13 February 2002
Madam speaker,
Honourable Members,
Cde President, and
Cde Deputy President
The honourable Mr Tony Leon said to the President: "Friday's address to this House left me convinced that we exist in two realities".
Yes, we do. Not only now, but also in the past.
Whilst so many brave and heroic South Africans resisted the might of the apartheid state between 1975 and 1977, the realities of Mr Leon's world can be judged from the hymns of praise heaped by him on the apartheid war machine and the policy of Bantustans. A revealing article by author Ronald Suresh Roberts in the Financial Mail records Leon's songs of praise during his stint as mustard-keen young reporter for the official SADF journal, Paratus, while Soweto's youngsters were being cut down by army and police bullets in their thousands.
Under the headline "Our Magnificent Air Taxis" in June 1976 to describe the illegal invasion of Angola, Leon wrote:
"On board are 20 SADF personnel eagerly awaiting their arrival at a base near the border, in order to proceed onwards to given destinations. The flight whets their appetite for the adventures that lie ahead."
Also in 1976, he praised the fact that the parliamentary wives of the NP, United Party and Progressive Reform Party, were working together for the war. He mentioned Mrs Andries Treurnicht, whose husband, of course, soon left the NP because P W Botha was, in his view, too liberal.
On the sham independence of the Transkei, under the headline "The SADF's Magnificent Participation", he wrote:
"When Paramount Chief Kaiser Matanzima, the Transkei's first Prime Minister, addressed the country from the stadium's podium shortly after the ochre, white and green Transkeian flag had been hoisted and eight 25-pounder guns of 142 Battery, 14th Field Regiment, Potchefstroom, had fired the 101-gun salute" (Leon was presumably not around to record the fact that the Ciskei had worse luck: its flagpole ominously broke when it followed Transkei to bogus independence not long after).
"Leon continues to underline the spirit in which the SADF had assisted in the birth of the so-called Republic of the Transkei:
Never before has such a new State been born with such goodwill and common purpose."
And Leon ends:
"A Xhosa woman (no name, not an African woman, not a black woman, but a Xhosa woman) who had journeyed from Port St Johns to see the freedom celebrations in Umtata summed up the significant SADF involvement thus: It was wonderful to see the soldiers, bands and planes. For us it was worthwhile to come this way and observe such a sight."
Yes, Mr Leon, there were two realities then and there are now. One big, generous and ell-embracing. One very small.
May I briefly refer to the honourable Mr Bantu Holomisa, Madame Speaker.
It is one of the scandalous ironies of our democracy that one who snatched power with the barrel of a gun - and, as I understand it, with the help of some very unsavoury characters - now parades in this House as a democrat interested in the well-being of our people. A person who made very little endeavour to improve the lives of people in his captive Bantustan has the temerity to stand here and make the most disgraceful, unwarranted, unsubstantiated and vilified attacks on this government and its President.
If I was one of the dwindling number of people in the UDM, I would be ashamed.
Madame Speaker, to move to responsibilities closer to my heart -
We in the communications field warmly welcome criticism of our performance.
We take note when independent quarters, such as academics from Stellenbosch University quoted by the President in his speech, offer criticism of our effectiveness, suggesting that (and I quote) "communication by government is not always optimum".
We do not respond over-defensively, but look to what we are doing so as to improve the record we are presenting to the nation. And by "we" I mean communicators in the Presidency, in the Government Communication and Information System and government departmental and ministerial communicators across the board.
We are wary of relying on "spin" and "soundbites" in getting our messages across, and it is no secret that the President dislikes shallowness and PR tricks. We believe that the democratic cause in South Africa is just, and the effort to achieve delivery and nationhood sincere. So we do not have to spin our story like a silkworm spins its silk - often to end up cocooned and trapped inside.
Some countries employ greater "spin" in their communication efforts, and I say: Good luck to them. They employ celebrity figures at great cost to give their story maximum impact. But, some may well find that they over-spin, and become obfuscators of the very thing they are trying to pursue: enlightenment. So, we have chosen the road of providing the fullest possible information, but in alignment with integrity and sincerity.
Our message is simple and convincing: a free, strong and committed African spirit working in co-operation with our sisters and brothers for development and progress in the continent. We seek to relay it informatively, and not by stretching fact into fiction.
The state of the nation speech provides an informative mid-term report as we enter the second half of the current administration. The speech shows that we are moving ahead, that delivery of services and goods -especially for the very poor and the ailing -is being steadily achieved. GCIS did a detailed analysis of media expectations before the speech, and their comments afterwards. The overall response has been favourable, encouraging.
The speech goes beyond chronicling delivery. It concerns me and it concerns you. It exhorts all our people to see themselves as part of the effort to renew our land and cope with new challenges in a changed and more menacing global dispensation.
The President called on people to arise and act. He stressed voluntarism - saying that, and I quote, " no one, and no one, can do for us what we should do for ourselves". He sought to change a mindset whereby the government is expected, on its own, to right all evils and rise to all challenges. He sought partnership between people and government.
The long-time slogan of the ANC is power to the people. That is the golden thread that has given the ANC its raison d'etre - its purpose - in South African life, and it is the force which lives on as we move from transition to transformation of our whole country.
To be empowered, people need to be informed and inspired. The President has provided inspiration. It is up to government and other communicators to provide the information to give further shape and form to the national will. It is, moreover, up to the people to take decisions about their own lives and to use the available information to empower themselves to have better lives.
It is no accident that this Presidential call to action comes close on the heels of successful imbizos held in various provinces, most recently in the Eastern Cape. These imbizos accept the important principle that communication is not one-way, from government to people, but two way, involving people and the government they elect.
A network of all-purpose, one-stop communication centres (MPCC's) driven by GCIS increasingly links the people to the administration of the country. This helps in the general cause of ensuring enlightenment and knowledge to the people. That is, power to the people.
The Presidency has improved the flow of information with briefings for media both domestic and foreign; and we are right now setting up a Press Corps which will, among other things, give sustained access to the words and deeds of the Presidency. We need to give journalists greater access to the corridors of power, and to take them into the confidence of government as far as possible -but in ways that leave the independence of both government and media intact.
We are about to legislate for a Media Development and Diversity Agency which will foster diversity, and therefore growth, of media, particularly in areas that are currently badly served, if at all. This we shall do in partnership with the private sector, which enjoys significant co-involvement in the project, and whose problems - such as the rocketing price of paper - we do appreciate and seek to assist with as far as possible.
We wish to help wherever we can in the great national task of bringing knowledge and power to the people - and ensuring their ready access to communication tools to do their jobs as citizens in a democracy.