Hon Speaker and Deputy Speaker, thank you very much for this opportunity. Hon President, Deputy President, Ministers and Deputy Ministers, all important and hon members of this Joint Sitting, my greetings to you ...
IsiXhosa:
... ngale ntsasa.
This is a very special month where we honour the role that was played by young people to put the country where it is today. This debate on the first state of the nation address in the sixth term of Parliament comes soon after Members of Parliament have taken oath or affirmation to obey, respect and uphold the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa. As the majority party, the ANC accepts the mandate to lead government in dealing with complex challenges that our country faces and to achieve a better life for all.
We have accepted this responsibility with humility knowing that our people have embraced our elections manifesto which they helped to shape. Ours is to implement, implement and implement and implement.
IsiXhosa:
Siyabulela kakhulu ukubona ukuba abavoti beli lizwe basathembele kakhulu kumbutho wesizwe. Icekwa ke lilele kuthi ukuba sikhawulezise ukuzisa ubomi obungcono nobomi ababulangazelelayo apha eMzantsi Afrika.
We believe that as we begin our walk in the Sixth Parliament we need to set a tone for the next five years during this debate. We must assert quite boldly that this is a new term and while there is continuity in many respects there will be change. Change is inevitable. Our President, the head of the state and the government of the Republic of South Africa has acknowledged quite candidly an enormity of the challenges facing our country, our continent as well as the world.
The President talked about the dream because there is no revolution without a dream. Any revolution without a dream is a dead revolution. [Applause.] The President has outlined more that 21 concrete plans on how to take South Africa. You may revisit your own state of the nation address document. He was very specific on how to grow economy.
IsiXhosa:
Uqoqosho alukhuli ngokomyinge ebesiwulindele. Loo nto uMongameli uyichaphazele...
... because as a country we must be honest to ourselves to say whilst we have a clear vision but we must also be practical on issues that are affecting our country and be realistic. Unemployment remains high particularly amongst young people. Our country endures unacceptable levels of income of wealth inequalities. Inequality has been proven in studies internationally to be a single most important driver of violent crime and social instability.
IsiXhosa:
Umsantsa ovulekileyo kumasilingane unyanzelisa ukuba sibhinqele phezulu ukwenza iinguqu ngokukhawulezileyo ukuze wonke ummi weli lizwe azibone enekamva elikhuselekileyo. Le Ndlu yoWiso-mthetho yeSizwe kufuneka iqinise izihlahla...
English:
... in strengthening our democratic state, we need a state that is developmental, effective and clean. We need a state that is embedded in the network with social partners but at the same time autonomous and not a state that can be captured.
IsiXhosa:
Sifuna ilizwe elingenakuphinda libanjwe ngobhongwana ngamaqothaqikili azingela ephethe ityuwa. Siza kukhokela nkalo zonke sincediswa nguMgaqo- siseko esiwuhloniphileyo xa besithatha izifungo apha ngaphakathi kule Ndlu yoWiso-mthetho yeSizwe.
English:
We are raising this matter based on the concerns that our people have expressed in our interactions with them over a past few months...
IsiXhosa:
... besixelela oko banqwenela ukuba umbutho wesizwe ungakwenza. Sibamamele bonke abantu xa bebesithi le Palamente mayimele bona.
English:
Our people said that they want this Parliament to be about them and their needs and not about the politicians. As the ANC we commit that this is going to be a Parliament about our people and not about the individual priorities. Indeed the people have
given us a mandate to restore the dignity and decorum of this institution.
IsiXhosa:
Bathe bagxininisa ukuba thina bathunyiweyo kufuneka sigcine isidima sale Ndlu yoWiso-mthetho yeSizwe.
English:
I therefore want to foreground my input to some fundamental principles. The principles that we will work tirelessly to restore the integrity and esteem with which Parliament is held by all are...
IsiXhosa:
... intembeko, imbeko, ukuzithoba nokuzinikela kumkhomba-ndlela okhoyo ekumeleni abantu boMzantsi Afrika.
English:
This Parliament must not be a conveyor belt but an activist Parliament that is going to deliver on the needs of our people. In South Africa the Constitution is the supreme law of the
republic. Any law or conduct inconsistent with it is invalid and the obligation imposed must be fulfilled.
Sesotho:
Ke kopa hore ha re bua mona kapa re etsa mosebetsi wa rona - rona bohle ba le teng ka mona - re hlomphe Molaotheo.
English:
A constitutional judgement once said this in 2016, and I quote:
Parliament is the voice of all South Africans especially the poor, the voiceless and the least remembered. It is the watchdog of the state resources, the enforcer of fiscal and cost-effectiveness of the common good of all our people. It fulfils a pre-eminently unique role of holding the executive accountable for the fulfilment of the promises made to the populace through the state of the nation address, budget speeches, policies, legislation and Constitution.
As the ANC, we wish to appeal to all members of this institution to uphold the Constitution by ensuring that Parliament is able to fulfil its constitutional obligation without fear, favour and prejudice. As members of the ANC we are going to hold our executive accountable in ensuring that they deliver on what they have committed. The Constitutional Court judgement continues:
The President is the head of the state and of the executive. The promotion of national unity and reconciliation falls squarely on his shoulders. To him the executive authority of the entire republic is primarily entrusted. He initiates and gives the final stamp of approval to all national legislations. He is a constitutional being by design, a national pathfinder, a commander-in chief of state affairs and a personification of the nation's constitutional project.
IsiXhosa:
Kuyenzeka ukuba sinike i-Ofisi kaMongameli oko kumele ukuba ikwenze ngokoMgaqo-siseko, njengoko kutyikityiwe kwaye thina bantu bakhoyo kufuneka xa senza izigxeko ibe zizigxeko
ezisisondezayo ekwakheni uMzantsi Afrika. Loo nto iza kwenza ukuba abo basichongileyo basibone sigxininisa kwintsebenziswano, kumanyano nokubheka phambili.
English:
There is a difference between robust debate and the undermining of a person's human dignity, denigration of a constitutional office on the matter.
IsiXhosa:
Isahluko sesibini salo Mgaqo-siseko sithetha ngamalungelo oluntu abantu baseMzantsi Afrika ekufuneka ukuba bawaxhamle. Loo nto ithetha ukuba nomnye okwenye i-ofisi kumele ukuba anikwe intlonipho nelungelo alifaneleyo. Kaloku sinemvelaphi apho izidima zabantu zazirhuqelwa eludakeni. Ngeli xesha lokukhokela kwethu sithi leyo into kufuneka ibeyinto yayizolo khona ukuze singaphindi sibanjwe yibandezelo nentlupheko.
English:
We have been elected on the basis of the manifesto of our political parties. However, there is only one political party
that overwhelmingly the majority of the South African citizens have elected to form government.
IsiXhosa:
Besiphume sonke apha sisithi ebantwini silungele ukukhokela kodwa abantu beli lizwe baye bayiqonda ukuba bafuna bani abakhokele ngeli xesha. Sithi ke masisebenzeni kunye kuba singakwazi ukuba senze lukhulu njengabemi boMzantsi Afrika. UKhongolose usathunyiwe ukuba athwale zonke iimfuno zakhe kwaye noxanduva lwesizwe lubekwe kuye.
English:
As the ANC we are committed to ensure that voices of all our constituencies are heard. ANC members are committed to become, once again, the tribunes of the people. We need to find new and better ways for organised people to come to public hearings and to take Parliament closer to our people through its activities. ANC is a leader of the society and has a track record that has spanned over a century.
IsiXhosa:
Umkhomba-ndlela ukhona kwaye nexwebhu lwezithembiso zolonyulo luyibeka elubala into eza kwenziwa. Besele nditshilo ukuba imigomo engama-21 ibonakalisiwe ukuba kuza kwenzeka ntoni na ngale minyaka mihlanu. Ezinye ziza kuthi zityakatywe mva kodwa uMongameli uyibeke yacaca ukuba umbutho wesizwe...
English:
... that led the campaign that culminated to the adoption of the Freedom Charter in Kliptown which was on this day...
IsiXhosa:
... awusayi kuyityeshela nanini na.
English:
The President has also highlighted government's commitment to place research and evidence at the centre of policy making and implementation. He further explained seven priorities for the sixth administration. As the ANC we affirm that the National Development Plan, NDP, which is supported by the overwhelming majority of parties, represented in this House and the most civil society formations. Our people have told us that they
expect government to tackle social and economic challenges in a much more efficient, cost-effective and decisive manner. That is why the President has moved swiftly to integrate departments because we are a listening organisation. We have listened to the South Africans, to other parties who proposed to us to cut down, integrate or merge the departments. The President has done exactly that. South Africans appreciate the determination by the various spheres of government to curb unnecessary spending.
To demonstrate, in the provincial legislatures we have seen how they have cut the expenditure on the state of the provincial address as well as in the state of the nation address.
IsiXhosa:
Siza kujika sibengookhala kwi-ANC abaza kuqinisekisa ukuba iKhabhinethi yenza zonke izibophelelo njengoko izithembiso zolonyulo zisiyalela khona ukuze kuncothulwe neengcambu izigidi zabantu kwintlupheko , ukuswela imisebenzi nokungalingani. Asisokuze sivume ukutsalelwa etshungwini.
English:
ANC will not descend into an arena of childishness and political vulgarity no matter how much we are provoked, like you are doing but...
IsiXhosa:
... thina siza kuhlala sizikise amehlo kuba kaloku sithunyiwe apha. [Kwahlekwa.]
English:
We cannot be throwing rhetoric insults. We challenge our colleagues from all parties to help us to profile our debates in these Houses. Our people have elected this Parliament...
IsiXhosa:
... ukuba sonke sikwazi ukusebenzisana kunye. Chairman Mao Zedong famously said:
Let a hundred flowers bloom, let a hundred schools of thought contend.
Ultimately, we would like to be judged by the manner in which the institution delivers to the aspirations of all people of South Africa. While the ANC has overwhelmingly majority in this House, we believe in building consensus by fostering a culture of mature political engagement on matters affecting Parliament. We call on all parties here that we must use all structures that are available at our disposal and most importantly the Chief Whips Forum as the most important platform to manage our strategic issues. This will allow the two Houses of Parliament to get on with their business of exercising oversight, making passing quality legislation and effectively representing our people.
As the ANC we fully endorse the manifesto that was presented here by the President and we are saying that we are ready to work and we are going to work together with all the people of South Africa. We know what is it that we have committed through the manifesto and we will be doing exactly that, notwithstanding the economic challenges of our country. Growing the economy is one of the most challenging aspects of our country. We are prepared to work together with all the South Africans to ensure
that we close the gap between the poor and the rich. South Africa, as a country must be the South Africa that has a South African that is also committed to come out and help the government. We must work in a social contract with the people of South Africa to ensure that we receive what our people have sent us to do here.
We must also take into cognisance that our public servants must also be the public servants that are ready to work as per the mandate of the budget speeches and the policy speeches that will be tabled in this Parliament. We therefore say that we fully support the manifesto and we are going to play our robust oversight to all the members of the executive council. We have a clear plan of action which is a five year manifesto. I thank you very much.
Madam Speaker, hon President and Deputy President, hon members of this House, fellow South Africans.
Setswana:
Bagaetsho dumelang.
English:
Indeed, at this very moment a child is born in this country. That child will be born in a modern high-tech hospital, most likely in a hospital that has a 3D-scan and she will be surrounded by both her parents there. That same child will soon be taken home in a place that will be protected by private security. She will later attend a school with teachers who are present all the time and ultimately she will be one of the few who learn how to code and have opportunity. That child will get through university and ultimately will have a career that stretches out before her. Of course, she will have to work hard, but you can be guaranteed that, in fact, her future will always be there if she chooses to exercise that opportunity.
But fellow South Africans, at the same time as all of that, there will be another child.
Setswana:
Ono ke ngwana yo o tla belegelwang kwa kliliniking. Ngwana yo o tlileng go bolawa ke tlala.
English:
That will be a child who will grow up in a community gripped by fear. She will have no choice but to go to the school nearest to her and she will know that even when she goes to school there may not be teachers in that classroom. She will know that when she goes to that school she will walk for kilometres if she's in a rural community.
Setswana:
Ngwana oo o tlile go nna kwa lekeisheneng koo e leng gore ditsotsi di tlabo di mo tsenella ko ntlong.
English:
Maybe it might happen that she will finish school, maybe it might happen that she will get a degree, maybe it might happen. But in truth, many of us are starting to know that if she's not one of the lucky ones she's unlikely to work, she's unlikely to find a job.
Fellow South Africans, this is the South Africa that we live in, this is our country. [Applause.] We live in two separate worlds. When we speak about inequality it's not just a question of income inequality, it's an inequality of opportunities, it's an inequality of dreams and it's an inequality of possibilities. We live in a country of outsiders and insiders. And right now we are making no headway in breaking down that wall between those who have and those who have not.
The tragedy is that on Thursday evening the President gave a vision of a future of South Africa with hi-tech cities, high- speed trains and classrooms where children are taught to code and analyse data and no child goes hungry.
Mr President, I get that. My greatest fear is simply this: Is that, that will only be available to a few of our children and many of our children in this country would be left out of opportunities in our nation. [Applause.]
It cannot be a South Africa for some and not a South Africa for all. And that's why in the DA we have a dream motivated building one South Africa for all. [Applause.]
Hon members, three stats released this past month paint a very dire picture. It's a picture of a record unemployment that now stands at 38%. It's a picture where our economy contracted by 3,2% and ultimately that shows that our investment is declining. If you read that picture, you can see that our country is in crisis. It's a crisis that we need to face head on.
Our priority must be to fix what is broken in South Africa and to build a South Africa where we can be guaranteed an equality of opportunities. The party of an equal shot, not an equal outcome. So, to do that, we must table reforms. We need a bold plan, we need the right budget, we need the right people and most importantly, we need a plan.
We need to stop debating the mandate of the SA Reserve Bank, it's already in the Constitution, what we need to do is get on with the business of doing. [Applause.]
So, Mr President, while you are looking to build smart cities, I want to say "Why don't we make the cities that we have, already, smart?" [Applause.] "Why don't we broaden access and connect young people to information and opportunities that remain available to a few?"
At one place to start, Mr President, is with the allocation of broad spectrum, we will not reduce data cost until that decision is settled.
So, Mr President, furthermore, instead of building a new bullet train let's rather fix and protect the trains we have and give them to provinces to run. [Applause.]
We need interventions that will ultimately ensure that we halve unemployment in our lifetime and make sure that, in fact, we give young people a national civilian service where they can work.
Let me tell you something, by the end of the 19th Century cities like New York and London were facing a crisis that seemed to
have no solution. As these cities grew and developed, the thousands and thousands of horses needed to transport people around had left the streets knee-deep in manure.
New York had to employ an army of workers to clear the streets every day. In London, The Times newspaper reported back in 1894 that every street in the city would be buried under nine feet of manure within 50 years.
Of course, this didn't happen. And the reason for that was because there was a bold new solution. In fact, instead of us having horses, let's rather make cars.
Henry Ford's new and affordable motorcar had replaced horses in the cities, the manure problem went away, and of course, history was changed forever.
If we want to challenge the issues that we face today, we cannot be giving solutions that give us faster horses, what we need is bold and new interventions that transition South Africa.
All that the President wanted to give us on Thursday is a faster horse. We need a plan and we need one now, urgently, towards a South Africa of the future. And this plan must respond to these three challenges, Mr President, it must respond to what are we going to do around climate, what are we going to do around technology and what are we going to do around disease management.
So, we must ask ourselves these simple questions: What kind of South Africa do we want our children to inherit? What kind of skills do we need to help them with to step into the future? And can we make sure that our population and our cities are resilient? These are the questions we to have.
We no longer have the luxury of talking about climate. The fact of the matter is that even during these elections we saw floods in KwaZulu-Natal and a drought her in the Western Cape.
So, in truth, if we don't attend to this question and build cities that are resilient, it doesn't matter who is in government, South Africa will face difficult days ahead.
Furthermore, elsewhere in the country people are already responding to technology. We are using solutions like Smartphone screening to detect cervical cancer. This must be something we include as part of our plans in rural healthcare.
I hear everybody speaking about the Fourth industrial Revolution. Fellow South Africans, giving tablets to our children is not the Fourth Industrial Revolution, that's the Third Industrial Revolution. [Applause.]
We should be preparing our children for jobs that don't exist; that's the job now. And, so, the overwhelming majority of our jobs are not going to come from mining or manufacturing, they are going to come from fields such as data mining, digital design, coding and a host of technology-driven micro enterprises.
We need a plan that modernizes our economy for the future. Because lets learn this simple lesson: I grew up with Kodak, I grew up with things like Nokia, but in truth, if you look around this room, nobody uses Nokia phones and nobody is worried about
Kodak. The world has changed. If we don't change with it, learn the lesson from MultiChoice. All of these companies had a monopoly on the world but because of the changes that are taking place were rendered obsolete. The point is simply this, if we don't adept and change to the world that is upon us, we will fall behind and our people will continue to be unemployed. [Applause.]
Mr President, our vision for South Africa is a South Africa for all in which each child has access to quality education, a modernized economy that puts at least a job in every home, that gives access to healthcare and basic services to all, where citizens live in safe communities free from crime and corruption; a South Africa that is reconciled, a prosperous one and a beacon of hope for the developing world.
That's only the first part. The second part is actually that we must table a plan, we must figure out a way as to how do we get there from where we are and therefore, inevitably, we have to make hard decisions. It can't be business as usual. We have to make the tough choices about standing up to unions and alliance
partners. We have to actually upset the network of patronage that has kept so many of the cadres in jobs for far too long despite what they deliver. We have to rethink our policies that haven't worked in the last decade. And ultimately, we have to step out of the mindset and ideology that belongs in a different era.
None of this is easy. These are tough decisions. That's why it hasn't happened. So, instead of talking about real tough reforms, we maybe talk about dreams, we maybe talk about a faster horse; as others on Twitter described it, we maybe talk about Wakanda. [Laughter.]
Fellow South Africans, our nation is in deep crisis. And I believe we can it around if we are willing to act now and make decisive choices. We can begin by building a modernized African country comprised of strong individuals who are able to compete with the best in the world.
Setswana:
Ba ntse ba bua ba re ...
English:
... the best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago. The second best time to plant a tree is today. We need to plant the trees for the future of our children; knowing that we, ourselves, may never sit under those trees, but we must plant them today. [Applause.]
And therefore, fellow South Africans, I want to propose seven reforms that will enable us to become the modern, inclusive country we all dream of. [Interjections.]
The first reform that we must have is the reform to our state- owned enterprises, SOEs. The last thing we need now is to be committing ourselves and billions of rand to decades of this dinosaur called Eskom. We must immediately split Eskom into two entities and have one company for distribution and another for build. We must allow independent power producers to come on board. [Applause.]
Our country is rich in solar, and if we get this right, what independent power producers and solar will do to Eskom will be
what Uber has already done to transport, it will bring change, the change that we need. [Applause.]
When we build new green economies, we can allow for workers to be reskilled and be reincluded in an economy of the future. We need to allow cities to buy energy directly from independent power producers and stop ourselves from being coal dependent in the next ten years. We need change, and we need reform now. And while we are at it Mr President, I hope you can be bold enough to sell SA Airways, SAA, and focus that money on fixing the trains that we need. [Applause.]
The second reform I want to propose is that I want to propose a reform to our education. Fellow South Africans, we have to introduce charter schools. What charter schools are, are a private-public partnership that allows for our children to be able to walk to schools closer to them, that can give them a quality of education that is private school compared. It will make sure we stand up to unions and give the best teachers the best infrastructure and technology for children closest to communities.
Setswana:
Le nna ke lapile ke go bona bana ba rona ba tswa kwa makeisheneng ba tsaya ditekesi le diterena ba ya kwa dikolong tse di kgakala go na le dikoloi gaufi le bone. A re ba fe dikolo tse dib a berekelang kwa ba nnang teng. [Legofi.]
English:
So that teaching our children to code and to analyse is not a luxury for a few but it is a luxury for all our children in South Africa, whether rural or urban. We need reform and we need it now. [Applause.]
The third reform I want to propose, Mr President, is to our healthcare. What remains true is that you might pursue the National Health Insurance, NHI; it is expensive and it is unaffordable. In truth, it will waste further resources and time in an unrealistic pipedream for which we simply can't afford.
So, I would propose that our DA's health plan which gives a range of solutions that will make quality healthcare available for all our citizens. So that whether you are rich or poor you
can gain access to primary healthcare in both public and private healthcare facilities. This solution will provide access to free primary healthcare to be rolled out quicker, cheaper and more fairly. We must also use healthcare technology because this is the future of disease management.
The fourth reform is that we must reform our labour legislation. Mr President, if we want to be true, we no longer the investment destination of choice because of our rigorous labour legislation. Our current rigid legislation has not only driven away investment, it has also created two classes of citizens: the employed and the unemployed.
So, I am urging, let's look at the tax structure and introduce tax incentives for people who create jobs and setup a jobs and justice fund so that we can invest in research and design, so that we focus on industries of the future.
Let's relook at the national minimum wage in its current form and allow for sectors' specific minimum wage; and in fact, give
young people opt out clauses so that they can participate in the economy.
The fifth reform is that we have to build a capable and a clean state. I find it shocking that we come here in Parliament after the revelations of the Zondo Commission have confirmed one thing, and through cadre deployment and monopoly politics we have ended up with state capture.
In truth, the deployments that have taken place in government, SOEs or Chapter Nine Institutions have resulted in one thing, where cadres put the interest of the party instead of the interest of the citizens first. [Applause.]
It is deeply worrying that there are people who are going to be chairing committees that frankly should be in jail rather than chairing committees. [Applause.]
Mr President, I want to ask you. Let's allow the Public protector to do her job, to table the report into allegations into Bosasa. Let's set up a parliamentary ad hoc committee where
you can come and give your version of the story. And let's stop delaying, let's get to the bottom of this and clean out corruption, once and for all, in South Africa today. [Applause.]
If we are going to reform the state we should have made Cabinet much smaller. Instead, the President made it look as if he's cutting Cabinet and introduced Deputy Ministers, doubled them up. I want to argue this case that we can reduce the state to 15 ministries, eradicate Deputy Ministers and make sure money is available for the people of this country. [Applause.]
The sixth reform I want to table is in fact that we must extend property ownership to millions of dispossessed South Africans. Our history is such that too many were dispossessed, in both urban and rural. Therefore, let's give our citizens the right own title. The right, so that black and white South Africans must be able to access the benefit of owning private property as an economic asset that allows them to transfer wealth to future generations. While we at it, let's give shareholding to younger South Africans so that they can transfer wealth; so that one day we can say we did break the back of the apartheid plan where our
people cannot transfer wealth one generation to the next. [Applause.]
The seventh reform I want to say, Mr President, is that if we want to keep South Africans safe at home, in rural communities, on farms, let us give the SA Police into well run, well trained, highly professional crime- fighting units, let us give this to the hands of the provincial governments. [Applause.] Let us reform policing so that provinces can run it. Hand them over to provincial governments.
Fellow South Africans, if we reform we can begin a way to the future of South Africa. Ten years from now, I want to see a South Africa that looks completely different from today.
We can halve unemployment. DA governments are already forging ahead, and have begun innovating, modernizing and growing the cities. [Interjections.] That's why where we govern, you'll find that unemployment is the lowest in the country due to our obsessive focus on city-led. [Applause.]
Today, Stellenbosch has already got an ecosystem in the most productive in Africa, employing over 40 O00 people; more than Lagos and Nairobi combined, and rightly earning the title of Africa's tech hub.
In terms of renewal energy, eight out of ten municipalities in the Western Cape have already got laws in place to allow for independent solar energy generation; and most of them want to sell energy back to the grid.
This is what a city-led economic growth plan would look like. That's why we are taking this government to court to ask that they must give the rights to the City of Cape Town to be able to generate energy for citizens here. [Applause.] And we will do it to all the cities.
In terms of education, the DA-run Western Cape's investment in the future of eLearning has seen over R1,4 billion invested in the past five years. It's already delivered over 1 160 refreshed computer labs, 28 870 devices for learners and 11 000 resources for our online portal.
To date, 70% of all teachers are trained in eTraining and over 80% of schools are connected to free internet. The Western Cape's retention rate from Grades 10 - 12 is the highest in the country.
In healthcare, already we know that more of our citizens are connected online and we keep 13 million of citizens' online records to make sure we give effective healthcare.
Fellow South Africans, we have already started working.
Setswana:
Ga re bue fela. [Tsenoganong.]
English:
We are working.
So, I want to appeal to you, Mr President, and I also want to appeal to all South Africans: Let's work together to achieve this plan. I have pledged my support to assisting you when you needed support, when you build South Africa, I want to ask you
to help the places where the DA isn't government so that we can continue the work that we have. [Interjections.]
I would urge you, Mr President, let us free up small businesses to create work, let us sell off our beleaguered SOEs, let us modernize and de- unionize our children's basic education. We have a plan and let's begin to work on it.
I want to say this: Every single day in this country I draw inspiration from the teacher who shows up in the classroom despite what has happened, I draw inspiration from the healthcare worker who goes to our hospital, I draw inspiration from the businessman who even when confronted with profit and profit losses still keeps people employed. And in this month I think we need to draw inspiration from the young people of 1976. When they looked out and realised that they could not spend their days dreaming, they decided to take to the streets and fight for what was rightfully theirs.
Mr President, time for talking is over, it is time for us to act, right now. I thank you very much. [Applause.]
Madam Speaker; His Excellency, the President of the Republic of South Africa, President Ramaphosa; Deputy President of the Republic, David Mabuza; hon members of the House; distinguished guests in the gallery; fellow South Africans, hon Maimane speaks as if we are still in an election campaign. He seems to have forgotten that the reason that we had the President of the ANC delivering the state of the nation address was precisely because their priorities and manifesto were rejected by the people of this country. [Applause.] It is the manifesto of the governing party that returned to govern that was accepted by our people. [Applause.] President, therefore, you were standing here last week and delivered the state of the nation address. If hon Maimane and the parties in this House want to join us in growing South Africa and making South Africa a better place to live in, our manifesto becomes the compact that we must speak to. That is the manifesto that the people of this country have chosen. Hon Maimane and your party, we invite you to join us. [Applause.]
I would like to express our most sincere gratitude to the people of South Africa for bestowing upon us the responsibility to lead
this beautiful nation once again. We reiterate the oath of office we took that we will serve our people with honesty, sincerity and diligence. I also extend a word of gratitude to our movement, the African National Congress, under the capable leadership of President Ramaphosa, for entrusting us with the responsibility of implementing the vision of growing a better South Africa for all.
I am grateful to our predecessors, those who remain part of the Cabinet as well as those who have since resigned from Parliament. We are taking the baton from you with humility and we remain committed in our pursuit of the collective dreams and aspirations of our people.
The attributes of a developmental state, which we strive to build, include its ability to improve the human capital base of the economy; reducing inequalities, in both per capita income and expenditure; sufficiently modernising its public service, embedding such a state in communities, and fundamentally transforming the economy; and being an entrepreneurial state.
Our strategic thrust led by the President, as outlined in his state of the nation address, reflects our commitment to achieving the status of a developmental state. As a country, we are governed by a range of values and principles, and these lay a solid foundation for building a thriving and inclusive economy and a stable society.
The 25-year review that we have conducted demonstrates quite clearly that we have done very well in the expansion of social services to the majority of our people across all parts of the country, including rural areas. The challenge remains the transformation of the economy, which has not performed well.
The review identifies the structural elements of the economy that remain unchanged and which continue to undermine our economic growth efforts. These include the persistent challenges of spatial injustice and lack of access to land and assets for the majority of our people. It also points to a continued lack of competition in the ownership of the economy, underdevelopment of the small business sector, which would allow greater participation in the economy.
This analysis, our election manifesto, together with the collective voice of our people, whom we interacted with, as we criss-crossed the length and breadth of the country during the election campaign inform our priorities.
The President reaffirmed the NDP 2030 as our lodestar and our vision approved by all parties in society and in this House. While progress was slow, particularly on the economic side, we confirm our intension to achieve our NDP targets to address the challenges of inequality, poverty, unemployment and our challenge with economic growth. The plan for the continued implementation of this vision was eloquently and succinctly articulated by the President in the following words, and I quote:
As South Africa enters the next 25 years of democracy, and in pursuit of the objectives of the NDP, let us proclaim a bold and ambitious goal, a unifying purpose, to which we dedicate our resources and energies.
All our intervention strategies and strategic programmes are guided by this overarching plan. The seven priorities announced by the President emanating from our electoral mandate will play a catalytic role in achieving a number of NDP targets in the next five and 10 years. Government departments will be measured according to their performance in achieving the following priority areas: economic transformation and job creation; education, skills and health; consolidating the social wage through reliable and quality basic services; spatial integration, human settlements and local government; social cohesion and safe communities; building a capable, ethical and developmental state; and a better Africa and world.
Let me remind you that the purpose of the state of the nation address is for the President to report on the status of the nation and outline the overall strategic direction and priorities. This is followed by this debate, where more information is provided on key themes of the President's speech.
The purveyors of the misguided narrative that the President's state of the nation address was slim on detail are disingenuous
and very economical with the truth. The President made specific mention of sectors that can turn our economic fortunes around, elucidated areas of great potential, including stimulating local manufacturing and promoting the "buy local" campaign, developing new markets in agriculture and agro- processing, and increasing international tourist arrivals to 21 million by 2030. He went on to say, and I quote:
Drawing on our successes in the automotive sector, we will implement master plans developed with business and labour in industries like clothing and textiles, gas, chemicals and plastics, renewables, and steel and metals fabrication sectors.
Furthermore, the various sector Ministers' speeches, which are now scheduled for 9 to 17 July 2019 in the precinct of Parliament, will provide even further details of the programmes for implementation. All these platforms allow for debate and engagement at the appropriate level of detail until the process is concluded.
Those who claim that the state of the nation address is all about dreams do not understand that all major revolutions worldwide began with an idea. A people without dreams and without vision and purpose, is a people with no future. It was the dreamers who gathered in Mangaung in 1912 and formed an organisation that would wage a resistance struggle against colonialism and apartheid oppression, informed by the dream of a free South Africa, which we all now enjoy. [Applause.]
In this epoch in South Africa, we are fortunate to have a great visionary in the caliber of President Ramaphosa as the Head of State. He is a big dreamer and a big doer at the same time. [Applause.]
The new smart city that the President talked about is our collective dream. It will be followed by decisive action, wherein we invite young innovative minds who are ICT savvy to share their ideas on the design and architecture of such a future smart city. It is our fervent view that such a smart city must be located in one our rural provinces so as to disrupt the colonial and apartheid spatial patterns. [Applause.]
In his previous state of the nation address in February this year, the President made a commitment to reduce the number of Ministries and departments, in order to save costs and rationalise the structure of government. At the start of this sixth term, the President indeed finalised the rationalisation by reducing the number of Ministers from 38 to 30 and reducing the number of departments by five. It is also the President's constitutional right and prerogative - let me repeat this - to appoint and disappoint Ministers and Deputy Ministers. Those who wish to exercise this right must first win the elections. I just hope the EFF is listening.
The successful reduction of government departments is a very important achievement, which will result in more efficiency, and integration of programmes for better results at a lower cost to government.
For the new Medium-Term Strategic Framework for 2019 to 2024, which includes resourcing, social compacts and accountability mechanisms, we have a limited set of priorities emanating from the electoral mandate. The new implementation paradigm is a
radical shift to a comprehensive framework, inclusive of resourcing, integration of all public-sector institutions, social partners and accountability mechanisms. This informs all levels of government planning through an integrated planning framework.
It will put more emphasis on social partnerships, resources and skills deployment by the private sector and government. It allows for a clear line of sight for the President, Cabinet and Parliament. The five-year NDP implementation priorities will be spatially referenced, in accordance with the National Spatial Development Framework and will be monitored through an implementation delivery model based on district municipalities.
The broad outline of the Medium-Term Strategic Framework, including the five-year NDP implementation plan was discussed in detail with all the premiers and Ministers at the Cabinet lekgotla and is being tabled at provincial executive makgotla [councils], as I speak. The lekgotla decision was that in one month, all departments and Ministers must finalise their five-
year implementation plan, commitments, and their reprioritisation, and resource allocation.
The NDP five-year implementation plan forms the basis for departmental strategic plans and annual performance plans. The structure of government, including Cabinet clusters, Ministerial and technical implementation fora for co-ordination and implementation will be streamlined for better results and effective delivery. Similarly, early in this Sixth Parliament, we will be presenting the proposed Integrated Planning Framework, which will ensure better integration across all levels of government.
The Department of Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation, which I am privileged to lead, has spearheaded a public-private growth initiative, PPGI, to promote economic growth and create jobs. In this regard, I want to thank my predecessor, Minister Dlamini- Zuma who was part of the beginning of this initiative. The private sector has committed investment, as articulated by the President, of R840 billion in 43 projects in over 19 sectors of the economy, to create 155 000 jobs in the next five years.
Government has committed to prioritise the elimination of growth inhibitors or binding constraints to ensure the successful implementation of these projects.
As government, we further commit to a robust community engagement and consultation programme through the various lzimbizo programmes, involving the President and Ministers and we will include this in Ministerial performance agreements. We shall ensure that government departments prioritise payment of their debt to each other, to municipalities, to state-owned entities, and the payment of service providers within 30 days. We shall revive Operation Masakhane to encourage our communities to pay for services they receive, and restore the culture of payment.
We are broadening our monitoring system to include frontline service delivery monitoring, citizen-based monitoring, community-based monitoring and more effective use of the Presidential Hotline. All these will be linked to our programme of action and its biannual review weeks and linked to
performance assessments of Ministers, Deputy Ministers, and directors- general.
A capable state requires effectively co-ordinated state institutions with skilled public servants who are committed to the public good and capable of delivering consistently high quality services, while prioritising the nation's developmental objectives. We will ensure the appointment of the Head of Public Administration, as espoused in the NDP 2030, by April 2020 to spearhead the professionalisation of the Public Service and move to make appointments of heads of departments more permanent, to promote stability in the Public Service.
Developing a capable state requires commitment in overcoming corruption and lack of accountability and this needs a strong political will. Mr President, you have that in abundance. We need sound policies and active citizenry. We shall also ensure improvement in financial and performance management and audit outcomes for all levels of government with a targeted increase of unqualified and clean audit outcomes in the next five years. Similarly, we shall ensure the promotion of ethics and integrity
management throughout the Public Service and private sector and enhance the capacity of law-enforcement agencies to fight corruption, crime and state capture.
We must congratulate the President for achieving a 50/50 split in gender representation in his executive. [Applause.] Gender mainstreaming must be replicated across all spheres of government, as we continue to build a nonsexist society. It remains one of the imperatives that we will closely monitor in the Public Service.
Allow me to invoke the profound words of our iconic writer, the late Prof Es'kia Mphahlele, whose centenary we celebrate this year, and I quote:
Everybody who is willing to work and has a nation-building vision rather than aspirations for a sectional power base should be allowed to come forward and contribute ideas and hands.
With those words, I call upon all South Africans to join hands with us, in pursuit of a better and more prosperous South Africa. It is a new dawn; let us rise to its promise. On behalf of the ANC and millions of South Africans who voted us into power, I fully support the President's state of the nation address. [Applause.]
Hon Speaker and Chair of the NCOP, Comrade President, let me also salute the red benches of the EFF 53 battalion led by the EFF deputy president Floyd Shivambu and secretary-general Godrich Gardee.
Fellow South Africans, we want to first send our deepest condolences to the families that lost their loved ones in an accident that claimed 24 young lives in Limpopo.
Sepedi:
A meoya ya bona e robale ka khut?o.
English:
We stand here to express our revolutionary gratitude to more than 1,8 million voters. At their centre are the security guards, domestic workers, farmworkers and mineworkers, petrol attendants, the youth, professionals, students and others who voted for the EFF. You have not wasted your votes. We heard your cries and are here to champion your interest without failure.
We vow to you that we shall never cease to ensure that Parliament remains a House with teeth that bite, particularly at incompetent, mediocre and corrupt fat cats who are permanently sleeping on duty and only wake up on pay day or on the day of stealing.
As expected, we are starting today to hold the executive accountable. We have been convened here for the whole week to debate what was supposed to be the state of the nation address by the newly elected President - a man who held the ambition to be president for almost three decades.
Indeed, this is our duty except that in this case, we really have no state of the nation address to debate. What we have is a
misguided, incoherent, contradictory and proven to be futile ideas mixed in a bag of fantasies.
For a man to be hyped up by the entire local and international media, only to pitch up extremely low, is tragic. We were abused here during the election campaign that saw people like Oprah Winfrey rented and sneaked into the country in the name of the global citizen festival to come and tell us how Madiba wanted you, Mr President, to be president.
After your speech, we now ask ourselves as to what did Madiba see in you which we can't see? [Laughter.] Your speech didn't inspire confidence and hope amongst the poor, young and old people of South Africa.
Your own benches here were not moved at all; hence they couldn't even sing a song in salutation of your tired speech, like they normally do when they feel revived. They didn't hear umkhombandlela [direction giving]. They didn't know and still don't know what is expected of them from your speech.
You didn't recover any of the lost votes. If anything, those who voted for you are now regretting because they wasted their votes on a President without a plan [Applause.]
You have no new ideas on how to break the country out of a colonial and apartheid legacy of underdevelopment, poverty, landlessness and unemployment. You don't know how the collapsed health system which led to dysfunctional hospitals is going to be fixed. The schools have become war zones with teachers and learners living in permanent fear because they were failed by their own government.
The National Student Financial Aid Scheme, NSFAS, is not buying study materials, paying rent and fees for the students yet the fat salaries of senior managers are paid monthly without fail. No one knows as to how this problem is going to be resolved.
Mr President, you couldn't provide us with a solid vision with regard to the continent. You couldn't speak to the African continent despite the ongoing massacre in Sudan, instability in Libya, the economic crisis in Zimbabwe which led to huge
unemployment and currency crisis, rightwing terrorism in Kenya and the ongoing occupation of Western Sahara by Morocco.
You couldn't render a message of solidarity and hope to the Palestinian people who live under apartheid Israel and the people of Venezuela who are fighting against imperialism.
You failed to tell us what is it that you would do differently from how the ANC has handled the economy over the past 25 years. The central tenants of your message remained trapped in the neoliberal conception of development that has failed to work in South Africa and the whole continent.
You were not even brave enough to repeat the manifesto promises that you made across the country during the campaign for elections; amongst these, is an urgent question of land expropriation without compensation. [Applause.] Somehow, your speech was limited to four points: fighting corruption, fighting crime, asking black people to pay electricity and getting 10- year-olds to read to understand.
Beyond these, it was confusion about jobs to be created. At one point it was 155 000 jobs in the next five years, and then it was 2 million jobs in 10 years. Yet the National Development Plan, NDP, speaks of a different target - 10 million jobs by 2030.
In addition, your own Job Summit facilitated agreements with private business to hold back on retrenchments and help create over 200 000 jobs. Capital is not only creating any jobs but doing the opposite - retrenching workers, demonstrating that you are not this captain of industry you are portrayed to be. Your influence and command on private capital is over exaggerated.
This entire confusion explains why the President resorts to fantasizing. So, after being stuck for four hours in a train in Soshanguve, the billionaire President was so traumatised that he now fantasizes about a bullet train from Messina to Cape Town [Laughter.] Before the much complicated bullet train, Mr President, you need to get the Soshanguve train to work and take people to work on time. [Applause.]
Comrade President, when you got stuck in a train, we were excited that now the President knows the reality that our people are subjected to. You come here and said nothing about that experience. Since you have seen it with your own naked eyes, you never told us that this is the plan on how you are going to fix train problems in South Africa.
You said nothing about transport to a point where your Minister of Transport became so frustrated and had to quote you on your bullet train dream because he couldn't find anything relating to transport in your speech. [Applause.]
The most tragic is the ignorance and disrespect shown to the conference resolutions of your own organisation simply because you personally do not agree with them. Mr President, we urge you to recall that conference resolutions are binding. Even Nelson Mandela with famous and world celebrated stature still recognised them as the mandate from the membership which must be implemented.
Let us remind you that on page 31, resolution 15 under the economic transformation section ... [Interjections.] ... it reads: expropriation of land without compensation should be amongst the key mechanisms available to government to give effect to land reform and redistribution. [Applause.] On page 32 of your own resolutions, resolution 29 of the economic transformation section reads: it is however a historical anomaly that there are private shareholders of the Reserve Bank. Conference resolves that the Reserve Bank should be 100% owned by the state. [Applause.]
This is the same document which includes the election outcomes of the leadership including your own election as the president, which shows that the election of leaders is as important as resolutions on policy.
We were taught as young leaders in the youth league by Kgalema Motlanthe that we must respect our own decisions or risk rendering the collective structure that took them irrelevant. He also taught us of the necessity we have to translate conference resolution into a programme of action. But the document in your
own organisation called "the Eye of the Needle" - a document about the calibre of leaders that must lead a movement; we are told; once a decision has been taken on the basis of the majority views, it binds everyone, including those who held a contrary view.
You will therefore recall that as a result of this principle; Chris Hani was angry at a decision to suspend the arm struggle. Once a resolution was affirmed by the higher structure, it was binding. He had to go around the country and explain it to others as if it was his own view. [Applause.]
Mr President, in the 2018 state of the nation address, you came here and said, guided by the resolution of the 54th national conference of the governing party, the approach to the land reform will include expropriation of land without compensation. In January, this year, you repeated and said; we will support the work of the Constitutional Review Committee tasked with the review of section 25 of the Constitution to set a provision of expropriation of land without compensation.
Now that you have been elected, you have turned your back on the promises you made to the electorate ... [Applause.] ... because you undermine our people like that. Last week, you have completely retreated on expropriation of land without compensation and nationalisation of the Reserve Bank.
Let us warn you; if you do not respect the resolution of your own conference, imagine what message you are sending to those who did not want you to be the President. You are saying to them that the decision or the outcome of you being elected as a President is not binding since all other decisions taken in the same conference are not binding. [Applause.]
What is the state of our country today, Mr President? Unemployment which has reached a new high level of 27,6%; meaning that over 9,9 million young people are unemployed in South Africa. We must create jobs because when you say that you are going to create 2 million jobs in 10 years, you are almost saying to more than 7 million young people that you are not going to get jobs for the next 10 years. That is why you are saying 2 million.
An honest President would have said, even if you elected me, the seven million of you will not get jobs because I have no plan to create jobs.
Comrade President, it must be made clear that the crisis in Higher Education will not be resolved, particularly under the new leadership of the Department of Higher Education. It has no capacity. It has demonstrated before that it doesn't have the interest of the black child at heart.
Let us warn you that this free education you have promised our people is not being delivered. There are no proper libraries. Our children are not receiving learning materials because NSfas doesn't have the capacity to give those children. No access to food and accommodation and that is what constitute the life of our children today.
Comrade President, we don't need an amper [almost] free education. We need a real free education ... [Applause.] ... where there will be no registration fee; where all children who
qualify to get a seat at tertiary level will only be required to produce their matric results, earning them a seat at that level.
We must make it very clear, Mr President, that the issue of resolving inequality is not going to happen in South Africa if we do not resolve the land question. We must, therefore, warn you that if you do not expropriate land without compensation and return it to its rightful owners, the democratic project remains in permanent threat. Our people are going to engage in an unled revolution because they will be fighting for what rightfully belongs to them.
We sat here and warned the ANC that we cannot use the land question to encourage people to vote for us. It is an emotive issue and when we speak about it, we must mean it and not what you did to the electorate.
We will never resolve the social ills in our society if we do not resolve the land question. If we do not change the patterns of property ownership in South Africa, white people will continue to think that they are superior because they own the
means of production. [Applause.] We make no apology and neither are we ashamed to repeat the call that the land must be expropriated for equal redistribution.
The first and the most practical step towards creating quality life for our people is by giving them the land. We must not retreat in our endeavour to amend the Constitution to allow for expropriation without compensation.
Mr President, we will not win a fight against corruption if the President is involved in allegations of money laundering. We want the President to come clean, to explain and take the country into confidence as to who are the people who donated money in the CR17 campaign and what do they stand to benefit? I am not even sure if your party policy allows that you must set up a fund to finance a campaign if you want to become this or that in your own party. We need the names, not leaked documents, Mr President. You ought to call all these trustees and ask them to give you a report of who donated money and what are the expectations of those people.
We don't have an intention, none whatsoever, to remove you as the President because your people have elected you democratically but if you're going to come across as being a constitutional delinquent, we will be left with no option but to engage in an impeachment process.
We want you, President, to take full responsibility where a mistake was committed and announce which practical steps you are going to take in correcting those mistakes. We don't see anyone in your party, if you were to be removed tomorrow, who can replace you; otherwise we will all be in a disaster. [Applause.] We are in a disaster now; we don't want to be in a worse disaster. [Laughter.] Please, help South Africa by taking it in your confidence.
Make sure that you lead by example. You are a human being. You will commit mistakes. Where you have committed a mistake, you must come out and confess and say South Africans will decide my fate. Don't be the most dishonest person beyond the one who came before you. We thought we were in a worse situation; we don't want to be in an even worse situation than we were before. We
want a President that is ethical, honest and a President that opens up and say; how do we fix this mistake which was committed in my name?
President, we must tell you that people are poverty stricken now, people unemployed now, people are landless now, people are being raped now and crime is too high now. They are not dreaming about it. That is the reality of their lives. Stop dreaming! Implement programmes that are going to change their lives. How can an ordinary man walk into a shop holding a R100 note in his pocket, with the power to buy a cool drink; arrive at the counter and say to the shopkeeper; I dream of buying cool drink when you have the power to buy a cool drink. [Laughter.] You have no luxury to dream; you are a President. You are an implementer. You have the power to make things happen.
You want a bullet train. Stop dreaming. Announce how you are going to do it. If you don't know, ask Paul Mashatile; he spoke about monorail at some point in Gauteng and demonstrated how it can be done from Johannesburg to Soweto. We were still traumatised by Gautrain and said we don't want monorail. You
come here worse than Paul Mashatile and just say bullet train from here to there and don't tell us how it is going to be done.
You want to create a city. Stop dreaming. Tell us about the land where you want to create a city, how long will it take you, how much you need to create the city? You have the power to do so.
You have the power to fight corruption. Don't be scared of corrupt individuals, they will not remove you. You are a President now. Don't worry whether you'll come back or not. Take a decision now. You have the power to take a decision. Stop dreaming about taking decisions when you have the power to take decisions.
When you appointed hon Pravin against the Public Protector's report, you took your powers away because you said his review suspends the remedial action. You can't even remove a Deputy Minister from now onwards. If the Public Protector says these are the remedial actions against a Deputy Minister; that Deputy Minister will lodge a review of that remedial action. You will be stuck with a corrupt Deputy Minister because Pravin made it
difficult for you to be a President. Stop dreaming. Take a decision. Wake up! [Interjections.]
Chairperson of the NCOP, Comrade President and Comrade Deputy President, hon members, the ANC I am a member of has never assigned any one out of its structures to be its spokesperson. No one has a right to anoint himself as a guardian of ANC traditions and its conference resolutions. [Applause.]
As a tried and tested mass party of the revolution with accumulated fighting experience of over 107 years, the ANC has never been found wanting in finding solutions to its own challenges the problem faced in society. As a discipline force of the left, we have never chosen the rosy path of shortcuts, easy solutions to complex problems neither pondering on the popular sentiments with unrealistic solutions. We will resist that temptation even today.
The overwhelming majority of the people of South Africa voted in the national and provincial elections. They voted the ANC and
the President Cyril Ramaphosa at the head of it thus reaffirming their confidence to his leadership an uninterrupted service to the course of the revolution in South Africa.
Hon Chair, this state of the nation address takes place after the renewal of the democratic mandate of the ANC to lead a process of fundamental change and transformation in our country. It has captured the fundamental aspiration of our overwhelming majority of our people as articulated in the 2019 election manifesto of the ANC.
Contrary to some false narrative peddled by some in this House, the priorities identified by the President in his state of the nation address represent continuity in change in the uninterrupted efforts of the ANC to build a better future for all. These priorities are anchored on the vision of the Freedom Charter, the 1989 Harare Declaration, the Ready to Govern and other policy positions of the ANC adopted by various conferences.
Our 2019 election manifesto and government 25 Year Review has detailed our success stories over the last 25 years and the challenges that lie ahead. As a leading party of the revolution, we have drawn many hard lessons on the choices we have made, their implementation and successes and failures. This has emboldened us to be more focused rigorous in our implementation and monitoring of our plans as mandated by overwhelming majority of South Africans.
We will do this drawing from the accumulated experience of the last 25 years which has enriched our insights and wisdom on fundamental task of governance. Our experience of governance cannot be matched by any party in this House, although we will continue to humble ourselves by welcoming constructive contribution of every party that shares our vision on fundamental aspects transformation.
As the President has pointed out, we do this mindful of the harsh global and domestic economic conditions which continue to limit our capacity to accomplish our strategic goals at a scale
and tempo of our own choice. This calls for greater efficiency and prudent on the management of our limited resources.
We are further emboldened by the President who has demonstrated resilience and capacity to translate our policy priorities into action for building a capable and ethical state without fail over the last 16 months of his presidency.
The President has established various inquiries to look into the governance of some of our critical institutions like SA Revenue Service, the National Directorate of Public Prosecutions and the Public Investment Commission alongside Judicial Commission of Inquiry into allegations of state capture.
These Inquiries continue to make serious breakthroughs that have restored the confidence of our people. The establishment by the Hawks of the National Clean Audit Task Team in the municipalities continue to disrupt the comfort zone of rent seeking and corrupt patronage network that they have been looting municipal finances. Whilst we respect the fundamental constitutional principle of presumption of innocence until
proven guilty by a court of law, we salute these actions by the security establishment for the recent spate of arrests of municipal officials suspected of corruption and fraud across the country. This is indeed the new dawn in action, Mr President.
As this debate takes place on the 25th anniversary of our constitutional democracy, it imposes immense duty upon us to pause and take stock of the lessons of the past and efficacy and effectiveness of the architecture of our democratic state in fulfilling the strategic tasks we have set for ourselves. This we should do not out of intuition but on the basis of the concrete lessons of the past 25 years.
The abiding lesson of the past 25 years is that the people and the people alone are the decisive factor critical for the victory of the national democratic revolution. It is against this background that the ANC from 1994 till to date has always been paying high premium on the welfare and the needs of our people.
As demonstrated in the 25 Year Review, we have integrated the fragmented education system by creating one nonracial and nonracial education department with one curriculum for all. Today, South African children are not denied education access to education because of their socioeconomic conditions through such policy intervention such as no fee paying schools, National School Nutrition Programme and scholar transport.
It is in this regard that we celebrate the success of Gauteng and the Free State Province for over a number of years for being leading provinces even with the matric results in our country. [Applause.]
Our social wage has expanded significantly over the last 25 years and today covers over more than 17 million beneficiaries.
The provision of free health care services to the poor, children and pregnant women is among key policies that has restored the dignity of our people. Today, South Africa stand counted amongst few countries with improved life expectancy and best practice
model on the issue of HIV and Aids pandemic despite the challenges that remains.
The recent passing of anti-monopoly legislation by Parliament will go a long way in deepening the radical socioeconomic transformation by ensuring that our economy does not resides in the hands of the few elites. We reaffirm our commitment to industrialisation as a sustainable path way towards sustainable jobs. It is in this regards that townships are such as Dimbaza, Mdantsane, Botshabelo, Quaqua, Kanyamazane and many others will benefit through massive manufacturing that will produce finished products.
According to our Constitution, South Africa is a single sovereign democratic state with three spheres of government that are constituted as national, provincial and local government that are distinct, interrelated and interdependent. The Constitution further enjoins these three spheres of government to co-operate with one another in advancing national development agenda.
In pursuance of this constitutional imperative, our government has established robust systems and structures of intergovernmental relation, the efficacy and effectiveness of these systems and structures can only be measured by the impact they make in forging the integrated co-operative governance and mitigating the current uneven development and capacity amongst provinces and municipalities.
The National Development Plan is very instructive on the dual challenges of duplication and fragmented planning across the three spheres of government which most documented research attributes to poor service delivery and development. Mr President, this therefore makes it more compelling for this Sixth Administration to pay high premium on integrated co- operative governance system.
Our ground breaking efforts in this regard will surely ensure that there is no child who daily walks more than five kilometres to school, no indigent family on the housing waiting list for more than ten years, no money allocated for housing is returned to Treasury because the municipality has not allocated sites for
building and other challenges associated with fragmented planning.
Our systems of provincial and local government are located at the coal face of service delivery, development and participatory democracy.
Over the past years, our systems of provincial and local government have undergone fundamental changes and reconfiguration to adequately respond to the development challenges facing our communities. Amongst the catalytic economic infrastructure development that has been built in our townships, including transport infrastructure, building roads in pursuance for local economic development.
The 2010 Football World Cup hosted by South Africa will go down the annals of our history as one of the decisive moments in the spatial distribution of world class commercial sports infrastructure to all nine provinces. This has increased tourist attraction of most of the provinces beyond Gauteng, Western Cape and KwaZulu-Natal.
The accomplishment of these high level world class infrastructure projects have demonstrated the capacity and potential of provincial government and municipalities as critical agents of change in the transformation of development and economic landscape of our country. There are many exciting lessons to learn from the Township Economy Model by Gauteng Province with all its challenges. Key among this is the township economy is feasible and can be achieved.
To do this requires bold and conscious action. This should include leveraging of our development finance institutions to have a conscious bias in investing in township economy, translating our commitment to localisation of production, procurement of goods and services into concrete plan and reorientation our spatial development framework to consciously locate more business and commercial sites in the townships.
Key to the clarion call by the President which flows from the National Development Plan is the partnership among different sectors of society, our communities and government in pushing back the frontiers of poverty, unemployment and inequality. This
partnership presupposes structured dialogue, reflection and collective action on the identified priorities. As the systems of our democratic governance located closer to the communities, the provincial and local government are best placed to occupy forward trenches in the facilitation of public participation.
This should not only be limited to legislative process but should also include the monitoring of the impact of government policy to our communities. We must also remodel our public participation framework to be more exciting and inspiring to draw meaningful involvement of the widest possible section of our communities.
The more the disjuncture and fragmentation between three spheres of government the more the capacity of the democratic state to fulfil its task is weakened. This point is succinctly captured by the ANC conference resolution, and I quote:
The more we build a developmental state, the more we create conditions for integrated cooperative governance system. And the more we strengthen the cooperative governance
system, the more we create conditions for a developmental state.
The story of our last 25 years is the story of a foundation build to create an integrated co-operative governance system both at an executive and legislative levels of the state. The NCOP Taking Parliament to the People is a single most strategic intervention where three spheres of government are brought together under one roof in conversation with our people.
The key question that South Africans will seek an answer to is how braced are these strategic initiatives to monitor the strategic tasks of the Sixth Administration as outlined in your state of the nation address, Mr President. This is the critical question that should inform planning of Parliament and legislatures in this Sixth Democratic Parliament.
The planning should reorient the legislative sector to be more activist and people centred as articulated in the strategic vision of Parliament. Thank you, Chairperson. [Time expired.] [Applause.]
Hon Chairperson of the NCOP, hon Speaker, your Excellency The President, your Excellency Deputy President, hon Ministers and hon Deputy Ministers and hon Members. As we sat in this August House last week, we were reminded of two historic speeches. The first is Dr Martin Luther King's "I have a dream speech"; which he delivered in August 1963 although rather than the American dream, this was deeply rooted in the Chinese dream. The second speech that came to mind was former President Obama's oft repeated, "Yes, we can."
More than 70 times the President said the words, "we will, we will do this, we will achieve that". By contrast, the words "we have" were uttered only seven times. So, there is a very gaping chasm between what has been done, and what Government intends to still do.
Two things were sorely lacking last Thursday: the now and the how. Mr President, you asked us to imagine an impossible future and you told us that there is nothing we cannot achieve if we work together. This is a bold dream. Unfortunately, even in the senior leadership of the ruling Party there is a failure to work
together. The result is conflicting statements on crucial issues, such as the mandate on the South African Reserve Bank.
Of course we all want the country you dream of your Excellency. But do we dare dream of building smart cities tomorrow, when today we can't even get the basics right? The picture you painted of hardship and poverty is familiar to all of us. The picture of bullet trains and cities with integrated Information and Communications Technology (ICT) is possible to imagine. But is it possible to achieve?
I don't mean hypothetically, and I am not making judgements on our worthiness as a nation or on our potential. I am talking nuts and bolts, rands and cents. I asked during February's State of the Nation Debate, where will the money come from to achieve these grandiose plans? We are already borrowing just to stay afloat. Where will the money come from to do all the things you say we will do?
Since I asked that question, South Africa has experienced a 3.2% drop in Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth for the first
quarter. We are in deeper trouble now than we were then. We need more than hope, Mr President. We need economic growth and we need it now.
A recent editorial in the financial mail magazine opened with this apposite line, "It's been a difficult week to be a South African." Well I say hon Chairperson of the NCOP, for many South Africans, every week is a difficult week.
If all our goals have a timeline of 5 or 10 years, you won't be here Mr President to answer for them. Your Excellency, so what about now? What about tomorrow? You talk about a 10 year plan for economic growth. But we don't have 10 years. And how do we know that things will really get better, and not worse? We need solutions now. We know how heavily Government is relying on foreign investment as a lifeline for our economy. So we welcome the news that 250 billion rands worth of projects are in the implementation phase, we welcome that Mr President. But, our enthusiasm slips though when we remember that R230 billion is needed by Eskom. We really are chasing our own tails. Long before black-outs, we knew that a stable and sustainable
electricity supply is vital to our economy. Why was Eskom allowed to sink to this level of crisis? When the warning bells sound, we must take heed.
The warning bells have sounded loud and clear for the SABC. Financial crisis threatens another imminent black-out, not the lights this time, but the news.
We need to respond appropriately when key people suddenly start resigning from State-Owned Enterprises, when Chief Financial Officers talk about day- zero, and when bail outs are costing more than our economy can afford. This is not the time to dream.
Mr President, you spoke about difficult choices and bold steps, about doing things that won't please everyone, things that will stretch our resources and capabilities. We all accept that this is needed. But what are those bold steps and difficult choices?
How, for instance will we halve, if not eradicate, violent crime in the next 10 years? Coming as I do from KwaZulu Natal where violent crime is a daily reality, I am eager to know what
exactly is planned and how it will be expedited. One can only hope that the Minister will unpack this for us when he delivers his budget speech.
Whatever is going to be done differently, it will demand that corruption first be eradicated from all ranks of law- enforcement, so that bribery, abuse of power, failure to act and dereliction of duty will no longer plague our efforts to secure justice, security and peace. It is genuinely possible to eradicate violent crime, eliminate hunger, push child literacy to 100%, employ 2 million youth, and get our economy growing faster than our population. If these things are genuinely possible within just 10 years why has it taken 25 years to figure out how to do it? Does Government really have it figured out now?
Your Excellency, we cannot wait for 10 years. Fortunately, we won't have to, because situated right in the Presidency is the Department of Performance Monitoring and Evaluation. This Department must now set quarterly measurable targets based on the ten year plan, and report not only to the President but to
the country, through Parliament on whether these targets are being met.
We all have lofty ideals. When it comes to delivering the dream, however, it falls on hon Ministers, hon Deputy Ministers and Directors Generals, and to the many officials in Government administration to do so. It's not about the ideas, it's about who delivers on them. When we have officials even at the highest level, failing to comply with the Public Finance Management Act, our loftiest dreams will come to nought.
There is a simple question South Africans are asking. We all heard it loud and clear when we travelled the length and breadth of this country. The question is this, where are the arrests? This question has not been answered. Why have no arrests been made when so much evidence of corruption has been brought into the public spotlight? Corruption cannot be relegated to a few lines in a speech. It must be dealt with as a foremost priority. Thus the IFP will continue our call for the establishment of an Integrity Commission dealing with corruption, as a Chapter 9 institution.
Your Excellency, the IFP thanks you for giving us the responsibility of chairing the Standing Committee on Public Accounts in the 6th Parliament. We are confident that the Hon. Mr Mkhuleko Hlengwa will fulfil this responsibility with the same integrity that our Party is known for.
Mr President, the IFP is not shy of giving plaudits where plaudits are due. We are pleased to hear you say that municipalities must be properly supported. The fact is that local government remains a lower priority in Government's books. This is a result of the centralised system of government which the ruling Party sought during constitutional negotiations, we recall this as our chief negotiator Mr President. The IFP on the other hand sought decentralised governance, governance from the ground up. We wanted to empower local and district municipalities to become drivers of economic development, service delivery and social justice. We wanted strong local government, so that the people would genuinely determine their own destiny.
The dreams you espoused on Thursday were national dreams, overarching dreams. But the dreamers are local people. We need local solutions.
Your Excellency, I personally would like to thank you for raising the issue of rising HIV infection rates, particularly in young women. I lost my children to Aids as you know and I am a committed activist for eradicating this disease. That is why I wear the red lapel ribbon every day of my life.
Years ago, I was the first national leader to speak up about losing a child to Aids was myself and then after that the hon Nelson Mandela our former President did well. We try to actually remove the veil of silence.
Mr President we have asked that in the national interest all parties offer support inside and practical solutions. That is the hallmark of the IFP. Please be assured that we will do just that, and that we do it because like you, we love South Africa.
Can we just get the time correct, please, Chair? I don't have just one minute! [Laughter.] Okay, I get some extra! Fine.
Afrikaans:
Agb Voorsitter, deur u ...
English:
Hon President, there is nothing wrong with having dreams. In fact, I do believe that real political leaders should have dreams. But then we must say to each other, it must be dreams to last forever. That's the difference.
Every time I delivered a speech from this podium in previous state of the nation addresses, congratulating the hon President on his election, I said that the FF Plus and its supporters want to build South Africa. We want to build a better future for all.
In your campaign, hon President, you said at Stellenbosch that you wish you could tie the white young people of South Africa to a tree, and prevent them from leaving South Africa. But did you
ever ask yourself why the white people and the young people of South Africa leave South Africa? It is because they can't find jobs. And they can't find jobs because of affirmative action.
You say that you want to use their skills and their expertise. The fact of the matter is that you cannot do so. Because of affirmative action, they have to go and seek jobs in other places of the world. And yes, the world reaps that expertise from the people and the young people of South Africa.
Still, you discriminate against the young white people of South Africa. Your own youth employment scheme ... white young people cannot participate in it, because they are white. If you go and look for instance what your secretary-general, Ace Magashule, says ... he is still blaming the white people of white monopoly capital. His argument is it is still because of the white people that we cannot have economic growth.
With great respect, that is a kick in the teeth of those people who really want to build South Africa.
Do you want to recognise them? Do you want to enslave the young people and the white young people of South Africa? Because, if you think you can enslave them, you are completely wrong.
If you look at your MEC for Education in Gauteng, always blaming Afrikaans schools for his own failures and using them as a smokescreen ... [Interjections.] ... instead of attending to the schools that are real problems.
Does the ANC have a problem with my mother tongue, Afrikaans? Because that is what Lesufi says. But I didn't see you repudiate him, hon President.
I said before, do away with black economic empowerment. [Interjections.] And can I say that I am supported in this by black academics like William Gumede? You know, during election time I put in some petrol in my car. The attendant said to me, I'm going to vote for you. And I asked him why. He said, you are quite correct. When it comes to black economic empowerment, it only favours the political elite.
I'd like to say that you would like to build the economy. But, how can you build the economy if you have a construction mafia stopping 74 construction projects, demanding a 30% shareholding in the company? How can you build the economy if more than 110 engineers in the construction business left South Africa because of these criminal elements?
I want to say to you today, if you don't curb these criminal activities, you will not be able to build the economy. More than 16 trucks burnt over a weekend! The people who keep the economy rolling, but they burn them and people lose their lives because of crime in South Africa.
You will have to ensure that, if you want the economy to grow, you curb the powers of the unions. You know, and everyone in South Africa knows, that when it comes to the state-owned enterprises, SOEs, you have to retrench people. But the unions come to you and the ANC and say to you, you will not do that. That is part of the problem. You will have to curb their powers. You will have to revise South Africa's labour laws.
I come to crime and I want to ask you, why is it so difficult to publicly condemn farm murders in South Africa? In South Africa we have black farmers, we have coloured farmers, we have Indian farmers, and we have white farmers. The food you had this morning when you had breakfast ... you must thank the farmers for it. Everybody who is going to have lunch must thank the farmers for it. [Interjections.]
Afrikaans:
Ek wil vir die agb President s, verlede jaar ongeveer hierdie tyd was daar aanvalle gewees op moskees - een in KwaZulu-Natal en een in Malmesbury. U tree onmiddelik op. U benoem onmidellik 'n presidensile komitee van die Ministers van Polisie, Verdediging en Justisie.
Ek wil vandag vir u s, 'n plaasmoord is nie net 'n moord op 'n individu nie.
English:
It's not only a crime against an individual; it is also a crime against a community. It is the women and children who pay the
price of a farm murder when they are tortured, when boiling water is poured down their throats, when hot irons are used to burn the women, when they force a 12-year-old girl to watch her mother being raped. That's torture. But still, you refuse to publicly condemn farm murders. [Interjections.] I appeal to you. It's simple. And I will say to you, hon President, I will invite you to a funeral of someone murdered on a farm, and you can invite me to any other funeral you wish.
Lastly, I want to say that there is one outstanding matter, and that is section 235 of the Constitution. It deals with self- determination. It also determines that national legislation has to determine what happens with section 235. There is an accord in place between the Freedom Front, the ANC and the government in 1994. I appeal to you that we meet, that we take this step forward to ensure that section 235 of the Constitution - which deals with self-determination - be taken forward.
Afrikaans:
Ek dink dit is die enigste artikel in the Grondwet wat bepaal dat nasionale wetgewing wel geskryf moet word wat nog nie
geskryf is nie. So, in daardie opsig het ons ook 'n grondwetlike verantwoordelikheid en plig.
Agb President, ek wil afsluit.
English:
Do you know that there is a song called The Green, Green Grass of Home? It's about this prisoner who sang that he wanted to touch the green, green grass of his home. And then he says, and when I awake and look around me, I was surrounded by four great walls. And yes, I then realised that I was only dreaming. Because he is a prisoner.
Hon President, you are a prisoner of the ANC. [Interjections.] Break away from that! Then you can save South Africa. Then you can save the economy. I thank you. [Interjections.]
Hon Speaker, Chairperson of the NCOP, President of the Republic of South Africa, Cyril Ramaphosa, Deputy President of our country, hon David Mabuza, hon Chief Whip of the Majority Party, Ministers and Deputy Ministers, hon Members of
Parliament, distinguished guests and fellow South Africans, today, 65 years ago, thousands of activists gathered in Kliptown to lay out a vision for a South Africa that we today inherit. The vision, aspirations and dreams of our people were documented in what became known as the Freedom Charter - the backbone of the Constitution, which guides the work of this House.
Comrade President as a member of this House, who is a young black woman, I stand on the shoulders of the women who played a role in the drafting of the Freedom Charter; I stand on the shoulders of Ruth First, Dora Tamana, Albertina Sisulu, Beata Lipman, and others.
Comrade President, I stand on the shoulders of the first women to form part of the first parliament of our young democracy. I can only but imagine the suffocation they endured in that boy's choir of an executive. Today, as we young women join them on these benches, I draw strength from their resilience. In fact, I stand their resilience.
Murhangeri wa tiko [Leader of the nation], it is with no doubt
that under this democratic South Africa, the future of the children of this nation can only get brighter. South African youth are doing amazing things in various spheres of society locally and internationally. Just look at ShoMadjozi's recent achievement.
However, allow me to share my activist colleague, Dr Sithembile Mbete's conversation with a 9-year-old girl whom when she asked: what do you want to be when you grow up? The young girl responded by saying "sizobona".
Allow me to share, Ms Shaeera Kalla's conversation with a 20-year- old young man at Rosebank Mall, whom when she asked what his dreams were, the young boy responded, "I have no dreams, let me first survive tomorrow".
President Ramaphosa, we must ensure that the gloom that hovers over parts of our country does not strip away young people from their right to envision to dream and imagine bright, healthy and meaningful lives. The process of envisioning one's future should not be a privilege.
Comrade President we continue to build our nation and design the social fabric of our society - sleepless nights we must have, unsettled by the realities of these two young people and many like them.
Setho seHlomphehang, Mme Modise we must khawuleza, for our inability to address some of the socioeconomic challenges of young people in our country will lead to a death of imagination among some young people in our country. Our inability to ensure that young people through the attainment of knowledge and skills are active participants in our economy will attribute to the social decay in our society. How do we build a nation when the future of the country fails to imagine their role within it?
The key to nation-building as Amilcar Cabral says: "is to rid our land of every noxious influence of oppressive culture."
How is it Mongameli [Mr President] that whilst you speak of growing South Africa through a social compact which requires contribution of various parties, through sacrifices and trade- offs, others speak about ...
Afrikaans:
... terugslaan. Regtig, agb lede! Terugslaan ...
English:
... to what? To a time when the efforts of the masses of this country to fight for the land would bear no fruits?
The above mentioned privilege Mr President is the very same privilege that underpins various hate crimes in our society.
The ANC has promised in its manifesto, to finalize the legislation before parliament, aimed at preventing and combating hate crimes and prosecution of persons who commit these offences. In line with your call to implement, masikhawuleze Mongameli [let's hurry Mr President] because this legislation will mean that no hate crime goes unpunished. Any abuse based on race, gender, religion, disability and albinism will be legally and decisively dealt with.
We must tell you that, homophobes in our society must be aware of the fact that any abusive behaviour towards the lesbians,
gays, bisexuals, transsexuals, queer, intersexuals, asexual, LGBTQIA+ will face legal consequences.
Taking into consideration the demographics of this country, and whom the life expectancy of many is reliant on, women are very fundamental to building this nation.
As we build our new nation, we are guided by the preamble of our Constitution that reads: " we aim to establish a society based on democratic values, social justice and fundamental human rights."
Gender-based violence is one of the greatest plagues of our time. Our women are not safe, our queer bodies are not safe, the night and day scares us, the city scares us, and so do rural areas, public spaces, our homes, universities and schools too. Is there any space for us in fact in the society? If there's not, we must with the sjambok, which is the laws of this country address those issues.
Mr President, you speak to the establishment of the Gender-Based
Violence and Femicide Council; and as we acknowledge the launch of the Gender-Based Violence Hearings and the Sexual Offences Court in the 5th administration.
As we work towards social connectedness and building an intersectional society, we must include the representation of young women and gender non- conforming bodies in the structures that will lead these processes and institutions. However, we must also acknowledge, Mr President, that the scourge of patriarchy won't be solved by solely increasing the representation of women in an oppressive system but rather the dismantling and breaking down of any institution and societal construct that entrenches patriarchy. To quote American Iranian activist Hoda Katebi: "a seat at the table does not mean you are off the menu".
Hon Fikile Masiko, a Whip deployed by the governing party to the Portfolio Committee on Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities, together let us work to whip patriarchy out of this society. Let us whip it, whip it real good.
Hon Lamola, our Constitution is considered a world-leading document; we must conceptualize and design a world-leading response to gender-based violence. As per our manifesto, we must capacitate and equip the police and the court system to support survivors of gender-based violence and sexual assault.
Mr President, as we increase the visibility of police we must ensure that our people do not live in fear of our police nor are they triggered by police.
Our police must not assimilate the intolerance of the apartheid police who when overseeing protests nor must they regurgitate sexual harassment towards victims entering police stations.
Hon Cele appreciating the contribution to youth employment through training 5000 young people into the police; we must ensure that we harness a blooming police force whose actions will resonate with a democratic South Africa through programmes like Conflict Negotiation, Mediation and Resolution Training and Rehabilitation programmes.
Core to the student protests of 2015-16 was nation-building. Our generation reminded society that you cannot build a nation whilst others are left behind academically and economically. Out of that came great strides in the sector of higher education, however, consequence of our call for free quality and decolonized education, talented young South Africans like Kanya Cekeshe find themselves behind bars; others charged, expelled, suspended, emotionally scarred and politically despondent.
Comrade President, the unconditional release of Kanya and all others must be prioritized by your administration. We call for your presidential pardon.
Comrade President, South Africa being one of the greatest leaders of the african continent, we endorse your call for a world-class visa regime, best academic minds on the continent must collaborate with our academics and universities and all our institutions. Our children must go to great Kingdoms of Mali and Ghana to learn of our majestic and glorious history and young African learners must come here to learn our history.
Our LGBTQIA+ community members in other countries who do not feel safe must feel safe in South Africa.
President we want you to finalize the legislation on language in our schools. African languages must be taught in schools, they must be institutionalized; more importantly, we need to create societal value of our languages. As the Vice-Chancellor of University of Cape Town, Prof Phakeng says "In South Africa, someone can speak nine official languages and still be deemed illiterate and not fit for employment".
Comrade President, we create value in our languages by ensuring public servants must learn them, in Mdantsane, doctors speak and diagnose our patients in isiXhosa, and teachers must be able to teach foundational topics in mathematics in more than one language.
Fellow South Africans, our world is changing, technologies of the 4th Industrial Revolution have the potential to be great equalizers of our time, however they may also drive the greatest concentration of wealth and deepen inequality. Fellow South
Africans, as we work to build our nation in this 4IR, we must ensure that the 4IR does not happen to us but that we inform how it unfolds in our country.
Allow me to lobby you, President to use our education system as a niche to achieve what you intend to achieve in building a national democratic society.
I heard my good friend Nomangxongo Sixishe at the pre-state of the nation address debate with the youth, quote me in saying, we must use schools to propagate and harness a special type of South African that will grow to be charged with the desire to drive out all these isms that burden our society; racism, sexism and classism.
Let work from the words of Thomas Sankara, who implores citizens to: "become active agents in the transformation of their society instead of remaining spectators".
President ...
IsiZulu:
... Masisheshe, sigeze, sifezekise.
E n g l i s h :
You have set out the line of marching Mongameli [Mr President], we are lobbied and we commit ourselves to executing it. Thank you very much.
Afrikaans:
Agb Voorsitter van die Nasionale Raad van Provinsies, agb President, Lede van die Parlement, mede Suid- Afrikaners, die President het in sy rede verwys na sy droom vir 'n nuwe era. Agb President, daardie droom kan net verwesenlik word, indien die ANC drasties van koers verander, andersins herinner dit my net aan 'n ou bekende liedjie wat s: "Dreams are good friends!"
Die werklikheid van die hier-en-nou is egter die volgende.
Eerstens, word 10 miljoen Suid-Afrikaners elke oggend wakker met die wete dat hulle nie geld of kos vir hulself of hul gesinne het nie.
Tweedens, het hulle waarskynlik ook nie die vooruitsig om 'n werk te kry nie, maar hulle moet steeds voortbeur om 'n wetsgetroue, verantwoordelike landsburger te wees.
Derdens, het ons jong mense wat wel die geleenthede het om hulself te kwalifiseer met kennis en vaardighede, geen sekerheid dat hul wel 'n werk gaan kry nie en baie van hulle verlaat die land.
Vierdens, weet die kwesbare persone in ons land, wat op toelaes moet leef, nie meer wat die begrip "bo die broodlyn" beteken nie.
Vyfdens, die wat wel 'n werk het word daagliks armer en hulle bekommer hulself oor die veiligheid van hul pensioenfondse, indien hul een het.
Verder, vakbondleiers verteenwoordig die minderheid van werkers in ons land, maar hulle veg meestal vir hul eie politieke voordele.
Laastens, di wat kapitaal het om te bel, kyk gevolglik na geleenthede buite Suid-Afrika.
English:
Mr President, the ANC's strive for a developmental state through the New Growth Path would have created five million jobs in 2020. The policy statement on developmental local government aimed to build capacity to enhance servile delivery in local communities. However, in the NCOP we witnessed various interventions in local governments due to a lack of capacity or political motivations.
In 2017, President Ramaphosa's new deal for jobs, growth and transformation set a target of 3% growth in 2018 and 5% in 2023. Costs would have also been out through a reformed Eskom as well as greater use of renewable energies. Efficient use of the public purse and structural systems are however prerequisites
for these policies to successfully contribute to economic growth.
Our state-owned enterprises, central to development and growth, however distinguished themselves in weak management, poor governance and unsustainable bailouts, with the result of widespread state capture and the direct impact on our economy.
Afrikaans:
Slegs 'n stabiele groeiende ekonomie, wat werksgeleenthede en welvaart skep, gerugsteun deur bekwame regeringsvlakke kan hoop en vertroue vir die toekoms bied.
In die Wes-Kaap, waar die DA sedert 2009 regeer, kan ons wel, nieteenstaande oorkoepelende negatiewe ekonomiese omstandighede, bewys lewer dat ons innoverende beleide en planne, gebaseer op 'n markgerigte ekonomie, 'n positiewe invloed op ons inwoners uitoefen.
'n Paar voorbeelde hiervan is dat die Wes-Kaap: 'n 14% laer werkloosheidsyfer as die res van die land het, met 508 000 nuwe
werksgeleenthede wat geskep is, wat dui op ongeveer 'n viermalige groei oor die afgelope dekade; 'n 72% suksessyfer in landbougrond hervormingsprojekte het, teenoor 'n 10% suksessyfer in die res van die land, sedert 2009, R500 miljoen spandeer het op die ondersteuning van 357 grondhervormingsprojekte en R80 miljoen word op 'n jaarlikse basis vanaf die privaatsektor hiervoor bekom; die die toon aangee met die skep van energiesekerheid en sonkraginstallasies het toegeneem vanaf 18 megawatt tot meer as 110 megawatt, hoofsaaklik deur besighede; agtien munisipaliteite maak ook reeds voorsiening dat energie teen vergoeding teruggevoer kan word in die kragnetwerk; 'n retensiesyfer van 63% vir Graad 10 tot 12 bereik het met die 2018 matrikulante, teenoor die minder as 50% in die res van die land.
English:
Not only did the DA-led Western Cape make strides in cutting unnecessary regulations for businesses, we introduced the Premier's Advancement of Youth Programme providing 750 matriculants with jobs and training every year. [Applause.]
Furthermore, we rapidly increased the delivery of basic services to above 96%.
Afrikaans:
In die Wes-Kaap word daar jaarliks inspeksies op
150 polisiestasies uitgevoer. 'n Kommissie van Ondersoek is ingestel, wat gelei het tot die promulgasie van die Wes-Kaapse Gemeenskapsveiligheidswet wat die vestiging van die kantoor van die polisieombudsman moontlik gemaak het.
Tans bedreig die toename in misdaad, veral geweldsmisdade en die gepaardgaande ontoereikende hulpbronne van die polise, die algemene veiligheid van alle inwoners, skole, besighede, toeriste. Suid-Afrika word tans beskou as een van die 20 onveiligste lande in die wreld.
Om jou beste te probeer is soms nie genoeg nie. Dan moet dit wat nodig is, gedoen word, aldus die dispuut wat deur die Wes-Kaap verklaar is om polisiring ook as 'n provinsiale funksie in te stel. 'n Professionele en gemoderniseerde polisiemag op provinsiale vlak is tans essensieel.
Alle Suid-Afrikaners verstaan tans duidelik wat Churchill bedoel het toe hy ges het, en ek haal aan: I no longer listen to what people say; I just watch what they do.
English:
Behaviour never lies. Actions speak louder than words.
Afrikaans:
Ons vra aksie vir veiligheid en ons vra aksie vir ekonomiese groei. Ek dank u. [Applous.]
Deputy Speaker, Mr President, one of the few statements that President Ramaphosa made during the state of the nation address that the ACDP warmly welcomes is his reassurance that government will not interfere with the constitutional mandate of the SA Reserve Bank, which is to protect the value of our currency in the interest of balanced and sustainable growth. He stated that:
Today we re-affirm this constitutional mandate which the Reserve Bank must pursue independently without fear, favour or prejudice.
The ACDP encourages the President to be resolute in his defence of the independence of the SA Reserve Bank and ignore those who are calling for its nationalisation. This being said, the ACDP did not appreciate the President's dreams. To many South Africans, these are old dreams that belong to the pre-1994 era. Even before the democratic dispensation of 1994, most South Africans living in informal settlements, dreamt of living in modern brick houses that would give them a sense of dignity. Students dreamt of studying in universities of their choice, graduating and finding competitive employment. The reality is that, after 25 years of democracy, these dreams have not materialised. To hear the President talking about these dreams as if they were something new was a huge disappointment.
Another major let down was to hear the President saying:
If we are to ensure that within the next decade, every 10 year-old will be able to read for learning, we will need to mobilise the entire nation behind a massive reading campaign.
The President knows full well that when we were 10 years old we could read with comprehension, yet the President dreams that it will take another decade before all 10 year-olds can read with understanding. One of the many reasons why most 10 year-olds cannot read with comprehension or write legibly is because the Department of Basic Education has not prioritised basic reading and writing skills.
The ACDP calls on government to abandon their wicked plans to introduce new textbooks on comprehensive sexuality education that will teach nine and 10 year-old learners about masturbation and oral sex. Comprehensive sexuality education does not have the best interest of African children at heart. Government should instead focus on ensuring that our children are equipped with mathematics, science, robotics and basic computer skills in addition to reading and writing skills. The ACDP applauds the
proposal to introduce subjects like coding and data analytics at primary school level.
Deputy Speaker, the President also said he is committed to building an ethical state in which there is no place for corruption and plundering of public money. If he is committed to this, the ACDP wants to know as to why certain Cabinet Ministers that are having allegations of corruption hanging over their heads appointed. We believe that the President's goal of building special cities [Time expired].
IsiXhosa:
Molweni malungu ahloniphekileyo, Mongameli, Sekela Mongameli, asiwabulisi kodwa wona amasela.
English:
President, indeed to turn South Africa around what this country requires is a compelling vision for the future, a comprehensive plan and unrelenting implementation as well as a team to make sure that the implementation of that plan does take place. We do indeed give you credit that at the very least you do have a
vision, but what you delivered in the state of the nation address last week was not a comprehensive plan of how to turn the situation around. We acknowledge that for instance you are saying that the National Development Plan, NDP is a critical plan going forward as a strategy on how to reignite growth in South Africa. We however find this as a contradiction because, a number of proposals you made are about direct intervention or are interventionist policies in the South African economy. If you consider the NDP, it is a neoliberal document that centres on trickled down economics and unfiltered markets.
You need something more aggressive, a strategy that is going to anchor the industrial plan of South Africa. A typical example is that, South Africa faces its worst unemployment rate especially amongst youth. If you were to read different sources, others would put it at 50%; you said over 50%; others would actually put the figure at 57%. If you were to consider the narrow definition of unemployment rate which is 27% and the expanded definition is 36%. The issue here President is that, if we are to address not only the unemployment crisis, the poverty problem in South Africa and extraordinarily high levels of inequality,
you are going to need to think outside of the box. You must not try to use ANC policies that have failed to create jobs over the past. An industrial strategy is critical to this issue and will outline it shortly as to what we are saying.
The other question that is important President, is that let us talk briefly about the mandate of the SA Reserve Bank and say, the debate currently as it ensues in public misguided. It conflates a number of much related but slightly different issues. Firstly, you have ownership of the central bank which is an ideological discussion. Secondly, it is the discontent with the implementation of monetary policy which is inflation targeting and its tendency to overreact in times when inflation shoots up. Thirdly, the mandate of the central bank as captured in Section 224(1) of the Constitution deals with the issue of price stability. Furthermore, Section 224(2) of the Constitution deals with better co-ordination between monetary and fiscal policy which is what has not been happening in South Africa.
In order for us to have a more on once debate on this issue; we need to understand the different and the various levels in which
this matter operates. The other issue that is important President...
Hon member, your time has expired.
IsiXhosa:
Yile mizuzu mithathu, leli yelenqe eli belibangela ukuba ningafuni ukuba i-UDM ithethe apha, la masela.
You must learn to keep to your time.
Deputy Speaker, hon President, hon Deputy President, esteemed Members of the 6th Parliament, fellow South Africans, in entering this debate we take great counsel from the instructive piece penned by Brent Filson titled "In Leadership, Dreams Are The Stuff That Great Results Are Made Of.
In this piece, Filson posits that:
A dream embraces our most cherished longings. It embodies our very identity. We often won't feel fulfilled as human beings
until we realize our dreams. If leaders are avoiding people's dreams, if leaders are simply setting goals, they miss the best of opportunities to help those people take ardent action to achieve great results.
Having been galvanised by the compelling vision of the President, Gauteng province, which accounts for a third of the country's Gross Domestic Product, GDP, ranks as Africa's 6th largest economy and is the 26th largest global city region, is poised to cement its unassailable position as South Africa's principal economic driver by mounting the most comprehensive response to the social conflict in this country in support of the state of the nation address.
In the context of Gauteng, the creation of new cities refers to the remaking of decaying industrial and historic towns, the in- situ development of light industrial manufacturing, office and retail activities in existing dense human settlements. The remaking of towns such as Vereeniging, Vanderbijlpark, Nigel, Krugersdorp, and Bronkhorspruit into smart integrated spaces
weaved into an urban conurbation called the Gauteng City-Region will be achieved by the 6th Administration.
The remaking will be characterised by crowding in public infrastructure and services, such as schools, clinics, police stations, libraries and accommodation of public social services buttressed by residential densification of the core supported by a modern road network that promotes mass public transport that is integrated, safe, reliable, efficient and affordable. This remaking will be further undergirded by the expansion of broadband coverage and the fostering of black industrialists in the renewable energy space.
The focus on seizing value-chain opportunities in manufacturing, through the special economic zones, SEZs, is a key intervention to increase investment that facilitates labour-intensive growth and increased exports to foster a positive trade balance. Gauteng will advance the realisation of the Tshwane-Silverton auto SEZ, conception in the next twelve months. The SEZ will encompass Mamelodi, Eesterust and Nelmapius which are classified amongst the poorest areas of the Tshwane corridor. The full
delivery of the completed infrastructure will yield a total production of R5, 2billion and is projected to create over 19 000 jobs during the construction phase and 2055 permanent jobs.
In addition, the Gauteng government will also aggressively pursue the expansion of the OR Tambo SEZ through the development of infrastructure to accommodate the pipeline of investors for phase one and phase two, focusing on agro-processing, pharmaceuticals, advanced components manufacturing and tertiary metals processing, including mineral beneficiation. During the operational phase, it will yield over 13 000 jobs across the two phases. The GDP contribution of both phases is estimated to be in the order of the magnitude of R2 billion.
Moving beyond the contours of popular expressions, Gauteng will make definitive strides into the realm of the Industry 4.0. The success of the 4th Industrial Revolution is predicated on the availability of reliable, high-speed, affordable and universal internet access. To this end, Gauteng will expand the wall-to- wall broadband coverage while taking the bold steps of ensuring
last mile connectivity becomes a reality across all historic township areas, which will facilitate internet access to thousands of poor to middle-income households in the province. We do this acknowledging that the maturity of the internet ecosystem has the potential of growing GDP by up to 1,5%.
Gauteng will accelerate the development of the innovation hub into the continent's most prolific innovation real estate, a space that has the necessary and cutting-edge innovation infrastructure and eco-systems that accommodate and encourage fast growth of future sectors and new technologies to be harnessed and commercialised.
This will be done through the development of the remainder of the 66 hectares in collaboration with the private sector. This will see us developing solutions and skills for the new economy. At a more basic level, the Gauteng Department of Education will accelerate the roll-out of schools of specialisation aimed at preparing young people for the future design of work.
Gauteng is determined to ensure the resilience and prominence of small, medium and micro enterprises, SMMEs and co-operatives as the mainstay of the South African economy. This will be achieved through the upstream value-chain capture of Gauteng's big-ticket spending areas of housing and roads. This approach, will facilitate the creation of women and youth owned manufacturing and production of the primary road construction inputs of asphalt and aggregate; housing construction primary inputs of bricks and cement. The success of these identified champions manufacturing will be premised on the guaranteed off-takes by the Gauteng government.
The location of the manufacturing plants will be deliberate to give effect to the township revitalisation programme by locating in the under-utilised industrial parks of Ga-Rankuwa, Vereeniging and Rand West. In advancing the local content accord, the province will implement the promulgated regulation of 75% local content threshold, and further designate additional sectors and products in line with the provincial procurement budget.
On the issue of agriculture, the dynamic and complex urban space
- that is Gauteng, lends itself to smart and precision primary agricultural production and the associated value chain activities. Agriculture has the highest employment absorption capacity of any sector with relatively low levels of levels of barriers of entry.
Gauteng commits to commercialize 53 black farmers across the five primary commodities of grains, horticulture, piggery, poultry, and red meat. These already identified farmers are projected to generate a combined gross annual turnover of R5, 3million and their market access will be facilitated by the completion of five township hubs and twelve Agri-parks to the tune of R720 million. The commercial farmers will be concentrated in the regions of Sedibeng and West Rand. We are confident of generating over 20 000 employment opportunities through this bold initiative.
Deputy Speaker, in the spirit of the Gauteng City Region, the provincial government is determined to build co-operation and solidarity across the three spheres of government to achieve
better alignment and synchronisation in meeting our ambitious targets. In addition, strides are made to create a competent, agile, responsive and Gauteng government. Further, Gauteng will enter into a social compact with all key stakeholders aimed at committing to these bold interventions of meeting the desire of our people to be happy.
In addressing the overall capacity of the state, the province will firstly, enhance joint planning with all spheres of government as well as state owned enterprises, SOEs, secondly, provide support to municipalities, particularly in the districts and local municipalities through synergies in rolling out sectoral and economic programmes, and strengthen collaborative measures with accrediting and standards bodies to enhance manufacturing capacity as well as market access.
We are under no illusion that the road ahead will be free of potholes but we draw inspiration from the wise counsel of Anatole France when she asserts that "to accomplish great things, we must not only act, but also dream; not only plan, but also believe. Thank you very much. [Applause]
The president and commander in chief of the EFF, commissars and fighters, Deputy Speaker ... President, I stand here on behalf of the EFF for the very first time to respond to your stale, empty and meaningless state of the nation address. [Interjections.] Today, 25 years after the attainment of political freedom, the face of poverty, landlessness, unemployment, homelessness, poor health and abuse is still largely black. It is young and is most likely, women. In your address you only mentioned this identity once.
Mr President, you have sold your soul to the captains of industry who are wholly white and men. In return, you have made it your mission to sell dreams to the people on whose ticket you now occupy office. While you are dreaming sir, black youth are unemployed or languishing in jail because of your failure to secure their future. Black grandmothers are raped daily, with a lower than two per cent chance of ever finding justice. Black people in general are still landless. They do not have the luxury to dream as your white-gotten wealth allows you to.
I am infuriated by your tone-deaf attitude to thousands of lesbian women who are subjected to corrective rape and who face their tormentors in the streets because our criminal justice system cannot protect those who sex differently.
Mr President, your government is responsible for many, and the most heinous of crimes. You jailed Kanya Cekeshe; you jailed Bonginkosi Khanyile and are complicit in the brutal murders of Benjamin Phehla and Bongani Madonsela just because they asked for the free education that you promised them when they were still toddlers in 1994. [Applause.] You have over a million students across all universities but you can only accommodate under 130 000 students. Where must the rest stay? [Interjections.]
Deputy Speaker, on a point of order.
Hon member? Hon member, hold on.
Without any intention to build universities ...
Hon member? Hon Chirwa, when you are spoken to you stop speaking. Yes, hon member? Why are you rising? Press the button there.
Deputy Speaker, the speaker at the podium said the President is complicit in murder. I think that is unparliamentary.
Yes, it's sustained. It is correct. Hon member, withdraw that statement. Hon member, withdraw the statement. You listen to the presiding officer.
On a point of order, Deputy Speaker: She never said that. She said that your government is complicit in murder. There is a court ruling about ... affirming that saying here in the Joint Sitting ...
Hon member? No. Hon Shivambu?
... because when the commander in chief said that the ANC government killed ... [Inaudible.] ... that was affirmed by court. That is permissible, Deputy Speaker.
Hon Shivambu? Hon Shivambu? Hon Shivambu?
Also, it's not tradition to disrupt maiden speeches.
No, hon Shivambu, you are wrong.
[Inaudible.] ... is out of order. [Interjections.] You must allow hon Naledi to complete her address now.
Hon member? Hon Shivambu? Hon Shivambu, you are wrong. Hon Chirwa, withdraw that statement.
On a point of order, Deputy Speaker.
What's your point of order?
Deputy Speaker, we hope ...
What's your point of order, sir? [Interjections.] You keep quiet, hon members! You keep quiet! You should allow your member to speak. [Interjections.] Hon member, go ahead.
Chief Whip, you see the Deputy Speaker has started what he did ... [Inaudible.] [Interjections.] Deputy Speaker, we call a point of order on two basis. Firstly, a maiden speech cannot be interrupted. [Interjections.] You have allowed that. Secondly, Deputy Speaker, where there is no certainty and there is a dispute about remarks and utterances in this House, in the best interest for this House to flow in the debate, refer it to Hansard and allow the poor speaker to continue. Don't be disruptive as you were in the past Fifth Parliament and now you are starting again.
Hon Gardee? Hon Gardee, please take your seat.
Haibo ... [Interjections.] ... can we be saved from you?
Hon Deputy Speaker, on a point of order.
Hon ... Hon ... No, can I make a ruling here please? Hon Chirwa, withdraw that statement ... [Interjections.] ... because it is out of order. I plead with you to do so please. Withdraw the statement.
On a point of order, Deputy Speaker.
No, I have ruled on this. There are three of you.
No, you must ask her if she said it or not. You cannot say she must withdraw. She has not consented to having said that. She did not consent. You must ask her. Stop being emotional, man.
Hon member, no, no, no, I have sustained the ruling. I heard the member and I am asking her to withdraw.
I mean, it is not a lie that Benjamin Phehla and Bongani Madonsela were killed fighting for free education.
No, hon member. Hon member, don't do that. Hon member? Hon member? [Interjections.]
It is not a lie.
You are ... I'm going to switch off this microphone. You are going to have to leave the podium if you are not prepared to withdraw. [Interjections.]
On a point of order. On a point of order. [Inaudible.] ... we will deal with this one later at a ...
You withdraw or ... Hold on! Hold on! Hon member?
We withdraw for now. We will deal with this ... [Inaudible.]
Hon member? Hon Shivambu? Hon Shivambu, you are not a presiding officer. Take your seat. Hon member, withdraw the statement.
I withdraw, Deputy Speaker. Without any intention to build new universities or expand the capacity of the current universities and technical vocational education and training, TVET, colleges, where do you want all these learners in South Africa to go?
I will also take this time to remind you and your colleagues of Thandi. Thandi is the black girl born in 1992 that Trevor Manuel used to illustrate her positionality when he presented the International Monetary Fund, IMF, imposed neoliberal National Development Plan, NDP, during his time as Minister of Planning in 2011.
Point of order, Deputy Speaker. Point of order, Deputy Speaker.
The NDP has failed to locate Thandi. Today Thandi is excluded.
Hon member, why are you rising?
Thank you very much. On a point of order: The conduct of members who come to Parliament in terms of the gallery. The former member who is sitting up there is taking pictures ... who is not supposed to be in the House. [Interjections.]
Hon members in the gallery, you are welcome but please don't break the rules. Go ahead, hon member.
Deputy Speaker? Deputy Speaker?
Allow your speaker to proceed, hon member.
No, on a point of order: Don't allow these people who are suffering from jealousy to disrupt this young, brilliant, black woman from delivering her speech. This is her maiden speech.
No, hon Ndlozi, you are disrupting her yourself.
This is her maiden speech, Deputy Speaker. Can you please give her a chance?
Yes, and you are ... No, hon member?
You are jealous, man. She's outshining you.
Take your seat. You are out of order. You are out of order. [Interjections.] Hon members, allow the member to speak.
On a point of order, Deputy Speaker.
What's your point of order, hon member?
We are asking you to protect her. It's her maiden speech. Please protect her. You are not doing that.
Hon member, you yourselves raise points of order in the middle of her presentation. Just like all other members are raising points of order, the rules require that we must listen to anybody who raises a point of order in the House. She's no different. If a point of order is raised in the House it must be listened to. We can't assume that it can't be said. Please take your seat and allow her to proceed.
No. Deputy Speaker, a point of order was called relating to people who are doing something in the gallery. You did not see them yourself. You called them to order. You did not see what she talked about ... instead of telling her to sit down so that you protect the speaker ... [Inaudible.] ... sustain your own ... Please protect her.
Hon Malema, I'll invite you in future to help me make orders in the House; not today. Hon member, proceed.
Today Thandi is excluded from Rhodes University for protesting against rape culture. Thandi is financially excluded from completing her qualification because your National Student Financial Aid Scheme, NSFAS, did not pay for her last year of study. Thandi was turned back from a clinic because of a shortage of contraceptives. Thandi then fell pregnant and was again turned back from hospital because the waiting list for abortion services can stretch to over five months.
Thandi is now the one in four women who'll live in absolute poverty for the rest of her life for having kept a baby she did not want and couldn't prevent carrying because of your government, Mr President.
Thandi is one of the 1 200 young women who got infected with HIV today despite numerous global efforts available to prevent this from happening and your failure to have it accessible for Thandi in Taung.
Thandi was protesting outside Parliament a few days before your address Mr President, wanting health rights for her fellow domestic workers.
Thandi is on nyaope and she will commit suicide before the new dawn because of depression. Thandi is also landless. Thandi is a rape victim living with her rapist in the same house because your police officers lost the docket.
Mr President, Thandi is unemployed and will remain unemployed for the next decade because you cannot cater for her needs in your job creation plan that rules out 80% of unemployed young people for the next decade.
All these social ills and failures of your government reproduce the kind of violence our country is associated with today and you have not the slightest idea how to resolve this. Let us therefore once again tell you what you should consider.
The state must ensure 50% women representation in all spheres representing economic benefits, political participation,
managerial and leadership responsibility. The state must introduce compulsory gender education and training for all, from school level up to the highest level of all public services. The state must introduce compulsory education on gender justice to police and establish specialised law enforcement units to deal with women related crimes.
The time for meaningless frameworks and commissions on the gender question has long expired, Mr President. Introduce a special inspectorate in the Department of Labour to monitor, report and enforce gender parity and equality in the workplace. Don't just talk about the decriminalisation of sex work if you do not mean it. Stop unfair discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer or questioning, and intersex, LGBTQI, individuals when they want to adopt children in need. Decommodify basic needs such as education and health so that they are driven by need and not the maximisation of profits.
Your focus on health should be on primary health with a commitment to the attainment of universal health care coverage, quality clinics with strong immunisation and vaccination
programmes, prevention, promotion and education-orientated health care, protection and promotion of informal traders and allowing them to trade in the streets of Braamfontein, Sandton, Hatfield in Pretoria, Sea Point in Cape Town and at taxi ranks where women vendors get threatened with rape every day.
Lastly Mr President, if you are unable to do all of these things, move over and allow Thandi and other fellow young people to wake South Africa up from this nightmare you have collectively subjected us to for the past 25 years. [Applause.]
That is what we wanted to present; the best address thus far.
Hon Deputy Speaker, hon President, and people of South Africa you deserve better. You deserve servant leadership. When you voted on 8 May, you were hoping that own dreams will be finally realised. You were hoping that the much vaunted new dawn, would indeed bring aspirations in your lives, as articulated in the Freedom Charter. Instead, last Thursday, you were presented with a dream of an individual. This dream did not
represent a relief from lived experiences of sharing water with animals.
IsiXhosa:
Kucacile ukuba uMongameli unilibele bantu baseXolobeni, bantu baseseKhukhune, bantu baseMkhanyakude.
English:
All he dreams of now are what matters to the rich and affluent. High speed trains and smart cities, not even built by South African but built ngama China [Chinese]. Last Thursday, we hoped the President would account on the past 18 months he is been in the office, instead he pretended he was not second in command of the previous administration. The true state of the nation address that should have been tabled is as follows: The 3.2 % decline in Gross Domestic Product; GBP is the biggest quarterly contraction in 10 years; all major sectors reported a negative growth; despite having pro big business legislation; major companies like Naspers will be dual listing and unemployment rate including discouraged work seekers is sitting at 38 %. Businesses are shedding jobs as we speak, the government
continues to support big businesses whilst neglecting small, medium and micro-enterprises SMMEs, who have proven all over world to be job creators.
The role of government is not creating jobs but create enabling environment for businesses to thrive and create jobs. Mr President, exempting state-owned companies SOCs, state-owned enterprises from Public Finance Management Act, PFMA and as well as South Africa's Preferential Procurement Policy Framework Act, PPPFA will make them even make them more agile and competitive. Repealing PPPFA will make enable more entrants in both developments of the SMMEs.
Amending section 25 to enable expropriation without compensation, will unlock more land to be used for public good. Fifty seven murders a day and having a gender base violence rate that is four time high than the global average is not acceptable.
IsiXhosa:
Mongameli uthuleleni omama nabantwana besifa?
English:
Our crime rate is almost the same as war-torn countries like Afghanistan. The President, we as the ATM are saying you need to employ all police reservists to boost capacity as well as police visibility. We need more action, less plans and summits! In conclusion, a President that has zero tolerance for crime against himself (personally), guarded by snipers and machine guns but is willing to wait 10 years to halve violent crime against its own citizens, is a self-centred president who is not putting South Africa first.
IsiXhosa:
Mongameli uthuleleni abantu besifa?
Deputy Speaker, as this is our first debate since the election, let me begin by congratulating Mr President on your election as the President of the Republic. I am sure the President dreamed (fond as he is of dreaming) of beginning his first full term in office in more favourable conditions, but the last decade under this government means that we meet today in this Chamber at a time of great of national anxiety. No amount
of presidential fantasy can mask the harsh economic facts that we must now face together as a country. The haze of Ramaphoria has given way to the sober reality of what we face. Years of excess and sin - spending, debt and corruption - have all caught up with us now. The cupboard is bare, there is no more money.
Our national debt has never been higher. Millions of people in our country are desperately worried about how to get work or whether they will still have a job at the end of the month. They worry what will happen to their life savings, how they will pay the bills, and what the future holds for their children. To the President, the last ten years is just a "lost decade", but to the country it is an entire "1ost generation" of unemployed young people. A moment like this requires bold and decisive leadership. It is one thing Sir to lift the national gaze with a vision of the very distant future. It was absolutely right to focus the attention of the country on the urgent need for faster economic growth, but unless that is matched by a real commitment to make the difficult choices to actually achieve growth, then it's all just empty words.
It is easy to speak of growth and jobs. President Zuma did that in his first state of the nation address in 2009 and nearly every state of the nation address there after. If you say we are going to obsess about growth, then you must also commit specifically (by name) to stopping all of the growth, kill policies that your government is responsible for. If you say you are committed to responsible economics, then you need to commit explicitly to debt reduction. If you say you've got a plan for Eskom, then you better had to tell the country exactly what it is. If you say that yours will be a government of doers, then you better stop promoting all of the takers. Dreaming has its place, Sir, but it is no substitute for real action and there was precious little of that, in Thursday's address. The central question I was left with from your speech is this - Why could you not make one single concrete announcement? Not one! The answer is this: There is no agreement in your party about a focus on growth. Is there? There is no agreement on responsible economics [Applause.]. There's no agreement on what to do about Eskom, or reducing debt, or the Public Wage Bill.
There is no consensus in the governing party about any one of the major questions facing our economy. [Applause.]. Far from it! The truth is, this President is in office, but he is not in power. Sir, it is easy to call- is the truth- it is easy to call on the courage of citizens to endure these hardships, they must currently endure, but where is your courage in matching dreams with tough action? Don't talk to us about courage, show it yourself. You cannot go on forever, Mr President finding a messy compromise in every problem, leaving everyone guessing as to what you really think, and telling everyone what they want to hear. It's time that you stare down the enemies of growth.
Mr President, you do not make a crocodile a vegetarian by feeding it more meat. Every time you compromise with the looting, lunatic left, you just embolden them more. One day, when you have compromised everything away, they will come for you. They are not your friends. They are not the friends of South Africa; they are a danger to this country. It is time that you call them out. It is time that you show that you are prepared to make the tough decisions necessary to achieve growth. If you are really committed to growth, here are few
things you can do in your reply tomorrow, they are not difficult: Get rid of your 17 priorities and 15 goals and consolidate them all into one, economic growth, above all; open the way for the Metros to purchase electricity from whoever they want; scrap the Carbon Tax, for it is nothing but than a Manufacturing Tax; make clear that there will be no more money for South African Airways, SAA and make clear your opposition to the nationalisation of the Reserve Bank and the prescription of assets. [Applause.]
If you do these few things, you will show that you meant what you said, but if you do not, then we can only conclude that you are in thrall to your political pay masters. So while it's very difficult to know where you stand Sir, it is absolutely clear where the Democratic Alliance stands. The enemies of growth have lost the economic argument completely, but still they continue to dominate the debate. Everything they propose, everything, has failed everywhere it has been tried. It is time that we took control of the economic argument. We are the only party with the ideas and sound economic principles that will deliver a future of broad prosperity for all. [Applause.]. We are determined that
the cruelty of poverty can be eradicated from our society. That is our highest ambition and our sole obsession. The only way to eradicate poverty and build prosperity is to grow the economy faster, through policies which unleash enterprise and individual aspiration.
We are committed to fiscal responsibility as the foundation of economic growth. We know that millions of South Africans depend on public services, and that precisely because so many depend on those services, they need to be well funded and well run. We recognise that, without growth, government has no money to spend on the poor. You do not sustain a country on debt, only on investment and savings. To grow, we must have policies that support the risk takers, policies that recognise that entrepreneurs create jobs, not government. Policies that support private ownership, uphold the rule of law, reject narrow protectionism, and embrace the global market. That is where we stand, Sir. That is what sets us apart [Applause.] as the party of jobs, of growth, and of broad prosperity for all.
We are keen for a fight. I want to tell the ANC and the other branch, the EFF that we in this party find it obscene that millions of young people can't find work because of your bad ideas. [Applause.] You are clutching to the sinking wreckage of a statist ideology, and you threatening to take the whole country down with you. Not on our watch. We love South Africa too much to let you drag us down with you. [Applause.]. Sir, we will fight your failed ideas that have got us into the mess we now face. We will defend the independence of the Reserve Bank, and we will protect the retirement savings of ordinary hard- working people. [Applause.] This will be the defining fight of the next five years. We are ready to make our case with growing confidence and vigour.
It is time for the rational centre of the South African politics to dominate the economic debate, to stand up for what works and for what is right and to beat back the enemies of growth, whether they be here or there. If you are not prepared to do it Mr President, then we will. [Applause.]
Deputy Speaker, Comrades President and Deputy President, comrades and friends, so the opposition party insists that the President's state of the nation address, Sona, is ... [Interjections]
Hon Deputy Speaker ...
Yes, hon Singh?
I am rising in terms of Rule 14(s). Is it not an appropriate time for us to adjourn for lunch because it is one o'clock? [Interjections.]
I keep the time, sir. Thank you very much. I will let you know when you must go and eat, hon Singh.
Deputy Speaker ...
Yes, sir.
I would like to second that motion.
The decision was not placed on the Order Paper. It is rejected. Go ahead, hon Carrim.
I take it you haven't extracted any time from me over those superficial interventions, right? [Interjections.] Okay.
Go ahead. I will start your clock.
Now, here we are. You are saying, as opposition parties, that it is high on vision, low on detail. But, one could argue, better that high ... [Interjections.]
You are screaming, hon members. Allow the member to speak.
... high on detail and low on vision, because, President, if you had presented a shopping list as it were, they
would have attacked the state of the nation address just as much. They would have said: "Ah, you see, these are empty promises. It is a shopping list. Where is the capacity to deliver?" So you're damned if you do and you're damned if you don't.
But that's how most of the opposition parties, regrettably, operate in our Parliament. It is endless, rampant opposition for opposition sake. No recognition here that, despite our many differences, we do have a common national interest. And never more than now with our faltering economy, our job challenges and our increasing inequalities, as the state of the nation address openly and frankly admitted. We need each other - not just in the interests of mainly the poor and disadvantaged, but also in the interests of all of our people.
This is the main message of the Presidency's state of the nation address. It has been there since last February: that we need partnerships of government, Parliament, the trade unions, business, civil society and the public generally to foster economic growth, create jobs, reduce inequalities and
consolidate our democracy. It's about a social compact. It's about creating social cohesion and working together, never mind our entrenched differences.
And, if you want to get the co-operation of other political parties and other public stakeholders, you cannot spell out an overdetailed set of targets and then ask people to join you. In part, it's this that underpins the Sona. It has to convey - it is meant to convey - a vision, especially of the first Sonas in a new term of Parliament.
It is in this sense of a heightened vision that the dream term was used. It was to convey hope and to point to the enormous potential of this country, President, which we agree with. And this was said at the very end of a very long speech. In fact, it occupies less than 6% of the speech, as I know it.
Yet the opposition parties pounced on that minority section of the speech and ignored the detail that was spelt out. And the details have come, and they will come. They have come today in the Ministers' inputs. They will come in the Budget Vote
debates. They will come when the Medium-Term Strategic Framework, the MTSF, is more clearly spelt out in a month or so, as Minister Mthembu explained, and they will come through our Parliament's effective oversight over the executive. If there are not enough details and timeframes, then it is our responsibility as Parliament to ensure this within the next three months or so. If then it is not there, then we - not the executive - will be held to account.
When it comes to the details of Sona, opposition parties say they are not new. Of course, not all of them are. That's because the President didn't start with his Sona last week. This started in February 2018. There have been three Sonas since then and there has certainly been progress.
Let's start with some of this. Firstly, staring us in the face daily, even on a Saturday, is the Zondo commission. And, whatever you say about that commission, it is very, very rare, even in an established democracy let alone in a developing democracy, that a party which is facing the most contested elections ever allows the Zondo commission to go ahead,
revealing mainly, regrettably, our dirty linen in public. [Applause.] And yet, 57,5% of the people voted for us.
There is also another commission on the Public Investment Corporation, the PIC: the Justice Mpati commission. There is also the Mokgoro commission that led to the removal of two very controversial people in the National Prosecuting Authority. There's the Nugent commission that has led to a credible SA Revenue Service Commissioner. There was, of course, the investment conference last year, where you reported that R250 billion of the R300 billion in investment projects had actually been implemented, or is beginning to be implemented, and so on and so on. [Interjections.]
I identified, for what it's worth, 19 targets you had, President, and timeframes. Others will spell that out. Do we need more details? Yes, Comrade President, as Parliament we do.
In order for us to exercise our effective oversight, President, we have to have your Ministers - the Ministers of our country - spell out in the Budget Votes what they are going to do
precisely, so that we can hold them to account in the interests of a Parliament that is in the best traditions of the national democratic revolution: a national democratic Parliament, Parliament as a tribune of the people, Parliament as an organ of popular power, which is what the ANC spelt out in 1994. [Applause.]
Now, the President is accused of being a dreamer. But who are the off-the- rail dreamers? Who are the real, biggest dreamers? They are the DA and EFF, of course. The DA was dreaming - a fantasy, Mr Lewis, a fantasy, that you are going to run Gauteng, either as a majority or in alliance with others, as well as the Northern Cape. [Applause.] [Interjections.] Oh man, oh man; in your worst fantasy, Mr Lewis, in your worst fantasy, you actually thought you might even run the country as part of a coalition. [Interjections.] And, where are you now? You've fallen flat. I can't even see you. I hear the noise, but it's so much that: noise, no substance.
Let me also put it you: In the real material world we live in, you lost 1,5% of your vote. Worse, you lost votes amongst the
African constituency. So, you know what? You have no chance of coming to power. [Interjections.]
Now, what is it? If you put together the ANC's 57,5% and the EFF's 10,7% it means that we are more or less at 68% of the parties that have a substantial base amongst the African population. So what has changed since 1968? Nothing much, regrettably, President. We have a highly racialised voting pattern. It's not something to gloat about. This is not what the ANC wanted, but what it does suggest, Mr Maimane, is that your party has probably reached its ceiling. [Laughter.] [Applause.] [Interjections.]
Frankly, you can go on dreaming. If you think you are ever going to run this country: Dream on, I say! The ANC and other forces liberated you to dream. Thank us for that. [Interjections.]
And what about the other big DA dream, their delusions in the free market and their disdain for the state? Despite the huge progress this country has made, it has, regrettably, the most
acute income inequalities in the world and, further, regrettably, is highly racialised. Sadly, that's where it is.
If we don't significantly reduce this, a social explosion is looming. Were it not for the intervention of the state, not least through our social grant programme and indeed our pro-poor programmes, we would all be swept away by this explosion, not least the EFF.
Now, the DA's dream is that privatisation and the free market will prevent this. How? Just how, Mr Lewis, is the DA's blind faith in the market going to address the highly racialised socioeconomic challenges we confront? In no developing society in the world has the free market on its own reduced inequalities. How do you think you are going to do it in South Africa? Even the DA's tentative edging towards a more state- oriented liberalism has caused huge ructions in the party and led partly to the reason why you lost your votes. When we say to you ... [Interjections.]
You lost your position.
I don't care. I am here for what it's worth. [Laughter.] [Applause.] Now, let me put to you ... Let me put to you ... But, hey, I served 25 years - 25 years! Why should I want to be back? [Interjections.] Anyway, so I am and you have got to deal with me, okay! So, let me put this to you. No, let me put this to you, DA: You have an identity crisis. You don't know whether you are the party of Tony Leon's rampant free marketism or Colin Eglin's progressive empathetic liberalism. [Interjections.] You are divided. You are split. It's hilarious, Mr Day- Lewis, that you say these things because your party has no identity. You are riddled with angst and you have no future. [Interjections.]
And, it wasn't just the DA ... [Interjections.] It wasn't just the DA that was dreaming, comrades and friends. It was also the EFF. "We will win the elections" they kept saying. "When we take over in the May 2019 elections", we will do this and we will do that. Well, what happened? The reality is they could muster only a 2,5% increase over their 8,2% result in the 2016 local government elections. Now get the maths right; you have so many PhD people. [Interjections.]
Point of order ... Point of order, Deputy Speaker.
They are only 40% away from being a majority. Only 40%. [Interjections.]
What's your point of order?
It is unparliamentary to deliberately mislead the House about the losses of the ANC and the gains of the EFF. [Interjections.] Look at the benches, brother. Don't be overwhelmed by your ego. [Interjections.]
Hon member ...
That's why you are in the NCOP and not in here
...
Hon member ...
That's fine! [Interjections.] That's fine! [Interjections.]
... because they lost. [Interjections.]
Hon Ndlozi ...
Next is the old age home. [Laughter.] [Interjections.]
Hon Ndlozi! Hon Ndlozi! [Interjections.] Order! Hon Ndlozi, you can't say a member is deliberately misleading. [Interjections.] That is unparliamentary and you must withdraw it. [Interjections.] Withdraw it. You know the Rules.
I withdraw that he is deliberately misleading the House.
No, no, no! Unconditionally, hon member!
I unconditionally withdraw and sustain the old age home destination. [Interjections.] That is your destination.
Hon Ndlozi, could you kindly please withdraw unconditionally?
I "kindly please withdraw" and sustain old age destination.
Hon member! Hon member, this is the last time. Withdraw, please!
Didn't I do that? I withdraw.
Okay.
Are you happy, brother?
Take your seat. Go ahead, hon member.
Well, it's not an attack on me; it's an attack on the IEC. These are their results, right? So, if the DA dreams about the free market, the EFF dreams about an all-powerful Father Christmas state that will deliver everything and anything to everybody overnight. [Applause.] And let me tell you: It's not simple Mao suits of the 1960s they want for all; it's Louis Vuitton red overalls. [Laughter.] [Applause.] "Nationalise," they say. "Nationalise" and, hey presto, everything gets solved.
This is idealism of the worst sort. The EFF claims to be Marxist. Where is the historical materialism? No assessment of the historical juncture, of the concrete economic and political terrain, of the domestic and global balance of forces, of the strength of the state, of the readiness of the working class and its allies for socialism. And where, exactly, is the EFF's socialist-struggle working-class base? Where is their trade union movement? Where are the workers? Where in the world? When did Lenin and Marx say that the youth would be the revolutionary motive force for socialism? Not Lenin, not Marx and not the other great hero, the great Frantz Fanon, ever said that. [Interjections.]
So, why this youth fundamentalism? Everybody beyond Malema's age is a reject, is a hack. Yet they admire China. What is the average age of members of the central committee or the government of China? [Interjections.]
Point of order ...
The EFF is voluntarism ... The EFF ... [Interjections.]
What's your point of order, hon member?
Can you ask this demoted Member of Parliament to say "Hon Malema"? It is the law here in Parliament. He must respect us.
Okay.
Mr Malema is acceptable; "Mr Malema". [Interjections.]
Okay. All right.
The EFF is voluntarism, with no foundation in materialism. This idealism, this voluntarism is closely linked to its populism, and this populism is closely linked to its militaristic posture. [Interjections.] There is no armed struggle. We are a democracy. They are in Parliament. Why do they have, as their head, a "commander in chief"? [Laughter.] Where is their internal democracy? Who is he commanding ... towards what end? No clarity, right! [Interjections.] [Applause.]
He thinks ... [Interjections.]
Order! Order, hon members!
He was too young to be in the armed struggle, rightly, but I have no doubt he would have taken part. He thinks that if you fire a rifle in the air at an EFF rally that that makes you a soldier. [Laughter.] And the EFF, let me tell you, is all tactics and no strategy. Normally, your tactics, as we
all know and he knows ... he comes from the national democratic tradition. Comrade Malema, why is it that you don't accept this, please? You see, you have a strategy overall and you subordinate your tactics to it. No, no, no! The EFF is tactical. Everything is tactical. So, they swing from one extreme to the other. Identity crisis! One day they are opposing the Public Protector. The next day they are supporting the Public Protector. We don't know what's going on! One day they are opposing state corruption or "state capture" as we call it. The next day they are defending the perpetrators of that corruption.
One day they are supporting ... For example, let me ask you: Can you respond, Mr Shivambu, when you speak? The state is weak. The state-owned enterprises are weak. Even the President and the Minister of Public Enterprises say that. What sort of state is going to be able to take over property completely and disperse it, Mr Malema? Think too, and let's engage around that. Somebody else is going to deal with the land issues. I have only two minutes and 44 seconds left.
So, you can be tactically flexible, but it must be part of an overall strategy, right? Now, the EFF claims to be Marxist, in what sense, you can't tell. Like the DA, you two parties are the opposite sides of the same coin: both suffering from an identity crisis; both don't know where you are going because Mr Zuma is not here anymore. [Laughter.] [Applause.]
This is not to say, President, that we don't have our own internal problems. They are there. Even the peasants in Outer Mongolia know it and the frozen citizens of Alaska know it. We have to do something, Mr President - you and the Deputy President, and the secretary-general wherever he is. I hope he is listening, or at least somebody will convey this to him. [Interjections.]
Let me put this to you. We are a ... [Interjections.] No, no, no! Let me finish. I am about to finish. You will be rid of me. Now look, we are a national liberation movement. We are not a typical party in a cohesive sense like the DA and EFF are meant to be. We are a broad movement of all classes and all strata of the population, and we are in alliance with the SA Communist
Party - mercifully, President - and the Congress of SA Trade Unions, Cosatu, and the SA National Civic Organisation, Sanco.
So, it is obvious we can't be ideologically cohesive, Mr Malema. You know that - in the way you could be and the DA could be. So, what's your reason for not being ideologically cohesive, DA? I don't know. You are a party. [Laughter.] [Applause.] But you know what? We respect the free market. The President, the Deputy President and the Ministers have gone overboard. We believe the free market has a role to play.
We are committed to the private sector. We are not frightening them away. It would be foolhardy and anti-Marxist even, President ... general secretary of the party in your other capacity, you would agree. Now, we are saying: We want a national democratic revolution - advanced, consolidated and deepened. We want a national democratic society in which there is both the market and the state. That's why we reject some of what they say - certainly, everything they say, and some of what they say. The market and the state, right? That's what we want - a co-operative relationship between them.
We are saying that we can't do it on our own as the ANC. We need all of you, despite our differences, despite what I have said here because I was provoked by Ms Chirwa more than Mr Malema. [Laughter.] Mr Malema, by the way ... No, no, no, Mr Malema, I was going to be very conciliatory, Mr Malema, because I saw you on TV and obviously I googled you because I had to do the sweeping. You are much more temperate today than you were in the media, but I can see now you set Ms Chirwa to do the work, right? [Laughter.] [Applause.] Mr Shivambu, you are the Chief Whip of your party. As I know it - when I came here in 1994 - you don't interrupt a maiden speech, but in return the maiden speaker ...
Order, Deputy Speaker ... Order, Deputy Speaker
...
I only have 13 seconds.
What's your point of order?
He must stop undermining women. [Interjections.]
No, no, no ... [Interjections.]
The hon Chirwa is capable of speaking in this Parliament. [Interjections.]
Hon member, what is your point of order?
You must never undermine women, chief. Please! The hon Chirwa is better than you. That is why you got demoted. You got demoted by your own party. Stop that, chief. That's why you ran away from the SA Communist Party. [Interjections.]
Hon member, take your seat.
Why would I run away from the ... [Inaudible.] I remain a member of the politburo. What's your problem? But you know you are not right. I mean that is an outrageous thing to say. What I am saying is this: If you do a maiden speech, as I
understand it, Deputy Speaker, you have to be temperate, and don't criticise too much in your first speech. Now, she did that, which is what was provoked. Isn't that her fault? Thank you very much. [Time expired.] [Applause.]
Hon members, it is now time for you to go
... Hon Mohai, how can you stand and drink water like that? [Laughter.] Hon members, take your seats. You must follow the order, please. Some decorum is useful. Please, man! Some decorum is useful. It is time for lunch. You will be invited back here by the bells when they ring. Please be on time so that we proceed with the affairs of the House. Thank you.