WEDNESDAY, 14 JUNE 2006 __

                PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY

                                ____

The House met at 14:03.

The Deputy 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.

QUESTIONS FOR ORAL REPLY+

THE DEPUTY PRESIDENT

           Outcomes of overseas visits by Deputy President

1. Ms M M Ntuli (ANC) asked the Deputy President:

   (a) What were the outcomes of the visits she recently undertook to (i) Japan and (ii) Indonesia and (b) what benefits will South Africa derive from these visits? N745E

The DEPUTY PRESIDENT: Madam Deputy Speaker, the reply to the question is as follows: While I was in Japan and Indonesia I met the following people – Prime Minister Koizumi; the vice-chancellors of 20 universities; the Japanese business federation, including Japanese businesses operating in South Africa such as Toyota and Mitsubishi; and several technical training institutions, especially those that have a history of collaborating with us in South Africa.

The outcomes of those discussions included the following: work that is going on where we are looking at collaboration on training, specifically in those areas where we have shortages and scarce skills, through placement of students and exchange opportunities in companies, universities as well as in government - of course where they can speak English. We intend to send people, especially middle-level managers, so that we can fast-track them in specific competencies that we need in South Africa.

They also included the strengthening of relationships and increasing confidence amongst Japanese institutions which do business in South Africa, for example assuring a company like Toyota of our support for their training programme. They already want to expand their manufacturing capacity in Durban and they have already employed 10 000 people. They have therefore made a commitment to upskill their workforce but our interest was to use their training methods also to train other people, other than the people that they’ve already employed. We are exploring that with them. The major focus of the trip to Indonesia was on small, medium and micro enterprise development and tourism. Indonesia has considerable experience in the development of souvenirs and in the promotion of the tourism sector. The objective was to derive lessons from the Indonesian experience by focussing on roles played by government, SMMEs and the financial institutions in developing a robust SMME sector.

We were focussing, in particular, on the souvenir industry as the Indonesians turned out to be leaders in that regard. In my delegation I had the MECs of tourism for KwaZulu-Natal and North West; the Deputy Minister of Finance as well as the Deputy Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism; the Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry, Rob Davies; Ceda and the National Productivity Institute. These different members of the delegation focussed on the different possibilities of co-operation.

What emerged as interesting during that visit, was that in Indonesia they are already making 2010 souvenirs, which was something that I feared, namely that we are already being outsmarted by another country. But, of course, the Deputy Minister of Finance and the Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry, who are also involved, particularly the Deputy Minister of Finance, who is a member of the Local Organising Committee for 2010, had to look at how we could, as we collaborate with the SMMEs in Indonesia, ensure that they are also compliant with the requirements of intellectual property as requested by Fifa, without killing the possibility for collaboration between South African SMMEs and Indonesian SMMEs.

The other industry that is highly developed in Indonesia is the batik industry. This industry is also dominated by SMMEs who create unique products that are highly in demand internationally and very popular, especially on the African continent. An area of co-operation, therefore, was possible joint ventures between our SMMEs and the Indonesian SMMEs to create unique products, especially clothing that we would be able to use as part of the 2010 memorabilia and souvenirs.

Most of the cotton, well maybe not most but a significant amount of the cotton for their batik, is from Southern Africa, in particular from Zimbabwe. The cotton goes to Zimbabwe; they value-add it; and we buy it back. The idea was that we would import the skill from there. We would then buy the cotton from Zimbabwe and from South Africa, and we would develop partnerships on the basis of which we would increase our productive capacity in South Africa.

We are also exploring the possibility of having a one-stop facility to showcase the products of South African SMMEs so that the SMMEs are not burdened with the challenges of market access. Already, a follow-up visit has taken place. The Indonesians have come to South Africa and some agreements have already been signed between some of the SMMEs. Thank you. The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Unfortunately, Ms Ntuli is not here with us but the hon Khunou will take the follow-up question.

Ms N P KHUNOU: Deputy Speaker, thank you Deputy President for your comprehensive answer. Japan is known for its amazing economic growth rate after the Second World War and that it has recovered from its economic downfall. One of the strong points of Japan is the technology that they have, but we also have a challenge with unemployed graduates. Is there any system or any plan that the government has to take unemployed graduates to go and learn in Japan? Thank you.

The DEPUTY PRESIDENT: Yes, actually, we are, in the main, obviously going to place unemployed graduates in South Africa, but we are also looking for placement anywhere else in the world. I think we have already sent about 150 potential “placees”, if I can call them that, who have qualifications in technical areas and who were underemployed where they were, to Japan. We are also taking some in the managerial sections, because Japan has a strong training capability in that area. We are also taking some of them into local government-related professions. We will, in all cases, be looking at the utilisation of whatever technology Japan has which has relevance to South Africa.

I must say that this process of placing students, whether in South Africa or oversees, is very labour intensive. We learnt that after we recruited, especially women. We were looking for 100 but we ended up with 500 applicants and we had a strong offer from the United Arab Emirates, UAE, and from the private sector. But to place every student or graduate in an area where they will learn meaningfully and to make sure that they have accommodation, they have a stipend, they have a supervisor, is proving to be quite a slow process.

We are learning as we go along. We have increased our staff in that respect and we hope that, at least, at the end of the year we will be able to give a comprehensive report on those that we have been able to place successfully. Thank you.

Mr L K JOUBERT: Deputy Speaker, Madam Deputy President, it appears that you spent more time in Indonesia than in Japan. Now, given the fact that, overall, Japan is our third largest trade partner and our largest in Asia, wouldn’t it have been better to spend more time in Japan? Thank you.

The DEPUTY PRESIDENT: It is not about the time but the quality of interactions that we had. We have had a long collaborative relationship with Japan so it was easy to get all the people we needed to meet in order to collaborate with them. And I spent most of the time in one city when I was in Japan, whereas in Indonesia, for instance, when I had to see batik I had to go to central Java, in Solo, to actually spend time there with SMMEs, and to travel from Jakarta to Solo takes about three hours. The reason more time was spent in Indonesia was just the size of the country, the distances and the capability of getting in-depth interaction. Length of time doesn’t always imply quality. [Applause.]

Perceptions regarding Accelerated and Shared Growth Initiative for South Africa (Asgisa)

1. Mr I O Davidson (DA) asked the Deputy President:

 Whether she will make a statement regarding the perception among
 commentators that the Accelerated and Shared Growth Initiative for
 South Africa (Asgisa) is little more than a repackaging of existing
 economic growth initiatives for public relations purposes?
                                                           N748E

The DEPUTY PRESIDENT: The answer to the question, hon Davidson, is that I do not intend to make a statement about a few isolated misperceptions about the Accelerated and Shared Growth Initiative for South Africa. Asgisa, in fact, is repacking existing initiatives so that we can implement them better. So if people have that perception, that’s not a problem for us.

We are doing the repackaging so that we can accelerate and ensure better sharing of benefits of growth. If that also benefits our public relations, that’s also good. That’s not a problem for us.

However, I need to state that Asgisa is a set of priority initiatives, most of which are led by government departments or partnerships in the area in which they were already doing this work, but maybe not doing it as well as we want them to do it.

Asgisa does not have a separate and special budget. It is not a fund. It is not an alternative planning system to only help a programme of action of government or budgeting system. It is a strategic intervention that seeks to capitalise on those things that we can roll out faster if we remove particular obstacles.

What it does is that it identifies key actions for government that should be prioritised in planning and budgeting. So, it is not a shortcut to the budget cycle also. It is not as if we are asking departments not to follow whatever they need to do in order for them to access resources from the Treasury.

If a project is agreed to be an Asgisa priority, its implementation takes high priority. We would expect other partners such as business who have also identified areas where they would collaborate with us or nongovernmental organisations and trade unions to prioritise them in the manner in which they implement those projects. Asgisa also acts as a mechanism for monitoring the implementation of decisions and for responding where initiatives are falling behind or running into problems.

One of the most important contributions of the Presidency, obviously, is the use of our office to convene meetings between parties that struggle to get together so that we can make sure that we supervise that they are working in a collaborative manner.

Perhaps, a few commentators may not yet fully understand what we are trying to do, but the majority of the commentators and the partners do understand what we are doing and, I think, for now, that you also understand that. I am happy if you understand it. It doesn’t matter about other people.

Mr I O DAVIDSON: Madam Deputy Speaker, I thank the Deputy President for that reply and I accept what she said. However, when you made your announcement on that, you identified certain interventions. Some of them were infrastructure; some of them were sector strategies. There was the business process outsourcing and tourism Durban-Johannesburg corridor.

In relation to education skills, we had the Joint Initiative for Priority Skills Acquisition. A committee was formed. Nothing has come back from there. There were interventions in the second economy – there was the whole question of regulation. There was the whole question of review of the labour laws. These were all intervention strategies that you put on the table and said they were going to be part of Asgisa.

Now, we have heard nothing since then. I think what we will be requiring from you, ma’am, is to actually come forth with these strategies to actually add meat to the bone so that we can see that Asgisa is on course, that we are achieving, and that we will receive that potential 6% growth rate.

The DEPUTY PRESIDENT: I don’t know, because we have been coming back and adding information as we go along, but obviously, many of these things don’t take a few months before you can see concrete results. So, we don’t want to be reporting every five minutes.

With regard to infrastructure, for instance, it is about ensuring that we have capacity to spend the money for social infrastructure. So, as far as that is concerned, for instance, one complete task that we have done is to beef up the capacity of the municipalities to spend by deploying people to actually go and work there. That is one concrete action that we have taken since then.

Eskom has actually begun to implement the work that they need to do so that they can address the issue of generation capacity. They are on course in terms of the commitments that they have made. Transnet, in terms of addressing harbours, also has a strategy plan. They have employed people. They have gone back to look at some of the data that they have in order to make sure where their implementation strategy had gaps. They are fixing it. So, life is going on. We are meeting constantly to make sure that they are going forward. I don’t think that you can say that nothing is happening in Jipsa. Not only do we have a committee, but we also have staff. We have students that we have actually at least placed in the different institutions, be they unemployed graduates. We have people that we are placing in the workplace so that we can accelerate their training. We have technikon students that were otherwise sitting at home and couldn’t graduate because they didn’t have internships. We are bringing them on board so that they can graduate.

So, you are actually going to see people who have a before’’ and after’’ story. Before there was Asgisa, they were sitting at home; they didn’t know what was going to happen to them. We have helped them to get learnerships to train so that they can go back and graduate.

We are taking students who are sitting at home, and we are actually giving them jobs. Just last night, we concluded a programme with KPMG concerning 20 young women who are going to go to KPMG, with the potential of going up the ladder and becoming chartered accountants. That is one of the Jipsa programmes. [Applause.]

So, I don’t have worries that nothing is happening. I would probably like more. That is really my anxiety. I would like much more than what we are doing. But, definitely, people are doing their best.

In relation to BPO, the strategy for business process outsourcing, there are hundreds of students that we are putting into training with IBM and with Microsoft, and we are preparing them for that. Of course, we have finished the strategy. The team which has government and the private sector working on the strategy is now about to adopt the strategy, and we are going to launch the strategies.

With regard to tourism, we have the same situation. So, hon member, there is progress. [Applause.]

Mr S N SWART: Madam Deputy Speaker, the ACDP, like all other political parties, I’m sure, wants government to succeed with Asgisa. Whilst we appreciate that there are enormous challenges, particularly in the area of skills shortages, we must achieve the target of 6% growth by 2010 as well as halve poverty and unemployment by 2015, or at least go a long way to achieving these targets.

In view of the accusations by commentators as set out in the question, hon Deputy President, what significance do you place on last month’s UK-South Africa Bilateral Forum, whereby the United Kingdom agreed to work with South Africa to determine how best it can support Asgisa.

In a statement released following the forum, both governments agreed that ``a special focus of the work of the forum and future SA-UK co-operation would be support for Asgisa’’. Does this not signify acceptance of Asgisa by a major trading partner that already supports us in development through the employment promotion programme, and the consolidated municipal transformation programme, and thus that there is already certain progress with Asgisa and acceptance of it?

The DEPUTY PRESIDENT: I couldn’t agree with you more, hon member. In fact, as I speak, the Minister of media and sport in the United Kingdom will be coming to South Africa, and one of the things that will be done will be to interview some of the students that they intend to recruit in order for them to be placed in the construction sector in the UK, where they are building stadia for their Olympics. During that time, those young people will be mentored. Obviously, they have to have the necessary qualifications and degrees, and we have already provided them with all the data.

That is just one concrete thing that has happened since that visit. We are hoping to send at least 30 young people and this has been one of the shortest interactions that we have had, because in many of the places where we are trying to place students, as we have done with the United Arab Emirates, it just takes too long. There’s a long wait, the visas to be sorted out, etc, and with the UK, the issue of visas is processed much more quickly. The language isn’t a problem and the enthusiasm on their side is actually quite commendable. Thank you. Mr K A MOLOTO: Madam Deputy Speaker, hon Deputy President, will you be able to explain to this House what the different roles or responsibilities are of certain elements within civil society in the enhancing and implementation of Asgisa?

The DEPUTY PRESIDENT: The private sector has contributed financially. Jipsa, the Joint Initiative for Priority Skills Acquisition, is in part being supported by the National Business Initiative. They have provided a secretariat and a budget. They are also facilitating the placement of some of the students in the companies that are members of the chambers that are supporting Asgisa. Labour has contributed ideas and criticism, which has been very good. We have used some of the criticism to integrate.

In the work that we are doing on co-operatives and women, the nongovernmental organisations in particular have sent us a lot of people that we are now training. We have 150 people that are part of a training programme that we are doing collaboratively with India and at least half of those people have been sent by NGOs who are taking them back, and who will make sure that when they go back to those NGOs they will have work to do to apply the skills that we are imparting to them.

The private sector is collaborating on training. As I speak, we have concluded an agreement with Old Mutual to train hundreds of project managers, mainly for local government-related services. They have started training at the Old Mutual business school. Those are the different contributions by different stakeholders.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: I don’t see another hand. I will then give the slot back to Mr Davidson.

Mr I O DAVIDSON: Thank you, Madam Deputy Chair. Madam Deputy President, thank you for your response.

However, laudable though it is to train people to take their rightful place in our economic life, I do want to urge you to go back to that document that you put out on your intervention strategies. Just do a checklist against that, and see what was promised in terms of those intervention strategies, and give us a report back on what has actually been achieved, because then we will be able to measure the ongoing progress of Asgisa, and then the charge won’t be made of you that this is just nothing more nor less than a public relations document.

Let’s get the facts on the table so that we can all see, most of all those people that are attempting to deride the programme. Thank you.

The DEPUTY PRESIDENT: No problem. It will be done in my own time, obviously, because I don’t want to bring half-baked information, and I can live with criticism. It’s not meant to be easy. [Applause.]

          Action to address skills shortage in the country

1. Mr B A D Martins (ANC) asked the Deputy President:

 (a)    What action is the Government taking to address the shortage of
      skills in the country and (b) what contribution are the business
      and organised labour sectors making in this regard?
                              N746E

The DEPUTY PRESIDENT: Madam Deputy Speaker, again, this has to do with skills. I’m quite excited that members are so concerned about this issue.

There are several approaches to addressing the skills shortage in the short, medium and long term. In the short term, we have concluded the identification and definition of what we regard as key skills that are scarce, if we are to deliver in the short term.

These include the high-level engineering skills for networking industries, such as telecommunications, transport logistics and energy, the city’s urban and regional planning engineering skills, artisans, apprenticeship, and technical skills for infrastructure needed in the construction sector, management of the health care system, education, as well as teachers in the public sector, especially for maths, science, ICT and languages.

These include skills also required in the specific industries that we have identified, such as tourism and BPO, as well as cross-cutting skills such as skills in finance, in project management as well as in ICT.

We’ve also identified challenges that exist in the skills pathway, and some of the solutions that we are working on, together with the training institutions, are improving the match between the supply and the demand and unlocking the training capacity in the public sector. For instance, we are reopening some of the training facilities that Eskom and Transnet used to have for training apprentices so that we can utilise them again.

In the short term also, as you know, we have recruited people that were retired. They are providing expertise and are also mentoring some of the younger people in the municipalities and elsewhere. Of course, we also have contributions in the Jipsa task team by labour, which is also assisting us to identify the value of the training that is being given to the people that we ultimately intend to place in the workplace.

I have already, in the reply to the previous question, indicated the collaboration that we are having with the private sector, so I will not repeat the reply to that part of this question. However, I do want to mention that, in the long term, curriculum alignment at higher education is fundamental. We certainly still have a problem in that what is taught at higher education and what is required in the world of work is not aligned.

We also do not want to do that to the extreme, such that we turn students into robots that only learn in order to lay a brick. But, if you can’t lay a brick, you won’t have bread. So it’s the balance between learning universally so that you can be a learned person and learning a competency, so that you can do work. We are engaging with higher education institutions in this regard.

Of course, also in the long term, this question has to do with the overall improvement of the quality of education in the schools, something that the Department of Education is seized with. Thank you.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Hon members, before we call for a supplementary question, I just wish to appeal to you: There are just too many meetings taking place in the House. We encourage the meetings, but please go and have a very fruitful meeting elsewhere, and leave those who’d like to continue with the business of the House to do so. Agreed?

HON MEMBERS: Agreed!

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Thank you very much for that commitment.

Mr D A A OLIFANT: Comrade Deputy President, it’s wonderful to address you this afternoon. I just want to say that Mr Davidson falls within the category of those that are “none so blind as those that don’t want to see, and none so deaf as those that don’t want to hear”.

I just want to say that it’s quite critical that most of the opposition parties, except the DA, are supporting the Asgisa programme as introduced by the Deputy President. You have all these questions that have been asked so far, which are very interrelated. So I just want to ask, on the part focusing on business, whether there is any indication from your side that business or the private sector is committed and coming to the party as far as training is concerned? In the past there was a great deal of reluctance on the part of business to come to the party because they always complained that this would affect their production levels. What’s the position, in your own opinion, at this particular point in time?

The DEPUTY PRESIDENT: Madam Deputy Speaker, business is coming to the party, but I think that there is still a notion that training is a corporate social responsibility rather than a strategic investment. And I think this is the paradigm shift, which we are trying to introduce.

In the JSE they have a triple-bottom-line index that they have introduced, which involves corporate social responsibility, environmental compliance and profitability of the company. Those are the three things by which they will gauge whether a company is sustainable.

We are saying that investment in human resources is another index that must be added, so that we can get more companies to see investment in human capital as a make or break for productivity and for profitability. It’s not a nice-to-do.

In fact, it’s not just South Africa that is dealing with these issues. Globally there is a shortage of the same skills that we are looking for. So it’s not as if we are going to get these people somewhere around the world.

Remember we were very enthusiastic about bringing in people from outside South Africa. But we actually realised that a lot of the people who are coming back do not necessarily have some of the skills that are crucial for us.

So, in the medium to long term, it’s going to depend on us investing in the training. It’s also going to mean that, globally, most companies and nations go back to the drawing board as far as the issues of training and skills are concerned. Economies in many parts of the world are booming and growing, and all of the people with those highly sought skills are being absorbed. So we have to create our own base for those skills. If industry does not make a big investment in the skills, it’s always going to come back and haunt us. For me, that is the real thing that I’m trying to push for, that paradigm shift. It’s not a nice-to-do, it’s not a corporate social service, it’s a fundamental survival investment that the companies need to make. Thank you. [Applause.]

Mr C M LOWE: Good afternoon, Deputy President. It’s also an honour to address you this afternoon. I’m sure you won’t need the hon Olifant to answer for you, though.

Deputy President, my question revolves around the skills revolution, because at the end of March, when you launched Jipsa, the Joint Initiative for Priority Skills Acquisition, you quite correctly said that what South Africa needs is a skills revolution, and the DA agrees with you wholeheartedly.

The problem is, we’ve had the RDP, we had Gear, we had the Setas, all of which, quite frankly, have not delivered the skills and certainly haven’t delivered the jobs. What happens now? The question is: What makes it any different? And the reason I ask this is that if you really want the skills revolution that will truly deliver the skills and the jobs – and as I said, we believe that you do – then economic growth has to be the non-negotiable priority above racial preferencing, especially with regard to skills acquisition.

And as you know, that hasn’t happened up to now. In fact, what happens is that there are many skills, there is racial bias and there is prioritising of one race above the other. With 8 million people out of work and with 500 000 skilled jobs vacant, we can’t afford to do that.

Will you, ma’am, identify priority scarce skills and exempt them from employment equity requirements? Will you, in fact, ensure that the current racial bias in hiring that sabotages the push for skills is amended, so that everybody, whether black, white, Indian, coloured or whatever, who has the skills, has the ability to work, wants to stay here and wants to be part of South Africa can apply for these jobs, and we can fill the skills and everybody will benefit together? That is the question, and I would ask that you take the initiative that nobody else in your government has done and say today, “yes, we will do that”, so that everybody belongs in the skills revolution. [Time expired.]

The DEPUTY PRESIDENT: I don’t think that there’s racial preferencing, in the manner you put it. Statistics show that the majority of the people who are unemployed, including those that are qualified, are African. That’s a fact. There is no “manga-manga” about that one. We are, therefore, trying to increase the number of people from those communities so that they can also feel that they are part of this new South Africa.

Of course, we have to do the balancing act. Sometimes you get it right, sometimes you don’t get it so right. In trying to do that balancing, you have to make sure that you do not alienate those of other races. That is why in the recent recruitment drive we were happy to receive names from the FF and we brought in those people and interviewed them.

One of the things that they are doing – and I think they are going to be great – is the mentoring of other people so that they do the job. They are imparting skills, but at the same time you are bringing in other people.

Once you completely relax employment equity – we are underachieving in any case - can you imagine what would happen if we didn’t have that? So I think it’s the sensitivity of the leadership to do these things not in the extreme; and to create an environment where all South Africans can feel that they are able to co-operate and to collaborate.

And I think that, amongst ourselves, hon members, we need to try and create that environment so that we do not make any South African feel that they are unwanted. [Applause.]

Mnu B W DHLAMINI: Somlomo, Phini likaMongameli nozakwethu, uqeda ukusho lapha, mhlonishwa Phini likaMongameli, ukuthi njengamanye amasu okuzama ukulwa nokwentuleka kwamakhono, namukele uhla olunabantu abangaphezu kwe- 100 abaphuma kwi-FF Plus. Kunombuzo futhi-ke othi, iqiniso yini ukuthi abanye badudulelwa eceleni ngenkathi sifika ngo-1994 ngenxa yokuthi kwathiwa abantu ababesebenza kusaqhutshwa ngohlelo oludala babengeke baluqonde uhlelo olusha?

Laba okuthiwa banesipiliyoni basithola bengebodwa, kodwa kwakukhona nabanye abantu abamnyama nabo ababesebenza bengama-administrators emalokishini abamnyama nasezindaweni ezazibizwa kuthiwe “amaBantustani”. Nabo-ke banesipiliyoni esifanayo nesalaba futhi babephethwe yilaba abayi-100 obathole kulolo luhla.

Kukhona imibono-ke futhi ethi sengathi laba abansundu ababekulolo hlelo lwakudala baduduleke eceleni kodwa benesipiliyoni esifanayo nesalaba abatholakele lapha. Kunemibono eyakhekayo yokuthi sengathi okumhlophe kungcono kunokumnyama. Nalaba abamnyama bazibona sengathi bashiyekile ngoba babesebenza ohlelweni oludala kodwa sekukhona abashuthekwayo ngoba bemhlophe. Ngiyathokoza.

IPHINI LIKAMONGAMELI: Hhawu, baba, angazi ukuthi uyithathaphi le ndaba embi kangaka! Ayikho leyo nto. (Translation of isiZulu paragraphs follows.)

[Mr B W DHLAMINI: Madam Speaker, Deputy President and colleagues, hon Deputy President, you have just said that, as another means to tackle the skills shortage, you have accepted a list of more than 100 people from the FF Plus. The other question is, is it true that other people were sidelined when we came into power in 1994 because it was said that people who were employed during the old system could not understand the new system?

Those who have experience, when they got it, they were not alone but with black people who were working as administrators in townships and in the then Bantustans. They also have the same experience as those and they were managed by those who are on the list of 100.

There are perceptions that those who were in the old system are sidelined although they have the same experience as those who are on the list. There are also perceptions that whites are better than blacks. Blacks also feel sidelined because they were working in the old system and others are squeezed in because they are white. Thank you.

The DEPUTY PRESIDENT: Wow, sir, I don’t know where you take such a bad thing! There is no such thing.]

Firstly, let me correct this: the names that we got from the FF were not actually 100. The 100 names I was talking about relate to the young women that we recruited for placement internationally in the United Arab Emirates in particular, whom we are now redirecting to other countries because we’ve more quality offers where they will get better benefits, especially because of the language, amongst other things.

However, regarding this list from the FF, yes, we have placed some of the people, but we didn’t take everybody on it because there were interviews. Some people, when they realised where they were going to be placed, decided that maybe it would be difficult for the family to relocate, that the skills didn’t match the offer and so on, and didn’t take up the offer. So, in the end, a much lower number of people was placed than was anticipated.

Angikezwa lutho maqondana nokuthi sesithole amagama abantu abavela ezabelweni. Asibaxwayi abantu abavela ezabelweni. Phela, angithi thina sinokubuyisana, noma ngabe uvelaphi siyakuthatha. Angikezwa lutho.

Uma kukhona abantu enicabanga ukuthi mhlawumbe sibabandlululile, ngicela usinike amagama abo. Sizowathatha lawo magama siwahambise kuMnyango wezemiSebenzi kaHulumeni nezokuPhatha. Iwona-ke uMnyango ozobabiza ukuze babonisane. (Translation of isiZulu paragraphs follows.)

[I haven’t heard anything about the list of people from the rural areas. We don’t avoid people from rural areas. We are reconciling; no matter where you come from, we accept you. I have not heard anything. If you think that there are some people who we have discriminated against, please give us their names. We are going to take those names and submit them to the Department of the Public Service and Administration. The department will call them and have discussions with them.]

Mr C M LOWE: Deputy President, through your answer to me, I certainly did understand, not just the measure of sympathy but an agreement that we need to move forward with this. We’ve so many positions that are vacant in South Africa and so many people with those skills, whom we can use. We’ve got to move past the hurt and the sensitivities. And I think, from our side, we do understand the sensitivities of what’s happened in the past; you can’t just simply pretend that they weren’t there.

The question I’d like to put to you, as a follow-up, Deputy President, is specifically this: There are a number of very scarce skills in this country but, truly, as you’ve said yourself, the education system that we currently have doesn’t provide sufficient skills at matric level for people to go to university. Until we can deal with that problem, can we take people from groups that would have been seen as advantaged before and actually allow them to apply for jobs? I’m thinking of the Gautrain, for example.

I’m told by some of my colleagues that we don’t have enough engineers in this country to actually work on that project, and yet many young South Africans with those skills, either here or abroad, would love to come back and apply. The question is: Would you identify those priority skills that we do have and exempt them from the current employment equity requirements that only people from certain backgrounds may apply? Would you take that as a start, to say to everybody, “We’re all part of this; let’s work together”? Thank you.

The DEPUTY PRESIDENT: No, hon member, I will not call for an amendment of the Employment Equity Act, but I do want those people to be taken on board. They will mentor other people. So they will have a job. They will provide a service, but they will actually mentor, especially if they are older. If they are younger, obviously we must also incentivise them; so they must have longer-term contracts. There is a way of doing that without having to change the law.

They must be able to mentor. Eskom is doing this already; where they don’t have the skills in the designated group, they take the people they want, but you must be committed to mentoring other people. In many cases they’ve retired people who’ve these wonderful scarce skills who are mentoring about four or five other young people. The chemistry is just amazing.

The exchange of skills, the robustness of the interaction is amazing. We didn’t have to change the law. We’ve made sure that, at some point, when these people have their second retirement, we’ve definitely kept a position for someone from a designated group without robbing someone who has skills at entry point of his or her opportunity.

These things need to be addressed on a case-by-case basis. If you tell me that there’s a person who has a skill and there’s a vacancy there that has not been filled, and the project is at a standstill, I’m prepared to go to the Gautrain people and raise the issue. That is what Asgisa is about, by the way, Mr Davidson - unblocking these things case-by-case when they arise. Thanks. [Applause.]

           Implementation of youth development programmes

1. Mr B M Mkongi (ANC) asked the Deputy President:

(1)     What programmes is the Government implementing with regard to
     youth development in view of South Africa’s commemoration of the
     30th anniversary of the 1976 Soweto uprising;


(2)     whether South Africa is meeting its international obligations in
     this regard; if not, why not; if so, what are the relevant
     details?
     N747E

The DEPUTY PRESIDENT: Deputy Speaker, I am pleased to inform the House that as we celebrate the contribution of the youth to our struggle for freedom and beyond, government has youth development concerns on top of the agenda.

We are implementing information programmes that seek to alert millions of young people about the opportunities available in this age of hope. Expanding access to information is critical since many of our young people do not enjoy the benefits of freedom as yet, not because there are limited opportunities in some cases, but because they lack information on where these opportunities are and how to access them.

It is within this context that we are hosting the National Youth Service Expo - please tell all young people! - this week in Soweto and in the Drakenstein municipality. The aim of this expo is to showcase community service and service delivery activities that young people are engaged in.

We hope that, through this expo, we will encourage those young people who do not know about the National Youth Service to become interested so that when we recruit again they will make themselves available.

Why are we focusing on the National Youth Service? It is because, obviously, this month we are celebrating the 30th anniversary of the uprisings which the young people led, but it’s also critical to emphasise that we are trying to provide young people with opportunities to be included in nation-building, in social cohesion and in accessing new skills.

In that way, the National Youth Service programme is a programme that is going to be with us; it’s going to expand throughout the country and it’s going to be implemented in partnership. It aims to accelerate service delivery. Many of the young people are involved in the housing projects to expand opportunities for skills development and occupational experience for unemployed and out-of-school youth and to promote social cohesion.

I do urge all the members in this House to please share this information so that as many young people as possible can participate in these activities.

But, more importantly, I want also to share with this House that we are engaged in various planning activities aimed at expanding the capacity of the existing programme to absorb thousands of young people, especially those young people who are in the so-called second economy. So we are now working on a business plan that will elaborate the placement of young people in SMMEs, and this we are going to be doing together with Ceda which has already opened offices in various parts of the country.

As far as the National Youth Service is concerned, we are targeting 10 000 young people by the end of this year, and those who are already in the programme and are ready to start, will be starting in July.

In regard to paragraph 2 of the question, hon Mkongi, regarding whether South Africa is meeting its international obligation, my answer is, yes. We are making considerable progress towards achieving millennium development goals. Both the World Programme of Action for Youth and the Millennium Declaration urge all member states to invest heavily in education and training, which we are doing.

Members will recall that I reported in this House last week that young people’s participation in the schooling system has increased from 96% in 2002 to 98% in 2005. The Minister of Education also reported in her Budget Vote that tremendous progress has been made in areas of secondary education, further education and training, as well as higher education, and now we are concentrating on improving the quality of this education, since access has improved tremendously.

Time permitting, I would have loved to go on further to demonstrate how we are meeting our obligations in areas such as youth participation and decision-making. Many departments have gone out of their way to recruit young people, either for learnerships or permanent positions, and the many programmes that we have in which young people are given opportunities for economic participation through access to finance as well as training. Thank you.

Mr M R MOHLALOGA: Deputy Speaker, I just wanted to establish from the hon Deputy President that, given the good programmes that government is pursuing with regard to youth development, one issue that is not quite clear is the role of the private sector, especially with regard to youth economic participation. Is there a particular role which you think the private sector can play in order to enhance the programmes that government is pursuing? Thank you very much.

The DEPUTY PRESIDENT: Chairperson, I think we have a platform through which the private sector can participate, but we are not seeing the numbers that the country requires. For instance, if you take the economic empowerment charters, all of them make provision for enterprise development that, in many cases, would benefit young people. Most of them make provision for human resource development. If implemented properly, most of those would benefit young people, including young workers.

Of course, if young people are advanced enough to raise capital to buy equity in companies it would also introduce them to the economy, but I do know that that is perhaps one of the most difficult areas for young people to obtain access to.

That is why Umsobomvu tries very hard to support young people with access to finance. But, actually, the success of young people when it comes to areas such as access to finance depends on what the banks will do, because they are the people whose core mandate is to sell money. They have lots of it, so they need to find a mechanism that will bring in young people to start up businesses, because as a young person you need the start-up in many cases. When they require collateral from a young person who is historically disadvantaged, for that matter, it does make it very difficult for those young people to make an entry point.

So, some of our interactions with the banks on the basis of the Financial Services Charter, for example, is about changing the mindset in order to enable more young people to get start-up capital so that they can become entrepreneurs. Fortunately, there is a growing number of young people these days who have relative sophistication and skills. They know how to write a business plan, they know how to research a product and a market, and therefore they can be trusted as entrepreneurs.

I would be the first one to say that I don’t think that we are making as much progress there as I would like us to make, and I’ve already indicated that, in the area of education, we have a basis on which to co-operate but the numbers aren’t there. And it is tedious for us to get the co-operation at the speed at which we would like to have it. I have experienced that in relation to our own South African companies, but even when we approached some of the international companies I find that the speed, the volumes and the numbers are not to the extent that we need them. However, I suppose this is something that we have to keep working on, and to urge the companies to support us. Thank you.

Mr M M SWATHE: Deputy Speaker, Madam Deputy President, the National Youth Commission has achieved very little over the past few years. [Interjections.] The salary bill of the commission, which stands at more than R7 million, is more than 50% of the commission’s budget. The commission seems to help only those it employs, not the broader youth population.

In the light of the imperatives to improve skills and grow youth employment under Asgisa, do you not believe that an ineffectual body such as the National Youth Commission should be disbanded, owing to its poor track record? If so, will you make this recommendation to the President? If not, how can you reconcile Asgisa’s goal with the ineffectual youth commission? Thank you. [Interjections.]

The DEPUTY PRESIDENT: Hon member, no, I will not disband the youth commission. We will improve where it is failing and there’s just been a review of all these agencies so that we can enhance their participation. The youth commission is also specifically involved in the rolling-out of the National Youth Service. In many of the areas where we actually have functioning young people in the National Youth Service, in the municipalities, it is because we have been assisted by the National Youth Commission.

I am not taking lightly what you are saying, hon member, but I’ll need to familiarise myself with the facts. I cannot accept such a drastic decision without being absolutely sure that this is the best thing for the people and the young people of South Africa. [Applause.]

Mr S N SWART: Hon Deputy President, arising from your response and in view of the issue of programmes that the government intends implementing, can it be said that the government is serious about protecting the vulnerable youth, particularly children – and one looks at sexual abuse - when it is an accepted fact that age-of-consent offences are one of the best protections for vulnerable children from predator adults? Statutory rape provisions protect child victims from the secondary trauma of having to disprove consent - once the act is proven a conviction can follow.

In general terms, hon Deputy President, the government intends lifting the legal age for purchasing cigarettes from 16 years to 18 years to protect children’s health. You must also be 18 to vote, obtain a driver’s licence and purchase alcohol, but to be involved in sexual activities, the government has decided, in terms of the Sexual Offences Bill, to make the age 16 years. How does the government justify this, particularly in view of widespread sexual abuse of children and the Aids epidemic, and this in view of the intention to lift the age for purchasing cigarettes from 16 to 18 years? Thank you.

The DEPUTY PRESIDENT: That’s a very new question, but …

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: That’s an ambush, hon member! Put it in print!

See also QUESTIONS AND REPLIES.

SECOND READING OF REPEAL OF THE BLACK ADMINISTRATION ACT AND AMENDMENT OF CERTAIN LAWS AMENDMENT BILL

                         (Draft Resolution)

The DEPUTY CHIEF WHIP OF THE MAJORITY PARTY: Deputy Speaker, I move the motion printed on the Order Paper in the name of the Chief Whip of the Majority Party, as follows:

That Rule 253(1), which provides inter alia that the debate on the Second Reading of a Bill may not commence before at least three working days have elapsed since the committee’s report was tabled, be suspended for the purposes of conducting the Second Reading debate on Repeal of the Black Administration Act and Amendment of Certain Laws Amendment Bill [B 11B – 2006] (National Assembly – sec 75) today.

Agreed to.

              MEDIATION COMMITTEE ON OLDER PERSONS BILL


                         (Draft Resolution)

The DEPUTY CHIEF WHIP OF THE MAJORITY PARTY: Madam Deputy Speaker, I move the motion printed on the Order Paper in the name of the Chief Whip of the Majority Party, as follows:

That the House, In accordance with Rule 226, elect the following members as nominated by their respective parties as the Assembly representatives on the Mediation Committee on the Older Persons Bill [B 68D - 2003]:

Chalmers, J        (ANC)
Gumede, D M        (ANC)
Louw, S K          (ANC)
Makasi, X C        (ANC)
Masutha, T M  (ANC)
Nel, A C           (ANC)
Ngaleka, E         (ANC)
Weber, H           (DA)
Waters, M          (DA) (Alternate)
Mars, I       (IFP).

Agreed to.

    CONSIDERATION OF REPORT OF PORTFOLIO COMMITTEE ON JUSTICE AND    CONSTITUTIONAL DEVELOPMENT - REPEAL OF THE BLACK ADMINISTRATION ACT AND
              AMENDMENT OF CERTAIN LAWS AMENDMENT BILL

The DEPUTY CHIEF WHIP OF THE MAJORITY PARTY: Deputy Speaker, I move:

That the Report be adopted.

Motion agreed to.

Report accordingly adopted.

REPEAL OF THE BLACK ADMINISTRATION ACT AND AMENDMENT OF CERTAIN LAWS
                           AMENDMENT BILL

                       (Second Reading debate)

There was no debate.

Bill read a second time.

                    CORPORATE LAWS AMENDMENT BILL

                       (Second Reading debate)

The MINISTER OF TRADE AND INDUSTRY: Madam Deputy Speaker, colleagues, Members of Parliament, I’m honoured to introduce the second reading of the Corporate Laws Amendment Bill in the National Assembly.

Amongst its varied and wide responsibilities, the department is also responsible for the administration of the Companies Act of 1973 and the Close Corporations Act of 1984, which deal with the registration and regulation of big and small businesses respectively. The purpose of the Corporate Laws Amendment Bill is to amend both these pieces of legislation.

The DTI is committed to piloting legislation through Parliament that will promote corporate governance. Weak corporate governance, associated with financial reporting, especially of those firms that trade their shares publicly, undermines the confidence of investors and users of financial reports.

To enhance the integrity of our financial reporting, it has become necessary to enact legislation that incorporates new standards, which are increasingly being adopted internationally, and to ensure that these standards are enforced vigorously. This is in line with our commitment to continuously improve and bring certainty to the business environment for domestic and international businesses.

In this regard, the key issues addressed in these amendments are, firstly, to allow financial assistance by a company for the purchase of its own shares; secondly, the appointment of an audit committee; thirdly, issues that relate to auditor independence, namely the rotation of an auditor and the prohibition of an auditor from rendering nonaudit services. The two final issues relate to legal backing for accounting standards and allowing for an electronic system of registration of companies and close corporations.

Although most of these matters are of a specialised technical nature, I think it is important that I should briefly outline the key motivation for each of these areas of change. Firstly, in relation to allowing for financial assistance by a company for purchase of its own shares, the current situation is that section 38 of the principal Act prohibits a company from offering financial assistance for the purchase of its own shares.

The rationale is that the assets of a company should always be maintained if the company has to stay in business - the so-called “capital maintenance rule”. This is an absolute prohibition. There are exceptions, but these are difficult to apply in practice. This provision, therefore, has unintended consequences where it serves to preclude lawful transactions, including those relating to implementation of broad-based economic empowerment.

To remedy this situation, the Bill provides that a company may offer financial assistance for the purchase of its own shares, provided three conditions are met. These are the solvency test, the liquidity test and approval by special resolution of the shareholders.

Liquidity means that a company should, immediately after the transaction, be able to pay its debts as they become due. Solvency means that immediately after concluding the transaction the assets of the company should be more than its liabilities. The special resolution requirement means that shareholders have a final say on the transaction and, most importantly, that a special resolution requiring consent by at least 75% of the shareholders has to be passed for the transaction to go through. The first two conditions will protect creditors, whilst the third protects shareholders.

We must proactively avoid the type of financial scandals that have occurred internationally, where often audit committees comprising executive and nonexecutive directors were unduly influenced by executive directors. In fact, in both the Enron and Parmalat sagas one of the contributing factors to the destruction of the companies was the lack of independence on the part of audit committees.

The second key issue in the Bill, therefore, relates to the appointment of audit committees. The relevant provision is that public interest companies must have independent audit committees whose composition should include nonexecutive directors only, and not executive directors as is now often the case. The rationale is that, since nonexecutive directors are not involved in the day-to-day running of the company, they have greater independence.

The Bill further requires that an independent audit committee should advise the board on the appointment of an external auditor and that the shareholders must appoint this external auditor on the advice of the board. The auditor, in turn, will be obliged to apply guidelines outlined in the Bill relating to auditor independence, thereby greatly enhancing credible and professional financial reporting.

A further accountability mechanism in this regard is that the board will take appropriate action if the independence of the auditor is unduly influenced in any way. In addition, a registered auditor, as defined in terms of the Auditing Profession Act of 2005, should be rotated instead of a firm of auditors. The rationale for rotating an auditor is to preclude the development of too close a working relationship between an auditor and the management of a company.

Our research has shown that most international jurisdictions require audit firms to rotate the staff providing a service to a company. Voluntarily, however, some South African companies are rotating firms of auditors instead of an individual auditor within the firm. This is a welcome development, but does not replace the need for auditing firms to rotate their auditors servicing companies as provided for in this Bill.

The independence of auditing services is provided for separately through the provisions that certain functions should not fall within the scope of the audit function. Such nonaudit functions include tax advice and internal audit services. Although these functions are not defined in the Bill, what is provided for is that a subcommittee of the independent regulatory board for auditors, responsible for developing a code of ethics in terms of the Audit Profession Act, should define nonaudit services.

The fourth key issue relates to legal backing for accounting standards. In terms of the principal Act, there is no legal backing for accounting standards. This weakness was highlighted in the findings of the Nel Commission of Inquiry into the fall of Masterbond as one of the deficiencies in statutory measures designed to protect investors.

In particular, the commission found lack of disclosure and uniformity in applying accounting standards because of different interpretations. The Bill proposes to remedy these deficiencies through the establishment of a financial reporting standards council and a financial reporting investigation panel to establish financial reporting standards and monitor compliance.

To reduce the possibility of unnecessarily increasing compliance burdens, public interest companies will be required to comply with international best practice financial reporting standards, whereas limited interest companies, on the other hand, will be subject to less onerous reporting requirements, for obvious reasons.

Finally, Madam Deputy Speaker and hon members, you will recall that the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act of 2002 provides that electronic commerce will enjoy legal protection at the commencement of the Act. I’m glad to report to the House that, through the provisions of the Bill under your consideration today and subject to your support, the outstanding provisions of the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act relating to the electronic registration of companies and close corporations, as well as the use of electronic signatures, will have been dealt with.

In conclusion, the department is committed to issues of corporate governance and will continually monitor international and local developments, with a view to adjusting the legal framework whenever it makes sense to do so. It is our belief that these amendments will improve the integrity of financial reporting with positive spin-offs for both our small and larger businesses.

Finally, I would like to congratulate the chair of the committee, Mr Ben Martins, and the members of the committee for the sterling work done in shaping this important legislation. Madam Deputy Speaker, the Bill is introduced for second reading. Thank you very much. [Applause.]

Prof B TUROK: Chairperson, it is perhaps sometimes unfortunate that the legislation which comes to the House dealing with financial matters takes on the appearance of being purely technical. Often, the language is rather dry and one has the impression - and the House has the impression - that what we are talking about is merely some minor adjustment here or there to legislation in the financial sector. This piece of legislation also has that appearance, but nothing could be further from the truth that this is, purely and simply, some mechanism or other.

The fact of the matter is that the world of global corporations is being shaken up on a grand scale by virtue of serious concern in international financial quarters that what is going on in many cases …

The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON (Mr G Q M Doidge): Order! Hon Turok, give me a minute please. Hon members, can I appeal to you to be seated and to please lower your voices? Order! Please proceed, hon Turok.

Prof B TUROK: What is often not understood or appreciated, because our newspapers don’t cover this except in the financial pages or in the business pages, is that there is a major shake-up taking place across the world, as I will show in a minute, and the major financial newspapers of the world, such as London’s Financial Times, the International Herald Tribune and papers of that kind, deal quite substantially with the problems facing corporate governance and corporate good governance right across the world.

My role here at the moment is to report to the House on the process followed by our portfolio committee and explain why we approved the Bill. We took the Bill very seriously, because we understood that although it’s a relatively short Bill, the implications are substantial, and this Bill leads the way to the major review of the Companies Act, which is coming, in which many important issues affecting the future financial stability of South Africa will be dealt with.

What we did therefore was to have excellent interactions with the department, and let me say right away that this is one of the best interactions we’ve ever had with the department. The lawyers and the officials took it very seriously and we worked together with them in, I hope, improving different parts of the Bill so that we have a really good Act.

We organised public hearings, and the big four auditing companies of South Africa were present and gave extensive evidence, as did the Association for the Advancement of Black Accountants of Southern Africa and the SA Institute of Chartered Accountants. I must say the work that was done was rigorous and thorough.

Now, the Minister has dealt with some of the more immediate technical issues of the Bill, and I don’t wish to repeat those, so I want to go a little broader than he did in placing this piece of legislation in the context of our own financial situation but, in particular, in the context of an international trend.

The trend is to evaluate the culture of corporations globally and, having done the evaluation, to then regulate them. For example, in yesterday’s London Financial Times there was an article called “Global corporations” and it said that IBM, one of the largest companies in the world, looked at the emergence of global corporations and argued that those corporations should be accompanied by clearer global corporate values – and not just be money-making but have actual values - and that these corporations that have now emerged are rather different to the multinational corporations we knew before, because the modern global corporation locates itself in a country where it can work most cheaply and most effectively, but that the outcome – the products - of that company are then distributed globally, particularly in areas where there are low tariffs. So, the London Financial Times says that we need to “develop a global regulatory system through better co-operation between regulatory agencies”. I imagine that that includes the South African agencies because, although these global corporations are technically domiciled in one place and are beholden to one set of shareholders, it is the task of politicians and it is the task of this House to improve corporate governance. I must say that the Minister could not have written a better preamble to the Act than the London Financial Times did yesterday.

So, clearly, as the Minister said, the reason for this international concern about global governance lies in the history of Enron and WorldCom, which we all know about. What happened there is that the executive directors inflated the profitability of those companies, creating virtually empty shells so that the shareholders, who then owned virtually nothing, lost everything when the crash came.

The key role in all this is the auditors, and those who read these financial newspapers would know that some of the largest international auditing companies face tremendous setbacks – I don’t want to name them here - because their lack of supervision, their lack of proper auditing, allowed those manipulations by executive directors to happen. The problem is that the auditors did not perform.

So when the big four auditors came to our committee, we had to ask them and, by the way, all of them are international companies - they are based all over the developed world - “In your objections to some of the clauses in the Bill, how do you stand in relation to what happened internationally with Enron, Parmalat and similar companies and so on?” And, so we engaged rather seriously with them around those issues. I shall deal with one or two aspects in a moment.

The Minister has referred to the Audit Committee. The Audit Committee is a subcommittee of the Board of Directors and it has a vitally important role, but it is not to be seen as an agency of the executive directors, of the chief executive and of his colleagues, but is indeed an agency of the board.

I now quote from the International Herald Tribune also from yesterday, which said: “Companies in at least four countries have disclosed US government or internal inquiries have been looking at what is called “options grants”.

There’s a new technique, a new deal taking place in South Africa too, which is equity handed out under various conditions in a form which allows the chief executive and his colleagues to make enormous profits. What they do is that they acquire this equity, the shares, and then they backdate them to a time when the shares had a very low value so the purchase price is very low, and then sell them when the price is very high, thereby making a killing. Indeed, there have been articles in the international press in which this is one of the main mechanisms for very rapid enrichment globally by virtue of manipulating the purchase of equity by chief executives.

We are not immune to this. In the Business Report of the Cape Times of 12 June, we are told that the AECI executive exercised a share option scheme. That share option scheme is that share options were bought in 1998, when the value of a share was R4,50, and that today the same share is worth R50 – a multiple of 10 times. Now, the executives of the AECI are manipulating their powers as members of the board in control of the shares so that they can exercise and gain enormous profits on the basis of the manipulation of those shares.

I do not wish to go into the details of the legislation. The Minister has done that very well. With regard to the importance of rotating auditors, for example, we are opposed to a cosy relationship between the auditors and the company itself, especially the executive directors. There is the question of nonaudit services.

Those of us who pay slight attention to these matters know that the big four audit companies of South Africa have grown enormously over the past 10 to 20 years, because they perform functions way beyond auditing. They give tax advice; they do tax planning; they do administration; they do bookkeeping; they offer a range of consultancies. So what used to be a profession of auditors who come in as independent people, examining the performance of companies and their integrity, has now become a huge industry offering a whole range of services and this obviously creates a problem.

The draft legislation was intended to look at these matters. We found enormous opposition from the big four, and so the question has been referred to the Independent Regulatory Board for Auditors, which is set up in terms of the Auditing Profession Act and which will look at nonaudit services provided by audit companies. The principle that we all agreed on and which was accepted in the hearings is that no one should audit their own work, because what happens is that if a particular company does bookkeeping for a firm and then comes along tomorrow as the auditor on its own bookkeeping, the opportunities for sleight of hand and manipulation are huge.

There’s much more in this small piece of legislation that I don’t have time to deal with. The conduct of corporates, the culture in corporations in the new world of globalisation in which there are such huge companies operating right across the world, including South Africa, the activities of these people, the culture in which they operate and the culture they bring to their operations are of critical social importance and, therefore, the public must pay attention and, in particular, this House must pay attention.

Let me assure you that the Portfolio Committee on Trade and Industry will keep an eye on all this in your interests and in the good interests of the country as a whole. Thank you. [Applause.]

Dr P J RABIE: Mr Chairman, hon Minister, hon members, this piece of legislation is significant, it’s highly technical and it basically provides legal backing to accounting standards.

Investors generally make financial decisions based on the information published by companies. It is generally accepted that the information must reflect the accurate and true financial state of the company or financial institution concerned. In the recent past, investors have lost grave amounts of money in the domestic and international markets owing to dubious, unreliable accounting methods, which often overstate profitability.

A significant improvement in this Bill is chapter 11 of the Act, which imposes a uniform accounting standard that will ensure that any information published by a listed company must be calculated in accordance with the generally accepted accounting practice, known as GAAP, which in lay terms means that the standard will have to be comparable with international standards adopted by the International Accounting Standards Board. This will result in South Africa becoming even more accessible to the international investment community, which is extremely important for future sustained economic growth. The Financial Services Board and the Department of Trade and Industry will be responsible for monitoring compliance. It is of importance that the public sector creates the capacity to monitor these standards, and we appeal to the private sector to take the initiative and to apply the accounting standards vigorously, because this Bill will ultimately benefit the investors and the broad public.

The Bill also provides accounting standards which are less onerous and will apply to closely held companies that, in essence, do not offer their shares to the general public. My colleague, the hon Les Labuschagne, will elaborate on these aspects of the Bill.

A number of submissions were made to the Portfolio Committee on Trade and Industry regarding this piece of legislation. There was consensus and support for the following amendments. Owing to my limited amount of time, allow me to mention the following: “Substitution of section 287 of Act 61 of 1973” says “If any financial statements, or circulars, of a company which are incomplete in any material particular or otherwise do not comply with the requirements of this Act are issued, circulated or published, the company and every director or officer thereof who is a party to such issue, circulation or publication, shall be guilty of an offence.” I think this is extremely important.

Meneer die Voorsitter, subafdeling 28 van die wet, soos gewysig, wys pertinent daarop dat enige direkteur of beampte van ’n maatskappy wat in gebreke bly om redelike stappe te neem om aan die rekenkundige vereistes van die wet te voldoen, skuldig is aan ’n oortreding en dit is geweldig belangrik dat ons die skuldonus verbreed. Ek dink dit kan werklikwaar net positiewe gevolge na vore bring.

Verdere betekenisvolle veranderings is dat die behoefte en rol van die ouditkomitees, rolle van ouditeure en die magte en bevoegdhede van die agb Minister die finansiële state en die finansiële staande verslagdoeningsraad uitspel. Die wyse waarop lede van voorafgenoemde raad aangestel word, word ook in detail bespreek. Die DA ondersteun hierdie wetsontwerp.

Aanvaarbare rekenkundige standaarde en norme behoort nie gebruik te word om korttermyn politieke gewin te verkry nie. Vergun my die geleentheid om al die lede van die Handel en Nywerheid Portefeuljekomitee te bedank vir die wyse waarop hulle ’n verbruikersvriendelike wetsontwerp met behulp van die amptenary en ander rolspelers gefinaliseer het. Soos van die vorige sprekers, is dit my kontensie dat hierdie ’n baie positiewe wetsontwerp is wat sinvolle ekonomiese gevolge tot gevolg sal hê. Baie dankie. (Translation of Afrikaans paragraphs follows.)

[Mr Chairperson, subsection 28 of the Act, as amended, pertinently indicates that any director or official of a company who fails to take reasonable steps to comply with the accounting requirements of the Act is guilty of an offence, and it is extremely important that we broaden the onus of guilt. In fact, I think this can only produce positive results.

Further meaningful changes are the fact that it elaborates on the need for and role of audit committees, the roles of auditors, and the powers and authority of the hon Minister, the financial statements and the financial reporting standards council. The manner in which members of the aforementioned council is appointed is also discussed in detail. The DA supports this Bill.

Accepted accounting standards and norms should not be used to attain short- term political gain. Allow me the opportunity to thank all the members of the Portfolio Committee on Trade and Industry for the way in which they have finalised a consumer-friendly Bill with the co-operation of the officials and other role-players. It is my contention, like some of the previous speakers, that this is a very positive Bill which will have significant Economic results. Thank you very much.]

Mr M J BHENGU: Chairperson, I must say that I am standing in for my colleague, Prof Chang. The Bill before us today introduces a number of amendments to the Companies Act of 1973, and the Close Corporations Act of 1984, which are required prior to the completion of the corporate law- reform process currently under way.

According to the Department of Trade and Industry, the Bill is based on the tenets of corporate governance, on winning the confidence of the investor and on the protection of the investor. The Bill, of course, also seeks to achieve corporate governance and investor confidence.

The amendment to chapter 11 of the Companies Act of 1973 will impose a uniform accounting standard to ensure that any financial information published by a company is calculated in accordance with generally accepted accounting practice, or GAAP. The standard will have to be comparable to the international standards adopted by the International Accounting Standards Board. This will ensure a tight correlation between the accounting practices of South Africa and the international investment community and therefore make our capital markets more accessible to foreign investment.

The DTI, together with other regulators and investors, will be responsible for monitoring compliance with the prescribed accounting standards. We hope that these new measures will have a positive impact and increase investor confidence in companies in our country, as well as lead to increased foreign investment.

Another important element of this Bill is that it introduces various measures to ensure that auditors remain independent of the influence of company directors. There are now new sections inserted in the Companies Act that include the nomination of auditors etc. It is now also an offence for an auditor or other person to be party to false or misleading information in the financial statements of a company.

The Bill introduces two types of companies to which the Bill will apply, namely public-interest companies and limited-interest companies. These changes will have a profound impact on business and on the finalisation of the department’s corporate law reform policy. The IFP supports the Bill.

Mr S M RASMENI: Chairperson, the introduction of the Corporate Laws Amendment Bill is not incidental to but a culmination of many years of intense debate that took place within the ANC in a quest to advance the national democratic revolution.

During the Mafikeng ANC national conference in 1997 we observed that, in integrating South Africa into a global economy, we needed to struggle for an effective regulatory system that would promote development and equity, thereby resulting in a competitive, fast-growing and developing economy that created jobs for all workseekers.

The message of the President of the ANC to the country during the 2004 national elections was also instructive when he said:

We are confident of the future. Over the past 10 years, working together, we have built South Africa into a land of peace and harmony, a land of expanding opportunities. We have built a stable and growing economy. We have created a possibility to realise more and more resources and social and economic services, while building a modern and competitive economy.

In responding to these directives, the Department of Trade and Industry, in its medium-term strategy framework, undertook to review a set of legislation, among which is the Companies Act of 1973, hence the Corporate Laws Amendment Bill before this august House.

The Bill seeks to achieve two main outcomes: to enhance corporate governance, and to boost investor confidence. Both of these will yield economic benefits for our economic citizens and the country as a whole.

I would like to emphasise the following key features of the amendments. Firstly, there is the appointment of audit committees to conduct internal auditing of public-interest companies and limited-interest companies. These committees must maintain their independence from the running of the company. Their composition should be of nonexecutive directors only. The second point is the provision of external and independent auditors. This measure is crucial in avoiding the risk of auditors who may have close relations with company management. This amendment safeguards good corporate governance. The third point is the provision for the electronic registration of companies to empower people to form and register their enterprises and engage in economic activities without undue delay.

These measures and many others contained in the amending Bill seek to tighten our laws to avoid incidents that took place during the apartheid era and many others that may take place in the future. Those that took place during the apartheid era, such as the Leisurenet and Masterbond sagas, led to economic disaster.

With these remarks, we from the ANC would like to support the passing of this Bill. Thank you very much. [Applause.]

Mr H B CUPIDO: Chairperson, the ACDP supports the amendments to this Bill. Significant in terms of the amendments is that financial institutions now comply with international standards, which would make South Africa more accessible to foreign investment.

The Corporate Laws Amendment Bill also has far-reaching implications for the creation of a BEE framework that is truly broad based. Black economic empowerment has, in the past, run the risk of enriching a small elite group at the expense of economically disadvantaged beneficiaries. The provision that companies may provide financial assistance to BEE beneficiaries as long as the company remains liquid will increase the pool of potential BEE beneficiaries and enhance the broad-based aspect of black economic empowerment.

This Bill further provides for the streamlining and enhanced effectiveness of the administrative processes of close corporations. Particularly welcome in this regard is the provision made for the electronic certification of registration of certain documents. This method will certainly enhance administration. We support the amendments. [Applause.]

Mr W D SPIES: Hon Chair, I would just like to refer to the remarks made by the hon Turok when he actually referred to the phenomenon of share incentive schemes and where he criticised the fact that directors are enriching themselves as a result of that.

I share your views in this regard, but I also hope that the ANC will use its powers, as representative of government which is the sole shareholder of Eskom, to stop the self-enrichment that is currently happening at Eskom, where the directors are paying themselves a salary that is five times more than the equivalent being earned in other public enterprises. That is just one point.

With regard to the amendment to section 38 of the Companies Act, we do support the liberalisation of these measures and we know that this is a completion of what happened in 1990 or had already started in 1995 when the buy-back of shares as well as the limitations on payments to shareholders were abolished by section 95 and section 90 of the Companies Act. So we do support the liberalisation of these measures.

But we want to point out that we are concerned about the fact that black economic empowerment is being used as a justification for this liberalisation. We believe that the principles should be healthy and, as long as the principles are healthy and as long as this is being done to bring us in line with what is happening internationally, we will support that. As long as our motives are clear, we support that, but not in case it is only being done for the benefit of BEE … [Time expired.] I thank you.

Ms D M RAMODIBE: Chairperson, hon Ministers, Deputy Ministers, hon members, ladies and gentlemen, the ANC supports the amending Bill. The ANC has entered into a contract with the people of South Africa. It therefore becomes necessary, from time to time, to amend Acts that were there in the previous regime, in order to be efficient, responsible, transparent and accountable.

This is exactly what the Bill seeks to achieve by giving legal backing to accounting standards and promoting auditor independence. My focus area will be on corporate governance.

The ANC inherited a government that was inefficient, irresponsible, and a government that was not transparent and accountable. When we took over, little did we know what we were getting ourselves into. There were no systems in place and everything that was done was to the disadvantage of the poor people. This Bill will now allow or make provision for the disclosure of certain financial information.

No wonder when we called for disinvestment in South Africa, it was highly supported internationally. This was because it was to the advantage of the investors as there was no accountability. The economy of the country benefited the few who were mostly whites. That is why even today the economy of the country is still white dominated. They will do whatever it takes to hinder progress. They continue to protect the wealth of the minority and to make terrible noises about the few black people who are trying to improve their quality of life.

Corporate governance ensures that government achieves its strategic goals that focus on stimulating economic development, responding to unethical conduct that has resulted in business failures and demand for greater accountability of investors. Experience from other countries such as the United States of America were cause for alarm, such as dishonesty by directors, weak links between directors, compensation and company performance. These have resulted in intense scrutiny. In some cases, directors were appropriating funds of other stakeholders. Corporate governance is about good governance, not leaving out the first King report that was revised when the new Constitution was adopted. The Public Finance Management Act, Act 38 of 1999, and Local Government Municipal Finance Management Act, Act 56 of 2003, are some of the instruments aimed to secure transparency. This is in line with the Freedom Charter that says the people shall share in the country’s wealth.

Indeed, this amending Bill is an indication that we are committed to continue with the mandate given to us by the majority of the people of this country. Our people are convinced that our country has entered its age of hope, as stated by the President of the country in his state of the nation address.

Ka mora dilemo tse ngata re phela ka thata, re futsanehile tlasa puso ya kgatello, e neng e se na letho le bonaletsang, re lebelletse hore ntho yohle e amang setjhaba e se ke ya etswa ka sekgukgu. Melao e teng boholo ba yona e ntse e le yane ya kgatello. Kahoo, ho a hlokahala hore nako le nako melao ena e nne e lekolwe mme e fetolwe kapa ho lokiswe moo ho hlokahalang.

Ha re sa hlokomele, re tla iphumana re boetse re ntse re etsa diphoso tse tshwanang le tsa ba neng ba behe melao e kgopo e neng e kgetholla. Hore beng ba mosebetsi le dikomiti tsa bona ba tle ba sebetse hantle, ho hlokahala hore ba be le boikarabelo bo tletseng ditjheleteng, le dinthong tsohle, e le hore ho se ke ha ba le bobodu. Ke a leboha. [Mahofi.] (Translation of Sesotho paragraphs follows.)

[After several years of hardship, impoverished by the previous regime, which was not transparent, we expect that everything that affects the community will now be transparent. Most of the existing Acts are still the ones of oppression. Therefore, it is important to review, change and amend these Acts when necessary.

If we are not careful, we will find ourselves making the same mistakes that were made by those who implemented the cruel laws of oppression. For government and its committees to work properly, they need to have meaningful involvement in finances and everything else, in order to prevent corruption. Thank you. [Applause.]]

Ms S RAJBALLY: Chairperson, the MF supports the amendment made to the Companies Act of 1973, in view of the legalities now being prescribed for accounting standards. The said generally accepted accounting practice should, as pointed out, efficiently protect investments that previously suffered great loss as a result of, I quote, “dubious accounting methods and rank overstatements of profitability”.

Further amendments pertaining to shareholder diversification, which now accommodates a solvency test under the approval of shareholders and the securities regulation panel - which serves to protect minority shareholders

• are found favourable. All amendments appear to be suitably devised to address disparities in corporate law. As always, however, while provisions may be perfectly drafted, it is the mechanics of incorporating, activating and successfully utilising these in our development process which we truly depend upon.

The Minority Front, however, finds security in our direction towards growth and development. We support the Bill. Thank you.

Mr L B LABUSCHAGNE: Mr Minister, we are fully aware that the Department of Trade and Industry, DTI, is engaged in the whole question of corporate law reform, and that this Bill is very much a necessary, technical interim measure.

Indeed the infamous Enron scandal has rocked corporate governance, and various countries have adopted rectifying measures. In fact, the parliamentary subcommittee on corporate governance’s response to the African Peer Review Mechanism found that South Africa was one of the first countries to adopt the Code of Good Corporate Governance to include triple bottom line reporting.

The subcommittee did also identify certain shortcomings in state-owned enterprises, in this regard. The DA has continually emphasised that the burden of overregulation stifles our economy, particularly when we are faced with what the President categorises as a first and a second economy. We do not propose any regulation at all, as the hon Prof Turok likes to think, we just want fewer regulations.

We welcome the new approach in this Bill of public-interest companies and limited-interest companies, and the effort to lessen the regulatory burden on limited-interest companies. To qualify as a limited-interest company, a company’s articles will have to restrict transferability of its shares and preclude any offer of its shares to the public.

While the main thrust of the Bill is to tighten uniform and international standards of accounting, which should be of benefit to investors, recognition is given to implementing less onerous accounting standards for limited-interest companies.

An interesting amendment is that of section 35 of the Companies Act, allowing a company to provide financial assistance for the purchase of its own shares. This amendment will definitely facilitate shareholder diversification and broad-based black economic empowerment. A company can now offer assistance if it complies with a solvency test and its shareholders approve the transaction.

As the DA always supports the principle of broad-based black economic empowerment, we certainly welcome this amendment, and we hope that it will indeed be broadly based and not benefit the same cliques and result in the same people notching up BBBEE points time after time after time. The DA supports the Bill. [Applause.]

Mnu S J NJIKELANA: Mphathisihlalo obekekileyo, baPhathiswa abahloniphekileyo, Malungu ePalamente, kunye nani nonke bantu boMzantsi Afrika abamameleyo, kuninzi okusele kuthethiwe malunga nalo Mthetho uYilwayo sizama ukuwufakela izihlomelo namhlanje, kodwa ke mna ndiza kucaphucaphula nje apho oogxa bam banganyathelanga khona. (Translation of isiXhosa paragraph follows.)

[Mr S J NJIKELANA: Hon chairperson, hon Ministers, Members of Parliament and all the people of South Africa listening, there is a lot that has previously been said about this Bill that we are hoping to amend today. But I am going to highlight points that were not raised by my fellow members.]

I would like to share with you some of the main benefits of this piece of legislation. Hon Turok has stated that this is not just a technical amendment, but that it has its own economic and political implications. One of the most important things coming out of this Bill and the changes that are being proposed to it is the enhancement of the paradigm shift to active shareholding. As we all know, in the past shareholders were merely backbenchers and the people who used to run the show were the executive.

And, obviously, we will realise the enhancement of international trade through the synchronisation of the standards that have been referred to quite a lot. We will also see more transparency in business operations, as it has been indicated that we would like to ensure that manipulative relations become history. But, most importantly, we will see the necessary paradigm shift, including the constitutional and historical duty of the state to ensure best practice when it comes to business operations.

I would like to share with you what one of the participants in the public hearings, Absa, said. They emphasised the catalytic effect of the introduction of these amendments, particularly with regard to giving opportunities to emerging black companies, and the reversal of too much focus on large companies, the so-called “big four”.

Ithi i-Cosatu, Mhlalingaphambili … [Chairperson, Cosatu says …]

… arbeid het ’n spesifieke belang daarin om goeie koöperatiewe bestuur te verseker aangesien pensioenfondse groot aandeelhouers is. Effektiewe en goeie koöperatiewe bestuur is baie belangrik om beleggingsvertroue te verseker. Om die vereistes van die Grondwet asook die objektiewe van die RDP na te kom is dit belangrik dat sekere elemente van die koöperatiewe wetgewing nie net hervorm word nie, maar ook getransformeer word. (Translation of Afrikaans paragraph follows.) [… labour has a specific interest in ensuring good corporate governance, as pension funds are substantial shareholders. Effective and good corporate governance is very important to ensure investor confidence. To satisfy the requirements of the Constitution as well as the objectives of the RDP, it is imperative that certain elements of corporate legislation should not only be reformed, but also transformed.]

Ndizama ukuthi i-Cosatu, nokuba ayikho apha, nayo iye yanegalelo kule nguqu siyizamayo. [I submit that although Cosatu is not here, it has made a great contribution to the amendment of this Bill.]

The ANC emphasises the need to make political changes as well as economic changes with regard to the policies that have been inherited from the distortions of the past, particularly the values of the past, as highlighted in the quotation by Prof Turok.

The ANC has been quite firm and loud enough on the need to increase the number of economically active people and, hopefully, through this piece of legislation, we will see the enhancement of broad-based black economic empowerment, now that even auditors can be called to account during annual general meetings.

However, Chairperson, there are challenges, in spite of the good that is being introduced by this Act. One hopes that the intensive engagement that we saw during the public hearings will be consistent. Whilst the big four have been able to come as individual companies, the small companies, through their associations, will be satisfied that their voices have been heard.

We should be cautious about legislating ethical conduct, no matter how much legislation we make. Moral regeneration is also important and imperative within the business environment. We need to see the propensity to embrace the paradigm shift that will be introduced by this piece of legislation, particularly now that the public will have access to meetings of the Financial Reporting Standards Council. This will move companies away from their comfort zones.

Kodwa ke, Mhlalingaphambili, ndingathanda, njengokuba sendiqwela, ukuba ndicaphule kwizinto ebendicinga ukuba abo besinabo ekomitini baya kuziveza bangalindi side sibe lapha. [But, Chairperson, in conclusion I would like to highlight some aspects that I thought my fellow committee members would have raised before we came here.]

I am a bit puzzled by hon Rabie’s reference to gaining political points. I thought we were a team in trying to deal with these amendments through the public hearings up to the final stages.

Hon Spies made reference to self-enrichment in Eskom. I am sure, having listened to everybody who came to this podium, the rationale behind these amendments has been made crystal clear and has no bearing on and reference to self-enrichment.

Broad-based economic empowerment has been ushered in through the leadership of the ANC, and it puzzles me how it could be used to justify liberalisation. It is out of practice and engagement that we have realised that there is a need to make these amendments, not to use liberalisation to create more space for BEE. If there is coincidence, so be it.

Hon Labuschagne, you made mention of overregulation and said that you would like to have less regulation. What you are saying is exactly what the ANC had been saying during the public hearings, and also during our proceedings. So what you stated was not something new, and in any legislation that we deal with, we shall ensure a good balance between facilitation and regulation of an Act.

Mphathisihlalo, nam ndikunye noogxaba bam, amaqabane neNdlu yonke ekuxhaseni lo Mthetho uYilwayo. Iyabulel’ ilali. [Kwaqhwatywa.] [Chairperson, I concur with my fellow members, comrades and the House in supporting this Bill. Thank you. [Applause.]]

The MINISTER OF TRADE AND INDUSTRY: Chairperson, I would like to thank all the members who have supported this Bill. In reality, it means that there isn’t much to say except, perhaps, to emphasise a few points. It is important that we always remember that the fundamental objective of the codes of good practice on broad-based black empowerment is precisely to make sure that broad-based black empowerment is defined in a manner that covers a whole range of issues which are critical to the empowerment of the historically disadvantaged.

Therefore our definition, concerning the work that we are doing on the codes of good practice, means that the empowerment that we are talking about covers issues of skills development, and the issue of mobility of people within their own companies so that our companies can begin to reflect who we are, as South Africans. It’s about companies assisting emerging companies to have a chance to succeed and to hold them by the hand.

So our broad-based black economic empowerment is about all of those issues, not only about people acquiring shares in existing companies. This process will be a contribution to a wider programme that involves a range of areas, as I have just indicated.

I also want to say that, in doing this, we seek to improve the corporate environment in South Africa and corporate practices that recognise the multi-stakeholder nature of society’s involvement and interests so that, in running companies, you are aware of the multi-stakeholder involvement and interests that are involved in that company. This is part of a wider programme of work that we are doing as government, for example the work that we are doing on enhancing consumer protection in South Africa.

This is the work that we are doing by putting in place a Bill which the committee is going to deal with later on in the year, that is the consumer Bill. It is meant to exactly ensure that companies and even public entities ensure that the rights of consumers are recognised and protected in delivering services as well as supplying products to the market place.

We are not trying to make life difficult but we are trying to improve the corporate, social and economic environment in South Africa that recognises that there are various stakeholders and that there are those that are in less powerful positions than others. But it also concerns the matter of regulation.

We are involved in work to process the outcomes of the investment climate survey, which is a study we undertook together with the World Bank to look at the environment in South Africa, concerning investors, that is work that we are doing on regulatory impact assessment. So, these are things that we are very conscious of.

The final thing to mention on this Bill concerns the African Peer Review Mechanism process that is under way in South Africa today. In the discussions on the corporate chapter of that process there was a lot of focus on speeding up the comprehensive corporate law reform project. So we’ll take note of that. Hon Njikelana, we will, of course, try to make sure that we are able to meet the consistency that you are calling for. Thank you.

Debate concluded.

Bill read a second time.

                           POINT OF ORDER

                              (Ruling)

The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON (Mr G Q M Doidge): Hon members, during the debate on the Intelligence Budget Vote on 1 June, the hon Mr Ellis, on a point of order, challenged certain remarks made by the hon Mr Abram in reference to the hon Ms Smuts. I undertook to study the Hansard and I have done so. I rule on the point of order as follows.

Mr Abram’s remarks, as they appear in Hansard, are, and I quote:

I just want to say to the hon Ms Smuts she likes to cackle here. She will feel at home on my farmyard with all my feathered guests.

[Laughter.] Order, hon members! The hon Mr Ellis contended that the reference to the hon Ms Smuts bordered on foul language. [Laughter.] Order! I am not sure if a pun may have been intended. Associating a member with some kind of animal or animals is, in general, as the hon Mr Abram has done, frequently intended to be derogatory or insulting and is then, by its nature, unparliamentary.

It is entirely unacceptable for a member, in the debate, to refer to other members in a derogatory manner. The point of order by the hon Mr Ellis has merit and I must therefore request the hon Mr Abram to withdraw the remarks I quoted from his speech.

Mnr S ABRAM: Voorsitter, die agb lid Smuts het nie gekekkel nie, en sy sal ook nie tuis voel op die plaaswerf met ons geveerde vriende nie, en derhalwe trek ek die aanvanklike woorde wat ek hier geuiter het terug. Baie dankie. [Applous.] [Gelag.] (Translation of Afrikaans paragraph follows.)

[Mr S ABRAM: Chairperson, the hon member Smuts did not cackle, and she will also not feel at home on the farmyard with our feathered friends, and therefore I withdraw the initial remark that I made here. Thank you very much. [Applause.] [Laughter.]]

The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON (Mr G Q M Doidge): Order, hon members! I have just ruled on this particular point of order and I am not sure that it should be taken as a joke. Mr Abram, I am advised that in your response you referred to Ms Smuts not feeling at home on your farm. Can you withdraw unconditionally.

Mr S ABRAM: Voorsitter, uit eerbied vir die Stoel trek ek dit onvoorwaardelik terug. [Chairperson, with due respect for the Chair, I withdraw it unconditionally.]

The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON (Mr G Q M Doidge): The second ruling that was outstanding was on the comments made by the hon Mr Groenewald, who is unfortunately not in the House. So, that ruling stands over.

 THE ROLE OF THE YOUTH IN MAKING THE 21ST CENTURY, AFRICA’S CENTURY

                        (Debate on Youth Day)

The DEPUTY MINISTER OF HOME AFFAIRS: Chairperson, again and again, during the difficult period of the struggle, history would confer upon the youth of South Africa titanic responsibilities, calling upon them to carry the hopes of the nation and to shoulder the task to propel the struggle forward.

Acting as the torchbearers of the struggle, the catalysts and the foot soldiers of the revolution, worthy successors to the heroic legacy and the fighting spirit of the brave combatants for our freedom, again and again, they walked fearlessly through the valley of the shadow of death, and participated selflessly in all the struggles waged by their people.

They volunteered to occupy the most forward and dangerous trenches, regardless of the sacrifice that could be demanded as the price for victory, guided by the firm conviction that their interests as youth were inseparable from those of their people as a whole, determining that freedom had to be achieved in order to restore their people’s dignity and humanity.

The youth were decisive in the confrontation between the people and the evil tyrant. This day, therefore, owes its origins to the youth’s imperishable spirit, their insuperable courage and unsurpassed capacity and willingness to volunteer and sacrifice in the name of freedom.

Rarely has a single day moved our people everywhere, and ignited so much hope in the hearts of millions as this day did 30 years ago, when the youth put paid to the regime’s illusions that the oppressed were too subhuman to rise up for their freedom.

Consequently, we salute and thank the youth of 1976, in Soweto and all over the country, both the living and the dead as well as the generations of youth, before and after 1976, for the time-honoured role they played to bring to an end the crime of apartheid as well as for the heroic example they set for us to emulate.

Accordingly, this is to all of us both a day of mourning and a day for celebration. What we commemorate is not the moral bankruptcy of the apartheid system, but the moral superiority and indomitable spirit of the oppressed, their stubborn refusal to allow the inhuman and criminal system of apartheid to succeed.

By 1976 it had become clear that apartheid had become a hindrance to all development, and the country had no possibility of making progress in any sphere unless this system was liquidated. On that cold Wednesday morning, parents went to work unsuspecting, not aware that their children had big plans in mind, that they held the destiny of our country and struggle itself in their own hands, that they were about to write their own history and etch the name of their generation permanently in the annals of our nation’s history.

It is thus correct that this august House, the tribune of our people, should today salute the youth and their gallantry, to honour the youth that perished on 16 June 1976, and during the years that followed, as the regime’s campaign of terror against the people continued and their resistance persisted.

In a heroic and dramatic fashion, the youth of Soweto took destiny itself into their own hands. They taught us what it means to be youth, and thus they raised the level of the struggle. Their interventions mobilised international support further in favour of the liberation struggle, and became a precursor for the massive organisation and mobilisation of the roaring 1980s, the decade of liberation. Here was a heroic and brave youth on the one hand, and a paranoid and callous regime on the other, with no regard for human life and mortally afraid of equality, justice and freedom. We owe it to these youth to emulate their example, and to find meaning in the mission and purpose of our generation today.

Today, the youth is free, free to expand the horizons and frontiers of their freedom. Accordingly, their consciousness has changed and is continuing to change. Their capabilities are expanding; they are more complex and more dynamic, more exposed and informed.

Consequently, they are trying to discover themselves, their vision, tasks and potential; seeking to give meaning to who they are as this generation, and what it means to be the youth today and to hold the destiny of the nation in their hands.

They must thus be encouraged to explore fully and without inhibitions all the opportunities presented to them by freedom, to seize the opportunities of democracy, bearing in mind that they have an obligation to raise South Africa to a new level. They must be taught never to take freedom for granted.

The notion of the age of hope celebrates not so much the creation, but the difficult act of creating; the painstaking efforts that should go into creating a better tomorrow for ourselves and for future generations. What the President challenges us to do is not to become complacent; in itself, hope is not the end, but a promise that a better day, through struggle, is in sight.

In this regard, the youth of South Africa today have a special role to play in pursuit of the national efforts to push back the frontiers of poverty and underdevelopment, and to defeat disease and ignorance. They must continue to become the anchor of our society and its reason to hope and to dream.

They must be found in the forward trenches of the struggle to rid this country of the great obstacles towards the fulfilment of universal human emancipation. The youth must continue militantly to fight for both their development and empowerment, as well as for the fundamental transformation of our society.

South Africa still needs an organised youth movement and a militant youth voice on all aspects of our national life, creating dynamism and vibrancy in our political system, without which our nation will decay. To do so, a special effort is required to empower and equip them with better capacity and possibilities to accomplish their commanding and more complex political and social tasks.

This requires a comprehensive and strategic focus on the needs and challenges of the youth to ensure their political, social, and economic empowerment and participation. The youth collectively constitute the most economically marginalised group in our society, and suffer a high degree of social dislocation.

Accordingly, their empowerment and development constitutes an urgent challenge. The Accelerated and Shared Growth Initiative for South Africa, Asgisa, recognises this fact in deliberately directing the focus on the youth’s economic aspirations, and placing them in a prominent and strategic position, both as partners as well as beneficiaries.

In the interventions that it envisages in order to mainstream their issues and raise their capacity to participate in democracy and development, the truth is that most youth are found in the second economy, and despite the progress made since 1994, problems still persist that make the ideal of youth development and empowerment even more relevant and urgent.

This is vital during this 10th anniversary of the National Youth Commission, whose establishment 10 years ago signalled the commencement of institutionalised youth development in South Africa. It is necessary that we therefore utilise these occasions, both the 30th anniversary of the Soweto uprising as well as the 10th anniversary of the Youth Commission, to conduct a comprehensive review of the youth development policy programmes and institutions to determine whether they are still able, in their current form, to meet the all-round challenges posed and confronted by the youth. This work has already commenced in government with the hope that bold decisions may and will be taken to find better ways to advance the ideal of youth empowerment and development.

Part of what we must do, working with the SA Local Government Association, is to establish youth development institutions and programmes in all municipalities, in order to ensure a seamless youth development framework and programme.

To develop and empower the youth is a vital part of our struggle today, to ensure that they seize the opportunities of democracy, and to improve their level of competence in order to actively participate in the solution of all the problems facing our revolution. In this regard, the need for the youth to be organised and act in unity has never been greater.

In order for the youth to have an organised and united voice and presence, and thus have the strength required to be a force that would compel even the most indifferent to youth development, not only to listen but to do something, we must build the capacity of the youth to be able to lobby and advocate both the state and the private sector for youth development programmes and policies.

We must continue to raise the capacity of the government youth development institutions, both singly and collectively, to be able to pursue an integrated youth development agenda. The point we are hereby trying to underscore is that the youth sector needs better integration, co-operation and united action in pursuit of the goals of youth development.

Many government departments are already engaged in youth development and empowerment programmes, and they are gradually allocating more resources to this ideal and scaling up their efforts. Youth development institutions must take full advantage of this.

In two days’ time, our nation will pay tribute to the immortal memory of 1976, to the youth of South Africa past, present, and future, and will yet again place on the shoulders of the youth its expectations and dreams, hoping that these youth shall, as before, respond with a steely sense of purpose and mission to these dreams and expectations.

Thirty years after the Soweto uprising, the challenge still remains for the youth of today to take destiny into their hands, to define what it means to be youth in the contemporary period, and to raise the level of the struggle to new heights. Long live the fighting eternal memory of 16 June 1976, long live!

HON MEMBERS: Long live!

Mr M JOHNSON: Chairperson, President, Deputy President, Ministers, Deputy Ministers present and absent, colleagues, comrades and friends present here and out there, allow me to greet you in the name of those unsung heroes and heroines whose graves are known, but badly looked after and others that are not known, out there at Gugulethu, Veeplaas, Soweto, Vergenoeg, Kwamashu, Botshabelo, Mitchells Plain, Boipatong, Katlehong, Kleinskool, Lenasia … the list is long.

We are gathered in this beautiful precinct of Parliament because of your blood that continues to “nourish the tree of freedom”, as Solomon Mahlangu said on his way to the gallows.

Lest we forget where we come from, history will judge us collectively, harshly. A people losing sight of origins are dead, a people deaf to purpose are lost.

Those are the words of Ayi Kwei Armah, a Ghanaian novelist and a poet.

South Africa belongs to all who live in it, black and white. No government can justly claim authority unless it is based on the will of all the people.

Those are the words of the Freedom Charter. Equally, this country belongs to you young people by virtue of your age, enthusiasm and anxiety, outlook on society and nature, stubbornness, militancy, etc. Among other characteristics, you possess that ability to change things for the better. Youth makes and youth breaks.

So far, we have a youth that has brought us to where we are today, a youth that has made us proud South Africans here at home, on our continent Africa and the world over. Thanks to you, the youth of yesteryear, through the brave battles and wars you fought so hard, South Africa indeed now belongs to all who live in it - black and white, young and old alike.

In the words of the Collins Pocket English Dictionary ‘youth’ is defined as “those who are in a state of being young”. A further definition describes young people as “not far advanced in growth, life or existence” and furthermore “these are people who are immature”.

History and the course of events continue to prove Collins wrong in most instances. From time immemorial the energy and the eagerness to correct the wrongs have made these young people catalysts of revolutions.

As we entered 2006, we celebrated the centenary of a young hero’s life well lived: Chief Bhambatha kaMancinza. Like most young people, Chief Bhambatha resisted colonialism of all kinds, including poll tax. His disciplined militancy and fighting spirit is envied by all and sundry. An ANC Youth League president, Peter Mokaba, once said: “Ask us to be disciplined, but do not ask us not to act.” His loyalty to his nation and continent to resist colonialism truly becomes a lesson for us all, to continue where he left off, this time around, towards an advance of our national democratic revolution and in defence of such.

As our country runs short of role models, his historic achievements, his steadfastness and his resolve in resisting colonial oppression and exploitation must be vigorously taught in our schools – all aimed at teaching our youth about disciplined militancy, patriotism and loyalty.

Throughout our history and the history of class struggles, young people have always been at the cutting edge of all revolutions. The formation of the SA Communist Party and the swelling of its ranks, largely by the youth in the names of Edward Roux, Ruth First, Moses Kotane, attests to this fact.

As the students of those days, these then young activists took it upon themselves to grow and nurture the SACP and its ideological being. Alongside this development, the African youth at Lovedale College and Fort Hare University were equally active in growing ideas towards radicalising the ANC. These included O R Tambo, A P Mda, Joe Matthews, Congress Mbatha, among others, who worked tirelessly towards the formation of the youth league in 1944, whose influence culminated in the ANC’s programme of action in 1949. The hour of the youth had struck! Indeed the trumpet call was loud and clear!

It is true that from long debates, discussions and writings, these scholars set the basis for ideological discourses within the ANC and the communist party that radicalised these two great organisations of our times. This necessitated unity in action, as there was and continues to be one struggle for national liberation to the extent of dual membership towards achieving this one shared vision of bringing about a nonracial and nonsexist democracy.

One such example was Moses Kotane. As he rose to leading positions in both the communist party and the ANC, his loyalty to one organisation did not appear to be subordinate to his loyalty to the other. Even staunch anti- communists in the ANC held him in high regard for his clear-headedness as a thinker and his courage and pragmatism as a leader. Sometimes critical of cautious leadership in the ANC, he did not hesitate to thrust himself forward as an example of militancy.

June 16th 1976 was no accident of history. Yes, the events might not have assumed all the sophistication of today’s organisations, but history was made, as we celebrate it today. The contributions of young people in changing the course of events in society emphasise the fact that the hour of the youth had indeed struck.

With the banning of the liberation movement in 1960, the oppressed and the exploited never gave up, but took three steps backward, waiting to pounce 20 more steps forward. The build-up towards June 16 by the SA Students’ Organisation, Saso, and SA Students Movement, SASM, along with a strong arts and culture voice, saw the country going up in flames, in response to bullets and teargas that struck at young heroes and heroines, and struck, among others, Hector Peterson in Soweto, Nomvume in Port Elizabeth, Makhwenkwe Mpande in Grahamstown and many other unsung heroes and heroines of our country.

Armed with stones, molotov cocktails, the brave youth of 1976 changed the course of history forever. The events of this era after June 16th did not end there. In fact, they gave rise to a strong organisation that rendered apartheid unworkable and the regime ungovernable.

Some of the names of our youth active at that time that come to mind include: Baby Tyawa, Billy Masetlha, Jabu Ngwenya, Mnyamezeli Booi, Oupa Monareng, among others. Along with Jabu Joe Gqabi, they became the pioneers of our gallant student movement, Cosas, in 1979. As some of us were celebrating Republic Day on 31 May, Cosas was being established.

Fearlessly, Cosas became the first organisation that adopted the Freedom Charter after the liberation movement was banned in 1960. This fearless formation adopted as its policy nonracism and nonsexism. The mood was conducive towards building this massive student formation alongside the Azanian Student Organisation, which was later called the SA National Student Congress, Sanco.

As history is written today, the United Democratic Front, UDF, became this popular front that mobilised and united a country against the apartheid system that divided it. In action, the youth in Cosas and the trade union movement in the former Transvaal under the theme “Students, workers united in action”, staged the biggest stayaway of that time in November 1984.

These efforts did not go uninterrupted. Our enemies of the day stopped at nothing in using force to stop the unstoppable. Some of the casualties of that time are very fresh in our minds. Alongside these killings, torture in detention, imprisonment, exiling and the cordoning off of townships were the order of the day. They were all aimed at silencing the wave of popular people’s revolts, for example in the Bantustans. In the Bantustans, together with some of our colleagues here in the IFP, we had people who were killed, especially at Ongoye.

These are the great lessons that we have to learn as young people. You possess energy that has the potential to make or break. You have to learn from the past. Making it is the only choice you have as you build a future that you will have to live with. As Moses Kotane would have said: “A country that does not value its youth, does not deserve its future.” We all have a responsibility - as some of us went through so much - to nurture our youth and to never give up regarding expected mistakes.

Lastly, Chair, we all went through those processes. Some of us fought against apartheid and some of us experienced, through our parents, the hanging of some of our own comrades who were involved in those struggles against the same apartheid. I refer here to some of our mothers and fathers who were judges at the time. They did not hesitate to hang some of our leaders, members and activists of the day. Thank you. [Applause.]

Mr M M SWATHE: Chairperson, the youth was supposed to take the leading role in making the 21st century Africa’s century. The problems faced by the youth of South Africa, which impede the fulfilment of that role, relate to the neglect of the rural youth and the centralisation of youth programmes. This centralisation of youth programmes deprives and denies the rural youth the opportunity to realise their potential to participate in the mainstream economy of South Africa. It is only a few youth from the cities who benefit from the government-funded youth programmes.

High unemployment is a major problem amongst the youth. According to census 2001, youth constituted 41% of the population and just over 70% were unemployed. The macro social report of 2005 also presents a discomforting reality on the status of youth, especially in relation to social capital, social cohesion and labour market participation.

The National Youth Commission turns 10 and the Umsobomvu Youth Fund turns five, but they have contributed very little to the development of youth empowerment.

The National Youth Commission employees earn huge salaries of about R7 million, which is more that 50% of the commission’s budget. These two bodies were established through the Presidential Job Summit of 1998 and the National Youth Commission Act of 1996 to cater for the plight of the youth.

Presently, joblessness is alarmingly high amongst young people and the younger you are the worst the situation. The labour market of South Africa consists of people between 15 and 65 years and is estimated to be 29,7 million strong. In the 15 to 27 years age group, the unemployment rate is more than 50%, and in the 25 to 35 years age category the joblessness rate is about 30% according to the report.

These youth bodies and other organisations such as the SA Youth Council are not visible in the rural areas like Tubatse, Backumburg, Seleka, Mokopane, Fetakgomo, Jane Furse, Masemola, greater Marble Hall and greater Groblersdal. The youth in those areas have lost hope and faith. There are no job opportunities and the government programmes sideline them.

So, how can such youth contribute in building the country and making the 21st century Africa’s century? Surely, skills, education and support are needed for these millions of young South Africans. These youth think the government does not care. That is why they turn to crime. For them, to be leaders of tomorrow is only a dream if not a myth.

The 30th anniversary of the Soweto uprising of 1976 means nothing if the youth of today are poor, unemployed and dying of Aids. The youth of 1976 fought gallantly and died for the youth of today in order for them to have a better education and a better life. But they now get the opposite.

Taba ya go hloka mošomo le bodidi di wetša baswa ba gaborena kotsing ya donitagi le thobalano e sego ya širelatšwa. Gomme se se hlola gore ba tsene kotsing ya lehu la Aids. Baswa ka bontši ba bolawa ke lehu la Aids gomme mmušo o swanatše go tlogela go gana go fa balwetši ba Aids meriana ya go alafa bolwetši bjo. Taba ya gore ka baka la bolwetši bjo go jewe merogo, dikenywa le gigwere e a thuša e fela re rata gore batho ba hwetše diARV, ke tšona di ka kgonang go thuša go kaonafatša bolwetši bja Aids.

Mmušo o swanetše go tlogela go gakantšha setšhaba ka go ntšha melaetša ya go fapana mabapi le Aids. Go ya ka dipego bophelo bja baswa bo akanyetšwa go ba masomenne šupa (47). Mmušo wa rena o swanetše go laetša boetapele – o swanetše go lebelela dinaga tša go swana le Uganda, Botswana le tše dingwe tšeo diphatlaladitšego gore Aids ke lenaba la bophelo.

Ke rolela ba TAC le Love Life mongatse ka go lwantša leuba la Aids le go fihlelela dikarolo tšohle tša Afrika Borwa. Ke dira boipiletšso go tona ya maphelo go tsenya letsogo le go laetša thekgo le boetapale tabeng ya Aids. Setšhaba sa gaborena se swanetše go hwetša thuto ya maleba. Thuto ke yona senotlelo sa bophelo bjo bo kaone. Ka thuto re ka fediša mathata a go hlokega ga mešomo.

Dikolo di swanetše go hlokomelwa, di fiwe ditsebi tša thuto go thala mananeo ao a ka tlišago bokgoni go barutwana. Re rata go bona mananeo a thuto a sepelelena le mešomo yeo e lego gona ka mo gare ga naga. Ditsebi ke tšona feela ka mahlale a tšona di ka kgonago go tliša dipoelo tše kaone. Re swanatše go bona baswa bao ba feditšego dikolo ba šoma, le go godiša ekonomi ya rena. Bontšhi bja bona bao ba hlokago mošomo, ke ka baka la gore ga ba kgona go hwetša thuto ya maleba. [Lelahlelwa.] Ke a leboga, Modulasetulo. [Magoswi.] (Translation of Sepedi paragraphs follows.)

[Unemployment and poverty are exposing our youth to drugs and unprotected sex, which eventually leads to HIV/Aids. The government must stop denying HIV/Aids patients ARVs. It does help to eat vegetables, fruit and herbs, but people must also get ARVs because they also make a difference.

The government must stop sending out mixed messages on HIV/Aids. According to statistics, the life span of the youth is estimated at 47 years. Our government must show some initiative and look at countries like Uganda, Botswana and many others that have publicised that HIV/Aids is a threat to life.

I have great admiration for organisations such as the Treatment Action Campaign and projects such as Love Life for their efforts to fight the HIV/Aids pandemic all around South Africa. I appeal to the Minister of Health to play a role in this and offer support and leadership in the HIV/Aids issue. Our nation must be well educated on this. Education is the key to a better life. Through education we can beat all the problems brought about by unemployment.

Schools must be prioritised. Experts must be brought in to draft educational curricula that will help the students with the necessary skills. We would like to see educational curricula that go hand in hand with the employment opportunities in the country. Only people with certain expertise can draft curricula that will yield positive results. We should be able to see all the youth that have completed their education getting employment and helping out to boost the country’s economy. The youth mostly find it difficult to find employment because they did not get a suitable education. [Interjections.] Thank you, Chairperson. [Applause]]

Mr B W DHLAMINI: Hon Chairperson, members, the challenge faced by the youth is of a different kind to the one waged by the illustrious class of 1976, but the challenge is just as mighty. Prince Mangosuthu Buthelezi said, “We need a revolution of goodwill to give hope to those without hope and inspire those whose dreams have been crushed.” And more recently, President Thabo Mbeki, spoke eloquently of the age of hope. Both these visions we aspire to.

Today South Africa needs a peaceful revolution to raise the quality of life of our youth. As we look at today’s leadership, we ask the question: What legacy would we leave behind for the youth of South Africa? How will we ensure that this would indeed be an age of hope for our young people?

The defining mark of the 1976 class was the inherent sense of unity of purpose. The greater good and the noble cause transcended political affiliations. Will our leaders supply the kind of united leadership required to take South Africa forward?

The South African youth today face the challenge of a diverse and growing young population at a time when a sizeable number of people are living in poverty and going out in a climate of uncertainty, and when their prospects for healthy development are dramatically compromised by the scourge of HIV/Aids.

The IFP acknowledges that, as a country, we have deliberate strategies to promote healthy youth development. We believe in young people’s capacity to reduce the risky behaviour that threatens their wellbeing. We believe we can increase the likelihood of our young people growing up as caring and capable adults by providing opportunities for the development of skills, competencies and positive experiences through working with caring adults who have high expectations in life and a positive attitude towards the youth.

In order to make sure that all the above materialise, we, in the IFP, believe that our youth require access to the resources and opportunities that would not only allow them to imagine wonderful possibilities for themselves, but to pursue them with encouragement, vigour and effective guidance of everyone around them.

In celebrating the 30th anniversary of the Soweto uprising that later engulfed the entire country and that were led by the late Tsietsi Mashinini, Kgotso Seahlolo and others, the question is: Do the immense sacrifices of Tsietsi Mashinini and company, who risked their lives for our freedom, count for nothing?

We have many people, such as Joe Slovo and Beyers Naudé, who have been honoured by having our streets named after them, but the same honour has not been extended to the heroes of 1976. Are they snubbed for coming from the wrong political camp? Let the spirit of unity of 1976 guide our country as we enter the new era of hope. I thank you. [Applause.]

Mrs D G NHLENGETHWA: Hon Chairperson, hon members, I don’t know how to describe the hon member Swathe. I can describe him like a puppet that is being used by the DA just to come here and cackle and cackle, not knowing what to say. [Laughter.] I want to dedicate my speech to one of our members, Portia Shabangu. She was a student teacher at Mgwenya College, who was gunned down by the soldiers on the Swaziland border in 1988.

More than three decades later the statement remains just as relevant to the youth of today as we mark the 30th anniversary of the 1976 uprisings. The progressive world will be saluting and celebrating the lives of those unselfish young women and men who took the apartheid bull by its horns. Many young people sacrificed their education and their lives, and we are now enjoying the fruits of this freedom.

The police of the then government were given the instruction to disperse the crowd. The manner in which they handled the situation was outrageous and inhuman - by shooting and killing unarmed youth like soldiers during a war. The only weapons the students held were stones and dustbin lids as their bulletproof vests. We should never forget the commitment and the price they paid.

As we celebrate the youth’s struggle of the past, we are facing today an even more brutal monster in the form of poverty, unemployment and HIV/Aids. I want to call on our youth to play a leading role in overcoming and bringing down this monster, for it to lie down on its stomach this time. The youth must be the active agents in all the programmes the government brings forward. The ANC strategy and tactics document describes the youth as an important sector of the motivational forces for change.

The foundations for an integrated approach to youth development were laid not only in the youth policy, but also in the practice of co-ordinating and monitoring government’s initiatives to address the challenges the youth face. These include the use of the Skills Development Fund and other initiatives, such as Asgisa, for unemployed youth, helping them to find a career path and structure in relation to their qualifications.

Bazosala bekhala, becula neculo lokuthi ayikho imisebenzi, njengaleli lungu ebelikekela lapha lithi ayikho imisebenzi kanti imisebenzi ikhona. [They will be complaining and singing the song that there are no jobs, like this member who was indirectly saying that there are no jobs whereas jobs are there.] There are still challenges in some areas of the country, especially where I come from. At the Amsterdam Laerskool and the Ermelo Hoërskool there are still language problems. They are using language as a barrier to deny access to people, especially black people.

Yes, we amended the South African Schools Act to give powers to SGBs to determine which languages they can use as the medium of instruction. Now, some of these SGBs abuse these powers. They still want to keep pure lily- white schools by saying that Afrikaans is the only language which will be used as the medium of instruction in their schools. Some schools agreed to be dual medium, but this is still a problem because it takes us back to square one.

This is because outside the structure of the school you can see that this is a multiracial school, but inside the buildings – inside the classes - blacks are put in one class and whites in another. Indians and coloureds are mixed in either of the two. We hope that the Minister will take note of these concerns.

It is clear that the challenges faced by the youth of 1976 and in the 1980s are different from those facing the youth of today. The 1976 and 1980s generations produced the best quality of cadres. During those difficult conditions we managed to pull through. During those days we were compelled to take teacher courses, to become police under the then police order, that is to offend our people, and to train as soldiers to fight against our own people. We pulled through and along the way we changed. Many of us and many of the other youth of that time occupy very important positions in the public and private sectors.

While young South Africans generally spend a large part of their time doing everything that other young people do such as watching TV and hanging out with friends, poverty is a major factor in their lives and for a large proportion of our people.

I have realised that the young people have stood up and responded to the spirit of Vukuzenzele, especially the young women who are beginning to catch up – in some cases they are overtaking men. They excel in what they do. They responded quickly to the programme that the ANC-led government has put in place. Asgisa is here to address the shortage of skills and provide learnerships and entrepreneurships.

The Deputy President of the country got together with the three spheres of government to elaborate on the specific interventions aimed at ensuring that Asgisa succeeds, which included reducing the unemployment levels. Perhaps people had not realised this until now: We are breaking the barriers of apartheid and bringing it to its knees.

Bayasala-ke laba abangaboni. [Those that do not see are left behind.]

Koloi a Asgisa a e duma e a tsamaya. [When the Asgisa car starts, it is time to go.]

The funding for higher education students is at the centre of higher education transformation, because it hinges on educational equity, redress and access, and on the fiscal policies of the state. Thousands of unskilled young people remain outside the system and the labour market, because education remains a commodity to be exchanged in institutions of higher learning.

In that context, the establishment of the National Student Financial Aid Scheme, NSFAS, is another giant step taken by the ANC-led government to complement the developmental role of higher education and its link with the human resource development strategy, in the context of the Reconstruction and Development Programme and the youth policy of 2000.

The challenge for NSFAS is still to reach the intended beneficiaries. Is it enough to cover all the high fees at the universities, so that these poor students do not fall into the trap of being blacklisted at the end of the day?

In conclusion, from the time the ANC was founded in 1912, one would find that there were always young people in the leadership of the ANC. Until today, they are still there …

… njengoba besho nje ukuthi isekhona intsha endala. [… as they are saying that the old youth is still there.]

When the oppressed said: “Now, I stand up; it’s enough.” It was the beginning of the end of the oppressor. Although we had been under the heel of white racist colonialism for 342 years, we never gave up. In 1985 the late president of the ANC, Comrade Oliver Tambo, at the height of the massive incarceration of the youth and the disruption of township schools by the security forces, said: “A nation that does not value its youth has no future.”

In his inauguration on 10 May 1994 at the Union Buildings, former President Mandela pledged that the time for healing the wounds had come; the moment to bridge the chasm that divided us had come; that the time to build was upon us; and that we had triumphed in the effort to plant hope in the breasts of our people.

In his state of the nation address, the President of the country also said:

What has been achieved since Nelson Mandela delivered his first state of the nation address, and what we can do, given the larger resources that have been since generated, has surely given hope to the masses of our people.

He further said: And I dare say that, essentially, all of us are very familiar with what the people expect, which would confirm that they were not wrong to conclude that our country has entered its Age of Hope.

A e duma e a tsamaya. [When the car starts, it is time to go.]

I thank you. [Applause.]

The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON (Mr G Q M Doidge): Order! Hon member, please remain at the podium. You referred to the hon Swathe as a puppet and that he cackles. Could you please withdraw those remarks?

Mrs D G NHLENGETHWA: I said that he is like a puppet.

The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON (Mr G Q M Doidge): Could you please withdraw those remarks?

Mrs D G NHLENGETHWA: I withdraw.

The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON (Mr G Q M Doidge): Thank you. [Applause.]

Ms S N SIGCAU: Chairperson and hon members, the events of 16 June continue to reverberate through history, even 30 years after the oppressed youth of this country voiced their opposition to apartheid. As some commentators have said, that day spelt the end of the older regime. After that, it was inevitable that apartheid would crumble.

We commemorate this day in recognition of the sacrifice that the youth of that generation made. We need to recognise that the youth will become tomorrow’s decision makers, whether we like it or not. The only question is whether we will have done everything in our power to provide them with the skills and knowledge to make good decisions.

The importance of education for Africa’s development is, perhaps, not adequately recognised in the many economic and political initiatives currently under way on the continent. It is our duty, then, to ensure that the education system receives greater attention. That would be the most fitting tribute to the youth of 30 years ago. I thank you. [Applause.]

Mr L W GREYLING: Speaker, during my travels across the African continent I met many inspirational youth who were taking forward the vision of a new Africa. They were doing this under enormously trying circumstances, attempting to make a better life for themselves and their families.

In the midst of the Congo forest, for instance, I met Mzanga, a 16-year-old boy who travelled with us for 10 days. In any other society, Mzanga would have been an A grade student, and would have gone on to join a university and live a prosperous life. In the Congo, however, Mzanga had to work for six months of the year, simply to pay for a year’s schooling and had almost no hope of going on to university.

Since the last time I travelled through the Congo forest, over 4 million people have been killed there in a tragic conflict. Our first challenge, if we want the youth to make this Africa’s century, is to save children like Mzanga. Today is my birthday, and all I want as a present, is for all the youth of Africa to be given the opportunity to truly fulfil their potential and make this continent the global force it should be. I thank you. [Applause.]

Mr H B CUPIDO: Speaker, in this age of rapid technological advancement and pervasive influences of the media, the preparedness of our youth to meet the challenges of the future depends on the extent to which they manage to overcome the challenges with which they are faced today.

The glamorising of gangsterism as conveyed by the music video industry is creating an environment where violence, drug abuse and disorder are becoming widely accepted as the norm. The objectification of women and sexuality in these videos further erodes the inculcation of moral values based on respect for the sanctity of the female body and the act of sex.

Access to pornography via the Internet and cellphones has a direct impact on rape, promiscuity and infectious diseases, and easy availability of tabloid newspapers showing naked women in provocative and lewd poses, all point towards a society that is turning a blind eye to the factors that are shaping the minds and aspirations of our youth.

Technological advances hold significant educational, economic and other benefits for our youth. Careful consideration of legislation that regulates or controls access to content with regard to the Internet, cellphones and various media is the most effective way in which government, Parliament and civil society can make a positive contribution to preparing the youth for the challenges of the 21st Century.

Instead of reacting only when HIV/Aids, rape, drugs and crime statistics amongst the youth reach horrifying proportions, urgent attention must be given to the statutory measures that place restrictions on the media’s devaluation of sex within marriages; and that focus on abstinence, fidelity, family values and a drug-free society. We support the growth and empowerment of our youth in South Africa. I thank you. [Applause.]

Mnr W D SPIES: Agb Speaker, die Nasionale Jeugkommissie het onlangs die wens uitgespreek dat alle Suid-Afrikaners, wit en swart, Jeugdag moet vier en gedenk. Ek het die gedagte by ’n jong Afrikaanse student uit Gauteng getoets en sy reaksie was soos volg:

Wanneer ek aansoek doen vir toelating tot die universiteit maak die kwotastelsel dit vir my as wit student onmoontlik om vir my eerste keuse van studie in te skryf. Wanneer ek dan my klasse begin bywoon saam met 90% ander Afrikaanssprekendes, word my klasse in Engels aangebied. As ek my studies voltooi het, moet ek weer eens hoor dat my aansoek om werk nie oorweeg kan word nie, omdat die regstellende aksieteikens van die maatskappye waar ek aansoek doen, nog nie bereik is nie. As ek dan wil uitspring en my eie besigheid begin, moet ek weer eens hoor dat ek nie my produkte kan verkoop nie, omdat die aankoopbeleid van my potensiële kliënte vereis dat hulle by sogenaamde swart verskaffers moet koop. Ek het dus geen rede om fees te vier nie. Gee vir my ’n rede om fees te vier en dan gaan ek saam.

Hierdie belewenis van ’n anonieme student uit Gauteng vertel die verhaal van wat duisende Afrikanerjongmense vandag beleef. Die optogte van 16 Junie 1976 het oor baie dinge gehandel. Een van daardie sake was die feit dat leerders nie in die taal van hul keuse kon leer nie. ’n Ander en belangrike rede was dat jongmense van Soweto en ander townships uitgesluit, gemarginaliseer en vervreemd gevoel het.

Ons uitdaging is vandag om ’n bedeling te skep waarin almal, wit en swart, Afrikaans en Zoeloe, Engels en Sotho, ryk en arm, oud en jonk, veilig voel en vry is om te droom, maar veral ook vry is om daardie drome ’n werklikheid te maak. Laat ons praat oor so ’n bedeling en laat ons vir elkeen ’n rede gee om werklik fees te vier. Ek dank u. [Applous.] (Translation of Afrikaans speech follows.)

[Mr W D SPIES: Hon Speaker, the National Youth Commission recently expressed the wish that all South Africans, white and black, should celebrate and commemorate Youth Day. I tested this idea with a young Afrikaans student from Gauteng and his reaction was as follows:

When I apply for entry to university, the quota system makes it impossible for me as a white student to enrol for my first choice of study. When I then start attending classes with 90% other Afrikaans speaking students, my classes are presented in English. When I have completed my studies, I must once again hear that my job application cannot be considered, because the affirmative action targets of the companies that I apply to have not yet been met. If I then want to get about starting my own business, I must once again hear that I cannot sell my products, because the procurement policy of my potential clients requires that they buy from so-called black suppliers. I, therefore, have no reason to celebrate. Give me a reason to celebrate and then I will do so.

This experience of an anonymous student from Gauteng tells the tale of what thousands of Afrikaner young people are experiencing today. The marches of 16 June 1976 were about many things. One of those issues was the fact that learners could not be educated in the language of their choice. Another and very important reason was that young people from Soweto and other townships were excluded, marginalised and felt alienated.

Our challenge today is to create a dispensation in which everyone, white and black, Afrikaans and Zulu, English and Sotho, rich and poor, old and young, feels safe and is free to dream, but especially also is free to make those dreams a reality. Let us talk about such a dispensation and let us give everyone a reason to really celebrate. I thank you. [Applause.]]

Mr Y I CARRIM: Madam Speaker, comrades and friends, now, I know you may not believe it but I was once young too. And, in 1976, I was a very handsome first-year student - with hair too, let me stress - at the University of Durban-Westville. As I stand on this podium today, I wonder what happened to that guy.

But, anyway, in August 1976 at UDW we boycotted classes and organised demonstrations in solidarity with the students of Soweto and elsewhere who were in the thick of the uprising. We were, of course, at the university, confined to Indian South Africans and until then, the only active participants from this community in the growing rebellion.

Before the year was out, the student revolt had spread to the so-called coloured students in Cape Town and other parts of the Western Cape. Four years later, inspired by the 1976 uprising, Indian and so-called coloured students waged major struggles against separate education and the apartheid system as a whole. A nonracial political culture emerged that had not been seen since the 1950s.

The 1976 student revolt has enormous significance, of course. I want to focus on one aspect that is not sufficiently recognised: the impetus it gave to the resurgence of nonracialism and the potential it suggested for youth to lead in the breaking down of racial barriers.

As we demonstrated at UDW in 1976, we had no idea that the struggle would advance so rapidly. Events overtook us. As erratic and uneven as our demonstrations were, the police overreacted and detained three of us. We were subsequently moved from our cells in Durban to Modderbee prison in Benoni where we joined others from Soweto and elsewhere for the next five months.

We were about 15, all in two cells. Among this group there were some who later became Members of Parliament, including Father Smangaliso Mkhatshwa, Samson Ndou, Peter Moatshe and I think Moss Chikane was there in that year too.

In Modderbee we were not subjected to interrogation and we were free to engage in political discussions in our cells. As the then Minister of justice, Jimmy Kruger, with uncharacteristic wit, so to speak, told the International Red Cross, he had, I quote, “simply taken us from places of unrest to a place of rest”.

For the UDW students it was a fascinating and irreplaceable experience. We spent 23 and a half hours a day, for five months, in close proximity to senior comrades of the movement. It was also our first concerted engagement with African comrades beyond our peripheral and superficial contact with African students.

It confirmed, in a very vivid and powerful way, what our values and intellectual understanding had communicated, that cultural differences aside, we all essentially belong to a single human race. And it conveyed, too, how utterly absurd, even laughable, apartheid was.

We engaged in intense and passionate debates in our cell. Most of us recognised that, as heroic and courageous as the youth were, there were limits to the role they could play in the national liberation struggle. It was vital that the youth link up with the working class and the masses more broadly. It was, we were clear, an alliance of all classes and strata of the people, under the leadership of the working class, that would triumph over apartheid and create the conditions for the fundamental transformation of our country.

But the three of us from UDW also came to see that we applied our Marxism too mechanically and tended to overemphasise class against race, instead of appreciating the interconnection between the national class struggles in our revolution. Our stay at Modderbee gave greater depth to our understanding and subsequent participation in the struggle.

While we recognised the differing degrees of oppression and the differences in material, political and other conditions within African, coloured and Indian people, we felt that there was a need for greater nonracial co- operation. There were intense discussions, needless to say, about the relationship between the masses and the armed struggle. This, despite the fact that we were aware that the police were monitoring our discussions. But comrades were very motivated, inspired, determined and could not be bothered.

We behaved as if it was the beginning of the end of apartheid. In a sense, it was. Of course, it took another 14 years but the Soweto uprising of 1976 was a major turning point. So it is that we celebrate the contribution of the youth to society with renewed commitment in this 30th anniversary of the Soweto uprising.

Friends, as we reflect on the significance of the June 1976 uprising, a question that is often hidden but needs airing is: What contribution is the youth making today to break down racial barriers and contribute to nation- building? For the youth to effectively play a role in advancing nonracialism and nation-building they have to be clear about what their overall role is in consolidating our national democratic transition. Twelve years into our democracy, there is still not sufficient clarity on this overall role. This clarity is urgently necessary.

Obviously, the youth cannot take responsibility for advancing nonracialism and nation-building alone. Their role has to be linked to that of other sections of our population. But, clearly, they have a specific role to play and are uniquely placed to significantly advance nonracialism.

In most societies it is the youth that break with tradition, and that emerge with new ideas, new values and new practices. This is almost in the nature of youth. It is the youth that should find it easiest to break with our racist past. In any case, they have spent the least part of their lives under apartheid, and increasing sections of the youth converge across racial divides in schools, universities and other tertiary institutions. Yet, are we seeing a significant nonracial culture emerging among the youth?

There are contradictory developments. In some respects there is greater interracial contact than during our apartheid past but in other respects, greater isolation. Certainly, the potential for the youth to contribute to nonracialism and nation-building is far from being realised. In fact, it is disappointing. Under apartheid, it was in the political sphere that nonracialism among the youth found expression, especially from 1976 onwards. But there was much less interracial contact in the private sphere, in individual engagements across the racial divides.

Now, under our new democracy, interestingly, nonracialism is expressed less in the political sphere and more in private individual engagements of, for example, youth attending mixed schools. You have only to attend a general meeting of progressive youth organisations like the ANC Youth League and the Young Communist League to see the absence of nonracialism in practice or observe who will attend the Youth Day celebrations on Friday. Even where there is limited nonracialism emerging, it is mainly among the elite. At the mass level, the youth have very limited contact across racial lines.

We should not blame the youth for these shortcomings. We all have to take responsibility, especially those of us who see ourselves as progressive. To effectively deal with the challenges, we have to more directly and openly acknowledge them. We need more discussion on this. What better opportunity than the 30th anniversary celebrations of the Soweto uprising!

We need to develop a programme on enhancing nonracialism among the youth and actively implement it. Among the issues we need to focus on are, firstly, greater clarity on the overall role of youth in our national democratic revolution.

Secondly, we need to focus on the importance of the youth office in the Presidency; the parliamentary Joint Monitoring Committee on the Improvement of the Quality of Life and Status of Children, Youth and Disabled Persons; the role of the National Youth Commission and other statutory bodies dealing with youth; the role that the Commission for the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Cultural, Religious and Linguistic Communities and the Human Rights Commission can play; active fostering of nonracialism and nation-building by schools and tertiary institutions; the very important role of sport in breaking down racial barriers; the need for spatial desegregation so that people live in more multiracial residential areas; the crucial role that the private sector can play and so on.

Much of what Malusi Gigaba and Lulu Johnson said earlier needs to be followed up on. If we do that, we will have more opportunities to ensure that there is more contact between our youth across the racial divides.

As parents too, we also have a role to play in encouraging our children to develop friendships across racial lines. Without being crude about this, maybe this too should also be a measure of our delivery. Ultimately, the development of a nonracial ethos among the youth will be an important contribution to and reflection of the successes of our nonracial and nation- building project. Let us all recognise this, and let us indeed all act on it. I thank you. [Applause.]

Nk M M MDLALOSE: Somlomo, malungu ahloniphekile, intsha ka-1976 njengamanje ingabaholi besizwe nabazali bentsha yanamuhla. Intsha yayishabasheka izwe lonke ifisa impilo nezwe elingcono nelihlaliseke kahle. Izinqumo ezenziwa ngaleso sikhathi zinomthelela empilweningqangi namuhla. (Translation of isiZulu paragraph follows.)

[Ms M M MDLALOSE: Chairperson, hon members, the youth of 1976 are now the leaders of the country and the parents of today’s youth. The youth were marching for a better and harmonious country. The decisions that were taken at that time have an impact on life in general today.]

Decisions of yesterday dictate today and tomorrow. Nadeco says to the youth of today: Love yourselves. Have high objectives. Love hard work. Protect yourself against drugs, aimlessness, HIV and Aids.

Asifune impilo engcono, imfundo, amacebo nezindlela zokwenza imali. [Let us strive for a better life, education, strategies and ways of generating money.]

This will then lead our country to a better future, and to build a successful nation and general wellbeing.

Lusha, vukani nizithathe. Inselelo ingani. [Youth, rise and shine, the challenge is yours.]

Thank you. [Applause.]

Rre B E PULE: Ke a leboga Mmusakgotla, matshosetsi ke bolwetse jwa kokwanatlhoko ya HIV/Aids, e e garimanyang ngwana le mmaagwe. Tota e garimanya lelapa lotlhe. Ke maikarabelo a baša go e lwantsha jaanong jaana. Ga go na jaaka re ka nna le Aforika e e lwalang.

Ntlha ya bobedi ke go nna le Aforika e e rutegileng mo mefameng yotlhe e e ka tlhabololang. Aforika wa ngwaga kgolo wa bosomepedi nngwe ga e kitla e dira kwa ntle ga bonetetshi, ga e kitla e dira kwa ntle ga boitseanape, ga e kitla e dira kwa ntle ga botswiritshi. Baša ba tshwanetse go ithuta go nna ditswerere le go nna le maikarabelo mo ditirong tsotlhe tse ba di dirang.

Bolwetse jo bongwe jo baša ba tshwanetseng go nna le seabe mo go jone, ke jwa go tlhoka kagiso ga Aforika. Dipolaano tsa bana le basadi tse di aparetseng naga ya rona, di tswanetse go nyatsega le go kgalwa ke baša gonne di senya leago le le edileng.

La bofelo, baša ba tswanetse go dira ditiro le rona bagolo gonne Motswana a re: “Magogorwane rokela banneng e re setsiba se tlala ba se go thuse.” Ke a leboga. (Translation of Setswana speech follows.)

[Mr B E PULE: Thank you, Madam Speaker. The threat is the HIV/Aids virus, which attacks both the mother and her child. In reality, it attacks the whole family. It is the responsibility of the youth to fight it right now. There is no way that we can have a sick Africa.

The second point is to have an Africa that is trained in all fields that could be developmental. The Africa of the 21st century won’t be functional without science and technology. The youth must learn to be experts and to take responsibility in all that they are doing.

The other area of concern that needs the youths’ participation is the lack of peace in Africa. The killing of women and children being experienced all over our country must be condemned with contempt by the youth because it destroys a stable society.

Lastly, the youth are supposed to work together with us, the elderly, because the Motswana say: “Work with those who know so that they can help you.” Thank you.]

Dr S E M PHEKO: Madam Speaker, the role of the African youth this century is to rebuild the broken walls of Africa politically, economically, culturally, educationally, technologically and morally.

The youth of today must struggle hard to ensure that Africa’s riches benefit Africa’s people. The youth must be equipped with knowledge in their gigantic task of making the 21st century Africa’s century by being provided with free education. We also have a collective responsibility to ensure the future of our youth by eradicating youth unemployment and the HIV/Aids virus, from which millions of our youth are dying.

Africa’s challenges to make this century Africa’s century require young men and women who are mentally decolonised and are as brave as the youth of the Soweto and Sharpeville uprisings. This is the youth that will grow to be leaders like Zephania Mothopeng, the PAC leader who orchestrated the Soweto uprising, according to Judge Kaye-Lewis. This judge sentenced him to 30 years in prison for the Soweto uprising. He was with 16 PAC members in the Supreme Court of South Africa. In 1979 Judge Kaye-Lewis said, and I quote:

You, Mothopeng, acted to sow seeds of anarchy and revolution. The riot you engineered and predicted eventually took place in Soweto on 16 June 1976 and at Kagiso the next day.

Such freedom fighters are a source of inspiration and a glittering example to youth in Africa.

The SPEAKER: Hon member, your time has expired.

Dr S E M PHEKO: I am amazed at your intolerance. I speak for one minute here and you speak for 15 minutes and you are amazed. We are not going to distort the history of this country. That is not going to be allowed. [Interjections.]

The SPEAKER: Hon member, your time has expired.

Ms S RAJBALLY: Madam Speaker, tracing our steps back to the 1976 uprising, we hear the cries of our children forced into a man’s war. Apartheid blood robbed our people of their right and children were forced to abandon their childhood and unite in the fight for freedom.

Today, those children are adults, parents and grandparents, and would like to convey their experience to today’s youth in the hope that history will never repeat itself. Today, the aftermath of the apartheid regime continues to manifest itself in the masses in the form of poverty, sickness, imbalance and retardation. The challenge is great.

Through determination, commitment and perseverance, our democracy continues to unlock these shackles of our past. It is at this stage that our young leaders need to be socialised onto the road that will lead South Africa to greatness. It is now that we will recruit our young into fighting against poverty, to tackle our urgent need for development and to overcome challenges such as HIV and Aids.

The MF views the active interaction between the various Houses, Cabinet and the youth as an invitation to address issues in terms of a long-term investment. The skills shortage and our employment supply cannot service needs. There is a need to identify youth programmes and to invite the youth to consider these ambitious and possible choices for after-school qualifications.

The MF believes in the potential of our youth to rise to these great pillars of democracy, economic strength and social security, all sown and woven from the fabric of values and principles enshrined in our Constitution. We may overcome our challenges today or maybe tomorrow, but an investment in our youth will ensure that we will overcome our challenges today. Thank you. [Applause.]

Ms L N MOSS: Madam Speaker, hon members, comrades and friends, our celebration of the 30th anniversary of the youth uprising in 1976, as well as the 50th anniversary of the women’s march to the Union Buildings in Pretoria in 1956 shows that women’s rights are human rights. Organisasies wat aktief was gedurende die stryd van die jong Christenstudente … [Organisations that were active during the struggle of the young Christian students …]

… were organising the youth and the young women to participate fully. They also organised youth out in the streets for better education and observance of human rights that were poor because of Bantu education.

In the Western Cape, people were harassed when they did not have passes. It was made very difficult for one’s friends to stay over here in the Western Cape. That is why mothers and young women were marching against the pass laws. It was the same youth who couldn’t stay with their mothers because of the pass laws.

In the `80s, women were not allowed to stay with their families. We remember the forced removals in Crossroads and Unibel. In KTC women stood together to support others. The United Women’s Congress supported these women because an injury to one is an injury to all. An injury to one is an injury to all. [Applause.]

In the 1980’s the first houses were built in New Crossroads, KTC and lastly in Khayelitsha, where the people were forced to stay. Women were not allowed to stay in the Western Cape and forced to stay in Khayelitsha.

The youth congress was launched in the Western Cape and I am proud to state that I was part of that. A cultural choir called Vulindlela was formed where the participation of young women was not an act of charity. It was the result of compassionate attitudes towards women and yet they still found themselves in a disadvantaged situation because of a lack of skills and education.

There are still key challenges that face women and children: building a second tier leadership, human rights, building a strong progressive women’s movement to make sure that young women speak out in a strong and united voice, and to promote the participation of young women in political schools and social and economic activities. Thanks to the ANC which gives us political schooling.

There are a few observations that I would like to make with regard to race, gender and class. Black women are mainly in middle and lower management positions. The independence of women needs to be strategically considered, with regard to gender needs. The struggle for nonsexism cannot be fought outside class and national struggles. The struggle for transformation is to improve the conditions of our young women and the poor. Transformation must take place in the economy to create jobs and to relieve poverty.

Empowered young women leaders can be useful links by turning politics, HIV and Aids and behavioural change amongst the youth into positive results, as the Minister of Education did through integrating life skills and HIV and Aids across all learning areas of the curriculum. Most young girls take up the responsibility of looking after their siblings when their parents are taken away by HIV and Aids and other medical reasons.

Ter afsluiting, as jong vroue en die jeug geniet ons nou die demokrasie en menseregte waarvoor ons moeders baklei het in 1956. Opvoeding is belangrik. [In conclusion, as young women and youth we are now enjoying the democracy and human rights that our mothers fought for in 1956. Education is important.]

When you educate a young woman, you are building a nation.

Ten slotte wil ek hierdie woorde voorlees vir die moeders daar buite en ook vir die vroue in die Parlement: “ Om vrou te wees is nie om anders te wees nie. Is nie om minder te wees nie. Is nie om swak te wees nie. Is nie om ongeskik te wees nie. Om vrou te wees is om jouself te wees.” Ek dank u. [Applous.] (Translation of Afrikaans paragraph follows.)

[Lastly, I would like to read out these words for the mothers who are out there and also for the women in Parliament: “To be a woman, is not about being different. It is not about being less of a person. It is not about being weak. It is not about being helpless. To be a woman, is about being your own person.” I thank you. [Applause.]] Ms N M MDAKA: Madam Speaker, hon members, it has been 30 years since the youth of South Africa marched in all parts of the country, on a journey for a better education, and transformed South Africa. Today the UIF salutes the children of 1976 who gave their lives so that we and future generations of this country could free ourselves from the yoke of apartheid and establish a new democratic order.

It is very discouraging to see how little, if any, of the black economic empowerment resources are being channelled towards the development of young people. Formations such as the National Youth Commission and the Umsobomvu Youth Fund have failed dismally on their mandates. They are viewed as only being accessible to a select few that are connected to the ruling party top brass and the youth league – the ANC Youth League, in brackets. [Interjections.]

The UIF calls on the government to empower its development agencies and lobby the business sector to advocate for greater resources to be directed towards the young people of this country. The government must not fail in its obligation of ensuring every young person’s right to quality education, to develop their skills and to acquire knowledge. I thank you. [Interjections.]

Mr S SIMMONS: Madam Speaker, the youth of today are the leaders of tomorrow, but currently the negative onslaught on them is intense and ferocious. Undisciplined behaviour, drug abuse and criminal activity are the cancer among our youth; so are the lack of motivation and the importance of education and skills. These shortcomings need our urgent attention, the failure of which may result in devastating consequences for the continent of Africa.

A possible solution would be to appoint a committee of experts consisting of politicians, public servants, academics, and representatives of business and workers’ unions. The committee would be commissioned to determine needs and solutions, and draw up a blueprint for South Africa which will cover activities in all spheres and at all levels of society. This, the UPSA believes, would also address the shortcomings and experience amongst our youth, and make the 21st century Africa’s century. I thank you.

Mr L M GREEN: Madam Speaker, the youth of today is not the youth of 1976. The youth of 1976 were highly politicised – they had to be – and they were compelled to enter politics at an early age. It was the age of change, and therefore the youth had to be part of the movement.

High on the agenda of the youth of today – and let us speak to our young 15- year-old, 16-year-old, 17-year-old sons and daughters – is their music, whether it be kwaito or other kinds of music; their culture, and it includes, of course, the latest fashions; and it is, of course, their favourite TV programmes; and, of course, the ever-present cellphone. Those are some of the things that are high on the agenda of the youth today. It is not wrong that they have those kinds of interests, as they are signs of the normalisation of our youth.

Many of our young people are marketing their skills globally. They are in London, they are in Dubai, they are everywhere, and it is time for our youth to come home. I thank you.

Mr G R MORGAN: Madam Speaker, hon members, it is a privilege to be able to debate this topic while remembering the role that the youth of 1976 played in standing up against a cruel and unjust system. Indeed, their brave actions inspired countless more people of all ages to bring about change. Many of those courageous people that took to the streets of Soweto 30 years ago are now leaders in business, politics and civil society today.

It is natural that young people aspire to be leaders of the future. The youth of 1976 hoped that that would be the case, and the youth of today hope that it will be the case for them as well. While the youth of 1976 had a clear and just battle to inspire them, it is questionable whether our youth today have a cause. As individuals they certainly have dreams. They want to be skilled in order to access the economy; they want secure, well- paying jobs; and they want to be safe from criminals. All of these desires are reasonable. But a cause? Is there something to inspire us as a group?

I believe there is such a cause, and that is to nurture, strengthen and consolidate our democracy. The youth of today cannot merely sit back and accept that the triumph of the youth of 1976 has secured all our futures.

Building a democracy is hard work, and for this reason young people must take an interest in politically shaping the future of South Africa. That which we as individuals aspire to achieve in our respective lives will mean very little if we inherit the leadership of a country that is slipping backwards and not striding boldly into the future.

I admit that it is easy to say that the youth should become more involved in shaping the future of the country. But there are good reasons why there is such apathy among the youth. Many young people feel let down by the new South Africa. It is a country that provides opportunities to some and not to all. Some are well educated; others are illiterate. Of those young people that have Aids, a pitiful number have access to antiretrovirals. The rest are dying. Some youth get preferential treatment in the job market because of race quotas; others sit at home despite having postgraduate degrees.

The problem is that the youth do not have equality of opportunity in this country, and for this reason young people are not particularly united as a group. We’re all too busy trying to overcome some hurdle thrown in our path, whether through personal circumstances or legislation. And so, while we debate the topic today, in this House, regarding the role of the youth in making the 21st century the African century – an uninspiring topic decided upon, presumably, by an ageing person in the ruling party – we may be missing the point.

Granted, the youth have an exciting role to play. But this House should be critically analysing how it can give the youth the opportunity to play a role in the future. Indeed, it should be debating how to ensure that our youth – those individuals between approximately 18 and 35 – can even survive to see the future, considering how many of us are affected by HIV/Aids.

This House should be debating whether some current political leaders are acceptable role models. Mr Zuma, who receives unwavering support from the ANC Youth League, has reckless views on preventing infection from Aids. Mr Nqakula sends out the wrong signals to the youth by refusing to be sympathetic to those people who justifiably complain about crime. [Interjections.] Those MPs that stole from the taxpayer by misusing their travel vouchers do nothing to promote the virtue of accountability to the youth. It is sad that there are not enough role models for the youth.

My last comment is about the young people who head up the vampire-like youth body, the National Youth Commission. The Youth Commission is quite prepared to suck up funds from the taxpayer, but it offers nothing in return. The commission has a salary bill of R7 million per year, 50% of its total budget, and therefore serves to enrich only its own commissioners. It should be disbanded and not defended. Its achievements are superficial, and we can expect more of the same in the future.

We as the youth have a role to play in the future, and that future is not too far away. We would like to be debating in 30 years’ time that South Africa has indeed become the land of opportunity for all people that the youth of 1976 aimed to bring about. Thank you. [Applause.]

Adv Z L MADASA: Madam Speaker, my contribution would be about the contribution of the youth to change the Western Cape forever since 1976. Of course, the debate about the 1976 student uprisings evokes sad and fond memories - sad memories when we remember those that died like Xolile Mosi, the first victim in Cape Town. He was my personal friend and a classmate. On that fateful day, we had been called to a meeting at Langa High School to prepare for a march to Langa police station to demand the release of the leaders.

We were asked to form lines of six students each. Xolile, in his characteristic courage, offered to be in the front line and to hold the placard that contained our demands. He was the best boxer in his division, maybe that is where he derived his tremendous courage. We marched to the police station and when we reached the police station the police stopped us. After a few moments of discussion, we were ordered to disperse in five minutes. We resisted and we were fired upon. We ran in all directions and heard the following day that Xolile had died. His death made the students even more militant and they pressed on with the struggle. Even the invitation by the regime of two homeland leaders, K D Matanzima and L L Sebe did not help. They were supposed to come to Cape Town to help and deal with their people who could not be contained.

Matanzima, after unsuccessfully holding a meeting at Langa stadium, where students stoned him, advised the regime to beat up the students. He said: “Africans know one thing to stop trouble, a stick.” He said that students were uncontrollable, because they were the offspring of promiscuous women who had no husbands.

NgesiXhosa wathi,“Ngabantwana boonomokhwe aba. Bafun’ intonga.” [“He said in isiXhosa, those are offspring of promiscuous women. They need to be punished.”]

Indeed, heeding his advice, the regime became more brutal and introduced rubber batons that were very painful if one was hit. The poor man, on the other hand, was suffocated by teargas when he unsuccessfully tried to hold a meeting at the I D Mkhize school, which was disrupted by the police who were not aware of his importance.

What is not often told about the contribution of these uprisings in the Cape is that they were the direct result of the scrapping of the pass laws in the Western Cape, because after the pass laws were scrapped, waves and waves of people from the Eastern Cape came to Cape Town to settle. The first so-called squatters, NY 78 and KTC squatter camps, were established as a direct result of these struggles.

Mr P W Botha tried in vain to send the squatters back to Transkei. He bussed them to Mthatha. I was at St John’s College in 1978 when we as students decided to sympathise with the squatters who were at Mthatha and housed in churches. We sent them our food rations. We advised them to refuse to go home and demand to go back to Cape Town, because they had the right to freedom of movement in South Africa. Their plight attracted a lot of international media and Botha decided to allow them back to Cape Town. This was the beginning of expanded settlements of black people in Cape Town.

In 1979, Crossroads started and the students went there to defend the rights of people to settle when the regime was trying to remove them by force. The late Oscar Mpetha was the prominent leader of that movement. He was arrested and released on R1 bail, because of his age and health. He was famous for the slogan …

… “Inkululeko ngoku! Isikolo ngomso!” Wayedla ngokuthi, “Nas’ isibham’ eAngola”. UOscar Mpetha wakha wasibalisela ibali likaNkosi Luthuli athi wayethetha nabelungu apha eKapa. Uthi abelungu bathi kuye … [… “freedom now! School tomorrow!” He used to say, “A gun is in Angola”. Oscar Mpetha once narrated a story about Chief Luthuli who negotiated with white men in Cape Town. He said the white men said to him, …]

… Chief Luthuli, you are wasting your time. Black people will never rule this country.

UOscar Mpetha uthi wathi iChief ukuphendula: Xa abantu abamnyama bengenza isigqibo bathi emlungwini: Suk’emagxen’ am, bangaze bakhululeke ngaloo mini. [Kwaqhwatywa.] [Oscar Mpetha says Chief’s reply was: If black people can say to white men, get off our shoulders, that will be the day they will be free. [Applause.]]

These events that carried through to the 80s and 90s were responsible for triggering political consciousness in both the coloured and black communities of the Western Cape. They had to bring about the social and political transformation that we see today unfolding, albeit very painfully, as the opponents of transformation are putting up stiff resistance to change. But, like in the past, these struggles will prevail.

We must not forget where the Western Cape comes from. We, as black children who grew up here, were racially abused in the coloured townships. When we went to watch movies, for example in Mannenberg, from Gugulethu township, after the movies we would be chased around called “kaffirtjies”. We were racially abused when we went to watch soccer at Hartleyvale stadium. We were beaten up in the trains if the white teams like Cape Town City lost to the Johannesburg-based black teams.

This is where the DA wants to turn this country and this province back into the old Western Cape. This not a vicious attack but it is corroborated by their use of the slogan “Vat jou stad terug! [“Take back your city!”] Back from what?

They know that there is still resistance in some communities to seeing black people, not only settling in the Western Cape but running the government. To them this is unacceptable. It means the end of white supremacy in the Cape and some people in the coloured community must help to defeat these blacks. This is what the slogan “Vat jou stad terug!” [“Take back your city!”] means.

Yiyo loo nto sihlaba ikhwelo kubantu bakuthi abahlala koomaCrossroads, Khayelitsha nakooPhillipi, ukuba bakhumbule ukuba bafumana ilungelo lokuhlala eKapa ngegazi labantwana besikolo. [Kwaqhwatywa.] [This is why we make an appeal to our people who live in Crossroads, Khayelitsha and Philippi, to remember that they got the right to live there through the blood of school children. [Applause.]]

The lessons to be learnt from the youth of yesterday are sacrifice and discipline. Though most of us were under 16 at the time, we destroyed beer halls in the townships because we felt that they brought antisocial behaviour that was harmful to the struggle.

In the early ‘90s, the strategy of boycotts had already been abandoned. There was toyi-toying but classes were attended simultaneously. Today the youth need new forms of struggle, mainly education and more education as the democratic government has opened a space for engagement.

Asisathi siyaya ePitoli. Safika ePitoli. Asisathi uza kuwa umbuso kaDe Klerk, sele wawa. [We are no longer saying we are going to Pretoria. We are there. We are no longer saying that the government of De Klerk will collapse because that has already taken place.]

The youth must make use of democratic structures fought for by the youth of yesterday to press for their current demands. The youth must inculcate a culture of active participation as a space of democratic participation has been created. All in all, the doors of learning have been opened. The youth must get skills to ensure that the 21st century truly becomes the African century. The youth must ensure that the democratic government governs. The time for physical fights is over; it is now time for the current youth to engage with the democratic institutions that were brought about by the youth of yesterday. We salute the indefatigable spirit of the youth of 1976 that has brought about the 21st century, which is the African century.

Mandigqibezele ngokuthi kulaa ntwana yakwaSwathe ayiyazi into ebiyithetha apha. Ifanelwe yintonga. [Kwahlekwa.] [Kwaqhwatywa.] [In conclusion I must say that Swathe’s young man does not know what he was saying here. He needs a hiding. [Laughter.] [Applause.]]

The CHIEF WHIP OF THE MAJORITY PARTY: Madam Speaker, on a point of order: I cannot allow a member to refer to another member as “intwana” [“young man”]. [Laughter.] He is an hon member. Though he has confused ideas he is an hon member and must be addressed as such. [Laughter.]

CONSIDERATION OF REQUEST FOR APPROVAL BY PARLIAMENT OF JOINT CONVENTION ON THE SAFETY OF SPENT FUEL MANAGEMENT AND ON THE SAFETY OF RADIOACTIVE WASTE MANAGEMENT IN TERMS OF SECTION 231(2) OF THE CONSTITUTION

Mr E N MTHETHWA: Madam Speaker, the Joint Convention on the Safety of Spent Fuel Management and on the Safety of Radioactive Waste Management is an incentive convention under the auspices of the International Atomic Energy Agency, IAEA. The joint convention intends to ensure the achievement and maintenance of a high level of safety worldwide in the management of radioactive waste, in compliance with the internationally identified and endorsed fundamental safety principles.

Key to the joint convention is ensuring that the management of radioactive waste is such that there are effective defences against potential hazards now and in the future. Furthermore, it also encourages the prevention of accidents and the mitigation of their effect, should they occur. It also seeks to reinforce the implementation of basic safety criteria and standards currently used in the regulation of nuclear activities in the country, in a way that ensures the continued protection of humankind.

The joint convention is an instrument premised on the safety and accountability of the management of spent fuel and radioactive waste. At the core of the joint convention are the following objectives: firstly, the achievement and maintenance of a high level of safety through enhanced national measures, international co-operation and technical co-operation; secondly, ensuring the provision of effective defences against potential hazards to protect society and the environment from the effects of ionising radiation; thirdly, the prevention of accidents with radiological consequences and the mitigation of their consequences in cases of occurrence at any stage of spent fuel or radioactive waste management.

The joint convention is applicable to the following: firstly, the safety of spent fuel management resulting from the operation of a civilian nuclear reactor; secondly, the safety of radioactive waste resulting from civilian application; thirdly, the safety of management of spent fuel and radioactive waste from military or defence programmes, if and when such materials are transferred permanently to and managed within exclusively civilian programmes.

Accession of the joint convention is critical as it enables us to interact with other countries on issues related to spent fuel and radioactive waste management, especially on issues of safety. Fundamental to the convention is transparency and accountability to the people of the land and the international community.

Compliance with the joint convention places our country at the heart of the discourse on nuclear safety. Interestingly, the meeting on the joint convention under the auspices of the IAEA was held in South Africa from 15 to 24 May 2006. Furthermore, this is indicative of our commitment to ensuring that radioactive waste is managed according to international norms and we are open to peer review. Thank you. [Applause.]

There was no debate.

Joint Convention on the Safety of Spent Fuel Management and on the Safety of Radioactive Waste Management approved.

  CONSIDERATION OF REQUEST FOR APPROVAL BY PARLIAMENT OF THE UNESCO
CONVENTION AGAINST DOPING IN SPORT IN TERMS OF SECTION 231(2) OF THE
                            CONSTITUTION

Mr L R R REID: Chairperson, the Portfolio Committee on Sport and Recreation supports the ratification of the United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organisation, Unesco, Convention Against Doping in Sport, that tightens up doping measures as experienced recently in athletics, and reaffirms the steps taken by South Africa as a leading country in antidoping measures. [Applause.]

The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON (Ms C-S Botha): That member was standing in for the committee chairperson.

There was no debate.

United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco) Convention Against Doping in Sport approved.

 CONSIDERATION OF REQUEST FOR APPROVAL BY PARLIAMENT OF PROTOCOL TO
CONVENTION ON INTERNATIONAL INTERESTS IN MOBILE EQUIPMENT ON MATTERS
                   SPECIFIC TO AIRCRAFT EQUIPMENT There was no debate.

Protocol to Convention on International Interests in Mobile Equipment on Matters Specific to Aircraft Equipment approved.

The House adjourned at 17:37. ____

            ANNOUNCEMENTS, TABLINGS AND COMMITTEE REPORTS

                       WEDNESDAY, 14 JUNE 2006

ANNOUNCEMENTS

National Assembly and National Council of Provinces

1. Translations of Bills submitted

 (1)    The Minister for Justice and Constitutional Development


      a) Wysigingswetsontwerp op die Herroeping van die Swart
         Administrasie Wet en Wysiging van Sekere Wette [W 11 – 2006]
         (National Assembly – sec 75)


     This is the official translation into Afrikaans of the Repeal of
     the Black Administration Act and Amendment of Certain Laws
     Amendment Bill [B 11 – 2006] (National Assembly – sec 75).

1. Bills passed by Houses – to be submitted to President for assent

 (1)    Bill passed by National Council of Provinces on 14 June 2006:


      a) Appropriation Bill [B 2  – 2006] (National Assembly– sec 77)

1. Bill referred to Mediation Committee

(1)     Bill, as amended by National Assembly, and rejected by National
    Council of Provinces on 13 June 2006, referred to Mediation
    Committee in terms of Joint Rule 186(2)(b):


      a) Older Persons Bill [B 68D – 2003] (National Council of
         Provinces – sec 76).

National Assembly

1. Message from National Council of Provinces to National Assembly in respect of Bills passed by Council and transmitted to Assembly

 a) National Land Transport Transition Amendment Bill [B 38B - 2005]
    (National Council of Provinces – sec 76)


    The Bill has been referred to the Portfolio Committee on Transport
    of the National Assembly.

TABLINGS

National Assembly and National Council of Provinces

1. The Minister for Provincial and local Government

     Draft Local Government: Municipal Performance Regulations for Section 57 Employees, 2006 in terms of section 120(7) of the Local Government: Municipal Systems Act, 2000 (Act No 32 of 2000).
   

National Assembly

1. The Speaker

   Report of the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) on the Public Hearing on the Right to Basic Education, 2005.

COMMITTEE REPORTS

National Assembly

1. Report of the Portfolio Committee on Justice and Constitutional Development on the Provisional Suspension from Office and the withholding of remuneration: Mr M S Makamu, Senior Magistrate and Head of Office at Benoni, dated 2 June 2006:

The Portfolio Committee for  Justice  and  Constitutional  Development,
having considered the reports on the provisional suspension from office
of  Senior  Magistrate  M  S  Makamu,  and  the  withholding   of   his
remuneration, tabled by the Minister  for  Justice  and  Constitutional
Development  in  terms  of  sections  13(3)(b)  and  13(4A)(b)  of  the
Magistrates Act, 1993 (Act 90 of 1993), reports as follows:

1)      The  Portfolio  Committee  noted  from  the  reports  that  the
    Minister provisionally  suspended  Mr  Makamu  from  office  on  23
    November 2005 in terms of section 13(3)(a) of the Magistrates  Act,
    1993 and that, on 31 March 2006,  the  Magistrates  Commission,  in
    terms of section 13(4A)(a) of the Act, determined to  withhold  his
    remuneration. The reports indicating the reasons  for  Mr  Makamu’s
    provisional suspension and the withholding of his remuneration were
    tabled in  Parliament  on  24  November  2005  and  7  April  2006,
    respectively, in compliance with sections 13(3)(b) and 13(4A)(b) of
    the Magistrates Act, 1993.

2)      The Portfolio Committee invited Mr Makamu on 10 April  2006  to
    submit written  representations  to  the  Committee  regarding  the
    recommendation  by  the  Magistrates  Commission  to  provisionally
    suspend him from office  and  its  determination  to  withhold  his
    remuneration.  The Committee did not receive any response  from  Mr
    Makamu by the due date, 26 April 2006.

3)      The Portfolio Committee noted that Mr Makamu had been convicted
    by the Johannesburg Regional Court on a charge of fraud on 21  June
    2005 and that he was sentenced to a fine of R10 000  (ten  thousand
    rand) or in default of payment to 6(six) months  imprisonment,  all
    of which were suspended for a period of 4(four)  years  on  certain
    conditions. He was charged for inducing an  Administration  Officer
    at the Benoni Magistrate’s Court to sign an official letter stating
    that he was entitled to an official motor vehicle  allowance  which
    letter was presented to Bankfin for the purpose of  an  installment
    sale agreement.


4)      The Portfolio Committee noted that it has taken a  considerable
    period of time to finalise the criminal case against Mr Makamu  and
    to finalise his application for leave to appeal (which also has had
    a delaying effect in respect of the inquiry  into  his  fitness  to
    hold office as a Magistrate) and that the  Magistrates’  Commission
    attributes this to an effort on the part of Mr. Makamu to delay the
    process.

5)      In terms of section  13(3)(c)  of  the  Magistrates  Act,  1993
    Parliament must as soon as is reasonably possible pass a resolution
    as to whether or not the provisional suspension of a magistrate  is
    confirmed. Parliament must also, in terms of section  13(4A)(c)  of
    the Act, as soon as is reasonably possible, consider a  report  and
    pass a resolution as to whether or not  the  determination  by  the
    Magistrates Commission to withhold a Magistrate’s  remuneration  is
    confirmed, either with or without amendment, or set aside.

6)      The Portfolio Committee considers the matter to be  of  such  a
    serious nature so as to make it  inappropriate  for  Mr  Makamu  to
    perform his functions as a magistrate, whilst the inquiry  referred
    to in section 13(3)(e) of the Magistrates  Act,  1993  is  pending.
    Furthermore, the Committee is of  the  view  that  the  Magistrates
    Commission’s determination to withhold Mr Makamu’s remuneration  is
    appropriate in the circumstances

7)      The Committee therefore recommends that the  National  Assembly
    resolves to confirm -


    (a)      the provisional  suspension  of  Mr  Makamu  in  terms  of
         section 13(3)(c) of the Magistrates Act, 1993; and
    (b)       the  determination  by  the  Magistrates  Commission   to
         withhold Mr Makamu’s remuneration in terms of section 13(4A)(c)
         of the Magistrates Act, 1993.

  Report to be considered.