Mr Speaker, I wish to dedicate my speech to the late Comrade Joe Mkhwanazi. May his revolutionary soul rest in peace. Comrades and hon members, Comrade President, congratulations on your state of the nation address. We noted your report on the progress made in implementing some of last year's commitments and the plans ahead. We are in agreement on the challenges facing our country, namely education, health, infrastructure, rural and urban development, land reform, unemployment, inequality, poverty and so on.
However, the critical question is: How do we tackle the issues of urgency, resolve, capacity and appropriateness of our responses? It is the considered view of the APC that enhancing the capacity of the state is the most critical necessity for everything else depends on it. To this end, the Department of Public Service and Administration has to play a much bolder and more central role in this regard. The public Service Commission must be strengthened, better led and given more powers. We need a single Public Service with a single entry point. We cannot overemphasise the need for stability at the senior management levels and doing away with the act of looking only at the short term.
Our education suffers from lack of proper, energetic and courageous administrative leadership. Some of our school principals, circuit managers, etc, leave much to be desired as leaders, thus the poor outcomes. The sometimes poor focus and discipline of students and teachers are actually a reflection of a lack of competent leadership. We need urgent intervention and a bold performance management system to weed out the unfit from office.
Whilst we have an energetic Minister and competent director-general in the Department of Health, reports of patients going without food or medication, and professionals not being paid require firm and drastic intervention. These kinds of things should be considered intolerable acts deserving of harsh sanction against managers. We look forward to the implementation of the National Health Insurance, NHI. It is the way to go to ensure universal access to quality health care and better-run health facilities.
It is the contention of the APC that the challenges of poverty, inequality and unemployment cannot be addressed without the state playing an active role in the economy. A "mantshingilane" [security guard] state will just guard over the continued impoverishment of the majority.
There is no doubt that the years of freedom have been good to business. Huge profits have been made in peace, without the burden of operating in an apartheid state. But the question is: Has business been good to freedom? The answer is to be found in the more than R500 billion stashed away in banks and not invested in the productive economy. It is also to be found in the conduct of Anglo Platinum and Harmony as well as the criminal conduct of construction companies, etc. It will be Waiting for Godot to expect them to help in addressing these challenges.
The state does not resonate with the political feelings of the owners of capital. They were politically defeated in 1994. There is still a grievance to nurse. It is no coincidence that the beneficiaries of colonialism and apartheid have blended themselves together into a political formation to be unco-operative, negative and oppose the rule of the majority. [Applause.] Some of the machinations we see in this House and outside are related to this fact; a fight back against 1994. [Applause.]
The APC believes that the progressive forces in our country have a responsibility to train their collective focus on these rightist manoeuvres. [Interjections.] On this, the centenary of the Natives Land Act ... [Interjections.]