Hon Speaker, hon President, Deputy President, members of Cabinet, and hon members, may I start by adding a word of sympathy on the loss of Comrade Albertina Sisulu. As a country, we are poorer for having lost one of the best individuals who ever graced the length and breadth of our country, men and women counted together.
In debating whether to approve the budget for The Presidency, I wish to begin by focusing sharply on the President's sacred constitutional duty. Section 83(b) requires the President to "uphold, defend and respect the Constitution as the supreme law of the Republic".
Contrary to the above, on 5 February many of us were shocked when the SABC reported that the President had warned people in Mthatha and elsewhere that if they voted for opposition parties, they were choosing the devil. [Interjections.] Now, was the President suggesting that the Constitution is wrong by making room for and allowing for opposition parties to exist? Indeed, by stating what he did, the President not only undermined the Constitution, but negated the legacy of the great Nelson Mandela. [Interjections.]
Section 83(c) of the Constitution requires that the President "promotes the unity of the nation and that which will advance the Republic". For the nation, it was quite a shock on 6 May when the President failed to rebuke young Malema at a rally in Galeshewe near Kimberley, when the latter said, in his presence, that "the whites stole our land, we can agree that they are criminals and must be treated as such". [Interjections.]
Nothing is more dangerous than this particular pronouncement, for it goes directly against the drive for the policy that President Nelson Mandela so energetically advanced - of national reconciliation, of uniting our people into one, so as to pave the way for the future. Certainly, under the circumstances, it was a constitutional duty for the President not to remain silent in the presence of a pronouncement that patently went against the provisions of our national Constitution. We hold the view that in this way the President became complicit in the undermining of the Constitution and in undermining the goal of uniting the people of South Africa and forging one nation. [Interjections.]
This particular pronouncement is dangerous for many reasons. In particular, it is dangerous because any nation that allows and teaches its young people to make pronouncements of this nature, to be proud of them, to go to the courts of the country and demand the right to sing songs that promote racial division ... [Interjections.] ... can only lay the basis for similar situations that have arisen in such countries as Rwanda, ... [Interjections.] ... where young Hutu people were taught that Africans of the Tutsi people were not like them. [Interjections.]
While that process was under way, it was taken as lightly as some are taking these pronouncements in this country today. However, when it did explode, when it reached maturation, in 90 days Africans slaughtered 1 million other Africans, for no reason other than that they were of Tutsi stock. [Interjections.]
I insist on pronouncing on this issue today. Cope must pronounce on this issue. [Interjections.] Our voices cannot be silenced at a time when some who are as black as ourselves are saying and doing things that trample underfoot not only the teachings of Nelson Mandela, but the efforts and contributions of men and women like Bram Fischer, Helen Joseph, and so many others, who stood up when we were marginalised. [Interjections.] When we were marginalised for being black, they went to jail with us. They stood up to say it was wrong.
I will say it today. It is wrong for those who are like me, with my colour and skin, to point fingers and to teach children to hate those who have a complexion slightly different from ourselves. [Applause.] So, I insist that the President should have stood up as the defender of the Constitution, as is required. [Interjections.] Not only did he subvert it on the occasion, but he allowed and encouraged it, and he let all of us down. He let the stalwarts of the struggle down, he let the country down and he let Africa down.
HON MEMBERS: Hear, hear! [Applause.] [Interjections.]