Hon Speaker; Minister and Deputy Ministers of International Relations and Co-Operation; Hon Members of the Portfolio Committee Members of the Diplomatic Corps, Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen.
We meet here on a historical day, the 11th of July. The very same day on which our revered Rivionia trialists were rounded up at Lillies leaf farm. As we come to learn from the annuls of history these great heroes were incarcerated for making the world a better place.
So today, I start from the premise that the world we live in can be a better place. And I say this with great certainty. We need a paradigm shift. Africa should be peaceful, united, and prosperous. After all it is a continent blessed with all the raw materials from oil to any other natural resource you can think of. It has been said many times that the African is the poorest continent. Is it really poor? Is it not high time we confront the truth in its entirety, and that is some amongst us are stealing from the continent with assistance of former colonial masters? Or some are simply the conduits of former colonialist.
Collectively we must continue to celebrate the victories won for our liberation; we must dedicate ourselves to rise together whilst we ensure that we defend our liberty and unity. In the words of the Kwame Nkrumah: "We face neither east nor west. We face forward."
Hon Members, whilst we celebrate and deepen the liberation of our fellow African states we cannot for one moment forget about the rest of the world. Our own sovereignty is strengthened by our ability to influence the world's outlook on humanities
development in economic terms and the advance of human rights. South Africa in itself is a great testament to the world that if you ignore the human rights of certain groupings or humans in your society, in the long run, you cripple the economic growth of the country. This is one obvious lesson that apartheid thought the world.
Perhaps, our greatest diplomat, liberation stalwart and former President of the ANC Oliver Reginald Tambo coined it best when he said, "We who are free to eat and sleep at will, to write, to speak, to travel as please, we who are free to make or break a revolution, let us use our comparative freedom not perpetuate the misery of those who suffer, nor to give indirect aid to the enemy they fight by withholding our own contribution."
Hon Chairperson, indeed we cannot stand aside and watch whilst our sisters and brothers in Western Sahara continue to be deprived of statehood and complete independence. We must take tangible and decisive steps to ensure that after this 6" Administration we speak of a liberated Western Sahara.
Hon Members, we may think that we no longer live in an era of colonization and imperialism but recent events in Venezuela and Libya to some extent show us a completely different picture. It is no coincidence that Oil rich countries experience similar levels of unrest and disenfranchisement albeit at different times. We cannot be at ease whilst history repeats itself in any part of the world. For the simple reason that when a regime is changed outside of the country's own violation almost always results in a human rights crisis.
We cannot ignore the plight of Libyans today, especially because it was not of their own doing. The crude colonization, of that country has had a profound effect on how the worlds take on immigration, especially in Europe, we now live in an era where thousands of migrants die whilst fleeing states which used be to functional before. If we do not take decisive steps against the resurgence of an imperialist agenda, we run this risks of seeing a relatively progressive human rights agenda deteriorating.
There are few countries in the world who have resisted the cajoles of capitalism and imperialism like Cuba. For ?fty years
the people have suffered as a result of an unjust economic, commercial and ?nancial blockade by the U.S.A, this has been a major hindrance to Cuba's development.
Despite this the Cuban nation has maintained its independence and sovereignty in the face of the vicious imperialist- orchestrated campaign to destroy the impressive gains made by the Cuban revolution. We must continue to assist the Cubans to be the masters of their destiny.
In many ways the internationalist character of the Cubans has aided many revolutions on the continent; it is this internationalist's character that we should continue to embody in our approach to peace and security in the world.
Hon Minister, as the African National Congress, we have been unanimous on the plight of the Palestine people. In the Palestinian people we see ourselves. We see the rightful owners of the land being oppressed, killed and degraded as human beings. It is an inescapable sense of djavu. It is for this reason at the 54th National Conference the African National
Congress came to the conclusion that boycotting Israel is a justi?ed as boycotting Apartheid. We cannot speak in moderation in matters of manifest injustice.
As former President Mandela put it, "The temptation in our situation is to speak in muffled tones about an issue such as the rights of the people of Palestine... we can easily be enticed to read reconciliation and fairness as meaning parity between justice and injustice. Having reached our freedom, we can fall into the trap of washing our hands of the difficulties that others face... yet we would be less human if we did so."
The implementation of all Nasrec resolutions in so far as this question is concerned, is undoubtedly framed around this logic. The Gaza strip has become war zone, a sight of injustice and the de?nition of human rights violation. To this end we look forward to a concise plan on the full implementation, of Israel's downgrading. And if need be we must be willing to go the route of economic embargos against Israel.
Hon Chairperson, As I conclude, with a profound but simple quote by Che Guevara, "Words that do not match deeds are unimportant."
In other words house Chair the efficacy of Better Africa, Better World Approach will not be judged by what we say but rather by what we do.
International Solidarity is meaningless without any real tangible actions. I have no doubt that this budget vote supports an action-based plan. As the ANC, we support budget vote 6. I wish to thank the officials of Parliament, the department of International Relations and Co-operations and the members of the portfolio for assisting us have a robust debate in all the issues that we have taken as a collective. Thank you very much Chairperson.