Hon House Chairperson, Human Rights Day is not a celebration. It is a debate. It is a debate on why, in the year 2019, individuals around us still have to struggle to see their most
basic rights realised. It is a debate on the inability to recognise and acknowledge these atrocities and address them. It is a debate to call the ANC out on your hypocrisy.
For 25 years under this ANC government, we have seen President after President cosy up to the likes of Gaddafi, Mugabe and Assad.
At the United Nations, our track record is not much better. On the Syria resolutions in 2014, 2015 and 2016, South Africa abstained. This means that this ANC government did not know if it really is against the murder of defenceless children for political gain. On Iran, the ANC government's ambassador voted no, along with China, Cuba, Pakistan, Russia and Venezuela. Botswana had the principle to vote yes.
Again in 2017, on the Human Rights Council, South Africa abstained from condemning human rights violations in Syria and again in Belarus. In June 2016, South Africa abstained from the resolution to appoint a special rapporteur on violence against the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, LGBTI, community.
And both in March 2016 and March 2017, South Africa abstained from two Iran resolutions, extending the mandate for a special rapporteur. Again, Botswana had the principle to vote in favour.
This all happened while you all sitting here, were members of the ANC and we didn't hear you speak out once. And what did President Ramaphosa do? He must have been in Cabinet, picking his nose because like Eskom, this would come as a shock to him.
He was there! He was there when your government protected Omar al- Bashir. This is a man who stands accused of genocide and the attempt to destroy whole tribes of people, murder, extermination, forcible transfer, rape and torture of his own people, our fellow Africans. The ANC government - this government - protected him.
This is the same government that cries Palestine, for votes, but denies acknowledging the independence of Tibet, for Chinese money. [Interjections.]
In fact, your Deputy Minister waffled during oral questions two years ago when I called him out on our track record at the UN and asked when the ambassador to the UN would be fired for being a national disgrace.
I was wrong. He isn't the disgrace. He's an extension of the ANC. The ANC is the real disgrace that preaches human rights but practices silent diplomacy and makes friends with the very same dictators, human rights abusers and scum that commit these acts.
However, it doesn't take much to know why. At home, your track record is not much better. MEC, can you see that you did not make mention of the five- year old who died in 2015 by falling into a pit toilet? You also did not mention the five-year old who died three years later, also falling into a pit toilet because your department did nothing about it. Life Esidimeni, 49 murders per day, corrective rape, violence against women and no one from the governing party seems to care enough to make sure something gets done...