Transcript of speech by Democratic Alliance MP Geordin Hill-Lewis in the debate on President Cyril Ramaphosa’s State of the Nation Address, Parliament 16 February 2021

Mr G G HILL-LEWIS: Deputy Chairperson, leadership is felt most acutely in its absence. And we, in South Africa, are feeling that absence.

We have an economic crisis because we have a leadership crisis in our country. [Interjections.]

AN HON MEMBER: Malibongwe! [Interjections.]

Mr D BERGMAN: Point of order. Mute that delinquent.

The DEPUTY CHAIRPERSON OF THE NCOP: Can there be order please! Who is calling for a point of order?

AN HON MEMBER: Deputy Chair, it’s from the platform.

The DEPUTY CHAIRPERSON OF THE NCOP: Who is there on the platform? Can you identify yourself?

Mr D BERGMAN: Chair, it’s hon Bergman speaking. [Interjections.]

IsiZulu: 16:47.49

Nk M S KHAWULA: Yithatha lenu! Yithatha lenu!

The DEPUTY CHAIRPERSON OF THE NCOP: Can we have order, please!

Mr D BERGMAN: One of the ANC speakers is shouting while one of our members is speaking and is disrupting our member from the electronic platform.

The DEPUTY CHAIRPERSON OF THE NCOP: That’s not a point of order. You may continue, hon Hill-Lewis.

Mr G G HILL-LEWIS: Madam Deputy Chair, the President is simply not able to lead his party to embrace the economic reforms necessary to save our economy. So, speech after speech, year after year, we have the language of reform, with absolutely no progress to speak of. We have a government which says it wants to do everything, but isn’t doing anything.

The government just isn’t working.

The President’s state of the nation address could have been a refreshing moment of honesty about what has gone wrong, and what’s the government’s credible plan to resuscitate his Presidency and our economy. Instead, what we got last Thursday were platitudes, fantasies and stale reheated promises that no one can take seriously anymore.

The government surely isn’t working, but it is spinning.

Last year I asked the President to supply a detailed list of the R250 billion in new investments in ‘implementation phase’ that he trumpeted in his Sona. The list he sent in response includes, for example, the purchase of a minority equity share in Hollard Insurance for R5 billion.

That is not foreign direct investment; it’s just spin.

The amount includes R79,6 billion in so-called ‘staying in business’ spending by Anglo American, which they literally have to spend just to keep the mines open. That’s like saying that every shop owner who pays their electricity bill is ‘investing’.

It’s all spin.

Last week, in his address, he told us that pledged investment is now an incredible R773 billion. What are these investments? Where are they? Look around, Mr President. Businesses are closing by the thousands. Nearly two million more people are unemployed. If there were R773 billion in real investments in South Africa, every city skyline would be dotted with dozens of cranes. Workers would be queuing to collect their hardhats, ready for work. But there are no cranes. And the only queues we see are the ones that the Minister coming now to speak, doused with her water canon as they waited for their Covid-19 grant.

The fact is that these ‘investments’ are smoke and mirrors. There aren’t any investments because this government isn’t working.

We have all seen the factories with the dusty broken windows shut for months as businesses have moved out. We’ve seen the shop windows covered in signs saying, “to let” vacant space, waiting for new owners who just aren’t coming.

South Africa is tired of waiting for this reform programme. And South Africans are tired of being spoken to as if it’s their fault.

The President and his Finance Minister keep speaking to us as if they are spectators sitting in the stadium, watching the game. The Minister sends out his daily Twitter homilies about opportunity costs and the dangers of debt, and then presents a budget with much more debt. Stop telling us about it, and do something about it.

The President ended his speech by telling us, “your country calls on you to rise”. I could say the same to him. Your country has been waiting for you to rise, Mr President! You are not a spectator; You are the President. Do something! But now the country is done waiting.

South Africans can’t look to you for leadership in turning this around. And we, here, love this country too much to just watch it decline. So, we are going to get on and fix it ourselves. We’ve got to find ways to reform in spite of the inaction of this government. We need fresh thinking, new ideas, and real leadership.

That is why – as my colleague said - we will table an agenda for change, bringing to this House every reform that South Africa needs to make government work, and get South Africans into work. We can show South Africa what is possible if government actually worked.

Working governments are not just implementers of national government policy, but innovative hubs of fresh ideas and city-led development. Working governments will end load-shedding over time to protect residents from Eskom. Working governments will be the engine of our national economic recovery. Working governments love small business and nurture enterprise.

If you run a food stall, or a clothing stall, or if you sell traditional medicine at the bus stop, this government harasses you, takes your goods, and sees you as a problem to be stamped out. We, here, call you a budding entrepreneur, and we want to help you grow. It is entrepreneurs like you, and not the government, who are going to turn South Africa around.

When last did the President actually talk to a small business owner and ask what he can do to help? It has never happened. Well, this morning I spent time talking with small business owners here in Cape Town who are going through an unbelievably difficult time. And I want to say to them and small business owners everywhere today, you’ve used every cent of your savings to carry on paying the bills.

You’ve leaned on friends and family to keep the doors open. You’ve moved heaven and earth to save every job you can. Our country owes you as much a debt of gratitude as it does to the frontline workers who have nursed the sick. You are the reason I know South Africa can prosper one day.

Madam Deputy Chair, the reforms we need to save our beloved country won’t happen because the government has given up on the founding vision of the new South Africa. The idea of a united, prosperous South Africa where every person has a chance to live a life of dignity and free of poverty.

That is the vision of our Constitution which inspires us still – on this side of the House - and which we are still dedicated to building. But it will take leadership to reaffirm our founding values and courage to see it through when the going gets tough, as it’s so tough now.

That is why we can and we will lead the economic reform agenda here in Parliament, with or without you. That is why our local and provincial governments can and will lead the reform agenda where we govern, with or without you. That is the wellspring of a new sense of possibility and hope in South Africa. And that is what should inspire every South African who has gone through this year of incredible difficulty, that the future can be much better despite this government.  

That is the wellspring and the sense of possibility of hope because in the end, the choice facing South Africa is between the government that works and the government that doesn’t work. And we, here, are the government that works. Thank you very much. [Applause.]

ENDS

Source: Unrevised Transcript, Hansard.