Chairperson, hon Deputy Minister, and hon members, national Human Rights Day marks a very historic annual event that cannot and may not be ignored. It does not only remind us, as citizens of South Africa, that there was a time in our history that the colour of our skin destined our fate, but also commemorates those days when the state turned its guns on its own people. A trail of blood runs through places such as Langlaagte where workers wanted rights, through Langa where children were not spared, up to Sharpeville where the majority of people were shot in the back. Unfortunately, it did not end there. We saw the killings and shootings continue through the Cape Flats and Soweto; almost no place was spared the spilling of innocent blood.
Then our new democracy came. We have the Bill of Rights, so it had to stop there. But did it? Here in the not so democratic, so-called "Republic of the Cape of Good Hope," as the hon Hartnick referred to it, there is little hope for poor and ordinary people, as the demonic alliance does not care about them. Too often the scenes of the past are still seen in the streets of Cape Town.
Chair, there is one striking resemblance between the shootings at the hand of apartheid and what we witness today. It is the party with the majority of remnants of those days. The DA is in control of this provincial government, the Western Cape, and some municipalities, and it controls the lives of people in the same high-handed manner as the late Verwoerds and Bothas. [Interjections.] Let me give you some examples of the DA's black tracks around the peninsula in the past few weeks. Chair, I am quite shocked and ashamed that the hon Hartnick can still say she is a proud member of this alliance.
In June 2010, protesting people sitting in a Makhaza road were shot at close range with rubber bullets; in July, 250 women only protected by blankets were shot for complaining about raw sewage regularly running in their streets; in September, four people of Hangberg lost an eye each in brutal shootings ...