Minjhani? [How are you?] [Interjections.]
This debate takes me back to the years of my childhood. I had just finished the Standard 6 exams and had travelled to central western Jabavu to join my daddy as my next school was Morris Isaacson High. He took me to town with him. I felt so good. We got to his place of work where there were a lot of papers on which was written, "SA Congress of Trade Unions", Sactu. This held no fascination for me.
A white woman came with a packet of sweets and she said:
Hi, Sheila. Call me Mom Ruth.
My mother confirmed that this was Mom Ruth First, wife of Comrade Joe Slovo. Baba Slovo also greeted me. Mom Ruth brought me tea and very nice scones. She asked me about my school, Fofoza Primary School in Tzaneen, and I told her about my teachers, their lessons and my examinations.
At the end of the day she said, "Mark, your child is a blue stocking. I am going to require that she comes here every Saturday for Maths lessons."
Sheila Weinberg, who was at Wits University, became my teacher. [Applause.] I was so happy. I became so knowledgeable, and fell in love with figures - a love that I still cherish today. This love was instilled in me by the liberation movement in the person of Mom Ruth First. My father left to go into exile. One Saturday, as I came from my lessons, a police van stopped next to me. They bundled me into the police van where there were many women and young children like me. We were taken to a police cell, which was overcrowded. We slept without water or food. In the morning, the door opened and we were told to appear before a magistrate. Our sins were read out.
My name, Sheila Shope, was called. I went and stood near the magistrate. I was told that my sin was that I had no fixed abode in Johannesburg. The magistrate asked me what my name was and I said "Sheila Shope". He proceeded to ask where I stayed. I told him that I stayed at 600 CWJ. I was discharged, and Aunt Sophie Mashele who stayed at 601 came to fetch me.
The next thing that happened was that the house in central western Jabavu was taken from us, which left George, Ntombi and me without a home. Many times the special branch police came to my mother's house. They searched and took our photo albums, including my certificates, and never returned them.
In 1972, my younger brother, Stepford George Shope, who was studying at Fort Hare, was beaten up by the police and sustained head injuries. The police followed him the following year to the University of the North where he was doing his second year BSC in Maths and Physics, and they killed him. The damage caused by apartheid prior to 1994 is severe. The pain is still in my heart. A lot of South African children's rights were violated left, right and centre. All we can afford to do is forgive and work hard to make sure that no child in our land, black and white, irrespective of religion or belief, must suffer what we have suffered through the apartheid era. But we will not forget.
Thanks to God that the ANC took over the government in 1994. As soon as they took over the government, the ANC started applying the established ANC policy position on children. We support the International Convention on the Rights of the Child and the supporting plan of action.
I also want to thank all parties that were in this House from 1994 to date that, together, we have passed many pieces of legislation. We must congratulate ourselves. [Applause.] We must see reason in the call of the President: "Together we can do more." We made these laws together.
I heard the hon member from the DA talking about his success in the Western Cape. I just want to offer free education. I have realised that there is a lot of ignorance in this House. If you are a Member of Parliament in the NA, you are not a local councillor.
You are responsible for every inch of this country. You are responsible for every failure in every corner of the Republic of South Africa. [Applause.] South Africa is one unitary state. I want you to know that, as a House, what we should do is engage government together and question when the state's next report on the Convention on the Rights of the Child is due.
We must also ask the Minister and government officials going to Geneva for a presentation of the report to the state, the committee or the House. This we have got to do together. It does not help us to sit here slinging mud at one another and passing motions of no confidence which will end up hurting all of us.
It is in our togetherness that we will be strong, that we are going to hold government to account. I would like to ask the Minister, who is responsible for the rights of children, what the plans are for this department in making sure that the rights of children are observed by all departments in the Republic of South Africa. [Applause.]
In conclusion, I would like to declare in this House that I love the ANC because it took from me all the pain that I had gone through as a child. I love the ANC. I honestly do. Thank you. [Applause.]