Muchaviseki Xipikara, muchaviseki Presidente wa tiko ra Afrika Dzonga, muchaviseki Xandla xa Presidente na vachaviseki va Swirho swa Palamende, Pan Africanist Congress, PAC, ya mi xeweta. (Translation of Xitsonga paragraph follows.)
[Mr L M MPHAHLELE: Hon Speaker, hon President of the Republic of South Africa, hon Deputy President and hon Members of Parliament, the Pan Africanist Congress, PAC, salutes you.]
Hon President, the PAC welcomes the good news of the revival of land reform projects and irrigation schemes in the former homelands and also the farms in distress owned by individuals. Mr President, we appeal to you to re-open the process of land claims as many legitimate claimants were left out due to poor communication and the remoteness of their abodes.
The rural areas desperately need all-weather roads, speedy postal services, banks, manufacturing plants, wind power generators, water canals for irrigation, forest plantations, hydroelectric stations, dams and the rehabilitation of land for agricultural purposes.
People flock to the cities because there is no meaningful economic activity in the rural areas. We need to decentralise development. The PAC welcomes a decrease in most crimes as shown by the crime statistics. However, it is disturbing that crime seems to be increasing in the rural areas.
Stock theft is ruining both subsistence and commercial farmers beyond recovery. The rural areas are underpoliced. Stock theft is deepening poverty because people no longer farm with animals. Instead, they opt to join the multitudes of grant-recipients.
The government should also up the gear to combat cross-border stock theft. Witchcraft and ritual-related matters continue unabated in the rural areas. Besides dispatching the police to the crime scenes, the government seems to be running out of ideas to fight this scourge.
We have never debated witchcraft openly, except in informal, whispered conversations. Now is the time for the nation to debate witchcraft openly and honestly. I move from the premise that no one can use a broom to fly or use dead human organs to attract customers to their business. We need to save the lives of many rural dwellers, mostly old women and their grandchildren, waiting to be sacrificed to the greedy goddess of ignorance.
Our schools must play an educative role. Education, worthy of the name, should liberate communities from this primitive belief in witchcraft. No amount of policing can stamp out witchcraft killings, but a certain amount of education can arrest the situation.
A promotion of the African agenda, like charity, begins at home. For us in the PAC, the African agenda is all-encompassing and includes the preservation and promotion of African languages; a knowledge of Africa, present and past; and respect for African humanity.
As things stand now, South Africa is still trapped in the Eurocentric orbit. For example, the SABC radio and TV never fail to update the nation on European football leagues. One may think that no football is played in Lesotho, Zambia and Libya. Why are we bombarded with Hollywood productions that glamorise violence and infidelity?
Resolving conflicts is good, but it is better to prevent them. The conflicts in Africa won't stop for so long as we have Lusophone Africa, Anglophone Africa and Francophone Africa. The PAC believes that the unification of Africa is a remedy to the African socio-politico-economic ills.
The promotion of an African agenda must reaffirm the ownership of Africa by Africans. Every ounce of African gold, every bale of African cotton and every kilogram of African coffee must be owned, controlled and priced by Africans themselves. African unity must be at the top of the African agenda.
The PAC welcomes the establishment of a special anticorruption unit. Corruption is a cancer afflicting all organs of our society. Unfortunately, the ruling party has institutionalised corruption through a cadre deployment policy. There is no honour among the corrupt. The ruling party members are killing each other over the loot.
Corruption is eating into the soul of our nation as the ruling party captures state resources for the benefit of the rulers and their relatives. Those honest members of the ruling party must stand up and join the relentless struggle against corruption.
It is good to renovate hospitals and clinics, but the attitude of some medical professionals needs some renovation and refurbishment! Thank you.
Uyizwile weMsholozi. [You heard it, Msholozi.]