Madam Deputy Speaker, hon President and Deputy President, hon members of the House, I cannot but recall on this occasion that when P W Botha offered Nelson Mandela release from prison on certain conditions, Madiba responded that that was unacceptable.
But he said something special. He said: "I value my freedom, but I love yours even more." Shortly thereafter he led our country in drafting this Constitution, and he was the first to sign that this was the valid, correct route to follow.
He was the first to take the oath of office under this Constitution. So if we are going to take a look and take a decision whether Vote 1 deserves our support or not, we must evaluate the performance of the incumbent against what the Constitution says should be done. And we must also evaluate the performance of the incumbent against what he said in the oath of office. Any other thing, I think, would be to judge an individual on the basis of subjective feelings and all of that. But let's look at what it says.
Section 83 of the Constitution says that the President must uphold, defend and respect the Constitution as the supreme law of the land and, secondly, that he must promote the unity of the nation and what will advance the Republic. These are objective tests against which we must look at this - the Vote - before us.
In the oath of office, the incumbent took an oath that says, "I will protect and promote the rights of all South Africans," and, secondly, "I will do justice to all." This is not what we think or what we want to judge. Let's judge against what the Constitution says and what the incumbent accepted as a responsibility.
Of course the Constitution also says what these rights of the people are. Section 16(1)(a) says that the freedom of the press and other media is one of those freedoms of the citizens of the country. So when the incumbent accepts that he will uphold the rights of everybody, one of those rights is the right of the freedom of press and other media. So last week Haffajee exercised that right. She did so in the firm belief that the President of the Republic would protect her rights, as enshrined in the Constitution. [Interjections.]
We, in the meantime, had given the hon President a budget that would enable him to fulfil that task. [Interjections.] And yet to this day I have not heard a word from the President, a voice from the President, "Defend her right to do what she had done." [Interjections.]
That's why Madiba said, "I value my freedom, but I love yours even more." [Interjections.] The leadership we expected is that of Madiba, "I value my freedom" in this Constitution. [Interjections.] "I value my freedom, but I love yours more." The President, in taking the oath of office, gave us the commitment that he would do so. He gave that to Ferial Haffajee, but when the moment came, he was not to be found.
Madiba did not say - when they said he must come out of jail - "It hurts to fight for your freedom." He didn't say it hurts. He said, "I value my freedom"; "I love yours even more." [Interjections.] And that is what we want and, I think, on that basis, we will not support this budget. Wasted money! [Interjections.]
Similarly, Brett Murray, who struggled with us along the streets and towns of this country under the United Democratic Front against the old order, fought for the right of artistic expression. When he had done that, he voted for the ruling party. When he used the same artistic expression he had used against apartheid to criticise some practices, expecting that the party which he had fought for and fought with for freedom would defend his right ... No. The office that had committed to that was found not to be present. [Interjections.] It was not there. [Applause.]
I say that is a violation of the oath of office. The President should not have been absent at a time when the rights of an individual were being trampled underfoot. [Interjections.] Thirdly ...