Hon Van der Merwe, I would be happy to share my hairstyle secrets with you if you had any hair to style. [Laughter.]
Last week I went to see the country's first Youth Wage Subsidy scheme in action right here in the City of Cape Town. I met a number of young beneficiaries of this programme, including Xhobani Balasana from Philippi, whose life has been transformed by this opportunity. Many other young lives could be similarly transformed if the President had the courage to put the needs of South Africa's people ahead of his own political advancement. The issue of youth unemployment will perhaps, more than any other, define this Presidency. The pursuit of power has overtaken the pursuit of noble ideas in this Republic.
While hundreds of thousands of young people are denied the opportunity of the Youth Wage Subsidy, the Presidency has been splurging on the political slush fund that is the National Youth Development Agency, NYDA. Funding for the NYDA nearly quadrupled from R100 million in 2009-10, to nearly R400 million in 2010-11. This was spent on events like the Let's Defeat Imperialism youth festival and something else that involved large numbers of young delegates kissing each other in an open field. This misuse of public money makes it clear that the President has indeed left the young people of South Africa behind.
We can see how the failure of leadership is allowing corruption to take root in our country. Constitutional democracy is based on accountability and transparency, yet the President has time and again failed the constitutional test of accountability upon which our entire system of government is built.
A titanic power struggle is enveloping the security services. When one strips down the never-ending saga of Richard Mdluli - who was again suspended from the Police Service on Sunday - a basic question emerges: Why would a head of state allow someone facing serious charges to appear in a police uniform and occupy a senior post in the police service in the first place? On this occasion, as on so many others, it took a court to act after a case was brought by an NGO to suspend Mr Mdluli.
But why is it always down to our courts to uphold the Constitution and compel government to do the right thing, while Ministers try hard to bully them into submission? Does doing what is right simply because it is right play any role in the matrix of government any more? Or have honour and character been consigned to oblivion, the misty nostalgia of the Nelson Mandela era?
Does the Presidency strive to create a culture of accountability in which public officials are the servants and the people are their masters? The President's actions and what he fails to do are hardening the perception that his own political needs are more important than service delivery and the rule of law. The President should be using the full powers of his executive office to shine the light of forensic investigation into suspected criminal activity by Mr Mduli and others. Instead, the President continues to preside over a sinister secret state within the state at the apex of which he stands. His problem is that he must constantly reshuffle the security services like a deck of cards in order to stay on top.
If the President had applied even a tiny bit of his talent for keeping himself out of trouble to some wider national purpose, South Africa would have progressed in leaps and bounds by now. The commission of inquiry into the arms deal underlines this point. Why is it that the President finds it so hard to say that Judge Seriti's report will be made available to the public as soon as he receives it? Is the Commission just a public relations exercise? Or does he wish to be seen to be doing the right thing without actually doing it? If the President releases the full report, he would not be, as he claims, pre-empting the findings of the Commission. He would be upholding the principles of transparency and accountability and rebuilding public trust.
As former ANC Member of Parliament Andrew Feinstein pointed out that the people's trust was broken when the previous triple inquiry arms deal report by the Public Protector, the Auditor-General and the Special Investigating Unit was doctored.
So, I ask, will the President reconsider his decision and commit in his reply to Parliament tomorrow that he will authorise Judge Seriti to release the full, unexpurgated report to the public as soon as he receives it?
This issue unfolds within the wider context of South Africa's arms industry. Despite the many and great efforts of the DA, it remains difficult to gain information about the workings of our defence force and the South African arms industry. And so the people are being left behind by a government that seeks always to keep a lid on the truth.
The failure of leadership extends to international relations and foreign policy. Our President must be the first head of state in history to fly to the United Nations in New York with three jets, and not a single foreign policy brief between them.
Is the President committed to the responsibility to protect in countries like Syria today? Or does he believe a nation's sovereignty is sacred? This is what the President suggested when Resolution 1973 on Libya was debated at the UN Security Council. Do we have an ethical or a realist foreign policy? Are we a shady place for shady people or a lighthouse of democracy to the world?
Does this government prioritise Brics or Africa - the fastest-growing market in the world? The paradox is that Brazil, India and Russia are benefiting far more from investment opportunities and trade with the rest of Africa than we are. This is because of the President's failure to champion South Africa abroad.
South Africa is in need of bold leadership now. What is to be done? The official opposition has a responsibility to provide oversight and demand accountability from government. And so, above all else, the DA urges the President to define his vision.
If the President seeks to do so, he must reacquaint himself with the foundational bedrock of the Republic: the Constitution and our human rights- inspired Bill of Rights. Because, as we have emphasised time and again, it is government that has let South Africa down, not our human rights-inspired Constitution.
It is a tragedy for the nation and for the President that the government of the day should seek to overturn the very document that would frame his vision. Fortunately for our citizens, there is a party of government in South Africa that has demonstrated it has the ability to lead along the lines of the Constitution. More and more South Africans are realising that the ideal of a better life for all might be promised by the ANC, but it is being delivered by the DA, especially where we govern. [Applause.] [Interjections.]
I will tell you, and you know. [Interjections.] In the Western Cape provincial government and in municipalities, like the City of Cape Town, the DA is crafting a new vision of smart and capable government. [Interjections.]