Hon Chairperson, hon Minister, Deputy Minister, hon chairperson of the committee, hon Members of Parliament and comrades, I would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge and greet the glorious army, the SA National Defence Force, led by the Chief of the Army General Ngwenya.
Ke a le dumedi?a, bage?o. [I greet you, my coutrymen.]
In 1955 the people of South Africa - black and white - converged on Kliptown and produced the Freedom Charter, a historic document which would guide the struggle for liberation of the oppressed majority in South Africa. The Freedom Charter serves as a blueprint for democratic South Africa. Hence, the Constitution of the Republic reflects the aspirations and demands of those who converged on Kliptown in 1955. [Applause.]
It is this historic document which talks of the army and police that would be the protectors and helpers of the people in a democratic South Africa. In making them the protectors and helpers of the people, we have to ensure that members of the Defence Force acquire the necessary skills which will make them effective in protecting and helping the people.
Because of the gender imbalances created by the system of colonialism and apartheid, the starting point for the ANC had to be transformation of the race and gender composition of the Defence Force. The ANC undertook the transformation of the Defence Force to reflect the national and gender composition of South African society. Hence, we require recruitment, training and promotions to assist in changing the national and gender composition of our force.
Over the past 15 years strides have been made in this regard. We made advances knowing that for the SA National Defence Force to be an accessible defence force to all the people of South Africa, it has to be representative of the population demographics of the whole of society.
Addressing these issues of race and gender means a step in the right direction in realising the objectives of the national democratic revolution, a vehicle chosen by the majority of South Africans to take them to an ideal society in which they want to live. Therefore, recruitment and training programmes for the Defence Force must contribute to the process of resolving the societal contradictions that were created by the system of colonialism and apartheid.
At its Stellenbosch conference, the ANC resolved to ensure that training programmes were designed especially to target women and young people, and it also undertook to ensure the acceleration of re-skilling, development and integration of military veterans.
Even the Polokwane conference pronounced itself on this important matter. The resolutions of this historic conference require us to ensure that all government departments adopt programmes directed at skilling, training and integrating military veterans.