Hon Chairperson, hon members, the ANC, in its 53rd conference in Mangaung resolved to take decisive and resolute action to overcome the triple challenge of poverty, unemployment and inequality. This resolution is derived from the Freedom Charter, which says that the people shall share in South Africa's wealth.
The ANC is committed to the transformation of the structure of the economy through industrialisation, broad-based black economic empowerment and expanding the role of the state and the state-owned enterprises to achieve inclusive growth. In pursuit of a deracialised and inclusive economy, the ANC government has put in place a number of legislative instruments, among which are the BBBEE Amendment Bill, which is before this House today, the Co-operatives Bill, which has already passed through this House, and the Preferential Procurement Policy Framework Act.
The BBBEE Amendment Bill seeks to empower all black people who were economically disempowered during a long and painful three and a half centuries of colonial and apartheid land dispossession, racial oppression, discrimination and exploitation. It seeks to open up opportunities for black people to establish, own, and actively control and manage their enterprises. The BBBEE Bill encourages in particular the youth, women, people with disabilities and rural communities, to own and manage their own businesses and to create much-needed jobs.
Uhulumeni we-ANC uhlaba ikhwela futhi ugqugquzela abantu ikakhulukazi intsha, omama, abasebenzi, abakhubazekile nabantu abahlala ezindaweni zasemakhaya ukuthi basebenzise lo Mthethosivivinywa wokuThuthukiswa kwaBantu abaMnyama kwezoMnotho ngokuBanzi njengoba ubanikeza ilungelo eliphelele lokuziphathela amabhizinisi futhi bawalawule bukhoma bangathumeli. Ngakho-ke sithi singuKhongolose ningavumi ukuthunywa yilabo abakade benenza izithunzi nje sengathi ninamabhizinisi kanti baniqhuba phambili ukuze bathole imisebenzi kahulumeni. (Translation of isiZulu paragraph follows.)
[The ANC-led government is urging and encouraging people, especially the youth, women, labour, people with disabilities and those living in the rural areas, to use this BBBEE Amendment Bill as it completely empowers them with the rights of directly managing their businesses. As the ANC, therefore, we are saying you must not allow those who used you in fronting on the pretext that you own a business whilst they were just interested in doing business with the government.]
The BBBEE Amendment Bill has come at an appropriate time when the ANC government is accelerating land redistribution, when the development finance institutions such as the Small Enterprise Finance Agency, Sefa, the Industrial Development Corporation, IDC, the National Empowerment Fund, NEF, and many others are better able to assist the small, medium and micro- enterprises, SMMEs, co-operatives and other collectively owned enterprises with financial and institutional support. The BBBEE will also develop additional plans for financing black-owned enterprises, including incentive schemes, to make these enterprises sustainable. It comes at a time when the ANC government is hard at work to create decent jobs. The time is now, because for anyone to establish, own, control and manage a sustainable enterprise, he needs three basic means of doing business, namely land, capital and labour. The time to reclaim ownership by the black majority of the means of production is now.
The ANC is urging the millions of unemployed youth, women, workers and rural communities to ask themselves this question: How can I use the BBBEE Bill, the Co-operatives Bill and the Preferential Procurement Policy Framework Act to create a job for myself and 10 more people?
Sithi-ke kubantu bakithi emakhaya eBuhlebezwe ngakithi eXopo, kwaMashu, eMkhanyakude, eQunu, kuTsolo, e-Soweto, e-Mitchells Plain eGugulethu, e- Chatsworth, e-Wentworth, e-Klaarwater kanye nakwaDabeka nakuzo zonke izindawo zakithi lapho abantu bentula khona imisebenzi futhi befuna ukuzakhela amabhizinisi mabasukume bazenzele. (Translation of isiZulu paragraph follows.)
[We are then saying to our people in the rural areas of Buhlebezwe, my village in Ixopo, KwaMashu, Mkhanyakude, kuTsolo, Soweto, Mitchells Plain, Gugulethu, Chatsworth, Wentworth, Klaarwater and KwaDabeka and all other areas where people lack job opportunities and seek to start their own businesses, to stand up and do things for themselves.]
Do not wait for the government to create jobs, but work with the ANC government to create your jobs, because it cares. I thank you.