Madam Speaker,
Mr President, Mr Deputy President, we may look different, have experienced apartheid differently and support different political parties, but few will disagree on the absolute priority of reigniting the economy to create jobs especially for
young people. A few will disagree on the need for a more consultative and responsive government, with the means to accelerate service delivery and also a willingness to learn from the past. Where we are today, is too far apart from the country we dreamt of becoming in 1994. We must take urgent, practical steps to narrow that gap.
A state of the nation address is not magical melt away of problems. Realistically, state of the nation addresses are not, unlike the instructions that come with jigsaw puzzles. They do not tell us exactly which pieces go where. They show us a picture and a sketch of framework, but it is up to us in our public, private and civil society sectors to make it work. Our performance in this regard has been up to scratch. Wherever the election took us, people raised similar issues. They are tired of watching parliamentarians failing to hold government to account; tired of corruption without consequences; tired of being poor, hungry and landless when others are so rich.
Madam Speaker, the state of the nation address acknowledged much of what needs fixing South Africa. It contained visionary
elements, such as building a modern city Mr President, but also a welcome shift in emphasis from planning to implementation. That is the shift that I noticed. We already have a National Development Plan, NDP. We need hard, sensible, honest work to deliver on it. As a Minister I am fully committed to the implementation of that agenda. As the leader of an opposition party I am committed to holding government to account for implementation. Those who ask if accepting a position on the executive may compromise my role as an opposition leader should know that, I would not have accepted the position if it came with a muzzle. Weighing the state of the nation address priorities against GOOD's plan to fix South Africa [time expired].