Speaker, the DA calls on hon President Jacob Zuma and the Minister of International Relations and Co-operation, hon Maite Nkoana- Mashabane, to endorse the proposed establishment of a Commonwealth human rights commissioner. Such an act will give credibility to the notion that South Africa's foreign policy is based on human rights, the rule of law and the values of ubuntu.
It has been reported that our government does not support this proposal. If this is true, then government is frustrating attempts to achieve the realisation of human rights in other countries. Last week the President rolled out the red carpet for a person who is guilty of some of the grossest human rights abuses in the world, the president of Equatorial Guinea, Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo. President Zuma welcomed Africa's longest-serving ruler - 32 years - with open arms, never even mentioning his terrible human rights record. [Interjections.]
Order, hon members!
Just prior to that, the President and the department failed to roll out the red carpet for the Nobel Peace Prize laureate, his holiness the Dalai Lama, who simply wanted a visa to visit his friend, Archbishop Desmond Tutu. The great contrast in treatment of these two men illustrates that the government has its priorities very wrong.
South Africa has its own Human Rights Commission, presumably because the government believes that such an office plays a valuable role in the country. Now it is time to show the world that South Africa believes that human rights are important to everyone by supporting the establishment of a human rights commissioner in the Commonwealth. [Applause.]