Motlotlegi Mmusakgotla [Hon Speaker], His Excellency President Jacob Zuma, His Excellency Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe, Ministers and Deputy Ministers, hon members, ...Motswana wa kgale o kile a re kgosi thotobolo o olela matlakala, mme ke dumela thata gore Rre Mphahlele ga a ka ke a tla mo Ntlong e go tla go go pega molato wa go sa dire sentle mo ditlhophong ka ntlha ya fa ena a latlhegetswe ke t?hono ya go dirisa molaetsakhutswe go itlhola kwa IEC gabedi gore a o teng mo bukaikwadisong ya ditlhopo. Jaaka e le moeteledipele, o paletswe ke go etelela batho ba gagwe pele mme o kopa gore re thuse gore lekoko la gagwe le gole. (Translation of Setswana paragraph follows.)
[... there's a Setswana saying that a leader is blamed for everything. I strongly believe that Mr Mphahlele cannot come to this House to put a blame of not performing well in the elections on anyone because he didn't use the opportunity of sending sms's to IEC to double-check whether he was in the electoral register. As a leader, he failed to lead his people and he's requesting us to help his party to grow.]
I want to take this opportunity also to respond to some of the things the Leader of the Opposition said. There are people in this House who today want to claim former President Mandela as their own. [Interjections.] I just want to say to you that you should remember that former President Mandela is a leader of the ANC, a statesman and an icon because of being an integral part of the oldest liberation movement in Africa, the ANC. [Applause.]
The other thing I want to indicate here, Mr President, is that people think that when the ANC - you and the leaders of the ANC - go door to door, you only do so during election time. I just want to say that the ANC does not do door-to-door visits during campaigns only. The ANC has this as its tradition. Those who will read the book written by Helen Joseph, depicting how they worked side by side to ensure that 20 000 women would march to the Union Buildings, will note that she indicated that the ANC leadership, together with women's leadership, went door to door to mobilise the people. [Interjections.]
The ANC has a programmes called "Know your neighbourhood" and "Imvuselelo", which actually entrench programmes of working among the people. So, it is important that you remember that when the ANC leadership and ANC members go out on door-to-door visits, it is just to remind the people that it is time that they renew the mandate of the ANC, not to go and ask them things that they would not know.
The people of South Africa have confidence in the ANC. The people of South Africa know that it is the ANC that is working very hard to get them out of the shacks, to give them water, to give them electricity, to make sure that their children are able to go to school, to make sure that it can implement, through the Deputy President, a programme called the War on Poverty campaign. [Interjections.]
If it was not for the policies of the apartheid past, we would not be needing programmes like the War on Poverty Campaign. [Interjections.] This programme is targeting especially those of our people who live in squalor in the squatter camps and in the former Bantustans, which were created by apartheid. [Interjections.]
I also want to say to you that the ANC does not only speak to the people and its members from this podium. It engages with the people. We are not a parliamentary party; we have structures. That is why, if you read papers, people speak about the ANC when they identify most of the challenges.
Mr President, you know that when people of South Africa march, they march to the ANC because they know it is the only party that will listen to them. [Applause.] They are just reminding us that they are there and still need our attention. [Interjections.] Therefore, I want to say to you that your questions to the President, your questions to Ministers and Deputy Ministers, and your statements here in the House are not a replacement for interaction with people on the ground.
These parties, Mr President, will have to account to the Speaker about what they are doing with their constituency allowances ... [Interjections.] ... because they don't have an existence in the communities. [Interjections.] So I think it is important that we remember that we are here because of the people. I also want to say to those of our people who used to be with us but decided to go out into the cold - I just want to advise the hon Lekota - to remember the history of the DA. During every local government election the DA goes and forms alliances with smaller parties. What happens to the smaller parties? Ask the former National Party or the New National Party. [Interjections.] Ask ... [Interjections.] ... Ask, yes ... [Interjections.]