Speaker of the National Assembly, Ms Thandi Modise, Chairperson of the National Council of
Provinces, Mr Amos Masondo, Deputy President of the Republic, hon David Mabuza, hon members, allow me to extend my deep gratitude and thanks to all the hon members who participated in the state of the nation address debate, but also to extend my gratitude to the multitudes of South Africans who have also taken the trouble and time to share their views on the state of the nation address.
I found the comments most useful and they were sharp, pointed and they sought to come up with a number of alternative viewpoints.
I was heartened by the comments that were made by members here in this House who spoke very directly and forthrightly because as they spoke, they reinforced our conviction that we need a clear and common vision for the future of our country.
In the main, members wanted to know how and when it will be done. They also wanted to know where it will be done. As they postulated on the issue, which, by the way, was just a minute
portion of the state of the nation address, of the new city and dream, they wanted to know where and on which piece of land this is going to happen. That is what seems to excite members and I am grateful for that because it reinvigorated people's imagination. They also wanted to know by whom it will be done, what it will cost, why it should be done and why it should not be done.
Through social media, in newspaper columns, in a number of radio show call- ins and in messages sent to the Presidency, many South Africans became part of the state of the nation address debate. I received a moving note from one of the officials in Parliament this morning who said, and I quote:
Dear Mr President, those of us who want to see our country prosper, share in your dreams! When we stop dreaming, our soul dies; when our soul dies, we die. We should never give up on our dreams, least of all, allow our detractors getting in the way of our dreams. So let's keep our dreams alive for the sake of our people and our country! God bless you. [Applause.]
So, I got a blessing this morning. [Applause.] It is wonderful!
More importantly, the vibrancy and vitality of such engagements that we had here, even where we mostly disagree, is an essential part of our national character. It is our experience, over a long and difficult history that it is only through dialogue, through the frank exchange of views that we can arrive at inclusive solutions.
We share common challenges, we share a common future and we need to forge a common path towards the realisation of this common future that we share.
It is fitting therefore that, as we gather here on 26 June 2019, on the anniversary of the adoption of the Freedom Charter in Kliptown by thousands of South Africans from various parts of our country, we reflect on what has happened to drive this vision that South Africans have embraced. As they gathered on a cold winter's day in the dusty veldt of Kliptown, they
constituted the most representative gathering of South Africans in our history.
It is exactly 64 years since 26 June 1955, when the people of our country dared to dream. They dared to dream about the future of their country when they declared for the country and the world to know:
South Africa belongs to all who live in it, black and white, and no government can justly claim authority unless it is based on the will of all the people. [Applause.]
From across the country, delegates came in their thousands and brought submissions written on flyers, envelopes and scraps of paper to craft this dream that was burning inside of them.
More than half a century after it was adopted, the Freedom Charter remains the foundation of our shared vision of a just and equitable South Africa.
The Freedom Charter was a statement of extraordinary ambition, made at a time when the majority of South Africans lived in conditions of repression, where their rights were denied and their opportunities for economic advancement deliberately and directly curtailed.
They looked beyond the dire circumstances in which they lived towards a country that was fundamentally different from the country that they lived in. They were articulating a dream that many people thought would never be realised.
As hon Nzuza reminds us, a vision, and may I add a dream, is often first ridiculed, then opposed and finally accepted as self-evident. [Applause.] This is what happened.
That is precisely what happened with the Freedom Charter, whose anniversary we should note today. There were those who initially ridiculed and dismissed it and then they opposed it and went beyond opposing it and arrested hundreds of people because they
dared to dream. They dared to dream about a South Africa that was different from the South Africa that they lived in.
Now, it is the vision of the Freedom Charter that underpins our Constitution today. It is the vision that informs the National Development Plan and our vision towards 2030, and it is the vision that must inform everything we do.
The state of the nation address was not merely about dreams. It was about the lived reality of our people and setting out what we need to do to achieve the South Africa we want. What it sought to do was to say: Let us imagine the South Africa that we so long to have, and in imagining this South Africa, let us do everything that we can to work towards this South Africa.
We agree with hon De Lille who observed that a state of the nation address shows us a picture and sketches a framework. The state of the nation address is about articulating a vision and a direction for government programmes. Ministers who are
responsible for government work will provide details on the programmes in the Budget Votes of the various departments.
Guided by the election manifesto of the governing party, this state of the nation address was about setting out the seven priorities of the administration, namely: 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; a capable, ethical and developmental state; a better Africa and World.
As we said then, and as we'll repeat today, building the South Africa we want starts now, and it is a process that should involve all of us. It starts with concrete actions that address both the challenges of the present and lay the foundation for the next five years, the next decade and beyond.
We are not starting anew. Over the last 18 months, we have been on a path of recovery, working to address our shortcomings and
putting in place what is needed for inclusive growth and job creation.
We must continue on that path, but our actions require greater urgency and greater focus. Our people, as we went around the country were saying khawuleza [move quickly]. They were serious because they are facing serious challenges and this where I agree with hon members who spoke in this state of the nation address debate. I agree entirely because you express the views and the deep aspirations of our people, in the main. I do not see your inputs as being oppositional; I see the inputs of all those who spoke as being complementary and supplementary to what we set out. This is a joint effort and I do thank you dearly for the inputs that you made, however you made them. [Applause.]
We are addressing all this through our focus on economic transformation and job creation - the challenges that our economy faces. There are no short cuts and there are no quick fixes. If there ever were a notion that we would have a magic wand and change the trajectory of our economy overnight,