Chairperson, hon members of the House, I think today, 2 June, is a wonderful day. In fact, it is the day on which young students in China protested for the emergence of democracy in their land. Ordinary people in that land, about a hundred thousands ordinary inhabitants of China, felt it was important to rally behind the cause of democracy, and they stood at Tiananmen Square on that day, resolutely blocking a force of ten thousand men carrying guns, some driving tanks. Those people were inspired by the spirit of freedom and democracy. As I speak today, the young workers of China are beginning, under the nose of unions that are sponsored by the State, to galvanise themselves to stand up for human rights for the workers, and that is the hope we must talk about as young people.
Manana spoke so well and mentioned great luminaries of our own struggle, people who believed in inspiration, who did not become pessimistic because at that point it seemed so impossible that we could have freedom. They formed the ANC; they radicalised the ANC in 1949. Who are we then today, that when our role is so small - just to deepen democracy, just to defend democracy - to say the World Cup does not bring us anything? In fact, Bafana Bafana is a team of young people; we are the beneficiaries.
The roads that have been constructed are going to be enjoyed by our nation. The stadia will never go with the World Cup; they will remain with our people. Any enlightened inhabitant of our society must come to a level of recognising that. I think I would agree with hon Mda. She spoke so well about the World Cup today, and I think she must advise hon Mokgalapa, who is utilising just a single media snippet to suggest that South Africans are not familiar with the great political, economic and social significance of this World Cup.
I think that is the misrepresentation of the reality in which we live. We hope that we will cultivate positive thinking amongst particularly Parliamentarians, because we are gradually turning this House into a platform to peddle newspaper articles. We are not elevating our engagement to speak about strategic issues of our society.
I think we have that duty; we must break out of the mould of artificial, oppositional politics where if an ANC member speaks you must howl, or if an ANC member sees a DA speaker he must howl. That is not how we must cultivate democracy, we must go beyond that now. We must try to show that we, as the youth of this country, have a duty to advance towards a nonracial society; a society in which we believe in the sanctity of the idea that whether one is in the ANC or in Cope, one must be able to engage and that this is the platform for doing so. That is very important.
With regard to Aids, statistics all over are creating a certain impression about our situation. It is suggested that every day about 1 600 people die of Aids and 1 500 become infected. Someone who spoke here said that South Africans are not aware of the scourge of Aids; that is not true. In the 1980s, yes, it might have been true, but not now. Where we live, in our families, in our communities, people are dying. We are well aware of that reality. We are making things very difficult in this democracy.
When I am a patient going to hospital now, I don't know what my ailment is. When I arrive in hospital, if a medical practitioner, who has been trained to examine my disease, enters the office, examines me and says, "Ishmael, you are HIV positive," would that infringe on my human right to privacy? Would that infringe on my human right to physical integrity? I don't think so. It will advance my health situation so that I am able to contribute to a better life in our land.
I think those are the issues that this society must tackle. That is a society of young people regardless of political affiliation and age. In fact, the young people of progressive youth formations are saying that these great revolutionaries in the ANC, who fought for freedom, began showing obvious political sympathies at the age of 14. Now, however, in terms of universal adult suffrage, there are people who are 16 years of age, who really have clear ideas about democracy, yet they do not have access to that political right.
The youth in the Youth League are saying, "Let's expand the frontiers of involvement of youth in politics." That is what this Parliament must debate. We are challenging our colleagues to engage in that debate so that we can get into a lot of engagement. Thank you. [Applause.]