Date: 14/02/2012

Source: The United Democratic Movement

Title: UDM: Holomisa: Address by the president, in response to the State of the Nation Address, in the National Assembly (14/02/2012)

Mister Speaker, Honourable President and Deputy President, Honourable Members,

For many years, resource allocation in South Africa was determined on the basis of race and ethnicity. The deleterious effects and the scars of the policy segregation are still clearly visible almost two decades into our democracy. Since we ushered in our new democratic dispensation in 1994, the majority citizens have pinned their hopes for a better life on the new political franchise.

Sadly, the level of inequality between the haves and have-nots has increased rapidly. The solutions on the best way to close this gap and integrate the previously disadvantaged communities into the economic mainstream appear elusive. Apologists of the current economic regime claim that the macroeconomic fundamentals are in place, and thus see no need to deviate from the status-quo. They militate against any form of Government intervention in the economy to transform it.

We question the validity of this line of argument since the majority citizens continue to occupy the margins of economic activity. In contrast to the minority group which controls the South African economy, the majority citizens are victims of ultra-conservative credit policies of financial institutions because they have own no land.

The fight for economic freedom has been a bone of contention for many years, and at times, resulted in an unnecessary loss of lives. You and your Deputy President spent many years in Robben Island in pursuit of precisely this economic emancipation objective, among others. As students at the former University of Transkei in 1979 in the Faculty of Management and Economic Sciences, we used to grapple with the difficult challenge of finding a suitable mechanism to deliver economic freedom to Africans. Even today the solutions to this challenge are still proving difficult to find.

We acknowledge the statement made by the Minister of Finance in 2011 Medium-Term Budget Policy Statement (MTBPS) on the need to transform the economy. However, the question remains: By whom and when?

The 2012 State of the Nation Address clearly demonstrates that Government has finally woken up to the reality that the fate of South Africans could no longer be left to the free market system alone.

Government has a duty to invest in its economy through projects like infrastructure development. The private sector seems to have no willingness to invest in the development of the infrastructure of previously disadvantaged communities.

Even companies that have the capacity to do so like Anglo American delisted from our stock exchange in favour of foreign ones, without any prospect of the funds coming back to the South African economy.

Perhaps, in line with your statement during the ANC centenary celebrations in Mangaung where you called for a National dialogue on the Country’s pressing issues, as leaders of political parties represented in Parliament, we should meet with you and the Deputy President at your Offices to map out a clear strategy to deal with what you aptly described as the triple challenges of poverty, inequality and unemployment. These problems are bigger than one political party.

In the event of an emerging consensus from such a meeting, we should expand the dialogue to other stakeholders in society as well. The historical legacy of severe imbalances and backlogs cannot be adequately addressed by the NEDLAC partners alone.

The people care less about frivolous fights to augment political power through attempts to change the powers of the Constitutional Court, the building of a veil of secrecy between the State and its people through the Secrecy Bill, the attempts to erode media freedom; rather they want to see us prioritising their bread and butter issues.

Many South Africans often argue that a review of CODESA agreements should not be done selectively, as they believe that there are other more important matters of discussion like the sunset clauses that robbed them of an opportunity to meaningfully participate in the economy and own land. Black South Africans are still residing in the so-called reserves that were allocated to us by the previous regimes, with no land ownership.

Yes, Mister President, I have yet to see a day when people protest to change the powers of the Constitutional Court. But I have seen many legitimate protests about service delivery which do not seem to receive the same attention.

We have noted Government’s intervention in a number of Provinces to rescue them from administrative collapse. This sphere of Government seems to be saddled with problems.

Provinces have become centres for self-enrichment and rampant corruption for some comrades. We have seen a regression in the standard and quality of education our children receive under the watch of Provincial Governments. In the past, it was common for students from all over the Country to go to the former Transkei to access quality education. Regrettably, that fountain seems to have dried up!

Perhaps, it is time to publish the study Government instituted, under former Minister Sidney Mufamadi, into the efficacy of Provinces. The truth of the matter, Mister President, is that these glorified homelands were a compromise intended to accommodate one political party. We must now assess the extent to which they facilitate or impede service delivery.

Nevertheless, your announcements last week reinforce programmes that were earlier announced by Transnet and the Minister of Transport, which we regarded as pie in the sky projects when they announced them.

Both Transnet and the Minister were cagey at the time of the announcements about how they would finance these projects. We wondered whether a through feasibility study had been undertaken.

Mister President, you will recall that when the news about these projects surfaced, the media alleged that they would be done by Chinese companies and politically connected individuals in South Africa. The Government flatly denied this.

We look forward to receiving more details about the Government’s overall implementation strategy. We would do well to adopt as stringent a monitoring mechanism as FIFA’s close monitoring of South Africa’s implementation of the 2010 FIFA World Cup project. Otherwise, these announcements run the risk of going down as just another laundry list of unfulfilled promises.

It is gratifying to see that you have heeded our call to link KwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern Cape corridor. Planned properly, this would ease the congestion and reduce road fatalities on N2, especially if a railway line could be built between East London and Kokstad.

With respect to Mzimvubu Water Scheme, the former Transkei Governments and the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA), Maohludi Associates and academics from the former University of Transkei (UNITRA) conducted and concluded a R13 million study into the possibility of using Mzimvubu Water Scheme to provide clean water for household consumption and water supply for irrigation and hydro-electric schemes.

The study showed that major rivers passing through the Transkei area constituted 28 percent of the water supply of the entire Southern Africa.

We urge your Government to guard against wasting taxpayers’ money on hiring consultants to redo the study. Rather we should source the services of an Auditing Firm to carry out a thorough cost benefit analysis of reviving the project, taking into account cost escalations over the years. This exercise should also evaluate the effects of silting caused by soil erosion. Therefore, there is no need for a two-year or more study.

The Mzimvubu Water Scheme project failed to get off the ground due to the refusal of the former FW de Klerk Government to release funds for capital projects to the former Transkei Government because of its close relationship with liberation movements.

In conclusion, we agree with you that COP17 was a resounding success. The challenge now lies with cascading the COP17 resolutions and programmes to the people of South Africa. We should consider holding our own national conference on climate change where we would unpack the COP17 resolutions, discuss the current White Paper on climate change, and establish a Council on Climate Change and a South African Green Fund Committee.

Thank you.