Hon Speaker, hon Deputy President, hon Deputy Speaker, hon Ministers and Deputy Ministers, hon members of the House, ladies and gentlemen, I would like to sincerely thank hon members for their participation in the Presidency's Budget Vote.
The hon Minister of Arts and Culture, Mr Paul Mashatile, reminded us yesterday that today, 31 May, is the anniversary of the formation of the Union of South Africa, which formalised the exclusion of the black majority in our country. Addressing a meeting of the SA Native Convention, which met in Bloemfontein's Waaihoek township in March 1909 to consider means of protesting against the draft Union of South Africa constitution, one of the founding fathers of the African National Congress said, and I quote:
The white people of this country have formed what is known as the Union of South Africa - a union in which we have no voice in the making of laws and no part in their administration.
We have called you, therefore, to this Conference so that we can together devise ways and means of forming our national union for the purpose of creating national unity and defending our rights and privileges.
It is important to remember such landmarks in our history, lest we join the school of thought that preaches that reconciliation should mean that everything that happened before 1994 must be forgotten and must not provide lessons for what we do today.
Writing in 1953, ANC scholar and thinker R V Selope Thema eloquently described what life was like for black South Africans in 1910, when the Union was formed. He said the following, and I quote:
In those days the black man was treated as a beast of burden. He was knocked and kicked about with impunity. In the magistrates'courts his voice was hardly heard and his evidence hardly believed.
He was stopped at street corners by policemen demanding the production of his pass and his tax receipt. He was not allowed to walk on the pavements and had to dodge motor cars in the streets.
He was not allowed to travel first, second or third class on the trains. He travelled in trucks almost similar to those used for cattle and horses.
Politically he had no voice in the making and administration of the laws. Economically he was kept in a state of abject poverty.
Years later, in 1961, Chief Albert Luthuli, in his acceptance speech on receiving the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo, described South Africa as follows:
It is a museum piece in our time, a hangover from the dark past of mankind, a relic of an age which everywhere else is dead or dying.
Here, the cult of race superiority and of white supremacy is worshipped like a god. Few white people escape corruption and many of their children learn to believe that white men are unquestionably superior, efficient, clever, industrious and capable; that black men are, equally unquestionably, inferior, slothful, stupid, evil and clumsy.
We also recall the words of President Nelson Mandela in his statement from the dock in the Rivonia Trial. He had this to say:
The lack of human dignity experienced by Africans is the direct result of the policy of white supremacy. White supremacy implies black inferiority. Legislation designed to preserve white supremacy entrenches this notion.
Madiba went on to describe attitudes which, at the time, seriously impacted on the dignity of Africans. He said:
Menial tasks in South Africa are invariably performed by Africans. When anything has to be carried or cleaned the white man will look around for an African to do it for him, whether the African is employed by him or not. Because of this sort of attitude, whites tend to regard Africans as a separate breed. They do not look upon them as people with families of their own; they do not realise that they have emotions.
If hon members quote the Constitution selectively and quote the rights selectively, whilst quoting Mandela on the other side, we still have a lot of work to do to help them. [Applause.] For this Mandela that we like to quote was very clear on the issues of this country and he was very clear about what we fought for, as we are all clear.
Hon Speaker, I am reminding the House of this, because we should not lose sight of the fact that this country has a history, a very, very painful history whose deep scars still show. [Applause.] If you care to know what these scars are, if you go to Rondebosch as opposed to Gugulethu, you will see the scars. The scars still show, even in this heavenly, well-governed province. [Interjections.] Scars still show no matter who governs one province.
Life did not begin in 1994. No amount of denial will take this historical fact away. [Applause.] We are building a new nation out of the ashes of colonialism and apartheid. We are building a new nation out of a country where to be black meant subjugation, indignity, inhumane treatment, humiliation and dispossession simply because those in power believed that black people were lesser human beings by virtue of their colour and race.
Scores suffered, some paid the supreme price, others left the country of their birth, as they pursued the struggle for freedom, justice, equality, democracy and human dignity in order to have the Constitution about which we talk very casually today. Therefore we cannot take our freedom lightly. We cannot take the rights that were won in 1994 lightly and use them for political point-scoring. [Applause.] Out of that pain we must build a new society together and bury hatred and mistrust. Madiba directed us to move in that direction in his inauguration address in 1994, when he declared, and I quote:
Out of the experience of an extraordinary human disaster that lasted too long, must be born a society of which all humanity will be proud.
That society, which was born in 1994, was underscored by a very progressive Constitution with a Bill of Rights. For a people whose every moment was a living experience of humiliation and a denial of their human dignity, the restoration of their human rights, including that of human dignity, meant the restoration of life.
Many can find meaning in the declaration by the Mexican revolutionary Emiliano Zapata who said, and I quote:
It's better to die on your feet than to live on your knees.
We cannot go back to the period or memory of Number four prison, where black men were made to strip naked and perform the "tauza" dance. Neither do we want to reopen the wounds of the humiliation of Sarah Baartman, who was exhibited in London and Paris, and whose genitals and brain were stored in a pickle jar and shown off in a museum until the administration, led by President Mandela, demanded the return of her remains for a decent burial. [Applause.] We dare not repeat that painful, brutal, primitive treatment of a human being. This is why we are also currently working with the government of Austria regarding the remains of the Khoisan people who were taken to Austria for experiments in 1909. Already the remains of Mr and Mrs Klaas and Trooi Pienaar have been brought back to the country and we are working on the logistics for a decent burial. The Austrian scientist Rudolph Poch had taken the human remains of more than 80 South Africans to Austria for experiments.
I trust that the social cohesion and nation-building summit in July will give us all the opportunity to turn our backs on denial and confront this painful history, with a view to finding final closure and healing. Our people have suffered enough indignity.
The hon Chief Whip of the Majority Party, Mathole Motshekga, correctly pointed out that the dialogue would promote racial, cultural and religious tolerance and contribute to nation-building and social cohesion. Most importantly, it will allow the sharing of experiences.
We are a rainbow nation, but our experiences are not the same. Our knowledge of this country must not be solely defined by written texts, but should be informed by the experiences of the people who make up the wonderful tapestry of this wonderful nation. I would like to assure the House that, as much as we fought for this freedom and liberated both the oppressor and the oppressed alike, we will defend all the rights enshrined in the Constitution, including the right to freedom of expression and the right to human dignity. [Applause.]
No right is superior to other rights. In the same vein, we must disabuse ourselves of the notion that certain rights are more important to certain sections of South African society than others. Freedom of expression is as important and understood and appreciated in Constantia as much as it is in Gugulethu.
That is why this government defends the right of our people to express themselves in any manner, including protest action, except if in exercising that right they begin to violate the rights of others, such as destroying property or stopping other people from exercising their own rights.
No right is absolute. It must be exercised with due regard for the rights of others. That is the balance we have to strike at all times. Most importantly, as leaders we have a responsibility to live, uphold and defend the Constitution regardless of narrow political goals. No right is so important that it can be used to undermine other rights with impunity.
Hon Deputy Minister Jeremy Cronin eloquently captured the importance of balancing all the rights in our Constitution. We should not promote only those rights that are important to those with power and influence, or those that are convenient at a given time.
We cannot be selective with our Constitution. It does not matter who the subject of the violation of any right is, all rights are important and must be respected. I am putting a lot of emphasis on rights, because I think that certain members in this House need some help in understanding this.
Hon members, what is remarkable about our country is that despite this human disaster that lasted too long, as described by Madiba, we still had that historic gathering in Kliptown in 1955, where, under the leadership of the ANC delegates to the congress of the people - the real congress of the people ... [Laughter.] ... - it was declared that South Africa belongs to all who live in it, black and white.
It is remarkable, too, that while our struggle was a struggle against racism, it was never a racist struggle. That is why we had white democrats fighting side by side with their black compatriots to liberate this country and put an end to racism and subjugation. Madiba declared from the dock, while facing a possible death sentence, that -
... the ANC has spent half a century fighting against racialism. When it triumphs it will not change that policy. Indeed, it has not and will not change that policy. [Applause.]
I am saying this, because when we speak as I do it must not be misread. It must not be misread as us trying to provoke emotions wrongly. We are correcting those who are provoking emotions wrongly ... [Laughter.] [Applause.] ... and we remind them that we fought for nonracialism, just as we fought for this democratic Constitution, and we will defend it.
When we speak of the triple challenge of poverty, unemployment and inequality, we are essentially talking about the economic and social patterns of colonialism and apartheid. Today, when we talk about these things, some people seek to suggest that we brought about these things as this government by failing to deal with issues.
There were three long periods - centuries - in which people were dispossessed. This poverty that you are talking about, you talk about it as if it just fell from the sky and came from nowhere. People were forcibly removed from their land, made poor overnight, made to be homeless and landless. That is what we are trying to correct today.
We think that we can correct the damage in two decades when it was caused over three centuries. We present government's scorecard without discussing it. We discuss everything else under the sun, including an incorrect interpretation of the Constitution and the oath taker. [Interjections.]
Therefore, while we have done remarkably well, as our midterm review demonstrates, we still have some way to go before Qumbu can look like Rosebank. But we are determined to get there. Some of us have been determined from a very young age. We are still determined today and nothing is going to stop us.
We thank hon Bhoola for acknowledging that considerable work has been done and that people must not pretend that nothing has been done. [Applause.] As hon Sue van der Merwe pointed out, there is evidence that policy decisions are being turned into practical programmes with the emphasis on building on sound policies and tweaking those that proved less suitable. Indeed we are a learning government and we improve each day in the delivery of services.