Speaker, hon President, hon Deputy President, Members of Parliament, comrades and compatriots, what is the difference between the ANC and Cope? The difference is that it can't be about policies because they don't have any. The difference is that they hate President Gedleyihlekisa Jacob Zuma. That is the fundamental difference. With the DA, it's because it represents the past and backwardness and the ANC represents progressive ideas.
We are in the year of the action-packed time of our lives ...
... mo kgabo e jang kgajwana [... where it is the survival of the fittest].
We are steadily recovering from the global economic downturn that had a negative impact on the lives of our people; the economic phase that welcomed us to office in May 2009. The economic situation has seen petty crimes being committed during the first and second quarters of 2009, due to the global problem we found ourselves in as the new administration.
Serious crime itself also showed some ugly faces; with malls in the Western Cape and Gauteng being primary targets, especially in the first quarter of 2009. Criminals became much more sophisticated. And to win the fight against crime, we needed to step up our game and be ahead of them - we needed to be even more sophisticated than them. If we don't nip their actions in the bud, we'll find these criminals passing us twice on the same job.
In response to these calculated actions by criminals, we introduced the Tactical Response Team in an effort to combat crime. This cluster Tactical Response Team, whose job is not to negotiate but to fight, has trained officers who are and will always be visible in hostile situations, and especially in our malls.
These are officers who get advanced training on how to handle crisis situations where the hard-nut-to-crack criminals have taken over the lives of the innocent, through ATM bombings, business robberies and random shootings in crowded areas.
We are on track in the fight against crime. We are not going to claim easy victories. It is all systems go, with all the necessary ammunition in our hands to fight crime.
We understand that the fight against crime does not need a one answer that fits all. It requires a comprehensive approach. We are proactively responding to these dynamics and realising the prescripts of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, which guarantees the right to security, life and dignity.
We are fundamentally turning around the police through a long-term results- driven vision, coupled with efficient measures. We are repositioning the department through a fundamental paradigm shift, enhanced optimal excellence and unlocking productive value.
Part of our ammunition in the fight against crime is the sharpening of our tools, to ensure that all our agencies are fully supported by the legislation. That is why we talked about the amendment of section 49 of the Criminal Procedure Act, and the revisiting and reworking of the forensic Bill.
We would like to reiterate that we are not going to allow our detractors to blackmail us through their emphasis on shoot-to-kill, as if this is a government policy, or the amendment of section 49 as the alpha and omega. We are not going to allow that.
We should reiterate that even before we talked about the amendment of section 49, in our quest to sharpen and strengthen the tools for fighting crime, the police, except in particular cases, have acted within the law and have taught criminals a good lesson. That is why we are saying we will deal with criminals with the agility of a cat and the ferocity of a cornered bull.
Basopa tsotsi! Lumka tsotsi! Washa tsotsi! [Beware tsotsi!]
The 2010 Fifa World Cup is here. It is your civic duty, and mine, to ensure that the country's image is intact. It is our civic duty to ensure that all the visitors are welcome in South Africa. We owe this to those who fought for freedom and peace in our country. We owe this to the 20th anniversary of the release of former President Mandela.
With Madiba's smile, the country is expecting 32 World Cup qualifying countries for this greatest showpiece in the world. For the first time on African soil, we will be welcoming millions of people to our shores. We are hopeful that Bafana Bafana will do us all proud!
The task ahead is enormous. The Constitution provides for us to safeguard South African inhabitants and those within our borders. We have a constitutional obligation to ensure that all the guests, during this soccer showpiece, just as has been the case with other previous major events, are safe and are able to enjoy the game of millions.
We have undertaken serious self-evaluation of our ability to prevent any unwanted threatening situations in our midst, especially during the World Cup. Among other things, we have inspected the ports of entry to this country, and we say to all South Africans that we are going forward and not turning back. All systems go! We are ready. South Africa is the destination for 2010 this year!
We are happy to announce that our airports have been inspected and all the concerns raised and noted during these inspections have been addressed. Together, working with Interpol and the Southern African regional police chiefs, we believe and we are satisfied that it is all systems go.
Operation Washa Tsotsi has brought us successful results in reducing violent and serious crimes that have been evident during previous festive seasons. It is only those who don't have ears to listen and eyes to see who would not have seen the visibility of the police during the past festive season.
The night raids in troublesome spots like KwaMashu in KwaZulu-Natal, Alexandra and other areas, were efforts to reduce the number of guns in circulation and those in wrong hands. We are happy with the outcomes of the operation. We won't rest until our country is free from criminality. Operation Washa Tsotsi, like we said before, is not an event, but a continued attack on the criminals on our streets.
The police are recording successes on a daily basis in the fight against crime. The Directorate for Specialised Crimes Unit, the Hawks, has identified and profiled the 10 most-wanted criminals. And we are happy to report that seven of those have been dealt a blow and three are still on the run, but we will find them.
Since the launch of the festive season campaign, we have seen and witnessed successful operations by our police. We uncovered a drug syndicate that is operating in South and North America, Africa, Europe and Asia. Security for our inhabitants and their properties is our priority through the commitment of the SAPS and other agencies.
We urge communities to stop buying stolen goods in the name of poverty. We urge everyone to understand that you are really criminals yourselves if you find yourself owning something that you don't know how it had landed up in the hands of those who sold it to you. That is why we are saying ...
... tlohelang dintho tsa boshodu batho ba haeso! [... please stop buying stolen goods people!]
Someone's house has been broken into and a television set is stolen and you willingly buy it. We need to unite against crime and criminals. We need positive role models in our society and within the environment in which we live.
Everything you get should be through hard work. It is important for all of us that we understand that message. We need to embrace the values of hard work instead of taking short cuts to wealth, disregarding the law in the name of materialism. Crime does not pay; this is an old saying that continues to live within us. In many of the crimes, especially serious crimes, like house robberies, there is a huge element of youth involvement. These are young people who have admired the wrong role models within our society.
The fight against crime should not and must not be delegated to the police alone; it is a civic duty. That is why we say, when you are in the comfort of your home with your families, remember the lives of the police, women and men, in the streets protecting you. We ask you to pray for them every time you pray for our streets to be rid of bad elements.
We want everyone to join the fight against crime, including "bomme ba seaparo" [women who wear the church uniform]. We urge them, whenever they pray for "pula" [rain], also to pray for the reduction of crime in our midst. Through our mothers we are certain we will win.
Society should embrace and support the police. As we said before, the police carry a heavy load and they need our undivided support. But that does not mean that we must conceal those within the SAPS who have evil intentions, as it has been said and lamented.
We are not lamenting or resting on our laurels; we are on top of the situation. From now onwards, criminals in every corner of South Africa know that they won't have any holiday here. We are very encouraged by the fact that we are on top of them. Police have, themselves, acted by example by arresting criminal elements who perpetrate crimes within the police. We need to applaud such actions. [Applause.]
Community Safety Forums are important vehicles in the fight against crime.
In November last year, this Parliament approved our request to declare, in line with the Firearms Control Act, Act 60 of 2000, the period between 11 January and 11 April 2010 as a firearm amnesty period. We are happy to announce that, so far, through the selfless service of our men and women in blue as well as the active participation of our communities, more than 105 000 firearms and items of ammunition have been destroyed in Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal and the Western Cape. [Applause.]
From a crime prevention point of view, the destruction of these firearms and ammunition translates into a direct opportunity lost to the marauding criminals who could have laid their hands on them and directed those gun barrels and gunpowder to rob, maim and kill the law-abiding citizens of our country.
Through this campaign, we are also encouraging those owners of legal firearms who feel that they no longer need the firearms, to freely surrender them at their nearest police station. We further urge all those with information about where any firearm, ammunition or arms cache can be retrieved, to report the matter at their nearest police station.
It should be noted that, even though this is an amnesty period, it does not mean that the work of police officers - to hunt and retrieve stolen and illegal firearms and ammunition - has stopped.
We are confident that, when the World Cup finally starts in June, the number of these weapons will be drastically reduced.
We would like to thank all those who have positively heeded our call to surrender their unwanted firearms and ammunition, be it manufacturers, dealers, gunsmiths, gun owners, beneficiaries or tsotsis. Of course, for tsotsis, this will mark the beginning of yet another chapter, because each submitted and surrendered gun will still undergo ballistic testing to ensure proper accountability and, in the event the gun was ever used in any criminal activities, ensure that the proper ramifications ensue.
There is currently a process to incorporate some of the reservists into the police force as fully fledged police officers. Because we have inherited the apartheid legacy of "bloubaadjies" [traffic police] and the "Zulu Police" within the police force, those incorporated will still undergo basic police training with no compromise on quality. High quality training will ensure that the SAPS, going forward, is a mean machine.
Effective contemporary crime prevention relies on partnership and multi- agency approaches. We are building partnerships with communities and government.
With regard to people joining the war against crime, we have had engagements and processes identified in the fight against crime within our society. Everyone within society, all the stakeholders, including young people and business, has endorsed government's plans and has partnered with government in the fight against crime.
I want to turn to the number of distortions that have been paraded in the name of political intervention. Some of the things that have been said are actually nothing more than figments of the imagination of some individuals who have spoken before.
We need to make the point and say that when Mr Lennit Max, the DA MEC in the Western Cape, did something we were told that his life must be understood to be private. The only life that must not be private is the life of the President. We need to understand that this is hypocrisy and opportunism of the worst order and reflects the backwardness of opposition politics in our country.
We also need to make the point that, while we have acknowledged former President De Klerk for everything he has done, he did not wake up on 2 April 1990, decide to be kind to our people and release former President Nelson Mandela. That was due to the tireless efforts of our people in the streets to liberate themselves. [Applause.]
There is nothing wrong in saying that. As Julius has said, it is not the side-stepping of history; it is the correct interpretation of history. Our people have liberated themselves, led by their vanguard movement - the ANC. [Applause.] Nobody can claim easy victories and tell lies, as if our people did not have those intentions, as if, when 2 February arrived, they were not in the streets, fighting to liberate themselves. The people have liberated themselves, and the policies of the ANC have not actually failed.
We also need to talk about the question of the cadre policy. How is the cadre policy not applicable to the DA? Since you arrived in Cape Town, you have expelled everybody who is black and African and have replaced them with your own cadres. [Applause.] You've got a very skewed and racist cadre policy that you have implemented across the length and breadth of this particular province.
You are patronising our people and you are entrenching the politics of racism. You are implementing a policy of skewed development. Why are Khayelitsha and Gugulethu in tatters while you continue to patronise particular groups within the Western Cape? You have failed our people and in no time you will be seen for what you are.
Newspaper headlines do not represent the dominant view of the South African people. The dominant view of the South African people says, "President Zuma, you are on track". [Applause.] That is what you must understand. The dominant view of the newspaper headlines is crafted by the ideological inclination of the right-wing politics of the DA, because you write those headlines yourselves. [Applause.]
So you are hypocritical when you say that the newspaper headlines reflect the South African population's view and how they feel about government. You should go to Slumberland because you are very late for what you stand for. [Laughter.]
That is why in the debate about morality you cannot stand tall. Among yourselves, you can't speak about it and opted to send the youngest, poor hon Mazibuko. [Laughter.] You must understand that, as a young person, you are uncouth to basically discuss the beginning of the rich African culture on which we are not going to compromise.
Teach young people the correct history and the proper culture. Give them the proper upbringing because this is about family socialisation. Do not throw them in the deep end and allow them to question things that they are not qualified to talk about. [Applause.]
To the hon Mfundisi wam, Bishop Dandala ... Mfundisi, uyihambile indlela oyihambileyo, kodwa ke ikhona into yokuba kuthiwe umntu ukhe ahambe alahleke. Masikubuyise sithi... [Reverend, you have made your mark in life but sometimes a person may get lost along the way. Let us bring you back by saying ...]
... the state of the nation address was not about poems and philosophising about something on the distant horizon. It was about what we want to do today. If you were not filled with hope with what President Zuma had told you and not fed you poems ...
Mfundisi uxolo, ulahlekile tata. [I am sorry, Reverend, you have gone astray.]
We must understand that the downturn we have found ourselves in is not of our own making; it is an objective reality. Don't speak about the recession as if it is our own creation. The ANC government under the stewardship of President Zuma is committed to the creation of jobs and there is no shift and no retreat from that. Neither is there an apology for what we said concerning the creation of 500 000 jobs.
What we said about what we were going to do was feasible when we said it, but our plans are in relation to ... [Interjections.] You must understand this in a dialectical form ... [Interjections.] Understand things in their changing form. Nothing is static. If you live in a world where everything is static then you live in the land of the dead whilst walking.
We must not be afraid of the nationalisation debate. The debate about nationalisation is not the redefinition of any ANC policy. It is a debate that is being raised by a youth organ of the ANC. We do understand your trauma because you don't have youth organisations like ours. [Laughter.] Because you live in organisations where everything is alpha and omega and you have killed your own youth. Your youth have crossed over to the ANC. [Interjections.]
Malema is the only jewel that we have and he is the only thing that you don't have. [Interjections.] That is why you are crying foul because you are actually jealous. [Laughter.] Jealousy is the enemy of success. [Laughter.] So, when the Youth League raises nationalisation you think that it is something new. In the ANC we have grown in the culture of vibrant debate.
Once Helen Zille has spoken, all is said and done, "baie dankie, goeie mre, ja ja". [Laughter.] Everything is over. There is no vibrant voice and that is why you go right-wing without looking backwards because you don't have a vibrant voice within your own organisation.
Thanks to the ANC for having created the Youth League; please continue to defend its autonomy. They are fighting among themselves and tearing one another asunder and yet they want to teach us about anything. The ANC has long been. Even those who wanted to kill the ANC by forming fashionable organisations have not actually succeeded.
uTata Prince Mangosuthu Buthelezi, I just want to say that we are not making the police trigger happy. What we are saying is that we are not fraternising with crime and criminals. That is all that we are doing. We are empowering the police and the system to ensure that we deal correctly and decisively with crime.
Hon Hilda Ndude, from the congress of whatever, we talk about the issue of morality. Our President has owned up to everything that he has done. [Interjections.] He could have chosen not to own up to everything or not even to apologise. The moral bankruptcy that you are talking about applies to one of those not far from your eyes who has not owned up to their actions. [Applause.] Please, you must learn to support your own children before you can throw stones everywhere.
The state of the nation address was not about whether the President had done this or not, it was about the future of our country and what we represent. It is not about the church where you are preaching. Reverend Meshoe will disagree with you.
He was very short even on the question of morality today. You must basically own up to what you have done. The Constitution of South Africa provides for equal rights for all South Africans to practise their cultural beliefs and you are reducing morality to certain cultural practices.
Moral values should be tested with the ability to build a nonracial, nonsexist and prosperous society. [Applause.] It is what morality and moral values should be about. The fact of the matter is that nothing is concealed because, like the Chinese say, you must actually extract the truth from the facts.
Time expired. [Applause.]
Order, hon members! Hon members, you will be pleased to know that that concludes the debate. The President will reply to the debate tomorrow.
The House is adjourned. Enjoy the rest of the evening.