Mr Speaker, hon members, hon Zuma, we in Azapo congratulate you on your election by this House to the highest Office in our land. We wish you well. We wish you good health. We wish you strength and fortitude.
You have just emerged from a gruelling election campaign during which you must have entered many a shack, many a hut, many a house, but also many a grand mansion. We know that the huge levels of inequality among our people have not escaped you. In particular, the grinding poverty and squalor under which a sizeable percentage of our population live must have made your hair stand on end at times, for when I look at you I don't see any hair on your head! Wherever it is, it must have responded to that difficult situation.
In all our efforts to fight that poverty and create a more egalitarian society, we will need not only your leadership as President of the Republic, but also your inspiration. We need you to inspire our children to learn, our health workers to heal, our security forces to protect and our farmers to produce food. For you to carry the hopes and aspirations of all our people you need broad shoulders, good health, strength and loads of wisdom. We wish you well. Congratulations, Mr President! [Applause.]