Chairperson, the point is that when you insult a leader, you are by definition insulting his or her people. [Interjections.] And that is not African. His or her people cannot forgive. By implication, when you insult the people's leader, you undermine the intellectual capacity of the people who elected that leader. It is not done in the African way. You respect the elders. You respect the leaders. [Interjections.]
Hon Gibson, as we all know, has insulted the leader of the people and the President. This House gave him ample opportunity to apologise to the nation and to the President and he refused to do so. I am saying to you that that is not the African way of doing things and you cannot call that ubuntu. We are working hard to reconcile this country and to build this nation into one nation. If you have a person who comes and stands at this podium and insults the President, insults the leader of the people, then we cannot call that ubuntu. It cannot be condoned. [Interjections.]
May I then remind this House that his party, too, at one stage, asked an hon Minister in this House how much it costs the state to provide security for the hon former Deputy President of the Republic, Comrade J Z. I am still waiting for the day that Gibson or Leon poses the same question as to how much it costs the state to provide security for P W Botha, for instance. I said, he was an apartheid operative and he was a chief agitator.
They are not concerned about that. They have never asked that question. Last week Botha was taken to a private clinic because he was ill and that was at the expense of the state. You never asked that question. Why are you not concerned about the failure of the likes of the DA to pose such questions in this House? I am not convinced that they are unchained from the ideology of the past, which we are fighting very hard to bring to an end in this country.
Despite the pains of yesterday, I am standing here to advocate the concept of ubuntu. [Interjections.] Hence I can still call Mr Gibson, "an hon Member of Parliament", despite his conduct that suggests otherwise. The kind of ubuntu we want to see is the kind that talks to our conscience and says: Yes ... [Time expired.] Thank you, Chair. [Applause.]