Malibongwe! [Praise] Speaker, the year has once again flown by with workload pressures, time constraints, frustrations and tension, just as it always does. But sharing the day-to-day craziness and the incredible historic moments with people like you is a privilege and an honour often underestimated and definitely too seldom contemplated. For me, times like these are precious; moments to reflect and appreciate.
Thank you all: members, officials and staff for being unique, invaluable and often incorrigible, but nevertheless irreplaceable. When no one else gets the importance of our work, we have each other and we know.
Sitting in the company, day after day and year after year, of people like you, it is impossible not to think about the realities of life that have shaped every one of us. It makes me think of a speech Bill Gates gave about 11 things kids do not and will not learn in school. He spoke about feel- good, politically correct teaching, producing a generation of young people with no concept of reality and how this concept sets people up for failure in the real world.
His first rule was: "Life is not fair; get used to it." The second one was: "The world won't care about your self-esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something before you feel good about yourself." Down the list of rules he said: "If you mess up, it's not your parents' fault. So, don't whine about your mistakes, learn from them." Rule number 10 was: "Television is not real life. In real life people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs." I'm guessing that the people I spend so much time with, at some point, probably very early in life, learnt these life lessons.
From my colleagues and me in the ACDP, we wish you a very special Christmas and a wonderful time with your families and friends. Now, probably because I can claim Irish roots, I thought this old Irish blessing would be fitting:
May the road rise up to meet you. May the wind always be at your back. May the sun shine warm upon your face, and rains fall soft upon your fields. And until we meet again, May God hold you in the palm of His hand.
Ngiyabonga. Hambani Kahle. [Thank you. Have a safe journey.] [Applause.]