Hon Mr Waters ...
... agbare Mnr Waters ... [... hon Mr Waters ...]
... mohlomphegi Mna Waters ... [... hon Mr Waters ...]
... muchamuseki Tatana Waters ... [hon Mr Waters ...]
... I stand here in front of this hallowed House of Parliament for hon members and South Africa to know: I never lied to anybody. The negotiating document about the salaries of doctors, which I put in front of the bargaining chamber, is as it is. There is nothing wrong with it. There is no trick; the numbers are as they are. I stand by them today; I stood by them yesterday; I will stand by them in the future. [Applause.] I challenge you to call a judge in a court of law to go through this process and see if I have done anything wrong.
The reason I went public about what was said in the bargaining chamber - by the way, on the same day that it was presented - was that for the past weeks, over the radio, public media, everywhere, people were debating this very important thing without facts. I took it as my responsibility to give facts, because there was no way you were going to remove this thing out of the public arena. It was debated more publicly than in the chamber, and I thought, let me give members of the public the facts. That was all I did.
Now, the issue which you are accusing me of, Mr Waters - but I don't blame you - comes from this document. The 22% you are quoting comes from this document. It bears no resemblance to what I put in the chamber. I am compelled to give you the history of this document, because what happened over the past five days should never happen in South Africa again. Never! After I presented the document of what was given to doctors, they took this thing and put it to a company in the corporate world, a company of supposed wage experts. They analysed what I did and wrote this document, from which Mr Waters quoted today, in front of this House. The figures he mentioned, of 1% and 22%, appear in this document. This document bears no resemblance to what I put in the chamber. After I heard these complaints, I called our negotiating partners. I don't negotiate with anybody. [Interjections.]