Chairperson, I would like to submit to the House that we should really consider not allowing members who are not members of the committees to participate in the Budget Vote debates, and they know who they are.
Having said that, hon Chairperson, I greet the hon Minister, Deputy Minister Fransman, Deputy Minister Ebrahim in absentia, members of the diplomatic corps, members of the Department of International Relations and Co-operation, members of the public, and hon Members of Parliament.
Expounding the Freedom Charter's ideal that "there shall be peace and friendship", the 1969 ANC Morogoro Consultative Conference had the following to say:
Democratic South Africa shall take its place as a member of the OAU ...
...at the time... ... and work to strengthen Pan-African unity in all fields. Our country will actively support national liberation movements of the peoples of the world against imperialism, colonialism and neocolonialism. Diplomatic relations will be established with all countries regardless of their social and political systems on the principles of mutual respect for each other's independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity.
Independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity should therefore inform the nature of relations we craft with any country. These principles should be treated as sacrosanct and reciprocal at both the strategic and the operational levels.
Article 1 of the 10 December 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights contains words whose truth is a reproach to social injustice and its perpetrators. It reads:
All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.
In working towards universal peace and freedom we seek to forge a new world order in which the equality of nations is not only a concept but a material reality. Our starting point has been and should be South African interest and Africa's renaissance. We prioritise the African continent, and not only because in 1994, as recorded in the Reconstruction and Development Programme document, we became conscious of the fact that failure to achieve regional and continental sustainable development would lead to inter alia:
... the region facing continued high unemployment and underdevelopment, leading to labour migration and brain drain to the more industrialised area.
We also prioritise the African continent because of its colonial past, which has left most of it engulfed in conflicts due to scarcity of resources caused by underdevelopment. We strongly believe that socioeconomic development cannot take place in the absence of peace and stability, in the same way that socioeconomic development is critical for addressing the root cause of conflict and instability.
That is why we take time as mandated by regional bodies - hon Holomisa, please listen because you were not there when we were discussing these things [Laughter.] I repeat, that is why we take time, given the mandate by the region and the continent, to work towards resolving conflicts in our region and continent. The conflicts, for example in Somalia, remain a matter of concern. The focus of the world on development in North Africa and the East has put Somalia's conflict on the back burner. This must also be attended to.
Chairperson, we are also saying that the New Partnership for Africa's Development is a pledge by African leaders, based on a common vision and a firm and shared conviction that they have a pressing duty to eradicate poverty and to place their countries, both individually and collectively, on a path of sustainable growth and development and, at the same time, to participate actively in the world economic body politic.
The programme is anchored in the determination of Africans to extricate themselves and the continent from the malaise of underdevelopment and exclusion in a globalising world. Hence we welcome the President's involvement in the high-level committee infrastructure as a positive step in addressing the infrastructural challenges that hinder the continent from interacting economically amongst its countries.
We must therefore continue to implement the New Partnership for Africa's Development, Nepad, and improve the regional climate for growth and development, as well as place the development requirements of the continent on the global agenda. Linked to Nepad, the work to establish a South African Development Partnership Agency to promote developmental partnerships with other countries on the continent has to continue. We hasten to add, however, that this agency should advance, and be seen to advance, a progressive agenda averse to condescending tendencies of traditional aid agencies.
Our country's security and prosperity is linked to and coexists with the consolidation of the African agenda. We need to address inequalities between the poor and the rich countries, with increasing poverty and marginalisation of millions of people; the globalisation and unilateralism of bigger powers; the spread of weapons of mass destruction; and organised crime. These should be fought using every means. In this regard, we as the ANC made a commitment in our 2009 manifesto to a peaceful resolution of all conflicts.
We as members of the African Union and Pan-African Parliament must continue to play an active role in peace-building efforts on the continent, and that should not be seen as funds being wasted - it is money worth spending. We need to strengthen our capacity to resolve and mediate in areas where there is a conflict or misunderstanding, as we have done and shall continue to do. We are continuing to do so in Zimbabwe, hon Mubu. We should continue to support all initiatives aimed at enhancing democratisation and good governance in the Southern African Development Community, SADC, region.
Our aim and focus should always be the promotion of peace, security and stability through, amongst others, engaging in preventative diplomacy and sustaining our involvement in peacekeeping operations in Africa. In this regard, we are continuing to work for a peaceful solution to the conflict in Libya, to which the Minister has already alluded. South Africa shares similar positions on political, economic and social issues to those of other countries of the South and, in this context, relations and co-operation with countries of the South in Latin America and the Caribbean, Asia and the Middle East continue to grow both multilaterally and bilaterally. However, we urge that such relationships must be on the basis of mutual benefit and development. As the ANC National Executive Committee January 8 Statement of the current year unequivocally stated:
We cannot afford to de-industrialise and become simply a provider of raw materials to other nations.
In order to strengthen South-South co-operation, we should continue to work with countries of the South to create political, economic and social convergence for the fight against the poverty, underdevelopment and marginalisation of the South. In this regard, the department should strengthen its focus as it appears in its Strategic Plan:
Continued active engagement with organisations of the South (such as NAM, G77 & China) ...
That must continue. I quote again:
The implementation and monitoring of IBSA Agreements and Action Plans as well as facilitating sectoral co-operation in order to deliver tangible results for South Africa ...
That is important, and lastly:
Revitalising the New Africa Asia Strategic Partnership (NAASP) as a vehicle for South-South socioeconomic co-operation ...
This should not be lost.
In building the South African developmental state, with requisite strategic organisational and technical capacities, we need to use our position in Brics to strengthen our New Economic Growth Path. In the same vein, our membership of Brics should be used to strengthen the African agenda and promote African development, and to reverse the treatment of Africa as a junior partner on global socioeconomic issues, fit only to receive financial aid and supply the rest of the world with unbeneficiated raw materials.
The department should continue to garner support from the developed countries of the North for South Africa's national priorities, such as education, health, rural development and land reform, creating decent work and fighting crime. South Africa should thus continue engaging countries of the North in the context of promoting the African agenda and the agenda of the South through participation at summits and in dialogue with the G8 and the G20.
South Africa should, therefore, continue to enhance its partnership with member states of the G8 to pursue co-operation with the latter and continue prioritising the implementation of resolutions of past G8 summits. We cannot afford to have summits taking resolutions and not bringing forth results.
South Africa needs to continue with high-level engagement with the European Union, EU, including on the EU's strategy for Africa in terms of the Trade, Development and Co-Operation Agreement and the Africa-EU action plan. We should continue to implement the Joint Action Plan of the SA-EU Strategic Partnership. These include co-operation in areas of peace and security, health, information and communication technology, ICT, migration, energy and transport.
Hon Chairperson, I still have some time left and I would like to respond to my colleagues. I'm disappointed in the "lecturer" here. Hon Mubu came here with a red pen just to mark everything that has been done red, red, red!
Before I forget, I must tell you that a yo-yo does not flip-flop; it goes up and down! [Laughter.] And I have seen the flip-flopping by you from your side. On Libya you speak two different languages with your colleagues. Mokgalapa welcomes ... [Interjections.] ...