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Date : 10/02/2004
Source: Deputy Ministry of Health
Title: R Schoeman: Debate on State of the Nation Address


SPEECH BY RENIER SCHOEMAN MP, KWAZULU-NATAL NNP LEADER AND DEPUTY MINISTER OF HEALTH, DURING DISCUSSION OF THE STATE OF THE NATION ADDRESS IN THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY, 10 February 2004

Hierdie is 'n politieke debat en ek wil begin deur die diepe kommer van die NNP oor gesondheidskwessies in ons land op rekord te plaas.

Die siening van die NNP oor die protesoptog van dokters verlede week, wat ons gesteun het, asook ons sterk opponering van die Sertifikaat van Behoefte, is volledig uiteengesit verlede Vrydag in 'n mediaverklaring, wat ons weereens vandag uitreik in die lig van die wydverspreide spanning en onrustigheid oor gesondheidskwessies.

Die Verkiesingsmanifes van die NNP wat op 20 Februarie 2004 vrygestel word sal ook ons sterk standpunte oor die volle spektrum van gesondheidsorg bevat en tydens die verkiesingsveldtog met mening bevorder word. Ek wil dus nou terugkeer tot die debat oor sake ge-opper in die President se staatsrede, spesifiek die kwessie van armoede.

It is a fact, Mr President that anyone who reads your speeches and statements will observe that two words feature very prominently in all your pronouncements. One of the words is poverty, and the need to deal with it, and the second is unity, and the need to achieve it.

Increasingly, poverty, like crime, dominates much of our national discourse when dealing with socio-economic issues, and rightly so.

It was Franklin Roosevelt who described those in poverty, the poorest of the poor, as "The forgotten men (and women!) at the bottom of the economic pyramid".

Poverty is without doubt a central issue of our time, globally, continentally and nationally, and that is why the priority which you and the Government give to it and, which you restated in your speech on Friday, cannot be faulted.

Much of what Government is doing to fight poverty today is probably informed by the excellent Report entitled Poverty and Inequality in South Africa prepared and published in May 1998 for your Office when you were Deputy President, and for the Inter Ministerial Committee for Poverty and Inequality.

An important point made in the report dealt with the fact that poverty is not a static condition and that people are vulnerable to it not only as a result of shocks and crises but also as a result of long-term trends such as racial and gender discrimination or even macro-economic trends.

Although the report contains much data, it makes a very telling observation when it reminds us that statistics say little about peoples' actual experience of poverty on a human level, where poverty typically comprises ill-health, arduous and often hazardous work for low income, high levels of anxiety and emotional stress and exposure to violence which has a profound impact on lives of the poor.

A case for prioritising the fight against poverty no longer needs to be made. What is, however, still needed is acceptance of the premise that poverty is not some morally neutral phenomenon that needs merely to be understood. It is an evil that must be rooted out.

The second word which you use frequently, Mr President is the word "united" - the need for a unity of purpose and a united national effort, also in respect of poverty, and of the other major challenges which face us as a nation.

You correctly work on the premise, Mr President, that in unity lies strength - ex unitate vires - eendrag maak mag, and that the extent of the challenges requires that unity and strength for a collective effort to overcome them.

Earlier this year, Mr President, you made an appeal which bears repeating in this debate, unrelated though it is to the election per se:

You said:

"We will also have to intensify our work among those sections of our population, both black and white, who occupy more privileged positions in our society. We must encourage these also to lend a hand in the common national effort to defeat poverty and underdevelopment. These are compatriots who have the skills and resources that are desperately needed among those of our people who remain poor and marginalized".

We in the NNP are working hard to persuade as many of our fellow South Africans as we can that your call is worthy of support, and that we, must constantly remind ourselves that in the words of John Donne "no man is an island, entire of itself, every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main".

But regrettably Madame Speaker, there are forces in our country which prefer a state of disunity, a lack of unity of purpose, even on the biggest problems facing us, and prefer to divide rather than unite, to criticize in the most exaggerated terms and to try to discredit those who do not accept their way of doing things.

I am of course referring to the Democratic Alliance in general, and its leader the hon. Leon, famous Afrikaner icon of note, according to his resident imbongi the hon. Douglas Gibson.

As the election approaches we see the shrillness and aggression of the DA increasing exponentially and the targets of their bile range from the President himself, the national leader of the NNP, Marthinus van Schalkwyk, on a daily basis, the media, and, more recently former President FW de Klerk to whom I will return in a moment.

But the common factor in the DA's pronouncements is a promotion of disunity and division, no matter what the cost to the country or the nation as a whole. We in the NNP see this as a dangerous and gravely flawed approach which threatens to marginalize many good South Africans who can play a positive role in building our nation, in working for reconciliation, and in being part of a joint effort to improve the quality of life of all South Africans, also in their own interests.

But I want to return to the Hon. the Leader of the Opposition, a title and role which apparently gives him so much pleasure and job satisfaction, enabling him to oppose and oppose and oppose to his heart's content. A few days ago the hon. Leon chose to launch a tirade against Mr FW de Klerk for his intention to re-state his support for the ANC/NNP co-operative governance agreement.

The attack contained the usual Leon-speak, full of words like "double-cross", betrayal, zigzagging, etc. etc.

Interestingly, in August 2000, when the hon. Leon spoke, as leader of the DA, at the naming of the FW de Klerk Board Room n the Marks Building, he had the following to say and I quote from a newspaper report on the event:

"Mr Tony Leon said that the naming of the Board Room in honour of Mr FW de Klerk is an important milestone in the DA's short history, because De Klerk's famous speech of 2 February 1990 made the new politics of today possible. It helped the country to steer away from a bloody civil war. Leon said one of the achievements which flowed from De Klerk's speech is the establishment of a liberal constitutional state" unquote.

Talk about zigzag and inconsistency. Hon. Leon reminds me of the quote by an American President who said and I quote: "I have opinions of my own - strong opinions, but I don't always agree with them!"

Madame Speaker, with all due respect, the country deserves a better performance than this from t hon. Leon if he ever wants to be taken seriously at all by anyone - in fact South Africa deserves a better leader of the opposition!

Enquiries:

Gerrit Wissing
Head: Office of the Deputy Minister
Issued by: Deputy Ministry of Health
10 February 2004

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