Chairperson, when one has caged an animal, and the animal has been in the cage for a long, long time, in a small place with bars and so forth, when one opens the door to that cage it takes a while for that animal to realise that freedom can be sweet and that with freedom comes opportunity. [Interjections.] Unfortunately - I do not necessarily want to attack the DP or the ACDP and the speeches that they have made here today - some of these political parties just do not see the big picture. They see the walls of the cage, not the environment around the cage.
Let me explain why I am saying this. One of the biggest problems with the way in which we are to deal with the African question and the African continent - one of the biggest issues that our forefathers such as Kwame Nkrumah and even our own comrade Nelson Mandela have tried to put forward that would be acceptable to all of us Africans, black and white - is that we need to develop an African pride. We need to make sure that the spices that we get from India are respected as much as the roots that we have dug in the bushveld of South Africa. We need to be able to develop as much pride in the medicines that our traditional healers have known for hundreds of years as we have regard for the medicines that the pharmaceutical companies of the US are trying to sell to the international market.
We need to be able to teach them that the politics of bartering and agricultural trade among communities is as complex and sophisticated as the trade that takes place on the stock exchanges of Wall Street, and so forth. These are philosophical and ideological battles that we have to fight, and the only way that Africans can fight those battles is by beginning to understand what it is about our essential Africanness that we need to capture, develop and grow.
One of the first and most fundamental principles about our essential Africanness is the fact that we are not a selfish continent, we are not selfish communities, and we believe in the simple concept of Ubuntu.
These are the things that, unfortunately, my colleague the hon member Kent Durr will not understand. It is hard for him for him to understand these things. [Interjections.] But that is entirely what a treaty such as the Abuja Treaty is based on and what our thinking forefathers, who put together a treaty such as this, were trying to do.
Sure, I personally have concerns about this treaty too, but they are not the kinds of concerns that say that I must look at the walls of the cage. They are the kinds of concerns that say: What can we do to make sure that this treaty eventually becomes the successful doctrine that we want it to become to lead Africa into the next century. That is the difference between the criticism that the ANC and people inside the ANC may make of the Abuja Treaty, and the kind of criticism one is likely to hear from the likes of Mr Kent Durr. [Interjections.]
Let me explain why I say so. The Abuja Treaty is trying to achieve some of the most noble ideals for the continent and for the moment. Let me go through them briefly.
Its objects are economic, social and cultural development for all the African economies; to increase the self-reliance and self-sustainability of African economies; to mobilise human and material resources for self- reliant development; to raise the standard of living of all the African peoples throughout the continent; to maintain and enhance economic stability; to foster close and peaceful relations between African countries; to co-ordinate and harmonise policies for the existing and future economic regions and communities in this continent; to achieve a common trade policy and common trade nontariff and tariff regimes; to establish a common market and to bring about the free movement of persons and goods, services, capital and information across this continent as if there were no boundaries.
Now some of these things can only be achieved if we look at some of the problems that might emerge. I just want to raise some concerns that I have personally about the Abuja Treaty, and I think it is a discourse that we as a country must engage in.
Some of the issues that came up in the committee are, I think, issues worth noting that need to be taken into account. We looked at a letter that was produced by the state law adviser in October 1999. One of the things that the state law adviser said at the time was that in order for us to ratify this treaty and become part of the process of this treaty, we needed to ensure - I will just quote quickly - that ``the matter be referred to all the appropriate authorities for a thorough investigation of all the implications and consequences involved''. The State Law Adviser indicated that because the treaty affected a wide spectrum of line-function departments, such a determination could not be made by one department alone, although the Department of Trade and Industry might have to play a leading role.
When we asked officials of the Department of Foreign Affairs whether, over the part year or two years, an engagement had taken place with the various line-function departments around some of these issues, they indicated that the document had been sent around and the line-function departments had all given it their broad agreement. But they did not indicate to us that line- function departments were seriously beginning to look at what kinds of legislation we need to put in place and measures we need to start embarking upon now, in order to ensure that we make the Abuja Treaty a success.
For example, there are certain things that needed some more discussion. One of the issues was that if, in the SADC community, our own back-to-back tariff and nontariffs and nontariff barrier collapses with the SA-EU discussions that we have been having, then what impact would that process and the process which we have unfolded, such as the eight-year collapse of tariffs in the SADC region, have on the rate and the pace at which other regional economic communities in Africa are working? They were not able to say to us categorically that they had taken any of those concerns into account.
Even regarding matters that are of a noneconomic nature - the International Court of Justice, foreign affairs issues, issues around science, technology and information sharing, and so forth - I do not believe that our line- function departments have looked sufficiently thoroughly at how we can achieve the objectives of the Abuja Treaty and how much more we can do to make sure that we lend support to the Departments of Foreign Affairs and of Trade and Industry and so forth to ensure that when we engage in commissions of under the Abuja Treaty or go to the African Union parliament later this year, and even next year, when further meetings takes place about the Pan-African parliament, we are able to take our country, our departments and our policy with us when we move into to that particular engagement. I do not agree with the view that has been put here that we need to ... [Interjections.] Please, that hon member had an opportunity to speak.