No celebration of Heritage Day is complete, however, without acknowledging the father of our nation, Tata Madiba. He and many other great struggle icons, such as Walter Sisulu, Oliver Tambo, Govan Mbeki, Ahmed Kathrada, James Matthews, Helen Joseph, Helen Suzman and many other women, fought in our struggle. We have to add that they had a vision of South Africa being a unified nation with a shared future in which all South Africans had the opportunity to prosper. My colleague will support me when I say that.
Madam Deputy Chair, this vision was put into action on 27 April 1994, when all South Africans took to the polls to have a say in who should govern our beautiful country. The people spoke, and we saw the wheels of change turning - a democratically elected government was born, a government with a mandate to put this vision into action.
Madam Deputy Chair, 17 years later South Africa's leaders have deviated so fundamentally from this course of honesty that we are not seeing the fruits of a shared future in which all South Africans have the opportunity to prosper. In fact, we are seeing the fruits of a closed, crony society in which only the few politically connected people seem to benefit from the struggle that was waged. While countless South Africans go hungry, a few have enriched themselves through questionable ... [Interjections.]