Deputy Speaker, hon Deputy President, hon President, hon members, friends, colleagues and comrades, it is an honour for me to take part in the debate on the President's state of the nation address, cognisant that in the imperatives and priorities outlined by the ANC in the manifesto we've given our people hope. On the evening of 11 February 2010, we celebrated the release of uTata Nelson Mandela, when he walked out of Victor Verster Prison as a free man, free at last. You chose that day to call a Joint Sitting of Parliament to deliver the state of the nation address; to celebrate a watershed moment that changed our country.
Indeed, the release of uTata Nelson Mandela was brought about by the resolute struggle of the black people in this country. The masses of our people in their different formations responded with determination to the call to make this country ungovernable and apartheid unworkable.
As we celebrate Nelson Mandela's release, we recommit ourselves to the call that he made for reconciliation, nation-building, the unity of our people, nonracialism and building a better South Africa, black and white together.
We are truly guided by the inspired words of Nelson Mandela, who on the edge of death in the dock said:
During my lifetime I have dedicated myself to this struggle of the African people, I have fought against white domination, and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve. But if it needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die.
Those were inspiring words from Nelson Mandela, on the commitment of choosing death over any other thing like the oppression of the people of this country.
In the President's programme of this year of action, the ANC commits itself also to building a developmental state, whose characteristics are similar to those of the UDF - a caring, sustainable, democratic and people-centred society. In celebrating our achievement in the ANC, we've done a number of things in a very short period of time that an apartheid government could not do in 400 years. [Applause.]
Today when you visit the Fifa website you will see that the destination for the World Cup is South Africa. There is no longer a plan B. Many of the people were caught up in euphoria about a plan B. Plan B was South Africa; plan A was South Africa; plan Z was South Africa, and we are in that mood today.
We are celebrating in the midst of despair and a total onslaught on the field of play. Today we celebrate that our struggle for transformation in sport was a just struggle and the "Age of Hope", which the former President Mbeki talked about, has dawned on sports in this country.
We are celebrating a better South Africa and, as the ANC, we even inspired millions of our people. When a young South African, Roland Schoeman, was confronted with a choice as to whether to abandon this country for money and join other swimmers to earn millions of rands in Qutar, he took a very bold decision that he would not leave South Africa and abandon his citizenship. That is patriotism in the bones of this young Afrikaner. [Applause.]
The ANC proclaimed in 1955, when our forebears, our parents, formulated the Freedom Charter, that South Africa belongs to all who live in it, black and white, and cannot be an exclusive terrain of white people with black people pushed to the periphery. That is what we are opposed to and we'll be opposed to anything that pushes the white people to the periphery and black people above them.
As we gather here today we want to join you in the call and tell the world that as the ANC we are satisfied with the 2010 Fifa World Cup preparations. The stadiums, training venues, accommodation, transport, security and even logistics, fan parks, the restaurants that will serve delicious food, and most importantly, the host cities are ready; and e can play this spectacular event in our country at any time.
We will work together to ensure that Africa's first World Cup will amaze the world and us beyond expectation. We state with absolute certainty and belief that we are ready for the world and the world is ready for our stage.
The success of this event is not just a question of the bricks and mortar operations. It offers an opportunity to place this moment in the context of our country, the continent, the past struggle of all our people and our collective future.
This event must contribute to our programme of nation-building and asserting ourselves and our Africanness and our commitment to the world. We often speak about our Africanness, our collective heartbeat that echoes throughout this great continent.
This World Cup will be similar to the one in 1995; a year after the election of a democratic country when uTata Nelson Mandela wore jersey Number 6 of the Springbok team, celebrating and uniting our people in the calls for a free, democratic, nonracial country on an equal basis. That is how he led us in the celebration of that great moment when the World Cup was won by the Springboks.
This is a difficult phrase to explain because it is not a racially exclusive term, but because it has a history that only those who were defiant and those who remain defiant in the face of repression can understand.
When you are faced with a reality that says you are not good enough, you are a third-class citizen, you can only participate within predetermined perimeters, you still have a choice at that moment to either accept the fate that has been assigned to you, or choose to change that fate. This is when our Africanness moved from being a static word to being an action.
It is not rhetoric but an active reality; it is the movement that started over many years with founding fathers of the liberation movement, the likes of Kwame Nkrumah, Samora Machel, Oliver Tambo and Nelson Mandela.
The will to move mountains to achieve what we believe is just and fair is part of the eternal mechanism of our Africanness. It is what drives our constant pursuit of excellence and equality; it is also what instils the belief that both excellence and equality are possible, simultaneously.
This is what the 2010 Fifa World Cup epitomises to us as a country. We had to fight both internally and externally. There was pessimism and disbelief at the tenacity of our country at the southernmost tip of Africa to host this tournament.
We do not think any other country has had to contend with as much negativity as we have. When we arrived in Korea, Japan, Germany and France, all of them said this negativity comes from our country. They said that their sister journalists are fed by Media 24 about the negativity in our country. They asked where we thought they got this information if not from our country.
We, journalists, and the people should be patriotic because when you ask them where they get the information that people at O R Tambo Airport have spears, pangas and guns, they say it is our country that feeds them with that kind of information; but it is not real.
Those who supported the 2010 World Cup are ingrained with an Africanness. They include Desmond Tutu, Sepp Blatter, Issa Hayatou and our own Nelson Mandela. The new faces of Africanness have been awakened by hosting the 2010 Fifa World Cup in a few months, with almost 115 days to go.
For the entire history of Fifa it has never been on the shores of this continent, a continent that has given so much to the world and that has produced the likes of Ace Mabhekaphantsi Ntsoelengoe, Roger Milla, Steve Kalamazoo Mokone, Lucas Radebe, Abedi Pele, George Weah, Michael Essien, Samuel Eto'o, Didier Drogba - and the list is endless.
That is why we are unequivocal in calling on the country to rally against injustice. Today we are satisfied that South Africa must heed this call, the call that we are ready to host the 2010 Soccer World Cup because working together has demonstrated that we can achieve more.
Today no one needs to be convinced ... Thank you. [Time expired.]