Your information is wrong. We can talk about that outside. My past is known to everybody and I have dealt with it. Maybe it is time for others to do the same. [Applause.]
Chairperson, it is clear that we still face challenges in this regard. As long as we have media reports on incidents like the Reitz Four, as long as reports of human rights abuses masked as orientation practices at our institutions of learning exist or we hear of state officials undermining the human dignity of citizens by providing bad or inadequate services, as long as people are using derogatory terms to describe one another, then we are not there yet.
The police are the protectors of our rights as citizens. While we all support our law enforcement agencies in their efforts to fight crime, this needs to be done within the parameters of the law and without affecting the rights bestowed on citizens.
In this regard, the ANC government introduced and this House passed legislation on the Independent Police Investigative Directorate and on the Civilian Secretariat of Police. That will strengthen the civilian oversight and accountability of the Metro Police agencies and the South African Police Service.
Chairperson, there are those - also in this House - who masquerade as the founders and guardians of the concept of human rights. This was again demonstrated today, especially during the time for statements. These people never miss an opportunity to present themselves as morally superior to the rest of us. But, hon Chairperson, what does their own record say about this matter?
We are in the fortunate position where we don't have to guess or presume. We can just look at their record in this House, the city and the province. I will limit myself to a couple of examples, all of them quite recent.
Chairperson, I once again would like to make use of the words of Kofi Annan to introduce this part of my argument. He said:
The right to development is the measure of the respect of all other human rights. That should be our aim: a situation in which all individuals are enabled to maximise their potential, and to contribute to the evolution of society as a whole.
Yet, Chairperson, we see demonstrated, not only in words, but in the strongest possible action how the DA vote time and again against any form of progressive and empowering legislation in this House. Let me mention a few examples: labour legislation, the Firearms Control Act and education legislation.
How often have they not recently made a noise around the National Health Insurance plan? I could not agree more with hon Michaels when she said in this House just before me that where services are not delivered there are no human rights.
If one follows the argument of Kofi Annan, stated above, then one would agree that the provision of basic services, especially to those in our poor and underdeveloped communities, is urgent and forms part of giving life to the Bill of Rights. This is especially true in informal settlements.
Gavin Silber, co-ordinator of the Social Justice Coalition, SJC - a Khayelitsha-based community organisation, whose members live in informal settlements - makes some interesting observations in an article in the Mail & Guardian. The SJC was established to address the scourge of crime in informal settlements, but its primary campaign focused on access to safe and clean sanitation. He says:
Although the link between safety and sanitation may seem tenuous to those with a toilet and running water in their homes, our members feel that they are most at risk when needing to relieve themselves.
The article then explains how the SJC tried in vain to engage positively with the City of Cape Town. The SJC, through an application in terms of the Promotion of Access to Information Act, requested the release of an internal investigation into the Makhaza toilet saga.
The article further states that:
The report when released, showed that the city itself had found that insufficient consultation had taken place before Makhaza's "loos with views" were constructed, that residents were given Hobson's choice and that the regulations in the Water Services Act "were not complied with".
Hobson's choice, for who that do not know, is a choice that you can make freely, but it is only a choice of one thing. You either accept it or you don't, because there is no alternative.
Chair, I would like to ask the hon Leader of the Opposition in the House whether they would have accepted this situation had it happened in Rondebosch, in Camps Bay, or in Bellville. I would like to ask them whether they would have accepted this situation if it were their mother, their wife, sister or daughter who had to use those toilets.
With apologies to Paul Farmer, if this question of access to sanitation and basic services is considered a human right, then who is considered human enough to have that right?
Gavin Silber then continues and highlights the much-publicised 70% drop in crime over five years in one of the most dangerous areas in Cape Town, namely Khayelitsha. This statement was issued and made by the DA, claiming that, under their rule of the city and the province, they had succeeded in bringing crime down by an astonishing 70%. Just imagine what they can do in the rest of the country! It later emerged that that figure was in fact only 24% because the DA had failed to incorporate two of the three police stations in Khayelitsha into these astonishing figures. It currently stands at 17%. Do they even know that there are three police stations in Khayelitsha?
Despite numerous requests that they should formally retract the statement, the DA refused and, to this day, its heading appears on their website. It is an absolute shame!
So, brace yourselves. Your right to accurate and reliable information will be nonexistent under a DA government. Or is it like Steve Biko said:
The most potent weapon in the hands of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed.
[Applause.]
The hon Chikunga, in her statement, highlighted ... [Interjections.]
You can make as much noise as you want to, it does not even bother me.