Hon Chair, Minister, all members of the executive, hon Members of Parliament, and some of the well-defined force members, this afternoon is very important to all of us. It is about our responsibility and the oath that we have taken in this particular country.
As the ANC, we have taken on quite a lot of responsibilities. In the past 19 to 20 years, we have yet again put our lives beside the contributions that we made in the past. We are saying most emphatically that this democracy must work. We are not saying that because we feel we have no obligation or responsibility to our own people. We do have a lot of responsibilities. Definitely so. When we created the constitutional state, we were quite aware of our own responsibilities.
We definitely know that the military command, in executing its duties, uphold those responsibilities. That is why, in their own conduct and taking responsibility for the lives of our soldiers, they never attempted to sell them out. That has not been said, because it has never happened. These are men and women who have made a great contribution to this particular democracy.
It is a pity that Cope has just left. The responsibilities that have been taken on by hon Thembi Mapisa-Nqakula has come from a great contribution, to arrive at where she is today. She is the Minister of Defence and Military Veterans. That responsibility ... Unless you understand the Constitution, Maynier ... you will not win elections. [Interjections.] I am coming to you this year. I will deal with you. Don't worry, I have lots of facts about you. That responsibility lies with the Minister.
Has she executed her responsibility well? As cadres of this movement, people have contributed. I have known comrade and hon Minister in underground work since 1984. Before 1984, when we put together the Congress of South African Students, Cosas, she was there and responsible. She fought and made a lot of sacrifices for what she did. At no stage has she sold out this revolution. At no stage has she ever become an askari of our movement. She has never done that. She is the one whom we call an honour - as flowers of our revolution. [Applause.]
As a young woman within our underground structures, she played a very important role. [Applause.] From where I am standing, I am saying that she made a huge contribution. At no stage has she sold out our people. That is why she sits here. She is comfortable and relaxed. She knows her responsibility. She is executing her responsibility. Her appointment is not a matter to be worried about by the sloganism, which is ill informed. [Interjections.]
The problem with you, hon Maynier, and different people who support and work with you, is how much of what she said you understand. As securocrats you have a responsibility. [Interjections.] If you understand the Constitution, you will relate to it. You will never understand what she wants to achieve. It was pathetic because if you understood the Constitution of the country and how you relate to the military, you must be able to say to yourself that ... [Interjections.]
You told us what happened in Manenberg. There is a fight about gangsters in Manenberg. His Premier in the Western Cape combined efforts to call upon the Defence Force to come and intervene in gangsterism. [Interjections.] Do you understand how the Constitution and the Defence Force function? You don't understand, because you can't just call the Defence Force to come and intervene in Manenberg when there is a gangsterism problem, because there are police. If you understand the role and capacity of the police, you will be able to deal with that.
There is a total misunderstanding of what is happening and an inability to define the responsibilities of the Defence Force itself. Based on that ... [Interjections.] That is why you have a narrow interpretation and understanding of the role of the Defence Force. Hon Maynier doesn't understand the security structure. [Interjections.] Yes, he has been trained and he comes from the Air Force or the Navy or wherever he comes from. [Interjections.]
I listened to him today, and you will understand that in this institution he has not been able to define and explain to us where he got this information from. One thing he did was to become an advertiser, advertising photos that I don't understand where he took them. [Laughter.] He was running around tweeting. We all know what social media is. There is nothing new about the social media. We are engaged in that particular terrain.
The reality is that hon Maynier is going around picking up information that is not even valuable or has not even been tested. Data is tested. We have the portfolio committee, where we prescribe and give data so that it can be used and made known to the public. At no stage does his information come from relevant sources. We have Military Intelligence ... [Interjections.] Keep quiet, you should be listening. We have Military and National Intelligence. He got that photo he is running around with from the rebels. That photo and whatever he brought and produced here came from the rebels. [Applause.] It comes from counterforces of our revolution. [Interjections.] It comes from antidemocratic forces that do not represent the interests of our people.
He thought about discrediting what Minister Cwele would be able to put forward. He talked about the peddling of information, and that is what he is providing to Parliament. As Members of Parliament, it is in our interest that we conduct ourselves in a way that we are able to explain to the public where we derived the information from. We are the portfolio committee in this Parliament. Many relate this portfolio committee to the information provided.
This person comes to Parliament and makes a lot of noise. That information is ill informed because it comes from information-peddling and information that has been provided by rebels. It is not the information that is tested or given by our Military Intelligence cluster. That is the type of a person we are dealing with here. [Interjections.]