Hansard: NCOP: Unrevised Hansard

House: National Council of Provinces

Date of Meeting: 25 Jun 2018

Summary

No summary available.


Minutes


TUESDAY, 26 JUNE 2018

PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL COUNCIL OF PROVINCES

The Council met at 14:01.

The House Chairperson: Committees, Oversight, Co-operative Governance and Intergovernmental Relations took the Chair and requested members to observe a moment of silence for prayers or meditation.

NOTICES OF MOTION

Mr O S TERBLANCHE: Chairperson, I hereby give notice that on the next sitting day of the Council, I shall move on behalf of the DA:

That the Council -

notes the gratitude that Chief Judge Mogoeng Mogoeng conveyed to the media for the manner how they exposed and hold power to account, and


resolves to debate the important role of the media in bringing all high profile criminals to book and upholding our democracy.

Mr J W W JULIUS: House Chair, I hereby give notice that on the next sitting day of the Council, I shall move on behalf of the DA:

That the Council debates the outstanding land claims under the Restitution of Land Rights Act No. 22 of 1994.

PASSING OF ANC MEMBER OF PARLIAMENT

(Draft resolution)

The CHIEF WHIP OF THE COUNCIL: House Chair, I move without notice:

That the Council -

notes with profound sadness and grief the passing of ANC Member of Parliament, Comrade Goodwill Sibusiso Radebe, who succumbed to injuries sustained from being shot during an attempted hijack in Roodepoort, in Gauteng;


also notes that hon Radebe was a dedicated servant of our movement; and Comrade Radebe served in numerous structures of our Mass Democratic Movement, he served as Deputy Secretary of Congress of SA Students in Mpumalanga in 1994, and in 1998, served as Chairperson of the SA Students Congress at the Tshwane University of Technology, formerly known as Pretoria Technikon;

also notes that in 2002, he was part of the task team task with establishing branches of the Young Communist League in Mpumalanga, and was elected as one of the first district secretaries of the Gert Sibande District;

further notes that in 2008, Comrade Radebe was elected Provincial Treasurer of the ANC Youth League in Mpumalanga;

further notes that, Comrade Radebe joined Parliament in 2009 and previously served on the Portfolio Committee on Higher Education and Training, and the Portfolio Committee on Energy. At the time of his untimely passing, he was serving in the Portfolio Committee on Transport; and


takes this opportunity to send our deepest condolences to Comrade Radebe’s wife and his entire family. May they find solace in the knowledge that we painfully share their loss and thank them for having borrowed the ANC and the country this incomparable servant of our people?

Thanks.

Motion agreed to in accordance with section 65 of the Constitution.

PRESIDENT RAMAPHOSA’S INSISTENCE OF SOUTH AFRICA TO PAY MR JACOB ZUMA’S LEGAL FEES

(Draft Resolution)

Mr L V MAGWEBU: Chairperson, I move without notice:

That the Council -

notes that we condemn President Ramaphosa’s insistence of South Africa to pay Mr Jacob Zuma’s legal fees, until a court decides otherwise, abdicating himself once more for any responsibility regarding his predecessor’s crimes;


also notes that the legal costs have now exceeded

R15,3 million, yet we are no closer to the resolution of these charges than we were in 2009; and

further notes that Mr Zuma’s history of alleged illegal and nefarious activities, one shudders to think what damaging evidence he is hiding given how he seems to threaten persons in the President’s faction within the ANC and in KwaZulu- Natal;

acknowledges that the DA has been in the forefront to ensure that Mr Zuma gets his day in court and is finally being held accountable;

holds that the ongoing payments of Mr Zuma’s legal fees from taxpayer money is not only illegal but deeply immoral and selfish considering the poverty levels in our country; this money could have been spent on education, Chairperson, employment opportunities and social upliftment

The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON (A J Nyambi): Is there any objection to the motion? [Interjections.] In light of the objection, the motion may


not be proceeded with. The motion without notice will now become notice of a motion.

ALLEGATIONS OF CORRUPTION INVOLVING FORMER MEC FOR HEALTH, WHO IS THE CURRENT CHIEF WHIP OF THE ANC IN GAUTENG

(Draft Resolution)

Ms B A ENGELBRECHT: Chairperson, I move without notice:

That the Council -

notes that the former MEC for Health, the current Chief Whip of the ANC in Gauteng, Brian Hlongwa and 11 others are alleged to have siphoned off the Gauteng Health Department to the tune of R1,2 billion;

also notes that this matter is contained in a Special Investigations report that was handed over to President Zuma in March 2017 and never released until the non-governmental organisation, section 27, applied for access to the report using the Promotion of Access to Information Act of 2000;


further notes that the Gauteng Health Department is facing a possible collapse partly because of the hidden corruption and graft by the ANC in Gauteng; and the people of Gauteng are facing serious challenges at the public hospitals and clinics in Gauteng due to these corrupt practices;


calls David Makhura, Acting Gauteng ANC Chairperson, to give its members in the legislature permission to remove the Chief Whip in Gauteng Legislature for his alleged involvement in these corrupt activities.


The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON (A J Nyambi): Is there any objection to the motion? [Interjections.] In light of the objection, the motion may not be proceeded with. The motion without notice will now become notice of a motion.


DETONATION OF AN EXPLOSIVE DEVICE AT THE ZANU-PF RALLY IN WHITE CITY STADIUM IN BULAWAYO, ZIMBABWE


(Draft Resolution)


Mr E MAKUE: Hon Chairperson, I move without notice:


That the Council -


notes with utmost concern and apprehension the detonation of an explosive device at the ZANU-PF rally in White City Stadium in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe and the deadly blast that occurred at a rally in Addis Ababa in Ethiopia;


further notes that the bomb explosion missed the President of Zimbabwe, the hon Emmerson Mnangagwa by a few inches whilst ZANU-PF Chairperson Oppah Muchinguri-Kashiri and many others were left injured; and that in Addis Ababa, at least one person was killed and eight others critically injured from an explosion at a rally that was attended by the new Ethiopian Prime Minister, Dr Abiy Ahmed;


takes this opportunity to condemn in the strongest possible terms the senseless and cowardice acts of assassination attempts as nothing but deliberate ploys to destabilise and create disunity and confusion; and


pass our deepest and sincere condolences to the family, close friends and comrades of the deceased and wishes them a


speedy and full recovery and good health to all those that are injured.

Motion agreed to in accordance with section 65 of the Constitution.

THE APPOINTMENT OF TONY YENGENI TO HEAD THE ANC CRIME AND CORRUPTION COMMITTEE

(Draft Resolution)

Mr J W W JULIUS: Chairperson, I move without notice:

That the Council —

notes the appointment by the ANC of Tony Yengeni to head up its Crime and Corruption Committee, that it is a serious indictment on the people of South Africa;

regrets that Yengeni was previously arrested for drunk driving charges and fraud, he was handed down a four year jail sentence although he only served four months;


admits that this tells a lot about the ANC and their seriousness in rooting out corruption within its party as promised by Cyril Ramaphosa;

denies that this is an issue of national importance because this ANC politicians are sitting in a space where they can loot the people’s money and hinder the development of people in South Africa;

calls on South Africans to once again witness the inability of the ANC to self correct and get rid of its biggest problem of corruption;

realizes that the only way to get rid of corruption is to vote out the ANC in the 2019 elections.

The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON (Mr A J Nyambi): Is there any objection to the motion? Yes. In light of the objection the motion may not be proceeded with, the motion without notice will now become a notice of a motion.


63RD ANNIVERSARY OF THE CONGRESS OF THE PEOPLE


(Draft Resolution)


Mr D M MONAKEDI: Chairperson, I move without notice:


That the Council —


notes that today marks the 63rd Anniversary of the historic multiracial convention called the Congress of the People which was convened in Kliptown near Johannesburg in 1955;


further notes that the proposition to convene the Congress of the People came from professor Z K Mathews at the ANC Queenstown Regional Conference in 1953 and it was endorsed by the ANC National Conference held in December 1954;


agrees that the call for a Congress of the People brought together national liberation movements from diverse, the ideological orientation including the ANC itself, the South African Indian Congress, the Colored People’s Organisation and the congress of democracy who worked jointly to co- ordinate the work of drafting the Freedom Charter which was adopted by the convention the next day 26 June 1955; and


takes this opportunity to reaffirm the Freedom Charter as a cornerstone of the Constitution of South Africa.


The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON (Mr A J Nyambi): Is there any objection to the motion? Yes. In light of the objection the motion may not be proceeded with, the motion without notice will now become a notice of a motion.


MOTION OF CONDOLENCE

(The late Happy Joyce Mashamba)


Dr H E MATEME: Chairperson, I hereby move without notice:


That the Council —


notes with a great sense of loss the death of the MEC for Agriculture in Limpopo province, hon MEC Joyce Mashamba who passed away on Wednesday last week after succumbing to a kidney-related illness;


further notes that MEC Mashamba has served the people of Limpopo with utmost commitment until her untimely death; and


takes this opportunity to convey its heartfelt condolences to the Mashamba family and the people of Limpopo;


indicates that during her illustrious membership of this revolutionary forces she served at the highest structures in the SACP, ANC;


acknowledges that she also served in the underground structures and she was the first Chairperson of the ANC Women’s league in the then Northern Transvaal;


salutes this great daughter of the seat.


Motion agreed to in accordance with section 65 of the Constitution.


KZN WOMAN DOUSED WITH PETROL AND SET ALIGHT BY HER EMPLOYER’S SON


(Draft resolution)


Mr J M MTHETHWA: Chairperson, I move without notice:


That the Council —


notes with utmost concern reports that a Durban woman was doused with petrol and set her alight by her employer’s son;


further notes that Zinhle Mchunu has suffered third-degree burns to her left leg after the attack; and


takes this opportunity to condemn in the harshest possible term this brutality waged against a defenseless woman in the hands of people that she cares for and probably helped to raise.


Motion agreed to in accordance with section 65 of the Constitution.


Mr F ESSACK: Chairperson, I move without notice:


That the Council —


notes the Thabachewu Local Municipality in Mpumalanga is now in a total state of shutdown, employees of this municipality have been on strike since last week with no services being provided;


admits that consumers are unable to pay for services or receive statements of accounts and vehicle licenses cannot be issued and vehicles cannot be tested for roadworthiness and persons cannot be tested for any drivers licenses etc, this holds true for the towns of Mashishing, Lydenburg, Sabie, and Graskop;


agrees that the municipality is one of the top 10 under- performing municipalities in the counytry;


regrets that the forensic report that has still not been made public despite the request by Scopa some two weeks ago;


services to our communities are collapsing with water reticulation network being an absolute health hazard and the sewerage reticulation network are in a mess with entreated sewerage overflowing in the streets, the road network have all but collapsed and the Auditor-General has issued disclaimers against this municipality for 10 concurrent year;

appeals that this refers the above matter to the Cogta Select Committee to consider seriously initiating section 139(b) proceedings. I so move.


The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON (Mr A J Nyambi): Is there any objection to the motion? Yes. In light of the objection the motion may not be proceeded with, the motion without notice will now become a notice of a motion


SHOCKING DEATH OF AT LEAST FOUR INITIATES IN MTHATA


(Draft Resolution)


Mr D L XIMBI: Chairperson, I move without notice:


That the Council —


notes with utmost shock and outrage the death of at least four initiates since last Thursday, 21 June 2018 in Umtata, Eastern Cape;


also takes this opportunity to appeal to the Department of Cogta in the Eastern Cape to work with traditional Chiefs


and the communities at large to work tirelessly to abolish this senseless dying of initiates due to illegal circumcision; and


further appeals to parents whose children are harmed or who have suspicions about the place the child is going to, to open a complaint at a police station so that it can be investigated promptly and perpetrators be prosecuted.


Motion agreed to in accordance with section 65 of the Constitution


THE DEATH OF A SIX-YEAR-OLD STACEY ADAMS IN EASTRIDGE, CAPE TOWN


(Draft Resolution)


Ms T G MPAMBO-SIBHUKWANA: Chairperson, on behalf of the DA, I hereby move without notice:


That the Council –


notes that a six year old Stacey Adams was found dead in a shallow grave next to a Wendy house near her home in

Eastridge on Sunday, 24 June 2018, where the alleged killer was residing;


further notes that, this is a tragedy to lose a child, especially under such violent circumstances;


further commends the South African Police Service, SAPS, for their speedy arrest of the suspect; and


conveys our deepest condolences to her family and the family members. May her soul rest in peace!


Motion agreed to in accordance with section 65 of the Constitution.


ANOTHER POSTPONEMENT OF ANALOGUE TO DIGITAL MIGRATION



(Draft Resolution)


Ms C LABUSCHAGNE: Chairperson, on behalf of the DA, I hereby move without notice:


That the Council -


notes that South Africa’s switch from analogue to digital migration has been postponed for another year;


further notes that we have missed 2015 deadline and after three years the costs are escalating annually;


also notes that bands that will be freed up by the switch can be used to deliver mobile broadband in rural areas and provide for more affordable data;


further notes that the Minister of Communications and the ANC’s delaying tactics is hindrance to the development of rural areas and a cry for cheaper data, which will vastly improve the access to mobile broadband;


acknowledges that it is widely speculated that the ANC is allegedly preventing the freeing up of these bands because of a clandestine move to empower cronies at the expense of the people especially the youth; and


calls upon the Minister of Communications to report to the Council their progress on the above matter.


The DA will continue its fight for access for mobile broadband and cheaper data for all South Africans.


The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON (Mr A J Nyambi): Hon Hattingh, sorry. Let me take hon Julius. Hon Julius, why are you standing?


Mr J W W JULIUS: Chairperson, I think that when there is an objection that you think there is a need to be an objection, you repeat and repeat that is there an objection while you heard that there is no objection and you waited because you think there must be an objection and I think that is out of order from your side. Thank you, Chairperson.


The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON (Mr A J Nyambi): Hon Julius! Order members! Hon Julius, you know what you are doing is not in order. You can’t be casting aspersions on the Presiding Officer.


Ms C LABUSCHAGNE: Chairperson, you know where this objection comes from because if this was the Minister, the Minister can’t object you as a member of executive because she is not the member of the House.


The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON (Mr A J Nyambi): No, it is not the Minister. Hon members, no man, let us allow the process to go on. Hon Hattingh, you are recognised.


ARRESTED OFFICIALS AT THE DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE, FORESTRY AND FISHERIES


(Draft Resolution)


Mr C HATTINGH: Hon Chairperson, on behalf of the DA I hereby move without notice:


That this Council –


notes that the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries officials were arrested in an undercover operation in February 2018 on charges of racketeering, corruption and defeating the ends of justice for running one of the biggest abalone poaching syndicates in the Western Cape;


further notes that these officials have been released on bail and are reported to be back at work one week later; and


calls upon the Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries to report to this NCOP Select Committee on Land and Mineral Resources on the process and decisions made regarding the aforesaid officials return to work.


Motion agreed to in accordance with section 65 of the Constitution.


PUBLIC HEARINGS ON LAND EXPROPRIATION WITHOUT COMPENSATION UNDERWAY



(Draft Resolution)


Mr T C MOTLASHUPING: Hon Chairperson, I move without notice on behalf of the ANC:


That this House –


notes with importance that land expropriation without compensation is necessary and very critical;
 

 


also notes that the return of land to the rightful owners is a right to the deprived people who own the land;


further notes that the land hearings and the importance of encouraging all South Africans to attend hearings on land to speak their views and be tolerant of each other’s views; and


lastly, notes that the security measures will be taken at all venues for the people safety during hearings as this will be the first public hearing on the proposed changes to section 25 of the Constitution which protects property rights.


The CHIEF WHIP OF THE COUNCIL:      House Chairperson, I move that the Council, subject to the concurrence of the National Assembly, extends the deadline by which the Constitutional Review Committee has to report, to 28 September 2018.


Question put: That the motion be agreed to.


IN FAVOUR: Eastern Cape, Free State, Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal, Limpopo, Mpumalanga, Northern Cape, North West, Western Cape.
 

 


Motion accordingly agreed to in accordance with section 65 of the Constitution.


LIQUOR PRODUCTS AMENDMENT BILL



(Consideration of Bill and of Report thereon)


Mr O J SEFAKO: Hon House Chairperson, hon Minister, hon MEC, hon members, thank you for the opportunity to present before the council the considerations of Liquor Product Act Bill (B)(10B) 2016 NA section 75.


The NCOP referred the Liquor Products Amendment Bill to the Select Committee on Land and Mineral Resources on 6 June 2017. The committee called for additional public inputs on the Bill in order to ensure broad public participation during deliberations on the contents of the Bill. Time allocated to the processing of the Bills before the committee during the same time resulted in the cut-off for public inputs being set for the 20 May, this year.


Many alcohol industry players supported the amendments, stating that it could contribute towards curbing illicit trade. A potential shortfall of the current Act is that it focuses on liquor products
 

 


produced from grapes, including wines and spirits. Other alcoholic beverages such as traditional beer and ale are poorly regulated. One of the main changes, the Bill introduced a framework for the incorporation of beer and other fermented beverages into the Liquor Products Act and consequently bringing these products under the control of the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries.


From the inputs received, there was support for the attempts made by the department to improve the industry regulations, but also the concerns expressed that the Bill does not adequately clarify the regulation of the beer producing sector. These and other concerns were debated in the committee and referred to the department for comment.


The department was confident that the proposed amendments will have the desired impact on improving the regulation of the diverse liquor industry in South Africa. The committee finalised their deliberations on the Bill on 12 June 2018. I move for the adoption of the Bill.


Debate concluded.


Question put: That the Bill be agreed to.
 

 


Declaration of vote:

Mr C F B SMIT: Hon House Chair, this Bill closes many loopholes which existed in the Liquor Act of 2003. However, there are still concerns regarding the ability to implement this Bill given that various communities brew their own alcohol through various traditional methods which may include dangerous substances such as battery acid. Based on the loopholes which will no longer exist, the DA does support this Bill. Thank you.


Question put: That the Bill be agreed to.


Bill accordingly agreed to, in accordance with section 75 of the Constitution.


EXTENSION OF SECURITY OF TENURE AMENDMENT BILL


(Consideration of Bill and of Report thereon)


Mr O J SEFAKO: Hon House Chair, the NCOP referred the Extension of Security of Tenure Amendment Bill to the Select Committee on Land and Mineral Resources on 6 June 2017. The department briefed the committee on 13 February 2018. The delay in commencing the
 

 


processing of the Bill was as a result of the committee’s busy legislative portfolio.


The committee called for additional public input on the Bill in order to ensure broad public participation during deliberations on the content of the Bill. This further added to the time needed to finalise the Bill, but improved the committee’s ability to interrogate the Bill before it.


From the input received, it was clear that the public was concerned about continued tenure insecurity, illegal evictions and also, the challenges associated with finding suitable alternative accommodation for those people facing legal eviction processes.
These concerns were deliberated in the committee and referred to the department for comment. The department was confident that the proposed amendments to the existing legislation would not only improve the situation for farm workers, but also improve tenure security for farm dwellers. It was further stated that the amendments include strengthening the rights of those wishing to visit burial sites for religious purposes.


The committee finalised their deliberations on the Bill on 19 June 2018. It was satisfied that the department could clarify most
 

 


matters of concern raised in the submissions received from the public, as well as those raised by the committee members. I move for the adoption of the Bill.


Debate concluded.


Question put: That the Bill be agreed to.


Declarations of vote:

Mr C F B SMIT: Hon House Chair, this Bill goes a long way to provide protection to South Africans classified as “occupiers”, as defined in the Bill. It also ensures access to gravesites of relatives.
However, the definitions in the Bill of “dependent” and “family” may prove to be problematic and may not survive constitutional scrutiny.


Given the impact the positive aspects will have on communities, the DA supports this Bill.


Mr L B GAEHLER: Chairperson, the UDM supports this Bill. It is long overdue, as our people have suffered for years. They buy ... they have worked for years on farms, and at the end of the day, they are dumped on the roadside, some of them suffering in the cold weather.
 

 


We also support the fact that after this Bill is adopted today, our people will be able to go and visit their family gravesites, which they were not allowed to do by the farmers. We support this Bill.
Thank you.


Bill accordingly agreed to, in accordance with section 75 of the Constitution.


DEBATE ON THE CENTENARY OF NELSON MANDELA AND ALBERTINA SISULU: REMEMBERING NELSON MANDELA AND ALBERTINA SISULU – CELBRATING THE LIFE AND TIMES OF TWO GREAT GIANTS OF OUR LIBERATION


(Subject for Discussion)


The MINISTER OF COMMUNICATIONS: Hon Chairperson of the NCOP, Members of the NCOP, MECs, representatives of different provinces, fellow South Africans, a very good afternoon. In 2018 South Africa marks the centenary of lives of two remarkable people in our history, Nelson Mandela and Nontsikelelo Sisulu, both renowned and fearless champions of democracy and human rights.


Their legacy will endure forever, and they remain shining because of the sort of society we are striving to build. Throughout their
 

 


lives, our icons faced numerous obstacles, yet they never once wavered in the fight for a better South Africa. Everyday they faced relentless assault by the apartheid regime and their families faced constant harassment.


Lesser persons would certainly have folded under the constant pressure, yet they held firm in the belief that a better future was coming, and that they and others had to lead the way and bring it about. Both Mama Albertina Sisulu and Madiba dedicated their lives to ensure a better and a much more united, nonsexist and prosperous South Africa.


The 100 years anniversary of the lives of these two remarkable people is an opportunity to recommit ourselves to their principles by building the nation we envisioned at the start of our democracy, and remind those who were never in the trenches that freedom didn’t come on a silver platter. The centenary celebration for Madiba extends across the continent and the globe as the former President was one of the world’s most revered statesmen.


He was a central figure in the struggle for liberation from the unjust apartheid system to an inclusive democracy, including embracing nonracialism and respect for the Indian community. Nelson
 

 


Mandela left an indelible mark on our society. Albertina Sisulu became a symbol of resistance when the liberation movement and all other formations were banned, as the people of South Africa rallied behind the UDF.


They championed also the call as espoused in the Freedom Charter that the people shall govern, including those who are seeking to divide us and cast aspersions on the character and the formation of a new nation by continuously insulting some of our communities, particularly the Indian Community ... [Interjections.]


The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON (Mr A J Nyambi): I am sorry, hon Minister. Hon Koni, can you please refrain from what you are doing. Heckling is allowed, but if you are drowning the speaker at the podium, you are compromising the decorum of the House. Refrain from what you are doing! Continue hon Minister!


The MINISTER OF COMMUNICATIONS: Fellow South Africans, now is the time, more than ever for all of us to identify with these two icons of our own liberation struggle; pick up on what maSisulu has fought for and what she has left behind, a united women’s movement for South Africa, a progressive liberation movement, the ANC, but most
 

 


importantly, young people who have a vision of making sure that the future will look bright.


Through her own sacrifices, she has actually, selflessly, nurtured many who are today assuming responsibility in different forms, in government, parastatals as well as in civil society. It is only by working together that we can find a better way to tackle social ills that maSisulu and tatu’ Nelson Mandela never thought would be social
... [Interjections.]


The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON (Mr A J Nyambi): I am sorry, hon Minister. Hon Koni, why are you standing?


Ms N P KONI: Chair, I’m standing on a point of order. I believe that today’s theme is remembering tata Mandela and mama Albertina Sisulu, celebrating the life and times of two great giants of our liberation, and I believe that the two giants that we are referring to, despised corruption ... [Interjections.]


The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON (Mr A J Nyambi): Hon Koni ... [Interjections.] Order members!


Ms N P KONI: Chairperson, I want to check ... [Interjections.]
 

 


The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON (Mr A J Nyambi): I am listening.


Ms N P KONI: I want to check if the member on the podium is actually the correct member to be debating on this topic today?


The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON (Mr A J Nyambi): Hon Koni ... [Interjections.]


Setswana:

Moh N P KONI: A go ne go se na ope o ka tlisiwang mo Ntlong eno go tla go ngangisana ka kgang eno go na le go tlisa leloko le le mo phodiamong?


The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON (Mr A J Nyambi): Hon Koni, I have addressed what you have been constantly doing and I told you to refrain compromising the decorum of the House. You know very well that what you are doing is totally out of order. Therefore, you are not allowed to do that. All the political parties have been afforded a space to debate, and you can’t stand up and debate with the speaker at the podium. Can you take your seat if you want to be part of this debate?


Ms N P KONI: Point of clarity, Chairperson, I’m not debating ... [Interjections.]
 

 


The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON (Mr A J Nyambi): Can you take your seat!


Ms N P KONI: Like I indicated, I was standing on a point of clarity

... [Interjections.]


The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON (Mr A J Nyambi): Can you take your seat!


Ms N P KONI: I just wanted to ascertain with the Chairperson if in this House this is how we are going to do things?


The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON (Mr A J Nyambi): Koni, can you take your seat!


Ms N P KONI: Is this how we are going to do things?


The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON (Mr A J Nyambi): Koni, take your seat! Hon Monakedi, you are not going to get on that issue because I’ve made a ruling on it. I’m not going to subject it to a discussion.


Mr D M MONAKEDI: Yes, I’ve listened to you very attentively; I’m not going to be going back to the ruling you’ve just made. But in addition to what you spoke to, the hon member has actually cast aspersions on the Minister, and I thought you are going to also ask her to withdraw that part. Thank you.
 

 


The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON (Mr A J Nyambi): That is why I said that I’ve dealt with that part. Hon members ... [Interjections.] You are not recognised. Can you take your seat! Hon Koni, can you take your seat! That is why I said that I’m not going to be entertaining anything in relation to the ruling that I’ve made about hon Koni.
Hon Minister, I’m very sorry for the disturbance while focusing on a very important debate. Hon Minister, can you continue?


The MINISTER OF COMMUNICATIONS: Chairperson, fellow South Africans, hon members, let is be our shared responsibility to continue to shape ... [Interjections.]


The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON (Mr A J Nyambi): Hon Monakedi, can you take your seat! Hon members, I’ve made a ruling about what was said by hon Koni, and if any member has got a problem about any ruling that I’ve made – hon Koni, it’s a last warning about your behaviour in this House; you’ve got a last warning about your behaviour in this House – Continue, hon Minister!


The MINISTER OF COMMUNICATIONS: It has to be our shared responsibility to continue to shape a national identity that is built on mutual respect, tolerance and acceptance. We should also not forget that for all our challenges, we live in a remarkable
 

 


country and let us therefore celebrate living in a country that guarantees our humanity, irrespective of race gender, creed or sexual orientation. But it cannot just be that. Today as we sit here, millions of our fellow country men and women are still excluded from the economic and social mainstream. They might rightly ask, “What has democracy brought for us?” This is the question that should keep all of us up at night and if we do not build a society where all South Africans are free to thrive, we risk squandering our legacy – the legacy of Nontsikelelo Sisulu and Nelson Mandela.


It is therefore important that all sectors of society continue to support and assist government so that together we find sustainable ways to overcome the triple threat of poverty, inequality and unemployment. The only way to change our future is to work collectively as we have always done, finding solutions and growing our social and economic potential should be our common goal. We must emulate Nelson Mandela and Nontsikelelo Sisulu as I have indicated that Albertina Sisulu became a rallying figure when all liberation movements were banned and after the country has actually identified the need to come together, the United Democratic Front was found and MaSisulu became the face of resistance, calling for the release of Nelson Mandela and the return of those who were in exile but also the realisation of the dream as espoused in the Freedom Charter.
 

 


Again, we have all rallied behind Nelson Mandela, who was once called a terrorist but today is claimed and owned by everybody because of his own stature and the ANC - the party that he so dearly loved, that actually reasserted what is in the Freedom Charter that South Africa belongs to all those who live in it, both black and white. Our job today is to begin to drive a new narrative. Ours must be a narrative of hope, a narrative of lives changed, a narrative of a better and a brighter future for all, a narrative that generations to come will celebrate the fact that we were once responsible for taking South Africa forward.


Earlier this year, during the state of the nation address, His Excellency, President Cyril Ramaphosa gave us our marching orders when he led the rallying call of “thuma mina”. Let us heed the call by the President for each of us to lend a hand and for each of us to accept to be sent the rallying call of “send me” should inspire all of us to work for a better nation as we have seen Nelson Mandela being prepared to be send to prison in the best interests of the emancipation of our country and seeing Albertina Sisulu being prepared to be placed under house arrest and isolation from her children and her loving husband in the best interest of a better South Africa, a better Africa and a better world.
 

 


We cannot and dare not sit back and hope that this will change without all of us appreciating where we are coming from and the challenges of a transition and fail to then turn the tide by accepting the mistakes and the challenges that we have committed but being bold to demonstrate that we are prepared to learn and never repeat the mistakes that we have committed in the past. There is no reference of how to move South Africa forward. We are the generation that has that responsibility of shaping and defining a better South Africa. It is this steadfast resolve that we need today if we are to change our collective destiny. Now is the time to make that hope tangible. The blueprint for the future of South Africa is our National Development Plan which speaks of a joint future, where the talents and labours of all will be harnessed for the good of our nation.


Our new dawn has ushered a new mood of confidence and optimism and this is reflected in better consumer and business confidence. South Africans are also more confident about the future, and are hopeful that there will be meaningful and lasting change. But this cannot just be lip service. It must be seen in action; it must be seen through us making things work different and at a faster pace. We have to make sure that a meaningful change occurs through each and every South African lending a hand.
 

 


Setswana:

Sedikwa ke ntjapedi ga se thata.


English:

We need each other. South Africa is where it is because Solomon Mahlangu sacrificed his life. South Africa is where it is because MaSisulu sacrificed her own life of being a married woman and joined the young people who went out to form the youth league and was the only woman in the founding of the ANC Youth League. Therefore, we need more young women, the MaSisulus of the future so that we can all say that she did not die but multiplied.


MaSisulu and Madiba instinctively knew that they had to take a lead and that by showing the way, others will follow. This burden of leadership now falls on you and me, and it is one and many of us who must carry this together.


Setswana:

Sedikwa ke ntjapedi ga se thata.


English:

We can only do that with an appreciation that there will be those who will continue to mock us and there will be those who will be
 

 


sceptics in the journey towards total emancipation of our people. Some may be amongst us and some may be in the periphery but we must never be deterred. We must refuse to have South Africa going back to racial divisions. We must refuse to have South Africa where land is not appropriately shared amongst those who live in it and in honour of President Nelson Mandela and Albertina Sisulu, rural development must actually happen such that urbanisation is not something that happens in the already existing apartheid notes. Our rural areas must be the centres of excellence and centres of economic development. Single mothers and child-headed families just as MaSisulu’s home where she became the one who looked after her siblings must be a hope that one, through these government child- headed families would not be a stigma but a site where government will be seen to be indeed a caring government. The life of President Nelson Mandela of moving from the rural areas to the urban areas must also demonstrate the issues of celebrating black excellence from a rural community to a legal practitioner and eventually to a world icon. In celebrating the lives of these two giants of our liberation struggle, we must give our young people a knowledge that indeed it is not where you come from that must define your future, but it is your commitment and your determination that must characterise your destiny. We are ready to serve; we are committed to rise and stand on the shoulders of those two giants, because
 

 


again, they are a symbol of a South Africa we are coming from and a symbol of a peace-loving nation we are because both of them are forgiving. And they are also a symbol of a non-racial society because they were loved by Black, Indian, Coloured and Whites, and they were loved by the world.


In conclusion, let us celebrate the lives of uMama uAlbertina Nontsikelelo Sisulu and uTata UNelson Mandela in a manner that we would realise access to land, not only for those who want to till the land but also access to land to make sure that we create wealth, particularly in the urban areas. We should deracialise our communities and then we can be in a position to say that South Africa belongs to all those who live in it. Thank you for having had Nelson Mandela and Nontsikelelo Albertina Sisulu to those women out there who have lost hope. We need to appreciate that even when her children were in incarceration - in exile, and her husband in prison, MaSisulu was a symbol of hope and a symbol of resistance.
Let us unite against all forms of discrimination. Let us give young people hope so that they can realise that Nelson Mandela was once in the same situation and conditions that they are in in rural areas but he never gave up and he found a home in the ANC and hence he has continuously identified himself, not as a natural world icon but as an icon because of what the ANC is. Thank you.
 

 


The CHAIRPERSON OF THE NCOP: Hon House Chairperson, hon members, ladies and gentlemen, it is befitting that we gather here today to pay our respects to these two giants of our people; Nelson Mandela and Albertina Sisulu. It is important for us to reflect on who and what they stand for. They may be gone but I am sure that we agree that their sacrifice and contributions are engraved in townships and villages of our country.


They were freedom fighters leading from all sides on the march to ensure that the oppressed and the downtrodden find a voice. They were non-racial, leading the apartheid defying progressive forces — the tripartite alliance and Federation of South African Women, FEDSAW, among others, eventually leading us towards non-sexism and non-racism in South Africa. They were community workers; a lawyer and a nurse who performed community services outside their professions. They were parents to a number of children but nurtured and trained millions.


Nelson Mandela and Albertina Sisulu must remain our points of reference because of their personal values; honesty, frankness, dependable, consistency, patience, humility and diligence. They stood for liberties and rights - those who do not know the difference will read - they stood for correction and advancement of
 

 


others - not their own. They were both hard task-masters. They would not relent when in fact you were their task; they would sit on you until they achieve what they set out to turn you into. They were rough on behalf of the people on matters which affected the majorities as well as the minorities. They focused on the majorities but never left the individual out of the loop. They taught us patience, to try to understand and interpret the needs of our people in order to lead them, to lead by consensus but never to be afraid to stand up alone against the tide if we believed that it was right to do so.


This was demonstrated – comrade Nomvula - if you remember when the talks broke and some of us wanted to go back to the bush and Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela stood against us in that conference and said that it is not about your personal feelings but about what the struggle was for and what it tends to benefit the millions who are there. We then had to succumb to this strong leader, the midwife of our democracy, Nelson Mandela.


It is MaSisulu’s quiet voice at an ANC Woman’ League debriefing session on the negotiations that asked:


IsiZulu:
 

 


... baphi abafazi?


English:

This is what led us to mobilise and force all parties to take women to the negotiations. It was MaSisulu who encouraged domestic workers to engage their madams at their places of work. She said,


IsiZulu:

... ningapheli inhliziyo.


English:

It is in our interest as the oppressed women of South Africa to educate and engage them. She said that it is in our interest to show white women that they were just a shade better than us, black women, in this country in the need for us all women of South Africa to be emancipated.


We celebrate the dignified pair; they both did not hesitate to discipline us. Madiba’s breakfasts were known to be about correction and not about nice food. MaSisulu taught us never to deride or ridicule one another. She taught us that no self-respecting human being can enjoy putting other people down. Simply because the architects of apartheid got away with putting us down does not mean
 

 


they were right. In fact, they had to convince themselves to swallow it because, to quote the late Mrs De Klerk, you can only put down a nonperson.


We have endured the indignity of apartheid. We must understand more deeply the pain of being disrespected and humiliated. That is why we cannot walk away from the social, economic and all the other issues that are out there in the society. We must stand up for social inclusion of South Africans who are not necessarily heterosexual and we must fight the exclusion of the basis of culture and disability. We must ensure that our education system enables us to find one another and help equalise the future. We must respect the rule of law, our governance systems so that the thieves amongst us find no peace. We must clean government so that the resources go to those who need them the most – the poor.


Madiba and MaSisu|u taught us respect; personal grooming, punctuality; the turn of the phrase; not to be scared to engage in debates; that it is not the loudness of our tone that carries the message but the choice of words we deploy, the conviction of our delivery and the honesty of our action that eventually gets our message accepted.
 

 


What would Nelson Mandela say today? He would encourage us to tidy up the mess; to unite against evil and to continue to speak out against the extermination of the people of Palestine; he would encourage us to stand with the people of the Western Sahara; he would ask us to define democracy and to ask ourselves today whether the South African democracy project is growing or regressing.


It is a bit of a concern with each election to see the increasing number of parties in South Africa rather than a coalescing and a shrinking of the interests. One can draw the conclusion that it is not about politics of the majority and for the people but about perhaps the reduction of politics in South Africa and Parliament into any other factory – “let me go there and earn a living”.


This means that we must accept, as Members of Parliament that things are not going the way they should. We need to do some introspection, ask ourselves why women, especially the young ones, still carryon staying in unsafe relationships. We must disabuse ourselves as women; we can leave without marriages, without being in relations.
We are born complete and full. We are not born necessarily to be biologically functional. We are equal and therefore must stay a little bit longer in classrooms so that we self-fulfil and self- actualise. We will then be able, Members of parliament who are
 

 


women, to stand up quite proudly and tell our daughters to stay in school, stay focused on themselves, respect women and to love themselves. [Applause.]


I think that Nelson Mandela also spoke to the communal issues. He was worried about dignity of the different people and that is why one of the first things he did, through you House Chairperson, Ms Dikgale, was that he went around visiting traditional leaders and encouraging them to go back to school.


He recognised that this institution of traditional leadership would not stay on forever unless it began to modernise and refresh. He worried about the prize of bread and milk and that is why when Mandela Day comes we are proud as the NCOP to join up with the bikers of Cape Town and deliver pads to those schools that have nothing.


That is why we are proud to go to the dispossessed and say we are here, we are simple, we have nothing and that which we bring as the NCOP is not the money of Parliament but monies collected by the staff of the NCOP together with the bikers and donate to these schools where children are poor.
 

 


We are very proud that Nelson Mandela and MaSisulu would see these little efforts as addressing the little bread and butter issues, addressing cleanliness in the class, addressing rape in the bedroom and addressing beatings that we know must come to a stand.


We know MaSisulu would also ask us as women of South Africa why we are not challenging the violence in our classrooms. Our children are becoming too violent. She would say to us, “deal with this. Confront this with as much dignity as you can but with as big a voice as you can master.”


We must say that the focus of Nelson on the people add in the love that we carry today. We must also say that it is pity that his nation building projects has, somehow, not gathered momentum and the push it needed. We must also say that as a nation, our understanding is that a nation is: That thing which brings different people and different communities to one interest, that thing that defines us as people within the same boarders, that thing that we will stand and die for together. It is not the colours of our skins, the texture of our hair but that thing that must need us together.


Sometimes I think that if we went back to nelson Mandela’s nation building project, South Africa would go far. We cannot only say we
 

 


build a nation when we worry about the graph as the Rand goes up and down. Yes, building a strong economy will ensure that we push back poverty and will unite people but building economy sometimes is at the detriment of other people. We built a strong economy in the apartheid system I am told. But what did it mean? Come 1994 you connect the poor, you do not have enough infrastructure and what you actually did, through Eskom, as the democratic South Africa, you created another form of inequality in electrification because what you did in the townships and villages is that you enabled a few bulks to light and a kettle and not a geyser because of the type of electricity we put in.


When we look at poverty and inequality in South Africa, you look at a black female. Some of my countrymen say, when you look at crime statistics you see a black male. So, until we can find one another and say we want to look at our diversity beyond the colour bar – if we look at what the bible say “love your neighbour as you love yourself” - we will then beginning to understand that South Africa is very far from Christianity because in Christianity the bread was shared amongst the millions. So why are we refusing to share South Africa? [Applause.]
 

 


I think Mandela and MaSisulu would encourage us to find solutions as black and white South Africans to the question of land, to find solutions as men and women to the question of violence, they would say we open our doors to all foreign nationals. Let us find it in our hearts to engage so that we do not have issues of xenophobia erupting. I think Nelson Mandela would say, make sure that lead people who know how to fish rather than the provision of fish all day.


I think we must say, in the name of Nelson Mandela, we will hold hands and we will find solutions, we will walk high and tall and we will not make our country go back to where it was because if we do, our grand children will spit on our graves. I thank you. [Applause.]


Ms C LABUSCHAGNE: Hon Chair, members and fellow South Africans, I first want to wish Minister Mokonyane a happy birthday for Thursday,
28 June. [Applause.]


The history of Albertina Sisulu, well-known as “Mother of the Nation” and Nelson Mandela, well-known as “Tata Madiba” is indeed a history to be respected, remembered and most of all, should be the foundation to build on for South Africa as a nation.
 

 


Albertina Sisulu’s legendary work as an anti-apartheid activist, the roles she played in various organisations and structures such as the ANC, the Federation of South African Women, the United Democratic Front, as a Member of Parliament, as well as her more than 50 years commitment to The Albertina Sisulu Foundation, is and will always be inspirational not only to women, but to all those who believe in freedom and the dignity of all people.


Hon Chair, Nelson Mandela sacrificed 27 years of his life in imprisonment for his vision of a free integrated democratic society imbedded in human rights for all. He is renowned worldwide for ending the apartheid’s regime in a peaceful way, and received the Nobel Price for Peace in 1993. He was the first Black President of a new democracy in South Africa in 1994 and fought for human rights not only in our country but worldwide.


The fight for freedom of Sisulu and Mandela and many others culminated in the Convention for a Democratic South Africa, Codesa, I and II which lead to the Interim Government of Unity from 27 April 1994 until 3 February 1997. On 11 October 1996 the Constitutional Court adopted the final Constitution and on 4 February 1997 it came into effect as the supreme law of our country.
 

 


In the book, “Nelson Mandela — From Freedom to the Future,” Roelf Meyer capsulated Madiba’s capacity for reconciliation as follows:


Mandela epitomises the willingness to compromise without sacrificing principle. Because of that, South Africans can explore a new future in an entirely different and unanticipated context.


In his first state of the nation address President Mandela said:


And so we must, constrained by and yet regardless of the accumulated effect of our historical burdens, seize the time to define for ourselves what we want to make of our shared destiny. The government I have the honour to lead, and I dare say the masses who elected us to serve in this role, are inspired by the single vision of creating a people-centred society.


Our single most important challenge is therefore to help establish a social order in which the freedom of the individual will truly mean the freedom of the individual. We must construct that people-centred society of freedom in such a
 

 


manner that it guarantees the political and the human rights of all our citizens.


He also said: “We have learnt the lesson that our blemishes speak of what all humanity should not do.”


Hon Chair, there is always two sided to a coin and hon Modise just did a brilliant job in describing the one side of that coin.
However, 24 years down the line of this enormous achievements, one cannot help to ask, ‘What went wrong?’ What is the status of the rainbow nation, the only nation on the Continent of Africa who negotiated itself from domination and oppression into a people- centred democracy?


Today South Africa is the epitome of state capture and corruption, negotiated by powerful politicians and their cronies by the principles of power, greed and disrespect for human rights. It is a journey marked by the fight for power within the governing party, the ANC, at Polokwane, that lead to a winding road of decline in values, principles and discipline of which Nkandla, the utilisation of a military airport for the Gupta marriage, keeping Jacob Zuma out of court for various overreaches and wrongdoings, the Vrede Dairy farm and many other scandals. Maybe I should also mention Audi Q7
 

 


bought for Minister Mokonyane by a bankrupt Department of Water and Sanitation three weeks before she was reshuffled, which is now gathering dust in a garage.


All of this resulted in civil society across South Africa taking hands with opposition parties, disgruntled and disillusioned ANC members and took the streets in 2017 to demand that the then ANC president must go - definitely not the vision of these two giants.


This ANC road shows evidence of a failing education system where young people are not skilled for the future, a failing health and social development system that cannot protect the vulnerable, as observed by the Life Esidimeni and South Africa Social Security Agency, SASSA, crises, and an economy that does not evoke trust and a willingness to invest and do business in South Africa.


This is the road where more than 9 million people are without jobs and where more than 50% of our people still live in poverty. This is the road that defines the continuous decline of the masses’ vote for the ANC since 1994. This is the road and reason why the ANC fall back on the emotional recall of past blemishes resulting in racist remarks such as “the DA is going to bring apartheid back” and that the black members in the DA are puppets — implying that they are not
 

 


dignified people who have the freedom of choice to decide with which values and principles they want to associate.


This is the road where the “New Dawn” symbolises compromises between the factions within the ANC, including compromises on issues of land, and ruthlessly tapping in on the emotions of people as a mechanism to increase the vote in 2019 instead displaying political will in a budget and a capable system to solve the process of land claims, restitution and redistribution.


The “New Dawn” further fester infighting resulting in political murders, collapsing of municipalities, departments and even whole provinces such as the North West - soon to be followed by the Free State and others.


Hon Chair, this is the road where the hard fought values and principles of freedom and a people centred democracy cannot keep the ANC together, cannot guarantee a capable state to ensure democracy, economic growth, law and order, and respect for human rights.


Fellow South Africans, there is an alternative road, this road of total change under a DA-led government. The DA highway is signposted with evidence of good governance, service delivery and job creation,
 

 


even under difficult circumstances. The DA is the answer for One Future, One Nation imbedded in freedom, fairness, opportunity and diversity for all the people of South Africa. I thank you. [Applause.]


Ms B TUNYISWA (Eastern Cape): Hon Chairperson of the NCOP, Deputy Chairperson of the NCOP, Minister of Communications, MECs present, members of the NCOP, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, ...


IsiXhosa:

... molweni,


SeSotho:

... dumelang.


English:

The Eastern Cape Province is pleased to be among those who have been given time to participate in remembering Mandela and Albertina Sisulu - celebrating the life and times of two great giants of our liberation, as captured by the theme of this debate. The former President Mandela and the former National Assembly member, Mama Sisulu the nominator of the first Democratic President, are indeed examples of cadres, who dedicated their entire lives to the
 

 


liberation of humankind against the legacy of the past as was characterised by discrimination, exploitation, oppression and suppression of the majority of many people in particular the Africans.


As South Africans, we must regard ourselves as indeed privileged and honoured to once have the likes of the two great giants of our liberation struggle during our lifetime. The contribution of Tata Mandela and MaSisulu did not only ended up while there were still fighting for the liberation struggle, but we also had them in the first administration of the democratic government that took over the agenda of having a better South Africa, as we strive for a better life for all South Africans regardless of race, gender and class.
The two great giants even nurtured many of us as we took the running of the transformational agenda in the state institutions.


IsiXhosa:

Ndiyacinga ke Sihlalo ukuba kubalulekile ukubane sikhumbuzana ngale nto ithi uMama Sisulu...


English:

... was the voice of many women in South Africa...
 

 


IsiXhosa:

...aba mama sasisithi bazalela ezintolongweni.


English:

She represented those women. Among the theoretical work that was produced by Karl Marx in recognition of the life-well lived by a human being, he said:


If we have chosen the position in life in which we can most of all work for mankind, no burdens can bow us down, because happiness will belong to millions, our deeds will live on quietly but perpetually at work, and over our ashes will be shed the hot tears of noble people.


This above reflection of the views by Marx has certainly captured the true examples of the life well spent by these two leaders of our time. It is without a doubt that there is a lot already done in our transformational agenda oriented towards the achievement of the better life for all. This acknowledgement does not, in anyway, try to signify that there are no challenges confronted as we implement the transformational agenda and still other outstanding as we deliver the goods and services to the poorest of the poor and the working class.
 

 


We are, of course, mindful that our exercising of government authority must always be revolutionary orientated and further avoid the temptations of being complacent, ignorant and, indeed, caught wanting. The ANC-led government is always vigilant and always trying by all means to respond to the needs of our people. We are inspired by the wise words of one of our extraordinary liberation fighter and leader former ANC President Comrade O R Tambo when he said that “the fight for freedom must go on until it is won; until our country is free and happy and peaceful as part of the community of man, we cannot rest.”


IsiXhosa:

Kule veki iphelileyo besinengxoxo-mpikiswano phaya eMatatiele namakhosikazi. Le ngxoxo-mpikiswano ibingokubhiyozela ubomi buka Tata Nelson Mandela noMama Sisulu kwaye ibibanjelwe kwezona lali noomama bala ngingqi. Besifuna ukuqiniseka ukuba njengokuba sibhiyozela obumi bala maqhawe ingaba nabantu baseMatatiele banathi kusini na ekubhiyozeleni ubomi bala maqhawe. Siye savumelana ukuba nabo banazo izizathu zokuba babhiyoze. Bathe bona...


English:

... reasons to celebrate uTata Mandela, they can also confirm that in our province there is stability. We continue to be responsible in
 

 


our daily actions through the Operation Masiphathisane campaign, which have war rooms as the core foundation. In our province, we are committed to the provincial development plan, which constitute Vision 2030. It is in our province where 71,7% of Grade 1 learners have been exposed to Grade R early childhood development, ECD.


IsiXhosa:

Zange ke thina sifunde ekhritshi, ngabantwana bangoku aba banyuse inani kangaka ukuze bafakwe kwii-ECD centres.


English:

It is in our province where the education is state funded in quintile 1-3 public schools; 1,6 million learners are benefiting to nutrition.


IsiXhosa:

Aba ngabantu abangoomama eMatatiele bexoxa kuvunyelwana ngezi zinto.


English:

The province has begun to roll out broadband connectivity across the provincial government sites and facilities. For instance, at Cecilia Makiwane Hospital, Nelson Mandela Academic Hospital and Mbashe Community Health Centre are among already connected sites. Our
 

 


province, government is transporting 80 595 learners from 751 schools across the province.


IsiXhosa:

Ayikho enye indawo enamanani amakhulu kangaka abantwana nezikolo.


English:

The tertiary education is state funded and all households who earned an income of up to R350 000 combined qualifies for 2018. This initiative applies to all those doing first year, this 2018 ...


IsiXhosa:

... ngenxa yokuba lelinye lamaphondo ahluphekileyo elathi lalwa iimfazwe ezimalunga nesithandathu ngexesha lobukoloniyali esithe sazifumana sikubo. Ukuhluthelwa umhlaba nokuthathwa kwemfuyo ngamaNgesi kwashiya abantu baseMpuma Koloni bezimpula zikaLujaca. Yiyo le nto sisithi bathe bakuyibona le ngxelo nabo bangqina ukuba ezi zinto ziyenzeka.


English:

There is road maintenance and upgrade of many roads in the province; for instance, R61 between Mzamba and Mbizana, R61 between Mthatha and Ngcobo, R56 between Maclear and Ugie, Elliot and Indwe just to
 

name a few. So, as part of a national programme on poverty alleviation, the provincial government continues to honour the delivering of social grants to millions of our people.


IsiXhosa:

Xa sinika le ngxelo kuMama noTata uMandela siqinisekile ukuba nokuba besingxoliswa kakhulu ngoogxa bam abasekunxele, esizilungisayo njengokuba sithetha nje, kujike izinto ezininzi emva kweNkomfa ye- ANC yama-54 kubonakale kujika izinto ngenxa yokuzinikezela kukaMongameli we-ANC nokwangowelizwe, ethethe kwacaca.


Iikomishoni eziphicotha urhwaphilizo zihleli njengokuba sithetha nje ziqubisana nezinto ezinento yokwenza norhwaphilizo. Akukho lungu le- ANC elingayixhasiyo loo nto ukuba ngaba lilungu le-ANC. Ndifuna ukuqiniseka ukuba ngala mazwi sibulela ithuba esilinikiweyo lokuba sixoxe ngobomi bukaMama uSisulu, sinethemba lokuba siza kuqhubekeka ngeenkqubo eziza kushiya ilifa phakathi kwabo bobani. Enkosi kakhulu.


Dr Y C VAWDA: Chairperson, I acknowledge the presence of our supreme forces and I greet all of you with As-Salaam-Alaikum [Peace be with you]. Hon Minister, hon members, guests in the gallery and the people of this country, lend me your ears. I am indeed here today
 

 


praise Nelson Mandela and Albertina Sisulu as well. I am also here to bury the ANC-led government of this day and to help bury you.


We are here today to celebrate the lives and times of Nelson Mandela and Albertina Sisulu. Both were products of social and historical conditions of their time. In celebrating their lives, all that they struggled for and all they achieved, it is important to understand the world that moulded them.


In 1918, the year of their birth, it had been five years since the passing of the 1913 Natives Land Act. The Natives Land Act was the most significant piece of legislation in the dispossession of the land of the majority people in this country by the minority. It consolidated centuries of war and conquest, where European settlers had dispossessed the people of their land - of course, with that last of these battles been fought by Chief Bambatha in the first decade of the 20th century.


The Natives Land Act confined the majority of South Africans to only 7% of the country, while tile white minority were allocated 93%. The oppression, inequality, exploitation, poverty and unemployment that resulted from the dispossession of this land was the reality of the times that Nelson Mandela and Albertina Sisulu grew up in. It is
 

 


what inspired them - their activism and their involvement - in the liberation in this country. Alas, 25 years into the new South Africa, very little has changed for the majority people of this country. This, indeed hon Minister, is a sad indictment on your government.


They both were prominent activists in the ANC Youth League, and both were part of the first generation of Young Lions who made their elders uncomfortable and pushed for new radical politics. This is not unlike the new kids on the block that have come to this Parliament in this fifth seating. In 1948, the predecessors of the present DA, the National Party, came into power and further entrenched the dispossession of land, its unequal distribution and the exploitation of black South Africans by the white minority.


With laws, like the Group Areas Act and many others, this only led to an intensification of resistance against white minority rule, with Nelson Mandela, Albertina Sisulu and many others playing a great part in the struggle. The decision to embark on armed struggle was informed by the continued dispossession and oppression people in this country.
 

 


Today, while we are not embarking on an armed struggle, our generation – the generation of today - like the generation of Nelson Mandela and Albertina Sisulu are ready to fulfil their generational mission. It was Madiba who once said something about:


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


We see increasing civil unrest in this country. The very people that came out onto the streets of this country in 1976, in the 1980s and again in the 1990s, to bring the political dispensation to its knees
– the very same people of this country – will come out onto the streets of this country and bring the socioeconomic dispensation to its knees.


This is something that not only us, as hon members, should take heed of, but the established structures in this country must listen very carefully. This is why I asked you to lend me your ears. This is an issue that will become increasingly prominent in this country if we do not take the necessary steps to redress the socioeconomic conditions of the people in this country.
 

 


It is why we are demanding that Section 25 of the Constitution be amended, and land be expropriated without compensation. It is why our people must continue to occupy land. As the suffering of our people is directly linked to the dispossession of land, the path to economic freedom in our lifetime is land expropriation without compensation. A hundred years ago, the dispossession of the land of our people by the white minority shaped the lives and politics of Nelson Mandela and Albertina Sisulu, and inspired a generation of freedom fighters.


Today, because of the failures of the ANC-led government, which has for the past 24 years failed to redistribute land - that very same dispossession and unequal distribution of land - is the motivational force for the existence of the EFF’s. Whatever is said here, by the ANC today, is a hollow tribute as they have abandoned the very struggle that motivated the activism of Nelson Mandela and Albertina Sisulu. The only genuine tribute, any of us here can make, is committing ourselves to the generational mission of economic freedom in our lifetime. Thank you.


Mr E MAKUE: Hon Chair of Chairs, the Chairperson of the NCOP me Modise, members of the NCOP, Minister Mokonyane, provincial MECs and delegates, ladies and gentlemen, it is truly an honour and a
 

 


humbling experience for me to pay tribute to Isitwalandwe/Seaparankoe, our President Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela.


This day, 26 June, is special as it was known for decades in the congress movement as Freedom Day. It was on this day in 1955 that delegates representing millions of our people gathered in Kliptown — where I was born — and resolved, as author Surendra Bhana writes, “to unite all democratic elements around a common programme and to consolidate the organisational forces of the liberatory movement”.


The drafting of the Freedom Charter was the culmination of years of planning and months of hard work, that led to the Congress of the People, which adopted the Freedom Charter in 1955. The charter remains our lodestar which captures a vision of the society to which millions of South Africans aspire; a society in which there is social and economic justice, with the Bill of Rights in our Constitution as entrenched in law. The ANC and our nonracial, democratic government are progressively striving to make these ideals a reality.


Those who fought against racism, colonialism and apartheid with Madiba, described him as a majestic man in stature who towered above his contemporaries; yet, he was a gentle giant who loved humanity.
 

 


In his own words, he was not a saint but a revolutionary. Our Madiba was not a liberal. In his tribute to Madiba our late former President, the hon Kofi Annan, a global icon in his own right and one of the African Elders, wrote:


The world has lost a visionary leader, a courageous voice for justice, and a clear moral compass. By showing us that the path to freedom and human dignity lies in love, wisdom and compassion for one another, Nelson Mandela stands as an inspiration to us all.


Our revolutionary movement, the ANC, and our people, produced a statesman who was a moral compass to the whole world. He inspired us to fight against the scourge of racial, class and gender oppression. Our President Mandela always reminded us never to forget our terrible past. However, he also cautioned us not to hold on to that memory as a means to keep us shackled to the past, but rather as a reminder of how far we have come and how much we have achieved.
Through his life, leadership and actions he taught us the importance of reconciliation.


His wise words resonate today as the world is witnessing the re- emergence of fortified and militarised borders. As people are
 

 


retreating, even in South Africa, into backward tendencies of racial exceptionalism and chauvinism, we cannot be silent.


As we all know, Madiba was never shy to speak out on any issue, anywhere in the world. He would certainly speak out against the inhumane events we have witnessed at the border of the USA with Mexico, where children of immigrants who are trying to enter that country are separated from their parents and locked in cages.


He would condemn the almost daily massacres perpetrated by the Israeli defence forces against unarmed Palestinian civilians on the Gaza border and in other parts of the Israeli occupied territories in Palestine.


President Mandela hated injustices in this country and everywhere else in the world. He would not keep quiet about violence and abuse against women and children in our country, on our continent and in the world.


Madiba, in the tradition of the founding leaders of the ANC, encouraged all religious leaders of our country to work together in the search for peace with justice. This resulted in the establishment of the National Religious Leaders Forum, bringing
 

 


together six of the major faith communities in South Africa. Nobody was able to say with any certainty what religion Madiba adhered to because he respected all religions and all people.


It is thus a fitting honour that this House, in which President Mandela made some of his most outstanding speeches, should pay tribute to him in the manner we are doing today. In one of these speeches, Madiba reminded us of the purpose for which we have been elected as representatives of the people:


Central to the national consensus to which we aspire is the recognition that the standard by which government's policies and programmes are to be measured is the extent to which they help improve the lives of our people, especially the most vulnerable and poor sections of our society. And flowing from this is the imperative of sustained growth for reconstruction and development.


As a freedom fighter, President Mandela was always in the forefront of volunteers who dared to take on the most dangerous tasks. From the Defiance Campaign in 1952, we still have the image of a smiling young Nelson Mandela burning his pass book. He was among the first people who convinced the national executive committee, NEC, of the
 

 


ANC to adopt the armed struggle and he himself went abroad for military training.


Through his courage and bravery, Madiba always sought to inspire the oppressed people. Who can forget the images of our hero when he strode magnificently as he entered an apartheid court in 1962 to begin a trial, wearing his traditional AbaThembu royal costume of leopard skin and beautiful beadwork?


We have made great strides to ensure that the demand of the Freedom Charter, that: “All shall be equal before the law" is achieved, because Madiba knew what it was to be a prisoner. He knew what it was to stand in an apartheid court.


We ought to be proud that we now have a much more representative, respected and legitimate judiciary that reflects the demographics of our democratic country and its globally renowned constitutional democracy.


We have begun a new chapter of accelerating land reform through the debate on the expropriation of land without compensation. Addressing the land question and making quality health care accessible to all our people will surely hit the pockets of the profiteers that have
 

 


made a fortune out of the misery visited on our people as a result of the legacy of decades of segregation and exploitation that President Mandela fought against.


The ANC and all our revolutionary alliance partners shall not allow demagoguery, opportunism and emerging trends of fascism to bruise our Madiba's legacy. We know too well that the very delicate political and socioeconomic transformation that Madiba lived and struggled for requires ingenuity and not populism.


We are proud that our country is ably led by one of the architects of the Constitution, President Cyril Ramaphosa, who worked closely with Madiba during the transition from apartheid. In this year’s state of the nation address, he stated that, “In celebrating the centenary of Nelson Mandela we are not merely honouring the past, we are building the future".


The President has called on all South Africans to work towards a social compact to grow our economy, to reduce poverty and inequality and to create jobs. The ANC is ready to heed the call in honour of uTata and many other revolutionary icons. I thank you, Chair. [Applause.]
 

 


Ms M A MOKABA-PHUKWANA (Limpopo): Hon Chairperson, history has taught us that the popular modus operandi of slave’s master is to brainwash and deface the oppressed so that the master is viewed as most powerful. The master is God’s creation, intelligent, beautiful and his voice is omnipotent. His heroes and heroines are preserved, remembered and celebrated. The wealth and lavish living belongs to the master and his children. The slave, the black man is an animal, uncivilised, a criminal who belongs in jail. An African cannot govern himself and for him to govern he must listen to his master’s voice. When that occurs, he is regarded as co-operative, intelligent, smart, progressive and developmental and his country’s financial ratings are upbraided.


In our own country the master owns the medium of influence and will tell you who is your hero and heroines, who must be remembered and celebrated and who must be ignored. Those who ignore his master’s voice will be criticised and thrown into the black hole and rot in jail. When a former terrorist and ex-prisoner became a national president, he was recognised and heroshipped by the prisoner and the world. The master applauded him as clever and progressive. Was it because he negotiated in good faith at the Convention for a Democratic South Africa, Codesa, unaware that the master had a grand
 

 


plan and negotiated in bad faith to retain the status quo and protect his ill-gotten wealth?


Hon Minister, the Chairperson, members of the portfolio and members of the executive council, MECs, present here good afternoon. We are truly honoured as Limpopo to participate in this important debate on the life and times of President Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela and Mama Nontsikelelo Albertina Sisulu. Both our struggle stalwarts, Nontsikelelo and Rolihlahla were born on 18 July and 21 October 1918 respectably and would be turning 100 years this year. The month of June is the period during which we celebrate our youth and pay tribute to the courageous and selfless class of 1976. Next month on
18 July we will be celebrating the birthday of the co-founder and the first commander-in-chief of the armed wing of the African National Congress. Addressing the National Conference of uMkhonto weSizwe on 3 September 1993, uTata Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela said:


Together we have travelled a long and difficult road to freedom and even though we have come a long way we have in no way reached our destination, in fact if we are not vigilant the end point may be much further than we would like to think it actually is.
 

 


The message is still resonates the truth to date. Former comrades and ex-combatants are being divided by the master sitting somewhere. Money and wealth is used to divide and destroy our hard earned liberation. Trumped up charges are used against each other to diminish and assault our heroes and heroines’ characters. The socialism we fought for and endorsed through our Reconstruction and Development Program was replaced by the master’s program that perpetuated inequality. The Political Analyst, Lukhona Mnguni, at the recent South African Property Association meeting in Durban said that the country needs a disruption of the elites and said:


The elites in this country are too one-minded in their thinking. All they want is a stable rand and growth in the gross domestic product. Then they can make money. We need elites who are not money-driven.


Tata Madiba taught us that overcoming poverty is not a gesture of charity. It is an act of justice. It is the protection of fundamental human rights, the right to dignity and a decent life to all South Africans. I’m certain that the new dawn will redress the inequality in this country. We need to review our implementable policies that favour the erstwhile owners of capital, the elites and illegal immigrates.
 

 


Our dialogue should move from revenge and persecution of each other on how to make South Africans best to the benefit of all. As parliamentarians we should seek ways to bridge the gap between the elites and the unprivileged, the rich and the poor. Do we have to wait until the masses demand equality through protests such as #fees-must-fall campaigns? The eminent implementation of the National Health Insurance and the amendment to the Medical Aids Act gives us hope. The roadshows on how the issues of land and control of our natural resources gives us hope.


uMama Sisulu’s passionate and love for the fellow countrymen is illustrated in an interview with Los Angeles Times when she was asked why is she still in the township and she responded by saying that: “We belong to the people. This is our work. And it is better for us to be in their reach”. The economy of South Africa is the second largest in Africa, after Nigeria. It is one of the most industrialised countries in Africa. The country is an upper-middle- income economy according to the World Bank — one of only four such countries in Africa alongside Botswana, Gabon and Mauritius. The nation is amongst the G20 and is the only African member of the group.
 

 


Therefore, there is no way we can fail to improve the lives of our people. Our social safety nets should be broadening to benefit our people. This country is capable of taking care of its entire citizen equitably. Some countries employ wealth taxes to redistribute wealth and bridge the widening gab between the rich and the poor. The National Treasury needs to look into wealth tax together with much talked about lifestyle audit. In places where wealth is not taxed, like South Africa, there are no national records of wealth that an individual owns. People are getting away with murder, using their wealth to entrench inequality and retain the status quo.


To my colleagues, family and citizens who still do not see what is happening in our beloved country, allow me to quote Mr Nelson Mandela in his inaugural speech as President of our beloved land in 1994, when he said:


Never, never and never again shall it be that this beautiful land will again experience the oppression of one by another and suffer the indignity of being the skunk of the world.


The ruling party, the ANC, and our government should be commended for moving towards the right directions - commended also for declaring 2018 the year of President Nelson Mandela and uMama
 

 


Sisulu. In closing, I’m convinced that uTata Madiba and uMama Nontsikelelo Albertina Sisulu and our great heroes and heroines will punish us if we fail in this House to redistribute wealth and honestly empower all South Africans. I thank you. [Applause.]


Mr A FRITZ: Thank you, Chair. [Laughter.] This member reminds me of the Cape Flats and the gangs. Actually, it excites me.


Hon Chair, Minister Mokonyane, all the MECs in the House, Chairperson of the NCOP, hon Modise, all hon members of the House. Chair, it really gives me an incredible honour to take part in this debate.


As a youngster in the 1973, I remember the Black Consciousness Movement years of 1973 and the 1976 uprisings, and the UDF and the trade union movement time during the 1980s. During that time the personas of Tata Nelson Mandela and Ma Albertina Sisulu loomed large in my political consciousness and that of my peers.


Remember, Robben Island was just across the road from us. We were here in Cape Town - I am a Cape Town boy. I’m from District Six. Our political heroes were right across there at the time.
 

 


It is therefore a great honour and pleasure to share with the members of this House my reflections on the enormous contributions of these two giants in the centenary of their births.


Ma Albertina Sisulu was the President of the UDF in a period where hundreds of activists like me committed our days and nights to building and expanding the “Release Mandela Campaign” at the time.


Even though Tata Mandela was still in prison, his moral and political influence was already pervasive and Ma Sisulu already then conducted herself with the quiet dignity, resolve, humility and courage that defined her as a person and as a leader.


It is indisputable Chair that today the influence and moral leadership of these two icons represent a set of values that all of us can acknowledge because it transcends narrow political boundaries and allegiances. Their values go far beyond little narrow political nonsense that we sometimes get involved in.


When I therefore say that I recognize and honour Ma Sisulu and Tata Mandela as my leaders, I do so because I recognize and value their contribution to the development of this new national consensus based on the values of nonracialism, nation-building and reconstruction.
 

 


Not values that people of today call – we thought we are out of apartheid and they still call you a coloured, today. I thought I’m a South African and a human being.


With the immense challenges facing our country I often hear the question, “what could Ma Sisulu have done?” or “what could Tata Mandela have said?”


However, nobody can dispute that their responses and actions would be in line with the furthering the interests and the wellbeing of all the people of this country – all; not only this group or that group, everyone in this country.


House Chair, when reflecting on the roles played by these two icons in the building of a nonracial social society, we can see important parallels in their approach.


Ma Sisulu led the UDF during a period when it strove to unite the broadest range of our people in opposing the apartheid regime at the time. She epitomized the slogan of “Apartheid divides and the UDF unites.” That was a potent slogan, not like today where we are dividing our own people because you are this or that.
 

 


In the same breathe I don‘t think many of us quite realize how fortunate we were to have Tata Nelson Mandela as our President during the turbulent years leading up to our first democratic elections in 1994 and in the ensuing period thereafter. We know what happened to the period leading up.


Together, as national leaders, both Ma Sisulu and Madiba understood the need to ensure that all of our people found a place and value in this new democracy.


We didn’t need to send our children to learn up in China while they should have stayed here in this country. This is why we in the DA, are playing our part to build this nation, and carry on these values where we govern.


Hon Chair, at no point in our history are those cardinal lessons more apt than today. We face a situation where the very values of Tata Mandela and Ma Sisulu of nonracialism, nonsexism, freedom, fairness, opportunity and diversity are being undermined by political and financial rent-seekers driven by short-term gains.
 

 


So, hon Chair, in a time when we need to focus on those things that unite us as a nation, there are too many of us who strive to build and exploit those things that divide us.


I must say that the utterances to call certain groups of people and in this case the Indians “racist”, is unfortunate. I want to say it is unfortunate at the time when we need to unite.


Hon Chair, how much progress have we made in ensuring every citizen is afforded the opportunity to use the hard won freedoms Madiba and Ma Sisulu sacrificed for so much?


Hon Chair, the legacy of Madiba and Ma Sisulu teaches us that more effort should be paid to harnessing the energy, the ideas and power of the whole of society - participation in land reform and other issues. It also doesn’t mean entrenching a system of state dependency underpinned by massive corruption, cronyism and theft.


A whole of society approach means that we recognize, mobilise and channel the inherent power of all our people and institutions as agents for fundamental change, irrespective of race, class, gender and belief systems.
 

 


I heard Marx was quoted here. It was quite interesting because you know - my friend there will tell you, I have lectured that for a long time at the University.


That is the DA way, and indeed that was Madiba and Sisulu’s way in enhancing of class and gender among a racial society. The whole of society approach is a dynamic and positive partnership between the people, the state and all social institutions.


To honour the legacy of Tata Mandela and Ma Sisulu means harnessing the collective agency, energy, patriotism and commitment of the private sector, the NGOs, the religious formations, the academic institutions, and most importantly individuals in our communities. I so happy my friend concurred with me on that point.


It is the DA, and only the DA, that is focused on working with South Africans from all walks of life to see each other as equals. In this regard, we are continuing the work of Tata Mandela, Albertina Sisulu, Helen Suzman and other stalwarts of our march to freedom.


We in the DA-run Western Cape government have embraced the whole- of-society approach. So, I suppose I’ll leave you all with this simple question; will you join us?
 

 


When I think of the day of the legacy, I cannot hold but also think of the legacy of Ahmed Kathrada, who played an amazing role, and he was surely not a racist. I thank you. [Applause.]


Dr H E MATEME: House Chairperson, hon Madam Minister Mokonyane, MECs present here, our one and only Chairperson of the Council, please allow me – without being mandated – on behalf of this House, to express our heartfelt condolences to our one and only Council Chair and her family on losing a gallant member, Ntate Modise. For sure, outside, in the length and breadth of this country, flags are flying half mast. I felt this is an event that must be part of the records of this House.


Having said this, today I would like to be biased. [Interjections.] My bias is in the sense that I am going to focus largely on Ma’ Sisulu, and I would like to urge members of this august House that the dignity of this debate in this House today does not allow for political point-scoring. We have enough time to do that. Today, we are honouring South Africans that have contributed very significantly to the betterment of the lives of all of us in this country.
 

 


This year marks the centenary of the birth of Mama Albertina Nontsikelelo – which means “blessing” – Sisulu, a fearless leader of the anti-apartheid resistance and a courageous revolutionary who spent her entire life in the service of the people of South Africa. Allow me to take this moment to pay homage and tribute to the lifelong, indelible contribution that Ma’ Sisulu made to the struggle for freedom and the liberation of our people. Mama Sisulu lived a life epitomised in The Pleasure of Serving, a poem by Gabriela Mistral, a Chilean poet, diplomat, educator and humanist who became the first Latin-American author to receive a Nobel Prize in Literature for her lyric poetry. She says:


Where there is a tree to plant, you be the one. Where there is a mistake to undo, let it be you.


You be the one to remove the rock from the field, The hate from human hearts ...


... the suffering from the people ...


And the difficulties from the problem.
 

 


Mama Sisulu was a living embodiment of the life depicted by Gabriela Mistral. Where there was a tree to plant, she planted it. Where there was a mistake to undo, she was the one who corrected it through the purposeful life she led. We all know that it is from the house of Ma’ Sisulu that we, the revolutionaries, learned the art of humility, embodied in the phrase that there are times when you must retreat in order to advance.


Ma’ Sisulu was the only woman to attend the launch of the ANC Youth League conference in 1943 and would later join and assume leadership roles in the ANC Women’s League when it was formed in 1948. She was key to its formation, having served on the committee that established the ANC Women’s League. Championing the struggle against apartheid in South Africa, Ma’ Sisulu was undoubtedly one of the most accomplished and courageous women leaders of her time. She fought tirelessly to break the disempowering gender divide in our society and contributed through her entire life to the noble fight against racial segregation, class exploitation, and gender inequalities.


Ma’ Sisulu is one of our heroines who will be remembered for her courageous contribution and who suffered immensely without ever flinching. In the days that followed the Rivonia Trial, she was one
 

 


of the key links between the internal and external movement and kept the fires of resistance alive. The long and difficult struggle in South Africa has produced many leaders who have displayed great courage and determination in the face of adversity. Amongst them, Ma’ Sisulu has a special place of honour in her own right.


Ma’ Sisulu had been at the forefront of the struggle for almost half a century and suffered harsh and ruthless persecution by the racist regime, a series of imprisonments, as well as the anguish of a mother whose children were frequently detained with no form of communication. She refused to be intimidated and never wavered in her commitment to the struggle for the attainment of a national democratic society. Ma’ Sisulu became a living symbol, not only of the spirit of the liberation movement but of the crucial role that women play in society. She continues to be honoured by her status of being a very, very special mother. Remember, she was the president of the United Democratic Front. A position held by a woman: We didn’t succeed in repeating that. In 1983, whilst facing imprisonment, she was elected as one of the co-presidents of the United Democratic Front, the largest democratic organisation in the country, with more than 600 organisations affiliated to it at that time.
 

 


The 1950s was a decade of political unrest and upheaval. Ma’ Sisulu was elected national president of the multiracial Federation of South African Women when it was formed in 1954 and led it with dignity and humility. She became the national treasurer of the Women’s League in 1959. She was one of the leaders of the campaign to boycott Bantu education, which was imposed on African children in 1954. During this time, alternative classes were held at her home until they were prohibited by the law. She was one of the leaders of the national demonstration of the 20 000 in the Women’s March to the Union Buildings on 9 August 1956, leading to the protest against the extension of pass laws to African women. She was imprisoned after having led the women’s demonstrations against the pass laws in Johannesburg in 1958. She recalled how she was imprisoned and separated from her 10-month-old daughter, Nonkululeko:


I had to be in goal for three full weeks without the baby, and I was so sick – my breasts were swollen because I was breastfeeding. I didn’t mind that because it was part of the struggle.


In 1963, Mama Sisulu was detained and held in solitary confinement for several weeks. As soon as she was released, she resumed leadership in the demonstrations against the trials of the Rivonia
 

 


leadership. Soon after her husband was sentenced to life imprisonment in 1964, Ma’ Sisulu was served with a five-year banning order, barring her from attending any gatherings of more than two persons, confining her to her location, and preventing her from any political activities. She had to struggle hard to support her family, working as a nurse and knitting some clothes. In 1969, she was served with another five-year banning order, this time confining her to her home at nights and over weekends. A third five-year banning order confined her to home even on public holidays. In 1979, she received a two-year banning order without house arrest.


Despite the trials and tribulations Mama Sisulu endured, she sought no pity. She told the press in one of the brief intervals between banning orders the following:


Although politics has given me a rough life, there is absolutely nothing I regret about what I have done and what has happened to me and my family throughout all these years. Instead, I have been strengthened and feel more of a woman than I would otherwise have felt if my life was different.


After the unbanning of the ANC in 1990, Mam’ Sisulu was elected to the ANC’s national executive committee in 1991. Her selfless and
 

 


unwavering commitment to the women’s struggle is discernable in the various positions she held both in the ANC and its Women’s League.


In conclusion, Mama Sisulu is nothing less than a heroine and deserves nothing less than our commemorating her history and her efforts that helped us get to where we are today. These centenary commemorations are important, not only to celebrate the achievements of Ma’ Sisulu but also to mobilise women in the country, women on the continent, and women who are part of the diaspora to focus their collective efforts.


In the words of the former liberation leader of Burkina Faso, Thomas Sankara:


The revolution and women’s liberation go together. We do not talk of women’s emancipation as an act of charity or out of a surge of human compassion. It is a basic necessity for the revolution to triumph.


Thus, the national democratic revolution cannot be realised in the absence of women – women who must be at the forefront of advancing the struggle. Therefore, in honour of this gallant heroine of the
 

 


soil, let us condemn in the strongest possible words violence against women and children. I thank you, Chairperson. [Applause.]


Mr L B GAEHLER: Chairperson, we are in the fifth year, and we are without the founding father of our democracy, tata Mandela, for a full seven years. We are also without our mother, Albertina Sisulu. As we remember and celebrate the lives and legacies of these two giants, we should all take stock and consider some of the lessons we can distil from their leadership.


Their leadership remains highly relevant for leaders at all levels of our life and society, at large. Their passing represents a very sad moment for our country, the continent and the world. South Africa, in particular, has lost leaders whose wisdom, guidance, commitment and true love for people are missed.


They were a generation of freedom fighters with a rare quality, who collectively and diversely made a significant contribution to and sacrifice for the freedom of our people. When they departed, their departure posed a very important question to all of us remaining behind. The question is: What will we do individually and collectively to ensure that South Africa becomes a united nation
 

 


where poverty, unemployment and inequality are things of the past? The question is more relevant today than before.


South Africa remains a country with a large number of people who go to bed on empty stomachs, who have no access to basic health, who have a crippling education system. Many young people have no prospect of employment. Violence against women and children is on the rise, as well as dangerous lawlessness. Yes, as we speak, a child of six years old is being buried in Mitchells Plain, Stacey Adams, who was raped and killed.


As we remember the sons and daughters of the nation, who always kept their eyes on the ball, we must check what we have to do to sustain their great legacy, so that we do not betray what their generation had sacrificed.


Accordingly, the strategic, fundamental question we must consider is whether we have quality leadership ready to emulate that of Madiba and mama Sisulu. The issue of quality of leadership is very important because the country is confronted with complex challenges and the task of transforming South Africa, to improve the lives of our people.
 

 


These giants never confused leadership with position. For them, leadership was behavioural and not positional. Their leadership was defined by titles. They were united. They never had their hands in the kitty, but today, greed is the order of the day.


Madiba’s Ministers had a rare quality. They never appeared in newspapers. Yes, today, we say that it is liberal papers that ... [Inaudible.] ... corruption, but in those days, you never or seldom saw a Minister or director-general appearing in papers regarding corruption. That was the type of leadership that we then had.


As the UDM remembers and celebrates these exceptional leaders of that period, we must without failure, provide the quality of leadership that is equal to the task of fighting poverty, unemployment, inequality and the cancer of corruption. We must never fail Madiba and mama Sisulu. This is the question that the leadership must answer. The cancer of corruption is killing us. I thank you.


Mr F ESSACK: Chairperson and fellow South Africans, I am indeed humbled to have been given this opportunity by the Democratic Alliance to participate in this debate. Allow me to quote the legendary Martin Luther King, who said and I quote:
 

 


We need leaders not in love with money but in love with justice. Not in love with publicity but in love with humanity.


As legislators, we desperately need to understand how leadership relates to democracy. Tata Madiba and mama Sisulu were legendary examples of this. Their visions for a united nation, living together as a society with pride and honour in peace, security and prosperity for all is further enshrined in our Constitution. We dare not forget the likes of Mahatma Gandhi and Mother Teresa who like Madiba and mama Sisulu endured ruthless difficulties and sacrificed relentlessly to make this world a better place.


Having grown up under the apartheid regime, I can fully comprehend and understand the sacrifices that were made by these legendary figures. Very sadly, many legislators and leaders have lost the plot. A perfect example is Cathy Dlamini.


HOUSE CHAIRPERSON (Mr A J Nyambi): Hon Essack, it will always be in order for you to refer to the hon member appropriately.


Mr F ESSACK: Hon Cathy Dlamini has lost the plot. Sadly, many legislators and leaders have lost the plot, again, like hon Cathy Dlamini.
 

 


After 24 years of democracy, we continue to destroy the fabric of our society and this beautiful nation. We continue to divide and destroy what so many had aspired to. Mama Sisulu was President of the World Peace Council. I ask, are South Africa and its people at peace? We are 24 years into our democracy and there are too many children suffering from malnutrition, going hungry everyday.


The Freedom Charter calls for, amongst other lofty ideals, the people to share in the country’s wealth, hon Minister, as you said in your opening remarks. This, my fellow South Africans means nothing if you measure the country’s horrific economic indicators such as the disastrous unemployment levels, while “the people” referred to by the Charter continue to suffer under poverty with some 55% living under the poverty line. I ask again sincerely, is this what tata Madiba and mama Sisulu had sacrificed so much for? The only people having anything to share currently in this country are the populists and undoubtedly, the corrupt politicians, together with their connected cronies.


In conclusion, to employers, and administrations of this country, which play a vital role in addressing racism and aiding the reconciliation process, we cannot continue living in a hostile state
 

 


with strikes, violent protests, destruction of schools and infrastructure.


As politicians, we urgently need to exude hope in the true tradition of our kinsmen, Albertina Sisulu and the legendary President Mandela, in order to finally build one South Africa for all. Thank you. [Applause.]


Mr S J MOHAI: Hon House Chair, hon Chairperson of the NCOP, Mme Thandi Modise; hon Minister of Communications, Comrade Nomvula Mokonyane; distinguished special delegates; MECs; fellow comrades and compatriots; today the eyes of millions of South Africans and the global community are surely cast on this debate with great sense of expectation not only to hear about the story of these two titans of our struggle, Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela and Mama Albertina Sisulu but most importantly, how our generation lives true to their legacy. Accordingly, this debate coincides with the month of youth which compels us to respond to the burning question: Can our footprints inspire the present generation of youth to claim the legacy of Nelson Mandela and Albertina Sisulu as their own in the 21st century?
 

 


We raise this fundamental question not in abstract and historical terms but because the story of the 20th century is the story of the youth rising in collective action as the architects of their own future. The founding conference of the ANC in 1912 was the political coming of age of the generation of John Langalibalele Dube, Pixley ka Isaka Seme, and many others to respond to the burning question of their times.


This generation left the baton to the generation of Walter Sisulu, Govan Mbeki, Nelson Mandela, Albertina Sisulu, Oliver Tambo and many others who later founded the ANC Youth League. As Frantz Fanon proclaims: “Each generation must discover its mission, fulfil or betray it in relative obscurity.” We must add that no generation can discover and fulfil its mission under the conditions of its own choice, as Karl Marx quipped.


To determine the extent to which we are true to the legacy of Mandela and Albertina Sisulu, and whether our youth will proclaim the legacy as their own, the starting point should therefore be the analogy of the historical epoch of these two titans of our struggle and our own epoch. We do this not out of natural affinity for idle political rhetoric but because the laws of change demand a sense of appreciation of the connection between the past, the present and the
 

 


future. As Pallo Jordan put it in one of his seminal treatises on leadership:


To grow and develop, a political formation must maintain a balance between continuity and the necessity for change. Its organisational culture should permit sufficient political space for new initiatives, ideas and strategies to percolate, keeping it vibrant and alive. The art of leadership entails successfully managing the tension between continuity and change, and the mismanagement of this often causes movements to collapse.


This brings into sharp focus three interrelated fundamental questions that the debate must confront if it has to have a meaning to our people, namely; what values and norms have shaped Nelson Mandela and Albertina Sisulu we know – and I must concede that the Chair of the NCOP, the Minister and others have also highlighted this very critically - under what historical circumstances have these values and norms evolved, and what is their relevance to the present realities facing the youth of our country?


The Mandela generation is a generation that emerged during the global transition from capitalism, free competition towards global
 

 


monopoly capitalism characterised by the global competition for cheap labour, financial and commodity markets amongst the super powers. This gave rise to the colonial conquest of parts of Asia, Africa and Latin America which precipitated the emergence of the anticolonial struggles by the colonised indigenous peoples. In the South African context, the system of white minority domination was institutionalised through disenfranchisement, land dispossession and super exploitation of the indigenous African majority.


The inhuman suffering of the indigenous African masses inspired immense sense of solidarity, love for education and freedom amongst the successive generations of young South Africans. This translated into organisational and political resilience which evolved and matured into a full scale liberation struggle that took the settler white minority regime toe to toe. We must emphasise that this was not a walk in the park but life and death struggle for the restoration of the human dignity of the dispossessed Africans under the banner of the ANC.


The 1955 Peoples’ Congress in Kliptown was the greatest assembly of the legitimate representatives of our people, men, women, youth, workers, religious leaders, traditional leaders and intellectuals of different political persuasions from the rural and urban centres of
 

 


our country. This marked a critical watershed in the evolution of the vision of a free, nonracial, nonsexist and democratic society we all aspire to build today. We owe this to the generation of Nelson Mandela and Albertina Sisulu, and the subsequent generations of young people who responded to the clarion call of the 1955 People’s Congress which proclaimed, among others:


And therefore we, the people of South Africa, black and white together as equals, countrymen and brothers — adopt this Freedom Charter. And we pledge ourselves to strive together sparing neither strength nor courage, until the democratic changes here set out have been won.


The clarion call inspired courage of conviction among our people that, through collective action shall born a free, nonracial, nonsexist, democratic and united South Africa from the shambles of apartheid white minority domination. The period following the adoption of the Freedom Charter which marks 63rd anniversary today, was accompanied the upsurge of militant struggles by our people across racial, class and gender divide never seen before.


This intensification of struggle cannot be isolated from the broader global context of discontent against the deepening crisis of
 

 


capitalism, fascism and colonialism. The 1969 ANC Strategy and Tactics put it as follows:


The struggle of the oppressed people of South Africa is taking place within an international context of transition to the socialist system, of the breakdown of the colonial system as a result of national liberation and socialist revolutions, and the fight for social and economic progress by the people of the whole world.


Chairperson, it did not require Oliver Tambo to be a prophet when he assured the international community at the 1985 National Consultative Conference of the ANC that, Kabwe conference was the last of its own to be held on foreign land. This was based on the scientific analysis of the balance of forces which were qualitatively shifting in favour of the democratic forces led by the ANC. We owe this to the mass mobilisation, political underground, international solidarity and military combat that the enemy could no longer govern in its own terms. This pushed the apartheid regime to the negotiation table.


Madiba, we know, would reject with contempt any attempt to count him alone as the embodiment of these struggles outside the collective of
 

 


the leadership of the ANC, its membership and the masses of the people broadly. He articulated this in his first public address after his release from prison in 1990 at the Grand Parade in Cape Town:


Friends, comrades, and fellow South Africans, I greet you all in the name of peace, democracy, and freedom for all. I stand here before you not as a prophet but as a humble servant of you, the people. Your tireless and heroic sacrifices have made it possible for me to be here today. I therefore place the remaining years of my life in your hands.


It is for this reason that we stand here unashamedly to contend that, the history of our struggle will be incomplete if it does not have chapters dedicated to the sufferings, resilience and leadership of women in the fight against apartheid white minority domination.
The footprints of this resilience can be traced back to earlier years before the formation of the ANC Women’s League with Charlotte Maxeke and later Mama Sisulu, who were among the first – as indicated – to serve at the conference of the ANC Youth League.


Mama Sisulu suffered banishments, detentions and treason trials at the time when her family and children needed her the most. As the
 

 


President of the Transvaal United Democratic Front, she faced many house arrests, banishment and detentions during the state of emergency. She was a source of inspiration to men and women, young and old alike and a disciplined member of the ANC.


What does this rich collective heritage of the people of South Africa means to the current generation of young people, the bedrock of our future? The 21st century youth of South Africa has the future to build and claim. The first task of this youth is to jealously guard and claim the legacy of its predecessors, the generation of the 1940s and the subsequent generations. This youth is faced by complex and immense socioeconomic challenges than its predecessors, characterised by the global reorganisation of capitalist production and accumulation which continues to precipitate mass poverty, unemployment and inequalities.


The deepening inequalities, mass poverty and unemployment constitute the single most threat for the unity and cohesion of the current generation. These socioeconomic conditions promote and entrench the values of survival of the fittest which is erodes the African spirit of ubuntu and human solidarity among the youth. Gangsterism, crime and other forms of social ills that continue to pervade our society
 

 


are mostly associated with the youth as perpetrators as the means of survival.


Without a strong and visionary leadership capable of defining and leading a common national agenda towards a national democratic society based on the values of justice, equality and peace, the future of our youth is bleak. Much as the youth must define its future, society has a role to nurture and harness its energies and resourcefulness. As Moses Kotane once said:


At this hour of destiny, your country and your people need you. The future of South Africa is in your hands and it will be what you make of it.


The ANC-led government has put the aspirations of the youth at the centre of its policies and programmes for fundamental transformation. We have provided free basic education, increased access to higher education policy beginning this year. We are yet to see improvement in the lives of many young people. The ANC’s socioeconomic policy trajectory of radical socioeconomic transformation continues to open many social and economic opportunities to the majority of the youth.
 

 


We are always advised by some in this House about the vision of one nation with one future built on freedom, fairness and equal opportunities for all. This so-called vision treats the current social realities of the youth of South Africa defined by unequal historical access to opportunities as God-ordained and not an outcome of conscious social engineering by successive apartheid white minority regimes over many decades. It denies the reality that, to create equal opportunities amongst the youth, we must consciously affirm those who were marginalised and excluded from the mainstream of socioeconomic life.


In his address on the Freedom Day Celebration Rally of 2018 in Soshanguve, the leader of the Democratic Alliance, hon Mmusi Maimane broke ranks with the rapacious neoliberal orthodoxy of his party on freedom, fairness and equal opportunities for all by publicly conceding that: “White privilege and black poverty must be confronted.” Oliver Tambo told us that we must tell the truth even when it coincides with the enemy.


There is no better way to describe the proximity of Mmusi Maimane’s articulation to the ANC position than to quote the 1969 ANC Morogoro Conference Strategy and Tactics that:
 

 


In our country - more than in any other part of the oppressed world - it is inconceivable for liberation to have meaning without a return of the wealth of the land to the people as a whole. It is therefore a fundamental feature of our strategy that victory must embrace more than formal political democracy. To allow the existing economic forces to retain their interests intact is to feed the root of racial supremacy and does not represent even the shadow of liberation.


To conclude, we can differ politically as political parties around many issues but truth be told; the titans in whose names we are debating today will forever remain the moral compass of our society for many decades to come. Their lives stood in sharp contrast to greed, self-enrichment and the culture of consumerism which define the youth of the 21st century. Let s emulate their legacy for the better future.


The ANC has never concealed its failures to the public. It has always accounted for its mistakes and self-corrected. Nelson Mandela and Albertina Sisulu are not just good but represent something great. I thank you, Chair. [Applause.]
 

 


The MINISTER OF COMMUNICATIONS: Hon Chair, just for the record for members of the EFF to know: Do not refer to the people who marched in 1976 when you have the honour of being in this House with hon Chairperson of the NCOP, who is one of those who stood up in 1976. So, do not refer to those people, she is here at the age of 17, she stood up and got counted amongst those who were there. [Applause.]


Do not refer to anyone, but look at the proximity next to you.


The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON (Mr A J Nyambi): Sorry, Minister. The hon Koni, what is the point of order?


Ms N P KONI: Chairperson my point of order is: I would like you to check with the member at the podium if she will take a question? The EFF is aware she sold Mama Thandi out. We know and we know that she sold out. So, she must not come here and try to impress Mama Thandi and she is one of the people who wanted her out with Mama Winnie. We are very much aware. She must also say that on record!


The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON (Mr A J Nyambi): Hon member, no, no, you cannot be doing that. Hon Koni, hon Koni, hon Koni, you know the rules. You do not stand up. You first ask whether the speaker is ready to take a question and not to ask your question.
 

 


[Interjections.]


Can you take your seat and ascertain whether the hon Minister is ready to take a question?


The MINISTER OF COMMUNICATIONS: No.


The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON (Mr A J Nyambi): No, she is not ready. Take your seat, hon Koni. Continue hon Minister.


The MINISTER OF COMMUNICATIONS: Yes. Also take advantage of the struggles of men who are in this House and learn from them all of you hon members about how does it happen for an 18-year-old to decide to take up arms being a woman having left home and do not look anywhere further than this House, but to the hon Chair of this House, Comrade Thandi Modise. [Applause.]


Hon members, as for members of the opposition, they continue to attack the ANC just as their own forebears did when President Madiba had to come back to the podium at the Convention for a Democratic SA, Codesa, and react to Mr De Klerk and indicate the following: That you are unreliable, you are inconsistent, you make it impossible to be relied upon on this journey to reconciliation,
 

where is your plan? Stop talking about us and tell us about how you would want to take this country forward, we do commit mistakes; we take you into confidence, but do not come and assume a podium and attack the ANC. Where is your plan? [Interjections.]


Secondly, to members of this august House, in the book on the life of Mama Albertina Sisulu, Together We are Strong she says and quotes in that book that, “Women are the people who are going to relieve us from all this oppression and depression.” We need to heed that call, we need to appreciate and celebrate her journey learning also from what this government of the ANC has done, of renaming a road that is
45 km stretch from the East of Gauteng to the West of Gauteng, going through various areas of industrial developments, urban developments, informal settlements, financial institutions, institutions of learning and most importantly, next to the offices where President Nelson Mandela used to practice as an attorney. That
45 km stretch of a road is an indication of the journey that Mama Albertina Sisulu has travelled. It has never been a straight journey; it has been a journey with many obstacles and it depicts the life of the woman who was born by Bonilizwe and Monikazi Thethiwe.
 

We need to emulate her and appreciate those of us with passion to serve and emancipate this country. We will fall on the way, we must rise and take pride of the fact that we are standing on the shoulders of gentle giants like Mama Albertina Sisulu.


IsiZulu:

Ngesintu kuthiwa ikhonkotha ehambayo, emile iyayichamela.


English:

Let us celebrate the life of Mama Albertina Sisulu. We are many who are enjoying the benefits of their sacrifices, but we also know that there are cynics on the journey, but again as she herself has said as a leader of the United Democratic Front that no leader is perfect, but the leader always seeks to make sure that they improve based on their own actual lessons and unfortunately we feel pity for those who have assumed public office and have not learnt from the teachings of Mama Albertina Sisulu.


They will never come alright and they will never come straight, we feel pity for them. We honour Mama Sisulu and Nelson Mandela. Our journey to the total emancipation of the people of South Africa must also be through us calling on the young people to come out in their numbers, register to vote, give the ANC another mandate, commit to
 

working together with us for the realisation of the Vision 2030, our National Development Plan. Thank you. [Dankie.] [Ngiyabonga.] [Applause.]


Debate concluded.


The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON (Mr A J Nyambi): Thank you. Order, hon members. That concludes the business of the day. On behalf of the leadership of the NCOP led by Mme Modise, I would like to take this opportunity to thank Minister Mokonyane, the MECs from the Eastern Cape, Limpopo, Western Cape, special delegates for availing themselves for this very important debate in celebrating the life and times of two great giants of our liberation, Mme Sisulu and Ntate Madiba. Hon members, you are requested to remain standing until the procession has left the House.


The Council adjourned at 16h:57.