, Gareth van Onselen, even wrote an opinion piece to prove that "a massive influx of people from the Eastern Cape" is the problem in the Western Cape. Imagine that. The DA even used the old term associated with the discriminatory influx control legislation of the white apartheid regime, which was aimed at keeping people of colour out of white areas. [Interjections.]
So, it fits the mould that the premier of the Western Cape, Helen Zille, referred to isiXhosa-speaking schoolchildren as "refugees". To add insult to injury, she said that those who disliked this term were xenophobic. She has now made a half-baked apology, which has been widely rejected. She also said it was false outrage when people objected to this term. Most of those who reacted strongly pointed out that they were not refugees in the land of their birth. Refugees stay only temporarily and then return. They are never full citizens. They are, in fact, regarded as strangers or aliens. Even members from her own party - yes, from her own party, and it's a pity that the hon Faber is not here, but the others are here; hon Worth, hon De Villiers and others can convey the message to the premier - have condemned her reference to "refugees". She defended the term with explanations, but she could not convince us that it was not meant to hurt. [Interjections.]
When the ANC was founded in 1912, the founding secretary, Comrade Sol Plaatje, voiced the feeling of people who were treated as aliens or strangers by coining the phrase "I am a pariah in the land of my birth." Now, 100 years later, Premier Helen Zille says black people are still refugees or pariahs in this land. [Interjections.] She touched a raw nerve. She has said, by implication, that they are not welcome in their own land; that they are second-class citizens and not full citizens.
People who were born in Africa belong in Africa, unlike those who were born in Germany but claim to have African roots or culture, like the premier has claimed. Her ancestors are in Germany, but she claims that she is an African. How can you be from Germany, with your ancestors in Germany, your roots in Germany, yet you claim to be an African? She said on TV that her roots were in Germany, which is why she was going back to Germany to get funding for the Western Cape. Africa belongs to Africans. With that terrible tag, she labelled people in the country of their birth as people who are aliens here in the Western Cape. [Interjections.]