Thank you, Chairperson, for allowing me to speak today. Hon Minister and Ministers present here, comrades and friends and the intelligence community, I want to thank you, the intelligence community, because you have proved beyond reasonable doubt that you are really doing your work. You have proved it with the success of the Confederations Cup that took place in South Africa; you have made us very proud.
Chairperson, I was born in 1948 when the National Party started to rule, and I have actually lived through the rest of the reign of the apartheid regime. I want to thank my mother, Grace Shope. I am dedicating this speech to her because in the midst of suffering, she taught me the Freedom Charter. She taught me how she participated in the Freedom Charter in Kliptown, at the Congress of the People. [Interjections.]
She made me understand the meaning, sentence by sentence, of the Freedom Charter and that is what kept me strong throughout my life, because we were subjected to serious harassment by the so-called security forces of this country.
I want to assure you, Mr Coetzee, that I am one of those people who had serious fears and misgivings about the intelligence and security institutions of this country because throughout my life, my mother's home was searched, documents were taken, her letters were always intercepted.
My two siblings and I were fetched from school and harassed. Ultimately my brother was killed by the security police at the institute of learning in Turfloop.
My younger sister was taken into custody. She was kept in Haenertsburg, where it was very cold. She suffered from arthritis, and in 2003 she died from that arthritis. So I've every reason not to trust the security forces and the intelligence of the apartheid regime.
But, fortunately, I want to thank the ANC, because they have given me a chance to be here. There are more important people, hardworking comrades, who would have been here instead of me, but they have given me the chance to be here and trusted me by putting me in this committee which has opened my eyes and reminded me of the teachings of my mother, because I had completely lost hope in those.
The Freedom Charter said that all shall be equal before the law and the police force and army shall be the helpers and protectors of the people. In 1992, the ANC, in its Ready to Govern guidelines, said the security institutions shall respect human rights, there shall be nonracialism and democracy, and it shall act in a nondiscriminatory manner towards the citizens. That is the intelligence of the ANC in our democracy.
The ANC understands one thing: that all the hopes of gathering information for the protection of the citizens will only take place if we have the resources and we are able to manage our resources. The word "accountability" was heard for the first time when the ANC started to govern, and we have the responsibility of actually following up on that word.
It was not introduced just to while away the time. I was lucky to have been the chairperson of finance for nine years and have been through the processes when the Public Finance Management Act was formed. I understand the letter and spirit of the Act. [Time expired.] [Applause.]