Mr Speaker, hon President and hon members, today all of our minds will be focused on President Nelson Mandela. At this sensitive time, our thoughts and prayers are with uTata's family and his loved ones. We are reminded that President Mandela's term in office proved that a leader's words and actions matter. He defined the truths of his time in simple terms.
In his first state of the nation address on 24 May 1994, he plainly said that the acid test of the legitimacy of his administration would be the progress made in delivering measurable freedoms. Our former President defined freedom with unmistakable precision:
Our definition of the freedom of the individual must be instructed by the fundamental objective to restore the human dignity of each and every South African.
Accordingly, he spoke of the goals of freedom from want, freedom from hunger, freedom from deprivation, freedom from ignorance, freedom from suppression and freedom from fear.
On this occasion of the 2013 Presidency Budget Vote, we must all take note of these wise words of our former President. We must hold ourselves up to this high standard for this is the South Africa our predecessors set out to build in 1994. But, Mr Speaker, this past year has seen us take a major step backwards from achieving this goal. Over the past year this government has merely stumbled from crisis to crisis. It is an unavoidable conclusion that President Jacob Zuma's lack of purpose and direction is at the very heart of the problem. One doesn't have to look very far back to see why. Two weeks ago, President Zuma spoke at a press conference in an attempt to reassure the global markets about the state of South Africa's economy. Speaking about the crisis afflicting the mining sector, he said: "It is only in undemocratic countries that there are no strikes."
He added that, "I don't think we should take strikes as a problem." Within hours, the value of the rand had plummeted by 3% and breached the R10 to US$1 mark. The rand's fall showed that the markets have reached the same conclusion that the rest of South Africa reached some time ago. They have no confidence in the President of the Republic.
One year ago at this podium I asked the President to put aside self- interest and not to seek re-election as leader of his party. I said that if he were to do this, he would have an opportunity to devote himself to the challenges of government and youth unemployment.
I said that if the President made this commitment, he would have an opportunity to put his undoubted talents of warmheartedness, compassion and conflict resolution in the service of our great nation. The hon President did not heed this call and, tragically for South Africa, the past year has seen South Africa unravel even further towards the culmination of a failed presidency. The rand slumped after President Zuma's press briefing because of what he has done and because of what he has not done.
What is it about our President that causes a run on our currency? The answer is his leadership and his record. Since last year's Presidency Budget Vote the hon President's failure of leadership has manifested itself in five major crises.
In August 2012, 34 mine workers were shot dead in cold blood by members of the SA Police Service at the Lonmin Mine. This was not a random event. High levels of poverty and inequality, an apartheid-era migrant labour system and the broken labour bargaining system set the context. But Marikana, above all, represented failed presidential leadership. The hon President's toxic and client-based relationship with Cosatu left him powerless to intervene.
The President did not foresee the Marikana crisis because he and his government only cared about the concerns of the mine workers who belong to the ANC-affiliate, the National Union of Mineworkers. What did he care for the unconnected outsiders in the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union, Amcu? How could he play the role of honest broker in the dispute when members of his own party's executive are major shareholders and board members of the very same mining houses in which Cosatu unions are dominant? [Applause.] [Interjections.]
The crisis did not begin and end in August last year. Since the initial unrest at Marikana we have seen continued leadership failure from our President. His government still refuses to empower small unions to participate in wage negotiations. We have seen continued carnage and bloodshed. On 12 May Amcu organiser Mawethu Steven became the latest victim when he was fatally shot outside Rustenburg.
The economic fallout of Marikana has been as incalculable as the human pain. In September last year, the Marikana tragedy triggered the downgrading of South Africa's sovereign credit rating by Standard and Poor's and Moody's. Both agencies cited political and economic instability as the reasons for the downgrades.
Over the past year, billions of rands in economic output have been lost due to wildcat strikes. If the President was serious about avoiding another downgrade he would provide leadership and policy certainty to facilitate reforms to the labour dispensation and enable smaller unions to have a say in negotiating wages. A strong president would move swiftly to counter fears about nationalisation and mining super-taxes. He would lock in policy stability to attract investors.
The President must lead the process of labour market reform by providing direction to this government. Unfortunately, it is clear that this government has learnt no lessons from the national tragedy at Marikana.
With an election looming, the President capitulates to Cosatu at every turn. Even ANC stalwarts like SA Reserve Bank governor Gill Marcus are now beginning to speak out. Last week she said that decisive leadership is needed to tackle South Africa's domestic challenges, which have reached crisis proportions. But the President's response this seems to be, "crisis, what crisis?"
In October last year, the President's lack of decisive leadership was reinforced by his response to the scandal surrounding the upgrade of his private home, Nkandla, to the tune of over R200 million in public money. South Africa owes a great debt of gratitude to the dogged determination of the independent media that shone a light on this shameful affair. It is no coincidence that our citizens' right to know has been imperilled during President Zuma's term in office.
According to Freedom House, South Africa was classified as free, with a score of 30 out of 100 for freedom of the press in 2009. But this year, South Africa slid to partly free, with a score of 35 in the same category.
This time last year, we could never have imagined that the President's Ministers would deploy a pernicious apartheid law, the National Key Points Act, to try and prevent the truth about who authorised the Nkandla upgrade from emerging.
If the President really wanted to reassure the markets two weeks ago he would have asked that the inquiry report into Nkandla be declassified immediately. Only bad governments thrive under the cloak of darkness. Those who have nothing to hide have nothing to fear. [Applause.]
In April this year, this same veil of secrecy was drawn over the murky circumstances which led to the tragic death of 15 South African National Defence Force soldiers in the Central African Republic. Many more were injured. We still do not know the precise circumstances of how and why our soldiers died at the hands of rebels who had seized power after toppling former President Franois Bozize. The President has failed to provide full answers. In every crisis, he misses the opportunity to take the nation into his confidence.
Last year, I posed a question: Does the hon President use power, or does power use him? This year, the revelation that the President's close friends, the Gupta family, used the Waterkloof Air Force Base ... [Interjections.] ...