National Assembly - 26 June 2003
THURSDAY, 26 JUNE 2003 __
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY
____
The House met at 14:03.
The Speaker took the Chair and requested members to observe a moment of silence for prayers or meditation.
ANNOUNCEMENTS, TABLINGS AND COMMITTEE REPORTS - see col 000.
NOTICE OF MOTION
Mr D H M GIBSON: Madam Speaker, I hereby give notice that I intend moving the following motion on the next sitting day in terms of Rule 66:
That the House -
(1) notes that -
(a) the Auditor-General has produced a special report which attacks
certain members of Parliament, including the hon Raenette
Taljaard;
(b) he states that Rule 66 has been breached in that the allegations
about his conduct were not made by way of a substantive notice
of motion;
(c) the ANC specifically, and the Chief Whips generally, have
permitted a situation to develop where provisions of Rule 66
have been trivialised in that there had been no debates in the
House following substantive notices dealing with this very
issue, such notices having been given both by the hon Raenette
Taljaard and the mover of the present motion;
(d) when Parliament reduces the effectiveness and the meaning of
introducing a substantive motion by preventing it from being
debated, it exposes all of those who enjoy the protection of the
Constitution to being attacked under parliamentary privilege
without the National Assembly having the opportunity of
examining and considering the allegations, or of accepting or
rejecting the allegations;
(e) this is also unfair to MPs who raise serious issues in a
responsible way with the intention of having them debated;
(f) this failure by the National Assembly has undermined the values
of the Constitution and is to be deprecated; and
(g) therefore rejects the Auditor-General's criticism of the hon
Raenette Taljaard and resolves to appoint an ad hoc committee
representative of all parties and with representatives of Scopa
and the Portfolio Committees on Finance, Defence, Trade and
Industry and other appropriate departments to investigate the
allegations surrounding the arms deal itself and the editing of
the JIT report by the Auditor-General either on his own
initiative or at the instance of anyone else.
[Interjections.]
The CHIEF WHIP OF THE MAJORITY PARTY: Madam Speaker, could I address you on a point of order?
An HON MEMBER: No, you may not. Sit down!
The SPEAKER: No, I will decide whether he may address me on a point of order. I am not sure who made that comment, but that comment was out of order! [Interjections.]
The CHIEF WHIP OF THE MAJORITY PARTY: Madam Speaker, there are two issues that I would like to bring to your attention. Rule 66 is about reflections upon judges, now …
The SPEAKER: Mr Nhleko, if you are commenting on the content of that resolution it is out of order. The notice has been given in terms of Rule
- The practice is that the Speaker then looks at the content of the motion to decide whether or not it is something given and therefore needs further consideration. But if you are commenting on a procedure, which is what points of order are about, I will hear you.
The CHIEF WHIP OF THE MAJORITY PARTY: Yes. The issue is that Rule 66 refers specifically to reflections upon judges. We are asking you, Madam Speaker, to look into the matter whether the content of the motion itself does actually tally and align with regard to Rule 66, and that with regard to the last passage of the same …
The SPEAKER: Thank you, Mr Nhleko, that is not a point of order, but I will happily receive a letter from you in terms of guidance on how to consider that motion. We will happily do that, so please address me on it.
Mr D H M GIBSON: Madam Speaker, may I address you on the issue?
The SPEAKER: No, I have already said that I will look at the motion and respond to it. I will hear people in writing, not in a debate here, on whether it was in order or not, or whether it fell under Rule 66 or not. Mr D H M GIBSON: Yes, perhaps Mr Nhleko should read Rule 66 … [Interjections.]
The SPEAKER: No, Mr Gibson, you are out of order! [Interjections.] Hon members, I also want to indicate to you that I have previously said that we need to look at a proper procedure for Rule 66 in the Joint Rules Committee, because we have not got a procedure on it. But I will make specific responses in terms of that particular notice of motion.
INTERNATIONAL WINE AND SPIRITS COMPETITION IN FRANCE - AWARD-WINNING RED WINES FROM SOUTH AFRICA
(Draft Resolution)
Mnr C H F GREYLING: Mevrou die Speaker, ek stel sonder kennisgewing voor:
Dat die Huis -
(1) kennis neem dat -
(a) vyf Suid-Afrikaanse rooiwyne aangewys is as wenners in hul klas
tydens die Internasionale Kompetisie vir Wyn en Spriritualieë in
Frankryk; en
(b) die rooiwyne afkomstig is van onderskeidelik Hamilton Russel
buite Hermanus, die Vergelegen-landgoed by Somerset-Wes, die
Wamakersvallei-kelder by Wellington, Boland-kelders by die Paarl
en L'Avenir-landgoed by Stellenbosch; en
(2) die onderskeie wynplase gelukwens met die eer wat hulle te beurt geval het en die wêreldwye roem wat hulle verwerf het. (Translation of Afrikaans draft resolution follows.)
[Mr C H F GREYLING: Madam Speaker, I move without notice:
That the House -
(1) notes that -
(a) five South African red wines were selected as winners in their
class during the International Wine and Spirits Competition in
France; and
(b) the red wines are from Hamilton Russel near Hermanus, the
Vergelegen Estate in Somerset West, the Wamakersvallei Cellar in
Wellington, Boland Cellars in Paarl and the L'Avenir Estate in
Stellenbosch, respectively; and
(2) congratulates the respective wine farms on the honour bestowed on them and the worldwide fame they have achieved.]
Agreed to.
SADC PARLIAMENTARY FORUM - MS B THOMPSON DESIGNATED AS NEW REPRESENTATIVE OF PARLIAMENT
(Draft Resolution)
The CHIEF WHIP OF THE MAJORITY PARTY: Madam Speaker, I move the draft resolution printed in my name on the Order Paper, as follows:
That the House, with the concurrence of the National Council of Provinces, designates Ms B Thompson to replace Ms S N Ntlabati as representative of Parliament in the Southern African Development Community Parliamentary Forum in terms of article 6(3) of the constitution of the said forum with immediate effect.
The SPEAKER: Are there any objections to that motion?
Mr D H M GIBSON: Madam Speaker, even though it was not discussed with the Official Opposition we have no objection. [Interjections.]
The SPEAKER: Thank you, if there are no objections, that motion is adopted and Ms Thompson will be part of the delegation of this Parliament to the SADC Parliamentary Forum. Are there any other motions on the Order Paper?
MR E M SIGWELA APPOINTED ACTING CHAIRPERSON
(Draft Resolution)
The CHIEF WHIP OF THE MAJORITY PARTY: Madam Speaker, I move without notice:
That the House elects Mr E Sigwela to preside during today’s sitting of the House when requested to do so by a presiding officer.
The SPEAKER: Has that been agreed? [Interjections.] I thank you all for this great co-operation and agreement. He will then be the Chairperson when we require him. I hope he will be able to maintain order in the House with this spirit of camaraderie, which looks like an end-of-term schoolboy approach to what is going on!
WOMEN'S EMPOWERMENT
(Member's Statement)
Ms N F MATHIBELA (ANC): Madam Speaker, on this day, 26 June 2003, all of us remain proud and continuously dedicated to the just and necessary cause of economic and social development for all South Africans. The role of women, as has always been the case, becomes central. The Congress of the People in 1955 and the adoption of the Freedom Charter by the ANC in 1956 epitomised the important role women have continuously played in the transformation of our society. Throughout the process women played a critical role in the mobilisation of people’s demands.
Our democracy has created structures and institutions, a process of engaging issues of gender and the rights of children, especially the girl- child. As our economy continues to grow, so does the need to empower women, to skill, educate and train them as part of a broader process aimed at ensuring that there shall be work and security for all and that the people shall share in the country’s wealth. The Freedom Charter serves as a guiding light in building and consolidating our cherished democracy. [Applause.]
THE CRISIS IN ZIMBABWE
(Member's Statement)
Mr G B D McINTOSH (DA): Madam Speaker, two days ago the US Secretary of State Colin Powell wrote as follows in The New York Time:
South Africa and other African countries are increasingly concerned and active on Zimbabwe, but they can and should play a stronger and more sustained role that fully reflects the urgency of Zimbabwe’s crisis.
There is some progress, with Zanu PF announcing yesterday that it will be prepared to enter a government of national unity even though it is not yet prepared to look at the reasonable demand by the MDC of a transitional government prior to fresh and free elections.
However, it is clearly vital that President Mbeki explains how he, when President Bush visits South Africa within a few days, will answer his legitimate questions on what South Africa, as the economic giant in the region, is doing to address as fast as possible the urgent economic knockdown, human suffering and human rights abuses in Zimbabwe. Southern Africans also would like to know what those answers will be. [Applause.]
INVENTION OF SAFER PARAFFIN
(Member's Statement)
Mrs L R MBUYAZI (IFP): Madam Speaker, there is a new invention coming up in the form of a safer paraffin fuel aimed at making paraffin stoves safer for the poor people who use them. This comes after it has been found that many paraffin stoves are lethal and responsible for thousands of deaths in South Africa, especially in the slums.
The conception of a safer paraffin fuel by Zinc Energy, the invention company, incorporates the use of briquettes and a gel as ingredients in the new invention. Zinc Energy has come up with two types of briquettes - one is solid and one is in honeycomb form. These briquettes are made from various low-quality minerals such as coal discard. It is reported that they dramatically reduce dangerous emissions and can be ignited easily. The SABS and the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research have successfully tested the product and seem to agree that this technology would save lives and protect the environment. We look forward to this invention and believe that its revolutionary characteristic will indeed save the lives of vulnerable people and also protect our environment which is dearly needed to sustain future generations.
EMALAHLENI LOCAL MUNICIPALITY
(Member's Statement)
Mr B MTHEMBU (ANC): Madam Speaker, the tide has turned at Emalahleni Local Municipality. We would like to bring to the attention of this honourable House some exciting developments and achievements that confirm the clarion call by our President and the endeavours of many public representatives which are currently unfolding at the Emalahleni Local Municipality which consists of Witbank and the surrounding areas.
The Emalahleni Local Municipality achieved the following: It successfully and with ease merged three former TLCs in all respects in line with the new demarcations of wall-to-wall municipalities; it participated in the treasury-piloted DA-map system of municipal financial management which assisted a great deal in resuscitating finances from a cash-book balance of R10 million to R34 million in a single financial year; and it managed with the help of all on board to achieve an average of 86% payments for municipal services which has seen a growth in payments from 62% to 104% over the last financial year. The municipality has successfully implemented the free basic service plans including a set tariff for water and electricity. The councillors and people of Emalahleni deserve applause. [Applause.]
MR TONY LEON AND THE DP
(Member's Statement)
Mr J DURAND (New NP): Madam Speaker, last week the hon Leon had the following to say during the discussion of the President’s Vote:
It is under President Mbeki’s watch that South Africa has moved from the politics of the rainbow nation and reconciliation to the politics of race labelling and race baiting.
The hon Leon’s outburst confirms what Ken Owen had to say about him:
His style is that of a cocky little bantam, his weapons of choice are cleverness and historical contempt. He gets up black people’s noses in an extraordinary way and the chemistry between him and Mbeki is the worst South Africa could possibly afford at this juncture.
How can the hon Leon accuse the President of using the race card when the opposite has been proved? The hon Leon is the leader with the second highest right-wing support. The DA’s fight-back campaign has been proved to be a fight-blacks campaign. [Interjections.]
They use Zimbabwe for their own political agenda to spur on black fear. The hon Leon is right when he says: “He ignites the fires of hatred and despair that South Africans have worked hard to extinguish.” But, he is referring to the wrong man. He should refer to himself. [Applause.]
The DA’s poor attempt to remain the dealer of the race card is laughable but then again also understandable, coming from a party that has made no contribution to bridging divisions in South Africa. [Applause.]
GAMBLING IN THE WESTERN CAPE
(Member's Statement)
Mr S N SWART (ACDP): Madam Speaker, as producer price inflation hit a 30- year low in May this year, economic experts say that the result of better interest rates should be to put extra money into consumers’ pockets to help them get out of debt. But, even a strong economy cannot reverse the crippling effect gambling is having on people’s welfare. With over R6 billion being spent on gambling in 2001 and over 70% of gamblers spending money in casinos rather than on household necessities, gambling continues to ruin people’s budgets and lives, particularly the poor. The ACDP therefore commends the City of Cape Town on its investigation into the link between casinos, the Lotto and other forms of gambling and the nonpayment of R2,5 billion in municipal accounts. Cape Town City Director of Income, George van Schalkwyk, reports that from information gleaned from council customers who are coming to make arrangements to pay, the link appears to be real. He recounted one such incident in which a woman came to see the department and told them that she could not pay, but when she opened her purse a casino most-valued-guest gold card fell out. According to him church groups have also informed the council that since the opening of Grand West the need for food packages has increased.
The Western Cape proposal to roll out 3 000 limited payout slot machines is a further example of the greed governing the thoughts of those entrusted with the welfare of South Africans. The ACDP is of the view that by taking advantage of many people’s misguided and desperate hopes of winning money, the Government is conveying the message that revenue from gambling is more important than the welfare of South Africa’s people. [Applause.] CRICKET FACILITY AT MANENBERG
(Member's Statement)
Mr D A A OLIFANT (ANC): Madam Speaker, on 25 June 2003 the Manenberg community on the Cape Flats witnessed the opening of a cricket facility as part of a project which will benefit 12 schools in the area. The opening was also attended by the Minister of Sport and Recreation.
We rise to commend all stakeholders, the community, the ANC-New NP Western Cape provincial government and local business for this initiative of social partnership. We believe that such community initiatives coupled with the SAPS operation to clean up will go a long way towards eradicating crime in Manenberg.
We also believe that sport has a critical role to play in combating crime as it is through sport that we can claim our children back from the streets and in a way contribute to the moral regeneration campaign. [Applause.]
UKKASIE ARTS FESTIVAL AT WEMBLEY, LONDON
(Member's Statement)
Mnr P J GROENEWALD (VF): Mevrou die Speaker, die jaarlikse UKkasie Kunstefees sal vanjaar weer vanaf 11 tot 13 Julie by die Wembley- konferensiesentrum te Londen gehou word. Talle uitstallers en verskeie top Suid-Afrikaanse kunstenaars sal vanjaar weer aan die fees deelneem. Die fees is ook ‘n geleentheid waar ons plaaslike kunstenaars hulle talente verder kan ontwikkel. Hierdie Afrikaanse kunstefees, wat vanjaar die derde keer plaasvind, het sedert dit die eerste keer in 2001, ook te Wembley, gehou is geweldig gegroei en word jaarliks deur duisende jong Suid- Afrikaners wat in Londen werk, bygewoon.
Die VF is van die ontstaan daarvan betrokke by die fees en sal soos vorige jare weer ‘n stalletjie by die fees beman. Die VF is trots om hom met ‘n fees van sulke hoë gehalte te vereenselwig en wil die hoop uitspreek dat die fees net van krag tot krag sal gaan en nog baie jare lank sal plaasvind. Ons wil dan ook vir Maryna Blomerus, hooforganiseerder van UKkasie, en haar span sterkte toewens met die fees, en ons glo dat vanjaar se fees, soos die vorige twee, ‘n reusesukses sal wees. (Translation of Afrikaans member’s statement follows.)
[Mr P J GROENEWALD (FF): Madam Speaker, the annual UKkasie Arts Festival will again be held this year from 11 to 13 July at the Wembley Conference Centre in London. Many exhibitors and various top South African artists will again be participating in this festival this year. The festival is also an opportunity for our local artists to further develop their talents. This Afrikaans arts festival, which this year will be taking place for the third time, has, since it was held for the first time in 2001, also at Wembley, grown tremendously and is attended every year by thousands of young South Africans who are working in London.
The FF has been involved with the festival since its inception and will, as in previous years, again have a stall at the festival. The FF is proud to be associated with a festival of such high quality and wants to express the hope that the festival will go from strength to strength and will continue to take place for many years to come. We also want to wish Maryna Blomerus, the chief organiser of UKkasie, and her team, every success with the festival, and we believe that this year’s festival, as was the case with the previous two, will be an enormous success.]
GAMBLING IN WESTERN CAPE - REVIEW OF POLICY
(Member's Statement)
Dr J BENJAMIN (ANC): Madam Speaker, in the light of the current unemployment rate in our country and the negative social effects of gambling on the poorer section of our community, the ANC welcomes the decision by the Western Cape government to review, with a view to rescinding, the 1997 decisions by the former DA-controlled government concerning the roll-out of slot machines and the building of more casinos. [Interjections.] We believe that there is overgambling in this province.
The ANC is committed to building a healthy livelihood, and not to the impoverishment of our community. [Interjections.] The ANC does not support the flooding of gambling machines into our rural areas, but we are committed to the development of our rural areas and to the views recently expressed by Minister Zola Skweyiya in this regard. [Interjections.] [Applause.]
LABOUR LEGISLATION AND JOB CREATION IN SOUTH AFRICA
(Member's Statement)
Mr C M LOWE (DA): Madam Speaker, Cosatu has attacked the DA for calling for sweeping changes to South Africa’s labour system in order to create jobs and get people back to work. While Cosatu is quick to defend those lucky enough to be in their magic circle of employment, they ignore the 7 million South Africans who do not have jobs and those who have given up any hope of ever finding a job thanks to the unfriendly labour regime. [Interjections.] By ignoring the jobless outside their magic circle, Cosatu is failing them and it is failing South Africa.
Unlike Cosatu, the DA does care about the millions of people without jobs, and our call to roll back inflexible labour laws, to cut red tape, scrap Nedlac and introduce a two-tier labour market will mean millions of new jobs and thousands of small business opportunities. [Interjections.] South Africa’s job crisis requires bold and innovative attention and radical surgery, and it is time that the ANC and Cosatu also spoke up for those who do not have jobs and not just for the lucky few who do. [Interjections.]
SEXUAL ABUSE IN SOUTH AFRICA - INCREASED EXPOSURE
(Member's Statement)
Dr U ROOPNARAIN (IFP): Madam Speaker, it has been reported at the International Conference on Sex and Secrecy in Johannesburg this week that the rate of child rape cases in our country had increased by 400%. According to police statistics, 40% of rape victims are girls under the age of 12 years. Clearly this is a serious cause for concern as there are many unreported cases. Also it makes it very difficult for victims to report cases of sexual abuse as they are usually dependent on the perpetrators who are known to the family.
One would argue that these things are not new in this country, but the truth is that such incidents have been happening in the past. The difference is that our people are beginning to learn to expose such incidents, unlike in the past when everything was kept secret. Such reports paint a dismal picture of our country and tarnish the efforts made at all levels to fight this vile disease.
The Government is to be applauded for the role it has played over the past years in educating our communities about the rights of the most vulnerable, but more needs to be done to ensure that these children reap the fruits of a life of dignity and self-worth. We believe that mothers should take the lead in ensuring a safe refuge for their children.
MAPUTO CORRIDOR - CROSS-BORDER TRAFFIC CONTROL
(Member's Statement)
Prof S S RIPINGA (ANC): Madam Speaker, the objectives of the Maputo Corridor are to encourage and promote cross-border trade, to boost tourism, to attract investment, to achieve regional integration and also to promote the broader objectives of Nepad. Unfortunately the new visa requirements flowing from the revised immigration laws of Mozambique have placed serious constraints on the free movement of trade through the Maputo Corridor.
The ANC, whilst acknowledging that cross-border traffic controls are necessary, appeals to the Department of Trade and Industry and all relevant departments to intervene and stop the detrimental effects and frustration experienced by the imposition of this legislation.
GAMBLING MACHINES IN KWAZULU-NATAL AND THE WESTERN CAPE
(Member's Statement)
Mnr A Z A VAN JAARSVELD (Nuwe NP): Speaker, studies het getoon dat meer as 62% van werklose Suid-Afrikaners deelneem aan die lotery en dat meer as 67% van diegene wat minder as R500 per maand verdien op hierdie manier dobbel.
‘n Groter bron van kommer vir die Nuwe NP is egter die erkentenis deur meer as 71% van mense wat dobbel dat indien hulle nie hul geld op dobbelary uitgegee het nie, hulle dit sou gebruik het vir huishoudelike benodigdhede. Dit is dus baie duidelik dat ons met ‘n situasie op hande sit waarin baie huishoudings bereid is om hulle kinders se volgende maaltyd op te offer vir die geringe kans op rykdom.
Die ANC-Nuwe NP-regering in die Wes-Kaap het daarom onderneem om te keer dat 3 000 dobbelmasjiene by onder meer kroeë en klubs versprei word. Premier Marthinus van Schalkwyk van die Wes-Kaap het ook gevra vir die hersiening van dobbelwetgewing.
Die IVP-DA-regering in KwaZulu-Natal beplan egter om 9 000 masjiene in die provinsie toe te laat. [Tussenwerpsels.] Dit toon baie duidelik dat die IVP en die DA nie die beste belang van arm mense op die hart dra nie. [Tussenwerpsels.] Terwyl hulle besig is om vingers te wys en links en regs karaktermoord te pleeg deur beterweterig vir almal te vertel hoe hulle moet regeer, kan hulle nie eens in die provinsie waar hulle aan bewind is verantwoordelik regeer nie. [Tussenwerpsels.]
Daar is ‘n goeie Afrikaanse uitdrukking wat sê: “Slim vang sy baas.” Dis wat met die DA-IVP gaan gebeur in volgende jaar se verkiesing waarvoor hulle reeds so hard baklei. Baie dankie. [Tussenwerpsels.] [Applous.] (Translation of Afrikaans member’s statements follows.)
[Mr A Z A VAN JAARSVELD (New NP): Speaker, studies have shown that more than 62% of unemployed South Africans participate in the lottery and that more than 67% of people who earn less than R500 per month are gambling in this manner.
A greater cause for concern for the New NP is, however, the admission by more than 71% of people who gamble that if they had not spent their money on gambling, they would have used it to purchase household necessities. It is therefore very clear that we have a situation on our hands where many households are prepared to sacrifice their children’s next meal for the slight chance of riches.
The ANC-New NP government in the Western Cape has therefore undertaken to prevent the distribution of 3 000 gambling machines to, among others, bars and clubs. Premier Marthinus van Schalkwyk of the Western Cape has also asked for the review of gambling legislation.
The IFP-DA government in KwaZulu-Natal is, however, planning to allow 9 000 machines in the province. [Interjections.] This indicates very clearly that the IFP and the DA do not have the best interests of poor people at heart. [Interjections.] While they are pointing fingers and committing character assassination left, right and centre by telling everybody all-knowingly how they should govern, they cannot even govern the province in which they are in power responsibly. [Interjections.]
There is, however, a good Afrikaans expression that goes: “Slim vang sy baas.” [One can be too clever.] This is what is going to happen to the DA- IFP in next year’s election, for which they are already fighting so hard. [Interjections.] [Applause.]]
The SPEAKER: Order! Hon members, the ID’s slot would have been taken by the ACDP, but they do not wish to use it, so the ANC may make a statement.
ACHIEVEMENT OF PEACE AND STABILITY IN AFRICA
(Member's Statement)
Mr R M MOROPA (ANC): Thank you, Madam Speaker. More than forty years ago, in 1955, the people of South Africa gathered in Kliptown to adopt the Freedom Charter, and made a commitment to Africa and the world that when freedom was achieved and a democratic state was established we would work tirelessly with other African countries and countries around the world to establish peace and resolve international disputes by negotiation and not war.
Our efforts in Africa and the world are underpinned by this understanding: “There shall be peace and friendship!” In line with this clause the ANC has been facilitating peace on the continent. The people of Angola have laid down their arms and rolled up their sleeves in an effort to rebuild their country. We salute the Angolans for this and we guarantee our support for their efforts.
The people of the Democratic Republic of Congo are progressing towards achieving peace and stability. A government of national unity will soon be established in that country. The transitional government in Burundi is another example of our efforts to find solutions. The solution of the crisis in Sudan is within reach. Progress is also being achieved in the Ivory Coast and Sierra Leone to secure peace and the establishment of governments of national unity.
We salute the collective wisdom of those African patriots who worked tirelessly to realise the dream of our forebears.
THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ZIMBABWE AND SOUTH AFRICA, IN
RELATION TO THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
THE CRISIS IN ZIMBABWE
(Minister's Response)
The MINISTER OF DEFENCE: Madam Speaker, let us get a few points straight. South Africa, the United States of America and Zimbabwe are members of the United Nations Organisation. When any issue, such as the Zimbabwean issue, is tabled in the United Nations, all three nations get an opportunity to address it there. [Interjections.] Order, please. When, in the past, the issue came to the floor of the United Nations, all three countries addressed the issue there.
Secondly, with regard to South Africa, both Zimbabwe and South Africa are members of the Commonwealth. When an issue is tabled in that multilateral forum, we address the issue there. South Africa, as a matter of fact, is a member of the tripartite that is dealing with that issue, at the Commonwealth. Zimbabwe and South Africa are members of the African Union, and when that issue comes to the floor to debate there, we deal with it there.
Now, at the present time, the visit of President Bush to this country is about strengthening bilateral relations between South Africa and the United States of America.
The US is not here as a school principal, to find out from the students what they have been doing. We are an independent country and we will act in multilateral forums and regional formations, as we see fit. Therefore, we are not about to account to anybody outside the multilateral forums. We are not under that obligation. It is misleading to create the impression that South Africa is accountable to the United States, as to what it is doing about Zimbabwe. [Applause.]
CAPE FLATS CRICKET PROJECT
CRICKET FACILITY AT MANENBERG
(Minister's Response)
The MINISTER OF SAFETY AND SECURITY: Madam Speaker, I would like to register appreciation for the statement that has been made by the hon Olifant about the cricket project on the Cape Flats.
Indeed, whereas it is the responsibility of the police to ensure that our people enjoy safety and security through policing, it is important that projects like this one are, in fact, established in our country as part and parcel of the instruments we should use to combat crime. I, therefore, want to appeal to all of us here, that when we go on break, during recess, we check areas where, indeed, Government can establish projects of this nature, so that, as a united people working on the ground, we can continue to fight crime. [Applause.]
GAMBLING IN WESTERN CAPE
(Minister's Response)
The MINISTER OF SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT: Madam Speaker, I rise to voice my appreciation for the statement by the hon J Benjamin, on the issue of gambling. I think I would also like to say that I, and I think the Government as a whole, appreciate the statement and the position that has been taken by the government of the Western Cape on this issue, because they have shown some leadership.
Beyond any reasonable doubt, I think the Government, when we agreed on this issue of gambling, mostly thought that it would be done in a manner that was more humane and in a manner that would necessarily provide what was supposed to have been provided.
However, at the present moment, I think, it is being taken a little bit too far. To have all these daily lottos, these one arm bandits - about a million of them - released amongst the poorest of the poor, becomes a bad sign for me.
If they were released in Sandton, in Bishop’s Court, or some of those rich places where the DA rules, like Waterkloof, it would have been much better. [Interjections.] But the worst part of it all is that they are being released in places where people have nothing to eat, where, for the most part, the target, we know, is the pensions of elderly people or child support grants. I think this is wrong and I think it should be opposed as much as possible.
I also think that the ANC and the New NP in the Western Cape have shown the way. Other provinces should follow suit, specifically Mpumalanga and all the others. [Applause.] With that, Madam, I would say I thank you.
CHILDREN'S RIGHTS
SEXUAL ABUSE IN SOUTH AFRICA
(Minister's Response)
The MINISTER OF SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT: There was also a statement that was issued by the lady from the IFP there, on the issue of children. I appreciate that and on behalf, basically, of Government and all right minded people, men and women of goodwill, I submit that we all really have to take a stand on the plight of our children, throughout this country, specifically now that we are going to do our constituency work. The thing that should come first is our children.
I hope the hon Leon will check whether the girl or lady who works with his girlfriend in his garden, really does get a child support grant. [Applause.]
SPECIAL PROTECTION SERVICES IN OUR COMMUNITIES
SEXUAL OFFENCES COURTS
(Minister's Response)
The DEPUTY MINISTER FOR JUSTICE AND CONSTITUTIONAL DEVELOPMENT: Madam Speaker, we would like to endorse the statement of the Minister of Social Development, in that we are in agreement with the statement on rape. We continue to be concerned about unreported rape cases, but have expanded our mechanisms faster than ever before to meet the needs of people.
Despite the concern about unreported rape cases, we would like to inform this House that more people than ever are turning to our courts for remedies in these situations. We now have 40 sexual offences courts and three Thuthuzelo clinics in full operation. Yesterday, we had a Canadian representative here who has brought the good news that we will receive additional funding from Canada for the expansion of our Thuthuzelo courts, which is a welcome piece of news. In addition, yesterday the unit agreed with us on a policy for strengthening ties between themselves and the child protection unit that forms an important link in this process.
I would like to agree with the statement that the role of the public is particularly important and, as we move in our constituency work towards Women’s Day on 9 August, I would appeal to every member of this House to take the message home, that these matters should be reported and that people have the right to insist on special protection from our court, and we need to put our children, women and disabled people in this area of law, as an absolute priority. We as a department do this by ring-fencing money in our budget and we call upon hon members to put the women and children in their community first.
INTERNATIONAL DAY ON SUBSTANCE ABUSE AND ILLICIT TRAFFICKING
(Statement)
The MINISTER OF SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT: Madam Speaker and hon members, we are here today to join the world community of nations in marking the International Day against Drug Abuse. This is indeed an important day in the calendar of the United Nations, humanity at large and not least our country in particular. This day highlights the fact that drug abuse as well as its illicit trafficking has indeed become one of the biggest challenges facing humanity in the 21st century.
When the UN decided in 1987 to give attention to this issue by dedicating this day as the International Day against Drug Abuse, it sought to call on and challenge humanity to build an ongoing awareness and consciousness amongst the people of the globe that drastic steps and measures ought to be taken as a matter of priority to arrest the proliferation of drug abuse, noting that this phenomenon had consequences for the world that were far too ghastly to contemplate. The questions arising today are: What have we as South Africans done to confront this challenge? What more still needs be to done to deal with the issue of drug abuse and illicit trafficking even more effectively?
It would not be an exaggeration if I were to say that South Africa has, since the United Nations passed the resolution, done a lot to tackle this scourge, though there is still more work that needs to be done. The SA Government from 1994, in particular, has made sure that this issue receives priority attention nationally, throughout the African continent and the globe. South Africa has also been very central to regional African initiatives, including the drafting of the Côte d’Ivoire Declaration last year. South Africa is a signatory to almost all UN Conventions on narcotic drugs. Our country is also taking an active part in the African subregional and regional matters relating to the fight against drug and substance abuse and trafficking.
South Africa has taken part in all major global deliberations aimed at devising strategies to confront the drug scourge. Recently, a South African delegation played a significant role in the 46th Session of the UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs in Vienna which, amongst others, took serious resolutions and signed a declaration to fight this scourge in a co- ordinated global manner.
Even more importantly, the Government ensured the establishment of the Central Drug Authority which, in partnership with the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, civil society and other structures of society, has been involved in the development of programmes and strategies to deal effectively with this problem as well as highlighting its dangers through public awareness programmes. I am happy to announce that one of these programmes, namely the Ke Moja anti-drug campaign, has been launched this morning at the City Hall in Cape Town, which is committed, under the banner of ``Let’s Talk About Drugs’’, to engage in massive campaigns throughout the country to prevent drug abuse.
What is even more significant is that this day coincides with South Africa’s Freedom Day. On this day, as one of the members has said, 48 years ago, the people of South Africa, under the leadership of the ANC and the Congress Alliance declared for all in the world to know, their Freedom Charter, a charter that continues to inform the freedoms we now enjoy under our democracy. More importantly, this day also comes against the backdrop of two significant developments, namely, Youth Day and a month of commemorations and celebrations as well as the Growth and Development Summit. More importantly, 1 June was International Children’s Day. This also reflects the recognition that the issue of drug abuse is intricately and inseparably linked to socioeconomic challenges like unemployment, which are facing mostly the youth of our country.
The Growth and Development Summit and Youth Month are very important events and are intertwined in the overall quest of our Government and society as a whole to build a better life for all, especially the youth. The youth are the backbone of the social, economic and political development of any nation, particularly South Africa. It is mostly the youth that is affected negatively by this scourge. Research conducted by the South African Medical Research Council and the Institute for Security Studies in 2001 indicates that those who abuse drugs are starting to do so at a younger age. It is also estimated that the abuse of drugs costs the country over R11 billion per annum. Drug and substance abuse often leads to absenteeism from work and lower productivity.
We dare not forget that South Africa has been a free, nonracial, nonsexist and democratic country for almost ten years, due largely to the sterling contributions and supreme sacrifices made by the youth of our country in various epochs of our history. We are talking of the generations of Nelson Mandela, Dorothy Nyembe and Oliver Tambo, Chris Hani, Solomon Mahlangu - the list is endless. Men and women who risked their lives so that all of us can enjoy the sweet fruits of liberty.
Apartheid is gone forever and we are indeed free at last. Yet its legacies are still very much with us, including racism which some of us want to deny ever existed. They urge us to gloss over it as if it was an insignificant incident in our history. Worse still, they urge us to forget and not talk about it. We owe it to our children and future generations not to do that. History teaches that to uproot any social ill, including racism, we must confront it head-on, talk about it and expose its negative societal effects so that future generations dare not allow it to resurface in our country and anywhere else on the planet.
The same goes for the problem of drug and substance abuse. We need to raise this issue even more vigorously in rural and urban areas, in rich and poor communities, in schools, faith institutions, etc. This is in recognition of the fact that drug abuse and illicit trafficking is quite pervasive. It has penetrated most of our societal institutions, including schools and faith- based institutions.
We witness drug syndicates mushrooming all over South Africa. The Southern African region and not least the African continent have become major outlets and producers of illicit drugs. Billions of rands are made out of this criminal activity. This has led to more social and moral degeneration. Research also shows that drug abuse also leads to the spread of the killer disease HIV/Aids, as it often leads to impaired reasoning and judgement. The use of injections further aggravates that problem.
Research also shows that there is also a correlation between drug abuse and the increase in crimes such as motor vehicle theft, rape, domestic violence and housebreaking. This situation has been worsened by complex socioeconomic challenges like unemployment, poverty, HIV/Aids, which are devastating many families and communities and are threatening to tear apart our very social fabric. We therefore need to act decisively now rather than later.
An integrated and comprehensive approach is needed to solve the matter. Special emphasis ought to be placed on preventive programmes that should encompass economic, political and social as well as cultural interventions. Public awareness on this issue will be intensified in a more targeted, aggressive and sustained way. We need role models that will help us turn the tide against a false and dangerous consciousness, which is fast gripping our youth especially in the urban areas, namely `it is cool to do drugs’.
To the youth of our country I want to say, drug abuse is a killer, a crime and a social ill that often leads to violence, including gang violence, murder, domestic violence, rape as well as the abuse of women and children. It leads to absenteeism and lower productivity at work, which is very costly to the economy. Drug abuse often leads to the painful breakdown of families and tears apart the moral and social fabric that makes our country. In essence, drug abuse has far-reaching negative and social effects and consequences for the youth and future of our country.
We must stop drug abuse now. Its proliferation must be fought with vigour now more than ever. Members of Parliament, individual families, communities and society as a whole, must get involved in this fight. We all need to make sure that we talk about this problem and its dangers in our families and communities. Even more importantly, we need to make sure that we stop drug abuse. If we want to succeed and sustain this fight, we need to ensure that it is integrated into our overall efforts in pushing back the frontiers of poverty, and thus the reduction of unemployment and the fight against HIV/Aids. Critical to our success in this direction, will be the following: strengthening the criminal justice system; strengthening co-operation and co-ordination of our strategy with subregional and international bodies, agencies and institutions, including the UN; building awareness of the dangers of drug abuse in all spheres of our society; strengthening the moral regeneration programme and movement, giving particular attention to informing, educating and mobilising the children and the youth in this scourge. Let us remember the old saying: `ligotywa liselitsha’ [make them familiar with the situation whilst they are very young.]
In conclusion, I call on all parliamentarians and, most importantly, the youth formations, faith-based organisations, community-based organisations, NGOs, labour, business and all spheres of government to be involved and to fight this battle with us so that all of us can finally realise our common vision of building a caring society and a better life for all. [Applause.]
Mrs G M BORMAN: Deputy Chairperson, the DA welcomes the Minister’s statement today. Thank you for that. But it is a pity that the race card was raised again. If the ANC-led Government focused on issues, people would actually get delivery on the ground. That would make a difference. [Interjections.]
As a mother who has been through those painful years of teenage rebellion, when children are experimenting with their choices, I want to say that this subject today is very relevant. According to a report by the International Narcotics Control Board, South Africa has become the cocaine trafficking capital of Africa, as West African criminal organisations have moved to take advantage of the country’s borders and ports. The US Drug Enforcement Agency says Nigerian syndicates control about 80% of the illicit trade in cocaine in South Africa and reports by the British police warn that Durban could become another Bogota with a looming drug war over turf within the next five years. In fact, South Africa has become a major gateway through which illicit drugs move to the rest of the world. What control do we have at the border posts?
The drug trafficking activities of organised crime groups are linked to numerous other criminal acts, as the Minister has already pointed out, ranging from car hijacking and robberies to the smuggling of arms, stolen cars, endangered species and precious metals. South Africa now features prominently in international drug trafficking networks.
The rise of substance abuse poses a real threat to the future of our country as children become the victims of drug lords and peer pressure encourages excessive drinking. There is a strong link between drug and alcohol use and the transmission of HIV. This is mostly due to high risk sexual behaviour while under the influence of drugs or alcohol. It has been demonstrated that unprotected sex is more common under the influence of drugs due to loss of control.
On a display board outside the old chamber, and I hope all the members have seen it, the Department of Social Development has a poster displayed which has the following words:
Only you control your choices, be prepared to stay in control.
It also says:
Apart from the things that they do to your body, they also cost a lot of money. Some people turn to crime to pay for their addiction. They take away the control you have over yourself, your choices and your future. They make you more likely to say `yes’ to unprotected sex, which could lead to unwanted pregnancy, sexually transmitted infections and HIV/Aids. Drug addiction rips families apart and leads to heartbreak and despair.
I would hope, hon Minister, that this is going into all our schools as part of the awareness campaign. Thank you for listening.
This morning the Ke Moja (no thanks, I’m fine) Campaign was launched in Cape Town after a successful pilot project was initiated in Tshwane last year. It aims to empower at risk youth to make responsible choices by providing them with accurate information and drug awareness resistance skills. It is hoped that this programme will eventually cover the whole of South Africa. The theme for International Drug Awareness Day today is `let’s talk about drugs’. Parents are challenged to talk to their children about drugs and alcohol.
The control of substance abuse is a collective responsibility. The Government, schools, NGOs, churches, other faith-based organisations and families all have a part to play in teaching our children to make responsible choices. Our children need role models, people who will lead by example. Who do they have to look up to? The DA will support and work towards any efforts to alleviate the suffering and pain caused by the excessive use of drugs and alcohol. [Applause.]
Mr M J ELLIS: Mr Chairman, I am not rising on a point of order, but I do just want to say to the hon Minister that the hon Gloria Borman made some very important points to which the Minister was not listening. He was too engaged in a discussion with the Chief Whip of the Majority Party, and I urge him to read the hon member’s speech to ascertain what she had to say.
The TEMPORARY CHAIRPERSON: Order! I think you made your point even earlier. He heard you.
Mrs I MARS: Thank you, Deputy Chairperson. Hon Minister of Social Development and colleagues, the theme for the UN International Day on Substance Abuse and Illicit Trafficking sends a very strong message to all of us.
As the speaker before me said, the theme is ``let’s talk about drugs’’. We need to know that globally an estimated 200 million people use illicit drugs. The actual numbers are believed to be much higher. This means that almost 5% of the global population are involved in the use of illicit drugs. These figures highlight the fact that illicit drug trafficking has become an ever-expanding international menace to our global society, and extremely profitable - that is for the syndicates and the traffickers.
The damage to society, as a whole, cannot be estimated. However, the damage to the social fabric of our society presents a grim picture. Every user of illicit drugs affects their immediate family and community by bringing them closer to the criminal elements who, with the drug syndicates, control the supply lines on which the user depends. Car hijacking, rape, burglary, and prostitution are all directly connected to drug use.
Unfortunately, many drug users start very early in life and many parents remain ignorant of this fact until it is too late. Social occasions and peer pressure are used to introduce our young people to the so-called recreational drugs. We need to be aware that many of our children live in households where alcohol is used excessively. Hospital records confirm that many trauma patients are injured as a result of excessive alcohol consumption, which led to violence. However, more recent records also reveal that many trauma patients test positive for illicit drugs.
We have to strengthen our young people to understand the dangers of illicit drugs so that they are strong enough to resist the temptation. Young people often think that they are only trying drugs for fun, and erroneously believe that they remain in control. We have to talk to them. We support the drug abuse campaign which was recently launched by the hon Minister.
The state, therefore, has a huge responsibility. The state security organs need to hunt down the drug lords, and identify and close supply lines. We cannot allow reckless, profit-orientated international gangsters to use our country as a field of operation. The IFP pleads that our police, security forces, and the criminal justice system be empowered with additional resources to extend their operations in a manner which will put an end to the current threat to the safety and security of our youth.
Mr A Z A VAN JAARSVELD: Deputy Chair, a young boy watches the rush hour traffic, but nobody seems to see him. He lives in a murky world of his own, which he creates each time he sucks on the plastic bag containing glue he carries with him. When reality sets in he just has to take another gulp to return to a temporary, hazy comfort zone. This carries on until he collapses on the pavement in a muddled state - still nobody sees him. This boy stands a mere 500 metres outside this House, and he is not alone. With him is a larger group of faceless, desperate and hopeless children, who we are failing. This is their reality and we can no longer drive past them, and pretend they do not exist.
No talking or policy document will change their lives. They cry out for help; they cry out for action. Thousands of them walk the streets of our cities while they are supposed to be at home or at school. How can we expect these children to say: ``No thanks, I’m fine.’’ How can we expect them to make the right decision when weakened family bonds, a legacy of unemployment, social injustice and no safety net have created an environment where drug use offers an escape from the harsh realities of everyday life.
Given the formidable array of obstacles still facing the emerging South Africa, some people might say: ``Why should we worry about this abuse, because it is not really that serious.’’ This view would be very short- sighted. There are many ways in which drugs can affect crime, and the fact is that people on drugs - just like people on alcohol - act in ways they ordinarily do not. The Alcohol and Drug Abuse Research Group has been conducting a serious of studies on the link between substance abuse and sexually risky behaviour among adolescents. [Time expired.]
Mr L M GREEN: Chairperson, hon members, in his opening speech at the recent international Conference on Drug Routes, President Jacques Chirac of France said: ``Drugs are a form of gangrene that threatens all countries.’’ He went on to say:
International organised crime is growing rich from drug trafficking. It generates terrible corruption. The mafias controlling drug trafficking are the same ones trafficking in persons and weapons, and all kinds of other criminal activities. Their many facets can threaten efforts to build up governments and democracy in new countries. They are worming their way into the core of the world economic system, bringing crime, violence and anarchy. It is our duty to muster our defences against these destabilising forces.
The metaphor that drug abuse is like a gangrene is very helpful. Society is an organic system, and it is not only made up of matter and other material attributes. People make up a large proportion of our society.
Mnr P J GROENEWALD: Geagte Voorsitter, almal stem saam dat dwelmmiddels vernietigend is, en net hartseer tot gevolg het. Verskeie voorstelle word altyd gemaak oor hoe om jou kind se gedrag te bepaal, hoe om op die uitkyk te wees vir tekens van misbruik ensovoorts.
Die VF is van mening dat die rol van ouers onderbeklemtoon word. Die eise van ons samelewing het tot gevolg dat die ouer-kind verhouding aangetas word, want beide ouers moet werk om die pot aan die kook te hou. Wanneer ons aandag moet gee aan ons kinders en hul probleme is ons soms te moeg of te besig. Ouers moet sorg dat daar meer tyd gemaak word vir hul kinders, én om aandag te gee aan hul probleme.
As ons kinders genoeg aandag en liefde kry van hul ouers sal hulle nie eksperimenteer met dwelms om sodoende uiting te gee aan hulle verlorenheid nie. Die boodskap van die VF is kort en duidelik: Ouers, wees lief vir julle kinders, en wys dit vir hulle. (Translation of Afrikaans speech follows.) [Mr P J GROENEWALD: Hon Chairperson, we all agree that drugs are destructive, and only lead to heartbreak. Various suggestions are always made about how to determine one’s child’s behaviour, how to be on the look- out for the signs of abuse, etc.
The FF is of the opinion that the role of parents is being understated. The demands of our society adversely affect the parent-child relationship, because both parents have to work to earn a living. When we must give attention to our children and their problems, we are sometimes too tired or too busy. Parents should see to it that they make more time for their children and give attention to their problems.
If children get enough attention and love from their parents, they will not experiment with drugs in order to give expression to the fact that they feel lost. The message from the FF is short and clear: Parents, love your children and show them you do.
Mr I S MFUNDISI: Chairperson, Resolution 42/112 of the General Assembly of the United Nations that mandates member states to observe 26 June as the International Day on Substance Abuse and Illicit Trafficking, is a milestone in the effort to have sober, diligent and vigilant nations. We in the UCDP have always encouraged abstinence or, at least, temperance in the use of substances. We maintain that, be it alcohol or nicotine, it defiles the body, soul, and mind.
While we in the UCDP maintain that all role-players in society must act responsibly, the Government must likewise govern well, and put in place programmes to combat the increasing drug menace to nations across the globe. The security forces of this country should hunt down all drug pushers, and let them rot in prison with their wares.
While the United Nations calls on governments to make a commitment to reduce the supply of and demand for drugs by 2008, we put it to our Government that drug abuse is illicit and should have been stopped yesterday already.
Miss S RAJBALLY: Thank you, Deputy Chairperson. The MF applauds the SAPS on their crackdown on the trafficking of illegal drugs. The antidrug campaign has been in full swing to rid South Africa of substance abuse. Community awareness on the subject has successfully rescued many from this temptation.
However, substance abuse and illicit trafficking are still a harsh reality in both poverty stricken and affluent areas, especially amongst our youth. The MF calls on those concerned to make an effort to investigate the symptoms, effects, dangers and withdrawal of substance abuse, so that we may reach out and help those victims who are in need. The MF calls on communities to work with the SAPS in getting rid of these drug traffickers who are a menace to society.
The MF supports the department in all its efforts against substance abuse and illicit trafficking. [Applause.]
Mr C AUCAMP: Chairperson, the NA wants to congratulate the hon Minister Skweyiya on the principled stance he took today on the issue of gambling, and on social and moral issues in general. We appreciate it, hon Minister.
Die NA ondersteun ‘n holistiese benadering tot die probleem van dwelms. In dié verband wil ons waarsku dat die poging van Minister Asmal om godsdiens uit skole te verwyder, die probleem gaan vererger. Hy gaan ‘n vakuum laat wat gevul gaan word deur die god van dwelms. Moraliteit kan alleen verhoog word wanneer daar godsdienstige verankering spesifiek en nie in die algemeen is nie.
Verder, Voorsitter, dissipline moet terugkom in ons samelewing. Ons totale samelewing het geliberaliseerd geraak: alles word toegelaat, alles word permissief en ons kinders dink dit mag dan gebeur. Ons moet die gesinswaardes herstel - die gesin as bakermat van die samelewing - en ons moet omstandighede skep waarin gesinswaardes weer bevorder kan word. Die hantering van werkloosheid en misdaad en die handhawing van wet en orde in die algemeen is noodsaaklik.
Die NA doen ‘n beroep op almal wat ‘n rol speel, kom ons gee vir ons kinders vleuels maar ook ankers dat hulle verankerd kan bly en nie kan twyfel in hierdie dinge nie. [Tyd verstreke.] (Translation of Afrikaans paragraphs follows.)
[The NA supports a holistic approach to the problem of drugs. In this regard we want to issue a warning that the effort of Minister Asmal to have religion removed from schools is going to aggravate the problem. He is going to leave a vacuum which will be filled by the god of drugs. Morality can only be enhanced when there is religious anchoring, specifically and not generally.
Furthermore, Chairperson, discipline must return in our society. Our total society has become liberalised: everything is allowed, everything becomes permissible and our children think that it may then happen. We must restore the family values - the family as the birthplace of society - and we must create circumstances in which family values can be promoted again. Dealing with unemployment and crime and the maintenance of law and order in general are essential.
The NA appeals to everyone who can play a role, let us give our children wings but also anchors so that they may remain anchored and cannot have any doubts regarding these things. [Time expired.]]
Ms C M P RAMOTSAMAI: Chairperson, before I start my speech on this day, I want to say that on this day the Western Cape Women’s League will be holding a memorial service for Mrs Mildred Holo, affectionately known as MaHolo, at Zolani Centre in Nyanga this afternoon. MaHolo died over the weekend, and will be buried on Saturday, 29 July, at her home in Nyanga. Hamba kahle qhawe lamaqhawe. [Farewell, hero among heroes.] We will always remember the struggles you waged against apartheid and the fight for the emancipation of women.
Imizamo yakho kunye namanye amaqhawe okulwela inkululeko yabafazi yenze ukuba namhlanje isininzi sabafazi ePalamente nakoomasipala sibonakale. Eminye yaloo mizabalazo ibilwelwa nguMaHolo yile sithetha ngayo namhlanje. Ukupheliswa kokusetyenziswa kweziyobisi eluntwini kuba kuko okubangela ukuxhatshazwa kwamakhosikazi nabantwana ngamaxesha amaninzi, yinxalenye yayo. (Translation of Xhosa paragraph follows.)
[Your efforts and the struggle you and other heroes and heroines waged for women’s emancipation resulted in a considerable number of women being seen in Parliament and in municipalities. Today we can see the evidence of the struggle that Mrs Holo participated in. In many instances substance abuse resulted in the abuse of women and children, and Mrs Holo was among those who fought against it.]
Today is the International Day on Substance Abuse and Illicit Trafficking. We remember those who died, particularly children who were caught in the crossfire, when gangsters under the influence and drug dealers fought over their turf, and young children lost their lives in the process.
Many families are broken, and children suffer because one or both of the parents are involved in substance abuse. In many areas on the Cape Flats the drug lords have portrayed themselves as role models in these communities. They drive flashy cars, thereby influencing young people to go their way. In some cases they approach needy families who borrow money from them to pay school fees, or money for food for their children. In return these youngsters become their agents in selling the drugs at school.
One teacher commented that children come into the class totally spaced out, looking like zombies. We went to investigate and discovered that another child is selling blue gum laced with LSD. This teacher reported it. What may sound like a story line in Yizo Yizo was a reality in one primary school. And in this case, in the Western Cape, the youngest addict being rehabilitated for abuse is nine years old.
While alcohol abuse is an old story, drugs have spread to all schools turning South Africa into some form of transit area for drugs. And this trade is co-ordinated largely by the gangsters. We also have to look at the Internet and television which are also blamed for spreading this scourge.
I want to make a special appeal to the youth of this country to take note of those who are bent on destroying this country, not to use them to further their aims. Substance abuse, particularly alcohol and drugs, is one of the main components of crime in this country.
Perhaps we need to ask ourselves why people use drugs. Perhaps they are feeling stressed, they want to imitate other people, they want to forget about their worries for a while, they want to please their friends, they think it is cool to be high or they want to experiment. Sometimes they, particularly girls, are in relationships with other people who sell drugs, and in some cases they want to prove that they are grown up and in high school. Whatever the reason, the fact of the matter is that drugs destroy the nation, and are the cause of the many problems we face in this country as a nation.
Whilst the focus is on known substances like alcohol and drugs, there are others that may not be listed but are just as dangerous. In a recent article Cape Town police warned parents about a particular plant which would make their children high but also had deadly consequences. The juice of this plant is known as moonflower. At present there are seven children reported to be in hospital after consuming moonflower. I want to appeal to the Minister to investigate this plant because the consequences will later be the responsibility of the Department of Social Development.
Many cases of rape and neglect by parents are the result of one or other kind of abuse. In such cases we appeal for the improvement of the justice system, and a minimum sentence must be set as a deterrent. While there are good security checks at our airports and harbours to apprehend those who bring drugs into this country, we think more security checks have to be put in place on local public transport. Long distance buses, like Intercape and Greyhound, do not have security checks, and are seen as a safe way to convey drugs between cities and towns.
In a recent article Bobby Hamman, the National Director of Drug Wise, reported on date-rape drugs such as sleeping tablets, tranquillisers and liquid ecstasy that are mixed with alcohol. This is added to a victim’s drink with another substance. Once taken, the concoction leads to memory loss for a long period. He said people subjected to this type of mixture often find themselves in unfamiliar places with clear signs of sexual abuse, or rape, but no idea of what happened.
This morning Minister Zola Skweyiya launched an antidrug campaign, Ke Moja, which means `thank you, I’m fine’. And it gives young people the right to say no to drugs. As women, mothers, and parents, we also have the responsibility to warn our children against the effect of drugs of whatever kind. We have to raise this vigorously in our constituencies, both rural and urban, and in rich and poor communities. This is in recognition of the fact that drug abuse and illicit trafficking are quite pervasive. It has penetrated most of our society and institutions, including schools.
We have to report to the police all unlawful acts of drug syndicates who bring women from neighbouring countries, and other countries abroad, to use them as sex slaves. The recent programme about women from Mozambique and Taiwan is a case in point. Police must also get their act together, and deal with those of their colleagues who connive with the drug syndicates in committing these acts that destroy our nation.
To the youth of our country, in support of the call by the Minister, I want to say, drug abuse is a killer. [Applause.]
Debate concluded.
PREPARING TO CELEBRATE THE FIRST DECADE OF FREEDOM
(Subject for Discussion)
Mr L CHIBA: Thank you, comrade acting Deputy Chair. Comrades and colleagues, my contribution to this debate centres on tracing the origins and briefly sketching the history of 26 June, that is Freedom Charter Day. But before doing so, I wish to point out that exactly 48 years ago today, in 1955, delegates from across the length and breadth of our country gathered in Kliptown at the Congress of the People to discuss, debate and adopt the Freedom Charter.
Several delegates who attended that gathering are sitting here in the House today as members of Parliament. Among them Mama Bertha, Comrades Billy Nair, Albertina Luthuli, Ben Turok, Dr Essop Jassat and Joe Matthews. Both Comrades Ben and Billy addressed the congress. Comrade Ben moved for the adoption of the clause, ‘The people shall share in the country’s wealth’. Comrade Billy seconded the motion.
For background information it is necessary to mention that three important political developments in the late 1940s served to lay a solid foundation for the dynamic political developments of the 1950s. The first was the joint declaration of co-operation of March 1947 between the African National Congress and the South African Indian Congress, more popularly known as the Dadoo-Guma-Naicker pact. The historical significance of the pact lies in the fact that it paved the way for a co-operative relationship in the joint struggles of 1950, during the defiance campaign of 1952 and during the campaign of the Congress of the People in 1954 and 1955.
The second was the people’s assembly for votes for all in May 1948 which adopted the People’s Charter. This charter proclaimed the belief in the ideals of democracy and the belief in the principles of the government of the people by the people and for the people. It pledged that people of all races would not rest until they had won the right to vote. Both the proclamation and the pledge are reminiscent of the preamble and the pledge of the Freedom Charter adopted seven years later.
Thirdly, the impact of the adoption on the 1949 programme of action cannot be underestimated. The hitherto moderate tactics of petitions, representations and deputations by the ANC were replaced by the far more militant tactics of mass action such as boycotts, strikes and civil disobedience.
Early in 1950 several leaders such as JB Marks, Moses Kotane and Dr Yusuf Dadoo were served with banning orders. The Transvaal African National Congress, the Johannesburg District of the Communist Party and the Transvaal Indian Congress convened to defend the Free Speech Convention. They announced that on May Day there would be a stayaway, firstly, as a protest against the banning of our leaders and, secondly, in support of higher wages. Although the strike was a success, the day ended in tragedy. As a result of police action, 19 workers were killed and 30 injured. At the time of this tragedy, the National Party of the time was about to introduce two Bills, the Unlawful Organisations Bill and the Group Areas Bill.
The ANC met in an emergency session and after consultation with the Communist Party and the Indian Congress, it declared 26 June 1950 as a national day of protest and mourning. This was the first strike on a national scale and laid the foundation for joint action among the different racial groups in planning and executing civil disobedience.
The next important milestone was the preparation for the defiance campaign. A joint planning committee of the ANC and the Indian Congress issued the campaign’s basic plan in terms of which an ultimatum was sent to Prime Minister Malan to repeal certain unjust laws. These laws were the Pass Laws, the Group Areas Act, the Suppression of Communism Act, the Coloured Voters Act, the Bantu Authorities Act and the Stock Limitation to Prevent Overgrazing Act.
Needless to say the ultimatum went unheeded and the laws remained unrepealed. This paved the way for the launching of the defiance campaign on 26 June 1952, which was the second anniversary of 26 June. Disciplined batches of volunteers went into action. The first batch of 52 volunteers was led by the late Comrade Walter Sisulu and Nana Sita into Boksburg location without having the necessary permits. By the time the defiance campaign was called off several months later more than 8 000 volunteers had defied the various unjust laws and had been arrested and sentenced to various terms of imprisonment.
The historical significance of the campaign resides in the fact that for the first time the African, Coloured and Indian people had engaged in a joint struggle on a national basis under common leadership. Two further points need to be emphasised. Firstly, that nine years into our democracy not only have the unjust laws which had been the target of the defiance campaign been removed from the Statute Book but scores of other pieces of discriminatory and oppressive legislation have also been abolished. But, secondly, despite the abolition of such legislation and despite the many achievements we have talked of during the past nine years, the legacy of apartheid continues to impact negatively on the lives of many of our people. Just as freedom-loving people united in the struggle against those unjust laws nearly fifty years ago, similarly, it is imperative for everyone today to be united in the struggle to abolish that legacy of apartheid as speedily as possible so that we can justly claim that we have finally pushed back the frontiers of poverty in order to ensure a better life for all our people. A further milestone was the formation of the Congress Alliance. The three years that followed the defiance campaign saw the formation of the South African Coloured People’s Organisation and the South African Congress of Democrats. Together with the ANC and the South African Indian Congress these organisations collectively became known as the Congress Alliance. This was the structure that prompted the campaign for the congress of the people.
It was Professor ZK Matthews of the ANC who proposed that the ANC consider convening a national convention, a congress of the people representing all the people of this country to draw up a freedom charter for the democratic South Africa of the future. The ANC accepted the proposal and made preparations to organise a congress of the people whose main task it was to draw up a freedom charter. Accordingly, people were called upon on a countrywide basis to express their views, demands and aspirations for a future democratic South Africa. These were gathered by an army of volunteers at meetings and rallies, in house to house visits, in factories, in churches, at sporting events and so on. It was on the basis of these demands and hopes that the Freedom Charter was originally drafted, discussed and finally adopted at the Congress of the People held at Kliptown on 26 June 1955, the fifth anniversary of 26 June.
Both the intensity and the extensiveness of the campaign reminds one of the extensive public participation undertaken by the constituent assembly to ensure that the people of South Africa had a say in designing their own constitution. Up to 1994 26 June was celebrated as Freedom Day in South Africa and on that day all freedom-loving people rededicated themselves to the struggle for freedom.
In his book on the Congress of the People, Comrade Ismail Vadi outlined the historical significance of the following: that the campaign of the Congress of the People and the Freedom Charter introduced within the liberation movement a degree of ideological uniformity and cohesion that had never existed before; that the Freedom Charter today remains unique as the only South African document of its kind which adheres to democratic principles as accepted throughout the world; that the charter is the foundational document, providing clear policies, aims and objectives and serving as a vision of a post-apartheid South Africa; and that the Congress of the People had placed the question of social transformation firmly on the agenda of the liberation movement.
May I conclude by saying that for decades the Freedom Charter has inspired revolutionaries in our country to reach the greatest heights of dedication to sacrifice for a noble cause and continues to serve as a beacon of light to all of us. During the four decades between the adoption of the charter and the advent of democracy countless numbers of our people had made the supreme sacrifice. The greatest tribute that we can and must pay to these fallen heroes and heroines of our struggle is to ensure that the noble ideas for which they laid down their lives so selflessly become a reality for all our people. That is a revolutionary duty and obligation which has been thrust upon those of us who have survived and have witnessed the miracle of 1994. It is a revolutionary obligation which we dare not fail to honour. [Applause.]
Mrs S M CAMERER: Chairperson, the DA is delighted to participate in this debate on preparations to celebrate the first decade of freedom. On a lighter note, we will also be delighted to be participating in these preparations. It is called electioneering, something the DA is very good at, and because we have an excellent case. We believe that these preparations will yield many dividends for the DA in the form of a large numbers of extra members in this House. So, we will have many more reasons to celebrate. No doubt we will have many such debates in this House in one guise or another between now and 27 April next year.
Seriously though, the DA believes that indeed we have many reasons to celebrate the first decade of freedom and much to celebrate. We have achieved so much that all South Africans, every member of this rainbow nation, can take credit for and can be proud of. We have a vibrant democracy, a constitutional state, the rule of law, an independent judiciary, including a constitutional court which magnificently upholds and develops our very progressive Constitution, winning admiration and accolades around the world. We are developing a human rights culture, and a gender-friendly body of laws and institutions which are the envy of many countries.
We have a market-oriented macro-economic system that is universally approved of. Our tourism, which should be a mainstay of our economy is at last developing in this direction under an able Minister. As we mature as a nation we believe that in all our rich diversity we are beginning to respect and value each other more. Yes, the framework is outstanding. There is a lot to celebrate.
But, unfortunately, there is also a dark underside to this golden picture, the major element of which is an out of control, escalating crime situation which poses a threat to everything we have achieved. It undermines the infrastructure we are building up. It discourages investment. It encourages skills and capital flight and yet the ANC Government, since 1994, has doggedly refused to put adequate resources into the criminal justice system. [Interjections.]
Our Constitution makes it clear that it is the government’s duty to ensure the safety of its citizens, and in this it has failed dismally. The Bill of Rights guarantees everyone the right to freedom and security of the person and the right to be free of all forms of violence. Quite the opposite is true as we live in fear of being a victim of violent crime, but the ANC Government has lost touch with what ordinary South African citizens experience. [Interjections.]
According to recent research by the Institute of Security Studies, the total number of crimes for the year ended July 2002, the last for which statistics are available, was a whopping 2,5 million recorded crimes, representing a 20% increase since 1994, and at the same time a 33% increase in violent crime in that period. While the most recent year-on-year increase was 1%, indicating that some crimes are stabilising at the rate of 5 600 per 100 000 they are stabilising, at a very high rate.
All of us know this from personal experience. We hear complaints about crime ceaselessly in our constituencies. If they are lucky enough to have escaped crime themselves, our constituents have friends and family who have experienced serious violent crime. Then there is the scourge of baby rapes and sex crimes against children very much on the increase, which my colleague the hon Waters will be dealing with.
The Minister of Safety and Security has an ostrich approach to crime statistics. If one cannot see them, crime will go away. Well, Minister, it has not. All the DA’s visits to police stations in our constituencies tell another story. The station commanders we visit are quite frank about it. Crime is becoming worse and their personnel and material resources are becoming less. And the results are there for all to see.
Police stations visited by the DA during our recent anticrime campaign are between 30% and 50% understaffed. There is a chronic shortage of detectives, and there are some rural areas where the detectives are handling 200 dockets each. Unless the community police forums have sponsored cars, there is a chronic shortage of vehicles. And the same goes for cellphones and faxes and any hi-tech tracking facilities.
Because of poor policing and under par prosecuting, criminal cases are moving at a snail’s pace through the courts. Worse still, there is a low conviction rate. Court productivity is low because of chronic understaffing. The Director-General, in a recent human resources audit in the Department of Justice, found that the department was understaffed, relatively unskilled and therefore ill-prepared to fulfil its mandate.
Winning the war against crime urgently requires a full-scale effort to reduce crime visibly and dramatically. The DA has a plan and during the celebrations and the preparations for the celebration of the first decade of freedom, we will be making sure that the public knows all about it. As a start, we want to recruit 36 000 more police officers so that we will have 150 000 policemen and policewomen visibly on the streets. [Interjections.] A DA-led government will ensure that the second decade of freedom would, as far as crime is concerned, be far better than the first decade. [Interjections.] [Applause.]
Prof H NGUBANE: Deputy Chair, Ministers, Deputy Ministers and colleagues, a week ago, when President Mbeki responded to the debate on the Presidency, he said:
When we speak of racism and racial stereotypes we do so because we know the hurt caused to those who are victims of this racism. The Minister of Home Affairs, Mangosuthu Buthelezi, speaking in Parliament in the context of the Presidency debate, had this to say:
Our people need the full measure of attention which our Government can give them, and we hope that the Presidency will be able to provide its tested and strong leadership to move the country forward on the path of development at a much faster pace, and on the basis of a vision which allows us to draw value from being Africans, born and bred in the unique country of South Africa.
I am quoting the pronouncements of the two leaders to indicate that both are underlining the fact that after 10 years of democracy there is a huge area of socioeconomic and political experience which needs attention. Thus preparations to celebrate the first decade of freedom are not undertaken under the illusion that all is rosy. Such preparations are of two kinds. The one kind is the physical infrastructure such as monuments. The other aspect of preparation is directing the focus on what we want to celebrate and how to achieve it. Yesterday I had the unique opportunity of participating in a workshop which combined both approaches. The Freedom Park Trust, under the leadership of Dr Wally Serote, is tasked with the setting up of physical structures such as museums, memorial structures and a garden of remembrance, which will be the national focal point of celebrations next year. As part of the ongoing programme of consultation and sharing information with all the sectors of society, Freedom Park had organised a workshop for a large number of women, including colleagues from this House.
What came up during discussions was the view that South African society, especially the black section, is still deeply traumatised by the various unspeakable and unmentionable acts of abuse during apartheid. As women spoke, one after another, it became evident that there is still this vast task of managing the trauma, especially among black women. It became clear that emotionally the celebration of ten years of freedom is first and foremost a very personal one.
I began to think of at least two ostensibly ordinary issues that I would like to celebrate. These are that at last I have a country where I feel that I really belong. [Applause.] And also that I no longer live in fear of constant harassment by the police. These are the issues which I can talk about. There are those issues that are so painful that it is not possible to talk about them. This was the experience also of most women who spoke their minds at the workshop yesterday.
The two freedoms that I will be celebrating stem from my own peculiar circumstances. I was a student at the University of Natal, which was a white university and therefore black students were not allowed. But a few very good professors - incidentally they were all women professors - offered to give lectures in the afternoons and evenings to black students. And some of us were part of that arrangement.
I was going to these lectures, but I needed to catch a train which would arrive back at the station of my destination before the curfew. And the curfew was 10 o’clock. If I missed that train and got a train that arrived at 10:10, I would find that the police would be lining up on the platform, I could not get to the taxis, and then I would be dragged and bundled into the police van, which would drive around looking for more people who were to be arrested. And ultimately, after midnight if we were lucky, we would be expected at the police station to pay the admission of guilt fine and be released. I think it is this particular situation which made me very afraid of the police and it is this particular experience which made me underline the fact that I feel free from fear of the police.
The other instance was that I could not actually say I have a home, or that I am a citizen of South African in the full sense. And as a student abroad I would be with other African students from Nigeria or from Ghana who would be boasting about the very good jobs they would be getting when they completed their studies and went back home. I found that I could not boast about that. I could not expect to get a good job in South Africa. I would remain and look for jobs abroad. And these things were very painful to me. So I wanted to share this. I am not making it a TRC, but the women yesterday made it very clear that perhaps the women have special experiences which need attention. [Applause.]
Mrs J CHALMERS: Chairperson, comrades and colleagues, I was born long years ago, a child of apartheid, born in the 1930s, schooled in the 1940s and 1950s. It was an education that viewed the history of our land through the eyes of white educators. This history set down stories of the Dutch, British and French settlers in South Africa, stories of frontier wars and of changing rule under colonial rulers, who for the most part managed our country according to the whims and policies of politicians, many thousands of miles away, stories of conquest and slavery.
So it went on, the history of the colonisation of South Africa, stories of settlers, of the discovery of riches under the soil, and the battle for possession of those riches. This is a battle that is still being fought. But no stories were told to us of how these accounts of conquests and exploration, and the accumulation of the wealth this land had to offer, was affecting the lives of the majority, the black majority of South Africans, who were not indeed even allowed to claim that title.
As a prominent Nationalist Party politician put it in the 1970s: If our policy is taken to its full conclusion, there will not be one black man with South African citizenship. There would then be no longer a moral obligation on our Parliament to accommodate these people politically.
That education had nothing to do with enabling us to become the sort of citizens of this land, who could make free and informed choices of how we wished to live out our lives here. It also had nothing to do with freedom.
I lived in the city of Port Elizabeth where, in my early childhood, the opportunity existed for interaction with various cultures and racial groups. South End was a vibrant place, alive with different languages and music. Children had only to hop over the next door neighbours’s fence to share a different part of the South African world as it was then. On this day, in 1955, there was an upwelling of conviction and hope as people from across the length and breadth of our country came together to lay the foundation for a new, nonracial and democratic South Africa, and the Freedom Charter was born. Then in 1959 Hendrick Verwoerd made the definitive speech that gave final implementation to the policy of separate development, in its most absolute form. This must happen, he said, because what was the alternative? It was an unacceptable and even unimaginable situation where there would be “A South African army and a South African police force, under Black generals; an air force under a Black air- marshall; a Government with Black Cabinet Ministers; a Parliament with Black Members of Parliament; administrators and mayors, all Black. With such an end in view what hope would there be for the White man?”
He went on to say that the Bantu did not want mixed governments. We, the white minority, for the most part led extraordinarily privileged lives. As the shutters came down and the laws became more and more binding and restrictive, we were bound from birth to death to conform or pay a heavy price. We were told: “Obey or you could lose your freedom.” The majority complied because the price of disobedience was high, and we had been told for 40 years how dire the consequences would be under black majority rule.
Life was comfortable and the reigns of power, financial and political, were firmly held in white hands. But it was not freedom. Perhaps some members of the white community, even now, choose to remain with the shutters down. But those of us who had a copy of the Freedom Charter safely tucked away, during those arid and violent decades, always kept sight of the vision of the land shared, of equal rights for all, of a culture of learning, where those closed doors would be open, of houses and health, and no more ghettos, and most wonderful of all, of peace and friendship amongst all our people. We kept sight of this vision even though it seemed agonisingly far removed from the reality of the life we were leading and the risks those near and dear to us were taking, and those who were prepared to lose their lives and who did lose their lives. I am thinking here of my dear friends Matthew Goniwe, Fort Calata and so many other great comrades.
So when a miracle happened, and the time came to take the Freedom Charter out of its hiding place, and to sit and read it openly in the sunshine, each one of us had to consider how to bring those high ideas into our lives. How we could assist in enabling them to happen and make them a reality. A reality that would build a South Africa that had been fought for for so hard and so long. The land of our hopes and dreams. Of course there has been only one way to achieve this, by joining hands and minds and working collectively and co-operatively with one another to build our nation. It is an ideal that has not been easy to achieve, we never thought it would be easy, but we are getting there. The victories are there for all to see.
Clean water for more than nine million people who lacked it before, electricity for more than two million and telephones for 1,5 million. Schools and universities have been desegregated, and the general literacy rate has improved substantially. We have a system of free health care. Our economy, which was in desperate straits, has been placed on a healthy footing and trade barriers have been lifted. We have the most democratic Constitution in the world, and various institutions to ensure its effectiveness.
We have got rid of the old apartheid laws and abolished the death penalty. The list of achievements is long. Miraculously we have done all this without bloodshed. So the Government is doing what governments do, and better than a great many, in the face of huge odds and with so much to learn. Battling decades of a carefully created culture of dependency, of neglecting housing, rural roads, schools, huge numbers of unskilled labour, and the homelands heritage of new supernumeraries. All this at a time when globalisation of the world economy is the order of the day.
For me, the changes in how they affect my life have been overwhelmingly positive and exciting. I feel so fortunate to be able to participate in the transformation of our land, attempting to always bring the big questions and challenges back to the micro level, because truly, that is where I think real change can begin. Growing up from grass-roots level, those seeds of change that withered and often died 50 years ago, have now sprouted, and the face of South Africa is changing fast.
In my constituency, the town council consists of 10 members. The majority are comrades with struggle backgrounds, some are farmers. I knew this small town in the old days, when there was absolutely no interaction or socialising between different sectors of the community, except on a master- servant basis. Those days have now gone. Yes, and there is still an enormous amount of work to be done, but a sound financial and administrative foundation has been laid to be built on, where before there had been a crumbling and disinterested administration.
The councillors come from very diverse backgrounds, some with useful skills, others have had to knuckle down and acquire them. But they are working together, attempting to understand and trust one another, and accept where they are coming from; learning how to read and draw up budgets; how to improve staff efficiency and manage discipline; how to advertise tenders; how to manage tough potentially conflicting situations; how to market their towns; and so important, how to communicate with their constituencies and report back and include them in the decision-making processes.
As I speak today, a small team consisting of a farmer, a businessman, a councillor, and an official, is visiting Stellenbosch, to be given clear direction on fruit growing in my constituency. And I know this will really bear fruit. The challenges are many. As is happening in many rural towns, Aids sufferers are coming back to their roots, some to die, others to be cared for by their families. The clinics function effectively, but with the huge workload, it puts pressure on the small nursing staff. Doctors are in short supply, but we are encouraged by new developments in the province to get doctors into the rural areas.
Acceptable houses have been and are being built, but as a new home owner, a woman, said to me: “The Government is building urban towns, urban houses in rural areas, but we need bigger stands of land around our houses, so that we can feed ourselves from small vegetable plots. We need tanks for rain water, that will make a difference to us.” She will raise this at the next council meeting she attends and she will be heard. What is happening in my constituency is not unique, it is being duplicated throughout the length and breadth of South Africa.
Despite what the DA says, the negative picture it likes to paint of life in our country, a new land is being built. In the schools and universities, on the farms and in town halls, read the books being published and see the pictures being created of this new South Africa. Watch the children at play and listen to the music out there, and mingle with the people walking the pavements and one is left in no doubt whatsoever.
Chairperson, today, 48 years after the Freedom Charter was adopted, at the Congress of the People in Kliptown, the spirit that created that extraordinary document is alive and well, and on its way to becoming a reality in our beloved land. [Applause.]
Mr J DURAND: Mr Chair, during the debate of the Minister of Social Development on drug abuse I thought I should ask the DA what they use because something puts them very high above the real realities of the issues in this country. [Applause.] Over the past nine years the Government has had much success in ensuring growth and development in our country.
The CHAIRPERSON OF COMMITTEES: Order! Hon member, please take your seat.
Mr M J ELLIS: I certainly do believe, Sir, that what the hon Durand said is absolutely unparliamentary. He is suggesting that the DA uses some form of substance and obviously that cannot be true. I seek your guidance, Sir. [Interjections.]
Mr J DURAND: Chairperson, if time allows could I repeat what I said and you can guide me.
Mr M J ELLIS: Mr Chairman, may I ask the hon member a question?
The CHAIRPERSON OF COMMITTEES: Order! We are giving him an opportunity, hon Ellis. Will you take your seat, Mr Ellis?
Mr J DURAND: Chairperson, I said during the debate I needed to ask the DA what they are on because they seem to be flying much higher than the realities in this country? [Laughter.]
Mr M J ELLIS: That is exactly the point, Mr Chairman. There is a suggestion that the DA might be under some kind of illusion. [Interjections.]
The CHAIRPERSON OF COMMITTEES: Order! Hon member, any reference to what might be termed or interpreted as the use of any substance that might cause one to be other than normal might be considered to be unparliamentary. Can you withdraw what you said?
Mr J DURAND: Chairperson, self-hypnosis is not a substance, nor is self- delusion.
The CHAIRPERSON OF COMMITTEES: Order! Hon member, can you withdraw?
Mr J DURAND: Chairperson, I will withdraw if you insist. [Laughter.]
The CHAIRPERSON OF COMMITTEES: Order! Thank you very much.
Mr M J ELLIS: Mr Chairman, may I ask the hon member a question?
The CHAIRPERSON OF COMMITTEES: Order! Do you want to take a question, hon member?
Mr J DURAND: Chairperson, my time is running out. At the end of my speech I am willing to take all questions from the DA.
The CHAIRPERSON OF COMMITTEES: Order! Very well.
Mr M J ELLIS: May I ask the hon member how much time he has, Sir, so I can keep a careful watch on time and note whether he has time at the end of his speech. [Interjections.]
The CHAIRPERSON OF COMMITTEES: Order! Hon Mr Ellis, let us ask the member to proceed and not waste any more time.
Mr M J ELLIS: Thank you, Chair.
Mr J DURAND: Over the past nine years the Government has had much success in ensuring growth and development in our country. It has taken this country from the brink of bankruptcy at the end of 1993 to any finance minister’s dream economy. It has achieved political stability and social peace, virtually wiped out the inherited debt, ensured microeconomic stability, increased the fiscus, lowered taxation, ensured macroeconomic stability, increased social spending, broadened the welfare net, while giving due weight to maintaining and improving excellent infrastructure. All this has been achieved on the basis of a prudent socioeconomic policy directed at achieving a stable, efficient, open and growing economy.
Since 1994 annual growth has averaged 2,7%. Last year South Africa enjoyed a growth rate of 3% - one of the highest growth figures in the world. Compare these figures with, for example, the European Union’s 1%, Europe’s 0,8% or Latin America’s -0,5%. In the coming year South Africa is poised to grow by a further 3%.
South Africa specifically has been significantly successful in key sectors of the economy such as agriculture, internal trade, tourism, finance and real estate and business services all driven by government policy and active promotion of the country. This last year’s investment growth across the economy rose by an estimated 6,3%. Thus successes have had a consummate impact on job creation with the number of employed persons growing by 17% from 1995 to 2002.
Yet despite the achievements, to date the backlogs and relatively small base of the economy leave the country still facing huge challenges. Simply put, the exceptional performance of the economy has not matched the growth in the labour market, especially in the context of the young-age profile of and growth in the population and the shedding of jobs in efficient sectors of the economy. The result has been a rise in the unemployment rate, which currently stands at 30%. This compared to a comparable developing country such as Brazil with 17,9%.
Other countries have managed to vanquish the problem of unemployment through concerted national effort. Take the case of Ireland. In the mid- eighties, Ireland’s unemployment rate was 17,5%, a rate far higher than the European average of 10% at that time. In the end the formula which finally made the difference in Ireland included, inter alia, an increase in government spending on programmes designed to mobilise the labour supply, improved job skills and the increased efficiency of labour markets, wage increase moderation by organised labour, various incentives to attract labour-intensive investment in specifically identified niche growth areas of the economy and the tightening of unemployment benefits. Since 1993 Ireland’s economy has grown at rates in excess of 8% per annum while employment grew by 25% by 1998.
It is thus clear that we are on the right track, but there are challenges facing this country and despite all these successes there are still some South Africans who seem forever determined to project our country as being the worst in the world. In many respects regardless of facts and actual realities this determination to ensure that our country is seen - and we heard it earlier from the DA - as the capital of everything bad, covers a number of areas including crime and disease. Much of this effort is driven by the centuries old racist convictions about what black people are and how they behave. Any incident is therefore seized upon to reaffirm the racist stereotypes.
Finally, Chairperson … [Interjection.]
Mr A Z A VAN JAARSVELD: Chairperson, I rise on a point of order.
The CHAIPERSON OF COMMITTEES: Order! Proceed, hon member.
Mr A Z A VAN JAARVELD: Is it permissible for the hon member, Mr Grobler to liken the hon member Durand to a dog?
The CHAIRPERSON OF COMMITTEES: Order! Take a seat, hon Durand. Hon member can you please explain your remark.
Mr G A J GROBLER: I never said he is a dog, Chair. I used the expression … [Interjections.]
The CHAIRPERSON OF COMMITTEES: Order! The remark I heard was something to do with “oubaas se honne”.
Mr G A J GROBLER: Yes, when somebody is very kind and nice to people and very obedient.
The CHAIRPERSON OF COMMITTEES: Order! Hon member, if you are likening the member to “oubaas se honde” that is unparliamentary. Will you please withdraw?
Mr G A J GROBLER: I withdraw. The CHAIRPERSON OF COMMITTEES: Order! Thank you. Please proceed, hon member.
Mr J DURAND: The racial stereotypes still being maintained by the DA are that we are either apes or dogs. We understand that. [Interjections.]
The CHAIRPERSON OF COMMITTEES: Order! Proceed.
Mr J DURAND: Chairperson, finally I want to quote from a letter by the President:
Bearing in mind all these considerations and given our unwavering commitment to ensure the transformation of ours into a nonracial society, we were greatly encouraged by the efforts of the New NP to rid itself of its racist past - they are all there. We saw the New NP as an important player in the critically important struggle to create a nonracial South Africa. We were and are very willing to work with the New NP to achieve this objective. Some have sought to counterpose such united action with a need for strong political opposition to the ANC. It is argued that this is more important than the unity of all political forces in our country to defeat and root out the scourge of racism. Naturally those who make this argument know nothing about the impact of racism on the overwhelming majority of our people. To them this becomes a matter of secondary importance which can and should be superseded by other considerations. This is what stands at the heart of the decision of the ANC to work with the New NP in the Western Cape and elsewhere in our country.
Mr Chairperson, fortunately there are South Africans of goodwill that are committed to working together to create a nonracial South Africa in the next ten years of freedom, that will push back the frontiers of poverty and create a nonracial society.
Mr L M GREEN: Chairperson, hon Ministers and members, there is no doubt that much progress has been made since we became a free nation in 1994. When we prepare to celebrate the first decade of freedom we must celebrate the victories, but we must also be mindful of all the challenges facing our young nation. We must not view lightly the great sacrifices that have been made by all those who have contributed to the freedom of our nation. Although political freedom is crucial to a nation, it is not the only freedom to be cherished. Freedom must be viewed holistically. It is not enough for our nation to be politically free. Our nation must also be freed from the shackles of poverty, hunger and unemployment. No nation will remain free without virtue or morality in the people.
It was the moral strength of ordinary citizens that broke the back of oppression in our nation. History has shown that virtue and character in a people is the basis of happiness in a society and is absolutely necessary for a state to remain free. A truly free nation will have a concern for the common good above their own self-interests. It will say no to greed and self-enrichment and it will be noted as a nation which has a concern for the poor and the exploited, the very young and the very old, especially those who are defenceless. A truly free nation is one which has leaders in government who are exemplary - leaders who will not violate the law themselves, who will not use their positions to enrich themselves at the expense of the electorate, who will not succumb to the temptation of bribery.
As political leaders we must remain positive about our nation. South Africa is a great nation. Despite our poverty, our crime rate, our problems with HIV/Aids, we will remain a great nation if we are prepared to collectively address the obstacles and challenges that may threaten our future freedom.
Mr M J MALAHLELA: Iyo khali ikwakwa yo khali intabeni. Hau! Bark wena darkie bark au na lizwe. Companero si ys ba bonga ngani ama Cubano, Tabaresh si ya ba bonga ngani ama Soviet, Nongonongo si yo ba bonga ngani ama Swahili. [The sound of the rifle shall resound. It will reverberate in the mountains. Hawu! Bark, you darkie, bark. You have no land. What is freedom? Companero, how shall we ever thank the Cubans? Nongonango, how shall we ever thank the Swahili?]
I am deeply honoured to be participating in this debate today, because while I am conversing with you from this podium, conveying this royal message about the people’s march to mark a decade of freedom, young people of my age, black in general and African in particular, are battling the scourge of poverty, malnutrition and underdevelopment. The scourge was bankrolled by the exploitation of my working-class parents by capital, and perfected by the entrenchment of apartheid colonialism since 1652 and 1948 respectively. It is because of this scourge of poverty and underdevelopment that we took a vow this year, as my working-class parents did on 26 June 1955, to push to the doldrums.
From our fairest Crocodile, the silent Kei, the brilliant Limpopo, the smiling Orange, the enduring Olifants, to our fine Tugela, the pronouncements permitted my working-class parents to say themselves, from this grandiose natural beauty, that the people shall govern. The pronouncements were not a pipe dream but a call to action, because my working-class parents were no longer prepared to live the same old way. Not only were my working-class parents, whose labour power was exploited, not prepared to live the same old way, but they were also not prepared to live under the same old order. Not only were they not prepared to live the same old way under the same old order, but so too were they not prepared to be governed by the same old pack. The people shall govern.
I - and the young people of South Africa and Southern Africa - am indebted to the blood of Peter Nchabeleng, Andrew Mehlape and Ngoako Malepe: the blood that dripped onto the fertile ground for revolution, the fertile ground that shook the elementary particles of exploitation of my working- class parents’ labour power by capital, thereby deforming apartheid colonialism and declaring for the world to know that the people shall govern.
I am politically free today and so are you. You and I are free because Solomon Mahlangu sacrificed his blood for the nourishment of the tree that bore the fruits of liberation. You and I are free today because Oliver Tambo and the ANC were there. You and I are free today because freedom and the ANC are two sides of the same coin. The people shall govern.
You and I have a special duty and must sacrifice in pushing back the frontiers of poverty, the poverty bankrolled by the exploitation of my working-class parents’ labour power by capital since 1652, the beneficiaries of whom are aligned in opposition to this democracy under the false pretext of being democratic. We must push back the frontiers of poverty not only because we are products of hunger. We must push back the frontiers of poverty not only because we are products of social injustice. We must push back the frontiers of poverty not only because we are victims of tyranny. We must push back the frontiers of poverty not only because we come from an apartheid land. We must push back the frontiers of poverty because we never chose to be poor. We must push back the frontiers of poverty, the poverty bankrolled by the exploitation of my working-class parents’ labour power by racialised capital. We must push back the frontiers of poverty because we are our own liberators and, just as we liberated ourselves from conquest colonialism, we can liberate ourselves from hunger, malnutrition, starvation and want.
In so doing we shall be reaffirming the pronouncements of the Congress of the People, further reaffirming for the martyred heroes, the Goniwe, Somoza and Rubeiro families, that the spilling of their blood was not in vain. The people shall govern.
In December 1982, when addressing more than 10 000 people who attended the funeral service in Maseru, Lesotho, of ANC members massacred by raiders from the SA Defence Force, the erstwhile president of the ANC, Oliver Reginald Tambo, said, and I quote:
The Freedom Charter is an instrument of peace in South Africa, a prescription to end racist and imperialist domination over Southern Africa. To fight for the demands elaborated in the Charter and if need be to die in that fight is therefore to fight and to die for peace, for an end to a system that is at once brutal, incorrigible and incomparably inhuman. That inhumanity is demonstrated in the heroic bodies that lie before this gathering here today.
Those heroic bodies will not turn in their graves, because the future of this country is in good hands, and that which they died for blossoms before my eyes to see and reverberates through my ears to hear.
The Local Government: Municipal Structures Act, signed with the blood of Onkgopotse Tiro, confers power on the people so that the Integrated Development Plan we pursue is the dictate of the people in reaffirming the pronouncements of the Congress of the People in pushing back the frontiers of our poverty, bankrolled by the exploitation of my working-class parents by racialised capital. The people shall govern.
The South African Schools Act, signed with the blood of Andrew Zondo and Vuyisile Mini, confers power on the school governing bodies constituted by different categories of our working-class communities. We confer power on the people not only because we are uneconomic about power, but, further, to avert 16 June 1976 so that the Andrew Zondos of today and tomorrow learn that the aim of education is to teach children to love their people and their culture, and to honour human brotherhood, liberty and peace.
Power has been conferred on the people in their different communities through the regulations of the South African Police Service Act of 1995, signed with the blood of Barney Molokoane, Clifford Brown and Ronald Malapa. The establishment of community policing forums represents the cherished ideal that all the people shall take part in the administration of the country. This, indeed, is a break with the past, because my working- class brothers and sisters have had our working-class parents’ yesteryears maimed, massacred, butchered and martyred by those responsible for their security. The people shall govern.
That the National Council of Provinces did embark on an excursion to interact countrywide with my working-class parents, brothers and sisters, black in general and African in particular, is a confirmation of the pronouncements of the Congress of the People in Kliptown. The people shall govern.
That the parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Home Affairs is currently in Limpopo doing oversight work on the department’s capacity to deliver IDs to the people - just interacting with the masses of our people - is indeed confirmation of the pronouncements of the Congress of the People in Kliptown, 26 June 1955. The people shall govern.
That the first citizen of a liberated people’s democratic Republic of South Africa has embarked on an excursion, through presidential imbizos, just to listen to the aspirations of my working-class parents, brothers and sisters, is indeed confirmation of the pronouncements of the Congress of the People in Kliptown. The people shall govern.
We reaffirmed the pronouncements of the Congress of the People in April
- We, further, unequivocally and without any equivocation, reaffirmed the said pronouncements in June 1999. You, the young people of a liberated people’s democratic Republic of South Africa, and I must pledge to strive together, sparing neither strength nor courage to push back the frontiers of our poverty.
By reaffirming the pronouncements of the Congress of the People next year, 2004, the people shall govern. In this context we are therefore saying freedom is the appreciation of reality. [Applause.]
Mr I S MFUNDISI: Chairperson, the aluminium anniversary of any institution is very important as it shows that entity is solidifying from a fluid state. The 10th anniversary of democracy in our country has to be celebrated in style. Preparations have to be made so that as we go into this period, the us and them dichotomy should not persist. As we go to celebrate this occasion it should be as a united nation, a nation with a common agenda, with no reference to differences on grounds of colour, race and even world view.
We can best be prepared to celebrate our first decade of democracy if we go into it with great determination to respect others and to serve diligently in all our roles. While we are at pains to transform institutions, we should not lag behind in undergoing transformation in our outlook to life and relations with our compatriots. It will be in the interest of us all, particularly those in Government, to shed their holier-than-thou attitude that tends to pervade our society. The best preparation for that quantum leap is the development of our human resource base. We may have all the infrastructure but if our human resource is found wanting, we shall achieve very little.
A ten year old person starts to learn to conduct himself or herself responsibly and likewise it would be expected of us to show signs of development towards maturity by taking steps against whoever oversteps the mark. We should rid ourselves of the denial mode when two issues are raised against us by taking pride in our numbers. Finally, let us prepare to go into the next decade with the emphasis on maturity and not majority. Let us go into the next decade by emphasising health and not wealth to our people.
Dr M S MOGOBA: Chairperson, the 10th anniversary of our freedom is a significant milestone. It is a time to pause and check our direction and readjust if possible. It is a moment of rejoicing because the sweat and blood of yesteryear have become tears of joy. The granite wall of apartheid has fallen. It was a miracle but it was a hard-won victory, a struggle waged by men, women and children.
What has changed then? We now have human dignity in the place of history’s worst dehumanisation. We now have the vote and can serve in leadership positions in the state and in Parliament. But, do we have any significant change in the lives of our people? The safe barometer of change is those who were and still are at the bottom of oppression. They see the fruits of freedom being enjoyed by members of Parliament and the elite group of the nation. They see water reaching them and the dark parts of our country twinkling with new electric lights. Land which is the cornerstone of the liberation struggle is far away from them. The mkhukhus, mjondolos or amatyotyombe are still reserved for them. I am certain that if we could take 10 white South Africans and all members of this House and let them live in the mjondolos for one month, the whole land policy of our country would change within a week.
The evergrowing population of our informal settlements or squatter camps is a sore indictment of our new democratic dispensation. Unemployment is on the increase, rendering many healthy South Africans jobless and desperate. Aids is taking a heavy toll on the population particularly the poor and the youth. Let us rejoice but let us change our direction and the pace of transformation.
Ms L L MABE: Chairperson, briefly I want to inform some of my friends on my left that I grew up in an area where I woke up at 6 o’clock in the morning to go and fetch firewood in the forest and return at 11 o’clock. I would be gone for two hours to fetch a bucket of water, which held 10 litres, from a borehole. Unfortunately, I did not have access to tap water as some members did. Evenings would be spent waiting at boreholes to get a drop of water. My friends had access to clean tap water.
When I went to Johannesburg I saw a big difference. There were bright lights and I came from a dark area. I was also fearful that I might come across things that could injure and even kill me. But, when I went to Johannesburg, I envied those bright lights. I then became conscious before the age of 10 that if I wanted to live in this South Africa, then I should ensure that I became part of those who intended to change it. That is why I am here. I grew up in Tlhabane and I am proud of that fact.
In his speech President Mbeki indicated that racism continues to be a daily reality for the majority of South Africans. The legacy of apartheid continues throughout South Africa’s institutions and even in this Parliament. Communities and attitudes such as those displayed by those to my left affect black people in general and Africans in particular. Unequal access to wealth, services and opportunities deny black people their rights. Some members rejoice when access to wealth is denied. That is why some members choose to make a noise. Our people do not have constitutional rights to access wealth. But, the ANC will ensure that black South Africans will have access to wealth which belongs to all South Africans.
Mr M J ELLIS: [Inaudible.]
Ms L L MABE: The hon member can shout as much as he likes but all of us, black and white, will be proud to be South Africans. The world does not belong to him alone. [Applause.]
At the beginning of this year President Mbeki called upon us to push back the frontiers of poverty. Indeed, the ANC is committed to pushing back the frontiers of poverty. When the ANC came into power in 1994, it had a plan and various documents. These started with the Freedom Charter, the RDP and other ready-to-govern documents. These gave the ANC the directive. This directive did not come from the ANC but from the masses of this country. [Interjections.]
The CHAIRPERSON OF COMMITTEES: Order! Hon Mabe, please take your seat. I want to appeal to hon members not to drown out the speaker at the podium. Let us allow the hon member at the podium to be heard. There is an ongoing commentary from my left and I have to appeal to members to desist. Please proceed, hon Mabe.
Ms L L MABE: Before 1994 we did not have access to land. Profitable land was reserved for a certain group of our population. As Africans we now have access to land. This has been made possible by the restitution of land. We can own land and we are proud of that. We hope that this Government will accelerate land distribution to blacks. This has been made possible by the support programmes which this Government consciously implements to ensure that all of us will benefit.
In the rural areas we did not have infrastructure. Our parents had to use their own money to build schools and clinics. At this moment the Government is making a conscious effort to ensure that rural people have access to clinics and schools. Even though these things happen, there is a big challenge facing the ANC-led Government that land must be made accessible to more people in this country, even better than it is being implemented now.
Most people in the rural areas and townships have access to clean, running water. They also have access to electricity. Those who depended on stream water have access to clean water. This gives them dignity as human beings. Diseases such as cholera have declined. I want to admit to the public that we as the ANC-led Government still have to do a lot in ensuring that all our people have access to clean water and proper sanitation to prevent them from contracting diseases. They should get decent houses so that people who build houses and abuse the resources of the Government should be dealt with. This will ensure that our people get decent houses. The ANC does not like some of the things these contractors are doing.
Our people have access to health. Pregnant women …
An HON MEMBER: You must shoot them down.
Ms L L MABE: Yes, hon member. You must shoot them down before I start doing so. Our people have access to health. They can go to clinics and hospitals. Pregnant women and children can be attended to without paying. Who pays for this? Our Government is paying. Right now we have reproductive rights as women. These rights were enjoyed by certain people. Right now they say the ANC is a killer because it supports choice. Fortunately, women can think for themselves and we have a right to choose. I also want to remind members that as long as poverty continues to be our number one enemy in this country, the ANC will not rest to ensure that this enemy is destroyed.
I want to remind members that my grandparents used to get a pension of less than R200. They got a third or - maybe I am not well informed - they could have been getting a quarter of what white people received. Today I am proud that an ordinary grandparent living in a rural area gets the same pension grant that a white person who lives in the suburbs gets. I also want to remind members that I am proud that poor people have access to food. Poor people and children have access to social grants. This will enable them to go to school and get a plate of food in the evening.
I want to remind members that the ANC does not want a social welfare state. We want a developmental state to ensure that people should go and work for themselves and not become dependent on social grants that are given to them by the Government. These grants are there to help them for a particular period to enable them to have something to live on.
I want to remind members that some members are propagating that what is happening in the mines, is going to kill the economy. We are not going to listen to the members on my left. As this Government we are going to ensure that blacks get access to mining. They own the assets. Women also own assets in mines. It is not only some members of our community who are going to own these assets. The DA does not have equal representation in this House. Yet, it is through the ANC that we see so many women represented in civil society, Government and the private sector. It is because of the ANC that right now we have women Ministers, mayors who are women. The DA did not come up with such a policy. [Applause.]
President Mbeki said that African women constitute the majority of the poor, particularly in rural areas. They are found in the lowest paid jobs and continue to fight poverty, illiteracy and poor health, including HIV/Aids. [Interjections.] Members on my left continuously make a noise about HIV/Aids. They mislead people by not telling them that this Government has a policy. It is doing a lot in ensuring that it deals with this scourge. It also ensures that it educates people so that they can understand better. We will continue to inform our people and not undermine their capacity and dignity.
Finally, in the preamble to the Freedom Charter we pledged to strive together, sparing neither strength nor courage, until the democratic changes set out in the Freedom Charter have been won. Until we win them we will not give in to whatever these members are saying or doing. [Applause.]
Miss S RAJBALLY: Thank you, Chairperson. We have come a long way since
- In fact, it is a bit hard to believe that almost 10 years have passed. However, what is believable is where we are today and what the strength of our nation has built us into, and continues to do so. It is almost 10 years into a democracy that has gained us the respect globally as a government for the people, by the people.
Today, we stand here proud of the democracy we have achieved but our pride shall be upheld by the memory of and gratitude for all those who had sincerely dedicated their lives to the freedom of our nation. I have tears in my eyes at the thought of the suffering, the hardship and the sacrifice so many endured to achieve what we have today and what we are today.
All those in the struggle fought for the freedom we celebrate today and today we shall strive to keep the freedom and to protect our people as one nation, regardless of colour or creed, to uphold our Constitution, to ensure democracy and to inculcate a better life for all through the alleviation of poverty and social development. We have the power to institute a state where all is one and one is all. As a nation, we have our challenges of which poverty, unemployment, and the HIV/Aids pandemic are some.
However, the MF believes that the unity we have as a nation and as a House holds a common interest for a better life for all. Those hurdles shall be overcome. The MF celebrates our decade of freedom proudly and prepares for another victory towards democracy, to close all the gaps in racism, and to work closely with the Government of today to achieve this freedom once again for the people of South Africa, especially for those who suffered under the apartheid regime.
Mr M STEELE: I am proud to represent in this House the tradition of nonracial, liberal politics which in my home city goes back many decades and included in earlier times such distinguished South Africans as Edgar Brookes, Selby Msimang and Alan Paton. I am also happy to celebrate with the House the constitutional provisions which have given us nearly 10 years of freedom, equality and the rule of law.
My enthusiasm for the Constitution has, however, to be tempered by concerns at the manner in which the country is being governed at this time. As the novelist E M Foster puts it: two cheers for democracy - one, because it admits variety and two, because it permits criticism, unless one belongs to the ultraleft. The third cheer would be for a Government which had truly advanced the spirit of the Constitution but that commitment appears to be waning fast.
From the collapse of the neocolonial order based on racial divisions, South Africa has experienced in quick succession the euphoria of national liberation and then the consolidation of power in the hands of a new elite. We had our Prague Spring when we were the rainbow nation, now we have a return to centralised authority and the co-opting of the timid by the ruling party.
After the optimism of 1994, a pervasive disillusionment has set in across the country. This is not a contrived pessimism, it is evident on every radio talk show and in every newspaper letters column. We ignore and dismiss these sentiments at our peril. The credibility gap between politicians and the public is wider now than at any time in the past decade.
I believe three factors have contributed to this public disillusionment. The first is undermining electoral accountability. Our electoral system of proportional representation has elevated party power over accountability to the voters. The system gives maximum representation to every party and minority group, but it takes public representatives away from the judgement of the voters. Most submissions to the Slabbert Commission called for electoral reform - a call which has fallen on deaf ears. The local government model which mixes ward with PR councillors could have been extended to the national and provincial parliaments. The voters believe that they have been ignored and it is little wonder that they then reject the political process.
The second is floor crossing. Business Day of March 2003, commented that floor crossing does not go down well with your average South African. My party supported the principle of floor crossing where reasons of conscience so dictate, but the practice has also been open to abuse. The public perceive floor crossing as being motivated by expediency rather than principle and the efforts of the ANC and their new partners to achieve by defection what they could not achieve at the ballot box are well documented.
The third is corruption. A study by UNISA academics in 2002 concluded that political elites from all parties including the ANC believe that corruption is on the increase in South Africa. This conclusion is shared by ordinary voters who see insiders benefiting from corruption and therefore retreat further into cynicism as a consequence.
American academic E M Uslaner of the American Political Science Association said last year that societies like our own with high levels of inequality and low levels of trust have more corruption while those with greater individual freedom and strong property rights have less. It has also been shown in a number of studies that countries with a high level of corruption have lower levels of public support for the political system. These are matters which should be of concern to all of us.
All parties and particularly the ruling party have the responsibility to take these issues seriously and restore public confidence in the institutions of our democracy. Failure to do so will see the voters passing judgment on those they hold most accountable. In the words of Lawrence Schlemmer: ``… our new democracy markets itself as a representative democracy but powerful priorities are steering it towards an elite-driven racial oligarchy…’’
Before we can uncritically endorse the celebration of our 10th anniversary of constitutional freedom, we have a duty to ask whether a more or less open and a more or less fair and genuinely competitive society is emerging. Give us the evidence that we are moving towards an open society and evidence that we can see and believe. Give the people a genuine desire to celebrate 10 years of constitutional freedom.
Mr G D SCHNEEMANN: Chairperson, comrades and hon members, I would like to start by congratulating the hon Mr Steele on making his first speech in this House, but I would like to exclude any congratulations on the content of his speech. [Laughter.]
Nine years ago, the African sun rose and shone brightly over our land as the African continent gave birth to a new democracy. A birth for which millions of our people had dreamed and prayed. On that day, the peoples of our land celebrated the birth of the new South Africa and, for the first time, experienced the true warmth of the African sun. An African dream had been born and the dawn of the African century was drawing near.
As a South African who has lived in the apartheid era and has experienced nine years of the new South Africa under the ANC, I can honestly say that the South Africa of today is a vastly changed and better country than that of the one pre-1994. [Applause.]
As a young child I could never understand why when I went to the shop with my mother, we could go in the front door and yet when I went with the lady who helped to clean our home, we had to go to a side window. My first visit to Soweto was in 1976 at the age of eleven. I clearly remember that day and despite being so young, I was made to feel so welcome.
Why, I asked, did we have to live in separate areas? In 1976, my parents could only find two restaurants in Johannesburg that would allow South Africans to eat together. In order to correct the painful injustices of the past, changes have had to be made.
We have inherited the legacy of apartheid. To change this legacy requires that each one of us participates actively in contributing positively to the success of our country. Many South Africans are assisting, but it requires an even greater effort by each one of us.
Now, nine years into our young democracy, we need to reflect on the progress and advances that we have made. Changes have been brought about in our economy and steps have been taken and continue to be taken to ensure that all the peoples of our land are able to participate in it. Over the past nine years the South African economy has been acknowledged as one of the most well run and managed.
Mr Michael Coulson, deputy editor of the Financial Mail, wrote in 2002:
There is no doubt that the achievement of fiscal and financial discipline has been one of the great achievements of the ANC Government since 1994.
The book, South Africa, the Good News, says:
There can be little doubt that the team managing our economic health are the finest ever to have done so for South Africa. They are hailed locally and their counsel is sought increasingly in various international forums.
[Applause.] Due to the fiscal policies of our country, inflation has been brought down, interest rates have come down and our country’s debt levels have been reduced. Just yesterday, the Producer Price Index levels announced were at 30 year lows. These are achievements we can be proud of.
South Africa, spearheaded by the efforts of President Mbeki and our Government, has begun to play prominent international roles, chairing the Non-Aligned Movement and the African Union. Major United Nations conferences such as the World Summit on Sustainable Development and the World Conference against Racism have been held in our country.
South Africa is playing a leading role through Nepad in the development of the continent. Our advice is sought by countries throughout the world on a range of issues. Through the efforts of the South African Government, investment and export opportunities for South African companies are at levels not experienced before in our history. This is an achievement we can be proud of.
Tourism is becoming one of the major industries in our country. People from across the globe visit our shores and experience the beauty and friendliness of our land and its people. This is generating a range of business opportunities for all South Africans. South Africa is being recognised as a leading player in the hosting of international conferences and events, generating millions of rands for our economy. These are achievements we can be proud of.
Our sporting teams are competing in the international arena. Since 1994, we have won the Rugby World Cup, the African Cup of Nations and gold medals at the Olympic Games. We have seen many of our sporting teams and men and women beating the best in the world. Some of the most memorable moments must have been watching Josiah Thugwane winning the Olympic marathon and Penny Heyns winning double gold at the Olympics.
Sporting events have seen our nation united as never before. Who will forget the Rugby World Cup or the African Cup of Nations victories? If only we could show the same patriotism and unity for our country as we do for our sport. Our national flag has reached the top of the world and has travelled to outer space. Surely, these are achievements we can be proud of.
If we take ourselves back to 1990, who would ever have imagined that we would be able to talk about these momentous achievements and progress that our country has made in a mere nine years! Together with these and all the other achievements which previous comrades have spoken about, we have every reason to feel proudly South African.
Whilst there has been remarkable progress in our country, there is still an enormous amount of work to be done. Recently, campaigns have been started by South Africans calling for people to come back home, to the land of their birth, to help make our country a winning and successful nation.
Our President has said that our Government supports the call for South Africans to come back home. This is a clear indication that this Government is for all the people of our land. Too often we hear some South Africans constantly waging a war of negativity about our land. Yes, we do have challenges but they are not insurmountable. We are implementing programmes to address these challenges and we as a nation will succeed.
If only these individuals would realise the immense harm and damage they cause to our land. If only they could be positive and lend a helping hand. One of the negatives of the past nine years has been the degeneration of the DA into a negative, destructive and unpatriotic party. [Interjections.]
I am reminded of the conversation I had with Mr Wynand Malan in July 1990. He had just resigned as a member of Parliament and as co-leader of the then DP. At the time he indicated that the DP was dying. How right he was, the DP of 1989 had died. It had and has become a right wing, conservative party, longing for the benefits they enjoyed under apartheid. [Interjections.] [Applause.]
I am further reminded of a resolution that was put forward at the DP youth congress in July 1990 which called for the DP to disband and join the ANC. This was angrily rejected by the leadership of the DP. This was a clear indication that the DP wanted to remain a narrow minority party. [Interjections.]
At the time the ANC was unbanned, comments were made by members of the DP that this was in fact not what they had wanted. Clearly, the DP found it expedient to call for the unbanning of the ANC whilst at the same time enjoying the benefits of apartheid and they would have preferred the status quo to remain. [Applause.] In fact, it is becoming more and more evident that the DA of today would prefer to still be calling for the unbanning of the ANC as this would enable them to continue enjoying the benefits of apartheid. [Interjections.]
An HON MEMBER: You were a part of it.
Mr G D SCHNEEMANN: I was never a part of it.
In a few months time we will have to make choices about the future of our country. These will include the choice to be a true patriot, the choice to be proud of our President and the choice to be proud of our country. [Interjections.] I made my choice a long time ago, to be part of a winning nation, to be proud of South Africa, to support and work for my country and to be part of the majority and not the minority. [Interjections.] [Applause.] Today, I want to call on South Africans, and in particular white South Africans, to join me … [Interjections.]
The CHAIRPERSON OF COMMITTEES: Order! Please take your seat, hon member. Hon members, the interjections are totally out of hand. The speaker at the podium cannot be heard and I think he is battling to complete his speech. I do not think that is fair on him. Hon members, I must appeal to you, for the second time, to please stop the heckling that has now emerged and is totally out of hand. Please continue, hon Schneemann.
Mr G D SCHNEEMANN: Chairperson, today I want to call on South Africans, and in particular white South Africans, to join me in the choices I have made and join me in supporting the ANC. They are choices one cannot regret making.
In conclusion, after nine years of democracy and one year before we celebrate our first decade of freedom, the peoples of our land bask in the warmth of the African sun. They share and enjoy the richness of the African soil. They have been restored to their rightful place as the true sons and daughters of this, our South African land. [Interjections.] [Applause.]
The CHAIRPERSON OF COMMITTEES: Order! Order, hon members. Hon members, when the Chair calls for order, there needs to be order. You continue interjecting, although the Chair is calling for order.
Now, I will have to name you, because you simply are not listening to the Chair. I am appealing to you for the last time. When the Chair calls for order, please listen.
Mr C AUCAMP: Hon Chairperson, there is always one big danger in festivities and celebrations, namely waking up the next morning with a hell of a babalas, and all the problems are still there … [Laughter] … only bigger and heavier. To awake after a multi million rand party, still overwhelmed by crime, unemployment, affirmative action and with no expectations of overcoming them, will merely dump us in a huge after-party depression.
Ek glo ons almal is na 10 jaar slimmer en wyser as in 1994. [I believe that after 10 years we all know more and are wiser than we were in 1994.]
The best way to celebrate is to reflect on the ten years and to revisit those areas where certain communities are marginalised by the social contract of 1994.
Ons het basies twee wêrelde wat met mekaar versoen moes word. Aan die een kant, ‘n wêreld waar die koestering van die eie eiendom en kultuur en godsdiensgoedere wat vir ons kosbaar is, prioriteit geniet - maar wat tog in die transformasie in Suid-Afrika in die spervuur verkeer. Aan die ander kant is daar ‘n wêreld waar armoede, siektes, dakloosheid, onderwysloosheid, werkloosheid, beperkte middele en menswaardige nood die grootste prioriteite is.
Is die uitdaging vir die tweede dekade van ons nuwe demokrasie nie juis dat die erkenning en daadwerklike aanspreek van hierdie twee stelle behoeftes nie net met mekaar versoen moet word nie, maar mekaar juis moet aanvul en stimuleer. Is die een nie dalk die sleutel tot die ander eerder as wat dit twee botsende pole is wat voortdurend in konflik moet wees nie? Die vraag kan met reg gevra word of hierdie wederkerige afhanklikheid tussen dié twee stelle behoeftes by Kemptonpark raakgesien is en verdiskonteer is in die sosiale kontrak wat Suid-Afrika se mense met mekaar gesluit het? Persoonlik glo ek dat juis dit die grootste uitdaging is vir die volgende tien jaar, dat Suid-Afrika se gemeenskap nie sal ophou om met mekaar te praat nie; nie sal ophou om te berus by ‘n skikking wat eenmaal bereik is nie. Dat ons veel eerder, veel wyser vanuit die kosbare ondervinding en ook die skades en skandes van die eerste tien jaar daagliks sal bou en uiteindelik formeel sal beslag gee aan wat die Groep van 63, ‘n opvolgskikking noem.
Die behoeftes van die verskillende gemeenskappe hoef nie vir ewig in botsing met mekaar te verkeer nie. Met die regte gesindheid van wedersydse respek en lojaliteit teenoor ‘n gedeelde vaderland en kontinent, kan die een eerder die sleutel tot die ander wees. Dalk is daar vir ons ‘n les te leer uit die ou film van Jamie Uys, “Hans en die Rooinek”. Die twee geswore vyande was gedwonge saam te voet op pad van die Kaap na Pretoria. Die een met vuurhoutjies, die ander met ‘n sigaret. Albei het uit hardkoppigheid rookloos gebly, totdat die nood hulle gedwing het: Jou vuurhoutjie is die sleutel tot my sigaret, en omgekeer. So alleen sal Suid-Afrika die pyp kan rook. (Translation of Afrikaans paragraphs follows.)
[We basically had two worlds that had to be reconciled with each other. On the one hand, a world in which the cherishing of one’s own property and culture and religious beliefs which are precious to us take priority - but which are nevertheless in the cross-fire during the transformation in South Africa. On the other hand there is a world in which poverty, disease, homelessness, lack of education, unemployment, limited means and human need are the greatest priorities.
Is the challenge for the second decade of our new democracy not in fact that the recognition and active addressing of these two sets of needs must not only be reconciled with each other, but must actually complement and stimulate each other. Is the one not the key to the other rather than their being two conflicting poles that must be in continuous conflict? The question can rightly be asked whether this mutual dependence between these two sets of needs was noticed and taken into account at Kempton Park in the social contract which South Africa’s people concluded with one another? I personally believe that this is in fact the greatest challenge for the next ten years, that South Africa’s community will not stop speaking to each other; will not stop abiding by an agreement which has been reached. That we shall rather, far wiser from the valuable experience and also the experience of the first ten years, build and eventually give formal substance to what the Group of 63 calls a follow-up agreement.
The needs of the various communities do not have to remain in conflict with one another forever. With the right attitude of mutual respect and loyalty to a divided fatherland and continent, the one can rather be the key to the other. Perhaps we can learn a lesson from the old film of Jamie Uys, ``Hans en die Rooinek’’. The two sworn enemies had no option but to walk together from the Cape to Pretoria. The one had matches, the other had a cigarette. Because they were both stubborn, neither of them could smoke, until desperation forced their hand: Your match is the key to my cigarette, and vice versa. Only in this way will South Africa be able to make the grade.]]
Mr M WATERS: Thank you, Chair. The hon Mabe is obviously unaware that the entire representivity of one of the DA’s predecessors, the PFP, was entirely female for 13 years and led by Helen Suzman. That is what the DA’s been doing for gender empowerment. [Interjections.]
South Africa has much to celebrate, next April. We will have had ten years of democracy. We will be celebrating the day the brutal NP regime of 46 years was legitimately kicked out of office, an office they should never have held in the first place.
However, to start debating this event some ten months prior to the actual event is, quite frankly, a waste of Parliament’s time. The title of this debate does not even make sense and the voters are probably and justifiably wondering whether we do not have anything better to debate, such as dodgy oil or rotten arms deals.
Let us debate this special report into the arms deal, which was released today, and what role the Cabinet played in it. Instead, we debate issues such as preparations to celebrate the first decade of freedom. Honestly, if we do not take ourselves seriously, how on earth can we expect anybody else to?
What we should be discussing are issues like child abuse and HIV/Aids, which South Africans are forced to face every day. We only have to open a newspaper to know what horrific crimes have been committed against our children. This week, the Mpumalanga police have expressed outrage regarding the dramatic increase in rural child rape over the last six months. Provincial Commissioner, Eric Nkabinde, said Mpumalanga was breeding monsters, with up to 300 sex crimes against children currently being reported per month.
He further stated, and I quote:
It is not strange anymore that up to ten child rape cases are reported every day. The latest rapes included that of a two year old toddler girl, raped at the crèche by an 18-year old, a 14-year old girl raped at a lodge by a visitor, the next day the man raped her in a room and a ten year old boy was raped by a 20-year old family friend in Tonga, while herding cattle.
Mpumalanga has only four child protection units with a provincial staff shortfall of 71%. They also have the highest caseload in the country, with the Nelspruit unit having a staggering 141 cases per investigating officer.
Another topic the ANC steers clear of like the plague, although it affects every household in our country, is HIV/Aids. Amazing! We debate topics as irrelevant as preparations to celebrate the first decade of freedom, but we have yet to have a debate on HIV and Aids and how it is impacting on South Africa. We have never debated that in this House. [Interjections.]
A disease that is killing more South Africans than anything before it, a staggering 600 people a day, and we do not debate it in this House. In fact, by the time we reach 27 April 2004, approximately 200 000 South Africans, watching this irrelevant debate on TV, would have died. Up to 200 000 of them would have died. [Interjections.]
An HON MEMBER: Why are you participating?
Mr M WATERS: Because we have to, to get our point across.
Up to 13% of children between the ages of two and 14 years have lost one or both parents due to Aids. There is no strategy on the ANC’s part to keep parents alive. We have already prepared over 900 000 graves for people who have died of Aids and, unless the ANC Government’s narrow-minded and outdated stance on HIV/Aids is changed and a national antiretroviral programme is implemented, the only thing we will be preparing for as a nation ten years from now, will be a further 900 000 graves.
I put it to this Government that there is a time and a place for everything, including celebrations. Let us not insult our people by getting that wrong. [Applause.]
Mr A Z A VAN JAARSVELD: Chairperson, I believe that this debate today is one that not only reflects on the past ten years, but also one in which we should take stock, in order to determine beyond doubt, who stands where in this country. [Interjections.]
In my maiden speech in Parliament on 11 June 1998, I said the following, and I quote:
There are two special groups of people. Those who pray for me every day and those special people whom I, as an Afrikaner, have come to know so intimately during the past five years. These are the people who made me realise that, personally, I could only be free once I have accepted the freedom of equality of all the people in this country.
They are my friends and my brothers and sisters in the townships in the northern areas of Port Elizabeth, who have introduced me to a world and a people that I knew were there, but a world and a people I did not really know existed.
This is the world of the people who are still desperately in need of
jobs. These are the people who still do not have a permanent roof over
their heads and who have no electricity or running water. This is the
world of the people who grew up with slogans such as liberation before
education'' andone settler one bullet’’.
This is also the world of the people who say they have found their freedom, but nothing has really changed. Sadly, however, this new freedom has not brought along with it peace from violence, uninterrupted education, speedy delivery of housing and, in the Eastern Cape in particular, care for the aged and pensioners.
This country is pregnant with potential but it has not yet come into the fullness of its new birth, because of a lack of understanding of the fears, the aspirations and the realities of this newborn child. It is with these realities in mind and a message from the people in Port Elizabeth, in the Eastern Cape, that I stand here today, saying that the very essence of Government is not to forget the needs, dreams and aspirations of those we have left behind at home and whom we are here to represent.
I believe that the hurts and the injustices of the past are etched into the minds and the souls of the generations who have experienced these things, and they cannot be eradicated. However, I believe it is our duty to create an environment that will be condusive to the growth of a nation that will not point fingers of accusation, but will extend its arms of embrace in order to grow into its fullness, in the hands of the next generation.
That was 1998. Today, five years later, I can undoubtedly say that the New NP has grown into the new South Africa. Today, we in the New NP can say a lot has happened to improve the quality of life of every South African citizen. [Interjections.] [Applause.]
Today we have better education, today we have much speedier delivery of housing, today we are taking better care of the elderly, our children and the poorest of the poor. Today millions of people have running water and electricity. Today I am proud to say that in the search to be part of the builders of this country, the New NP has opted to walk down the road of reconcilliation and nation-building. As the New NP opted to move closer to the centre of the political spectrum, we have chosen to work together with the Government, to build a better South Africa for all its people, and we are commited to a positive contribution by working hand in hand with the Government.
Die realiteit is ook dat daar diegene in hierdie land is wat steeds hunker na voor-1994. ‘n Bewys hiervan is die agb Sakkie Blanché se stemverklaring en ek haal aan: [The reality is also that there are those in this country who are still hankering after pre-1994. Proof of this is the hon Sakkie Blanché’s declaration of vote, and I quote:]
In the old South Africa, Public Works was one of the best run departments in the administration. Now, it seems that the ANC Ministers and nine MECs around the country must be trained and retrained to improve their performance. There are too many things going wrong in this department, for which the Minister must take responsibility.
It is clear that the DA thinks that this Government does not have the ability, and that black people in this country do not have the ability to govern this country. [Interjections.] [Applause.] To the DA we want to say that one can be a member of the opposition, one is entitled to be a member of the opposition, but one must still stay a patriotic South African.
I am saying that the DA should stop pretending that since 1994, this is a country that belongs to black people, so that when things go wrong, they can point fingers and say it is not us, but them. The DA should stop talking about us and them, they should start talking about us, as South Africans. This country belongs to all of us and the New NP does not hesitate to take co-ownership with the ANC. [Interjections.] [Applause.]
Mr J P CRONIN: Madam Deputy Speaker, I can understand the ignorance of Mr Waters, but the arrogance is too much to bear … [Interjections.] … and so let me say to those who were still in nappies when there was a real struggle to be fought, when people went to prison, went into exile, were murdered, were hanged, that what we are celebrating today, in the first instance, is 48 years of the Freedom Charter. [Applause.]
Forty-eight years ago the Congress of the People adopted this Charter. But what was important was that many months before the actual event volunteers went out. They went to rural villages, into factory canteens at lunch time, into the dusty streets of our townships, into mine compounds and to traditional imbizos. The volunteers went with a simple question. They asked: “What would you do, if you were the government?” In 1955 this was an audacious question to ask in a squatter camp or at a road-side construction site. These were, remember, the granite years of apartheid. It was an unthinkable question, but it was a profound and liberating question.
Hundreds of thousands of ordinary South Africans, most of them black and disenfranchised, spoke out about land and housing, about education and about health care. They said that they wanted to live in a South Africa that belonged to all, black and, remarkably, given 300 years of colonialism, white.
As we move towards the first decade of freedom, this vision of the charter of the people becomes an important reference point to assess our progress and to grasp the long road that still lies ahead. My ANC comrades and other colleagues here, the hon Ngubane and others, have spoken very movingly, in detail, about their personal experiences and about the important advances that we have made, not just as the ANC, but as a country, since 1994.
For us in the ANC the profound process of transformation in which we are engaged is a national democratic revolution. This transformation process is national because it is about nation-building. It is about constructing a common sense of citizenship and constructing, also critically, the infrastructural scaffolding for a single nation - integrated towns, cities, villages and suburbs.
It is a national struggle, the struggle for national transformation, because it is a struggle against national oppression. Not as an act of charity, from whites giving blacks some crumbs, but because to build a prosperous South Africa we have to build on the liberated energies, aspirations and traditions of struggle of millions of black compatriots who have tasted the bitter bread of daily oppression, who have survived and who have prevailed.
This transformation process is also national because it is about building national self-determination. It is our collective struggle as South Africans to be able to decide on the policies, the quality and the character of our own democracy, free from the bullying and manipulation of powerful external forces.
The key nation-building task that we face today is surely the imperative of pushing back the frontiers of poverty. These frontiers are not natural phenomena. We are not talking about rivers or mountains. We are talking about socially constructed barriers, some historical, but many of them are also being built and rebuilt daily as we speak, and that is what we have to push back.
It is the continued accumulation of wealth in the hands of a small minority. It is the R54 billion capital outflow between 1994 and 2000, basically that surplus, produced here in our country by the sweat of the brow, turned into profits and then running away from democracy in our country.
These barriers that we have to push back include the resistance of affluent suburbs to attempts to establish more equitable rates regimes in our cities. It is the use of capital-intensive technologies in cases where labour absorption is perfectly possible and absolutely necessary in a country with high levels of unemployment. It is the retrenchment of farmworkers in Limpopo, to bypass a minimum, a very minimum, wage determination. It is the casualisation of workers everywhere, in the name of the free market - freedom, one wonders, for whom? - in order to undercut progressive labour legislation that the hon Leon is, quite openly campaigning to roll back. It is resistance to black economic empowerment or the perversion of black economic empowerment into little more than shuffling around the boardroom table to pre-emptively make some space for a few dark faces. It is the redlining of communities and whole regions by banks. It is loan sharks, the mashonisas, exploiting the people’s desperate financial straits. These and many more realities are the frontiers, the barriers, that we must resolutely push back.
The barriers that we have to push back are also international realities. Every single cow, notoriously, in the European Union, receives, every single day, two dollars of public subsidies coming from wealthy governments in the North. That is more than the majority of individuals receive daily on our continent. That subsidised cow is more than just a very spoilt cow. That subsidy is part of a structured and daily reproduced global inequity: a barrier to the exportation of African commodities. Which is why, by the way, we do need a government and we do need a president that are active on the international scene. This is very important. In order to fight poverty here, we also have to deal with global inequities. [Applause.]
We are constantly told that we need foreign investment, and yes, of course, we do. And of course we cannot cut ourselves off from global markets. But the DA’s economic policies are built on advising us to deepen our dependence and our reliance on foreign multinationals and external investors. Their economic policies amount to advising us to strut our stuff on the global kerb-side, trying to attract passing traffic.
Which is why, wittingly or unwittingly, they so grossly misinterpreted policies such as Gear. For them Gear is entirely about making eyes at foreign investors. But actually Government’s macroeconomic policies are exactly the opposite. They are designed to lessen our dependency on and our vulnerability to external sharks in a volatile global economy, getting us away from soliciting on the global pavement.
This is also the reason the Growth and Development Summit did not sit down and ask as its key and only question: “How do we attract foreign investors?” The key question that was asked by the Growth and Development Summit was: “How as South Africans, as Government, as business, as labour, as the commmunity sector, do we marshall our own resources for growth and development? And this is why the DA was so off-balance, so absolutely silent, in the run-up to the Growth and Development Summit, because they were unable to offer any constructive policies around marshalling domestic resources for growth and development. [Applause.] Sidelined by their own inept policies, it comes as no surprise therefore that the Leader of the Opposition is now calling, after the Growth and Development Summit, from the sidelines, for the substitution of Nedlac. He wants to come onto the field and take off Nedlac. He thinks he is on the reserve bench, but actually he has been sent off, not by the race card, but by a red card. He is off. [Interjections.] Our revolution is national and it will therefore sideline those who cannot think patriotically.
Our national revolution is also a democratic revolution. And here too we find sharp differences - polarised positions. As the ANC, and not only as the ANC but together with many other South Africans, we are actively committed to deepening and enriching the democratic breakthrough of 1994. That was the beginning, not the end.
Ours is a vision of a developmental state. The DA’s vision of the new South African Government is of a neocolonial state. [Interjections.] They want the state to be lean and mean. Lean, so that the wealthy who can afford to pay for private health, private transport, private schools and private security do not have to pay too much tax. For the poor, by the way, there is no health care if it is not public health care; there is no transport unless it is public transport; there is no education unless there are public schools.
They want the Government to be lean, but they want it to be mean because the restless native masses have to be disciplined and put in their place. [Interjections.] You think I am exaggerating? Consider the Nepad founding document. The founding document of Nepad is an extensive analysis of the crisis of underdevelopment on our continent. It deals with the failure of the aid/debt nexus. It envisages massive infrastructural programmes. It envisages the changing of terms of trade, of food security - a critical issue on our continent. It talks about trying to reverse the brain drain from our continent and much, much more.
In all of this, in this vast document, what is the single thought that the DA plucks out with a small pair of tweezers? What does it pluck out from this large Nepad document? One single thing: the peer review mechanism. That is all they can think of and that is all they can see in it. For them that is the alpha and omega of Nepad. Why? Because they want to turn our state into a prefect state. In the time-honoured traditions of colonialism, with its perversion of traditional leadership, of “boss boy” and “indunas” in the reserves, in the compounds, in the colonies, in the region, outside oubaas’s front gate … [Interjections.] We heard about that. For them that is Nepad. [Applause.]
Minister of Safety and Security, that is exactly also their position on their current theme song, their whole approach to crime in our country. This campaign of theirs amounts to saying: “The ANC Government must sort out -`their’ people - the mini-bus operators, the trade unionists, the disorderly masses living in the townships.” [Interjections.] The hon Camerer, without any sense of selfconsciousness, referred to the “dark underside” just now in this House. [Interjections.] “But”, they say, “the Government must sort that out, that is the dark underside, the townships.” “But”, they say, “give us the statistics. Let us do the thinking. We will do the white collar work but you get on with the induna work.” That is their vision of the South African state. [Applause.] In the past several weeks four very interesting things happened in the constituency in which I work, Blue Downs, which is mainly a coloured working and lower-middle class township just across the N2 from Khayelitsha. A few weeks ago, sadly, all the musical instruments were stolen from the Silversands Primary School. It is a poor school, but with a very enlightened principal and teaching staff and they are very passionate about music and dance and take it seriously. And so it was quite a tragedy when they lost all their musical instruments.
A few days later, unrelated, I assume, the DA chose Blue Downs, Kleinvlei, as the site for launching their crime campaign. Because the hon Leon and the hon Gibson cannot sing like Peter Marais, in order to attract attention to themselves they had to hire a Cape Minstrel band. [Interjections.] With all this hoopla going on, while Messrs Leon and Gibson were pouring out all of their suburban cocktail hour lamentations on the good folk of Kleinvlei, Blue Downs, who had come to listen, presumably to the band, barely a kilometre away the community policing forum and the neighbourhood watch from Silversands were recovering the musical instruments and returning them to the school. [Interjections.]
And then last week, the fourth noteworthy event that happened in my constituency was that the Ministers of Justice, Safety and Security and Public Works participated in the unveiling of a new court complex in Blue Downs, in an event co-hosted by the local community policing forum. The Blue Downs court complex is about physically bringing justice to poor communities.
And there, encapsulated within a few weeks in the life of a poor community on the Cape Flats, one has the realities of the new South Africa. Schools, principals, teachers, parents and students making music in adverse conditions, but getting on with it. There one has a community policing forum and six affiliated neighbourhood watches getting on with it.
A national Government, a developmental state, transferring resources into historically neglected communities and working closely with local structures - getting on with it. That is the picture, that is the snapshot of this South Africa in transition. But, of course, the tableau would not be complete if we did not also have one hired band and two choirboys chanting their litany of suburban lamentations. [Laughter.] [Interjections.]
Forty-eight years ago, as apartheid tightened its grip on our country, volunteers went out to ask: “If you were the government, what would you do?” I do not think people answered: “I would be lean and mean.” Interestingly, they did not even answer: “Don’t ask me. The government must govern.” What they said was something much richer and much more transformational. They said: “The people shall govern.”
And now, today, in imbizos, in school governing bodies, in community police forums, in Nedlac - which they wanted to do away with - in Growth and Development Summits, in ward councils, in shopsteward councils, in Parliament, unevenly, in the face of many barriers that have to be pushed back, collectively, millions of South Africans are answering the question: “What would you do?” They are answering it in practice and they are saying: “This is what we are doing.” [Applause.]
Debate concluded.
JUDICIAL OFFICERS (AMENDMENT OF CONDITIONS OF SERVICE) BILL
(Second Reading debate)
The DEPUTY MINISTER FOR JUSTICE AND CONSTITUTIONAL DEVELOPMENT: Madam Deputy Speaker and colleagues, this Bill is the second piece of legislation that is derived from the Judicial Officers Amendment Bill that was introduced towards the end of the 2001 session of Parliament. The first Bill was, of course, the Judges’ Remuneration and Conditions of Employment Bill, now Act 47 of 2001.
The Bill amends five Acts in all. These amended Acts deal primarily with the appointment of magistrates and conditions of service for judicial officers, that is judges and magistrates. It is important to note that the provisions of the Bill can be divided into two main categories of reform. The first category sets in place a new mechanism for determining the remuneration of judicial officers, while the second category gives effect to two separate judgments of the Constitutional Court, namely the Satchwell and Van Rooyen cases.
In seeking to provide an appropriate mechanism for determining the salaries of judicial officers, the Bill integrates the views of the Constitutional Court on this issue. As regards the Van Rooyen judgment, the court had this to say on the matter:
Judicial officers ought not to be put in a position of having to … engage in negotiations with the executive over salaries. They are judicial officers, not employees, and cannot and should not resort to industrial action to advance their interests in their conditions of service. That makes them vulnerable to having less attention paid to their legitimate concerns in relation to such matters, than others who can advance their interest through normal bargaining processes open to them.
However, the court took notice of the intention to involve the Independent Commission for the Remuneration of Public Office Bearers in this matter, as proposed in the original Judicial Officers Amendment Bill, and expressed itself as follows in paragraph 146 of the judgment:
Unlike the magistrates, there is no filter between the judges and the executive to mediate the determination of their remuneration. Recognising this, the Minister has submitted a Bill to Parliament to vest the Independent Commission for the Remuneration of Public Office Bearers with the power also to make recommendations on the salaries of judges and magistrates. This is part of the evolving process of judicial independence in South Africa.
I do not think that we could improve on this perspective, other than to confirm its intention and to express the wish that this mechanism will address the concerns of the judiciary in a satisfactory manner. The mechanism provided by this Bill thus remedies current anomalies and satisfies the requirements for a process that complies with the precepts associated with judicial independence.
Apart from a peripheral discussion on the use of the independent commission as a vehicle for determining the salaries of judicial officers, the Van Rooyen decision also expressed itself on other matters. Of relevance to this amendment was the finding that section 9(4) of the Magistrates’ Courts Act relating to the appointment of acting magistrates was unconstitutional. Clause 1 of the Bill before us thus substitutes the relevant provisions of that Act with a view to putting the appointment of acting and temporary magistrates on a sound footing.
The second Constitutional Court case addressed by today’s Bill is the Satchwell case. Here, the court held as unconstitutional the failure of the Judges’ Remuneration and Conditions of Employment Act to afford to same-sex life partners of judges the same rights as those enjoyed by spouses of married judges. The Bill therefore amends the said Act in accordance with this ruling and carries this principle forward in respect of the lower court judiciary through the insertion of a relevant clause in the Magistrates Act.
The Bill that comes before us today is part of an ongoing process of judicial reform. We will be introducing further legislation, all of which will incorporate aspects of the Judicial Officers Amendment Bill that was initially proposed in 2001. These steps will be taken with a view to establishing a unified, transformed and independent judiciary in line with government policy and as envisaged by our Constitution.
In closing, I would like to thank the chair and the portfolio committee for their careful preparation of the legislation that is before us today. In addition, I would like to thank the officials in the department who drafted the legislation and supported the committee in its deliberations. I support the amendments contained in this important piece of legislation. [Applause.]
Ms F I CHOHAN-KHOTA: Deputy Speaker, this is an awfully technical Bill and an awfully technical debate to have at such a late hour, and I hope not to keep the House too long. Essentially the Bill before us amends four pieces of legislation.
I am seeing both sides of the House agreeing for the first time today. This is wonderful. The Magistrates Act, the Independent Commission for the Remuneration of Public Office Bearers Act, the Public Finance Management Act and the Judges Remuneration and Conditions of Employment Act are all Acts that we are currently amending.
Broadly speaking we regulate four main aspects pertaining to our judiciary. Firstly, we regulate aspects of remuneration for judicial officers. Previously if a magistrate acted for a time in a post that had attached to it a higher salary, that magistrate would not be entitled to that higher salary for the time he or she would have served in that position. The Bill now affords some measure of equity and equitable remuneration to such magistrates by establishing a new regime in this regard.
The second matter pertaining to remuneration of the judiciary is a more constitutionally significant one. Through this piece of legislation, the salaries of judges and magistrates will be referred to the Independent Commission for the Remuneration of Public Office Bearers. From now on, like MPs and Cabinet Ministers, judges will also have their salaries determined after intensive enquiry by the independent commission.
A new development towards the transformation of our judiciary into a single judiciary is the role of the chief justice in this regard. The chief justice will engage the commission on behalf of the entire judiciary, both magistrates and judges. This of course implies that the role presently played by the magistrates’ commission will have to be brought in line with the new salary mechanism.
The second issue that this Bill deals with relates to disciplinary processes in the magistracy. The existing procedures are vexed and result many times in peculiar and even embarrassing situations where errant magistrates cannot be removed through irregular application of the disciplinary procedure.
We now, with this Bill, simplify the suspension procedures by providing two types of suspension: Firstly, a provisional suspension, which must be authorised by the Minister and confirmed by Parliament; and secondly, a sentence of suspension from office. Again we clarify when a magistrate may be suspended from office and provide that the magistrates’ commission recommends, the Minister authorises and Parliament confirms such suspensions. We believe that this procedure is more in line with the checks and balances in our Constitution and will instill into the disciplinary procedure of magistrates some certainty, fairness and restored dignity.
The other two issues which my colleague, the hon Masutha, will deal with in some detail are the matters around acting and temporary appointments of magistrates and meeting the constitutional obligations towards spouses and partners of judicial officers. I am pleased that you are listening Mr Douglas. We believe that this Bill signifies an important step in the ongoing transformation of our judiciary and we commend it to the House at this very late hour. [Applause.]
Mrs S M CAMERER: Thank you, Deputy Speaker. The DA supports the Judicial Officers (Amendment of Conditions of Service) Bill which deals with two main aspects of service on the Bench, namely appointment and remuneration in the case of magistrates and remuneration in the case of judges.
The purpose in relation to magistrates is, as has been said, also to reinforce their constitutionally guaranteed independence, thereby addressing the issues raised by the Van Rooyen judgment of the Constitutional Court. It regulates the temporary appointment, by the Minister, of magistrates for short periods of time to fill temporary vacancies and builds in certain safeguards for the purpose of complying with that judgment to remove any suspicion of undue interference by the executive by providing that Parliament, and the magistrates’ commission must be informed if the vacancy remains unfilled for three months.
The DA will support any moves to reinforce the independence of the Bench, coming as it does on the heels of Minister Penuel Maduna’s assurances to Parliament during the discussion of his Vote that Government is committed to the independence of our judiciary. This is a move in the right direction. Such acting magistrates will get the same salary as permanently appointed magistrates for that period.
An underlying purpose of this Bill is also to bring the appointment process and other conditions of service of magistrates more closely in line with those of acting appointments in respect of judges. This is part of a more general longer term scheme, to have a unified Bench. The jury is still out regarding to what extent and how soon in practical terms this can be achieved. However, reinforcing magistrates’ independent status carries our full support.
The Bill also purports to streamline and constitutionalise the provisional suspension of magistrates. Up to now this has been a messy, dubious, prolonged and unsatisfactory process of which the portfolio committee has long been critical. The DA therefore welcomes what is intended as a substantial improvement, although how it will work in practice remains to be seen and we do hope that it does.
Ensuring that magistrates’ and judges’ salaries are also determined by the Independent Commission for the Remuneration of Public Office Bearers and providing that their salaries cannot be reduced save by an Act of Parliament is a welcome move to reinforce the independence of magistrates and bring their status into line with that of judges by making provision for benefits to accrue to spouses and heterosexual or same sex life- partners of these magistrates and judges in line with the recent Constitutional Court’s decision.
The Bill at last brings such matters into the new millennium and the DA fully supports this move. The previous exclusion of life-partners from such benefits was surely unconstitutional. The DA also supports the amendments to the Independent Commission for the Remuneration of Public Office Bearers Act increasing the number of members to eight and setting out guidelines for the commission’s recommendations on renumeration. We take great pleasure in supporting this Bill.
Mr M T MASUTHA: Madam Deputy Speaker, hon members, colleagues and comrades, the Bill before us is intended to reinforce an important value espoused in our Constitution, namely the creation and fostering of a single and independent judiciary which constitutes one of the three pillars of our constitutional democracy.
The introduction of this Bill by the ANC-led Government must therefore be seen as a clear indication of the ANC’s commitment to upholding this value. Under the apartheid order magistrates and the courts they presided over were seen as mere extensions of the then Department of Justice, which I must remind the hon Camerer and her colleague Dr Delport they once presided over as the former Deputy Minister and Minister of Justice respectively and were therefore treated as such.
It is therefore not surprising that the kind of judgments that they d livered and the manner in which they conducted their proceedings, especially when black litigants were involved, often reflected the racial prejudice reminiscent of the apartheid government’s policies of the past. Moreover the then regime saw very little need for magistrates to be appropriately qualified as judicial officers. This of course further weakened their independence and ability to perform their functions without fear or favour as contemplated under section 165(2) of our Constitution.
This Bill seeks to erode this legacy by, amongst other things, substituting the current section 9(i)(b) of the Magistrates Court Act of 1944 with a provision that states, and I quote:
No person shall be appointed as a magistrate of a regional division unless he or she is appropriately qualified and is a fit and proper person and the magistrates’ commission has informed the Minister that he or she is suitable for appointment as a magistrate of a regional division.
Secondly, because of the existing mechanism of creating temporary or acting appointments of magistrates which has resulted in the prevailing situation in which magistrates occupy such acting or temporary positions for unreasonably long periods of time thereby undermining the current system of appointment of magistrates under the Constitution, the Bill seeks to create a clearer and simpler system of acting and temporary appointments.
In this regard the Bill provides in the first instance for three situations in which the Minister, after consultation with the head of the court concerned, may make acting appointments for periods not exceeding three months at a time, namely in a situation where a magistrate who is the incumbent of that position is not available, a vacancy has arisen and has not yet been filled and an additional vacancy has arisen. In the second instance the Bill provides for the head of a regional division or a chief magistrate to make a temporary appointment for a period not exceeding five days to take care of emergency situations where the incumbent is unavailable to perform his or her duties owing to ill-health or some other contingencies.
Allow me now to turn to the matter arising from the well-publicised Constitutional Court judgment in the Satchwell case, namely the removal of unfair discrimination against same-sex partners of judges with regard to survivors’ benefits. As this House may well be aware, Judge Satchwell successfully challenged the constitutionality of a provision in the law governing survivors’ benefits for judges as being discriminatory in that it only applies to spouses, a concept which is narrowly understood in law to refer only to persons that have entered into a valid marriage.
In Casu the court made an order in the following terms, and I quote:
With effect from the date of this order sections 8 and 9 of the Judges Remuneration and Conditions of Employment Act, Act 88 of 1989, are to be read as though the following words appear therein after the word spouse “or partner in a permanent same-sex life partnership in which the partners have undertaken reciprocal duties of support.”
This Bill seeks therefore to give effect to this court decision. Whilst the question of heterosexual partners who are engaged in a similar relationship was not before the court and was therefore not addressed by the court, our committee deemed it prudent to extend this principle to benefit surviving partners in heterosexual relationships as well. Note that in both instances only one surviving partner stands to benefit.
In the case where a judge is married to more than one spouse, for example under customary law or religious law, however, the surviving spouses will not each receive the full survivors’ benefits but on the contrary will equally share the single benefit applicable to one spouse between or amongst them. The same principle is sought to be extended to survivors’ benefits in respect of magistrates as well. [Applause.]
Mr T E VEZI: Madam Speaker, the amending Bill being debated today represents yet another step in the ongoing process of bringing existing statutes into line with the Constitution and with judgments by our highest courts. This is a very necessary process as it leads to up-to-date, relevant and appropriate legislation that is constitutionally and therefore legally sound and defendable.
I would like to highlight just four important aspects of the Bill. Firstly, the Bill brings the requirements for the appointment of magistrates into line with the Constitution which holds that magistrates should be appropriately qualified and be fit and proper persons. The Bill also enables and simplifies the process and consequences of the appointment of magistrates in acting and temporary capacities.
Secondly, the Bill inserts the so-called Satchwell court order into the Statute Book, in that it provides that benefits currently received by spouses of deceased judges would also be received by partners of judges in permanent heterosexual or same-sex relationships. The morality of this step is not an issue here. What is important is that the provision gives effect to a court order and the values of a liberal Constitution that contains known discrimination and the promotion of equality as central objectives.
Thirdly, the Bill provides that an Independent Commission for the Remuneration of Public Office Bearers will make recommendations to the President on the salaries and allowances of judges and magistrates. Importantly, the Bill charges the chief justice with making a submission on behalf of the entire judiciary to the commission. Also, it provides that Parliament should by resolution approve the President’s determination after which any salary increase would come into effect and be backdated to the time of the President’s proclamation.
Fourthly, the Portfolio Committee on Justice decided to retain the provision that enables Parliament to pass a resolution that would set aside the suspension of magistrates as it was the most important measure of their protection. The IFP supports the Bill. [Applause.]
Mr S N SWART: Madam Speaker, hon Deputy Minister, the ACDP believes that the amendments relating to same-sex and heterosexual relationships are finessing into legislation, which otherwise might have been acceptable, a secular humanistic agenda which are in direct contradiction to the Judeo- Christian family values that we as Christian democrats hold dear.
The Constitutional Court, in a display of judicial activism, decided that from 17 March of this year, the relevant sections of the Act are to be read as though the following words appear therein, after the word spouse: -``or partner in a permanent same-sex life partnership in which the partners have undertaken reciprocal duties of support”. In a single disdainful sentence, a basic moral position long shared by Christians, Jews and Muslims, and people of other faiths, has been reduced to nothing.
Clearly, the mere fact that the Constitutional Court has made such a ruling does not result in a ruling being morally acceptable. It all depends on one’s particular point of view, ours being the biblical one that appeals to members of all faiths.
The portfolio committee additionally saw fit to extend this protection to include heterosexual unmarried persons. Such persons can get married, but choose not to. Why should their partners receive the same pension benefits whilst they are not prepared to commit to one another by getting married. It is a case of having one’s cake and eating it too.
Implementation will also present difficulties, as the department will only be able to rely upon what the partners themselves say. How will one stop partners fraudulently stating that they are in such permanent relationships in order to obtain pension benefits. The possibility for abuse is enormous, particularly if this principle is extended throughout the civil service.
The cost to the state will also be huge, with both homosexual and unmarried heterosexual partners being entitled to two-thirds of a judge’s salary for life. Has any actuarial costing been done? And will the Government’s pension fund be able to carry these costs, should these benefits be extended to all civil servants?
I am sure that these are some of the reasons why the Minister for Justice and Constitutional Development initially opposed the Satchwell application. The ACDP will not support this Bill. Our thanks to the NA for extra time. They also oppose this Bill. [Applause.]
Miss S RAJBALLY: Madam Speaker, the MF supports the amendments made in this Bill to the following Acts: The Magistrates’ Courts Act, 1944; the Supreme Court Act, 1959; the Judges Remuneration and Conditions of Employment Act, 1989; the Magistrates Act, 1993; and the Independent Commission for Remuneration of Public Office Bearers Act, 1997.
The main objective of the Bill appears beneficial and in line with the constitutional values of our country, especially in terms of current benefits received by the spouses of deceased judges. The mechanism of complaints against judges is a good step towards maintaining our democracy. The appointment requirements for magistrates are well in line. The MF supports the Judicial Officers (Amendment of Conditions of Service) Bill. [Applause.]
The DEPUTY MINISTER FOR JUSTICE AND CONSTITUTIONAL DEVELOPMENT: Madam Deputy Speaker, thank you. It would seem that everyone but the ACDP fully supports this Bill. Their objection pertains rather to the constitutional decision, which I believe is fundamental to the spirit and ethic of our Constitution, so I choose not to take issue with that at this point.
I would like to thank the members of the portfolio committee and all the parties for their support for this legislation. [Applause.]
Debate concluded.
Bill read a second time (African Christian Democratic Party dissenting.)
CONSIDERATION OF REPORT OF AD HOC JOINT COMMITTEE ON REPARATIONS
Mr M T MASUTHA: I am sure everybody is now tired of my voice. Nevertheless, Madam Deputy Speaker, hon members, once again allow me this time on behalf of the Chairperson of the Ad Hoc Joint Committee on Reparations, Comrade Andrew Mlangeni, who cannot be with us today due to a death in his family, to present to this House the committee’s report. I am sure that all our hearts are with him during this time of grieving.
The committee had been established by decision of the Speaker and the Chairperson of the National Council of Provinces to consider recommendations made by the President in terms of section 27 of the Promotion of National Unity and Reconciliation Act, Act 34 of 1995. In its written submission to the committee, the DA stated that it “rejects any attempt to substitute broader redistributive programmes for reparations”. The committee decided that this assertion was based on an erroneous and unsubstantiated assumption by the DA about what was being put forward by the President.
The committee further rejected the assertion that the Act was aimed exclusively at the granting of reparations to individuals only and not to granting redress to communities and the broader society for harm suffered as a result of gross human rights violations of the past. Furthermore, the committee rejected the contention that symbolic and community recognition was intended to serve as a substitute for what in the DA’s view was inadequate individual reparations.
The committee, having considered the President’s speech, identified four key areas on which the recommendations were focused, namely: Firstly, symbols and monuments; secondly, rehabilitation of communities; thirdly, medical benefits and other forms of social assistance to individual victims; and lastly, final reparations.
The committee further categorised these recommendations into two main groups: those recommendations that seek to redress injustices of the past in a more holistic manner by focusing on the gross human rights violations inflicted upon whole communities and broader society, on the one hand; and those recommendations that seek to redress gross human rights violations suffered by individual victims identified through the TRC process by granting them some degree of relief, on the other.
The committee therefore supports the President’s recommendations calling for systematic programmes to project the symbolism of struggle and the ideal of freedom through academic and informal records of history, cultural and art forms, erecting symbols and monuments that exalt the freedom struggle, including new geographic and place names. It has, however, added that it is necessary that in all this work the ideals of reconciliation and unity are also symbolised. The committee notes the work that has already begun in this regard, including the establishment of Freedom Park, the Garden of Peace and the renaming of streets and towns in various parts of the country.
The committee also supports the Government’s commitment to the rehabilitation of communities that were subjected to intensive acts of violence and destruction. It notes the work that has already begun in this area and it endorses the focus on a partnership approach between communities and Government in pursuit of this objective.
The committee endorses the view that not only individuals but also whole communities suffered and are still in distress. It therefore recognises the need for such communities to be rehabilitated through various programmes mentioned by the President. Concerning the specific needs of individual victims identified by the TRC, the committee notes the assurance given by the President of programmes put in place to provide for medical benefits, education and other forms of social assistance.
In view of the claims made that victims have not always obtained the assistance they require from government departments, the committee proposes that Parliament, in line with its oversight role, be provided with regular reports by Government on progress made in providing such assistance to victims.
The committee, having considered the President’s recommendations regarding final reparations, endorses the commitment of the Government to provide a once-off grant of R30 000 to those individuals or survivors designated by the TRC, over and above the other material commitments already mentioned and the urgency with which the President commits Government to allocate these benefits.
We in the ANC concur with the President that no amount of money can make up for lives lost nor grant sufficient compensation for the indignity, humiliation and suffering that millions of our people were subjected to and agrees that for the majority of victims and heroes of the struggle the sweet air of freedom they now can breathe, the sweet water of human rights and dignity that they now can taste and the warm rays of democracy that they now can bathe themselves in to their hearts content are all the things they could ever ask for in return for their contribution to the struggle.
Therefore, the committee recommends that Parliament accepts the four recommendations made by the President as constituting a complete and appropriate response to the task entrusted to him in this regard. I therefore commend this report to this august House. [Applause.]
Mrs S M CAMERER: Madam Deputy Speaker, it is a pleasure for me to convey the DA’s position on the TRC reparations report on behalf of our chief spokesperson on the TRC, the hon Dene Smuts, who unfortunately had to be with her son who is undergoing an operation.
The position of the DA on the President’s proposal is reflected in the Report of the Ad Hoc Joint Committee on Reparations contained in the Announcements, Tablings and Committee Reports of 25 June 2003 as views expressed, but not carried - that is in reference to paragraph 2 - and contentions, not accepted - that is in reference to paragraph 3(4). We express our appreciation to the chairperson, the hon Mlangeni for including our position, even if it does not appear under our party’s name.
It is incontestibly the case that the reparations promised to designated victims are governed by sections 3, 4, 5, 25 and 26 of the Promotion of Unity and Reconciliation Act. These victims have waited nearly five years for individual reparations. Both the DA and the TRC have said during these years that they were being neglected and betrayed despite the nation’s solemn obligation to them. That they are finally to receive an amount modest by comparison with even the TRC’s unsatisfactory 1998 proposals is cause for some relief.
However, this step certainly does not satisfy the demands for justice in the case of the 2 975 victims who emerged from the amnesty process. It was only the promise of reparation that rendered constitutional the extinguishing of their right to sue for damages. That is the basis on which we drafted the Truth and Reconciliation Commission Act in 1995. And that is what the Constitutional Court confirmed after the AZAPO challenge.
These 2 975 victims, at minimum, should have been assessed for actual loss and properly compensated. Do not forget that they are victims of killing, torture, abduction and severe ill-treatment, not of discrimination or apartheid. They include the victims of the liberation movements themselves in their camps in exile.
Our assertion that monuments are cold comfort and that community programmes are no substitute for what was promised at the time is proved by the fact that an amendment has to be made to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission Act, after the fact, to include community programmes as a form of reparation. This amendment still has to serve before the Portfolio Committee on Justice. As a supplementary step, very often, the rehabilitation of communities ravaged by violence is welcome, but it is no substitute for what was promised at the time.
The social, medical and other services offered are no more or less than what the Government owes any citizen in any case. In addition, the social, medical and other services offered under the expanded urgent interim reparations programme, when Government kept postponing its final reparations proposals, has sadly shown that they are meaningless. We are pleased that the ad hoc committee has accepted our recommmendation in this regard and that Parliament is now asked, through its portfolio committees, to exercise annual oversight over these services.
We hope that the TRC-designated victims will now appeal to their MPs from all parties when departments fail to look after them instead of repeatedly returning, as the TRC reported, to the President’s Fund empty-handed. [Applause.]
Mrs S A SEATON: Madam Deputy Speaker, the Ad Hoc Joint Committee on Reparations in its report before the House today, groups the four key recommendations by the President on reparations into two broad categories. Firstly, redress in a holistic manner to communities and the broader society and, secondly, redress to individual victims of gross human rights abuses under apartheid.
The IFP supports this approach as we support the principle that whoever is entitled in law to reparations, should receive such reparations as are deemed appropriate. We also support the main recommendation of the committee that Parliament accepts the President’s four recommendations and that the practical arrangements will be undertaken through regulations in terms of the Act.
We also recognise, having been represented on the committee, that its mandate was restricted to the President’s recommendations flowing from the TRC process. However, the IFP is duty-bound to point out that only a small fraction of the victims of apartheid appeared before the TRC. In all only 19 000 victims did so, which immediately highlights the indisputable fact that there were far more victims even in the broadest sense of the word.
The President’s recommendations on reparation and the committee’s consideration of and report on them, therefore, deals with only one small process. In other words, reparation to victims that were statutorily provided for. The challenge this House faces, as indeed the Government does, is how to deal with those victims of apartheid who could not be accommodated under the TRC process, or who chose not to take part in its proceedings for a variety of reasons.
An argument has been advanced that reparations to these victims are already taking the form of Government’s endeavours in meeting the basic economic and social needs of the people who suffered under apartheid. On the surface that sounds reasonable enough, until one realises that providing for the basic needs of a country’s citizens is in fact any Government’s duty. It has no choice but to do so. If it did not, it would not be fulfilling its electoral, legal and constitutional mandate and could reasonably expect to be voted out of office at the next and earliest opportunity.
Therefore, another method must be found to compensate those millions of victims of apartheid who will not benefit from the existing reparations policy. At this point, the IFP would not like to propose any particular method or process, except to say that its ultimate form should be decided by a national debate and by national consultation with the victims of apartheid who will not benefit at this point. Failure to do so would in our opinion leave too much unfinished business that could bedevil the future of our democracy.
Mnr C B HERANDIEN: Mevrou die Adjunkspeaker, die Nuwe NP steun die verslag soos voortgebring deur die Ad Hoc komitee oor reparasies. Daar is egter ‘n paar dinge wat uitgelig behoort te word.
In die eerste instansie steun ons die gedagte van die aanwys van simbole en monumente heelhartig. Ek wil egter ook ‘n beroep doen op almal wat geraak is om aanbevelings te doen by die spesifieke komitee wat dit reeds hanteer.
Wat interessant is, is die feit dat daar ook ‘n suggestie van die President is dat gemeenskappe in hul totaliteit opgehef behoort te word. En weer eens berus hier ‘n groot verantwoordelikheid op elke lid van hierdie raad, elke openbare verteenwoordiger van hierdie gemeenskappe wat sleg geraak is, om daardie sake onder die aandag van die Regering te bring.
Wat ook interessant is, is die voorstel van die Waarheids- en Versoeningskommissie dat daar jaarliks vir die volgende ses jaar gereeld verslag gedoen moet word aan die Parlement deur die onderskeie departemente om oorsig te gee en verslag te doen oor wat presies hulle alles in hul departemente gedoen het met betrekking tot reparasies.
Die gedagte wat deur die agb Camerer uitgespreek word, en dus ook nou die DA se weiering of verset is teen die verslag, is vir my nogal redelik insiggewend, want ons kan verstaan dis nou weer verkiesingstyd. Hulle sal graag die 2 975 aan hulle kant wil hê. Hulle redenasie gedurende die … (Translation of Afrikaans paragraphs follows.)
[Mr C B HERANDIEN: Madam Deputy Speaker, the New NP supports the report published by the Ad Hoc Committee on Reparations. There are, however, a few things that should be highlighted. In the first place we support the idea of the designation of symbols and monuments wholeheartedly. However, I would also like to appeal to everyone who has been affected to make recommendations to the specific committee that is already dealing with this.
It is interesting that there is also a suggestion by the President that communities as a whole should be uplifted. And here, once again, a great responsibility rests on every member of this House, on every public representative of these communities which have been adversely affected, to bring those matters to the attention of the Government.
What is also interesting is the proposal of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission that for the next six years there should be a regular annual report to Parliament by the various departments to give an overview and report on exactly what they have done in their departments with regard to reparations.
The idea expressed by the hon Camerer, and which also represents the DA’s refusal or objection with regard to the report, is fairly enlightening to me, because we can understand that it is once again election time. They would like to have the 2 975 on their side. Their argument during the …]
… deliberations was that we should accept the proposals made by the TRC that R21 700 per victim should be paid out over a period of six years. Now, that is a noble idea, but on the other hand they do not tell us where the money must come from.
Want dit is nie die enigste aanbeveling wat die WVK gemaak het nie. Hulle het ook gepraat van welvaartbelasting. Aan die ander kant is die DA doodstil, want hulle wil hul kiesers wat geraak sal word deur welvaartbelasting nie te na kom nie en aan die ander kant wil hulle ook weer … Jy kan nie alles vir almal te aller tye wil wees nie.
En daarom stem die Nuwe NP heelhartig saam met die President wanneer hy sê geen bedrag wat die Regering gaan uitbetaal sal ooit kan vergoed vir lewensverlies en vir die trauma wat mense reeds deurgegaan het nie. Daarom is dit ook belangrik dat die President daarna verwys het dat ons mense nie bloedgeld moet aanbied nie. Die Nuwe NP ondersteun dus ‘n finale, eenmalige uitbetaling van R30 000 en ons ondersteun die program ten volle. [Applous.] (Translation of Afrikaans paragraphs follows.)
[Because that was not the only recommendation the TRC made. They also mentioned prosperity tax. The DA, on the other hand, keeps completely quiet, because they do not want to offend their voters who will be affected by prosperity tax, and on the other hand they also want to … One cannot be all things to all people at all times.
And for this reason the New NP agrees wholeheartedly with the President when he says no amount that the Government is going to pay out will ever compensate for loss of life and for the trauma people have already suffered. For this reason it is also important that the President referred to the fact that we should not offer people blood-money. The New NP therefore supports a final, once-off payment of R30 000, and we support the programme in its entirety. [Applause.]]
Mrs M A SEECO: As indicated in the principal debate on the matter, the UCDP concurs with the findings of the TRC up to and including the once-off blanket offer to all the victims of atrocities by the President of the Republic.
Hinging on the spirit of reconciliation as captured by the authors of the interim constitution, all the reparations should answer to ubuntu. However, the recommendations by the TRC should not be construed as asking too much from somebody. That apology could heal all wounds and afford this country a fresh start in the new decade.
The construction and erection of symbols and monuments should be done in a peaceful manner, showing understanding of the situation. They should be put up for reparation of relations and not retaliation. To us there is no problem in this instance, because, wherever they are put, in time people will identify with the symbols and monuments of their choice. And democracy gives people the right to choose what they want and not be bulldozed into what is the preference of the majority.
As we said before, no amount of money can ever be sufficient to replace any life. We call on all our people to appreciate and accept the token of goodwill in the form of the R30 000 once-off grant. [Applause.]
Miss S RAJBALLY: Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker. The MF feels the hardship and pain that the victims who took their cases to the TRC endured.
The relating of experiences seldom left a dry eye. The experience of our nation has been traumatic and though we stand free as a democracy today, the sufferings of our people needed justice, which the TRC has taken the initiative to achieve.
Reparation to these 22 000 or so victims is expensive and with the state of our nation in terms of poverty and other negativities, seems barely possible. However, the MF feels that as a nation it is our responsibility to ensure the wellbeing of all and in line with this, voices its support for any strategies suggested by the committee in terms of reparation.
Mnr C AUCAMP: Agb Adjunkspeaker, die afhandeling van die WVK-proses kon baie maklik ontaard het in ‘n dermsuitrygproses van voor-af van blaam en skuld werp en van verhoudinge vertroebel. Die NA glo egter dat president Mbeki hierdie saak verstandig gehanteer het en die toon aangegee het vir ‘n versoenende hantering en oplossing van ‘n delikate saak.
Volkome geregtigheid is in ‘n gebroke samelewing nie moontlik nie. Lewe en pyn kan nooit in geld uitgedruk word nie. Die beste manier om die samelewing te herstel is deur geregtigheid en dan ook deur dit waarmee ons vandag en elke dag besig is. ‘n Bedrag van R30 000 as ‘n gebaar is ‘n simbool vir die slagoffers van misdade in die verlede en moet ook sodoende beskou word.
Ek sien in die verslag dat plekname ook verander moet word om aan die WVK- verslag gestand te doen. Kan ek u daaraan herinner dat die Afrikaners ná die Anglo- Boere-oorlog, ná die verdrukking deur die Engelse, amper geen pleknaam verander het nie. Dít is nie die manier om dit te doen nie. Die NA ondersteun hierdie verslag en ons wens al die lede ‘n aangename resestyd toe. [Tussenwerpsels.] (Translation of Afrikaans speech follows.)
[Mr C AUCAMP: Hon Deputy Speaker, the conclusion of the TRC process could very easily have degenerated into an over-analytical process of apportioning blame and levelling accusations all over again and of bedevilling relations. However, the NA believes that President Mbeki handled this matter wisely and gave the keynote for a conciliatory handling of and solution to a delicate matter.
Absolute justice is not possible in a fragmented society. Life and pain can never be expressed in terms of money. The best way of restoring society is by means of justice and then also by means of that which we do today and every day. An amount of R30 000 as a gesture is a symbol for the victims of crimes in the past and must also be regarded as such.
I see in the report that place names also have to be changed to give substance to the recommendations of the TRC report. May I remind you that the Afrikaners, after the Anglo Boer War, after the oppression by the British, changed virtually no place names at all. The NA supports this report and we wish all the members a pleasant recess. [Interjections.]]
Mr E M SIGWELA: Hon Deputy Speaker, the Ad Hoc Committee on Reparations recommends that this Parliament accepts the four recommendations made by our President in this regard. That is, firstly, systematic programmes to project the symbols of the struggle for freedom; secondly, the rehabilitation of communities that were subjected to intense acts of violence and destruction; thirdly, medical benefits and other forms of social assistance and fourthly, with regard to specific cases of individual victims identified by the Promotion of National Unity and Reconciliation Act, Act 34 of 1995, final reparations by providing a once-off grant of R30 000 to those individuals or survivors designated by the TRC over and above the other material commitments already mentioned.
The ANC accepts these recommendations, as they give a clear guide to us as a nation on how we can move the fixation on the trauma of apartheid brutalisation into a programme of reconciliation as we stand together, both perpetrator and victim. We need to accept the proposed reparations as a symbolic act of cleansing our nation. We need to look into the future without any impediments to accepting each other, black and white, as brothers and sisters, ready to hold each other’s hands, ready to lift heavy loads together, to dig or fill up trenches together and to do together whatever our beloved country requires of us to do. To create a new country and a new nation united across colour lines.
Speaking as a victim at individual level, leaving out the collective brutalisation as part of the community, I sincerely believe that there can be no better reparations than the permanent guarantee of freedom from the gross indignities suffered by the black people under apartheid rule, including a permanent guarantee of freedom from the brutal repression by the apartheid state, including of course the brutality of its surrogate states, the so-called bantustans, the homelands, because they were equally brutal. As I say this, I am reminded of the victims who were tortured to death. Comrades, such as Comrade Luksmart Solwandle Ngudle of Cape Town - here where we are - Comrade Timol also from here, Comrade John Mahapi, Steve Biko and others.
I am also reminded now at a very personal level of the captain in the security police in December 1964, who hit me so hard across the mouth and asked me one question: “Do you know that you are now in Umtata and no longer in Maseru?” And whenever I answered “yes” to the question, he hit me so hard that I became confused and did not know how to answer. By the third time, when he turned his hand and hit me with the edge of his hand like a karate chop he broke my lips - I still have the mark here. I reached inside my mouth and shook my teeth, and when they actually broke off, two teeth here, I realised that I did not need to answer.
As he was doing this, and blood was flowing down on my shirt, and I was being handcuffed, his colleagues sitting around shouted “Hitler! Heil Hitler”, I realised where I was. That was the point of determination in me. I began not even to feel the pain, but to have the determination that apartheid must be fought. I knew I was at a point where I could ultimately be killed, but that was not important at that moment. It was the system that could produce that kind of people. And even as I tried to pull out my handkerchief, Nicholson, the last man to interrogate Comrade John Mahapi, said: “Los daai ding. Sluk in daai bloed”. [Leave that thing. Swallow that blood.] And that is the past we come from.
I am also reminded, comrades and hon members of this House, of the small group of us, the first people to be tried under the Terrorism Act. It was not the brutality of the Security Police only this time, because look at it, the whole system of the state, it did not matter whether you were in the hands of the police, or in prison under prison officials … I wish Dr Skosana was here … or in court. The very judges who were so concerned about the rule of law were harassing you. You knew even before the sentence how the sentence was going to go. Because when we were sitting as the accused in the dock, we were expecting the judge at least to intervene so that we could get a fair trial and not to look at him and already see how the sentence was going to go. That was the state of affairs.
But that is not all. There was the systematic torture that we endured in prison, the ten of us, at Maximum Central Prison in Pretoria, sitting in those cells with condemned prisoners. We were not condemned to death. We were denied food, denied everything to the point that we tried anything as a means of survival. I tried floor polish and I found it inedible - I spat it out. I tried toothpaste, because the officer in charge of stores gave us toiletries. I tried it and found it edible. I put some toothpaste in my mouth, went to the water-well and took a little water and worked it down and swallowed it. That sweetness and that peppermint taste kept us alive. I learnt that my other nine comrades were also doing the same thing. And that is how we survived.
It is those things, those situations that one thinks of when we talk about reparations. But, as I say, I have related this before - I mean I do not have time now - when I was speaking in the United States and Canada, and people asked me: “What is your desire? What should happen to those people? If now you are free, what should happen?” I said that what I want is that Mr Potgieter, who was the head of the prison at Maximum Central Prison, should accept that he committed a crime. He was wrong, he was against the law and he should walk with me and we must march together against apartheid. That is all that I want from him and I think that is the greatest prize that we need. [Applause.]
And then there are people who try and make us feel that there are blacks and whites in our country, to the point that I give the New NP credit for what they have done to join hands with the ANC and want to march into a brighter future together as sisters and brothers rather than former enemies looking into each other’s eyes, you know, with a desire to kill one another. That is what we must be thinking of as we think of reparations. There can be no greater reparation than the guarantee of freedom, than the guarantee of permanent liberation and freedom from all these things I have just related to you. [Applause.]
Debate concluded.
Mr F BHENGU: Madam Speaker, on behalf of the Chief Whip of the Majority Party, I move:
That the Report be adopted.
Motion agreed to (Democratic Alliance dissenting). SOUTHERN AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT COMMUNITY PROTOCOL ON POLITICS, DEFENCE AND SECURITY CO-OPERATION
(Consideration of request for approval by Parliament
in terms of section 231(2) of Constitution)
There was no debate.
Southern African Development Community Protocol on Politics, Defence and Security Co-operation approved.
SOUTHERN AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT COMMUNITY PROTOCOL ON FISHERIES
(Consideration of request for approval by Parliament
in terms of section 231(2) of Constitution)
There was no debate.
Southern African Development Community Protocol on Fisheries approved.
PROTOCOL ON WILDLIFE CONSERVATION AND LAW ENFORCEMENT IN THE SOUTHERN
AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT COMMUNITY
(Consideration of request for approval by Parliament
in terms of section 231(2) of Constitution)
There was no debate.
Protocol on Wildlife Conservation and Law Enforcement in the Southern African Development Community approved.
TREATY BETWEEN THE REPUBLIC OF SOUTH AFRICA AND THE PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF CHINA ON MUTUAL LEGAL ASSISTANCE IN CRIMINAL MATTERS
(Consideration of request for approval by Parliament
in terms of section 231(2) of Constitution)
There was no debate.
Treaty between the Republic of South Africa and the People’s Republic of China on Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters approved.
GOOD WISHES FOR RECESS
The SPEAKER: Hon members, that concludes the business for the day. I wish you a fruitful campaigning period and a not terribly restful recess, because I am sure you will all be campaigning. But I do wish to remind members that in accordance with the programme approved by the Joint Programming Committee yesterday, committees will start meeting from 4 August and plenaries will resume in the week of 1 September.
The House adjourned at 18:23. ____
ANNOUNCEMENTS, TABLINGS AND COMMITTEE REPORTS
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
National Assembly and National Council of Provinces:
- Bills passed by Houses - to be submitted to President for assent:
(1) Bill passed by National Council of Provinces on 26 June 2003:
(i) Appropriation Bill [B 8 - 2003] (National Assembly - sec
77). TABLINGS:
National Assembly and National Council of Provinces:
Papers:
- The Minister of Home Affairs:
Strategic Plan of the Department of Home Affairs for 2003-2006.