Date: 18/03/2010
Source: African National Congress
Title: ANC: Ramathlodi: Speech by ANC MP, in the debate on the vote of no confidence in President Jacob Zuma, Parliament

Mr Speaker

I stand here, in front of the
country and the world to speak to the
suitability of the President of the
Republic of South Africa to continue
hold the high office of the President.
As the house is aware, this sad
episode is occasioned by the unfortunate and
adventurous tabling of the
so-called motion of no confidence in the
President.

This being a party based system of government; a motion of no
confidence
in the President becomes a motion of no confidence in the
African
National Congress. Those who seek to displace an elephant must
be
prepared to climb a mountain and be good mountaineers at that.
We
reserve the right of self defence and we are now called upon to
exercise
that right. We are exercising that right in defence of our
revolution
and in defence of our future as a people.

Accordingly, we are
tabling a motion of confidence in the President of
the Republic. In doing
so I wish to remind the country as to whom Jacob
Gedliyihlekisa Zuma is. In
the President we a have peasant boy who
joined the army of the working
people at a tender age. This background
shaped and formed his political
consciousness. That is why he continues
to be biased in favour of the rural
and urban poor and the working
class. This biasness is reflected in the
structure and programmes of
the government he leads with distinction.

He
is the son of the black people of South Africa. He is a warrior
prince born
of the proud Zulu people who distinguish themselves as true
patriots
throughout the torturous period of wars of resistance which
ended with the
defeat of Chief Bambhata in the Inkandhla forests in
1902. His
participation in the national liberation struggle is born of
the direct
experience being an African under apartheid South Africa. As
a freedom
fighter he is generally acknowledged as one of the most
dedicated, fearless
and exemplary soldiers and leaders of the people's
army Umkhonto We Sizwe.
In the regard, he worked in the underground,
was captured and served ten
years on Robben Island. On his release he
went into exile and there rose
through the ranks to be head of the ANC
Mkhoko and member of the NEC. It
was in this capacity that he became
the first member of the NEC to legally
enter South Africa in order to
prepare for formal negotiations.

He is a
proud Zulu man who fiercely defends his culture and way of life.
His
elevation to high office has not alienated him from his way of life
and the
people of Inkandhla have him as an active participant in the
affairs of the
village whenever time permits. He observes and practice
traditional rituals
together with his people, and he is not ashamed of
who he is. He refuses to
be judged according to standards of
non-Africans, who continue to insist
that theirs is the only acceptable
culture, fifteen years after our
liberation.

History will remember our President as a dedicated and highly
successful
peacemaker. In exile he was part of the team that initiated
contact
between the ANC in exile and the apartheid regime. In the 1990s
as
chairperson of ANC KZN, working together with Prince
Mangosuthu
Buthelezi, they established peace in KZN and gave South Africa a
rare
gift of peace. We are most grateful for this. As the Deputy
President
of the Republic he led negotiations that gave Burundi its own
peace. He
continues with the mission to restore and consolidate peace on
the
continent and in the world in general. President Zuma is a
great
reconciler. He has introduced a new style of governance which does
not
criminalise opposition but rather s eek to find common
national
interests that bind us together as a nation. In this regard, he
has
opened dialogue with leaders of South Africa in all spheres,
political,
economic, cultural and everywhere else. He is not grievance
driven and
that makes him a great forgiver. Safter those who persecuted
him in recent times, using state organs to
fight political fights. He has
not done so.

All these attributes and many more are found in abundance in
our great
movement the African national Congress. The movement that seeks to
build
a humane and caring society that recognises and accords human dignity
to
all, without regard to race, class, colour and gender. A movement
that
has been at the forefront of the struggles to create a better life
for
all. A movement that continue to promote reconciliation based
on
political and social justice, sometimes even in the face of
insolent
provocation by the defenders of the grave of apartheid and
their
lackeys.

As this movement we unashamedly champion the interests of
victims of
apartheid, that is black people in general and Africans in
particular.
We are not apologetic, in this regard, and we are ready to fall
by our
sword in defence of this principle. We are determined to build a
new
South Africa that is founded on a solid foundation of social
justice,
political, economic and cultural equality. We have forgiven those
who
have enslaved us over centuries, we now insist on being equals. On
this,
we shall give no quarter, there shall be no retreat.

We expect no
mercy or favours as we never did over all these years.
There is no easy walk
to freedom, mdala said. Many gave up and many
betrayed us, as we
unflinchingly and relentlessly pursued the struggle.
We are not about to
give up now. There has been moments when anti people
deviants have found
themselves at the helm of our great movement.
Whenever they got caught, we
either expelled them or they walked out.
Many of those who walked away soon
discovered the grim truth of the
loneliness of the wilderness. It is
bitterly cold out there as they
endure a solitary existence akin to that of
the prodigal son.

In recent years we confronted this phenomenon which
sought to own the
ANC as a personal property of a tiny clique, failing which
it was
determined to destroy the ANC from within. Happily the people
recaptured
their movement in Polokwane. The tendency conducted public
affairs and
political discourse with unprecedented arrogance. There were
no
boundaries of restrain. Those who tried to offer wise counsel would
be
rebuffed with the might of Samson. Not only would their advice
be
rejected, they would be subjected mob lynching. Our own icon,
President
Mandela was not spared the wrath of a tendency running amok.

It
was this tendency that embarked on a determined struggle to stop the
then
Deputy President Zuma from becoming the next leader of the ANC and
the
country. Elaborate plans were put in place, to retain the ANC as a
personal
fiefdom of the tendency. They wanted to impose their chosen
leader upon us
in order to consolidate their anti people agenda. Zuma
became an obstacle
that stood firm between the greed driven insanity and
the restoration of our
movement to its members. He had to be stopped at
all costs. His persecution
was unrelenting, even in the face of it
provoking a possible civil war. In
those bleak and dark days, I was one
of those who defiantly sang the song,
‘ Ba sithatha phe, isibindi e
singaga, sa guthathi ANC be enze yabo so ku
thathi Ianc be enze yabo.'.

We went to Polokwane and the people spoke and
elected President Zuma.
The tendency was shell shocked and confused. As the
reality of defeat
began to sink in, shock turned into fierce fury against
itself and
against the ANC. At last but finally, the tendency had fallen
from the
high horse of folly and the house of cards began to collapse into a
heap
of broken illusions and shuttered ambitions. The boasting came to
an
abrupt halt. Some of the leaders of the tendency walked out with the
sole
aim of defeating the ANC, regardless of the political cost to the
majority
of our people whose hopes and dreams remain firm behind the
movement. They
formed an organisation and arrogantly called it the
Congress of the People,
in a way to spite the real Congress.

We went to elections uwith
overwhelming majority and the world did not collapse. In fact, the
sun still
rose and it continues to do so today. Prophets of doom have
been silenced.
But they are bitter and are consumed by incomprehensible
hatred of the
person of the President of the Republic. They suffer the
curse of obsession
of a stalker who pursues his prey with the single
mindedness of a zealot.
Hatred has become the defining feature of this
tendency and the sole reason
for existence.

All above explains the genesis of the so called motion of
no confidence
in the President. It is contrived, it is spiteful and has
nothing to do
with good governance. It has everything to do with diverting
us from
working together for a better life. As a result, it will stand out
in
history as a tragic error founded on the shifting sands of illusion,
by
those driven by personal agenda to derail a historic mission
of
liberation and nation building.

I now call upon this house to protect
our future and the future of our
children and grand children by expressing
full confidence in our
President. Those who play delinquent games with our
future should be
taught a bitter lesson by you the people's representatives.
You have a
mandate to do so, invoke it, deploy it.