Hon Chairperson, hon Minister and Deputy Minister, committee members, hon guests, the ANC will be supporting this Budget Vote.
Sometimes in history we need to go back slightly in order to see better the way forward. I take this opportunity today to go back to the speech of the former president of the ANC, Oliver Reginald Tambo, in London in May 1987, when he addressed the Business International conference. I quote from that speech:
Liberation must therefore entail the transfer of power to the people of South Africa so that, collectively, we can determine and shape the society we desire, create the institutions and structures required, and decide by whom and how they will be operated.
I want to emphasise the last part of the quote, Madam Chair, which is "create the institutions and structures required, and decide by whom and how they will be operated". The institutions and structures that we are referring to in this Budget Vote are the state-owned enterprises. I want to state categorically, clearly and with a lot of zeal and determination that we shall lead, as the ANC, the decision in terms of how these state-owned enterprises should be structured and how they should be operated to fulfil that very same dream of empowering the people of South Africa collectively, in order to determine and shape the society that we desire to build.
Further on in that speech, Madam Chair, Oliver Tambo went on to say:
Let it be said clearly: The ANC is committed to bringing about fundamental change to the entire socioeconomic and political formation which constitutes the South Africa of today.
I want to emphasise again, Madam Chair: "fundamental change to the entire socioeconomic and political formation which constitutes the South Africa of today". I want to submit to this congregation here that we shall use the state-owned enterprises to do exactly what Oliver Tambo said we should do in 1987. The last quote from his speech:
At the same time, we have begun to face the responsibilities that flow from having to lead our people in the restructuring of our society under the conditions of freedom. At the heart of this process is the need to ensure that the hopes and aspirations of our people find realisation through programmes based on concrete socioeconomic facts. This process involves systematic examination of each aspect of our society from the point of view of developing guidelines and programmes which can be put before our people for the purpose of consultations.
I want to ask all of us here today, the state-owned enterprises, particularly Eskom, to heed O R Tambo's call in terms of developing, all of us together and the state as the main shareholder, programmes and guidelines, and consultation mechanisms that will bring our people on board, so that we don't only consult them when it is time for tariff hikes, or when we want to hike tariffs to assist Eskom to do its work.
Returning to my speech, the resolution of Polokwane states - and I will quote again to annoy my colleagues on the opposite end ... [Interjections.]
THE HOUSE CHAIRPERSON (Ms M N Oliphant): Order, please!