... 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.]