Chairperson, Acting President, Ministers present, Deputy Ministers, MECs present, Members of Parliament and our guests, "Afrika ke nako." ["Africa's time has come."] We can feel it; it is here.
In order for Parliament to exercise its oversight role, a joint ad hoc committee was established to determine South Africa's state of readiness to host the Soccer World Cup. The ad hoc committee was composed of members of both the portfolio and select committees from both Houses. We would like to thank the Speaker and Chairperson for allowing us to do that oversight work, because we as Members of Parliament were able to check the state of readiness.
We must say that this was a committee of men and women from all the parties - all of us united - who had to make sure that we could check our state of readiness for hosting this spectacular event. What we were doing included checking host cities and stadia. In short, we were all of one voice in saying that without any doubt South Africa was ready to host the 2010 World Cup.
Allow us, then, to cite examples of what we came across as we were moving around. We talked to people and some of them were eager to tell us that they were ready for 2010, and that they had even been ready beforehand. We hoped that we would be able then to get the necessary support and make sure that we could move as one.
After the oversight visits we called the Ministers who signed the Fifa guarantees, the supporting departments and the stakeholders, such as Acsa, the SA Petroleum Industry Association and SAA - all of them - as well as the host cities. We were assured that, by hook or by crook, we were going to host a spectacular World Cup.
We were happy because the collective spirit and resilience carried us through in overcoming the insurmountable task of proving our detractors wrong by meeting all the deadlines that were set by Fifa. Most of our stadia and accommodation - almost everything - met Fifa requirements. We hope that we make use of the legacy of the World Cup as a developing country. This has come about because all of us were working together - stakeholders, departments and even ordinary people in South Africa.
After this teamwork with all of the committees was over, I'm sure that what wasn't mentioned was that I was their "super induna". They were reporting to me, though I am not sure why they are so jealous now that they are not saying that they were under my supervision. They had to kneel before me and then I would give them permission! All in all, it was a great experience for me to do this job. After all, we were able to do proper oversight work - to be "an activist Parliament" as the President has said. We were also happy to get assistance from MECs, host cities, mayors, and so on.
With regard to the energy side of things, it is quite important, not because I chair the Energy Portfolio Committee, but because you can do what you need to in the stadia and with accommodation, but if you don't get the energy and power supply right, you may experience problems. What I am reporting here today is that in all these aspects everything went okay, and we even did dry runs. In all the stadia we tripped the power, and saw that with all of them there was power again in less than one minute. In some of the stadia, you wouldn't even have known that there was load shedding. That is how prepared we are for the World Cup, unless there are ...
... abantu laba abathakathayo. Abazohamba-ke bagijime ngomshayelo lapho singaba nenkinga, kodwa uma kungekho abantu abathakathayo ... [... people practising witchcraft. That is the only thing that can give us problems, but if there are no witches ...]
... we are ready. All those systems will have uninterrupted service, so we hope that this is really reassuring.
What is left for us to do then is to welcome these people. I am sure that all of us will be seen at the stadia. But we must give them our cuisine. Let's encourage them to have pap and steak. Let us encourage them to have morogo. Let us encourage them ...
... ukuthi badle amasonja ngoba alungile futhi anempilo. [... to eat mopani worms, because they are good and healthy.]
Let us make sure that after this they will come back. Some of them will definitely come back.
With regard to this World Cup, we are happy as Parliament and as members that we really did the oversight work in earnest, and we don't think that there will be any problems, unless we have ...
... abaningi abahamba ebusuku. [... many witches.]
All in all, let's have the spirit and the vibe, and make sure that we fly the flags in our homes too. We must try to do the same with our cars - everything. We say: "Viva, Bafana Bafana! Viva!"
HON MEMBERS: Viva!