Mr Speaker, Deputy President, hon members, from the outset, let me restate the historical fact that the real Congress of the People is the ANC. [Applause.] As a majority party, it is, therefore, through the ANC that the people speak of their representation in the executive. At our 52nd conference, at Polokwane in December 2007, delegates overwhelmingly elected Comrade Jacob Zuma as the President of the real Congress of the People, the ANC. We did not, at that time, release any white smoke into the Limpopo University chimneys, because we were very clear in our minds that we had not elected a pope, but a human being who has human strengths and human frailties, like all of us. [Applause.]
On 22 April 2009, 11 650 748 voters - what we consider to be a broad spectrum of South Africans and nearly 70% of the electorate - voted for the real Congress of the People, the ANC, led by President Zuma, to be the government of this great Republic. [Applause.]
One million more people voted for the ANC in 2009 than in 2004, and yet, today, the arrogance of a mere 30 people in this House is trying to tell us that millions of our people were wrong. The collective minds of these millions of our people are convinced that our great movement, the ANC, the real Congress of the People, and its President, are fit and proper to run this great Republic.
This motion goes contrary to the recent findings of the Ipsos Markinor survey of February 2010, which had the following to say:
At the start of 2010, President Zuma is in an enviable position in terms of his public rating. He begins the year with 77% of the population agreeing that he is doing his job fairly well or very well.
[Applause.]
This is the highest rating for a President since May 2006 ...
This means that the President of the real Congress of the People, the ANC, at 77%, is more popular than the ANC itself, at 70%.
As the ANC we've never wavered from our understanding that each president of the ANC - from Rev John Langalibalele Dube to Jacob Gedleyihlekisa Zuma - would come and go, but each one of them would leave an indelible mark on the character of this great movement, responding to the particular challenges of their tenure and the challenges of the stage of our national democratic revolution.
I am, therefore, very surprised that we are gathered here today to entertain the views of a mere 30 people who are driven by motives other than those of honesty, particularly with regard to democratic majority rule. I venture to say that, had we been alive to the current challenges of our communities, and were it not for the permissiveness of our constitutional democracy - for which we, the real Congress of the People, the ANC, take full credit - such a motion would not have been tabled.
As we deliberate this issue, we are inadvertently being made partners in throwing a lifeline to an entity that is drowning under the inconsistencies of its own power hunger. [Applause.] As I speak, I do not know who of the three - you know who they are - my eyes should be fixed on, because my action may be misunderstood to mean my endorsement of one character, as opposed to the other. [Laughter.] [Applause.]
This is the gravity of their leadership squabble that I'm talking about that characterises Cope. This House is being roped in to being fellow sojourners on a journey of 30 disgruntled members who have not come to terms with the realities of democratic politics in South Africa, of winning and losing.
I rise not because I'm a Member of this Parliament who's expected to defend the integrity of our President. I rise because many of us are very surprised that the proposers have entered a motion of no confidence in the President, knowing very well that their motion will not see the light of day, but that they will get their cheap publicity all the same. [Applause.]
If we, hon members of this august body, do not rise, this new tendency to grandstand will continue unabated. On two previous occasions we have seen the same group of people using this Parliament for cheap publicity.
Firstly, when they proposed a candidate to contest the Presidency of the Republic, they knew very well that it would be easier to win Powerball and Lotto than the Presidency. [Applause.]
Secondly, when they tried to precipitate a crisis by walking out of this Chamber last month, because they disagreed with the ruling of the Deputy Speaker, they may have got their six cents' worth of the media spotlight, but the wheels of democracy continue to grind on, thanks to the political parties that stayed behind and fulfilled their mandate which they have been given by our electorate.
The track record of Cope - from Polokwane, to their internal problems, to the current motion - seems to border on anarchy. Cope has displayed characteristics of being a party of failures.
One, Cope failed to launch itself as a party in the hastily organised conference in Bloemfontein on 16 December 2008. Two, Cope cannot create unity even amongst its arbitrarily self-appointed leadership. Three, it deceived the electorate by promising to have a manifesto, but did not even have a policy upon which to base that manifesto. [Applause.] Four, the party deceived the electorate by promising them that they would be the next government, but later changed their tune by claiming they were going to be the next official opposition. [Applause.] Five, they claimed that they would be an effective opposition ...