Hon Chairperson, hon Ministers, hon Deputy Ministers, hon Members of Parliament, guests in the gallery, viewers at home, let me express appreciation for the opportunity to stand before you and the nation on this remarkable day in our parliamentary calendar. It is a day set aside to reflect critically yet positively on the operations, strategy and budget of the Department of Defence and Military Veterans. As a point of departure, I would like to assert the immutable fact that South Africa is an integral part of the African continent. By this, I mean that our fate is inextricable from that of the African continent. This recognition has led the ANC to stand ready at all material times to participate in ensuring that peace and stability abide in the SADC region, in particular, and on the continent, in general.
I will address this House on the SA Air Force. I want to make it categorically clear that I have neither the desire nor the inclination to draw any correlation, no matter how tenuous, between peacekeeping missions and the capacity of the SA Air Force. My reflections on the SA Air Force are purely impelled by the budgetary factors attending the function. I shall therefore make a call for the adequate resourcing of the function.
Sihlalo ndivumele ndiphendule kwaba bantu basuka apha. Ohloniphekileyo uMaynier we-DA akakhange alale phezolo. Uxelelwa ngohloniphekileyo, uGroenewald, ukuba angakhwazi kuba le nkulumbuso ehloniphekileyo, uHelen uZille, nayo iminwe yakhe izele yijemu nebhotolo. [Kwaqhwatywa.] (Translation of isiXhosa paragraph follows.)
[Chairperson, allow me to respond to the issues raised by the person who has just left the podium. Hon Maynier of the DA did not sleep last night. He was told by hon Groenewald not to make too much noise because the hon Premier Helen Zille's fingers too are full of jam and butter. [Applause.] ]
Hon Maynier ...
... ukucela kwakho injezu apha nokwenza umdaniso wetshatshatsha akusayi kukusebenzela, endaweni yoko uza kudika mihla le. Ukuba ungajonga kweli cala leqela lakho abakho ngoku abantu beqela lakho, bemkile kwaye abakhange bakumamele kuba badikwe yile nto inye uyithethayo.
Ndibuye kwakhona ndiye kohloniphekileyo, umnu Maynier, umthetho wakhe ungumntu onobuhlanga. Ndiza kulikhupha litsole, Mphathiswa ohloniphekeileyo kuba ndisebenza naye kwikomiti. (Translation of isiXhosa paragraphs follows.)
[... your grandstanding here and doing the cha-cha-cha dance is not going to help you; instead you will find that people cannot stand you. If you look at your side of the House you will find that people from your own party are not here. They have left because they could not bring themselves to listen to you; they are tired of you harping on the same issue.
Hon Maynier is racist by nature. I am going to say it like it is, hon Minister, because we work together in the committee.]