Ndza khensa mutshamaxitulu, ndza mi xeweta hinkwenu n'wina swirho swa Huvo leyi. Ndzi lava ku mi tsundzuxa leswaku loko hi vulavula hi xihlawuhlawu a swi vuli leswaku ho rhandza ku vulavula hi xona. Hi vulavula hi xona hikuva leswaku u tiva lomu u yaka kona u fanela ku tiva lomu u humaka kona.
Hi huma eka Afrika Dzonga leyi a yi hlawula munhu wa ntima yi veka valungu emahlweni. Namuntlha loko se xihlawuhlawu xi hi kombile leswaku a xi tirhi laha emisaveni, swi vonakala ongeti; hi Xipedi va ri ... (Translation of Xitsonga paragraphs follows.)
[Mr X MABASA: Thank you, Chairperson. I greet all you members of the committee. I wish to remind you that when we talk about apartheid, it does not mean we enjoy talking about it. We talk about it because, in order to know your destination, you need to know where you come from.
We come from a South Africa in which white people were more privileged than black people. Today when apartheid has proved ineffectual, it seems as if the saying among the Bapedi goes that ...]
... go na le sepa la bo?ego. Ga le na mong. [... it is difficult to identify someone who secretly did something bad.]
Loko se xi ri kona lahaya, un'wana na un'wana u ri ... [When it is there, everybody says ...]
... phuu! Ga re tsebe gore ke mang. [... Oh! We don't know who it was.]
Na xihlawuhlawu xi tano, leswi se xi xanisaka ku hava loyi a nge hi mina ndzi nga xi endla. Naswona sweswi hi tshovela na ku kuma mihandzu na mbuyelo wa xihlawuhlawu. Hi kombela leswaku lava ku nga vona va nga vuyeriwa hi nawu wa xihlawuhlawu na vatukulu na switukulunduwe va nga hi yimi emahlweni loko hi lunghisa thyaka leri ri nga endliwa hi kokwana wa vona Verwoerd, loko a ku: "Munhu wa ntima u ta endla yini hi dyondzo ya tinhlayo, hikuva a nga ka a nga yi tirhisi evuton'wini bya yena?" Sweswi matiko man'wana ya famba emahlweni, ya aka swihahampfhuka yaya hinkwako, kambe hina hi salele endzhaku hi mhaka ya xihlawuhlawu. (Translation of Xitsonga paragraph follows.)
[The same holds true for apartheid; Now that it oppresses us, nobody is ready to take the blame. We are now reaping the fruits of apartheid. We request that those who have benefited from apartheid laws together with their grandchildren and their great-grandchildren should not stand in our way when we are cleaning up the mess that was made by their grandfather, Verwoerd, when he said: "What is the use of teaching a Bantu child mathematics when it cannot use it in practice?" Some countries are well ahead since they manufacture aircraft and they go everywhere, but we are still lagging behind because of apartheid.]
But what we do appreciate, and I think what we all agree on, is that as we go forward, we must not forget that issues like affirmative action and BBBEE are critical. They are critical because it is these issues that seek to correct what was done by way of the segregation laws over a number of years. [Applause.] We appreciate this because when we look at the constitutions of the organisations that are seated on the opposite side, none of them says, "Viva apartheid!" For that we applaud you. [Applause.]
This then takes us to an area where we say that one of the things we must do to correct this is to implement co-operatives. But in implementing co- operatives, we must be careful because when the law of co-operatives was enacted, some opportunistic businesspeople immediately converted their firms into co-operative firms and defeated the purpose of co-operatives.
Because those are people who only understand the language of legislation, Minister, we appreciate that you are going to make amendments to the law so that that loophole does not exist for established firms which want to continue getting rich at the expense of the poor and frustrate the very tool that was aimed at correcting inequalities.
South Africa is one of the countries that sometimes take the first position. We are the only country that has Tatana Comrade Nelson Mandela. We are the only country that has just scooped accolades in terms of performance. Although we did not win the Confederations Cup, we went beyond expectations. [Applause.]
We are one of those countries that are going to make sure that the poor do not beg on the streets and that we, as government, help sustain the dignity of every person. Job creation must be the key. It is not everybody who is going to get into conventional jobs. Some of the people who have fallen through the cracks have to be assisted by things like co-operatives.
What is a co-operative? The word "co-operative" comes from the word "co- operate", which means "working together". In this working together, you tend to win more than if you had worked individually. That is why even our grandparents ...
... a va ri ni leswi a swi vitaniwa "tsima" - ilima. [... used to have what was referred to as Letsema - a communal way of helping one another.]
Through that they would plough one person's farm as a group and move to the next. In that way we would find all the farms were green. Of course, when I speak of farms I am speaking of the 13% farms we had.
It has to be noted why we have to support co-operatives. Co-operatives sometimes fail. What makes them fail is a situation where we, as government, do not render enough support - where we don't protect them. When it comes to procurement, they must be given preferential treatment. Why so? This is because they did not have the same start as other businesses. When it comes to taxing, they must also be given preferential treatment. We must also equip them in terms of training so that the enterprise skills will make them grow.
When speaking of co-operatives we must not picture a small, diminutive enterprise. This can be a big enterprise. It can farm and own farms, and it can own buildings. There are countries that have proved this. Countries like Italy have proved that co-operatives can be a successful route to take. We must then make sure that even when we come to auditing requirements we should not put stringent measures on co-operatives. This is where we need an accounting officer instead of an auditing firm. How do we expect a small co-operative to afford the payments to an auditing firm?
Other areas that co-operatives are faced with are areas of marketing. It is important that co-operatives are marketed widely. But as we market them, we must note that we are helping ourselves. This is because if you remove poverty from your neighbour, that guarantees you a good life. But, if you want to have all the wealth around you and your children only, that guarantees others things we usually discuss called crime. No child was born a criminal. We make them criminals and complain the following day.
Let me conclude by saying the ANC does not believe that any problem that exists must be privatised. That can never be the solution. We have realised from the DA that whenever there is a problem they struggle to solve, they quickly say they can't solve the problem and therefore need to bring in privatisation. This cannot be the route to take. Thanks, Chairperson. [Applause.]