Issued by African National Congress - Parliament
18 February 2003
There have been varied responses to the State of the Nation Address by the President of the Republic of South Africa.
It has generated a frenzy of discussions in many sectors of our country.
Some have commended the President, citing his amazing insight on major issues and challenges facing our country today.
Others have disagreed, pointing out that the President should have emphasized or elaborated on certain points and de-emphasised others.
The SAHRC for instance, in its response, says; "The South African Human Rights Commission is pleased with the commitment to alleviate poverty as expressed by the President of the Republic of South Africa in his opening speech today in parliament." And continues to point out that, "Whist the country has made strides towards consolidation of our democracy, poverty alleviation remains an issue that needs constructive, workable, and implementable strategies."
The Minister of Home Affairs and the President of the Inkatha Freedom Party, Dr Mangosuthu Buthelezi says, "Undoubtedly, enormous progress has been achieved in a multiplicity of fields and endeavors undertaken by our Government." He continues to say, "Our Government has performed well across the board of many line functions. Delivery has increased and this year we are doing better than last year and are set to see next year improving on today's results. Therefore, there is much call for satisfaction and comfort."
Dr Buthelezi further implores us to "focus attention on the work ahead which must now reach out for the proverbial extra mile."
There are also those who have sought to position themselves on the extreme end of opposition. Those who have unashamedly sought to make political gains out of a grave situation facing especially the developing world.
Take for instance the Leader of the Official Opposition.
This is how he opens his speech, "We must change South Africa. And we can." Visibly play acting he continues, "We are watching one of the most extraordinary calamities in human history; the wiping out of millions of people, in peacetime, and by a known cause that has a known treatment."
In this context, what message is the phrase 'that has a known treatment' meant to convey?
According to the Cambridge International Dictionary of English, 1996 edition, to treat, in medical terms is, to use drugs, exercises, etc, in order to cure a person of a disease or heal an injury.
So why are we creating false impressions to our people? First and foremost the message that needs to be put across to our people, clearly, unambiguously is that there is no cure for the known cause referred to by the honorable Member.
And more importantly, the government, that according to some is said to lack political courage, has actually committed itself to the implementation of government's comprehensive strategy on HIV and AIDS, and the President specifically pronounced on this issue, and added, "This includes implementation of the decisions of the Constitutional Court."
However, the most intriguing aspect of this issue is that those who claim to love our people, so much that they do not want to be "witness to mass death," as they put it, do not emphatically tell the people they so much claim to love, that:
1. Because there is no cure for HIV and AIDS, the first line of defense is Prevention.
2. In the fight against HIV and AIDS, the struggle for clean water needs to be intensified as the use of contaminated water acts directly to cause disease, by carrying microbes and worms that cause repeated infections and weaken the immune system through 'exhaustion' exacerbating conditions such as AIDS.
3. That in the fight against HIV and AIDS, people infected with the disease must be treated as human beings with all the rights as equal citizens of this country.
4. That the drugs we supply to people living with the disease are suitable for consumption and are of world-class standards. More importantly, that they are to be made affordable to our people.
5. They do not tell our people that, as Dr Buthelezi puts it;
"Especially in the dark age of HIV/AIDS, a healthy diet is essential."
The people that love us, that proclaim to love our people, are luring all of us into the grave.
They de-emphasise prevention and profile highly, treatment.
So what happens, a psychological state of normality is created, it's like we can live normally, and there is no problem, and hope is created to the effect that, should the problem arise, there will be treatment.
So if one may ask, why is this being done? Why are we being so irresponsible? Why are we being lured into the grave?
In this regard, it is also relevant to remember one incident that took place in this House. We moved a motion of condolence given the passing away of one of our youth leaders, before we could state the cause of death, a member from the party that claims to love our people said, in a jolly good manner, AIDS! We protested at this and the Member in question was asked to apologise.
The youth leader in question had lost his life in a car accident. That, however, is not the point; the issue is what kind of people we have here? The sort of people who laugh over a dead person's body. They claim to' love' our people when alive, laugh at them when they are dead. What morality?
The picture has successfully been painted among some sections of our communities that, the government and the ANC in particular, does not care for the lives of the citizens of this country. In this regard, let me steal again from the words of one of the elders in this House, who happens not to be a member of the ANC, Dr Buthelezi, speaking to this problem yesterday said, "As a Minister in Government I know how much our government is doing to face up to this pandemic."
Honorable Leon continues to say, "life is no better now than it was."
Let us just remind the honorable Member that before this life we are living in now, there was apartheid, a crime against humanity, one of the most savage political systems, the world has ever seen. So if we are to be informed by his statement, we must conclude that for him apartheid was better than the new democratic South Africa.
And one must actually say that hearing this from him is actually relieving, for two reasons;
The first is that his opening declaration, "We must change South Africa" can now be better understood as to the direction that he is actually yearning for.
Secondly, many who have actually suspected this sort of thing, are now clarified.
Honorable Member Raenette Taljaard asks the President,
"Mr. President, we have every right to ask you today,what values will define us? What moral renewal edifice will we build with foundations of quicksand? We have had at least three Cabinet members implicated and/or under investigation for suspected corruption in South Africa's 'First Decade of Freedom.'"
And then she of course continues to name the persons in her mini story.
One would have liked, of course, to take issue with many of the points being raised in the content thereof. For instance, what specifically do 'with foundations of quicksand' mean? And also, why is the phrase First Decade of Freedom, in her speech, written in inverted comas? Could it possibly mean that, whilst she is a democrat, judging by the name of her party, she however does not identify herself with the democratic phase of our history. Intriguing, is it not? However, that as it may, the content of her question is a small matter, petty stuff, sort of personal attacks on certain individuals. What needs to be addressed is corruption as a broad issue.
For our young South African, Member of Parliament, a few short stories should illuminate this issue. On the 1st of September 1963, Bellington Mampe died while in detention, Suliman Saloojee, in 1964, September 9, fell out of the seventh floor window, we were told, he also was in detention, on the 5th of February 1982, Neil Aggett hanged himself while in detention.
For these murders and many more, no one was ever investigated; let alone the question of arrest. This honorable Member is our past.
Today South Africans of whatever standing have the law above them, no one above it. Looking back at where we come from, we should indeed agree with the President, and many others, who say South Africa is a symbol of hope.
The very democratic constitutional and legal framework that we have set up, represents, comprehensively understood, our determination as a nation to prosper, and our collective rejection of all that is evil, including corruption.
Finally, for today, we shall end by posing this question, who will benefit from Black Economic Empowerment? While thinking about the answer that to some of us look so obvious, I shall read to you a quote from Barbara Kingsolver's novel, the Poisonwood Bible, it goes like this;
"You will say I walked across Africa with my wrists unshackled, and now I am one more soul walking free in a white skin, wearing some threads of the stolen goods: cotton or diamonds, freedom at the very least, prosperity. Some of us know how we came by our fortune, and some of us don't, but we wear it all the same. There's only one question worth asking now: How do we aim to live with it?"