House Chair, comrades and hon members, may I join the House in congratulating the hon President on his maiden state of the nation address, and especially on the Medium-term Strategic Framework for 2009 to 2014.
The framework touches on a wide range of critical issues whose accomplishment would give material meaning to the freedom that we have, at least to the majority of our people for whom in part the promise of freedom has remained a dream perpetually deferred.
The APC believes that education and health are critical developmental issues for our country whose neglect will condemn our people to perpetual underdevelopment. Without education our people will not only be unemployed, but also unemployable, and they will remain the "garden boys" and "kitchen girls" of others. We need, in a pointed way, to address the question of access to higher education by all. The health facilities used by the majority of people are not providing first-class services as a result of neglect and inefficient management. It is a crisis situation requiring drastic and urgent measures.
The rural areas, which were the dumping grounds under white minority rule, have been yearning for a lifeline, and the APC stands ready to make positive contributions to accelerate their development.
Comrade President, did the taxi operators have to go on strike to be listened to about the bus rapid transit system? Why does the Minister not re-engage on the recapitalisation programme as well? It is a source of deep resentment, frustration and confusion. The APC would like to see this programme reviewed.
At the centre of the fight against poverty is the creation of decent jobs for our people. It is a strongly held position of the APC that labour brokers should not be part of that equation. The APC wants labour brokers banned. They represent the worst form of primitive accumulation. The story of the labour brokers is a story of bitterness, frustration, heartless exploitation and naked greed.
The APC is talking here of about 400 employees of the Post Office all over Gauteng who are looking at government to end this scourge. What government values is a parastatal representing when it engages in this kind of practice. The permanent employees of the Post Office earn about R6 000 per month, while those hired through the labour brokers get R2 000 per month.
Comrade President, we are living in difficult economic times. Capitalism has fallen into a ditch of its own digging. These terrible times, the APC believes, do not call upon us to tighten our embrace of the system, but rather give us the opportunity and possibility to examine some of the axiomatic truths of progressive economic thought, strengthening the national character and sovereignty of the economy, local ownership, local production and local consumption. In these trying times it is by growing the local economy that we can ensure that the country survives the cyclical boom and bust of the global free-market economy.
Implementing government policies and delivering services means using money. In these times of scarce resources it means more than ever before that we must account for every cent of public money; we must get value for money beyond mere mechanical compliance by public servants. It is the hope of the APC that both the executive and Parliament will be vigilant in ensuring that public funds indeed improve the lives of our people. Yes, no roll- overs, but also no fiscal dumping!
Comrade President, the APC believes that we indeed need to work with haste to deepen the transformation of our society from its settler colonial past to the free and equal society that we fought for, to consolidate and advance our democracy so that it works for all our people, to fight the stubborn demons of racism and the inequalities that are still a definition of our past.
The APC, however, is alive to the fact that this national effort requires a front of all progressive and patriotic forces to join hands and share ideas on how best we can accelerate service delivery to our people, develop a national consensus on the strategic direction of our country and unite the people behind a popular vision to ensure that the promise of freedom does not remain a dream perpetually deferred for the majority of our people. On such a positive coming together the APC is ready and willing to engage. The decks are cleared, the battle must be joined. I thank you. [Applause.]