Hon Deputy Speaker, hon members and hon Ministers, we have gone through the arduous process of clarifying why we need this Bill. We think what is more important is the fact that year after year we have been told by the Commission for Employment Equity that instead of reversing the inequalities of the past, we are actually deepening the inequalities of the past; that part of the major problem that our country and economy are facing is the deepening inequality, deepening poverty and deepening unemployment, which significantly and particularly affects black people; and that the provisions made by the current Employment Equity Act are not sufficient to reverse and to address the economic imbalances of the past.
One of the most significant policy and political decisions that the ANC took in the build-up to the 1994 general elections was not to be involved in reverse racism; not to turn apartheid upside down and have a government, led by Nelson, that would take revenge on those who were at the helm of the apartheid system.
One of the critical decisions that the ANC made in 1994 was to ensure that the transition becomes smoother; that everyone - black, Indian, coloured and white - felt that they were part of this particular country and that they all contributed to the building of this country. The stability that we are enjoying today has been as a result of the compromises that were made at that particular time.
To suggest that today, after 20 years of that democratic dispensation, we need to be talking about a sunset clause is basically to suggest that, 20 years later, we can and should be able to reverse the atrocities that had been committed for 350 years. It is to suggest that racialism and colonialism, which had been imposed on our own people for more than 350 years, can easily be reversed over a period of 20 years. It is basically to suggest that after a period of 20 years we can speak of an equal society and a situation where race is not considered an issue, when for 350 years our people were discriminated against and exploited on the basis of their colour. This is actually unfair and unjust. In many instances ... [Interjections.]