THURSDAY, 15 FEBRUARY 2001 __

                PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY
                                ____

The House met at 14:02.

The Speaker took the Chair and requested members to observe a moment of silence for prayers or meditation.

ANNOUNCEMENTS, TABLINGS AND COMMITTEE REPORTS - see col 000.

               WELCOMING OF SOUTH AFRICAN AMBASSADORS

The SPEAKER: Order! Before calling on the President, I wish to acknowledge the presence in the gallery of South Africa’s ambassadors, almost all of them overseas.

We welcome you. [Applause.]

                         PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS

          (Resumption of Debate on Subject for Discussion)

The PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC: Madam Speaker, Deputy President, hon members, your Excellencies Ambassadors and High Commissioners, one of the major events in the global political calendar last year was the UN Millennium Assembly.

As the House is aware, this Assembly adopted an important millennium declaration. We participated in the preparation of this declaration, as well as its adoption. Accordingly we made a commitment to strive for the realisation of the objectives contained in that declaration.

One of these objectives relates to the issue of poverty. In this regard the millennium declaration said that we would spare no effort to free our fellow men, women and children from the abject and dehumanising conditions of extreme poverty to which more than a billion of them are currently subjected.

We are committed to making the right to development a reality for everyone, and to freeing the entire human race from want. We resolve, therefore, to create an environment at the national and global levels alike, which is conducive to development and to the elimination of poverty.

We resolve further to halve, by the year 1015, the proportion of the world’s people whose income is less than $1 a day, and the proportion of people who suffer from hunger. By the same date, we resolve to halve the proportion of people who are unable to reach or to afford safe drinking water. We must also take note of the fact that the declaration includes a special section on Africa which commits the world community to the following:

… to take special measures to address the challenges of poverty eradication and sustainable development in Africa, including debt cancellation, improved market access, enhanced official development assistance and increased flows of foreign direct investment, as well as transfers of technology.

For its part, the Human Development Report 2000 of the UN Development Programme said:

The 1995 South African Participatory Poverty Assessment described the reality behind the statistics. It reported that millions of citizens are plagued by continuous ill-health, experience extraordinary levels of anxiety and stress - and the accompanying realities of violence and abuse vented mainly on women and children - and perform harsh and dangerous work for low incomes. There is pervasive demoralisation and fatalism. A sense of hopelessness and an inability to alter the conditions of life is a defining feature. Yet all this is matched by the courage and perseverance with which South Africa’s poor attempt to hold these ravages at bay.

This report was absolutely correct to draw attention to the fact that poverty is not only expressed in a shortage of food, shelter and clothing, but also in ill-health, high levels of anxiety and stress, the prevalence of a spirit of disempowerment and hopelessness, high levels of crime, including violence among the poor themselves, especially against women and children, in many instances accompanied by substance abuse, the further entrenchment of discrimination against women, destructive ignorance and superstition, and the destruction and denial of the human dignity of millions of people.

I would like to thank those members of the National Assembly who focused their comments on or integrated in their interventions the centrally important issue of the fight against poverty. The majority of our people are poor, a significant minority among them very poor. As members of the House have said, we cannot speak of the new South Africa if we fail to deal with the urgent challenge of poverty.

If we are to speak of important matters on the national agenda and of matters that are of pressing concern to the greatest numbers of our people, the elimination of poverty and the racial and gender disparities that continue to characterise our society occupy pride of place. If we are to speak of matters that must continue to take pride of place in all the programmes of the Government, then the restoration of the human dignity of the majority of our people, and thereby the eradication of poverty, racial and gender imbalances and inequalities, constitute those matters. The Government’s programme for 2001 that we announced in the state-of-the- nation address and the more detailed programmes the hon Ministers have communicated to the country during the last few days through the media, are all focused on this matter. We need a larger economic growth at high rates to be able to generate the material resources that would enable our country to meet the needs of the people. We need to introduce the ways and means by which this economy will develop in a manner that enables it to absorb those who are unemployed, as well as the new entrants into the labour market.

The realisation of these objectives requires that we achieve much higher levels of new public and private investment into the economy than we have achieved thus far. The Government has made its commitment towards the accomplishment of this goal and will proceed to implement the investment plans we have outlined, including those that will be implemented by the state corporations. The hon the Minister of Finance will also address this matter when he presents the Budget next week.

The job-creating growth to which we are committed also requires that we pay particular attention to the development of small, medium and micro enterprises. The Government is determined to assist in making capital available for investment in these sectors of business and will, therefore, act on this matter. The growth of our economy also depends on its competitiveness. We will, therefore, implement the measures that are within our means to contribute to such competitiveness, including reducing input costs, of which we spoke, and increasing labour productivity through the vigorous implementation of the Human Resource Development Programme.

We renew our call to business and organised labour to respond positively to these initiatives, so that through united action we can expedite our advance towards the eradication of poverty in our country, raising our level of development and restoring the dignity of all our citizens. Similarly, the Government will continue to intensify its work directed at improving the quality of life of our people in other ways.

Accordingly, the implementation of our rural development and urban renewal programmes will take place. Through these programmes we aim to reach the very poor in our country who are in most need of the basic necessities of life. We have to contend with the most abject poverty, paying particular attention to women, youth and the disabled. It is not the intention of these programmes to distribute welfare handouts, but to help generate sustainable development that will help the affected people out of endemic poverty and entrenched underdevelopment permanently.

The Government recognises the fact that in the short to medium term many people will still not be able to enter the labour market and economy as income earners. These will continue to require direct Government assistance to alleviate the impact of poverty. It is for this reason that we will, as we have already announced, work to expand the social security net, bearing in mind what the economy can afford and the need for us to achieve the correct balances between social and economic spending.

This year, Statistics South Africa will conduct a new population census for

1. This important exercise will help us once again to gain a more accurate and up-to-date picture of our reality. I appeal to all our people and institutions to co-operate fully with Statistics SA to facilitate the successful conclusion of the vital and necessary work it has to do.

The hon Ministers working in the criminal justice cluster have more than adequately addressed the issue of safety and security which, as we have already said, is fundamental to the better quality of life for all which we all seek to achieve. As the masses of our people have grown accustomed to the fact that we now have a democratic state and Government and no longer an apartheid state and government, to which they were naturally hostile and from which they were alienated, their participation in determining their destiny has increased. We must encourage this trend.

In this regard, a special responsibility rest on the shoulders of the political parties. Among other things, we must encourage the people to take an even more active part in the community police forum and urge them to continue communicating with the law enforcement agencies and other organs of state with any information they may have on corrupt and criminal misconduct. As some members of the National Assembly have said, we must all work to mobilise the masses of our people to be involved in all of these programmes of social upliftment.

The political parties in particular and other mass-based formations will have to make a special effort to help develop a veritable mass movement for development and change to speed up the process towards the eradication of poverty. Again, we appeal to those who have skills and other resources that they can bring to support the efforts of this movement and to notify especially their municipal governments of their availability to work for change.

Everything points to the need for us to continue to focus on the challenge of youth development. All the programmes that we have announced will concentrate on the youth, among others. In addition, during this year of the 25th anniversary of the Soweto uprising, the Presidency, the National Youth Commission, Ministries and Departments of Sports and Recreation, Arts and Culture and Education will co-operate to develop programmes to draw larger numbers of our youth into sports and cultural activities, including those directed at the promotion of traditional culture and sports.

These programmes should also enable us to take the necessary steps to bring up our youth in the context of a new value system aimed at ensuring that they grow up to be good and responsible citizens. Clearly, youth organisations will be critical to the success of this programme as they will have to mobilise and inspire the youth to get involved in what should be an act of self-development. The legislation enabling the establishment of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission empowers the President by proclamation in the Gazette to reconvene the Commission for the purpose of completing its final report after the Committee on Amnesty has completed its work. It is expected that the Committee on Amnesty will complete its work next month. This will enable the Committee on Reparation and Rehabilitation and the TRC itself to prepare their final reports. This will also enable the Government to complete its own work on the complex issue of final reparations. In the meantime, we will continue to meet our obligations with regard to interim reparations as we have done.

I would also like to take this opportunity, once more, to pay tribute to our SA National Defence Force for the valuable work it continues to carry out at home and abroad. At home it has continued to play a significant role in the fight against crime. As I speak, it is also involved in humanitarian work relating to India and Mozambique, helping to deliver relief in the aftermath of the earthquake and the renewed floods in these two countries respectively. Our other military personnel serve in peacekeeping operations of the United Nations in other parts of Africa and will be increasingly involved in these operations. Hon members may be aware of the announcement made this morning concerning Anglo American PLC and De Beers. In this regard I would like to thank the chairperson of De Beers Mr Nicholas Oppenheimer, and other leaders of De Beers and Anglo American, for their courtesy in discussing this major corporate restructuring with us ahead of its finalisation. An important result of this transaction for our country and economy will be the immediate flow into South Africa of foreign currency estimated at $2,8 billion or about R21,8 billion. I would like to express our sincere appreciation for the confidence in the new South Africa demonstrated by a group and a family that have played a major role in our country’s economic growth and development for more than a century. [Applause.]

One of our daughters and mothers, Miriam Makeba, has in reality become a citizen of the world. She has distinguished herself on our continent and beyond as one of the most well-known and beloved musicians and personalities of our era. During her period in exile, she made valuable friends and became internationally recognised for her music. She has not only been active in the music and political arena, but has made valuable contributions to and has been recognised for her work in the social, cultural and humanitarian fields. Her fearless humanitarianism earned her the Dag Hammarskjold Peace Prize in 1986. The ordinary people of our continent gave her the title ``Mama Africa’’. As we strengthen our bonds of friendship and solidarity with our fellow Africans and reinforce our work in this regard, I am pleased to announce that I have appointed Mama Africa, Miriam Makeba, as South Africa’s Goodwill Ambassador to Africa. [Applause.]

Ahead of us is an exciting period of our country’s renaissance. It will be marked by our steady advance towards the elimination of poverty, rather than the expanding pauperisation of the majority that has been one of the distinguishing features of our country for 300 years. It will be distinguished by the recovery of the identity and pride of the millions of Africans that colonialism and apartheid sought to transform into a depersonalised mass of disposable commodities. It will experience the flowering of all our diverse cultures and languages without antagonism among them, which constitute essential building blocks towards the formation of a South African nation and identity.

We will be involved in the creation of a situation in which an African people will contribute something of great value to the rest of the world, a nonracial society whose racial and cultural diversity will serve as a factor of strength and enrichment rather than one of division and conflict. The day will dawn when we as Africans will, as all our people desire, restore the situation that obtained at periods now dimmed by the mists of time, when Africans were in the vanguard of the advance toward higher levels of civilisation.

Poor as they were, uneducated as they were, barefoot and poorly clothed, and while the theoreticians argued, on the the one hand this on the other hand that, the masses of our people carried the burden of our struggle for democracy, peace, nonracism, nonsexism and prosperity. I know it as a matter of fact that these great masses will join the historic struggle in which we are engaged for fundamental change and development.

The political leadership gathered in this House will have to take its own decision as to whether it will lead or follow these masses. The faint- hearted and cynical will mock the strivings of the people, because they do not want to join in the offensive to make a decisive break with our past. What we would say in Setswana is: ``Se sa feleng se a tlhola.’’ [That which does not come to an end, is taboo.] [Applause.]

‘n Donker gat verslind sterrestelsels. [A black hole swallows up galaxies.]

I thank the hon members for their participation and debate, as well as their attention. [Applause.]

Debate concluded.

The House adjourned at 14:21. ____

            ANNOUNCEMENTS, TABLINGS AND COMMITTEE REPORTS

TABLINGS:

National Assembly and National Council of Provinces:

Papers:

1. The Speaker and the Chairperson:

 Reports of the Auditor-General on the -


 (a)    Financial Statements of the Foundation for Education, Science
     and Technology for 1998-99 [RP 198-2000].


 (b)    Financial Statements of the King George V Silver Jubilee Fund
     for Tuberculosis for 1999-2000 [RP 199-2000].

1. The Minister of Home Affairs:

 Government Notice No 938 published in Government Gazette No 21573 dated
 15 September 2000, Regulation 19: Transitional Arrangements, made in
 terms of section 38 of the Refugees Act, 1998 (Act No 130 of 1998).