Chairperson, hon Minister and members, first of all I would like to congratulate the Minister on his reappointment as the Minister of Labour. Unlike the SABC board, the Minister managed to make the transition from the Mbeki regime to the Zuma regime without missing a single goose step. I think that is quite an accomplishment for any politician in this country. [Laughter.]
Minister, I also want to congratulate you on something else, and that is the tremendous success you have made of the policy of affirmative action. Over the last 15 years, 2,6 million black South Africans have been uplifted to the ranks of South Africa's top earners. This is indeed an accomplishment, and we need to congratulate you and your department on that. [Applause.]
But this accomplishment also has had certain unintended consequences, hon Minister, which I would like to bring to your attention.
Vierhonderd duisend blanke Suid-Afrikaners het verval in die mees desperate armoede denkbaar, Minister, en daar moet maniere gevind word hoe hierdie mense geleenthede gegee kan word en uitgelig kan word uit die omstandighede waarin hierdie beleidsrigtings hulle geplaas het. Dit is noodsaaklik.
In hierdie verband wil ek u ook baie graag wys op die onlangse uitspraak van oud-president F W De Klerk wat ges het die huidige toepassing van regstellende aksie en die oordrewe klem op verteenwoordiging as maatstaf vir die sukses, al dan nie, van regstellende aksie is rassisties en ongrondwetlik, en dat dit nooit die bedoeling was van die grondwetskrywers en die persone wat die historiese skikking van 1994 bereik het nie.
Ons moet kennis neem van hierdie sake, Minister, en ons moet maniere vind waarop hierdie onbedoelde gevolge aangespreek word in die tyd wat kom.
Laastens, Minister - en ek is dankbaar dat u weer die Minister is sodat ons hierdie saak kan verder voer - ek het drie jaar gelede onder u aandag gebring die lot van 'n oud-adjunkdirekteur van die departement, Mnr Jaap Jacobs. Ek sal vir u 'n brief skryf daaroor. Ek dank u. [Tyd verstreke.] (Translation of Afrikaans paragraphs follows.)
[Four hundred thousand white South Africans have been reduced to the most abject poverty imaginable, Minister, and ways must be found of granting these people an opportunity to lift themselves out of the circumstances within which these policy trends have placed them. This is essential.
In this regard I would also like to refer you to a recent statement by ex- president F W de Klerk, who said that the current enforcement of affirmative action, with the excessive emphasis on representation as a yardstick of its success or the contrary, is racist and unconstitutional and that this was never the intention of those who drafted the Constitution and the persons who achieved the historic settlement of 1994.
We should take note of these matters, Minister, and in time to come we must find ways of addressing these unintended consequences.
Lastly, Minister - and I am grateful that you are the Minister again, so that we can take this matter forward - three years ago I brought the plight of a former deputy director of the department, Mr Jaap Jacobs, to your attention. I will write a letter to you in this regard. I thank you. [Time expired.]]