Ladies and gentlemen,
We meet today, heavy in the heart at the horrific and brutal loss of
life of innocent babies, children and women through domestic and sexual
violence. The scourge of this disease has taken hold in our communities
and as much as we develop interventions, programmes and campaigns to
stem this tide, we can all agree that the roots of this violence and the
notion that life is cheap, can be traced all the way back to our dark
and unjust past.

The evolution of our society has many lessons to teach. Institutional
racism and discrimination involved the rationing of resources and power
to ensure and achieve social exclusion through formally legitimated
state policies. The dispossession of black people from their land took
place over many years in our early history and largely through conquest.
But the systematic land dispossession by the state came into effect
after 1913, when 13% of the land area of South Africa were given as
reserves for the Africans and excluded them from the rest of the
country, which was made available to the white minority population.

The 1913 Land Act was instituted to ensure that more land was available
to white farmers, to impoverish and enslave black people through
dispossession and make them dependent on their white employers for
survival. This led not only to a creation of a pool of cheap labour for
the white farms and the mines but also to enforce racial segregation. By
denying the black people the right to till their own land and access
natural resources, there was the creation of cheap, black labour in the
form of farmworkers, labourers, mine and domestic workers. The
consequence of this political dispossession and economic exploitation of
black people was in a way, deprivation of their humanity (Ubuthu/Botho).
Such a deliberate act of dehumanisation by one group against another was
the most inhuman and the worst of its kind to be instituted against
human beings. The teachings of white superiority and black inferiority
doctrines and the creation of race as a mechanism for violence led to
the nurturing of violent- and crime-hardened individuals who indulged in
violence as an extreme sport or at the slightest provocation.

Sociologists believe that this led to the development of retributive
reactive attitudes among all population groups. And thus, the results of
the dehumanization process endangered everyone in South Africa.1
I refer to this dehumanization process because it pervaded and still
pervades every facet of our lives. The denial of access to markets,
infrastructure and education to those categorised as black was
apartheid’s worst contribution, but especially, the denial of quality
education.

Under your leadership, Hon President, we have a government which has
steadfastly resolved to address and redress the basic inequalities
inherited from a past ridden with racially discriminatory laws and
practices, decades of entrenched inequalities and separate development.
The five priorities you identified: economic growth and job creation,
fighting crime and corruption, education, health and rural development
and land reform are regarded by the ANC as key to transforming our
socio-economic inequities.

To restructure our society and focussing on the future you introduced,
the National Development Plan, a broad strategic framework which sets
out a coherent and holistic approach to uniting South Africa around a
common programme. As articulated in the Plan, “to build a socially
cohesive society, South Africa needs to reduce poverty and inequality by
broadening opportunity and employment through economic inclusion,
education and skills, and specific redress measures; promote mutual
respect and inclusiveness by acting on the constitutional imperative
that South Africa belongs to all who live in it, and that all are equal
before the law; and deepen appreciation of citizens’ responsibilities
and obligations towards one another.”

In so doing, the National Development Plan will draw on the energies of
all our people, grow an inclusive economy, build capabilities, enhance
the capacity of the state, and promote leadership and partnerships
throughout society.

The dehumanisation of individuals through sub-standard education is a
legacy issue. Living under institutionalised oppression, for many of us,
our humanity was taken away, we were dehumanised. Hon. President you
prioritised education, believing that education is an instrument of
liberation and is essential for our development as a nation. Through
education and social change, we become re-humanized and we can reclaim
our dignity, our voices, and our humanity.

Hon President, your Nation Building and development Strategy finds
support in renowned political thinkers. It was Ernesto Che Guevara who
stated that "Education is the property of no one; it belongs to the
people as a whole. And if education is not given to the people, they
will have to take it." Our icon, Nelson Mandela equally believed that
education was liberation and his famous words: “Education is the most
powerful weapon which you can use to change the world” is a mantra worth
repeating. Under your leadership, Hon President, we can be proud of how
far we have come and how much we have achieved.

The ANC supports your resolve to use education to empower society as a
whole, to change our mindsets and, most importantly, we support your
resolve to make education the base of every development – social,
political, economic and industrial, to enhance social justice and to
eliminate ignorance and all form of religious, cultural and political
intolerance. The ANC is fully conscious of obstacles to delivery that
your administration faces but we are satisfied with your ability to
overcome these.

We have not escaped unscathed by the global recession. Unemployment,
poverty and inequality threaten to derail our national democratic
evolution. Your administration has identified targeted outputs of job
creation; youth development and growing the economy and developed clear
proposals on the potential of all sectors of the economy to generate
substantial jobs, empowerment of the youth and effective monitoring of
all the targets that have been set. Your infrastructure roll-out as
well, would provide means to create jobs and build the economy.
In focussing on the future, re-emphasising that this is a government
that looks forward, the country’s National Development Plan which aims
to eliminate poverty and reduce inequality by 2030 must be embraced by
all.

In support of your Nation Building and Socio-economic Development plan
the ANC will ensure that we stop the oversight stampede by co-ordinating
and integrating oversight programmes of all three spheres of government
as well as between the NA and NCOP. We shall ensure that your Programme
of Action, Hon President, is taken to and co-owned by our people.
As public representatives we can unashamedly tell South Africa, Africa
and the world that you have a vision, a plan, the willingness and
ability to deliver on your plan. The ball is in our court as public
representatives to support you and your administration. We have full
confidence in you.

In support of your administration Parliament and its representatives
will move beyond the norm of merely accepting reports of the executive,
briefings by various departments, rubber stamping the budgets of
departments and entities, we shall move beyond merely accepting the
legislative proposals by the Executive and initiate critical
legislation. Our constituency offices offer a closer view of the trials
and tribulations affecting our people. Engaging with the youth,
listening to the aged, supporting the disabled and assisting the
unemployed men and women in our communities allows us to open lines of
communication, and offers us an opportunity to know where the people
are, what they aspire to, and to respond to them faster and with
consistency. When we visit poorly performing clinics, surprise a
hospital official who is asleep instead of offering a key service, when
we visit a school and find the teacher assaulting a learner or teachers
who are absent for days instead of teaching, when we catch a corrupt
government official accepting a bribe for services they should be
rendering as part of their job, when we see young girls being sexually
harassed by men on the street, we will not turn away and fold our arms.
We will rise to these challenges and know that when we do so, we are
building this country brick by brick.

More recently, Parliament has been media fodder for the manner in which
we seem to have abdicated our responsibilities to the courts. The
opportunistic use of the courts by the opposition to score political
goals has tarnished the image of this great institution. To effectively
represent citizens, members of parliament must carry out their
legislative and oversight roles in a way that is demonstrably in the
public interest and do so in a way that reflects the ethical standards
of their community and their standing as leaders in such communities.
The ANC has a proud tradition of consultation, engagement, contestation
and consensus-seeking. The Freedom Charter stands as a testimony to
those methods. We utilised those same significant methods in our
Constitution-making process, our Truth and Reconciliation Commission and
the recent National Social Cohesion and Nation Building Summit, held at
Kliptown in July last year. We believe in these methods, because we
believe fundamentally in the principles of the Freedom Charter and our
Constitution and that this country belongs to all who live in it. We
would therefore like to urge opposition parties to utilise these methods
of engagement rather than the expediency of the courts.
Hon President, our people are responding to and supporting your Nation
Building and Social Cohesion Project. The ANC received a delegation of 8
members of the Afrikanerbond led by Mr Pieter Vorster who told us that
they are fully behind your vision and Development Plan and wish to be
partners with both parliament and government in implementing it. The
National Interfaith Council of South Africa (NICSA) has signed a
Memorandum of Understanding with government, through Cogta, to support
government’s nation building initiatives and fight against the triple
challenges of poverty, unemployment and inequality.

We wish to thank Minister Richard Baloyi for spearheading this
partnership. To ensure that the achievements of government and NICSA
reach the people NICSA and the SABC have concluded a Memorandum of
Understanding. We wish to thank Prof Ben Ngubane, Chairperson of the
SABC Board and Mr Hlaudi Motsoening, Chief Operating Officer, for
putting the public broadcaster at the service of the people.
Parliament, and all legislatures, will assume the responsibility for the
promotion of democratic values and consolidate Peoples’ Power for social
and economic development. This is not a party-political responsibility;
it belongs to all political formations and civil society organisations.
Hon. President, this annual parliamentary debate is called upon to
afford diverse constituencies, who are represented in this august
institution by various political formations, a platform to contribute
meaningfully to the important reflections you made on the state of our
Republic on Thursday. This exercise is very critical as it is at the
heart of our representative and participatory democracy, which makes
this Parliament an institution of the people, not an institution of the
few leaders who represents their jackets.
However, Hon. President, the large section of the views that are going
to be expressed in this important national debate will not be a
reflection of the aspirations of the diverse constituencies who voted
some of the political parties on my left in this institution. Instead,
what we will hear during this debate today and tomorrow will mostly be
the views of the Democratic Alliance.

This is because, except for the few opposition political parties, who
should be commended for staying true to their princthe rest have
surrendered their independence to their new political
master in the form of the Democratic Alliance. Following the State of
the Nation Address on Thursday, these parties were summoned by the
Leader of the Official Opposition to a hastily convened to what was
euphemistically called ‘coordinated strategy for SONA debate’, while in
fact what they were called for was to obtain the marching orders and to
later escort Hon Mazibuko to a media briefing.

We are aware of the increasing difficulties confronting these parties,
particularly the principal challenge of their dwindling appeal to the
electorate. However, by selling their soul and surrendering their
autonomy to the DA means they can no longer claim to represent the views
and aspirations of the constituencies they represent in this
institution. They can no longer claim to enjoy freedom of thought and
freedom of opinion, as their political views on parliamentary matters
must now be sanctioned first by the Democratic Alliance. They can no
longer claim to advance their respective political policies or
resolutions, as their mandate now is to advocate the policy decisions of
the DA’s Federal Council.

It is an antithesis of a multiparty democracy system, which provides for
diverse and multiplicity of political views and interests, to have the
throng of political leaders from diverse ideological persuasions dancing
to a tune of the neo liberal and conservative agenda of their political
master. Surely the constituencies of these parties did not elect these
leaders into Parliament to serve the DA, to seek DA’s permission before
making statements on matters of national importance, and to advance the
political fortunes of the DA. Hon. President, I am raising this curious development precisely because
it signifies the dearth of the democratic traditions of multiparty
engagements, which this Parliament represents.

But what also means is that, with the exception of the few parties that
have elected to guard their political independence, what we will be
hearing in this debate are the views of the DA, dressed in different
party colours. These views would be dressed in different suits and faces
on this podium, but we know that they were cooked in a Blue pot.
Therefore Hon. President, when you hear constant similarity of views and
thoughts amongst these political parties during this debate, it is not
because there is a convergence of thought on your reflections on the
state of our nation, it is because they will also be singing from the
same hymn sheet of their political Master.

Be that as it may, Hon President, I envisage your job of responding to
these views being much easier than before, given that there will now be
fewer parties to respond to.

Last, but not least, we wish to salute the founders of the Organization
of African Unity and join the peoples and nations of Africa in
commemorating the 50th anniversary of the OAU and acknowledge the great
contribution it made to our liberation. We shall also not rest until the
people of Palestine, the Saudi republic achieve their right to
>self-determination and independence.