Date: 16/02/2011
Source: The Democratic Alliance
Title: DA: Kopane: Parliamentary address by DA MP, in the State of the Nation Debate, in the National Assembly

Mr. Speaker, we in the Democratic Alliance have always been speaking about the critical need for jobs to be created in South Africa. Indeed, both sides of this house have been engaged in debates, both within these walls and outside, about the best ways of creating employment for the people of South Africa.

However, Honourable Speaker, I fear that sometimes we immunize ourselves against the very real human aspect of this crisis as these debates become saturated with statistics that speak to the economic necessities of the country, but do not truly speak to the necessities of people becoming full, active citizens in our country.

Motsamaisi ya kgabane wa Dipuisano, e re ke nke monyetla ona ho hopotsa ntlo ena hore tokoloho e tsamaisana le boikarabelo; ka hoo re le ditho tsa seboka sena re jereng boikarabelo ba batho ba Afrika Borwa.

Before the dawn of democracy and freedom, we endured pains of unfair labour practices, poverty, unemployment, ignorance, and inequality of opportunities, and our hearts still harbour these sorrowful memories. It is sad to reaslise that all of those things still continue even now as I am standing before you. Nevertheless, the past is over and it is the future and hope that beckon us now.

Mohlomong nako e fihlile ya hore re ke re botse, haholo-holo mokgatlo ona o busang hore na re feela re phethahatsa ditoro tsa Ntate Nelson Mandela na? Re a tseba bohle tsela eo a boulellang tshireletso ya ditokelo tsa botho le toka ka teng hore e be tsa bohle naheng ena ya rona.

Mr President, during your inauguration speech you made a commitment to our people and the world that:

"For as long as there are workers who struggle to feed their families and battle to find jobs, for as long as there are rural dwellers unable to make a decent living from the land they live in, for as long as there are children who do not have means or opportunities to receive decent education, we shall not rest, and we dare not falter in our drive to eradicate poverty.”

Mr President, you further said that workers who would ordinarily be facing retrenchment due to economic difficulty would be kept in employment for a period of time and be re-skilled.

How can we talk about human dignity and justice for all if:

• There are millions of South Africans who go to bed on empty stomachs
• There are South African people who remain unskilled, uneducated and unemployed
• There are South Africans who are losing their jobs every day
• There are South Africans who up to this day don't have shelter.

Honourable Speaker, I fear that question of human dignity, as raised by the President, which should be at the heart of all of our discussions about job creation, has been sacrificed on the altar of outdated and irrelevant labour principles counter-productive to our aim of ensuring that all South Africans of working age who choose to can go out and find a job.

Honourable Speaker, it seems somewhat irrational to me that we are still having this discussion when 17 years of an inflexible labour market has already proved the point: Millions of unemployed people who are joined every year by yet more unfortunate people for whom working, like basic dignity and decency, will remain out of reach.

We share South Africans’ relief that many in the ANC government have come to share our perspective and realise that, first, we must talk about how people can get jobs to ensure that basic decency and dignity before we concern ourselves with arguments that will be doomed to irrelevance, if we do not have employable people to apply them to. We should be wary, Mr Speaker, of pretending that, in our struggle for dignity and human decency, we have reached the end point where we can refine our new system before we have even achieved some of the most basic goals of dignity for our people. Let us not overburden our labour system with stifling protective measures before we have ensured that people have jobs.

Ha ho motho ya utlwang bohloko ba ho hloka mosebetsi ho feta ya tjamelaneng le bona. Bohloko ba seeta bo utluwa ke monga sona mme motho o qetella a hloka seriti le ho ikutlwa e se letho ha a sa fumane moputso. Taba ena ha e ame yena feela empa e boela e ama le lelapa la hae mmoho le ba mmalwa ba sebetsang hobane ba qobelleha ho lefa lekgetho le phahameng hore ho tle ho thuswe bana ba sa sebetseng.

About 15 millions South Africans receive social grants from the state. We should not regard this as an achievement or a success story. It is a shame on us and to the world, if you consider the natural resources that we have as a country.

But do social grants make people happy? Evidently not but ironically, while they contribute to putting food on the table, recipients of these grants become more insecure because they fear that government may withdraw or reduce the size of the grant.

Grants also add the humiliation that unemployed people feel about being dependent and unproductive, and therefore unable to take decisions about their lives. Every time they collect their grants they are subjected to all types of humiliation from government officials, still standing in long queues on rainy days with no shelter, no chairs to sit on, no toilets to relieve themselves while the same officials have expensive office equipment. In addition, they are stigmatised by the rest of the society as lazy, idle, and worthless.

Mr Speaker, the DA is concerned about the fact that large sections of the population depend on social grants. A society in which the majority depend on welfare cannot sustain its development. The DA strongly believe that the contributions of productive opportunities and skills improvement would reduce dependence on social grants and result in citizens becoming more self-reliant. South African people are hard working people and are not lazy people.

Honourable Minister Trevor Manual once said at the International Social Security conference:

“But social security arrangements also have immense power to do damage - when they promise too much, or are too inflexible, and hence contribute to fiscal unsustainability and perhaps financial crisis, and also when their rules are unfair and hence contribute to social discontent and unrest'

Motsamaisi ya kgabane wa Dipuisano; re bua jwang ka mmuso o shebaneng le ntshetsopele ebang maemo a thuto ya rona kwano a fokola? Batho ba rona ba ntse ba le ditlamong tsa bofuma, ba tshepetse dithusong tsa thekolohelo, ha ba sebetse mme ebile ba hloka boitsebelo bo ka etsang hore ba hirwe mesebetsing e itseng.

President John Kennedy o kile a bua mantswe a latelang; ke a mo qotsa: Our problems are manmade, therefore they may be solved by man; no problem of human destiny is beyond human beings."

Re le mokgatlo wa Democratic Alliance re dumela ka hohle-hohle hore bokamoso ba naha ena ya rona bo itshetlehile hodima diqeto tse etswang ke ba etsang melao. Ho hlakile he hore re na le matla a ho phahamisa dintle le ditoro tsa Ntate Mandela tsa Afrika Borwa ya setjhaba se le seng, sa bokamoso bo le bong.

In conclusion, Mr President: To the people of South Africa, whose representatives we are, we make an appeal to you to join us with faith and confidence in this great adventure, and we say this is no time for petty and destructive criticisms, nor time for ill will or blaming others. We have to build South Africa to be a better place for all, especially for our future generations.

Re se lebale hore re mona ka batho ba maikutlo a fapaneng mme ka hoo re lokela ho kgotsofatsa ditlhoko tsa batho kaofela. Re le DA re mala-la-laotswe ho ikakgela ka setotswana morerong ona, potso ke hore....na mokgatlo a busang ona o mala-la-laotswe na?

Ke a leboha!