My apologies Chair, thank you. We would have thought that the FFPlus in tabling this motion for debate, will lead a mobilising call for all South Africans to rally behind our national agenda of creating a better life for all. We would have thought that the FFPlus will progressively suggest possible solutions will progressively suggest possible solutions on how to fight crime in our society. Unfortunately, we were wrong. The FFPlus decided to go the easy way of blame-game and finger pointing. For instance, in response to the high murder rates, the FFPlus is on record for calling for the death penalty as a solution to the challenges of crime in our society. This view does not only go against the spirit of the Constitution, but does not address the root cause of the challenges. This approach unfortunately, yields no results and does not take us anywhere.
We cannot just debate about the increase in crime rates, nor can we simply fold our arms and blame government for everything. A social contract is needed. Our call is for all our people, civil society movements, organs of peoples' power and all stakeholders in society to join hands in the fight against crime in our society. This
call is extended to the FFPlus and all political parties like our friends here, to play a role in the creation of decent jobs, skills development and educating the youth so as to deal with the triple challenge of poverty, unemployment and inequality.
There is a need for the FFPlus to come to the reality that we have one country, we have one destiny, and we need each other to build South Africa and the future of our children. The blame-game bears no fruits. There is no doubt that government bears the responsibility of ensuring that all people are safe as outlined in the National Development Plan, but surely this cannot be the responsibility of government alone. Thank you, Chairperson.