House Chair, hon members, Ministers, office of the Chief Whip, our theme of the Inter-Parliamentary Union's 128th Assembly in Ecuador is: From unrelenting growth to powerful development Buen Vivir: New approaches, new solutions.
Buen Vivir is a Spanish concept used in Latin America to describe alternatives to development focused on life in its totality. The term is actively used by social movements and it has become a popular term in some government programmes. It has even found its way into two new constitutions of Ecuador and Bolivia respectively.
This Inter-Parliamentary Union Assembly provides us with an opportunity to reflect on holistic development which will bring tangible improvements to the living standards of our respective people. Here in South Africa we have been living and experiencing the Buen Vivir principle, which we call Batho Pele - a Sotho term meaning people first.
The Batho Pele principle has formed the cornerstone of our government's approach towards governing. In so doing our government is striving for development which results in a good life for our people. Basically, this is what this concept is all about. It's about a people-centred approach towards governance and development.
This concept really provokes us to question our own economic decisions. It points to the importance of ensuring that growth serves our people and is not something we seek for its own sake. It builds on the need to strengthen communities and solidarity and to respect the natural environment. On the basis of this concept economic growth is a means to improve people's lives, not something we seek for its own sake or to serve the needs of a selected few at the expense of the collective. The concept demands that we should not see the economy as the only overriding consideration, but rather as a piece in a large puzzle with other important pieces such as the environment, social cohesion, eradication of sexual violence, ethical protection of human rights, promotion of sound ethical values, eradicating corruption and many other social ills. Clearly, this is a revolutionary concept which challenges many of our liberal assumptions about economic growth and development.
It is linked to the idea that given the limits on growth and the human need for social cohesion, we must think more carefully about what constitutes a good life in social and emotional terms. To recognise that the consumption and the amassing of wealth cannot become our main goal as individuals, as a country, as a continent or as a global community. In short, it helps us to aim at providing an alternative to the economy's narrow pursuit of growth at all costs.
As many of you are aware, we come from the era where growth looked after the interests of the few and ignored the whole culture of human rights and undermined efforts to sustain the environment. It created the haves and the have-nots, and some people were humiliated and lived in shame and their dignity was completely destroyed. But still, at that time we were talking about growth and wealth in the country.
Hon members, probably no country in the Inter-Parliamentary Union, or indeed in the world has greater first-hand knowledge of why growth in itself is not a panacea than South Africans.
The forbears of the history and tradition of the liberation movement of this country held a view that we need to transform the character of economic growth. The Freedom Charter does not simply say we must grow the economy, but rather that we must transform it. It starts with the affirmation that:
Our country will never be prosperous or free until all our people live in brotherhood, enjoying equal rights and opportunities.
Today, during this phase of our transformation agenda, both the National Development Plan, NDP, and New Growth Path, NGP, are premised on a view that if economic growth continues to reproduce the deep social divisions and inequality created under apartheid, we would not be able to build a cohesive society. If South Africa continues as a disproportionate source of global warming emissions we will face major disruptions in the future.
Our responsibility is to seek transformation not only within our country, but across our continent and the globe. Increasingly, we see the rest of Africa and the Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, Brics, as important partners, not just for trade, but also for shifting the global balance of power in ways that make it possible to achieve a better life for the majority across the globe. We are surviving revolutionaries with a moral mission.
We know from our complex and bitter experiences that the unemployed, the poor and the wretched of the earth do not have a good life. But that does not also mean that the converse is true-that consuming selfishly will by itself create a good life or is conducive to one's wellbeing and happiness. As the theme underscores the challenge, ours is to rethink our paradigms - our basic assumptions.
I also want to bring another important aspect of this concept. Our commitment of opening youth employment opportunities indeed demonstrates the resolve and commitment to sustainable growth and the future. When young people are unemployed their challenge is not only material poverty.
For many unemployment excludes them from key social processes: from the chance to serve society, to determine the future of the country and to grow into responsible citizens; from being in defence of their inheritance by preserving water, being committed to gender equality, the culture of human rights, social justice; from taking leadership in their communities; and being carriers of values and principles which restored the dignity of this country.
That is why our efforts around the youth accord focus not simply on increasing youth employment, but also on building youth brigades and expanding internships. We need to ensure that young people are well equipped to serve their communities and become part of a broader social movement of champions of democracy and peace.
We are obliged to meet the expectations of our people through building communities that are dynamic, resilient and cohesive. We have to end the deep divisions that apartheid naturalised. It is about building solidarity and mutual respect across the country.
Parliament is a strategic point of leverage and parliamentarians are crucial centres of democracy. It is through Parliament that people have a voice, oversee government and influence legislation.
There are a few questions which we can ask as to how we could get there. The use of Parliament as a site of solidarity and struggle is particularly important for South Africans. We remember how in the 1980s the Association of West European Parliamentarians for Action Against Apartheid mobilised a thousand parliamentarians across Europe in support of our resolve to dismantle apartheid.
This is the kind of parliamentary activism that drives changes which we should at all times aspire to. It is the dedication to people-driven social transformation that participation in the Inter-Parliamentary Union should aim at.
During the coming session we as South Africans must be visible and eloquently raise our voices in enriching discussions on Buen Vivir by citing the values of our National Development Plan: Vision for 2030 and the New Growth Path, which are our present day government's strategy. We should at all times, in solidarity with our allies, stay together in defence of our values and collectively name and dismantle ideological approaches which entrench individual interests and privileges and undermine wealth distribution amongst all who are in the land. Our motto is: People first, the people shall govern, and power to the people. I thank you. [Applause.]