Hansard: Resumption of debate on the President's State of the nation Address
House: National Assembly
Date of Meeting: 19 Feb 2013
Summary
No summary available.
Minutes
UNREVISED HANSARD
NATIONAL ASSEMBLY
Wednesday, 20 February 2013 Take: 19
START OF DAY
WEDNESDAY, 20 FEBRUARY 2013
DEBATE ON THE PRESIDENT'S STATE OF THE NATION ADDRESS
The House met at 14:06.
The Speaker took the Chair and requested members to observe a moment of silence for prayer or meditation.
The MINISTER FOR THE PUBLIC SERVICE AND ADMINISTRATION
UNREVISED HANSARD
NATIONAL ASSEMBLY
Wednesday, 20 February 2013 Take: 19
Start of Day
RESUMPTION OF DEBATE ON THE PRESIDENT'S STATE OF THE NATION ADDRESS
The MINISTER FOR THE PUBLIC SERVICE AND ADMINISTRATION: Mr Speaker, thank you very much Sir. I was hoping that hon Lekota will be here. [Interjections.] However, I will proceed with or without him. Mr Speaker, Mr President, Mr Deputy President and Members of Parliament, I am very glad to have this opportunity to attend to a number of matters that I feel need to be put straight right away.
To begin with, I am very offended by the sexist and downright insulting language that was used here by hon Lekota, and I quote: "they employ all these people - concubines", etc. He was referring to people who serve the state. I know of no concubines in the Public Service. I feel it was an unethical conduct and conduct unbecoming of anyone to speak so demeaningly of people who cannot defend themselves in this House. [Applause.] [Interjections.]
It is generally accepted that the output of the Public Service is less than desirable. We are all very concerned about it. Our responsibility is to do something about it. But hon Lekota has absolutely no right to insult them, none whatsoever! The truth is that they most probably do more in a day's work than what he and his party do. They are regularly measured and accounted for. I am not sure if hon Lekota and his party are accountable to anybody.
I wished he had been asked to retract his statement and apologise to the Public Service. But then again, he is a leader of a party and his party probably deserves such vulgarity – I don't know. In stark contrast, my President would never speak of people in that way - never! My President is respectful, humble, and dignified. [Applause.] That is why, hon Lekota, with or without you in this House, his popularity continues to rise, while yours is condemned to lie in the doldrums forever. That is why, hon Lekota, we will decimate you in the next coming elections. Hon Manamela has given you too much credit by referring to you as cassius. I see in you a dead man walking or that walked out. [Interjections.]
Secondly, the self same leader of Cope rants as he always does, this time it is the Wage Bill. It is for the first time that he comes alive to the fact that there is something called the Wage Bill. He quotes the Minister of Finance who indicated that the Wage Bill is 34% of government expenditure. Perhaps at this point, for his own edification, I need to indicate that in the shortest time, we brought this wage bill down from 37% to the current 34% as indicated. We are committed to ensure that we can reduce it further in the next six months. We have brought it down through a number of cost saving exercises in the Public Service in particular.
However, the point I wanted to make is an important one, and to do that I need to unpack the 34% that hon Lekota, who has woken up to, understands. The Wage Bill is not the money paid to public servants. It is the totality of the money that government spends on salaries of all the people who are paid through the public purse. The public office bearers such as Minister Lekota, the judiciary, Chapter 9 institutions and the Public Service at national, provincial and local government level. The salary of the former Minister or hon Lekota and his party is part of 34% that we are talking about, while they sit here unaccountable to anybody.
I want to turn, briefly, to address my dearest father, Shenge, who is also not here. Yesterday when Shenge spoke here, ... [Interjections.]
Mr C P MULDER: Speaker, I rise on a point of order: I here and understand what the hon Minister is saying, but there is a convention that if a member wants to react to what the other member said during the debate, it is just a courtesy to inform them that you are going to refer to them in the debate so that they know and are present in the House. I don't know if the hon Minister informed those members that she was going to refer to them. [Interjections.] If she did and they are not present, then I understand what she is saying, but if she had not informed them, then they cannot know that they should have been here to be replied to. I thank you. [Interjections.]
The SPEAKER: Order, hon members! Order! Order! I will look at the Hansardand come back with the Ruling on that, Sir. [Interjections.] It is true the convention is there, but unfortunately, it has hardly been enforced in the past two Parliaments. But, I'll definitely come back with recommendations as to how to enforce all the Rules of Parliament. Hon Minister, you may proceed.
The MINISTER FOR THE PUBLIC SERVICE AND ADMINISTRATION: Hon Speaker, I am responding to yesterday's debate. Therefore, I expected those people who spoke here yesterday to be here to hear what the ANC has to say. [Applause.] I want to briefly address Shenge and I am sure members of his party are here. Yesterday when he spoke, with more than a tinge of irritation, he rebuked the young lady who was sitting next to Minister Nzimande and said, "ithini le ngane" [what is this child saying]. We cringed, she cringed and she did not utter a word thereafter.
He knew exactly what authority he was exerting, and we all did. But I wondered, Shenge, although he is not here, but I am sure this will be reported to him; why doesn't he say that and rebuke le ngane ye-DA [DA's child] when she speaks the way she does about our President - his President. [Applause.] Why doesn't he find it in himself to say the same as he did kule eyethu ingane? [to our child.] Something is not adding up here.
He taught us to disagree without being disagreeable. The situation is made worse by the fact that he is seen trailing behind her to press conferences, whatever it is that they are holding press conferences about. Why would he do that kind of a thing? He has a proud tradition to uphold. I respect him far too much to see him trailing behind ingane [child] ever again.
Now, to get back to the point at issue; given the noise of the people who have attended this debate, it is necessary for us to clarify what the state of the nation address is, what it is meant to be and what the President had meant it to be.As head of the state, the President presents a proper report on what government has done to fulfill the commitments made the previous year. The President also uses his state of the nation address to reflect on challenges and give new directives to Ministers and the country. Most importantly, he uses the occasion to rally the nation in becoming part of the solution to some of the national and societal challenges we face.
Evidently, given the noise of the people who has attended this debate from this side, this very basic understanding is lost to most of them. Indeed, stripped of all the hypes, sanctimonious posture and dramatics, the contribution of the opposition amounts to nothing; except perhaps to a certain extent for my father, the UDM and APC - none provided a vision and a solution. This in itself is not surprising since they are robotically programmed. It has become part of their DNA. These are the effects of a psychological and sociological trauma that arises from being relegated to the irrelevant. [Applause.]
In his state of the nation address, the President made an unequivocal assertion that we now have a plan - the National Development Plan for the next seventeen years. Here is where we all start. This is where we need to concentrate on. It is for the first time that we are having a common plan, adopted by all of us. This is a plan in whose origin was conceptualised by this President and yet it suits all of you who remain permanently lodged on the periphery of the state to understand what has been done; and you claim that the President has done nothing.
The goals of the National Developmenmt Plan, NDP, depend on functional state machinery. This is what has occupied us over the last seven months. The legitimate concerns raised by some of the members here are our concerns as well. In short, the following remain serious concerns, i.e. the quality of the Public Service; corruption in the Public Service; and over-reliance on consultants to do what the state is supposed to do.
These go to the core of what the National Development Plan says about the creation of capacity of the state, to ensure that its machinery functions efficiently and effectively and that we can deliver to the citizens of this country, the services that we promised them. The stability and effectiveness of the Public Service is greatly dependent on the commitment and devotion of its staff.
The current view to render teaching as an essential service must be welcomed. We also welcome the stance that has been taken by the President to establish a Presidential Remuneration Commission to investigate the appropriateness of the remuneration and conditions of service provided by the state to all its employees. The commission presents an opportunity for us to reflect on how we reward our public servants, with the first phase focusing on educators because education remains the main driver of development in the knowledge economy. There is no country that has leap-frogged into the future without an investment in education. Teachers play a critical role in this.
We cannot move forward without paying attention to the working conditions of teachers. We want to make teaching as attractive a profession as it has always been. The Department of Public Service and Administration will provide strategic support to the commission, together with the Minister of Basic Education to ensure that the outcomes further entrench the creation of a stable and rewarding environment for teachers.
It is for this reason that the President decided that we are going to ensure that henceforth teachers will be teaching in class, properly dressed and prepared to ensure that they can work for seven hours. [Applause.] Together with Minister of Basic Education, we intend to ensure that they live up to that expectation. We will cut down on unacceptable absenteeism in this sector. As the President has indicated, we will ensure that teachers are in class and that we send out proper inspection, to make sure they are there. [Interjections.]
The SPEAKER: Hon members, order! Let the speaker be heard. I can hear you, but we can't here her. Hon Speaker, you may proceed.
The MINISTER FOR THE PUBLIC SERVICE AND ADMINISTRATION: The Remuneration Commission is the President's answer to a longstanding salary structure problem. More than that, it has shown good faith that the government has taken the first step in recognising the role of teachers in our development. Now, it is for me and the Minister of Basic Education to ensure that we can crack the whip.
We have reviewed the current capacity of the state to deal with corruption in the Public Service. Our assessment is that the current capacity is unable to deal effectively with the scope and scale of the challenge we face. That is why we are planning to create an Anti-Corruption Bureau, a body that will have the necessary powers and authority to deal with all major cases of misconduct in the Public Service.
Together with all other law enforcement agencies, the bureau will have powers and authority to investigate, document, and maintain databases that come out of our disciplinary cases. What we want to ensure is that all major disciplinary cases of a particular nature will be centrally managed and administered.
We have been dismayed by the number of public servants who are further doing business with the state. The NDP and the Public Service Commission have recommended that we prohibit public servants from doing business with the state. We have accepted this recommendation and are working on legislation to effect this. Henceforth no public servant will be allowed to do business with the state. [Applause.]
We have taken note of the contents of the recent report of the Auditor-General on the use of consultants. Together with the Minister of the Department of Public Works, we are working towards ensuring that we can deal with these matters. Our recruitment system has to be revamped, to create an internal capacity that will significantly reduce the over-reliance of our public administration on consultants to deliver public services.
Consultants cannot be used as an alternative to employment of core skills that the Public Administration requires to deal with delivery of service. While agreeing that tendering and the use of consultants are normal government practices all over the world, the ANC is of the view that the Bill that we put aside for the use of consultants has to be minimised. We agree with the recommendation by the Auditor-General that we should tighten the already developed guidelines on the use of consultants, including rates paid to consultants which are issued annually.
Here, yesterday, we heard a great deal of scepticism about government's ability to deal with corruption. I want to give the following details as stated by the President. To those people who listen with their mouth open, I want to repeat what the President stated. I quote:
The capacity of the Special Investigating Unit, SIU, has grown from initial 70 staff members to more than 600 at present, precisely because we are concerned about the issue of corruption. I have, since 2009, signed 34 proclamations directing the SIU to investigate allegations of corruption, fraud, and maladministration in various government departments and state entities. Criminal investigations were initiated against 203 accused. What we have recovered is in the region of 5 million or more.
We have established a school of government to ensure that we can produce a public servant who is committed and dedicated. We, in the Public Service, have established a school of government, and quite clearly the school of government will need to get its first recruits from Members of Parliament. They would all learn how to sit here and listen with their mouth closed. [Laughter.] [Applause.]
Poor service delivery has indeed been a very problematic one. It has been a biggest obstacle, being at the lowest level - one that directly interacts with our citizens. We, as the ruling party, have taken a decision that we will have to ensure that we create a single administration. Thank you very much, hon Godi, for driving straight to the point - differentiated amongst others by the powers vested in national, provincial and local government.
The streamlining of the norms, standards and values would ensure that there is a uniform delivery machine with uniform standards for a uniform efficient state. Chapter 10 of the Constitution of the Republic of SA prescribes the nature and character of our public administration, and calls for national legislation to promote the principles underpinning public administration.
A capable and developmental state is not possible in an environment where we are faced with prolonged wage negotiations every year, coupled with industrial action. We have made significant strides in government in that we now have a multiyear agreement with the Department of Labour. This has allowed us to ensure that both ourselves and the Department of Labour can create an environment where the Public Service can enjoy the environment that they are in and deliver maximally to the people that we are committed to. Out of this has come an agreement to professionalise the Public Service imbued with a new culture.
We will concentrate on building the kind of professional Public Service that we require - one that is served by a new cadre of government that will serve with commitment; a motivated public servant who knows that his or her remuneration will be determined by their productivity; a public servant who knows that we care about their conditions of service, as much as we care that they will deliver quality service. This is our commitment. This is what we have been given the responsibility for by the President, and is what we are going to deliver on.
Finally, to the leader of the opposition, the only thing that sells about you is that you have a beautiful name. Thats about all. [Laughter.] [Interjections.] Why would you want to take it away from her? She does, and that's the only thing that sells about her. A few years or a few months ago, the former member of Terror Lekota's party was sitting there, and I said that hon member to leave while he can because Cope was using for the credibility that he add to them. Those vestiges of white privilege are using you for your pretty plum face, leave while you can. I thank you. [Applause.] [Interjections.]
Mr J SELFE / Mpho/.../TM / END OF TAKE
UNREVISED HANSARD
NATIONAL ASSEMBLY
Wednesday, 20 February 2013 Take: 20
"National Assembly Chamber Main",Unrevised Hansard,22 Feb 2013,"Take 20 [National Assembly Chamber Main].doc"
The MINISTER OF PUBLIC SERVICE AND ADMINISTRATION
Mr J SELFE: Hon Speaker and Mr President, Shakespeare has been much quoted in this House over the last two days and all that I can think of after listening to the hon Minister's speech now is the phrase that comes out of Macbeth that her speech was full of sound and fury signifying nothing. [Applause.]
This debate takes place in the aftermath of the tragic and savage rape and murder of Anene Booysen. Anene is not the first child, nor the first woman to suffer this terrible fate. Within the last two weeks, Jo-Anne van Schalkwyk, an 18-year-old, was found raped, beaten and murdered in Atlantis. Ge-Audrey Green, a 19-year-old, was raped, murdered and stuffed in a drawer in Kraaifontein. Ofentse Mogale, an 11-year-old girl from Mmakau in Brits, was raped and murdered. Earlier, a young woman in Soshanguve was robbed and gang-raped on her way to register at the Tshwane University of Technology. Only last weekend, a 14-year-old girl was raped and murdered in a forest near her home in Jozini in KwaZulu-Natal.
South Africans are correctly and entirely understandably outraged. There are calls for the reintroduction of the death penalty and for the castration of sexual offenders because society demands an equally savage retribution for the perpetrators of these ghastly crimes. If not, in fact, then at least perceptually, South Africa has earned the reputation as the world leader in crimes against women and children.
In 2009, Interpol was quoted as saying that South Africa had the highest rape rate among its member states. The National Development Plan quite correctly recognises the necessity of having an effective criminal justice system. It states, and I quote:
Inspiring public confidence in the criminal justice system is necessary to prevent crime and increase levels of safety. Public confidence is eroded by perceptions that criminals escape the law; that arrests do not lead to convictions; or that prisoners escape easily from courtrooms or correctional facilities.
These are not perceptions, Mr President. The reality is that far too few criminals are detected and apprehended; that too few of these are successfully prosecuted and convicted; and those that do land up in prison emerge more criminalised on release than they were when they were admitted.
As a result of their lack of confidence in the criminal justice system, many women do not report rape and other sexual offences. A 2005 study by the Medical Research Council found that only one in nine women reported that they had been raped. A more recent MRC study in Gauteng indicated that as few as one in 25 women reported these crimes.
So, only a fraction of rapes are reported at all. According to statistics released by the police, 64 514 sexual offences were reported in 2011-12, but according to the annual report of the National Prosecuting Authority, only 6 193 sexual offences cases were finalised, of which only 65% resulted in successful convictions. What this actually means is that only 4 025 cases resulted in a conviction, a rate of just 6,1% of cases initially reported to the police.
The women against whom these crimes were committed were let down by the system. They were let down because the family violence, child protection and sexual offences units, FCSUs, were abolished in 2006 and only re-established in 2011. They were let down because there aren't enough Thuthuzela Care Centres or specialised sexual offences courts and there are not enough police officers trained or police stations equipped to implement the Sexual Offences Act. They were also let down because the forensic laboratories were too slow to process evidence. Is it any wonder that so few women report rapes?
But the other reason that South Africans have very little faith in the criminal justice system is because the wrong people are put in charge of it. When a former National Police Commissioner was sentenced to 15 years for corruption, and his successor dismissed for his involvement in dodgy lease deals, people lost faith. When the Constitutional Court rules that the National Director of Public Prosecutions was not a fit and proper person to occupy that post, people lost faith. When the post of head of the Special Investigations Unit, SIU, is vacant for 14 months, people start to doubt the seriousness of the government to tackle corruption. When the National Prosecutions Authority, NPA, decided to discontinue a prosecution, a decision that was described by an eminent jurist, as I quote, "incomprehensible and indefensible", because the individual charged was about to become the President, people start to think that there's one law for the politically connected and another law for the man in the street. [Applause.]
Mr President, we need an honest conversation about crime against women and children, its causes, and how to fix the criminal justice system. But more than this, South Africans demand action.
So, Mr President, when you said correctly that you will allocate courts and a prioritised roll for perpetrators of violent protests, and when you said and I listened and I quote, "the law will be enforced and seen to be enforced." Will you do the same for perpetrators of crimes against women and children? Unless and until this happens, South Africans will not have confidence in the criminal justice system and in the politicians who are responsible for it. I thank you. [Applause.]
Mrs J D KILIAN
UNREVISED HANSARD
NATIONAL ASSEMBLY
Wednesday, 20 February 2013 Take: 20
Mr J SELFE
Mrs J D KILIAN: Hon Speaker, I would like to start by reminding the hon Minister Sisulu that her colleague, hon Manuel, yesterday in fact, referred to the public service that some public servants come to work to rest. So, we have to say it is also important that, if you want to mete out criticism against some other members in the opposition, you should then also criticise your own colleague.
The abuse of women has reached a tipping point in this country. [Interjections.]
The SPEAKER: Order, hon members!
Mrs J D KILIAN: Even before the ink on a report of a despicable rape or murder case becomes dry, the next mutilated body is found. The daily nor hourly abuse of women and children in this country has reached pandemic proportions. Only last night a two-year-old little girl was mutilated and she is fighting for her life in hospital. The statistics speaks for itself.
We thank the President for announcing that special courts for sexual offences will be reintroduced. We also thank gender activists who speak out at every possible forum and committed law enforcement officers who do their best.
However, neither this nor the opportunistic political exploitation of community anger and grief by some Cabinet Ministers will arrest this horrific scourge. It is an ongoing battle about the status of women in society. The women of South Africa are angry, we have had enough. We demand a paradigm shift from men in society.
Treating the symptoms of what is essentially a collapse of the social fibre of our nation, a sociological and criminal national disease, is clearly not working. Despite laudable constitutionally entrenched rights for women, declarations and rhetoric, the deep-rooted inequality and the entrenched subjugation of women continues. It has no boundaries and cuts through all levels of society. It goes far beyond the obvious type of violence and abuse that make newspaper headlines.
The much lesser publicised silent abuse of women is rife and remains below the radar screen. Millions of women suffer economic and psychological abuse that they cannot escape from and cannot report for fear of losing the roof over their heads and the means to feed their children at those that they are expected to bear and raise.
Young girls are often deprived of proper education in favour of their male siblings, and even worse, they are forced to become part of the cycle of early marriage, child bearing responsibilities, poverty and paternalistic oppression.
In the workplace, women have to overcome obstacles of prejudice, harassment and discrimination in addition to their responsibilities to care for their families. And the fortunate few, who overcome the natural and institutionally imposed obstacles, have a perpetual struggle against the embedded male chauvinism of some insecure males who cannot cope with strong women.
We applaud the ANC Women's League's, ANCWL, role in the nineties to promote gender equality, including the 50-50 representation in legislative forums. But let us be honest, however, Mr Speaker, what is the real impact of women in this forum, in Cabinet, in the committees and in party caucuses? Do women get the respect and recognition that their opinions deserve? What are the criteria for women to be deployed to public office by male dominated party deployment committees? Are some of us here because we are nice, we toe the line and don't ask questions? Or do we perhaps fill a quota?
The President spoke about harsher treatment for those convicted for crimes against women and the few who are actually caught. Yet, we did not hear the President speak out against the discriminatory Traditional Courts Bill, a Bill found by the Commission for
Gender Equality to have "the tendency to centralise power in the hands of traditional leaders".
They said that this Bill has a potential to indirectly discriminate against women. The question is: What did the ANC MPs and Ministers do about this? Did they perhaps trade their souls in exchange for 50-50 legislation, selling out their sisters and mothers in traditional areas?
Cope would ask the President to stand up and be prepared to be counted on. Is he committed to restore the human dignity of women throughout society? If so, he will himself condemn this piece of legislation to the eternal dustbin of history. Will he and can he lead the process to a paradigm shift for women to give them equal rights and equal status in South Africa? History will be the judge. We wish the President to take up this opportunity and demonstrate to South Africa that he would not be held accountable to traditional leaders but to the women voters of South Africa [Time expired.] I thank you. [Applause.]
END OF TAKE
AZM MNGUNI/VM
The DEPUTY MINISTER OF AGRICULTURE, FORESTY AND FISHERIES
UNREVISED HANSARD
NATIONAL ASSEMBLY
Wednesday, 20 February 2013 Take: 21
"National Assembly Chamber Main",Unrevised Hansard,20 Feb 2013,"[Take-21] [National Assembly Chamber Main][NAC-Logger][gs].doc"
Mrs J D KILIAN
The DEPUTY MINISTER OF AGRICULTURE, FORESTRY AND FISHERIES: Mr Speaker and hon President, the famous scientist, Albert Einstein, said:
Insanity is doing the same thing over and over, expecting different results.
Sir, for nineteen years I have heard every year in this Assembly how government with black economic empowerment, affirmative action, stricter labour laws and land reforms will be solving South Africa's problems. For nineteen years already the government has not succeeded in resolving the unemployment problem. For nineteen years we have been struggling to attract more foreign investments to ensure economic growth. After nineteen years, corruption remains a serious problem. The logical conclusion is that the current policy directions do not work. New and fresh plans should be devised to resolve these problems.
In the President's state of the nation address we heard a repetition of most of these old policy directions. Sir, doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results does not make any sense. Let us give example on foreign investments. Foreign investment inflows into South Africa plummeted by 44% in the previous year. This is the largest decline amongst all developing economies according to the United Nations. The reason is not only the world economic recession. South Africa's poor performance was in sharp contrast to the rest of Africa which saw a growth rate of 5% in foreign investment.
What about black empowerment? The Institute for Race Relation's research found that the policy of black empowerment only made a small number of individuals very wealthy while the broader masses did not profit from it. Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment has become narrow based elite empowerment.
Afrikaans:
Meneer, wat korrupsie betref, het ek tyd vir net een voorbeeld. Die onlangse forensiese ondersoek na die Oos-Kaapse gesondheidsdepartement het bevind dat 35 eggenotes van gesondheidsamptenare sake doen met die betrokke departement. Hulle het ook bevind 900 werkers van die departement terselftertyd verskaffers aan dieselfde departement is. Daar kan nie voortgegaan word om toe te laat dat staatsamptenare met die staat besigheid doen nie.
English:
What are the consequences of all these? It is uncertainty and a total lack of hope for the future. In December Grant Thornton conducted opinion polls amongst South African business leaders. Forty-eight percent stated that uncertainty about the future directly affect their current business interests. The result is that they postponed decisions such as to expand. Twenty-six percent indicated that the uncertainty has led them to rather go and invest elsewhere. We cannot afford that.
Last year in this debate I said that the most dangerous thing the government could do is to create expectations with citizens which is then not realised in the end by this citizens. Expectations which do not realise are the recipe for revolution.
For the past nineteen years we have had uncertainty about land reform. Commercial farmers did not want to expand and create new employment opportunities because they were unsure whether they would keep their land. People who had instituted land claims were also unsure whether their claims would succeed. I had hoped that we are now at a point where there are certainties.
Minister Nkwinti's announcement that land claims before 1913 would be reopened brings great uncertainty on the one hand and huge expectations on the other hand. Why such announcement is made before all the details have been thought through? Only the full details which are now not being stated, could remove uncertainty and false expectations.
The Koi and San want to know whether they could reclaim land back to 1200 when they were present in the whole of South Africa. There are San's drawings in the Drakensberg, Zululand at Nkandla and where Cape Town stands today. Could they claim all these?
Last year after I spoke about this a member of the Koi-San phoned me and said they should make me a Koi-San chief because I fight for their rights in Parliament. [Laughter.] The President knows what they said in the recent Cabinet lekgotla. I had more time to argue that there is serious impact of...[Interjections.]
The SPEAKER: Order, hon members! Let the speaker be heard. Order, please.
The DEPUTY MINISTER OF AGRICULTURE, FORESTRY AND FISHERIES:... yes, please. I was very silent when they speak. I said that they know what they said and argued about the serious impact of this as well as the far-reaching consequences of the wage increases.
Afrikaans:
Die VF Plus en die ANC verskil oor hoe meer werksgeleenthede op die platteland geskep moet word en oor hoe voedselsekerheid verseker kan word. Dit is vir ons belangrik. Ons verskil ernstig oor hoe werkloosheid en die lae ekonomiese groei opgelos kan word.
English:
We believe that the current labour laws...[Interjections.]
The SPEAKER: Hon members, order! You may proceed, Sir.
The DEPUTY MINISTER OF AGRICULTURE, FORESTRY AND FISHERIES: We say that the current labour law should be amended as they discourage employers to create new jobs. The labour laws protect unionised workers at the expense of the jobless.
What is our alternative? Why not use, for example, industrial development zone or a harbour for a pilot project. In that area government allow more flexible labour laws and less government interference in the private sector. I predict that there will be more employment opportunities dramatically created in that area. High economic growth will take place and black empowerment will take place naturally due to the number relationships in South Africa. This is a challenge and opportunity for the ANC to prove us wrong.
The FF-Plus supports the National Development Plan that must bring new solutions. The weakest chapter in the plan is Chapter 15 which deals with nation building. Do we have the right recipe in South Africa? I say, no. The answer is also not in that chapter. The ANC's current recipe does not work. We tried to stumble from one international sporting event to the next.
In the majority of African states there is not only one language and one culture to use for nation building. Which recipe did these African countries used? They used the citizens' joint anger and opposition to the European oppressors as a nation building recipe. Because the reason that the colonial bosses had returned to Europe, it worked well to unite people like this against a common absent enemy.
But this recipe cannot work in South Africa. President Mandela realised this. That is why he reached out to Afrikaners and to other whites who had no other countries to return to. To declare them as an enemy is the Malema recipe. We saw last year the consequences of this recipe. It is a recipe which divides and incites people against each other and leads to conflict.
Often when the ANC is in trouble some leaders use the Malema recipe. Yesterday we had to listen to some of those speeches. The whites, the Afrikaners or the farmers are the then cause of all the problems and identified as the enemy. This is short-sighted and cannot work.
The title of the film Invictus comes from a poem which President Mandela used in jail for inspiration. According to the poem, you can do something to me, but you cannot change my thoughts with laws or with violence. It appears as if the current ANC did not learn a lesson from this.
Following the Bambatha Rebellion, Dinuzulu ka Cetshwayo, king of the Zulu nation was put in jail by the British authorities in 1908. Two years later General Louis Botha, as an old friend of the Zulu king, became Prime Minister of the Union of South Africa. One of the first things Botha did was to order the release of Dinuzulu. Louis Botha also saw to it that the king receive a farm, Uikyk Farm, in the Middleburg area. Today the statues of Louis Botha and Dinuzulu stand next to each other in Durban.
Louis Botha is also one of my heroes following the Anglo-Boer War with his attempts to stop British Imperialism in South Africa. But every time I drive past the street name changes in Pretoria I see the ANC has drawn a red line through Louis Botha's name. Surely I am crossed again. I view this as disregarding my heroes and South African history. There is no way in which one could force nation building on people in this manner. If it is not a willing process by all participants, it will not succeed.
The right nation building recipe is to view the different identities in South Africa as an asset and to recognise it as such. Through this, a situation is created where everybody feels like winners and there are no losers. I ask for a room to be myself in Africa; as simple as that. I demand that there is also a place for me, my language, my children, recognition of my heroes and the respect for all others around me.
What do we choose in South Africa? Do we choose the Malema recipe of divide and make enemies, or the Mandela recipe of reach out and accommodate? I choose the accommodate recipe where all identities, with mutual respect, are appreciated and accommodated by laws, minority rights and by international self determination.
I said that Einstein said:
Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
The current policy directions are not working. South Africa is in trouble. Fresh and new plans have to be made to resolve these problems and again give hope for and certainty about the future. We all need it at the moment because we have nowhere else to go.
Thank you very much, Sir.
Rev K R J MESHOE / /Mia (Afr) / /Arnold (Eng) / GC / END OF TAKE
UNREVISED HANSARD
NATIONAL ASSEMBLY
Wednesday, 20 February 2013 Take: 22
The DEPUTY MINISTER OF AGRICULTURE, FORESTRY AND FISHERIES:"National Assembly Chamber Main",Unrevised Hansard,22 Feb 2013,"Take 22 [National Assembly Chamber Main].doc"
"National Assembly Chamber Main",Unrevised Hansard,20 Feb 2013,"[Take-22] [National Assembly Chamber Main][NAC-Logger][gs].doc"
The Deputy Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries
Rev K R J MESHOE: Honourable President, hon Deputy President and hon members, as a result of the shocking reports of brutal rape cases these past weeks, I am going to devote much of my time this afternoon addressing the scourge and making proposals which the ACDP believes that they should be adopted to help in dealing with this crime.
In December, last year, after an Indian student was brutally raped in a bus in Delhi, there was a national outcry, whereby thousands of angry people took to the streets of Delhi, demanding that women should be given more protection; and that perpetrators of the heinous crime be arrested swiftly and brought to book.
When the 17-year-old Anene Booysen was raped and her intestines of her body were ripped out by young rapists - of which one of them was known to her - one would have expected a similar national outcry whereby thousand of people would demonstrate in the streets just as it happened in India. Alas, only a few 100 people protested. To those outside who have been protesting, they should continue doing so until their voices are heard.
The ACDP is very concerned about the increasing brutal rapes that have become part of our society. In yesterday's DispatchOnline, there was a report about the rape of a 110-year-old grandmother from Jojweni village in the Eastern Cape. This is shocking and disgusting. The young man who did it should receive the severest punishment.
How should government deal with such cruelty in our society? I agree with the comments that were attributed to Contralesa president, the hon Phathekile Holomisa, who reportedly said, and I quote, "It is clear, we need a punishment that is worse than a life time in jail."
South Africa's rape statistics is like a country at war with itself. We have a highest number of declared rapes in the world. According to Interpol crime report, in South Africa, a woman is raped after every 17 seconds and one in every two women will be raped at some stage in their lifetime and half of those would be under 18.
We have to acknowledge that we have a serious, endemic and sustained culture of extreme violence against women and children. The government must take drastic action to stop this unacceptable cruelty. Women, grandmothers and children have the right to feel safe in their homes and communities. They have the right to demand protection from government as we saw women in India do.
Judge Albie Sachs once said, and I quote:
...to the extent that it is systematic, pervasive, and overwhelmingly gender-specific, domestic violence both reflects and reinforces patriarchal domination and does so in a particular brutal form. Women and children are even raped in the police custody by police officials. In Yugoslavia and Rwanda this is considered torture and is prosecutable, not only as rape, but as a crime against humanity. It should be the same in South Africa.
Adding to the problem, police officials have been guilty of not collecting rape kits from hospitals, with some being left for more than two years. This incompetence contributes to the low rate of conviction. These agents of the state are breaking the law, and each investigating officer that does not do due diligence in rape cases should be prosecuted.
There are few important things that the ACDP believes should be done to help drastically lower rape incidents in our country: Firstly, community members, particularly men and boys in particular must be told in no uncertain terms that sex is not an entitlement.
Secondly, although there are efforts to train police to be gender sensitive, there are countless reports of police insensitivity when a woman reports a rape case. Police officers should receive specialised training to deal with rape cases.
Thirdly, access to pornography by children is rife, and we do not have legislation in place that prevents children from accessing pornography on their cell phones. For example, when children access pornography, it really damages their psyche. They do things based on what they see in the pornographic material and it completely desensitises them to moral issues and to what rape really is. If the government is serious about fighting the scourge of rape and sexual abuse in our country, then it cannot and should not allow pornography to be freely accessible everywhere in South Africa.
Fourthly, the use and influence of drugs and alcohol has contributed immensely to the problem of rape in our communities. Removing all illicit drugs from society, and arresting all drug dealers should become a governments' priority so that our children's future can be secured.
Fifthly, those convicted of murder and rape should never be released on parole. A clear message must be sent to the public that rapists will be dealt with harshly and those found guilty will be severely punished.
Lastly, the majority of South Africans want capital punishment to be reinstated. A government of the people, by the people, should listen to the people.
Having said the above, I now want to appeal to churches and all other religious formations to speak-out much louder against rape and women abuse in our communities. They should warn our people, particularly children, about the dangers of alcohol and drug abuse. They should be seen to be leading the moral regeneration campaign in our country.
The President further said that the government is clamping down on corruption. He knows that most South Africans want to know why more than R200 million was spent on renovations of his private residence at Nkandla with taxpayer's money, and yet he is quite on the matter.
There are two questions that I want to ask about this secretive expenditure on the Nkandla project: Firstly, even though we agree that the safety of the President and his family should be a government's priority, I want to know why does the President need a bunker? Are there any plans by some comrades or foreign governments to bomb President Zuma's residence just like French soldiers when they were assisted by the UN troops stationed in Ivory Coast to bomb the residence of the former Ivory Coast president, Laurent Gbagbo?
Secondly, if the reports in the City Press newspaper were correct, then why was the taxpayer's money used to build a tuck shop for one of the first ladies? Obviously, this allegation challenges the contention of the Minister of Public Works that the government only spent money on security upgrades at Nkandla.
The fact that the government's departments have spent more than R102 billion on consultants highlights government's wastefulness by keeping incompetent and unqualified comrades in office. Why don't they replace them with competent employees so that these billions of rand could be used to build more schools for children who are still learning under trees and in mud classrooms?
Lastly, on the issue of Palestine, I find it disheartening that with about 90 nations in the world is accused of human rights abuse, and the people in Syria, China, Russia and neighbouring Zimbabwe, to name a few are crying for attention, but the President can only see the Gaza conflict.
Mr President, are you aware of the christian residents who live in fear in Gaza and have appealed for protection from the international community? They are allegedly harassed, raped and robbed by Hamas and Islamist extremists with no protection. Will you also speak-out in their defence? I wonder why the President chooses to be so biased and selective in these matters. Thank you. [Applause.]
Mr L M MPHAHLELE /Sam/VM / END OF TAKE
UNREVISED HANSARD
NATIONAL ASSEMBLY
Wednesday, 20 February 2013 Take: 23
"National Assembly Chamber Main",Unrevised Hansard,20 Feb 2013,"[Take-23] [National Assembly Chamber Main][NAC-Logger][gs].doc"
Rev K R J MESHOE
Mr L M MPHAHLELE: Hon President, hon Deputy President, hon Speaker, hon members and distinguished guests, February 3, 2013 marked the 50th anniversary of the Battle of Mbashe. Eventually Poqo, PAC, lost 12 of its cadres in the gallows. Msholozi Baba, as your government commemorates the raid on Liliesleaf farm, please give a thought to the fallen heroes of Mbashe. Let us remember our heroes and heroines on nonpartisan lines.
The PAC wants to applaud you, Msholozi, regarding women's rights, especially the 50-50 approach. In this respect, the ruling party is streets ahead and it deserves compliments. [Applause.] In a country like ours where women constitute 52% of the population, 50-50 is still an underrepresentation for the women. [Applause.] Legislation alone is not enough to liberate women from the yoke of male domination. Female inferiority complex and male superiority complex cannot be legislated against. Yet, these are the two pillars of patriarchy. We have to work on our attitudes in our public and private lives.
On the mother of all questions, the land question, the PAC welcomes the reopening of the lodgement of restitution claims. Lest we forget that every indigenous African is a legitimate land claimant, with or without a documentary proof. Our DNA code is sufficient evidence. The kinky [curly] texture of our hair, our skin colour of the night and our click-rich languages should suffice as the proof that Azania, in fact Africa, always was, and always will be the land of the Africans, from Kemit to Azanj. [Applause.]
We welcome a departure from the willing-robber, willingly-robbed approach. [Laughter.] The PAC firmly believes that the land question cannot be resolved within the framework of the Constitution as it stands today. The Constitution itself blesses the colonial theft through the property clauses. Unless we change the Constitution, let's not promise the landless Africans a delicious pie in the sky.
No African should be called a land grabber when they occupy the land of their ancestors. The land grabbers are those who are occupying the land because of the superiority of the firepower that their European forebears had over the spears and arrows of our forefathers. [Applause.] People must stop waving blood-stained title deeds each time the Africans demand what rightly belongs to them, izwe lethu [our country]!
Hon President, your declaration of war on corruption rings hollow to the ears of the nation. Under your watch, the poison of corruption is flowing thick in every artery of the society, the state and the ruling party. Let me cite an example. You certainly know the Krok brothers - Solomon and Abraham. They always give money to your party and to individual leaders of the ruling party. During the days of apartheid they made their fortune by manufacturing skin whitening chemicals which they sold as skin care products. They rode on the wave of white supremacy which viewed blacks as inferior and the Africans as subhuman beings.
The Krok brothers, more than any one alive today, benefited from apartheid. Presently, they parade themselves before the world as the brains behind the idea of the Apartheid Museum. We all know that the Apartheid Museum was originally conceived by Mike Stainbank. They stole the concept from him, aided and abetted by the untransformed and white supremacist judiciary and the ruling party.
It's like having the Nazis claiming that they conceived the idea of memorialising the holocaust victims. The Africans were the victims of the Krok brothers' chemical warfare. They still are because those chemicals left lifetime scars - physical and mental.
Hon President, Sterkspruit is on fire. Your speedy intervention will be helpful to normalise the situation. Businesses have ground to a halt. On Friday last week the police shot dead Wele Mgoqi, a 16-year old schoolboy who was doing Grade 6 in Qobosheane. He was shot twice in the head. The people of Sterkspruit, Eastern Cape, are sick and tired of corrupt councillors and skewed service delivery.
Sepedi:
Mohlomphegi President, thuto e bohlokwa. Mathomo a thuto ke polelo. Re le ba mokgahlo wa PAC ya Azania, re ka thaba ge barutwana ba ka ithuta ka polelo ya ka gae. Go ne le batho ba ba naganago gore ge o bolela Seisimane, o hlalefile. Ba lebala gore digaswi le ditlaela tša Engelane di bolela Seisemane ka dinko. Dihlalefi le boramahlale ba Afrika ya bogologolo, ba ba agilego dipyramid, ba be ba sa tsebe Seisimane.
Bjale Morw'a Nxamalala, Msholozi o mobotse košeng, a re bolele
dipolelo tša gabo rena gobane ke seshego ebile ke mohlodi wa setšo
sa rena Ma-Afrika. Mohlomphegi Seboledi, Morw'a Nxamalala,
motšwa gabo ga a laele. Ditsela di wela kgwahlana.
Ke a leboga.
Ms B T NGCOBO / Src(Eng)/kn (Sepedi) / END OF TAKE
UNREVISED HANSARD
NATIONAL ASSEMBLY
Wednesday, 20 February 2013 Take: 24
"National Assembly Chamber Main",Unrevised Hansard,25 Feb 2013,"Take 24 [National Assembly Chamber Main].doc"
"National Assembly Chamber Main",Unrevised Hansard,20 Feb 2013,"[Take-24] [National Assembly Chamber Main][NAC-Logger][gs].doc"
Mr L M MPHAHLELE
IsiZulu: 15:01:40
Nks B T NGCOBO: Somlomo, Mongameli, Sekela Mongameli, amalungu ahloniphekile kanye nezivakashi zethu, sivela esikhathini lapho isimo sempilo besicheme ngendlela esabekayo: besihlukene ngendlela esabekayo; bekunezindawo zokwelapha ezibhalwe amagama abantu, ezikhetha abantu kanye namabala abo; amakamelo okulaphela ahlukene kanye nemitholampilo ehlukene. Sivela kuleso simo esinjalo.
English:
Mr President, you were correct when you made health as one of the apex priorities among others. Secondly, when you introduced the National Health Insurance, NHI, which allows for equitable universal access and coverage as required by the Constitution, the Freedom Charter and recommended by the World Health Organisation. The Alma Mater during the 20th century called for Health for All by the Year 2 000. The country is fulfilling that call now.
IsiZulu:
Izitini zokwakha sezibekiwe ukuze sikwazi ukuqala uMshwalense kaZwelonke weZempilo, yize noma kungaxhamazelwa futhi kungagijinywa kodwa zikhona zibekiwe. Ukwakhiwa kabusha kwezindawo zempilo, ukwakhiwa kwezibhedlela ezintsha nemitholampilo kuyindlela eyizitini zokwakhela uMshwalense kaZwelonke wezeMpilo. Siyancoma-ke ukuthi noma kuza kancane kodwa kuyenzeka ngoba izibhedlela lezi ezizimele azisilungelanga thina esihlwempu. Ngakho-ke sizithola sesibandlululeka. Thina esimpofu ukuze sikwazi ukuzuza impilo, lento ekuthiwa nguMshwalense kaZwelonke weZempilo izosisiza.
English:
The Green Paper on NHI was published in August 2011 for public comments. We are awaiting the White Paper on NHI.
Many people commented on the Green Paper. We were quite excited that there was a lot of talk on the National Health Insurance. In 2012, a Bill on the establishment of the Office of Health Standards Compliance was published. Public comments took place on the Bill and the Bill was passed by the National Assembly in November 2012. However, there are some additions that came from the NCOP and those will be taken care of. The Act calls for the establishment of the following units: the inspectorate; the ombudsman and the certification office.
IsiZulu: 15:05:05
Ngizothi-ke qaphu qaphu ngezifunda okuzokwenziwa kuzo inhlolovo ngokukhethwa uhulumeni: eMpumalanga Kapa kune-OR Tambo; e-Free State kuneThabo Mofutsanyana; eGauteng kuneTshwane; KwaZulu-Natal ngoba phela ibiyaziwa njengendawo eneningi labantu abahlaselwe ubhubhane lwesifo seNgculazi, uhulumeni wakhetha uMzinyathi noMzimkhulu, kodwa isifundazwe sona uqobo lwaso sazifakela Amajuba ngesimanga sokuthi sifuna ukuyisebenza kakhulu le nto yeNgculazi ukuze abantu babengcono; eLimpopo iVhembe; eMpumalanga i-Gert Sibande; eNyakatho neKapa i-Pixley KaSeme; eNorth West i-Dr Kenneth Kaunda; eNtshonalanga Kapa i-Eden.
Siyazi-ke ukuthi njengoba sikhuluma ngalezi zifunda, muningi umsebenzi osuwenziwe ukuxoxisana nabo bonke abantu abahlala kulezi zindawo ezinalezi zifunda. Kuxoxiswane nemiphakathi, amakhosi, nabezakhiwo zenkolo, izikole, amakhansela nabo bonke abantu, akekho okungaxoxwangwa naye. Umuntu ongathi akazi, uzobe angalisho iqiniso.
English: 15:06:48
Mr President, on April 2013, the National Health Insurance will be rolled out to 533 designated pilot clinics in various districts. [Applause.] Six hundred general practitioners have been registered to date to see patients at the 10 clinics, for now. There are more doctors that are committed, but because they are not registered, we will wait until they are registered in order to know their numbers. Various health personnel will be included to do the work in order to assist with the National Health Insurance, including the community health workers; retired nurses and; nurses that are still in practice will assist in this.
Further, the President announced that the fund for NHI will be made available in the forthcoming year. This will allow for primary health care to take place within the designated districts. The President announced in 2009, regarding the HIV and Aids programme, that pregnant women were to be started on antiretroviral treatment should their CD4 count be 350 or less, and start attending clinics within 14 weeks so that whatever diagnosis and conditions that they have can be identified in good time and be treated other than them just receiving the antiretroviral treatment. Also, prevention of mother-to-child transmission has decline from 8% in 2008 to 2,7% in 2011. [Applause.] There is a decline in the mortality rate of infants and children before the age of five. [Applause.] These estimates are reported by the Medical Research Council, MRC.
The President also encouraged the voluntary counselling and testing, VCT, campaign. This has taken place. More than 13 million people have participated in this VCT and those who came were predominantly women, unfortunately. Even now we are asking, what has happened to the male counterparts? Don't they experience HIV or Aids in their lives, since they do not come forward? We are expecting men to come forward and be tested. Those that have been tested HIV-positive from the group that came forth for testing are now on the antiretroviral treatment.
Male medical circumcision has become an issue of the day. We are seeing young men en masse going for medical male circumcision. We applaud this because many men will become less vulnerable to HIV and Aids provided they condomised after circumcision. We are quite encouraged and excited that the Zulu monarch is supporting these activities by the young people. The President is leading the HIV and Aids campaign. The Deputy President is the chairperson of the South African National AIDS Council, Sanac, the Minister of Health is assisting on this.
South Africa has the largest treatment programme in the World. The World Health organisation is actually quiet happy about this because South Africa seems to be turning the HIV and Aids problem for the best. There has been reduction in the cost of antiretroviral drugs because the price of antiretroviral drugs has been reduced so that the country is able to buy more antiretroviral drugs. The amount of funding that was to be spent for the antiretroviral drugs is now used for those people who have been left out in the wagon of antiretroviral therapy.
Old Mutual reported that the industry has reported a decline on absenteeism at the workplace and that people are no longer sick as they were before interventions of the antiretroviral drugs. Life expectancy of individuals has been extended up to 61 years as reported by the Medical Research Council. We have to start on family planning, as we speak, more young people are getting pregnant. Even...
IsiZulu: 15:13:09
...abantwana abafunda ibanga lesikhombisa sibafica bekhulelwe. Kungani lokhu kwenzeka? Ngiyacabanga-ke ukuthi kwenzeka ngoba sinalomthetho wethu wokuhushula izisu, abawusebenzisa kabi ngoba umthetho wawo awuvimbi ukuthi abantu bakhulelwe usetshenziswa uma abantu sebakhulelwe futhi kunezingqinamba zokuwusebenzisa. Awusetshenziswa inoma ikanjani.
Mhlawumbe uBab'uMphephethwa uzosisiza lapha kule mpicabadala esinayo. Bab'uMphephethwa, sinenkinga yamakolishi abahlengikazi, avulwa engavuli, aqalwa engaqalwa. Ngangamanje nje ngisho abahlengikazi esibaziyo njengonesi abasaziyo isiguli sisekhaya, sisembhedeni, noma ngabe sikuphi esibhedlela basaziwa bezazi, bazimisele bazinikele. Sibaswele labo bahlengikazi abenze njalo. NjengoNgqongqoshe wezeMfundo ePhakeme nokuQeqesha ngiyacabanga ukuthi wena ungenza lokho ukuthi kwenzeke, mhlwawumbe ubambisene noNgqongqoshe wezeMpilo. Siyethemba ngelinye ilanga sizowathola lamakolishi asebenza kahle abahlengikazi. Okwamanje sinawo amakolishi asemanyuvesi afundisa abahlengikazi. Nami nje ngibafundisile abahlengikazi lapho, kodwa ababona ongqoshishilizi njengabahlengikazi abafundiswe emakolishi. Futhi siyazi ukuthi kunamakolishi lawa angoqhibu khowe abiza ngendlela emangalisayo. Athi abiza enjalo, asikhiqizele abahlengikazi abangekho esimeni esikahle ngokwezidingo zanamhlanje.
Bab'uMphephethwa ngiyethemba ukuthi leso simo uzosibheka, futhi usheshise ukusibheka ngoba sisenkingeni siyiNingizimu Afrika. Siphinde futhi sikhulume ngamanyuvesi. Amanyuvesi uma sixoxisana namanye awo siwuMnyango wezeMpilo, athi: ubukhulu bawo busenjengoba bunjalo kudala ngaphambi konyaka we-1994. Manje awakwazi ukuthatha odokotela abadlula inombolo leyo ababeyithatha ngowe-1994. Kepha-ke umhlola wukuthi i-Wits ibathathile odokotela abangama-40. Ukuthi yona inwebe kanjani-ke? Ngeso lakho elikhulu, Mphephethwa, ngiyacabanga ukuthi ungakwazi ukubhekisisa ukuthi amanyuvesi anwebeka kanjani ukuze sikwazi ukuthi sithole odokotela abaningana kunalaba abakhona.
English: 15:16:17
On that note we are quiet excited that some of the departments have taken the young people and trained them so that they are able to assist in the primary health care as well as in the implementation of the National Health Insurance. We are hoping that with time that the war against HIV will be won. I thank you. [Time expired.] [Applause.]
Mr R B BHOOLA / JN (Eng / Zulu) / END OF TAKE
UNREVISED HANSARD
NATIONAL ASSEMBLY
Wednesday, 20 February 2013 Take: 25
"National Assembly Chamber Main",Unrevised Hansard,20 Feb 2013,"[Take-25] [National Assembly Chamber Main][NAC-Logger][gs].doc"
Ms B T NGCOBO
Mr R B BHOOLA: Mr Speaker, I want to start by congratulating President Jacob Zuma on the retention of his position as President of the ruling party. [Applause.] I am also mindful of the fact that this retention could probably imply your retention as President of the country. As the slogan so accurately say: "You cannot keep a good man down". [Applause.]
In retaining stability within government through this renewal, I hope that the programmes of the previous state of the nation address, Sona, and the current one will find fruition. The MF believes that it is imperative to locate the Sona within a particular background and within socioeconomic conditions that confront us. Ignoring this will fundamentally undermine the needs of our electorate.
I am aware of your strength Mr President, bringing stakeholders and business together, attempts to meet the threefold economic growth, your role within the tripartite alliance and the addition of Cyril Ramaphosa within your rank. We appreciate your understanding the fundamentals of political challenges and that you continue to keep South Africa united. The youth wage subsidy, vis-à-vis the intended new tax regime, you should address the economic career and shortcomings of the youth. Although tax was reduced over the past 15 years, it would be better if such tax initiatives do not target the working class as a source of predominant revenue funding for the state.
I am raising this point because of the history of protest actions at universities. The call by students was for the huge reduction of fee subsidies, increase in bursaries and the improved and affordable accommodation for those who travel from rural areas. These are the fundamental indicatives that government should strive to provide relief.
We must be mindful that the price of petrol has huge financial implications for the poor. The MF notes that the cost of living is bound to increase in the next two months once of the effect of the new petrol price kicks in with regard to transport. When we reaffirm our Constitution, let us also do the same to the fundamental right to life. Assurances are not provided in the Constitution, but are provided by government. We need to do more to protect lives.
The public service consists of more people running business and benefiting from tenders. The work ethics is deplorable. This act of dishonesty should be dismissible. Let's grow our economy so that all can participate, rather than employing unqualified personnel or make political appointments and then complain that the public service is not delivering.
Systems are being manipulated by those that rely for self-enrichment in contrast with the needs of the poor. I am sorry to say this, but the link of economic exploitation of government resources by public sector is devastating. This undermines the initiative of government and the economy. The headlines in our newspapers speak for itself. If I mention names, my six minutes speech will be exhausted.
Monies from the new infrastructure programmes must not end up in the stomachs of those who implement government's policies. My fear is that bulk of this money becomes abused because of fraud and corruption. We are loosing skills through blatant discrimination and abuse of affirmative action policies. Our people need to benefit from our policies instead of being kicked out because of their skills or colour.
Let us create opportunities for all and not rely on the racist attitudes of certain government officials. We have learners who produced six, seven and eight A symbols, yet they cannot get into medical schools. These potential doctors will benefit our communities. Why must they be denied an opportunity to study? They went to school and performed their best. Why must they be pushed race and punished by affirmative action exclusion. What about meritocracy – the notion that the best in school will succeed. Why deny them the right to study in the country of their origin. We will never meet South Africa's challenges by throwing away skilled people to outside countries. The recent research shows that the majority of learners prefer to study outside South Africa.
Human settlement programme is a convenient form of service delivery designed to meet the needs of the poor and destitute. We must put in more money and approach housing with a more aggressive policy. Of course, we should watch out for the likes of those with the Mpisane mentality. I pay tribute to the late leader of the MF, Mr Amichand Rajbansi, who went on an aggressive campaign to pursue the housing initiative as Minister of Housing. These houses are still there and standing strong. Why is quality compromised today?
Your vision for the infrastructure roll-out programme is worthy of praise and welcome. However, the fun must not be exploited by capitalist companies as in the world cup infrastructure roll-out. We must jealously guard against this. There is a need to grow and integrate the economies of our country collectively. The absence of sports in schools curriculum is quite disturbing and is marked by alcohol abuse, prostitution, drug abuse and violence. The pandemic of rape and murder must be confronted decisively.
The attrition rate of teachers far exceeds replacement of educators. We must try and reintroduce training colleges and improve on teacher and supply demand. The quality of systems is severely compromised. Almost 1500 dairy farmers have quit dairy farming. This will have a tremendous impact on the price of dairy products. We must introduce ways and means to skill our people, get land for them and revive the agricultural fraternity so that the country and our can people benefit.
Mr President, kindly accept this critique as an attempt to assist the service delivery campaign for the poor, rural and illiterate. The MF notes your position in the alliance and in government. Should you consider these suggestions raised by the MF in regards to your state of the nation address, I believe that South Africa will be in safe hands. As it is correctly said: The fragrance of the of a flower only blow in the direction of the wind. Yes, indeed, Mr President, the good unto mankind will spread in all direction.
Let's march forward – all the way, with courage, conviction and determination. We should never stop until we deliver all our people from the shackles of poverty, unemployment and inequality with sincerity, honesty, hard work and dedication. I thank you. [Applause.]
Dr W G JAMES: .../TM / END OF TAKE
UNREVISED HANSARD
NATIONAL ASSEMBLY
Wednesday, 20 February 2013 Take: 26
"National Assembly Chamber Main",Unrevised Hansard,20 Feb 2013,"[Take-26] [National Assembly Chamber Main][NAC-Logger][gs].doc"
Mr R B BHOOLA
Dr W G JAMES: Mr Speaker and Mr President, the failure to fix our hobbling education system is holding South Africa back from achieving its full potential. The inequality of opportunity for children is a rude rebuke to the very idea of South African's dream. The same inequality divides our children from one another in schools, our children's futures and even how they think as adults.
There is not enough appreciation of why education is of such fundamental importance to the success of our country. Education prepares individuals for the world of work. Education is how we learn to discover and to deploy information. It refines human ability to make sound evaluations and good judgements.
Afrikaans:
Opvoedkunde is belangrik, in 'n mate veel groter as die nodige bydrae wat dit maak ten opsigte van ekonomiese groei.
English:
It is the principle means by which we understand the mysteries of this world and our place in it. It fosters a better understanding of the interests, needs and desires of everyone so that we may treat one another with greater sympathy and respect, irrespective of the different choices we make or the experience that shapes our lives. It follows that there is nothing more important in the democracy than building a quality functional educational system.
President Jacob Zuma spoke about the National Development Plan, but he did not elaborate. Let us therefore look at three proposals contained in the National Development Plan, NDP, which are relevant to education.
The NDP proposes to introduce incentive schemes linked to the Annual National Assessments, Ana, to reward schools for consistent improvements. It also defines competency as achieving 50% or more. It seeks to improve Literacy, Numeracy, Mathematics and science. Instead of plainly saying how the government could achieve these three objectives, the President spoke about reviewing teacher salaries and service conditions. To us it sounds like an election ploy which is a nod and wink to the teachers unions.
He failed to establish a link between improved remuneration and performance. The DA would like to offer practical proposals to fix our broken education system and meet the NDP's objectives. For example, whether we go for essential services option or not, to lock instability, we propose that wage bargaining in education sector is to take place every five years.
Agreement should have built in annual increases and be valid for the full five years. The principle of 'no work, no pay' must be strictly applied. Teachers must be in class teaching, and learners should be in class learning for seven hours a day.
Beyond schooling, the evidence is clear that the private sector is training most of the apprentices and highly skilled technical workers we have. It is equally apparent, we must point out, that universities and professional associations are running de facto cartels which restrict the supply of medical doctors, accountants, lawyers and engineers and these things drive up salaries.
To compound this we are failing to retrain workers to deal with the unstoppable changes in workplace technologies and the shockwaves of labour market changes in the face of our global interdependent or economy. To address these problems, tax breaks, cash freed up from the obsolete Sector Education and Training Authorities, Setas, and trade union investments in retraining and upskilling, are measures we should all look at very carefully. This government hesitates to implement practically minded innovations for reason of ideology. It does not seem to grasp what both learners and employers are asking for.
Recent research indicates that employers of unskilled workers look for matric and a relevant qualification, previous work experience, communication proficiency, trustworthiness and civility. For skilled workers they look for the same things, namely, higher education qualification, previous experience, communication proficiency, trustworthiness and civility. This is why having quality education matters. This is why the introduction of the Treasury's youth wage subsidy scheme to give young South Africans work experience matters.
Afrikaans:
Dit is waarom kommunikasie in ons veeltalige land saak maak.
English:
This is why building trust through civility matters. It matters because these qualities would more likely lead towards a job in building trust and to bring back hope in land yearning to be respected once again, for succeeding against the odds.
Therefore, tell us Mr President, how do you plan to lead us towards success against the odds? Your state of the nation address did not tell us. Perhaps your response to our remarks will. The nation would like to know. The nation deserves to know. Thank you very much. [Applause.]
Ms L H ADAMS
UNREVISED HANSARD
NATIONAL ASSEMBLY
Wednesday, 20 February 2013 Take: 26
Dr W G JAMES
Ms L H ADAMS: Hon Deputy Speaker, Mr President, Mr Deputy President and Members of Parliament, we are nation in mourning. We mourn for our young people that are simply a lost generation. Former President Mandela's health prevents him from continuing to inspire the youth with hope for better life for all. Former President Mbeki is no longer reminding youth of how great it is to be an African born from this land. All this country is left with now is the President that is at the forefront of the government that robs its youth from the future.
Our youth is being robbed from the opportunity to be educated. They are taught to know at least 30% of their curriculum in order for them to pass matric. For 12 years, these young people have been institutionalised and brainwashed only for them to discover that there is no future for them even with those matric certificates. Once they nave passed matric the government developed an attitude of "Don't call us, we will call you", because now all those promised jobs have not materialised.
With the limited access to tertiary institutions, no jobs available and even the farmers and mines are no longer employing more workers and this government is forcing young people to turn to crime for survival.
Young people also urge for leadership from this government and it adds no value if this government is being referred to by people as living monument to corruption. For months reports have been in the media about Minister Pule and the alleged dodgy dealings with her boyfriend. The President has not provided any immediate leadership in this matter. But again, our President has not said a word about the more than R200 million of taxpayers' money that Cabinet deemed fit for the inheritance of the Zuma children.
We always read of the millions being spent on new furniture for houses and offices of Ministers. When it comes to spending the money for the delivery of services, task teams must first be established only to report about the reasons for the government's inability to deliver. The message to young people by this government is loud and clear:"It is our time to eat even if we have to eat from the plates of the youth".
The worse of all is the deliberate actions of the President to divide young people on the basis of race. He doesn't understand that he is killing the hope of the young people to live in the united South Africa. First, he allowed racial slurs from Julius Malema in his presence and now just recently the President stated that:
Spending money to buy a dog and taking it to the veterinarian and for walks belong to the white culture.
Does the President not know that he must speak out and on behalf of animals? This is both the necessity and the obligation. Does the President not know that even the famous Mahatma Gandhi stated that:
Greatness of the nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way in which its animals are treated.
Former President Mbeki reminded us of being an African is to embrace in all cultures in our country, but our current President tells us that it is un-African to have a dog.
The young people of this country now are confused. Will they be African enough if they take care of their dogs like what Mahatma Gandhi and President Mbeki campaigned for, or should they follow the colonised thinking of President Zuma and his government? It is quiet clear that with President Zuma as the leader of this country, national unity will simply be a pipedream.
This year, I thought the President will reach out the South Africans in declare war against the crimes that violates the human dignity of our women and children. But the President once again went through the motions of simply making another statement. Scores of crimes committed against our women and children remain unresolved. The killers remain unnamed because the police only tune into action if they have to kill protesters. If the President once again did not provide leadership at the state of the nation address, then for how long must South Africans wait for leadership?
Afrikaans:
Die land is aan die brand en ons President is besig om op sy pos aan die slaap te raak.
English:
Last year, during the Child Protection Week, President Zuma urged the community in Kimberley to teach their children about the legacy of colonialism and apartheid. Almost 20 years down democracy lane this government is still not advocating the teaching of youth about the Constitution and democracy.
Hopefully, with the National Development Plan in place this government will no longer live in the past. The young people of today want to focus on the future and not the past. But with the President constantly reminding the youth about the past will only divide the youth on the basis of race.
Afrikaans:
Soos ek gesê het, die land is aan die brand en die regering moet wakker slaap. Suid-Afrikaners is besig om weg te beweeg van die verlede en stem nou vir die toekoms. Ons kan nie stories van haat en apartheid eet nie, maar ons kan wel brood eet as werk voorsien word. Daar hoef nie meer bloed te vloei van oproerige stakers nie, maar wat wel moet vloei is lopende water in krane. Ons kan nie meer kwaad wil bly oor sekere mense in ons land wat ryker is as die ander nie.
English:
I have no option but to conclude that this government being led is unfit to govern. Thank you. [Time expired.] [Applause.]
The MINISTER OF HIGHER EDUCATION AND TRAINING / /NN / GC / END OF TAKE
UNREVISED HANSARD
NATIONAL ASSEMBLY
Wednesday, 20 February 2013 Take: 27
"National Assembly Chamber Main",Unrevised Hansard,20 Feb 2013,"[Take-27] [National Assembly Chamber Main][NAC-Logger][gs].doc"
Ms L H ADAMS:
The MINISTER OF HIGHER EDUCATION AND TRAINING: Madam Deputy Speaker, the hon President and Deputy President, hon members and my comrades on this side of the House...[Applause.]...I want to tell hon James the story of education, not the airy fairy philosophical stuff that he is talking about. Under the leadership of President Zuma, both as President of the Republic and the president of the ANC, and building upon the achievements of the ANC in education since 1994...[Interjections.]
The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order, hon members! Please contain your excitement.
The MINISTER OF HIGHER EDUCATION AND TRAINING: ...education has been declared and made an apex priority since 2009.If Verwoerd and his criminal apartheid regime of 1948 had said that the black child must not study Mathematics and no black worker must become a skilled artisan, President Zuma has emphatically said the black child must indeed study and be competent in Mathematics and that we must increase the production of new artisans, including black artisans. [Applause.]
President Zuma has not only said these things, but has led from the front through leading concrete interventions in education as part of inverting and destroying the Verwoedian legacy in education. In 2009, the President decided to split the former Department of Education into two. This was indeed a stroke of genius. Let me tell you the story.
As the Department of Higher Education and Training, we have developed a vision of postschool education and training and have already made some significant practical advances that are beginning to improve opportunities for our youth and adults in acquiring further education and skills. Under the leadership of President Zuma, further education and training, FET, college enrolments have grown substantially over the last few years from about 350 000 in 2010 to over 650 000 in 2012. [Applause.]
This has been made possible through a variety of strategies. These include a concerted effort to raise popular consciousness around the possibilities provided by an FET education through the introduction of fee-free education for poor students in FET colleges, and the expansion of shorter skills courses offered in FET colleges with the assistance of the Sector Education and Training Authorities, Setas.
Parenthetically, the leader of the IFP stated yesterday that the President only wanted to provide 11 000 jobs for young people. This is a serious misunderstanding, Shenge, if not deliberate distortion of what the President said. What the President said, was to appeal for placements for the 11 000 FET college graduates. This does not constitute the totality of the targets that the President was talking about, to tackle youth unemployment. [Applause.]
A turnaround strategy to improve the quality of FET college teaching and management has been developed. This includes short-term interventions to stabilise some of the weaker colleges; the appointment of qualified chartered accountants, CAs, as chief financial officers in 43 of our 50 public FET colleges; the development of specialised qualifications for college lecturers; special interventions to strengthen student support; and a number of other measures. We are also reviewing college curriculum so that it is made relevant and up to date.
Under the leadership of this President, the National Student Financial Aid Scheme of SA, NSFAS, which funds loans and bursaries to students in universities and colleges has expanded massively from R2,375 billion in 2008 to well over R6 billion this year. [Applause.] The President is walking the talk. FET college students coming from poor backgrounds and following occupational programmes are now completely exempted from paying fees. This is indeed the first-ever in our country, under the leadership of President Zuma. This has meant that bursary funds...
IsiZulu:
English:
Bursary funds for FET college students coming from poor families – including from your constituency.- have increased from R310 million in 2009 to R1,75 billion in 2012 and will reach R2 billion this year. Such a massive increase, largely to the benefit of poor black students, has never ever happened in our country before. It is happening for the first time under President Jacob Zuma.
Over the next 3 years, we have set aside R1,7 billion for building new university student accommodation and universities will be contributing R0,6 billion. Of the R2,3 billion total, R1,4 billion will be spent on student accommodation at historically disadvantaged institutions where the need is greatest, including Fort Hare, Trollip. This will provide 9 000 new beds in our universities.
Mr R A P TROLLIP: Hon Deputy Speaker, on a point of order: ...
IsiXhosa:
The MINISTER OF HIGHER EDUCATION AND TRAINING: I said horrible Trollip.
Mr R A P TROLLIP: You didn't.
The MINISTER OF HIGHER EDUCATION AND TRAINING: Sorry, I meant honourable. I made a mistake and said horrible Trollip. I am sorry, my apologies. [Laughter.]
Overall, for university infrastructure, government is spending R6 billion over this three-year Medium-Term Expenditure Framework, MTEF, period with an additional R2 billion in cofunding from the universities' own coffers, with an estimated 37 000 direct jobs being created. The President is not theorising about jobs, here is infrastructure spending for social infrastructure and jobs. This is a true story, not the...
IsiZulu:
English:
The government is now committed to establishing, by the way, what ostensibly will be three new universities to help expand our capacity and access to higher education. These include the two new universities in Mpumalanga and the Northern Cape, whose first students will be admitted next year. [Applause.]
President Zuma will go down in history as having been the President who built the first universities in a democratic South Africa. [Applause.] R2,1 billion has been set aside for infrastructure for these two universities; and over the next three years, about 11 000 direct jobs will be created during the construction phase. In addition, we are establishing a new comprehensive university of health sciences to be established on the Medical University of Southern Africa, Medunsa, campus which is being demerged from the University of Limpopo. I must emphasise that this will be more than just a demerger.
The new university will be a much expanded institution and will include not only the training of medical doctors, but also other health professionals such as dentists, veterinarians, nurses, physiotherapists, medical technologists, radiographers, and so on. Sister B, that is part of the answer to the questions that you raised.
We are indeed engaging all schools of health about the increase in the numbers of doctors. We have been talking not only with the University of the Witwatersrand, but also with the University of Pretoria, Tuks, as well as other universities, in the mean time, on how to increase the intake of doctors, especially. As we are all aware, government is seriously committed to accelerating the delivery of infrastructure to spearhead our country's growth under the leadership of Msholozi.
I want to emphasise that, whatever the challenges we may face, we have made substantial progress over the last decade and a half in relation to schooling, with even more significant advances under President Zuma. The 2011 census shows that our educational levels have increased significantly. The proportion of South Africans with a Grade 12 education or higher has risen from 28,8% in 2001 to 40,7% in 2011, an increase of 41,3%. School participation rates of seven to 15-year olds in 2011 was 98,8%.
One of our most notable achievements has been the very significant expansion of Grade R enrolments, meaning that most children start with their formal education a year younger than was previously the case. The proportion of five-year olds in school increased from 45,6% in 2001 to 81,2% in 2011. This, together with our efforts to improve the quality of teaching, has begun to show up in the results of the Annual National Assessments. In grade 3, the national average performance in Literacy was 52% in 2012 as compared to 35% in 2011, registering an improvement of 17%. This is a true story...
IsiZulu:
English:
In Grade 3 Numeracy, our learners performed at an average of 41% as compared to 28% in 2011. Our Grade 6 Mathematics results have been disappointing with an average performance of 27% as compared to 30% in 2011. But every effort will now be made to reverse this because we know the problem. The focus on the Annual National Assessments is the result of our increasing realisation that the Grade 12 pass rate is just one of many indicators of the health of our schooling system. Nonetheless, it is clear from the steady improvement in results in the National Senior Certificate that the education system has stabilised and is improving. A key indicator of better Grade 12 results is the number of learners qualifying for university studies at the Bachelors level. The 2012 figure of 136 047 is almost exactly double the level it was in 2000.
Other significant achievements include the Department of Basic Education's undertaking to provide over 50 million workbooks annually to learners. The National School Nutrition programme has now increased significantly to cover 8,8 million learners in about 21 000 primary and secondary schools. In December 2012, the National School Build programme under the Presidential Infrastructure Co-ordinating Commission was launched to address national backlogs in classrooms, libraries, computer laboratories, etc. As the President said in the state of the nation address this year, by the end of this financial year alone we would have built 98 schools, over 40 of them in the Eastern Cape. This shows that government is being programmatic in tackling mud schools and other inappropriately built school structures, contrary to the ridiculous claims by the DA.
IsiZulu:
Mr R A P TROLLIP: Deputy Speaker, on point of order...[Interjections.]
IsiZulu:
The MINISTER OF HIGHER EDUCATION AND TRAINING:
*** Language spoken has changed to IsiZulu ***
The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Hon member.
The MINISTER OF HIGHER EDUCATION AND TRAINING: Horrible Trollip, please allow me to continue. My apologies, hon Trollip. In the light of all these...[Interjections.]
Mr J J MC GLUWA: Deputy Speaker, on a point of order: Will the former IFP member take a question?
The MINISTER OF HIGHER EDUCATION AND TRAINING: No, I'm not willing to take a question, Deputy Speaker.
The DEPUTY SPEAKER: He is not willing. Please continue.
The MINISTER OF HIGHER EDUCATION AND TRAINING: In the light of all these, we call upon our youth and parents to make full use of these opportunities. We call upon our youth to study and work hard. We call upon our communities to get closer to our schools, colleges and universities, to make sure that they are functioning. We call upon the trade union movement to mobilise its members to ensure that education does indeed become an apex priority in practice.
So when the opposition, the DA and its other lackeys - the DA lite, their own version and concoction of Coke lite - say they have lost confidence in President Zuma, they are, in fact, expressing their unhappiness about the advances made by the ANC under the leadership of the President. By the way, how can you lose confidence in someone you have never had confidence in, in the first place? Like hon Lekota who served divorce papers to us; you have never had confidence in us. That is why we say it is frivolous to say no confidence in President Zuma. In any case, if you don't have confidence in us and the President, the feeling is mutual. We don't have confidence in you too. [Applause.] So are millions of South Africans who do not have confidence in you. [Laughter.]
Mr M G P LEKOTA: Deputy Speaker, on a point of order: Is it not the duty of the presiding officer to maintain certain standards in the House? I do not think...[Interjections.]
The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order, hon members! I cannot hear hon Lekota.
Mr M G P LEKOTA: The first point I would like to raise is that this is not frivolous. I think that when a member calls another member horrible something, you are obliged as the presiding officer to call them to order. That is the first point. I do think that we all vote for the President of the country. [Interjections.]
The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order!
Mr M G P LEKOTA: The President of the country is voted for by the House and not by the ruling party, but when we lose confidence, we are entitled to do that. That is why the Constitution gives us the right to do so.
Ms Z S DUBAZANA: Hon Deputy Speaker, the hon member is not raising a point of order. Thank you.
The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Point taken. He was just telling me how to chair the meeting.
The MINISTER OF HIGHER EDUCATION AND TRAINING: Thank you, Deputy Speaker. I'm not going to comment...[Interjections.]
Mrs J D KILIAN: Hon Deputy Speaker, on a point of order: We just want to ask you to rule on a point of order that was raised by hon Lekota that you should repudiate a member who is not acting in accordance with the decorum of the House.[Interjections.]
The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Hon Kilian, can you please sit down! Continue, hon member.
The MINISTER OF HIGHER EDUCATION AND TRAINING: I'm not going to talk about Cope today because the whole of Cope is sub judice. [Laughter.] I may be accused of contempt of the Gauteng High Court. [Laughter.] The reason why the DA says that the President has not achieved anything is because all these things we are talking about here mean nothing to your constituency, because you represent the elite.
IsiZulu:
English:
We have made these advances because we defeated the apartheid regime and took up arms also, legitimately so. If we were to be faced with the same circumstances, we will do exactly the same of what we did. [Applause.] My only concern is that it is improper and extremely opportunistic for the IFP to say that they did not appear before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, TRC, and its amnesty committee, yet they come and raise matters here that should have been raised through those processes. This is abuse of parliamentary privilege.
IsiZulu:
Prince M G BUTHELEZI: Deputy Speaker, on a point of order: The Minister, with due respect, is distorting what I said and I think it is unbecoming for a Minister of state to stand up here and talk like a petty demagogue.
The MINISTER OF HIGHER EDUCATION AND TRAINING:
IsiZulu:
English:
I want to say that our record of struggle against the apartheid regime and its crimes will not be measured by whether we appeared or did not appear before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and its amnesty committee. As a student of historical materialism for the past 33 years, I now know that our struggle against the apartheid regime will be told by history. History has got its own way of telling the truth, no matter how long it takes, about what roles our respective organisations played in the struggle against apartheid. History never forgets. History also tends to be very stubborn with facts, and these facts will always, in the end, come out, no matter how long it may take.
IsiZulu:
English:
Instead, I am quite confident that history will judge President Jacob Zuma as a leader who did what he said in making education an apex priority. The ANC, our alliance and millions of South Africans have got full confidence...
IsiZulu:
The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Hon members, business will now be suspended for 15 minutes for comfort break. Bells will be rung to alert members to the resumption of the business. Business is now suspended.
KC//A N N/Eng(ed)
END OF TAKE
The MINISTER OF ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
UNREVISED HANSARD
NATIONAL ASSEMBLY
Wednesday, 20 February 2013 Take: 28
"National Assembly Chamber Main",Unrevised Hansard,25 Feb 2013,"Take 28 [National Assembly Chamber Main].doc"
"National Assembly Chamber Main",Unrevised Hansard,20 Feb 2013,"[Take-28] [National Assembly Chamber Main][NAC-Logger][gs].doc"
The MINISTER OF HIGHER EDUCATION AND TRAINING
The MINISTER OF ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT: Hon Deputy Speaker and Mr President, the international consultancy firm Ernst & Young's latest 2012 Africa Attractiveness Survey makes some interesting points.
Firstly, the number of foreign direct investment projects in Africa grew by 27% from 2010 to 2011 and have grown at a compound rate of close to 20% since 2007. Secondly, despite this growth, there remain lingering negative perceptions of the continent but only among those who are not yet doing business in Africa. Thirdly, the story of Africa's progress, not just in economic but also in sociopolitical terms, needs to be told more confidently and consistently. Fourthly, this broad-based progress is underscored by a substantial shift in mindset and activities among Africans themselves, with increasing self-confidence and strong growth in intra-African investment, which expanded by some 42% since 2007. Fifthly, regional integration is critical to accelerated and sustainable growth with the larger market creating the critical mass to enhance the African investment proposition. They pointed to the example of the Free Trade Area talks launched by President Zuma in June 2011 in Johannesburg as the most positive development. Sixthly, bridging the infrastructure gap will be a key enabler for integration, growth and development. They pointed with approval to the South African investment programme launched by President Zuma in last year's state of the nation address.
The survey addresses then what is to be done. Top of their list is addressing the gap between perceptions and reality. Having noted the pessimism of many outsiders, they say:
The facts tell a different story - one of reform, progress and growth. These trends are repositioning the continent and individual African countries as viable alternatives to other emerging market destinations that are often viewed in a more favourable light. It is a positive story that demands telling and retelling. We have been subjected to negative stories about Africa for far too long.
Its updated survey ranks South Africa first on the continent in attractiveness for business. This survey of more than 500 business leaders and investors in 38 countries was done in January 2013, after the strikes at Marikana platinum mine and Western Cape farms.
I quote this survey, hon members, because it points to a challenge we have seen in this House yesterday from sections of the opposition, the gap between perception and reality. Listening to some members of the opposition, we have not been able to get anything right. Pessimism and negativity dominated their speeches. Yes, we have gone through a challenging year in 2012, marked by recessions in major export markets and a spate of industrial action. But we ended the year with 80 000 more jobs than when we started the year. That means the economy has created 600 000 jobs since October two years ago. That means there are 13,6 million South Africans working.
Governments govern but not always in conditions of their choosing. Last year, demand for key minerals declined sharply months before the mining strikes. Sales of platinum, which is our single largest export product, to Japan, which is our largest platinum market, fell by 40% in the period before the strike, as the Japanese car industry slumped. By year end, total platinum sales were down by 18,5%. It impacted on jobs, on growth and on investment.
It is precisely to address these cyclical challenges that government fast-tracked the infrastructure investment plan. What the President indicated in the state of the nation address was how we are moving from plan to action. We saw examples of a nation that is working, that is building and that is laying the foundation for sustainable growth.
The President reported on the 675 kilometres of electricity transmission lines that were laid last year. It is the largest level in more than 20 years. The President referred to the Majuba rail line where we will be turning the sod within weeks. It is the first large new rail line laid by the state since 1986. [Applause.]
The President spoke of the De Hoop Dam. Taken together with the Mooi-Mgeni Dam, we have created a new water yield of 126 million cubic metres of water – significantly more than the water consumption of the city of Mangaung and Msunduzi or Pietermaritzburg combined.
The infrastructure programme provides jobs to more than 150 000 people across the country, direct jobs, with 43 000 of these jobs in energy-related projects alone. The infrastructure programme that the President spoke about is driving a wave of new industrialisation. For example, in six cities, we are connecting bus, train and taxi transport to provide urban workers with a cheaper and quicker means of travel. Until a few years ago, we imported the buses from Brazil. Last year, we introduced new tender conditions that require local manufacturing.
Johannesburg and Cape Town have put these as conditions into their tender documents, requiring that 80% of the bus bodies be made locally. Close to 250 buses will be made in South Africa, creating jobs and empowering our nation. The Johannesburg buses will be made at Marcopolo's plant in Gauteng. The chassis will be made at Mercedes Benz in East London. Busmark is setting up a new factory in Cape Town, with Industrial Development Corporation, IDC, support, to manufacture this city's buses here. For example, last year the IDC partnered with a local company to complete a contract for the supply, manufacturing and erection of an air-cooled condenser system for Eskom's Kusile power station. The contract value is R2,4 billion. It will use 53 000 tons of steel and create about 750 local jobs. Another example is that the rail programme is helping to stimulate a local train and locomotive industry. The investment of R160 billion in rolling stock will result in significant localisation of coaches, wagons and locomotive manufacturing. Already a local company has landed a contract to supply South African manufactured wagons and locomotives to Mozambique.
One of the key themes pursued by the President is economic integration on the African continent. South Africa has expanded trade links with the rest of the continent. Last year, we sold R20 billion more goods to neighbours than the year before, bringing our total exports to the rest of Africa to a R123 billion. Trade with Africa created jobs here. It created 16 400 new direct jobs in South Africa last year alone. So, in all, there are 111 000 direct jobs that rely on exports to the rest of the continent.
Last year, Ford, one of the car makers active in South Africa, sold 11 000 Ranger bakkies to the rest of the continent. That means that one in five vehicles that it manufactures locally, it was selling to other African countries. This Pretoria-based company was supported by the IDC to tool-up for a major export drive. So, we see here a partnership between the private and the public sector that has created 550 new jobs, of which 100 are with smaller suppliers in its incubation hub. That is African regional integration in practice. That is why Africa is the big story for the next decade. That is why Africa has featured so consistently in the state of the nation addresses.
There is one more jobs number I wish to share with hon members today. That is what is called the dependency ratio or the total number of nonworking people for each employed person. The South African Institute of Race Relations, not generally very friendly towards government, recently released a report which showed an interesting trend. In 1994, there were 3,8 people for every employed person. Last year this was reduced to 2,8 persons per employed person or a reduction of 25%. [Applause.] For Africans, the reduction was even more dramatic The ratio moved from 4,9 people for each employed person to 3,2 people for every employed person or a 35% reduction. Yes, we still have significant employment challenges, but we are also beginning to see real progress.
Last year, we saw both the Marikana tragedy and the strikes in the Western Cape farming sector.
The picture the opposition painted yesterday is of a government simply doing the bidding of an overpaid and unproductive labour elite. The reality, of course, is very different to this suburban, dinner-table impression. Those who travel through this beautiful country, not only its mountains and its ocean but also its factories, farms and mines, will see the face of the working poor. They are also South Africans about whom government must care. A quarter of workers earned under R1 500 a month in 2011, the latest year for which data is available.
In contrast, the CEOs of large listed companies in mining, finance and in services earned between R6 and R9 million a year or 135 times as much as workers in their own enterprises. We point to these vast disparities not to score points but to recognise that they limit our country and our people from developing the social cohesion that the National Development Plan, NDP, calls for and that successful economies need and benefit from.
Of course, we need to improve productivity and lift the levels of investment as part of the strategy to address the need to improve both industrial performance and working conditions. But I wish to note also that productivity has grown in recent years. In the year to mid-2012, according to the latest Reserve Bank data, productivity outside of agriculture climbed by 1,2%, and by 2,3% in manufacturing. Let me use the example of agriculture to show how we are attempting to address the challenges of promoting employment. The Statistics SA figures show that farm employment is growing, with 55 000 new jobs in the past 12 months.
There are success stories we can celebrate. Two new soya bean crushing plants are being built currently, in Mpumalanga and Gauteng, which will sustain about 6 000 jobs in farming and agroprocessing. A new chicken business in the Free State has created 560 jobs in the abattoir and chicken feed factory, resulting in the country's fifth largest chicken broiler producer. The company intends to up their employment to a 1 000 people. In the tomato paste supply chain, about 700 jobs were created last year when companies invested in new capacity following a trade tariff increase by the Industrial Trade Administration Commission of South Africa, Itac. In Keiskammahoek, an upgraded dairy with a new milking parlour, fencing and upgrading of access road is leading to the employment of 80 people. Coega Dairy has created 200 new jobs and will increase Eastern Cape milk production by 20%.
In January this year, I met with a senior executive of global consumer goods company Unilever in Davos. He was positive about South Africa and said they are expanding their local operations. He also said that they were making eThekwini the hub of all their African operations this year. They are also targeting South Africa as the key supplier of a sunflower seed project.
I make these points because they are good news stories, and they should not depress those members of the opposition that wallow in negativity; they should be jointly celebrated. These examples all show jobs coming from investment-led projects in the agroprocessing sector, sometimes combined with either trade or competition measures as part of the intergraded governance plan, but we recognise the challenges of working conditions too.
In 2011, median wages, which are average wages on farms, were R1 300 a month. Yesterday we had comments made by one hon member of the opposition about farmworkers that lacked humanity and compassion.
Afrikaans:
Ons besef dat nie alle boere hul werkers sleg behandel nie en dat daar voorbeelde is van goeie praktyke, maar daar is ook ernstige probleme. [We realise that not all farmers treat their workers badly and that there are examples of good practise, but there are also serious problems.]
English:
Last year, City Press visited a well-known wine and olive oil farm in the Western Cape, where it found 46 women workers living in conditions they describe as a living hell. Journalist Jacques Pauw said the women live like packed sardines in two metal containers and two dilapidated bungalows. They did not have working toilets and had to use the nearby bushes instead. [Interjections.] They live in bunk beds with their children and cook metres away from where they sleep. This too is a reality that we must confront and recognise. [Interjections.] Many farmers have complained about the interventions.
Following the strikes in agriculture in the Western Cape, the Employment Conditions Commission conducted public hearings and recommended a new minimum wage for the sector. When farmers complained, citing the impact on their operations and viability, we called on them to recognise that the answer lies in accepting collective bargaining as the preferred system for wage setting, which will then make wage determinations redundant. Collective bargaining is a system of self regulation. It is a flexible system that takes account of different economic circumstances in the sector. It recognises acceptance of the voice and the organisation of farmworkers. We live in a democracy. Freedom of association, collective bargaining and fair labour practises are constitutionally protected rights as important as freedom of speech. Our democratic freedoms are not less, simply because they are freedoms used by the poor.
Youth employment featured prominently in yesterday's debate. Regrettably the comments were often more marked by narrow politicking than a serious attempt to work together to address the challenge. In May last year, hon Mazibuko issued a press release to invite people, "to come and see the Youth Subsidy Programme in action in the Western Cape since 2009". Well, we looked at the figures in the Western Cape. What is the reality? According to the Quarterly Labour Force Survey of Statistics SA, there were 526 000 employed young people, under 30 year olds in the Western Cape at the start of last year. By the end of the year, there were 500 000 – in other words, about 26 000 fewer jobs for young people in the Western Cape. In the same year, Gauteng created 44 000 new jobs for young people, and Mpumalanga created 13 000 new jobs. [Applause.]
What this shows is that getting a youth employment strategy right requires more than rhetoric. It needs a comprehensive approach which begins by improving education and training, providing work exposure to young people, using public and private sector programmes to draw young people into employment with well-structured incentives, and utilising special measures such as youth targets and set asides to mandate the employment of young people.
Yes, it is hard work. Yes, it cannot just be caught in a sound bite. Yes, you cannot just shout it as a slogan, but that is what governance is about: the hard work to deal with the challenge of youth unemployment. [Applause.] We must together to bring more young people in the Western Cape and else where in South Africa into productive jobs.
The hon Buti Manamela gave a number of examples yesterday of what we can do. It requires a strong effort to create the conditions for accelerated employment across the economy, for all workers. We have to increase the total number of jobs; we have to increase the number of jobs for young people. It is about the vision and the integrated approach of the NDP. It is about the economic strategy set out in the New Growth Path, NGP. Above all, it is about working in partnership with the business community, yes, but also with organised labour and above all with youth organisations themselves, who say very clearly, "Nothing about us without us". That is what the Youth Employment Accord is about: consensus, cooperation, jointly tackling the stubborn challenge of youth unemployment. This government is ready to tackle these things. We call on the opposition to support us as we do this. I thank you. [Applause.]
Mr N SINGH / LN/Mia / END OF TAKE
UNREVISED HANSARD
NATIONAL ASSEMBLY
Wednesday, 20 February 2013 Take: 29
"National Assembly Chamber Main",Unrevised Hansard,20 Feb 2013,"[Take-29] [National Assembly Chamber Main][NAC-Logger][gs].doc"
The MINISTER OF ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
Mr N SINGH: However history judges the IFP in the future, you may be rest assured, hon Minister of Higher Education, that you will be part of that history because I am told that you are a former member of the IFP. Read Anthea Jeffery's book, People's War.
Hon Minister, throwing more money... [Interjections.]
Dr B E NZIMANDE: Deputy Speaker, I rise on a point of order, Chair: It is unacceptable for the IFP to try and claim us as former; and for the record, that is not true. It says a lot about the IFP rather than us this side of the House. [Applause.]
Mr N SINGH: Hon Minister, throwing more money into National Student Financial Aid Scheme, NSFAS, and Further Education and Training institutions, FETs, does not automatically mean that they are administered better. Visit these FETs and you will see what we are talking about. Go to places like KwaGqikazi FET College and other places where we have been and saw terrible conditions that exist there.
However, it was unfortunate that the hon Trollip attacked the Ingonyama Trust Act, Act 3 of 1994, which was passed by the then KwaZulu Government. Without that Act, many more black South Africans would have been dispossessed as the Khoi. Had the Act not protected the so-called reserves, they would have become state land as happened in other areas.
Our appeal is that we need to approach land reform in an orderly and sober manner to avoid South Africa going the route of Zimbabwe. Our farms are the bread basket of our nation. Let us not jeopardise these valuable economic assets with rash rhetoric and misguided policy.
The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Hon Trollip! Hon Trollip! No, no, no...
IsiXhosa:
...bendisithi uphum' ecaleni!
Mrs S P KOPANE
UNREVISED HANSARD
NATIONAL ASSEMBLY
Wednesday, 20 February 2013 Take: 29
Mr N SINGH
Mrs S P KOPANE: Hon Deputy Speaker, today I find myself with more questions than answers. If we want to ensure that all South Africans are able to enjoy their constitutional rights, I truly believe that we must honestly confront the hard truth regarding poor service delivery and corruption within our municipalities.
Every year, in his state of the nation address, the President seems to present himself as someone who can take action against corruption against corruption.
Sesotho:
Ke hokoletse motsaneng wa Dithotaneng mane Foreisetata. Ke rata ho bua ka moo ho se nke bohato kgahlanong le bobodu le manyofonyofo ho amang maphelo a batho ba rona ka teng, Mme Sisulu.
English:
Dithotaneng is a village that is not different from places where post-apartheid icons, like Andries Tatane and Pule Thulo, lost their lives during protests for basic service delivery from government. The right of people to access running water, electricity, healthcare and education are consistently undermined by the corrupt elite in this government.
Hon Deputy Speaker, allow me to pose the following questions in this House: Why after 19 years of our democracy is it that our nation is still prone to violent crime and corruption? Why personal gain does supersede the needs of our people? What justifies this hunger power at the expense of marginalised people? Why do leaders think that it is correct for them to use democratic institutions to further their corruption?
For example: The Department of Health in the Free State will overspend about R250 million this year, while the under-resourced health facilities in the Lejweleputswa and Fezile Dabi Districts have the highest child mortality rates in the country - nearly 50 deaths per 1 000 births! Where is the money going?
Before the birth of our democracy, we endured all pains of a violent crime, poverty, unemployment, dictatorship and inequalities of opportunities. The memories of this sorrow still live in our hearts. The sad part, however, is that all those things still occur as I stand before all of you today.
In search for answers, I realised that the ANC has lost touch with people who voted them into power. There is now an enemy that has taken root in my province, the Free State, over many years. Patronage networks in the provincial government and in municipalities have led to the collapse of service delivery.
It cannot be right that rural clinics that serve the Free State people would still struggle with basic medication and doctors while our children die from unnecessary ill heath causes. If President Zuma is serious about fighting corruption, he would work within his own party to remove corrupt leaders who have built these patronage networks over years that have ruined provincial governments.
President Zuma, why did you fail to use your political authority to remove these corrupt leaders for so many years, like my Premier Ace Magashule, from his office? This is the premier that has overseen the financial collapse of provincial government, departments and municipalities to the extent that the National Treasury had to intervene. This premier has played a political game with the merger of Sasolburg and Parys municipalities that has led to violence and killing of people.
From what I have seen, it is a politicised public service. It is politicised service delivery that leads to desperate times where people kill each other for fear and anger that things may get worse. Only one party, that which values good governance and put service delivery first, can save the people of the Free State.
In his lack of commitment to deal with corruption, the President has demonstrated that he is not ready to take South Africa forward. I want to warn Mr President today that the Free State voters will punish him and his party in 2014. The winds of change are blowing through the Free State and the DA is the party that is going to lead that change. [Applause.]
Sesotho:
Re ka lakatsa ha re ka ra bona bana ba rona ba hopola tse molemo tseo re ba etseditseng tsona; ho na le ho bona
tshenyo eo re tla beng re ba etseditse yona. Ke a leboha! [Mahofi]
Mrs L S MAKHUBELA-MASHELE / /Mosa (Eng + Sesotho)/Ntshantsha (IsiXhosa) / END OF TAKE
UNREVISED HANSARD
NATIONAL ASSEMBLY
Wednesday, 20 February 2013 Take: 30
Mrs S P KOPANE
Mrs L S MAKHUBELA-MASHELE: Hon Deputy Speaker, your Excellency the President and the Deputy President of the Republic, hon Ministers and Deputy Ministers, hon Members of Parliament...
Siswati:
... angitsatse lelitfuba nginibingelele nine bekunene. Nine bakaLaZidze! Nine lenacedza Lubombo ngekuhlehletela!
English:
Let me remind hon members in this House that young people and South Africans voted for the ANC in the majority during the 2009 elections. In 2010, the country was hit with service delivery protest, but in 2011 South Africans and the youth voted again for the ANC in their majority. [Applause.] This then tells you that South Africans and the youth were not fighting or are not fighting against the ANC. They are fighting against the fast-tracking of service delivery.
I want to talk to the hon Adams here who talked about a lost generation and define to her what a lost generation is. A lost generation is a young person who is unemployed and therefore falls vulnerable to situations of unemployment. I think we can define the hon Adams as a lost generation because she thinks that unemployment is the government's problem. It should be all our effort. We should all come in and play ball. [Applause.] She has lost an opportunity to address us and tells us what she and her party can do to assist towards the scourge of unemployment amongst the youth.
Mr President, in your state of the nation address, SONA, you gave a programme of action in which your government will embark on to better the lives of our people. Your Excellency, you reminded us of your government interventions that are responsive to the plight of the youth and the rural women. Notably you spoke on the national rural youth service court as a programme to train and develop young people as agents of change in their rural communities.
This programme has enrolled about 11 000 young people in various training programmes. The youth is trained among others: animal production, farm management and various other fields. Some of these people have started their own enterprises and others are absorbed in various departments.
I've heard some say this is just paying lip service to programmes designed to skill youth. The records are very clear there are young people who can bear testimony to the success of these particular programmes. These are but a few successes that your administration has introduced in the fight against the scourge of unemployment and poverty.
Plans for rural youth hubs should also be hailed as they will immensely contribute to the betterment of the livelihood of the youth in rural areas, where poverty and unemployment is more pervasive. I heard you call out to business to afford young graduates from Further Education and Training, FET, colleges' opportunities to enter the Labour Market. This, Mr President, is a genuine call that should be made by all of us who are advocates for change.
Without any doubt, youth unemployment is one of the toughest challenges facing all of us and which warrants collective efforts from government and the private sector. The plight of South African youth needs to be confronted with no amount of opportunism and political expediency. It is therefore the opposition's hypocrisy of the worst order to come out and say: You have not said enough, when they know that they should be calling out for the very same business that vote for them to actually absorb the young people who are all over the country. [Applause.]
Hon members, we should desist from advocating for initiatives that are open to many interpretations and abuse. It is perhaps important to set the record straight that no one scheme or model alone will solve challenges of youth unemployment.
We are therefore saying now – and we will continue to say it – that the implementation design of the youth wage subsidy proposal, as introduced by the National Treasury, is but one of the instruments that needs a thorough understanding. There is a need to guard against the displacement of the older worker. The envisaged youth incentive scheme should have training, skilling and placement at its centre.
A country that does not invest in Education will never develop. We call upon the youth and women to continuously pursue further and higher education and training. One icon once said: "Ignorance will be the downfall of The Nation" I echo in his sentiments and quote from the Holy Book, the Bible, which tells us that: "My people perish from a lack of knowledge".
It is therefore incumbent upon you as a young people to equip yourself with the necessary skills and knowledge to be ready to face life's challenges and opportunities. Entrepreneurship should be encouraged as another means of breaking the intergenerational poverty trap and job creation.
We call upon National Youth Development Agency, NYDA, like any other public entity which should be held accountable, that its outcomes should be in direct proportion to the resources injected to it.
Its financial injections to the entity should lean towards more on youth empowerment initiatives than procurement, staffing and other institutional arrangements. South African's youth unemployment knows no political affiliation; as such funding and other initiatives should reach ordinary young people who are not in political circles.
Hon members, we are however, encouraged by NYDA that they are providing start up capital to young South Africans who pursue entrepreneurial paths. Since its inception, the NYDA has managed to create about 73 000 jobs. It has offered around 33 000 loans to the value of R97 million in the three financial years since its inception. To ensure the sustainability of such ventures, coaching and mentoring to these emerging entrepreneurs should be emphasized.
The Burden of youth development should not only be shared by few departments. We make a plea that each and every government department and its entities, parastatals, agencies and beneficiary of government funding, should be role players in advancing youth development. Credit should be given where it is due. As such, we applaud all stakeholders who continue to place youth development at the centre of their programmes of action.
Hon members, it cannot be fair that whenever someone smells flowers, the question asked is, "who is dead?", not realizing that there is a flower garden out there. Allow me, Speaker, to conclude with words of one famous icon who said: "We know it well, that none of us acting alone can achieve success".
I take his words further and say: "Let us for a second, try to imagine a country where all citizens, young and old, are informed about -and engaged- in all the major issues that affect their lives. A place where adults and young people are together at the table debating, grappling with problems, crafting solutions and jointly deciding on how resources should be allocated.
Where young people have equal opportunities and sustainable livelihood. That is a South Africa where each one of us envisages living in and that we should build towards. Thank you.
Mr L W GREYLING / EKS/ MS (Siswati)/ END OF TAKE
UNREVISED HANSARD
NATIONAL ASSEMBLY
Wednesday, 20 February 2013 Take: 31
"National Assembly Chamber Main",Unrevised Hansard,25 Feb 2013,"Take 31 [National Assembly Chamber Main].doc"
Mrs L S MAKHUBELA-MASHELA
16:56:08
Mr L W GREYLING: Deputy Speaker, hon President, we are a nation in pain, badly in need of healing. It is at times like these that we need strong leadership to guide us to a better future. We need leadership that does not shy away from confronting our difficult issues but rather faces them head-on, through asking some tough questions of ourselves.
It is too easy to express outrage and set up commissions without questioning how our own words and deeds have contributed to the deplorable state of gender relations in South Africa. I dream of a South Africa where women's choices are truly respected, whether it be over their bodies, their sexuality or even their marital status. We need to understand that patriarchy is given oxygen in this country through male leaders reinforcing the destructive attitudes and actions of our people that oppress women in so many different ways. This is not an easy conversation to have, but it is time for us, as men, to stop feigning outrage at the actions of others who are not doing anything to change the attitudes and conditions that provide the breeding ground for them to thrive.
It is also deplorable that organisations like Rape Crisis, which are in the frontline of dealing with this scourge, have to depend on the donations of the public, while the line-function Minister spends a third of their annual budget on furniture.
When it comes to the economy, it is clear that the private sector, both here and abroad, are not willing to invest unless they are provided with far greater political certainty. This is evidenced by foreign direct investment into South Africa experiencing a 44% decline last year. According to the latest Grant Thornton study, only 26% of South African businesses intend to hire workers next year, which is far below the 38% average for the other Brazil, India and China, Bric, countries.
Our energy sector is also holding our country's growth to ransom through a dangerous lack of supply and completely unaffordable electricity price increases. Hon Minister Gigaba, your new build programme is not driving down the cost of doing business. On the contrary, it is increasing it, as evidenced by the major cost and time overruns at Medupi, due to inefficiencies and the favouring of a company that is funnelling their profits to the ANC.
In your address, hon President, you rightfully talked up the National Development Plan, NDP, but I am yet to see any evidence of it when it comes to electricity planning. Despite it calling for a financial feasibility study to be urgently done into the proposed nuclear build programme, none has even been started.
The Plan B that is called for in the NDP is nowhere to be seen and it seems that this government is content to stifle any debate over a programme that has the potential to bankrupt our fiscus and indebt our future generations. The National Development Plan will ultimately mean nothing unless you have the political will to implement its provisions, especially those that challenge the status quo. I will continue to fight for just that. I thank you. [Applause.]
Mr M E GEORGE
UNREVISED HANSARD
NATIONAL ASSEMBLY
Wednesday, 20 February 2013 Take: 31
Mr L W GREYLING
Mr M E GEORGE: Deputy Speaker, hon President, Deputy President and hon members, we listened to the Ministers speak yesterday here in Parliament and elsewhere in the media. Mr President, every day, we hear them singing your praises, and that of your administration and your leadership. Since you are an ordained part-time pastor yourself, I would like to quote Esther 3:15 from the Bible to you, "So the King and Haman sat down to drink, but the city of Shushan was perplexed." In this case, you are the King, your Ministers and your praise singers are Haman and South Africa is Shushan.
Like Alan Paton's book, Cry, the Beloved Country, that verse represents the status of this country as we see it today. As Cope, we are worried that somewhere, somehow, we might be living in two different countries with you and your leaders, who believe that there is nothing going wrong in this country. [Interjections.]
Before I get into my speech, let me set the record straight. Cope is not part of the DA and we will never be part of the DA. [Interjections.] Stop your overused propaganda! Interjections.]
As for the statement and the attack by Minister Lindiwe Sisulu on Mr Lekota and Chief Buthelezi, I will not stoop that low as to respond such ignorance. [Interjections.]
The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order, hon members! Order, please.
Mr M E GEORGE: Please, help the nation and understand the following. Do you believe that there is nothing going wrong when over 40 mineworkers died just before they went to see their families for Christmas in Marikana last year, protesting over poor wages and appalling treatment at the hands of mine owners who make billions every year in profits, and yet do very little for their workers?
Protests by disgruntled South Africans are common cause in South Africa due to lack of government action or attention. We see millions of rand being spent by almost all departments defending the government in courts to force it to deliver the basic services enshrined in the Constitution.
Daily, we read headlines of fraud of the highest order; lack of policing; an insensitive justice system that is sympathetic to criminals, leaving victims' rights violated; a country suffering from an aggressive society bent on brutality; a deteriorating prison and rehabilitation system; and collapsing municipal management. The National Development Plan, which we all support, as presented yesterday by the Minister in your office, will never see the light of day under these circumstances.
This is a sign of a failed state, Mr President, and not a developmental state, as you want us to call it. By the end of October 2009, 83 major protests had been recorded, impacting on the country's credit ratings and foreign direct investment, putting thousands of jobs on the line. Do you still believe that there is nothing wrong?
As for the vexing land question, South Africa has not learnt from other African countries on how to claim back what is theirs. South African still remains tied to the tribal authorities and land tenureActs whichdo not empower them.
Unemployment in South Africa is a ticking time bomb and unemployed South Africans are likely to fight for jobs, like the youth of Egypt and Tunisia. Mr President, with your praise singers, are you still saying ... the best trained is the hon Minister Blade Ndzimande.
Any government that seriously cares for its people will begin by aggressively addressing these problems before any other. This surely has to be the first priority for the government, has it not, Mr President? The Minister of Finance in his Budget Speech in 2012 spoke about the widening gap between the rich and the poor, and that the middle class has not done any better. Are you saying again, Mr President, that there is nothing wrong with this country and the way it does things? Surely, Mr President, you should admit that there is nothing good about it. The good that we should be enjoying has been derailed by the tsunami of failures and blunders we are experiencing under your administration. [Interjections.]
With the kind of support we keep seeing from your back-benchers and Ministers, Cope wonders what will become of this country. [Interjections.] I want to say, Mr President, we would like to support you in developing this country. But, unfortunately, you give us no opportunity to do that because your praise singers, instead of helping you, all they do ...
IsiXhosa :
... kukubonga, ziyabonga.
English:
... as they do every day. This country urgently needs an action plan, properly detailed, and focusing only on issues that matter. [Time expired.] Thank you. [Applause.]
Mr T D HARRIS / Nb/ /Robyn – ed Eng/ / END OF TAKE
UNREVISED HANSARD
NATIONAL ASSEMBLY
Wednesday, 20 February 2013 Take: 33
Mr M E GEORGE
Mr T D HARRIS: Madam Deputy Speaker, the President's speech and the contributions from the ANC members to this debate have let South Africa down ... [Interjections.] ... just when we needed real leadership. This debate was an opportunity to assure South Africa that this government has big ideas to tackle our significant problems, to show that this President was prepared to take tough, even unpopular decisions to introduce key reforms to enhance delivery but it was an opportunity missed.
While we ended yesterday's session with hon Manamela's flattery, it was begun with hon Chief whip's paranoia about the fact that the opposition is now united. Well, Madam Deputy Speaker, the opposition is uniting, because it is so obvious to all of us what a disastrous government the ANC has been. [Applause.]
The hon Chief Whip went on to accuse us of being conservative. I say it is you who is conservative. It is conservative not to put every ounce of your efforts into breaking down divisions between the insiders and outsiders in this country. These divisions were created by apartheid, but the ANC has widened them. I will give you three examples: firstly, the Institute for Justice and Reconciliation has found that since 1993, since the ANC government, inequality has increased in South Africa; secondly, today, the dominant trade union leverages its political influence to block labour-market reforms and keep 6,7 million outside in unemployment, whilst also blocking education reforms, destroying our children's chances of working their way out of poverty; and thirdly, the state-owned enterprises are the ultimate insiders, killing competition, undermining the ability of small businesses to compete, and many of them survive solely on bailouts. They keep administered prices high, drive inflation and undermine growth.
Madam Deputy Speaker, this government does not stand up for the little guy. It stands for the status quo. That is the difference between the DA and the ANC. We stand for social justice; you stand for more of the same. [Interjections.] The DA's new economic policy would cut red tape to free up business, fix government's education, rebuild state support for small business and help give ordinary people a stake in the economy. That is why we are progressive, and you are the conservatives. [Interjections.]
Hon Deputy Speaker, the members may not realise this, but there's a party in this House that didn't win a single vote in the last election, the SA Communist Party. [Laughter.] [Applause.] Nevertheless, we had the unfortunate duty of listening to the Minister of Higher Education telling us how he thinks it was a stroke of genius to create his Ministry. I am sure he does, because he has this new Ministry. He got to spend R1,1 million on a new BMW. [Applause.]
He rattled off a series of apparent achievements in expanding access to higher education but failed to elaborate on the fundamental problem that further education and training, FET, graduates are not equipped for our job markets. He failed to answer the questions about how they plan to deliver the 8 500 Seta certificates or 22 000 FET certificates that are more than six months outstanding. We are training these graduates and not giving them the certificates to prove it. He also didn't say what he would do about the fact that residence fees at Fort Hare have been increased this year by 100%.
It was a speech totally short on solutions, unlike Minister Manuel and Minister Sisulu, who actually had some excellent suggestions of reforms for education and the Public Service. We warmly welcome these suggestions. We would, because for more than a decade, they have been at the hearts of our policy alternatives for South Africa. Forgive us some scepticism, because every time these ideas emerge from somewhere in the governing party, their union alliance partners stop them in their tracks and stomp them to death. Why will it be different this time? I hope it is.
Hon President, I would be interested in your view on Minister Sisulu's patriarchal, sexist and ageist advice to hon Buthelezi on how he should address the Leader of the Opposition. It is unacceptable that these views are repeated in this House by a national leader. Will you speak out against them, hon President?
Yesterday, the hon Minister Gigaba gave us long lists of projects he says this government is spending money on, but it's difficult to take these lists seriously when we look at this government's real track record of spending on infrastructure. In four years since 2009, the President has announced total infrastructure spending plans of more than R1 trillion, but this government has underspent on that promised infrastructure by more than R300 billion. The bottom line is that you can chop 30% off any infrastructure number you hear the President or his Ministers promise.
Minister Patel also rattled off a list of projects, but there are major question marks over his, as well. We agree with him that Africa is the future, but is it really a credible claim for him to gloat about our trade performance with the rest of the continent? Africa does have a billion consumers, but we are currently, as South Africa, only the 10th largest exporter to Africa. Italy exports more than us. So do Spain, Holland and Korea. This is outrageous; it is shocking given our place in the continent, and it's a failure of this government to engage properly with the continent.
Every now and then they do have a good idea. The youth wage subsidy would have created 178 000 jobs for young people. It was announced by the President in 2012 at this podium, and Cosatu has been allowed to block it for three years while youth unemployment continues to grow. To show Minister Patel that it can work, and despite the fact that the vast majority of the economic budget sits at national level, we have piloted a youth wage subsidy here in the Western Cape. In three years, we've created 3 000 jobs with a 60% retention rate at R30 000 per job. This very small pilot project shows that the youth wage subsidy can work. [Applause.] Perhaps this is why the Western Cape has the lowest unemployment rate of any province in the country. We also have incredibly low levels of discouraged workseekers, almost no discouraged work seekers in the Western Cape. The DA has turned this province into the province of opportunity. [Interjections.]
Hon Deputy Speaker, why does the ANC seem to care so little about young people, when there are 4,7 million South Africans under the age of 34 in our country who can't find work? Could it be that the ANC doesn't represent them? Let me tell you what I mean. A total of 30% of South Africans are under the age of 34. Next year, 9 million of us will be eligible to vote.
There are 12 Members of Parliament in this House who are under the age of 34, but nine of us are in the opposition. When young South Africans look to Parliament for their representatives, they look to the opposition benches. [Interjections.] If you want to know why the DA is so confident about our growth and the ANC's decline, it is because we are speaking for young South Africans, and you are not. [Applause.]
Hon Deputy Speaker, we congratulate the ANC on their 100th year centenary, but their age is showing. [Applause.] Lastly, on the topic of things that are past their sell-by date, the next speaker is the Deputy Minister of Public Works. I personally am looking forward to hearing three things from him: firstly, how he believes, as he said last year, that this government is on track to create 5 million jobs, when today there are 1,2 million more unemployed South Africans than there were when Jacob Zuma took office.
Secondly, I hope he mentions the New Growth Path at least once to make the Minister of Economic Development feel better about the fact that nobody mentioned it at all, except for him one time. It seems that the market-led National Development Plan supported by all of the parties in this House has finally won out over the interventionist New Growth Path. [Applause.]
The new global consensus on economic development is a centrist one; it recognises that the incredible growth experience of countries like Brazil and China has been driven by their bold, market-led reforms. As they moved from total state intervention to free markets, growth was unleashed. This is at the heart of the DA's 8% growth policy, and is at the heart of what young people in this country want to see from their party. That party, in 2019 will, be the Democratic Alliance. I thank you. [Applause.]
The DEPUTY MINISTER OF PUBLIC WORKS / GG//Mia / END OF TAKE
UNREVISED HANSARD
NATIONAL ASSEMBLY
Wednesday, 20 February 2013 Take: 34
Mr T D HARRIS
The DEPUTY MINISTER OF PUBLIC WORKS: Madam Deputy Speaker, Mr President, Mr Deputy President, the Leader of the Opposition – I come in peace – ... [Interjections.] ... fellow members and South Africans, the state of the nation address and the two subsequent days of debate that we have had, have been marked essentially by two contrasting standpoints.
On the one hand, a President and an ANC-led government sharing with the country a perspective and a report card on important progress that is underway across a wide scope of sectors and regions in our country. This is concrete progress, notwithstanding the many challenges. It is being achieved not by government or by the ANC alone but it is progress that we are making together as South Africans ... [Applause.] ... through consultations, popular mobilization, and often very tough engagements sometimes in the midst of crises in which competing sectoral interests are aired and a common line of action has to be thrashed out with the active leadership of the President and the ANC-led government. That is one side of the state of the nation debate. It is an ANC and an ANC-led government taking responsibility for listening to, engaging with and mobilising the energies and aspirations of the widest array of South Africans across the public and private sectors.
On the other side in this debate, with the few welcome exceptions like the speakers for the APC, Azapo and the UDM – which was a little bit of an Umtata worldview but nonetheless a constructive contribution ... [Interjections.] ... we have spectators while South Africa moves on. [Applause.] These are spectators who are carping and who are filled with negativity and divisiveness. [Interjections.]
The President and the subsequent ANC speakers in this debate have laid great stress – as the hon Harris has just said – on the National Development Plan, NDP. The President correctly noted that it has been endorsed by a very wide spectrum of South Africans as a 20-year vision and as a broad roadmap to address the triple challenges of poverty, inequality and crisis levels of unemployment. [Interjections.] This is our approach to the NDP.
The opposition parties have also endorsed, or should I say have paid lip service to the plan, but what informs their approach? Once again, we saw it from the hon Harris a moment ago. They support the NDP for very ignoble objectives. It is not to build collective South African unity in action, but rather to be divisive and oppositional for the sake of opposition, and to drive wedges. They seek to twist and distort the NDP to pit government against the labour movement and the ANC against teachers. They vainly want to play the NDP off against the New Growth Path, NGP. They seek to launch the unemployed against the working poor and outsiders against insiders. This sentimentality with regards to outsiders is about driving wedges against those who are lucky enough to have some kind of poverty wage employment. It is not concern, and I will talk about that in a moment.
We have now also heard an attempt to drive a wedge between the SACP and the ANC. This may be ageist but let me make it very clear that long before the hon Harris was born, I was an active ANC supporter. [Applause.] I stand here as an ANC member, as an ANC Deputy Minister, and a proud South African communist. Don't try to drive wedges there because you will find no gaps to drive wedges. [Interjections.] [Applause.] Let me give examples of this wedge driving. [Interjections.] The hon Mazibuko, the Leader of the Opposition, writing in the Sunday Independent this past Sunday, tells us that President Zuma:
pays nominal lip service – the lip service that they pay – to the NDP, but his heart – supposedly that of the President – is with the outdated heavy hand of the government of the NGP. He remains wedded to the discredited concept of government interventionism in the economy.
So, good NDP, bad NGP is the game that they are trying to play. Bizarrely in the very next sentence, the hon Mazibuko, or probably the speech writers ... [Laughter.] ... advise President Zuma to: look at the success of our fellow Brics partners. Do the speech writers or the hon Mazibuko seriously believe that the economic practices in India, Brazil, Russia or China are less state interventionist than here in South Africa? [Laughter.] Is she honestly asking us to believe that? The DA portrays ... its just laughable ... the NDP as if it was essentially a laissez-faire manifesto. Leave business to business and let the market drive the market, they tell us. That's exactly what the hon Harris has just said. [Interjections.] Government shouldn't second guess the so-called market, they say, hiding behind their misrepresentation of the NDP.
That arch-Thatcherite and supercilious hon Lorimer of the DA told us yesterday: If there was money to be made in beneficiation, then business would have done it long ago. There you have it. Beneath all their professed concern for the poor and the unemployed, the real yardstick – from their side – of the viability for anything, is whether the short-term mega-profits can be sucked out of South Africa and whether the voracious appetites ... [Applause.] ... of a cosmopolitan few can be fed. If not, the hon Lorimer is telling us that it can't and shouldn't be done otherwise ... [Interjections.] ... business would have done it. You might as well say that we shouldn't deal with acid mine drainage and the serious problem in Gauteng because after all, if there was money to be made from it then business would have done it a long time ago. That's how ludicrous their position is. [Interjections.]
Our position and our yardstick of what should be done and what is economically, socially and environmentally necessary and desirable ... [Interjections.] ... is about what is sustainable. It's about what is in the interests of long-term sustainability of growth and job creation, and it's a perspective we believe that is shared by most South Africans, including serious business people and serious investors. [Interjections.]
While decrying the alleged interventionist nature of the NGP – I am honouring hon Harris' wish as I'm talking about the NGP or of our beneficiation policies – the DA quickly abandons its free market fundamentalism when it comes to dealing with the working class and the labour market. Here of course they want autocratic state intervention into the market. The hon Mazibuko reacted to Thursday's state of the nation address by saying that the President had failed to intervene decisively by not unilaterally, top down proclaiming the implementation of the youth wage subsidy. They want the President to act in an authoritarian, interventionist way in the labour market against workers ... [Interjections.] ... but otherwise it must be hands-off and leave the market to itself. [Interjections.]
Your attempts to goad government into antiworker, union bashing have also been in evidence on the education front. The hon Wilmot James and the DA know perfectly well that it's not just the Congress of South African Trade Union, Cosatu and its affiliate, the South African Democratic Teachers Union, Sadtu, that have raised deep concerns about banning the right of teachers to strike. All the federations and teacher professional bodies have opposed such a move, which is why the hon James moved very delicately on that area. Of course, the Rev Kenneth Meshoe is less subtle. [Laughter.]
We are into the Oscar – not that other Oscar – but the Oscar film awards season ... [Laughter.] ... and the Rev Kenneth Meshoe must surely receive a belated nomination for best male comedy act. [Laughter.] He told us in the post state of the nation address, after eight debate on the SA Broadcasting Corporation, SABC, that teachers should be allowed to strike only after work. [Laughter.] Now that really does merit an Oscar. [Laughter.]
Of course, seeking to build consensus does not mean that as the ANC-led government we should not take a firm line on key principles and provide leadership, not just to the union movement but also to the business sector, communities and all South Africans. The President did this by clearly signalling that in the legitimate exercise of the right to strike or protest this government will not tolerate violence, the injuring or killing of others or the wanton destruction of property, especially but not only public property. The President spent two to four minutes in making this point.
In another Oscar winning performance, a certain leader – name withheld – of a certain opposition political party, was so busy handing out Valentine flower bouquets on Thursday ... [Laughter.] ... that he forgot to listen to the President's speech. [Laughter.] That was the purpose of Thursday's event. He told the public broadcaster immediately after the President's speech ... [Laughter.] [Applause.]
The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Is it a point of order, hon member?
Prince M G BUTHELEZI: Deputy Speaker, I rise on a point of order. Can I ask the hon Minister a question?
The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Are you able to take a question, hon Minister?
The DEPUTY MINISTER OF PUBLIC WORKS: I would prefer to have the discussion with the hon leader outside.
Prince M G BUTHELEZI: I want to know whether ... [Interjections.] ... I want to ... [Interjections.] ... whether it's wrong for me to ... [Inaudible.]
The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Hon member!
Prince M G BUTHELEZI: ... in spite of the likes of him in the ANC.
The DEPUTY MINISTER OF PUBLIC WORKS: Thank you for that contribution to the debate. It confirms the point I want to make. [Interjections.] The hon unnamed leader of a particular party told the public broadcaster that the President had not mentioned and that he had failed to condemn violence in the course of strikes and protests. I don't know what one can say about this. Perhaps the best that we can suggest, with all due respect to those involved, named and unnamed, and also with all due respect to the Catholic Church, isn't it time that some on the opposition benches followed the example of Pope Benedict XXVI? [Laughter.] [Applause.] Having listened to the hon George a few moments ago – the hon Lekota spoke very well about dealing with redundancies ... [Interjections.] ... – I wonder whether you as Cope wouldn't also consider ... [Interjections.] ... following the example of Pope Benedict XXVI?
Mr M A MNCWANGO: Deputy Speaker, I rise on a point of order. I would like to know from the Minister whether it is by accident or design that the Deputy President does not feature on the list of speakers here.
The DEPUTY SPEAKER: That is not a point of order. Continue, hon member. [Interjections.]
The DEPUTY MINISTER OF PUBLIC WORKS: The hon Deputy President is a valuable member of the ANC team. [Interjections.] For a brief moment the hon Mazibuko spoke extremely movingly about the plight of the unemployed poor. She asked us to put ourselves in the place of a mother without work or without food for her family. She asked us to imagine being a young person with little hope of finding employment. [Interjections.] It was very moving and I wanted to believe in the sincerity of what she was saying, but then hon Trollip stood up and the spell was broken, because the concern of the DA for the unemployed poor is at best a 19th century philanthropic concern. The DA's real interest in the unemployed is as cannon fodder to be deployed against the employed, the working poor and the labour movement.
When the hon Trollip dealt with the recent strikes in the Boland, De Doorns and elsewhere, he had a lot to say about unruly worker behaviour. He accused – in fine apartheid-era style – Cosatu personalities and others of being agitators and opstokers [instigators] ... [Interjections.] ... although truth be told, Cosatu had very little to do with the original strike ... [Interjections.] ... and played a constructive role in seeking a settlement. [Interjections.] Not a word was said by hon Trollip about the systemic violence experienced ... [Interjections.] ... day in and day out by farm workers. Not a word was said by him about the main disease profile that the local De Doorns Stofland Clinic is dealing with. [Interjections.] It was very interesting when the hon Davies went to speak to the clinic ... [Interjections.] ... about what the major diseases they are dealing with were, he expected them to say HIV Aids or Tuberculosis – and those are problems – but what he discovered was that the major problem there is malnutrition in Stofland, De Doorns at the public clinic ... [Interjections.] ... particularly amongst the children of labour brokered Lesotho and Zimbabwean workers on these farms. We keep being told about their wonderful contribution to food security. [Interjections.] Food security for whom, one wonders. [Interjections.]
For the DA if you are poor and passive you can be pitied but the moment you are working for a boss you have crossed the line. If you are employed, even at starvation wages and especially if you rise up no longer just as a victim but as a protagonist for change, then the paternalistic mask of empathy quickly slips away. [Applause.] Suddenly, the hon Mazibuko's empathy for the poor and the downtrodden flies out of the window. [Interjections.]
The MEC for Agriculture in the Western Cape is completely conflicted. He's a farm owner. The leader of the DA here in the Western Cape, Theuns Botha, is completely conflicted. He's a farmer. [Interjections.] Premier Zille is in this case, completely electorally conflicted. She didn't know whether to back her farm owner supporters or her potential coloured voters in the matter ... [Interjections.] ... and she issued perhaps one of her most disgraceful statements ever. Flirting with a potentially xenophobic tinderbox, she attributed the strikes and unrest to rivalry between coloured farm workers, African workers from the Eastern Cape and to labour-brokered Basotho and Zimbabwean workers. [Interjections.] There have been interethnic tensions in previous years in this place. [Interjections.] What was absolutely remarkable about last year and this year with regard to the farm worker actions is the remarkable class unity demonstrated by coloured, African and non-national workers ... [Applause] ... united in struggle against oppression and super exploitation. [Applause.]
The opposition parties pay lip service to the NDP, and then distort it. They play the same game when it comes to the Constitution. The hon Mazibuko's – again in the Sunday Independent – response to the state of the nation address, informs us in regard to the challenges of land reform: the Constitution prescribes the willing-buyer, willing-seller principle. Which constitution is that? [Interjections.] Is it this Constitution of our country that we are proud of? [Interjections} Let's quote the actual Constitution that prescribes something very different. The Bill Of Rights, section 25, subsection 5, prescribes:
The state must take reasonable, legislative and other measures to foster conditions which enable citizens to gain access to land on an equitable ... [Interjections.] ... – not market based – basis.
If you want to accuse us of not complying with the Constitution then accuse us of not moving rapidly enough with land reform. Accuse us of being too slow to move away from a purely market-based, willing-buyer, willing-seller approach ... [Applause.] ... but don't deliberately distort the Constitution for your own reactionary purposes. [Interjections.] It is outrageous! [Applause.]
It is unparliamentarily to accuse another member of lying to, or of deliberately misleading this House ... [Interjections.] ... so I will refrain from making any such accusation. [Interjections.] This is where the hon Mphahlele, with good intentions, got it wrong. [Interjections.] It's true that European settlers dispossessed the indigenous majority of South Africans of their land but Hon Mphahlele, don't let minority interests now in the present, disposes the majority of the very meaning of our Constitution, including the so-called property clause.
Yes, we will move rapidly and determinately ahead with the land reform process, especially in this centenary year of the barbaric and awful 1913 Land Act. As we do so we will stick to the precise letter and the transformational spirit of the Constitution. The Constitution outlaws any arbitrary deprivation of property. That is absolutely correct. The state may expropriate only in terms of a law of general application for a public purpose or for public interest. The Constitution explicitly defines public interest to include – and listen carefully: – the nation's commitment to land reform, and to reforms to bring about equitable – again the word which they don't want to hear – access to all South Africa's natural resources. It adds, for good measure that: property is not limited to land. All South Africa's natural resources, is what the Constitution says. [Interjections.] Hon Mphahlele, don't let them steal your land and then steal the Constitution as well. [Laughter.] We don't need to abandon the Constitution. Let us drive the Constitution and its spirit forward.
In the course of her speech yesterday – and I am sorry to pick on hon Mazibuko but she is representing the opposition and claims to represent the leading ... [Inaudible] [Interjections.] ... she let slip ... [Interjections.] ... a very interesting state of mind. [Interjections.] There was an interesting moment and I'm not sure if the President noticed it. One can see that what their focus groups and their pollsters – because they are in a constant electoral frenzy – ... Quite right, you have to be in a frenzy ... – are telling them is that they are coming across as too negative. [Laughter.] They are too carping. They must give hope. So, towards the end there was an interesting shift. It's a shift that we have not heard and which the rest of their speakers failed to follow up on, so they were off message. However, the Leader of the Opposition tried to give hope and so ... [Interjections.] ... having said all the negative things that they always wind out and ... [Inaudible.] ... up and so forth, she said, there is hope. [Interjections.] [Laughter.] One day, she said, and she was obviously looking through a very long-range telescope into some distant and very speculative future ... [Laughter.] ... the DA will win the national majority and then: there will be a day ... [Inaudible] ... when the DA will serve the entire country. [Interjections.] Now, that gives the game away. They don't think that they are serving the entire country now in the present. [Interjections.] [Applause.] Since 1912 the ANC understood, in representing the interests of an African majority, it was there to serve the entire country. We didn't wait for 1994 when we got an electoral majority before understanding that as the ANC we had a responsibility to lead South Africa towards freedom ... [Applause.] ... democracy, nonracialism and so forth. They are still waiting for some distant future and then they will begin to serve the entire country. [Interjections.]
Now that's not an accident because it relates to their other divisiveness of provincialism. [Interjections.] They think that politics in South Africa is like some Absa Currie Cup interptrovincial competition. [Laughter.] That's different to us. [Interjections.] As the ANC we celebrate the victories and we have done so. The ANC speakers have talked about wonderful things that have happened in the Western Cape and the City of Cape Town, along with any other wonderful things. We have done that. We celebrate progress that happens in this province like in any other province, and we are concerned about problems and challenges in all the provinces of South Africa ... [Interjections.] ... but of course we are constantly treated to DA boasting about how well the Western Cape and the City of Cape Town is doing, as if it was simply down to them. Historic advantages, the absence of a Bantustan legacy ... [Interjections.] ... and other deep structural realities are just blotted out. [Interjections.]
At the risk of getting into their game, let's play the game. I don't want to get sucked into it but let's do it. Let's look at comparative provincial statistics for what this House all agrees is the most important priority of our country. There are many priorities but all agree that the most important priorities are unemployment and job creation. Let's look at that in provincial relative terms, at the risk of getting into a Currie Cup competition. [Laughter.] If we look at the market statistics for what we in the ANC government call the NGP period, which is the 3rd quarter of 2010 to the 3rd quarter of 2012, we find a very interesting pattern. [Interjections.] In terms of the change in employment numbers per province for this period, it will come as no surprise that in terms of sheer numbers, Gauteng Province does the best with 217 000 more in employment over this two-year period. [Interjections.] It's not surprising as Gauteng has advantages. There has been massive urbanisation. There are massive challenges but it's the largest province in terms of demogracy. [Interjections.] We need to understand that and we do. Interestingly, Limpopo comes a close second with an increase of 184 000 jobs in this two-year period, followed by KwaZulu-Natal with 124 000. The Western Cape does very well. It comes in fourth with an increase of 56 000 for the same period. [Interjections.] Now 56 000 is not an easy achievement in a climate of economic recession and so on. We are not celebrating this. [Interjections.] I am patronising as you need some patronising every now and again. [Laughter.]
The youth figures are the same. [Interjections.] I am not quoting these figures in order to play the same game. What I am saying is ... [Interjections.] ... let us take responsibility for our country. Let us not play narrow, divisive games of one province against another, one party against another, one Minister against another, the unemployed against the employed, wage labourers and so on. [Interjections.]
In the course of this state of the nation debate the opposition parties have once more sidelined themselves from the broad, consensus-building processes underway in our country to address our many challenges, whether in the mining sector, youth unemployment and so forth.
Mr President, in your response tomorrow I am quite sure that you will once more – you are presidential – generously invite the opposition parties to come aboard and to leave their high perch of self-righteousness and join the rest of South Africa in the complex process of consensus-building that is well under way, as we progressively roll back unemployment, poverty and inequality.
Whether they will hear you tomorrow, I don't know. [Laughter.] Thank you, Deputy Speaker. [Applause.]
The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Thank you, hon Minister. Hon members, that concludes the Speakers list. The President will reply to the debate tomorrow.
The House adjourned at 17:41
TH
END OF TAKE
Audio
No related
Documents
No related documents