Hon Chairperson, members of the executive present here today, hon members of the fourth democratic Parliament, distinguished guests, ladies and gentleman, good afternoon. I send warm greetings to my family in the Eastern Cape, who I know are watching and I make special mention of my wife Vathiswa, my mother Nonzaliseko, and my two lovely daughters Mkrancolo and Lunga. [Interjections.]
Chairperson and hon members, as you know by now I represent a party of noble principles, Cope. [Interjections.] Also, as you know by now, Cope took a decision that in this House we shall be a patriotic opposition. [Interjections.] We reiterate our position and we shall give credit where and when it's due. However, we shall neither think twice nor hesitate to speak out loudly when this government falters, even if that means calling for a vote of no confidence against a sitting head of state. [Interjections.]
At the height of the liberation struggle, one of the pillars of the struggle was the total isolation of the apartheid regime. During those days, the regime and its few friends found themselves against the international community. Such a desperate situation required the regime to employ desperate measures. One of those desperate measures was for the regime to ensure that state-owned enterprises were totally self-sufficient for the regime and that there was little dependence on others.
If a country, for one reason or another, can lose approximately one million jobs in a period of 18 months - if that is anything to go by - surely that country needs desperate measures because it is facing a desperate situation. It is such a shame that the developmental state we purport to advance cannot learn from the past's desperate situations and apply desperate measures. Instead, incompetent, self-serving and corrupt officials with connections to the elite in the ruling party continue to line their pockets ... [Interjections.]