Mr Speaker and hon members, former President Nelson Mandela conducted the 20th century's most extraordinary public transaction in history with a budget that stood at R24,46 million by 1998 and a salary of R550 000 a year. Madiba took a fractious people and led us in building a free and inclusive nation. He branded South Africa globally. Madiba knew how to lead by example. He had the ability to inspire people to do the right thing. He had the ability to restrain the human inclination to respond violently to extreme provocation. He said the right thing and he did the right thing. He spoke nonracialism and he built nonracialism. He spoke of being inclusive and he actively embraced his adversaries.
Mr President, the budget for your office is R929 million, an increase since 1998 - taking inflation into account - of about 3 000% and your salary for the forthcoming year is R2,4 million. Accounting for inflation, that is double the salary of Mr Mandela in 1998.
What have you accomplished with such a generous endowment? All you really have to show is the National Planning Minister Trevor Manuel's diagnosis of our ills. By the way, the analysis and whole planning exercise of Mr Manuel will cost the taxpayer a whopping R83,8 million this coming year - the cost, may I point out, of Madiba's entire office, adjusted for inflation. That ought to focus the mind on expenditure!
In his Diagnostic Overview, the hon Manuel has identified poor educational performance and inflexible labour regulations as the most formidable barriers to development. Colleagues, in the area of education, I draw your attention to very fundamental findings in this Diagnostic Overview: Firstly, almost 20% of teachers are absent on Fridays and Mondays. Teachers in black African schools teach an average of three-and-a-half hours a day, compared with about six-and-a-half hours a day in formerly white schools, amounting to an accumulated three years of wastage in education. Strike action, sometimes official, consumes as much as 10 days a year, or 5% of school time. The holding of union meetings during school time is often the norm in township schools. Finally - and I am quoting the hon Manuel's Diagnostic Overview - "The procedures for dismissing teachers for misconduct are complex and are therefore rare."
Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga will have to attend to some of these problems. Labour Minister Mildred Oliphant will have to deal with others. Given the place of trade unions in the tripartite alliance, however, it is you, Mr President, who must lead the economic governance of our country. It is you, Mr President, who must lead the trade unions to let go of their outdated struggle tactics and begin to make a positive contribution to better education outcomes. If you do not, we face a low- value outcome. The people do not want a low-value outcome; they want a high- value outcome, which is growth and prosperity for all.
The highest function of the President is to lead the building of the nation. At the national funeral of Mama Albertina Sisulu, President Zuma said that, for him, nation-building meant being inclusive, nonracial and, in the ringing words of the Freedom Charter, embracing a South Africa that belongs to all that live in it. In the name of nonracialism and inclusiveness, leadership requires that you stiffen your backbone, get up and say no to those who use racial invective in the public discourse.
Mr President, if you use your office's budget to enhance your personal prestige, you do nothing for leadership. If you use your budget to protect the greedy and tolerate the corrupt, you do nothing for the poor. If you use your budget to divide the nation, you do nothing for reconciliation. But if you use your budget to support those who wish to build the nation, we will respect you. If you use your budget to work on eliminating poverty, we will support you, and if you use your budget to support those who educate our children for a productive life, posterity will thank you. Thank you very much. [Applause.]