Hon Chairperson, I acknowledge the Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, Comrade Tina Joemat-Pettersson; hon Deputy Minister, Dr Pieter Mulder; Ministers and Deputy Ministers present; colleagues; Team Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, DAFF, led by Mr Sipho Ntombela; leaders of our state-owned entities; industrial leaders and workers of agriculture, forestry and fisheries; invited guests; and former chairperson of this committee, Mr Neo Masithela, who is seated up there. [Applause.]
We also extended an invitation to Mr Meyer, and to Dr Kraai van Niekerk, who is not here, who are former leaders of the same committee. I acknowledge iNkosi Holomisa; Ah! Dilizintaba, who is somewhere in Namibia, and Mrs Hlengetwa, who are both Members of Parliament in the National Assembly and ladies and gentlemen. I also see in the gallery Mr Mller, a leader in the agriculture industry. I saw Mr Robinson, leader of Fisheries. I cannot see many other leaders in the industry here. In this year of united action towards socioeconomic freedom, the ANC once again salutes you all.
Today our Minister has tabled her department's Budget Vote for scrutiny and for favourable consideration by this august House. I strongly believe that the budget, as presented, together with its strategic plan over the Medium- Term Expenditure Framework, MTEF, period bears testimony to the resolve of the ruling party, the ANC, as mandated by the people of our country, to eradicate the triple challenge of poverty, unemployment and inequality.
It is against this background therefore that, from the onset, the ANC supports Budget Vote No 26. [Applause.] The budget referred to is R6,2 billion for 2013-14. This budget is informed by a vision that strives for a united and prosperous sector and a mission that aims to lead and support sustainable agriculture, forestry and fisheries and to promote rural development in South Africa.
We all know that this year marks the centenary of the l9l3 Natives Land Act, which basically entrenched and further perpetuated the dispossession of productive land from the black people of our country. This was a horrendous and inhumane Act and its effects are still haunting us today and will for many years still to come.
We therefore welcome the decision of our glorious movement, the ANC, at its 53rd conference that the land question can never be closed until the injustices brought upon our people are fully and comprehensively resolved. [Applause.] Therefore, the reopening of this process must not been seen in the context of seeking to create uncertainty and instability. In actual fact, the opposite must be the true.
Another historical milestone is that, in the next few months, our country will celebrate 20 years of freedom and democracy that came in April 1994.
The critical question we will have to respond to is this: How far have we travelled towards creating a nonracial, nonsexist, democratic and prosperous society? Have we, through our budgets and other developmental instruments, created an enabling environment for our people to truly enjoy the fruits of our hard-won freedom and democracy? Are we confident enough to state boldly that, indeed, the creation of a better life is unfolding, as espoused in our Reconstruction and Development Programme?
South Africa has indeed turned the tide. Against all the odds, the ANC-led government has managed to overcome, over a period of 19 years, to be precise, 361 years of the colonial subjugation of our African people by generations of European settlers, still found within our Parliament and South Africa in general today.
The ANC-led government has also managed to overcome the 65 years of apartheid rule through the institutionalisation of a system that marginalised the rightful owners of our beloved country and through many laws such as the Group Areas Act, racial education Acts, and employment Acts, among others, that segregated our country and her people.
We had done it through resistance, at first nonviolent and later violent, when deputations, boycotts, strikes and stay- aways proved to be falling on deaf ears.
Through the four pillars adopted at the Morogoro ANC conference, our country and its so-called leaders at the time had to be liberated through underground work, mass mobilisation, international isolation and, of course, bombs and AK-47s - the only language that they understood! The price our fighters had to pay was so dear. In the process a number of our fighters had to go to the gallows, through judgments by none other than Judge Leon, father of a DA leader. Know your DA! [Interjections.] The father of a DA leader hanged a number of our comrades: Judge Leon, the father of Tony Leon. [Interjections.]
Many languished in prison for simply raising a clenched fist, chanting "Amandla!"
When the ANC liberated South Africa in 1994, it liberated even our own oppressors - you - and detractors. [Interjections.]
South Africa still has remnants of white supremacists, who are now co- opting some of our black people into believing that they will protect them and bring them a better life. [Applause.]
We know the truth: that the aim is to bring you back to apartheid days, as it has already started in Cape Town and in the Western Cape. Hence a number of black people ... [Interjections. [Applause.]