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Polity
Published: 09 Feb 2009
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| DA: Botha: Speech by DA Parliamentary leader at a debate on the President's State of the Nation address (09/02/2009) | |
| Date: 09/02/2009 Source: Democratic Alliance Title: DA: Botha: Speech by DA Parliamentary leader at a debate on the President's State of the Nation address "A Future of Meaningful Change" Very soon we will begin the countdown to the next general election, an opportunity to hear the voice of the people and one which we approach with great optimism. We felt the early stirrings of change in April 2006, when local government after local government fell tothe hands of the Official Opposition and opposition-led coalitions. We felt it strongly in May of 2007 when the Democratic Alliance elected City of Cape Town Mayor Helen Zille as its Leader to an exceedingly enthusiastic reception by the public at large. We have again experienced it ward by ward over the last three months as people have come forward inby-elections, continuing to recognise that the party of government is increasingly no longer the party that sits to my right, but that it is the party to my left. Added to this, are the dramatic changes in the political environment during the past year that included, but was not limited to, an abrupt palace revolution precipitated by the internal wrangling in the ruling party. The new-found fluidity that these events created in our political scene has enabled an historic opportunity for meaningful change. This changing reality was admirably appraised in the weekend press by one of our party's most promising new young candidates, Lindiwe Mazibuko, who personifies what I like to call the New South African Woman - women whose position in society is determined by choice and not by custom or culture. "I believe", she writes, "that the DA will be a central part in this new political realignment and I look forward to having a part to play on the long, exciting journey which lies ahead for all of us. I believe that voters will have the chance to transcend identity, race and history - however important these may be - to cast votes based on issues, principles and plans of action, rather than the fear that each of us is only safe among people who look and speak like we do." These words resonate with the same values which, as President Motlanthe so graciously acknowledged on Friday, inspired Helen Suzman to represent "the values of our new parliament in the chambers of the old". I dedicate this speech to her enduring legacy and it gives me great pleasure to acknowledge the presence of her daughter, Frances Jowell, in this chamber today. Helen showed us that the fight for equality and justice should not be abandoned when the odds are poor, or the cause unpopular, but to persevere because it was the right thing to do. Certainly we can strive to emulate her example by asking that the 4th Parliament start its work by implementing the major recommendations of the recent Independent assessment of Parliament conducted as part of the Peer Review Process. Primary amongst these is the need for a review of the present party list system in line with the recommendations of the Van Zyl Slabbert report, which attempts to capture the benefits of both the constituency-based and proportional representation electoral systems to ensure proper parliamentary oversight and accountability to the people while not unduly silencing the voice of minorities. Our present system creates a dangerous distance between elected party representatives and constituents, whilst simultaneously creating an obsequious closeness between them and the party bosses. Madam Speaker, The DA is taking to Court the issue of law abiding South African citizens temporarily overseas and capriciously stripped of their constitutional right to vote. Since the constitutional Court has ruled that prisoners may vote, counter intuitive as it may seem, it is doubly untenable that thousands of law abiding citizens temporarily overseas have been prevented from voting for purely logistical reasons. It is simply an unacceptable state of affairs. However, if there was a single issue which this past year made many South Africans feel insecure, it was the unbridled attacks on the judiciary and the ambivalent and troubling confluence of ruling party and state, where the Rule of Law was directly threatened by the Law of Rule. Overgeset synde: Die Regstaat is bedreig deur die Magstaat. When decisions by the Court were not to the liking of the ruling party, the Courts were lambasted. When the judgment went according to popular opinion, they were praised. Nobody can be confident that justice will prevail if the institutions that must protect the humble and meek from the populist and the powerful don't seem immune from manipulation for party political gain - either through biased purges, prejudiced appointments, cronyism or nepotism. If the President, as he stated on Friday, wants to regain some of the moral high ground which has been lost, and also root out the corruption and contractual manipulation which is such an alarming feature of our political landscape, then he and his party must address these issues by personal example, and practise what they preach. He must grasp this opportunity to reinvigorate the constitution that catapulted us onto the world stage a short decade or more ago, rather than be tempted to fritter away, for illusory and inevitably temporary advantage, the principles of the rule of law and the fundamental rights, which guarantee our democracy and the essential protected relationship between the individual and the state. A firm and necessary commitment to the institution of a judicial enquiry into the arms scandal would be a good start. Madam Speaker, There are epic moments in history, often catalyzed by catastrophe, that permit fundamental cultural change, says Benjamin Barber in a thought provoking article on fundamental values. Such a moment is upon us now. The convergence of the change of government in the United States and the collapse of the global credit economy marks such a moment where radical change is possible. While the government can take some credit for the fact that we have fared relatively better than some other emerging economies during the current global credit crisis, there is no way that we can pretend to be immune to the impact of successive waves of failure which are still washing against our shores. A tsunami is still on its way - 50 million job losses projected globally is certainly nothing less. We need to be forewarned and forearmed. This is clearly a highly complex problem that needs complex stakeholder negotiated solutions and even radical change. It is an issue on which our commitment to multilateralism in international affairs should also be copied on the domestic front. It is not the divisions of the past that are important in the challenges we face today, but the dire consequences that these challenges hold for our common future. We need a co-ordinated national response, involving all political parties, government, labour and the private sector. We expect to be taken into your confidence, Sir, even on a weekly basis, on what is being done to contain and prevent job losses. There are simply not enough conversations going on and the resultant uncertainty will further undermine our chances of recovery. The lack of communication and virtual isolation which became the hallmark of the Mbeki era cannot be tolerated again. The opportunities for debate, for answering questions and for making statements on issues of public importance that Parliament offers must be grasped with enthusiasm and never again be allowed to become meaningless exercises in executive sleight of hand. We have some suggestions on how the impact of the crisis can be ameliorated: · by driving an actual skills revolution through the private sector, and efficiently facilitating the sourcing of job- creating know-how internationally - when and where it is required · by lowering business costs, targeted in partnership with labour and business, and making employment cheaper through wage subsidies · by assuring equal access to jobs, regardless of circumstance of birth, through affirming rather than affirmative action. What we do not need is a drawing of the laager: a new wave of protectionism that will inevitably lead toadvantages only for the protected, whilst ensuring inefficiencies that will come at certain cost to the consumer and lead to the stifling of job-creating economic growth. The global economic uncertainties mean that the benign circumstance under which our economy used to grow are no longer there. I have therefore been reading with amazement the grandiose dreams proposed by the ultra left with their appetite for the expansion of state-driven schemes, which would be very hard to fund even in the rosiest economic climate, let alone under the adverse conditions that are predictably going to last out the 4th Parliament. They remind me very much of the ultra right in the country, whose claims of rising to power stand in direct contrast to their pitiful level of support among the voters. Madam Speaker, I also want to highlight the disturbing increase in incidences of collusion and price fixing which have been exposed amongst some big companies. We need ever more stringent action against this. It is exploitation of the worst kind, particularly when rising food prices are becoming an ever larger threat to the poor. At the same time, it is essential to reposition the farmers, the primary producers of food, at the important centre of our agricultural and land reform project. Theirs is an industry which I know intimately, and which I want to credit with the most amazingly positive response to correcting the skewed land ownership patterns of our country. They understand that it would not serve the country merely to exchange one elite for another and in the process destroy the productive capacity of the land. This is so clearly illustrated by the fact that it is now necessary for our South African commercial farmers to supply the food needs of the 7 million Zimbabweans who previously lived in the bread basket of Africa. I also want to acknowledge the wine industry by raising a glass to the 350th anniversary of viticulture here at the southern point of Africa. Although I am, probably to my eternal disadvantage, not a consumer of the finished product, I do appreciate the adaptability, the longevity and the productivity of the vine. She arrived from Europe to root herself into African soil to such a degree that it is difficult not to view her as indigenous to the country today. I find it a very suitable metaphor for the people of South Africa, almost all of whom came from elsewhere to come and settle here and become an inseperable part of this country Madam Speaker, I was recently asked in a radio debate how the Democratic Alliance will manage to deliver on its election promises. It was easy to answer by way of example of where we have already done so successfully. The open, opportunity society for all is not a pipe dream. There are places where it is already finding its way into the everyday lives of people and you can see it operate in practise. It is being done in municipalities such as Cape Town and in the Swartland, in Midvaal, in Overstrand, Baviaanskloof, and Mossel Bay, just to mention a few. Here, crime is being combated by making criminals sweat off their transgressions in service of the community. Municipal police services are staffed, equipped and trained to deal with drug abuse and domestic violence. Road maintenance and construction schedules are diligently kept; there is efficient provision of basic services; more rapid provision of quality, integrated low-cost housing; public service vacancy rates as low as 6%; and, unqualified audits year after year signaling clean government. These are award-winning clean and well-run municipalities that set the example for how the provinces and the country should be run, if we are to make the economy grow and create more jobs. They are pockets in South African society where previously excluded people can now find their way into the economy: where complicated and ineffective quotas have been removed; tender procedures have been made more transparent; and, the moral imperative of true broad-based empowerment for the poor majority are driven relentlessly. These are the types of successes that will be expanded to the whole of the Western Cape, and possibly even to the other provinces, once the results of the coming elections are returned. They are successes that must be replicated in other towns, districts and cities after the 2011 local government election. They are the successes that all of South Africa must share in by 2014. And when these milestones have all been reached, we will at long last have a situation where the fair chance of each and every South African to become a part of a formal job-creating, South African economy, will be realized. It will be a future where the rights of each child to quality teaching and useable skills acquisition will not be subverted by the self-interest of militant teacher unions. It will be a future where educators will rather be engaged on how best to structure the schooling system so that matrics can graduate from high school with the relevant skills to enter the working world, assisted on entry into the job market with opportunity vouchers. These are the affirming actions that will drive job creation and economic growth in the future. But for these economic policies to be a success, we need families to be healthy and to remain so by an increased focus on service to the community and social security coverage to ensure: · improved child care; · improved basic income for the poor and the unemployed; and, · better access to grants for the aged and the disabled. We need to provide refuge to vulnerable women and children for all of the 365 days that they are exposed to violence We need to respond with the greatest urgency and every possible measure to ensure that AIDS and drug abuse does not continue to tear away at the fabric of any of our communities: among neither the rich nor the poor, not amongst gay people or straight people, not on the Cape Flats or in Chatsworth, not in Bloemfontein, Sandton or Soweto. Sadly, Madam Speaker, none of these positive steps can deliver results if crime is not beat. Fears must be allayed and hope commanded that this will be done. We need a bigger, decentralised and more effective and professional police force that can focus on specific crimes and process information and evidence efficiently. Victims of crime and those who witnessed the crimes against them must have a better day in court and the victims of crime must receive compensation for their suffering. Finally, quality must once again count in our hospitals, with workable recruitment strategies that will see to it that these are well-staffed with health professionals - unsung hero's that will enjoy improved work conditions to ensure that they are retained to care for the sick and the aged. Madam Speaker, You will know that I believe implicitly in South Africa and its future as a leading country in Africa and an influential player on the world stage and I will continue to serve it in whatever capacity in my usual pragmatic way and probably to my dying day. I believe in the incomparable foundation for success that we have in South Africa, laid by stalwarts such as Helen Suzman, supported in the DA by many honourable people such as Joe Seremane, battled into a credible force by Tony Leon and now being transformed into government by Helen Zille. These are all people that I have worked with, all people of the highest integrity, unbelievable managerial energy and patriots in every fibre of their being. I believe in the vision they have helped to create for South Africa and how we can achieve it, all of us together, for the sake of all our children. To them and all of you assembled here today: Tsalang hantle - ek sal julle almal verskriklik mis! |
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