I pity your ignorance.
Having spent 10 years in government, I'm aware of both the great challenges which have confronted us since 1994 and of how much still remains to be done to meet the minimum objectives promised with our liberation. I was committed to the agenda of social and economic liberation while I was in government. And I remain committed to it from the opposition benches.
Last week the President often referred to us all as being compatriots, and indeed we are. In addition, I respect the President, warts and all, because behind him, rightly or wrongly, lies the will of the democratic mandate of 66% of the South African people. I could not hinder or oppose that without opposing the South African people. However, I must differentiate between the will of the South African people and that which is required to deliver to the people what they expect.
In this critical time the President stands to fail and words alone will not fix problems. I cannot afford to see the President and his government fail. If they fail, my own country fails. If the President and his government fail, I will not applaud and rejoice, but will weep. [Applause.] For if they fail, our liberation fails.
In this time of economic turbulence and enormous challenges, we are in this boat together. Together we will sail or sink. Therefore the type of engagement I seek and offer the President is in the recognition that my admonitions, my criticism and insight are being offered with no interest in mind but the success of our country and the survival of our liberation process. [Applause.]
From this perspective, I must denounce and warn against the practice of making exaggerated and unrealistic promises which government has pursued and does not seem to be willing to ever relinquish. We must stop insulting the intelligence of our people, especially the poorest of the poor.
We are experiencing social ruptures, widespread protests and ever- increasing dissatisfaction because what was promised is perceived not to have been delivered. This cannot be addressed by promising more, unless we wish to see the social unrest rising out of control into a wave which wipes us all out.
I'm convinced, Your Excellency, that if we stop treating our people as if they are morons by promising them pie in the sky, they will be with us. They will understand that we have a difficult role to play. We do not need to promise what obviously cannot be delivered. After all, we have not been in this democratic dispensation for that long. We knew that we were starting to govern a people the majority of whom comprised the poorest of the poor who had deliberately been kept under conditions of deprivation.
Let us not therefore pretend to be latter day Pied Pipers of Hamelin in that fable where the Pied Piper played his pipe and all the rats followed him. We must not pretend to our people that we have any magic wands because we have none. We should refrain from insulting our people by running to them with food hampers during elections, which we know cannot be sustained.
This government cannot continue to try and be everything to everyone. This is the time to take the developmental direction and pursue it with single- minded determination. The economic and social crises require firm stewardship. In this process I plead with the President to heed my admonition, rather than the call for easy populism and radicalism often fuelled by a long-obsolete communist mindset. [Interjections.]
Before it hit South Africa, I warned the government that we would not be spared from the mounting world economic depression. In the same week there was a Financial Mail cover story, with our then hon Minister of Finance's photograph on the cover, in which the Minister was saying that according to government advisors we will not be as ravaged by the recession as other countries. The impression was that the depression would bypass South Africa.
Thereafter, from our benches we warned the government not to give excessive credence to the same economic advisors who are now touting the exaggerated promise of a quick economic recovery, looking for green shoots in the underbrush of a dying forest of economic depression. Do we want to brand ourselves as a nation of denialists? We have been in denial whether it came to crime or whether it was HIV and Aids.
I praise the President for the announcement he made about the new long-term programme of infrastructural development. But it will take time before its economic benefits will be felt. In the meantime, we need to deal with the projected downturn in the construction industry after the third quarter, which will coincide with the recessionary effects that always follow the completion of the infrastructural work and expenses associated with World Cups or Olympic Games, whether it was in Greece or in other countries where events of this type have been held.
I fear that the people of South Africa are going to experience much economic anguish after August this year, and we must prepare for that. Let's prepare our people for it without dampening their enthusiasm for the magic of the 2010 World Cup.
Our economic vision must be clear and avoid all that is confusing. The talk of nationalisation is most detrimental as is the ambiguity with which the President has fudged this issue when he said that the matter is open for debate. If we don't make the clear and unequivocal statement that we shall not nationalise anything which can stand on its economic feet in this time of crisis, we will deter domestic and foreign investors who might look at South Africa as a land of opportunity.
I must admit that as we grew up as young African nationalists in the ANC, we were quite fascinated by nationalisation. I paid two visits to the late President Julius Nyerere. My first trip was paid to Mwalimu to thank him for giving sanctuary to all our political exiles. On the second occasion I wanted to see Ujamaa, African socialism in operation. President Nyerere was a very honest politician. He gave me his book, 10 Years After Arusha. By that time he was already admitting some of his mistakes in implementing African socialism, Ujamaa.
In 1994, when President Nyerere came to South Africa, he visited me in my office as Minister of Home Affairs. He told me that in 1980 he said the following words, "You have inherited a jewel", to President Mugabe, when he was then installed as the first Prime Minister of a democratic Zimbabwe. He was referring to the economy of Zimbabwe. He also said:
Don't do what I did in Tanzania. Don't destroy it.
The rest is history. [Laughter.]
My stand against nationalisation is not inconsistent, of course. I have voiced my opinion in this House for three years on the necessity for nationalising the Reserve Bank, as was done in the United Kingdom, so that the government may begin regaining control over what we use as our money and hope that we may one day move towards a debt-free currency.
We must go beyond the commitment not to nationalise, to adopt the policy of privatising anything which will be better off if relinquished from government ownership and which taxpayers have no business in financing. Our anguished taxpayers have no reason to continue to pay the bill for companies that operate at a perpetual loss, only because they have found in the state an indulgent sugar-daddy who continues to pour out money with no hope of return, such as in the case of Denel and SAA. [Applause.] If privatised, these companies will find their correct positioning in the marketplace.
A year has passed and little has been done to bring about the savings promised last year, with the prospect of the taxpayer having to continue to pay for the constant mismanagement of the Land Bank and many other state entities which have now been out of control for years.
I urge the President to speak with one tongue and in a loud voice to provide iron-fist leadership in economic matters, and cut into positions of privilege, consolidated economic turf and institutional corruption without fear of inflicting pain or creating resentment, for the rest of the country will recognise and applaud his leadership.
To the President I say: Be merciless in shutting down the many state institutions which do not deliver and redirect their funding towards those which can deliver. I know that the President referred to what he called a review of the parastatals in his interview with the SABC on Saturday. We must now move beyond just rhetoric on this issue.
This is not a time in which the country can endure hesitation or a wishy- washy benevolent style of leadership. At the risk of becoming unpopular, it is time for the President to rise to the challenge of being tough and determined. If one tries to be all things to all men, one ends up being neither fish nor fowl. [Applause.]
The priorities he identified for us have remained unchanged since 1994. They are the health and education crisis, crime and corruption crises, unemployment crisis and the rural development crisis. And, I would like to say, as far as rural development is concerned, Your Excellency, it will never take off without traditional leadership being given an opportunity to be part of it.
It is a disgrace that after 16 years of black rule in South Africa no budgets are being made available to all traditional structures and leadership. These problems have become worse since 1994, and we must accept that they are not going to be solved within the present paradigm. Albert Einstein, the genius, defined madness as expecting different results while continuing to do the same thing.
With regard to education, we must have the courage of firing teachers who do not produce results and stop this nonsense of refusing to perform a thorough assessment of teachers' skills and education. A teacher whose class does not obtain the desired results for two years in a row should be immediately dismissed, as should the principal of a school with poor results. Please, Your Excellency, implement what you have announced. The plight of our education system is so serious that the President should not be intimidated by the threats of the teachers' unions. [Applause.]
As the President knows, in the erstwhile KwaZulu we had a much higher pass rate than we now have in the very same schools, in spite of the standard having been lowered and the amount of money spent on education and teacher training having dramatically increased. This is unacceptable. As a country, we cannot afford to lower educational and exam standards, unless we wish to commit national suicide by instalments. [Applause.]
The crime situation is out of control. Yesterday and today newspaper headlines announced that students are killed just for their cellphones; and that gives me sleepless nights. Your Excellency, I wonder how many of the visitors that are coming in June will be killed for their cellphones.
According to the crime statistics published on NationMaster.com, South Africa has the highest per capita levels of murder by firearms and rape and assault anywhere in the world where crime statistics exist; and has the second highest level of murder by means other than firearms. The solution to this massive crisis is not through quick fixes, such as calling on the police to become trigger-happy, at the risk of slaughtering innocent bystanders and suspects alike.
Let's face it, generally speaking, our Police service does not have the required capacity to identify and interrogate witnesses, to collect and secure evidence, and prepare and present cases for prosecution. This is as a result of both a lack of training and of resources.
The fundamental problem with crime is that most criminals have a legitimate expectation of impunity. In most parts of our country, crime is still amateurish; but as it flourishes, the crime industry becomes better organised, which will find our police even less prepared to cope with what is likely to come. Let us no longer rely on words, words, words. We need better-trained and better-resourced policemen, and higher standards, which may force those who do not live up to the new required levels of output, performance, training and education to leave the force and find other opportunities for employment.
We cannot continue to carry dead wood in the Police Service and in the Public Service alike. After 1994, it was unavoidable and necessary for a number of insufficiently qualified people to be inserted in the Public Service or promoted beyond their natural talents, education and training. However, this has created a pervasive climate of inefficiency and poor performance often adjusted to the performance of the lowest common denominator.
We now have the benefit of a new generation of bright, competent and well- trained younger people who have come through the ranks of our universities and the Public Service itself. It is time to separate the wheat from the chaff and get rid of those who cannot keep up with the very challenges that the President has outlined in the state of the nation address.
Government is people. And if people in the government are not good enough to carry forward what it takes to overcome the challenges that the President has identified, our government will not deliver no matter what the President says and no matter what his Ministers commit themselves to doing.
Finally, I now plead that we stop the rhetoric of celebrations. The President and the hon Chief Whip have kindly recognised that I dedicated my life to the release of former President Mandela and other political prisoners, and the unbanning of political parties.
I have spent my life in the struggle for liberation. But the struggle before us is now greater than what we were facing before 1994. We knew that political liberation would eventually come, even if it was only to happen after our own lifetime. In the struggle for prosperity now before us there is no certainty of victory, and our failure would crush the hopes of a continent and destroy our people.
Also in this respect, we must not insult the intelligence of our people. They cannot feed their families with celebrations, whether these are celebrations of our past victories, or the centennial celebrations of our country's unity, or the celebration of victories achieved on soccer or cricket fields.
I urge the President to mobilise the immense support that he has amongst the grassroots of South Africa for a new national struggle, calling for the collective upliftment and individual development of our population. In other words, it is our struggle for economic emancipation. Mr President, we need a national effort of historical proportions, built on education, work, education, work, education, work and more work.
Our generation sacrificed to bequeath freedom to the next generation. The present generation must understand that with the same spirit of mission, it must sacrifice, so that its collective hard work and dedication may bequeath prosperity to the next generation. My party and I want to help the President in this effort if he accepts our call to rise to the challenge of becoming the leader of a national movement which cuts across all the nonsense, wherever it is found, and puts us all to work to build that better future we all have dreamed of for so many generations.
Ingangawe Msholozi! Nxamalala! [It is all yours Msholozi! Nxamalala!] [Applause.]