WEDNESDAY, 31 OCTOBER 2001 __

                    PROCEEDINGS AT JOINT SITTING
                                ____

Members of the National Assembly and the National Council of Provinces assembled in the Chamber of the National Assembly at 14:01.

The Chairperson of the National Council of Provinces took the Chair and requested members to observe a moment of silence for prayers or meditation.

ADDRESS BY PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC AND DEBATE ON A NEW PARTNERSHIP FOR AFRICA’S DEVELOPMENT

The PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC: Chairperson and Deputy Chairperson of the NCOP, Madam Speaker and Deputy Speaker, hon Ministers and Deputy Ministers, premiers, hon members, ladies and gentlemen, a recent publication of the World Bank asks the question: Can Africa claim the 21st century? It is our firm view that together, as Africans, we must answer that question with a resounding yes. Africa’s time has come.

When, at the end of the century, historians cast their eyes back over this, the 21st and African century, what will they see? They should see that Africa has, at last, emerged from a long period of darkness and fear into one of light and a dream fulfilled. They should see that through our persistent efforts, we have redefined ourselves into something other than a place of suffering, a place of wars, a place of oppression, a place of hunger, of disease, of ignorance and of backwardness.

They should see the reality of a new African who, having refused to be conditioned by circumstances imposed by a past of slavery, of colonialism, of neo-colonialism, of racism and apartheid, has succeeded in creating a new world of peace, of democracy, of development and of prosperity.

These are Africans who have chosen to define themselves in action. They have grown tired of being told who they are, where they come from, where they ought to go and how they should proceed with their journey. Because they have decided to become the masters and mistresses of their own destiny, to sing their own songs and dance to their own tune, they have succeeded in claiming the 21st century as their own. [Applause.]

The historians should see that, at last, an age-old dream of the unity of Africa has been realised among the millions on our continent, who are bound together by the oldest and most enduring land mass, who breathe the same air, till the same soil, dream the same dreams and awake together from a long night rocked by terrifying nightmares. They should be seen walking their continent and the common globe, proud Africans who, by reclaiming their place as equals with other human beings, have banished from the earth the scourge of racism and racial discrimination.

The African Union and the New Partnership for Africa’s Development constitute the ways and means we have chosen to take us forward decisively towards the realisation of these goals. I would like to thank the Chairperson of the NCOP and the Speaker for providing all of us with this opportunity to discuss the initiatives critical to Africa’s future, the New Partnership for Africa’s Development and the African Union.

It is important that our discussion is taking place in this Parliament, which is the home of our elected representatives and a symbol of the fulfilment of the struggles and sacrifices of the masses of our people in our common quest for the realisation of our collective demand that the people shall govern. Undoubtedly the creation of a new parliament in our own country, reflecting the will of the people, was one of the important foundations for us to come together and declare in unison that Africa’s time has come.

It is therefore obvious that a new partnership for the development of our continent would not have been possible if part of Africa was still under the yoke of colonial or white minority rule. Accordingly, one of the important preconditions for the renewal of Africa is necessarily the complete liberation of the peoples of our continent.

Secondly, the Africans themselves, particularly the leadership, had to arrive at a common perspective that democracy is fundamental to the regeneration of our countries and continent, and that responding to the correct demand for democracy is being true and faithful to the people on whose behalf we aspire to govern.

Thirdly, a new partnership for development was possible when many of our people on the continent came to the common determination that proper adherence to good economic governance, aimed at the emancipation of our people from poverty, is as important as ensuring political democracy. As with our approaches to political processes, the time since Africa’s independence has offered valuable lessons about what we should do and not do if we are to pull ourselves from the quagmire of poverty and underdevelopment, as we must.

Fourthly, we are able to take practical steps in the renewal of the continent, because we have resolved that we should find the ways to use our natural riches to improve the living conditions of all of our people, instead of these riches benefiting outsiders and a small elite.

Fifthly, the renaissance of the continent is possible because the process will involve the masses of our people, in their various formations and from different stations in life, as conscious agents of change. The businesspeople, women, the intelligentsia, the youth, workers, politicians, media workers, all of us have crucial and specific roles that we can and must play to ensure that the renewal of our continent becomes a reality.

Lastly, the African Renaissance is possible because we have entered into a new partnership with the rest of the world on the basis of what we, as Africans, have determined is the correct route to our own development. The New Partnership for Africa’s Development states - and this was agreed unanimously at the last OAU summit in Lusaka in July - that, and I quote:

The resources, including capital, technology and human skills, that are required to launch a global war on poverty and underdevelopment exist in abundance, and are within our grasp. What is required to mobilise these resources and to use them properly, is bold and imaginative leadership that is genuinely committed to a sustained effort of human upliftment and poverty eradication, as well as a new global partnership based on shared responsibility and mutual interest.

Across the continent, Africans declare that we will no longer allow ourselves to be conditioned by circumstance. We will determine our own destiny and call on the rest of the world to complement our efforts. The OAU summit said that there are already signs of hope and progress. Democratic regimes that are committed to the protection of human rights, people-centred development and market-oriented economies are on the increase. African peoples have begun to demonstrate their refusal to accept poor economic and political leadership. These developments are, however, uneven and inadequate and need to be expedited further.

The New Partnership for Africa’s Development is about consolidating and accelerating these gains. It is a call, said the African leaders, for a new relationship of partnership between Africa and the international community, especially the highly industrialised countries, to overcome the development chasm that has widened over centuries of unequal relations.

In this regard, we are not asking for favours, but for fairness and justice, a better life for Africans and a secure future for all humanity. [Applause.] This programme is premised on African ownership, African control of the projects and programmes, with African leaders accepting openly and unequivocally that they will play their part in ending poverty and bringing about sustainable development. We are agreed that we must strengthen democracy on the continent; entrench a human rights culture; end existing conflicts and prevent new conflicts: We have to deal with corruption and be accountable to one another for all our actions. Clearly, these measures of ensuring democracy, good governance and the absence of wars and conflicts are important both for the wellbeing of the people of Africa and for the creation of positive conditions for investment, economic growth and development.

Clearly, we cannot make the required progress and realise the necessary achievements in the process of the regeneration of our continent if the people of Angola, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Sierra Leone are engaged in endless conflicts. To end these conflicts and find a lasting solution to their causes is something that must continue to preoccupy the collective mind of Africans, and participating in a practical programme of their resolution is a joint responsibility of each and every African patriot.

In this respect, I would like to extend our best wishes and thanks to the members of our SA National Defence Force who are being deployed in Burundi to assist that sister country to transform itself into one of peace, democracy and prosperity. [Applause.] Our Deputy President has left for Burundi this morning to represent our country as a new government is sworn in tomorrow. Again, I would like to salute the facilitator of the Burundi peace process, Nelson Mandela … [Applause] … his team and the political leadership of Burundi for the important steps they are taking to expand the frontiers of liberty and peace.

To return to the new partnership, there are important measures that we have to undertake to mobilise the required resources so that we achieve better economic growth. To halve the incidence of poverty by the year 2015, we need to achieve high and sustained rates of growth. Among other things, this will require increased domestic savings and better revenue collection. We also have to strengthen the public-private partnerships and ensure that there are sufficient means and capacity to implement infrastructure and social programmes. The African Development Bank will play a central role in this regard.

Further, the programme is going to assist countries to improve their individual financial markets, as well as address the challenge of better co- ordination and harmonisation of cross-border flows through the Financial Markets Integration Task Force. In addition, the capital flows initiative seeks to focus on debt reduction and forgiveness, reforming development assistance for Africa and working on mechanisms to increase private capital flows into the continent.

One of the most important challenges is to address the negative perception among investors, who see Africa as a high risk area. While we need to address the genuine concerns raised by potential investors, we have a responsibility to communicate better and correctly about the concrete improvements we continue to make. In many instances the investors get a wrong message from those who do not wish Africa to succeed. The voice of the majority of the people of Africa who have stabilised their political and socioeconomic situations needs to be heard.

Africa is rich in agricultural, mineral and aquatic raw materials that must now be used to develop the continent’s economies and peoples. But Africans themselves must add value to these natural resources through beneficiation, so that the rest of the world receives them as manufactured goods and not merely as raw materials. [Applause.]

Through the Market Access Initiative Programme of the new partnership we seek to advance diversified market access for African exports to the developed countries of the North. The programme also seeks to nurture the vast, complex and rich African environment for the benefit of all humanity. In this regard there will be a coherent environmental programme where we will have to make strategic choices and determine particular priorities. The environment initiative will deal, among others, with programmes around the combating of desertification, wetland conservation and water management, global warming, trans-frontier conservation and environmental governance.

The new partnership has also set important priorities in the area of infrastructure development so as to speed up the process of the modernisation and naturalisation of the continent and ensure that Africa rises to the levels of the developed countries. Clearly, the lack of infrastructure constitutes a serious handicap to social and economic development.

Another priority area is information and communication technology. We have to improve the ICT infrastructure and ensure that there is clear policy and strong regulatory mechanisms. Africa needs adequate access to affordable telephones, computers, the Internet and broadcasting. To double teledensity by the year 2005, the continent needs in excess of US$8 billion in core infrastructure alone.

Attracting investment needs, therefore, a comprehensive integrated strategy that will be supported by all the people of Africa. In addition, there will be a programme of human development so that our people gain the necessary knowledge and skills, and enjoy better and healthier lives.

We have to work on a multipronged strategy, which we are discussing with the WHO, to overcome the widespread incidence of communicable diseases, such as malaria, tuberculosis and Aids. Among others, we have to improve the quality of nutrition, so as to contribute to the wellbeing of our people, as well as to increased productivity.

We also need an improvement of our educational systems if we are to compete equally with the rest of the world. In this regard we need to improve facilities to ensure that primary and secondary schools are available in all our villages and rural areas in particular. Further, we have to strengthen the university system, including the creation of specialised universities where needed, and establish institutes of technology.

The success of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development will only be guaranteed if all the people see themselves as part of the process, not only of deepening democracy, but also as activists in projects and programmes that they engage in partnership with Government. Furthermore, the development of the African continent will happen when we have practical programmes and workable partnerships with the developed countries. Already there have been extensive engagements with various developed countries as well as with multilateral organisations. These include the G8, EU, UN, the Nordic countries, the World Bank, IMF, and the International Finance Corporation.

As members know, this Parliament, like others in our continent, adopted the Constitutive Act of the African Union, which will replace the OAU as from next year when the OAU will hold its last assembly, and the African Union its first, here in our country. [Applause.] Again, as members know, the African Union will be based on the following objectives and principles, among others: to achieve greater unity and solidarity among the countries and peoples of our continent; to accelerate the political and social integration of the continent; to promote peace, security and stability; to promote democratic principles and institutions, popular participation and good governance; to promote and protect human and people’s rights in accordance with the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights and other relevant human rights instruments; to ensure the establishment of the necessary conditions which enable the continent to play its rightful role in the global economy and in international negotiations; and to ensure the promotion of co-operation in all fields of human activity to raise the living standards of the peoples of our continent.

We see the transformation of the OAU into the African Union as an important process because we need a continental structure better suited to the challenges of the 21st century and better geared to the goal of the realisation of the objective of Africa’s renaissance. Our Parliament made important observations when considering the requests for the approval of the Constitutive Act of the African Union. Among the important observations that were made was that the Constitutive Act appears to contain various clauses that could be open to different interpretations has various clauses that appear to be contradictory, and has clauses that may be interpreted as impinging upon the sovereignty of member states in the executive, legislative and judicial spheres, more than is usual in the case of the formation of such a union.

The report is valuable as it assists in focusing our collective mind on the areas that may pose problems as we try to form an important body that is critical to our renewal as a continent. In appreciating the work that Parliament did, I would like to make a request to members to elaborate on the areas that they have identified and propose possible remedies. Furthermore, we need to spell out in what form we think the various organs mentioned in the Constitutive Act should state the protocols, rules and regulations that should govern these structures.

Our Parliament should assist in giving more content and meaning to the African Union so that the elected representatives of South Africa also make their humble contribution to the form, content and direction of that union as it is being defined more precisely prior to its launch. This should clearly be done in conjunction with other people in society who are willing and able to make a contribution, be they NGOs, universities, research bodies, business organisations, trade unions, women and youth organisations.

Similarly, we should encourage our counterparts in other parts of the continent to engage in this process of shaping and participating in the African Union and the New Partnership for Africa’s Development in such a manner that there is a clear response to the needs and demands of all our people, as well as the active involvement of those people.

In this way we will ensure that both the union and the programme are owned by all our people in all of our countries. We will ensure that the African Union and the New Partnership do not belong to the elite, but are products of our people, and benefit, in a practical way, the poor of our continent, wherever they may be. [Applause.]

We have embarked on these extraordinary measures, represented by the AU and the new partnership, because we have to eradicate the destructive effects of slavery, colonialism, neo-colonialism, apartheid, wars, conflicts, disease and poverty that have characterised the African continent for the last few centuries. None but ourselves can do it.

The establishment of the African Union and the New Partnership for Africa’s Development have come at a new time of new possibilities and new hopes for the African people. These initiatives are laying the groundwork for a prosperous Africa that will triumph over poverty, disease, underdevelopment and despair. Their success is dependent on an effective partnership between governments and people, with the co-operation of the private sector, and a true partnership with the developed nations that also have Africa’s interests at heart.

Africa has decided to take the high road. The tasks we have set ourselves are ambitious, but the challenges we face no longer permit timidity. Nor do they allow that we should merely entertain hopes and do nothing to turn those hopes into reality. [Applause.]

The African Presidential Implementation Committee has already been established, and so have the other institutions. We need to translate our common vision into practical, implementable programmes. Our country has been charged with the task of hosting the Secretariat of the New Partnership, chairing its steering committee and convening the group that must elaborate the specific steps we need to take to ensure peace, security and stability throughout our continent. We have an obligation to discharge these responsibilities successfully, driven by a sense of urgency.

The G8 have also constituted the special task force that will work together with our Steering Committee and the Secretariat. The European Commission is ready immediately to engage these organs of the New Partnership. The World Bank, the IMF and the International Finance Corporation have already joined in the New Partnership.

The work has started to give meaning to a bold vision whose realisation will for us, at last, turn into reality the concept that all people are born equal and that all of us inhabit a global village. Ninety-five years ago, in 1906, Pixley ka Isaka Seme, the great African patriot and freedom fighter, looking far into the future, cried out:

Oh, for that historian who, with the open pen of truth, will bring to Africa’s claim the strength of written proof.

He will tell of a race whose onward tide was often swelled with tears, but in whose heart bondage has not quenched the fire of former years. He will write that in these later days when Earth’s noble ones are named, she has a roll of honour too, of whom she is not ashamed.

The giant is awakening!

Together, we must make this the African century and, as the historian of whom Seme spoke, ``with the open pen of truth’’ inscribe a joyous, triumphant Africa into the history book of the world. I am pleased to commend to hon members the New Partnership for Africa’s Development, our own programme made in Africa for the renewal of Africa. I urge hon members to make it their own, to turn into reality the assertion that Africa’s time has come. [Applause.]

The MINISTER OF DEFENCE: Chairperson, hon members of the two Houses, in 1996, 14 of Africa’s 53 states were afflicted by armed conflict. These conflicts accounted for more than half of all war-related deaths worldwide. As a consequence of this insecurity, military budgets remained very high across the continent. Until peace is secured, military expenditures will continue to take a large slice out of the continent’s public spending. Securing peace, therefore, will release resources for redeployment to social needs.

What we need are well-defined priorities to guide resource use, in particular to ensure that poverty reduction is achieved. Hard choices must be made in this regard. The legacy of war has to be faced. Soldiers have to be demobilised, weapons have to be decommissioned and refugees, mainly women and children, have to be resettled.

War means destruction, both of lives and infrastructure. But the rebuilding of that infrastructure could provide Africa with a golden opportunity to overcome geo-economic colonial patterns of interaction among African states. Road and rail infrastructure was set up to serve colonial interests. For instance, British colonies could interact with each other, but not with French or Portuguese colonies. These colonial patterns can be replaced by a new infrastructure, which can lead to development and prosperity. Demobilisation and the creation of a smaller and professional military force are both expensive and trying exercises. The establishment of a peacetime defence force is also expensive. African leaders, in adopting the Constitutive Act of the African Union in July this year, stated:

We are conscious … of the fact that the scourge of conflicts in Africa constitutes a major impediment to the socioeconomic development of the continent and of the need to promote peace, security and stability as a prerequisite for the implementation of our development and integration agenda.

It states, as one of its objectives, the promotion of peace, security and stability on the continent. Amongst its principles are, firstly, the establishment of a common defence policy for the African continent; secondly, peaceful resolution of conflicts among member states of the Union; and, thirdly, the prohibition of the use of force or threat to use force among member states of the Union. The New African Initiative - now referred to as Nepad, - the New Partnership for Africa’s Development, states:

To achieve these objectives, African leaders will take joint responsibility to strengthen mechanisms for conflict prevention, management and resolution at the regional and continental levels, and to ensure that these mechanisms are used to restore and maintain peace;

Nepad states that targeted capacity-building should be given a high priority. It further states that efforts to build Africa’s capacity to manage all aspects of conflict focus on the means necessary to strengthen existing continental and regional institutions and should concentrate on four key areas: firstly, prevention, management and resolution of conflict; secondly, peacemaking, peacekeeping and peace enforcement; thirdly, postconflict reconciliation, rehabilitation and reconstruction; and fourthly, combating the illicit proliferation of small arms, light weapons and antipersonnel land mines and bomblets. In relation to SADC, the emphasis has been placed squarely on the need for peace, stability and security in our region and within the borders of our respective states. Consequently, the Inter State Defence and Security Committee, the ISDSC, has agreed, guided of course by the SADC organ, to work towards a mutual defence pact which aims to prevent conflict in the region and reflects a collective approach to security among countries of our region.

The ISDSC of SADC is working towards a regional partnership. We have just recently held the first session of the South Africa-Namibia joint permanent commission on defence and security. We will be holding the next one with Botswana in the near future. This is within the framework of regional co- operation.

We have advanced within those contacts with the countries of our region to the sharing of intelligence, which is a major milestone for purposes of managing crime within the region. Our defence training institutions are now accommodating and training officers at all levels, from both the region and the continent. This will ensure a common security understanding and, therefore, lays the basis for the emergence of a regional and finally continental joint force. We have agreed with our Angolan and Malawian counterparts earlier this year to make available South African military and medical services for their injured soldiers.

Another priority agreed on by the ISDSC is the building of the capacity of African institutions for an early warning system. Further to the above, how does Defence envisage the operationalising of Nepad? Peace and stability are strategic issues and throw up the main challenges. The key is to ensure that defence efforts are put behind the objectives of Nepad. We must build the capacity of regional organisations to manage security organisations and processes. We must build the capacity of national governments to improve security processes. This entails a common understanding on the continent of the need for strong civil-military relations as fundamental to the working of a democratic state.

Demobilisation, the release of military people into civilian life, is a common problem and yet it can be converted into an advantage. How do we utilise their skills? Can we turn the situation around and empower soldiers to become agents of transformation, so that when they demobilise, they enter civil society with skills and are trained as engineers, communications and IT specialists, health workers, etc?

History records, if I may take hon members into my confidence, that the American experience at the end of the Second World War was that, because they had trained the armed forces in health care, when these people were released, the education that they took back into American life transformed dental hygiene in that nation. There is no reason why we cannot employ similar examples as well. Our medical services can and are fighting diseases. We can work on joint programmes with other militaries in this field, not only for national but also for regional interest as well.

Small arms proliferation has been identified as a major problem. Defence supports the police in terms of operational and intelligence capabilities. We can learn from the Joint Policing Commission with Mozambique on successfully tracking arms caches and destroying them. South Africa has the capacity to destroy large amounts of small weapons.

What is the way forward? We must complete, as legislation now allows, the transformation process we have been engaged in up until now. But we now need to develop new capabilities, so that the New Partnership for Africa’s Development can benefit from the support we can lend it. With this, we will release the energies of the African continent as a whole, and buy into that process. South Africans must take ownership in the way they did in the formulation of the White Paper on Defence and the Defence Review.

We are embarking on a consultative process and intend to engage with other African countries in conferences and symposia to take this process forward. These will be organised together with Foreign Affairs and will involve representatives from the country’s armed forces and from civil society.

It is in this spirit that I would like to share with this House today the fact that we are about to complete deployment in Burundi. We have consulted with all the religious bodies in our country. We have appealed to them that the services this coming weekend should be devoted to praying for the success of the peace efforts in which we are involved. [Applause.] It is important, for the success of the Burundi process, precisely because our armed forces are going in that process without a ceasefire being in place. We are convinced that its success is assured with the co-operation that the parties in that country are displaying. We wish, therefore, for members to join congregations where possible, in order to support this national effort. [Applause.]

The LEADER OF THE OPPOSITION: Chairperson, Madam Speaker, Mr President and colleagues, this is a very important and proud day for the President. I think South Africans can put aside their differences on this day and acknowledge, with a strong sense of common purpose … [Interjections.] I would save my breath, because those hon members are going to swallow a lot quite soon. They should just perhaps save it for then. [Laughter.]

The President has played a leading role in drafting and promoting the New Partnership for Africa’s Development. Although the plan has undergone many name changes, more than a certain political party currently in the news … [Laughter] … I think we all know and appreciate that it reflects the spirit and intention of the President’s original MAP. In fact, since the President outlined the architecture of MAP in Davos in Switzerland at the beginning of this year, I have been a firm supporter of it. I also believe the plan could work, because it seems to me that, putting what is being said into plain language, if one allows one’s circumstances to define and change one, then one is doomed. However, if one chooses to define and change one’s circumstances, then one will live, succeed and prosper. [Applause.] Therefore, I think it is important, as the President said today, that we replace the old caricature and stereotype of Africa - with the outstretched hand and the begging bowl - with the new image of Africa’s place in the world. This is the image of the responsible and businesslike African leader, head held high and making a fair deal with developed nations.

In exchange for open trade, increased investments and humanitarian assistance, it is said in the plan that African leaders undertake to engage in, and I quote:

… a series of commitments towards meeting basic standards of good governance and democratic behaviour …

To that, we can only say: amen.

The plan has a potential for success, I believe, because it is investment- oriented. It is realistic. It does not baulk at what a famous American writer has called ``the golden straitjacket’’. That is a garment of policies, to which Mr Manuel made mention yesterday, which include clean and open governance, respect for human rights, the rule of law, market deregulation and trade liberalisation. Those, commonly together, are what developing countries must put on if we want to be part of the new global economy.

We know, whether it is right or wrong, fair or unfair, as the President said, that foreign investors whom we seek, themselves seek well-governed, open and stable places in which to do business. When he was in Johannesburg a few months ago, US Secretary of State, Colin Powell, said the following at Wits University:

Money, simply stated, is a coward. Capital will run from those countries which are closed, which are corrupt, which do not have open systems, which do not believe in the rule of law, or which are caught up in conflict. Money loves security, money loves transparency, legality and stability. Create those conditions in any country, and money will flow in. I am not sure whether the world is quite as simple as that, but that is the necessary, if not sufficient, conditions to go in.

Fulfilling Africa’s promise, turning it from a plan into reality, which is what the President’s address dealt with this afternoon, it seems to me, is going to take three kinds of partnerships: firstly, between Africa and the developed world; secondly, among all African leaders, not just among the Wadays, the Obasanjos and Mbekis, but also among the Gaddafis and the Mugabes; and crucially, between African leaders and their people.

This afternoon, the President said that there is no intention of this to be an elite’s top-down plan. I think that that is correct. But it is actually the third partnership that, really to me, is absolutely crucial, and that is, between governments and the people themselves. The rebirth of democracy, good governance, free trade and growth of our continent are too important to be left to an elite of leaders. Those ideals will be stillborn unless the people are allowed to change from the bottom up, with both enterprise and the free exchange of our ideas.

The President asked for Parliament to make comments, criticisms and reservations about the document. Perhaps, I could note one, in particular, about the document that we are discussing today. It is, with great respect, that it puts too much trust in leaders and not enough trust in people. In many parts of our continent the state is a weak and patchy entity, yet it is expected, according to the document, to monitor its own adherence to good governance and human rights. With all due respect, that is not the best place for the monitoring to take place. Oversight of governments is the job of civil society, the media, NGOs, and the opposition.

I believe that during question time last week the President said that the system of peer review would be used to monitor compliance of African governments to the plan, as provided for in the Constitutive Act of the African Union. Today, he indicated that the Constitutive Act of the African Union has been passed by this Parliament. Indeed it has, and he said that he would entertain a debate and a dialogue on what it actually means.

I wish to make an observation in that regard. I believe that the Constitutive Act of the African Union, which all parties supported in this Chamber, is long on principles, most of which are, actually, unobjectionable. But the problem is: it seems to me that it is short on mechanisms for implementing them. For example, article 4 of the Act enshrines respect for democratic principles, human rights, the rule of law and good governance.

Article 23 provides, and I quote for ``sanctions for any member state that fails to comply with the decisions and policies of the Union’’. That is fine, correct and necessary. But, and this seems to me a gap or a lacuna, it does not say how compliance should be monitored, measured or enforced. I think that if one does not address that, then one has something that is very good on intention but not necessarily on delivery.

In terms of making something that could be a proposal, may I suggest that we have regard for an independent, nongovernmental agency which would be more effective at monitoring African governments, or any governments anywhere in the world, than simply a system of peer review by heads of state.

Member states have, in the past, on this continent and elsewhere, proved too willing to overlook the atrocities of their neighbours, and close ranks around people who are not democrats. The subcommittee responsible for ensuring compliance with principles of good governance, human rights, peace and stability - which, as the President said today, is to be chaired and convened by South Africa - should, with respect, propose the creation of an independent agency to monitor the compliance of governments. The agency should report and make recommendations on a regular basis to the Parliament of the African Union.

Secondly, the subcommittee must, with respect, elaborate on the conditions and procedures necessary for the African Union to implement sanctions against leaders who violate these principles. I believe a useful model is the European Union’s procedure for activating sanctions against other countries, such as Zimbabwe, using article 96 of the Cotonou Agreement.

I believe we must also look at the context of this agreement in the very changed world in which we meet today. It is very instructive and noteworthy that Africa has good friends in the European Union and in the United States of America. Even after the United States of America and the world were rocked by the terrorism of 11 September, their political commitment to this continent has remained firm.

The plan presented by President Mbeki was well received in Brussels recently. Prime Minister Tony Blair has pledged to keep Africa firmly on his foreign policy agenda. On Monday, which was as recently as two days ago, President George W Bush, notwithstanding his other travails and crises that he presides over, launched a $200 million private investment corporation to help finance and ensure US investment in sub-Saharan Africa. It is a feather in South Africa’s cap that President Bush wants to base a regional office of this facility in Johannesburg.

But, frankly, we need all the political support that we can get, because economic investment is draining away not just from this continent or this country, but across the world to safer capital markets. That is not the fault of any one person or individual, or any amount of background noise, criticism or choirs of approval. It is simply a reality of the world as it has changed since 11 September.

It is also inevitable that a portion of development aid to Africa will be diverted to funding the war against terrorism. In this changed world after 11 September, I believe that we must choose our friends very carefully. The African Union must not be tainted by taking money from states which have an international terrorist record. I do not think we should trust them. I do not think that the world does either.

I think it would be better to scale down the size and scope of the proposed institutions outlined in the Constitutive Act than to risk their credibility. The implementation committee of the new partnership should consider this issue. But, also, as Prof Ronald Dworkin once said, hard cases make bad law. To keep our friends in the United States and the European Union, Africa and South Africa should heed their concerns. The hard case on our immediate doorstep remains, unfortunately, Zimbabwe.

Deputy President Zuma, who is not with us for reasons explained today, complained only last week when he was in Botswana that the world ``cannot judge all of us on the basis of what some of our brothers and sisters are doing’’. This is absolutely true. It is very unfair for investors to take one look, for example at President Mugabe and his government, and write off all of Southern Africa. But they would be reassured if they saw Zimbabwe’s neighbours making a much greater effort to distance themselves from that style of government. Both the United States Congress and the European Union Parliament have taken steps to implement diplomatic and other sanctions against the Zimbabwean government if it continues to flout principles of good governance, human rights and the rule of law. South Africa must look at the same options, the same bundle. The Commonwealth’s attempt to hold President Mugabe to the Abuja Agreement, apparently, has failed.

I believe that we need a more proactive approach to this particular initiative and to put pressure on the government there to restore the rule of law and to allow free and fair presidential elections monitored by independent observers. Perhaps we should draft our own version of the US/Zimbabwe democracy and economic recovery Act. I believe in all circumstances the thing we cannot show is apathy towards solving this immediate neighbourhood crisis.

In sharp contrast, let me just draw a distinction between what is happening in the north and what is happening in the centre. What has been thrown into sharp relief is our timely and urgent intervention in Burundi. The DA supports our peacekeeping efforts there, under the experienced mediation of former president Mandela.

An HON MEMBER: There is no DA any longer!

The LEADER OF THE OPPOSITION: Well, those members might be inheriting a portion of the DA, so they have to be very quiet over there!

The Minister of Defence, Mr Lekota, indicated yesterday the urgency of sending troops to safeguard the transitional government of Burundi. He said he would like - and he repeated it today - all parties to jointly send off the next battalion on Saturday from Pretoria. He is right to ask this, and I believe the situation is urgent. I do hope and trust that Parliament will be fully briefed and consulted about this deployment from now on.

In conclusion, the economist, Prof Ayiti wrote that African elites and nationals failed after independence to build upon pre-colonial traditions of participatory democracy and free village markets. To succeed this time around, the new generation of leaders need to do more, and we need those free markets and participation. This we will support, and this way we will keep our promise. [Applause.]

The SPEAKER: Chairperson, hon President and hon members, I intend to focus my intervention today on the role that parliaments can and must play in ensuring the success of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development. I want to thank the President for not making it necessary for me to advocate that role of parliaments, but really to spell it out.

Regrettably, there is scant reference to the parliamentary involvement in the basic document of the partnership, where the assumption is that action is required by heads of state and members of the executive. It is, therefore, particularly welcome that the President has urged this Parliament and other parliaments to become involved in the partnership and the establishment of the African Union. With respect, action among heads of state alone and by the executives is not going to solve Africa’s problems, nor will it build African unity or democracy, which are necessary prerequisites for sustainable development on the continent. A prime requirement for success is the mobilisation of the people of Africa, a will and desire to engage them in the process, and a leadership that will both listen as well as give guidance. I am delighted to note that on both sides of this House there seems today to be agreement on this.

We in this Parliament are still working hard to ensure that there is good governance in South Africa. We have achieved a great deal in six and a half years of democracy, but must acknowledge that more is required. The New Partnership for Africa’s Development provides us with the opportunity to take our process forward, even as we assist in establishing good governance on the continent.

The tasks listed under the Democracy and Governance Initiative of the partnership are pre-eminently the responsibility of parliaments. This Initiative is charged with strengthening political and administrative frameworks, promoting democracy, transparency, accountability, integrity, respect for human rights and the rule of law. The priority areas include strengthening parliamentary oversight, participatory decision-making and combating corruption.

Each country, I understand, is responsible, in the first instance, for ensuring its own compliance. We therefore need to systematically look at each of these aspects and discuss where we South Africans are and how we can improve our own performance.

At the same time, parliamentarians can also help in the implementation of Napad by fostering dialogue and identifying common programmes that go beyond narrow party-political or narrowly national interests; making our parliaments an effective mechanism of oversight and accountability, which includes effective monitoring of the implementation of the new partnership and compliance by all countries to its needs; enacting legislation and establishing mechanisms that will foster good governance, the rule of law and transparency in public life; and improving the legal framework and environment within which civil society, labour, business and the academic research community can contribute to the implementation of the partnerships, projects and programmes.

We as parliamentarians must also take these programmes and objectives to the grass-roots level, even as we work to make Parliament more accessible to the public and encourage participation in and ownership of the new partnership. We should also assist the committee which is investigating best practices, setting parameters and guidelines, including establishing codes of conduct for political leaders with mechanisms for compliance throughout the continent. We have some experience of this and we could do better as we develop them further.

South Africa has been assigned responsibility, as we have been informed to head the Peace and Security Initiative. South African experience needs to be assessed for its possible relevance elsewhere in conflict prevention, as well as resolution. Parliaments across the continent will need to exercise oversight over African institutions established to prevent, manage and resolve conflicts, as well as those forces engaged in peacemaking, peacekeeping and enforcement. All African parliaments will need to establish mechanisms to do so and, in particular, monitor and oversee all agencies engaged in security, including intelligence, as well as monitoring the deployment of defence forces.

I am appreciative that the President’s Office has continued the practice since 1994 of alerting the Speaker at an early stage of the possibility of deployment, as well as complying with the constitutional requirement of informing Parliament of the details of deployments. Even as we deploy military forces in Burundi and respond to requests for involvement in peacekeeping elsewhere, we should be aware that an absence of war or conflict at any time, may be a temporary phenomenon and does not necessarily imply that the population can feel secure. Parliament can and should be giving serious consideration to developing a national understanding of all that is encompassed in the concept of human security, and promoting policies that will ensure the conditions that will provide security for the people of this country and of the continent. The UN Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, has indicated that ensuring human security is one of the major challenges of the 21st century.

As was indicated, Parliament must play a major role as the Constitutive Act of the African Union is implemented. We understand that protocols will need to be agreed for implementation of various aspects, as well as for the establishment of the various organs of the Union.

When we ratified the Constitutive Act, Parliament drew attention to some of the potential problems that might arise and we urged the executive to take these into account in the process of implementation. We will certainly now investigate these further. However, I believe that more is required of us. It is necessary for Parliament to play a part in the negotiations that will result in the implementation of various parts of the Act.

It would not be sufficient to be informed after an agreement has been reached. The declaration submitted to the United Nations Millennium General Assembly by over 160 presiding officers of national parliaments emphasised the necessity of such a procedure in reaching all multilateral agreements.

This Parliament needs to undertake a more detailed examination of the Constitutive Act of the Union than we will be able to undertake at the time of ratification. We should also begin to take up the challenge or invitation posed by the President and engage the executive and make recommendations on implementation.

Parliament’s committees played a significant role during the negotiations of the trade agreement with the European Union. We need to do even more now. We urge Government to indicate the aspect of the treaty under consideration at any time so that Parliament can scrutinise it, involve the public and engage in debates as well as make recommendations. At the same time, I would request that members of Parliament become part of South African delegations involved in the various processes that will result in decisions by the heads of state. In that way, South Africa will be able to demonstrate an aspect of participatory democracy in practice.

The relative absence of the role of parliaments in the partnership document reflects the relatively low status accorded to parliaments in many parts of our continent - simply as institutions to process the making of laws as determined by the executive. In South Africa, the Constitution established the responsibilities of this Parliament in governance. Nonetheless, we can strengthen ourselves and all parliaments in the continent by developing a collective vision of the role and function of parliaments in promoting and protecting democracy. If we do this with public participation, we will not only diminish alienation, improve public perceptions of parliamentarians and our institution, but we will also strengthen and protect parliaments, politically, and democracy itself.

The South African Parliament is a member of a number of interparliamentary organisations viz the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association; Inter- Parliamentary Union; Africa Caribbean Pacific - European Union Joint Assembly; the SADC Parliamentary Forum; and the soon to be convened, Pan African Parliament. All these provide us with a platform to both develop and promote a vision of Parliament and to learn from each other. We need to ensure that in each country, including our own, due regard is given to the status of Parliament and not allow it to be ignored or subsumed in government.

Drawing a distinction between the executive from the executive is neither pedantic nor simply semantic. Parliament is one of three arms of governance and the premier institution of democracy. This needs to be recognised and respected and, I am glad to say that in South Africa it is. But it also requires that members of Parliament, through their performance, live up to their responsibilities.

The South African Parliament will need to develop its own institutions and practices and build greater capacity and expertise. I am sure that the necessary resources to enable us to do this are forthcoming and I very much regret Mr Manuel’s absence, at this point, in the House. But, nonetheless, we are looking forward to those resources being made available.

In conclusion, the partnership we speak of is not simply one between governments or business. We need to build partnerships among parliaments in Africa as well as between them and parliaments in the developed countries. In that way, we will develop genuine understanding among our peoples so that the partnerships we develop will be based on solid foundations and will endure. [Applause.]

The MINISTER OF TRADE AND INDUSTRY: Madam Speaker, the hon the President, hon members, I have a sense of excitement on this occasion because I feel that we are embarking upon another great venture. With our own liberation and democracy, I think we all understood that Africa’s time of renaissance had come and that we, South Africa, would have to play an important role in that process. But I do not think that we knew precisely what that would mean. Today, I believe we know what that will mean.

In the development of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development, we have begun to spell out, in considerable detail, the actual steps that will have to be taken as we embark on this new venture. It seems to me that, in the new partnership, there are really three critical or seminal issues at work. The first is, as the President said, that Africans own it. Secondly, as the President said, but I think it is worth spelling out, this is a coherent political and economic plan within the framework of a new African Union, but it takes account of the essential socioeconomic requirements for any development and for any renaissance.

I believe also of critical importance is that the detailed work that we have done allows for the phased development of sectors, the phasing of policy and the introduction of enabling infrastructure. In the area that I would like to address in these few minutes which deals with trade, regional economic integration, the diversification of production, market access and exports, this phasing aspect is really critically important.

What we have to do is to work with everyone in Africa to identify, in considerable detail, the areas that we can act on - what things could be done at the beginning and what things will have to be done later. I must say, for all of us involved, it has been an extremely exciting process as we have linked with the economists, experts and Ministers across Africa, and found a tremendous energy, intellectual enthusiasm and knowledge on our continent.

I think, for me, this approach to the problem of rigorous analysis and detail, but a desire to move forward, is captured very much by Gramsci’s famous saying of: Pessimism of the intellect but optimism of the will.

If we are going to attain the higher standards that will underpin a renaissance and development in Africa, then, quite clearly, what we have to generate is a process of accumulation and value addition in all the economies of Africa. The economies that are confined to the various forms of subsistence agriculture or where agriculture is confined only to the primary stages of production cannot achieve these rates of investment, or more important still, the value addition or the beneficiation that the hon the President spoke of.

However, what we also have to accept and realise is that the conditions of modern production in competitive world markets are vastly different to the times when we attempted to plan industrialisation in Africa. We also have to accept that consumers, no matter where they are or how poor their countries are, will no longer accept products that are not of quality, products that they do not see as comparable with what is manifestly visible on TV and elsewhere every day.

If we are going to bring about diverse production, industrialisation, and beneficiation, the first step is to put in place the modern infrastructure that is an essential component of these processes. To illustrate, it is not possible, as it may have been before, to export textiles or clothing anywhere in the world if one does not have a reliable supplier of electricity that works day in, hour in and minute in and does not break down. Many economies in Africa just do not have that basic energy capacity. So it has to be one of our first priorities.

The approach that we are taking in the new partnership is to look at the questions of market access and regional integration within Africa and then look at the questions of market access for Africa to the rest of the world. In regard to the first step, quite clearly, as the President and Minister Lekota said, our colonial and imperial past has meant that the economies of Africa were not designed to trade with themselves during the colonial period. The previous trade routes were broken down, economies were restructured and all infrastructure pointed to the industrial North, not to each other. So, the very first step that we have to take is to begin to cross our boundaries with economic infrastructure. In the absence of that, all is a pipe dream.

We have to upgrade this infrastructure and move the energy systems forward

• and I am sure the Minister of Minerals and Energy will speak about this. We also have to put in place some very elementary things which most economies of the world have, but, in Africa, we still do not have. These are just the basic recognition of standards, and the basic recognition of sanitary provisions in our trade agreements. We have to build private sectors that can compete in these markets.

Clearly, South Africa can play a very critical role. Our own restructuring, since 1994, has virtually been a revolution in our economy. We are capable of world competitive trade, not just at the average but at the leading edge. So the structures of trade facilitation and support that we can provide in Africa are considerable indeed.

In regional economic integration, we are beginning to make great strides. Recently, in Parliament, we tabled the new agreement for the Southern African Customs Union. I would urge members to have a close look at this. I think it is, in many respects, a breakthrough.

This is the oldest customs union in the world today. For the first time, we will be establishing a common system of decision-making, a common system of rule setting and tariff setting and this may bode well for the structures that we have to develop in future.

The SADC Free Trade Agreement is progressing well, with more and more member states coming into it. In Ecowas in West Africa they are fast- tracking the integration, and Comesa is beginning to refine its own processes.

We are also developing new and exciting ways of crossing our borders. The great Limpopo trans-frontier park is an exciting development, not only for environment and conservation, but for economic development, and I think these kinds of exercises transform the whole concept of environment and development and will assist us in the coming conference on the World Summit for Sustainable Development.

So, in Africa, we are beginning to work together. Between Africa and our trading partners there are a number of matters that we need to address. First and foremost, we must, I think, as Africa, be at the forefront of demanding that there be a new round of negotiations in the World Trade Organisation, but that that round has to fundamentally - not peripherally, not incidentally, but fundamentally - address the developmental issues.

This is not an abstract concept. These requirements have been spelt out in massive detail by the developing countries, and I think they have been argued for very cogently and very correctly. Specific agreements such as the Cotonou agreement for the ACP and Agoa, are important new agreements that, if correctly used and if we can carry out the processes I mentioned a moment ago, we can make great use of.

These trade agreements should not be underestimated. Recently, the European Union pointed out just how much South Africa’s trade had grown, and what that really means is that customs union trade has grown with Europe. Members might be interested to know that in the Agoa programme, the leading exporter of clothing and apparel in Africa was not South Africa: it was Lesotho, our neighbour. In the first seven months of this year Lesotho exported $139 million’s worth of clothing and apparel and, over the last year, they have created nearly 10 000 jobs out of trade. That is an amazing achievement. So, trade can benefit economies rapidly and quickly.

What we are working on now is the detailed documentation and proposals that are going forward. One of the proposals that we intend putting is for a special preference agreement for trade in Africa itself. We, as Africa, should have a general system of preferences for the trade between ourselves.

I would urge that we have to work together closely and, as Parliament, I would urge that we support, from all parties, the opening of our economy to our African trading partners. This is fundamental. [Applause.] I would urge colleagues to ensure that the business community should involve themselves actively in this, and I know that they are already doing so. We need to work together.

The trade union movements and, in particular, the professional associations in our civil society can all play a role in the development of our continent and our countries. When we achieve this, we achieve, in South Africa, a lasting and prosperous peace. [Applause.]

Mr M C J VAN SCHALKWYK: Madam Speaker, last month I had the privilege of meeting with former President Masire … [Applause.] The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! Order!

Mr M C J VAN SCHALKWYK: Last month I had the privilege of meeting with former President Masire in Botswana. He is now heading the Congo peace talks. As President of his country, he presided over the fastest-growing economy in Africa. He illustrated that if the economic and political fundamentals are in place, success will follow.

Earlier this year I visited Mozambique to observe some development projects. The last time I visited that country was in the 1980s. Maputo, at that stage, fitted the picture of a run-down African city with not much hope.

After more than a decade, I found it a different Maputo. Yes, there is still substantial poverty, but there is suddenly a ray of hope in the sky. New shops are opening, young entrepreneurs are trading, but what impressed me most of all was the attitude of young Mozambicans. A group of young Mozambicans who graduated in South Africa and other countries, showed me around Maputo. They could have stayed where they studied, but they went back. They went back to create hope in their own country. They did not go back because there were ample opportunities to make money, they went back because of a sense of purpose and loyalty.

If young people can be bright-eyed and enthusiastic about their own country and continent, then there is hope. Of course they could have talked their country down, complained about the poverty and lack of infrastructure, but instead they decided to do something about it.

That is what our country and our continent need. To take pride in one’s own is the first step towards rebuilding and bringing about a renaissance. [Applause.] [Interjections.]

‘n Voorvereiste vir sukses in Afrika is florerende veelparty-demokrasieë. Daar is baie suksesverhale in Afrika, soos Nigerië en Ghana waar ‘n geskiedenis van onderdrukking en militêre staatsgrepe plek gemaak het vir gereelde demokratiese verkiesings, verantwoordbare burgerlike regering en, in die geval van Ghana, vreedsame verandering van een demokratiese regering na ‘n ander. In 1989 was daar slegs drie veelparty-demokrasieë in Suidelike Afrika, vandag is daar 12. (Translation of Afrikaans paragraph follows.)

[A prerequisite for success in Africa is flourishing multiparty democracies. There are many success stories in Africa, like Nigeria and Ghana, where a history of oppression and military coups d’état made way for regular democratic elections, accountable civil government and, in the case of Ghana, peaceful transition from one democratic government to another. In 1989 there were only three multiparty democracies in Southern Africa, today there are 12.]

The renaissance that we would like to see in Africa must also happen in our own country. The greatest contribution we as a country can make to the success of the African Renaissance is to establish a democracy based on constructive dialogue between different partners. [Interjections.] [Applause.]

A renaissance needs architects and then it needs builders. A renaissance is never popular because it questions long-held beliefs and very often those beliefs are prejudices dressed up as beliefs and convictions and, very often, as principles. [Applause.] [Interjections.]

A renaissance also needs more than lip service. A renaissance means that there is no place to hide. One has to make one’s own choices, if one is part of it and one wants to build, then one has to make one’s choice. [Interjections.]

The faint-hearted will always find excuses. It is not the right time, they will say. They do not like the other people who will be co-builders, they will say. Some will even say nobody gave you a mandate to build. [Laughter.] [Interjections.] [Applause.] While leaders who do not know that they have the mandate to build, will never recognise such a mandate even if they got it on a silver tray. [Laughter.] [Interjections.] [Applause.]

Our South African renaissance is waiting to happen. The bricks have been delivered, the mortar is ready, and the architect’s plans have been delivered to the site. It is time to make a choice. Either one is part of the building team, or one will stay in his political shack forever. [Laughter.] [Applause.]

We cannot have a successful renaissance if it is only owned by some of the people. It must be owned by all the people. The South African liberation puts a choice before every South African. Either one accepts it with its full implications, becomes a constructive builder and joins hands, or one condemns oneself to the darkness of permanent bitterness and longing for the past. Either one’s heart is in the new South Africa or it is not. There is no in-between. One cannot be here in body but not in soul. [Applause.] It does not mean that we should all think, act and look alike, or even belong to the same party. It is about the way we interact with each other.

Unfortunately, opposition in our country has been reduced to an angry white voice, mudslinging and character assassination. [Applause.] Our country’s multiparty system requires better opposition, opposition that understands what is in the country’s best interests, not one of sound bites, spin doctoring and increasing racial polarisation. [Applause.]

White, coloured and Indian South Africans want to take hands with black South Africans in a common nationhood. They want to be part of the debate on the future. There are two clear choices for members of those communities: They either take the road of banging their heads against the wall in anger, or that of opening up a proper, constructive dialogue. Opposition should never be a sterile voice based on fear and anger. If opposition is not about ideas and endeavouring to convince others of those ideas based on sound intellectual considerations, then it becomes a cynical game of scoring debating points, which have no relation with the real lives of millions of our people out there. [Applause.]

I always find it astonishing that people who have never in their lives experienced poverty, never wondered how their budgets would balance at the end of the month, never had to explain to their children that there would be no holiday this year, never had to explain to their children that there would be no money for a new pair of shoes, never had to wonder were their next meal would come from, can pretend to stand up here and speak on behalf of the poor. [Applause.]

What we need in our country is a situation where all of us are part of our own renaissance. We can do it from different parties, but we must all be on the building site. We cannot be co-architects of the African Renaissance if the South African renaissance is not a success.

What we need is a new pact between people who still have some unfinished business between them, between black South Africans and Afrikaans-speaking people. [Interjections.] Many of those members will not understand that. [Applause.] Many unspoken words still hang in the air. The African soil is not a mere commercial commodity to us. To us it contains a message of where we belong. Our unfinished business is not limited to the past; it is also about the future. We are on the verge of a process where people will not ask where they come from historically, they will have to answer the question, where are we going now?

Our South African renaissance must open a new chapter that somehow could not have been opened up to now. Before the Anglo-Boer War started, an incident happened in the old Transvaal Parliament in November 1899. The message contained in the exchange of words between President Paul Kruger and General De La Rey is a philosophy which is applicable each and every day in our country.

Paul Kruger, one of the great men in our history, proposed a war. De La Rey cautioned and insisted that more effort be made to find a settlement. Kruger taunted him with the charge of cowardice and De La Rey replied: I shall do my duty as Parliament decides'', and, looking Kruger straight in the eye, he ended,and you, you will see me in the field fighting for our independence long after you and your party, who make war with your mouths, have fled the country’’. [Interjections.]

Our South African renaissance, if it is co-owned, will succeed. It will have to be about taking to its logical conclusion what the architects of the new South Africa had in mind. They did not have in mind perpetuating old divisions under new names. What they had in mind was that the new South Africa must be different from the old one. They had in mind that the children of the new South Africa would break new ground. They certainly had in mind that people would have the courage to take on the future and break out of old moulds and that certainly is what we need to explore together. [Applause.]

Mr M V MOOSA: Madam Speaker, hon President, Chairperson of the NCOP, that is a hard act to follow. If the hon the President would allow me to address Comrade Van Schalkwyk, I must say that a week is a long time in politics and we always knew that the hon member did not belong in the DP. [Interjections.]

Our hard work has come of age, but it feels as though our struggle has only just begun. Half of the world’s population lives on less than two dollars per day. About 20 billion people, as we stand here today and talk, live on less than two dollars per day. Nkwame Nkrumah’s vision of the change of the African personality from one beleaguered by hunger, pain, disease, slavery and internal turmoil to the African personality that is strong, prosperous, resilient, dignified, with a burning desire to resolutely break the cycle of deprivation is fast becoming a reality.

A deep awakening has inspired the new partnership founding document. These are words that resonate in the mind. Words that say that Africans are appealing neither for the further entrenchment of dependency through aid nor for marginal concessions'. There are words that say resources required to launch a global war on poverty exist in abundance.’ What is required is bold and imaginative leadership, a leadership that is genuinely committed to a sustained human development effort. Words that say we will determine our own destiny'. And indeed deafening words that say Africa is an indispensable resource base of minerals, oil, gas and also of environmental, archeological, palaeontological, and cultural resources for the use of all humanity, and we will no longer allow our people and our continent to be plundered and to be raped’.

We say these words rationally. We say them loudly and we say them clearly. To quote a recent cliché:

We say to the whole world including our sceptical fellow South Africans: You are either with us or you are against us in this effort.

Many processes will be at work to achieve our objectives. None, however, can be more important than the need to strengthen our domestic economy and the domestic economies of African countries throughout the continent. The domestic economies will eventually measure whether we have achieved success and will truly be the test of whether we indeed charter our destiny on our own terms.

The levels of unemployment, children dying of hunger and disease, and the socioeconomic needs of our people are all barometers of the extent to which we would have achieved the African Renaissance.

We have done exceptionally well in capturing export markets since 1994. This brought about much-needed foreign earnings and balance of payment relief. However, access to the markets of Europe, the US and the Far East are not enough if this reciprocal eradication of trade barriers will end up in imports being higher than exports in our country.

In other words, the question that we need to ask ourselves is: Is our economy and that of SADC and other countries in Africa ready to take full advantage of the benefits of the South African-EU agreement, Agoa and Mecusol, or are we simply opening ourselves up for further imbalances by the more powerful production processes of the northern hemisphere?

The answer to this question lies in our ability to empower and integrate our people in our democratic economy to perform and produce at the same or higher levels of production than the economies of the northern hemisphere with whom we have concluded agreements.

This is what reciprocal agreements do, and any honest assessment will acknowledge that this is a tall order against developed industrial nations. Our lower exchange rates are beneficial to exports from a balance of payment point of view, but nothing will certify our ability to meet open trade routes with success more than a strong, bustling domestic industrial base. Large corporations and dominant market players cannot meet these challenges alone, nor will old-style protectionist measures buffer the ruthlessness of predatory international trade practices.

In order to achieve credible and capable implementation of the new partnership, the development process must be one of real empowerment and self-reliance, truly making us the architects of own sustained development.

A successful African Renaissance must delve into the detail, for therein lies the devil. Deep inside our economic structure, we must find constructive ways of leading not just a few icons, but the critical mass of our people into the mainstream of the economy.

There is a hungry mass of entrepreneurs in our country who can be found selling vegetables and goods at Park Station, establishing village co- operatives in Thohoyandou, digging for diamonds in the Northern Cape, and working in the land of the Free State.

There are big black businessmen and women controlling and running platinum mines, goldfields and large ICT countries. There are people with downstream beneficiation businesses, people with new ideas for production and employment, and every manner and hue of micro and small business in South Africa. At the last count in 1998, there were 1,2 million SMMEs in South Africa, and there is no doubt that, since then, the ranks have grown.

Great barriers exist for our success. We still have conservative banking institutions that fail to finance black entrepreneurs. In addition to that, our R15 billion microfinancing industry still provides 98% of the loans for consumptive and not productive purposes, simply making the poor poorer due to the high interest rates induced by exemptions that we have granted in terms of the Usury Act of 1968.

Only a disappointing 2% of the total microfinance loans go to productive loans for small businesses and entrepreneurs that create jobs and entry into economic life. These are figures that we received from the microfinancing industry itself in recent conferences we held with them.

SMMEs are relegated to the fringes of the economy and are treated as a begging and vagabond sector of our country. Yet, in a number of countries in Europe and the Far East, we have witnessed economies that are driven by SMMEs. Some of these countries are achieving growth rates of between 6% and 9,5%. In some of these countries, 80% of the GDP is earned by SMMEs. SMMEs generate employment, broaden the footprint of entry into the real economy, stimulate vibrancy and growth, and are the last line of defence against the vagaries of a fragile global economy because, in the first instance, they rely on domestic trade before they trade on the export markets.

Our people have earned their dignity through decades of struggle for political freedom, but the economic struggle of knocking on doors, day after day, for finance and support to start up and expand their enterprises continues. They are shunted from pillar to post in the most humiliating and undignified manner, and this continues as we speak today.

Our people are ready for hard and honest work with sleeves rolled up and hoes in hand. They are excited about the possibilities and they have given an overwhelming mandate to Parliament and Government in order to achieve these objectives.

We stand before the hon the President as members of Parliament and committees dealing with economic and related sectors. We stand ready to fully endorse direct Government interventions on these matters. As Parliament, we will approve tough regulatory frameworks for bringing banks and big business in line and on board. We will endorse well-targeted, fast- tracked initiatives to empower and mentor black business and SMMEs generally.

We will continue to support stronger Cabinet initiatives for food security and the release of arable land to black farmers. We will ensure that nothing stands in the way of granting prospecting and mining rights to our black prospectors. We will support all efforts to bridge the digital divide. We will further entrench plans to drive Government procurement to black businesses and SMMEs. We will support direct interventions to increase levels of productivity. But most importantly, as Parliament, we will appropriate the necessary funds that Government will require to directly support black business and SMMEs to offset market failures in the SMME sector in South Africa. During the course of next year we will engage the economic affairs departments of the nine provinces to, with local governments, further this campaign.

Finally, as we work towards success, we will go with the President to the parliaments of Africa to advocate and support similar strategies in other African economies. This pledge we make for the New Partnership for Africa’s Development.

We have witnessed the President’s urgency and the urgency of our people, and we dare not fail. [Applause.]

Gen B H HOLOMISA: Madam Speaker, hon President and colleagues, the UDM congratulates President Mbeki on his pioneering initiative in the establishment of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development. I would also like to express the UDM’s support for the peace initiatives taken by our country in Burundi.

The Minister of Defence must now monitor the involvement of our soldiers in Burundi closely, especially in the light of threats from Tutsi rebels, and stop being preoccupied with the disintegration of the New NP and DA alliance. [Laughter.] They should leave that to the voters to decide on. [Interjections.]

Ndiyakubona Terror ukuba usebenzile mfana, kwaye ndimvile lo mfana usuka apha ukuba umrhabulisile mpela. [Kwahlekwa.] [I can see that Terror has done his job very well and that he has effectively educated the previous speaker. [Laughter.]]

The objectives of the African Union to realise sustained development and improvement of the quality of life in Africa, with the co-operation and support of the developed North, have underlined the founding of the Organisation of African Unity in the 1960s. The Pan-Africanism of George Padmore, which was later developed into a liberation philosophy by the likes of Kwame Nkrumah, was the forerunner of the African Renaissance which is driving the New Partnership for Africa’s Development. At its inception it strove for and succeeded in liberating Africa from the clutches of colonialism.

The foundation of the Organisation of African Unity was an endeavour by the newly independent African states to form an African power bloc that could leverage a reluctant former colonial group of nations, who still clung tenaciously to the material spoils and advantages of the colonial era, to equitably spread the resources and the benefits of the developed economies of the North to the underdeveloped African continent.

In doing so, they had hoped to enter into some arrangement that would make possible the development of African infrastructure and economies and carve out a niche for the African states in the international community of nations. This was not to be. The problems which faced the OAU are identical to those facing the African Union today, and will bedevil the efforts of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development.

It was not in the material or economic interests of the developed powers of the North to promote foreign policies that would transfer surplus capital to the former colonies to develop an indigenous economic capacity that could lead to self-sufficiency in those territories.

At the close of the last century and currently we are still struggling to structure mutually beneficial trade agreements, because self-interest still characterises our negotiations and agreements, notwithstanding the grandiose platitudes in our binational protocols.

Classical scholars, who have studied and analysed the vicious cycle of underdevelopment in the former colonies in Africa, agree that it is in the nature of the relationship between the economies of the developed metropole and the periphery to perpetuate a dependency status on the part of the periphery, in order to sustain the advanced levels of development of metropolitan economies. If it was in the interests of Gatt or the WTO to transfer direct investment to the emerging economies in Africa in order to see meaningful development, they would have done so long ago.

Africa also shares a large measure of responsibility for underdevelopment. African states have squandered resources in senseless internecine wars, graft and corruption. The mindless political conflicts and endemic despotism have dissipated the creative energies of the continent. We need a complete reorientation and change of attitude at home and abroad if we are to achieve the objectives of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development.

First of all, Africa must reconcile the interests of the individual states with those of the bigger whole. The first step is to develop viable regional economies in the existing regional entities such as SACD, East Africa, the Great Lakes, West Africa and Maghreb.

The infrastructure of these regions must be developed to facilitate intraregional and interregional trade, which will expand our domestic markets and enhance economic self-sufficiency. We must aim to establish a regulatory framework for continental internal trade and economic co- operation, by means of which we can evolve into a regional or continental power bloc that will have the clout to bargain effectively with the developed North. South-South trade and economic co-operation should also be optimally developed to complement this new plan.

Africa has substantially contributed to the wealth creation of the developed world by supplying raw materials to these countries’ industries at prices set by the buyers. The problem of the cost of African commodities is a familiar story in the North-South trade interaction. The time has come for Africa to be self-reliant, rather than expect favours from abroad. This will begin when we add value to our raw materials locally, thereby expanding our manufacturing base in order to generate the requisite revenue for the development of our indigenous economies. [Applause.]

The MINISTER OF MINERALS AND ENERGY: Madam Speaker, President, the march of the leaders and people of South Africa towards the eradication of poverty and the redirection of their continent on a path of sustainable growth and development is gaining momentum. The determination of Africa to forge a new framework of interacting with the rest of the world is being turned into concrete institutions and action. This is for us, by us. Those members who follow fashion trends know this is what Fubu stands for: For us, by us.

As we speak about partnerships today, I would like to take a moment to salute a partner with whom I have enjoyed a relationship of substance, Duma Nkosi. [Applause.] It is his last day in Parliament today, as he leaves to lead the people of Ekurhuleni as mayor. We wish him good luck and we hope his oustanding work will continue in that sphere of government. [Applause.]

No one in this House or in our country or even in Africa and the world doubts the energy and commitment of our President in the leadership that he has shown in pulling this initiative together. We also want to thank and congratulate Presidents Obasanjo, Bouteflika and other presidents who have demonstrated great vision and, at the same time, a great sense of urgency. The amount of work and energy that they have put into this project within a relatively short space of time, if one knows how government works, is quite amazing. [Applause.] I think there are few companies, even in the private sector, who could say that one can pull together a whole continent and bring about a product of this quality within such short time, while, at the same time, running their countries.

Hon members will also recall that the majority of Africa’s people live in rural areas. The continent’s 722 million people, of whom 452 million are in rural areas and approximately 300 million are poverty-stricken and live on $1 per day, need to be the major beneficiaries of this initiative. This means that the agrarian system must necessarily be one of the main pillars in the transformation of the African economies. The objectives of Nepad, with respect to agriculture, are: to improve the productivity of agriculture with particular attention to small and disadvantaged farmers, including women; to ensure food security for all people and increase the access of the poor to adequate food and nutrition; to promote measures against natural resource degradation and encourage production methods that are environmentally sustainable, and to integrate the rural poor into the market economy and provide them with better access to export markets. The example of Lesotho demonstrates what a small country can do if its environment is more enabling. Another objective of Nepad is to develop Africa into a net exporter of agricultural products, which we have the capacity to do, and to become a strategic player in agricultural science and technology development. These objectives are underpinned by concrete plans, programmes and possibilities.

As far as energy is concerned, the central role of efficient and reliable infrastructure as part of the energy basket of services that we need to provide is critical in the growth and development process. Infrastructure not only sustains economic growth but also increases competitiveness and enhances the quality of life. It is both the consumption of goods and an input in the production process of nearly every economic sector. No modern economy can survive without a high- quality reliable source of energy. Energy, together with information and communications technology or ICT, transport, water, and its sanitation are the core components that form the integrated approach to infrastructure development and its provision within the New Partnership for Africa’s Development.

Even though Africa represents 13% of the world’s population, we still consume only 3% of the total installed capacity of energy that could be available to us. These are the challenges that have made it critical that the infrastructure sector be given a high priority. We have included in that work ICT, energy, transport, water and sanitation. There are common issues which are prerequisites if the necessary finance is to be attracted into infrastructure to regenerate and expand networks so as to meet these challenges.

We have also focused on the need to mobilise sustainable finance through using grant and concessional finance to mitigate risk in the short term and promote public-private partnerships as the most promising vehicle to attract investors. An elaboration of these initiatives is included in the documents that underpin the New Partnership for Africa’s Development.

I would just like to give hon members examples of some of the projects that we are vigorously following. These include the development of energy information systems and databases, because it has been recognised that the failure of statistical systems to respond to data needs has hampered developments in South Africa.

We are busy with the harmonisation of a regulatory framework in the African energy sectors, and we have also worked very hard to pull together regional transmission grid interconnectors, and there is a true possibility today that we will see a transmission that can move from Cape to Cairo. Different interconnectors, one of which will link up Zambia, Tanzania and Kenya, will ensure that energy generated in South Africa, in Zimbabwe and in Mozambique will be able to power the people in the east and even in the north of the continent. Of course, we have also paid attention to the critical use of renewable energies - water, solar energy, wind and waves - in our continent.

There is also the critical sector of mining. Africa continues to be the greatest producer of mineral resources in the world. However, we have not benefited to the extent to which we could from these natural resources. The potential build-up of African economies is, to a large extent, linked to mining and many of these future developments, and is, in no small measure, dependent on a vibrant, flourishing mining industry to provide much-needed foreign currency and employment. However, without value adding as well as the diversification of the mineral resources that are available in each country, we will not be able to realise the advantages of these raw materials which are also an unrenewable resource.

In 1999 Africa produced 80% of the world’s platinum, 55% of the world’s chromite, 55% of the world’s diamonds and 49% of the world’s palladium, and so the list goes on. In the diversification as well as the value adding, we will be ensuring that these raw materials that we have sold, and therefore exported jobs to other countries, are now kept, to provide for our people. Very critical, especially in this industry, is the ownership and involvement of Africans in the development and exploration of these projects.

As we therefore increase and diversify the basket of services as well as add value, we would have to pay greater attention to the ownership profile in these sectors. I have no doubt that the leadership in business, in the sectors that I am involved in, is ready to run with the challenge, as it will be critical to bringing the private sector full steam into these projects. I have no doubt that Sapia, the Chamber of Mines, Eskom and the many such significant players are ready to take up the challenge.

Nepad is not a dream. It is a vision that is not just unfolding, but is also happening [Applause.]

Rev K R J MESHOE: Madam Speaker, hon President and hon members, African leaders should be applauded for the New Africa Initiative based on a common vision to, among other things, get rid of poverty and place their countries on a path of sustainable growth and development. For this vision to become a reality, firm commitments have to be made by all stakeholders to good governance, democracy, the rule of law, human rights, fiscal discipline and accountability. All African leaders who are part of this new partnership must hold one another accountable. They must understand that although the ideal situation would be one of equal benefit for all partners, the reality would be different. There must be equal dedication and effort from all role- players to make this new partnership work. A good question for us South Africans to ask is: Where do we start? The ACDP suggests that all our efforts, dedication and commitment should first be to make South Africa work and reflect all the principles that we want to see in our immediate region. SADC countries must be our primary areas of concern and influence. Because of our limited resources, we cannot act like ``big brother’’ to the rest of Africa. Charity begins at home. Before we speak about continental unity, we must talk about regional unity. We believe that regional co-operation will best position us and strengthen us in our vision of continental co-operation.

Turning to South Africa’s involvement in a peacekeeping mission in Burundi, I wish to ask the following questions: Firstly, who will be funding these military operations in Burundi? [Interjections.] Although the UN Security Council gave its support to the South African peacekeeping force in Burundi, it has not endorsed or authorised our troops under a UN umbrella. This means that the UN will not pay for this operation. If we are expecting any donor funds, which countries have committed or confirmed that they will be contributing, and how much will they be contributing? This is an important question, especially when we consider the fact that no provision exists in the Defence allocation for participating in such an operation.

Secondly, it was reported in the media that the pro-Tutsi Union for National Progress Party in Burundi has called on all its supporters to attack South African troops on their arrival in the war-torn country. The party’s chairperson, Charles Mukasi, is alleged to have declared war on what he calls foreign aggression. Can the President assure this House that we are not imposing ourselves on people who do not need our presence in their country?

Thirdly, how long will our troops be deployed in Burundi? [Interjections.] The ACDP will not support spending millions of the taxpayer’s money indefinitely on an operation that does not benefit South Africans, the majority of whom are still living in poverty. There must be a deadline on this costly and dangerous exercise. There must be a deadline and that is for sure. [Interjections.]

Fourthly, is the President satisfied about the personal safety and security of our armed forces in Burundi? If things go wrong and our troops are attacked or some are even taken hostage, which is a possibility, are there any concrete emergency withdrawal plans in place to evacuate them? The President must assure the nation in his response that South Africans will not have to pay millions of rands for an operation which is outside their borders, when there are so many needs at home, and that their loved ones on this mission will not be exposed to death in a conflict that does not directly affect them. [Interjections.]

The question has become even more serious, after hearing the Minister of Defence saying that our armed forces went to Burundi without a cease-fire in place. Their security must become our concern.

The success of this new partnership for Africa’s Development will require openness, courage, and a vigorous and robust debates among members. Confronting issues, when necessary, and even one another, will have to be part of the deal. In this case, South Africa will have to answer these questions because many people are asking them and they want answers.

Lastly, the ACDP suggests that an international trust fund be established for the redevelopment of a post-Mugabe Zimbabwe. There must be resources to help rebuild the economy and social structure of that country, once free and fair elections have enabled a new government to come into power. This is the responsibility of African leaders and only they should do this.

We further suggest that they test the future effectiveness of this New Partnership for Africa’s Development in our region by helping to bring good governance, democracy, the rule of law, human rights, fiscal discipline and accountability in our region and specifically in Zimbabwe. [Applause.] [Interjections.]

The CHAIRPERSON OF THE NCOP: Mr Chairperson, Mr President, Madam Speaker and hon members, I am not sure that the member who spoke a few moments ago before me can really claim to ask those questions on behalf of a great number of people. I am not sure that the questions are worthy of a debate of this nature. I believe the steps taken are absolutely vital to being an imperative of this partnership that we are here to debate today. We cannot deny a responsibility that we should have, as a country, and as MPs, to ensure that we support efforts for peace. I believe that that is the direction in which we should proceed.

The joy of participating in a debate that is focused on Africa cannot be overemphasised. This process of a partnership, led by leaders of Africa, is a positive and auspicious step forward for our people and our continent. The responsibility its intentions place on elected representatives mandates a sober and honest reflection on all the challenges and on the steps necessary to making the agreed aspirations a reality.

While contemplating the form of contribution to place before this joint sitting, I reread the book Beyond Freedom: Letters to Olusegun Obasanjo. I was particularly struck by a small part of Richard Joseph’s letter in the chapter ``How are hopes mended and dreams rebuilt?’’ Joseph recalls part of the text of a lecture he had given at a book launch in 1991 and repeats for Gen Obasanjo in the letter his thoughts and feelings on leaving the University of Ibadan in 1979. He recalls:

I felt I had become a part, albeit a small one, of the history of the greatest agglomeration of African people on the globe. Despite Nigeria’s travails, I believed strongly that not just political triumphs, but surely economic, social and cultural ones were ahead.

Above my desk at my university in the United States, I proudly attached a clipping with the statement by Gen Obasanjo that he fully expected Nigeria to be among `` the greatest nations in the world by the year 2000’’. In time, that newspaper clipping yellowed and became tattered. Eventually, I took it down and threw it into my wastebasket. But I never threw away that dream, that belief.

He continues in his letter: ``What would I say five years later about that dream, that belief?’’ We, hon members, may be faced with a similar question in five years’ time. Conditions at present on our continent, and the existence of this new partnership and plan, support our view today that we can positively anticipate that in five years’ time a great deal of progress will have been made.

In order to act as responsible public representatives, we must, however, address the question: What set of conditions will maximise our potential for success with Nepad? A bold and seemingly arrogant response is tabled as a first attempt.

The first step for our continent has to be a deliberate and open review of the legal frameworks that guide national practice. Our continent has to engage in a process of constitutional review to restore faith in democracy and to create conditions that may optimise national belief in and support of this new African partnership.

This is not a simplistic assertion that South Africa is advantaged by virtue of her new Constitution. Rather, it is a reference to the need for a close look at every aspect that should inform Africa’s new agenda.

Given what has been said in the partnership about good governance and participatory democracy, it is obvious that constitutions that fail to empower parliaments, that fail to protect people, that fail to guide national action will probably be a hindrance to Africa’s plans.

As the late Chief Justice Mahomed said of a constitution:

The constitution of a nation is not simply a statute which mechanically defines the structures of government and the relations between government and the governed. It is a ``mirror reflecting the national soul’’, the identification of the ideals and aspirations of a nation, the articulation of the values bonding its people and disciplining its government. The spirit and tenor of the constitution must therefore preside and permeate the processes …

A new partnership, with the expected participation of diverse peoples and countries, requires legal frameworks that define that national soul, that articulate ideals, and that promote the values inherent in Nepad. The full participation of each of our continent’s citizens requires frameworks that enhance the dignity of workers, women and all citizens and enhance the restoration or the strengthening of human rights. Institutions of civil society and democratic governance have to be granted life by frameworks that are shaped by and aimed at giving it practical effect to each of the objectives of this new plan.

Fortunately, in the partnership document, it is indicated that various needs assessments and analyses will be carried out to prepare the ground for action. It is vital to include constitutional renewal in that analysis.

Joseph continues his letter to General Obasanjo by saying that he knows of many nations that promise greatness and fail to achieve it. In some, the spark was rekindled and they went on to achieve greatness. Into which category, he asks, will Nigeria fall? Into which category, we ask, will Africa fall?

We are fortunate that today, as Africans, we can deliver a confident response to Joseph and many others. The spark has been rekindled and Obasanjo, Mbeki, Bouteflika, Wadey, Mubarak and all our leaders, and our Parliament and parliamentarians here today, say that we cannot let nor will we allow - the spark to go out and fade away.

We wish the President and our Parliament success in all our endeavours to rebuild our great continent and to give life to the aspirations of the people of Africa. [Applause.]

Mr P A MATTHEE: Chairperson, let us get South Africa working. [Interjections.] That is the motto under which I was elected into this Parliament. This is a cause I have always strived to make a contribution to. I did not want to pay attention to my colleagues here, but when I heard the shouts from them, I could not help thinking back only a few years ago when the former Conservative Party members scolded us as traitors when we were busy creating the new South Africa. The mindset seems to be the same.

Let us get Africa working. This is basically the goal of the New Africa Initiative. Everyone of us should enthusiastically and passionately help to achieve all the goals of this New Africa Initiative, not only because it is the right thing to do, but also because it is in the interest of every South African that we succeed in building a better Africa for all Africa’s children.

I note that one of the institutional reforms that the African Initiative leadership will focus on in order to strengthen political governance is the promotion of participatory decision-making. I specifically welcome this. We in the New NP said in our 1999 election manifesto that, and I quote: ``We want to create an inclusive government where political responsibility is shared to get South Africa working.’’ [Applause]

Volgens prof Willie Esterhuysen hou vernuwing in Suid-Afrika asook op die vasteland van Afrika breedweg in die vestiging en uitbouing van ‘n samelewingsorde waarin vrede, vryheid, geregtigheid en veiligheid ervaar sal word. Een van die onderafdelings van hierdie ideaal is die verbreding en verdieping van ons demokrasie as ‘n uitvoerproduk na Afrika. (Translation of Afrikaans paragraph follows.)

[According to Prof Willie Esterhuysen renewal in South Africa as well as on the continent of Africa broadly implies the establishing and building of a societal order in which peace, freedom, justice and security are experienced. One of the subdivisions of this ideal is the broadening and deepening of our democracy as an export product to Africa.] The highly respected academic Prof Hermann Gilliomee says that in contrast to electoralism - that is, democracy as a set of procedures which can easily be debased - there is a truer form of democracy in which democracy is the balancing of the views of the majority and the minority. Obviously in some cases the view of the majority will have greater weight. But the essence of this type of democracy, which is defined in the book Majority Rule by Elaine Speech, is the quality of being completely responsive to all its citizens.

The procedural model of democracy asks us to stand aside, to oppose others and stress differences and to exclude others. The co-operative model of democracy asks one to include others, to stress similarities, to complement others, to draw people together. This is the type of democracy that not only South Africa, but Africa desperately needs. [Applause.]

Dr P W A MULDER: Chairperson, Mr President, after Mr van Schalkwyk’s speech and the previous speech, I am really tempted to read from a newspaper clipping from 1995. [Interjections.] The heading of that clipping says: Imbongi Viljoen’s flirting with the ANC is a public disgrace. [Laughter.]

Dan sê die berig verder: [Then the report goes on to say:]

Die speelse vryery tussen die twee partye is op sy sigbaarste wanneer genl Viljoen in die Parlement praat. Hy wy gewoonlik die eerste ses minute van sy toespraak daaraan om die ANC te prys en daarna word hy deur die ANC-lede toegejuig. Dit is geen wonder dat die ANC nou van ``imbongi’’ Viljoen praat.

That is just a reminder. I would like to start with a quote by Robert Kennedy:

Some men see things as they are and say: Why? I dream things that never were and say: Why not?

As proud Africans, the FF fully supports the President in this initiative. It remains a question to me what the Americans would call me, if I decided to emigrate to the USA? Surely the correct description would be an African American. The FF does not plan to emigrate in that sense. [Interjections.]

It is very important that this initiative must succeed - we may not get a second chance. The world, and specifically the West is watching with scepticism, secretly predicting that we will fail.

A very important part of the success of this plan is that investors must be convinced to invest in South Africa and in Africa. Investors have the memories of elephants, the hearts of lambs and the legs of hares.

I can only address one issue. The FF believes that an important precondition for investment is stability. An important precondition for stability is democracy. In Africa, guns and tanks must be replaced by stability and democracy.

Tomorrow is the installation of a transitional government in Burundi - it is a first step, and my congratulations to the President as far as that is concerned.

We need more debates and discussions on the political problems of Africa. Africa’s diversity of people can be its strongest point. At the moment, when we talk about democracy, Africa’s diversity is its weakest point.

It seems to me that the curse of Africa is the refusal to tolerate variety and address and admit this diversity. The legacy of arbitrarily drawn boundaries gives rise to situations such as the DRC, where over 250 ethnic groups exist.

Pres Mbeki’s African initiative places emphasis on the democratisation of African states. Simple democracy with its winner takes all, cannot work in the Congo, or in Burundi or in most African states. When three wolves and a lamb sit around a table and discuss what they must eat for lunch: Is it democracy? Is it democracy when they vote 3-1 to have the lamb for lunch? [Laughter.]

Real, modern democracy adopted for African conditions is what we need for successful democracy and stability in Africa. Diversity needs an atmosphere of accommodation and not assimilation. We must learn the lessons from Europe, where democracy brought ethnic problems, and we must be able to address them before we are in trouble. Then surely we can say with Robert Kennedy as he said in the end:

We see things as they are and say: Why? I dream things that never were and say: Why not?

Ms L M T XINGWANA: Chairperson, hon President, women in Africa have waged heroic struggles against all forms of oppression under colonialism and apartheid. They have fought in the wars of liberation, side by side with their men, to bring about the downfall of apartheid and colonialism. These are the heroines who mobilised and united South African women from all walks of life, black and white, rural and urban, young and old, under the Federation of South African Women to march to the Union buildings in 1956 against the pass laws. This was a strong national women’s movement that was not based on the western style of feminism, but was a movement united in action and committed to the fight for national liberation and equality. It was a struggle against racism, sexism and all forms of oppression and exploitation. It is this strong movement, under the Federation of South African Women, that drew up the women’s charter of 1954 which became an integral part of the Freedom Charter in 1955.

I salute the great heroines of our struggle, Lilian Ngoyi, Francis Baart, Helen Joseph, Florence Matomela, Rahima Moosa and Dorothy Nyembe, to mention but a few. [Applause.] The struggle for liberation was waged not only in South Africa, but throughout the African continent where women also fought and sacrificed their lives for freedom and democracy. We remember Jamila Boupachas of Algeria, Josina Machel of Mozambique and Ruth Neto of Angola who were some of the great heroines of the liberation struggle of Africa.

The strength, courage and calibre of leadership demonstrated by our women during the liberation struggle is our everlasting pride and inspiration. We also remember the widows of war and apartheid in Africa who became the backbones of their families and the liberation movement. They are the unsung heroines of our struggle.

I wish to salute, at this stage, Mama Epainette Mbeki who represents one of those who were widowed long before the passing on of her husband, our father, the late Govan Mbeki, who was incarcerated in the apartheid jails in Robben Island while her children were forced into exile. As a mother, teacher, community leader, Christian and a communist, she continues the struggle with the rural communities in the Transkei.

We have won the political battle today in South Africa because of their contribution and great sacrifices. We have a Constitution that is a vehicle to achieve the objectives of a nonracial and nonsexist South Africa. Despite these achievements, we still have to continue with our war against poverty, racism and sexism in our country.

Our Government has signed and ratified some of the most progressive international instruments including CEDAW, the Beijing Platform for Action, and the SADC Declaration on Gender and Development. We trust that the optional protocol on CEDAW will be signed very soon. We trust that the provisions made in these instruments, including the 30% representation of women pledged by the SADC Heads of State in Malawi in 1997, will be implemented at all levels of our governments.

We urge our President, on behalf of all African women, to lobby and urge all heads of state in Africa to adopt and endorse the 30% minimum representation of women in the African Union and the Pan-African Parliament. [Applause.] African women are saying that to have one woman out of five to represent them in the new Pan-African Parliament is taking them 10 steps backwards since that is only 20% representation. We are demanding at least two out of every five delegates for the Pan-African Parliament.

The major challenges facing Africa today are poverty, hunger, diseases, war and violence, especially against women and children. It is important that the new partnership for the advancement of Africa should prioritise these programmes and that women play a central role since they are mostly affected.

Last week, we met as women parliamentarians from the DRC, Rwanda, Burundi, Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea. They were visiting our Parliament. Some of the stories were very sad. We heard from Rwanda that, during the genocide, most of the women that were raped have been infected with HIV/Aids. In fact, 67% of those women who were raped during the genocide have been infected and some of them died of Aids.

Most of the women from the Congo, Sierra Leone and Burundi also decried the marginalisation of women in their countries during the peace negotiations and in decision-making positions in their governments. We trust that the African Union and the Pan-African Parliament will not allow the perpetuation of the suppression of women and that these concerns of our women will be addressed.

We believe that one of the major impediments against the full emancipation of women in Africa today is the way we have socialised our girls. The girl child is considered to be of less value in most of our communities. The girl child is inadequately educated. The girl child is still being used as a sex and domestic slave in our own homes and in most of our countries. We treat our boys as little kings and little heroes, little bosses that bully everybody in our homes. The girls are the small wives and small mothers that must cook, clean and wash for everybody in the house. Therefore, this is a challenge to us as women to begin to address the way in which we bring up our children.

We still suffer from the legacy of colonialism and apartheid where we were declared minors from the cradle to the grave. This happened in all the colonies and countries that were colonised in Africa. I trust that some of the cultural practices that continue to oppress and demean women will be deplored in the new African Union. I also believe that, through the signing of the protocol against all harmful practices, our children and women will be protected in Africa.

Every effort should be made by all states in Africa as well as within civil society to remove all the social and customary barriers which militate against the full development of women. Women, in many ways, are the moral conscience of our continent. They have displayed their courage and leadership, but also the organisational capacity to lead the regeneration and renewal of Africa. African women are ready for the African Union and for the renewal and rebirth of Africa. They have gone through the labour pains, and are now ready for the new baby. Africa’s renaissance cannot come without Africa’s women. [Applause.]

Mr P H K DITSHETELO: Chairperson, the hon the President, hon members, by way of introduction, let me begin by thanking those who have seen the importance of tackling African problems and challenges at the continental level, and for realising that the future of Africa lies in the hands of African people themselves.

We would like to thank President Thabo Mbeki for initiating the plan and his wisdom in appreciating that South Africa alone cannot lead Africa to recovery without the support of other countries and their leaders. We also salute the governments of Nigeria, Algeria, Senegal and the rest who have deemed it fit to join forces in addressing Africa’s problems and to face new challenges jointly as a continent. There are those who would like to see the plan to revive our continent fail before its implementation. There those who are interpreting name changes attached to the plan as an identity crisis. However, we do not see it that way.

As long as the broader principles and strategies to develop our continent remain intact and are not compromised, we will support the plan and defend it to the bitter end to see it succeed.

We would further like to view the main change as a sign that the new plan is subjected to constant debate to ensure that we are all on the same wavelength, with a shared vision on how the New Partnership for Africa’s Development should unfold in achieving its stated objectives.

I have a word of advice for the architects of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development: Continue to engage other countries that are not yet part of the programme; be sensitive in your approach, but be honest in explaining that for the New Partnership for Africa’s Development to work, we need to sacrifice and commit to the plan, unconditionally.

We know that there will be those who will be opposed to the plan, because they are benefiting from the status quo. We are, indeed, concerned that if the plan disintegrates, we would have failed our African people who, by and large, are exposed to high levels of unemployment, poverty, homelessness, wars, diseases, illiteracy and lack of proper infrastructure.

It is critical at this point in our history, where the world is on the brink of the third world war, to focus on and plan an important role as a continent, to be part of those committed to preventing war, as it would have serious repercussions for the New Partnership for Africa’s Development plan and, indeed, for the rest of the world.

Since one of the core focuses of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development is debt cancellation, it is imperative that this particular issue is addressed as a matter of priority to ensure that needy countries are relieved of their debt burden, which they are serving with resources that should, instead, be directed at funding development projects.

For us, as a continent, to put forward a formidable and convincing argument why developed countries should heed our request for support, we should first get our house in order and have our development priorities right. We are confident that we will measure up to this challenge.

A new class of leadership in Africa is emerging, committed to democratic principles and peace. We must also thank the people of Burundi for realising that war hurts the poor and, indeed, we applaud them for agreeing to a transitional government. This is a positive sign that Africa is tired of wars and is ready to work and compete with other continents on an economic level, if given a chance.

It is also in the best interest of the G-8 countries to ensure that they support Africa in her quest for recovery. It is not impossible. They have done it before, with other countries that are well developed today, through economic assistance. It is also important to highlight that we do not want economic aid for the sake of it. We want to be independent. We should ask for investment.

History has proven that aid leads to dependency, as opposed to direct investment. It is time that the G-8 countries listened to and acted on Africa’s cry for investment.

Motlotlegi Mopresidente, Motswana o rile ntime o mphele ngwana. Ponelo pele ya gago le ditiro tsa gago tsa yone di a gomotsa, di fa tsholofelo. Tswelela o gogele Afrika ko mahulong a manaana. Pula! [Legofi.] (Translation of Setswana paragraph follows.)

[The Motswana of yesteryear said: ``Deny me food, but feed my child.’’ The President’s foresight and vision give us hope. He should be encouraged to continue leading Africa to greener pastures. Let there be rain!]

The DEPUTY MINISTER OF HOME AFFAIRS: Chairperson, Comrade President and hon members, the New Partnership for Africa’s Development is a plan that talks directly to the political programme of the ANC.

There are many elements in both the Freedom Charter, the Reconstruction and Development Programme and our strategies and tactics that accord with the many strategic and tactical questions that the new partnership plan examines and seeks to respond to.

As an African country, South Africa is connected in every way to the many years of slavery, imperialism, colonialism and neocolonialism. We will use our own freedom as part of the plan to defeat all remaining facets of that era, including the scrapping of the heavy debt that the continent, and the developing countries, owe to the developed world.

Throughout the years and during many conferences, especially the past 50 national conferences and other key gatherings, ANC members have instructed their leadership to play an active part in the formulation of policy and programmes to help situate among all the world’s peoples circumstances of peace, security and prosperity.

The great majority of South Africans, black and white, support the ideal of such a world order. They see it as the only hope and the best guarantor for a better life in every respect of the word. They want a world that will be without the current contradictions that give rise to poverty, disease, oppression and exploitation of groups and individuals by other persons. Wars that still ravage many parts of the globe will be a thing of the past.

The new partnership plan enjoins us to continue to contribute to the processes that must reshape the world. When the hon the President raise these matters on the international stage, he does so because of the injunctions given to him by our members and the millions of people who voted overwhelmingly for the ANC in 1994 and in subsequent elections.

We support the President, therefore, when he argues - as he did at the 54th session of the United Nation’s General Assembly - for universal disarmament and the destruction of the weapons of war, especially those of a nuclear kind that some countries still possess. We agree with him that, as we speak, the powerful nations of the world continue to determine the pattern of international relations. We support him when he argues for the fundamental restructuring of the international economic plane to deal with underdevelopment.

We are on his side when he argues for a democratisation of the system of international governance, among other things by restructuring the United Nations itself to create space for all the countries of the globe to define the path towards a better world order. He strengthens his argument with the fact that the ANC has always stood for international relations that are guided by justice and the rule of law.

All of these questions that redound well to the establishment of a better world, are part of the make-up of the new partnership plan. The President has done tremendous work to lobby many influential leaders in the world to support the new programme. Today it enjoys a lot of support, especially among the leading industrialised nations.

We were encouraged by comments from the meeting of the steering committee of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development held recently in Abuja. Their view must be endorsed by all African countries, and they should hold each other accountable for good political and economic governance if plans to revitalise the continent’s economies are to work. Countries that ratified the plan should adhere to its principles and proposed set of guidelines.

This sits well with us in South Africa, where important advances have been made to consolidate our democratic order. As the ANC we have used our conditions to interact with the various political leaders and parties on the continent on the basis of our shared history, so that, together, we can reshape both the continent and the world beyond.

In those engagements we speak against the conflicts and wars that militate against development and a better life for the people. We speak against antidemocratic practices that have encouraged the re-emergence of ethnicity and tribalism. We speak against the oppression and exploitation of the people by the new elites. We argue that an Africa that is free from war will speak with authority on international multilateral forums when matters of global conflicts are raised. An Africa of that kind will be able to argue, for example, for permanent peace in the Middle East on the basis of a viable Palestinian state and an Israeli state within secure borders.

An Africa that revives and consolidates its economies will participate as an equal partner when international economic questions are discussed. An Africa that embraces thoroughgoing democracy will play a leading role in the effort to establish the new world order we have spoken about.

The establishment of that order cannot be the sole responsibility of the big powers. It cannot be the United States and the countries of the G7 only. It must be the responsibility of the entire world. Our contribution to this matter, as the ANC, will include our full participation in the effort to end all wars and conflicts on the African continent and in the world. We will fight against terrorism from whatever quarter it emerges. In this regard, we reiterate our support to the United States in its campaign against terrorism. Our Government must be supported by all of us as it makes its contribution in this regard.

But, the new world order that the ANC talks about does not include the killing of innocent people, as is happening in Afghanistan. [Interjections.] While we understand the anger of the American people and their leaders in the wake of the terrorist attack on September 11, and condemn the killing of innocent people in that attack, we are equally appalled by the killing of the innocent people of Afghanistan by the American troops. No argument will convince us that it is justifiable, within the context of self-defence, to kill women, children and other vulnerable civilians. [Applause.]

The world order we envisage will not accommodate reprisals that detrimentally affect innocent people. We believe that the establishment of the African Union is an indication of the new political will of the leaders of Africa. We hope that the union will encourage every leader on the continent to open up political space for all their citizens to participate in the democratisation process. We hope war, conflict, the marginalisation and the dislocation of people and all other anti-human rights practices will end.

We are convinced that the union will be an effective vehicle to take forward the perspective of the new partnership plan. We are proud that South Africa will host the inaugural summit of the assembly of the African Union, and that our President will possibly be the first leader to preside over the union. [Applause.]

Given that March 2 has been declared by the OAU as union day, we hope that we will be able to celebrate that day next year, together with the rest of the African continent, as Africans, all of who are in search of a better future for ourselves.

As the ANC, we acknowledge that while we have travelled quite some distance in South Africa in keeping with our reconstruction and development strategy, so much still needs to be done to consolidate our democracy and deliver better services to our people.

There is still much in our country that is a throwback to the old colonial and apartheid days of the past. [Applause.]

The DEPUTY MINISTER OF PUBLIC WORKS: Chairperson, his Excellency the President, hon colleagues, this debate on a New Partnership for Africa’s Development marks an important milestone in the history of our country and that of our continent.

I feel that, in our participation in this debate, we must contribute to bringing to bear what is required and what it takes to transform a dream into reality. I believe that amongst the required ingredients are optimism, courage and pragmatism. We must have the courage to dream of a better future for the whole of our continent, but also the courage to recognise and deal with the many obstacles along the path towards its realisation. We have started by moving in the right direction and with the right attitude. For me, the most important ingredient of our future success is indeed the commencement of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development plan which has been marked by an optimism, if not an euphoria, never experienced before.

In so doing, we have broken the pernicious cycle of Afro-pessimism. We have brought about a fundamental change in our attitude and overall cultural paradigm. We are changing our collective psyche and our own perception of reality. We have moved from the despair of hopelessness, which has cast us in the mould of victims, into a new attitude which tells us that we can do, we can achieve and we can conquer a better future for our posterity.

The passage from passive acceptance of our continental reality of poverty and under-development to the proactive optimism of being able to change it through our own deeds and will, has ignited a new spirit which for us is the most important ingredient of our success in the making. We must transform this spirit of optimism into a fire which ignites activities throughout the country and throughout the continent.

A better continent cannot be built only by the action of people operating at the international level and in the top circles of government. The New Partnership for Africa’s Development must change attitudes and infuse optimism from the ground up and at community level. We must enable all our people to take a hard look at the abject social and economic conditions of their lives and believe that, through their own efforts and those of their communities, things may change and improve.

We must shift the paradigm of despair into believing that tomorrow will be better than today and that the new is better than the old. We must believe in our capacity, to grow by moving from the tested into the untested, from the known into the unknown without fear or hesitation.

Unless there is such a profound change of mindset across the continent, the building of a prosperous and stable new Africa will not be sufficiently fuelled by economic development to become a reachable reality. We need to enable people to grow as individuals first and then as communities, empowering them with the capacity to rise in dignity and to propel their own human growth.

The great dream and the magnificent vision of an African Renaissance is a possibility if we have the courage to look at the existing impediments to its full realisation. Our continent suffers from many old an new wounds, and yet we must accept that many of them are indeed self-inflicted. We must recognise that amongst the causes of poverty are governments which do not maximise the human and economic potentials of their countries and become corrupt. We must accept that ineffective, inadequate or undemocratic governance is one of the causes which has led the wealthiest continent in the world, in terms of natural resources, to be the poorest in terms of human development, human growth and economic and social development alike. We must show the world that the New Partnership for Africa’s Development constitutes a platform which can enable the resolution of Africa’s problems through the collective effort and action of African leaders. We must accept that certain problems must be solved internationally, while others of a more domestic nature must receive the full attention of each African government. We must become rigid in requiring that the rule of democracy triumphs and is fully enforced in the organisation and operation of each African government. We must demand that within each African society the rule of law becomes the only one governing the people and that, finally and forever, the rule of man or woman is abolished in favour of the rule of law.

These are profound changes of attitude which must be brought about within a short timeframe if we are to give substance and credence to the realisation of our dream. Our dream cannot be realised in isolation. It requires the quest for a partnership of development with the rest of the world. It requires Africa and the rest of the world to come together on the basis of a common understanding and shared values.

We must strongly put forward that the world can no longer afford or tolerate the dramatic, social and economic underdevelopment of the African continent. We must seek acceptance for the notion that the world must share the responsibility for bringing the development of the African continent on par with those of other regions. However, we must do so standing tall with the dignity and righteousness of our dream, rather than presenting ourselves only as claimants moved by past recriminations and grievances.

We are offering the world a plan for the development of Africa which makes sense, not only for us in Africa, but for the world. We do so because we believe that the future lies in our ability to catch up with globalisation, and that globalisation demands equitable development and distribution of wealth and opportunities. We must demonstrate our credibility in putting forward this dream by showing that we have the capacity to solve our own problems.

The new partnership for the development of our continent begins at home. It begins by imposing the rule of law in our communities; providing housing and other essential services to our people; proving that our continent and our Government works effectively and efficiently, and our ability to confront our domestic problems and solve them timeously. We must begin in our own backyards and lead by example.

We wish to be partners with the rest of the world, but first and foremost, with our sister countries of Africa. We must recognise that, in approaching Africa, we as South Africans have as much to learn as we have to teach, and that any claim of leadership which we may put forward must be based on our willingness to give and assist, as well as our capacity to prove that our own standards of government in our efforts of development are of the highest obtainable under our present circumstances. [Applause.] Dr S E M PHEKO: Chairperson and the hon President, the PAC welcomes Africa’s efforts being made through the New Partnership for Africa’s Development.

As the Pan-Africanist Movement, the PAC has always supported African efforts which advanced our continent economically and technologically. The only effective way to challenge economic imperialism and recover possession of our heritage is for us to act in a Pan-African manner. Where there is economic dependence, there can be no freedom and national dignity. Efforts which Africa’s leaders are making continentally are commendable, but are not new.

One hundred years ago, the vision of a united and liberated Africa with a common destiny was born. Its guiding political philosophy was coined as Pan- Africanism by Sylvester Williams, a lawyer of African descent who practised law in this country. Pan-Africanism was formalised in 1900. Its major achievements have been the decolonisation of Africa. African political scientists, philosophers, scholars, and historians such as DuBois, C L R James, George Padmore, Azikiwe, Marcus Garvey, Kwame Nkrumah, Mangaliso Sobukwe, Patrice Lumumba, Zephania Mothopeng, and Gamal Abdel Nasser developed and embraced Pan-Africanism as an imperative for the survival of the African people and for restoring Africa to her past glory and lost power.

Kwame Nkrumah observed:

If Africa’s multiple resources were used in her development, they could place Africa among the most modernised continents of the world, but Africa’s resources are used for the development of overseas countries.

Another giant Pan-Africanist, Mangaliso Robert Sobukwe wrote:

By cutting out waste through systematic planning, rapid economic development of Africa can be achieved. The wealth of Africa can begin to work for Africans. There can be no greater guarantee against political and economic instability than unequivocal recognition of the supremacy of African interests in Africa.

Africans must make up their minds to sweat for their own economic and technological development. We must bear the brunt of our own economic development in the same way we did for our political liberation. People of goodwill will help us, but we must carry the greater burden of our own economic liberation. In her struggle for economic liberation, Africa must maximise the study of modern science and technology in all her institutions of learning. This will enable Africa to advance technologically and process her own raw materials, instead of exporting and importing them as finished products at inflated prices.

The PAC agrees with President Abdoulaye Wade of Senegal, who said:

If we can move towards equality of education and infrastructure, then Africa could be part of world trade.

Major economic success in Africa would be brought about when our own indigenous businessmen and women are the main players and investors in the economies of Africa.

The PAC supports this courageous Pan-African endeavour. [Applause.]

The PREMIER OF THE NORTHERN CAPE (Mr M E Dipico): Chairperson, hon President, hon members, I feel honoured to address this House. In the NCOP we are very few, and when I go to the Northern Cape we are only 30. So, hon members will understand if my voice is not the one they are used to. Please pardon me for that. [Laughter.] I also have to speak after an hon member with a very powerful voice. I do not have that kind of voice. I will have to train my voice before I come into this House again. [Laughter.]

The debate on the New Partnership for Africa’s Development is indeed very important for the continuing efforts of our country and other persons who are concerned about the development of our continent and its people. There is no doubt in my mind that efforts to bring about development in our provinces are integrally linked to the overall strategic objective of realising Africa’s potential.

In this context, those of us who have sought to develop ties and links with the developed world should also endeavour to develop similar, if not stronger, ties in many aspects of our work with those countries bordering us. Therefore, provinces bordering a number of countries have been involved in a number of developments. There have been continuing bilaterals, people- to-people relationships, sharing relationships and ties around issues and fields of administration, governance, economic development and other mutually beneficial areas.

It is also worth noting the work we do with the Transfrontier National Parks, which really break down the borders and link our economies in an integral way. Indeed, we see progress. We see our people and our governments coming nearer to all our people.

As we debate this topic the President has put in front of us, there would seem to be people who speak about doom and gloom when they talk about our continent. But the following is also true for Africa. According to Africa’s Human Development Report, there have been achievements we have to note, and they must not elude us.

The report says that between 1960 and 1993 life expectancy increased from 40 years to 51 years. In the past decade the proportion of the population with access to safe water nearly doubled from 25% to 43%. During the past two decades, adult literacy more than doubled from 27% to 55%. Between 1960 and 1991, the net enrolment ratio at the primary level increased from 25% to 50%; and at the secondary level from 13% to 38%. Over the period 1980 to 1992, five counties, that is Botswana, Cape Verde, Lesotho, Mauritius and Swaziland, had an annual GDP growth rate of more than 5%.

This is progress. And, indeed, when we talk about these matters we should be able to say, ``There is progress, and all is not doom and gloom’’. Indeed, a very difficult issue we have been dealing with in Africa is that of women representation in parliament. We have seen progress since South Africa has taken the lead in pursuing this, as our Speaker has been in delegations visiting our countries on the continent. We have seen some progress locally in that the number of women in our parliaments in our country is actually increasing. I think this is what we have to encourage. That representation also outstrips some countries in South Asia and, indeed, it is something to reckon with.

Over the past three decades the infant mortality rate dropped from 167 per 1 000 live births to 97. Our country and people also have a responsibility to make it their business to comprehend the continent and its dynamics. The rich culture and history of our continent are, indeed, great treasures, which our future generations can take pride in.

The landscapes of Africa tell a story, which must be told and enriched. By building partnerships and strengthening people-to-people relations, which seek to develop the human potential of our peoples, we will realise the goal of Africa’s revival. We will instil pride in and a sense of commitment to the goals of the Renaissance and ensure that Africa takes its place among the nations of the world. We must foster strong relations and solidarity between and among ourselves as Africans in order to give meaning to the relations we seek with the developed world.

The provinces are thankful to the hon President. His team held a road show in all the provinces to take us through what he has been engaged in in Africa, the partnerships he has been building, and his work in convincing the developed world to assist and be part of this very good vision. We were briefed as the executive, as members of the legislatures, as heads of departments in a number of departments, as NGOs and as civil society that this was the way to ensure that one takes the people of the country along. We are thankful to the President that he does not move alone, but has been briefing us. I want to put it on record that this is not the first time we are dealing with this matter. Provinces have advanced - we have been dealing with this matter. We have been looking at the contributions we are making.

Lastly, I want to wish for the President to continue, noting that the people support him, and that the ordinary people are still pinning their hopes on him to turn the continent around, to ensure that it is prosperous, united and successful. [Applause.]

Dr A I VAN NIEKERK: Chairperson, hon President, I would like to congratulate the President on his stance on Africa, and say that the FA supports these initiatives. I was reminded some time ago by Mr Wallace Ngoqi, the Chief Land Claims Commissioner, of a quote by Patrice Lumumba who said:

 Africa will write her own history. It will be a glorious and  dignified
 history.

I think that it is important that we take note of that - that we will write it ourselves and that Africa will determine its own success and failure.

The key to success is that Africa must stimulate and release the talents and ability of its people to develop the necessary skills, to use the resources, to uplift our people and to counter the poverty problem that we have. I would like to concentrate, in the short time, on one aspect and that is the land reform problems in South Africa.

Land reform for the sake of political motives and statistics and without the necessary results and sustainable economic production of food and fibre will create a serious problem. Sustainable land reform is of utmost importance for us all. Land reform for the sole purpose of resettling people in the rural areas will be a disaster. Land reform which will result in sustainable production and a better livelihood for new entrants, especially to agriculture, is a key to success.

It is well known that the present land reform process in neighbouring states has gone terribly wrong. Instead of stimulating the economy, the wrong application of land reform for political convenience is destroying the economy of one country and, with it, the better life all so desperately want. The negative economic result is spilling over to South Africa and to the region and is threatening our own development.

I foresee the same problem in South Africa, if the present policy of land reform, although with noble intentions and plans, continues to resettle people in our country on two small areas, and without the necessary accompanying expertise to develop sustainable production in agriculture. I think we must take note of that. Likewise, elsewhere in this continent, this reform did not succeed.

One of the most important contributions that South Africa can make to the renaissance of Africa is to show Africa how the people in Southern Africa can successfully solve the problem of land reform. It can be done. The President’s action to mobilise and encourage the available competent and willing people within the agricultural fraternity to mobilise their experience and ability to participate in sustainable land reform programmes is the right step. It is well received.

However, bureaucracy and struggle-thinking in the Public Service is an important inhibiting factor which discourages enthusiastic participation and even prevents progress on this front. The President’s serious attention on this matter is of utmost importance for South Africa and, indeed, for Africa. [Applause.]

Ms B THOMPSON: Chairperson, hon President and hon members …

Ilungu elihloniphekile u-Van Schalkwyk uthi akayiboni kahle le ndaba yokuthi into ibe ntukuntuku. Into kufanele ibe ngokukodwa phakathi kokuthi iyashisa noma iyabanda. (Translation of Zulu paragraph follows.)

[Mr Van Schalkwyk says he does not agree with the fact that a thing should be lukewarm. A thing should be either hot or cold.]

There is indeed little doubt that our continent is at a critical crossroad in its history. It is on its road to making this century an African century. It is at a juncture where the vision of an African Renaissance is no longer just a vision, but a reality. To quote our President: Those who have eyes, let them see the African Renaissance has just begun.

The New Partnership for Africa’s Development is therefore a pragmatic tool that will turn this vision into reality. It is a programme of action for the economic and social revival of Africa based on constructive partnership between Africa and the north. Based on shared interests, these partnerships have the potential to develop infrastructure, agri-industry, tourism and human resources and also promote urban renewal and rural development. It is thus a pledge by African leaders to eradicate poverty and reposition Africa on the path of sustainable growth and development.

Decades of colonial oppression and exploitation have led to endemic famines, poverty, deteriorating health conditions, lack of access to safe drinking water, sanitation, health and educational services. The accumulating effect has thrown billions of African people into vicious circles of economic and social deprivation. If one looks at the current picture of Africa, as it emerges from particularly the Western media, one gets the impression that our continent is beyond redemption.

The image that is portrayed of our continent is one of political instability, civil strife and armed conflicts. It is an image of a continent in the grip of seemingly unremitting economic and humanitarian crises. These images of Africa have led many to view the African situation with great despair and scepticism, and of course, they are not true.

While we do not dispute the enormous difficulties faced by our continent, there is really no need to take an unduly pessimistic view of the present situation. Quoting our hon President:

Africa of today is an Africa of hope, a continent that resumed its journey out of a period of despair. It is a time for the rebirth and revival of Africa and the African Renaissance.

Therefore, the New Partnership for Africa’s Development is a move from conceptualising the vision of an African Renaissance to operationalising it to indeed make this century an African century and to achieve the ultimate goal of African unity and prosperity. This partnership signals that Africa can no longer isolate itself from the globalisation process, and must work to harness the positive aspect of this process to meet developmental objectives. It calls for international solidarity, but emphasises that it is up to us as Africans to take our continent forward to a better future.

Consequently, the programme outlines the vision of an Africa which resolutely gets to grips with overcoming its problems: a continent which aims to set the priorities and focal points for the future; a continent which neither wants to be exploited nor to be an international receiver of alms, but wants to develop into an attractive trade partner and location for investment, and a region which, as a recognised partner in the world community, is able to make its contribution to solving global issues of the future.

Without any doubt, Africa is blessed with a rich landscape and countless resources and yet, because of our past, the majority of our people, in particular the ones who reside in the rural areas, are poor. For instance, South Africa has a dual agricultural economy comprising a well-developed commercial sector as well as a predominantly subsistence-orientated sector in the rural areas.

The previous regime did not empower people in these areas, and neither did they create a good infrastructure for development in the rural areas, in particular, in the agricultural sector. It did not empower people to embark on development initiatives to realise their potential to invest in themselves economically and otherwise. This led to a decline of our people’s participation in agriculture, resulting in insufficient food production and eventually poverty and hunger.

Urbanisation also became a problem, as people, because of poverty in the rural sectors, would go and look for greener pastures in the towns and, ironically, they would be faced with joblessness, no accommodation and further poverty, and some would resort to other alternative means of survival. As we revive our economies, one of the key challenges, therefore, is to reprioritise agriculture as a critical and strategic element of the attainment of growth and economic development.

Investing in agriculture is, indeed, a key to empowering the people in the rural sector, which in Africa comprises the greater portion of the population. It is a key to boosting our own economy. Investing in this sector also implies food promotion, own food production, generation of income through commercialisation and job creation. The New Partnership for Africa’s Development ÿ.ÿ.ÿ. [Time expired.] [Applause.]

Miss S RAJBALLY: Mr Chairperson, hon President, hon members, Africa is a continent noticed many years ago for its affluent content in minerals and so many other attributes that made us fall victim to the claws of colonialism, and then to bad governance. Though sapped of so much, Africa continues to be a rich continent with potential that we, through a united effort with countries throughout this continent, should utilise for the advancement of Africa.

It is true that within South Africa lies a citizenry so rich in diversity, yet united in all efforts for the betterment and advancement of its state. It is also true that we, as South Africans, might be different in so many ways from our neighbours on the same continent, but we too can unite in an effort to advance Africa as a whole for the betterment of all.

Global competition places us at a minimal competitive existence, but a united effort by all constituencies in Africa would certainly boost our position, power and potential in the continent. It is indeed an honour and a privilege to experience all these nations making a united effort to embark on the upliftment of Africa, both domestically and internationally.

It is clear that the partnership undertakings are of great importance and value to all. Matters addressed and focused upon are central to this advancement and hopefully will be activated to its best abilities, both thoroughly and efficiently.

Let us look upon poverty, mortality, and their likes, and see a crying nation, which we as Government serve to correct. Let us look at our undermined abilities to compete in the global market and remind ourselves that we are the competitors to take charge. Let us remind ourselves of our nation raped of its wealth and people forced into the most abhorrent living conditions, and let us remind ourselves that we have the ability to correct those losses and avoid a repetition of that disaster. I quote:

We will no longer allow ourselves to be conditioned by circumstance. We will determine our own destiny and call on the rest of the world to complement our efforts.

This is the stand of a united Africa, and this is the stand of the MF. We unite in all efforts to attain this progress. We see the poverty, we see the underdevelopment, we see the competitive markets, we see the need, and we see the ability and potential of a united front by nations throughout Africa attaining this. But we all know that it takes more than belief, trust and hope to achieve ends. God helps those who help themselves. So, may tools and mechanisms be put into motion to attain our end, which is a better Africa. The MF congratulates the President on his initiative. Phambili President Thabo Mbeki, Phambili! [Forward, President Thabo Mbeki, Forward!]

HON MEMBERS: Phambili! [Forward.] [Laughter.] [Applause.]

Mev E C GOUWS: Mevrou die Speaker, ek praat vandag as ‘n Afrikaner wat verbonde is aan Afrika, wie se toekoms hier lê, wie se nageslag nog vir eeue in dié land gaan leef.

As ek sê dat ons hier is en hier leef, sê ek veel meer. Ons is nie net hier en leef nie net hier nie, ons werk ook hier en ons lewer hier ook ‘n bydrae tot die ontwikkeling en vooruitgang van Suid-Afrika. Só was dit en só sal dit altyd wees.

Ek sê vandag onomwonde dat as die gedagte van ‘n Afrika-ontwaking wil slaag, moet die bydraes van ons mense nie weggewys word nie. Elke druppel kundigheid, elke ons energie en werkvermoë en elke stukkie vaderlandsliefde wat daar te vind is, sal gemobiliseer moet word.

‘n Afrika-ontwaking in die volle sin van die woord moet deur Afrikane self geskep word. Ander kan nie vir ons brûe bou nie, hulle kan nie vir ons besproeiingskemas aanlê nie, hulle kan nie produktiewe plase aanlê nie en ander kan nie vir ons of namens ons gedigte skryf en sing en komponeer nie.

Nee, as ons wil ontwaak, moet ons dit self vermag. Dit het tyd geword dat ons ophou kla oor veronregting en mishandeling. Nee, ons moet nou aan die wêreld wys dat ons self die pad van vrede en vooruitgang kan uitbeitel. Afrika moet wys dat hy hom uit die kloue van geweld, oorlog, armoede, verwoesting en vernietiging kan ontworstel.

Ek ken ook my mense. Dit is nie net die uitsluitlike voorreg van sommige politieke partye se leierskap om namens die mense op die grond te praat nie. Ons mense kan vir hulself dink en besluite neem. Hulle is baie lojaal aan Suid-Afrika. Dit is nie net noodwendig ‘n lid van die agb President se politieke party of een van sy koalisie-maats wat ‘n bydrae kan lewer nie, maar dan moet ons wat in die opposisiebanke sit, ook na daardie nuwe daeraad vir Afrika gelei word en nie as onpatrioties afgemaak word nie.

Daardie daeraad sal aanbreek as Afrika nie net polities vry is nie, maar inderdaad ook vry is van die kettings van die duisternis. Ons, al die mense van Suid-Afrika, is gereed om ons deel te doen om Afrika na ‘n nuwe daeraad te lei. [Applous.] (Translation of Afrikaans speech follows.)

[Mrs E C GOUWS: Madam Speaker, today I am speaking as an Afrikaner who is bound to Africa, whose future is here, whose descendants are still going to live in this country for centuries.

When I say that we are here, and that we live here, I am saying much more than that. We are not just here, and just live here. We also work here and make a contribution to the development and progress of South Africa. This is how it was and how it always will be.

I want to say frankly today that if the idea of an African renaissance is to succeed, the contributions of our people should not be declined. Every drop of expertise, every ounce of energy and working capability and every drop of love for the fatherland that is to be found will have to be mobilised.

An African renaissance awakening in the full sense of the word must be created by Africans themselves. Others cannot build bridges for us, they cannot install irrigation schemes for us, they cannot build productive farms and they cannot write poetry or sing or compose for or on behalf of us.

No, if we want to awaken, we have to do it ourselves. The time has come for us to stop complaining about injustice and abuse. No, now we must show the world that we ourselves can carve out the road of peace and prosperity. Africa must show that it can shake off the shackles of violence, war, poverty, devastation and destruction.

I also know my people. It is not the exclusive privilege of the leadership of some political parties to talk on behalf of the people at grass-roots level. Our people can think for themselves and make decisions. They are very loyal to South Africa. It is not necessarily only a member of the hon President’s political party or one of his coalition friends who can make a contribution, but then we who sit in the opposition benches must also be led towards that new dawn for Africa and not be shrugged off as being unpatriotic.

That dawn will break when Africa is not only politically free, but indeed also free of the chains of darkness. We, all the people of South Africa, are ready to do our share in leading Africa towards a new dawn. [Applause.]]

Mr C AUCAMP: Madam Speaker, Mr President, I stand here before this House as a child of Africa. My origin is Europe, but my destination is Africa. [Interjections.] My five children are all adults, and all of them still are in Africa and plan to stay here with their lovely children. Their future and their prosperity is unconditionally linked to the prosperity of Africa, more specifically, South Africa.

It is, of course, an Africa that has changed dramatically during the past decades. The crux of this change is that Africa now holds its destiny in its own hands, it is not in the hands of an external power. This places a huge responsibility on the shoulders of the countries, the leaders and the peoples of Africa. It is within this context that the President started his address today with the vital question: Can Africa claim the 21st century? Can we, as masters of our own destiny, make it a safe and prosperous destiny? The answer: There is no alternative.

I speak on behalf of many more Afrikaners - and the 50 000 who voted for the AEB - when I say that we want to be part of the success of South Africa, not its failure. We want to take our place not on the pavilion of Africa, but on the playing field.

Kyk ons na die geskiedenis van die Afrikaner in Suid-Afrika sien ons hom waar hy, met foute en al, telkens ‘n beslissende verskil gemaak het. Nêrens vind ons hom op die paviljoen nie. Ons sien hom op die veld in die hitte van die stryd. Dit is waar ons wil wees. Ons wil ons bydrae maak. Ons wil ons rol speel. Ons wil nie net krampagtig ons eie bevorder nie. Ons weet, ons het ook ‘n verantwoordelikheid in die bekamping van armoede, vigs, werkloosheid en die verskaffing van behuising vir alle mense. Ons wil dit nie doen omdat ons stemme soek nie. Ons wil dit doen, omdat dit ons Christelike roeping is en ons weet ons lot is verbonde met dié van al die mense in hierdie land.

Maar dan vra ons ook: Laat ons toe om onsself te wees. Alleen dan kan ons ons bydrae maak. Ons kan nie in geleende klere vir Suid-Afrika en Afrika iets beteken nie. Ons kan dit nie doen in ‘n ander man se taal nie. Ons wil nie bloot as individue onmisbaar wees nie, maar as ‘n gemeenskap binne die geborgenheid van ons eie. Ons wil dit doen in ‘n idioom en ‘n kultuur waarbinne ons onsself tuis vind. Ons wil dit doen sonder die verloëning van die bloed wat deur ons are vloei. (Translation of Afrikaans paragraphs follows.)

[When we look at the history of the Afrikaner in South Africa we see where he, with faults and all has again and again made a definite difference. Nowhere do we find him on the pavilion. We see him on the field in the heat of the struggle. That is where we want to be. We want to make our contribution. We want to play our role. We do not desperately want to promote only our own. We know that we also have a responsibility in the combating of poverty, Aids, unemployment and in providing housing for all people. We do not want to do this because we are looking for votes. We want to do this because it is our Christian calling and we know that our destiny is bound with that of all the people of this country.

But then we also ask: Allow us to be ourselves. Only then can we also make our contribution. We cannot mean something to South Africa and Africa in borrowed garb. We cannot do this in another man’s language. We do not merely want to be indispensable as individuals, but as a community within the safety of our own. We want to do this in an idiom and a culture in which we ourselves feel at home. We want to do this without the denial of the blood which courses through our veins.]

We are not awaiting the day when Afrikaners can rise again like a phoenix from the ashes of Africa because we know that we will be part of those ashes. Therefore, we support any plan to make South Africa and Africa a better place for all its people. The AEB supports the New Partnership for Africa’s Development, and we want to be part of it in our own unique and indispensable way. [Applause.]

The DEPUTY MINISTER OF FINANCE: Madam Speaker, Chairperson of the NCOP, Mr President and hon members, Bernard Makhosezwe Magubane says that the idea of an African Renaissance has evoked not only a sense of hope, but also a great deal of wilful misunderstanding, cynicism and skepticism, as a result of which almost every setback is said to make a farce of our President’s call for such a renaissance.

This cynicism and the resilience of the stereotyping of Africans and Africa as inferior and lacking in rationality, is exposed by Judith Registre and Wonderboy Peters who, reporting on the 1998 World Cup finals in France, said, and I quote:

The ultimate failure of African teams was received within the general perception of Africa’s failure as a continent. On July 6, the SABC 1 weekly programme Panasonic World of Soccer focused on the link between the failure of these teams and the question of the African Renaissance. As each loss was replayed in slow motion, the caption which read ``African Renaissance’’, kept flashing. This programme seems to be ridiculing the ideal of the African Renaissance by juxtaposing it with Africa’s performance in the World Cup. If Africa’s hopes at the World Cup had been punctured, then the African Renaissance, the ideal which promises to craft new realities for Africa and its citizens, was seen as destined to fail.

Indeed, when things go wrong in the Democratic Republic of Congo and as conflict and war continue to manifest themselves in parts of the African continent, regardless of progress that is being made every day in many countries on the continent towards peace, stability, democracy and economic development, such setbacks are projected in bold across the screens of the world as stark examples that Africa is a doomed continent.

In his paper titled The African Renaissance in Historical Perspective, Mr Magubane correctly points out that before the renaissance, Europe experienced a period of great instability and social turmoil that makes Africa’s troubles seem mild in comparison. From natural disasters such as the eruptions of Mount Vesuvius and Mount Etna, a violent earthquake in England in the midst of a famine, to the crisis of the feudal era that saw many countries fall into a chronic state of anarchy, kept alive by the barons of war, typified by the Hundred Years War between England and France, and the civil turmoil that rocked Germany and central Europe.

Of this period - and in particular the Great Plague, the Black Death of 1348 to 1350 - Barbara Tuchman wrote,and I quote:

To the people at large, there could only be one explanation - the wrath of God. What sins were on the 14th century conscience? Primarily greed, the sin of avarice, followed by usury, worldliness, adultery, blasphemy, falsehoods, luxury and irreligion. The result was an underground lake of guilt in the soul that the plague now tapped.

Survivors of the plague, finding themselves neither destroyed nor improved, could discover no Divine purpose in the pain they had suffered. God’s purposes were usually mysterious, but this scourge had been too terrible to be accepted without questioning. If a disaster of such magnitude, the most lethal ever known, was a mere wanton act of God or perhaps not God’s work at all, then the absolutes of a fixed order were loosed from their moorings. Minds that opened to admit these questions could never again be shut ÿ.ÿ.ÿ. To that extent, the Black Death may have been the unrecognised beginning of modern man.

The relevance of this snapshot of pre-Renaissance Europe, through the work of Mr Magubane, is that he then posits a view that to understand the idea of the African Renaissance we must take stock of the crisis to which the European Renaissance was an answer. I ask whether instead of the cynicism and skepticism, of which we have seen much, the African Renaissance, underpinned by the New Partnership for Africa’s Development and the birth of the African Union, should not rather be seen as an idea whose time has come and is representative of a historical juncture in which Africa is seeking answers to the host of problems facing her. Indeed, Patrick O’Farrell says:

Crises of any magnitude are usually the culminating points of degenerative historical developments. Europe has come a long way since the time of the Renaissance and today we speak of the highly developed European Union, which has evolved over a long period through determined efforts and programmes to lift it out of that era, and subsequent setbacks such as the two world wars of the 20th century, the period of colonial plunder notwithstanding.

The critical challenge for us in Africa is that we do not have the luxury of time. The continent is characterised by frightening levels of poverty, flight of capital, unsustainable levels of debt and the flight of skills. What confronts Africa is to identify what needs to be done and it is this that the new partnership seeks to answer. In that regard it communicates two essential messages, namely that Africans themselves must create the conditions for development and that there are concrete steps that we must take and things we must do, not because they are anyone’s imposition, but because they are in our own interest.

Secondly, as we do so we shall need partnerships, both within countries, as we shall need to mobilise all sectors of society, and with the developed world, as we shall need to mobilise additional resources to overcome the resource constraints which are part of current realities. Let us now turn to these things that must be done, and chief among these are coherent and comprehensive strategies for macroeconomic stabilisation of our economies.

Our own experience tells us that there are real benefits to be realised from pursuing such a strategy, as we today live and work in an environment of stable price levels as inflation has been brought under control. What we must never lose sight of is the fact that it is the poor who benefit the most from a low-inflation environment, as it protects the buying of their meagre incomes. We also live and work in an environment of declining interest rates, which contributes to both lower levels of household debt and creates conditions for higher levels of investment.

An important part of the macroeconomic stabilisation equation is the management of the levels of debt and costs of servicing such debt. Again, our own experience is that success in this regard results in release of resources for important socioeconomic programmes. What these examples of concrete achievements must say to us, and to all on the continent, is that these things are possible. Let us go out there and do them.

The Minister of Finance said very boldly that from our experience, we have come to recognise that most, if not all the levels of macroeconomic stabilisation, are in the hands of Government and that it is in the area of microeconomic reform that we need partnerships with business and labour. Having said that, I have to make the point that for most African countries the area of debt management will be the most difficult, as many are trapped in unsustainable levels of debt.

This must be an occasion, therefore, on which we call on the developed world and multilateral organisations and institutions to expedite the processes that will yield deeper and faster debt relief. Equally, we must call on and challenge the beneficiaries of such programmes to ensure that the resources thus released should be utilised in the efforts to eradicate poverty.

In this regard, we clearly have to go beyond macroeconomic stabilisation to improve revenue collection, ensure allocations of budgetary resources according to policy priorities, enhance the capacity to spend such resources effectively and efficiently and improve public finance management. Again, our own experience is instructive. The new partnership also seeks to reverse the outflow of private capital as well as increase the inflow of development assistance resources.

As other speakers have shown, there is much more that needs to be done. The question is whether all of this is possible. In other words, will Africa make it through this challenging task? To answer this question we have to take courage from the words of Pixley ka Isaka Seme who said, at the turn of the last century:

Come with me to the ancient capital of Egypt, Thebes, the city of one hundred gates. The grandeur of its venerable ruins and the gigantic proportions of its architecture reduces to insignificance the boasted monuments of other nations. The pyramids of Egypt are structures to which the world presents nothing comparable. The mighty monuments seem to look with disdain on every other work of human art and to vie with nature herself. All of the glory of Egypt belongs to Africa and her people. These monuments are the indestructible memorials of their great and original genius.

I would like to tell the hon President that in articulating the dream of an African Renaissance and being in the forefront of the development of the new partnership, he is realising the vision of the founding fathers of the African National Congress, the first national liberation movement on the African continent. This movement will stand with and behind him every step of the way. The ANC lives, the ANC leads. [Applause.]

The DEPUTY MINISTER OF EDUCATION: Madam Speaker, Mr President and hon members, this Millennium African Recovery Plan is one of the most positive notions to come out of our continent in a long while. Coming as it does, almost at the same time as the conversion of the Organisation of African Unity into an African Union that will put greater emphasis on the economic integration of Africa, this recovery plan is timely indeed. It will provide content and substance to the African Union.

An important and crucial feature of this plan is its bold and unambiguous assertion that the economic recovery and progress of Africa is the primary responsibility of the Africans themselves. Assistance from others should compliment our own efforts.

For far too long, Africans have thoroughly undermined and underestimated their own ability to alter their circumstances. We rightly blamed our slave and colonial masters for our poverty and underdevelopment, but somehow seemed to look entirely in their direction for our salvation. A greater reliance on ourselves will do us a world of good.

In Africa, we did mobilise one another and fought for political freedom, but once that was achieved we tended to demobilise the masses and settled down to worship our new flags, national anthems and our leaders. Of course, that is in order, provided we are aware that these are only symbols. The content of our freedom must be ownership of our economies and respectable standards of living for all our people.

This Millennium African Recovery Plan challenges this and seeks to change our mindset and circumstances. But, the challenge that faces all of us is to popularise the plan among the vast majority of our people. The conception and articulation of the recovery plan have been done with grit, brilliance and courage. But, for its success it needs to capture the imagination of the African people and to harness their genius and energies.

In order to succeed on a continental level, it must first be relevant and successful at the village and township level, where we live. For that to happen, we need to mobilise as hard as we did in the struggle for political freedom. After all, the essence of that liberation struggle is economic ownership, control and social progress. Without these, it is hollow. We wholeheartedly support and embrace this partnership. [Applause.]

Nkskz C I GCINA: Mhlali-ngaphambili, Mongameli ohloniphekileyo namalungu onke akule Ndlu, ndinovuyo nochulumanco ukufumana le ndima yokuphosa igade kule ngxoxo namhlanje.

Lo mbono mtsha wokuhlaziya nokuphucula iAfrika linyathelo elikhulu nelibaluleke, ngokumandla, ekubuyiseni isidima kubantu base-Afrika. Isidima sabantu base-Afrika sehla mhla kwahluthwa imihlaba nobutyebi ezandleni zabemi beli, namhla abantwana bomthonyama banyanzeliswa ukuba bamkele amasiko nezithethe zezinye iintlanga, benziwa ukuba bazidele, babusengele phantsi ubuntu babo.

Kakade, apha eAfrika isisithethe esidala nesinezimvi into yokuba onento aphe olambileyo, ofuyileyo anqomele ongafuyanga, de kuthiwe xa kuthethwa `nongafuyanga uyayitya inyama’. Le mbono yokumanya nokudibanisa iAfrika ukuze isebenze kunye, ithethe ngazwi linye, ihambe ngesingqi esinye kwindlela eya kwiAfrika ehluthayo, yimbono efuna inkxaso epheleleyo kubo bonke abantu beli lizwe. Linyathelo elijoliswe ekubeni kuphele indlala, ubuhlwempu nentswelo ebangelwe yiminyaka yengcinezelo nokuxhatshazwa kwabantu beli lizwekazi lakowethu iAfrika.

IAfrika iza kuyeka ngoku ukuba lithanga lamanye amazwe, ibonakale izimisele ukuphakama ze ihlangabezane nemingeni ejongene nayo. IAfrika inoompondo zihlanjiwe beenkokeli ngoku, ezizimisele ukwenza konke okusemandleni ukuze kuphakame umgangatho wokuphila eAfrika.

Phakathi kwaba mpondo zihlanjiwe eli lizwe lisikelelwe ngokuba nooxholovane beenkokeli. Lo mfo kaMbeki ukwazile ukuthabatha izithethe ezidala namasiko eANC awatolike ze awangqamanise neemfuno, nemingeni yeli xesha. UMongameli uMbeki uhamba kanye emkhondweni wembali etyebileyo ye-ANC, yona yathi, kwasekusekweni kwayo, yalubona unxulumano phakathi kwenkululeko yethu apha eMzantsi Afrika nenkululeko yeAfrika iphela, nethe, njengowona mbutho umdala ukulwela inkululeko eAfrika, yanegalelo elikhulu kwimizabalazo yokukhulula iAfrika, Afrika, leyo, ethe yasibuyekeza ngokuba nenceba ngakuthi nenkxaso enkulu ngexesha ekwakunzima ngalo, de sakhululeka.

Indima edlalwe nguMongameli uMbeki kulo mbono yimbuyekezo efanelekileyo kubantu baseAfrika ngenkxaso abasinika yona ngexesha esasizabalaza ngalo. Yimbuyekezo kubantu beli lizwe loMzantsi Afrika kuba iza nentlutha, intlalo entle, imisebenzi, impilo entle, ubudlelwane kunye nomanyano loMzantsi Afrika namazwe elizwekazi le Afrika.

Onke amaqhawe omzabalazo eli lizwe nezwekazi le-Afrika, iinto zooDube, Kwame Nkrumah, ooSontonga, ooMqhayi, uChief Albert Luthuli, Khayingo, Godolozi, ooGoniwe, ooHani, ooTambo, namanye amaqhawe ahamba naye kweli nyathelo. Ngokuthi asebenze ngentlungu yezwekazi leAfrika, ushukumise amathambo, uchane ucwethe.

Abakrokri abazange baphela, abasokuze baphele. Mawaxokozele amaxoxo kangangoko efuna, akhale amang’ang’ane ame apho ama khona, asabe amagwala. Thina sithi: Ngxatsho! ke, thole lesizwe. Wenze kakuhle. Qina, yomelela. Sikunye nawe, sihamba nawe. Phambili, Mongameli. (Translation of isiXhosa speech follows.)

[Mrs C I GCINA: Chairperson, hon President and hon members of this august House, it is a great honour for me to make an input in today’s debate.

This new vision of reviving and developing Africa is a very significant step, especially with regard to restoring the dignity of the people of Africa. The devaluation of the dignity of the people of Africa crept in when they were robbed of their land with all its wealth and when the children of the soil were forced to embrace the culture of foreigners, to doubt their worth and to look down upon their own identity.

It is an age-old principle in Africa that those who have support those who do not have, even if that means having to give some of your livestock to someone who does not have any. Hence the expression: one does not have to own any livestock to be able to eat meat. This idea of bringing Africa together and uniting it, so that it can speak with one voice and move with synchronised steps on its way to being a self-sufficient Africa, is one that deserves unflinching support from all the people of this country. It is an idea that is aimed at the alleviation of poverty that has resulted from countless years of oppression and exploitation of the people of our continent, Africa.

Africa shall now cease to be a colony of other countries and shall be seen to be determined to stand up and confront the challenges that are facing it. Africa is now blessed with high-calibre leaders who are determined to do everything in their power to ensure that the quality of life in Africa is improved. Among these high-calibre leaders this country is blessed with ones that really stand out. Hon President Mbeki has been able to take the traditional norms and principles of the ANC and reinterpret them and align them to the needs and challenges of this era. In doing this, hon President Mbeki is following the trail of the rich history of the ANC, which, right from its inception, recognised the link between our freedom in South Africa and that of the entire continent of Africa, and which, as the oldest organisation in the struggle for liberation, has made a very significant contribution to the liberation of Africa, and Africa in turn reciprocated by standing beside us and supporting us throughout our very difficult times, until we attained our ideal of freedom.

The role played by hon President Mbeki in this idea is a just reward to the people of Africa for the support they gave us during our liberation struggle. It is a just reward to the people of South Africa too, as it ushers in victory that manifests itself in plenty, comfort, jobs, good health, and good relations between South Africa and other African states.

All the heroes of the liberation struggle in this country and in the rest of the continent of Africa, like Dube, Kwame Nkrumah, Sontonga, Mqhayi, Chief Albert Luthuli, Khayingo, Godolozi, Goniwe, Hani, Tambo and many others, left their indelible footprints on this same trail. By addressing the affliction of the continent of Africa, the hon President has touched the spirits of these heroes and that is good.

Doubting Thomases pervade the world and we shall never see the last of them. Let the frogs croak to their hearts’ content and the hadidahs sing endlessly. We, on the other hand, hail the efforts of this son of the nation. He is on the right track. He should keep up the courage; we are with him. We say to the hon President:``Forward!’’] Mrs J N VILAKAZI: Madam Speaker and hon members, the need for an African partnership is clear and compelling. Divided Africa must, every day, compete with united Europe, the powerful United States of America, Canada and countries like China and India, which have over a billion people each.

Clearly, this places African countries in a very weak position. We have to have greater synergy and greater partnerships to enjoy economic growth. For the past 50 years, this dream of co-operation was just that - a distant dream. Now, however, everything seems possible, and the role being played by our President is that of a core leader.

The IFP supports the partnership initiative. We hope that it will be a very great success. This is, indeed, the African century and, therefore, the time of Africa is here. Let us, with vision and courage, go forward to create a better future and a better life for all.

Ngiyabonga kakhulu egameni leNkatha Yenkululeko Yesizwe. [On behalf of the IFP, thank you very much.] [Applause.]

The MINISTER IN THE PRESIDENCY: Madam Speaker, Comrade President, hon members I am sorry, but first of all I am going to embarrass the hon comrade President.

After the hon the President had spoken, one of the Ministers received a note from his or her adviser. This person wrote a very moving note to the Minister.

The note says:

Was the President not superb? Hearing him speak today and having the vision so clearly spelt out renews my pride and joy that I was born here, and nowhere else. It is a privilege to be able to work for South Africa and for/with you.

I think that note speaks for all of us today. [Applause.] I would like to start with something that Mr Van Schalkwyk and the Deputy Minister of Education have said. They raised the question of what we should do in our own country.

What do we have to do to raise the level of political consciousness and understanding of our own people about the heritage, history, successes and weaknesses of our continent, as well as the rich and varied arts, culture and literature that exist? It seems to me that if we are serious about ourselves as a Parliament, as provincial legislatures and as elected municipalities, one of the things that we have to do, is to work and work and work again to assist all of us to raise the level of political consciousness and understanding of our continent amongst our own people.

In my view, some serious challenges flow from that. I want to talk about the rights of the child, women and people with disabilities. We cannot run away from this challenge that we are facing. All of us agree that one of the most important things that must happen is the regional integration that must take place in the SADC region and that we must work at as great a speed as possible for free trade in the area. We cannot, as South Africans, escape the fact that, at some point in our lives, we will have to say we cannot have a free trade area without the free movement of labour in this region. We thus address the issues of our people in the region in a different way than just trade and capital movement. We talk about the reality of movement, the free movement of labour and the free movement of people in our region. This is a challenge we face.

I think it is necessary to repeat - and the hon the President said this when he answered questions last week - that we cannot conceive and have a vision of development in Africa if we do not put the empowerment of women at the very central. There can be no African Renaissance without the empowerment of women. [Applause.]

I believe it is the responsibility of all of us in Parliament, in all the political parties, to ensure that that ideal remains the central focus of all of us who are interested in this new partnership for development. We cannot talk about dealing with the issues of conflict, violence and war without also saying what impact it has on children and women and what the consequences are for people with disabilities.

As we roll out our wonderful vision, we also have to put on centre stage the rights of the child - the right of the child not to be conscripted into war, the right of the child not to have his or her limbs cut off, the right of the child to be a child, the right of the child to dream the dreams of a child. [Applause.] This is our responsibility.

Our continent is full of people with disabilities. It is our responsibility here, where we have made such great progress with regard to people with disabilities, to advance their rights. It seems to me that we have more people with disabilities in the South African Parliament than there are in any other parliament. [Applause.] As we roll out this plan of ours, I want to propose that we pay very special attention to the decision taken by the OAU to declare 2000-2009 the African decade of disabled persons. I do not think we in this country have paid sufficient attention to that declaration. And it seems to me that what we need to do is to take that declaration of the African decade of disabled persons and bring it into the mainstream of our thinking on this vision that we have of this new partnership.

I would like to tell the hon the President that as I was sitting there I was thinking about how far we have come along this road of African unity. There were names that came into my mind and there are some that I am going to miss. But it seems to me that one of the great names that we need to pay tribute to, in addition to Peter Mundo, who now says that he is an Afro- American too, is the great W B DuBois. The idea of a Pan-African unity, and Pan-African conferences that take place, was part of his vision.

I am reminded of the great African leaders Patrice Lumumba, Kwame Nkrumah, Sekou Ture, Julius Nyerere, Samora Machel, Agostinho Neto, Modiba Keita - those hon members are going to Mali this weekend - Gamal Abdel Nasser, Amika Kabral and our very very own, the great Oliver Tambo, Chief Albert Luthuli and, of course, Nelson Mandela. [Applause.]

Therefore, I thought it was necessary, on this occasion, for us to pay tribute to those great, great African heroes, who sacrificed everything so that today we can stand here and say that we can realise this vision of the 21st century being an African century.

I would like to tell the hon President that President Bouteflika, when he stood here and addressed us and at the state banquet held for him, paid a special tribute to our President, for the role that he, his party, the ANC, his Government, but above all, the people of South Africa, played in assisting us to come to this vision. Because, without the active participation of the people of South Africa, there will not be an African Renaissance.

In conclusion, a very great thinker, I think the hon members can still remember his name, Karl Marx … [Laughter.!] … once said that -

… when an idea grabs the masses, it becomes a material force …

I would like to tell the hon President that Africa’s time has come. Let us make it a material force! [Applause.]

The PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC: Madam Speaker, hon members, the hon Rev Meshoe asked some difficult questions. He wanted to know why members of the National Defence Force are in Burundi, why they are prepared to risk their lives by agreeing to be deployed there, and why we are prepared to spend even a cent on this mission, when we need every cent we can lay our hands on to address our own domestic problems.

I would like to say that the reason our people are in Burundi is because we are committed to peace on this continent. [Applause.] We are committed to the promotion of democracy on this continent, and we are committed to the notion of human solidarity. That is why our people are in Burundi, even in circumstances where there might be a risk to their lives, even in circumstances in which we may build a couple of houses less, but give peace to millions of people in Burundi. I think it is a price worth paying.

I would also like to thank the ambassadors and diplomats who have been with us the whole of this afternoon, sitting up here. [Applause.] I thank them for being here. In response to the important matters raised by Rev Meshoe that these ambassadors and high commissioners come from countries whose citizens risked their lives, whose citizens spent money, whose citizens took a chance in order to get us to gain our own freedom as well … [Applause.] … I think it is only decent that we ourselves should act in a manner that recognises the importance of solidarity among human beings.

I must thank hon members who have paid tribute to other presidents on our continent who have been leading this process of the formulation of these programmes, pointing the direction as to where we should go. In that respect I would also like to mention the head of state of Libya, Moammar Gaddafi, who indeed took very firm positions, which enabled the continent to take what are correct positions with regard to the process of the African Union. [Applause.]

The hon Marthinus van Schalkwyk and others have said that Africa’s renaissance should be co-owned. I agree. It has to be co-owned. We must, all of us as South Africans, see this as a matter that is critical to our future as persons and as a country. It has to be co-owned. That is correct, and I am quite certain that in that context, as he said, we, all of us, would indeed, have to abandon our political shacks. [Applause.]

The point was correctly made by the hon the leader of the Opposition, Mr Tony Leon, as well as the Speaker and the Chairperson of the NCOP, about the need for the involvement of Parliament in these processes. That is correct. Hon members, as I said, are familiar with what is contained in the Constitutive Act of the African Union. I think it is important, as the hon Leon suggested, that members of Parliament participate in the process of defining even the details as to what those structures visualised in the constitutive Act should look like.

It is correct that we shall necessarily have to move beyond the mere statement of principle to say what other institutions we must establish to ensure that the vision that we have is realised. The hon Tony Leon was correct with regard to that. We must include discussion by this Parliament on what we do and how we shape and fashion the African parliament. It must include the issue of how that African Parliament acts to ensure that the governments on our continent act in a manner consistent with the vision spelt out in the African Union, as well as in the new partnership.

I say that there is some work to be done by parliamentarians and it is urgent for settling, with regard to the African Union, what was agreed at the last OAU summit meeting. The African Union will be launched in July next year, and by that time all the bodies visualised in that constitutive Act should be ready to be launched. There is not much time. I therefore agree that Parliament must be involved in these processes of the further elaboration of all of these, and that includes issues pertaining to the new partnership.

The hon Tony Leon made reference to the fact of weak states in Africa. He used the expression that many are ``patchy entities’’. I agree with that, and for that reason the matter of improving the capacity of those states in Africa is very much a part of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development Programme, because to deliver on all these things that we are talking about, whether it is the rule of law, good governance, delivery of health and educational services, water and so on, a state cannot be weak, because weak states cannot do those things. It was quite correct of him to draw attention to this matter.

It is correct that we should not only depend on peer review in order to ensure that we implement decisions that we have taken, but that we should also involve the people in those processes. There is an important African institution - perhaps it does not have the necessary profile now, but I think that it should have a higher profile - called the African Commission on Human and People’s Rights. As an independent body, the African Commission on Human and People’s Rights does a lot of work and it needs to be strengthened, and that becomes part of the process by means of which we effect the review of what is happening to ensure that all of us on the African continent do these things that we have committed ourselves to doing.

I must thank hon members for the support that they have given to all of these processes in which we have been engaged as a country with regard to the Burundi peace process. It is important and difficult. If it was not difficult, we would not have been there. We are there because it is difficult. We want to see what we can do to contribute to the best possible conditions for the Barundi to stop killing one another, and to stop the Barundi from conveying a message to the world that Africans can do nothing but kill one another.

I am very grateful for the support of the House with regard to this particular process. I am certain that, whatever the difficulties, we have a challenge to stay the course with regard to that matter, and to make sure that we succeed.

That also holds true for the Democratic Republic of the Congo. We shall be coming back to this House, because it is quite clear that in the context of the UN mission there, we shall have to commit more troops in the Democratic Republic of the Congo to assist that process in moving further forward.

I agree with the point made by the hon Lulu Xingwana, supported by Minister Essop Pahad, about the centrality of the emancipation of women to this whole process of African renewal. Indeed, one could not possibly say that we have moved with regard to the renewal of the continent, while we have stood still with regard to the emancipation of women. Those would be two contradictory positions.

It is a central and critical issue, and I am glad to tell the hon Lulu Xingwana that when we discussed the matter at the SADC summit in Malawi, one of the decisions we took was that this item, bearing in mind the 1997 decision to which the hon member referred, should be a regular part of the agenda of both the ministerial and the presidential head-of-state meetings. That would mean that on a biannual and annual basis, we will get a consistent review of the progress that is being made with regard to the fulfilment of our obligation to change the situation in the manner that the hon member indicated. So, indeed, in this region we are very much seized by this issue. I am quite sure that she is correct when she says that that spirit is regional. We need to communicate that view to the rest of the continent as well.

There is cynicism and scepticism, and I am sure there will be. It is part of the political shacks that the hon Marthinus van Schalkwyk talked about. Some of our people are accustomed to that particular shack of Afro- pessimism, of sceptism, of cynicism, of believing that nothing right can come out of this continent. There are people who occupy that shack, but we have done enough for ourselves, even just in this country, to know that they are wrong. They were sceptical and cynical about us here, but our people have proved them wrong. They are wrong about the future of the continent, and the continent will prove them wrong. [Applause.]

It is true, as the Deputy Minister of Finance said, that we do not have the luxury of time. As we conclude this important discussion, all of us should make a commitment that because we do not have the luxury of time, we will do the things that we have to do, inspired by a spirit of urgency.

Clearly, what we as the executive must do is communicate to Parliament what we are doing with regard to both of these issues at the African Union and the new partnership, so that Parliament can have a look at what it needs to do with regard to both programmes. I also think that it surely must be a responsibility of members of Parliament of both Houses, as they go out to the people, also to focus on this matter. This is because we want the ordinary people of our country to know about these things and to engage in them. What is visualised is such an enormous process of change on our continent that it cannot happen above the heads of the people.

So I would like to think that this is a task that members of Parliament would want to carry forward in their interactions with our people. But what we clearly have to do is work very hard and very consistently, because the victory, which we know is assured, we also know will not come easily.

Finally, let me say that I was very pleased to be in the House today, because I think I have heard a statement made today of which there has been no equal in our country, in my view, since 1994. I refer to the statement made by the hon Marthinus van Schalkwyk. It is kinder, it is honest, it has a sense of direction, and it shows commitment to a common future and a common destiny. I think it is a message that all of us should take with us and that all of us should be inspired by, because that, indeed, is the only way to go. [Applause.]

Debate concluded.

The Joint Sitting rose at 18:19.