Chairperson, hon Minister, hon members, members of the diplomatic corps present here, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, let me join the Minister, our government and our people in congratulating the African Union on reaching this milestone in its existence.
The people of our country and the continent will forever be grateful to the leadership for what you have achieved here in our country and in other parts of the continent. Our country remains committed to the regeneration of Africa. South Africa has established her credentials in making Africa the pillar in our relations and co-operation with the rest the world.
I am therefore deeply offended, hon members, as all of us indeed should be, when we are told by the hon members from this side of the House that South Africa had no business intervening in a poor African country like the Central African Republic. Let me set the record straight on this. Africa is our home. In fact, it is our only home, unlike others who have a second home outside the borders of this continent. Africa and our Africaness are all we have. It is the centre of our gravity, of our existence. We are bound together by blood, identity, geography, history, culture and tradition. [Applause.]
It is thus nave, if not outright racist, to create the perception here that we can insulate ourselves from what happens on one part of the continent. All you need to do, hon member, is to look at our towns and cities and count the number of refugees, asylum seekers and economic migrants from the rest of the continent. Therefore, to us this is a national interest issue and gone are the days when South Africa's foreign policy outlook was Eurocentric. You had better get over it. [Interjections.]
Hon Minister, this committee has always been keen on following the progress made by the department on the establishment of a clear and tangible link in its spending and reporting on the conduct of our foreign policy and how that assists the country to deal with its domestic challenges of poverty, unemployment and inequality, as set out by the President in various state of the nation addresses.
We want to congratulate and acknowledge the enormous progress registered by your department on this score, as can be seen particularly through the flurry of activity relating to economic diplomacy.
Also, let me extend a word of congratulations for a successful fifth Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, Brics, summit that was held. I particularly welcome the outcomes, as set out by you in previous engagements.
Fellow South Africans, we are about to celebrate 20 years of freedom and 102 years of struggle and sacrifice by the ANC. We must do so in cognisance of the fact that our liberation from apartheid was in part possible because the international community supported us, often at great cost to themselves. [Applause.]
Thus the freedom we enjoy today cannot and indeed must not be taken for granted, for it was bought at a price too high to contemplate. This price, amongst others, included the blood of non-South Africans - people who, if they had chosen to do so, could have stood apathetic to our plight. They could have said this had nothing to do with them and walked away. Many of them possibly would still have been alive today; people in countries so far away could, if they had elected to do so, have proverbially buried their heads in the sand and said, "Let those Africans deal with their own problems, we have enough of our own".
In giving perspective to our suffering, expressing our collective desires for liberation from subjugation and giving hope for a better future, Che Guevara said in 1960:
Humanity has said, "Enough!", and has set itself in motion. Its giant steps will not stop until they lead to true independence.
In an effort to set in motion these giant steps, men and women from distant lands came together in a spirit of progressive internationalism and human solidarity to share our pain and sorrow.
In Angola, they risked being bombed into oblivion, as indeed they were in Cassinga and elsewhere. In Maseru, Basotho lost their limbs and lives in defence of their humanism and in advancement of our collective humanity. In London, they faced arrest and incarceration, as they did in Stockholm, Brussels, Chicago and elsewhere. In Cuba, they mourned the death of about 2 016 soldiers.
Whilst most of them did not know any South African by name, they were united by their hatred for racism and injustice. They understood that their own humanity was confirmed through the humanity of others. They recognised the interdependence of the human species and the common threads of the yearning for human rights, justice, equality and peace that bind all of us together.
In summing up this spirit of solidarity and a shared destiny for all humankind, the former President of the Republic of Cuba, Comrade Fidel Castro, said the following, and I quote:
Some imperialists ask why we are helping Angola, what our interest is. They assume that countries only act out of a desire for petrol, copper, diamonds or some other resource. No, we have no material interest. Of course the imperialists don't understand this; they would only do it for jingoistic and selfish reasons. We are fulfilling an elementary internationalist duty in helping the people of Angola.
[Applause.]
In predicting the demise of the apartheid regime, he said the following:
The history of Africa is at a turning point. They will write about before Cuito Cuanavale and after Cuito Cuanavale. The power of South Africa, the whites, the superior race, has become unstuck in a little parcel of land defended by blacks and mulattoes. We do not seek a great military victory, but a reasonable and just solution. They might not only lose Namibia, but apartheid too. We want a solution now and I believe we are witnessing the beginning of the end of apartheid.
As we painfully and dedicatedly extricate our country from the dustbins of apartheid, we must do so always conscious of the internationalist duty bestowed upon us by history and posterity. Our country shall always stand up against injustice and racism and be counted. Our country shall shine as a beacon of hope in times of darkness. It shall always remind the world of the triumph of good over evil. South Africa shall forever stand tall as a monument of human solidarity and collective action. [Applause.]
This begs the question as to why there is an eerie silence when we condemn human rights violations by the Moroccan state against the people of Western Sahara, yet there is an outcry of indignation and claims that Israel is unfairly targeted by some lobby groups, notably the ACDP and the DA, when we condemn similar acts and in many instances much worse human rights violations perpetrated by the Israeli state against the defenceless and stateless Palestinian population. In this vein, I want to challenge the DA today to publicly state its party position on the Palestinian question so that all of us know. [Applause.] [Interjections.] It is coming.
While there are many instances of human rights violations, and we have consistently condemned them wherever they occur, I want to single out these two instances as they represent the last vestiges of colonial occupation, racism, and unquestionably exhibit elements of apartheid discrimination.
In this context, we remain resolute in our support for the right to self- determination and statehood of the Palestinian people, living side by side in peace and security with the state of Israel. The central irony, however, is that it is precisely that which the Israelis withhold which is their only hope for achieving a lasting peace with their neighbours in the region.
We remain concerned about the situation in Syria and we condemn the continued violence and loss of about 80 000 lives on both sides of the divide, while we particularly bemoan the loss of lives of innocent civilians. In this context, we want to lend our support for the US-Russia- led Geneva International Peace Conference, which in our view presents a real prospect for a Syrian-led political solution.
It has been clear from the start, and we have said so, that there is no military solution to the Syrian crisis. Flooding Syria with weapons presents a real threat to the region and it will certainly have the same outcomes in the Middle East as we have seen happening in the Sahel and as an outcome in Mali.
Some expect the ANC-led government to bury its head in the sand when the Saharawi people remain stateless, their natural resources illegally plundered and sold to powerful countries in the West. We want to reiterate our commitment to continue to actively campaign for the right to self- determination of the Saharawi people. We are still numbed by the decision of the United Nations Security Council not to allow the United Nations Mission in Western Sahara, a human rights monitoring mechanism, and we call upon the United Nations Security Council, UNSC, to do the right thing.
Fellow South Africans, pro-Israeli lobby groups expect the ANC to look the other way when Palestinians remain stateless and brutalised, with no hope of an end to their decades and decades-long suffering. This, sadly, is to ask of the ANC to ignore its collective conscience and abdicate its internationalist responsibilities, and indeed it is asking of our country and our government to divorce themselves from the very values, ideals and principles that define who we are and that we hold so dear.
Furthermore, there is a mischievous attempt by some pro-Israeli lobby groups to portray the Palestinian question as a clash between religions, primarily a clash between Islam, in their view, on the one hand, and Christianity and Judaism on the other. At times it is portrayed as either anti-Semitic or anti-Jewish.
This is done in order to mobilise the support of South African Christians behind the Israeli government. To achieve this end, all sorts of religious insinuations and connections are made to an issue which is otherwise simple in definition.
I want to state categorically that this matter is about human rights; it is about the subjugation of a people to a brutal system of colonial occupation and discrimination that leaves them with no rights, no state, no land and no dignity. That is what this is about. Any attempt, therefore, to portray it as religious or anything else is a dangerous and reckless attempt to undermine the unity and national security of the Republic in the long term. This is indeed, in my view, aimed at dividing South Africans along religious/sectarian lines whose effects we have seen in other parts of the world, especially in the Middle East. They can be devastating.
I want to draw your attention to the plight of the island nation of Cuba, which, because of their revolutionary spirit of internationalism and solidarity, made enormous sacrifices and paid a high price in the form of financial and material resources. Cuban soldiers lost their lives in battle with the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola, Unita, and the SA Defence Force, SADF, in what famously became known as the battle of Cuito Cuanavale. This intervention and the defeat of the regime was what led directly to the subsequent negotiations that led to the adoption of the UN Resolution 435, declaring the independence of Namibia and subsequently paving the way for our own freedom.
Once South Africans attained their liberation, and to this day, the Cubans continued to assist South Africa in the consolidation of her new-found freedom through providing a large contingent of Cuban medical doctors to our public hospitals, and training young South Africans to become medical doctors. They also continue to provide engineers and other technical expertise to our public sector. [Applause.] The government and the people of Cuba continue to be one of South Africa's most reliable partners. Cuba is indeed a true friend of South Africa and a reliable ally. [Applause.]
In this vein, I want to urge the international community to do what they did in respect of South Africa. They must continue to highlight the plight of the people of Cuba, who continue to experience untold suffering as a result of a unilateral trade and economic embargo imposed upon them by the government of the United States, making it difficult and near impossible for Cubans to acquire many of the basic amenities necessary to live normal lives. We remain steadfast behind government's call for the US to adhere to international law by lifting this embargo. We furthermore reiterate the call for the release of the remaining four of the Cuban Five languishing in US prisons. [Applause.] The only crime committed by these patriots was to collect information on hostile criminal and terrorist groups that have over many years inflicted horrible pain and suffering on the people of Cuba, leading to the deaths of over 3 478 people. These five Cubans did their national duty in defence of their country and its people. It is this same call to national service that all countries in the world today issue to their public servants to defend the territorial integrity of their various countries.
I wish to call upon our government to use the opportunity of the visit of President Obama to our country to impress upon him the urgent need to find a resolution to the matter.
In conclusion, let me express a special word of congratulations to all those who played a role in getting Dr Cyril Karabus back home, where he belongs, united with his loved ones. [Applause.] I want to extend a special word to the Ministry, and in particular Deputy Minister Fransman, who never wavered, or tired in his resolve to get Dr Karabus back. [Applause.]
We acknowledge the role played by various actors, including the family's attorney, Mr Bagraim, Dr Iqbal Surv, the Pan-African Business Council and many others who played a huge part, sometimes behind the scenes.
I finally want to acknowledge the role all South Africans played in various forms in supporting the call for the return of Dr Karabus and keeping the issue of Dr Karabus alive. South Africans have given new meaning to the slogan of "Together we can do more". The ANC supports the Budget Vote. [Applause.]