Madam Deputy Speaker, Mr President and hon members, let me start by stating the obvious: I am a South African, no less, no more. I am equal to anyone in this Chamber or outside this Chamber. [Applause.]
Ke setlogolo sa matswetla! Ke setlogolo sa matebele! Ke setlogolo sa bakgatla! Ke moagi wa Aforika Borwa, thwii thwii! [Praise.]
I am a passionate South African and I am very passionate about the South African project of building this nation. I, like my colleagues, am inspired by the vision of a South Africa that is united; one nation, one future, and an open-opportunity society in which every South African can be the best they can be. We were thus, in the DA, encouraged by the President's call that we must build a common national identity and patriotism, and that we must forge an inclusive national identity.
I believe truly that this is the greatest challenge facing this country today. I believe that to deliver on this plea of the President, we need to acknowledge certain truisms. These are self-evident truths that we ourselves must acknowledge and harness for the benefit of South Africa. Let us put South Africa first in all our social, economic and political endeavours. This will enhance our effort to cultivate and inculcate and nurture the spirit of the nation. These are some of the things that we can do, that we need to do to give flesh to this.
We, the people of South Africa, need to recognise that we are not yet a nation. We must work very, very hard to build our nation. We must acknowledge that South Africa went to war with itself to rid the country of the abomination that was apartheid, so that all its citizens could know peace and political, social and economic freedom. We need to acknowledge that South Africa didn't go to war with itself so that political and economic power could again be colonised by a handful of people merely because they belong to a particular race, a particular tribe or a particular political formation. [Applause.]
We need to acknowledge - and I thank you, Madam - that racism is neither a colour nor a power thing. Racism is an evil human failing that must be eradicated like all maladies. [Applause.] All of us must do our best to rid ourselves of this cancer.
We need to acknowledge that Nelson Mandela - that once-in-a-lifetime gift to this country - and the millions of South Africans who gave their lives to the struggle did so to afford every one of us, black and white, to be the best that we can be. Let me read that again. We need to acknowledge that Nelson Mandela and the millions of South Africans who gave their lives to the struggle did so to afford every one of us, citizens of South Africa, black and white, male and female, the chance to become president of this country. We need to acknowledge that all these things are dependent upon significant, sustained economic growth. This is critical to a stable, prosperous and democratic South Africa.
We were thus deeply disappointed, I must say, that the President in his speech seemed to dismiss energy sufficiency in just one sentence, and in fairness let me just quote what the President said: "We will continue to improve our energy efficiency and reliance on renewable energy." This is good, but that is not enough. I want to thank the Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, who added a little bit more substance. The optimist that I am, I look forward to the Minister of Energy taking this further so that we can engage, because sufficiency in energy is crucial to our economic development.
Fifty million South Africans depend on us here, collectively, to make a success of this nation-building mission. We cannot fail because we dare not fail, because "the consequences of failure are too ghastly to contemplate" to quote one of our former leaders.
I need to finish by reminding us of two gifts to this country who entertained us on Wednesday: Lebo Mashile and Don Matera, the amazing gifts to South Africa. Lebo urged us to look for the threads that bind us. One of those threads is Madiba. The other thread is our country. There are many of them and all of us can find them to help us with this nation-building mission. Let us take these threads and weave them together in the fabric of a prosperous, nonracial, nonsexist, open-opportunity society we desire for ourselves. And let us remember what Bra Don said to us. He reminded us of this land, South Africa; our land that we need to preserve. Thank you. [Applause.]
Debate interrupted.
Business suspended at 10:59 and resumed at 11:15.