Speaker, Deputy President and hon members, since we are one of the very few opposition parties that are stable, I should be able to bid you farewell, Mr Minister, without a heavy heart. I am greatly honoured by the privilege, on behalf of the UDM, to deliver a farewell speech to Minister Trevor Manuel.
Minister Manuel has been an outstanding servant of the people and, as a result, it is impossible for anyone to claim not to know him, given the number of lives he has touched during his terms in office.
Mr Minister, when you moved from Trade and Industry on 4 April 1996, you took charge of the finances of a South Africa that faced a compendium of complex challenges.
First, you had to help the nation to reconcile the contradiction between democracy and capitalism in a country where many people did not believe that the two could coexist harmoniously. Democracy, as you know, puts an emphasis on producing political accountability and on joint interests and equality, while capitalism entails the seeking of one's own self-interest. Through your outstanding leadership, you proved that the two can exist side by side when capitalism was given a more humane face.
Second, you took charge of the Finance portfolio of a country that had limited resources, whose people were still deeply polarised along racial lines and whose socioeconomic inequality levels were high due to the misguided policies of the past.
Working under the ruling party government, you adopted income redistribution policies that sought to achieve political and social stability in order to provide a secure context for economic growth.
Though the needs and demands of our country were numerous, your idealistic approach to meeting our challenges was invariably imbued with a deep sense of pragmatism.
You always ensured that in modernising our economy, the policy choices and responses government made were proportionate to circumstances and were sustainable. Nowhere is this more succinctly captured than in the legacy of fiscal prudence you left the Finance portfolio in 2009.
When I met Minister Manuel at the Union Buildings more than a year ago, during public consultations on the National Development Plan, he came across as a leader who was willing to subjugate his individual interests to those of the collective. I was truly inspired by the humility and outstanding leadership qualities of this intellectual giant. It is therefore not surprising that he leaves us today with the shining legacy of the National Development Plan.
Fellow South Africans, as a young person, the best farewell I can give Minister Manuel is peace of mind that we too will leave South Africa in an even better condition for both current and future generations.
Farewell, son of the soil. South Africans of all races are going to miss your outstanding leadership qualities in the public sector and your sheer dedication to your job. You have served our nation with distinction!
However, given your skills, knowledge, expertise, and the love and respect the people of South Africa have for you, as well as how much they still desire your services, as Abe Lemons once put it, "The trouble with retirement is that you never get a day off." Thank you. [Applause.]