TUESDAY, 18 JUNE 2002 __

                PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY
                                ____

The House met at 14:04.

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.

The SPEAKER: Order! Mr President, in my absence, I was unable to join in the sentiments expressed by the House, but may I please be associated with them and also wish you a very happy birthday.

The MINISTER OF FINANCE: You may sing a song now, Madam Speaker! [Laughter.]

The SPEAKER: I will, on another occasion, Mr Manuel, when you increase this budget by a few hundred per cent! [Laughter.] Order! By agreement, there will be no notices of motion today.

                      SUSPENSION OF RULE 253(1)

                         (Draft Resolution)

The CHIEF WHIP OF THE MAJORITY PARTY: Madam Speaker, I move the resolution as it stands in my name:

That Rule 253(1) be suspended for the purposes of conducting the Second Reading debate on the Financial Advisory and Intermediary Services Bill [B 52B - 2001] (National Assembly - sec 75).

Agreed to.

                         APPROPRIATION BILL

Debate on Vote No 1 - The Presidency.

The PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC: Madam Speaker, hon Deputy President, hon Ministers and Deputy Ministers, hon members and fellow South Africans, I have today instructed that the statement ``Life begins at 60’’ should be gazetted. [Laughter.] [Applause.]

This is, in particular, to spike the guns of the Leader of the Official Opposition, Tony Leon, who, as the House knows, is only 27 years old! [Laughter.]

I thank you very much, Madam Speaker, for this opportunity to address Parliament on the occasion of this Budget Vote. As we know, the Deputy President will also address the House on a number of important issues that he deals with more directly, including central matters of moral regeneration, issues relating to the legislatures, the Government’s partnership with other sectors of our society on questions of health, including Aids, and various elements of our international work.

The Minister in the Presidency will address the House on our programmes relating to the situation and rights of people with disabilities, the promotion of gender equality, the rights of children and issues of the youth.

This budget debate takes place during the middle of a year that we had proposed should be characterised by the common effort of all South Africans to find ways and means by which they can lend a hand in the national effort to push back the frontiers of poverty and expand access to a better life for all.

We are pleased to note that many of our people have responded to this call. Tens of thousands have volunteered their time to help the police, people with disabilities and the aged, to clean and paint schools and, in other words, to give practical meaning to the call Vuk'uZenzele''. I am certain that this popular response puts an additional responsibility on all of us, including our public representatives as well as our public servants, to occupy the front line and lead by example in our constituencies, other work and official responsibilities, always guided by our motto of Batho Pele’’.

As in the past, the current financial year has seen some important positive developments in the functioning of Government as a whole, focused on improving the system of governance and its capacity to serve the people of our country.

There is no doubt that we have been able to achieve these improvements because of the selfless dedication of many men and women in the public and private sectors. We would like, therefore, to extend a word of appreciation to these hard-working South Africans whose efforts will surely bring about radical transformation in the lives of millions of South Africans, transformation to which we are all committed.

These improvements are also, to a large extent, the outcome of partnerships between Government, the private sector, civil society, individuals and companies from the international community. As hon members know, the Presidency engages different sectors of our society to strategise, plan and share ideas on the best possible ways of lending a hand in the national effort to push back the frontiers of poverty and expand access to a better life.

These engagements include ongoing meetings with the Big Business Working Group, the Black Business Working Group, the Agricultural Working Group, the Trade Union Working Group and the forum with national religious leaders. Our interaction with people representing these important sectors of our society has led to greater understanding and appreciation of the challenges we all face, and the need for all South Africans to act together in constructive partnerships that work to find answers to the challenges that we face. Both our youth and the leaders of our academic institutions have requested that similar working groups be set up with them, and steps will therefore be taken to respond positively to this request.

As we have said in the past, in addition to the local partnerships, we are privileged to draw on the advice and wisdom of members of the International Investment Council and the Presidential International Advisory Council on Information, Society and Development.

At the intergovernmental level, to give effect to the principle of co- operative governance, we, of course, have the Presidential Co-ordinating Council, consisting of the Presidency, all the premiers, the South African Local Government Association and the Ministers of provincial and local governments.

The improved co-ordination between the different spheres of government, as well as among various departments, has brought about better policy alignment and proper collaboration on the delivery of projects. This has also brought about many positive results that include the more efficient management of budgets, as well as faster implementation of programmes and an improvement in the quality of outcomes of government work.

However, we are not blind to the fact that we still receive persistent reports about serious deficiencies in some of our provinces, covering areas such as education and health. New interventions in this regard are necessary, and will be made. At the same time, we will continue to focus on improving capacity at the local government level.

One of the urgent tasks facing all spheres of government is to build an efficient and effective Public Service that will deliver on the targets that are necessary for the transformation of our society. As hon members know, this challenge has faced us for a considerable period of time.

We have to deal with the inherent limitations on the structure of the Public Service, particularly the skewed deployment of resources, insufficient training in certain key delivery areas, lack of mobility of personnel and other related problems. We have to embark on a transformation process that provides, among others, for the following: The retraining and reskilling of personnel; better utilisation of scarce resources; equitable distribution and deployment of personnel throughout the Public Service and in all parts of the country; effective co-operation between social partners on the implementation of key transformation initiatives, and an unrelenting focus on the issue of corruption within the Public Service.

We are happy that the majority of the public sector unions have now signed the transformation and restructuring agreement negotiated with the Ministry and Department for the Public Service and Administration. We hope that everybody will work to ensure that the implementation of this agreement proceeds smoothly and that the benefits accrue to all the citizens of our country. As part of our commitment to improving the efficiency of our work, the heads of departments and senior managers in the Public Service have been reorganising their work to ensure an integrated approach to governance to improve service delivery, both quantitatively and qualitatively.

Work is proceeding under the leadership of Statistics South Africa to develop integrated performance indicators to improve the effectiveness of our monitoring systems. We are therefore considering including integrated planning, budgeting and implementation in this area of performance contracts for heads of departments to make certain that this important aspect of our governance is not reduced to an optional extra.

As before, the Presidency has to discharge its functions of leadership, oversight and management, co-ordination, mediation of conflicting policy thrusts, as well as monitoring of delivery. Like the Presidential Review Commission, the Government is of the view that the Presidency requires more capacity to carry out these tasks effectively. In this regard, we have assigned the chief executive officer of the GCIS, Mr Joel Netshitenzhe, the extra responsibility of heading the policy unit so as to enhance its strategic planning capacity. At the end of his contract at Home Affairs, we will also be redeploying Director-General Billy Masethla to the Presidency to reinforce our work in the areas covering security and the criminal justice system. [Applause.] We will continue to find ways of ensuring that we bring on board qualitative improvements so that we can serve our citizens better.

A feature of Government has been the regular interaction with ordinary people so that communities have an opportunity to express their views on matters affecting their lives. Clearly, this has been an enriching and learning experience for both Government and the people, and has reinforced the level of commitment to a strong popular partnership for change. The Imbizo campaign, which has so far taken us to three provinces, has deepened the relationship between Government and the people in the conceptualisation and implementation of development projects and in improvements in service delivery. Through these regular interactions, we come closer to the realisation of the idea that the people shall govern. The Imbizo process has brought to the fore the immense goodwill that exists amongst our people, and emphasised the critical need constantly to engage them about how best to meet their needs. It is necessary for all spheres of government continuously to assess whether they are delivering an effective service to the people, and how further to ensure the firm participation of ordinary people in the improvement of their lives. We also have a pressing responsibility to enhance the performance of our economy. It is important that we continue with our interventions that are aimed both at maintaining healthy macroeconomic balances and improving the impact of our microeconomic reforms. Although we are still confronted by many challenges to ensure that we increase the growth and development of our economy, there is positive news that should be used to propel our economy to even greater heights. South Africa’s GDP growth figure for the first quarter of 2002 was 2,2 %, just above the market expectations. We have one of the most liquid emerging bond markets in the world. Real unit labour cost has declined by an average of 1,8% per annum, while this has increased by 1,5% in the OECD countries. The share of manufacturing in our exports has continued to increase, with high-technology products taking an ever-increasing share in these exports. The excellent performance of our manufacturing sector, for instance, resulted in the Rosslyn plant of BMW winning the European Gold Plant Quality Award, beating all automobile plants in Europe and the rest of the world. [Applause.]

Improvements in the economy and in revenue collection also made it possible for us to cut personal income tax by R8,3 billion this year. I would like to take this opportunity to salute both our businesspeople and workers for what they have done to help us produce these results. [Applause.] We are committed to working together with them in a constructive partnership that must create the wealth we need to defeat the poverty and underdevelopment that continues to afflict millions of our people.

The next big challenge we all face is to ensure that the projected Growth and Development Summit succeeds in its goals. It is necessary that we speed up our preparatory work in this regard. This must also encompass the important areas of black economic empowerment, small and medium business, micro-lending and skills development. Greater confidence, stability, certainty and accelerated growth will surely be achieved as a result of a shared economic vision among all stakeholders, reinforced by specific agreements on the concrete contributions that each stakeholder brings towards the realisation of this vision.

Although Minister Pahad will deal in detail with matters relating to the youth, I would like to make a few remarks on this important sector of our population. We address this House during an important month on our calendar. The first of June was International Children’s Day. This year there were many activities in various parts of our country, with many people from different areas of life celebrating this important day and affording children the possibility of articulating their views and concerns about many matters that they face on a daily basis.

We would like to thank all the individuals and organisations that organised the various events that involved the children. The Presidency, led by the Office on the Status of Children, hosted about 50 children at the Union Buildings, coming from different schools in the Gauteng Province, representing diverse backgrounds and including some with disabilities. While this interaction with these future leaders of our country was to mark International Children’s Day, it was also in part a response to a request from one of these children for the President to visit his school where, as this young boy said, they engaged in political discussions and would have liked to meet the President to discuss many issues that they thought were important to them. The children that came to the Union Buildings demonstrated a good understanding of the challenges they face, with some of these children asking for interventions to ensure that schools that do not have toilets, running water and feeding schemes are assisted to have these basic essential services.

Two days ago we marked National Youth Day in the Free State Province and again interacted with our young people through the national broadcaster, the SABC, as we commemorated the June 16 uprisings. These engagements have conveyed a recurrent message, which says that there are many among the young people of our country who stand ready to make a real contribution towards the building of a democratic, peaceful and prosperous South African nation, free from the poverty, racism and sexism that have characterised our society for too long.

Through our programmes and actions, members of our legislatures who are elected representatives of our people, may want strongly to support these young people as they seek to position themselves as active participants in the transformation process, not as whites or blacks, but as proud South Africans. As we know, the youth of our country were central to the defeat of apartheid.

Today, the challenges facing young people are different from those faced by their predecessors. The youth of today face a new enemy. This enemy, which faces all of us, is poverty, including underdevelopment, illiteracy and lack of skills. Arising from this come the challenges of drugs and gangsterism. In this regard, we clearly have to pay even closer attention to the calls of the youth on the Cape Flats to assist their communities in ridding themselves of the twin problems of drug abuse and gangsters. We should also strengthen the hand of the National Youth Commission to improve its capacity to lead the youth in engaging the new challenges.

We are pleased that the Umsobomvu Fund is already carrying out various activities aimed at empowering young people, which include providing information and counselling support to young people regarding careers, employment and entrepreneurship. In addition, there are programmes for matric and tertiary level graduates relating to youth entrepreneurship which, among others, deal with funding for microenterprises and small and medium business. We would also like to commend the National Youth Commission which, in response to the Year of the Volunteer, has mobilised young people to make themselves available to government departments, offering their services to take care of our mature citizens, people with disabilities and those suffering from Aids and other debilitating diseases.

The fact that this programme, Letsema, the Youth Volunteer Corps for Sustainable Development, has already attracted over 80 000 volunteers demonstrates that our youth are ready and able to lend a hand to push back the frontiers of poverty and expand access to a better life. [Applause.] Some of these volunteers will participate in the campaign to register children who are entitled to receive the child support grant, which was launched during Child Protection Week and which aims to reach 3 million children by the year 2005. They will also participate in reaching the pensioners who should benefit from the R2 billion made available to meet the backpay shortfalls we spoke of when we opened Parliament.

We were also happy to have participated, during the course of this month, in welcoming back Mark Shuttleworth, one of our young enterprising entrepreneurs whose actions and projects, I am confident, inspire our youth and will further encourage them to pursue and excel in mathematics and science. Clearly, we will all agree that we have a duty and responsibility to assist our young people to grow up in a South Africa that is free of racism, free of prejudices, a country that cherishes, nourishes and celebrates the good common qualities of all her people, rather than allow itself to be infected with the negatives that we find in our society.

Indeed, we have the pressing duty to confront all the negative attitudes and actions of some among our people, which subtract rather than add to our collective effort to build a truly nonracial, nonsexist democracy, in line with the principles enshrined in our Constitution. This is important because, notwithstanding the divisions and tragedies of our unfortunate past, as South Africans, we hold many things in common, not least the reality of our shared destiny.

Two days ago, on Youth Day, we dedicated a site in the Tshwane municipal area which will be the home of our principal national monument, the Freedom Park. Through Freedom Park, we will honour and celebrate human achievements and development in all the different areas of life. We speak here of freedom in a holistic sense - freedom from the adverse impact of nature; freedom brought about through socioeconomic progress and technological advancement and spiritual freedom as expressed, for example, in the creative arts and literature, as well as political freedom. Through Freedom Park, we will relate the South African story in its totality. We will showcase our country as part of a continent that is a dynamic and an exceptionally fecund entity that is home to some abundant and rich fossil evidence of the evolution of the earth, life and humanity.

Freedom Park will, therefore, be a narrative of the importance of South Africa in the long history of the evolution and development of our planet to which our country and the rest of our continent have been exposed through the millenia.

It will relate the story of human evolution, migration and homecoming of some these human beings and the conflicts and wars occasioned by some of these earlier contacts, as well as events leading to the freedom of all South Africans, black and white, and the new challenges of building a united but diverse nation.

Freedom Park will also make an important contribution to the goal of responding to the call made by the TRC for the provision of what it described as symbolic reparations.

We have an ongoing challenge, not only of building a new nation, but of uniting behind common symbols as well as determining the unique characteristics that fully describe us as South Africans. Obviously, we are all united behind our national anthem, flag and coat of arms.

Further, as part of this process of creating a unique and unifying South African personality, we unveiled new national orders during the Freedom Day celebrations. These are the Order of Mapungubwe, which celebrates the ancient kingdom of Mapungubwe and will be awarded to South Africans citizens for excellence and exceptional achievement; the Order of the Baobab, which will be awarded to citizens for distinguished service to the people well above and beyond the call of duty; and the Order of the Companions of O R Tambo, which will be awarded to heads of state and other international personalities for peace, co-operation and friendship towards South Africa. Further considerations will be given to additional national orders.

It is our collective duty, I believe, which includes members of our legislatures, to ensure that we popularise our national symbols and, through these activities, simultaneously begin to define a new South African identity.

Government is still awaiting the final report of the TRC, which will further help with the process of healing the wounds inflicted on all of us by colonialism and apartheid. The report should also strengthen our efforts of building a single South African nation.

I was very pleased two days ago to participate in a ceremony in Bloemfontein of the renaming of Bloemfontein City Hall as the Bram Fisher Building. [Applause.]

The launch of Freedom Park, the unveiling the new national orders, together with the work of the TRC, should be seen as important building blocks of our united but diverse nation.

In February this year, we held the third meeting of the International Investment Council. Apart from welcoming South Africa’s achievements in the macroeconomy, council members expressed satisfaction with regard to the progress made in starting to address the microeconomic constraints to growth, which had been discussed at earlier meetings.

One of the critical issues raised by the council members was a question we have mentioned in this House. This is the matter of negativity amongst some of us, and the negative image about our country being communicated to the rest of the world by a few of our compatriots. These council members, who are not South African, were deeply concerned and puzzled as to why some South Africans seem so keen to do great harm to their own country.

One of the challenges, therefore, is for all of us to work together, irrespective of our political parties, to project the many good attributes of our country and people, as well as the positive developments that are taking place every day in South Africa. Therefore, we would like to thank the International Marketing Council, as well as those who lead the Proudly South African campaign, for consistently working on positive messages and engaging different sectors of both South African society and the international community about the good things that are, indeed, happening in our country. We have already briefed Parliament about the New Partnership for Africa’s Development. The Presidency, together with other departments, has provided some of the ideas, support systems, personnel as well as financial resources for the development of Nepad. My economic advisor, Prof Wiseman Nkuhlu, has been deployed full-time to lead the continental steering committee of Nepad and its secretariat, which is now housed at the premises of the Development Bank of Southern Africa. Three senior posts and three support staff for this programme are on the establishment of the Presidency as part of the contribution of our Government to Nepad.

I would like to thank Prof Nkuhlu and all those who have supported him for their dedication, commitment and hard work to ensure that Nepad becomes a reality. [Applause.] Indeed, Professor Nkuhlu has made us proud internationally by the manner in which he has driven this vision and programme.

We are committing all these resources because we want Nepad to succeed. Furthermore, while the relations with the countries of the north are important, this new partnership will succeed only if there is strong co- operation amongst the African countries and Africans themselves who must assume the centre stage with regard to strengthening the partnership amongst themselves and by continuing to own both the vision and the programmes of Nepad.

In this regard we are, indeed, very pleased that some of our parastatals and private companies are already torchbearers in initiating projects that will ensure the regeneration of our continent.

About two weeks ago, we launched an undersea fibre-optic cable project that is spearheaded by Telkom as part of our efforts to promote connectivity between Africa and the rest of the world. This project will link Asia, Africa and Europe, via South Africa, with landing points in 14 countries in West and Southern Africa, and will have the capacity to handle 5,8 million simultaneous telephone calls between Africa and Europe, and 6,2 million calls between Africa and Asia. [Applause.] This will bring to an end an abnormal situation whereby, for Africans to phone one another, even connecting to neighbouring countries, the calls have to be routed via one of the former European colonial countries.

The project will provide West, Southern and Central African countries with direct access to one another. It is hoped that East Africa will also be connected at a later stage. Currently, R3 billion flows annually out of the continent in revenues to Europe for calls made on the African continent.

The new cable project will reduce costs, improve connectivity and reliability and increase the capacity - all of which are necessary to achieve Nepad’s telecommunication objectives in Africa.

In addition, the energy parastatal, Eskom, is also engaged in the important work of building an electricity grid between the West African states of Senegal, Mauritania, Mali and Niger, as well as power generation and distribution in the east of the continent in Uganda and Tanzania, which will drastically improve the quality of lives of many Africans.

Sasol is also engaged in the important Mozambique-South Africa gas project that will increase Mozambique’s GDP by 20%. [Applause.] We have also seen leading South African financial, mining, telecommunication and other companies establishing businesses in a number of African countries. All these projects demonstrate that Africa can radically renew the lives of its people through partnerships between African countries, as well as between the public and private sectors.

Therefore, we are saying that, in this new partnership, the collaboration between and amongst the African countries and businesses is central to our success. Of course, this does not mean we do not value our partnership with the developed world. The fact of the matter is that these countries have large volumes of capital and other resources that we need for the renaissance of our continent. It is in this context that, next week, we will continue our engagement with the G-8 countries. We are certain that this engagement will produce positive results. We are also greatly encouraged that the major international NGOs support Nepad. Arrangements are being made to meet these NGOs during our visit to Canada.

At the beginning of July, we will transform the OAU into the African Union. South Africa will have the honour of hosting the first meeting of the AU, as well as chairing this important African organisation for a year. This places a particular responsibility on all of us, because we have to ensure that the African Union starts off on a sound and correct footing.

Parliament is already seized with this matter with its special committee dealing with various elements provided for in the Constitutive Act of the African Union. We will need closer collaboration so that, as South African public representatives, we move in the same direction that will assist all of us to reach the required goal of enhanced continental co-operation and unity.

Again, in August and September this year, as the House knows, we will be hosting the World Summit on Sustainable Development. Members will be aware that the Ministerial Preparatory Conference held recently in Bali, Indonesia, made significant progress towards reaching consensus on what should underpin sustainable development.

However, many issues remain outstanding. We have to find ways and means of linking the decisions taken at the Monterey Financing for Development Conference in Mexico to the outcomes of the Johannesburg summit.

The matter of the circumstances under which countries should have common but differentiated responsibilities also remains outstanding. The failure to find consensus in Bali on some of these issues places increased responsibilities on ourselves as the chairperson of the World Summit for Sustainable Development to ensure that a basis for agreement is developed between now and September. We will be starting a process of consultation with the major groupings in the UN system to explore the possibility of finding that consensus.

We will shortly be visiting Brazil to attend the ceremony to mark the official handover of the World Summit for Sustainable Development torch to South Africa. We have recently returned from the World Food Summit in Rome, where we sought to address the growing challenge of lack of food security in the world. Indeed, this is part of our struggle against global poverty and underdevelopment.

One of our objectives as a country is to make whatever contribution we can to ensure peace and stability on our continent. As the hon members are aware, we recently hosted the Inter-Congolese Dialogue at Sun City in the North West to assist the DRC to achieve lasting peace. The Minister of Foreign Affairs has already reported on this matter.

We continue to engage different players in the Congolese conflict, and are confident that, sooner rather than later, the people of the DRC will achieve all the goals they set themselves during the Inter-Congolese Dialogue. We will make a short visit to Kinshasa later this month to pursue these goals.

Last month we visited the Comoros to attend the inauguration of a democratically elected president. South Africa was asked by the OAU to head a regional initiative to assist that country to return to democracy after a military coup and the challenge of secession.

As an African collective we had to resolve the situation in that country because, in reality, the problems that face the Comoros are the same as those afflicting some of the countries on our continent. These include military coups, a struggle over scarce resources and fragmentation.

By addressing these problems and assisting in the preparation and holding of elections, Africa has demonstrated that it is possible to overcome what may seem to be intractable obstacles to democracy and stability on our continent. Obviously, this experience will assist us as we deal with similar situations elsewhere.

The Deputy President together with former President Mandela, has been involved in efforts to stabilise the situation in Burundi and assist our fellow Africans in that country to achieve democracy. The Government will continue to support these efforts.

We are honoured to have contributed whatever we could to the efforts our neighbours in Lesotho made to return to democracy. As we know, this, unfortunately, entailed the death of members of our National Defence Force. We hope and trust that the instability that has characterised Lesotho previously is now a thing of the past.

We are also encouraged by the prospect of a lasting peace in Angola. We hope that the people of that country, who have never known peace in more than four decades, will, at last, be spared the indecencies of war that have defined their lives for such a long time. We stand ready to assist in whatever ways possible so that together we can embark on an important course of economic recovery and development. At the request of the government of Angola, urgent steps are also being taken to meet the humanitarian needs of people who are gathered at assembly points from areas previously controlled by Unita.

President Obasanjo of Nigeria and I have assigned special envoys to help the people of Zimbabwe achieve unity and national reconciliation. We dealt with this and other matters relating to Zimbabwe when we answered questions in this House last month. Suffice it to say that we remain convinced that the solutions to the problems of Zimbabwe rest with the leadership of Zimbabwe, with reference to both the ruling party and the opposition. We hope that this leadership will live up to its responsibilities to its own people and the peoples of our region and the rest of Africa.

All these activities that we are engaged in are important if we are to achieve the goal of the renaissance of our continent. We have no choice but to pursue them consistently and persistently until we create a continent free of conflicts, of wars, of instability and of poverty. We would urge all South Africans to join the historic partnership for the renewal of our continent.

In this regard, I would like to pay tribute to this Parliament for the role it has played and is playing to contribute to the common effort. Both at home and in other parts of the continent, we are engaged in all of these processes as part of the effort to lend a hand to push back the frontiers of poverty and expand access to a better life.

Given the enormous challenges facing us when we attained our freedom in 1994, many of us would not have imagined a South Africa that would have resolved the internecine conflicts and violence among her people by now - a country whose democracy matures with each passing day, a nation that slowly but surely overcomes a terrible past, and a people united and strengthened by their diversity.

Some would have thought that we were mere dreamers two years ago when we articulated not only the need for the renaissance of the sleeping giant of a continent, but called on all of us to make this the African century. Few would ever have imagined the reality of Africans, both on the continent and in the diaspora, forming a determined force that refuses to be conditioned by circumstance any longer, no longer prisoners of history.

Yesterday we were privileged to spend some time with an eminent group of African experts and academics in Pretoria, coming from all parts of our continent, full of ideas, energy and enthusiasm to see the new revolution represented by the African Union and Nepad, transforming our continent and ensuring that Africans occupy their proper place among the peoples of the world. I am certain that these African patriots will add enormous value to our forward march in the complex struggle for the renaissance of our continent.

Next week we will address the G8 countries, not seeking a subservient and junior role, but creating a genuine partnership based on equality and respect for mutual benefit. We are pleased that we will participate in this meeting, coming from a country whose people have demonstrated the will to succeed, whatever the difficulties.

All our people deserve sincere thanks for all their efforts. Through our hard work and through our commitment, I am certain that we will continue to amaze both ourselves and the rest of the world. [Applause.]

Finally, I would like to congratulate an outstanding South African, Mosibudi Mangena, for his re-election as leader of his political party, Azapo. [Applause.]

The LEADER OF THE OPPOSITION: Madam Speaker, firstly, allow me to wish the hon the President a very happy 60th birthday, and to thank him for his generous shaving of eighteen years off my age. It is very welcome since I feel about a hundred years old these days! [Laughter.]

In a short time, the hon the President will go, as he indicated, to the G8 meeting in Canada to present the New Partnership for Africa’s Development. As we have made clear before, and I wish to do so again today, the DA strongly supports the ideas central to Nepad.

These, as I understand them, are as follows: that Africa must stand on its own feet; take responsibility for itself and not blame others and not beg from others for its future; that it wants a relationship of equality; that it wants Western investment and free trade with the developed world - a relationship, in other words, of equal partners.

For this reason, we also agree with the criticism which the President has expressed, very trenchantly and recently, of agricultural protectionism in the developed world. Indeed, it is a curse and something that all sides, I am sure, in this Parliament unite against.

Finally, we obviously support the strong and clear commitment to democracy and good governance, with provision for peer review. I think all those things are excellent, and I am sure they point us, as a country and as a continent, in the right direction.

However, if we take a long, hard look at the situation in Africa and at home, we see the bad things such as poverty, hunger, disease and hopelessness which have an essential cause quite aside from the extrinsic factors that make them so, and that cause is bad government - government that is often democratic in theory, but authoritarian in practice, and government dominated by those who care more about power than about the people they are meant to serve.

Nepad as a theory is excellent, but as T S Eliot reminds us: ``Between the idea and the reality falls the shadow.’’

I believe that the credibility issue of Nepad faced and failed its first test in respect of Zimbabwe. For some reason, which we have not dealt with properly in this House, the hon the President saw fit publicly to show solidarity with Mr Robert Mugabe while pursuing what was called quiet diplomacy'', a factor that has been defended from this podium many times before, even though the Chairperson of the ANC, the Minister of Defence, Mr Lekota, later described this policy asa failure.’’

Then, faced with an election that was patently neither free nor fair, the ANC and the Government did their best to argue the opposite.

And finally, after massive pressure had been brought to bear on our own President by other Commonwealth governments, the President was forced to back the Commonwealth verdict of the election. What does this mean in respect of the G-8, Nepad and the future?

The Japanese ambassador to South Africa put it recently, plainly, but with characteristic politeness, and I wish to quote from his speech, that: It is truly said that one reality is stronger than a hundred theories.’’ And he went on to point out, and I quote: ``The G-8 feels very uncomfortable with the conclusion of the South African election observation team report, which is so remote from the international majority view.’’

I believe that is an abandonment of Nepad principles, long before the plan has been launched. And, recently, we had another contribution by the President which I also find myself - not just because it is his birthday today - in respectful agreement with, when he accused the governments of Western Europe and North America of, I quote: insufficient concern about human life'', of not believing, and I quote:that the matter of hunger in the world is sufficiently important.’’ Indeed, it perhaps is trite but necessary to observe that if hunger is not important, then nothing else really is. And in that respect, obviously, the President is correct. But, with respect, he is only half-right. It is one thing to blame the governments of the West for not turning up at a food summit, as the President did, but we also need to take a much harder look at ourselves.

Let us start with our own neighbour Malawi. Malawi had a strategic grain reserve of 167 000 tonnes. It was established in 1999 after a bumper harvest. Inexplicably, the entire grain reserve was sold off between mid- 2000 and early 2001. One of the consequences of that is now massive starvation, a shortage and dramatically higher prices. It gets worse than that.

According to Malawian law, 60 000 metric tonnes of grain must always be kept in reserve, precisely for such times of crises. But this too, the emergency reserve, has been sold off, apparently without reflection in the public accounts of that country. The net result is that 3,2 million Malawians face starvation.

In Zimbabwe, perhaps a better-known example, cereal production has collapsed by 67% since the 2000 harvest. Over the same period, the total land area used for maize production by large-scale commercial farmers in Zimbabwe has contracted by 62%. So two-thirds of the previously cultivated maize lands have simply disappeared. The moral of the story is simple: one cannot pursue a policy of land invasions, harassment, and terrorising commercial farmers and farm workers, and still expect anything of a harvest.

The Economist magazine put it plainly last week: ``Hunger is caused by bad weather, but even more by bad government. Well-governed countries never suffer famine.’’ And, therefore, I think it is absolutely correct that Nepad puts good governance and democratic principles first and foremost.

The leading economist and Nobel prize winner Amartya Sen reminds us - I quote from his book, Development is Freedom:

It is not surprising that no famine has ever taken place in a functioning democracy - be it economically rich or relatively poor.

Sen also reminds us that poor but profoundly undemocratic China had the largest recorded famine in history, when 30 million people perished in the famines that followed the failure of the Great Leap Forward in 1961. In contrast, poor, but fundamentally democratic India has not had a single famine since independence over 55 years ago. I believe that we cannot just stop at countries that are locked in starvation, hunger and famine. I think it is wrong that our President has made no criticism of the way President Nujoma of Namibia has misused his party’s majority to extend his stay in power; of the refusal of former President Ratsiraka to respect the election result in Madagascar; of the deeply flawed election which brought the President of Zambia to power; or of President Muluzi’s unconstitutional attempt to have a third term in Malawi.

The point is that Nepad will not get off the ground unless all governments on our continent and in our region, in our terrain, abide by acceptable global standards of democratic behaviour.

With great respect, when the hon the Deputy President took issue a few weeks ago with people’s characterisation of the Zimbabwean election results, and complained that we were being subject to some kind of collective punishment, the point about it is that Nepad itself is a collective document, which has collective goals, which seeks collective sanctions.

If it is not that, then it is not anything at all and there is, therefore, no meaning to the concept of peer review. What is peer review if not, in fact, equals characterising and criticising other equals? So I found myself this afternoon on strangely familiar territory … [Interjections.]

AN HON MEMBER: You are lost.

Mr A J LEON: No, no. I am actually found. The hon member is in the parliamentary lost and found section. The hon member has given us five minutes of his time today, and he has managed to tear himself away from the Middle East and come back to Southern Africa. That is wonderful.

However, let me say that this party, the DA, is, in fact, committed to the vision and policy for Africa, often more so than the ANC is, which is a characteristically normal position for ourselves to find ourselves in since our party was always much more in favour of the ANC’s last grand plan, Gear, the Growth, Employment and Redistribution policy, than three quarters of the governing policy is or ever appeared to be.

I want to say that one of the problems with Gear, with Nepad and with democracy is that, very often, the attitudes at home - the President drew attention to them in one sense - undermine the principles of Nepad abroad. The ANC’s attitude towards democracy is not altogether surprising when we consider what happens here in our backyard. I think it is time that South Africa woke up to the realities of the ANC’s national democratic revolution.

I have never understood how one can have a revolution alongside a constitutional democracy, but I think that the ANC, and we owe them, … [Interjections.] … well, I will be re-educated at the camp, no doubt, quite soon. We owe the ANC one thing which they do not get enough credit for, and that is that the ANC is very candid with the people of South Africa. They actually spell it out in all their documents and on their website. They have said they want hegemony. They want control over all of levers of power in society. … [Interjections.] … So at least they are frank about it. There is, of course, a difference between frankness and democracy.

Indeed, the effect of the national democratic Irish revolution is to white- ant our constitutional dispensation by transforming independent checks on the ANC’s power into extensions of the party machine. Some will say this is being a negative alarmist, but those people are naive. There are always useful idiots who realise their mistake only when it is much too late.

Let us take a few examples of this. Firstly, cadre redeployment is inimical to the Nepad principle of good government. The ANC’s policy of cadre redeployment, adopted at its 1997 congress, is in full swing. It is now a commonplace of our politics that the ANC should treat the state and parts of civil society as mere extensions of itself.

I was intrigued that the hon President, this afternoon, gave us the interesting example of the Home Affairs Director-General, Billy Masetlha. What interested me about that was not so much his redeployment, but the extraordinary comment made by Mr Smuts Ngonyama in the Mail & Guardian on Friday. I will read it to the House.

On speculation that Masetlha would be deployed to the ANC rather than to the Government, ANC spokesman, Smuts Ngonyama, said this organisation had recommended that Masetlha be retained in the Public Service.

So it is the party, not the Public Service Commission and not the Minister of Home Affairs, heaven forbid, who dictates what happens to public servants, and that is just one example. [Interjections.]

Secondly, transformation has been misused and abused as a power grab. The ANC has targeted the military, the police, the intelligence service, the Public Service, the judiciary, independent bodies and the opposition, apparently, all of which are established in terms of the Constitution. All these are levers of power that require subjugation under hegemony of the ruling party. When the ANC refuses to accept that there is no such thing as democracy without centres of power completely independent from that of the ruling party, we have a problem.

Characteristic of this approach, I wish to put it to the President - because we do not often interact with each other in Parliament or elsewhere

• is that the role of Parliament has been eroded and downgraded. If Nepad’s principles are to take root and flower in Africa, then surely the key architect, South Africa, has to lead by example. [Interjections.] One cannot lead it if one follows the worst practice, and not the best benchmarking, in regard to our own Parliament. I will tell members that the ANC does not have much regard for Parliament’s autonomy and oversight and they will say: We expected that.

What happens when an ANC MP says that? Barbara Hogan put it recently, and I quote:

At best, the way we are dealing with the budget is perfunctory. It can almost be described as rubber-stamping.

[Interjections.] Then we find that nothing comes to Parliament or is disposed of with any consequence from Parliament unless it has been approved by the ANC NEC or NWC. … [Interjections.]

Ms N C DLAMINI-ZUMA: What is wrong with that?

The LEADER OF THE OPPOSITION: What is wrong with it? The fact that the hon Minister asks what is wrong with it, is that they have undermined the democracy of this Parliament. Question time is a joke. Accountability evaporates and the disdain of Government for Parliament is now apparent.

Another member of the governing orbit, the IFP, Dr Gavin Woods, put it this way when he gave up or was forced out of the chairmanship of Scopa. He said:

The executive has become increasingly authoritarian in approach and insists on getting its way, resisting scrutiny and oversight.

Hear! Hear! they shout. Shame! Shame for Nepad and for this country.

What happens here is reflected on the ground. If one goes to the Northern Cape, where I was over the weekend, one is told in municipality after municipality that one cannot get a job with the municipal public works scheme unless one shows an ANC party card. [Interjections.] All I am saying is that we need a democratic practice abroad, on the continent and right here at home. Every true democrat in South Africa, no matter his or her party orientation, has a duty to oppose that bid for total power. So let us be clear that democratising Africa and a democratic South Africa needs more opposition and less government. [Applause.]

Ms T R MODISE: Modulasetilo, maloko a Ntlo e e boitshegang e, borre le bomme, masego a letsatsi la botsalo la ga Moporesidente. A malatsi a mo atele, a gole, a tlogole a bo a tlhogole, a be a re tshelele.

Tota rre Tony Leon ga a batle go gola. Ga a batle go gola ka gonne e rile fa re tsena fa o ne a ntse a bua fela jaana. Le jaanong o sa ntse a bua fela jalo e kete ke ngwana a tshwanetse go phimolwa ditete. (Translation of Setswana paragraphs follows.)

[Ms T R MODISE: Chairperson, members of this august House, ladies and gentlemen, best wishes to the President on his birthday. May he have many more days, and may he grow and live more.

Really, Mr Tony Leon does not want to grow up. He does not grow up, because when we arrived here he was speaking like this. Even now he is still speaking like that, like a toddler.]

The fact that Barbara Hogan, a member of the ANC and the chairperson of the finance committee, stood up and said that oversight must be emphasised, does not mean that the ANC is autocratic. It actually means the opposite. It means that within these ranks we are free to talk and to express ourselves. If the hon Tony Leon had listened, if he had stayed long enough in this House, he would have realised that some of the chairpersons take their work in oversight as seriously as Ms Hogan does. So it is not a mistake that Barbara Hogan stood here and said that we must play our role. [Applause.]

Some years ago, some of us defined democracy as simply the will of the majority. This definition has broadened with the realisation that the enjoyment and exercise of rights and responsibility could not be left to chance; that democracy is therefore the empowerment of people to exercise their political, economic and social rights and responsibilities to realise their destinies and that of the nation as a whole.

As matters stand now, we are challenged. We are challenged because our children are raped; we are challenged because domestic violence continues despite the very good laws that this House has passed; we are challenged because pornography invades our lives and the lives of our children, attacks and erodes the very cornerstone of African sentiment, that of respect for the very young and the aged.

As we brace ourselves for the leap into the new Africa, the Africa that Mr Leon is so sceptical about, the Africa that will be economically vibrant, that will promote human rights and that will respect its women and children, we must make sure that not only our words but our souls continue to praise and to strengthen …

… tsona dithako tse temokerasi. Re e simolole mo gae mo. Re e simolole re bo re e tseye mo kontinenteng ya Afrika. [Legofi.] [… those principles of democracy. We have to start it from home. We should start it and instil it into the continent of Africa. [Applause.]]

We must choose the words of our songs and our poets. We must choose not to die of hunger. We must choose not to listen to sceptics on my left. We must question the ills … [Interjections.]

Mr A J LEON: [Inaudible.]

Ms T R MODISE: That shows how very illiterate the hon member is about the structures of the ANC and the democratic processes within this organisation. [Interjections.] We must choose not to listen to Tony Leon. We must choose to work and to restore the values and standards of our people. [Applause.]

Re tshwanetse gore re diragatse gore thuto ele, e e leng kgale re e ganelwa ke borre ba, re kgone go e tsenya mo bathong gore ba tle ba kgone go tlhaloganya le go dirisa melao le melawana go itshireletsa le go tlamela temokerasi e re e swetseng. Batho ba setshaba se ba kgone go botsa, go keleka, go eletsa le go kgalemela. Se re ka se dira fela fa e le gore re boela kwa morago. Re kgaratlhela gore re tsosolose maitemogelo le seriti sa rona. [Legofi.]

Re tswanetse go diragatsa jaaka Mopresidente a ne a bua mo tshimologong ya ngwaga e fa a ne a eme fano. Kgaratlho ele ya rona ya go lwantsha bodidi le lehuma re e diragatse. Re e diragatse gore ABET e tlhabololwe gore ka yona mme yole wa kwa Kgobadi a kgone go buisa, go itshereletsa, le go sireletsa temokerasi ka gonne … (Translation of Setswana paragraphs follows.)

[We should perform and be able to instil in others the education that these men denied us so that our people should be able to understand and to use the rules and regulations to protect themselves and to protect the democracy that some of us died for. The people of this nation should be able to ask, to assess, to advise and to reprimand. This we can only achieve when we go backwards. We are striving to reawaken our experiences and dignity. [Applause.]

We should do as the President said at the beginning of the year when he was standing here. We should continue with our struggle in the fight against poverty and hunger. We should continue to improve ABET so that through it that woman in the Kgobadi village should be able to read, to protect herself and to protect democracy because …]

… moral regeneration which is removed from these realities will not happen. A moral regeneration which looks at the future but fails to look at us now …

… ga e kitla e simama. Ka jalo re tshwanetse gore re gatelele le go lwantsha botlhokotsebe. Re lwe re le bomme re lwantsha ditshwantsho tse dintsintsi tse di mo go SABC tse di tsentseng boganka le tirisodikgoka ka gonne … (Translation of Setswana paragraph follows.)

[… will not be sustained. As such we emphasise and fight against crime. As women we should fight those many visuals in the SABC pictures because … ]

… research shows that children who are exposed to violence eventually turn violent. Also, research shows that one cannot do away or erase the negative by overemphasising it. Therefore, we need to work …

… re le bomme gore tsosoloso e seka ya felela kwa go bomme ba seaparo le kwa kerekeng. E tsene le mo dintlong tsa rona e tsena ka telebishene e. Thuto e re neng re bua ka yona e kgontsha mme kgotsa rre kwa magaeng gore a gopole a bo a itse gore telebishene e ke ya gagwe e bile o tshwanetse a e laole.

Tsosoloso ya seriti se re buang ka sona se, e raya gore re tshwanetse gore e imametlaganye re le setshaba se sentshonyana. Re imametlaganye le tsa ditshiamiso le tsa sepodisi mme re tlogele borotho. Re tlogele gore re tsenyane ka gore o tlaa nnaya selosengwe. Se tshwanetse gore re boele kwa morago jaaka fa ngwaga o o ne o simologa, Lefapha la Bodiredipuso le Tsamaiso le ne le tsamaya le nna le diseminara kwa go neng go tsewa ditshwetso tsa gore ditlhokotsebe ba ba dirang mo pusong ba tlaa lelekwa. A re ba lelekeng. [Legofi.] Barutabana ba ba tagwang le ba ba betelelang bana le bona a re ba lelekeng. Baoki ba ba utswang ditoulo ba bo ba kgobotletsa balwetse, a re ba lelekeng. Ditlelereke tsa puso tse di senyang, a re se di ntsha mo lefapheng le go ya go le lengwe, a re di lelekeng. [Legofi.] (Translation of Tswana paragraphs follows.)

[… as women so that regeneration should not end up with the religious women and at church. It should enter into our houses through this medium of television. The education that we were talking about enables the mother or father at home to remember and know that this television is his or hers, and that he or she should rule it.

The regeneration of dignity that we are talking about means that we should pull up our socks as a black nation. We should pull up our socks and, together with correctional services and the police, root out corruption. We should do away with nepotism and the accepting of bribes. We should go back, like at the beginning of the year, when the Department for the Public Service and Administration conducted seminars where decisions were made that corrupt people who work in the Public Service would be dismissed. Let us dismiss them. [Applause.] Let us dismiss those educators who get drunk and rape children. Let us dismiss those nurses who steal towels and ill- treat the patients. Let us dismiss those government clerks whom we move from one department to the next … [Applause.]]

… because when one starts talking about good governance in the abstract, then one creates a problem, one creates a platform, in fact, for a Tony Leon to mess up. [Laughter.]

Go botlhoko gore a ba a ntse fa a bua a ba a ithamaka ka Zimbabwe a lebala gore ba dirile eng kwa Zimbabwe. A lebala gore kana Afrika e a reng e rata ntwa e bile e ipolaisa tlala e, karolo ya bakoloni ke eng mo go yona. Re tshwanetse go netefatsa gore re na le botshepegi. Re tshwanetse go netefatsa gore bana ba rona re ba godisa sentle. A bana ba rona ba seka ba ya go batla ba a ka tsayang malebela mo go bona kwa ntle re le teng. (Translation of Setswana paragraph follows.)

[It is painful that the member should still be speaking and contradicting himself about Zimbabwe, forgetting what they have done to Zimbabwe. He forgets the role that colonials have played in Africa when he claims that it likes to fight and to starve itself. We should ensure that we are trustworthy. We should ensure that we raise our children properly. Our children should not seek those whom they can look up to when we are available.]

Our children should not seek and hunt and read overseas magazines for role models. They must find role models within the home. Therefore we need to raise them in a way that …

… le fa re robetse re bone seriti sa lefatshe se gola se bo se tswelela pele.

Go tle go twe Amerika e obamela Cocacola le MacDonalds. Mo gae mo, re obamela nno. Gore re buse seriti sa rona le sa Aforika re tshwanetse ra bua gore re fokotse nno ka gore dilabe tse dintsi mo mafelong a rona di diragala ka ntlha ya gore batho ba a bo ba nole. Fa re lebelela kgetse ya lesea Tshepang, go ne go tagilwe. Ditiragalo tse di tshwanang le dikurukutlano le diketeko tsa basadi mo malapeng di diragala ka ntlha ya nno. Bana ba ba ineetseng mo digongwaneng tsa bosenyi ba a tagwa. Tla re fokotseng nno.

Tla re direng gore re ipope re le bantsho. (Translation of Setswana paragraphs follows.)

[… even when we are asleep we should see the dignity of our country grow and continue.

It is sometimes said that America obeys Coca Cola and McDonalds. In this country we obey drinking. To bring back our dignity and that of Africa, we should talk about reducing the rate of drinking because many ills in our places happen because people are drunk. When we look at baby Tshepang’s case, people were drunk. Events such as violence and the abuse of women in our homes happen due to drinking. These children who have succumbed to gangsters are getting drunk. Let us reduce drinking.

Let us unite as blacks.] Most of the time we look at ourselves and think that we have made it when we have a bottle of wine.

Fa o kgonne ke fa o kgona go tsamaya ka BMW le go nna o bo o lelatsa Charles glass. Re tshwanetse go bopa setshaba le go godisa bana ba rona, mme re tlogele bokataki le bogodu.

Ke a leboga le fa selo se se ne se ntshosa. Re tshwanetse gore re dirise lenaneo le go tlholwang go buiwa ka lona, la go tlhatlhela setshaba seswa, re sa lebelela go dira motho morutabana fela mme re mo dire morutabana yo o nang le maikarabelo. [Legofi.] (Translation of Setswana paragraphs follows.)

[One has succeeded when one drives a BMW and invites Charles Glass. We should build a nation and raise our children, and leave aside beatings and greed.

I am thankful, even if this thing scared me. We should use this programme that has often been spoken about, the one of building a new nation without looking at building an educator, but one who is responsible. [Applause.]]

Mr E J LUCAS: Mr Chairman, hon President and hon members, I begin by conveying the best from the IFP to the President on the occasion of his sixtieth birthday.

We are of the view that Nepad has translated the President’s philosophical vision of an African Renaissance into a tangible and action-driven programme which is broadly supported by the majority of African leaders. However, we all know that Nepad’s success or failure will largely be determined by the response of the leaders of the developed world, particularly the G8.

The financial and technical skills required to implement the plan are mainly located in the economies of the developed world. These resources, principally debt relief and foreign direct investment, will only be unlocked if the leaders of the developed world are convinced that doing so would be in their own interests. We, as Africans, would be deluding ourselves if we believe that assistance from the developed world will spring from an altruistic impulse to develop a veritable Marshall Plan for Africa, or from a spirit of Pax Africana.

The bottom line is that leaders of the First World would be delighted if, by helping Nepad succeed, vast and new untapped markets were created to trade in goods and services. They would do so in the knowledge that their high levels of economic and technological competence would make them highly competitive. Policy-makers would argue that it is in the developed world’s long-term economic interests to assist Africa. We know that the First World will always consider their economic interests first. Huge subsidies such as the common agricultural policy and excessive tariffs are imposed to bar outside competitors. If they are serious about assisting Africa and alleviating poverty, subsidies and tariff protection must be rolled back. Otherwise, African development will be restricted to limited internal markets such as SADC, and we will not be able to enter or compete in the most important and lucrative markets.

It is within the context of this brief sketch that the much-vaunted commitment by the G8 leaders to Nepad must be viewed. On the one hand, it would be in their interest to prise open new markets but, on the other hand, it would serve their interests to limit access to their markets. This is no time for the President and his colleagues to go wobbly. Africa must take all it can from Nepad, while insisting that the First World take active steps to level the playing field. Failure to do so will render Nepad a stillborn initiative.

The President should also turn his attention to other core issues closer to home, if Nepad is to succeed. The South African economy is only growing at half the speed necessary for a developing society to make a meaningful impact upon poverty. The Government has still to put a growth policy in place, such as the growth policies that fuelled the phenomenal growth of the dragon economies of Southeast Asia after the war. Faster economic growth is constrained by lagging fixed capital investments and shortages of skilled, entrepreneurial and competitive managerial personnel.

There is a need to clarify the role and status of traditional leaders, a clarification which remains outstanding. The President’s failure to fulfil the promise to address this issue is clouding all other attempts for the nation to move forward as one. This issue will not disappear. It requires bold leadership from the President, today.

There is a perception that Government is proceeding with Nepad as an ANC initiative. It would be advisable to include other political parties to make this noble action one that is fully and truly supported by all.

Finally, a government can only succeed if state departments are adequately funded. A government is only as good as the departments that implement its programmes and objectives. The Government must provide the right levels of funding for state departments to ensure high levels of service delivery and to fulfil the mandate that people gave it. I believe that, with the right policies in place and with the sure and certain touch of leadership, our nation can be the very best. [Applause.]

Mr G C OOSTHUIZEN: Hon Chairperson and hon President, this year’s Budget Vote of the Presidency takes place in a very vibrant atmosphere. It is vibrant because the political horizon spells a realignment in our internal political landscape. More and more South Africans are starting to lend a hand in rebuilding the future of this country. Above all, because of the decisive leadership of our President, Nepad is a reality which will push back the frontiers of poverty on this continent of ours. The time has come for many of our countrymen and women to make a choice. The choice that they will have to make will be either to break out of their isolation or to stay in the fight-back kraal, and either to get onto the playing field to join us in lending a hand and to create a better life for all, or become martyrs of their self-inflicted paranoia.

Die politieke woede wat op die Anglo-Boereoorlog gevolg het, is verwoord met die slagspreuk, ``Gewond, maar onoorwonne’’. Dit ten spyt is die Afrikaners met verskeie keuses gekonfronteer die afgelope eeu. Soos Die Burger dit onlangs gestel het: Soms het hulle goed gekies; soms het die omstandighede hulle in ‘n slegte keuse ingedwing. Ander kere het hulle opreg gemeen hulle maak die regte keuse, maar dit het duidelik verkeerd geblyk. Nog ander kere, en wat die tragiesste is, het hulle oopoë die verkeerde ding gaan staan en doen. Die aaneenlopende politieke keuses wat uiting gevind het op 2 Februarie 1990 was die regte keuse. Ek sê dit, want apartheid was op die einde van die dag net die nierstene van kolonialisme. Nou in 2002, met ‘n politieke herskikking op hande, moet die Afrikaner besluit hoe hy gaan reageer. Die Grondwet van 1993 sê die geleentheid is daar om dit nou reg te stel op die grondslag dat daar ‘n behoefte bestaan aan begrip en nie wraaksug nie; ‘n behoefte aan herstel en nie vergelding nie; ‘n behoefte aan medemenslikheid en nie viktimisering nie.

Die keuses aan alle kante van die politieke speelveld wat op 2 Februarie 1990 gevolg het, het vereis dat ‘n mens met jou brein en nie met jou bloed moet dink nie. Dit was die grootmoedigheid van swart en wit Suid- Afrikaners, maar veral swart Suid-Afrikaners, om die pyn van die verlede opsy te skuif, ter wille van ‘n nuwe gesamentlike toekoms, wat sedert 1994 wêrelwye respek en bewondering vir ons besorg het. Nou in 2002 mag ons nie hierdie bal laat val nie. Nou moet ons kies vir Suid-Afrika en Afrika. ‘n Nuwe speelveld in die politiek word nou betree.

Konfrontasiepolitiek in Suid-Afrika het teenproduktief geword. Ek vra vandag van die Afrikaners om nie die prooi te word van onrealistiese beloftes van sommige die opposisieleiers wat eintlik net die mense se diepste rassevrese manipuleer nie. [Tussenwerpsels.] Die DA is mos in sprekende voorbeeld van beginsellose leierskap en beginsellose opportunisme. [Tussenwerpsels.] Die ander sogenaamde Afrikanerpartye is die een mislukking na die ander, en hulle sukkel nou nog met die sooibrand van hul politieke verlede en hul onbeholpenheid om aan te pas in hierdie nuwe Suid-Afrika van ons. [Applous.]

Die eksklusief witoorheersde debat om ‘n sterk opposisie tot stand te bring, is maar net nog ‘n hersenskim soos so baie ander onhaalbare ideale wat in hierdie land nagejaag is. Trouens, ek voorspel vandag dat hierdie debat van ‘n sterk wit opposisie maar net weer gaan lei tot ‘n volgende rondte van wit Afrikaners se ontnugtering. Vermy hierdie slaggat, is my versoek aan my Afrikanerbroers en -susters, want as Afrikaners inwaarts gaan migreer in hierdie land, sal hulle toeskouers en vreemdelinge in hul eie vaderland wees. [Applous.]

President Mbeki, Oudpresident Mandela en die ANC-leierskap het die deure vir Afrikaanssprekendes na die ANC oopgemaak. Ek en baie ander het die geleentheid benut, want ons hart is vas aan Afrika. [Tussenwerpsels.] Trouens, ons Afrikaners wat gebreek het met die uitgediende politieke denkpatrone en by die ANC aangesluit het, is bevryde mense. Ons aanvaar onsself as Afrikane en ook deel van Afrika. [Tussenwerpsels.][Applous.] Ons as Afrikane het ‘n gemeenskaplike erfenis en deel ‘n gemeenskaplike bestemming. Dit is nou wat die deur oop is vir ‘n fundamentele herskikking van die poltieke landskap waardeur ons demokrasie net verder gekonstrueer sal word. Die geleentheid vir ‘n ruimte van politieke gees doen hom nou voor, agb Gibson. Die Afrikaner moet hom nou loswoel en losdink van ‘n hartseer geskiedenis. Hy moet hom loswikkel uit die hoek waar hy sit en losbreek uit die Jerigomure waarbinne hy tans skuil. Die Jerigomure is mos ‘n valse sekuriteit.

Gee eerder applous vir ‘n bestendige ekonomiese beleid, vir regverdige wette wat almal oor een kam skeer en gee applous vir die internasionale respektabelheid en leierskap wat ons verdien het sedert 1994. Kom en word deel van die spelers op die speelveld en wend talente en vermoëns aan om ander te help.

Dr C P MULDER: Voorsitter, is die agb lid wat so ‘n groot Afrikaner is, bereid om ‘n vraag te antwoord?

Mnr G C OOSTHUIZEN: Voorsitter, aan die einde as ek tyd het, vat ek hom graag. Net nie nou nie.

Dr C P MULDER: Ek wag vir hom.

Mnr G C OOSTHUIZEN: Die Vryheidsmanifes van die ANC sê: Suid-Afrika behoort aan almal wat daarin woon - swart en wit. [Applous.] Hierdie woorde beduie mos dat daar politieke ruimte en ‘n tuiste vir die Afrikaners in die ANC is. Gryp hierdie geleentheid aan en word ‘n bouer en ‘n skepper van ‘n beter toekoms in ons eie vaderland. Dit gaan verder as mens se vaderland. Dit gaan om die bevordering van belange wat oor grense op hierdie kontinent heen strek - belange soos die verligting van armoede, om geletterdheid te bevorder, om mense op te hef en, bowenal, om getrou te wees aan jouself. Die Afrikaner moet heelhartig sy kleim in hierdie politieke ruimte kom afsteek. Die uitwissing van armoede en die opheffing van die mense van Afrika is mos in alle Afrikaners se belang. Ons moet hierdie brug die toekoms in, gebou kry.

Dit is nou die tyd dat die gemeenskap daar buite, gemeenskapleiers en minderheidsgroepe, die Jerigomure verlaat en hul verantwoordelikheid, soos ons President Mbeki, wyer moet sien as net eiebelang. Mens kan net wen as iemand anders iets kan verloor. Afrika het in die nabye verlede nie ‘n leier gehad met ‘n Afrikafokus, internasionale geloofwaardigheid, die kennis en vermoë om hierdie kontinent tot nuwe hoogtes te lei nie. Ons is geseënd in die President en om só ‘n leier as ons staatspresident te hê. [Tussenwerpsels.]

Ek sluit af met ‘n gedig deur H A Fagan, wat reeds in 1963 oorlede is, ``Nkosi sikelel’ i-Afrika’’:

Uit duisende monde word die lied gedra. Ek sluit my oë, soos ‘n serafskoor val daar duisende stemme strelend op my oor: Nkosi sikelel' i-Afrika''- ons vra u seën, o Heer, vir Afrika. Ek kyk, en sien die skare voor my staan: Zoeloe en Kosa, Soeto en Sjangaan, en ek, 'n Blanke - vele volkre, ja- almal verenigd om Gods seën te vra op net een tuiste, net een vaderland, want die Alwyse het ons saam geplant en saam laat wortel in Suid-Afrika. Nkosi sikelel’ i-Afrika’’- seën, Heer, die land wat vele volkre dra.

[Applous.]

Dr C P MULDER: Mnr die Voorsitter, op ‘n punt van orde: Was die agb lid se tyd verstreke?

Die VOORSITTER VAN KOMITEES: Ja, sy tyd was verstreke. (Translation of Afrikaans paragraphs follows.)

[The political anger which followed the Anglo Boer War was expressed in the slogan: ``Gewond, maar onoorwonne’’ [Wounded, but not overcome]. Nevertheless, the Afrikaners were confronted with various choices during the past century. As Die Burger said recently, sometimes they chose well; sometimes they were forced by circumstances into making a bad choice. At other times they were truly convinced that they were making the right choice, but it clearly proved to be the wrong one. At other times, and this is the most tragic thing of all, they were completely aware of the fact that they were doing the wrong thing. The consecutive political choices that found expression on 2 February 1990 were the right choice. I am saying this, because at the end of the day apartheid was merely the kidney stone of colonialism. Now, in 2002, with a new political order, the Afrikaner must decide how he is going to react. The Constitution of 1993 states that we now have the opportunity to rectify matters on the basis that there is a need for understanding and not for a thirst for revenge; a need for restoration and not retribution; a need for common humanity and not victimisation.

The choices on all sides of the political playing fields that followed after 2 February 1990 required us to think with our brains and not our blood. Black and white South Africans, but especially black South Africans, were noble-minded enough to put the pain of the past behind them for the sake of a new joint future, which has won us world-wide respect and admiration since 1994. Now, in 2002, we may not drop this ball. Now we must choose for South Africa and Africa. We are now entering a new political playing field.

Confrontation politics in South Africa have become counterproductive. I want to ask the Afrikaners today not to fall prey to unrealistic promises by some of the opposition leaders, who are in fact only manipulating the people’s deepest racial fears. [Interjections.] Surely the DA is the living example of unprincipled leadership and unprincipled opportunism. [Interjections.] The other so-called Afrikaner parties are one failure after another, and they are still struggling with the heartburn of their political past and their inability to adapt to this new South Africa of ours. [Applause.]

The exclusively white-dominated debate on how to establish a strong opposition is yet another pipe dream, like so many other impractical ideals pursued in this country. In fact, I want to predict today that this debate of a strong white opposition will simply once again result in a further round of disillusionment for white Afrikaners. I request my Afrikaner brothers and sisters to avoid this pot-hole, because if Afrikaners are going to migrate inland in this country, they will be spectators and strangers in their own fatherland. [Applause.]

President Mbeki, former President Mandela and the ANC leadership have opened the doors of the ANC to Afrikaans-speaking people. Many others and I have availed ourselves of the opportunity, because we have Africa at heart. [Interjections.] In fact, we Afrikaners who have broken away from the obsolete political concepts and have joined the ANC are liberated people. We accept ourselves as Africans and also as part of Africa. [Interjections.] [Applause.] We, as Africans, have a common heritage and share a common destination. The door is now open for a fundamental transformation of the political landscape, by means of which our democracy will be built even further. The opportunity for generosity of political spirit is now presenting itself, hon Gibson. The Afrikaners must now break away from a sad history. They must also emerge from the corner in which they are sitting and break away from the walls of Jericoh behind which they are at present hiding. The walls of Jericoh are surely a false security.

Instead applaud a stable economic policy, equitable laws which treat all people equally, and applaud the international respectability and leadership that we have earned since 1994. Let us join the players on the playing field and use our talents and abilities to help others.

Dr C P MULDER: Chairperson, is the hon member who is such a great Afrikaner prepared to take a question?

Mr G C OOSTHUIZEN: Chairperson, if I have time at the end, I shall take it with pleasure, but not at the moment.

Dr C P MULDER: I am waiting for him.

Mr G C OOSTHUIZEN: The Freedom Charter of the ANC states that South Africa belongs to all the people who live there - black and white. [Applause.] Surely these words mean that there is political space and a home for the Afrikaners in the ANC. Take this opportunity and become a builder and a creator of a better future in our own fatherland. This entails more than one’s fatherland. It entails the promotion of interests that extend across boundaries on this continent - interests such as the alleviation of poverty, the promotion of literacy, the upliftment of people and, above all, being true to oneself. The Afrikaner must come and stake his claim in this political space whole-heartedly. The eradication of poverty and the upliftment of the people of Africa is surely in the interests of all Afrikaners. We must succeed in building this bridge into the future.

The time has come for the community out there, community leaders and minority groups, to leave the walls of Jericoh behind and to see their responsibility, such as that of our President Mbeki, against a broader backdrop than just their own interests. One can only win if someone else can lose something. In the recent past, Africa had no leader with an African focus, international credibility, the knowledge and ability to lead this continent to new heights. We are blessed in having the President and such a leader as our State President. [Interjections.]

I conclude with a poem by H A Fagan, who died as long ago as 1963, ``Nkosi sikelel i-Afrika’’:

Uit duisende monde word die lied gedra. Ek sluit my oë, soos ‘n serafskoor val daar duisende stemme strelend oor my oor: ``Nkosi sikelel’ i-Afrika’’ - ons vra u seën, o Heer, vir Afrika. Ek kyk, en sien die skare voor my staan: Zoeloe en Kosa, Soeto en Sjangaan, en ek, ‘n Blanke - vele volkre, ja - almal verenigd om Gods seën te vra op net een tuiste, net een vaderland, want die Alwyse het ons saam geplant en saam laat wortel in Suid-Afrika. seën, Heer, die land wat vele volkre dra.

[Applause.]]

Mr M J C VAN SCHALKWYK: Madam Speaker, yesterday a few thousand South Africans decided to test the limits of their strength and endurance in the Comrades Marathon. There was only one overall winner and there were only 20 gold medallists. Many people who started the race did not finish it. President Mbeki is one of a few South Africans who, as a young man, chose to compete in the political equivalent of this race. As he celebrates his 60th birthday, it must be gratifying to know that he has reached the toughest points. He is not yet in the finishing straights, but he is in that part of the race where he has just encountered the steep hills, and we trust that he will continue to keep climbing at pace. We wish him well. [Applause.]

We are just passed the midterm point, and it is therefore appropriate to reflect on the contribution of the Presidency to what we have achieved over the past three years. He has done much to place Africa on the world’s agenda. In years to come, analysts will say that Nepad was to Africa what the New Deal was to the United States and the Marshall Plan was to Europe. In some senses, Nepad is our continental GEAR.

There were two choices on how to react to the new reality of globalisation and open economies. The one was to try to hide from these realities. It is to the President’s credit that he never chose the soft option that would have done irreparable harm to our country over the long term. Instead, the President has decided to be honest with the people of our country about the realities of the new world, hard as they may sometimes be. South Africa has ridden the wave of globalisation, taking in its stride the ups and downs of fluctuating currency values and inflow and outflow of investment. We have emerged on the other side stronger, more open and better placed to take advantage of the benefits of the new global world.

This initiative has led to the beginning of a fundamental transformation of the South Africa political landscape, that is, the ever-growing common middle ground on fundamental questions of the economy and social priorities.

The new openness has also led to a situation where the attention of the world community is more closely focused on events in South and Southern Africa. If we do well, we will get credit. If we make mistakes, we will feel the brunt of international disapproval and condemnation. In this regard, we must be honest enough to admit that the handling of the Aids and the Zimbabwe issues has reflected poorly on our country and region. The New NP’s views on these two issues are well documented, and South Africa’s standing in the international community would have been higher had our positions on Zimbabwe and Aids not developed in the way they did.

It has become commonplace for South Africa and South Africans to astound the world. Where other people lose hope, we see opportunity. The whole world thought that the logical outcome of our history of racial conflict would be a bloody revolution, but we snatched victory from the jaws of defeat simply because we had enough leaders with the generosity of spirit and the ability to see the bigger picture. Instead of following the path of least resistance, and exploiting the narrow interests of people and communities, South African leaders in the early 90s took the road less travelled. We have again reached the crossroads where we must choose to either exploit the narrow interests of people and communities, or convince people again to see the bigger picture.

There is an intense debate in the Afrikaans community - coloured and white

• which the previous speaker referred to, on their future role and place in South Africa. Let me for moment speak as a member of that community. Afrikaans-speaking people are at a crossroads. The choice is simple but stark. It is a choice between a just existence or simple survival, isolated and insulated by old prejudices. It is a simple choice between simple survival or really living.

Dis ‘n keuse om te oorleef, of werklik te leef. [It is a choice between survival and really living.]

It is about a mindset. It is about a choice between a so-called ``fight back’’ approach or to contribute. It is a choice between isolation or participation, between talking South Africa down or believing in South Africa. It is a choice between being partially South African and proudly South African.

In a very interesting article in Die Burger newspaper last week, the deputy editor, Dr Scholtz, debated this very issue. He put it as follows, and I quote from an English translation: Afrikaans-speaking people, like all other people, have no automatic right to exist as a distinct group. If Afrikaans speakers do not offer something deeper, if the Afrikaans grouping does not help to free its people culturally and spiritually, and add meaning to the world and its citizens, then it loses the moral right to exist. If the Afrikaans language and culture add something unique to the enrichment, spiritually and materially, of the society, and if Afrikaans speakers choose to live in justice rather than to just live in South Africa, their experiences and life will be so much better.

[Applause.]

This challenge exists not just for the members of the Afrikaans community, but for people from all communities such as English, Afrikaans, Zulu, Sotho, all South Africans. Therefore, the future of coloured, white and Indian, and Afrikaans-speaking South Africans does not lie in placing themselves apart and in a separate geographic Volkstaat, like some here propose. Equally, it does not lie in a psychological Volkstaat, isolated from mainstream society, like some others here propose. It does not lie in the arrogant superiority and aloofness of their cold version of liberalism that will never understand hunger or poverty, nor the struggle for human dignity that so many South Africans continue to experience. [Applause.]

The future lies in the contribution that we can all make to the success of our country. The future lies in accepting co- responsibility for our future. Something profound is happening on the South African political landscape.

Let me take members back to what happened in France over the past few months. The underlying cancer of superiority and prejudice suddenly culminated in a Jean-Marie Le Pen. Jean-Marie Le Pen did France a huge favour because he gave arrogance and superiority a face. It is not easy to understand the dangers of arrogance and prejudice in the abstract. They can too easily be disguised by clever soundbites and spin. But, once arrogance and prejudice have a face, people understand them so much better, and rapidly turn away from that brand of polarising divisive politics. The reaction to Jean-Marie Le Pen strengthened the middle ground in France.

South Africa has produced its own Jean-Marie Le Pen.[Laughter.] South Africans will turn their backs on extremism, arrogance and prejudice. It may take some time, but it will happen. It has already started. Over the next few weeks, it will pick up further momentum. This phenomenon has strengthened and will continue to strengthen the stable middle ground in South African politics. [Applause.]

Although I will continue to be a member of Parliament as an NCOP member and be part of debates in Joint Sittings, this may be my last speech in the National Assembly for some time to come. [Applause.] Therefore, I would like to thank all my colleagues in my own party, as well as all other parliamentary colleagues for 12 years of robust political dialogue. It was a wonderful time in my life.

I came here in 1990, a few months after F W De Klerk’s historic speech. I was elected in a by-election after the NP - the DP withdrew, since they did not want to fight me then and they could not - fighting for the soul of the white community against extremist rightwing forces, had lost a string of by- elections against the Conservative Party led by Dr Treurnicht. I have always felt proud to serve the people of this country in this Chamber, and especially to walk in the corridors of our democratic Parliament.

Although observers of Parliament may sometimes be very critical, my experience has been that, most of the time, reason and common sense prevail here. I have been privileged to experience history in this Chamber. The swearing in of Mr Mandela as President was a moving occasion which happens once in a lifetime, if it happens. The adoption of our new Constitution embodied, in law, the spirit of a new South Africa.

I have been privileged to see the best and worst of human nature in this Chamber. Recently, much of the latter. I started out as a young member of Parliament right in the back corner. Because I was the most junior member of the then NP, I sat next to the official opposition of that time, the CP. Emotions were running high in the early 90s in this Chamber. Every time I took my seat, I would greet my CP colleague next to me. For three years, his standard reply was ``I will only greet you the day I shoot you’’. [Laughter.] That very same CP member of Parliament was later arrested for having planted a bomb at a school in Pretoria. Those of us who supported change then, were shouted at in this Chamber as traitors. Unfortunately, today we see echoes of this again.

Listening to the slur of traitor being levelled against some of us again, I get the feeling that we have been there before. But, people can change. That very same CP MP has now accepted the new South Africa. The last I heard, he had started a business venture with a fellow black South African and voted for a party that he fought tooth and nail all his life.

Mr M J ELLIS: [Inaudible.]

Mr M C J VAN SCHALKWYK: People can change. Even Mr Ellis can change! Maybe not all of the members of the DP. [Laughter][Applause.]

Today, very few people even remember the CP.

Another morally expensive lesson that I learned in this Parliament was the unceremonious suspension of then MP Jan van Eck, when he used parliamentary privilege to make certain allegations with regard to the torture and disappearance of the late Stanza Bopape. Mr A J LEON: You suspended him.

Mr M C J VAN SCHALKWYK: That’s right. The reaction of the majority party then was not to be truthful or to engage in debate, but to use its parliamentary majority to silence and to suspend him for six months without a salary. Some of us younger members of Parliament were not satisfied, but we kept silent, a decision I have often regretted.[Interjections.]

This experience taught me that party discipline is important, and that parties exist because people make compromises. But, there comes a time in politics when one must stand up and let one’s conscience speak, no matter what the price. Sometimes it is required of one in politics to stand up for what is right, even if it is only for one person. The real test of leadership is whether or not one is willing to apply the same high standards to oneself and to one’s party that one so easily sets for others.

I accept the challenge to prove that the Western Cape can be the testing ground for the new South Africa. In this province, we must and we can show that the three largest communities residing here, coloured, white and black cannot only tolerate each other, but can be successful together. I look forward to that challenge.

I have appointed Dr Boy Geldenhuys to act as Leader of the New NP in the National Assembly. [Applause.] Dr Geldenhuys is a true South African patriot, and a gentleman with an iron fist who commands respect from all corners of this Chamber.

In conclusion, in my role as national leader of the New NP, with the added specific leadership responsibilities in the Western Cape, I will work tirelessly to keep our supporters part of the mainstream politics. The New NP is determined and committed to help life become better for all South Africans. By moving forward into the future and by making a huge effort together, we can improve our common destiny. Together South Africa wins. [Applause.]

The DEPUTY PRESIDENT: Mr Chairperson, the President of the Republic, hon members, this debate is taking place during a celebratory week for us in the Presidency. On behalf of the nation, I wish Comrade President many happy returns. [Applause.]

Having recently turned 60 myself, I feel qualified to say: Welcome to the senior citizens club! [Laughter.] In addition, the Minister in the Presidency will be turning 63 on Friday, and we wish him all the best, indeed. [Applause.]

It is in this buoyant mood that we participate in this Budget Vote debate today, in a spirit that says we have a lot to celebrate in what our country has achieved, while also acknowledging the challenges that still lie ahead.

What makes our collective load lighter in all the spheres of Government, is the knowledge that many South Africans are willing to play their part, in the spirit of Letsema and Vuk’uZenzele, to improve the quality of life for all and, in particular, to push back the frontiers of poverty.

I would like to deal with a few matters relating to some of the areas that the Deputy President is responsible for. Whilst there has been considerable improvement in the process of introducing Bills to Parliament by the executive, an area that still requires more attention is the translation of Bills.

As hon members are aware, Bills have to be in two official languages before they can be debated in this House. Last year, 85 were introduced, all of them in English. Seventy-seven were translated into Afrikaans, and the rest into other official languages. This does not assist in promoting multilingualism, and is something that we need to give urgent attention to. [Applause.]

There has been an improvement with regard to the number of written questions that are not answered at the end of the year. At the end of last year, only 30 written questions out of a total of 2 121 asked in the National Assembly had not been replied to by the end of the period set by Parliament.

Obviously, we are aiming for a target of having no unanswered questions at the end of each year, but, we must acknowledge that this figure is a significant improvement from the statistics of the year 2000, which was 142 unanswered questions.

One of the events that captured the imagination of the South Africans this year was the launch of the Moral Regeneration Movement on 18 April in Pretoria. This gathering of about 1 300 representatives was made up of people from virtually all sectors of our society, right across the country.

Cabinet Ministers, Premiers, MECs, councillors, amakhosi, representatives from business, labour, women, youth formations, religious sectors, political parties, community-based organisations, NGOs and other sectoral representatives exchanged ideas and grappled with the issues that are affecting the moral fibre of the nation.

The launch of the MRM was indeed a unique South African experience. In an interactive programme, a former drug addict, a person living with HIV/Aids, a prison choir and a youth dance group expressed in different ways a sense of hope in the midst of despair; of courage in the face of challenge and of commitment in the face of moral decay. They enabled us to see that moral regeneration will come through affirming the dignity and goodness of the human spirit.

I would like to thank all political parties in this House for their support of the launch, and their continued participation in the MRM. The co- operation and collaboration on this nation-building project has reminded us of the importance of working together for the common good of our country.

It is important to emphasize that the launch was only the beginning of a long process in which we all need to be ready to play a part.

A lot of work has been done since the launch. The emphasis is on building the movement, structurally and operationally. The MRM is being established as a section 21 company, and staff will be appointed soon. If the MRM is to succeed, it has to exist in every province, town and village. Towards this end, provincial moral regeneration committees are being formed. In most cases, these provincial committees are planning similar launch events at provincial or regional levels.

Discussions are also continuing regarding the drafting of a Moral Charter - a suggestion that arose from the summit itself. The charter will certainly be a statement of vision and commitment that will capture the essence of what moral regeneration is all about.

We are pleased to notice that several moral renewal activities are taking place throughout the country. We visited the Northern Cape legislature in Kimberly recently for an interfaith religious parliament called to search for solutions to the problems of moral decay in that province. We will also return to the Eastern Cape legislature soon for their second interfaith and multiparty religious parliament.

We are arguably the only country in the world which has confronted the issue of moral regeneration head-on, and in such an organised and united manner. Once again, we are pointing the way forward on issues that matter most to humanity, and we need to acknowledge that.

The ANC’s Election Manifesto of 1999 spelt out clearly to the electorate our commitment to creating a better Africa and a better world.

We put the manifesto to the people and, on the basis of that, we received a resounding mandate to address, amongst others, the following matters in the current term: To promote peace on the continent; to foster democratic systems of government, respect for human rights and an end to corruption; to campaign for a better managed global economy and promote equitable economic relations for the Southern African region; to advocate strongly for the relieving of the debt burden on the poorest countries of the world

• many of them within our own subregion.

In pursuing these goals, we said we would strengthen our ties with the continent, build stronger relations with Latin America and Asia, and consolidate our relations with the developed countries. That is why our country plays such an active role in international affairs, under the leadership of our President.

As Chief Albert Luthuli said in 1961 when he received his Nobel Peace Prize:

Our goal is a united Africa in which the standards of life and liberty are constantly expanding; in which the ancient legacy of illiteracy and disease is swept aside, in which the dignity of man is rescued from beneath the heels of colonialism, which has trampled on it.

Because there are some people who have been unreasonably critical of the active role that this Government is playing in the international arena, particularly of our President, I thought it was important to remind them that the President is carrying out the overwhelming mandate given by the voters of this country.

I actually believe that these critics are trapped in the apartheid laager mentality, when the definition of international relations was mainly the interaction between the apartheid regime and Transkei, Ciskei, Bophuthatswana and Venda.

It is this limited understanding of international relations that provokes such a response. In this era of globalisation, no country can look inwardly and think it can survive with no interaction with the rest of the world.

Part of our involvement is in the area of conflict resolution. Through the New Partnership for Africa’s Development, Nepad, and the pending launch of the African Union, a concerted effort is being put into developing mechanisms to rid the continent of conflicts.

We have been attempting to play our role, and to contribute to the resolution of conflicts in some parts of the continent. South African peace initiatives in Burundi resulted in the installation of the transitional government in November 2001.

Negotiations have been continuing with armed groups opposed to that government with the objective of reaching a cease-fire agreement.

We have also continued with the strengthening of bilateral relations with other countries. The Deputy President co-chairs the bi-national commissions with Nigeria, Germany and Sweden. The enabling environment created by these commissions has contributed to increased engagement between our respective countries. Nigeria-South Africa trade data indicate a substantial increase between 1993 and 2000, with exports having grown by more than 200% and imports by 400%. Two-way German-South Africa trade grew by 20% in 2000, and more than 450 German companies in the country employ more than 60 000 people. Swedish development co-operation has amounted to approximately R1 billion since 1994. We value these relations a great deal and are looking forward to the meeting of the BNCs with Germany and Sweden later in the year.

Up until recently, South Africa has been described as having one of the fastest growing HIV/Aids epidemics in the world. We are therefore encouraged by the findings of the 2001 survey of pregnant women attending clinics in public hospitals, which has confirmed that, although the incidents of HIV are still high, it appears to have stabilised between 2000 and 2001.

We are continuing to intensify our response to the epidemic, as was clearly outlined in the 17 April Cabinet statement. We are intensifying the implementation of the five-year HIV/Aids and sexually transmitted infections strategy plan, and have increased resources in this regard. The total budget, which was R350 million in 2001 to 2002, has been increased to R1 billion in this financial year, and will go up to R1,8 billion in 2004 to 2005.

A critical element of our strategy is the strengthening of partnerships among all South Africans to fight this epidemic. This partnership is embodied in the multisectoral South African National Aids Council. We have also strengthened our own structures dealing with the epidemic at the highest level, with additional Ministers being added to the Presidential Task Team on Aids, headed by the Deputy President.

Given the absence of a cure, HIV/Aids research continues to be another strategic area of focus. We are very happy that the recent launch of the African Aids Vaccine Programme in Cape Town emphasised the need for greater investment in this regard.

Allow me to use this opportunity to commend our doctors, nurses and other health workers for their sterling work in caring for HIV/Aids patients. Also worthy of mention are the care-givers in communities and various hospices around the country, most of whom look after Aids patients voluntarily.

Some of the unsung heroes and heroines of the HIV/Aids battle include people such as Mr Patrick Titi of Guguletu whose story, published in the Drum magazine recently touched my heart and, I am sure, many other hearts too. Mr Titi is caring for his friend, Mr Goodridge Letsatsi and his son Itumeleng, who are both HIV-positive and ill.

It is through the actions of such people that we can hold our heads high and say we are truly a caring nation. We also gain courage when we meet people living with the disease, such as Musa Njoko from KwaMashu, whose powerful testimony at the Moral Regeneration Summit brought the reality of Aids to many delegates. Miss Njoko and other compatriots living with HIV/Aids continue to be an inspiration to us, through the manner in which they challenge stereotypes about people living with HIV/Aids.

We were recently reminded of the evils of colonialism and the human misery it brought through the story of Miss Sarah Baartman. This daughter of the Khoikhoi people was taken away from the land of her birth and became an object of display in Europe, in a most despicable and obscene manner. The return of her remains from France on 3 May was an occasion of both sadness and joy, and her burial in the next few months, in her motherland, will restore our common dignity. In fact, Sarah Baartman will be laid to rest for the first time since her death on 1 January 1816.

This simple yet powerful accession of the human dignity of all is well- captured in the Bill of Rights of our Constitution. The return of Sarah Baartman is a reminder of what freedom means to all of us, particularly to those who were victims of colonialism and apartheid.

Promoting the dignity of South Africans is one of the objectives of the Commission for the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Cultural, Religious and Linguistic Communities Bill, passed by this House recently. This is another important step to realise and celebrate our diversity, and it will provide us with the means to further unite us despite our different backgrounds. It is a major step towards the vision encapsulated in the words of Chief Luthuli in 1961, and I quote him again:

Our vision has always been that of a non-racial democratic South Africa, which upholds the rights of all who live in our country to remain there as full citizens with equal rights and responsibilities with all others.

For the consummation of this idea we have laboured unflinchingly. We shall continue to labour unflinchingly.

With these words in mind, let us strive to establish a caring nation, rich in its diversity and outlook, and united in its commitment in the quest for a better life for all. [Applause.]

Mr B H HOLOMISA: Mr Chairperson, hon President and Deputy President, hon Ministers and hon members of this House, firstly, allow me to congratulate President Mbeki on his sixtieth birthday. We say happy birthday to the President.

Ukhule ukhokhobe, mkhuluwa. [May you stay for ever young.]

Turning to the hon the Deputy President, I must say that I was impressed with his singing at Peter Mokaba’s funeral. In terms of our culture, the hon the Deputy President brightened up a sad occasion. Peter Mokaba’s funeral was well-attended and dignified. He deserved a proper funeral like that.

This is especially as true for another ANC speaker at the event, the President of the ANC Youth League, Malusi Gigaba, who attacked the Mail and Guardian for its reports on Mokaba’s history.

It is perhaps worth remembering that the one-time columnist for the Mail and Guardian’s forerunner, The Weekly Mail, was none other than Jeremy Cronin, who once described Peter Mokaba, Winnie Mandela, Tony Yengeni and myself as populists, and even suggested that some of us were apartheid agents. It is, therefore, strange that now some of us would criticise a paper that we supported when the poisonous fountain pen of the hon Cronin graced its pages.

Indeed, it has become something of an instinctive preoccupation of some of the so-called intellectuals in the ruling party to call one names if one differs with them. One may even be labelled a treacherous serpent whose head must be smashed. However, we should all agree that the turnout at the funeral indicated that people recognised Peter’s contribution, despite Cronin’s assertion.

The Budget Vote before us reflects much more than the nearly R130 million allocated to the Presidency itself. It is in the Presidency where all budgetary priorities are ultimately determined and, therefore, we must today hold the President to account for the priorities of the Government that he leads.

The number one priority in this country remains job creation. Government’s jobless economic growth policy, which is implemented at the behest of the Presidency, has left our children with a dismal inheritance. The economy has shed millions of jobs. The so-called jobless growth is, in fact, not growth but stagnation. It eats at the very heart of our society, replacing hope with despair. It is unemployment that makes a mockery of the Bill of Rights. It is a massive problem that must be addressed urgently.

Frankly, a growing number of South Africans are questioning the way in which resources in this country are being utilised and allocated.

The solution to the challenges facing South Africa is simply to commit Government to investing in this country and its people. Instead, Government clings to an economic model that has failed dismally. The self-imposed structural adjustment package is supposedly practised by the developed world, and therefore Government insists that we follow suit.

The truth is that the developed world continues to invest billions of dollars in their own economies every single year. It is direct and positive intervention in their economies, because they will not allow millions of jobs to be destroyed just to pander to the dictates of other countries.

The United States only recently passed legislation to invest trillions of rands in their agricultural sector, whilst here at home we are being lectured on the effects of globalisation, yet Government spends billions of rands to procure weapons of war.

The pattern of the uneven distribution of resources still plagues our economy. Many rural people cannot understand how they became second-class citizens, as if the Bill of Rights only applies in urban areas. The poor in urban areas receive a housing subsidy while the same cannot be said of the rural poor. It is not unreasonable for rural people to expect equal treatment under the Constitution. We should not forget that the rural areas are the breadbaskets of this country, as well as that of many of our neighbours. Agriculture, along with ecotourism, holds the potential to create thousands of sustainable jobs, and to contribute massively to the economy of this country. The dams and power stations that urban people rely on are in the rural areas, but the rural communities have limited access to them. We propose that resources should rather be pooled and we should focus on assisting rural people to become viable farmers. Not only will we be addressing the issue of hunger, but we will also be providing jobs. In the process, ownership becomes an economic reality, and not merely political entitlement or patronising charity.

The examples of how such strategies have successfully been implemented are legend. One needs only to travel up the West Coast of South Africa to witness the irrigation schemes covering hundreds of kilometres. They have turned a barren countryside into a viable agricultural hub. This infrastructure was the initiative of the previous regime that very successfully addressed the so-called `poor Afrikaner’ problem. Government should intervene by providing development incentives and attract investors to the countryside. There are opportunities for agro-industries where value would be added to our agricultural produce.

At the turn of the 19th century, the rural communities in the Eastern Cape and other provinces were the granaries of Southern Africa. We can revive that culture by introducing innovative development initiatives in the rural areas. Rural development will reverse the flood from the rural areas into the cities, where there are no jobs and no residential or educational infrastructure. We have noted that the Minister for Agriculture and Land Affairs has started to see the wisdom of such an approach, but she needs to be assisted with a bigger budget.

I further wish to address myself to the crucial challenge of education in this country. Education is crucial because the development of our country to meet the challenges of wealth and job creation hinges on the provision of quality and equitable education. Advancement of education in order to enhance individual skills and the spiritual well-being of our citizens is predicated on academic freedom and the provision of an empowering educational environment with excellent research facilities, an environment where there is an unhindered pursuit of the truth and development of human potential.

At present, the national education policies of the Ministry of Education, which have been endorsed by Cabinet, are at variance with the need and choices of the people of South Africa, the disadvantaged majority on the fringes of society who have been the butt of successive discriminatory policies of the previous regimes.

The Education Ministry’s document entitled ``The transformation and reconstruction of the higher education system’’ outlines the objectives of the policy and, on the face of it, they are captivating and there is no apparent contradiction with the vision we have for the upliftment of our disadvantaged communities.

Our point of divergence is the mode through which the Minister proposes to advance his dream. The fatal flaw in the Minister’s strategy is his preoccupation with cost, which is one of the key motivating factors of his rationalisation plan. Consequently, there will be a radical reduction in the number of universities, from 36 to 21. The merger of university campuses and technikons gravitates around the existing traditional white universities.

The black colleges are disqualified because of their apartheid origins, while the white institutions are preserved to form the core of the new rationalised education policy. Only Fort Hare and the University of the Western Cape survived the Minister’s onslaught as flagships, presumably because of their struggle credentials. The University of Zululand barely survived by some inexplicable mercy. Our argument is that these so-called apartheid institutions happen to be located in key nodal points, which had been neglected by the previous white government. The fact that they emerged out of an apartheid rationale does not divest them of the access to education that they have provided to the periphery or disadvantaged communities.

Mr J P CRONIN: [Inaudible.]

Mr B H HOLOMISA: I would like to tell Mr Cronin that the Ministry should have located these glowing transformation strategies at these institutions, transformed them into competent academic centres, developed their research capacities so that they could be compared favourably with the University of Cape Town, where that hon member was perhaps taught, or with the University of Pretoria, the University of Stellenbosch, the University of Witwatersrand, the University of Natal and the University of the Free State.

The technical education that the Minister plans to launch would be an additional element to meet the technical skills needs of predominantly agricultural and rural technically underserviced communities. I wish to tell Mr Cronin that technical education should not displace the academic content of these black institutions. What the current policy does is to create two classes of people, namely the urban, predominantly white, intellectual aristocracy, and the all-black, rural, blue collar working- class contingent. It is difficult to understand the reasoning that the new policy caters for teacher training to meet the teaching needs when, in the first place, it was the Minister himself who closed down historical, credible teaching colleges in a country with a dearth in the teaching profession.

The New Partnership for Africa’s Development envisages and urges a partnership between Africa and the G-8 specifically, as well as partnerships within Africa, and between Africa and the rest of the developing south. Much emphasis and shuttle diplomacy have been focused on the G-8. This northward-leaning leaves the impression of another begging bowl scenario. We all have a responsibility to allay this perception. In order to succeed, we must demonstrate a clear understanding of the underlying economic power relations linking the south to the north. The transfer of political instruments to African governing elites has not resolved the unequal economic relationship inherited from colonialism. We ourselves have inherited an economic order which places our economy at the periphery with an over-reliance in relation to the core economies of the north.

Large South African businesses are relocating abroad, and there are no guarantees that they will be balancing remittances in their home base. This pattern affirms that the old economic order is still alive and thriving. Let us understand, therefore, that the engagement of Africa by the north in Nepad is driven by self-interest, not by philanthropy. It is imperative, therefore, that we strengthen our internal African economies and establish strong south-south trade links, which should look inwards and break the industrial imperial strangehold which carved us into parallel spheres of influence. There is a perception that the authors of Nepad are being prescribed to by the developed world to conform to their narrow definitions of what constitutes democracy and good governance.

We must be careful not to be prescriptive, and be seen to be brandishing our constitutional model as the only acceptable political formula. Other countries may well develop participatory political institutions which are perfectly harmonious and acceptable to their peoples. That does not mean that we must be uncritical of latent abuse and corruption. [Time expired.]

The MINISTER FOR AGRICULTURE AND LAND AFFAIRS: Mr Chairperson, hon President, hon Deputy President, hon members and ladies and gentlemen, it is clear from the speech of the hon Holomisa that he does not understand and appreciate what this Government has done with regard to targeting people in rural communities, and poor people in urban areas. If he did, he would have understood the Rural Development Strategy and Urban Renewal Programme and what their contents are, and what they seek to achieve.

Secondly, it is clear that he has not been following the debates on the land front to see that, indeed, we are starting to address the issues of black farming, particularly in rural areas, so that they themselves can take part in the development of our society.

On the issue of Nepad, I hope that the hon Holomisa does not agree with the perception he says exists among other people that those who were the initiators of Nepad are influenced by the north on what it is that we want. This is our plan. We have developed it and we shall implement it.

The present budget, in my view, is an expression of the role that the highest office in the land plays in the management of Government, monitoring and overseeing the implementation of government policies. In this context, therefore, it is this office that epitomises what Government is all about and what it does for its citizens.

In the state-of-the-nation address in February this year in this august House, the hon President gave an indication of what the Government’s programme will be for the year 2002. He articulated that central to whatever we need to do as Government, members of the legislatures and citizens, is the fight against poverty and underdevelopment in our country. Today, therefore, our task is to look at how the allocation of the budget for the work of the Presidency will advance these objectives as outlined in February 2002.

Different ministries and departments have shared with this House the achievements made in the implementation of programmes in the past year during their budget debates.

Their reports have indicated that indeed we are, step by step, moving away from poverty and that we are confronting the challenges of development in the many interventions we make in the areas of macroeconomic reforms in order to achieve economic growth by improving the levels of delivery of basic needs in a number of our municipalities by ensuring that we increase access to social grants to those who are poor and vulnerable in our society, by ensuring that we improve the human resource development capacity of our people so that they can become creators of jobs, and not become dependent and always remain those who need to be employed.

We have also ensured that our human settlements, through tenure security, continuously access the Government’s housing programme and land delivery programmes. Also, the fight against crime and corruption continues to give all of us a sense of comfort that, indeed, we are creating a safe and stable environment for our people.

Collectively, we have also noted that, indeed, there are still many challenges that we have to address in order to address issues of poverty and underdevelopment in our midst. One of these is the eradication of hunger in our society, the continent and the world. In an ideal world, we would all be food secure. However, our reality in this country, Africa and the world as a whole, shows that we continue to have millions of people who go hungry and, in many instances, are effectively powerless to resolve the problem alone.

It was, in part, due to the recognition of this complex challenge of food insecurity that the UN member states agreed to include targets to reduce the number of people who are hungry by half by 2015 in the Millennium Declaration. The President has put the issue of food security and poverty eradication at the centre of the Government’s agenda. He has done this, mindful of the politics of food at regional, national and international levels. The unequal power relations in society continue to define who has access to food and who does not.

The economic governance of the world system, to a large extent, also determines who has access to the means of production and, therefore, defines who can and who cannot have access to food.

The unfair trading arrangements and subsidies such as those of the EU and the US, which are skewed towards the interests of the rich, are also a factor in defining what commodities can have access to what markets. This misuse of the world’s resources is the fundamental obstacle to development. In my view, these are at the heart of the politics of food in our world today.

In South Africa we can say we have the wealth of knowledge, human capital and a favourable share of natural resources to attack the challenges of hunger. Through the President’s own work in the Agricultural Working Group, we have been able to produce an agricultural sector plan where we would be able to work as partners in reversing the challenge of food insecurity in our country. We also have a clear Government commitment, expressed in our policies and legislation, as well as institutional frameworks, to progressively realise this basic need.

Our own strategy that we have developed and articulated is that of empowering our society to have the capacity to do things on its own, and to change the situation for the better without becoming perpetual dependants. It is for this reason that the Vuk’uZenzele campaign has been welcomed by many in this country, because it seeks to move away from the notion that the poor cannot do things for themselves. It is this spirit of Vuk’uZenzele that has sustained many communities in our country, and created buffer zones to starvation and famine in many rural areas. With little pieces of land and water, many homesteads have been able to make a living. It is this resilience that has led many amongst us to fight the notion that we should continue to be baby-sat by those who are, in part, responsible for our misery.

As the ANC, through the Constitution, we asserted that the socioeconomic rights are as much a factor as fundamental human rights. The right to access sufficient food is one such right that is enshrined in our Constitution. It obliges the state to ensure that it enables its citizens to progressively realise their basic food needs. Through this intent in our Constitution, we have continued to improve our capacity to implement our intervention strategies to deal with the challenge of hunger in our society.

Last week in Rome, heads of states and governments, including our President, assessed how far we have gone in implementing the 1996 plan of action. All heads of states and governments agreed that we have moved positively towards dealing with the problem worldwide, though not to our satisfaction. It became clear that we will have to have a shift in the flow of resources for development to intervention aimed at building and improving rural infrastructure.

In addition, we need a dramatic reduction in the levels of direct farmer support in the developed countries in order to remove the trade-distorting effects these resources have, whilst we at the same time create space for a self-supporting growth opportunity for agriculture and other related sectors in developing countries.

Finally, it needs to be clear that the responsibility of addressing the growing levels of poverty and disparity in income, which fuels people’s vulnerability to hunger, needs to be explicit in the world’s programme for sustainable development. The forthcoming conference on sustainable development will create an opportunity for us as a country to again assert our belief that there is a link between the issues of environment, social development and economy if we are to talk about sustainable development. We need to move away from just acknowledging the importance of food security, and indeed have concrete commitments from many governments in the world, civil society and private sector, so that we can do something to change the situation.

There is no doubt that growth in agriculture has a higher multiplier effect on overall economic growth. It is in this context that we ourselves, as a people in South Africa, support the role that the President has played in the development of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development. [Applause.]

Rev K R J MESHOE: Chairperson, the hon the President and hon members, I firstly want to say happy birthday to the President. May the Lord bless and keep him.

Many South Africans who have been following discussions and news on the African Union are aware that there are some differences between what our President envisages for Africa and what the Libyan leader, Muammar Gaddafi, has in mind. In today’s Citizen newspaper, it is reported that Mr Gaddafi has championed the vision of an ``Africa free of the shackles of the World Bank, IMF and other institutions of international finance and trade as an attractive proposition’’.

What we all want to know is whether our President and Mr Gaddafi managed to fuse their two concepts when they met last week, or what the latest is on this front? The President needs to have as many South Africans as possible to endorse his concept and vision of Africa. For this to happen, it is important that he does not leave ordinary voters behind. I agree with those who say Nepad and the concept of an African Union have not been properly introduced to ordinary citizens on the ground. There needs to be a proper debate, not only amongst politicians and intellectuals, but also amongst ordinary South Africans whose lives will be impacted by the ensuing relevant decisions.

During the past few days, there have been different reactions to the reply that the Deputy President gave to our member, hon Cheryllyn Dudley, when she read from a Love Life publication, Thetha nathi, which, amongst other things, advises young people to have oral sex. She further asked the Deputy President whether such material was going to help in the HIV/Aids situation. His reply was, and I quote: I cannot answer on wrong things that people do that are unnatural''. I cannot talk about that’’, he continued to say.

This reply has left many people bemused, because of Government’s support of Love Life. Why does Government support an organisation that promotes ideas that undermine its values? Why should children be expected to talk about what even the Deputy President does not want to talk about? The President must come out clearly on this issue. Does he agree with Love Life’s CEO who is reported to have said, and I quote: ``Oral sex is emphasised in the campaign as a safer alternative to unprotected, penetrative sex’’. What about abstinence? Why is our Government part of a strategy that is destroying the morals and future of our children? Why talk about the need for a moral regeneration when leaders in Government are supporting organisations that promote and defend moral degeneration?

The levels of rape of minors reported in our schools and homes have never been experienced to this degree before. In today’s Citizen newspaper, for example, there is a report about three boys aged between seven and 11 years who allegedly raped a six-year old girl at the back of her home in Verulam, north of Durban last week. One hears or reads about babies and school children who have been raped almost every day. When and how is this going to end? We need direction from the President.

I want to appeal to the President to love our children enough to protect them from individuals and organisations that are destroying and undermining their innocence, especially little black children. Children must be protected from pornography and other obscene materials. They must be protected from immorality that is flooding our homes via television. Displaying an age restriction on the screen does not help parents who have lost the authority over the children to the state. Some parents are told that it is a form of abuse when they try to stop their children from watching such harmful material on television. Such parents are caught between a rock and hard place. What are they supposed to do? Such parents do require the help and intervention of our President.

I agree with the hon Thandi Modise who said that research has shown that overexposure to violence tends to make children more violent. I must also add that exposing young children to immorality and promiscuity will make them immoral and promiscuous. So, it is in the power of the President to remove pornography from our television screens and stores. For the sake of our children, we want to urge him to do it.

Established democracies such as America, the UK, Canada and Australia do not have the kind of immoral filth that our open television viewing time has in this country. So, those who like to defend such filth on our screens, cannot do it in the name of democracy. We love our children enough to say pornography hurts them, and it must therefore be removed from our society.

In conclusion, sexual harassment within the corridors of Parliament should not be tolerated either. One of our members was recently subjected to humiliating sexual harassment, and we expect Parliament to do something about it. There are many things that are said at the podium and in the back benches that we disagree with. Yet, we treat all members with the respect that they deserve.

I agree with the Speaker that it is worrying to see how some members in this House attack each other’s person instead of just dealing with the issues raised by the person. [Applause.]

The MINISTER IN THE PRESIDENCY: Chairperson, Comrade President, Comrade Deputy President and hon members, one of the most pressing challenges we face in South Africa is to root out discrimination. The battle on the racial and gender fronts is being pursued with vigour, although there are serious setbacks from time to time and some people in the public and private sectors could do far more in the cause. Yet, there is ground for believing that, more than many other countries in the world, we are finally, though slowly, creating the reality of a nonracial and nonsexist democracy. For this we must, to a great extent, thank the leadership of our democratic statehood, visionaries such as O R Tambo, Nelson Mandela and Thabo Mbeki.

We also appreciate, from our own history, the futility of national division, and this gives us inspiration to ensure that it will never happen again. However, we must also thank the ordinary people of this land, particularly the youth, for finding ways to get closer to one another despite past divisions and the disruptive reality of unacceptable poverty amidst concentrated wealth. The unifying experience of seeing the whole nation enthuse over the soccer World Cup was stunning. We won as a nation.

Yet, race and gender are not the only discriminatory fields where we must focus our attention.

There is the question of people with disabilities. They have, for years, suffered the indignity of being neglected and excluded. We must redouble our efforts to put this right.

We have lived partway through the African Decade for Disabled Persons, 1999- 2009, as declared by the OAU. We seek African solutions to a world problem. And there are signs that disabilities are on the increase in Africa and that people with disabilities continue to be marginalised as countries grapple with economic woes and civil strife.

Nepad offers the chance of real growth in economies and improvement in social conditions and we, therefore, can see hope at the end of the tunnel. We are inspired to press on with Nepad with commitment and enthusiasm.

We have been actively engaging friends on the continent and in the region to ensure that the disability movement will thrive. The Office on the Status of Disabled People in the Presidency, in conjunction with like- minded institutions, has been actively at work on this in the past year. Not only were we one of the first countries to make known our support for the United Nations’ Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities, as reported on last year, but we have also been engaging international friends and multinational fora on this important development to ensure that the fight for equality of people with disabilities is both sustained and fully international. Discussions in this regard at United Nations level are at an advanced stage, and we are playing our role.

At the same time, Government encourages people with disabilities to make their slogan: ``Nothing about us, without us’’, a reality. There are programmes to train city councillors in the new local government structures so that they would be willing and able to increase delivery of services to people with disabilities. Councillors with disabilities will be offered training too. Disability desks are being established within the district and metropolitan councils to achieve these objectives. Apart from ongoing work to ensure the implementation of the Integrated National Disability Strategy in all national departments and the provinces, a major challenge we face is the continuing lack of awareness around disability in general and the rights of people with disabilities in particular. In this regard, the Office on the Status of Disabled People will, in the coming year, focus extensively on a broad awareness programme to be implemented through partnerships with disability organisations, such as the SA Federal Council and Disabled People SA.

The OSDP is engaged in similar partnerships to ensure that the broad Government drive to register all people who qualify for social grants in the coming year becomes a reality for people with disabilities, no matter where they make their daily living.

The Joint Monitoring Committee on the Quality of Life and Status of Youth, Children and People with Disabilities has an important role to play, and we would appreciate all the support and assistance that resides in this committee.

In terms of the lives and wellbeing of our children, we remember vividly that children, many of them hardly in their teens, were instrumental in the fight against apartheid, and we salute those children, particularly in view of the heroism of young people in Soweto and elsewhere, commemorated on Sunday.

Today the South African Constitution strongly promotes the rights of children, and their wellbeing is of paramount importance to the nation. We have ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child and a number of other international treaties, such as the Convention Concerning the Prohibition and Immediate Action for the Elimination of the Worst Forms of Child Labour.

We have also ratified the African Union Charter on the Rights and Welfare of Children. The African charter points the way to important regional co- operation. It is only when we work together as the African continent that we will be able to address the issues that plague us, such as war, conflict, abject poverty and communicable diseases, including HIV and Aids.

We are poised to bring about real development and prosperity for our country, our continent, our nation, our people, and especially our children. Nepad is also an important vehicle for the advancement and sustainability of the rights of our children. We stand convinced that the only approach to ensuring the long-term protection of children’s rights is to integrally link political and economic progress with the everyday lives of our children in a comprehensive and holistic manner.

Since South Africa’s ratification of the Convention on the Rights of the Child in June 1995, we have developed a national programme of action for children. Our vision is simple: Put children first.

Our legislation and policies are in line with the Constitution, and some of the advances we have made relate to health care services provided free for pregnant mothers, as well as for children under the age of six years.

I now come to primary health care. The Integrated Management of Childhood Diseases was introduced at primary health care facilities to address principal causes of childhood illnesses and death. There is also the expanded programme on immunisation, which has succeeded in reducing both polio and measles close to elimination.

I apologise to Manto for taking all her things.

There is the introduction of the integrated nutrition programme which intends to improve the nutritional status of children …

An HON MEMBER: What things?

The MINISTER: … I meant her speech. [Laughter.]

… aged nought to six years and primary school children from poor households, the aim being to provide them with a meal a day.

The Child Justice Bill, shortly to be considered by this House, deals with children accused of crimes and it aims to, one, set a new minimum age for criminal capacity; two, ensure individual assessment of each child; three, establish a special legal procedure and, four, provide for a creative range of sentencing options.

A comprehensive review of childcare legislation is underway, including the important focal area of sexual offences against children. The Moral Regeneration Movement, led by Deputy President Jacob Zuma - and he spoke about it earlier - includes reflection and planned action on all forms of abuse against children.

The public awareness campaign we have been engaging in to ensure that all people, notably children themselves, know what their rights are, is now well-established.

Similarly, on the first Saturday of November every year, we celebrate National Children’s Day. In 2001 we moved out of the traditional metropolitan centres to celebrate this important day on our calendar in one of the more rural and underdeveloped provinces. We plan to continue this trend in 2002.

We are not only working at national level. The Office on the Rights of the Child in the Presidency and the rest of the role-players in the National Programme of Action for Children will further engage provinces, local councils and municipalities to establish local plans of action for children to ensure that implementation is real for all children, no matter where they find themselves.

The challenges we face remain, especially in the light of media reports in the past 12 months on child and related abuse. We need to ensure that people are not only aware of the implications of our Constitution with regard to the rights of children, but even more importantly, also that our daily actions as Government, civil society and individuals reflect a true understanding and appreciation of the value of our children.

The Office on the Rights of the Child, in conjunction with the NPA secretariat will, in the coming year, engage role-players at all levels on the possibility of developing a comprehensive South African Government policy document to chart South Africa’s specific challenges and the outcomes we envisage as we prepare to enter the second decade of democracy.

The Office on the Status of Women in the Presidency, as reported last year, continued with the training of gender focal points in national departments and the staff members in provincial Offices on the Status of Women. This work has reaped benefits not only for the individuals attending the workshops and training sessions, but has made a broader impact on the general strengthening of the gender machinery as envisaged in the National Policy Framework for Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment. We intend continuing with this work until such time as all stakeholders have gained adequate competency levels for full implementation of Government programmes and activities in all three spheres.

A major focus of the work of the OSW in the past 12 months has been to actively engage institutions and counterparts on the continent and in the region to establish the requisite gender focus structures for the implementation of Nepad programmes and the launch of the African Union. One of the challenges is the continued danger of the watering down of important advances made in Beijing.

Generally, our national and provincial institutions compare most favourably in world terms. Nine out of 27 Ministers, or 33,3%, are women. Eight out of 14 Deputy Ministers, that is 57,1%, are women. A total of 30,3% of the National Assembly members are women and 25,8% of provincial legislature members are women.

It is well-known that the ANC’s record in these matters is enviable and there is warranted cause for pride. I challenge other parties to follow suit. [Applause.] I urge MPs generally, and the portfolio and joint monitoring committees in particular, to see that all parties reach acceptable levels in the defined time. If necessary, let us look at the question of whether or not we might not need legislation with respect to this.

HON MEMBERS: Hear! Hear!

The MINISTER IN THE PRESIDENCY: When we march from the 2004 elections, let us be sure that our representivity will be the envy of the enlightened world. Precisely the same goes for persons with disabilities. [Interjections.]

In the next two years, South Africa has significant reporting responsibilities in terms of our commitment to the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women, the Commonwealth, the OAU and SADC. [Interjections.]

The OSW, with the ongoing work in the policy unit in the Presidency, and in close co-operation with the rest of Government, the legislatures and civil society, will this year put in place the necessary processes and systems to ensure that these reports truly reflect the advances made in the past eight years and the challenges we face to reach a real nonsexist and gender-equal society in South Africa.

Some of the early indications in terms of these advances are reflected in the recently released second edition of Women and Men in South Africa from Statistics SA. Among other things, it indicates that we have seen a decrease in the numbers of women and the distances they have walked for access to fuel and water since 1995. There has been better and closer access to clean water, as well as increased numbers of women accessing work.

The challenges we face relate to ensuring departmental specific gender- policy documents and the development of an inclusive and comprehensive national action plan to attain gender equity and women’s empowerment on the basis of these policy documents. The OSW will do more work and consult further in this regard during the coming year.

Last year, when we gathered here, it was reported that soon a framework for the sustainable development of young people would be adopted by Government. This year we are proud to report that Cabinet accepted a national policy framework for youth development. It is a policy framework that provides us with a clear indication of the areas in which we would like to make advances between now and 2007.

In this regard, the National Youth Commission has been playing a crucial role, not only in popularising the framework among young people themselves, but also among all the other organisations and institutions focusing on the issues that affect the lives of our younger generation.

The NYC has established strong and functional relations with the SA National Youth Council and the Umsobomvu Fund to ensure that the issues of youth unemployment, skills development, the involvement of young people in agriculture and tourism, as outlined in policy documents, receive the attention needed to ensure implementation, and not only talk.

This year, inspired by the national call of Vuk’uZenzele, the South African youth, under the leadership of the NYC and the SAYC, is embarking on a series of service activities. The establishment of volunteer corps in communities, as Comrade President himself mentioned, to sustain the campaign on the practice of volunteerism beyond June 2002, will form the backbone of these activities. We are continuing to engage national Government departments and all other role-players on the best possible ways in which to establish a full-fledged national youth service, one that will truly entrench the spirit of how we can lend a hand to build a better future.

Further to these activities, the NYC launched an updated version of a youth information guide, focusing on the needs and types of information that young people do not readily find available, and which assist them to take full control and charge of their own development and future, through accessing services and information that are already available.

The most serious challenges we face as Government with regard to these four specific and important areas of transformation - gender equality, disability, the rights of children and young people - are not so much related to the policy and planning phases, but most importantly, to how we can ensure that through the knowledge and experience we have developed over the past five years, the time these areas have been receiving specific focus from the Presidency, is truly used in implementing Government’s programmes across the board. Indeed, how do we ensure that these focal areas become an integral part of our monitoring and evaluation systems in Government, nationally, in provinces and at local level? The Policy and Co-ordination Unit in the Presidency will work closely with the people responsible for these programmes and activities to ensure that whenever we look at ourselves and establish how far we moved in preceding months and years, we will also do so through the lenses of people living with the reality of disability, gender discrimination, the challenges of being young in South Africa today, and how well we have met our commitment to put children first.

Taking a broader look at South Africa and drawing on the research which has been done at Stellenbosch University in terms of real growth, South Africa boomed after the Second World War up to the mid-1970s with an annual average growth of 4,73% based on constant rand values of 1995 and taking inflation out of the figures. In the period 1977 to 1994, average growth fell to 1,56%.

However, from 1994 to 1999, the new democracy’s economy started to stir with an average growth of 2,5% recorded annually. Now, in the two years from 2000 to 2001, the annual average growth percentage was 2,8%. This is a significant turnaround. Now let us take a longer look at the per capita income in constant rand terms. From 1975 to 1993, it declined by 11%. Yet, from January 1994 to 1999, it increased by 2,2%. Finally, in the following two years, 2000 to 2001, it rose by another 1,6%. That, too, is a significant bounceback.

So, in closing, let me relate to the hon members some facts about a remarkable country that I know of. Eight of its universities are listed amongst the top 200 research universities in the world. Since early 1999, no fewer than four million people were given access to clean running water, and a total of seven million since 1994.

Electricity in the home is up from 58% of households in 1994 to 80% now. Rural electrification is up by 218% in rural areas in seven years. The number of rural houses with electric stoves has doubled since 1994. Home ownership is up from 66% to 77% since 1994, ie 1,5 million family homes built and occupied. Seventy per cent of the people live in formal housing.

It is perceived as one of the most attractive and safest tourist destinations since 11 September. It has the 29th largest economy in the world, the 27th largest population and the 24th largest land area. … [Interjections.]

Mr D H M GIBSON: The most boring speech in the world!

The MINISTER IN THE PRESIDENCY: It has one of the world’s most progressive democratic constitutions. It is the sole producer internationally of Mercedes Benz Class C right-hand vehicles, and its BMW plant in its export effort is ranked first among European plants for quality. It is the world’s largest producer of gold and platinum, and it is the second largest fruit exporter in the world. Yes, I say to hon members and those negative-minded members, that this is our very own South Africa, our very own country! [Interjections.]

The above picture is an appropriate birthday present for the President. I say: Happy birthday, Comrade. To the President and the Deputy President I can only say: Welcome to the club of the veterans.

I thank the GCIS and the International Marketing Council for this information. It remains for me to offer my warm thanks to all in the Presidency who put dedicated shoulders to the wheel in the cause of the country, the Director-General, the Right Reverend Frank Chikane, management and all levels of staff and those in the offices that fall within the Presidency dedicated to creating a better life for those who have disabilities, for women, children and the youth. [Time expired.]

Dr P W A MULDER: Mr Chairperson, today is President Mbeki’s 60th birthday. My children sometimes ask me whether one becomes more optimistic or pessimistic as one grows older. Mark Twain said: If you are a pessimist before you turn 50 then you know too much, and if you are an optimist after you become 50 then you know too little. Well, I am 50 now, 10 years younger than the President, but I prefer the following definition of a pessimist: A pessimist is an optimist with experience.

My mother taught us to pay respect to older people. Anyone who is 10 years older than you, you must call ``oom’’ in Afrikaans. Therefore,

Geluk, oom Thabo. [Applous.] [Congratulations, ``oom’’ Thabo.] [Applause.]]

Three times as many people, mostly whites, emigrate from South Africa as immigrate to it. Since 1994, the annual emigration of professionals has been more than 50% higher than for 1989-1994 or 1994. Between 1/10, 1/8 and 1/5 of South Africans with a tertiary education now reside abroad. In 1998, 250 000 South African professionals were working in the US, Canada and abroad. This is not only true for whites and only for South Africa. At this moment, more black academics and professionals from Africa are teaching and working in the US than in the whole of Africa.

I know that in certain ANC circles, the reaction is: So what? We are better off without them!'' In the '80s the reaction in Afrikaner circles was much the same. `People who run away to countries abroad are cowards, unpatriotic, and traitors who cannot take the pressure.We are better off without them’’, was the reaction in those days.

Unluckily, it is not that simple. If people in any country leave in such large numbers, then something is seriously wrong. Whether it is the 80s of the old South Africa or the ANC and the new South Africa, there is a problem. For the future success of South Africa and for the success of Nepad, we must evaluate the reasons why people are leaving and we must do something about it. It is a very serious problem.

During a recent visit to the Netherlands and Belgium, I was often invited to come back home. With the word ``home’’ the people meant the Dutch- speaking countries. On my return, I wrote an article for an Afrikaans newspaper, Beeld, and I want to quote from it.

The more I travelled abroad, the more I realised that my heart is in Africa. What a strange longing for a beautiful, rough, sad and often sorrowful country. Why is my heart in Africa? Is it for the challenges Africa poses or is it only because of the beauty of our nature? I am fond of walking in summertime.

I stayed in Britain for a couple of months. I visited China, Australia, all the continents. I studied and stayed in the US for a whole year. They are wonderful countries, but none have a twilight and a sunset that could be compared to ours. Our blue, clear skies, the shades of red when the sun sets and the shapes formed by the clouds …

I am still quoting from my article.

What can be compared to gazing at the stars in the Karoo while pondering the wonder of God?

Apart from nature, the challenges of Africa are also important to me. I like to watch the TV bulletins for the popular immigration destinations, but they cannot hold my attention. The nature of their challenges are boring. They argue about questions - whether they have too many or too few sheep, whether a cloned cow should be slaughtered or not, and that is the main news in those countries.

My heart is attached to Africa but my mind sets conditions. I want to be myself in Africa. Is that too much to ask? If we succeed with this, surely more people will stay. That is the big, brutal challenge as I see it. If there is a place in the north of Africa for Arabs, with their religion and different culture, then surely there is a place for me in the south, even though black intolerants call me an Euro-African.

I heard from Azapo that we can now become members. They changed the white/black thing so maybe they have changed as well.

You may say that I am arrogant but I do feel a strange responsibility towards thousands who would never be able to leave South Africa regardless of what may happen in the future, even if they want to, poor people and Afrikaners who experience discrimination at the moment.

My father taught me one person at the right time at the right place makes a difference. I would like to believe that. I grieve for every person that emigrates because it is a loss to South Africa. But people who decide to stay and then only complain, moan and groan do not help at all. If you decide to stay, become involved. Do something yourself.

This is a quote from the article and the whole article can be read in Afrikaans in that newspaper. Different positive letters from Afrikaners abroad reading Beeld on the Internet followed my article. But, last Friday there was a very sad one. Cecil Barnard wrote the following letter in Beeld, and I am going to read it in Afrikaans. He wrote:

Ek het die Diaspora-artikels gelees en met vlam en energie daaraan deelgeneem. Aan die intellektuele sy van die debat was dit seker Dr Pieter Mulder se artikel, ``Keer terug en doen iets’’, wat die meeste harte diep geraak het.

Dan vertel hy hoe positief hulle was oor Suid-Afrika nadat hulle die artikel gelees het en van sy kollega, Tienie Tolken en sy vrou Christa, wat entoesiasties beplan het om terug te keer na Suid-Afrika en ‘n bydrae te maak. Met hul buitelandse geld het hulle ‘n huis gekoop in Kempton Park. Enkele aande gelede is hulle deur vier rowers ingewag en Tienie is doodgeskiet - sommer so, boem, daar gaan jy! Die boewe is weg en sal seker nooit gevang word nie.

Hy skryf verder:

Vir my het die debat oor immigrasie emosioneel in die harde praktyk hiermee geëindig. Ek weet skielik, vol van woede, dat ek geen begeerte meer het om terug te gaan en ‘n bydrae te lewer nie, behalwe om my huisraad in Suid-Afrika so gou moontlik te begin verkoop.

Dit is ons verantwoordelikheid as leiers om ‘n klimaat te skep waarin sulke voorvalle nie plaasvind nie. In KwaZulu-Natal is Mnr en Mev Dent van Wartburg die naweek vermoor. Hy was ‘n bekende boer van die omgewing. Ongeveer dieselfde tyd het ‘n jeugverteenwoordiger van die VF ‘n jeugparlement in Galeshewe in Kimberley bygewoon. Die ANC-jeuglede het telkens ``Kill the boer! Kill the farmer! gedreunsing’’, wat die VF- jeuglid, wat oor samewerking en versoening wou gaan praat het, so ontnugter het dat sy toestemming gevra het om dit nie verder by te woon nie. Ons het reeds ‘n klagte daaroor gelê.

Dis die verantwoordelikheid van alle politieke leiers om hul volgelinge op te voed en te dissiplineer. As hul gedrag rassisme en haatspraak bevorder, is dit ons almal se verantwoordelikheid. Die VF het reeds in die verlede verskeie mediaverklarings uitgereik waarin Afrikaners oor rassisme en haatspraak gekritiseer is.

Geen begrafnis van ‘n boer is nog gepolitiseer nie. Tog bly die vraag - en dit is ‘n harde vraag - wat sal die reaksie van die ANC-leiers wees as boere tydens die begrafnis van die Dent-egpaar wat hierdie Saterdag plaasvind, sal dreunsing,`` Kill the Xhosa! Kill the black man’’? Kan ons oor die implikasie daarvan dink en wat die effek daarvan na almal se kant toe sal wees? (Translation of Afrikaans paragraphs follows.)

[Then he said how positive they were about South Africa after they had read the article, and told about his colleague, Tienie Tolken, and his wife, Christa, who planned enthusiastically to return to South Africa and make a contribution. With their foreign capital they bought a house in Kempton Park. A few nights ago four robbers laid in wait for them and Tienie was shot dead - just like that, bang, and that is the end of you! The criminals disappeared and will probably never be apprehended.

He went on to write:

Vir my het die debat oor immigrasie emosioneel in die harde praktyk hiermee geëindig. Ek weet skielik, vol van woede, dat ek geen begeerte meer het om terug te gaan en ‘n bydrae te lewer nie, behalwe om my huisraad in Suid-Afrika so gou moontlik te begin verkoop. It is our responsibility, as leaders, to create a climate in which incidents like these do not take place. This weekend Mr and Mrs Dent of Wartburg in KwaZulu-Natal were murdered. He was a well-known farmer in the area. At about the same time a youth representative of the FF attended a youth parliament in Galeshewe. Time and again the ANC youth members chanted: ``Kill the boer! Kill the farmer!’’, and this disillusioned the FF youth member, who wanted to speak about co-operation and reconciliation, to such an extent that she asked for permission not to attend the rest of the proceedings. We have already laid a charge in this regard.

It is the responsibility of all political leaders to educate and discipline their followers. If their behaviour promotes racism and hate speech, it is the responsibility of all of us. The FF has already issued several media statements in the past in which Afrikaners were criticised about racism and hate speech.

No funeral of a farmer has yet been politicised. However, the question remains - and this is a hard question - what would be the reaction of the ANC leaders if farmers were to chant: ``Kill the Xhosa! Kill the black man!’’ during the funeral of the Dents which will take place on Saturday? Can we consider the implication of that and the effect of it on all concerned?]

I must also be fair and compliment the President for what he said in his speech at Mr Mokaba’s funeral about students who took part in burning down buildings at the University of the North. That was leadership. Difficult as it is for all of us as leaders, we have to do things that are right but not always popular.

After 11 September, some feared that Africa’s insignificance internationally would wipe it off the radar screen of mainstream international affairs. Thanks to President Mbeki and Nepad that has not happened. What is important now is that we ask not what the West can do for us, but what Africa can do for itself. Future generations would have to blame us if this initiative does not succeed. The FF supports the President in his effort at the G-8 summit. [Time expired.]

Mr M G J MZONDEKI: Mr Chairperson, Comrade President, Comrade Deputy President and hon members, when the ANC made a commitment to improve the quality of life of all and to ensure that all have access to social justice, it also put in place mechanisms to ensure that indeed these obligations are met. The Presidency enables the President, the Deputy President and the Minister in the Presidency to fulfil their constitutional responsibilities.

I would like to talk about some of the structures that are established in the Presidency. Because the ANC is committed to ensuring that not only a few people enjoy constitutional rights, but that all do, it found it appropriate and very strategic to have a special focus on children, the youth, women and people with disabilities by establishing such offices in the Presidency. The establishment of these offices in the Presidency was therefore a fulfilment of that commitment.

An alternative would have been to have Ministries responsible for each of these sectors. For instance, we could have had a Ministry which dealt with issues of women and a Ministry which dealt with children’s affairs, but that approach would undermine the principle of full integration into all spheres of South African society and the mainstreaming of issues on children, youth, women and disabled persons.

The establishment of these offices in the Presidency ensures that there is sufficient access to all government departments and ensures their positive impact on all government legislation, policies and programmes. We want to thank the President for taking a lead on this commitment.

As we debate this Budget Vote today, it becomes important to also examine some of the work that is done from these offices so that we can decide whether we have allocated enough resources to enable them, to do their work. I will not be able to deal with all of them, and I know that the Minister in the Presidency has already dealt with some of these.

The overall objective of the Office on the Rights of the Child is to work towards the improvement, protection and promotion of children’s rights and children’s issues.

Let us look at some of the work that has been done between 2001 and 2002 from that office. Regarding the media code workshops, two workshops were held which were attended by editors, journalists and representatives of print, radio, television and electronic media. They all contributed to the groundwork that brought about the code of ethics which will govern how the media will report on children. Members, I think, will share with me the view that that is very important. Many people have not been able to come forward to report the abuse of their children because of the way in which the media reported these issues. I think that this is a very great step towards achieving our goal.

There has also been the Child’s Rights Awareness Campaign which has been conducted through documentaries and radio talk shows. International Children’s Day was held here, in this Parliament, last year and its theme was: Hear our voices. Children were appealing to all of us to hear what they had to say. There were also the children’s rights advocacy campaigns which were held in all the nine provinces between January and April this year. Close to 100 workshops were held and reached the target of 10 000 children. A workshop was held in Parliament from May to June 2002 where children represented their learner representative councils in Parliament as part of the Child Protection Week activities. A number of other activities were planned for the year.

The Office on the Status of Disabled Persons monitors the extent to which departments implement the Integrated National Disability Strategy. For those members who do not know, this is the policy framework which guides departments as to how they can integrate issues around disabilities into their various departmental programmes. The following projects were undertaken by that office. A situational analysis on the integration of disability into government departments was conducted. I will not deal with the report which came out of that because it is quite extensive, but it is going to play a very important role. It is going to serve as a means to monitor the extent to which government departments implement the Integrated National Disability Strategy. I must say that if one just throws a glance at that report, one finds that there is still a lot of work that needs to be done by a variety of departments.

A disability public education strategy was also developed in that office. I happened to attend one of the workshops which did the groundwork towards the establishment of that strategy. There was a full commitment by the media to begin to focus not only on the negative aspects of disability, but on the positive ones as well. The OSDP is also, as the Minister mentioned, involved in co-ordinating the establishment of disability desks in the provinces and at local government level where a lot of delivery is going to take place.

I would like to tell the hon the Minister that I think it is important to ensure that there is consistency. My experience informs me that we need to look at how these offices are staffed. Various provinces are not consistent in terms of placing these offices where they need to be located, where the people who are managing these offices have enough authority to be able to engage with senior people in the departments. That, I think, is the problem.

As I said, I will not be able to deal with all the issues. The Minister has dealt with some of them. It is important to mention that the interaction of the structures in the Presidency with civil society is crucial, hence, their programmes are informed by the voices of the ordinary people in the communities. I believe that this approach is very empowering and goes a long way to enabling members of our society to heed our President’s call for Vuk’uZenzele and voluntarism.

I want to conclude by recognising the positive contribution made by our youth during this month. They did not only volunteer to help themselves, but volunteered to better the lives of all of us, as the President mentioned this afternoon. We are challenged to ensure that we allocate enough resources to enable all young people to participate in the youth programmes. I strongly believe that the Umsobomvu Fund will assist in implementing some of the programmes outlined in the National Youth Commission policy framework.

I would like to express a special word of thanks to Minister Essop Pahad and all other Ministers who continue to support all those sectors that I have mentioned.

The ANC supports this Vote. [Applause.]

Mr P H K DITSHETELO: Chairperson, I also wish the hon the President good health on his sixtieth birthday.

We all know very well that people have different expectations as far as the Government is concerned, but there is collective consensus as to the nature of delivery expected from the Government. We are talking about delivery to the poorest of the poor. Their daily experiences of poverty bear testimony to these expectations. They often go to bed having had only one meal or nothing at all. These are people who do not have the privilege of eating three meals a day. Surely, the yardstick with which to gauge the Office of the Presidency’s effectiveness can rest in specific areas of focus only?

The report which was tabled by the University of Stellenbosch during the course of 2001, to which the President alluded during his state-of-the- nation address earlier this year, outlined the criteria on which his office or term of office is being assessed. The report stated that the President made 43 promises in his speech on 8 January 2001. Eleven months after his speech was made, 65% of those promises had either been achieved or were credibly in progress. The report revealed that 16% of those promises have not been achieved. Surely, these magical figures or statistics are impressive. We are not surprised as to why the President chose to include in his speech this assessment from academics, especially from an institution like Stellenbosch University. It is not only dangerous to quantify achievement in this manner, it is also misleading, especially since we are witnessing job losses on a daily basis, the deeply entrenched poverty in our communities, an economy that is not performing as predicted in Gear and the falling value of our currency.

However, we need to acknowledge that there are positive signs and a willingness on the part of the President to meet public expectations. As public representatives, we are not only expected to hold Government to account, but to give praise when it is due. There are areas where the President should have done better. The President has achieved notable successes. For instance, in the area of foreign affairs, he managed to place Africa’s agenda as a priority issue to be addressed in global politics.

His shining example is the Nepad initiative. What makes it unique is the fact that the programme is home-brewed for Africans by Africans themselves, and it currently enjoys support. He has to be credited for setting up the commission which investigated the causes that led to the dramatic fall of our currency value. He has also realised that privatisation of state assets should take root in an economic environment that is stable in order to minimise job losses. His flexibility in dealing with public issues, even though at times he appears to be stifled by party politics, is commendable. We have cited some of his successes and failures. It is hoped that he will learn and improve on them. If he fails, we will all fail as South Africans. Hence, it is imperative for all South Africans to be critical and helpful to ensure that we achieve national objectives in achieving a better and prosperous society for all. It is equally important that this office be capacitated to pursue national interests and nothing else. [Time expired.]

The MINISTER OF HEALTH: Chairperson, Mr Deputy President and hon members, I would like to say to Comrade President: Happy birthday.

I plan to address three issues during this important debate. I will present a brief report on the health month of April and how the country is responding to the call of the Vuk’uZenzele campaign. I will share with the House some highlights of our international work, in particular the implementation of Nepad. I will extract from the National HIV and Syphilis Sero-Prevalence Survey in order to show achievements made by young people in the fight against HIV/Aids.

The Department of Health celebrated its first National Health Month in April. This was in response to the President’s announcement in February, that April should be observed as a health month this year. The annual observation of World Health Day on 7 April made that particularly appropriate. The theme for this year’s World Health Day was: Move for health. It emphasised the important role of individuals and communities in promoting good health and taking responsibility for health. Health Action also highlighted the important role of communities in mobilising for health, providing support to those who are ill, volunteering to improve health services and advocating for community development as the foundation for good health. The theme was supported by various focus areas such as nutrition, food security, HIV/Aids, health workers’ excellence, volunteerism, imbizo and moving for health.

As a build-up to the health month, we observed World TB Day on 24 March and launched guidelines on contraception in KwaZulu-Natal on 26 March - including guidelines for young and adolescent health. Other activities included the following: the launch of a food gardens initiative in all nine provinces in order to promote food security and nutrition, which was led by Ministers and Deputy Ministers; the celebration of Cecilia Makiwane awards at Unisa, which was also attended by the President; observing World Health Day at Sol Tsotetsi sports complex in Sebokeng, which focused on physical activity and exercise; holding imbizos in all nine provinces; receiving a donation of 104 wheelchairs from the Republic of China, and launching the national and intercountry certification committee for the eradication of polio. The intercountry certification committee is an initiative which includes Lesotho, Swaziland and South Africa.

Ministers and Deputy Ministers transversed the whole country to give clarity to the public Government’s policy on HIV/Aids. Imbizo is a style of interactive governance. It reinforces Government’s commitment to keep in touch with people. Through the imbizos, people form a bond with Government and are afforded a platform for dialogue. Vuk’uZenzele is about each and every person taking an active part in the building of our nation by volunteering time, skills and expertise. Examples of volunteerism projects in April included, among others, close to 20 000 people giving up their time to clean and repair health facilities in Gauteng alone. In the Free State, 2 000 individuals regularly volunteer to support TB patients. In the Northern Cape, 60 youth volunteers are involved in health awareness campaigns among young people.

South Africa chairs the SADC Health Ministers’ forum. We are already implementing the health sector protocol which was adopted in August 2000. On 4 June I hosted the minister of health of Senegal who was on an official visit to South Africa. We signed a declaration of intent to share our health technology, including referral of patients. Senegal is an important partner because it chairs Ecowas. Last month, I visited Angola and I saw how that country is recovering from a protracted civil war. I signed an agreement with Angola so that we can work together on postgraduate training of health personnel and on the referral of their patients to our public facilities, including collaboration on laboratory diagnosis of complex diseases, polio in particular. During this year we will focus on similar co- operation with central and East Africa.

In January this year, SADEC health ministers and representatives from 90 countries adopted the Johannesburg Declaration on health and sustainable development. South Africa was mandated to draft and table the resolution at the World Health Assembly. The World Health Assembly adopted that resolution in May 2000. This will, we trust, receive due attention at the upcoming World Summit on Sustainable Development.

The Global Fund to Fight Aids, TB and malaria is an innovative and very important financial instrument for funding Aids, TB and malaria programmes in developing countries, and especially in Africa where the burden of these diseases is the greatest.

At the last board meeting, South Africa was awarded approximately R1 billion. The fund needs, of course, greater representation by countries that bear the greatest burden of these diseases. It should affirm governments’ leadership and stewardship role, and all proposals to the Global Fund must go through a country’s co-ordinating mechanism which comprises government, business and civil society. It should be a grant and a solidarity fund, and poor countries should not be forced to take out huge loans in order to provide basic health care services and infrastructure.

During the World Health Assembly, African ministers of health adopted a statement on the Global Fund which talks about all these things. Following our presentation on Nepad, the ministers adopted a resolution to hold a more detailed discussion on Nepad and to elaborate on the programme of action during the regional committee meeting of WHO Africa, which will be held in Brazzaville in August this year.

The health sector is pleased that the the World Economic Forum in Durban last month prioritised issues of health and HIV/Aids. In essence, the World Economic Forum expressed its support for our health agenda and our multisectoral response to Aids.

The 2001 National HIV and Syphilis Sero-Prevalence Survey report shows that HIV prevalence among teenagers has been declining in the past three years. It was 16,5% in 1999 and now it is 15,4%. The decline in teenage HIV infection is supported by the decline in the syphilis trends in this group. The syphilis trend among the teenage and antenatal clinic attendees under 20 years of age has, indeed, decreased from 5,4% in 1999 to 2,3% in 2001.

The decline, both in the HIV and syphilis infection rates, is associated with a number of interventions, such as health promotion and education, antenatal routine syphilis identification and treatment, and especially the syndromic management and treatment of sexually transmitted infections.

Particular reference to the teenage group is made because the declining trends in these infections is considered a good indicator of behavioural change aimed at reducing health risks, including HIV infection. These results are a cause for celebration especially during this month of June, the youth month. Our young people are taking our health education campaign seriously, and are making efforts to stop the spread of HIV and sexually transmitted infections.

On 3 June 2002, I opened a meeting of the African Aids Vaccine Programme. The establishment of the African Aids Vaccine Programme was a significant step because, in the past, African scientists worked in isolation from each other. This was a conscious effort for these scientists to co-operate and collaborate with each other in the search for a vaccine against the HI virus.

The President repeatedly emphasises that we do not live in a cocoon as South Africans in this region of the world. We live in a global village and community, especially when it comes to disease prevention and control, because disease knows no physical boundaries. Health is a public good, hence the need to intervene in trade-related matters, such as the agreements reached in Doha on medicines. We appreciate the President’s leadership, which ensures that we do not focus on the narrow biomedical model of health, but that we focus on and confront developmental issues that impact on health, especially the determinants of health, such as water, sanitation, the environment and poverty. [Applause.]

Dr M S MOGOBA: Chairperson, President, Deputy President, I say congratulations to the President on his birthday.

Šatee! Šatee! Yoo a sa rego šatee o a duma! Gola o lekane le tlou, tšhukudu e be mošemanyana e be mfana. [Applause.] [Happy birthday to you. May you see many more! [Applause.]]

Since our last debate on the Vote of the Presidency, there has been a lot of visible energy and activity on the part of the Government to undertake the momentous task of bringing about delivery by Government in order to address the groans of the unemployed and the poor. The Office of the President must take credit for this administrative shake-up. The legacy of poverty and underdevelopment comes from previous governments, but if we look at what the nationalist government did with the poor-white problem after 1948, we know that change is possible if there is enough political will.

Many in this House who are my age and older, personally experienced poor- whitism in communities like Eersterus, Riverside, Storlom, Marabastad, David Selborne, Duncan Village, etc, to mention but a few. And, we saw poor- whitism evaporate before our very eyes. It is the inescapable moral responsibility and duty of this Government to tackle poverty and unemployment head-on.

Poverty knows no political or ideological grouping or colour. It is a cruel, devastating reality. There is a perception in the country that people who are not ANC members are denied jobs and opportunities. They are poor and, shamefully, poverty is used as a tool to inflict more poverty on them to gain political subservience and subjugation. This, I said, is a perception. If it is true, let me hasten to warn that this will not succeed. In fact, it is a vicious boomerang that will surely land on the head of the thrower.

With the time at my disposal, I want to be very cryptic. One word characterises the Government today, and that word is crisis. Firstly, there is the crisis of poverty, as I have explained above. Secondly, there is the crisis of hope. Many people, particularly young people, have very little hope of real change. Education, which usually opens doors of opportunities for the young, is hopelessly crippled. Many poor parents take their last money and vote with their feet, voting for schools which were previously designated white schools and which are geographically far from their homes. Then we still have the unusually high incidence of crime, despite the valiant attempts by the Scorpions to bite the perpetrators of crime. This beautiful country is a gift from God; the only thing that destroys our beautiful country is crime, which is man-made. It is within our power to create peace and security. Many other countries like Malaysia have done it. Even our neighbouring African countries do not tolerate crime levels like ours. Our levels of crime are unacceptable and should be ruthlessly dealt with. The dark cloud of Aids is hovering over our nation. One chief told me last week that even in the rural areas, funerals take place regularly, even weekly. When addressing young people last week, I said to them: Everybody is praying and working very hard to find a cure for Aids. Present indications are that the cure will be found soon. For now, look after yourselves, because when the cure is found and you are already in your grave, how will the cure help you? I repeat: Look after yourselves. God will not allow this country and the world to be destroyed’’.

What struck me was the sudden light that beamed on the faces of these young people. I wish that all the youth of our land would change their mind-set and develop a fighting spirit radiating with hope. This Government should stop the uncalled-for denial syndrome. Aids is a killer, and it destroys hope. We should not allow despair and fear to reign in our country. It is dark, yes, but it is only the darkest hour before dawn. The sun will rise again soon.

Thirdly, there is a crisis of unity. The word ``unity’’ has been on our lips as the PAC since 1959, 43 years ago, and on my lips since 1996, six years ago. What seems very clear is that our dictionary and that of the Government’s does not seem to be the same. Unity does not mean cohesion, co- option or absorption; it means co-operation and common purpose.

Yesterday’s commemoration of Soweto, like the commemoration of Sharpeville and the celebration of the anniversary of our national independence, emphasises that great national events which cost this nation the blood of its children, are events that divide this nation. They are being celebrated in ghetto political style and used to mobilise party strengths. These events, and others like them, do not belong to a single party; and the original participant in these events and the victims that suffered belong to all of us. To trivialise these events is a political insult to these people and a deliberate widening of the gap between parties and the nation.

Against this background, we now have the African Union and Nepad. Pan- Africanists all over the world have been advocating African unity development for more than 50 years. It would be a tragic thing for Africa if the new version of Pan-Africanism and the new version of the OAU take off in a partisan way in our country, in SADEC and in Africa as a whole. The moot question is: Why is it necessary to divide us on such a noble ideal? Of course, we may have some differences of approach. We may express caution of the dominant role of G-8 countries and the fear of recolonisation of Africa, as is already happening in countries like Kenya. These would be legitimate and constructive concerns that could only strengthen Nepad and support for it in this country and on the continent of Africa. These concerns, seriously evaluated, would enhance and strengthen Nepad policy in our country and on the continent. Avoiding open debate on Nepad can only harm it. We mean well and we want to play our role in this country and in Africa.

The CHAIRPERSON OF COMMITTEES: Order! Hon member, your time has expired.

Dr M S MOGOBA: After all, we fought together in prisons and in exile, and appeared together at the OAU and the UN on many platforms. Why should we be at variance now when apartheid is dead, if it is dead at all?

The CHAIRPERSON OF COMMITTEES: Order! Order! Hon member, your time has expired.

Dr M S MOGOBA: We support the Vote. [Applause.]

Mr M A MAPHALALA: Sihlalo, ngithi sengathi uMongameli angaba nezinwele kodwa lezi ezimpunga zingandi kakhulu. Siyabonga kunkosikazi ngokuthi wenze uMongameli waba nale mpilo enhle. [Chairperson, I wish the President would have hair, but not gray hair. We would like to thank the first lady for helping the President be in such good health.]

If it was not for the wife of the President, he would not be where he is today. I say thank you very much. [Applause.]

Comrade President and Deputy President, I thought it would be necessary for one in debating this Budget Vote to remind people where we come from with this particular approach. However, before doing that, I just want to steal a bit of the President’s responsibility and address Dr Mogoba. Had he continued his role as a bishop in the church, he would probably have retired a very dignified person, rather than making himself a laughing stock in this situation. [Interjections.] He was speaking about a crisis of poverty.

The ANC was established in 1912. The reason for the establishment of the ANC, amongst other things, was the harsh conditions in which our people found themselves. I will quote from Drum magazine of 1953 so that the hon members can hear properly.

An HON MEMBER: Where were you?

Mr M A MAPHALALA: Hawu, ngangiphila. Phela mina ngimdala. [Uhleko.] [Hey! I was already born. I am old, you know. [Laughter.]]

In those days the black man - I would like to say to Mr Seremane - was treated as a beast of burden. [Interjections.] He was knocked and kicked about with impunity. [Interjections.] In the magistrate’s court his voice was hardly heard and his evidence hardly believed. [Interjections.] He was stopped in streets and at street corners by policemen demanding he produce a pass and a receipt for tax. He was not allowed to travel in first class, second class or third class carriages on the train. [Interjections.]

He was made to travel in the same truck in which the cattle were transported, the same truck in which the horses were transported. That was how things were for the black person in South Africa. [Interjections.] Economically, a black person had no voice in the administration and in making the laws in the political sphere.

In the economic sphere, the black person was made to live in abject poverty and conditions of starvation. Those were the conditions that made the ANC come into being. And that is the background to that kind of a mandate of a better life for all in South Africa. [Interjections.] That mandate was repeated in 1955 - I would like to say to the Comrade President. In 1994, the ANC came into power. South Africans gave the ANC the mandate once again that the President lead us in Parliament, and that he lead us in changing the laws to enable the building of a better life in South Africa. South Africans and the ANC gave the President a mandate to lead us. In 1999, the South African people wanted change to be speeded up in terms of this mandate they gave the President. [Interjections.] [Applause.] We say that there can be no better life for all unless there is economic growth, employment and equitable distribution of income. He has said that, and I confirm it. The President is saying that we must push back the frontiers of poverty, and let us increase the access to that income. I say yes to that.

But the President also says that unless all of us lend a hand in building that better life, unless all of us lend a hand in pushing back the frontiers of poverty, that shall remain a dream. The question is: How many of us in this House are lending a hand in building that better life; how many of us in this House are pushing back the frontiers of poverty?

Ngithi kuQabane uMongameli abantu baseMsinga, okuyibona i-ANC eyangithumela ukuthi ngizobakhulumela futhi ngizobalalelela lapha, bathi sebemuzwile ukuthi uthi asifake isandla, sibambe sonke futhi sivuke sizenzele.

Kukhona indawo enkulu kakhulu eyambiwa laphaya eMsinga. Bathi bakha ithange lokugcina amanzi. Kunemimfula emibili eMsinga engashi ubusika nehlobo. Leyo mifula uThukela neMpofana. Ayishi leyo mifula. Kugcwele iziphethu eziningi laphaya futhi ezingashi ebusika nasehlobo. Kodwa bathi abakwazi ukuwasebenzisa lawa manzi ukuze kusizakale bonke abantu baseMsinga bese bephila kangcono. Bamba umsele ngezandla zabo ukuze badonse amanzi bawalethe lapho. Bathi into asebeshoda ngayo nje ukuthi uHulumeni abalekelele ngezinto abazidingayo ukuze bakwazi ukuwadonsa-ke la manzi aphume ayoshona laphaya. (Translation of Zulu paragraphs follows.)

[I would like to say to Comrade President that the people of Msinga whom the ANC sent me to speak and listen to, say they have heard the President saying we should contribute, and all of us should take part and we should wake up and do things ourselves.

There is a big hole that was dug there in Msinga. They said they were building a tank for storing water. There are two rivers in Msinga that do not dry up in winter and summer. Those rivers are the Thukela and Mpofana. Those rivers do not dry up. There are fountains of water coming to the surface of the river, and they do not dry up in winter and summer. But they say they are unable to use this water so that the people of Msinga could be helped and have a better life. They dug a ditch with their own hands so that they could divert water to that place. They said what they were running short of, was for Government’s help with things that they need so that they would be able to move the water to that place.] That is lending a hand for a better life for all. [Applause.]

Isikhathi sami sesiphelile kodwa ngicela kuSihlalo angiphe umzuzwana nje kuphela. Abantu kuthiwa bayalima kodwa isivuno abasikhipha laphaya sishona eThekwini emakethe nasezimakethe zaseMgungundlovu. Bathi-ke abantu bacela ukuba uHulumeni abahlangabeze. Noma kunjalo-ke bayazama ukuzakhela bona ngokwabo impilo engcono. [Ihlombe.] (Translation of Zulu paragraph follows.)

[My time has expired, but I would like to ask the Chairperson to give me a more few minutes. They say people are ploughing, but the harvest that they get, is taken to the markets in Durban and Pietermaritzburg. People are asking the Government to meet them somewhere. However, they are trying to make a better life for themselves on their own.] [Applause.]]

Mr J P I BLANCHÉ: Chairperson, the budget we have to consider is intended to empower the Office of the President of South Africa. The present incumbent had the advantage of following in the footsteps of the first democratically elected President of this country, Mr Mandela, a leader who inspired the nation to such an extent that, during 1994 to 1999, he drew larger public support than the political party he belonged to. Mr Mandela led those South Africans who fought in the struggle to join hands with those who caused the struggle and, through the TRC process, he guided and helped both sides to reconcile their differences. He laid the foundation for what was supposed to be the ``rainbow nation’’.

During Mr Mandela’s term of office, every major statesman or stateswoman who sought to advance his or her political career made sure he or she was seen meeting Mr Mandela in South Africa. It had prestige value for them to be seen in this country where peace came about through a miracle and where a new nation was built through peace and goodwill by a role-model president.

During those days, our currency was stronger, our people were more united, investment levels were higher and our President was a resident of South Africa. He led by example. Since then, however, our country has seen a group of foreign leaders who seek world recognition through our nation’s standing in the eyes of the world and not the status of political leaders. The money we vote for the Presidency should not be wasted to improve the profiles of the Mugabes, the Castros and the Gaddafis of this world. [Interjections.] When we bury people who created division in this nation because of the slogans they chanted, then we expect our leaders to bury those slogans with them. The ANC and its leaders should not allow hate speech slogans or songs to remain alive in the new South Africa.

Dit dra net die haat van die vorige geslag oor aan die volgende. [This simply carries the hatred of the previous generation over to the next generation.]

If our President pushes aside women who annoy him, he must also be seen to deal with men who stand in the way of reconciliation. He must prove to the nation that he is willing to fight racism with vigour and aversion, and that he will not tolerate its existence within the ranks of the party that he leads. If the President is willing to brush aside a party member for not conforming and acting with dignity at a presidential function, then he should also stop those who sing ``Kill the farmer, kill the boer’’. [Interjections.]

If our President, through his Deputy, is calling on church and other leaders to start a movement for moral regeneration in our society, then he should not undo the work of the TRC by releasing a murderer whom the TRC could not link to the struggle. If our President has taken a vow to uphold the Constitution, then he should not allow his party to interfere with the work of Scopa and allow his caucus to force out hon member Feinstein. [Interjections.]

The SPEAKER: Hon member, your time has expired.

Mr J P I BLANCHÉ: Let me conclude by referring to the way our President and his Government allowed our currency to devalue. Were it not for ordinary businessmen like Kevin Wakeford, one wonders where Messrs Mboweni and Manuel would be. [Interjections.] [Time expired.] [Applause.]

Ms S C VAN DER MERWE: Madam Speaker, hon President, hon Deputy President, the Presidency in its restructured form has become the central core, the apex, of the Government’s system, as recommended by the Presidential Review Commission. Its job is to be the overall manager of Government; it must co- ordinate and streamline Government programmes into a cohesive force to face the country’s challenges and to implement the programmes of Government.

We in Parliament must assess the Presidency’s progress each year as we conduct our oversight work. We must assess the coherence of policies and programmes and how they impact on the lives of our citizens - how many houses have been built, how many people have running water, and so on. How far has this Government gone towards overcoming our biggest challenge: the reduction and, ultimately, the elimination of poverty?

The President has challenged all of us in this House and in our communities across the country to make our own contribution to defeating our mutual enemy - poverty. He has called on us to make this task our national priority. To face this challenge, we must all answer the call and we must do so with a unity of purpose.

To what extent can we say that we recognise that the destiny of all South Africans depends on the success of this project? The task is not for the Government alone. The task is for leaders in business and civil society. It is for each person in their own way to share the leadership role. The task requires of us that we first understand what makes us South African and what makes this task so important to all of us, not only those who live in poverty, but especially to those who do not. So we must ask ourselves in this House: How far have we come in achieving a common South African purpose?

When I began to think about this debate this afternoon, I looked for references to nation-building. What are the elements of nationhood and what are the forces that make it happen? What are the things that bind us, and the things that divide us?

I discovered that our daily discourse is punctuated at every turn with this discussion. We discuss our nationhood in the newspapers, in learned articles, in conversations on the street. We are consumed with it, in fact. Everyone is talking about it. Saki Macozoma wrote about it in a Steve Biko lecture series. His contribution was entitled `` Build a South African Dream’’. Ken Owen talks about it in his column in the Business Day regularly. Zubeida Jaffer wrote about it - about putting something back. These are just a few examples. Everywhere people are talking about nationhood, certainly in this House today. In fact, it is not only now that we are consumed with nationhood. It has been an enigmatic friend that has infused our social and political discourse for generations. The history books abound with examples of our great leaders talking about the very subject that confronts us today: How do we build a nation from one that is divided and separate?

In 1962 Chief Albert Luthuli said:

The task is not finished. South Africa is not yet a home for all her sons and daughtersÿ.ÿ.ÿ. There remains before us the building of a new land, a home for all who are black, white, brown, from the ruins of the old narrow groups, a synthesis of the rich cultural strains which we have inherited.

But, despite this discourse over so many years and at so many levels of our society, one of the features of our national consciousness, perhaps not surprisingly, remains an aptitude for pessimism and self-doubt.

I found a reference to this quality of South Africans being prophets of their own doom in the book South Africa: Civilisations in Conflict, written in 1972. The final paragraph of the book reads:

For all its mighty flaws, however, South Africa retains mighty potential for proving the prophets of doom wrong. It is a magnificent land that is worth the unending struggle to master it. There is a vibrancy of life and therefore a demand for hope, for a coming to terms with the absurdity of existence. The result is a strange attractive mixture of exuberance and melancholy in the people who live in this Elysian setting, where beauty and betrayal set off each other in dazzling contrast.

What does the home that Chief Luthuli talked about look like and where is the Elysian setting? How do we all come to terms with our differences and live as one nation in ``a synthesis of the rich cultural strains?’’ How do we fight off the melancholy?

It is in the translation of what seems to be a commonly held wish for equality and freedom, the translation into the magnificent land described, that we need to focus our actions. We must, each of us, do something to make our struggle to achieve a better life for all a reality. We must recognise that we share our country with each other and we cannot move forward without each other. So we talk about it and we write about it. But the question is: What do we do about it? The exciting truth is that many thousands of South Africans are, in fact, doing something about it.

I found a story in the Sunday Times entitled ``Vuka’’ in April this year. It goes like this:

Andrew de la Harpe had had it with the FNB, and he had had it with South Africa. Disgusted with a tide of uncertainty at the bank - the fact that there was ``no way a pale male was going to make sales and service director again’’ - he decided to quit his job as manager of a Port Elizabeth branch last year and applied to Saambou.

There is a bit of an irony there. [Laughter.]

If he could raise the cash, he planned to emigrate.

Then his boss dumped him and 20 other managers in a township for the weekend with R25 and a broomstick. This month De la Harpe, 30, was overheard almost shouting the following to friends at a bar: ``You know what? I do not care that I’ll be passed over. In fact, I am going to help build this country

… but I’m telling you, I am in. I’m even learning Xhosa. Anyway, business is suddenly good again.’’

This was a defining experience for Mr De la Harpe. He was the product of a programme initiated by FNB, based on the idea that the new South Africa does not yet exist, that it had to be built from scratch.

They call it nation-building in the banking hall. The company realised that it had to change its organisational ethos when it discovered that nine out of 10 of its staff members were looking for work elsewhere. Staff morale was low and there was a consequential fall in the number of new accounts in the targeted emerging black market. Ultimately, in order to make the company more competitive, things had to change.

Mr De la Harpe said of the programme: I do not know how much profit we will make from Vuka, but I know that it saved the bank from dying. Mr De la Harpe and his co-workers learned, through their experience, that while everyone in the organisation had completely different pasts, they shared almost exactly the same values. They learned to trust one another. Trust leads to human commitment, a commitment to wanting to build a life and a future together. Can it be that it is as simple as that?

This programme is a response of one business to the question of forging a new national identity. There are thousands of other examples, some of which my colleagues have shared with us in the House today.

I believe that we in Parliament, as representatives of the people, should spearhead a campaign to organise our resourcefulness and to use it to achieve our national goals. We should create a database of skills in our communities and provinces, and match these skills with people and projects where they are needed. We can use our constituency offices and we can connect with each other like a thread throughout the country. We can build on an already formidable base of volunteers that are working throughout the country.

The exuberance of our national spirit needs emphasis now rather than the melancholy. In the end, Mr De la Harpe of First National Bank said after his experience: ``Maybe I will get promoted, after all, to the job of being South African. Perhaps that is the greatest promotion a patriot could wish for.’’ [Applause.]

Miss S RAJBALLY: Madam Speaker, hon President, hon Deputy President and Ministers, from the MF’s side we would like to wish the hon the President a very happy birthday. May he grow every day to be more powerful. In our culture, they say: If you are younger than me, you are my child. Khula ngamandla mntanami. [Grow up quickly, my child.] [Laughter.]

The MF notes that the key aim of the department is to provide support to the President, Deputy President and hon Ministers so that they can fulfil their constitutional responsibilities in our country. The management and support service given by the department is remarkable, noting the broad range of the duties upon persons of this division of Government. Monitoring and co-ordinating Government policies at the same time is certainly not the easiest of tasks. In order to do these tasks adequately, it needs to be funded properly so as to maintain a guarantee of delivery in this respect.

The MF notes the department’s close eye on gender equality, as well as the right of children and disabled persons. This is not seen as a display of favourable concerns, but rather as keeping an eye on issues that have been exploited and neglected for far too many years.

The MF is glad to note this display of concern made by the department over these matters. The five programmes of the department, that is, administration, support service to the President and Deputy President, the Cabinet office, policy, co-ordination and the national Youth Commission are supported by the MF. It is felt that the budget suggested for this department is in order, and the MF takes this opportunity to wish the Presidency the very best for the forthcoming year with the many challenges it has to face. The hon the President is doing extremely well regarding the transformation of our country from what it was. Qhubeka uzophela lo mzabalazo. [The fight must continue to the end.] [Applause.]

Mr B NAIR: Madam Speaker, I thought Mr Aucamp was before me.

The SPEAKER: Not on my speaker’s list.

Mr B NAIR: Madam Speaker, hon President, Deputy President, members of the Cabinet and hon members, the members of the opposition have been critical of the President’s absence in Parliament, about him not spending more time answering questions, neglecting the problems at home and paying more attention to Africa and international issues.

I challenge the mistaken, if not false, notion that the President and the Presidency as a whole is an exclusive club looking inward and attending to our own affairs as in the good old days of South Africa’s isolation and pariah status. Some may want the President to wag his finger, as P W Botha did, and say: ``To hell with Africa and the rest of the world.’’ [Interjections.]

It must be remembered that we are part of the world community and, as such, establish cordial relations with the entire globe. Our thanks are, therefore, due to the President, Deputy President and their team of Ministers. We are respected by everyone everywhere and, on crucial matters, our views are taken seriously.

The former President, Nelson Mandela, is playing no mean role to this end. Recently, the President challenged the developed world to come to the aid of the poor, underdeveloped and struggling countries. It is indeed recognised that the problems of the poor countries are exacerbated by incessant wars, corruption, disease and abject poverty.

Do we simply close our eyes and ignore what is going on? No. We shun the world at our peril. For instance, we cannot ignore global warming, the horrors of wars, the ravages perpetrated by the Sharon government against the Palestinians or the conflict in the Congo, Rwanda, Burundi or elsewhere. To this end, the Presidency, comprising six Cabinet committees - social, economic, investment and employment, international relations, justice, crime prevention and security, governance and administration - has jointly handled the affairs at home and abroad.

The opposition is aware that questions normally meant for the President were dealt with superbly by the Deputy President, so have all the other Ministers who dealt with questions posed by members, week in and week out.

Without in any way detracting from the separation of powers, the Presidency envelopes the entire nation, carrying out policies determined by Parliament. For instance, the President, Deputy President, and Ministers Trevor Manuel and Alec Erwin have done battles with the IMF, World Bank, the World Trade Organisation, the G-8 countries and the developed world to move them from policies of protectionism, tariff wars and absolute greed to one of opening their vaults which have treasures looted from colonial and imperialist exploits. After all, who benefited from the wars that Shombe and Mobutu waged against the Congolese? Where did the diamonds that Savimbi stole from Angola land?

Our foreign Ministry, together with the Presidency, has provided human service to help weld greater unity in countries formerly at war. Recently, Minister Ronnie Kasrils and his team won accolades and medals for their water project in Nigeria. The SA National Defence Force recently also moved to help Mozambique, KwaZulu-Natal, Mpumalanga and Polokwane during the flood disasters. The rescue by members of the SA National Defence Force of a mother and her baby born in a tree in Mozambique won worldwide acclaim.

Our outward-looking policy will hopefully rub off on the rest of the world, especially on the xenophobic developed world. We must move strenuously to firmly establish the African Union and the New Partnership for Africa’s Development. It is time for Africa to become economically self-sufficient and independent. We require the help of the developed and rich, but we must pick ourselves up by our bootstraps and move our country and the entire continent to wage war against poverty through development.

This means that we develop agriculture, mining and other sectors, not only for export, but to expand our industrial base through beneficiation. Why not produce our own jewellery instead of only exporting our gold and diamonds? Similarly, we can turn our metal and aluminium into pots and pans, fridges and stoves, motor cars and planes, and even satellites. Why not? No, this is not a pipedream - one can look at Denel, Eskom selling electricity to Africa, Telkom and our cellular networks which are connecting and uniting Africa, not to talk of the supermarkets and retailers, banks and financial institutions which are expanding into Africa and the Middle East.

Small-scale farming and agricultural co-operatives run on the lines of the kibbutzim must be encouraged throughout the country. Small and medium enterprises, as envisaged by the Department of Trade and Industry, are the answer to the empowerment of the millions of unemployed.

Let us take a leaf from the small handicraft, beadwork, knitting, weaving, sculpturing and spaza shops. Small-scale agriculture is already developing. With a little training in business skills and organisation, the people will produce and market their products. They can also help establish their own peoples’ banks to finance their future projects and help others. Greater resources need to be allocated to the small businessman and the farmer until they become self-sufficient. This is the answer to poverty eradication with the people themselves becoming self-reliant and taking control of their own lives.

It may be inferred that what I am suggesting is socialism through the back door. No, what I am proffering is a way out of the poverty trap through the front door. [Applause.] Mr C AUCAMP: Madam Speaker, hon President Mbeki, on behalf of the AEB, myself and my wife personally, we congratulate the hon the President Mbeki on his 60th birthday. It is indeed a milestone in any person’s life.

On Friday afternoon, a journalist of an English Sunday paper phoned me and, amongst other things, asked the question: What would you like to give to the President as a birthday present? My immediate response was: ``A return flight ticket to South Africa’’. [Laughter.]

I would like to call my little speech today: a Presidency on the edge, a Presidency of conflicting impressions, a Presidency of which many people of my constituency often ask me: Where exactly do we stand with Thabo Mbeki? The question then arises: Is it a matter of insufficient communication in PR or is it a matter of trying to get the best of two worlds, but, alas, two conflicting worlds?

On the one hand, there is outspoken dedication to real democracy and self- government in Africa, which is a prerequisite for Nepad to succeed. On the other hand, there is an impression that only the historical national liberation movements can be agents for this. Only they have the moral high ground and should stay in power forever, even if it is by means of victimisation and manipulated elections like in Zimbabwe. After all, the end justifies the means.

There is the discrepancy that the ANC, on the one hand, has discarded the economics of its socialist apprenticeship but, on the other hand, retained the politics thereof - in economics, a free marketeer; in politics, centralism and social engineering. On the one hand they uphold the good principles of a real African Renaissance and the principles of charterism, ``South Africa belongs to all who live in it’’; on the other hand there are echoes of plain Africanism, a renaissance of the principles as formulated by Anton Lembede in 1946, claiming Africa for black Africans, while those who have descended from Europe, the latecomers, should either be tolerated or used.

On the one hand we have a vote for the suspension of Zimbabwe’s membership of the Commonwealth; on the very same day, we have the recognition of Mugabe’s manipulated elections as legitimate. On the one hand there is a call for reconciliation, on the other a dead silence, when even in the year 2002 the refrain ``Kill the Boer, kill the farmer’’ is sung in the President’s very presence, on the same weekend that a husband and wife were brutally murdered, and four attempts of farm murders took place in Mpumalanga alone.

On the one hand there is a reaching out for real partnership, but on the other hand there is the result of co-optation as long as one stays in line with ANC policy. There are talks and discussions with role-players in the Afrikaner community, but only with carefully selected, easy, toeng-the-line partners. On the one hand the emphasis is on the importance of the order of civil society, as stated again today in the President’s speech, but on the other hand there is growing disempowerment of NGOs, school governing bodies, local institutions and traditional leaders.

On the one hand we have the national motto ``Unity in Diversity’’, and the emphasis on community rights, on the other hand the marginalisation of Afrikaans and other indigenous languages in the Public Service, the tertiary landscape, and the so-called higher functions of language, in favour of an English lingua franca. The AEB calls on the hon the President to steer his Presidency, his party and the Government away from the edge, away from this conflicting image, to a clear and sound position in the safe and prosperous waters of real democracy, real reconciliation, and real recognition of the diversity of this country.

Ek wil graag reageer op die beroep wat die agb Gert Oosthuizen op Afrikaners gedoen het. Sien, hy het kwaad gedoen en toe het hy padgegee. Hy is nie hier nie. [Tussenwerpsels.] Hy steek in sy beoordeling van ander Afrikaners nog vas in die verlede. Hy praat smalend van opgeskeep wees met die sooibrand van die verlede. Daar is welmenende patriotiese Afrikaners wat werk aan daardie sooibrand, maar hy het sommer die hele pasiënt weggegooi. Of hy wil hom sommer opneem in die dodehuis. Hy reken dat die enigste manier waarop Afrikaners hul bydrae aan hierdie land kan lewer, alleen maar is om by die ANC aan te sluit of ten minste by hulle in die bed te spring.

Ontmoet dan vandag ‘n nuwe geslag Afrikaner wat hy nie ken nie, omdat hy die spot dryf met behulp van skimme uit die verlede. Dit is Afrikaners wat sê: Ons wil nie in die wedstryd van Suid-Afrika apaties by die huis bly nie. Ons wil nie op die pawiljoen sit en skree nie. Ons wil ook nie tienuur die oggend ons eie wedstrydjie iewers op die C-veld speel nie. Ons wil vieruur die middag op die hoofveld deelneem aan die hoofwedstryd. Ons wil dit egter doen in ons eie kleure, met die beskerming en handhawing van wat vir ons kosbaar is, en op ‘n wyse waarmee ons vertroud is. Ons wil dit nie doen in isolasie nie, ook nie in koöptasie nie, maar in vrye assosiasie. Ons wil dit doen in toewyding aan hierdie land, maar met die erkenning en die handhawing van ook ons kosbare erfenis, ons uniekheid, ons besondere manier van deel van Afrika wees - ons bydrae tot hierdie mooi land. Daarvoor sal die AEB hom steeds bewywer. (Translation of Afrikaans paragraphs follows.)

[I would like to respond to the appeal made by the hon Gert Oosthuizen to Afrikaners. See, he has erred and he took off. He is not present. [Interjections.] He is bogged down in the past where his judgment of other Afrikaners is concerned. He speaks scornfully of being saddled with the heartburn of the past. There are patriotic Afrikaners with good intentions who have set about doing something about this heartburn, but he wants to dispose of the entire patient. Or he wants to, without further ado, admit him to the morgue. He reckons that the only way that Afrikaners can make their contributions to this country is solely if they join the ANC or at least jump into bed with them.

Today then, meet the new breed of Afrikaner whom he does not know because he ridicules them with the aid of ghosts from the past. It is Afrikaners who say: We do not, when it comes to the match of South Africa, want to stay at home in apathy. We do not want to sit on the stand and cheer. We also do not want to play our own little match at ten o’clock in the morning somewhere on the C-field. We want to participate in the main match on the main field at four o’clock in the afternoon. We want, however, to do this in our own colours with the protection and preservation of that which is precious to us, as well as in a manner which we are acquainted with. We do not want to do this in isolation or co-option, but in free association. We want to do it out of dedication to our country, but with the acknowledgement and the preservation of our precious heritage, our uniqueness, our particular way of being part of Africa - our contribution to this beautiful country. The AEB will continue to strive for this.]

Mr J P CRONIN: Madam Speaker, Comrade President, Comrade Deputy President, Minister in The Presidency Comrade Essop Pahad, in the course of this afternoon’s debate we have heard one version of what The Presidency has conjured up, a fictitious version. The Presidency is supposedly on the one hand away from Parliament, away from the country, needing a return ticket back to South Africa, and yet at the same time it is also supposed to be a Presidency that tries to get its hands on every lever in the country. It sounds like a contradiction and, of course, it is a contradiction.

In fact, it is a contradiction of a particular conservative-liberal version of the State, and of presidencies. The truth is that they want a state and a presidency that is simultaneously far away and up close and menacing. They want it to be far away when it comes to historically accumulated wealth, power and privilege. When it comes to things such as mineral rights and the internet domain name, to take recent examples, then it is laissez faire, hands off. But they want The Presidency to be present when it comes to disciplining the poor and the marginalised, and because we are dealing with a neocolonial version of liberalism, they want it to be hyperpresent when it comes to dealing with black heads of state in neighbouring countries. This is why Nepad is reduced by these elements to a single obsession, the peer review mechanism, as if that was all that was Nepad. Where is the big stick?'' they want to know.How do they get one black president to discipline another black president?’’ No laissez faire when it comes to the natives.

But enough of this neocolonial liberalism. In voting for this budget, what is it that the ANC expects from The Presidency? We are in the midst of a massive national democratic transformation. The state and The Presidency cannot and should not aspire to control or to do everything, obviously. But they have a crucial, active developmental role. We expect the state and The Presidency to be catalysts of transformation. We expect The Presidency to provide co-ordination, especially within and across Government, and to provide a broad strategic coherence to a complex process that is revolutionising our whole society.

In the first years after the 1994 democratic breakthrough, the three cohesive strategic themes were, firstly, affirming some kind of national identity, a rainbow nation we sometimes said, with reconciliation being an important component; secondly, normalising our relations with the rest of the world; and thirdly, ensuring that Government would begin to deliver on its basic promises. These remain important challenges, important strategic themes. However, over the past few years, and particularly under this new Presidency, we have tried to deepen and problematise these particular themes.

Yes, we want to build a unified South African nation, but there is no short cut. The gaping chasms of poverty and inequality - and they remain overwhelmingly racialised - if left untransformed, will preclude any substantive and sustainable nation-building, let alone any sense of a shared national identity. Yes, we want to normalise our relations with the world, but the world itself is not normal. In the post-Cold War decade, Africa, generally speaking, has become more marginalised, not because we are not integrated into the world, but because the terms of our integration are completely unjust, which is why we must resist the attempt to reduce Nepad, as some do, simply to a trade-off: ``We in Africa promise to be good in exchange for getting some of their investment from the North.’’

There is certainly poor governance, yes indeed, in many countries in Africa, including the south of Africa. But what about global misgovernance? What about unilateralism, the failure to ratify basic human rights and environmental treaties, trade regulations and practices that are absolutely unjust, enforced liberalisation of the South, protectionism in the North? Africa’s recovery requires that we address both misgovernance within our midst, within our continent, and global misgovernance. And Africa is not primarily responsible for global misgovernance.

Yes, the new democratic Government must deliver, but Government cannot do everything. We need the co-operation and helping hands of all. So, I believe, overcoming poverty, Nepad and African renewal, and nurturing a spirit of volunteerism, Vuk’uZenzele, these have now become, and correctly so, the core strategic themes around which this Presidency has tried to foster a sense of coherence.

As MPs we have diverse tasks: to pass legislation, to work in our constituencies, and to ensure that these coherent themes begin to translate in practice on the ground in our constituencies. But we also have an important role in exercising oversight over Government, and that is not a role that belongs exclusively to, or is monopolised by, the opposition. Is Government sufficiently focused on these core strategic challenges? As MPs and certainly as ANC MPs, we can help to foster this coherence in the questions that we pose, and in the expectations that we place on departments and parastatals.

If I had more time, I would speak extensively about the transport sector, and how it is beginning to play an interesting role in overcoming poverty, in lending a helping hand, and in African renewal. The hon the President left out, by the way, the Transnet family, in talking about the role of parastatals. Portnet, for instance, is involved in port infrastructure development right up the West and East coasts of our continent. Our agency, Air Traffic and Navigational Services, ATNS, is training air traffic controllers from all over the continent.

What I want to deal with is one example, which is a little bit off the main stream when it comes to transport, but very important. At the moment the Portfolio Committee on Transport is dealing with legislation on maritime and aeronautical search and rescue. We have been engaging, of course, with our department and the relevant state agencies. We thought we should also, while dealing with this legislation, invite the National Sea Rescue Institute. This is the year of the volunteer, as we have said. We thought we should invite them to come and tell us what they thought about the legislation, the draft Bill that we have. The National Sea Rescue Institute is a non-governmental entity. It is entirely voluntary, and it has been going for some 40 years. There are now NSRI stations around the coastline, from Saldanha right up to Sodwana. Something like 650 volunteers operate around the clock as a stand-by service.

After we had discussed the detail of the Bill with the NSRI, they told us in passing, but with a measure of pride, that they had been interacting with counterparts in Uganda. There have been some terrible tragedies on the lake in Uganda. Like South Africa, Uganda cannot afford a full-time professional coast guard service. Ugandans, inspired by the work of the NSRI, had asked it to come and help them set up a National Lake Rescue Institute. In telling us about Uganda, the NSRI alluded to all the organising strategic themes that we have been mentioning: poverty, the inequality of development, lending a helping hand, and working for an African recovery.

I think the NSRI finds that these strategic themes are empowering. They provide a map, a sense of coherence and belonging for their own endeavours. I am convinced that the great majority of South Africans are gatvol with gatvol. [Interjections.] We want to lend our passions, our skills, our concerns and our energies to a broad and unifying project. The ANC, and specifically the ANC Transport Study Group in the NA, supports the budget for The Presidency. [Applause.]

Mrs P W CUPIDO: Madam Speaker, hon President, hon Deputy President, hon Leader of the Opposition, it is the patriotic duty of the leadership of this country not to hide the truth and the realities that confront us, but to expose and deal with every situation that affects our people negatively. Very little economic transformation, but rather crisis management, has taken place over the past eight years.

Die publiek se indruk van die amp van president is dat dit strompel van die een krisis na die ander krisis. Dit is nie wat ek sê nie. Dit is ‘n aanhaling uit die toespraak van die agb Marthinus van Schalkwyk op 21 Junie

1. Nou het hy egter besluit om saam te strompel. (Translation of Afrikaans paragraph follows.)

[The public’s impression of the office of the President is that it is limping from one crisis to another. It is not I who say so. This is a quotation from the speech of the hon Marthinus van Schalkwyk made on the 21 June 2001. He has now, however, decided to limp along with them.]

Mr Van Schalkwyk also said that he understood the President to say that the ANC alliance was temporary, with a limited lifespan. He said that the President had lost the trust of the left wing in his alliance because of his economic repositioning. Could this be the reason why the New NP leader joined the ANC to lend a hand, and to make a difference?

Het die agb Gert Oosthuizen van sy witbeheptheid met die Nuwe NP ‘n strategie gemaak? [Has the hon Gert Oosthuizen made a strategy with the New NP of his obsession with white?]

I would like to tell the President that this House and the public out there need some explanation of his strange alliance with the New NP. How can the blood of the New NP apartheid government and that of the ANC Government flow in the same artery? Let me rather focus the President’s attention on what is happening in Cape Town right now. The Argus of 13 June 2002 reported: ``ANC left city books in a mess - Auditor-General lifts the lid on the missing millions in Cape Town’’. Is the President aware of what happened in Cape Town under the ANC Government, and did he investigate the chaos?

A report by the Auditor-General has exposed the financial shambles left by the ANC almost two years ago, when it lost the city of Cape Town to the Democratic Alliance. This report paints a picture of mismanagement and bookkeeping errors, which means millions of rands are not accounted for, let alone the billions of rands mismanaged and not accounted for in the rest of this country.

Indien die Nuwe NP-ANC-koalisie die Kaapstad Munisipaliteit sou oorneem, is dit nie die stad se boeke nie, maar die belastingbetalers se geld wat in die slag gaan bly. Die Nuwe NP-ANC-regering wil ‘n uitvoerende burgemeester in plaas van ‘n uitvoerende komitee aanstel. Hulle wil subrade van 16 tot 20 vermeerder, wat beteken dat daar ‘n addisionele begroting van R3,5 miljoen gevind moet word om meer voorsitters, areakoördineerders, personeel en kantoorakkommodasie te betaal. Die Nuwe NP-ANC-koalisie gaan belastingbetalers se geld gebruik om poste te skep om DA-raadslede om te koop. Raadslid Mowzer van die ANC het reeds verwys na die moontlike afdanking van senior amptenare wat op kontrakbasis aangestel is. Sulke afdankings sal verreikende finansiële implikasies vir die raad en vir belastingbetalers inhou. Ons praat van R35 miljoen se afdankingspakkette en die aanstelling van comrades. Verdere en groter armoede is in die vooruitsig vir Kaapstad met so ‘n regering. [Tussenwerpsels.] (Translation of Afrikaans paragraphs follows.)

[If the New NP-ANC coalition should take over the Municipality of Cape Town, it will not be the books of the city that will suffer, but the money of the taxpayers that would be lost. The New NP-ANC coalition wants to appoint an executive mayor instead of an executive committee. They want to increase the sub-councils from 16 to 20, which implies that an additional budget of R35 million must be found to pay for the additional chairpersons, area co-ordinators, staff and office accommodation.

The New NP-ANC coalition will therefore utilise the money of the taxpayers for the creation of posts in order to bribe DA councillors. Councillor Mowzer of the ANC has already pointed out the possible dismissal of senior officials who were appointed on a contractual basis. Such dismissals will have far-reaching financial implications for the council and the taxpayer. We are speaking of R35 million in dismissal packages and the appointment of comrades. Further and greater poverty is in sight for Cape Town with such a government. [Interjections.]]

With respect, this Government must be big enough to admit its mistakes, smart enough to profit from them and strong enough to correct them. The single most important factor in determining the climate of a government is its top executive. Everything rises and falls on leadership.

If the New NP-ANC Government does not know the harbour it seeks, then any wind will be the right wind for them; just like the three different speeches of 2000-01 and today of the leader of the National Party. [Interjections.] No vision; every year a different direction. [Time expired.][Applause.]

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Madam Speaker, I dedicate this speech to the undying spirit of Comrade Peter Mokaba and the many young lives that were lost on June 16 in the fight to free our country.

The statement delivered by the President at the 90th anniversary of the formation of the ANC says:

Cognisant of the fact that we are but an inseparable part of the wider world, the Freedom Charter says: there shall be peace and friendship.

In this regard, the first call on us is to contribute everything we can to ensure the success of the African Renaissance. We have to work with our African brothers and sisters to ensure that ours is a continent of peace and friendship between and among all its peoples, of democracy, human rights, social progress and prosperity.

The January 8 statement goes on to urge us to work towards strengthening our relations with both developing and developed countries of the world. The ANC has always believed in tirelessly engaging fellow humans on common positions, as well as on matters on which there might be disagreement.

The statement continues:

From its birth, the ANC has been internationalist in character. This is a tradition we must sustain and deepen. This is an urgent and necessary response to the rapid integration of human society under the impact of the process of globalisation. As a movement, we must advance and respond to the call - peoples of the world unite, for peace, prosperity and friendship.

When the bodies of global governance were formed in the first half of the 20th century, the Charter of the United Nations and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights echoed the human values of peace, human dignity and mutual respect among all states and citizens of the world.

It has not come as a surprise that the ANC-led South African Government has been called upon to take a place and to often play roles hardly commensurate with our reality of being the ``new kids on the block’’ of free countries. The world recognises that our commitment to peace, freedom, self-determination and the quest for prosperity is unshakeable.

It is in keeping with these values, based on the conviction that as humanity we dare not fail in the struggle for a better life for the poorest and most vulnerable in Africa and the Third World, that the Presidency plays a leadership role internationally.

The challenge is to create the necessary global political will. The numerous resolutions, agreements, treaties and other international instruments must be translated into actions on the ground to change squalid conditions of life for the masses who look up to their leaders to improve their lives. There is a challenge to restructure and change the culture of international bodies of governance to function in a manner that is responsive to the needs of ordinary people. Our Presidency needs the support of Parliament through this Budget Vote to continue in its efforts internationally.

In addition to the many ongoing tasks of transformation listed in the state of the nation address, the Presidency also participates in heads of states summit meetings of the OAU, in Nepad, SADC and the African Development Forum. Finding solutions to problems in the DRC, the Comoros, the Middle East, East Timor, Lesotho, Rwanda and Burundi are but some of the international tasks our Presidency has been involved in. South Africa’s chairpersonship of the Nonaligned Movement comes to an end in February

1. It, however, continues to be part of the leadership collective together with the next chair.

Addressing the Nonaligned Movement ministerial meeting at the 40th anniversary of the organisation in April 2002, the President reminded us that our people were represented in Bandung at the Asia-Africa Conference of 1955 by two members of the liberation movements. The President went on to say that, ``As Africans, we are proud of the advances we are making to give practical expression to the principles of the Nonaligned Movement of self-determination, self-reliance and solidarity. This has resulted in the evolution towards the formation of the African Union, which will be launched in July, and the formulation of the new Partnership for Africa’s Development, Nepad.

As all members know, from July this year South Africa will chair the OAU’s last meeting and the new African Union. Apart from it being an honour for our country, this chair goes with a lot of responsibility, especially for The Presidency and, indeed, for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. When he spoke to a joint sitting of the AU and Nepad on 31 October 2001, the President also challenged this Parliament to continue to contribute towards giving more content, form and direction to these continental bodies and programmes.

Through a working group on the African Union formed by this House in November 2001, some work continues to be done. Four reports have since been tabled. Issues are being raised and debates continue. Research has been commissioned to take some of them further to give us a better understanding and expose us to other human experiences. We are in the process of ratifying the protocol on the Pan-African Parliament as our own contribution to speeding up its convening, preferably while South Africa is in the chair.

We are aware that South Africa’s chairpersonship gives us a unique opportunity to make important inputs that will go a long way in shaping continental affairs. In this regard, the fundamental principles we ourselves enshrined in our Constitution are important. The peaceful resolution of disputes, good governance on the basis of transparency and democratic practice, and public participation in the management of public affairs are just a few of these principles. If we all work together, if we mobilise our communities and translate these continental developments into sound success stories for people on the ground, nothing will defeat us.

The increase of this budget related to the restructuring and addition of personnel to The Presidency must be supported. In order for this office to do all the things it needs to do and oversee the implementation of policies nationally and internationally, it definitely needs more capacity than it has had. In fact, it is not clear to me why, in this context, Nepad is attached to the subprogrammes of Policy Co-ordination. I would have expected Nepad to be a stand-alone programme, given its own volume, but perhaps there is a good explanation for this.

It is also unclear how The Presidency is being capacitated for being chair of the AU, which is an immense responsibility needing both human and other types of resources. Having listened to the cry of the Minister of Foreign Affairs about inadequate resources - I draw the attention of the Minister of Finance here - I would not believe that the AU should be put at that door only. So where is it going to be for the purposes of processing South Africa’s positions and boosting our ability to give the necessary leadership?

At the dawn of the new millennium in September 2000, the world’s heads of state and governments met and made commitments to peace, development and the eradication of poverty. They committed themselves to an open, equitable, rules-based, predictable and nondiscriminatory multilateral trading and financial system.

As this Parliament supports this Vote, it gives the mandate to The Presidency to go on leading and co-ordinating efforts, which the President said when he addressed Nam, were for the emergence of a common global political will to confront the challenges of development in the spirit of true partnership between the rich and the poor.

The SPEAKER: Hon Deputy Speaker, your time has expired. [Interjections.] [Applause.]

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: May The Presidency have all its needs, the good luck, the personnel and the budget needed to achieve all the programmes … [Interjections.] [Laughter.] [Applause.]

Dr O S B BALOYI: Madam Speaker, hon President, hon members, I believe sincerely that the president of any country is the most valuable asset of the country. The Presidency needs to be the centre point where confidence of the country can be visible, and where the internal, as well as the external environment can be inspired by actions, words and deeds that are beyond reproach of that component of government.

I accept that the President cannot do everything himself, but that committed, trustworthy and dedicated patriots can advise and assist the President to lead the country in its quest to become an important role- player within the region, on the continent and internationally.

South Africa has a very rich human resource pool to enrich The Presidency, if only the majority party could accept that good ideas and strategies are not only vested in the members of that party. The IFP has remained in the coalition Government, particularly because of our clear understanding that we are able to contribute positively to governing South Africa.

We are concerned, however, about the manner in which the IFP and its leader, Dr Mangosuthu Buthelezi, have been treated. Allow me to touch upon one or two areas I believe The Presidency needs to review and refine. The Office of the President should reflect the degrees of maturity of our democracy. The Presidency must prove its commitment to the country and the electorate by keeping the promises made at any time in the past. Broken promises create uncertainty, both locally and abroad.

Let me remind the House about some of the unkept promises between the IFP and the ANC, some dating as far back as the 1994 elections. What happened to international mediation? What has come of it? What happened to local government agreements that were reached on 20 October 2000 and which were not kept by Government? The list goes on.

It concerns us in the IFP that this Government has chosen to ignore issues with the understanding that they will disappear. However, the issues I have mentioned here will not disappear and they will come back to haunt us all when our democracy falters, because we failed to address the fundamentals of our unique South African environment.

The President’s Office houses very vital programmes. To mention just a few

• the Joint Monitoring Committee on Improvement of Quality of Life and Status of Women, and the Joint Monitoring Committee on Children, Youth and Persons with Disabilities. The programme on HIV/Aids and poverty alleviation programmes are also spearheaded from this office. Although reasonably good strategies have been emanating from these structures, it has not been easy to implement them. Much work still needs to be done.

I can only endorse the concern the IFP has regarding the slow progress that has taken place around the issue of HIV/Aids.

Another area that requires urgent attention by the President is the issue of the slow progress by Government in resolving the powers and functions of traditional authorities. Huge budgets assigned to address the challenges of, for example, the Integrated Sustainable Rural Development Programme in the developmental node areas cannot be rolled out and used smoothly, owing to the lack of clarity of roles between local government and traditional authorities. The poor people living in these areas are suffering immensely. We refuse, as a party, to accept that traditional leaders are responsible for the failures to make progress in this area.

We feel further that, in the spirit of Nepad and the African Union, traditional authorities must now take centre stage on all matters relating to the culture of ubuntu. Eurocentric approaches and strategies must certainly inform our progress, but should not be the foundation stone for the initiatives envisaged in the Nepad strategy. Traditional authority should be part of that foundation. I firmly believe that the President of the country should guide our newly attained democracy by advocating coexistence and harmony in South Africa. We all dream of a better life and a better society. I am inspired by the ideas that I gleaned from Brian Weiss’s book Messages From The Masters that says, and I quote:

It has become difficult to go through a complete day without becoming disillusioned, disappointed and drained by the mean-spirited selfish people who surround us. So many people seem to be interested only in their personal gain. They have become rude and arrogant, critical and insensitive. Not only do their actions drag us down, but most of us feel that there is nothing that we can do to change this, that only those in power have the capacity to make a difference.

Changing the world from its current violent, competitive hate-filled nature will not happen through the efforts of only a few individuals, even if they are powerful world leaders. Rather, the day-to-day acts of kindness and compassion shared between people and within small groups can bring about the change to make a more loving and kinder place. People have to understand that we are equal, all the same, all striving for a little peacefulness, happiness and security in everyday life.

The hon the President has the power to create the environment for the country. We are here for him to use us, all of us, from both sides of the floor.

In a lighter vein, let me share with the President and this House this: I have an eight-and-a-half-year-old daughter, Makha, who has a nose for birthdays. Every time it is somebody’s birthday, she will wake up in the morning and sing happy birthday. Indeed, today I was surprised because she phoned me this morning and told me that she had forgotten to hand me a card that she wanted me to give to the hon the President. On behalf of Makha and all of us, I wish the hon the President a happy 60th birthday. We support the budget. [Applause.]

Mnr C B HERANDIEN: Mev die Speaker, agb President en agb Adjunkpresident, die agb Oosthuizen is reg wanneer hy sê dat dit ons almal se plig is om Suid-Afrika te máák werk. Ek wil ongelukkig nie weer betrokke raak by die ou debat tussen hom en die agb Aucamp oor wie wel en wie nie ‘n Afrikaner is nie.

Die agb Cupido het hier met ‘n tirade ter velde getrek teen die Nuwe NP. Die eenvoudige waarheid is dat die Nuwe NP deel is van Suid-Afrika en hulle sal help om Suid-Afrika ‘n sukses te maak. [Tussenwerpsels.] In plaas daarvan om met die Nuwe NP te baklei, dink ek daardie agb lid het baie meer probleme om na om te sien as wat die Nuwe NP het.

Ek wil verwys na die artikel in die Sunday Times van 19 Mei, waar Mnr Carl Werth sê dat hy in één jaar meer die ``K’‘-woord gehoor het as in tien jaar by die Konserwatiewe Party.[Tussenwerpsels.] Carl Werth lig die sluier oor wie en wat die DP werklik is wanneer hy sê dit is ‘n mengelmoes van oud-AWB lede, Herstigte NP lede en al wat regses is.

Verder sou ek, indien ek hulle was, my veel eerder bemoei en bekommer het oor die skerp daling in hul steun. Meer as 50% van hul steun het hulle verloor. Hulle sal hard moet werk om dit op 11% te hou, want wanneer die oorloopklousule goedgekeur word, gaan die groter meerderheid mense oorloop, diegene wat onder die vaandel van die DA deur die Nuwe NP daar geplaas is, en dán kan ons nog ‘n verdere 50% daling in hul steun verwag.

Ek wil aan die agb President sê dat sy inisiatief aangaande die Nuwe Vennootskap vir Afrika se Ontwikkeling ‘n waardige en ‘n edele doel nastreef. Ons moet egter ‘n paar dinge reguit sê. Eerstens, baie min mense in Afrika definieer armoede korrek, want die helfte praat van armoede- verligting, ander praat van armoede-uitwissing, terwyl ander praat van armoede-bekamping. Ons sal hierdie probleem moet aanspreek.

Armoede-verligting vind reeds plaas. Die Regering voorsien behuising, asook gratis onderwys en mediese dienste. Ons verskaf maatskaplike pensioene. Dít is armoede-verligting en ons is reeds daarmee besig. [Tussenwerpsels.] Jy het nie vir my werk nie, en jy sal nooit werk kry nie! [Applous.] [Gelag.]

As ons egter praat van die uitwissing van armoede, wil ek die agb President die versekering gee dat dit ‘n onbegonne taak is. Nêrens in die land het die Regering daarin geslaag om armoede uit te wis nie, en daarom moet ons ons veel eerder toespits op armoede-bekamping, en hier moet ons ook vir mekaar reguit sê dat daar twee soorte … [Tussenwerpsels.]

Ons hoor so baie van werkloosheid, maar dit het tyd geword dat ons dit reg definieer, want daar bestaan in Suid-Afrika ook so iets soos werklusteloosheid. Ek haal my hoed af vir die vrouens wat in die townships bly en elke oggend vroeg per bus vertrek om by twee verskillende plekke te gaan werk as huishulpe.

AGB LEDE: Hoor! Hoor! [Applous.]

Mnr C B HERANDIEN: Daardie mense verdien geld sodat hul elke dag kos voor hul kinders op die tafel kan sit, terwyl daar mans is wat by die huis sit en TV kyk en sê hulle kan nie werk kry nie. Ons sal hierdie probleem moet aanspreek, en ons sal hulle moet registreer sodat ons hulle kan dwing om te gaan werk.

Net soos Nostradamus die voorval van 11 September verlede jaar reeds lank gelede voorspel het, het ons ook ‘n profeet hier in Suid-Afrika wat baie dinge reg voorspel het. Hy het, onder meer, die vroeë vrylating van Mnr Nelson Mandela korrek voorspel. Alles wat hy tot dusver voorspel het, is bewaarheid.

In ‘n ope brief aan oud-president P W Botha het Credo Mutwa geskryf, `` Let not my country die’’. Vandag is dit ook ons wekroep dat ons nie ons land wil laat sterwe nie, en deur Nepad sal ons moet help toesien dat Afrika nie ten gronde gaan nie. ‘n Baie goeie voorbeeld was die boere wat vanuit Suid- Afrika gegaan het om landerye in Mosambiek te help bewerk. Die dag wanneer die geskiedenis herskryf word, sal daar nie van ons gesê kan word dat ons gefaal het net omdat ons nie probeer het nie. [Applous.] (Translation of Afrikaans speech follows.)

[Mr C B Herandien: Madam Speaker, hon President and hon Deputy President, the hon Oosthuizen is correct when he says that all of us have a duty to make South Africa work. Unfortunately I do not want to get involved in the old debate between him and the hon Aucamp again about who should be regarded as an Afrikaner and who should not.

Right here the hon Cupido lashed out against the New NP in a tirade. The plain truth of the matter is that the New NP is part of South Africa and they will help to contribute towards making South Africa a success. [Interjections.] Instead of fighting with the New NP, I believe that the hon member has more problems to deal with than the New NP. I want to refer to an article in the Sunday Times of May 19, where Mr Carl Werth states that in one year he heard the ``K”-word more often than in his 10 years in the Conservative Party. [Interjections.] Carl Werth exposes the DP for who and what they really are when he refers to them as a mixture of ex-AWB members, Herstigte NP members and other rightwingers.

Furthermore, if I were them, I would much rather involve myself with the sharp decline in their support. They have lost more than 50% of their support. They will have to work hard to keep it at 11%, because as soon as the floor-crossing clause is approved, the greater majority of the people who, under the banner of the DA, was placed there by the New NP, will cross the floor and then we can expect another 50% decline in their support.

I would like to say to the hon President that his initiative regarding a New Partnership for Africa’s Development pursues a worthy and noble cause. However, there are few things that we should say in a straight-forward manner. Firstly, very few people in Africa define poverty correctly because some talk about poverty relief, others about poverty eradication, while others talk about combating poverty. We will have to address this problem.

Poverty relief is already happening. The Government provides housing, also free education and medical services. We provide social pensions. This is poverty relief and we are currently involved in it. [Interjections.] You do not have work for me, and you will never find work! [Applause.] [Laughter.]

However, when we talk about the eradication of poverty, I want to assure the hon President that it is indeed an impossible task. Nowhere in this country did the Government manage to eradicate poverty, and therefore we should much rather focus on combating poverty, and even here we should be candid about the two types … [Interjections.]

We often hear about unemployment, but the time has come for us to define it correctly, because in South Africa there is also something called ``werklusteloosheid’’ [lethargy for work]. I take my hat off to those women who live in the townships, and travel by bus early every morning to do domestic work in two different places.

HON MEMBERS: Hear! Hear! [Applause.]

Mr C B HERANDIEN: Those people are earning money which allows them to put food on the table for their children every day, whilst there are men sitting at home watching TV, claiming that they are unable to find work. We will have to address this problem by registering them and in this way coerce them into finding employment.

In the same way that Nostradamus had already predicted the events of 11 September long ago, we have our own prophet here in South Africa who accurately predicted many things. He has, amongst others things, correctly predicted the early release of Mr Nelson Mandela. So far everything he has predicted has come true.

In an open letter to ex-president P W Botha, Credo Mutwa wrote: ``Let not my country die.’’ Today it is also our clarion call that we do not want our country to die, and through Nepad we will help to ensure that Africa does not die. A very good example of this is the farmers who left South Africa to help cultivate the farmlands in Mozambique. The day history is rewritten, at least it could not be said that we failed because we did not try. [Applause.]]

Mr D H M GIBSON: Madam Speaker, the President, the Deputy President and I all share a birth year - 1942. If I may say so, it was a vintage year. The difference between these hon gentlemen and I is that they both seem to be joining the ranks of senior citizens, whereas I regard myself as only approaching early middle-age. [Laughter.]

I was sent in to respond to the debate. The problem is that there is so little to respond to. The hon Essop Pahad is usually good-value-for-money, but today he was, quite frankly, boring. [Interjections.] He gabbled off a speech written for him by his officials. At least he did stay out of trouble, and that is something.

Then we had the hon Jeremy Cronin. He holds a world record. He is the most enthusiastic communist in the world. [Interjections.] And he gives us lectures on liberalism. [Laughter.] [Applause.]

Dan was daar die agb Gert Oosthuizen wat ‘n groot ophef gemaak het oor sy Afrikanerskap. Hy het ons genooi om deel te word van die politieke herskikking. Wat beteken dit? Dit is presies dieselfde toespraak wat hy al die jare onder P W Botha gemaak het! [Tussenwerpsels.] [Applous.] (Translation of Afrikaans paragraph follows.)

[Then there was the hon Gert Oosthuizen who made much of his Afrikaner character. He invited us to become part of the political restructuring. What does that mean? That is exactly the same speech as the one he made for years under P W Botha! [interjections.] [Applause.]]

The same speech! [Interjections.] The problem with Gert Oosthuizen is that he stays loyal to his leader until he finds a new leader. [Laughter.] Talking of which: Mr Martinus van Schalkwyk said goodbye. Now, the problem with Mr Van Schalkwyk is that he has never forgiven Tony Leon for beating him in 1999. He was the leader of the opposition, and the voters threw him out. [Interjections.] He talked about arrogance and superiority. The problem is that he is inferior; the voters told him that, and he feels inferior to Tony Leon and he cannot get over that. [Interjections.]

He referred to Jean Le Pen, the Neo-Nazi leader in France. I say to Mr Van Schalkwyk that he should be ashamed of that. [Interjections.] But he, of course, would know about Neo-Nazis. When he was a paid military spy of the apartheid government, he must have had plenty of those people around him. [Interjections.] The difference between him and them is that he is not right-wing and he is not left-wing. [Interjections.]

Mr H J BEKKER: Madam Speaker, is it correct to refer to an hon member of this House as a spy?

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! Hon Gibson, I would like you to withdraw that, please.

Mr D H M GIBSON: Madam Speaker, I will withdraw it if you like. [Interjections.] That hon member is not right-wing or left-wing or a Neo- Nazi or a fascist or anything else. He is a gun for hire. And he proves that, depending on the size of the cheque, a leopard can change its spots. I say goodbye to Mr Van Schalkwyk. [Interjections.]

I support a new electoral system for South Africa, which is going to make members of Parliament more responsive to the people, to the voters, instead of playing politicians’ games. [Interjections.] We want a system which is going to ensure that people are responsive to the voters.

I want to be able to stand up in this House and plead the cause of the voters in my area and ask why an area which voted so overwhelmingly for the ANC is so neglected by the ANC. [Interjections.] Why are there no street lights? Why are there no street names? Why are the houses not numbered? Why are there no trees? [Interjections.]

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! Order!

Mr H J BEKKER: Madam Speaker, will this excited member take a question? [Laughter.] Mr D H M GIBSON: No, Madam Speaker. [Interjections.] [Laughter.] Why are the streets and pavements neglected? Why are there so few parks and playgrounds? Why is the police station grossly understaffed and underequipped? Why is crime so high? Why do 2 000 children, my children in Ivory Park and Ebony Park have to attend unregistered schools because the state has failed them? [Interjections.] There are no schools for them to attend.

It is the job of members of Parliament to bring this to the attention of the President. [Interjections.] If we do not do it, who will? I hope that the President’s ANC is not going to play games with Minister Buthelezi and Dr Van Zyl Slabbert who was appointed by Minister Buthelezi. I hope the President is going to take seriously the calls for reform of electoral law in South Africa so that we will have a system in which members of Parliament represent the people and represent constituencies. [Interjections.] I appeal to the President. [Time expired.] [Applause.]

Mr A C NEL: Madam Speaker, in his speech, Mr Gibson referred to Mr Van Schalkwyk as `a gun for hire’. I believe that that is synonymous with mercenary, and I submit that that is unparliamentary and that Mr Gibson should withdraw that.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Hon Gibson, if you said that, please do withdraw it. [Interjections.]

Mr D H M GIBSON: Madam Speaker, are you ruling that `a gun for hire’ is unparliamentary?

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Yes, Mr Gibson. Hon Gibson, I would like you to withdraw that.

Mr D H M GIBSON: Oh, well, he is leaving us, so I withdraw it. [Interjections.]

Dr B L GELDENHUYS: Madam Speaker, I usually try to respond to a previous speaker, but unfortunately there was nothing to respond to. Suffice it to say that the mere fact that the hon Douglas Gibson participated in the debate is a clear indication that the DA is in serious trouble, because whenever the chips are down, they send the hon Gibson in to speak in a debate. [Interjections.] But, having listened to him, the only conclusion I can come to is that the DA is still in trouble! [Interjections.] [Laughter.] [Applause.] I welcome the President to the club of 60. According to an article in Time, the hon President revels in Socratic philosophical debate. Now this, of course, could be a dangerous exercise.

Socrates was unfairly sentenced to death because he did not believe in the gods that the state of Athens believed in. We all know that the hon President also does not always believe in the gods that the state believes in and hopefully, proverbially speaking, the fate of Socrates will not befall the hon President. [Laughter.]

My wish for the hon President on his birthday is that the New Partnership for Africa’s Development will be a huge success, despite the fact that colonel Gaddafi referred to it as a project of the former colonialists and racists. The mere fact that the hon President, nevertheless, convinced him to pledge his support to Nepad, shows that the President owns the title ``salesman of Nepad’’, as attributed to him by Time magazine.

I do not have the time to elaborate on all the virtues of Nepad, except to say that Nepad is Africa’s way of accepting responsibility for its own destiny. Nepad is the engine that will drive economic development on the continent, with a view to eradicating poverty. [Applause.]

What clearly distinguishes Nepad from other recovery plans so far is the fact that the envisaged peer review mechanism will allow other African states to place pressure on members of Nepad to adhere to objective criteria pertaining to democracy, good governance and peace.

It would be appreciated if the hon the President could indicate to the House what these objective criteria would entail. I believe that the objective criteria will have to be approved at the G-8 summit in Canada by the end of this month.

The success of Nepad depends entirely on the successful functioning of the peer review mechanism but, ironically, the peer review mechanism is also the Achilles heel of Nepad. Unfortunately, membership of the African Union does not mean that states have an obligation to sign the Nepad declaration on peer review. Signing the Nepad declaration will be entirely voluntary. States that choose not to sign the declaration will, in other words, not be subjected to peer review and need not adhere to criteria such as good governance, democracy and peace.

If Nepad is to succeed, if economic development on this continent is to become a reality and if the 21st century is, indeed, to belong to Africa, then I think the signing of the Nepad declaration should be made compulsory to all African Union members.

Vandag was die agb lid Marthinus van Schalkwyk se laaste optrede in dié Huis in sy hoedanigheid as leier van die Nuwe NP, voordat hy die premierskap van die Weskaap aanvaar. [Applous.] Anders as te kenne gegee is deur die agb Gibson, is die agb lid Van Schalkwyk ‘n formidabele Parlementariër en sy toespraak hier vanmiddag het dit bewys. Die Nuwe NP sal sy doelgerigte leiding in hierdie Huis mis. Ons wil hom veral bedank vir die rol wat hy gespeel het en nog steeds speel in die herrangskikking van die Suid-Afrikaanse politieke landskap ten einde te voldoen aan die eise van ‘n moderne en inheemse demokrasie; iets wat my vriende hier aan die linkerkant nie altyd verstaan nie. [Tussenwerpsels.] Ons wens hom alles van die beste toe as premier van die Weskaap. Stabiliteit in die Weskaapse politiek kan nie langer uitgestel word nie. Die Nuwe NP ondersteun die pos van die agb President en ons wens mnr Van Schalkwyk alles van die beste toe op die pad vorentoe. [Applous.] (Translation of Afrikaans paragraph follows.)

[Today was the hon member Marthinus van Schalkwyk’s last appearance in this House in his capacity as leader of the New NP, before he accepts the premiership of the Western Cape. [Applause.] Contrary to what the hon Gibson implied, the hon member Van Schalkwyk is a formidable parliamentarian and his speech here this afternoon has been the proof of that. The New NP will miss his purposeful leadership in this House. We especially want to thank him for the role that he has played and continues to play in the rearrangement of the South African political landscape in order to cope with the demands of a modern and indigenous democracy; something which my friends here on the left-hand side do not always understand. [Interjections.] We wish him everything of the best as premier of the Western Cape. Stability with regard to the politics of the Western Cape can no longer be delayed. The new NP supports the Vote of the hon the President and we wish Mr van Schalkwyk everything of the best on the road ahead. [Applause.]]

Dr Z P JORDAN: Madam Speaker, Comrade President, Comrade Deputy President, hon members and comrades, the honoured place that South Africa has earned in international affairs is indicated by the number of conferences that this country will be hosting during the course of this year alone.

Our country’s commitment to sustainable development reflects the lessons that we have learned from our past and the obligations we have collectively accepted about the future we are trying to build as a nation.

We have learned that inequality is unsustainable, that tyranny is unsustainable and that social injustice is unsustainable. Experience has taught us that democracy, equality, social justice and participation are essential for any project to be sustainable over time.

In the preparations for the World Summit on Sustainable Development that this country will be hosting in September, South Africa was among that group of countries which sought to take the summit beyond pious declarations. Instead, we have insisted on an action-oriented programme that stresses the eradication of poverty. Degrading levels of poverty in many parts of the world remain the single greatest obstacle in the quest for sustainable development.

While it is widely accepted that unbridled and unregulated pursuit of private profit has led to environmental degradation, there are still, regrettably, some heads of state who insist that the standard of living enjoyed by their countries comes first. The South Africa we inherited from the previous government is living proof of the folly of such policies.

As a nation, we South Africans have resolved to embark on a different path. That resolve is expressed in our Constitution which recognises the right of every individual to a clean and healthy environment, and also ensures the protection and preservation of our natural heritage for future generations.

South Africa’s approach to the summit has, therefore, been informed by the need not only to raise the living standards and the quality of life of the world’s poor, but also to reposition the developing nations in the global economy so as to enhance their individual and collective capacity to address the issue of poverty. Our Government demonstrated its commitment to those outcomes by the levels of representation we sent to Bali.

Poverty can impact on the environment in a number of ways. The poor in developing countries hardly have the opportunity to think through the consequences of the overutilisation of resources, because their priority is survival. Governments in developing countries, spurred by the imperative economic growth as the key to prosperity, may also be tempted to embrace ecologically unsound development strategies.

The eradication of poverty must now be firmly established as a truly cross- sectoral issue that features prominently in all global, regional and national policies as the key to sustainable development. That requires a working partnership among the developed and developing countries, aimed at meeting the basic needs of people and closing the yawning disparities that divide the human family into the rich north and the impoverished south.

Such a partnership should be premised on the universal acknowledgement that, unless we accept collective responsibility for the future of the planet, there is no nation on earth whose future will not be in jeopardy. Put another way, we could say that we are all required to choose between a fatherland and mother earth.

When posed in these terms, the unwillingness of leaders of many of the developed countries to adopt a more responsible attitude is all the more alarming. Poverty has degraded and can continue to degrade the environment, but it is nonetheless true that a child born in a developed country adds more to the consumption and pollution over his lifetime than 30 to 50 children born in a developing country.

It is also true that since 1950, the developed countries, because of their high incomes and consumption levels, have accounted for well over half the increase in resource use. It is also true that 20% of the world’s people living in the highest income countries account for 53% of the carbon dioxide emissions, while the poorest 20% account for only 3%.

In this regard, let it also be noted that Brazil, China, India, Indonesia and Mexico, who are among the developing countries with the highest emissions, despite their high populations, their per capita emissions are still a tiny 3,9 metric tonne per year for Mexico and 2,7 metric tonne for China.

When one compares that with the 20,5 metric tonne per capita for the United States and the 10,2 tonne for Germany, it is clear who needs to do more to clean up their act.

The consequences of global warming will be devastating to many poor countries. It is estimated that with a rise in the sea level, Bangladesh, which is one of the poorest countries in the world, could see its land area shrink by 17%. Almost a billion people in 40 developing countries risk losing access to their primary source of protein, as overfishing, driven by export, and a demand for animal feed and oils deplete the oceans’s fish stock. Of the 44 billion people living in developing countries, close to 60% lack basic sanitation. Almost a third have no access to clean water.

These contrasts should not be read as a plea for equalising poverty or for levelling downwards. What they do indicate is that while promoting and expanding opportunities and a better quality of life for all, we must accept the need to regulate economic activity in the interest of our future survival. They underscore the urgency of operationalising the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities.

The application of environmentally sound technology is an important factor in achieving sustainable development. Enhancing access by developing countries to such technologies has correctly been identified as a priority. However, insufficient attention is given to technologies, developed, tested and successively applied, in developing countries. Often such technologies are developed with the capital and technical assistance from developed countries.

Urgent attention should therefore be given to determining the level and extent of such existing local technologies in developing countries, and to facilitating the transfer of such relevant technologies on a regional and interregional basis. What we are suggesting is that the north-south flow of environmentally sound technology should be complemented by a south-south flow of such technology.

The United Nations’ target of 0,7% of GDP for official development assistance has, regrettably, been honoured more in breach than in observance. We require a swifter resolution of the debt problems of the highly indebted countries, building on the progress made in recent years. All these are matters that we hope will feature on the summit’s agenda.

The experience of Africa teaches us that it is foolhardy, if not dangerous, to embark on development projects that disempower the very people they are supposed to benefit. This emphasises the importance of democratic and accountable government as inseparable from the quest for sustainable development.

The African Union and Nepad, in both of which the hon Comrade President has played a role, are premised on precisely such recognition. As Africans, the success of the World Summit on Sustainable Development will be one more factor complementing our efforts for the realisation of the African century.

Many happy returns to the hon the President. [Applause.]

Debate interrupted.

The House adjourned at 19:14. ____

            ANNOUNCEMENTS, TABLINGS AND COMMITTEE REPORTS

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

National Assembly and National Council of Provinces:

1. The Speaker and the Chairperson:

 (1)    The Minister of Finance submitted the Wetsontwerp op Heffings op
     die Private Sekuriteitsbedryf [W 11 - 2002]  (National  Assembly  -
     sec 77) to the Speaker and the Chairperson on 18  June  2002.  This
     is the  official  translation  of  the  Private  Security  Industry
     Levies Bill [B 11 - 2002] (National Assembly - sec 77),  which  was
     introduced in the National Assembly by the  Minister  on  15  March
     2002.

National Assembly:

1. The Speaker:

 (1)    Message from National Council of Provinces to National Assembly:


     Bills, as amended, passed by National Council of  Provinces  on  18
     June  2002  and  transmitted   for   consideration   of   Council's
     amendments:


     (i)      Constitution  of  the  Republic  of  South  Africa  Second
              Amendment Bill [B 17D - 2002] (National  Assembly  -  sec
              74).


     (ii)    Loss or Retention of Membership of National and  Provincial
              Legislatures Bill [B 25B - 2002] (National Assembly - sec
              76).


     The amended Bills have been referred to the Portfolio Committee  on
     Justice  and  Constitutional   Development   for   a   report   and
     recommendations on the Council's amendments.

1. The Speaker:

 The following papers have been tabled  and  are  now  referred  to  the
 relevant committees as mentioned below:


 (1)    The following paper is referred to the  Portfolio  Committee  on
     Labour:


     Annual  Report  and  Financial  Statements  of   the   Compensation
     Commissioner for 1999-2000 [RP 208-2001].


 (2)    The following papers are referred to the Portfolio Committee  on
     Labour. The Reports  of  the  Auditor-General  contained  in  these
     papers are referred to the Standing Committee  on  Public  Accounts
     for consideration and report:


     (a)     Annual Report and  Financial  Statements  of  the  National
          Skills Fund for 2000-2001, including the Report of the Auditor-
          General on the Financial Statements for 2000-2001.


     (b)     Annual Report and Financial Statements of the  Compensation
          Fund for 2000-2001,  including  the  Report  of  the  Auditor-
          General on the Financial  Statements  for  2000-2001  [RP  72-
          2002].


 (3)    The following paper is referred to the  Portfolio  Committee  on
     Finance. The Report of the Auditor-General contained in this  paper
     is referred to  the  Standing  Committee  on  Public  Accounts  for
     consideration and report:


     Annual Report and Financial Statements  of  the  Public  Investment
     Commissioners for 2000-2001, including the Report of  the  Auditor-
     General on the Financial Statements for 2000-2001 [RP 50-2002].


 (4)    The following paper is referred to the  Portfolio  Committee  on
     Finance:


     General Notice No 662 published  in  Government  Gazette  No  23383
     dated 30 April 2002,  Statement  of  the  National  and  Provincial
     Government's Revenue, Expenditure and National Borrowing as  at  31
     March  2002,  in  terms  of  section  32  of  the  Public   Finance
     Management Act, 1999 (Act No 1 of 1999).


 (5)    The following paper is referred to the  Portfolio  Committee  on
     Arts, Culture, Science and Technology. The Report of  the  Auditor-
     General contained  in  this  paper  is  referred  to  the  Standing
     Committee on Public Accounts for consideration and report:


     Annual  Report  and  Financial  Statements  of  the  National  Arts
     Council for 2000-2001, including the Report of the  Auditor-General
     on the Financial Statements for 2000-2001.


 (6)    The following paper is referred to the  Portfolio  Committee  on
     Transport:


     (a)     Air  Services  Agreement  between  the  Government  of  the
          Republic of South Africa and the Government of the Republic of
          Mozambique,  tabled  in  terms  of  section  231(3)   of   the
          Constitution, 1996.


     (b)     Explanatory Memorandum to the Agreement.


 (7)    The following papers are referred to the Standing  Committee  on
     Public Accounts for consideration and report and to  the  Portfolio
     Committee on Agriculture and Land Affairs for information:


     (a)     Report of the Auditor-General on the  Financial  Statements
          of the Ingonyama Trust Board for 1 April 1994 to 31 March 1999
          [RP 17-2002].


     (b)     Report of the Auditor-General on the  Financial  Statements
          of the South African Wool Board for 1999-2000 [RP 74-2002].


 (8)    The following paper is referred to  the  Standing  Committee  on
     Public Accounts for consideration and report and to  the  Portfolio
     Committee on Trade and Industry for information:


     Report of the Auditor-General on the Reinsurance  Fund  for  Export
     Credit and Foreign Investments for the period 1 April  2001  to  31
     June 2001 [RP 64-2002].

COMMITTEE REPORTS:

National Assembly:

1. Report of the Select Committee on Local Government and Administration on the Local Government: Municipal Structures Amendment Bill [B 22B - 2002] (National Assembly - sec 75), dated 18 June 2002:

   The Select Committee on Local Government and Administration, having considered the subject of the Local Government: Municipal Structures Amendment Bill [B 22B - 2002] (National Assembly - sec 75), referred to it, reports that it has agreed to the Bill.

2. Report of the Select Committee on Security and Constitutional Affairs on the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa Second Amendment Bill [B 17B - 2002] (National Assembly - sec 74), dated 18 June 2002:

   The Select Committee on Security and Constitutional Affairs, having considered the subject of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa Second Amendment Bill [B 17B - 2002] (National Assembly - sec 74), referred to it, reports the Bill with an amendment [B 17C - 2002], as follows:

   NEW CLAUSE

   1. That the following be a New Clause:

      Amendment of Schedule 3 to Act 108 of 1996, as amended by section 2 of Act 3 of 1999 and section 19 of Act 34 of 2001

      3.     Schedule 3 to the Constitution  of  the  Republic  of   South Africa, 1996, is hereby amended by the substitution  for   item 3 of Part B of the following item:   "3. If the competing surpluses envisaged in item 2 are  equal,
        the undistributed delegates  in  the  delegation  must  be
        allocated to the party or parties,  including  any  merged
        party as contemplated in section 61(2)(b), with  the  same
        surplus in sequence of votes recorded, starting  with  the
        party or merged party which recorded  the  highest  number
        of votes, including  combined  votes  in  the  case  of  a
        merged party, during the last election for the  provincial
        legislature concerned, but if any of the parties with  the
        same surplus-
        (a)  came into existence on account of  changes  of  party
             membership or  subdivision  of  parties  within  that
             legislature as contemplated in section 61(2)(b); and
        (b)  did not participate in  the  last  election  for  the
             provincial legislature concerned,
        the legislature must allocate the undistributed  delegates
        in the delegation to the party or parties  with  the  same
        surplus in a manner which is consistent with democracy.".
      

3. Report of the Select Committee on Security and Constitutional Affairs on the Loss or Retention of Membership of National and Provincial Legislatures Bill [B 25 - 2002] (National Assembly - sec 76), dated 18 June 2002:

   The Select Committee on Security and Constitutional Affairs, having considered the subject of the Loss or Retention of Membership of National and Provincial Legislatures Bill [B 25 - 2002] (National Assembly - sec 76), referred to it, reports the Bill with amendments [B 25A - 2002], as follows:

   NEW CLAUSE

   1. That the following be a New Clause:

      Amendment of section 2 of Act 69 of 1998

      2.     Section 2 of the Determination of Delegates (National   Council of Provinces) Act, 1998,  is  hereby  amended  by  the   substitution for subsection (4) of the following subsection:
        "(4)  (a)  If  the  total  number  of  special   delegates
      determined in terms  of  subsection  (3)  in  respect  of  a
      particular provincial legislature is  less  than  four,  the
      delegates of the parties  that  are  entitled  to  only  one
      delegate in the delegation of that  province  must,  despite
      subsection (1), become special  delegates  in  the  sequence
      from the lowest to the highest number  of  votes,  including
      combined votes in the case of a merged party as contemplated
      in section 61(2)(b) of  the  Constitution,  that  have  been
      recorded for those parties during the last election of  that
      provincial legislature, until four  special  delegates  have
      been allocated to  parties  in  the  provincial  delegation:
      Provided that if any of the parties  that  are  entitled  to
      only one delegate in the delegation of that province -
      (i)    came into existence on account of  changes  of  party
             membership or  subdivision  of  parties  within  that
             legislature as contemplated in  section  61(2)(b)  of
             the Constitution; and
      (ii)   did not participate in  the  last  election  of  that
             provincial legislature,
      the legislature must, in a manner which is  consistent  with
      democracy, elect so many delegates  from  the  delegates  of
      those  parties  to  become  special  delegates  as  may   be
      necessary to allocate four special delegates to  parties  in
      the provincial delegation.
        (b)  If the total number of special  delegates  determined
      in terms of  subsection  (3)  in  respect  of  a  particular
      provincial legislature is  more  than  four,  those  special
      delegates must, despite  subsections  (2)  and  (3),  become
      permanent delegates in the sequence from the highest to  the
      lowest number of votes, including combined votes in the case
      of a merged party as contemplated in section 61(2)(b) of the
      Constitution,  that  have  been  recorded  for  the  parties
      concerned  during  the  last  election  of  that  provincial
      legislature,  until  four  special   delegates   have   been
      allocated to parties in the provincial delegation:  Provided
      that if any of those parties-
      (i)    came into existence on account of  changes  of  party
             membership or  subdivision  of  parties  within  that
             legislature as contemplated in  section  61(2)(b)  of
             the Constitution; and
      (ii)   did not participate in  the  last  election  of  that
             provincial legislature,
      that legislature must, despite subsections (2) and  (3)  and
      in a manner which is consistent  with  democracy,  elect  so
      many special delegates of those parties to become  permanent
      delegates as  may  be  required  to  allocate  four  special
      delegates to parties in the provincial delegation.".
      LONG TITLE
      

   2. On page 2, in the fifth line, after “party” to insert:

      ; to amend the Determination of Delegates (National Council of Provinces) Act, 1998, in order to make provision for the determination of certain delegates of a provincial legislature which has been reconstituted on account of changes of party membership and mergers or subdivision of parties