21 June 1999
Mr Speaker
On June 2 1999 the people of South Africa and the Western Cape spoke.
An overwhelming mandate has been given to speed up change and step up the pace of transformation. The voters have exercised a wise choice. Because if we fail to speed up change , the gains which we have made over the last five years will be reversed.
The greatest threat to our democracy is the continued inequality in our society where the gap between rich and poor is second only to Brazil.
A South Africa which fails to create more jobs, to win the fight against crime and corruption and to tackle poverty will be a country which does not know peace and stability.
It is the ANC who the voters have asked to tackle these issues head on . This is because the majority of people have confidence that the ANC is best placed to unite our people and bring about a better life.
This is a task that needs the support of all of us. In word and deed. It is thus a great pity that the election campaign also exposed the reality that there remains a sector of our society determined to oppose transformation at any cost. People who elevate the need for opposition into a sacred principle and ignore the fundamental challenge facing our country.
The campaign saw many conservatives drawn to the DP's campaign to fight back and interpreted it as a clarion call to hold onto privilege at all costs and fight transformation. This short sighted campaign whose objective was simply to become the official opposition has damaged the fabric of our democracy and greatly polarised people of the Western Cape.
We are told that this was just the first step towards the formation of a broad non-racial opposition against the ANC. The conduct of the DP in the setting up of the coalition has simply added to racial polarisation in our province.
The ANC's support in the Western Cape extends to all communities. The majority of disadvantaged people from the rural areas, over 40 % of coloured voters, over 90 % of African voters and between 7 and 10 % of those living in historically white communities voted ANC. It is these people, mainly poor but also representing those committed to transformation, that have been excluded from this government. A cabinet with a majority of white members, a minority of Coloured members and not a single African.
It is not surprising that many former DP supporters, and I stress former DP supporters, like Bradley Bordiss, a member of the DP and its predecessor, the PFP, for 18 years, whose letter appears in this morning's Star feel the way they do. Mr Bordiss writes, and I quote:
"A party which has turned its back on its human rights past and now shamelessly opposes employment equity and does not support redressing the imbalances in municipal rates despite the glaring inequities in favour of the "white" areas of Cape Town.
"The new muscular liberalism has come to mean dropping all principles and whoring the Democratic Party to white self-interest.
"In contrast with this noble ideal, as the final act of politically whoring our proud past, the DP has now entered into an alliance with the architects of apartheid and deliberately excluded the black constituencies of the Western Cape.
"It did this by ignoring all its fine principles of the past 40 years and whoring itself as the party of white self-interest to "fight back" against the new South Africa. My conscience and the memory of Tian do not allow me to be party to this and I hereby table my resignation as a member of the DP."
As the ANC we will work as the official opposition to speed up change in the Western Cape This we will do by working with our national government, local government, our communities, business and labour and civil society to;
We don't need 100 days to work out what the priorities are. The people have spoken and we are busy, every day, working to speed up change, together.
The draft agreement between the DP and the NNP says: "Any incidence of corruption, maladministration or dereliction of duty , wherever it occurs and by whomsoever it is perpetrated, will be dealt with rapidly and without fear or favour;"
Mr Morkel and Mr Bester need to tell this house;
1. Why have they been silent on the OSEO investigation into alleged corruption by Mr Abe Williams now that the report has been completed and handed to the Director of Public Prosecutions and will they join the ANC and the people of Atlantis in calling for the Director to indicate whether Mr Williams will be charged or not? 2. Will the DP, now that it is part of government, support the call by the ANC that the public accounts committee summons the Director General to account for the thousands of rands spent on radio and print ads on the eve of the election?
3. Whether they will support the investigation by the governing body of Tonko Bosman School and the Heldervalley forum into the financial affairs of the school where Minister Freda Adams was headmaster for a number of years and where it is alleged that her husband built classrooms using IDT funds without proper tender procedures being followed? Whether they will insist that the minister, who was a signatory to the account, gives authorization to the FNB to make the cheque books available to the governing body?
4. Whether they will, as has been done at a national level, provide the legislature with a full report of all assets owned by MEC's as well as a record of all paid work done by them before assuming office?
5. Whether they regard dereliction of duty as including the excessive use of alcohol while performing ministerial responsibilities?
It is time Mr Speaker that the selective morality of the DP and the NNP comes to an end. I look forward to Mr Morkel's response when he replies tomorrow.