Hansard: NA: Debate on the State-of-the-nation Address

House: National Assembly

Date of Meeting: 18 Feb 2014

Summary

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Minutes

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START OF DAY

PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY

TUESDAY, 18 FEBRUARY 2014

__________

The House met at 14:05.

The Speaker took the Chair and requested members to observe a moment of silence for prayers or meditation.

ANNOUNCEMENTS

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NEW MEMBERS

(Announcement)

The SPEAKER: Hon members, the vacancies which had occurred in the National Assembly owing to the resignations of Ms S P Rwexana, Mr W M Thring and Mr I O Davidson had been filled by the nomination of Ms N G Matiwane with effect from 1 November 2013, Rev K R J Meshoe with effect from 21 November 2013 and Mr J de Goede with effect from 1 December 2013, respectively.

LOSS OF MEMBERSHIP OF MR M E GEORGE

(Announcement)

The Speaker further announced that the vacancy which occurred owing to Mr M E George's loss of membership of the National Assembly in terms of section 47(3)(c)of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996, had been filled by the nomination of Mr C C Huang with effect from 12 December 2013 and that the vacancy which occurred owing to the passing away of Mr C M Moni had been filled by the nomination of Ms P S Sekgobela with effect from 20 January 2014.

The members had made and subscribed the oath or solemn affirmation in the Speaker's Office.

SUSPENSION OF NOTICES OF MOTION AND MOTIONS WITHOUT NOTICE

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ANNOUNCEMENTS

SUSPENSION OF NOTICES OF MOTION AND MOTIONS WITHOUT NOTICE

(Draft Resolution)

The CHIEF WHIP OF THE MAJORITY PARTY: Mr Speaker, I move without notice:

That the House, notwithstanding Rule 29, which provides for the sequence of proceedings, resolves that there will be no notices of motion and motions, as referred to in Rule 97(g), from Tuesday 18 February 2014 to Thursday, 20 February 2014; and on Wednesday, 26 February 2014.

Agreed to.

The CHIEF WHIP OF THE MAJORITY PARTY/ STARTING TIME OF HOUSE

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The CHIEF WHIP OF THE MAJORITY PARTY/ SUSPENSION OF NOTICES

SITTING HOURS OF THE HOUSE

(Draft Resolution)

The CHIEF WHIP OF THE MAJORITY PARTY: Mr Speaker, I move without notice:

That the House, notwithstanding the hours of sitting of the House, as provided for in Rule 23(2), the House may sit at times agreed to by the National Assembly Programme Committee for the period 18 February 2014 to 13 March 2014.

Agreed to.

FIRST ORDER/The SPEAKER

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ANNOUNCEMENTS/SPEAKER/SITTING HOURS

PRESIDENT'S STATE OF THE NATION ADDRESS

(Debate)

The SPEAKER: Hon members, I have received a copy of the President's address delivered at the Joint Sitting on 13 February 2014. The speech has been printed in the Minutes of the Joint Sitting.

The MINISTER OF HIGHER EDUCATION: Hon Speaker, the President and the Deputy President, hon Cabinet colleagues, hon members, ladies and gentlemen and comrades, allow me to start by congratulating our President, Comrade Jacob Zuma, on his state of the nation address. His message provided an important interface between the struggle to end oppression up to 1994 and the struggle since then to build a democratic South Africa and bring about development that will benefit all our people, especially the workers and the poor. In other words, this state of the nation address captures in the continuity in these different phases of struggle an unwavering commitment to a better life for all South Africans.

IsiZulu:

Siyabonga Msholozi. [Thank you, Mr President.)

English:

In his address the President mentioned some of our achievements in education and training, an important dimension of the human development, an aspect of our struggle that the ANC has always prioritised. I will elaborate on these today and also outline how we are planning to meet the challenges that still face us. I will show that, as the President correctly says, we have, indeed, not just a good story but, as the Minister of Home Affairs would say, we have a good story to tell. [Applause.]

IsiZulu:

Nokuthi izwe lakithi seliyindawo engcono kakhulu kunento elaliyilo ngowe-1994.

English:

South Africa's education and training policies aim to address social and economic challenges facing the country. These include the challenge of inequality, poverty and high unemployment as well as persisting underdevelopment in many parts of our country and the stubborn legacy of Bantu education and skills shortages.

This government has, since 1994, developed comprehensive plans to overcome these challenges and has already begun to implement them. These are contained now in our key policy documents, such as the National Development Plan, NDP, the New Growth Path, NGP, the Industrial Policy Action Plan and other strategic documents, including our White Paper on Post-School Education and Training and the key policy documents of the Department of Basic Education.

Hon Speaker, we can stand here proudly and say we have, indeed, expanded education and training opportunities significantly in our country today. We have achieved almost complete universal attendance at school for those of school-going age. Children are now staying in school longer than ever before. We have also made enormous strides in providing for Grade R, more than tripling enrolments, from 242 000 children in 2001 to 780 000 in 2013.

The Kha Ri Gude Mass Literacy Campaign reached almost 3 million illiterate adults between 2008 and 2012 at an average of 600 000 taught to read and write every year.

IsiZulu:

Lolu hlelo lokufundisa abadala ukufunda nokubhala selufinyelele kubantu abangaphezulu kwezigidi ezintathu abebengakwazi nhlobo ukufunda nokubhala ngaphambilini. Manje sebeyakwazi Somlomo nawe Mongameli ukuthi a,e,i,o,u nokungaphezulu kwaloko. [Ihlombe.]

English:

Since the dawn of democracy in 1994, headcount enrolments in our universities have approximately doubled to almost one million students today. We expect a two third increase in university headcount enrolment, of over 1,6 million by 2030. We have significantly improved representivity in our universities. In 1994, for example, the proportion of African students in public universities was 55%, while women made up 45%. By 2012, Africans made up 68% of university students and women 58%. [Applause.]

In the FET colleges enrolments have increased by almost 90% over the last five years alone, as the President has pointed out. In the period to 2030, headcount enrolments in colleges will grow to 2,5 million. Such growth means we need more institutions. Yesterday, in fact, the Sol Plaatje University opened its doors and started its lectures as our brand-new university. [Applause.] Tomorrow, the University of Mpumalanga will be starting with its lectures as our 25th university. [Applause.] We are now also engaged in establishing 12 new FET college campuses, all of them without exception in rural areas.

IsiZulu:

Siwu lo hulumeni kaKhongolose oholwa nguMsholozi sisazokwakha namakolishi emiphakathi lapho sizovulela khona amathuba okufunda nokutholakala kwamakhono kulabo abaphuma emazingeni aphansi kakhulu esikoleni. Lamakolishi sihlele ukuthi abe nabafundi abangaphezulu kwesigidi ngonyaka wezi-2030.

English:

We have also started construction of the Square Kilometre Array, SKA, a major scientific development in our country. The growth in enrolments at all levels and the improvement of its quality has also necessitated expansion and refurbishment of educational infrastructure. At the end of last year, the Minister of Basic Education declared norms and standards for school infrastructure to ensure that sustainable quality standards are maintained.

The National Department of Basic Education has also become directly involved in improving school infrastructure in areas with the worst backlogs. The Accelerated Schools Infrastructure Delivery Initiative, Asidi, has completed 44 new schools and 241 schools are currently at various stages of construction or planning. Over and above the efforts of the provincial education departments, the DBE will build 1 000 new schools over the next five years to address increases in learner numbers, migration issues and curriculum needs. [Applause.] As you can see, we really do have a good story to tell! No, no, we really do have a very good story to tell!

Infrastructure development also continues apace in our colleges and universities, including the provision of more academic buildings and more and better student residences. Over the past few years, infrastructure funding for universities has prioritised the historically disadvantaged institutions, especially those in the former Bantustans, while not ignoring other universities. Of the budget for student residences of R1,78 billion in the current Medium-Term Expenditure Framework, R1,45 billion is allocated for historically disadvantaged institutions located in rural areas, because it is there that the need is greatest.

We do, however, continue to care for and to support all our institutions in many different ways. This, I should add, is unlike some of the opposition parties. For example, the UDM is only concerned about the Umtata Campus of Walter Sisulu University - that's it. [Laughter.] The IFP seems only concerned with the University of Zululand and Mangosuthu University of Technology. The DA, those who come from the former Democratic Party, are concerned about UCT and Wits, and those who come from the National Party who have not changed are only concerned about Stellenbosch and the former University of Johannesburg. This is the poverty and bankruptcy of our opposition! Only the ANC cares about national interests completely. [Applause.]

IsiZulu:

Uthule umholi we-UDM. Sakha izindawo zokuhlala abafundi ezidla izigidi ezingama-40 zamarandi e-Walter Sisulu okungezokuqala kusukela ngonyaka we-1976. Uthule namhlanje kodwa wawubona ngalesiya sikhathi ukuthi ungikhahlele. Uma sesenza into enhle, uthule awusho lutho. Ngifuna ukubuza ukuthi uzothini namhlanje. [Uhleko.]

English:

The growth of college and university enrolments has been greatly assisted by the expansion of the National Student Financial Aid Scheme, NSFAS. Since its inception, NSFAS has provided study opportunities to thousands of poor, mainly black, students. It was established in 1999 and since then its growth has been phenomenal. Between 1999 and 2008 the funds managed by NSFAS grew from R441 million to R2,375 billion and in the last five years, the amount made available through NSFAS has grown over 300% to over R9 billion. [Applause.] That is a sign of the commitment, amongst other things, of this government and our President in particular to prioritise education.

IsiZulu:

Lalela-ke James ngaphambi kokuba ukhulume kakhulu. [Uhleko] Abafundi asebesizakale kulo mxhaso wezimali kahulumeni sebengaphezulu kwesigidi esiyi 1,4 seloku sasungulwa lesi sikhwama, ngowe-1999 lapho kwahlomule abafundi abayi-41 000, kepha kulo nyaka kuzohlomula abafundi abayi-430 000. [Ihlombe.] Ngaphambi konyaka wezi-2011 bekuhlomula abafundi basemaNyuvesi kuphela. Manje sekuhlomula nabasemakolishi abaqeqeshela ezamakhono, sebeze okokuqala bazoba ngaphezulu kwabafundi abasemaNyuvesi abazohlomula kulesikhwama esithi yi-National Student Financial Aids Scheme.

Lesi sikhwama sokusiza abafundi abahluphekayo emaNyuvesi nasemakolishi sesenze umehluko omkhulu emindenini entulayo kule lizwe lakithi. Iningi labafundi abahlomulayo bangabokuqala emlandweni yemindeni yabo ukuthola iziqu zemfundo ephakeme. Impela Nxamalala imnandi le ndaba ephethwe nguhulumeni. Inoju!

English:

As the President said in his state of the nation address, "Education is a ladder out of poverty for millions of our people." Expanding the education and training system is as important as improving its quality. For this reason, we are paying a great deal of attention to improving quality, including, very centrally, improvement of teaching and learning. Our matric results are the most public demonstration of the acievements we have made in terms of improving quality. [Applause.] The Annual National Assessments, ANA, introduced in 2011, were administered to Grades 3, 6 and 9 in 2013. They show a definite overall improvement in children's literacy and numeracy. The results of the 2011 Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study, TIMSS, provide the first indication from an international test system that substantial quality improvements are occurring in the South African schooling system.

An HON MEMBER: Thanks to the Zimbabwean teachers. [Laughter.]

The MINISTER OF HIGHER EDUCATION: In the post-school system, too, we are making substantial efforts to improve the throughput rates in all institutions. We are strengthening governance, upgrading lecturer qualifications, providing better career guidance as well as expanding postgraduate studies. Particular attention is being paid to the development of the scarce and critical skills needed for South Africa's economic development, such as the production of engineers, artisans, technicians, machine operators, project managers, and financial managers. We are also strengthening and revitalising humanities and social sciences in our universities.

In the area of education and training for people with disabilities, we have made some important interventions as well. The Department of Basic Education declared 2013 as the Year of Inclusive Education to focus attention on education for the disabled. A special area of focus, Mr President, as you also said in your speech, has been the development of a South African Sign Language, SASL, curriculum for Grades R to12 for phased-in introduction. In the postschool space, we are also making some strides. Students with disabilities are now eligible for dedicated financial aid and this year we have set aside R66 million for bursaries exclusively for students with disabilities. [Applause.] And these are full bursaries, including assistive devices. We are also funding a one-of-a-kind college that we have here in the Western Cape, the National Institute for the Deaf.

One of our flagship projects is promoting apprenticeships, learnerships, and other forms of work-integrated learning to strengthen partnerships with employers and to ensure that our students get workplace experience. I am proud to say, hon Speaker and President, that government has led by example with regard to linking education and the workplace in line with the National Skills Accord. State-owned enterprises have significantly stepped up their training programmes and the government, at all levels, is taking the need for training more seriously. Thousands of young college and university graduates are now working as interns in national, provincial and local government departments, and we have every expectation that their numbers will continue to increase. [Applause.] But shame on the Democratic Alliance ... [Interjections.] ... you are the only province that is not sending our students to go and train as doctors in Cuba. [Applause.] It is shame on you, because for whatever reason,s you are depriving the poor kids from Khayalitsha, Gugulethu and many other places to go and train as doctors. [Applause.]

Hon members, all in all, as the President has said, we have a good story to tell. This is in contrast to the official opposition parties that want us to pull stunts like marching to Luthuli House or try to enhance their leadership cliques with dodgy rent-a-black schemes. [Applause.] [Laughter.]Hon members, in fact, many of us are offended by this. Black people are not for rent. It shows the extent to which the DA does not treat black people with respect in this country. [Applause.] Of course, it does not mean also that black leaders should not be proud of themselves and not allow themselves to be rented. How on earth do you go and appoint a presidential candidate without the knowledge of your membership? You are sitting right here; we are not agreeing. [Applause.]

We know that some of you are very angry because they were not consulted about that. And how can we trust you to run an open and democratic government when you can't even consult your own membership about your own presidential candidate. [Applause.] The reason is simple, you have no story to tell... [Applause.] [Interjections.] ... whilst we, under the leadership of President Zuma, have a good story to tell. This thing of marching to Luthuli House is a cheap, headline-grabbing thing and we know the real reason. Your own internal research, hon member Mazibuko, is telling you that you are in for an electoral drubbing this year. That is why you are panicking, and so doing what you are doing.

Hon Speaker and hon members, we still have many more challenges ahead of us and we know them. And it is only the ANC that is best capable of addressing those needs. Today, a child from a poor family is likely to live beyond five years, get free health care for the first five years, benefit from early childhood development programmes, attend a Grade R class, attend a no-fee school with at least guaranteed one meal per day, and thereafter access NSFAS to go to college or university and become an artisan or an engineer or even a university professor. [Applause.] We have done a lot and we have a good story to tell. I am challenging you. You are coming to speak after me. Let's hear your good story; what you are going to do.

IsiZulu:

Somlomo nawe Mongameli, hhayi uKhongolose uziphethe izindaba, zinhle, zinomsoco, zinonile, ziyazoyiza. Sifuna ukuthi ...

English:

... well done, President ...

IsiZulu:

... ngokuthi usikhokhele kulo hulumeni ukuthi sikwazi ukwenza zonke lezinto esizenzayo njengamanje. Asinganaki abasibuyisela emuva, asizibheke thina esiya phambili.[Ihlombe.] Ngiyabonga kakhulu.

The LEADER OF THE OPPOSITION / GG/ TAKE ENDS AT 14:27:29.

UNREVISED HANSARD

NATIONAL ASSEMBLY

Tuesday, 18 February 2014 Take: 2

The MINISTER OF HIGHER EDUCATION

The LEADER OF THE OPPOSITION: Hon Speaker, hon President, hon members, today we live in a country that is undoubtedly better than it was in 1994. [Applause.] We are the South Africa of President Nelson Mandela. We are the nation that inspires hope throughout the world. We overcame apartheid. We fought injustice, and joined hands in reconciliation. Our audacity to unite when some believed that it could not be done continues to be a beacon of light for the rest of the world.

Despite hundreds of years of oppression and discrimination, South Africans remain proud of our country and hopeful of the future, bursting with potential.

That potential lies kilometres beneath the earth, in the great seams of platinum and ore that brave men and women carve out of the rocks beneath us each and every day. It is loud in the factories of Johannesburg and the Nelson Mandela Bay Metro that pioneer the technology of tomorrow. It is in Cape Town's creative studios, where world-class designs are born, and on the farms that sweep across the Free State and KwaZulu-Natal.

South Africa is a country of great potential, and we in the D A believe in that potential with all of our hearts.

This is indeed a good story to tell. [Applause.]

But, there is another story we did not hear in this Chamber last Thursday night. That is the story of President Jacob Zuma and his ANC. It is the story of five years of poor leadership which reversed much of the progress we had made as a nation. [Applause.] It is the story of a Presidency that lacks both the political will and the credibility to do what it is needed to keep South Africa on the path of our predecessors.

South Africans yearn for a bold plan of action from the President. They want a vision for the future, a way out of the crises that have engulfed our nation over the last five years. But on Thursday night they were left disappointed once again.

During his state of the nation address, the hon President gave a review of 20 years of democracy as an attempt to bury the many failures over which his administration has presided. But there are real stories to be told about the last five years of ANC government – stories that South Africans know all too well.

The hon President says the ANC has a good story to tell about the economy, but South Africans have a very different story to tell. Theirs is a story of frustration.

Does the President feel the hopeplessness of the young man amongst the 7 million who have been robbed of their dignity by unemployment; the man who comes home empty-handed, who feels like a disappointment to his family and his children?

Unemployment is not just a statistic; it is a cold, hard reality. It is a reality for far too many South Africans because our government does not have the courage to break the stranglehold that the ANC's alliance partners – in Cosatu and the SACP – have on labour policy.

That is why President Zuma has only managed to create 561 000 out of the 5 million jobs he promised in 2009 - [Interjections.] - just one job out of every ten jobs promised.

That is why there are a staggering 1,4 million more unemployed South Africans today than on the day the hon President took office in 2009.

What is his plan to address this crisis? The only tangible plan announced on Thursday is to create so-called work opportunities in the Expanded Public Works Programme, EPWP.

Let me say clearly that work opportunities and real jobs are not the same thing. Expanded Public Works Programme work opportunities are important for poverty alleviation and basic skills transfer, but real jobs are sustainable, private sector-orientated and rely on the government implementing good economic policies.

South Africa's recent economic performance, however, has been dismal. The hon President blames this on the 2008 global financial crisis, or what he refers to as the "global meltdown".

But on our very doorstep, sub-Saharan Africa's economic growth forges ahead without us. Nigeria is forecast to overtake South Africa as the largest economy in Africa in the next two years. While our economy grew under 2% last year, our emerging peers, like Chile and Malaysia, are growing at more than double this rate.

Why this great disparity? Because economic growth and job creation require visionary leadership and a single economic plan. South Africa has neither of these.

We saw this again on Thursday night. The hon President told the nation repeatedly that the National Development Plan, NDP, is the blueprint that will guide all government policy, but then he claimed that the NDP incorporates key targets of the Industrial Policy Action Plan, the New Growth Path and the Infrastructure Plan.

This kind of vague leadership provides no incentive for investors. How can the hon President commit to all three of these plans, when they are totally at odds with one another?

The answer is that the President puts what is in his own interests first. Political survival always trumps real leadership. This is the real story of South Africa's frustration.

The hon President says that the ANC has "a good story to tell" on service delivery. But South Africans have a very different story to tell about the past five years. It is a story of desperation.

Under President Zuma's ANC, there have been five times more service delivery protests per year than between 2004 and 2009. And, no, hon President, the people who protest against your government are certainly not happy with your service delivery record. They are desperate for change.

I witnessed this first-hand when I visited Mothotlung in the North West province following the violent protests there which claimed the lives of four South Africans. I saw that the real problem is corruption and failed service delivery in the ANC-led municipality of Madibeng. For years, the municipality has not maintained its municipal water infrastructure. After two years of only intermittent access to water and out of sheer desperation, the people of Mothotlung finally exercised their right to protest against their failed government.

One of the young men who died during this protest is Osiah Rahube. I would like to tell his story today.

Osiah's mother, Elizabeth, describes him as a God-fearing and law-abiding citizen. She told me that he was a down-to-earth young man who made friends with everyone he met. He was just 30 years old when he was killed.

Osiah was not an instigator of violence. He was not a criminal. He was an innocent young man with his entire life ahead of him. He sympathised with those in his community who were fighting to ensure that he and his family had clean water to drink. His story is the story of many others.

Police brutality is a blight on the many honest, brave SAPS police officers who take to the streets every day to protect and serve our nation. This kind of brutality is, however, a relic of the apartheid past. It should never have re-emerged in our young democracy, but under this government's leadership, it has intensified.

The government's response has been inadequate. The hon President ignores the NDP recommendation to demilitarise the police. He has failed to introduce a proper public order policing policy. And he refuses to do what is right and what should have been done after Marikana more than a year ago, and fire the Minister of Police, hon Nathi Mthethwa, from his Cabinet.

So, while South Africa burns, the hon President continues to value political loyalty over a turnaround in our police service. This is the real story of South Africa's desperation.

The President said that the ANC has a "good story to tell" on combating crime. But South Africans have a very different story to tell about the past five years. It is the story of fear.

We cannot say that we are winning the war against crime when the latest crime statistics show increases in murder and attempted murder and other serious contact crimes. What do we say to the mothers and the fathers of the more than 85 000 South Africans who were murdered since 2007, or to the 333 374 survivors of reported sexual offences during the same period?

I know what it is like to bury someone you love because of violence. It is a pain that haunts you forever. I know too that it burns more painfully when there is no justice for that crime.

Why didn't the President speak about the need to improve conviction rates and of the challenges in our criminal justice system? If we are to win the war on crime, then this government needs a new and comprehensive plan to address it. But the hon President and his government have none.

The hon President says the ANC has a "good story to tell" on the fight against corruption. But South Africans have a very, very different story to tell about the past five years. It is a story of greed.

At the heart of this story is the over R30 billion which is stolen from our people's pockets every single year – a theft that deprives them of quality services and job opportunities, while enriching politically connected insiders at their expense.

This is the reason that we have dropped some 22 places in Transparency International's ratings for corruption during this term of office.

How can we take the hon President seriously when he says that "fighting corruption within the Public Service is yielding results"? Because we all know that he does not have a single ounce of credibility on this matter. How can he, when the R200 million upgrade of his private residence at Nkandla is the gold standard for government corruption in South Africa today? [Interjections.] [Applause.]

This not a Presidency which fights for accountability; it runs from it.

The events of the past two hours in the Western Cape High Court reveal the extent to which this government tolerates corruption at the very top. The Minister of Public Works, hon Thulas Nxesi, has revealed to me in a replying affidavit that his task team's report into Nkandla never contained any security-sensitive information. In fact, the report that was released to the public by government in December 2013 is the very same report that Minister Nxesi classified as "top secret" in January of the same year. [Interjections.]

This means that the Minister, before this House, and on many other occasions, misled South Africans into believing the classification was necessary to conceal information that was never even there in the first place. He forced Parliament to collude with this charade by instructing you, hon Speaker, to refer the task team's report to the closed Standing Committee on Intelligence, all in an effort to conceal this so-called top secret information which never existed in the first place.

It is clear now that this cynical classification was intended only to protect President Zuma from embarrassment and from being held accountable for the extent of this scandal.

We have won the case with costs today ... [Applause.] ... but the fight will continue. That is why I have today tabled a motion calling for the hon Minister to be investigated for deliberately misleading this House. [Applause.]

But, this is only part of the problem. The President himself does not respond to the people's demands for transparency and accountability. President Zuma claimed ignorance on national television this week. He said he didn't know about the R200 million upgrade. And he said, hon members, that he will not resign because of it.

If the President honours the principle of good governance, and if he wants to restore any semblance of a legacy, he should reconsider this position. In fact, he should have resigned the moment the story broke that more than R200 million of public money was spent on his private home.

I want to use this opportunity to send a very clear message to our hon members, that should the hon President be implicated in any wrong-doing in the Public Protector's report on the Nkandla scandal, I will not hesitate to table a motion to impeach him in this House. [Applause.] And while I cannot guarantee that we will win the vote, I know that from the FNB Stadium in Gauteng to the forgotten people of Mothotlung, millions of South Africans will be calling for us to do the right thing. They know the real story, that our country cannot afford another five years of President Zuma's administration.

As we remember the legacy of our beloved President Nelson Mandela, we owe it to ourselves and to the young people who hold the future of our country in their hands to bring back the good story. We in the D A are working hard to do this.

Let me now tell you about the good story that is yet to come. It is a story of hope.

We will overturn the story of frustration by fully adopting the NDP, opening South Africa up for business and creating six million real jobs.

We will rewrite the story of greed, by enforcing zero-tolerance policy for those who cheat the nation and misuse its resources.

And we will end the story of fear by demilitarising the police service and combating the fundamental problems in our criminal justice system.

This is the good story which we will tell in 2019, when the ANC government is finally pushed below 50% at the national level. [Interjections.]

This is the story of the D A on the rise.

South Africans saw it in the streets of Johannesburg last week. They will see it in the weeks to come, and they will surely see it at the ballot box on 7 May 2014.

The time for those who enrich themselves is over. Change is coming to South Africa: province by province, ward by ward, street by street. [Interjections.]

We will restore the good story of 1994 and we will deliver on the promise of freedom for all. I thank you.

Mr M G P LEKOTA / nvs /TAKE 2 ENDS AT 14:44:16.

UNREVISED HANSARD

NATIONAL ASSEMBLY

Tuesday, 18 February 2014 Take: 3

The LEADER OF THE OPPOSITION

Mr M G P LEKOTA: Hon Speaker, when the President took the oath of Office, he said amongst other things that he would uphold and advance the Constitution of our country. I was filled with hope that he would indeed move in that direction. Sadly, the President chose to turn himself into a prophet. He announced to the country that the ANC would rule until Jesus Christ comes back. [Applause.]

This is a very significant prophecy. I thought that it might be somewhere in the pages of the Holy Book. It is a very significant prophecy. However, it is a false prophecy. It is not in the Bible, the Koran, the Bhaghavad Gita or in any of the known books written by prophets in the history of the world.

Instead of teaching the people of our country that democracy has to do with them evaluating government every five years to see whether they would like to return it government or not, he chose to be a prophet and failed to live up to the promise of upholding and advancing the Constitution. The church leaders of our country, Christians black and white, rich and poor, must reject this false prophecy. [Applause.]

What I can tell you is that somewhere in the Bible it says that there will be false prophets. [Laughter.] [Applause.] It is there in the Bible. You will find it there. I was saddened that the leader of our country has no respect and that he took the name of Jesus Christ in vain. It is not in keeping with the lessons that those of us who grew up in Christian churches, schools and homes have come to know.

Our country must reject the leadership that has no respect for the faith of the majority of its people. We cannot have false prophets who pretend to be what they are not. That was not all. When it seemed that that prophecy was not holding out, he then did something even stranger. He told us that …

IsiZulu:

... abaphansi bazosijezisa uma singavoteli uKhongolose.[Ubuwelewele.][Ihlombe.] Umhlolo! Umhlolo! Manje uyajika uyasithusa ukuze sesabe. Akukho engqondweni yakhe ukuthi uMthethosisekelo uthi ...

...there must be freedom of conscience.

IsiZulu:

Ayikho enqondweni yakhe leyo. Manje kumele sithuke sihambe siyovota ngoba sesaba ukuthi sizojeziswa. Yimaphi lawo madlozi afuna ukuthi thina sivotele abantu abantshontsha imali yesizwe? Asinawo thina amakhosi anjalo. Asinabo abaphansi abanjalo. Abekho abake basifundisa ukuthi ukuntshontsha kuyinto elungile. Lokhu kusho ukuthi ngeke basijezise ngoba senza into abasifundise yona, ukuthi ukuntshontsha akulungile, ikakhulukazi ukuntshontshela abantu abahluphekayo.

Sesotho:

Mopresidente o re badimo ba tla re otla ha re sa voutele Mokgatlo wa ANC.

English:

In the first place, if this false prophecy was somewhere in any of the holy books, the struggle against apartheid would have ended very quickly because all these people who governed at the time would have seen it in the holy book - that they should step down for the ANC because it must govern until Jesus comes back.

IsiZulu:

Ayikho-ke leyo 'nto.

English:

Under this leadership, you are taking the approach that the bigger the lie, the more convincing it is.

IsiZulu:

Nisithembise imisebenzi ewuhhafu wesigidi, uma kungenzeki lokho senithi niza namathuba emisebenzi ayizigidi eziyisithupha. Leso yisiNgisi esikhulu esingasho lutho ngoba abantu abanayo imisebenzi futhi baswele ukudla. Into engiyicelayo ukuthi ... Ngeke thina sisatshiswe ngabaphansi okuthiwa bathi asivotele abantu abantshontsha imali yethu baye ngayo e-Switzerland, bahambe baye e-New York baphinde bahambe ngayo baye e-Mexico, bese befika lapha bamukeleke njengabantu abenze umsebenzi omuhle ezweni. Ngeke siyenze leyo 'nto!

English:

However, let me tell you this. South Africa is less happy today than when President Mbeki was driven out of office. It is so sad. [Applause.] The reasons are clear. When he left office, this country virtually did not owe anybody. Today, in less than five years, this country is almost one trillion rand in debt.

IsiZulu:

Ayikho imali; niyidlile bakwethu. [Ubuwelewele.] [Ihlombe.]

English:

This is how you have done it. In 2010-11, Terrence Nombembe said that R20 billion disappeared in your hands in fruitless and futile expenditure.

IsiZulu:

Sisayifuna namanje.

English:

Had those R20 billion not disappeared, the students of our nation would not be running up and down the streets, being arrested, insisting on and demanding money for fees. [Applause.]

IsiZulu:

Angazi ukuthi umhlonishwa uNzimande ukhuluma ngani. Abantwana bethu bayaboshwa lapha ngaphandle futhi badutshulwa ngamaphoyisa ezikhungweni zemfundo ephakeme.

English:

… because R20 billion had disappeared in this administration's hands in 2010-11. As if that is not all, the following year, in 2011-12, you did not improve and R25 billion ... shoe ... disappeared in your hands. [Applause.]

IsiZulu:

Yingakho abantu bengenazo izindlu. Imali obekumele yakhele abantu izindlu inyamalele ezandleni zenu. Abantu baseKhayelitsha balala emanzini uma linile izulu. Imali eyizigidigidi ezingama-R25 iphelele ezandleni zenu. Siyayifuna bafowethu imali yethu. Buyisani imali yabantu baseNingizimu Afrika. Siyayifuna bakwethi imali leyo. Abantu base-Ficksburg abanamanzi futhi abanagesi ngoba imali eyizigidigidi ezingama-R25 iphelele ezandleni zenu.

English:

You have to think again before you do this. Of course, this year you have done even worse. You have outdone yourself. [Laughter.] In the past year, R30 billion disappeared in your hands. No wonder that township after township in the provinces you govern are going up in flames. When people complain about that, the hon President says they have provided everything for everybody. We have provided for about 95% and that there is only 5% left. In my own hometown, people are drinking water that is stinking of sewage. Many children there died of cholera.

Sesotho:

Dilemong tsa bophelo ba ka kaofela ha ke ntse ke hola – ke holela Kroonstad – ha ke eso nwe metsi a nkgang mantle. Ke kgetlo la pele nalaneng ya naha ena, mmusong ona oo le leng ho wona, oo le o tshwereng ...

English:

That is why I said that it only happened after President Mbeki was driven out of office. I am talking only about that time. The good story was when President Mandela and President Mbeki were still President, because we did not owe anybody. We had paid all the debts. What did you do with this money? What did you do with R25 plus R45 billion plus R30 billion and more? What did you do with it? You can't explain it. You must explain to our people.

Now our people must go to the voting stations and vote for those who will not allow money to disappear in their own hands. That is what our people must go and do. On 7 May, all our people – the students who do not have money for education, the people who have no homes, sewerage services, and those who have no water, must go and vote out a government that has wasted so much of their money and put in men and women who are committed to making sure that the budget of the nation benefits them.

They must do so for those who fear God and don't think that they can steal in the darkness and nobody will see. They should vote for those who will not declare that they will be in power until Jesus Christ comes back. You will be there as long as you do the will of God. If you are not doing the will of God, stealing the money, lying to the people and intimidating them with all kinds of chimeras, you will not succeed. You will not get there. [Interjections.]

I am now telling you the happier story that until you correct and take the country back to where it was when you took it from President Thabo Mbeki, you must come to terms with the fact that you failed our nation. At the present time, business men and women of our country are sitting with huge quantities of money, terrified and uncertain that if they invest it they will not get returns. They are sitting with high liquidity. They are refusing to invest, not because they don't love their country, but because you have created such a huge uncertainty. That is why they are not doing it.

We will create a situation in which they can feel confident in their country and be able to invest and even persuade others from abroad to come and invest in thisd country. This is the country Nelson Mandela freed and where he laid the foundation so that our people can live together in peace, knowing that everyday that passes takes them forward to a better life.

By the way, the hon President said that he wanted to change the Constitution. [Interjections.] I have been listening carefully. I am trying to understand what he wanted to change – the legacy of Mandela, Oliver Tambo, Sisulu and others. What is it that he wants to change? His spokesperson said I should ask the President himself because he did not make the speech. He said I should ask the President.

IsiZulu:

Kepha uMongameli akasitsheli ukuthi yini le afuna ukuyishintsha la kulo Mthethosisekelo. Mzukwane nawushintsha lo Mthethosisekelo ...

English:

... you will be breaking the only glue that is keeping the people of South Africa together. You will be creating a situation which you will never be able to control and contain. Unfortunately, you will not be there when future generations of this country suffer the consequences of your serious blunders.

Many of you are already talking about how this Constitution is just for enemies of South Africa. That suggests that even Nelson Mandela was an enemy of the people of South Africa – according to you, because why did he negotiate this Constitution and gave it to us as a reliable path into the future. [Interjections.] All the critical voices came from among yourselves. [Time expired.]

Prince M G BUTHELEZI / TM /A N N(Sesotho)/NPM (IsiZulu)/ TAKE 3 ENDS AT 15:00:00.

UNREVISED HANSARD

NATIONAL ASSEMBLY

Tuesday, 18 February 2014 Takes: 4 & 5

Mr M G P LEKOTA

Prince M G BUTHELEZI: Hon Speaker, Xhamela, Your Excellency our President, Nxamalala; Your Excellency the Deputy President, Mkhuluwa; hon Ministers, hon Deputy Ministers, hon members, this year, as I rise to take the podium, I do so with a keen sense of awareness of the absence of the hon Mr Ben Skosana, Member of Parliament. Our party mourns his loss and we are still shaken by the sudden nature of his passing. In honour of our stalwart colleague and friend, I pay tribute to the vast contribution that he made both in this House and beyond its walls. The hon Mr Skosana will be remembered with the deepest respect and deepest love, and I would like to thank you, Mr President, for the condolences in your speech on the passing away of our House Chairperson.

Colleagues, as we celebrate 20 years of democracy, we give due respect to the enormous strides made by ordinary South Africans to overcome the legacy of our past and create a new country in which freedom and equality prevail. We have good reason to be proud of our people.

Having been a Minister of state for the first 10 years of our freedom, under former Presidents Mandela and Mbeki, I cannot say that government has done nothing for our people and our country ... [Applause.] ... but, unfortunately, since those days, those first years, we have surely lost our way. Considering this last quarter of our democratic era, one blatant truth demands to be spoken: Mr President, under your watch, this government has failed South Africa.

Twenty years ago, words like "rainbow nation", "miracle transition", "freedom" and "reconciliation" filled the public discourse. Under your leadership, sir, those words have become "Marikana", "scandal", "protest" and "corruption". We saw more than two of your Ministers defenestrated because of maladministration, and we saw the National Commissioner of Police being dismissed because of that.

The leadership of our country under your watch, sir, is a far cry from the leadership of 20 years ago. It is far removed from the kind of leadership we received from Dr Pixley ka Isaka Seme, Dr John Dube, Rev Makgatho, Rev Mahabane, Dr Moroka, Inkosi Albert Luthuli, and other prominent past leaders of the ANC. On your watch, the ANC has become a caricature of its former self, almost unrecognisable as the old liberation movement that helped usher in democracy in our country.

On your watch, Mr President, dignity has shuffled off the stage of politics, following the quiet exit of integrity. The question is whether we can reverse the damage and heal our nation. Beyond question is the obvious fact that to do so, we must remove the greatest obstacle to our success.

Before we ever entered democracy, His Excellency Nelson Mandela, warned the Congress of South African Trade Unions, Cosatu, to be vigilant and to watch for a time such as this. In July 1993 he said:

If the ANC does to you what the apartheid government did to you, then you must do to the ANC what you did to the apartheid government.

[Applause.]

In October 1998, the Chairperson of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, TRC, His Grace Archbishop Desmond Tutu, echoed Madiba's sentiments, when he said:

We can't assume that yesterday's oppressed will not become tomorrow's oppressors. We have seen it happen all over the world and should not be surprised if it happens here.

He said this in reaction to the ANC's fury that the TRC would dare expose war crimes of the ANC and name the party as the common denominator in the black-on-black violence of our past. Straying outside the official narrative to speak the truth about the ANC makes one extremely unpopular. Ask me. I know.

There is one word that is never mentioned in the ANC today, despite being the greatest legacy of our icon, former President Nelson Mandela. That word is "reconciliation". When you spoke of social cohesion, Mr President, all you mentioned was the Soccer World Cup. Well, that is as close as you came to addressing the fact that our nation is still divided, still carries old wounds, and is opening new ones.

I must thank you for paying tribute to families across the political spectrum who lost loved ones during the violence of our past. But why, Mr President, when you speak on the black-on-black violence of the eighties and nineties, do you speak only of "state-sponsored violence"?

The ANC's People's War claimed some 20 000 black lives in violence between parties on both sides, counter-violence and revenge violence predominantly aimed at securing political hegemony after liberation. Why did former President Mbeki ask for amnesty for himself and other leaders of the ANC? I don't remember whether your name is also on the list, sir.

Calling all the violence "state-sponsored" denies all accountability and responsibility. How, Mr President, does that foster reconciliation? Your condolences to IFP families who lost mothers, children and uncles have little meaning in the absence of honesty. The wounds of the past will not disappear of their own accord. [Interjections.] Surely, we have learned that lesson!

It is painful, but I cannot stand in this House in good conscience and say that today's ANC is the ANC in which I cut my political teeth. It is not the same creature. It is hideously transformed. So, despite the attacks that will no doubt follow – and the murmurs I am hearing already – I am saying today what every South African is thinking: How far have we fallen from Mandela's South Africa!

We have lowered the bar, from what is considered a Grade 12 pass mark to what is considered a respectable leader. In response to Your Excellency's last state of the nation address, I said at this podium that although you are the leader of the ruling party, you are still my President, and I would resent it if your actions portrayed you as a leader who speaks from both sides of his mouth.

There is no country in the world in which duplicity is accepted in a president. Yet, when you began your term of office, you promised to create half a million jobs. Instead, 1 million jobs were lost. Now, at the end of your term, you promise to create 6 million jobs. I fear for what the future holds.

Let us not consistently insult the intelligence of our people. Let us not promise them an El Dorado which we cannot deliver. Strong nations are not built on promises. They are built on truth and honest leadership.

Can we not hear the cry of our people as they burn tyres, throw bricks and lose their lives to protest against government? Are we deaf to the cry of the wounded, the helpless, the sick? Can we not hear the impoverished weeping?

Mr President, you kept returning last week to the pretty refrain, "We have a good story to tell." I cannot think of a more imaginative story than the one you weaved, sir, about service delivery protests. These protests, you said, are not the result of government's failures, but the result of government's successes. I quote you: "Success is the breeding ground of rising expectations."

No, Mr President! Promises raise expectations, and when promises are broken, people protest. These are your people, members of the ANC, who are engaging in violent protest against their government. It is not a case of playing party politics.

I am quite amazed by the uncalled-for attack by the Minister of Higher Education and Training on the IFP for its role in creating the University of Zululand and the Mangosuthu University of Technology during the ANC's era of Liberation now, Education later. I created the Mangosuthu University of Technology with private funding, as the KwaZulu government received a shoestring budget during the Pretoria regime because of our rejection of the policy of apartheid, of Balkanising our country into mini-states. [Interjections.]

I did all of this as a cadre of the ANC ... [Interjections.] ... on the instructions of no less a person than Inkosi Albert Luthuli and of Oliver Tambo ... [Interjections.] ... on behalf of the ANC. Nothing can change that truth! You can murmur until the cows come home. [Interjections.] [Laughter.] I have a credible witness in this House in the stalwart of the liberation struggle, in my sister, Mrs Winnie Nomzamo Mandela. You cannot ignore her book, in which she says these things! [Interjections.]

When she visited Bekkersdal, Mrs Mandela said – and I quote her, in her presence:

I am deeply hurt that I have seen no changes since 1994, when I was here with Chris Hani. It's not acceptable that I should be driving over sewerage in Bekkersdal.

[Applause.] I am surprised that the Minister should attack me, when, in fact, he actually lectured at the Mangosuthu Technikon. [Interjections.] It reminds me of the mother of my great-grandfather, King Dinuzulu. When my grandfather, King Dinuzulu was exiled on St Helena, his mother actually acted as Regent. He formed a regiment ...

IsiZulu:

... ukudakwa ukusutha, ngoba abantu bayadakwa ukusutha. [Uhleko.] [Ihlombe.]

Your Excellency, to me, the National Development Plan, the NDP, is the best wish list for our country thus far. However, our enthusiasm for the NDP has been dampened by the fact that the tripartite partners of the ruling party reject it. From experience we know that when one of the tripartite allies sneezes, the ruling party catches a cold. This was exemplified by Cosatu's rejection of former President Mbeki's macroeconomic policy of Growth, Employment and Redistribution.

Mr President, if there were any certainty that the NDP will be implemented, South Africans might have reason to forgive you for any of your errors. The NDP has the potential to be your greatest legacy, sir. But will it ever be implemented?

Your warning that the strikes that take place at the drop of a hat can ruin our country was well said, sir. I remember that President Mbeki actually asked you to address the issue of our rigid labour laws when you were the Deputy President.

The warning that the weak exchange rate "poses a significant risk to inflation" has put anxiety in the hearts of our people who feel helpless in the face of the rising cost of living. And what hope do you offer them, Mr President, little more than the trite response you gave that we must "work together" and "do the right things"?

This administration has lost touch with the daily reality of its people. Rather than talking about how many cubic litres of jet fuel we can transport in a year, let's talk about the senseless loss of lives on our roads. Rather than simply thanking the many nongovernmental organisations, the NGOs, that lead the fight against the abuse of women and children, let's ask why government fails to back these organisations financially. Why are so many vital non-profit service providers constantly on the brink of closure?

There is money to be spent on these noble causes. But it is likely that this money is part of the billions that are lost to what the Auditor-General referred to as "unauthorised, irregular, wasteful and fruitless expenditure". We can talk about the R320 million that has been recovered through the National Anti-Corruption Hotline. But why do we not talk about the R24,8 billion lost by provincial departments through maladministration?

The 10 hospitals that have been built or refurbished look far less impressive against the 24 hospitals that could have been built with this mismanaged money; hospitals of the same standard as the R1 billion Nelson Mandela Children's Hospital.

In the same way, we can talk about the inordinately delayed successes of the Land Reform Programme. But why don't we talk about the R59 million's worth of farms lost through corruption in the Land Reform Programme or farms to the value of R52 million that are still under investigation?

Mr President, you have told us that the battle against HIV/Aids is "one of the biggest achievements of this administration". How quickly it is forgotten that the IFP had to join the Treatment Action Campaign, the TAC, in a Constitutional Court case as amicus curiae to force government to roll out antiretrovirals to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV. The IFP was already doing it in KwaZulu-Natal, but it took the Constitutional Court to force the ANC to follow suit. So, the biggest achievement of this administration has, in fact, been to emulate the leadership of the IFP.

I have spent my life tending to the wounded. I know what it means to stand alone, to suffer injustice and to mourn. I therefore long to heal this new sickness that has come upon our nation, the sickness of dishonest leadership.

As you know, Your Excellency, I am from a generation of leaders like Oliver Tambo, Walter Sisulu, Nelson Mandela, Govan Mbeki, Rowley Arenstein, Alphaeus Zulu, Zami Conco ... [Interjections.]

The SPEAKER: Order, hon members!

Prince M G BUTHELEZI: ... Robert Sobukwe, Steve Biko and Joe Matthews. In this Chamber I would say it is only the hon Andrew Mlangeni and probably Mrs Mandela and I who survive from that generation.

By circumstances of history, Mr Mlangeni and I have become the custodians of a political era in which integrity, morality and righteous leadership prevailed. For the sake of our future, I have imbued these values into a party that will continue long after I am gone.

I will have no shame over my legacy, for I have worked on the side of what is true and right. The party I founded continues on this path and is perhaps the last light of a political era our nation can be proud of.

I apologise to no one for the fact that when Inkatha was founded in 1975, with the approval of Mr Oliver Tambo, it was structured on the ideals of nonviolence and negotiations propounded by the founding fathers of the ANC in 1912. I was vilified for pursuing this path, just as Madiba was bad-mouthed by some of you when he started negotiating with the regime while he was still in prison. Yet, we would not be where we are today as a country had we not both pursued those negotiations.

It is odd then, Your Excellency, that after the state of the nation address, our brothers and sisters on that side of the aisle in this House started singing one of uMkhonto weSizwe's songs. How does that nurture the reconciliation to which Madiba dedicated his life?

On 7 May 2014, I pray that the people of goodwill choose to maintain a connection with South Africa's former glory, not by blindly continuing with a poor imitation of a party that has long since lost its principles, but by creating continuity with the South Africa of 1994 and by voting for my party.

Continuing down the present path, democracy will surely perish. However, there is hope to change course and begin to heal. On 7 May 2014, South Africa will visit the trauma unit. Whether we emerge healed or dying is up to the electorate.

It is thus grossly irresponsible to promise what one cannot deliver and hide what has gone wrong under a thin veneer of sporadic successes. It is equally irresponsible to ply the electorate with food parcels and to campaign with state resources. It is irresponsible to make statements about our ancestors and the way into Heaven, or about businessmen securing business through a party donation.

South Africa deserves a free and fair election not only in the rhetorical sense, but in fact. Voters deserve to know the truth, whether that truth is about multimillion rand security upgrades or crime statistics. Voters deserve to know why the ruling party ignored the will of the people for such an inordinately long time when we spoke with one voice against the Security Bill. Voters deserve to know.

There is pain in our nation, Your Excellency, and no amount of sweet talking is going to remove it. We need to get to the heart of the sickness and heal our nation. My party and I stand ready to do that, hand in hand with the people of goodwill. You can vilify me. You can hate me. That will be nothing new to me. But the time has come to prescribe something more than an antibiotic. The time has come for an amputation so that our country can move forward without the dead weight of a leadership that no longer leads with integrity. Only then will the state of the nation address begin to reflect the truth. Only then, can we begin to heal. Nxamalala, Msholozi! [Applause.]

The MINISTER OF WOMEN, CHILDREN AND PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES

UNREVISED HANSARD

NATIONAL ASSEMBLY

Tuesday, 18 February 2014 Take: 6

Prince M G BUTHELEZI

The MINISTER OF WOMEN, CHILDREN AND PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES: Speaker, may I remind the hon Chief Buthelezi that if Tata uSisulu, Mbeki, Mandela, Luthuli, and Rev Mahabane were all here, they would be sitting on this side of the House. [Applause.] I wish to remind the hon leaders that Mandela is sitting in the ANC branch as we speak. I wish to remind hon members that he has also paid his membership fees to the ANC through his royalties that will for ever go to the ANC. [Applause.]

IsiXhosa:

Ndifuna ukubuza usis' Lindiwe ukuba xa esazi kangaka ...

English:

Why did the DA rent a Mamphela face for President?

IsiXhosa:

Ndifuna ukumbuza ukuba ebephi xa bekufunyaniswa urhwaphilizo olwenziwe yiNkulumbuso yaseNtshona Koloni ethe yanikezela ngesiniki-maxabiso kumcebisi wayo kulo rhulumente weNtshona Koloni. Ebephi xa kukho uqhankqalazo ngokuziswa kweenkonzo ngabahlali baseKhayelitsha, eGugulethu naseDu Noon? Ebephi? Ebethulele ntoni?

English:

I want to agree with the unwavering assertion made by President Jacob Zuma during his state of the nation address, when he stated that "South Africa is a much better place to live in now than it has been before".

IsiXhosa:

Ndikhumbuze ...

English:

... hon Terror, if you can't run a "pophuis" [doll's house] party like Cope, how can you ever run South Africa? [Applause.] [Laughter.] Indeed, Mr President, the liberation brought for the first time the promise of gender equality.

The path towards the mainstreaming of gender equality was paved by the late former President Nelson Mandela 20 years ago during his inaugural state of the nation address, when he stated that, "freedom cannot be achieved unless women have been emancipated from all forms of oppression". Madiba made a call that the condition of the women of our country must radically be changed for the better and that they must be empowered to intervene in all aspects of life as equals with any other member of society. The realisation of women's empowerment and gender equality in South Africa remains guided by his words under the leadership of the ANC. As a result, today we stand here and boldly declare that South Africa is a much better place to live in now than it has ever been before.

The establishment of the Ministry of Women, Children and People with Disabilities by hon President Jacob Zuma in 2009 stands as a testament to this commitment to promote, facilitate, co-ordinate and monitor the realisation of the rights and empowerment of women, children and people with disabilities. This is an articulation of the equality clause in our Bill of Rights and the principles and policies of the ANC.

The country has made great strides in addressing nonracialism, nonsexism, and gender discrimination and in creating institutions and mechanisms for women's empowerment and gender equality, such as the Commission for Gender Equality. Key international instruments such as the Beijing Platform for Action, the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, Cedaw, the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa, the AU's Assembly of Heads of States, and the SADC Protocol on Gender and Development have all been signed and ratified by this ANC-led government. These have set new benchmarks and targets for government to achieve.

In 2000, the South African National Policy Framework for Women's Empowerment and Gender Equality was adopted by Cabinet and became the beacon guiding progress in this regard. It created a vibrant national gender machinery in the country, which comprise women from government structures, Parliament, the Commission for Gender Equality and civil society. South Africa's good performance on gender equality is evident both in international and regional indices. On the Social Institutions and Gender Index of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, OECD, South Africa is ranked fourth out of the 87 countries in the 2012 index and was the top-ranked country in Africa. A good story to tell! [Applause.] On the SADC Gender and Development Index, South Africa ranked second in 2012, with a score only slightly lower than that of the top performer, the Seychelles. On the World Economic Forum's Global Gender Gap Index, South Africa has consistently remained in the upper levels, reaching the 6th position in 2011.

During South Africa's participation in the 57th Session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women, UNCSW, Ms Michelle Bachelet, former executive director of UN Women and now the President of Chile, praised South Africa for the launching of the National Council Against Gender-Based Violence on 10 December 2012, acknowledging the strategic day chosen, as it was International Human Rights Day.

The executive director also noted with appreciation the commemoration of the International Day of Rural Women in South Africa and urged that we continue to highlight the situation of rural women in our country. She further recognised the pro-activeness of the Women's Empowerment and Gender Equality Bill, adding that the success of the Bill will lay in including all stakeholders, particularly the private sector.

One of our greatest achievements in this new democracy since in 1994 is the remarkable representation of women at political and decision-making levels, which is a cogent manifestation of the high level of commitment and political will for gender equality and women's empowerment by the ANC government. Before 1994, the South African Parliament had a mere 2,7% representation of women. Through the visionary leadership of former President Nelson Mandela and the ANC.You will remember that he always said: "I work in a collective; I am led by the collective of the ANC." Female representation jumped tenfold to 27% following the 1994 elections. After 1997, we had reached 30% under former President Thabo Mbeki, after the ANC's Mafikeng conference which adopted the 30% target on gender. By 1999 and in 2004, we had reached 33% representation of women under former President Mbeki.

In its Polokwane national conference held in 2007, the ANC adopted the 50/50 representation. This increased the representation of women in Parliament to 44% and 42% in Cabinet under the leadership of President Jacob Zuma - a good story to tell. [Applause.]

Chairperson, the progress our nation is making is mainly due to the commitment of the ANC to women's empowerment and gender equality. So, women of South Africa ...

IsiXhosa:

... niyazi ukuba ngubani olwela amalungelo enu. Ngumbutho wesizwe i-ANC. Khona ngoku, sixoxa ngamalungelo oomama kuMthetho osaYilwayo ongeMivuzo. Aba be-DA baxakekile balwela ...

English:

... big companies because they want the rich to become richer and the poor to become poorer. [Applause.]

Once enacted, the Women's Empowerment and Gender Equality Bill will become a powerful instrument to advance the objectives of gender equality and women's empowerment and enforce compliance on the empowerment of women on the existing legislative framework both within and outside the Public Service.

To this day ...

IsiXhosa:

... sisalinde i-DA ide ikhethe uMphathiswa abemnye apha eNtshona Koloni. Kule Khabinethi yaseNtshona Koloni kugcwele ootata uninzi lwabo bamhlophe kwaye bangwevu. Bayaphelelwa ngoku.

English:

Mr President, we have a good story to tell about the gender transformation of our country. We have done very well in various areas. To date, we have 10 directors-general who are women in the Public Service. Today, we have the governor of the Reserve Bank who is a woman; we have the chief executive officer of the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, JSE, who is a woman. The incoming chairperson of the JSE is also a woman. [Applause.]

IsiXhosa:

Alikho ilizwe ekumnandi kangaka kulo. Eli lizwe lelamakhosikazi.

English:

We still have a challenge in terms of the judiciary, where we have not done so well. To date, for instance, we have only two women serving in the Constitutional Court and that should be addressed as a matter of urgency. We are also doing very badly in the private sector. Therefore, we would like to make sure that, as we work on the Bill, the private sector is getting ready to be transformed, because we are going to pull them along kicking and screaming. They are going to be alright.

In terms of the economic empowerment of women, we have worked with various departments in the economic sector, the Department of Trade and Industry, the Department of Economic Development, the Department Land Reform and Rural Development, the Industrial Development Corporation, IDC, the Small Enterprise Development Agency, Seda, and other agencies.

IsiXhosa:

Imisebenzi yoomama bayidalile. Namhlanje oomama baneefama ezizezabo. Oomama bafuyile, bayalima. Abanye ndibabonile sebenezigidi ngezigidi zeerandi ngokuphakanyiswa ngulo rhulumente wethu. Oomama basebenza kumafelandawonye, baneenkqubo zokondla uluntu ezinceda ukuba bakwazi ukudala imisebenzi eluntwini, beyidalela oomama nolutsha lwethu eMzantsi Afrika.

Namhlanje sinabo oomama nakwezo ndawo kwakukade kusithiwa zezotata ezifana nemigodi, iinjineli, kwezokubhabha kweenqwelomoya, koololiwe, kwezenzululwazi nobuchwepheshe, kodwa ke sithi siseza kuqhubeka kangangoko ngoqeqesho nophuhliso ukuze oomama bakhule bafikelele kumgangatho ofana nowabanye oomama kwamanye amazwe.

Niyayazi imbali ye-ANC ngamalungelo oomama. Nokuba yayinguMongameli uMandela okanye uMongameli uMbeki, yayiyi-ANC leyo. [Kwaqhwatywa.]

Namhlanje sinoMgaqo-siseko ...

English:

... which is applauded the world over and which has an equality clause in the Bill of Rights which is the most progressive. We have the Domestic Violence Act, Act 116 of 1998, the Prevention of Family Violence Act, Act 113 of 1993, the Sexual Offences Act, Act 23 of 1957, the Promotion of Equality and Prevention of Unfair Discrimination Act and human trafficking laws.

IsiXhosa:

Le mithetho ke futhi iyasebenza kwaye iyaluma. Sizibonile izidlwengu nababulali boomama befumana izigwebo ezimbini zokufela entolongweni, esinye isesokudlwengula esinye isesokubulala. Siyavuya nangalo ugwetywe iminyaka engama-22 ngokuthwala umntwana wethu. Siyavuyisana nosapho lwexhoba siqhwabela izandla umantyi nejaji oabawise isigwebo. Sithi nabanye mabalandele ekhondweni.

English:

In fact, we are saying that these rapists who take our children and abuse them under the pretence of culture must get tougher sentences, even life sentences, because they rape the children, take them out of school and deny them opportunities to grow.

Mr President, we also have a good story to tell about the children of South Africa. Today, the ANC government has ensured that through our policies and budgets, we have education, health and social security services that protect and develop our children. Today, the number of children benefiting from early childhood development, ECD, and Grade R has doubled from 300 000 a few years ago to over 700 000 as we speak. We say we are working very hard to ensure that more children have access to education.

In terms of social security, child poverty in South Africa has been cut drastically. We have also seen, in terms of the Millennium Development Goals, MDGs, that we have achieved parity in schools, particularly at higher education level.

IsiXhosa:

Andizi kuba mde ke apha, kuba uMphathiswa uNzimande sele etyatyadule.

English:

We are also aware of the improvement in terms of the matric results. Every year our children are doing very well, all thanks to the ANC government. [Applause.]

As far as health is concerned, we want to commend the Minister of Health for lowering mother-to-child transmission by more than 60% in the past three years. [Applause.] This means that it has moved from 8% to where it now stands at 2,7%. This has also ensured that maternal mortality and child mortality levels have come down in South Africa, since these were related to HIV/Aids.

We also want to say that with regard to people with disabilities we have a good story to tell. South Africa has done very well postdemocracy in recognising the rights of persons with disabilities through the Constitution of 1996 and the Integrated National Disability Strategy of 1997. We were one of the first countries to sign and ratify the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which we are now realigning through our revised policy, and we will be working on legislation that will assist us to enforce the rights of people with disabilities.

Our experiences over the past 20 years have taught us that the right to self-representation holds the key to breaking barriers and opening doors to the creation of participatory democratic society. The slogan of the people with disabilities is "nothing about us without us". Once again, it was the ANC which, in 1994, walked the talk and became the first party to appoint a Member of Parliament with disabilities, Ms Maria Rantho.

Today we have 16 Members of Parliament, thanks to the ANC government. Throughout the country, we have 96 public representatives, whether they are councillors or provincial legislators, they are ANC public representatives. We also have two Deputy Ministers, in Women, Children and People with Disabilities and also in Science and Technology, which means our phones will be accessible.

Children with disabilities were by and large not welcome in ordinary schools prior to 1994. If a school principal did not want a child with a disability, the parents had to accept it. Today, all children between the ages of 7 and 15 have to attend school, including children with disabilities. Our inclusive education policies make sure that children with disabilities are accommodated in local schools. As a result, 94% of children with disabilities between the ages of 7 and 15 are enrolled in schools, compared to 73% in 2002.

Accessible transport is perhaps one of the most important enablers of persons with disabilities to ensure that they can access education and work opportunities. [Interjections.] The co-operation received and the sterling work done by the Department of Transport in instituting universal design access in Bus Rapid Transit, BRT, programmes needs to be commended. I thank you. [Time expired.][Applause.]

Ms A M DREYER ///tfm\\\Mia//NS (IsiXhosa) TAKE 6 ENDS AT 15:40:37.

UNREVISED HANSARD

NATIONAL ASSEMBLY

Tuesday, 18 February 2014 Take: 7

The MINISTER OF WOMEN, CHILDREN AND PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES

Ms A M DREYER: Madam Deputy Speaker, as I am speaking in Afrikaans today, members will have the opportunity to follow me in any of the other official languages through our brand-new electronic systems.

Afrikaans:
Sedert antieke Griekeland regeer 'n demokratiese en doeltreffende regering op 'n eerlike wyse met minimum korrupsie en met professionele finansiële bestuur. Op dié drie sake fokus ek vandag.

In elke staatsrede maak president Zuma beloftes oor korrupsie. In 2010:

We have repeatedly stated our commitment to fight corruption in the Public Service; we will intensify the fight against crime and corruption.

In 2011, "the fight against corruption continues," en in 2013 hoor ons ook hy sien korrupsie as 'n knelpunt.

Die Wêreldbank bevind egter die Zuma-regering se beheer oor korrupsie het tussen 2009 en 2012 met 10% verswak, en volgens Transparency International het skoon regering onder president Zuma oor die afgelope agt jaar met 30 punte gedaal! [Tussenwerpsels.] Reeds vyf jaar lank hoor ons dat tenderpreneurs vasgevat gaan word - nou skielik met 'n sogenaamde sentrale tenderraad. Intussen het die DA-regering in die Wes-Kaap tenderkomitees reeds lankal vir die publiek oopgestel, met groot sukses. Trouens, terwyl die DA-regering in die Wes-Kaap al in 2010 'n wet goedgekeur het wat staatsamptenare verbied om sake met die regering te doen, kry die Zuma-binnekring staatskontrakte, byvoorbeeld die argitek Minenhle Makhanya vir Nkandla!

Voorts, 'n kernvaardigheid van 'n doeltreffende owerheid is professionele finansiële bestuur. Op 13 Februarie spog president Zuma in sy staatsrede dat hy die land ál hoe beter regeer, maar wat is die waarheid? Volgens die Ouditeur-generaal, Kimi Makwetu, eskaleer die Zuma-regering se wanbesteding sedert die vorige boekjaar met 33%. Makwetu bevind ook regeringsdepartemente het die afgelope boekjaar meer as R2 000 miljoen op vrugtelose en vermorsde wyse spandeer en 'n verdere R26 000 miljoen onreëlmatig bestee.

Op 13 Februarie beweer president Zuma ook: "We have built strong institutions of democracy," maar volgens die Ouditeur-generaal Kimi Makwetu verontsagsaam 93% van nasionale departemente finansiële regulasies. Ek herhaal, 93% van departemente verontagsaam regulasies! Die Spesiale Ondersoekeenheid skat dat tot R30 000 miljoen elke jaar verlore gaan weens korrupsie in regeringsaankope.

Met hierdie R30 000 miljoen wat lede van die Zuma-regime vermors en steel, kan die DA-regering in die Wes-Kaap elke jaar 162 000 nuwe onderwysers aanstel en beurse aan 500 000 studente betaal. Trouens, volgens die beoordeling deur die onafhanklike grondwetlike instelling, die SA Institute of Government Auditors verlede jaar, was sewe uit die tien top-bestuurde provinsiale departemente in die Wes-Kaap. Dus is die Wes-Kaap in 2013 die bes regeerde provinsie in Suid-Afrika! [Applous.] [Tussenwerpsels.]

Ter samevatting, terwyl elke staatsrede beloftes maak, misken 93% van staatsdepartemente finansiële regulasies en gaan R30 000 miljoen van ons belasting elke jaar verlore weens korrupsie.

Mevrou die Adjunkspeaker, dalk lê die kern van wanbestuur by die kern van die regering, by Nommer 1! Ondanks vyf ampswonings word meer as R200 miljoen van die publiek se geld aan sy private woning by Nkandla spandeer, vir veiligheid! 'n Mens is mos veiliger met liggies, struike en 'n beeskraal! 'n Mens is mos veiliger met 'n nuwe gimnasium net vir jouself! En 'n mens is die heel veiligste in 'n reuse-swembad!

'n Bedrag van R3,6 miljoen van die publiek se geld word gebruik om te keer dat spioenasiebande met die ware feite oor hom vrygestel word. Sewehonderd-drie-en-tagtig klagtes is teen hom ingedien vir geldwassery, bedrog en korrupsie. Die kern in hierdie nes van korrupsie is mnr Jacob Zuma! [Applous.]


Mr J J MCGLUWA


 

UNREVISED HANSARD

NATIONAL ASSEMBLY

Tuesday, 18 February 2014 Take: 7

Mr A M DREYER

Mr J J MCGLUWA: Deputy Speaker, what an honour it is to have a response after the President's state of the nation address. It was an address that was the story of a President who has failed to deliver on his promises.

I cannot agree more with you, Mr President, that South Africa is indeed a better place since 1994. However, is South Africa a better place since 2009, when President Zuma first assumed office?

That is the real question here today. That is the question South Africans are asking in their homes across the country. The answer is: No! Deputy Speaker, the story of Zuma's ANC since 2009 is not a good story. During President Zuma's term it has never been more difficult to find employment.

Speaker, in his speech, President Zuma said that:

Our country still faces the triple challenge of poverty, inequality and unemployment, which we continue to grapple with.

But what is his plan to deal with it if that is true? He provides none in his speech, except for the creation of job opportunities. Our people we want the dignity of a real job. Where is his plan to combat corruption, which is a major source of unemployment in this country? I am not surprised that there isn't one because he has no credibility to speak to South Africans on corruption. South Africans only see the palace of Nkandla when he speaks of corruption.

The hon President has told us the story of Transnet's new multiproduct pipeline. But, Minister Nzimande, the part of this story that our President has not told us is that work on this project began in 2008 and was meant to be completed by 2010. It was initially budgeted at R9.5 billion and has been delayed for three years and the costs have more than doubled from R9 billion to R23,4 billion. [Interjections.]

A review on the systematic failures of this project was completed late last year, but until now no information on the cost overruns of R14 billion and a delay of three years has been made public to us. Hon Lekota, if you calculate the fruitless expenditure that you have mentioned here today, it is worth more than R70 billion that has gone down the drain in President Zuma's term due to unauthorised, irregular, fruitless and wasteful spending by government departments and public entities. Instead, the President boasted last week that he had a good story to tell and I quote, "government has recovered more than R320 million from perpetrators through the National Anti-Corruption Hotline." Seventy billion rand is still gone, Mr President ...

IsiZulu:

... imali iphelile. [Ihlombe.]

English:
This actually reminds me of a story written by Hans Christian Andersen about two weavers who promised an emperor a new suit of clothes. But the emperor's new clothes were invisible. He was blind to his nakedness but the people could see him for what he truly was. South Africa cannot be fooled; we shall be among those to remind the emperor of his failures.

Speaker, if we want to talk about decorum in this House, then we must be able to carry the proverbial flag, if President Zuma's record is something to go by, this state of the nation address should be President Zuma's last. That indeed would be a good story to tell. I thank you. [Applause.]
 

Mr B H HOLOMISA / JN / End Of Take

UNREVISED HANSARD

NATIONAL ASSEMBLY

Tuesday, 18 February 2014 Take: 8

Mr J J McGLUWA

Mr B H HOLOMISA: Chairperson, hon President, hon Deputy President and hon members ...

IsiXhosa:

...Nxamalala, lithini eli nkentshane linguBlade? [Laughter.]

English:

Thank you, Mr President, for sending Minister Chabane to help the Walter Sisulu University students whilst that confused communist was being helped at a certain rehabilitation centre to deal with his addiction to one of the whisky products.

Mr President, allow me to apologise in advance for I will not be able to stay for the entire duration of this debate.

Mr L SUKA: Deputy Speaker, on a point of order: I think the hon member is making an insinuation about the hon Minister.

Mr B H HOLOMISA: It's an insinuation ...

IsiXhosa:

... utsho nawe.

English:

I didn't accuse him.

Mr L SUKA: He is making a serious allegation against the Minister of Higher Education regarding the rehabilitation because of one of the whisky brands.

Mr B H HOLOMISA: Go and investigate.

Mr L SUKA: That is not parliamentary, Deputy Speaker. Will you please rule on that?

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Hon Holomisa ...

Mr B H HOLOMISA: Yes.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: ... you know where you must make those allegations?

Mr B H HOLOMISA: I thought you would go and consult your advisers and then come back to the House and tell us.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Hon Holomisa ...

Mr B H HOLOMISA: Okay, I withdraw.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Thank you very much.

Mr B H HOLOMISA: Mr President, allow me to apologise in advance for I will not be able to stay for the entire duration of this debate. I have to go to Pretoria to finalise the submission of the Defence Force Service Commission to the Portfolio Committee on Defence. I also need to prepare for my trip to Bloemfontein to attend the National Defence Force Day celebration. I hope you understand, sir, because you assigned me and others in this country with this task.

Deputy Speaker, the 2014 state of the nation address debate takes place at a time when South Africa marks 20 years of freedom. This gives us an opportunity to reflect on the progress made and the challenges facing South Africa today. We acknowledge the good strides made since the attainment of our freedom. We also fully concur with you, Mr President, that South Africa is a better place to live in today than it was before 1994.

However, contrary to popular belief, many South Africans do not have a good story to tell about our 20 years of freedom. Millions of South Africans in townships, rural and peri-urban areas still do not have access to land, houses, water and sanitation. Even in instances where services have been delivered, the quality of the final product leaves much to be desired. As we speak, government has to demolish and rebuild thousands of poorly built RDP houses around the country.

There is also a general lack of maintenance of the existing infrastructure in many previously disadvantaged communities, which negatively affects the delivery of water and electricity.

While the UDM acknowledges the impact of the colonial and apartheid legacy on the South African economy, but 20 years into our democracy, there is clear evidence that poor choice of economic policies, economic mismanagement and corruption have negatively affected our economy.

Furthermore, over the last 20 years we have witnessed growing levels of tension and mistrust among the three main role-players, ie government, labour and business. On the one hand this mistrust has discouraged big business from investing billions of available cash in our economy. On the other it has often resulted in illegal and violent strikes, which negatively affect the economy, depress the currency and investor sentiment.

These strained and often volatile industrial relations have resulted in high unemployment rates. Millions of South Africans are unemployed, the majority of whom are the youth, while others live in abject poverty. Rising food prices and fuel costs have added to the misery by making it difficult for many South Africans to make ends meet.

What adds insult to injury is that our education system fails to give our children the basic education they need to be economically active. In the meantime levels of inequality are increasing at an alarming rate. The high levels of inequality are a direct result of corruption and policies that allow the rich to accumulate obscene wealth at the expense of the poor and marginalised. The most painful irony, however, is that of a former liberation movement that espoused egalitarian principles during the struggle years only to preside over the most grotesque and ever worsening levels of inequality.

Government has over the past 20 years taken decisions that have caused the country much embarrassment. Some of these decisions and transactions, which were laced with corruption, include, but are not limited to Sarafina 2, you'll remember, the arms deal, the touchy chancellor house Eskom deal, the Dina Pule saga, the IEC and South African Police Service lease agreement scandals, Nkandlagate scandal and so on.

Whilst talking about the Nkandlagate scandal, Mr President, we have noted your comments in the media over the past weekend regarding government's spending of millions of taxpayers' money on your private property. There is no doubt that this scandal has brought the country into disrepute. You keep telling us that you had no knowledge of these improvements, but you never tell us what steps you have taken to solve this fiasco.

Mr President, had it not been the media that exposed this scandal, there would have been no Public Works and Public Protector investigations. We are concerned that in cases where senior ruling party leaders are caught with their hands in the cookie jar, junior officials are always made to take the blame. Even former President Mandela admitted to the widespread existence of corruption in the ruling party when he said in August 1998, and I quote:

We have learnt now that even those people with whom we fought the struggle against apartheid's corruption can themselves be corrupted.

Mr President, it seems that other South Africans have a different story to tell. No one can dispute that corruption destroys the gains of our freedom. It also chases away the investors. Bearing this in mind, government needs to take active steps to promote and entrench a culture of good governance. To root out corruption, the UDM believes that government should introduce courts that are dedicated to handling corruption cases. Government should restore the powers of the accounting officers and ensure that there is no political interference. The role of political heads should be confined to that of oversight.

The bleak picture I have sketched above about the strong prevalence of institutionalised corruption reminds South Africans never again to put all their eggs in one basket.

IsiXhosa:

Sonele kukumane sixelelwa ukuba mnye umbutho oza kulawula eli lizwe. Ngoku, kufuneka siyinqande le nto yokutyiwa kwemali. Okukona besiba namandla kokukona bewasebenzisa gwenxa loo mandla. Namhlanje amaxhegwazana awanazo neendlela ezilalini. Ukuba ungaya kwiilali ezifana nooMcelwana ungafumanisa ukuba zange babenawo umbane bengazange babenazo neendlela, kodwa babesincedisile ngokuya sasisithi makulwelwe inkululeko, masincediseni i-ANC size sikhululeke. Namhlanje akukho kwanto eyenziweyo.

Mhlekazi, siyawubulela lo mnxeba usivulele wona. Mandikhe ndenze amagqabantshintshi kula malungu athanda ukuhlala apha engazinto. Laa mnxeba wakho worhwaphilizo usincedile kakhulu kwaye siyawusebenzisa.

Xa ndiyile elalini okanye elokishini ndibuya ndibhale ukuba kwenziwe into entle ngamagosa karhulumente. Kodwa abanye aBaphathiswa uthi ngoku sele umba uwudlulisele kubo ukuba bawuqwalasele, aBaphathiswa abafana noBlade lo ebengxola apha, baye bangakwazi ukuzilungisa ezo zinto.

Ngoko ke kuza kufuneka – ndakunceda wena, ndakunceda wena, wawungenalo nephephamvume lokuqhuba eli phambi kowe-1994. Walifumane kwiphandle elalisaziwa ngokuba yiTranskei. Yithi ndiyaxoka! [Kwahlekwa.] [Laphela ixesha.]

The MINISTER OF INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS AND CO-OPERATION

UNREVISED HANSARD

NATIONAL ASSEMBLY

Tuesday, 18 February 2014 Take: 9

Mr B H HOLOMISA

The MINISTER OF INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS AND CO-OPERATION: Deputy Speaker, Mr President, Mr Deputy President, and hon members, indeed the international community confirms that South Africa has a good story to tell. Our freedom is a product of our people's struggles and the international solidarity. Tata Oliver Tambo would be satisfied that the foreign policy we pursue today resonates with what he and many other of our heroes and heroines, like Johnny Makatini, envisaged.

In his state of the nation address, His Excellency the President spoke about the good story of how South Africa contributes to the creation of a better South Africa on a better continent of Africa in a better world. He spoke about a peaceful and prosperous world, a world without hunger, disease and ignorance, a world founded on our values of Ubuntu – I am because you are – a world with global institutions that must rightfully represent all. Indeed, our vision of a better South Africa entails a vision of a better Africa in a better world.

The foreign policy of our country has come of age in the past 20 years. In 1994, the new government inherited a country which had suffered international isolation because of its apartheid policies, but we also, on the other hand, through the struggles of our own people, inherited the people's foreign policy of resistance and struggle, which became the launching pad when our country was warmly received as a new member of the international community.

Twenty years on, South Africa is no longer what former President Mandela referred to as a skunk of the world or a pariah state but is now on centre stage as a valuable and respected global player. We achieved these things because of our principled and independent foreign policy that is rooted in the plight of our continent and supported by strong South-South co-operation, as well as partnerships with the countries of the north, and our active participation in institutions of global governance.

As I stand here and speak today, Madam Deputy Speaker, South Africa in 20 years has attracted the second largest population of diplomats in the world. It is second only to Washington DC. [Applause.] Before 1994, South Africa was represented in less than 25 countries around the world. Today, under your leadership, Mr President, we are represented in more than 126 countries in just 20 years.

I know that for people who don't have a story to tell, it is very convenient to disaggregate and disappropriate the successes of the ANC in 20 years, but the international community refuses to listen to that. {Appluase.] In the space of 20 years, it is the ANC-led government that liberated this country from bondage. [Interjections.] Let me remind you of what happened in the past five years. Maybe some of us were fast asleep; I don't know. In the past five years of your administration and under your leadership, Mr President, South Africa has hosted the first ever soccer spectacular on African soil in 2010. [Applause.] At the end of that soccer spectacular, the world confirmed that this was a most successful Fifa Soccer World Cup on African soil. It was the first on African soil but the most successful globally. We wish Brazil well as they take over from us.

In 2011, South Africa, under President Zuma's leadership, infused new life into climate change negotiations when we hosted the Conference of the Parties: the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, Cop 17. We successfully placed the world on an unassailable course through the adoption of the historic Durban Platform for Enhanced Action, which will culminate, in 2015, in the adoption of a protocol or legal agreement that will be applicable from 2020. We are happy to report that the Durban legacy endures and continues to be the basis of future climate change responses.


In May 2012 South Africa successfully hosted the Global African Diaspora Summit, an event of historic significance in relations between Africa and its diaspora. The outcome of this summit was the creation of sustainable partnerships between the African diaspora and the African continent through a programme of action, the creation of sustainable dialogue, partnerships, the strengthening of Pan-African solidarity for a better Africa and her diaspora, and the promotion of South-South co-operation.

Under President Zuma's leadership South Africa not only joined Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa group, Brics, but also hosted the historic Brics Summit in March 2013. It was the first on African soil, whose key outcome, the eThekwini Action Plan, is being implemented under your chairmanship to the satisfaction of our Brics partners. The key outcome of this summit was the launch of concrete measures towards the establishment of the Brics-led Development Bank. All other international financial institutions confirm that there is space and that this is the right time for this bank to be established. We are working very hard to make sure that, under your leadership, Mr President, the domicile of this bank is here, in Mzanzi. [Applause.]

The establishment of the Brics Business Council and the Brics Think Tanks Council is just one of the highlights of this. A retreat between African leaders and their new and real - not donors - co-operating partners was hosted by His Excellency the President under the theme "Unlocking Africa's potential: Brics and Africa co-operation on infrastructure". We are currently the co-chair of a very important forum, the Forum on China–Africa Co-operation, the summit of which we will host in 2015.

We have sought to strengthen our continental organisations, notably the Southern African Development Community, SADC. Remember we used to be the real skunk in our own neighbourhood. Thanks to the frontline states, it is now easier to relate to, and to connect with, our neighbourhood in SADC. We are at the centre stage of strengthening institutions of governance in the African Union as a vehicle for the regeneration of Africa to build a continent that is free of conflict and underdevelopment. Self-reliance and finding African solutions to African problems remain our inspiration as we advance the implementation of the New Partnership for Africa's Development, Nepad. This is our very own initiative. By the way, the African Peer Review Mechanism rivals and will over time rival the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, OECD. This is our own peer review mechanism that should become a reference point on how we are faring as Africans here on African soil, but it should also say never again will this Africa be colonised; that we will use our own standards and measurements to check, through our own people, if are on the right path. We will continue to play a role, as we do, in the establishment of the African security architecture that would be to respond rapidly and timeously to crises, including the negation of unconstitutional changes of government.

Through Nepad's Presidential Infrastructure Champion Initiative, PICI, which is chaired by our President, we give practical meaning to our conviction that infrastructure connectivity is key to the achievement of an integrated and developed Africa which spearheads our economic diplomacy.

Our continent is indeed on the rise and on the move. It will continue to negate the new narrative that says we must be careful of ourselves, that we are becoming one of the "Fragile Five". The clock will never turn back. We are on the move forward, and all those who are progressive know that the global economic climate, at the moment, makes even those who have considered themselves to be developed fragile. So, we can't emerge and be fragile at the same time. We are aware of our weaknesses, and we continue to correct the wrongs that we come across along the way.

I say this with conviction, because we have just concluded the celebration of the golden jubilee of the existence of the Organisation of African Unity, OAU, the African Union, AU. We noted with pride that the last 50 years of our union witnessed the defeat of colonialism and the attainment of African unity as embodied in the OAU and the AU.

Africa is determining its own destiny over the next 50 years through Agenda 2063 that our very own countrywoman is leading at the moment through the AU Commission. This will be a long-term roadmap towards the social and economic development of our continent, building durable peace, consolidating democracy, and defining Africa's place and future in the world. With Agenda 2063, Africa is taking charge of writing its own narrative.

Peace is central to a better Africa. Through SADC, we have worked with the people of Zimbabwe and Madagascar for political normalcy in those two countries. South Africa remains actively engaged in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and South Sudan, amongst others. We thank the President for appointing the deputy chair of the National Development Plan, Mr Cyril Ramaphosa, as the special envoy of South Africa to South Sudan in order to support the mediation effort led by the Intergovernmental Authority on Development, Igad, and to encourage an environment of peace and reconciliation in South Sudan. We also welcome the appointment of Mr Ramaphosa as the President's special envoy to Sri Lanka to facilitate the sharing of our experience in nation-building and reconciliation with that sister nation. What is humbling for us is that we did not invite ourselves to those countries. It is the countrymen and women of those countries who said: South Africa, we can trust you; we believe you can be a sincere peace broker. Please, come and work with us, and please, come and support us. [Applause.]

Our brothers and sisters in some parts of North Africa are yet to fully recover from the painful process of democratisation of their countries. We have offered them our hand of solidarity and support.

Our country will assume its two-year membership in the African Union's Peace and Security Council from April 2014. The durable peace we want in Africa is also important to other regions of the world. South Africa supports international efforts aimed at the establishment of a viable Palestinian state, existing side by side in peace with Israel. Our international solidarity with Western Sahara, Cuba and Palestine continues to occupy an important place in our foreign policy. Hon Minister Lechesa Tsenoli has just informed me that this morning they had signed a memorandum of understanding with the authority in the government of the people of Palestine to support them in the establishment of local government structures in that country. [Applause.]

The Syrian conflict has been raging for nearly three years, with devastating humanitarian consequences. We were humbled by the invitation of the organisers of the Geneva II conference. We fully participated, and we will continue to support the efforts of the joint special representatives of the UN and the League of Arab States for Syria. Again, I wish to take this opportunity to confirm to the leadership here that when we were at that conference South Africa was the only sub-Saharan Africa state that was invited to Geneva II. Until we took the floor to speak, countries were saying that South Africa is the only country with moral authority that can make a valuable contribution to this discussion. We will continue to do so. [Applause.] South Africa applauded the successful last round of P5+1 negotiations on Iran in Geneva. We are hopeful that the current round of negotiations will be even more fruitful.


South Africa enjoys warm and cordial relations with all regions and countries of the world. Many of these relations are executed through well-structured bilateral mechanisms. Some are at the strategic level. Through these relations, we promote our national interests, which include our domestic priorities. These bilateral engagements range from co-operation on the African Agenda, economic diplomacy and the exchange of cutting-edge technology, as is evident from the the hon Minister Hanekom's very successful hosting of the first Brics Science, Technology and Innovation Ministerial Meeting in this country a week or so ago. It also works on capacity-building, infrastructure programmes, human resource and social development and multilateral co-operation. We remain committed members of the India, Brazil and South Africa, Ibsa, dialogue, together with Brazil and India, to solidify the South-South co-operation agenda.

We participate in institutions of global governance, notably the United Nations, informed by the belief that these institutions must be representative of the diversity of humanity and be governed in a transparent and open manner to the benefit of all nations, big and small. When our second term on the UN Security Council ended in December 2012, South Africa left that body more convinced than ever before of the urgency of the long outstanding issue of reform. We have therefore challenged the UN membership not to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the formation of the United Nations in 2015 with an unreformed United Nations Security Council. The current formation is unfair to developing and small countries, undemocratic and disenfranchises the majority of the member states of the United Nations who form the majority of the General Assembly.

Our country took its seat as a newly elected member of the UN Human Rights Council on 1 January 2014. Our election to this auspicious body reaffirms our commitment to the achievement of human rights for all our citizens, the citizens of the continent and the citizens of the world. We will continue to serve diligently to make sure that these rights are not just about political rights, but they are also about economic rights as we continue to serve in the United Nations Economic and Social Council, Ecosoc, also making sure that the post-2015 agenda champions the cause of the poor, the underprivileged and the people of the south.

South Africa will once again participate in the next G20 meeting to continue focusing specifically on the Development Working Group, while consciously remembering that we are currently the only African country participating in that process. We will always remember where we come from.

After 20 years of our freedom, a better South Africa has become a good story to tell. In the next five years and beyond, we must ceaselessly move South Africa forward. Leave the sceptics behind, because some of them wish they could turn the clock back as much as they cannot. [Applause.] The five decades of the independence of Africa have taken us closer to our goal of a better and a united Africa. We are now on course towards Agenda 2063.

A better world is also in the making. The countries of the south, including our own, are no longer spectators in this. The quest for a better world is a struggle that must continue, as the icon of our nation – the father of our nation – had said in many other settings, that:

To be free is not merely to cast off one's chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others.

This was confirmed by one of our forbearers on our continent, Kwame Nkrumah, when he said that:

Our independence is meaningless unless it is linked up with the total liberation of Africa.

This is the spirit of our foreign policy which is simultaneously rooted in our national interest, Pan-Africanism and internationalism. A better South Africa is for a better Africa and a better world.

Ke a leboga. [I thank you.] [Applause.]

Business suspended at 14:00 and resumed at 16:42.

Mr S C MOTAU

UNREVISED HANSARD

NATIONAL ASSEMBLY

Tuesday, 18 February 2014 Take: 10

The MINISTER OF INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS AND CO-OPERATION

Mr S C MOTAU: Mr President, Deputy President. Hon Speaker, there are more than 7 million fellow South Africans who are crying out for real jobs. This is a story we dare not ignore. Most of them are young people under the age of 35. They are frustrated and desperate as a bleak, jobless future stares them in their faces. Relentless unemployment seems to be the only certainty in their lives.

Something must be done to turn the pumpkin of work opportunities into the carriage of real jobs, particularly among young South Africans. The signs of agitation are there for us to see. Last year, hundreds of youths marched for jobs in Soshanguve, north of Pretoria.

The DA's recent march for real jobs in Johannesburg was attended by thousands of DA supporters and unemployed South Africans. These are but a few examples of the desperate need for government to create real jobs.

Quoting figures released by Statistics SA, President Zuma, last week told the nation that his ANC had a good story to tell, that 15.2 million people were employed and that employment increased by 653 000 jobs last year.

What the President did not tell the nation is that Statistics SA also reported that, of the 35 million working-age people in South Africa, 12.8 million were not economically active; 4.8 million people are unemployed and 2.2 million people are discouraged work seekers, that ia, they have given up looking for work, they've lost hope.

Even more frightening, is that 66% of all unemployed youth aged between 15 and 34 years are victims of long-term unemployment, a staggering 2.1 million young people. Scary as this is, it is not surprising when we consider that 36 290 jobs were lost in our local companies last month alone, this is not a good story to tell.

The painful inescapable truth is that weak economic leadership and ill-conceived labour policies have spawned high barriers to entry to the labour market, excluding millions of South Africans from accessing real jobs.

Sustainable economic growth is critical for jobs. The DA believes that the implementation of the right policies, as spelt out in the DA's Plan for Growth and Jobs, can achieve an annual economic growth rate of 8% and create 6 million real jobs by 2025. We know that this can be done. The trajectory of low growth and high unemployment on which President Zuma's administration has put South Africa, is not sustainable.

The 6 million work opportunities promised by President Zuma are short-term public works piece jobs. Although important for short-term poverty alleviation, Expanded Public Works Programme, EPWP, work opportunities are highly politicised and tend to go to ANC-connected people only. South Africans want jobs for all, not work opportunities for the friends of the ANC.

In his speech, the President did something valuable. He warned those involved in mining that strikes risk the loss of jobs. We thank him for urging caution on the sector. But his warning is too little, too late. Years of militant rhetoric by mining unions and Zuma's ANC have created a toxic atmosphere where worker intransigence will guarantee falling investment and disappearing jobs.

But when the CEO of South Africa's oldest mining house, Anglo American, tells us that the company is walking away from one of its most valuable assets it's time to be afraid. Ms Deputy Speaker, thousands of jobs hang in the balance. More and more companies are reducing their investment in the South African mining industry.

The current strike in the platinum industry, in its fourth week, has reportedly cost producers R2 billion in revenue and R900 million in forfeited wages sorely needed by workers. The unwillingness of the ANC government to seriously engage in labour reform has brought us to this unfortunate impasse.

Into this poisonous space we have the new Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Amendment Bill, which has been driven by the ANC's traditional hostility towards the mining industry, by a belief that mines are an enemy of our people, not a potential partner to propel them out of poverty.

Compound all this with poor infrastructure; failing roads and railways; and power cuts such as those in Richard's Bay, preventing the export of millions of rands worth of coal, all hamper growth. There is talk about fixing infrastructure, but it largely remains ust talk.

Clearly, now is the time for bold change. The DA can deliver this bold change. The time to implement National Development Plan, NDP, recommendations on jobs is overdue, but this cannot be left to Nedlac. In its current ... Thank you. [Time expired.] [Applause.]

Ms J TSHABALALA/

UNREVISED HANSARD

NATIONAL ASSEMBLY

Tuesday, 18 February 2014 Take: 10

Mr S C MOTAU

Ms J TSHABALALA: Deputy Speaker, indeed we do have a good story to tell, and I'm going to tell you the story. Hon Deputy Speaker, hon President, hon Deputy President, hon Ministers, Deputy Ministers, Members of Parliament, distinguished guests in the gallery and viewers at home, in his state of the nation address, hon Jacob Zuma noted with fact, and quite a measure of concern around youth unemployment.

As much Statistics SA has released that the youth unemployment has declined, however, he notes with concern that indeed it is not a unique phenomenon only to South Africa, but it is a global crisis and thus we are dealing with it.

The Expanded Public Works Programme, EPWP, was introduced in 2004 as one of the measures to reduce the negative impacts in high persistent level of youth unemployment. It is aimed to provide the unemployment opportunity to work an avenue to contribute developing their communities and country.

We should remember that the ANC-led government has inherited a government that didn't care about the young people that were a majority then. It inherited a government that only wanted young people in prison and to kill them.

Hon President, the hegemony of our movement must take clear shape and meaning. The roll-out of youth empowerment and development programmes to all youth in our country, rural, urban, farms, townships and suburbs can't afford any delays.

The EPWP public employment programmes extend over numerous sectors, which include Community Work Programme, CWP, Infrastructure, Social Sector Public Employment Programmes, Environment and Culture Sector and Nonprofit Organisations.

Since the start of EPWP Phase, we have seen, in 2012-13, the rise of 3.5 million work opportunities. With that said, it is possible for us to create 6 million work opportunities in this administration. [Applause.]

Hon President, in Gauteng, Ekurhuleni Metro, we've seen that there is a project called Thembisa Youth Empowerment, where young people have been given skills to ensure that they are able to install solar geysers. They are exited and enthusiastic about this project

It does not end there. There is also a partnership with the Ekurhuleni FET College, Public Works, and the Department of Trade and Industry to ensure that they give young people the skills and the certificates so that they may be able to formulate co-operatives.

This is just an emulation on the impact of EPWPs. As much as there are some who kick up a hullaballoo and say that the EPWP does not provide decent work, the EPWP creates an opportunity for young people to be entrepreneurs and be the masters of their own creation in their lifetime. [Applause.]

The EPWP in young people in the Northern Cape has employed 181 beneficiaries in the province. Of this number, 15% are people with disabilities. Through this, 20% received permanent employment in the mining industry, 7% in the Department of Education, 5% in health, 10% in the South African Social Security Agency, 30% in the Department of Social Development and 19% have been employed in the retail industry.

The ANC manifesto clearly spells out 6 million job opportunities and we won't shy away from it, even when people are telling us about job opportunities or decent work because they just woke up and said it. The reality of the situation is that it is our Cosatu that has been canvassing for decent work.

Now some people have woken up and are telling us that they want decent jobs, and they go and march. It is not true. It must be noted that it is the ANC that cares about its own people [Applause.] People tell us today that they've released their own labour statistics and they say that they want to grow the economy by 9%, when we said that we wanted to grow it by 5%.

It is quite conniving and political, and we can even see that DA has run out of ideas. It is very clear from where we are sitting, as we heard from the last speaker, about what they are speaking about, that they are taking their cue from what the ANC is saying. The ANC speaks about 6 million job opportunities. Now they are speaking about decent jobs in the same ratio, so you can see that they don't have ideas. [Applause.]

The youth must be able to learn from history to be able to contribute in the present and successfully master their future. To young people of the country I must say that the future is a reality and not merely a dream. This is the very reason that the firm responsibility of our movement is to ensure that sufficient investment in our young people is given importance.

As I said, Mr President, I would like to salute the ANC for ensuring that they reward the young people by investing in them, rather than giving them the title of leader - a leader of what, I have no idea. [Laughter.] What they don't do is allow those young people to learn how to crawl and become able to learn how to walk.

Those young people will forever suffer from what we call mental slavery and they will later develop what is called the late adolescence stage, which is where we are sitting in this House. [Applause.] Being youth is not about age, hon members, it's a state of mind, and we've seen the state of mind in the House.

However, hon Deputy Speaker, as the youth of 1940s and 1970s did not disappoint the finest cause of our people, we dare not fail to do even more to defend the gains of the revolution. Our responsibility should be, in the words of Fidel Castro:

All and everything for the revolution and nothing against it.

We must continue to sharpen our skills and broaden our political landscape. This is to safeguard against falling prey to the vultures of doom. We will be guilty of lying if we were to claim that all is well. It is in our preparedness and discipline that, as youth, we will take forward the national cause and ensure that we do what the ANC wants, unlike those who join the voice of popcorn civic organisations, which will not help us. However, there must be continual support and engagement with our government to improve the cause.

Amongst other issues, Mr President, I would like to speak about the multi-pronged strategy that we have been speaking about for ever with a view to addressing youth unemployment. We are speaking about the EPWP that gives R5.8 billion to this administration and that is proudly brought to you by the ANC, the NSFAS R9 billion loan, the R10 billion Jobs Fund, the Youth Tax Incentive, NYDA and Mzansi Golden Economy, that has R214 million. Who wants to tell me that the ANC government does not care about the young people in the investment of the youth development?

Hon President, let me take the opportunity to welcome the Presidential Youth Indaba on jobs and skills. That should, amongst other things, be able to come up with a programme that could be used as a measuring tool to track progress and initiatives of all the different departments in dealing with youth development. Siyabonga, Baba!

I want to say to young people that belong to YCLSA, Cosas, Cosatu, ANC Youth League and all young people within all fraternities of society that they must keep calm, the ANC is here; is not going anywhere.[Applause.] With that said, I also want to say that where I'm sitting the ANC cares about them and that we will for ever care about them, unlike the rhetoric of the DA, which claims to be championing real jobs as opposed to EPWP jobs.

In this case, the DA should please explain to South Africans why last year they bitterly opposed raising the minimum wage of farm workers from R65 to the present R105. The R65 that the DA was defending is actually less than the R67 minimum stipend paid to EPWP participants.

The DA, therefore, must be able to tell us what the decent wage is that they are speaking about. It is mere rhetoric and political campaigning that is happening. I want to say to you that we are the only ANC, which has what is called the PYA and our young people have a right to listen to us.

The last thing I want to say is to the hon member from Cope, who unfortunately is not here. He spoke about young people that are burning somewhere and all that. I want to say that Sasco has a right to march. It is this ANC that canvasses democratic rights, so the same administration is marching again to resolve its own contradiction.

It therefore should not come as a surprise that young people are marching in this democracy, it is important, and this hon President always is canvasses for the unfolding of democratic processes. So, when you say that everybody is saying that the country is burning, what is burning in the country? It is an honourable principle and democratic right to protest. I would like to thank you. [Time expired.] [Applause.]

Rev K R J MESHOE/ EKS/ TAKE 10 ENDS AT 16:56:23.

UNREVISED HANSARD

NATIONAL ASSEMBLY

Tuesday, 18 February 2014 Take: 11

Ms J TSHABALALA

Rev K R J MESHOE: Hon Deputy Speaker, hon President, hon Deputy President and hon members, the ACDP agrees with hon President Zuma that we live in a much better country than we did before 1994. The President punctuated his state of the nation address with the phrase, "We have a good story to tell." Yes, we all love good stories, particularly stories that inspire confidence and hope for the future. Sadly, the President's stories failed to inspire hope for the future, and instead of looking forward, his speech focused on the past. It gave examples of what government had done since 1994, but there was little to no mention of what government intends to do to address the many serious challenges presently facing our nation.

In reference to violent service delivery protests, the President said, and I quote:

The dominant narrative in the case of the protests in South Africa has been to attribute them to alleged failures of government. However, the protests are not simply the result of failures of government, but also of the success in delivering basic services.

The ACDP does not agree with this assumption. Success in the delivery of basic services does not spark violent protests, but rather reassures our needy people that their expectations of service delivery will be met. The only way success in delivering basic services might spark protests would be if community members had concluded that delivery of basic services will only happen in response to violent protests. If this is the case, then the government must take the blame for it.

It is a shame that after 20 years of democracy, there are still communities who do not have access to clean running water and proper sanitation. The President further said, and I quote:

Government has begun an intensive programme to eliminate the bucket system as part of restoring the dignity of our people. Phase one of the programme will eradicate buckets in formalised townships of the Free State, Eastern Cape and Northern Cape. Phase two will eradicate buckets in informal settlements in all provinces.

I want to know from the President why it took government 20 years to realise that the bucket system undermines the dignity of our people. Why did it take 20 years before the President announce phase one of the programme that will eradicate buckets in formalised townships? When is government planning to implement both phase one and phase two of this programme?

The ACDP believes that 20 years was more than enough to eradicate this evil system from all our townships. It seems there was no urgency by government to do away with this humiliating system. Towards the end of his speech, the President said, and I quote him for the last time:

This is not an occasion to present the programme of action for this financial year. That programme will be presented by the new government after the elections.

Who is this new government that the President is referring to? Let us hope it is a multiparty government we will have after the elections that will address the ills that the ANC-led government could not address. I think members of the ruling party have become too comfortable and some of them have even become too arrogant. I believe the time has come for members of this side to switch places and go to that side, and members of that side to go to the other side. [Applause.]

In certain areas some voter registration stations were petrol bombed, while in other places election materials were damaged and the Independent Election Commission, IEC, banners were removed from fences and set alight. The IEC is very concerned about whether the coming elections are going to be peaceful or not. While the President is aware of this uncertainty and what happened to the IEC voting stations, he didn't say anything about that. The ACDP would like the President to address this issue of violence before the elections in his reply on Thursday, because we all want to have peaceful, free and fair elections so that the results would be credible, and that when the shock happens and when these members would have to move this side, they should not say something wrong has happened. We want peaceful, free and fair elections.

About a week ago, we were shocked to hear the acting Gauteng Police Commissioner say that the province has experienced 569 service delivery protests during the past three months and many of them turned violent, while President Zuma is reported to have said that:

Because it is election year, politicians are masquerading as service delivery protesters wanting to overthrow each other.

Obviously this is another shock.

The fact is that it is not politicians who are masquerading, but there are still too many communities that have not seen any change in their environment and living conditions since the dawn of democracy. Many of them feel betrayed by the government they voted for and are becoming frustrated and angry.

There are also thousands of protestors who have applied for RDP houses in the mid 1990s and to date they have still not received the promised houses. Some of those who have been waiting patiently have become disillusioned when they see newcomers jumping the queue and getting houses. Obviously this is part of the corruption that is happening in the country. When these people go to the Department of Housing for an explanation, they are met by abusive and arrogant officials. So, they ask the question where they should turn to. To vent their frustrations, many of them resort to illegal activities that we should all strongly condemn. Rather than to meet with these frustrated people, government responds by sending the police who, many times, end up arresting and shooting at protesting community members.

One policeman told me how difficult it is for them to follow instructions to be tough with protestors whose problems they understand because they live with them in the same areas. He said that they are instructed to protect corrupt officials, councillors and politicians who are stealing from the poor. He told me how unfair the system was as they are expected to side with the corrupt officials against people in their own communities.

Hon President, something has to be done urgently. You need to be seen taking a decisive action against all those corrupt officials. Violent service delivery protests are mainly a political problem that cannot be solved by the brutality of the police, but by the politicians themselves who have the authority to change regulations and laws, particularly those politicians on our right. Our police should not be turned against members of their own communities because of corrupt politicians or the failure of government to deliver on their promises.

The President was correct when he said that South Africans want a corrupt-free society. Even though government may have recovered more than R320 million from perpetrators through the National Anti-Corruption Hotline - and obviously this has to be commended - this amount fades into insignificance when compared to the amount that has been lost.

According to the Auditor-Genera, Thembekile Makwetu, government entities wasted more than R2 billion in the last financial year despite an improvement in audit outcomes and incurred another R26,4 billion in irregular spending. Most of the irregular spending was the result of contracting with companies that did not have tax clearance from the SA Revenue Service. The ACDP believes that all those who were involved in the awarding of contracts to unregistered companies should be criminally charged and all the monies should be recovered. Three hundred and twenty million rands are not enough.

Corruption that robs our people of important services they deserve must be uprooted from our country. I know of a company that withdrew its investment from our country because it was not willing to pay bribes to officials. They were told that they would not win a tender without greasing ... Thank you. [Time expired.] [Applause.]

Ms L N MOSS / Mpho/ END OF TAKE 11 AT 17:06:00.

UNREVISED HANSARD

NATIONAL ASSEMBLY

Tuesday, 18 February 2014 Take: 12

Rev K R J MESHOE

Me L N MOSS: Agb Speaker, agb President, agb Adjunkpresident, agb Ministers en Adjunkministers, lede van die Parlement en gewaardeerde gaste, alhoewel die meeste van die gaste van Gugulethu al weg is, wil ek ook vir hulle in hul afwesigheid sê dat hulle welkom was.

Ons het 'n goeie verhaal om te vertel. Vandag is dit beter in Suid-Afrika as wat dit onder apartheid was. [Tussenwerpsels.] Jy kan jou mond hou, asseblief!

Die ANC regering sorg vir Suid-Afrikaners van kindsbeen tot senior burgers. Ons het 'n omvattende strategie ontwikkel ten opsigte van vroeë kinderontwikkeling, VKO.

English:

Mrs S V KALYAN: Speaker, may I address you on a point of order, please? I submit that the phrase which the member used – I do not know the full or exact words, but it was, "jou mond hou" – is unparliamentary if I think about the English version, and I ask you to rule on that, please.

The SPEAKER: If you don't know exactly what she said, how do you know what she said?

Mrs S V KALYAN: Sir, the English translation is "shut up". I think that is unparliamentary. [Interjections.]

The SPEAKER: Order, order hon members! I did not hear that, but I will study the Hansard and come back to you. Proceed, hon member.

Afrikaans:

Me L N MOSS: Teen 2012 het 984 524 kinders toegang tot kinderontwikkeling gehad. Uitagwes ten opsigte van VKO het toegeneem en staan tans op R1,3 miljard. Uitgawes het van R8 per kind per dag oor 264 dae per jaar tot R15 per kind per dag oor 264 dae per jaar toegeneem. Die aantal kinders wat die toelae ontvang, het met 100% van 230 O00 kinders in 1995 tot meer as 844 229 kinders in 2012 toegeneem. Die aantal geregistreerde VKO-terreine het van 4 612 in 2004-05 tot 19 971 aan die einde van 2012-13 toegeneem. Sosiale beskerming is disproporsioneel aan die wit bevolking verskaf. Die koers van armoede in 1993 was tussen 33% en 57%, maar sou baie hoër gewees het sonder bejaardesorg.

Voor 1993 het die koers van die menslike immuniteitsgebreksvirus, MIV, met ongeveer 60% toegeneem. Die apartheid welsynstelsel het grootliks die bestaande sosio-ekonomiese ongelykhied verskans en gefaal om die ergste kwesbaarheid van die armste mense se ongelykheid aan te spreek.

In 1992 was slegs ongeveer 9% van Suid-Afrika se ongeveer 6 miljoen kinders in vroeë kinderontwikkeling. Die uitbreiding van die kindersorgtoelaag tot alle kinders jonger as 18 jaar is in 2009 deur die ANC regering goedgekeur en ten volle toegepas om daardie kinders te akkomodeer. Tans is daar 11,3 miijoen kinders wat die kindersorgtoelaag ontvang. Ons het waarlik 'n goeie verhaal om te vertel.

'n Totaal van 94,2% mense het toegang tot water en 84% het toegang tot sanitasie. In Saldanha-munisipaliteit het die inwoners van Wyk 9 nie toegang tot water of sanitasie nie. Dit is 'n "disgrace". 'n Totaal van 81% van ons mense het eletrisiteit en 71% Suid-Afrikaners se vullis word van hul huise verwyder. Maar Wyk 9 in Saldanhabaai-munisipalitiet kan nie dieselfde sê nie.

Ons het pensioenregte aan ons mense toegeken, spesiaal aan vroue op 60 jaar ge-egaliseer. Ons het tans meer as 16 miljoen mense wat voordeel uit sosiale toelaes trek, wat versorgers van kinders, die oues van dae en gestremdes in staat stel om in hul basiese benodighede te voorsien en hul huishoudings in stand te hou. Deur die toegang tot sosiale toelae tot 16 miljoen Suid-Afrikaners uit te brei, neem die ANC-regering hulle uit volslae armoede.

'n Studie deur die Verenigde Nasies se Kinderfonds het getoon dat beleggings in kinders deur middel van sosiale toelaes hul toegang verbeter ten opsigte van gesondheidsorg en gebalanseerde voiding, faktore wat tot hul algehele welsyn bydra.

Mens kan nie na die impak van sosiale toelaes verwys sonder om oor sosiale transformasie na te dink nie. Ek wil van die geleentheid gebruik maak deur te sê dat vroeër in die 1940s en 1960s het 'n jong vrou vanaf die Oos-kaap gekom op soek na werk. In daardie tyd het sy gekom sonder dat sy die wete gehad het dat sy 'n dompas moet hê. Sy het later in die Wes-Kaap beland, totdat sy in later Saldanhabaai opgeëindig het. Met haar in en uit die gevangenis, het daardie regering geen meer krag gehad om haar buite te hou nie. Aan die einde van die dag moes hulle haar van 'n pas voorsien. Sy het later by die visfabrieke gewerk, en later kon sy vir haar familie geld stuur. Sy het in haglike omstandighede gebly.

Vandag kan ek met trots sê dat sy nie meer met ons is nie, maar in 1994 as 'n vrou het sy 'n groter toelae ontvang van die ANC regering. [Applous.] Sy hoef nie meer uit daardie bietjie toelae wat sy destyds gekry het, vervoer te huur nie. Die dienste is nader na die huis gebring, op die Batho Pele "principles" wat die ANC regering in plek gestel het.

Mens kan nie na die impak van sosiale toelaes verwys sonder om oor sosiale transformasie na te dink nie. Sosiale transformasie is die produk van diepe erkenning dat die toestande waaronder ons leef en waaronder ons ons gesinne versorg en grootmaak, onaanvaarbaar en onregverdig is. Sosiale transformasie is ook 'n produk van die samelewing se vasberadenheid om te besluit dat hulle nie ianger die toekoms van hul kinders aan die toeval kan oorlaat nie.

Die Interministeriéle Komitee op Sosiale Sekerheid en Aftrede Hervorming het deur middel van die ANC-regering betekenisvolle vordering tot die skepping van 'n meer inklusiewe bydrae tot die sosiale sekerheidstelsel gemaak. Die stelsel is daarop gerig om deur verpligte bydraes te verhoed ... Baie dankie. [Tyd verstreke.]

Mr W M RABOTAPI

UNREVISED HANSARD

NATIONAL ASSEMBLY

Tuesday, 18 February 2014 Take: 12

Ms L N MOSS

Mr W M RABOTAPI: Hon Speaker, during his state of the nation address, President Jacob Zuma claimed that his government had a good story to tell about service delivery. The truth is that over the last five years it has been more of a horror story for millions of our people. This is clear to the people in my constituency in the North West province, from drought to corruption. It is a province which is drowning in despair and calling out for leadership.

It is the corruption of the new ANC under President Jacob Zuma that delivers blood, not water. Under President Zuma's ANC, the people of the North West province have been forced to endure a government determined to put political cronies ahead of what is best for the people. While the people of the North West had no water to drink, Premier Thandie Modise splashed out more than R1,3 million on a new luxury car. [Interjections.] While water infrastructure needed to be improved urgently, ANC members of the Madibeng municipality council showered ANC cronies in the private sector with government contracts worth R1,3 million per month for water tankers.

South Africa is a better place today than it was in 1994. More services have been provided to more of our people over the last 20 years. However, these successes are regressing every day under President Jacob Zuma. Just consider the following. Between 1994 and 2009, the percentage of households with access to electricity increased by 28%, but under President Zuma's administration only 6% of households gained access to electricity. While the number of households with access to drinkable water increased by 33% between 1994 and 2009, there was an increase of only 3% during President Zuma's term of office.

Access to sanitation, a major focus of President Zuma, increased by 2% in the last four years. People across South Africa, from Mothlotung to Sebokeng, are unhappy. This is not because you have delivered, Mr President, but it is the reason why people took to the streets in my constituency, Madibeng, to voice their concerns. It has become clear to more and more people of the North West that the only way to change this is to give the DA a chance.

That is why, in Tlokwe Municipality ANC councillors on two occasions voted out their own corrupt Mayor, Maphetle Maphetle. [Applause.] Let us hope that when the time comes, the members of this House will be as sensible as the councillors of Tlokwe in the North West. They know that the DA is the party that can deliver on the vision of 1994 and restore the hope and dreams of millions of our people. This is the good story that is still to come.

Setswana:

Fa e ne e le mo malobeng, mogologolo o ka be a rile mo go rona: "O se bone thola borethe teng ga yona go a baba." A me a kalo motlotlegi. Ke a leboga. [Legofi.]

The MINISTER OF TRADE AND INDUSTRY / TH (Eng and Afr)/KC//LMM Setsw edited/ TAKE 12 ENDS AT 17:20:02.

UNREVISED HANSARD

NATIONAL ASSEMBLY

Tuesday, 18 February 2014 Take: 13

Mr M W RABOTAPI

The MINISTER OF TRADE AND INDUSTRY: Speaker, Mr President, in your state of the nation address on Thursday, you advanced a convincing case that South Africa is a very much better place to live in today than it was at the dawn of our democratic order in 1994. You also pointed out that we had registered progress across the board, not just in the past 20 years in general, but also in the last five years of your administration in particular. You made the point that the progress we had made in the economy in the last five years had been made in the context of very adverse conditions in the global economy, in fact against the backdrop of the worst global economic crisis at any time since the 1930s.

This crisis has sent external – what economists call exogenous – shock waves into the South African economy. In fact, over the past five years, I believe that we have been engulfed by four such external shocks. The first was the impact of the global financial crisis and the consequent recession that was concentrated in the epicentre of that crisis in the developed world. This cost us export markets, particularly for value-added products, as demand contracted. In 2009, it briefly drove our economy into recession, costing us a million jobs.

The next shock wave derived from the response of advanced economies, which introduced loose monetary policy, or what was called "quantitative easing". This unleashed large volumes of short-term capital, a significant proportion of which found its way into emerging economies with higher interest rates. This fueled an overvaluation of currencies, not just in South Africa, but in other emerging economies. The effects of these were that they made conditions more difficult for exporters and also subjected local producers to increased competition from cheap imports.

Until 2012, we were partly shielded from some of the effects by the commodities supercycle, which enabled us to reap premium prices from the sale of mineral products, particularly to Asia. After 2012, however, we have seen mineral commodity prices dropping and this has led to our joining a list of countries that are dependent on the export of mining commodities and which have seen their GDPs drop. The list includes Brazil, several other countries in Latin America, and Australia.

Finally, in the context of modest recovery in the world economy and in the United States in particular, we have seen talk of returning to tighter monetary policy – so-called tapering. This has led to a reverse of the flow of short-term capital we saw earlier, which is now moving to developed countries, taking not only the rand, but also several other emerging market countries from being overvalued to now being undervalued.

I make these points in part to emphasise that the progress we have made has taken place in very adverse circumstances and circumstances not of our making. More importantly, however, I make this point because the context has shaped the content of the programmes and policies that we have pursued in this administration under your leadership.

In a nutshell, we have responded to the crisis by accelerating and intensifying our efforts to bring about essential structural transformations in the economy which we inherited from apartheid. One front on which we have made very significant, measurable and visible progress under your leadership has been in the Infrastructure Investment Programme, which has in fact been our main countercyclical response.

Other speakers in this debate will elaborate more on this, but it is worth stressing that under this administration the work of infrastructure planning and implementation has been elevated to a presidential commission. Furthermore, this has enabled us to spend – not budget, not plan for, but spend – R1 trillion on infrastructure investment. This is more than double the previous high of R480 billion, which was spent in the last administration, and has not only had a strong countercyclical effect, but has also created a favourable basis for longer term inclusive economic growth and development, including industrialisation. [Applause.]

Another important area in which we have sought to advance structural economic transformation falls into the sphere of responsibility which was assigned to me. Of the 1 million jobs we lost in 2008-09, 200 000 or 20%, were in manufacturing. Since manufacturing only contributes around 14% of the GDP, we were bleeding jobs in manufacturing, more than in proportion to the contribution of that sector.

At the start of this administration, due to factors not of our making, we therefore faced the risk that the recession could lead to deindustrialisation. However, we didn't just put up our hands. We determined that these circumstances required that we strengthen our efforts to promote industrialisation and the reindustrialisation of our country. The views we advanced in 2009 about the centrality of industrialisation are now common cause across the African continent, where leader after leader is now asserting that the next phase of African development has to be based on industrialisation driven by infrastructure development and regional integration.

There are several reasons for this. First of all, there are limits, if you are inserted into the world economy, as producers and exports of primary products and importers of finished products. There are limits to what one can achieve in terms of growth and development without making structural changes there. This is more than highlighted by the fact more than 60% of international trade is now in intermediate products.

Secondly, the current version of the Industrial Policy Action Plan, Ipap, which we will be releasing in April, highlights the fact that manufacturing sectors have important growth multipliers. Even if many of the jobs that we are going to be creating are in services, they are of a higher quality and are more secure if they are underpinned by a diversified and growing manufacturing sector.

Thirdly, manufacturing, where we add value to the products of nature, is an essential tool of economic diversification and, in fact, there is no case at any time in economic history, outside of a few enclaves, of any country that has moved from being underdeveloped to being developed.

Our efforts to advance industrialisation involve building on the National Industrial Policy Framework, and over this administration, we have rolled out, every year, a three-year rolling Industrial Policy Action Plan, covering the financial year in question and also the two outer years.

The Industrial Policy Action Plan has built on the domains of potential instruments that can be deployed to develop, implement and monitor both transversal and sector-specific programmes of industrialisation. Actions have included firstly, stepping up the finance that is available through development finance institutions to invest in manufacturing; the development of specific incentives with stronger conditionalities attached to their deployment, conditionalities related to employment, investment and raising competitiveness.

Secondly, we have adopted a strategic approach to trade and tariff setting, where evidence leads us to determine the question of what a tariff should be and the evidence has to answer the question of what this would mean for industrial development.

Thirdly, we have taken stronger action to act against collusion and promote a more competitive environment.

Fourthly, we have strengthened the work of standards under the slogan, "Lock in South African exports to important economic markets and lock out substandard products from our own markets".

Lastly, we have introduced localisation in the form, first of all, of the introduction of designations under the Preferential Procurement Policy Framework Act. We have designated, among other things, buses and bus bodies; textiles, clothing, leather and footwear; power pylons; canned and processed vegetables; rolling stock; pharmaceutical products; set-top boxes for digital television migration; furniture; power and telecommunications cables; and solar water heaters and geysers. These have all been indicated as areas where, according to the designation concerned, they have to be procured by all public authorities from South African manufacturers.

We have also seen the state-owned companies adopting and improving on the Competitive Supplier Development Programme. This has been a major turnaround in the way in which procurement has become a lever of local industrial development.

What have been the results? Mr President, you mentioned a number in your speech, but let me just give a bit of a scorecard.

In the motor industry, taking account of a few investments that we are still expecting to come onstream before the end of this administration, we anticipate that the incentive schemes we are going to put in place will have supported investments in the motor sector of R21,9 billion, covering 183 projects, which will have retained 46 000 jobs and created 9 850 new jobs. We have diversified from just the support of passenger vehicle manufacturing. We are now also supporting public transport vehicle manufacturing and also yellow metal or construction vehicle manufacturing.

In the clothing industry, which was bleeding enormously, the Clothing and Textile Competitiveness Improvement Programme, which was introduced by this administration, has saved an estimated 62 000 jobs and created something like 12 000 new permanent jobs in the clothing and footwear industries. [Applause.]

In metals fabrication, the effects of the localisation programmes have meant that factories and foundries that were at one stage living very much on borrowed time are now making good progress. At the time, even as late as the 2010 Fifa World Cup, the buses that we procured were all imported. Since then, more than 300 bus bodies have been assembled in this country to support the bus rapid transit systems across this country. [Applause.] More than 1 000 locomotives are being manufactured in South Africa and 3 600 railway coaches are being manufactured in this country.

In the agro-processing sector, we have seen the introduction of new, small milling technologies which have the potentiality to significantly improve the prospects of small-scale farmers producing maize in outlying areas.

We have introduced an aquaculture incentive, which is beginning to be taken up. We have seen a number of important multinationals investing in important investments in the agro-processing and consumer goods industries. An amount of R5,5 billion has been made available by the Industrial Development Corporation to support green industrialisation.

We can even go further. We have the film industry in South Africa, which contributed R8 billion to the gross domestic product, GDP, between 2008 and 2012. The incentive scheme administered by the Department of Trade and Industry, DTI, has supported 343 productions, which have created 75 000 jobs, and that is in addition to investments in films by entities like the Industrial Development Corporation and the National Empowerment Fund.

We introduced a new incentive for business process services based on operational expenditure rather than capital expenditure, and this led to further investments, with the creation of 7 000 jobs in BPS. I can go on. I can talk about chemicals. I can talk about various others. However, I want to talk about one, advanced manufacturing.

There is a company in South Africa based in the Centurion Aerospace Village called Aerosud. It was originally earmarked to be getting a contract as an offset if we were going to buy the Airbus A400M. We decided not to buy the Airbus A400M and Airbus said that that contract was now put out to open tender. Aerosud won the open tender and is now making important components for the wings and for the bodies of the Airbus A400M.

Mr President, hon members, our conclusion is that industrial policy is working where it is well resourced and underpinned by solid research and stakeholder engagement. However, we don't believe that we have reached the level that we need to reach. We need a higher-impact industrial policy. We need to promote much more effective beneficiation of our mineral products. We need to be adding value to our mineral products before we export them. We also need to have access to mineral products as a very key and important competitive advantage for manufacturing in South Africa.

The next Ipap, which we will release in April, will report on quite a bit of important sectoral work which is being done to lay the foundations of those. In addition, some of the special economic zones, which will come into effect when the Bill is signed into law, will also be able to give effect to some of those.

We have said we need to promote regional integration, and we have been working energetically on the negotiation of the Southern African Development Community--Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa-East African community, which will effectively mean that we have a free-trade area with a combined GDP of US$1 trillion. However, we have said that localisation is to advance and that needs to target, in particular, the big ticket infrastructure programmes. [Applause.]

Well, those have been our efforts. That is our report card. What has been the response from this side of the House?

For many years, there was tacit concurrence. They had nothing much to say, and at one stage, I thought they might have ended up with a bipartisan position. However, last year, perhaps aware of the fact that we were entering into an election, the DA issued a statement saying that Ipap had more flaws than benefits. It said the policies were doomed to fail and the problem was that we had heavy-handed state intervention instead of light-touch rebalancing.

Well, I have news for the DA. That message didn't seem to filter down to all its troops, because some months afterwards, the MEC for Finance, Economic Development and Tourism in the Western Cape spoke of "the excellent co-ordination with our national departments, particularly the DTI" and he hailed the incentives from the DTI as having contributed billions of rands to the economy of the Western Cape. [Interjections.] [Applause.]

The same MEC went to visit the Hisense television factory in China. Now, Hisense has established a plant in Atlantis. In fact, it is the second plant to have been established. There is also one was by Tellumat. Minister Patel was at the opening of the Hisense plant. I was at the Tellumat plant, together with the Premier of the Western Cape.

We heard those companies tell us that what their presence there owed their existence to was a tariff rebate scheme that we put in place that supports completely knock-down kit manufacturing based on the population of circuit boards. It owes its existence to the 12I Tax Incentive. It owes its existence to the designation of the set-top boxes and to investments by the Industrial Development Corporation.

Now, in our Budget Vote debate, I said to the DA to tell us – and more importantly, to go and tell the voters at Atlantis and the workers in those factories, in the name of moving away from heavy-handed intervention to light-touch rebalancing, which of those measures they are going to pull, and what the impact is going to be on the hundreds of jobs that are being created there. [Interjections.] [Applause.]

The DA tells us that they have some magic muti and they are actually going to create 8% growth and leverage 6 million real jobs. [Interjections.] Well, if that is the case, they haven't been applying it in the Western Cape in the last few years. [Interjections.] [Applause.] Statistics SA tells us that between 2003 and 2013, the Western Cape was ranked a modest fifth in terms of job creation. [Interjections.] If we take the latest figure from Statistics SA – just the one-year figure from the fourth quarter – the year-on-year change in employment ranks the Western Cape fourth. I think it is a modest, rather than a stellar performance.

Even within that performance, however, many of the programmes that have delivered jobs owe a lot to the programmes that we have introduced. I have already given the figures. Many clothing factories are located here in the Western Cape. [Interjections.] As for the BPS, many jobs are located here in the Western Cape ... [Interjections.]

The SPEAKER: Order! Order!

The MINISTER OF TRADE AND INDUSTRY: ... and the competition is not between different provinces in South Africa, but between South Africa and other destinations. Now, I put it to you: Is it not at least a factor in creating these jobs that the South African BPS incentive was ranked by the European Business Process Outsourcing Association as number one in the world last year? Is that not part of it? [Applause.]

We have prevailed upon our friends in China to take more valued-added exports from South Africa. One of the value-added exports that has come from South Africa has been wine. Is that not a factor that has contributed to some of the progress, modest as it has been, that has been recorded in the Western Cape?

Regarding green industries too, the Saldanha Industrial Development Zone, which we launched only in September last year has already seen eight investors indicating an interest. Six of them have signed up in the oil and gas sector.

I want to raise the question of localisation, because I haven't heard whether our friends over there believe in it. [Interjections.] I think they must tell us whether they believe in localisation because ...

The SPEAKER: order! Order!

The MINISTER OF TRADE AND INDUSTRY: ... there is a firm located in Touws River, which is owned by a black woman. It is called Commuter Transport Engineering (Pty) Ltd. They have been involved in the business of refurbishing railway wagons. They are now getting increasing volumes of business as a result of the procurement by Transnet. I want to know whether our friends from the DA think we should be pulling a programme of localisation like that in the name of light-touch rebalancing.

Finally, I would just like to say that we have heard a lot of noise in this debate about corruption. I would like to ask a few questions, because I want to establish whether those who are throwing the stones are actually living in glass houses.

Are the press reports that we have seen about the following true or false? Was the idea that led to the abortive game-changing announcement of the DA's presidential candidate spawned at a dinner party hosted by a businessman in London? Are those reports true or false? [Interjections.] [Applause.] Was any of the DA leadership present at that dinner, and what role did the businessman play in the decision to adopt this presidential candidate? [Interjections.]

Is it true that the businessman in question loves South Africa so much that he doesn't live here anymore? [Interjections.] Is it true that he loves the country that he is now domiciled in so much that he doesn't pay any taxes there? Finally, is it true that the businessman in question is the largest private investor in a security company that has been involved in installing security features on the wall separating Israel from Palestine – a wall that has been denounced by the United Nations? [Interjections.] [Applause.]

I think we need to know the answers to those questions! Thank you very much. [Interjections.] [Applause.]

Mr K J DIKOBO /Nomthi p1 – top of p 13/ Robyn pp 13 – 18 & ed/ TAKE 13 ENDS AT 17:40:50.

UNREVISED HANSARD

NATIONAL ASSEMBLY

Tuesday, 18 February 2014 Take: 14

The MINISTER OF TRADE AND INDUSTRY

Mr K J DIKOBO: Mr Speaker, Your Excellencies, hon President and Deputy President, hon members, guests in the gallery, we listened with interest as the President gave what he called a report on the achievements of the fourth administration. The constant refrain by the President was that South Africa was a better place than before 1994. We have no intention of entering that debate because it would be unscientific to do so. It is like comparing apples with bananas.

Hon President, you reported that the economy grew by 3,2% between 1994 and 2012 and that the national wealth, measured in terms of the gross domestic product, GDP, had grown to more than R3,5 trillion. You reported that there are now 15 million people with jobs, with 650 000 jobs created last year. However, in the same breath, you reported that the National Social Assistance Programme increased to 16 million people.

There is something wrong with the numbers. A country that has experienced economic growth of 3,2%, a country that has created a significant number of jobs and whose national wealth has grown to more than R3,5 trillion should not have an increase in the number of people who require social assistance. We should have more people able to fend for themselves.

The problem is the type of economy that benefits only a handful and marginalises the majority. We have seen opulence and obscene wealth in some quarters and abject poverty in broader society. You have not reported that South Africa has overtaken Brazil for being the most unequal society in the world.

Mr Speaker, we want to agree with the President that there has been an increase in Grade R learners in the country. South Africa has nearly achieved the millennium development goal, MDG, of universal access to basic education by 2015.

The problem with our education system is quality. South Africa spends more money per capita on education than most countries at the same level of development, but has little to show by way of results.

We also welcome the increase of the National Student Financial Aid Scheme, NSFAS, budget to R9 billion. The reality is that we still have thousands of students like we do at the University of Venda who are unable to register because they do not have money.

You can plead poverty, but these students and indeed the citizens of South Africa have possibly heard the Auditor-General's report that R22 billion went to fruitless and wasteful expenditure. Therefore, the call for free tertiary education is not unreasonable. It could have been achieved if government was not using a leaking bucket to draw water and was prepared to act in order to stop the wastage.

You reported remarkable achievements in increased access to basic services and you have also reported that 95% of household have access to water. There is a difference between having water taps installed and actually having water. Some of the 95% have taps that are forever dry and the lucky ones have taps that have water for less than 20 days in a year. I take it that you have heard of the community of Brits, where water intended for the community was diverted to the mine.

The country has seen thousands of service delivery protests. Our people are told to be patient because Rome was not built in one day. The people are angry because they do not see the city being built. They are seeing a city being destroyed.

There are problems with land that has been restored. Individuals and groups have hijacked the land and they need help. We do not know why, for example, the people of Ga-Makgoba are still unable to utilise Makgobaskloof.

We have noted the R1 trillion invested in infrastructure. The President used Rea Vaya as an example. At the time of the conceptualisation of the rapid transport system, the country was informed that the existing taxi operators would be brought in as shareholders. However, we have seen the continued marginalisation of mainly black taxi operators as they are now forced to compete with a highly subsidised Rea Vaya system.

Hon President, when you said that your government was committed to fighting corruption, some hon members laughed, while others jeered. I just shook my head in disbelief.

Azapo's view is that this administration has stumbled from one scandal to another, from the arms deal, Guptagate to Nkandlagate, and many other gates that we do not have time to mention here. The less said about your commitment to fighting corruption, the better.

Therefore, as you call upon South Africans to fight corruption, Azapo's parting shot to you is the classical security drill: Please make sure that your own mask is fitted before assisting fellow passengers. Thank you, Mr Speaker.

Mr N T GODI

UNREVISED HANSARD

NATIONAL ASSEMBLY

Tuesday, 18 February 2014 Take: 14

Mr K J DIKOBO

Mr N T GODI: Mr Speaker, hon President, hon Deputy President, comrades and hon members, the APC congratulates you on your state of the nation address. [Applause.] Indeed, as we celebrate 20 years of freedom, we do so also honouring those who served, suffered and sacrificed for the freedom that we enjoy today.

It is correct to assert that South Africa is a different place from the one the freedom fighters inherited in 1994 from the white minority rule. The APC wishes to acknowledge the positive progress that has been made, particularly in education and health. This is not to say that there are no challenges persisting, but we think positive change needs to be acknowledged. [Applause.]

Those of us who stayed all day at school on empty stomachs cannot but appreciate the fact that millions of our kids get a meal at school daily. [Applause.] The consistent improvement of the Grade 12 results is worthy of acknowledgement. Those of us who grew up in poor communities know the challenges of school fees. The fact that we have many no-fee schools cannot but be acknowledged. [Applause.]

The health portfolio has good and energetic leadership in the Minister and especially the director-general. Yes, the management of health facilities still needs to be improved vastly to ensure that the envisaged quality of services is achieved.

The fight against corruption requires sustained focus and energy. The principles of public administration, as enshrined in our Constitution and various pieces of legislation, require no less. Our public managers are showing slow marginal improvements in compliance with legislation, while expenditure not in line with the Public Finance Management Act, PFMA, is perpetually increasing.

We have commendable efficiency in collecting taxes, but the quality of our expenditure management is not good. The fight against corruption, maladministration and waste must be relentless.

The APC believes that economic development is the central task that all endeavours should serve. We believe that the fight against inequality, poverty and unemployment needs a different approach to the dominant perspective. It is clear that this triple challenge will not only persist, but also worsen, unless the state plays an active role in addressing them. The sobering reality is that big businesses have failed this democracy. Waiting for them to create jobs is like waiting for Godot.

We support the land restitution process and the general agrarian reforms. Whilst there is commitment to the settlement of lodged land claims, it appears that there are still a lot of inefficiencies at the administrative level that seriously frustrate the claimants. The major issue is poor communication - the failure of Land Claims Commission officials to actively provide information about the status of their claims.

We urge that communication with claimants, honest and respectful interaction with these rural people by officials, be enhanced. The APC also supports the reopening of land claims. We will actively support the legislation in this regard.

The APC is guided by principles, not emotions or anger. [Applause.] We are guided by principles of people-centeredness. We stand ready to contribute positively to all efforts that seek to improve the lives of our people. The struggle for freedom was about changing the material conditions of our people, not abstract theorising.

Thus, the APC will continue to defend its revolutionary line and maintain its organisational independence. We will never be part of any grouping, not now, not even after the elections. [Applause.] That has a reactionary outlook that is negative and obstructionist. [Applause.]

The APC will continue to hold high the banner of revolution. We will not betray the Africanist cause. We will not betray the legacy of the fighters for the cause of Africa - Robert Sobukwe, Zeph Mothopeng, John Nyati Pokela, Sabelo Pama, Jafta Masemola, Josias Madzunya, Nomvo Booi, Joyce Sefuba, Maude Jackson, Barney Desai, Boniswa Ngqukane, Elizabeth Sibeko and many more.

The dialectical growth of the APC is therefore guaranteed forever. I thank you. [Applause.]

Mr I M OLLIS

UNREVISED HANSARD

NATIONAL ASSEMBLY

Tuesday, 18 February 2014 Take: 14

Mr N T GODI

Mr I M OLLIS: Hon Speaker, the ANC's governing of South Africa began well - building three million RDP houses, putting 17 million people on welfare and providing access to health and education for all. This showed disadvantaged South Africans the first fruits of our young democracy and was a good thing.

This was the ANC of Nelson Mandela. It was the early days. [Interjections.] However, this is not the story of today's Zuma ANC. Mr President, your story is a story of failure. Gauteng is in flames!

The ANC doesn't want to tell the story of Sebokeng, where South Africans are protesting against the ANC's stalled delivery of services. People are dying. Shortly after protesters in Sebokeng were shot and some killed, President Zuma chose to rather cancel his trip to Gauteng and retire to drink cocktails around the fire pool at Nkandla. Mr President, how was the Pina Colada down there?

When the people of Bekkersdal were protesting service delivery, Premier Nomvula Mokonyane, another Zuma ANC cadre, said that the ANC didn't need the dirty votes of the people of Bekkersdal. The premier's attitude is a prime example of how this new President Zuma's ANC has turned its back on ordinary South Africans. It has turned its back on the poor and vulnerable.

There are no dirty voters as far as the DA is concerned, only dirty, lazy governments. I can hear a new chant in the distance. I hear it quietly: No way, vote DA. It gets louder by the day. No way, vote DA!

In Alexandra Township, the ANC story is one where children play in the sewage and in the garbage in the streets. No way, vote DA! On the highways of Gauteng, it is the story of e-tolls squeezing every last cent out of motorists. No Way, vote DA!

Mr Speaker, in 2009 President Zuma told us the story of how he would create 5 million jobs. Today, we know that that story was nothing more than a fairy tale.

The DEPUTY MINISTER OF TRADE AND INDUSTRY (Ms T V Tobias): Speaker, on a point of order: I was just wondering whether the member could speak lower so that we can hear.

The SPEAKER: What is your point of order, mam? That is not a point of order.

Mr I M OLLIS: Let me get back to the President's fairytale. Now, in 2014, President Zuma's ANC expects South Africans to believe another "inganekwane" [fairytale] of six million work opportunities in the Expanded Public Works Programme, EPWP. Dear ANC, the people don't want your piece jobs. The people are singing, no way, vote DA!

Mr President, where the DA governs, we have already created more jobs than anywhere else in South Africa. On 11 February, Statistics SA released a report that shows that the DA created, listen now, 98 000 jobs just in the last quarter of 2013. Seventy percent of all new jobs created in South Africa were in the DA-run Western Cape, just in one quarter.

Of cause, President Zuma's ANC does not want to tell this story because it is a good DA story! We still hear the chant, no way, vote DA!

Speaker, this story of the ANC is one of failure. It is the story of premiers, ministers and presidents who fail to see the plight of South Africans as their blue light brigades zoom toll-free in Gauteng with the Q7Is and their great Armani sunglasses.

This story's happily-ever-after will only come when the ANC is voted out of Gauteng this year, 2014 ... [Applause.] ... when the people of Sebokeng vote for a clean, efficient government and when the people of Gauteng vote for 6 million real jobs. Yes, I am voting DA!

Now let me get to the comments of Blade, I am sorry, the hon Nzimande. Where is he? Has he run away? He came here to say that the DA only cares about UCT and Wits. Where was he when we were at the Walter Sisulu University? My colleague Annelie Lotriet was trying to help sort out their problem. The hon Nzimande only appeared when the problem was solved with help from the DA. [Applause.] He didn't even bother to attend the parliamentary portfolio committee once in 2013, along with certain other members like the hon Naledi Pandor, who is going to speak after me. She didn't pitch in the whole of 2013 in the committee either.

The ANC is very obsessed with this "rent" story. Rent a black and rent this and that. Well, let me ask the ANC: What about rent a Nat and rent a Mulder? [Applause.] We have over here the hon Gaum, the Nat Beukman, Gelderblom, Koornhof and the great superstar himself, Van Schalkwyk. [Interjections.] [Applause.] Over here, we have a couple of Mulder brothers from that family business.

The CHIEF WHIP OF THE MAJORITY PARTY: Speaker, on a point of order: The hon member must explain what it means to "rent a Muller". Who is "Muller" in South Africa?

Mr I M OLLIS: Hon Speaker, the name is Mulder, not Muller, but I will continue. Let me just explain to you that the DA believes in women leaders. That is one of the reasons why we approached Mrs Mamphela Ramphele. [Interjections.] We believe in women. [Interjections.] Can I have your protection, Speaker?

The SPEAKER: Order, hon members! Order!

Mr I M OLLIS: Just yesterday, Helen Zille accepted our nomination to be the presidential candidate of the DA. [Applause.] My boss over here, the hon Mazibuko, is a woman. The Mayor of Cape Town is a woman. Mrs Patricia de Lille is a woman. We believe in women. However, the ANC Women's League, in the person on Clara Ndlovu says no, South Africa is not ready for a woman President. The DA is ready for a woman President. [Applause.] Tomorrow!

On 7 May, South Africa should vote for a woman President in the person of Helen Zille, who will be a great President of South Africa – a woman. [Applause.]

Minister Davies, quite honestly, clearly you haven't read the Reserve Bank Paper on 8% economic growth. The Reserve Bank of South Africa says that the DA's plan for 8% economic growth will work. The Reserve Bank says that our 8% plan will work. You need to read the documents.

Finally, to hon Minister Pandor, who is going to speak after me, perhaps she can explain why she does not go to the committee ... Thank you. [Time expired.] [Applause.]

The MINISTER OF HOME AFFAIRS

UNREVISED HANSARD

NATIONAL ASSEMBLY

Tuesday, 18 February 2014 Take: 15

Mr I M OLLIS

The MINISTER OF HOME AFFAIRS: Mr Speaker, Mr President, Deputy President, colleagues and hon members, the hon Ollis has clearly lost his way. I don't owe the gentleman a single explanation on anything. He has clearly lost his way. He illustrates this loss in a number of ways. [Interjections.]

The SPEAKER: Order! Hon members, order!

THE MINISTER OF HOME AFFAIRS: Speaker, I know these members don't like me to talk. It is painful when I stand up for them. It is absolutely painful for them because they know that they are absolutely not accurate in stating they believe in women. They do not. [Interjections.] They are not accurate in referring to a Mrs Mamphela Ramphele, who might have become Mrs when she kissed Mrs Hellen Zille because she is Dr Ramphele, not Mrs Ramphele. [Applause.]

Speaker, standing here before you is the ANC of Nelson Mandela. [Interjections.] I wish to assure the members of this House there can be no separation between the ANC and President Nelson Mandela - none whatsoever. [Applause.] We are very familiar with the attempts of many neoliberals to separate leaders of freedom from their organisations. We know how the Central Intelligence Agency, CIA, murdered leaders in Zaire. We know how leaders in many parts of Africa have been targeted and sought to be separated from their people in order to fragment liberation movements. [Applause.] We will never be separated from President Mandela. He is one with us and will always be our own.

Mr President, I wish to assure you that much has been done in the five years of your first term. The advances in health and education have been recorded and spoken off by a range of researchers and international organisations. You are correct, Mr President, when you say we have a good story to tell. [Interjections.] [Applause.]In fact, Mr Speaker, it is an extraordinary story of a remarkable political and socioeconomic transformation, one that is probably unparalleled in recent history, both for the speed of the achievement and the wide-ranging diversity of areas that have seen fundamental change.

The only cloud hanging over this story, this good story, is the uninspiring negativity and poor grace of the opposition parties that have spoken here today. AS always, they have tried to obfuscate and to distort in order to avoid acknowledging the progress and achievements in our 20 years of democracy.

I am aware that there are some members in the House who prefer amnesia when it comes to our dismal colonial and apartheid past. Their amnesia helps them to minimise the advances we have made under the ANC in a free South Africa. Their amnesia is illustrated by their attempts today, since Friday, to sow doubt, despair and victimhood in the drive to downplay our achievements in a free and democratic South Africa. It has been 20 years and I believe it is correct to say that the damage done by apartheid is surely being undone and is surely being reversed. [Applause.]

I call on the members to my left to use their voices and their energy in support of our President's call to big business to devote greater attention to supporting government in addressing corruption and unemployment in South Africa. We would like them, who are very familiar with boardrooms, to use their boardroom presence to persuade business in South Africa to invest in South Africa, because they are not yet persuading their own partners and friends to invest in our freedom and our democracy. [Applause.] I wish to add to the good South African story by referring to aspects of change that we tend to neglect when we assess how far we have come.

There are still a few members in the House who recall playing a role in writing our new Constitution. Some of you may recall the heated debates we had about the inclusion of socioeconomic rights in an entrenched Bill of Rights. Some, to my left, believed that we were crazy to include socioeconomic rights of education, health, water and housing as entrenched rights. Twenty years of democracy have proven that we were right. [Applause.]

The President has clearly set out the progress we have made on each of these rights. It is true, as hon Godi has said, there has been progressive in education, but much remains to be done. However, visit some of our villages and some of the most vulnerable and poor areas in our country, and one meets families with new graduates proudly taking up new opportunities than they ever had a hope of enjoying before. Families are entering new strata in society, taking up previously forbidden opportunities as entrepreneurs and middle managers.

Of course, our Constitution has also led to the establishment of new institutions supporting democracy as well as created a vibrant multiparty democratic Parliament. It is our victory, the ANC, which ensures there is multiparty democracy ... [Applause.] ... with everybody in South Africa enjoying an equal right to vote. One will recall how some parties were proposing limited franchise when they were at their most liberal when we called for one vote equal for everybody. We have always called for that and it is this vibrancy of today that is a result of that fight. We have a Parliament in which all parties have a voice, with Mr hon Ollis' voice being the loudest always, and all people are represented in our Parliament. We also have free speech for all, including the media, in our country.

Hon members are also aware that in these 20 years there has been a visible alteration in the character of the Southern African Development Community, SADC, region. Some of you will remember that during the apartheid era, Southern Africa was the playground of the apartheid state and foreign governments that were happy to have apartheid South Africa as their surrogate.

Today, many of us do not refer to the Maseru Massacre, the murders in Botswana, the bombings in Zimbabwe, and the incursions into Angola, Zambia and Mozambique. This destabilisation prevented development in the region and made our neighbours vassals of South Africa's monopoly capital. We live with that legacy today, but there are signs that our neighbours are increasingly focused on development for the first time. [Applause.] The President referred, in his address, to a range of SADC infrastructure development projects, the Grand Inga Project, the Lesotho Highlands Water Project, and also our One-Stop Border Post Projects that support trade and tourism in the SADC region.

Beyond these economic initiatives, we are also a South Africa playing a key developmental role in SADC. We are providing policy and institutional support to SADC organs; increasing numbers of South Africans are taking up posts in regional institutions; and playing a key role in promoting regional integration. There is also progress in the research and innovation space. Several SADC countries are partners in the Square Kilometre Array, SKA, project. Thousands of SADC students are pursuing postgraduate studies at our universities and many are employed in key institutions in South Africa.

In fact, many SADC nationals find opportunities in South Africa through our critical skills programme and support their countries through remittances. We are also providing refuge to thousands of vulnerable people who are safe here from war and civil conflict and political persecution in their own countries. In 1998, in the era of new democracy, South Africa adopted one of the most progressive refugee laws, led by Prince Buthelezi.

Despite our acknowledged and tragic acts of violence and xenophobia against foreign nationals, we remain a primarily and largely welcoming destination for refugees. Our courts have given liberal interpretations to the Refugee Act. For many years we have granted refugee status to thousands of persecuted asylum seekers. Unlike many other countries, we do not maintain camps for refugees; we prefer integration and we are doing much more to support and build communities of diversity and peace. We have also benefitted, as a country, from the immigration of many people with critical skills. Skilled professionals from the continent are able to settle legally in South Africa and earn an income.

I must add that over the past 20 years, there has also been much positive change in the lives of women, not under the DA, but under the ANC. [Applause.] They sought out Dr Ramphele to be their presidential candidate. When they found she did not kiss very well, they went to look again for Mrs Zille. [Laughter.] I don't why they hadn't seen her at the beginning and why she had to enjoy an awful kiss in order for the DA to realise that they actually do like her. [Interjections.][Applause.]

Our country continues to be challenged by stubborn patriarchy and abuse of women and girls, but indeed, the status of women has altered in fundamental ways. Rural African women continue to bear the brunt of disadvantage in South Africa. However, even for them the changes have been significant. They enjoy formal equality in South Africa. Some have been able to challenge customary law and other forms of discrimination. We have institutions that protect and advance women's interests and women can approach our highest courts for redress or the setting of precedents.

Children too are increasingly enjoying attention and protection. We have achieved universal access to schooling for all children, both boys and girls. Girls in South Africa outnumber boys in education and we buck the international trend for countries of our socioeconomic status. Of course, while we are pleased at this progress, we are also the first to admit much more remains to be done. We are not like the hon Dreyer, who comes here and castigates the ANC and nary a word about the Western Cape and the farm workers who suffer abuse, poor payment, alcohol dependence, drug addiction, and violence from their employers. [Interjections.] We admit when there are challenges to confront and challenges to address. [Applause.]

However, Mr President, taking all into account, we have a good story to tell. [Interjections.] Only the unscientific hon Dikobo has refused to admit we are indeed much better off today than in 1994. I am not sure why he said it would be unscientific to say it, but I suspect he didn't want it recorded in Hansard, but in his heart he knows it is true. [Applause.]

I believe, Mr Speaker and the hon President, that it is always important not to rely on what you yourselves say, but to look at other commentators' assessment. Much has been written about our first 20 years of freedom. When one looks at both the recent Goldman Sachs report and research from the SA Institute of Race Relations, one sees these successes and continuing challenges set out in a very objective manner. Let me quote the 2013 research brief on 20 years of democracy of the SA Institute of Race Relations. They indicated the following - and by the way the SA Institute of Race Relations is not a surrogate of the ANC, not at all; they say:

We have argued at length that the protests arise not from failure of the government service delivery efforts but rather from the success of these efforts. This is a complex and counter-intuitive idea and needs some explanation.

My colleagues to the left, Dr Wilmot James, can explain counter-intuitive. [Laughter.] It further says:

Enormous gains have been made in the provision of free or subsidised water, electricity and housing. Our research shows that these gains have been so impressive that we might comfortably describe service delivery as a great policy success of the ANC in government.

[Applause.]

Not me, but the SA Institute of Race Relations. So, Mr President, what did Goldman Sachs and the SA Institute of Race Relations say further about our 20 years? It is our 20 years; it is consistently ANC ... [Laughter.] ... and whoever leads the organisation, we are one all the time. So, what did they say? [Applause.]

On the economy, the Goldman Sachs report records our successes in the 20 years as follows: The gross domestic product, GDP, almost trebled from $136 billion to $385 billion today; inflation fell from a 1980 to 1994 average of 14% to an average of 6% between 1994 and 2012...[Applause.] ... gross gold and foreign exchange reserves rose from $3 billion to $50 billion today; tax receipts of R114 billion from 1,7 million people rose to R814 billion from 13,7 million people. [Applause.] In the past decade a dramatic rise in the middle class, with 4,5 million consumers graduating upwards from the lower living standards measure of 1-4 and in total 10 million added to the middle highest, 5-10.[Applause.]

Social grant beneficiaries rose from 2,4 million to 16,1 million today. The opposition – you see, they are busy heckling, not knowing that I write objectively because I am an academic. [Interjections.][Applause.] The opposition always suggests that - I knew that they would heckle on this one - the scale of social grant provision is a failure, but what it means is that the most vulnerable in our country are no longer left to beg in the street. [Applause.]

What does the SA African Institute of Race Relations report? The number of employed black people has doubled since 1994. Not me, the SA Institute of Race Relations. There are almost three times more black, coloured and Indian business owners than there are white business owners. Black people who own cars have doubled over the past eight years alone. Five point eight million black households own their property. [Interjections.] Mr Speaker, they're asking me why I don't mention something else? Why didn't they put it in their speech, for goodness sake? [Laughter.] This is my speech. Five point eight million black households own their own property, including the provision of housing from the state in several cases.

When it comes to social grants, their provision has more than quadrupled, but the grants are working, says the Institute of Race Relations, not me. The grants are working. Poverty dropped 11% on average between 1996 and 2011. [Applause.] One of the other things that we are very excited about is that we have begun to address regional integration within SADC, but also within our country itself. I'm sure hon members will remember that apartheid divided us spatially. The ANC brought us together. Apartheid divided us into Bantustan for black people and urban areas for our white compatriots. The ANC brought us all together by allowing freedom of movement for black people in our country. [Applause.]

Freedom of movement transformed our lives and our regional economies. It led to what the economists have called "convergence". In a study published in 2007, Bhorat, Van der Westhuizen and Goga, show that poverty headcounts among black households decreased from 55% to 27% between 1993 and 2005 ... [Applause.]... While the same welfare measure showed no decrease at all for whites, but rather a slight improvement. They show, in fact, in their study, that the economic welfare of whites has risen since 1993 at all levels, from the poorest 10% of whites to the richest 10%.

In other words, the opening of South Africa's white areas to a vastly poorer and less educated population six times greater in size has been insufficient to reduce white South Africans' living standards by even a small amount after over a decade. Meanwhile, it allowed the living standards of the poor to sharply converge towards those of the rich. The elusive goal of moving toward income convergence has begun to be achieved, and none of the worst fears of those favouring continued restrictions on movement has been realised. Just think about that. Think about the implications for SADC and the African proposed regional integration.

I could go on and on, factually, Mr President, and that is what makes us able to stand here proudly and declare we are basing what we say on facts, achievements, reality and success. We are better than we were in 1994 ... [Applause.]... and after the elections in the next five years and beyond, we will do even better.

Mr President, you cannot be accused of being a prophet. I think the false prophet is sitting somewhere over there. [Laughter.] Of course, what that prophet has done is he disappeared, as he always does. He comes here, throws a few stones and off he runs. He promised his members the Promised Land and instead of leading them into the Promised Land, he has led them into Egypt... [Laughter.]... and they are enslaved as he is enslaved by the courts. I suppose he had to run away in case a summons is brought by his former co-leader. [Laughter.]

Now, I found it rather tragic that the hon member sought to lecture our President on democracy. I found it most peculiar, because this self-proclaimed democrat proceeded to show he has no faith in the ability of his caucus to speak in this debate and chose to render a fruitless soliloquy that exemplified a free-spirited hike on the Drakensburg hiking trail. [Laughter.] [Applause.]

Of course, hon members, as always the desperate alternative clings desperately to 2019 and offers nothing new to the nation and fails dismally to convince that it has the possibility of offering continued success to South Africa. So, while Ollis on his own will vote for it, wedefinitely will not vote for the DA. [Laughter.]

As for the annual claim of the hon Dreyer that the Western Cape is the best run province - oh! The hon member repeats it every year. I suppose she wants to believe it eventually. [Laughter.] She has begun, actually to wear her belief very thin through this constant repetition, particularly given the stench of the toilets in Khayelitsha; the dead young people in Manenberg; the drugged and the drunk in townships throughout the province; and the poor and the vulnerable in the valleys and hills of the vineyards and orchards of the Cape.

As for the hon McGluwa, one only has to pity him. He is the mouthpiece of the DA. He is their failed secret weapon ... [Laughter.] ... full of fist and fury signifying "niks" [nothing]. [Laughter.]

Well, the hon Holomisa can't come here and admit before the House that action on the report of Minister Nxesi, on the Nkandla security developments is being taken. It has been announced and stated that action will be taken. Where there's been wrongdoing, we will address it. Of course, we will continue to confront and fight where there is ill-doing and corruption in our country. [Applause.][Interjections.] However, I can assure the hon Holomisa, who is another one who throws a stone and escapes; I can assure him not being a prophet; not leading anybody into the Promised Land; I can assure him the UDM will definitely not govern and does not have a stick of a chance of ever governing South Africa. [Applause.]

I thought it is important because of the dramatic announcement of Mr Lekota that I should just look at the Estimates of National Expenditure and look at the debt levels that he claimed. While he was accurate that the debt levels are worryingly high, we are, as government, concerned about them, and intend doing something about them; hence the plans we have indicated. He, of course, was entirely wrong ... [Interjections.]

The SPEAKER: Order! Hon members.

The MINISTER OF HOME AFFAIRS: ... in creating an impression that the entire debts results from the governance period of President Zuma. This is patently untrue and the hon Member of Parliament should not come before the House and make such a sessions.

Well, the hon Motau, he had to come here and say what he did. She got a hiding last year, so we know why he is here too. He had to come here – there is nothing else but that which she must do. Hon Ollis reminded me of my colour because my great-great grandfather had to do piece jobs many decades ago. When he referred to the Expanded Public Works Programme, EPWP's piece jobs, I got a little worry because there are millions of people to whom it means a livelihood. [Applause.] It is not a piece job like our ancestors had to experience. So, I would call for attention sometimes to phraseology.

Well, the hon Meshoe said we are getting comfortable. He left then, and he is back because it was uncomfortable out there. He had to come back here. I noticed that he offered very little Gospel on his return. I wonder what has happened to him. He hopes that a coalition will govern after the elections. I would say to him, if he is hoping in the prophet Lekota, he has a high hope because that man will lead him to the Promised Land and desert him back in Egypt. [Laughter.] So I suggest he doesn't go that route.

Now, hon Rabotapi does remind us that ...

Setswana:

Jaanong, rre Rabotapi o re gopotsa gore ga ise re dire gotlhe. Tiro e sa le e ntsi. Le teng kwa Bokone Bophirima, re tla leka go dira tiro ya rona. Re tla baakanya mo re sa dirang sentle teng; re tla oketsa mo re dirileng sentle teng. Tse re di dirileng sentle, di feta tse re difositseng. [Legofi.] Re tla dira gore Aforeka-Borwa re e baakanye gore e nne naga entle, ya batho botlhe. Seo re tla se dira re eteletswe pele ke mokgatlo o mo golo wa rona wa ANC, le moetapele wa o ne Moporesitente, rre Zuma. Ke a leboga. [Legofi.]

The SPEAKER: I thank the hon Minister, Order, hon members! Order! Hon members, I have not adjourned the House. Please take your seats!

I thank the hon Minister. That concludes the business of the day. The House is adjourned. You may now rise. Hold on.

Please take your seats. They say we still have another hour to go. Please take your seats! All those who are outside, please call them back in.

We don't have any speaker's list here, but there are just a couple of issues we would like to address. The Secretary will read the Second Order.

SECOND ORDER/LAND RESTITUTION ACT / Nb/ EKS (Setsw)/ TAKE 15 ENDS AT 18:32:32.

UNREVISED HANSARD

NATIONAL ASSEMBLY

Tuesday, 18 February 2014 Take: 16

The SPEAKER/Not yet adjournment time/

CONSIDERATION OF REQUEST FOR PERMISSION IN TERMS OF RULE 249(3)(B) TO INQUIRE INTO AMENDING OTHER PROVISIONS OF THE RESTITUTION OF LAND RIGHTS ACT, ACT 22 OF 1994

The SPEAKER: Are there any objections to the committee being granted permission in terms of Rule 249(3)(b) to enquire into amending other provisions of the restitution of land rights? There are objections. I now put the question. Those in favour will say aye.

HON MEMBERS: Aye!

The SPEAKER: Those against will say no.

HON MEMBERS: No! [Laughter.]

The SPEAKER: It is clear that the Ayes have it.

Dr C P MULDER: Hon Speaker, the FF Plus requests a division.

The SPEAKER: A division having being called, the bells will be rung for five minutes.

The DEPUTY MINISTER FOR CO-OPERATIVE GORVENANCE AND TRADITIONAL AFFAIRS: Speaker, on a point of order: In terms of the Rules, a division has to be supported by at least four members. Are there four members who support the division?

Dr C P MULDER: Yes, hon Speaker. We do our homework in the FF Plus. I would also request the opportunity to make a declaration.

Adv T M MASUTHA: Speaker, on a point of order... [Interjections.]

The SPEAKER: Yes, the members are four. We did count them.

Adv T M MASUTHA: I just wanted to indicate that the party that called for the division normally has one member. They need to declare who the four members are so that it can be on the record.

The SPEAKER: There are four members. That has been confirmed. I would like to remind hon members that they can only vote from their allocated seats. They bells should be rung for two minutes. [Interjections.]

Dr C P MULDER: Hon Speaker, in terms of the Rules, I have requested to make a declaration.

The SPEAKER: The bells have been rung for two minutes, please take a seat. We will give you an opportunity to make a declaration.

Hon members, please return to your seats. A request for a declaration of vote has been received. Therefore, I will now allow for up three minutes for any political party that wishes to make a declaration to do so.

DECLARATIONS OF VOTE

UNREVISED HANSARD

NATIONAL ASSEMBLY

Tuesday, 18 February 2014 Take: 16

The SPEAKER

Declarations of vote

Afrikaans:

Mnr P J GROENEWALD: Speaker, u kan vra waarom dit is dat die VF Plus so 'n drastiese stap neem soos vanmiddag. Die rede is baie eenvoudig, agb Speaker. Hierdie wetsontwerp sal 'n drastiese effek hê op die landbou van Suid-Afrika. [Tussenwerpsels.]

English:

I want to say to the ANC that if you say you are serious about food security in South Africa, you will withdraw this Bill. [Interjections.]

Afrikaans:

Speaker, laat dit op rekord geplaas word dat hierdie wetsontwerp nog meer onsekerheid in die landbousektor gaan veroorsaak. Dit gaan verdere beleggings in die landboubedryf beperk. [Tussenwerpsels.] Ja, u kan nou lekker hier skree, maar die dag as u nie kos op die tafel het nie, dan moet u sien hoe u gaan skree. [Tussenwerpsels.] Dit is die landbou wat die land voed. Ek wil vandag vir u sê dat enige politieke party wat sê dit is sy erns met die landbou in Suid-Afrika teen hierdie wetsontwerp sal stem. Hierdie wetsontwerp is nie wenslik vir Suid-Afrika nie. Die standpunt van die VF Plus is dat dit onttrek moet word van die Parlement, want dit is geensins wenslik nie.

Ek wil die volgende ook sê, en ek wil spesifiek verwys na die DA-lid, die agb Ian Ollis. Hy het netnou hier gekom en 'n groot fanfare van die Mulders gemaak. Die fanfare is die volgende: dat die DA saam met die ANC hierdie wetsontwerp ondersteun. Ons het nou die DANC- alliansie in Suid-Afrika. [Tussenwerpsels.] Ek wil vandag vir u sê ...

The SPEAKER: Order hon members! Order! Order!

Afrikaans:

Mnr P J GROENEWALD: ... die mense van Suid-Afrika moet kennis neem, want die agb Ian Ollis en die DA en die ANC is soos die katfamilie. Dit klink of hulle baklei, maar hulle vry, want hulle baklei en vry tegelyk. Die VF Plus verwerp hierdie wetsontwerp. Ek dank u.

Mr J D THIBEDI

UNREVISED HANSARD

NATIONAL ASSEMBLY

Tuesday, 18 February 2014 Take: 16

Mr P J GROENEWALD

Mr J D THIBEDI: Hon Speaker and hon Deputy President, I am actually not here to speak about whether the project of land reform is an important one or not. I am here to state that it is an important opportunity for us as leaders to recognise that we can use this project of land reform to build the nation and reconcile our people. [Applause.]

Therefore, I want to say that we went across the country to conduct public hearings and many people participated in that process. The FF Plus was never seen at a single one of those public hearings. However, let me say that I am here to remind my colleagues from the FF Plus that this is the time to appreciate the patience of our people, irrespective of how brutal the disposition was a century ago, they are still willing to listen to the leadership, and say, let us resolve this problem constitutionally. That is a bonus that we have to embrace as South Africans. [Applause.]

This is the time to hold hands as leaders and assure our people that, in spite of all those problems, the challenges can and will be addressed. However, the message that builds confidence amongst our people must come from us as leaders, the FF Plus included. This is not the time to swim against the tide. We must be careful, because the winds of change are blowing; people demand land. If we stand in their way, they will sweep us aside and make us irrelevant.

We expect those who benefitted from this brutality of dispossession to come forward voluntarily and tell the state that they are willing to donate this part of land so that it can be given to people who brutally lost their land during the 1913 Land Act. At the memorial service of President Mandela, President Obama said:

There are too many people who happily embraced Madiba's legacy of ratial reconciliation, but passionately resist even the modest reform that would challenge chronic poverty and growing inequality.

I hope that the FF Plus does not want to be part that grouping.

In conclusion, let me also say that this land problem will have to be addressed. There is no guarantee that after passing this legislation there will be a smooth road. As we cross this one, there will be hills that we will have to climb. However, we have to do so, because as Nelson Mandela said, "it seems impossible until it is done", and we are going to have to do it. Thank you. [Applause.]

There was no debate.

Question put: That permission be given to the Portfolio Committee on Rural Development and Land Reform to inquire into amending other provisions of Restitution of Land Rights Act, Act 22 of 1994.

Division demanded.

The House divided:

[TAKE IN FROM MINUTES.]

Question agreed to.

Permission accordingly granted to the Portfolio Committee on Rural Development and Land Reform to inquire into amending other provisions of Restitution of Land Rights Act, Act 22 of 1994 in terms of Rule 249(3)(b).

THIRD ORDER/NATIONAL CREDIT ACT /Mia (Afr) /LMM (Eng) .../TM / TAKE 16 ENDS AT 18:48:38.

UNREVISED HANSARD

NATIONAL ASSEMBLY

Tuesday, 18 February 2014 Take: 17

SECOND ORDER/LAND RESTITUTION ACT

CONSIDERATION OF REQUEST FOR PERMISSION IN TERMS OF RULE 249(3)(B) TO INQUIRE INTO AMENDING OTHER PROVISIONS OF NATIONAL CREDIT ACT (NO 34 OF 2005)

There was no debate.

Question put: That permission be given to the Portfolio Committee on Trade and Industry to inquire into amending other provisions of National Credit Act (No 34 of 2005).

Agreed to.

FOURTH ORDER/Legislative Proposal/NATIONAL WATER ACT/ CHIEF WHIP OF MAJORITY PARTY

UNREVISED HANSARD

NATIONAL ASSEMBLY

Tuesday, 18 February 2014 Take: 17

THIRD ORDER/NATIONAL CREDIT ACT

NATIONAL WATER ACT AMENDMENT BILL

(Consideration of Legislative Proposal)

There was no debate.

The CHIEF WHIP OF THE MAJORITY PARTY: Mr Speaker, I move:

That the House, in terms of Rule 238(3), gives permission that the legislative proposal be proceeded with.

Motion agreed to.

Permission accordingly given to proceed with the legislative proposal.

ORDERS FIVE AND SIX/DRAFT NOTICES

UNREVISED HANSARD

NATIONAL ASSEMBLY

Tuesday, 18 February 2014 Take: 17

FOURTH ORDER/NATIONAL WATER ACT

CONSIDERATION OF REQUEST FOR APPROVAL BY PARLIAMENT OF DRAFT NOTICE AND SCHEDULE DETERMINING THE RATE AT WHICH SALARIES ARE PAYABLE TO MAGISTRATES ANNUALLY

CONSIDERATION OF REQUEST FOR APPROVAL BY PARLIAMENT OF DRAFT NOTICE AND SCHEDULE DETERMINING THE RATE AT WHICH SALARIES ARE PAYABLE TO CONSTITUTIONAL COURT JUDGES AND JUDGES ANNUALLY

There was no debate.

Draft Notice and Schedule determining the rate at which salaries are payable to Magistrates annually, with effect from 1 April 2013 approved.

Draft Notice and Schedule determining the rate at which salaries are payable to Constitutional Court Judges and Judges annually, with effect from 1 April 2013 approved.

The House adjourned at 18:54.

Mm /


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