Hon Deputy Speaker, hon Deputy President, colleagues, this seems to be quite an ordinary Bill but it is not. This Bill is part of a certain process in terms of languages in South Africa that is very important. Hon Sunduza tried to convince me that I should relax and not worry about Afrikaans being threatened in any way. Let me assure you, hon Sunduza - and remember this forever - Afrikaans survived the onslaught of the British Empire. The ANC won't be a problem; you can relax. If for some reason, at some stage, it comes to be a problem ... but I don't think it will ever get to that. So, don't worry about that. We are quite relaxed in that respect.
The second thing that you should remember is that the majority of Afrikaans- speaking people in this country are not white. Many millions of people out there speak Afrikaans. So, Afrikaans is a normal South African official language. But let me come back to what we are busy with.
We are a very diverse society and we all know that. We have many differences and language is one of them. But language can be and should be a very strong point in terms of social cohesion and true nation building. Once we start going down this road, where we are now in terms of this Bill ... As I have said, we should not see it in isolation: Earlier this year, when we approved the Use of Official Languages Bill, it was the first step in taking further what the Constitution says in section 6 about the 11 official languages.
The day we start to respect each other's language - all our languages; the day we are competent in speaking our different languages to one another, that is when we will be making true strides in social cohesion and nation building. That is what we should strive for; that is where we should go. With that process, we are moving in the right direction at last. If we are serious, then we definitely need a Bill like this to establish an official language practitioners' council, to make these things official and to assist when we go down the road of multilingualism - which South Africa cannot do without.
Of course the FF Plus will support this Bill. We will support every measure that takes our multilingualism and respect for our different languages further. Of course our children should be able to speak different languages, because then we can understand one another and we will be able to take our country forward.
I want to ask you this: For once, let us look forward and not backward. Let us look forward, thinking positively of what this may bring to South Africa and how it will help us to take our country further. We will support this Bill. Thank you. [Applause.]