Hon Chairperson, Chief Whip, special delegates of the provinces, Members of Parliament, ladies and gentlemen, comrades and colleagues, I am delighted to have this opportunity to address you on behalf of my organisation, the ANC.
This opportunity reminds me and all of us of the primary objectives of the national democratic, nonracial and nonsexist, prosperous South Africa. We should commit ourselves to this revolution and lift our poor people out of having to live in poor conditions as a result of the legacy left by the apartheid regime.
The Provincial Week is just an exercise relevant to the mandate of this House. Therefore, our task is to work together as an activist government. We are faced with many challenges in our communities that we are aware of, and we are dealing robustly with them. The ANC government is the first to recognise disabled people and women as equal partners across all races. We would like to thank the people of our country for putting their trust in us once again. Working together as this collective, we can achieve all our goals and change the lives of our people for the better.
We are a disciplined organisation, and if we continue to be this disciplined, we will defend the leadership role of our movement and maintain the victory of our national democratic revolution. To be in a leadership position is not an entitlement, but, rather, that masses of ANC followers trusted us. During the Provincial Week, so soon after the elections, we showed our people what we had promised them during the elections in that we are led by them and we are committed to doing exactly what is expected of us.
We also want to acknowledge the people's plight of not getting service delivery in certain areas, as expected; the challenges in our municipalities; the corruption that the opposition party is howling about. We are the first to acknowledge this, and we are also the first to notice it, and we have strategies to deal with all corruption, inside and outside of government. Our leaders came out publicly with strategies, and they said clearly that they were not going to favour anyone; whether a revolutionist or not, corruption is corruption.
Our government, as the ANC, has also achieved a lot during the past 15 years. We made progress in the provision of electricity, water and shelter for our people. During the apartheid regime, our people used to cross rivers with strings or ropes, but today we are able to cross rivers using bridges that were built by this government that takes care of its people ... [Applause.] ... because of the three spheres of government working together.
That regime did not bother itself about people living in rural areas, but now, when they are campaigning, they tell us that we do not care about the living conditions of those people. Have they ever thought that those people were not born after 1994, but were in existence even before they stole our country? I will repeat this even in my grave, and I will always say: "It is the ANC and only the ANC that will lead the people of South Africa." [Applause.]
Eli lizwe lifuna umbutho ofana noKhongolose okwaziyo ukuthetha nabantu nowonyusa isidima sabantu, ongakhethi sini, bala nabuntu babantu. Amazwe aphesheya ayatsho ukuba owethu uMgaqo-siseko ngowona uhamba phambili kwi hlabathi liphela. Ngulo rhulumente wethu kuphela owakhela abantu izindlu zamahala, kwihlabathi liphela. Ngulo rhulumente wethu obonelela mahala ngeenkonzo ezingundoqo, kwihlabathi liphela. Sikwazile ukususa isiqalekiso sokuqala esabekwa nguRhulumente ongaphambili ebantwini bethu, sokuzijongela phantsi njengabantu abangento phambi kukaRhulumente.
Singurhulumente osondeleyo ebantwini nowenza ngokwelizwi labantu. Silwa indlala ngandlela zonke kuba kaloku sithi: (Translation of isiXhosa paragraphs follows.)
[This country needs an organisation like the ANC that is capable of talking to the people and restoring their dignity, is nonsexist and nonracial in terms of ubuntu. The international world acknowledges our Constitution as the best in the whole world.
It is only our government in the whole world that builds houses for free. It is also our government only that provides people with basic services for free in the whole wide world. We were able to redress the first legacy of apartheid, that of looking down upon ourselves as less important peoples within the government.
We are the government that is close to the people that performs according to the mandate of the people. We fight poverty in all fronts because we say ...]
"Working together to ensure delivery of services to communities" - that is our assurance. We, as people with eyes of appreciation, commend our government for the recognition of areas that were not known before.
Our Minister of Home Affairs is trying to bring back the dignity of our people by giving them identity documents so that they can be proud of being South African. In fact, she recently visited a very remote area in Pondoland, which cars cannot reach, and got there because of the commitment of the organisation. We reach the unreachable.
The ANC is not an organisation of leadership; it is an organisation for all people irrespective of race, colour and creed. "Singugalel'ebhayini." [We accept everyone as our own.] We live by our mandate and our vision taken from the time of the drafting of our Freedom Charter to our manifestos, January Statements, up to the state of the nation address by our President. We are committed to fighting HIV and Aids in all respects in this country, as the President said last week at the podium in this NCOP. The campaign of 16 Days of Activism for No Violence against Women and Children, which will be launched some time this month, is a clear fact of our fighting this deadly disease.
Fighting crime is part of our programme. The Police Minister and Commissioner went and launched community policing in areas where crime is rife and uncontrollable. The upgrading of police stations and of our policemen and policewomen who fight crime is also taking place.
It is so shameful to hear a disgruntled member of the opposition party, who used to be protected by our organisation, today complaining about the protection of our people.
Sinabantu esivela kungcwaba uthuthu lwabo ababetshiswe ngexesha lorhulumente omdala, eBhayi. Sibangcwabile kwezi veki ziphelileyo, kuba babebulewe lolukhozo lwemali elileliny'icala le-DA liyi-National Party, NP, phofu ke i-DA iseyila NP yangaphambili. (Translation of isiXhosa paragraph follows.)
[We have come from the funeral of the people who were burnt during the era of the apartheid government, in Port Elizabeth. We buried them over the past few weeks because they were killed by the DA, which is the same coin as the National Party, NP. Anyway, the DA is still the same NP.]