We should remember that the DA has been in opposition and I have never seen an opposition party in any country - whether you are referring to America with the Democratic and Republican parties, or the Labour and Conservative parties in Britain - in opposition for such a long time without ever winning an election. [Laughter.] [Applause.]
They must be worried about the elections, but personally I do not think it is money that wins an election. If that were so, the DA should have won an election a long time ago. [Interjections.] I mean, they couldn't even win an election against apartheid, which was declared a crime against humanity. [Laughter.]
The best they could do was to change names from the United Party and Progressive Federal Party. [Laughter.] The DA, in fact, is called the Democratic Alliance. I do not know who they are in alliance with because the National Party quit. When they quit, they said they did not think they could influence politics in South Africa if they were in alliance with the DA. So I am expecting the DA to change their name again, because they are not in alliance with anybody. [Laughter.] They are just changing names like a chameleon that changes colour and people can see through them!
The hon Steyn made a point about Mpumalanga, where there was a labour dispute and people were locked out. I was there with him. When we arrived, they wanted to talk to us, and our initial attitude was that we were there to do oversight. We were not there to resolve issues of labour disputes.
However, management there told us that a member of the same group came in at one stage and grabbed a community radio's microphone and started talking. So you can imagine - management is there; there is a commentator, but someone just comes along and pushes the commentator away.
We thought it would be a volatile situation if we left without addressing them. Then we went and addressed them. We resolved the matter because we went and addressed them and told them that if they had a labour dispute, there were processes and procedures. What we did not encourage was for them to behave like thugs and just jump in and show disrespect by grabbing the microphone. You cannot have a situation at a radio station where anybody simply opens the door and grabs the microphone and starts talking to the public. We are not a banana republic. [Interjections.] We are a serious republic.
However, I want to tell the hon Steyn that we ultimately did resolve the matter there. They were not locked up forever. We went in, did our oversight, spoke to them and diffused a volatile situation. They actually gave us a petition, jumped into their cars and drove away. [Interjections.]