Hon Chairperson, hon Minister and hon members, allow me to take a moment to pay homage and tribute to millions of workers around the world and in our land for their tireless efforts and dedication. From the inception of International Workers' Day on the dusty streets of Chicago in 1886 and the subsequent First Congress of the Second International in Paris, workers around the world have been a formidable force and voice for social justice, equality, freedom and democracy.
In South Africa, the trade union movement remained at the forefront of our national fight against apartheid and all its elements in all their guises. Mines across South Africa served as a mobilising platform against apartheid and capitalist exploitation. In fact, mining in our country was the main driving force behind the history and development of Africa's richest economy, from the discovery of a diamond on the banks of the Orange River in 1867 to the subsequent discovery and exploitation of the Kimberley pipes a few years later.
Together with the hundreds of mineworkers in our country, we fought against the atrocities of the apartheid regime and its forces. We waged a concerted and determined fight against apartheid in South Africa and across the African continent. We can say with the utmost certainty that, together with mineworkers and workers in general, we won our greatest victory against apartheid and oppression. We put an end to legislated racism and racial settlement in the workplace and in our society. In songs and dances hundreds of metres underground, we spoke against the exploitation of the poor, in particular African and migrant workers, in the workplace and in the very communities where they lived. It was these songs and dances that continued to educate and mobilise our people and the people of the world against the atrocities of apartheid and the exploitation that many of our people endured.
Today, we celebrate, together with the workers of our country and the African continent, the victories of our joint efforts to build a better South Africa. We celebrate our shared commitment to breaking with the past and creating a new order for improvements in working conditions, health and safety in the workplace, and wages.
We celebrate because we no longer have a government that sees some among the citizens of our land as not deserving of the same rights and treatment as others. The basic amenities of a dignified life that were denied to the majority of South Africans are now reaching millions of our people, irrespective of their race, gender, social status and location, whether it be access to clean water, electricity, health care, decent education or housing.
Workers have been champions of development in our communities. They have worked tirelessly, together with our communities and the government, to develop the areas in which we live. They have been part and parcel of building many democratic structures, such as community police forums, as part of the anticrime campaign; school governing bodies, as part of our national quest to encourage parents and communities to assist us in delivering quality education to our people; and local economic development forums, to give our people a voice in our national efforts to develop our communities and create programmes that respond to their needs. We can therefore say we have a lot to celebrate with our workers today.
As we move with speed to advance our democracy and put into action our national programme to build a better life for all, we count on organised workers to continue to keep the wheel in motion in order to strengthen all our efforts and programmes. We count on workers to continue to support our national offensives against crime, drugs, corruption and violence against women and children. Workers and their unions are also indispensable to our efforts to deracialise our economy. In fact, they are the heart and engine of our national efforts to build a better South Africa and a better life for all.
One of the most urgent and critical challenges facing our country is the creation of more jobs and waging war against poverty and unemployment. Many among the masses of our people are unemployed, with no guarantee that they will get a decent job tomorrow. As was once said by Isithwalandwe, former President Rolihlahla Mandela:
Poverty is a nightmare of our democracy. It is a vicious circle of poor health, reduced working capacity, low productivity and shortened life expectancy. It leads to inadequate schooling, low skills, insecure income, early parenthood, ill health and early death.
These masses expect of us that every day, and wherever we may be, we will continue to speak out and act against poverty and unemployment. As we celebrate Workers' Day today, we want nationally to call on all the workers of South Africa to join our national efforts to create jobs and fight poverty and unemployment in our country. We call on workers to continue in their efforts to work with our government to ensure that the new democratic order in our country does everything possible to extricate the needy from their miserable conditions of poverty, unemployment, poor health, crime and underdevelopment.
Many of our hon members will agree with the ANC when we say that all these efforts will be in vain and fruitless if our workers continue to die in the high numbers that we have seen. Our shared joy of a partnership that has led to the creation of a South Africa envied by many nations across the world is short-lived and rendered useless while we continue to see some of the most disheartening and inhumane conditions facing workers in the workplace, especially in the mines. We want to say today, and affirm to the utmost, that this must be stopped.
As the theme of our debate today says, it is high time that we have a collective quest for "advancing our national efforts to make mine safety a business imperative in our mines". It is this clarion call that we rise to make to all mine owners in South Africa.
It is time that mine owners invest in the safety of our people. It is high time that mine owners value the lives of our people. It is high time that mine owners recognise that mineworkers are indispensable to our efforts to ensure that our economy remains vibrant and able to assist us to address some of the challenges facing our people.
We want to say to mine owners it is high time that they stop seeing our people as part of their commodities that will enrich them. They must stop using every way they possibly can to exploit them and stop subjecting them to some of the most atrocious and inhumane conditions that violate every right of a living human being.
We want to make an appeal to all mine owners to know that it is the miners who ensure that our country thrives and is among the best in the world, with a really vibrant economy. It is mineworkers who mine the minerals that our nation exports to the global community; the minerals that fuel our growth. It is the hundreds of mineworkers who support our national efforts to fight poverty and underdevelopment in the rural areas by putting food on the tables of hundreds of poor households. It is the salaries of mineworkers that send many children from poor households to school and allow them to access health care and even institutions of higher education.
It is many of these families and households that on a daily basis have the greatest worry and pray for the safety of their loved ones, because for them they are the way to a better future. It is these millions of innocent lives that are destroyed, people who are made to face a bleak future because of irresponsible decisions that mine owners take. It is these thousands of people and households who expect us to ask the hon Minister to ensure that she takes away the mining licence of every mine owner who shows utter disregard for the lives of mineworkers in our country. It is the masses of families of those who work in mines across South Africa. I thank you.