Hon Speaker, hon Deputy President, I move the following amendment to the motion before the House: To omit all the words after "That" and to substitute: "The House has full confidence in the President of the Republic of South African and appreciates his leadership of the government and nation."
I stand here, in front of the country and the world to speak to the suitability of the President of the Republic of South Africa to continue to hold high the office of President. As the House is aware, this sad episode is occasioned by the unfortunate and adventurous tabling of the so-called motion of no confidence in our President.
This being a party-based system of government, a motion of no confidence in the President becomes a motion of no confidence in the ANC. Those who seek to displace an elephant must be prepared to climb a mountain, and be good mountaineers at that. We reserve the right to self-defence and we are now called upon to exercise that right. We are exercising that right in defence of our revolution and in defence of our future as a people.
Accordingly, we are tabling a motion of confidence in the President of the Republic. In doing so, I wish to remind the country who Jacob Gedleyihlekisa Zuma is. In the President we have a peasant boy who joined the army of the working people at a tender age. This background has shaped and formed his social and political consciousness. That is why he continues to be biased in favour of the rural and urban poor and the working class.
This bias is reflected in the structure and programmes of the government that he leads with unassailable distinction. He is the son of the black people of South Africa. He is a warrior prince born of the proud Zulu people who distinguished themselves as true patriots throughout the torturous period of the wars of resistance, which ended with the defeat of Chief Bhambhatha in the Inkandhla forests in 1902. His participation in the national liberation struggle is borne of the direct experience of being an African in apartheid South Africa. As a freedom fighter, he is generally acknowledged as one of the most dedicated, fearless and exemplary soldiers and leaders of the people's army uMkhonto weSizwe.
In this regard, he worked in the underground, was captured and served 10 years on Robben Island. On his release he went into exile and there rose through the ranks to head the ANC Mbhokodo and become a member of the national executive committee. It was in this capacity that he became the first member of the NEC to legally enter South Africa in order to prepare for formal negotiations.
He is a proud Zulu man who fiercely defends his culture and way of life. His elevation to high office has not alienated him from his way of life, and he is an active participant in the village activities of the people of Inkandhla whenever time permits. He observes and practises traditional rituals together with his people, and he is not ashamed of who he is. [Applause.] He refuses to be judged according to the standards of non- Africans, who continue to insist that theirs is the only acceptable culture, even 15 years after our liberation. [Applause.]
History will remember our President as a dedicated and highly successful peacemaker. In exile, he was part of the team that initiated contact between the ANC in exile and the apartheid regime. In the 1990s, as chairperson of the ANC in KwaZulu-Natal and working together with Prince Mangosuthu Buthelezi, he established peace in KwaZulu-Natal and gave South Africa the rare gift of peace. We are most grateful for this.
As the Deputy President of the Republic he led negotiations that gave Burundi its own peace. He continues with the mission to restore and consolidate peace on the continent and in the world in general. President Zuma is a great reconciler. He has introduced a new style of governance which does not criminalise opposition, but rather seeks to find common national interests that bind us together as a nation. [Applause.]
In this regard, he has opened dialogue with leaders of South Africa in all spheres: political, economic, cultural and everywhere else. He is not grievance-driven and that makes him a great forgiver. [Applause.] Anyone else in his place would have gone after those who have persecuted him in recent times, using state organs to fight political fights. He has not done so.
All these attributes and many more are found in abundance in our great movement, the ANC; a movement that seeks to build a humane and caring society that recognises and accords human dignity to all, without regard to race, class, colour and gender; a movement that has been at the forefront of the struggle to create a better life for all; a movement that continues to promote reconciliation based on political and social justice, sometimes even in the face of insolent provocation by defenders at the grave of apartheid and their lackeys and fellow travellers.
As this movement, we unashamedly champion the interests of victims of apartheid, that is black people in general and Africans in particular. We are not apologetic in this regard, and we are ready to fall on our swords in defence of this principle. We are determined to build a new South Africa that is founded on solid foundations of social justice and political, economic and cultural equality. We have forgiven those who enslaved us over centuries. We now insist on being treated as equals. On this, we shall give no quarter, there shall be no retreat. [Applause.]
We expect no mercy or favours, as we never have done over all those centuries, from our detractors. There is no easy walk to freedom, Mdala said. Many gave up and many betrayed us, as we unflinchingly and relentlessly pursued the struggle for freedom. We are not about to give up now. There have been moments when anti-people deviants have found themselves at the helm of our great movement. Whenever they got caught, we either expelled them or they walked out.
Many of those who walked away soon discovered the grim truth of the loneliness of the wilderness. It is bitterly cold out there, as they endured a solitary existence akin to that of the prodigal son. Let me repeat: It is bitterly cold out there, as they endured a solitary existence akin to that of the prodigal son.
In recent years we confronted this phenomenon, which sought to own the ANC as the personal property of a tiny clique, failing which it was determined to destroy the ANC from within. Happily the people recaptured their movement in Polokwane. There was a tendency to conduct public affairs and political discourse with unprecedented arrogance. There were no boundaries or restraint. Those who tried to offer wise counsel would be rebuffed with the might of Samson. Not only would their advice be rejected, they would be subjected to mob lynching. Our own icon, President Nelson Mandela, was not spared the wrath of this tendency that was running amok.
Those who supported this tendency embarked on a determined struggle to stop the then Deputy President Zuma from becoming the next leader of the ANC and the country. Elaborate plans were put in place to retain the ANC as a personal fiefdom of those who supported this tendency. They wanted to impose their chosen leader upon us in order to consolidate their anti- people agenda.
Zuma became an obstacle that stood firm between this greed-driven insanity and the restoration of our movement to its members. He had to be stopped at all costs. His persecutors were unrelenting, even in the face of provoking a possible civil war. In those bleak and dark days, I was among those who defiantly sang the song: Basithatha phi isibindi esingaka sokuthatha iANC bayenze eyabo. [Kwaqhwatywa.] [Where do they get so much courage to make the ANC their own?][Applause.]
We went to Polokwane and the people spoke and elected President Zuma. The supports to the tendency were shell - shocked and confused. As the reality of defeat began to sink in, shock turned into fierce fury against the tendency itself and against the ANC, our beloved movement. At last and finally, the tendency had fallen from the high horse of folly and the house of cards began to collapse into a heap of broken illusions and shattered ambitions. The boasting came to an abrupt halt. Some of the leaders of the tendency walked out with the sole aim of destroying and defeating the ANC, regardless of the political cost to the majority of our people whose hopes and dreams remained firmly behind the movement. They formed an organisation and arrogantly called it the Congress of the People, in a way to spite the real Congress.
We went into the elections under the leadership of President Zuma. The ANC won with an overwhelming majority and the world did not collapse. In fact, the sun still rose and it continues to do so today. The prophets of doom have been silenced, but they are bitter and consumed by an incomprehensible hatred of the person of the President of the Republic. [Time expired.] [Applause.]