Mr Speaker, we in the DA have until today been speaking about the critical need for jobs to be created in South Africa. Indeed, both sides of this House have been engaged in the debates both within these walls and outside, about the best ways of creating employment for the people of South Africa.
However, Speaker, I fear that sometimes we immunise ourselves against the very real human aspect of this crisis as these debates become saturated with statistics that speak to the economic necessities of the country, but do not truly speak to the necessities of people becoming full citizens of our country.
Motsamaisi ya kgabane wa Dipuisano, e re ke nke monyetla ona ho hopotsa Ntlo ena hore ditokelo di tsamaisana le boikarabelo. Kahoo, re le ditho tsa Ntlo ena re tsebe hore re hlokomele setjhaba sa rona le hore boikarabelo ba batho ba Afrika Borwa bo mahetleng a rona. (Translation of Sesotho paragraph follows.)
[Hon Speaker, let me take this opportunity to remind this House that rights go hand in hand with responsibilities. In that case, as members of this House we should know that we are supposed to take care of the nation, because the responsibility for the people of South Africa rests on our shoulders.]
Before the dawn of democracy and freedom, we endured the pain of unfair labour practices, poverty, unemployment, ignorance, and unequal opportunities. Our hearts still harbour these sorrowful memories, but the sad part of it is realising that all those things are still continuing even now as I am standing before you. Nevertheless, the past is over and it is the future and hope that beckon us now.
Mohlomong nako e fihlile ya hore re ke re botse, haholoholo mokgatlo ona o busang hore na re feela re phethahatsa ditoro tsa Ntate Nelson Mandela na? Re a tseba bohle kamoo a buellang tshireletso ya ditokelo tsa botho le toka ka teng le hore e be tsa bohle naheng ena ya rona. (Translation of Sesotho paragraph follows.)
[Maybe the time has come for us to ask ourselves, especially the ruling party, if we really are fulfilling Nelson Mandela's dream. We all know how he promotes human rights and justice, and how he emphasises that they belong to every person in this country.]
Mr President, during your inauguration speech you made a commitment to our people and to the world, and I quote:
For as long as there are workers who struggle to feed their families and battle to find jobs, for as long as there are rural dwellers unable to make a decent living from the land they live on, for as long as there are children who do not have means or opportunities to receive a decent education, we shall not rest, and we dare not falter in our drive to eradicate poverty.
You further said, Mr President, that workers, who would ordinarily be facing retrenchment due to economic difficulty, would be kept in employment for a period of time and be reskilled. How can we talk about human dignity and justice for all if there are millions of our people who go to bed on an empty stomach.
How can we talk about human dignity and justice for all if there are South Africans who remain unskilled, uneducated and unemployed and if there are South Africans who are still losing their employment or their jobs every day.
How can we talk about human dignity and justice for all when there are South Africans who up to this day don't have shelter?
Speaker, I fear that the question of human dignity, as raised by the President, which should be at the heart of all our discussions about job creation, has been sacrificed at the altar of outdated and irrelevant labour principles that are counterproductive to our aim of ensuring that South Africans of working age, who choose to, can go and find a job.
Speaker, it seems sometimes irrational to me that we are still having this discussion when 17 years of an inflexible labour market has already proved the point: millions of unemployed people who are joined every year by yet more unfortunate people for whom working, like basic dignity and decency, will remain out of reach. We share South Africans' relief that many in the ANC government have come to share our perspective and realise that we first have to talk about how people can get employment in order to ensure basic decency and dignity before we concern ourselves with arguments that are doomed to irrelevance if we do not have employable people to apply them to.
We should be wary of pretending that in our struggle for dignity and human decency, we have reached the end point where we can refine our new system before we have even achieved some of the most basic goals of dignity for our people. Let us not overburden our labour system with stifling protective measures before we have even ensured that people have employment.
Ha ho motho ya utlwang bohloko ba ho hloka mosebetsi jwaloka motho ya tjamelaneng le bona. Bohloko ba seeta bo utluwa ke monga sona. Mme o qetella a hloka le seriti le ho ikutlwa e se letho ha a sa fumane moputso. Taba ena ha e ame yena feela empa e boela e ama le ba lelapa la hae hammoho le batho ba bang ba sebetsang hobane ba qobellwa ho lefa lekgetho le phahameng hore ba tle ba kgone ho thusa bana ba sa sebetseng. (Translation of Sesotho paragraph follows.)
[No one feels the pain of being unemployed than the person who is facing that dilemma himself. The pain caused by a shoe is felt only by the person wearing it. That person ends up losing dignity and feeling useless because he doesn't earn any salary. This issue does not affect him only, it also affects his family, as well as those who are employed because they are compelled to pay higher taxes in order to help those who are unemployed.]
About 15 million South African people in our country are still receiving social grants from the state. We should not regard this as a success or achievement; it is a shame on us and appears so to the world, if you consider the natural resources that we have as a country. Maybe the other question that we need to be asking ourselves is: Do social grants make people happy? Evidently not, but ironically, they contribute to putting food on the table. They then become even more insecure because they fear that the government may withdraw or reduce the size of their grant.
Grants can also add to the humiliation that unemployed people feel about being dependent and unproductive, and therefore unable to make decisions about their lives. Every time when they collect their grants, they are subjected to different forms of humiliation from the government officials, such as still standing in long queues on rainy days with no shelter to protect them, no chairs to sit on, no toilets to use while the same officials have expensive furniture in their offices. In addition, they are stigmatised by the rest of the society as lazy, idle and worthless.
Mr Speaker, the DA is concerned about the fact that a large section of our population depends on social grants. A society in which the majority depends on social welfare cannot sustain its development. The DA strongly believes that the contribution of productive opportunities and skills improvement would reduce dependence on social grants and result in citizens becoming more self-reliant. South African people are hard-working people and are not lazy. Give them the opportunity.
Hon Minister Trevor Manuel once said at the International Social Security Conference that was held in Cape Town:
Social security arrangements also have immense power to do damage - when they promise too much, or are too inflexible, and hence contribute to fiscal unsustainability and perhaps financial crisis, and also when their rules are unfair and hence contribute to social discontent and unrest.
Motsamaisi ya kgabane wa Dipuisano, re bua jwang ka mmuso o shebaneng le ntshetsopele ya setjhaba empa maemo a thuto ya rona a ntse a fokola, batho ba rona ba ntse ba le ditlamong tsa bofuma, ba tshepetse dithusong tsa thekolohelo, ba sa sebetse mme ba hloka le boitsebelo hore ba ka hirwa mesebetsing e meng e itseng? President John Kennedy o kile a bua mantswe a latelang, mme ke a mo qotsa: ... (Translation of Sesotho paragraph follows.)
[Hon Speaker, how can we talk about the government that is responsible for the development of the nation, when our country's education system is getting poorer, when our people are still chained by poverty, relying on social services, being unemployed and not having experiences so that they can be employed for other jobs? President John Kennedy once said the following words, and I quote:]
Our problems are man-made. Therefore they can be solved by a man, and no problem of human destiny is beyond human beings.
Re le mokgatlo wa DA re dumela ka hohle hore bokamoso ba naha ya rona bo itshetlehile hodima ... [Nako e fedile.] [Mahofi.] [We, as the DA, agree that our country's future relies on ... [Time expired.][Applause.]]