Hansard: NA: Debate on the State-of-the-nation Address
House: National Assembly
Date of Meeting: 19 Feb 2014
Summary
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Minutes
UNREVISED HANSARD
NATIONAL ASSEMBLY
Wednesday, 19 February 2014 Take: 18
WEDNESDAY, 19 FEBRUARY 2014
PROCEEDINGS OF NATIONAL ASSEMBLY ____________________The House met at 14:05.
The Speaker took the Chair and requested members to observe a moment of silence for prayers or meditation.
The SPEAKER: Hon members, when I invite you to take your seats, please do so. [Interjections.]
The MINISTER OF HEALTH
UNREVISED HANSARD
NATIONAL ASSEMBLY
Wednesday, 19 February 2014 Take: 18
START OF DAY
RESUMPTION OF DEBATE ON THE PRESIDENT'S STATE OF THE NATION ADDRESS
The MINISTER OF HEALTH: Hon Speaker, hon members of the House, indeed the ANC has a good story to tell, because only the ANC knows and understands where this country is coming from and where it is going to.
As I listened to opposition parties yesterday, trying their best to dismiss the assertion that we do have a good story to tell, it dawned on me that many of them actually believed what they were saying because they cannot understand the story of South Africa. They have no way of understanding it for they never lived through it, with the exception of Mr Themba Godi, who had a story to tell. As for the rest, whenever they attempt to tell any story, they actually tell the story of the ANC but with as much distortion as they can master. They have no story of their own to tell.
Yesterday, they were tripping over each other to associate with the story of the ANC, especially through its luminaries John Dube, Mapogo Makgatho, Rev Mahabane, Albert Luthuli, Oliver Tambo, Nelson Mandela, Thabo Mbeki and Chris Hani.
To prove to the population why they are fighting the ANC, they try to disaggregate these leaders from the ANC.
Yesterday Minister Pandor put it in clearer terms than I can ever master. It is the strategy which the imperialist forces used all over Africa to define African leadership on their own terms, to decide on who the leader shall be, which one to install and glorify and which one to discard and discredit. In this manner African populations were deprived of the opportunity to decide on their own leaders, even after liberation. If the population was resilient, a coup was organised or, as Minister Pandor said yesterday, even an assassination might follow.
This strategy was implemented with alarming brutality to keep Africans under the subjugation of colonial masters, whether they are liberated or not. Today this strategy is being deployed in our own country by the opposition by repeatedly trying to characterise the ANC as a different organisation from the one launched in 1912.
Yet, the ANC has never, in its 102 years of existence, been confused about who its leader or its President is. We know our Presidents and we spent the whole of 2012 - the year we reached 100 years of age, celebrating them all in public -
John Langalibalele Dube, Sefako Mapogo Makgatho, Rev Z Mahabane, Josiah Gumede, Pixley Ka Isaka Seme, Dr A Xuma, Dr J. S. Moroka, Inkosi Albert Luthuli, Oliver Tambo, Nelson Mandela, Thabo Mbeki and Jacob Zuma. [Applause.]
There is no confusion at all. We celebrated all of them without any exception. We are very proud of our past and hence we are confident of our future. We never had to go to court to decide who our President is. [Interjections.] We never had to dodge a conference - calling a conference to avoid elections and hence having to keep a President for life. We never had to intimidate anybody from exercising their democratic right to choose a new leader. We never did that. More than anything else, we never had to look for a leader from another party or from a rival organisation. [Applause.] We have always had leaders and we are very proud of them. None of our leaders was decided upon in a private boardroom in Israel with an attempt to impose them on the unsuspecting population. All our leaders were elected transparently in democratic conferences.
When the DA tries to tell their story, they start at the very end, never from the beginning for they seem not to remember where they come from or who they are. How does the DA explain the fact that they start their story with one Helen and end it with the other Helen? This last Helen is not even sure whether she can lead or not. Yes, they start their story with Helen Suzman and end it with Helen Zille, who actually doubts herself and had to go out to hire a president. Can you believe that Frederik van Zyl Slabbert, Zach de Beer, Colin Eglin, etc are all buried and forgotten? Poor Tony Leon is still alive but buried and forgotten, never to be mentioned.
If you are embarrassed about your past, why on earth should the population trust you with its future? If you try so hard to silently reject or deny your own existence, what will you do to the poor population if it entrusts you with its future? As usually happens in this world many a time, people do get confused about who their fathers are. There might be several reasons, which are legitimate, for this. Should one actually be confused about who is his or her mother while staying with her in the same house, and then go out and look for another woman and try to hire her to be his or her mother? It is a first in this harsh world of reality. It has never happened in this whole world. It occurs only in a dream world of insanity where they seem to belong.
Sepedi:
Ka sepedi ba re ke bohlola. DA ga ya hlolela Afrika Borwa feela, e hloletše lefase ka moka gomme lefase le sa itshwere dihlaa ka makalo le tlabego ye kgolo gobane le bona selo seo se sego sa ka se direga mo go lona.
English:
Yes, Mr President, we do have a good story to tell. Those who have no stories to tell, who have never experienced the brutality of Bantu education, together with those who have some experience of it but conveniently forgot just to spite the ANC, are now glorifying Bantu education as being better than the present education system.
I usually ask myself: Which Bantu education are they talking about - the one introduced by Verwoerd 60 years ago? Clearly there were too many South Africans under apartheid. The reason for knowing and believing that we have a good story to tell is because the Bantu education that existed in the South Africa I lived in can never be characterised as better than any other system.
I have heard the commentary from opposition members, even if some of them might be as Bantu as I was described, and their version of Bantu education is something that many of us never lived through.
If you attended school under a tree, sitting on a stone for four years in succession like I did, then you will know a good story when you see a school with classrooms and desks, not to mention laboratories and libraries. [Applause.]
I was the first MEC for education in Limpopo after the advent of democracy. Limpopo was the hardest hit, I repeat, the hardest hit by Bantu education because it was 97% black and hence had 97% experience of Bantu education. Of the 19 disparate circuits of the different departments of education, Leboa was the biggest of the seven of them. In 1993 the matric results was 23% and were never published; the only people who knew about it were those who were involved.
By 1994 the learners in Limpopo – yes, members of the human race like you - were repeating matric for the fifth, sixth and even seventh time. It was unbelievable. Some were even older than their teachers. That is what Bantu education did to them. They were so many that we had to start opening special schools for them to shepherd them through the education system to salvage their future. Those special schools were called finishing schools. We had to hire special teachers to rescue them by guiding them through matric; otherwise they would have been doomed. Many of them did escape this inferno called Bantu education by passing through these finishing schools. Hence when we see improved matric results where nobody had to bear the indecency of having to repeat it seven times, we then know that we have a good story to tell. [Applause.]
Yesterday, one of you in the opposition, when Minister Nzimande pointed to the improvement in mathematics matric results, shouted; "Viva Zimbabwean teachers", and then you laughed hilariously. Yes, you laughed because you thought it was a joke. This is reality, not a joke.
I am the one who started hiring Zimbabwean teachers to teach mathematics in Limpopo schools. I did it, and yes indeed, I did it not as a joke but as harsh reality – because, Zimbabwe, like any other African country that was formally colonised, never had Bantu education. Yes, there was no Bantu education in this continent except in South Africa. So, there was no killer poison for learners in those countries and hence they could produce mathematics teachers. That is why they came here to teach mathematics. Africans who were staying in this country were refused the opportunity to learn mathematics. So we could not produce mathematics teachers. So do not take it like a joke; it is painful to some of us. The only liberation movement in the whole of Africa who had to be faced with the brutality of Bantu education is the ANC, not ZANU-PF, not the South West Africa People's Organization, SWAPO, not the Mozambique Liberation Front, Frelimo but the ANC. We are the only party who had to face this poison.
After passing matric, I could not immediately go to university because there was no National Student Financial Aid Scheme, NSFAS. I had to teach for one year as a privately paid teacher, with only matric mathematics. I was the only mathematics teacher in that school - that was back in 1977.
After a year I left. The only teacher, who had to teach mathematics in that school, did not have mathematics at matric level. For three successive years, he sat to write the same examination paper as the learners that he was teaching and he failed, but he continued teaching because there was no one else - because they said he at least had a teacher's diploma. That is the story of Bantu education. What do you say about the learners who were there? Hence, when we see one qualified mathematics teacher, we know there is a good story to tell - in the new South Africa.[Applause.]
When the President of our country stands up in Parliament and declares that we shall do everything in our power to improve mathematics in our schools, we know there is a good story to tell. It is unlike 60 years ago when a Prime Minister stood up in this hallowed House of Parliament and said and I quote;
There is no need to teach a native child science and mathematics, for the government will not allow him to use it - for the government will not allow the native to perform work above a certain form of manual labour.
So declared Hendrik Verwoerd.
Zimbabwe's oppressors oppressed Zimbabweans but they were not as brutal as this in education; hence we had to get Zimbabwean teachers, not as a joke but as a harsh reality. So when our President pronounces differently, we know there is a good story to tell in South Africa.
Apart from the good story, South Africa also has a good plan. For the first time in its history, South Africa has a plan that has been embraced by all, the National Development Plan, NDP. Yes, you embraced it. [Applause.] For the first time, it is surprising that those in the opposition during the debate were wishing the NDP all the bad luck. I heard them yesterday saying that it will never happen. They vowed that it will never happen in their lifetime. I do not know why you wished it bad luck. I am here to tell you that the NDP is going to happen because the ANC is going to make it happen,as we have done in the past, we will do so now and we will do so in the future.
We in the ANC have always believed in the future of South Africa ever since our inception in 1912. We have never been sceptical about the prospects of our country. Our strong belief in and patriotism for our country will never allow the ANC to not believe in South Africa. One of the things the NDP implores us to do is to reduce the heavy burden of disease in South Africa. In the opposition, you are very irritated that the President celebrated the achievements we made in the area of HIV/Aids. South Africa will take a long time to forget the heavy burden of disease inflicted upon us by the scourge of HIV/Aids. Yes you have got no story; you can only swear, and I do not know why the Speaker is leaving you to swear at me. The only story you know is to swear, no other story.
The issue of HIV/Aids has led to untold suffering and death, high maternal and child mortality as well as the lowering of life expectancy. Yes it is true that the ANC never erases history which may be inconvenient. We are the first to acknowledge and agree to the fact that our approach to HIV/Aids in the earlier years left much to be desired. It is true that we started wrongly. But, as is the nature of ANC, we have a very strong capacity to correct ourselves whenever we go wrong. [Interjections.]
The SPEAKER: Yes, what point are you rising on?
Mr I M OLLIS: Hon Speaker, on a point of order: Would the speaker take questions on HIV/Aids ?
The SPEAKER: Hon member, will you take questions?
The MINISTER OF HEALTH: You are wasting my time. Sit down please!
The SPEAKER: He will not take the question.
THE MINISTER OF HEALTH: I will take you on any time you wish but you are wasting my time.
We corrected the wrongs. We took the bull by the horns, especially since 2009, the year in which you in the opposition claim that the country started deteriorating under the leadership of President Zuma. This was the year in which South Africa turned the corner. Hence we proudly have a good story to tell. Yes, we are regarded by the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/Aids, UNAids, as a model country in the management of HIV/Aids. We are running the biggest treatment programme in the entire world, and you expect the President not to mention that as an achievement.
Death is no longer an everyday experience in South Africa from a disease that used to be responsible for 1000 deaths per day, a disease that was responsible for 49% of maternal mortality and 35% of the mortality rate for children under five years of age.
This is a disease that once caused the funeral homes business to be the most lucrative business in many parts of the country. It is a disease that dangerously lowered life expectancy in our country. South Africa turned the corner. Yes, it turned the corner in 2009 and you do not want the President to say that it is a good story to tell.
This country will never be the same again due to the changes brought about by the ANC. However, we are the first ones to agree, as is in the nature of the ANC, that we still have a long way to go in reducing the burden of disease in our country.
In the same way we did with HIV/Aids, we shall do so with many other diseases. Prevention of diseases and promotion of health shall be the hallmark of our strategy. We are happy to announce that we are ready to tackle the second biggest killer, after breast cancer, of women in our country, which is the cancer of the cervix.
It is a terrible disease that affects 6 000 women per annum, and ends up killing 3 500 of them on an annual basis and 80% of them are African woman. More so, women who are HIV-positive are five times more likely to get this cancer. It is propagated by a virus called the Human Papillomavirus, HPV. The HPV has a vaccine called the HPV vaccine.
The World Health Organization advises that we vaccinate sexually naive girls. I am happy to announce that we are ready to vaccinate young girls against this disease. From March this year, we shall vaccinate all the Grade 4 learners in public schools. This will then happen every subsequent year in our schools. As long as the ANC is in power in this country, they shall be vaccinated.
We will also deal with the issue of unwanted and unplanned pregnancies. On the 27 of this month that is, next week, we will be launching the biggest family planning programme South Africa has ever seen, under the theme: Dual protection. We are launching this programme in a clinic in Ekurhuleni district. Ordinarily, methods of contraceptive used to be the pill, an injection every three months, or an intrauterine device called the Lippes loop.
This time we are introducing a totally new tool that will be used together with condoms.It is called the subdermal implant. It is a very thin device, 4cm long and the size of a lead of a pencil in diameter. We will implant this device subdermally, which means, just under the skin on the upper arm and protection against pregnancy will be guaranteed for three years. This device will be renewed every 3 years or taken out any time a pregnancy is desired.
If you go to your private doctor to install it, it will cost you R1 700, but we shall give it free of charge to every South African woman regardless of their socioeconomic status. It will be available in all public hospitals by 27 February 2014 and will reach all public clinics by the middle of the year. Only the ANC has a good story to tell because we know where this country is coming from and where it is going to. The HPV costs R1 000 a dose. We will vaccinate , for free, all our learners to protect them from this terrible disease - because we do have a good story to tell. Thank you.
Mr T D HARRIS
UNREVISED HANSARD
NATIONAL ASSEMBLY
Wednesday, 19 February 2014 Take: 19
"National Assembly Chamber Main",Unrevised Hansard,19 Feb 2014,"[Take-19] [National Assembly Chamber Main][NAC-Logger][mm].doc"
The MINISTER OF HEALTH
Mr T D HARRIS: Hon Speaker, I hope that the quality of this debate is better than yesterday's when we heard nothing but stories from this side of the House. They do need to do better because they have some big gaps to fill from the President's speech last week.
In the middle of his history lesson, the Minister of Health told us that they never had to go to court to choose a President. However, their President had to stay out of court to stay in the Presidency. [Interjections.] [Applause.]
In his speech last week, the President tried to claim all of the credit for his predecessors' work over the past 20 years to cover up the fact that South Africa has slid backwards under his leadership. [Interjections.] Many speakers yesterday continued this analysis of achievement since 1994. [Interjections.] They glossed over the decline in the past five years ... [Interjections.]
The SPEAKER: Order, hon members. Order!
Mr T D HARRIS: ... and they benchmarked the democratic South Africa against apartheid South Africa. Let me be clear on this: It is not a debatable point that we are better off today than we were under apartheid. [Interjections.] [Applause.] I do not believe anyone in this House disagrees with that, but it is not a valid comparison. We can do better than benchmarking ourselves against a racist illegitimate regime. [Applause.]
What is really at stake in this debate is the record of President Zuma's ANC in government. When you dig into that record, you can see why the President and the other ANC speakers try to hide behind the record of previous leaders, because some awkward truths comes to light when you compare the past five years to the years that came before. Since 2009, unemployment has increased from 30% to 34%; the number of discouraged job seekers has nearly doubled, from 1,2 million to 2,2 million; there are five times more service delivery protests every week; and average economic growth has declined from 4,2% under President Mbeki to 2,8% under President Zuma.
That is not to say hon Pandor was correct yesterday when she giddily hailed the unparalleled achievements of the past 20 years. Over the whole two decades, the economic growth remained stuck well below other emerging markets and unemployment remained stuck stubbornly high. Perhaps most shocking is the fact ... [Interjections.]
The DEPUTY MINISTER OF TRADE AND INDUSTRY (Mrs T V Tobias): Hon Speaker!
The SPEAKER: Hon member, there is a point of order. What point are you rising on, hon member?
The DEPUTY MINISTER OF TRADE AND INDUSTRY (Mrs T V Tobias): No, it is not a point of order, hon Speaker. I wanted to know whether the member will take a question.
Mr T D HARRIS: I will take a question!
The DEPUTY MINISTER OF TRADE AND INDUSTRY (Mrs T V Tobias): Do you pretend that the economic global crisis has not created shortages of jobs in the world, and that South Africa is an island, and thus there will be job growth and economic growth irrespective of global crisis? [Interjections.]
The SPEAKER: Hon member, ask a question; do not make a statement!
Mr T D HARRIS: What the hon member is referring to is perhaps what Minister Davies told us yesterday when he gave us a long analysis that none of this is their fault. While we can blame all of it on the global financial crisis, I would like to hear one of the ANC speakers today explain the growth performance of emerging markets like Vietnam, Peru and Turkey. Today, they are all growing above 4% in the same global economy from similar stages of development. [Interjections.]
The SPEAKER: Order, hon members!
Mr T D HARRIS: Our economy is growing below 2%. The only possible explanation is the lack of leadership on the economy. [Applause.] Given that this is an election year, you would think that the governing party might put forward a few more ideas to at least try to convince voters that they have a plan to create jobs. Yet, every speech from this side of the House, including the President, has been silent on the plan. "Wait until after the elections if you want to plan", the President said.
Fortunately, we have seen the ANC's plan in their election manifesto. Let's look at what it says about jobs: Create 6 million work opportunities by 2019. [Interjections.] That is great; it is a good idea! The DA in government rolls out high quality Extended Public Work Programme, EPWP, work opportunities in great numbers because they help to reduce poverty and transfer skills.
In fact, last year, the Department of Public Works nationally awarded the City of Cape Town prizes for their EPWP roll-out in two of the three available categories for municipalities. The DA in the Western Cape has delivered 100 000 more work opportunities, hon Cronin, than the target set for us in 2009. [Interjections.] We also deliver more skills than any other province.
The DA believes in EPWP work opportunities but they are no substitute for real jobs. [Interjections.] It is scandalous that there are no other job-creating ideas in the ANC's 2014 election manifesto, and that the ANC's jobs plan begins and ends with work opportunities. In contrast, the DA 2014 election manifesto will lead to 8% growth in 10 years and help to create 6 million real jobs. [Interjections.] [Applause.]
Perhaps the ANC is lacking ideas because every time they make a promise on the economy, they fail to keep it. They get caught out telling stories, if you know what I mean. In their 2009 election manifesto, they promised to half the level of poverty and unemployment by 2014 – that is this year. However, the number of unemployed South African instead has increased by 1,4 million since then. They promised in their manifesto to protect poor communities from the rising price of food. Instead, we have seen bread and meat prices rocket by 69% and 40% respectively.
They promised to adjust black economic empowerment, BEE, policies to benefit broader sections of our people. Instead, Minister Davies, when he changed the law last year, changed the definition of a new entrant to a share scheme from somebody with less than R20 million equity to someone with less than R50 million equity. If you have R45 million in BEE deals, you are still a new entrant under Minister Davies' BEE. It is really a dismal record on the economy, isn't it? The Zuma-ANC comes up short against previous administrations; it comes up short against other emerging markets; and it even comes up short against its own election promises.
Last night, hon Pandor began her speech by lamenting the DA's negativity. Well, to paraphrase Churchill, ``There is much to be negative about'', and most of it has emerged under President Zuma's ANC.
Thankfully, the DA is not negative about our country. We believe that our people have the potential to build a stronger economy, to take on the world and win. South Africans are inspired by the way the DA has turned Cape Town into a city that delivers more free basic services to the poor than any other. [Interjections.] Cape Town is the best-run city in the country according to Municipal IQ. They are inspired by the way the DA has turned the Western Cape into a province of hope, with an unemployment rate 12 percentage points lower than the national average.
Most of all, South Africans have had enough of the ANC's stories. This year, they are going to make themselves heard at the ballot box. [Interjections.] Thank you. [Applause.]
Mr T BOTHA
UNREVISED HANSARD
NATIONAL ASSEMBLY
Wednesday, 19 February 2014 Take: 20
Mr T D HARRIS
Mr T BOTHA: Hon Speaker, hon President, one cannot but agree with the President that the South Africa of today is indeed a much better place than 20 years ago.
However, the indisputable overall gains made during the first two decades of our democracy are being negated by underperformance in the sphere of local government and in the area of housing delivery. It is therefore encouraging that the President has specifically emphasised local government recovery as a priority for the immediate future.
As municipalities are confronted with renewed service delivery challenges, they are also facing an acute shortage of critical skills, such as engineering, project management, financial management, as well as monitoring and evaluation capacity. Furthermore, increased urbanisation places additional pressure on old and decaying existing infrastructure, much of which needs extensive maintenance and replacement.
The increasing housing backlog and the poor state of service delivery continue to cause tensions between state institutions and civil society. Additionally, the differentiated quality of service delivery between different demographic areas of our society further creates a schism between the state and civil society institutions. This is further exacerbated by the ever-widening gap in income levels between the different racial groups.
The growing number of service delivery protests throughout the length and breadth of South Africa has, without doubt, the cumulative effect of diminishing confidence in government.
Public perception is that the ANC-run local governments are incompetent and inherently corrupt. Councillors are portrayed as self-serving tenderpreneurs, with provincial and national governments lacking the political will to intervene. The prevalence of underexpenditure due to the lack of effective project management and implementation capacity is a critical shortcoming which has a major impact on housing and general service delivery.
While some progressive policies may have made great strides towards improving the lives of South Africans, issues such as corruption, maladministration and nepotism are bound to overshadow any positives that may have been achieved by the government. These should now be clearly identified, isolated and adjusted through appropriate legislative and regulatory amendments, followed by decisive action and implementation.
The pivotal point around which good governance turns is not just the maturity of state institutions, but rather their efficiency and effectiveness in delivering services to the public. This requires a professionally trained Public Service which operates free from political interference by party operatives.
More often than not, the blurring of the lines between party structures and government results in maladministration and poor performance. It becomes difficult to identify the source of the failure – whether it is the politician who fails or the public servant who is not performing.
This is more pronounced at the municipal level and in some parastatals where the roles of the various functionaries, i.e. the executive mayor and municipal manager, are not clearly defined. In the case of parastatals, for example the SA Broadcasting Corporation, SABC, board, the Public Protector has publically stated that there is a lack of clarity as to where the role of the board begins and ends and where the functions of the executives begin. Such a malady in an institution often leads to the malfunctioning and poor performance of the institution.
In short, the state is as good as the ability of its institutions to perform efficiently and effectively in delivering on their mandates. However noble the intention of the political principals, once state institutions collapse, whether due to corruption, inefficiency or unprofessional behaviour, it can lead to only one result: the de-legitimisation of the government in power.
Fruitless expenditure, continous disclaimers by the Auditor-General, the growing levels of corruption, as well as the inability of the departments and municipalities to spend their allocated budgets year after year are symptoms of weakening state institutions. Without a decisive intervention by the government at the level of institutional arrangements and systemic re-engineering, this could lead to poor service delivery, which eventually leads to civil unrest.
Among the corrective measures necessary to create good governance is the appointment of staff based on requisite skills, and not on the intensity of political connections the individual has, or his or her ranking within a political party.
Secondly, there must be a clear definition of roles between the executive arm of a municipality and the administration. This separation of roles must, of necessity, improve performance as lines of communication and accountability should clearly be defined. Thank you. [Applause.]
Mr M G ORIANI-AMBROSINI
UNREVISED HANSARD
NATIONAL ASSEMBLY
Wednesday, 19 February 2014 Take: 20
Mr T BOTHA
Mr M G ORIANI-AMBROSINI: Mr Speaker, through youMr President, you have known me for 20 years and I am sure you had a few occasions to curse my name. I am speaking to you today somehow as a changed man, not to oppose, but to plead with you to provide the voice on behalf of the many people in my condition who do not have a voice. Cancer is the greatest pandemic this country is facing. People are dying of bad policies and bad laws which we can change.
There are cancer treatments to be had which, because of a legal point of view, are not made available. I stand here as the expression of that problem. I was supposed to die many months ago and I am here because I had the courage to take illegal treatments in Italy in the form of bicarbonate of soda and here in South Africa in the form of cannabis, marijuana or dagga. Otherwise, I would be pumped full of morphine and would not be able to speak to you.
In November last year, the SA National Cannabis Working Group presented to the Minister of Health these four volumes which represent the proposed new policy of your government. What this paperwork stands for is the proposition that there is no rational argument for continuing to deprive people like me, who need it, of medical marijuana. It is a crime against humanity not to allow that to take place.
In the gallery is Advocate Stransham-Ford, a formidable opponent. He has instruction to take us to court, challenging the constitutionality of all the laws which prohibit the use of medical marijuana and marijuana for commercial and industrial purposes. I have pleaded with him not to, because this is the policy of the government and ought to be implemented. But, dare us not to have another Treatment Action Campaign, TAC, type litigation on the blood and tears of the suffering people of South Africa.
I have published it yesterday and will be introducing a Bill tomorrow. It is a simple Bill to enable doctors to make decisions in respect of terminal cases of cancer and other diseases. This Bill proposes returning to doctors the discretion that they used to have but of which they have now been deprived. Doctors should have the discretion to prescribe innovative treatments such as medical marijuana and bicarbonate of soda and the many other therapies which are available out there.
This proposal is only in respect of facilities which are so authorised and under the control of government. It is an enormous opportunity for this country. Medical tourism is something with which we can raise some real income for the country, as we can with hemp and with marijuana for commercial and industrial purposes.
The Chinese government is making huge investments in hemp as a fabric and construction material. We need to turn the page.
I admire our Minister of Health. He has the guts, the backbone and the other male appurtenances which are required in his job.
Yes, we need to turn the page. The pandemic of cancer does have a connection with sugar and carbohydrates. We need to have the courage. I don't believe in a sugar tax. Prohibition and taxes don't work, but changing our mind-set might. We need to go from prohibitionist to re-education and educating at all levels on the way we eat, the way we are treated, and on the way we regain control of our bodies through making decisions about our treatment options.
It is a threshold across which I believe we can build a healthier society. You, your government and everyone who rules the country bear this incredible burden of transforming South Africans. We usually talk about transforming society. That's easy: we pass laws. We have made a new South Africa. We now need to make new South Africans. The new South Africans undoubtedly need to be better educated. They also need to be healthier. Thank you, Mr Speaker. [Time expired.] [Applause.]
THE MINISTER FOR THE PUBLIC SERVICE AND ADMINISTRATION
UNREVISED HANSARD
NATIONAL ASSEMBLY
Wednesday, 19 February 2014 Take: 21
Mr M G ORIANI-AMBROSINI
The MINISTER FOR THE PUBLIC SERVICE AND ADMINISTRATION: Mr Speaker, the President, the Deputy President and hon members, I salute you.
Mr Ambrosini, I have worked with you for many years and it hurts me to see you in the state that you are. As you were speaking, I had a word with the Minister of Health and he indicated to me that we are very keenly following the discussion and research around the world on the potential of decriminalising medical marijuana. We are a caring society. [Applause.]
Mr President, I want to start off by expressing my disappointment with the performance of the opposition parties during today's and yesterday's debate on the President's state of nation address. After all the hype the media worked up over the weekend that the opposition would be bringing out the big guns, I didn't even see a water pistol out of these people. [Laughter.] This is because noone can refute the basis of what the President has asserted here on Thursday - that today is a better day than we had in 1994. Repeat it for your children for evermore: Today is a better day than we had in 1994. Don't ever forget this. [Applause.]
This is such an irrefutable fact and they know that. Gradually, as their arguments and voices became hollow, their debate changed to conceding that some gains had been made. It is now argued that the gains of President Mandela and Mbeki were reversed by President Zuma. This is as nonsensical as it is illogical, and I will show why.
You must admit that your own prejudice stands in the way of you admitting that, on Thursday, the President gave a very good speech about a very good story. [Applause.] But, because most of you are instinctively preconditioned to be negative, your immediate response was, understandably, negative.
The combined opposition has dishonestly and opportunistically sought to appropriate for themselves President Mandela, these people here, including, unfortunately, my own father there, former Minister Buthelezi – who is suddenly a member of the ANC – and President Mbeki. [Laughter.] That is all that Cope stands for. They have no other vision except to cling to President Mbeki. He was the President of the ANC and he belongs to us. [Applause.] They cling to these names to give them credibility because they have no other credibility.
I want to remind the House that this is the same opposition – especially the DA – that opposed the ANC even when President Mandela was standing here and talking. [Applause.] This is the same DA, in particular, that made the same scurrilous allegations about nondelivery as they do today, against former President Mandela.
You were unapologetically here to represent the vestiges of past privileges, as you are now. [Applause.] It is for this reason that President Mandela, then, called you a Mickey Mouse party. In fact, he was being very generous, as was part his nature. I think Mickey Mouse is a very likable and popular character - very unlike what you are. [Laughter.] What you are is just a damp squib - a party of empty excuses, a party of one person, with no tangible policies or ideals. It is Helen Zille, the pied piper leading you nowhere, just hunting down any black face that is willing to be bought by a few pennies. [Applause.]
The DA could not have created a greater circus than the one that played itself out in the public domain over the past three weeks. The message you sent out was clear: You made it clear that the perception of your image as the protector of the vestiges of white privileges is so entrenched that you have to have a black face. For some reason, I thought that privilege would go to former Minister Lekota. Last year at this particular time, he talked about concubines. Here was the perfect opportunity... but no! [Laughter.] The desperation played itself out for all to see.
Then yesterday the hon Ollis came here with what he thought was a bombshell and told us that Helen Zille is going to be standing against President Zuma in the upcoming elections. What in the world would drive anyone to such a self-inflicted, public lynching? Why would anybody do that? Advise her that it is not the way to go.
But I have digressed. My aim is to tell you what we have achieved, not only over the past 20 years since 1994, but specifically during the last five years under President Zuma. And you will see that the President's good story is, in fact, a remarkable story. So, sit back and listen. [Applause.]
The African Union took a decision in 2003 to set up an African Peer Review Mechanism, APRM, believing that the prosperity of any country and its stability starts with solid and good governance. Through the APRM a panel of eminent experts is sent to each country under review. The review of a country is conducted by the citizens of that country itself.
[Interjections.] Shut up! [Laughter.]
In our case, the country's review was done by the national general council, comprising civil society, religious organisations, the business sector, youth, and labour. [Interjections.]
The SPEAKER: Hon Minister, there is a point of order.
Ms S V KALYAN: Speaker, I submit that the use of the phrase ``shut up'' is unparliamentary and would like to ask you to rule on that, please.
The SPEAKER: Hon Minister, that is unparliamentary.
The MINISTER FOR THE PUBLIC SERVICE AND ADMINISTRATION: Thank you, Mr Speaker. It allowed me to have a drink of water. [Laughter.] [Interjections.]
The SPEAKER: Order, hon members! Order! Order!
The MINISTER FOR THE PUBLIC SERVICE AND ADMINISTRATION: Speaker, I withdraw.
Our first report was in 2007 and had a harsh judgment of us. Since then we have worked very hard on those problematic issues pointed out by the panel of experts.
Several months ago, after scouring the length and breadth of the country to find out how our citizens assessed us, the national general council presented the final report to me. And I want to quote directly from their report to show what our people - civil society, the business sector, labour, the youth, etc – think of our government:
South Africa is the greatest country on the continent. Nowhere else has democracy been so embraced by its people.
Overcoming our great evil - apartheid - has left our citizens better off than ever imagined. As a nation, we hold a torch for our beloved continent for what can be accomplished through the efforts of a committed government, committed people, committed business and committed civil society sector. The people of South Africa have a way out of poverty in a land where opportunity is for all. And if that way doesn't work, government is there with a safety net for its people.
This is not us, the ANC, speaking. It is the people speaking about us. The report continues:
In this process we are reminded of the words of Tata Nelson Mandela giving his first speech as a democratically elected President, when he said, 'Today, all of us do, by our presence here, and by our celebrations in other parts of our country and world, confer glory and hope to newborn liberty. Out of the experience of an extraordinary human disaster that lasted too long, must be born a society of which all humanity will be proud. Our daily deeds as ordinary South Africans must produce an actual South African reality that will reinforce humanity's belief in justice, strengthen its confidence in the nobility of the human soul and sustain all our hopes for a glorious life for all'.
The report continues:
It is these words that have been a lighthouse for us all. As a country, we are building infrastructure that links our people to each other, Africa and the world. We are establishing schools and providing education for each and every child. We are providing health care where it is needed and we provide a social safety net for the disenfranchised through social welfare programmes. We continue to provide an electoral process that is free and fair, where our people can express themselves through their vote and a judicial system that is independent and works.
They concluded the report:
Minister, we are very proud of this government and what it has done. [Applause.]
This is not what the ANC is saying. This is what civil society and the people of this country are saying about our work. This is a report from civil society, business and faith-based organisations about us as a government.
This wonderful story doesn't end here. Listen to what Professor Sawyer, the eminent panel member who was reviewing us, had to say about us:
The challenges that were identified previously have been accomplished. Therefore, in the last 20 years, remarkable progress has been made by the government. Democracy is palpable, with a consolidation of public participation. The government has integrity with strong anticorruption efforts. We congratulate South Africa for its success. We congratulate it for its infrastructure projects. We congratulate it for spearheading good governance, for its protection of consumers, and its progress on HIV, which puts it at number one in the world in the roll-out of antiretroviral drugs, ARVs.
[Applause.]
The SPEAKER: Order, hon members! Order!
The MINISTER FOR THE PUBLIC SERVICE AND ADMINISTRATION: This is what is said about us. And I continue.
Prof Sawyer says:–
Equally notable are continued efforts by government and civil society to fight xenophobia and racism and entrench the values of ``ubuntu'' and peaceful co-existence in South African society. The steps taken to ensure accountability of public office holders are commendable steps...
[Interjections.]
I hope you are listening.
Anti-corruption institutions and mechanisms continue to be strengthened to fight the scourge of corruption. The Panel commends the many initiatives and partnerships with civil society and the private sector in fighting corruption.
This is what other people say about us. It is not the ANC nor the government. [Interjections.] Shut up! [Laughter.]
The SPEAKER: Hon Minister, that is unparliamentary. Withdraw the remark.
The MINISTER FOR THE PUBLIC SERVICE AND ADMINISTRATION: I withdraw. [Applause.] [Laughter.]
However, he says:
We have very serious concerns about the huge inequalities that continue to occur in this country.
The President presented us with this report in Cabinet. He took it to the African Union on behalf of the people of this country. It was not us as government, expressing ourselves. This came from our people and they gave this government an A-plus mark in the last 20 years. [Applause.] There could not be a more authoritative barometer of our performance than the people themselves speaking.
Through the APRM and the people of this country, we record not only a good story, but an amazing story of success. Yesterday, members of my party gave concrete facts about our successes, based on statistics corroborated over a period of time by reputable agencies. These ones that I am going to give you now came from someone who doesn't necessarily like the ANC, but was forced to concede these points. This is what he said:
Let's start with the economy. Our economy is 63% bigger today than it was in 1990. [Applause.] Our per capita income is 27% higher today than it was in 1993. According to the World Economic Forum's index for Global Competitiveness, for the year 2012-13, South Africa ranked 52nd out of 144 countries.
We are ranked the highest and best amongst those indexes that were used. [Applause.] In terms of auditing standards, we were at the number one spot in the world. We have just slipped, and are now at number two. [Applause.] [Interjections.]
We are doing fantastically, Mr President. On our legal rights, we are number one in the world. [Applause.] On the capacity and efficiency of our corporate boards, we are number one. On the soundness of our banking systems, we are number two. [Applause.] I could go on the whole day. This is happening now, during President Zuma's time. Mr President, you told a good story of the last 20 years. [Interjections.]
The SPEAKER: Order, hon members! Order!
The MINISTER FOR THE PUBLIC SERVICE AND ADMINISTRATION: It is a good story. All things being equal, it would be a good story if we were in Turkey or Vietnam. But, in our case, it would be downright ahistorical not to indicate what the then Minister of Public Service, Dr Zola Skweyiya said when he took over this department: "The National Party ruled for 50 years, producing nothing but the chaos that we find here now."
We had to start from this chaotic arrangement. In those 20 years we first had to establish the state and its entire governance infrastructure. We had to begin from a base of a centralised government that served the interests of only 3 million whites and we had to extend it to cover 40 million people. We had to amalgamate 11 Bantustan administrations – all tribally based – which, except for one or two, were nothing more than tinpot makeshift dumping grounds to bolster the apartheid ideology, hardly able to run even spaza shops.
From these we had to create the state. We had to reorganise these into nine provinces, designate responsibilities, create institutions and Ministries, right-size the Public Service and begin the process of transforming it to suit the needs of a democratic state. It took well beyond 1999 to establish what we now call public administration.
Put against that background, you will understand that what we have achieved now is nothing short of a wonder. [Applause.] Yes, from that quagmire, to a wonder. The resistance to the new order was evident everywhere one went in government. In that time we repealed and replaced more than 800 pieces of legislation and created the Constitution that we have.
But, instead of celebrating a milestone achievement of 20 years that we could all lay claim to for having been a part thereof, some around here allow their spiteful negativity to take away that glow. But we in the ANC don't mind that at all. We will take the victory if you are too blind to see, because the victory is indeed ours. [Applause.]
Within this context, let me tell you what our President has done, as he himself has often so eloquently put it. He split the Ministry of Higher Education from that of Basic Education. [Interjections.] See what the results are; they speak for themselves. He split Land Affairs from Agriculture, to allow us to pay particular attention to the very important issue of land and its redistribution and, on the other hand, to allow agriculture to ensure our food security. [Applause.] Again, the results speak for themselves.
He created the Department of Monitoring and Evaluation. The results are clear for all to see. He created the unit for National Planning in the Presidency and it produced our blueprint, the National Development Plan, which has emphasised the role of an efficient Public Service in a developmental state. We all applauded it - right here in this House. It was his initiative. All of these were his initiatives. We have begun to implement that plan. [Applause.]
Here was a clear and incisive way of deepening democracy and creating a more efficient state. And you tell us of a reversal of gains? What we see here in the Western Cape is a reversal of gains, and I will tell you the statistics. You complain about service delivery. The President conceded ... [Interjections.]
Mr I M OLLIS: Speaker, will this Minister, perhaps, take a question? [Interjections.]
The SPEAKER: Order, hon members! Hon members, it's not your opinion that is sought here but that of the Minister. Minister, will you take a question? No, she won't take a question.
Mr I M OLLIS: She didn't even answer!
The SPEAKER: Proceed, Minister.
The MINISTER FOR THE PUBLIC SERVICE AND ADMINISTRATION: Under President Zuma's presidency we hosted the Soccer World Cup. Amid a great deal of scepticism, we pulled off a spectacular event. Even Bafana Bafana rose to the occasion then, making members on my left here, the bunch of losers that the Minister of Sport and Recreation ... [Inaudible.] [Applause.]
The President has conceded that we have a long way to go. But, in the last five years, one of the most problematic areas has been here in the Western Cape province. If there is an index of failure, this is where we find it. On more than two occasions, she was so overwhelmed with the service delivery protests that she had to go crying to the President to ask the National Defence Force to come and intervene. [Interjections.]
The SPEAKER: Minister!
The MINISTER FOR THE PUBLIC SERVICE AND ADMINISTRATION: No ...
The SPEAKER: Yes, what point are you rising on, sir?
Mr D J MAYNIER: Speaker, if the hon Minister won't take a question from my hon colleague ... ?
The SPEAKER: What point are you rising on?
Mr D J MAYNIER: Will the Minister take a question from me about her flying habits?
The SPEAKER: Please take your seat, sir. Proceed, Minister. [Interjections.] Proceed, Minister.
The MINISTER FOR THE PUBLIC SERVICE AND ADMINISTRATION: Nowhere else has a premier been so out of their depth that they had to call for national intervention on two occasions, as this particular premier did. An indication of a failed province is one that spends R10,3 billion on consultants. Ten comma three billion rand on consultants! Why do we need a government at all in the Western Cape? We might as well let Helen Zille run the province with her cronies of consultants. Why do we need a government? In fact, after all, they are paid better than the provincial executive!
The Auditor-General's findings on this rampant looting of public funds in the Western Cape is nothing short of scandalous. [Interjections.] It is, in fact, in the delivery of services ... [Interjections.]
Ms S V KALYAN: Speaker, may I just ... [Interjections.]
The SPEAKER: Order, hon members! Order! [Interjections.] Order! What point are you rising on, madam?
Ms S V KALYAN: The Minister refers to the Auditor-General's findings and she ... [Interjections.]
The SPEAKER: What point are you rising on, madam?
Ms S V KALYAN: ... she is misleading the House, because it's not under the DA ... [Interjections.]
The SPEAKER: What point are you rising on, madam? What point?
Ms S V KALYAN: The Minister is misleading the House regarding the Auditor-General's findings. [Interjections.]
The SPEAKER: Order, hon members! Please! Order! Please proceed, Minister.
The MINISTER FOR THE PUBLIC SERVICE AND ADMINISTRATION: It is a fact that service delivery in the Western Cape is skewed towards the privileged. The delivery of government houses in this province has been President Zuma's administration's greatest failure.
Mr M WATERS: Speaker... Speaker...
The SPEAKER: Yes, hon member?
The MINISTER FOR THE PUBLIC SERVICE AND ADMINISTRATION: I can authoritatively speak...
Mr M WATERS: May I also rise on a point of order, if the Minister could be seated and obey the Rules?
The SPEAKER: Minister? Minister?
The MINISTER FOR THE PUBLIC SERVICE AND ADMINISTRATION: ... as the Minister of Housing that we have dropped by 25% in this province in our delivery of housing. [Interjections.]
The SPEAKER: Minister?
Mr M WATERS: Minister, there is a point of order here. You've got to sit down.
The MINISTER FOR THE PUBLIC SERVICE AND ADMINISTRATION: No.
The SPEAKER: Order, hon members! Yes, what point of order are you rising on, sir?
Mr M WATERS: Speaker, the Minister said that, under the DA, government resources are skewed towards the rich. That is also misleading the House. Seventy-nine per cent of our budget goes to the poor. She is misleading the House. [Interjections.]
The SPEAKER: Order! Hon member, that's a statement, it is not... you are not rising on a ... [Interjections.]
Mr M WATERS: ... she is misleading the House! [Interjections.]
The SPEAKER: Please take your seat, hon member.
Ms M T KUBAYI: On a point of order, Speaker!
The SPEAKER: Order, hon members! [Interjections.] Order! Order! Order!
Ms M T KUBAYI: Mr Speaker, on a point of order.
The SPEAKER: Yes?
Ms M T KUBAYI: Mr Speaker, I want to suggest that you rule on members who stand up to make frivolous points of order. It is against the Rules to do so. That is what the DA is doing in an attempt to disrupt the speaker. [Interjections.]
An HON MEMBER: Speak for yourself! The same Rules apply to you.
The SPEAKER: Hon members, while interjections are part of parliamentary discourse, these should not be aimed at drowning out whoever is addressing the House. We must allow the speaker at the podium to put his or her point across. When your opportunity comes you can respond to the issues raised. Proceed, Minister.
The MINISTER FOR THE PUBLIC SERVICE AND ADMINISTRATION: The delivery of housing in the Western Cape has dropped by 25% since the DA took over. Statistics are there as proof. Farm evictions continue with gay abandon, the squatter areas grow phenomenally everywhere and crime escalates. [Interjections.] This is the reality of the Western Cape that is held out as a model.
But I will tell you what we have done to improve service delivery. It now takes seven days for anybody to get an ID document in this administration of President Jacob Zuma. [Applause.] It now takes two days for anybody to register and get a grant in this administration of Jacob Zuma. [Applause.]
The SPEAKER: Hon Minister, on that happy note, your time has expired. [Applause.] [Interjections.]
Afrikaans:
Mnr P J GROENEWALD: Speaker ... Agb Speaker ...
The SPEAKER: Yes, sir.
Afrikaans:
Mnr P J GROENEWALD: Speaker, op 'n punt van orde: Ek het nou gewag dat die agb Minister moet klaar praat.
English:
Mr P J GROENEWALD: Hon Speaker, my point of order is: I want to know whether it is parliamentary and also fair for the Minister to compare the performance of Bafana Bafana with the performance of the ANC government. [Laughter.]
The SPEAKER: Hon members, it is okay to be frivolous from time to time but not all the time.
Mr L W GREYLING
UNREVISED HANSARD
NATIONAL ASSEMBLY
Wednesday, 19 February 2014 Take: 22
The SPEAKER
Mr L GREYLING: Hon Speaker and hon President, in your state of the nation address you attempted to tell the nation a story that you believed to be good. Central to that story is the emphasis that your administration supposedly has placed on infrastructure spending.
However, Mr President, this is not the true story of the last five years. While we welcome the commitment to improving the state of infrastructure because our country sorely needs it, the President, in fact, has only earmarked 8% of our gross domestic product, GDP, for infrastructure development, as opposed to the 10% target set by the National Development Plan.
The story gets even worse when one considers that this government has only spent 76% of that budget. This means that not only is Zuma's ANC failing to address our R1,5 trillion infrastructure backlog, but they are, in fact, growing it. This is the real story South Africans should know.
Mr President, in your address you also strangely lauded the Medupi and Kusile power stations as an example of the good story your government has to tell. The fact that both these projects are massively over budget by tens of billions of rands, severely delayed and singularly responsible for our protracted energy crisis is once again neatly left out of your story.
One of the reasons for their delays is that Eskom gave the R39 billion boiler contract to Hitachi Power Africa, a company that the ANC's funding arm Chancellor House has a 25% stake in. It continues until today. The prospect of the ANC making money out of our infrastructure build programme was, I suppose, simply too good to resist, even if it means that the country has to suffer as a result.
It is vital that we do not repeat these mistakes. The South African economy simply cannot afford to pay higher electricity prices for expensive and inefficiently built power stations. It is therefore shocking that you once again announced that the government will be proceeding with the construction of 9 600 megawatt nuclear power stations which could cost this country close to R1 trillion. This is despite both the National Development Plan, NDP, and the government's own updated 20-year energy plan explicitly stating that this decision must be delayed as it is both unaffordable and unnecessary.
Given the ANC's track record, one can only surmise that this steadfast commitment to a large nuclear build programme is due to the potential benefit to ANC insiders. Compounding this suspicion is the fact that the ANC's own fundraising initiative -the Progressive Business Forum - undertook its first visit to Russia in 2013. Therefore, immediately afterwards, the Voice of Russia brazenly announced that Russia would be getting the tender to build its eight new reactors in South Africa. This was followed by a draft agreement that basically gave Russia veto power over anyone else wanting to build nuclear power stations in South Africa. This is infrastructure built ANC-style, and it is a story that will only end badly for the people of South Africa.
What is actually required is for the government to recognise its own inadequacies in building infrastructure and make it easier for other players to contribute to solving our crises. In your 2010 address, hon President, you stated that the Independent System and Market Operator Bill would be introduced to Parliament, which would effectively take the transmission grid away from Eskom and make it easier for independent power producers to enter the market. What happened?
In yet another sign of your government's refusal to form genuine partnerships with the private sector, you allowed your Minister for Public Enterprises to torpedo that Bill in this very House in the most underhand manner. We are now back to square one with Eskom and all its inefficiencies continue to hold our economy to ransom through its monopoly control.
It is therefore clear that if we allow the ANC to write our story on infrastructure, we will continue to limp along and progressively fall behind the rest of the world in our economic competitiveness. A new book can, in fact, be written on 7 May but that requires the voters to tell Zuma's ANC that they are no longer happy with their sorry storyline. I thank you. [Applause.]
THE DEPUTY MINISTER OF AGRICULTURE, FORESTRY AND FISHERIES
UNREVISED HANSARD
NATIONAL ASSEMBLY
Wednesday, 19 February 2014 Take: 22
Mr L W GREYLING
THE DEPUTY MINISTER OF AGRICULTURE, FORESTRY AND FISHERIES: Hon Speaker, what is the saddest story that I have read in the recent times? KwaZulu-Natal advertised 90 posts for new traffic officers. How many people do you think applied for those 90 positions? 30 000 desperate South African jobseekers applied for the 90 positions.
The authorities decided to put them through a fitness test, subjecting the applicants to a 4km run and choosing the best ones from the results. In their efforts to get the positions, six applicants died, trying to be amongst the first 90. That is how desperate South Africans are to get a job.
Afrikaans:
Die agb president spog met die hoeveelheid mense wat tans werk. Hy moet ook die syfer gee van hoeveel nie werk nie en hoeveel uit moedeloosheid opgehou het om werk te soek.
Die ANC se werkskeppingsbeleid werk nie. Veertien miljoen mense het werk aan die einde van 2008 gehad. Vyf jaar later, in 2013, is die syfer steeds net 14 miljoen. Die syfer bly dieselfde terwyl die bevolking van 48 milj na 51 milj geklim het. Werkloosheid word vererger deur selfsugtige vakbonde wat net na hulleself kyk en nie oor die miljoene werkloses bekommer nie.
English:
How did we end up in this situation? I do not have time to discuss the history of the alliance between Congress of South African Trade Unions, Cosatu, and the ANC. This has led to the ANC's labour legislation largely favouring Cosatu. In Afrikaans we say: Pasop vir 'n hond wat eendag omdraai en sy eienaar byt. [Be careful of a dog that turns around and bites its owner.] This is what is happening at the moment.
The chickens have come home to roost. Trade unions such as Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union, Amcu, and National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa, Numsa, are currently trying to destroy the ANC. What they are succeeding in doing is destroying the South African economy.
According to the Director-General of Labour, the number of labour days which have been lost due to strikes have increased from 2,8 million in 2011, to 3,3 million in 2012. What do we have to do to create jobs for the thousands who ran for the traffic positions in KwaZulu-Natal? The government cannot create these jobs. The government should make it possible for the private sector to expand and create jobs. Currently, the government is interfering on every level of the economy, while the trade unions are chasing away investors.
The vehicle manufacturer Nissan gave four countries the opportunity to put in a bid to manufacture the new Datsun vehicle series. South Africa was the favourite to get the bid. Thousands could have got jobs. As a result of all the strikes, South Africa did not get it. The contract was awarded to India.
For the same reasons, the manufacturing of the new BMW-3 series was not awarded to South Africa. Thousands more jobs were destroyed.
Lonmin decided to sink a new shaft at Marikana. It would have created 6 000 new jobs. Due to the violent strikes, the project was cancelled. A total of 6 000 job opportunities were lost. It is these events that caused six people to die while they ran for a position. The government must review the labour legislation and will have to ensure more distance between the ANC and the trade unions to solve this.
Data from the South African police shows that the country is averaging around four to five violent protests a day. Last week the police said that Gauteng alone had experienced more than 500 protests since the beginning of 2014.
In their speeches, the ANC leaders proudly tell the younger generations about the struggle years. I understand that. The slogan in those days was: "Make the country ungovernable." Now they have achieved success and these chickens are coming home to roost, as this generation is now using the same methods against the government.
The protests are about erratic water supply, electricity disconnections, poorly built houses, sewerage flowing through the streets, etc.
Why these shortages? A spokesperson would normally reply: ``Capacity constraints''. A capacity constraint is in effect a code for affirmative action and cadre deployment at local government level that did not succeed.
Afrikaans:
Waarom het die ANC die staatsdiens heel eerste getransformeer deur regstellende aksie? Dit is die grootste fout wat die ANC die afgelope 20 jaar gemaak het. Ek sou water, krag en huise aan die armes, as die eerste prioriteit gesien het. Ek sou die ervare staatsamptenare, of hulle wit, bruin of swart is, gebruik het om hierdie dienste op grondvlak te verskaf. Daarna kon verandering in die staatsdiens geleidelik gebruik geword het. Vandag het die meerderheid plaaslike besture geen ingenieur om die rioolwerke of die waterstelsels in stand te hou nie.
English:
Sir, the affirmative action chickens came home to roost against the ANC in this case.
Afrikaans:
Ek wil verder voorspel dat die ANC se heropening van die grondeise in die toekoms ook 'n groot risiko het en teen hulle gaan draai. Daardie chickens [hoenders] gaan ook nog huis toe kom om te roost [teen hulle draai].
Vir meer as vier jaar lank tot 1998 kon mense grondeise indien. Ons het gehoop om die probleem op te los en klaar te wees. Vandag, 16 jaar later, is ons amper klaar met die grondeise. Die saak kon afhandel gewees het, sodat boere daar buite sekerheid oor hulle grond kan kry. Sekerheid, sodat hulle kan uitbrei en meer kos vir ons kan produseer, omdat die bevolking groei. Nou skielik, en ek weet nie presies die rede nie, miskien met die oog op die verkiesing, word die grondeise weer vir vyf jaar heropen.
English:
Some 379 000 new land claims are likely to be submitted. This could cost the state about R179 billion to settle. The restitution budget is roughly only about R3 billion. How is the state to find the money to settle all these claims? You can see the dilemma. I say that the problem is that we are creating expectations with many people. False expectations, maybe, that cannot be fulfilled. This is serious because this is the recipe for revolutions. Very soon these chickens will be coming home to roost.
We must rethink the land issue. The ANC continues to nurse the notion that they can reverse the inevitable march to an urban future. We are wasting valuable time and energy trying to restore people to their old ways. Ordinary South Africans want to go to cities and work in a modern economy. Mondli Makhanya wrote:
It is not because black people cannot farm. It is because time has moved on from the time the apartheid government was carrying out its forced-removal policies.
The money and energy that is spent on getting peasants back into subsistence farming would be better used to create a strong class of black commercial farmers who actually do farm for commercial rather than sentimental reasons.
Sir, we urgently need more successful black commercial farmers. The majority of the land transfers to date have failed, according to the department. We cannot afford more fertile land becoming unproductive while the population grows and more food is needed on a daily basis. Hungry people, running in the streets, are the recipe for instability and the fall of governments.
Afrikaans:
Die ANC het in 1994 'n reënboognasie in die vooruitsig gestel, waar daar plek vir elkeen onder die son is. Wat ervaar die mense buite en wat sê hulle vir my? Hulle sê dat ons 'n sebranasie gekry het. Dis net wit en swart. As jy bruin of Asiër is, is jy soms 'n ere swarte. Ander kere, soos by Korrektiewe Dienste in die Weskaap, word daar teen jou gediskrimineer.
English:
If one applies for a job or bursary, even the freeborn must still fill in forms to indicate whether they are white or black. If you are white and poor you do not get a bursary. I can give the names of those people. Your black school mate with the millionaire father is given it.
When the ANC is in trouble or when they want to canvas for votes, some of the speakers very easily then blame the white people. We heard it again in this debate. It is easy politics, but it is a recipe which divides and which incites people against each other and leads to conflict.
The ANC youth, and so also Malema, many of them, were raised on an antiwhite diet. Why do I say so? Because I see that the chickens have come home to roost. Malema is using the same methods now against the ANC. I have read the extreme racism of black youths against whites on the internet and I know that it comes from both sides.
Why does the ANC not condemn this? There are still ANC members in this Assembly who preach that there is no such thing as black racism. Only whites are capable of racism. Nonsense; that is not true.
Afrikaans:
Die VF Plus is ten gunste van 'n staatkundige bestel waarin werklike erkenning gegee word aan die reënboog van Suid-Afrika. Soos in Spanje, België, Switserland of Ethiopië gebruik so 'n bestel diversiteit as die ware grondwetlike boublokke - die werklikhede. Soos elders in die wêreld bewys, is hierdie benadering nie in konflik met 'n grondwetlike- of 'n liberale demokrasie nie. Inteendeel, dit word as die nuutste en modernste staatkundige tendense beskryf waar almal geakkommodeer word en almal tuis voel, niemand bedreig voel nie en elkeen 'n plek in die son kry.
English:
Hon President, I must conclude, do not blame the world or the white people for your problems twenty years after 1994. It is the ANC chickens which have come home to roost. In connection with what you mentioned yesterday, I also read the Bible, and I want to say: The Bible doesn't say when Jesus will be returning. It could be tomorrow or maybe on 7 May. Nobody knows when. Thank you, Sir. [Applause.]
Mr I S MFUNDISI
UNREVISED HANSARD
NATIONAL ASSEMBLY
Wednesday, 19 February 2014 Take: 23
THE DEPUTY MINISTER OF AGRICULTURE, FORESTRY AND FISHERIES
Mr I S MFUNDISI: Hon Speaker, hon President, hon Deputy President and hon members, it is 20 years since the advent of democracy and we hope, as a country that has just passed the adolescent stage, that all that will be said and done will show a measure of growth and maturity. There are many instances where services have improved: applying for a passport and a new smart identity card and getting the same in less than a fortnight is worth writing home about. We all know that in the past it used to take an eternity. We hope other government institutions will take a leaf from the book of the Department of Home Affairs.
We watch with great alarm wither bound this country if the social assistance programme covering 16 million people is waved as an achievement. To what extent are we going to build a nation depending on hand-outs? Have we forgotten the injunction that one will live by the sweat of one's brow? In juxtaposition to this is the fact that unemployment figures are going through the roof, and yet we give out grants as high as this. One feels that surely a middle-of-the-road course has to be found.
Our concern in the UCDP is against the country developing into a welfare state and we always look forward to a situation where those who are involved in the Extended Public Works Programme, EPWP, earn a living and we welcome that. Those who receive these social grants regard those who work hard as Popeye. Those who earn a living are called tools. This cannot be a good story at all.
We totally agree with the President that common ground has to be found between mine bosses and employees. The current and continuing impasse does not bode well for the future of the country. In fact this goes for all the employers and employees and government included. Work stoppages are a drawback.
The effect of the Presidential Infrastructure Co-ordinating Commission, PICC, has yet to be felt in a province like the North West. We are mindful of the fact that the Bill thereon is before Parliament; yet it is in progress in other provinces, as indicated in the state of the nation address. On 12 February 2013, the President replied to the debate in the state of the nation address and he said, "Hon Mfundisi, we have noted your request for the PICC to look into the Korster-Lichtenburg road in the North West province." It has been over a year that they have been looking into it, but no progress has been registered. It is worth noting that that road is a menace to motorists to the extent that a fortnight ago, members of the Provincial Portfolio Committee on Public Works were on site conducting inspection in loco when they were nearly run over by two vehicles on the same road.
I shudder to say this tends to remind me of one former Minister of South Africa who was called Dr Promise, because he made promises that never bore fruit. It is a concern that the North West province is treated more like a stepchild of this government. It is the only one without aeroplane services yet there are two airports that are almost going to waste. One wonders what happened to the flights between Cape Town International Airport and Sun City Airport. Why were they ,let alone the services between O R Tambo International Airport and Mmabatho International Airport, stopped?
There is no doubt that the Grade 12 results are better than in the past. However, it should be borne in mind that even as the hon Minister of Basic Education congratulated the class of 2013, she stated that her department had done all they could to let them pass, as more failures would be hard put to cope with the new Curriculum Assessment Policy Statements, Caps, approach. Having said that, we do not take away anything from their success, but that has also proved a difficulty for higher education institutions as there are insufficient funds in the coffers of the National Student Financial Aid Scheme, NASFAS, to absorb these highly shocking pass rates.
We shared the same concerns as far as the number of females in the judiciary is concerned. Having only one female judge president in 20 years is a cause for concern.
While it is sad to listen to the story regarding the 800 police killed, one feels that that could have been balanced with the number of civilians who died at the hands of police, in order to give a rounded and balanced story.
The UCDP has never supported the notion of tenders being allocated to individuals. We suspected from the beginning that the system would lend itself to corruption. We shall therefore, wholeheartedly support the establishment of a central tender board. We, in the UCDP, have noted, appreciated and supported the programme of social cohesion mounted by the current administration. That leaders of all parties represented in Parliament were given an opportunity to share a stage with the President and address the nation on national holidays is something worth writing home about.
The fact that, during the launch of the social cohesion event in Kliptown in 2012, some leaders of the opposition were identified to facilitate workshops speaks volumes about the magnanimity of this current administration. The issue of social cohesion is one story this administration will be remembered for. It never happened in the past three administrations, and due regard has to be given to where it is needed. [Applause.]
However, one issue that still remains as a blot in the book of the ANC is the failure to obliterate the use of the bucket system, even in the old black townships, despite the fact that it was said that would have been done away with by 2007.
Otherwise, the state of the nation address that was presented by the President does give hope to some extent. Thank you. [Applause.]
Ms D KOHLER- BARNARD
UNREVISED HANSARD
NATIONAL ASSEMBLY
Wednesday, 19 February 2014 Take: 23
Mr I S MFUNDISI
Ms D KOHLER- BARNARD: Speaker, during this speech, 25 women will be raped in our country and before the day is over 45 South Africans will have been murdered. This is the real story of the criminal justice system, a system in crisis. South Africans do not feel safe. We share their pain and fear because we all know how vulnerable we are and that, outside these walls, South Africans have lost faith in the entire criminal justice system.
The three pillars, policing, the Department of Justice and the Department of Correctional Services are deficient and plagued by corruption. The first pillar, policing, is in crisis. We read frequently of bungling at crime scenes, as evidence is not collected efficiently; the contamination of crime scenes, resulting in evidence being inadmissible in court, and forensic backlogs under police and health dating years back, inevitably delaying court cases.
The current controversy surrounding our police is the issue of police brutality. In 2011 the world watched as protestor Andries Tatane was murdered by police in Ficksburg. Then, came the Marikana massacre which claimed 34 lives at police hands. Thirty-four families were destroyed that day and still await the outcome of the commission which should determine why their loved ones died. We watched in 2013 as Mozambican, Emidio Josias "Mido" Macia was dragged by his tied hands behind the SA Police Service, Saps, van to his brutal death. His young wife and little son are living on scraps today with no government restitution in sight.
In January 2014 alone we witnessed nine deaths, allegedly at the hands of the police during the massive service delivery protests burning around our country. When our police do act, they are increasingly acting violently, from Marikana to Ficksburg, from Tzaneen to Mothotlung, people are dying at the hands of our Police Service members. But, it is not just civilians being killed; police officers are being killed too. Much of this crisis can be attributed to the massive blunders in the management of crime intelligence, the direct result of which sees police ill-prepared to deal with large-scale protests and, because of this void, we have seen them driving blindly into dangerous situations, having to defend themselves.
Because of mismanagement, there is virtually no psychological support for those officers who face death daily and the result is an increasingly over-stressed and frequently suicidal Saps. In the face of the increased police brutality, the DA asked the President to establish a judicial commission of inquiry. He refused. After yet more deaths, we asked again and are still awaiting his reply. Our calls to demilitarise the Saps as per the National Development Plan's, NDP, recommendation have fallen on deaf ears. These tragedies must be laid at the door of Zuma's ANC.
President Zuma, together with the Minister of Police, Nathi Mthethwa, failed to provide adequate support or guidance to police in terms of policy, training and resources. We have police stations without water, electricity and sanitation. We have police members without firearms or driver's licenses.
The President was also responsible for some extraordinarily poor appointments such as that of Bheki Cele who was eventually fired as the National Police Commissioner and that of the current National Police Commissioner, Riah Phiyega, who is under investigation for defeating the ends of justice. Then came the Minister's nomination of Robert McBride as the head of the Independent Police Investigative Directorate, Ipid, a man plagued by numerous scandals since 1994, which render him utterly unfit for this crucial position.
The second pillar, the Justice Department's National Prosecuting Authority, NPA, boasts of high conviction rates. However, their calculations are skewed by the large number of cases that either never make it to court or are thrown off the court roll due to lack of evidence from the police. In 2010-11 a disturbing 55% of cases were removed from the court roll and only 11% of reported sexual offences cases reached the courts, of which only 6,9% actually resulted in conviction.
Our criminal justice system is fundamentally failing to ensure that criminals are caught, convicted and jailed. South Africans have lost faith in the system. The lack of cohesion between the police and the NPA is massive as is political interference. It seems that Zuma's ANC believes that we simply do not notice high profile politicians and persons connected to the ruling elite enjoying a special and therefore unequal treatment by the NPA.
The NPA also needs prosecutorial independence. It is unacceptable that where high profile people are investigated, those in charge lose their jobs. In the case of Vusi Pikoli, who began investigating Jackie Selebi and Jacob Zuma, the result was that he was axed.
How can we try and build a competent and an independent criminal justice system when the NPA themselves are involved in the delay in handing over the spy tapes to the DA, thereby preventing a judicial review of the decision to drop 783 charges of corruption against our President? Mr President, if you are serious about setting an example, you would use your reply to announce that you will immediately hand the spy tapes over to the DA. [Applause.] [Interjections.]
Over the past five years we bore witness to Zuma's lack of urgency in dealing with corruption. It took him about 20 months to appoint a head of the Special Investigating Unit, SIU. Inevitably, this dithering led to a lack of leadership and internal cohesion, and ultimately poor performance from the unit.
The last pillar of the criminal justice system is our Correctional Services. Prisons are overcrowded, controlled by prison gangs, a hotbed of widespread corruption and maladministration, and veritable universities of crime. The results - rehabilitation is a pipe dream. Mr President, your only solution to overcrowding is to simply release prisoners through presidential pardon. The result of your most recent pardon in 2012 is that, less than a month later, 43 people who were pardoned were back in jail for re-offending. We do see, however, how rampant corruption and maladministration works in one's favour if one is wealthy. This week, a video footage emerged of two members of the infamous Waterkloof Four drinking alcohol and partying in their cell at the Kgosi Mampuru prison, showing what it is really like for the rich within our jails.
Rampant corruption has also resulted in preferential treatment within our prisons for those who are politically connected. Jackie Selebi and Schabir Shaik received free medical parole to spend their final days with their families. Today they shop and golf as free men. Under Zuma's ANC, South Africans are not equal before the law. Our criminal justice system is broken, tainted by corruption and maladministration.
At the state of the nation address President Zuma failed to reassure our nation that he can deliver, that he can keep us safe. South Africa has had enough. South Africa deserves a much better story. [Applause.]
AdvJ H DE LANGE: Deputy Speaker, on a point of order: I have now repeatedly heard people from the DA referring to our President as Zuma or Zuma's ANC. I find that highly offensive. I can't accept that it is parliamentary to refer to the President of our country by his surname, when we are not even allowed to refer to each other, as members, by our surnames. It is highly offensive and I ask that it does not happen again in the House. [Applause.]
The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Thank you, hon member. I think that is a valid point.
Mrs S V KALYAN: Just to respond to that point of order, Madam Deputy Speaker. [Interjections.]
The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Are you responding to the point of order?
Mrs S V KALYAN: I would like to make a comment if you would allow me.
The DEPUTY SPEAKER: No, I will not. That is a dialogue, unnecessary dialogue, hon member. Please.
Mrs S V KALYAN: I just wanted to say that ...
The DEPUTY SPEAKER: No, no, no, don't say it. Sit down, hon member.
The MINISTER OF RURAL DEVELOPMENT AND LAND REFORMS
UNREVISED HANSARD
NATIONAL ASSEMBLY
Wednesday, 19 February 2014 Take: 24
Ms D KOHLER-BARNARD
The MINISTER OF RURAL DEVELOPMENT AND LAND REFORM: Deputy Speaker; your Excellency, the President; your Excellency, the Deputy President, the President's Sona 2014 is a good story of 20 years of social, economic and cultural progress under the astute political stewardship of three ANC Presidents: Nelson Mandela, Thabo Mbeki and the sitting President, uMsholozi, President Jacob Zuma. It is about 20 years of continuity and change. It is a good story of continuity and change. We continue the struggle of reversing the legacy of colonialism and apartheid. We must not be deterred by screams such as that one and shouts of personal attacks, ostensibly against the President, but in reality, against the ANC. We should continue moving South Africa forward, undeterred. That is what our people expect of us.
We applaud our predecessors, Minister Derek Hanekom, former Minister Thoko Didiza and Minister Lulu Xingwana for laying a sound foundation in transforming the land relations landscape in the country. We continue with this work.
The Minister in the Prime Minister's office in Malaysia had the following to say, which I think is a lesson to the ANC given the conduct of the hon members on my left. He said ``There can be no breakthrough without breakdown''. It is true. The presidents of the ANC, all three of them that I've referred to here, have been too magnanimous, I think, almost to a fault, which is why today we are sitting here with members of the opposition, the DA in particular, actually looking down upon our President in the way they speak to him. Thank you, hon De Lange, for pointing that out for that was a point I was going to make and I'm making it. We must change. Yesterday and today, hon President, the members of the DA have been saying your government has done nothing and that, In fact, the things that you are claiming here were done by the Presidents before you.
Let me tell them one small thing about the Western Cape, Mr President. The Deputy President took us to Witzenberg, Prince Alfred Hamlet, about three years ago on an anti-poverty campaign. When we got there we saw the drab poverty. It looked very bad. I have no fear in saying that.The hon Lamoela there knows it; she works there. Go there now, Mr President, we implore you to go there now. They cannot see any of it because they are focusing on the cities.
That is a rural area here in the Western Cape. It's is your government. Just go there now and see what it looks like. It is a completely different place. There is even a swimming pool and other facilities built by young people. When we started, after the Deputy President took us there, we had 30 youngsters. We went back for phase 2 which involves the swimming pool. If you see youngsters coming from Witzenberg to participate in the Olympic Games as swimmers in future, do not think they are brought there by the DA, but by your government. [Applause.]
Now, we invite you to just go and take a walk there. If you want to swim go into the swimming pool in Witzenberg and Nduli. Both of them are in the Western Cape, Prince Alfred Hamlet and Nduli. It is in the Western Cape and they can't see it. They can't see and acknowledge the change because it has been brought about by your government.
It is the same with Dysselsdorp. They know that it is a revitalised township. It's beautiful and it has been revitalised by your government. It's a good story. [Applause.]
We also invite you to go to Riebeek West. They do not know about it because it is a rural area which has not been revitalised by them, but by your government. There are youngsters there for whom we even bought a school bus, because they are farm children. Now, they have a beautiful bus bought by your government to ferry them to school. They are also processing and producing olive oil there. It's a beautiful story by your government here in the Western Cape.
Comrade Blade, I'm taking a different path. I'm talking about a good story in the Western Cape by the government of this President. The DA members stand here and say he has done nothing. They are not telling the truth and they are doing so deliberately. If they do not know, let's invite them.
When you drive into Paarl, look on your left; there are beautiful houses by this government. They say there are 22 020 houses which will be built. And who are actually the main builders? The Naresec youngsters have built these beautiful houses. Mr President, go there and see. They know it. It's here in Paarl.
In Beaufort West we are trying to build an Olympic-sized swimming pool. The work is in progress by your government, Mr President. This is shocking. It's shocking.
District Six is on the go; it's moving forward and it's your government's doing. Just take a walk to District Six.It's not their, but your government's doing. So, it is not true. It is just not true. We are talking facts now. We are not shouting, but we are talking facts. [Interjections.]
I had prepared a political speech earlier on, but what they have been saying yesterday and today - that your government is actually climbing on the bandwagon of the two former Presidents - is not true. That is what I'm trying to show here.
The hon Deputy Minister said a very beautiful thing here when he was talking about farmers. There are many stories in the country. There are the following farms in the Free State: Bettany, Brakpoort, Cecilia ... [Interjections.]... wait, wait, - Kromspruit. This is your first millionaire farmer in three years. Mr President, you don't believe it? This is the first millionaire farmer in the Free State. The second one is a farmer from Waalhope farm. These are your two millionaire farmers through the recapitalisation and development programme in only three years. These are your farms. I invite my President to come and celebrate this. The farms I'm talking about here include lower Mieliespruit. Those who come from the Free State know them. There are seven of them. These farms, Mr President, are registered with Sars and are paying tax and VAT. These are some of the emerging farmers.
Remember that one of the things that the 1913 Natives' Land Act did was to destroy a fledgeling class of black, particularly African, commercial farmers. Mr President, these are yours. They are yours. Now, we have pulled back from supporting them. Let's invite them. Let's go there together, hon member.
Your administration has actually built the first green village in the country. It has built 56 houses in the Free State. The houses, streets, clinic and school are all lit and they use solar energy and wind. They are operating a farm under an irrigation scheme. If you go there now, it is a bit late, but Nestle is there to collect milk from the dairy farm. It is a self-sustainable farm and it is yours, Mr President. It is called Diyatalawa.
Next to it is Makgolokoeng. You know Makgolokoeng. Makgolokoeng is the same and those who come from the Free State know it. But, wait for this. Here is another good story, Mr President. There is a farm on the boundary between North West and Free State. There is a place called Bloemhof. The farm workers live in the North West, but work on this farm on the Free State side and there is a civil war between the two MECs. The farm is called Dabulamanzi. It's a beautiful and wonderful story. Just go there and you will see just what this government of President Jacob Zuma has done. You are not telling the truth when you say he is just climbing the bandwagon.
IsiXhosa:
Ustafile. Ubambe istafu. Ukhwele istafu kuMongameli Mandela noMongameli Thabo Mbeki, ayikho loo nto. Ngoku ndibalisa ngoMongameli uJacob Zuma. Ndibalisa izinto ezenziwe nguye nazenzayo. Uyazi bendisazi ukuba nilindele ukuba ndiza kuthetha ngeMuyexe. Hayi, andithethi ngeMuyexe.
Khawuye eMhlongamvula eMpumalanga, Mnu Mongameli. Uyazi eMhlongamvula, eMpumalanga, kuyathengiswa. Inkunzi ye-CRDP nguMkhondo. Hamba uye eMkhondo. Bayayazi abantu, bayayazi. Mabaye phaya bayokuzibonela. Uyandiva ukuba andithethi ngeMuyexe kuba uMuyexe uyaqhuba.
English:
The Minister of Water Affairs has actually sorted the problem because the complaint has always been water and water again. You can hear it is quiet now, because water is available.
Minister Mbalula, he has just walked in, has built a beautiful stadium there. You went there. Everyone went there. It's a beautiful story to tell. [Applause.] But, listen to this. Do you remember Muyexe? There is a service hub there and that is service by the state where you have a post office and ICT multipurpose centre. But, listen to this, he did not talk about it and I'm surprised.
Minister Motsoaledi has built a wonderful clinic. It's not a clinic, but something between a clinic and a hospital. It has got accommodation for ten nurses who stay there. Go and see it. It's in Muyexe. [Applause.] It's a good story to tell because we are transforming society. It is nothing less than this and it is because of you, Mr President.
Let me talk a little bit about Limpopo. There is a place called Matsila. There was a young man who worked at the Chief Whip's office, working with the former Chief Whip, and he went home. He is a farmer. Just go there. Eight thousand eggs are collected there everyday. That's a beautiful story. It's a good story. He is selling in the village. The villagers do not go to town to buy eggs and vegetables. It is actually an integrated farming experience. There are Members of Parliament here who visited there with me recently. They are here and are from the ANC.
The ANC is under attack here. The ANC is actually moving South Africa forward. [Applause.] That is what the ANC is doing. Some of them are going to be screaming, screeching and shouting, but let's pull them along. We need them. Yes, kicking and screaming.
You don't know this, Mr President. There is a place called Skhume in Vryheid. I'm sure the hon members from KwaZulu-Natal will know.
IsiXhosa:
Uyazi yintoni? Izindlu zalapho bezikekele kuba zezodaka, Mongameli. Xa ufika phaya ngakulaa bhulorho yomzila kaloliwe ufika uqonde ukuba kwenzakelwe apha. Ungaya ngoku, Mongameli. Sadibaniselana ...
English:
... with the provincial government and built a completely new village consisting of 904 units with everything, including water reticulation and bulk infrastructure. Mr President, we invite you to go and see that. We are also inviting the hon members on our left to go and see that because they are not telling the truth.
I wasn't going to talk like this. I came here prepared for something else, but I'm saying this because they are saying the President ...
IsiXhosa:
... uyastafa kwabaphambi kwakhe. Hayi, ayinguye lo. Lo uMongameli, akastafi. Kusasa namhlanje besikwiKomiti yeMicimbi yeSebe. Izolo ububonile ukuba kuthe kwakuthethwa ngomhlaba kwanzima. Nisakhumbula ukuba kwenzeke ntoni izolo? Hayi, kuye kwanzima kwacaca ukuba igazi lingaphalala ngenxa yomhlaba. Namhlanje ke besisekomitini siyokugqibezela laa mcimbi ubuqalwe izolo. Hayi ubethiwe noko, kodwa kukho abantu ababuza umbuzo bathi "hayi thina asixolanga ngoba asiluva ukuba luthini uhlahlo-lwabiwo-mali. Abo ke ngaba balapha. Uyazi ke ngelo xesha zikhona ii-ofisi zeNgxowamali yeSizwe kwaye ziyaxela ukuba ziyaqhuba kuba le yinkqubo nomgaqo-nkqubo oqhelekileyo karhulumente, ayizizo ezesebe. Ngurhulumente wakho ke lowo.
Izinto abangazithandiyo zimbini, yile yokuba kuphinde kwavulwa, kunye nokubangwa komhlaba. Abazifuni ke ezo zinto, ngoba abantu abanomhlaba ngabantu babo, ngabo bavotela bona. Mongameli, abantu abafuna umhlaba ngabavotela wena. Ayingabo abavotela bona, ngabavotela wena. [Kwaqhwatywa.] Ngoko ke, masingazibambezeli kakhulu ngabo. Masibamamele xa bethetha sibahloniphe kuba singabantu bentlonipho kwi-ANC, siyabahlonipha abantu kwi-ANC. Masibamamele, kodwa masiqhube. Masiqhube, masiqhube.
Mongameli, isininzi apha kule Ndlu ngabe-ANC, ndinethemba, ndingancama ukuba abanakusiphumeza iSihlomelo salo Mthetho usaYilwayo. Ndicinga ukuba uza kuphunyezwa lo Mthetho usaYilwayo. Bathi awuzizisi iinkonzo ebantwini, bathi abantu asisavuyi nje, yintoni le intle kangaka yenziwa nguMsholozi, Nxamalala. Ngeba ndiyabaxelela ubonanje ukuba phaya phezulu kwaNxamalala eMsinga, kuhle phaya.
English:
There are 220 hectares under irrigation.
IsiXhosa:
Sifake umbhobho satsala amanzi kumlambo iMooi, kuyankcenkceshelwa, kuyatyiwa phaya. Ntonayo ndinexhala kuba baza kuthi senzela wena. Uyazi kwenzeka ntoni eMsinga? Mongameli, ndicela ukuba apha kweyoKwindla uzilungiselele sikhe siye eMsinga. Phaya kukho imijelo yokunkcenkceshela. Siyilungisile loo mijelo. Ngoku besiye phaya eMalamala kukho indoda ebizilungisa efike yathi kum ndingulowa ebelungisa laa mijelo, siyigqibile. Ndothuke ndibuze ukuba ngenene nizigqibile. Ithe ewe, uzuze uze kuzinikezela ebantwini. Ndibuze ukuba iphi na ipack shed. Yathi iyakhiwa kwaye sele iphakathi. Nditsho eMsinga, eTugela Ferry ke ngoku.
Mongameli, phaya ngaphezulu, sikhe saqalisa iphulo lokuthengisa iibhokhwe, iibhokhwe zemveli abathi xa bezikhumsha bathi indigenous goats. Azithengwa kangaka. Ndeva enye indoda isithi - uyazi ukuba inguqu oyenzayo wena Mongameli akuyiqondi. Mamela ndikuchazele Mongameli. [Kwahlekwa.] Akayiqondi uMongameli... Uyazi ke efandesini. Ndakunqandwa nguwe Somlomo, andilijonganga ixesha. Kuyathengiswa kwaye kukho into ethethayo kuthengiswa ethi nkqe nkqe nkqe. Iyathetha le nto ithengisa ezi mbuzanyana. Ithi enye indoda, kufanele siyeke ukulwa ngoku. Niyakwazi eMsinga ukuba kuyaliwa. Ithi le ndoda nantsi imali. Ndipha, ndimamele, ndihamba pha. Ithi eyesibini, Mongameli, madoda soze siyifumane imbuzi ngama-R800, ngoba imbuzi encinane phaya neyona ixabisa kakhulu li-R1 700. Ngoku, Mongameli uza kuyovula iziko lentengiso kuba sakha lona phaya kwaye liza kuba liziko elisisigxina nangona beliqale njengelethutyana. Nditsho eMsinga, phezulu, phakathi apho kuhlala abantu khona. Soze baye aba bantu. Musa ukuzihlupha ngabo. [Kwaqhwatywa.] Soze baye. Baza kuya njani eMsinga? Ndithetha into enjalo, ndithetha inyani, Mongameli.
Uyazi ukuba sitsale amanzi phaya eMsinga. Ngoku sinechibi [reservoir] elikhulu phaya. Sineentloni nokukubizela phaya. Uyabona ke, sisebenza kamnandi nomfo kaSikhakhana phaya, Mhlekazi omhle. Mntwana, sisebenza nomfo kaSikhakhana kakuhle ke phaya. Sisebenza kakuhle ngenene. Hayi, andithi makathethe.
Prince M G BUTHELEZI: Mphathiswa, yindoda yamadoda.
UMPHATHISWA WEZOPHUHLISO LWAMAPHANDLE NOHLENGAHLENGISO LWEZEMIHLABA: Yindoda yamadoda, Shenge. Unyanisile umhlekazi, yindoda yamadoda. [Kwaqhwatywa.] Sisebenza naye la mfana, umfo kaSikhakhane.
English:
Mrs D A SCHAFER: On a point of order, Deputy Speaker.
The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Hon member, there is a point of order.
IsiXhosa:
UMPHATHISWA WEZOPHUHLISO LWAMAPHANDLE NOHLENGAHLENGISO LWEZEMIHLABA: Ngenene? Uxolo.
The DEPUTY SPEAKER: What's your point of order, hon member?
Mrs D A SCHAFER: The ANC, once again, appears not to have advised its visitors that they may not participate in the proceedings. They are clapping in the gallery. Could you please inform them. [Interjections.]
UMPHATHISWA WEZOPHUHLISO LWAMAPHANDLE NOHLENGAHLENGISO LWEZEMIHLABA: Enkosi, Sekela Somlomo. Sekela Somlomo, kule nyanga iphelileyo ndiye eMsinga ndiyokongamela inkqubo ebizwa ngokuba yi-animal and veld management. Le nkqubo ivala amagali ityale imithi, iyagawula ukuze kuphinde kutyalwe isebenza ngendlela ...
Mrs D A SCHAFER: Madam Deputy Speaker, I raised a point of order, but I haven't had a ruling.
The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Yes, I responded to the point of order.
Mrs D A SCHAFER: I didn't hear.
The DEPUTY SPEAKER: No, no, no. You may sit down. I heard your point of order.
UMPHATHISWA WEZOPHUHLISO LWAMAPHANDLE NOHLENGAHLENGISO LWEZEMIHLABA: Andithi kukho uguquguquko lwemozulu oluthi kufuneka sityale imithi. UMsinga yindawo enkulu. Xa ndifika phaya kukho intlanganiso. Kubekho othi naba abantu abaze kusebenza apha. Mongameli uza kuya uyobabona. Andithethi ngolwaa lutsha lusezindabeni, ndithetha ngabantu belali. Ndathi mabaphakame. Kwaphakama abantu abangama-72 abaphangelayo, kwaye baza kuqhuba ukuphangela. Abazi kuthatha iinyanga ezi-6 kuphela ngoba mkhulu umsebenzi ekufuneka bewenzile. Bangama-72 abo bantu. NdandiseMsinga ndihamba nomfo kaSikhakhane noNyombose, uSodolophu wesithili. Ndisebenza nabo, siyatyhala phaya.
The MINISTER OF RURAL DEVELOPMENT AND LAND REFORM: The ANC is moving South Africa forward. Thank you, Deputy Speaker. [Applause.]
The MINISTER IN THE PRESIDENCY: PERFORMANCE MONITORING AND EVALUATION (Mr O C Chabane): Deputy Speaker, can't you allow the Minister to continue? We will abandon our break.
The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Unfortunately not, hon member. His time has expired.
IsiXhosa:
Ixesha lakhe liphelile. [His time has expired.]Bantu abahleli egalari, ncedani, aningawo amalungu. Ngoko ke, uvuyo lwenu lugcineni ngaphakathi ningalubonakalisi ngaphandle. Musani ukuthatha inxaxheba, niqhwabe nithini nithini kuba aningawo amalungu. Ndiyanicela.
English:
Hon members, business will now be suspended for 15 minutes for a comfort break. Bells will be rung to alert members to the resumption of business. Business is now suspended.
Business suspended at 16:03 and resumed at 16:20.
Mr M M SWATHE
UNREVISED HANSARD
NATIONAL ASSEMBLY
Wednesday, 19 February 2014 Take: 25
The DEPUTY SPEAKER
Mr M M SWATHE: Hon Deputy Speaker, we have made much progress as a nation since 1994. President Mandela and Mbeki took our country forward. This has not been the story over the last five years. President Zuma has taken our people backwards. [Interjections.]
This is evident with land reform and redress policies. Ninety per cent of land reform projects have failed. With billions of rands used, the government should have been able to buy almost 60% of farm land in the country.
R1,8 million was spent on bailing out land reform farms, because beneficiaries did not get proper government support. The ANC aimed to transfer 30% of land to black South Africans by 2014, but their programme transferred less than 7% of land. Our rural communities suffer as a result of high unemployment and lack of basic services such as water, electricity and sanitation. Recently a learner in Limpopo fell into a pit toilet and died.
As we speak, people still share dirty stream water with animals in the Sekhukhune District, Limpopo. Villages such as GaMasemola, Tafelkop, GaPhaahla, GaMashamothane and Bothashoek are seriously in danger of contracting waterborne diseases such as cholera.
Mr President, it is not a good story to tell the nation that land claimants and beneficiaries are still without title deeds for their transferred land. It is also not a good story to tell when the latest special investigating unit, SIU, annual report revealed that illegal land grants issued by the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform amount to the value of R96,6 million and there is widespread corruption at the Land Claims Commission.
It is not a good story to tell that while widows and youth complain about abuse of power by traditional leaders, you continue to push ahead with the Traditional Courts Bill which would further take away their rights. It is also not a good story to tell that while our people need jobs to redress the wrongs of the past, you give effect to a black economic empowerment, BEE, framework that will create only more politically connected billionaires. You do this only to gain votes. You don't act in the best interests of our people.
The DA believes that land reform and Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment, BBBEE, can work. The DA in the Western Cape successfully implemented a shared equity scheme where claimants benefited. The rest of South Africa deserves the same.
The DA's policy on Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment would incentivise job creation which would truly help those that have been wronged by the injustices of the past. The rest of South Africa deserves the same. The DA loves South Africa and wants to offer solutions that can benefit all and not only the politically connected elite. This is the good story of tomorrow.
Re le ba DA re dumela gore Afrika Borwa e ka fenya ntwa ya tlala le hlokego ya mešomo. Re bona mananeo a nnete a mmušo a ka tliša diphetogo ge a ka šomišwa ka tshwanelo. Re dumela gore ke nako ya gore setšhaba se fiwe maikarabelo a go tliša dikgopolo tšeo di kago thuša go aga ekonomi ya rena. Ge ekonomi e gola batho ba tla hwetša mešomo. Ba tla itirela tšeo ba di hlokago.
Setšhaba se swanetše go kgetha baetapele ba bokgoni le tsebo ya pušo. Setšhaba se kgopelwa ke DA gore se rate naga ya sona gomme se kgethe ka hlokomelo. Go kgetha mokgatlo o tee nako e telele go ka se thuše naga ya rena ka selo. [Tšhwahlelo.] Go nyaka diphetogo ke gona go tlogo tšweletša therešo. Rena ba DA re kgopela sebaka sa gore re kgethwe gomme re kgone go sepetša pušo ye ka bokgoni. Re dira boipiletšo go MaAfrika-Borwa ka moka ge re re: "Ke nako ya dikgetho, ke kgale ba kgetha efela ba tlaišega, bjale ke nako ya gore ba tšwe ka mo gare ga go tlaišega gore ba hwetše ditirelo."
Go bohle bao e lego gore ba ntle, ba a hlaka, ga ba na meetse le mohlagase, re re nako ya lena e fihlile ya gore le ye go kgetha, gomme ge le kgetha kua, le kgethe mmušo o moswa wa DA. Ke se rena bjale ka DA re se kgopelago go setšhaba ka moka.
Setšhaba sa gaborena, le se tšhošetšwe, la botšwa gore ge le sa boutele mokgatlo woo o bušago le tlile go otlwa ke badimo. Ga e gona taba ye bjalo. Rena ba DA re dumela gore Modimo ga a rate go bona batho ba tlaišega ebile ba hlaka. Batho ka moka bao le hlokago mošomo le ditirelo, bjale ke nako ya gore le tšweng ka makata a namane, le yeng go kgetha DA ka di7 tša Mei.
Re dira boipiletšo ... ... go lena setšhaba sa gaborena ka moka, re re nako e fihlile ya gore le lokiše ditaba tša naga ya lena. Ke a leboga. [Nako e fedile] [Legoswi.]
Mrs L S MAKHUBELA-MASHELE
UNREVISED HANSARD
NATIONAL ASSEMBLY
Wednesday, 19 February 2014 Take: 25
Mr M M SWATHE
Mrs L S MAKHUBELA-MASHELE: Hon Deputy Speaker, Your Excellency, the President and the Deputy President, hon members, there are many people who stock piled and left the country when it seemed inevitable that the ANC was going to win the elections in 1994. Some left the country for countries that they thought promised better prospects than South Africa.
Ironically, many South Africans who were abroad began their influx back to the country. It was not unusual to meet someone who carried two passports and who would tell you in no uncertain terms that they would have a place to run away to should things not work out in the country.
On the other hand, the majority of citizens had only South Africa as their home and nowhere else to run away to, should things not work out. The ANC leadership knew very well that transforming South Africa was not going to be easy, given its many decades of colonial and apartheid history. Nevertheless, the ANC had the courage to rise up to the challenge, despite all the road blocks and obstacles that were presented before it.
The ANC knew that providing service delivery to over 40 million people was going to be a huge challenge in comparison to delivery to the few privileged white people, about 5 million, as was the case with the apartheid government.
It is not rocket science to understand that the ANC government was going to face huge challenges to satisfy the needs of the majority, given the skewed infrastructure and apartheid social engineering architecture. Providing service delivery to 40 million people using the same service delivery infrastructure that was designed to cater for about 5 million people was going to be a miracle.
What the ANC government has achieved in the 20 years of its governance is remarkable, if not a miracle. The government has achieved so much under extremely difficult circumstances against many doomsayers and unpatriotic postures of those who are unhappy to see progress. Those who are sincere admit that the South Africa of today is a much better place to live in than that of pre-1994.
Gender equality has become one of the core anchors of the ANC government's key achievements and the level of representation of women in public institutions since the dawn of the democratic dispensation bears testimony to this fact. Young women in South Africa are taking their rightful positions in the public sector, academia and, to a much lesser extent, in the private sector.
Whilst there is every reason to celebrate these achievements, there is, however, someway to go before we can say mission accomplished. The trouble is that there are only those who talk about gender equality but do not do anything to accomplish this noble goal. When confronted about this, they hide behind the infamous "fit for purpose" cliché as an excuse not to empower women.
The recent employment equity report tells a very disappointing story of some provinces and employers who are resolute about not moving an inch in the implementation of transformation. The governing party's vision on rural development to co-ordinate and catalyse the implementation of a Comprehensive Rural Development Programme that leads to sustainable, equitable and vibrant rural communities is bearing fruit.
One such good story is that of a young man called Colbert Mabasa from Limpopo who, through the Rural Youth Service Corps Programme, has graduated from being an unemployed young person to being an employer. Through his brick-making business which he started from a stipend ... [Applause.]... and the skills he received from this programme, Mr Mabasa's story must give hope and inspiration to his peers.
Mr Mabasa has not only looked into the brick-making business but, as we speak, he is working the land he lives on to produce food for locals and supermarkets. This is a model story of rural development in action. The ANC machinery delivers. [Applause.]
The efforts of the governing party to provide economic infrastructure in rural areas, effectively reduce spatial inequalities by 5%; provide social infrastructure in rural areas to reduce inequalities and to provide information and communications technology, ICT, infrastructure in rural areas is more than visionary.
Whilst there are still challenges as expected on a matter that involves land, there is every reason to be positive about the future. The legacy of economic exclusion and distorted patterns of ownership, among others, resulted in an unequal society where a large portion of society lives in poverty.
It is for this reason that the Expanded Public Works Programme was launched to attempt to intervene and address the low levels of competition for goods and services and large numbers of job seekers unable to enter the labour market and poor skills profile. The Expanded Public Works Programme has served the nation very well since its inception and has served as the cushion for the rural people, the poor and the youth.
There were 3,6 million job opportunities that were created over the past years through this programme. The government has set a target of 6 million jobs between now and 2019. There are about 15,8 million people with jobs in the country, the highest ever in our history.
Kevin Lings from StanLib calls these achievements ``clearly impressive''. Don't we agree with him? It's another stripe to the achievements of this government led by the ANC. Love or hate it, the ANC machinery implements. [Applause.]
We the ANC walk the talk. We have always had a plan, and our election manifesto captures our plan of action and key priorities to continue making South Africa a better place for all its people. Together we will move South Africa forward. [Applause.]
The National Development Plan is hailed as the major breakthrough by many who are friends of progress. The New Growth Path has delivered on the front, the Industrial Policy Action Plan continues to break new grounds and the Infrastructure Development Programme is perpetually changing the South African landscape for the better.
I want to share a story of one foreign investor who came into the country and spoke about South Africa being a very unsafe country when he was on an international platform. He lived in South Africa for three months and he did not experience any life-threatening incidences. However, he stayed in Mexico for three days and in those three days he was robbed and mugged twice. The audience was baffled by his contrasting perspective of the two countries. When they asked him why he then says that South Africa was unsafe when he had no experience to this effect, he said that it is what South Africans say about their own country. Is it possible that there are people who are bitter about the fact that the ANC is the government of today? Or is it because there are people who do not want this country to move forward?
Our intentions as the ANC are clear for everyone to see. Twenty years in government provides an excellent predisposition to govern and govern with results. Mr President, we are on course; with you as the captain, we will move South Africa forward. Thank you. [Applause.]
Ms N G MATIWANE
UNREVISED HANSARD
NATIONAL ASSEMBLY
Wednesday, 19 February 2014 Take: 25
Mrs L S MAKHUBELA-MASHELE
The DEPUTY SPEAKER: This is hon Matiwane's maiden speech. All protocols on both sides apply. [Applause.]
Mrs N G MATIWANE: Hon Speaker, according to President Zuma, South Africa has a good story to tell about women representation in decision-making positions in government and in the public sector. In the limited time at my disposal ...
IsiXhosa:
Andizi kuchitha xesha ndibe ndisenza intsomi kuba ndoyika uphuma iimpondo emini.
English:
I will focus on the role of women and if meaningful women empowerment and advancement has taken place during the past 20 years. There is no argument that significant advancement of women to positions in decision-making bodies such as legislatures and here in Parliament has taken place. Similarly, the private sector has also come to the party in some respect to advance capable women to senior leadership and management positions.
However, the question needs to be asked as to whether the promotion of women to decision-making positions in the public sector has had a significant impact on the status of women in society. Do women get the respect and recognition that their opinions deserve? If we are honest, we have to state that it is unfortunately not so.
Despite efforts to promote women to positions in government and in business, more needs to be done to advance women in society and to break through the artificial ceiling created by male domination which has been entrenched in our communities over centuries.
The rights of women to participate in political life are guaranteed by several international conventions. Similarly, our Constitution guarantees equality on the basis of race, gender, disability, etc. But transforming an abstract right into a reality requires hard work from all leaders in the public and private sector to ensure that gender prejudices and cultural barriers are overcome in our communities, in particular, in rural communities.
Notwithstanding the fact that a high percentage of members of political parties are women, few women hold leadership positions. In most political parties, women are still trapped below the glass ceiling of gender prejudice. That explains why South Africa as a country is nowhere near achieving the target of 30% women in decision-making positions in the public and private sectors.
We cannot ignore the underlying reason for these artificial barriers for women. South Africa, like many of the countries in the developing world, remains trapped in a patriarchal society where men in political leadership positions often feel threatened by their female counterparts.
If women want to influence government policy and transform our country, two major obstacles have to be overcome. Firstly, women in the public sphere need to co-ordinate their efforts across party-political boundaries to advance policies that will meaningfully change their lives for the better. Secondly, notwithstanding the realities of the proportional representation, PR, system where our male counterparts still dominate leadership positions in the majority of political parties, we need to actively advance affirmation of women to leadership positions within our parties.
Women can only advance if they have access to quality education and to information technology. The social grant system and other social services have no doubt relieved abject poverty in some of our communities where women are heading households,but without access to quality education, women and children will remain vulnerable for generations to come.
According to the SA Institute of Race Relations, the unemployment rate amongst African women aged 15-24 is 63%. That cannot be a good story to tell.
Government should never regard the social grant system as a permanent solution. It is simply not economically sustainable to have 15 million working South Africans, compared to 16 million grant recipients. We can only attract local and international investment if we have a skilled workforce. [Time expired.] [Applause.]
Ms A VAN WYK
UNREVISED HANSARD
NATIONAL ASSEMBLY
Wednesday, 19 February 2014 Take: 26
Ms N G MATIWANE
Ms A VAN WYK: Hon Speaker, hon President, hon Deputy President and members of the House, in 1955 the ANC sent out 50 000 volunteers countrywide to collect freedom demands from the people of South Africa. On 26 June 1955, the Freedom Charter was adopted at the Congress of the People in Kliptown by approximately 3 O00 delegates, and at its core was that all shall be equal before the law.
What is contained in the Freedom Charter under the heading ``Equality before the law'' is not there by accident. It speaks to that which was wrong before 1994 with the apartheid state's criminal justice system. The apartheid police and courts were not the protectors or servants of the people. The police was considered to be the enemy. They were feared, hated and considered to be an illegitimate force. The police enforced unjust laws and was the tool through which the apartheid regime enforced political ideologies in direct conflict with the popular and democratic aspirations of the majority of the oppressed people in South Africa.
Democracy in 1994 ushered in a redefinition of the context in which policing needed to take place. This included its transformation from a force to a service that is representative, legitimate, impartial, responsive and accountable. It demands a service that upholds the fundamental rights of all people, and that carries out its mission in consultation and co-operation and in accordance with the needs and aspirations of all South Africans.
On 27 January 1995, the SA Police Service came into being through the amalgamation of the Transkei, Bophuthatswana, Venda, and Ciskei, TBVC, states, the homelands, the SA Police, SAP, force and the non-statutory forces. Consistent with the freedom demands of 1955, as contained in the Freedom Charter, the basic policing philosophy is based on community involvement and the Bill of Rights. The Freedom Charter remains the platform from which the ANC operates. It grounds us, directs us and it is what we measure our achievements against.
Crime and the fight against crime has become the knee-jerk reaction of an opposition which itself is bankrupt of ideas. Without any regard for the emotions and pain of victims of crime, they would not hesitate to divert attention from their ineptness to deal with any situation.
Under the ANC government, we have made great strides over the last 20 years, but more specifically under the current administration. Allow me to mention but a few. Since 1994, a total of 112 police stations have been constructed. The number of police per population improved from 1,4: 1 000 people in 1986 to 1:303 people in April 2014. [Applause.] The role of women in the SAPS has been cemented and there are now numerous women in command positions at national and provincial level, and at various units. The role of detectives has been strengthened and last year saw a massive roll-out of resources to detectives throughout the country. There is no question that the ANC would now like to see higher conviction rates from that investment.
For the first time under a democratic government, public-private partnerships were welcomed. As a result of that, there are some significant successes that we can report. We saw a decrease in bank robberies of 96% from 2002 to 2012 ... 96% ... and there was a 65% decrease in cash-in-transit robberies between 2006 and 2012. [Applause.] Where is the hon Kohler-Barnard? These successes can be directly attributed to the partnerships that exist and the exchange of crime-risk information.
The fight against corruption is a relentless fight that we need to commit ourselves to. We also need to change our collective approach to corruption. I believe that the focus is in favor of the person offering or paying a bribe. While sanctions are taken against the public officials that take bribes, it seems that the person paying the bribe is not receiving the same attention. We need to see consolidated and swift legal action against companies involved in bid rigging, price fixing and corruption in past and current infrastructure build programmes. Bid rigging, price fixing and corruption robs our people of vital services, and just giving the companies a fine for that is no longer enough. Many of the companies involved admit to budgeting for that fine. Mr President, the time has come to keep the directors of such companies accountable.
An HON MEMBER: How?
Ms A VAN WYK: By changing the law.
Infrastructure building programmes are supposed to bring services closer to communities to redress the unequal distribution of these services during South Africa's apartheid past. Unscrupulous companies are preventing this from being realized. The behavior of these companies is unpatriotic and does not have the best interests of our people at heart. Money and profit should not be the only things that they are interested in. They should take pride in South Africa's development. The interesting part of the bid-rigging saga was the silence with which it was met by this side of the House.
This brings me to an important point. I believe all of us in this House have the responsibility to protect the independence of the police, prosecutors, and judges, as was also said by the DA earlier today. It therefore raises serious questions when it then becomes known that a prosecutor is on the list of a political party, and more so when one then learns that this candidate and prosecutor is a financial beneficiary of the same businessman who funded the failed marriage ... [Applause.] ... or political black economic empowerment, BEE, fronting, whatever you want to call it. Something is wrong. Whose agenda is being followed? Imagine the outcry if this prosecutor was an ANC candidate. Unlike the DA, the ANC will continue to pursue a security agenda that is independent and in the best interests of this country alone. [Applause.]
They say there is none as blind as those who do not want to see, and I believe that is even more true in an election year. In 2010 President Zuma appointed the Anti-Corruption Task Team as an interdepartmental body to fast-track and monitor high priority and high-profile corruption cases. Most of the serious corruption-related crime matters are dealt with in the regional specialized commercial crime courts. For 2012-13 during this administration, they received 10 941 new cases and obtained convictions against 3 968 persons in 3 763 cases with 35 833 counts of corruption. A total of 166 justice, crime prevention and security, JCPS, cluster employees have already been successfully convicted for corruption. Yet despite these facts, they will leave here, go out and say that this government is doing nothing about corruption. [Interjections.]
An HON MEMBER: What about your leader?
The SPEAKER: Order, order hon members!
An HON MEMBER: What about the President?
The SPEAKER: Order!
Ms A VAN WYK: I also want to congratulate this administration on the establishment of a central tender adjudication and state procurement process, and in ensuring nondeviation from procurement standards through the agency of the chief procurement officer. This will go a long way in eradicating corruption in the supply chain, and we wish the team well. This is a major step in addressing corruption in tender processes. [Applause.]
Yesterday the hon Mazibuko created the impression that the ANC government does not care and does nothing to address rape and offences against women and children. The hon Mazibuko must be careful about relying on the information that she is provided with by her party's representative in that committee. Her contribution and understanding is at best shallow and based on good media sound bites. However, what is the truth?
Reducing crimes committed against women and children remains a priority of the ANC government. This sector, together with our aged, is the most vulnerable citizens of our society. In the past three years alone ... not 20 years, but three years alone ... 1 194 life sentences were secured, with 499 alone in the 2012-13 financial year. [Applause.] Since the re-establishment of the family violence, crime prevention and sexual offences, FCS, units a combined 36 225 years of imprisonment was handed down by our courts. In support of the investigation of these types of crimes, 2 139 forensic social workers were appointed. Between 2009-10 and 2012-13, under this administration, crimes against children decreased by 12,4%. I repeat crimes against children decreased by 12,4%. During the same period, crimes against women decreased by 11%. However, rape remains a concern, but it is not a government and policing responsibility alone. We must look inward and ask ourselves why our men have so little respect for women. Should we be raising our boys better?
In August 2013 the Department of Justice reintroduced sexual offences courts as part of the JCPS cluster's strategy to unblock increasing cases within our courts. These courts will improve the management of sexual offences cases in a manner that defends and protects the dignity of victims. Access to our courts and the right to fair representation have improved significantly. Policing sexual offences and domestic violence remains a difficult task for the SAPS. These crimes happen behind closed doors within the confines of our homes. To fight this, we need the involvement of all our communities.
During this administration's time under the leadership of this President, more was done in the fight against crime than can ever be imagined. We passed the following pieces of legislation: The Independent Police Investigative Directorate Act; and the Civilian Secretariat Act – both in order to strengthen the oversight abilities of the two entities. We passed the Criminal Law (Forensic Procedures) Act dealing with DNA evidence and fingerprinting. For the first time in South Africa, we are going to be able to use DNA in tracking down criminals. [Applause.] We strengthened the Private Security Industry Regulatory Authority through a comprehensive review of the current legislation – a Bill that will come before the House for debate next week and which the opposition will vote against, once again. All of these pieces of legislation improve the police and justice system's ability to apprehend and convict criminals.
The Minister opened a university for the police in Paarl, where future managers and leaders of the SAPS will receive training to contribute towards the "professionalisation" of the SAPS. The best forensic science laboratory in the world was opened by the Minister in Plattekloof, Cape Town. [Applause.] The best in the world!
For the first time in the 100-year history of the police, a criminal audit was conducted on the instruction of this Minister under this administration. Convictions exposed during this audit indicate that this is something that we inherited, with convictions as far back as the 1980s. The SAPS is now in the process of dealing with this and in future we want to see that steps are taken immediately if a police official is found guilty in a court of law.
Yesterday, the hon Mazibuko also said ... and I did warn you ... that South Africa does not have a public order policing policy. Again, this is utter rubbish, as her colleague on the police committee should have been able to tell her. Oh, wait, the truth is inconvenient! The policy was presented to the committee two years ago in this building on the third floor, room E306. But, I guess, the member was busy issuing a statement or on Twitter. [Laughter.]
I do think that something should be said about protests and public order policing. I want to echo the President in saying that the loss of lives during protests is unacceptable but, at the same time, call on protesters to protest within the confines of the law. Protests rarely start out against the police but, as a result of the obligation to protect life and property, the police end up in the middle. I do not envy the police. I want to pay tribute to those police officials who put their lives on the line and face an angry crowd. These police officials are someone's mother, father, brother or sister, husband and wife, and we so easily tend to forget that.
We know that with the increase of violent protests the police is under huge pressure. Many of them work day and night for days on end. Knowing that, I find it irresponsible, unpatriotic, desperate and inconceivable that a political party in this House would march on another party. The intention of the DA was never to have a peaceful march. Why rent vigilantes to be in your march if it was peaceful? Why march when you have the opportunity to debate the issues in this House, unless it is because you are tired of losing debates? [Interjections.]
Just to deal with the myth of the Western Cape being the best run province in the country ... [Interjections.] ... Listen, you might learn something.
The SPEAKER: Order, order hon members!
Ms A VAN WYK: In 2011-12, more murders were committed in Cape Town than in Johannesburg and Pretoria combined. This becomes especially interesting when one takes into consideration that residents ... [Interjections.]
The SPEAKER: Order, order hon members!
Ms A VAN WYK: ... in low-income areas are more likely to be murdered.
Mr M WATERS: Mr Speaker?
Ms A VAN WYK: I'm not taking a question!
The SPEAKER: On what point are you rising?
Mr M WATERS: Does the hon member not know that policing is a national competency and not a provincial one?
Ms A VAN WYK: The problem is that you guys don't know that!
It becomes very interesting when one takes into consideration that residents in low-income areas are more likely to be murdered. Then the DA wants us to believe that the divide between the rich and the poor in the Western Cape is the smallest. I think not.
To deal with the so-called clean government in the Western Cape, why did the Cape Town International Convention Centre, CTICC, tender land on the table of the Public Protector for irregular appointment of contractors? Jobs for pals? The DA is not as squeaky-clean as they want people to believe.
Sadly, in 2013, 303 police officers were attacked in the Western Cape compared to the 77 in Gauteng, which is ANC led. This should be seen in light of the fact that this was the year that the MEC of Community Safety in the Western Cape, his premier and the DA intensified their discrediting of the police in the Western Cape. This is the same MEC who has meetings and shares stages with known gang bosses. It is really time to liberate the Western Cape and provide the people with an ANC government that can change their lives for the better and not focus exclusively on rich people who can stuff party coffers with money, because that is what you are doing. [Applause.]
During the last day-and-a-half, the opposition did their best to divorce the ANC of today under the leadership of President Zuma from the ANC of John Dube, Joziah Gumede, Albert Luthuli, O R Tambo, Walter Sisulu, Nelson Mandela and Thabo Mbeki, to name but a few. This lame effort speaks to the inability to understand the principle of politics of the collective versus personality politics. The policies of the ANC build upon each other. It is not discussed in dark boardrooms or around dinner tables between politicians and dodgy businessmen with thick chequebooks. It is truly policy for the people by the people. And, try as you might, it is impossible to divorce the success of this administration from the work of the previous ANC administrations, as it will be impossible to divorce the success of the next administration from the work of this administration. [Applause.]
Unlike the opposition that relies on importing candidates and that selects their own leader as their second choice presidential candidate, ANC leadership, policy and programmes are determined through open democratic processes and participation of its members from the inside, and not from the outside in.
Mr President, it was amusing to listen to the opposition telling us how much better previous administrations were compared to yours. How short their memories are! It is only the faces and names that differ but throughout the 20 years of democracy the divorced alliance, I am sorry the DA, never had anything good to say about any serving President. Who can forget Tony Leon criticizing President Mandela or his strained relationship with President Mbeki? Even the noise around the presidential residence is not new. I remember the then Chief Whip of the Opposition, with the media at his side, trying to climb the walls of then President Mbeki's house because they believed the house was built with state funds. [Interjections.]
Hon Mazibuko threatens to impeach the President, but when the Public Protector made an adverse finding against Helen Zille they called a press conference and attacked the Public Protector, much as they are now doing with the Auditor-General's, AG's, report on the DA's use of consultants.
We do indeed have a good story to tell and what a difference it will make if those sitting on this side of the House can do so as well. Life in South Africa is better in 2014 than it was before 1994, and I am so pleased that the opposition admits to this so readily. The ANC government is responsible for this better life. Despite the opposition having all the evidence in the world that South Africa is a better place now than it was in 1994, they still would want outside confirmation. At the polling stations on 7 May, the voters of South Africa will give them that confirmation ... [Applause.] ... when they resoundingly will vote the ANC into power again. The voters know that the task is not complete and that more needs to be done, but they also know that life in 2019 will undoubtedly be better than it is today. [Applause.]
Mr S A MPHETHI
UNREVISED HANSARD
NATIONAL ASSEMBLY
Wednesday, 19 February 2014 Take: 27
Ms A VAN WYK
Mr S A MPHETHI: Hon Speaker, the Presidency and Members of Parliament, I greet you in the name of the PAC of Azania. Izwe lethu! [Our country.] It is not acceptable that government is failing to introduce 100% free education from Grade 1 to the first degree at the university level.
In our country, the Department of Basic Education is focusing on quantity and not quality. The 2013 matric pass rate of 78,2% at 30% passing standard could have dropped extremely if the pass rate had remained at 33,3% or even more, as the majority of our matriculants did not achieve even a 50% margin for a university entrance.
Mr President, the tendering process is a problem in the country. In Mpumalanga, two companies, Chawe and Habana Trading, were appointed to take over the operation of scholar transport. Their directors are not residing in the province. They have taken a job for more than 300 small bus operators.
During the launch of the ANC manifesto on 11 January 2014 in Nelspruit, Mpumalanga, the scholar transport operators approached you, wanting to deliver a petition to you. You promised to meet them on 14 January. After you left Mpumalanga, no one wanted to talk to them; even your Ministers who are sitting in front of me here are dodging them. There are children as young as eight years at Ga-Mothakga in Mahikeng who travel a distance of 7 kilometers. That is against the National Scholar Transport Policy.
South Africa's economy still bears some features of colonialism. South Africa's economy is in bad shape. The petrol price is increasing sharply and that is not good for the poor. The Expanded Public Works Programme is not properly managed. People are not properly paid and some are not even given exit programmes. [Interjections.]
The SPEAKER: Order! Hon members, order! We would like to hear the speaker, and not you.
Mr S A MPHETHI: The President failed to explain the thorny issue of e-tolling in Gauteng to the nation. The introduction of Rea Vaya project is an insult to the taxi industry.
In South Africa, we have unequal access to infrastructure which made it difficult for people living in rural areas and isolated townships to commute to work. We still have towns like Ermelo where potholes are patched with soil, and there is not enough water for more than 12 month. Mpumalanga is a province of potholes.
Mr President, with regard to land, you said that nearly 5 000 farms have been transferred to black people and that over 200 000 families have benefited. There are more than 50 million people in the country but, in 20 years, you only delivered land to 200 000 people. My question is: Are you going to give only 1 million people land in 100 years? That is totally unacceptable. The land issue is brushed aside by the property clause. Government has failed dismally to deal with the land issue. The ANC has failed the people of South Africa by retaining the property clause in the Constitution.
The reopening of the land claims from 1913 should be reversed to 1652. For the PAC, land is central to the foundation of any meaningful development and progress. Our kings and chiefs fought for the land long before 1913. Mr President, your party has been given more than 63% votes more than four times, but you were unable to remove the property clause from the Constitution. Now it will be a dream for your party to get more than 55% of the votes. That means that our people will have to live with the property clause and continue to be landless, as you said that the ANC will rule till Jesus comes. [Interjections.]
With regard to the African royalty, the government failed to address the question of this beautiful institution and followed what was designed by the apartheid regime regarding chiefs and kings. For example, the amaMpondomise royalty's kingdom was taken away in 1904. They were punished because their king, Mhlontlo, killed Mr Hope. The Nhlapo Commission dismissed their application. They then went to court and won the case. Surprisingly, the President and the Minister wanted to appeal the decision of the court. Ma-Afrika, where are we heading to?
Mr President, as far as the PAC is concerned, performance and monitoring in your administration is poor and ineffective. Corruption amounts to billions of rand - money coming from taxpayers and which was meant for delivering the service to the poor. The PAC calls for a minimum of 15 years jail sentence ... [Time expired.]
Dr A LOTRIET
UNREVISED HANSARD
NATIONAL ASSEMBLY
Wednesday, 19 February 2014 Take: 27
Mr S A MPHETHI
Dr A LOTRIET: Mr Speaker, our democracy can be described as a tale of two stories.
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, ... it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair.
In his state of the nation address, the President told voters the good story of 20 years of democracy under the ANC-led government. We agree that life is better, but the President only told the story of the best of times.
The story of the worst times was that of Nthabiseng, a child of this democracy. Nthabiseng is part of the 35% of children in South Africa who live in a household with no employed adult. She cannot rely on the adults in the household to provide her with the best possible education. For Nthabiseng, the realities and consequences of the apartheid regime must be redressed as a matter of priority by the government of the day. She is a child who will never experience the fruits of our democracy.
Enrolled in Grade 1 in a public school in 2002, Nthabiseng faced the reality of an education without textbooks, infrastructure or high quality teachers. The lack of access to textbooks and the effect it has on reading levels is evidenced in the Annual National Assessment results. Despite the fact that we spend 6% of the GDP on education, we've had the worst performance of all Sub-Saharan African countries in science and mathematics.
The problem is compounded by the generally poor quality of our teachers. According to the recent National Education Evaluation and Development Unit, Needu, report, the core problem in education is that too many teachers either can't or won't do the job required of them. More than half of Grade 6 teachers failed a Grade 6 language and mathematics test. To add insult to injury, the South African Democratic Teachers Union, Sadtu, resists all efforts aimed at performance management.
A major problem is the lack of political will that is needed to stand up to the unions in the interest of the children of South Africa. How can we have schools where a 6-year-old boy drowns in a pit latrine? For example, in 2014, desks are delivered at schools, but without chairs. How can we still have schools with 140 Grade 2s in one classroom in the Eastern Cape?
In the story of Nthabiseng, her chances of reaching matric under these circumstances are slim. Out of more than 1,2 million learners who entered Grade 1 in 2002, only 1 055 000 made it to Grade 10. Shockingly, less than half of these learners wrote matric. What happened to the almost 700 000 learners who dropped out between Grades 1 and 12?
The sad story of education is that thousands of South African children leave our schools yearly without the foundation skills needed to benefit from further education or to secure anything, but the most menial jobs. They will undoubtedly be forgotten by President Zuma's ANC in the growing numbers of unemployed South Africans. This is not a good story.
Maybe in our story, Nthabiseng does get the opportunity to enroll at a Further Education and Training, FET, college. The good story is that access to post-school education has increased. The National Student Financial Aid Scheme, NSFAS, funding has increased, but it is still only half of what is needed to meet the demand. Access without success leads to a youth that is unemployable.
Afrikaans:
Hierdie sektor staan sentraal tot die bereiking van 'n vaardige werksmag wat in staat is om aan die ekonomiese ontwikkeling van die land deel te neem en daartoe by te dra. Die Verdere Onderwys en Opleiding-sektor gaan ongelukkig gebuk aan swak finansiele en swak institusionele bestuur, wat gesien kan word in die aantal kolleges wat reeds onder administrasie geplaas is.
Hopelik is Nthabiseng nie een van die arme 14 500 jong mense wat deel was van 'n opleidingsprojek van meer as R1,6 miljard, en wat na 'n jaar net 'n paar sokkies het om te wys nie.
English:
Let us not forget that the story of Nthabiseng is the story of the worst of times. [Interjections.] It is the story of too many South African children. So continues the winter of despair of President Zuma's ANC, an ANC government focuses on its few successes rather than its failures.
But we can return to the spring of hope once again - the hope of new opportunities; real redress; and of a quality education system that will produce skilled, knowledgeable and employable youth. When the winter of the ANC's despair comes to an end, it will be the DA's spring that restores the hope of South Africa. I thank you. [Applause.]
Mr I M OLLIS: Speaker, on a point of order, I noticed that the hon Nzimande went to his committee for the first time this morning. Could you perhaps ... [Interjections.]
The SPEAKER: Could you please take your seat? Please take your seat.
Me M N PHALISO / AKE ENDS 17:13:07
UNREVISED HANSARD
NATIONAL ASSEMBLY
Wednesday, 19 February 2014 Take: 28
Dr A LOTRIET
Afrikaans:
Me M N PHALISO: Agbare Speaker, agb President, Adjunk-president, alle protokol nagekom.
Navorsingsbevindings gee erkenning aan die feit dat armoede die ergste vorm van geweld teen die mensdom is. Die uitroei van armoede het nie eers met die politieke bevryding van ons mense in 1994 begin nie; dit het begin met ons rebellie en stryd teen koloniale oorheersing, teen uitbeiting in die werksplek en teen onteiening wat alles deel was die diskriminerende stelsels van die verlede.
Die wekroep van die ANC was ten opsigte van die ontwortelling van armoede en die skepping van 'n billike en regverdige samelewing gekenmerk deur nie-rassisme, nie-seksisme, en nie-diskriminasie teenoor kwesbare groepe soos bejaardes, gestremdes, vroue en kinders. Hierdie strewe na 'n beter samelewing is steeds die rigtingwyser van ons kollektiewe stryd teen armoede.
Die Nasionale Uitvoerende Komitee van die ANC se verklaring van 8 Januarie 2014 dra dit aan ons op om alles in ons gesamentlike vermoë te doen om te verseker dat ons reaksie teenoor armoede mense in staat stel om ekonomiese geleenthede te benut, terwyl 'n omvattende sosiale veiligheidsnet geskep word om die mees kwesbares in ons samelewing te beskerm.
Die werklikheid is dat die stryd teen armoede eers op dreef gekom het toe 'n wettige regering deur die massas van ons mense aan bewind gestel is. [Applous.]
Die ANC het, op sy beurt, hierdie regering, die staatsdepartemente en agentskappe herskut om ten einde 'n nuwe rigting ten opsigte van sosiale en menslike ontwikkeling aangeleenthede in te slaan en om Nthabiseng se storie aan te spreek.
Die beginpunt van hierdie proses is te vinde in die skepping van 'n algeheel nuwe groep instellings, beleide and wetgewing wat die nuwe regering in staat stel om 'n totaal nuwe gemeenskap te skep. In hierdie verband het nasiebou, deur die ANC, 'n sleutel imperatief van die transformasieagenda geword. Die nuwe instellingsbeleide en wetgewing het die land se transformasie aangemoedig. Op baie belangrike gebiede het die beleide en wetgewing dit moontlik gemaak om nuwe geleenthede vir die burgerry oop te maak ten einde hulle in staat te stel om hulself op verskeie terreine te bemagtig.
Die uitwissing van armoede en die uiteindelike transformasie van die Suid-Afrikaanse samelewing is waarlik 'n lang pad waarvan die finale bestemming nog ver is. Vir vele van ons mense is die betekenis van die begrip "sosiale transformasie" om nie honger te wees nie, vry van siekte te wees, 'n behoorlike dak oor die kop en kwaliteit gesondheidsorg en opvoedingsgeleenthede te hê, asook bystand van die regering in gevalle van erge nood, soos Nthabiseng s'n.
Die ANC regering het in ander toegewyde sektore in die land egter die visie geskep en verklaar dat die uitwissing van armoede 'n stryd is wat gewen moet word. Die ANC regering gaan dit wen!
In ons Grondwet, in ons beleide en programme groei ons pogings steeds in hierdie verband. Deur die ANC regering het alle Suid-Afrikaners vandag die reg om toegang te verkry tot sosiale dienste soos water, sanitasie onderdak, sosiale sekerheid, gesondheid, opvoeding, grond, behuising en elektrisiteit. Hierdie Grondwet weerspiëel die wil van ons mense om 'n sorgsame samelewing te skep.
Die toewyding van ons regering om armoede uit te wis het gelei tot die formulering van 'n nasionale omvattende anti-armoede strategie wat sal verseker dat al ons pogings in alle staatsdepartemente die armoedvraagstuk aanspreek. Ons ANC en ons regering skep 'n veiligheidsnet vir diegene wat nie in staat is om 'n voldoende inkomste te verdien nie. Die Nasionale Ontwikkelingsplan stel dit baie duidelik en stip dit baie mooi uit.
'n Voorbeeld van die omvattende aard van ondersteuning is die Mokgatle-familie van Jan Kempdorp wat onder haglike omstandighede onder plastiek geleef het. Deur die departement se Balelapa program is al die belanghebbendes bymekaar gebring. Die munisipaliteit het met die bystand van die Departement van Samewerkende Regering en Tradisionele Sake 'n huis gebou. Die Departement van Sosiale Ontwikkeling het, deur middle van 'n inkomstetoelaag, vir die meubels, voedsel asook vir een familielid se mediese hulp – 'n kind – ten opsigte van sy geestelike toestand, gesorg het. Die ANC het 'n goeie verhaal om te vertel.
Nog 'n voorbeeld is Mev Dorothy Arrie, 'n bejaarde dame van Andriesville in die Mier gebied in die Kalahari. Sy woon sedert 2006 saam met haar gesin in die wrak van 'n ou bus. In die wrak van 'n ou bus het sy gewoon! In die wrak van 'n ou bus het die ANC regering haar lot gesien en aan haar bevryding gebring.
Omdat 'n gebrek aan toiletgeriewe en lopende water 'n gesondheidsgevaar vir haar en haar huishouding ingehou het, het die Noordkaap se uitvoerende komitee in Maart 2013 die Mier omgewing besoek, waarna hulle opdrag aan die departemente van Samewerkende Regering en Tradisionele Sake, asook Menslike Nedersettings gegee het om spoedig aandag daaraan te skenk. In Desember 2013, het die uitvoerende burgemeester van die ZF Mgcawu-distrik 'n huis aan Me Arrie oorhandig, waar sy met ope arms deur die gemeenskap van Rietfontein ontvang is. Suid-Afrika het 'n goeie verhaal om te vertel.
Sosiale ontwikkeling het 22 jong mense afkomstig van huishoudings sonder inkomste deur die Balelapa change agent program geïdentifiseer en na die Universiteit van Tegnologie van die Vrystaat gestuur om vir 'n kwalifikasie in hernubare energie tegnologie te studeer. Hierdie jong mense sal by hul terugkeer in staat daartoe wees om hul families op te hef. Dis hoe die ANC regering bemagtiging toepas.
Die sosiale loon wat deur die ANC regering voorsien word om die lewensgehalte van werkende mense en hul gesinne te verbeter bestaan uit sosiale ontwikkeling, gesondheid, opvoeding, behuising en plaaslike geriewe. Die staat se spandering hierop het in reële terme oor die afgelope dekade verdubbel. Dis 'n goeie verhaal wat die ANC kan vertel en dit verteenwoordig feitlik 60% van openbare uitgawes. Baie mense aan hierdie kant het verskriklike kort geheues.
Die ANC regering het homself op verskeie vlakke tot 'n omvattende sosiale sekerheidstelsel verbind. Hierdie verbintenisse is in ooreenstemming met resolusies geneem teidens elk van die ANC se nasionale kongresse sedert sy ontbanning.
Ter afsluiting wil ek dit graag baie duidelik stel dat ek trots en ferm staan in die geloof dat die ANC regering onder die leierskap van President Jacob Zuma positief bygedra het tot die stryd vir beter gemeenskappe en 'n vooruitstrewende Suid-Afrika. Suid-Afrika het werklik 'n goeie verhaal om te vertel. Die ANC regering het 'n progressiewe agenda wat verseker dat mense van sosiale toelaes en ekonomiese bemagting vorder. Suid-Afrika strewe vooruit. Suid-Afrika is waarlik 'n beter land na 1994 en nie voor 1994 nie. Ek dank u. [Applous.]
Mr R B BHOOLA
UNREVISED HANSARD
NATIONAL ASSEMBLY
Wednesday, 19 February 2014 Take: 29
Ms M N PHALISO
Mr R B BHOOLA: Mr Speaker, hon President, Madiba may not be with us today, physically, but I can feel his spirit here. After listening to the President's state of the nation address, I am even more convinced that Madiba is here, ethically and morally. [Applause.]
Hon President, being a prodigy of Nelson Mandela, led to you being a calculated force and an impeccable leader who fought against apartheid and will win the fight against poverty.
Contrary to what the DA has said over the last five years, your administration has created 3,7 million work opportunities, despite the economic downturn. The announcement of the additional six million jobs is gratifying.
After 20 years of democracy, our country's wealth is still in the hands of a small white minority. This is unacceptable. We implore you to ensure that we create permanent jobs. Let's prioritise our people and move them out of poverty.
Your intervention to synchronise all levels of government and to ease the burden of prospective investors and entrepreneurs is critical. The MF applauds the establishment of the National Economic Development and Labour Council Act, Nedlac, additionally acknowledging that long-term solutions lie not just in regulations, but also in transforming the entire economy.
Unlike the DA, the MF does not blame you for the recession. In fact, we acknowledge your efforts to move the country out of the recession.
Yesterday Minister Pandor was correct in saying that social grants are directed at the most vulnerable. In addition, the MF calls for a livable increase and for a possible widow and widower's grant.
Emphasis must be placed on the agricultural outputs to create the sort of enterprises contributing to our gross domestic product, GDP.
The DA doesn't understand the hardship of 75% of the broad suffering masses. Mr President, thank you for consistently prioritising unemployment, poverty and inequality.
Regarding the hon Mazibuko's nonsensical utterances yesterday, taking province by province - what a laugh. She must go and tell that to the birds in the sky. How do you really make that a reality when the vulnerable continue to live under inhumane circumstances right here under Western Cape government?
To call the DA democratic is an insult to the founding democratic fathers of our nation. You see, they borrow votes from the Indian, coloured and black communities to pack Parliament up here with whites. They are a deadly alliance. Of course, the ID and Agang will attest to that. [Interjections.]
We congratulate the Ministers of Basic and Higher Education on progressive improvements. The MF is now calling not only for universal access to education, but that all students should have access to the same level of quality education, irrespective of race or economic status. Apartheid is over.
Ms S P KOPANE: Mr Speaker, on a point of order: I want to ask the hon Bhoola a question.
The SPEAKER: Will you take a question, Mr Bhoola?
Mr R B BHOOLA: I will most certainly take your question at the end.
Ms S P KOPANE: Are you promised a job by the ANC? [Interjections.]
The SPEAKER: Hon member, please take your seat.
Mr R B BHOOLA: Top students achieving up to 10 distinctions in KwaZulu-Natal, KZN, are studying medicine in China. They are turned away from our local institutions because of black economic empowerment, BEE, admission policies. Minister Nzimande is correct; we need to establish more medical schools.
We must not allow our young bright minds to be swallowed up by other countries, based solely on the presentation of their CVs. The MF calls for the establishment of a work placement programme, so that these graduates can gain the necessary experience in their respective fields.
Throughout the country, minority communities have their own problems. In KZN we have the marginalisation of the Indian community through BEE policies. Additionally, fishing families always experience challenges because of red tape. Your immediate intervention is paramount.
As I have previously informed you, Mr President, we cherish the hope to have a fully-fledged ministry for minority rights. Women and children endure the most heinous crimes daily. It pains my heart that the rape of young girls has become so common, making the headlines weekly.
We applaud the efforts by the SA Police Service, Saps, in responding to these cases. The MF believes more must be done to tackle the root cause of these monstrous crimes.
Weak and scattered thoughts are weak and scattered forces and will last as long as Ramphele's and Zille's kiss of death. The assertion that a kiss will deliver millions of people from poverty is an insult to the suffering masses at grassroots level.
Mr President, you have a vision to emancipate our people, unlike the DA. The former leader of the MF, Mr Amichand Rajbansi, would have said, they bark like a toothless puppy. We need constructive solutions. Where the DA governs, they deliver open toilets.
The DA failed to make a difference in Ocean View, Manenberg and Khayelitsha. They are treating these communities like foreigners in their own land. Mr President, they need your help.
IsiZulu:
Baba Mongameli abantu bahamba nawe, bakukhonzile futhi bayazi ukuthi abelungu ngeke babenzele lutho. [Ubuwelewele.][Uhleko.] Bazobenzela imfeketho njengale eyenzeke ku-Ramphele. [Ubuwelewele.][Uhleko.]
English:
The DA is beginning to unravel. Renting individuals is dehumanising. And we note, as you have heard in the House, that Helen Zille was the DA's second choice for their presidential candidate. Hon Joe Seremane and Ramphele fell by the way side. I wonder if hon Mazibuko is not black enough. [Applause.]
The MF will remain independent. We will not align ourselves to any groupings that are dissidents of democracy.
Becoming a property-owning democracy is vital, as we continue to actively roll out houses to all those who do not have a home.
We have to create the feeling, in times of protest and unrest, that whatever damage is being done is damage done to themselves. We have to engender the spirit of ownership and stability. Mr President, let us march forward with honesty, integrity and dignity, and never stop until we have delivered all our people from the shackles of poverty into the light of democracy and development, all the way! [Time has expired.]
Mr W M MADISHA
UNREVISED HANSARD
NATIONAL ASSEMBLY
Wednesday, 19 February 2014 Take: 29
Mr R B BHOOLA
Mr W M MADISHA: Mr Speaker, the President's good story is 90% fiction. Low achievers, from what one remembers as an educator, tell impressive stories when asked to produce their homework or explain why they failed a test. Those who tell tall stories are susceptible to believing their stories. They live in a world of make believe.
In the world of reality, people are struggling even more than before. Jobs are scarce, the cost of living is escalating and the buying power of the rand is declining.
In 2008, according to Statistics SA, 4,2 million people were actively looking for employment. Late last year, this number had risen to 4,6 million people. Many jobseekers have been walking the road of despair, year after year, looking for a job. The Free State, the Eastern Cape and the North West are the worst affected provinces.
The ruling party needs to take a reality check. A staggering 3,3 million of South Africa's 10 4 million youth, aged 15 to 24 years, happen to be neither in an educational institution, nor in employment. Young people in the North West, Eastern Cape, Mpumalanga, Northern Cape, Free State and Gauteng are those who are worst affected, in this regard. What future do they have?
Is this a good story when one-third of the country's youth are neither in educational institutions, nor in employment?
Speaker, Cope accuses the ruling party of failing the youth of our country. Last weekend, for example, the Sunday Times reported that the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform put a massive R1,6 billion into the National Rural Youth Service Corps in 2010. Of the 14 500 young people who were to be trained, many did not set foot in a classroom at all.
With that sum of money, as many as 50 000 students could have been given a bursary of R32 000 each to get high quality training. Now it is money down the drain. [Interjections.] Yes, it is correct. What did the President say about this tragic story?
Those few who saw the inside of a classroom of a further education and training, FET, college received only a Grade 10-level training in welding, house-building, etc. That is a major problem because they cannot go out and work.
As a former president of the SA Democratic Teachers Union, Sadtu, for about 12 years, I am also deeply concerned about the failure of government to resolve the dispute of the teachers' pay progression, dating back from 2009. Is the country going to experience, once again, a strike action by our educators? How good a story is this for learners and their parents?
Educators, nurses and police officers must also be very concerned about the Public Investment Corporation intending to invest, or having already invested, R3 billion from their pension fund with Kase Lawal's Camac Energy. Can the President please clarify why funds are leaving South Africa and being jeopardised?
Today's Cape Argus devotes the front page to the epic failure in Mathematics beyond Grade 6 in the Western Cape. The situation will be no better in the other provinces. The Mathematics and vocabulary ...[Time has expired.] As I sit down, I will say ...[Time has expired.]
The CHIEF WHIP OF THE OPPOSITION: Speaker, on a point of order: May I just inform you that, when Mr Bhoola spoke, the translation in isiZulu was inaudible, but it has been brought to my attention that it was utterly racist. [Interjections.] I am not addressing you! I am addressing the Speaker. I ask you to look at the translation in Hansard and rule on it, please. He made some terrible, racist remarks.
The SPEAKER: We will look at the translation. Will you also do the same, please.
Dr W G JAMES
UNREVISED HANSARD
NATIONAL ASSEMBLY
Wednesday, 19 February 2014 Take: 30
The SPEAKER
Dr W G JAMES: Mr Speaker, hon members, the state of the nation address has a gravity of purpose and a primacy of stature. It involves our first citizen using the nation's principal public platform to pronounce on the state of the nation.
What did we get? Self-congratulatory, self-serving, selectively told, intellectually dishonest stories written by what appears to be an advertising agency selling a fabrication wrapped in a myth, inside a fairy tale.
Yesterday, the hon Pandor said that we should not single out President Zuma. But, in 1994, when South Africans were asked whether our country was heading in the right direction, 76% said yes. In 2008, at the end of former President Thabo Mbeki's era, 54% said yes, we were heading in the right direction. But, by 2013, under President Jacob Zuma, we hit a new low, with only 38% believing that the country was heading in the right direction. The figures have been provided by the hon Collins Chabane's department. Please look at his website.
So, hon Pandor, you say that there is no reason to single out his ANC, to single out President Jacob Zuma's ANC. There's every reason, given the low level of credibility that he has. [Applause.] You know the numbers, but listen, hon Nzimande, to a real person, a 28-year-old woman based in Polokwane, who had always supported the ANC. This is what she said:
The problem is that we are not working, but we have certificates. We have gone to school. When you go for a job, they ask for work experience. Everywhere I put my CV, they say "experience", "experience". I keep bringing those certificates, but where will I get work experience? Jobs is the big issue. We are educated because of the ANC, but the problem is there are no jobs in South Africa. One and a half thousand rand per month is too little for me to survive. I need a job but there isn't work.
She could have benefited from the youth wage subsidy had it been introduced when it was ready to be introduced. But you, hon Nzimande, opposed it and you slammed it. The hon Nzimande understands the word ``contradiction''. One side of him provides education and the other side of him stops young people from getting work experience. You, sir, are a walking contradiction!
I now come to the hon Motsoaledi. The hon Motsoaledi is an excellent Minister of Health, and we admire him and his work. He has turned around the HIV and Aids pandemic. He has done so, with the help of his colleagues. [Applause.] But, sir, you should stick to your job. You are a terrible historian. Let me point out to you that the Western Cape government was the first to roll out ARVs. The first province to do so. [Interjections.] You dare say ... [Interjections.] You dare say ... [Interjections.]
The SPEAKER: Order! Order, hon members, order! Order!
Dr W G JAMES: You dare say, hon Motsoaledi, that we don't take HIV and Aids seriously. We had to take the ANC to court – the Constitutional Court – in order to make sure that you rolled out ARVs. [Applause.] Let me tell you: President Zuma didn't take it seriously. He thought that water could wash away a virus. [Interjections.] Under the late Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, backed up by former President Mbeki, the preaching of the pseudoscience of Aids denialism by former President Mbeki resulted in 350 000 unnecessary deaths. This is a disgraceful story. This is something that needs to be explained.
The hon Motsoaledi says that the ANC never had to go to court to choose their President. Yes, that's right, but his President has had to avoid court in order to stay President, hence the spy tapes.
With regards to the hon Sisulu and speaking about anticorruption efforts, let me say that your efforts and the efforts of your government are feeble. This government has proved incapable of getting on top of and rolling back corruption. The figures are staggering: in the region of R25 billion lost in wasteful, unnecessary and fraudulent expenditure annually. This is bad, for it is theft. Moreover, for ordinary people, corruption is nepotism and cadre deployment.
The hon Sisulu spoke about the Auditor-General's report on the Western Cape. I want it placed on record that this audit looks at consultants appointed by provincial governments from 2008 to 2010. It is very interesting that the report has been released just before this coming election. The first draft of the audit - in the Western Cape - did not indicate that 97% of the amount contracted to consultants occurred under the ANC ... [Interjections.] ... before the DA entered government in the province in 2009.
Therefore it is certainly legitimate to question the timing when a report is released five years after it was commissioned. Let me also point out that in KwaZulu-Natal they spent R17,6 billion on consultants, and in Gauteng they spent R14,9 billion on consultants.
I am not quite sure what the hon Nkwinti was talking about actually. [Interjections.] He spoke about housing developments, but he should know that housing is a concurrent responsibility. And, therefore, you cannot have a national government taking claim over provincial housing developments. Those departments work together. Let me just say that between 2009 and 2013 – since you bring up the Western Cape - the Western Cape had to spend R12 million to fix RDP houses which were poorly built under the ANC. The national backlog has increased from 1,2 million in 1994 to at least 2 million in 2013 on a national level. The DA in the Western Cape is committed to delivering housing in the Western Cape, and is doing that very well. But not only that, 99,1% of households have access to piped water and 96,9% to sanitation. [Applause.]
With regard to the hon Van Wyk, she is so busy claiming credit for good policing that we didn't hear a single word of thanks to the SA Police Service for putting their lives on the line from her. We didn't hear a single word of thanks for the families of the SAPS officers who have died. [Interjections.]
The SPEAKER: Order, hon members! Order! Order!
Dr W G JAMES: Let me tell you that there is a high tolerance in the ANC for undemocratic conduct. Since you brought up the jobs march, I would like to say that, during our recent Johannesburg DA jobs march, we were at the receiving end of petrol bombs, gunfire and bricks. [Interjections.] Not President Zuma nor any single member of his Cabinet condemned the behaviour of the ANC Youth League because, perhaps, they did not think that what they were doing was incorrect. [Interjections.] And it is thanks to the SAPS ... [Interjections.] It is thanks to the SAPS ...
The SPEAKER: Order, hon members! Order!
Dr W G JAMES: ... that we were unharmed.
Let me just comment on the question of Ms Breytenbach. This is a smear tactic by a nonindependent NPA. We dismiss it and what you have to say about it with contempt. Tell us, hon Van Wyk, why did your ANC Minister try to block the commission of inquiry into policing in Khayelitsha introduced by Premier Zille? [Interjections.] Tell us that. [Interjections.]
Let me end by saying that leadership is a public transaction with history, and great leadership puts public purpose above all else. But President Jacob Zuma pursues a private purpose with state money. Great leadership is to find the means of ordered liberty in a world condemned to everlasting change. But President Jacob Zuma always looks in his rear-view mirror and is held back by the paralysis of vested interests.
Great leadership is principled; it is accountable; it is moved by integrity of purpose and it is motivated by the soft moral power of personal example. That's what it is. President Jacob Zuma, my friends, sets no bold personal example in his conduct as President of the country. I thank you. [Applause.]
THE MINISTER OF PUBLIC ENTERPRISES
UNREVISED HANSARD
NATIONAL ASSEMBLY
Wednesday, 19 February 2014 Take: 31
Dr W G JAMES
THE MINISTER OF PUBLIC ENTERPRISES: Hon Speaker, Prof James, for a professor, this was a very poor showing, sir. The person you cite as a principled leader, your own premier, is not principled at all but then the DA is famous for data that is not factual and cannot be backed up by any sources. Prof James stood here and after two days of this debate, we again have listened to smoke and mirrors. We don't know what they stand for and who they are. In actual fact, wait, they also don't know.
The state of the nation address by President Zuma last week Thursday gave a firm account of the achievements of our country since President Mandela was inaugurated as the President of a democratic and free South Africa. The President reaffirmed the leadership record of the past three Presidents of our Republic, including the former President, hon Motlanthe.
The current global economic crisis has forced many policy-makers to rethink our macroeconomic management approaches. The South African economy is facing the classic structural challenge of a middle-income economy and, if it is to grow and develop, we need to invest aggressively in new plant technologies and skills. As a response to the structural constraints in our economy and global economic externalities, we identified infrastructure as both a driver and an enabler for economic development.
Our infrastructure development programme is specifically designed to both expand our mineral exports and build our capacity and capability to design and manufacture intermediate and tradable goods for internal use and exports. Accordingly, we have made significant strides in embedding the Competitive Supplier Development Programme and philosophy into the very procurement fabric of state-owned companies. In this regard, the 75% local procurement target has become more probable and realistic.
Furthermore, we have integrated economic transformation processes into every aspect of our investment programme. In the context of the Presidential Infrastructure Co-ordinating Commission, we today have a long-term infrastructure plan that is carefully integrated and co-ordinated into 18 strategic integrated projects. We have projects at an estimated cost of R877 billion that are currently in construction and more than 177 000 jobs are tracked on these projects. Enablers such as skills, transformation and industrialisation underpin this plan.
Under your leadership, Mr President, state-owned companies have tremendously increased their capital investments, thus creating new jobs, developing new skills and contributing decisively towards our country's industrialisation agenda. Mr President, you reflected to the nation on Thursday night what it meant to be South African over the last 20 years. Your administration has spent more than a R1 trillion over the past five years on infrastructure and you reflected on progress in that regard, in great detail.
Mr President, as you stated, our country is indeed a country at work and a much better place to live. Each day we witness the improvement of the quality of life of the citizens of our country when we connect households with electricity to the grid, when we install solar water heaters, when we build new houses,... [Applause.]..., when we improve integrated bus routes in our cities, when we improve roads and rail transport, when we open new factories to support jobs and develop new artisanal skills at our training centres to support the building of our state-owned companies. And yet whilst we are focusing on the infrastructure building and industrialisation programme, we appreciate the impatience and frustration felt by those who still do not have access to decent basic services.
Mr President, you have committed us relentlessly to addressing all backlogs to ensure that every person in our country has access to water, electricity and sanitation and that, by 2020, every household will have access to broadband network. The President addressed last Thursday in brutal detail, and much to the chagrin of our opposition, the exceptional strides made by our country led by the ANC during the past 20 years, as we strove decisively to end the tragedy of apartheid colonialism through programmes of fundamental social and economic transformation.
They wished that you either did not acknowledge these achievements or that you had no facts with which to back your account. They wished that this impeccable delivery record did not exist, so that they would be gleefully able to substantiate their narrative of failure, which hopelessly disintegrates in the face of all detailed record, acknowledged even by independent assessors.
Instead, their flagship project in the Western Cape cannot be backed up by reality and the lived experiences of black South Africans who live in this province. Even the website, Africa Check, recently published a report in which it said that the DA has made false claims about service delivery on Twitter, which it could not back up with data, or quotes it from unknown sources. They suck them up from the thumb.
Allow me now to turn my focus to the issue of work opportunities - a matter that has received the ire of our opposition. The recent ill-fated march to Beyers Naudé or was it to Luthuli House was not only opportunistic but was a deviation from the real and serious issues in front of our nation. First and foremost, the ANC's jobs plan is premised on the National Development Plan, NDP, and the New Growth Path, which direct us to create an additional 11 million decent, sustainable and quality jobs by 2030, including the public works programmes.
The six million work opportunities arise in the ANC manifesto as part of a broader jobs plan, based on seven pillars namely: firstly, infrastructure investment to unlock economic opportunities, industrialise the economy and create jobs; secondly, increase investment in the key growth sectors by improving and better aligning existing manufacturing in incentive schemes; thirdly, boost local production by buying local goods, with the state buying 75% of its goods and services from local producers; fourthly, provide more work and training opportunities for the youth, setting aside nearly two-thirds of new infrastructure jobs for young people; fifthly, encourage businesses to hire the youth through the Youth Employment Tax Incentive; sixth, expand and improve education and training by creating and strengthening the university and further education and training, FET, sectors as well as the state-owned entities, SOEs, artisanal training academies and lastly, massively expand the public works programme by creating six million work opportunities, setting aside about 60% of these for young people. [Applause.]
The state and private sector must collaborate in a national effort to create jobs. We believe in an active role for the state in the economy, unlike our more neoliberal opponents who are unreformed market fundamentalists, even in light of the global economic crisis and its lessons for developing as well as developed nations.
It is simplistic, opportunistic and misleading to claim there can be a single set of programmes that can create decent jobs at once, especially when you either have no plan or have one hatched out quickly out of expediency, in order to try to deceive a nation that keeps on asking the nagging question: What is your plan?
Ownership patterns in our country still reflect racial and gender patterns of colonialism, and the structure of our economy remains backward and inhibiting to job creation. This is what the DA does not want to challenge and would rather die in the trenches to defend. [Applause.]
Radical economic transformation is the most critical question the next five years must answer. Instead of marching to oppose the ANC's plans, they should place their own plans in front of the electorate and let the people decide. May 7 is the deadline. [Applause.]
What was funny though was that whilst most of them never dared to march against oppression, they are today the most vocal about what is going wrong in our country and even have the audacity to march against a democratic government.
The choices before the people of South Africa today have never been more sharp, stark and grave. As we usher in the second decade of our freedom, the fundamental question before our people is: What type of future do we want and how do we want to get to that future? There are difficult choices to be made and they must be made now. Indeed, this is no time for our country to turn backward; now is the time to move South Africa forward, together, as a people and decisively.
In 1994, we created the possibility for our country to make headway towards this future we envisioned in the struggle. Today, as a result of the massive progress we have made, we have reason not only to celebrate what we have achieved, but as a result of this, to be more positive about the future, confident that we will bequeath our children an even better society that is more equal and just, with a thriving and sustainable economy and quality basic services.
Yet, the ANC is modest and honest enough still to admit that still more must be done to carry forward the change. The ANC is an interminable reservoir of hope and national pride. Of course, the ANC never promised our people shortcuts and easy resorts to total emancipation. It never said the journey to be traversed in the struggle would be short, easy and laden with gold, milk, honey and all sorts of goodies. We have been true and honest to our people about the challenges ahead, the sacrifices required and the difficult choices to be made. Above all else, when the struggle demanded that the sacrifices be made, the ANC was at the forefront of making those sacrifices. [Applause.]
Yet, we have stayed faithful to this truth, refusing to be detracted by populist and expedient temptations and we have remained loyal to our cause. In the process, as we dirtied our hands in the cause of the struggle, and precisely because we are human, we have committed many mistakes. Nobody involved in the trenches of social change can emerge out of that great and historic noble process clean and without fault.
The DA thinks politics is an issue of personalities and not substantive issues. That is why they devoted two days of debate in the Chambers attacking the single person of the President and avoided telling us what their own plans are. [Applause.]
This is about our people's lives. We know all that the DA is opposed to and we know all they regard as wrong with South Africa, but we don't know how they would fix it and how they would make it right. We know all that they are against; everything they whine and whinge about, but we have no clue what they are for.
Hon Harris, let me join you in quoting Sir Winston Churchill when he said and I quote, ``You will never reach your destination if you stop and throw stones at every dog that barks.'' Or, if I may make my own addition - you will never reach your destination if you stop and bark back at every dog that barks at your unstoppable progress. [Applause.] Sir Winston Churchill further said, "Any fool can see what's wrong, but can you see what's right?" Now hon Harris, you say that we are underperforming our peers, but you neglect to mention that many of our peers whose growth outperforms ours are coming off a low base.
For example, South Sudan and Afghanistan are growing higher than our own economy. Zimbabwe grew by 10,6% in 2011 and 4,4% in 2012. Does this mean that the Zimbabwean economy is outperforming the South African economy? You also did not mention that the Brazilian economy grew below ours at 0,9% last year, after the end of the commodity super cycle. Turkey, which you cited as outperforming our economy, grew by 2,2% in 2013, down from 8,5% in 2011. Ultimately, these fluctuations depend on the economy's reliance on primary products and external shocks, whereas it is only industrialised economies that are more consistent and this is precisely where we want to go as the economy.
Hon Speaker, what we have heard during this debate is the very sharp and blatant contrast between the message of abiding hope, as articulated by the President, and the message of doom and gloom, articulated by the vestiges of the past, on my left. The DA is incapable of shaking off the past and firmly believes, 20 years postapartheid, that the best way into the future is to turn backward.
This is why they reject black economic empowerment and rather came up with a policy charade that will leave the current racial and gender economic ownership patterns unchanged.
That is why they reject employment equity and rather have ensured, in their model province, that most top management positions in government remain in the control of those constituting only 17,5% of the population of this province.
That is why they reject the current labour relations framework and rather prefer one in which workers have no rights to organise themselves into unions or fight for a living wage and yet claim to seek decent jobs. Just ask the farm workers of Du Noon if the DA really supports real and decent jobs.
That is why they reject the National Health Insurance plan and rather prefer the status quo in terms of which only about 25% South Africans have access to medical aids and hence, access to quality health care. [Applause.]
That is why they reject the notion of a developmental state that plays an active role in the economy and that is why they reject the radical land reform policies of this ANC-led government which will end the landlessness and destitution of the black majority.
The DA yesterday made extravagant claims about their role in job creation in the Western Cape. First, we are very pleased as government that we had excellent job growth in 2013 for the year as a whole in all nine provinces. Every job, whether in Limpopo or North West or even the Western Cape, must be celebrated.
So, as the President said, the economy created 653 000 jobs and we celebrate this. In the last three months of last year, we saw an increase of jobs in the Western Cape after a period when it battled with job creation. However, the funny thing is that when jobs are lost in the Western Cape, the ANC is blamed, but when the jobs are created, then the DA, like in the Chicken Little story, is first to claim credit.
What do the facts show? Jobs grew in manufacturing in the Western Cape. I can point to the opening of the Hisense factory by Minister Patel and of the Tellumat factory by Minister Davies as examples of national interventions to support job creation in Atlantis in the Western Cape, last year. I can point to the billions of rands of support offered to various sectors by national departments. I am just struggling to see what support the DA is giving to all of this. Jobs grew in the retail and financial sectors in the Western Cape and this had nothing to do with the DA.
Now even the DA spin doctors will find it hard to point to what the provincial government does or has done that can account for this expansion in retail and finance. Jobs grew in the employment of domestic workers in the Western Cape. Okay, perhaps the madams were taking on more workers, but hardly as a result of DA policies. And, incidentally, these jobs are regarded by the DA as real jobs, while those who work on the Expanded Public Works Programme are seen somehow not to have real jobs.
Be thankful you have always had jobs because you will never understand the impact of an Expanded Public Works Programme. You have never known how it is to be unemployed, to live on street corners, playing dice if you are part of the youth and be tempted by crime, because you have always had the jobs and economies. Your parents left you an inheritance. [Applause.]
In the Western Cape, jobs actually sank by 8 000 in government services... Now Mr and Mrs spin doctor, that is actually something that the DA does have control over and is directly responsible for.
But these are all numbers for just one quarter. If we actually take the past four-and-a-half years, the picture shows that the top performing province is Limpopo. [Applause.] When the country should be celebrating having achieved 15,2 million jobs, the highest level of employment ever in our history, the desperate alliance seeks to bring the country down and claim for itself what it did not achieve. The good professor stands here on this rostrum and says we have not created jobs in the last 20 years. It makes you question how one qualifies to be a professor. [Laughter.]
But there is one more matter and let us not play loose and fast with periods. What does the DA's record show over the four-and-a-half years that it has been in government in the Western Cape?
Over almost five years since April 2009, 61% of the new jobs created in the Western Cape have gone to whites, who constitute only 17,5% of the total population of this province. Hon members, 31% of new jobs went to coloureds, who constitute 53% of the provincial population. Africans, actually lost jobs but constitute 28,5% of the population of the province. Is this what the DA is boasting about? Shame on you! [Applause.]
The DA sells itself as the party of service delivery.We did an analysis recently of spending by province up to the latest date for which figures are available. It showed that the top four provinces, measured by percentage of spend against budget, were KwaZulu-Natal, North West, Mpumalanga and Eastern Cape. [Applause.] Where did the Western Cape feature? It is on spot number eight. The second lowest from the bottom! It only spent 65% of its half-yearly budget, or to put it in another way, it underspent by 35%. Only a province that was placed under national administration did worse.
You are lectured about delivery by the DA. Clean up your act in the Western Cape or, better still, step down and let the ANC run the province. [Applause.]
There are choices before the people of South Africa, choices which we must make. We must choose whether we want the National Health Insurance plan or the present situation that results in the majority of South Africans having no access to health. It is about whether we want a movement forward in terms of our economy or the same economy that undermines the rights of the workers and make them vulnerable when, in fact, the whole family depends on the wages of those workers.
When we say that the DA will take us backward, we are not concocting these out of the figment of our imagination. We are talking about the policies which they represent, about a contrast between the future we represent and the past they represent which they want to take us back to. The ANC will be a government in South Africa, not a government of a small minority of people but a government of all the people of South Africa.
Over the next few months, we will humble ourselves before South Africans and ask them to take decisions about the ANC and the destiny of this country. We are confident that the people of South Africa will make their decisions in favour of taking South Africa forward. We can no longer turn back, onward ever, forever; we are moving. [Applause.]
The House adjourned at 18:10.
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