Date: 18/03/2010
Source: The African National Congress
Title: ANC: Radebe: Speech by the Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development, in the debate on the vote of no confidence in President Jacob Zuma, Parliament

Thank You Mr Speaker.

From the onset, let me restate the historical fact that the real
Congress of the people is the African National Congress. As a
majority party, it is therefore through the African National
Congress that the people will speak of their representation in the
Executive.

At our 52nd Conference in Polokwane in December 2007, delegates
overwhelmingly elected Mr Jacob Zuma as President of the African
National Congress. We did not release any white smoke into the
Limpopo University chimneys because we were clear in our minds that
we had not elected a Pope, but a human being who has human
strengths and human frailties like all of us.

On 22nd April 2009, 11 650 748 voters, what we consider to be a
broad spectrum of South Africans, and nearly 70% of the electorate,
voted for the African National Congress, led by President Zuma to
be the Government of South Africa. One million more people voted
for the African National Congress in 2009 than in 2004.Today, the
arrogance of 30 people in this House, is trying to tell us that
those millions of people were wrong. The collective minds of these
millions of people are convinced that our movement and its
President are fit and proper to run this country.

This motion goes contrary to the recent findings of the IPSOS
Markinor survey of February 2010, which has the following to say,
and I quote:

"At the start of 2010, President Zuma is in an enviable position
in terms of his public rating. He begins the year with 77% of the
population agreeing that he is doing his job fairly well, or very
well. This is the highest rating for a President since May 2006.."
(Unquote)

This means that the President of the African National Congress
at 77% is more popular than the African National Congress at 70%.

We have never wavered from our understanding that each President
of the African National Congress, from Reverend John Langalibalele
Dube to Jacob Gedleyihlekisa Zuma, would come and go, but each one
of them would leave an indelible mark in the character of our
movement, responding to the particular challenges of their tenure
and the challenges of the stage of our revolution.

I am therefore surprised, Mr Speaker, that we are gathered here
today to entertain the views of a few, who are driven by motives
other than those of honesty, particularly with regards to majority
rule. Honourable Members, I venture to say that had we been alive
to the current challenges of our communities, and were it not for
the permissiveness of our constitutional democracy, for which we,
the African National Congress take full credit, such a motion would
not have been tabled.

As we deliberate this issue, we are inadvertently being made
partners in throwing a lifeline to an entity that is drowning under
the inconsistencies of its own power hunger. As I speak, Honourable
Members, I do not know to whom, among the three, my eyes should be
fixed, because my action may be misunderstood to mean my
endorsement of the one I am looking at. This is the gravity of this
leadership squabble I am talking about.

This house is being roped in to be fellow sojourners in a
journey of a disgruntled few who have not come to terms with the
realities of democratic politics of winning OR and losing.

I rise, Mr Speaker, not because I am a Member of Parliament who
is expected to defend the integrity of the President of the African
National Congress. I rise because many of us are angry that the
proposers have done so knowing very well that their motion will not
see the light of day but they will get their cheap publicity all
the same.

If we as Honourable members of this august body do not rise,
this new tendency to grandstand will continue unabated while the
mockery continues to erode the credibility of our democratic
institutions.

On two occasions we have seen the same group of people using
Parliament for cheap publicity? Firstly, when they proposed a
candidate for contesting the Presidency of the Republic, they knew
very well that it would be easier to win the Powerball and Lotto
than the Presidency.

* Secondly, when they tried to precipitate a crisis by walking
out of these Chambers last month because they disagreed with the
ruling of the Deputy Speaker, they may have got their sixpence
worth of media spotlight but the wheels of democracy continued,
thanks to the political parties that stayed behind and fulfilled
the mandate which they have been given by the electorate.

The track record of COPE seems to border on anarchy from
Polokwane, to their internal problems to the current motion. COPE
has displayed characteristics of being a party of failures. For
instance:

* COPE failed to launch itself as a Party in the hastily
organizedmeeting in Bloemfontein in December 2008;

* It cannot bring unity even among the arbitrarily
self-appointed leadership;

* It deceived the electorate by promising a manifesto but they
did not have a policy upon which to base their Manifesto on;

* The party deceived the electorate by promising them to be the
next Government but later changed tune by claiming they will be the
next official opposition;

* They claimed they will be an effective opposition but the
Deputy leader is never seen in the corridors of Parliament.

* South Africans have expressed a vote of no confidence in them.

Honourable members, I say this because this group has on two
occasions, in Polokwane and in the April 2009 national general
elections, dismally failed to get political recognition through
democratic processes and are now using this House to win what they
failed to win democratically.

I have observed Mr Speaker that the timing of this motion is not
fortuitous. There are three clear indications that the timing was
carefully considered:

* Misled again by some sections of the media that hyped their
earlier existence, the Congress of the People labours under an
illusion that the ANC-led alliance is about to unravel. Many of our
detractors have, since time immemorial, wished for this unraveling
but it has not come and is not about to come any time soon.

* Mr Speaker, we have noted that after trying to postpone the
inevitability of an elective conference since the 16th December
2008, the Congress of the People, has finally succumbed to the
pressures of its youth wing to hold one in May 2010. There is a
direct relationship between the tabling of today's motion and the
jostling for leadership positions for this elective Conference.

* After a long courtship, there is now a mooted
multi-matrimonial relationship amongst some opposition parties.
Having been made aware that they are not abrasive and robust enough
in parliamentary questions and motions, COPE now seeks to impress
with a new make up.

It is my considered view that the tabling of this motion today
will not stem the hemorrhaging of COPE's trumped up membership
which, though unsubstantiated and undocumented, was standing at 428
000 in December 2008.

Let me highlight just a few examples why we in the African
National Congress and the majority of South Africans, think that
the President of the Republic is a fit and proper person to lead
this country, and that the motion of no confidence is a spurious
allegation.

* The President facilitate the end to the Burundian conflict
after taking over as facilitator from our iconic former President
Mandela who in turn had taken over from the great late President
Julius Nyerere of Tanzania.

* On 12 November 2009, the African Consciousness Leadership
Awards awarded President Jacob Zuma the title, the "Best African
President" for his role in our country's liberation and his
contributions to the African continent.

* Our country has, regrettably, been involved in service
delivery protests in certain areas. While we agree that this is a
matter which all of us as Parliament and as government should be
seized witcannot overlook the fact that these communities almost
always call for the President Zuma to come and listen to their
complaints.

* Two weeks ago, Her Majesty the Queen of Great Britain invited
our President on a state visit as one of the two world leaders who
are invited annually by her. Except for one racist tabloid
indiscretion of one Stephen Robinson of the British Daily Mail
among many media in the United Kingdom, this state visit was among
the most successful State visits ever undertaken by a South African
President.

* The President has called for a debate on a moral code for
South Africa. We call on all South Africans of goodwill to take
part in this debate. But we call more on those who had climbed the
soap boxes of morality to join this debate with an intention of
making South Africa a better for our children to grow.

* In December last year, at the Copenhagen Climate Change
Conference, our President, together with the leaders of the United
States, China, Brazil and India, saved the day by providing a
Work-in-Progress, broke the impasse by drafting the Copenhagen
Accord. Admittedly it was not what we had hoped for, but this
document, which has already been endorsed by the African Union,
forms the basis for further climate discussions in Mexico towards
the end of this year.

* As I speak, today, the 18th of March 2010, the President is
facilitating the Global Political Agreement in Zimbabwe, and on his
shoulders rests the hopes and aspirations of all Zimbwabweans.

* Government has been restructured so that Ministers are
monitored on the basis of Outcomes-Based Performance Agreements.

Allow me Mr Speaker, as I conclude, to borrow words of wisdom
from the Holy Scriptures and I quote:

Do not judge, so that you may not be judged. For with the
judgment you make you will be judged, and the measure you give will
be the measure you get. Why do you see the speck in your neighbor's
eye, but do not notice the log in your own eye? Or how can you say
to your neighbour, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,' while
the log is in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out
of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck
out of your neighbour's eye." (Matthew 7:1-5, NRSV) " [Unquote]

I hope I will be understood not to have abused the wise words of
the Holy Scriptures to bolster my defence of the President, but to
highlight the fact that from those who counsel us on the Good Book,
much more is expected.