Chairperson, greetings to all. In the 18th Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte, Karl Marx has this to say:
Men make their own history, but they do not make it as they please; they do not make it under circumstances chosen by themselves, but under circumstances directly encountered, given and transmitted from the past.
Amilcar Cabral had this to say: Tell no lies, claim no easy victories.
In giving an account of the work the Minister has done in the past four years, the House, the guests and the stakeholders will agree that she is the first Minister in the history of our democratic South Africa who has had six directors-general in just four years. Let me remind South Africa of the Minister's victims: Mrs Njabulo Nduli, Dr Emily Mogajane, Peter Thabethe, Dr Mono Mashaba, Langa Zitha and the current Hollywood actor, Mr Ntombela. All of them were actors from Hollywood.
This is truly history made that a Minister can declare her administration dysfunctional for four years, but still continue to survive Cabinet reshuffles. She is truly important to the ANC, more than the South Africans she continues to fail in the agricultural sector.
Let us list things the Minister has done wrong in the past four years. She has promoted officials implicated in corruption to senior management positions in her department. She has misplaced specialised vets to administrative responsibilities; she has incorrectly suspended officials and the South African public had to pay for that. She has collapsed our marine vessels. The Africana is supposed to have been collecting data in our coastal environment, but has not been sailing for no less than two years. The Ellen Khuzwayo patrol vessel has not been monitoring illegal activities in the coastal environment, leaving our coastal waters open to poaching. The recently head-hunted deputy director-general for Fisheries ran away within a period of five months.
I am talking about Minister Tina Joemat-Pettersson's administration. She has failed to advance the interests of the entire agricultural sector, including farm workers, farmers, and the entire food chain. She has opted to instigate violence in the farming communities. [Interjections.] She has failed to implement the provisions of the Meat Safety Act and the nation is confused about what it consumes, whether we are eating whales, donkeys or dogs. This is all because of her inability to lead this sector correctly. [Applause.]
For this incompetence, any reasonable government would have fired her a long time ago and made her account for her wrongdoings and her incompetent administration. However, in this incompetent regime, we have become a banana republic, because people like her continue to be rewarded. [Applause.]
Truly, Minister, you are indeed a true South African story ... [Interjections.] ... that President Zuma was referring to, a failed revolutionary state, a nation that rewards nonperformers ... [Interjections.]