Note to editors: The following is an extract from a speech delivered in Parliament today.
Mr Speaker
Hon President
Hon Deputy President
Ladies and Gentlemen
Mr President, the State of the Nation address you delivered last week presented our nation with two choices.
On the one hand, the path to poverty, and, on the other, the path to prosperity.
Today we must ask ourselves the question: will we choose the path to poverty - the path of cronyism and corruption, the path of increasing inequality and decreasing opportunity? Or will we choose the path out of poverty, the path towards a future where the circumstances of one's birth no longer dictate one's future, and where each South African is afforded the opportunity to fulfill his or her own potential?
The ANC government's path, the path where the narrow interests of a few take precedence over the interests of our nation, is the path to poverty.
The DA's path, the path that parts of the country have started to travel where the DA is in government, this is the path to prosperity. This is the path where job creation, service delivery, health, education and safety are the focus. This is the path where promises become plans, and plans become action.
Thus far, the ANC's path has been one of weak leadership and broken promises.
Mr President, last week I launched a document outlining 50 key promises that you have made to our nation, and that have subsequently been broken. Our nation's generosity of spirit threatens to turn to impatience because of this.
As the official opposition, it is the DA's role, and indeed the role of all opposition parties, to oversee the activities of the executive through analyses such as this.
President Mandela referred to this as "...hold[ing] up a mirror to government".
However as a party of government, and one that is more and more becoming a credible alternative to the ANC administration, the DA followed this exposé with the release of a document outlining 100 DA proposals that we believe can help build a better South Africa.
We released these 100 proposals, Mr President, because the time for yet more sweeping promises has long past. We released this document because the DA is a party concerned with solutions, and setting our country on the path to prosperity. We believe your government should be too.
Now is the time for the ANC government, and for yourself in particular, to demonstrate its commitment to tackling the issues that really matter. Now is the time to prove that this administration is committed to action.
Mr. President, through you Mr Speaker, allow me to commend you for dedicating so much of your State of the Nation Address to the seminal challenge in our country, that of unemployment and job creation.
It is also encouraging that you announced a number of policies that we included in our 100 proposals, and which we have been advocating for a long time now.
Firstly, the DA welcomes your establishment of a R9 billion jobs fund. We welcome this announcement because, on the basis of what Mr Mantashe told the press last week, this appears to be a repackaged youth wage subsidy.
This is a brave decision, but the right one. It is brave because we have all seen the vicious infighting within the tripartite alliance, which caused Minister Gordhan's wage subsidy policy to be stopped in its tracks. And it is right because for every Cosatu member there are three unemployed South Africans. This is no time to be acting in the interests of a few, when maintaining the status quo will deny life opportunities to the many.
It is sustainable jobs that our people need, not temporary Expanded Public Works Programme "job opportunities", or the dreaded "amathoho" that you referred to.
Mr President, we will support your jobs fund, because this is a measure that will combat South Africa's most urgent problem head on. It will address a problem that Mr Mantashe rightly described as an affront to the dignity of our people. And, we believe, if implemented correctly it can create hundreds of thousands of new jobs, and cultivate the skills and knowledge needed to compete in a twenty-first century global economy.
Secondly, we believe that the decision to introduce R20 billion in tax breaks to incentivise investment and expansion in the manufacturing sector is a step in the right direction. This is a sector that provides employment for many thousands of South Africans, and it can employ thousands more. We can and must be globally competitive, and we agree that the state has a productive role to play in creating an environment in which our manufacturing and beneficiation sectors can succeed. We now believe that similar measures should be extended to small and medium sized businesses in the sector. Profitable businesses, through taxes, provide the only non-borrowed revenue to combat poverty.
It is worth noting that in his 2006 State of the Nation Address, former President Thabo Mbeki committed his administration to consolidating programmes focused on the SMME sector, such as the Apex Micro Credit fund, MAFISA, SEDA, KHULA, the Umsobomvu Youth Fund, the IDC small business initiative and so on. He also promised that government would ensure that it paid for its purchases from SMMEs promptly. Sound familiar?
It is five years since these commitments were made, and yet the current ANC government continues to repeat the same promises.
Implementing critical policies such as these must now take centre stage.
At the first time of asking, Minister Gordhan's wage subsidy proposal was blocked by your alliance partners. We have lost another year - another twelve months in which millions of South Africans remained unemployed. All, I fear, because of the influence of Mr Vavi's members at Polokwane. So jobs or power, Mr President? Will you protect the needs of South Africans, or your own position? Will you deny our citizens jobs to protect your own? That is the essence of your dilemma; and one path will be the path to prosperity, and one will be the path to poverty.
To achieve this, we must begin by revisiting the way in which we hold our government accountable. Indeed, we must begin by redefining what accountability means, and how the instruments of government are used to achieve an open, honest and effective state.
In the first place, the establishment of an entire ministry dedicated to performance monitoring and evaluation has thus far failed to improve government's ability to deliver. Indeed, ministers have not even been required to make their performance agreements public. How can these agreements serve to improve accountability when we do not know the criteria to which to hold ministers accountable?
Secondly, last year's cabinet reshuffle, rather than illustrating a sincere commitment to accountability, proved to be an opportunity for political scores to be settled and favours bought. Despite lip service being paid to a renewed commitment to improved delivery, numerous poorly performing ministers, such as Minister of Higher Education, Blade Nzimande, and Minister of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Sicelo Shiceka, survived the purge. The same, however, cannot be said for some of Cabinet's most competent members, such as former Minister of Public Enterprises Barbara Hogan, who paid the price for speaking out on the politically thorny issue of corruption.
Thirdly, Mr President, if this truly is an administration committed to accountability, then the DA's proposal for the establishment of a presidential portfolio committee should be wholeheartedly welcomed, instead of being buried deep inside interminable parliamentary processes. An administration committed to accountability would recognise that parliament cannot fulfill its constitutionally mandated responsibility of conducting effective oversight of the executive, if the Presidency, the body at the apex of the executive with transversal responsibilities, is not subject to the same degree of oversight as all other government departments.
Mr President, it is imperative that the ANC government departs from those philosophically misguided concepts that are at the heart of the ANC's approach to governance, and that act as powerful barriers to our country's advancement. Cadre deployment has broken our public service, fuelled corruption and deepened public distrust, while democratic centralism is anathema to our constitutional democracy. These sorts of outmoded ANC policies need to be replaced with a programme of action that advances individual choice, prioritises merit and excellence, and expands opportunities and basic freedoms.
Mr. President, the Economist recently said of our system of governance:
"Most [ANC] MPs are aware that they must toe the party line or risk finding themselves banished from the list of election candidates. The same fear underpins the ANC's system of "cadre deployment", under which loyal party members are given plum posts and critical ones sacked. Mr Zuma has repeatedly promised to reform the system, but has never quite got around to it."
The time has come, Mr President, to implement those reforms that you obliquely referred to in your speech.
Mr. President, new principles of accountability are urgently needed, but these must also be matched by a new ethos of government.
The National Youth Development Agency's disastrous hosting of a totalitarian youth festival at the end of last year, which was essentially a state-funded ANC Youth League event with a R100 million price tag, is a powerful illustration of the urgency with which this blind spot needs to be addressed.
An administration serious about poverty alleviation would not even have entertained that public funds be dedicated to such an event.
R100 million spent on a festival, Mr. President, is R100 million less spent on alleviating poverty.
As various ANC leaders mull proposals to nationalise mines and ban labour brokers, and fight over wage subsidies, millions of South Africans face a daily struggle for survival.
At least one of your ministers understands the scale of deprivation facing our country. Minister in the Presidency Trevor Manuel echoed the sentiments of development economist Amartya Sen when he wrote earlier this year that "poverty is not just a lack of income".
Minister Manuel also drew attention to the unsustainable cycle of dependency engendered by the cash grants system, stating that, "If we fail to change the quality of services delivered to the poor, we reduce the state to an ATM, only capable of handing out cash."
An effective poverty alleviation strategy must, on the one hand, deliver immediate relief to those in need. On the other hand, it must create opportunities for people to lift themselves, and their families, out of poverty. The ANC has, thus far, failed on both counts.
It is my sincere hope that the work being done by the National Planning Commission, which Minister Manuel heads, will incorporate these observations into its efforts to develop a future vision for our country. It is also my hope that the New Growth Path, which appears to have been prematurely inspanned as the draught horse of economic transformation and job creation, will be adapted to compliment the product of this important commission's endeavors.
Daar is nog ongelooflik baie werk wat gedoen moet word en ons kan net eenvoudig nie verder bekostig om ons plig te versuim deur mense aan te stel wat nie bereid is om tot diens te wees tot die bevordering van ons land en veral die verandering van die ellende waarin die armes van ons samelewing bly nie. Daar is net te veel mense wat misbruik maak van die staat se goedgunstigheid, wat die staat beroof, mense in die gemeenskap afskeep en wat net weier om hulle verantwoordelikhede na te kom. Dit sluit politici van alle vlakke, staatsamptenary, onderwysers, gesondheidswerkers, polisiemanne en vroue en mense in die strafregtelike beroep. Indien ons nie ontslae raak van die mense wat deur Mnr Vavi beskryf word as "roofdiere wat op die staat toesak", sal ons land en ons mense nooit vooruitgang geniet nie.
To realise the potential of each South African, and thereby unlock the potential of our nation, many difficult decisions will need to be made. It will require you, Mr President, to bring an end to ambiguity regarding issues such as nationalisation, to balance the sometimes competing forces of business, workers, the unemployed and environmental sustainability, to deliver on promises to implement new, innovative solutions, such as renewable energy, to meet our country's needs.
Mr President, you must also take notice of the severe environmental "headwinds" that are gaining momentum against us, such as acid mine drainage, global warming and the resultant increasingly unstable weather patterns that have a profound impact on our economy and the well-being of our people.
In this regard, it is important to reiterate the DA's concerns about the involvement of the ANC's investment arm Chancellor House in state projects such as the Medupi power station, and its fixation with coal-generated energy production.
That Chancellor House has significant interests in state projects appears to be a gross conflict of interest and clearly blurs the line between party and state. Chancellor House's activities are a powerful illustration of the ANC government's attitude towards accountability and transparency.
The DA regards the promotion and protection of basic democratic values such as these, as central to good governance, and core components of the path to prosperity. Where we are in government, the DA has made significant strides in embodying these values, and demonstrating to South Africans that where the DA governs, it governs well.
The DA welcomes the announcement by the Auditor General earlier this year that the DA-run Western Cape is "the first (province) whose financial statements of all of its departments and public entities are financially unqualified."
The fact that the DA accomplished this in its first year of provincial leadership bears testimony to our dedication to clean financial management and efficient administration. These are enormously significant achievements, and all the people of the Western Cape will benefit because of them.
The DA's record in government has not gone unnoticed. Senior ANC heavyweights Gwede Mantashe, Zweli Mkhize and Thandi Modise have all commented publically on the DA's ability to deliver.
I will today return the favour, and Mr President, wish to commend you and your Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi for the commitment this department has displayed to addressing our country's health crisis, particularly regarding the HIV/AIDS pandemic that is devastating poorer communities.
The DA remains, however, deeply concerned about the state of our country's education system, particularly with regard to the ANC government's refusal to tackle the increasingly disruptive role of teachers' union SADTU. The situation is so dire in the Eastern Cape that SADTU has gone from being "poacher to gamekeeper".
Regrettably, though, the borrowed concept of the three Ts (teachers, textbooks, time) is just not good enough as it is precisely the current dysfunctionality of the three Ts that is the enemy of education.
At an event in East London earlier this year, Rhodes University Vice Chancellor, Dr Saleem Badat, identified effective leadership and management as a key determinant of the success of historically black schools. This is a lesson we can extrapolate to the South African context more broadly. Now is the time, Mr President, when our nation needs the kind of effective leadership and management your administration has thus far failed to provide.
President Zuma, on that note, your recent comments that sought to employ religious threats for political ends have no place in our constitutional democracy. They were an example of the very worst kind of politicking: that which seeks to divide along religious lines, rather than unite behind a common goal. The name of God and heaven should never be used in vain.
Regarding matters facing the African continent, we cannot allow historical ties to liberation movements to render us silent on matters of human rights and oppression in Africa. We were too slow to support the rightfully elected president of Cote d'Ivoire, Alessane Ouattara. We were too slow to support pro-democracy protests in Egypt, and the departure of Hosni Mubarak. And we have continued to engage lethargically with neighbouring states like Zimbabwe and Swaziland, where democratic reforms are still desperately needed and human rights abuses continue unabated. The appointment of Equatorial Guinea's leader Teodoro Obiang as the new chairman of the African Union (AU) is a shameful endorsement of undemocratic principles by a body that was originally established to promote good governance and democracy in Africa.
Recent developments in both Tunisia and Egypt have served as a powerful reminder that governments ought to serve the will of the people, and not the other way round.
Mr. President, respect for accountability remains central to courageous leadership. With the successful hosting of the FIFA World Cup last year, we realised what is possible if a clear goal is identified, strict deadlines are set, and expectations are defined. We can learn much from this example of excellent, world-class delivery.
This was one of our great moments as a nation.
Although, Mr. President, your administration needs to respect the people of this country in the same way that it respected FIFA.
Finally, I would like to pay tribute to one of the great heroes of our nation. I wish to echo what President Zuma has said of uTata uMadiba. I trust that we as a nation will respect his personal dignity now and in the future. And that we will always strive to achieve his vision for this country. It is by ensuring that South Africa becomes a beacon of peace and prosperity, where every citizen has the opportunity to fulfill his or her own potential, that we can best begin to honour our former President's legacy.
Mr. President, true leadership is not only about having a clear vision for the future - a stated outcome, a list of objectives. It is also about having a plan, a detailed map of how to get there. Your map has two paths, and you now have a choice - this choice will define your presidency, define your place in history. You can either choose the path to poverty or the path to prosperity.
Issued by Athol Trollip, MP, Democratic Alliance parliamentary leader, February 15 2011
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