Hon Deputy Speaker, today I find myself with more questions than answers. If we want to ensure that all South Africans are able to enjoy their constitutional rights, I truly believe that we must honestly confront the hard truth regarding poor service delivery and corruption within our municipalities.
Every year, in his state of the nation address, the President seems to present himself as someone who can take action against corruption.
Ke holetse motsaneng wa Dithotaneng mane Foreisetata. Ke rata ho bua ka moo ho se nke bohato kgahlanong le bobodu le manyofonyofo ho amang maphelo a batho ba rona ka teng, Mme Sisulu. [I grew up in Dithotaneng village in the Free State. I would like to talk about how the lack of action against corruption and malfeasance affects our people, Mrs Sisulu.]
Dithotaneng is a village that is no different from places where post- apartheid icons like Andries Tatane and Pule Thulo lost their lives during protests for basic service delivery by government. The right of people to access running water, electricity, health care and education are consistently undermined by the corrupt elite in this government.
Hon Deputy Speaker, allow me to pose the following questions in this House: Why, after 19 years of our democracy, is it that our nation is still prone to violent crime and corruption? Why does personal gain supersede the needs of our people? What justifies this hunger for power at the expense of marginalised people? Why do leaders think that it is correct for them to use democratic institutions to further their corruption?
For example, the department of health in the Free State will overspend about R250 million this year, while the under-resourced health facilities in the Lejweleputswa and Fezile Dabi Districts have the highest child mortality rates in the country - nearly 50 deaths per 1 000 births! Where is the money going?
Before the birth of our democracy, we endured all the pains of violent crime, poverty, unemployment, dictatorship and inequality of opportunities. The memories of this sorrow still live in our hearts. The sad part, however, is that all those things still occur as I stand before all of you today.
In search for answers, I realised that the ANC has lost touch with the people who voted them into power. There is now an enemy that has taken root in my province, the Free State, over many years. Patronage networks in the provincial government and in municipalities have led to the collapse of service delivery.
It cannot be right that rural clinics that serve the Free State people would still struggle with basic medication and doctors while our children die unnecessarily because of the causes of ill health. If President Zuma is serious about fighting corruption he would work within his own party to remove corrupt leaders who have built these patronage networks over years that have ruined provincial governments.
President Zuma, why did you fail for so many years to use your political authority to remove these corrupt leaders, like my Premier Ace Magashulem, from office? This is the premier that has overseen the financial collapse of provincial government departments and municipalities, to the extent that the National Treasury had to intervene. This premier has played a political game with the merger of Sasolburg and Parys Municipalities, which led to violence and the killing of people.
From what I have seen, it is a politicised Public Service. It is politicised service delivery that leads to desperate times, when people kill each other in anger and for fear that things may get worse. Only one party, that which values good governance and puts service delivery first, can save the people of the Free State.
In his lack of commitment to deal with corruption, the President has demonstrated that he is not ready to take South Africa forward. I want to warn Mr President today that the Free State voters will punish him and his party in 2014. The winds of change are blowing through the Free State and the DA is the party that is going to lead that change. [Applause.]
Re ka lakatsa ha re ka ra bona bana ba rona ba hopola tse molemo tseo re ba etseditseng tsona; ho na le ho bona tshenyo eo re tla beng re ba etseditse yona. Ke a leboha! [Mahofi.] [We would like to see our children having fond memories of the good things that we have done for them, rather than the destruction we have left for them. Thank you.]